December 1976

On the 15th of December Annabelladonna Black has received a letter. It was encased in a fancy cream colored envelope and was held together by a wax seal that held an A in cursive lettering. Tucked under the wax was a small sprig of atropa belladonna. In the Black family it was customary to use a personalized wax seal when sending a letter. Just seeing that seal made her nervous. It didn't help that her name was on the back of the envelope in her mother's neat and swirly handwriting.

Annabelladonna's heart was beating so fast that it almost made the rest of her chest feel numb in comparison to the fast paced messed. Her head felt tighter as if someone was squeezing her brain and she just knew something bad was written in the letter. She let her slim fingers slide under the seal and break it, unfolding the envelope and releasing the letter.

Dearest Annabelladonna,

Your father and I have missed your presence during Christmas for the past few years. We think it would be most beneficial for you to come back and join us. Surely you would like to celebrate as a family. Reply as swiftly as possible, we shall be expecting a letter in the next few days.

Sincerely, Walaburga.

They wanted Annabelladonna to be home for Christmas.

"Fuck... fuck.. fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. SHIT."

It was needless to say that the Hufflepuff girl was panicking. She swiftly left her houses table and walked back to the kitchens and after that her dorms. Thoughts clouded her mind like a tornado, her palms grew sweaty. Why did they want to see her now. Wasn't Walaburga the one who threatened to feed her to a werewolf if she saw her again. Was it a trap. Bella was lost, she knew she shouldn't go but she was terrified of the power her parents had. They could make her come home, even if she didn't want to. If she left Hogwarts at all they would find her and if she stayed they'd get Regulus to drag her home. She needed advice and she needed it quickly.

She whipped out the books that she, Asher, and Apollo charmed so that they could speak together and she started scrawling out a message.

Blue ink was starting to drip into the paper.
This was Asher. They had all had assigned ink colors so they could tell who was speaking. Bella was yellow, Asher was Blue, Apollo was green, and Ares was red. At first they had a little trouble remembering who was what color but it all got resolved eventually.

The blue ink sank fully into the paper, swirling and looping forming perfect words. Asher had always had beautiful handwriting. It looks like the kind of writing that you would imagine a renaissance figure having, his letters were bolded and elegant, there was never a letter out of place.

(Pretend the handwriting is better, my handwriting is shit)

(Also pretend this is all in French. I'd write it in French but I'm dumb and don't know French)

Annabelladonna was caught off guard by the question to say the least. She had never really expected the need to formally agree on moving in to arise. The girl had assumed that she was already living with them considering she spent all of her time there.

Careful is not something that Annabelladonna could be described as. She lived everyday like it was her last and with some of the things she did, it could be. She held the notion that a whole life can change in one second so she made sure that no second, minute, or hour, was wasted. One of the not so careful things she's done was go up to the slytherin table to look for Regulus during lunch. Everyone from the table of green and silver was looking at her like she was bloody insane. Now that is something that you could describe her as. The short girl came to a stop as soon as she reached Regulus. The curly haired boy was sitting at the end of the table reading, much like she does at her own houses table.

"Reg I need to talk to you."

She didn't even wait for an answer as she grabbed his wrist and pulled him from the hall. Everyone's eyes slowly returned back to gaze at more important things than some familial panic. Bella dragged him to one of the many empty corridors that the school held. She sat herself down on a window sill and threw her legs over the side. Soon a lit blunt was being passed in between the two.

"They invited me back for Christmas."

"Mum and dad invited you back? Really? "

"Wow don't sound too surprised over there, I'm still their daughter."

"Well I just thought... didn't mum Y'know, threaten to feed you to a werewolf if she saw you again."

"Oh please she wouldn't do that, then she'd have to find a werewolf. At most she'd just shoot a quick spell and have it done with."

"I don't think she'd actually kill you." Regulus's voice had suddenly grown soft. He didn't like to think about what measures there parents will go to to get what they want.

"Eh I can tell she's starting to grow bored of everything else. I shouldn't go back right? Like, on a scale from one to ten how bad do you think it'd be if I went."

"8/10"

"How bad do you think it'd be if I didn't?"

"10/10"

"Yeah that's the answer I was worried about."

Reggie watched as his older sister, the girl he'd always looked up to, tried and failed to blow smoke rings to distract herself. She leaned her head against the wall and just passed him the blunt again after sighing in defeat.

"If you go I'll be there to watch over you."

"But you shouldn't have to Reg, I'm supposed to be the older sibling who protects you. I'm supposed to annoy you and grill you about girls that you like, and I haven't been that and I'm sorry."

"It's okay. About the girls thing can I talk to you?"

"You can always talk to me."

"I don't necessarily like girls."

"Okay, do you like uhh guys?"

"Yeah, I'm gay."

"Okay... I'm glad you told me.... Are there any boys you like?"

"Um, yes? No? I don't know. How can you tell if you actually like someone or if you just like the idea of someone."

"Well, can you see yourself actually dating this guy?"

"Yes."

"And is there anything about him that really annoys you."

"Yes."

"Then I'd say you like him. If you could see yourself with him despite the fact that he has annoying habits then I'd say it's probably not just the idea of him that you like. But I'm also no expert and currently I'm failing in the romantic aspect of my life."

"How are you failing, do you like someone who doesn't like you back or is it just lack of good options."

"I think I like someone who avoids me at all costs. Except I don't know if I like him, because he avoids me at all costs. It's just, my stomach does the twirly thing when I look at him. I just wanna kill those fucking butterflies in my stomach that make me queasy around him."

"Who is he?"

"Don't laugh."

"I won't. Promise."

"Remus Lupin."

"Sirius's friend? You're in deep shit dude."

"I know. If he knew he'd probably trick me into marrying Remus so they could be brothers in law."

"Oh he definitely would."

Regulus let out a small chuckle, the mental image of Sirius plotting to get Bella married was bouncing around in his head. It was ridiculous. He could almost see his older brother writing down some stupid plan on a chalk bored or on his knees begging his sister to date his friend. Although Sirius would find a way to raise the stakes, it's almost as if the boy runs on drama.

"Can I play with your hair."

"No, if you mess up the curls it'll get all puffy and uncontrollable."

"Please?"

Bella looked at him with the roundest eyes she could. She looked like a little puppy when she did that and it always worked in her favor. Reggie found his will power cracking and breaking and finally he gave Bells what she wanted.

"Okay... don't mess it up too much."

Annabelladonna giggled, she was definitely going to mess it up.

Regulus layes his head in his sisters lap as she started to run her fingers through his brown locks. As a kid she would always do this to him at night so he could go to bed. Sometimes she even did it to herself, there was just something calming about the way her nails brushed against the scalp and gently sculpted the hair.

Bella soon found herself faced with  the sleeping form of her younger brother. She sighed knowing that eventually she'd have to wake him up and take away the look of relaxation on his face. Regulus didn't get moments of peace often, she knew that. So instead of waking him up she just put him on her back and carried him to the slytherin common room. Reg told her the password and as much as it hurt her to say she let the word slip from her mouth. Nothing that was ever said could change her hate for whatever slytherin prefect decided it would be funny to make the password blood-traitors. It was no wonder why a certain group of them were so comfortable calling her one. The disheartened girl put her brother down on the couch and thanked her lucky stars no one was there to witness the Hufflepuff dragging in their unconscious friend.

Now only one of the Black brothers was unaware of the oldest siblings need to return to Grimmuald Place. It was that same brother who would not be returning himself. Sirius Black has been disowned on the 21st of July when he took all of his belongings and escaped to the Potter's. Orion and Walaburga made their now only children Annabelladonna and Regulus watch as they burned their brothers face off of the family tree. The older sister tried to cover Reg's eyes so he wouldn't have to watch but all she received was a burnt hand to match her twins reputation in the family. Sirius would be scared witless if he heard about his sisters return to the awful place. He knew what would be waiting for her and it wasn't pretty. In fact it kind of resembled a naked mole rat.

If Annabelladonna returned there was no doubt in Sirius's mind that she would be snatched up into the hands of Voldemort. He just prayed to whatever was listening that she and Regulus would run as far away from him as they could.

2057 words

A/N: Leave a comment or a vote if you're liking the story or have any advice. I'm a fairly new writer so I'm still working some things out, criticism is welcome as long as it's constructive. Have a nice day!
A/N: Also do you think I'm making Annabelladonna too much of a Mary Sue?