All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Summer 1974

The house had moved.

It wasn't unheard of; the Black family manor was a feat of magic that had been passed down for hundreds of years. If the current owners found themselves needing to change location, abandoning such a valuable piece of family history was unthinkable; as such, the home had been magically transported all over Britain throughout the decades. Sirius knew this (his parents had quizzed them, growing up, on the previous manor's caretakers and the places they had resided, until he could recite the lineage that the house followed all the way back to 1773), but it had stayed in one place throughout his childhood, and nobody had thought to mention to him that his parents were even considering a change of location.

So it was with quite a bit of shock that Sirius found himself side-along apparating to a completely unfamiliar part of London. He blinked at the street of lavish townhouses, not understanding what had happened until he realized that the door in front of him was remarkably similar to that of the manor.

"Wh-we moved?"

He spun around, studying the street, taking in his surroundings. It was a residential area, clean and quiet, but still far busier than he was used to. There were muggles in the streets, bustling about-he had to fight to keep his jaw from hanging open. Had his parents willingly moved them to a house in the midst of muggle London?

Walpurga Black had already swept imperiously inside, leaving him to gawp. Regulus tutted as he followed their mother, sarcasm oozing from his voice as he drawled,

"Obviously."

Sirius shot him a dirty look, hurrying inside.

"Where are we?"

Regulus shrugged. "Islington, I think. You'd have known if you'd come home over Christmas." This last was said with petulant jut of the lower lip, an expression that bordered dangerously close to the territory of pouting. Sirius snorted.

"I wasn't invited home for Christmas, remember?"

"You weren't required, Sirius," his mother's voice rang out sharply in the hall, making him jump. He refused to look away as she swept towards him, letting his chin jut out and hoping she couldn't sense the squirm of fear in his belly. Walpurga paused in front of her sons, eyes flicking over them.

"There's a difference." She lifted a hand towards Sirius's face, and he braced himself, trying not to flinch. But she only lifted a lock of his hair, rubbing it gently between her fingertips before tucking it behind his ear. "A boy shouldn't need an invitation to come and see his family."

Her voice was snakeskin quiet, smooth and dry. Sirius had expected one of the usual lectures about what a disappointment he was the moment he stepped foot through the door, but his mother only looked him over, once more, absently, and then ordered Kreacher to take care of their luggage before disappearing upstairs in a swirl of black silk.

Sirius blinked, at a loss for words. He'd been bracing himself for the worst since Regulus told him he was expected home, but his mother hadn't even seemed angry, just...disappointed. Resigned, almost. Shame ran a sticky finger down his spine as he processed her words. Was he supposed to have come home without being 'required'? Had it been some sort of test? But the note had made it seem like they didn't want him around...although he supposed it hadn't actually forbid him from returning for the holidays. But what was he meant to think, when they'd been ignoring him for months?