A/N: So I'm doing it… I'm going to write a Harry Potter fanfiction… If I get my facts wrong at all, tell me. As much as I love this series, I'm surprised I didn't write one sooner… If this stuff doesn't correspond with the book, tell me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sirius, nor his mother, but several characters I made myself.

Prologue

His lips collided with hers as they headed through a door, her legs around his waist. They fell onto a chintz sofa and she paused for a moment. "Where are we, Sirius?"

"It doesn't matter," he responded, and they began to kiss, stopping only as he unbuttoned his shirt, his hands sliding around her waist as she sat nearly on top of him. Suddenly a burst of green flame lit the hearth, but she gave no sign of noticing it. Sirius stopped kissing her neck and looked up. "Oh damn," he exclaimed.

"What?" she asked, looking at him, a little surprised.

"You need to go," Sirius said, his voice wobbling. He had gone very pale. "You need to go now."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Get up," he snapped, his voice suddenly hard. He stood up, and she fell off him onto the carpet.

"Is this what you do to girls, Sirius? Take them to have some fun and break up with them? I can see why no girl ever stays around you!" she yelled. Her eyes were full of angry tears.

"No, Nemesis, I really like you-"

"Go to hell, Sirius," Nemesis snapped, and she made a very rude hand gesture before she slammed the door.

He sat back down on the sofa with a sigh before turning to the fire. "What do you want?" he growled at the face there.

It was a woman, her face greatly resembling Sirius's. "What? A mum can't drop in and see her beloved son?"

"Go away, Mum."

"Oh, I don't want to do that, honey. I want to see how my son is doing on his very last day at Hogwarts!" She cackled as she said it.

"Well, you see me, Mum, and you see how I am. Now go, or I'll leave the room."

"Honey, the Floo network is quite stable and reliable at the moment. I have no reason-none at all-to leave until you tell me how you're doing." She seemed to smile, but it looked more like a grimace to Sirius.

"I'm doing swell. Just fabulous," he answered mockingly.

"Well, that is a relief," she said sarcastically. "I'm just so glad I get to see my two sons tomorrow when they get off the Hogwarts Express."

"Well Mum, you might see me and Regulus, but I'm not going with you," Sirius retorted. "I'm going with James and Remus and Peter. I don't want to go see that-that house-well, nothing short of hell, really-again as long as I live!"

"Well that is a pity!" she scoffed. "I'm afraid Kreacher has been quite sad now that you're gone. He has been ever since you left, what, two years ago? Three?"

"Yes, well, send him my best regards," Sirius said rather impatiently. His handsome face was now marred by a scowl as he surveyed his mother. "Yes, why don't you give him my socks so he can get out of the damn house."

"That's no way to talk to your mum!" she chided.

"Why are you here?" Sirius demanded. "Don't tell me it's to see me. You hate Dumbledore and anything that has to do with him. Including Hogwarts."

"Well yes, that is true," she said, her eyes glittering coldly as she gazed around the room. "I assumed that since this was your last day attending Hogwarts ever you would find some way to make it fun." She looked at her son disdainfully. "Yes, I heard all about how you're popular with the girls here from Elda and Fortuna-they say you have been since your first year, and your professors say how you're just a great student, acing all of your classes! Tell me, how many N.E.W.T.s did you get this year?"

He suddenly looked very uncomfortable, and his fingers drummed on the sofa. "Mum, the results aren't in yet."

"And how many O.W.L.s did you get your fifth year?"

"Nine," he admitted, and he suddenly became very interested in a piece of fuzz on the sofa. "Remus had eleven."

"Oh yes, yes, thanks for reminding me. Astronomy, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Divination, Muggle Studies, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts. I suppose your N.E.W.T. results will be mailed to me? And you may want them to apply for Auror." As she said this, her forehead creased as she gave him a loathing look. "You could do much better, you know, and maybe become the Junior Minister of Magic-"

"Yes, Mum, well that doesn't much appeal to me. This is my life, not yours."

"I never knew I would raise such a fool!" she griped. "Why couldn't you be more like Elda or Fortuna or Janus or Regulus? You're too much like Ceres!"

"What?" he retorted, standing up. This was not much of a defensive move, as she was nothing more than a head floating in the fire. "That's all I hear now. Ceres is the best of us! She's smart enough to see you're no good for us! Be like Elda, and get away with killing her best friend's husband-"

"He was a Mudblood!"

Sirius went on, storming around the room angrily. "Be like Fortuna, you tell me, and lock up innocent witches and wizards for nothing!"

"Mudbloods, disobeying the Ministry of Magic when all they did was protect them!" she hissed.

He went on, ignoring the interruption. Or maybe he did not even try to hear her. "And be like Janus! Be like him!" He began mimicking her. "'Yes, Janus, what you need to do is marry her, even if she's an evil hag who didn't do you any good! Marry her, Janus, marry the bitch! She's inherited so much money, Janus, it'll do you good! Marry her; at least she's Pure-Blood!' I'm sick of it, Mum!" He sank back down onto the sofa. His face was still white, but his ears were red and his blood pressure had to be, most certainly, through the roof. "Regulus is a fool! He goes down the halls casting spells on everyone, and he's only in his third year! He'll be expelled by his seventh year, I guarantee it!"

"And what are you going to do while you're waiting to apply?" his mother ridiculed. "Mooch off me? Most certainly not! You'll get nary a penny off me! Even when I die, oh, you'll be sorry then, you traitor! On the day I die you'll see your sisters and brothers and wish you had listened to me!"

"That'll be the day," Sirius said, laughing harshly. "The day you die, Mum, will be the best day of my life!"

At this she grew very flustered. "You," she hissed through gritted teeth, "are the worst son I could ever even imagine having!"

"That's quite good to hear," he riposted viciously. "A nice compliment, really!"

There was a long pause. Sirius began to think she had left to go back to enjoy her own house, but he could have no such luck. Her head was still there. Then, in a voice as sweet as honey, she said, "And that girl… Nemesis was her name?"

Sirius's face hardened. "Leave her out of it."

"Nemesis," she mused aloud. "Yes, Nemesis Ortaggio. I remember her parents. Yes, I remember her mum. Cried for her dear mercy when we sent her to Azkaban. Oh, the court was cheerful that day. Poor woman. What a shame. And that father… Executed, wasn't it? Broke his wand and poured out the phoenix tears in the center. Then the Dementors kissed him. Oh, that was a day. Quite the peak of the Ministry, wasn't it?"

"Mum," he whispered. His voice was dangerously soft, and he looked as if he were moments away from blowing his top. "Mum, really-"

"Oh, she doesn't seem to like you much now, does she, Sirius?" she intruded quietly. "I don't see how it matters much."

"Mum."

"What? I thought I'd do you a little favor. I'm sure Fortuna can get some blood on anybody. Yes, it would be very easy. Or I could arrange an accident."

"Mum, you wouldn't!"

She gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh, you can't really have fallen for her. Why, she's not really Pure. Her parents were Mudbloods, makes her just as bad as them-"

Sirius rose to his feet. He was now shaking with rage, his face very red now. His hands were clutched in fists at his side. "Leave her out of it!"

"Oh, I will," she said casually. "Oh, I suppose if you want me to. As long as you follow my wishes. Don't be an Auror, become the Junior Minister of Magic. Marry someone Pure-Blood. Then I might leave her alone…"

"Mum," he said, desperation seeping into his voice. "Mum, I love her like you loved Dad. Well, maybe did a long time ago, before I was born, well no, as much as you love Elda and Fortuna and Janus and Regulus. If you lay one hand on her-"

"And why would I do that?" she asked in a shrill voice. "No, I have a wand; I can do more with it than my own hands!" She gave a high-pitched, manic laugh. "Oh yes, I'll show up at your wedding and yell Crucio just as you kiss her! See her suffer! Right before I kill her in front of you!"

"You won't! You'd go to Azkaban for the rest of your life!"

"Try me!" she cried. "Then we'll see if Regulus will make the same stupid mistakes that you did! It's just like Tom Riddle said, those Mudbloods are corrupting the Ministry!"

"You're just jealous I had something you never had!" Sirius snarled.

"Jealous? Jealous?!" she cackled. "No, I pity you!"

"Damn you to hell!" Sirius spat. "Go straight to hell and burn with whatever's left of Dad!"

As the last word came out of his mouth, the emerald fire flickered out, and he was in a dark, empty room.