England
Sirius could not be more nervous.
He’s standing in Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris waiting for his flight to Newcastle Airport, London. He’s standing on his own, backpack securely attached to his side. Part of him wishes that someone from his family was with him. If his mother could be normal and actually send her son off on his next big adventure like all the other mothers, or his father next to him to give him a pat on the back. At least have his brother next to him. They haven’t spoken in almost 3 weeks and Sirius wishes he could take back what he said, but Regulus won’t listen to him and now he’s leaving for London for 4 years.
4 years on his own. Well, not entirely.
He’s already been in contact with his roommate – James Potter. He seems friendly enough, constantly asking questions about Paris, if he’s excited to move to another country, nervous. Asking if his parents will miss him, if his brother will. Sirius has been lying the whole. His roommate does not need to know that his parents slapped him the first time he told them he didn’t want to go into the family business, or when his mum locked him in his room for three days when he announced that he wanted to move to London to complete his degree in art.
Before he can think of anything else, the speakers are calling for his boarding to start and Sirius is the first one on – he’s not taking any chances to back out of it now.
Walking through East Midlands Airport security Sirius feels lost. It’s just dawning on him that he doesn’t actually know where he’s going or how he’s getting to Loughborough University. He really should have thought about this before.
“Sirius!” he hears someone shout. Now, his name isn’t common in France and he’s almost 100% it’s not common in England, but who would just know his name in a country he’s only set foot in twice, now and when he was 4. “Sirius, hi I’m James. James Potter.” A man, James, walks in front of him.
He’s wearing a red jumper, blue jeans, red converse, and a pair of round glasses. His hair is darker than Sirius had seen in his pictures but it’s definitely the James Potter he’s been messaging for the past 6 weeks. He seems nice, well, nice enough to live with – hopefully.
“Hi.” Sirius manages to choke out after a few to many moments.
“I’m so glad I got the right plane. Do you know how many are coming in from Paris today?” James questions, Sirius can only nod. “Come on then, my car is this way.” James takes a hold of one of Sirius’ bags and moves into the direction of the exit.
Sirius has to take a few deep breaths before he finds the courage to follow. A year ago, Sirius would have snatched the bag right away from James and stubbornly tried to find his way to the university, most likely ending up missing the first week of class, yet this Sirius is determined to make friends, actually try to form bonds.
James moves over to a dark grey Volkswagen Polo and Sirius can see a redhead in the front passenger seat of the car.
“That’s my girlfriend Lily. She’s really lovely, really smart to. We’ve been together since before our A-levels, did you do a-levels?” James questions as he puts Sirius’ bag into the boot of the car.
“Something like, it’s called baccalauréat.” Sirius answers.
“Sounds interesting,” James tells him as the two climb into the car, “So, Sirius what do your parents do?” James questions.
“They’re really big doctors in France, own 6 hospitals, it’s been passed down from my like 3 great grandparents or something ridiculous like that.” Sirius explains not sure really what else to say. He’s never really had to explain to someone what his parents do, most people he went to school with just knew who his parents were, it’s how most people in his class knew him.
“Wow. That’s pretty cool. My parents own some pharmaceutical companies, maybe our families know each other.” James says and Sirius nods not sure what else to say. Most of the car journey from there goes pretty much in silence. Sometimes Lily and James will say something to each other, sometimes Lily will change whatever music is on the radio but other than that the journey is silent. Sirius wants to jump out of the car and just walk the rest of the way, but he knows that won’t be very good for his hopefully new friends. “Sirius, we just need to stop off on the way back, but we hopefully shouldn’t be very long.” James tells him when they’re just approaching the university. Sirius gives a small nod, he can do another few minutes in the car, in the awkward, silent car ride.
Sirius watches as they pull into a hospital carpark and could not be more confused, he gathered from James’ voice that they wouldn’t be very long, but he’s been to enough hospitals in his life time to know that they are never short trips.
“Just circle around, I’ll only 5 minutes.” Lily tells James and gets out the car. Now Sirius could not be more confused. James does exactly what Lily asks him to do and circles around the carpark and when they make it back to the entrance Lily is joined with another. He’s tall and lanky, he’s got on something that Sirius would class a grandpa jumper and what looks to be corduroy trousers. Sirius can also notice a cane that the other is leaning that leaves Sirius with several questions that he desperately wants answered and not just because he wants to be nosy but because he wants to know more about this man.
“Hey Remus, how was it?” James questions as Remus crawls into the passenger seat of the car and Lily climbs into the back seat next to Sirius.
“Well, they gave me some more steroid injections and some more anti-inflammatory medication and stronger pain medication. I also need to eat something that is not fucking hospital food. Even Majorie won’t even eat the fucking food, how are we expected to? Tried to bribe her to get me some actual bloody food but that didn’t happen, something about corruption and how she has a good record and won’t put that on the line for chocolate.” This new person explains casually. Sirius can also hear an accent Remus’ mouth that he can’t quite place.
“I’m making fajitas for dinner?” Lily says and Sirius sees Remus smile when it’s offered, “We also have ice cream back at the flat.” Lily adds and Sirius sees a bigger smile form on the other’s face.
“Oh, Remus, this is Sirius, he’s from France.” James says pointing back towards Sirius. Remus turns to face Sirius and gives him a happy wave to which he gladly responds to.
“Remus. Sorry, probably not the best impression.” Remus says rather sheepishly. “The problem with Lupus, this is like the 6th time I’ve been in hospital since May. You the new roommate?” Remus questions and Sirius gives a small nod, unsure what else he can say. “Nice, you’ll be in the room next to mine.” Remus says and turns back to face the front.
It’s only another ten minutes until James pulls into a block of flats opposite the university. It’s much bigger than what Sirius imagined it would be and he suddenly feels sick to his stomach. He’s seen the pictures all over the internet, he’s been staring at the google maps for months and for all those months it didn’t seem real. Sirius doesn’t even realise that James has stopped the car until he knocks on the window.
“You looked in the middle of a daze. Come on, I’ll show you to the flat.” James smiles as he opens the door for Sirius. Sirius nods and quickly grabs all his things, James grabs one of his bags for some assistance, to which Sirius can only return with a thankful nod.
Lily and Remus disappear somewhere else whilst James takes Sirius up to their flat. Sirius feels like he’s walking forever, he’s followed James up several sets of stairs and several different corridors and he’s pretty sure they’ve walked down some stairs to just walk back some other stairs but that may just be because he feels like he’s in a trance walking through the building. Eventually, James comes to what Sirius feels is a very abrupt stop.
“Sorry, this is us.” James says and opens the door. The flat looks rather usual. There’s a small lounge just as Sirius walks in and just next to that there’s a small kitchen that looks like a right mess, and Sirius can tell James looks a bit sheepish from it. “Sorry about the mess. I was making papdi chaat.” James says and Sirius looks at him confused. “It’s an Indian dish, it’s a savoury snack, my mum used to make it for me when I was little. I usually make it when I’m feeling homesick.” James explains and Sirius nods. If he had any happy memories as a child he would probably do the same thing. “Ok. So, that room there is officially my room but Lily and I pretty much live there. That’s the bathroom, there’s three cabinets, one is empty you can take. That room is Remus’, he’s the only one with the attached bathroom but don’t hold that against him. That there would be your room and next door is my friend Pete’s.” James explains and heads towards the spare room that is now Sirius’. “Ok, so, go get set up. Lily is making dinner, it’s fajitas.” James finally says, leaving Sirius alone in the room.
Sirius nods to himself for a few moments, unsure what to do. After a few moments he manages to gather himself and he begins to sort out his clothes. He systematically goes through all his clothes and carefully tucks them to drawers and after almost 10 minutes of panicking where he’s left his toothbrush, he sorts out his cupboard in the bathroom.
“Sirius, are you done?” Lily asks that causes him to jump out his skin. “Sorry, I just need the bathroom and you’ve been standing there for almost 10 minutes.” She justifies and Sirius nods giving her an apologetic look. “Are you ok? You’ve barely said a word since we picked you up?” She then asks.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just- it’s all new.” Sirius answers honestly. Lily then pulls him into a hug. It’s sudden and he freezes. He’s never had someone hug him like this, it feels warmer than what his mother would give him, and that would only ever be for press reasons.
“Well, you’ll get used to it. Don’t worry. I’ll start dinner soon.” She gives him a friendly smile and disappears into the bathroom and Sirius is alone once again. Whilst he waits for dinner, he goes back to his room. He’s tucked his bags into the closet so it doesn’t really look like someone has been in the room. He supposes he could find some bedding to actually make the room look like his. He could maybe hang up some of his drawings, but he should probably check with James to make sure he can put them up.
“Sirius?” He then hears someone ask. He turns to see Remus behind him. He really needs to know why everyone in this flat can just sneak up on him so easily.
“Hi.” Sirius replies.
“Hey. Are you ok? You seem jumpy.” Remus questions. “Sorry, I just- you seem nervous, like a weird nervous. Have you got your stuff from the car?” Remus then asks looking into the room.
“Yeah. All in drawers and my bags are in the closet.” Sirius says.
“You don’t have anything to put up? Pictures? Posters? Anything?” Remus then questions looking around at the bear walls.
“I do, I just am unsure if I can.” Sirius answers. Remus just takes a moment to look at him for a moment. Remus then grabs Sirius’ arm and pulls him through the flat to his own room. Remus opens the door and Sirius cannot find any similarities between his own room and Remus’. There’s books pilling all over the place, some look old whilst some look barely fresh off the shelf. There’s also posters hanging up all over the place, mostly from a band called Green Day that Sirius hasn’t heard of. There’s a double bed pushed up against the furthest wall with a bedside table with all mix matching nicknacks and a lamp that’s got some soft yellow lighting that makes Sirius smile. There’s some clothes on the floor of the room, mainly jumpers, more that are pretty much identical to the one he’s wearing. The whole room looks cozy and a complete contrast to what Sirius is used to.
“You see those posters? James was the one who hung the first one up. All this furniture is stuff that I wanted and James helped me move the original furniture out. We took it to a place on campus that helps students that can’t afford some. James is not going to care if you make your room your room.” Remus explains. Sirius nods. “Do you want some help hanging some stuff up. I’m not sure I can help so much,” he then gestures to the cane and Sirius nods. They both stand in the room in an awkward patch on silence for a while, neither sure what to say. “What are you studying?” Remus then asks.
“Fine art.” Sirius answers, “You?”
“Ancient and Modern history.” Remus answers back. “You’re an art student? You don’t look like one.” Remus then says and moves to sit down on his bed.
“I get that a lot. I want to be a tattoo artist but my uncle said he would only fund for me to come to England if I got a degree.” Sirius explains. “It’s much better than being broke and homeless.”
“You came to Loughborough university just because your uncle told you to. Could you not have gotten away with a less demanding one? If you’re only getting it for the sake of getting it?” Remus then questions.
“Yes. I just don’t do things in halves and it’s somewhat out of spite cause my parents said I would never get into Loughborough.” Sirius tries to explain. Remus looks at him like it’s a very valid explanation and it’s something that people just commonly do.
“You can sit down. Dinner won’t be for a while and your room looks like a hospital. I should know, just spent two weeks in one.” Remus invites Sirius to sit with him, moving over on his bed to make some room. Sirius takes a moment and then sits down on the bed. Remus’ bed is far more comfortable than he thought it would be and Sirius expected it to be comfortable. “Do you want to watch a movie? Lily likes to make everything from scratch so we won’t eat until at least half seven.” Remus says casually and moves to grab his laptop.
“Can I ask a question first?” Sirius finds himself asking before he can really think about it. Remus gives a polite nod. “Why are you being so nice to me?” Sirius asks, “I mean, we’ve just met?”
“I like you. You seem nice, a little jumpy, but nice. So do James and Lily. Besides, we’re going to be living together for the next four years, might as well like each other.” Remus answers simply. “I also promised my mum I would make friends this year, so, this is me trying.” Remus adds his voice going slightly quieter. Sirius smiles and gives a sharp nod. “Do you like How To Train Your Dragon?”
“I don’t know what that is.” Sirius answers and by the look on Remus’ face Sirius might as well have slapped him.
“Jurassic Park?” Sirius shakes his head, “Lord of the Rings? Star Wars? Indianna Jones? Back to the Future? Toy Story?” each time Sirius can only shake his head. “Ok, we’re starting with How To Train Your Dragon and then going through that list. It is a crime you don’t know those films. Get ready Sirius, you’re about to be educated better than what any of our professors can give.” Remus smiles and turns back to his laptop. Minutes later, the opening of the first How To Train Your Dragon is pulled up and both Remus and Sirius are leant against the head board of Remus’ bed. Sirius thinks that this year is going to be good.