Sirius had a free period, and he was bored. Therefore, he was hunting Snivellus. He was alone. He was usually alone in this, now. Moony had cooled on the tradition ever since becoming a prefect two years ago. Prongs had pulled back for three reasons: Lily Evans, the incident where Sirius had let slip to old Snivelly the way through the Whomping Willow last year, and the fact that after the Whomping Willow affair, Moony had renounced his prefect duties and forced Prongs to take it up. Prongs was deeply affected by Moony's anger and took the responsibility more seriously than literally any other project he had ever taken on, to the point he got the Head Boy badge this year. And then there was the Rat. The Rat, well, he may be a Gryffindor, but he was afraid of Snivellus as their only remaining opposition, and he wasn't good back up anyway.

Snivellus walked down the otherwise empty corridor just in time. Sirius had been lying in wait for him for ten minutes already and was getting even more bored, almost ready to leave. But there was the greasy-haired, long-nosed git. Said nose was buried in a book. He wouldn't even see Sirius in his hiding place. Dolt. He waited until Snivellus was about to pass him before suddenly brandishing his wand and shouting "Depulso!" He followed the banishing spell immediately with a silent disarming charm and a Levicorpus. Snivelly didn't even cry out as he slammed into the opposite wall and then was strung up by his ankle. "Hah! Walked right into that one, you git!"

Snape didn't answer right away. Sirius' grin slipped as the other boy's suspended body slowly rotated around, revealing a face not twisted in anger as per usual but rather slack and unconscious, with a line of blood trickling out of one oversized ear.

"Damnit," he whispered. This wasn't what he had meant to do. He liked messing with Snape because Snape always fought back, and viciously. Overpowering him so easily like this wasn't, well, fun. Disappointed, he let Snape down, carelessly dropping him like always. Almost as soon as the Slytherin's head struck the stone floor he stiffened. Sirius grinned and raised his wand again, ready to defend himself against what was bound to be a right and properly pissed Snivellus... but then Snape didn't open his eyes to glare at him, didn't draw his wand. Instead, his body convulsed. "Merlin!" Horrified, Sirius watched as Snape's rigid limbs jerked. Bloody drool started leaking out of his mouth, and his skin started turning purple. Sirius realized his wasn't breathing through the seizure. That was when he started to panic. "Help!" he shouted a few times, then "Expecto Patronum!" Snape finally stilled again as the great silver dog appeared, which was good, because the only person Sirius could successfully direct his patronus to yet was James. He sent the spell away regardless, then crouched down, watching Snape warily.

It took a beat to realize he still didn't seem to be breathing. Heart suddenly in his mouth and still thudding about three times faster than normal, he rolled Snape over onto his back and checked for a pulse in his neck... which was there, thankfully. He heard running. James pelted around the corner, followed closely by Lily Evans, of course. That was both good and bad. Good, because Evans was brilliant and knew more about healing magic than either he or James did. Bad because...

"What?" James sputtered in confusion, wand in one hand and Marauder's Map in the other. Sirius realized his panicked message of Help, seventh floor, Snape had probably been misinterpreted.

"Oh God, Sev!" Lily cried, and flung herself at the skinny Slytherin. The two were no longer on speaking terms, but she still cared about him and hated when James and Sirius fought with him. She looked up at Sirius accusingly. "What did you do to him?"

"I didn't mean to. Well, I mean, not like this. I shoved him into the wall, but then he just went down, and then he had a seizure or something."

Lily wadded up her sleeve and wiped the bloody foam from Snape's lips. She turned him from his back onto his side. "Come on, Sev... James, he's not breathing."

"You two get him to the hospital wing... looks like McGonagle's in class between us and there. I'll run ahead and grab her." He folded up the Marauder's map and sprinted off.

"Immobulus. Wingardium Leviosa," Lily intoned, lifting Snape gently from the floor.

"I should do that," Sirius offered shakily. "You can try a Renervate or something -"

"I'm not going to touch a brain injury, you arse," Lily snapped. She started walking briskly down the hallway, her wand on Snape's chest. Sirius saw the faintest movement there and sagged in relief. Snape was alive. He wasn't a murderer. He hurried after Lily.

James and McGonagle intercepted them quickly. McGonagle fell into step next to Lily, casting charm after charm over Snape's unconscious form. The Slytherin was now gasping intermittently. Her lips collapsed to the thinnest of lines. "He will be fine under Madame Pomfrey's care I believe, but there is nothing I dare do until then. Miss Evans, if you would take your housemates to my office, please?" So saying, she cast her own levitation charm, then some other wordless spell that propelled both her and Snape down the corridor like an arrow.

Lily turned to Sirius with wrath in her eyes. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards McGonagle's office one floor down. James followed soberly. As soon as they arrived, Lily rounded on Sirius. "You! One hundred points from Gryffindor, and you can have detention for the next three months. At least. We'll see what McGonagle has to say; I'm hoping for suspension. You almost killed him Sirius! How could you?"

"I didn't mean to..."

"Oh, sure, you just meant to torture him like you always do."

"I don't-"

"You know, Sev was right when he said you're just as bad as if not worse than the Slytherin crowd."

"Lily, you know Sirius would never-"

"Never what, James? Oh, oh, I know, you and he never use 'dark magic.' But don't you see, you don't have to. You can hurt, injure, even kill someone with household charms. You almost drowned Sev too when you cast Scourgify in his mouth back in fifth year. You can't keep that holier-than-thou attitude when you're bigger dangers to most other students than actual up-and-coming Death Eaters are!"

"So now you're agreeing he's a Death Eater?"

"No. Five points from Gryffindor for that. But I'm starting to understand why Sev doesn't have a problem hanging out around Mucliber and the others. Sirius wouldn't have targeted him if he wasn't also alone. Would you?" She rounded back on him.

"No," Sirius agreed in a whisper. Not anymore. The Slytherin seventh years were all too free with dark curses to risk dueling against more than one at a time. He sank down into a hard-backed chair. "I didn't mean it," he repeated, more to himself than her. It had been so unreal at the time, watching Snape dangle, unconscious and helpless from his spell. The memory of it was very real though, terrifyingly so. He felt himself shaking.

He wasn't a murderer, but he could have been, and so easily.

After a few more minutes, the door opened. Professor McGonagle stepped through. Sirius shot up out of the chair. "Is Snape going to be okay?" he asked.

McGonagle stared down her nose at him judgmentally, a rather impressive feat given he was now taller than her, but she gave a brisk nod. "He will need some time in the hospital wing, but yes, he should make a full recovery. Madam Pomfrey is not even sending him to St. Mungo's." Her eyes narrowed. "She likely would have done if there were much more delay or if his injury was just slightly more severe. Would the three of you care to explain fully how Mister Snape came to be in such a perilous state?"

Sirius looked back down at the floor. "It's all my fault, Professor. We were fighting..." he bit his own tongue furiously. "No, we weren't. I was hiding behind a statue, waiting for him and hit him with a banishing charm without warning. I only meant to rough him up a little bit, provoke him, not actually hurt him, but he must have hit the wall harder than I expected. It knocked him out. And then there was a seizure."

Professor McGonagle's eyes flicked from him to James and Lily. "And how were you two involved?"

"They weren't there," Sirius said. "But when I saw that Snape was really hurt, I sent a message to James for help."

"And why did you summon your friend instead of one of the staff? Or call out more generally?" she asked dangerously.

"I did! I mean, I shouted, but I don't think anyone else was close enough to hear since most everyone is in class. I didn't want to leave him alone. It was a patronus message I sent to James, but I don't know how to send them to anyone else."

"That's true, Professor," James said. "Lily and I were down in the library together when Sirius' patronus showed up. We've been practicing the charm a lot, but he can't get it to go to anyone else consistently. And the message wasn't clear, just 'help, seventh floor, Snape.' Honestly, I thought there was an ongoing duel that Snape was winning or something."

Professor McGonagle sighed. "If you and Miss Evans are innocent, you may both go."

"Can I visit Sev?" Lily asked.

"Of course. Madam Pomfrey may ask you to wait awhile, but I don't expect it will be too long." Lily nodded and left.

"Do I have to go?" James asked quietly. Sirius felt a rush of gratitude.

McGonagle's eyes flicked between them for a moment, deciding. "No." She gestured for both of them to sit but fixated on Sirius with her undivided attention, which was admittedly quite intimidating. "Mister Black, you fractured Mister Snape's skull. I should not have to tell you that this is a very serious thing and could have proved fatal to the young man. I am sure you consider this an unfortunate accident, but I can assure you I do not."

"But-" James objected; Sirius was speechless.

"Do not interrupt, Mister Potter. The both of you have exhibited a pattern of reckless and violent behavior ever since entering this school. While Mister Potter has endeavored to reform, you Mister Black have not. I understand you did not intend to end Mister Snape's life this afternoon, but that does not change the fact that you were perfectly willing to endanger him without provocation. I confess I am at a loss as to how to deter this foul behavior. Neither of you have ever been inclined to respond to traditional punishments."

"Lily already took a hundred points and gave him three months' detention," James supplied.

"Is there a form of detention that either of you think will actually work?" she asked derisively. "I think not. Assuming you stay at this school, Mister Black, you will absolutely serve those detentions, under Miss Evans' discretion. I on the other hand will be writing to your family, and to Mister Snape's, and will be discussing with Professors Dumbledore and Slughorn what punishment would be most suitable."

Sirius' stomach sank at the mention of his family. He had run away from home to James' house when he turned sixteen, with no intention of ever seeing his parents again if he could help it. Falling back under the control of Orion and Walburga Black was a fate worse than death... and one he didn't think he deserved, even considering what he had just done to Snape. "Don't..."

McGonagle peered at him. "Don't what?"

James coughed. "Er, Sirius moved in with me. Dumbledore knows."

McGonagle rolled her eyes. "Yes, and I know that as well, but you were not legally emancipated from your family, Mister Black, nor have they officially disowned you. While Hogwarts has no influence over your living arrangements outside of school, we still have to correspond with your parents under the law while they are paying for your education. If it is your desire, I will write to the Potters as well as the Blacks. You are of age and may give me that permission."

Sirius grimaced. "I'll write them." He wanted to be the one to explain it. Even if he would never be as scary as Orion Black, Fleamont Potter would be just as angry, maybe even angrier since he actually disapproved of fighting... or more likely, he would be deeply disappointed, which was probably worse.

"You are suspended from classes for the rest of the week and confined to Gryffindor tower. If you are not there when I come looking for you after speaking with Albus and Horace today, you will regret it."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Dismissed."

Sirius was expelled two days later.

His wand was ceremonially snapped, and the pieces were given to Snape to dispose of. Snape was reportedly quite surprised by this when he woke up, as he remembered nothing of the attack.

The only reason Sirius wasn't brought up on criminal charges was because the Black family didn't want him to be and put pressure on Snape's mum. Or at least, that's what Fleamont Potter told him when he met him in Hogsmeade to take him home via side-along apparition. Sirius cried when he saw Fleamont, and the only thing he could think to say was "I'm sorry." The Potters had given him the chance to have a better life, but he had stayed a Black through and through. He just spouted a different justification for violence than did the rest of his family. He was a perpetual, fated screw-up.

At least he had his O.W.L.s. He was still a qualified wizard, still able to purchase a new wand to replace the one that had been confiscated. Fleamont offered to go with him to Ollivander's even, but Sirius turned him down. He felt too ashamed to allow himself the company. So he went by himself in the middle of a rainy morning on a weekday, when Diagon Alley was its least busy. He kept his hood up and met no one's eyes on the way to the wandmaker's shop.

The bell tinkled as he entered the cramped, dusty store. It looked the same as he remembered from six years ago with its worn counter and shelves lined with narrow boxes. Gray-haired Ollivander stepped out of the back room and greeted him with a frown. "Sirius Black. Fifteen inches, unicorn hair, black-walnut with runic etching. Snapped."

Sirius looked down. "Yes, sir." There was nothing to say really.

"And now you're wanting a replacement."

"Yes, sir."

"One I trust you intend to take better care of."

"Yes, sir." He yelped when something floppy and yellow suddenly struck his nose. He jerked his head back and realized the thing was Ollivander's measuring tape.

Ollivander was no longer looking at him, instead perusing his shelves. He kept talking though. "You are far from the first customer I have had in this position, young Mister Black. I sell to all and leave to the law to judge who is worthy of having a wand. We will find a wand for you. The only way we won't is if you decide you do not want or do not deserve one. Here. Twelve inches, dragon heartstring, white maple." Sirius accepted the first wand wordlessly. Nothing happened, and Ollivander snatched it back before he even flicked it.

"No. No, not in opposition... Try this." The next, darker looking wand was just as lifeless and taken back just as quickly. As were the next three. The sixth was... different. It was a vibrant red, thin, and plain with minimal decoration. It felt warm in his hand. A quick twirl conjured red and gold sparks, and his first smile since leaving Hogwarts. Ollivander grinned in satisfaction. Twelve and seven-eighths inches, dragon heartstring, cherry wood. Quite flexible. Good for transfigurations." His hard silver eyes softened. "Wands of cherry wood are very moldable to the witch or wizard even after years of use. Appropriate to one hoping to redefine himself but not yet certain as to how, and more able to be passed on in the family successfully. And the heartstring of a Hebridean Black is very powerful, lends this particular cherry wand more durability for defensive spells than other cores might."

"Thank you," Sirius said automatically. Merlin, he was never going to understand wandlore. "How much?"

"Six galleons, twenty sickles."

Sirius paid him and left the shop.

His cousin Bella was waiting for him outside. "Fuck, Bella!" he swore, simultaneously casting a silent shield charm.

She grinned. "Rude. Now, Siri, I'm not here to curse you, not here to berate you for bringing shame to the family, and I'm already married so you don't have to worry about that either. Can't cousins enjoy a nice spring stroll together?"

He gestured at the pouring rain. "What do you want?"

"I just heard you've left Hogwarts, thought we should catch up. Come on, I'll buy you a drink. In public and everything." She extracted her own wand and tapped at her head, switching her hair into blond ringlets rather than black and slightly softening her facial features until she would not be recognizable to a casual observer. She had been wanted by the Ministry since the elections in 1975. At first he thought it was a silent human transfiguration and was mildly impressed, but then he noticed the effect rippling slightly and realized it was a much simpler glamour charm.

"I'd rather not."

"I'd rather not make you." Her grin broadened, and he scowled. But he followed her back down the street towards the Leaky Cauldron. It was definitely smarter to talk than to fight with a brand-new wand, no matter how horrible she was.

When they got to the bar, she provided the galleons, but he ordered the drinks. He got himself mead and got her a gigglewater. She raised her eyebrows at his choices but failed to comment. Neither of them actually drank. "What do you want?" he repeated.

She smiled deviously. "I want to know what you did to get yourself expelled from Hoggy-Warty Hogwarts. That's not an easy thing to accomplish with Old Softie as Head."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Guess."

"I know. You got in a fight with Severus Snape. But come on, you're always fighting with him, so I hear. What was different this time?"

"Why do you care?"

"Of course I care about my favorite cousin!"

He snorted. "Since when am I your favorite cousin?"

She simpered at him. "Obviously, since you won a duel in such a way even Albus-fucking-Dumbledore decided to expel you for it. I've never been so proud of you." Sirius glowered at her, and she studied him silently. "It shouldn't have been easy," she said silkily. "We've been working on Snape for years."

Damnit, now he was interested despite himself. "Excuse me?"

Her evil grin broadened further. "Snape's good. Really good. You and your little Gryffindor friends saw to that, bullying him ever since you were eleven. Cute, really. The Dark Lord notices talent, even in half-bloods. Ever since Snape came to our attention, we've controlled the people around him, made him better. No doubt, you've noticed, you and he are so... invested in each other. I know he's won most of the little spats you and your friends get into with him, for the past year anyway." Ever since James and Remus stopped helping him except when he was already losing, Sirius realized, but did not comment. "We are expecting to recruit him come June, even if he has been rather slippery on officially saying yes... and then you come along and take him out all by yourself, and no one can tell me how you did it. It must have been awful, though."

Sirius' stomach sank. He was beginning to see where this was going. "What do you want, Bella?" he whispered.

"You've caught the Dark Lord's attention again, Siri. And now that you've dashed your hopes for most reasonable offers of employment, you might want to reconsider his patronage."

"You want to recruit me."

"It is the family business, after all. You can't live off the Potters' generosity forever, not with your potions grades," (How did she know these things?) "particularly given their tender sensibilities. You hurt that boy, because you hate him. I may not know how, but I know you hurt him. Badly. The Potters and their ilk will never be able to accept you after this, not really. Deep down, you know that. Deep down, no matter what you've said in your dramatic, youthful rebellion, you are a Black, and you always will be. Toujours Pur."

Sirius was glad he hadn't touched his mead as he was now thoroughly nauseated. He knew she was manipulating him, but she was saying exactly his own thoughts. Still, he wasn't tempted. He'd been trying to escape his heritage so long, he'd rather die than give in to it. He wasn't quite stupid enough to tell her that right now, though. She probably had back up here, and there was no doubt in his mind that Bella would be just as happy to murder him as recruit him. "Can I think about it?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Hmm... I suppose. If you decide you're interested, meet me here next week, same time. If you decide you're not... then I might decide young Severus is my best friend and seek vengeance for him."

"Have you even met him?" Sirius asked curiously.

"No," she answered flippantly. "Slughorn doesn't invite me to his parties anymore. But I've heard he's such a charming, talented, and good-looking young man, it warms the heart just to read his roommates' reports about him."

Sirius almost laughed. "Talented, maybe. Charming or good-looking? No."

Bella shook her head. "How unkind. You've really got to work on your people skills now that you've got an expulsion on your permanent record, or however will you succeed in life?"

"Not by making friends with Severus Snape," Sirius grumbled. He couldn't stand her condescension, never could. "If he's in, I'm out."

Her eyes narrowed, and he realized she was taking him seriously. "We'll discuss that at our next meeting. If that's your condition, you better be prepared to impress me with how you beat him. We're not exchanging silver for steel."

Merlin's balls, now he was actually negotiating for a job as a Death Eater. He decided to end the conversation before he dug his hole any deeper. He picked up the shot of mead and drained it in one gulp, then stood up and bowed extravagantly at his cousin. "See you around, then."

"Until next time," she said sweetly, with a victorious smile.

He slowly walked out of the tavern and apparated away as soon as he hit the alley. He collapsed to his knees on the soggy lawn of Potter Manor; his legs could no longer hold him. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit... He could not think intelligently at the moment. He was too much in shock from what had just happened. This wasn't right. He was supposed to graduate from Gryffindor and join Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix! He wasn't supposed to be expelled in his seventh year and fall into Voldemort's clutches... He was crying again, and he didn't care that he was.

He stayed on the lawn getting soaked for several minutes until Euphemia Potter noticed his return and ran out to check on him. "Sirius! What's happened? Are you alright?" Wordlessly, he nodded and accepted her embrace. She didn't trust his answer and twisted her wand to detect injury or residual dark magic. Finding none, she tugged him to his feet. "Okay, okay, let's get you inside, and then you can tell me about it..."

Once they were inside and he had his hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate, he was finally able to tell Euphemia and Fleamont about his unexpected meeting with Cousin Bella. Both of them knew her well from before the war. They knew all about the madness rotting the Black family tree, and they knew Bellatrix was the most afflicted of the younger generation. They were both suitably alarmed when he informed them Bella was trying to drag him into the wizarding war now that he was at loose ends. And neither of them knew what to do about it. Bella had basically told him he would be her next target if he refused the invitation. He didn't have the option of staying neutral even if he wanted to.

The idea of joining the war was much, much scarier when he didn't have a choice, he found.

"I need to talk to Dumbledore," he decided.

"You're not joining the Order. You're too young," Euphemia said stubbornly.

"I'm of age. I've got nothing else to do, and I'll have to stay in hiding if I don't," Sirius said. He sighed. "He might not even want me to join, considering he just expelled me. But I still need to talk to him. He needs to know what Bella said, about how they're targeting students even while they're still in school. Not just over the holidays even."

"He already knows," Fleamont said sadly.

"Sure, he probably knows it's happening, but he needs to hear her words. Maybe he can use them to figure out how to stop it..."

"I'll call him," Fleamont said, shooting a look at his wife to overrule any objection. She seemed to agree, though.

"Think it'll be tonight?"

"If not tonight, then tomorrow. I'll let him know it's important," he promised.

"Yeah." He took a sip of cocoa then drew the cherry wand out of his robes and glared at it. "Guess I should practice with this in the meantime." His life would depend on it soon.

"Tell us about it?" Euphemia said softly. He looked up at her. She looked so sad, but she was trying to smile encouragingly. After all, it was an important and special thing, getting a new wand. It represented a new page in a wizard's story, new era, new choices, new opportunities... He turned the wand over in his hands. Flexible, Ollivander had described it. It was. He just wished his life could be so flexible.

Author's Note: Sirius' (and James') school behavior was always rather more problematic than they admitted to Harry. All things being equal, someone really, really should have been expelled, since Hagrid was expelled and got a life-long magic ban for far less when you consider even though he was blamed for Myrtle's death, his crime was still just poorly controlling a wild animal, rather than deliberately setting out to hurt people. No one ever said the Harry Potter universe justice system was fair, though, far from it.

It's never said exactly how James Potter ended up as Head Boy when Lupin was the prefect of the bunch, and I suspect it started as a continuity error that was retconned into "head boy/girl doesn't have to be a prefect," which still wouldn't explain how James beat out Lupin without shear Dumbledore favoritism. The backstory in the first paragraph of this story is my headcannon.

Please note, Sirius doesn't know squat about what to do when someone has a seizure. I have it on good authority you should turn people on their sides, not on their backs, to keep them from choking.

Anyway, you'll get at least three more chapters of this, as I kinda went nuts the other night and drafted half a story. We'll see how far it goes, since I've got a different, higher priority HP fic also going on right now. The rating is for cursing and for Bellatrix being Bellatrix. This isn't going to be an explicit gore-fest, but there's an unavoidable psychological horror element when she's involved. At any rate, please enjoy, and let me know in the reviews what you think!