Angels in Heaven - Sirius Black¹

ii. torturing

·

Sebastian was laying in bed. There was darkness all around him. The only noise in the room was the ticking of a clock and quiet snores of his dormmates. The time was half past one and he still couldn't sleep.

The only thing Sebastian's mind could focus on was the past day. He expected the whole day to be quiet and lonely. But Marlene McKinnon seemed to have different plans for him.

·

At breakfast, the students have been given their schedules. Marlene took Sebastian's before he even could get a good look at it and started comparing all of the group's classes for the day. After she was done, she told them which classes had who with whom.

That ensured that Sebastian didn't have a peaceful alone moment until the classes ended. Somebody, mainly Marlene and James, with whom Sirius always tagged along, was accompanying him around the castle the whole time. He wondered how all of them managed to be so social every day... But of course, Sebastian couldn't help but notice that the ones talking with him the most were Lily's closest friends.

The most interesting class that day was Sebastian's favourite, The Study of Ancient Runes. Sirius and him were sitting together in that class. It kind of surprised Sebastian that he was taking it too. It didn't seem to be anything of interest to him, especially since none of his other friends were taking the class. He wasn't complaining though, Sirius turned out to be actually a pretty good company.

They were just revising some basics, in case someone forgot what runes were over the summer (which, to be honest, was the case of most students) when Sirius spoke to him for the first time. "Are you any good at this?" he whispered and gestured to the blackboard where the introduction to numerical runes was written.

Sebastian noticed how his voice was very soft and warm. He turned to him, grey eyes meeting green and raised his eyebrows. "I guess," was his answer. Sebastian didn't like to brag, so even though he knew that he studied runes more than any other student in Hogwarts, he decided to keep modest.

Sirius looked relieved. Sebastian noticed a little spark appearing in his eyes. "Great, because I seriously need help. I barely passed last year and Remus doesn't know much about runes so..." he left the sentence unfinished, but Sebastian figured out what he was trying to say.

"You want me to tutor you?" Sebastian suggested. In return, Sirius smiled brightly at him. If it had been anyone else, Sebastian would have said something about having no time or any other excuse that came to mind. But he felt like he owed the Marauders for keeping him company in Lily's absence, even though he didn't ask for it.

They eventually agreed that Sebastian would tutor him on Friday after classes, which was only a day away. During the class, Sirius kept asking him questions, but Sebastian didn't mind. It was nice to finally have someone appreciate his knowledge on the topic.

"Hey, do you know what this rune means?" he asked when the class ended. Sebastian turned to him and saw Sirius showing him a golden ring with a black stone, in which was very thinly carved a rune.

"It's a rune of luck. Usually it's given to someone when there is some sort of a hard task before them, in history it was used for battles or for hunts..." Sebastian replied, telling him the basics of what he knew. He wanted to ask who gave it to him, but he didn't want to pry too much.

"Thanks Bastian," Sirius smiled and packed his things. "My uncle Alphard gave it to me last week, he said it's for "keeping me out of trouble" or something like that, but of course I don't believe that anything has such power to do that."

"Of course nothing has, trouble is your second name isn't it? And please don't call me Bastian, I actually hate it."

Sirius just raised his eyebrows. "Of course, professor Sebasian. I'm looking forward to our first lesson!" Sebastian just chuckled and then they said their goodbyes.