Black Family Etiquette
Cross-posted from a comm.
**
Sirius carefully set his utensils at the position of ten o’clock on his plate, handles resting neatly on the lip.
He drew a measured breath.
“Mother, may I go to James’s house?”
From the other side of the mahogany banquet table, Regulus looked up. He studied his older brother with a keen grey eye before asking abruptly, “Does he still fancy that Mudblood?”
Sirius tensed to his bones.
He attempted to glare at Regulus, who was now reaching carefully toward the butter dish so as not to soil the sleeves of his emerald green robe, but the vehemence Regulus deserved was hard to deliver with their parents watching.
“Whaaat?” inquired Mrs. Black from one end, her face pale and drawn as she entered the conversation.
Regulus poised his knife in midair and turned his attention to his mother. “James Potter fancies a Mudblood at school," he reiterated calmly as though it were a hapless news gem from this morning's Daily Prophet. Before resuming the buttering of his toast, he met Sirius’s smoldering eye and added in an undertone, “It's no secret. I only asked because he hasn’t made a display of it lately. I thought he might have lost interest, that's all.”
“Reg-“ Sirius gritted his teeth.
"Well, naturally his parents will forbid him to associate with the girl. They certainly come from good stock,” said Mrs. Black, while managing not to shake a drop of the tea cup poised over saucer in her hands.
Orion Black gave a stony nod of agreement from the opposite side of the table.
Sirius barely held his tongue.
Unfortunately, clarifying James's family's postion-though satisfying-would not earn him a trip to James's house right now. For that reason alone, Sirius showed restraint.
Looking away from his parents, across the table, he caught Regulus surveying him keenly again.
"No, they won't," Regulus piped up in response to his mother's affirmation, his voice soft yet resolute under Sirius's watchful eye. "A lot of the pureblood families think differently than ours. A lot of them don't care if their kids befriend the Mudbloods. I think the Potters are that way."
Sirius exhaled loudly. Thank. you. Regulus.
“Oh, Sirius!” cried Walburga Black, surveying the face of her eldest son for a hopeful sign that Regulus's report might not be true. Sirius's eyes sparked.
Walburga placed a ring-laden hand upon her breast. “We forbid you to associate him!"
“Moth-“
“How could he ever possibly marry such a girl?” Mrs. Black persisted.
Leave it to his mother to jump straight to posterity and inheritance.
"What would stop him?!" cried Sirius, a touch of laughter rising in his voice.
"Why, social etiquette dear! He'd lose all important ties to the wizarding world."
“SWEET CIRCE!” exclaimed Sirius. When is our family going to STOP-“
“Don’t raise your voice to me!” his mother warned.
Sirius rose and tossed his napkin carelessly onto his plate. The cutlery clattered into the sauce.
“I’LL-DO-WHATEVER-I-LIKE!” he protested in rising syllables.
And in three effective strides he strode from the dining room and bounded up the stairs.