Going home for the summer
It was the day before the summer holidays began.
A day two brothers hated.
A day a young werewolf felt uneasy about.
A day a rat was afraid of.
A day pleasant only for one of them.
Sirius hated returning to his house, his alleged home. Regulus felt similarly about it.
"Siri!" Remus yelled
"What?" He replied from the other room
"Have you packed yet?" Remus questioned
"No..." Sirius answered entering their dorm room
"Sirius" Remus reprimanded
"You know how I feel about going home" He tried to excuse
"You have to pack" Remus stated
"I know"
"I'll help you, come on" Remus offered
"Alright, but afterwards we'll go straight to bed" Sirius demanded
"Ok" Remus giggled, "your bed or mine"
"Mine" Sirius decided
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Regulus had hung around Sirius the entire morning, only leaving to go eat breakfast at his house's table. Sirius had been nervous the whole day, he wasn't too worried about himself but more about his brother. His parents had already abandoned all hope about him, but his brother...they placed all their hopes and demands on him. Little Regulus, his little brother.
Sirius was sitting at the table barely eating anything. He'd never been this nervous before. Not when he started going to Hogwarts, not when he sometimes went home for Christmas and not even when they'd smuggled their cousins into Hogwarts just a few weeks ago.
"Remus?" Sirius turned to his boyfriend
"Yes Siri?" Remus acknowledged absentmindedly
"Will you promise me something?" The black haired boy asked
"Sure, anything" Remus assured, now paying full attention to the other boy
"I want you to promise me that no matter what happens this summer, you'll still love me" Sirius pleaded
"Yes, of course" Remus agreed
"Ok" Sirius whispered, "I love you"
"I love you too, Peds"
Dumbledore stood up from his throne like chair and began talking about the school year, he assured the students the war (even in it's beginning stages) wouldn't affect them too much and to enjoy the summer to their best possibilities. Everytime Sirius thought Dumbledore would be done talking now, he just continued on.
"When's going to be done, it's not like the beginning of the year when they have to tell us and rules." James groaned, gaining a small grin from his friend Sirius.
When Dumbledore was finally done Sirius seemed just a bit less tense. Regulus came over and Sirius whispered something in his ear.
"James, you don't mind if Regulus stays in our compartment, right?" Sirius smiled
James looked at Regulus, who made a face of "don't tell him please".
"Of course I don't mind" he said giving Regulus a wink.
"Ok thanks" Sirius turned to Reg, "Reggie make sure you have all your luggage."
"Yeah, I'll make sure" Reg answered
He knew that Sirius hadn't even packed until yesterday, when he'd been continuously packing the whole week. And Sirius had only packed yesterday because Remus made him, he knew that very well.
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Soon they all went back to their dorm rooms to get all of their luggage, pets and any additional stuff they took home. Sirius was fished quickly. Remus wondered how it was at his home, he'd heard from Sirius but he never really knew everything.
"Hey Siri?" Remus called
"What is it" Sirius replied already standing in the door with his luggage spread around him.
"How come you're so messy all throughout the year and when you go home suddenly you're packing everything neatly and carefully?" Remus genuinely wondered
"Oh...you know my mother despises anything that isn't absolutely neat and clean" Sirius tried to avoid further questions about the topic.
"I guess" Remus agreed
"Hello boys" Lily greeted
"Hi" Remus reacted
"Hello" Sirius added in a more serious tone
Lily shot Remus a confused glance but only got a shrug in reply.
"Are Peter and James done yet, I don't intend on missing the train" Lily explained
"I'm done, ok?" Peter yelled from the other side of the room, "it's James that needs my help over here"
"It's fine Pete, I'll come and help" she laughed as she turned towards Sirius, "Sirius, would you hold onto my purse while I help James?"
"Sure" Sirius agreed
Remus looked shocked, he couldn't really believe that Sirius just accepted to help Lily. They didn't hate each other but they didn't exactly know each other well either.
To his understanding giving someone your purse is something associated with trust. But where did that come from.
Before Remus could ask anything about it to Sirius Lily, James and Peter came walking to the front.
"Let's go!" James grinned
"Thanks for holding my purse" Lily thanked Sirius
"It's no problem" Sirius said quietly, "let's go my love" he added as he turned towards Remus.
"Yay" Peter screeched excitedly
"I love you Pedfoot" Remus stated
Sirius smiled. Just then Regulus appeared from behind a corner and joined the Gryffindor group.
They went towards the carriage which would be transporting the luggage down to the train.
"Siri?" Regulus whispered.
"Huh?"
"What am I supposed to do now?" Reg asked
"What do you mean by that?" Sirius questioned confusedly.
"You said you'd tell me what to do when the time has come" Regulus looked at him with scared pleading eyes.
"Reggie, it's not the time yet" Sirius felt horrible trying to explain it to his brother, "we're going to spend our summer as we usually do, going to every banquet or buffet or festive get together to mother tells us to. We'll be just like always."
"But what if-" Regulus tried to argue.
"No if, no but. It'll work out, I'm going to make it work out. I'm going to tell you soon enough." Siri assured his younger brother.
"Ok"
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They arrived at the carriage and gave up almost all of their luggage.
Peter kept a bag with sweets that he'd bought beforehand, he said it's cheaper, and a few books.
Remus did similar things, he brought a small backpack with books and chocolate.
James took with him a bag filled with various types of toys and a pillow with a blanket, both of which he never used himself.
Lily didn't bring anything other than her purse and an additional book.
Sirius took a backpack with a blanket, sweets for the same reason as Peter and Regulus' books.
As they arrived they immediately went to their compartment, that was now way to small to fit the entire group but they decided to just make it work.
James and Lily were sat on one of the benches, while Sirius and Regulus were sleeping on the other one. They needed to sleep as they couldn't ever really sleep well at home, always being on edge and never actually relaxing. Peter squeezed himself next to Lily and James, which worked surprisingly well and Remus sat on the floor next to the compartment door.
It wasn't very comfortable but, after spreading the blanket from Sirius' backpack over Sirius and Regulus, Remus got the James' blanket to sit on.
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Two hours into the train ride they rearranged the seating. Sirius was still sleeping as well as Regulus. It was decided that James would move to the middle of his row and take Lily in one and Regulus on the other side. Remus moved onto the seats Sirius was on and just placed Sirius' head on his lap. Peter decided to start eating his sweets on the floor.
"Hey Pete?" Remus said not looking up from the book he was reading.
"What?" Peter replied.
"Can you get me some of my chocolate from my bag?" He asked
"Sure" Peter started searching through Remus' bag.
"Here ya go" Pete gave him the chocolate.
"Thanks, I hate to bother you but I can't move right now" Remus reasoned
"I understand" Peter acknowledged.
Remus turned to face James who was reading some kind of magazine.
"How are you Prongs?" He questioned.
"Ah, I'm fine" James assured, "I knew you wanted some time with your love"
Remus was flattered for a moment before his expression became distressed.
"I'm just so worried about him", Remus explained, "what will his mother do?"
"He'll be alright mate" James tried to empathize.
"I heard him and Regulus talking about..." he started to whisper, "running away"
"Oh dear" Pete interjected.
"Yeah...I don't know" Remus had tears welling in his eyes, threatening to spill, "where would they go?"
"Look Remus...I'm sure Pedfoot already knows that, but my house is always open to you" James looked at Sirius and then at Regulus, "all of you and I won't let them live on the streets."
Remus seemed a bit more calm but he was still pretty distraught.