Falling for the Unexpected (wolfstar)

The Ball

Sirius woke up with the sunlight coming through the curtains and immediately grimaced as he remembered what day it was.

Exactly three weeks had passed since the first day of The Selection, which meant that, according to his family's tradition, it was time to throw The Royal Ball.

His mother was annoyingly excited, bossing everyone around and making sure that everything went perfectly. No mistakes would be tolerated in such a special event, as she used to say. Sirius felt bad for the staff, even more than he usually did.

For Sirius, though, there was no reason for any excitement. The ball consisted of one single thing: a bunch of noble, important, boring people coming together to brag about their richness and broadcast their supposed superiority to the country.

Sirius was wearing only a pair of boxer briefs when his mother suddenly opened the door.

"Holy shit, mother!" he yelled, looking for something to cover himself, "Don't you know how to knock?"

Walburga chose to ignore him as she entered the room and handed Sirius a box.

"I told the tailor to make it last week, since I figured you wouldn't bother to arrange something appropriate to wear," she said before he could ask anything.

Sirius carefully took the box from her hands and placed it on the bed, before opening it and taking a look at its content.

It consisted of a bright purple tuxedo, covered in small sequins that made it obnoxiously flashy. Sirius felt the urge to close his eyes and protect his vision from that terribly ugly piece of clothing.

"It's hideous!"

Walburga's face hardened at that and she looked like she was making a great effort not to loose her composure.

"It is elegant and respectable," she retorted.

"You mean it looks like it costed a fortune."

"That is enough, Sirius," she finally lost her patience, "You will wear it tonight and period."

Sirius sighed, frustrated, but stayed quiet. He knew there was no way out of that, so he just nodded and tried it on.

"Oh I almost forgot," she said, more excitedly this time, "Your cousin Bella is coming."

Sirius almost let out some not so polite words as he heard the news, and felt an unpleasant shiver run down his spine at the mention of her name.

Of all the people in his family, Bellatrix was without a doubt one of the very worst. In his opinion, she was a cruel, heartless person that unfortunately happened to be related to him.

'Actually, that description could be easily applied to most of my family members,' he thought sourly.

"I am warning you, Sirius Black. Don't cause any trouble."

And with that, she was gone.

~

The sound of classical music filled the air as Sirius spun around the dance floor with Mary McDonald in his arms, and he felt like he would die of boredom at any moment.

Despite his imminent death, though, he was beginning to think that the night could have gone far worse. He had managed to dance with all the selected women, the 27 that still remained, and talk to the majority of the important people that attended the event. His mother's presence was discrete, but always there, as she supervised him to make sure he would pass on the image of the perfect Black heir.

However, he should have figured that wouldn't be the case. Nothing in Sirius Black's life was ever that simple.

As Mary stepped on his foot for what felt like the tenth time already, Sirius grumpily wished that it was Remus dancing with him instead. He was positive that he would have enjoyed the night far more if he had been in the other man's presence.