Girls
The first time they really notice that Sirius is quite handsome they are simply eating breakfast. Remus is revising his Transfiguration's notes, because, really somebody has to gain back all the points his friends are losing to Gryffindor. It's also, incidentally, Valentine's day, but they are barely thirteen and they are the Marauders and they don't really care.
James and Sirius are snickering about something stupid and Peter is striving to intervene in their conversation, his mouth full of bacon. Remus cannot help but sympathize with Evans's disgusted look.
Nobody really notices the blonde Hufflepuff girl approaching their table. She is flustered, the ghost of a laughter still on her lips and she keeps looking back at her own house table gesturing wildly at a pack of snickering girls. Remus shivers at the sight. Girls, he thinks. Girls are way scarier than that time James convinced him to come and play Quidditch with them.
"Umh, Sirius?" the girl asks, smiling openly. Sirius looks at her confusingly. He frowns and Remus can tell he is trying to remember what prank he may have pulled on this particular girl. Hufflepuff, he almost reads his mind. Sirius always says Hufflepuff are simply boring, with a very aristocratic snort that makes Remus think that he would have made a great Slytherin indeed.
"You see, my friend there thinks you are… cute" she explains before Sirius even has the chance of saying something smart. Sirius' mouth drops open and James bursts into laugher. Lily Evans rolls her eyes muttering something to her friend Mary. Mary laughs and mutters something back that to Remus' ears sounds dangerously as "But he is cute".
"Oh" it's the only thing that Sirius manages to answer and Remus can tell he is forcing himself not to look at James for support "Well, thanks" he adds, a ghost of his arrogance kicking back.
"She's timid, but she has made you this postcard" the girl continues, handing a very pink note that Sirius eyes suspiciously.
"There are hearts on it" James comments and laughs even harder when both Sirius and Evans kick him under the table.
"Potter here is just jealous" Sirius answers darkly, accepting the card "Well, thanks and everything but we have to go" he adds standing up before somebody catches him blushing. Remus is a bit startled and Peter has his still full mouth open.
"They think Sisius is cute?" he asks Remus "I mean, he was eating his own socks yesterday" he adds, matter-of-factly. Remus does not know what to answer. He laughed at Sirius trying to eat his own socks, but he must admit that some girls may find handsome his black hair, storming grey eyes and, well, features. That is, if you are a girl. Of course, tons of Pureblood girls have batted their eyelashes in front of Sirius before, and have smiled fondly to him; Gryffindor or not, he is still the Blacks' heir and he will have to marry someday.
But that was simply because of his status and family fortune; Sirius could have been a goblin and they would have smiled to him anyway. And, besides, every year less and less Slytherin girls smile to him or try to catch his attention stating their surnames. Blood-traitor is what Remus hears them whispering in the corridors when they pass, these days.
Before the day ends, Sirius collects five different Valentine cards from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. James laughs at every of them, quoting the cheesiest passages of each one.
"Your surname may be Black, but your eyes are as grey as the sea in tempest" James sobs falling into his bed, laughing madly. Peter laughs, too. This is what he likes about James; he makes everything seem light and easy and laughable. If it wasn't for James, Peter would have felt the disappointment of not receiving any Valentine's card. But with James, everything is just so easy to laugh at.
"You are just jealous, Potter" Sirius keeps saying annoyed, but Remus cannot help but think that he is a bit flattered. Girls actually like Sirius, not because he is Black, but despite it. It's the first time somebody accepts, even likes, Sirius for what he is –aside from the Marauders.
The next day, he catches Sirius studying his reflection in the mirror.
Remus is not particularly happy with it, but he is not really sure why.
The Sorting
"Black, Sirius" McGonagall calls and Andromeda, almost despite herself, jerks her head up. She follows her cousin's figure as he walks down the aisle. She is painfully aware of the sudden silence at the Slytherin table –everybody is staring excitedly as Sirius seats down and McGonagall press the Sorting Hat on his hair.
Narcissa smiles fondly at her, holding hands with her soon-to-be husband; her smiles doesn't falter, not even when the Sorting is not finished yet, not even when it has already lasted longer than any of the Blacks' put together.
When the Hat shouts "Gryffindor!", Andromeda's mouth is full open in a very un-lady, un-Black like, her education and good manners forgotten. She watches Sirius giving the Sorting Hat back to McGonagall as the Gryffindor table explodes with cheering and clapping. She can't see her cousin's face; she doesn't know if he worried, angry, happy or –knowing Sirius- excited. She can only think stupidly that the heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black has just been sorted into Gryffindor and that maybe, maybe she and Ted Tonks will be paired up in Potions as last year.
She locks eyes with Narcissa; her sister is still smiling, her composure befitting her status.
(Andromeda knows that Narcissa is a better daughter and a better Black than she will ever be)
Muggleborn
Sirius isn't very sure that all the purity and non-purity debate his mother is so obsessed with is true. The reality is that he doesn't really care; not now, not when he is eleven and he has a whole new castle to explore and James Potter is such a mastermind of mischief.
Still, when Lily Evans manages to levitate her quill only at the third attempt, he is taken aback. Sirius knows she is a muggleborn and yet, she can do exactly what Sirius can do. She is even better than him in portions! And Sirius knows he is pretty talented even for Purebloods' standard.
He shifts uncomfortably.
"What's up, mate?" James asks jovially, his eyes wide open with excitement; Sirius can tell that he is thinking of the whole new range of pranking possibilities that the Wingardium Leviosa spell opens up.
"Evans" Sirius explains "She is a mu- a muggleborn, right?" he corrects himself quickly. He is young and really not interested in politics, but he suspects that James and his family are part of those "stupid liberals" and "muggle-lovers" his father mutters about at breakfast.
"Yeah" James answers simply; he is still smiling and trying to act nonchalantly, but his expression is suddenly, strangely, hard. Sirius is almost tempted to drop the subject; after all, James is the only friend he has in Hogwarts and all the people he already knew are –well, even if he did like them, they are a bit pissed off for his Sorting.
"Right" he says, deciding against his best interest. He is curious and he wants to know what James thinks and screw the consequences. "Well, I didn't expect her to be that good" he breaths.
"Really?" James's smile falters a little this time.
"I mean… My family… Mother always says that Mudb- Muggleborn, sorry, are…"
"Not as good as Purebloods?"
"Yeah"
James pushes his glasses up his nose and stares at him intently – a gesture that Sirius will come to recognize as the premise to a serious talk.
"Do you agree with her?"
The question startles Sirius a bit. Nobody really asks him what he thinks. He is a Black, the male heir of the Household and title, it is pretty obvious what he should say or think; nobody has ever bothered questioning it.
"No, I don't really agree with her"
James' smile grows open and solar once again: "Brilliant" he states "I knew you were ok"
Sirius grins back "So, what about practicing Charms? On old Snivelly's pants that is"
"I like your thinking, Black"
Death
James pales suddenly, swallowing slowly. He is still holding the Phoenix, the clandestine newspaper the whole resistance reads. They started reading it to keep informed about the most recent deaths, deaths that the Prophet passes off as natural or unexpected deceases or blatantly ignores. The good thing about the Phoenix is that it publishes the name of the dead in the very front page, so you don't have to skim-read the whole to thing to know if your friends and family are still alive.
It also publishes the names of Death Eaters, thought, and it reports their deaths as well as their killing.
Sirius enters Apparates in their shared apartment, an extinguished cigarette pending between his lips. He looks content enough and James feels his stomach drop, guessing that Sirius has not read the newspaper. He keeps saying that it is unhealthy that James is so obsessed with it; but that's Sirius way of dealing with difficult things. If he cannot do anything practical about it, he doesn't want to know.
(He also cries every time he opens the fucking thing)
"Hey, Prongsie" he salutes "Do you mind if I smoke? It has been a long night..." he lights up his cigarette without waiting for permission and he is about to tell James everything about his night out with Moody and his Auror training and how they managed to escape from his crazy cousin. Then, he notices the expression on his best friend's face and the Phoenix in his hands.
"What's up?" he says with a small laugh, his heart starting to race. Remus, he thinks.
James gets up and that's when Sirius notices that it is the Death Eaters' page.
He snatches the newspaper from James' hands, biting his lower lip.
"Padfoot" James whispers "I am sorry"
"Shouldn't be" Sirius cracks "That's minus one"
"You don't mean it"
Sirius has to fight the urge to punch his best friend. What does he want him to say? That he cannot read that bloody newspaper because he might cry over the deaths of their mortal enemies? That he was afraid that this day would have come, that he would open the newspaper and that he would read Regulus' name on it?
"He was stupid" he says at last, trying not to cry.
I can't go to the funeral.
James hugs him and that's ok. A few days later, Lily will tell him that she is pregnant and he they will hug again, both on the verge of tears because, this is big, mate, and we have always lived together and now you will have a baby and just ask Remus to move in, already.
I hate them all. Except there is almost nobody left to hate.
A few days later, Sirius receives a letter. As the last of Blacks, he will inherit the whole fortune, title and Grimmauld Place, at his mother's death.
The last of Blacks.
He burns the letter with a muggle lighter.
This is my first attempt at writing about Harry Potter in English. I really love the marauders' era and my idea is to build a whole story trough slices of life. They won't be in chronological order and always dealing with a different character, but I think the timeline will be pretty clear :) Every piece can be read as standalone and every chapter as well :)
Hope you liked it.