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" uninvited guests "
✤ ✾ ✤
. . . DECEMBER, 1975
SIRIUS HAD BEEN dreading the party since school had ended for the holidays.
In the few days since classes had finished, there had been nothing to entertain aside from a few letters from James, Remus, and Peter. Letters that had already been ripped open by Kreacher before they reached Sirius's hands. James still offered a place to stay should Sirius ever decide to run away from home. After a year like this one, it had never seemed more tempting.
He was a husk of himself when he was at home. Regulus paid less mind to him than ever. Where once they would have joked with each other and taken solace in their shared misery, Regulus avoided Sirius at all costs. Their mother and the house elves doted on the boy. Kreacher, on order from Orion and Walburga, had taken to punishing Sirius for his existence. Books snapped shut on Sirius's fingers with an iron grip. All of his even remotely Muggle-like clothes had ended up soiled and used as kitchen rags. His food magically became cold and bland as soon as it hit his plate at dinner. Some nights, he was sent to his room without food at all.
So by the time the Christmas party arrived, Sirius was resigned to it. He would go through the motions and act his part. It would go the way it normally did. Sirius stayed upstairs until his cousin Andromeda arrived, and then the two of them would sit in the parlor as far away from everyone else as they dared. But when Andromeda got their that afternoon with her sister Narcissa, she looked unmistakably happy.
"Andromeda," Sirius chided. He could feel his mother's stare burn through the shoulder of his ridiculous suit coat. "You know the rules. No smiling in the house, take it outside if you're going to grin."
"Oh please," she huffed, tossing her fur coat at Kreacher. "Is she here yet?"
"Who?"
"Aoife."
"Who the hell is that?" he asked, taking a short swig off of the whiskey he had swiped from the kitchen. It was bitter stuff, but anything to get through this day was welcome.
Ana squinted at him. "Did I not tell you she was coming?"
"I don't even know who that is."
"I could have sworn I told you," she muttered absently. And then she took up her post at the window, waiting and watching for Aoife to arrive. Sirius sat in front of the hearth and watched the fire dance. If he squinted enough, he could pretend he was back in the Gryffindor common room passing time between classes. His heart ached to be back.
