Chapter Text
November 3rd 2025
Sirius thought his 15th birthday would be uneventful.
How wrong he was.
For starters, his mother remembered? Walburga Black. Remembered his birthday. Shocking . And she looked.. sad about it?
“Mother?” He started cautiously, “Is everything alright?”
Her breath hitched briefly, “Of course, why wouldn't it be? Here” She held out a small, black, velvet box for him to take.
And she gave him a gift, for his birthday.
Sirius seriously thinks there is something seriously wrong with her.
He took it wearily, like a soldier would take an unlabelled package from someone they've never met before. He let his fingers brush briefly over the soft fabric, before deciding to open it quickly for fear his mother would snap at him. Inside, laying on a bed of black velvet, was an impossibly detailed miniature of a black dog. It was cute, but why of all things would Sirius’ Black's mother give him something cute?
He glanced up to say something to his mother, what exactly he didn't know yet, “Mothe-”
But she was gone, probably for the best, Sirius had no idea what had come over her.
…
‘Private School sucks’ might as well be Sirius’ own personal mantra by this point. He practically invented the sentence when he joined Pinewood Institute over 8 years ago. The only thing that made it slightly more bearable we're the very rare school trips from Hogwarts Academy. Luckily for Sirius one of those trips was today, for what reason he didn't know nor really care much about. Probably some music thing since his class was moved to the auditorium.
The auditorium was arguably the schools most boasted about facility, housing up to 2,000 people, much more than the amount of students and staff on campus on a daily basis. It was used for all sorts of events: theatrical performances, sports on occasion and of course music, mainly orchestra. Sirius was met with music stands arranged around a main stage sort of area where the conductor, or rather Sirius’ gangly old music teacher will try and miserably fail to coordinate the class, or in this case two classes as it looks like a class from Hogwarts will be joining them. This should be an exciting change from the usual boring drone of the class.
Sirius sat down in his section, around where he thought his normal chair should be when there aren’t thirty more spaces in the layout. Since it should take a while for all students to settle down Sirius decided he better start setting up his violin, not his instrument of choice mind you, the violin was more Regulus’ style, but their parents had forced them both to start learning how to play it at 5 so there wasn’t much he could do about it. He began mechanically taking out the violin and bow from its case, checking nothing had been damaged on his way to school, partly out of habit as he once came home with a scratch on the bow and lets just say Orion was not very happy about it. He had just put the violin back away after assuring himself it was in the same condition as it always is when he got a light tap on his shoulder.
Turning around, Sirius was met with.. nobody? Another tap on his other shoulder, again, nobody.
‘Haha, very funny, now who’s the master prankste-’ Sirius started, before having hands placed over his eyes and a familiar voice teasing saying, ‘It’s a ghost.. Oohhh’.
‘Prongs what the fuck, you haven’t seen me for what.. 3 months, and you’ve just decided to die on me. I can’t believe you’
‘Oh come on Pads I was just joking around, it's been so boring without you’ James complained, finally walking around to face Sirius. ‘Pete and I are so lost without you’, he teased.
‘Sure, at least you have each other whilst I'm stuck here with him ’ Sirius said, motioning to the percussion section.
‘Is that Snivellus and his gang of morons? Why do I think every time I see him that he can’t possibly get uglier, but he never fails to disappoint’ James joked, nudging Sirius.
‘Guess not, that's what the teachers seem to think too, bloody prince of Pinewood they call him.’
‘Come on, don’t get hung up on him, Pete and I are here now, and it's your birthday after all isn’t it’
‘Yeah, Wormy’s here is he? Gesturing to the empty space surrounding James’
‘Oh shit where’d that rat get off to’ James said, looking around for said rat, spotting him James promptly ran over and dragged him by the arm.
‘Jesus James I can walk you know’ Peter said, yanking his arm back from James; grip.
‘Hey Pete’
‘Hi Sirius’
James clapped loudly, Peter wincing slightly at the sudden noise, ‘We have a present for you Pads’ James declared before starting to rummage in his satchel for said present.
Finding the present, he took it out and handed it to Sirius. It was a fairly large, square-ish package, covered in obnoxious, red and gold paper, presumably courtesy of James. Scrawled on it in James’ impossibly messy handwriting was ‘Happy Birthday Padfoot! From Prongs and Wormtail’.
Sirius wasted no time in opening it, partially because he knew class would start shortly, but mainly because he was excited to see what it was. James always managed to get Sirius exactly what he wanted as a gift, even if Sirius’ had never mentioned it to him before.
Tearing the paper, Sirius spotted a familiar logo - a star and a chevron, and underneath a single word, ‘Converse’.
‘No way!’ Sirius exclaimed loudly, earning the group a few glances. He looked up and was met with a massive goofy grin plastered on James’ face. ‘You’re serious?’
‘Of course mate! We all have to match’ James said, pointing to his and Peter's own converse, both red, obviously.
Sirius honestly just sat there for a bit, just staring at the shoes and then up at his friends, a big smile on his face. It felt kind of stupid to Sirius that he was so happy about a pair of shoes.
‘Hey, Sirius you ok? You look a bit like a fish.’ Peter asked, nudging him slightly.
‘Yeah I'm okay Wormy’ Sirius said, looking up and flashing a reassuring smile to his friend.
‘Well what are you waiting for? Put them on!’ James exclaimed, impossibly more happy than Sirius at that moment.
Sirius wasted no time in chucking off those stupid dress shoes his mother made him wear, despite there being no rules saying you had to wear a certain school. I mean the house of black has an impeccable reputation to uphold, as his mother would say, or lecture.
They fit perfectly, how exactly James knew his shoe size was a mystery to Sirius.
‘Well? What do you think?’ James said.
‘I just, I-’ Sirius sputtered. ‘Thank you guys’ he eventually got out, reaching out to Peter and James and giving them a massive hug.
‘Aw Sirius, you big softie’ Peter teased.
‘Oh shut up Wormy’
James gasped, putting on a posh accent ‘Sirius! How dare you say such things’
‘Jesus you sound like my mother’
James gasped again, ‘You rapscallion! You’re grounded’
Sirius laughed, lightly shoving James’ shoulder, earning him another gasp.
James was no likely about to make another retort in that stupid posh accent when the familiar crackle of the intercom was heard from the ancient speakers placed in the auditorium.
‘Oh my God were those speakers bought fifty years ago they sound like shit’ James complained.
‘Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if they just kept the old ones here because they know how much that sound annoys the students’ Sirius replied.
Eventually the sound of Pinewood Institutes headmistress was heard over the intercom. She was a horrible woman in Sirius’ opinion, she smelt like dead rats and sounded like she smoked twenty packs a day, which she probably did.
‘Good morning students, may I ask that Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Petigrew please report to my office immediately. That will be all, thank you’
‘Oooh, someone's in trouble’ The most annoying voice imaginable slithered its way across the room.
‘Snape’ Sirius said before promptly giving him the middle finger.
James chuckled before lowering Sirius’ finger. ‘As much as I enjoyed that, lets not get in any more trouble that we already might be in’
‘What does she even want with us?’ Peter questioned, ‘Also how does she know mine and James’ names? We’re not students here.’
‘I don’t know’ James replied.
‘Well I know one thing, we better not keep that old hag waiting’ Sirius stated.
...
Upon entering the headmistress’ office, the trio were hit with a strong smell of… rat? Sirius had no other way to describe it, just that it smelled like shit. The room was fairly big for an office, having a desk by the entrance and what seemed to be a meeting table to the right. The desk had a golden namecard, reading ‘Headmistress’. At that moment it struck Sirius that he had no idea what the headmistress name was.
A grovely yet somehow high in pitch voice was heard from to the left of the meeting table, seemingly coming from an entirely separate room.
‘Ah, students, there you are’
The headmistress then exited the room, closing the door before locking it behind her and walking over to the head of the meeting table, motioning for the boys to sit at the opposite end.
‘Please, sit’
The trio did so, Sirius sitting directly opposite where the headmistress was stood, Peter on his right and James on his left.
James, the teachers pet that he is, started to speak, ‘Thank you, I apologize but I'm not sure why we were asked here? I wasn't aware that we had done anything wrong?’
‘Oh Potter, you haven't done anything wrong, don't worry’ the headmistress replied, taking off her blazer and laying it on the back of her chair.
‘Oh that's great to hear. Thank you Ms..?’ James trailed off, realizing that he too had no idea of the headmistress name.
‘Alecto, dear. Ms Alecto.’ she answered.
Peter perked up, ‘Ms Alecto, if we haven't done anything wrong, then if you don't mind me asking, why are we here?’
‘Well you see Pettigrew, although you haven't done anything wrong in the conventional sense, you're parents have passed immense wrongs onto you’
‘I'm sorry, I don't quite understand,’ Peter said, confused.
‘Oh don't worry, you don't need to understand’ Alecto started, ‘You'll all understand when you're gone’
‘I'm sorry, did you say when we're gone?’ Sirius exlaimed, standing up, suddenly feeling very on edge. Seemingly both Peter and James felt the same as they both stood up as well.
Sirius glanced towards the door, absentmindedly looking for a potential way out if things were to go south, how exactly they might go that was Sirius didn't know.
A gasp from Peter drew Sirius’ attention away from the door, eyes scanning the area before settling on the headmistress, at least he thought it was the headmistress.
She had completely changed, pupils narrowing to slits, hair twisting and turning as if it were alive, she had even grown taller, as if she were standing on stilts. But most of all, from her back had sprouted a pair of wings, black, grimy and torn.
‘Oh my God’ Peter exclaimed, completely disgusted, and so so confused.
‘They're gorgeous aren't they’ Alecto replied, ‘Enjoy them while you still can’
She lunged at the boys, who were now extremely glad they had stood up earlier, trying to grab them with her sharp talons. They scrambled away to the door, it was locked.
‘How is it locked?’ James exclaimed ‘We just came in here!’
‘Oh you poor puny demigods, what would your parents think of you?’ Alecto teased, taking her sweet time to get to the trio huddled by the door, making a horrible noise as she scratched her talons along the meeting table.
James suddenly clasped his hands over his ears, seemingly in pain from the noise, ‘Someone do something make it stop’ James shouted.
Sirius’ pocket suddenly felt heavier. Reaching into it, he pulled out the miniature black dog, except it wasn't just a dog, it had three heads, and was getting bigger. Sirius dropped it seemingly just in time as it grew into the size of a dachshund, then a german shepherd, and then a great dane.
Alecto stopped dragging her talons across the table, much to James’ relief, before crossing her arms and looking at the three headed statue.
‘You think a little party trick with a growing Cerberus is going to scare me?’ She scoffed, before bopping the supposed Cerberus as she called it on the nose, earning her a growl.
‘Did that thing just move?’ Peter asked.
James replied, seemingly having recovered, ‘Yes, yes it did’
Alectos entire demeanor had changed, going from confident and teasing, to pure fear.
Seemingly deciding to put an end to this madness, the cerberus opened its central mouth and bit down on Alectos head, hard . Alecto howled in pain, before vanishing in a cloud of ash and soot.
The cerberus then began to shrink, returning to the size it was when Sirius first received it, except this time with three heads instead of one. Still in shock, Sirius cautiously reached out to grab the minature, before securely pocketing it.
He scampered back to the door, sitting against it in shock. Both James and Peter lowered themselves down to sit beside him. Sirius couldn't help but notice that James’ ear was bleeding, at least his right one was as he could see it.
Peter decided to say out loud what no doubt the others were also thinking.
‘What the actual fuck just happened’