At the Beginning

By: Hyuuga Ayame

Summary: [AU] DH spoilers What would happen if someone was given the chance to change EVERYTHING? He could stop the traitor from ever becoming friends with them …He could save them all…He knew he could. A time travel fic.

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"Talking"

'Thinking'

"YELLING"

Writing

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Chapter 3: Of Curses and Futures

The Room was the same as Sirius remembered. It was deep within the Black home and was surrounded by numerous protections that had been in place for as long as he remember and made the Room invisible to all those who weren't keyed into the wards. The Room was dark, though not nearly as dark as Sirius remembered it being. The only light was four candles that were in the middle of each of the four wall. The light emitted from them cast an eerie glow on the metal objects and knifes littering the ground.

As Sirius stood by the door, facing his grandfather who had already entered the Room, he hesitated again, cursing his muscles all the while in his mind, seeing his grandfather standing in that hated Room. The first time around, the Room was where he would be taken to train in the Dark Arts, and to experience the twisted view of his family first hand. Like most dark pureblood families, the eldest of each branch of the Black Family went through this type of training, which was supposed to show the power over others that they would have once they could cast the Dark Arts spells successfully. The eldest would then share their "knowledge" with any younger siblings who would follow the eldest's direction because they had been taught to do so since birth.

Most of the time, this training worked and the eldest would proudly represent the Black family at it's darkest. Sirius thought of Bellatrix and the warped sense of perception that these little training sessions had given her. Because of the pain that she endured in her youth, she went on to cause pain in others by joining Voldemort. The training had stained her soul as black as their name.

Sirius was different.

Instead of this training making his soul turn black, it had the opposite effect. Sirius had seen the pain that the curses caused and never wanted anyone to have to go through what he went through in that Room. So instead of becoming dark, Sirius became something else entirely. Instead, he became the 'white sheep' of the Black family, as James used to call him. The Gryffindor within the den of snakes.

Then again, the effect that the training was supposed to have on him was not all lost. There were still moments were his 'inner Black', as he named it, came through. 'Like that time in 6th year with Snape and the Willow', he thought harshly. It was moments like those that made him truly hate his family and the way they had warped him.

Sirius snapped himself out of his memories as he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him. His eyes focused on his grandfather once more and noted the harder glint in his eyes that told Sirius that he was angry. 'Fuck, this is not a good time to reminisce', he thought as he silently swallowed and continued to move into the Room. As soon as he was within the door, it slammed shut and a spell was shot at him from where his grandfather was standing. Instead of dodging at full speed like his instincts were screaming at him to do, Sirius held himself still for another second before performing a faked clumsy dodge, and fell to the ground. The curse, which Sirius recognized as a mild pain curse, hit him in his left arm instead of the chest where it had been aimed. He sucked in a quick breath and hissed in pain as he clutched his arm to his chest, screaming obscenities in his mind. 'The things that I do so the bastard won't get suspicious,' he thought with more than a tad bit of bitterness.

"Get up boy." The cold voice of his grandfather pierced his thoughts. Sirius did so as quickly as he dared, once again ignoring the instincts that told him to go full speed. Not once did his eyes leave his grandfather's form. He remembered that lesson well. The minute that his eyes left his opponent, he would be in a world of pain. As soon as he was fully inside the Room and standing where his grandfather indicated that he should be, his grandfather started to speak.

"As you know, you will be attending Hogwarts soon. As the male heir of the Black family, must remember to uphold our noble name." His eyes then turned slightly darker as the first emotion that he had shown all day rolled through his eyes. Hatred. "Even if the school is now flooded with mudbloods and controlled by that mudblood lover, it is one of the finest institutions in the world. The Black name is still influential were it matters, and you will take your rightful place among your Slytherin year mates. Do not bring shame to our noble name. Understood?" Gagging on the inside, Sirius nodded quickly. "Good. Now, since the mudblood lover has banned the use of dark arts at Hogwarts, I will be giving you supplementary instructions over the winter and summer holidays. Also, I will not be teaching you anymore of your spells from Hogwarts. I see no point in wasting time going over spells that you will be learning at school. Especially since they have no real purpose." With that, his grandfather shifted slightly but in a way that put Sirius' instincts on high alert. His grandfather's wand came up almost quicker than the eye could follow and a dark red spell shot out of it straight towards Sirius. Without even thinking, Sirius quickly dodged out of the way, only to begin to curse in his mind as his grandfather paused to look at him. His eyebrow went up slightly at the fast response, his eyes studying his grandson. He shot off another spell that would be a bit harder to dodge and Sirius let it catch him on his forearm. His grandfather still eyed him suspiciously for a moment but seemed to chalk the first dodge up to luck, something that Sirius was thanking every god that he could remember for. "To start, you will be defending yourself. If you are a true Black, this shouldn't be a problem." And with no further warnings, his grandfather began to bombard Sirius with multiple spells.

Sirius' mind was now hyper aware of the dark magic that was racing towards his person but he knew that he had to control every one of his instincts and let himself be hit. He knew he could fire off the occasional spell that could be second year level at best and only in the intervals were there would have been enough time when he was 10. Every spell that hit sent pain flaring into his mind but he fought down his reaction to curse his grandfather with the strongest spells that he knew with a mantra that played endlessly in his mind. 'James. Lily. Remus. Harry. James. Lily. Remus. Harry.' Over and over he played those four names in his mind to calm himself down.

After what felt like eternity, the spells stopped. Sirius was panting hard. His entire body felt like it was on fire, his right arm was bleeding slightly, and his vision swam with colors. There was a dull roar in his ears, though the sound of his internal mantra drowned even that out. Then he saw a crimson light flying at him from the direction that his grandfather was in. He knew that light all too well. The Cruciatus. He had to make a split second decision. Take the curse and bear through the pain or dodge with every bit of strength that he had left. He choose the former. The curse streamed towards him as he shifted his body so that the curse would hit his arm instead of his chest.

Lights burned behind his eyes and his nerves set themselves on fire. Thousands of needles all crashed into his body at once only to twist themselves, pull out, and begin the process again. He couldn't remember opening his mouth, or even beginning to scream. All he knew was the pain as it tore at his body in an endless cycle.

When it finally ended, he slumped to the floor in a lack of feeling. He felt numb though his throat was burning. When he was finally able to left his head, his eyes took in the form of his grandfather staring coldly down at him, waiting for him to recover enough to stand. The cold grey eyes screamed disappointment and disgust.

"You should be able to recover faster than this Sirius. You were only under the spell for five minutes." The voice was cold and unfeeling as it always was.

Sirius wanted to laugh. If his throat wasn't so raw, he probably would have. A few seconds under the Cruciatus curse was hard enough for most to endure, much less five minutes. His mantra began again within his mind as he struggled to get up. Once up, his grandfather allowed him a few more seconds to regain his bearings before the endless stream of curses started up again.

Sirius felt his body begin to give out. 'I need to act soon or I won't be able to pull this off.' It was a few more seconds before he saw his opportunity. His grandfather was in the beginning stages of performing a curse that normally gave the receiving party hallucinations and a brief case of Schizophrenia. Sirius quickly shot off a muffling curse at his grandfather. The last syllable of his curse was cut off and replaced with a muddled version of it. Instead of a purple curse like it was supposed to be, the spell that came out of the wand was a light lavender, so light it was almost white. It streaked towards Sirius' chest, hitting him straight on. He felt a brief warmth on his chest as an amulet he made to absorb curses took the spell for him. 'Perfect. Now to start acting.' He blinked once, taking in his grandfather's slightly shocked expression, then swayed once before falling forward and landing on his front. There was a slight pause before he heard his grandfather's footsteps come closer to him.

Sirius allowed his breathing to race, and forced himself to let his vision un-focus, as though he was staring at something unseen. He felt his grandfather turn him over and call his name a few times, before swiftly gathering Sirius into his arms and taking him upstairs. 'Shit…' Sirius thought, beginning to get dizzy from the lack of oxygen his breathing was inducing, 'I won't be able to keep up this fast pace of breathing for much longer….' Quickly racking his brain for solutions, he started to softly speak as incoherently as he could, using as many words that his relatives wouldn't be able to make sense of as possible. This act caused his grandfather to pause slightly, and Sirius could feel his piercing eyes shift down towards him. His grandfather's grip tightened and he moved a little faster than before, swiftly opening the door and summoning Kretcher to fetch Sirius' mother.

Sirius felt himself being set down on one of the couches that were in the main sitting room and heard two people rush into the room. Quickly running out of things to babble, he made his body stiffen and his back arch, before pretending to fall into unconsciousness.

"What's wrong with him?!" he heard his mother almost shriek as she came closer to him. Sirius almost opened his eyes in surprise at the slight tone of worry he could hear in his mother's voice.

"He managed to hit me with a weak muffling curse while I was casting the Alienari curse." His grandfather said, his voice still as cold as it was earlier. Sirius heard the other set of footsteps come a little closer then felt a small hand on his arm. 'Regulus.'

"Wi-will he be OK?" Regulus managed to stutter out, apparently unnerved by either his grandfather's stare or his brother's state, though Sirius couldn't tell which.

"If he is a true Black" was all that Sirius' grandfather said in reply.

Sirius felt Regulus stiffen in slight shock to their grandfather's words, but they came as no surprise to Sirius. After all, that was the way that their grandfather had always acted. 'Though I suppose that Regulus really wouldn't know that seeing as he rarely was spoken to by the old man.' Regulus had never been told exactly what went on during the training sessions between Sirius and his grandfather. And because only the eldest went through it, Regulus had never had to experience, even after Sirius was disowned, because by that time, it didn't seem necessary. In their parents eyes, Sirius was the one gone bad, and Regulus was the perfect pureblood heir. 'There was no need to train a perfect heir to become a perfect heir, now was there?' Sirius thought sarcastically to himself as his grandfather and his mother were discussing what exactly had happened to him during the training. He could feel Regulus shaking against him, knowing exactly what the curses that his grandfather was listing did to another person. 'Well he's probably about to go into shock…' The attempt to amuse himself with dry humor while pretending to be passed out didn't help him relieve any of the stress that he was feeling at the moment.

The voices of his mother and grandfather suddenly paused, then his mother spoke once more, her even tones back to the typical coldness that he had gotten used to, "What should I do with him then?"

He felt his grandfather shift closer again. "His training for the day is done. I will be back in two days time to continue it. If he still is in this state by tomorrow, take him to Madame Nott, she is an accomplished healer who will not question our training methods as the mudblood loving fools at Mungo's would." With that, his grandfather's footsteps retreated towards the fire place, his mother following closely behind.

"Sirius?" Regulus' small voice called out to him after the room was empty. His shaking had somewhat subsided though his voice was slightly trembling. Sirius felt bad for Regulus having to see the act that he was putting on but he needed this to be done more than he needed to comfort his brother at the moment.

When the sound of his mother's footsteps started back towards the room, signaling that his grandfather was gone, Sirius let out a low groan. He felt Regulus still beside him and felt his eyes turn sharply back to Sirius' form. "Mum! He's waking up!" Regulus shouted to their mother. Sirius heard the footsteps speed up, coming to a halt beside him.

He let out another soft groan, and slowly opened his eyes. He saw his brother's face hovering over him, his mother just to the side. "…Regulus?" he said, as weakly as he could, "…Mother?" He plastered a confused expression over his face, "What are you–?" He stopped himself, making it seem as though he just realized his surroundings.

"You were hit with a spell" his mother stated coldly. Sirius was almost relieved at the coldness of her voice, 'Good to see that she's back to her normal, hag self'

"….I remember getting hit…but the color was weird…kinda light purple-ish" Sirius said slowly, pretending to get memories back.

"You wouldn't have gotten hit if you learned how to move faster", his mother stated, "Really, as the heir to this noble family, you should be able to dodge a few spells." With that, she turned on her heel and marched towards the door. She looked back seconds before leaving, saying, "Your grandfather will be back in two days time to train you again" then continued out of the door.

'As charming as ever' Sirius thought dryly. He slowly sat up, exaggerating the effort that it took to do so because Regulus was still at his side. He glanced at him out of the corner of his eye to see Regulus staring after their mother with an expression that he couldn't quite decipher, though he could see hints of confusion in Regulus' eyes. Sirius shrugged mentally, 'no use dwelling on it…', then shifted enough to catch his brother's attention.

Regulus' face cleared instantly then melted into worry. "Sirius! I'm glad that you're alright!!"

"Of course I'm alright! I've had worse training sessions with grandfather than that one. Actually, that one was relatively Cruciatus free compared to the normal ones." He conciously ignored Regulus' horrified face, 'he always did read too much', instead concentrating on cracking his neck because sometime between him hitting the floor and getting to move again he had cramped up his neck. Noticing that his brother was still in a semi-shocked state, Sirius quickly tried to redirect his attention. "Well since training is over, let's go do something!"

Sirius quickly jumped off of the table and began to walk to the door. Noticing that Regulus wasn't following him, Sirius turned back over his shoulder, "You coming?" Regulus blinked then raced towards his brother who was already walking out of the door. Sirius grinned. 'Everything is going according to plan' "Come on, you can see the new Quidditch books that I got when mother took me to get school supplies!"

As the two of them were walking by the study where their mother sat talking to their father, Sirius took a deep breath, stealing himself, then stopped dead. Regulus, not expecting the sudden stop, colided with Sirius' back. He looked up curiously at the back of his brother's head, wondering the reason for the sudden stop. Regulus' answer came when Sirus cluched his head for a brief moment, plastering a look of that was mixed with pain and confusion. He started to walk forward before stopping once more, made a sharp turn and walked straight between their mother and father towards their father's desk. Sirius made forced himself into a tunnel vision veiw of the world, focusing only on the paper on his father's desk and the memory of his grandfather sitting, dead, in his favorite chair at his home. He grabbed a quill and a sheet of parchment and began to scribble something onto it, ignoring their mother as she questioned him about what he was doing. When their mother finally got fed up with Sirius ignoring her screaming, she grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn around towards her. Sirius first heard her gasp in shock and his father dropping his wine glass then standing up and walking over to him. In his mother's eyes he saw the refection of his own face, of his own once blue eyes glowing an eerie white, before turning back to the paper with new determination. This time, his mother didn't say anything, just watched in shock as the image of Arcturus Black dead in his own house began to appear from the quill in Sirius' hand.

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Yay!!! I know what you're thinking "OMG AN UPDATE!!!"

Ok before anyone asks, yes I do realize that I capitalized "room" throughout the chapter. I did this because that room is something very prominent in Sirius' mind because it's the place where most of his childhood was destroyed. And during the first life, he was trained in there for as long as he could really remember. It's always been THE Room for the sole reason that it was his private hell before Hogwarts.

Oh and just to let you all know, I actually looked up when the Black Sisters went to school and all of them but Narcissa (who would have been a 6th year when Sirius was a 1st) are out of school by the time that Sirius gets into school, so NO, I will NOT be having them at school with Sirius. Don't even ask. I'm going to stick with the canon ages as closely as possible. If an age isn't listed, then I'm going to try to be reasonable.

And as an apology to everyone, I'm sooo sorry it took so long for me to get this up TT___TT I'm really trying to work on getting these chapters out regularly but school and my parents aren't making that entirely possible ."""

~Ayame