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***
Quidditch practice provided all of them a well needed opportunity to blow off some steam. The Gryffindor team had secured the Tuesday morning slot on the pitch, and now they were spilling out of the castle, outdoor cloaks over their quidditch clothes, lugging their gear with them, their breaths hanging in the air as puffs of white smoke.
Benji Fenwick and Kingsley Shackelbolt carried the large trunk containing the different balls between them. It bucked and wiggled as the balls tried to free themselves, excited by the movement.
Kingsley normally had his long locks tied in a knot at the base of his skull, but in order to fit the head-guard over them he'd let them loose, and as such they reached the middle of his back. He was in good spirits this morning, because soon he'd pass the torch to a new captain. As much as he loved the sport, he was about to graduate the following spring, and wanted to focus on studying for the Auror Academy entrance exam.
By the time they'd reached the quidditch pitch they were all more or less warmed up already, and set to strapping on pads and guards, tying boots and fastening gloves, then they stood in a circle and, under the instructions of Fabian and Gideon, practiced a series of exercises to stretch their arms, shoulders and backs.
Sufficiently warmed up, stretched out and awake, Sirius grabbed the bats from the equipment storage and sauntered off to supply one to their co-beater Caradoc Dearborn, juggling them on the way.
"Black! If you knock yourself or Dearborn out with one of those you're off the team! I need you all in one piece on Saturday, or Ravenclaw will eat us alive!" Boomed Kingsley.
"If you need me on Saturday you better not kick me off the team, Skacklebolt!" Sirius retorted, as they spun around to face their captain, catching the bats expertly behind their back, one in each hand.
From the side lines, at the bottom of the Gryffindor stands, came a trill of laughter.
The team practice always drew a bit of a crowd. Both Marlene and Dorcas were hoping to try out for the team the next year, to fill the positions of not only Kingsley, but Caradoc as well, and, as Lily had put it, increase the diversity on the team in terms of both gender and race. Lily was there now, too, and of course wherever Lily went, there went Severus Snape. He was skulking on his own, a little outside the group of Gryffindor students who, apparently, had nothing better to do on a freezing Tuesday morning, shaking his head disapprovingly when Lily tried to wave him over to join them.
James had spotted them too, curiously turning to see where the sing-song laughter had come from, and now he turned to Sirius, both of them rolling their eyes dramatically.
"Bet you a whole pack of Bertie Bott's you can't aim a bludger at Snivellus' greasy head," James called out, much too loud for how close to him Sirius was standing, and definitely intended for Snape to hear.
The encore of giggles from the Gryffindor girls emboldened them both immediately, and the bet was on.
***
Sirius was entertaining the four friends during their afternoon potions class, by throwing Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans into the air and seeing who could catch it first with their open mouth. The potions master, Horace Slughorn, was too busy fawning over the concoction Lily and Severus was brewing, to notice the Marauders slacking off.
Lily, however, was not, and after the class let out, she cornered them in the dungeon outside.
"Potter, Black, what is wrong with you!? You could have really hurt poor Severus, or any of us, for that matter!"
She had approached them from behind when they left the classroom, having waited outside the door for them to come sauntering out last, which they inevitably did, bringing up the rear of the class, laughing and joking as they did so.
Pulling his hands through his hair, James spun around and threw his arms out, as if to embrace her.
"C'mon Evans, you know I'd never let that bludger hit you. We were aiming for Snivellus, and we've got great aim, as he can pretty well attest to."
At that, the other three couldn't help but burst out laughing, and James, confidently, shifted his weight to his other foot, crossed his arms over his chest, and winked at the angry redhead who was facing them down, hands on her hips, green eyes ablaze.
"Why are you so cruel to him? What's He ever done to you?"
"Nothing, he's just a greasy git, is all. Why, if you love him so much, don't you marry him?" Sirius snorted, between bursts of laughter, earning them something like a squeal from Peter, and a theatrical gagging sound from Remus.
Undeterred, possibly even spurned on by this, Lily stepped up toe to toe with James, and hissed through gritted teeth:
"Severus is my friend, I've known him forever, we're not a couple. You lot are a bunch of pompous, mean-spirited prats."
For a moment they locked eyes, James and Lily.
She, daring him to say anything else on the matter, and him, weighing up his options of what to say next.
"Go out with me then, if you're not with Snivellus?"
"Sod off, Potter!"
Lily deliberately bumped him hard with her shoulder as she stormed past, and caused the other three to hurriedly swerve out of her way as her patent shoes clicked furiously down the dungeon corridor.
Rubbing his shoulder where she'd checked him, James looked forlornly after the vanishing swish of red hair.
"She hates me, doesn't she?"
"Can you blame her?" Remus chuckled. "C'mon, mate, let's raid the kitchen, I'm starving!"
***
Remus was sitting in the library, curled up in one of two armchairs at the back of an aisle between bookshelves, he had pulled his too-big burnt orange jumper over his knees. In the low light of an oil-lamp on the side table separating the chairs, he was browsing a historic biography of the druid Diviciacus, and covertly eating a pumpkin pasty. He had tucked his satchel bag down the back of the chair, and in it he kept not only his parchment and quills, ink and relevant school books, but a good stash of sweets, chocolate, sandwiches, a muggle thermos flask - anything a growing werewolf boy could need.
This is where Lily found him.
He had expected all of the other students, his best friends included, to have gone out to play in the newly fallen snow, despite the quickly fading daylight, so when Lily flung herself into the second armchair with a heavy sigh, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Yesi mawr, Lily!" He fumbled with the pasty he had almost dropped, cheeks flushing red and heart pounding from the fright. "You scared the shit out of me."
Lily rolled her eyes at the ceiling, but then her expression softened as she tilted her head to face him,
"Have you got any chocolate in your stash?"
Remus shuddered as he collected himself somewhat.
Putting his feet on the floor and straightening his jumper, he retrieved his satchel from its hiding place and tossed in across to her.
"There's some in there, take your pick."
They sat in silence for a moment while Lily groped around in the bag and retrieved a Honeyduke's chocolate bar.
"Why aren't you outside playing?" He asked, making himself comfortable in the seat once more, and taking a bite out of the pasty.
She shrugged, and said through a mouthful of chocolate:
"Didn't feel like it, it's my time of the month. Is it yours, too?"
At that, Remus once again had to sit bolt upright, coughing and spitting pastry crumbs over his jumper.
Lily waited patiently for him to gather himself. Red-faced, and with tears pooling in his eyes from choking on his snack, he sputtered, finally:
"W-what are you talking about!?"
"Your time of the month, Remus." She said calmly, fixing him with a stare.
"I'm not the one who can climb the girls' stairs…" he continued to sputter, swallowing the offending piece of pumpkin, hard.
Once again, Lily rolled her eyes.
"I'm not talking about periods, obviously, I'm talking about your furry little problem."
She had whispered that last part, quietly, even for the library. Now she leaned in over the armrest of her chair, as to better stare him down.
"I know, Remus."
She raised both eyebrows, tilting her face to indicate the pale disc of the moon that hovered, almost full, above the castle grounds.
But the boy was like a deer in headlights, helplessly and fruitlessly flapping for an evasive manoeuvre.
"I have no idea what you mean…"
"Oh, for crying out loud, I know about your lycanthropy." She hissed.
"I've known since second year. I was reading up on magical creatures - you know I'm not from a magical family - and I put two and two together.
I know that's why you go away every month, and I know you have to register, that you're not permitted to get a magical education and that you're dangerous on the full moon.
But I also know that 27 out of 28 days you are clever and kind, and it's not fair that you should be treated differently - although I can't for the life of me understand why you are friends with Potter and Black - and I won't tell anyone, ever, but I know what I know."
Remus had just stared at her through her declaration, and continued staring at her now, pale as the moon itself, the pasty forgotten in his hand.
Lily sat back up straight and gave him a small smile. When she spoke again her voice was kinder, softer.
"It must be frightening, going through all that. It must hurt a lot. I'm sorry, Remus."
When he blinked now, tears fell from his eyes again, and just like that, he finally crumbled. He drew his shoulders up and curled in on himself, pressing his fist to his mouth to suppress the sobs that suddenly shook his skinny body.
Lily was out of her seat in an instant and fell on her knees on the floor in front of him. Throwing her arms around him, she shushed him as they rocked together, all the while petting his hair and holding him tight while he cried.
He had never cried in front of anyone, other than his parents, before. He had not cried other than from fear before his transformations, and in pain afterwards, not since he was small.
He felt incredibly small now.
Lily was right, of course, it was frightening, and it was painful, and it was so very lonely. So he clung to her now and let everything he'd been holding onto rip through him. Not that he could have stopped if he wanted to, it was as if she had spelled a hole right through his defences.
They might have sat like that for a lifetime, Remus couldn't have known. But when he finally surfaced from the crook Lily's neck, her hair stuck to his face, wet with tears and snot. Embarrassed, he mumbled an apology and wiped his nose on his sleeve.
Lily sat back on her heels, smiling, and took a tissue out of her pocket, gently wiping the tears and snot off his scarred cheek.
"It's going to be alright, you know that, right?"
Remus snorted a little laugh and shook his head, smiling despite himself.
Until now, he had kept his eyes downcast, but now he looked up to meet her gaze, the light from the lamp reflecting in his eyes, like an animal's eyes, shining through the remains of the twilight.
Her hand with the tissue in it twitched when he grabbed it and held it in both of his own.
"Thank you," he began. But there was no joy in his smile. "Thank you, but I'm afraid you're wrong."
***
The summer between their third and fourth year Sirius couldn't wait to escape the Black Family townhouse.
Sure, they had Regulus, and the house was big enough that they seldom ran out of places to hide from their mother and her sneering house elf. But relations within the House of Black was becoming more and more strained the more time they spent under the same roof.
Tensions didn't ease with the arrival of Cygnus and Druella Black and their daughters - Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa - their aunt and uncle, and their three cousins.
Romy And Cissy were alright, the youngest girl often followed the oldest around, but on her own she was meek and kind enough. Romy kept herself to herself for the most part, but Sirius found her the least objectionable of their cousins.
Unfortunately there was no escaping Bella as long as she had her sights set on you. She had already graduated from Hogwarts, and was apparently hell bent on making up for any missed opportunity to torment Sirius, now that they were both under the same roof for the week.
Orion and Cygnus had left for France, leaving Walburga and Druella to get drunk on fire whisky cocktails while they left their children to raise each other.
Every waking moment was plagued by the cackling laughter of the oldest of the Black sisters. She would shoot curses at them from across the great lawn behind the house, even as they were retreating to find solace from her elsewhere. She would barge into their room and hound them about the Gryffindor banners hanging there, being a proud Slytherin alum herself, any other house allegiance was beneath her. Besides all that, she would trip them, pinch them, pull their hair and scratch them.
Their mothers didn't seem to care, except for doling out punishment for Sirius' retaliations against their cousin, the two women spent their time in an opioid daze.
When word finally came from France, it was an order from Orion that his family join him, provided that his children had been well behaved and played nicely with their cousins.
And so, the extended family Black were off to continental Europe, except that Sirius was irrevocably banned from attending this year's family holiday.
A punishment, Orion had decided, for their disgraceful behaviour and bad influence over Regulus.
Although they were happy to be rid of Bella, the thought of leaving Regulus to her cruel fancies made their stomach twist in knots. The grown-ups, however, were more concerned with where to leave the ill-mannered child. The Potter's were out of the question, obviously, as it would not constitute much of a punishment, but that's where Romy stepped in.
"I'll take him with me back to ours. He can do chores around the house, and help me with my research. I'll keep him in line, don't you worry", she said, clamping her hand down on Sirius' shoulder, hard enough that it made them flinch.
Andromeda debated her mother back and forth for a moment, but it seemed more for posterity on Druella's behalf than anything else, as both her and Walburga just seemed pleased to have her take the disruptive teenager off their hands.
Hence it was decided; and after having hastily packed a knapsack, Sirius and Andromeda Floo'd to the secluded mansion belonging to yet another branch of the Ancient and Moste Noble House of Black.
Andromeda dusted herself off and kicked off her shoes as soon as they stepped out of the fireplace in the grandiose front room. To Sirius' surprise, she left them there, and stretched - like a cat might - touching her fingertips to her toes. While down there, she collected her long, dark hair in a messy bun of curls on the top of her head, where it had hung.
"Merlin's navel-lint, I need a drink. Glass of wine, Siri?" It was a question, but she didn't wait for an answer. Instead she marched up to a large wooden globe, which, evidently, opened at the equator, the northern hemisphere swinging upwards on a sturdy metal hinge, and took out a bottle.
She accio'd two crystal glasses and poured a generous amount into both of them, and held out one of them towards her cousin.
"I… I'm thirteen..?" Sirius wondered if this was a test. They had always had a good feeling about Romy, but you could never be too careful about who you put your trust in, not in this family.
She shrugged, taking a mouthful of wine from the glass in her other hand.
"Fine, I'll have them both. So, what do you wanna do? Oh, I know - have you heard The Beatles?"
She had started towards the door, but stopped short of it when she realised that her cousin had yet to move from in front of the heath. Now, she turned around to really look at Sirius for the first time since they arrived. For a moment, they both stood silent.
"Ok, look. I'm not really going to put you to work," she smiled, "here, have this glass of wine, I'm going to pick up a couple of things, and then we'll go to uncle Alphard's and meet Teddy."
Again, she held the glass, walking over to them this time to hand it to the suspicious teen.
Sirius took the glass, and the older girl gave them a friendly grin before she disappeared through the door into what must be a hallway.
They weren't sure what to make of this. They'd heard their uncle's name mentioned, sure, but who was Teddy and where were they going?
The musty red wine made their face twist in an involuntary grimace, but they persevered. If it was a trap after all, at least the wine would dull the pain of whatever punishment was coming their way.
But when Andromeda Black walked back into the room, Sirius nearly choked on it.
She had changed her clothes, and was now wearing a short skirt, high boots, and a Peter Pan collar jumper, a large shopping bag under her arm - she was dressed like a muggle woman, straight out of a catalogue!
When she saw her cousin's face, she doubled over, covering her snorts of laughter with her hands.
"Don't worry, Siri," she choked out, finally. "We'll get you some clothes when we get to London. C'mon, let's Floo."
***
As they always did at the beginning of a new school year, the four Marauders met up on-board the Hogwarts Express, in their preferred carriage at the back of the train.
First on board was James - more tan than usual after a summer holiday spent visiting various extended family members all across India with his parents, and with a mass of hair wilder than ever, he even sported the beginnings of facial hair - and Peter - his blonde hair streaked with sun-bleached silver, a smattering of freckles covering his face. They had met in The Leaky Cauldron already that morning and done their last minute back-to-school shopping in Diagon Alley.
Now they sat huddled next to each other, whispering excitedly over a second hand book they'd picked up that morning. They were secretly hoping that Sirius would arrive before Remus did, which wasn't unreasonable, as their friend would have had to travel from Wales in the early hours if he was going to make the train, and they had something exciting to share with Black heir.
They would not get that chance for a few hours yet, though. Soon enough, Remus walked out of the barrier to Platform 9¾, chatting to none other than Lily Evans.
He had grown over the summer, in fact, he was probably as tall as James now if not taller, and he had a fresh scar running down his cheek and neck. And he seemed to be limping slightly.
The boys in the train carriage turned to each other, exchanging worried glances. The sooner they could get Sirius alone, the sooner they could show them what they'd found. A potential solution to their gangly friend's furry little problem.
But right now that very friend was laughing heartily at something Lily Evans had said, then the latter stood on her tiptoes to give the tall young man a hug, before the both of them gathered their trunks and boarded the train.
No sooner had Remus shuffled through the compartment door with his luggage than James began to question him.
"What the hell, Lupin, why are you flirting with my girlfriend?"
Tucking his trunk away on the shelf above the seats, he snorted a sarcastic laugh, before making himself comfortable and pulling out a beaten muggle paperback from his back pocket. The cover said Maurice, the spine - E.M. Forster.
"Why, yes, I've had a lovely summer, Jamie, thank you for asking."
"Remus, come on!"
"Jamie, come on, you don't own her."
While the two of them argued, Peter carefully slipped the book that he and James had been reading behind his back. Looking around to make sure no-one had seen him, he spotted something on the platform outside, which made him do a double-take.
"Hey fellas, shut up and look." He pointed out the carriage window.
Sirius came strolling alongside the Hogwarts Express, chatting to a clean-shaven Kingsley Shackelbolt wearing a gorgeous purple dashiki suit, but lock-less Auror-trainee was not to whom Peter was referring.
Sirius themself had gone through somewhat of a transformation.
Instead of their usual tailored robes, they were dressed in muggle clothing, namely a pair of dark denim jeans that seemed too small for them, and an equally small, well-worn dark t-shirt with a picture on the front, which left a strip of pale skin visible above their waistline.
This, paired with trainers and carelessly short-clipped hair was quite a sight for the witches and wizards crowding the platform.
As they entered the compartment, the others were stunned silent for a moment.
"What?" they grinned, awaiting a reaction from the three friends.
Peter gaped. Remus stared at their stomach.
James broke the silence first.
"You've cut your hair…"
Sirius groaned, sagging their shoulders and rolling their head skyward.
"My mother cut my hair," they corrected, stuffing their trunk underneath the seats and flopping down on it next to Remus. They scrubbed their hand over their scraggly haircut.
"My cousin Romy and I kind of ran away from home while they all were in France, and she was not pleased, to say the least."
The recollection made them chuckle fondly, but the others now had more questions than answers.
So for the journey to Scotland and Hogsmead station, they settled in to listen to Sirius' tale.
They told them about their old uncle Alphard, who lived in a muggle flat in Peckham with his muggle "companion" Greg, and about Andromeda's secret muggle boyfriend Ted, about muggle bands like The Stooges - who currently adorned their shirt - T-Rex and The Velvet Underground.
They told them about wine, the cigarettes Ted Tonks smoked, vinyl record shops, cafes and carefully curated second hand clothes shops in muggle London.
Finally, they told them about their family's return from their provincial holiday to find the two mischievous cousins were nowhere to be seen, and the punishment that ensued once they were found out, including their choppy new hair.
"Mother said since I'm 'a dirty muggle lover' like my cousin, and a 'perverted shirt-lifter' like my uncle, she'd cut my hair like a muggle. So she literally tied me to a chair and hacked my hair off with a knife from the kitchen."
Looking a bit more forlorn, and a bit less wide-eyed with wonder, now, they scuffed the toes of their shoes on the floor.
"I don't even know what that means…" they trailed off, looking up at the others through their lashes for help.
Remus squirmed, and put down one of the muggle magazines Sirius had brought on top of his paperback, but offered no answer.
Peter And James only shrugged.
"Sorry, mate, I have no idea," James gave his friend a sympathetic look.
"I don't suppose your mom likes muggles very much," was Peter's only contribution.
Sirius leaned their head on the backrest, face angled towards the shelf above, and sighed.
"Well, at least Romy taught me some wicked wards to keep mother and father out of my room."
***