Freaks (Marauders Era)

Chapter 15

A few days went by, with barely any contact between Remus and Sirius. James and Peter had both agreed that it was very strange, but Peter had convinced him that they would give them a little bit more space to work it for themselves. Lest Sirius be annoyed at both of them for "getting involved where they shouldn't."

In the meantime, Sirius had some more time to figure out the multi-headed dick hydra that his life had become. Including his relationship with his younger brother.

It was a strange occurrence. Regulus left his friends table at the opposite end of the hall, going quickly enough so that Barty wouldn't question him, and started talking to Sirius.

They were very confused, to say the least. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello to you too." Regulus rolled his eyes. They sat in silence for a few moments. Sirius refused to keep it that way.

"So, what's been happening with you? Any books you've been reading?"

Regulus started twiddling his thumbs underneath the table, trying to distract himself from the awkwardness of it all. "Well, I've moved in with Barty, as you know, and recently I've been reading Hitchhikers Guide."

"Haven't you already read that book?"

"Yes, but right now I'm reading the other books in the series."

"Good, good."

It seemed everyone within a 5 meter radius could sense the awkwardness.

"So, what's been going on in your life?"

Sirius thought that there were far too many options to answer that question. So he went with the only 'safe' one. "Um, I've been reading about Boulevard M50."

"What?"

"It's a motorcycle."

Regulus knew nothing about motorcycles. But he wasn't willing to let this conversation be a total failure, so he went along with it."Can you tell me more? Or is your short term memory like that of a goldfish."

"I'm going to ignore that last comment and say, sure!"

That was when the conversation really started. Sirius going on about it's 5-speed transmission, V twin engine, and compression ratio. Though he kept getting things wrong, stumbling on his words, which, while it allowed Regulus to actually decipher his words, was getting rather annoying.

"Sirius, what the hell is going on in your head?"

"What?"

"Whatever the fuck that was. We were talking about motorcycles, something you're supposedly very passionate about, and you were entirely somewhere else."

"I don't know, I've just been thinking."

Regulus sighed and sucked on his teeth, "About? These cryptic ass answers aren't helping."

Then, in one grand wave, everything came out. "A fucking lot okay! Like how I probably fucked it up with one of my friends, how I'm gonna come out, and how I'm going to get the girls who want to use me off of my god damn back!"

He hadn't realized he was shouting. So that at least three of the four large tables had heard them. It went very quiet. James and Peter looked over from their seats a little ways away, as well as Lily and Remus on the opposite side of the table.

★★★

Whatever happened at lunch, Remus was absolutely not expecting it. He wasn't even sure why he was avoiding Sirius, besides the obvious. Shit, Sirius. He's gonna be so bloody pissed at me.

The whole thing was a mess. It was awkward, living in the same house, though Hope was supposed to be out before the end of the week. Breakfast was painful to get through for everyone, so much that Euphemia has pulled Remus and Sirius aside to ask what's wrong. They of course lied and just said it was an off day.

She didn't believe one second of it, but figured that James would sort it out if it got too out of hand.

While Remus was busy in thoughts, as he often was, Lily snuck up on him.

"Hey, Lupin!"

"Shit!" Remus jumped, and Lily tried to hold back her laughter, "yeah?"

"Do you know what happened with Sirius earlier?"

"No, I do not, and no, I would not like to talk about it." Lily nodded, "All right."

"When is Hope going to get back?"

"Probably on- Tommorow." He had completely lost track of time.

"Forgot that today was Wednesday, eh?"

"I suppose I did."

"Fascinating."

"What?"

"Just that fact that Remus 'time miser' Lupin forgot what day it was."

Remus rolled his eyes and smiled, "Oh fuck off!"

"I don't think I will. You're going to be stuck with me for a long time yet. Somebody has got make sure you don't do anything stupid."

I probably already have.

★★★

The halls went silent whenever Sirius walked through them, normally he would smile through it and take pride in the fact that people were actually paying attention to him.

But not today.

His outburst had caused a lot of rumors throughout the school, which friendship had he screwed up? Who were the girls he was talking about? And most popular, what the fuck did he mean by "coming out"?

Most people did know that he was gay (not that it stopped girls flirting) but rumors were flying about what he meant by that part of their outburst.

It got to the point when, after his second-to-last class of the day, they just decided to skip. He had even told James to leave him alone. Which rarely ever happened, and meant that James would probably have to talk about it to him in the car on the way home.

"I'm just worried about him you know!" James sighed as he and Peter walked down the hall.

"I know. You've said it at least five times in the past half an hour."

James turned his head with a mischievous look, "what ever happened to that boy that used to worship the ground I walked on?"

"He realized that you're an arrogant prick."

An offended gasp, "My my, Pete! You truly have become a heartless monster, you've stabbed me right through my metaphorical heart."

They two started laughing, before deciding that they could miss one of Slughorn's classes and going to sit under the bleachers.

"So James, the other day when we set up Remus and Sirius, where were you actually?"

"Oh I was on a date."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah."

Peter raised a brow, not quite believing him."With who?"

"You wouldn't know him"

"Oh come on! I will have no romantic exploits of my own so I need to live vicariously through you!"

"Okay okay, fine." He mumbled the name under his breath.

"Huh?"

"Regulus."

It went so still you could have sworn a loading screen would pop up.

"Regulus Black."

"Yup."

"Sirius' little brother, Regulus Black."

"That's the guy."

"You're screwed if he finds out."

"I know."