Author's Note: I re-vamped the chapter structure on July 15, 2020, to go from 11 enormous chapters to 25 reasonably sized ones. I didn't change or add anything, except fixing some typos or grammatical things, so there is no need to re-read.

Apologies if you got a message and though there was an update to the sequel. There will be one in the next day or two!

The next three weeks passed by both quickly and slowly to Sirius. Quidditch practice kept him busier than usual the first week, and on the second Saturday Gryffindor absolutely pummeled Hufflepuff five hundred and forty to two hundred and seventy. They had been up by four hundred and twenty points and many students had already left the stands before the Hufflepuff Seeker had beaten Amanda Towler to the Snitch by a long mile. All that was left for them to do was wait it out to see how badly Slytherin beat Hufflepuff in the first week of May, so the Gryffindors would know how many points they had to score a few weeks later against Ravenclaw in order to stay ahead of Slytherin and take the Quidditch Cup.

Their chances were looking good due to their high scoring game, but James was still absolutely incensed that Towler had been allowed to stay on as Seeker after his past complaints about her lackluster record. Sirius tried to remind him that there was only the Ravenclaw game left and then Towler would leave Hogwarts forever and James could take her position, but there was just no talking to Potter when he was in the throes of Quidditch-induced rage.

The following week, between their game and their detention, was perhaps the longest Sirius had experienced since the fiasco that had been his first year. They had expected to serve detention during the day while their fellow students enjoyed Hogsmeade, then sneak down to Hogsmeade at night. However, Professor McGonagall was so overjoyed by their massive victory over Hufflepuff that she'd rewarded them by allowing them to go to Hogsmeade for most of the day and come back to serve their detention that night. She had probably expected them to be ecstatic at the news, but in truth it had thrown a further wrench into their plans.

It was James who decided that the change was a blessing in disguise, as they could use their detention as an alibi if there happened to be any suspicion thrown their way. It was Sirius who was left to get his hands on somebody else's wands so that they could carry out their plan. James had suggested stealing Snape's, but Sirius had immediately shot that idea down. It would definitely throw suspicion on the two of them. After that Sirius hadn't trusted James to do it himself.

And so it was that Sirius found himself wedged into the corner of a booth at Madam Puddifoot's, between Janice and a ridiculous wall hanging of what he thought was supposed to be a cupid. He let his hand tangle in the curls at the nape of her neck somewhat roughly, tugging on them with something more than gentleness, as he had learned that she liked him to do. She sighed against his mouth, and he took advantage of her parted lips to slide his tongue inside.

He would even have really enjoyed the kiss, if his mind hadn't been entirely elsewhere.

"Janice, love, I have a big favor to ask you," he said a few minutes later, after a blushing waitress had interrupted them by rather loudly clattering a plate of cookies onto the table.

She hardly paused in her efforts to find a comfortable resting place leaning back against him. "What is it?"

Sirius swallowed convulsively and stretched his arm out towards the sweets just to give his hand something to do.

"I want to borrow your wand."

She went still. He couldn't see her face, only the top of her curly head, so he couldn't gauge her reaction.

"Why?" she asked eventually, rather more calmly than Sirius probably would have if she (or anybody) had asked to borrow his wand.

James had insisted that honesty was not the best policy in this situation, but Sirius disagreed. Janice was too smart for him to be able to pull the wool over her eyes here, and she would only be upset if he tried to lie to her. Therefore, he explained, "I need to sneak out of detention tonight. McGonagall will likely confiscate my wand, so I need somebody else's to use magic to complete whatever task she gives me. That way when she comes back she'll have no reason to think that I wasn't there cleaning by hand the whole time."

She pulled away from him and scooted along the bench until she could turn to face him properly. "Why do you need to sneak out?"

"It's just a prank, love. It'll be brilliant, because nobody can blame us for it if we were in detention the whole time." Well, partial honesty was the best policy.

Janice was clearly reluctant to hand over her wand, as any proper witch or wizard would be, but apparently her trust in him ran deep enough that she was willing to do it. About an hour later, he left her in the care of her friends at the bookshop and left with her wand securely in the deep inner pocket of his winter robes. He had told her that he was heading back to the castle to get some homework done before his detention began, but he actually turned sharply into the tight alley between the Owl Post Office and the pastry shop and made his way past the rubbish bins and around the back of the buildings.

Rabastan was waiting for him there, leaning against the grimy wall. Sirius had asked for the meeting in Hogsmeade (because Hogwarts' walls seemed to have ears), but Rabastan had suggested the location. Sirius was struck by how he looked so in his element there in the shadows, yet also so out of place with his perfectly combed back hair and thousand-Galleon dragon hide overcoat.

"Do you want my wand, too?" he asked without preamble.

Sirius gaped at him. "Wha—how—were you spying on me?"

"Yes," replied Rabastan at once. Then he took a menacing step forward, and Sirius had to fight the temptation to take a step back. "Why? And don't give me that shit your little girlfriend bought."

He hadn't been planning on hiding the whole truth from Rabastan in the first place, because he'd known that Slytherin Death Eaters—and Lestranges to boot—didn't go around handing over their wands all willy-nilly for friends to carry out childish pranks. But even if he hadn't been planning on revealing it all, he probably would have anyway under the intense stare that Rabastan had pinned him with.

"We're going to sneak back into Hogsmeade and steal some Bicorn blood and a few other things."

Rabastan looked slightly impressed and even more furious. "You're going to get yourself expelled! Or worse! Why in the name of Merlin's saggy nut sack do you need Bicorn blood anyway?"

"Bloody hell, Rabastan. I don't think the people on the other side of Hogsmeade heard you," Sirius complained, only half joking. Rabastan's heated glare quickly confirmed that he was in no mood for jokes, and Sirius rushed to continue. "I can't tell you why. And yes, I've already considered just having Bellatrix or Rodolphus get it for me, but it's a strictly controlled substance and they'd have to actually provide a good reason for needing it, which they can't. And you can't come, because you know that would ruin everything with James."

"You can't tell me why," repeated the Slytherin incredulously. "You want me to give you my wand for an illegal operation to steal a Class B controlled substance, but you can't tell me why."

Sirius didn't think it was a good idea to point out that he was really only going to use the wand to cast a few cleaning charms and maybe an unlocking spell or two, and certainly not anything nearly as illegal as the Unforgivables he'd seen Rabastan using within the very walls of Hogwarts mere weeks ago. And that Rabastan had probably actually used on people before.

Instead he said, "I'm sorry, it was stupid. I knew you wouldn't want—"

But his friend cut him off by closing the distance between them until Sirius was forced to backpedal and found himself stopped by the wall at his back.

"It's an intimate thing, you know, letting somebody use your wand. Usually only done between close family and lovers. Why would you have thought to come to me?" Sirius was too frozen by the odd, frightening blaze of Rabastan's eyes to respond, but his friend apparently took his wide-eyed silence as confirmation of something, because he smiled. "Are you going to convince me the same way you convinced the girl?"

"Wha—" began Sirius, but he was quickly cut off again with a loud, "Oomph!"

Rabastan had violently grabbed the front of his robes in one large hand and brought their mouths together in a clash of tongues and teeth. Mostly Rabastan's tongue and Sirius's teeth, at least until Sirius found himself responding almost unconsciously to more gracefully accept the invasion. Rabastan's lips were rougher than Janice's, but he was considerably less shy with his tongue, and his large, hard frame blocking Sirius in was almost too much for him to process. He had never been particularly dominant with Janice, but he realized now, by comparison, that he was the more dominant party in their physical encounters. He could only submit to Rabastan.

Rabastan released his hold on Sirius's robes and brought his hand around to the small of Sirius's back. Sirius brought his own hand up to drag the other boy's hand away, but for some inexplicable reason he found himself clutching onto Rabastan's arm instead. Then he felt his friend's other hand wrap around his own, and he thought for a moment that they were going to hold hands until he felt the polished wood of the Slytherin's wand pressing into his palm. He clumsily closed his fingers around it as Rabastan pulled his hands and his mouth away all at once.

"Do not get caught with that," Rabastan demanded harshly, his voice thick. "I will go to Azkaban, or worse, if anybody finds out what that wand has done."

Sirius, still utterly dumbfounded by what had just happened, was further struck by the utter truth of that statement and the trust the Death Eater had placed in him. He could only nod mutely.

Rabastan released an almost hysterical laugh and ran his hand through his hair, thoroughly messing it up. "Salazar but you make me stupid. So. Fucking. Stupid."

Sirius could not but agree, but even in his currently befuddled state he knew that offering the other boy's wand back at this point would be some kind of ultimate insult. He swallowed thickly. "Rab… erm, well… I promise."

"Be safe," the other boy whispered as he reached out to squeeze Sirius's shoulder gently, completely at odds with the violence of their kiss. Then he turned and made his way back down the alley, his polished boots crunching in the snow.

Sirius collapsed backwards against the wall, his head spinning and his heart racing. What in the world was that? he wondered. His thoughts bounced around wildly between memories of Rabastan that had confused him but now made sense, confusion at his own response, worry about how their friendship could possibly go on after this, and maybe—just maybe—renewed curiosity regarding those things he'd read last summer about homosexuals. But none of that mattered now; he couldn't let it distract him. So he gathered his thoughts, shoved them into the deepest recesses of his mind where even a Legilimens would have a hard time finding them, and started his journey back to Hogwarts.

He knew that he was uncharacteristically quiet that evening, but James seemed to put it down to nervousness about their upcoming adventure, and Peter and Remus to sulkiness about his upcoming detention, and none of them pressed him about it. By the time the three of them finally made their way to Professor McGonagall's office, he had pulled himself together sufficiently to be getting on with it. He covertly pressed Janice's wand into James's hand as they followed Peter out of the portrait hole.

Their Head of House confiscated their wands and separated them, as James and Sirius had counted on her doing; Peter was sent to polish the suits of armor on the fifth floor, James the candelabras in the Charms corridor, and Sirius the various plaques and other awards in the trophy room. Sirius polished by hand for a good half hour before James suddenly appeared out of thin air beside him.

"Bugger that, mate." He indicated the cloth Sirius was holding in his hand. "She's gone back to grading essays in her office, and Filch is properly distracted by some dung bombs and fireworks in front of Ravenclaw Tower."

Sirius pulled Rabastan's wand out of his innermost pocket and cast the proper charms to carry on his work without him. Rabastan's wand felt foreign yet somehow right in his hand. It yielded to his commands willingly, though Sirius could feel the underlying tension and a deep, sensuous whirl of Dark magic.

"You got two wands?" asked James incredulously. He had barely expected that Sirius would be able to scrounge up one, and he must have thought that Sirius had given him their only wand since he had the Invisibility Cloak and was meant to make sure that McGonagall and Filch were distracted. "Whose wand is that?"

"Narcissa's," answered Sirius, knowing that James would never actually get close enough to the Slytherins to confirm or deny it. "Oh, don't look at me that way, James. She's my cousin, and I knew that she'd help without breathing a word to anybody."

It was true, he realized as soon as he'd said it. Why on earth hadn't he gone to Narcissa? What had made him think first of asking Rabastan bloody Lestrange to hand over his wand? He quickly shoved those thoughts aside just as firmly as he had all the others.

"Let's go," he said, rather more tersely than he'd meant to. James shot him a look but refrained from asking any questions, no doubt because he assumed that it was all about Sirius still being unhappy with this little mission.

They had long since worked out their system for both staying simultaneously covered by James's Invisibility Cloak. That wasn't the problem, and neither was navigating the maze of corridors and moving staircases until they reached the outer door nearest the vegetable garden, which they had agreed previously was the least conspicuous route. The problem was trekking over half an hour around the edge of the lake, skirting the Forbidden Forest as much as possible but inevitably having to enter it at some points. The journey was tense and silent, with both of them jumping at the tiniest rustle of leaves or snapping twig. At one point, the giant squid broke the surface of the lake a mere thirty feet from them, and Sirius nearly knocked James down in his surprised panic. But finally, mercifully, they reached the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

They entered the village through the alley that ran beside Madam Puddifoot's, and from there it was a short way before the side street merged with High Street. They could see the lights of the Three Broomsticks and hear the people inside, but the streets were mercifully almost empty at this time of night. Hopefully the proprietor of the apothecary was having a drink at the pub along with what seemed like most of the village.

They ran into a bit of trouble when a simple Unlocking Charm wouldn't open the door, but fortunately both Sirius and James, pranksters and all around rabble-rousers that they were, had plenty of previous experience with more complex versions. Eventually they hit upon the correct spell and the door clicked softly. They looked at one another in trepidation, the silvery swirl of the Invisibility Cloak casting a soft glow on both of their faces as it filtered the moonlight. Then James reached for the doorknob, and Sirius knew that there was no going back.

They had both used their last couple of visits to the village to scope out the apothecary, specifically the layout and where the dangerous items were kept. It would have been easier if they had split up, but neither of them was willing to forego the safety of the Cloak. Thus, they shuffled awkwardly side-by-side down the narrow aisles gathering ingredients.

"What are you doing?" hissed James when Sirius picked up several ingredients that they didn't need. "We should only take what we need. You can come back later and buy that!"

Sirius found it simultaneously annoying and endearing that James's personal brand of morality allowed for stealing some things but not others, but he was too nervous for a long argument. He hissed back, "If we only take what we need then they'll know why the ingredients were taken, because they're only used in combination for one potion. We need to take a few other things to throw them off the trail."

James reluctantly agreed, although it was clear that he wasn't happy about it. He watched silently as Sirius selected several very expensive items off the shelf. Before they left, James withdrew several Galleons from his pocket.

"What are you doing?" asked Sirius, even though it was pretty obvious that Potter had planned to leave money in the register to cover the cost of the items they'd taken. "Don't you realize that Galleons are traceable, especially if you took those directly out of your Gringotts vault?"

Honestly, Sirius knew that James had not an ounce of Slytherin in him, but he really was going to have to break his friend of this horrible streak of nobility if they were going to keep doing highly illegal things. Potter scowled and put the money back into his robes.

It wasn't until they were halfway back up the side street that they heard several pairs of footsteps rushing towards them. Sirius grabbed James's arm and yanked him towards the nearest alleyway. Seconds later, a group of at least half a dozen witches and wizards rushed by them. There must have been some sort of alarm. They looked like they had indeed come from the Three Broomsticks, or else some other establishment where they'd been drinking heavily. James and Sirius waited for several seconds to make sure there were no stragglers following them, then they reentered the street and rushed as quickly as they dared back towards the other side of town, where they could begin the journey back to Hogwarts.

Then the edge of Sirius's boot caught a garbage can that had likely been put out for morning collection, and in the otherwise silent night the terrible clatter seemed to be as loud as an explosion. He froze for a second in horror and shock, but then James grabbed his wrist and hissed, "Run!"

He didn't need to be told twice. They bolted down the street, turning in the wrong direction in their rush. As soon as they were on the outskirts of town, James dragged Sirius determinedly until they were both huddled behind a rocky outcropping, listening to the commotion they'd left in their wake.

They were silent for long minutes, just listening; Sirius couldn't tell exactly how long. Then James said, "We have to get back soon or McGonagall will know we've gone. Then it won't matter if the villagers are the ones to catch us or she is."

Sirius agreed with that assessment. They really didn't have a choice. He sighed in defeat and allowed himself a moment of despair. As soon as he leaned back against the rock behind him, it gave way and he tumbled backwards with a cry, desperately grabbing for purchase. He landed heavily on hard, compact earth, and he blinked a few times in confusion before seeing that James was staring at him with wide eyes through a narrow fissure in the rock some five feet above him. He realized that he had grabbed the Invisibility Cloak during his fall, and he was still clutching it tightly in one hand and Rabastan's wand in the other.

By the time James had clambered down to join him, Sirius had managed to stand and brush himself off. He wondered why his friend hadn't offered him a hand up, but when he turned to face James he saw the long passageway that extended further than his friend's wand light could illuminate.

"Where do you think it goes?" asked James.

Sirius blinked a few times in surprise, as if the sight would alter. Finally he managed to answer, "Away from the mob of angry villagers, hopefully."

James laughed once. "It can't be worse than it already is, right?"

"We could end up in the middle of the Forbidden Forest," Sirius told him. They paused and looked at one another for a few seconds before both seeming to come to a decision at the same time. Sirius let out a breath and took a step towards the unknown. "Well, I'd rather be eaten alive by whatever's in the forest than eaten alive by McGonagall."