it'd only been half a week into chirstmas break from Hogwarts on their sixth year. and already Sirius had messed it up for himself.

Lily Evans, James Potter, and the Marauders' wormy little fourthbody Peter Pettigrew, had all gone off to visit Lily's parents' house for christmas. and though it was Black's turn to stay with Lupin. he more often than not remained at the Shrieking Shack on the years that he was allowed home. because the thought of having to go back to Gimmauld Place was heartbreaking.

but this particular vacation was beginning to look as though Grimmauld Place would have been a step up in holiday spirits. compared to the looming sinking feeling he was starting to get with the darkchance that he'd have to spend christmas with Severus Snape. or even more so – Severus Snape who'd caught one of Sirius' curses right in the face.

he sat stooped over the closed toiletseat upstairs. a cigarette between his fingers and a halfchugged butterbeer clutched between his hands. thinking. he could hear Lupin walking about below him. and in his mind traced his friend's path through the dusty floorboards. as he cared for the unconscious Snape.

Black'd stripped out of his peacoat and hoodie and white teeshirt. which all now lay in a heap beside the wall. wearing nothing but his stillwet jeans.

he'd run upstairs as soon as they'd got back to the shack. making a b-line through the kitchen for the beer and then promptly locked himself in the upstairs bathroom. fishing a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pant's pocket. he hadn't once looked to see how Snape was or what Lupin was doing. and Remus never said anything about it.

'of all the fucking people to be walking through those bloody woods…' he was thinking to himself. 'it had to be Snape…it had to be Snivellus!' he knew. that as soon as word got out that he'd attacked a fellow student – let alone a known enemy – on Hogwarts' schoolgrounds no less. he'd be expelled. there'd be no denying it to teachers when they returned. Snape would spread the story through the entire school. embellishing it shamelessly – like he was sure to do – with outrageous lies to help gain himself empathy. and that'd be it. that'd be the end of Sirius' wizardschooling as he knew it. no graduating. no celebrating. he'd have to return to Grimmauld Place and wait out the rest of the year. a year that could possibly end with his friends not even wanting to be his friends anymore. and that was the worst thought of all.

he ran a irritated hand through his scruffy brown hair. looking up to face the lightyellow wallpaper that had little ducks roaming lazy circles in it. odds were. if you looked at the wall from far off. you'd get dizzy. but seeing as how the width of the room was only as long as the clawfooted bathtub. one could only focus on a certain section of ducks at one time. Lily had insisted the boys put it up last year to try and make the place look more habitable. but it had already begun peeling off the shabby walls.

there came a heartsinking call from downstairs. "Sirius!"

and Black sighed heavily. rising. he lifted the toiletlid to dispose of his halfgone cigarette and flushed it. then tipped his head back and drowned himself in what was left of the butterbeer. which. much to his dislike. wasn't enough to put his heart afloat again. so he set the empty bottle in the sink with some contempt as he left.

at the bottom of the stairs. he found the wrapped lump of Snape's body throwing all of Lily's christmas decorations into sharp relief. one wouldn't have guessed offhand that it was Snape. given that he was buried up to his chin in blankets. if it hadn't been for that signaturely crooked nose. his eyes had been wrapped in a thick sheet of gauze. his legs looked to be propped up on pillows from under the blankets. and one sickly left hand hung limply off the side of the couch. touching the floor. his fingernails were long. and dirty. like he'd spent his life digging around in the dirt. his hair'd been pulled out of his face and was strapped into a loose ponytail in the back. revealing his sharp cheekbones. chin. and plateaued forehead.

his black robes hung on a hook beside the fireplace. where Lupin had graciously started a large fire. it crackled and spit happily as Black stood stalkstill on the last step of the stairs. refusing to come any closer. "what?" he asked innocently. though his hands were clenched tightly into worried fists.

Lupin looked up from his seat next to Snape. where he'd been staring at the boy. his chin in his palm inquisitorially. his lightbrown eyes met Black's dark ones and turned weighty. it took a moment for the smell of Sirius' cigarette to hit him. but he ignored it. "what curse were you using?"

Black's throat tightened up. his lips remaining still. even his nostrils stopped moving. the air all clamped up in his chest. he rubbed the sweat from one of his palms down the side of his jeans slowly. and didn't answer till he was quite sure he would faint from lack of oxygen. "…cruor ebullio." he breathed out quickly. looking away from Lupin's eyes. only to have them fall upon Snape. which made it all the worse.

Lupin's eyebrows lowered as he held his gaze. "what's it from?"

Black cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair uncomfortably. he gave Lupin's piercing eyes the shallow relic of a simper and said "bathroom."

"what?" his question to Black's statement wasn't because he didn't hear him. it was because he had heard him.

"bathroom." Sirius repeated. then became rather hostile as he remet Lupin's eyes. "look. i wasn't planning on anyone getting in front of it. that's why I was messin' about with it in the woods."

"what bathroom?" Lupin continued. unfazed.

"the one in the Gryffindor commonroom alright?"

"where in the Gryffindor bathroom?" he repeated more specifically.

Black let out another heavy sigh and tugged at the back of his hair till it stung. "it was on the wall."

Lupin's mouth came open to say something. but nothing came out. instead he took a tiny breath and rose from the chair. disappearing silently into the kitchen. Leaving Black standing there stupidly. blinking.

after a moment or two. Sirius swallowed up enough courage to follow. and found Lupin putting a rusty pot on the stovetop. intent on making himself tea.

Black took a seat as far from Lupin as he could find. spreading his legs around a backwards chair and wrapping his arms around its rear. watching.

Lupin worked methodically. taking time to physically light the fire beneath the stove. instead of using magic. he physically brought the teapot over to the sink and filled it with water. and mindlessly pulled down two teacups – a green one and a black one – from the cupboard. he set them on the counter and then stood facing the teapot. although lost in intense thought. his face remained blank.

Sirius waited somewhat impatiently for the reprimand.

but instead. in even tones. Lupin said. "we can't let anyone know about this."

it took Black a moment to register it. and he flashed a confused face to his friend. then agreed knowingly "…yeah."

Lupin turned from the teapot. but didn't look at him. he was chewing on his knuckle. and sat down across the table from Black without looking up from the floor. "and we can't take him to St. Mungos."

"no." Black said softly.

"i've done what I could for him. i'll fix up his legs when he wakes up. but right now i think we ought to keep him as comfortable as possible…" he was talking pretty much to himself. but Black was nodding at him. glad he was on his side.

and Lupin finally looked up at him. "d'you think he saw you?"

Black sat back a bit. "no." he said finally. "he;d had to have heard me though. maybe he was trying to give me the jump. d'you suppose?"

Lupin sighed without answering and put his hand in his vestpocket. pulling out his wand and flicking it at the teapot. which immediately shrilled. having lost patience on waiting for the water to boil. he poured them both a cup and resumed his seat. looking down into his mug now.

"what did it do to him?" Black asked after a moment. "the curse i mean?"

Lupin looked up at him. "it's got something to do with blood…" he said.

"ah." Sirius mumbled to himself. "that's why it wasn't working on the trees…"

though embarrassed now in the presence of Lupin to say it. Black remembered back to when he had gotten the curse from the backwall of the Gryffindor bathroom. it'd been two weeks before christmas break was to start and he and James had decided to have a pre-vacation party. Pettigrew had agreed sycophantically. but Lupin had declined outright. saying that he had other more important things to do. while Lily respectfully declined as well. instead opting – like Lupin – to study up for her last remaining tests.

so Sirius, James, and Peter bribed three cases of butterbeer off of Hagrid and threw a small party up in their room. Peter – despite his appearance – was a horrible lightweight and was sleeping before James and Sirius had even cracked their third butterbeer. but on about the seventh or eighth James admitted his defeat and curled up in a chair near the fire above where Peter was snuffling in a ball on the floor. but Sirius – a veteraned drinker – took another beer. kissed James drunkenly on the cheek goodnight and went downstairs to take a piss.

while he was standing in the stall. swaying back and forth. one of his knees had tried to collapse on him. and he'd had to catch himself against the wall. laughing at himself. "I'm so ploody bissed." he'd said and then laughed some more.

but his hot breath against the wall had revealed something hidden. some black writing. and it had taken him a minute to notice it before the words started to disappear again back into the normal white wall.

"hey!" he'd called to the words drunkenly. his head swiveling about loosely on his neck. he'd meant to take a step forward. but had stumbled. and ended up with his cheek pressed against the wall. "come back!" he'd slurred at the wall.

and though not beckoned by the call. the words did come back for a moment. emerging as clear as if they'd been written on parchment. a clean black scribble against the white.

having realized what was causing it. he'd opened his mouth widely and dumbly. letting out a huge warm breath. which finally revealed the entire line: "ALAS! YOU'VE FOUND ME! WHO ARE YOU?"

"i'm Sirius Black." He'd said outloud to it. frantically blowing out air to try and keep it up on the wall. in case it answered back. but it hadn't. and it had taken him longer than it should have to notice that it wouldn't.

"bloody…" he began. as he fumbled to zip his pants back up. and his downward pointing face releasing a heavy breath had revealed more writing. this bottom line having read "WRITE HERE AND WE WILL TALK."

Black had patted himself down quickly and drunkenly. drawing a breath as he rummaged through a pocket and got stabbed by his quill tip. uninhibited by the thought that he was now committing vandalism. he had scrawled on the wall "i'm Padfoot." rather sloppily. deciding that using his nickname was a better idea. though his writing had made the word look like "Palfoo." instead. but he hadn't been able to get a good look at it because the moment his quill left a letter it disappeared into the wall. the vanishing spell having soaked it up. Black'd also managed to write "who are you?" before an intense exhaustion had washed over him and his writing'd drawled out into a line. completely unreadable.

he'd slumped down tiredly and fell asleep there in the bathroom stall that night. until the hungover James had found him the next morning and goaded him up for breakfast.

remembering what he'd seen the night before by lunchtime. Black made a stop by the bathroom and had closed himself in the same stall. this time breathing onto the wall with more grace. and to his happiness. more words had appeared. "PALFOO? NICKNAMES IT IS THEN. I'M LONGBONES."

and for the remaining two weeks of school. Black had written back and forth to the supposed 'Longbones'. never actually figuring out who it was. even though he tried many times by waiting in the Gryffindor commonroom to see who went in. but each time the person left and he checked. more notes had not been there. but after a day he'd stop becoming interested in who it was and had focused more on what they were writing about. they'd rated girls on attractiveness. the teachers and their abilities. argued about the outcome of the Quidditch World Cup last summer. and eventually got to leaving each other helpful notes for certain classes. Black had done his best to remember the good curses he'd helped James come up with in Defense Against the Dark Arts. and in return Longbones had given him back his own madeup curses. hexes. charms. and spells.

the last thing Longbones had written before school was to be let out the next morning for the holidays was "TRY MY CRUOR EBULLIO CURSE. HAPPY CHRISTMAS!" and that was the end of their communications.

undeterred by not having known what the curse meant. Sirius had written it on his arm and left the lavatory. looking forward to spending time away from books and homework. not knowing it would turn out like this.

"i suppose we could look it up somewhere." Lupin was saying. already pouring himself another cup of tea.

"where?" Sirius asked.

Lupin rose and went out into the sittingroom. coming back carrying Snape's bag and setting it on the table. "I don't think he'll mind us borrowing his books for the moment…" he said. then he went looking through it. pulling out wet parchment with runny ink, matted quills, and finally a stack of damp books. Lupin read them off as he pulled them out. "The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6. A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions. Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charms. Magic Moste Evile. Curses and Counter-Curses. Most Pontente Potions. and" he pulled out the last of the sweaty texts "Advanced Potion Making."

"bit of clean and healthy reading over the holidays I gather…" Sirius mused callously. he fought hard at the temptation to blurt out that the spell wouldn't be in one of those books. no matter how much Lupin looked. because it was made up. but he knew that that would only lead to questions he wasn't willing to answer. so he settled the dispute with his raging conscience with the thought that Lupin liked reading and would enjoy the hunt for the elusive curse. even if he couldn't find it.

"what was it again?" Lupin asked. beginning to flip through 'Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charms.' while the teapot floated over his head and poured him a fresh cup of tea.

"cruor ebullio." Sirius said. noticing he had not once touched his own tea. which had gone cold and managed a dreggy bottom. he folded his hands on the top of the chair and rested his head. watching Lupin flip through the pages of Snape's library books. he watched silently as Lupin's brown eyes zoomed from right to left over the pages. sometime his eyebrows raised as he read through a curse he liked. sometimes it brought about a frown.

after he'd managed to get through the entire first book and topped it onto the 'useless' pile where the potion books were stacked. Sirius had lost interest. he'd become fidgety in his chair. running the pad of his finger along a crack in the woodtable until he got a sliver. then he took his time picking at it. then at his cuticles. then playing with air in his mouth. then ruffling his hair. and by the bitter end of his patience. made faces at Lupin. to which – much to his dislike - his friend gave no apparent notice. seemingly riveted by 'A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions'.

there came a small breathy groan from the sittingroom. and finally Lupin raised his head to look in Snape's direction. but nothing else happened. so he turned back to the book.

Sirius stared a little longer at Snape. noticing that from this top angle. Snape's sallow nose made him look like a white sailboat sinking into a black sea that was his greasy hair. turning back to the table. he pulled the cigarette pack from his pocket and pulled one out. producing his wand and muttering "incendio" which made the tip of the cigarette suddenly burst red. he took a large drag and reached out across the table. grabbing onto some of Snape's homework parchment. interested in what Snape had done already. and what answers Sirius could possibly glean from him.

"I wish you wouldn't smoke around me." Lupin said as he flipped another page. not looking up.

Sirius made an effort to blow his next drag in Lupin's direction before he sat back. rifling through the papers. a couple soggy pieces broke in his hands. but he found all of them to be blank.

"git!" he said angrily.

"he's smart." Lupin said. having figured that Severus would be one to put a vanishing curse on his work for just this reason.

"he's slimy is what he is." Sirius grunted. throwing the parchments back onto the table in a huff.

Lupin just grinned and flipped another page.

there was another small groan from the sittingroom. but this time neither boys looked up.

after a while. Sirius began to get edgy again. and after some fidgeting. stood. "that tears it." he announced. "I'm going to bed."

"g'night." Lupin said easily.

not seeing the scowl that came over Sirius' face as he went out through the sittingroom and heavily up the stairs. leaving a trail of lingering smoke behind him.