Chapter Text
For Sirius, the worst part about it all is that the whole situation was ridiculous. The fact that they had to move out of their house, the way that it all happened, how the government took his father away, and most of all, the fact that his family had to move all the way to the absolute middle of fucking nowhere.
To be fair, they’d gotten the best part, they were lucky. After the investigation, his father got a deal that protected his mother and them, at least they had enough money to get a house and afford a cleaning lady, because of course, God knew his mother had no idea how to manage a household. Mrs Finch sat in the passenger seat of their Volvo while his mother drove, mumbling under her breath about directions. His brother, asleep by his side, hogged the blanket, little fuck.
Bryncoed was in the south of Wales, surrounded by trees and land and… sheep, maybe. The only thing he knew is that probably no one had any idea who the Black family was, or how they’d lost almost their entire fortune, so it was the perfect place to start over.
“They could’ve at least paved the road.” His mother mumbled once more, her voice tight with irritation. “I swear to God, Orion would’ve never—”
She cut herself off, and Sirius didn’t even bother to look at her.
Outside, the road narrowed into something uneven and gravelly, bordered by low stone walls and fields he couldn’t see the end of, the land there seemed to go on forever. Everything looked damp, like the sun directly skipped over the town, like it had forgotten the place even existed. Grey sky, grey grass, grey trees, gray houses. He dragged his eyes to the rearview mirror, seeing his own reflection instead; he hadn’t slept much the night before, nor had Regulus, who had since woken up.
The car jolted back on the uneven road, stopping in front of a small, dishevelled house in a line of other small, dishevelled houses. It was big enough for the four of them, but way too small compared to their previous state. No sun room, no telly room, no art studio, no grand piano. Hell, even his mother got a job as a secretary. It was almost comedic, the most judgemental and classist woman he knew had to work for someone else to earn some money (that wasn’t dirty) and pay a woman to clean and cook for her. His grandfather would die all over again if he saw his dear Buggie like this. He almost laughed. Regulus shifted beside him but didn’t complain, he didn’t say much anymore, not recently.
“Here.” His mother said, sharply.
He didn’t move right away. He tried to imagine for a moment – just one moment – that opening the car door would lead to their house in Bath, with all their commodities, warm, alive and actually theirs. Then the engine cut, and reality settled in.
“Out.” She added, already reaching for her bag, when she saw neither of her sons moved, she went around the vehicle and opened the back door herself. “I said out.”
With mixed mumbles of “Fine, fine” and “Coming!” they stepped out of the car to what their new reality would be; grey and damp. Oh yeah, another thing: the place was fucking freezing for September, cold air hitting his face immediately, sharper than he expected, it smelled of wet earth and leaves. His boots hit the gravel hard, he dragged his feet up to the front porch with his backpack slipping from his shoulders, he took a good look at the house. It was narrow and slightly crooked, the paint peeling along the edges showed the reason why they’d gotten it so cheap. The garden –if it could be called that, awful sight, truly– was overgrown, weeds pushing through what might’ve been once a path. A few nosy neighbours with their head out their windows or passing by while pretending not to stare.
“Well,” his mother started. “It will have to do. Get in, boys.”
Sirius couldn’t help himself this time. “Charming.”
“Something to add?”
“Yeah, but none of it is helpful.”
“Then shut up.”
He rolled his eyes, throwing his head back in exhaustion. Regulus nudged him softly, side eyeing him. Stop. He nudged back. Not now.
***
Unpacking took most of the afternoon. Well, that and following Reg around to spook him. Every room made a creaking sound and he took every opportunity to run the tips of his fingers up his brother’s nape.
“Sirius for fuck’s— Stop!” Regulus batted his hand again for the millionth time that afternoon, making him bark out a laugh once again. “It’s not funny.”
“Lighten up, pup. You’ve got to admit this place is pretty bloody scary, I bet it’s full of ghosts. Look at all these cobwebs.”
“It just means it’s dirty, you know ghosts don’t exist.” Even if he looked completely certain, the slight tremble in Regulus’s voice gave it away that he was, in fact, spooked.
Their mother’s heels echoed in the hallway just in time, Mrs Finch following her around as she decided which room was what, which in all fairness, there were only four rooms. In a very mushy nature, and with a huge déjà vu, they hung up the SIRIUS and REGULUS signs in their doors, because there were just some habits they could never get rid of. A house they lived in would never be truly theirs if their rooms weren’t side by side so they could sneak in and out at night to get snacks or just talk. He’d never allow himself to not be there if Reg needed him.
After that he just wandered, still getting used to the constant creaking of the floor, uneven under his feet. The walls were also thinner than he was used to–he could hear muffled voices from downstairs, the horrible scrape of furniture being moved and the dull thud of boxes being dropped. The lack of decoration and portraits was still foreign to him, he was used to generations of eyes like his own watching over them solemnly as they walked, said portraits probably sat in a vault now.
Eventually he returned to his room, just as grey, spooky and bland as the rest of the house. He looked out his window, considering lighting a fag, but no, the rooms were all too close and his mum would smell it… Bloody house. The window in his room overlooked the side of the house, where the so-called garden gave way to a narrow stretch of land and beyond that was another house.
Now that was an ugly house. Darker, even in the dull daylight, curtains drawn, the garden looked even worse than theirs, weeds growing wild for at least a few months, moss crawling up the walls. It even looked a bit more distant than the other houses in the neighbourhood despite being at the same estimated distance. It just felt too far.
“Creepy.” He whispered, and as if on cue, something– or someone, moved. A tall, lanky figure appeared on the only open window just to close it after noticing Sirius staring, and of course, staring back mockingly.
“Git.” He said to himself.
After hours and hours of absolute boredom, it was time to go to sleep. They’d have to actually take the bus to school in the morning, he always told himself he wasn’t like that and that the rich life bored him. It was all appearances and events and saying hi to people that didn’t even like them… But dear god, going to public school sounded like an absolute nightmare. For a second he considered just not going, and maybe just wandering off, or staying home pretending he was sick, but that would mean he’d have to spend time with his mother and Mrs Finch all alone. Fuck.
He’d have to go.
He turned in his bed again, huffing out in frustration, the cheap mattress digging in his spine. He lifted his head from the pillow after hearing thumping on the wall.
“I can hear you turning, go to sleep.” Regulus’s voice said from behind the shared wall.
“Fuck off, Reg… Night.”
“Night.”
***
“C’mon, fuckface, wake up.” He felt a clothed foot push him up from his sleep.
“Arrgushkjsabj.” Sirius answered.
“Wake up! We’re going to be late.”
“Leave me alone.” He complained, weakly pushing his younger brother back. But of course, stubbornness ran in their family. Regulus kept pushing and shaking him. “Fine! Fuck, you’re annoying. I’m awake, happy now?”
“No. You need to change now, or the bus is leaving without us.” His own pillow was thrown to his face after that.
“OW! Okay, okay.”
After a few more minutes of bickering, he got Regulus to leave his room so he could change. He put on the school uniform; white button down, black tie, grey vest, black slacks, boots, and whatever accessories he could find, grabbing the only expensive leather jacket he was allowed to keep after selling half of their stuff, along with his bag, with the hidden eyeliner on the front pocket.
“Reg, I’m ready, let’s go!” He called as he went down the stairs.
“Fucking finally.”
“LANGUAGE!” Their mother screamed from the kitchen, Sirius wondered what she was pretending to do there. Immediately, Regulus made a brief, guilty face – lips downwards and pressed tight.
“Sorry, mother.”
Much to his surprise, despite the amount of people, bus rides weren’t so bad. Of course, he’d always prefer to be driven by a chauffeur than an elderly, pissy man, but all in all, pretty good. He stepped down the vehicle happily, still nervous about the day. It wasn’t like he lacked the confidence and social skills to integrate into a new school, but the idea of someone – anyone, researching his last name would be horrific. It would be bad for the family, for himself, for Regulus. Right, Regulus, where the hell was Regulus? He turned to see his brother struggle out of the bus, hair ruffled and out of breath.
“Oh please, Reg, it wasn’t that bad.”
Regulus took a big breath from the mouth, hands on his knees. “Shut up. You weren’t the one with his face pressed into the sweaty armpits of a smelly giant.”
The school sat at the center of town, a low and worn building that looked like it had had better times, like everything else in the city. It had very few students for how big the building actually was, a very low sea (more like a creek, to be accurate) of grey uniforms in linoleum floors.
The most dreaded moment waiting to happen: to be seen. Of course, in such a small town it was obvious that the news of their arrival spread like wildfire, especially two weeks into the school year. But it took more than that to stop Sirius Black. He would walk through those hallways like he fucking owned them.
***
English Literature was his first class, the classroom was small on itself but surprisingly big enough to fit thirty people in decently sized, single person desks. Professor Flitwick, a short man with a heavy mustache, greeted him warmly, and made him stand in front of the classroom to introduce himself.
“Care to introduce yourself, Mr Black?”
“Not really,” the classroom laughed, and he flashed a wicked grin. “I mean, my name is Sirius, I’m fifteen and my family just moved here from Bath due to my mother’s job. Nice to meet you all.”
He punctuated his greeting with a cheeky wink to a very cute girl with big gold hoops and the biggest, most bouncy hair he’d ever seen. He sat down in the only available seat, last row on the left column, next to the most joyous boy he’d seen all morning.
“Hi, I’m James.” The boy smiled as he spoke, and the only way Sirius could describe him was like he was the sun himself. Black, untamed wavy hair sticking in every direction, tanned skin despite the continuous lack of sunlight, puppy-like hazel eyes hidden behind square glasses. For a moment, he forgot to say something back.
“Oh, y-yeah. Hi, mate.”
“Peter, a pleasure.” Said the blonde boy sitting behind James with his hand extended. He had light blue eyes, pink cheeks and a very sweet, contagious smile that was hard to ignore. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but smile back at him and shake his hand.
After that it was easy talk. Peter’s family had gone to Cardiff to visit his grandparents and apparently his cousins were so cool and drove motorcycles that he couldn't shut up about it, all his cousins did was make fun of him and have serious drinking problems. The conversation carried on until lunchtime, much to his annoyance, the only topic he actively was trying to avoid was right there, being shoved in his face. They sat on a nice table close to the scarce sunlight, now it was James’ turn to ramble on about his extensive family and how nice his dad was. He sipped his water bottle in silence, trying to not think about how awful the cell his father was rotting in must be, when he saw him.
The boy was sitting under a tree, with a book on his lap, trousers obviously shorter and not fitting. He had brown, wavy hair and several scars. Not only that, he was the lanky git who had closed his blinds at him last night. Seeing him in daylight was very different, he had to admit, he had a long nose with a very big bump, boyish features and long fingers that slid through the paragraphs of whatever he was reading. He realized he was being too obvious when said boy looked back at him squinting. Still, Sirius couldn’t help but find him quite handsome.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s always like that.” James’ voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Huh?” He turned, praying the hotness he felt on his face wasn’t also on his cheeks.
“Remus, the boy under the tree… A bit odd, that one.”
“Nah, he’s, um… He lives in the house next to mine, I recognized him, s’all.”
“Well, I’ve always thought he’s a little scary,” Peter started with a mouthful of his cheese toastie. “He grows a foot every term, like– OW”
The girl he’d winked at in class had come up running, slamming into Peter’s back with her arms around his neck, planting a loud kiss on his cheek.
“Petey!”
“Hi, Mary. Don’t let Charity see you do that, you know how she gets.” He said sweetly, but Mary just rolled her eyes and sat next to him.
“Alright, Mare.”
“Yeah, yeah, hi James,” Mary waved him off. “Pete, you will never guess what Alice told me.”
“How 's Lily? Haven’t heard from her in a while.” James asked shyly.
Mary turned furiously at James, her curls bouncing with her head. “Can’t you see we’re having an important conversa–? Oh, hi there.”
She tilted her head at the sight of him, he felt his ego inflate in his chest as the beautiful girl moved a finger to twirl one of her coils.
“You’re the new guy, right? Saw you with the other one in the morning.”
“Yes, I’m Sirius, you must’ve seen my brother.” He flashed her a grin.
“So there’s two of you, interesting.” She bit her lip, giggling.
“Mary!” Peter protested.
“Oh my Gosh, Pete. It’s only a joke.”
“But actually, how is Lily?” The boy insisted.
“Brilliant, why do you care so much?” She placed a hand on her hip, clearly annoyed with the question. It was pretty obvious he asked about this Lily a lot.
“Oh you know why.” Peter laughed, punctuating his comment with a kissy face.
He barked out a laugh at James’ blushing face. If a guy like him; athletic and kind, was crazy over her and not Mary, this girl must be an angel. Mary rolled her eyes at the bickering boys, until she spotted a group of girls, a redhead, a blonde and a brunette. By the way her mood lightened up so quickly they must’ve been friends. The girls walked up to them, when they saw Mary, making the boys scramble quickly to seem cool. Sirius just flipped his hair at them.
“Hi, Evans.” James smiled sheepishly at the redhead. And yes, he had to admit, she was beautiful. With bright green eyes, plump lips and hair as long as her thighs, no wonder James acted like such a fool.
“Piss off… Hi, Peter.”
“Hey.” He smiled.
“Mary, let’s go.” The blonde girl hurried.
“Ladies, where are your manners? We have fresh meat.”
“Hey there, I’m Sirius.” He extended a hand to all of the girls, learning quickly that the blonde was Marlene and the brunette was Alice.
“C’mon, let’s go.” Marlene said again.
“Fine, fine. Bye guys… Bye, Sirius.” She waved her fingers as she turned around to leave with her friends.
“Bye, Lily.” James tried.
“No.” She deadpanned as she walked away.
Lily, surprisingly, looked back at James for a second.
***
Back at his house, Sirius realized he’d been laughing so much more in half a day than in the last few weeks. For a place so grey, Byncoed was certainly very warm.
He peeked through his bedroom window again, trying to get a glimpse at the barely open blinds in the house next door. There was something about that boy he just could not understand, and he felt pretty weird for staring so much but, how could he not?
“What are you doing?” Regulus' accusatory tone surprised him.
“For fuck’s sake, Regulus… You walk like a ghost. I was just looking out, there’s too many sheep just walking around.”
“Weirdo… Mrs Finch says dinner’s ready.”
“Is mother already there?”
“No, she’s skipping dinner.”
“What?, why?” He turned around to face him.
“Migrane, but you know how she is. She just took her pill bottle and locked her door.” His brother shrugged, and he was right. Growing up it was weirder to see his mum not on pills than on them.
“Alright, I’ll be down in a minute.”
“Fine.”
He took a last glance out his window, still curious… He’ll figure it out, one day.