Sirius regained his feet, mostly, the next day. Regulus helped him get up to walk to the bathroom anyway, and change into pajamas. Richard was gone, busy, according to Regulus. Narcissa stopped by his room only briefly, also busy with her newborn and with Malfoy family business. Sirius had yet to see either of his parents since he had awoken, not that he missed them.

His first venture out of bed once Kreacher and Regulus left him alone that evening involved crawling down two flights of stairs to raid the liquor cabinet in the informal parlor. It was a difficult mission since he had to bring several blankets along to avert the rigors, but he managed it. He pulled out the first bottle of whiskey he found and sat down on the ground with his back against the small, carved mahogany bar. The bottle was half empty by the time Regulus found him, shining a harsh wand light in his face.

"Sirius, what in Merlin's name... you almost died, you can barely stand, and you think now is a good time to be drinking?"

"Piss off."

Completely disregarding that directive, Regulus sat down next to him, tugged the bottle away and set his wand light to float a little above them. "Do you know how worried I was when I went to your room and you weren't in your bed?"

"Why were you there? It's one in the morning."

"I... couldn't sleep." He blushed slightly. "I kept thinking something would happen to you if you were alone. I stayed in your room the last two nights."

Sirius grunted. He snatched the whiskey back and downed another huge gulp before Regulus could stop him. "I'm fine. Go to bed."

"'I'm fine' says the man drinking Dad's strongest liquor straight from the bottle as if his life depended on it."

"Is this his strongest?" Sirius asked, squinting at the label. He shrugged. "Dad's got nothing on Dolph's collection. Although it might have been Rabastan's..." He fell quiet as Regulus edged closer to him, hugging his arm through the quilt and leaning his head on Sirius' shoulder.

"I'm going to miss Rodolphus," Regulus said quietly. "I liked him."

Sirius hunched over and dearly wished Regulus hadn't found him until after he'd reached the blackout drunk stage. He sighed. "I know. I liked him too. Merlin, I wish I hadn't..."

"Hush. It's done. Don't punish yourself for it."

"Then you do it. Or find Mum. She'll do it."

Regulus winced. "That's not funny."

"Wasn't joking."

"She's not going to-"

"Oh, believe me, she will. Soon as she deigns look at me again, she'll be screaming the house down and cursing my head off."

"Dad won't let her," Regulus insisted. "She's upset about... things... but I think she's sort of proud too."

Sirius leaned his head back against the bar and closed his eyes. With the whiskey he barely noticed the chill. "Maybe. I don't care."

"Come on, Sirius, she's our mother..."

"Never stopped her from hurting us before."

"Well... Dad won't let her. Not this time."

Sirius snorted. He very much doubted it would be any different living in Grimmauld Place this time around. Maybe if it got bad enough, he'd get the motivation to run away. Moody would help him, assuming he could get a message out.

"He won't," Regulus reiterated. "He wants to keep you here. He wants you to be a proper Heir again. He told me so. Told me to make sure you were happy."

Sirius barked a disbelieving laugh and opened his eyes to peer at Regulus' credulous face. "Happy? He might as well have told you to go wrangle a manticore."

Regulus looked at him uncertainly. "I mean... I know you're sick now, and feeling bad about what happened, but... you've never not been happy. Even when you and Mum were arguing the most, or when Dad got tired of it and locked you in the cellar for a week, you were always so... strong, I guess. Angry but also still laughing, when you shouldn't have been. I never understood how you could do it, but you did. It was amazing."

Sirius shook his head. "I have no memory of being happy in this house, Reg. Not even when I was little. I was always on guard. If I seemed happy, that was because I had to be brave for you. You're the only good thing about this place. Whenever Mum did lash out at you, it gutted me. I never wanted you to suffer like I did."

He took another swig of the whiskey. Regulus grabbed the bottle again. The blanket slipped from around Sirius' shoulders while they struggled for control of the bottle; Regulus won. "Stop, that's bad for you."

"So's thinking of nothing but people I've murdered. If you want me to be happy, find me a way to forget. Go out and get me some stronger firewhiskey. Or some smokes. Or place me under the Imperius curse. There's no high like that. I won't even fight back. You can have me smile at you all day and be polite to Mum and agree with Dad and everything. Better than Avada Kedavra, that. I get to stop, but you all get to keep me. Everybody wins."

"Sirius! That's - that's not funny!" Regulus cried.

"Wasn't joking."

"Regulus doesn't want a farcical simulation of a family, Sirius. He wants you, his brother, to recover," Narcissa's voice came unexpectedly from behind them.

Both brothers flinched in surprise. Regulus stood up abruptly and accidentally knocked Sirius in the side of the head with the whiskey bottle. "Cissy? When did you come in?" Regulus asked. Sirius cursed and rubbed his temple.

"I followed you. I was coming up from the kitchen with Lyra and glimpsed you on the landing."

"Have fun eavesdropping?" Sirius asked.

"Not especially. No titillating gossip, all depressing familial angst." She walked around the bar so they could see each other. She held her little baby, sleeping on her shoulder. "I really wish I knew what you sacrificed, Sirius," Narcissa said softly.

"What sacrifice?" Regulus asked.

"What does it matter?" Sirius said. "The memory's gone, and I can't get it back. I'll probably never know what it was."

"It matters, because I don't think you're feeling so self-deprecating and self-destructive only from dementor exposure. I think that memory is what made you strong enough to keep going when anyone else would have stopped after the Order took you from my house. Or sooner. Might have also been what sustained you when you were still living here with Regulus and enduring all of Auntie's unreasonable expectations and insane punishments. It was something important that made it possible for you to live with yourself and your impossible choices. And you were living with them rather well most of the year. You weighed the moral calculus at the time, made the rational decisions you needed to in order to accomplish your goals as a spy, and you were content with them. At least you were while you were living with me. I have no idea what it was that you've now lost, but I want you to keep going, which means we probably need to find out."

"Keep going," Sirius said, rudely mimicking Narcissa's voice. "Why do I have to keep going? I've more than done my bit."

"You have, yes. But if you stop now..."

"Then maybe the miserable people who survived the war so far get to keep living? I'm the worst Death Eater left at large, Cissy."

"Not true. They still haven't caught Dolohov."

"I probably killed more people than him, least if you count muggles."

"What sacrifice?" Regulus repeated, no longer sorrowful but rather peeved.

Narcissa seemed to give up on having a civil conversation with Sirius at the moment, thank Merlin, and chose to answer Regulus' question instead. "A happy memory strong enough to produce a corporeal patronus. Or at least, that was part of it."

"Just a memory? That's it?"

"Can you make a corporeal patronus, Reg?" Narcissa asked pointedly.

"Oh. No."

"It's not 'just a memory'."

"I think it was a person," Sirius commented, recalling Dumbledore's brief dive into his mind.

Narcissa stared at him incredulously. "You forgot a whole person? Who?"

"No idea."

"Of course." She sighed in frustration and sat down on the edge of the settee, patting Lyra's back. "It would have had to be a very special person, a very special kind of relationship to affect you so," she mused thoughtfully. "Regulus, who was Sirius closest to before this year?"

"His Hogwarts friends. James Potter and the others."

"Do you remember them, Sirius?"

"James, Remus, and Peter? Yes. Hard to forget the chaps you spent seven years bunking with."

"Not them, then. Girlfriends?"

"Tons, but he broke things off with most of them, and he wasn't dating anybody on the regular when he left Hogwarts."

"You kept tabs on me, I see," Sirius muttered.

"Hmm. Maybe... perhaps the memory was motivating for another reason. Do you know of any of his school friends or girlfriends who were targeted in the war, Reg?"

Regulus' answer was prompt. "Yeah, Marlene McKinnon was killed back in October. It was in the papers. He dated her most of his fifth year."

"Marlene's not dead," Sirius said shortly.

Narcissa's eyes widened. "Huh. That's it? October is a little later than I would have thought, though."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I didn't forget that she's supposed to be dead. I was at the raid on the McKinnon place. I faked her death."

Now was Regulus' turn to stare at Sirius in surprise. "How?"

Narcissa's question was more practical. "Why would you risk a stunt like that? Bella told me later the Dark Lord himself led that mission. You would have been killed if he discovered your treachery."

"How could you fool the Dark Lord himself about something like that?" Regulus asked, sounding awestruck.

Sirius sneered. "I fooled the Dark Lord about a hell of a lot more than that." He shrugged and glanced at Narcissa. "I used a Dark spell Cissy found to grow Marlene a second head, cut it off, petrified her, and left her hidden upstairs. And set the stairs on fire behind me so no one would go look. No one argues with a severed head. As for why, it was that or murder both her and her kid brother, age seven. We had orders to execute everyone in that house."

Narcissa shook her head at Regulus' half-impressed, half-horrified expression. "You had to ask."

"But... a kid? The McKinnons were purebloods."

"Regulus, the sooner you realize the war had very little to do with blood purity and everything to do with a megalomaniac's personal ambitions, the happier you will be," Narcissa said drily.

Sirius yawned and let his head fall back against the bar again. He was getting sleepy, finally. Perhaps the whiskey had done its job.

Regulus nudged him. "Let's go back to your room, Sirius. We can see if you've got any photos stashed around there that could give us a clue."

"Whatever," Sirius mumbled noncommittedly.

"Come on, up you get... Merlin, your hands are like ice!" He rubbed them a moment, then leaned closer to grab him under the armpits instead of relying on Sirius' grip strength to assist. He dragged Sirius to his feet. Sirius promptly staggered against him. His legs felt like jelly, and his head spun. "His face is cold too, Cissy," Regulus said.

"Probably because he's drunk half a decanter of whiskey when he's sick and only brought a blanket to stave off hypothermia. That much alcohol will suppress the shivers. Take him upstairs and get him in the bed with a warming charm. You can search his room for pictures in the morning. It's a good idea. Lyra and I, meanwhile, are going to bed again. Good night." She preceded them up the stairs.

It took a good ten minutes to get Sirius up the stairs and situated in bed. He was almost asleep when he heard Regulus whisper in his ear. "Sirius, I have a letter for you from Headmaster Dumbledore. I didn't want to give it to you before because, well, because I was mad at you, but I'll give it to you in the morning. I'm sorry."

It was only a couple hours later that Kreacher pulled Sirius out of bed, fed him a chocolate muffin and a hangover cure, dressed him in formal robes, dragged a comb ungently through his hair, and forced him down the stairs and into his father's study before the sun was up. There was a blonde witch with gaudy horn-rimmed waiting in the office along with Orion, carrying a notebook and a Quick Quotes Quill.

Orion handed Sirius a few sheets of parchment the minute he sat down in the chair closest to the banked fire. "Ms. Skeeter, this is my son Sirius Black. Sirius, meet Ms. Rita Skeeter, a reporter at the Daily Prophet. She has been composing an article regarding the events on Sunday and interviewed me for it yesterday afternoon, while you were indisposed. Ms. Skeeter is aware you are not available for an in-depth interview at this time, but we both wish for you to review the story before it is published."

"Simply fact-checking. It's a formality, but an important one. My priority in my reporting is always accuracy, Mr. Black. And if I may say, it is an honor to meet you." She grinned broadly at him, revealing a gold tooth.

"Ms. Skeeter, I have kept you so long already, why don't you take a moment to freshen up while Sirius is reading, and we can discuss the matter when you return? I would not want to inconvenience you when they already are holding the presses for you." The words were polite, but it was perfectly clear to Sirius at least that it wasn't a suggestion. The reporter heard it too. She hesitated only a moment before nodding and flouncing out of the room. Orion cast silencing and locking spells at the door before speaking again. "That one is ambitious and willing to represent our interests over the Ministry's, but she wouldn't publish without you signing off even though I told her the story needs to go out today. To my knowledge, that draft is acceptably factual, except with regards to what happened to Cygnus and Lucretia. I do not expect that to be problematic, however, since the Ministry already falsified that investigation at your direction and is unlikely to backtrack in the current circumstances. Is there anything in there you are determined to contradict?"

Sirius sighed and reluctantly started skimming the lengthy article. It was very much a Black Family propaganda piece. There were vague allusions to Sirius' role as a spy working with Alastor Moody, but it was heavily implied that Orion had known and approved of that all along.

"Any one of the Sacred Twenty Eight could testify to You-Know-Who's penchant for cultivating our youth, primarily as a means to gain access and influence to their elders. My son would never have fallen under his spell, but his name and position were too great a prize to let lie. All have heard of course of the assassination attempt on my son in the fall. With the mounting pressure either to give in or go completely into hiding, it was Sirius' decision to play the part of a double agent, despite the risk to himself..."

There truly weren't many outright lies, mostly just artful deceptions with the truth. The way Orion told the story, and it was impressive how much he must have deduced to twist the facts so expertly, it sounded like Sirius had become a spy only around Christmas. The revised timeline neatly left him out of the Malfoy debacle, preserving the publicly accepted lie of Lucius' Imperius-cursed innocence and Abraxas' martyrdom without a single explicit reference to either man.

As Orion had warned, the only blatant falsehoods were the new details about the "raid" on Uncle Cygnus' manor, which was now implied to be both the motivation for the urgency of Sirius' subsequent actions and evidence for the preexistence of the Black-led conspiracy against Voldemort.

"It was a terrible attack on my brother-in-law's house, and we will mourn his loss forever. Dear Cygnus was targeted not because of his connections to Sirius but because of his closeness to me and my wife. You-Know-Who had no means of harming me, except through Sirius, which he was loath to do. He believed he could use Sirius to supplant me, you see. Sirius had been walking a delicate line, appearing in meetings with other Death Eaters to be completely loyal to You-Know-Who and estranged from the rest of his family, whilst secretly working to sabotage his most evil plans and assisting us in sounding out likely contributors to our growing number of allies who had become disillusioned with the violence and needed only leadership to find the way out.

"The Ministry aurors unfortunately arrived only after the attackers had already fled the scene. I only learned later through my own resources what exactly had happened: the attack was ordered by You-Know-Who himself, although he was of course otherwise occupied at the Crouch residence at the time. The Death Eaters involved had no idea Sirius and young Narcissa were staying with Cygnus... Sirius was recognized by a former Hogwarts classmate turned Death Eater, Felix Mulciber... I am forever indebted to William Rowle for silencing Mr. Mulciber, at the cost of his own life, when Madam Mulciber informed him of the risk to Sirius...

"We knew after Cygnus was killed, we could no longer wait...

"One of the greatest tragedies of this war is that it was truly a civil war, with members of the same family fighting against each other. The House of Black is fortunate that our members are so strong-willed. Only my niece Bellatrix of all our younger generation fell in with the Death Eaters, and only through the corruption of her husband Rodolphus Lestrange, who was significantly her senior. I admire Madam Mulciber for her ability to stand apart from her husband and even her son in order to do what was right and just, and needed, to secure the future of her other family. I am sure it was a gut-wrenching decision for her to make. Few witches could do the same; clearly my niece could not, even though her father and I would have supported her if she had come to us before Rodolphus broke off contact. I do not know what fate has in store for Bella if she survived the fire in Lestrange manor, but I hold out hope that there can be mercy and rehabilitation for all those such as her for whom joining in the war effort was not truly a choice..."

Unsurprisingly, there was no claim of responsibility for setting a dementor loose in London, only for Sirius making use, at great personal risk, of a ritual guaranteed to kill Voldemort despite the powerful magic he used to protect himself at all times, the details of which were "classified by the Ministry." Once he reached the end of the article, Sirius looked over the papers at his father. "You're not planning on turning Bella over to the Ministry at all? You're just going to keep her asleep for... how long?"

Orion shrugged. "Depends. If and when I am successful in pushing for leniency for those who were coerced to join the Death Eaters against their will, as you and your friend Richard Avery were, then I will wake her and convince her to take that option. If I am unsuccessful, or she is too rebellious, there will be other uses for her." Sirius stared at Orion blankly, and Orion smirked. "Yes, of course I know she was perfectly willing to join the Death Eaters. I do not think it's fair to say it is her fault, though, so much as her nature. Is it right to send her to Azkaban merely for who she is, for how she was born? Her natural inclinations to viciousness are not something she could ever change. They can be much better controlled, however, if she is kept on a tighter leash by her family. It was a mistake marrying her to Lestrange; he was enamored of her wildness and magical power. It was the same thing that drew him to the Dark Lord... but that is neither here nor there. Is the possibility of redemption for your cousin unacceptable to you, Sirius? If so, that is a small thing to strike out. I can make arrangements to turn her over to the aurors later this morning."

"Guess she doesn't mean much to you, no matter what you said in this," Sirius muttered.

"Bella's worth is in what she can bring to this family," Orion said dismissively. "If her best worth is in going to prison to appease your morals so you'll agree to work with me on more important priorities, that's fine."

Sirius shook his head. "You don't have to send her to the Ministry today."

"Good. Anything else you find objectionable?"

"I really... don't care. Say what you want. If Madam Mulciber's fine with you dragging her son's name through the dirt, why should I object when I'm the one who got him killed?"

"Quite." He sounded amused. "Is there anything that you know Auror Moody or Albus Dumbledore have hard evidence to contradict?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "They're perfectly aware that I was not working with you and that Cygnus was high up in the Death Eaters."

"Of course, but I don't think they will say anything about that if you don't, not with the lies they've already committed to in that regard to keep you safe. Even though the original intent was to protect you from the Dark Lord, you will need equal protection from those of Dumbledore's ilk who refuse to admit to the necessity of violence and will see some of your activities as abhorrent and deeply criminal, despite the favorable outcome. Fortunately, even if it would be beneficial to him to cut you off, Dumbledore will not withdraw his protection from you. Now, I asked for things they have evidence for, not things they merely know because you told them."

Sirius hesitated. Surprisingly, the answer was probably in the negative. Orion had not committed to a definite timeline of events prior to the last month, nor even endorsed Lucius' and Abraxas Malfoy's innocence when Skeeter's questioning had brushed the topic. He wouldn't be caught if that truth came out later; he'd just have to revise his statement and act suitably surprised. Moody and Dumbledore had a huge list of Death Eaters, based both on Sirius' reports and other Order investigations, but only Sirius could confirm most of those names. With a few strategic exceptions like Rookwood, Moody had quickly arrested any Death Eater Sirius told him about they could get hard evidence on unconnected to Sirius. Orion had been careful in the interview to keep the lies and exaggerations mostly to names belonging to people conveniently already dead and unable to contradict him. Sirius was pretty sure Madam Mulciber was on Moody's list of Death Eater suspects, but they must have never gotten evidence of actual criminal activity on her, and now she was going to keep her word and sell her dead son's reputation to buy herself legitimacy again. Sirius could ruin the ploy if he wanted to by telling Ms. Skeeter what really happened to Felix and Cygnus... but he didn't want to. He was tired. He hated politics. He hated his father, too, but not enough to fight him about something like this at four o'clock in the morning. It would only significantly hurt other people.

"If you don't mind lying through your teeth about Uncle Cygnus and Felix and the rest, it's fine as is. Can I go back to bed now?"

"You can, once we've spoken with Ms. Skeeter. I will see you again at a more reasonable hour." He waved a hand at the door, dismissing the locking and privacy charms. The door opened seconds later, and the reporter walked back in, an expectant expression on her lips.

"Well?"

"Sirius found no errors. You have done an excellent job as usual, Ms. Skeeter." He levitated the article back to her.

"Lovely." She snatched the document and slipped it into a crocodile-skin handbag. She smiled toothily at Sirius again and held out a business card to him. "A pleasure to meet you, Heir Black. I do hope you'll remember me when you are feeling up to a full press release of your side of the story." She nodded respectfully at Orion. "Lord Black. I'll ensure the first paper off the press is sent to you."

"Thank you."

Dear Severus,

I don't know how to say all the things you should hear from me, but I guess I'll start with the simplest: I'm sorry. I was an awful friend. I'm sorry for everything I did to try to pressure you into joining the Death Eaters. I'm sorry for breaking up your friendship with Evans. I'm sorry for sabotaging your prospects on the job market. I can only say, I've never been so glad to fail at something as I did recruiting you. It didn't take long after getting out of Hogwarts to realize how right you were not to want it, and I'm extremely glad in retrospect that Sirius' joining the Death Eaters was conditional on you being kept out. I hope you found a good job and lived through the year unharmed. If you need anything, tell me, no strings attached. I can honestly say it is now safe for you to contact me. If you can forgive me, which I know was never your strong suit, I would dearly love to be your friend again. I don't have many friends left, and very few of them are as worthy of the title as you. I miss you. You were always the clever one, and now I think you were also the wise one.

Sincerely yours,

Richard Avery

Severus reread the letter for the third time. He wasn't sure which was more grating at the moment: Richard's letter, or all the fawning articles in the morning paper about the ascendancy of House Black. Oh, the headlines all purported actual news, but the upshot was the same, from the article interviewing Lord Orion Black to the various Death Eater sympathizers fired at the Ministry, none of whom were related to the Blacks. Probably the worst was the separate article entitled "Family Torn Apart" interviewing Felix Mulciber's mum: she condemned her husband and son viciously, even while citing the Dark Lord's "corruption" and "manipulation" as the reason for her menfolk's failings. Severus' feelings about Felix were decidedly mixed. The young wizard had always had a nasty sense of humor and a suck-up attitude around higher-ranking purebloods. It should have been obvious to anyone old enough to know about the war that Felix was destined to join the Death Eaters all the way back in third year. If his mum had objections to that, she should have intervened sooner. On the other hand, Felix had also been one of Severus' very few friends in Slytherin House in recent years, one of the only people in the world with whom he'd had any sort of camaraderie during the period that Lily wasn't speaking to him. It was painful to think of him both as a murderer and as murdered in turn.

I don't have many friends left, and very few of them are as worthy of the title as you. I miss you, Richard had written. Richard had always been the sentimental one of their little group. The weaker, gentler one. The Slytherin because of name and blood purity, not because of character. Odd that he had survived where Felix, who had been manifestly more cutthroat and competent as a duelist, had died.

Severus' timer spell went off. He stirred the experimental potion six times and added the lacewings. The potion turned purple, although a slightly paler shade than he had anticipated. He made a note in the lab book. He picked up the letter again.

"Jesus, Sev, what is that? I swear you've been reading the same letter all morning," Lily said. She was sitting at his desk, working on her wedding vows at long last. She and James were entirely at loose ends now they had no real Order assignments in the wake of the battle on Sunday. They had both dithered nonstop over the Sirius Black problem at first, before realizing they had no way into the Black stronghold in London, and therefore absolutely nothing to go on short of watching the house and writing Sirius letters that would probably be intercepted if their paranoia about him was even half justified. Although the few older members of the Order who had been at that meeting on Monday (namely Euphemia Potter and some older bloke named Aberforth) had seen the futility of this and decided to use their time more practically, Lily and the Terrible Trio had still set up a rotation schedule to spy on the house. This stupidity was particularly irritating to Severus in light of the fact that James did have other things he needed to be doing in his father's wake, such as keeping the company he had just inherited from falling apart around him. Severus had therefore intervened, in the interest of keeping his job. He didn't try to talk James and Lily out of the ridiculous spying scheme, but he made sure the Gryffindors agreed to take sensible precautions and composed a separate schedule for James and Lily to Get Their Other Important Shit Done.

Hence why Lily was sitting in his lab working on her vows while James was in the main office meeting with the Sleekeazy administration team, such as it was.

"Sev?" Lily said again.

"It's from Richard," he said briskly. He folded the letter up and put it in his pocket.

"Richard?"

"Avery," he clarified. He wondered suddenly if she had ever learned Richard's and Felix's first names before.

Her expression darkened. "What does he want?"

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "To apologize, mostly."

"...What?"

"Apologize."

"Er, for what? For being a Death Eater?"

"No, for being a bad friend by trying to convince me to be a Death Eater," he said drily. "If you can believe it, it was not the life he had advertised it to be, and he says he's glad I was spared."

"Oh."

"Quite." He rearranged some ingredients on his table, just for something to do. "You know Felix is dead, don't you?"

"...Mulciber?" He nodded. "Yes. I read it in the paper." He nodded again, staring into space. After a moment she asked awkwardly, "How do you, er, feel about it? I mean, about both of them?"

"I have no idea," he said honestly. They were silent for a moment. It wasn't exactly easy to talk about his ex-friends that she had never approved of. "Felix... wasn't a good person. I know that. But he was still... someone who didn't hate me... when that was what I needed."

"Oh, Sev..." She got up and started walking towards him. He pretended not to notice and moved around the table, putting his cauldron between them.

"And so I'm not happy to know he was killed."

"Of course you're not. I'm not even happy to read about Death Eaters being killed anymore, Sev. It's just... it's sickening, all the death."

He nodded wearily. "Richard wasn't bad like Felix," he said.

"Maybe not to you," she said softly. "But he was still a Death Eater."

"I know."

"He was there on Sunday. He's the one who stopped James from rescuing Sirius."

"I already heard that, thanks." His lips twisted at the reminder, though. James and Lily and the others were angry at Richard for keeping them from Sirius-fucking-Black, thinking it was some scheme to keep Sirius in the hands of his family. Severus had his own opinion once he heard the full account, though. Whatever Sirius had done in the battle on Sunday, it sounded like Dark magic of the highest order. Richard most likely knew that and was very sensibly making sure Sirius ended up in the hands of either healers or Dark wizards who would know what to do about it, rather than concerned but inexperienced and ignorant teenagers. It wasn't a mature response, but Severus felt a little betrayed that Richard had decided to save Sirius from James Potter's foolishness. It would have been poetic in the irony... and it would have broken James and hurt Lily. Better for everyone that Richard had a conscience.

"What are you thinking, Sev?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me. I can always tell. And whatever it is... I'm not going to be mad that you were friends with your dormmates. I'm not going to be mad if you want to respond to Richard's letter."

He arched an eyebrow. "Really?" he said skeptically.

She blushed. "I mean, you've really been amazing putting up with James and Remus and Peter after everything they put you through in school. I know you do it for me not because you actually ever wanted to make friends with them. It's the least I can do to show you the same courtesy. I really was... a possessive arse towards you at times."

He snorted in laughter and finally walked back around the table to hug her lightly. "Was?" She punched his shoulder. He sighed dramatically. "Fine. I think Richard was helping Sirius, not fighting James."

"You don't think Sirius would rather be here than in that awful house?"

"No, I think there's a good chance he'd be dead by now if that house elf hadn't come for him. Seems to me like the Blacks were expecting him to collapse on the field. We don't know the details of what Sirius was up to, but Richard probably did. The Avery and Black houses are traditionally pretty closely allied."

"Are they? I didn't know that." Her brow furrowed. "How do regular people even learn about things like that? They don't exactly write down House alliances in a directory or in the Prophet."

"There are some uses to being on friendly terms with a Slytherin," he teased. "It's common knowledge there. You can't really exist in Slytherin House without learning the politics."

"That is so weird. But, useful. I wonder... do you think Richard would know what's happening to Sirius now? Or be able to get a message to him?"

"He might," Severus said with what he considered to be admirable neutrality.

She studied him carefully. "Do you want to get in touch with him again, Sev?"

He shrugged uncomfortably.

"If you don't want to, is it alright if I write to him, to ask about Sirius?"

Severus burst out laughing.

"Care to let me in on the joke?"

"Sorry, Lils, but... his mum never let me visit their house when Richard wanted to invite me, because I'm a halfblood. It's just... funny to think of him corresponding with anyone muggleborn. Don't get me wrong, he might write back, especially if his mum doesn't see the letter, but..." he snickered again.

"I see. I could get James to write it, I suppose."

Severus shook his head, making his decision. "No, I'll write back. I'll see if he's willing to meet me somewhere to catch up, and you and the others can come along."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "It's better this way. I can sound him out before you approach him. Nothing on paper that might make the Blacks come after you." And it would be clear to Richard that the meeting was business. If he wanted Severus' friendship back, he would have to work for it.

"Could that be dangerous for you?"

He shook his head and pulled the letter out of his pocket for her to read. "This wasn't written as an ambush. Trust me. I know the difference."

Author's note: I've enjoyed slowly developing the Lily-Sev friendship over this fic into something a healthier and more mature than what they had as kids. It's a nice antidote to completely ruining Sirius' life lol. Canon Snape just never had a chance to figure out who he could be as his own person, constantly defined by his relationship to Lily, Voldemort, and Dumbledore. And canon Lily didn't seem to understand/care that Snape literally had no other friends besides her, that the handful of Slytherins like Mulciber and Avery hoping to use him for their own ends were the closest alternative he had. They can both wise up a bit outside of the Hogwarts environment. Chapter title in reference to the eponymous melancholy song by the band Badfinger. Thanks for the reviews, look for the next update next Saturday as usual.