Chapter 4

Sirius's pov:

My wand was pointed strait at Malfoy's slimy little heart, it would be so easy. Just finish him off right now, there were numerous curses I could use. Having dark wizards for parents did have its advantages.

Flitwick's bellows were just a dim buzz in the back ground, my arm was hurting like hell and all I wanted to do was lie down and try and soften the pain but I had a mission.

I was about to shout the curse that would blast Malfoy through the window behind him when I heard two very familiar voices shout stupefy! I had a second to curse Remus and James with every swear word I knew, before the world went black.

Everything was blurry, I could just make out several vague shapes surrounding me. Their voices faded in and out.

"Blasted… frog… dark magic… Malfoy…Black…what…thinking…stupid…" one voice said.

The world came sharply and unexpectedly into focus and I saw Dumbledore looking disappointed and something that bordered on anger, an annoyed Pomfrey, a furious McGonagall and stunned and irritated Flitwick standing over me.

"What in the world possessed you Black? Attacking a fellow class mate, your own cousin no less, with dark magic! I would never have expected it from a Gryffindor!" McGonagall accused in a quite fury.

Dumbledore's eyes lacked their usual twinkle. His eyes hadn't twinkled in a very long time, or at least not at me.

"Why did you attack Lucius Malfoy?" he asked gravely.

I tried to think up an excuse, anything that would make sense to them, but not give them the truth. What had Lucius told them? He couldn't tell them the truth any more than I could, what would he tell them? Fuck him, look what his stupid, maniacal, pure-blood ideas had gotten me into… Pure blood! That's it, I'll use my pure-bloodiness to get out of it, and I might even score some points with my parents. Hell, they'll probably be proud of me; I used dark magic, dueled with a fellow pure-blood and pissed off Dumbledore!

I struggled into a sitting position on the hospital bed so that they couldn't loom over me quite as much. I lifted my chin and settled my face into an aloof, cold, aristocrat, I'm-better-then-you-you-ass-sucking-mudblood-loving-bastards type look.

"It was purely a family affair and doesn't concern you." I said in my patented shut-up-and-go-away-before-I-hex-you-into-the-next-century-haughty voice.

The professors exchanged glances and then looked back at me, McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

God how I hate that eyebrow thing that she does, there's nothing I hate more about he—

McGonagall's lips thinned into a barely visible line.

And I'm proven wrong once more, it's the lip thinning that I hate the most about her! Insufferable woman.

"Mr. Black, I'm afraid it does concern us, seeing as you saw fit to attack him in the middle of a class. But if you're going to be like this, we'll talk about that subject later. Would you please tell me why you murdered your frog?" Dumbledore asked.

Shit, that man was sneaky bastard! The frog incident isn't a family affair, so I should be able to tell him, except that it leads to Lucius and some how he realizes this. Damn him!

"Uh…I just er… lost control of my magic…" I said trying to maintain my tone of assurance "you know… just a little thing…doesn't really matter…"

"Little? You killed a frog I think that matters a great deal; I think its time that you and I have a nice long chat. Minerva, Phillip if you would excuse us?" Dumbledore said glancing at each of them. Madame Pomfrey had already bustled over to a neighboring bed, which I can only assume Lucius was in.

McGonagall and Flitwick moved off and Dumbledore cast a silencing charm on the area so that we could talk in private.

"So…Sirius, we meet again!" Dumbledore said in a friendly tone. "I seem to be seeing a lot of you in the past few days."

"Yes sir" I replied cautiously.

"It seems all your troubles started with that prank on Mr. Snape, by the way, you'll be happy to hear that he was released a few hours ago and is now resting in the Slytherin common room." Dumbledore continued.

"Er… yes, I'm simply ecstatic!" I replied in a bored tone.

"But now to the point, I'm going to be blunt. What's wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know what you mean?" I lied smoothly.

"Don't give me that, within the past 48 or so hours you've gotten into trouble numerous times and the catalyst to all this is your prank on Mr. Snape so start there. I'm only trying to help you." He glared at me sternly.

"Adults say that all the time and the only thing that comes from it is more trouble." I blurted out before I could stop myself. I mentally kicked myself in the head, come on Sirius, be calm, cool and collected.

"What type of trouble could possibly come from telling me what's happened in the past 48 hours? According to you nothings happened so what does it matter?

"God damn it! Just leave me alone, why does it matter to you so much? What do you want from me?" I yelled. Great job Sirius! That was so collected! Smart one. Now he knows for sure that something's wrong.

"Why do you think I want something from you?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"No reason…" I replied, staring stubbornly at the opposite wall.

"Sirius, this is getting us no where. I'm not trying to trick you or anything; I simply want to help you. If you tell me your problems I might be able to help you sort them out." Dumbledore persisted.

"No adult does anything without an ulterior motive…" I said suspiciously. Oh great job, that was perfect. Open mouth, insert foot.

Dumbledore contemplated me sadly for a minute before saying "It saddens me that you have had experiences that would allow you to formulate that opinion. My 'ulterior motive' is to keep my students happy and safe."

I sighed tiredly; this man was just not going to give up until I told him the truth or at least part of it. "It's not important; you shouldn't be wasting your time with me. But fine, I'll humor you. I pranked Snape cuz that's what I do, some things were said by some Slytherins that got me pissed so I went off and got drunk and as I said dueling with Malfoy in charms was purely a family affair. I can't really explain it… You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Dumbledore replied simply.

"Fine, Lucius wants me to… to join him and some friends in… various activities and meetings and I don't share some of their beliefs and they don't take kindly to that. Lucius continues to… er… invite me to join them and ya…" I said, carefully choosing my words, to give him the least amount of information, while still answering his question.

"Does he try to threaten or blackmail you to participate in these meetings?" Dumbledore asked concernedly.

"Not exactly" I said slowly "more like forceful persuasion…"

"Would you like me to speak to him and perhaps convince him that he would be better of focusing his energies else where?" Dumbledore asked carefully.

"NO! Um… what I mean is no thanks; I wouldn't want to take up anymore of your time." I spoke quickly, trying to cover my slip.

"Its perfectly alright, I've got tons of free time and nothing to do with it." He replied blithely missing the point.

"No thank you, I'll deal with it myself, its not that important." I replied desperately. He just wasn't taking the hint.

"Well o.k. if that's what you want…" Dumbledore trailed off.

"Yes, thank you!" I replied quickly.

"Why do you feel that I want something from you in return for trying to help you?" Dumbledore asked, changing topics in the blink of an eye.

"Uh…" I replied brilliantly, taken by surprise by the change of topics. "I suppose cuz I've had a few uh… 'encounters' with some adults who wanted to 'help' me and then wanted certain things in return."

"I see… might I inquire to the circumstance involving this?" Sirius's face closed off immediately "I see not" Dumbledore continued "Sirius I hope that, in some way, I've helped you sort out your problems and if you ever want to talk about them I'm always there, the password to my office is…"

"Blood Lollypops I know." I said with a weak grin.

"I see, by the way your punishment for you actions are the following you are banned from the Quidditch team until further notice and 85 points from Gryffindor. And Sirius, I urge you to face your problems. You'd be surprised at how quickly ones issues are resolved after one confronts the people that one has issues with. Have a good day Mr. Black!" Dumbledore said removing the silencing charm and swept over to Malfoy's bed, where he erected another.

Oh god… that did not go well.

Madame Pomfrey bustled over and checked over my arm and cleaned up the frog guts, before telling me that I could would be fine and that I could return to class.

I slowly trudged towards the transfiguration class, I briefly considered skipping, but decided that I'd better not risk it.

End of Sirius's pov