Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter and/or the Marauders, do you really think I would waste it to writing fanfiction? So obviously I do not own anything but the story itself.
Sirius was lying in his bed, staring at the pictures on his wall, picturing motorcycles and women. Oh, how he missed his motorcycle. It was in safe storage at James' place, and it would've been murder to take it to Grimmauld Place – his parents would have destroyed it without a thought; their son on a muggle-transport! – but he couldn't help but miss it greatly. That motorcycle was the symbol of his freedom. So it was quite fitting that he didn't have it here. With his family such things like Freedom didn't exist. He had bought it during the Easter Holiday at James', it was love at first sight. But of course he hadn't been able to take it to Hogwarts, so it stayed at Potter Mansion.
He missed it nearly as much as he missed James, Remus and Peter. It had been a month since he last saw them, at the King's Cross train station when their 5th year at Hogwarts ended. Since then he had been locked into his room. Luckily all the bedrooms had their own bathrooms, or else he would probably not even been allowed to go. His parents had enchanted the windows so he couldn't even send letters. He was incredibly bored.
Taking out a cigarette – he had been smart enough to stash up before the summer – he put it in his mouth and used his wand to lighten it. Thanks Merlin his parents hadn't taken his wand to. And that the Ministry couldn't know it was he who used magic since this was a magical household.
Taking a few calming breaths (something he had to do more often now, he was beginning to get claustrophobic) he looked out the window. Outside he could see muggle children play at the street. Something he had never been allowed to do as a child. Godric, no. Firstly, a Black do not do something as uncivilized as playing in the dirt, and secondly, he was not to meet any muggles. The reason he was locked in was that Regulus had told their parents that he had been dating muggle-borns at school. If you used the term "dating" very loosely.
He was angry at his little brother. How could he betray him like that? He was the one who always had tried to protect Reggie, even after he got Sorted into Slytherin, and now he was their parents' personal Sirius-spy. Most likely there was a hundred other things Regulus had told them that got him locked in, without any contact with the world except Kreacher, that despicable House elf, and what he could see from his window. And, which his parents didn't know about, his two-way-mirror which James had the other half. But today James was away with his parents doing something, so he had no one to talk to at all.
Sighing he got up from his bed and kneeled, taking a bottle out of his trunk. Luckily his parents hadn't thought about looking through it, so he had a lot of things there, including alcohol. Lifesavers was what it was. He opened a bottle of muggle whiskey, knowing his parents would go nutters if they knew he was drinking muggle drinks in their house and enjoying the thought, and lifted it to his mouth, swallowing big gulps.
After drinking half of it and smoking a bit more he felt better and less claustrophobic, even if he still would do nearly anything to get out of here.
His wish would be granted sooner than he thought was possible. The moment after he thought it a yell was heard:
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! GET DOWN HERE IMMEDIATELY!"
"Ah, Mother." Sirius sighed. "As pleasurable as always. COMING MOTHER!" the last words he raised his voice so his mother would hear him. Still with bottle in hand and cigarette in mouth he tried to open the door – she wouldn't call him down if he still was locked in, right? – and see, it opened! Sirius nearly wanted to scream in relief. Sure, his room was the only nice in the whole house (the other rooms were dark, green and filled with dark artefacts and heads of old house elves), but even if he liked his room (which was decorated with red and gold and pictures of motorcycles, women and his friends sat up with permanent sticking charms) he couldn't stand being in there any longer.
Taking in a deep breath of fresh air he stepped out of his prison and felt relieved, even if the only reason he was let out probably was that his parents would scream at him more. He gave the House elf-heads on the wall a disgusted gaze when he walked downstairs but quickly got on other thoughts when he saw his mother and brother.
Regulus stood behind Walburga, looking worried, meanwhile Mrs Black looked very satisfied, which was very worryingly. Whatever made her happy couldn't be good.
"Ah, Sirius." She said calmly, with voice that sounded nearly affectionate. He didn't believe it for a second, of course. It had been years since they lost their last affection to each other.
"What do you want, Mother?" Sirius snapped. He wasn't in mood for games and wanted to get to the subject as quickly as possible. Mrs Black smiled pleasantly, which worried him even more, before waving him down so he stood in front of her. Just to make sure Sirius checked so he had his wand in his back pocket, and there it was.
"Regulus told me something… interesting about your friend Remus Lupin." She said. Sirius' eyes widened and he cast Regulus a glance. Regulus didn't look at him, too busy with looking at his shoes.
"I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, son…" son? He couldn't remember the last time he had been called that. Sirius bit his lip, trying to hide his worry, and took a deep breath through the cigarette to calm down. It didn't work. "…but Regulus told me that… that filthy halfblood isn't only a halfblood, but a half-breed. He's a werewolf."
Sirius' eyes widened and he stared at Mrs Black who looked so triumphant to his little brother. Regulus. His eyes narrowed when he stared at Regulus who squirmed uncomfortably.
"You promised Remus not to tell anyone! You promised me, you traitor." He hissed with voice so filled with hurt and disgust that it almost seemed to hurt Regulus physically. Not that he cared. He had trusted Regulus, he had promised not to tell anyone when he figured it out, and now he told Mother. The worst person possible. It had been better if he had walked right to the Minister of Magic himself!
Mrs Black stared at her older son with surprise in her eyes.
"You knew?" she asked before she could stop herself, for once. Sirius stared at her with her with eyes filled with hatred.
"Of course I knew! I'm not stupid, you know. I've known since second year!"
She stared at him, shocked, before her surprise turned into anger and her eyes glimmered with rage. Before he could react a hand hit his cheek and in the surprise he dropped the bottle of whiskey he still had in his hand.
"You disgrace." She hissed before beginning to scream. "Not only you goes around with bloodtraitors and halfbloods, but werewolves, and you knew it! How dare you socialize with disgusting half-breeds?! Are you a Black or not?!"
Sirius' temper had always been bad, and he couldn't stop himself from explode.
"I'm a disgrace? I'm not the one who runs around and in public admits that I want to kill every muggle-born out there!" he yelled back. "And if I could choose I would not be a Black! But apparently whatever gods there is in this world hates me and decided to make me suffer by being born into this god forgotten family filled with blood-purists and traitors." When he said that last word he looked straight at Regulus who swallowed and stared stubbornly at a point behind Sirius.
"How dare you!?" Mrs Black screamed back, absolutely vivid. "You sordid bloodtraitor! How dare you soil the Black name like that? You're even worse than that horrible cousin of yours!"
"Do you mean Andromeda? Good! I'm happy to be a bigger disgrace than her! Did you know she and that muggleborn husband of hers got a daughter? She's a metamorphmagus, and I bet they're happier than you ever was over me or Regulus! What to do with a fancy name when your heart is as cold as yours anyway?! You burnt her of the family tree just because she married for love and not status!"
Suddenly Orion Black stormed into the room with dragged wand, staring at them, furious about being interrupted in his studies. He looked straight at Sirius, who couldn't help but cringe. He was used to his mother, but his father's punishments was always so much worse. But he would not back down now, even if it killed him.
"What is going on here?!" Mr Black asked angrily. Mrs Black looked at him.
"Ask that bloodtraitor to son!" she said, slightly calmer now when her husband was in the room. "He knew that halfblood friend of his is a werewolf! And he has stomach to tell us that we're the disgrace of the family!"
"What the…" Mr Black didn't even end the sentence. He raised his wand toward Sirius and the last thing Sirius heard was Regulus screaming "Father! No!" before his father's cold voice said:
"Crucio." And an overwhelming pain hit him.
He fell to the floor, trying the hardest he could not to scream but after a few moments the pain was too much and he let out a horrible scream of pain. It felt like white-hot knives cut his whole body everywhere on the same time, the pain was so pure so it was almost excruciating.
In the background of his mind he could her Regulus' screams but it wasn't anything he could catch. The pain was all that existed. When he screamed again the pain let go for a moment and he nearly sobbed in relief but succeeded to stop himself in last moment. He couldn't stop the screams, but he would not show any other proof of his weakness.
"Crucio." was heard once again and the pain came back. It felt like he was being driven over by a thousand of those muggle trucks in the same time as he was hit by lightning.
It was unspeakably. The pain was so immense so he thought he might go insane. He wanted to scream, to beg his parents to stop and promise to do whatever they wanted, but he refused them such satisfaction. Rather would he die or go insane enough for St. Mungo's than give them that. That way he would at least get out of here.
When the pain stopped once again he took a deep breath, desperately trying to catch enough air to the room to stop spin. When he finally succeeded the first thing he saw was Regulus horrified face before his parents' grinning faces turned up.
"Imperio." He heard and suddenly he felt how he stood up, despite the terrible pain, and followed his parents into the room with the family tapestry. He felt a dreading feeling in his stomach, quite sure of what was waiting.
When they came in there Mr Black let go of Sirius with the Imperius Curse but still forced Sirius to look when Walburga took out her wand and with it and a triumphant face burned his face of the tapestry, before they swept out from the room with heads held high and not even looking at him.
Sirius didn't know why it hurt so much. He knew it was coming, it was what he had been trying to do the last five years, getting disowned, and he hated his parents. But still it hurt so much, seeing his visage burnt of the family tree, which held every Black since the Middle Age.
A soft sob escaped him before he could stop himself. He couldn't stand up, the pain was too big for him to be able to do it. He had to get out of here, but he didn't knew how he would ever be able to get up from the floor. Suddenly he felt arms wrapped around him. The one who hugged him shook by sobs.
"I-I'm so sorry, Siri. They-they made me." Regulus sobbed. "I couldn't say no. I'm not strong as you. I just want them to be proud of me."
Sirius felt all his anger towards his little brother disappear and he hugged back, wanting to cry but refusing.
"I know." He conceded. "I can't understand why, but I know. I forgive you Regulus, but don't let them tell anyone, please." Sirius didn't knew if he begged, asked or demanded, but Regulus seemed to understand.
"I promise. This time I won't disappoint you. Come, you need to get out of here. You can't stay here anymore." Regulus' voice seemed stronger now, by some reason. He took out his wand and healed some of the physical injuries Sirius had caused himself under the curse.
Sirius wondered if this was how the transformation felt for Remus, and if it was it really was horrible, but he didn't have time to think more of that. Regulus helped him to stand up and after checking so no one was out there he helped Sirius upstairs. When they had reached Sirius' scarlet and gold bedroom they both fell to the floor, exhausted.
Both of them rested for a moment before Sirius was strong enough to stand by himself. He hurried to drag out his trunk from underneath his bed and put down the few things he had taken up from it before turning to his brother who stared at him with big sad eyes filled with remorse.
"Come with me." He said softly, knowing what the answer should be, but he had to try. Just as he had known he should do Regulus shook his head.
"I can't." Sirius had known, by some reason his brother really loved their parents and wanted desperately to make them proud. That was the reason they mostly avoided each other at school and Regulus had agreed to spy for their parents, and probably the reason that Regulus hang with all those future Death Eaters – Snape, Avery, Mulciber, earlier Malfoy before he graduated and so on – since Sirius couldn't come up with any reason someone should want to talk to them more than necessary by some other reason. "Take your broom, go to Potter's or something. I'll try to stop Mother and Father from realizing you're gone as soon as possible."
Sirius stared at him.
"I thought you hated James." He said surprised. Regulus nodded.
"I do. Do you have any idea how painful it is to hear you call each other brothers? You're my brother. But I know you loves him, and that he will take you in and protect you. If his parents are like him you'll be safe there."
Sirius felt tears in his eyes again, this time of sadness and even love. He dropped his trunk and took two quick steps forwards before hugging Regulus closely.
"I love you Reggie. Never forget that."
Regulus couldn't help but let a tear escape when he heard the old nickname. Sirius hadn't called him by that for years, when he thought Regulus betrayed him for their parents. But he had never let anyone else call him that. No one but Sirius was allowed to call him Reggie. He hugged back violently.
"I love you too, Siri." After a moment he let go of his older brother. "Now go, before they realizes you're gone."
Sirius nodded and Regulus, who had the counter-spell by some reason, opened the window and Sirius took his Nimbus 1500, the last model of Nimbus, and climbed outside. Regulus helped him to get out the trunk before closing the window and putting back the locking spell. Sirius waved and stole one last look at his little brother without no one there so they had to act like they hated each other, and his room. Hopefully he would never return, but he couldn't help but feel like he would miss the room that had been his only sanctuary every summer and a few Christmases since he was 11, and always before then. With a sigh he turned away when he saw Regulus wave back and leave and Sirius ignored the pain that was still very big and flew the fastest he could towards Potter Mansion.
To be continued...
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