Halloween
The first half term of the class goes relatively well. Everyone manages to get all their work done on time, Remus seems to become more settled with everything and he and Sirius have gotten back to watching their movies whilst James or Lily make dinner. Sirius has also gotten to know Peter much better and Sirius has become rather fond of Peter, he seems just to be a little shy but as Sirius has gotten to know him, he has gotten to know how funny and witty Peter can be. Sirius finds it particularly amusing when, for some reason it always happens on a Friday and Sirius isn’t sure when they started it, Peter judges James and Lily’s cooking skills which once ended in a food fight Sirius isn’t sure started.
However, the most talked about event in the flat for almost 3 weeks was Halloween. The moment it turned October all James can talk about was Halloween. He keeps buying little Halloween decorations all around the flat, Sirius has even found a few Halloween pillows in both his and Remus’ rooms and a couple of ghost, vampire, and spider teddy bears all around the flat that Sirius can’t help but smile each time he does so.
“Ok! Everyone halt their work!” James declares loudly in the lounge. He stands on the coffee table, to which both Lily and Sirius have to hastily move their belongings from. Remus just gently lowers his book in his hands to watch James’ antics and Peter joins them from making everyone a cup of tea from the kitchen, pack of custard creams in hand.
“James, what are you doing?” Lily says, sounding rather frustrated but Sirius can tell by her facial expression she’s rather fond of what her boyfriend is doing.
“I, Lily, am making sure the preparations for tomorrow, we need snacks, the decorations aren’t fully ready. So, we need to prepare.” James states. Everyone nods, waiting for James to say more. “You guys are so boring, come on, we need to prepare!” he jumps down from the coffee table, helping Lily to her feet and places a swift kiss to her lips when she’s up.
“James, the party doesn’t start until 7 tomorrow. Let us finish our work and drink our tea and then we can get ready, ok?” Lily negotiates and James huffs but nods. Moments later, Peter delivers tea to everyone in the room and settles on the sofa by Remus.
“What are you reading?” Sirius questions seeing the book Remus has in his hands.
“The Count of Monte Cristo.” Remus answers, his eyes not moving from the pages.
“Is the English version good? I’ve only ever read the French and didn’t get far with the English one?” Sirius asks.
“I don’t know, I’ve only read the French.” Remus answers and Sirius would be lying if he said he wasn’t shocked, “Don’t look at me like that, it took me a very long time to be able to read it in the original French, started learning when I was 16, started on children’s books and worked my way up.” Remus continues and Sirius nods before both go back to their respective activities.
An hour later, the flat was ready for the party. They had hung up some of the games, as well as sorted out some of the drinking games and made sure that they had enough alcohol for the evening. Remus and Sirius had been on charge of hanging up ‘do not enter’ tape all over their bedroom doors and putting out very clear signs for where the bathroom is. Peter and Lily are in charge of making some sweet treats for the evening and James was the one in charge of decorating the lounge to which Sirius thinks he did a rather good job at. It’s nearly 3am when they finally finish getting the place ready. Both Lily and Peter are covered in flour and powdered sugar and James is asleep on the sofa.
“Honestly that one.” Lily chuckles.
“Do we move him?” Peter asks,
“Nah. He’ll be fine. Come on, I’m exhausted and I’d like to get some work done before the party.” Lily shrugs before going into the bedroom. Peter, Remus and Sirius all stare at James for another minute and then all shrug and go back to their respective bedrooms.
The next time Sirius wakes up he almost jumps out his skin when his eyes open it’s to James sat next to him on the bed, all in his Halloween costume. He’s very casually sat on the bed, leaning up against the headboard and playing on his phone, as if what he is doing is so casual.
“James, what are you doing in here?” he questions, pulling the duvet over his chest despite wearing a t-shirt.
“It’s almost midday Sirius, come on!” James says like an excitable child. “Also, a letter came for you. It’s all black and it’s got silver writing on the front of it, on the table in the kitchen.” He adds and that gets Sirius right out the bed. He sprints from his room, almost running directly into Peter as he does so, and into the kitchen. Lily is sat at the table tapping away on her laptop with some books around her. He hastily grabs the letter, startling Lily as he does so and rips it open.
To Sirius,
It has come to our attention that your Uncle Alphard is still providing you with funds for your unproductive pursuits in art.
Effective immediately, you are hereby cut off from the inheritance of Mr. O Black and Mrs. W Black. You are no longer permitted entry into the Black Family House and must terminate all associations with the relevant family members.
Any continued contact will result in serious consequences.
This notice is issued on behalf of Mr. O Black and Mrs. W Black, represented by Mr. E Kreacher.
Sirius’ stomach sinks. He isn’t sure why it’s sunk; it’s not like he loves his parents, he doesn’t even like them if he’s being honest. He freezes for a moment, then moves to the kitchen, grabs a pair of scissors, cuts the letter into fours, and finds one of the lighters in the cutlery drawer and then a bowl. He sets the letter in the bowl and then lights the letter on fire in the sink. That catches Lily’s eye; she is instantly up and putting the tap on to put the fire out.
“What the hell Sirius?!” Lily exclaims. “Do you want to burn the building down!?”
“It’s fine Lily, it was controlled. Besides it was also a letter that no other human being should read.” Sirius answers and grabs himself a glass of water and downs it. “I need to go get ready, don’t worry about that, I’ll clean that up later.” He then says and heads to the bathroom to shower. Lily stands in the kitchen unsure what to do, she doesn’t really want that to sit in the kitchen sink but Sirius did say he would deal with it. Peter then joys Lily in the kitchen and also peers into the sink.
“What happened? He sprinted out the room, nearly ran right into me, James looked shocked,” Peter tells Lily who shrugs. “Do you want me to clean that up?” Peter then asks and points to the ash-water mixture in the sink. Again, Lily shrugs.
“He said he’d do it. I don’t want to intrude; he seemed pretty anxious.” Lily says and sinks back down onto the kitchen table. Peter nods unsure what to do.
“Tea?” he then offers and Lily gives him a small nod.
They party doesn’t really start to kick off until 9pm and at that Sirius could have drunk enough for everyone in attendance. James and Peter have been at the games table for most of the night, both getting increasingly worse at their games with the more alcohol they drink. Remus and Lily on the other hand have both been sat on the sofa watching the drama of the evening unfold. Remus has lost count of how many people has been introduced to by both James and Lily, also losing count of how many people have gotten lost on the way to the bathroom and have almost walked into one of their bedrooms.
“Lily, is there something wrong with Sirius?” Remus asks over the loud music. “I just mean since this morning he’s been different.” Remus explains.
“I’m not sure, but you should ask Marlene, they’ve known each other for years.” Lily tells him and Remus nods looking around the room, “She the one snogging the girl with the braids over there.” Lily then points over to, from Remus can see, a blonde woman is who he needs to ask.
He makes his way over and suddenly reason he isn’t sure what to do, he’s never interrupted someone kissing before. Luckily for him Marlene catches on that he’s standing there and breaks apart from the kiss.
“Can I help?” she asks, her voice tinted with annoyance.
“Hi, sorry, I’m Remus. I-I just have a question about Sirius.” Remus explains and Marlene’s face softens.
“Let’s go somewhere quiet.” She says and stands. Remus leads her to his bedroom and he is shocked about the noise difference the moment his bedroom door is shut. “Is about his drinking?” she asks and Remus looks at her surprised. “He’s always gone hard. When we were sixteen he ended up blackout drunk at a few gatherings for doctors. I managed to get him to calm down until about a year ago. I don’t know what happened but he just, he would just get drunk all the time. This is the first time in a long time I have seen him sober for so long. I-I don’t know what’s in his mind, but Remus,” her voice lowers down to a whisper, “He’s trying to escape something. If he doesn’t stop it’s going to be dangerous.” Marelene says and Remus nods. “Sorry, that was a lot for just meeting you but- he likes you Remus. He’s been drawing you in our classes, for some realism. I just thought you’d like to know,” Marelene adds and leaves the room. Remus sighs and sinks down on his bed, unsure what to do.
Fate must decide it for himself because not even thirty seconds later, Sirius bursts into the room. Remus can see how drunk he is, he’s swaying slightly, his make-up is smudged, black eyeliner smeared down his face. His hair had been perfect three hours ago, Lily had neatly put it in Dutch braid, a braid that was now just about staying together. Remus also does not miss the half-filled shot glass in Sirius hand.
“Mare-Marelene wa-was i-in he-he-here?” Sirius slurs and finishes the shot in his hand.
“Yes. We were just talking. That’s all. Are you ok? Do you want to sit down?” Remus questions and guides Sirius down to his bed, gently removing the glass from his hand and onto his bedside table. Sirius plops down onto the bed and lets out a loud sigh.
“Y-you are- your eyes-” Sirius starts but never finishes. For a moment Sirius just sits on the bed, staring into space. “M-my par-parents- ha- they- they have cut me off.” He says and small hysterical giggle comes from Sirius. “Fin-financially it do-doesn’t matter.” Sirius then shakes it off, “Bu-but I-I fe-feel empty. Li-like- I do-don’t even kn-know.” Sirius continues. He doesn’t look at Remus once throughout, he keeps his eyes focused on the carpet.
He then does something that Remus has to take a moment to realise is real. Sirius presses his lips to Remus’, his hands going to Remus’ face, gently cupping them. Remus can taste the different alcohol that Sirius has had, the vodka, the gin, the rum. When Remus realises what is happening, he pulls himself away from Sirius. He can’t do it when Sirius is drunk and might not even remember when the morning comes.
“Sirius, you’re drunk. You, you won’t remember this. I can’t- I can’t kiss you like this.” Remus says, he doesn’t want to upset Sirius but he can’t take advantage of him like this. Sirius doesn’t respond, he just stares at Remus with a blank expression for a moment. He then sprints from Remus’ bed to the adjoining bathroom and moments later Remus can hear the vomit hit the toilet and Remus is instantly by his side, gently rubbing the other’s back.
When Sirius finishes Remus reaches up to get Sirius a glass of water to wash out his mouth and then a cold wash cloth to gently rub against Sirius’ forehead, cheeks, and neck. Sirius looks far too pale for Remus’ liking but he has just been drinking far too much for Remus’ liking and then expelled it out into Remus’ toilet. They sit in the bathroom for about half an hour, Sirius throws up twice in that time and Remus lets out his braid and puts it into a simple bun to keep it off Sirius’ forehead and neck.
“Sirius you need to go to bed, come on.” Remus says quietly when Sirius hasn’t thrown up in 10 minutes. It’s also the same when Remus can hear the music stop. Sirius doesn’t make any intention to move so Remus grabs one of his spare toothbrushes and gentle brushes Sirius’ teeth for him. When he manages that, Remus just about manages to get Sirius to his bed, let alone make it across to Sirius’ room. Remus then gets a pair of pyjamas from Sirius’ room and manhandles him into his pyjamas and by the time he is done, Sirius is mostly asleep in Remus’ bed. Remus simply tucks him in, making sure he is against the wall so he doesn’t fall out and hurt himself. Remus then gets himself ready for bed and crawls in next to Sirius, making sure to keep his distance.
Remus wakes up the next morning before Sirius who looks far more comfortable than the night before. The tear tracks have dried and disappeared, the creases in his forehead are gone, he looks oddly peaceful asleep. It’s also in that moment that Remus notices a tattoo on Sirius’ right forearm. Sirius is usually in a jumper that Remus has never noticed the design, he also can’t really describe it. It’s almost like a few diamonds intertwined with each other and petals around it. It’s only small, on the inside on his forearm and he isn’t sure how he didn’t it notice the night before.
Remus quickly gets himself dressed and ready before going into the lounge to find the others. Peter is sat on the sofa, the TV playing Jurassic Park, a cup of tea in his hands. Peter smiles when he sees him and gives him a small wave and turns his attention back to the TV. As Remus moves into the lounge he can see James laying on the sofa, his pillows behind his head and a blanket around him.
“Morning.” Remus smiles and James sits up to give him a small wave. “Where’s your girlfriend?” Remus asks, usually they’re both curled up with each other.
“In bed. She’s not feeling well and not just hungover, she’s probably asleep.” James answers and Remus nods and turns to make himself a cup of coffee. 5 minutes later, Remus has joined Peter on the sofa, and Lily moves out the room. James wasn’t lying when he said she wasn’t well. She’s pale and shaky on her feet and has one of James’ jumper wrapped around her frame. James instantly moves so she can join him on the sofa, curling into his side.
“Lily, I need to pick up my prescription at 3, do you want me to get you something?” Remus offers and Lily gives him a thankful nod. They then all go back to watching Jurassic Park.
Sirius is still asleep when Remus leaves to get his prescription, so Remus lets him sleep. He makes sure to get Lily some paracetamol and Pepto along with some hard sweets to help keep her distracted and picks up some more herbal tea and Peter some more of his Yorkshire tea. Once he has gathered everything he returns to the flat where everyone is in the same position as when he left. Lily and Peter are both very thankful for what Remus gets them and Remus makes sure to make Lily some herbal tea and Peter another cup of tea. Just as Remus sets back down on the sofa, they hear some banging from Remus’ room. Remus is quickly back to his feet and rushes into his bedroom, finding Sirius stood in the middle looking rather confused.
“Hey, it’s ok. Don’t worry.” Remus assures him but Sirius shakes his head.
“Why am in here? Why am I not in my room?” he asks.
“You came in last night; you threw up a couple of times. I’m not that strong so I could only get you as far as my bed. I went to get you some pyjamas and then you fell asleep.” Remus deliberately leaves out the part where Sirius kissed him, he looks distressed enough. Sirius nods as he listens to what Remus has to say. “Sirius are you ok?” Remus then asks. Sirius nods and then leaves the room and goes into his, shutting his door firmly. No one sees Sirius for the next two weeks.