History Fanfic / TheChoicesThatMakeUs

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Due to the hurried nature of their KangarooCourt incarceration, it’s years before Sirius finds out that the Longbottoms were tortured into insanity or Belalatrix finds out that Sirius is also a prisoner.

* MyGreatestFailure: Cyrus Diggory believes not investigating Harry's claims that his name was placed in the Goblet of Fire (due to Fudge not wanting a scandal about the Tournament's security) was the worse mistake he ever made. An investigation might have saved his grandson's life.

* WhatTheHellHero: When Mad-Eye Moody tries to convince Sirius not to go to the Department of Mysteries, Sirius tells him to shut up, saying that Mad Eye owes him this after he and the rest of the Order let him rot in Azkaban without even giving him a chance to deny the allegations against him.

* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Regulus and Bellatrix kill [[spoiler:Alphard Black]] by using the Imperius curse to make him take a lethal amount of his drug stash.

* RapeByProxy: While trying to set a trap for the Prewett Brothers by using a family of their friends as bait, Avery uses the imperius curse to make the youngest hostage have sex with his mother. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain This sadistic distraction ruins the trap by making them miss Molly Weasley arriving with her brothers, who she manages to save, at least for then, along with shone of the hostages]].

* DeadGuyJunior: Regulus is named after his deceased great-uncle on his father’s side of the family.

* InspectorJavert: Downplayed but Cyrus Diggory, grandfather of Cedric Diggory, is not so quick to forgive Narcissa after the war and seizes a pretext to arrest her and douse with with veritaserum to try and find out any previously unknown crimes.

* ThatManIsDead: At times, Bellatrix is described this way due to her time in Azkaban.

* LongLostRelative: Here it's speculated that muggleborns are all descended form squibs who were abandoned by pureblood families, with it even being noted that Hermoine could be descended from a Black in this manner.

!! Tropes

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Black's, and nearly every other pureblood family.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Due to the nature of their KangarooCourt incarceration, it’s years before Sirius finds out that the Longbottoms were tortured into insanity or Belalatrix finds out that Sirius is also a prisoner.

* DrivenToSuicide: After hearing of Regulus's death, [[spoiler: his father commits suicide, while reinstating Sirius as his heir as an act of defiance against Voldemort]].

** Orion and Walburga Black. As Sirius puts it, they do things to him that would get them sent to Azkaban if they ever tried doing it to someone else's child.
** Cyngus and Druella Black put curses on Bellatrix in an effort to keep her from marrying without their permission and when Andromeda gives birth to Tonks, due to her own parents lack of example she has no idea about how to be a loving parent until she starts watching her husband and taking cues from him.
** As per canon, Tobias Snape is pretty nasty to his son.

* AffectionateNickname: Sirius calls Harry "Prongslet."
* AnArmAndALeg: Regulus's right arm is cut off after he takes Voldemort's Horcrux [[spoiler: by Regulus himself, in order to get rid of the mark mark that could be used to track him, and to fake his death]].

* TheConfidant: Snape serves this role to Regulus and Narcissa at various points in the story, doing this with a certain amount of loyalty and affection even after becoming a spy for the Order of the Phoenix.
* DeadGuyJunior: Regulus is named after the beloved late uncle of their father.

** Sirius playing with a muggle neighbor and his dog causes, [[spoiler: his father to murder that neighbor]].
** When Narcissa overhears a classmate insinuate that she's promiscuous, she pretends to seduce him, leading him on with the promise of sex while deliberately sabotaging his friendships and academic performance for weeks before publicly rebuking and humiliating him.
* DrivenTOSuicide: After hearing of Regulus's death, [[spoiler: His father commits suicide, while reinstating Sirius as his heir as an act of defiance against Voldemort]].

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Regulus uses a memory charm to make Kreacher believe he was killed by the inferno when really he escapes, cutting off his arm and leaving it outside the forbidden forrest to make death eaters find it and believe he was killed there, while journeying to Asia to live among muggles]].

* LetThePastBurn: Snape burns down his mother's family's mansion after the war due to guilt about all the atrocities Death Eaters committed there.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Due to the nature of their KangarooCourt incarceration, its years before Sirius finds out that the Longbottom's were tortureed into insanity, or Belalatrix finds out that Sirius is also a prisoner.

* MyGreatestFailure: Cyrus Diggory refers to his as not investigating Harry's claims that his name was placed in the Goblet of Fire (due to Fudge not wanting a scandal about the tournament's security), which might have saved his grandson's life.

* SadisticChoice: Narcissa and Andromeda both want to visit Sirius and/or Bellatrix in Azkaban but have the future of their children hung over their head (explicit in Narcissa's case, ambiguously in Andromeda's) to make them drop the issue.

* WhatTheHellHero: When Mad-Eye Moody tries to convince Sirius not to go the department of mysteries Sirius tells him to shut up, saying that Mad Eye owes him this after he and the rest of the order let him rot in Azakaban without even giving him a chance to deny the allegations.

* BadFuture: [[spoiler: Regulus]] feels a bit of this after remaining isolated from the wizarding community for twenty years and then reading all of the newspaper headlines about people who died across the two wars.

* AdultFear: All over the place, given the dysfunction of the Black Family and the Death Eaters willingness to target children. An off-screen example comes from Narcissa stating that her husband only pawned off Tom Riddle's diary on Ginny Weasley because it had been trying to get Draco as its host first.

A ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' story detailing the lives of the five Black cousins; Sirius, Regulus, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Andromeda. The story focuses on their troubled upbringing, interactions with each other, varying sense of family loyalty and roles during the two Wizarding Wars before, after and during the events of the novels.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Regulus]] after the war.

* CondescendingCompassion /InnocentlyInsensitive: Muggle missionary Brother Allen (who isn't in on TheMasquerade) doesn't know any better than to refer to an orphan showing uncontrolled magical abilities as a "poor child", but the mere fact that he does so is a sign that she needs to be raised in the wizarding world, where people see her magic as a good thing.

* SiblingRivalry: Sirius and Regulus have it bad, (but not quite to the point of CainAndAbel depths) even before the Wizarding War. As an Author's Note puts it, Sirius is talented, and Regulus is loved and each brother feels the other has it better.

* CondescendingCompassion: Muggle missionary Brother Allen (who isn't in on TheMasquerade) doesn't know any better than to refer to an orphan showing uncontrolled magical abilities as a "poor child", but the mere fact that he does so is a sign that she needs to be raised in the wizarding world, where people see her magic as a good thing.

The story itself can be found here ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13381295/1/The-Choices-That-Make-Us The Choices That Make Us]]''

** Cyngus and Druella Black put curses on Bellatrix in an effort to keep her from marrying without their permission and when Andromeda gives brith to Tonks, due to her own parents lack of example she has no idea about how to be a loving parent until she starts watching her husband and taking cues from him.

* CondescendingCompassion: Muggle missionary Brother Allen (who isn't in on TheMasquerade) doesn't know any better than to refer to an orphan showing uncontrolled magical abilities as a "poor child", but the mere fact that he does so is a sign that she needs to be raised in the wizarding world.

** When Sirius playing with a muggle neighbor and his dog causes, [[spoiler: his father to murder that neighbor]].

* DrivenTOSuicide: After hearing of Regulus's death [[spoiler: His father commits suicide, while reinstating Sirius as his heir as an act of defiance against Voldemort]].

* HellholePrison: Azkaban is portrayed at it's worst in the story, through the first person perspectives of Sirius and Bellatrix.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Sirius experiences a moment of this after his friends call him out for nearly tricking Snape into confronting a werewolf, causing Sirius to admit that he's inherited more negative qualities from his parents then he admits. and needs to break free of them.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Andromeda encourages Bellatrix to spend more time with Voldemort, before realizing what kind of man he is, due to feeling it would do her good to know and respect a half-blood.
* ParentalSubstitute: The Potter's care for Sirius after he runs away from home, so much that when an Azakaban guard tells him that his mother died he initially thinks this means Mrs. Potter.

* TheScapegoat: Rita Skeeter, who is sent to Azakaban for six years after the war, is presented as being this for the rest of the Daily Prophet, who were rotten and complacent a long time before she came along and had to write some nasty stuff for a job.
* SiblingRivalry: Sirius and Regulus have it bad, (but not quite to the point of CainAndAbel depths) even before the Wizarding War. As an Author's Note puts it, Sirius is talented, and Regulus is loved.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: Regulus, Bellatrix, Dany Parkinson and Draco are all a lot more adorable as kids before getting blood purity into their heads.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Regulus's friendships at Hogwarts suffer due to his falling in with the Death Eaters and refusing to listen any time someone tries to get it through his head his insane their philosophy is.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: Regulus, Bellatrix and Draco are all a lot more adorable as kids before getting blood purity into their heads.

** Cyngus and Druella Black put curses on Bellatrix in a n effort to keep her from marrying without their permission and when Andromeda gives brith to Tonks, due to her own parents lack of example she has no idea about how to be a loving parent until she starts watching her husband and taking cues from him.

* AdultFear: All over the place, given the dysfunction of the Black Family and the Death Eaters willingness to target children. An off-screen example comes from Narcissa stating that her husband only pawned off Tom Riddle's diary on Ginny Weasley because it had been trying to get Draco as its hot first.

* DeadGuyJunior: Regulus is named after the beloved later brother of their father.

--> '''Narcissa:''' I 'm sorry about Lily.

The story itself can be found here ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13381295/1/The-Choices-That-Make-Us]]''