“Sirius!”
The two best friends embraced, clasping each other on the back. The witch they had helped gather her stuff had already hurried on her way.
“What are you doing here?” Sirius asked. James was the last person he’d expected to run into the Ministry. Sirius’s mood was lifted considerably.
“My Dad and I are on our way to talk to the owner of the Tornadoes. They know each other from their Hogwarts days. Something urgent came up, so my Dad had to make a quick stop here.”
Sirius’s mood dampened slightly. The close relationship James had with his father was something Sirius had always envied. It was a childish longing. After all he was fifteen, top of his class in pretty much everything, had a close group of friends, popular among his classmates “ especially female “ it should have been enough. Usually it was enough - he thought of his friends as brothers as it was - still, through the Potters, he’d seen what a family could be like.
“I can ask my dad if you can come along. I don’t see why not,” James offered, sensing exactly what had been bothering Sirius.
“I can’t. I’m here as punishment, so I’m not supposed to be enjoying myself.”
“Ahhh…so they found the posters? Did you end up putting the Muggle girls up as well?”
“Yes and yes. I’m not here for that though…”
“So why are you being punished?” James asked.
Sirius explained what had transpired between him and Leila Yaxley.
“I can’t believe - and with her father and your father right there!” James sounded very impressed. Sirius shrugged, grinning mischievously. He was known for his recklessness.
“Was she any good?”
“It was an excellent kiss.”
“Shame then.”
“Why?”
“Do you believe she’d give you the time of day after embarrassing her in front of her father?”
“You underestimate my charm. I’m not interested any way, not when my parents want me to marry her.” Sirius paused. “What about your love life? Has little Victoria been owling you?”
James groaned. “Yes, weekly.”
Little Victoria Dekker wasn’t really that little any longer. She was only a year under them in Gryffindor, and had been infatuated with James nearly her whole life. The Potters and Dekkers were old family friends, and unfortunately for James, this did nothing but encourage a union between their children. Victoria had grown into an attractive girl, not stunning like Leila Yaxley, but nice looking. However, James only looked at her as an annoying younger relative.
“Do you think she’ll ever give up?” Sirius asked.
“I’m starting to think she only does this to annoy me…” James stated hopefully.
Sirius laughed. James was actually quite right. Victoria wasn’t ‘in love’ with James anymore; she still liked James. The owling, stalking him at Quidditch practices and bothering him in the hallways was now done more for fun than anything. And Victoria still genuinely did enjoy James’s company, so she didn’t see any reason to stop. Last year Victoria had told Sirius this in the strictest of confidences and Sirius, entertained by it was well, didn’t see the harm in not telling his best mate.
“I wouldn’t be too sure.”
James groaned again. “How about you ask Victoria out on a date? She’ll fall madly in love with you and forget I exist.”
Sirius pretended to look horrified.
“And you won’t even have to ask her on a second date…just get her to realize I’m not the only fish in the sea.”
“No, thanks mate. She’s all yours.”
“Some friend you are. Anyway, your parents haven’t backed out on letting you come the week of the fourth, have they?”
“No. What about Remus and Peter? Are they both still coming?”
Sirius’s parents screened the letters he received, so he had little contact with his friends over the summer. Luckily because of a gift from Peter in their second year, James and Sirius could communicate between two-way mirrors.
“Remus can only stay the first two days. He said relatives from Denmark are visiting. I’m still not sure about Peter.”
“At least we can continue with Operation Furry Little Problem once Remus leaves. I really hope Peter can make it then.”
Operation Furry Little Problem was code for their project of becoming Animagi; illegal Animagi. In their second year, Sirius, James and Peter had discovered Remus’s secret. After learning Remus was a werewolf and how horrible the transformation was for their friend, they had begun strategizing ways to help him. Obviously the best solution would be to find a ‘cure.’ Then they had uncovered the fact that werewolves were only a danger to humans and not animals, and if they transformed into animals they could theoretically keep Remus company on full moon nights.
They had not been able to keep their idea secret for long. At first Remus had been shocked and then angry. It was too dangerous…too many things could go wrong…and if they were caught, the ramifications would be severe. It had taken a lot of assurances and after they had shown Remus they were taking it seriously, going over the steps slowly, and researching fully, he had warmed up to the idea. Now almost three years had passed and they were very close to their goal. Remus had refused to help them in any shape or form “ feeling his being the reason for this was egging them on enough; though at times they had tricked him into helping them decipher something by pretending it was for an essay or an assignment.
“I did tell Peter in the last letter I sent that we want to work on you-know-what. He does need all the help he can get,” James said.
“I need to get back before my father starts looking for me.”
“Right. I’ve the mirror on me, so if you get bored later…”
“Left home without it,” Sirius said. “You’ll be too busy salivating over the Tornado players anyway…”
James grinned. “I’ll get you an autograph.”
“Later, mate.”
Sirius first did use the bathroom before returning back to his father’s office. When he returned his father had another meeting to attend to “ this time he wanted Sirius there. The worst part, for Sirius, was how he had to be seen, yet not heard, and at the same time if anyone did ask him a question, he had to be prepared with an answer that would make him sound intelligent, polite, and well-bred.
The men in the meeting were all as stuck-up as his father. Sirius gladly returned back to the tedious tasks in his father’s office when the meeting was complete. The rest of the week was similar to his first day “ without the pleasant surprise of running into James. After five days, Sirius’s punishment was complete, and Sirius had come to the conclusion he would never follow his father into the Ministry.
Peter trailed after his mother, keeping his eyes straight forward. He hated cemeteries; he was terrified of them. His cousin had told him when he was ten that stray, lonely ghosts would sometimes latch on to strangers that visited graveyards and haunt them for eternity. Peter was ninety-nine percent positive that his cousin had been pulling his leg, but he still didn’t like risking it and was careful not make eye contact with any of the tombstones.
Peter’s mother suddenly stopped, having reached their destination. His baby sister, only a year old, had died at the beginning of his third year at Hogwarts. Peter’s mother placed a bunch of withered flowers she’d picked from their unkempt garden. The flowers looked abandoned on the dark gravestone, a reflection of how Peter and his mother felt, for they too were all alone. It was just the two of them now. His father had left barely a year after the death of his daughter. He’d spoken to Peter before he’d vanished. Peter’s father had explained he couldn’t take it any longer and that it was now Peter’s duty “ at the age of thirteen “ to take care of his mother. Peter understood his father’s despair; his little sister would have been the perfect child, unlike Peter. Even sickly and only a year old, Peter could tell she would have been a great witch “ not mediocre in any way.
This summer Peter had been helping his mother run her sweet shop. It was their only income now and it kept Peter’s mother occupied while he was away at Hogwarts. It was unfortunate the week Sirius had planned to visit James had fallen on the week of the anniversary of his sister’s passing. Peter had not the heart to request being allowed to stay over at James’s. He knew his mother would have agreed; she already felt guilty about making him work during his vacation, but Peter couldn’t leave her. This was a hard week for his mother and he was all she had.
Right now while Peter was offering silent comfort to his mother, James and Sirius were probably working on becoming Animagi. He really should have asked his mother to visit James though, he told himself for the hundredth time. He would have benefited from any help his friends could give him as Peter was already a step behind James and Sirius. Part of the problem was his friends could only help him to a point; a lot of the journey was solitary. They could coach him on the enchantment and brew the Revealing Potion, but in the end Peter would have to find it in himself.
Hidden in his room at this very moment was half a bottle of the Revealing Potion; he’d taken it already four or five times. Over the summer, even after finding a quiet area and using all his concentration, he had not felt that feeling he was supposed to feel “ the one described in their various books. Every person felt something different, but it was a feeling of fulfillment and understanding; all Peter had felt was frustration and nervousness.
The Revealing Potion didn’t reveal your true form literally, simply to your unconscious mind. It was all very complicated and Peter had a hard time deciphering it all. Peter knew he only had three more doses of the Potion left “ if he didn’t manage to successfully do it “ it would greatly set them back. The Potion took four months to brew and called for twenty different, nearly impossible to find ingredients. He could still recall that day the three of them had decided to start that venture and how they’d sworn that no one would be left behind; they’d all become Animagi or none of them would. At times he still half-wished that James and Sirius would one day sit him down and tell him that they were just going to go on with it, yet at the same time could not handle the idea of being left out. Regardless, he was the one holding them back and he hated himself for it.
Regulus had just returned from his aunt and uncle’s house. His mother and father had been away at the conference and Sirius had been at the Potters. Regulus entered the kitchen area, cringing at the raised voices. The loud voices should have not surprised him as there was always more yelling and fighting whenever Sirius was home. The tensest times in the Black household were when Sirius returned home from Hogwarts and from the Potters. As it was now the latter, Sirius would be ready to make it clear that he enjoyed spending time with the Potters more than his own blood; that he liked James more than his own brother. Their mother should have known to not rile Sirius with any pureblood talk; not now, with the blood-traitor doctrines of the Potter’s, still fresh in Sirius’s mind. Not that Sirius was any better; Regulus had come to the conclusion that Sirius to an extent enjoyed baiting their mother and father.
His brother was a conundrum; Regulus had tried to understand Sirius’s point of view, but was unable to. Why did it bother Sirius so much that they cared about looking after their own kind “ pure-bloods? It all made sense to Regulus. What was wrong about having proper wizarding pride? What was wrong about looking after your self-interest? The Mudbloods had been doing it; lobbying for years for equal treatment. The magical community was being diluted and fixing that problem was more important than individual rights and freedoms of any one. What rights did the Mudbloods really have anyway? Was it not enough that they were allowed to enroll at Hogwarts? Now they were taking away jobs from pure-bloods - whose ancestors had worked hard to protect their traditions, culture, and magical knowledge.
It was the ancestors of the Mudbloods that were responsible for forcing the magical community into hiding, hunting them down, burning them at the stake. They all knew if the Muggles had their way, all wizards and witches would be killed, or at the very least locked away and forced to do their biding; constantly badgered to fix this, fix that through magic. It was terribly dangerous to allow Mudbloods into Hogwarts because it was through these children that the gap between the wizard world and Muggle world narrowed. As the number of Mudbloods increased, as more and more Muggles learned magic existed through their relatives, and the likelihood all Muggles would learn of the Magical world’s existence increased. And unfortunately the number of Muggles greatly outnumbered wizards “ and though they did not have magic, Muggles had invented some devastating weapons that could endanger the magical world.
“You have no idea what you are saying, Mother. Muggle-borns are just as powerful as pure-bloods,” Sirius insisted. It was an argument they’d had before. Regulus could almost mimic each side of the argument. “There’s a girl in my year, and she’s one of the top students.”
Regulus knew Sirius was referring to Lily Evans; the Mudblood that Severus Snape desired. When it came to Snape, Regulus was in agreement with Sirius; he found the boy equally disagreeable. However Lucius Malfoy liked Snape, and though a half-blood, Snape was highly regarded in Slytherin. Snape was useful, his knowledge of curses and hexes outnumbered everyone; and he’d made enemies with Potter. No one in Slytherin liked Potter; partly because he was so conceited and his personality encompassed all the traits of a Gryffindor (these traits naturally clashed with Slytherin) “ but mainly because since Potter had joined the Quidditch team in his second year, Gryffindor was now a force to be reckoned with. The Slytherin team could no longer assume they’d win the House Cup as they had for the past five years before Potter joined the team.
“Very unusual; that Mudblood must be a freak. You can’t argue against Mudbloods being less powerful by that one pitiful example. Just because once in a blue moon a Mudblood is accidentally talented, does not mean the lot will be,” Mrs. Black argued.
“Obviously not. It’s the same with pure-bloods “ some are more talented than others, but it has nothing to do with blood. It’s just one of those things.”
“It has all to do with blood. Just look at our history - most, if not all, of our magical advances have been made by pure-bloods.”
“Only because pure-bloods have been holding the Muggle-borns back.”
“Just look at your friend, Lupin.”
There was a terrible silence. If there was one way to guarantee Sirius’s anger, it was to bring up one of his friends, and if you wanted to go the extra mile, insult them. Sirius’s loyalty to his mates bewildered Regulus. How could Sirius be so loyal to his friends while so easily dismissing the same loyalty he should have given his own family?
“What about Lupin?” Sirius growled.
“Father a pure-blood “ not an old family, pure nothing less, married a Muggle-born and look how their child turned out. Always ill…scraggly looking…and you know why? Bad blood!”
“That has nothing to do with that. That isn’t why he’s ill…”
“I see no contrary evidence. I’ve looked into his medical records.”
“You what?” There was fear in Sirius’s voice. Regulus wondered if he was hiding something about his friend.
“Oh, yes. I looked into the background of all your mates awhile ago. I had to know about the riffraff you were spending time with. The Potters, I was already very aware of…and the Pettigrews really had nothing interesting there…but the Lupins…At the age of four your friend was admitted ‘seriously injured’ to St. Mungo’s; yet any record besides that bit of information has vanished. Very peculiar.”
“I’m sure the records were just lost.”
“No, it looks like someone deliberately took them. I’ve spoken to various people abut the Lupins and they all agree that there’s something funny about your friend.”
“He’s just ill…there’s nothing suspicious or strange about it…”
“I did stop digging around. At the time I didn’t really see any profit in going deeper. If I were you though, I wouldn’t want to give me any reason to start looking further into things.”
Blackmailing…charming, Mother, Regulus thought to himself. His mother had attempted this strategy before and it only worked to an extent. Regulus decided it might be best to diffuse the situation and entered the room. Sirius turned his head, his grey eyes blazing with anger. He saw no ally in Regulus’s presence.
“Ah, Regulus. Take a seat, diner will be served soon.”
“Regulus, the good son,” Sirius murmured sarcastically under his breath.
Mrs. Black must have heard her older son’s words because she added, “That’s right. Not only the good son, Sirius, but the better one. Start shaping up, show some proper wizard pride, and act more like your brother and I’ll leave your little friend alone.”
Regulus smiled tightly at his mother. He had mixed feelings about his mother using him in comparison. On one hand he craved any compliment from his mother as he rarely received them; yet on the other hand he felt the compliments weren’t fully earned, since they were only spoken in hopes of getting Sirius to behave. If only his mother and father would give up on Sirius, would be satisfied just with him “ but Sirius was the eldest and the child that mattered.
“Regulus has righted all your wrongs, Sirius. He was sorted into Slytherin. He’s made friends with the right people, not blood-traitors. He shows a proper interest in the Dark Arts. He’s actually proud to be part of this family. And we don’t receive loads of detention notices about him.”
“Regulus is weak. He doesn’t think for himself, he just laps up all your pureblood nonsense,” snapped Sirius.
Regulus wanted to argue. He wanted to shout at Sirius that he hadn’t been given the choice. Sirius hadn’t seen the effects of his rebellion. He hadn’t witnessed their mother’s reaction to learning her heir had been sorted in Gryffindor and was slowly turning his back on all the values their family held. Regulus had to do what he was told; their mother would have been unable to take another son’s rebellion. Sirius had hurt their mother’s heart and Regulus would do whatever he could to repair it.
“Enough, Sirius! Now I want silence until your father arrives,” Mrs. Black said coldly.
“Yes, Mother,” Regulus replied. Sirius stayed stubbornly silent. Regulus looked away. Meals like this were becoming typical in their house; every year the arguments growing worse and worse.
Orion Black entered the room. Regulus rose to his feet; as did Sirius, but not without a moment of hesitation “ to demonstrate he wasn’t showing respect willingly. Orion nodded as he took a seat, and the family fell into a stiff polite conversation.
Severus skulked through the deserted streets near his house in Spinner’s End. He was walking back from meeting Lily Evans and he wished he had a solid reason not to return home to his bedroom. His room was not the most welcoming of spaces, with a small twin bed, lumpy mattress, and bare walls besides one Slytherin banner.
Lily and Severus had met for lunch in a small quaint café. Hogwarts was starting soon, and their letters had arrived. Lily excitedly relayed him the news that she had been appointed Gryffindor prefect.
“So when are you free to go to Diagon Alley to buy our books?” Snape asked.
Buying their books together had been a tradition for them since that first summer that they had both received their letters. He longed to spend some more time with Lily. Severus’s summer had been dull and boring and completely lacking of the company of Lily. On request of her parents Lily had found a job; babysitting a two year old and five year old from nine in the morning until two in the afternoon.
Snape had been busy too, helping his mother out in the Potions Shop. Ordinarily Snape enjoyed preparing and brewing potions, but so often did the days he worked fall on the days Lily had off that he felt an invisible being in the sky was laughing at his misery. It all came down to Severus not spending nearly enough time with Lily. Summer vacation had always been a time for their friendship to reconnect; Hogwarts tended to separate them as they’d been sorted into rival houses. Sometimes he wished to go back to their pre-Hogwarts days when Severus had been Lily’s only source about the magical world. He could no longer impress her with bits of knowledge.
“Oh “ well “ I already promised my roommates I’d meet up with them.” She paused looking at him directly. He tried to keep his face stony. “Why don’t you come along?”
There it was suddenly - the gap between them that grew larger as each year passed.
Severus envisioned the pack of silly giggling girls that panted after boys like Sirius Black and James Potter. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“You’re my friend-” she began.
“Best friend,” he corrected.
“Best friend, and they are my friends. It would be nice if you all got along.”
It took effort not to laugh in her face. Snape wanted to tell Lily that she was being naïve. He had nothing in common with a shallow group of girls; especially a shallow group of Gryffindor girls. Her friends had been many times in the group of spectators laughing while Potter or Black tormented him.
“It’s fine. I’ll go alone or find someone else to go with.”
“Severus,” she said, “don’t be like this.
“Lily, what would you say if I invited you to go with my roommates?”
“Your friends don’t think I deserve to lick the mud off their boots!”
This was not the first time Lily had admonished his choice in friends, and he used the term ‘friends’ very loosely. Snape wanted recognition and power “ and to be successful in Slytherin those were the sorts of people he needed on his side to rise up.
He needed Lily to understand his side of things.
“Are your friends any better? Have they not been trying to get you to drop our friendship since our first year at Hogwarts?”
Lily stayed quiet; it was the truth after all. “I haven’t listened, have I?”
Severus looked into her green eyes. His breath caught in his throat. His greatest fear was that one day she would listen “ that out of nowhere she’d suddenly stop speaking to him, ignore his existence as so many Hogwarts students did“ and then his life would fall into bleakness. He feared it was only a matter of time.
He should have explained to her how much her friendship mattered. He should have told her how deeply he cared for her, but as usual he left the most important things unsaid. They had gone on to other topics, but there was a definite coolness between them.
As Severus entered his house his mother called to ask where he had gone. He did not mention seeing Lily. Eileen Prince, Snape’s mother, did not approve of his friendship with Lily “ perhaps she even suspected his feelings ran deeper. Eileen blamed all of her problems on the Muggle she had married, Tobias Snape. Eileen still felt if she hadn’t fallen madly in love (something Snape couldn’t understand by the looks of his father now), she would have either been successful in a career or perhaps married into money. Eileen felt Lily would do the same for Severus; getting into a romantic relationship with her would hinder him. Eileen had been a Slytherin herself; she had known all about the stock many of those people put into purity of blood.
It was his mother who had taught him all those curses, hexes, and spells before Hogwarts. She’d known he’d be disadvantaged as a half-blood in Slytherin.
In his room Snape picked up the paper with notes he’d been scribbling. Last week he’d begun working on a spell of his own making. All words had a certain amount of energy or magic in them; and in order to invent a spell one needed to not only know the energy, but understand how to harness it.
Inventing spells was a scarcely known branch of magic. It was not as difficult as people suspected, but still a very time consuming, meticulous task; and was not something to attempt without first knowing about word energies. See, not all words had energy that was stable enough to be used in a spell. Then some words were stable alone, but not with another word. Other words appeared not to be stable at all until attached to a specific word. It took a lot of work, memorization, and a bit of luck to learn which letters and syllables should be placed together. Once that was accomplished, one had to learn how to harness the energy to do what you wanted, which was no simple task.
Snape had always been interested in control, being able to control your enemy, deny him the very personal human right of movement. He knew of the ‘Unforgivable Curse’ that allowed the caster to force its victim to do whatever the caster pleased. Snape had nothing against the spell, but he didn’t want to risk using it under the nose of the Headmaster “ who was vehemently against anything that even slightly crossed the line toward the Dark Arts.
Snape sat down. He’d already picked the word “ corpus. A stable word usually “ not too high energy “ it fit with a lot of words. He tried a dozen prefixes in front of it, but every prefix he’d tested so far had failed. At this point he was not checking if the actual spell worked, but if the energy of the words fit. There was one more of the list. He wrote the word out on the enchanted parchment:
‘Levicorpus.’
Snape swished his wand around; he didn’t have to worry about the underage magic law “ their house was considered magical. The word turned green, blue, and then red. Severus felt a rush of accomplishment. The words fit together; the energy was stable, so now he just needed to find something or better yet, someone to test it on…
Author’s Note: Thanks for reading, now do the right thing and leave a review ;)