Looking Around
Peter hated mornings, the only thing that made them better was his mum’s cooking, and there was none of that here. Only the school meals that were, edible but nowhere near as good as home.
“James! Give my hat back!” Sirius called out, desperately trying to reach James’s arm, which was holding the hat up above Sirius’s head.
“Fine, but only because I think we’re going to give poor Pete a headache.”
“Cheers,” Peter had somehow managed to survive the first week of classes without being yelled at by his PE teacher for being asthmatic. He didn’t get what her problem was, he couldn’t help it.
“Hey Pete, mum sent me a photo of munchkin and Stewie together!” James held his phone to Peters face, with a picture of James’s cat sat angrily next to Peters elderly dog, Stewie. They had clearly been forced into it by James’s mum, Effie, but Pete didn’t care. It was nice to see his dog again.
He was going to miss home, he could already tell. He missed his mum’s cooking, his overgrown back garden, doing the drying up, practically everything about home. He would have to get used to life away from home.
“Wait, Remus , is that a kettle?” Peter looked over to the boy who was sat on the floor, pouring hot water from the kettle like this was completely normal.
“Yes, why wouldn’t I have a kettle? Do you expect me to survive without my tea?”
“I was just a bit surprised, that’s all,” Peter was a bit scared of Remus, if he was being honest, though there was no particular reason “Could you make me a tea, if you’re brewing up anyway?”
“Have you got your own teabags?” Peter shook his head “Then no, I don’t share my tea.”
Peter made a mental note to stock up on some teabags the next chance he got.
~*~
Sitting around in their dorm wasn’t enough for Sirius. Too boring for a Saturday morning. He liked their dorm, but there was too many stairs and people could disturb them at any given moment. He needed a little hiding space, like he had at home. He would always go on the small ledge just outside his window. He liked the way he had room to swing his legs, and he would sit there watching the stars, or the clouds, or the planes. When he went out there, he wouldn’t be able to hear the shouting from downstairs. He liked his little hiding space, even if it wasn’t very hidden. Most of the time it wasn’t people he was hiding from, not really – it was the shouting and banging and crying on the other side of his bedroom door. Sirius never liked loud noises.
He wanted to take a look around the school for a similar place, but didn’t want to be alone. It was when he was alone that he noticed the lack of raised voices – as much as he hated loud noises, silence only made him more anxious. But what if no one wanted to go with him? What if there was no one to fill the silence? What if, at home, his sister was alone? Would she be alright without him? Or would it all be too much for her?
But that wasn’t important right now. What was important was finding a hiding space and bonding with his new friends.
“I’m bored, you guys wanna take a look around the school, find a nice hang out spot?”
“That does sound fun, but I kinda need to do my homework...” James was clearly disappointed to have to stay behind, judging by his tone of voice. Although, surely it couldn’t hurt to talk him out of it.
“But that’s due on Tuesday, it’s only Saturday!” Sirius turned to face Remus and Peter. “Surely you two agree? Come explore with me!”
“It does sound fun, I don’t see why not.” That’s why Sirius liked Pete. He was always accompanying the others and didn’t make a big deal when he disagreed – if he didn’t want to do something, he just didn’t. No fuss.
“James, this isn’t just wandering. We’re learning our way around the school. Therefore, it’s productive. I’m sure your homework can wait.” Of course it would be Remus to make it sound useful. Remus was probably the smartest person Sirius had ever met.
Once James had agreed, the four set out to first look around the building next to the block of dorms they were staying in. The languages building was small, and longer than it was wide, with two floors of classrooms. Sirius could’ve sworn he heard one of the fourth years talking about someone climbing on the roof of the building – he wanted to find out how it had been done. His ambition wasn’t fed though as they were only in the building for five or so minutes, moving on to the building across from it.
This building was where they had their english, history, and classics lessons throughout the first week. It had two floors with a staircase on either side of the building. It was essentially a cube, with the outer edges lined with classrooms and a couple in the middle. It was by far the most modern building in the entire school, looking to only be built a few years ago. Problem was, there was too many windows and too much open space – if they were going to find a hang out spot, it wouldn’t be there.
After leaving the building, they sat on the elevated patch of grass outside to rest. It was slightly soggy from the rain earlier, but they didn’t mind.
It was only a few minutes before they set off again, going to the building in the middle of four others. Sirius had heard it be referred to as ‘convent house’ because of the convent of nuns who used to live there before selling it to the school. The building was old and honestly looked like it’d crumble at any given moment. There were three floors with an unnecessary number of stairs – they were all panting by the time they made it to the top. The top floor was where they had life studies (in primary school they’d known it as ‘pshe’). The classrooms were spacious with a sofa in each, one of the two even had what they called the ‘drugs wheel’. When Sirius spun it, it landed on alcohol. In the corner of the top floor was something called learning support; Sirius didn’t know what that meant, but he obviously didn’t need support with his learning. Obviously.
The floors below were where they had music and the music, religious studies, and drama offices. Sirius didn’t think they’d be much use, but they were there anyway.
Next was the art block. The staircase was awful. It took too many stairs to get to the top floor. Besides being the most decorated building, it was uninteresting. There was only four classrooms and a hell of a lot of stairs. Sirius did not like those stairs. The school really should’ve invested in a lift instead of those horrible stairs.
After that, they went to the second biggest building in the school. This building contained the technologies, sports hall, changing rooms, swimming pool, and, for some reason, one singular drama classroom. The DT classrooms looked cool, even if they couldn’t go inside with the locked doors, and the textiles classrooms definitely piqued Sirius’ interest (again, behind a locked door), and the food tech rooms were quite average. The changing rooms seemed a decent size and the sports hall was very spacious. The building, while large in comparison to the previous ones, did not take long to explore.
Next was the main building. It was by far the largest building in the school. On the ground floor was the library, offices, dance studio, dining hall, hogwarts hall, toilets, and a few of the maths classrooms. Upstairs was the main hall, chemistry, physics, geography, drama, the rest of the maths classrooms, and an out of bounds corridor. It was next to the pavilion gym (not interesting enough to look in) and the archway. It was clearly very old, and was rumoured to have passageways and bricked off rooms. As they walked past a maths classroom, Peter, most observant of the four, noticed a loose tile in the ceiling. Shame, they might’ve taken a look if the door weren’t locked.
Finally, they went to the small biology building, furthest from their dorm, but nothing about it was particularly notable. It simply had the biology classrooms and office.
Sirius’ disappointment at the lack of a hiding space was immense. He needed somewhere quiet, somewhere no one else would go. To have a space for the four of them would be nice, but not essential. Where would Sirius go after being shouted at? Where would he go when it was too loud to think? Where would he take his sister when she was silent once she had arrived at the school? Aquila being silent was never a good sign. She was always the quiet type, never spoke out of turn, but there was a clear difference between the ‘I’m listening to you’ silence and the ‘something’s wrong’ silence. Sometimes she’d stare into space, or stop her subtle fidgeting, or be completely unresponsive to sound. Sirius needed a space, not just for himself, but for her. For them. Because it was always them.
Until it wasn’t.
Until Sirius left for Hogwarts.
Sirius was silent throughout the walk back to their dorm. Despite texting his sister just that morning, he couldn’t stop worrying. Would Aquila even tell him if something had happened? Would she even stand her ground against their parents like Sirius had tried to teach her? Probably not, she was always too timid. She was about as stubborn as a bendy pencil. That wouldn’t get her anywhere. Not with parents like them. Sirius was always the one who acted out, not her. For once Sirius wished he were the youngest. For once he wished Aquila would be at Hogwarts instead. At least then he’d still be able to stand up to their parents.
At least then he wouldn’t have to worry.
But as many times as the two had wished on their stars, nobody came to take them away from their parents. Surely someone would eventually though, right? They couldn’t stay in that house forever. They couldn’t.
“Sirius, you okay?” At the sound of his name coming from James, Sirius finally became aware of what was going around him. His three friends were staring at him. God, he hated being stared at. At points, he loved being the centre of attention, but having three people staring at him with concern was not good. He hated when people were worried about him; was that too hypocritical?
“Yeah, fine, why?”
“You weren’t responding. You sure you’re okay?”
“Fine. Just... I’m gonna go text my sister. I’ll see you later.” With that, Sirius hurried up the stairs and into the dorm before entering the bathroom and locking the door.
September 14th 2021
16:52
Aqui?
Everything okay?
16:59
Qui?
17:03
Aquila??
Please respond
Im worried
17:14
You ok?
Aquila please respond
17:31
qui
It’s fine Sirius.
You don’t have to check on me every day.
You’re not my parent.
Well soneone has to be.
You sure nothings happened?
You can tell ne
qui
It’s fine.
Mother and father are just disapproving of your stubbornness.
I know how to stay out of trouble.
Don’t blame it on me
Youve seen the way they act
qui
Yes, however, they’re much better when unprovoked.
It’s you that causes the issues, not me.
Why are you so upset by me checking in on you?
Has something happened?
Aquila?
15:41
Qui?
15:43
qui
Stop texting me.
I’m not five, Sirius.
I don’t need you to be my saviour.
Sirius let his phone drop to the bed. If Aquila would just work with him, things would be so much easier. She just needed to understand how much Sirius worried.
Just as he was going to start a conversation with James to take his mind off it, a phone started ringing.
Nice to know someone had a functional family.
~*~
Brrrrrringg brrrring
“Mum? This you?”
“No, actually, it’s the muffin man,” James could clearly hear his dad laughing to himself over the phone, “Effie! Get over here, James called us!”
“Hi James, how’s school been? You out of decorations yet?”
“Well, about that, do you know if Freeprints deliver to the school? And could you send me a few more packs of fairy lights?”
“James, we bought every single pack of fairy lights Sainsburys had, how are you out of them already?” James could hear his mums sigh though the phone.
“Anyway, how’s school? Made any new friends?”
“Yes, mum. And I’m in a dorm with Pete, and Marlene’s next door to us. And the other people in my dorm are really fun, they're called Remus and Sirius. There’s so many people with weird names here. Oh, mum- I almost forgot. So, next door, in a dorm with Marlene, there’s this girl and her names Lily and she’s really pretty and-”
“And how long have you known her?”
“Well, she came to our dorm on the first day to tell us to shut up, and then she was next to me in maths and she told me to do my work instead on staring at the wall, but I think I have a chance.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure, but hey, your mum ignored me throughout high school and look at us now!” James’s dad chimed in.
“How’s Munchkin? I’ve really missed her.”
“She’s doing alright, been sleeping on your bed a lot though. She clearly misses you too, poor thing.”
“You owe me pictures of her now, you made me feel guilty for leaving her.” James laughed a little, but he really did miss them all and it had only been a week.
“Sorry, but we have to go do the shopping now, your dad’s begging me to make chicken for tea and I don’t have time to defrost one.”
“I am not begging!”
“Sure, sure, keep telling yourself that. Anyway, I’ll send you those cat pictures when I get back, see you, James!”
“Love you mum, Bye!”
The call cut off. James felt strangely empty, maybe it was just that he missed his parents. Yeah, that was probably it, he thought. Homesickness was perfectly normal, and he wasn’t as homesick as Peter was. Maybe he just missed the home comfort of having his parents around, always there for a chat. He’d have to get used to not having them around.
“Hey Sirius, you fancy a game of monopoly?” James asked, as Sirius wasn’t looking too good, clearly something had happened with his sister when he had gone to text her.
“What’s that?” Everyone burst out laughing as Sirius looked more and more confused, clearly waiting for someone to explain.
“Remus, Pete, come with me to the common room, we’re teaching Sirius monopoly.”
James hopped off his bed and out the door, not waiting for an answer from the others, and headed down to the common room. He grabbed the box of monopoly, which he had seen on the games shelf in the room a few times. The others came in as he was setting up and sat around the table that James had claimed for them all.
“So basically, it’s capitalism but more fun.” James began to explain as Peter started distributing the cash to each of them.
“Just give him the instructions, James. You’ve never been much good at explaining things.” Peter chimed in.
“How’ve you never played monopoly though? I didn’t know that was possible.”
“Well, my parents never really liked games, so we weren’t allowed to have any.”
“That’s quite sad actually, I think I’ve been playing chess since before I learnt to speak,” Peter added on, as he started setting up the board.
“Yeah, Pete’s a huge chess nerd, he can beat anyone,” James said, as Sirius put down the instructions.
“Hey James, can I be the dog instead of you? It is my first game after all,” Sirius was already swapping his and James’s pieces.
“Ok, I think I understand, can we start?”
“DIBS GOING FIRST!” James rolled a six and bought the first light blue square.
The game continued on for another few hours, with James finally winning.