Melancholy || Harry Potter's twin brother

1: chapter twenty three

The first thing that Sirius noticed about the room that they entered was Aro lurking in the shadows, the second was Quirrel inspecting himself in the mirror.

"Told you it wasn't Snape." Sirius sighed, but Harry ignored him, glaring daggers into Quirrels back.

"You!" He yelled accusingly, Sirius frowned, what was Harry doing? Harry walked towards Quirrel, causing his brother to sigh and follow him cautiously.

"Me." Quirrel answered. Sirius noticed Aro had disappeared, which terrified him. He found out where he was seconds later, when upon feeling watched, he looked behind him to see Aro stood there.

"I thought you knew better." Was all he said, raising his wand at the boy, he said no words yet Sirius was hit with some sort of spell.

And then he was in excruciating pain.

Sirius screamed, it was like no pain he had felt before, and it was not one he wished to feel again, he had fallen to the floor amist the pain and he saw Harry desperately running towards him. Everything blurred and disappeared, before coming into focus in the lobby of a grand house. He felt like he was going to throw up.

"How dare you disobey me!" Aro was beyond mad, Sirius stood up, only to be physically knocked down as Aro punched him in the face. He was punched and kicked at, until he was screaming at Aro to stop hurting him. Then the same spell- no curse, it had to be a curse, but him again and he began to scream blue murder. More curses and more spells hit him, and he heard the sounds of footsteps running into the room.

"I'm sorry." Sirius whimprred, he was trying very hard not to cry, but he was crying anyway.

"You're sorry? You ignore me, help him and you think you can get away with it, and you're sorry?" Aro sneered at the boy, but he relented on the curse, leaving a sobbing mess of a boy on the floor.

"He didn't have a choice." Ollie spoke up from the doorway, defending Sirius as he so often did, Jane walked over to Sirius, checking if he was okay and helping him into a sitting position.

"You said you did not see him." Aro narrowed his eyes at Ollie.

"I didn't. His brother has an invisibility cloak, I heard him." Ollie answered, sounding uncharictaristically confident.

"He should have tried harder." As I shrugged, but he was trying to justify his actions to his other two protegees.

"He's still loyal to his brother." Jane added as she managed to stop Sirius from crying.

"He'll learn." Aro answered coldly. Sirius glanced at Jane fear evident in his eyes.

"He can't help us if he's damaged beyond repair." Ollie warned. Aro suddenly gained a calculating look in his eyes.

"If and only if, he can disarm me, like I expect him to know how to do, then I shall not punish him further, if not, I will wipe his memories and everything that makes him him, and we will start fresh. Then he won't be able to disobey me." Aro said.

Sirius' eyes widened and he glanced at Jane in worry.

"Don't worry, you can do this. To disarm it's 'expelliarmus' you know this. It's just like we've practiced. You've got this." She told him, sounding like a motivational sports coach. He sighed and then nodded, she brushed his hair away from the burn on his face, from a fire charm Aro had sent at him. "Don't lose." She added in warning.

Sirius sighed again and picked up his wand. He should never have left his common room. He faced Aro and bowed, as Jane had taught him everything he needed to know about dueling. Now all he had to do was prove himself.

Aro cast the first spell, but Sirius defended himself quickly, casting spells in a quick succession in a wild attempt to win.

Aro sent curses, he sent spells Sirius hadn't heard of, and they hurt, but he didn't stop, he couldn't stop. He had to win.

He knew there was a spell that would protect him, but he couldn't remember the name of how to cast it.

"Expelliarmus." Sirius almost hit him, missing out due to a last minute charm Aro cast. He was getting nowhere, it wasn't exactly a tie as Sirius was getting more and more hurt and injured, which proved that he knew far less about fuelling then he had thought, but it made him ever more determined.

Sirius tried again and again, but Aro was one step ahead of him and Sirius knew that he was going to lose.

Everyone knew it.

In one final, feeble attempt, Sirius put all hid strength into casting the spell again.

"Expelliarmus!" Sirius closed his eyes, only opening them when he heard Jane gasp loudly. He had done it, he had just disarmed Aro. He stood there shocked, wondering how it had happened.

The Swan siblings hugged him at once. "I'm so proud." Ollie told him. Sirius sighed, his head begginging to pound.

"Thanks." He nodded.

"You did good." Jane told him, "But you had a better teacher."

He laughed weakly, "I sure did." Lights danced in front of his eyes.

"Well done boy." Aro congratulated.

"Thanks." Sirius murmured, clutching his head, trying desperately to get rid of the heaviness in his body. He fell to his knees.

"Sirius? Sirius are you alright?" He heard Willie's voice, but he sounded so far away and his voice echoed around Sirius' head painfully.

He looks faint." He heard Jane comment. He hit the floor, his eyes slowly closing, as he tried and failed to get away from the darknesses claws.

"Sirius!" But he was gone, his body unable to cope with all of his injuries and his body trying to desperately regain energy.