Some Day | Wolfstar

Eleven

Sirius woke up to an empty dorm. He had slept for only ten or fifteen minutes. It wasn't enough. His first instinct had been to look for James.

But everything was just so heavy, and he couldn't get himself to climb out of bed. He felt like he was stagnating. He had to move.

So he sat up, placed a pillow against the headboard, and leaned against it. He pulled his knees up to his chest, and wrapped his arms around them. The sun was shining outside, several golden rays had managed to sneak in through the gap in the curtains. They warmed his skin where they fell.

Sirius knew he had to get Regulus' notebook. The drawing he'd made was exactly like the curse that had struck him. Sirius had meant to ask him about it, but Regulus hadn't spoken to him. At all.

Sirius suspected it was because of his parents, his mother, probably. But it still hurt. Leaving Regulus was not an easy choice. And now he was regretting it.

If Regulus had drawn that diagram, he must have known about it. But if not even Dumbledore had ever seen it before, then...

Could he be developing a new spell? A potion?

Regulus was one of the brightest students of his year. He was a member of Professor Slughorn's elite Slug Club, a group reserved for only the brightest of students that Slughorn favoured. If he had the proper guidance, Regulus could no doubt develop a new potion.

But would Regulus really be involved in developing something so harmful? Had his parents finally gotten to him? Or was it the Slytherins that pushed him to do it?

Show them you're not your brother. Prove yourself.

Sirius felt sick when he remembered the current state of his brother. On a strange bed, pale and sleeping, dead to the world. The black tendrils weren't spreading as quickly as they'd thought. But they were still progressing, inching steadily towards his heart.

What if they made him work out a curse, and tested it on him? But would mother have allowed that?

What if she wasn't involved?

Sirius was forced to exit his thoughts when he heard footsteps. It was Peter. He looked surprised to see Sirius.

"Oh... hey... Sirius!" He fingered his wand.

"Hello, Wormtail. Everything alright? You look rather poorly,"

"Could say the same about you... Hey, I have an essay to finish for Divination... I have to find Lily to help me. See you!" Peter grabbed his quill and vanished.

Sirius sighed. He would've liked some company. He tried to think of where James and Remus might be. He didn't have to for long, as they walked in soon after Peter had left.

"Hey, Padfoot," James smiled brightly. "Couldn't sleep?"

Remus looked at James as if he wanted to slap him across the face. James gave him a sheepish shrug in response. Sirius forced a small laugh out, but he doubted his friends bought it.

"I was going to find Lily, actually..." James scratched his neck, and Remus rolled his eyes. "Wormtail said he needed her help for an essay..." Sirius trailed off. "Oh yeah... for Muggle Studies! I could use some help too..."

"First of all, Lily doesn't even take Muggle Studies. Only Peter and you do. Secondly, the essay is for Divination. Which you don't even take, James." Sirius shook his head in mock disappointment. James pouted.

"Thirdly," Remus started, "you have an essay for Potions. We all do. And we need to get it done tonight."

Both James and Sirius groaned. The three friends went to the library with their scrolls and quills, and set to working on the essay.

They were done soon enough. Sooner than Sirius had thought. But no one was in the mood for joking around, and the lack of diversion proved to be in great favour of the essay's completion.

Sirius was staring at the Dark Arts section of the library, trying to find a book that they might've missed. There was none. He stood up and started walking towards the Potions section.

"Black," a voice stopped him in his tracks. Severus Snape.

Sirius heard the sound of a chair screeching. James had stood up, wand at the ready. Remus stood up as well, but only placed a hand on James' shoulder to calm him down.

Severus stepped forward, and Sirius could make out a leather-bound notebook in his hand. One of Regulus' notebooks.

"Tell your friend not to bother himself so much. Why don't you remind him that I'm the one who kept you from trouble when you sneaked into the dungeons?"

"I'll show you how unbothered I am, you worthless..."

"Gentlemen!" Madam Pince, the librarian, strode over to them. She sent them out of the library, all four boys glaring after her angrily as they entered the corridor.

"Seems to me that your friends don't know of your antics, Black," Snape spat, and Remus stepped forward. "What did you do, Sirius?"

"What did he do? Sneaked into the Slytherin common room, tried to go into the boys' rooms too. If it weren't for me, he'd be expelled for entering another house space without permission."

Remus looked ready to explode, but James looked quite proud that Sirius had done it all by himself.

"All for this little notebook," Snape tauntingly held up the book. "Just give it to me, Severus," Sirius spoke up for the first time since the Slytherin boy had appeared. He sounded tired, he just wanted to get things over with.

"Go get it yourself, Black." Severus threw the book up into the air, then pointed his wand at it. The book flew along the corridor and out a window.

In a flash, Severus Snape disappeared, and the three friends ran to the window. "Wingardium leviosa!" James chanted, and fetched the book before it hit the grass below.

Sirius reached for it, but Remus snatched it away before he could. His eyebrows were bowed into a small (rather adorable) frown. But his voice was nowhere near adorable as he turned to Sirius. "You have some explaining to do."