A/N: Apparently it wasn't blatantly obvious to some friends I had test reading this, but in my story Madam Rosmerta is good friends with Sirius (and James). In PoA, she knew a lot about them and their group, and even mentioned how the two of them made her laugh and what she thought of Sirius's character. She knew a lot about the two of them in general, but it's proven that she knew a lot about Sirius in specific. I figured she must have had some kind of relationship outside of the barmaid-client one with them, because she's been working there for at least somewhere around twenty years if she knew James and Sirius. Working there that long, with every student from third year and up coming regularly (plus other clients), two students with no current claim to fame other than being troublemakers wouldn't stand out from the rest of the crowd if she didn't know them personally. As for her age, I'd like to think she isn't that old. Even if she might be to the Golden Trio, I'd say most teenagers think their parents' age group is old anyways. In my story there is an age difference between the Marauders and Madam Rosmerta (I mean she did have time to open the Three Broomsticks already), but it isn't a large one. Anyways, wizards live a significantly longer time than muggles, so age differences shouldn't be as big of a deal between friends.
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Chapter Two
Sirius rolled from his position sprawled out on his stomach to lie on his back. His eyes shot open immediately as sunlight hit him right in the face. He groaned as he fully awoke and felt how much his whole body ached. A sigh came from beside him and he shot into a sitting position. Which was a mistake.
"Oh, shit!" he groaned. He felt like his forehead had been attacked with a muggle jackhammer. He held his head in his hands for a long while, before he remembered the reason he'd sat up in the first place.
He turned his head slowly to look at the person lying in the bed next to him. Who was she, and where was he anyway? He untangled himself from the sheets, trying his best not to wake the woman, and practically fell out of bed. As Sirius fumbled around the room, tugging on his trousers and searching for his wand, the girl on the bed mumbled something. He tensed and spun around, wincing as his head throbbed in protest of the fast movement, and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that she was still asleep.
He recognized the room now that he'd taken the time to look at it. The Three Broomsticks, of course, he should have known immediately. Even though he now recalled bits and pieces of the night before he really had no desire to deal with an emotional female right now. And this one was pretty damn emotional from what he could remember from last night. He was too busy fucking up his own life to have to worry about how someone he didn't even know felt.
He was ready to leave after he located the rest of his clothes at various positions around the room. He sighed and brought on magical energy to summon his wand, which he hadn't been able to find. He really didn't need it if he was honest with himself, but he didn't want to draw unwanted attention to that fact. Besides, he loved that wand. Only when it was safely in his pocket did he leave the room.
The restaurant downstairs was empty except for Madam Rosmerta, who was cleaning the bar. She looked up when the last stair creaked, and frowned when she saw Sirius. "You owe me forty-seven galleons," she informed him coolly.
He raised an eyebrow, "Gave me the expensive liquor, did you?" he asked humorously, "I guess you couldn't get many other people to pay so much for it. Or risk drinking it for that matter." He dug a bag out of an inner pocket in his robes and laid it on the bar, "There are a hundred there."
Her head snapped up to look at him, "I can't take that much!" she protested vehemently.
"Think of it as monetary compensation for having to put up with me yesterday," he grinned at her, feeling in a much better mood than he'd been in for a while.
She turned her gaze away from him, "Then I'll accept it. I did have to listen to you most of the night."
He frowned. But he'd barely talked to her last night! It took him a few seconds to realize what she meant, "Oh! Um, sorry?" she at least turned to look at him when he said that. "So, most of the night, huh? Too bad I can't remember much of it. It must have been one hell of a good time."
"I can't believe you, Sirius Black!" she yelled, throwing the rag she was using to clean at him. Well, that wasn't the reaction he'd expected. He wondered what was wrong with her, they'd joked around about worse things before. She was yelling again, "You were in such a state last night that you couldn't even hold a decent conversation, and now you're joking around like nothing was ever wrong with you!"
His head tilted to the side as a studied her. Finally, he said, "Don't start thinking that there's something to worry about, Rosie." The last thing he needed was for people to start getting suspicious of him. As much as he liked Rosmerta, she was a horrible gossip.
She let out a sound of frustration, "We were good friends and now you won't even admit when there was something wrong!"
"It's none of your business!" she was inadvertently making his defenses kick in. He spun on his heel and headed for the door, not intending to give her a chance to set him off. If he lost control of his temper around Rosie she would definitely know that he was different.
When he was almost to the door the locks and wards suddenly went up, blocking his way."You are going to tell me what's wrong with you before you leave, Sirius!" she informed him.
That was the last straw for Sirius. It didn't matter what kind of good intentions she had behind her actions. She had given him an order, and more significantly, she had attempted to confine him somewhere he didn't want to be. He spun around, and she gasped, her eyes growing wide and her mouth hanging partly opened. His normally lively dark gray eyes had turned so dark she'd dare say that they were black, but what surprised her the most was how cold they were as he glared into her own eyes. Magical energy was crackling around him.
In a split second he was right in front of her. Surprised, she backed up and hit the bar. He leaned down, his face only inches from hers. His eyes looked even more dead this close up. His voice was cold, also, as he spoke low and menacingly, "You should have listened when I told you to forget it. If I wanted to tell you anything I would have done so already. I'm not going to tell you a fucking thing, and you will not keep me here or anywhere else."
She hadn't blinked since he'd leaned down closer to her, she just stared at him. She felt the energy emanating off of him in waves, then she felt it flare up. She finally tore her eyes from him as she heard glass shattering. Every glass and bottle in the whole place, it seemed, was in a million pieces on the floor. She also saw that the window panes had shattered. He backed away from her and spun on his heel again, walking determinedly for the door. It flew open as he neared it, allowing him to walk out. He was gone and hadn't even looked back once.
Well if she'd thought there was something wrong before, she knew it now. She grabbed her cloak on the way out the door, and headed for the school. She had to talk to Dumbledore. He'd know what to do.
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Sirius apparated outside of his flat, and quickly let himself in after taking down the various locking charms. He couldn't afford to take down his anti-apparation and many other protection wards. He could never be one hundred percent sure that he'd covered his tracks. So he just stuck with doing things the hard way instead of apparating right inside of his flat.
He felt horrible. Sirius admitted to himself that he'd completely overreacted in the Three Broomsticks. Rosmerta had only been trying to help him, and he knew it. When she'd attempted to contain him, he hadn't been able to stop himself from flying off the handle. He probably should have cleaned up her restaurant at the very least, but he knew he would never apologize for what he'd done regardless of how out of line it'd been. It wouldn't have happened if she'd taken a hint and left him alone. He'd just try to go about his day and forget about it.
As he walked into the kitchen, he glared at the remains of his late breakfast with the girl from the morning before, which was sitting on the kitchen table and accumulating flies. He quickly banished the food and sent a cleaning spell towards the dishes before he directed them into their cupboard. He moved to the pantry and scanned the shelves for something to eat. What was wrong with him that he always bought things that needed to be cooked? Why did he never have good old-fashioned junk food when he wanted it? He walked out of the pantry muttering curses to himself. He figured he might as well go out and eat an early lunch, so he headed for the bathroom to get ready.
As Sirius stepped out of the shower, he stopped to examine his body in the mirror. He would never admit it to anyone, but he was overly self-conscious about a scar on the left side of his abdomen. He'd been run through with a magical sword, and had been lucky to even survive it. If it had struck any organs he wouldn't have survived at all. The healers had been completely dumbfounded about how it had missed his organs in the first place. He suspected that he'd unconsciously used magic to protect himself, but he hadn't told anyone as much. As it was, they could do nothing for scars inflicted by magical blades, so he had an ugly scar. He hated that there was an imperfection on his body.
As his eyes moved away from the scar, he sighed at the rest of himself. He hardly recognized himself anymore. Not that he didn't look amazing, but he just wasn't himself. In school he'd been tanned and healthily fit. Now he was more pale, a side affect of becoming almost nocturnal. He had moved beyond the realm of fit since he had quit auror training to doing the jobs he did now. He often thought to himself that he looked more like a machine than a person. He looked like some sort of pale sculpture carved out of hard marble.
He'd already possessed a few tattoos before he'd been stabbed, but afterwards he'd added a ton more in an attempt to distract his mind from the ugly mark on his stomach. Since then it had become more of a way to personalize his body. He hardly remembered his body becoming the way it was, so he added art to it so he would always have something of his own. He admired the one that could be seen on his chest over his heart in the mirror. That one had hurt like a bitch, but he didn't regret it.
"What the hell are you doing in there? I've been waiting for twenty minutes," a voice came from the other side of the bathroom door.
Sirius opened the door, "What are you doing here, Moony?"
Remus was looking him up and down with surprise, "Well, you've done a lot since seventh year."
He'd forgotten that his friend hadn't seem him wearing so little since they were dorm mates. He generally had no reason to take anything off around his friends other than his shirt in the occasional Quidditch match, but Moony hated to fly and never joined them in their games. He looked down at himself. Moony had never seen the majority of these tattoos, and had certainly never seen him in such good shape. He'd always been toned and well-built, sure, but the serious muscles had only been acquired after graduation because he couldn't do what he did if he wasn't in this kind of shape. Well, not without running the risk of being caught because he didn't have any strength or stamina that is.
He shrugged, "Yeah, I have done a lot. So now that you've checked out my body, would you mind telling me what you're doing here?"
Sirius received a glare for the accusation that Remus had been checking him out. Werewolves not having a gender preference was something that Remus was touchy about, he insisted he felt no attraction for other males. "I'm here, Padfoot, because it's a full moon tonight," Moony informed him. The four Marauders always got together the day before the full moon.
Sirius's eyes widened, "Oh! I'm sorry, Moony, I completely forgot."
"Yes, that much was obvious," came the reply.
Sirius sent his friend an apologetic look, "I didn't even realize what day it was. I've had a lot on my mind. Just give me two minutes and I'll be ready." He crossed the hall into his bedroom to get dressed, not caring about his lack of clothing in front of his friend. They'd lived together for seven years, after all.
Remus's exasperated sigh followed him down the hall, "Do you just look for any excuse for people to see you naked?"
"I didn't ask you to check out my ass. You're doing it all on your own," that shut Remus up fairly quickly.
As Sirius closed his bedroom door behind him, Moony spoke again, "You know, Padfoot, Prongs was thinking of going to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. Said he hasn't seen Madam Rosmerta in ages. I think he just wants to brag about his kid to someone whom he hasn't burnt out on the subject yet." Sirius froze in the middle of putting on his shirt, and his vehement reply was muffled by the fabric. "What was that?" Remus inquired quizzically.
Sirius jerked his shirt down, "I don't think that's a good idea. I had a falling out with her, she wouldn't be happy to see me." His reply came out more calmly than he'd expected, since he'd had time to think better of blurting something out. Remus was too smart not to figure out that something was up if he did that.
"You mean with Madam Rosmerta?" Alright, so Moony had his airheaded moments.
Sirius emerged from his bedroom, "No, with a complete stranger down the street."
Remus picked up the sarcasm immediately, "Don't make fun of me! It's the full moon! It throws me off!"
"I thought it made your senses sharper?" Sirius raised an eyebrow at his friend.
"Now your just teasing me on purpose."
Sirius gasped dramatically, "My dear, Moony, I was teasing you on purpose the whole time! You can't honestly think it wasn't on purpose in the beginning? What an insult! I'm fatally wounded by your doubt." He clutched a hand over his heart and leaned against the wall.
Remus finally lost his resolve and laughed. "Come on, Sirius, we can tell Prongs and Wormtail all about you pissing off the lovely barmaid when we get there." They headed for the door to walk to an apparation point, Remus being adamant that they followed all the rules.
"You think she's lovely, do you?" Sirius asked, genuinely interested, as they walked down the deserted sidewalk. The two would make a good couple. Rosmerta talked a lot, and Remus listened a lot.
Sirius felt a magical disturbance. He turned and saw the curse heading for them just in time to cast a protective spell over them both. The curse bounced harmlessly off the shield without Remus even noticing. He couldn't see the caster, but knew who was behind it. Sirius cut off Remus in the middle of his stuttered reply about Rosmerta, "You go on, Moony. I just remembered something I need to take care of before I can go." At Remus's cross look, he quickly added, "I'll be there tonight, I promise." He made sure the protective spell was still around his friend, and disapparated without waiting for a reply.
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Sirius apparated into an isolated alley. Gone was his carefree attitude from just moments before. Without pausing he transfigured his clothes. He was now dressed in fairly tight black clothes. He looked down at himself, he'd always thought that he looked like some sort of ninja. He thought it was ridiculous, but he did admit that it was very good for stealth. The material wasn't one that made noise when he moved. He pulled the hood of his cloak up and looked at the building in front of him: the Patterson Corporation.
He considered the opened windows for a moment, before choosing a room with the lights off on the eleventh floor. It wasn't as close to the top of the building as he would have liked, but it would have to do. Getting up four more stories without being detected might be difficult to do, but was something he could manage with no real trouble. He collected himself, made sure that his mind was completely sealed off, and did a quick weapons check. Satisfied that everything was in order, he transformed himself into a crow. He'd been experimenting a lot with his magic since starting school, and after mastering the animagus transformation he'd decided to see if he could turn himself into more than one animal. Although Padfoot was his true animal form and turning into him was effortless, it was just a matter of strict self discipline to be able to change into anything else.
He flew up to the window, the dark shadows of the alley concealing his small black body perfectly. He landed on the window sill, and after checking that no one was in the room, flew in and transformed back into himself in midair. He landed noiselessly on his feet and headed for the door without hesitating for a second. He used Padfoot's senses, which he'd learned to bring forth without actually going into the complete transformation, to listen through the door. It appeared that no one was on the other side, so he opened the door quietly, and swiftly took in his surroundings.
He was in a narrow hallway lined with dozens of doors. He guessed that this was where all of the unimportant people worked. Knowing that he was unlikely to be caught by any of the office employees during work hours, he walked calmly to the door labeled "Emergency Exit" instead of rushing himself. He took out his wand, which he'd learned was a wonderful aiming device even if he didn't actually need it to cast spells, and burned an enormous hole in the middle of the door. Ensuring that no alarms went off like they would have if he'd simply opened the door.
He looked at his watch, which told him that it was almost time for the group to meet at James's house. If he didn't hurry, Remus would unwittingly lead whoever had been following them right to the entire group. The bastards would just love to take out all of his friends to get to him, not to mention the fact that they were on the death eaters' most wanted list in the first place. He cursed under his breath, and jogged up the remaining stairs to the fifteenth floor. He cast a silencing spell on the emergency alarm before opening the door, not wasting time going through any other way. He didn't care at this point whether all of the alarms on the lower floors went off.
He stunned anyone he met while walking to the double doors at the end of the wide hall. He walked through them calmly, ensuring that they locked behind him. The alarmed man sitting at the enormous desk reached for the panic button.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Sirius informed him coolly. The man didn't listen, of course, so Sirius sent a spell at his hand, crushing the many little bones. The man cried out in pain, and cradled his hand to his chest. "Well I did warn you, Parkinson," Sirius said with fake sympathy before his voice turned hard again, "The next time you go against my warnings you'll lose that hand altogether."
"Who...who a...are you?" the man, who was obviously in pain, stuttered in fright. He recoiled and cried out pitifully as Sirius walked around the desk nearer to him, trying to get as far away as possible. "Don't kill me!" he pleaded.
"Oh stop that, you blubbering idiot. If I wanted to kill you I wouldn't have bothered to walk all the way over here in the first place. I'm not one for close contact with dead bodies," Sirius demanded coldly. "Afraid that I know your real name, Parkinson? They would kill you if the secret got out wouldn't they? They did go through all the trouble of making you an alias. Pity for their idealistic selves that a disgraceful squib was born into their pureblooded family. Then again, the whole family is disgraceful all by themselves, so I don't see why they bothered to hide your existence at all."
The man was reduced to a sobbing mass in his chair now. "What do you want with me?"
Sirius lowered his hood to reveal his identity, the man cried out in disbelief. "You're just a convenient bargaining tool that I'm choosing to take advantage of. Have your brother call off his men, or I'll expose you to the whole fucking world. I'm sure your brother doesn't want anyone finding out about you, especially Voldemort." There was banging at the door, "Your security takes a hell of a long time to get here, don't they? If I was actually interested in killing you they'd be far too late."
Sirius turned around as a group of armed wizards finally burst the door down and spilled into the room. The one nearest to him was quickly killed, and the one behind him followed a split second later. The others looked outraged that their comrades were dead. "It's nothing personal," Sirius informed them apologetically, "but I can't have you ratting me out to anyone." The remaining guards put up little challenge as they were picked off one by one with relative ease.
The last one was trying to escape through the still opened door. As Sirius stepped in front of him, he pleaded, "Please, don't kill me! Put a memory charm on me! I'll do anything!"
Sirius actually felt kind of bad about killing this one, he was young, probably had parents and a girl waiting for him. He only faltered for a split second before making up his mind, "Memory charms can be broken. My own life is more important to me than yours." The man was dead before he had time to beg for mercy again.
With that taken care of, Sirius turned back to his goal, "So, does your brother actually care enough about you that he sent wizard guards, or did they just not realize that they were taking orders from a squib?"
Apparently the man had gained confidence in the short time that Sirius's attention wasn't on him. "You can't expose me, Black! You can't prove anything!" he exclaimed defiantly, ignoring the earlier question.
Sirius growled and stomped around the desk, ignoring the man's increased whimpering. He reached out and yanked a large clump of hair off of the man's head. "I'll just have this tested. A paternity test is proof enough for the press, don't you agree? Now, I've tried simply asking you, but I'm done being nice. Call your brother, right now, or I'm going to kill you and just look through your contact lists myself. Then I'll expose the existence of a squib in the Parkinson line anyways just because I'm really brassed off."
The man's resistance broke, and he reached for the telephone on his desk. As Sirius held back his amusement that a Parkinson would be caught dead with a muggle telephone, the man dialed the number quickly, and seemed to be holding in his sobs as he got to the point straight away, "Call your men off Sirius Black." Shouts could be heard from the man on the other line, who wasn't happy at being given orders by his squib brother. "He's here. He knows," the squib in question said shortly. Silence came from the phone, before he hung up. "It's done."
Sirius held in his sigh of relief. He opted for giving one last warning instead, "I don't suppose I have to warn you not to try to come after me. I will expose you, and I was serious about you losing that hand if you don't heed my warnings, Patterson," he was sure to use the man's alias name so that he would know that Sirius's word about not exposing him if he cooperated was good. He didn't wait for the man to react before disapparating from the office.
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Sirius had needed a drink or ten after infiltrating a building, threatening a man, and killing a few more. He'd headed to a bar that he knew none of the other Marauders frequented. He didn't want to chance running into his friends at a bar after telling Remus he was attending to business. He often thought that it would make his life so much easier if they knew about things like this. Then he'd remind himself that they would probably be disgusted and refuse to be his friend anyway if they knew. They might even turn him into the Ministry, being the goody-goody type that they were, aside from harmless pranks that is. One thing was for sure, James would tell Lily, he told her everything, and then Sirius would never be allowed to see Harry again. He briefly wondered if godfather status could be revoked.
By the time he made it to Remus's house it was almost dark. Remus lived in a very isolated wooded area with the nearest house being well over twenty miles away. On full moons they would all go there and run with Moony like they had at school. It was one of the few things that Sirius enjoyed anymore. The grand total of things he enjoyed anymore was five: shagging, flying his motorbike, playing with Harry, running as Padfoot, and Quidditch.
James was waiting anxiously in the doorway for him to get there. "Where the hell have you been? It's almost time!" he was getting ready to bite Sirius's head off when he was interrupted by the man in question.
"Well, if I had skived off my responsibilities I doubt there would be a time, James. So why don't you get off my back, before I decide you'd be better off dead next time. Or maybe I'd be better off dead so I wouldn't have to listen to you!" Great, he was either crazy or drunk to let that much slip.
James was giving him a shocked looked. "Dead?"
Sirius couldn't help it, he laughed, "The articulate one strikes again." He turned suddenly serious, "Yes, dead. We can probably thank the Order for painting the big blinking targets right on our asses," he chose to let his best friend believe that he'd been on Order business, "It was a thing, I took care of it. Do me a favor and don't bring it up again, yeah?"
Good old James always did know when Sirius was actually serious. "Right...So how about we go meet up with Remus and Peter?"
Sirius nodded and they started walking, "How is Moony? He was acting a bit off earlier today. Checking me out, lacking his normally sharp wit, having a thing for Rosmerta..."
"He has a think for Rosie?...Wait! He was checking you out?..." James had obviously lost all ability to be articulate for the night.
"You forgot lacking his normally sharp wit," Sirius pointed out calmly.
James ignored him, he was good at that, "I can't believe he was checking you out! Why was he checking you out? He said he isn't gay...Oh my God, you're not gay are you?...What am I saying, of course you're not gay. You've shagged more girls than the rest of us combined and then squared..."
Sirius drew the line at the gay thing, "James! Are you even talking to me anymore? Having arguments with yourself out loud is a sign of insanity. And I can't believe you even considered that I might like other guys." After he had his friend's attention, he continued, "In Moony's defense, I had just gotten out of the shower and was about to go get dressed when he barged in. I think he was a bit put off or something. He just stared at me, and of course I gave him shit about it."
James nodded in understanding, and all other discussion was stopped as they reached the edge of the woods where their two friends were waiting.
Hours later, the four were running strong, or rather two of them were. The stag and the rat seemed a bit tired, while the two canines were running circles around them. After a while, the werewolf got bored and tried to persuade the enormous black dog to go with him. He nipped at his companion's heels and barked, periodically growling playfully. With a look towards the other two, the dog consented and took off, the werewolf hot on his heels.
The two canines raced each other through the woods, dodging in and out between trees and yapping in delight. Suddenly, the werewolf stopped in his tracks, causing the dog to come to an abrupt and ungraceful halt and turn to look at his friend. The werewolf howled, and ran away without another look at his companion. Padfoot knew that something was off. Moony never howled because it was a werewolf thing and he wasn't among werewolves so no one else understood him when he did it.
The dog ran after the werewolf, barking to try and get a response from the creature he followed. He suddenly caught a scent that unnerved him so much that he almost stumbled and rolled headfirst into a tree. Instead, he recovered as best as he could and pushed himself faster. He had to catch up to Moony. There were humans in the woods.
If dogs could sigh in relief, Padfoot would have certainly done so as he caught up with his friend. It dogs could gasp in horror, he would have done that, too. The werewolf was stalking the edge of a clearing, which Sirius knew by scent held a group of people. He ignored the humans, zeroing in on the werewolf, which seemed to be trying to decide which one to go after primarily. The dog stopped beside him and tried to get his attention, but the only thing the werewolf did was snap at him. Actually snapped at him, not a playful nip, but a warning bite. Apparently, he thought the dog was going to try and take one of his prey.
Padfoot gave that up, and turned his attention to quickly assess the group. He needed to figure out a way to save them before Moony chose his course of action. What he saw when he turned his attention to the humans was almost as horrifying as seeing a werewolf stalking them. There were two men trying to hold down a girl, who was not making it easy for them. A third man was working on ripping away her clothing, while she inflicted as much damage on him as she could. She was screaming curses at all of them the whole time.
Sirius's mind was made up immediately, and he spared only half a second wondering why he didn't think of it sooner. He transformed back into himself, and tied the werewolf up with a spell as soon as he was able to. After glancing to make sure that Moony was secure, he stormed into the clearing and bound up all three men, as well. The girl, whose clothing was ripped and barely covered anything by this point, stood up immediately after she was freed from her captors' grasps.
She ripped a ring off of her right hand and threw it into the forest. As soon as the ring lost contact with her, Sirius was almost knocked off of his feet by the magical energy that radiated off of her. She sent curse after curse at the men who had held her captive, and Sirius had to stop and admire her skill. She used no wand and said no incantations, which was intriguing. He hadn't met anyone else who was able to do that, even Dumbledore had to do one or the other.
A threatening growl from the direction of Moony caused him to snap back to reality, and he tried to get the girl's attention. She paid him no heed, and he was forced bind her, also. He caught her as she overbalanced and fell, then spun around to face the irate werewolf that had just broken out of his bindings. He bound him again and stunned him for added safety before sending red sparks into the air, which was their distress signal.
He knew that Prongs and Wormtail would be there in a matter of minutes, and just hoped that they got there before Moony woke up. Stunning werewolves wasn't very effective. If they didn't get there in time, the three men who were writhing around in fear on the forest floor were definitely going to die. Right now, though, Sirius needed to get this girl out of here. She was freezing, from what he didn't know, since it was the middle of July, and she was covered in lacerations and newly forming bruises. He gave the men one last appraising look, shrugged, and disapparated with the girl in tow.
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A/N: And boy do I feel like that chapter was scattered between a dozen different things. Sirius's behavior in this chapter will all be explained eventually. You'll just have to read on in the story to find out. So don't freak out because he goes from one extreme to the next without explanation, kills people, threatens people, and practically leaves three people to either die a painful death or become werewolves...and at the same time jokes around, uses constant sarcasm, and let's not forget saves a random girl. I realize exactly what I've written and don't need reminded :) It wouldn't be a story and you'd have no incentive to read on if you knew all of the significant things right in the beginning. I've all but come out and directly told you a main part of the reason for some of those actions anyway, and I expect you to all have figured that part out by now.