For once, Sirius' shock was so much he didn't even notice the change of scenery, including the sleets of icy water now poring down on him. He just stood there, quaking in one spot, gasping again and again, "I, I'm sorry, I-"

"Sirius!" James finally broke into his line of sight by shaking him, honestly it was a miracle he could see where he was going. His hazel eyes weren't even visible behind the rain smeared glasses, his unruly hair was plastered to his face. "Padfoot, come on mate! Let's get below the stands at least for some cover!"

When Sirius didn't respond, James grabbed his elbow and began physically pulling him along. Sirius stumbled and nearly fell down below, James twirled on the spot and caught him before he could. He kept his hands in place until he was sure Sirius wasn't going to fall over, than caught an even stronger grip on him. Sirius stalled him for only a moment, bending down and picking up what he'd slipped on, nearly lost in the pounding torrent, the purple book. James nodded in understanding, the two now galloping down and underneath the stands where Remus and Peter were waiting, bouncing uneasily on their toes and huddling close under their robes for whatever warmth they could.

"Pads, you okay?" Remus still had to speak a bit louder than normal to be heard, especially as thunder rolled not to far in the distance. "We saw you just standing up there for a whole minute."

"Yeah, we know you're sorry, alright," James clapped him on the shoulder, his face looked scrunched and almost painful between the chattering teeth and his eyes squinting to focus on anything. Sirius just blinked, he hadn't realized he'd still been saying it.

"Really mate, there's ah, there must be some logical explanation for this," Peter tried to reassure.

Sirius couldn't think of anything to say to that. He hadn't even bothered to shake his hair out of his face, it looked like a shaggy mess dripping down all around him.

"Oh, I spot Regulus!" Peter suddenly yelped as a distraction. He was nearly falling down the steps, eyes scanning for some way to slip beneath the bleachers. Peter darted out this time to snag him and tow him inside. He was ghastly pale and looked like a drowned victim, but at least his black eyes were alert.

"Thanks," he panted, taking in their surroundings. "This must be some kind of sick joke," he sighed, turning back to look just as a flash of lighting captured the sky. "We finally get put into the Quidditch stadium, and this madness is happening!"

"Guess we'll have to wait a little longer to get back in the air," James sighed in agreed disappointment.

"Seen the other three about?" Peter asked, trying not to poke his head too far out into the icy rain to scan for them.

"Yeah, opposite end of the field, they were ducking out of this just fine," Remus reassured, finally dragging his eyes away from Sirius, but going right back to eyeing him as he still said nothing.

"Sirius, you're scaring us," James finally whispered.

There was still water leaking down from overhead, a steady drop leaking down and plopping on exposed skin, trickling down their collars and leaving them just as shivering and miserable. The four of them kept swiping at themselves every few moments, shivering to try and keep themselves warm, bundled close to each other, except him.

"We can't pretend this isn't real anymore," he finally managed in a croaky, unfamiliar voice. They would all swear he'd been standing in that rain for years, his face gaunt, eyes focused on nothing. "I, I did something. I, I tried to-" he turned wretched eyes to his best friend. "Prongs, I'm sorry."

James could swear his breath was misting around him, but he didn't even notice as he returned as calmly as if this were still about the weather. "There's nothing to be sorry for Sirius. You haven't done anything, nor will you. Not while I'm here for you."

There was a spark, like a light suddenly got turned back on inside his gray lit eyes. Then he blinked and it was as if nothing had ever happened. It was as simple as that, he shared a smile with him and nodded, clutching the book with new life. "Right then, let's get out of this mess shall we?" He cracked the book open and began reading like it was any other, despite the black words smearing slightly, though his brows ruffled and a slightly unpleasant smile returned as he got out the chapter title.

"Grim Defeat? Blimey, must be Harry's first loss in this mess," Remus shivered, still sidled up as close to Sirius as he could, fighting the urge to stuff his hands in Sirius' pockets for warmth, they weren't doing him any good chasing away the goosebumps.

"If one person on that team gives him grief for it, I hope Harry pulverizes them," James scowled. "This will be a nightmare of a game."

"I hate Quidditch!" Even shouting at the top of her lungs, Lily was barely heard in the sharp sounds of the pattering water. She pushed her sopping wet hair out of her face, which looked nearly black hanging around her.

"Normally I'd like to say otherwise," Alice tried to say between chattering teeth, wrapped in Frank's arms and still shivering as hard as anyone. "On this particular occasion though, I feel compelled to comply."

"Still wanting to try out for the team next year love?" He managed to ask in her ear.

"Let me get back to you on that," she managed a genuine laugh. Lily couldn't help but smile at the two, the temperature just a few degrees warmer she was sure just for the air between them.

The three heard quite clearly the school being corralled into the Great Hall while a search for Black went down.

"Did you see his face?" Alice knew it was pointless to whisper in this downpour, but she couldn't help it. She had to clear her throat twice before trying again in a more stable voice. "Just before we got sent here, when he realized it was him who'd done it."

Frank and Lily both had stoic expressions, but she swore she saw the unease plain in their eyes.

"I think we're being too harsh on him," Alice insisted, trying to bring their hesitation further out. "He hasn't done this yet, and this future's clearly getting to him."

"I just don't know Alice," Frank sighed, brushing her dark hair away from her face repeatedly in the gale winds. "I can't feel safe in a room with him now because of all this, I can't get it out of my head. I'll take this," he needlessly gestured to the ink black sky and another roll of thunder crashing in, nearly shaking them out of their boots, "than be stuck in an enclosed space with no way out."

"It would help if he'd show a little remorse," Lily sniffed, purposefully this time, as she kept sniffling just to make sure her nose was still attached instead of frozen on the ground. "Instead, he just gets this look on his face, like he's daring us to tell him to do it or something."

"We've hardly been around him since we found out, and I still remember his face when we first heard," Alice tried to insist. "Come on Lily, I know you've got bad blood for him and his lot, but-" she broke off as a fork of lightning looked as if it was going to tear the sky in half, and she shivered harder than ever for the bone deep cold around them all.

For the whole of Sirius running through the kids discussion of the events, Sirius felt almost normal about it all. Yeah, this would be exactly what he and his friends would be doing during that time, making up wild theories! He effectively pushed this bizarre behavior of some future of his as far away as he could for now. It's not as if he'd done anything...surely his friends were still right and there was a huge misunderstanding...well until then, he had Quidditch to focus on!

Wood was being a maniac about the whole thing, which was entirely understandable. Sirius looked up and around to mock James for this, he just knew his best mate was going to be just as bad when he made captain!

Then he spotted Peter and Regulus, pacing back and forth to keep warm and chatting quietly, snickering even.

He put up with it as long as he could, but then his frustration boiled over when they found out Moony was skipping one of his lessons, and Snape was taking over! He snapped the book shut and decided he needed a break, leaving James and Remus to mutter quietly to each other with worry as he stormed over to the pair for a distraction.

"So what are you two on about? Regulus, if you're trying to sweet talk Peter into giving away our Quidditch secrets, it's going to take a lot more sweets than this," he smirked.

Regulus gave him a look of pure disdain and marched off, Sirius swore he even stomped in a few puddles as he went around a bend and vanished into the gloom.

Sirius stood there for several moments, glaring after him. That hadn't exactly been his goal, though he should be happy, now they could worry about what Snape was doing in private. He couldn't help it though, he turned to Peter with a look of absolute bafflement. "How do you keep-" he waved vaguely to where his friend and his kid brother had been laughing of all things. He couldn't ever remember making Regulus laugh, and he was the funniest person that little shit knew.

"Sirius, you've been ignoring him long before all this started, it's not my fault I'm actually enjoying making someone laugh." Sirius opened his mouth to protest, but Peter cut to the throat and said what he knew was really bothering him, "it's not as if you've been the best influence. I figured I'd try while I could to show him not all Gryffindors are terrible."

"You're being a terrible mate right now!"

"For, telling the truth?"

"Yes, no, wait...dammit Peter, just say something to make me feel better or I'll go find James or Remus."

Peter shook his head in disbelief at his dense friend as he spelled it out for him while keeping an eye on where Regulus had vanished. "Try being nice to him."

"I did," Sirius protested.

"Yeah, sporadically! Great job there Pads," Peter rolled his eyes. "You just insulted his Quidditch ability, like you two are on good terms, which you're clearly not. I know you were joking," he quickly tacked in for the flush of color managing to come in to his frozen face, "but I'm honestly not sure he did. You could have followed him just now and we would have joined you. You could have congratulated him on helping me prank you instead of continuing to ignore him. You've had an abundant opportunities and you still seem far more invested hanging around Moony now you've got him back than bothering to try connecting with your brother."

Sirius toed the weeping ground without looking at him now, stuffing his hands in his pockets and amazingly not having a response for that.

"Why do you suddenly care anyways?" Peter asked with surprise, in all the years he'd known Sirius, he hadn't even mentioned he'd had a brother until the day he was sorted. Sirius hated talking about anyone who shared his last name, so this sudden interest in him was quite odd enough.

"I, he," Sirius blustered for a moment. "At least before when I could ignore him in a whole castle I could pretend I didn't know what he was turning into, now it's in my face! I, I mean, it won't kill me to try and fix him while I've got the chance."

"Fix him?" Peter demanded. "Well you aren't starting off well mate, thinking you can turn him into you. What do you even want from him? If he never laughs at a word you don't like again, will you go back to ignoring him?"

Sirius opened, then closed his mouth again without response.

Peter just nodded, his point made, and sauntered over to the tense conversation between the last two Marauders.

"-but he might!" Remus' voice sounded like the shriek of the wind, his dark green eyes wild with panic. "Who's to say Dumbledore didn't tell all the staff! Merlin, we already know he knows thanks to Sirius-" Who winced and muttered another apology for that recent slip, but for the first time since it happened, that wasn't what Remus was focused on. "I can't believe I even got this job, he's probably told the whole world by now!"

"Relax Moony," Sirius threw his arm around Remus at once, letting his hand rest protectively on his neck. "Doesn't matter what Snape does for an hour in your class," he emphasized the last two words. "Those kids love you, Harry's made that clear, and they're a bunch of teenagers who already hate Snape. No matter how many snide comments he makes, no one's going to think twice about it."

"Yeah mate, just got to treat it like another day, except instead of sitting in the back with us, you're teaching the class," Peter said eagerly. "Brush it off, laugh, pretend you have no idea what's going on, or all of the above."

"Dumbledore didn't spill your secret now, he's not going to do it then," James agreed at once, picking up his earlier point. "If some like McGonagall still know, than those are the only people who will know! Not that it matters," he finished with a hard smile. The protective flare for both of his friends, simmering just below the surface constantly lately for how attacked they felt, was reaching its boiling point.

Remus swallowed uncomfortably still, but finally nodded. There was nothing for it, they had to get through this to get out of this blasted weather. Sirius had to release him and put both hands back on the book, and he instantly missed the warmth, his confidence wavering again at once. He swore he could still hear the echoes of the screams from his youth playing on a loop in his head, his father shouting, his mother screaming, the pain from that bite the most vivid, all because Snape had to fill in his roll as teacher for the day.

At first Sirius seemed to be right though, despite his snide comments, none of it was particularly new to any of them. They seemed to get through half the class with just his crude critics before he declared today's lesson. The four of them went very still, hatred for what that slimeball was doing leaving them breathless.

"Come on Lily, you've got to admit it's kind of harsh," Frank insisted to her defense. "He is skipping around a lesson plan I have confidence Lupin would have set up."

"So he's pushing them a bit, some like Hermione have surely studied ahead. I'm sure he, ah, does it in his own class all the time," she crossed her arms and hopped in place, though this did nothing to help either her understanding of more brutal tactics by him or the still declining temperature.

"I don't particularly care for his teaching methods to be put in other classes," Alice returned coldly, words even icier than the little icicles hanging beneath the stands now.

Lily grimaced and muttered a soft apology as she remembered all that had been done to Neville, then she blinked back tears and repeated herself in a stronger voice. "I am, so incredibly sorry for him, for how awful he is to your son-"

"You haven't done anything," Frank politely cut across her. "You've been apologizing for him for the past year Evans, if not longer, how long are you going to keep doing it?"

Lily brushed across her face, trying to make it look like she was batting more hair away than the hot tears before they froze in place. She had no answer for him, though she needed one, soon. If she didn't get some sort of explanation for Sev's behavior through this, she didn't know what she was going to do.

"I can't just, judge him because of this future!" She pleaded with them to understand. "He's still my friend in that castle!"

"Yet you seem to find it inevitable this is Black's future," Alice said pointedly.

Lily deflated and shuffled back from them a few feet, the flash of shame at her own hypocrisy finally causing her to give in to the sob bursting from her throat.

Regulus listened to the story progress alone now, mostly tuning out the petty drama Snape was causing in the class, but suddenly very interested in Ron sticking up for Hermione. It wasn't an unheard of thing, Slytherin's had to stick up for each other all the time against the rest of the school it seemed, they all had to band tightly together or be picked off. The difference was, these were Gryffindors, who had plenty of options.

Honestly, Harry's friends baffled him, they had plenty of opportunities to go be friends with others and Harry seemed their only unity. Yet here the pureblood was, sticking up for that know it all Muggleborn despite constantly berating her everywhere else. He would have liked to put it down to the Weasley's and their blood traitor status just wanting to make some ghastly scene like he'd been taught, but there seemed no motive. Ron in fact got a detention for his little show and didn't even seem angry at Hermione for it. He suddenly wondered if he was missing something between Harry's friends.

They finally got to the pumped up Quidditch match, and Sirius put as much enthusiasm into his voice as he could while reading of this. It didn't much work at first, Harry wasn't having much luck in this game. Thankfully Hermione stepped in and gave them all some interesting insight into a new spell, James face looked positively gleeful at the idea.

"Prongs, hold off on trying that please!" Peter suddenly said, snatching his wrist as he began twirling his wand in his face. "Remember the last time you tried a spell that you'd just heard of? It took Madam Pomfrey three hours to get your face to flip back right side up."

"Oh, fine," he pouted, finally taking his glasses off and tucking them inside his robes. "They weren't doing me any good anyways," he grumbled. "I'm demanding your robes to clean them off with though in the next place."

"Fair enough," Peter looked highly pleased with himself for getting Prongs to listen and continued with, "hell, I'll give you my whole shirt."

The other three all laughed at him, but then stopped quickly in surprise at another, possible, Sirius sighting.

Of course, they had no proof this black dog being up in the stands watching Harry play Quidditch was Sirius, it could just be another figment of Harry's mind what with that Grim Trelawney told him about being on his mind, but the odds! All four of them were convinced Sirius was indeed hanging around this castle for something...and hanging around to watch Harry play Quidditch was frankly the best option available.

They dared not breath a word of this, already on tenterhooks about Moony's secret so recently being brought up, their own didn't need anymore whispers. It didn't stop them from sharing smiles with each other as Sirius casually kept going now, feeling absolutely elated at this mention of him.

That was ruined, of course, not a few moments later by the arrival of dementors. Not just one, of course not, it seemed every foul creature that was supposedly guarding this school was suddenly in attendance far above, and the four of them shrunk into each other protectively.

"Why, why haven't they arrived yet," Peter hissed, fighting back the urge to poke his head through the stands and check to make sure they weren't hovering right above them now.

"I, I think they are," Remus stuttered, abandoning any pretenses and finally burying his face into Sirius' shoulder. "I, I've been hearing screaming, in, in my head for awhile now. I, thought it was just," he swallowed painfully, "but apparently, th-they, they're up-"

"Up in the air, where Harry would be after the Snitch," James finished in a diminished voice, hands trembling anyways.

"A good fifty feet away, yeah, let's keep it that way," Peter moaned, the effects of those monsters still lingering on them all the way down here.

Sirius adjusted himself comfortably so Moony didn't have to move, but felt like a detached soul himself as he tried to finish as fast as possible. Whatever magic was keeping them away from those below the stands may not last after all...and things only got worse as they were forced to hear Harry's experience, yet again.

Lily's knees buckled as it all sank in around her, a cascade a water went up around as she lost her fight and sunk to the flooding ground right along with Harry.

"Lily, oh you poor thing," Alice crooned softly, tearing out of Frank's arms and wrapping herself tight around the other girl. The two clung to each other, Lily even sank into the embrace for a moment as she couldn't fight this feeling of isolation anymore, not alone. A stronger pair of arms was suddenly on her other side, and it took her a moment to realize it was Frank. For just a moment, she'd half expected Potter, to pop up in her life like he always did when she least expected it.

They weren't even halfway through this chapter in Harry's life yet, and somehow it all kept growing worse as Harry woke up in the hospital wing and was told the news of what they'd all grasped. Now his broom was gone as well, and as Sirius finished, none of them could imagine how it could get worse than this.