Three O'clock in the Morning

Three O'clock in the Morning

In the real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Swimming Against the Stream

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. - Woodrow Wilson

"Bloody Genghis Khan."

"What?" Severus asked, peering at Sirius over his glass of ice water. He had noticed that Sirius was not acting like himself. Lily, Remus, and Peter were constantly watching him. But he did not understand what a dead Mongolian had to do with anything. "Lily."

"I thought you said Genghis Khan."

"I did."

"Lily is Genghis Khan?" Severus looked worriedly at his newfound friend. He might have been a wizard, but wizards could be crazy just like any other human being. Or so Severus thought. Sirius nodded. "I suppose he existed in this world, too?"

"Yes. He was a powerful Mongolian war leader."

"As he was in my world. But in my world he was a powerful wizard as well, one of the last great necromancers of the modern era. The family library had three biographies on him; I had to read them all before I attended Hogwarts. He was an ideal."

Severus winced at the thought of a necromancer being an ideal. "So why is dear Lily Genghis Khan?"

"Well, she has green eyes, red hair, paranoia to rival a Dark Lord, and one Hell of a temper, if you hit her at the right moment."

"What happened?"

"She thinks I'm cheating on her."

"What?"

"Sasha, my brother's wife, knows something." Sirius saw Severus narrow his eyes, making calculations on his mental stability. "No, she called here Monday night, saying she knew about Azkaban. Lily took that to mean that I was having an affair with someone named Azkaban."

"That's not good."

"No. And she said something that confused me. She said that after James she just had to know."

Severus nodded. "Am I to assume that this did not happen in your world?"

"They died in 1981. Before that, they were the perfect, loving couple. I can't imagine what she's talking about."

"Oh. I'm assuming also that James was a dear friend?"

"Closer than brothers." Then Sirius caught onto where Severus was leading him. "What did he do? Look, I understand that the people in this world are not the people in my world. We're too different. I don't even like my counterpart."

Severus shrugged. "I just don't want to be on the wrong end of the infamous Black temper. Promise me that you won't become upset with me because of something James Potter did years ago. You two were attached at the hip while we were still at school, chasing after the same girls, playing on the house cricket team, taking the same classes." It was awkward to speak to Sirius like this, like he was a student, but he instinctively knew that Sirius would not respond to sarcasm today in the same way he had the previous week. "Very well, whatever James did, it will not be blamed on you."

The dark-eyed counselor hesitated for a moment. "When Harry was only a year or two old, you... well, according to rumor - and I cannot verify this - you caught Potter, Sr. behaving rather inappropriately with a young woman of dubious virtue."

Sirius pondered this explanation for a moment. "Severus, I'm not some silly student who doesn't know about sex yet. Would you care to put that in layman's terms? That was pretty vague."

"You aren't going to like it."

"I don't care."

"Fine," Severus snapped. "You walked in on your friend when he was shagging an underage whore."

"What?!"

Lily, Peter, and Remus looked up from their teatime discussion to stare at the two raven-haired men sitting on the couch. "Keep your voice down," Severus hissed. "You're supposed to know that already!"

Sirius took a few deep, calming breaths, the ones Poppy taught him to use when he was angry with Snape. "What happened after that?"

"You threw the girl out of the room and proceeded to having an embarrassingly loud argument with Potter, or so the story goes. In the end, he left Lily and Harry to run off with the girl. You helped to support Lily after that and eventually proposed."

"Why would I propose?"

"You'd only been chasing her for five years. It seemed to be natural progression."

Sirius shook his head. "Unbelievable."

His ally merely shrugged and sipped his water. "I assume you invited me over for a reason other than be glared at by the thugs you call friends."

Suddenly, the teapot sitting on the kitchen table, a centerpiece in front of the remaining Marauders, burst. Shards of ceramic and near boiling tea played havoc with the table, the kitchenette, and everything else in the general vicinity. When Sirius saw what he had done, he buried his face in his hands. Peter gave a cry as a piece of the teapot, still coated in the hot liquid, cut into the top of his hand. Remus had had enough sense to dive under the table and Lily had leapt away from the explosion, being hit with less shrapnel than Peter. "What the Hell was that?"

"I - I don't know."

"What could make the teapot do that?"

"Do you know if stress placed on ceramic could make a bomb?"

"Yes, Peter. I was just researching that for my history class. How are we supposed to know?"

Sirius gave a long, slow sigh of relief when no one associated the minor explosion with him. "I suppose that you have something to do with that?" Severus asked archly. Sirius nodded shamefully. "Wandless magic. When a witch or wizard experience strong emotions, we have the tendency to make things explode."

"Remind not to induce strong emotions."

The wizard shrugged as if to say, "You wouldn't do that anyway."

The two men sat on the couch in uncomfortable silence for a time. Peter and Remus were examining the porcelain while Lily cleaned the table with a washcloth. Sirius watched the scene of quiet domesticity while Severus flipped through a magazine he found on the end table. "Well?"

Sirius blinked. "Well what?"

"Before you decided to show off, I asked you if there were a specific reason you requested my company today."

"Oh. Well, yes. And it's nice to have someone to talk to." Severus raised a brow, but let Sirius to continue. "Are you familiar with Sasha Black?"

"Your brother's wife? I've seen her socially. She was three years behind us at school."

"Was she, now? Do you know her maiden name?"

Severus thought for a moment. "Something Irish... Oh, yes, Sullivan! Sasha Sullivan."

The blood slowly drained from Sirius' face. "Sullivan?"

"Does it have specific significance to you? Were you enemies of some sort?"

"Circe, no. I'd never met the girl before coming here. Does she have any siblings?"

"I'm not an expert on family trees, Sirius."

"Please," Sirius begged. "I have to know. Does she have a brother named Wolfgang?" Severus blinked. "Yes... he's been in a psychiatric ward since the end of our sixth year, though."

"Shit."

"What?"

"Wolfgang Sullivan was supposed to be executed for high treason, accessory to murder, and Muggle-hunting."

"Muggle-hunting?"

"Some of the Darker Pureblood families like to hunt non-magical people for sport."

"But this man was in your world, he could be entirely different here," Severus pointed out logically. "You don't understand. The way the Ministry executed traitors was by pushing them through the Veil. Only six people were sentenced to that fate. Everyone else was left to rot in Azkaban."

"The same Veil you fell through?"

Sirius nodded. "I suppose you could almost call this place a penal colony."

"But why are you worried? Sasha knows her brother is insane, even if he could recognize you after so many years."

"You don't understand. She said she knows about Azkaban. She knows something, Severus, but I don't know what it is. If Sullivan has been feeding her lies, especially any about me, I have a powerful enemy."

"Why would he talk to her about you?"

"He and I were polar opposites. We were, are, both blood traitors. I come from a Dark, Slytherin family, but was a Gryffindor Auror. Sullivan was Ravenclaw and led his own family to their deaths. In any Dark circles, I was routinely criticized for not taking my role as heir to the House of Black. Anything Sasha knows about me will be twisted into something else."

Severus seemed to be taken aback by this sudden information. "Well, we have until Sunday to do something about it then."

"No, no. It couldn't be that simple. Lily and Regulus arranged a double dinner date for the four of us tonight. That's why Remus and Peter are here now. Apparently they normally come over for supper, but we won't be here come evening."

His brows furrowed, Severus thought a moment. "We don't know what Sasha knows, correct?"

"Correct."

"Just pretend you don't know what she's talking about. Surely she'll just think she made a mistake."

"Again, I already thought of that. Everyone else has noticed that I'm not acting myself lately. I have different interests, different favorite foods, and a different attitude. The others think I'm cheating on Lily, but Sasha realized the truth. She probably saw how her brother acted after he fell through the Veil and I'm exhibiting the same characteristics."

"You seem to be closing the doors to every opportunity. Besides, if you're going to a restaurant, she can't very well announce that she thinks you're from another universe, now can she?"

"I suppose not. But it's unnerving. It's flat-out wretched."

Severus shrugged. "It's your choice, but I'd play dumb."

"How Slytherin of you," Sirius commented bitterly. "What do you mean, how Slytherin of me? And before, you said you were a blood traitor because you weren't in Slytherin. What do you have against the House?"

"You're too dark, cunning, and power-obsessed. You don't seem to be like that here, but that's what being a Slytherin means."

"What?" Severus blinked. "You know, when you get Sorted. You're sent to what ever House matches your personality."

"What?"

"Is it different here, then?"

"Students are sorted by a computer generated program, placing them into each House entirely randomly."

"Odd."

Severus shrugged benignly and sipped his ice water. "Whatever happens with Sasha, I would like to know. I've given you something of blind faith at the moment and I want to know everything I can about this situation."

"Very well. But if it's bad news I want to be able to break it to Harry myself. Sweet Circe, I hope I don't do something stupid tonight."

"Are you planning on something in particular?" Severus asked dryly. Sirius laughed bitterly. "No, but I seem to make a habit of it."

Severus retained his unreadable expression and opened his magazine, signaling an end to their conversation.