where fate brought us together

1st September - 1972 

The familiar sound of the carriage door sliding open sounded, and Remus looked to see Sirius with his well-known grace saunter in. He noticed his hair was a little shorter, just like James he was slightly taller, and his aristocratic angles were starting to come through the less defined boyish face he had worn previously. Another boy, similar to Sirius, followed behind him and Remus assumed that this was Sirius' younger brother as he had the same high cheekbones and walked with that same swift fluency but perhaps with slightly less confidence than his older brother.

"You’re Regulus!" James sprang up from his seat, messing up his own black hair, addressing the newcomer 

 “I-" the younger boy started 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” And James extended out a hand for Regulus to take and for the briefest of moments he looked completely overwhelmed, but his face had returned to his blank, maybe even slightly cold state, so quickly that Remus could’ve imagined it. 

Regulus shook James’ hand. 

“And who in Merlin's name are you!?” James then turned to Sirius who stepped forward to also take his hand

"Ah my good sir! I go by the name of Sirius, Sirius Black" 

"Are you?" 

"Am I what?" 

"Sirius?"

"Yes I'm serious"

"You're seriously Sirius?"

"I'm serious, I'm Sirius"

"Seriously? Well Sirius I'm James Potter" 

"I Sirius am seriously pleased to meet you in all seriousness" Sirius slapped a hand onto James' shoulder who then returned the gesture

"Oh Sirius, I'm serious-"

"For fuck's sake quit it " Remus raised his voice, wanting the madness to end.

"Seriously?" Sirius smirked

Remus just sighed and turned to Sirius' brother "I deeply apologise"

“I have seen worse” Regulus shrugged, mouth a straight line, he had the same well-versed posh accent that Sirius did, possibly even stronger since Sirius’ voice and language had started to change toward the end of first year having been subconsciously influenced by the others around him. 

 "Well I'm Remus" he nodded, introducing himself

“And I’m Peter”

“And again I’m James!” he beamed proudly looking at Regulus with shining eyes.

"It was... good to make your acquaintance, but I had better be off" Regulus looked at each of the boys with narrowed eyes and then exited the carriage "Goodbye Sirius" 

"Well done guys you drove him away" Remus snorted 

"Thanks to James" Sirius threw himself into the spot beside James 

"Thanks to Sirius more like, you were the one who went along with it"

"Yeah but you were the one who introduced yourself about a million times” Sirius rolled his eyes and Peter snorted, laughing a little. 

The train then started pulling out of the platform, and so the bustle of parents on the other side of the train window waved wildly, watching their children ride off.

The Marauders were officially on their way to Hogwarts for a second year.

 "And anyway I don't think it was one of us who drove him away. I think he's a bit mad at me to be honest" 

"You're not one of us?" Peter spoke up 

"You know what I meant" Sirius stuck one of his legs out placing it on the seat beside Remus and an odd wincing sound escaped from him. Himself and the two other boys looked at Sirius apprehensively 

"You alright mate?" James looked to be as if he was scanning Sirius over, checking if any harm had been done "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" the slim boy gave an unconvincing smile, and the matter was dropped as they went on to talk about Quidditch, flying, Quidditch trials and more flying. That was all they seemed to talk about so Remus zoned out and just looked out the window, mind empty of thoughts.

They arrived at Hogwarts, and instead of travelling by boat they arrived at the castle by horseless carriage and Remus wondered what sort of magic was behind it. Probably some sort of locomotion spell. 

They then filed into the familiar great hall, candles burning brightly above, the night sky’s glittering stars partially covered by dark clouds, the stretching house tables where everyone was taking their seats. 

Then the First years started being called up by Professor McGonagall  "Abbot, Freya!". A blonde girl stumbled up to the front. 

Remus looked at the rest of the first years, biting their nails, twisting their hands, fiddling with their sleeves. Regulus Black was among them, pale, more pale than before, and no emotion showing on his face although his left foot was slightly tapping on the flagstone floor.

It had only been a year ago when he had been in that same position, terrified of everyone watching him step up to the front; terrified of McGonagall. 

Though McGonagall wasn't all that scary once you got to know her.

Mostly he had been terrified of what was to come, the prospect of Hogwarts had been daunting to him, starting a new chapter of his life in an unknown place surrounded by unfamiliar people with the knowledge that he'd have to go through all of it alone - well that last point had slightly changed with the introduction of James, Sirius and Peter in his life but there was still some truth to it; even if he did have the marauders now, he couldn't rely too heavily on them 

 "RAVENCLAW!" unexpectedly that made him think of his dad who had been in Ravenclaw himself, walking these halls, sitting in the classrooms Remus had sat in, eaten from the same plates that were now set out in front of everyone. He inspected the plate in front of him, maybe one of those scratches were made by his father. Growing up, Lyall never really talked about Hogwarts even if Remus asked he’d just reply with a flimsy answer, never really answering the questions he had. 

He looked down at the plate again, his stomach growled and he found himself thinking that he couldn't wait for that plate to be filled, Remus was getting hungry and the sorting had barely started.

But then as “Black, Regulus” was announced Remus’ aching stomach was forgotten as he and the rest of the hall seemed to sit up straight and divert their attention to the black haired boy now walking to the front. 

Remus' instinct was to then look at Sirius, mouth slightly open, eyes following his younger brother as he walked up to to the front of the hall. He also noticed that James was holding his hand underneath the table because even though up until this point Sirius had pretended not to act worried about the sorting he could not hide his true feelings forever. 

All eyes were on Regulus Black as he sat himself down on the small wooden stool,

All eyes were on Regulus Black as Professor McGonagall lowered the famed sorting hat down onto his head, covering his eyes.

All eyes were on Regulus Black as the Great Hall wondered about which path Regulus Black would be taking. 

Would he be like his brother? Rebelling against his very lineage?

Or would he go with the rest? The honoured family legacy?

All eyes were on Regulus Black as the hat came to his decision, shouting for all to hear

And all eyes were on him as Regulus Black took the sorting hat off and walked over to the Slytherin table where Mulciber, a boy in Remus’ year, yelled

"THAT'S HOW A BLACK DOES IT!" and the Slytherin table erupted into cheers, greeting Regulus Black, the pale-faced nervous boy, with open arms. 

Only Remus however was watching Regulus Black when the next person was being sorted and the young boy was craning his neck around to look over at Gryffindor table where Sirius Black was sat staring straight ahead at the stone wall - James Potter telling him that it was all going to be ok. 

"Sirius ignore him" James leaned toward Sirius, murmuring. The other boy gave no sign that he had heard his advice.

Mouth in a straight line and face set, Sirius sat stiffly looking anywhere and everywhere but Regulus and the three other Marauders. Remus didn't have any siblings so he couldn't understand what it was like to have problems with one. His friend had often voiced his hopes of Regulus being in any other house than Slytherin (preferably Gryffindor) but other than that Remus didn’t know much about the boy as Sirius hadn’t really spoken about him. It was a topic that Remus felt like he would only discuss with James. 

The thing that Remus did know was that Sirius hated Slytherin more than anything in the world, surely he wouldn't hate his own brother just because he was sorted into a different house?

Family was always a difficult issue. 

 The sorting finished, and the feast finally started. Chatter surrounded them even if it didn't feel like it. 

The Marauders ate in silence as Sirius smouldered, picking at the food James had shoved in front of him. Peter shot anxious glances between Sirius, James and the Slytherin table. James just ate, occasionally picking up his wand attempting to spin it between his fingers. At one point he had accidentally flung it into his mashed potato, which made James, Peter and Remus  snigger and Sirius to give a weak but convincing smile. 

After that it went back to eating in silence. 

Remus kept looking between the two Black brothers who spent the dinner taking turns to glower at each other. Sometimes Sirius would be looking at Regulus, sometimes Regulus at Sirius, but never at the same time. And even though their looks were full of anger, Remus could tell they were also laced with a type of longing. Brothers, Remus concluded, were hard to figure out, because all relationships were complicated in one way or another. 

Dumbledore gave his last speech, he dismissed them, and Sirius sped off. 

The three of them had to push their way through the crowds of students, prefects and overwhelmed first years all trying to exit the Great Hall at once. 

Not that that was too difficult - Sirius had already paved the way.

 "Sirius slow down!" James bellowed, they all had to speed walk to keep up with the other boy who was carrying on with a sort of determined anger. At one point James had even broken out into a jog.

Remus really didn't want to run to keep up with Sirius so to try and stop him he called out "You don't know the password!" 

"Alice gave it to me" Sirius didn't even turn around to reply, all he did was speed up. 

Sirius had practically shouted at the portrait, which then swung open with the Fat Lady angrily muttering about how rude he had been.

Then they all broke out into a run to make the final stretch and climb through the portrait in time before it closed again because none of them knew the new password and they hadn’t heard what Sirius had shouted over the immense chatter coming from downstairs and their own out of breath panting.

Turns out chasing after a man was hard work.

Remus was just disappointed in James, he was expecting a higher level of fitness from a boy who said he had been for a run every morning for the last couple of weeks. 

The common room was deserted, but Remus hadn't had the time to properly take it all in. He wanted to - he had sorely missed the comfort of the common room chairs and the warm fire crackling away. But of course Sirius had other plans. As his friends, they had an obligation to follow the other boy in his agitated state. 

Sirius stormed up the stairs, flung the door wide open and stood in the middle of their dorm breathing heavily, eyes darting around looking for something to do, a way to get his emotions out. The three of them looked at the maddened boy, waiting for him to make his next move, then he stopped fidgeting and just sighed, turning to his sleek black trunk, clasped shut with firm silver fastenings detailed with an intricate Snake engraving. 

“Should’ve done this long ago really” he then drew his wand and firmly pointed at his trunk, where the silver snake clasps were promptly blown off.

“Sirius it’s ok” James hadn't even flinched, and had just kept looking at his best friend

“Er, are we just going to ignore the fact he just did wordless magic?!” Peter asked a little breathlessly and Remus wasn’t sure if that was due to how impressed he was or just out of breath from running up the stairs . 

He inwardly scoffed at the blond boy though, because this simply was not the time to be saying something like that.

Sirius seemed to think it was though

“I can do it again if you want” he shrugged and then without hesitation pointed his wand at the stretch of wall between James’ and Sirius’ beds and before anyone could intervene he went ahead and blew a hole in it - a very big hole in it. 

“Woah! Sirius!” James was looking at him in a sort of concerned awe, as bits of wall and swirling dust covered the floor where the wall had been blown apart.

Peter had gasped without meaning to as he stood there mouth agape, horrified at what Sirius had done and Remus honestly couldn't believe his eyes - what an idiot.

How the hell were they meant to fix this!? What would McGonagall say if she found out?

“What the fuck have you done!?” Remus asked wildly, looking at his friend in confusion and inwardly panicking about what had become of their wall. Luckily it was nowhere near his bed which meant it was very easy to say he had nothing to do with it, and save himself the consequences.

But honestly what was he thinking? Because he wasn’t guilty of anything, this was all Sirius’ fault, Regulus’ really, and if he went back to the root of the problem, Walburga and Orion Black’s fault. 

All of a sudden he had a very strong urge to go and strangle the people involved in Sirius' hurt. Who the fuck do Walburga and Orion think they are?

“He blew a hole in the wall!” Peter squeaked, still rooted to the spot.

Sirius then turned around to look at them all, he looked proud of himself, a little shocked but proud “I blew a well-calculated and planned hole in the wall” 

“Mhm” Remus raised an eyebrow, challenging him “I wouldn’t exactly call this gaping mistake of a hole well-calculated”

“Mistake or not we’ve got to get rid of it” James stated, inspecting the ragged edges of the hole, the way the paint surrounding it had cracked and had started peeling away to unveil the slightly rough surface beneath, and of course not to mention the actual hole itself leading into a small hollow space, no doubt where the mice lived if there was any. “Although it is a cool bit of magic it doesn’t make for a nice view”

“See Remus" Sirius waved a casual hand "James thinks it’s cool”

Remus just ignored this. 

And instead James spoke, approaching Sirius “You’re not getting out of it that easy though”

“Out of what?” the other boy asked innocently

“Sirius, are you alright? With Regulus and all?”

“Look, I’ll get over it, he’s made his decision and I’m ok with that” 

He didn’t look it.

And he hadn’t said it with much confidence either.

James nodded slowly, looking the opposite of convinced, and then he gave a final resolute nod as if to say that the subject would be dropped for now because they had a castle wall to deal with.

Remus had gotten straight to thinking about the issue as he had taken James’ place by the hole and was now staring at the damage trying to rack his brains and come up with a spell to fix it, seriously considering whether or not he should get involved and try to make it better, or to just leave the others to figure it out themselves.

He could feel the other three watching him though, which made Remus think of how he needed to change his body language when he thought, because at the moment it was too obvious.

"Do you have a plan?" he sensed Peter nervously step a little closer.

"Dunno, I guess I could do a bit of research into repairing spells" 

"Want to go to the library now?" Sirius questioned

"Yes, if it’s open" 

If Pince lets me in.

Remus started toward the door, but then stopped; contemplating, a new idea forming.

It was something he was sure the other marauders would take a liking to.

"Are we not going?" Sirius asked

"No, I've got a better idea” 

"Sirius" James whispered. No answer. 

"Sirius" he whispered but this time a little louder. No answer. "Mate" he was definitely awake! He waited a couple more seconds before throwing open Sirius' curtains.

Eye contact was made.

Sirius closed his eyes.

"I know you're awake, I'm not that stupid" Still Sirius pretended to sleep. "Right then I'll just go and get a bucket of water for your shower" 

"I'm up, I'm up" Sirius sprang up to a seated position, looking disgruntled.

"Good, now budge" James then climbed into his bed, pushing Sirius to the side, who made a weird noise, almost as if he was in pain - hm.

"Excuse me, personal space"

 "A silly prospect. Now what's up?" James shuffled closer to Sirius, cast a silencing charm and lit his wand so that the two of them could see each other

 "Nothing's up. Go away"

 "You don't want that." James leaned closer, staring right into Sirius' eyes. This was a tactic he used to bring people out of silence, get them talking. Master Interrogator was his middle name.

 The other boy looked down, black hair falling forward to slightly shield his face "I hate that you're right" Sirius hesitated but sounded as if he was about to laugh. 

“Why do you keep wincing?”

Sirius gulped, and his eyes widened meaning he obviously wasn’t expecting that question.

It’s ok Sirius James thought we’ll get on to the other question in a minute - the one you were expecting.

“What do you mean?”

“You are an awful liar”

“I think that’s only when I’m with you”

“So you admit you’re physically hurt!”

“No? You must be imagining it Potter, I promise I’m fine” Sirius glared at him intensely trying to persuade James that he was telling the truth - it was safe to say it wasn’t working and he didn’t exactly appreciate the effort.

He decided to leave it though - for now at least - because he felt like if he pushed that particular topic too far tonight then his friend would feel a lot less capable of talking about today’s more recent issue and its consequence of the cavern sized hole on the stretch of wall literally right next to them, a curtain pull away from being seen. 

Sirius was now looking down, tracing the creases on the duvet cover with his finger and James followed with his eyes, finding it kind of mesmerising that there were still patterns to be found in something so plain. He wondered if Hogwarts would ever consider investing in a different style of bed sheets, because as much as he loved red, it would be nice to have some variety - maybe he’d ask his parents to send him some from home. 

"So tell me” James swiftly moved on, there was no time for dilly-dallying, no time for creases, “What's up with your brother?" 

"How do you know something is up with him?" the other boy snapped his head up, acting like he didn’t already know, a questioning look in his eyes

"I think the wall speaks for itself" 

"Right. That"

"So why is he mad at you?"

"Lupin is covering the hole you know"

"Yes, the chalkboard, I was there when he said it"

"He's clever"

"And I'm also clever and I say we get back to the question, why is Regulus mad at you?"

"When did I say he's mad at me?" 

"On the train"

 "Oh, yeah. So over the Summer...well you know how I was at yours for most of the time? He’s just been acting in ways that make me think he might be mad at me for leaving” he sighed, looking down at his lap once again “Maybe I shouldn't have done that. But to be honest... never mind. I'm done now" he started turning around to face the other way but James grabbed him by the shoulder 

 "No you're not. Carry on" the other boy just looked at him with vulnerable eyes and James suddenly felt it an emergency for him to be Sirius’ rock, someone who he could stand on and lean on for unfailing support. 

And so then, James exhaled and held steady-eye contact with the boy in front of him “Look, I know I’m pushing but that’s only because you’re my best friend” he said, firmly, still not looking away but allowing Sirius to break the eye-contact off every few seconds as he flitted his eyes between James and the curtains behind him “you don’t know have to talk about it if you really don’t want to, but let me tell you, it’s better to get it out in the open and as your friend I’m here to let you to do that and I know that if you really didn’t want to, you would’ve shoved me out of the bed, probably wouldn’t have even let me in”

“Dammit Potter” he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose

James grinned in triumph as he adjusted his glasses

The other boy then wavered "Er well I just think they filled his head with a bunch of crap, it doesn’t make it any better that they don’t want me ‘influencing’ him, it just makes me wonder what sorts of things he’s been actually listening to because they are manipulatively good at persuading people" James didn't need to ask who 'they' were "The point is I wasn't there to stop it, and now he's in sodding Slytherin" 

"Look, there's nothing you can do about it now, Regulus is in Slytherin and that's that. I know that's what your family wanted from him, but it doesn't necessarily mean he'll turn into them. Ninety seven percent of Slytherins are evil, I'm sure you're brother is apart of the three percent that isn't, think of Andromeda!"

"Yeah..." he looked unconvinced "Still James I don’t know what to do"

"Communicate with him Sirius, and you know mate you grew up with Regulus and if the impression that you’ve made on him as your brother doesn’t stick with him throughout his life, then I’m afraid I don’t know you at all because you are one of the most influential people I’ve met." James smiled in an attempt to cheer him up, because it was true.

"Yeah” Sirius smiled a little, grateful for James Potter “Hopefully... you know if I had been there during the summer I could've prevented this" 

"I don't think you could've Sirius" 

"I could've" he whined 

"Stop blaming yourself! It's not your fault Regulus got sorted into Slytherin. None of it's your fault ok?"

Sirius gave a feeble nod in reply, but that wasn't good enough for James.

He leaned so close to Sirius their noses were almost touching, this forced the other boy to look straight into his eyes and this time James did not allow for him to break away - no looking at the curtain now. 

"Ok?" No reply. Sirius tried to move away from James, but of course he did not stand for that so he stuck to Sirius like glue, moving with him "Sirius, ok?" 

The boy opposite then ducked away, laughing and giving in "Yes yes, ok" 

That made James happier, the problems hadn't gone away and there was still a very important matter to address; James knew that. But at least Sirius felt better about his brother. He hoped he did anyway. If not, James was a terrible friend, and he couldn't have that.