I promised I'd get the second chapter up fast and so I have. I had it mostly finished but i still had some work to do and so i cracked down and got it done! I don't know how well this chapter was written, i don't feel as satisfied with it as i do with the others so i'm not sure if it's all that good. tell me what you think. Please comment and and most of all enjoy! :)
It didn't seem to matter how many days passed, the weather stayed the same. After the stint in the tower cell, Sirius was much more subdued than before and things only seemed to get worse. Before long half the year was over and he hadn't noticed. He grew quiet and withdrawn, speaking less and less even to himself and when the second year began he'd already gone three months without speaking.
It was in the second year that he began to sleep more. Sleep seemed about the only thing he could do and at least when he did so he was somewhat relieved from his constant state of depression. The man in gray came to visit a few times and each time delivered another high end speech about behavior and attitude. Sirius stopped listening to them. Whatever the man had to say he wasn't interested and he wouldn't be unless the words were an apology or a release.
It was in the yard that he realized how pathetic he was being. He realized Azkaban was getting to him and was disgusted with himself. He weighed the options. A fight might well be worth another turn in the tower cell if it shook him out of his sink. He looked around for someone to mess with. Rodolphus stood in a corner with his bother Rabastan. They were talking quietly. He narrowed his eyes, an old feeling coming over him. Plotting always energized him. James and he had always gotten so enthusiastic when plotting their next great escapade at school. He watched the Lestrange brothers thoughtfully. He knew what they had been accused of. The poor Longbottoms. He wouldn't feel the slightest bit sorry in he got into a fight with one of them. Except, this time they were together and he wasn't stupid enough to pick a fight with both of them. He continued to look around the yard. Dolohov was in a corner with several other death eaters but he wouldn't mess with that.
It was beginning to grate him when he decided he would have to do with the Lestrange brothers. He got up and stalked over to them. Rodolphus turned. "What do you want?" He asked.
Sirius shrugged. "Nothing much, just wanted to ask you how you were getting on." He watched cautiously, waiting to see how aggressive they would be towards him.
The Lestranges exchanged paranoid looks. "And why do you want to know?" Rodolphus sneered. "Well, we're practically family, aren't we? I was just keeping up."
"Don't make me laugh. We aren't family." Sirius pretended to be hurt by his words. "Your wife and I are cousins, doesn't that count for something?" Rabastan laughed harshly. "You're a filthy blood traitor, you're no family to her and certainly not to us."
He made a face. "Ah well, I suppose you're right. She and I never did get along. I've always had a problem with the crazies, if you know what I mean."
Rodolphus cracked his knuckles. "That's my wife."
"And she's crazy. Course, she'd have to be to marry you."
"You know who's crazy?" Rabastan sneered, speaking for the first time. "The Longbottoms. Friends of yours, weren't they?" He laughed. "Lunatics now." He mimed several crazy faces and made blabbering noises. "Nutters to the core from what I hear." Rodolphus gave a nasty, grunting laugh from beside him.
And that was all it took. Sirius lunged at him, totally ignoring the other Lestrange. He knocked Rabastan to the ground and ht him. Like his brother, the death eater was useless when to came to using fists and Sirius took full advantage of it. "You disgusting-" He was cut short by Rodolphus kicking him off of his bother. He rolled over and popped up before they could do anything else. "I take it back. You and your crazy wife are no relatives of mine. You make me sick."
Rabastan straitened up, trying to pretend he still had some of his former dignity. Sirius spat at them. "Why did you come over here, Black?" Rodolphus asked. "Did you come to start a fight?"
Sirius glared at them. "Death Eater scum." He muttered.
"Yeah, you can call us that." Rabastan sneered. "But to the wrest of the world, you're one of us. You should have seen Bellatrix's face when she read in the paper you'd been arrested. She said that if the thought of you here in Azkaban hadn't been so funny to her, she'd have gone down to the ministry to sort it out herself. She said that it was an insult to have mixed you up with us. I have to agree."
Rage boiling over Sirius said: "I agree too. I've never been so insulted in my life."
"You talk big but I bet the dementors have you pissing yourself every night." He hissed. "Maybe, after the Dark Lord comes back and we all get out of here, maybe we'll leave you here. Maybe we'll leave you here all by yourself with the dementors. You like attention, Black you should enjoy that."
Sirius cringed ever so slightly at the thought. "You really think he's coming back? He's gone. He'd dead and he's going to stay that way."
And this time it was Rabastan who attacked first. He flung himself at Sirius, fists flying like crazy. "Don't you dare say that, you filthy blood traitor! Don't you dare say that! Mud-blood lovers like you are the reason wizards have sunk so low!"
Sirius threw his arms up for protection, glad he'd finally gotten a rise out of one of them. He darted away from Rabastan's assaults and laughed, infuriating the Death Eater even more. "You're not very good at this, haven't you ever been in a fight before?" He laughed again, feeling rather good about himself. "No, of coarse you haven't! Bellatrix fought all your fights for you, didn't she?"
At last Rabastan managed to get in one good hit and he sent Sirius spiraling to the ground. The Death Eater was about to hit him again when a blast of light hit him in the chest and he fell back. Next to Sirius, Rodolphus hit the ground too, avoiding being hit with a wand blast. Sirius looked up. He eyed the guard suspiciously and then proceeded to yell about how he had been attacked.
"Help!" He yelled. "They attacked me! They tried to kill me, I was only defending myself, honest!" He said, rather convincingly too. He made a show of pretending to be hurt. He wasn't gong back in that tower cell again if he could help it. He glanced at Rodolphus who looked outraged and smirked.
The guard began helping him up and even though his hands were bound with magic he was still satisfied that the Lestranges would have it worse. They were still pinned to the ground at wand point looking furious. "Don't think this is over, Black!" Rabastan yelled but he was stopped by a silencing charm. Sirius flashed them a grin. He had the very childish temptation to stick his tongue out but refrained, still pretending to be a victim.
He was ushered into the man in gray's office. He had not seen the man in almost half year but was not surprised that he had managed to become even more bland and distasteful. He eyed Sirius as though he had a million other things he wanted to do before speaking to him and dying was one of them. "What did he do?" He asked looking irritated.
The guard fidgeted uncomfortably. "He got in a fight. I'm not sure how it started but he got beaten up." He gave Sirius an odd look and shrugged. "I broke it up."
The man in gray sighed. "Mr. Black, it's been over a year since we had any problems from you, could you tell us why you feel the need to cause them now?"
Sirius frowned. "I didn't start this."
"It's true sir," The guard said. "I only saw Mr. Lestrange attack him."
"Yes, I'm sure Mr. Black had nothing to do with it." The man in gray snapped. "I've too much work to deal with this. Black, you loose yard privileges for the next three months, take him back to his cell and put Lestrange in a tower cell."
Even as he was escorted back, Sirius couldn't help but feel he'd gotten a lucky break. He was damn lucky not to be up in a tower cell like Rabastan. He didn't feel guilty at all. No matter what he'd said or what kind of punishment the Lestranges got it would never equal what they had done to the Longbottoms.
