Chapter 2
The next day(a Saturday, thank god) Sirius woke up at 11am - Effie was right, they really were jet-lagged - and went downstairs to find James, who had proven to be a lot of fun and could(believe it or not) be calm at times, and Regulus standing on either side of the kitchen island and drinking tea. Regulus was quietly glaring at the other boy, while James seemed to be trying not to laugh. They looked up when he entered and Regulus immediately left the room, walking through a door into what was probably either the lounge or the dining room.
"Morning, mate." James said, turning to his with a bright smile.
Sirius just groaned and flopped down on one of the high stools next to the island, laying his head on his arms. James only laughed and turned the kettle back on.
"Tea?" he asked.
Sirius nodded mutely.
"It'll be your first day of school on Monday. Excited?"
"Who'd be excited for school?"
James laughed good-naturedly.
"Well, what electives are you gonna do? Are you just gonna keep the ones from your old school? Oh, Hogwarts might not have all of the same ones now that I think about it. They should have most of them though. What did you do last year?"
(A/N: idk if brits called these different things but imma just go with what i know)
"Uh, I did commerce and ICT(Information and Communications Technology)"
James wrinkled his nose.
"Yup, Hogwarts has those but... don't do them."
"Why not?" Sirius asked, a little offended.
"They're boring!"
"Have you done either of them?"
"Did you like either of them??"
Sirius blinked. He hadn't, really. He had only chosen them because his parents had told him to. According to his father they were 'suitable, useful subjects that every young man should take. I will not stand for any son of mine doing drama or art with the rest of those cocksuckers'. He had taken with without argument, wanting to at least somewhat appease his parents. The less he disagreed with them on inconsequential things, the more things he could get away with. But James was right, they were extremely boring and he wasn't sure why he'd gotten so defensive.
James gave him a smug look in response to his silence and Sirius just shrugged.
"Well what options do I have?"
(A/N: i had to find the subjects list my school sent out for electives lolol)
"Uh, well there's commerce and ICT but as we already established, you're not doing that. Then there's child studies, but there's a lot of work for that and if you don't want kids it's pointless, then critical thinking and philosophy but Hogwarts is a catholic school so from what I hear they rarely actually talk about interesting topics(A/N: all i'm saying is that as a religious school teachers aren't allowed to talk about some topics that james may deem more interesting, like gay people, yknow, since he is one). Then there's design and tech where you do woodwork and shit like that. There's also drama, I have a few friends in that and they love it, and food tech, you get to cook and you can eat the food, as well as like a history elective, but history's already a core subject so I wouldn't do that cause you'd just have to do double. There's iSTEM which is kinda self explanatory, you can also choose either Italian or Japanese and of course there's music, photography and digital media, which I do and PASS(physical activity and sports studies) which I also do. And of course there's textiles technology and art."
Sirius attempted to process all this information but eventually gave up and left it at;
"I'll think about it. Also, what is this school, like is it private or what?"
"Nah, it's catholic."
"...What's the difference?"
"Private schools are way more expensive, whereas catholic school are usually much more affordable."
"You're telling me you can't afford private?" Sirius said, arching and elegantly disbelieving eyebrow. James just chuckled lightly.
"We could but mum and dad didn't want me to to grow up around just one demographic of people. I went to a public primary school, too."
"Right, so normal people can afford catholic school?"
James just shrugged.
"Even though I went to a public school I'm still hella sheltered. I don't know, though. Our school costs about 5 grand per year but this private girls' school in Burwood costs like 34 grand a year. Usually only private schools ever offer scholarships but we've got a few kids at Hogwarts who are there one them too. I wouldn't want to be them, though, people give them hell for it, so I guess the school isn't really diverse in that sense. Mum and dad just didn't want me to go to a public high school cause they heard some bad things and got scared. They almost sent me to a boys school too. Oh yeah, there's lots of single-sex schools around here too. Not public ones, but it's fairly rare to find a private or catholic school that's co-ed."
"Right, so Hogwarts is co-ed?" Sirius asked, a bit excited. He'd never actually gone to a co-ed school before.
"Yeah," James replied. "It use to be an all-boys school until I started year 7, so there aren't all that many girls, especially in the older years, but there are a couple. More in the younger years too."
Sirius nodded. He was, surprisingly, quite relieved for a bit of change. Most of the schools he had been to were boarding schools and all of them were all-boys schools. It might be nice, and besides, he hadn't seen a single snake since his arrival, so that was a bonus. James passed Sirius' tea over to him and they sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Fleamont came into the kitchen.
"Ah! Sirius, right?" The man pulled him into a tight hug, slapping him on the back. "It's excellent to meet you!" he said releasing a winded Sirius and flashing the Potter Smile™.
He bustled into the kitchen and began haphazardly taking out pans and ingredients from around the kitchen. James moved to Sirius' side of the kitchen island to avoid being knocked out by stray kitchen utensils as Fleamont spoke.
"Welcome to Australia! Excellent to have you here, yes. I just met your brother earlier, quiet kid. Tell me, how do you like England? Oh and how do you like Australia so far?"
"Umm.. England's fine. It's good. Australia's... hot."
Fleamont chuckled.
"Yes, quite. There's more to it than that though, you'll see. You know James, you should take the boys to the zoo some time. Yes, yes, invite some friends from school too."
Sirius looked(and felt) mildly horrified. But James just smiled at his dad.
"Alright dad,"
"Excellent!"