“Is this about those soul-pieces?”
Saturday, December 17
Sirius looked around the table in his flat and grinned at his team.
Tony was absolutely barking mad for letting Sirius take over his and Steve’s prior roles as leader of the Avengers, but Sirius wasn’t going to say a single word of complaint.
Natasha and Clint though, they looked pissed as hell and it was only serving to increase Sirius’ glee at the whole situation.
Sirius swung his legs up on the table, nearly knocking over Pietro’s morning cup of coffee, and beamed at the others that were gathered.
“Good morning, my team,” he said. “How’d everyone sleep?”
“It’s noon,” Natasha said drily.
“And we’re not your team,” Clint added.
“Mm, Tony says it’s my team,” Sirius corrected them with a bright smile.
“And Tony does pay for our food and lodging,” Pietro added with a smirk. “So I believe that it is now Sirius’ team, yes?”
“Alright, alright, we get it,” Bruce said with a tired chuckle. Sirius knew nobody was really upset about the new leadership of the team, Clint threw a ‘congrats on taking our friend’s role’ party just the other night; it was just fun to pick at them.
“What are we doing here?” Bruce asked Sirius. “Is this about those soul-pieces?”
“Soul pieces?” Natasha asked, straightening up and looking at Sirius sharply. “What soul pieces?”
“Maybe if you’d been here when Albus came by then you’d know,” Sirius grinned. When Natasha looked prepared to stab Sirius in the eye, he rolled his eyes and took his feet off the table, attempting to be serious.
“Voldemort is bad wizard, Barnes killed bad wizard, but bad wizard divided his soul so he can’t actually die until we destroy the bloody things.” Sirius smirked at Natasha and added a wink for good measure, “Small enough words for you, love?”
“Oh, Sirius, everything you have for me is small,” Natasha said coyly, batting her lashes while Clint snorted in laughter. Sirius threw his head back and laughed while even Bruce snickered at the easy banter Natasha was so good at.
“Meetings with Steve were a lot shorter,” Clint pointed out as they had once more gotten sidetracked.
“Less effective though,” Sirius countered. He grabbed the sword and diary that Albus gave him from his bag and plopped them on the table. “Gentlemen and Lady, this is our only current mission of importance,” he said. “No pressure, but pretty much all of wizardkind depends on us not faffing about and getting this done.”
And since Sirius was being trusted by Albus to complete the mission and by MACUSA to be a role model as the first known wizard…
It was a lot of pressure, truthfully.
There were a lot of people depending on Sirius to not fuck it up and Sirius had a long history of always fucking things up.
Sirius told James to use Peter as secret-keeper.
Sirius went after Peter instead of taking Harry with him.
Sirius brought Barnes to the Tower and introduced him to his godson.
The only good choice Sirius had made in his life was sending Harry to New York, and even that had consequences.
Sirius took a few minutes to explain the idea of horcruxes to the others, feeling vaguely nauseated as he did.
“Albus thinks there’s seven of them,” Sirius finished up with. “This diary was one, so there’s likely six more somewhere.”
“So we’re looking in the entire world for six more diaries that may or may not have the soul of a wizard inside them?” Bruce asked bluntly.
“They won’t all be diaries,” Sirius explained patiently. “Albus thinks they’d be trophies, important shite.”
“How is that book important?” Natasha asked. She had her arms crossed and a thoughtful expression on her pretty face. “I thought serial killers used trophies from their victims?”
Sirius almost wished Albus was there to explain it better because he felt like he was doing it all wrong.
“It’s more like… trophies that made little Tom Riddle feel important,” Sirius said slowly. He tapped the diary that Harry destroyed with his index finger. “He wrote in this when he was a teenager and made himself feel important through his parentage.”
Which was such a load of rubbish that Sirius wanted to scoff. That was the sort of thinking that his parents and brother had prescribed to.
“This is going to be a nightmare,” Bruce sighed. He pushed his glasses up on his forehead to rub at his eyes. “Albus has no idea what these could be?”
“They’ll have a tie to the magical world and will be somewhere of importance to Riddle,” Sirius shrugged. He knew it was nearly impossible, but it was his first real mission as the leader of the Avengers and as the first wizard known by muggles. It was an impossible mission and Sirius could not bugger it up.
Pietro nudged Sirius’ leg under the table and gave him a nod and a reassuring wink.
“We will figure it out,” Pietro drawled. “I have the upmost confidence in our abilities.”
Which made one of them.
“Do you have any sort of magical voodoo to make this any easier?” Natasha asked Sirius.
“Yeah!” Clint sat up straight and pointed at Sirius with an eager light in his eyes. “Okay, when you crashed Harry’s party—”
“Showed up a little late to my godson’s birthday, go on,” Sirius corrected him with a smirk.
Clint rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever helps you sleep. But you said that the wizard could find the kid—”
“Who is also a wizard,” Pietro murmured with his own cocky smirk.
“Shut the fuck up,” Clint said, wadding up a paper ball and throwing it at Pietro who probably could have dodged it even without his enhanced speed.
“AS I WAS SAYING,” Clint said loudly, refocusing on Sirius. “Isn’t there some magic potion you can make to find these? Like the one that was used to find Harry back in July?”
“The one you didn’t have time to make when Harry was missing recently?” Natasha added.
“That’s for tracking people,” Sirius stressed. “Not… not souls.”
“What about Stephen?” Bruce asked. “Couldn’t he—”
Before Sirius could even explain that he’d seen enough of Stephen Strange the day before when they held a joint conference on the release of magic, a bloody portal opened up just beside Sirius.
“I see we’re finally at the only part of this little meeting that interests me,” Strange said with a smirk as he stepped neatly through the portal. When his eyes landed on the chair to Sirius’ left, Sirius turned and put his feet in it.
Strange was an arrogant, conceited, bastard with his ‘I went to another country and learned magic’ rubbish. It didn’t help that the git was the one who saved Harry and then led the surgery that kept him from dying.
Strange was brilliant and handsome and confident.
Strange was everything that Sirius used to dream about being.
Sirius hated him and he was half in love with the bloody berk and Strange knew it too.
“Quit playing hard to get,” Strange said with a roll of his eyes as he easily pushed Sirius’ feet off the chair.
“Quit being hard to want,” Sirius replied with a sneer.
“I wish the two of you would just fuck and quit this dance,” Pietro scoffed. He was gone in a flash then back just as fast with a bottle of whisky and a stack of glass tumblers.
“Sirius says the stars don’t see it lining up,” Strange said mockingly when Pietro passed him a glass. Sirius stuck his hand out quickly and intercepted it. As Sirius threw it back, his face burned some to see the curious looks from Clint, Natasha, and Bruce.
It was daft, really. Strange had cornered Sirius after their meeting with President Quahog and asked Sirius to dinner. Sirius would have been interested enough, for the company if nothing else, but then Strange ruined it.
“I’ve seen the future you know,” he said with a too charming smirk. “You and I? We’re inevitable.”
“Yeah?” Sirius said, scoffing at the arrogance. Sirius was never one to fall for arrogance, it reminded him too much of his family. Confidence was sexy, arrogance was a quick turn off. “I can see some of the future too and the stars say you’re destined to be alone.”
And so was Sirius, but he was insulting Strange at the time. It had been an outright lie anyway, Sirius hadn’t read the stars since the night they predicted a ‘great tragedy’ when he’d been twenty and he ignored it.
James died the next night.
“Ignore my future better half,” Strange said with a pleasant smile at the team. “We’re having a domestic dispute.”
“I’ll show you domestic dispute,” Sirius muttered before clearing his throat. “Are you here to help or be a pain?” he asked Strange.
“Both, probably,” Pietro whispered to Sirius while he gave everyone else a drink.
“Another thing Steve didn’t do,” Clint grinned widely before he downed the drink.
“A vast improvement then,” Pietro responded sagely.
“Business, please,” Bruce sighed. He passed on the drink and Natasha had no problem snagging it for herself.
For such a thin woman, Natasha could really drink. She claimed it was the Russian in her, Sirius figured it was just her love of making men look weak.
“I am here to tell you all that you’re completely unnecessary,” Strange declared, pointing at everyone except Sirius. “So if you would all like to leave, please, feel free. Sirius and I are more than capable of retrieving the majority of the horcruxes ourselves.”
Sirius sat up and bristled at Strange just inviting himself to their meeting and then dismissing the team without his input. “Oi! Where do you get off?”
Strange raised his brows and licked his lips slowly while holding steady eye contact with Sirius.
“Your bed, preferably,” he said, causing Pietro to sputter on his drink. “But if you insist on us cleaning up the soul pieces of Tom Riddle first, I’m not picky about where we go after.”
Sirius scowled harshly at Strange, oddly embarrassed by his witty tongue. It was usually Sirius who turned innocent statements into innuendos and he didn’t appreciate his own habits being used against him.
“Yup, we’re out of here then!” Clint declared happily. He and Natasha jumped to their feet and left the flat through the exit for the stairs before Sirius could stop them.
“You two seem to have it in hand…” Bruce said slowly with an amused lilt to his voice. He gathered up the papers that Sirius had painstakingly made that outlined the horcruxes and shot him a smile. “Good luck, you know where I’ll be if you need me.”
Sirius wondered if Tony ever struggled with loyalty of the team when he’d been in charge of it. When Sirius turned to Pietro to thank him for sticking around, he was gone as well.
“It looks like it’s just us,” Strange said. He stood up and stretched his arms out in front of him and then offered Sirius his hand. “Shall we?”
Sirius crossed his arms petulantly. “Do you even know what we’re looking for?”
“Not only do I know what we need, but I know where they are as well,” Strange smirked. “Come along, Wizard, let me teach you some tricks.”
It wasn’t as if Sirius had much of a choice, loathe as he was to admit it.
As soon as they stepped out of the portal that Strange swore required skin on skin contact for Sirius to travel through, Sirius gasped.
“Where the fuck are we?” he asked as he stared around at piles of galleons, shelves covered in treasures, and books so old they could be ancient.
“Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault,” Strange said nonchalantly. He grabbed Sirius’ wrist when he reached for a golden necklace on the shelf just beside him.
“I wouldn’t,” Strange warned him. “It seems like it will multiply with burning and worthless copies since you aren’t the owner.”
“Close enough,” Sirius said. He shook his head at Strange’s curious look. “Nevermind, so we’ve broken in Gringotts,” which was actually bloody brilliant, “what are we fetching?”
“That.” Strange pointed at a golden cup sitting on top of a stack of galleons. It was beautiful with the Hufflepuff crest engraved on the front and Sirius could smell the dark magic pouring off it in heady waves.
“I’ll send it back to your place and we’ll destroy it later,” Strange said. He twirled his finger and Sirius watched with no small amount of jealousy as a portal opened up and swallowed the goblet whole.
“Five to go,” Strange said with a smirk, as if he knew that Sirius was unwillingly impressed. “Want to swipe anything for yourself? Proof that you managed to break in the bank?”
Actually… that was something to brag about. The goblins were positively mad, there had only ever been one person who managed to break in before and that had been Voldemort.
Sirius let Strange take his hand before quickly reaching out and stealing the golden necklace that had the Black family crest on it.
It was hideous and Sirius had no use for it, but maybe Harry would want it for his kids one day.
The next time Sirius stepped out of a portal was as different to the vault as day to night.
“Why the hell would someone hide their soul in this place?” Sirius asked with a sneer. The house, shack was a better term, that stood in front of them was old, molded, and nearly overtaken with weeds and snow.
“I don’t pick the hiding places, I just steal the contents inside of them,” Strange said airily. He released Sirius’ hand long enough to draw a circle in the air before them and open another portal.
Sirius squinted through the gold sparks and saw a box float up from a hole in the rotting floorboards. It opened slowly and a ring came from the box, one with a large black stone and engraving on it. Sirius didn’t so much as blink before it disappeared as well.
“That’s two,” Strange said. He raised an eyebrow at Sirius and there was a glimmer of mischief in his deep brown eyes. “When will you admit that you’re incredibly impressed?”
“When I’m in hell, I suspect,” Sirius deadpanned. He sighed when Strange was quick to reclaim his hand. “Where to now?”
“Oh you’ll like this one,” Strange said cheerfully. “Here we go…” He created another portal and pulled the Sword of Gryffindor through it. “You’ll want this,” he winked when he handed it to Sirius.
Sirius rolled his eyes and wondered if the equal exasperation and attraction he felt were how Lily felt for all those years when James tried to get her attention…
If so, James owed her one hell of an apology.
“Hey, kill the snake,” was the only thing Strange said before pulling Sirius through another portal.
That wasn’t exactly enough of a warning for Sirius before he stepped out and found himself face-to-face with a giant snake baring venom covered fangs in his face.
Not a Gryffindor for nothing though, Sirius grit his teeth and instinctively plunged the sword through the mouth of the snake. When he yanked it hard to the side, the snake’s mouth was ripped clean off. Another hard stab drove the sword through the neck - did snakes have necks? - and the head was severed off.
“What the fuck was that?” Sirius howled, pinning Strange with a furious glare. “Are you trying to get me killed?”
Strange was buffing his nails on the well-fit black shirt he wore.
“Hm? Of course not, sweetheart,” he said nonchalantly, his eyes on his fingernails. “I thought you might like feeling helpful.”
Sirius sputtered, “Feeling helpful? I’m meant to be—”
“Yes, yes, the old wizard with the ugly beard trusted no one but you with this task,” Strange drawled. He held his hand out to Sirius with another teasing smile. “Isn’t it more fun with a partner?”
Yes.
“No,” Sirius snapped. He ignored Strange’s hand and looked around the posh bedroom they were in. “Did we come for a horcrux or so I can feel helpful?” he sneered.
“We did, you killed it, congrats.”
Sirius quit inspecting the eerily familiar green and silver decorated bedroom suite and looked down at the dead snake in horror.
“It was in the snake?” he asked, shocked.
“Disgusting, isn’t it?” Strange said, not sounding bothered at all.
Sirius didn’t know what kind of mad ‘future reading’ powers Strange had, but the prat could pretend to be surprised by reality every once in a while.
“Ready to visit your Alma Mater?” Strange asked Sirius after sending the snake’s head to the Tower.
“Where even are we?” Sirius asked as he reluctantly took Strange’s hand once more.
“Mm… Lucius Malfoy’s home, well, Narcissa’s now, I should say.”
Sirius laughed his arse off at that and was feeling a touch more fond of Strange. Anyone who helped him break into one cousin’s bank vault then another one’s house couldn’t be all that bad.
And when Strange summoned a cloak that was laying on the bed, more proof of their trespassing, Sirius was even more fond of the sorcerer.
Sirius didn’t need told where they were the next time they stepped out of the portal together. Sirius could feel it in his bones that he was home.
All around Sirius were stacks and stacks of rubbish - books and furniture and clothes - but the warm embrace of magic in the air was pure Hogwarts.
“You look happy,” Strange said, wiping the fond smile off Sirius’ face immediately.
Sirius shrugged. “This was my first real home,” he said quietly, too pleased at being back to keep up his snark. “I had everything here.”
Sirius had friends and freedom, love and laughter.
His days at Hogwarts were some of his absolute happiest-
Pulling pranks with James.
Snogging Remus in the library.
Even helping Peter with homework had been fun at the time.
Hogwarts brought magic to Sirius’ life in a way his pureblooded family could never understand.
“Columbia University was my happy place,” Strange said simply. He had a brief flash of sorrow on his face when Sirius looked over at him. “My mother wasn’t what you would call a pleasant woman, going to college was something of an escape.”
Sirius did not feel empathy for Strange, he merely had a moment of shared commiseration.
“Yeah, that’s what Hogwarts was for me.” Sirius looked around the entirely unfamiliar room. “I’m not quite sure where we are though…”
“No idea,” Strange said briskly, the moment of vulnerability gone. He clicked his fingers and Sirius saw a little leather pouch rise up in the air from a stack of what seemed to be old quidditch jerseys.
“This is a horcrux?” Sirius asked when the pouch flew straight to his chest and he had no choice but to take it.
“Nope.” Strange snapped his fingers again and a silver gleaming tiara rose up in the air even deeper in the room. “That is the horcrux, the bag is a gift to make our next stop less painful.”
Sirius narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Strange and he slowly opened the pouch while Strange sent the tiara to the Tower. The inside of the pouch was enchanted and Sirius pulled up all his courage before slowly plunging his hand inside of it.
What he pulled out was entirely unexpected.
“A sketchbook?” Sirius asked, staring blankly at the cover of a clean sketchbook. Sirius tried to open it, to flip through the pages, but it was charmed shut.
“A single drop of your blood on the letter B should do it,” Strange said. He watched Sirius intently, an uncharacteristic frown on his lips. “You’re going to cry, which I’m all for men displaying emotions, but be careful not to drop any tears on the pages or you’ll be even more upset.”
Sirius couldn’t imagine what about a sketchbook would make him cry in front of Strange, but he pulled his wand from his pocket and prodded his fingertip lightly, drawing up a small drop of blood.
A blood lock was an old charm, one frowned on by most ‘light’ wizards. The book shouldn’t have opened if it was done correctly, only fam—
“Oh.” Sirius flipped to the very first page of the book and felt his heart stop in his chest.
There, in black charcoals, was a drawing of Sirius himself. It was Sirius when he was younger, his eyes sparkling happily while his lips were curled in a teasing grin that he used to wear so easily.
It was so lifelike, so detailed, and Sirius knew the signature in the corner of the page before he even looked at it.
‘R.A.B.’
“Reggie,” Sirius whispered bleakly. He tilted his head back some and held the book out safely when the first sting of tears reminded him not to smear the pages.
Sirius flipped through the book slowly and was absently grateful for the steadying hand clasping his shoulder while he hungrily devoured each page.
Regulus was a talented artist, he always had been. Sirius used to buy him muggle art supplies for his birthdays and he couldn’t be sure that the book he held wasn’t actually one he bought.
Each page had a different picture on it, all in tones of black and all so lifelike. There was Sirius on a broomstick with a quaffle in his hand. There was James sleeping at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Sirius’ animagus form that Regulus shouldn’t have even known of, in excruciating detail.
James with his head popping out from beneath his cloak, his hair all mussed up and his eyes twinkling.
Sirius with his wand drawn and a fierce look on his young face.
Barty Crouch Junior, laughing his head off about something in the library.
Severus Snape, hunched over a cauldron with steam rising up.
Sirius again, leaning against the rail of the Astronomy Tower, a single tear glistening on his cheek.
James with his head bowed and a sheepish smile on his face in front of an angry Minerva.
Sirius.
James.
Sirius and James.
Reggie spent years hating Sirius from afar and drawing him in his book.
“It’s my brother,” Sirius said, truly choked up and freely crying. The last page was a self-portrait. It was beautiful enough to be in a museum with the greats. Regulus stood in front of a mirror and he was broken and crying on the outside with the dark mark on his arm while his reflection showed a perfect pureblood expression of disdain.
It was as beautiful as it was terrible.
Sirius nearly dropped the book when his shoulders shook with harsh sobs. It was Strange who caught it and it was Strange who wrapped an arm around Sirius when he sank to the ground, crying for all the things he lost.
“I think he loved you a great deal,” Strange said solemnly when Sirius was too wrecked with grief to truly listen. “He must have to spend so much time paying attention to you.”
“I love you, prat.”
“And I love you, little pest.”
“YOU TOOK THE MARK?!”
“YOU LEFT ME!”
“They’re- they’re saying he got cold feet. I’m so sorry, Sirius, Albus’ spy told him that he’s gone.”
Regulus was gone and all Sirius had left of him was a sketchbook of proof that he’d never lost his little brother after all.
And nothing had ever hurt so badly in Sirius’ life.
Sirius bent over at the waist and cried all the grief out that he wasn’t able to do when he first lost Reg-
Not when he died, but when he took the mark.
“I told him I hated him,” Sirius said bleakly. He wiped his face off on a handkerchief that was pressed in his hand. “I said ‘James is my only brother’ and… and Reggie cried, he cried and he never cries.”
“YOU LEFT ME!” Reg screamed, tears streaming down his face. “I NEEDED YOU AND YOU WERE GONE!”
“SO YOU THOUGHT THE DAMNED DEATH EATERS WOULD REPLACE ME? FUCK YOU, REGULUS! YOU WANT TO BE ONE OF THEM? GREAT! BUT YOU CANT BE WITH THEM AND BE MY BROTHER!”
“You- you don’t mean that, Sirius.”
“I do. James is my brother and he’s a hell of a lot better than you.”
And those were Sirius’ last words to the brother he once protected so fiercely and loved so deeply.
“I’m sorry,” Strange said, sounding as if he meant it. “I think that our next stop might bring you some peace, whenever you’re ready.”
Sirius took a few minutes to calm himself and wipe the snot and tears off his face. When he was ready, Sirius accepted Strange’s hand while he held tight to Reggie’s book in his other hand.
“Where are we headed?” Sirius asked once he was on his feet and relatively composed.
“Your house,” Strange said before he stepped through yet another portal and pulled Sirius with him.
Sirius had hoped that Strange meant the Tower, but he had a horrible feeling in his gut that if a Lestrange had a horcrux, a Malfoy had a horcrux, of course a Black would have one.
The two of them stepped through the portal, hand-in-hand, and Sirius nearly dropped Strange’s hand when he found himself in the sitting room of Grimmauld.
The sitting room where Remus and Tonks were quite occupied on the sofa.
“Sirius!” Tonks yelped and rolled off Remus’ lap, adjusting her crooked blouse as she did. “Bloody hell.”
Remus was a deep shade of red when Sirius looked blandly at him, pushing away the envy and hurt that reminded him that Remus, the first love of Sirius’ life, chose Tonks over him.
“Maybe a warning next time,” Remus said gruffly as he subtly adjusted himself to become presentable.
“For Sirius to visit his own house?” Strange tsk’d and squeezed Sirius’ hand quickly. “Maybe you should consider finding a different hideaway for this sweet little May-December romance.”
Tonks’ hair was hanging in her face, hiding the embarrassment Sirius could feel radiating off her. She bounced on the balls of her feet and shrugged in a sheepish way.
“It’s not really May December,” she laughed. “June August, maybe.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Strange said evenly. His remark must have drawn Remus’ eyes to him because suddenly Sirius could feel him staring at their entwined hands.
It gave the wrong impression, but that was suddenly the impression that Sirius wanted to give.
“Remus, Tonks, I’d like you to meet Stephen,” Sirius said, stressing Strange’s first name as his eyes met Remus’. “He’s a neurosurgeon, sorcerer, and an excellent lover.”
Strange squeezed Sirius’ hand in obvious amusement, but he didn’t call him out on the blatant lie either.
Remus stood up slowly and had the maturity to offer Strange his hand, no matter how ill he suddenly looked.
“Remus Lupin,” he said tersely. “How exactly do you two know each other?”
“Intimately,” Strange said smoothly, not missing a beat. He glanced down at Remus’ hand and then raised a condescending brow at him. “I’m going to ignore that given what we just walked in on. Germs, I’m sure you understand.”
Sirius laughed gaily and felt much lighter than he had only minutes ago.
Tonks chuckled too and she winked when she caught Sirius’ eye. Tonks was a good cousin, it wasn’t her fault that Remus was a back-stabbing, boyfriend abandoning, baby forgetting, boot licking, dick.
“Look at Sirius, shacking up with the Sorcerer Supreme,” Tonks said brightly. A quick gesture to the Daily Prophet laying on a nearby coffee table cleared away any curiosity Sirius had about how Tonks knew Strange.
Sirius led Strange over by the hand and only let go to pick up the paper - there was no chance he’d let go of Reggie’s book.
“Aw, look at us,” Sirius said flirtatiously to Strange. On the cover of the paper was a moving black and white photograph of Sirius and Strange taking turns shaking hands with the muggle president, a funny bloke named Obama who apparently knew Harry, and MACUSA’s president. The headline was complimentary too: ‘WRONGFUL CONVICT AND SORCERER SUPREME BRING MAGIC TO MUGGLES!’
“I think I’ll just keep that,” Strange said as he carefully took the paper from Sirius and sent it away in a quickly conjured portal. “To show your godson,” he said when Sirius watched an odd blush grace Strange’s cheeks. Strange held Sirius’ eyes evenly and Sirius could hear the word in his head as clearly as if Strange had mastered legilimency.
“Inevitable.”
“How is Harry?” Remus asked loudly, ruining the moment.
Strange shot Remus an unimpressed look over his shoulder. “You should ask Harry. I’m sure you know how to write a letter, correct?”
Fuck.
Sirius might love Strange.
Remus looked appropriately abashed and Sirius was smiling harder than ever.
“We actually have important business to get to,” Sirius said with as much arrogance as he could muster up. It was easy as he stood side-by-side with a fit bloke who could maneuver muggle medicine as easily as he did magic though.
Sirius always did have a soft spot for swots.
“Excuse us then,” Remus said shortly. He gave Tonks a gentle smile, one that Sirius used to be on the receiving end of, and offered her his hand.
Tonks looked confused for a moment as she looked between Remus and Sirius quickly. Sirius wondered if Remus told her about their history, how Sirius begged for a relationship when he came back from Azkaban and Remus turned him away.
Sirius wondered if Remus told her how easily he broke Sirius with his rejection.
“I’ll see you later?” Tonks said to Sirius, making it sound like a question when she took Remus’ hand and let him pull her toward the front door.
“That wasn’t painfully uncomfortable at all,” Strange said as he let go of Sirius’ hand and sat on the sofa. He looked up at Sirius with false innocence. “Care to tell me the story there?”
“Not especially, no.”
“Fine.” Strange swung his legs up and put them on the coffee table. “Then you better sit, because your elf is going to tell us a story before we get the horcrux from him.”
Sirius closed his eyes for a moment, the easy laughter he felt draining away immediately. It used to be so easy to act aloof and unaffected by life.
Perhaps Sirius was growing up, maturing thanks to the bloody therapy Clint pushed him in. If so, he fucking hated it.
“If Kreacher’s involved then I need a drink,” Sirius said flatly. He sat down on the sofa beside Strange and pretended not to notice when Strange scooted an inch closer to him. Sirius sat Reggie’s sketchbook on his lap and then pulled his wand and summoned a bottle of wine from the kitchen along with two glasses.
“Château Lafite Rothschild,” Strange said, pronouncing the wine perfectly. He held his glass up to Sirius until Sirius reluctantly tapped the glasses together. “Romantic.”
Sirius rolled his eyes and took a long drink of the tart red wine.
“We’re in my nightmare of a childhood home, on the sofa where the first love of my life was mid-shag with my cousin while we hunt for soul pieces of a mad wizard,” Sirius summarized drily. “I don’t think this is romantic.”
“Our next date will be,” Strange said with his blasted arrogance and belief that he knew the future. “Care to call for your elf? I’m sure he won’t respond to me.”
While Sirius would rather walk in on Remus and Tonks again than call for Kreacher, they did have a job to do.
Kreacher appeared when Sirius called for him and the insults flowed immediately.
“Kreacher’s nasty master, disappointment of a son, has returned,” he grumbled as he gave Sirius a half-arsed bow and stared daggers at Strange. “And he brings more filth in my—”
“Hi,” Strange interrupted, smiling widely at Kreacher. “We need that locket you have hidden in your totally not creepy and disgusting cupboard.”
Kreacher stiffened immediately and his eyes went wide with false innocence.
“Kreacher is not knowing what the man is talking about.”
Sirius looked at Strange and grinned when he drew a lazy circle with his finger, showing Kreacher’s little hideaway when he did.
“NO!” Kreacher wailed. The elf lunged at Strange when Strange pulled a thick silver locket through the portal and held it high. “YOU IS NOT TAKING MASTER REGULUS’ LOCKET!”
Sirius’ amusement at seeing someone else torment Kreacher drained away as quickly as the blood in his face did.
“Kreacher, I order you to tell me what you mean,” Sirius said hoarsely, staring at the locket that had a Slytherin crest dangling from it.
Kreacher cringed and he cried and at one point he even began beating his head off the floor, but Sirius was finally able to word a command that forced the story from Kreacher’s mouth.
And that was how Sirius learned of the bravest act he had ever heard in his life. Not from a Gryffindor, so known for their brash bravery and self-sacrificing tendencies, but from a quiet Slytherin boy who gave up everything in private to work to bring down the Dark Lord.
By the end of Kreacher’s horrible tale, Sirius found himself comforting the elf while they cried for Regulus together in each other’s arms.
“M-Master Sirius will finish Master Regulus’ job?” Kreacher asked with eyes shining with both tears and misery while Sirius tried to compose himself yet again.
“Yeah, yeah,” Sirius said, nodding quickly. He was on the floor with his legs crossed and looked up at Strange, pleading with his eyes. “Can you get the sword?” he asked him.
Kreacher followed Regulus’ order to the end, he withstood torture at the hand of Voldemort.
If anyone deserved to finish the horrifying task that Regulus started, it was Kreacher.
Kreacher’s thin arms wobbled when Strange retrieved the sword for him and Sirius stood behind the elf, holding his elbows for support.
“Straight down, Kreacher,” Sirius encouraged him quietly. “Then- then Reggie’s last wish will be fulfilled.”
Kreacher let out a terrible wail of pain as he swung the sword down, breaking the locket and the table beneath it in one go. Sirius kept Kreacher from collapsing and lifted him gently to the love seat. Strange was right behind Sirius, handing him a blanket, and Sirius wrapped it around Kreacher kindly.
“You did good, Kreacher,” Sirius told him, weary to his very soul. “Reg… Reg would be proud.”
“Overkill, perhaps,” Strange whispered when that only caused Kreacher’s tears and shoulder heaving sobs to increase. Sirius nodded in agreement and then turned toward Strange, letting the man catch him when Sirius’ legs wanted to collapse.
“Let’s go,” Sirius said roughly. He didn’t want to stay in the house another moment, he couldn’t. Tonks and Remus would be there for Kreacher, Sirius needed to be somewhere that his brother wasn’t haunting him.
“Back to your place?” Strange asked while his steady hands held Sirius’ arms as support. Sirius would be mortified by his weakness, but he was exhausted.
“Let’s get the last one,” Sirius said bleakly, almost no longer caring about the mission. If it wasn’t for Regulus’ dedication to it and the impact it would have on the last of Sirius’ family, Sirius would call it a day and go drink himself to oblivion while he looked at Reg’s pictures again.
Strange hesitated and Sirius saw in his eyes that Sirius wasn’t going to like wherever the last horcrux was.
“I just want to be finished,” Sirius snapped when Strange wasn’t moving. “If you know where it is—”
“You’re going to be scared and I need you to know that I have a plan,” Strange said slowly. Sirius huffed when the man sent the sword and remnants of the locked through a portal and then opened a larger one. “I lied when I said this required skin-on-skin contact, but I think you might need a friend, if nothing else.”
Sirius held Regulus’ sketchbook tightly and let Strange - Stephen, he’d seen Sirius sob more than once in a single day, Sirius could call him by his first name - take his hand before pulling them through another portal to the final horcrux.
Sirius let out a relieved laugh when Stephen must have changed his mind. They didn’t step out of anywhere dark, mysterious, or tainted by memories that broke Sirius’ heart. Instead, they stepped out in Tony’s living room and startled poor Harry who was sitting on the couch.
“I thought you were going to take us to the last…?” Sirius trailed off at the way Stephen was staring at Harry.
“I did.”
Harry looked up from the bowl of cereal he was eating with a scowl and a curious look in his eyes that were so like Lily’s.
“What’s going on, guys?” Harry asked. “It’s polite to use the lifts, it dings instead of sparks, you see.”
Sirius’ eyes locked on Harry’s scar - a cursed scar for the boy that somehow survived an unsurvivable curse - and if he thought all he did that day, all he learned, had hurt?
Sirius didn’t know pain until he looked at that scar.