Chapter 6: Noble House of Black

June 10, 1976 Thursday, 5:30 PM

"Now that we've taken our OWLs, what do you guys want to do after we leave Hogwarts?" asked Gwen.

The Marauders were still under the Willow tree and Adrianne had joined them.
Over the year, Adrianne had become a good friend of all the Marauders, and especially of Remus.

"You already know that I want to be an Auror and I know you want to be a Healer," Sirius replied with a lazy drawl.

"Which reminds me that McGonagall told you that you have to be more serious if you want to be a Auror," said Gwen with a smirk.

"So you're not going to play pranks anymore?" said Peter, looking thunderstruck.

"No." Sirius snorted. "I just told her that I am Sirius."

"Bet that pleased her," smirked James.

"Oh," said Peter, looking relieved.

"Peter, Peter, Peter," drawled Sirius, "Who am I?"

"Uh, Sirius," said Peter, looking perplexed.

"Exactly. I'm The Sirius Black, the mastermind behind our pranks,-Jamescoughed loudly-and king of practical jokes," Sirius continued, ignoring him.

"King of arrogance, more like," Gwen muttered.

"Where would the Marauders be without me?" Sirius said proudly.

"Somewhere over the rainbow," Adrianne said dramatically, pointing to the sky.

"Huh?" Sirius said, dumbfounded, as the others laughed.

"Nothing, just being random," Adrianne grinned.

"At least it shut him up." Remus grinned.

"Hey!"

"I knew there was a reason we like you," said James.

"Anyway, what do the rest of you guys want to do after Hogwarts?" Gwen asked.

James shrugged. "I'm not really sure but I've also told McGonagall that I might want to be an Auror."

"So what did Slughorn tell you, anyway?" asked Sirius.

"Oh, you know he is," Gwen said dismissively, "He was just going on about how suitable I am for the job, the people that he can introduce me to, and so on."

"Figures," Sirius snorted.

"What about you, Adrianne?" Remus asked Adrianne who had remained silent the whole time they were discussing their future career.

Adrianne hesitated for a long moment before she answered. "I want to work in the Department of Magical Creatures."

"As what?" James pressed.

"As a werewolf hunter," she finally answered.

The Marauders looked at her in stunned silence and barely managed to keep from glancing over at Remus.

"Why would you do that?" Gwen managed to break the silence.

"Yes, what have they ever done to you?" Sirius demanded.

Adrianne looked at him for a long moment with an incomprehensible look on her face.
"They've done a lot to me!" she burst out with a rage and bitterness they had never seen in her before, "I lost my father to werewolves! Werewolves ruined my life."

"I'm sorry," Remus said quietly.

Adrianne managed to calm down and smiled apologetically at her outburst.

"It's alright." Adrianne smiled warmly at him.
"It's not your fault. It doesn't have anything to do with you," she assured him

If only you knew…if only you knew, Remus thought sadly.

"So what do you want to do, Wormtail?" Gwen quickly said, trying to divert the attention away from Remus.

"I don't really know yet but Mum wants me to work in the Ministry like Aunt Ella," Peter replied, referring to his mother's sister.

Remus sent Gwen a grateful look and sighed with relief as the conversation switched to their summer plans.

June 20, 1976 Friday, 6:50 PM

"Hello Mr., Mrs. Lupin," the Marauders greeted Remus' parents as they spotted them in the packed train station.

"Mum, Dad," Remus greeted his parents, then motioned to Adrianne who was the only one of the group whom his parents had never met.
"This is my friend Adrianne Belby."

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin," Adrianne said with a sweet smile.

Instead of greeting her back, the pair paled and stared at her for a long moment.

"Is something wrong?" Adrianne shifted uneasily.

"No, no," Mr. Lupin assured her and chuckled, "We just thought you looked familiar for moment."
"Nice to meet you, Adrianne."

"Mum?" Remus turned to his mother who was still staring at Adrianne in a trance-like state.

"Oh yes," she said as she snapped out of her trance, "Pleasure to meet you, dear."

After the group had exchanged their goodbyes, the Lupins flooed home.

"She seems like a nice young lady," Mrs. Lupin said tenderly.

"Yes, she is." Remus smiled.

"So, does she know about your condition?" Mr. Lupin asked as he glanced over at his wife.

"Well, no," Remus paused, "I couldn't tell her."

"Why not? All your other friends know and look how loyal they are," Mr. Lupin pressed.

"She's different," Remus hesitated then said softly, "Her father was killed by a werewolf."

His parents exchanged confused glances.

"Adrianne said that?" his mother asked unexpectedly.

If anything, Remus had expected his mother to be shocked by the news, not confused.

"Yes, she said she lost her father to werewolves."

"Remus dear, Adrianne's loss is not your fault," Mrs. Lupin said gently.

"Yes, but I'm a werewolf too," Remus said softly.

"Remus, you are as much of a victim as Adrianne is," Mrs. Lupin continued firmly.

"It's not the same. Adrianne couldn't help it," he paused, "but I could have prevented it if I wanted to. We were attacked because we went in the woods when Dad told us not to."

His parents exchanged wary glances then his father spoke.

"Remus, there's something I need to tell you," he said. "Have you ever heard of Fenrir Greyback?"

"I think so...Wasn't he the one in the Daily Prophet a few months ago for his attack on a group of Muggle children?" said Remus with a shudder.
"What does he have to do with us?" he asked.

"Everything. He was the one that attacked you."

"So are you saying the attack wasn't a coincidence?" Remus said slowly.

"Yes, I sort of, uh, offended him so…" Mr. Lupin trailed off. "I'm sorry Remus."

"It's not your fault, Dad," Remus assured him.

His parents exchanged another glance and Mrs. Lupin nodded tensely but Mr. Lupin shook his head.

'Later', he mouthed.

Summer Sixth Year

August 12, 1976 Thursday, 1:42 PM

"I'm so bored," Sirius moaned.

"So what do you guys want to do?" asked Gwen.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" said Regulus.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" Sirius replied.

"This is going nowhere." Gwen rolled her eyes.
"Let's go rafting like we did last summer," she suggested.

"Sure, anything's better than staying home all day," Sirius agreed.

"Rafting sounds good," said Regulus. "Let's race."

Once they arrived at the river, which was less than a mile away from their house, they transfigured rocks into three small raft boats.

"One…two…three…go!" Regulus said and they immediately began to paddle forward.

A mile or so down the river, they transfigured pebbles into buckets and began to throw buckets of water toward each other.

Regulus grinned as he saw the mischievous spark in Sirius eye and nodded.
Three, two, one…

Sirius and Regulus turned to Gwen and began to relentlessly shower her with buckets of water.
"Sirius! Regulus!" she shrieked as her boat began to sink under the water.

"Oops." Sirius grinned as they quickly began to scoop the water back out with their buckets.

"Come on, let's go another mile down," said Regulus as he started to paddle again.

"Hey, wait for us," said Sirius as he quickly picked up his paddles.

Regulus who was already half a mile ahead suddenly began to shout. "Hurry up, guys! There's something here, some sort of cave!"

"How come we've never seen this cave before? We've been here loads of times," said Gwen cautiously as they approached the cave entrance.

"It must be because it's been hidden by this tree over here," said Regulus, pointing to the fallen tree next to the cave.

"Yes, come on. What are we waiting for, let's go," Sirius said impatiently.

Sirius had just whipped out his wand to light the cave when a voice spoke from amongst the bushes and they turned to see a Muggle boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old.

"You guys going to go exploring in there?" he asked.

Sirius quickly dropped his wand into his boat before replying. "Sure, why not?"

"I would be careful if I were you. Years ago, a pair of kids went in there and rumor is, they haven't been the same since. And that's why Matron planted that tree over there by the entrance," the boy said, with a wink at Gwen.

"So you're here with your brother and girlfriend?" he asked with a grin at Sirius who had scowled.

Regulus laughed. "You're right about the brother part but Sirius and Gwen are twins."

"Oops, my bad," the boy grinned. "I'm Gilbert, by the way. Are you guys from around here?"

"Yes, we live in the neighborhood a few miles up the river," Gwen replied.

"Where are you from? We weren't aware that there was a orphanage around here," said Sirius.

"There isn't. The orphanage is in Cantbury but Matron takes us kids on trips during the summer," said Gilbert.

"So what was in the cave?" asked Regulus.

"Who knows?" Gilbert shrugged. "It's an old story in the orphanage, from decades ago. I've been told that most people suspected that it wasn't really the cave itself but the boy who went in the cave with them, though they couldn't prove it."
"They say that he was always sort of queer," he added darkly.

"Queer? How so?" asked Gwen.

"Well, it wasn't really him but the things that happened around him. Like if someone upset him, something bad would happen to that person," explained Gilbert.

"Sounds eerie," said Regulus.

"Yes," Gilbert nodded.
He looked down at his wrist watch then stood up.

"Well, I have to be at the park by twelve o'clock for lunch. Maybe I'll see you around before we go back," said Gilbert, with a wave.

They waved back at him as he disappeared out of sight amongst the bushes.

"Interesting," Sirius grinned as he looked into the cave.

"Are you sure we should be going in there?" Regulus asked anxiously.

"Don't be such a coward," Sirius retorted.

"I'm not a coward," Regulus protested. "I'm just, uh, precautious."

"It's alright, Regulus. What's the worst that can happen?" Sirius asked.

"We have our wands, remember?" said Gwen, as Regulus gave Sirius an incredulous look.

"Yeah, how much do you want to bet that all they saw were a couple of Boggarts?" Sirius said with a snort. "I mean, Muggles can be a bunch of idiots at times."

Regulus snorted. "And Mother calls you 'Muggle lover'," he muttered sarcastically.

"Besides, I think it probably was the boy, not the cave," said Gwen.
"Didn't you hear what Gilbert said? Strange things happened around the boy when he was upset or something. Clearly he was a Wizard or something," she added.

"Really sadistic of him if you ask me, to use his power against innocent Muggle children," Regulus muttered.

"Tell me about it," said Gwen.

"And that was just when he was a kid," said Sirius darkly, "I'd hate to think what he grew up to be like."

The three gave a slight shudder then lit their wands as they entered the cave and to Regulus' relief and Sirius' disappointment, it was fairly ordinary and harmless.

"There's some sort of light further down," Gwen said after they had paddled for about twenty minutes.

"It's a tunnel," said Regulus, as the light grew brighter as they reached the end of cave.

The three stared speechlessly around them as they finally came out into the light.

"It's-it's an island," Gwen breathed with awe.

The island was closed off by mountains on all sides, giving it a sort of remote and isolated air. The tunnel that they had come through was located at the foot of one of the mountains that concealed the small island.

"Let's split up and go exploring," Sirius said excitedly.

"Send up red sparks if anything happens," said Gwen.

"We really shouldn't be using magic if we can help it," Regulus said helplessly.

"Better scream really loud then. We'll try to come and get you while you're still in one piece," said Sirius.

"Sirius," Gwen said warningly. "It's alright, Reg. There's no way the Ministry is going to know it's us."

"Ah, the advantages of having Wizarding parents," Sirius grinned.

"Alright, I'll go straight ahead. Regulus, you go left and you go right, Gwen," said Sirius.

"Okay," said Gwen as she started to walk toward the path.

Gwen had walked about twenty minutes in the path which was surrounded by large trees and wild flowers when she spotted a black dog in the distance.
"Sirius!" she shouted as she ran towards the dog.

Sirius! Sirius! Sirius! the echo called back to her.

"Wow," Gwen whispered with delight.
"Hey, come back!" she called as the dog sprinted away.

"Are you okay, Gwen?" Sirius gasped out from behind her.

"Yes, of course," Gwen replied. "Did you run all the way here?"

"Yes, I thought you were calling for help," said Sirius.

"Wait a minute. Who's that then?" Gwen said, pointing to the dog in the distance.

"Well, it's definitely not me. I can tell you that much," Sirius shrugged. "Probably a stray."

Sirius transformed into his animagus form and began to chase the dog.

The dog began to slow as Sirius approached it and began to bark with delight.

He's clearly been lonely, Sirius thought with sympathy.

Once he was face to face with the dog, Sirius realized why Gwen had mistaken the dog for him. It was a miniature version of his Animagus form and was a puppy of only a few months old.

The puppy began to sniff him and wagged its tail endearingly.

"It's so cute!" Gwen cooed as she approached them, then began to call for Regulus.
"REGULUS!" she shouted.

Regulus…Regulus…Regulus…the echo called back.

"Alright, I'm coming!" they heard his echo from the distance and Sirius changed back into his human form.

By the time Regulus had arrived fifteen minutes later, the puppy was on Sirius' lap and was happily licking his face.

"Nice puppy," Regulus said delightedly.

"Come on, let's go home now," said Sirius as he picked up the puppy in his arms.

They headed back to the cave entrance, each talking about their own discoveries.

"The island's pretty much deserted," said Regulus as they reached their boats.
"He must have been pretty lonely," he added, patting the puppy on the head.

"Yes, lucky there's so much food around though. He wouldn't have survived until now otherwise," said Sirius.

"Goodbye!" Gwen called, with one last look at the island.

Goodbye! Goodbye! Goodbye! the echo greeted.

Gwen grinned. "Echo island," Gwen named cheerfully.

August 18, 1976 Wednesday, 11:10 AM

"Hey Gwen, check this out," said Regulus.

Regulus snorted as he read over the Daily Prophet article then handed her the paper.

"Looks like Snape landed himself in some sort of scrape during the summer."

"Snivellus? What'd he do that's worth printing in the Daily Prophet?" Sirius sneered.

"Is there any use in telling you to stop calling him that?" said Gwen, rolling her eyes.

"No," Sirius replied.

"Yeah. Thought so."

Gwen began to read the article with Sirius reading over her shoulder.

'Hogwarts student on trial for Muggle attack' Sirius read out loud.

Sixteen year old Severus Snape of Slytherin, Hogwarts was put on trial yesterday for his attack on a forty year old Muggle man. Performance of magic in front of a Muggle, or worse actual performance of magic on a Muggle is a violation severe enough to bring a sentence of a minimum of three months in Azkaban. Furthermore, young Severus has also violated the Restriction of underage magic degree which can result in expulsion. Surprisingly however, Snape was acquitted and was merely received a fine of fifty galleons. Perhaps the rumor that Snape bribed the authorities is not a rumor after all?

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Sirius bellowed.

"No, you are," said Regulus calmly then sniggered as Sirius slot him a glare.

"What-how-" Sirius struggled for words. How had he gotten off so easily?

"I'm sure there's an explanation," Gwen soothed.

"Just acting like a typical Slytherin if you ask me," Sirius muttered.

"Honestly, Sirius. You should know better, having two lovely Slytherins for siblings," Gwen teased.

"Well, I don't know about the 'lovely' part but personally, I think your 'all Slytherins are evil bastards' stereotype is too overrated," said Regulus.

"Yes, just like that ridiculous 'all Hufflepuffs are pushovers' stereotype. Believe me, Saori and Cassie are not pushovers," said Gwen.

"Fine. There are the occasional exceptions, like you and Regulus from Slytherin," said Sirius, "but the average Slytherin isdefinitely a evil git."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "It just seems that way to you because you're a Gryffindor. I'm a Slytherin. I know them and they're not half as bad as they make themselves out to be."

"If you say so," said Sirius, unconvinced.

Sixth Year

September 6, 1976 Monday, 9:20PM

Sirius was heading down to the dungeons in search of Gwen when he heard voices by the entrance of the Slytherin common room. He stopped as he recognized Snape's voice amongst the group of Slytherins.

"-just a Muggle drunkard," Snape was saying.

"What'd you curse him with?" a boy with smooth dark hair asked eagerly.

"Just a simple blasting charm. Lucky for him, there are laws to protect those filthy Muggles or else I would have finished him off," said Snape.

"Lucky you got off so easily though," said a girl with short blond hair.

"Yes, and he won't be so lucky next time he runs into me, the filthy Muggle," said Snape with a sneer.

Sirius shook with fury as the group burst out laughing, and took a step toward them from the corner he had been hidden by, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"What are you doing here, Sirius?" said Regulus. "I think Gwen went to the Gryffindor common room to look for you."

"Alright, thanks," said Sirius, his voice still shaking from anger.

"Don't let him get to you, he's just showing off," Regulus said comfortingly.
"I'll tell him off if it'll make you feel better. Ah, the advantages of being a Prefect," he added with a smirk.

"Nowthat I like to see. Snape told off by my baby bro," said Sirius, regaining his usual grin.

Regulus rolled his eyes then approached the group. "And what do you plan to do, Snape, if you do meet that Muggle again? Show off your lovely undergarments like you did end of last term? I suppose the sight will be more than enough," he said with a sneer, pricking his sensitive spot.
"Now if you're done with your little fairy tale, stop loitering in the hall and get into the common room."

Snape flushed at the mention of the unpleasant incident and looked venomously at him as the group around them laughed. "I think I have a right to stand outside my own common room before curfew, Black," he spat.

"And I'm sure the authorities would be pleased to hear of your fond recollection of your encounter with the Muggle, Snape," said Regulus with a malicious smile.

"Aww, come on, Reg, you wouldn't really tell. We were only jesting," said a tall boy with light hair and eyes.

"Get in, Snape," said Regulus, still smiling.

"Come on, let's go in, it's too chilly out here anyway," said another girl with dark hair and eyes.
"Besides, you don't want to get on the wrong side of a Black," she teased with a smile at Regulus.

Regulus smirked. "Good to see you know, Jasmine."

Jasmine laughed. "There's no stopping you Blacks and your arrogance," she said fondly.

The group headed inside and Snape followed, still glaring at Regulus.

"Don't be so hard on Snape, just because he and your brother don't get along, Reg," the tall boy was saying.

"Rick, if there's one thing you should learn of the Noble House of Black, it's that we defend our own before anything else," said Regulus, winking at Sirius before he entered the common room.

Thanks, Reg, Sirius thought with a grin.