The belly of the beast


The four sat quietly at their table. None in the mood to eat, and none in the mood to speak.

It had been this way for well over a week.

Every now and then Sirius would try to speak to one of his friends, and every time he was rebuffed. None of the other three would so much as look in his direction.

Finally having enough, Sirius turned to Remus, grabbed his shoulder, and said, "Look Remus, I'm sorry --"

Remus jerked away from the former friend's touch. Fitting him with a fierce glare, he heatedly responded, "Shut up!"

Lupin got up and started to stomp away.

The tension in the air was palpable. Even those at the other tables turned to look at what was happening.

Turning to face him one last time he shouted, "I can't even look at you!" Taking a moment to catch his breath, he practically whispered, "After what you did…"

He cast one more violent glare in Sirius' direction before turning again and storming off to Gryffindor tower.

When Sirius turned to his other friends with a pleading gaze, all he received in response was two cold glares.

All he could think was: How could it have gotten this bad?


It took just another week before the whole story came out.


The ministry became involved when reports surfaced that a Hogwarts student had been missing for over two weeks.

It was not uncommon for post O.W.L. students to come and go from the school as they pleased, but no one had seen or heard from him since he disappeared. With the constant threat of you-know-who, the ministry was rather proactive in missing person's cases.

A single Auror was sent to investigate; at the surface it seemed that nothing was amiss, but a couple things just didn't add up.

Why had the headmaster never reported Severus Snape missing?

Why were there no attempts to find him?

It was a bit confusing.

After asking the students a few simple questions, the man was left with an interesting picture of one Severus Snape's school life.

Not many friends. A half-blood with a gift for potions. In with the blood supremacists.

And then he found the most important lead of the investigation.

It seems Snape had been mercilessly bullied since his first year, by a group of four Gryffindors.

So he had enemies. Gryffindor bullies, how brave of them. Four on one, how courageous.

When they were called to be interviewed, any Auror with even the slightest bit of experience would have been able to tell that they were nervous about something. They were utterly terrified of being interviewed.

So what were they so anxious about?

It didn't take much to get it all figured out.

During the group interview he found the weak point of their little gang: a meek boy named Peter Pettigrew.

Five minutes into the individual interview the slim, pale boy was shaking like a leaf.

In less than ten he had told the Auror everything there was to know.

So there it was; animagi, a werewolf, a murder, and a cover-up.

The bastard Black lured the boy he hated out into the clutches of a werewolf; a werewolf who turned out to be one of Black's best friends.

The prick doesn't have the guts to kill a man himself, so he forces a friend to unwittingly kill him instead? How does a spineless coward like Black make it into a house prided on its courage?


Even though he wasn't at fault for the death of Severus Snape, Remus Lupin was put down the next day.

If a werewolf kills on the full moon, you don't give it a second chance.

Years of anti-werewolf legislation made it easy to convict the poor boy; a boy who was as much a victim as Mr. Snape was.

They weren't even humane about it. They drove a silver dagger through his heart. He died howling in pain as traces of silver were pumped through is blood stream.

Sirius Black on the other hand was a more difficult to nail.

When the full story came to light, Mr. Black's family saw his behavior as a sign of him being a true Black. With the political clout of the Black family and the full backing of the pureblood contingent in the Wizengamot, the idea of Sirius' case going to trial was laughable.

What Wizengamot would convict a pureblood heir like Sirius Black for the murder of a lowly half-blood? Especially when it wasn't even him that did the deed?

It's not like Sirius killed Snivellus himself; all he did was tell a nosy Slytherin how to paralyze a tree after all.

It was just a prank gone wrong for Merlin's sake!

It's not like he knew that Remus would actually attack the greasy bastard!

Accident or not, the prosecution wanted Sirius to be convicted for something and so decided to go after him for conspiracy to commit murder, being an unregistered animagus, and obstruction of justice.

He pleaded guilty, but four years and a fine was next to nothing compared to life for murder.

Or death for being 'greasy'.

Or death for being a werewolf.

The other two teens had been cooperative with the investigation and so as part of their plea agreement they each only faced a minor fine.


James and Peter stayed friends. In fact, they had actually become better friends throughout the whole ordeal.

They saw that even the greatest of friends could become a betrayer.

Sirius Black. Who would have thought? Because of him, Remus was dead, and so too was a man that while they may have despised, they had never entertained thoughts to kill.

Shortly after Sirius' sentencing, James and Peter each made an unbreakable vow that neither would ever betray the other.

Even without the vow, Peter would have never betrayed James. Any jealously or feelings of inadequacy had been quashed by the closeness they had shared ever since the incident.

James was Peter's best friend, and James was his.

Their friendship, while strong, was also brief. Peter died in '81 defending the Potter's secret location. Even after suffering three weeks of Death Eater torture, he never gave in. The Death Eaters, eventually realizing he would never break, finished him off.

He was even posthumously awarded the Order of Merlin, First class.

Sirius, on the other hand, was dumped unceremoniously into a specially warded cell inside Azkaban prison, designed to prevent the use of his animagus ability.

Given the consequences of his actions he could never foster an illusion of innocence in his mind. So whenever the dementors passed he couldn't hide, nor could he attempt to find solace in his non-existent innocence.

Every time the foul creatures came near, he would hear the screams as Snape was brutally ripped apart, piece by piece; or more chillingly, he heard the last words his best friend ever said to him:

"You're a credit to your family name, Black. You were clearly never one of us, and you never will be. Your soul is as dark as your name."

Variations on that theme interspersed with the horrifying execution of his dear friend Remus slowly drove him mad.

Over the years these memories became worse and worse as the dementors removed all remaining happy memories.

With nothing to fall back onto, all he could think about was the fact that he effectively killed two people and alienated himself from the only people he ever considered family.

By the end of his sentence he was a slobbering husk, a shade of his former self. He could never have absolution for his sins.

But then again, wizards are stupid.


AN: I had a lot of help from DemonicNargles on this one. So thanks!

For some reason people seem to deify Sirius after he died, but that 'prank' against Snape just won't let me see him as a great person.

I guess in the end all it boils down to is the fact that if Sirius had his way that night, then he would have effectively murdered someone, and in doing so he would have made a good friend into a killer. That, or he would have forced a good friend to turn another person into a werewolf. Neither is a good thing.