Flying Gone Wrong
"Today is the day gents!" James yelled cheerfully whilst going up to each boys four poster and pulling the curtains open, completely invading their privacy. It didn't bother Sirius that James would just open his curtains like that, he simply just groaned loudly whilst turning to his front and slamming his face into his pillow. "Now where is your enthusiasm Sirius?! Don't you know what today is?!"
"Yes James. He knows what today is," Peter yawned "You've been going on about this day since we first got our timetables."
"QUIDDITCH!" he cheered "well technically just flying and no quidditch BUT I ca-"
"Oh fucking hell!" Remus said grimly whilst covering his ears "How the hell do you have so much energy at this hour in the morning. Please, I beg you stop shouting. I have a pounding headache." The three of them shared a longing silence. They still weren't used to Remus' harsh language and his hauntingly un-soothed words. Sirius caught himself grinning though, as he often did with Remus' unexpected words. Remus was usually quiter, kept to himself more and was rather shy but occasionally he would just burst and seem like a completely different person. It was odd.
As Sirius sat up and turned to look at Remus he noticed how the boy still looked severely unwell, the others must have noticed it aswell.
"Remus, you don't look too good. What is it you went to the hospital wing for again?" Peter said whilst giving James an odd glance. Remus gave a rather offended look whilst climbing out of bed, grabbing his clothes and making his way to the bathroom.
"I was in the hospital nearly 2 days ago. I'm fine now, honest."
They didn't question him further.
Dear Mother and Father,
I apologise for not writing to you sooner, I thought you may not have wanted to hear from me after that howler you sent.
I write to you to apologise for what I have done. I honestly did not wish to be sorted into Gryffindor, I had assumed I would be placed in Slytherin as you have always told me I would be. I begged the sorting hat to put me there but it just would not listen.
Please do not stay mad at me. I'm aware of the disruption it has caused amongst our family and that I have broken years of tradition but you must believe me when I say it was not in my intention nor did I want it to happen. I am sorry.
Regulus told me you read my letter to him... I was lying I swear. I'm not friends with any unpure or blood traitors, I just simply told Regulus that I had friends so as he wouldn't worry about me. I share a room with those boys, yet we do not speak unless necessary. I actually am trying to make friends with another pureblood in Gryffindor, who I don't believe is considered a blood traitor as you are friends with her parents, her name is Bonnie Hallett.
I must go now but please respond and don't stay mad at me.
I'll make it up to you, I promise.
Please don't hate me.
Yours sincerely, Sirius.
Lies. Lies. Lies. Sirius knew most of that was lies and part of him was convinced his parents would believe him and would forgive him yet all it would take was for one of his cousins to tell them he was hanging around with the three boys and his parents would come crashing down on him.
It was a particularly cold day in which nobody really wanted to be outside, hovering their hand over a broom- except for James of course. All of the first years did flying together, though their year group was rather small so it wasn't much different. Most of their fingers ached in the crisp air as they clenched and unclenched their fingers to keep them alive.
"UP!" James said firmly and his broom immediately flew to his hand and he grinned egotistically. Peter's flew up first try too along with a few other first years, and Sirius, who had all flown a broom before. Though those who were new to it mostly struggled.
"You can't say it like that," Sirius heard Bonnie tell Remus. "You have to say it like you mean it." Remus looked to her and smiled mockingly. "Don't you want to fly?"
"Not particularly, no."
"Are you afraid of heights?"
"No. I would just rather not sit on something that you're meant to use to clean the floor with and race about the sky like an idiot."
"It's actually quite fun, you'll see," she explained "Now say it like you mean it, like you actually want it to come off the ground and then it will." Remus didn't say anything for a second, looking as if he was contemplating listening to her before nodding and looking down at his broom.
"UP!" and with that, the broom shot up into his hand "Thank you," he whispered as Madam Hooch began again.
"Hey Peter," Sirius whispered, trying not to look over at the Slytherins "I vote me and you have a race when we're allowed off the floor,"
"I'm in," James said
"Your name isn't Peter," Sirius said "But yeah you can join. Peter you down?"
"Yeah sure, i'm not that good though."
"It doesn't matter, only a bit of fun. I'll make a deal, you beat me and i'll do that potions homework you've been struggling with," Peter's face lit up and nodded in affirmation.
A few minutes passed and everyone was hovering above the ground, sitting uncomfortably on their brooms. Remus was visibly dubious about flying, alone with many others but Sirius had always been a lover for it. He loved the feeling of being unreachable and unstoppable. He felt as if he could go anywhere and see anything, the feeling was astonishing.
Just as Sirius had guessed, they had been told to do laps around the quidditch field.
"STAY CLOSE TO THE GROUND, DON'T GO TOO HIGH OR TOO FAST!" Madam Hooch yelled as people began to lean forwards, some leaning too much and shooting across the field. Madam Hooch looked as if she was going to have 36 different breakdowns within the hour but Sirius himself was loving life.
After showing off and weaving in and out of people James flew to Remus' side to give him some tips as he looked as if he was ready to fly straight up into the sky and jump off his broom.
"James! Get ready for the race!" Peter yelled as him and Sirius stopped, allowing the others to pass and waiting a while.
"Go ahead," Remus said "I'm not racing." James gave him a pat on the shoulder before flying to align up with Sirius and Peter. Just as James began the count down, a harsh impact collided with Sirius as a boy in green robes rammed into him as the boy's friends went into a fit of laughter.
"Oops, didn't see you there," he grinned whilst flying forwards.
"Watch where you're going!" James snapped at the boy.
"Can you not speak for yourself?" another Slytherin boy asked Sirius. Anger coursed through him.
"Yes, I can speak for myself thank you very much. Now move out the way!"
"You know? You're hanging out with the wrong sort," he said whilst glancing at Peter and James "You're not much of a Black are you? No wonder Bellatrix wants nothing to do with you." It was as if invisible hands reached into Sirius' chest and clenched his heart. He knew Bellatrix was mad, but did she really hate him that much? They were family.
"You don't have a clue what you're talking about. I don't even know who you are. Now I know you must be jealous because I am far more notorious than you and I don't have to be obnoxiously loud nor considerably rude to get some attention and for people to know remember my name but if you were a fan my family and I you could've just come and asked me for-"
"Jealous?" he snickered "Who in their right mind would be jealous of a Gryffindor? Especially you. I mean you're not even a proper Black are you? The Black's are-" Sirius moved his broom forwards until he was directly in front of the boy with dark hair.
"I think I know more about my family than you do," he said through gritted teeth "Now you better watch your mouth because if a single disrespectful comment on my family comes out of your dirty mouth then it shall not be just I who you have a problem with, but my dear cousins too because I know for a fact that Bellatrix always makes those who disrespect our name experience a rather unpleasant hex at the least," the boy seemed to loose his confidence and swallow harshly before backing away with no comment and a sullen look. It irked Sirius that people thought they had a right to talk about his family as if he wasn't one of them.
"That's right, back off," Peter added as the boys flew away, gossiping loudly.
"Thanks Peter," Sirius nodded whilst smiling across to him.
"You alri-" James went to ask but Sirius just ignored him and quickly yelled 'go' and shot forwards, flying so fast he was unsure if he even had control of his own broom. He was soaring through the air, straight past the other students who were responsibly taking it slow. Peter and James were coming up behind him until James pushed forward, overtaking Sirius.
"Come on!" James laughed "Thought you were the best at everything," the exasperation that had corrupted him from the argument with the Slytherin faded away as he chased behind James until they were neck and neck.
They were flying so fast the the strong, blustering gusts of wind almost restricted his breathing completely.
"BOYS!" Hooch yelled, using her wand to louden her words "NO RACING!"
"SORRY MISS!" Peter yelled "ONE MORE LAP!" Sirius laughed as he looked below and saw Hooch roll her eyes and shake her head.
"HI MATE!" James yelled whilst flying past Remus but Sirius noticed how he was looking down to the ground, fists clenched and not moving.
"I'm going to fucking punch him!" Sirius swore he heard Remus say whilst darting down to the ground and jumping off his broom. Sirius didn't like the sound of that.
"WAIT!" he called to James but he was already closing the finish line and Peter flew past him as he leant downwards and headed to the ground, slowing his broom right down so he didn't hit the floor face first.
"HE QUIT?!" Peter yelled forwards but carried on his race. Sirius just reached the floor when Remus stormed forwards, his jaw visibly clenching as he held his broom high before throwing it to the ground in full power.
Sirius jumped off his broom, racing towards the boy as he noticed Snape take several steps closer to Remus, a mocking grin on his face.
Sirius could feel the tension form around the two boys like a bubble.
They were face to face, Remus getting closer and closer.
"WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM WITH ME?!" Remus' face contorted with rage, his usual over-pale skin was turning red as he yelled loudly. It was surprising that Hooch didn't hear as many of the student flew down from their brooms to see the commotion. "ARE YOU SO MENTALLY IMPAIRED THAT YOU THOUGH THAT WAS GOING TO BE FUNNY?!"
"Oh, it would've been hilarious for me," Snape smirked slyly "It's just a shame you dodged it."
"What's going on?!" Sirius asked as he rushed forwards and stood besides Remus. "What-"
"HE TRIED TO JI-" he began to yell but when he realised he was facing Sirius he attempted to lower his voice "he went to jinx my broom, I dodged it but that's besides the point. I could hear him talking shit about me to his mates and then went to hi-"
"I was simply using the jinx to knock some sense into you. You see, perhaps if you had fallen off the broom and whacked your head on the floor you would loose some of your anger issues- although, not sure you have many brain cells left to loose." Laughter erupted around them but Sirius could see that Remus did not find it funny and neither did he.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Sirius yelled. When someone tried to start on him he could manage his anger, control himself but when someone started on his friends or family then he was like a ticking time bomb. "YOU THINK YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO SPEAK TO HIM LIKE THA-"
Before Sirius had a chance to finish his sentence, Remus raised his hands up and shoved Snape back, making him stumble and trip on a broom that was left stranded. Snape ended up on his back and his expression changed from smug to infuriated as he grabbed his wand out of his pocket and held it up at Remus.
Sirius' heart fell drastically, he knew Remus was new to magic. He wouldn't be able to fight or defend himself with a wand like he could his fists.
"Locomotor Wibb-" Snape went to say yet Sirius quickly stepped in front of Remus, blocking the jinx and pointing his wand down to Snape.
"Try it, I dare you!"
"I can defend myself!" Remus snapped
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" Madam Hooch yelled, pushing past the crowd that had formed and staring down at the scene. "MR SNAPE, MR BLACK AND MR LUPIN WILL ALL JOIN ME IN DETENTION STRAIGHT AFTER THIS LESSON!" Sirius' breath hitched.
No. No. No. No. I can't have a detention. Mother will hate me.
"But Miss!" he argued "Remus and I did nothing wrong!"
"Silence!" she yelled and the other students quickly stepped back "Your wand is pointing at another student and I saw exactly what happened so don't even try get out of this. Everyone put their brooms back in the broom cupboard and then you can head back to the castle. I hope you had a great first lesson, now go rest for your lessons tomorrow."
Snape stood up, brushing off his robes and his friends came to pat him on the back.
“Nice one, Sev."
"We'll see you after your detention."
"See, told you it would be funny."
"Sev, I can't believe you! What happened?" Lily gasped whilst rushing over to him as she missed the commotion.
"He attacked me!" Snape explained whilst glaring at Remus "It was uncalled-"
"You're pathetic," Remus laughed whilst shaking his head and following Madam Hooch.
"Come on you three! I'll be showing you to your detention now!" Sirius took a minute before acquiescing and following behind her. It wasn't that he regretted what he had done, all he had really done was shout and defend somebody but fear rooted itself deep in his gut, scared that his Mother would find out he had gotten himself a detention. Especially considering he had received a detention for defending a halfblood.
Madam Hooch had led them to the large broom cupboard, where they were met with hundreds of unorganised brooms.
"Right, you three are to stay here until I come to collect you. Here is polish and dusters, you are to polish each broom carefully and meticulously and then put them all in their rightful place with no messing about and no arguing are we understood?"
"Yes ma'am," Sirius nodded, daring not to cause any more mischief. The others both agreed without complaint, although Snape attempted to claim he did nothing wrong yet Madam Hooch was not believing a second of it.
"Mr Lupin, can I trust you to go to the boys changing rooms and collect the brooms that were left in there last lesson and then come straight back here to start with the task?"
"Yes Madam Hooch," he nodded before heading out the door with the teacher following closely behind. She shut the door to the large, spacious cupboard-which was more like a shed yet Sirius chose not to question it- and left the two boys alone. Sirius looked over at Snape.
"Don't know what you're looking at," he scoffed "I don't want to be here with you either!"
Sirius was really starting to hate him. He was so rude for no reason.
"Didn't know it was a crime to look at you. Merlin, who's got your broom in a twist?" he scoffed whilst sitting down on the bench in the left of the room, beginning to polish them without complaint.
They both sat in an awkward, dragging silence. Sirius was just hoping Remus would get back soon because at least then he would have someone to speak too, though he could imagine the tension between Remus and Severus.
"Why?" Sirius asked, without even thinking. "Why did you try jinx his broom? He didn't do anything to you." He looked over to Snape and watched his shoulders shrug. "People won't like you if you're horrible. It's not funny you know, you just get in trouble."
"He shouted at me in class the other day so it's-"
"Because you called him crazy."
"He is."
"NO HE'S-" Sirius inhaled deeply before shaking his head "Whatever."
The cupboard door swung open, allowing a quick draft to fill the room. Remus looked panicked and was breathing heavily as if he had just ran a mile. Sirius looked him up and down in question.
"Where are the brooms you were supposed to get?" Severus asked.
"Sirius... I need your help," he said quickly, ignoring the other boy. "Come on,"
"You can't even carry brooms on your own?! Bloody hell. I'll get the-"
"No!" Remus interrupted quickly "Sirius come on. Quickly. You can just stay here," he said whilst looking at Severus "We won't be long."
"Whatever, rather not be with you two anyways."
Sirius stood up, oddly perplexed by the situation. Remus seemed too panicked and rushed for it to really be about just getting brooms yet he followed him out of the cupboard and down the hall towards the changing room.
"What have you done?"
"Okay... right. I picked up a gold ball thing because it looked cool and it just grew wings. Like it actually just grew wings! It sounds ridiculous I know but it scared me so I let go and it just... flew off! Now there's a flying golden ball going round and round the changing rooms and I don't know what-" Sirius stopped, and Remus turned to him in concern before Sirius burst out in hysterics, laughing loudly. "I'm serious! It actually grew wings i'll show you, i'm not lying!"
"Actually..." Sirius said "I'm Sirius."
Silence.
They stood silently, staring at each other as a smirk pulled at Remus' lips as he understood the joke. Then they both broke out in laughter, shaking their heads.
"You pain me. You genuinely pain me," Remus said before opening the changing room doors and walking in. "Now look!"
"It's a golden snitch you idiot! You've let a snitch go loose." Remus still wasn't getting it "It's a quidditch thing. They're really fast and hard to catch."
"Really?!" Remus gasped over exaggeratingly "I never realised that!" Sirius just rolled his eyes at the sarcasm and decided to try and help him catch it.
They were chasing the snitch like a pair of blind morons. Jumping on benches and stumbling on brooms. They both were having an awfully fun time despite it.
"I've got it i've got it!" Sirius yelled, clasping his hands together and bringing down his hands. Remus jumped from the bench and walked over to him to see it for himself when Sirius opened his hands and revealed his middle finger to Remus before bursting out in his own giggles. He never usually done anything like that, perhaps Remus' bad behaviour was rubbing off on him already, though a girl called Marlene had stuck her finger up at him loads in their first few days.
Remus laughed too, rolling his eyes at him. "You got me... that was good."
They hadn't realised just how long they had been in the changing rooms, chasing the snitch until the door flew open and Madam Hooch walked in, holding her hands on her hips. The two boys froze, staring up at her.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Sirius went to explain when the snitch went right in front of Remus' face. His hand reached up so quickly that Sirius had barely seen him move, and yet the snitch was gone and laying in Remus' hand.
"Oh so now you can catch it?!" he asked.
"You got some quick reflexes, Mr Lupin. You would make a good seeker but this is not what you should be doing is it?"
"It's my fault," Remus admitted "I let the snitch go and couldn't catch it so got Sirius in to help. I'm sorry." Hooch nodded.
"Thanks for being honest. You two are welcome to leave now. I still have Mr Snape cleaning brooms but someone came and explained to me what had actually happened outside and you guys have done enough to apologise for it. I apologise that I did not look into it enough and was not aware that Mr Snape attempted to jinx you, I will be reporting it to his head of year but in future stay out of trouble and keep calm about things and don't go letting snitches out of their cases."
The two agreed and thanked her before making a quick escape and heading to James and Peter before she changed her mind. Sirius was beyond shocked that they got away with that and didn't even have to do their broom cleaning.
They explained the incident to the others and all laughed about how Snape was still down cleaning brooms.
"Glad you're out of detention but technically I beat you in the race, Sirius, which means," Peter said whilst placing his potions homework and a quill in front of Sirius "That my homework is now yours."
"You cheeky sod," Sirius grinned "but a deals a deal."
It was that time of day again. Sirius hated this time of day. Where lessons were over and night was hovering over them and things began to settle down, it meant less things could distract Sirius which meant his mind was over powering him, once again. Today was a brilliant day at the time, he had fun he couldn't deny it but it was also a dreadful day that made him think a lot on his family.
It was so so hard for him to have to try and choose between not disappointing his family or having friends. That wasn't something anyone should have to choose between, definitely not an innocent 11 year old boy.
Sirius wished things would get easier, he wished for answers and directions on what to do but they never came to him. He was born to a house of great depravity, things would never be easy for him.
There was no way he couldn't be friends with these boys though, how could he go seven years not talking or being friends with the boys he shared a dorm with? Would his parents really prefer him to be sad and alone than have good friends that made him happy?
They'll learn to understand.
They will accept me.
They're my family, they care about me.
I hope...