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"Do you know why you're here?" Walburga asked with her severe, cutting tone, as Sirius sat in the chair in front of hers, round their dining room table. To her right was Orion, Sirius' dad and to Walburga's left, Regulus, Sirius' brother.
Sirius looked at them with fierce determination in his sixteen year old eyes ready for whatever they had to say.
"Hard to know when there's so many reasons to choose from" he replied, with and evil self-destructive grin.
Walburga stared at her son with such despise, it was impossible to imagine anyone could stand that. How Sirius was still there.
"Don't talk to your parents like that!" Orion screeched at his son's comment. "Talk like that again and you know what will happen."
Sirius didn't even shudder at the memory of the pain that the crutacious curse could make someone endure. He was utterly used to it by then. If that was even possible.
Walburga gave out a angry sigh.
"We have a particular concern in mind today, you see" the woman said, her evil stained eyes resting on the poor Gryffindor's head.
"What now, going to remove my food because it looked slightly more red than usual?" Sirius asked, rolling his eyes. "I can live without food from you, mother."
At that comment, Walburga slapped him.
Sirius stared back up, defiantly, the hand shaped mark on his face meaning nothing to him.
What frightened the boy more was the smile tugging at his dad's face. Why was he smiling?
The man stood up, his grey eyes, so different to his son's own, glowing with cold, shear displeasure and thirst for his progenitors pain, preparing for something horrible.
"Boy, we have decided to... help you onto the right path. We've decided to stop some of these influences you have been receiving" Orion explained.
Sirius rolled his eyes. So it was about being in Gryffindor again, what a surprise.
"What are you going to do? Change me to Slytherin?" Sirius asked. "Oh right, you're not allowed to!"
Walburgas was about to hit him again when Orion stopped her hand and leaned onto the table, right in front of Sirius.
"That wouldn't ensure you stay away from you're nasty little group of people you call friends" Orion replied.
"And what will?" Sirius questioned. "Torture me all you want, you can't make me stop."
Orion stood up and turned away of the table, grabbing something in a pocket inside his jacket.
"Nothing we do to you will solve our problems" Orion replied. "But there are... other people."
Where they going to torture Regulus? Had they found out about how well they actually got in secret?
He knew he was wrong when he saw the letter Orion was holding.
"No..." Sirius managed to form. "No, you can't! Not that, please!"
Orion laughed, he finally knew the little rat's weakness.
"Dear Sirius" Orion read aloud. "How are you, my love? I am well here, with my parents. Although I do miss you, these two weeks of Easter are truly rather glum without you. Blablabla... Love, Remus Lupin."
All that surrounded Sirius mind was pure dread. How they had managed to find the card wasn't a question anymore. What where they going to do with his Moony?
"Looks like we have a little queer in the house, right, Walburga?" Orion asked. "How disgraceful."
Sirius finally managed to think straight.
"Please, no!" He begged. "I'll do anything, I swear!"
Walburga's eyes rested on her eldest son's face.
"And what makes this time any different?" she asked.
"Don't hurt them, they've done nothing wrong!" Sirius pleaded.
"We won't hurt them, don't worry" Orion explained with fake pity. "Not as long as you don't talk to them."
What was Sirius supposed to do, simply ignore them without a word?
"Just, let me explain it to them once, I promise I'll leave them alone after that!" Sirius asked.
"And let you plan some kind of idea to overcome this? Do you think we're stupid, boy?" Walburga asked.
Sirius got up from his chair and ran over to where his parents were, throwing himself in front of them, almost like he wanted to be punished. He didn't care, not if there was a chance to protect his friends with an explanation.
"Please, just once! And that's it! I swear! Please!" Tears were now streaming down his cheeks. "Please..."
The pain hit him before he knew what had happened, all his cells on fire. Regulus looked away at the nasty show.
When the pain stopped, Sirius stopped yelling. When had he started?
Through his sore eyes he merely managed to see his father showing the card in his direction. "If you even exchange one word with any of them, especially that Lupin boy..."
The card went up in flames, and with that, Sirius hope to ever talk to his friend again. To his boyfriend again.
The return to Hogwarts after the Easter holidays that year was especially hard. How was someone supposed to ignore his best friends? The boy he loved?
The platform was utterly crowded with people. It was too simple hide from Remus, James and Peter. Sirius wished it weren't as easy as slipping through the people on the station.
He jumped onto the train and found himself a nice little corner next to one of the exits of the train. It was between one of the short edge'd walls and the cabins, a small space no one ever cared to check.
All the way to the castle all Sirius could think about was the threat his parents had given him. Where they actually capable of tracking him like that? He hoped not.
He knew Regulus wouldn't help them, after the conversation the younger boy had visited his room and hugged him, ensuring that he wouldn't suffer on behalf of Reggie's words.
Dinner at the great hall was going to be the next big challenge.
All throughout the train ride, Remus wondered where Sirius could be. He had sent a letter halfway through the holidays which Sirius hadn't answered, and now that he wasn't on the station or on the train, Remus was worried.
Was his boyfriend okay?
After he hadn't appeared throughout the whole trip, the first thing they did was search for him on the Hogsmeade platform. He wasn't there either. Or on any of the threstral drawn carriages in their line of sight.
He didn't show up at dinner either. Remus was really worried now. Had his parents done something? When they tried to talk to Regulus about it, after dinner, the Slytherin had proven himself cold, far colder than usually, and simply walked off saying something under his breath.
What was going on?
They finally found him in the common room after dinner, asleep in his bed.
So he was alive, that wasn't a problem.
Once there, Remus tried to get into bed next to the lack haired boy. Maybe his boyfriend had simply gone to sleep and this was all some strange misunderstanding.
He was proved wrong when, as he tried to wrap his arms around the other boy, Sirius moved away, creating a distance between them. Not just a physical one.
Taken aback and hurt, Remus went over to his own bed.
Had Sirius suddenly stopped liking him? They had only beet together for a few months, it was a possibility.
Had he finally realised what a letdown Remus was? There's nothing he could ever bring to him.
Had Remus' dreams finally been torn down? He should never have built his hopes up anyway.
The next morning, Sirius was also gone before anyone got up.
During lessons, Sirius would sit on the other side of the classroom and act as if James, Peter and especially Remus were not there.
He would eat alone in an abandoned classroom. He even took the time to skip quidditch practices.
Why was he also ignoring James and a Peter though?
Throughout the day, it was a careful game of cat and mouse. The only place they would ever meet? The staircases.
They had a nasty way of playing with you in that sense.
Twisting at right the wrong moment, moving to exactly the wrong place.
Peter finding himself crossing paths with Sirius on the intertwining stairs.
James walking up the same staircase Sirius walked down.
Some times, Sirius would walk up the stairs, and suddenly he would cross paths with Remus, who gave him a heartbroken look. The Black would simply keep on walking.
Sometimes, standing on the edge, their noses would nearly bump from how close they wanted to be. They never did, though.
When Sirius tried to escape from his friends, especially from Remus, the stairs would play tricks on him, lead him right into the other boys direction.
Once, they managed to end up on the same staircase, sometimes, on the same step, nowhere to go, no classes to take, for either of them. Sirius would look away and pas the werewolf without a single glance in his direction.
Eventually, after a week and a half of this silly valse, Remus managed to corner his (ex?) boyfriend. He was brought, by the staircase, to a corner of the school, right at the moment Sirius walked around it.
The moment the grey eyes, once silver, stared into the golden glimmering eyes, Sirius stopped, gripping the books his was holding tighter. He couldn't move.
"Sirius, what is going on with you?" Remus asked. They never used their real names for each other, it nearly killed Sirius for his boyfriend not to use a pet name or his nickname.
Sirius just stared back into those eyes he loved without end.
Remus just got angrier when Sirius didn't answer.
"Sirius, what is up? Are you angry at me?" His tone was sad, never ending melancholic. "Just don't ignore James and Peter, please..."
Sirius couldn't say anything, he couldn't risk Remus getting hurt.
"What's wrong, Sirius!?" Remus questioned, this time louder and more aggressively. "Is it me!?"
Sirius shook his head at the edge of tears, how could his love think that?
"Then what!?" Remus shouted. "Why are you ignoring us!? Ignoring me?"
That last part sounded so heartbroken, Sirius just wanted to go up to him and kiss him, tell him he would never be able to stop talking to him. But he knew that, if he did, he wouldn't be able to keep on without words. And he couldn't risk anything. Not without knowing what dark trick his parents had up they're sleeve. Anything could happen if he spoke to any of them.
Sirius shook his head more, backing into the wall and sitting down, his books next to him, his head a hurting mess. He sat on the floor hoping to hide his now currently flowing tears.
"What!? Then what is wrong with you!?" Remus asked, furious. Sirius got on his knees and put his hands up as if he were begging, asking for mercy. Maybe Remus would understand.
"You begging now, hungh?" Remus asked, his tone growing colder. It hurt Sirius to see his love like that.
"What is wrong with you, Black!? What's wrong with you!?"
This was the end of the line, using his surname, the one Sirius hated without end, he couldn't take it. He grabbed his books and slowly got up, looking into Remus' beautiful eyes and slowly backed away, mumbling something under his breath.
"What, what is it?" Remus asked, silently.
"Sorry" Sirius replied. The Moment his said the word, Remus feel to the ground, in pain, screaming like he'd been stabbed.
"No! Remus!" Sirius yelled, Remus just feeling another wave of pain as he said those words. Sirius dropped his books and ran away, he ran and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his cheeks wet with tears.
Running through the corridors, he bumped into someone, nearly falling over.
"No running in the hallways! How many times have I told you?" McGonagall asked, after Sirius nearly made her fall down from the impact. When she saw the boy was crying, her face softened into and expression of care, she immediately got worried.
"Mr Black, are you okay? What's the matter?" She asked, kneeling down next to the boy, who seemed to be having some sort of a panic attack.
She guided him to her office which wasn't far away and seated him on a chair. Herself, instead of sitting on the other side of the desk, simply sat on the chair next to the one he was on.
Putting a hand on his leg she got him to calm down, muttering soothing words.
"Are you okay, Mr Black?" She finally managed to ask once Sirius had calmed down.
He breathed out and looked at his teacher.
Without knowing when he had started, Sirius told her the whole story. How his parents had called him down, threatened him and then threatened his friends. And why he was now ignoring them without being able to explain the reason to them.
Once he had finished, he didn't know what to expect from McGonagall.
And what did happen, he'd never even be able to imagine. The woman let out the longest chain of swear words he had ever heard. Some he didn't even know, he just accepted they where terrible from hearing the way she said them.
Sirius looked at her with pure admiration.
"I don't know if to be scared or proud right now" Sirius merely commented, earning a smile from his teacher who then walked off to talk to Dumbledore whilst Sirius stayed in the room.
Remus vaguely remembered somehow walking to the hospital wing as woke up a little later in on of the beds there, Madam Pomfrey running around the hall with different vials.
"Good, you're up!" She said, once she saw Remus try to sit up. She walked over to him and pushed him back to a lying position.
"Stay there, you had the Verbum curse on you" she said, giving him about three different things to drink.
She walked off for a moment whilst Remus took the medicine, feeling a lot better.
"How long was I out?" Remus asked, his soar bones giving away that it had to be at least a few hours.
"Around three hours, it's eight o'clock now" she replied, walking over to him.
Remus replayed all that happened in his head: he'd talked to Sirius, got cursed, somehow managed to get to the hospital wing, gone unconscious there and woken up three hours later, having received the 'verbum' curse on him. Whatever that was... He'd never heard of that curse, and he was Remus Lupin, the all knowing book nerd, so it couldn't be something simply anyone knew.
What really made him feel hopeless and sad was the fact that Sirius would curse him.
First, he didn't reply his letters one day, after that he didn't even talk to him for a week and a half, then he cursed him? He shouldn't of have been foolish enough to actually think Sirius and he would work out.
"Another few seconds of that curse and you would have been dead, you know" Madam Pomfrey explained. "Lucky for you, Sirius was wise enough to run away."
Remus had no idea what was happening. Sirius curse him, fine, maybe he could hypothetically comprehend that, but kill him? That was a little too far. And what did she mean by that last sentence?
None of the questions got answered when both McGonagall and Dumbledore walked in, followed by Peter and James,who looked as confused as he was, and last of all Sirius, who looked terrible. Red eyes and tired, looking at the ground as if he wanted it to swallow him.
"Is he okay?" McGonagall asked, worried as she pointed at Remus.
"He'll be fine. Are you going to do the counter curse now?" Madam Pomfrey asked, making the situation only more suspicious.
"Yes, it's relatively simple. What worries me is the counter curse for Sirius" McGonagall explained.
Sirius was cursed too?
"What going on?" Remus finally asked, sitting up to Pomfrey's dismay, confused and only getting more questions.
The teachers looked at each other. How would they explain the situation?
"It's better if Sirius tells you once this is all over" Dumbledore explained.
"So we each take one student?" Madam Pomfrey asked, looking at the other three, who nodded.
It felt strange when they put Peter to his left and James to his right, McGonagall, Pomfrey and Dumbledore standing in front of one student each.
Out of nowhere, perfectly timed, they all took out their wands and pointed directly at the students bodies.
Suddenly, they all uttered the same words, creating a bolt of light that directly hit the three students.
"Redire ad singu!" they all chanted, letting the magic overflow their targets.
Unlike the pain Remus had expected, when the spell hit, it felt like some kind of weight, which he hadn't known was there before, lifted itself from his shoulders, letting him breathe properly.
When he opened his eyes, he saw James and Peter who where also seemed more enlightened, the teachers, who seemed pretty satisfied, and then there where three shadows, the three curses that had been on them, swimming in the air. And they flew, directly and without mercy, into Sirius, passing through his chest and staying in his body.
What the fuck was going on and why was the love of his life carrying their curses?
The three teachers turned around and stared at Sirius, who seemed about to fall to the ground, tired, exhausted.
"Are you ready, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked kindly.
The student's grey eyes darted from Peter to James, and then from James to Remus. Silver right into Gold.
Sirius looked back at Dumbledore.
"More than ready" he replied, breathing out heavily as if even that hurt him.
The teachers formed a triangle around him, lifting their wands.
"This may be tiring, Sirius, to remove the curse from you're body" Pomfrey warned. Sirius nodded, explaining that he didn't mind.
On the count of three, the teachers breathed in, and, contrary to the small counter curse Remus imagined, started reciting a poem over and over again.
"Ast in maledictionem in ossa, rid hoc corpus, a pondus, et sit."
Over and over again.
Remus couldn't take his eyes of Sirius as the boy fell to his knees, yelling out his pain, but no sound escaping his mouth.
What was going on? Why was Sirius getting cursed? Or un-cursed?
A black wave started spilling out of Sirius, like a cloud forming around him.
The teachers simply kept on chanting.
Slowly, the dense fog that had formed started to glow, stronger and stronger, until it was barely more than light.
Then, it disappeared.
Sirius body seemed untouched, before he fell to ground.
Madam Pomfrey was going to help him get up when he managd to lift his body with his arms.
"Can I talk to them now?" He asked, looking at Remus. "Without hurting them?"
Dumbledore nodded, and the moment Sirius knew he could, he ran, even though he was tired till no end, towards the other three and hugged them tightly.
"We'll leave you four be" McGonagall explained wisely before walking off together with the other teachers.
"What. Did. Just. Happen?" James asked once they all sat around Remus' bed. "And more importantly, Sirius, are you okay?"
Before Sirius could answer, James started reviewing every single inch of Sirius' body, searching for any marks of pain or anything else.
"Jesus, Prongs, I'm fine!" Sirius exclaimed, trying to get away from the other boy.
James shrugged.
"Really, Padfoot, what happened?" Peter asked, also curious.
Sirius stared at the three of them, trying to find a way to explain.
Like he had done with McGonagall, he recapitulated the day where his parents had forbidden him to talk to the three of them, and then how he had no idea what would happen if he did, and then finally how he found out it was a curse after meeting Remus a few hours earlier.
"Minnie explained it was a curse know as 'verbum', it basically infects the people you sleep in a room with, so you three. It basically hurts, if not kills, one of those people if you talk to them. That's how my parents cursed me. And I didn't want to write a card to you, or anything, I didn't know what could happen if I did. I didn't know what they had actually done to me."
Sirius looked away after the whole explanation.
A stone cold silence filled the air.
"Pads, I'd been thinking for a long time, and..." James looked at his best friend. His brother. "Why don't you move in with me and my parents? You're basically- you are part of the family. And it's not fair for you to live with you're biological parents either."
Sirius stared at James without knowing what to say.
"You don't mind?" Sirius asked, hope firing out in his chest. James shook his head.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you" Sirius whispered as he hugged James.
"I'll go send my, well, our parents a letter" James explained, ready to walk out.
"I'll go with you" Peter said, also getting up, giving the other boys a knowing glance.
Once the two of them left, it was only Remus and Sirius to themselves.
"So, ehm... You okay?" Remus asked, not knowing how to start the conversation.
Barely had he said any words did Sirius head snap in his direction.
"Can I hug you?" Sirius asked, unsure. Remus nodded, no time wasted as he felt the other arms wrap around him.
"I am so sorry" Sirius whispered. "I am so sorry I ignored you. Sorry I made you feel angry. Sorry I made you feel sad, you don't have to forgive me, I just hope you do, and I am so sorry I-"
"Pads, stop, Pads" Remus shushed him. "Look at me."
Sirius stared into Remus face and felt himself fall again.
"I am sorry" the werewolf muttered, cutting the other off before Sirius could complain. "I am so sorry I ever thought you would simply stop talking to me out of nowhere. I know you're better that that."
Sirius swallowed. What was he supposed to say.
"C'mon, you must be tired" Remus said, shifting on the bed and gesturing to next to him, for Sirius to get in.
The black haired boy closed the white curtains around the bed to give them a little privacy before tiredly getting in.
Barely were they both covered with the sheets did they get close together and cuddle.
"I'm just glad I can talk to you now" Sirius whispered, looking at the boy he loved so much.
They stayed like that for a few seconds, simply enjoying each others warmth.
"Do you still want to be my boyfriend?" Remus asked, insecure.
Sirius gave him a surprised glance.
"Of course, Moons, what made you think otherwise? I mean, If you don't want to, we can break up, but-"
He was shut up when he felt Remus' lips o top of his own.
They slowly, tiredly, kissed, recovering from what had happened over to last few hours, days, weeks.
"Pads, don't ever even dare to talk, to see, your biological parents ever again, okay?" Remus asked, looking at the other boy. "I'm completely tired of you suffering on their behalf.
"I mean, you where the on I didn't talk to and who ended up suffering" Sirius mentioned, gaining the 'you know what I mean' face from Remus. "But I promise I won't. I'm moving in with James."
Remus smiled and kissed other boy again.
"Now go to sleep, punky, you're tired" Remus whispered with a smile. "Please."
Sirius snuggled closer to the boy he loved without complaining.
"I love you" Sirius said, uttering the words for the first time.
Remus heart shook and his chest swelled.
"And I love you" he replied.