The young girl squirmed in Sirius's hands, clawing desperately at his arms in an attempt to get him to release her. Tears ran down her cheeks as she sobbed silently, her face contorted with trepidation and horror.

Sirius dropped her to the floor, and she bounded up and tried to run. Before she could make it anywhere, Sirius had whipped his right hand around her throat, and slammed her body against he wall, pinning her there.

"That's very bad of you, you know." Sirius hissed through yellowing teeth.

He kept his gray eyes on her, as she watched him feeling about on the end table with his left hand. He snarled at her, while shaking masses of dirty, black hair from his face, exposing a large, jagged, lightning shaped scare running down his right cheek.

The girl tore her eyes away from his hardened face to risk a glance at the end table he was rooting about on.

As her sight fell on the table though, she closed her eyes immediately and turned her head to the left.

Sirius laughed at her; a cold, heartless laugh, "Aye, lassie, that's what you'll get if you don't answer all of my questions and do everything I ask of you."

Then, someone standing to Sirius' brushed the hair off of the face of the girl. "That'll do, Andromeda. Listen to you big cousin and no harm will come to you."

Sirius looked to his left, into the deadened eyes of his cousin, Bellatrix Black. "Get out of here, Bellatrix, I told you can I do it on my own."

Bellatrix merely shrugged her shoulders and walked from the room, calling back, "Don't be afraid, Andromeda, Sirius is very skilled, you'll hardly feel it at all, and you'll be dead in seconds."

Sirius turned back to the girl, Andromeda, to find her staring into his eyes.

"Why are you doing this, Sirius?" She asked, her voice full of spite, though her fear was still evident. "Why turn you back on all your friends, just to please Bellatrix? She's never been there for you like they have, like I have!"

Sirius shook his head, and turned back to the end table, picking something up before looking back to Andromeda, who he still had pressed against the wall.

"Where did the scar come from, Sirius?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sirius growled, making his fingers press tighter on her young, delicate throat.

"The one on your cheek," she said, reaching out to brush her fingers over the scar.

Sirius snapped back his head and glared at her with loathing, "Don't touch me, girl."

"We're family, Sirius. Would you truly do this to me?"

Sirius turned his head to the left, and pushed something against her stomach. "Do you know what's behind there?"

"Behind where?" Andromeda asked, fresh tears spilling from her eyes, as, in terror, she registered that it was a knife Sirius has pushed against her abdomen.

"Behind your belly button." Sirius snapped, his upper lip twitching in anger and impatience.

"No," Andromeda sniffled, "why?"

"Because whatever it is, it will hurt like hell when I drive this knife into it!"

Sirius pushed a little harder on the knife, and Andromeda gasped; "Don't! Please, don't! I'll do anything! Anything you want, tell you anything you need to know! Please, don't kill me!"

Sirius, lip still twitching, eyes changing from gray to black, dropped the girl, and turned his back on her. He could hear her sobbing into her hands, as she tried to remain standing up.

Bellatrix was standing at the back of the room, now looking straight into Sirius' eyes, evidentially having slipped back into the room without him noticing. She shook her head at him and muttered, "You are a shame to the name Black, Sirius."

Sirius took a deep breath, and looked straight at her, filling with rage at what she'd said. "I do not shame our family!" He roared, and turned to Andromeda, who barely had time to register Sirius running at her before he was directly against her.

"Sirius," she gasped, finding it difficult to breathe, "please don't."

Sirius stepped back, a look or pure horror in his eyes, as he looked down. "I'm sorry," he muttered, as he stumbled backwards, "I'm sorry, it was…"

Andromeda slid down the wall, smiling, "I forgive you for kidnapping me, you don't need to apologize, Sirius."

He shook his head, "That's not what I was apologizing for." He said with tears in his eyes, "That's not what I was apologizing for." He repeated.

Bellatrix placed her hand on Sirius' shoulder, "We're done here, we'll leave her for her family now."

"We are her family." Sirius muttered to himself.

Bellatrix pulled Sirius to his feet, and the two left the room, leaving Andromeda lying dead against the wall, a Black family crested knife plunged in her heart.

In his cell, Sirius shot up, shivering in the cold night air, drenched with sweat. Since Bellatrix had arrived in Azkaban, it wasn't the first time he'd had the dream of killing Andromeda, and he suspected it would be the last.

Though he'd had the dream countless times, the shock was also so real when he woke up. He could always still feel the knife in his hands, and see the tears of fear in his cousin's eyes. But most of all, he always felt the pure guilt over the fact that, in the dream, he didn't care that he'd killed a family member.

"Sirius, are you alright?"

Sirius looked up to see Bellatrix looking at him in worry. "Yeah, shouldn't I be?"

"You haven't been sleeping well lately, is all."

"Just a dream, Bella, just a dream."

"Tell me about it."

"No," he said, shaking his head, "I can't."

"Sirius, maybe I can help."

"You can't, no one can!"

"Sirius, talk to me!" Bellatrix screamed across the cellblock.

Suddenly, Sirius whipped his head and closed his eyes, desperately clawing onto the cell door to keep from falling over, as hidden images from his past began to play out before his eyes. He let go of the door, and fell back against the wall.

"Sirius!" Bellatrix shrieked, "Sirius, are you alright!"

Shaking uncontrollably, his right hand over his face, with fingers jerking in agony, he rasped out, "Shut up, Bella…"

In the Ministry of Magic, Sirius walked from the trial room, bound in shackles around his ankles and wrists. He caught a glimpse of Remus in the crowd with reddened eyes. Sirius wanted to call out to him, but Dumbledore had walked to Remus' side and was urging him away from the procession leading from the stone room.

Suddenly, a black haired woman flew from the crowd, tears flowing freely down her face. She stopped several feet in front of Sirius and pulled several objects from her robes, throwing them on the floor in front of Sirius.

Sirius looked down, and saw himself staring into the faces of James and Lily.

"How can you pretend like you don't remember them, Sirius? Your best friend, his wife? Sirius, talk to me! How can you walk out of the trial claiming that you don't know them, and that you have no idea how they ended up dead? You're no better than the rest of the family, Sirius. And all these years, all the God damn years, I thought you were different, I thought you were better than them!"

The woman flew into Sirius and started beating him with her fists. Dumbledore stepped up and pulled her back, "Now, now, Andromeda, he's hurt everyone. You've got to let him suffer in Azkaban, where he belongs."

Andromeda stopped punching, and pushed Dumbledore off her. She shook her head and stepped back up to Sirius, the crowd watching her every move. She pulled Sirius into a prolonged hug, squeezing her arms around his chest and arms with all her strength.

"Fuck you," she whispered into his chest, "fuck you. I hope you rot in Azkaban, and not only for killing them, but for pretending that you have no idea who they are, or who I am even. Fuck you." She finished, and stepped back, "James and Lily didn't deserve to know you, not someone who's a murderer like you."

She walked away and fell into Remus' arms, sobbing. "How could he do it, Remus, how could he kill his best friends? How does any person, even a Black, stoop so low as to kill their best friend?"

"I don't know..." Remus answered in an undertone, his eyes on Sirius.

At the present, in his cell, Sirius sat with his shackled hands over his face, crouched in the fetal position, tears freely spilling between his fingers, as he wept for the end of his innocence, and the beginning of his unsurpassed guilt over killing two of the people who'd meant the most to him in life.