The Task
It was hard for Sirius to not pretend that Hogwarts was dull and boring to him. He did not need to study herbology if he was to be fighting alongside Voldemort, which is precisely why he only chose to do the useful NEWTS: defense, transfiguration, astronomy, and ancient runes. Walburga reckons there should be a genealogy course for all of the purebloods to learn of the heritage, but Sirius knows Dumbledore would never allow that in a million years, which Sirius is silently grateful for.
He walks the corridors with Mulciber and Snape by his side, Mulciber casting careless hexes on some Hufflepuff first years. Sirius rolls his eyes.
“Rather childish, aren’t you, Adrian?”
“I suggest you start taking on more worthy opponents,” Severus snickers.
Mulciber scoffs.
“I will be, soon enough. For now, the younger years are all for my entertainment.”
Sirius shakes his head with a laugh as he watches Mulciber cast a jelly-legs jinx on some second years. Mulciber snickers.
Sirius never cared much for his supposed friends. It was not as if they cared about him either. Like Lucius always says, Slytherin is about making allies, not friends. Sirius was never one for affection, so not having somebody to be truly close with never really bothered him.
“Sirius,” a sultry voice calls out.
Sirius whips his head around to find none other than Alexis Selwyn coming up to him. Severus rolls his eyes, but Sirius grins. Severus was always jealous of his prowess, of the many pureblood girls constantly throwing themselves at Sirius’ feet, especially the pretty ones. Selwyn was, of course, among the prettiest.
“Selwyn,” Sirius smirks, eyeing the blonde girl up and down, “You look ravishing. How was your holiday?”
Selwyn blushes, staring down at her feet.
“It was great, actually. My father’s been speaking very highly of you. He knows you from your internship at the ministry?”
Mulciber almost laughs, knowing the truth behind Sirius’ dazzling ministry internship, but Sirius shoots him a warning look.
“Yes, I’ve worked with him before at the Ministry,” he says, laying on a charming smile, “He’s a great man.”
Selwyn smiles, blinking her big blue eyes up at Sirius.
“I was just wondering,” she starts slowly, “if you wanted to hang out sometime? Maybe study together or do something on the weekend-“
“Study?” Sirius laughs, “Why would I want to be stuck doing something as boring as studying when I’m with a beautiful lady such as yourself?”
Selwyn’s eyes flicker with a bit of mischief, a dark blush covering her cheeks.
Sirius grins, loving the effect he has on her.
“Meet me tomorrow night after dinner in the third-floor corridor by the bathrooms. Can’t wait to see you there, darling.”
Sirius shoots the girl a wink and swears he sees her eyes light up before he turns and saunters away, Mulciber and Snape scrambling to follow.
“Black, you slag!” Severus hisses, “All of your bloody romantics with Selwyn made us late for transfiguration.”
Sirius smirks.
The three Slytherins race down the corridor, quietly slipping into the back of McGonagall’s classroom at the end of the hall, where they are met with all eyes on them. There is a loud snicker from Potter and Salazar, Sirius could muffliato him right now if this was Professor Slughorn’s class. Curse bloody McGonagall, who has a stern look on her face.
“Mr. Black, Mr. Mulciber, Mr. Snape. The class started 2 minutes ago. Where were you at this time?”
The other two boys look sheepish. Thank Merlin Sirius has always been smarter than them, more cunning and resourceful, the true embodiment of a Slytherin.
“Discussing with Professor Slughorn about his next Slug Club dinner. He said he apologized for keeping us so late, professor. It won’t happen again,” Sirius says, words rolling smoothly off the tongue.
“Bullshit, I saw you lot terrorizing some first years just down the corridor,” Marlene McKinnon shouts from the back of the classroom.
Sirius doesn’t miss the flash of red in Adrian’s eyes.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, McKinnon!” Mulciber yells, lunging for the blonde, causing startled yells from the other students in the class. Luckily, Severus holds him back, but it does not help calm down the fury of McKinnon’s friends.
“Bugger off, Mulciber. Marlene just said the truth. No need to get your knickers in a twist!” James Potter retaliates, and it takes everything in Sirius not to roll his eyes.
“Oh come off it, Potter. Not like your opinion matters anyway, you’re just a filthy blood trait-“
“SILENCE!” McGonagall bellows.
Sirius watches as Potter slouches back in his seat with a smirk on his face. Pettigrew gives him a high five. Even his half-breed mate, Lupin, gives Potter an amused look. Gryffindors always get their way.
“I will see you in detention tonight, Mr. Black. Be in my office at 7,” McGonagall grits out, “and 20 points from Slytherin for inappropriate language.”
“It was self-defense, professor,” Sirius says, turning back towards Minerva with his best charm.
“You and your friends show up late to my class and expect there not to be some sort of punishment? You’re a NEWT student now, you’d think you’d have some sense of decorum,” McGonagall rolls her eyes, “Take your seats.”
“Gave me fucking detention, can you believe that?”
Regulus blows a puff of smoke out through his pink lips, brushing a curl out of his face.
“You know what McGonagall’s like. She’s one of those Dumbledore fanatics, like Potter and McKinnon and the lot of them. She favors them over people like us.”
“Yes, but it’s all so bloody ridiculous. She had me clean her quidditch trophy case for an hour. All of those idiotic believers of Dumbledore’s bullshit all think of me as nothing more than a troublesome delinquent. If only they knew. The Dark Lord chose me as his youngest follower ever, and I’m still stuck here serving detention when I could be out fighting in this bloody war,” Sirius sulks, lying down on the cobblestone floors of the Astronomy Tower.
There is a lull in the conversation for a moment, where neither of the brothers makes a sound other than their exhales of smoke.
After a period of comfortable silence, Regulus speaks again.
“What is that task the Dark Lord spoke of? Before we went to the platform?”
Sirius smirks.
“I hoped you would forget about it.”
“If that’s the case, then you truly are an idiot, brother.”
Normally that sort of comment would have made Sirius crack a smile, but his face remains solemn, pushing himself to sit leaning backward on his hands.
“I wish I could tell you, Reggie,” the elder sighs, “Merlin, I wish I could.”
Regulus nods.
“I understand.”
Sirius sighs, reaching to light another cigarette and putting it in between his teeth, grinning as it loosely dangles from his lips.
“It’s exciting really, to be chosen for such a task. Don’t get me wrong, it's scary as hell, but I believe I can accomplish it.”
“You will,” Regulus assures, “He trusts you, that’s why he’s given you this task, and not Evan or Mulciber.”
Regulus drones on, but Sirius cannot pay attention to his encouragement, not when he can still hear the Dark Lord’s words fresh on his lips.
“There’s a werewolf at Hogwarts.”
The thought both terrified and excited Sirius. Somehow, Dumbledore had let a werewolf in. A real, bloody werewolf, lurking through the grounds every full moon, yet no one had even the slightest idea.
Sirius’ task was to find the wolf and persuade it to join the Dark Lord. That was His newest strategy, gaining support from dangerous magical creature factions, such as werewolves. Through whispers shared between Bellatrix and Lucius, Sirius heard all about the troubles of getting Fenrir Greyback to join their side. Werewolves did not trust wizards after centuries of prejudice against them, but if a werewolf was already immersed in the world of wizards, their trust could be easier to gain. Fortunately for Him, he received a tip from a very reliable source over the summer stating there was, in fact, an unregistered werewolf at Hogwarts.
No information was known about the wolf’s identity. Dumbledore, the smug bastard, had done an irritatingly good job of covering the whole thing up. Sirius, however, was going to unveil the whole charade, threatening to tell the wolf’s identity to the ministry if he wouldn’t play along.
Only four people in the entire wizarding world know about this debacle: the Dark Lord, Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Sirius Black.
And Sirius was damned if he were to fuck this one up.