Primeurs (Firsts)
James was right.
Sirius is learning this is not going to be a common occurrence, but he was 100% right about them being best friends. He begged Ceres to let him stay in the boys compartment, actually got on his knees and bowed to her before she rolled her eyes and shooed him away, walking away herself- probably get much needed alone time before diving into the wizarding world of more entitled brats and chess like conversations with their cousins.
Remus was interesting, Sirius decided, interesting and quite pretty for a boy. The taller boy was quiet, but straightforward, he didn't bother to dance with his words like Sirius was used to, didn't bother to hide his emotions away, and Sirius imagined he was like a breath of fresh air after years of not going outside.
James was like the sun on Sirius' face, warm and happy, nothing could stop his burning, and Sirius felt as though he could burn forever as long as James stood next to him. It was an instant connection, if Remus was the breath in his lungs then James was the very lungs he breathed with.
Immediately, they all knew they were stuck with each other forever.
The train ride probably should have been filled with getting to know each other but they're young, and James made a comment about a red headed girl he thought was cute, so of course the three went to bother the other compartments, searching for the red head and pulling dumb little pranks on anyone else they came across.
After the train stopped and every boy and girl were climbing out, waiting for the boats and gathering their things, James trailed after Sirius to meet Ceres properly.
"Ceres!" Sirius dragged James behind him up to his older sister. "Come meet my friend!"
Ceres slides forward with a face made of stone, a picture of perfection as always, strong jaw, stormy eyes and long eyelashes staring James down. Sirius felt James shift uncomfortably under her gaze so he turned a blinding smile to Ceres, making her soften as she looks at him.
"Hi- um, I'm James," James sticks his hand out with a bright smile. "James Potter."
Ceres looks him up and down before shaking his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Potter." She shot a polite smile his way and let go of his hand, turning towards Sirius. "Sirius, you have to get sorted but I'll see you at the table, okay?"
Sirius shifts closer. "What if I don't get Slytherin?" Ceres runs a hand over his hair and presses a kiss to his temple. "Just be yourself, mon etoile, it'll all work out."
Sirius beams and wraps her in a gentle hug before bouncing off, chatting James' ears off, and getting as good as he gives.
Alphabetical order by last name was always Sirius' favorite thing, being a Black. He always gets to go sooner rather than later, get it over with and jump right in head first. It's this kind of thinking, he realizes later, that lands him in trouble.
He watches as the girl in front of him gets called to Ravenclaw and quickly walks to the stool, sitting down as the hat is plopped onto his head.
"Hmmm... you're sister is in Slytherin right?"
Sirius blinks, he didn't think the hat was going to talk to him. "Oh- yes sir. She's in Slytherin."
The hat hums again and is silent for a few seconds.
"If she was in trouble what would you do Mr. Black?"
"I'd save her, duh."
The hat makes a sound that might be a laugh before taking a deep breath and-
"GRYFFINDOR." The hat screeches out and Sirius' eyes fly to his sister at the Slytherin table.
He'd never seen Ceres look like that before. Her face was drained of color, her eyes wide and lips parted on a strangled gasp. Her eyes shone with fear and tears. He didn't understand, she'd told him to be himself, why wasn't she happy? Why wasn't Ceres proud? He'd never seen Ceres scared in his life. Not when Mother rose her hand, not when Father threatened to sell her off, not when Bellatrix pointed her ugly wand at her. Ceres was always stoic and calm, hoarding her fear on the inside and turning it into a weapon- sharp and lethal, but true terror shone in her eyes in the moment he stood up and started his trek to the cheering Gryffindor tables.
His heart racing and lungs closing he sits next to a tall, dark haired man who glances at him and then turns toward him, muttering softly.
"Hi," He smiles. "I'm Frank- you're Sirius right?"
He nods dumbly and swallows harshly, glancing between him and the ghostly expression on Ceres' face.
Frank seems to notice where he's looking and puts a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Hey," He starts and Sirius stares at him. "it's okay, is that your sister? She looks a lot like you."
"Um," Sirius feels a bit dumb right now, the only thing he can think is that if Ceres looks scared then he had to have done something wrong- was saving her the wrong answer? Should he have said she can save herself? That's stupid, she's always saving him and if he had a chance to save her he would do it without hesitation. "Yeah that's- her name is Ceres."
Frank chuckles and the short haired girl across from him pours Sirius some water and starts to make him a plate.
"Yeah," Frank says. "I know who she is- I know she can be kinda scary sometimes. Is that why you're freaking out? Do you think she'll be mad at you for not being Slytherin?"
Sirius contemplates this for a long moment, even after the girl sets his plate down and offers him a small smile, he glances between Frank and Ceres. Ceres has moved on, composed herself and forced herself to continue talking to her peers, but Sirius can tell the smiles are fake and the tension in her shoulders isn't just good posture. When Ceres catches his eye again she doesn't look angry, she just looks stressed.
"No," Sirius says, turning to Frank. "I don't think she's mad- I think she's just scared of what our parents are gonna think."
Frank nods and nudges the plate forward more.
"This is Alice by the way," Frank smiles as a blonde skinny kid gets called to Gryffindor. "we've been together since second year."
A short brown-haired kid gets Hufflepuff.
"What year are you now?" Sirius asks, picking at his food.
"We're year fives, so we know our way around and we know most of your professors." Alice says with a smile. "We're here to help you with anything you need hun, just come ask us and we'll help you out." Her voice was like honey, and her words were sweet enough to make Sirius smile, it'll be nice to have someone he can go to now that Ceres won't be with him every step of the way.
"Remus Lupin"
Sirius gasps. "Sh! Sh! That's the cute boy from the train!" He ignores the look Alice and Frank exchange, like they know something he doesn't, in favor of watching Remus sit down. The hat takes it's sweet time with Remus, seeming to have a lot to weigh. Eventually Remus mutters something to the hat and it's screeching out Gryffindor just like it did for Sirius.
Sirius beams brightly and bounces as best he can when the taller boy sits next to him.
"Remus! I'm so happy you got put in Gryffindor too- do you think James will?"
"I think the hat won't even have to touch his head before it's screaming Gryffindor. There's not a thought behind his eyes- and while he is incredibly kind, he's brave and loyal in a way that Hufflepuff just doesn't fit."
Sirius tilts his head. "What about Slytherin? Slytherins are loyal and brave, Ceres is at least- do you think James could get into Slytherin?"
Remus barks out a laugh before composing himself once he realizes Sirius isn't joking. "Oh- um, no Sirius. Slytherins are cunning and ambitious, they'd do whatever it takes to reach their goals."
Sirius opens his mouth to argue, Ceres is nothing like that after all, but a small, shy blonde sits in front of him, waves sheepishly and starts plating his food and two seconds later, James' name is being called.
"Bet you a shingle the hat doesn't even touch his head." Remus says.
"I'm not taking that bet."
Remus grins and Sirius ends up glad he didn't take the bet, James barely gets seated before the hat is yelling Gryffindor and he's bounding over to them with a bright grin, sliding in next to the shy kid and kicking Sirius lightly in the shins.
"I thought for sure you'd be put with the snakes!"
"Me too!" Sirius laughs, not quite understanding that James was insulting Slytherin and implying Gryffindor was a better house to be put in.
"Hi- I'm James," James smiles at the blonde kid. "you're Peter right? I think you went just before me."
"Hm?" Peter blinks at him then smiles shyly. "Oh, yes, I'm Peter. It's nice to meet you."
"This is Remus and Sirius- we're all kind of a package deal." James grins. "We met on the train, and we're best friends now. Do you wanna join us? I'm already thinking of group names and most of them would be so much cooler with four people."
Peter laughs but nods his head. "Sure, we can all be friends."
Sirius grins over at Remus who smiles gently and they all turn back to their food, the rest of the ceremony is boring, except for the twins. The Rosiers, both so blonde their hair seems bleached, their skin so pale it looks translucent. The girl gets put in Ravenclaw, her hair twisted into like fifty individual locks and those twisted into a bun on top of her head, three stray locks hanging around her face. The boy gets put in Slytherin and saunters over, head held high, the first three buttons of his robes are undone and his hair is spikey, straightened and then gelled into submission, he sits next to Ceres. They share the same face, and walk the same way but everything about them seemed so different that they caught Sirius' eye for a moment. He wasn't alone, when he turned to talk to Remus, he was staring too.
After dinner Sirius didn't get a chance to catch Ceres before he was being rushed off to his dorm rooms, where he was struck with fate that couldn't feel more right, Remus, Sirius, Peter and James were all rooming together, and James' cute red head was a Gryffindor named Lily Evans.
The first three days at Hogwarts fly by in a flurry, Sirius is late to every meal, later to almost every class, and if it wasn't for Remus' meticulous notes, none of them would have any clue what any of their classes were about.
He doesn't even see Ceres until the third week when he finally catches her eyes across the dining room, he intended to stay and talk to her but James distracted him with their plans to try and get Lily to talk to him. For all that James was bright and bubbly, Lily was not falling for it, and was actively pushing James away. James seemed to find her means comments and biting insults hilarious though, and kept trying to be her friend, which led to three Gryffindor boys planning ways for James to talk to her, Remus seemed entirely uninterested in helping and said as much that nigh at dinner.
"I'm not going to help you attempt to steal her heart, James." Remus gave the shorter boy an exasperated look. "I'm not a marauder and I'm not interested in-"
"Wait- wait." James grabbed Remus' arm that was reaching for a roll, making the others pause to watch what was going on. "What'd you just say?"
Remus raised a careful eyebrow and looked James up and down like he had just grown a second pair of arms. "I said I'm not going to help you plan-"
"No, no- not that part, the mara-durs part or whatever." James huffed, feeling like everyone should just get on his level already.
"Marauders?" Remus tilted his head. "It's a muggle term, more than a wizard one I believe, it means to steal or like generally cause mischief I think."
James grins brightly. "It's perfect Remus! The Marauders- that's what we'll be!"
"What?" Remus blinked at James. "James, I just told you that I'm not a marauder."
"You are now! Now all we need is awesome code names!"
Sirus had laughed and Peter had agreed, they all started bouncing ridiculous names off each other, easily distracting Sirius from needing to see his sister.
He had sent two letters to Reggie but got nothing back when his owl came in, and he was starting to worry that Walburga wasn't allowing Regulus to send him anything. Which is why he found himself in the library writing a letter to his mother, trying to sound as not defiant as possible. He'd restarted five times before a slim body slid into the seat next to him.
"Sirius."
His head immediately shot up and he smiled happily, reaching out and grabbing Ceres' hand.
"Ceres!" He said. "Oh I have so much to tell you- do you remember James? Potter? We're the best of friends- we have a little group, he calls us the Marauders which I think is kind of silly but he takes it all very seriously-"
"Sirius." He shuts his mouth with a sheepish smile at her loving tone, a cold hand covers his and her nimble fingers give him a squeeze. "Regulus wanted me to tell you that he's very sorry he hasn't sent anything to you, and that he misses you very much."
Sirius swallows the lump in his throat to grin. "He does? I miss him too." And he did, he hadn't had much time to settle down and realize it but Reggie would love everything here. He'd love the library and he'd absolutely adore James. Sirius had gotten so caught up in everything else he hadn't had time to stop and think about his brother, and now that he had he found tears hard to hold back. He loved Regulus, and he felt guilty for having so much fun when he knew that his little brother was going through hell right now. "Is he doing okay with bath time?"
Ceres flinches and Sirius heart drops to his stomach.
"Mother... thinks he is too old to have help in the bath and has started just throwing him in there with all his clothes on when he decides he doesn't want to."
Sirius swallows another lump. "Is... is he okay? Is she doing anything else?"
"Not that I can tell. I'm going to write Kreacher a letter to put the music box on the counter during bath days and tell Regulus how to bath himself, and which days to do it so that Mother doesn't get angry." She frowns and squeezes his hands again. "I think she's just upset about you getting placed in Gryffindor."
Sirius looks down and tries not to feel guilty but it creeps up on him, choking him and squeezing at his heart.
"I'm sorry." He whispers. "Will you tell Reggie I'm sorry?"
Soft hands under his jaw force him to look at her, eyebrows drawn together, soft hair cascading over her shoulders in carefully manicured waves, her lips shone with something glossy.
"Sirius. It is absolutely not your fault that Mother is angry. She's a heartless woman, and she cares for nothing and no one but herself and her image. You being in Gryffindor is exactly where you need to be. It's who you are Sirius." She touches a palm to his chest, over his heart. "This fire that you have, this burning star inside your heart? She's mad at it because she can't control it, can't control you as long as you don't want her to. Don't ever let anyone control your flame mon etoile."
Sirius couldn't keep the tears down and he let out a strangled sob, diving into Ceres' open arms and letting her cradle his head to her chest, rocking him side to side and rubbing his back.
"It's okay my love," She whispers. "I'm going to fix it, I'm going to handle it."
Sirius didn't know what she meant by that, and he figured she meant something along the lines of sending letters back and forth for Sirius to Regulus, and while this was part of it Sirius should have known there was more, should have known that Ceres would do everything in her power to keep the blame off of him when they went home for fall holidays.
Sirius didn't know what expect walking back into his family home through the floo, running a little late since he got a chance to meet James Parents, Euphemia and Fleamont Potter were so kind, they hugged James and Effie even hugged Sirius after asking if it was okay. He learned about Effie's rule, that she would never break a hug first in case someone really needed it, and he was loathe to admit that he shed a few tears, his own Mother hasn't ever hugged him, if he can remember correctly. The first person he can remember clinging to is Ceres.
He certainly wasn't expecting a vase flying for his head, which he narrowly dodged and to see Regulus curled up in a corner, Walburga and Ceres' wands stabbed into the dry wall to the right of him and Walburga screeching her head off, brandishing a rose at Ceres like it was a wand as Ceres stared at her in disbelief. Orion, their father stood to the side, staring at his crazy wife like he wasn't really there, perhaps wondering where in his life he went wrong to be married to her. It wasn't what he expected, but he is a Black, so this is what he gets.
"I told you what would happen if you screwed it up you foolish girl!" Walburga screeches as she launches the rose at Ceres, it bounces off her arm and hits the floor without making a sound, but Ceres blinks down at it like it's personally offended her. "You are completely useless- you were meant to be a boy! You ruined everything! Everything! You stupid girl!"
The older woman marched across the room to grab Ceres by the hair and pull her through the doorway, past Orion, who just steps to the side dutifully.
"You're going to scrub this house from the basement to the attic with no help from the house elves and if I find one spec of dust I'm locking you in the closet until school is back in do you understand?"
She throws Ceres out of the way and Ceres rights herself on the wall.
"Yes Mother, of course."
Walburga sneers and turns on her heel, marching away after waving her wand to her hand and Orion drags himself behind her.
Sirius finally seems to find his bearings and he scrambles to Regulus whose holding his face and hyperventilating.
"Reggie? Reggie, c'mon talk to me." Sirius reaches out and pulls him to his chest, rubbing his back and squeezing him close, exaggerating his breaths so Regulus can copy them. "What's going on? Are you hurt? Breathe Regulus, breathe."
Regulus takes in one shuddering breath before Ceres is kneeling next to them and rubbing her fingers through his hair, relaxing him even more, and Sirius allows her to take over and walk him through a couple breathing exercises.
When he's calmed down enough to talk he pulls away but keeps ahold of Sirius' arms. "She was mad cus I was waiting for you guys instead of taking my bath." He sniffles and wipes his nose on his sleeve, Sirius cringes lightly and Ceres pinches Sirius' arm and shoots him a sharp look.
"I just wanted to wait for you to help me." He looks at Ceres and his frown deepens.
"Oh chérie (Darling)," Ceres cups Regulus cheeks and presses a kiss to his nose. "It's alright to need help still. I'll come help you with your bath first just like I said and then I have some chores to do."
"I'll start on the chores Ceres." Sirius volunteered, laying a hand on Ceres shoulder. "I can do a couple things while he's in the bath, I'll stay out of Mothers way."
Ceres studies him for a moment before smiling and nodding.
"You've grown up in Gryffindor huh little brother?"
The words are teasing but Sirius grins, he grins through the house work and he grins through unpacking and he grins through a terrible dinner with terrible conversation, he grins getting ready for bed and he grins at his ceiling before falling asleep. The words were teasing but they were said with pride. Ceres is proud of him, and that's enough to keep him grinning for days.