Sirius-6
Over the next few weeks, Remus and Sirius continued to meet up whenever they had the chance; after classes, in between classes, at the weekends, whenever was convenient really. It really brightened Sirius’s week seeing Remus. He found himself longing for the small moments where he was with Remus. He loved the time they spent together, and he enjoyed getting to know Remus a bit. While he was with the boy, his feelings grew. His emotions were spiralling out of his control and, the more time he spent with Remus, the more his feelings grew. He didn’t mind too much, but it hurt thinking that Remus could be straight, and wouldn’t return his feelings. However, it was a relief when he was with Remus; a time when he could relax completely, just like he did with Lily and the others. The same could be said for Remus, so Sirius thought.
The Remus he studied with and hung out with was a completely different Remus to the one that swaggered around school, giving girls cheeky winks and shouting down the corridors. That Remus was loud and cocky, one that Sirius found annoying but secretly loved, until one day.
“Hey, stop. That’s not fair!”
Sirius recognised Alice’s voice as he walked down a fairly empty corridor by the languages department. She sounded upset and distressed, and there was the sound of other voices, they were lower, quieter, and Sirius couldn’t recognise them. He frowned and picked up his pace, wanting to reach Alice quickly. He rounded a corner in the corridor and almost dropped his sketchbook in his haste to get to his friend. When he saw Alice, he stopped, both surprised and unsurprised at what he saw.
He saw Alice, surrounded by the Marauders, including Remus, pinned against the wall. Her bag was on the floor a few meters away, with the contents spilt all around the hall, obviously it had been thrown away by one of the boys. Frank and Remus held Alice to the wall, whilst James and Peter had a hold on Alice’s German folder and were tearing all the papers and notes out, throwing them all around the empty corridor.
Fuck it was like them. The time when his... When his... When they did that to him. Made Regulus hold him while they... Well... He felt the memories coming back to him, but he kept the door firmly shut, not allowing them to get through. For right now, he didn’t need to have a panic attack. He needed to help Alice.
It was only a moment for which Sirius was frozen, but when he came back to himself and recovered from the shock, he dumped his bag on the floor and ran over to them.
“Hey!” He screamed at them, “What the hell are you doing!”
They all looked over to him, the boys slightly surprised, and Alice pleadingly.
“Oh, look. It’s Black,” Peter sneered, dropping the papers he was holding and advancing towards Sirius, “What do you want?”
“Let my friend go and give her back her stuff,” Sirius said, his head held high, arms folded.
James laughed and came closer to Sirius, following just behind Peter.
“NO!” Alice yelled, “Leave him alone!”
“Shut up!” Frank said, but it was not as harsh as usual, he was looking at Remus, who had turned pale, and they both looked worried.
“Fuck off Black,” Peter said, “Else we will give you the same treatment as Mandip here,” He gestured to Alice, who was struggling against Frank and Remus’s grip.
Sirius narrowed his eyes and realised that they were not going to back off. He shrugged, and before anyone else could move, he raised his leg and kicked Peter right in his crotch. Peter howled, bending over in pain and James started.
“Let. Her. Go,” Sirius snarled at Remus and Frank, who let Alice go instantly and backed off. James looked wide eyed at Sirius and grabbed Peter’s arm, hastily retreating towards Remus and Frank, “Now piss off and leave us alone.”
Remus looked guiltily towards Sirius, as the dark-haired boy helped Alice pick up her things then bring her into a hug, “Sirius-”
“Fuck you Lupin,” Sirius snapped, looking straight at Remus, “I thought you were better than the others. Turns out you are just as bad. Now, leave us alone,” He turned his back on the dumbstruck Marauders and picked up Alice’s bag, putting his arm around her shoulders.
“You okay Al?” He whispered as he stopped by his own bag and grabbed it. Alice nodded her head, but she was shaking, “You’re not. Come on. Shall we go to the Leaky? Ally will be there, and we can get her special hot chocolate.”
“Yeah,” Alice whispered, “Sounds cool.”
“Hey Sirius.”
Sirius felt someone put their hand on his shoulder and he looked up into Remus’s face. He scowled and pulled away.
“Leave us alone.”
“No. Sirius please listen,” Remus said, reaching out for Sirius again.
“No. Now kindly fuck off before I make you regret you ever even looked at Alice,” Sirius said, glaring at Remus, before he and Alice walked down the corridor, leaving behind them the four Marauders.
“Fuck them,” Alice said, her voice less shaky, and she hoisted her bag onto her shoulder.
“Yeah, fuck them,” Sirius said as the two of them walked out of the college and into Hogsmeade, towards the Leaky Cauldron. When they arrived, they took a seat at a small table near the counter, where Alya instantly spotted them.
“Sirius! Alice! Hi there. I didn’t know you guys were coming,” She said.
“Hey Ally. Wasn’t planning on coming, but Alice needs a special hot chocolate please,” Sirius said, smiling weakly.
“Of course. Want your usual Siri?” Alya asked and Sirius nodded, so she went to get their drinks. Alice slumped back against her chair, while Sirius lent forwards and buried his head in his hands.
He thought Remus was okay. He thought Remus was different to James, Frank and Peter. He thought. Ha. Looks like he was wrong, and Remus was just like the others: a bully and an idiot. He was just showing Sirius a fake side, a side that he wanted Sirius to see, to what? To lead him on? No. He didn’t know Sirius was bi. What then? To mess with him?
Well, now he couldn’t. Coz even though it hurt, Sirius had to block him out. If Remus was going to treat his friends like that, then Sirius had to block his feeling and ignore him. He sighed. Why couldn’t Remus just be a normal, kind bloke who wasn’t an arse. Well, apparently, Remus wasn’t like that.
He sat up with a sigh and looked at Alice, who was staring at her hands, which were resting on the table.
“How are you, Al?” Sirius asked, putting one of his hands on top of hers, causing her to look up at him.
“I’m okay now. They are bastards,” Alice said shakily, and they both laughed at that.
“Yeah they are,” Sirius agreed.
“Sorry about Remus. Marls told me you liked him,” Alice said, turning her hand over so she could hold Sirius’s and Sirius laughed half-heartedly.
“It’s okay. I’m upset he would do that, but this isn’t about me mourning over my feelings for some bloke. It’s about you recovering by having one of Ally’s special hot chocolates,” And once he said that, Alya walked over to the two and put down a mug of tea and a hot chocolate, with whippy cream. She smiled at Alice and pulled up a chair next to them
“You okay loves?” She asked.
“Am now,” Alice said, taking a sip of her hot chocolate, “Got ambushed by those dickheads the Marauders outside my German classroom.”
Alya frowned, “What did they do?”
“Two of them pinned me against the wall while the other two ripped up my German folder,” Alice put down her drink and dug her folder out of her bag, placing it on the table. It was a sorry sight. The folder itself was intact, just about, but all the papers were half ripped, torn and crumpled, as was her workbook, which was ripped in half. Alice’s eyes watered at the sight of her folder, and Alya breathed in sharply. She reached out and put her arm around Alice, giving her a small squeeze.
“You’re alright love,” She whispered in Alice’s ear, “Let’s see if we can save any of this, shall we?”
Alice nodded and the three of them started sorting through the paper, trying to salvage anything. At one point, Alya disappeared and came back with a roll of Sellotape, pushing it towards Sirius, who started sticking together bits of paper that could be saved. In the end, they had managed to save just over half of the papers and had stuck the workbook back together.
“I can get copies of this stuff from my teacher and classmates,” Alice said, nodding towards the small pile of papers that were too damaged to be saved.
“Alright. I’m sorry they did this to you,” Alya said, hugging Alice again as they all stood up.
“S’not your fault, Alya,” Alice said, “I better go. See you tomorrow Siri.”
“See you Al!” Sirius said, and Alice walked out of the coffee shop.
“Siri?” Alya said, pulling him into a hug.
“Hmm?” Sirius replied.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Pissed at Remus. I thought he was different.”
“Some people are just arses. Sorry about him.”
“And something else...”
“What love?”
“The way they held her back... It was like one time when my... when they did that to me,” Sirius’s voice was a whisper and he looked down.
“Oh love. Come here”
Sirius smiled and hugged Alya tightly. He could feel the tears forming in the corner of his eyes, so he pulled away and grabbed his bag.
“I’m gunna go to the studio for a bit. Can you pick me up after you’re one here?”
“Of course. Love you.”
“Love you too!” Sirius made his way to the art studio near the Leaky Cauldron. He dumped his bag, put his music on loudly, and lost himself in his artwork.