Chapter 282: If the Little Brother Says It's Fine, Then It's Fine
Sirius had gone home the previous holiday. One letter from their father had been enough to pull him back, the reason being the face of the House of Black.
The eldest son absent for consecutive long holidays would invite speculation about internal problems. Orion wouldn't tolerate it.
Sirius had complied on the surface. He sat at the dining table, picked up the right cutlery, and didn't say a word that wasn't required.
His mother's remarks bounced off him. His father's authority kept his head down. The portraits on the walls pointed and muttered, and he didn't spare them a glance.
He'd wrapped himself in a shell, wielding indifference like a weapon.
It was the most heroic form of defiance a boy his age could conceive of.
Children did this. Built themselves a shell, then believed the shell was their weapon, never realizing it was a prison they'd built for themselves.
Now he wanted to go back, and that created a delicate problem: the shell couldn't come with him.
After working so hard at not caring, after proving so forcefully that he didn't need that house, saying he wanted to go home felt like an admission. He couldn't get past the embarrassment of saying it out loud.