Chapter Text
Sirius flipped through the pages of the magazine, skipping articles and articles about the new gossip and over-dramatic statements until he found his own face staring at him.
It was mostly the usual stuff, rumours of his secret relationship with Marlene, pictures of him shirtless and bright red letter on the top saying TENSION IN THE MARAUDERS. He wasn't sure what the tension was and reading the article didn't make anything clearer.
“ Why are you reading that trash?”
Lily walked down the stairs balancing a computer and a mug of coffee in her arms while giving him an inquisitive look.
“ It's so bad that it becomes good.” He shrugged. “ Don't you want to know what people say about you?”
“ Not really, the articles about me always focus more on James than on myself.” She pushed his feet off the seat, despite them having two sofas and a bunch of armchairs, and sat down. “I can lift a car with my hands but my relationship is the most interesting thing about me.”
“ Maybe you can try lifting a car with your feet.”
“ Don't tease or I will actually do it.”
They sat there in a comfortable silence, the sound of Lily fast tipping and the fireplace almost making him fall asleep; the beginning of a storm could be heard from outside.
Lily was right, of course she was, her and Marlene's articles were almost entirely about James and him except for a small column in the right corners talking about their fashion choices.
Peter and Mary didn't even get a full page each one, Mary because unlike the others wasn't shipped by the media with anyone and Peter because…He didn't want to be mean but Peter kind of faded out next to the others:
James´ parents were world renowned heros and he could travel 1000 kilometres in a minute, everyone immediately loved him from the minute Eiffe announced the pregnancy. Lily, as she said before, could lift a car, Marlene read minds and Mary's skin was literally bulletproof, trashy magazines might not give them the proper credit but there were a lot of girls that looked up to them. Sirius with his family tragedy wouldn't even need to be a hero to be known world-wide, true crime podcasts were very popular.
Peter being able to sense danger was useful as hell but not as visually impressive as seeing Mary being hit by a bullet, especially because he couldn't sense what the danger was.
Speaking of the devil, their voices could be heard from the entry and in a second James was next to them kissing Lily's cheek and turning on the TV on the news, it was something about electricity prices, the screen was filled with red numbers.
That didn't have any importance to him, being a hero, even the worst ones could easily afford heating a house in the winter. Powered people were rare and even more rare were powered people with powers useful to the agency. He remembers one girl in Hogwarts that could eat metal, she didn't become a hero but at least would never go hungry.
“ We bought some stuff for dinner, the leftovers reign of terror is officialy over.” James threw himself into the other couch with the grace of a fish out of water. ” What have you been doing?”
Sirius waved the magazine and Lily turned the computer to him showing a document without title, it was the report of their more recent mission.
Why they needed to write reports was a mystery since their missions consisted in helping old ladies cross the street but James was insistent in always making them so the higher ups wouldn't have nothing to hold over his head when he nagged them for the thousandth time for better missions.
“ It seems like you are the only one not contributing in this household, Sirius,” Mary teased
“ At least he is useful when we need to charge our phones,” Peter joined.
“ I'm doing important work, you ungrateful bastards.” He waved the magazine even more dramatically. “ I'm learning about me and McKinnon's secret relationship.”
“ Damn, it's so secret that not even I was aware of it,” Marlene smirked, gaining some laughs around the room.
Lily, who had been very silent, suddenly commanded, “ Turn the volume up.”
James obeyed and Sirius saw that the scene had changed from the numbers to a young man, not older than thirty with brown hair and extremely pale skin but the most noticeable feature were the eyes, an unnatural shade of red that looked like blood and sent chills down Sirius's spine.
It was about the elections to prime minister, the reporter announced a bunch of candidates names but the only two that had enough support to contest the place were Barty Crouch and Tom Riddle.
Crouch was minister of defence and a good friend of Dumbledore, the agency's director, so Sirius and every powered person were very well acquainted with his face, which meant that the red eyed guy was Riddle. The name Riddle wasn't weird to him, he could remember it being mentioned on the news once or twice but he had never seen the man. Something on him was deeply unsettling.
“ Who would have thought? Crouch was basically elected already,” Marlene exclaimed, it was true. After so many years in such an important role and still being liked by the people, Crouch had the place assured. If he ended up losing to a guy who had never messed with politics before he would become a joke.
“ I don't even know this Riddle guy. Have any of you heard of him before?” Peter asked
“He's a businessman. Was in the top ten most wealthy in the country.” Lily answered
That was weird. Businessmen were usually from old wealthy families and Sirius knew every one of them from the genealogy lessons before he ran to the Potters. Maybe Riddle was a foreigner.
" Is he from England?" For him to be so wealthy or was really from an aristocratic family from another country or was involved in very illegal shit or both like Sirius parents.
" It doesn't say"
Very illegal shit, it was. It did not surprise him, the man had the look of someone who would strangle a puppy.
" Never thought I would say this but I hope Crouch wins. Coming out of nowhere with so much money and the public immediately loving him is dodgy." Mary had a clinical expression when she spoke, she was the only one of them that took advanced history back in Hogwarts and she always said that she would never look at politics the same way again.
" Most rich folks are dodgy." James shrugged. " What do you think, mate?"
Sirius pretended to think about it, putting his hand on his chin like a detective in an old noir movie.
That Riddle guy was awful, he didn't need to talk to him to know that. Not that there was something obviously wrong with his face, most people would probably call him handsome, but the vicious smile reminded him enough of Orion for him to decide that he was just as bad.
" The guy is fucking weird. Have you looked into his eyes? Who the fuck has bloody red eyes?"
" Albinos have red eyes sometimes," Lily provided.
" Pretty sure he isn't albino, Lils," Marlene laughed and Lily bit her lip slightly, a gesture that after years of friendship Sirius could interpret as her becoming annoyed, that must be due more to the report than Marlene's tease. They made her already short temper become shorter.
" I can see that, thank you, but that doesn't change the fact that there are people with red eyes." James, who at that point had a masters degree in Evans language, lay down next to her basically kicking Sirius out.
After that the conversation died off, Sirius flipped James off and went, with Peter, to the kitchen to cook the chicken that the others bought.
He was in charge of washing and peeling the vegetables and Peter of the actual cooking but Pete didn't complain. Everyone was still traumatised after he confused salt with sugar and served burned sweet lasagna.
The dinner went as usual. They were all a bit tired, except James whose energy seemed to be infinite, but managed to make some more comments about the news and future missions.
Their talk about future missions was mostly them complaining about being stuck doing baby jobs , as Marlene called them. James swore for his life that they would be fighting villains in no time but no one actually believed him.
Sirius was the second person more eager for a real mission just behind James but even he had to accept that they would need to wait some more years, after dozens of rejections.
They were still nineteen, the youngest hero to be sent on an official mission was sixteen but that was in 1953 - currently the standard was twenty one, twenty two.
In his head there was no reason for them not being allowed to do real jobs, they were legal adults: could drink, could drive, could vote. Damn he could get someone pregnant and start a family, or he could if he wasn't gay but the point was still there, all doors were aready open except the most imortant.
It was Lily and Mary's turn at washing the dishes so Sirius was opening the door to go take a bike ride until James pulled him aside into the office.
The office had a state-of-the-art computer, that Sirius was sure only Lily knew how to fully use, but more impressive were the walls full of books and archives about every possible topic - from fiction to obscure agency information you couldn't find on-line.
" It's almost the day," James started with the low and soft voice that Sirius hated and loved so much at the same time, " how are you doing?"
He refused to look at James instead focusing on some random books on the floor.
Three years would have passed in a week
Three year since he ran away from home, three years since his parents died, three years since someone last saw him .
How did he feel about that?
Some days he was fine, it all seemed like decades ago and he could almost forget and believe the Potters' words that it wasn't his fault.
Other days he saw an article or a post or someone would ask him questions about it and suddenly he didn't know if he was about to scream or cry. The void in his chest would open again like he lost an indispensable part of himself and couldn't function without it. In a certain way he had, he considered that piece lost long before the plane crash but it was not lost yet, he could have fought a little bit harder to keep it, to keep him.
" I'm handling it." It was the truth.
He was better than last year and last year he was better than the year before that, maybe next year he would be better than he was at the moment and in ten the day will have lost all its meaning.
James approached him like he was going to put his hand on Sirius's shoulder but backed off with a troubled expression.
Sirius grabbed his hand and placed it on his shoulder with a painful smile, James wasn't the kind of guy that hesitates and he didn't want to be the reason he started to. "Will you be joining me in my yearly vigilance session?"
" It would be an honour." James smiled like a child and Sirius swore he could have mistaken him for Eiffy.
The birthday was something very private, he didn't let anyone else see how much it affected him, but James wasn't a friend - he was a brother.
Not a brother like the one he lost but just as loved. Sometimes he wondered what Reg would have thought about him.
" I have been annoying Moody more than usual about giving us a good mission." The air seemed to become less dense after James spoke, childhood traumas left behind. " He will give in sooner or later."
" Keep dreaming. The more you ask, the less he wants to do it.”
“ Just trust me - I have a feeling things are about to change.”