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Remus and Sydney slipped back into the dorm room to find the lights still on. Odd, considering the two of them had concluded their walk by sitting (and snogging) in the common room and there was a quidditch match the next day (not Gryffindor's, but James still felt the need to wake up at five when the day had anything to do with quidditch).
"Finally," James groaned, catching his quaffle and sitting upright in his bed.
"Why are you all awake?" Sydney asked. "I know I never had parents to wait for my dates but really, this is a bit excessive."
Remus hit her shoulder with his and she laughed, though it died out when the room fell unresponsive.
"Oh, c'mon," she said. "Sirius, even you didn't find that funny?"
Sirius was standing on the opposite end of the dorm, next to Kingsley's closed curtains. He kept shaking his hands at his sides and he was staring at the floor as he mumbled inaudibly. At the sound of Sydney's voice, though, his head snapped up, grey eyes wide and alarmed.
"You have to leave," he said quickly.
"What?" Sydney asked. Sirius began walking across the room.
"You have to leave," he said again. He put his hands on Sydney's shoulders and began pushing her out the door.
"Sirius," Sydney said wildly. "I thought the trauma jokes were okay. It's like our thing. I didn't mean to-"
The door closed behind her.
"I'll just wait out here then!" Sydney called from the hall.
"Padfoot, bloody hell," James laughed from his bed.
"What, do you have something against my girlfriend or something?" Remus asked. He liked saying it. Girlfriend.
"No," Sirius said. "I mean, maybe technically... But no, that's not the point I'm trying to make here. She just... She makes it harder. I don't know. She just can't be here. She makes this all... Complicated. Yeah. Complicated."
"Sirius!" Remus interjected. "Godric, I don't think you took a breath in the last minute. Calm down!"
Sirius froze his pacing in the middle of the room. His grey eyes locked on Remus's and he nodded slowly. Then he turned to look at Peter and James, too, and he shook his hands at his sides.
"Okay, um, Merlin, okay," he said. "Well, the thing is. I mean, the reason she makes this so complicated is because- Well, maybe it's easier if I just say it like- I mean, I could start at the beginning, although, I suppose there's really no beginning if you look at it that way. But that's why she can't be here because-"
"Spit it out!" James said.
"I'm gay," Sirius replied instantly. James blinked.
Remus glanced across the room to Peter, who was hugging a pillow and holding it just high enough to conceal his laugh. Remus didn't think this was a good enough reason to have Sydney banished to the hallway.
