Chapter Twenty-Five: Standoff and Knocked Out

Owls filled the air the next morning, the sheer number of them meant more people than usual were getting mail today. But Sirius who had given up on ever expecting his parents to send him anything didn't even bother to look up. James read out loud his letter from his parents which included well wishes and treats for all four of them. Peter's mom asked him a lot of questions about his grades and apparently, one of his uncles was traveling and sent him a postcard of dragons which Peter bragged about. Then a small unassuming owl landed in front of Sirius and he wasted no time in ripping open the letter, very grateful it was not a howler from his mom, though even that might be preferable to getting absolutely nothing.

Dear Sirius,

I hope you are well. I wanted to let you know that I am now the mother of one adorable baby girl, meaning you are now officially an uncle, more or less. An honorary one at least. Show this to anyone else in our family though and I won't be able to send you more updates. And yes, that includes showing your brother. This is not my real address but please send letters here as I will get the letter eventually. Tell me how you are doing and all about Regulus. Can't believe he's already in Hogwarts! Anyways you better fill me and Nymphadora (yes that's her name and no I will not change it no matter how you plead.) in. If you behave maybe, just maybe, you can visit her (as long as you promise not to corrupt my precious baby).

Love Dommie.

Somewhere along the lines, after his first squeal of happiness, James had leaned over to read over his shoulder.

"Congrats mate," he called cheerfully, slapping Sirius on the back.

"What is it?" Peter asked curiously, nearly falling into the pudding in his attempt to lean over the table. Remus, who either picked up the unnerving ability to read minds suddenly or had just done the math, grinned.

"It's your cousin, isn't it. Oh, that's wonderful Sirius."

He looked up at his friend's attempt at a smile on his far to pale face today. He looked ill but Sirius could tell he was truly happy for him which he appreciated. He dumped the envelope expecting something more and his excitement lowered just slightly, at finding nothing else.

"Yeah, it is wonderful, really the best! But she didn't send any bloody pictures. I must be allowed to properly gush over my perfect niece," he sighed dramatically, flinging himself back into James just as he was about to take a bite of toast, nearly making them both topple backward off their bench.

"You tw…"

"Hand it over Sirius."

He would have toppled backward this time if not for James quickly pulling him upright so the upside-down image of his annoying cousin righted itself.

"Weeeeeell good mooooorning to you Sissy," he replied to her with an obnoxious grin holding the paper tightly in his first. Her eyes darted to it then back to him.

"I said hand it over you annoying little toe rag," she snapped, her 'perfectly pampered face' darkened with a scowl of someone who had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. Her hand was held out as if she really expected him to just hand over the letter, and Sirius felt his temper flare.

She had already been holding Regulus over his head by not letting him see him every week even though he'd been so very good. How dare she demand his mail, she didn't have one ounce of real authority over him.

And he'd make sure she damn well knew it.

"I'm not giving it to you so you can go crawl back into whatever hole the creature's shit you smeared on your face came from."

James stifled giggles and Sirius put a very smug look on his face as his cousin's face grew splotchy with embarrassment.

"Oooooo you annoying cretin. Just give me Andromeda's letter NOW!"

That took Sirius by surprise.

"How do you know it's from her?" he asked, thinking through which of the Gryffindors, excluding his mates obviously, was her nasty little spy.

"Because, you imbecile, no one else would write to you."

"Piss off Sissy, it's just Uncle Alphie. And for your information, I have three secret Muggle girlfriends who send me sappy love letters constantly, not that it's any of your business."

Narcissa rolled her eyes, which Sirius found hurtful because he damn well could have three secret Muggle girlfriends if he wanted to. In fact, he considered getting one just to piss off his mother, maybe then she'd finally talk to him.

"Fine, but if you hear from Andromeda you better bloody tell me."

Sirius sneered at her in response.

"Careful Sissy, a proper lady doesn't speak like that," he taunted her knowing how much a reference to her stifling lessons would irk her. Instead, she seemed to deflate slightly which almost made him feel bad for saying it. She looked like she did when she first found out her marriage would be arranged by the family. "But fuck those rules," he added. Because really all of their family rules sucked, and Narcissa looked a bit surprised, perhaps even appreciative for a fraction of a second, then scowled.

"Maybe if you did less of that you could actually be a prominent member of our noble family instead of a traitor."

Sirius lost any chance he had at maybe feeling a bit bad for the crap their 'oh so noble family' put her through.

"You….,"

She cut him off with infuriating ease.

"I don't have time to spend on your depressing loser existence. When you stop playing around with your life let me know. Your mother has decided you and Regulus will be spending your break with a private tutor in order to teach you both manners," she replied cooly, and Sirius forgot to be mad.

"Regulus too? What did he do?"

He hadn't seen his brother, mostly since he'd stopped sort of stalking him since their last meeting didn't go well. It was Sissy's turn to look smug.

"Doesn't matter. It seems like you'll see him at Christmas break so I guess you'll find out then."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue but once more she cut him off.

"Anyways if you hear from Drommie you better let me know."

Sirius glared at her, all the hate he felt for his sick nasty family directed at her since she was the one that was there and antagonizing him.

"Even if Andromeda died I'd never tell you a thing. I'll take every last letter of hers to my grave and you'll never find her, never see her again, never speak to her again. YOU betrayed her," he snarled, fully expecting, and hoping, she'd slap him so she could get her ass sent to detention. Instead, something close to grief flashed through her eyes, which must have been imagined on his part, and she spun around leaving quickly.

"Good Riddance! A fat lot of help you all were," he snapped, rounding on his friends. Peter straightened from hiding under the table and James just shrugged and continued buttering his toast. Sirius noticed though there was far too much butter since James hardly liked any, which hinted that his friend had been stressed and paying attention which made Sirius feel a bit better.

"You said I couldn't hex her and I'm not getting involved in your messy family business. Besides you seemed to handle her well enough."

Sirius wanted to be annoyed at James but figured his friend had been ready to have his back if needed and appreciated his vote of confidence too. He turned his sharp gaze to Remus, figuring out of all his friends he'd have interjected, only his friends' eyes seemed glazed and he looked altogether even more unwell than he had moments before.

"Remus?"

"Sorry…..," he mumbled, "should have….said something…"

Sirius shared a worried glance with James. They had classes to attend today, meaning as today was Friday they'd have to suffer through another hour and a half of collecting the goo in shrive figs meaning they'd need to shower afterwards several times to get the smell of rotten cabbages off of them. Only looking at Remus who already looked a bit green, Sirius figured whatever was going on with his friend he wouldn't make it through that class and certainly not Double Potions today either. Remus always seemed to barely make it through potions, even with Lily now sitting next to him.

"It's ok mate. You wanna go back to the dorm? I finished eating," James offered, earning a grateful look from Remus.

"I'll come too," Sirius immediately replied and Peter gave him a hurt look.

"But I haven't finished eating," the smaller boy protested a sausage hanging off his fork.

"Then finish first and meet us there."

Peter still looked upset until Sirius leaned in and whispered this would be a good time for him to sit next to Marlene. He hoped Marlene wouldn't be mean to Peter, who he still thought was just being a cry baby about it all no matter what Remus said, but he also hoped that she wouldn't date him either.

Together he and James helped Remus, who was staggering with exhaustion despite being the last to wake, back upstairs where he collapsed into his bed falling asleep with his shoes still on.

"I'm really worried about him. I think he's sick, Probably not going anywhere this month."

Sirius had to agree, it didn't look like Remus was getting off the bed let alone disappearing to whatever mysterious place he went.

"Should we wake him for classes?" Sirius asked going over to Remus and taking off his trainers using a blanket off his bed, since Remus was laying atop all his own, to cover him up.

"If we even can," James scoffed.

Once Peter returned a few minutes later they set about doing their homework for Herbology, that they were supposed to have already done, normally finishing it a mere hour before class. It usually wasn't a problem since they'd have Remus to help them but they found themselves out of luck, barely having started the blasted things by the time they left for class.

"We should have woken him," Peter groaned.

"I've never seen him so tired and my mum says that sleep can be a defense against sickness so he probably really needs it," James explained.

"No, I meant we should have woken him ages ago to help. I don't fancy detention," Peter exclaimed and they all laughed knowing that it would take a lot more than a half-assed assignment for Professor Sprout of all people to give them detention.

"Last one there is a rotten dragon egg," Sirius shouted, taking off at a run.

"More like an infected shrivel drake." James pointed out gleefully, leaving Peter to trail behind as the three of them left their sleeping friend to sleep alone.

…...

As Sirius predicted Herbology ended in repeated showers for them, all of them letting out a sigh of relief when they found Remus still sleeping like the dead.

"I call the first shower!" James shouted, slamming the door loudly in his haste to get there first. Normally Remus would have been up if not stirring at just the sound of them entering the room, but this time even the slamming door didn't wake him.

"Peter, did you overdose him with the sleeping draught?" he asked worriedly, going over to sit on Remus' bed long enough to make sure his friend was actually still breathing.

"No, the same amount as always," replied Peter who had gotten very good at slipping Remus the nightly potion that prevented him from having nightmares and sleepwalking afterward, well lessened anyways. In other words, it allowed the rest of them at least to get some sleep.

"Weird. Well, we definitely don't need to wake him for potions. Let's go downstairs though since it's odd being in here while he's sleeping."

Peter nodded in agreement and after showers they passed the time with several games of exploding snap before lunch.

Then they went to potions which went well, no exploding cauldrons at least. Then dinner time came and went, and afterward, they played outside, came up with pranks for the Slytherins since Sirius was done not giving them what was due, and convinced some first-year Gryffindor that the toilets on the third floor would eat them if they sat down. By the time they finally returned to their dorm... Remus was still fast asleep.

"Think we should wake him now? He's slept the whole day."

"Who slept the whole day?" Lily asked, being her usually nosy self. Of course, this meant that James suddenly lost the ability to speak and since Sirius was still cross at her Peter was forced to explain, though he didn't really pay attention to what he told her, wondering if he should throw things at James to knock him out of his stupor.

"What!?"

Sirius stopped watching to see if he could see the brain cells escaping out of James' ears as his friend had once more seemed to lose all function, and turned his attention to Lily who had gone very pale.

Before Sirius could ask her what her problem was she was dashing away up into the boys' dorms of all things!

"Oi!' Sirius shouted after her but she didn't stop. He kicked James' leg roughly. "I think she's going to wake Remus."

"But why? I mean it's weird he slept all day but she looked so alarmed," Peter pointed out frowning.

"Huh? Well….I mean Lily worries about everything so that's probably….," James quit talking though as Remus came running down the stairs as if someone was chasing him. Sirius started laughing since he figured it was Lily and he was escaping her nagging. Only Remus didn't run over to them with either disapproval at them letting him sleep all day or worry at what he had missed. No, instead he ran right out the portrait nearly running into it as it opened in his haste.

Sirius knew something was wrong even before Lily came back down trying to look calm and nonchalant.

"Come on!" he called out to James who didn't need to be told twice and was on Sirius' tail, the two of them narrowly missing Lily who looked like she had been about to chew them out for something. Well, he supposed Peter would have to suffer through her nagging alone, poor guy. He would have even let Peter come with them, only their friend knew what they were doing and that he wasn't supposed to come so he hadn't even tried.

"Hurry James," Sirius muttered, running through the hall as James fumbled with his bag, trying to tug out the invisibility cloak he had luckily stored in it all day, tucked away safely between his two textbooks.

"In here," James instructed quickly, dragging Sirius around a corner into a hidden little alcove throwing the cloak over them before they continued. It was getting late, about six, so there weren't too many students not in their dorms or still outside. It made their chance of finding Remus slightly better, but only just.

"Sirius, I don't see him," James gasped after they had run around the whole school a good three times.

"Shh, I'm looking."

"Sirius we weren't fast enough."

"Shut up James if we just…"

"Sirius."

He knew James was right and he tore off the cloak, screaming in frustration, and caused two Ravenclaw first years to scream in horror and run away.

"Let's go back," James said, gently touching Sirius' arm. Scowling Sirius followed James, his mood bleak. They found Lily still lecturing Peter about something which soon became apparent as they got closer.

"Honestly Peter it's very irresponsible to let your friend sleep through classes."

"Is that why he ran out of here like a bat out of hell?" James asked, sounding dubious. Apparently, his current concern for Remus trumped getting distracted by Lily.

"Yes, I told him we had a potions project due, and if he hurried Slughorn would probably let him make it up."

"That's why he won't return for several nights then?" Sirius asked angrily, knowing that Lily knew and that she knew he knew she knew. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"If he goes to visit his mother afterward then that's his business."

"Because he'd choose to go now and miss the visitors arriving tomorrow?" James asked, sounding angry too.

Maybe now he'd believe that Sirius knew that Lily knew something they didn't. Or maybe not, his friend could be such a stubborn fool sometimes, especially if it had something even remotely to do with Lily.

"Again that's between him and his parents," she sniffed, though looked a bit uncomfortable now and walked away from them before they could interrogate her further. Peter slumped letting out a heavy sigh.

"Lily can be nice but she can also be…."

"An arse…"

"I was going to say stubborn…"

"That too," Sirius muttered wondering if there was some way he could just get her to tell them. "James would you be opposed if we used truth serum on her?"

To his credit, James only hesitated just slightly before shooting down the idea. There had to be some way though, there just had to be.