The Boy In The Study Group - Sirius
“Good game, Black!” Frank Longbottom says from across the changing room.
“Cheers,” Sirius gives him a lopsided smile before returning his gaze to James, “So, as I was saying—”
“I don’t really fancy hearing you talking about how Slughorn gave you a low grade in Chemistry, Sirius, I’m sorry,” James cuts in.
“Yeah, I know. But,” Sirius sighs. “S’just… with hockey and all I haven’t really been able to study much or focus in any school work, really. I mean, I used to be so bloody good at Chemistry. I used to be good in every school subject, if I’m being honest. I just… I dunno, maybe I’m jus’ stupid and I’m trying to convince myself I’m not.”
“You’re not stupid, Sirius,” James declares as he puts his Gryffindor hockey team's jacket on. “You just weren’t able to pass all these past few exams, so what? We only have two years left in this hell of a school, so cheer up, will ya?”
Sirius snorts, humourless. “Yeah, cheers, Potter! You have two years left, I’ll have three other more years if my grades aren’t planning on getting higher. Oh, for fuck’s sake— d’you think I’ll have to be in the same year as Reggie?! No, no, it can’t happen!”
“Another stupid fight, eh?” James raises his eyebrows as they start walking towards the hall.
“No, your boyfriend and I are good. But I don’t want him to be seen as the ’stupid boy who was so bloody stupid that had to repeat a fucking year’s brother’ and I most certainly don’t want to be seen as the ‘stupid boy who was so bloody stupid that had to repeat a fucking year’!” Sirius groans.
“And you won’t be! And, even if you were to repeat another year, so what? Benjy repeated his last year, remember? And now he’s studying to be a fucking doctor or something like that. So, Christ— can you be a bit less dramatic? Just for once?” James says, but he’s smiling fondly.
“Easy for you to say when you haven’t failed eight exams out of nine in one week! And I didn’t even pass the maths exams fairly—I wrote a bunch of calculations and methods in my arm because I knew that the old sub would be too stupid to realise!”
“Mr. Black,” the Headmistress’ voice interrupts their conversation.
“Minnie!” Sirius replies cheerly before realising what it was he had just said to James. “Oh, fu— did you hear what I told Potter?”
“Luckily, no, I haven’t,” McGonagall replies. She clears her throat. “Anyway, Black, I’d like you to come to my office now please.”
“What if I refuse?” Sirius teases, smiling. McGonagall gives him a sharp look that knocks Sirius’ senses back to him. “Right. Sorry, m’coming.”
He follows Minerva up to his office, leaving James behind. Once they’re in it, they sit down and McGonagall says, “Do you want tea, Black?”
“No, thank you.”
“I believe you know why I wanted you to be here,” McGonagall raises a single eyebrow.
Sirius sighs and decides to go straight to the point. “I’m so, so sorry, Minnie! I swear I didn’t mean to hit Avery on the face! I just— I kicked the ball way too hard and it landed on his face!”
“Mr. Black…” McGonagall clears her throat. “We’ll talk about that later, but that’s not the actual reason why I called you here.”
“It’s not?” Sirius perks up. He doesn’t remember doing anything ‘bad’ other than that, so surely it’s nothing serious.
“It is not,” McGonagall confirms. “You see, your grades, they… they’re rather bad at the moment.”
Ah, of course.
“Yeah…” Sirius agrees, not sure if he’s meant to.
“They’ve never been low, but lately you’ve seem unfocused. And Coach Hooch has informed me that you’ve been spending a lot of time in the hockey pitch. More time than a boarding schooler is meant to. Is hockey what’s been distracting you lately, Mr. Black?”
“Maybe... probably,” Sirius admits and instantly hates himself for it.
“Of course,” McGonagall says, seemingly pleased with either herself or his answer. Maybe both. “Well, that’s why we… we’ve decided that you must drop the Gryffindor team temporarily if you wish your grades to get higher.”
“WHAT?!” Sirius practically shouts. “Why?! No! You can’t do this! I— Professor— no!”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Black,” McGonagall says softly, “but this is the only way—”
“No!” Sirius begs. “No, there surely is another way of solving this. There must be another way of solving this…”
“I’m afraid there is none. Do you believe hockey is more important than your grades?”
“I mean, if I’m being honest—”
“Mr. Black.” McGonagall says sharply.
Sirius sighs, defeated. “No. My grades are way more important than hockey but—”
“Then we have a deal.”
“What—no! That’s not how a deal works! You can’t do this!”
“I surely can, Mr. Black.”
Sirius stays with his head buried against his hands for a long bit, breathing hard. “Alright,” he says, finally looking at his headmistress again. “How can I improve my grades?”
“Without hockey.”
“Yeah, I gathered that. But how else? I mean, what do you recommend for me to do—hire someone to teach me privately?”
“You can’t just bring someone to a boarding school, Mr. Black. You know that.”
“Yeah, I do,” Sirius sighs, once again. “Then what?”
“There’s a study group that meet up together in the library on Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s after school. Maybe you could join them.”
Sirius snorts. “I won’t be spending my free time with a bunch of swots in the library, I’d rather be—”
“Mr. Black,” She gives him a flat look, as if to remind him who he’s talking to. “Well, if you don’t want to be a part of them, then maybe you could ask someone from the study group to tutor you. Your younger brother is a member of it, you could ask him.”
“I won’t be asking Reggie to tutor me, that’d be way too embarrassing. But maybe another member could…” Sirius hums, deep in thought. If he got someone to tutor him and help him with his grades then maybe he would get back in the team and become smart all over again. “I will do that.” He stands up and heads towards the door. “I do that right now, actually. Yes, that’s perfect! Thank you, Minnie!”
He’s basically running through the corridors towards the library in an instant, until someone wraps their arm around Sirius.
“Hello, love,” Mary says, placing a kiss on Sirius’ cheek. They have been fake dating for almost a year now. It had all started when they were snogging at a party, both pissed, until Mary pulled away, crying. She told Sirius about how she fancied a girl who took art lessons with her. After telling Sirius how pretty the girl was, she suddenly looked mortified. Scared. So Sirius felt the need to tell her that he was gay but was too afraid to actually tell anyone. Mary was the first person who knew about him. This led into a conversation of how shitty being 'in the closet' was until Mary came up with an idea. She told him that they should start fake dating so that no one would suspect a thing about Sirius or Mary. It was brilliant, and Sirius immediately accepted.
“Hi,” Sirius smiles.
“Going somewhere? You look nervous.”
“I am,” Sirius admits. “Minnie kicked me out of the hockey team.”
“What?!”
“Relax, Macdonald, she said it’s temporary. I just need my notes to get higher.”
“I can help you with that!” Mary offers, kindly.
“No, you can’t. You’re too busy with all of your extracurricular activities that you hardly have time to study yourself.”
“But, what will you do then?”
“I’ll ask someone from the study group to tutor me,” He says, just as they stop walking, face to face to the library’s huge doors.
“Well, good luck with that, love,” She snorts. “Because I am not entering that place again! I’ve been studying in there for hours! So, goodbye, Black!”
“Bye!” He calls after her. “Oh—shit, wait! What day is it?”
“Monday!” Mary says as she disappears in the crowded corridor.
“Perfect,” He mutters under his breath before opening the doors.
There’s a large table inside with a lot of people. Sirius feels sweaty as his eyes lock with his brother's. He immediately rushes and grabs a book, pretending to be reading it. But it's no use with Regulus, because the grey eyed boy is already in front of him.
"Oh, hi there, Reggie. Didn't see you there," Sirius says, trying his best in looking nonchalant.
"You're sweating. Why are you sweating?" Regulus asks, flatly.
"Practice," Sirius lies.
"Sirius, practice was over an hour ago. There's no way you're still sweating," Regulus' lips twitch, almost fondly.
"Well, maybe it's because I was kicked out of the team and now I've got to find a stupid bloody swot to tutor me so that I can get back in!" Sirius snaps.
There's a lot of; 'shhh's directed to him so he tries lowering his voice.
"Oh," Regulus breathes out.
"I know," Sirius whispers. "So, will you help me?"
"With...?"
"Finding a proper tutor whose part of your Swot Club," Sirius smirks.
"You call our study group a 'swot club' again and I'll tell McGonagall to not only expel you from the team, but from the whole bloody school."
"Right. Sorry," Sirius' lips quirk up. "Will you help me anyway?"
Regulus sighs but says, "Okay. So, Evan is too chatty to actually end up teaching you anything at all, so not him; Barty is only here for Evan, so not him either; Dorcas is... well, she's Dorcas so definitely not, she'll bite your head off once you get an easy question wrong; Pandora will be studying you for most of it so not her; McKinnon doesn't seem like the kind who'd be willing to help anyone with their studies, so no; Evans will act nicely but she'll get sick of you by the time you blink; Pettigrew isn't even here to study, he just sleeps; I'm your own brother and you know me so... no."
Sirius groans. "Well, is there anybody who could actually help me? At all?"
"Well, maybe--"
"Who's the leader?"
"Excuse me?" Regulus blinks.
"Who's the leader--of the group? Surely there must be someone who, I dunno, started this whole thing or something."
"Oh," Regulus squints, thinking. "Well, that'd be Lupin."
"Lupin," Sirius repeats. "Can you introduce us?"
Regulus snorts. "And say what, exactly?"
"That I'd like to talk to him."
"So, after introducing you, you'll be his own problem?"
"Something like that," Sirius admits.
"Let's get on with it, then."
They reach the table and six out of seven heads turn to look at him.
"Hello, this is Sirius," Regulus says.
Sirius waves, slightly, almost shyly.
"Lupin," Regulus says and the only boy who wasn't looking at them, because he seemed far too interested in the book on his lap, tilts his head up to look at them. "This is Sirius. Sirius, meet Remus."
They lock eyes and Sirius' mouth goes dry. Remus has curly brown hair and slightly tanned skin. He has freckles splashed over his face, and a large scar on his nose. He has amber eyes, brown with golden strings painted on them. He looks tall. Very, very tall. He's pretty, undeniably.
Sirius is suddenly brought back to life after Regulus bumps his shoulder against his, indicating that he has to say something. Sirius clears his throat. "Hey, erm, Remus, I need to talk to you."
Remus blinks, clearly confused. "Uh... okay." He stands up and starts walking towards another desk, Sirius follows. Remus leans back against the table. "Yes?"
"Well, you see... my, erm..." Sirius' voice suddenly goes much, much lower and faster; "mygradesarelowandMcGonagallhaskickedmeoutooftheteamandyou'remyonlyhope."
Remus blinks violently. "Sorry... I didn't catch that."
Sirius lowers his voice even more, if that's even possible. "My grades are low and--"
"I'm sorry I really can't--"
"My grades are low!" Sirius snaps.
Almost everyone in the library turns to look at Sirius, who plays it off by waving at some of them.
"Alright..." Remus says, drawing Sirius' attention back to him, "What's that got to do with me?"
"Well, since my grades are you know... you could maybe... tutor me."
Remus snorts. "Since when do you care so much about your grades?"
"Since McGonagall kicked me out of the hockey team and my only way of getting back in is you."
"Me?"
"Yes!" Sirius breathes out. "You and that big brain of yours."
Remus raises his eyebrows. "And how do you know if my brain is big or not?"
"Is that really the point?"
"No. But I still don't understand how the solution of all this is me."
"Well, because, if you tutor me, my grades will get better and I'll get back in the team." Sirius grins.
"And what do I win?"
"What do you-- oh. I, erm, I haven't really thought about that..." Sirius smiles sheepishly.
"Well, do so because I won't just spend my free time with you jus' so that you can re-enter the team."
"Okay, okay..." Sirius hums, thinking, "Oh! I know! You'll get popularity."
Remus huffs with laughter. "Wow," he says, sarcastically. "That's all I ever wanted."
"Just... think about it. You'll tutor me so I'll invite you to parties and--"
"I already go to your parties."
"You do?" Sirius asks, feeling dopey.
"Yeah, I do."
"But, but..." Sirius continues, "you'll be seen with me. And that'll make you at least a bit more popular."
"I don't care about being popular or not."
"Well but maybe... what about your friends?"
Remus frowns in question. "What about them?"
"Do they care about popularity? Because, if you become popular, then they'll become so as well."
"No, of course they--" Remus stops, considering it. "...I'll think about it."
Sirius breaks out into s grin. "Brilliant! Splendid! Oh my-- I could kiss you right now!"
"Please don't." Remus says flatly, but his lips are curling up.
"Okay, I'll go now. But cheers, Remus!" Sirius storms off the library, feeling as if he could dance around the whole school.
"Black!" James calls out, wrapping an arm around Sirius. "Couldn't find you anywhere, how'd the meeting with McGonagall go?"
"I've got bad news and good news!" Sirius clears his throat, "Alright, so... the bad news is I'm out of the hockey team, but the--"
"YOU'RE WHAT?! No, you can't! Why?!"
"Just-- don't worry, Minnie said I'll be able to play next game and attend to tomorrow's practice and the one before my last game. Anyway, hear the good news, okay?" Sirius says as James nods, slowly. "The good news is... I got some boy from the study group to tutor me so that I can get my grades higher and re-enter the team! How's that sound?"
"That's amazing!" James lowers his voice so that only Sirius can hear, "Is he fit?"
Sirius' cheeks heat up. "What--no! I mean, yeah, but that's not why-- That's not the point at all! He just--"
James smirks. "So he is fit."
"Maybe. But I don't care. All that matters is that I get back into the team--which I will, with Remus' help."
"So 'Remus', eh?" James wiggles his eyebrows.
"Not like that, you idiot. I won't even be paying much attention to him anyway. I just need to get back in the team and then I'll most likely never talk to him again."
"Okay, Sirius," James chuckles. "Whatever you say, mate."