Nyctophobia - Sirius Black

Chapter 31

Then the three of them fell asleep in the cold attic with only a blanket to keep them warm. Sirius slept in his animagus form, just like he always did when he was here. It didn't seem to bother Severus, which was good, since Sirius was afraid he would be scared because of the werewolf incident. Evidently Severus had been more worried for his sister than scared for himself.

Ruby woke Sirius before dawn and made some oatmeal, leaving a third with a warming spell to keep it warm for her twin. Then the two set off for the coal mines.

They worked all day in the grueling heat of the mines, black dust clinging to their sweaty bodies. They trudged home several hours after dark with their wages in their pockets. As it turned out, Severus had already cooked dinner. The three ate, and then spent any hour in the library digging through old books of dark magic, looking for something related to Ruby's unnaturally powerful magic.

A piece of paper floated to the ground when Sirius opened a book. He picked it up, expecting it to be a page that had fallen out; several of the books had to be repaired since they were so old.

Prince Vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank

The Prince Vault and all of its contents now belong to Eileen Snape, née Prince, due to the recent death of her father, Alfred Prince.

"Guys?" Sirius called.

"You found something?" He jumped when Ruby suddenly appeared in front of him.

"It looks like a letter from the bank. Here." He handed her the paper. Severus had come from another part of the library and looked at the paper over her shoulder.

"Wait. Mom had the Prince Vault? That means we have a vault at Gringotts. Well, another vault at Gringotts." Ruby said. Technically, this meant they had two vaults. The vault they got from their mom, and the one Ruby had created when she started saving up for her to go to Hogwarts.

"You'll need the key to access it, though." Sirius pointed out.

"I haven't seen a key, and we've been through all of mom's things." Severus replied.

"Maybe there's another way to get in, like a way to prove we're the rightful owners and get another key made." Ruby suggested. "We can work on it tomorrow though, because we need to get to bed." The others agreed and they went up to the attic.

Work was the same as the day before, and that night, they found that they could have a blood test done at Gringotts to prove that they should be allowed into the vault, and then they could have a key made. Of course, the problem was that all of that cost money, money they didn't have. Sirius was as poor as they were now, so he couldn't help either, not that they would have let him pay anyway.

They decided to just focus on Ruby's magic for the time being. And for a few days, it was normal. Ruby and Sirius worked at the coal mines from before dawn to after dusk. Then they would go home, eat, and look through the books in the library for an hour, before going up to the attic to sleep.

It was the last day of the first week of vacation. Sirius would apparate to the Potter Manor after he got cleaned up after work.

Sirius pushed the cart up the slope, careful not to lose his footing. He and Ruby weren't paired up that day, which had happened several times before. Ruby was paired with a girl who was a foot shorter, but a year older. Sirius was paired with an eight year old boy.

It was late; the sun had already gone down. He only had a few more loads before the bells told everyone the day was done.

The rattling of the cart was annoying, echoing in the tunnels, but not unbearable. It was oddly calming, although he often found himself with a headache at the end of the day. The noise drowned out the thoughts. the cart slowed as they reached a fork in the tunnels. They kept moving after checking that there was no one else coming.