Sanctuary

Chapter 5

Thursday, 2nd September

Sirius growled to himself as he checked his reflection in the mirror the next morning. He had jerked awake at six o'clock despite his mother not being there to scream him awake. Members of The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black did not laze around in bed all day.

His hair was as perfect as always, and he was about to turn away when Remus walked in. He took one look at Sirius' irritated face in the mirror and scurried into a cubicle like a frightened mouse.

Dammit! He must think Sirius was angry at him when he was just annoyed at his own inability to sleep in.

Sirius stared at the closed cubicle door for a moment before deciding that talking to Remus while he was showering was a terrible idea and he would have better luck if he waited for him in the common room. He left the bathroom, tiptoed across the dorm room to get his school bag and crept out to wait by the fire for an opportunity to redeem himself.

He wasn't sure what he would say to Remus when he got the chance. How could he fix the mess he had made of everything? But he had to try.

-o-o-o-o-

Remus stood under the shower. The heated water streaming over his body was magnificent on his aching muscles. The shower was far more powerful than the one at home, and he knew it would help with the residual pain post-full moon. He was almost looking forward to it.

Finding Black already up and dressed when he entered the bathroom had startled him. He had expected everyone else to still be asleep and cursed himself for not thinking to check the other beds. If he had known Black was in the bathroom, he would have waited until after breakfast to shower. The boy had said nothing to him, but the glare he had given was bad enough. Remus cringed at the memory.

After he finished dressing, Remus grabbed his school bag and headed out of the room, being careful not to wake the others. There was no sense in antagonising them when they already disliked him. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he spotted Black sitting and staring into the fire with his back to the rest of the room.

Taking a deep breath, Remus hurried across the room towards the portrait hole on his tiptoes, hoping Black wouldn't notice him. When he reached the entrance, he pushed on the back of the portrait. He was almost away, but as the door swung open, the hinges creaked and Black's head whipped around, searching out the noise.

'Remus!'

Remus ignored him and clambered through the hole, shoving the portrait closed behind him in the hope it would slow Black down if he gave chase. He sprinted down the corridor looking for somewhere to hide. He ran for as long as he could, but after a while, he needed to stop and catch his breath. Bending over with his hands on his knees, he panted hard. It didn't seem like Black was coming after him. Good. Now he just needed to figure out where he was.

Remus looked around for a clue, signposts would be useful, but all he saw was an ugly stone gargoyle. As he studied it, the statue slid to the side and revealed a moving staircase behind it, slowly spiralling towards the ground around a central pillar. As Remus looked on, the Headmaster moved into view standing on the bottom step, and when the staircase came to a stop, Dumbledore stepped off and strolled over to Remus.

'Ah, Mister Lupin, how fortuitous that I should bump into you first thing this morning. Have you eaten?'

'No, sir.'

'Wonderful, perhaps you would like to join me in my office for breakfast? There are a few things we need to discuss.'

'Yes, sir.'