Hi, disclaim disclaim disclaim... can't be bothered to write it out any more, you know the score. Hope you like the chapter, please R&R
"Hey, look who it is Padfoot," said James, nodding his head towards someone behind Sirius, Sirius turned to see who it was and groaned, he liked Regulus best when he was trying to disassociate himself from his blood traitor brother.
"What do you want Regulus?"
"Why is your name on the list of people staying for Christmas?"
"Because I don't fancy spending two weeks with our psychotic parents and deranged house elf thank you very much."
"Mother and Father aren't psychotic, they're just a bit old fashioned, and Kreacher is not deranged, if you just treated him with a little more respect he might warm to you."
"Well fancy that, a mini Death eater advocating house elf rights," laughed James.
"They make better servants if treated well," said Regulus simply, "and I wasn't aware I was talking to you Potter."
"I don't need your permission to voice my opinion, now go run along back to little Slytherin friends and leave the big boys alone."
"Save it for the Quidditch field Potter. Anyway Sirius, Mother and Father will want you to come home, we're going to have guests."
"They don't own me, I can do what I want."
"You're not of age yet Sirius."
"I'm old enough to make up my own mind about who I want to spend my holidays with, and since my friends are all staying here it's no contest really."
"Christmas is time for family Sirius, and you can't chose your family."
"Yes you can, Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus chose to disown Andromeda so I can choose to disown all of you lot."
"If you don't start being more careful Sirius you will get disowned, and you won't be so blasé about it then."
"Why are you so scared of our Mother and Father Reg? You're your own person, and you're a better person by far than they are, still a scum bag Slytherin but then again so was Drommie, and she turned out alright, she's doing great now that she's escaped her parents. All it takes is just a little bit of standing up to them Reg, you don't need to be the person they want you to be."
"I have to Sirius, don't you understand, if you do get disowned I'll be the last Black left, it'll be up to me to carry on blood line and our family's reputation, or we'll end up falling into destitution like so many of the other old families. Did Mother not tell you about what happened to the Gaunts? A perfectly respectable family, descendant's of Salazar Slytherin himself, gone to pot because of generations of recklessness. And thanks to you it's all on me now, while you're off gallivanting with your friends I'm the only one actually thinking about the future."
"Thinking about the future? And by that I suppose you mean getting in with all the future Death Eaters now right? Nice career plan Reg."
"Well someone has to get in with the right people Sirius," said Regulus, bending over so has lips were by Sirius's ear and lowering his voice so no one else could hear, "you and Andromeda, you have no idea why we're doing this, me and Cissy, we're not all like Bella, we're doing this to protect you."
"I don't need protecting!"
"Yes you do!" cried Regulus, abandoning his attempts to preserve some of his family's privacy, Sirius would only tell half of Gryffindor about their argument anyway, "You just stroll through life, thinking you're invincible, never thinking to look over your shoulder every now and again, making enemies for the sake of it, one day you're going to pay for your carelessness! You mark my words!"
"And one day you are going to pay all the muggle borns you've hexed, because I will make you pay for it," said Sirius drawing his wand.
"I don't want to fight you Sirius."
"Too bad, you're making your fair share of enemies too Reg, and guess what, I'm one of them, Flipendo!"
"Protego!"
"Go away and never speak to me again Regulus, you are not my brother."
The Slytherin opened his mouth as if to say something back to his brother, but he merely bit his lip, turned around and stormed off into the Entrance Hall.
"Regulus!" called a voice from behind him, but not the one of his brother.
"What do you want Severus?" he asked, not turning around, he did not want Severus to see that his eyes were red with restrain tears.
"It's alright Reg, I'm not going to have a go at you for fraternising with your blood traitor brother."
Regulus turned around and saw that Severus's black eyes were filled with sincerity.
"I know it's useless, I know I should just give up and cut ties with him, but he's my brother! I can't help but care for him. My cousin Bella says the Dark Lord only wants those who will give anything for the cause, but I can't be like her, I'm trying but I just can't."
"It's because you're right, you're doing it for a different reason."
"The wrong reason."
"Maybe, but isn't it better than doing it for no reason at all? Look at that buffoon Crabbe, or that complete idiot MacNair, they don't even know why their doing this, at least we have a reason right?"
"You love her don't you," said Regulus quietly, "that mudblood, Evans."
"No I don't," said Severus quickly.
"You can tell me," said Regulus, "come on you know I won't tell Avery or Mulciber or anyone else, we're in the same boat you and me, sort of. We're doing this for the same reason at least."
"She's not like the others," said Severus, staring into space and clearly not paying attention to a word Regulus had just said, "she's different, do you think any else will ever see that? I mean, she's such a talented witch, do you think the others will ever see that she's not like the rest of them? Do you think they'll spare her?"
"It's our job to make sure they spare them. Maybe if we get high up enough, if we earn favour from the Dark Lord himself, maybe he might spare them, for us?"
"Maybe," said Severus, "there's only one way we'll find out."
"I just wish Sirius could see that I'm trying to protect him, do you feel the same about Evans?"
"I've tried to explain to her that this is the only way, but they're corrupted her, being in that blasted House, your brother too. They can't see that sometimes you have to do unpleasant things to get ahead. And that's why we need to protect them, because without us you know what will happen to them don't you?"
Regulus nodded.
"Is she really different from the other mudbloods?" Regulus asked, Severus got even more stick for fraternising with that girl than he did for fraternising with his brother, Regulus sometimes wondered whether it was worth it, he wasn't tied to her in the same way that he was tied to Sirius, he could easily just walk away.
"Yes, she's the brightest in our year, in fact she wipes the floor with most of the purebloods, sometimes I wondered whether she's actually adopted or something, to be that good and come from a muggle family. Look, what you've got to understand Reg, is that I knew Lily since we were both very little, before I was old enough to understand about blood purity, so even though I understand now I can't help but hold onto the way I've always felt about her."
"I suppose that's why I can't bring myself to let go of Sirius," said Regulus, "I know it's stupid, irrational, but there are worse things we could do right?"
"Right."
"Do you promise you won't tell anyone?"
"Of course, and you?"
"I suppose we've each got something on each other, if one of us tells the other will too, and then we'll both go down," said Regulus pensively.
Severus looked at Regulus, here was someone who couldn't possibly betray him, not because of any bond of friendship, or noble pact, but because of something much stronger, the bond of mutual reliance. Here was someone he could trust.
Meanwhile back in the Great Hall Sirius was still fuming, the entire school had gone quiet save for the occasional whisper. All eyes were on the handsome Gryffindor, standing staring out of the double doors with a fire of rage in his eyes.
"Sirius?" said Peter tentatively, tugging at his robes, "sit down Sirius, people are staring."
James however took a different tactic, he stood up and climbed onto the Gryffindor table and then yelled at the top of his voice.
"Oi! Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to stare?! Haven't you got anything better to do?!"
Then he jumped down onto the other side of the table and grabbed Sirius's arm and pulled him towards the door, muttering nothings under his breath to his friend. Peter got up and ran after them and Remus too climbed over the table and followed, expecting a reprimand form Lily or one of the teachers but none came, either everyone had been stunned into silence, or they understood that Sirius needed his friends right now, all of them.
When Sirius saw Snape talking to his brother in the Entrance hall his first instinct was to reach for his wand, unfortunately James had pre-empted that moved restrained his arm, so all that passed between the two brothers was a moment of awkward eye contact, Sirius's eyes livid with anger, Regulus's desperate for understanding.
"Come on," muttered James, as he pulled him towards the staircase.
"What did he say to you?" asked Peter, "when he whispered in your ear and you got all angry?"
Sirius made a noise in his throat that sounded like a growl.
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," said Remus, as James gave an exasperated look to Peter.
"He said that he was joining the Death Eaters to protect me," said Sirius slowly, "he said that I am the reason he is joining them."
"That's not true mate," said James, "he's joining the Death Eaters because he's a nasty little Slytherin rat bag."
This time Remus gave James the look that said 'shut up, you're not helping' so James raised his eyebrows momentarily with a look in his eyes that meant 'you say something then, you're the one who's good at this sort of thing'. Some people found it remarkable that the Marauders were able to communicate like this, if asked about it Remus would always say that it comes more naturally than talking when you know someone so well that you know how they think, he always maintained that they only surprise was that two people who loved talking so much would ever set much in store by such a method of communication. But even James Potter, who could talk for England, knew that sometimes words could ruin a moment, sometimes something more subtle was called for.
Remus put his hand on Sirius's shoulder and the two of them sank down to the floor and leant against the wall.
"It's not your fault," said Remus, "you're not the reason, you tried to save him, but it was you against the world. Everyone else was either trying to lure him into the Dark Arts or had written him off as a lost cause as soon as he was Sorted and so never bothered to try and stop him."
"Why do they even have Slytherin? They should just expel the bastards that get in there! That's solve it, he told me the Hat almost put him in Ravenclaw but he went and asked to be put in that bloody House. I tell you if ran this school I'd just get rid of the lot, any good ones like Drommie would be able to get into another House I'm sure, and that's just leave all the bastards like Snivellus, and then I'd just send all straight back on the Hogwarts Express. If he's have been in Ravenclaw he would have been fine! He was never as bad as my parents or Bellatrix. I just can' believe that he could have got away from it all but he chose to just jump right in and now he can't get out. And if I'm the reason that he did that... then I'm the reason that he hexed all those muggle borns, and if does join the Death Eaters, and he kills people, then I'll be the reason their dead!"
Sirius put his head I his hands and Remus patted him on the back like Sirius did to him when he was miserable.
"Come on mate, you're starting to sound like me," Remus laughed quietly, "not everything comes back down to you, there are more forces at play here, and not all of them are even working inside Hogwarts, can't you see that you've done something amazing just by getting Sorted into Gryffindor and making friends with muggle borns and even werewolves after being raised to think we're all scum of the Earth? If all these lives that are being taken, if all these people being injured comes down to one person then it comes down to this Voldemort guy, not you."
"Well there's only one thing to do then," said Sirius, "as soon as we leave school, we're going to hunt down Voldemort and kill him, and if I can help it I'm taking Bellatrix and Snivellus and Malfoy and Mulciber and all the other people who made Reg what he is with me."
"Definately," said James.
"We're with you all the way mate."
Remus just nodded, but Sirius could tell that that nod meant just as much as James and Peter's enthusiastic words, possibly even more.