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Walburga Black prided herself on many things, her last name, her home which had been passed on through generations of Black’s and is still held by her today, the fear she inspired when she entered the room, and her excellent Christmas gatherings. She also prided herself on her knowledge of her sons, despite the years that had passed since she had last seen Sirius, she knew he hadn’t committed the crimes currently laid against him, the same ones splashed across the Daily Mail paper that Orion was reading, the ones that were reduced down to so little by the tittering witches of Witch Weekly. He would never have betrayed his.. friends that way, especially not for The Dark Lord! That was laughable, it was such a comedic thought that Walburga had to laugh, a soft huff of laughter escaping her as she read the front page of paper. Her son, a supporter of Voldemort? Ridiculous, he had been so blinded by the love for his friends that he had turned his back on the only people who would stick by him, his own blood. Love, as it seems, was a common flaw that her son had inherited. A weakness she could never quite remove from him, despite years of trying.
She remembered when he had been born, even to this day. It had been a fight, just like everything with Sirius, both mother and son screaming and fighting to live, to breathe, to see the sun outside. He had nearly killed her, but he had been worth it. He was so beautiful, even fresh from the womb, screaming and wailing his little lungs out. He had looked so much like her already, with her eyes and a nose already seeming to resemble hers, he was Her baby, not Orion’s, not her Father’s, he was all hers. He was her true accomplishment, her new purpose in life. He had been named Sirius because she couldn’t quite name her child after the sun, so she settled for second best, the brightest star in the sky. The Dog Star, unwavering loyalty, he would always be found, he would always back the ones he loved.
As he grew, he resembled her even more so, growing into the cheekbones she had passed on, with wide silver eyes that held the same look she knew all to well from the mirror. Regulus had been his perfect little shadow for the longest time, resembling Sirius more than either Walburga or Orion oddly enough, but Sirius’ look changed one day. Or maybe it had been there all along and she had simply never noticed, too enthralled with the son who seemed truly perfect, who exceled at every challenge she gave him. He began acting out, small rebellions like refusing to go to his piano lessons or arguing with his tutors when he was in a particularly bad mood, making Kreacher serve him and Regulus sweets after bedtime. Naturally, she cracked down on that, sending him to bed early after dinnertime and taking away playtime with his brother until he could clean up his act. At first that seemed to work, he would right himself and his priviledges would all be returned.
Then Hogwarts happened, now their relationship had always been a bit tumultious, that was life when you had a child more like you than anything else, a tiny mirror of things you had never realized until they came along. The first Christmas break had been.. rocky to say the least, Regulus had been visibly bored and missed his brother, he had been ever so excited to see Sirius, who had been sorted into Gryffindor. Now, Walburga had never truly approved of Gryffindor, but as long as her son was talking to the right sort and keeping up with his studies she probably wouldn’t have minded the sorting as much as she did. But he didn’t keep up with his duties as the Heir to the Noble House of Black, in fact he had befriended a Potter and the Half-Breed son of a disgraced ministry worker. Embarassing to say the least. And they were all he talked about, whether it was to his brother or at the dinner table or at the family party, she had finally just snapped. The first time she laid a hand on her son, it was three days before his return to Hogwarts, and he had been arguing that there was no danger being friends with a Half-Breed, Remus something, and that he was really quite smart, maybe even smarted than Sirius, he at least had the decency to seem doubtful of that. She had heard it all, she had kept calm for days but finally she boiled over. It had been a swift slap, but it had shocked everyone into silence, even herself. “You will not speak of these boys in my house again, and you will do well to remember who you are in this world. Befriending Half-Breed’s and blood traitors as the Heir? Shameful” She had told him, before sending him to bed without dinner for the tears in his eyes. The next few days had been silent and tense, the beginnings of a storm even she hadn’t expected in those days.
It had gotten progressively worse as he grew, lashing out more and more as she tried to pull him back into the family. He had spelled foul photographs onto his walls of Muggle girls, littered his room and oddly enough the bathroom with Gryffindor banners with a Sticking Charm so powerful even she couldn’t remove it. She had resorted to Dark Magic in his fifteenth year, when he had pushed so hard she was afraid. Afraid that he’d break himself, that he would break the family, that he would destroy the safety that they had held and cultivated for so many years. Why couldn’t he see that she was trying to protect him? That she loved him more than herself, and that he had to be safe and he had to listen if he was going to live and continue the family?
He had run away that same year, disappearing to the Potters. She knew where he’d gone, but it wasn’t worth retrieving him. Now that he knew he could run, he would never stay. So she passed the title of Heir onto Regulus, who had always been better at this life than Sirius. He was no Heir, not the way Sirius had been, but he was intelligent, he was level-headed and most importantly, he understood the way that a Black must live his life.
Regulus died at eighteen, she knew he had disobeyed the Dark Lord, and that he had done something so terribly like Sirius that he paid for it with his life. But she held herself together, she would not be able to further the Black line, she was too old to produce more heirs for Orion and even if she wanted to, he didn’t want to try either. She had heard the gossip that Sirius had inherited her brother’s fortune, and unfortunately his penchant for other men, that he was fighting on the side of the Order, a group made up by Dumbledore who was cruel enough to sacrifice children to a cause he would never win. He would sacrifice her child happily, she knew that, but she would watch the papers, make sure Sirius was still alive. If her and Orion passed, the home would go to him. The estates would all go to him, he would still be a Black. At least he would have that protection.
Until he ended up in Azkaban of course, under the charges of selling his best friends out to the Dark Lord, and of blowing up his other best friend. The Lupin boy had apparently not been there for his rampage, how lucky of him to escape Sirius. She gave another laugh at that thought as she leaned back, looking around the dining room. Both of her sons, gone in one way or another, lost to a war that would never end. Sirius, locked up and innocent, because he would never hurt someone he loved on purpose. She knew that, because he hadn’t loved her in those last years, he had learned how to stop loving her. Because he had always loved more than life, he had protected Regulus from getting into trouble even if it meant he faced extra punishments, ones that he didn’t truly deserve. So who was he protecting now? Or was this just a case of the wrong place, wrong time and for once his selflessness wasn’t the problem? She didn’t know the details, but she decided she would leave him there. She could’ve bailed him out, she had the means and the connections. But he would be safer on that island, protected from the rest of the world’s corruption until he would eventually escape.
He was a Black after all, and they were known for disobeying the rules if it suited them.