The Black Line Continues

Disclaimer: I do not own incredibly much.

Thank yous: Elmindrea-al'Thor, the-mpreg-spirit, RoschLupin-Black, Squishy Gamgee, Sweet Mercy, im no muggle, Alia, Celi, Aurora Enkeli Medeis, CountingSheep123, iamtherealmaverick, Moonglaze, Geminidragon, White Pencil, Sasami Tombo, ThouandI, NalanaSpinderOfSouls, Yuki Bombay, Padfootslittlegirl, Tama-Kitsune, and Goddess of Gorgeousness.

Elmindrea-al'Thor: You will see this chapter what was between Lucius and James.

Aurora Enkeli Medeis: I'm with you on the Malfoy fangirl thing!!

Geminidragon: Nothing has happened to Wormtail. As for the other questions, you'll have to wait and see.

Sasami Tombo: I swear I am trying to correct my punctuation and stuff, but sometimes I forget, and although it sounds like a lame excuse but my MSWord does instantly capitalise things. I think I'm starting to improve…

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I am amazed at the feedback I am getting for this story!

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Chapter 7: An Explanation: Part 1

It was the afternoon of the day that James had arrived at Twelve Grimmauld Place, and Sirius had finally regained the ability to speak again. He, James and Remus were now sitting at the kitchen table, a drink in each of their hands and a plate of cake and biscuits in the middle of the table. James still looked incredibly nervous but he seemed to be more relaxed now than he had been upon his arrival. The most likely reason was probably because he felt he could trust both Sirius and Remus.

Sirius took a big gulp of his coffee, scolding his mouth and throat in the process, not that he cared that much. "What happened, mate?"

James sighed and put his cup down before leaning back in his chair and folding his arms, "…Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning would be preferable," replied Sirius, he felt the need to bring a little humour into this rather morbid moment.

James gave his old friend what could have been a tiny smile; "Well…" his voice was a bit raspy. "It was about ten that Halloween night when I first realised something was wrong…it wasn't long after that when Lily and I both felt the wards fail… He blew the front door in while Lil was heading upstairs to get Harry, I tried to hold him off…I don't know why he didn't just kill me." He sniffed and ran hand down his tired looking face. "He stunned me…when I finally started to come back around, I heard Lil shouting and Harry crying…"

Sirius and Remus could tell that James' voice was starting to break.

James continued, "The next thing I knew, there was a scream and then this massive explosion…" he had a faraway look in his eyes. "I tried to get up but I was hit with a lot of rubble…then everything just went silent, I couldn't move so I just lay there wondering what the hell had happened… Then I heard Harry start to cry again, I called out to him but he just cried more…"

"Harry started to quieten down again, then I heard voices, laughing and talking. I remember one of them was…" James gulped as if he were going to be sick. "One of them was female…"

Sirius clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles gave off audible cracks, "Bellatrix."

James nodded shakily, "…I didn't realise they were Death Eaters at the time, so I called out. It was only when they had gotten to me that I realised my mistake…they laughed and told me what that rat had done. They dragged me out of the rubble, bound and silenced me…then they dragged me into cover and forced me to watch when you, Sirius, turned up. I tried to get your attention but I couldn't make a sound and they had me bound too tightly to make much movement. I don't remember much else from the next few days because they got sick of me struggling to get away, so they knocked me out… But I woke up a few days later in a dungeon somewhere…"

Remus glanced at Sirius and saw that his lover was silently fuming, not that he could blame him, then he looked back to James who was staring at the table, his thin shoulders shaking slightly. "What happened after that, James?"

James chewed his bottom lip for a few moments before looking back up at Remus and Sirius, "…The Death Eaters started…they started torturing me weekly…" he jumped when Sirius slammed his fist on the table. "Their numbers lessened and I found out that some of them, Bellatrix included, had been sentenced to Azkaban for torturing the Longbottoms…" he ran his fingers through his unruly black hair, it was flecked with grey and white now. "I-I don't remember that much…I just tried to block it all out…

"Then about three weeks ago, I was visited in the middle of the night by a Death Eater that I hadn't been hurt by before…and he helped me escape from the dungeon." James took a sip of his cooling coffee. "…When I woke up in the Hogwarts Infirmary a couple of days later, I found out that it had been Lucius that had rescued me-" he was cut off by Sirius' surprised voice.

"Malfoy?!"

"Sirius. Sit down."

James smirked a little at the wounded look on Sirius' face as he obeyed Remus and sat back down. "Yes, Lucius Malfoy… I owe him and Severus my life." Sirius gaped at his old friend. James ignored Sirius' incredulous look and continued with his story. "Anyway…after I woke up, I was told about your Azkaban sentence, Si, and what Pettigrew had done to escape you…and how you escaped that hell hole."

Remus felt like a bit of an intruder at the moment, though he always had done when Sirius and James had been in each other's company. At school he had gotten on with them both tremendously well when they were separated, but when the two got together he had always become quite quiet and had let them do all the talking.

James frowned slightly, "I still don't know all the details though, Dumbledore only gave me a rough generalisation of what you two have been through the last…what, fifteen years?"

Sirius' eyes were downcast now and he spoke quietly, "Did he tell you anything about Harry?"

James nodded slowly, "Not too much, but enough… I know he's come face to face with…with Voldemort five times since that night… I know about his best friends, Ron and Hermione, right?" Remus nodded in affirmation. "And I also know that he's had to grow up with Lily's sister… I just wish I had been there for him, he probably resents me now for not being around when I have been alive this whole time."

Remus shook his head, "He doesn't know yet, Dumbledore said he'd tell him before he came here for Christmas." Sirius nodded. "And he does not resent you, well…perhaps a little bit after he saw something in Snape's pensive but…"

"What did he see?" asked James curiously.

Sirius sighed deeply, "Everyone had always been praising you to him, you know, saying how great a wizard you were and how kind and everything, and to some extent it was true," James smiled at the teasing joke. "But, last year, Dumbledore said that Harry needed Occlumency lessons to stop him sharing Voldemort's thoughts and feelings, and he gave Snape the job of teaching him. And during one lesson, I think Snape had to go and attend to something leaving Harry alone in his office, and of course being the curious kid he is he took a look in Snape's pensive. He saw that day of our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L, and he saw just how horrible we were as kids…he also saw how much Lily despised you back then as well.

"He flooed us afterwards to ask about it." Finished Sirius.

"What did you say?"

Sirius looked to Remus and then back to James, "We just told him that we were idiots back then, you and I. I guess he was wondering just how true the praise he had been fed about you really was. I'm still not sure how he feels about the fact that Lily used to hate you, though."

James sniffed and nodded, he looked like he was very close to tears. "…I still don't know why she gave into me…I wasn't exactly the best husband to her."

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows and frowned, "Yes you were, you loved her."

"I did…" James gazed thoughtfully at the plate in the middle of the table. "But I wasn't in love with her."

"What?"

Remus bit his bottom lip and looked between the two dark haired men. He had always wondered just how faithful James had been to his wife, while they were at school James had cheated on a few girls so he had definitely been curious. But after what Dumbledore had let slip this morning, Remus had been wondering whether James had been cheating on his various girlfriends with Lucius Malfoy, it definitely made sense.

James sighed and looked straight into Sirius' curious grey eyes, "I was having an affair, Sirius," he saw the other man's eyes narrow. "I was in love with someone else, and that is all I am going to say on the subject until I am up to arguing with you and Harry about it." He could see from the look in Remus' eyes, that the brown haired man knew exactly whom he was talking about and he was thankful that Remus could get some control over Sirius at the moment.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something that was probably going to be insulting towards his oldest friend, but Remus lay a hand on top of one of his own and he knew that was his cue to close his mouth again. Normally he would ignore it when Remus tried to get some control over him, but James was here, weak and nervous, and Remus was also six months pregnant with his baby.

………

That night, after Remus had shown James to his room, the pregnant werewolf made his way to his and Sirius' bedroom to see if his lover was still steaming over everything they had been told today. Though he already knew Sirius would be, after all, his best friend had been imprisoned just as he had for most of their adult lives, both of them unable to look after Harry.

When he entered the bedroom he found Sirius lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling in thought, "Siri?"

Sirius stayed exactly how he was, but he sighed, "I can't believe it…" Remus sat down on the bed next to him. "I thought I'd had it rough in Azkaban, but Jamie…tortured every week for fifteen years and because of what? The only person those bastards could blame for their so-called Lord's downfall was that Pettigrew…yet they made James and Harry suffer, and Lily was killed…" he could feel the tears stinging at his eyes but he refused to cry just yet. He sat up and pulled his knees up to his chest. "It's just so unfair…"

Remus ran his fingers through Sirius' hair and put an arm around his lover's shoulders, "I know it's not fair, but we just have to be there for them both, and help James recover… He's been through a great ordeal, you're his best friend, he needs you."

Sirius sniffed and looked to Remus, "But you're pregnant, you need me."

Remus smiled slightly, "Up until today I would have made you put me first, but now that James is here and I've seen just how…different he is, and how scared he is, I really think you should be there for him. He probably needs you far more than I do at the moment."

Sirius shifted so he was leaning back against the headboard of the bed, then he pulled Remus on to his lap and kissed his pregnant lover gently on the lips, "I'm glad you're so understanding."

Remus smiled, "Well who else was going to take you on?"

Sirius snorted, "Thanks." He patted Remus' stomach. "Why did you hide the baby?"

Remus leaned into Sirius' body; "I didn't want to shock James."

"Fair enough." Sirius pressed a kiss to Remus' neck and then his lips before speaking again. "…How do you reckon Harry will take this news?"

"I don't know," replied Remus thoughtfully. "It's hard to tell, he could be happy about it, or he could resent the fact that his father has been alive this entire time without him knowing. I'm not going to assume anything if it involves that boy's mindset and feelings."

Sirius sighed and nodded, Remus was right, though he usually was. "Well, we'll just have to wait and see if we get a floo call off him after Dumbledore tells him. I would like to be there while he's told but then he might start to resent me for not letting him know as soon as Jamie turned up."

"Its understandable." Remus moved off Sirius' lap to sit on the bed beside his lover. "Shall we get some sleep, or do you want to talk more?"

Sirius gazed at the opposite wall for a moment before replying, "Might as well try and sleep…If I need to talk later on in the night, I'll just wake you up."

Remus smirked, "How considerate of you."

To Be Continued…

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A/N: I know, its cruel to leave it there, but I'm tired and sick, and I thought that you'd rather I make this into a two parter rather than have to wait another month for an update.

Next Chapter: Harry is told. Lucius visits.