The Butterfly Effect

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, as mornings were wont to do. Sirius was up with the sun, searching through all his old papers and vowing that he was going to chuck most of it. Moments after this pronouncement was made, he found something vitally important to him, and was glad he hadn't. By the time the rest of his dorm-mates were up and about, Sirius had compiled all of his notes in one place, and gotten some semblance of order back to the room.

Because of this, it was with only mild interest that Remus inquired after what he was up to, and the nervous, half-hearted reply was accepted without question. Relieved, Sirius managed to evade offers to go to breakfast, two dates, and a question that he'd never wanted to hear, and would be perfectly happy never thinking on again.

Finally, it occurred to him that the Slytherin pad behind the Library was probably not the most secure place to be passing on secret notes on how to become an illegal animagus. Remus had found a strange room once, that had become both a bathroom, and a room filled to the brim with odds and ends. Sirius turned the corner, and saw the familiar tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach the ballet to trolls.

Alright, Sirius, you need to find the place to teach Regulus to transform. Where would that be? He wandered past the portrait, scanning the walls, and checking into the nooks and crannies for hidden seams or hinges.

He checked thoroughly twice, and was about to give up when a door appeared in the previously empty space once across from the tapestry. "Aha," Sirius murmured, and pushed the door open.

Inside, he found two comfortable-looking chairs, in red and green respectively. On a small table situated between, and slightly in front of the seats were dozens of books. On closer inspection, Sirius realized that they were all about the Animagus transformation; how to do it, how to register, odd facts, and the like. Flipping through one of them, Sirius realized that they had taken a much easier route than the one described by the book. If one were to follow the instructions in there, it would take more than just a few years to manage it. The book detailed months of dedicated praying and meditating, followed by a strict diet to be followed for a year to the day, and various incantations that needed to be spoken on the solstices.

It was a very complicated process, and Sirius was glad that he and his friends had never done anything by the books. Satisfied with the room, he paused, and withdrew his notes from his pocket. "I'll leave these in here," he said to no one. "Please keep them safe."

Leaving the room, he noticed that the doorway faded back into the wall, and prayed that he'd be able to find the room again, and his notes. He made his way down the stairs, towards the library, to where he'd agreed to meet Regulus for the beginning of their training.

He'd just stepped behind the tapestry that covered the entrance - a clever ruse, using a tapestry like one of dozens one might find throughout the school - when an unseen assailant clocked him over the back of the head, sending him sprawling.

Before he could gather his wits, he found himself surrounded. Counting as quickly as his dazed mind would let him, Sirius counted about eight feet; four people.

"I thought I overheard Regulus telling someone to meet back here," a familiar voice sneered. "I never thought he'd have betrayed us to you."

With some effort, Sirius got to his hands and knees, and looked up. Three strange Slytherin students, and Severus Snape glowered down at him. "I thought I smelled something foul," Sirius started, and found himself on his back suddenly, a searing pain in his chest. One of the Slytherins had kicked him.

"You shut your mouth, you filthy blood-traitor!"

"Evan, Rabastan," Snape said quellingly. "Don't get yourselves into trouble."

Sirius placed the names to the faces; Evan Rosier, Rabastan Lestrange, and someone he knew only as Avery - Snape's groupies. "Taking orders from a greasy, unwashed git like this are we now?" Sirius said, with a touch of daring he didn't quite feel. Four to one were not odds in his favour, and his chest was going to bruise where the bastard had kicked him.

"Know what I think?" Rabastan Lestrange, the queer younger brother of Bellatrix's sweetheart Rodolphus, cracked his knuckles ominously. "I think we ought to show him that Gryffindorks don't belong in Slytherin territory."

Avery grinned; it did nothing for his countenance. "I think you're right, Rabs. I think we ought to teach him a lesson in House unity."

Sirius lashed out at the nearest body, Rosier, and landed a good kick before his foot was grabbed and twisted, throwing him off balance. After that, everything seemed to happen all at once. Hands grabbed at him; he was vaguely aware of Avery and Rosier off to his left and right, holding his arms immobile. Snape leered down his nose for a second, and then punched him. Sirius felt bones give in his face, as blood began pouring from his nose.

"Youb basterb," he growled, and struggled against his captors. They held on strong, and the event faded into a flurry of blows and insults.

The torment went on for what seemed like endless ages. By the time Sirius realized that they had stopped hitting him, they were gone. At some point during the attack, they'd pushed him to the ground to begin kicking him. Sirius had simply curled around himself as best he could to protect his face and stomach.

"Sirius, are you- SIRIUS!"

He vaguely heard footsteps thudding up to him, and wished that whoever it was would go away and let him die in peace.

"Who did this, Sirius? Here, stand up, I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey."

It registered finally that the speaker was Regulus, and that the boy was trying to get him to go to the nurse. "No," he said finally. "No nurse. The sbell is Ebpiskey."

"Ebpiskey?"

"Puh. Eh - Piskey." Sirius said carefully, tilting his head back so that the blood ran into his throat instead of onto the ground. Mutual dislike for years or not, Regulus was still his little brother, and he didn't need to see Sirius dripping blood all over the place.

"Episkey!" Regulus said, and Sirius felt his nose knit back together and the bleeding stop. He spat out the excess blood, and vanished it quickly.

"Thank you," he said, testing it by wriggling his nose. "That's better."

"Good! Now tell me who it was?" Regulus was insistant, demanding. Sirius shook his head.

"No one," he said evasively. He could see the goings-on in Regulus's mind through his narrowed eyes.

"This is a Slytherin hide-out. Only the Slytherin's and you know about it, so it must have been a Slytherin," his brother reasoned. "Which one? Who was it?"

"Not telling," Sirius insisted, and then turned to lead Regulus back to the room with the notes. "Come -OW...Shit." Moving hurt; his chest, back, hips, stomach, and legs all felt like he'd been squeezed through a laundry press.

"Sirius!"

"Regulus!" Sirius said back, tauntingly. "I remember my name, thanks. Now come on, it's on the seventh floor."

Regulus hung back only a little bit, watching as Sirius made his way slowly back up the stairs. "You really should go see the nurse, Sirius," he said dolefully.

"What, and let the whole school know I let four nasty Slytherins get the best of me? No offense intended, little brother." He found his way back onto the empty corridor, and paused in front of an empty stretch of wall. "Alright now, you, what's your trick?" He muttered a few more things to it, and began pacing back and forth. Regulus winced every time he took a limping step. Finally, the doorway appeared, and the Slytherin forgot to be sypmathetic to his brother's plight as Sirius beamed charmingly and opened the door.

"I've got all my notes in here, already," Sirius was saying, while Regulus was still gaping around at the room in surprise. "And there are loads of books in here. Most of them seem to be full of crap, but you might find some of them useful."

Regulus, who was bookish by nature, set to them gleefully, almost forgetting that Sirius had been beaten up by his House-mates. Settling into the green chair automatically, he curled up with the nearest book in his lap, and began reading. Sirius scratched a note onto a nearby pad of paper, and slipped out without being noticed.

*

After what had to have been several hours, Regulus looked up as he closed the book. It had been informative, but mostly useless. "Sirius?" He called, and glanced around. Not only was his brother not there, it seemed that he hadn't been for quite some time. The muggle pad of paper made itself glaringly obvious somehow, and Regulus picked it up.

Reggie! You seem to be having a good time over there with "The Animal In You" so I'm just going to skive off and see how James is doing. Don't be surprised if a few of your housemates end up purple tonight. Or more likely black and blue. Meet me back in here tomorrow, around the same time we got here today, and I'll give you a few practical demonstrations. You can get into the room by walking at least three times in front of that hideous tapestry outside, and thinking about it. That's what I've been doing to get in here, anyway. Maybe we'll find an easier time of it later. Don't stay up to late, you closet-case of a Ravenclaw. Padfoot

Regulus smiled. His brother's teasing, friendly tone came through even in the words he'd written, and the Slytherin ripped the page out of the book and tucked it folded into his robes.

On his way back down to the Slytherin commons, he realized that he'd never been this high up in the castle before, and he decided to take a look around. There were the usual portraiture that one found around the castle, but one in particular seemed out of place. There was something about it that set it apart from the rest...

To his great surprise, a moment after he'd singled it out, the frame swung open and a gaggle of third-year Gryffindor students wandered out, talking about their first Hogsmeade visit that weekend. Aha, Regulus thought, not unlike his brother. Continuing past the portrait of a large woman, he glanced out the window, and saw a familiar foursome gathered under a tree near the lake. Sirius was laying with his head in Remus's lap, and both Remus and James were casting spells on him. Regulus hoped fervently that they were healing him.

Seconds later, when he was turning away from the window, he wondered when he'd started caring. Sometime between the beginning of the school year, and earlier, he'd gone from hating the sight of his older brother, to actively seeking him out for company. It reminded him of the times when they were kids, and before Sirius's strange ideas really took hold in his mind.

*

Sirius relaxed into Remus's body-heat, his temperature naturally higher than a normal human's. "Mm, that feels good," he murmured.

"Sirius, who the hell hit you!?" Remus was at his wits end. From the moment he'd appeared, to laying down on Remus a few minutes later, he'd held mum on the perpetrators of his limp, the bruises already forming on his face, and the wince he tried to hide every time he inhaled.

"Doesn't matter," James pronounced as Sirius, using Remus as a pillow, drifted off into a nap. "We'll find out sooner or later, and get them back in kind."

"We're not beating people up at random," Remus argued, stroking Sirius's hair gently.

James cracked his knuckles, and then pulled out his wand and began casting various charms to heal broken bones and bruises. Sirius relaxed almost as soon as the magic hit his body, and they realized how tensely he'd been carrying himself. Remus let slip an incantation to make him sleep, and watched fondly as his boyfriend's face relaxed into a true slumber.

"We don't have to beat them up at random. We'll find out who did it. Either they'll reveal themselves, or Pads will accidentally let dab. And then we'll show them that they can't just pound our mates into the dust without retaliation."

"I really don't think retalliation is what you should be thinking of. You know we take our N.E.W.T.S. this year." Remus's voice contained a tone of the weary-but-fond.

"Oh no. N.E.W.T.S!" James adopted an expression of mock-terror before ruffling his own hair. "Whatever shall I do? Oh, Wormtail! You've got to help me! N.E.W.T.S!!"

Remus laughed, taking the good-natured teasing easily. "Fine. You laugh now," he threatened vaguely. "But wait till the time comes to take them, then you'll see."

He glanced down at Sirius's sleeping face. It was angelic in repose, hiding the devilish demeanor that lay beneath the surface. "Although I wouldn't object to a few hours of Slytherin-hunting. I'm sure it was Snape and his cronies who did this. I just can't figure out why."

"Why else? Because Snivellus is a dirty, whiny coward who can't take a leak by himself, or he'll soil his trousers. He probably saw Pads somewhere, gathered his gang, and attacked. Don't worry Moons, we'll get them back somehow."

Remus smirked, ideas already filtering through his head. "Oh, I know we will Prongs. I know we will."

***
GAH!! This chapter is like torture. I've got so much to do, and so little time. I've got a day off from work, and then several half-shifts, so I'll have a lot of free time to be writing. Hopefully this will actually reach a plot sometime soon XDD