Fifth Year
September 1st 1975
Sirius Black was standing towards the Hogwarts Express. He still remembers how he felt the first time he stepped into the castle, excited, nervous, (he wouldn’t admit it if you asked him but every time he comes back he still feels a bit of a shiver up his spine when he hears the Hogwarts Express start to move) But mostly, unstoppable. Free. Himself. He couldn’t have nor be any of that at Grimmauld Place but at Hogwarts he felt free and most importantly, he had the Marauders, which were his family. One of the only people he cared about their opinion.
Taking himself away from his thoughts, he took a look around and spotted James and Peter together talking to Effie and Monty, James noticed him and waved frenetically to him with that James-Potter-smile and Sirius ran to them jumping onto James
“OOF- You dog!” James hugged the black haired boy back and the both of them giggled, when James released him Sirius embraced Peter as well, asking how was he “Doing fine, you?” Pete asked, pulling back, Sirius just released him and nodded.
When Sirius looked at James’ parents he was pulled into a comforting hug by Effie, “How are you, dear?” she asked him patting his back. Her hugs always made Sirius feel comfortable, they were warm and welcoming, the Potter’s embraces always felt like being covered up by a soft blanket, sitting next to a fireplace and being hugged by it’s warmth, Sirius was convinced that it was in their family line. “I’m fine. It’s good to see you, Effie” he said pulling back. He noticed a while ago she never broke a hug before the other person pulled back. He turned to Monty, the tall man opened his arms to Sirius and hugged him “Good to see you, young man.” Monty said releasing Sirius. The train whistled and Sirius turned around looking for the fourth boy.
“Have you guys seen Moony yet?” he asked to the two boys in front of him “No, we don’t know if he was going to meet us outside of the train,” Peter replied grabbing his bags “We should go, maybe he’s already inside the train, anyway” And the boys grabbed their bags, saying goodbye to Effie and Monty. They entered their usual cabin and James grabbed their bags, putting them on the compartment.
“So, how was your summer?” Sirius asked the two boys while sitting next to the window. He liked to hear their summers, he couldn’t send much letters during holidays because of his parents who wouldn’t let him use the family’s owl.
“It was brilliant! Me and Pete visited muggle London a couple times, you should see their clothes! They wore the coolest shoes and their haircuts were amazing, they have a lot of music shops too, actually” James told him excited remembering about his summer, “I bought a… ‘converse’ i think that’s how it’s called?” James said unsure gesturing to his red shoes.
“I swear to Merlin i will spend my whole money in a muggle music shop and buy all of Queen’s records one day when we’re rich” Sirius said dramatically. The only time Sirius went to muggle London was with his cousin, Andromeda, when Sirius met her husband (boyfriend at the time), Ted. They spend the afternoon walking around eating ice cream, buying vinyls for Andy and getting clothes for Sirius. After his cousin was disowned the only contact they still have is through letters. “What about you, Wormy? Wasn’t your sister getting married in July?” He asked the Peter.
Peter groaned “Yes, she did. I had to use an old green suit and met family members i didn’t even knew about the existence of” Peter said looking disgusted to remember of the wedding. “Aw, Petey, you looked so handsome on that suit!” James teased trying too hard not to laugh.
“You must’ve looked like a truly gentleman, Petey-boy!” Sirius teased him too jumping from his seat tackling Peter laughing “Oh shut up! I was in pain!” the blond boy cried trying to stop Sirius, but someone entered the cabin.
“Did Pete get married and i didn’t know or…?” Someone said sarcastically. Huh. Sarcasm. Low voice. It’s Moony.
“Remus!” James exclaimed hugging the boy, Sirius turned around to see Remus and he was… gorgeous.
Remus somehow grew up through the summer, his light brown hair was cut, his curls looked soft and free. His skin, usually pale, was in a noticeable shade of tan and it had freckles that reminded Sirius of tiny raindrops. His features were sharper than before, but his face was still gentle. And then his eyes. They were a golden shade of brown which were similar to a sunset, Sirius thought he could look into them for a whole day and still would want to stare into his eyes a bit more. Remus was wearing his old white converses, trousers and a blue sweater, he always wore those sweaters every day like he would turn into ashes if he wore something else, but he still managed to look pretty.
Sirius blinked realising he had been staring. “He betrayed us, Moony!” He said releasing Pete to sob dramatically onto Remus’ shoulder. The taller boy patted his shoulder, “Such a traitor, Pete” he said picking his bag from the floor and giving it to James. “How was your summer, Remus?” Peter asked from his seat while Remus sat next to Sirius “It was fine, i was reading most part of it” the boy replied. Moony never talked much about his summer holidays or his family, his father was always at work as far as the marauders knew but his mother seemed a lovely person by what Remus told them about her.
“Moony, dear, what are they feeding you exactly?” Sirius asked sitting onto his place again, Remus smirked “I can’t do much about it if you’re the same height as a girl, Padfoot” he replied as the other two boys snorted, the traitors. The black haired boy looked at him in indignation putting a hand on his own chest “Ouch.”
“What about your summer, Padfoot?” James asked him sitting back again “Oh, it was just the usual. Plenty of fun with my mother” he said ironically, looking at the window “Andy sent letters, i couldn’t answer half of them, though.” She always sent him letters through the year but mostly summer because she knew what the Black’s summer was like. In one of her letters she sent him a photo of Nymphadora where she and Andy were dancing to Bowie. Dora had a pink hair with purple ends, she smiled widely at Andy while the woman spun her around the room as both of them laughed.
“You can answer some of them at Hogwarts, you know you can always use my owl” James said adjusting his glasses, they were always slipping off his nose “Yeah, thanks Prongs” Sirius said smiling softly to his friend.
Some minutes later they bought some cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs, they talked about James and Peter’s summer at muggle London until Evans bursted into their cabin.
”YOU!” she pointed to Remus, the poor bloke widened his eyes at her “I was looking for you, we are late for the prefect’s meeting” she said grabbing his wrist, James's eyes widened comically “WHAT?” he exclaimed in utter disbelief
“You’re a prefect?” Sirius jumped from his seat “We have a prefect on the marauders! HA!” he said smiling with mischief.
“Not so fast, didn’t you hear what i said? I’m a prefect too” Lily said smirking.
James sank back into his seat, “Oof, already lost him, Pads” he said sadly, but Sirius did not lose hope “Nah, he’s loyal, right, Moony?” He looked hopeful to Remus.
”I feel put in a really unfair situation right now to answer that” Remus said glancing between both Sirius and Lily.
”Ouch. I feel betrayed.” Sirius said sitting back onto his seat putting a hand onto his chest “Told you so, Pads,” James said putting a hand onto his shoulder, “Better to lose hope than being hurt.” He said shaking his head to Remus.
”Such drama queens. Let’s go, Rem” Evans said getting out of the cabin but she stopped halfway, her gaze fell to his chest “Wait, where’s your badge?” she asked.
“I, er… Maybe i’ve lost it.” He said looking at his friends. Oh.
The prefect’s badge was silver, it hurt werewolves. Sirius would transfigure it when they arrived their dorm.
”Oh, alright, but find it later, we’re gonna lose the meeting” Evans said pulling him by the wrist again “Yes, ma’am. See you guys later” Moony said getting out of the cabin.
“It’s because the badge is silver, right?” Peter said glancing between James and Sirius, they nodded. Sirius leaned his head against the window frame and slept for the rest of the trip to Hogwarts.
- ✧ -
“Hey, Sirius?”
Someone touched his arm gently “Padfoot, we arrived” Sirius opened his eyes slowly, blinking several times and sitting up when he saw Remus, “We’re at Hogwarts?” He asked still half-asleep, he didn’t get much sleep the night before. “Yeah, just for some minutes” Remus stood up to open the compartment and grab their bags
”Where are James and Pete?” He asked looking around squinting his eyes noticing the two boys weren’t in the cabin , Remus turned to him and gave him his bags, “Prongs wanted to talk to Lils and Pete is chatting with Marls and Mary, they are outside the train”
“Prongs couldn’t even wait to arrive the castle to start flirting with Evans?” he said standing up and Remus chuckled, “Tell me about it, i feel like a child of a divorce”
Sirius laughed as walked out of the cabin, “I’m gonna use the loo” he said, thinking about how horrendous his hair must look, “Don’t take much long” Remus told him, Sirius saluted to him walking to the bathroom.
He washed his face and tried to brush his hair with his fingers, he grabbed his bags from the floor and walked out of the bathroom when he ran into-
“Reg...” he said so low it was almost to himself, the younger boy looked up at him and his eyes were so slightly widened Sirius almost didn’t notice. “Sirius” Regulus said. He looked tired, he had purple eyebags under his eyes and looked like he could sleep right there, “Can you…?” he gestured to the bathroom behind the older boy, “Oh, yeah, er…” He didn’t know what he was going to say but his brother had already locked himself in the loo, He decided to just walk to his friends and try to shake it off his head.
When he got out of the train Marlene ran to him and hugged him “You! I didn’t hear about you all summer, how dare you?” he hugged her back and explained to her, “They wouldn’t let me use the family owl all summer” and she released him.
”As long as you are alive, you’re good” She said crossing her arms and walking back to the girls, He looked at Remus who was already looking at him. ”I told you to not take long, didn’t i?” he asked, Sirius walked to him and put an arm around his neck, “Aw, did you miss me, Moons?” he said blinking frenetically to him, Remus looked at him in the eye and pinched his waist, “Shut up, tosser”
Sirius felt his stomach a bit funny.
- ✧ -
When the four boys arrived they went straight to their dorm to unpack, Remus had to help Lily to lead the first years to the Great Hall so James was organising his things, Sirius started placing his vinyls that James kept for him during summer (His mother would burn them if he brought them home, maybe something worse if she knew Andy gave them to him). They finished unpacking everything and met Remus at the Great Hall for dinner and cheered really loud when someone was sorted into Gryffindor.
After the house sorting had finished Sirius glanced over the Slytherin table and saw Regulus talking to Crouch and Rosier, he seemed happy at least.
“Sirius? What are you looking at?” James asked, Sirius looked at his plate putting food in it, “Nothing” He lied, he looked back at James who was arching an eyebrow at him, “I… ran into Reg in the train” He stared at his plate, “Oh… did you talk?” James asked with a softened look, “Nope” Sirius replied and started to eat. He didn’t like to talk about his young brother, they weren’t talking during summer but didn’t argue either even if Sirius wanted to. He just to understand his brother again.
They went back to the common room after dinner, Remus and Peter were playing chess even though Peter always won, no matter who was playing against him. James was trying to braid Marlene’s hair (Lily was nearly cursing him because it was getting tangled) and Mary was painting Sirius’ nails black.
“How was your summer?” she asked, “It was normal, boring mostly. What about yours?” he asked, Mary mentioned she was going to visit her boyfriend, a sixth year Ravenclaw. “It was really good, me and Nick went to the cinema a few times. I met some of his hometown friends, they are fun but i think i like you guys better” she winked at him, “you think, Macdonald? i’m honoured” he smiled at her, “Oh shut it, your ego is big enough the way it is” she laughed, finishing his nails.
“She’s so right, though” Marlene said and he looked at them in disbelief and scoffed, “Stop it, i’m lovely” and James snorted brushing Marlene’s hair, “More like devilish.”
Sirius chuckled, “That’s rich coming from you, huh?” He said, James mouth hang open and Lily laughed “He is right!” and Sirius barked a laugh, “EVANS AGREES WITH ME! HA!”
“You are audacious, Padfoot” James said sniffing dramatically and some moments after they called it a day.
- ✧ -
When the Marauders got back to their dorm and fell asleep Sirius grabbed his wand and looked for Remus’ prefect badge.
Sirius walked on his tip toes when Peter snored really loud and Sirius almost fell, “Fuck, Wormtail” He cursed the boy under his breath.
He found the badge onto Remus’ desk and grabbed it, walking back to his bed on his tip toes.
”Lumos” he said, his wand made a tiny light and he transfigured the badge into can, he put it onto Remus’ desk, went to bed to sleep.