Sirius had the words on the tip of his tongue. No one would hear him. No one would know if he gave Snivellus exactly what he deserved. James and Peter would be another hour before they went to check the Shack. Only he would know.
He shivered in the cold of the corridor and stared Severus down as he insulted Sirius. He could just tell him how to get into the shack, tell him how to get to Moony who would rip him to shreds. Then clean up before anyone has to know.
"Well, Black?" Sirius hadn't heard much of what Severus had said. He knew the idea of it all. How he was a disappointment, how his brother hated him. How his whole family hated him. Good, he wanted them to hate him.
He thought of Moony for a split second. Just a flicker of those amber eyes. He had kissed Sirius softly before he had left to meet Pomfrey. No one had ever been soft with Sirius before. But Moony always was.
"Where do you think I'm going at midnight, you oily git?" Sirius asked to buy himself some time. He couldn't do this. He couldn't let everyone think he had finally gone and done it. Become the Black he was always supposed to be.
He couldn't drag Moony into it. He would kill Severus himself, slowly and make sure he regretted every word he had ever said.
"Off to see your lover." Severus did not say the word lover as others would. He said it like it was a foul word. Like he couldn't imagine being weak for someone. That was his loss. But Sirius would not betray Moony. "Everyone knows it. Your parents will know soon."
Sirius knew there were two ways to hurt Severus. Physically, with his wand or his fists. Or emotionally with a fiery redhead that was going to kill him in the morning when word spread.
"Everyone knows, do they?" Sirius asked, a sly smile on his lips. He lifted his chin and looked down his nose at Severus. He was going to buy Evans jewels and flowers for the rest of his life. He was going to apologize profusely, multiple times. And he was going to mean it.
But he would sacrifice anyone for his Moony.
"How are you handling the news, if everyone knows?" This threw Severus for a moment. His snide smirk drops from his lips as Sirius chuckles. "It must have hurt."
"I don't care what you do with your filthy-"
"Ah ah. Don't talk about her like that." Sirius warned, his eyes narrowing at Severus who once again showed his hand. He had been so set on Remus, so sure that he hadn't even seen Sirius arguing with him.
"Her?" He asked. There was a difference between being raised a pureblood and trying to initiate yourself as one. You never let your enemy have the upper hand. You never let them know that you hadn't known information.
"Come on, you already know. It has to be right in front of you. You know why she didn't want you." Sirius goaded and suddenly Severus caught his meaning, his eyes blazing. Sirius deflected his curse easily, with a wave of his wand. "She came right to me, begged me to split her open with a pure-blood cock."
"Shut your filthy mouth." Severus was seething, almost foaming at the mouth. He sent a volley of spells, all of which couldn't get past Sirius' simple shield charm.
"So I did it, Severus. I split her open. I fucked her until she sobbed and even then she begged me to keep going." Sirius chuckled like it was all funny. In his head, he kept a mental tally of things he had to apologize to Lily for. How many diamonds he would have to buy her. "She wasn't even that good."
Sirius tightened his grip on his wand as his shield began to shake under the volley of curses, dark curses this time. He only smirked at Severus' rage. "You can have her now. But every single time you kiss her you'll taste me on her lips. She knows her place, at the foot of a Pure Blood."
Sirius' shield shattered.
In the second it took him to get it back up a curse managed to slip by. He hadn't heard it but he felt it as the knife split him in two from his neck down to his stomach. He didn't give Severus the satisfaction of screaming out, only a small grunt leaving his lips.
"Petrificus Totalus." If he was going to kill Sirius he was going to Azkaban for it. Or he would join him in death when James and Peter found them.
///
Sirius hadn't expected death to hurt quite so bad. It burned and he gasped but he couldn't open his eyes. There were muttered voices as his skin was pulled taut and his veins refilled with blood.
His heart began to thunder in his chest, racing the blood through his system as it worked to return blood to the far reaches of his fingers and his toes. His lungs took heaving breaths in an attempt to keep Sirius from dying.
He wanted to open his eyes, to see who was working on him but his eyes didn't budge, there was something tight over them, restricting them.
"Dittany, we need Dittany." A soft voice rushed and Sirius groaned, writhing in pain. This was worse than anything his parents had dreamed up for him. He couldn't even remember what he had done to deserve this. "Move it!"
Footsteps moved away as the soft voice continued to whisper spells over his skin. Every one of them hurt and he tried to get away but he couldn't move.
"Stop it, you Berk, you'll die." The soft voice whispered again.
"What did you do?" Regulus. Sirius would know that voice anywhere and his body froze. He had to take his punishment so Regulus wouldn't have to.
"Is he going to die, Cissy?" Regulus asked, his voice closer. A cold hand pressed over his mouth as his chest really began to burn. "Get out of my sight Severus, I'll deal with you later."
"I don't know. It was so much blood." The soft voice whispered and then Sirius was floating and then he was asleep.
///
"What do we tell Moony?" Sirius winced, his chest on fire and he gasped a breath, his eyes flying open. He sat up in the bed in search of his wand.
"Woah, Padfoot." Hands pressed to his shoulder and he pushed them away, gasping in pain. His own hands came up to his chest and he heaved breaths that tore him apart again and again.
James took his hands, pulling them forcefully away from his chest. Peter was there too, his eyes wide. Sirius shook his head to clear it and looked around in a panic.
"Moony?" Sirius asked, voice raspy. James and Peter shared a look before returning to Sirius. "Is he okay?"
"He's fine. Asleep in the next bed." James assured him. Sirius didn't have his wand but a wave of his hand moved the curtain back so Sirius could see him. Remus was asleep, a long gash across his nose.
"How did he? He hasn't hurt himself in so long." Sirius tried to get out of bed again but he was shoved back by James once more. He gave his best friend a wounded look.
"You didn't go to the Shack?" James asked carefully and Sirius shook his head to gather his thoughts of the night before. He didn't know what had happened and he fought the fog in his brain.
Severus.
"No. I didn't make it." Sirius told James who looked skeptical. Sirius looked back to Remus again and noticed the lack of chocolate by his bedside before looking back to James' hard eyes.
"You think he did this?" Sirius asked and James shrugged. He didn't want to voice it but there was nothing he found more unforgivable than someone who hurt his best friends.
"It's spell damage, you idiot. I never met a werewolf who could cast." Sirius shoved him and sat himself up in his bed. He unbuttoned the pajamas he was wearing to show James his chest.
It was nothing now. A silvery thin line from his neck down to his belly button. It had cut through muscle and tissue. Sirius could feel the lingering magic that was knitting him back together.
"I need four things."
///
The first of Sirius' demands was easy. A stack of chocolate by Remus' bedside and the second, warm jumper for him to put on when he woke up.
The third, Lily Evans, was a little harder to procure but James let Peter handle that one.
The fourth was an alibi. James needed to invent a story to cover up what happened. Usually, that was Moony but last night had been a tough one. The wolf hadn't been alone in a very long time.
"Black, you summoned me?" Lily Evans stood at the end of his bed and he looked away from Remus, drawing the curtain with his hand. Lily knew, he knew she did. She was Remus' best friend and Sirius had seen how she would take notes for him when he was absent.
"I need to apologize to you." Sirius got out in a rush. Lily looked surprised and cast a glance around the room before pulling Sirius' curtains shut. She took a seat on the end of his bed and he pulled his feet up to make room.
"I'm listening." She gestured for him to carry on and Sirius could feel his throat close up with fear. He didn't want anyone else to hate him.
"I uh, I spoke badly of you last night," Sirius whispered, looking over to the closed curtain. "You have to understand, I love him."
"I know you do." He was surprised by Lily's softness. He hadn't earned it. "What does that have to do with me?"
"Snape, he was so close. He almost - he was gonna find out. I had to lead him off." Sirius explained and Lily listened patiently, her hands clasped in her lap. "I told him, he wanted to know where I was going, I told him to you. I said some awful things. I didn't mean them but word will spread."
"It won't spread," Lily assured him. Her hand reached up to press against Sirius' knees through the blanket. "I've warned him already not to speak of it."
"You knew?" Sirius asked and Lily nodded, a small smile on her lips. "Please don't hate me."
"I don't hate you. I would like to think that when I do have sex I'll be good at it. But I don't hate you." She assured him and Sirius couldn't fight the tears. Lily moved up the bed and wrapped him in an embrace that was as soft as Moony's. "You made the right decision. Anyone who is important to us knows the truth. I don't care about anyone else."
"I couldn't do that to him. I couldn't let anyone know." Sirius sobbed. Lily shushed him, her hands gentle on his back.
///
Sirius had plotted his revenge but it was apparent he hadn't needed to. Lily had shunned Severus, gone along with Sirius' lie. So he skulked to the Slytherins but was met with a cool reception.
The entirety of Slytherin had closed their ranks as many valuable secrets had become known overnight. One's about almost every member of Slytherin. Except for Severus Snape.
Lucius Malfoy had cornered him in the corridor and almost beaten him bloody for announcing that he had caught him trying to snog Andromeda Black after he had gotten engaged to Narcissa.
Narcissa herself had stunned him for insinuating she wore glamors to conceal the weight she was gaining which was apparently caused by a pre-marital pregnancy.
He was more of a pariah than he had ever been and while this brought Sirius an unknown level of pleasure, it wasn't enough. He had almost killed Sirius.
Would have done it if it weren't for Regulus and Narcissa. A family that Sirius had turned his back on. Family which had turned their back on him.
Neither had made any move to talk to Sirius or even return his looks across the Great Hall but he knew it was them. They had worked together to save his life.
///
"How are you feeling?" Remus huffed from under his pile of blankets. Sirius kicked off his shoes and joined him in his little burrow. They lay silently for a while, breathing each other's air before Remus whispered quietly.
"They thought it was me." Sirius didn't have to ask. He knew that Remus had been awake, try as he might to have acted differently. Much to Remus’ disappointment he couldn’t hide from Sirius.
“They did. In their defense, I was found bleeding out from a massive gash down my chest and the last they heard I was coming to visit you.” Sirius whispered, terrified to interrupt their quiet bubble under the blanket.
“Because they think Moony is dangerous.” Remus huffed again. Sirius didn’t have to see him to know he was tearing up. Sirius shuffled closer and pressed his face into Remus’ neck.
“Moony is dangerous. Maybe not to Padfoot but definitely to me. I’m also reckless and impulsive and James knows this.” Sirius assured him. “They love you but they didn’t know.”
“I talked to Lily.” Remus changed the subject entirely. “She told me what you said.”
Sirius winced. He still hadn’t quite forgiven himself for that. No matter what Lily assured him.
“Not my finest moment,” Sirius whispered, his lips brushing the thin skin of Remus’ neck. He could feel Remus shudder.
“She thinks it’s kind of funny. Said she couldn’t understand how anyone would look at you and think you were straight.” Remus laughed and Sirius huffed a breath, smiling when Remus wrapped an arm around him and pulled him closer.
“Not hard to believe Snivellus figured it out. At this point, I think even Binn’s has to know how I feel about you.” Sirius whispered, sobering entirely. “I love you.”
“Just as I love you.” Remus returned, his palm pressing to Sirius’ cheek. “Now come here and kiss me.”
“Anything for my Moony.”