CHAPTER ONE

February 17th, 1976

"Prewett better not miss this shot because I have ten pounds resting on this match and I can't keep stealing money off Peter because James says it's morally corrupt."

"Aren't you supposed to be playing?"

Sirius glanced over, the corners of his lips shining a winning smile, his eyebrows slightly raised. It was the same one he flashed to teachers whenever he got in trouble. Remus looked away before the mischievous look of his spread. He swore his exuberance for trouble was a contagion. But before Remus can strengthen his resolve to be aloof he's already glanced back with a pirated grin.

"Black!" A balding man clad in heavy burgundy and yellow makes vibrant hand signals to the two of them from the far-field. A couple people snicker at Sirius' dramatic rolling off the fence to face the coach.

"Ah, Horace! Are we still playing? Really- Oh look at that! There goes Todd Mccake proving good like require a good nose! Am I right ladies?! Honestly, it should be criminal to play that bad."

There's a cheer from behind them on the bleachers. Remus doesn't have to turn around to see the grinning faces of the students.

The coach blows his whistle violently causing Sirius to roll his eyes and face him. "I don't know what the great prune is so worried about. We're already winning by double. Maybe if all that dandruff in Gaunt's hair didn't cause a blizzard every time he shook his head they would stand a chance, but- Oh, look my adoring fans are calling me."

Remus raised an eyebrow and shifted so the book he'd been reading was propped up between his legs. "Better not disappoint then. If only they knew about-"

"Aha! That's enough, thank you! I'll be leaving now," Sirius leaves him with a wink as the coach finally approaches in comical aggression, dragging the brunet away and back to benches. Remus smirk only increased with the loud lecturing he could hear despite the roaring crowds.

If Remus saw being honest with himself, he didn't give a damn about football. He only showed up to the games to see Sirius play. He guessed the coach probably had a vendetta against him because Sirius couldn't help but show off anytime he was around. Not that it really mattered. They always won despite his flair for dramatics. Sirius had tried to get him invested in the game more than once ("Come on, Moony! What's not to like about watching Bulstrode's face getting smashed in?") but he'd always found much more entertainment in watching Sirius' expression when he pretended to miss the goal or some stunt he pulled.

The field had reset - he figured someone had made a goal - and Sirius was back at his starting position besides James Potter. While Remus was rather closed off letting only let in a certain handful, Sirius was much more loquacious and easygoing than Remus could ever dream to be. The only reason the two of them were friends was Remus' ability to accidentally find trouble. (The fact that they were roommates also probably had something to do with it but he liked to think they hadn't just buddied together for convince). James Potter was just one of the many friends Sirius had other than Remus. He didn't know him very well himself other than he was the captain of the team and that they had a rather long history. They had known each other since they were eleven and first began Wiltshire whereas Remus had transferred from his dingy, old secondary school in Wales only the year before.

"How long do you reckon it'll take for the ketchup in McKinnon's eyebrow to fall in her eye?" Alice elbowed him in the side as he gestured towards the front of the stands. Remus had to blink a couple of times before he saw it. He tried to hold back the snort but it came out in a muffled cough that only fueled her further.

"She's hardly doing anything. Give her a break." Remus crooked an eyebrow at her and she huffed, laying her head on her knees. Her eyes were fixated on something on the field. Or more exactly someone.

"Aren't you supposed to share in my suffering on this? I hardly find it fair that you can take her side over mine." She pouts slightly. She half-heartedly chewed on some of the soggy, cheese chips she'd gotten from the school concession stand half an hour ago.

Remus shrugs as he steals one. He watches as Sirius passes the ball to one of the Prewett twins who scores once again against the other houses' goalie. Sirius whoops, throwing both of his hands up in celebration and giving Frank Longbottom a high-five. Alice huffs.

She'd had a crush on the other for ages now and only recently had the feelings developed into a nuclear bomb whenever his recent girlfriend was mentioned.

"I don't think her celebrating her house victory necessarily counts her as a criminal."

Alice shoots him a glare from under his bangs. "You're real shit at cheering me up, you know that right?"

"You're the one who enlisted me to help you."

Alice groans and stans up off the frigid bleachers. The people behind her quickly protest at not being able to see anything. "I'm going back to the dorm. Tell me if anything happens, right?"

"...right, sure." She barely gives him time to respond before she slinked off the field leaving him alone. Remus bites the side of his thumb in a nervous habit of his. She'd always been like that; happy one minute and depressed the next. He'd never known how to control it and honestly, it was one of the many reasons he thought girls seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. But she was one of his only friends outside Sirius despite how clingy she was and it seemed pathetic if he couldn't talk to more than one person on a daily basis. He had friends back home of course but it wasn't the same.

The crowd roars as Sirius steals the ball from the offending team. He moves with a fluid grace that seems more animal than human. Potter and he seem to communicate without words, passing it in between each other just to keep the Slytherin players on their toes. Sirius somehow even manages a wink at Remus who just rolls his eyes.

It's a couple minutes later that Sirius' arrogance catches up to him. It all happens so fast he barely has enough time to wrap his mind around it. Remus was focused on his reading - he's gotta keep top marks somehow - when a yell from across the field startles him. Uneven shouts break loose as he cranes his neck to see Sirius on the ground, holding his bleeding nose. He doesn't have to be up close to see Sirius' wide gray eyes filled with disbelief and anger.

Potter had already taken up that role though. While people crowd around Sirius who was already forcing himself to stand, Potter had his fist raised to attack an offending player in green. He only gets one good swing in before his teammates jump in to hold him back at the sound of the referee's frantic whistle. Sicking dread trickles down the back of his neck when he realizes it was Regulus Black who had caused the penalty.

Remus is too far to hear the coaches yelling but whatever it is isn't pleasant. He had long discarded his book to lean up against the railing near the team's rest area where Sirius was only moments before. Pettigrew - a very chubby, stout boy who on the rare occasion plays the backup goalie - is there looking ready to bite his fingernails down to the knuckle with nerves as he watches the scene unfold of the field. Remus has to shake the fence gate roughly before he finally gets his attention.

"He's going to do something stupid. Let me in." Remus demands. He needed to get across the field before Sirius did something he was going to regret. He looked across the field where there was already a dark, purple bruise blooming across his jawline. He was giving his younger brother that same look he always had before he did anything rash.

"Lupin? I don't know… Slughorn really didn't like last time-"

"Pettigrew, let me in. I swear to God."

Pettigrew bites his lip and wrings his hand nervously as he looks back at the field. If you put the Black brothers together in any situation it was usually a recipe for disaster. It was common knowledge that Sirius was on his last strike. One more scene and he was promised an expulsion before the headmaster could blink. Remus didn't like the chances.

But Sirius has already walked away. He's ripped himself out of his teammates' grip and faced the coach with a stone expression that was so out of place he had to do a double-take. Sirius pointedly avoided his brother's gaze. Pettigrew also seems to notice because his mouth forms into a comical 'o' when Sirius says something to Potter to make him immediately stop.

Remus doesn't know what the cause of the sudden mood shift is at first. Sirius had once confessed to him under the shroud of the night when they were alone and in their separate beds that he either felt everything at once or nothing at all. He doubted Sirius even remembered it, he'd been tipsy at the time, but Remus had never forgotten. It lingered in the back of his mind as he searched Sirius' for any sign of anger.

Slowly, Remus untangled his fingers from the railing with a heavy breath as the crowd finally dispersed on the field and players got back into playing positions. He should have felt glad that Sirius wasn't going to risk his position at the school for some petty fight between him and his brother. Instead, it felt too anti-climatic. Too unlike the Sirius Remus knew to mean anything good.

"See? Everything's good, everything's fine…" Pettigrew said aloud what he thinks is supposed to be self-assurance but he was never sure with the small boy. He was another one of Sirius' other friends despite the stark difference in personality. Not that Remus could say anything; he was rather lanky and nerdy himself and Sirius still stood around him...

Sirius seemed to have convinced the coach he was good to play again but he was switched to defense. Regulus however was kicked from the field. Remus eyes never left Sirius in hopes that a grin would crack through the surface of the current icy surface. It was unsettling, to say the least.

It was out of the corner of his vision that he saw two figures drag the younger Black away. No one else seems to notice as they slink away behind the bleachers or the way the woman's fingers dug threateningly into his shoulder. He immediately recognized the two as Walburga and Orion Black from the large portrait set up inside the school's entry hall for alumni. They held themselves with the same natural elegance as their sons, no doubt passed down in years worth of etiquette lessons Sirius religiously complained about, but unlike him, they made no mistake in letting everyone around them know they below them. Their wealth was unmistakable with their clothing and aristocratic features that seemed to silently say, 'don't cross me unless you have a suicide mission.'

It was a surprise the two had shown up at a school game. He hardly doubted they came to see their sons play against each other. It seemed to be something too common for the two wouldn't ever associate themselves with from the stories Sirius had told them. Anyone who knew him knew how much he hated them. He regularly went out of the way to aggravate them by pursuing trouble anywhere he could find it. You would almost think Sirius was adopted if you glanced over how alike their features were. The same sharp jawline, gray eyes, and up-turned pointed nose that he shared with his brother. But whereas Regulus obeyed his parents and kept his curls short, Sirius had let his straight black hair fall to his shoulders in a small act of rebellion.

It was always like that. Sirius wouldn't say it openly but he could see it hurt him watching his brother follow the path that their parents had laid out for them before birth. He always tried to dissuade his younger brother from following down the same cruel pattern as their parents and Regulus was always one to cut back with some crude remark. The difference between the two brothers was a clear one and it made Remus glad he was a single child.

Walburga hissed something inside her sons ear as she tore him away from the game. Regulus remained stoic as ever even when the dirt from Potter's punch on his face wasroughly wiped away with a cloth. Neither of them bothered to pay the slightest bit of attention to their other son who was playing, dried blood staining his upper lip.

"How much detention we'll get in if we flood Professor Alen's office?"

"We?"

"Yes, obviously, we. I wouldn't get anywhere without your lovely wits Moons."

He raises an eyebrow at Sirius who was sprawled out across Remus' bed. All evidence of the day's event was washed clean from his face. They hadn't talked about it yet; Remus didn't know if he wanted to. They typically avoided all conversations on family seeing it was a touchy topic for both of them. They both seemed inclined to forget it ever happened.

"I wouldn't if I were you. I heard he keeps some rather kinky supplies in there. Alice once told me she found a paddle once during detention."

In a dramatic gesture of disgust his nose wrinkled and he drew his head backward. He's quick with a comeback. "You'll fit right in there then, won't you?"

The faintest red dust Remus's face he can only hope the shade from the desk lamp covers. He hates being reminded of the day that gave him the ridiculous nickname of 'Moony' in the first place. Sirius loved to tease him about it.

"I hardly think that's the same-"

"You could make great friends."

It's Remus's turn to make a face of disgust. Mr. Alen was a man in his late forties with a receding blonde hairline and slight stubble always filled with something from his lunch. He was their government teacher and known for creepy relations among his students.

"That's homophobic."

"Please," Sirius swings both of his legs off the bed in one swoop, making it where his nose brushed against Remus' shoulder. Sirius pouted. "James and I have been planning it for months! He won't expect it tonight with the game! It's a perfect time."

Remus tipped back in his desk chair and swiveled around to face the brunet fully. Sometimes Remus admired Sirius' lax perspective on life and other time's he thought it was bound to get him killed one day. Sirius seemed to see things as constantly a party, one thing after another. There wasn't repercussions for him. Remus hated to make assumptions but it was obviously a side-affect from his wealthy upbringing. If Sirius got expelled from school his parents would simply send him to another without so much as a blink. Sure, he hated his parents but they still held enough political power and money for Sirius to get almost anywhere in life mearly by his last name. He couldn't help but hold a small grudge on that factor despite Sirius' dislike for the topic. He'd grown up in a small, lower-middle-class family and was only at Wellshire through a scholarship. He couldn't afford to do all the reckless pranks Sirius pulled with all his other sort. Sirius knew this.

Remus sets down his chemistry textbook and rubs the bridge of his nose with an irritated sigh. "They're going to expect you to do something tonight, you know. After the Regulus thing."

Sirius' face darkens just slightly enough that you wouldn't be able to notice if you were looking. His comeback isn't as quick as usual. "That isn't about that."

Remus raises an eyebrow.

"Alen's a dick. He deserves it. Anyway, we've even forced Pete to write down his schedule. He won't be there tonight and James already cut the security cams. I don't want it ruined because my family are ones too. "

Sirius' mood had quickly done a one-eighty and Remus stops and stares at him. He knew how to handle him when he was full and bursting with energy, but not like this. It makes him wish he'd never mentioned Regulus.

"Still, you shouldn't risk it. You're on your last strike. If Dumbledore catches a whiff of you up to any more mischief-"

"He won't. Bloody hell, you sound like Mrs. Potter. You need to stop worrying so much. You gotta live a bit."

Remus doesn't bother to tell him that he can't live a bit if he's under detention for the rest of the year or expelled from the school completely. "If you have everything planned so perfectly then why do you need me? Faulty planning if you ask me."

Sirius smirks again. It's odd to see someone shift so fast. "That's the surprise, Moons. Expected the unexpected."

"Sounds convincing."

Sirius pouts. "Pleaseee? We need a...distaction."

Remus pauses before it clicks. He shoots Sirius a steady glare. "No. Absolutely not."

Sirius jumps up. It makes a large 'thud!" with his heavy Dr. Martens on. Their downstair dorm neighbors had reported them twice already because of Sirius' inability to part with them.

He smiles as he leans down and grips Remus by the shoulders. "You owe me. I did your French homework."

Remus' frown doesn't wavier. "Last week's homework. And if I remember correctly, you also forced me to give up my dessert for a week in response."

He rolls his eyes. "That's business, Moons. Nothing personal."

Remus pulls away with a shake of his head. "I'm not doing it. Get Frank to do it or something. I'm sure Alice would love the show."

"Oh, I'm sure she would. He'd quite the looker, is he not? Are you sure she's the only one?

Embarrassment swells up on Remus' face. Remus had never been the most discreet in hiding his sexuality. His father had found out when he was thirteen and it was one of the many reasons he left for school. He had hoped joining the posh boarding school might have given him a fresh start but that hope had quickly been squashed when he was caught looking at one of the other boys arse in the boys' showers in his first few weeks. Sirius had immediately taken him under his wing after that but only after pinning him with the ridiculous nickname.

"You're out of your bloody mind. I really need to get my homework done. McGonagall will have my neck if I don't turn this essay in on Monday and-"

He doesn't get to finish the sentence. He doesn't have to. Sirius looks between him and the open notebook twice before lunging for the desk. Remus bolted from his chair to block him but it was too late. He easily overpowered him from years on the football field despite Remus having half a foot on him.

Sirius snatches the notebook and holds it behind his back as leverage. "All you have to do is come with us and your precious work will be saved. "

"Fat chance." Remus pounces for his essay again but Sirius just moves it the other hand. He glares. "This legally counts as blackmail."

"Good thing you've written this thing eight times already then, right?"

Remus tackles him to the floor.