Sirius thought they were going to make it to Christmas and still have her, but two weeks before, Dumbledore came to see him.
"They've come," he said softly, apologetically. "It's time for you to go, Sirius."
"Where?" Sirius asked, feeling suddenly nauseous.
"They've taken her to Lestrange Manor. I expect your cousin's doing. Go after her."
There was no need to tell him twice. Sirius pulled on his best robes and flicked his hair out of his eyes. He half wanted to arrive on his bike just to spite them, but he couldn't afford to spite anyone. If he didn't play his part perfectly, there was a lot more at stake than his own life.
He Apparated.
Sirius walked up the painfully familiar walkway, touched his palm to the gates. It burned slightly, but he knew someone would come to retrieve him. He hardly had to wait any time at all before Rabastan strolled out of the house, confidently up to the gate, smirking.
"Well, well, well," Rabastan said, grinning at him triumphantly. "Looking for someone, Black? I've got a couple of people here who might interest you."
Sirius wondered what that meant, but he said nothing. He simply kept his most controlled and commanding expression and looked back at Rabastan.
Of course, the Lestrange man had never been able to outdo Sirius for self-importance. Being the second son didn't instill the same level of impressive haughtiness, and Sirius had the talent and looks to add on top of that illustrious birthright.
"Come in," Rabastan said, cracking first, giving Sirius a mocking bow before letting him into the grounds, up the garden, into the front entryway of the grand old manor house. Sirius didn't look around at his surroundings, knowing it would take away from his demeanor, but it wasn't necessary. He could recall with crystal clear memory every portrait, every snake on the bannister, every swirl in the marble floor, every crest on the seventeenth-century ceiling. His family had always been uncomfortably cozy with the Lestrange family.
The two men went through a corridor, through a drawing room and a music room, past the side corridor to the kitchens, and into a large dining room, where a very familiar young man was trembling in agony, clutching at his bare arm. Before Sirius's eyes, the pale arm went from flawless skin to blooming with a burning black tattoo of the Dark Mark.
"Regulus," Sirius said softly, having to remind himself that he needed to keep his expression as unreadable as possible.
His little brother straightened up, still twitching with the pain of what had just happened, and he turned with horror and perhaps a tiny bit of shame to see Sirius standing before him, seeing each other for the first time since Sirius graduated Hogwarts.
"Sirius."
"Ah, yes," a cold, high voice said, and Sirius looked at something that could only be called a man in spirit. The face, the eyes, the fingers even were something almost bestial, with slits for a nose, no hair, eyes red and nearly slits, and fingers long and thin and almost bones. "The famous Sirius Black. Bella did say to expect you, but I was not certain your bait would be enough of an inducement. I see she was right about your Gryffindor sensibilities."
Sirius felt that this thing that wasn't a man, but wasn't a beast, was repulsive, yet he took a few steady, almost calm steps forward and said, "You have something I value. And I'm willing to negotiate for its well-being."
The pale, almost-lips twisted into a sinister kind of smile and the thin fingers motioned Sirius to follow him into the drawing room. He did, not sparing his brother a second glance. He could deal with that later.
"Have a seat," Voldemort said, motioning to one of the dark velvet chairs.
"I prefer to stand," he said softly. "Cara."
"The girl matters little to me," Voldemort said, amused. "But she clearly matters a great deal to you. Love, Sirius, is a weakness, whatever that fool has been telling you."
Sirius tipped his head slightly and said, "A weakness?"
"You're here, aren't you?"
Sirius allowed himself to smirk slightly and he folded his hands.
"Call it more, priorities. I would have thought you would disapprove of that sort of use of a young woman of noble bloodlines." Voldemort said nothing, waiting for Sirius to elaborate, so he dug back to the recesses of his teachings from his youth and said, "There's a kind of hypocrisy in the way the elite runs itself, as I am sure you have seen. A woman of noble bloodlines locked away her whole life in spite of having magical ability and a perfectly respectable marriage opportunity, just because she's illegitimate? The world has moved on a bit since those days, I should think, and if this portion of society doesn't adjust in a few ways, they'll die out completely." He sneered, taking full advantage of the opportunity to talk down about his upbringing. "Inbreeding? Culling perfectly healthy branches of the family tree? Restoring dusty old laws to suit when it would be more practical to simply influence new ones?"
Voldemort was amused, perhaps even pleased to hear Sirius's qualms with the pureblood elite.
"Refreshing," he said softly. "I did think there was a chance, a decent chance, that your instincts would be…practical ones. There are many reasons to leave home, after all, are there not?"
"My mother," Sirius said, "is mad."
"Indeed."
"As is my cousin."
Voldemort's lips curled.
"Indeed. Your cousin is, however, a bit more useful."
"I'm sure," Sirius said darkly. "So was our old house-elf, for certain things. But I'm not here to talk about mental health concerns, or my beloved family," he added with as much irony as he could muster. "Cara."
Voldemort sat down in one of the chairs he had previously gestured to, but Sirius stayed standing, something which seemed to amuse the monster greatly.
"Indeed. How single-minded of you. Very well. As I am sure you can gather, the more you give me, the more I give you."
"Guaranteed?" Sirius pressed. "I know my cousin, and I know what she is capable of doing. I also know you are the only one who can even begin to control her."
"Yes, I think you are very right there," Voldemort said, his eyes glittering. "Let me just say that if you uphold your part of the bargain, Sirius, I shall certainly uphold mine."
Sirius took a deep breath, running through very carefully how he had to approach this. It was important not to tip Voldemort to exactly how much he knew. It was important that there was no hint of Dumbledore's hand in anything.
"Say I want to marry her," Sirius said softly.
"And you tell me love has no part in this?" Voldemort said with a cold burst of laughter. "No, no, I see what you are about to say. Yes, there is a greater guarantee for safety for the girl if she is pregnant with your child. Well, such an event would please her silly mother to tears, and yours as well, I imagine. The wedding of Sirius Black. The society event of the decade, I should think."
"The arrangement for such a thing?" Sirius prompted.
Voldemort pressed his thin, bone-like fingers together and grinned outright before he said, "I can see a great deal of potential in you, Sirius. You can see the bigger picture, something so rare in my followers. Even more pleasant, your goal is not to upstage anyone else, no silly ambitious drivel. You merely want what you want, and you will do what you have to in order to secure that. A man I can depend upon to be what he is, as your cousin suggested. I demand loyalty, Sirius Black, something I believe you understand well."
"I do," Sirius said.
"Well, then," Voldemort continued, "it is all very simple. To marry your beloved Cara Selwyn, you must simply join me, follow me, and do what I ask of you at all times."
Sirius looked at the satisfaction this gave the monster. As he expected, selling his soul. But selling his soul to save Catherine, to protect her. It was a dance he'd never wanted to do again, but one he'd grown very good at over the sixteen years he'd been heir to the Black family fortune. A small wave of nausea flooded him, but he forced it aside, thinking as firmly as possible of how delicate and lost Catherine had been when they first woke her after finding her, when all she knew was a name that wasn't really her name. That was what he had been told to do, to think only on things that were safe when he was with Voldemort or his cousin.
"I was always taught to read the contract before signing it," Sirius said softly. "Especially in blood."
Voldemort laughed again, another cold burst as he stood with surprising grace. He crossed to where Sirius stood, surprisingly tall. His eyes were even more unsettling from so close.
"The only contracts we make here, Sirius, are a seal of sorts. You have seen it before."
"More of a brand than a seal," Sirius whispered. "That's what we call a permanent mark on the skin. At least, I assume it is permanent."
"Oh, quite. I only give freedom in death. But you expected as much."
Sirius nodded, rolling up his left sleeve, holding out his left forearm.
"So willing," Voldemort said, amused. "Different from your brother, and yet both so willing." Voldemort grabbed Sirius's arm around the wrist, his touch colder still than his voice. "You recall what happened when Dumbledore found this mark on your dear friend Peter. I trust he won't see yours."
"You want me to spy on Dumbledore?" Sirius asked, raising a single eyebrow.
"What better use for our only Gryffindor? Oh, there will be other tasks, but your friends trust you implicitly. You can rejoin society in order to marry your beloved Cara, and pretend you are spying on that society in turn, without them seeing that mark, I trust?"
Sirius realized just what a delicate game he was being asked to play, by both sides. Lies stacked on lies stacked on lies. It would be so easy to lose the truth in it all. But there was no turning back now.
"You can count on me," Sirius said confidently, not breaking eye contact with Voldemort. "My Lord."
/-/
Cara, as she was now trying to think of herself, knew well enough to do as she was told, so when her sister-in-law, Bellatrix, told her to put on particular dress robes, she did that precisely. The robes were light, flowing, and a soft shade of blue. Cara put them on and went into the corridor, suppressing a shudder.
Lestrange Manor was nothing like Sirius's flat, or the house they'd been in before that. It had none of the warmth and lived-in quality she had so appreciated from the other two places. Most importantly, and perhaps most crucially, it didn't have Sirius. She missed him, would have given worlds to be with him, but she knew what being with him would mean now.
That was why she was genuinely surprised to make it halfway down the stairway to the entrance hall only to see him, standing in the entry, looking up at her with an expression like relief.
"No," she whispered, ignoring Bellatrix, who was leading her down the stairs, long nails holding Cara's arm like a claw. "No, no, no."
"Come on," Bellatrix said harshly, yanking at Cara's arm.
"Bella," the high, cold voice Cara knew was the Dark Lord said, almost like a warning, but Cara stood rooted to the spot, too afraid to get to the bottom of the steps. If she stood before him, it would be real. This, this far away from his face, could just be a nightmare she hadn't woken up from yet.
Alas, he took a deep breath and said, so soft she nearly missed it, "Cat. Come here, please."
A pain in her chest, a sharp and agonizing pain in her chest that was probably her heart breaking. The only thing she wanted once she knew the whole of her memories was for Sirius not to do what they wanted, for all the schemes to be in vain, and yet here he was, turning in his greatest convictions for something silly like her.
Still, Cara did as she was bid, allowing herself to be led down the stairs, walking up to him at the bottom, trying not to shiver as they were watched, as he took her hand and kissed it chastely, like she knew he would have to do to court her. She felt sick.
"You look well," he said softly, gently. "Have you been well treated?"
"Yes, thank you," she said, barely recognizing her own miniscule voice.
"They will continue to treat you well," he said, his voice now hard, turning his eyes to Bellatrix, whose smug expression melted slightly under his gaze. "Is that understood, cousin?"
Bellatrix said nothing, her black eyes glittering maliciously, but the Dark Lord said, "She will be cared for with the utmost consideration, Sirius. Isn't that right, Bella?"
"Yes, my Lord," Bellatrix said fawningly.
Cara's nausea only increased.
"Come, let us give the lovers a few moments alone to reunite," the Dark Lord said, ushering everyone else out of the room, and sparing one cold smirk back at Cara and Sirius before leaving them alone entirely.
But Cara didn't feel alone. She felt as though every portion of the walls were watching her, as she had ever since being taken to Lestrange Manor.
"Sirius, please," she said, feeling a swelling desperation. "Don't do this. I'll be fine."
"If I didn't do this," he said coldly, in a voice that gave her a horrible sensation in her spine, a tone that didn't belong to him, "they would kill you without hesitation." He took both her hands in his and squeezed them firmly. "Let me do this, Cat. Please."
He pressed his forehead to hers and she melted at the warmth of him beside her. She was shaking, she could feel the trembling come through her body, and Cara wanted to beg him to leave before she let herself get used to him again. But she knew he wouldn't leave her, as horrible as it was, the things he would have to do in order to stay.
"I'm going to marry you," he said firmly. "No, don't argue. You'll be safe then. I'm going to marry you as soon as possible. It's already been decided."
"And you?" she asked softly, the smallness of her voice seeming to be swallowed in the grand, dark entryway.
"I'll do my duty," he said, winking at her, smiling. "Never you mind that. You just do yours and everything will be fine."
Her duty. She knew what her duty would be as his wife, to represent him well at functions, to be gracious and graceful and bear him children. She couldn't manage to be regal like Bellatrix's sister, but she could do her best. Sirius wouldn't mind if that wasn't quite enough. Sirius was kind.
Cara, in spite of her better judgment, rolled forward on the balls of her feet and kissed him, sighing into the kiss as he responded instantly, almost eagerly. Her mind was a whirl of nights in his flat, his breath on her skin, his fingertips turning her body to flame with the lightest of touches, the way he filled her and caused her to feel adored and desired and special.
All too soon, he was pulling away, and as if on cue, Rabastan Lestrange – her brother, it seemed – was telling her that he would be escorting her upstairs, that Sirius had some business to attend to. Cara hesitated, but Sirius nodded her on, and she went back to the little bedroom they had set aside for her since she came home. She sat at the window, feeling the sun on her skin, something her childhood had been painfully devoid of. She chewed on her lip, her stomach churning with anxiety, and yet she felt a strange calm, almost a happiness. In spite of her fear for what was to come, at least she had Sirius.
/-/
Sirius took a deep breath as soon as he stepped out of the manor house, wondering where to begin. Of course, he wanted to begin with a cigarette, but first things had to come first, and depending on what his first step was, cigarettes weren't necessarily a prudent move. Before he could decide, a small voice from behind him said his name.
He turned to see his brother, like looking in a mirror that didn't look quite right. Regulus's features were more delicate, his eyes slightly further apart, his hair just a bit lighter, his build slighter, and that air of self-importance that Sirius knew the bulk of his attractiveness came from was replaced with a slightly submissive, compliant version.
"Reg," he said. If only he had known Regulus would be there. He could have delayed this meeting a little longer. It would be just his luck to have to deal with all of these things at once.
"Never thought I'd see you again," Regulus said, his voice still so soft, just barely above the wind through the topiaries. "Left your foolish friends?"
"Doing what I have to do," Sirius said sternly.
Regulus's eyes narrowed slightly and he said, "She must be some girl. You weren't willing to do your duty for your family, but you drop everything for some girl you barely know."
"She needs me."
"I needed you!" Regulus said, almost angrily. "We…we needed you." He deflated, frowning over his shoulder at the window before turning back to Sirius. "It took me months to get the mark, and you just waltz in here and get it within the hour. Just like you always do, get exactly what you want."
"Life's not that simple, Reg. The things I want come with high price tags, these days."
Sirius could hear the tiredness in his own voice, and he rubbed the back of his neck. Regulus hesitated as well, and Sirius decided it was a good idea to kill two birds with one stone.
"Reg, I know you're angry with me, and maybe you've got a right to be." He sighed, glancing up at a window, seeing a slight figure he knew had to be Cara. "But I think before you decide to hate me forever, we should probably have a proper chat, and not in front of someone else's house. And I…I think it's time I came back and at least tried to apologize."
The thought of saying anything remotely nice to his hag of a mother made him slightly nauseous, but it had to be done, and the very notion of it surprised Regulus. The two brothers stared at each other, Sirius trying to look resolute, Regulus trying to hide his surprise and confusion. Eventually, however, the younger of the brothers held out his hand and Sirius took it, shaking it firmly, feeling almost relieved.
"Let's not waste time, then," Regulus said softly. "Let's go shock our mother."
A/N: Yup. We're about to go to Grimmauld Place. I can't express how excited I am.
Also, I'm going to give the review prompt, but then STICK AROUND because I've got some BIG and FANTASTIC news!
Review Prompt: Who's your favorite Black (by blood, not necessarily still named Black) and how do you think that person will respond to Sirius's return to the fold?
NEWS: So, on top of this story's usual reward structure, where 10 reviews in a week means an extra chapter that week, my dear friend MissRoseAlanaHorton and I have some exciting new goodies in store for you guys!
Essentially, it's a loyalty system based on this story, my story Craving Comfort, and her story, The Dark Lord's Rose. If you've not read all of these stories, they're a real treat, I promise. The other two are much longer, so you've got some backlog to get caught up on. CC is a very long story that's a slow-and-steady Severus/OC throughout the two wars. TDLR is a dark romance Riddle/OC that starts while he's at school and BIG STUFF IS GOING DOWN and I can personally recommend it wholeheartedly.
So here's how it works.
Every time you review ANY of these three stories, you get a "stamp" on your stamp card. Like at frozen yoghurt places. Twenty stamps, you get a special prize: a spoiler for the story of your choice, and an entry into our quarterly prize drawings (always on the solstice). Quarterly drawings will be things like characters named for you, coupons for free access to any original works we've got, or a free one-shot written just for you by either of us! Full list will be given before our first drawing.
More incentive to read all three stories? (As if you need more incentive, but here you go.) We will sometimes be running special weeks – first one THIS WEEK where if you review all three stories before the following Friday at 11:59 PM PST, you'll get FOUR stamps for your three reviews.
So, just for how that's relevant to you right now: All of these stories are being updated this weekend. Review all three stories by Friday, April 15th, 2016 at 11:59 PM PST and you'll get FOUR stamps to your loyalty stampcard! If you've got catching up to do, those reviews count as well!
Cheers, and if you've got any questions about this, feel free to drop me a PM!
-C