Letters
"Okay, that's the last of his first year I'm gonna make you read." Sirius said suddenly.
Remus looked at him with an eyebrow raised, not expecting that. He knew that Sirius would've make him read the whole thing.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I have a better surprise for you" He smirked. Remus didn't know if he liked or hated that smirk.
"I don't know if i should be scared." He joked.
"No, you shouldn't. You're gonna like it, I promise."
Sirius started to look for something inside one of the drawers of his bedside table. After a few seconds, he pulled out a large stack of old letters, tied together with a string.
"Are those letters?" Remus asked, though the answer was obvious. Sirius looked at him with an unbothered expression.
"No, they're stones, actually." He joked. Remus rolled his eyes at his sarcasm and Sirius untied the knot of the string tying he letters together. He then flipped through them and handed one to Remus. He raised an eyebrow again and looked at him, He then read what the envelope said.
"To Alphard from Lyall"
He should have expected it, but it still surprised him. The calligraphy was so different to Alphard's. Alphard's was elegant, signature of the Black family, since they were like royalty or something. Well not exactly, but it seemed to. Sirius' was like that, elegant and smooth.
Lyall's handwriting was messier, more hurried. It was really similar to Remus'.
"My dad wrote this?"
"And not only that one, but all these too." Sirius said with a smile. "Read it"
Remus didn't ask anything else and started reading.
«June the 18th, 1941
Dear Al:
Happy Birthday!! How does it feel, finally being twelve, huh?
I hope you're doing fine, and that your family isn't being too much of a pain for you. I wish you could be with me instead. Not gonna lie, I miss you. Summer is boring without your best friend with you, isn't it?
Mom says that you can come to mine whenever you want, you're more than welcome here, she said. So maybe you could spend Christmas here or even next summer! That'd be amazing wouldn't it?
have you had many gifts? Hope you liked mine, by the way. It reminded me a lot of you haha.
Good luck with your family, though I hope you don't need it
Lyall»
"Did your uncle have the same issues with your family like you do?" Remus asked suddenly, after reading the letter. Sirius suddenly looked serious, but answered anyway.
"Apparently. I've read his journal multiple times, and apparently when they found out that he was friends with your dad and James' they went mad, and did everything to break that friendship. Luckily they couldn't." He answered. Remus, noticing the shift in the ambient, decided not to push further, and changed the topic.
"What did Lyall give your uncle for his birthday?"
Sirius smiled a bit, grateful that Remus could read him so well, and took the journal again, flipping through the pages.
"I think he wrote about it... It was a leather covers notebook. The covers had a map of the constellations engraved on them."
Remus could understand why Lyall had thought of Alphard when he bought the notebook. After all, he was named after a star, like most of his family. Every time he saw the stars he thought of Sirius too. He didn't thought that it meant anything, though. Anything apart of their friendship.
"Do you have it?"
"No. He took it with him, apparently. To his house, I mean."
Remus looked puzzled at this. He took the notebook but not the journal or the letters?
Sirius seemed to read Remus' mind, because he added.
"I think he left the diary and the letters for me, in our house. He seemed to know that I'd find it. I think he made sure that I had it after his death too, if I didn't find it myself." That made sense, Remus thought.
He was about to speak again when they heard the front door opening and James' footsteps and ragged breathing. He was back from his flying session. Remus hadn't realized how much time had passed since they started reading the journal, and now it dawned on him, that they weren't alone. Sirius seemed disappointed too; he wanted to keep reading with Remus. They hadn't got to what Sirius really wanted to show him.
"Uh... we can continue reading it in another moment, right?" Remus didn't want to admit it, but he was liking this story, and wanted to know more about Lyall and Alphard's friendship. Sirius smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, sure. Can't have Prongs finding our secret reading club, can we?" He teased. Remus chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. Let's go down before he starts suspecting something."
They left Sirius' room, not before putting the journal and the letters where Sirius had taken them, and were met by a sweaty, tired-looking but grinning James.