The two Black siblings stood side by side, only a few feet away from their parents.
"Remember, I'm here for you." Regulus whispered to his older sister as they both slowly walked towards Walburga and Orion.
"I know." She replied as they continued walking.
They got closer.
And closer.
Until they stood facing their parents.
And without even exchanging a glance, Walburga and Orion grabbed their children by the arms and disapparated back to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.
The place was the same as when they left.
Dark. Silent. Cold. And Gloomy. Pretty much everything in the house was black, emerald green, or some other dark color.
There were no 'happy' family pictures, only portraits in which they stood emotionless in. And there was nothing that made Number Twelve Grimmauld Place ever feel like home. There wasn't that feeling of warmth that you would feel around your loved ones in there.
The two siblings stood there, with their gazes to the floor, without saying anything, waiting for their parents to speak up.
"So," Walburga started. "Care to explain what in the name of Salazar Slytherin had been going on this school year? What were you thinking, Aurora? Associating yourself with a half-blood?! And to make things worse, it was a girl!"
She grabbed her daughters arm and took her to the living room as she told Regulus to go to his room. Orion followed her shortly after.
"You disgust us!" Walburga spat. "A girl! I still can't believe it, Orion. She has the audacity to bring such shame and taint the name of the Noble House of Black."
"What you and that girl had between each other was unnatural. You're sick!" Orion added, agreeing with his wife. Aurora just sat there silently. She had a million things she wanted to say to them, but she didn't want any more punishments.
"Thank Merlin for that Avery. He'll set you straight." Walburga muttered.
"He'll be a good husband and you will do as he says, just like a wife should." Orion stated, and with that he left the room.
Aurora scoffed. "Just like a wife should? And you decided to marry him of all people? Is that what us women are for? Getting married and then popping out a few children?"
"Women, especially in this family, don't waste their time on pathetic things like love. Our job is to get married and continue the bloodline. But most importantly, stay pure. It is our motto, is it not?" Walburga said.
"Family? Is that what you seriously think we are? You're no mother of mine, and he's no father of mine. You guys are just a bunch of ignorant people who don't give a damn about their children!" Aurora had enough at this point and she had started yelling.
"You ungrateful brat!" Walburga yelled back at Aurora, and then slapped her right across the face. "We gave you everything! How dare you disrespect us! I guess you didn't learn your lesson the last time." Walburga smirked and pointed her wand directly at Aurora. "Crucio."
Aurora tried her best not to scream, but the pain was intolerable. She let out a cry of pain. Aurora fell to the ground and her chilling screams echoed throughout the large house. It felt as if someone kept stabbing her and twisting her insides, over and over again. Her eyes were closed and tears were soon spilling out. The curse only lasted seven minutes, but felt like a whole seven hours. And when she opened her eyes, Walburga was gone.
There was only a trembling, shaken-up, Aurora Black left on the cold floor.
And then she saw another figure approach her and kneel beside her.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. Let's get you back to your room." Regulus gently spoke, helping his sister get up.
Aurora was limping and could barely walk, but with the help of Regulus, she made it to her room and laid down on her bed. Regulus pulled out the chair from her desk and sat beside her bed. None of them said anything, and the entire house was deadly silent. The only noise that was made was from the ticking of the clock on her nightstand.
"Do you want anything? A glass of water perhaps?" Regulus asked, breaking the silence between them, but she shook her head. "I'm sorry."
"What for? You didn't do anything wrong, Reg." Aurora managed to speak up in a low voice.
"I know, but I just can't help but feel as if it's all my fault. They torture you and I cant even do anything about it." Regulus sighed.
"It's not your fault, alright? That's just how they are." Aurora said, gently grabbing his hand. "Look, one day, we'll get out of this place. Both of us. And we won't have to deal with them anymore. We can live freely and do as we please without any punishments."
But Regulus wasn't too sure of that. All of his 'freedom' would soon be stripped away from him.
And belong to the Dark Lord.
*****
That night, Aurora couldn't sleep. Her body was still slightly trembling and ached from earlier.
So, she managed to get up, open her window, and sit beside it, staring into the dark and empty streets.
As she felt the cool breeze, her thoughts wandered to Sirius, who was probably laughing and joking around with James at the Potter household. And then to Marlene, who was probably happily at home with her family.
And that left Aurora wondering what would happen to her. At this point, all she had was Regulus, whom she promised to get out of this household, but she probably never would considering her marriage arrangement.
It was as if she was leaving one prison, to enter another. There was no escape.
Not for her.
*****
The days soon turned into weeks and almost half of their summer was over.
Aurora's days were filled with reading, or writing letters to Narcissa and Veronica. They all tried to update each other as much as possible, although Aurora left out the more gruesome parts of her summer. Apparently Narcissa and her family had gone to vacation in Italy. And Veronica had gone to France as she was talking about before they left school.
Aurora on the other hand, barely left her room, only to eat. And her parents had their own businesses to attend to, which left the house quiet for most of the time.
But this particular day in July was different. Regulus and their parents apparently had to go somewhere, leaving Aurora to question their whereabouts with a weird feeling. But nonetheless, she shook it off. It's probably nothing, she thought to herself.
But she tried to convince herself that it was nothing, and not something she had overheard a few months back.
They returned a few hours later, all do them looking emotionless, and it was already the after so they quietly ate dinner, as usual, and returned to their rooms.
On this night, like most of the others, Aurora couldn't sleep. She was about to grab a book from her bookshelf but stopped herself as she heard what sounded like quiet sniffles coming from the other room. Regulus's room.
She quietly left her room and made her way to his room. She opened the door to reveal a crying Regulus Black.
"Reg? What's wrong?" She quickly asked as she went to sit beside her brother. But he didn't respond, only clutching his forearm. This only made Aurora more suspicious.
"It's nothing, you should just go." Regulus quietly managed to speak up.
"So you crying is nothing?" She raised her eyebrows. "Tell me what happened. First you leave with mother and father to go somewhere. And now you're crying and clutching your forearm."
"Like I said, it's nothing that you need to worry about, now go-"
His words soon got cut off when Aurora grabbed his arm and lifted his sleeve up.
But she wasn't expecting to see what she was about to witness. Although, she wasn't fully surprised since she had a feeling all along. She gasped as she stared at the skull and snake tattoo etched onto his skin.
The Dark Mark.
*****
Hi guys !
As much as I didn't like torturing Aurora like that, I hope y'all liked this chapter.
Oh and this chapter is a bit short so sorry about that.
qotd:
What's your zodiac sign?
I'm a sagittarius :)