Sirius jerked awake and blinked confusedly in the dim light in his room. He wondered what had woken him up. His first thought was that it was the moon. Tonight was a full moon and Sirius had always had trouble sleeping on the nights of full moons. Then he realized that his door was open and Sirius knew he always slept with the door closed. It took Sirius another moment to realize that his baby brother was standing in the crack between the door and the wall.

"Regulus?" Sirius asked in a voice hoarse with sleep.

"Siri." Regulus said in a trembling voice. "Can I talk to you?"

Sirius' big brother instincts kicked in. Regulus occasionally came to him to talk but he had never come in the middle of the night before. It was obvious that his nanny didn't know he was here.

"Come here." Sirius said, lifting his covers so Regulus could crawl in.

Regulus practically ran across the room and dived into the bed with his brother. Sirius laughed at that. While Regulus showing up in the middle of the night was odd, this wasn't the first time his younger brother had slept in his bed. Regulus often begged to stay the night with his brother and every once in a while his nanny would concede. Every time he received permission Regulus had always come running to Sirius' room just as the older boy was getting into bed and dived into bed to snuggle close to big brother.

Regulus snuggled close to Sirius who enjoyed having his brother there for a minute before remembering that there was a reason Regulus was here in the middle of the night.

"What's wrong Reggie?"

"I couldn't sleep." Regulus said. He sounded tired so it wasn't because of that.

"Why?"

"I just couldn't."

Realizing that he would have to push a bit in order to find out what was bugging his brother, Sirius changed tactics.

"What did you do today? Did you build anything interesting with your blocks?"

Regulus nodded. "I built a castle. It was big and had lots of rooms. And mother and father came to see it."

Sirius instantly sensed a slight hint of sadness in his brother's voice at the mention of their parents.

"Did mum and dad say something to you Reggie?"

"Father said that I should spend more time working on my penmanship. He said that it is disgraceful that a Black should have such illegible writing. And mother agreed."

Sirius knew that his brother's writing wasn't as good as his had been at that age. That's what his father was referring to when he criticized Regulus. It made him mad that his father was always criticizing his brother when it wasn't Regulus' fault that he wasn't as good at some things as Sirius was. As he felt Regulus snuggle into his side and drift off to sleep, Sirius vowed to play a prank on his father in revenge for upsetting his brother.

It wasn't until early the following evening before Sirius was able to carry out his prank. He spent the morning hunting down what he would need. He found the wire in a trash pile and nicked it when the gardeners weren't looking. Then he had to wait for his father to leave his study so Sirius could get to work. Orion didn't leave until late afternoon and Sirius waited an hour to make sure he wouldn't be coming back suddenly.

When an hour had passed, Sirius cautiously poked his head around the doorway and cautiously checked the hallway. There was no one in sight and, listening carefully, he couldn't hear anyone either. Satisfied that the coast was clear, Sirius crept out of the closet he had been hiding in and down the hallway lined with portraits of ancestors. Orion's study was located at the end of the hall. Reaching the solid oak door, Sirius had to set down the thin wire he had stolen from the gardeners that morning so he could use both hands to turn the heavy knob. The door swung open silently and he slipped inside. The study was dark and it took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust.

When he could see, Sirius moved to the desk and climbed up on the large chair so he could search the desk for the keys to the. He found them lying on top of a stack of papers. Sirius could only read a few words on the top paper but the papers looked important. He hesitated for a moment before deciding to take them as well. The keys were hidden under a pillow on the couch. The papers were a bit harder to hide because there were so many of them.

Two small handfuls were shoved under each cushion on the couch. Another handful went behind the pillows on the other end of the couch and a fourth was scattered under the rug. The rest were carelessly shoved into various books on the bookshelf. Sirius had to use a chair to reach some of the books that were on higher shelves. When he was done hiding the papers, Sirius headed over to tie the wire across it.

He found a good place on the outside of the door. There was a decorative trim along the bottom of the wall that had little circles sticking out. Sirius was easily able to loop one end of the wire through the circle closest to the door. The other end was a little trickier. He had to stick it through the small gap between the door and the wall and bend it around the hinge back towards him. He managed to make a small knot with it which was pretty good considering he didn't have much wire to work with. When he was done with that, Sirius took a last look around to make sure there was nothing else he wanted to do. Satisfied there wasn't, he quietly shut the door behind him and stole back to his room before letting a pleased smile steal across his face. His father would be surprised when he first tripped into his study, and then discovered that he had misplaced a stack of important papers as well as the keys to his cabinet. He deserved it for upsetting Regulus yesterday. Worn out from his activities, Sirius fell asleep on his bed. He slept through the rest of the afternoon and night.

The next morning he was woken from a sound sleep to the sounds of faint yelling. The yelling gradually grew louder until it was right outside Sirius' door. It stopped abruptly and his door flew open. Sirius sat up and blearily peered at his father, who was standing in his doorway fuming.

"Father, is something wrong?" Sirius asked, calling upon all of the acting skills he possessed to keep his face blank.

"Were you in my study?" Orion demanded.

"No, father. Why?"

"Some important things have gone missing from my study. Did you see anyone near my study?" Orion then demanded.

Sirius hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly.

"Who?"

"Mother's personal servant." The Black heir admitted. "I saw him going down the hallway yesterday afternoon and coming back sometime later. Both times he was empty handed."

Orion was furious at this information and turned to leave to deal with the disloyal servant. He paused for a moment, looked back at Sirius, and gave him a short approving nod. Then he was gone.

AN: Yes, I am still alive for those of you who were wondering. I didn't mean to be gone this long, but after my finals, my muse left me. All of my writing suffered and I haven't written a fraction of what I normally do in the last few weeks. Thankfully, my muse seems to be back and with it, my inspiration. Unfortunately, when my muse returned, we got a lot of rain and my basement flooded. That's where I happen to live. So I had wet carpet and woke up to my dog literally drinking water off my floor. Thankfully, that's under control as well.

In case you haven't figured it out, Sirius telling his father that his mother's servant was responsible was his way of getting revenge on his mother. Next chapter will take us back to Star and Remus. And that chapter is one I've had in mind since Outcasts so hopefully it should be easy to write. Until next time.