Black Hole

"World Turning , Everybody's Got Me Down"

December 1975

"Siri," She said, turning around to face him.

"LJ." He returned, taking the fresh plait that he had just braided from her back and draping it across her shoulder.

"Remember when we were small, and we would play Greek Heroes?" A smile, small like all of her smiles, spread across her face. He nodded, his own smile gracing his lips.

"I would always be Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and the moon. And, of course, you would always want to be her brother."

"Apollo."

"Yeah, god of the sun. And Reggie would always want to be Poseidon because he used to always love the ocean, before, you know. Remember how he would always say that he wished he could be a mer-person, so he could swim with the fishes all day long? And whenever Cissy and Andy would play with us, Cissy would always be Aphrodite, of course, and Andy would be Athena. And we would reenact wars and myths and pretend we were on Mount Olympus way up in the sky. Do you remember?"

"I remember."

"Sometimes, I think we forget that we do have some happy memories from when we were children. They just get tucked away under all the bad ones."

He nodded.

"Remember when, we must have been five or so, and we went to the field behind the house, and found all those little frogs near the pond?" He said.

"Yes! We let them climb all over us and we got dirt stains all over our clothes." She laughed. 

"Yeah, and I wanted to bring them all back home and keep them as pets."

"Yes, you said you wanted to start a frog army. You made me call you the bloody Frog King all day."

"Oh Merlin, I did, didn't I? But you wouldn't let me bring them home. You said they belonged to the earth, not us." He played with the end of her braid. His face turned somber. "And then we got home, and Mother whipped us for getting our nice dress clothes all dirty." He said, voice void of any lightness from their recollection of soft memories.

She slowly nodded, looking down at her lap.

"She could've just charmed them clean. She's a witch." She nodded. "Kids are supposed to get messy. We were only kids." She nodded. "We are only kids."

She looked up at him. He looked sad, much too sad for Sirius Black. A tear falling down his cheek was caught by Lyra-Jade's finger. She cupped his cheek and he leaned into it, shutting his eyes. She moved so that she was sitting by his side, leaning back against his bed. He put his head in her lap, and she softly stroked his locks.

"O Merlin, in your crystal cave," she sang, "Deep in the diamond of the day,"

***

December 1976

A chilly November soon faded into an icy December, much to Lyra-Jades complete and utter dismay.

During those last days of Fall, snow had already overtaken the rocky grounds of Scotland like a large, white, feathery blanket. Out came the hats and scarfs and ice skates. Up raised the spirits at Hogwarts.

Not Lyra-Jades.

She hated winter. She hated the snow. She hated the frozen fingers and the excessive itchy layers of wool and fleece. But most of all, she hated Christmas.

The holiday had never been very enjoyable for the Black siblings. Their parents made sure of that. Every Christmas Eve, Walburga and Orion held a large, festive ball (Pure-Bloods in attendance only, of course). Walburga would poke and prod her children until they reached her idea of perfection. She would spray her eldest's hair until it was rock solid and completely out of his face. She would tie her youngest son's green tie over and over again until it looked faultless. Lyra-Jade had it worse than the boys, for she was a prize that her Mother was sure would be won at one of these balls. Her Mother would force her into a corset and tighten it until she saw black spots in her vision. She would pluck Lyra-Jade's thick black eyebrows and upper lip until the areas were sore and red. She would charm her hair completely flat - leaving no evidence of a single curl or wavy strand in the long locks. Worst of all, she would lather her face in Merlin-awful makeup, making her appear like a gloomy clown.