Again I Turn Around to You

Part Fourteen: A Night to Forget

The Christmas Eve party was in full swing as Sirius left the Ballroom. Voldemort had been holding court among the younger Wizards and Witches in one corner. The younger crowd, after Voldemorts admonishments, ignored him for the most part. The rest of the pureblooded avoided the corner with subtle grace, telling all who were versed in their ways that the half-breed, Tom Marvolo Riddle, was merely being tolerated. They would most likely never forgive him his father's blood, no matter whose descendent he was.

'Of course, if he ever shows his hand to be the winning one, they'll all fall over themselves to convince him that they believed in him all along.' Sirius thought wryly.

His own mother had been holding court in one of the other corners. Her black hair and white dress giving her an ethereal look in the light of the full moon. The married woman of 'good standing' flanked her as they all exchanged news on what those 'other' woman were doing. It was due to this preoccupation of his mother and cousins that he felt safe enough to leave the gathering.

He was nearing the staircase that would lead up to the bachelor quarters when a hand landed on his shoulder and turned him around roughly.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Arachne Black sneered at her son. "Do you know what it looks like for the heir to our family to just sneak out of the biggest gathering of the year?"

Sirius attempted to back away from her, but her hand just dug deeper into his shoulder.

"Are you trying to ruin our family?" She demanded leaning in closer to him. She snarled when he gave a slight shake of denial. "Well, you have a damn funny way of showing it. Gryffindors are supposed to be brave, but all you've done since arriving is hide. Do you know what that looks like?"

Sirius shivered, his knees weren't going to be able to hold him up much longer.

Mrs. Black pulled back to look at him. "It looks like you're afraid."

'Blacks don't show fear.'

"Crucio." Sirius fell to the floor twitching as the familiar pain flooded his body.

He could never tell how long she left the curse on him. Never long enough to do damage that couldn't be healed. For all his faults his was still the Black heir and she had yet to come up with sufficient reason to replace him.

The pain stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Mrs. Black looked down on him impassively. "Get yourself to your room." She turned on her heel and left him.

Sirius pulled himself up with the help of a wall. He swallowed and noticed the metallic aftertaste that indicated he had bitten through his tongue. 'As if I weren't still hurting from the last time.' He sighed mentally. 'At least the tongue is the worst part of it.'

He started up the stairs but was soon forced to rest as his abused body still wasn't up to the climb. 'And she wouldn't ask a House Elf to help me because they would just tell the Crabbes what happened.'

"What do we have here?" Sirius looked up at the face of the bridegroom. "Hello pretty one." Jonathan crooned.

Sirius backed away from the stench of alcohol that poured off the older man.

"Hey," Jonathan trailed a hand through Sirius's hair in what he probably thought of as a gentle caress. "Where are going?"

Sirius felt his body go limp as Jonathan harshly pulled the younger boy to him and mashed their lips together.

"Blood?" Jonathan licked his lips. "Somebody likes to play rough."

"Jonathan!" Sirius nearly fainted as the voice of the Elder Crabbe son interrupted the younger. "Father wants you in the Ballroom for the announcement now, then you're to dance with your wife."

"Feh," Jonathan looked at Sirius then up at his brother. "Can't it wait?"

"No," Vincent Crabbe's voice was stone cold toward his brother.

'Thank you to whatever deity provided me with my savior.' Sirius made no sound as he slid to the floor once again.

"Later Pretty." Jonathan leered down at Sirius before hurrying off to his father's call.

"Oh," Vincent sneered as he got his first look at Jonathan's intended victim. "It's you."

Sirius didn't even bother looking to the older man for help as he re-gathered himself to start up the stairs once again. He was thus surprised when he felt hands helping to support his weakened body.

"I'm not doing this entirely for you." Vincent said under his breath when he caught Sirius's surprised glance. "The Dark Lord thinks you might be of use to his cause, and you won't be helping us if you end up dying on the staircase."

"I never thought any differently." Sirius smiled slightly, glad that the older man was behind him.

"It's a noble cause." Vincent told the Gryffindor as they reached the landing for the bachelors hall. "In history it has always been the Muggles and the Mudbloods who've dominated our little conflicts. However, if Lord Voldemort were to gain power...."

Sirius shivered at Vincent's tone. 'Tom Riddle own at least this one body and soul.'

"Here is your door I believe." Vincent stopped at the room Sirius shared with Severus.

"Thank you," Sirius croaked.

Vincent narrowed his eyes. "Are you all right?"

"I just had a little to much to drink." Sirius waved off the hovering Crabbe.

"Yeah," Vincent scratched his head. "You may want to go easy on that stuff in the future. Your mother seems less forgiving of drunken stupidity then mine."

"Right." Sirius looked up at his rescuer. "If that's all..."

"Think about joining the Dark Lord." Vincent nodded. "He could do all sorts of things for you."

"I'll keep that in mind." Sirius promised.

Vincent gave him a painful-to-look-at smile and headed back to the party.


Morning found Sirius on his hand and knees again. He fought the pain and nausea as he searched through his bag frantically.

"My God Black." Severus groaned from his bed. "Can't you be quieter?"

Sirius let out a small whimper as another wave of pain coursed through his body.

"Sirius?" The whimper had apparently caught Severus's attention. "What exactly are you looking for?"

Sirius opened his lips to answer only to shut them quickly when he felt the bile from his stomach enter his mouth.

"Sirius?" Sirius felt Severus's hand on his bare shoulder. "You're burning!"

Sirius stopped the movement of his hands as he realized that with his vision blurring the object of his search just wasn't going to be found.

Severus's hands reached past him and pulled something from his bag. "Looking for this?" He handed the vial to his roommate.

Sirius's hand feebly clenched around the vial. "Thanks," he croaked.

"Just take the potion." Severus moved away. "Getting you to feel better will be thanks enough."

Sirius upended the bottle into his mouth, he immediately felt the coolness of the potion calm his stomach. He waited out the minutes required for the potion to start traveling through the rest of his body leaving the pain only a memory. "Have I ever told you how indebted I am to you?" He said conversationally.

Severus smiled as Sirius's eyes finally focused on him. "Many times." The Slytherin snickered. "But I don't object to hearing it some more."

Sirius grinned. "How do I love thee?"

Severus rolled his eyes. "So what brought this bought upon you? I thought you'd already been through this once so far this break."

"I left the ball early." Sirius shrugged as he pulled out another set of dress robes. The ones he had worn last night had contributed to the fire that greeted Severus's arrival.

"So did quite a few others." Severus muttered. "None of the rest of us got hit with..." He trailed off after seeing the glance Sirius threw at him. The two boys finished getting dressed in silence.

"Happy Christmas." Severus tossed something to Sirius.

Sirius smiled, he took Severus's present out of his bag. "Happy Christmas."

The two ripped through the wrapping eagerly. "Dragon Egg Shell?" Severus exclaimed. "Did you raid Phineas's stores or something? This stuff is illegal!"

"So don't get caught with it." Sirius murmured. He had flipped open the cover of Severus's present and seemed to be a million miles away.

"Put that away!" Severus hissed. "Hide it until you get to school and can place a concealment charm on it."

"Though I do wonder how in the world you ended up with a copy of Tom Sawyer." Sirius mused. "But we're both entitled to our secrets." Sirius hid the book in the compartment that had formerly held Severus's present. "Come on, if we stay in here much longer your sister or my cousins are bound to come looking."

Severus sneered as Sirius held the door open for him. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I don't want to think of you and any of my cousins like that." Sirius commented as they passed countless landscapes on their way down the stairs.

"Andromeda is a wonderful dancer." Severus teased.

"Severus, Sirius." Lucius Malfoy nodded to them as they reached the bottom.

"Lucius." They chorused.

"Sirius," the blond focused on the two boys. "Have you given any thought to what Vincent talked to you about last night?"

'Not really.'

"I haven't had the chance." Sirius gave the blond boy a tight smile. "I was otherwise occupied."

Lucius laughed. "I can sympathize. I was also rather sick after my first Christmas Ball."

Sirius and Severus both gave him weak smiles as the three entered the Ballroom.

Sirius had thought that there had been a lot of people in the room the previous night. However, the Christmas morning crush was like the Hogwarts Great Hall tenfold. The buzz of talking was nearly deafening and it was impossible to tell who was present.

"Ah," Narcissa descended upon them with a small smile. "You found them Lucius."

"And I didn't even need to climb back up the stairs." Lucius kissed her cheek.

"Happy Christmas Cousin." Sirius smiled at her.

"Thank you." She held out her hand to be kissed. "Just a word of warning in your ear, Aunt has placed a locating charm upon you. I wouldn't leave these rooms if I were you."

Sirius winced. "I'm not surprised."

Narcissa smiled at him and dragged Lucius away.

The two boys moved around the room keeping close to the edges. "I feel like if I stake one wrong step I'm going to get trampled." Severus said eyeing the sea of people.

"Hoy!" Mr. Blacks voice could be heard close to where the boys had stopped for a moment. "There he is."

The crowd parted and Sirius could now see the couple his father was talking to. They were an older couple, his golden hair was liberally peppered with gray and hers was completely white. They both had friendly faces, though worry had made deep inroads around their eyes and mouths.

"Sirius," Thantos Black beckoned the two boys to his group. "I'd like to introduce you to Mr. And Mrs. Lupin."

"Remus has told us much about you." Mrs. Lupin smiled. "However," she looked at Severus. "I don't believe that he has mentioned anyone else that we didn't already know."

"I'm sorry," Thantos laughed. "This is Severus Snape. Samuel's son."

"We should have guessed." Mr. Lupin smiled. "You have the family nose."

Severus rolled his eyes.

"Remus has mentioned James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius, but not you." Mrs. Lupin's face showed her puzzlement.

"I am in Slytherin milady." Severus explained. "We don't have much interaction with those in Gryffindor."

"I see that not much has changed since we attended." Mr. Lupin smiled at Mr. Black. "Isn't that right Thantos?"

"Not much indeed." Mr. Black murmured.

"Well," Mrs. Lupin beamed. "I'm sure that you don't want to stand here all day talking to us. We did meet another of Remus's dorm mates a few minutes ago. Why don't you go find him."

"We'll do that." Sirius bowed over Mrs. Lupin's hand. He briefly wondered which dorm mate was also in attendance.

"If we see Potter here I for one am leaving." Severus hissed as they left the adults.

"You think the Potter's would be tolerated here?" Sirius asked his friend.

"Pettigrew is almost a worse prospect." Severus groaned. "How do you live with those people?"

"We fight a lot." Sirius shrugged.

Severus just shook his head. The two boys continued along the sides of the room, heading toward the hall with the refreshment table in it. They were almost there when someone forcing their way out of the crush nearly bowled Sirius over.

"Watch where your plowing." Severus sneered down at the boy who had knocked Sirius into him.

"Severus," Sirius pleaded. "Be nice."

Severus sneered at both of the Gryffindors. "I'm sure that my sister is calling." He turned on his heel and left.

"Slimy Slytherin." Peter growled at Severus's retreating back.

"Peter," Sirius sighed. "Sometimes you're just as bad as they are."

"Happy Christmas Sirius." Peter smiled at him while ignoring what he had just said. "James is going to be so happy that I saw you."

"Oh?" Sirius asked politely as he scanned the crowd to see where Severus had gone.

"He was extremely worried after that incident on the train." Peter confided. "It was all we could do to keep him from running off with wand in hand to rescue you."

Sirius sighed again as he realized that Severus was to short to be seen. "Well, now you can reassure him that I am fine."

"Yep," Peter beamed with importance. "I am so glad to have run into you. I thought every one our age here would be in Slytherin."

Sirius rolled his eyes at the smaller boy, but allowed himself to be dragged along.


End Notes:

- I'll take the initiative and say that the answer to the question "If the Lupins are there were is Remus?" is thus: Remus is at Hogwarts because the full moon was going to be over Christmas.

- Please Review