#oneofthebrave

Excerpt from Chapter 1: The Train

A boy with long dark curls and silver eyes walked silently behind his mother and father. His father looked bored already, in that silent aristocratic way that Sirius was supposed to imitate. The false, polite interest that made him look as though standing on the platform was far beneath him. At his side, Walburga Black had dressed in robes of tasteful deep emerald with silver fastenings.

Beside the boy trotted his younger brother who was slightly shorter, with wide silver eyes as he tugged on his brother’s sleeve anxiously.

Walburga reached out and spun her oldest son to face her, inspecting him quickly with her cold gaze. She brushed out a crease on his sleeve and straightened his collar with a sharp tsking noise.

Sirius grimaced and tried to lean away from her, scowling. “Mother,” he complained to her in annoyance at her fussing.

She huffed. “You want to look presentable, don’t you?” she asked as she fixed his hair and glanced at her younger son.

Sirius resisted the urge to roll his eyes and he didn’t bother with an answer. The truth was, he didn’t particularly care about looking presentable. He was going off to school, not to a gala.

His mother and father had both lectured him about expectations already. Before they arrived to the station, Orion had talked about appropriate companions in Slytherin, none of that questionable sort.

His mother had reminded him that his older cousins were already in Slytherin, Narcissa Black and Andromeda Black, and they would help him with his studies and connect him to suitable students in his year. She paused to take a breath in her rant and Sirius seized his chance before she could go on for another solid ten minutes and delay him further.

“Mother,” Sirius cast another glance toward the train, “I really should get on the train now.”

Walburga glanced at the clock and stopped fussing over him. “All right then.”

Regulus ran forward then and threw his arms around his brother and Sirius heard him say, “I want to go, too!”

“You’ll go next year,” Sirius replied reasonably.

“I want to go now,” Regulus protested, sounding very much like a despondent child, reminding Sirius of when they were little. But now Sirius was just shy of twelve years old and Regulus would have to wait a whole year to go to Hogwarts with him.

Sirius heard a sharp exhale from his mother and then she scolded, “Now, really, Regulus. You’re making a scene.” Walburga pried her younger son off with a scowl of disapproval.

“I’ll write,” Sirius promised, gesturing to his brand new owl Callisto (named after Jupiter’s largest moon and his parents’ present for him going off to Hogwarts).

Orion tilted his chin to his son finally. “Remember what we’ve taught you.”

“I will.” When it came to the Black family, that was about as close as they ever got to a teary-eyed farewell.

“I’ll see you at Christmas then,” Sirius nodded to his parents.

“Come along, Regulus,” he heard his mother’s sharp commanding voice behind him. Sirius risked one glance back, enough to see his brother being shuffled along behind his parents obediently.