Evasive Bastard
Two days later, Sirius awoke from a fitful sleep. It wasn't as bad as the last few nights but it did make him realize that he slept better at Hogwarts. It was a bit strange that he could sleep better in a room full of three other people than in his own room at the Potter’s.
What am I gonna do next year?
It was a scary thought. Next year he would be without his four best mates who had been with him since he was eleven. He would probably stay with the Potter’s until he could find a flat for himself, then he would be alone.
Fucking hell, I’m depressing.
He was also hungry, which prompted him to get up even if he would be the first one in the Potter’s residence to do so.
Sirius made his way down stairs to the kitchen, where he was pleasantly surprised to see Mrs. Potter instead of the Potter’s usual house elf. She was preparing what looked like oatmeal, he didn’t think Mrs. Potter would serve her family gruel for breakfast .
“Morning, dear. You’re up early.” Effy said.
“Couldn’t sleep.” Sirius mumbled from tiredness, as he made his way to the table and was stopped short by the person sitting at the breakfast table.
Remus looked different despite it only having been a little over two weeks. He wasn't as pale as he had been when they had said goodbye to each other. He must have been spending lots of time outside. Remus also had two new scars on his neck from the most recent full moon.
“Hi.” Remus said, narrowing his eyes and Sirius shook the confused look from his face but his eyes remained wide from the shock of seeing Remus.
“You’re here!” Sirius’ confusion and tiredness had changed into elation. He moved to the table and sat next to Remus while Mrs. Potter continued on in the kitchen. “I mean, here, here. Like in this house!” He grabbed onto Remus’ arm to make sure that he was real and not a hallucination from too little sleep.
“God, Black, you’re starting to make me feel like I’m a figment of your imagination.” Remus grinned and then jumped into an explanation “Mum thought that after the full moon I could use a pick me up. I arrived here this morning and Mrs. Potter let me in. My mum let her know ahead of time that I would be coming here and Mrs. Potter was gracious enough to get up early for me.” Remus was blushing, he hated people going out of their way to do nice things for him, even if that was just common courtesy for those you cared about.
Sirius sat back a bit, he didn’t know what to say. But Remus seemed to know that and launched into a story about what he had been up to. Apparently his neighbors had family visiting and he had been spending a lot of time with his neighbor’s cousin, Michael.
“Don’t go on replacing me now.” Sirius said.
“I could never.” Remus seemed to regret his words after he said them and his eyebrows scrunched together making him look pained.
“Don’t worry Moony, I know I’m irreplaceable.” Sirius attempted to put Remus at ease. Although he didn’t know why Remus looked pained in the first place, what he did know was that Remus tended to overthink things that didn’t need overthinking. “How long are you staying?” Sirius hoped it would be more than a day, and prayed more like it.
“All week, and mum says I can come back but that will be a while away.” Sirius couldn’t hide his happiness at Remus’ words, but he was saved from saying anything embarrassingly sappy because Effy walked in with two bowls of oatmeal for the boys.
***
An hour passed while Remus and Sirius were eating breakfast and within that hour three significant things arrived. It began like this: James coming down stairs and nearly tripping over when he saw Remus sitting next to Sirius. The three boys launched into a conversation but were interrupted ten minutes later when an owl flew through the window and landed in front of James. Sirius sucked in a breath.
This is it, he thought, The letter from Lily.
He sat forward in anticipation, which earned him a confused glance from Moony. However, it wasn’t the letter. When James opened the envelope a silver pin fell out.
“It’s a letter from Dumbldore,” James said, his eyes quickly scanning over the contents of what Dumbledore had written. “I’m the new head boy!”
Sirius sat forward and clapped James on the shoulder.
“Congrats.” Remus said, but he was shrinking away from the pin. “Ummm, James?”
James looked up at Remus, who looked like he was about to be ill, and his brows pulled together in confusion.
“The pin,” Remus choked out. “It's silver.”
James immediately grabbed the pin and crossed the room, Sirius got up to follow him.
“Give it here,” Sirius held out his hand to James. “I’ll tranfigure it.”
“Sorry, Moony.” James shouted to the other room.
James handed the silver pin over to Sirius who ran his thumb over the words Head Boy etched into the metal. He wasn’t even a little bit surprised that James was Head Boy, it was basically expected of him. Swiftly Sirius transfigured it into tin and safely placed it back into James’ awaiting hands. James was staring at it in fascination and excitement, Sirius hoped he wouldn’t put it on now to wear around the house. Or maybe he did, taking the piss out of James would be hilarious. The change allowed the two boys to return to the table with Remus who was looking significantly much better.
That was the first thing.
The second thing was more like a second owl. Okay, Sirius thought, this has to be it.
But, alas, it was not. Peter had sent them a short note saying he would be busy today. Doing what: he didn’t say, which left it up to the imagination.
“I say he hexed himself.” Sirius confidently stated.
“He’s probably just sick.” James replied. Normally he would have snickered but that was just one of the things that had changed in the recent weeks.
“Sick of you two, more like.” Remus murmured.
Without Peter there, the three remaining marauders would have to plan a new activity to do today as Remus refused to play Quidditch after a rather stressful time on a broom during first year.
Sirius wasn’t upset though, he hated to admit it but he was getting rather tired of Quidditch. That only left the third thing.
When the boys were rising from the breakfast table determined to get ready and leave the house before it became too hot, Remus spotted something outside the window, something that was rapidly flying towards the Potter residence with alarming speed. It was another owl.
Sirius made to get away from the window, out of any space where he could get punched in the gut by an owl. There would be jokes that he would never hear the end of, jokes for days, jokes for years, jokes up the wahzoo. Sirius shuddered in horror.
He had given up hope in Lily, and any letter she might send when he was disappointed the second time.
It didn’t matter that Sirius had moved away from any sort of danger zone because the owl ran into the adjacent closed window instead of flying through the open one that was letting in a warm, summer breeze.
Sirius, James, and Remus watched as the owl righted itself and made its way through the open window.
The owl landed on the table where all three boys had just been seated. James, lover of all animals, made his way to the owl that looked unfazed over what just happened. He reached out and stroked his pointer finger over the owl's beak and made for the letter it had been carrying.
Sirius glanced over James’ shoulder to get a nice look at what the owl had brought. It was a cream colored envelope with James written in elegant cursive on one side. James opened it up and took out three fourths of the letter.
Dear James, was written at the top in the same elegant script as on the outside.
Sirius barely had any time to examine the contents that he could see before James sat up so fast that he nearly knocked over the chair that he had been standing next to, disrupting the owl and causing it to fly out the window leaving the Potter’s house. James continued on unfazed and shoved past Sirius and Remus mumbling something about “needing to be alone.”
Sirius was hit with two feelings at the same time. Shock over James' quick and ungraceful escape from the room. The other was understanding. He understood who the letter was from, he understood James’ attempt to leave, and he understood that his friend would probably confine himself to his room for the rest of the day to process the words in Lily’s letter that had finally arrived.
Sirius felt a bit proud too, of Lily. He didn’t know enough about James’ current state of mind to have an accurate assessment of his feelings on James’ feelings on Lily’s feelings.
Maybe I’m too involved in my mate’s lovelife. Sirius quickly dismissed the thought. Lily had said he had helped her and even if James was currently thrown for a loop. Sirius was a firm believer in “trust the process” and that’s exactly what this delicate situation needed to be viewed with. He just hoped that James was able to put his trust in Lily the same way Lily had put her trust in Sirius.
Sirius must have looked as proud as he felt because Remus turned from looking after where James had stormed off to look at Sirius. “What did you do?” Remus crossed his arms.
“Why do you ask that?” Sirius returned, answering a question with a question. He was a master at being evasive and obtuse.
“The look on your face-”
“What, am I glowing?” Sirius put both his hands on his cheeks and grinned.
“And I know you.” Remus finished.
“Moony, I-” Sirius began but at that moment they heard a loud thump upstairs that came from James’ room. “I should probably go check on him.” Sirius started forward towards the stage, he did say he was evasive.
Remus wouldn’t give up that easily. He grabbed Sirius by the arm halting him.
“I know you did something.” Remus’ eyes bore into Sirius. He really did have lovely eyes and being this close together he could smell Remus’ shampoo, sandalwood mixed with what smelled like cigarettes. The smell was so ingrained in his mind as associated with Moony that Sirius felt comforted… and a little sleepy. Sirius suppressed the urge to close his eyes. “I knew it on the train and I know it now. I’m not begging you to tell me, but it seems it involves two of our friends I feel like I should know.”
“Two?” Sirius quirked an eyebrow.
“Lily.” Remus said, knowing full well that Sirius didn’t consider Lily a friend. Sirius didn’t hesitate from saying so to Remus.
“I know but she’s my friend.” Remus sounded a bit sad. Sirius barely ever considered that Remus had friends outside of the marauders, he probably missed Mary, Marlene, and Lily just as much as he missed James, Sirius, and Peter when he was away.
Sirius didn’t know what to say, he was too tired from lack of sleep. “Cigarettes.” Sirius said finally. “I know you have some.” Sirius said, leading Remus outside. He needed something to do.
“Evasive bastard” Sirius swore he heard Remus mutter. Evasive seemed to be the word of the hour. But he was successfully dragged outside.
When they were on the main road outside the Potter’s house, Remus didn’t stop walking away.
“Now, where are you going?” Sirius demanded, slightly exasperated.
Remus barely looked over his shoulder to say, “There’s a telephone booth down the road. I have some calls to make.”
Sirius shook his head before starting to follow Remus. He should have taken up painting.