I know, I know. Again, it's been way too long. I'm trying to get back to continuing my older stories. I really enjoy writing this one, so hopefully I can get back to it properly now. Thank you all again for your continued support and reviews!

SILVER AND BLACK

Day Three

Sirius Black II and Cygnus Black were the first and third children of Phineas Nigellus Black respectively. Sirius, two years older had always been the one to have to listen to his father prattle on about the duty to the family. His younger brother was jealous, to some respect. They'd fight often, and Cygnus found it frustrating that Sirius should get all of the attention just for being born first.

It was agreed upon between Phineas and his wife, Ursula, that when their sons became a certain age, Phineas would inflict them with his vampirism.

The child in the middle of Sirius and Cygnus, Phineas II, was unhappy about the prospect of becoming a vampire. At the age of ten he made it abundantly clear that he found the thought of murdering innocent Muggles just for his own survival a very wrong way of life. His parents refused to acknowledge his view on the matter until he tried to put a stake through his father one night.

After the incident, Phineas II was locked away in the cellar while his family discussed his fate. Following much deliberation, they decided that the safest way to erase him from the family was to kill him.

Children could not simply say 'no' to the family tradition of vampirism, or they would be greeted by a bloody end.

Neither Sirius or Cygnus, or their younger siblings ever spoke of Phineas II again. As far as they were concerned, there had only ever been one Phineas in the Black family.

Sirius's POV;

Sirius had decided to keep the shrunken silver axes in his own room, in his trunk that was tucked underneath his bed. He didn't trust Regulus with such a thing. This would be their one chance to do something that future Black family members would talk about for centuries. This would be the beginning of their legacy. He couldn't risk anything that could jeopardise his plan.

He was sitting in his usual seat in the Defense Against The Dark Arts classroom, twirling his quill around between his fingers while he waited for the lesson to begin. Professor Dibble was still faffing around at the front of the room, dropping his paperwork on the floor and muttering to himself. It was a usual occurrence that everybody was used to.

Sirius turned to face Remus, who was sitting next to him. "Are you excited about the Christmas party?"

This year, Hogwarts would be holding a Christmas party for students and staff, which was something that they didn't usually do. It was supposed to be a formal party, in which people were to bring partners.

"Not really," Remus said. "I'm not much of a party person."

Sirius smiled. "I suppose. I can understand that. I wasn't much of a party person, but after having to go to so many with my family it's just become normal for me."

"And I'm sure we need to take dates," Remus continued. "I'm painfully single."

"So am I, but I'm still going," Sirius said with a shrug. "I could take anybody. Besides, I'd probably have one dance and then hang out with you guys. We could even smuggle in some Firewhisky."

Remus laughed. "That's the thing. You could take anybody. I could never even find someone to say yes."

"You're wrong about that," Sirius said softly. "You're a catch."

Sirius watched Remus's cheeks turn pink. "I'm really not."

"Trust me," Sirius said. "You are."

"If you say so, Sirius," Remus replied. "We'll see who is standing alone at the party, then."

"Oh, yes. The lesson is beginning now," came Professor Dibble's mousy voice from the front of the classroom. "Turn to page… let's see… thirty-sever. Ah, yes. Come on, now. We are already running late because you were all chatting."

Sirius rolled his eyes at his teacher's incompetence and turned to page thirty-seven. He stared fixated at the page in front of him. It read 'VAMPIRES'. He swallowed and tried to remain as calm as possible. He knew this day would come eventually, but he had always pushed it out of his mind when he thought of it.

Trying hard not to let his hand shake, he began copied the title onto his parchment and the continued fiddling with his quill.

"We are learning about vampires today!" Professor Dibble said excitedly. "Who can tell me what a vampire is?"

"A creature of the night that sucks blood of its victims," Lily Evans said. Sirius felt like snorting. "Creature" of the night. He was very much un-creature-like. Stupid girls and stupid books.

"Very correct you are, young girl," Dibble said. "Erm, five points to, er, Hufflepuff."

"Gryffindor," Lily corrected awkwardly.

"Yes, of course," Dibble said. "Vampires are creatures of the night. In fact, they can only come out in the night because they will burn to a crisp in the sun!"

Sirius shook his head. Myths. All myths. It was good though – it took the suspicion off of him and his family.

"What kills a vampire?" Dibble asked.

"A stake?" Michael Applebee from Ravenclaw said.

"Oh no, silly boy," Dibble replied, waving him off. "They can eat steaks but if will not kill them. To kill a vampire, you must stab it through the heart with a wooden cross."

Sirius heard Remus snigger next to him. "He considers himself a Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher yet he doesn't know that a wooden cross is a stake?"

"Oh, young man!" Professor Dibble said, eyes wide. "No talking!"

"Sorry," Remus mumbled.

"Yes, um, five points from Hufflepuff."

Remus nodded. Of course he wouldn't tell the teacher he was in Gryffindor if he was losing house points.

"Another way to kill a vampire is to burn it. Not with the sun, though," Dibble giggled. "That would be silly. No, with fire!"

The teacher let out a loud sigh. "I am watching all of you right now and none of you are writing. Come on, let's not be silly, huh? Let's write this down because you need to know it! This is school, after all. Am I right, huh?"

Sirius started writing even though it pained him to write down false facts.

"Ah yes, hurry now," Dibble said impatiently as they wrote. "Next thing about vampires is that they kill their victims – poor old souls – by draining them of all blood. Disgusting, huh?"

Again, Sirius tried not to snort at this "vampire fact". No, they did not drain people of all blood. Artery blood and vein blood had very different tastes. It was like sweet and savory. You wouldn't eat a chocolate bar with chicken. It just wouldn't taste good. No, vampires drank as much as they pleased, from whichever vessel they pleased. Sirius also had to argue the fact that it was "disgusting" – he thought it was quite delicious.

"Vampires cannot mate," Dibble said. "This means they can't have children. Which is great for all of us because it means they aren't that common."

Sirius wrote down "can't mate", feeling more and more annoyed. Of course they could. Otherwise he wouldn't exist. Vampire males could mate with humans. In his family it was tradition to have children, and then turn the mother into a vampire after she has given birth to her last child.

"So, children! Who can tell me how you become a vampire?"

"You need to be bitten by one," Snape said.

"Oh yes, very well. Yes. Five points to Hufflepuff!"

"Slytherin, Sir," Snape said.

"Yes, sure thing. So the only thing left to learn is how to recognise a vampire. Does any of you know any of the features of a vampire?"

The class was silent this time.

"Well, that's because you've probably never seen one," Dibble said. "Not many people have. I am one of the lucky few, yes, I am. I saw a vampire once on Halloween. So anyway, the creatures is recognised mainly for the two sharp fangs. They also have very pale skin, red eyes and the one I saw on Halloween smelt like sweets."

"Sir, was that not a 'Trick or Treater'?" James asked, inducing laughs from the rest of the class.

"Nonsense, silly boy!" Dibble yelled. "Do not treat me as a fool. Ten points from Hufflepuff!"

"Poor Hufflepuff," Sirius muttered to Remus.

"So, oh yes, I missed one important point. Vampires also have one main enemy, which is not humans – humans are just food to them. Yes, unfortunately – poor souls. Who can tell me what vampires are most afraid of?"

"Werewolves," said Xenophilius Lovegood, the funny boy with the long blond hair.

"Oh yes, of course. Five points to Hufflepuff!"

"Ravenclaw," Xenophilius corrected.

"Yes yes, I know. Vampires are extremely scared of werewolves. I say, if you come across a vampire just tell them that you are a werewolf and the vampire will run away - and they run very fast - and leave you in peace."

This made Sirius angry. Vampires were certainly not scared of werewolves. If anything, werewolves should be scared of vampires.

"Anyway children, my voice is tiring," Dibble said. "Please complete the exercise on page thirty-eight as your homework. It is due in by next lesson."

"Sir, that's three rolls of parchment," Lily said. "And the next lesson is tomorrow."

Professor Dibble nodded. "Ah yes, so you better get started. You silly girl, I will not push the deadline for the fact that children are lazy. Yes, off you all go. I have other people to teach. Bye now."

Sirius closed his book and put it away in his bag. What a painful lesson that had been. Dibble's classes were always that way, but this had just been frustrating. He was glad that it over.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by – before Sirius knew it, he was sitting in the Gryffindor common room playing exploding snap with Peter and it was pitch black outside.

"Do you reckon Dibble was right about vampires smelling like sweets?" Peter asked, tossing a Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Bean in his mouth and grimacing. It had been a clear coloured bean, so Sirius highly suspected toenail flavour.

"It's a load of rubbish," Sirius said. "It was obviously somebody dressed up for Halloween."

"Good," Peter said. "The amount of sweets I eat, people might think I'm one and stake me."

"You don't smell like sweets, though," Sirius said. "You smell a bit of cheese though."

"That's disgusting," Peter grimaced again.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Sirius said. "I'm the one who has to live with you!"

"Not making fun of Peter, are we?" Remus said, sitting down next to him with James sitting down next to Peter.

"He says I smell like cheese," Peter said, looking annoyed. "Is that really true?"

"You don't smell of anything," James said.

Sirius suddenly realised he was probably being careless talking about scents. Peter probably didn't smell like anything, but Sirius could smell it because of his heightened sense of smell.

"No, Sirius. You're right. He does smell like cheese," Remus said. "Sorry, Pete," he added quickly.

Sirius let out a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't being as careless as he'd thought.

"Shouldn't we get started on our homework for Dibble?" Remus said.

"Not likely," James snorted. "I have Quidditch practice early tomorrow morning so I can't be staying up all night writing his stupid essay."

"Well if you're not doing it, I'm not doing it," Sirius shrugged.

"You'll both get detention," Remus warned. "Is three hours listening to Dibble lecture you on how silly you are really worth it? I'd just do it if I were you."

"I'll figure a way out of it," James said. "But I should probably get going to bed if I need to be up early. Night, guys."

Peter let out a loud yawn. "Wait up, I'm coming."

Sirius glanced at Remus, waiting for him to follow suit, but he didn't. "I have homework to do," Remus explained.

Sirius sighed and resigned to actually writing his essay. At the end of the day, it probably was better than detention with Dibble.

After Sirius and Remus had finished their homework, they decided to stay down in the common room for a little longer. Most people had already turned in, so there were only a few other students dotted around the room.

"Remus, what's on your mind?" Sirius asked, noticing Remus's thoughtful expression.

"Hm? Just thinking."

"About?"

"Things," Remus said.

"So you don't want to tell me?" Sirius asked.

Remus glanced at Sirius and frowned. "I do want to tell you, but I can't."

"Why?"

"It's complicated," Remus said in a tired voice. "What's on your mind?"

"Same," Sirius smiled. "Complicated."

Remus smiled back and nodded. "I trust you, Sirius. I really do want to tell you."

"Then tell me," Sirius said softly. "Like you said, you can trust me."

Remus sighed and Sirius could sense that he was incredibly nervous. He was acting a little different than usual. He couldn't keep his eyes focused on Sirius for longer than ten seconds, and he was fidgeting with his fingers. He kept licking his lips nervously.

"Please don't think any differently of me, will you?" Remus said quietly.

"Of course not," Sirius said.

"I'm… gay."

Sirius wasn't confused, or even shocked. When he thought about it, it wasn't that strange at all. Remus had never shown any interest in girls. He had never insinuated that he wanted a girlfriend.

"That's cool with me," Sirius said. "I'm glad you told me."

Remus looked relieved beyond belief. "Thanks Sirius. I was so scared you'd hate me."

"Trust me, I could never hate you," Sirius said. "You're my best friend."

"And you're mine," Remus replied with a smile.

"So, who do you fancy?" Sirius asked.

Remus laughed. "Oh, that's a confession for another night," he said. "I'm not ready to tell you that yet."

"Ah, fine," Sirius said. "I'll have all night to think it out."

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

Crap. "Oh, yeah. I mean, if I get tired. I'm having one of those nights where I don't feel tired."

"That must be annoying," Remus said. "I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't get to sleep."

"I'm just used to it now, I guess," Sirius said. "It doesn't bother me."

"Well, speaking of sleep, I should probably get to bed," Remus said, standing up and stretching. "Goodnight, Sirius."

"Night," Sirius replied, watching as Remus walked off towards the stairs that led to their dormitory.

And now he was alone again until morning. Oh, how he loved night time.

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