Chapter Text
Sirius was an idiot.
A bonafide, ridiculous, idiot.
The halfwit stretched his legs out as he slumped against the wall of Gryffindor Corridor, his copy of Food or Fowl lying open to a random page beside him.
He debated pulling out a cigarette and making a big show of lighting up - snagging a detention that for once, he felt like he deserved.
How could he be so stupid .
Sirius wasn’t sure if he could blame it on anything else at this point - normally when he pulled shit this monstrously idiotic, he could blame booze, but he had been shockingly sober for both of his encounters with Alecto.
If I time it right, no one can emergency hover me if I jump off the tower
Not only has he flirted with the snake, he had asked her out, and then made a point of flirting more after the fact.
Absolute dolt
Alecto wasn’t Narcissa. At least with Cissy, Sirius could understand where she was coming from. Yeah he didn’t agree with it, but she never forced him to, and Sirius was keen to think she didn’t really believe in it all deep down.
Sirius couldn’t even remotely say the same thing for Alecto. He had lost count of the number of times he had redirected younger Gryffindors to stay away from the business end of her wand. She was cruel, she was ruthless, and there was no doubt in his mind that she believed that vicious vitriol that had been spewed at her from day one.
Sirius bounced his head off the back of the wall, his eyes closed in frustration.
And yet you asked her out to Hogsmeade.
Truly, there had never been an idiot as self sabotaging as himself. It didn’t matter how fun the banter was, you never fraternize with the enemy. James had taught him that from day one.
At the thought of James, Sirius slammed his head back harder, as if to shake the stupid out from between his ears.
James was going to kill him
James had been hexed by Amycus multiple times now - granted, most of the time those hexes had been directed at mixed-bloods that James had jumped in to protect, but that didn’t lessen that fact that James knew how ruthless the twins could be.
Hell, Sirius knew how ruthless the twins could be, and he had decided to play his hand at future bending anyway.
If he was honest with himself, Sirius knew exactly what to blame for this whole situation.
Himself.
Well, Narcissa and Himself.
He knew she wasn’t happy - hell, anyone who had seen her with her guard down knew that. Her older sister was off the rails, her younger sister was pulling away from her, and she was promised to the Narcissistic King (Sirius smirked for a moment at the entendre before lapsing back into self flagellation.)
Sirius wanted Narcissa to be happy. She had been his best friend growing up, and of everything in his life pre-hogwarts, he missed her the most. If he could save her from the pureblood madness, he would consider this entire war a worthy effort.
Still, he was an idiot.
Instead of just talking to Narcissa like a normal wizard, he had followed her best friend for a smoke break, flirted up a storm, and now had a hurricane of crazy to deal with at the next Hogsmeade trip.
But even with Narcissa out of the equation, Sirius knew he was to blame. He was the one who had found it fun to press Aleco’s buttons. He was the one who didn’t turn around when running into her that night. He couldn’t completely write her off as a means to an end, because playing around with her was too much fun.
Sure, she seemed to have some hare brained plan about bringing him back to the Black Family - never gonna happen. But his refusal to come back to that toxic traditionalism didn’t mean he couldn’t pull her over to the side of justice.
Sirius had always been a good actor - his mother hadn’t suspected his muggle leanings whatsoever until he had safely made it out of her reach.
If he applied that same concept to Alecto, made her comfortable, let her feel like she was winning, he might be able to sweep the game. Get her attached, get her seeing reason, and eventually she would want to stay on the right side of her own volition.
And it didn’t exactly hurt that he could use another person to help him win over Narcissa.
Sirius let his head drop forward as he pulled his legs in, ignoring the steady stream of nervous first years as he folded up his books and stood, walking haphazardly towards the Fat Lady.
If he kept telling himself he was using Alecto to get to Narcissa, that is all that would come of it.
Right?