Disclaimer- I don't own any of these characters etc. etc. J.K. Rowling does. All I own is the plot line. Please don't sue me.

Chapter 2- Family values

There was utter commotion beneath the trees. The Slytherins and the Gryffindors had come together into an enormous rabble. Sparks of red, green and blue bounced off friends and enemies alike, as the mass of people snarled and clawed at their opponents. Several people lay on the floor, hexed and bruised. A few of the remaining people had discarded their wands and were rolling on the floor, punching and kicking.

Lily was bending over one of her friends who had fainted and had conjured stretchers for a few other people. Remus was helping her, but James was engaged in pounding Snape's head on the ground viciously.

"What did I tell you Lily? Lover's tiff!" yelled Bellatrix who ran quickly towards the group.

Sirius snarled at this and shouted, "Stupefy!" in Bellatrix's direction.

She stopped in mid stride, and, open mouthed, she fell to the floor, her eyes glossy with hatred. Sirius stepped over his hexed cousin and jumped into the fray. Rodolphus noticed Sirius' attack on his fiancé and rushed over to see if Bella was still intact. He could tell by the glimmer in her eyes that if he left her there, he would hear no end to the incident and would not be able to marry any of the Black sisters. Hurriedly, he reversed Sirius' hex and helped her up.

Bellatrix snarled at him and ran over to where Sirius was engaged in making Snape eat grass with James. It seemed that Sirius turned in slow motion as Bellatrix yelled "Reducto!" at the top of her lungs, waving her wand at him, a murderous look besmearing her features.

Sirius sailed ten feet into the air and landed with a loud crunch on a branch overhead. He screamed in agony but managed to throw an Expelliarmus spell at Bellatrix, who dodged it and swivelled around to yell Impedimenta in response, her black robes swirling about her like a layer of black fog. Sirius' eyes went wide and he let out a strangled yell as he fell to the floor in a heap, frozen. His face was contorted into an expression of sheer fright and his arm and leg lay at right angles to his body. Bellatrix stood triumphantly over the paralysed Sirius and twiddled her wand in an immaculately manicured hand. Her black hair blew in the breeze and wafted in front of her face as the brown eyes stared down mercilessly at her cousin.

By whatever means

She slid her hand into her robes, pulling out what appeared to be a tooth and reached down to the immobile Sirius. She grasped his arm and was about to place the tooth into his hand when she was suddenly struck in the back by Remus Lupin. Lily Evans had sprinted over to Sirius when she saw him fall out of the tree.

"You heartless cow!" she yelled tearfully. "He's your cousin!"

"Quoting from Sirius, Lily, that piece of shit is in no way related to me," she spat, as Lupin pulled her head back by her hair.

Lily fell to her knees beside Sirius as he began to revive.

"Bellatrix, "Lupin growled, "I think you owe somebody an apology."

Sirius moaned on the ground, but above him, he caught sight of a friendly, if distressed, face.

"Lily?" he whispered, "Where the hell am I?" As he asked this, his face darkened with the memory of Bella's jinx. He tried to sit up, and before he flopped back down, he saw his cousin in the grip of Remus. She was twisting about and demanding to be released.

"Sirius, you have to relax. You've got a broken leg and arm, not to mention some bruises," she added, delicately touching a purpling bruise at the corner of his mouth. Their eyes met, without the contempt of before, but she slid her bright green eyes away from his own, near- black ones.

"You'll be at the hospital wing in no time." He smiled weakly; Lily always kept a level head in an unpleasant situation. She stood up, but he gripped her hand hard, preventing her from leaving his side.

"I have to conjure you a stretcher and my wand is over by Lucinda, Sirius. I'll be right back, I promise."

Lily disentangled her hand from her friend's and retrieved her wand quickly, throwing James a disapproving expression as he continued to fight Snape. She would have attempted to stop him if there weren't more pressing things to worry about all around her. As it was, there was no need. James instantly recognized Lily's displeasure and with one final kick, left Snape on the ground and made his way towards Sirius and Lupin.

Lucinda was already on her stretcher, which was drifting off towards the Castle, followed by about six more in its wake. When she returned, Lily gently placed Sirius on the stretcher, with the help of James and Sirius. James had a bad gash on his forehead and Remus sported a black eye and a nasty graze on his cheek, not to mention that he had been turned blue by one of the Slytherins. He had left Bellatrix behind, and she was now retreating to the Castle, following the eerie stretchers. Rodolphus was on one of them, but she completely ignored her fiancé as she sprinted past into the confines of the building.

They began to traipse back to the Castle, leading Sirius' stretcher. The huge clock tower in the courtyard had struck six by the time Sirius was safely bestowed to Madame Provideo's care. The hospital wing was large and airy, and many of the beds were surrounded by thick curtains, guaranteeing the patient within some extent of privacy. Sirius was granted no such privilege, however. The school nurse had healed his arm and leg within seconds, but the fussy lady was determined to keep him in the hospital wing overnight, "just in case." Just in case of what...nobody was quite sure, but this was just a further riddle of the curious nurse.

"James?"

"Hmm?"

"You can go to Lily if you want, I'm fine."

"Nah, s'alright Siz, I'll stay here for a bit."

"Don't call me Siz." "Why not Siz?"

"'Cos you make me sound like a fucking five year old... Jiz. Didn't you know that you're besmirching the noble house of Black?"

"Speaking of which, Siz... I've been meaning to ask you about this for ages. Now seems as good a time as any. It's just that... I couldn't help but notice how...err... distant you seem to your family." He said in a rush.

"How observant you are James. What gave you that impression?" he muttered sarcastically.

James flushed crimson at the statement. "Well, the way that you and Bella completely dismissed the fact that you were relations today, for one. Two, the way you talk about your family, as if they were mere acquaintances you wanted to be rid of. And exactly how long is it since you actually talked to your mum?"

"I'll have you know I sent her an owl two days ago!" Sirius said, outraged.

Madame Provideo popped her head around the door to her office at the exclamation. She greatly resembled a ferret, which had been caught in the middle of an engorgement charm, and was miraculously given the ability to speak and heal unfortunate teenagers.

"Would you care being quiet Mr Black and Mr Potter? There are other patients in this hospital trying to rest!"

"Sorry, Madame Provideo, we didn't realise we were disturbing your worthy self or your patients," Sirius said, turning on his fabled charm once again.

"Flattery won't work on me Mr Black. Now, quiet, or your friend will have to leave." Sirius nodded in a humble manner, one that James had seen too often. He rolled his eyes as Madame Provideo smiled indulgently at Sirius and retreated back into her office.

"You're pathetic Black," muttered a voice from the corner of the room.

Rodolphus Lestrange's head had appeared in a gap of the curtains surrounding his bed.

"Works every time though, Rody," said Sirius, reclining backwards. "Maybe if you had my talents, your darling fiancé wouldn't be so impervious to your obvious charm, eh?"

James tried to stifle a grin as Rodolphus withdrew back into his bed, sneering.

"Accio, dormitory curtains," Sirius commanded, with a swish of his wand.

Within two minutes or so, the curtains which surrounded Sirius' bed were at the hospital wing window, waiting to be let inside. James rushed over and released the catch on the windows. The floating, spectre like curtains drew stares from many of the other occupants and soon the air was full of "Accio dormitory curtains!" and a great mass of red, blue, green and yellow material drifted into the room.

Sirius' were around his own bed in no time. James put a silencing charm around the bed so nobody could hear what the two friends had to say.

"Fucking Lestrange..." Sirius cursed.

"Anyways, you know perfectly what I meant Siz. When was the last time you actually spoke to your mum, verbally, not through small, feathery creatures? Why did you run away from Grimmauld Place?"

"Why do you want to know, James?" he asked suspiciously.

"Just curious, I guess. I mean, you haven't been to your own home in ages! At the summer, you always stay at the Hollow with me and my family. You stay here for any other holidays, and get anything you need sent by the fire, with that surly house-elf, Kreacher. What I'm trying to say, Sirius, is, what's going on?"

Sirius remained silent for a few minutes, apparently deep in thought.

"James, do you know about my cousin, Andromeda?" he asked. James shook his head bemusedly.

"Ah...well, it would have made explaining much easier. Never mind, Andromeda is Bellatrix's sister."

"Bellatrix? I thought she only had one sister, you know, Narcissa, the younger one engaged to Lucius Malfoy?"

"No. There were three sisters. Andromeda, the oldest, Bellatrix, the middle child, and Narcissa, the youngest. Well, Andromeda Black eloped with a Muggle, Ted Tonks, about two years ago now. She'll be about twenty one- twenty two I'd imagine. You probably know that the Black family aren't renowned for their, "Muggle loving," and are sometimes described as incapable of love altogether. But Andromeda was different. I suppose I was closer to her than all the rest of the Black's put together. Andromeda was, in many of the family's opinions, a hopeless case; worthless... but she was my favourite cousin, and still is in fact. When my Aunt and Uncle disowned her, I caused mayhem. I tried to reason that she had followed her own heart and was living the life she wanted. I tried to make them see the cruelty of their actions. But, I was only about sixteen myself, so nobody paid me much heed.

My mother, however, was ashamed of me; she vowed not to speak openly to me again. In her eyes, I was as bad as Andromeda. She decided to entrust everything to Regulus instead of me. I know I never told you this James, and I hope you can forgive me. So, you see, my mother disowned me. I ran away. So you can see, James, I am a type of outcast of the family, the Black sheep, as it were. I was sorted into Gryffindor, breaking the tradition of all children belonging in Slytherin. My mother can't bear to think that her eldest son has become a Muggle lover, so that's why I don't go home for the holidays. That's why I haven't spoken to my own mum or brother for years."

"And, has nobody heard from Andromeda since?"

"There was a rumour that she's pregnant a few months ago and that if it's a girl, it'll be called Nymphadora, if it's a boy, Sirius, but I haven't heard from her directly for a long time."

"I didn't realise, Siz. That's so...upsetting."

"Now you wanna go to Lily, don't you?" Sirius said, laughing. "I suppose, though, that she must be happy. She's free from any family constraints that money would have brought and she never has to speak to her charming relations ever again. "

"No, Siz, seriously, what have Bellatrix and Narcissa made of the whole affair?"

"Narcissa has always been stuck up. Now she's engaged to that prick, Malfoy, for the sake of a pure bred marriage. Even though she's only sixteen and Lucius is a good few years older than her. I'm quite sure that's the only reason Bella is engaged to Rodolphus too... the pure bloodline is all that matters to them. So that should give you some idea to what they think about their own sister. Narcissa claims she only has, and only ever had, one sister and Bellatrix, well, you know what Bellatrix is like from today's display I presume. She was furious at Andromeda. She vowed that when she saw her next, that would be the last time Andromeda would breathe."

James nodded, "So, I guess that's what you meant when you said she wasn't related to you?"

"Well, yeah, and the fact that she was spreading lies about you."

"I'm touched," James said in a faint voice, putting his hand over his heart.

Sirius let out a great, barking laugh.

"Well, would you rather I aided her in spreading the truth about you and Snape, hmmm?" he asked. James Potter grinned and stood up.

"I really must be going now, Siz."

"Ahem, cough cough," Sirius said in a mocking tone.

"Right, Sizzy doodle bum it is then. But now, I really must go about my duties as head boy."

"Visiting Lily Evans's room? I wasn't aware that that was a duty! Should have tried for head boy myself then. "

"Actually, Sirius, I take my duties seriously. There's a fifth year Slytherin I've been waiting to give detention to for a week."

"Why's that then?"

"Nothing much, he stole my Snitch and told me I was a ponsy twat. Now it's time for revenge," he added with a wicked smile.

"Please, don't ever do that again." James backed away from his friend slowly, still with the sinister, clown like smile upon his face.

"Oh, James!"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think maybe Prongs and Moony could escape the dormitory, about midnight, to meet Padfoot by the Quidditch stadium?"

"Almost certain of it Siz. 'Night."