Title: Too Many Choices a.k.a. "Sirius Dates a Muggle"
Rating: PG-13 (mainly for cursing, although the worst stuff is in British)
Notes: War is hard enough when you're trying to determine who sold you out to the enemy. Your family threatening your Muggle girlfriend makes it just impossible. Sirius Black wonders if things can get any worse. MWPP, Lily, ensemble cast.
About Elaborate Lives: "Elaborate Lives" is a universe of inter-related, stand alone stories featuring the members of Harry's parents' generation. None of the stories are sequels or prequels to the others, and the entries may be read in any order.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and write this for amusement only

March 1979

"We know, Sirius."

Sirius Black tried to keep his face unreadable as he stared at his new lunch companion. When his younger brother suddenly dropped into the seat across the table, he'd been surprised to say the least. He hadn't actually spoken with Regulus since he was sixteen - save in passing once in the hallways of Hogwarts during seventh year when his brother, along with several minions, hissed derogatory comments in his direction (and James insisted that time didn't really count). While the fact that his Death Eater brother actually deigned to talk with him was odd and more than a little disconcerting, it was the greeting that completely threw him. If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn Regulus had spent too much time enjoying Muggle film noir or some other such nonsense. It was the only rational explanation for the cloak and dagger act.

"Know what, Regulus? That you're a little berk?" Attempting to look cool, calm, and collected, Sirius leaned back in his seat, kicked his booted feet onto the table, and took a large bite of his sandwich. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he briefly wondered if things had become so bad that Death Eaters were now comfortable killing a man in an open air cafe with hundreds of witnesses present, and his eyes flicked to his brother's currently wand-less hands. "So glad you finally figured that out."

Regulus calmly folded his hands on the table. "We know about the girl, the," he paused as if choking on something before finally managing to add, "Muggle." When Sirius didn't respond, he continued, "We know how long you've been ... involved with her." Regulus somehow managed to look even more ill with each new phrase. "We know where the two of you like to meet, we know how often she spends the night at your home, we know where she attends university and where she lives. We. Know. Everything."

Slowly, Sirius dropped his feet back to the ground, certain that, any minute now, he was going to wake up in the Potters' kitchen where James would laugh at him for having one too many and Lily would pretend to be horrified, because he simply could not be having this conversation with his brother. When he didn't awake to a joyous hangover, Sirius sat up in his seat. "And is there a purpose to this little unveiling of knowledge?" He asked, trying to sound dangerous. He was only partially successful.

"You aren't stupid, Sirius," Regulus replied. "Why do you think I'm here?"

"Because you get some sick fascination telling me about how you spy on my personal life?" He offered. "Look, you and I both know that no one back home gives a damn what I do. I'm not part of your perfect little pure-blood family anymore, remember? So you can take your pathetic attempts at intimidation and-"

"Do you honestly think the family isn't outraged at the thought of what you're doing?" Regulus asked. "Did you really expect us to just look the other way because Mother removed you from the family tree? That's still Black blood in your veins and the thought of you polluting it with that, that thing turns our stomachs. Andromeda was bad enough, but this ... well, let's just say Bella cannot wait for the opportune moment to ensure you don't destroy our good name."

Sirius glared at his younger brother, who continued to be the picture of cold detachment. "Is that a threat?"

"More like an observation." Regulus calmly rose from his seat. "I just wanted to let you know that we know. You can do anything you want with that knowledge."

-...-

"James!" Sirius slammed open the side door to the Potters small home. When he didn't get an immediate response, he shouted again. "James!"

"What the hell?" James appeared a moment later, his hair looking more tousled than usual and his shirt partially unbuttoned. His eyes narrowed into a death glare. "This had better be important."

"Of course it is, dear," Lily remarked from somewhere in the next room. "He didn't call you 'Prongs.'" She stepped around James a moment later, looking only slightly less disheveled than her husband. With some resignation, she crossed to the stove. "You two go talk. I'll get some tea started."

Ordinarily, he would have made some sort of inappropriate remark about the time of day and the activities he'd clearly interrupted. Of course, ordinarily he wouldn't be dropping by to tell them that his little brother had just threatened to murder his girlfriend. Ignoring Lily's suggestion that they move the conversation elsewhere, Sirius took a seat at the Potters' kitchen table. "We have a serious problem."

James leaned against the counter and ran a hand through his hair, trying to get it to lay flat. It was an exercise in futility. "And by 'serious problem' you mean ...?"

"Regulus just cornered me at lunch and threatened Catherine." Sirius told him.

Lily froze, her hand hovering above the teapot, while James shot him a surprised look. "What?"

"Yeah. He said Bellatrix is planning to come after her." Sirius dropped his head into his hands, suddenly feeling the weight of the afternoon. "I mean, I guess she's planning to come after me, as well, but, well, it's different. In a fight, I can take Bellatrix. What can Catherine do? Hell, she doesn't even know magic exists, let alone what to do if someone comes after her with a killing curse."

"Uh," James cleared his throat, "Padfoot, um, you mean you haven't told her yet that you're, well, you know?" He waved a hand through the air as if holding an invisible wand.

Sirius watched him in silence for a moment, then offered, "Not exactly."

"And by 'not exactly,'" James translated, "You mean 'no.'"

"It's complicated," he said. Seeing James and Lily exchange a look, he charged ahead. "Look, I don't want to argue about that right now. I still haven't told you the worst part, yet."

"If your family really is plotting to murder your girlfriend," James pushed himself away from the counter, "How can it get worse?"

"Oh, I don't know, the fact that no one but us, Peter, and Remus know that I'm involved with Catherine." He'd had a lot of time to think between leaving the cafe, and arriving at the Potters, and during that time it had become painfully obvious that things just did not add up. When he'd finally put his finger on what he'd been missing, he wished he hadn't. But it was what it was - no one knew he was dating anyone (let alone the identity of the girl-in-question), except James, Lily, Peter, and Remus. So how did Regulus and the rest of the family find out?

"You can't possibly think -" James began.

"I can and I do," Sirius snapped at him.

"Look," Lily interrupted them, "Let's be logical here. Over the past eight months, you've gone on numerous dates in very public places. Anyone could have seen you snogging Catherine on a multitude of occasions and reported back to your family. It's not like the two of you were trying to sneak around. And that makes much more sense than thinking one of us ran off to the nearest Death Eater to pass along information about your love life. For one, I can't imagine anyone doing something like that, and secondly, Sirius, despite what you think, you're just not that important to you-know-who."

James sighed. "Look, mate, I know it's creepy, but Lily's right. That makes a lot more sense than thinking one of us turned traitor. Where did you ever get an idea like that, anyway?"

"There's been...talk." Sirius mumbled. Last month at an Order meeting, he'd gotten some strange looks and had shrugged them off; at least until Fabian Prewett pulled him aside and told him there were rumors that the Order had been compromised and that his name was among the leading candidates for the mole. "I think it's just another one of you-know-who's tricks," Fabian had told him, "What better way to defeat us than to have us all turn against each other? The way this is going, you'll probably hear rumors about Dumbledore next." While he wanted to believe Fabian, he couldn't quite shake the well-known fact that every rumor starts with a grain of truth.

Lily and James exchanged another look. "You do realize that there was a rumor that I was having an affair with a Death Eater, don't you? Because I was friends with Severus Snape years ago?" Lily finally offered. "It was right after the wedding. And I've heard one about you being a spy because your family supports you-know-who's views, and a similar one about Remus, probably because a lot of werewolves are siding with the Death Eaters. It's all rubbish. I expect next month, there'll be one flying around about James or Peter. Just watch. It's how he operates. People are a lot easier to conquer when they can't trust each other long enough to put up a united front."

"That's what Fabian said," Sirius said.

"The bigger question," Lily continued, "Is why did Regulus warn you?"

James shot her a surprised look while Sirius asked, "What?"

"Well, if I was going to kill someone, I certainly wouldn't go tell my victim's lover of my plans." Lily shivered, "They're setting you up for something, Sirius. Don't play into it."

"You make it sound like I'm going to run off and do something rash," he protested.

James cleared his throat. "Padfoot, you don't exactly have a reputation for being the most, er -"

"You rush into things head first without thinking about the consequences," Lily supplied.

"I was going to say 'composed.'" James shot Lily a dirty look before turning to Sirius. "But Lily's right. They're expecting you to do something headstrong and stupid and get yourself killed - or worse."

"I'm not going to do something stupid, but I'm also not just going to sit back and wait for Bellatrix to try something," Sirius growled.

"We don't have to sit back and wait," James said. "We just need to be smart about what we do. Bellatrix and Regulus have never really shown any imagination. We can beat them at this, but we have to do it by out-thinking them." He paused, "Sirius, you're not going to like this, but the first task is going to have to be telling Catherine who you really are."

"You're right." Sirius crossed his arms and glared at the table. "I hate this already."