Sirius lay in bed, his mind trying to refuse him sinking into that of dark depression or fear, but he was failing miserably in heeding it.

Every shadow was a new thing to which he had to be wary of and it didn't help that he could hear whispering around his room. Voices were whispering at him and around him, making him wonder if he was, in actual fact, going slightly crazy.

"Sirius…"

He burrowed further under the covers, wishing his brother was still there, who could chase away anything with his arms wrapped around tightly him.

"Sirius…"

Ignoring the voice, he gave a whimper and screwed his eyes tightly closed.

"Orion…Reg…James…where are you?"

There was a silence for a few moments, which caused Sirius to resurface from the covers, his eyes flickering around the room, ready to make a dash for it, into his friend's or his little brother's room.

A small scintillating light was working its way around the room, a shape forming and then flickering away again as it gave a jolt. A face formed that he had hoped never to see again, the hateful eyes, the leering mouth and the ugly visage.

"Sirius…you always were a disappointment to me…and now look at you…you're pathetic! Letting them catch you…You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You're a wizard for goodness sake, a poor one, yes and a blood traitor to the family, but a wizard never-the-less. Stupid child…Regulus would have known what to do…He always was better than you…"

Sirius stared at the face of his Mother coalescing in the flickering light, wishing it away, not quite knowing whether to yell at it, or to simply ignore it and go to sleep.

The light floated steadily closer, the face flickering and changing again, this time turning to Orion, a smirk slipping across his features as a voice which chilled Sirius to the bone, wrapped itself around him, restricting movement and any coherent speech.

"I don't love you, brother. I simply use you to get at Mother and Regulus. Regulus would love to be in your place at times, I'm sure. To be the favourite of his Mummy dearest and favourite of his older, richer and cooler brother. I mean…what do you have that I don't? You're just the middle, immature little brother that is trying to be like his older one, because I have more success than you. I don't care for you…"

Sirius gave a whimper of misery, beginning to shake as he was forced to stare at the ball of light, his worst fears and hidden thoughts given form, threatening to swallow him whole.

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James grinned at Regulus, yawning widely before climbing to his feet.

"I'm going to go and check on Sirius again."

Regulus nodded, his bare chest contouring with the shadows from the flickering candle in the room. Sirius had slept soundly through the day and part of the following night. They had both stayed with him until that evening, eventually deciding that they too needed some sort of relaxation and sleep.

James grinned over his shoulder, noting the lean muscles of Regulus yet again.

He reached the door, dropped his hand to the handle and opened it to exit the room, pushing it open and entering the hall. Shadows greeted him, as they hadn't bothered to light the surrounding candles.

Still yawning, he began to climb the stairs to Sirius room, not noticing the bitter coldness creeping in around him, until he reached the door to Sirius' room.

A thin crusting of hoarfrost covered the handle and his breath was coming out in hot gusts in the frigid air. His hand hesitated, before gripping the handle and turning it, his wand gripped in his other hand.

Sirius was sat bolt upright in bed, whimpering, moaning and shaking. A sheen of sweat covered his body and his breath was coming in rapid pants, his hands working the covers and his knees pulled up to his chest.

James rushed across to him, sitting on the bed and wrapping his arm round his friend, attempting to pull him up and out of the bed, but Sirius was rooted to the spot and didn't seem to register that his friend was there.

He seemed to be staring at a certain spot in the centre of the room, James' eyes searching around quickly, not able to see anything and coming to the conclusion that he must be reliving his ordeal.

He clamped a hand over Sirius' eyes and felt him drop like a rag doll, the connection severed with the room.

He hoisted the limp form of Sirius up as best as he could, dragging him to the door and out, where he managed to support himself on his own feet.

"W…What happened?"

James shrugged, glancing back at the door before noting the hoarfrost extending its hold on the door and quietly following them, its path drawing ever closer to them.

"Come on…I'll explain downstairs…"

He pulled Sirius forwards, both making their way downstairs to where Regulus was still lay in bed.

"Reg! Help me with Sirius!"

Regulus shot out of bed, and slipped an arm round the waist of his brother hauling him into the room and in front of the fire.

Sirius winced slightly and glanced up at James, questioning clear in his gaze.

James took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts before he began talking the words making no sense to him.

"I went upstairs to check on you, like we promised Orion we would do. When I got to the door, it was covered in hoarfrost, it was freezing cold around the area and it didn't feel right if you get my meaning."

He paused as Sirius' eyes began to widen, things beginning to come back to him. James carried on.

"I went in the room anyway, and you were sat up poker straight in bed, whimpering, moaning and sweating so I tried to get you to get up and come down here with us, but you wouldn't budge. You were staring at a point on the wall…there was nothing there. I tried getting to wake up, yelling at you and stuff and then had the thought to cover your eyes. You just sort of went all…limp then and I could take your weight all of a sudden. You felt lighter…"

Regulus was looking between both of them, white in the face as he swallowed.

"We might be better at Orion's place…more people there."

Sirius shook his head.

"No…it's gone now."

James stared at them both, confusion evident in his eyes.

"What's gone?"

Sirius didn't answer, just stared into space, remembering all the horrible things that had been said to him.

Regulus answered.

"It was a part of Sirius' subconscious. That's why us Black's don't live as long as normal wizard's as well as the fact that our family has some obsession with interbreeding. When we get to the point where we are so low we can see no future for ourselves, we create something which helps us end it. It takes away our will, hope and leaves us in so deep a depression that there is no going back."

Sirius stared at Regulus, his eyes darkening as guilt washed through him.

"I'm sorry…"

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Orion gripped his sword, his eyes narrowed as Macnair and Lutisse moved cautiously around the clearing, occasionally dropping down to study the ground.

"They've certainly been here…"

The clearing they were in was dark, the canopy of the above branches of the trees blocking the sunlight; the occasional shaft of sunlight breaking through if it was lucky.

"Well, where have they gone now?"

Orion's voice was harder than he had intended it to be, and he gave a forced to grin to show he didn't mean it. He strode round the clearing himself, searching for anything that the other two may have missed.

Macnair rolled his eyes and carried on studying the stretch of ground he was stood before.

A snapped twig caught is eye and he moved up to it, noting foliage looked a little disturbed as though someone had pushed through it and then rearranged it back so it looked as though no-one had come this way.

"Orion, stop your tirade and come here. Both of you."

Lutisse was by his side in a matter of milli-seconds, studying the lead that Macnair had found. He looked impressed, clapping his friend on the back and giving a short laugh.

"Well done Wally!"

Macnair gave Lutisse a withering glare and snarled,

"Don't call me Wally…It's either Walden or Macnair. Preferably Macnair."

Lutisse punched his fellow Scotsman a punch on the arm, before turning to Orion, and raising an eyebrow.

"Come on then laddy. We going?"

Orion nodded, a snarl growing on his lips, true to his animagus form.

Macnair grinned and teased,

"Is the wolf coming out to play?"

Orion shoved roughly through the foliage, his sword held with its point up and ready to use if needs be.

There were no warning growls or sounds of being rushed, so he continued onto the path, aware that Macnair and Lutisse were following silently behind him.

Tracks were in a mish-mash all over the track, very clear.

They glanced at each other, Macnair's eyes narrowing as he whispered,

"It could be a trap."

Orion shrugged and sighed,

"How could it be a trap when they don't know that they're going to be hunted down? They didn't know that Sirius would own up to it or anything like that. Normally, I'm sure he wouldn't have done…but that's my little brother for you."

Orion carried on, but still heeding Macnair's words and travelling at a much more cautious speed and contemplating every single noise within the forest.

Eventually the tracks dispersed off of the path with no clear indication of where they went, causing the three men to stop.

"Where did they go?"

Orion began searching around the path, tapping into the senses of the huge black wolf which was his animagus form, and using them to try and pinpoint the location of where they had gone.

The smell of other wolves hit him instantly, and his brow furrowed slightly as he tried to fathom where the smell was coming from.

He raised a hand and drew it across his throat to keep the other two silent as he moved around the area, drawing in deep breaths the scent confusing.

Blood and sweat were also mixed into the smell, showing that they were all in their human forms, at least for now and hadn't tapped into any other power to transform them into the semi-wolfish forms as they slept, as he had deduced they must be doing for them to not have attacked yet.

Macnair also began prowling around, his steps cautious and searching in bushes and behind them to try and find any of the stragglers of the gang.

Lutisse stayed still, his thoughts going into overdrive as his friend's searched for clues. He knew that he could piece it together without searching for clues. He was closer to the werewolves than his friends initially knew, and he was hoping that he wasn't going to reveal this any time soon.

"Tracks gone…no sign of werewolves…that must mean…"

He quickly glanced to the trees, his eyes searching for the shapes of people within them, dreading them to have already spotted his friends and be about to pounce.

He eventually spotted one, beginning to stir at the smell of fresh meat and the voices of Orion and Macnair who had begun to converse in low whispers.

Lutisse unsheathed his sword, giving a low cough at the others, eventually gaining their attention, before they followed suit, following Lutisse's eye-line and spotting what he saw.

"Lutisse…come here."

Macnair's voice whispered across the opposite side of the path, encouraging Lutisse to get to them.

He took a step towards them, careful of where he put his feet.

A resounding crash behind him caused him to spin and tumble back towards the others, where Macnair caught him.

Lutisse visibly swallowed as he took in the werewolf's features and body.

Tall, slim, blonde haired and good looking the man stood in front of them was a splitting image of Lutisse.

"Thor…"

Lutisse named him, on a breath out.

The man gave a crazed sounding laugh, his eyes twitching constantly around the path, noting all the ways out and ways he could block them in, before concentrating his attention onto Lutisse.

"Hello brother…"

O.K. Next chapter. Tell me what you think and review. Thanks for everyone reading it and leaving reviews. I would, however, appreciate nice hints to put more of the story up rather than impolite ones as the last reviewee did. I have other commitments at home as well as writing this and I do try to get the chapters up as soon as I have written them and proofread them etc. So please be patient. Thanks again for reading this and keep reviewing: )