COMFORT ZONE | Sirius Black [REWRITING]

18. A Wolfish Revelation

Thursday, 23rd November 1972

It was the first period of the day and Professor Flitwick was giving them a theory lesson on the Disarming charm, which was quite boring to Madiha and Sirius, considering that they already knew most of what he was teaching about. Nonetheless, the two continued on making notes half-heartedly as they sat near the back of the classroom and close to the door. James and Peter were directly in front of them; Marlene and Alice on a table to their left. Lily was seated alone, closer to the front of the class where Professor Flitwick stood lecturing on a pile of books.

Usually, Remus would have sat next to the redhead, however, the boy still had not made an appearance after going home to visit his mother the previous afternoon.

However, this did not remain the case for much longer as the door opened to reveal an exhausted-looking Remus Lupin, who seemed to be sporting fresh scars on his cheek and was determinedly tugging on the sleeve of his robe, his bag hung loosely over his shoulder.

"Sorry, I'm late," he mumbled before shuffling to take his seat next to Lily. Professor Flitwick merely nodded at him in acknowledgement, which was odd because had this been anyone else, a fair number of points would have been taken from their House for their tardiness.

As he passed by her, Madiha caught sight of a gash on his hand where his sleeve had moved out of place; Remus did not notice her spot this but moved quickly to hide the wound once he realised it was visible.

She felt exceedingly confused at what she had just witnessed. Her friend, who was supposed to be visiting his mother, had returned to school looking tired, with scars on his face and a disturbingly deep cut on his hand which seemed intent on keeping hidden. Since Marlene's suspicions that he was hiding something were first voiced, she had begun to notice how drained the boy always seemed in the days around his visits to his mother and the fact that there would always be new unexplained scars after each return. This only added to her growing concern for him.

It was clear that Sirius had made a similar observation as he, too, wore a perplexed expression, staring at the back of Remus' head.

"Did you see that?"

Sirius averted his eyes to the parchment in front of him as Professor Flitwick seemed to face their direction for a moment.

"Yeah... what do you think happened to him?"

"No idea," she replied, dipping her quill in ink before jotting something down on her own parchment. "But that cut looked deep."

He gestured discretely at the blonde girl, who was eyeing Remus suspiciously.

"Look, Marlene's watching him too."

"So is James," she commented, nodding her head towards the messy-haired boy sitting in front of her.

"Do you think we should ask him what happened?"

Madiha thought about this for a second before answering.

"I think we should wait to see how he's acting before we start asking questions."

Sirius nodded in agreement as they both returned their attention to Professor Flitwick again, albeit a bit more distracted than before.

***

Afternoon—Sunday, 26th November 1972

Following Gryffindor's shining win against Slytherin in the opening match of the season, Madiha had been receiving far more looks of recognition and acknowledgement from other members of her House, many of them feeling very hopeful about their chances of winning the House Cup this year with the introduction of new talent to the team. Johnathan Wood had been particularly complementary towards her and Sirius' teamwork as Beaters, and the other members of the team—especially Frank Longbottom and Andrew Johnson—had taken to defending her whenever people attempted to remark on her suitability for her position on the team based on the fact that she was a girl.