AN - Huge thanks to ambush99 and RiddikulusWaterbender for the reviews! I really really do appreciate them so keep 'em coming :). And to everyone who has faved/followed so far. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint! I'm trying to work on keeping the word count for each chapter from getting a bit too out of control but some, like this, I just didn't want to stretch out over say two or three chapters when it worked perfectly fine as one.

Year of the Wolf

2. Regulus and the Bludger

The cheers of the crowd outside leaked into the changing rooms; the entire school had turned out for the first Quidditch match of the season. Reed had finished his pre-match pep talk and the veteran players were pushing through their pre-match routines. The new players, however, were fighting through various states of nervousness.

Sirius stood with his shirt in hand, and he stared wordlessly at the fabric for a full five minutes before James approached him.

'That goes over your head, you know,' he said.

Sirius scowled at him, though took the hint and pulled on the shirt before reaching for his gloves and arm guards. Sixteen years old (recently turned, too), and still spacing out, over a Quidditch match of all things.

'It's okay to be nervous,' James reassured him. 'I almost threw up before my first match.'

'We have to win,' Sirius said, overriding the initial instinct to deny that he was even familiar with this strange 'nervousness'. 'Seriously. If I lose my first match against Slytherin, Reg will never let me live it down.'

'Have faith in your team, Black,' said Mary, smiling beside him. 'Reed said this is the best team we've had in a few years.'

'He says that every year,' James said with a roll of his eyes and Sirius chuckled with him.

'He's never had me though, has he?' And there it was, that confidence he seemed to have misplaced. Suddenly, he felt brighter, like he could take on the world. But for today, Slytherin would be enough.

Madam Hooch's whistle sounded outside and the team began to file out of the changing rooms. James was working himself up, rolling his neck and waiting for the screams that always followed him. Cocky git, Sirius thought with a smile.

The cheers grew louder as both teams walked onto the pitch and the Captains begrudgingly shook hands.

'For Slytherin this year we have Keeper and Captain Goule, Chasers Beete, Noxias and Alderidge, Beaters Mulciber and Cable, and Seeker Black.' The voice of who Sirius recognised to be Eric Freeman, a fourth-year Hufflepuff, rang throughout the stadium. 'And for Gryffindor we have Keeper Lewis, Chasers MacDonald, Potter and Hawthorne, Beaters Black and Captain Reed, and Seeker Hendricks. It will be interesting to see how the match plays out with the family rivalry this year.'

'In position,' shouted Madam Hooch, and the fourteen players took to their starting positions, the new faces in the crowd standing out with the looks of sheer determination on their faces.

Sirius rolled his shoulders and rotated his wrists, swinging the bat lightly in his hands. Reed flashed him a thumbs up from the other side of the pitch and he smiled confidently. This would be a breeze.

At the sound of the whistle, all hell broke loose. Almost immediately Sirius was forced to swing to the side to avoid a Bludger, but saved the moment by wheeling around and hitting it hard towards the Slytherin end of the pitch.

'Oh, that had to hurt!' Freeman said as the crowd gave a synchronised 'ooh' of sympathetic pain. 'Needless to say, Alderidge drops the Quaffle, and Potter is there to collect. Potter to Macdonald, Goule is looking nervous - AND SHE SCORES! Ten points to Gryffindor!'

Three quarters of the gathered crowd cheered, while the green quarter cried out in disappointment.

'Macdonald and Potter have been with the team since their second year, as has Slytherin Captain Goule, giving him two extra years on the pitch. And that glorious Bludger hit came from one of the Gryffindors' new recruits, Beater Sirius Black, older brother of Slytherin Seeker Regulus, who also joined in his second year-'

'Freeman, could you please commentate on the game?' came Professor McGonagall's voice as cheers erupted for the Gryffindors' second goal.

'Sorry, professor. Gryffindor lead at twenty to zero after a goal from Potter!'

Sirius held out a hand for a high-five as James came speeding towards him, and he wondered if Reed was right; the team seemed to work almost seamlessly, which was more than could be said for the Slytherins and their newcomers. Their new Beater, for one, had succeeded in hitting himself in the face with his own bat.

He sent Bludger after Bludger towards the opposition as the goals piled up, showing off a little by orchestrating some near-misses on the way to the Bludger's final destination. Reed matched his enthusiasm and even managed to accidentally catch the quaffle mid-air with one Bludger, sending it back down the Gryffindor end. A technically illegal move, it seemed to have gone unseen or at least excused by Madam Hooch.

'Alderidge to Noxias, intercepted by Hawthorne. Macdonald catches the quaffle next - WOW! Now that's what I call a lucky miss, saved from Mulciber's Bludger from Black at the last second and-'

There was a howl of disappointment as Goule blocked the attempted goal. Another Bludger zoomed towards Sirius and he hit it blindly, almost thrown off his broom a second later as the other slammed into his forearm. He steadied himself in time to see it zoom off down the other end of the pitch and marvelled at his unbroken arm, making a mental note to send his cousins a big box of Honeydukes treats for the arm guards they had sent him for his birthday.

'There's movement down below, looks like Hendricks and Black have spotted the Snitch!'

Sirius looked down towards the grass below and indeed, Hendricks and Regulus were zooming after what looked at this distance to be a tiny glinting speck of light. Regulus had the better broom, but it seemed that Hendricks was the better flyer because a second later he was zooming into the air, an arm raised triumphantly above him.

'Hendricks catches the Snitch - GRYFFINDOR WIN!'

The Gryffindors in the stands erupted in a synchronised, deafening roar, their comrades in the air zooming towards the beaming Hendricks.

Sirius turned his broom to join them, and Hendricks became lost beneath grateful arms. When his own congratulatory pat had been offered, Sirius turned to take in the glorious defeat of their rivals. Goule looked like he'd been hit in the face by a Bludger (though Sirius noted that he had the kind of face that may have in fact been improved by a carefully-administered Bludger). Even the chasers sat glumly on their brooms, Regulus rising to join the others with an apologetic shrug.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius saw Cable swing furiously at a Bludger that decided to have one last go at him. Time seemed to slow as the ball spun away from the Beater. Sirius could not be sure who was in the way of what, but the Bludger collided with Regulus with a sickening crunch. It hit his arm, pushing it back against his chest before zooming skyward and knocking him backwards off his broom. A thin streak of crimson followed him as he fell and Sirius cried out, his own broom seeming to read his thoughts as it sped towards the ground.

No sooner had his feet hit the ground, he dropped his broom and rushed towards his brother's crumpled form on the ground. He was there before Madam Hooch, before any of the ground staff or indeed any of the Slytherins.

'Regulus!' he cried.

His brother gave a pained whimper as he rolled him over, arm bent at an awkward angle and blood coating his face. And Sirius pulled him onto his knee, all caution thrown to the wind.

'Reg,' he breathed. 'Say something.'

Regulus opened his eyes as Sirius touched his cheek, if for nothing else than to let him know that he was there. His nose was obviously broken, and he seemed a little dazed and disoriented.

'Sirius...' he moaned.

'Out of my way! Out of my way!'

Madam Hooch stopped just short of the fallen seeker and took a moment to compose herself before conjuring a stretcher with a wave of her wand.

'He needs to go straight to the hospital wing,' she said as she helped Sirius lift him onto the stretcher. 'The rest of you, stay here until Professors McGonagall and Slughorn arrive.'

A strange whining had started the moment the Bludger seemed on course to hit his little brother, and it continued to grow louder as he watched him float away alongside Madam Hooch, drowning out James's voice beside him. He did not know what had caused him to react so instinctively. Perhaps it was pure base instinct, to feel so panicked when one's own flesh and blood fell limply from mid-air.

It was definitely primal instinct that caused the noise to cease and blood to boil beneath his skin when Cable touched down. James seemed to sense what was coming and tried to grab him, but he was out of reach before he could react. And there was something rather pleasurable about the crunch he felt when his fist collided with Cable's nose, and the warmth of the blood that sprayed against his skin. It felt so good that he did it again, and gripped the front of the enemy Beater's robes as they fell before both hands swung furiously.

It took three sets of arms to pull him back, and McGonagall appeared to have been shouting for some time before he registered the sound of her voice.

'-disgrace to behave in such a way! Twenty points from Gryffindor! And I assure you, if I did not assume you were acting out of some mindless animalistic sense of fraternal protectiveness, there would be a detention to back that up!' She breathed heavily, and made sure that Cable was well on his way to the hospital wing before speaking again. 'Potter, take Mr. Black to see Madam Pomfrey, the rest of you to the changing rooms.'

Sirius looked down at his hands, barely registering a dull, throbbing ache in the knuckles. His left hand was a little red, but his right was already badly bruised and covered in blood he was not entirely sure was all Cable's. He could barely move his fingers and his whole right hand had started to swell; he'd probably broken a bone somewhere.

'You idiot,' James scolded when they were back inside the castle. 'Not that pounding on Slytherins isn't a good way to release your frustrations, but you did it in front of the entire school, the entire faculty, and even Dumbledore himself.'

'That git attacked my brother!'

'It wasn't like it was intentional!'

'I'd have done the same if it was you.'

James had no response to that. Sirius knew that he would have done the same for him too, and perhaps that was where the silence came from.

Sirius's hand was still aching the next morning. Apparently it was a nasty fracture (though no nastier than the mess Cable's nose had become), and when Madam Pomfrey's usual bone-healing tricks had failed, she left him with a goblet of Skele-Gro and very little sympathy.

And people were looking at him differently this morning. There were a few claps on the shoulder from older students, and a few dreamy-eyed looks from girls, and he decided that the slowly-fading bruises were kind of worth it. Most of the school saw him as a hero who had stood up for his little brother. It was only the Slytherins, members of staff, and James and Remus who saw him as an idiot.

'I saw Cable earlier,' said James. 'He's still as ugly as ever. Pass some bacon, will you Moony? Thanks.'

Sirius flexed his fingers and a short series of quiet cracks resulted from the motion. He looked up at the others, caught the way that Peter was avoiding his eye, the slight shake of Remus's head before he turned back to his cereal, and the challenging look in James's eye.

'I over-reacted,' he said with a sigh as he lowered his hand. Of course he thought no such thing, but it's what they wanted to hear. But James continued to stare at him wordlessly. 'What?'

'You need to control your temper,' James said. 'I don't care, but if you snap like that again, McGonagall will have you off the team no matter how good you are.'

He was about to respond when his fist hit the table with a little more force than he had intended and the juice in his goblet rippled, and he decided that he just wasn't in the mood for arguing. While James was often on his side, he didn't mess around when it came to Quidditch.

With vigour, he shoved a croissant into his mouth and tore it in half with his teeth, trying to ignore the pressure in his chest.

The flapping of wings and screeching of the owls preceded their entrance a moment later. Letters and packages of various sizes thudded to the table around them, and the breaking of Cable's nose seemed to go forgotten. A small box of home-made cakes was torn into by James, eliciting a magnificent grin.

'They're for all of us apparently,' he said. 'But I'm tempted to make you earn them - Merlin, these smell good.'

If there was one thing Mrs. Potter was good at, it was baking. Sometimes the others wondered just how James had stayed so skinny over the years.

A wrapped magazine with a letter from Andromeda and Ted and a photograph of a green-haired toddler waving a toy wand was delivered for Sirius, and Peter looked expectantly into the crowd, though seemed somewhat placated by the realisation that nothing had come for Remus either.

'Uh-oh,' Peter said, and all eyes were drawn to his gaze. A horribly familiar owl swooped towards them, a trembling red envelope clutched tightly in its talons.

'She wouldn't,' Sirius hissed, though his voice caught in his throat. 'What's she- What the hell have I done?'

The Howler dropped to the table in front of him and he considered for a moment leaving it there to explode. Had there not been so many eyes on him he probably would have. And so he tore at it, grimacing the whole while.

'SIRIUS BLACK!' it screamed in his mother's shrill voice. 'YOU NEVER TIRE OF DISGRACING THE NAME THAT WE GAVE YOU. FIRST YOU JOIN THAT QUIDDITCH TEAM TO INSULT US, AND NOW I HEAR YOUR BROTHER WAS INJURED IN YOUR FIRST MATCH. YOU JUST COULD NOT MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO TORTURE HIM COULD YOU?'

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw snickering at the Slytherin table.

'YOU ARE A CURSE UPON THIS FAMILY YOU VINDICTIVE CHILD!'

Expecting more, he could not find it in him to feel relief when the letter burst into flame and the ashes fell to the table. The hall was silent, even the teachers looked his way. Smartly, he rose to his feet, wiping crumbs from the corner of his mouth.

'Sirius,' whispered James.

Silence followed him out of the hall, nobody seemed to dare laugh. And suddenly it was obvious where that dull mass in his chest that had been suffocating him since the end of the holidays came from. It was them. Even here he couldn't escape them, couldn't escape her.

Who the hell did she think she was? Join the team to insult her? He joined the team for himself, no-one else (okay, maybe James a little), and now she was trying to take that away from him, to make it about her. And of course she thought that he was monster enough to use that position to hurt his little brother. Because everything he did was an act of vindication towards her, even the very breath that he drew - the simple act of being there, being who he was and being alive, was all part of his apparent plan to make her life hell.

His hands were shaking, and his breakfast felt ready to leave him. He couldn't even think of Quidditch now without her voice screeching in his ear. It had been his, all his, and now...

'Sirius!'

'Go away.'

'It wasn't you,' said Regulus when he caught up and Sirius finally decided to stop.

'Well ten points to Slytherin for figuring that out,' he said sarcastically, spinning round to face Regulus. His face was still bruised but his nose at least had been fixed, and his arm was wrapped and in a sling around his neck.

'I'll tell her! I'd have told her before, but I didn't think... They must have sent an owl about my injury and she just-'

'She just assumed that's the kind of person I am.'

Regulus looked pained, as though he was completely lost for words but wanted to say something, anything to support his big brother.

'It's not fair,' he settled on. 'What she said, and it wasn't fair that she sent it in a Howler. I'm going to write to her and set things straight.'

Sirius sighed and pressed a finger and thumb into the root of his nose. Sometimes Regulus's innocence was amusing and sometimes, like right now, it was just a little sad.

'Don't bother,' he said. 'It doesn't matter and it won't make a bit of difference. She hates me, and she blames me for whatever she wants and ignores any evidence to the contrary.'

'She doesn't hate you.'

Sirius laughed at this. It wasn't innocence any more, it was sheer gullibility. He may have called Regulus thick often enough but he wasn't really stupid.

'You've seen her with me for fourteen years, Reg,' he said. 'Has she ever given you any reason to believe that she cares about me? Have either of them?'

'She just wants what's best for you.'

'You have got to be kidding me.'

The words stung like a slap to the face. On what planet did Walburga Black want what was best for him? In what universe did she even know what was best for either of her sons? Or anyone at all for that matter? Eye-deep in dark magic, worshipping the inter-bred family she was so proud to be a part of. She was as far from a good role model as one could get without signing up as a Death Eater.

'Do you remember when I was nine and she destroyed all my birthday presents just because I had disagreed with her?' he asked. 'Do you remember when I was seven and she locked me in the cupboard?'

'She didn't know there was a boggart in there!'

'She hardly let me out when she found out though, did she?'

And do you know what shape that boggart took? he wanted to ask him. Do you really want to know? Her! Okay? It was her! And when she finally let me out and dad dealt with it and I was terrified and just wanted some comfort, do you remember what she did? She told me to go to my room without supper and not make a sound. She didn't even look at me! I was seven!

'You-you don't exactly do yourself any favours,' Regulus said in a trembling voice. It was perhaps the first time he had ever stood up to his brother in any sense of the word. Any hope of a reply was stolen from Sirius with the sheer impact of those words in that voice. He may as well have told him that he deserved everything she said and did. 'She just wants you to be like the rest of us.'

There was a horrible weight upon those words - a division of 'us' vs. 'them', and he suddenly became very aware of what side Regulus was on. It wasn't so much 'us' vs. 'them' as 'us' vs. 'you'.

'Well maybe I don't want to be like the rest of you,' Sirius said. He was surprised at how quiet his voice was. Really, he had wanted to scream the words.

'You've made that perfectly clear.' Regulus drew himself up now and looked more and more like their father, even if he did sound like Walburga. 'And you keep making it clear, to her, to them, to everyone. It hurts me too, to see you accept these horrible distortions of the truth and turn your back on your blood, but-'

'Then stop caring!' Sirius roared. 'Stop caring like her! You swallow everything they tell you without question and you're the 'better son' because of it. Be their heir, it's what you want so bloody much.'

'I want us to be a family!'

And there he was, poor naive little Regulus, too soft for his own good. Sirius wondered how much of it was his fault. How much of the brainwashing of his little brother was down to his rejection of the family values and Regulus's stupid desire to be loved and accepted. That was all Sirius had wanted too, in the beginning. But he was unwilling to compromise who he was so that someone would like him a little better. And then he had met James, who actively encouraged him not to compromise himself, accepted him for who he was and in spite of his flaws. He didn't try to change him or mould him or bully him into a different way of thinking. He owed so much to James Potter.

James, who was everything Regulus was not. James, who challenged him in every way on an almost daily basis in the best way possible. James, who...was currently peeking around the side of the doorway to the Great Hall.

'Oi, Potter!' Sirius snarled, a little more aggressively than he had intended. 'Let's go!'

James jumped, evidently having thought he had better concealed himself, then waved back into the hall before moving to join Sirius, Remus and Peter appearing a moment later.

There was nothing left in Sirius that wanted anything to do with the boy with the green tie in front of him. He didn't want to see the pity in those eyes any more, didn't need it from him.

'I don't need your help,' he told his brother with a heavy tone of finality.

'You've done nothing to earn their respect,' spat Regulus, angry now. 'Nothing to-'

'A child shouldn't have to earn their parents' love,' Sirius said sadly. And for a moment he wondered if he had said too much, not from the shock on his brother's face, but the pain etched upon his best friend's.