The Butterfly Effect

(Let me start at the beginning. No, not the beginning of the story, the very beginning. The one thing that changed. That I helped to change.)

The note arrived anonymously, dropping seemingly out of thin air while the owls swooped around the Great Hall, delivering messages and making a general nuisance of themselves. James leaned over Sirius' plate, grabbing for it.

"Oy, what's that then? Love letter?" His voice was strong and deep, and carried across most of the Gryffindor table and parts of the Hufflepuff group.

"Ooh, Pads, a secret admirer?" Remus allowed himself a brief moment of jealousy before letting it go - Sirius was constantly recieving dinner invitations, flowers, chocolates, even girls panties. The four of them knew where his affections lay, and that was good enough. Still, when ones boyfriend was on the recieving end of countless offers of a night in the Astronomy Tower, it was enough to make one a little less than secure.

"No, I don't rightly think so," Sirius answered with an air of distraction, turning the letter over in his hands. "Most of them have perfume or little hearts doodled on the envelope."
The letter was plain, and none of them recognized the wax seal. Although instinctively he knew that for it to have made it into Hogwarts, the chances of things like hexes, curses, and poisons were slim to none; still, it never hurt to be cautious, and it was an unfamiliar letter. It was simply addressed to "S. Black" in neat, precise handwriting.

"Well, what are you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Hurry and open it, Pads." James was still leaning across the table, his tie dragging loosely in the jam.

"Prongs, get your tie off the table," Remus said lightly, pushing at him. "And let Padfoot alone; it's his post. He'll read it when he's good and ready."

"Yeah," Sirius piped in. "And what if I'm not ready until you're safely tucked into Divs, while I've got that whole free period to spend in the Library, and read it, and show to Moony and Worms, and not you?"

James looked crestfallen, but returned to his own side of the table. "Fine, Pads, be that way. I was going to share my chocolate with you, but now you can forget it, if you're not going to open one little letter-"

"You're such a drama queen, Prongs," Sirius said, placing a hand over his heart mockingly at the thought of not getting a share of James's chocolate. None of the Marauders knew where he acquired it, but there was no denying that his chocolate was the best. Tearing open the seal, Sirius scanned the words. They'd been penned in the same slanting hand that his name on the front had been, and the author seemed to have been in a hurry. There was no signature at the end, but near the edges of the parchment, the ink became a little bit smudged, as though it hadn't quite dried fully when the writer pressed his hand against it to write the next line.

James watched with interest as Sirius opened the mysterious note, and began reading it. He thought that at first it was all just a joke, some prank one of the other houses had deemed to play on them, but when Sirius' normally olive complexion turned pasty white, James became acutely afraid for his best mate.

"Pads? What's wrong? What does it say?"

From beside him, Remus heard the tone in his voice, because he turned from the conversation he was having with Lily about their N.E.W.T.s, and usually nothing short of the promise of James's chocolate could drag the two of them away from their studies.

"Pads? Padfoot. Sirius!" Remus leaned across the table in a mirror image of James a few moments prior, with the exception being his Gryffindor tie was safely ensconced under his vest, where it was meant to be.

Sirius let the letter drop to the table from nerveless fingers, before remembering that he wasn't the only one in the room by any stretch of the imagination. "Oh. I'm sorry. Please excuse me." He shoved the letter in James' direction, and stood from the table, stalking down the aisles of students.

James snatched up the discarded parchment, and scanned it.

Sirius, you don't know who I am, but trust in me. I know you; you're a friend of James Potter, and Remus Lupin. You transform into a black dog, in order to accompany Remus on his monthly sojourns. You helped create the Marauder's Map. I have grave news to impart, of the utmost secrecy and importance. Your brother, Regulus A. Black, is to join Voldemort's 'Death Eaters'. Do not allow him to do so. Joining the ranks of those people will lead inevitably to his death.

If you cannot keep him from this path, keep watch on him. When Voldemort sends for his elf, Kreacher, watch closely for soon he dies. He will turn on Voldemort for reasons unknown to me, and act in such a way as to bring about the downfall of this self-proclaimed Dark Lord. He will go to a cave, cross a lake of inferi, and leave a locket with a note inside a barrel full of poison. To get to the barrel, the seeker must drink the poison; this leads to his death at the hands of the Inferi. Do not allow him to die!

I am meddling more than I ought to in the affairs of those gone before me. Tell no one of this letter. Protect your brother.

James gasped, passing it onto Remus so that he too could read.

"It seems like a practical joke. A letter from the future?" Remus sounded sceptical.

James nodded, agreeing, but watched Sirius speaking quickly to his brother, at the Slytherin table. Regulus made a fair Seeker, and always gave James a run for his money during the games. Remus had some sort of academic respect for the Slytherin, and James respected him sports-wise, but it was no secret that there was no love lost between the two brothers themselves.

Regulus said something snarky in return; James could see the darkening expression on Sirius's face. Finally, the two of them left together, Sirius fuming and Regulus looking much put upon.

"I don't think that anyone besides Lily knows about our transforming, and this certainly isn't something she'd do. I think they're serious. I mean, even for a practical joke, to put this much detail into the letter... it really does seem like they're from the future." James felt the blood drain out of his face. "Good lord, I hope it's not me!"

"What?" Remus was confused, his nose wrinkling as he tried to figure out the tangent James had jumped to.

"Me! Myself. I hope that I didn't write this, and send it back in time to save Regulus. Why would I tell Sirius, though? Wouldn't I have told myself? Sirius hates his brother."

"Pretends to."

"Pardon?" James glanced quizzically at him.

"Sirius pretends to hate his brother. I know it really bothers him deep down that they don't get along, though. You saw his face when he read that letter. You can bet that he's stormed off to shout Regulus into the wall about not joining that madman."

Indeed, Regulus returned almost as if on cue, scowling thunderously and refusing to even look at his brother when Sirius followed a moment later.

If Regulus's expression was dark, Sirius's was murderous. He threw himself into the seat, snatched up the letter, and then felt the antagonistic expression melt off his face. "James, what the bloody hell are you doing?"

James had been copying some of the words from the note onto a spare bit of his own parchment, trying to see if his own handwriting matched in any way.

Remus laughed. "James is afraid that his future self has written this, and is now writing with dire warnings to get a good laugh out of all of us in his own time. What did Regulus say?"

The question was posed so innocently, added quietly onto the end of making fun of James, and had the exact effect on Sirius that he'd intended. Asked any other way, Sirius would have clammed up, and refused to talk about it until the next full moon, when he'd tear the living hell out of a tree, rabbit, or Moony himself to vent his frustration.

"That little twit, he told me that it's his choice to join Voldemort, and he'll not be listening to my mad ravings."

"And you said...?" Remus's judgment, based on their expressions, that what Sirius had said was not fit to be repeated in polite company.

"I said that he's walking into a death-trap, and he's got his head on backwards, of course." Sirius said, realizing suddenly that he was being managed.

"Of course," Remus said, with a look that said We're not through here.

Sirius nodded his head, almost imperceptibly, and then turned to James. "So, you little bugger, you think that it's you writing me mysterious notes to interrupt my breakfast? Look, you've gone and ruined the jam now, with your nasty tie dragging in it."

The matter of the letter and it's contents were pushed to the back of everyone's mind, and the day went on.

*

Later that night found Sirius out near the Forbidden Forest, padding silently along the tree-line as a large, ragged looking dog. Remus whistled softly to announce his presence, and the dog turned from it's pacing and trotted up next to him.

Sirius often used his dog-persona as an escape. When he needed to think, or not think, or sort out his feelings, he retreated into his canine form for as long as it took him. He'd spent a great deal of time as a dog their sixth year, after the summer he'd run away from home to join James at his parents' house. Neither of them had ever been able to wring the answer to why out of him, and Remus asked it now.

"Last year, when we came back to school after you'd run away from home, you spent most of your free time as a dog. Why?"

There was a muted flash of light, and Sirius returned to his human form, sitting sprawled in the grass beside Remus's legs. "I'd left my brother behind in that house," he said quietly. "I didn't know if it was the right thing to do. I mean, I was happy; the Potter's are brilliant. But I didn't like leave Reggie behind like that. I don't think he's quite forgiven me for it, either. Now I wish I hadn't left, or at least had taken him with me. If I had, maybe he wouldn't be so set on this damn-fool mission to become a Death Eater."

Remus settled himself beside his boyfriend, and let his eyes find the dog star on their own. "Sirius," he said quietly. "It's not your fault. You have to let him make his own mistakes. He obviously decides that Voldemort's not the one he wants to follow; the letter-writer said that he turned on him, and began working to bring him down."

"But if I could stop him from going altogether," Sirius said, and Remus put his arm around the pure blood.

"You can't stop him from living his life, just because it's dangerous. Did that ever stop you and James from doing the things you do? I mean, an illegal animagus at fifteen, just for some half-blood werewolf like myself?"

"Remus John Lupin!" Sirius snapped suddenly. "Don't you ever refer to yourself as 'just some half-blood' again. Just because you're a werewolf, it doesn't make you sub-human, no matter what those fuddies at the Ministry say. I know you, Remus, and know that you're worth the pain of the animagus transformation a thousand times over. The state of your 'blood' makes no difference. Not to me."

He pulled his pocket knife from somewhere unseen. "Give me your hand."

Remus offered it without question. Sirius made a long cut across his palm, and then his own. "I see no difference here, Moons." He pressed their palms together, and then dropped the knife, holding his free hand to Remus' chest. "I feel no difference here, either." He moved his hand to his own chest. "Just the same."

His serious look turned coy, and he slid his hand down to Remus's thigh, and across the crotch of his pants. "And there's no difference, here..." He breathed, leaning in to kiss Remus.

A few yards away, hidden beneath a borrowed invisibility cloak, a pair of flinty grey eyes stared at the young pair. Silently as he'd come, Regulus slipped away to think on what he'd learned.

***
End of chapter one, just because i need to go to sleep, and I want this up tonight! I hope that the chapters will go a little longer, and I'll endeavor to do it. I think that once the ball gets rolling, it'll snowball into bigger chapters.

Thanks for three reviews on that tiny prologue! Ya'll rock!
WeasleyWench: Thanks! I'm not really sure what that means, but I think it's good XDD (teh Yami needs sleep -_o)
paigeey07: Thanks! I hope it's as good as you seem to hope it'll be.
Miss Nikki: Actually, no, I didn't. I don't really like that movie. Well, the premise behind it is awesome, but I LOATHE Ashton Kutcher, passionately, and tend to avoid movies with him in them. I got the idea from my own stubborn muses, out of a desire to see Regulus live (Regulus is, of course, my favourite character. How I managed this, I have no idea.) because in the books, his demise at the age of eighteen is horrific, and I love him. While I was looking up the exact quote for 'butterfly flaps its wings in XXX there's a storm in XXX" i found information on the butterfly effect, hence the name. The only thing this has in common with the movie is a shared title, and an unfortunate similarity in 'changing the past'.

Note: On my other fanfics, they are, as ever, in progress. I just needed something new to work on to get the kinks out.