AN: Well Hello again fellow Potter fans! :D Sorry about the previous chapter, its not up to my usual standards, hopefully this one will make for that! The plot is thickening and things are revealed! Enjoy and I thank all of you wonderful, wonderful people who have been so diligently reviewing, you make me want to bake you cookies, but you can't send cookies through PM. :( So have internet cookies instead! :D

I let it fall, my heart,
And as it fell you rose to claim it
It was dark and I was over
Until you kissed my lips and you saved me

– Adele, Set Fire To the Rain

The Slytherin Common Room was nearly empty as Sirius sat by the fire, the stone walls were dark and he gazed into the flames and lost himself in the dancing patterns. It wasn't until he felt fingers in his hair that he blinked as he came out of his trance, fingers ran down his neck and he felt his hair lifted. "You think that just because you are following orders that it gives you the right to ignore me, Sirius?" Malfoy whispered into his ear as his cold fingers touched a spot just beneath his hairline and behind his ear, he chuckled and Sirius shrugged him off. "That mark suites you."

"Piss off." Sirius whispered hoarsely. "Don't touch it."

"I can do with you as I like and you will sit there quietly and let me, because my father gave you to me."

"Only until he can use me as breeding material." Sirius took Malfoy's hands and pushed him away, his ebony hair fell back into place and hid the tiny tattoo. "What will you do then, hmm? Will you watch as they marry me off to some cousin? Come now, I thought you wanted me?"

"I do. And you will always belong to me, Black."

"That's a crock of shite." Sirius grinned. "I'm Harry's if I belong to anyone at all...It's him. It will always be Harry."

"Why? Why would you prefer him over me? His blood is tainted."

Sirius shook his head. "It's purer than yours or mine, at least he's free of this...this horrible obsession with blood purity! Just because we ignore the fact that we have at least a tiny portion of Muggle blood in us, doesn't mean we don't."

"The traitors are disinherited therefore not of our blood." Malfoy sneered.

"Doesn't change the fact that we have non-magical blood in us...you can ignore it, push it under the rug but it's still there. If we continue to breed in amongst ourselves we will soon die out and that's not only stupid but it would mean the end of purebloods, I thought the Dark Lord wanted us to rise above Muggles, not have us die out."

"You bear his mark and yet you still talk of treachery?" Draco grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled it up to once again reveal that tiny mark, it was a skull with a serpent rising from its mouth and ready strike.

"I don't bear it willingly, this isn't like yours and you know it. It's a mark of slavery, not of trust."

"But if you would just change the Dark Lord would reward you! You don't have to be a slave..."

"I'd rather be a forced slave than a willing one." He replied, his eyes absorbed the flames from the fire and made them turn to cold steel. "I'll die before I willingly betray anyone."

"Then you will probably die then." Malfoy released his hair but grabbed his wrists instead, Sirius found himself pushed onto his back and gazing up into light grey eyes. "But who will really mourn your death, Black? If you die at the hands of the Dark Lord I will make sure Harry is made aware of your betrayal, I will watch with a smile as his heart breaks knowing that at the last his precious dog was disloyal..."

"Harry wouldn't believe you without proof." Sirius said firmly.

"Oh? Who's to say that I wouldn't have proof?"

Sirius found nothing to say to that even as Draco trapped his hands above his head and straddled his hips. He simply closed his eyes and wished that it was Harry's hands on him.

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Something wasn't right, of that Hermione was sure. Sirius spent most of his time seducing Harry which Hermione didn't mind quite as much as Ron, but it still gave her a queasy feeling when she wandered why he was doing it. She knew Sirius was in love with Harry, it shone in his eyes when they looked at each other, it was in his body language and she also knew that he was as devoted to Harry as he had been last year. Yet there was something bugging her, but she had yet to put her finger on it, she had tried to dissuade Harry from continuing with Sirius by telling him about the book, because she had been sure his Muggle upbringing would put him off sleeping with a cousin, no matter how distant...but it hadn't worked. Harry simply shrugged it off, saying that all other Wizards did it, why should he care? He had even pointed out that even the Weasley's were related both being descended from a similar branch of Black's, Ron had chosen to remain silent on that.

So, she had decided to try and get the truth from Sirius himself, if he was up to something she was sure that it wouldn't result in harm to Harry but she still needed to be certain. Ever since she had got to know young Sirius Black, she had had the feeling he wasn't entirely sane, she had warned Harry of this the previous year but she had been less worried then as Sirius had more years of life experience than he did now. There was something dangerous about him that she was sure was why Harry found him so attractive, he was wild and seemed incapable of following any kind of rules.

She caught him coming up from the dungeons, he looked tired and she noticed that he looked skinnier. She walked over to him and he smiled brightly. "Well, if it isn't my favourite Muggleborn, how are we?" He said as they fell into step beside each other. It was a weekend and so he was dressed in normal clothes, they had obviously been brought for him by the Malfoy's as she didn't think that Gringotts had sorted out his account properly yet. He was dressed in faded torn jeans that seemed to hang off of his hips and a black long sleeved t-shirt, the look suited him but he seemed a bit out of place. When he saw her looking at his clothes he grinned. "This nineties fashion is odd, but comfy I suppose...back in my time I used to wear jeans that were almost uncomfortably tight and tight t-shirts with my favourite leather jacket..." He pulled a face. "My mother hated that, she preferred me in robes, but I shunned them unless I was at school...she shouldn't have made such a big deal or I wouldn't have deliberately rebelled. But anyway, you look like you have something to talk about."

"Well...I think we should go somewhere private." She said.

"Come on then, let's go outside, it's a nice day." He took her hand and pulled her into the Entrance Hall.

When they were outside Sirius made a beeline for a tree by the lake where he threw himself down onto the grass looking as inelegant as possible as he stretched and sighed, it made her smile to see the weird changes in him. He could change at the drop of a hat, going from pureblood aristocrat to scruffy teenager and back again as suddenly as if he had switched personalities, he smiled at the sky as the sun beat down on their heads. The day was chill but the sky was high and impossibly blue, people wandered around chatting and laughing as they took advantage of the sunshine. "So, talk." Sirius muttered, pushing hair from his face as he gazed at her with his sharp eyes.

She frowned and wondered where to begin without offending him. Finally she decided to be blunt, there was no other way around it. "This thing you have with Harry...I want to know how far you plan on taking it?"

Sirius cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean? I reckon we've taken it as far as it can go..." He smirked and Hermione shook her head.

"Not in a physical sense, I mean emotionally. I know you love him, Sirius, I can see it...but I'm worried...There's something wrong with it." She watched his reaction and got it when his face turned blank abruptly and he turned away. "What did they do to you when they took you back to Malfoy manor over Christmas?"

Sirius fidgeted with the long sleeve of his t-shirt and gazed at the grass. "Hermione I...I can't talk of this."

"Why? I have to know...If this is going to put Harry in any danger...?"

Finally Sirius looked her dead in the eyes, he grabbed her by the shoulders and lowered his voice. "Hermione, warn him!" He said desperately, his face crumpling. "Tell him!" He released her and lifted his hair up, she looked and gasped.

"Oh! Oh Sirius..."

"Tell him to stay away from me!"

"B-But...!"

"They asked me t-to keep Harry busy...to distract him." Sirius let his hair cover the Dark Mark and leaned against the tree, suddenly the day seemed darker as he wrapped his arms around his knees. "Problem is, I've been enjoying it...S-so I-I told myself I wasn't following orders, it didn't matter that it was distracting Harry...because I wanted him. I want him like I've never wanted anything else! But it can't continue, can it? Not now..."

The wind picked up and blew Sirius' hair into his eyes. "What are you distracting him from, Sirius? I need to know."

Sirius looked at her, the sky darkened as clouds covered the sun. He licked his lips before speaking softly. "Draco Malfoy is working on a plan to sneak Death Eaters into Hogwarts...He's been asked to kill Dumbledore."

Hermione's eyes widened. "The n-necklace...and Borgin and Burkes..."

Sirius nodded slowly. "If they found out I told you..."

"They won't Sirius, don't worry. Dumbledore should be warned but he's not likely to give anything away."

"I'm not worried about me, Hermione." He smiled gently. "It's Harry I'm worried about. Draco's got it in for him, and he's probably going to try something stupid."

"Then we'll stop it. We'll warn Dumbledore..."

Sirius gazed out across the lake with a frown. "I reckon he already knows." He said softly.

"What makes you say that?"

"Have you ever wondered about Snape?"

"Don't tell me you don't trust him either..." She sighed heavily.

"Of course I don't! He's Snivelly, in this time as well as mine. No...what I mean is, he's acting spy for Dumbledore, right? I know that the Dark Lord trusts him more than most, so I don't see why he wouldn't be aware of what Draco's up to..." He ran fingers through his hair and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "He's a greasy git and looks like a demented bat, but I reckon he would have told Dumbledore as much as he could."

Hermione thought about that for a long time. "So, you think Dumbledore already knows...then what's he doing? He hasn't made any obvious moves to stop Draco's plans...all he's been doing is telling Harry about He Who Must Not Be Named's past...I don't understand."

Sirius shrugged. "No one ever understands what that old man is thinking."

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Harry sat perfectly still for a long time after Hermione had told him what she had discovered. He stared at nothing, thinking it through.

"So...Sirius is on their side now?" Ron asked slowly. "He's gone over..."

"No, he's being forced to do it, Ron. He would never willingly betray Harry." Hermione corrected him.

"I don't know Hermione, he's not the most stable of people..."

"Well...no, you're right, he's not very stable...but I still think he would die for Harry. He told me about Malfoy's plans and he confessed everything, he's risking his life for that."

Harry said nothing, Hermione saw the sadness on his face and felt pity well up in her chest. "I have to talk to him...And I have to stop Draco." He said finally, he looked at his friends.

"You don't have to do anything Harry, Sirius has already risked so much just to tell me this...don't throw away all his efforts by associating with him again."

"But I can't leave it! Not like this!" He stood up and began pacing. "If Dumbledore already knows then that's one less thing we need worry about, but I still have to stop Draco, if Death Eaters get into Hogwarts it would mean disaster, even if I'm not the target this time."

"How are you going to stop him, Harry? You don't even know how he's doing it!" Ron said.

Harry paused and sighed, messing his hair up absently as his mind raced. He wanted to talk to Sirius, he wanted to hear it from his own lips. He had to see him. The idea consumed him, he couldn't escape the sharp and brutal need for Sirius. Without speaking to his friends he turned and crawled into the portrait hole, he ignored Hermione's shouts and ran through the corridors, taking the short cuts until he found himself at the steps leading down to the dungeons. With his hand on the cold stone he began to descend, torches flickered in their sconces and sent shadows dancing. He walked slowly, keeping an eye out for anyone patrolling.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw someone moving. There were a few fast steps and something was on him, he was rammed into the wall and hands were clutching at his robes. Sirius bowed his head and pressed it against his chest as he balled his fists into Harry's robes and sank to his knees, pulling Harry with him. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." He was shaking violently and Harry was shocked to see his shoulders shaking as he held back his pain.

"Sirius..." He pulled his hands free and lifted his head, Sirius' silver eyes were glittering in his pale face. "It's true then...?"

Sirius nodded slowly, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I-I didn't want to..."

"It's..." He wanted to tell him it was ok, he wanted to let him know that it didn't matter because it wasn't his fault...but as he gazed into his eyes the words stuck in his throat as he recalled what Remus had told him, those words that he had pushed to the back of his mind. It was true, he didn't know Sirius at all, could he trust him even after discovering he had been told to seduce him? "I..."

Sirius fell back into the opposite wall, he lowered his head. "You shouldn't be here Harry, you need to go..."

"Sirius...can I trust you?" Harry gazed at him desperately, searching for some sign, some kind of expression that would tell him what he wanted...what he needed to know.

Slowly Sirius lifted his head and looked into Harry's eyes. "I wish you could."

Harry bit his lip and nodded stiffly. "Right...I...Well...see you..." He turned on his heel and walked away.

Sirius watched him leave, the torches guttered in their holders as he slipped to the floor and lowered his head. It was too late, he couldn't take back what he had done and Harry needed to stay away from him now, he was endangering him by association. Voldemort used those closest to his enemies to destroy them, why should he be the exception to that rule? The less Harry had to do with him the better things would be. He stood slowly and wiped his eyes on his sleeve as he steeled his resolve. He knew exactly what he had to do, he had to come up with a plan, he had to stop everything. Only he could make Harry Potter truly safe...and to do that he needed Dumbledore.