Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter franchiese (spelled that one wrong, didn't I?). If I did, I'd be rich! All characters and places (with the exception of Wallace, Pondex and Jimmy) belong to the most wonderful woman alive, JK Rowling.
Sirius stared blankly at the jail door, numbly thinking about what Wallace had just said. If Sirius had understood him correctly, they were both in Azkaban for the same reason. His problem, however, was going to be finding out exactly what the reason was.
"Err... Not birds of the exact same feather?" He finally questioned, hoping Wallace would explain somewhat.
"No, mate, not the exact same feather, just one from the same bird, so-to-speak. But, in terms of radiance, I've been so much better than you. Still, I'd rather not talk about it. There's lots of shame in what I did, but not as much as in what you did. Please, don't ask me about it again." Wallace ended sincerely.
Sirius thought about asking him again. He wanted to know what Wallace had done, in hopes of finding out more about his own crime. He was so frustrated because he couldn't remember anything, except a few stupid memories that explained nothing about why he was in Azkaban. However, he resisted because Wallace had requested so sincerely.
He retreated to the back of his cell, to the corner he now knew quite well. He tried to think back, to make himself remember what thing full of shame that he could have done to deserve being here. He still couldn't remember anything.
Sirius stared gloomily around his cell. "I hate this place." He muttered. Suddenly, an idea came to him. Somewhere in his past, he knew he must have hated someone, or someplace. He thought that maybe, as before, if he said the right thing, it would trigger a memory, exactly as it had before his memory of Hagrid.
"I hate this place." He started, with no luck. Followed by phrases such as "damn you!" and "fuck this." Still, he had no luck. He began to laugh in spite of himself. If he hated someone, wouldn't it make sense that he just come out and say "I hate you!"? So, that's what he yelled, at the top of his lungs. He heard Wallace make a noise of concern, but he ignored it, for something wonderful had happened.
"I HATE YOU!" Sirius stood facing a teenage boy, about the same age as himself. They both had their wands drawn and were glaring so hard at each other that people all around them were fleeing from the two boys in fear.
Remus, James and Peter stood by, watching in fear. Never before had they seen Sirius so angry, almost as if he wanted to kill. They also had disgust on their faces as they watched the boy across from Sirius. Lily ran to James and he held out his arm to keep her from getting any closer. To whatever heights the two boys were going to take their duel, James didn't want Lily anywhere near them.
The boy Sirius stood across from was tall, with pale skin and greasy, stringy, black hair. His face shone with sweat as he breathed hard, never taking his eyes from Sirius. His robes were dingy and faded in spots, and yet Sirius didn't feel bad for this boy at all.
"Don't ever talk to me that way again, Snivellus!" Sirius roared above the noise of the frightened crowd. "Don't ever fucking talk to me like that again!"
"Well, Sirius, it seems that your intellect is that of the average teenager after all." Snivellus sneered.
From somewhere in the crowd, a familiar voice rang out "Mr. Black! Mr. Snape, I must request that you both put away your wands and join me in my office!" It was Dumbledore, but neither boy seemed to hear him, or care about what he said.
As Dumbledore pushed his way through the crowd, Sirius spit on Snivellus' robes, causing Snivellus to sneer in disgust and send a stunning spell directly as Sirius. Sirius moved, aside, but not quite quickly enough and he took the spell in his wand arm.
His wand dropped to the floor, and before he could grab it with his left arm, Snivellus had said "Accio wand" and it had flown into his hand. Wandless, Sirius thought frantically about what to do. He lunged on the other boy, and tackled him to the ground, using only his left arm.
Snivellus, who had been caught off guard, had dropped his own wand, but now pulled Sirius's wand up and pointed it directly at Sirius's face. "Are you ready to die, Black?" The other boy muttered quietly, but still, Sirius continued to beat on his face with his left arm, using his right arm to the best of its ability to hold him down.
"You... Won't... Be... The... One... To... Kill... Me... Snape!" Sirius hissed between punches. He stopped hitting when he realized that Snivellus had frozen in fear, and felt a hand on his own shoulder.
He looked back to see James pointing his and Sirius' wands directly at Snivellus' face. "No, Snivellus, you won't kill Sirius, but we will kill you." He said quietly, as he helped Sirius to his feet, and handed him wand.
The boy, Snivellus Snape, had also gotten to his feet, still pointing his own wand at Sirius. "You stay out of this, James, JUST STAY OUT OF IT! He'll never amount to much of a man with you always fighting his battles for him!"
Sirius had lunged at Snape again but found himself frozen in mid-air. He spun his head to see Dumbledore glaring at him with ice-cold eyes. Snape took this opportunity to send another stunning spell at Sirius and it hit him squarely in the chest.
When Sirius awoke, he was laying in the hospital wing, with Dumbledore standing over him. He looked around, but saw no one else.
"Mr. Black, what do you mean by being the cause of a duel in my school?"
Sirius looked at Dumbledore and groaned. "No, Sirius, you will answer me. This is the second time in a month that you and Severus Snape have been fighting openly in the hallways. Now, please explain."
Sirius tried to sit up, but was pushed back by Dumbledore. "It won't do you any good to sit up and talk about it."
"Snivellus started it, Professor." Sirius spat out.
"Please, Sirius, his name is not Snivellus, his name is Severus. Show him some respect and call him by his proper name." Dumbledore quietly asked.
"Fine! Snape started it." Sirius spat again.
"I do not care who started it, I wish only to know why. To blame someone is easy, to realize that it's not entirely their fault is what takes explaining."
Sirius stared at Dumbledore in disbelief. He was laying here in the hospital wing, while Snape walked around the school somewhere, and he was getting in trouble for it. How rich.
"I cannot help you if you will not talk, Mr. Black." Dumbledore said after a few moments.
Sirius growled, but decided he would tell Dumbledore what happened. "Like, I said, Professor, he started it. Dumbledore was about to say something, when Sirius continued; "He ran into me in the hall, muttered something about how I was no different from the rest of my family." Sirius' lip curled in disgust at the mention of his family, but he continued on all the same. "He said Regulus had been telling him that I was no different from him. Dumbledore, he said he wouldn't be surprised if I ever turned against James and the others."
"And you listened to him, did you?"
"He was a little hard to ignore, sir." Sirius said bluntly.
"And this is when the wands came out?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, Sir, this is when I said something back. I told him I'd never turn on James, or any of my friends, I said I was the most decent person in my family. And then I told him that I hoped he wasn't the most decent person in his family because he was a horrible... Well, I really don't think I should use the term in front of you." Sirius explained
"Were you trying to provoke him?" Dumbledore asked, apparently oblivious to Sirius' last statement.
"Only as much as he was provoking me, sir."
"The term, Professor, was 'son of a bitch.'" Someone said from the doorway.
Sirius snapped his head to his left, to see the figure of Severus Snape looming under the doorframe.
"Ah, Severus, how excellent you could join us. Feeling better are you?" Dumbledore asked, quite chipperly.
"Yes, the nurse mended my bones in just a few seconds." Snape smiled gently towards Dumbledore.
"Excellent, come in and join us. Mr. Black here was just telling me about what happened between the two of you today. I presume that you heard it all from over there?" Dumbledore paused as Snape nodded. "And that what he said is similar to your own story."
"Identical, Professor." Snape smiled.
Sirius wondered what Snape was playing at. Why didn't he tell Dumbledore Sirius was lying (even though he didn't)? If he hated Sirius so much as to want to kill him, why didn't he just lie?
"Excellent, then you can fill us in on the rest, then?'
"Yes, Professor, I can." Snape said, as he moved into the room, and sat in a chair facing Sirius' bed. "After he was finished, he pulled out his wand."
And there it was. That was what he was waiting for, a chance to tell his own version of the rest of the story. Sirius had not been the first to pull out his wand, Snape had. Now he was lying, he was going to say he used his wand only in self-defense, and Sirius would get into trouble.
"...And you saw all the rest, sir." Severus had finished.
Sirius glared at Snape, how could he lie, just how could he?
"But you did attack him first, Severus." Dumbledore pointed out quietly.
Sirius smiled, that was true; there was no way Snape could get out of that."
Snape merely smiled. "Yes, Professor, I did, but I merely meant to knock his wand out of his hand so he couldn't attack me. It's his own fault that he moved and my spell hit his arm."
Dumbledore surveyed Snape through his half-moon spectacles. "But you did provoke him first, did you not?"
"No, Professor! I was merely passing along the information that his brother, Regulus, had told me. I knew Black would not like what Regulus had said."
"Well, it seems that Mr. Black misunderstood your gesture, therefore, I must give him a detention." Dumbledore said.
Snape smiled, but Dumbledore continued; "You too, Severus. Although he did pull his wand first, you did perform magic on another student. The two of you will serve your detentions with Mr. Filch in one week."
Sirius left the Hospital win later, but he was seething. He couldn't believe he been given a detention with Filch, he'd barely done anything.
"James," he whispered in James' ear when he returned to the common room, "Snape's got to pay." He hissed as he looked over at Remus, who had, as usual, his head buried in a book. He hadn't even noticed that Sirius had entered the room.
James looked at Sirius and cocked his head, trying to figure out why he was staring so intently at Remus. "Sirius?" He finally asked.
"When's the next full moon?" Sirius asked keenly.
Suddenly, a smile dawned on James' face as well, for he completely understood, and he muttered "Brilliant."
Before you read the next chapter (oh, a double post, aren't you excited?), I just wanted to say that I hope everyone who asked for a Snape chapter is happy. I actually had this chapter written before I asked who you'd like to see a chapter about, so it was neat how everyone asked for a Snape chapter! Keep readinig now!