The dust hadn't even settled, nor the pain of landing flat on his back, when an ear-piercing, yet almost familiar shriek began in earnest. Regulus felt his heart slam into his throat as he sat up to see what once would have been the most welcoming sight in what felt like a very long time now. Mum was telling off Sirius.

He was just sitting there, gaping up at her, Regulus really would have thought he'd know better than anyone now that was only going to make it worse. Regulus was still fighting back a smile as he got unsteadily to his feet, stumbling towards his mother to distract her away from whatever she was mad about him now to explain, finally, to someone what had been going on! Surely she could help, she could see this future and know, like him, how things needed a change- he slowed though when he really looked into her face, and then fell back to the floor in shock at registering her portrait.

In a slow, almost nightmarish daze, he began turning slowly on the spot to take in the fact that they were home once more...but not exactly as he remembered it. They were in the portrait gallery, the door right off to the side where it should be, but there were several more portraits in here besides mum's that shouldn't be. Dad's was directly across from hers, his aunts and uncles all varying across the walls to draw attention and add to their retribution. The noise all piled up on each other, had him covering his ears, though they weren't doing a good job as badly as they were shaking.

"Shut up, you-" Sirius finally found his voice, but there was barely a hint of air, it was so lost in the mess that when finally the shout of 'Stupefy' rung, it was only the red sparks that gave away something new was happening.

Several more voices took up the spell, and then blessed silence fell.

"Sirius," the voice was gentle, calm now, but Regulus still flinched even as his eyes finally fluttered open, he didn't even remember closing them. Adrenaline was hitting so hard though it wasn't until Lupin had grabbed his brother's arms and was guiding him out of the room, and the troll leg got knocked over on the way up the stairs that it even occurred to him he could move as well.

Peter and Potter were already trying to go after them, but Frank's soft yet startling words stopped them. "Shit kid, are you okay?"

Regulus didn't need to look up to know he was being spoken to. He swallowed several times and didn't have an answer. He wasn't even sure how he did it, but he got to his feet and took off up the stairs as well, racing past so fast he wouldn't have seen Fluffy standing in his way until he made it to the very top floor. Only mum and dad's room stood on his left, but that wasn't his goal. He tapped the wall impatiently with his wand, but the stairs to the attic didn't descend as they should have. He was trapped.

He'd never felt trapped in his own home before, was this how Sirius always felt? Surrounded by those portraits, nothing but an echo of his parents, he'd swear the walls were closing in on him and he'd tried running to his favorite spot where nobody but Kreacher ever found him. He could hide up there for days until Mum and Dads fights subsided, just because he was used to them yelling at Sirius, or each other, or anything on their mind at all hours didn't always mean he wanted to be here listening to it. At least during Mum and Dad's lessons they spoke with calm dignity, he'd happily listened to them talk like that for days.

He heard soft footsteps behind him and cringed at the idea of Sirius following just to keep yelling at him and tell him to grow up.

James watched as Peter took off after Regulus without hesitation. Regulus, he knew that for a fact, not Sirius. The only reason Remus had beat him to get Sirius out of here had been because James had been watching everyone to make sure those portraits weren't going to jump clean out and slit their throats, they were that kind of horrifying.

Now he simply stood there and watched the empty staircase. To go after any of them would just feel redundant at this point. He hadn't exactly missed it was Remus Sirius kept turning to ever since that fight had been mended, and it's not like he had to dig deep to see why. James had been the one to insist Sirius keep his distance until Remus made his decision, and he had been the one to tell Peter the same thing. Now it seems they'd collectively decided to do the same to him, but he had no clue what he was being punished for.

"Come on girls, let's find somewhere else to read this, I don't know how long those portraits are going to stay frozen," Longbottom walked cautiously past him, even as dark as their surroundings were he couldn't have missed the uneasy look given his way as he put his first foot on the stairs James hadn't touched. Evans was even doing the same thing as she followed him on the same step. He didn't care why.

She was the one to crack open the book and read in a soft whisper where he knew them to be though, and Frank was practically reading over her shoulder, almost quivering with anticipation to hear about all of this. James hardly took in a word of Harry's arrival, his eyes zeroing in on Alice Smith. She was trailing a couple of steps behind the two, stumbled slightly, and reached out on instinct to grab the banister before pulling her hand back away with a look of fear that she quickly tried to correct.

He made a snap decision as he finally put his own cautious foot on the first step and called back, "hey, Alice, can I talk to you?"

She stopped and turned to him at once, an understandably confused look on her face. The other two were so engrossed with Harry seeing all this in only slightly better light than they were, that they were several more stairs up before his words sank in and they turned back as well. "Just Alice," he added pointedly.

Alice was already descending the stairs, but now she stopped beside him with an even more confused, but at least friendly enough smile in place before she too turned. "It's alright, I don't think he's going to feed me to the other half of that troll," she gestured vaguely over her shoulder at the crude umbrella stand.

Frank gave an uneasy laugh, but nodded and started up once more. Evans's eyes were the brightest green he'd ever seen, they stuck out even here in this dark place, and she tried to take a step backwards before stumbling and not trying further. He waited until the book resumed though before asking plainly, "well, I told you I wouldn't be shy when I wanted your opinion."

She watched as he stopped there and crossed his arms, like he thought that was all the explanation needed. It wasn't for her. "My opinion on, what exactly?"

"I know you've been talking to my friends," he said like she was daft, and she frowned at the tone. "I want to know what about."

She smoothed down her hair as she realized it from his point of view for the first time, but it really hadn't been like that at all. Her chat with Remus had been brief and cordial in that sea of tents, and she'd talked more at Black than to him, and it had been very involuntary given the circumstances of that maze. He didn't seem to have taken in a word regardless. The only one she had sought out was Peter at the museum, and she wasn't just going to repeat all that. She chose her words carefully, "well, I'd say, you lot need to be talking to each other."

"Wow, thanks, I never thought about that," he rolled his eyes and tapped his foot, getting downright belligerent. "Anything more vague? Should we start with hello to each other?"

"I, decided to stay out of it," she admitted, or at least, she'd been trying to not butt in where she wasn't wanted, Sirius had asked her something rather similar after all, so she'd tell Potter the same thing. "I want to help, I just think you should try looking at it from their point of view. Ask them what they think more."

He just looked at her. It took a few moments for Alice to realize he was waiting for the rest. She merely shrugged though, she had nothing else to offer that hadn't been said in confidence.

Sirius may have followed along blindly as Remus guided him away, but he still knew exactly where they were, even if Remus himself didn't, when he stepped off the stairs onto the floor that housed some guest rooms. Sirius tried the door first, but when it didn't open, Sirius didn't care and pressed Remus up against it regardless, kissing him fiercely.

"Here?" Remus gasped, trying to jerk himself away. "Sirius, this is not why I-"

"Shh," Sirius giggled in his ear, still feeling more giddy than he had even after their first prank. "James is probably still trying to talk to Evans about whatever, and Peter's lost his mind, nobody's going to notice."

"That's still not what I-" Remus meant to protest, he even grabbed his hips to at least keep him at arm's length, but Sirius leaned in again and damn if Remus wasn't the most easily distracted person on the planet as his eyes began to roll into the back of his head, his hands betraying him and pulling Sirius closer instead until there was a clatter on the stairs and they sprung guiltily apart.

Someone certainly went rushing past in a hurry, but it was too dark to tell, and they stayed uneasily where they were pretending they weren't breathing heavily when moments later another more hurried footsteps followed.

Remus rubbed at his forehead, self-guilt and even more self-anger reminding himself to take a step even farther back before Sirius could distract him again.

"Padfoot, I mean it, I want to talk. Merlin, have you actually talked to anyone since..." his voice died when Evans began reading, and the answer sunk into him regardless. Sirius hadn't talked in almost a month now, and it hadn't started with Peter, he'd refused to talk to Remus the night he'd told Snape where to find him that full moon. Maybe even longer before that. Oh sure, he'd opened his mouth, words had come out, but there had been a distance in him that Remus was genuinely starting to worry about, and the look on his face as he'd looked upon his mother's portrait was the best chance he'd had to start that conversation in all this mess. He was half surprised James wasn't up here as well by now to double team him, that would have been sure to work.

The two of them flinched and jumped even farther apart when they realized someone was certainly venting their feelings around here, and it was Harry, at his friends. James's son was certainly holding nothing back.

The two listened in avid silence to the whole thing until the twins interrupted, and Remus only felt his worry grow. If Sirius kept whatever it was bottled up, well, he was a lot more boisterous than Harry. When he exploded, there was a good chance it would involve more than shouting.

"Sirius," he tried again, but Sirius seemed determined to brush him off, again.

"I did it Remus, did you see! Well, maybe not as well as that," he acknowledged his future self storming up the stairs to tell off those portraits in even more style than he and James had managed. "I've never told her to shut it before though! I bet I really can next time I see her."

"That's, great Sirius," Remus said in exasperation, but was stopped from saying anything else as they were tugged away once more.