All in the Family

Chapter 175: Magic is Might

The good news? Everyone crashed into each other with some beleaguered relief and even managed to collapse back with some legroom.

The bad news? Everything else.

Coughing and gagging ensued, several of them plugged up their noses and grabbed their mouths on instinct to be around the heavy smell in the air and Regulus had the misfortune to stumble over the unconscious body of a giant of a man. The alleyway was an inconvenient place beyond just that, Sirius and Remus were apparently trying to kill each other.

The stag and rat changed back a few beats slower, Peter coming over to him and offering a hand up while nudging the body in concern, though Regulus quietly confirmed he was breathing, he'd fit nearly across the guys moving chest while watching Sirius put Remus in a headlock.

"Get off you idiot!"

"Give up your wand first," his brother snapped while trying to hold him down.

Frank had landed in one of the very many available puddles of vomit and Alice was trying to help clean him off while watching the pair in concern along with James who genuinely was prancing on the spot like he wanted to help but had no idea who. Lily had knocked into the invisible barrier barring them from going onto the street proper and was still getting her bearings.

"I wasn't going to do anything, the hell's the matter with you?" Finally shifting hard enough he slammed Sirius into the wall, his grip loosening for just a moment.

"Last time you bloody nicked me you had a panic attack you arse," even Sirius didn't even seem to know what he was trying to do to him, hands attempting to pin him to the ground and completely ignoring James finally edging closer with growing concern. "Since when do you not freak out over everything?"

Remus finally twisted out from under him and shoved hard before Sirius could get a grip back, causing Sirius to crash into the barrier next.

"Since I can't get through your thick head when to back off you brainless oaf!"

There was a long, uncomfortable moment of silent air as everyone waited to see what Sirius would do, even Sirius it seemed.

He looked more shocked than truly offended at the insult, but James most assuredly decided it was time to step in before that escalated.

He got between them and gave both a very uncomfortable frown but spoke with a sternness in his voice that would get any Quidditch team up at the crack of dawn. "Alright, you two need to walk this off! We're stuck in here and I'm not going to have you hacking each other off!"

Remus took a hesitant step back, and Sirius flinched like the vicious words had finally sunk in. Sirius opened his mouth, but James said sternly, "Padfoot, don't."

He closed his mouth and gave James a filthy look the likes of which none of them had ever seen, but for him alone, he acquitted.

James put his hand on Remus's chest and encouraged him back a few more steps, which he did with his eyes on the floor but some lingering defiance in his attitude, the stiff shoulders, the way he kept working his own jaw like he was begging to lob something else. The golden book sat innocently on some dustbins, and James reached behind blindly to grab it and threw it towards the lot of them without care. "Can someone please get us out of this rank air?" He didn't seem all that concerned he was less than a toe away from standing in yet another puddle in fact.

Only once he was level with a heavily graffitied door did he marginally relax, but it didn't open. He sighed and looked back at Sirius, who now had a face of stone and was glaring above that barely had a sunrise turning the sky pink.

Regulus had never seen anything more fascinating in his life. How on Earth had James managed to stop what he'd been trying his whole life? It wasn't even the first time he'd managed it. Sirius had backed down from a fight.