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

The Thing He Loves

Each man kills the thing he loves. - Oscar Wilde

"I think you're overreacting," Regulus said from his chair.

Sirius glared at his brother. "You didn't see her last night."

Regulus was truly worried about Lily, whom he loved, but Sirius always became irrational at the mention of James. He was sure that James had said something to Lily and then Lily was hurt, but it probably was not as bad as Sirius was making it out to be. It never was.

Regulus only offered him a glass of water. "How is Lily now?"

Shrugging, Sirius refused the drink. "She's out at St. Mungo's with Harry. She was a little shaky this morning and seemed disappointed that I wasn't going with them."

Regulus sat down in one of his rush-bottomed chair and leaned back. "Do you agree that this isn't as critical as you're making it out to be?"

"Why won't you take me seriously?" Sirius exclaimed.

Resisting the ever-living pun, Regulus mentally sighed. Every time James Potter had a run in with Lily, not that it happened all that often, mind, Sirius would throw a fit. Half the time, his brother frightened poor Lily and Harry as much as he scared James. This was the first time Sirius had come to him before doing something alternately crazy and stupid, so Regulus supposed this was a step in the right direction.

In fact, now that Regulus thought about it, Sirius had been getting better recently. Perhaps Sirius had come to him in an effort not to do something crazy and stupid, a possibility that cheered Regulus considerably. Harry had certainly seemed happier when he and Draco had come to visit Thebe. Lily had gone out with Sasha a couple of times in the past few weeks and nothing had seemed wrong then. Sirius had been positively devoted to his family lately. He had actually helped Harry get along with Hermione, something Regulus would not have thought possible mere months ago.

"Reg?" Sirius asked cautiously.

"Hmmm?"

"You still there?"

Regulus smiled at his brother. "Oh yeah, I'm still on Earth. Just lost thinking about some stuff."

"Well?"

"I'm so proud of you!"

Sirius was dumbfounded. Here he was, explaining that James had hurt Lily, and Regulus was proud of him? This could not be a custom with which he was unfamiliar, for Sirius had been in this world for months now and nothing of this sort had occurred previously. What in Circe's name was Regulus on about?

"What?"

Regulus smiled, bearing his pearly teeth. "You... have changed."

Sirius blinked his pale eyes slowly. "What?"

"Brother, you have changed, and I am proud."

"I don't understand." Not even the Regulus of his world had ever been this cryptic at crucial points in time. Yes, the boy had been cruel and foolish, but he had never been like this.

Still grinning like the fool, Regulus laughed. "Think back to say, four months ago, brother. What would you have done then?"

Sirius frowned. He knew he did not know the answer to that question. He could not know the answer to that question; he had not been here four months ago. Sirius thought back to the stories Severus and Harry had told him.

"Er... I would have done something like... I don't know... gone off and punched James." Sirius tried to sound confident. Of course, he would have very much liked to have 'gone off and punched James,' but for the minor fact that he no longer knew where James Potter lived.

"Exactly," Regulus cried, sounding remarkably like an especially delighted Dumbledore. "But you didn't."

"No," Sirius, still confused, replied slowly and as if to a particularly dim-witted child. "I didn't."

"That's why I'm proud, Siri. You've changed. At first, we were a little confused." At this, Regulus chuckled nervously, obviously remembering the Azkaban incident. "I'll admit Lily and I even talked to Remus and Peter about what was going on; we were all quite worried about you. But now look at you!" Sirius wondered remotely if the Blacks were at all related to the Dumbledores, as Regulus was sounding more and more like Albus by the minute.

"Look at me," Sirius repeated.

"Look at Sirius?" Sasha asked, walking through the front door with a small bag of groceries and Thebe in tow.

"Uncle Sirius!" Thebe cried, throwing herself at the dark-haired wizard. "I didn't know you were coming over!"

As Sirius pulled his niece into his arms, Sasha watched the two men with a raised eyebrow. "Thebe, honey, why don't you put the groceries away while I talk to Dad and Uncle Sirius?"

"Sure, Mum," Thebe replied, taking the bag from her mother and heading for the pantry.

"What's going on?" Sasha asked as she collapsed into a rush-bottomed chair of her own.

"Lily ran into James Potter last night," Regulus explained to his wife, keeping his eyes on his brother.

"Ah," Sasha replied. "Sirius, what did you do?"

"Nothing!" he exclaimed. "I don't know what to do. That's why I came here." Sirius hoped that made more sense to Sasha than it did to Regulus, who looked blatantly confused.

Sasha's dark eyes twinkled in a manner that told Sirius she understood. "Well, what would you like to do?"

"Knock his two front teeth out."

"What?" Regulus exclaimed.

"Well, I would," Sirius defended.

"That's not what you said earlier."

"I didn't say anything about what I'd like to do earlier. You didn't give me a chance to talk about it."

Regulus hmmphed and Sasha grinned.

"But I don't think that's a very good idea," Sirius continued. "As much as I'd like to hurt him for hurting Lily-" 'I doubt I could do it when I saw his face,' he thought, "-it might not be the best plan of action."

Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Regulus smiled at his wife. "See? He changed! He doesn't believe me."

"He's changed," Sasha admitted. "In more ways than we know."

"If we can stop discussing my life and whatnot, and get back to the matter at hand - Lily," Sirius intoned.

"What happened, exactly? What did James do?"

Before Sirius could answer his sister-in-law, Thebe burst back into the room. "Uncle Sirius," she cried, "Are you staying for lunch?"

The dark-haired man smiled at his niece and ruffled her hair. "I don't know, sweetie. I might be."

"Are Aunt Lily and Harry coming, too?" she asked.

"I don't think so, Thebe. They're busy right now."

"Honey," Regulus began, "Why don't you go upstairs and work on some of your summer homework?"

Thebe's pale face creased into a frown; she knew that the adults were talking about something they did not want her to hear, but Thebe followed her father's orders dutifully.

"Siri, what happened?" Sasha repeated.

"Lily had a run-in, like I said," Regulus answered for his brother. "James apparently made some nasty and baseless accusations."

"Accusations?"

"James Potter had the nerve to tell Lily that I don't love her," Sirius broke off. "The bastard had her in tears when Harry and I got home last night."

Sasha's hazel eyes hardened, not dissimilarly to her husband's. "He said that?!"

"Yeah. Bastard." Sirius swiftly checked to make sure that Thebe was actually upstairs as she was supposed to be. "That- that-" Sasha stammered angrily.

"Bastard?" Sirius readily supplied with a grim smile.

"Yes. I don't really blame you for wanting to knock his teeth out now," Regulus replied with an angry snort. "I want to knock his teeth out, too. I can't believe you didn't actually do it!"

Sirius shrugged helplessly. He could not tell his brother that did not, in fact, know where James lived, so beating his former best friend to a bloody pulp really was not a viable option. Perhaps they can tell me where he lives, though, Sirius thought. But how do ask without making an absolute fool of myself?

"Well, I'm still proud of him for not doing it," Sasha murmured. "All the more proud if he actually said that."

"Do you think my brother would make something like that up?" Regulus cried defensively.

"No!" Sasha exclaimed. "It's just... we normally don't see his normal, rational side, that's all."

"Okay, I'll give you that..."

"I'm still in the room," Sirius said petulantly. "And could we please get back to the reason I'm here in the first place?"

"What's that reason?"

"I want to beat James Potter to a nasty, bloody pulp," Sirius explained calmly. "But I don't think that that would be a very good idea. I also doubt that law enforcement would forgive me for permanently damaging him just because he insulted my wife."

"Logical," Regulus admitted.

"So what should I do?!"

The dark-eyed couple shrugged, completely at a loss.

"You're not being helpful," the Animagus grumbled.

"Perhaps you could verbally beat him to a pulp?" Regulus suggested without very much vigor.

Sirius only groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Why don't you just go home and see how Lily's doing?"

Regulus raised a black eyebrow at his wife.

Sasha smiled at her husband. "Go get Thebe so she can say good-bye to Sirius, Reggie."

Still looking rather mystified at his wife's odd behavior, Regulus retreated upstairs to fetch their daughter.

"He lives at 13 Parish Hill, Sirius," Sasha murmured, keeping her eyes on the staircase.

"What- oh!"

Sasha laughed softly. "You didn't think I would want James to go unpunished for hurting my favorite sister-in-law, did you?"

"Er... no..."