Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the stuff J.K. Rowling created.

Chapter Twenty-three

Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

"James?" I called.

There was no answer.

"This is not funny! You're reminding me even more of Sirius! If you turn into a stag and tackle me, I'll kill you."

Still no answer.

I looked around and noticed I wasn't in a closet, or Sirius' room for that matter.

The room was decorated similarly, but there were a couple more pictures. There was one of the Marauders, Sirius and Remus, past Quidditch teams, some people that I didn't recognize, and Lily, who was laughing at someone ahead of her. And from that one picture, I knew I was in James' room.

"What the—"

"Nike!" I heard James yell in a worried voice.

"Up here!" I yelled back.

Seconds later James was standing in his doorway.

"How did you—No way! Have you figured out how to Apparate?"

"No, and I don't plan to anytime soon, thanks to Weasley. One minute I was trying to open the door to let you in, and the next I'm in here. Nice room by the way."

"Thank you," James said as he walked into the room that I had just came out of. "Weird. It looks like a normal bedroom."

He was right. The room was bare, but it had all the basic living essentials, including a dark, midnight blue queen sized bed, two bedside tables, a desk, a bookshelf, a closet, a dark blue couch and, a small, circular table.

"I like it," I commented.

"You can have it then," James said simply. "It's so strange; I've never seen this room before. But yes, it is nice. Although I think that I'd—" The door slammed shut again. James and I exchanged wondering glances. He cautiously opened the door, and then turned around, looking at me with wide eyes.

"What's the matter?" I asked him.

"We—we're in Sirius' room," he stuttered.

I gave him a puzzled look. "What's the big deal? Weren't we already there? Maybe this room is like a moving stairwell between yours and his room."

"No. You don't understand." He took my hand and dragged me out of my room and into the other. This room was a mirror image of his other room, except it was smaller and everything was black. More Gryffindor appliances were hung too, as well as pictures of James, Remus, and Peter, along with stuff that was hand written, like 'Pure-bloods aren't pure!' and 'Only innocent lives!' The whole room had an almost evil feel to it.

"Where are we?" I asked him.

"I can't believe it. We're in Sirius' house," James said more to himself. "We've gotta get out of here," he said suddenly.

"What? Why?"

Before he could reply, I stepped out of Sirius' room and into a hall that had several other doors. It was extremely dark, barely any light visible.

"Nike!" James hissed from Sirius' room. "Get back here." I was about to reply when the door next to Sirius' opened, and I came face to face with Regulus.

He shot me a startled look. "Nike!" he said pleasantly. "What are you doing here?" He flashed me a bright smile, which I ignored.

"Where's Sirius?" His smile faltered, but then it just got wider.

"He's in a meeting with our parents. Come on, I'll show you around until they're done. Then you can meet our wonderful parents."

"Back off Doughboy," James growled from behind me. Regulus froze; shock evident in his features.

"Potter," he said slowly. "How are you here? I thought we had spells to block you from ever coming back. I'd never thought you'd be the one to—"

"Be the one to what?" I snapped.

His normal sneer returned. "How very rude of me, keeping you two to myself. I shall announce your arrival." He opened his mouth to yell, but before he could get a sound out, James had knocked him out, using one of the moves I had taught him.

"You are learning something!" I said, giving him a high-five. "Good job, Prongsie!"

"Thanks," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Reg?" called a female, her voice muffled. The door on the other side of Sirius' opened, and out came Dominatrix.

Her eyes narrowed when she saw me and she fell into a crouch, the way she was poised reminding me of a lethal cat. I braced myself. Finally. Payback time.

"Come back for a second beating?" she asked, an evil and cruel smile on her face. "I enjoy it so much."

"Ha. Too bad last time you did it in the way only a weak one would. Hexing? Please. A first year could do better than that," I shot back.

Her body began to convulse with barely controlled rage. "When the time comes," she hissed. "I'll enjoy killing you."

"How are you going to do that? Bore me to death with your glares and talking? It's possible, but highly doubtful."

That set her off. A shift in her movement told me what she was going to do. She lunged and I ducked, which made her fly over my head. I turned before she could turn to face me and brought my foot down on her back. She crumpled and lay motionless on the floor.

"That seemed easy," James muttered.

Too easy, I thought. Something wasn't right. The way she was breathing…

Her foot lashed out and I jumped, but she brought James down. Her eyes slitted and I could tell she would be more cautious this time.

"You've got some skill half-blood," she said. "We could use you."

"Oh, so now I'm a half-blood and not a muggle-born?" I rolled my eyes. "Forget it," I spat, and she started her attack. I let my instincts take over, not thinking at all. I evaded and blocked her attempted punches and kicks, and landed a few on her. We were getting closer and closer to a railing, and then with a hard shove, I pushed her over the side. Her eyes widened in surprise, and then she grabbed onto the railing. She let go, dropped, and landed in a crouch. She lifted her head up to glower at me, a wild and murderess look in her eyes.

And that's when the yelling began. A man was speaking softly yet in a vicious and very sarcastic way, while a woman was yelling her head off. Insults and curse words were being thrown around.

Dominatrix flashed me a smile and a look of pure hatred, and walked into a different room, the one next to the one where the yelling was coming from.

I looked back at James, who was pale and clenching his jaw and fists. I tuned into the voices and what exactly they were saying.

"You're a fucking disgrace!" came the man's cold, deep voice.

"No, I'm not," Sirius said, surprisingly really calm sounding.

"Don't talk back to me with your filthy lies," growled the man. "You should be a hell of a lot more like Regulus and Dominatrix!"

"Yeah, perfect Regulus. Never does anything wrong. In fact, did you know that he's not capable of it? I never would've known, but it's the truth!" Sirius said sarcastically. There was a loud sound and then a thud.

"Watch your damn mouth, you abomination," a woman snapped. It was the same voice that had screamed through the Howler. "You ruin our family's pure name, just like your namesake, you piece of shit. We should've known…you have his cursed blood! We had tried to see if we could get it out of you…but no. You are Sirius Orion Black through and through," she continued. "And we thought you couldn't drag us anymore in the dirt, what with you hanging out with half-breeds and pure-bloods who have damned themselves, yet you did! Another half-breed? But not just any half-breed…it's Andromeda's thing! And a mud-blood, the exact race of things that shouldn't exist in our world! You disgust me!"

"Well, to tell the truth I'm glad we feel the same way about each other. But, I disagree with you. Tonks isn't a thing, and Lily, even though she's muggle-born, is way better than your people," Sirius snapped, his temper flaring.

"And there's one more thing," the man cut in. "This fucking wild child who prances around like she's a pureblood. Nike. Who is she and who are you to steal her from your brother? She belongs to him." There was a scrape of a chair and it sounded like several things were knocked over, including the man because he strung out more curse words.

"Don't you ever talk about her like that!" Sirius yelled. "You have no idea—"

"Crucio!" the woman yelled, and something hit the floor with a strangled cry. "You'll either change or die, boy."

James lept up and ran down the stairs, and I followed him because the look on his face struck fear in my heart.

James threw the door open, and froze, horrified. I pushed past him to see, and stopped dead. Sirius, who was one of the strongest-willed guys I'd ever met despite what I said, was on the floor, writhing, his face a mask of pain. He wasn't making a sound, but I couldn't stand to see him like that. It made rage and fear rise within me. I turned to face a woman that looked like Dominatrix, who seemed to be enjoying herself. Before I knew what I was doing, my wand was out and pointed at her, and I spoke words I'd never heard before.

"Imperio!" I yelled, and the woman froze, her wand dropped to the floor. Before the man could do something to me, James, or Sirius, I flung the woman at him and they both crashed into a wall.

James picked Sirius up and headed back up the stairs, walking at a brisk pace. But I didn't truly notice, at least it didn't register in my brain. My fury was still scolding-hot. I didn't know how, but thousands of spells flew into my head. I was just about to use another when James interuppted my train of thought.

"Nike!" James snapped before I let out another spell. "Come on!"

"Accio wands," I said, and two wands flew into my hand. I followed James up the stairs, dropped the wands over the railing, and stepped into my room, slamming the door shut, making the door rattle in its frame.

James had laid Sirius down on my bed, and he lay so still with his eyes closed I thought he was dead.

James was pacing, but he stopped when he saw me.

"Hey Nik…you need to calm down."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" I exploded. "Those damn bastards! They were going to kill him! They—they were horrible! Look at him James! They freakin' abused him! Tell me you aren't freaking out!" I yelled, trying to keep my anger contained.

"Nike, please calm down. Yes, I'm pissed off at them, but I'm used to it. Although I have to say this time was worse." James' voice was so calm, and I tried not to let that fuel my anger any more.

"This happens often?" I demanded.

"Unfortunately. Most of the time they just beat him and whatnot, but never before have they used one of the Unforgivable Curses." James shuddered at the thought.

"Those people…" I made for the door.

"Nike. Please. Don't."

I froze in place, right at the door with my hand gripping the doorknob so tightly my knuckles turned white and both the knob and my hand was shaking. I sighed, releasing my grip, and slowly turned around.

"Sirius, you do realize that I can't live knowing they do this to you. They deserve worse than death. They deserve unbearable pain, and they deserve to suffer."

Sirius smiled slyly. "Well I think they've suffered a little bit knowing that you beat them at their own game."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped, not liking that fact that he was referring I was anything like those...horrible things, for lack of a better word.

"You used an Unforgivable Curse on them. Well, on my mother, but my father felt it too."

"What the hell is an Unforgivable Curse?"

"It's…hard to explain. But there's the Cruciatus Curse, Imperius Curse, and the Killing Curse. The Cruciatus Curse causes immense pain. The Imperius Curse makes it so the victim or victims do whatever the tormentor pleases. And, as the name implies, the Killing Curse will kill," James explained.

"So I just…"

"Yeah. Thank the gods for you Nike. Your first huge spell and it's an Unforgivable Curse against my parents," Sirius said, laughing. And I could see it from the look in his eyes; his secret was out, and he wouldn't be that guarded ever again.

I couldn't help but return his smile.

A/N: Yes, I felt it was a short chapter too, but I loved it. There was so much happening. I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed the part with Sirius' parents. I love writing about evil characters, even if they do mess with the one I love. Dominatrix, if you didn't know, is Sirius' cousin, but she lives with them because her parents are currently M.I.A. Andromeda (who in this case is Sirius' cousin who is twenty-nine or so) is not the same Andromeda (as in the original Nymphadora Tonks' mum). She's not still alive, but she is…well, you'll see later on. If you have any questions or whatever, let me know.

Thank you to my two reviewers!

Pikachucat: Thanks! Glad you think so!

Daughter of Chaos 98: Eh…not quite. You'll see later on what I mean if you stick around. :) Thanks for the review!

So what did you think of this chapter? Did you like it? Hate it? Kinda felt, "uh, eh…" 'bout it? Let me know! What do you think will happen next? Any guesses? Let me know! I have open ears for you guys!

Next chapter: Haha! You will NOT expect this, trust me! It's SOOO un-Nike like!

R&R please!

Nike