TO SAY THAT the relationship between Sirius and Regulus Black was rather strained would be a polite way to put it.

The two had grown up in the most natural way, at least as natural as two sons of such despicable people as Walburga and Orion Black could. They were close in age and both boys, so it fell naturally that the two had a bond that only brothers could have.

But, when Sirius started Hogwarts and gotten sorted into the Gryffindor house, much to the disappointment of their parents, they immediately started to drift apart.

Regulus then arrived as well, and he was sorted into Slytherin. Sirius had found a new brother in the form of James, and suddenly the relationship between the two was pretty much gone.

It was the kind of thing were they would nod at each other in the hallway at home, but never at school. Sirius had a small hatred for his brother for being a Slytherin, and Regulus Sirius for being a Gryffindor.

And, when Sirius got disowned, zero interaction had been done, despite the simple little fact that Regulus missed him and felt completely and utterly abandoned.

Regulus had always been the more calm and understanding brother. So, when he had managed to calm down a completely head over heels Claudia in the hallway after her accidental overdose of Rosamund's love potion, Sirius and his friends arrived and Regulus understood everything simply by looking into his eyes for just a few seconds.

"What the hell did you do to her?!" Sirius asked his brother accusingly as Claudia giggled on Regulus' shoulder. "Did you drug her?!"

"I-"

"Or did you smuggle her a fucking love potion or something?!"

"I...really don't know how to answer that," Regulus said awkwardly.

"What?!"

"Look, it's extremely confusing and to be honest I don't even know why we did this in the first place, but-"

"Did what?!"

"That's what he's trying to tell you!" James snapped.

"Yeah!" Peter stepped in. "Let him talk."

"Thank you?" Regulus said, extremely confused to why the two boys didn't join in on the yelling. "Basically I gave her a love potion, and-"

"Oh, you fucking-"

"Let him finish!"

"And we...I accidentally gave her too much," he said as Claudia played with his hair. "And I'm not going to tell you anything else in case she doesn't want me to. But you just have to remember that this was...consensual."

"How the hell can a love potion be fucking consensual?!" Sirius exclaimed. "That's the whole point of it! It not being consensual!"

"This time around it was, okay?" Regulus said calmly as Claudia wrapped her arms around him again.

"You're cute," she cooed.

"This is giving me flashbacks," Peter mumbled as James' eyes widened.

"Shut up," said James.

"So, will you help me with her?" Asked Regulus.

"No," James said quickly. "Why should we?"

"Because we're her friends!" Peter said as both him and Sirius glared angrily at the boy.

"Oh, Merlin," James sighed. "He's not supposed to know that!"

"But you just told him?!" Peter sassed.

"Shit!"

"Don't worry about me, basically everyone knows at this point. And, besides, Claudia has already told me that and...other things," Regulus said nonchalantly. "It's not like you guys are that great at hiding it."

God, it truly was a mess. Nolan knew, Nicolas didn't. Regulus knew, and he was certain he knew why he wasn't supposed to know.

At this point it was hard for pretty much everyone to keep track on what the hell was going on in Claudia's rollercoaster-life. She even struggled with that herself.

Who knew that friendships could be such secrets?

"Maybe we shouldn't be this obvious," said James to his two friends, completely ignoring Regulus.

"Maybe we should," Sirius said. "I mean, it can't get much worse than it already is."

"But the other one doesn't know," Peter said, referring to Nicolas. "I don't think we want to double the trouble."

"Hey, that rhymed-"

"Oh, will you three just deal with that later and help me make sure she doesn't do something stupid instead?!" Regulus then interrupted. "And one of you should probably go talk to Lupin too, because I'm pretty sure he is drowning in jealousy right about now."

"Right," said James as he started walking. "I go to Moony, you guys take care of dizzy lady over there."

"Hi, Jamie," Claudia said sweetly as he passed her.

"Hi, you fool," he said, ruffling her hair before he headed towards the stairs and the dormitory.

"Hey, what the hell! Why do you get to go to Moony?!" Sirius called after him.

"Because I said so, now make sure she doesn't embarrass herself even further!"

They did just that, and oh how they hated it.

Regulus, being his normally anti-social self, was extremely exhausted from all the embarrassment and social interaction he had faced in the past few hours. He was at least grateful to be missing History of Magic, so that was something, but all he wanted to do was go back to his dorm and sleep for all eternity.

Sirius was wearing a permanent frown as he spent time with his brother. It wasn't like they talked or anything, all they did was walk around the school as they tried to make sure that Claudia didn't snog Regulus there and then at the same time as they tried to avoid getting caught skipping class.

Sirius knew deep inside that he missed his brother and that he wanted their childhood relationship to come back, but he was way to proud to admit that.

And as for Peter, he was just glad to not be in class. And also glad to be on map-duty, in order to avoid Nolan, Nicolas, Evan and the teachers, instead of being forced to deal with the giggling girl.

And Claudia was excited to be alive - which, in all honesty, was almost as rare as Sirius and Regulus walking besides each other.

Remus, however, was not excited to be alive as he lay in his bed in the dorm, wondering what the hell was wrong with him and why he couldn't just get over himself.

And he definitely wanted to hit James as the boy strutted in with a knowing smile on his face.

"Get up, Moony," the spectacled boy said as he sat down by the foot of his bed. "Jealousy doesn't look good on you."

"Shut up," Remus murmured. "I don't feel like getting up. I might just stay here all day. Or night. Or maybe the entire week for all I care."

"You sound like me right now," James grinned. "Have I finally rubbed off on you?"

"And what exactly do you mean by that?"

"You're down bad for Claudia is what I mean. It's pretty much as bad as me with Lily."

"Am not."

"That might just be the biggest lie I've ever heard," James sighed. "But you know what? There's nothing wrong with that, because she's absolutely down bad for you too."

"That's not true," Remus sighed. "Why would she be all over Sirius' brother if that was the case?"

"Two words, dear little Moony, two words," James said as he patted Remus on the shoulder. "Love Potion."

Remus stared dumblfoundly at James before his eyes widened and he immediately sat up, only for James to drag him back down.

"I am going to kill him!" Remus yelled as he tried, and succeeded, to fight off James.

"Slow down!" James yelled as Remus grabbed his wand and headed towards the door. "Claudia was up to it!"

"What?!"

"I don't why, but she'll tell us when she's back to normal," James explained. "Now, will you please sit down so I can commit to my mother-of-the-group duties?"

Remus frowned at the boy before he unwillingly sat down and waited for James to get to the point.

"I know it hurt like a bitch when you saw her all over him," he started. "Trust me, I know. But that wasn't her, not at all. She likes you, Remus, I know she does."

"Stop lying, Prongs-"

"I'm not lying! I can tell, trust me. There's no way she isn't, like actually no way. I think...that she actually loves you. I can see it."

"How?"

"The way she looks at you, as cheesy as it sounds. It's like you have some sort of unwritten language. You can communicate with your eyes like that. And she's only ever touchy with you, only with you. I just know that she loves you, okay? There's no solid explanation, it's just the way it is."

"It doesn't matter," Remus sighed after a few silent seconds. "Because we could never be together, it's impossible."

"Why not?"

"Because I could hurt her.  And I...I just can't put her in that position. I can't hurt her, James. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. And...I just can't hurt her. She deserves so much better than me."

"But do you love her?"

"I could never be with her, Prongs, you know that."

"That wasn't the question," James sighed. "Do you love her?"

"Yes," Remus replied quietly. "Of course I do. It would be impossible not to."

•••

The weirdest thing ever had occurred. Well, one of the weirdest things that had happened during that weird day, at least.

Claudia was just casually walking with her arms around Regulus as Rosamund appeared.

Peter had forgotten about the fucking map, and now the doll-like girl was standing in front of Claudia with no expression on her face whatsoever.

"I know an overdose when I see one," she said in an almost pitiful voice, and then she handed a bottle to Regulus. "Wouldn't want her to be in love with you for days, now would you? You poor thing."

And then, Rosamund walked off without saying another word.

And suddenly Claudia was back to normal thanks to the antidote.

"Blimey," was the first thing she said as the three boys stared at her concernedly. "That was definitely not a good idea."

"Really? Here I was thinking it was brilliant," said Regulus jokingly, catching Sirius and Peter off guard as Claudia slapped him on the arm.

"But it actually wasn't that stupid," she said. "I knew exactly what I was doing but I couldn't control it."

"What are you guys talking about?" Asked Sirius, feeling very eager to get out of there.

Claudia turned to Sirius and thought for a few moments before she continued, "What did you drink the night you cheated on Betty?"

"Alcohol," he said as if it was obvious.

"No, I mean what exactly did you drink? And what did it taste like? And who gave it to you?"

"Well, I had some Firewhiskey and such from the dorm...and then I guess Rosamund gave me some drinks too, but then I was pretty much unable to control the drinking," he said with a shiver. "Hang on..."

"Did it taste like shit?"

"Kind of."

"And did you suddenly do stupid things the moment those drinks had been finished?"

"Kind of," he said, causing Claudia to glare at him. "Okay, yes I did."

"Well, I'm most positive you were under the effects of a potion then, Black. Seems we are on good terms again."

"Claudia, are you sure? Because we can't really know for sure," said Regulus, causing a previously pleased and relived Sirius to glare at him.

"Of course I'm not sure," she said. "But I learned from the best, didn't I?"

"What do you mean?" Regulus asked as Claudia took something out of the inner-pocket of her robe.

The Veritaserum.

"Always have a plan B."

__________________________________