The Howler
As soon as the prefect had shown the four of them to their dorm, the other boys took no time to pass out in their beds. However, Sirius was lying wide awake, his racing mind preventing him from falling asleep. His parents were probably receiving ten different owls containing the news of what a disappointment he was at this very moment. He had never been a particularly well-behaved child, but he had never messed up this badly either. There was no telling how much worse the consequences would be than usual.
Sighing, he turned on his side and pulled the thick, maroon comforter tightly around him, eventually drifting off into fitful sleep.
A loud thud jolted Sirius awake. He sat up straight, head swiveling around to the source of the noise. When he pulled the curtains around his bed back, he saw James standing by his own bed, a pile of books at his feet. His hair was wet, and he was already dressed in his school robes, despite the sun barely peeking through the window.
“Ugh!” An annoyed groan came from the bed closest to the window, where Remus was sleeping. “Could you be any louder?”
“Sorry! Trying to unpack.” James winced, gathering his books up from the floor.
Sirius blinked sleepily. “How long have you been up?”
“Too long.” Remus muttered, pulling his curtains back. His hair was mussed up and he was frowning. “I don’t understand how you’ve been sleeping through the ruckus.”
“Fell asleep late.” Sirius shrugged, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. He peered into Peter’s bed as he walked towards the bathroom.
“Pete here is still knocked out, though.”
He rolled over, emitting a loud snore, as if enunciating Sirius' point.
They all got ready for the day, tugging on their school robes and gathering their textbooks. Well, except James, who was already ready. He sat on his bed, talking excitedly to no one in particular, with Peter occasionally chiming in. After getting dressed, Sirius stared into the bathroom mirror, fastening his Gryffindor tie around his neck. He was a bit glad to have been put in Gryffindor, he thought. If not, he would be rooming with Snivellus and Mulciber for the next seven years, which was enough to drive a guy mad. All his roommates seemed nice enough, especially James. Besides, his parents would eventually have to get over it, right? He smiled in the mirror and opened the door, following the others downstairs.
A familiar, tall figure was leaning against the stone wall opposite to the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, dark eyes trained on the portrait hole.
“Sirius!” She exclaimed, eyes lighting up once she caught sight of him.
“You all go on, I’ll catch up later.” Sirius told the other guys. They glanced at Andromeda curiously, but continued down to breakfast nonetheless.
Andy smiled at him. “You’ve made friends already, that’s nice.”
Sirius smiled back half-heartedly. “Yeah, they’re all really nice, especially James.
“Potter?”
“You were right,” Sirius sighed. “Everything you told me about half-bloods and blood traitors and whatnot.”
“Glad you came to that conclusion quickly.” She patted his shoulder, pausing a moment before sighing. “Look, I know you probably already assumed so much, but your parents undoubtedly know by now about your sorting. Cissy ran to write to our parents the moment it happened, along with about every other pureblood I know.”
He groaned, leaning against the wall next to her. “That’s just lovely.”
“It’ll be okay, Sirius. Eventually.” She seemed to be comforting not just him, but herself too with that last word.
“Eventually.” He echoed, staring off in thought. “Shall we head down, then?”
“Oh, I’ve got to meet a friend. But you go on.”
Sirius relaxed a bit during breakfast. He was yet to receive the scathing letter he had been expecting from his mother, giving him hope that she would leave the subject alone until the Christmas Holidays. His delusions were short-lived, however, interrupted by a familiar gray owl making a beeline for him.
“Great.” He muttered as soon as she landed, black envelope clutched in her talons.
“Sirius, is that a howler?” James gaped at him, a fork full of egg halfway to his mouth.
Peter frowned at the steaming envelope. “Merlin, what did you do?”
Sirius pointedly waved his red and gold tie in the air in response, grimacing. While the howler was embarrassing, he knew it was just the beginning of his family’s anger with him. Whatever was coming during the Christmas holidays was sure to be much worse. This wasn’t even that bad, he desperately reasoned with himself. He took a deep breath and tore the letter open, his friends eyes all on him.
His mother’s exceptionally shrill voice filled the Great Hall, silencing the chatter of all the students.
“SIRIUS ORION BLACK! NEVER , IN THE HISTORY OF THE NOBLE AND MOST ANCIENT AND HOUSE OF BLACK, HAS THERE BEEN SUCH A THING. AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE, GETTING YOURSELF SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR. YOUR FATHER AND I CANNOT EXPRESS OUR DISAPPOINTMENT IN OUR SO-CALLED HEIR ENOUGH. DO NOT BOTHER WRITING BACK.”
With that, the letter tore itself into shreds, leaving Sirius with a burning face and queasy stomach. He tried his best to ignore everybody’s eyes on him and the whispers that came along with them. Even Cissy looked at him with something resembling pity, despite the fact that the whole ordeal was partially her fault.
“God, you weren’t joking about the family disappointment thing.” Remus said incredulously, eyes trained on the pile of torn paper in the center of the table.
“Nope,” Sirius grinned weakly. “My mother’s just an angel, isn’t she?”
“Oh yeah, lovely woman.” Remus snorted.
Nobody else seemed to find his joke funny, though. Particularly, James was staring at him with a look of deep concern etched on his face. Thankfully, the rest of the students soon returned to their own conversations once the situation grew uninteresting.
“Mate, are you alright?” James asked worriedly.
“I’m fine, don’t worry.” Sirius shrugged, reaching for a piece of toast. “I told you all my family would be mad.”
“Yes, but you didn’t mention they were actually mad .” Pete exclaimed.
They all seemed pretty taken aback by his mother’s reaction, disconcerting Sirius. In the back of his mind, he wondered how his new friends would react to the rest of his parents' punishments, if they thought a simple howler was bad.
His friends seemed to sense his discomfort at the topic, changing the conversation to their first classes of the day. They had Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, and History of Magic today. Sirius wasn’t too worried about any of it, he was sure there wasn’t going to be much of anything he hadn’t already learned from his tutors. Not to mention his mother insisting he painstakingly read through every one of his assigned textbooks for the year a month in advance.
His assumption proved itself correct. Each of his classes that day and the next covered topics he was already familiar with, leaving him plenty of free time to talk to James and Pete or bother Remus as he tried to take notes. In fact, as the first few weeks of classes went by, it became apparent to Sirius that he was months ahead in virtually every one of his classes. There was something to be said about the methods of his mother, he grudgingly admitted to himself.
James, on the other hand, was an infuriatingly quick learner. He barely paid attention in class, doodling on the corners of his parchment or whispering to whoever was near him. Still, he managed to perform better than anyone else in Transfiguration and Defense alike, much to Remus’ frustration.
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him taking notes, and he still gets better marks than me!” Remus exclaimed, watching as James and Pete laughed over a game of exploding snap across the common room. He was bitterly correcting his potions paper, Sirius keeping him company.
“It’s insane. He just hears something once and never forgets it.” Sirius agreed, twisting a quill around his finger.
“Oh come off it, you’re the same way.”
Sirius glanced over at him. “Honestly? It only seems that way because my mother had me get ahead on every subject over the summer.”
Remus put his quill down, shaking his head in disbelief. “So that’s your secret. And here I was thinking you were some kind of genius.”
“Let’s not dismiss that possibility entirely.”
“No, let’s.”
Remus paused for a second, hesitating over his next words. “Kind of insane that your mum made you basically do the entire school year before it started though.”
The longer he spent at Hogwarts, the more Sirius was noticing how odd the others found his family to be. He had always known his parents were strict, of course, but he’d never realized how uncommon the rigid and unfeeling dynamic of the Black family was. He would casually mention something about his parents, like he just had, and his friends would react in shock or disbelief.
”Its not that insane! My parents just have high standards for how me and my brother ‘represent the family’.” For some reason, he felt the need to defend his mother, despite fact that most of him agreed with Remus.
“Me especially, because I’m the heir.” He added on. It was perfectly reasonable, he thought.
”Sorry, maybe I just don’t get it.” Remus shrugged. But the look on his face betrayed that he still thought Sirius’ mother was a little insane.