Thanks to all who reviewed chapter one: god, Fiona, elvencherry07, Bitter Black Tears, driven to insanity, fhkgfhgdgf, moonyNZ, cofcgirl, Georgie's Girl, Icarus Malfoy, Demus, SxR my OTP, morris and satin insanity. I love you all!

A/N: This chapter is set about a year and a half prior to the last one, at the end of Sirius' sixth year at Hogwarts. In case it's not clear, I intend to tell two stories: Remus and Sirius the first time round and Sirius trying to get Remus to take him back after the split.

Chapter Two- 'The Noble And Most Ancient House Of Black'

July 15, 1972

The sound of James knocking on the door was almost loud enough to drown out Sirius' thoughts. And since Sirius' brain had been running overdrive for the past few weeks, the persistent banging was actually quite soothing. Yes, soothing indeed. Sirius gave a long sigh of pleasure as he let the near-scolding water trickle down the back of his neck and over his shoulders, which were stiff and sore.

"I've got a date in half an hour, you fucker!"

Sirius turned around and let the hot water run down his hairless chest. "What exactly is it that you want, Jamesie-boy?" he called, in a pseudo-girly voice.

What James said in reply to that was rather muffled by the door, although Sirius managed to catch the words 'shower' and 'wanker'. He decided to take pity, however, and switched off the running water. The banging on the door recommenced and Sirius reached for his towel. With a groan, he realised that the towel he had brought in with him was a hand towel. An attempt to tie it round his waist proved unsuccessful.

So Sirius, who had always been something of an exhibitionist, abandoned the towel and walked out of the shower naked. He elbowed past a bemused-looking James and gave his best smile. "If you wanted the shower so badly, mate, why didn't you just knock and say?"

It was quite satisfying to see James tongue-tied and Sirius was still grinning as his feet encountered the prone body of Remus Lupin. He fell artlessly into a heap on the floor, from where he glared at his friend.

"Why in hell's name did you choose to write your charms essay lying in the middle of the floor?" he demanded.

Remus blinked back at him. "Why are you naked?" he asked mildly.

And it was in that miraculous moment, that the eighth wonder of the world came into action. Sirius Black – dedicated prankster and serial heartbreaker – actually blushed: and not just a faint rose-pink blush, either. Sirius turned an embarrassingly bright shade of tomato-red as the blood rushed to his skin.

For Sirius this was an extremely worrying turn of events.

He scrambled away from Remus, before too much blood could reach certain other regions of his body.

July 23

Remus seemed nervous on the journey from Hogsmeade to King's Cross. His hands, with the nails bitten right down, gripped the red upholstery of the seat until his knuckles were white and stretched. After the third game of exploding snap, Sirius abandoned James and Peter and sat next to Remus.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Remus gave an odd half-shrug and gazed at the floor.

"Come on," Sirius prompted. "I might be able to help."

"I doubt that." Remus sounded bitter.

"Why?"

"Can you cure cancer?" said Remus shortly.

An awkward moment followed this question. Sirius cleared his throat several times. "Who?" he eventually asked.

"My dad."

"Moony, I'm really sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

Remus shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. His throat was prickling and he really didn't want to cry right now.

Sirius rested his hand at the crook of Remus' elbow. Suddenly, his worries over his sexuality didn't seem such a big issue. "How long have you known?" he asked Remus.

"I only got the letter a couple of days ago, telling me to go to St. Mungo's from King's Cross," Remus said. "It's not a very long walk." He glanced at Sirius from beneath his long eyelashes. "You won't tell anyone will you?"

Sirius leaned towards Remus and pressed a quick kiss to the tawny hair at the top of his head. "I can keep a secret," he said. Remus gave him an incredulous glance and Sirius had to laugh. "Well, some secrets anyway..."

July 25

The long summer break had never been something Sirius looked forward to with anticipation. In fact, seven weeks with the Black family was somewhat akin to seven weeks in hell, or seven weeks in a torture chamber.

'Pure-blooded evil sick bastards' would just about describe Sirius' family. There was Mr and Mrs Black and Regalus, Sirius' younger brother: only fifteen years old and already up to his eyeballs in the dark arts. Then there was Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa, Sirius' three oh-so-charming cousins.

Sirius managed to survive one day at Grimauld Place.

And then he packed his bags, filling a bulging army-style rucksack and a blue duffle bag with clothes. He packed his wand and his textbooks and what money he could find: sixteen sickles, eleven of which had been won in a chess match against Peter.

At the dinner of the night he left, the Black family were on fine form.

"Why not send the werewolves to labour camps?" suggested Regalus, with an expression of pride.

"They don't deserve to live," said Mr Black.

"We need to join with the vampires," Bellatrix said. "Join the vampires and fight, as allies, against the werewolves."

Sirius instantly regretted packing up his wand. A well-timed boils curse would have been a delightful leaving present. As it was, Sirius slammed his goblet of wine down on the table. "Here, here!" he cried. "Let's kill all the werewolves!"

A murmur of approval went round the table.

"And then, once we've finished killing all the werewolves, we can turn on the vampires and kill them too!" Sirius grinned wildly. "And after that, we can go to Saint Mungo's and kill all the mentally ill patients! And how about all those curse victims who don't have the right number of limbs? And the sick children too! Let's not forget the sick children!"

Sirius scraped his chair backwards. "And then, why then, we can murder all the – what do you call them? – mudbloods! And once we've finished with the mudbloods and we're running out of people to kill… then we kill the half-bloods too! In fact, why stop there? Why indeed! Let's kill and kill until the only ones left alive are Blacks!"

Sirius slammed his fist down onto the table, knocking over his goblet. Red wine seeped into the wood of the table.

His mother gave him a cold look. "You seem to have the right idea, son."

He glared back at her. "You disgust me, whore," he spat. He glanced around the table, meeting the eyes of everyone present. "The noble and most ancient house of Black," he said. "Bollocks to the lot of you!"

With that, Sirius turned around, walked out of the dining room, stormed up the stairs two at a time, grabbed his bags from his bedroom, kissed his guitar goodbye, ran back down the stairs and stepped out of the front door. He slammed it behind him.

"Goodbye, family," Sirius murmured. "Hello, world."

Tbc

A/N: Review please!