Chapter – 17: Becoming a major criminal

Sirius P.O.V

Sirius stepped into Diagon Alley through the Leaky Cauldron entrance. It was his least favorite way to get in, but his brilliant grandfather refused to let him use the Floo.

Scowling, he stalked through Diagon, dodging the parents with tiny children and the business people and traders, everyone trying to get in his way. When he finally reached the Knockturn Alley turn, he slipped through with a relieved grimace, because 'smiling' wasn't a good idea in Knockturn, in dearest Bella's opinion.

Knockturn Alley was abandoned as compared to Diagon Alley, although Sirius could see the large groups of people further in. He entered Borgin and Burkes, expecting to find it empty. Luck was not on his side.

"Mr. Borgin, I must say, you certainly don't live up to your reputation," a familiar, oily voice drawled. Selwyn.

Sirius took a deep breath, not wanting to cause another scene. Dealing with Selwyn alone was difficult but dealing with Selwyn along with Parkinson was torture.

"It is a pity that he is said to be the best. Surely, there are better businessmen out there?" And there was Parkinson.

Sirius walked further into the shop.

"I assure you gentlemen," Borgin said, looking very nervous. "That everything here is exactly as you requested."

Parkinson leaned forward with a sneer on his face, and Sirius reminded himself not to get into a fight now. It wasn't the time or place.

"We expected something of good quality, Borgin. This is not good quality," Parkinson spat, hands clenching as though he would shake Borgin.

Sirius rubbed his face and snapped, "Parkinson, how wonderful to see you here!"

They whirled towards him so fast that Sirius wouldn't be surprised if they had injured themselves. Sirius found pleasure in the way Selwyn's face paled drastically, and Parkinson looked thunderous.

"Mr. Black, welcome," Borgin looked even more nervous now than before. "What would you like today?"

Sirius knew better than to air his family business in front of fellow purebloods like Parkinson and Selwyn. They were of a lower class and hence more likely to spill all the sordid details to everyone who would listen. Sirius wasn't getting his heirship revoked just yet.

"Perhaps we could speak privately." Sirius ordered, glaring at both Parkinson and Selwyn. "You understand how important family business is, of course."

For all that they were older than him and not confined by the "trace", they were cowards and politicians. With blustering words and fake smiles, they almost tripped over themselves as they ran out of the store.

With a smug smile, Sirius turned to Borgin and threw up some truly ingenious privacy spells. Blacks had never adhered to most societal norms. "Now, Borgin, I need some cursed necklaces."


Strutting out of the shop with his purchases, Sirius almost crashed into Narcissa and Lucius.

"Black, watch where you're going." Malfoy snapped, and a day ago, Sirius couldn't have done anything.

But now, he was heir again, he could argue back to Malfoy. He was part of the most important family in Britain after all and had a higher status in the hierarchy than the blond. This seemed to be the only thing those time-wasting lessons were useful for – bullying and bribing people of lower status.

"Now, now, Malfoy…" Sirius smiled wickedly, wagging his pointer finger with the ring on it. "What a bad idea it is to insult a fellow heir."

Malfoy's face turned stony, even as Narcissa glared at Sirius. It had been years since Sirius had annoyed and humiliated vain Lucy, so he couldn't understand why Malfoy was still so insulted and angry.

"What are you doing here, cousin?" Narcissa spoke before Lucius could and Sirius was pleased. At least Narcissa still had her common sense.

Sirius lifted the parcel. "Doing Bella's work because your sister was late again."

Narcissa shook her head in amusement. Bellatrix was a well-known procrastinator and notorious for her absent-mindedness and passion. If she had gotten caught up in something, it was very likely she got lost in it and completely forgot about everything else.

Sirius didn't think this was a good thing, if his cousin was entrenched in the 'Dark Lord's' nonsense, but he would focus on Bella and her ideals in the summer. The last time he got caught up in Bella's business, he got his heirship put on probation, after all.

"What are you doing here, cousin? As far as Hogwarts is concerned, students aren't allowed to leave school premises unless it's with permission from the parents."

Sirius knew very well that Slytherins rarely needed or took permission to leave Hogwarts. Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at Narcissa and Lucius, much to Narcissa's embarrassment. She swatted at his arm and tried to hide the blush crawling up her pale skin.

"Shut up, Sirius! It's not like that!" She muttered, not meeting his eyes.

Sirius knew it was exactly like that, and gave Malfoy a nasty glare, to which he responded with a sort of proud/smug look. Sirius almost decked him.

"Well, then," he said, magnanimously, "what is it like?"

Narcissa looked up at him with a lofty look and a mischievous twinkle that he knew would lead to a lie. "We're going to see Arcturus."

Sirius widened his smile. "Are you really?"

She nodded, and beside her Malfoy nodded with a pleasant smile. They were perfect liars, all of them. His entire family could and would take the truth to their graves and Sirius did not want to be a part of it, but he never got what he wanted, did he?

"Well, that's convenient because these need to go to grandfather, so would you be a dear and give them to him?" Sirius handed Narcissa the parcel and smiled. "I wouldn't check them."

Understanding dawned in Narcissa's eyes, even as Malfoy's narrowed in thought. Blacks were all the same after all and Narcissa had always been the pettiest of them all. Much to Andromeda's consternation and Bella's pleasure.

"I'm going to have something to eat, before I end up dying."

With that, Sirius gave them both a cheery wave and almost skipped out of Knockturn Alley. Narcissa would have to go meet grandfather, Sirius could get himself food, Malfoy would probably get cursed and…

Sirius blinked. Was that James?

He squinted and looked for the messy hair and glasses, brightening when he found he had been right. It was James. But James wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, so Sirius decided to crash into his unobservant best friend. Finding the path of collision; a wide, genuine smile of anticipation and excitement spreading on his face, Sirius skipped towards James. This was going so well.


"What are you doing in Diagon Alley, Siri?" James asked, mushing up his ice cream.

Sirius was so close to taking the ice cream away from James because nobody drank ice cream after it melted! It was almost like James was personally betraying him!

"Hmmm? Oh yeah, grandfather sent me here on business." Sirius said, leaning back in his seat and glaring at James' ice cream.

James frowned. "Were you doing something bad?"

"Of course not!"

That was a blatant lie, and Sirius knew that. But James was very stuck-up in some matters and wouldn't understand the importance of what he'd done. Sirius couldn't have James criticizing him and giving him that disappointed look that made him want to grovel at James' feet.

James looked appeased by the lie and Sirius hesitated, torn between correcting himself and letting it go. He couldn't meet James eyes, not even when James started talking about his Transfiguration project with terms that Sirius couldn't understand. Sometimes, James went on tangents like this, and it was better to just let him vent.

Sirius turned his attention to the people walking around the Alley instead. People watching was interesting and making up fake pasts for them made it funnier. Especially since he knew most of their pasts anyways.

There were the Prewett brothers – Gideon and Fabian, tossing cheap stall items at each other. If their sister had caught them doing this, Sirius knew it would've been a loud argument that everyone would've heard. Molly Weasley was one opinionated person and very, very loud when she wanted to be. Or at least, that's what the rumors said. Sirius had never met her or her husband before.

On the other side, there were two purebloods – Travers and the Parkinson sister, who were dressed in all black and pulling out a mask. They seemed familiar, deceptively normal and it took him a second to make the connection to the Death Eaters from Yule.

Sirius jerked out of his seat, pulling James to the side, and throwing up a shield around them. He was not a second too late as the stands outside the ice cream parlor exploded. Luckily, they had been the only two people seated outside, with everyone else inside, and Sirius had seen some shields going up.

"Bloody hell, what's going on?" James asked, eyes wide and ice cream smeared across his face and shirt. Hurriedly, he wiped his face and frowned at Sirius.

Sirius peered out from behind the table, catching sight of the next shop, a book store, going up in flames. Gideon and Fabian were fighting the Death Eaters, but they were surrounded. Four more black-clad figures had joined the chaos.

"What is happening here?" James asked, unable to see what was going on. He was completely blocked in, by the fallen debris and fire.

"Death Eaters. Five of them." Sirius said, pulling his wand from his robes. "Prewetts are surrounded."

Sirius looked out again and felt the urge to bang his head well up. That was definitely one of the Lestranges, Rodolphus if he was right. Rabastan was supposed to be in Hogwarts, although that didn't seem to be bothering too many people these days. Bella's in-laws were here, and Sirius hoped that Bellatrix hadn't joined in. That would be disastrous.

"Lestrange, Travers and Parkinson, I think. I don't know the other two." Sirius turned back to James. "What do we do now? Your parents aren't here?"

James grimaced. "They went for a nice date in Spain from the Dragon's Head. We're on our own."

Sirius risked another glance out and saw Fabian and Gideon being herded away and falling back. They wouldn't last much longer alone.

"Want to join in on the fun?" Sirius asked and slipped out at James' affirmation. With a scowl in place, he walked up to the fight, cursing Parkinson with a bone breaker to the shoulder.

She screamed and fell to a knee when another hit her thigh. James had disappeared, and Sirius felt a headache oncoming. This wasn't going to end well.

"Black. Why are you stopping us?" Travers asked, stopping his assault of the Prewetts. Sirius smiled sweetly and threw a borderline illegal cutting curse. If anyone checked his wand, he would be thrown in Azkaban.

"Stop talking so much Travers, and don't question your betters." Sirius muttered, as Travers fell to the ground, pointing his wand at his torn open stomach.

Sirius knew it wasn't going to be easy, and it wasn't. The other three Death Eaters were prepared to fight, and they didn't hesitate to throw dark and painful curses in his direction. Gideon was battling Lestrange, while Fabian had knocked the other Death Eater out and had disappeared, probably to get all the other people out.

"You should be on our side, Black," the Death Eater opposite Sirius said, breathing heavily. Sirius could feel exhaustion creeping in, even as adrenaline rushed through him. "Your entire family is with us. Unless you're like your blood traitor cousin. What a slu-"

Sirius stared in shock as the Death Eater fell, unconscious and James appeared behind him frowning disapprovingly. Sirius nodded in thanks and turned to Lestrange, who was smiled nastily.

"If I'm going down, so are you, blood traitors," Lestrange said, and raised his wand high. "Fiendfyre."

Fire burst from his wand, heat searing Sirius' arm from where he'd thrown it in front of him as a shield. The fire turned into a snake, growing bigger as it consumed the stalls. Lestrange disappeared with a mad laugh. He had a portkey, which shouldn't work in Diagon.

Sirius turned to Gideon questioningly, but the older man just shrugged, dumbfounded and gaping at the growing fire. Abruptly, Gideon lifted his wand and started muttering.

"Can you do something, Siri?" James asked, panic and horror clear in his voice. "There are children here, who will die!"

Sirius shook his head. "I can try, but I doubt I can do much."

"Try, please, Siri. We have to do something. Call the Aurors or my parents or yours or something!"

Sirius tuned James out, following the fire's movement. He knew the theory behind stopping Fiendfyre. He had to take control of the fire and force it to obey him and go out. It was virtually impossible and dangerous because if he couldn't control the fire, then it would consume him, burning him inside-out.

There was an alternative, he realized after seconds of staring at the fire.

"James," he called. "Get everyone out of the shops on the east side."

"Alright." James moved quickly, flitting through the growing crowd and herding everyone away from the east side of Diagon Alley. It mostly consisted of restaurants and food places, so not much knowledge or priceless artifacts would be lost.

Slowly, Sirius could see the smarter adults taking charge, and helping them move the crowd towards the Leaky Cauldron.

"Need help with the fire, lad?" A short witch asked in a Scottish accent, flicking her wand unnecessarily in the direction of the Fiendfyre. Her eyes glittered gold, reflecting the fire burning brightly ahead.

"If you can and know how, then yes."

The witch nodded and gestured. "Start off, lad. I'll join in."

Sirius poured his focus and concentration into the task. Grappling with the fire was difficult, but he could feel the cool waves of magic that was coming from the witch and bolstering his own.

He directed the flames towards the east side, which was empty. The sooner the aurors got here, the better. Any dark magic expert could try to stop the Fiendfyre, but the only way Sirius could control it, would be to direct its path of destruction.

Sirius knew James couldn't join and help, so he was surprised when he felt calmer and more powerful waves of magic brush against his as they wrestled against the flames.

If he survived this, Sirius would learn how to control Fiendfyre.

There was a snap, like a taut wire breaking and the temperature in Diagon Alley fell drastically. Sirius closed his eyes for a second and breathed deeply, trying to rid himself of the blood rush to his head and the bright spots in his vision.


When Sirius opened his eyes, James was leaning over him and patting his cheeks desperately. He groaned, and sat up, rocks cutting into his palms.

"You're fine. Oh Merlin, you're alive!" James pulled him into a hug and then pulled away equally as fast, talking a million words a minute.

Sirius looked around. They were still in Diagon Alley, but there were Aurors swarming about and people rushing to the Leaky and the Floo. There were a few reporters, standing nearby.

"You boys are alright?" Fabian asked, standing behind James.

Sirius nodded, looking around for Gideon's bright red hair. He found him lying in corner, looking exhausted and dazed, exactly how Sirius felt. He wondered what happened to the Scottish witch, where she had gone.

"He's fine," Fabian assured. "Just exhausted. Thank you, for controlling the fire as well as you did."

Sirius nodded, blinking as his vision tilted. He leaned back.

"You think we could get back to Hogwarts without Minnie's knowledge, Jamie?" He asked, and James laughed.

"Not bloody likely. They've got your picture. You're probably going to be on the news. First page."

"Just kill me now. I'm going to be the poster child of Dark families." Sirius muttered. He could already see the headings – 'Black Heir releases Fiendfyre on Diagon Alley!' or 'Gryffindor Black proves himself to his family' or even, 'Black sheep of the family turns criminal'.

Sirius contemplated breaking and entering to remove all photos and evidence, but that would only cement his newly instated criminal status. Closing his eyes in resignation, Sirius surrendered himself to exhaustion.