Runaway

"SIRIUS! Get here NOW!"

Anna Black's screeching Welsh tones rang through the house, as she clutched a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky as though her life depended on it. Anna hadn't left the room for months now; it was a downstairs bedroom that she lived in, hardly leaving the bed, living in her own mess. Anna hadn't washed in a long time, either. Her auburn hair was greasy and matted, her skin was spotty, and her eyes dull.

She took a swig from the bottle and shouted again.

"SIRIUS!"

***

Upstairs, Anna's son stared at a photograph of his grandmother as tears streamed down his face. He was a boy of ten, although Anna thought that he was well into his teens, such was her muddled brain.

Sirius Black looked a lot like his father, and nothing like his mother. He was quite tall for his age, his hair was black, and his eyes were bright blue. He had a wide, cheeky grin, although he hadn't smiled for ages.

His grandmother, Rosemary, had been a wonderful woman - she had been more like a mother to Sirius than Anna could ever be. When Sirius' father Vincent went missing, she had moved into the house, to protect Sirius more than anything. She looked after him, and even tried to look after Anna, although she gave up after a while.

Then one day, Sirius came home to find his mother waiting for him in the hallway. She had a smile on her face, a smile that made Sirius feel sick to see.

"Come on, darling," she said, her smile never fading. "I have something to show you; a surprise, my dear..."

Half-puzzled, half-dreading what he was about to see, Sirius let Anna guide him into the kitchen, where he saw what would haunt him for the rest of his life.

His grandmother was dead, slumped over the table, her eyes open and lifeless.

"No granny to run to any more," Anna hissed in his ear. "No granny to sponge off us any more, Sirius..."

He screamed and began to sob, and tried to run away, but Anna kept her grip on his arm tight.

"Oh, you can run, but you can't hide, Sirius Black," his mother went on. "I will always be able to find you. Always. You're my little boy, aren't you? My darling little boy..."

It was at this point that Sirius wrenched his arm free and bolted out of the front door. By the time he got back, Anna had retreated back to her bathroom, and Sirius was safe for the time being.

Two years had passed since that day, and Anna's mental state had rapidly deteriorated. She hardly knew her own name any more, but Sirius's stuck in her mind, and she would shout for him whether she needed him or not.

At first Sirius had gone to her, but after receiving beatings, punches and a broken arm, he ignored her now, difficult as it was. She shouted for him day and night, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Sirius didn't care any more.

He jumped as the bedroom door opened, and his tears turned to relief as his best - and only - friend, James Potter, came in.

"I came in through the back door," he whispered. "She didn't notice."

"She wouldn't notice," Sirius whispered back, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. "She never notices anything any more..."

The two boys had been friends for many years, and as unlikely as the friendship was to succeed, it never once weakened. Vincent Black, Sirius' father, had been the personal assistant to James' father, Thomas Potter. Thomas and his wife Edwina began to worry that James was becoming lonely at the tender age of four, and so Thomas requested that Vincent bring his son to the Potters' house every morning, before leaving for work. Vincent gladly obliged - Anna was not the best mother in the world, and he worried about leaving Sirius with her all day.

And so the boys had become firm friends, and still were. James was the only one who knew how Sirius lived, and true to his word, he had not told a single soul.

"SIRIUS!"

"Hadn't you better go to her?" James asked. Sirius shook his head forcefully.

"No, she'll beat me. I ignore her; it's the only way." He shoved the photograph of his grandmother back into a box, and put the lid on the box. "I can't live here, James. No more living here."

"But - where will you go?"

"Dunno."

"You can't just go nowhere."

"Nowhere has to be better than here." Sirius took a carrier bag from under his bed and randomly put in a pair of pyjamas, clean underwear, and two more T-shirts. "C'mon, we need some food."

"We?"

"You ain't letting me go on my own, James. You're coming too."

"But I can't -"

"I'm gonna go find my dad. He'll look after me, he will, but I can't go on my own. Come with me. It'll be like an adventure, only better."

"Well...all right, then," James said doubtfully. He followed Sirius downstairs and into the kitchen, where Sirius was desperately ransacking the drawers as quietly as possible. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for money...she keeps it here somewhere...here it is." He grabbed a heavy velvet bag, and stuffed it into his coat pocket, once he'd put that on.

"Sirius, that's stealing," James said in horror.

"No it's not. Not from her it's not. Now come on, we need to get you stuff from your house."

"No we don't, I'll buy it on the way. I've got my own Gringotts vault, look." James pulled a fine gold chain from under his T-shirt; suspended from the chain was a tiny gold key.

"SIRIUS! What you doing in that kitchen? You better not be with that posh little bastard!"

Sirius went scarlet, and James pretended that he hadn't heard.

"Well...let's go, then," Sirius said, and they left the house.

***

Anna heard the back door slam, and she knew that Sirius had left her. She cried and cried, and then drank some more whisky, and presently she fell asleep, never meaning to wake up again.