AN: Happy Harry Potter Day! Next chapter coming soon!
It hadn't even been two years since Sirius had left Grimmauld Place, but coming back to it now felt strangely foreign, like he had never lived there at all. He had put it so completely out of his mind that the Islington street he'd called home for 16 years seemed like something out of someone else's life. He knew it probably wasn't healthy that he was already so detached from his fairly recent past, but he would deal with that when he could. There were more important things now than confronting his demons, no matter how many there were.
He slowed his motorbike to a stop when he reached Number 13 and pulled off his helmet, shaking out his hair until it fell freely to his chin again. He leaned against his bike and waited for a while, and was about to pull out his watch to see just how late his brother was when the houses behind him began to rumble and move. Number 12 pushed out from its enchantments and displayed itself proudly, the jet black bricks of the front wall standing out from the faded grey of the rest of the street. Sirius glanced at the windows of the other houses, some of them still with lights on inside, and just like so many times before marveled at how much Muggles never saw or understood. No wonder so many wizards have such a superiority complex, he thought as the door to his old home eased open silently in front of him.
Regulus didn't look any different from when Sirius had last seen him from afar at school, his impeccably combed hair and traditionalist robes looking a little presumptuous on his slight pale frame. When his brother got closer, the dark circles under his eyes became more obvious, and Sirius could see that the younger Black almost looked afraid. "What do you want, Sirius?" he asked.
"Hi," he replied, forcing himself to smile and act as confident as possible. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," the boy said, looking at him cautiously.
"Did you get your OWLs back yet?" he asked, searching for something to say.
"No," Regulus said flatly. "Why are you here, Sirius?"
He gave up then and sighed. "Reg, I just wanted to- I've been hearing things…"
"What things?"
"Things about you," Sirius said, and hesitated before adding, "And Mum and Dad."
"Why do you care what we do anymore?" he asked him, frowning. "They aren't your parents anymore, you made that clear."
"They're the ones who burned me off the tree," Sirius said. "But you're still my brother. I'm worried about you."
"Why are you worried about me?" he asked. "I'm not the one who's fucking homeless."
"I'm not homeless," Sirius said, more forcefully than he had meant to, and Regulus did look a little startled. He tried to calm down and said more quietly, "The people Mum and Dad are talking to, Reg, giving gold to- they're not just purists, they're dangerous."
"You think Rosier's dangerous? Wilkes? They're my friends, Sirius."
"I think their parents are dangerous. I think they will be soon too," he said, and his brother looked at him, exasperated.
"They're not dangerous. All they're saying is that we shouldn't be pretending we're not different from Muggles. You just don't like anyone you don't agree with. Or anything. Mum's right, you just want to watch things burn. I expect you were happy when Andi married that Muggle."
Sirius couldn't help but smile. "You have to admire her a little for that."
Regulus blinked. "No. I don't. It was stupid and it's wrong. She ruined her daughter's life."
"Only if you lot get your way," he muttered. "And don't talk about Dora. Have you ever even met her?"
"Whatever, Sirius, it doesn't matter," Regulus said. "The point is you don't have to try to protect me. I can take care of myself."
"You're 15, Reg," Sirius said. "You have to think for yourself."
"I am thinking for myself," he said hotly. "Your problem is you think if anyone thinks for themselves they'll come to the same conclusion you do."
He wasn't getting anywhere and he knew it. Regulus looked more determined than he ever had. He looked sickly, but then he always had, although Sirius still felt like something was different. He tried one more time and said, "Reg. I'm sorry. I just want you to know that if you ever need anything, I'll always be here. You can stay with Remus and I if you need to."
Regulus's eyes narrowed. "Yeah. Your friend Remus. No thank you," he spat.
Sirius felt his face getting hot and he said, "How many ways are you going to be a bigot, little brother?"
"Don't call me that," he muttered. "I thought you were living with the Potters anyway."
"I'm here in London now," he said.
"A job?"
"Not really."
Regulus's eyes widened. "You're in with Dumbledore now, aren't you? Those fanatics?"
"Takes one to know one, Reg."
"I'm no fanatic," he said darkly.
"Yeah? Let me see your arm, mate." Like a reflex, his brother jerked his left arm away, and Sirius nodded slowly. "Right."
"Good night, Sirius," Regulus said, and the younger Black brother turned around without another word and went back inside the house. As soon as the door was shut, the walls shifted inward again until Number 12 had disappeared again. Sirius swore to himself and jumped back on the motorbike, revving the engine as loudly as he could and hoping it would wake up his parents. He took off into the night, racing through London back to his flat as quickly as he could and trying not to get too angry before he came home.
When he parked his bike outside, he could hear muffled noise coming from inside and smiled to himself as he fumbled with his keys. Of course they were here. When he opened the door, the noise spilled out at full volume, a record blaring from the corner and several shouting, laughing voices. He rounded the corner out of the hallway and into the sitting room where he was met with a chorus of loud hellos. "Padfoot, where've you been?" James Potter called out from his seat at the end of the sofa, with Lily Evans at his side.
"Out," he said, shrugging and smiling at his best friend. "What you're doing in my flat is the real question."
"Moony let us in," James said. "Not that he needs to. You two need to magically lock your door."
"We've been mostly thinking none of you would break in," Remus Lupin said from his spot on the other sofa. "But maybe that was too optimistic."
The others laughed at that: Peter Pettigrew, at the other end of the sofa where James and Lily were sitting, and his girlfriend Mary leaning up against the armrest; Marlene McKinnon, on the sofa with Remus; and Alice MacMillan, who Sirius almost didn't recognize with her brand new spiked short hair and was sitting in the middle of the floor wearing Remus's jacket. He squinted a little at that and crossed the room, falling onto the sofa between Remus and Marlene.
"Really, mate, it's after midnight. Were you out without us?" Peter asked.
"I went to see Regulus," he admitted, and the room sobered instantly.
"Is he okay?" Alice asked.
"No, but he says he is," Sirius told them. "He thinks he's in the right. Would barely look at me. It was bad."
"I'm sorry, Sirius, that's awful," Remus said quietly, and held his gaze until Sirius turned away. A little too long in front of the others, he thought, blush starting to creep up the back of his neck to his ears.
"You'll always have us, mate," James said. "Marauders forever, you know that."
Lily rolled her eyes. "We aren't in school anymore, could you stop that?"
"What part of forever is unclear, Evans?" he asked, and she let out a long-suffering sigh. "Anyway, we're heading over to see Minnie and Albus tomorrow, you're all coming."
"Don't call them that," Remus said, rolling his eyes, "come on, James."
"They're not our professors anymore, Moony, relax."
"It's not that, it's just uncomfortable. He's still bloody 100 years old."
James was starting to laugh when they were all interrupted by a loud two knocks on the door. Sirius glanced at Remus before getting up to open it just slightly enough to see who was outside. He recognized Frank Longbottom and frowned, opening the door for the young Auror who looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Frank?"
"Let me in," he said, his voice hollow, and Sirius did, still confused. He had a fleeting moment of regret that the (rather dull) former schoolmate of theirs was about to see them all hanging out without him, but it didn't seem like the time. He didn't think so either. Alice stood right up when he entered the room and Frank's gaze lingered on her for just long enough for Sirius to notice before he looked at the room at large and said, "You all should come to Covent Garden now."
"What's going on?" Lily asked, standing up first, and James was right behind her.
"It's… it's Fawley, he's missing and his house is just…" Frank took a deep breath as Marlene sprang to her feet, shocked. Sirius knew they'd been friends, two very unpopular Slytherins, and felt for her as Frank said, "It's bad. Dumbledore wants everyone tonight. We found some kind of, dunno, symbol above the house, it looks like those tattoos they've all got."
"We'll be there as soon as we can," James said, nodding at him.
Frank looked around as if he was trying to remember something, then asked absently, "Can I Apparate in here?"
Sirius nodded and he was gone the next second. Marlene followed him without another word and Mary and Peter got up to run to the fireplace and use the Floo network. James and Lily moved away from the couch and went over to Alice, who was still looking at the place where Frank had disappeared.
"I've never seen him like that," Alice said, shaking her head. "He's always so… steady."
"You don't have to go," James said. "I know you and Benjy are friends, too, if it's too much you can stay here, I'm sure they don't mind."
"No, he needs me, I should go," Alice said. "And anyway, I've got more Auror training under my belt than any of you." She shrugged off Remus's jacket and handed it back to him, smiling before she left too.
James looked at Sirius and said, "Mate, I don't think your brother had anything to do with this. But he needs to understand that the people he's with, they did."
"That's what I tried to tell him," he said. "I just don't know how to talk to him anymore."
"Maybe you can't," James said, looking more grim than Sirius had seen him in a while. "It's getting so bad now. You have to pick a side. If he's picked his, then that's done."
"I know," Sirius said quietly, and James clapped a hand on his shoulder before he and Lily Disapparated as well. As soon as they were alone, Sirius felt someone rushing towards him and then Remus's arms were around him and his nose was buried in the crook of his neck and he felt like he could breathe for the first time since he'd gotten to Grimmauld Place that night.
"Are you okay?" he was asking him, and Sirius nodded slowly, but he continued, "I'm so sorry about Reg."
"It's okay," Sirius said, "it was a long shot anyway." He pulled away from him and said, "We have to go. Put down the communal jacket," he added with just the right amount of passive aggressive tone for Remus to raise an eyebrow.
"Are we going to do this now? She was cold."
"Yeah," he said, and Remus grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him in for a kiss that lasted not nearly long enough.
"Come on, Sirius, Dumbledore needs us." Sirius shook his head and tried not to smile despite himself as Remus tried to make their Side-Along Apparition look as platonic as possible. When they arrived at the safehouse location in Covent Garden, though, he didn't need to try to be serious. The street was deserted apart from Ministry officials and the members of Dumbledore's new organization, themselves included, and the house they were standing in front of was what could only be described as completely demolished. But that wasn't the worst part. When Remus nudged him to look up, Sirius was rendered speechless by what he saw: a dark, cloudy snake winding its way through a skull, the macabre lights stretching ominously above them into the night sky.