I'm personally sorry for the very late update. The reason(s) will be at the end, but again, I'm really sorry about it. There's a great deal more dialogue in here, and this particular chapter is from Sirius' point of view, and it's before Billy talks to him.
"Why is your boy still here?"
"I'm terribly sorry," his mother whispered. "His Gryffindor," she sneered, "friends have yet to save him. Apparently I can't even rely on them to get the blood-traitor out of my house."
The ladies laughed. It didn't really matter to them that he was sitting only a table away. "Some friends they are, leaving a mudblood-lover in a house of Death Eaters," one woman jeered, glaring at Sirius. The other women burst into spiteful giggles.
"Where are your nasty little friends?" the woman continued. "Where are they, boy?"
Sirius refused to answer. This was Mrs. Rowle, if he remembered right. He liked to remember their names. One day, he'd be an Auror, and he would have to stamp her papers for her admittance to Azkaban. Then he would be the one jeering and laughing, not her. He waited for the day...
"Answer me, boy!"
He stayed silent. Mrs. Rowle turned towards his mother. "Discipline your pathetic heir, Walburga. He won't answer me!" she hissed.
Sirius wondered what was worse: being called a boy or an heir? He never wanted to be an heir...
Mrs. Rowle shrieked in anger.
His mother swept over to the other side of the room and returned with his father. His father's steel eyes were a harsh contrast to Sirius' stormy eyes. Everybody thought Sirius looked like a carbon copy of his father. Sirius loathed their similarities. There was no doubt Orion was Sirius' father, and no doubt that Sirius' was Orion's son.
His father stood in front of him. "What do you have to say for yourself?" He asked harshly. Walburga Black stood behind her husband, a triumphant smirk on her face, her long fingers curled in a false show of delicateness around Orion's broad shoulder. There were gleeful eyes behind her, watching in untold amusement at his predicament. Sirius noticed that Regulus had turned his head to the side discreetly, closing his dark eyes to the sight discreetly. Sirius felt like smiling in a strange way. He'd succeeded with giving Regulus a conscience, no matter how small or useless it was. He'd done something worthwhile as a big brother...for once in his life, he'd done something right.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" His father bellowed.
"To your question or Mrs. Rowle's?"
Orion's nostrils flared. His fists shook with anger. Sirius could see the Head of Black family ring turning a dark shade of red in response to Orion's rising magic. Sirius hated how much he resembled his father. Their magic reacted the same way. He had no doubt that his heir ring was equally crimson and his magic was lashing out just as much.
"Don't give me smart mouth," he snarled.
"Got it from you," Sirius sneered, "Dad."
Orion's glared intensified. Walburga let loose a gleeful cackle echoed by the crowd behind her and released her husband's shaking arm. His fist flew and Sirius tumbled to the floor. His cheek stung from the magic and blood dripped down his chin. His father extended an open palm. Sirius looked at the calloused palm in confusion.
"Give me the Black heir ring. You are not fit for it."
Sirius had anger in spades. It was as good as disowning a pureblood without all the legal paperwork. He growled at his father, pulled the ring off his middle finger and threw it at Orion. "Keep your stupid ring. This pathetic excuse of a family isn't worth the trouble."
His father laughed. "And your idiotic, blustering Gryffindor family is worth it?"
Sirius stood up as gracefully as he could with blood in his mouth with his newest status as second heir. "They're well worth it," he replied angrily, stalking up the stairs.
"I'll have fun killing them one by one on the battlefield," his father remarked. The aristocrats burst into life as Sirius swore that he'd kill Orion Black himself.
Sirius looked deep into his Icewhiskey bottle. The deep magenta alcohol shined beautifully in the barest sunlight of La Push. He had been tempted under Orion's roof to drink more than once after he'd been Sorted. He always had the courage and the guts to get drunk and possibly get killed (either from his inebriation or his parents murdering him), but James had always stopped him from going too far.
Not this time around.
He took a deep swig of the bottle. Ogden certainly knew how to get a wizard properly drunk, but the alcohol genius needed to learn how to subtly add in some Forgetfulness Potion to his brand of relaxers. Sirius didn't want to remember any part of the chain of events that led to him being here....
James had come in through the window with windswept hair. His hazel eyes flickered past the dark bruise on Sirius' pale skin, but James handed over Sirius' Nimbus 1700 all the same. "You've packed, right?" James whispered.
Sirius nodded, walking over to the opened window. "Shrunk and in my pocket," he replied, straddling his broom and jumping out the window. James raced after him.
They reached Potter Manor in a few hours on brooms. James landed in the front yard and raced into the foyer, followed by Sirius. Mrs. Potter was standing in her bathrobe, a kindly smile on her face, as if Sirius had come at a respectable time instead of three in the morning.
"James, dear, why don't you go to bed? It's rather late and you need your rest," she mothered, nudging James up the stairs. James nodded absentmindedly, yawning widely and stumbling upwards. Sirius made to go to his room, but Mrs. Potter placed her smooth hand on his shoulder. "Sirius, follow me please." She gently led him towards a room to the side.
"Sit in the stool," she commanded, turning to the light blue cabinet behind her. She shuffled around for a bit as Sirius willed himself not to fidget. He'd never seen James fidget, and it was a pureblood thing. No fidgeting, no squirming. Mrs. Potter wouldn't approve, and his family would assassinate him if they found out he squirmed in public.
Mrs. Potter pulled out a healing balm and placed it on the table. She wet a rag and wiped it fleetingly over Sirius' cheek, leaving a slight red stain on the clean rag before scrubbing it in the sink. "Put the balm on twice a day. Once in the morning, once at night, and the bruise should go away within the month, and it shouldn't scar. If it does, tell me."
Sirius nodded. Mrs. Potter settled herself into the chair across the table from Sirius. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"
He shrugged.
"A little squabble," he replied.
"A squabble earns you a cut and a bruise that looks strangely like a hand print?" Mrs. Potter asked sceptically, handing him a small cup of water. "Rinse and spit."
The mouthwash swirled in his mouth, leaving a too-clean feeling. The water was tinted pink, and he roughly wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Mrs. Potter handed him a small hand towel.
"Do you want to talk about it? I won't tell anybody. Not even my husband or James. Pure patient-doctor confidentiality."
Secrets stayed in the family. They always stayed in the family. It was the first rule. Magic secrets stay in the family. Blackmail stayed in the family. Family secrets stayed in the family. Mrs. Potter, no matter how much he wished it and willed it to be, was not in the family.
And would you call Orion Black family? his mind piped up. Father's hateful face came to mind, his bright red Head of Family ring soaked in his blood. Walburga Black? Mother's sadistic smile whirled in his head.
Were they really a family?
Mrs. Potter folded her arms quietly into her lap, her kind chocolate eyes watching him patiently. She was the nicest woman Sirius had ever met. Mr. Potter was as much as a joker as his son, but lacked the determination to play pranks (but he would fund them for "funny episodes when they bite James in the butt") and was ever encouraging James on his more..frivolous acts, like chasing Lily Evans (he simply thought it too hilarious to pass up). Sirius always imagined the Potters whenever he thought of a perfect, cookie-cutter family. The Blacks had never been as...tight-knit as the Potters. They would never be a true-blue family, as fractured and traditional as they were.
The Blacks were never really a family...so why did he have to keep family secrets?
"It's fine," he assured. "You've got enough troubles as it is." He dimly heard Mr. Potter coughing upstairs. The aged Auror had been fighting sickness for a while now. There were so many cases of magical people catching the same sickness, and it was in the older generations; people were beginning to call it an epidemic. He could see the stress lines on Mrs. Potter's face, around her mouth and her eyes. Her pretty hazel hair was becoming a thinning gray from worry. She was worrying about Mr. Potter's health badly enough; she didn't need to worry about his problems as well on top of her own son's issues (and boy, did James have issues).
Mrs. Potter smiled at him with wet eyes, and pulled him tight against her chest. "You're such a sweet boy, Sirius," she murmured in his ear, hugging him as tightly as she hugged James. "I'm so proud that you are my son's best friend."
Would she be grateful now? He wondered, peering into the depths of his bottle.
He'd gotten her precious son killed after all...
Mrs. Potter had died from Dragon Pox, within a week after Mr. Potter had died. They were two out of the six people he would kill for, and they died from a disease, a stupid little mutating virus that he hadn't been able to prevent. He had started pouring money into a vaccine with his inheritance from Uncle Alphard when the Ministry of Magic had diagnosed the disease as Dragon Pox, and James had done the same with his own vaults. That was back when only Mr. Potter was sick and Mrs. Potter had been taking care of him and acting as full-time nurse. Then Mrs. Potter had gotten sick a few months later after Mr. Potter had been isolated in St. Mungo's.
Sirius thought it was just too pathetic how the Ministry of Magic was.
They discovered a vaccine after the two people on the list of "People Sirius Black Actually Loves" had died. They didn't even have the sense to do it a few weeks afterwards...he remembered the facts clearly. Mr. Potter's body was preserved on March 8th, 1978. Mrs. Potter was buried along with her husband on March 12th, 1978. They had a double funeral with double the tears, triple the people, and a million times more regrets.
A vaccine was discovered by Gunhilda of Gorsemoor on March 15th, 1978.
People always thought their lost loved ones watched them from heaven...Sirius looked up into the stormy clouds.
"Are you proud of me, Mrs. Potter?" he asked aloud, watching the sky.
It started to drizzle.
"Didn't think so," he murmured, tipping the bottle back. Maybe he would be lucky enough to get sick and die of Dragon Pox too. He'd only be getting his just desserts for hurting everybody.
He was finally out of Transfiguration, his last Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test of his lifetime. Sirius sighed happily, stretching his arms above his head and throwing his Anti-Cheating Quill he nicked from McGonagall out the window. Ah, to be free of exams was such a pleasant feeli--arms shot out of the nearby alcove and dragged Sirius in. Sirius did what any other sane person would do; he started kicking and screaming and yelling death threats.
"Let me go! I'll tell McGonagall you're molesting her future husband, and she'll turn you into a toadwart!" He screamed.
"Sirius, it's me!" the man hissed.
"Jamesie?" Sirius peered closer. The barest of sunlight glinted off James' glasses. "Prongs, I know you love me and all, but don't you have a girlfriend? Sorry, but I don't even swing that way, though if you like blo-"
"Padfoot, I don't like blokes," James hissed. "How many times do I have to say that?"
"You have to admit, it was a little suspicious when you were caught with Pucey in that broom closet in the 54th northwest corrid-"
"We were discussing Quidditch tactics!"
"In a broom closet?"
"Agh!" James shoved Sirius out of the alcove. "I don't even know why I bothered asking you."
"If you're going to pop the question to me, Lily's going to be ma-ad."
"You know what, I give up," the hazel-eyed boy grumbled, stalking out of the alcove and making his way down the hall. Sirius chased him down and grabbed the neck of his robe and pulled him back into the alcove.
"Alright, alright, I won't tease you. What's up?"
"But I don't want to tell you now," James whined.
"One does not lose desire to tell secrets so quickly," Sirius spoke wisely before snapping. "Spill. Is there a problem with your girlfriend? I swear, if she was cheating on you--"
"She wasn't cheating on me."
"You were cheating on her?"
"There was no cheating at all!"
Sirius frowned in confusion. "Then what's the problem?"
"Uh, well..I wanted to..uh, make a surprise for..er, Lily..um.."
"You've got the wrong bloke." Sirius sighed. "I thought we had this covered. Remus is your guy for all the mushy, romantic stuff. I'm your guy if you want the sex talk."
"PADFOOT! I can't belie-"
"Just get to the point already, Prongs. I've got people to see, Snivellus to bother, and girls to do!"
"Fine! I was hoping to propose to her, and I wanted you to tell me if you think she'd like the ring or not, okay?" James huffed and crossed his arms. "You're still a Black, and if there's anything that you specialize in, Sirius, it's vanity."
"You've got an engagement ring?"
James nodded and pulled out the box from his robes. He opened the box and held it carefully. Sirius sighed and slapped James' forehead.
"Well, give it here! It's dark, smart ass, I can't see it!"
"Of course, fashionista.."
"I'm not a fashionista!" Sirius defended. "I'm a fashio-"
"A fashionito," James finished, sighing. "I know, I know." He handed over the ring. Sirius stepped out of the alcove and into the bright summer light.
He whistled. "Oooh, damn James! Lily would be stupid not to love this ring! White gold...dang," he pulled the ring carefully out of its' cushion and held it to the light. "How many karats is this?"
"Didn't know you knew so much about muggle jewelry," James groused. Sirius waved him off. "It's only muggle 'till you spell it, Jamesy. And anyways! Purebloods, muggles; it's still shiny, and it's still worth a lot of money, Prongs. So let me ask again--how many karats?"
"Twenty-two," James replied promptly. Sirius sucked in a deep breath in excitement, peering closely at the expertly, princess-cut diamond set in the center of the ring. "Very nice, very nice..it's amazingly colorless, and the emeralds shine just as brightly as the bloody diamond." He ran his finger over the small row of emeralds beside the diamond on both sides.
"Are the emeralds okay? I'm sure Lily's tired of it by now, but I really thought they'd match her eyes," James said.
"I'm sure she'll think it's sweet, in that annoying sentimental way soon-to-be brides are. It's an amazing engagement ring whether or not she likes the emeralds; flashy, yet modest enough that Lily won't make that much of a fuss," Sirius complemented. "Why don't I ever get presents like this?"
"I'm not marrying you, now am I?" James groused, snatching the ring and the velvet box back.
"You know you want to," Sirius cooed.
"No thanks, mate. I don't swing that way; no matter how much you want to," James retorted.
"Where'd you get that ring anyways?" Sirius asked out of curiosity.
"What, planning to marry some poor, pitiful girlie soon?"
"Just curious. The workmanship almost looks like Alceste's, but that's in Horntail Avenue, and that's a purely dark wizard only area, and I haven't met anybody yet who can make jewelry better than Alceste."
James hummed. "Maybe because it is Alceste's work?"
"Am I talking to a ghost?" Sirius wondered, smacking his arm through James' forehead. James winced and pushed Sirius away. "That hurt, you idiot!"
"Well, you should be dead if you even walked down that road! You can't blame me!"
"You don't have to check whether or not I'm a ghost!"
Sirius snorted. "I'll believe your word the day Peter faces a dragon."
"That'll never happen."
"Exactly." Sirius pulled James by the shoulder and out the hall. "James, believe me. Lily's one lucky girl to be your bride."
"You think?"
"Haven't you heard? Sirius Black is always right."
"When pigs fly," James commented.
"That's the sign of true love, dear. When you start acting like dear Lilykins, even when she's not around." Sirius nodded, fake tears streaming down his face. "My little Prongsie's all grown up!" He buried his face into James' shoulder (it was sort of awkward because he had to crouch down a bit) and hugged his best mate around the waist.
"Get off me, you big lug!"
Sirius wailed, causing many students to look on them in confusion before turning away. Marauder madness, they thought, pushing the sight from their minds. So strange, yet oh so normal.
They eventually ended up in the common room. James immediately left after pulling Sirius away, planning to find Remus and ask Lily to marry him before the day was done. Sirius fell across his bunk bed and thought of Hogwarts. Today was the last day. He'd be sad to say goodbye to Hogwarts..they'd leave tomorrow afternoon after graduation....
Sirius fell asleep quickly. He was woken up when the stars were in the sky by James, grinning like a loon and jumping on his bed. "Wha-aaa...geffoff mi bed," Sirius moaned, throwing his pillow at James and burrowing under the covers. James took the pillow head-shot and popped right back up from his sprawled position on the messy floor of their dorm room. "Sirius, wake up, wake up! Padfoot, please, it's IMPORTANT!"
"Nuh."
"Paddy, please. WAKE UP!" James pulled the covers back. Sirius kicked the other teenager in the balls and rolled over.
James curled up on the ground in a fatal position, watery eyes glaring back up at the bed. "You're s-so lucky I need you to be my b-best man 'cause otherwise, I'd hex you straight to hell," he whimpered through pained teeth.
"Haah?" Sirius inquired sleepily, raising his sleep-mussed hair half an inch from his mattress. He hadn't heard a thing.
"Lily said YES!"
"Yeers tu whaa?"
James inhaled loudly. "LILY AND ME ARE ENGAGED!"
"WHAT?" Sirius yelled, snapping up. "When'd you ask? Couldn't you have told me that you were going to propose?! Oh, such a big blackmail opportunity and I MISSED it..."
"You're not supposed to be trying to blackmail me," James pointed out blandly. "And I told you I planned to propose!"
"You didn't say TONIGHT!"
"You didn't ask!"
They frowned at each other. "You're still gonna be my best man though, right?"
"A'course," Sirius replied, yawning. "Unless you wanted somebody else. You didn't, did'cha?"
"Siri, you're my best friend since forever. I don't think I can get somebody else anyways."
"Oh good. If you did, I'd have to kill them..." Sirius trailed off. "James?"
"What?"
"Why are we up here?"
"Because you were sleeping..?" James replied.
"We should be downstairs. With firewhiskey. And girls."
"Lily would kill me though!" James cried, hiding behind the bed post, as if Lily would appear in the door room to smack him. Sirius sighed. James was so whipped....
"You're such a wimp," Sirius grumbled, throwing on a robe. "And she wouldn't kill you if we invited guys. She's been lookin' at that Corner dude for awhile, maybe if we invited him.."
"NO! NO no no, Sirius!" James yelled. "How 'bout this. We'll have just the 7th years-"
"No Slytherins." Sirius interjected.
"Well, duh, we never have Slytherins! We'll have the 7th years gather up in that room, y'know, behind that portrait of that Marquess of Manure and have a celebration."
"Whatever you say. Lemme get dressed."
"Vain git."
"At least I'm a sexy vain git."
Sirius threw the empty bottle at the tree. It shattered into pieces, spraying the last few droplets of the blood-colored alcohol around the tree. He'd been so ecstatic that James hadn't even thought of somebody else other than Sirius for his best man. He hadn't even approved it through Lily before asking him, but Lily agreed that Sirius would be the best man, if only to stop him from ruining her perfect day.
He really wished James had chosen somebody else. Somebody more sensible, like Frank Longbottom, who planned to marry Alice Bosque a month after James and Lily's wedding, or Remus Lupin, who was more than sensible despite being a werewolf. Maybe they wouldn't have had the sense to switch Secret Keepers and taken the pain like any other decent best man. They would've been so much more sure of themselves, unlike him...why did he have to doubt that night? Why did he doubt his will to keep his secret? He'd never told James' secrets, ever. He never told Black secrets until it became necessary in the war, and it was on a need-to-know basis even then.
He really hated himself.
Even more than his self-doubt, he hated the fact that he couldn't remember things he wanted to remember.
He wanted to remember James' laughing. He wanted to remember how James' eyes would sparkle whenever he had a devious prank. He wanted to remember how James would swoon and fall over in his own little pool of drool when Lily Evans walked by. He wanted to remember the Marauders and their runs in the moonlight, he wanted to remember pushing James into the lake. He wanted to remember the Potters, all of them. He wanted to remember Mr. Potter, accusing him of cheating in a Quidditch game and Mrs. Potter hugging him and handing out lemonade.
Sirius couldn't remember any of it.
All he could remember was Godric's Hollow, charred and broken. The overturned tables, Lily's precious china smashed into pieces, the photos scattered like blades of grass in the wind. He could remember scrummaging in the old ruins, praying not to find a body, praying that his best friend, his wife, and his son weren't dead, that he wouldn't see one body after another when they sorted through the rubble.
All he could see were James' dead hazel and Lily's dull green. He had eventually pulled Harry out of the recently deceased Lily's arms with tears streaming down his face. Harry hadn't wanted to let go of his mummy, and had no such problem showing it in his wails. Sirius felt an awful lot like Harry, wanting to grab onto James, his lifeline and beg that he wasn't dead. He wanted to deny it, but there was no denying it now..
The Potters were dead, and the only one left alive was one Harry James Potter.
The engagement ring: http:// /ViewDetails. asp?ProID=2082 &SrchKeyword=&SrchCategory=5&Srch SubCat=16&srch Price=
I'm unsure if the link will or will not work. All else, go to , click Engagement Rings on the left toolbar, and it should be on the first page (assuming the default at the top is "Best Seller") at the most bottom right.
Reasons why I wasn't able to update? My original chapter was infected by a virus. I'm not even sure how that happens, but one day it's normal text, the next day after school, it's a bungle of random symbols (I asked my dad who works with computers, and he said that there was no way to restore it). After that, I sulked about it for awhile, and slowly tried to recreate the chapter. This chapter has minor differences with the other one (for example, Sirius' train of thought actually starts in the same place but ends up in a completely different subject) and it's also a lot longer (like, a thousand words longer, not including the author's note.).
Again, if anybody catches any mistakes that I don't catch, please tell me, and feel free to critize.
