Disclaimer: JKR owns anything you recognize.
First time publishing, no idea how to format, just found out how to upload. Please don't flame.
Constructive comments are welcomed~ English is not my mother tongue so I need to improve. Much.
A few ideas and lines borrowed with permission from ChipPlease's "a cause of more disorders" – thank you! :D
Aftermath
When in disbelief, Sirius laughed.
"Do you remember the first time you laugh?"
"No. Does anyone?"
"I do."
The Blacks were notorious for their ancient line of pureblood - toujours pur, merci beaucoup - in which everyone of them were Slytherins.
So when the male heir of the said bloodline stepped up in the sorting ceremony, nobody looked up because the result was expected.
Unless when it wasn't.
Five seconds of silence filled the Great Hall right after the first Black got sorted into Gryffindor. That was the exact length of time the boy spent before he burst out laughing, earning bloodshot looks from both Gryffindor and Slytherin tables for different reasons.
"But I remember that night during our first year."
"Why? What happened?"
"Well, you got sick."
It was the fifth cycle of full moon, and apparently skipping classes at least once a month wasn't doing Remus any favour on hiding his transformations. He told Sirius, James, and Peter that he tripped on a staircase the first time and food poisoning the second time. The third and fourth excuse must've been too absurd to buy, because the trio followed him and Madame Pomfrey to the Whomping Willow on the fifth.
The very next day, Sirius alone visited the hospital wing and sat beside his bed, threatening to make a ruckus until he 'knows what the bloody hell is going on'. Feeling that it was no empty threat, the smaller boy winced and tried explaining everything without killing himself in shame.
Sirius being Sirius and Remus being Remus, both ended up sitting in another silence. One boy in a hospital bed, desperately trying to cover the scars on his arms and legs, and the other one beside him trying his best to keep his mouth shut.
That time it took about ten minutes before a boisterous laugh exploded, followed by the scared little werewolf clutching his blanket.
When in disbelief, Sirius laughed.
But it was the most endearing sound he had ever heard when the taller boy ruffled his hair, telling him he wouldn't be left alone.
And Remus cried in relieve.
"You should laugh more, Moony."
"Why?"
"You're missing the fun."
"And you're the one to talk?"
There were loads of snorts, chuckles, sniffles, and many other sounds within The Marauders' group even years later, but none of them matches the madness of Sirius' laughs.
Especially the one he heard on a morning, when an owl dropped a parchment on Sirius' Yorkshire pudding in the Great Hall.
It took three seconds for the young Black to unscroll.
Two seconds to read.
And a second to break into an unstoppable laugh.
He refused to tell them what was written inside.
Two days later, however, he stuck the crumpled parchment under Remus' nose and told him to read it.
Your brother is dead.
There were no funerals, he said, so no need to mourn.
The soft chuckle he let out later was the saddest sound Remus ever heard.
All because he was a Black.
The Blacks don't cry nor wonder if they should.
They laughed instead and threw up.
When in disbelief, Sirius laughed.
He doesn't cry nor wonder if he should.
So Remus was the one who did it for him.
"What makes you laugh?"
"What makes you cry."
Strangely, the most memorable laugh of Sirius Black was the only one Remus Lupin didn't hear.
It was the one he read about in The Daily Prophet many, many years later.
When in utter disbelief, Sirius laughed.
So when Remus found out that he laughed after killing all those people,
he cried.