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Chapter One
September 1st
Sirius could smell tea in the air, the slow seeping from the way Lily made it, the muggle way. She insisted it was the only proper way to brew tea, and Sirius thought that there really seemed to be no difference between boiling it with magic or in a kettle.
Sirius turned his head. Laying next to him on the white sheets, was Remus. In his sleep, his face was peaceful. He looked years younger, the weight of years of full moons, and more recently, the war they were fighting, all of that was stripped away and he just looked his age.
If he could wake up like this every day for the rest of his life, next to the most handsome boy in the world, James and Lily and Peter’s laughter ringing up from the kitchen, sunlight streaming through the windows, well, then maybe the whole war would be worth it.
He sat up, and slid out of bed. Remus didn’t even move. “Lazybones,” he muttered under his breath. Remus didn’t even stir.
Sirius got dressed and went down the stairs as loudly as possible. The three of them, Lily, James and Peter, looked up from eating, smiling when he entered.
“Hey,” James said. “We saved breakfast for you. Moony still sleeping?”
“Yup,” Sirius replied, sliding into the seat between Peter and Lily.
Lily was reading the Daily Prophet, her brow furrowed.
“What’s wrong, Lils?” James asked.
Lily slammed the newspaper down on the kitchen table. “I don’t believe this!” Sirius looked down at the bold headline, Over a Dozen Muggles Murdered Near Cokeworth. Beneath the headline, the article talked about “mysterious circumstances” and the lack of competence in muggle authorities.
“I don’t understand how the ministry continues to ignore this! The muggles had no wounds or injuries, they seem to all have been killed out of sheer fright! How can they not tell that this is clearly the work of wizards!” Lily flipped through the newspaper. “And here, look,” she jabbed at the newspaper, “more muggles, who went missing weeks ago, finally turned up, in pieces, and the ministry still believes we have no problem! They only notice when wizards are getting killed, and ignore it anyway if they’re muggleborns!”
“Cokeworth,” Sirius said carefully. “That’s where you lived, wasn’t it? Is anyone you know dead?”
Lily sighed, “thankfully, no, but it's only a matter of time.”
“That’s why we joined the Order,” Peter assured her, “so that we can still fight against the murderers.”
“It’s only a matter of time before the ministry steps in, anyway,” James told them. “Enough rich ‘bloodtraitors’ dead and they’ll have to take notice then.”
“But the point is to avoid deaths,” Remus startled them, coming down the stairs. “What are we talking about anyway?”
Sirius and Peter filled him in.
“That reminds me,” he said, sitting down, “we have another Order meeting tonight.”
“Great,” Lily hissed, maybe we can actually do something.”
“Kick some death eater ass,” Sirius cried.
“Yeah, yeah,” Peter stood up and stretched. “But first we have to go shopping. You guys have almost no food in your house.”
“Yeah, lets all go,” Lily agreed, waving her hand in that way she had been doing so much lately, that made the huge diamond on her ring finger glitter in the sun.
They got back right before lunch time, the sun high in the sky.
James opened the door first, and immediately slammed it shut and drew his wand. “Something was moving in there, in the back.”
“The wards are still intact,” Lily said quietly. They all carefully drew their wands and opened the door as quietly as they could. As soon as he could see inside, Sirius breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s just an owl,” Sirius told them. A very large owl, with glossy black feathers and a stuck up nose - wait. “I know that owl. It’s my mother’s.”
“Oh.” James lowered his wand. He had that sort of expression that Sirius hates, that expression where he’s trying very very hard not to pity Sirius but can’t quite help it. “She sent you a letter?”
Sirius carefully untied the letters from the bird’s leg. That owl had always hated him, and used to go out of its way to bite him. He was pretty sure Walburga told it to. It puffed and preened itself importantly while Sirius looked over the two letters. For a moment, he thought Regulus had finally replied to his letters, but while both handwritings were very familiar, neither were the writing he hoped to see.
The first one was from his mother, which he ignored immediately, and the second one was more interesting. It was Narcissa’s handwriting. Narcissa hadn’t written to him in ages. Not since fourth year, he thought, right after she graduated and she wrote to tell him that Lucius Malfoy was courting her, and asked him if he’d like to be at the wedding. He’d written back, telling her she shouldn’t settle and she was worth ten of Malfoy, but that if she wished, he would be there.
She hadn’t written back.
Sirius glared at the letters, both of them by people who had once pretended to be his family, and in truth never had been, but at least now they’d stopped pretending.
“Padfoot?” James asked, sounding worried and distant, and Sirius realized he’d been staring at the letters for too long.
Remus’s hand was placed on his back, and yet still felt so far away.
Sirius flicked his wand at the fireplace and watched as it roared to life, flickering red and gold, gold and red. Gryffindor colors.
He turned back to his friends and smiled. “My mother wrote to me, crazy bitch. I don’t care what she has to say.”
“Good for you!” James said, and high-fived him.
“It’s a little early for a fireplace,” Peter eyed the burning letters. “You couldn’t have chosen a different destructive method?”
“Nope,” Sirius laughed. Remus kissed him, light and quick, and turned around.
“I’m going to put away the groceries,” he called, “and you guys are going to help!”
They were in the middle of the last bag when there was a pounding on the door.
“I’ll get it,” James said nervously, already drawing his wand.
Sirius heard him open the door and let out a gasp of surprise, he tensed, and then he heard James tell whoever it was to come in. He met Lily’s worried gaze over the kitchen counter. It wasn’t like any of their friends to drop by unannounced unless something was, seriously, seriously wrong.
James appeared in the kitchen doorway, and trailing behind him were three aurors. They immediately scanned the room, and then they raised their wands and pointed at … Sirius?
Remus let out a gasp behind him and started to push himself in front of Sirius, but he didn’t let him.
“What is the meaning of this?” Lily asked, voice hard as ice.
They ignored her and marched over to Sirius. He forced himself to relax as they cuffed his hands behind him. They’d all known that working with the Order was a little outside the law. Dumbledore would take care of it.
So Sirius didn’t struggle when they pulled him away from Remus. He was resigned, yes, annoyed, but not particularly shocked.
He was very shocked however, by what the aurors told him.
“Sirius Black, you are under arrest for the murder of Regulus Black.”