Sirius woke up early the next morning, all he could think about was the deep scars that he had seen scattered across Remus' arm, did that mean there were more on the rest of his body? Why were they there? Did someone hurt him?
All these questions raced through his mind and he held his own arm where the smaller scars lay under his pyjamas, they were nothing in comparison to Remus' ones. Were they inflicted as a punishment from his family the same way as Sirius' were? They couldn't possibly be, Remus grew up with Muggles, so many questions but no answers.
Sirius decided the best thing to do would be to just leave it alone, it wasn't even his business. He watched as the clock stroke 7 and padded quietly to the bathroom where he got changed and ready for the day.
Coming out the bathroom still half asleep and hair curtained over his eyes he knocked into James who was walking the same way. "Watch where you're going mate" James lightheartedly said while laughing. "Sorry sorry, it's just so early" Sirius yawned.
Sirius pulled back his hair tying it messily with his wand tucked into it, a habit he had learned from his older cousin Bellatrix, his mother detested it saying it was too girly, but his mother hating it is exactly why he'd continued to do it.
His heart dropped thinking about his mother, he'd almost forgotten, the fear crept back into him as he remembered the events from yesterday and how mad she and his father were going to be.
Sirius tried to put the thought to the back of his mind while he lay on his bed and flicked through a muggle magazine he'd brought from home, Andromeda his cousin had given it to him, she was the only sane one in his family.
His reading was interrupted as a very determined looking owl crashed into the window, waking up a very grumpy Peter "What is that racket!" he shouted giving a piercing look at Sirius who was the only one in the room awake with Remus still asleep and James in the toilet.
"How should I know?" Sirius spat back, but in reality Sirius did know, it was Walburga's owl, his mother's owl. It was holding a bright red envelope in its beak, it was a howler, he could have easily not opened the window but Sirius knew that if he didn't then 50 of them would probably come down the common room fire place.
Sighing Sirius stood up preparing himself for the lecture, he opened the latch on the window and let the owl drop the envelope at his feet. At once it came to life "HOW DARE YOU, SIRIUS ORION BLACK, YOU ARE NO SON OF MINE, A BLACK HAS NEVER BEEN IN ANYTHING BUT SLYTHERIN, ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF THIS FAMILY? WE HOPED HOGWARTS WOULD CHANGE YOU FOR THE BETTER. IT IS OBVIOUS IT HAS NOT, ME AND YOUR FATHER ARE DECIDING WHETHER YOU SHOULD EVEN STAY THERE. JUST WAIT TILL YOU GET HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, PUNISHMENT IS AWAITING."
Sirius stared at the letter dumbfounded as it teared itself into shreds and landed in a burning pile of ashes, He turned to see James standing in the doorway of the bathroom mouth wide with shock his toothbrush in his mouth and toothpaste dribbling down his chin. Peter had a similar expression and was now wide awake. As for Remus, Sirius had no idea how but he was still fast asleep.
Nobody knew what to say, Sirius stood there playing with a piece of his hair until James came over and patted him on the shoulder "Merlin, I never realised how serious you were when you said your parents would be mad at you." James raked his hand through his own hair awkwardly, it was obvious he didn't know what else to say. Peter just sat on his bed mouth still agape.
Sirius stood for a second more before speaking "Let's um wake Remus and go to breakfast?" The other two boys agreed and Peter went to the bathroom to get ready while Sirius went over to Remus' bed. "Time to wake up Lupin" he then proceeded to pull the covers off him and throw them on the floor.
"What?! What was that for, go awayyyy" Remus grumbled. "Breakfast time Remus" Sirius laughed, Remus immediately sat up at the word breakfast and rushed off to get ready. All the boys were excited for breakfast, the train had been late last night so they hadn't got the experience of a proper meal in the great hall yet.
They rushed downstairs nearly tripping over their robes on the way. As they reached the great hall Sirius bumped into Bellatrix, she grabbed his arm and yanked him into the side corridor, James immediately looked back with a panicked expression but continued on when Sirius gave him a look to not wait for him.
"So little cousin, mummy and daddy aren't too happy with you are they now" she grabbed on to his arm where the scars lay. "Bet you will be getting lots more of these when you go home" she cackled nastily, "all it takes to do is a flick of a wand" she lifted up her wand and Sirius flinched instinctively. Bellatrix rolled her eyes at him and walked off, he sighed in relief, not realising he had been holding his breath the whole time.
He walked into the great hall and joined his friends. Remus seemed a lot more on guard than the day before and sat a seat away from them, Sirius wondered if it had to do with them seeing his scars. He sat beside Remus and ushered his hand hinting to the other boys to move up a seat too, Remus groaned but didn't try to move away.
James smiled at him "You missed the appearing food Sirius" Peter joined in "Yeah, it all just popped up on to our plates, it's so cool." Sirius wasn't too bothered about that, it happened the same way in his house, it was just the house elves' magic, nothing special in his opinion.
They ate breakfast and Sirius watched Remus from the corner of his eye, he had a closed off posture making it clear he didn't want to talk to anyone, his hair was a mess and his fingernails were bleeding from biting them. Sirius wondered what could be causing the boy so much anxiety, he couldn't think about it for much longer though because a girl came over and plopped herself down across from the boys.
"Hi! I'm Marlene, Marlene McKinnon" James smiled at her and put his hand out to shake "James Potter." Him and Peter did the same but Remus stayed closed off, Marlene gave a look to Remus with her head tilted to the side but decided to not bother him.
"Sooo, mind if we sit here?" James nodded but Peter tilted his head "we?" "Are you so exceptional that you refer to yourself as more than one person?" He chuckled. Sirius poked him in the side but Marlene rolled her eyes and nodded over to two other girls who were walking towards them.
They each took a seat on either side of Marlene. One with red locks who he recognised as Lily from the sorting but the other he couldn't remember because he hadn't been paying much attention after being put in Gryffindor.
"Hello, I'm Lily Evans" her smile was so contagious and Sirius couldn't help but smile back at her. James obviously thought so too because he was staring at her mesmerised with his mouth open slightly, she laughed waving her hand in front of his face "Earth to James?" James suddenly snapped out of his trance "You.. you know my name?" Lily rolled her eyes laughing "of course I know you're name, I payed attention at the sorting."
The other girl beside Marlene with short brown curly hair and hazel eyes spoke up, "Ehem, If you've had enough of staring at Lily can I introduce myself?" James nodded apologetically. "Mary MacDonald, pleased to meet you", "Now that breakfast is over, wanna take a walk around the grounds? classes don't start until tomorrow so we might as well make use of the time and explore." The boys apart from Remus nodded excitedly in agreement and they walked off to go decide a plan in the common room.
Sirius hung back to talk to Remus, "You okay? You seem a bit down, why don't you come and join us on the adventure?" He said kindly. Remus looked up into his eyes and looked like he was about to accept but instead sighed and walked in the other direction.
Sirius marched off annoyed, if he wouldn't at least try and make friends then there wasn't much point in Sirius continuously pestering him, but there was something in Remus' eyes that made Sirius feel unable to give up. He walked up to the common room to join the others and forgetting the interaction with Remus for now.
