Once again, James found himself standing in the doorway to his father's study. It was getting to be a rather common occurrence, and although James had never been the type who felt that he outgrew his parents, it was unusual for him to spend this much time talking to his father.
Mr. Potter looked up from his desk, glancing at James with a somewhat bemused smile. "What can I do for you, James?" he asked.
James shuffled into the room. This question was a bit awkward. Although he'd known that his surname and money could - and often did - get him everything he wanted, he rarely tried to use either so blatantly. It felt uncomfortable to do so now.
But he was here for a reason.
"What do you know about the Master Medicinal Potioneer training program?"
Mr. Potter frowned. "Not much," he said slowly. "It's a bit out of my usual area of interest. Why?"
"Do you know how students move from one level to the next? I mean… who makes that decision?" James questioned, coming further into the room.
"It's an elite program," Mr. Potter mused, "so I imagine that several of the more senior potions Masters and Healers at St. Mungo's are involved. But I don't know any of the specifics."
James accepted this silently, then cleared his throat and asked, "If you knew that someone wasn't going to get a fair review, would there be anyway to influence the results so that… so that they couldn't be discriminated against?"
Mr. Potter pursed his lips. "Why wouldn't this person get a fair review?" he asked a bit skeptically.
James grimaced, and when he answered, his voice was laced with disgust for all the prejudice against werewolves that he'd witnessed over the past few years, "She's working on the Wolfsbane potion."
"Ah." Mr. Potter clicked his tongue against his teeth as he considered James' request. "Do you want to buy her a place in the next round?" he asked slowly, studying James carefully.
"What? Merlin, no!" James said quickly. "I mean… I shouldn't even have to. Evans is brilliant, she should pass on her own. I just want to ensure that they're reviewing the progress she's made on the potion and not…" He stopped, trailed off uncertainly. "I don't want the review to be about discrimination against werewolves."
"I see," Mr. Potter said. "Well, I can look into it for you if you would like, but you have to understand that, even if you could buy her a fair review, it is going to seem like you are buying her an acceptance to the next round."
"But I'm not," James protested.
Mr. Potter shrugged. "People will have a difficult time seeing that. I'll see what I can do about this, but … I'm not sure you'd be doing her any favors. If she passes to the next round because of our money, no one will take her seriously."
James deflated a bit at that. He knew - at least on some level - that his father was right. But he still didn't like the idea of letting other people's prejudice dictate Lily's success. And it wasn't just Lily who stood to gain - or lose - by this. If she didn't move on to the next round, if she didn't have an opportunity to continue working on this potion, who would?
And if no one worked on it, Remus would be the one to suffer for it.
"Is there any way it can be done… discreetly? So that other people don't find out?" James asked finally.
Mr. Potter nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe. Let me look into it."
"So… you're the Slytherin girlfriend," Sirius drawled as he leaned against the corner of the small office and studied Vanessa Lovely. He could give James this much: she was absolutely stunning. Of course, looks weren't quite enough to make up for her House affiliations, but they did help.
Vanessa glanced at him thoughtfully, then said, "You must be a Black. You have the family features." She tilted her head to the side. "Sirius?" He nodded, and she asked coolly, "What do you want?"
"What do you know about the Averys?" Sirius asked. He was rewarded by a look of complete astonishment and a moment of silence. Clearly, she hadn't been expecting that question.
"Very little," she said. "Why?"
"One of them was in your year, right? The daughter?" Sirius pressed, striding forward and pulling out the chair in front of her desk. He flopped into it and ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. But, unlike James' hair, it didn't stay sticking out at odd angles, but instead fell gracefully back into place.
Vanessa wrinkled her nose. "Celeste," she said distastefully. "We didn't exactly… get along." She narrowed her eyes and demanded suspiciously, "Why do you care about the Averys?"
Sirius didn't know Celeste Avery particularly well, but he'd met her once or twice when he was younger. The Averys were one of the few pureblood families that hadn't married into the Blacks in recent years, making their children potential wives for Sirius and Regulus. Sirius was fairly certain that his mother and the Averys had been hoping one of them would marry Celeste, though now that Sirius was disowned that particular burden would not fall to him.
And with Regulus involved with Eliza Greengrass… well, Celeste was just out of luck with the Blacks.
"Black?" Vanessa prompted.
Sirius shook his head, pushing away the thoughts, and said, "Marcus Avery has gotten my brother involved in… something. And I want to know how."
Vanessa raised one eyebrow and snapped furiously, "So you think I'm somehow involved in this? Are you here to interrogate me?"
Sirius waved away the angry accusation and replied, "James said you were good at discovering things. At getting people to talk to you. I thought perhaps if you were friendly with Celeste Avery…"
"I'm not," Vanessa cut in sharply. She opened her mouth to say something else, then seemed to reconsider. After a moment, she leaned back in her seat and added, "Not that it would matter now. After the article James and I wrote, I sincerely doubt anyone in that family is going to be talking to me any time soon. And no doubt Morrison has figured out that I was just using him for information, and he'll have told the others."
She seemed disgruntled by the admission, and Sirius wondered if this meant that her career was in jeopardy. Had the other pureblood families started putting pressure on the Prophet to get rid of her? Or was she worried that no one would talk to her anymore now that she had made such powerful enemies?
Angering Quidditch stars was one thing. Angering the Malfoys and Lestranges was something else entirely.
Sirius considered this, and then answered her question with the only bit of reassureance he could give, "Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe Morrison doesn't want to admit that he was so easily manipulated. He has his pride, after all."
Vanessa nodded, then asked almost diffidently, "If the Averys are mixed up in Abraxas Malfoy and Lysander Lestrange's plan to get Muggleborns out of the Ministry, and if your brother agrees with their pureblood supremacy views… wouldn't that be enough for him to get involved?"
Sirius chewed his lip and didn't answer. Avery had said that going after Peter had been Regulus' idea, and Sirius didn't want to believe that. He wanted - needed - to believe that there was more to the story, that Avery - or the Malfoys or Lestranges - had somehow coerced Regulus into becoming involved, and only after that had he come up with the plan to target Peter.
But Sirius had to admit that he didn't know his brother anymore - and it had been a while since Regulus had become someone that Sirius no longer recognized.
Still… if he was going to believe Avery, he wanted proof.
"Why didn't you get along with Celeste?" Sirius asked curiously.
Vanessa shrugged. "I didn't have pure enough blood for her. I didn't have good enough looks. And I wasn't particularly talented at magic. I was beneath her notice."
Sirius gave a barking laugh. "You've got looks now," he said. "Did you really not have them before?"
Vanessa didn't answer, but she scowled, clearly annoyed at the implication that she was lying.
Sirius sighed. "Look… I don't hate Slytherins."
"Really?" Vanessa asked skeptically.
"I hate Slytherins who are obsessed with pureblood and the Dark Arts," Sirius continued, ignoring Vanessa's comment. "But my Uncle Alphard was in Slytherin, and he was a decent bloke. And Aunt Andromeda was a Slytherin, too, and she married a Muggleborn. So I don't hate you, because you don't seem like… well, like the vast majority of my family." Then he narrowed his eyes and added, "But James is my best mate."
That implication was clear - whatever happened, Sirius would always take James' side.
It took Vanessa a moment to answer, and then she sighed and said, "I'm sorry I don't have the information you're looking for. But I don't know why your brother is involved in this. Have you considered asking him?"
Sirius grimaced. He had considered it, and he really didn't want to. But he had to know, and if no one else could tell him…
He heaved a sigh. Maybe it was time to pay his brother a visit.
"So, I met Lupin and Black," Vanessa said casually as she followed James along the sidewalk.
James stopped and turned towards her, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Really? When?" he asked.
"They both came to see me after our argument," Vanessa answered. "Lupin wanted to convince me that you weren't a prejudiced git and Black wanted to know if I knew anything about the Averys."
James nodded. He wasn't surprised that Remus would take it upon himself to do whatever he could to fix James' relationship. He also wasn't surprised that Sirius would seek out Vanessa in an attempt to find answers. After his most recent study session with Lily, he'd returned to his home to find Sirius waiting for him. The other wizard had filled him in on everything he'd learned from Avery, particularly the troubling bit about targeting Peter being all Regulus' idea.
Sirius had been furious, but he'd finally calmed down over the course of the discussion, and had left determined to get a full explanation.
"Sirius is upset about everything," James said.
"And you?" Vanessa questioned. "Are you upset, too?"
James slanted a look at Vanessa and then resumed walking. He knew she was subtly asking about their argument - neither of them really knew where they stood. James had apologized for his assumptions about her, and she had apologized for not being more understanding of the fact that several Slytherins were currently trying to tear apart James' group of friends and he had very good reasons to be suspicious of anyone who lied to him. But there was still some sort of barrier between them, a wall that hadn't been there before.
"I'm tired of not knowing what is going on," James said. "I'm tired of people trying to manipulate me."
Vanessa didn't press the subject, but instead asked, "Where are we going?"
James grinned. "I went out with Peter a couple nights ago, and he reminded me of some pranks Sirius and I had played on each other at Hogwarts. It's been a while since I've done anything like that."
"Should I be worried?" Vanessa asked apprehensively.
James laughed. "Of course not. You're not going to be the target. And, anyway, I don't have anything big planned. Just a few spells, a little bit of fun…" He gave her a wink. "Nothing as amazing as what I did at Hogwarts."
"Who is?" Vanessa demanded. When James answered with an enigmatic smile, Vanessa pressed, "Do you really think this is a good time for pranks? With all the stress and… well, just with everything that is going on with your friends, I think the last thing any of them need is to be at the receiving end of a prank."
James shook his head. "With everything that is going on, this is exactly what we need. Never underestimate the power of a good laugh."
"What is this?" Lily demanded, stumbling out of the fireplace and waving a piece of parchment at Remus. "What is this?"
Remus flinched at her ire and glanced at the parchment quickly. He could see his handwriting all over it, and knew it was the letter he had sent her. But he didn't understand why she was so upset. He'd thought it all through when he sent the letter, and it was obviously the right thing to do.
"Lily…" he started, but she cut him off.
"Stop the potion? Stop the potion? Have you lost your mind?" She slammed the letter down onto the kitchen table between them. "Why on earth would I go back to working on a cure for spattergroit?"
Remus sighed. The last thing he had expected to have happen when he sent the letter was for Lily to show up in his house looking so furious. He was silently thankful that neither of his parents were home as he doubted this would be a conversation he'd want them to overhear.
He was also a little surprised that Lily had decided to Floo over instead of knocking on the front door. The Lupin's didn't have any wards on their fireplace so she could come in uninvited, but it wasn't exactly the polite thing to do.
Clearly, she was too annoyed with him to care about that.
"What in Merlin's name were you thinking?" Lily demanded.
"I talked to Peter," Remus said. "He told me about… well… you. About when you got drunk and everything you said and about how your sister hated you and Dearborn called it quits and I didn't want you to think that I thought that it was alright for me to use you and destroy everything you'd worked for just to… oh, hang it, I'm not saying this right."
Lily had flushed a dark red at the mention of her night at the pub, but her gaze never wavered from his face. She was still waiting for an explanation.
"You're not going to go onto the next stage," Remus said stubbornly. "If you continue with the Wolfsbane potion, it will ruin your future. It's not worth it."
"Not worth it?" Lily repeated incredulously. "Not worth it? You and Potter and Black have been trying to convince me that it was worth it ever since I started having doubts and now that I've agreed with you all again, you go and change your mind?"
"It's your future," Remus protested. He had been trying to convince her that it was worth it, but that was before he'd realized just how much this was destroying everything she so desperately wanted. They were friends, and he couldn't do this to her.
He couldn't be the reason she didn't succeed.
"Exactly! It's my future. It's my choice," Lily countered, oblivious to this thoughts.
"And you're just going to throw it all away?" Remus demanded. "You're willing to do that?"
"For what I believe in? For fighting discrimination and prejudice? Of course I'm willing to do it!"
"It's not a big deal," Remus said, practically mumbling. It was a big deal and he didn't like lying to her, but he just didn't see any other way of getting her to drop the potion. "The transformations… I'll be alright. I don't need…"
"Oh, get over yourself!" Lily snapped. Remus was entirely taken aback by that response and merely gaped at her. She didn't seem to notice this, or just didn't care. "You're not the only one who faces discrimination," she pressed on. "You're not the only one who people look down on for things you can't control."
"Lily…"
"Stop being a martyr! Stop insisting on just being a victim!"
Remus opened and closed his mouth several times, at a complete loss for words. Lily was still glaring at him, still flushed red in either anger or embarrassment - or both - and he wanted her to understand, wanted her to see that it wasn't that simple.
"I can't be the reason that you lose your dreams," he said finally. "I can't have that on my shoulders, too."
Lily scoffed. "Are you really so arrogant that you truly think everything that happens is because of you?" she demanded. "I thought that only Potter and Black had such high opinions of their own importance." She took a step closer to him. "If I don't go on to the next stage of the program, it will be because of my choices and Healer Lanwick's prejudice. It won't be because of you."
"Of course it will be because of me," Remus argued. "You chose Wolfsbane because of me, didn't you?"
The kitchen door squeaked on its hinges and Remus glanced at it with a frown. But there was nothing there, and he shook it off as a figment of his imagination.
"Yes, but it was my choice," Lily said again, sounding frustrated. She paused, took a breath, and then continued, "You can't make it about you. I won't let you."
"You won't let me?" Remus repeated disbelievingly.
"There is so little else in my life that I have any control over right now," Lily said. "Things keep happening to me. But this… this is something I did. This is a choice I made. This isn't something that was forced on me by society and it wasn't some decision that someone else made for me. This was me - all me." She paused, then added scathingly, "And I am not going to let you take that away from me just so you can be a martyr and continue convincing yourself that fighting prejudice against you isn't worth it."
There were so many things Remus wanted to say, but the words got stuck in his throat. The fiery determination in Lily's eyes was enough to convince him that she wasn't going to back down, and he wanted to tell her how grateful he was. He wanted to tell her how much it meant to him that she was willing to stand by him despite everything.
And he wanted to tell her that he didn't want to be the victim and he didn't want to take away her choices and diminish her decisions, but he still couldn't reconcile himself to the fact that she was making such incredible sacrifices for him.
But maybe it wasn't for him. Maybe that was what she was trying to say - she wasn't doing this just for him. She was doing it for her, too.
And then the light above them suddenly went out.
Remus looked up, eyebrows raised. "Great," he muttered under his breath. There was fortunately still enough light from the windows to see, so he took a step towards the cupboard where his parents' kept spare parts for the various Muggle appliances in the house. "Hold on, Lily, I'll grab a new light bulb
The moment the words were out of his mouth, the shades on the windows dropped, sending the room into darkness. It wasn't pitch black, but it was still dark enough that it was a challenge to see.
He took a step forward and bumped into the table.
"What the…" Remus heard Lily mutter. He turned towards the vague outline that he assumed must be her just as she asked, "Remus? Everything alright?"
"That's weird," Remus said slowly, rubbing his leg. It wasn't unusual for shades to break, he supposed, but for both of them to fall at exactly the same time just after the light had gone out? That was not normal.
He reached into his pocket and came up empty. For a moment, he felt sheer panic at the realization that he didn't have his wand, but the irrational fear was replaced a moment later by the memory of taking it out of his pocket and placing it on the counter. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember exactly where that had been, and it was too dark to see something as innocuous as a piece of wood lying on the ceramic tiles.
Lily, fortunately, did have her wand with her, and she pulled it out and murmured, "Lumos." The room was immediately washed in light.
Remus walked over to the shades and inspected them.
And they fell, breaking loose from the bar at the top of the window and landing on his head. They weren't heavy, but the cloth was long enough that he was almost immediately tangled up in it.
He heard Lily giggle, and then murmur a spell. The shades slipped off of him and fell to the floor.
"What in Merlin's name is going on?" Remus grumbled.
"Maybe your house in haunted," Lily suggested with a wry grin, her earlier anger at him momentarily forgotten by the strange happenings.
As if on cue, the radio crackled to life and started playing Yellow Submarine.
"I didn't know you liked the Beatles," Lily commented, glancing at the Muggle contraption in surprise.
"I don't," Remus answered, giving the radio a puzzled look.
"You don't?" Lily echoed, aghast. "What is wrong with you?"
Remus was about to reply when the sink exploded.
Well, it didn't quite explode. The metal ring at the base of the faucet snapped, and the pressure from the water in the pipes was suddenly to much for the faucet to handle. It came spewing out, and covered Remus, Lily, and the floor, walls, and kitchen table.
"Bloody hell," Remus cried, and darted towards the sink. He slipped on the water on the floor, however, and crashed into the refrigerator instead. The door swung open as soon as he hit it, and a carton of eggs dropped out and shattered, spattering egg yolk all over his robes.
Lily hurried to his side, her shoes slipping and sliding on the water and the egg. She pulled him back to standing, then waved her wand at the sink to stop the water.
Remus stared at the egg yolk on his clothing, then turned and scanned the kitchen, looking for his wand. Finding it lying on the opposite counter - was that really where he had left it? - he walked carefully across the wet floor. He was so intent on not slipping on the water that he didn't notice when the cupboard above him suddenly swung open, and Lily's cry of warning came a split-second too late. Several potions bottles tumbled out, and one broke on his hair while another shattered against his robes. Almost immediately, both his hair and his robes turned neon green and pink.
Remus snatched his wand from the counter… and it promptly turned into a rubber chicken. He stared at it for a long moment, feeling completely dumbfounded.
The sound of laughter shook him from his stupor and he turned in time to see James and Vanessa appear in the corner of the kitchen as James' invisibility cloak slid to the floor. James was laughing so hard he could barely stand straight and had to hold onto the wall for support. Vanessa was slightly more restrained, but she was laughing as well.
"Oh, Moony… the look on your face…" James gasped between bouts of laughter, "absolutely… priceless."
Remus stared blankly at James.
Then Lily started laughing.
It began as a giggle, then grew into full-blown laughter as tears of mirth leaked from her eyes. She clutched at her sides, ignoring the droplets of water dripping from her hair and the egg yolks on her shoes. James looked at her in surprise, and so did Remus.
"Uh… Evans… you alright?" James asked, clearly having expected a lecture or screaming or… well, anything other than laughter from the temperamental redhead.
He took a step towards her, slipped on the wet floor, and went crashing to the ground. He and Vanessa were holding hands, and so she went tumbling down after him.
Remus started laughing.
The fact that Regulus was frequenting a remarkably seedy bar was not a surprise to Sirius. The younger Black might only be seventeen, but he had fallen in with a group of older witches and wizards at Hogwarts, and their influence had rubbed off on him. That, too, was not a surprise - Regulus had always been impressionable. First meekly taking up his parents' ideals and now allowing others to dictate his continued beliefs…
Sirius hesitated for a moment in the doorway, his eyes sweeping over the clientele. No one gave him a second glance.
Regulus was sitting at the bar, talking to someone that Sirius didn't recognize. But he looked up, then, and caught Sirius' eye. Something twisted in the expression on his face, then he murmured an apology to his companion and slid off the barstool.
Sirius watched in silence, growing angrier with every passing second, as Regulus approached him.
"What do you want?" Regulus demanded by way of greeting.
It was obvious that Regulus didn't want to waste any time with pleasantries, and for once, Sirius decided not to needle him. Instead, he said coldly, "Marcus Avery said it was your idea to go after Peter."
Regulus' stare was unreadable as he replied, "Pettigirew? You're here about him?"
Sirius grabbed Regulus by the arm and dragged him out of the bar. It was getting dark outside, but the air was still warm enough, though tinged with the smell of cigarette smoke.
"Is it true?" Sirius demanded.
Regulus yanked his arm out of Sirius' grasp but made no move to back away or return to the bar. Instead, he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders and said, "Lucius Malfoy asked me what would be the easiest way to cause problems for you. I told him Pettigrew was the weak link of your group." He paused, then added, "Of course, Snape confirmed that, so I suppose you could argue that the two of us came up with the plan."
Regulus' detachment and disregard for the lives he was trying to ruin made Sirius seethe. But below the fury he also felt a bit of relief that it wasn't as clear-cut as Avery had indicated. Regulus wasn't the mastermind behind all of this, he was just suggesting ideas.
That meant something… didn't it?
"So you… you and Snivellus sent your buddies after Peter?"
"He is the weakest one in your group," Regulus replied calmly, coolly.
Sirius clenched one hand into a fist and fought back the urge to hit his brother, to wipe that impassive look off his face. "Why? Just… just tell me why," he snarled.
"What do you mean?" Regulus asked curiously.
"Why does Malfoy want to destroy us so badly?" Sirius elaborated. "Does he really think James and I are the greatest threat to his legislation?"
Regulus raised an eyebrow as he replied, "I think Potter already has done some damage with that article of his." Then he added, "But it is hardly about that."
"What?"
Regulus folded his arms over his chest. "While causing problems for you and Potter will certainly be… beneficial… to Abraxas Malfoy's legislation, that is hardly the reason Lucius is interested in you." He took a step closer, his voice lowering as he continued, "He married Narcissa, Sirius. Think about what that means. Use your head."
It took Sirius a moment to put the pieces together, and then he said in a stunned whisper, "He thinks we're family now."
"You are family, Sirius," Regulus replied. "He married Cissy so he's your cousin, regardless of what Mum did to your name on the tapestry. And you know the Malfoys… pureblood, wealthy, magically powerful, elite… They care about reputation. They care about perception. And you are a disgrace to him."
Sirius took that all in, silently mulling over what Regulus was saying. So Lucius Malfoy was targeting the Marauders because he wanted to cause Sirius trouble. This wasn't part of some master plan. It wasn't part of a greater pureblood agenda. This was personal.
This was petty, vindictive revenge.
"He has two options. Get you to return to our family and everything it stands for, or crush you," Regulus said.
"And you decided to help him?" Sirius hissed. His fingers were clenched so tightly now that his knuckles had turned white and his fingernails were biting into the skin of his palm. And he wanted to hurt Regulus, wanted to make him pay for everything that had happened over the past several weeks.
Regulus allowed himself the smallest of smirks as he said, "Lucius came to me for advice."
"And you couldn't wait to help him," Sirius sneered. "First you're Mum's loyal lapdog, and now Lucius. Always looking for someone to follow. Can't even think for yourself. Can't even think of yourself."
"I am thinking of myself," Regulus countered. "There is going to be a new order soon, Sirius, and the Malfoys are going to be at the top of it. And I'm only seventeen, but I'll be right there at the top, too." His eyes narrowed. "After everything you've done, someone has to pull the Black name out of the mud."
"I'm not the reason our family name has been dragged through filth," Sirius retorted. He slowly relaxed his clenched fist and forced himself to calm down. He didn't want to start a fistfight with Regulus. As satisfying as it would be to make his brother bleed, he'd already learned everything he needed to know. He'd done what he came here to do, and now it was time to talk to James and figure out what to do next.
He turned away, but Regulus called him back.
"Don't," Regulus said. "Don't fight him."
"Malfoy?" Sirius asked incredulously, snapping his gaze to his brother's face. "You want me to not fight Malfoy?"
"Let him go after Pettigrew," Regulus said.
"Why? So he can break Peter? So you can tell everyone how your little plan worked?" Sirius spat. "You really don't care about anyone besides yourself, do you?" He spun on his heel, prepared to leave.
"I'm trying to help you!" Regulus protested.
"Help me?" Sirius scoffed. "You don't care about me. You don't give a damn what happens to me or any of my friends."
"Lucius knows about Lupin," Regulus said.
And Sirius froze.
He turned around slowly, eyeing his brother warily. "Knows what?" he asked noncommittally, refusing to show his fear.
"Snape told him," Regulus said softly. "As soon as he left Hogwarts. Dumbledore's threats couldn't keep him silent anymore. So now Lucius knows your precious Lupin is a monster."
"Remus is not a monster!"
Regulus ignored the comment and continued, "Lucius' first plan was to use that against you. That little prank you played on Snape…? If Lucius breathes one word of that to anyone - if the knowledge that you and Lupin conspired to turn another student into a werewolf…"
"We didn't conspire! And Remus had nothing to do with any of that!"
Again, Regulus ignored Sirius' outburst, "If that knowledge reaches the right ears, tell me… what do you think is going to happen?"
"It was a prank… it was just a joke. Just for laughs," Sirius defended himself. Badly.
Regulus shrugged. "Won't matter. Soon everyone will know that Lupin is a werewolf, and that his three best friends knew he was a werewolf and didn't care. Any good barrister will go a step further, will say that you were pleased that Lupin was a monster because you could use him to get revenge on people you didn't like. And Lupin will get interrogated for what happened at Hogwarts, probably even carted off to Azkaban for a few years… or more. And you'll have to pick a side - stand with your friend and have your life ruined, too, or turn your back on him."
Sirius stared at him, horrorstruck.
"That was Lucius' initial plan," Regulus said. "But I convinced him that it wouldn't work. I told him that you would stand by Lupin - and so would Potter. I told him the last thing he wanted right now was an all-out battle with the Potters. They'd probably get the McKinnons and Prewitts on their side. And maybe even the McMillans. With Lucius' father's legislation coming under review, subtly was more the way to go." He paused, then said thoughtfully, "Of course, now that Potter had written that article and the legislation will likely be under attack by those very same families, Malfoy might revert back to his original plan." He shrugged. "But maybe not. I'm still trying to convince him it won't work."
Sirius ran a hand through his hair and tried not to think about what could happen to Remus if Malfoy went after him.
Going after Peter would also cause damage - had already caused damage. But not of the same kind, not of the same magnitude. It might tear apart the Marauders, but no one would go to prison.
It was then that Sirius realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach that Regulus was trying to save him. Because he knew Sirius and he knew that Sirius would never turn his back on Remus. If he had to make a choice, he'd allow his own future to be ruined before he'd stand idly by and let Remus face Azkaban for something he had no control over.
Regulus wanted to save his brother… but he was willing to sacrifice all the people Sirius cared about in order to do it.