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Ever, Ever After: Treachery
"And so the ever so brave knight, Sirius, set off to find his one true love. He traveled to the distant land of Slytherin, his home country. He didn't know what he would find there, after all, he had left for a very good reason."
"Stupid wench…"
"I'm getting to that if you'd be quiet."
"Fine."
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Sirius moved quietly through the dark foliage, not wanting to wake anything up. There were more dangerous beings in this forest than the entire Gryffindor kingdom. Sirius had wanted to turn back many times, but the thought of Remus made him keep going. He wanted to know what had scared Remus so bad. Sirius knew that the root of the deep fear rested within his old residence. Not many people knew it, but he had been in line for the throne. Number twenty-five wasn't a bad number to be when royalty was murdered just for breathing wrong.
He came upon the front gates just as they were closing behind some traders. He slipped in behind them; he didn't want the word to get out that he was here. That wouldn't bode well for anyone, much less Sirius. He traversed the black cobbled stone that lined the thin and dingy streets. He preferred the large, open, and bright streets of Gryffindor to this any day.
"Have you heard? The pet is back at the castle."
"Wonder what he found."
"Couldn't have been that great. I heard he's been in the dungeons being flogged all morning."
"It doesn't do well to upset the Master, does it?" Sirius cringed as the two men cackled dryly. That didn't sound good at all. He wondered what type of pet it was and what it was supposed to find out.
"No it doesn't. Mind you, the pet hasn't always been the brightest of all beings. Stupid mutt."
"You would do well, I fear, to not speak about things you know nothing about." Sirius sucked in a breath and pulled the hood of his Cloak of Invisibility closer. Severus Snape watched coolly as the two men scampered off, muttering their apologies over and over.
The man glanced around and strode back the way he came. Sirius saw that he was going back to the castle and hurried to catch up. Maybe he could get some information from the slimy snit.
As they passed through the many passages of the castle, Sirius grew more and more worried. What would happen if he couldn't get back out? He wouldn't be able to find Remus.
Snape pushed open the door that led down to the dungeons. What was he going down there for? Sirius paused as he heard loud growling and snarling noises. Was there really some sort of pet down there?
The snarling noises got louder as they approached the inner dungeons. The sounds were almost inhuman. It was horrible to hear, really. Sirius peered around the corner slowly, not wanting to jostle his cloak. He bit back a gasp as his brain registered what he was seeing.
There was a huge snarling, drooling, screaming wolf tied up by dozens of silver chains. It was struggling to get away from its tormenters. It didn't seem to like Snape much either. It lunged toward the man, foaming at the mouth.
"Didn't I warn you about what would happen if you failed? But no, you just had to disobey." Sirius was fascinated to find that the wolf silenced, as though the beast understood what Snape was saying.
"You're so stupid. It was a simple task. Infiltrate the party. Get the little brat to trust you, scoop him up, and get out of there. Not that terribly hard. Pettigrew could've managed it! But no, you had to go and get distracted."
The wolf seemed to be trying to shrink into the stone before him. It seemed ashamed almost. The animal seemed to be almost human-like. Sirius had never seen anything like it.
"You just had to go and run into that stupid oaf! I thought you said he didn't mean anything, I thought you said that he was dumber than dumb; I thought that I could trust you with this. But I guess I was wrong. Gods, Remus, I thought we had something."
Remus? Remus was here? Sirius looked around, but didn't see the lovely brunet. Snape was still talking to the wolf in front of him. Sirius watched as Snape signaled to someone and the whips were taken away.
Behind the jailers the sun rose with an astounding clarity. Sirius didn't know you could get direct sunlight like this in a dungeon. There was a horrible snarling noise and Sirius's eyes were dragged back to the poor animal, which was now writhing even though nothing was touching it.
Sirius watched in growing horror as the snarling beast transformed painfully back into his beautiful Remus. This could not be happening, thought Sirius, not his Remus!
"Screw you, Severus." Remus gasped out as he hung against the chains that were wrapped around his thin body. Sirius turned and ran up the stairs, he didn't want to see any more. It was too painful. It all made sense now; why Remus had been talking with that dwarf, why he had been at Harry's birthday party, why he had seemed so interested in Sirius.
But wait, Sirius was a knight and knights saved people. Should he save Remus? It was rather obvious that the man didn't really want to be there. Then again, he was probably used to it by now. Sirius winced, that hadn't helped any, imagining that his poor Remus was used to being beaten.
Sirius meandered into the hallway, not noticing that there was a person there until he ran into them. Stiff hands wrapped around his upper arms, pinning him. Sirius struggled as he realized his mistake, in his haste the cloak had fallen off. He had stepped into the hall in full view.
Sirius looked down at the hands that held him and stared. He knew those fingers and he knew that ring. He was in so much trouble. Orion Black grinned nastily and whispered a malicious, "Hello, son."
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Sirius banged his head firmly against the stone in front of him. On the other side of the bars Remus winced each time. Sirius didn't care; it was Remus's fault he was in here in the first place. If he hadn't appeared before him and looked so appealing, Sirius wouldn't have been tempted to go after him.
The door slammed open and two burly guards bundled into the tiny cell with Sirius, "Come with us."
"Whatever."
"Sirius! Don't do anything stupid!" Sirius glared at Remus.
"It's too late for that, isn't it?" He felt a moment of satisfaction, and then pain, as Remus's face contorted into a hurt expression. Sirius felt himself being drug towards the stairs. He climbed them miserably.
Lord Voldemort wasn't nearly as imposing as people made him out to be. He was a skinny, bald, ugly man and Sirius was sure he knew it. Voldemort dressed himself so finely and ruled with such an iron fist that Sirius knew what the Lord thought of himself.
"So, Sirius has seen fit to return to us, as a spy. Very disappointing. Your brother was a much better fit, although that ended in disaster as well. Your sons are rather disappointing, Orion."
"I'm sorry, my King."
Sirius nearly hurled as he watched his father bend to this madman's will. It was disgusting really. He spared a glance around the hall and his eyes were caught on a little blonde in the corner. The poor thing was clearly scared to death. His grey eyes were wide and his little fists were clenched into Lucius Malfoy's robes. His son, then. Sirius hadn't even known Lucius had gotten married, much less have a child the same age as Harry. The boy noticed Sirius looking at him and buried his face into his father's knees. Sirius gave a little grin, for such a chicken, he was awful cute. His Harry was far braver.
"You shall be punished, you realize. There is no room for me to make exceptions. I think I'll put you with my little pet for now; you seem to know each other already. I'm sure he'll like that. He gets lonely sometimes and I know I don't pay nearly enough attention to him. He'll enjoy the company, while it lasts."
Sirius felt like killing the man before him, Remus was nobody's pet. He vaguely felt himself being returned to a cell. He sat silently, fuming, not even noticing when smaller hands brushed over his hair.
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He could feel hands running through his hair, it felt nice. No one had ever played with his hair like this, not even when he was little. Sirius leant into the warmth and sighed. The body connected to the hands stilled and then started once more.
"Why couldn't you have just stayed out of it? You would have been so much better off without me." Remus spoke quietly, gently petting the silky locks underneath his hands. His body still hurt from the beating it had taken earlier, but he was used to it by now.
"How?"
"How, what?"
"How did you come to be here?" Sirius ran a hand up Remus's arm, it was almost involuntary but Sirius didn't feel as though he could leave Remus alone.
Remus sighed, but began his story "I was six when my parents were killed. I didn't really understand what had happened, but I was taken here, to work off my parents' debts. I was supposed to be a kitchen worker. Tom Riddle, the man you know as Lord Voldemort, saw me and took an interest. A rather unhealthy interest, might I add."
Sirius's head shot up. Remus couldn't be saying what Sirius thought he was saying, could he? Remus smiled softly and shook his head at Sirius's shocked look.
"It's not what you're thinking. He decided to experiment on me instead. Sort of a human genome project if you will. He's got a very sick mind. He started playing with the way my body grew and I ended up morphing into something completely different than what he expected."
"The wolf."
"Yes. Well you can imagine what happened after he found out what had gone on."
Remus talked long into the night, telling Sirius all about what had happened to him as a child and how Lord Voldemort had come into power. It was a terrible thing to listen to, but Sirius sat quietly, only interrupting when he thought it was absolutely necessary.
They fell asleep wrapped in the others arms, wondering what would happen to them and if they would ever make it out all right. It hadn't even occurred to Sirius to try and find a way to contact King James. He knew that James wouldn't think twice about leaving Remus behind. James wasn't cruel but he didn't think beyond the proverbial box, it wouldn't occur to him until it was too late. James was a bit dim like that. Sirius could only hope that Lily raised Harry to be less of a ditz.
A/N: Done now. A lot shorter than I wanted, but there you go.