𝐌𝐀𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 → 𝒸. 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓈𝓁𝑒𝓎

⤷ 05| THE NOBLE AND MOST ANCIENT HOUSE OF BLACK

"Morning," Fred said, yawning. "We're on clean duty for the rest of the day."

"Change that to week," George said, not too pleased about it.

"We're supposed to be in the drawing room in five," Fred said, glancing at his watch. "Mum said there are more Doxys than she thought and she found a nest of dead Puffskeins under the sofa."

"Great," Juniper sighed. "I don't think I'm hungry anymore."

"Maybe it's for the best," George said, pushing his plate away. "If nothing goes in, nothing can come out."

And so they started their day, cleaning out the drawing room took quite some time. It wasn't until it was almost noon, that Harry noticed something on the tapestry.

"Hey, June," he said, making her look up. "Your name is on this."

June walked towards him while observing the tapestry. It looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though Doxys had gnawed it in places. Nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroided still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back — as far as June could tell — to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:

THE NOBLE AND
MOST ANCIENT
HOUSE OF BLACK
'TOUJOURS PUR'

Juniper's eyes then trailed down all the way down where she eventually found her name written under her father's name.

Harry frowned. "Sirius is not on here," he noticed.

"I used to be there," Sirius said from behind them, making the two of them jump up. Sirius was pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. "My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home — Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath."

"You ran away from home?" Harry asked.

"When I was about sixteen," Sirius said. "I'd had enough."

"Where did you go?" Harry asked.

"You're parents home," Sirius said. "Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as their third kid. Yeah, I camped out at your dad's and mum's in the school holidays, and when I was seventeen I got a place of my own. My Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold — he's been wiped off here, too, that's probably why — anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr and Mrs Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."

"But . . . why did you . . .?" Harry questioned him.

"Leave?" Sirius smiled bitterly and ran his fingers through his hair. "Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal . . . my brother . . ." He trailed off.

"You hated my father?" June asked him quietly.

"It's complicated," Sirius said. "How much do you know about him?"

"I knew he was a Death Eater but that he turned good in the end because of my mother," Lyra said. "At least, that's what Moony told me."

"Your father was a Death Eater?" Harry exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yes, he was," Sirius said, his eyes still fixed on June.