Shades of Black

Author's Note: This is the first part of a series of drabbles written to show points in Sirius's life. Most were originally composed for a class on the MNFF forums, and it's stated in the summary what, if anything, the drabble was specifically meant to show. This one, for example, was written to show the literary technique of 'foreshadowing'. Also, a "Thank you" goes out to Broken_Innocence of HPFF for beta-ing. And now, I present to you, the first part of Shades of Black, entitled Didn't Do It.

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Didn't Do It

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CRASH!

The sound of glass hitting the wooden floor and shattering caused all four of the children to stand perfectly - and silently - still. Not a single one of them moved an inch or muttered a word. Even their breathing seemed to have become almost non-existent. The only thing that they could do was to stare at the floor. All eight eyes remained fixed on the broken vase at their feet.

"Look what you did," hissed the oldest boy as he glared at the two older girls. Both of them, however, just glared right back at him.

"We didn't do anything, Sirius," said nine-year-old Narcissa, surveying her black-haired younger cousin through icy blue eyes. Her own blonde curls were pulled back from her porcelain face, and she looked every bit the role of doll.

"Yes, you did," said Sirius, paying no attention to the stray bits of hair that fell into his face as he spoke. "You broke Mother's vase when -"

"Aunt Walburga won't believe you," said Bella, standing above the rest of them in all of her twelve-year-old glory. She was as opposite from her sister in appearance as possible, and resembled her dark-haired cousins far more than Narcissa's blonde and light looks. Bellatrix too after her father, inheriting the black hair and strong appearance of the Black family, while Narcissa was a carbon copy of her and Bella's mother - Druella Rosier's pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes had inspired great envy for years among many witches in the Pureblood community. And young Narcissa, though only nine years old, seemed set to do the same.

The two boys, on the other hand, had the classic Black appearances. Dark, ebony coloured hair fell around their light-coloured faces, and steel grey eyes - inherited from their father - were capable of piercing and unnerving nearly everyone that they met. Just as Narcissa seemed to be a copy of her mother, so did these boys greatly resemble their father, the elder more so than the younger. And at six and seven years old respectively, Regulus and Sirius Black were already being heralded as growing into "fine young men," as Aunt Lucretian constantly said.

"Cissy and I would never act so childish, cousin," continued Bella, her tone the same as if she was describing the obvious fact that one plus one equals two.

"Bella -"

"What is going on in here?" said a voice from the doorway, and Regulus, the youngest member of the quartet, shut his mouth immediately, his entire response forgotten. All eyes turned to face the woman entering the room.

Walburga Black was a tall woman compared to the girls' mother; Druella stood barely over five feet, after all. She had the long, darkly-coloured hair of a Black, and the locks trailed down her narrow back as she continued towards the children. As her gaze fell upon the shattered glass littering the floor, her own dark blue eyes seemed to burn with a barely suppressed anger, and she looked at each of the children in turn, though not a one of them met her stare.

"Tell me what happened," she whispered authoritatively.

No one spoke. "All right," said Walburga, and she turned to the oldest child in the group. "Bellatrix," she said, "answer me right now. Who broke the vase?"

"It was Sirius -"

"It was NOT!" yelled the accused. "You and Cissy broke it -"

"Be quiet, Sirius," hissed his mother, shooting a glare at her eldest son for a brief moment before returning it to his cousin. "How did it happen?" she asked.

"Well, we were playing in the attic," said Bella, the story falling from her lips like she knew it by heart. Her tone, however, was perfect; it did not have the monotonous level of one who is simply repeating memorised lines. Instead, there was quiet hesitation, laced with just the right amounts of guilt and sorrow to fool anyone, and her sporadic glances towards her aunt helped make the tale even more believable. Bellatrix had plenty of practice. "But there wasn't enough room," she continued. "Then, Sirius said we could come and play in here -"

"That's a lie!" exclaimed Sirius. "I said that we couldn't play here -"

"Regulus," interrupted Mrs Black, not even bothering to spear Sirius another glance, but rather allowing her voice to simply carry over his objections. "Did your brother say that you could play in the drawing room?"

The six-year-old boy stood frozen for a moment. He glanced over at his brother, his cousins, and finally up at his mother.

"Well," she asked. "Is Bellatrix telling the truth, Regulus?"

A slight pause and a brief bite on his lower lip was all the hesitation that the young boy gave before, eventually, he nodded his head.

"That's not true -"

"Sirius, silence!"

"Auntie, we just got in a bit of a disagreement over what to play, and the vase sort of ... got in the way ..." muttered Cissy, her eyes looking down at her feet.

Walburga Black looked at all of the children again, taking in the different emotions flitting across their faces. Looks of sorrowful innocence coloured the faces of her two nieces; rage was in her eldest son's eyes; and the youngest simply looked scared. There had been too many situations like this one, and the children's appearances were always the same. The results, too were always the same. And Walburga knew that Bellatrix and Narcissa had never lied to her - Cygnus and Druella raised their girls correctly, in Walburga's opinion.

"Sirius, did you break the vase?" she asked, her stare glaring directly at her son, the earlier softness of her voice while speaking to Bellatrix having vanished.

"No."

"Do not lie to me," she hissed. "Tell me right now ... Did you break the vase?"

Sirius glared at his mother as he spoke. "I didn't do it," he said. "Bella's lying." And he pointed directly at the girl.

Mrs Black sighed. "All of you, go outside and play." They all started to make their way to the door, Narcissa leading the way, but Walburga reached out and grasped her son's arm.

"Not you, Sirius," she said, waving the others onwards with her free hand.

When the rest were gone, she looked down at her son as she led him from the room. But rather than follow the other children down and out into the garden, Walburga turned right and headed up the staircase, her fingers still wrapped around her son's arm.

"You lied to me, Sirius," she said. "And you are going to stay in your room until you learn to tell the truth."

"I didn't lie!" he said, trying to free himself from his mother's grasp. "Bella's the one who's lying."

"Sirius!"

They had reached the upper level of the house and now stood in front of the door to Sirius's room. Walburga opened it and, exiting herself, locked her son inside as she walked away. She resolutely ignored his cries of "I didn't do it" as she descended the stairs.

----

The long, cold fingers wrapped around his arms made him shiver, and he struggled to free himself from them. They did not let go, though - they never let go.

He was led down the dark stone corridor, faces looking out at him from behind thick bars of cell doors. No one was speaking - at least, not intellectually. There was screaming, or muttering, or absolute gibberish coming from the different prisoners.

But not from him. He had not spoken upon first arriving on the island, Aurors escorting him to the stone structure's barred entrance. He did not say anything as the Dementors led him towards the highest security block of the prison. His mouth did not open as they shoved him inside the first cell, slamming the bars behind him and locking him inside. It was not until the Dark creatures had floated away that he let out anything.

"I didn't do it!" he yelled. "I didn't do it!"

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading this bit, and I hope you enjoyed it. Look for Part II: Nightmares coming soon. Please, let me know what you thought.

~Megan