The rain had begun to slow, and all that could be heard was the faint patter of the tiny drops hitting the roof above. Thunder clapped and lightning flashed, turning the black sky outside a deep shade of purple. And just when the man sitting in a faded arm chair in a deserted room thought that the storm was finally over, the rain suddenly began to speed up again. He muttered a stream of profanities as he stood and walked over to the largest window in the room.

For years, the man had been away from the building he had once called "home," and now that he was back in this God-forsaken hole of a house, he didn't feel any better. He knew he was here for his saftey, as Dumbledore so pleasantly informed him, but he was never the type to sit around, hiding, and not doing anything to help -- while everyone else that he knew were busy doing the exact opposite. It made him antsy and very annoyed.

Thunder roared once again, and the noise brought the man out of his thoughts with a jump. The wind began to howl, and the windows in the old house began to shake along with it.

"The Noble and Most Ancient House of -- pft. Right," Sirius Black muttered. "Well, they had the 'ancient' part right, I guess."

He walked toward the chair he had been sitting in earlier that day, but rather than resume his previous seat, he continued on past it. No one had been in this house for years, and the thick layers of dirt and dust only helped to prove that fact. Of course, the grime wasn't as thick as it had been a mere week ago when Sirius had first arrived, but he still had not cleaned much. He had been meaning to, but there were more important things on his mind that overrode everything else.

The war had already started -- such a fact was clear to anyone who even tried to see it -- and Sirius worried about Harry more than he probably should. Sirius was no fool; he knew Harry could take care of himself. After all, the boy had been doing just that for nearly fourteen years. But such knowledge didn't change the simple fact that Sirius felt guilty over the matter. He was Harry's godfather, for a cry out loud, but yet he couldn't even be there to protect him.

It had been one of the very first things that Sirius had been told shortly after entering his family's old home. The decision having been made to make the previously grand structure the new headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, Professor Dumbledore had made Sirius promise not to leave Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, for anything. It was for his safety, they said, and while deep down, Sirius knew that the headmaster was right and had a logical point, that didn't mean that he wasn't a bit upset about the order.

But, when it all came down to it, Sirius tried his best to quell the rebellious and confrontational side of his personality when it came to the headmaster; he didn't really want to make him angry. After all, regardless of certain past events and mistakes, Dumbledore had indeed helped Sirius at many times throughout his life, and the younger wizard didn't want to ruin anything now.

Sirius walked up the stairs to the second floor, where his old bedroom was. The door was always locked -- and had been ever since he left when he was sixteen. Even if he hadn't known his mother well enough to know that she would have done such an action, the fact that the door was locked when he first came back and that there were spider webs everywhere with enormous blankets of dust on everything would have told him such a fact.

He had left, the door had been locked, and the room hadn't been disturbed for nearly twenty years.

The room still made him smile, even now when he loathed this house of his fathers. It was exactly how he had left it so many years ago. A part of him couldn't even believe that he had actually done the spells well enough for them to last so long.

The walls were streamed with the red and gold colours of Gryffindor, and everything on his walls would easily have made his parents furious. There were a few photos of Muggle girls on the ceiling above his bed, and next to them were some pictures of Sirius and the other three Marauders. All four boys were smiling and waving, and every now and then, the Sirius in the photographs would run his hand through his hair.

Sirius smiled to himself as he closed the door behind him. He turned to walk down the hallway to the third floor staircase, but the door opposite his own made him stop. Right in the centre of the door was a paper that said, "Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arturus Black." Sirius smiled despite himself. He remembered when his brother had put that on his door, and how his parents had reacted to seeing it there.

~*~

"Regulus Arcturus Black! Open the door this instant!" Walburga Black shrieked. Slowly, the door she was standing in front of opened, and a boy that looked to be around the age of nine stood in front of her. He had the traditional looks of the Black family -- long, black hair that fell into his face with a casual elegance and bright, ice-blue eyes that he had gotten from his mother. His face, its skin tone light and still holding its childish charm, showed no sign of fear of the forbidding woman standing in front of him.

Sirius was watching from his bedroom door as his mother tried to tear down the paper from Regulus's door. After ten minutes, the paper had still not come off, and Walburga growled in frustration. Sirius stepped into the hallway and walked to where his mother and brother were standing.

"Why is that paper such a big deal? It's his room," Sirius said calmly. Walburga turned to look at her oldest son, and Sirius may have been the only one that noticed her eyes soften some as she looked at him. Sirius was a year older than Regulus, and he was as close to a "perfect" son as Walburga and Orion Black would have wanted ... for now.

"It is his room, but I don't want things like this where everyone can see them. It is not proper!" Walburga nicely explained to Sirius. Regulus looked over at his brother, who had a faint smile on his face that made Regulus grin widely. Of course, the moment that their mother turned, around they would stop, but for a brief moment, the two boys felt a sense of pride in each other.

~*~

Sirius smiled to himself again as the memory faded, and he slowly pushed open the bedroom door. Unlike Sirius's room, this one had the green and silver colours of Slytherin all over it. The walls were covered in wizard photos, Slytherin posters, and a few articles from the Daily Prophet about the Dark Lord. Sirius shook his head at the articles before continuing to walk around the room. He had felt many things over the years about his brother and the affiliation he had had with the Dark Lord, and if Sirius was completely honest with himself, he felt a hint of guilt at not being able to protect his brother from that fate.

But while the decor might have differed, the signs of age in this room were just like that of Sirius's own. Regulus's room was also covered in sheets of dust, the shiny wood of the desk and bedside table now grey with the dirt of the years, and spider webs hung along the walls and ceiling, thicker in the dark corners of the once-bright bedroom. And yet, for some reason, the room felt somewhat warmer than Sirius's had.

The curtains that hung on the windows were, like everything else, also silver and green, but they had clearly began to fade over the years. There were holes forming on them, and the dust on the hanging fabric was thicker than in the rest of the room -- or so it seemed, at least.

Sirius began to walk towards the door when he noticed a photo on the dresser. He walked over to the table and picked it up, a smile beginning to spread across his face when he realised what was in the picture.

There were two small boys standing side by side, large grins on their young faces, and three older girls standing next to them. One of the girls' eyes were red, her face shiny and blotchy -- she had evidently been crying just before the picture was taken -- while the other two girls were smiling just as widely as the younger boys were. Every now and then, the two boys and the two smiling girls would wave to the camera, but the other girl kept looking off to the side of the picture and didn't seem too enthusiastic about having to be in the photograph.

A rush of memories about the day that the photo was taken began to flood Sirius's mind, and he put his back to the wall and slid down to the floor as he allowed the thoughts to consume him.

~*~

"All right, come on children! It's time to take the photo!" Walburga Black called from the front yard.

It had rained the previous day, and the grass was still soggy from it, but Walburga stubbornly insisted that the five children stand directly in front of the largest window in the house for this particular picture. She smiled as Sirius ran down the stairs and over to the window, quickly followed by Regulus, Andromeda, Bellatrix, and Narcissa.

The two boys stood next to each other, and Regulus whispered something into Sirius's ear that made his boyish smile grow larger. Sirius glanced over at his three cousins and then back at his brother, who had begun to laugh while nodding his head -- up and down, up and down -- extremely fast.

In one swift movement, Regulus handed something to Sirius, and Sirius hurriedly placed it down the back of Narcissa's dress. Andromeda noticed what the two boys had done, and she smiled at them as she began to walk over to where they were standing.

"What did you guys put in her dress?" Andromeda whispered.

Sirius smiled at his favourite cousin. "Well, it wasn't my idea; it was Regulus's." Sirius began to laugh, but had to stop when Andromeda urged him to continue. "It was only a tadpole. It's not going to hurt her or anything. We just thought it'd be funny to watch her squirm."

Andromeda smiled and then began to laugh along with her two youngest cousins. The three suddenly turned towards Narcissa and Bellatrix when they heard a high-pitched shriek.

Narcissa was currently running around in circles as she started tugging at the back of her dress, still shrieking. Bellatrix, a slight smile on her face, stood back and watched her youngest sister struggle with ... well, with whatever it was that was making her do the odd dance that she'd developed. The sound of brief, stifled laughter caused Bellatrix to turn, and upon looking at her other sister and two cousins, she began to realise what had happened. She smiled at the three mischievous Blacks and began to shake her head patronisingly.

It wasn't long before Walburga had begun to realise what was going on, and she quickly ran over to where Narcissa was running in circles and screaming. She attempted to calm her neice down enough to pull open the bottom of her dress, the simple action causing the tadpole to fall out. Narcissa looked at the grass and, upon catching the sight of the wiggling creature that had found a temporary home in her clothing, screamed again as she ran over to the door of the house. Walburga shook her head and began to walk over towards the rest of the children.

"Alright ... Which one of you did this?" Walburga asked in a stern voice. She slowly looked at each of the four kids, her gaze going from the older Black sisters before encountering the eyes of each of her own sons. All four children were terrified to say which one of them had done it.

"Aunt Walburga, I just want to let you know that I had nothing to do with this one," Bellatrix stated as she walked over to where Narcissa was crying on the front steps, leaving her sister and cousins to deal with this one on their own.

Walburga nodded, redirecting her glare to the remaining trio of suspects. "Well?" she continued when none of them said anything. "-Who's going to admit to doing it?"

Sirius, Regulus, and Andromeda stared at each other. The three of them were determined not to let the others get in trouble for it. They knew that Walburga wouldn't punish all three of them, and especially not Sirius, so they continued to stand there looking back into her face as she slowly began to calm, coming to the realisation that she wouldn't be getting an answer from any of them. Walburga knew it was pointless to try and get them to confess to what they had done, so she just simply took the tadpole and threw it out into the street.

"Alright, fine. Now, can we finally get this picture taken?" Walburga asked, motioning for Bellatrix and Narcissa to join the other three in front of the window. "Now, I want Sirius and Regulus in the middle." The boys took their positions, their mischievous grins still showing through on their boyish faces. "-Good. Now, Bellatrix and Narcissa, I want you two girls to stand behind the boys." Both Black sisters -- Narcissa having wiped her tears as well as she could -- stood where their aunt had pointed. "Great! Andromeda, I want you to stand next to Sirius. Perfect!" exclaimed Mrs. Black as the final member of the group stopped next to her younger cousin.

Andromeda threw her arm around Sirius's shoulders and smiled brightly at the camera that Walburga was holding up. Sirius smiled and put his own arm around Andromeda's waist while he waited for his mother to snap the photo.

"Perfect, kids. This photo is going to look great! Now, SMILE!" Walburga shouted. The kids all smiled, save for Narcissa, and waited for Walburga to take the picture. Once it was completed, Andromeda, Sirius, and Regulus began whispering to each other, and Walburga could have sworn she saw the three kids give each other high-fives.

~*~

Sirius smiled to himself as he slowly lifted himself to his feet. The photograph of him, his brother, and his cousins brought back one of his favourite memories of his childhood. It took him back to a time before Regulus became a git and before he realised how horrible Bellatrix really was. If he was completely honest with himself, he missed those days. He missed the days where he could run around and play for hours with his younger brother, and he missed the days where his three cousins would come to his house for the day. No one would have thought that Sirius would feel this way about his family, but he did. Just because they all turned out horrible in the end, save for Andromeda, doesn't mean that he never actually loved them.

He didn't blame them anyway. It was their parents’ fault, to be honest. They were the ones that put the horrible thoughts into their heads, and Sirius and Andromeda were the only lucky ones that got out of it before it sunk in. Sirius felt terrible for leaving his brother at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place with his parents, but at the time, leaving just seemed like the best thing for him to do. He couldn't stand living in a house where he couldn't be who he truly was. Sirius was the odd one out, and not once did he ever believe what his parents would tell him and his brother when they were growing up. He remembered that fact quite clearly, even if it had happened years ago.

Sirius placed the photograph in its spot on Regulus's dresser and slowly walked towards the door. He turned and took one last look at his brother's room before stepping through the doorway and into the hall, closing the door behind him. He smiled one more time at the paper on the door, and then he began walking towards the stairs that led to the third floor. There were only two rooms that were up there; the guest bedroom and his parents’ room. Sirius could not recall ever being in his parents’ room while he was growing up. It was one of the rooms that the children seemed forbidden to be near, much less within.


Sirius stepped closer to the door and placed his hand on the handle. Gently, he tried to push the door open, but it wouldn't budge. Pulling out his wand, Sirius whispered a spell, and with a click, the door finally opened. Sirius slowly began to open the bedroom door, his face appearing in the small opening.

It was almost as if he was entering unknown and forbidden territory. The room beyond was an unexplored land, and who knew what dwelled within? Slowly, the opening grew, the hinges creaking as the old wood swung inward, and Sirius stepped through the doorway.

Unfortunately, the room looked the same as the others, Sirius realised, sighing. It was covered in dirt and dust, and the long black curtains over the window were beginning to fade, just like the ones in Regulus's room had been. There wasn't much to look at in the medium-sized room.

There was a queen-sized bed placed against the far left wall, the blankets a combination of dark green and black; a dresser with an ornate oval mirror on top of it stood against the opposite wall, the glass coated in thick layers of dust; another door, which Sirius assumed led into a private bathroom stood next to the dresser. He slowly made his way through the room, stopping a few times to look at the items that were placed on the dresser, and the small amount of pictures that hung on the pale green walls. He smiled when he noticed a photograph of himself and Regulus hanging on the wall closest to the door.

The two boys were smiling at the camera, but every now and then, one of them would turn and whisper something into the other's ear, which would result in the two erupting into laughter. Sirius was four in the picture - which made Regulus three - and at that time, the two Black brothers were as close as they could have been. They did everything together; one rarely seemed to see Sirius without Regulus and vice versa. Both Regulus and his older brother acted just as brothers should have acted; they were together, they were united, and not one thought of pureblood supremacy – issues that would eventually tear the boys apart - was in their heads.

They were simply two normal children who just happened to be a part of the wizarding world.

Sirius remembered as he stared at the picture the day it had been taken. Mr. and Mrs. Black had been arguing about where they were going to go for a vacation. Their family was not one that took vacations often, so this particular day was important to Walburga.

~*~

The bright sun shone through the windows of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, on this particular summer day, and the Black family was getting ready to go on one of their rare trips. The two young boys were in the yard riding around on their toy broomsticks while their parents, Walburga and Orion, were in the house discussing where they would go. Being a pureblood family, they didn't want to go anywhere where they would run into Muggles everywhere they turned, but neither did they want to go somewhere they’d already visited many times in the past.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much to choose from with such restrictions, and Walburga was making the decision extremely hard on Orion.

"Well, I don't want to deal with those filthy Muggles anymore than you do!" Orion shouted as he paced back and forth in front of the dining room table. Walburga, who was sitting in a chair close to the window so that she could keep an eye on her two sons, looked up at her husband.

"That just means that there aren't many places we could go," Walburga stated as she glanced out the window.

Orion sighed and sat down in the chair across from his wife. They had been married for some time now, and Walburga was still the one who always got her way in the discussions that they had. It was hard to win an argument with her, regardless of the fact that he was never one to give up too easily. She just had more of the inherent Black stubbornness than he did, it seemed. He unconsciously looked out of the window and watched as Sirius flew into the side of Regulus's broom, knocking him off of it. Regulus landed on his back and began to laugh as he slowly pulled himself up.

"Then what are we going to do? We could always just go to the zoo, Walburga, and simply try to ignore the Muggles," Orion suggested. "It would be fun for the kids, and it’s not as if we need to spend the entire day there; an hour or so would suffice."

Walburga snorted. "There is no way we could ‘ignore’ those filthy Muggles!"

"You know, you could at least try for the kids. They would love to see the animals," Orion said, taking a sip of his tea.

Walburga shook her head and sighed. "Fine,� she muttered. “We'll go to the zoo, but as soon as I say I want to leave, we're leaving."

Orion nodded and rose from his seat to tell the two boys where they were going for a few hours.

He opened the door, stepped out into the hot sun, and walked over to where his sons were wrestling in the grass. Smiling, he pulled them apart.

"All right, boys. Go get cleaned up because your mother and I are going to take you to the zoo," Orion said, trying to sound excited. Both Regulus and Sirius smiled, ran past their father, and went through the back door to the kitchen. They hurried to wash their hands and faces, neither paying any attention to the mess of soap and water that soon covered the countertops (the house-elves would clean it up, after all), before racing to the front door where they stood waiting for their parents to get ready to leave.

Walburga made sure she took as long as she possibly could. She was dreading the trip, and she knew that it wasn't going to end happily. If only they would have agreed on a better place to take their children, but they honestly couldn't think of anywhere else. They could have gone to Diagon Alley for shopping, but the two boys would have been a handful.

Upon reaching the door, Walburga sighed and grabbed the camera off of the table that stood adjacent to the doorway.

"Are you two boys ready?" she asked, turning to look at her sons. Sirius and Regulus were practically jumping out of their skin with excitement.

"Yes, ma'am!" the boys said in unison.

"Did you wash your hands and your faces?" she asked sternly as she eyed the two kids’ faces and hands. She noticed a few specks of dirt that had been missed still, but decided not to prolong the trip any longer by making them wash up again.

Sirius and Regulus nodded, and Walburga turned to Orion nodding herself to let him know she was ready to leave. Orion grabbed Sirius and lifted him into his arm; Walburga doing the same with Regulus. The two adults turned where they were standing and Apparated a few blocks away from the zoo’s entrance. They let the boys down, and at once, both young Blacks dashed for the gate.

"Whoa! Wait a minute. I want to take a picture!" Walburga called after them.

Regulus and Sirius abruptly stopped and turned to face their mother. Regulus threw his arm around Sirius's neck and smiled, while Sirius did the same. Before the picture was taken, Regulus had started whispering something in Sirius's ear that made the two boys erupt into a fit of laughter, an action that caused their mother to sternly tell them to calm down and smile for the photo.

Their laughter under (temporary) control, the boys smiled. And once the picture was taken, Sirius and Regulus resumed their race towards the entrance of the zoo. Orion and Walburga following at a more leisurely pace behind them.

~*~

Sirius sighed as he turned from the picture and continued to walk around his parents' bedroom. He reached the door to their private bathroom and opening it, discovered that it was a mirror image of the bathroom that was on the second floor.

The walls were painted green, while the trim was light silver. There was a stand-up shower with sliding doors, the glass pixilated so that one wouldn’t be able to see inside it. However, the amount of dust in the bathroom was almost non-existent, and as he glanced back inside the bedroom, Sirius realised a large part of the bedroom wasn’t as dirty as the rest of the house was.

Kreacher must have been keeping this room clean more than any of the others, Sirius thought, shaking his head as he closed the door behind him.

Sighing once more, Sirius turned to walk towards the room’s exit when something from underneath the bed caught his eye. He stepped towards it and, bending down, wrapped his fingers around what felt like the binding of a book. As he slid it out from its place under the bed, Sirius realised that it was an extremely old photo album, one that he knew his mother must have put together when he was still only a child.

The book was fairly heavy, its binding starting to come undone as if it had been perused many times throughout the years. It was a dark brown in colour, black singe marks marring two of the corners.

Curiosity filled him. And so, settling himself by the foot of the bed, Sirius flipped the top of the book open and began to look back on the small amount of memories from his childhood.