Padfoot and his Pup

28. | Fisticuffs - Part II

"Black. How gracious of you to finally deign to join us," Snape commented, contempt lacing his tone.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Snape. His younger self would've leapt at the opportunity to get into a fight with the sniveling git. But not anymore. He refused to be baited into petty arguments and fights.

"You're welcome," he said simply, turning away just in time to catch the other man's face turn red with indignation.

Sirius hadn't been expecting the Malfoys. In fact he hadn't been sure what to expect in the first place. He regarded the couple in front of him.

Other than a few fine lines on her face, Narcissa was exactly the same. Pale, beautiful and cold to the average outsider. But he knew better than that.

There was a time when they had been close, almost like siblings, yet it was so long ago he might as well as have been referring to another lifetime.

Sirius had always held only contempt for Lucius Malfoy and time hadn't altered that. He didn't miss his famous cane resting on the desk complete with its silver serpent handle embedded with two emeralds for eyes.

Sirius hated that blasted thing. It had belonged to his father Orion Black once and to Phineas Black long before that. Seeing it in Lucius' possession bothered him more than he cared to admit. Ideally that cane should've belonged to...

Not now, Black.

"So what's this about?" He asked again, this time to Mcgonagall.

"Earlier this morning, Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy were involved in an altercation. The boys are yet to disclose the full details of the events that transpired."

"He broke my bloody nose!"

"To be fair, his nose turned bloody only after I broke it."

Do. Not. Laugh. Don't you dare.

His innocent godson's words were hardly more than a mumble, clearly not intended for anyone's ears and yet Sirius's animagus abilities captured them perfectly.

With tremendous effort, Sirius suppressed a grin and raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the lad, indicating that he'd heard exactly what had been said.

Harry's cheeks turned pink and he had the good grace to appear at least a little ashamed. He gave Sirius a little shrug.

"And his actions shall be dealt with accordingly, Mr. Malfoy. But first I would like to understand why such an incident occurred. Mr. Pot—"

"Why? What does it matter?"

It would seem that Lucius Malfoy had reached the end of his patience. Pushing back from his chair, he stood and pointed an accusing finger at Harry.

"This boy attacked my son! He is a clear threat to his fellow students!"

Threat?

Sirius smirked involuntarily at the blond man's theatrics. Once a pretentious prick...

"Its plain as day that the Potter boy is an entitled, privileged wretch!"

Sirius' expression lost all traces of amusement.

"Narcissa," the temperature in the room dipped dangerously from the lethal ice in his tone. "Rein in your husband lest he should say something he may come to... dearly regret."

It was a thinly veiled threat and definitely not an empty one.

"Do not threaten my husband," Narcissa snapped, her composure slipping.