There and Black Again

When they'd returned back to the Slytherin common room some hours later Lucius was sitting on the couch, staring blankly into the fire. Andre gave Sirius a little push in Lucius' direction. Sirius hesitated. How the hell was he supposed to know how diffuse the situation?

"Hey there Malfoy," Sirius said nervously. "You look like you just lost your best friend."

"Go away Sirius."

"Okay." Sirius turned to leave, but Andre glared at him. He sighed and slumped onto the couch. "What happened?"

"I said go away."

Now, Sirius hadn't gotten into it too much with Lucius in his own time because he had much more fun humiliating Snape, but he knew Lucius' warning tone well enough. But then, he knew James' warning tone quite well also and he was always able to crack a joke or lend a helping hand and make him feel better. He stopped and thought about what he would say to James.

"Lydia says you and Narcissa are going through a bit of a rough patch."

Lucius snorted.

"So I'm right?"

"She thinks I'm distracted." Lucius shook his head. "She has no idea."

"So she's right?"

Lucius said softly, "It's this whole Dark Lord thing."
Sirius froze.

"I don't know what to do about it." Lucius didn't take his eyes off the flames. "I believe in it. I do. I just... I don't know. I don't know how to feel about it."

"Then don't do it," Sirius blurted. "Don't become a Death Eater. Don't kill innocent people for the sake of purity. You're too smart for that Lucius. You could become Minister of Magic if you work for it hard enough. I mean, hell, if they let Fudge become Minister they'll let anyone..."

Sirius winced at the odd look Lucius was giving him.

"Who's Fudge?"

"You know, the fudge who's in office now," Sirius said meekly. He shook his head and grabbed Lucius by the shoulders. "You don't have to become one of them. Lucius, you have the resources and money. You can go so far if you don't get mixed up in all that."

"I don't know," Lucius said uncertainly.

"Think about it," Sirius told him. "Just think about it."
______________________________________________________________________________

That Monday Andre, Lucius, Greg, and Sirius served the first of their detentions. To make matters worse, they were all paired with their Gryffindor counterpart. Sirius' task was to clean out Slughorn's ingredient cabinet while Remus re-labeled all of the new bottles and viles. He thought it would be a great chance to reconnect with Moony, but they were nearing the end of the cabinet and Remus wouldn't even look at him.

Finally Sirius hiked up his courage and said, "That really hurt when I got hit in the face."

Remus looked up from his bottle and gave Sirius a look that plainly said, 'huh?'

"It hurt," Sirius repeated. "And if James would have just apologized everything would have been fine."

"Did I really hear you say what I think I heard you say?"

"Oh come off it. We all know what excellent hearing you have." Sirius stomped his foot. "What have I done that's so bad?"

"Well, for starters, you pushed Peter into the lake when we were crossing it our first year," Remus said, his eyebrows raised.

"Only after you started it, I bet."

Remus cocked his head.

"Bet James thought it was funny to turn Snape's hair pink or something like that." Sirius knew this was probably the case because it was exactly what James had done their first day. At the time, it's been hilarious. Sirius frowned. Come to think of it, Lucius had pushed Peter overboard that day in his time too. Funny how things worked out.

"Why are we even having this conversation?" Remus asked and went back to sticking the label on his bottle.
"Because I want to."

Remus shook his head, annoyed.

"Look," Sirius said, his tone lightening considerably. "I'm trying to extend the olive branch here."

"You have a funny way of doing it."

"I just want to have a civil conversation with you sometime." Sirius shrugged. "Maybe even with Jam... Er, Potter too."

"And what about Peter and David?"

"Honestly," Sirius said, "I have way too many issues with those two."

Remus studied him for a moment, trying to see if this was some kind of prank or trap. After a few moments he nodded and stuck his hand out. "All right."

Sirius' grin touched his ears as he shook his friend's hand.
______________________________________________________________________________

"That nasty little rodent was actually trying to spit shine the trophies," Lucius said as he climbed out of bed the next morning. "If I never see another trophy it'll be too soon."

"At least you weren't stuck un-transfiguring pincushions into porcupines." Andre wiggled his hurt fingers and stuck one on his mouth. "I must have been stabbed by the little bastards twenty times."

"I hit Smith," Greg chuckled. "Wound up with another detention."

"Was it worth it at least?" Lucius asked.

"Oh yeah."

"What about you, Black?"

"It really wasn't too bad. I think something in one of those bottles may have burrowed under my skin, but it wasn't too bad other than that." Sirius swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "I even had a chance to make amends with Lupin."

Everyone in the room froze. Andre, who was in the middle of putting his pants on, even fell over he was so shocked. Sirius bit his lip nervously.

"What do you mean you made amends with Lupin?" Lucius asked shrewdly.

"Well not really amends," Sirius said quickly. "I just talked to him. We decided to start being more civil to each other."

"Is this some kind of ingenious plan of yours?" Greg asked.

"No."

"Then what the hell were you thinking?" Andre called from the floor.
"I'm just tired of fighting with them," Sirius said. "It gets old."

"But... But that's what we do Sirius," Lucius said, astonished. "We're rivals. Enemies. Advesaries. Opponnents..."

"We get the point Malfoy," Greg said.

"I just think we have more to deal with than a house rivalry." Sirius went to his drawer and pulled out a t-shirt. "You don't have to stop hating them. I just don't want to be caught up in it anymore."

Andre still hadn't moved from where he'd fallen on the floor. "But you hate Smith. I mean, with a passion. We swore it was our duty to be the single reason for his downfall."

"Oh," Sirius said seriously. "Smith is a different story. In fact, I have a little something planned for our dear Mr. Smith..."
______________________________________________________________________________