Chapter 22

A.N. I want to thank everyone who has been reading, commenting, supporting me. Thank you, truly it means so much to me.
I know recent chapters have been sporadic, and short. It's been a really hard year, for me, and for all of you too.
Happy New Year, I hope 2022 is better for us all.

Wands appeared in the hands of everyone around them, people pushing backwards, away from the two men of House Black, until a clear ring of empty space formed between father and son.

James, somehow at Sirius' side even though he had been clear across the hall, pointed his wand directly at Orion's chest.

"Get out." His tone was nearly as frigid as the air around them.

Orion ignored him, looking only at Sirius.

"Fais-les se retirer, mon – "

"Don't you dare." Sirius' voice was bright steel, "Do not speak French to me, do not call me your son." Never taking his eyes from Orion, she curled her fingers around James' outstretched wrist. "I will not have fighting at my wedding. Everyone, please carry on."

James reluctantly lowered his wand, glancing up at him. Sirius shook his head, managing, somehow, to look and sound calm.

"I will speak to him outside. Stay with Remus."

Sirius didn't need to look over his shoulder to know Remus was with Lily and Harry, protecting their family from the Dark Wizard invading their happy day. She waved a lazy hand at the door, indicating Orion should leave first. To his surprise, his father turned easily and stepped out into the damp Scottish air.

With a single nod to James, Sirius followed.

Night was falling, bringing a chill that had nothing to do with Black Family magic with it. He cast a long look over the Patriarch's shape in the lamp light. He stood, calmly, in the miraculously empty cobbled street. Waiting. Orion was tall, but his once powerful figure was twisted and far thinner than Sirius could ever had imagined. The golden light cast dark shadows into the hollows of his cheeks, and in the lines of a face prematurely aged. There were fresh scars there too, travelling down his neck under the shirt collar that was a much looser than it had once been.

"You're too thin." His voice was different too, like fresh cracks in old parchment. It sounded as Sirius' had, when Remus saved her from Azkaban.

"And you are supposed to be dead."

Orion chuckled without humour, looking up at the indigo heavens, though the stars were not yet shining, "Am I? C'est vrai – I thought I would be by now."

He fought back a snarl, "Then do everyone a favour. Go back to whatever grave you crawled from."

He looked at her then, mercury eyes raking over Sirius, "You have something of mine."

She didn't need to ask what, "I don't carry murderers' wands on my person. You will have to wait."

To his surprise, Orion shrugged, "That is fair. I am rather astonished she gave it to you in the first place."

Their gazes met again, and Sirius couldn't stop the wave of memories. The nights that had lessened and lessened where they were alone together, in solidarity, in mutual respect. Cold frosts and harsh whisky, books with pages marked to show to father or son, some interesting or complex magic that fascinated them both. The moments Sirius tried not to remember, savouring instead the agonies of curses and fights and being the Blood Traitor, because knowing they could have been different was more painful than any Cruciatus Curse.

"What do you want?" He spat the words.

"I am informed your grandfathers reinstated you, in my absence."

"Oui," she mocked his accent, "Regulus is no longer suitable. Not that you care."

The cobblestones at their feet glazed with ice, belying the calm way he spoke, "I care. I care greatly. More than you would ever understand – "

"Fuck you!" Sirius was yelling and she couldn't give a damn, "I don't understand? Me? I don't know how it is to lose someone? Where you paying fucking attention?! Oh, no, my mistake. You missed the last three years." There was nothing like family to bring out his rage, "We have been at war! WAR! While you hid away pretending to be dead! I have been fighting every single day, watching people I love die. You, you are the reason he is in that fucking place. I saw him there, I heard him scream. I WAS THERE TOO!"

"I know."

Sirius' wand was in his hand before she even knew what she was doing, he turned it on his father with a snarl, "You know? Then why the fuck are you here?!"

"I know, Sirius, because I was His prisoner." Sirius stared, but Orion kept speaking, "I went after Him, when Regulus was arrested, I wanted revenge." He spoke simply, as though discussing the weather, "Every time they came across you, fighting for the Order of the Phoenix, they would taunt me with it. How they nearly killed you, who died, how damaged you all were, how close they were to winning the war."

Ignoring Sirius' wand still pointed at his face, he pushed a hand through his now entirely grey hair in a gesture that was hauntingly familiar to her, "They thought I had gone soft, "changed sides", as though Walburga and I had ever joined their cause in the first place –" here he held up a hand to stop the explosion of fury from Sirius, "Agreed on principle, oui. Joined, non, and you know that." And almost imperceivable shudder passed through his shoulders, "I felt it. When they sent you to that place, though I was too far gone then to know what it was I sensed."

Sirius' eyes locked on to the discoloured flesh around her father's wrists, the Dark Magic from chains used to bind a Warlock of his power would scar forever.

"Did you grandfathers know? About Remus, when you made your deal?"

He turned her gaze back to his face, surprised, "No. Of course not. They want a new heir from me."

Surprised turned to a kind of horror as his father threw back his head and laughed, a deep rich laugh that rebounded off the stone buildings around them and down the road.

"What in Godric's name – what the hell is wrong with you?"

He snorted, trying to stifle the laugh, and looked up at her with a twisted grin that looked almost… proud?

"Oh, a great many things, mon cher." He sobered, "I would like to meet him, properly."

"That's why you crashed my wedding party?"

He shook his head, "No. I wanted to see you, and this was the easiest place to track to you to."

Sirius felt a surge of pleasure and relief that the protective spells on their flat, and the Potter Manor were good enough that even Orion Black was struggling to track him there.

"You've seen me."

Orion's face changed subtly, frozen hardness covering some emotion Sirius couldn't ever decode, "I have. You look better than I expected."

They shared a long, singular look, "Will you be disowning me again?"

"That is, quite literally out of my hands, but I think it unlikely."

"Bien." Sirius took a long steadying breath, her tone cold and distant, "I'll bring you the wand, and you can meet Remus then. After our honeymoon."

His lip twitched, something that could have become a smirk, but didn't, and then he nodded, "Alright, Sirius. However you wish to play it."

He said nothing else, turning on his heal and striding down the street, his black robes blending into the night.