"This is rubbish."
Sirius Black lay sprawled on his bed, staring up at the ornate ceiling of his room in number 12 Grimmauld Place. The heavy, oppressive atmosphere of the Black family home seemed to press down on him, suffocating him with every breath. Grounded. Again. Sodding hell—his parents had wasted no time in pulling him and Regulus off the Hogwarts Express at the end of the school year, and Sirius had barely managed to keep his temper in check during the journey home.
Of course, the moment they stepped through the front door, he'd let loose, yelling at his parents about their deceitful engagement plans with Lucius Malfoy. The anger had simmered just beneath the surface, boiling over as he demanded to know why they hadn't told him, why they thought they could control his life so easily. But his parents had merely stood there, unflinching, cold.
—
He stood defiantly in the dark luxurious drawing room of his home, his eyes blazing with anger as his parents, Orion and Walburga, stared at him with cold resolve. Tension crackled in the air, the weight of their expectations suffocating him as he prepared to challenge the marriage contract that had been concealed from him.
"ENGAGED? WITHOUT EVEN ASKING ME?" he had shouted, his voice echoing through the grand, dark halls. "Do you even care what I think?! What I want?!"
Without even looking at him, Orion's stern face hardened, his voice dripping with righteous indignation. "You will do as we say, Sirius. The purity of our bloodline and our family name depend on it. Personal matters hold no significance when it comes to the preservation of our heritage. It's for the best, Sirius."
He laughed bitterly, the sound echoing through the room. "Heritage? What's heritage worth when it denies me the basic right to choose my own future? My right to know? My freedom?"
Mother's eyes blazed with an intensity that made him shudder. Her voice, laced with an acerbic venom, accosted him with an unforgiving declaration. "Do not overstep the boundaries of your station, Sirius. We have given you everything—a prestigious name, a place in society. It's time to do your duty to it. This engagement is for the good of the family."
He squared his shoulders, meeting Walburga's fiery gaze head-on. "Family," Sirius had scoffed. "You mean your precious blood purity nonsense. Ridiculous bloodlines and blind pride means nothing to me! You don't care about me. You never have!"
Walburga's rage escalated in a blaze of fury, her hand flying through the air and landing a stinging slap across Sirius' cheek. The room fell into stunned silence as the force of her strike echoed through the air, leaving behind a sense of shock and palpable pain.
"You insolent child!" she shrieked, her voice a shrill crescendo of anger. "How dare you defy your own birthright? How dare you insult us?! You are grounded! Consider yourself confined to the walls of this house. If you continue to act out against your station among the noble families, the consequences will be far more severe than a mere slap across the face."
—
"For the best," Sirius muttered now, lying on his bed, the memory of that confrontation still fresh and raw. "For the best, my arse."
He rolled over glaring at the dark wood paneling of his room. How different his life could have been if he had been born into a family like the Potters, or even a Muggle family. At least they might have cared about him as a person, not just as a pawn in their twisted game of blood supremacy.
He wanted to see his friends. To hang out, have fun, and just forget. He wanted to visit his uncle Alphard. Merlin, he wanted to live with him. To live with someone who actually cared.
YOU ARE READING
IN ANOTHER LIFE (James Potter x Severus Snape)
Fanfiction(OMEGAVERSE) Severus finds himself rising from his near deathbed into the past, as a female 10 year old version of himself in another parallel world, where secondary genders exist. (Also uploaded in Fanfiction & Ao3)
