Authors note: It's always said how Sirius is fiercely loyal, so I just don't understand why he would tell Snape Remus' secret, it just doesn't make sense to me, so I chose to write it as though he didn't have a choice, because that's the only way I can fathom his managing to betray his friends. By the way, I change perspective a bit, so it may change from Sirius, to Regulus or any of the other marauders, maybe even a bit from Lily eventually.
Chapter ThreeBack to Hogwarts
The next few months were not good for Sirius, as his mother and father seemed to be in a constant string of bad moods, ranging from his father almost losing his job for insulting the 'Mudblood' he is forced to work with to his Mother's sister Drusilla bragging about how Cousin Bella was now happily married to Rodolphus Lestrange and Cousin Cissy was engaged to be married to Lucius Malfoy. They constantly took it out on Sirius. Even trying to get a rise out of him at the dinner table by talking about how filthy Mudbloods are and how 'the dark lord' has the right idea. Of course, they managed to get him to snap every time, which resulted in a beating and a week in his room with no food.
Sirius couldn't even remember how he had managed to suffer through this without Regulus. Regulus would sneak him food at night, healed the cuts and bruises that weren't visible and then comforting Sirius when their parent's words got to him, reminding him that he is not worthless, that there are people who care about him, that he cares about him.
Before they were due to leave the house for Kings Cross Station, his mother called him and Regulus into the Study, a rare occurrence it was for Regulus to be in there.
As soon as Sirius entered the room, his younger brother at his side, he froze at the sight of the letters, addressed to him, in his mother's hand. Which ones had she found? The ones to Peter, Remus or James?
She angrily threw them down to the floor at Sirius feet and he managed to catch the words 'Love Andromeda' written at the bottom of a piece of parchment. Sirius forced himself not to wince; those were certainly the worst letters she could have possibly found.
Andromeda Black, now Andromeda Tonks, had been blasted of the family tapestry and disowned two years before for marrying a muggle-born. She shared Sirius' beliefs that everyone was equal and that being pureblood didn't make them better. She was the first of the Blacks, followed by Sirius, to break the tradition of being a Slytherin, instead being placed into Ravenclaw. She and Sirius had stayed in touch and she just recently sent him letters telling him how her one year old daughter, Nymphadora, is doing well and is actually a Metamorphagus, clearly taking after their great, great, great Aunt Cassiopeia.
"Well? What do you call these?!" His mother demanded, clearly fighting to keep her voice steady, from the fury he can feel coming off of her in waves.
He felt Regulus flinch beside him. The fact that his brother was present gave him strength, if he hated looking weak in front of his parents, then he loathed looking weak in front of his younger brother.
"They're called letters mother, maybe you've heard of them" He smirked, squishing the fear that twisted in his stomach and noticing Regulus looking at him shocked out of the corner of his eyes.
His mother sucked in a sharp breath and her lips thinned into an angry line. "I think it's time you learned your place boy" his mother hissed.
He raised his brows and looked about the room, his father wasn't here, he was at work, so what did she plan to do? She wasn't the one who dished out the beatings.
"Oh no, not that type of punishment" His mother said smirking nastily, clearly guessing Sirius' thoughts "this is much worse, maybe it will show you who you really are. A Black through and through"
What could be worse than his father's beatings? He had even suffered through the cruciatus curse once or twice; it can't get worse than that.
Regulus watched as their mother raised her wand, pointing it at Sirius' chest, and he eyed the wand warily. His brother had told him about the other beating, even about the cruciatus curse, Regulus couldn't even fathom how he had managed to stay strong under that curse. What could their mother be planning that was worse than what Sirius already went through? The only thing Regulus could think of that would manage to break Sirius was if he was no longer friends with the Marauders, but his mother couldn't manage to do that.
"Imperio" their mother hissed and Regulus looked at her, shock and horror etched onto his face.
He watched as Sirius' look of momentary surprise vanished as the curse hit him squarely in the chest, and his grey eyes glazed over. Regulus looked at his brother, desperately willing him to fight whatever their mother was going to tell him to do, but even Sirius can't break the Imperius curse, it takes months of practice to build up that type of will power.
Their mother smiled triumphantly at the dreamy look on his brother's face.
"Before the term is over, you're going to do the worst thing you can possibly do to your friends, making it believable that you thought of it, not telling anyone I made you do it and you will prove to them that you truly are a Black at heart" Their mother said cruelly.
She lowered her wand, and the glazed look in Sirius' eyes slowly melted away, into a look of pure horror. Regulus gulped and looked down at his feet. He knew what the worst thing Sirius could do was…it was to tell Remus' secret.
"They won't even let you explain" she said in an eerily calm voice "They will leave you like that" she added with a snap of her fingers.
Their mother then strode out of the room, head held high. As Sirius grabbed a fistful of flue powder and dragged his trunk over to the fireplace, he looked over to Regulus and mouthed desperately 'what am I going to do?'
Regulus just shook his head, at a loss for anything that could help in this situation. The only thing Regulus could think of was to tell Dumbledore, but his mother made it so Sirius couldn't and even if he could he knew Sirius didn't want anyone else to know; hell he didn't even want him to know. Then again, even if Sirius did tell Dumbledore it would result in the worst beating Sirius would ever have. It may be selfish but Regulus would much rather Sirius tell Remus' secret than his brother getting punished, but what can you do? After all, he is a Slytherin.
"PADFOOT!" Sirius turned with a grin as he saw James running towards him, his hair laughably dishevelled from the wind, not that it was ever really tidy anyway.
"Good to see you too Prongs" Sirius laughed as James jumped on him with a hug, his body heat enveloping Sirius, and he allowed himself to feel happy, squishing down all the bad thoughts and feelings that still lingered from his family.
"Yes, well the holiday was very boring. Its times like this that I wish I had a brother" James smiled.
"No you don't, trust me" Sirius said, forcing his voice to sound dark, he still had to pretend that he didn't like his brother, even if he knew James wouldn't tell anyone, he couldn't risk it.
As he and James went to the Marauder's usual compartment, he listened to James ramble on about his summer, nodding in the appropriate places, not wanting to talk much about his own summer; he didn't want to start on the lies so early on in the school year.
"So, I sent about five letters to Evans over the summer" James told him.
"And she replied?" Sirius asked shocked.
"Well…not exactly…the only reply she gave me was to tell me that I was an 'annoying, pig-headed prat' and 'so stop writing you insufferable moron'" James explained "But at least she wrote that's something right?" James asked his voice filled with hope and his hazel eyes almost begging Sirius to agree.
Sirius felt sorry for James. He knew what it was like to have your love not returned, after all, he may pretend to hate his family, but he doesn't. There his family, how could he not love them? But then again, his relatives didn't seem to think the same way, as they absolutely hated him.
Sirius forced a smile onto his face, and managed to get his eyes bright and happy by reminding himself that he was going back to Hogwarts.
"Yeah James, this is a sign. You will get her in the end, just you wait" Sirius promised brightly and James gave him a grateful grin.
"Padfoot, Prongs thank Merlin you're here" Peter exclaimed in relief as James and Sirius entered the compartment.
"Little eager to see us aren't you Wormtail?" James laughed as he and Sirius sat down.
"You have no idea. I was saying that I was bored and Moony tried to get me to read. Read, I tell you! It's not natural!" Peter shouted, shuddering dramatically.
Sirius' eyes widened in faux surprise and looked over to Remus, who rolled his eyes, closing the book, which he had been reading when they entered.
"Say it isn't so, Moony?!" Sirius cried.
"A Marauder reading, what has the world come to?" James said sadly, wiping away an imaginary tear.
The four friends looked at each other for a moment before they all began to laugh. Sirius looked around at the Marauders happily. He wasn't sure where he would be if he didn't have the marauders, dead probably, if not by his parents hands, then his own.
Sirius' mind lingered to his mother placing the Imperius curse on him. He couldn't believe what she was making him do. How could he warn his friends not to trust him without revealing his biggest kept secret? He couldn't tell Remus' secret, he just couldn't.
He had to tell them; had to warn them that Remus' secret was no longer safe with him. He opened his mouth, but just as the thought passed through his mind, he began to feel dazed. It was like he was in a dream, nothing could hurt him, and it was peaceful. He could he his mother's voice telling him not to tell anyone that it was her.
"You all right Padfoot?" Remus' voice broke him out of the fuzzy feeling.
"Yeah" Sirius replied with a fake grin "Just thinking about all the trouble we can cause at Hogwarts"
The other three marauders smirked, a mischievous glint appearing in all of their eyes. It was a look that all students, other than the Slytherins, loved to see and the teachers dreaded. In fact, Sirius was pretty sure that look was probably Filch's boggart.
James went to speak, perhaps to tell them of a prank he had thought of, but he was cut off by the compartment door opening.
Remus looked up to see Sirius' brother, Regulus, in the doorway. Regulus looked like a miniature version of Sirius, only his features were slightly softer, his hair cropped short and his eyes black rather than Sirius' fathomless grey.
Remus' brown eyes widened in surprise, it wasn't often you saw the two brothers in close proximity to each other. After all, the two hated each other, because while Sirius believes everyone was equal, his brother followed in the footsteps of his family, which was obvious considering he got into Slytherin.
"What do you want Black?" James snapped.
Did Sirius just glare at James? Remus thought, his brows scrunching together.
"I need to borrow my brother, James" Regulus explained, the marauders looked up at him shocked that he had said James' first name, Regulus seemed to have realised his mistake and stuttered "I mean, Potter"
"Fine" Sirius sighed in annoyance and got up to leave the compartment.
Remus watched the brothers leave in suspicion. There was something wrong with the whole interaction, Regulus would never call the marauders by their first names and he had been at Hogwarts for two years now and had never once visited Sirius.
After a few moments, Remus decided to act on his musings.
"I'm just going to the loo" Remus told James and Peter, who just nodded absently as they were now playing wizards chess.
Remus resisted the urge to laugh. There was no doubt in his mind that Peter would win the game, James had no patience what so ever, he was a lot like Sirius in that respect, in most respect actually.
Remus started to walk down the train, looking for Sirius and Regulus. He found them in an empty compartment a few doors down, and Remus stopped to listen, as close as he could get without being seen.
"You really need to work on pretending to hate my friends, you can't just suddenly be calling them by their first names" Remus heard Sirius tell his brother sternly.
"But I don't hate them" Regulus protested.
"That's why it's called pretending" Sirius replied and Remus could almost hear him rolling his eyes.
Remus was confused. He always thought Regulus hated Sirius as well as the rest of the marauders. Then again, Sirius was one of his best friends and he believed he hated his brother, but that was clearly not the case.
"Fine, I'll try harder, but I've never been as good of an actor as you" came Regulus' reply "but I just wanted to warn you, the Slytherins are planning to prank you in the great hall, supposed to be some sort of revenge"
"What are they planning?" Sirius curious voice sounded.
"They're going to curse you, making the Gryffindors skin flash or something" Regulus said.
"Really, well, I expect they're in for quite the surprise" Sirius' voice came, and Remus could here the mischievous edge.
Regulus clearly heard it too because he asked "What are you planning?"
"You'll see, just make sure you happen to drop your goblet and have to go under to get it when it is time for their plan" Sirius voice explained, the mischievousness clearer than ever.
"Alright, well, I've got to get back to the Slytherins-"Regulus started, but Remus didn't stay long enough to hear the rest, deciding he had better get back to the compartment, as Sirius would probably be coming back soon.
"I don't want them asking me where I've got to" Regulus told him.
"Yeah, that wouldn't be good, you never were good at improvising" Sirius said with a breathy laugh.
"What do you mean? I can improvise perfectly fine!" his little brother said defensively.
Sirius felt a grin break apart his face, the first real smile he had had since he had first told Regulus all his secrets again, when they were once again brothers.
"Really? Remember when I was nine and you were seven, and we accidently broken Granddad Arcturus' vase playing quiditch in the house?" Sirius asked amused.
Regulus blushed, and looked away, clearly refusing to answer.
"He demanded to know what happened and you said 'it wasn't us, a stampede of Hippogriff came in and knocked the vase over and that he should be happy that we weren't harmed" Sirius said, letting out a bark-like laugh.
"Okay, so maybe I am no good at improvising" Regulus admitted reluctantly "See you Siri"
"Bye Reg, meet me in the astronomy tower tomorrow at two am, yeah?" Sirius asked and his brother nodded in reply before leaving the compartment.
When Sirius came back from his talk with Regulus, he smiled widely at his friends as he sat down. James was demanding a rematch of Chess with Peter, who exclaimed that he had won the last three games and James should just accept that he wasn't going to win, while Remus clutched his sides, laughing.
"How longs this been going on for?" Sirius asked Remus with an amused smile.
"Well I went to the toilet, but I got back five minutes ago and they were mid argument when I got back" Remus choked out between laughter.
"No, I don't want to play again, you owe me three galleons, now pay up" Peter demanded.
Sirius looked up in surprise when James didn't reply. James was the most stubborn person Sirius had ever met, so it was highly unusual for him to give up in an argument. Usually when he lost a bet to Remus or Peter in chess he would keep demanded a replay until they finally gave up and decided he didn't have to pay them.
The answer to James' silence became apparent instantly and Sirius smirked.
Lily Evans was standing in the door way, her fiery red hair plaited and her emerald green eyes looking into the compartment and she did not look happy.
"Evening Evans" James greeted, reaching a hand up to ruffle his already messy hair and Lily rolled her eyes.
"Hello Potter" She said simply, before turning to Remus, missing the delighted grin on James face from being acknowledged, and Sirius was surprised to see her glare at him instead of James "Prefects were supposed to start patrolling the train ten minutes ago, you didn't forget did you?" Lily demanded, narrowing her eyes at Remus.
Sirius, along with James and Peter, looked over at Remus shocked. For the first time Sirius noticed the shiny red badge pinned to his chest, matching the one that was pinned to Lily's robes.
"Oh, right, sorry Lily" Remus stuttered and immediately got up and left the compartment with Lily, he never had been that good with conflict.
Sirius sat at the Gryffindor table, glaring at his empty golden plate. He was so hungry, he had been in trouble for the past week and since his parents had most of the family over, Regulus wasn't able to sneak him any food. It seemed as though the sorting took longer and longer each year.
Finally, as Gregory Zabini, was made a Slytherin, the food appeared and Sirius quickly began to fill his plate. Soon the marauders began to talk, the pranks they were going to pull, James' plane to, yet again ask out Evans and the fact that Peter had a crush on Mary McDonald, who was a fellow fifth year Gryffindor.
The talk now turned to their summers, and Sirius forced himself to continue to eat, with his relaxed posture as to not show that he was uncomfortable with the topic.
"It was brilliant" Peter told them "My mum took me to Spain. It was really sunny, not like here where it rains all the time, it was honestly the happiest I ever remember seeing my mum"
"Mine was good too, the full moons were rather hard without you there, but it was alright, the whole family went out to dinner for my dad birthday, it was hilarious when my cousin's five year old daughter got angry and accidently blew up the cake" Remus laughed. "What about you Sirius?"
"Nothing much to say really" Sirius replied in a nonchalant tone "It was the same as usual"
The sad thing was that he was actually telling the truth. It was kind of depressing when Sirius realised that getting beaten and called a disgrace was becoming normal behaviour to him, he supposed that wasn't how people were supposed to react to getting abused by their parents. But it was so hard for Sirius to imagine a happy family, the closest he came to it was when he stayed at the Potters', he had been abuse since he was eight years old and first talked to that muggle, it was hard to remember a time when his body was not bruised.
He suddenly felt a stinging hex hit his back, causing him to jump, but luckily no one noticed. He turned to the Slytherin's table discretely and caught Regulus' eyes. His little brother mouthed 'three, two-' and just before he said one, he ducked under that table, after his spoon that he 'accidently' dropped.
"Protego" Sirius muttered, before quickly swishing his wand, adding his own charm to the one the Slytherin's through at the Gryffindor table.
All of a sudden the great hall, bar the teachers and Slytherins, roared with laughter. The Slytherins' skin was flashing different colours of the rainbow, and above their table floated a sign that said 'never prank a prankster' with a Gryffindor lion next to it.
Sirius looked to his brother, who was the only Slytherin whose skin was the right colour, and they shared a grin, before Sirius turned back to the marauders and began to laugh along with them.
It felt good to laugh with his friends again, but he could still feel his mother's presence in the back of his mind, her Imperius pressing down on him. he decided in that moment, that he would find a way around it, he had to, he couldn't lose his friends.
His mother had said that he had to do it before the end of term that gave him until Christmas break to break the Imperius, which was in three months' time. He knew he would certainly get the worst beating he had ever had for breaking the Imperius curse, but he would rather get punished, even die, rather than betray his friends.
Author's note: Remus has already discovered that Sirius and Regulus don't hate each other, but he is nowhere near finding out the true secret. All this has done is made him suspicious, maybe if Sirius doesn't manage to break the Imperius, Remus will actually think he is a true Black. After all, he seems to like his Slytherin brother.
