Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns everyone in this story 
except of Morrigan Snape and Cassiopeia Black.

Pairing: SS/SB
 
Rating: PG-13. Warning: implied incest

Summary: When Dumbledore asked Black and Snape to 
shake hands in GoF, I thought, they are behaving like two 
little boys, and Dumbledore like their impatient father. 
Plotbunnies sprang out of the wilderness...


Family Ties, Chapter Six: Brotherly Love
By Ratwoman
ratwoman02@yahoo.de


Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office contemplating 
the events of the past weeks. Sirius had escaped from 
Azkaban; he was the only wizard who ever escaped from 
Azkaban. Of course Albus was worried that a dangerous 
criminal who was possibly after Harry Potter was out in the 
world, but on the other hand he could not help and be glad 
that his son had escaped from this hellish prison.

Then there were all those rumours about Lord Voldemort's 
return coming closer. For that reason Albus had hired 
Remus Lupin as the new Defence against the Dark Arts 
teacher: he wanted to gather the old crew around for the 
day Voldemort would come back. 

Severus, of course, had protested. His first argument had 
been that Lupin was a werewolf; but Albus had reminded 
him that he absolutely trusted his ability to brew the 
Wolfsbane. Deprived of that excuse, Severus had 
reasoned that Remus Lupin had tried to kill him eighteen 
years ago. Albus was as convinced as ever that Lupin had 
not been in with the "joke". He had also refused Severus' 
argument that Sirius Black had been Lupin's friend and 
Lupin was not to be trusted therefore; well, if he couldn't 
trust Sirius' friends, could he trust his family then?

Albus could understand Severus' anger, yet...

"Did you never in the least feel sorry for your brother, 
Severus?" Albus asked. He was sure he saw an 
expression of pain flicker across Severus' face for a 
second, but then Severus answered: "I'm sorry for the 
grief he caused to Cassie. I'm sorry that no one saw he 
was a psychopath before it was too late." 
Severus' glare was slightly accusing. 

"You're thinking about the Shrieking Shack incident, 
Severus?"

Severus smiled sardonically. "Perfect Sirius tried to kill his 
own brother and no one thought that worrying."

Albus wanted to say that he did not think Sirius had been 
intend on killing him, but how could he be sure about that?

"You know, Severus, each time I visited Sirius in Azkaban 
over the years, he insisted on being innocent."  

"Then he was lying!" Severus said.

Albus had never thought that he would one day have to 
protect his school against a maniac who was his own son. 
Even the one of his sons he had thought unproblematic. 
Maybe it was time to relive some memories in his 
pensieve in order to get some hints of what to expect from 
Sirius Black.

*

While watching his memories of James Potter relating the 
Shrieking Shack incident, and Sirius afterwards denying 
that he had wanted to kill Severus, Albus noticed that 
Sirius did not once say that he was sorry.

Dumbledore listened to himself asking: "Why did you send 
him after Lupin anyway?"

"I just wanted to scare him." Sirius said. "Give him 
something to think, so that he will stop trying to get us 
expelled."

"You never were one of the bright ones, brother!" Severus 
said sarcastically. "Now you provided a perfect reason for 
getting expelled. As if I couldn't already have got you 
expelled with what you did two days ago!"

"You false hypocrite!" Sirius hissed.

On Dumbledore's question whether there was something 
he should know both Sirius and Severus just looked 
away sullenly, and blushed guiltily. 

"What is it?" Albus heard himself asking. "Sirius, it can 
hardly get any  worse. You can tell me."

Sirius kept his silence, but Albus could see tears glittering 
in his eyes. 

"Severus?" he asked. Severus looked as if he wanted to 
say something but was, for once in his life, out of words. 

Albus returned to the here and now and closed the 
cupboard where he kept his pensieve in. Why had he 
never pursued the topic of "something two days before the 
Shrieking Shack incident"? 

The answer was quite simple: they had been kids, and 
Sirius a notorious prankster. Severus could have caught 
his brother doing anything from stealing in the kitchen to 
breaking 50 school rules. Though the looks on their faces 
suggested that it had been something more serious than 
school boys' pranks. 

Albeit a bit late, Dumbledore decided to pursue the topic 
now. Anything that could give him insight into how Sirius 
Black's mind worked could be helpful. 

Albus walked over to his fireplace and threw some powder 
into the flames: "Severus, can I talk to you, please?"

A moment later the flames turned green, gave a small 
explosion, and Severus stepped out of the fireplace.

"Yes, Albus?" he asked. 

"I've looked through my memories of the Shrieking Shack 
incident in my pensieve." Dumbledore said. "At one point 
you mentioned already having a good reason for getting 
Sirius expelled with something he did two days earlier. 
What were you referring to?"

Albus saw a flash of fright in Severus' eyes for a moment. 
"Sorry, I don't remember." Severus said. "Must have been 
one of his stupid pranks."

"You're lying." Albus did not say this in an accusing way, 
it was merely an observation. 

Severus sighed. "It's nothing, Albus."

"Then why don't you just tell me?" Dumbledore asked. 

Not really surprising, Severus hissed: "Don't waste my 
precious time with that!"  and angrily left Dumbledore's 
office. 

Hmm, obviously Albus had just come across something 
Severus was hiding from him.

*

Albus tried several times to talk to Severus about it, but he 
always blocked completely.

During the school year Sirius Black became more and 
more of a threat. One day he even broke into the school 
and destroyed the picture of the Fat Lady. 

Taking a quick look at the ruined painting, Dumbledore did 
not think about Sirius Black at first, because he believed it 
was quite impossible to break into the school with all the 
Dementors standing guard. (Though he would still prefer 
these terrible creatures to be far away from his students.) 
Yet Dumbledore wondered what was on the mind of 
someone who destroyed a painting. Strips of canvas were 
littered on the floor, chunks of it had been torn out 
completely. 

Albus turned to see Minerva, Severus and Remus Lupin 
hurrying through the crowd of frightened children. Albus 
asked Minerva to tell Filch to search every picture for the 
Fat Lady, but Peeves the poltergeist interrupted him: 
"You'll be lucky!" he chuckled. 

"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked. 
Annoying as Peeves was, he might have seen something. 
Peeves took a long time relating how he had seen her 
running in fear through a landscape in the fourth floor. 

"Did she say who did it?" Albus asked, fearing the worst.

"Oh yes, Professorhead," Peeves answered importantly. 
"He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see."

Maybe the guards were not as secure as Dumbledore had 
thought.

"Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black!" 

*

After sending the children back to the Great Hall for the 
night, Dumbledore organised a search through the castle. 
He was not surprised when they found nothing - Sirius 
might be mad, but he was not stupid. Of course he had 
long gone. 

Albus also was not surprised when Severus hinted on the 
possibility that Remus Lupin might have let Sirius in. Albus 
was sure that was not the case; he knew that Remus had 
felt as betrayed as everyone when Sirius had turned out to 
be the traitor. 

It got worse; one night Sirius even broke into the 
Gryffindor Dormitory, almost murdering Ron Weasley. It 
seemed so absurd that Albus was afraid that one of his 
own sons might murder his students, but he had realised 
years before that he had failed as a father.

Then, one night, near the end of the year, Severus caught 
his brother. Severus looked a bit confused as he related 
how Sirius Black had bewitched Harry Potter, Ron 
Weasley and Hermione Granger with a Confundus 
Charme, how Remus Lupin had consorted with Black, how 
they had knocked him out, but by the time he awoke were 
surrounded by Dementors, who then moved back without 
a clear reason. However, Severus had bound and gagged 
Sirius Black and brought everyone back into the castle. 

Now that the children were safe in the hospital wing, 
Dumbledore decided to have a word with Sirius, who was 
locked into Professor Flitwick's office. 

With a feeling of unease Albus opened the door. Sirius 
was sitting on a chair, still bound and gagged. Albus 
carefully closed and locked the door behind him, then 
removed the ties and the gag with a wave of his wand. 

Sirius looked up carefully. In the gaunt face there was 
hardly anything left from the pretty, cheerful boy he had 
once been. "Hello Dad," he said meekly.

"Sirius," Albus said calmly and sat down opposite him. 
"What have you been up to?"

"I wanted to kill Peter Pettigrew." Sirius replied bitterly.

Albus sighed. "You killed him 12 years ago, Sirius." 

"No," Sirius shook his head, "I wanted to, but I didn't."
Looking straight at Albus he said: "I didn't betray the 
Potters."

"You were their secret keeper." Albus replied sadly. Sirius 
seemed to have gone completely insane, denying what he 
had done.

Sirius looked pleadingly at him. "Please, you must believe 
me, father. Peter had convinced me that it was better if he 
was the secret keeper, because everyone would suspect 
ME. No one, on the other hand, would suspect Peter; 
after all he was the weakest of us four. And if they 
ever would have found out that it was him, he said he 
could just turn into a rat and go into the hiding."

"Pardon?" Albus interrupted. 

"Peter is an animagus. James, Peter and I learned how to 
be animagi in order to be able to be with Remus at full 
moon."

Crazy as it sounded, it was just the thing the Marauders 
would have done. "Go on." Albus said calmly.

"That's how I escaped from Azkaban and got into the 
castle: in my dog form."

That explained some things.

"However, Peter was the traitor; he told Lord Voldemort 
where he could find James and Lily." The pain on Sirius' 
face looked unique. If he was telling the truth... then Albus' 
son was actually innocent. "When I cornered Peter, he 
suddenly called something that __I_ had killed James and 
Lily, caused an explosion that killed twelve Muggles, cut 
off his finger and disappeared with the rats." 

It was hard to imagine that Peter Pettigrew was capable of 
something like that, but in despair about Voldemort's 
defeat, Death Eaters had committed the worst atrocities. 

"Why did you come to Hogwarts if you wanted to take 
revenge on Pettigrew?"

Sirius took a crumbled piece of paper out of his robes, 
smoothed it flat, and showed it to Dumbledore. It was the 
front page of an edition of the Daily Prophet, almost a year 
old. There was a photograph of the Weasleys, who had 
won a trip to Egypt, and on Ron's shoulder was...

"Ron's rat." Albus said thunderstruck. It got a toe missing 
at the front paw. 

"When Fudge came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave 
me his paper." Sirius said. "I recognised Peter 
immediately.

Suddenly it all made sense. Or maybe Albus just 
desperately wanted to believe that his son was innocent. 
But then, the Ministry was informed that Sirius Black was 
caught and the Dementors probably already were on their 
way.

"Where is Peter now?" he asked.

"Escaped." Sirius hissed. "Thanks to my beloved brother's 
intervention." 

Albus suddenly remembered something... "What 
happened two days before you send Severus to meet the 
werewolf in the Shrieking Shack?"

Sirius stared at him wide-eyed, then paled visibly. "You 
don't really want to know!" he said. 

"Yes, I do." Albus replied impatiently. What the hell were 
his sons hiding from him? Judging from their reactions, it 
must be something dead-serious. 

"We... um... we had detention together." Sirius said 
hesitatingly. "Um... I don't remember what for."

Albus waited impatiently for Sirius to go on.

"We had to clean a classroom without the use of magic. 
And... um.. we were accusing each other of being to 
blame for getting detention." Sirius paused. "We started to 
fight... um... our robes tore, and suddenly we were both 
naked..." Sirius looked as if he wished the ground would 
swallow him.

"He's your own brother!" Albus called in disgust.

"Half-brother." Sirius said as if that would make it less 
incestuous. 

Albus buried his head in his hands. What the hell was 
wrong with his sons? 

Looking up, he saw that Sirius was staring timidly at him. 
Albus sighed and said: "I don't know what to make of that. 
Your... er... emotions for each other always were... er... 
extreme, and you were hormone-filled teenagers at that 
time, but..."

"It was absolutely consensual, but Severus accused me 
the next day of raping him." Sirius said frowning. "I think 
he somehow turned it around in his head until he saw it 
like that because it was easier to put all the blame on me. 
However, back then I thought that he somehow had put it 
all up to have an excuse for getting me expelled. So, I 
needed something to scare him so that he wouldn't tell 
anyone..." 

"I see," Albus said, slowly recovering from the shock. 
"However, the Dementors are on their way." Sirius paled. 
"I will try to find a way to save you, but I have to hurry up 
now." Albus said, stood up and left the room. 

*

When Dumbledore entered the hospital wing, Harry and 
Hermione were trying desperately to convince Cornelius 
Fudge and Severus Snape of Sirius Black's innocence. It 
was, of course, in vain, Albus knew they had to turn to 
illegal methods tonight. 

"For heaven's sake!" Madame Pomfrey screamed over the 
chaos. "Is this a hospital wing or not? Headmaster, I must 
insist -"

"My apologies, Poppy, but I need a word with Mr Potter 
and Miss Granger," Albus said with forced calm. "I have 
just been talking to Sirius Black..."

He was interrupted by Severus' interjection: "I suppose 
he's told you the same fairy tale he's planted in Potter's 
mind. Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive..."

"That, indeed, is Black's story," Albus said, gazing 
scrutinisingly at Severus. That, and more, was what Sirius 
had told him. 

"And does my evidence count for nothing?" Severus 
snarled with a hint of despair in his voice. "Peter Pettigrew 
was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of 
him in the grounds."

"That was because you were knocked out, Professor!" 
said Hermione Granger earnestly. "You didn't arrive in 
time to hear..."

"Miss Granger," Severus snarled with a dangerous 
undertone in his voice, "HOLD YOUR TONGUE!"

Severus rarely lost his temper. As far as Albus 
remembered, it only happened in connection to his half-
brother. As he had said, very extreme emotions. 

Pushing the incest issue to the back of his mind, Albus 
said: "I would like to speak to Harry and Hermione alone. 
Cornelius, Severus, Poppy - please leave us."

After a short protest, Poppy and Fudge left, but Severus 
did not move, staring horrified at his father as if caught in a 
nightmare.

"You surely don't believe Black's story?" he whispered. 
Albus knew very well how this looked to Severus - like a 
repetition of the Shrieking Shack incident, with Albus once 
again taking Sirius' word as the truth. As if Sirius was 
allowed everything. As if Severus did not count.

"I wish to speak to Harry and Hermione alone." Albus said 
stoically.

Taking a step towards Albus, Severus whispered: "Sirius 
Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of 
sixteen. You haven't forgotten that? You haven't forgotten 
that he once tried to kill ME?"

"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus." Albus 
said quietly. 

Albus saw hurt flickering up in Severus' eyes before he 
turned on his heels and stormed out.

Harry and Hermione both burst into speech as soon as 
they were alone, but Dumbledore silenced them with an 
upheld hand and told them what to do. Fortunately 
Hermione was a very bright girl, he could see in her eyes 
that she understood immediately what he meant when he 
said that they needed more time. After giving her all the 
instructions she needed, he left the room, hoping that the 
children would succeed. A second before locking the door, 
he saw Harry and Hermione, who had travelled through 
time, running towards him along the corridor.

"Well?" he asked nervously.

"We did it!" Harry called. "Sirius has gone, on Buckbead."

Albus felt as if a great weight had been taken off his 
shoulder. His son was free!

After locking Harry and Hermione back into the room, he 
walked happily along the corridor. He could hear Severus 
shouting in rage from afar. 

"YOU CAN'T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE 
THIS CASTLE!" A fuming Severus and a confused 
Cornelius Fudge came around the corner. "THIS HAS 
SOMETHING TO DO WITH POTTER!"

"Severus, be reasonable, Harry has been locked up." 
Albus said, but Severus glared angrily at Albus, took his 
wand and burst open the door. 

Dumbledore followed his son and Fudge into the ward.

Albus watched Severus raving for a while, accusing Harry 
Potter of helping Sirius to escape. His intuition was rather 
accurate.

Severus was beside himself. Could he really have wished 
his own brother to receive the Dementor's kiss? 

"That will do, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly. "Think 
about what you are saying. This door has been locked 
since I left the ward ten minutes ago... Unless you are 
suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in two 
places at once, I'm afraid I don't see any point in troubling 
them further."

Severus glared at him, then stormed out of the ward. 

Obviously Fudge was thoroughly shocked at his 
behaviour, and said: "Fellow seems quite unbalanced. I'd 
watch out for him, if I were you, Dumbledore."

"Oh, he's not unbalanced," Albus said sadly, "he just 
suffered a severe disappointment." 

Once again, Severus' half-brother had proven that he 
could get away with everything.

*

This time Albus knew better than to postpone talking with 
Severus; the very next evening he went down to his 
quarters. This would not be easy, but Albus took up his 
courage and knocked at Severus Snape's door. 

Severus opened, looking coldly at him.

"May I come in?" Albus asked. 

Severus stepped aside, let him in and closed the door 
behind him. 

"How did you manage to let Sirius escape?" Severus 
asked calmly.

"With a Time-Turner." Albus said shortly. "Would you really 
be happier if he  received the Dementor's kiss?"

Severus shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'd feel terrible. 
But at least he'd be gone."

Albus watched his son closely. He seemed to be in a fit of 
depression.  

"Sirius told me what happened two days before the 
Shrieking Shack incident." Albus said.

Severus looked up, fright in his eyes, then anger. "You 
mean, he told you his version of what happened!" 

"Yes," Albus said calmly, "and now I want to listen to your 
version." 

Severus sighed and sat down in an armchair. "We had 
sex." he simply said. 

Dumbledore sat down opposite his son. "Sirius said you 
accused him of raping you." 

Severus massaged his temples as if in pain. "I believed 
that for a while. It was easier to put the blame on him. But 
then we did it again when we were both in custody in 
Azkaban."

Albus was slightly surprised. "Sirius didn't mention that."

"He might have forgotten." Severus said. "He's been for 
twelve years at that place." 

Dumbledore tried to blame it all on teenagers' hormones in 
the first case, and search for solace in the second case, 
but felt that it somehow could not explain all.

"What do you feel for your brother?" Albus asked.

Severus looked surprised for a moment, then confused. 
"He's everything I despise, a superficial, thoughtless 
happy-go-lucky dunce." Severus said. "Yet at times I want 
to be like him. At times I'm jealous for the love and 
admiration that people seem to shower him with."

"I have always loved you as much as him." Albus said 
earnestly. "The very same is true for your mothers."

"Maybe," Severus replied monotonously, "but you always 
liked him better." 

**

To be finished in Family Ties Chapter Seven: Fathers and 
Sons