Determination|| Remus lupin

chapter fifteen

Christmas day had passed and James and Ariana were excitedly awaiting the arrival of the other marauders, although disheartened that Sirius had not appeared on Christmas eve as he had promised to attempt, and that made them increasingly worried about him. Justin had recovered, and seemed well, although he had shut himself off from them completely. 

The doorbell rang and both got up like a shot, racing to the front door. However, Mrs Potter had beaten them to it and let Remus into the house.

"Remus!" Ariana beat James into giving Remus a hug. She had missed the boy terribly, and although she had loved staying with James, she had missed having all of her friends there with her.

"Happy Christmas Arie." Remus laughed at her, as she finally let go of him. It wasn't her fault, he gave great hugs.

"Happy Christmas mate." James reached out to hug his friend, glad that at least one of his friends had shown up.

"Happy Christmas." Remus smiled, as he followed the two into the living room. Justin had retreated to the comfort of his bedroom as soon as the doorbell rang.

"Remus, why did you not tell us you had a difficult full moon?" Ariana questioned, her and James had written to each of their friends every three days. She held his wrist and was examining the scabbed-over bites and scratches.

"I'm alright." He answered, as James looked at the scratches in concern.

"We should have been there with you mate." Remus shook his head at James' words.

"You can't be with me every full moon James." Remus pointed out gently, James sighed and nodded.

"I know, but if we can, then we should be there." He answered. Ariana patted his arm.

"Relax James, Remus is fine is he not?" She questioned. Remus nodded. " See, nothing to worry about."

"Alright." James finally agreed. The others laughed and the three sat down on the sofa. They wanted to exchange presents when everyone was there.

"Is Sirius not here yet?" Remus asked with a frown. They both shook their heads.

"No, he hasn't been replying to our letters and we heard all his family are round there." James replied. Remus frowned in concern, Ariana looked at him, much preferring when he he smiled.

"Do you think he's in trouble?" Remus asked, they could tell by his tone of voice that he thought so. James nodded.

"I think a trip to grimmauld place is in  order." He answered. Ariana put a hand in his arm.

"We must wait for Peter, or he'll be wondering where we are." She pointed out. Just then the doorbell rang. They all ran towards the door, to see Peter and his mother stood there.

"Peter!" They all celebrated at the same time. The boy bid goodbye to his mother and entered the house.

"We're going on a quest." Ariana told him.

"A quest?" He asked her, she nodded.

"A quest to find Sirius." She replied, he grinned at her.

"I'm in."

^^^
Sirius lay on his bed, hoping that at last his cousins would go. They had ridiculed him in front of the family, telling them all the things he and his 'blood-traitor' friends did that the family frowned upon. And that doesn't come without punishment.

He ached, his black eye had gone, just to be replaced by another, his back hurt from where his father had hit him multiple times with his cane, a heavy, solid piece of wood with the black family insignia on it. His side ached from where his cousin, Bellatrix, had caught him off guard and pushed him down the stairs.

He knew his family hated him, in fact the only person who gave him time if day since his 'nice' cousin Andromeda had been disowned, was his brother Regulus, whom say beside him now.

"Sirius you have to stop." Regulus told his brother, who sighed.

"I can't Reg, if I do anything they find fault with it. It's not my fault I'm different." Sirius sighed. "You should go, I don't want you to get hurt from being with a blood-traitor."

Regulus stared at him. "You're not a blood-traitor. You can still make it right with them, I know there has to be something we can do to stop this."

"Reg, there's nothing, absolutely nothing you can do, that I can do. This is just how it is." Sirius replied, his brother was about to argue, when there was a knock at the window. Both brothers stared at it.

"I know I ignore you at school." Regulus began, once they had decided there was nothing of the knocking on the window.

"No, Reg you have to, I don't care how you treat me at school, as long as it means you don't get hurt." Sirius replied. The knocking came again. Sirius frowned, painfully getting up and opening the window, only to be greeted with his best friend's face. "James?"

"Mind if we come in?" James grinned, Sirius just nodded and helped, James, Remus, Sirius, Ariana and Peter into his room.

"Did you know they were coming?" Regulus asked, Sirius shook his head as Ariana hugged him tightly.

"Ah! Carefully Arie." He winced.

"I was worried." She scolded him. He laughed.

"I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you answer our letters?" James asked accusingly, Sirius stared at him in surprise.

"I didn't get any." He replied, frowning at Regulus, who shrugged.

"Mother and father have blocked all correspondence apart from Black family owls." The younger of the black brothers explained.

"Why didn't you write to us?" Ariana asked, from where she still held onto Sirius like her life depended on it.

Sirius was lost for words. "I... I didn't have chance." He finally fabricated. Regulus rolled his eyes.

"They locked him in the basement."

"Reg!" Sirius glared at his brother.

"They might as well know." The younger shrugged.

"We're getting you out of here." Remus told him, Sirius shook his head at once.

"I can't leave Regulus." He responded.

"Yes you can, don't worry about me, I'm not the one they keep beating." Regulus responded.

"See, come on Sirius, it's safer at James'." Peter added. Sirius looked at his friends, to his brother, and back again. Finally, he nodded.

"Alright, see you at school Reg." Sirius nodded to his brother, who put something into his brothers palm.

"See you at school." He nodded back, although it wasn't certain whether he would ever see his brother and not have to be rude to him again.