It was official. Sirius was bored out of his mind. The six, soon to be seven, year old had thought his lessons would be fun. At the very least, he had expected them to be interesting. Lucille had told him that he would be learning subjects such as math, reading, and history. Sirius had loved learning when Lucille had taught him and he had thought that his new tutor would be like her. He was wrong.

His tutor was a boring old man named Binns who did nothing but drone on about whatever the subject was without stopping. It would be mind numbing for anyone, let alone a six year old.

"That will be all for today Mr. Black." Binns said, startling Sirius from his thoughts. "We will continue tomorrow."

No longer bored, Sirius leaped up from his desk and ran out of the room. He was free at last. Reaching the hall that led to his brother Regulus' wing, he hesitated for a long moment before making a sudden decision. He turned and ran to Regulus' nursery. Barging into the room, Sirius found his four year old brother on the floor trying to build a house out of his blocks.

"Siri." Regulus cried, dropping his block.

"Hey Reg, What're you doing?" Sirius asked.

"Building." Regulus said with a pout. "It no good."

Looking at his brother's house, Sirius had to agree. Regulus' house was lopsided and looked to be in danger of collapsing.

"Would you like me to help?" Sirius offered.

Regulus' face lit up.

"Yeah." He said eagerly.

Sirius sat down and showed his brother how to build a proper house. They started by knocking down what Regulus had built so far and then starting over from the beginning. Regulus was an eager learner, watching Sirius' every move with wide eyes and soaking up every word he said. Sirius, for his part, was a very patient teacher. He showed Regulus which blocks were best for certain parts of the house and which weren't. Sirius was quick to praise his brother when Regulus caught on and finished the house without any help.

Just as Regulus put the last block in place, the door opened and Lucille and Regulus' nanny entered.

"There you are Sirius. I expected you back an hour ago." Lucille said.

"I wanted to visit Reg." Sirius explained.

"That's fine, but you need to let me know so I'm not worrying. Now, come along Sirius. It's time for your brother's nap."

Regulus pouted at that announcement but didn't protest as his nanny picked him up and carried him to his room. Sirius obediently followed Lucille back to his own wing and into his playroom. It used to be his nursery but Sirius had decided that at six years old, he was too old to have a nursery and so it had become a playroom.

"Now, why don't you tell me about your lessons?" Lucille said, sitting down in her chair and holding her arms out to Sirius.

The young boy eagerly climbed onto her lap. He usually protested anything that made him appear to be a baby, but he loved sitting on Lucille's lap. It was always warm and never failed to make him feel safe.

"They were boring." He complained.

"Why are they boring?" Lucille asked with a smile.

"Binns doesn't make them fun. Not like you did. He uses all these old dusty books to teach from instead of teaching math with objects like you used to do. He makes me practice reading from boring old books and doesn't use stories to teach history." Sirius rattled off, sounding like he had been waiting all morning to say that.

Lucille laughed. "Give him time Sirius. I'm sure it will get better."

"No it won't." Sirius pouted. "Can't you just teach me?"

"You know I can't pup." Lucille said, sounding sorry about that fact. "Your parents want you to have a tutor. There's nothing I can do about it."

"Yes you can." Sirius said sitting up.

One look at his face showed he truly believed that. While she was flattered by his faith in her, Lucille knew that Sirius was too young to understand that she truly couldn't do anything about it. She was only a servant. Granted, a high ranking servant, but still a servant. And servants did not tell their employers what to do.

With that in mind, Lucille decided to change the subject.

"How about we go for a walk?" She suggested.

Sirius lit up at the possibility of getting out of the house and nodded eagerly. He ran from the room, leaving an amused Lucille to catch up to him in his room. Sirius was standing by his closet, impatiently waiting for Lucille to get his wraps out. Lucille did so and barely had time to get her own wraps on before Sirius was charging out of the room and down the stairs.

Lucille was content to let him run, knowing that Sirius would wait for her by the door, until she heard a crash. Hurrying down the last few steps, she arrived in the hall to find Sirius tangled on the floor with a servant girl who looked to be his age. Clothes were strewn around them and a basket was lying close to the girl.

Lucille hurried forward and managed to separate the two without hurting them.

"Are you two alright?" She asked.

The servant girl nodded but Sirius said nothing.

"Sirius?"

"You should watch where you're going." Sirius shouted at the girl, surprising both her and Lucille. "You could have torn my cloak. Don't you know who I am? I'm Sirius Black. I can get you fired if you don't apologize."

The girl looked as if she was going to start crying and opened her mouth to apologize. Lucille's ringing voice cut her off.

"Sirius Black!"

Sirius froze and shot a wide eyed look at his nanny.

"Apologize to her this instant." Lucille ordered.

Sirius became defiant. "No."

"Sirius." Lucille's voice took on a warning tone.

"Why should I? She hit me." Sirius grumbled.

"No, you hit her. You were the one who came charging down the stairs without looking where you were going." Lucille pointed out.

Sirius looked as if he wanted to argue but one look at the stern look on Lucille's face stopped him.

"Apologize Sirius or we will go back upstairs and I will give you work to do for the rest of the day."

Sirius didn't want to apologize convinced as he was that he was right but he also didn't want to go upstairs and do work instead of going for a walk. So he swallowed and mumbled out an apology.

"I'm sorry for hitting you."

The servant girl nodded, gathered up the clothes, and disappeared through a nearby door.

"Why did I have to apologize to her?" Sirius asked as they left the manor. "She's a servant."

"Just because she's a servant doesn't mean that you don't apologize to her. Just because you are a Black doesn't mean that you can't own up to your mistakes. You need to learn that, my pup."

Sirius wasn't sure about that but if Lucille thought he should learn it then it was worth thinking about.

OoO

Six year old Remus was not happy as he stomped around his room. The full moon was this weekend and he was not looking forward to it. He hated his life.

Remus threw himself on his bed, burying his face in his pillows. He couldn't see how his life could get any worse. He was a werewolf whose parents hated him. Although that last part wasn't anything new. His parents had hated him for as long as he had been alive. Remus could count on one hand the number of times he had been in the same room as his parents. That number was significantly higher than the number of times they had spoken to him.

A familiar knock on the door brought Remus out of his depressing thoughts for a moment. He turned his head and saw his sister enter the room.

"If you're trying to hide, you're doing a terrible job of it." Lupa said.

"I'm not trying to hide." Remus mumbled into his pillow.

"Then do you have a headache? Or feel ill?" Lupa asked in concern. She put her hand on his forehead, feeling for a temperature that didn't exist. "You don't feel warm."

Remus batted her hand away.

"I'm not ill." He grumbled.

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You never could lie to me, Remus." Lupa said lightly. "Now, tell me what's wrong."

Remus briefly considered not telling her but he knew Lupa well enough to know that she wouldn't let up until he told her.

"I hate my life." Remus announced.

Lupa was quiet for a long time after that announcement. Remus could sense that he had surprised her. Normally Remus was a happy child who didn't worry about anything. Occasionally he became moody before the full moon but it had never been as bad as it was now.

At last Lupa asked "What brought this about?"

Remus shrugged. He wasn't sure what had brought this about. All he knew was that he hated his life today.

"Why do you hate your life?" Lupa asked.

Remus gave a derisive snort. "Isn't it obvious? I'm a werewolf."

Lupa was quiet for another long minute after that. Then she stood up, walked to the closet and pulled out Remus' wraps.

"Put these on." She ordered, tossing the wraps on the bed.

"Why?" Remus asked petulantly.

"We're going for a carriage ride." Lupa answered. "Now, get those on and meet me out front in five minutes."

Not waiting for any further protests, Lupa swept from the room, presumably to get her own wraps. No matter how miserable Remus was feeling, he didn't want to upset his sister. Lupa was the one person who loved him unconditionally. Remus never wanted to upset her. Lupa might stop loving him then. He pulled his wraps on and hurried down the steps. Lupa was waiting for him by the gate. A carriage was just outside the gate, waiting for them to get in.

"Where are we going riding?" Remus asked.

"Around the village." Lupa answered. "After you."

Remus clambered into the carriage and sat by one of the windows. Lupa took a seat across from him and the footman closed the door behind her. A second later the carriage shook slightly as the footman took his place next to the driver. Then the carriage left the gate and began its journey into the village.

Lupa said nothing during the trip. Remus couldn't read her mood like he normally could and so had no idea if his sister was angry with him or if she was thinking. So he kept quiet and waited for her to speak first.

It wasn't until they reached an area of the village that Remus recognized as the area where the poor families lived that the carriage stopped and Lupa spoke.

"What do you see?"

Remus was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Out the window." Lupa said, indicating the window between them.

Remus was still confused but obeyed his sister and pulled back the curtain. He peered out the window and saw the run down houses that looked in danger of collapsing. He got the feeling that wasn't what Lupa wanted to hear and kept looking. It took a moment but then he saw children run past the window. They were covered head to toe in dirt and their clothes were just as dirty and torn.

"Do you see the children, Remus?" Lupa asked quietly.

Remus nodded, watching the children play.

"Most of them are your age. How many of them do you think can read or have the opportunity to attend the village school and learn how to read.

Remus knew the answer. "A few of them."

"If their lucky." Lupa agreed. "Most of them don't have a home to go to. They sleep in an alley, using scraps of cloth as blankets. They don't have anyone to look out for them and make sure they eat.

"You might be a werewolf, but you have a better life than these children. You have a home, blankets to keep you warm at night, and you have a lot of people looking out for you and making sure you eat. These children don't have that. If anyone has the right to hate their life, it's them. But they don't. Their happy with what they do have and they make the best out of it. Do you understand?"

And Remus did. He was a werewolf, yes, but he did have the better life. He had a better life than the children who lived in the nicer parts of the village. And here he was complaining that he hated his life because he was a werewolf. He was ashamed of himself.

Remus hung his head. "I'm sorry Lu."

Lupa's gloved hand lifted his head until he was looking in her sparkling eyes.

"It's alright Remus. Everyone has those moments. I did."

Remus' eyes widened. He couldn't imagine Lupa ever hating her life.

"You did?" He asked.

Lupa laughed. "I used to when I was younger. But then you were born and I no longer hated my life. Now, I think it's time we went back home."

AN: To all my readers who celebrate it Happy Easter! To those of you that don't Happy Sunday! Hope your weekend is going well for all of you.

So this turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would. How many of you thought it would be the boys getting lessons from tutors or something similar? I did consider that briefly but then Sirius' lesson popped up and I decided that would be better. It took me a while to figure out what lesson Remus could learn. After all, it seems like he has the ideal life, apart from being a werewolf and being ignored by his parents. And that's when I decided that he needed to see that. We all have moments like Remus does where we hate our life.

I will be posting a one shot here soon. It is not related to Outcasts in any way but it's an idea that came to me a few days ago when reading another one shot and so I decided to run with it. I just don't know when I'll be able to write it down as I have Easter dinner with my family later so it may not get done until tomorrow. As of right now, the title will be 'Your Smile' unless it changes.

I need your guys' help. One of my new stories that I've posted the summary for on my profile doesn't have a name yet. It is the one called Unnamed at the moment. I need you guys to read the summary and then suggest a name for it. Your name could be picked or it might not be exactly right but it could help me figure out the right name. Either way you will get credit for helping name the story whenever I start posting it.

Until next time.