Chapter 30 - A Staggering Discovery
Oh why could life never just be simple?! Sirius' cousin Andromeda had had her baby just before Christmas and Sirius still was yet to meet her. It was a girl named Nymphadora (Sirius didn't ask…) and, what's more, she was a metamorphmagus! He was surely missing all the very best stages, and it was so unfair that he was apparently supposed to not remember his middle cousin existed.
True to her word, his mother had indeed blasted her niece from the family tapestry. Sirius examined the scorch mark where her name had been, thinking how cruel it was that a girl who his mother had known since babyhood could just be eradicated from all their lives like that.
He'd tried to convince his mother to let him stay with Alphard again this summer (from where he may be able to sneak off to see Andromeda and Ted), but she had forbidden it. Regulus, despite his word to the contrary, had in the end grassed on him for going to James' the previous summer.
His brother seemed to hate the fact that Sirius was so close with the boys in his house but wouldn't give him the time of day at school and, in the first week of the holidays, when Sirius (despite ignoring him all year) still refused to play gobstones with him, he 'let it slip' over dinner what his brother had done. It had been quite as ratty as the time Peter had hidden his DADA textbook.
His mother had bellowed herself hoarse, cursed him and locked him in his bedroom which he hadn't minded so much as he could still talk to James through the two way mirror, and he'd never had Peter's appetite for meals anyway. What had been the worst thing was the fact that there was now no way he could go and see his cousin or any of his friends this summer.
He couldn't even write to them as he was unable to sneak out of the front door to the owl post office either, and was sure Regulus wouldn't let him use his own bird, Morpheus, after feeling so slighted by him this year.
Bloody Slytherin pride, Sirius thought for the thousandth time, cursing his brother, his house and family allegiance as he stuck another Gryffindor banner up over his bed.
Regulus was certainly the perfect pureblood prince his parents had been hoping for (but didn't get) with him. He kept them both entertained and delighted with stories of school and Slytherin over dinner. Regulus was popular with the boys in his house and part of the little group including Rabastan Lestrange, Rupert Wilkes, Avery and Mulciber. Apparently Snape was becoming a more regular addition to the gang too.
"He's only a half-blood, so his opinions aren't regarded too highly." He told their parents haughtily. "But he knows some pretty good hexes and curses. No one messes with him. Except my dear brother of course." And his lip curled unpleasantly.
Sirius scowled at him from his place at the dinner table. What a sneaky, slippery snake his brother surely was.
"Is this the same Snape we had a letter home about last term?" His father said crossly.
And the term before that, and again the year before… Sirius recounted in his head. Why McGonagall kept writing to his parents about he and James' treatment of the Slytherin boy he had no idea. Wasn't the definition of madness doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result? Which muggle had said that?
"There's only one Snape." Sirius agreed.
"Why can't you be more like your brother." His mother snapped for what was surely the thousandth time. "We haven't had a single letter home about him."
"How very dull."
His father sighed. "Sirius, you're fourteen now. Isn't it time you grew up? What are your ambitions for after Hogwarts?"
Well, that was easy. Take down as many death eater scumbags as possible. How could he phrase that politely?
"I'm considering my options." He said. Well that was true. He had the option of taking down Malfoy or Lestrange first.
"I know exactly what I want to do after Hogwarts." Regulus told them proudly. "I'm going to join the death eaters."
Oh here we go…
Fighting the urge to speak with all his might, he watched his parents lavish praise and admiration on his younger brother, who bore it all with an air of unconvincing modesty.
"It's the right thing to do. Anyone with any proper wizarding pride says so." He caught Sirius' eye. Sirius glared at him.
He spent most of that night complaining to James about his future death eater brother into the two way mirror. "He's a total berk. Can I come and live at your place instead?"
He was of course joking. He'd never be allowed. But as time wore on, he did wonder how much more he could bear of this.
"Anything you've picked up to report to Moody?" James asked.
Sirius shook his head. The trail really had run dry. The best he'd been able to share had been what he'd overheard last summer. It filled him with dread to think how much was going on that they weren't aware of and what was being ignored. Because things were being ignored. Eugenia Jenkins' government had made precisely zero arrests. He couldn't understand it. If he was in charge he'd have been arresting everyone. Yes, perhaps some were innocent, but surely it was better to take them in for questioning then release them? What was she so scared of?
"I'm starting to wonder if the ministry can do this." James said, frowning at him. "Something I noticed when I was visiting with my dad… everyone seems so afraid of losing power. I don't reckon Jenkins wants to rock the boat because then people will disagree with her and she'll be forced out of office."
Sirius snorted. "What's more important? Being in charge or doing the right thing?"
James looked at him seriously. "For them, being in charge."
Sirius swore. "We're never going to win this war."
Because 'war' was surely what it was. Just last week there had been a 'gas explosion' at a care home in Weymouth. Seventy muggles were dead. Sirius' parents had snorted dispassionately as they'd read this. "They're losing their touch." They had said of the death eaters. "No one cares about a load of old muggles. They need to target what matters."
But Sirius supposed the muggles cared. He supposed their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews care. He supposed the staff who worked there (who weren't in the building on the day in question) cared. The muggle prime minister, Harold Wilson, it seemed, also cared. There was a piece in the prophet about the pressure he was apparently putting on Jenkins to sort this out.
"Why not target him instead?!" Sirius' mother had said crossly. "Cut off the head and the body will die!"
"That's barbaric, mother." Sirius told her, though he shouldn't really have been surprised. His great aunt Elladora had beheaded house elves when they became too old to carry out their duties. It seemed his family didn't have the same sensitivity for the suffering of others as most people did. But neither it seemed did the death eaters. They would apparently stop at nothing to show the ministry what they would be willing to do to seize power. Sirius knew they had to wait until they graduated to be of any real use, but would there be a world for them left to fight for by the time that came?
It wasn't until the middle of August when a piece in the papers really shook Sirius though. "Bloody hell!" He exclaimed over breakfast as he read the article. "Ouch!" He yelped seconds later as his mother hit him with a stinging hex. He glared at her. That wasn't really swearing was it?
Anyway, he couldn't help himself. The article in question was too shocking. Their DADA teacher, Professor Keatley, had been murdered. She'd been found dead in her home in Surrey with her husband. The dark mark had been cast into the sky over her house and there had been a note, left in blood, on her wall. Right to rule. Mudblood fool.
Sirius felt a shiver run down his spine as he read. He had liked Professor Keatley. She'd been kind and helpful (though he supposed compared to Yaxley the year before, anyone would have been), and a very good teacher. He remembered what she'd been saying about wanting a change of scenery from her office job at the ministry. What a terrible, cruel waste of a life.
"What is it?" His brother asked, frowning at him.
"We're getting a new DADA teacher, little bro." He said, showing him the article.
His mother snorted. "That mudblood filth has finally given up, has she?"
"She was murdered." He said coldly. "I don't think she had much of a choice."
The rest of the summer passed in much the same vein. Every day there was a new disappearance or murder. But the article he had truly hoped to see, the one in which the ministry stated they were at war with the death eaters, that they would take 'any means necessary' to bring them to order, never appeared.
His parents took him and Regulus to King's Cross station on September 1st. Though he had apparently been old enough to walk there alone in his second year, precious Regulus it seemed, was not.
He had his broomstick with him. Despite Sirius never having been bought one, over the summer, their parents had bought Regulus a Nimbus 1000, a brilliant model that had been recently released. James talked of it constantly.
Sirius wasn't jealous. He knew flying was really Regulus' thing. It had been the main reason he hadn't tried out for the Gryffindor quidditch team in their second year. How would it have been trying to hit bludgers at his brother, who would inevitably join for Slytherin? Unfortunately the animosity was too great between them for that to have really mattered now, but he supposed there had always been a small hope things could have been different.
"You going to sit with the blood traitors?" Regulus snapped as their parents left them at the platform.
"If you mean my friends, yes."
"Oh well piss off then." His brother said.
Sirius snorted. He'd never had dared say that in front of their parents. "Gladly." He said and went to find James and the others.
"Another term, another year." James said philosophically as Sirius joined him and the others in their usual compartment.
James had changed over the summer. He'd grown taller (they all had) and his shoulders were broader. Sirius supposed he must have changed too. He was certainly getting a lot more female attention, even from the upper years, which he hadn't noticed before and wasn't quite sure how to feel about now.
"Any plans on how to spend it?" Sirius asked his friend, though he thought he could guess the answer.
"Winning the quidditch cup of course." James said, proving Sirius right.
"What about you, Remus?"
"Oh I don't know. I suppose we'll be busy preparing for our OWLs, won't we?"
Remus had also grown over the summer, but whereas James seemed more confident for his growth spurt, Remus seemed somehow more awkward. He hunched over on himself, and Sirius wondered, not for the first time, how he was doing since his mother's death. It had only been six months ago, after all.
"OWLs aren't until fifth year." Peter told him. Because they didn't know that already…
"I expect we'll have a lot to prepare." Remus explained. "Did you manage to finish your potions essay in the end?" Sirius assumed the two of them had been in correspondence over the summer.
"No." Peter said unhappily. "I listened to what you said about the different solutions making a solid, but I couldn't make any sense of it in the context of the shrinking solution. Will you help me?"
Remus smiled and said that he would. Remus really was a saint, thought Sirius. He and James had far less patience with Peter's constant struggles with his schoolwork.
His animagus efforts were not going at all well either. They'd moved onto the third stage of the process now - casting patronuses in order to better connect with their 'spirit animals' whatever the bloody hell that meant, and though both Sirius and James were getting silver shadows of large animals (unfortunately still unidentifiable), Peter continued to produce nothing more than a small, wriggly vapour.
"It's pathetic." Sirius told him impatiently as they practiced in the secret passageway behind the mirror on the fourth floor. "You're nowhere near us. All you're producing is a little puff of smoke. Are you a wizard or what?"
"Don't talk to me like that!" Peter snapped. "You always do that, talking down to me like I'm nothing."
"Well stop being such a bloody whiny rat about everything then."
"Stop being such an arrogant berk!"
"At least I can produce a patronus."
"You're insufferable."
"Oh go and hide my defence textbook again then. Professor McDougall would love that, wouldn't he?" Professor McDougall was their new DADA teacher. Though he had none of Yaxley's cruelty, he was quite as strict as Professor McGonagall.
"I told you I was sorry for that."
"Still makes you a rat."
"I'm not a rat!"
"Wait a minute…"
Both of them turned to James who was staring at Peter. "Do your patronus again."
Peter did so. It was unmistakable.
"Oh my God."
"Merlin's beard!"
"Peter, you're a rat!"
The irony that Peter had been the first one to correctly identify his spirit animal, despite the other two constantly telling him to 'hurry up', was not lost on Remus (though he still disapproved of the whole thing.)
"That's great, Peter." He told him encouragingly as they joined him back in the common room. "So much of magic is self awareness. Good for you."
"Thanks Remus. Sirius didn't think I could do it."
Yup, Peter was definitely a rat.
It took James and Sirius another few weeks to master the spell. In fact, it had been Lily Evans who had done it for James in the end.
He had successfully led Gryffindor to victory against Slytherin in their first match of the season. It had been a particularly enjoyable one for Sirius to watch as it was the first Reg was playing as Slytherin seeker. Clearly however he was focused far too much on proving himself as an excellent flyer (though without James' skill to compensate) and he missed the snitch five times and was hit by a bludger twice. "Brilliant." Sirius said from his position in the stands which caused Remus to frown at him.
After the party in the common room, they had headed to one of their well-known secluded alcoves on the first floor for some 'boys time', which Peter had insisted on. Sirius, James and (possibly, but he wasn't sure) Remus had all used this as a spot to take dates on, as it was significantly off the beaten track and served as a nice private spot. With this in mind, Sirius had also brought with him a bottle of firewhisky he had nicked from his parents' cellar over the summer. While Peter had promptly spat out his first mouthful, he, James and even Remus drank a fair measure each and were quite enjoying the after effects when they heard the sound of girls' voices in the distance.
"Do, a deer, a female deer"
"Re, a drop of golden sun"
"Mi, a name, I call myself"
"Fa, a long, long way to run!"
It was singing, and it was getting nearer.
"So, a needle pulling thread"
"La, a note to follow So!"
"Ti, a drink with jam and bread"
"That will bring us back to doe…"
Lily, who had been singing, stared at them. They all stared at Lily.
"What are you doing here?" James and Lily asked at the same time.
"Hanging out." They both replied together.
"This is our spot, Potter. We've been coming here since first year."
"We even carved our names into the stone!" Mary MacDonald said with a giggle.
Sirius knew they had as Sylvie had pointed it out to him when they'd done the same thing with their initials. He looked up at his ex-girlfriend who was avoiding his eyes. He knew she was going out with a Slytherin fifth year now and though she seemed to bear no grudge against him for breaking up with her last Christmas, it was still a little awkward when they met socially like this.
"That's lovely. But carving your name into something doesn't make it yours." James told her. "We were here first. So bugger off."
"Can't we share?" Bessie asked reasonably.
"I'm not hanging out with her." James said, nodding at Lily.
Lily glared at him. "Well I don't want to hang out with you either."
"OK, we'll go." Remus said, getting to his feet. "We've had it long enough, it's only fair."
"Sit down Lupin." James said, pulling him back down. He looked at Lily. "Why should we leave?"
"OK, don't then. We'll go. Heaven forbid you're actually chivalrous for once in your life."
"I am chivalrous!" James said hotly.
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Bullying Snape, hexing the Slytherins, obsessing over your own pathetic reputation rather than the quidditch team's? Potter, you are about as chivalrous as the giant squid."
Sirius snorted. James looked at him. His eyes were wide and wounded. He looked back at Lily, blinking like a deer in headlights.
"Evans, I don't know why you think I'm an arrogant toe rag, because I'm really not. If you opened your eyes and actually looked at the foul cretin you spend so much time in the lair of, you'd realise I'm not the one with my priorities all wrong here."
"Don't you dare speak about Severus like that!" She said crossly. "You don't know what he's been through!"
"Besides a gallon of grease, you mean?"
Lily drew her wand and pointed it at him. And there it was again. James didn't startle easily, but with Lily, his eyes were wide and alarmed as he froze before her.
"Shut up." She snapped. "Severus Snape is ten times the wizard you are."
James stared at her. "What?!" He yelped.
"Come on James." Remus said. He'd got to his feet now and was pulling James by the sleeve. "Let's leave the girls to it."
"But - but- did you hear what she…?"
"I've got an idea." Sirius said, as someone had to distract James from his anguish. "Let's go to Hogsmeade. I know a certain bartender at The Broomsticks who has no objections to your big head, Potter." He got to his feet and picked up the bottle of firewhisky. "Knock yourselves out." He said, giving it to the girls. "Not literally." And they left.
They took the secret passageway they had discovered in their second year to get to Hogsmeade, the one that led them to a little thicket of trees just outside the village.
James blinked dazedly as they emerged in the open air. "Blimey."
"What?"
"It's a deer."
Sirius poked his head out of the trap door. There was indeed a deer there. It was staring at them looking much like James had as Lily had shouted at him.
"It's you, mate." He said, laughing as he made the connection.
"Excuse me?"
"That's how you look when you're talking to Evans."
"How very dare you." James said, climbing out of the trap door and offering a hand to help the others. "I am far more dignified a creature than a boring old deer."
"Oh dear…." Sirius said. He had just made another connection in his head.
He didn't mention his thoughts to James as they entered The Three Broomsticks and ordered butterbeers. Madam Rosmerta was as delighted to see them as she always was when they popped in (Hogsmeade weekend or otherwise) and brought up a chair to their table to join them as it was so late and the pub was so quiet.
"I never snuck out while I was at school." She said, stirring her gillywater. "I know Gideon and Fabian in my year did, but my dad would've skinned me alive if he'd found out. He's the landlord." She added by way of explanation. "So it would have been a pretty stupid thing to have done."
"Well, we'd never do anything stupid." Sirius told her.
"Reckless. Dangerous. Liable to get us killed… but not stupid."
"You are a little stupid." Peter told James and Sirius grinned appreciatively. "Especially when it comes to Lily Evans."
"What?!" James yelped again. "How am I?! She's the stupid one here. What is it she sees in that foul oaf Snivellus?!"
"Girl problems?" Madam Rosmerta asked him.
"I don't have girl problems." James said a little defensively. "I have a problem with a girl."
"Lily hates him." Peter explained to Madam Rosmerta. "And James can't understand it because she's the only one who does."
Rosmerta gave James a knowing sort of look. "I think I get it."
He looked at her. "So why does she hate me then?"
Rosmerta smiled mysteriously. "Come back in three years time and maybe I'll tell you then. One last round before I close up boys? It's on the house, least I can do for all the laughs you've given me tonight!"
"What did she mean by that?" James asked, frowning after Rosmerta. "What does she understand?"
Sirius didn't consider himself at all qualified to give advice on girls. He'd dated a number of girls since Sylvie but none of the 'relationships' lasted longer than a few weeks. He just got bored too easily. What was the point of a girlfriend outside a bit of fun? It was when they started asking if they could be 'official' that he panicked. Official? Officially tied down? He couldn't imagine anything worse. Hadn't he spent his whole life looking for freedom? Who in their right mind would throw that away on a girl?
"I guess you'll find out in three years." He said with a shrug.
Still merry from the firewhisky and butterbeer, they sang as they walked back the tunnel to Hogwarts.
"Do, a deer, a female deer…" James' voice came, echoing across the passageway. "Where's that from?"
"The Sound of Music." Remus said. "My mum… my mum used to like it." Sirius saw Peter squeeze his arm sympathetically.
"I didn't know a doe was a female deer." The shorter boy said. "What's a male deer called then?"
Sirius grinned. He thought he knew the answer to that. He whispered it in Peter's ear and he giggled.
"What are you two whispering about?" James said, spinning around and glaring at them suspiciously.
"Nothing." Peter and Sirius said together.
They'd wait for him to catch up.
...
A/N: Hope you liked it! :) To answer Sirius' question, the famous muggle was of course Albert Einstein.