Chapter Text
Sirius has had slumps in his life. Hell it would be difficult to go through what he’s been through and not have some slumps, but what he was going through currently was a bit more than a slump. A slump is when your sister gets sorted into your rival house and your parents crown her their favorite child so your marks start to slip. A slump could be when you have to run away from said parents house because they found out you like men when they discovered you snogging one of your best friends in your room instead of attending their midsummer gala. A slump can even be when you have to make yourself get over your sibling feud really quickly because your parents found out your sister is actually your brother and he has nowhere else to go. A slump is decidedly not when you have been sitting alone for four years in the empty mansion your brother inherited, only because your parents didn’t have time to cut him out of the will before fucking off to hell, with no job or life goals because your boyfriend broke up with you and then left in the middle of the night and completely cut contact with you and all of your friends. That was more like a prolonged depressive episode.
It’s not like he was struggling. Regulus was more than happy to share the inheritance. He had even offered Sirius a job at Black Ink, the Black family company Regulus had inherited along with the house and the entirety of the Black fortune, but Sirius could tell he was just being polite and knew he wasn’t suited for office work anyways so he declined. And to be fair Sirius had been looking for work, he didn’t plan to just mooch off his brother moping around in his unchanged childhood bedroom forever, but applications were difficult to make look nice when you have zero work experience. Even when he did get an interview they were always “looking to go in a different direction” or some bullshit like that. It’s not like he even knew what he wanted to do with his life. He had gotten alright scores on his OWLs but he never really had anything he really wanted to do work wise.
Moony was supposed to have helped him with things like this, getting his thoughts together, that was always his area. Sirius did get the tiniest sense of mental clarity when the Gryffindor girls and the remaining marauders met up for drinks or dinner or board games once a week.
“Lily?” Mary yells digging through the fridge of her and Lily’s flat, “did you want the pinot grigio again or-”
“Do you have any firewhiskey?” he yells in return, shrinking into the overly plush couch. Mary snaps her head back and gives him a worried look, as Lily stops tidying the living room to stare at him disappointedly.
“Don’t give him a firewhiskey.” Lily says unamused.
“Don’t worry love, he’s getting water.” Mary responds. Sirius groans, sinking further into the couch.
“We’re celebrating Peter’s promotion Sirius, I’m not letting you get drunk.” Lily says sternly.
“But I’m more fun when I’m tipsy! Peter, aren't I more fun when I’m tipsy?” Peter stares at him silently, with a polite smile. “You guys are no fun!”
“You choose this.” Marlene grins down at his disheveled form sinking into the couch and ruffles his hair. “Peter,” She looks up towards the other side of the couch “is James coming tonight?”
“He should be here soon, yeah.” and like magic, the door swings open and James enters.
“Sorry I’m late!” He says, taking his muddy shoes off and walking to Mary to help her bring everyone their drinks. Mary begrudgingly accepts his help, she’s always enjoyed hosting and refuses to let even Lily assist at times but James always manages to slip in to help when she can’t refuse. Sirius sadly grabbed his water as he felt a nudge from beside him. Marlene had sat down next to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders.
“You’re kind of bringing down the mood,” she whispers to him, “could you try and seem a bit happier to be here? Pete is really excited about this promotion and it would suck if he spent the evening worrying about you.”
She’s right, of course Sirius knows that. Peter had been placed on The Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee, a position he’d been attempting to get since he had first got an internship at the ministry right out of Hogwarts. So Sirius took a deep breath and determined he was going to act like a normal and healthy member of society for the entire night. That was his intention, truly, but that goal was quite difficult when Mary’s eyes suddenly lit up and she raced out of the room only to come back with a muggle magazine in hand which she shoved into Sirius’ hands, the front cover plastered with a photo of Remus.
“Mary, where did you find this?” He stammers out, looking closer at the cover he sees ‘Remus Lupin, up-and-coming British actor, cast as Spiderman in new Marvel film’.
“I was checking out at the shop this morning and I saw that and I nearly knocked over the stand grabbing one.” Mary tells him as he flips through the pages to find the whole story.
“He’s in New York… Wormy?” Sirius says looking towards Peter, “how much is a ticket to New York?”
“It’d be about £1,300. Why-”
“For Godric’s sake, Sirius, you are not going to New York just to go chase after Remus!” Lily says with an excited Mary perched on the arm of her chair.
“I don’t know, wouldn’t it be kind of romantic Lils?” Mary says turning to her, “wouldn’t you chase me to America.” she bats her eyes as Lily rolls hers, a smile spreading across her face.
“Ew, get a room!” Marlene yells, which prompts Lily to chuck a pillow at Marlene, smacking her in the face.
“I need to make a call.” Sirius mutters under his breath before rushing out of the room, Marlene staggering up quickly to follow him.
“Sirius, stop it. Stop!” She says once they were in the hallway, grabbing his phone out of his hand. “You need to think for more than like five seconds before booking a flight to fly across an ocean to see a man you haven’t seen in four years, dumbass.”
“But Mar…” he stares at her with the biggest pout he can muster. He must look like a wet cat with how unkempt he is. But Marlene looks back with an unshaken serious expression, “it’s Remus.” Sirius finishes, a slight crack in his voice conveying how pitiful he feels. Marlene stares at him momentarily with a look of pity, Sirius has been getting a lot of those in recent years, before her face morphs into something between annoyed and defeated.
“Fine alright, go find him. But you better not go by yourself. Have someone to go with you alright?” She says handing his phone back to him as he smiles giddily and hugs her tightly. She can’t help but smile in return, it’s nice to finally see Sirius in a good mood.