1995-01-03: Slamming Doors

Participants:

Holly_icon.gif Sirius_icon.gif

Guest Starring: Kreacher

Scene Title Slamming Doors
Synopsis Sirius is lolariously depressed. Holly is annoyed. Kreacher is a mean toerag. Poor Mo.
Location #12, Grimmauld Place
Date Jan 03, 1995
Watch For Kreacher, the bottle, tempers.
Logger Spuds McKenzie

The beast stalks silently through the halls, nose twitching as she sniffs each and every corner, ever-searching for her prey. There's plenty to find around here, too, from the mice the the doxies - which the cat has learned to avoid, for the most part - to little creatures of indescribably origin. Mostly, though, Mo likes to stalk a certain house elf around the home, because he's fun to harass, and Holly doesn't seem to like him. The enemy of his friend is his enemy, of course!

She nears the kitchen, hearing Holly muttering to herself as she worries over a pile of papers strewn across a table that looks older than dirt itself, albeit with that regal bearing that all things in this house seem to have had at some point or another. Something about … jurisdiction. Mo has a vague idea of what that means, but it doesn't particularly interest her the way a scritch behind the ear might, and so she moves on, looking for the savage, ill-smelling, bad-tempered thing named Kreacher.

Holly pushes her chair back, getting to her feet and stretching, fingers laced behind her head as she sighs. Their options are getting to be fewer and fewer… Stay here and risk being caught, or leave the country and create more trouble for themselves. Maybe she should write an owl of some sort to Umbridge…

…Yeah, that'll go over really well.

From the upstairs hall, the sound of guttural, croaky sobs can be heard. That would be Kreacher. Along with this comes slamming of doors, the inevitable shrieks of Mrs. Walburga Black, and Sirius shouting rude, scandalous things at the portrait. Instead of shutting the portrait up, it only makes it shriek louder, thus earning a rather thundering incantation of 'STUPEFY!'

Soon afterwards, footsteps can be heard on the narrow staircase that leads into the cavernous, basement-esque kitchen. The footsteps belong to Sirius, who is mostly hidden behind a mound of moldy tattered cloth that were clothes once upon a time. He mutters audibly about loony elves clinging to trash that should have been tossed out decades ago.

"Oh, for the love of God," Holly snaps when that portrait starts up again. She swears, if it starts screaming one more time, she's going to find some paint and paint a gag on it. She's not in the mood for it, and being cooped up here going completely stir-crazy isn't helping her temperament. Usually fairly even-keel, the lawyer is just about to snap. And being around Sirius is making things worse.

And, really, why the hell should she just keep her mouth shut and let all of this happen? Because she's supposed to have some decorum, especially around her client, she reminds herself, taking a deep, calming breath. Find some common ground and diffuse the situation that way.

Not in the mood to really find something they like that they have in common, she goes for something they mutually disdain. "You know, there has to be someone in the world who can get that portrait off the wall."

Sirius kicks the door shut behind him to cut off the wailing from upstairs and in case Kreacher was following. The tattered cloth in his arms is dumped in a basket that he's designated for goods to be trashed. He's agitated by the place, but not as badly as Holly. He grew up here, he's used to some of the more erhm, eccentricities to be found within. The portrait is a bit new though. "I don't doubt it," he says with a faint growl. Heck, Sirius could probably get it down himself. One way or the other. Even if the wall goes with it. Yet, maybe on some level Sirius likes it for unresolved childhood issues with his mother. He can't annoy her further in life, but he can nettle her in death. Sort of. It's just an animated representation of the hateful old woman. In his crazed mind, there's not much difference.

Holly jumps as the door slams.

Remember. This isn't forever. She hopes.

Really, though, she likes the guy, and definitely realises that there are issues he needs to work out, but she misses sitting on a park bench and doing crossword puzzles, or interacting with crowds, or… Hell, being anywhere other than here. "Could you— " She starts before she can remind herself to not poke the veritable nest of bees that is Sirius Black. Hell with it, though. May as well finish the statement. " Maybe not yell as much? Or slam doors, or You know, it might help. Just a thought." Turning back to the table, she starts to stack her papers. Tired of looking at them, Holly's found her eyes crossing, and it's getting frustrating.

A dark eyebrow raises as Holly chastises him. This is Sirius's house, and if he wants to slam doors and yell, he will! "Leave if you don't like it. Get caught by the Ministry and see whatever it is they've got in store. If you're lucky, they'll cast you out of the country!" Abandoning the pile to be turned into rubbish, he storms over to the cabinets, rifling through bottles. "I've got damn good reason to shout and slam doors so if you don't mind, I'll carry on."

His mood was so much better at the safehouse.

Okay, that's fair. Only it's not. Holly presses her lips together, leaning down on the table now, looking pointedly away from Sirius. There's a lot she could say here - they both have to live together here, she can't leave yet, she can't work with all the shouting… Instead, she figures it best if, for now, she just says nothing. She wants to, though, which is clear as day as sharp brown eyes look up at the man.

But she can't let him get to her. As … tempting as it is, as close as she's coming to just trying to break his neck… she can't. God, it's so tempting to leave, though. She could easily walk out of here and never come back. Leave him to defend himself when the Ministry finds him.

One fist slams down on the table. "Of course I mind, or I wouldn't have asked you to stop," she says as calmly as possible.

"FINE," Sirius says as he slams a cabinet shut. Clearly he didn't find what he was wanting there, so he moves on to the next. He has his shining moments, this isn't one of them. Not completely failing to recognize the service Holly has been /trying/ to perform for him, he honestly does try to rein in his temper. Really.

It's just bloody difficult.

Finding a dusty bottle in a cabinet, he cleans off the grime before opening it up. He takes a whiff of the contents, and finds it passable. Dropping into a seat at the table, he kicks back, propping his feet on the surface. "You don't like it here, neither do I. So what do we do? Turn ourselves in? Go find a patch of woods to hide in?" A lengthy drink is taken from the bottle, and a faint whiff of spirits can be detected.

She twitches again when that cabinet door slams, feeling herself slip just a little more. A quiet, unintelligible syllable is the result of that.

Oh. Oh, that's just what she needs. Angry and drunk. The woods are starting to look pretty good right about now, actually, because at least she wouldn't need to deal with Sirius slamming doors, making that portrait scream, and… She's starting to believe that half of that terrible house elf's problems result from Sirius' treatment of it. "Come on, put that down. You really don't need to be drunk right now. We can go over some of your case instead."

Not that it'll do any good whatsoever, and Holly knows that. It just helps take her mind off of the fact that she's trapped here…

A loud crash is heard from the floor above, and a yowl that is unmistakably Mozambique. There's another thud, followed by the sound of something shattering. That's never good. "Now what?!" Holly snaps, heading for the door.

Sirius swings his feet from off the table and sets the bottle aside. "Fine. Let's talk about my case which is never going to see the light of day aga.. Bloody.. KREACHER!" He shoves up from his chair, automatically jumping to the conclusion that the elf is involved. Hey, they were just arguing about throwing out his mum's tattered remnants of dress gowns, so why not? He's right on Holly's heels to find the source of the newest disturbance in this wacky household.

"I swear.. if he's setting loose doxies again.. I will let his head join the others.." Among other threats that will probably never be acted upon by Sirius.

Holly takes the steps two at a time, glad for the opportunity for exercise, even if it's because she's tearing after her cat and a rather foul house elf. She's sure she'll once again find Mo alone, licking her paws, with Kreacher nowhere in sight, but this time, when she wheels around the doorframe and into one of the bedrooms, the elf is standing there with an old candlestick, glaring at the huge cat across from him, who is quite obviously hurting. Thankfully, the elf didn't manage to bash Mo's head in, but she's limping on two front paws and one back one, and the back hip definitely looks like it's slightly out of joint. Easily fixable with a simple healing charm, but the point is that Kreacher has hurt her baby.

"Nasty, hairy beast in the Mistress's house," the elf mutters to Mo, whose ears are plastered back against her head. "Kreacher will get rid of it for her…"

"Oh Merlin. Mo," Holly says, rushing to the cat's side. Mo growls as Holly gets near, not wanting to be touched, and for good reason.

Hot on Holly's heels, there is undisguised fury on Sirius's face at the sight in the room. "KREACHER. Put the candlestick down, and NOT on Mo." Even in his anger, his instructions are explicit. "You will /not/ get rid of the cat. I am ordering you to not touch, harm, bother, attack or even /talk/ to the cat. Do you understand me?" Even as he's trying to make it clear without loopholes that Kreacher is to not abuse Mo at all, he's reaching to bodily grab the elf. Sirius looks damn near ready to throttle the elf, he even makes an empty threat, "I swear, if I so much as catch you looking at Mo cross-eyed, I will give you clothes!"

Holly should just take out her wand and fix the cat. Even she has her dumb moments, though, and instead figures the very best thing to do is to get Mo away from Kreacher - out of the room, downstairs in the light where she can see better. So she reaches for her, and despite the fact that Mo does love Holly very much, a good swipe is aimed right at the witch's arm.

"Kreacher finds it hard to understand the raving of the blood traitor," he says, looking away from Mo and putting the candlestick down on the floor. It seems he's gotten it, though, because his mutterings are clearly not at the cat anymore. After all, with Holly in the room, there's a much better target. "He threatens me with clothes! Kreacher has served this family faithfully, and the traitor threatens him with clothes! And they will probably belong to that foreign filth who infects these halls… Dirty creature. Dirtier than the hairy beast…"

The small silence that follows is the sound of Holly snapping. Getting to her feet, she grabs Sirius by the shoulder, and will try to turn him around to face her so she can slug him.

Not listening to the ravings of his elf, Sirius marches to the door and tosses Kreacher into the hall without ceremony. "If you were serving faithfully, you'd have taken care of the house and you wouldn't be rude to my guests! I will not permit you to talk to Miss Maplewood in such a manner!" The door is then shut forcefully and he whirls around, "Is Mo okay?" He's a bit cut off on the 'okay' as Holly reaches to grab his shoulder. Sirius isn't the sort to stand around and take this. He's fought bigger than Holly, so ducks just in time to miss the fist aimed for him. "What the devil is your problem!?"

Notably, since she's been here, she hasn't actually ever lost her temper, but there's a first time for everything. When her slug misses, she doesn't try again, thankfully, but she's still got a hand on his shoulder. "What d'you think?" she asks. "You go around slamming doors all day, then when I ask you to quiet down, you tell me to take my chances with the Ministry and that maybe they'll throw me out of what's obviously a wonderful and well-adjusted country, because, yeah, I'm sure most governments in civilised countries just treat people like dirt, then your stupid elf breaks my cat's leg! I don't know, Sirius, what is my problem? Enlighten me."

"FINE. I get your point!" Sirius shouts back at Holly, looking as peeved as she. "This isn't easy for me! Being here! Obviously the same goes for you! You were complaining so I suggested another option!" Not that he meant it, because Holly is pretty spunky and he likes her spirit. Hello, American! He doesn't appear to have calmed down any, but he does seem to be trying to keep a lid on his anger. "Kreacher's a wretched little beast, but I didn't actually expect him to harm your cat! He won't be doing it again!" He reaches to try and remove Holly's hand from his shoulder, "We can leave. We can find another spot to hide in." Maybe somewhere he won't go slamming doors.

"I'm not the one who's been yelling and slamming things for weeks!" she returns, allowing Sirius to remove her hand from his shoulder. The idea of going anywhere with him at the moment seems revolting, because, dear God, it took her days and days to get to a point where she just couldn't hold this fight back anymore, and if her patience has worn this thin, she's good and peeved. The yelling and the screaming die down, though, to be replaced by a cool stare. "You really think us — " she points between herself and Sirius, "Going anywhere together is going to solve anything? You've been acting like a … spoiled brat since we arrived. No, it's not the ideal situation, but we had to make it work, and you failed, Sirius. You've made it perfectly clear that this isn't easy for you, instead of acting like an adult and trying to make it work. I'm not your mother. I shouldn't have to tell you how to act outside the courtroom."

Sirius throws his hands up, "I'm not telling you to tell me how to act! Honestly woman! Where the bloody hell did you get /that/ idea?" He stalks away from Holly to pace in frustration. He's in full realization of what she's throwing at him. It's not like he's being this way deliberately, it just happens. He was unstable to start with, and the years have only worsened his mental state. "Fine. You don't want to take off and hide with me. You've got any better ideas?" There's a bite to his tone, restrained anger, even if he's keeping his volume down.

Really, Holly doesn't have to like Sirius to defend him in court, but it's going to make it more difficult if they can't settle their differences. She's almost tempted to just leave, but that's illogical, and she damn well knows it. Running her fingers through her hair, she turns back to Mo, who is still crouched in a corner, and takes her wand out of her back pocket.

Kneeling down, she heals the broken leg as best she can. It'll still be sore, and the muscles and tendons will take time to heal, but at least the cat is on the road to recovery. They can't exactly take her to a wizard vet at the moment.

"Lupin stops by here once in awhile. You stay here, and I'll go with him. That way, we're both happy, and you know I'm safe." Because Lupin, being one of Sirius' best friends, is obviously someone he'll trust with Holly's life, right? "We'll still come by once in awhile, I'm sure."

Unable to find it within himself to argue, Sirius knows Holly has valid points. Plus, let's face it? The man is pure arrested development and is very much that child he's accused of acting like. A brat, reckless, temperamental.. and the list could go on. He does have good qualities, they're just a bit hidden now by the onslaught of bad. "I'll go get something to wrap Mo's paw in, stabilize it." Along with getting him the hell out of the room and away from Holly for a few moments before his temper flares again.


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