Sirius doesn't take his eyes off Bellatrix as she walks away, shoving the already wrinkled picture deep into her pocket.
"Brother?" James asks, "You've never mentioned having a brother."
"Regulus." Sirius says. Then he sets off toward the door his cousins entered in.
"Wait!" Remus says, grabbing Sirius's arm and stopping him. "You can't go in there, who knows what they'll do."
"I have to!" Sirius practically shouts.
"Then we're going with you." James said. Sirius shakes his head.
"You can't! I have to see what she wants on my own. It's a Black thing." And with that Sirius rushes away from his friends, not giving them time to protest. He makes his way to the side door, he's positive Bellatrix and Narcissa will be waiting just on the other side for him. He can picture Bellatrix in the small entrance room leaned casually against a wall, flicking her wand and spinning it between her fingers. Narcissa will be standing, one hand on her hip as she watches Bellatrix, waiting to be told what to do.
Sirius pauses at the door, his hand up on the handle. His friends are right, he shouldn't go, he should ignore them. There is a chance, a very slight chance, that Bellatrix isn't really going to threaten Regulus. But then again, there's the large chance that she is. Sirius pushes the door open, his wand out but down by his side, he best he can do is shoot some generic spells that would simply throw Bellatrix off her game, but it wouldn't harm her much.
The scene is exactly how Sirius imagined it, except in his mind, he was standing a little more boldly and confidently.
"I'm surprised you actually came." Narcissa says.
"I knew he would." Bellatrix laughs, "His one weakness has always been his little brother. Though lately I'm sure his little blood-traitor friends have corrupted his mind. He probably thinks he needs to protect them too." She spins her wand casually in her hand then pushes off the wall and walks closer to Sirius.
"What do you want?" He snarls, his hand twitching, ready to send some sparks Bellatrix's way if needed.
Bellatrix tisks and clicks her tongue, "Oh Sirius, I don't think you realize just how hard your mother is taking your betrayal."
"I didn't do anything!" Sirius says.
"No? I did some looking into the Potters. The whole lot of them are blood-traitors." Bellatrix says, "And you seem to be pretty close to Potter." Sirius doesn't have an answer to that because he knows no matter what he says Bellatrix won't care.
"What does Regulus have to do with this?" Sirius asks.
"I said your mum was taking your betrayal hard. Regulus is stuck at home with her. I'm sure you can imagine how that must be. Then again, you probably can't, I don't think she's ever been this angry before."
Sirius feels a sinking sensation in his stomach, and he's sure his face reflects that feeling because Bellatrix cackles at him in that chilling way she does. "Has she hurt him?" Sirius asks, imagining his younger brother dealing with the wrath of his mum back home.
"Wouldn't know." Bellatrix shrugs, "It's left up to my imagination as much as yours."
"If I write her, will she write me back?" Sirius asks.
"I don't know. Besides, that's not really why I asked you to come here for, Sirius. Honestly your mother and Regulus are the least of my worries."
Sirius starts to get really frustrated. Through clinched teeth he says "Then what do you want?"
"For you to stop doing stupid things that scar the House of Black. Don't think I didn't hear about your little stunt, getting locked in a classroom? After the sorting ceremony the House of Black started to be looked down on; but now you can't even walk around the castle without being an embarrassment to the entire Black name. It's bad enough we have Andromeda walking around, acting all high and proper, but at least she doesn't flaunt that she rubs elbows with blood-traitors and is turning into one herself."
"If you haven't noticed, Bellatrix, I don't care who thinks I'm a blood-traitor. Even mother can, I don't care! And tell her to back off Regulus and I'll take whatever punishments she wants to send my way at Christmas. And if you want to take a go at me at Christmas time too then you can, but while I'm here, leave me alone!"
Sirius hadn't realize he had started yelling, drawing the attention of Professor Sprout, who was outside watering the plants. She steps inside, quickly sees that trouble is stirring, and ushers all of them back to their common rooms. Sirius isn't shocked to see his friends are waiting for him in the Grand Staircase.
"We were about to come looking for you." James says. "What happened? What did she want? Is Regulus ok?"
"I don't know." Sirius says, shoving past James because he doesn't want to talk about it. He pounds his way numbly up to the Gryffindor Tower, his friends following worriedly behind him. He's through the common room and half way up to the dorm before the others even make it through the portrait hole. Sirius pulls out some spare parchment and his quill, he doesn't even bother going to the desk he just sits on his bed and uses his nightstand, and he quickly writes out a letter to his mother. The others stand in the doorway, watching Sirius cautiously. Once he folds the parchment up James decides to ask him what's happening.
"Who are you writing? Your brother?"
"Mum." Sirius says, "Remus, can I borrow an envelope?" Remus nods.
"Sirius, the sun is going down, we can't be out of the school at night. You'll have to go to the Owlery in the morning." Peter says, but Sirius just pushes past him and down the stairs.
James doesn't hesitate and instantly follows his friend. Remus and Peter glance at each other, but decide it's best to make sure their friend doesn't do anything stupid. So they follow.
The four of them make it all the way out of the castle with no problems, James walks beside Sirius. They don't talk to each other and by time they reach the Owlery the sun has set but the moon cast plenty of light in the cloudless sky
Sirius looks around for the Black Family Owl, but doesn't see it. "Oy, you!" He points at one of the owls sitting high up on a perch, "Get down here!" The owls hoots but then does as told. "12 Grimmald Place, London, got it?" The owl blinks at him, but then sticks it's leg out so the letter can be attached to the clasp.
Once the owl flies out the window James finally decides it's safe to speak. "Is your brother ok?" He asks. Sirius shrugs, then says,
"I don't know. I just wrote mum, asking her stop ignoring me and to take her anger out on me instead of Regulus."
Remus stands uncomfortably, what will Sirius's mother do? What will Sirius have to endure when he goes home for holiday? Remus can't help but ask; "What will your Mum do?"
Sirius shrugs, "Whatever she pleases, she's quiet a screamer, that alone is enough to make your ears bleed." Remus can tell Sirius is trying to joke a little about the situation, to not make it seem like it'll be so bad back home. But Remus can't help but start to worry for his friend.
"It's getting really late." Peter says, standing by the doorway and glancing outside.
"Peter's right." Sirius says, "Sorry I went a little mental. We can go back up to our dorm. I won't know anything new until breakfast anyway." They all start to head up back to the castle, when they make it back up to the castle, Remus grins to himself for placing a rock in the door, so it wouldn't close and lock them out.
"We don't want a repeat of the classroom incident." He says. They make their way to the Grand Staircase, and it's James that spots the caretaker, Mr. Filch. He holds his hand out, blocking the others from walking forward. He signals toward Mr. Filch.
"We have to take another way back." James whispers.
"How?" Peter asks. "We only know this way."
James blushed a little, then whispered, "I may have found another passage that night after my detention."
"What!?" The other three all ask at once. James shushes them and glances back at Filch, who is climbing the stairs up to the third floor, but he doesn't leave staircase, he stands silent and listens for students who are out of bed.
"You were suppose to tell us!" Sirius hisses quietly, shoving James a bit.
"I drew it out in Remus's notebook."
"You did not." Remus says.
"Did too!" James snaps back.
Sirius holds his hands up, bringing peace keeper between the two, "Let's not argue about it right now. We can pound James later for not telling us, right now lets go." James leads them down a back corridor and up a couple flights of stairs until the are almost to the hospital wing. "How'd you find it?" Sirius asks in a whisper.
"I don't think it's very secret, I saw a couple other students taking it and decided to follow them. It comes out on the fifth floor, up by the back staircase." James pulls the large tapestry away from the wall, reveling an archway and small hall. There are are no windows or light, but Remus finally mastered Lumos in Charms class and lead the way.
"You do realize," Remus says as they creep down the hall, "That we could have been using this passage to get from Defense Against the Dark Arts to Herbology."
They finally make it to the fifth floor, and have no problems going up to the Gryffindor Tower from there. It's well after midnight when they make it back to their dorm, and it isn't until closer to 1:30 AM until they all finally fall asleep.