Sirius Black woke with a start, drops of sweat on his forehead. He sat bolt right up in bed and stared around the dormitory. It was empty except for Remus who was packing a bag hurriedly.
"Oh, you're awake!" he smiled up at Sirius as he continued to put warm things into his bag; a woolly hat, gloves, a scarf...
"Its so early... where is everyone?" Sirius yawned, running a hand through his thick mane of curls. The girls adored his 'tall dark and handsome' looks but Sirius found his curls to be irritating.
"Probably down at breakfast... it's Quidditch practice today, remember? First one of the season?" Remus replied.
This sort of announcement was normally a cause for excitement among the students of that house, especially those in their last year as it'd be their last chance to win the quidditch cup, or make the team. But neither Sirius nor Remus enjoyed the game all that much. James, another of their best friends, was a 'Seeker' in the Griffindor team so they usually watched for support but otherwise ignored it.
"Oh... Don't suppose she's going is she?" Sirius asked doubtfully.
Remus didn't look at him as he continued messing with his bag. "I don't know... I'm hoping so... she's avoided me a bit since we got back to school on Monday... but you know how Mo is." he shrugged.
Mo as Remus called her, or Roma Moro Lupin, as she was actually called, was Remus's twin sister... but she preferred Moro. She was a very odd girl. Perfectly alike her brother visually, but differed in every other aspect. She'd been placed in Slytherin after becoming one of the longest hat-stalls Hogwarts had seen since opening. She was dreadful in all classes yet somehow seemed to pass every test with flying colours and she was something of a wild card. She had so many rumours flying around her that it was hard to know what to believe... and she was currently dating Lucius Malfoy despite her brother's annoyance.
The boys didn't speak again as Sirius got dressed. Together, they headed down to the great hall to grab some toast before going out to the courtyard and then heading down towards the quidditch pitch. Moro was walking back their way a bit behind the rest of her team. The Slytherin team had obviously gone to the quidditch pitch first thing that morning, even before breakfast. She was covered in mud but was smiling and chatting to the guy walking next to her. Her best friend. Severus Snape. Remus and Sirius caught up to James and Peter who were hanging around, waiting for the other Griffindor team members to join them as well as the hopefuls wishing to join their team. "God I hate that guy..." James snarled, watching Severus. "How can you let your sister hang around him?" he asked Remus. Remus sighed, "Look. You won Lilly. Him being friends with Mo shouldn't affect you James so just let it go. Besides... she needs at least one friend." he said, glancing at them. James had a right to be annoyed with Snape still. It was because Snape had told Moro that James had stolen Lilly from him that Moro had given James such a beating that he'd been embarrassed to tell anyone it had been a girl... much less one who hadn't even used magic. The worst he'd managed to do to her was make her lip bleed. If that hadn't been enough, Moro had completely thrashed the competition last year and won the quidditch cup. She was only a chaser but had scored so many goals that it was incredibly embarrassing for the other teams.
Remus cleared his throat, shuffled his bag on his shoulder then decisively headed over to his sister. He swallowed hard and smiled at her as she looked up at him. "Hey Moro... so, you already been down to practice?" he asked. Moro beamed at her brother. "Yeah... darn Bludger thought I wanted a mud bath this morning. Good for the skin though, you know?" she chuckled. She was, indeed, covered in mud so much so that it was hard to tell she had Strawberry roan hair though her eyes still shone their emerald green. "I did tell you to bring a towel with you..." Severus chuckled too. He disliked Remus because he never seemed to try to stop James or Sirius from teasing or bullying him but he never showed it in front of Mo. Moro frowned a little at him, "I always just get a shower when I get back, so what's the point?" She pouted a little. "Still better than walking through the castle covered in mud." Severus countered. Moro rolled her eyes but Remus had to agree, "It is a bit unsightly." he nodded. "See? Now hurry and go shower and change then we'll meet up in the library and study." Severus said before leaving. Since finding out about the bullying, Moro always insisted that he left first when they were around Remus's friends.
Once Snape was out of view Moro turned to Remus and linked her arm with his, steering him away from his friends to talk. She wasn't trying to keep her words from reaching them but wanted her brother to focus on her. "You know, Severus is working really hard, Remus. He thinks that, in a few years and with the right backing, he might have found a cure of sorts... instead of this wretched potion." she said. "I don't mind. Honest. I'm just glad I can be here." Remus replied, smiling weakly. Moro was clearly talking about the wolfsbane potion she'd had to make up since he'd been bitten at the tender age of 5.
That night had changed their lives entirely and it was rare that Remus didn't think of it.
It had started like all nights had done. He and Moro had a separate room either side of their parents bedroom. The children had been tucked into bed by their parents several minutes before Moro had left her bed. This was normal and it had only been the last three days that Remus hadn't crept into her bed. It was a comfort thing but one of Remus's friends at school had found out he slept beside his sister and had teased him about it. This had made the very determined 5 year old Remus decide they would sleep alone from then on. So far Moro had only whimpered but tonight she was kicking up a storm. Downstairs their father was entertaining a professor from a school somewhere. Moro had gone down and told them about a horrible nightmare where a 'large long legged dog killed daddy and bites brother'. She'd been sent swiftly back to bed. But instead of heading to bed she'd crept into Remus's room. He could remember the whole conversation:
"Remus? Remus? Are you awake?" she'd whispered.
"Go to bed Moro. Mama and Papa will be cross!" he'd said angrily
"Remus, please, come sleep in my bed? It's not safe in your bed." she'd begged, sniffing a little, clearly upset.
"Don't be silly Moro! My bed is perfectly safe." he'd snapped.
"Please Remus. I'm scared. I don't want you to be bitten or daddy die-" she'd started to cry but he'd interrupted her.
"Enough Moro! Go to bed! Nothing bad will happen. It's all in your head! That's what happens when you repress your magic, remember? Papa told us. That's why you're always ill." That had been enough for Moro to go back to her room.
But it hadn't been a nightmare as Moro hadn't been asleep. It had been a vision and it had come true. Fenrir Greyback had come to seek revenge upon Lyall Lupin after he had brought to the ministry's attention that Greyback was an unregistered werewolf and had done so by attacking Lyall's children. Had Remus listened to his sister that night, he would have never been bitten, the strange professor might have provided some security to the family and their father might have not been fatally wounded.
But he hadn't. And it had all come to pass. Lyall had died on the twins birthday two months later. During those precious two months, while Remus had been in St Mungo's, Lyall had taught Moro how to look after her brother. Their mother was a muggle so could offer no protection and they had no family they could rely on, only their house elf whom was technically free. He'd given her every book he owned on the subject and, regrettably, had made her take an unbreakable vow to care for her family. He had no way of knowing that his wife's mental health would deteriorate after his death.
But that was then and this was now. Moro had pushed herself into a parental role for both her brother and her mother, the latter of which had started to become agressive, even violent, towards Moro. Moro never spoke about it. She never complained but she did hope that Remus wouldn't always be trapped like she had become.
"I'm going to send an owl home! Mother will be happy to hear about this!" She beamed, letting go of his arm and dancing off towards the doors to the school. "Get a shower first!" Remus shouted after her. "Someone's looking awfully cheerful... makes a nice change hmm?" James asked, standing beside Remus. "She gets her hopes up so easily..." Remus sighed, shaking his head. James, Remus and Peter turned back and headed towards the quidditch pitch again.
"I'll... catch you up! I forgot to hand my homework in." Sirius said as he walked backwards, towards the doors. Remus frowned but they let him go. Remus had warned his friends to leave his sister alone. James wasn't interested, Peter pretended not to be either though it was obvious. And Sirius? Well Sirius was difficult for Remus to read. He kept out of Moro's way, never spoke to her unless she spoke first and didn't seem to care about her an awful lot...
But on the other hand, he'd stopped her from receiving chocolates and such traced with love potion. He'd gone to all of her quidditch games and a lot of her practice sessions too. He'd also come to her defence when someone spoke ill about her. He couldn't resist looking in her direction, if only for a glance, whenever she entered the room and he'd loose all focus if she looked his way, even resulting in him walking into things.
Sirius headed up through the school, taking a few well chosen hidden paths. But he wasn't going back to the griffindor tower. Instead he was heading to the owlery, determined to find Moro alone. The secret paths had done their job and he arrived well before Moro. She looked surprised to see him there, feeding a few of the birds despite having set off straight up here from the courtyard.
She pretended to ignore him as she crossed the room, removed a scrap of paper from her pocket and took out a pencil to write a quick letter. She could feel his eyes on her as she wrote though, when she glanced back at him he was preoccupied with the birds. It was... unnerving. Sirius had a reputation as a bad boy in the school and the girls all truly believed he was cursed. Rumours flew around that suggested that, if you were one of the few girls not interested in him, that he would pursue you until you were obsessed with him. Then he'd break your heart. The 'black curse' seemed to even follow his little brother, Regulus Black.
Moro gave the letter, tied with a bit of string, to a peppy eagle owl who hurried off with it eagerly. She sighed and turned back, glad to be done and able to escape the claustrophobic atmosphere of the owlery without having to speak to Sirius. But this didn't happen so easily.
"So, what really happened at practice?" Sirius asked, making her stop half way to the door. "W-what?.. oh, the mud. A tail wind caught me off guard and..." she started. "A bludger hit you." Sirius finished but said it clearly in disbelief. "Y-yeah." And the other day you happened to walk into a... what was it? A door?" He asked. "Yeah, so-" She agreed but he stopped her. "No, you said it was a wall." He corrected her. Moro blushed a bit but glared, "So? What do you want, Black? Really. What on earth do you want?" She snapped. "What do you see in him? Remus is worried about you." He asked back, gritting his teeth. Her annoyance was getting him equally annoyed. "What I see in him is NONE of your business. Good day!" She snapped back and hurried out and down the stairs. Sirius was dying to chase but resisted the urge.