"So." James started. "Regulus has children. Does that mean he married that horrid woman that your parents had intended for you?"
"James!" Sirius yelled, smacking his friend in the back of the head. "That horrid woman happened to be my cousin and she was lovely!"
"She was horrid and you know it. I don't care that she was your cousin. In fact, that actually makes your family a tad worse. Damn inbreeding blood purists."
Lily and Nash were at Diagon Alley finishing their Christmas shopping and the children were off playing Quidditch, along with a crew of their friends that had Flooed in (Electra had volunteered to magic the makeshift Quidditch pitch so that it stayed warm and dry – a rather useful spell that Sirius suspected was essential to surviving at Durmstrang). Sirius was sitting in the kitchen with James and Remus, the three men enjoying a wonderfully aged bottle of expensive Firewhiskey.
"She looks just like you, Sirius. That had to be disconcerting for Regulus. I mean, you two always looked like brothers, but Electra looks as though someone transfigured an 18-year-old you into a girl." Remus remarked.
"Do you think that's why they sent her to Durmstrang? She reminded Regulus too much of me?" Sirius asked. He had been wondering that since he learned that the girl didn't attend Hogwarts, but rather the school famous for the Dark Arts education it provided. "I know that probably sounds arrogant."
"You always sound arrogant, Siri. I reckon it's an occupational hazard of being raised as the heir to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black." James reasoned. The three men laughed, and Sirius raised his glass for a toast. The trio clinked their glasses, drained them, and then sat in companionable silence.
After about ten minutes, Remus spoke up again. "You know, I can't help but wondering what Peter's reaction to Electra would be."
"Probably a combination of disdain and shock at how awful my family is. He always did hate when the topic arose."
"You were so good at hiding it, though. I mean, logically, we knew your family was awful after the Howler your mother sent when you were Sorted, but none of us knew that they were actually abusive until what, the beginning of fifth year? Sometimes I think it's a miracle that you turned out to be a decent human being." Remus tells him quietly, thinking about the first night he found out that Sirius's parents starved him, beat him, tortured him, cursed him.
"Sirius. You're upset." Remus had said to the sulking heir. Sirius was sitting on the top stair of a staircase in an unused part of the castle. It had taken Remus nearly two hours to find him.
"Wow. Observant." Sirius muttered, his voice dripping with contempt and sarcasm.
"Something happened over the summer." When his friend hadn't responded, Remus had sat down next to him, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. Sirius moved closer to the warm boy, half snuggling into his side and dropping his head on the werewolf's shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really, but I get the feeling that you're going to make me anyways. Besides, you wouldn't understand. Your parents love you"
"Sirius. I understand not wanting to talk about something. Mate, there is something huge about me that only approximately eight people – nine including myself – know. But I am going to ask you again to talk about it, because it seems as though it's something major and dangerous. So. Would you like to talk about what's bothering you?"
"Have you ever thought about what the Cruciatus Curse would feel like?"
"I can't say that I have. Why, have you?"
"Yeah. I was wrong. It feels nothing like I imagined."
"Sirius, what are you talking about? Were you so curious that you tried it on yourself? Because I've read that performing it on yourself produces vastly different effects than having someone else put you under the curse."
"Do you really think I'm mad enough that I would use Crucio on myself?" Sirius's voice broke on the word Crucio, and Remus began to put together what his friend was saying.
"No. I think your father's mad enough to use it on you. Sirius. Look at me," Remus said gently, putting two fingers under the other boy's chin and raising his head. "Sirius. I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to be completely honest with me. Okay?"
"Okay." His voice was shaking and tears were falling.
"Was that the first time your father has ever hurt you?" Sirius stared at him for a beat, before slowly shaking his head. Remus removed his hand from Sirius's shoulder, and instead wrapped his arm around his waist.
"Remus, I…" Sirius started, his voice trailing off. He began leaning towards . . . .
"REMUS!" James shouted, drawing Remus back to the present. "What on earth is going on in that brilliant mind of yours?! I've been shouting your name for entirely too long."
"James, you think any amount of time that someone isn't paying attention to you is entirely too long."
"True." James agreed, laughing. "Sirius, I've a question for you. You don't have to answer, of course."
"Go for it." Sirius was refilling all three of their glasses.
"The motto, that's burned on your arm. You said Electra has it, too. Does it hurt?"
"Not so much anymore, but it hurt like hell for nearly three years," Sirius says with a shrug. "It twinged a bit last night, right before Electra showed up, but it didn't burn nearly as much as it did for those first years."
"Why didn't you ever tell us it hurt?" Remus asks curiously.
"You were already worried about me enough, the whole lot of you. I didn't need to make your concern any worse. Besides, none of you could even see it. How was I to expect you to make it better?"
After more discussion about the branding magic, the subject changes to Christmas gifts. "I want to go shopping for Electra, but I don't want to leave her and Rom alone this close to the full. Electra's certainly on edge enough as it is, and Rom, well, you know how it is Remus, and James, you've seen Remus."
"I'll stay with them. I think Electra already trusts all of us, but I'll be able to control Rom if the wolf freaks out. I've had a lot more time to learn to control the wolf in the days leading up to the full, and the teenage years are the hardest on the wolf. They'll both be fine." Remus offered. "Sirius, I still don't understand why you adopted a six year old werewolf who had been abandoned in St. Mungo's by his parents. I mean, I'm certainly not criticising, or even questioning. I just – I just don't understand."
"Remus, how could I not? One of my two best friends is a werewolf. I've spent my entire adult life – twenty years – advocating and legislating for werewolf rights. I desperately wanted a child, but we all know that's not going to happen naturally. When you owled me that night, telling me there was a little boy, freshly bitten, whose parents had just left him there, I knew what I had to do. When you told me his name was Romulus – the counterpart to Remus – my decision was confirmed. I'd adopt every werewolf who was abandoned by his or her parents, if I could."
"You, Sirius Orion Black, have the biggest heart I've ever seen," Remus said while he closed James's mouth.
"Honestly, mate, I just figured you did it as one more way of getting back at your parents, even if they didn't know." All three men laughed again. As the laughter died down, they heard the door to the house shut with a gentle click.
"Well, I should be off. Lily's sister and her family are coming for Christmas Eve dinner, and I've been assigned to hide anything that might freak them out. I'll be around tomorrow, though." James said, standing and heading towards the fireplace.
"I'm going out to find Romulus. He'll be watching Quidditch, but not playing, so this might be a good time to chat with him." Remus also stands, and walks the opposite direction of James. He passes Electra on his way out of the house, noting that she looks overwhelmed and exhausted. He offers her a nod and a small smile, and she suddenly throws her arms around him. Startled, he hugs her back. It only lasts for a few seconds, though, before she quickly withdraws.
"I'm – I'm sorry. You just seem so kind. I'm sorry," she tells him, staring at the floor.
"Electra, don't be sorry. If your family is anything like Sirius's was, you must be starved for affection. I didn't mind that at all. Really."
"Hi, love," Sirius says with an easy smile as Electra sits down next to him. "How was Quidditch?"