HARRY POTTER AND EVERYTHING RELATING TO THAT MAGICAL UNIVERSE BELONG TO JK ROWLING, WARNER BROS, BLOOMSBURY BOOKS ETC. AND I AM VERY LUCKY TO BE ALLOWED TO PLAY WITH IT ALL.

Warning: No smut this chapter. Coming again soon, I promise!

Queen Bitch

Sirius lay still on top of his lover's body as they slowly cooled. He stroked a lazy hand up his chest, through the ginger hairs there. This man was a blessing. He had survived the night. All that worrying had been unjustified. Sirius was thankful. He inhaled the sweat and sex smells coming from them both, and knew which were whose. Bill was a gift. For some reason he wanted to be with Sirius, to be touched and loved by him. Sirius was thankful. The rise and fall of Bill's ribs settled into a deep, steady rhythm and Sirius edged down, his cock falling limply onto the sheet. That was the miracle. This beautiful man had given him that beautiful experience. Sirius was incredibly thankful.

He slid onto the bed beside that wonderful body and admired it for a moment. Then he reached behind him for his wand to clean them, untangle the sheet and pull the blankets up over them. His eyes felt dry and his mind was succumbing to pre-dream hallucinations. He hadn't slept much last night. He rested his head on Bill's shoulder. It took a bit of wriggling to get his lower arm comfortable. Bill didn't wake, though. He threw his arm over the broad chest and stared at his love's face for as long as he could while he let the fog of sleep drag him down. Good. Very Good.

When Sirius woke, Bill had gone. He could smell him still. He transformed into Snuffles and went over the bed linen, searching out scents. They were all fantastic. The best was the smell from deep inside Bill's arse. He filed it away with Bill's semen and sweat and pheromones and scalp in his doggy brain. It was so arousing that he had to turn back into a human to wank himself off. He'd been hoping to do that in the shower with his memories like he did most mornings, but he couldn't wait.

That night an owl brought a short note hoping he was OK and telling him Bill was busy. He came round briefly in his lunch hour the next day, but not the next day, though there were more owls, some carrying books and CDs. The Order meeting was on Friday evening as usual. Bill didn't think he was going to be able to get there early, but he would stay afterwards.

Sirius worked on remembering to eat and wash. He spent hours as a dog. He spent more hours working his way through all the music. Most of it he knew, but he was also being introduced to Bill's taste. These were all recent albums by bands Sirius hadn't heard of. Shed Seven and Blur were pretty good, Pulp were growing on him, but he didn't take to any of the rest of it.

"It's like punk never happened!" he snarled at long guitar solos.

He arranged the discs in order of preference along the top of his chest of drawers. Then he wrote out some of his favourite lyrics. Then he arranged them all alphabetically by title. on a newly empty shelf in the sitting room which had recently contained dark objects. He moved them to the mantelpiece, in a little tower for their year of release. He was just about to alphabetise them by band name when Friday evening came round and Order Members started turning up.

Sirius took his usual seat and watched everyone file in. Bill was one of the last and he looked stressed. He smiled round at a few people, maybe the one for Sirius was broader and lasted longer than the others, or maybe Sirius imagined it. What he wasn't imagining was a tension in the atmosphere round the table. Dumbledore brought them briskly to order and tried to start into the usual business.

"Before we start, there's something I'd like to discuss," Arthur said firmly, though he was clearly nervous.

"Can it not wait?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, I think we need to clear the air before we can get on."

Dumbledore nodded and all heads turned to Arthur, sitting between Molly and Bill in the middle of the side opposite Dumbledore and Snape.

"I've found out that Severus Snape called a secret meeting of a few Order members this week. Without informing the rest of us."

There was a mixture of reactions to this, but Sirius clearly saw Snape giving Bill an accusing look.

"It was me who told him. Just so nobody's wondering," Moody stated from the far end of the table.

"Is there a problem, Arthur?" Slimus Snape whispered in that voice he imagined sounded dangerous.

"Yes there is. We all need to be given whatever information is available. And we need to trust each other. We never had confidential sub-committees in the old days!" Arthur rejoined hotly.

"You're making it sound like we were plotting or something!" Tonks objected. Her hair was darkening and her features becoming more angular. "It was just that there were some rather sensitive things which Severus needed to tell the Aurors. Noone else needed to know!"

Moody growled, "It's not up to Mr Snape to decide who needs to know what. That's the point!"

Molly spoke up then, "We won't know who needs to know what until one of us finds ourselves in a dangerous situation without something ... The point is that we should trust each other!"

"And of course we do, Molly, dear," Dumbledore soothed.

"It is Albus who decides who needs what information, not myself. I have reported all my findings back to him," Snivellus purred.

The two sides glared at each other over the table. Bill was staring down into his lap. Sirius wished that he could have joined in the attack against Snape.

"Kingsley, you were at this meeting. What is your position?" Dumbledore asked.

"The information was too sensitive to have been delivered in any way other than face to face, and too urgent to wait until a full meeting could be called. But I don't see any good reason why we can't share what we know with the full group now," Shacklebolt replied, his voice deep, even and reassuring.

"But it looks like we're not trusted, all this cloak and dagger stuff," Molly complained.

Remus was sitting next to Sirius, as usual, and now he spoke up. What he said was a surprise: "That might be a sensible precaution, Molly. We did trust all the Order Members last time. And look what happened."

Arthur and Molly looked over, shocked. Their faces settled into expressions of disappointment.

Remus added, "There will aspects to all our missions which might be best kept confidential."

Sirius wondered if this was what his friend was really worried about. He spoke less and less about what was happening with the were-wolves. He was getting closer to their seat of power and that was not likely to be a pleasant place to be. Knowing Moony, it was easy to get complacent about lycanthropes, but most of them were not sweet natured and mild mannered like he was.

"I suppose you support your parents?" Albus asked Bill.

Bill kept his eyes cast down. Severus was watching him, those dark eyes glinting a warning.

"I don't know. I wasn't here last time. How would I know?" Bill muttered.

"Your opinion is nonetheless valuable," Dumbledore prompted, gently.

Bill looked up. He glanced at Snape, then avoided all the other faces round the table but looked directly into Dumbledore's.

"I'm sure you know what's best. What needs to be 'Needs to Know', whatever …" he trailed off awkwardly.

He looked down again, avoiding his parents' faces. He was the only one in the room who couldn't see their hurt, surprised, betrayed expressions. Snape looked quietly delighted.

Dumbledore gathered some other opinions from round the table. He sounded resigned when he said to Sirius, "I expect I can guess your stand. If you were to support Severus it would be the first time." There was some laughter.

He wanted things the same as they'd been before, in the old Order. He wanted to agree with Arthur and Alastor. He hated the way Severus used knowledge as power and played people off against each other, trading information like Goblin Gold. And he really wanted to help bring about a humiliating defeat for Severus and his methods. But he couldn't, could he? What would happen to Bill if he did? Sirius held his head high and directed his first comment at Snape.

"On the contrary, I can appreciate that some times there is the need for discretion. It won't always be a good thing for Order members to be informed about everything. I trust you," his last sentence was to Dumbledore.

"Good," the old wizard answered, twinkling and smiling. "Well, I shall bear in mind the feeling of the meeting on this matter when future circumstances arise. However, I retain the right to decide what shall become public among us."

The smirk on Soapless Hooky-Nose Smugerus' face was unbearable.

The business of the Meeting began. Sirius concentrated on calming his breathing and controlling his nausea as progress was reported. This was why the greasy git had decided to keep quiet about Sirius and Bill. He had a hold over them both. Sirius didn't even dare to look at Bill in case someone noticed.

Hogwarts was being infiltrated by the Ministry, Voldemort was gathering together his old supporters and trying to find new ones. Remus looked confident when he presented some of the were-wolf thinking on the subject, but he got uncomfortable when questioned about how he had got close enough to find out things.

Dumbledore turned to Bill then, and Sirius figured it would be OK to look in his direction. The poor boy looked unhappy, his hazel eyes dulled and his skin grey under its tan.

"Not good, I'm afraid," Bill delivered in a flat voice.

His parents looked over at him then. They still looked annoyed with him.

Bill continued, "The information last week. I don't know how reliable it is. I did put caveats in the report. I've been checking up on Babwinde and he might not be … the best source."

"Are you saying you lied to us?" Snape said slowly. Only four people in the room knew that he spoke in layers.

"Not advertently," Bill rallied. He was sweating.

"It must be hard," Snape mock-sympathised, "to keep track of everything. I do hope you haven't got any distractions. You do know how valuable your work for the Order is?"

"As valuable as everyone else's," Bill snapped back.

The sneaky Slytherin looked over to Sirius when he said, "On the contrary, some of us don't have much to keep us occupied at all."

Sirius bared his teeth, but said nothing. He was sick of being goaded. As sick as he was of staying imprisoned and having nothing to do.

"The Death Eaters know the form of your Animagus, Black. Pettigrew has provided full descriptions to everyone. It's not safe to go out. Do you understand?"

How had Snape taken over the meeting? Why wasn't Dumbledore stopping him? How dare he give orders?

"I trust you don't need a babysitter to keep you busy and out of trouble. Perhaps you'd like to choose yourself one?" Snape sneered.

Sirius was being reminded of the power Snape had over him and he it would be very dangerous to react. His blood was boiling and he had to swallow down a growl.

Sirius sneaked one look over at his lover. If anything, he looked to be finding it even more difficult to keep his temper. He was digging his nails into the surface of the table, his face had gone bright red and his jaw was working.

Remus patted Sirius' hand soothingly. Bill glared daggers at Remus.

Dumbledore moved on to 'Any Other Business.'

When the meeting broke up and the members started to gather their papers and stand up, Snape leaned over to the stationary, fuming Bill and sneered, "Not rushing off? Staying on here for a while?"

Bill leapt out of his seat as though it had bitten him and rushed from the room.

Remus stayed on for a drink. He tried to sympathise as Sirius sulked, but it was unconvincing.

"He's not very good at this, is he?" he commented. "Perhaps he shouldn't try to keep a bit of rough on the side if he hasn't got a poker face?"

"It's not funny. Slimy git."

"That's not a nice pet name!" Remus cracked up at his own joke.

"I meant Snivelly. You know full well I meant Stinky Snape!"

Sirius went in search of vodka, stomping on every step down to the cellar. He was roughly under the kitchen fireplace when he heard a whooshing sound above him and Remus called out mockingly, "Hey! Pads! Your boyfriend's back!"

A lightness rushed through him and he ran back up the way he'd come.

Bill's head was in the fire. He looked apologetic. Sirius' stomach sank again.

"Is it safe? Can I come through?" Bill's head asked.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," Sirius yipped.

Remus gave a disgusted snort. He left the room saying, "I've got an initiation to attend."

Initiation? Did he mean ritual? With were-wolves? What would that entail? Concerned, Sirius followed him to ask, but he'd already gone.

Bill Flooed in and stepped out of the fire, shaking the soot off his glossy hair. Sirius was transfixed. Moony was right. He was obvious and pathetic.

Bill held open his arms and Sirius ran into them.