Title: Siriusly Disturbed

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or his affiliates.

Notes: This entire chapter is written as a flashback.

Lovage: a European herb used in befuddlement draughts. Sirius crushes them and wraps them in his herbal concoction (okay, his joints... there, I said it)

Hellebore: A poisonous plant that, when ground up, can be used for medicinal purposes including (but not limited to) mental disorders

And so we begin: August 1976, Sirius is about to enter his 6th Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

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The Summer parties were always the same; pureblood freaks waltzing around in satin robes, holding glasses of wine in their perfectly manicured hands, gossiping about hierarchy and whispering about Voldemort. Sirius had decided, at the tender age of eleven, that tojours pur was perversely unethical. So he had spent the last five annual August affairs locked in the wine closet, downing whiskey and smoking coca. The year before last, he had tried to play 'Intoxicated Quidditch' with a few relatives, and ended up hitting Regulus in the face with the beater's club.

Whoops.

At the time, he wasn't able to understand why his mother was so upset; Regulus was only unconscious for about thirty seconds and the bruise wasn't that big.

This year, however, he was in charge of the 'We're all pureblood lunatics' speech, so avoiding all social contact with the party-goers was impossible. His parents wanted to convince their friends that, even though Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor, he was still a member of the Black family at heart.

Sirius decided, after six firewhiskeys and a bottle of gin, that they could all bugger off. As he stepped up onto the back patio (alright, so he stumbled onto the back patio, quite by accident, actually), all eyes turned toward him. The laughter and conversation died down, and the only noise came from the soft chamber music.

"Good evening!" Sirius began, clanking his spoon harshly against a crystal wine goblet. He took a deep breath, and began his speech. "Most of you know who I am, but for those who don't, I am Sirius Black, otherwise known as the pitiful family member who was sorted into Gryffindor."

Light laughter followed this statement.

Braving a look toward his parents, Sirius saw them exchange a worried look.

Sirius continued, unconcerned. He raised his glass into the air. "I would like to propose a toast to all the... muggle born witches and wizards in Britain!"

It felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the backyard. Silence was a thick blanket, wrapping around the entire crowd. Those who had never met Sirius were waiting for the punch line; those who had, were waiting for him to be hexed.

"I realized something tonight," he slurred, after taking a sip from his glass, "I realized that most of my Mudblood friends have more brains than the lot of you combined! In fact, compared to any one of them, you're all a bunch of whiny lunatics!"

Sirius' mother was now slumped into a nearby chair, fanning herself. His father was shoving his way toward Sirius, a mad glint in his eye.

"And here comes my father! Ladies and gentle-wizarrrddss, the Loonyest-est of them all... Mr. 'My son is stark-raving-mad!' Albert Black!"

Sirius rather thought that the end of his speech would have been what legends were made of. Unfortunately, he was dragged off the stage by his irate father, and immediately sent to his room. The last person he saw as he rounded the corner to ascend the stairs, was his brother, sniggering lightly at his expense.

Sirius stumbled into his bedroom and collapsed onto his queen-sized bed. For a second, he considered attempting to floo to the Potter's house but quickly dismissed the idea. Even if he did manage to clear his head enough to exit through the correct gate, he doubted James' parents would appreciate the state he was currently in. Instead, he pushed himself into a sitting position and pulled off his black, formal vest.

The logs in the fireplace across the room were crackling loudly, otherwise, the only noise was from the party downstairs. His bedroom was large, probably twice the size of the kitchen, and there was a bathroom connected at the west corner. His walk-in closet was littered with clothes and shoes and Quidditch magazines and his Hogwart's trunk was lying on its side near the bed ready to be loaded with books for the coming school year.

Sirius blinked a few times, trying in vain to clear his vision. His head spun and his stomach churned. He wasn't sure whether the latter was from the immense amount of alcohol he had consumed or the impending visit from his father. Either way, he decided he'd better start preparing himself for the worst.

He stretched to reach the bedside table on his right side. Opening the door, he pulled out a package of rolling papers and a small bag of what appeared to be, at first glance, harmless herbs. It was, in reality, his own mixture of lovage leaves, lavender, his mother's sleeping pills crushed into a fine powder, coca, and a bit of hellebore for good measure. This was a concoction he had perfected a long time ago, maybe around eleven? It enabled him to endure his father's merciless beatings without so much as flinching. Usually he wouldn't remember much in the morning, either; in fact, it would probably be about 3-4 hours before he would feel anything at all, and by that time, he would be under the influence of some sort of pain potion lying unused in the house.

Sirius finished rolling the paper around his mixture and licked it closed. He threw the empty bag into the trash bin on the side of his bed and grabbed a pack of matches out of the same drawer that housed all his ingredients. Lighting the wrap, he inhaled the fumes deeply and leaned back against the headboard. Only one more week until I'm back at Hogwarts, he thought to himself.

He had never told any of his friends how bad his home life really was, or how he 'occasionally' resorted to using magically induced herbs as an anesthetic. He doubted any of them would believe him anyway, save James. It wasn't that he felt he couldn't tell his best friend, he was just afraid James would get angry over his weakness, or worse, pity him. Smoking a coca mixture wasn't a huge deal in the Black family. Sirius was positive a small sum of their income went to funding research in the area of magical herbs and fungi. They always had it around the house, hidden of course, but finding it wasn't difficult.

Anyway, in a little under a week he wouldn't need it anymore. Normally he didn't smoke it at school, there was no reason to. True, he always brought some for the train ride home at winter holiday, but that was only to prepare himself for the depressing return home. And even then, he always did it in the bathroom of the Hogwart's Express with the window open so no one would know. Once or twice, his friends had noticed something odd on the train ride back but had attributed it to his anxiety at seeing his family again.

Sirius took another hit and knocked his shoes off; they fell to the floor with a loud THUMP. He settled in and tried to get as comfortable as possible, but found this to be difficult; he couldn't stop thinking about the visit from his father. It was looming over his head like a dark cloud. This fear increased when he heard the distinct sound of footfalls outside the room. He didn't even bother putting out the blunt. If he was going to get hit, he wanted to be as numb as humanly possible.

The door opened and light spilled into the room from the hallway. Standing in the doorframe, however, was not Albert Black, but Farrah Carden, Regulus' girlfriend.

She slid into the room and shut the door. Her black, satin dress was short, revealing every curve on her slim body. A pin held up her long, wavy blonde hair but it was slowly slipping out with every drunken step.

"I thought I smelled that," she said, pointing to the wrap in Sirius' hand.

"Yeah, well... I'm sure Regulus has some," he said harshly. Presently, he didn't feel up to company, especially not from that of a Slytherin.

Farrah ignored his obvious dismissal with a wave of her hand. "You made quite the scene out there, didn't you?" She kicked off her black sandals and put a hand on her hip.

"Sure, make yourself at home," he mumbled. Sirius blew out a cloud of smoke before responding to her question. "Is my mum still apologizing?"

Picking up a stray bottle of firewhiskey, she tipped it back and took a long swig. Sirius was impressed at how nonchalantly Farrah addressed him. True, she was probably just as intoxicated as he was, but nonetheless, she was treating him as if nothing had transpired downstairs. "Not one of them will remember it tomorrow."

He shrugged, trying to seem like he could care less

"Is that pure coca?" she said suddenly.

Sirius shook his head, "It's my own invention."

"Can I try it?"

He shook his head again.

This was apparently not the answer she wanted because instead of turning back toward the door, she crossed the room and climbed onto the edge of the bed. Her expression was seductive, like she had a secret agenda. She was a cat, stalking its prey. Somehow, her blatant disregard for his wishes made her more likeable; it was almost sexy. She slithered toward him and sat firmly on his hips. Farrah's black dress was now barely covering her thighs; the top of her dress had shifted downward about three inches, giving Sirius a clear view of her chest.

In a futile attempt to suppress a hormonal moan, he took another long drag from his freshly wrapped joint.

Farrah seemed to have been waiting for this moment. She grabbed his loose tie and pulled his upper body aggressively toward her, meeting him firmly at the lips. Instead of softening her lips upon impact, she opened her mouth and shotgunned as he exhaled. Sirius pulled back and watched as she held her breath for a second, then let out a long string of smoke.

Despite the situation, he found himself becoming severely excited. He chanced another look down at her partially exposed chest. Throwing caution to the wind, he yanked her face toward his, holding his wrap out at a safe distance. He felt her lips crush against his once again, this time allowing himself to kiss back. Farrah tasted strongly of alcohol and herbs and as he deepened the kiss, he found her tongue to be hot and inviting.

She pulled back and took another long swig out of the bottle of firewhiskey.

Sirius exhaled and ran a hand through his tousled black hair. For a second he wondered if perhaps he should just go to sleep and forget the girl sitting... firmly on top of him. His brain was floating in a sea of alcohol and his stomach felt like it was going to explode. But, as Farrah returned her attention to yanking his tie over his head, all thoughts were dismissed. She tried to unbutton his dress shirt but couldn't get her fingers to cooperate, so she proceeded to rip the front open in a violent fashion.

Sirius decided this was extremely arousing, a beautiful woman just tore open his shirt and was now massaging his chest with her tiny hands... how often does that happen? Farrah tugged his shirt over his shoulders and he shrugged it off as she sucked on his lower lip. At this point, he crushed the remainder of his blunt down on the bedside table.

Alarms were now going off in his head, but he chose to ignore them. He was too far gone; past the point of forcing his body to stop. Sirius' hands wandered to her thighs and he squeezed them as she bit down on the side of his neck. He groaned and rubbed his hands upward, grabbing hold of the bottom of her dress. She ground her pelvis into his and dug her nails into the skin of his back. Sirius sucked in a breath as she broke through his skin. He felt aggressive, almost animalistic. The clip holding her hair up dislodged and the silky blonde waves fell softly onto her shoulders.

His brain wasn't working now; all he could think was that he needed to eliminate anything separating their two bodies. As he was yanking the fabric of Farrah's dress over her head, one last, pleading voice tried to thwart his efforts. But as Sirius lifted Farrah into the air and slammed her down underneath him, that last, weak voice was nothing more than a passing thought.

O-o-o-o

A while later, Sirius woke up in a pool of sweat. His back stung and the whole room was spinning. He rolled over with lightning speed and vomited over the side of the bed into the waiting bin. There was caked blood on the sheets from gashes on his back and sitting up made Sirius feel more nauseous. He managed to stumble out of bed and pull on a pair of red and gold pajamas bottoms. Racking his brain, he tried to remember exactly why he was completely naked and sick as a dog.

Coming up with nothing, he turned back toward his bed and groaned at the sight in front of him. "Bloody hell!"

Farrah Carden was pulling her tight, black dress back over her head at the other end of his large bed. She turned and shot him an annoyed expression. "Don't 'bloody hell' me, Sirius Black! I'm not the one who passed out cold over a little alcohol."

"GET OUT!" he bellowed. Sirius didn't care how she left, just as long as she was gone within the next few seconds. His brain wasn't ready to comprehend what he'd done. James' face flashed momentarily through his head; what would his best friend say if he could see Sirius now? Maybe he'd wonder why the sorting hat had placed him in Gryffindor if he was going to act like a disgusting Slytherin.

That's what I am... bloody sickening. He only just made it to the bin this time.

Suddenly, the air in the room grew cold.

Sirius started to sweat as the knob on the bedroom door turned slowly. Once again, the room was filled with a soft, yellow glow from the hallway light.

Albert Black stood in the doorframe, holding a wine glass in his hand, shooting daggers out of his eyes at Sirius.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!" he screamed. "There's a sodding party going on downstairs, boy! You needn't ruin it by making NOISE!" His eyes quickly traveled to the other person inside the dark room. Realization flashed across his face.

"Dad..." Sirius didn't have a moment to finish the thought.

"Shagging your brother's girlfriend are you?" He stepped further into the bedroom and held the door open for Farrah to scamper through. The door slammed behind her retreating, disheveled form.

"Tell Regulus anything and I'll go back downstairs and proudly announce that I'm becoming an Auror." Sirius was feeling lucky that his father was massively sloshed. This meant that whatever blows he dealt would be klutzy and less painful. Still though, he hoped that his herbal mixture was strong enough to make the whole process less hurtful.

Closing his eyes, he felt the air shift as his father stumbled toward him, one fist raised, the other firmly gripping the wine glass. Sirius braced himself for the worst.


The next morning, Sirius awoke slowly. For a minute, he wasn't sure where he was. His entire body felt like one big bruise. He laid still on his back for a beat and tried to remember the events of the night before.

His mother had dismissed him from their annual summer celebration because of his toast–he'd come upstairs to wait for his father... Sirius glanced to the right and saw the empty firewhiskey bottle and wrap butt. That's when it hit him–Farrah. He covered his eyes with a hand and groaned. Why couldn't I have exercised some self control! She's my brother's sodding girlfriend! He decided he must have passed out soon afterward because the next thing he could recall was his father entering and attempting to make him sorry for embarrassing the family with his speech.

The first thing he noticed upon lifting his body off the mattress was that his left arm felt broken. He sighed, he'd have to wait a week and have Madame Pomfrey fix it, there was no way he was going to admit to any family member that he was in pain.

Ripping at one of his sheets, he fastened himself a makeshift sling. Looking into the mirror, he received his first shock; his eyes were bloodshot, a large bruise rested underneath his right eye, his bottom lip was fat and crusted with dried blood, and covering his neck were dark red blotches. And that damage was just from the shoulders up. A few minutes later, he was trying to yank a t-shirt over his head with one hand when he felt a deep, stinging sensation.

Crossing again to the full length mirror, he turned to find eight thick, superficial lacerations crisscrossing down his back; fingernail marks. Most had scabbed over, but a few still had fine strings of blood trickling down the length of his back. A large, purple bruise was taking form near his collarbone, and there was a deep gash protruding down from it. He vaguely remembered his father hitting him with a wine glass. The cut meant that it probably broke on impact. All in all, he was in pretty bad shape.

Sirius glanced at the clock, it was nearly eleven; he was supposed to have been at the Potter's house an hour ago. A quick glance at the fireplace confirmed his worst fears–it was locked, meaning he couldn't leave. They had probably locked up all the family owls too. Deciding to save the pain of a shower for later, he ventured downstairs to see if anyone else was awake.

The house was fairly clean, although Kreacher had yet to get to the dishes, there were piles and piles stacked near the sink. The coffee pot was filled and a plate of cold toast sat on the kitchen table, so Sirius was sure that the house elf was awake and roaming around somewhere.

"You look like shit," came the voice of Regulus from behind him. The younger man was leaning against the staircase with a malicious smile plastered on his face.

"Wipe that sodding grin off your face or you'll be looking loads worse than me," Sirius chided back. He wasn't in the mood to deal with his sibling... actually, he was never in the mood to deal with Regulus.

"Maybe if you'd just follow orders once in awhile instead of trying to start a rebellion, you wouldn't get hit," then, after a pause, he added, "It's your own fault, you know."

Sirius's eyes flashed at this comment, "You'll be singing a different song when Dumbledore kills Voldemort and the Aurors are hauling you off to Azkaban without a trial."

Regulus just smirked at him and turned toward the stairs. Halfway up, he poked his head back around and said, "I'm not the one beaten to a bloody pulp, remember."

"Wanker," Sirius mumbled as he watched his younger brother disappear. He checked around the remaining rooms and seeing nobody else awake, grabbed a piece of toast and slipped out the front door to sit in the tiny yard.

The sight may have looked odd to the passing Muggle, a beat up sixteen-year-old, sitting in the middle of an empty lot eating breakfast, dressed only in a pair of pajama pants. Luckily, the only person on the street was a chubby old man power-walking with his pet Shih-Tsu.

An hour later, he was finally considering going back inside when a crashing sound brought his attention back to the street. A huge, purple, three-story bus came to a screeching halt in front of the curb, narrowly missing the power-walker, now on his way home (he didn't even look up). It was odd to see the Knight Bus parked in front of his house, his family normally didn't have visitors. This brought up his next question; who was taking the bus to No. 12 Grimmauld Place?

His question was answered shortly thereafter as Peter Pettrigrew, Remus Lupin, and James Potter stepped unsteadily out the door (Peter looked extremely happy to have both feet on the ground). James was the first to catch sight of Sirius sitting in the middle of the lawn.

"Hey, you never told me you lived in an empty lot, Siri–bloody hell!" he exclaimed as he plunged forward.

Remus, walking behind him, gasped in horror at the sight of his friend.

Sirius hadn't thought he looked that bad. He had, after all, looked much worse after an incident with the whomping willow the previous year. Feeling a sudden urge to avoid a scene outside in broad daylight, in the middle of a Muggle neighborhood, he whipped out his wand and motioned for the three boys to follow him through the charmed yard and into the house. They gaped after him into the main hallway, up the stairs, past the mounted house-elf heads, and only spoke when Sirius' bedroom door was firmly closed.

"What happened!" demanded James, looking his best friend up and down with an expression of utter horror.

Sirius thought quickly, he wished he would have taken the time to find his mother's concealer potion. In his defense, he hadn't planned on seeing the Marauders, or anyone else outside the house, that day.

"It's nothing," he lied, "I had an accident on my broom."

James and Peter nodded but Remus stared him down.

"You're lying," he said softly. After a beat, he added, "I can smell them all over you."

Damn Moony and his werewolf senses.

Sirius glared at him. He had forgotten it was almost that time of the month. Remus's five senses were always heightened around the full moon.

"My parents had their annual end-of-the-summer holiday party last night. You're probably smelling all my relatives," he tried.

But Remus was not backing down; he looked worried. He took a step forward and breathed in deeply.

Sirius felt himself recoil under his stare.

There was only a foot of space between Remus and Sirius now. Remus opened his eyes and shuddered. "How... how many times did he... hit you?" He reached out a hand and touched the bruise on Sirius' shoulder tentatively.

"Oh Merlin... how long has this been going on?" James asked hoarsely.

Peter, for his part hadn't said a word yet. He just stood there and eyed the bruises covering Sirius's body warily.

"Look," Sirius said, raking a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes, "Just shut up about it–you don't understand my parents. I shouldn't have provoked them. I was supposed to give a speech last night... Tojours pur and all that rot; but I mucked it up. Don't worry about it."

"What the hell are you on about, Padfoot?" Peter asked, sounding alarmingly angry.

"Peter," Remus scolded, holding a hand out to try and settle him down. He turned slowly back to Sirius, who briskly walked around his bed to try and find a shirt; he blatantly ignored their piercing glares.

"Sirius..." Remus continued, "what do you mean you provoked them?" His features softened as he spoke.

Sirius pulled his button-up, blood-stained, dress shirt off the floor and dropped it like a scorching hot tea kettle, shuddering. "Like I said... I made a sodding awful speech in front of half the pure-blooded community saying something about every wizard in the room not being able to hold a candle to some of my Muggle-born friends. My mum was less than pleased."

James audibly gulped. He obviously didn't know what to make of Sirius's nonchalant behavior. "So your dad..."

Sirius nodded. His body had started to shake under the pressure and he could feel himself weakening every time one of his friends spoke. Being abused was such a regular event in his life; he wasn't used to people getting upset over it. He felt ashamed. "Look, just forget it, alright? It's no big deal; I've been dealing with this since I was sorted into Gryffindor."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" James suddenly shouted, advancing toward him. "I'm supposed to be your sodding best mate! This has been going on the WHOLE TIME I'VE KNOWN YOU?"

Sirius flinched and stiffened. Before James could continue his rant, Sirius clamped a hand over his mouth, "Shush, will you? If they wake up and find the lot of you're here, it'll be much worse."

James fell silent but still fixed his friend with a stony expression.

"What did he hit you with?" Remus asked.

Sirius was beginning to lose his temper, "What, you want me to relive the whole #&ing thing so you can have a pity party?" He stepped over to the broken wine glass lying on the floor. Picking it up, he slammed it down onto the table in front of his three friends; droplets of leftover wine flew everywhere.

Peter, who was closest, jumped at the noise.

"He hit me with the closest object and then broke my arm with his foot." Sirius was in a blind rage now. He picked up his nearby copy of Advanced Transfiguration and hurled it across the room, disregarding his warnings of waking up the entire house. "THEN, the bloody bastard threw me into a chair," he kicked the splintered shards of wood violently, "And went back downstairs where he and his friends probably had a good old laugh about the whole thing. But you know WHAT!" he asked with his fists clenched, panting and glaring at his three friends.

They looked afraid to ask.

"I was too bloody SLOSHED to really feel any of it. In fact, until I woke up this morning, I didn't feel anything at all!" He felt the tears coming now. Sirius squeezed his eyes shut and covered them with his hands. His knees shook and he felt himself sinking to the ground. James moved forward and caught him, letting Sirius bury his head in his chest. Sirius couldn't stop his tears now. James had his arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders and his whole body convulsed with rage and hurt.

"It's not your fault," James whispered as he held his best friend's shaking form.

It took a good ten minutes to regain control. When Sirius finally looked back up, Peter and Remus had managed to shove all his clothes and books into his Hogwarts trunk. Sirius looked at them with a curious expression. He wiped at his puffy eyes, "Err... school doesn't start for another week, guys," he stated bluntly.

"Well, you aren't staying here," Remus said as he locked the trunk and pulled it into an upright position.

"Moony, I can't just leave."

"You're coming to my house," James said as-a-matter-of-factly. "My mum and dad will love it... and... we can get your arm fixed up too."

Sirius nodded. He couldn't find the words to thank his best friends. Running away had never sounded like a good option until now. He had always accepted his family for the assholes they were. The thought of leaving to live with James made his heart sore to new heights. For the first time in the past three months, he felt excited.

The boys gathered the rest of his possessions as Sirius pulled on a pair of jeans and his 'my other ride is a Nimbus' t-shirt (James had once charmed it to say 'Peter's mum' instead of 'Nimbus,' thoroughly pissing off Wormtail). Once they had everything together, the four quietly opened the bedroom door.

Remus tapped James on the shoulder softly, "Why don't you and Pete summon the Knight Bus. I need to talk to Sirius for a minute."

James gave him an odd expression before nodding and motioning Peter to help him get the trunk down the steep stairs. When they disappeared safely around the corner, Remus shut the door again and turned toward Sirius.

"So, tell me what happened," he said, without so much as flinching.

Sirius shot him an odd look, "What do you mean? I told you everything..."

"That isn't what I mean... you know I can smell her."

Sirius's eyes must have flashed an understanding because Remus folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the closed door.

Sirius hung his head and yanked a hand through his hair. "Nothing... it was just a girl at their stupid party. She just shared my firewhiskey is all." He felt bad trying to lie to Remus, who was always completely understanding and nonjudgmental, but he didn't feel ready to divulge any information about the events that had transpired the night before.

Remus, for his part, rolled his eyes. "You have scratch marks on your back and I highly doubt the bite marks all over your neck are from your father. I understand if you don't want to talk about it but don't treat me like I don't understand."

"Sorry," Sirius mumbled. He leaned against the round table and waited for Remus to continue.

Remus sighed, he reached out and clasped his friend's shoulder. "Was it your first time?"

Sirius stared into Remus's amber eyes for a minute and nodded. "Yes," he said hoarsely. "Please... don't tell James or Peter. I–I'd like to keep it to myself for now, if it's alright."

Remus shot him an understanding smile. "Well, if you ever want to talk about it... I'm here," he seemed to think for a second before adding, "You know, I would have thought you'd be gloating about it. Sometimes you surprise me, Padfoot."

Sirius pulled open the bedroom door. "Trust me... what happened... it's nothing to feel proud about. I–thanks for not outing me in front of everyone, Moony." He sighed once more and continued through the door and down the hallway, Remus at his heels.


Mrs. Potter had an absolute fit when she saw the condition Sirius was in. She had always regarded him as a second son and when he showed up bloodied and bruised, James had to practically hold her back from marching over to the Black's house herself.

Sirius refused to go to St. Mungo's, saying his parents would kill him if he revealed the family secret. When Mr. Potter returned home later that evening, he did the best he could to fix the broken arm, but said that Sirius should still get it looked at when he arrived back at school.

James did everything he could to make his friend feel at home, even set up the guest bedroom and spellotaped Quidditch posters all over the walls. He expected Sirius to be depressed over the events that transpired, but instead found that he was the happiest he'd been in a long time.

This carefree attitude couldn't last forever. A week after moving in with the Potter's, the two Gryffindor boys packed their trunks and headed to Kings Cross Station. James could tell Sirius was excited to finally be going back to Hogwarts, but at the same time, he seemed a bit wary of seeing his relatives, and rightly so. The only member of the Black family that Sirius could stand, Andromeda Black (Tonks, now), finished her seventh year before the boys entered their first. This meant that Hogwarts was still home to Bellatrix (in her 7th Year) and Regulus (5th). James didn't doubt for a second that the pair would give Sirius a hard time sometime in the near future.

The only thing worth mentioning that happened on the Hogwart's Express was that Peter managed to hit Severus Snape with a fairly well placed Giggling Hex (James was pretty certain it was an accident, and that Pete had been trying to nail a Hufflepuff 2ndt year across the hall, but beggars can't be choosers, yeah?). It was amusing to watch Snape try to retaliate while laughing hysterically; quite out of character for the greasy Slytherin. James could have sworn he heard him giggle his name in a very venomous way as he stalked out of sight.

Remus left a while later to do rounds with Lily Evans, the other Gryffindor prefect (James told him to tell her 'hello' from him, to which Remus just rolled his eyes), and for the remainder of the trip, Sirius, Peter, and James played Exploding Snap.

It was during the welcoming feast that Bellatrix and Regulus first made their move. The Marauder's (minus Remus, who had retired early because his werewolf transformation had been the day before) were discussing plans for the first prank of the year when the two Slytherins approached.

"You make me SICK, Sirius!" Regulus announced suddenly. His fists were balled and his face beat red.

Sirius, for his part, did his best not to look put-out, "Goes both ways, Regulus."

Bellatrix folded her arms across her chest and stared at her cousin, "Don't expect your mother to welcome you back at Christmas... please! You ran away from home and paraded your inadequacies for the entire wizarding world to see," she sneered savagely.

James stood up and pointed his wand directly at her chest, "It's YOUR FAMILY that's disgusting... stay away from him or I'll..."

"James..." Sirius said, tugging his robes so he sat back down. "It's alright... just—just don't."

Most of the Gryffindor table were watching the scene, now. They probably thought they were going to see the first duel of the year. As James sat back down, he was grateful that Sirius had enough sense to stop him. He really didn't want to set a record as the first person to get a detention before classes even began.

Lily Evans was eyeing them suspiciously and flashing her prefect badge near the end of the table, but James ignored her.

"Come on Bellatrix... don't worry about him," Regulus stated, still eyeing James wand warily, "He's not even a Black anymore."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Blasted me off the family tapestry, has she?" He sighed loudly and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, "Andromeda will be so proud!"

Bellatrix made a low, growling noise as she and Regulus stalked from the Gryffindor table without looking back.

After everyone was finished eating, Dumbledore made his usual announcements; Fifth Years were allowed to visit Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest was thus, forbidden, and Filch updated his list of activities that aren't allowed at school. The Marauders were especially proud that they had forced the list to come to 78 items. Among them, the newest additions, students were not allowed to sing, Filch is gay, Filch tickled my pickle, or Mrs. Norris is a failed Animagus (also, he added, that you could not charm the coats of armor to sing these either).

The next two months flew past in a blur of Quidditch, homework, and pranks for the four Gryffindor boys. Remus glanced haphazardly around the Charms classroom on October 26 and noticed Peter, James, and Sirius looked as ragged as himself. The full moon had been the night before and for the first time, the four friends had dared to venture outside of the Shrieking Shack. Remus was still wary of the idea of betraying Dumbledore's trust, but was easily persuaded to join them in a romp through the forbidden forest. James had been right, nothing bad had happened.

Normally, Remus wasn't able to return to classes until a few days after his transformation. But having his friends around him while he was in werewolf form enabled him to maintain a sense of self. Remus spent the nights running through the forest, playing games, and communicating with the others instead of tearing at his own flesh.

He took the end of his quill and prodded Peter, who had been drooling on his Advanced Charms book for the second time in ten minutes. In front of them, sat James and Sirius. They were at least pretending to be awake, although once in a while, Sirius' head would drop forward and then snap back up with impeccable speed.

Remus hoped they would be back in tip top condition for Saturday's first Hogsmeade weekend.

Lily, who sat across from James and Sirius, kept rolling her eyes and huffing. Charms was her absolute favorite class, she hated it when people didn't pay attention (especially James). After the lesson was over, the four boys were packing their books away when she stormed over to their table, her friend, Emmalyn in tow.

"How is it that you can be so tired when you went to bed early last night, Potter?" she demanded, putting her hand on her hip and balancing her bag on the opposite shoulder.

Remus marveled how someone so petite could be so frightening when angered.

James, however, was unfazed. He just shrugged and scratched his head (he had been trying to refrain from mussing up his hair in her presence), "I didn't realize you were paying such close attention, Evans."

Sirius snorted.

Lily narrowed her eyes, "I'm simply searching for a reason to give you detention."

Next to her, Emmalyn was staring at her feet, a pink tinge settling on her cheeks. Remus looked back at Sirius, who was grinning at her like an idiot. James didn't seem to notice.

"Search away, then," James said, waving a hand through the air indifferently. He walked around her and toward the classroom door. Remus, Peter, and Sirius followed.

"I know you left the dormitory last night... and I'll prove it, you just wait."

James froze.

Peter, his hand resting on the doorframe, turned toward Lily, "Good luck, then."


Saturday, October 26: Hogsmeade weekend

Sirius laced his fingers through Claire Dunway's silky brown hair and stuck his tongue further into her mouth. A tiny moan escaped her as she climbed into his lap. He leaned back against the wall of the broom closet, knocking over a bucket full of sponges. They only had about ten minutes before everyone was supposed to gather at the front doors to go into Hogsmeade.

Claire was in seventh year, and a fellow Gryffindor known to be quick in the classroom and even quicker into bed. For Sirius, though, she was simply a distraction.

Despite the rumors floating about Hogwarts like ghosts, he had only kissed approximately four people... well... five counting the girl in his lap, who currently had her tongue down his throat.

There had been Joanna Windham, a Ravenclaw in the same year as Sirius; his only official girlfriend. Then came Winnie Newman, James' girlfriend for a short time during 5th year (before he realized he was hopelessly in love with Lily Evans), who had pounced on Sirius during breakfast one morning in a vain attempt to piss off her ex-boyfriend (Sirius decided this was probably the point in time where the whole school came to the conclusion that he was a lady's man, as they were all watching the transaction between himself and said girl). After this came Farrah Carden, Regulus' girlfriend; the woman he was desperately trying to forget. In fact, he dwelled on that night almost every day. Numerous times, he had tried to talk to James about it... once he even managed to get the phrase, 'I made a huge mista–,' out before Peter came bounding into the dormitory, waving a new copy of Quidditch Today around and ruining the moment.

How could one drunken accident make him feel so terrible? It wasn't because she was Regulus's girlfriend... in fact, if the situation hadn't been so ridiculous, this point would've perhaps made him proud. Anyway, then, last week he'd had a date with Emmalyn Emerson (Lily's friend) and had kissed her on the lips before they parted ways at the dormitory steps.

He watched Claire smile at him and seductively unzip his trousers. Sirius managed a small smile and leaned his head back against the cold wall.

Moony knew. He briefly thought about talking to Remus about his depressing feelings before a wave of pleasure washed over him and all thoughts were lost.

O-o-o-o-o-o

James checked his watch for the fifteenth time, "He said he was going, right?"

"Of course he's going. Sirius wouldn't give up a Hogsmeade visit... besides, I think he said he was out of dungbombs," Peter noted.

"There's a crisis," Remus snorted. He pretended to be bitter about his friend's lust for trouble making. Once and a while, he'd somewhat attempt to thwart their plans in order to save face as a Gryffindor prefect. Normally, the other three boys would just give him dirty looks and request that he be the lookout while they plotted stinksap in the corridor. Oh well.

Five minutes and ten pesky moans from Peter (We really should be heading off, you know) later, Sirius came hurtling around the corner toward the castle door at top speed, looking slightly disheveled and out of breath.

"Sorry," he panted. "Lost–lost track of time."

"Doing what exactly?" James asked, arching his eyebrow suspiciously. Usually, his best friend was the first out the door, and if he wasn't, you could tempt him with food or butterbeer to get his arse in gear.

Sirius ran a hand through his eye-length black hair and gave a half-smile. "Err..."

Peter shifted his weight with an exasperated expression.

Remus stared at Sirius with narrowed eyes.

James shrugged, "I'll take that as a 'I can't think of a good enough lie at the moment, but if you ask me again later, I'll break down like a baby and confess,' sound, Padfoot." He grinned at Sirius and turned on his heel toward the double doors of the castle.

"Right then, so we're off," Peter added, following James into the brisk October air.

The four boys managed to visit Quality Quidditch Supplies, Zonkos, and Honeydukes during the first hour. Sirius planted exploding frog spawn in an unsuspecting Hufflepuff girl's hood, much to the amusement of his friends (except perhaps Remus, who glared at him). They had a relatively leisurely day until running into Bellatrix, Snivellus, and Rodolphus Lestrange.

"Look, it's my ridiculous castaway cousin and his pathetic posse!" she jeered menacingly. Her long black hair was blowing wildly in the wind and she pulled out her wand and waved it around in a threatening manner.

"Good to know you can alliterate," James mocked, rolling his eyes harshly.

"Careful, James... I doubt she'll be able to follow you if you use big words," Sirius chided back, laughing along with his best friend.

Bellatrix's eyes flashed and next to her, Snape raised his wand toward Sirius.

Before Snape could even utter a word against him though, Sirius had put him in a full body bind.

That was when Remus stepped in, "Break it up, all of you! I'm taking points if I see another spell thrown... and for heavens sake, Padfoot... would you take it off him?"

Sirius did as he was told, but couldn't help noticing that Remus' eyes were dancing with laughter, even as he scolded him and James. Snape shot one more threatening look their way before turning back toward his friends and making loud conversation about 'filthy mudbloods' and 'runaway family members.'

"Guys... watch this!" Sirius sniggered, frolicking off in the opposite direction. Looking back, he added, "Don't worry, Moony... I won't hex them!"

James tried to keep a consistent conversation going with Remus and Peter without glancing over at the Slytherin party too often. After a few minutes, he caught a glimpse of Sirius; instead of being in human form, however, Padfoot was prancing out from behind The Three Broomsticks.

Peter tried to turn a laugh into a cough as the large, black dog meandered over to Bellatrix. None of the Marauders had any idea what he was up to, but they agreed it probably wasn't a good idea, knowing Sirius. Yet, instead of pulling Padfoot back out of sight and giving him a harsh spanking, they looked on curiously.

The dog happily trotted over to Bellatrix, stood next to her for a minute, then, did the most hilarious thing they had ever seen Sirius do. He lifted his leg, without a forewarning glance, and started to urinate on Bellatrix's school cloak.

At first, she didn't even seem to notice the animal at her feet. In fact, she might not have even looked down if Remus, Peter, and James weren't less than fifty feet away, cackling madly. Even Remus had caught the bug; he was clutching his sides and howling with delight. Peter, who for some reason had his wand out, accidently sent bright, red sparks shooting everywhere. A flash of light later, Snape's robes had caught on fire. The situation just kept getting better and better. Snape was trying to stamp out the bottom hem while, at the same time, shooting water at himself with the end of his wand; Bellatrix was cursing at Padfoot and trying to kick him away.

James didn't think he'd be able to breathe for some time. It didn't help that Sirius seemed to have been waiting for days to use the restroom. He just kept going and going, and the Marauder's kept laughing harder and harder.

When he thought about it later, James realized that watching his best friend pee on a family member could be construed as quite disturbing.

Enter: Bellatrix screaming... a lot. If she hadn't been so mortified, James swore she would've chased them back to the castle.

The next month was spent avidly trying to avoid hexes from every Slytherin they passed. Bellatrix, even having no proof whatsoever, knew Sirius had something to do with the dog attack. She seemed to convince all her cronies of such, anyway, and he was spending more time defending himself in the hallways of Hogwarts than actually being the one pranking people.

Oh well, Sirius thought, it was worth it to see her face. He had counted on her eventually catching up to him and getting a good curse in; what he hadn't counted on, though, was everything falling apart so suddenly.


It all started in November; November 24, to be exact...

It was around 8:00p.m., and James, Sirius, and Peter were in the Gryffindor Common Room, impatiently waiting for the full moon to rise. Peter was finishing up his Charms Essay (the downside of Glamour Charms), and James and Sirius were playing a rousing game of 'Break the Lamp.'

To the everyday Muggle, this game would sound simple. The only objective was to break the antique, lion-shaped lamp sitting on an end table near the window. Except, nothing at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could be defined as simple. The problem with their game was that there were a number of spells placed on every object in the common room to prevent accidents. When Sirius had invented 'Break the Lamp', he had said that luckily, they weren't attempting to have an accident; this was to be a purposeful destruction of school property.

"Would it count if I just transfigured it to look broken?" James asked, eyeing the lamp curiously.

Sirius shook his head, "No... it wouldn't really be broken, then, would it?" He pointed his wand at the offending object and blew it off the table. The lamp flew into the air and landed with a loud THUD against the opposite wall. It still didn't break.

James crossed the room and stuck it back on the table. "Didn't Peter accidently break it once?" he asked, "We could ask him how he did it."

"He broke the light bulb with his head."

"Second year," Peter piped up over his Charms book.

James raised his eyebrows.

"He was walking on the back of the couch and tripped..."

"That's rubbish! You pushed me!" Peter shouted indignantly at Sirius.

"And the lamp fell on his head an knocked him unconscious," Sirius continued, waving his hand at Peter's interruption.

There were still quite a few people milling around the common room. Most were working diligently on their homework, a few were playing chess, and some were watching James and Sirius with interest. Usually, their exploits could be good for a laugh.

James narrowed his eyes at the lion shaped lamp. The trick was, you had to be smarter than the inanimate object. He transfigured one of Peter's quills into an dart, Wingardium Levioso'ed it, and sent it shooting toward the target. For a second, it looked like his plan had worked; the arrow stuck securely into the side of the lamp. Then, without warning, it was blown back out again, Sirius and James just managed to duck out of the way before the pointed end of it came spinning toward their heads.

"How many charms do you think good 'ole Godric Gryffindor put on this stuff?" Sirius asked, raking a hand through his hair and glancing back where James' dart had stuck menacingly into the wall.

"I highly doubt that lamp has been around over a thousand years," spat Lily Evans, as she descended the stairs. "And, five points from each of you for destruction of property."

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"If I may point out, we haven't actually broken anything yet... right now, you just have us on intent," challenged James.

Lily narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, "Fine," she snapped, "Five points from each of you for maliciously intending to damage school property." She wasn't backing down. Lily cared more about rules than she did about Gryffindor winning the House Cup at the end of the year.

"That's better," Sirius snorted.

A few people standing around them sniggered lightly.

"Maybe it's time we had McGonagall write a letter to your parents about your behavior," Lily continued, still staring intently at James.

"Perfect, I'm sure she still has a copy of the last one... what did it say again...?" James asked, pretending to be deep in thought.

"Educational disturbance, I believe," Sirius added helpfully.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"OUCH!"

"James, shove it, would you! Do you want to wake the bloody dead?"

"Wormtail just stepped on my foot!"

"Shhhh!" Sirius said, poking James in the rib cage, being careful not to push him out from under the invisibility cloak.

"Well, your feet are about the same size as Sirius' ego, and to tell you the truth, I'm quite surprised this invisibility cloak can fit either underneath," Peter announced gruffly.

James poked him in the ribs in retaliation.

"We should really invest in another cloak... this is getting ridiculous," Sirius agreed quietly.

"It'd be fine if you'd just quit growing!" James remarked sourly. Sirius had always been at least two inches taller, to James' dismay. He'd even tried to force feed Padfoot coffee for five years and it still hadn't stunted his growth. Now, the three boys were hunched underneath the cloak, bumping into one another and stepping (literally and figuratively) on each other's toes.

"Alright, Wormtail... it's your time to shine," Sirius said. The area under their invisible tent increased as Peter changed into his animagus form in order to prod the knob under the Whomping Willow.

After the tree had frozen, James balled the cloak, shoved it into his pocket, and changed into his own stag form. Sirius followed suit. The three animals gathered around the tree and Padfoot gave two, short barks.

The night was dark except for the giant, glowing full moon hanging unsupported in the black sky. A few stars poked through the clouds, and though the wind was nippy, the three animals were warm under thick layers of fur.

They stood around the tree and waited; not for long, however, as a return bark was heard from somewhere beneath the large tree. Soon after, a lone, gray werewolf pulled himself head first out from the hole at the base. The other animals hopped around happily at their friend's appearance.

Remus had still not allowed them to witness his transformations. He said it was hard enough dealing with them himself, he didn't want the others to worry about it either. It was painful, that much Sirius knew. One day, they would convince Moony to let them join him... until then, they were content meeting outside the willow tree.

Padfoot barked and wagged his tail happily. Moony gave them all a fierce look and began sprinting toward the Forbidden Forest, the rest in tow. Wormtail usually had a difficult job keeping up, his short legs weren't made for running at top speed. Either James would let him sit in his antlers, or Sirius would hold him in his mouth by the tail. Peter preferred the former.

The boys spent a good hour tramping around after a few wild wart hogs (why exactly Hagrid had them... they weren't sure) and playing a rousing game of bite-tag (Moony had invented this by default when trying to attack Padfoot).

It was probably around midnight when James stopped dead in his tracks, Sirius right behind him, with Wormtail in his mouth. Padfoot nudged Prongs in question, but the stag stayed dead still.

That's when Sirius heard the voices; quiet at first, but definitely voices of people inside the forest. For a brief second, he thought they'd been discovered. He ran to where Moony was crouching and nuzzled him with his snout, willing him to stay put. The last thing they needed was for him to lose his head completely and attack whoever was invading their territory. The four animals snuggled together, side by side, to watch.

There was a group of about a dozen cloaked figures, each holding a lit wand in front of them. They walked in a straight line, staring directly ahead as if they were on a mission.

Padfoot was the first to follow, his curiosity got the best of him. James nipped at his retreating tail, but followed nonetheless. Moony stalked close behind.

After about ten minutes, the group reached a clearing. Bats were flying maniacally around Sirius' stomach, now. This most definitely wasn't a meeting to collect butterflies or follow the rainbow to a pot of gold.

The leader rounded everyone up around a small fire pit. Flames shot out of his wand and the logs abruptly caught fire and crackled with intensity. Then, someone else raised their wand and shouted, "Morsmordre!"

The image of a large, green skull now hung monstrously above their heads.

Fear ripped at Sirius' stomach and the bats disappeared, leaving him with a sinking feeling; it was a Dark Arts group. He should have known there was one at Hogwarts, how could there not be? He, and the rest of the Marauders watched them practice dark spells and conjure an image of the Dark Lord from the flames of their fire.

Sirius desperately wanted to talk with his friends about what they were witnessing. Unfortunately, they couldn't just change back into human form; not when there was a werewolf lying beside them. Remus would not attack his animal friends, but the second they changed back, he'd revert to his vicious self. It was probably taking all of his concentration not to lash out against the humans standing ten feet away.

Moony, not used to sitting still, began to shift uncomfortably next to Sirius. He nipped at Wormtail a few times, scaring the rat into moving back toward James. Sirius knew they needed to get the werewolf away from the loud noises and activities as soon as possible.

Looking up, he saw that most of the hooded figures were engaging themselves in mini-duels and not paying attention to their surroundings. Now would be the perfect time to move. Sirius nudged Moony with his nose. The werewolf let out an irritated howl.

The silence is what started the chaos. Every member of the Dark Arts group froze, pointing their wands in separate directions.

Sensing a shift in the air, Moony began to growl. Sirius nipped at his shoulder, begging him to be silent. James, on the other side, bumped him with his antlers. They tried to maneuver the wolf as quietly as possible into the darkness of the forest, but it was too late.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" screamed a hooded figure as bright red sparks flew out of the tip of his wand.

Padfoot and Prongs nudged Moony once more. He howled in protest. Shouts and spells filled the chilly night air. Moony finally took the hint, and spun in the opposite direction, crashing through a few bushes.

A long, blue laser shot past Padfoot's left ear, singeing his fur. A figure in black was inching nearer, avoiding the rapid wand fire. Sirius let out a long growl and heard Moony howl in desperation nearby.

"Black, do you see anything?" yelled a voice in the distance.

Sirius didn't care which family member was under the hood, he wanted to get out of the forest as fast as possible. He let out one last vicious growl and the figure began backing up.

Just when Sirius thought they would be able to start moving, the retreating form spun around and shot something long and glowing out of his wand.

Padfoot made to follow Moony through the trees, but was stopped by a deafening whimper. He turned, and saw that James had been hit with a bright red arrow. The stag stumbled and crashed to the forest floor.

Sirius panicked. He was at James' side in less than a second. Prongs looked up with watery eyes. The arrow had imbedded deep into his upper leg. The laceration hadn't began bleeding yet, but once the spell faded and the arrow disappeared, Sirius had no doubt it would.

Wormtail was squeaking with despair and running around in mad circles. Twenty feet away, Moony was standing, stock still, watching the three animals with interest.

The group of cloaked figures had vanished, probably running in fear of being caught by a teacher. If they'd known one of their spells had actually hit someone, they didn't care.

Prongs weakly pulled himself to his feet. His leg would barely support any weight.

Sirius looked into James' eyes and knew what he had to do; he and Wormtail needed to get Remus back to the Whomping Willow; and, they had to do it fast. The sooner Moony was safely tucked away, the sooner they could get James to the hospital wing.

Sirius picked Peter up by his tail and ran. His muscles worked hard as he raced Remus back to the tree. Remus must have sensed the urgency, because he didn't put up a fight as they motioned to him to crawl back into the hole under the tree. He gave Sirius a worried look, and disappeared from sight.

He and Peter morphed back into human form.

"Pete, I'm going to get James. You go find Madame Pomfrey and whatever Professor is still awake... I'll try to get him back to the castle."

Peter nodded weakly and took off running.

Sirius didn't have a chance to think of the implications of turning James over to the hospital wing. Yes, there was the possibility of numerous detentions, or worse, expulsion. But, right now, James' life hung on the line. Nobody would ever know Remus had somehow been involved, Sirius was sure of that. He was also sure that James would cook up a clever story to cover up their adventure. Hopefully, Peter wouldn't divulge too much information before they had a chance to straighten out their stories. Then again, Sirius had to give Pete credit, he could be a sneaky little rat sometimes.

It only took five minutes for Sirius to return to James, now also back in human form. The arrow had vanished completely, and James was clutching his arm in agony as blood spilled down and soaked the forest floor. His face was white and covered with sweat.

Sirius yanked off his own button-down shirt and ripped a long strip off the bottom. Using it as a bandage, he tied it securely around the gaping wound, trying hard not to look at the torn muscle and loose skin amongst the blood.

James moaned, "What spell was that? I've never seen anything like it."

"A dark arts spell, most likely," Sirius answered darkly. The amount of blood that had soaked through James' shirt was offering little relief.

"Can you walk?"

James nodded.

Sirius pulled his friend's good arm over his shoulder and wrapped his arm around James' waist. He felt like he was hoisting up a 130 lb rag doll. They continued walking in that manner for five minutes, until they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest. James had been growing increasingly weaker during the journey and finally lost his footing.

Sirius didn't let him fall all the way to the ground, however. For his age, Sirius was fairly well built, with strong arms to boot. He picked up James' limp form (thank goodness his friend was a true bean pole) and stumbled slowly past the Whomping Willow and through the thick grass leading up to the castle.

After a few more minutes, his arms went numb from the weight. As he collapsed on the front steps of the castle, James still in his arms, he heard the giant doors open and the voices of Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall filled him with relief.

Sirius slowly lost consciousness, still clinging to his best friend.


James blinked his eyes a few times, letting them adjust to the hospital wing lights. Sirius was slumped in a chair at the foot of his bed, and Peter and McGonagall were discussing something around the corner.

Looking down, he saw that his arm was bandaged and bound tightly in a sling.

"Padfoot?" James croaked.

Sirius' head shot up. "You're awake."

James cleared his throat. "Yeah."

"How do you feel?"

"Like I was bludgeoned with a 60lb broomstick."

Professor McGonagall, dressed in long black robes, yanked the curtains back and gave the two Gryffindors a tight smile. "Good, you're up. Mr. Pettigrew told me the whole story."

James and Sirius shot desperate looks at Wormtail, who was standing expressionless behind McGonagall.

"Erm–he did?" Sirius grabbed the arms of his chair like he was bracing himself for war.

James panicked, "Well, we–I mean, it was an accide–."

McGonagall held up her hand, "Enough, Mr. Potter. While, I understand you were trying to do the school a service by following that group, it was unwise to proceed into the forest by yourselves. Next time, I expect you'll find a teacher instead. Don't be so naive to think you could have taken on twenty-five people by yourselves."

James dropped his jaw. Peter came up with that lie? He felt decidedly impressed.

"We–we definitely won't, Professor," Peter said mechanically.

Madame Pomfrey bustled past the group, holding a bottle of Skelefix. "Well," she said sharply, "I'm just glad nobody was killed. I can mend bones easily, but bringing back someone from the dead is a tad more difficult."

McGonagall crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, "Now, the three of you will be serving a detention with Hagrid and I'm taking twenty points from each of you for breaking curfew."

"Professor! What about the group we were following!" argued Sirius.

"Don't worry, Mr. Black. In time, we'll figure out who they were. Nobody can hide a secret in this school forever."

Sirius sighed heavily and leaned back in the chair.

James let Madame Pomfrey spoon a small amount of thick, purple Skelefix into his mouth. It tasted like lead.

"You'll sleep here tonight. You may go to your classes tomorrow, but I expect you to take it easy. Jostle that arm and you'll be back here before you can say 'Quaffle'. You have to give the bone twenty-four hours to heal," she warned, eyeing James.

He nodded.

"And no Quidditch until the end of the week!" she finished, adding to James' pain.

He groaned.

Professor McGonagall patted Peter on the shoulder and turned around.

"Minerva! One second, we have..." Madame Pomfrey looked at the three boys warily, "A situation, if you will."

McGonagall turned toward the Healer and her expression hardened. "What is it, Poppy?"

Madame Pomfrey grabbed the edge of James' curtain and tilted her head toward a bed opposite his.

James craned his neck to get a good glimpse of the person lying across the room. A blonde girl with bright blue eyes was sitting up, holding her knees into her chest. A tear was running slowly down the side of her cheek. James thought he recognized her as a 5th Year Slytherin student, though he couldn't remember her name.

Madame Pomfrey brought his thoughts back into the room. "It's... quite serious." She yanked the curtains closed. James heard her whisper, "I think we need to get the Headmaster."

James glanced over at Sirius, about to ask what the girl could be sick with. But Sirius was staring wide-eyed at the closed curtains. His face was pale and he was white-knuckling the arms of his chair.

McGonagall stuck her head back in. "Pettigrew, Black... go back to your dorm room. You can come fetch Mr. Potter in the morning."

"Night, Prongs," Peter said.

Sirius was still staring numbly into space, "Night." he mumbled.

"What's up, Sirius? Do you know that girl?" James asked curiously. He'd seen her around, but as far as he knew Sirius hadn't ever talked to her.

"Huh? Oh... no, it's nothing... I think Regulus might be dating her."

"He is," Peter said.

"How d'you know?" James asked.

"I caught them snogging a few weeks ago in a broom closet during my detention with Professor Sprout," Peter answered.

"Looks like your little brother is getting more action than you, Padfoot," teased James.

Sirius' eyes flashed, "Shut it, James," he shot back. After a second, his expression softened a bit. "Sorry. Look, we'll back in the morning, yeah?"

James nodded and watched them disappear around the curtain. Sirius was known for his mood swings, but James had never seen him get angry over a joke. Something must have happened with Regulus to make him so upset. Usually, James and Sirius never kept secrets from one another. Now, James was beginning to wonder if something significant had happened to his friend without him knowing.


Madame Pomfrey was flipping through a large, dusty book near the medicine cabinet, Professor McGonagall peering over her shoulder with a stony expression. Both their backs were facing Sirius and Peter as they crossed the Hospital wing.

"Hey, Pete..."

Peter looked up at Sirius and frowned.

"I'll meet you upstairs in a few minutes, alright? I need to–I'll just be a second." He didn't wait for Peter to respond before turning around and making his way toward Farrah's bed.

She was curled in a tiny ball at the head of the hospital bed. Her face was damp and flushed and her school robes were pulled down to cover her knees.

Sirius approached her tentatively. "Hi."

She looked up and tried to wipe her eyes dry on her sleeve. "Please... don't."

He sighed, "Look... I know we haven't..." Sirius dragged his fingers through his hair roughly. He really wasn't sure what to say to her, they hadn't spoken in more than three months. "Are you alright? I heard Madame Pomfrey say something serious happened..."

"That sounds about right." She laughed bitterly, then, seeing his confused expression, added, "I reckon you'll find out soon enough."

Sirius watched as she closed her eyes and leaned back against the pillow. He turned to leave the hospital wing and saw that Professor Dumbledore had joined Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall. Sirius tried to be as quiet as possible as he snuck toward the door.

"Why didn't she come here sooner?" McGonagall whispered harshly.

"I imagine the past few months have been rather frightening, don't you think, Minerva?" Dumbledore said softly.

Sirius slowed his pace as he reached the double doors.

"Is she dating anyone?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

"Regulus Black," Dumbledore answered. "I asked Professor Keisner to fetch him. They're both in his house."

The two women nodded.

Sirius didn't see how Farrah's love life had anything to do with her condition. Fearing that the three adults would suddenly turn around, he pulled open the hospital wing door and exited quietly. Once he was safely outside, he leaned against the stone wall of the hallway and massaged the back of his neck. His anger toward Farrah had slowly melted away over time, only to be replaced with a complicated fog.

Shouldn't sex be saved for someone you truly want to be with? When he had been younger, and a tad more impressionable, his father had told him that love was overrated. He told Sirius to bed hop as much as possible in his youth; he had the right to, Sirius was from the noble house of Black.

Fishing through his pockets, Sirius searched for his coca wrap. The past few weeks had been stressful, so he'd taken to carrying his joints around with him just in case. Finding it, he ducked behind the bust of Lady Bretta the Bewildered.

Peter would be asleep soon. He probably wouldn't even realize Sirius hadn't returned from the hospital wing.

Sirius lit up his joint and inhaled deeply, trying to forget the events of the past few hours.


The next day, James felt exhausted. He woke up late, and practically sprinted to Double Potions, his first class of the day. He had an extremely difficult time setting up his cauldron and chopping ingredients with one arm. Sirius managed to help until he purposely drank an entire ladle full of Sleeping Drought and collapsed on the floor in what James could only imagine was blissful sleep. Professor Keisner was not able to rouse him using any form of pepper-up, so he resorted to dismissing class early to levitate Sirius to the Hospital Wing. James was secretly jealous he hadn't thought of it first.

The door slammed behind Sirius' unconscious form and James' classmates didn't wait another second before crowding around him to ask about his injury.

"Nothing... Sirius and I were wrestling last night and I fell off the bed," he told Joanna Windham impatiently.

"Maybe if you weren't awake half the night playing ridiculous Muggle sports, you wouldn't fall asleep in classes the next day," Winnie Newman added viciously.

James hated ex-girlfriends.

"Sirius meant to fall asleep," Peter argued, picking up his backpack roughly, "He did it on purpose." Then, to James, he added, "I'm going to run to the Hospital wing and check on both of them."

James nodded and scourgify'd the counter top with a quick wave of his wand. Lifting his back pack on the table, he tried to shove his potions book inside, but, with one arm, he couldn't quite wriggle it all the way to the bottom. He sighed deeply and raked an annoyed hand through his thick black hair. "Ruddy useless," he muttered as the classroom emptied. Really, Pete could have at least stayed until James had everything cleaned up.

Suddenly, two delicate hands opened his book bag and slid Mortally Potent Potions: Volume 2 inside.

James looked up.

Lily Evan's green eyes bore into him.

"Thanks," he mumbled despondently. Couldn't she have picked a better time to be nice to him? Perhaps when he wasn't feeling companionless? Here, under her gaze, he felt exposed. There was no Quidditch, no broomstick, no Marauders, no legions of fans; just James.

She charmed his cauldron to float across the room. It came to rest on the shelf with the others. Silently, Lily flipped the flap of his bag closed and fastened the buckle.

"Remus is sick again?"

He nodded. James expected her to comment on Remus's habitual health issues, but she didn't.

She stood up and lifted his backpack off the table and set it cautiously on his good shoulder. "You know... it's alright to ask for help sometimes."

He averted his eyes. James felt sheepish. His stomach was twisting in knots and his face felt warm. This was the first conversation they'd had since second year that didn't include Lily shouting at him. He desperately tried to think of something suave to say, but nothing would come to mind. Truthfully, he wasn't feeling too suave at the moment. He felt small and defeated; extremely un-Potter. He cleared his throat, "Well–erm–thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Are you going to Charms?"

She nodded.

"Can I... walk you?"

Lily seemed to think this over for a minute. Finally, "You can walk next to me," she said, smiling craftily.

James snorted, and he remembered exactly why he was in love with Lily Evans.

The hallways were crowded. Hufflepuff and Slytherin sixth years had just been released from Defense Against the Dark Arts (Sirius called the class 'Defense Against Defense Against the Dark Arts' when the Slytherins were in it).

James hadn't even sent a sneer in Severus Snape's direction (mostly due to the lovely redhead walking near him) to provoke him. In a quick second and a flash of red light, a large force struck his chest, and his body flew across the width of the corridor, colliding with the wall. James felt his arm crack on impact. Air shot forcibly out of his lungs and pain flew through his body, blinding him. He bit his lip to keep from crying out.

"IMPEDIMENTA!"

James gave a split second's thought to the fact that Lily was coming to his rescue before gritting his teeth and rising from the ground. His head spun. Unrecognizable people flocked around him.

"James?"

"Are you alright?"

"Should we get a professor?"

"Snape'll have detention for weeks!"

"Someone find Madame Pomfrey!"

"James... say something!"

"I'm fine," he said hoarsely, willing his eyes not to water.

Will Dowell, a Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, collected James' bag from the floor. Lily wrapped her arm around his waste and guided him down the hallway toward the hospital wing. He didn't, couldn't enjoy the moment though. Madame Pomfrey hadn't been joking when she'd warned him that re-breaking his arm before it had healed would be extremely painful.

James hadn't even made it three steps inside the door when the Healer caught sight of him. She didn't attempt to mask her groan.

"Honestly! I think the lot of you spend more time with me than you do in your classes! As flattering as that is, Mr. Potter, you need to learn to be more careful."

"You should see the other guy," he croaked back.

Madame Pomfrey rolled her eyes and motioned for him to lie down in a nearby bed. On his left lay Sirius's unconscious form, Peter slouching close by. Remus was across from James, eyebrows raised, clucking his tongue disapprovingly. Curiosity was reflected in his amber eyes, he was probably wondering why Lily Evans, Prefect and President of the 'James Potter is a pompous dolt' club, was carrying his books.

James didn't have the energy to explain the circumstances, however.

Lily set his bag carefully beside the bed and glanced up at him.

He shifted uncomfortably as she gave a small smile.

James wanted her to leave before Madame Pomfrey arrived with the Skelefix. Lily had already seen him in pain, irritated, and bested by Severus Snape; he didn't want to add spoon-fed potion to the mix.

Luckily, she seemed to catch on. "See you later... try not to hurt yourself leaving the hospital wing."

He grinned, "I'll try."

On her way out, she patted Remus on the knee. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Thanks," he returned.

It took Sirius a good four hours to wake up, and when he did, three detentions were patiently waiting for him.

He groaned. "I just wanted a few hours of peaceful slumber... since when is it against the rules to take a nap?"

James snorted and glanced over to where his best friend was lying, "Since you decided to do it during Potions."

Sirius' weekend was to be spent with Professor Sprout, scouring greenhouse #5. James, Remus, and Peter promised to meet him after his last detention, with food from their weekly Sunday visit to the kitchens.


Ten 'o clock rolled around much slower than usual for Sirius. He'd spent the last three hours under the watchful eye of the Herbology instructor, pulling the leaves off of Prickled Daffodils and feeding them dead fruit flies. Finally he was given permission to leave.

Remus, James, and Peter were waiting outside the main greenhouse, as promised, holding an assortment of late night snacks.

"Pumpkin pasty?" Peter asked through a mouthful of food.

They walked slowly back toward Gryffindor tower, all the while joking about Sirius' knack for landing himself weekly multiple detentions.

"I swear it's not my fault most of the time!" he argued.

The other three laughed.

"Remember the time during third year when you tried to set Snape's hair on fire during Potions?" James asked.

"Hey! That was a scientific experiment!"

"What could have possibly been scientific about it, Padfoot?" Remus asked.

"I wanted to see if greasewas really flammable."

They were laughing so hard, not one of them realized that Bellatrix had come upon them in the hallway. She had to speak to get their attention.

"There you are, Sirius!"

Sirius turned around to find his cousin standing next to a portrait of a young witch turning a boy into a frog. Bellatrix smiled coyly and strode slowly toward him, her black hair swishing behind her.

"Sod off," Sirius said.

Her gray eyes flashed sadistically. "Snippy, aren't we?" She rolled her eyes and set her hand on her hip. "Calm down, dear cousin. I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever get out of that horrid detention... but... here you are."

"Yeah, and here he goes," James sneered as he tugged Sirius around by the shoulder of his cloak.

"All I need is a favor," she said, quickly crossing the distance between them and grabbing Sirius' hand.

He ripped his fingers from her grasp. "And why do you think I would do anything for you?"

She didn't even have the dignity to recoil from his dismissal. Bellatrix's glossy lips turned up in a half-smile and she took another step toward him. "Because I know something."Sirius' brow furrowed. He hadn't the slightest idea what she was babbling about, but wasn't in the mood to play mind games with her. "What do you want?"

"Rodolphus graduated... I won't see him until Christmas break."

Sirius crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently. "So?"

She raised her hand and ran a finger down the side of his arm.

Sirius shivered

"So, I need you to... satisfy some urges I've been having in his absence."

Sirius wrenched himself away from her. His eyes shot immediately to his three friends. James and Remus both bore expressions of horror, and Peter looked bewildered. Sirius raked a hand through his hair and stared icily at Bellatrix.

"That's sick, Bella."

She batted her eyelashes. "Fine... I'll just ask Regulus. I'm sure he'll be more than willing to comply."

"Regulus won't be able to tell you head from your arse... then again... that's where many of us get confused," Sirius replied with a harsh laugh.

Bellatrix reached back and slapped him hard across the face. "Don't bother trying to act superior to me, dear cousin. I had a little chat with Farrah Carden earlier this evening."

Sirius paled.

James, Remus, and Peter glanced at their friend curiously.

Bellatrix didn't even wait for a reaction before continuing. "She told me what the two of you did at your family's Summer party." She seemed to suddenly notice the worried looks Sirius shot his friends and her malicious smile grew.

"Shut the hell up, Bella!"

She let out a loud cackle. "You didn't tell them, did you? Can't have your perfect Gryffindor friends knowing how black your soul really is."

"SHUT UP! You have no idea what you're talking about!" Sirius was livid now. He slammed his hands against her shoulders and pushed her back toward the adjacent wall. He growled as she laughed. James and Remus attempted to pull him away from Bellatrix.

Her eyes were dancing with mirth. "Don't I? She's your brother's girlfriend!" Her voice dropped low again, "But, don't worry... he doesn't know. The question is... what will you be willing to do for my silence?"

Sirius let go of her and took a step back. "Save your blackmailing for Azkaban, Bella," he said through clenched teeth. His fingers itched to wrap around her neck.

Bellatrix massaged her shoulders and braved a step toward him. She ran a finger seductively down his chest. "And you'll be right there with me, love." Whipping around, she started walking back down the hallway. "There are things you don't know, Sirius. Don't expect to see Farrah again." She had almost turned the corner leading to the Slytherin dungeons when she added, "If you change your mind about my preposition, I'll be with your brother."

Sirius picked up the bust of Lord Kerrington and threw it against the wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces. "I've HAD it with my sick family!"

The others looked at him, strangely silent, until Peter cleared his throat. "What was she talking about?"

"Forget it."

James forehead was creased. "Farrah Carden... something... happened with her?"

Sirius let out a defeated sigh and sank down to the ground, leaning back against the cold stone wall. Bellatrix had handed them the nails for his coffin.

"Hey, Pete... let's go make sure Filch isn't anywhere nearby," Remus said, pulling Peter down the hallway by the sleeve of his cloak.

"It's not curfew yet, Remus!" he whined, but followed his friend nonetheless.

Sirius shot Remus a grateful look.

James took a seat beside his best friend and quietly waited for him to speak.

"It was... the night of my parent's party," he admitted slowly. "She came into my room after my mum sent me upstairs."

James pushed his glasses further up and leaned his elbow on his knee. "What... what happened?"

Sirius didn't want to say it out loud. He'd never said it out loud... that would make it true. The night wouldn't just be a fuzzy memory anymore.

Sirius gulped. "Err–I was sloshed... I don't really remember..."

"You... slept with her?"

Sirius nodded feebly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I... I dunno... it was a rough night. I didn't want you to think I was like the rest of my family, terrible and all," he said quickly.

"Sirius..."

"I would never have done it if I was sober! I swear, James... it was a horrible mistake and I've regretted it every day since then..."

"Sirius!" James put his hand firmly on Sirius' shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "Everyone mucks up once and awhile... I don't think any less of you." His hazel eyes were full of sincerity.

Sirius let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "This was a bit more than my normal, everyday screw up."

"So... she just... walked into your room and..." James trailed off and turned an odd shade of pink.

Sirius snorted and leaned his head back against the wall. "Pretty much. She—erm–took off her dress and hopped on top of me."

James cheeks became even splotchier. "Well... I do give you credit... that doesn't happen everyday."

"Yeah... too bad I was drunk and she was my brother's girlfriend." Sirius was beginning to feel a little more at ease. Relief washed over him as he realized James wasn't angry.

James laughed, "She is quite good looking, though, isn't she?"

Sirius forced himself to smile. "Never really thought about it... I think at the time, I'd have thought Wormtail was cute."

James' face contorted. "Gross."

"Yeah... a bit."

"And you..."

Sirius turned to look at James. "What?"

James blushed again. "Used... you know."

"No."

"You know..."

"...No."

James grunted impatiently. "C'mon... your dad taught you the contraceptive charm, didn't he?"

Sirius paled.

James' eyes widened.

"I... I don't remember..."

"Shit, Sirius! What if that's what Bellatrix was talking about!"

"She was... in the hospital wing," Sirius' stomach twisted into knots and bile rose into his throat. "Oh, Merlin... she couldn't be pregnant..."

"Would she have told you?" James looked frantic.

"I haven't talked to her since that night."

"Bellatrix said you wouldn't see her again..."

"She had to have been sleeping with Regulus too. And it happened almost four months ago... she'd be showing by now, wouldn't she?" Sirius tried to recall seeing her in the hallways during classes.

"Would anyone be able to tell under the Hogwart's robes?" James asked.

"I don't know."

"Well, the fact that you haven't heard anything is good," James said.

"Yeah," Sirius responded mechanically.

"Maybe you could ask Regulus..."

"No sodding way... he'd kill me." Sirius raked his hand through his hair. "No, it's probably nothing... you're right, I'd have heard something by now."

James nodded, but didn't look convinced.

As they stood to leave, Sirius reassured himself that everything was fine. James would take this secret to the grave. If Farrah was, in fact, pregnant, no one would ever find out (unless she told) that Sirius had anything to do with the child.

No, the truth would remain hidden.