THE LONG AWAITED VISIT from Marianne Black was something that Leo hadn't been looking forward to. He knew it was just a matter of time before she mustered up the energy to face him after he helped send her only daughter to Azkaban. He had hoped that he narrowly avoided the visit, seeing Atticus at the cauldron had been enough of a family reunion to last him at least a year.

There wasn't a single thing that Leo had ever done that she was proud of.

       When he was little had stolen pocketfuls of sweets from shops whenever he had the chance. In school, his better friends had been no-maj-borns. Also in school he would sometimes pick fights with the likes of William McCarthy, a miserable pureblood in his year that seemed to make it his mission in life to let everyone know what he thought of the nasty bloodtypes that Ilvermorny allowed in. The only reason Leo hadn't gotten himself expelled during his fifth year was because his father made a hefty donation to the school to keep him there, all because the mere thought of Leo spending even more time with the no-maj's he had met over the summer was something he and his mother could barely stomach.

"Are you absolutely positive you don't want me to stick around?" Sirius questioned.

Leo stared at him for a moment, "Yes, Sirius. I'm positive that having you, a supposed mass murderer staying in my apartment will not help anything." he replied simply, "Even if she wishes you were her son."

Sirius chuckled, "If only she knew the truth." he said simply, "But if she did think that you were hiding me, it might make her, well, I don't know, a bit happier with you."

"Unlikely." Leo scoffed, "Nothing could make up for siding with the Ministry about Elladora."

"Dora is better off locked away," Sirius replied, "I'm sure she and Bella will be having a lovely family reunion right about now."

"Good riddance." Leo said plainly as he walked to the window in his living, revealing a rickety looking fire escape. "So how will you be leaving? Magical or not magical." he motioned to the fire escape.

"Well, last time I about broke my neck at the bottom, so I'll do magical this time." Sirius replied as he grabbed hold of his jacket and wand which had been laying on the small dining room table where he had also left his dishes. Sirius was such a slob, that Leo understood why he really refused to get rid of Kreacher.

Sirius left the apartment with a loud popping sounds surrounding Leo, leaving him there to await the miserable visit with his mother. Leo wouldn't put it past her to drag his resentful father along either. When Leo decided to become an auror, it was the last straw for him. There wasn't anything else he could do to try and encourage an interest in dark magic or lord Voldemort's mission. Even though Leo had been eleven when Voldemort was defeated, his parents never wanted to believe that it was over. In their mind, there would be someone to finish what Voldemort started. Atticus was the only person that he could foresee actually joining their mother if this really was just a casual visit. But in Leo's gut, he knew that it wasn't.

As soon as Sirius was gone, Leo grabbed the dishes that Sirius had left on the table and dropped them in the sink of his apartment— just as there was a knock on his door. Before he he bothered to go answer, he first pulled out his wand and gave it a flick towards the sink so he wouldn't have to listen to his mother commenting on how he kept his apartment, even though most if not all of the mess was from Sirius. As soon as the water was flipped on and the dishes were being washed, Leo set his wand down on the counter and made his way over to the door and pulled it open, revealing a less than happy woman that Leo hadn't seen since Elladora's trial. She wore her usual black cloak with dark purple details over a dress shirt and black pair of pants. Considering she hated muggles, she seemed to have at least tried a little bit to not stand out too much.

"Hello, Leo." she spoke, not even the slightest smile appearing on her face. Instead her dark eyes peered past him to observe the apartment before even coming inside.

"Hey, mom." Leo replied, matching her displeased tone. "I didn't expect you to want to see me at all before you went back to America."

"Of course I would, Leo." she replied as he stepped aside to allow her inside. "You're my youngest child, regardless of your questionable beliefs about this family. I still want to see how you're doing now that you're so far from home."

Leo had to bite his tongue from saying anything in response to her. "I just figured I would have cut the last cord after Elladora's trial." he said simply, closing the door behind her.

Marianne made her way into the apartment, she kept her hands at her side as she glanced at the charmed dishes that were scrubbing themselves. Then she made her way into the living area, where Leo had to straighten up Sirius's sleeping quarters. By his own choice, at night it was usually his dog form sprawled out across Leo's couch because Leo refused to get either a pull out couch or something more comfortable for Sirius. Marianne peered down the narrow hall towards Leo's room and the bathroom.

"Remind me again why you decided to live amongst no-maj's?" she questioned, "I'm sure by their standards this isn't all that bad, but you could do much better."

"I couldn't really afford much better," Leo replied.

"That was by your own decision, Leo." Marianne replied sharply, "your father took no pleasure in taking your key from the family vault."

Leo scoffed a bit, "Could have fooled me."

"You were a hot-headed eighteen year old, Leo. You had gotten away with everything you ever set your mind to doing to disrespect our family, your father couldn't let you get away with...with that." she said sternly, turning in the center of the living room. Placing one hand on her hip, and the other pointing at Leo. "That no-maj girl brought nothing but trouble for you."

"For me? I didn't have any trouble until father decided that our family had to cut ties with anyone who wasn't a pureblood, as if Voldemort was still around making the calls and if he found out our family would be ruined." Leo replied, struggling to keep his voice down. "If anything our family brought Caitlyn and her family nothing but trouble."

        Caitlyn Addams had nothing to do with magic. Honestly that was what Leo liked, while he was off at Ilvermorny, locked in the castle surrounded by magic, Caitlyn was home for dinner. Or was able to go for a drive, listening to music and eating the junk no-maj food that Leo had to convince Atticus to bring him to get when he was little. And during breaks from school, where Leo was finally released from the castle that felt like a prison that his parents insisted he stay in, being with Caitlyn made things seem easy. Normal even. Because nothing about Leo's family was normal, their obsession with blood purity put a damper on everything that Leo enjoyed. From no-maj movies, their fast food, and the simple way of life they had where they didn't have to live in world where they knew about magic. In some ways, Leo was envious of Caitlyn. Her biggest concern was whether or not she would get a scholarship so she could pay for the medical program at the University of Texas in two years.

"It must be nice though, the boarding school you went to." she stated, turned sideways in the drivers seat of her car while Leo sat in the passenger seat with his feet on her dashboard and a container of McDonalds frenchfries in his hand.

"You could say that, I guess." Leo replied, "Miserable most of the time though."

"I'm sure it couldn't be as bad as public school," she stated, "the food was better I'm sure."

Leo nodded, "Oh, yeah. Probably." he stated, "But I'm glad I'm done now. I don't think I could handle one more month there."

"Are you really going to take a gap year?"

Leo nodded, "I think I might go to Europe for a few weeks. See some sights." he sighed, "My offer still stands though, you could come." he stated, looking over at her and offering her a small smile.

She scoffed, "Still no." she stated, "I can't take a gap year. I don't think I'd ever go back to school then."

Leo shrugged, "And what would be so awful about that?" he asked.

Caitlyn rolled her eyes, "I want to be a doctor, Leo. I can't be a doctor if I don't go to school."

         No-maj careers seemed so much more satisfying than the options Leo had. You had to really put in the work for something as simple as mending a broken arm. In the wizarding world, Leo could break his arm in the morning, and be playing quidditch again by that evening thanks to a simple spell or potion.

"Next time maybe," Caitlyn added, "you said you have family there? I'm sure you'll go more than once. Maybe next summer if you go I could go with."

Leo arched his brow, "Next summer?" he echoed, "Brave of you to assume that-"

Caitlyn scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Right, I forgot, I might meet the real love of my life in Texas." she laughed, "The only reason I'm going there is because its close to my grandma, other than that I can't wait to leave that place already."

Leo chuckled, "Then don't go there for school." he shrugged, "Trust me," he sighed heavily leaning across the middle council between their seats. "you won't need to work a day in your life as long as you're with me." he said, dramatically putting a hand on his chest.

"Leo, if you would just talk to your father, he would give you the key." Leo's mother snapped him back out of his thoughts. "That was years ago." her voice was a little bit softer now, "He hates that you've just written off your entire family."

"I'm not the only on, mother." Leo sighed heavily, "You are all the one's that nearly ripped my head off when I even suggested that you meet Caitlyn."

"You didn't suggest a thing, Leo. You bombarded us with a no-maj that had no place in our family."

       Leo knew full well that this more than likely wouldn't go well. But having only his parents still living there, while Elladora and Atticus were off on their own, Ella dabbling in dark magic still more than likely and Atticus starting his life with his new wife, he would only have to worry about his mother and father. Both of which wouldn't ever say anything to anyone's face, they would have to at the very least be nice to Caitlyn. They'd have to at least act as if they were happy to meet her. It would be after the fact that he'd hear what they really thought. But at that point, it would be no different than Cailyn's family not liking him. Mainly because he couldn't really talk about what he was planning on doing now that he was done with school. If they didn't like him, and his family didn't like Caitlyn, then that was that. Caitlyn made it clear that she didn't care that her family didn't like him, and Leo had already done a handful of things to give him the label of Family Disappointment, this wouldn't be any different.

"This is your house?" Caitlyn questioned as she followed him through the heavy wooden doors. "It's...huge..."

"It was my grandparents." he replied, "They were some big shots in the congress, and left it to my mom when they died." it wasn't a complete lie. His mother's parents had been two of the most powerful members in the congress, at least the magical congress.

"Leo, it's..."

      Leo's mother stopped dead in her tracks as she stepped into the grand entrance room from the dining room. Her eyes went right past Leo and landed on Caitlyn, who offered her a small smile and wave.

"Hey, mom." Leo replied, a small smirk spreading across his face before he turned to Caitlyn. "This is Caitlyn, I told you she would be coming for dinner tonight, remember?"

        Of course that hadn't been how the conversation went. It had actually gone more like Leo told them about Caitlyn, and they said that they didn't ever want her to set foot in the house.

"Regardless, Leo," his mother said sharply, holding both hands in the air as if to say she was surrendering. "it's about time that we all move on, don't you think?"

"Move on?" Leo echoed, "Father disowned me because I was dating a no-maj. He would have rather I turned out like...like Sirius or Elladora." he stated, crossing his arms. "Insane."

"Sirius and Elladora both believe in the Black family, and what we stand for. You tried to bring a no-maj into it, Leo. That goes against everything that our family stands for, and you knew that."

"Is this what you came here to tell me?" Leo questioned, "Because I'm not interested in really being a part of a family that is more upset that a family member didn't get away with attempting to murder an auror."

"Don't be ridiculous, Leo. Elladora has always been a bit dramatic, she never intended on murdering you."

Leo sighed heavily, "Sorry, let me rephrase, I don't really want to be a part of a family that still thinks Voldemort had everything right. I want nothing to do with that."

Out of everything that Leo said, that was what struck a nerve. It wasn't the mentioning of Caitlyn, or Elladora's trial. It was Leo saying he wanted nothing to do with a family that, if it came down to it, would still side with Lord Voldemort.

AUTHORS NOTE;
Hey all :) I wanted to dive a bit deeper into Leo's already complicated family dynamic, and now we have Caitlyn and an even more heartbreaking backstory for Leo. I'm sorry. But I'm playing with the idea of exploring Leo's teenage years a bit more, so I hope you guys enjoyed this bit of it. Also please let me know what you thought of Caitlyn! What do you think has happened to her after she met the Blacks? What do you think broke Leo and Caitlyn up in the end?

Special Casting;
COLIN FORD AS YOUNG LEO BLACK

LILI REINHART AS CAITLYN ADDAMS

stay classy!
*edited 2/20/21*