Orphic » Sirius Black

Chapter 10 - The Mask Upon

For the last five years, Sirius had tried to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas break, but it was always useless. For some needless reason, his Mother requested his presence every year, even though he would stay up in his room for most of the time.

Once, he even tried to sneak to James' house for the break. But as everything he did to escape his family, it ended badly.

His body shuddered at the memory of the green light of her Mother's wand hitting him, using the Cruciatus curse for disobeying once more. Sirius had hoped that he would get used to the pain after the many times he felt it on him, yet this was not the case.

Laying on his bed with his unnecessary fancy clothes on, he put his pillow above his head and sighed. He started to play an imaginary guitar at the riff of his Aerosmith record, sounding loud enough to drown the noise of his thoughts.

Everything in his room was perfectly planned and positioned to annoy his family. The record player was one of the many Muggle stuff he had collected from the street, or he had bought from other people at Hogwarts. There were also a lot of pictures, banners, and Muggle magazine clippings all over the walls, sticked with a Permanent Sticking Charm. Those included a lot of bikini-clad women, and of course, motorcycles.

Sirius had developed an obsession with motorcycles back when he was taught about Muggle transports in Muggle Studies. He loved their structure and elegance, and dreamed of someday owning one of his own. With the leather jacket his friends gave him for his birthday, he was one step closer from becoming the motorcycle rider he aimed to be, even if it drove his Mother crazy.

He sat on his bed and kept playing his invisible guitar, staring at his wall.

The music downstairs was really out of beat from Aerosmith, which made him want to get the volume up even more. But he knew he had to get down any minute now.

He let himself go with the music, until the dulcet tone of his door blasting open finally arrived.

"Sirius," snarled his brother, Regulus, with a bit of concern in his voice, "are you gonna come down? Mother's gonna go mad if you don't."

"She's already mad," he said indifferently, throwing his pillow away and getting up. "Does everyone have that mask on?"

He turned to look at Regulus after switching off his record player, and noticed that he had an ornamented black mask over his eyes. Sirius couldn't hold himself from laughing.

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Really?"

"I'm sorry, it's just so fucking stupid. A Masquerade Ball? Like everyone downstairs didn't know each other already."

"Sirius, stop it," groaned Regulus. "Don't do this today, it really isn't that bad. There's lots of boost, y'know? And the food is great. I reckon we can even enchant the instruments to play some other stuff."

Sirius smiled at the words of Regulus. "Alright, let's go," he said, grabbing his mask from the desk and tossing his arm around Regulus' shoulders. "But just so you know, you got me at 'lots of boost'."

Regulus laughed, and the boys walked downstairs together.

Before arriving, Sirius stopped in front of a mirror to put on his mask. It was unfair that Regulus' one was black while his was a nacreous brilliant green. He assumed that, just as he tried his best to hassle his family, Walburga Black also knew her way to his nerves. He was, after all, the heir. He had to be up to the expectations of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. However, it is not wise to prank a prankster and not await a consequence.

With a flick of his wand, the verdant silk covering his eyes slowly turned to a scarlet tone that matched the one of his tie. Sirius smirked at his reflection before pointing his wand again towards it and adding some strands of gold surrounding its borders. That was better.