Nyctophobia - Sirius Black

Chapter 1

The small school only had one teacher, which was fine as long as everyone did what they were supposed to. The teacher, a man in his late forties, usually ignored the twins that sat quietly, although he couldn't always do that. If a student so much as whispered an insult in the direction of her brother, they were on the ground with a broken nose before they could repeat it. It didn't matter how much bigger they were. Her fury was enough to match their strength.

He would give Ruby and her victim detention, knowing she never attacked without provocation, and any punishment he had to give to Severus was given to Ruby, knowing she would take it anyway. It caused less commotion if he just gave it to her.

They walked home, hand in hand. they took a small detour to stop at the park so Severus could see his friend, Lily Evans. Ruby liked the girl just fine, but wasn't really interested in friends. There was just too much guilt and responsibility on her plate.

They couldn't stay forever, much to her brother's dismay, and returned home. Ruby cooked, and sent Severus upstairs to the attic to do his homework. There was enough food for all three, so after scooping most of the food onto her father's plate, she split the remaining food between herself and her brother, giving more to him.

Despite the extra food that he got at her insistence, she was still several inches taller than him. At dinner, they were forced to eat with their father.

He drank heavily, his anger growing with every sip of the cheap beer.

Severus's fork clanged a little too loudly against his plate, and the drunk man whirled on him.

"Stupid boy." He growled. "Useless. Eileen's dead because of you." Tobias's fists clenched.

"No." Ruby said. "It's my fault she's dead." She fixed her father with a challenging glare, sending her brother a look out of the corner of her eye that said 'stay out of it.' And he did, no matter how much it hurt him to hear his sister's screams of pain as he crept silently up to the attic, knowing it would hurt her more if he was hurt.

Ruby would be unconscious before long, and Tobias would drunkenly stumble to his room after he tired of beating her. She might wake in the middle of the night and join her brother on the small cot in the attic, or she would wake in the morning, just in time to make breakfast.

If Ruby concentrated enough, she could heal her own injuries, but it was draining, so she only did it for bad injuries, like broken bones, and dislocated or sprained joints. Her brother's injuries were easier to heal, both because he had fewer and of less severity and because she wanted it more.

As it neared her birthday, the beatings would get worse, but Ruby usually blamed herself.

Eileen Snape née Prince was a beautiful pureblood witch who had married the muggle Tobias Snape. They were happily married, although Eileen was unable to have children. She had used a little magic to make it possible, but it had resulted in her having triplets. As it turned out, she wasn't physically strong enough to bear children, something they learned at a terrible cost during the pregnancy. It had taken far too long to give birth to Ruby, and it had cost Eileen her life. They were able to rescue the next baby, Severus, but the third died in his mother's womb. It was a boy, who would have been named Troy.

Ruby knew far too many details of her mother's death, especially since she was only ten years old, and blamed herself for her mother and youngest brother's death. She had vowed to protect the living brother from anything and everything. It was what kept her from not waking after a particularly hard beating, or when it was so cold she thought she might lose a few fingers, or when there was so little food there wasn't even enough for Severus.