Leaving Home
cerasi

Sirius sat patiently in his compartment on the train, no expression on his face. One would never know it, but by Merlin, he was nervous! He kept taking deep breaths and glancing to see if the door was being opened, even though he knew it wasn't. Once or twice he saw older students walk past, and he thought he saw a few students his age go past as well, but nobody seemed to want to come into his place.

And he couldn't rightly say he thought that was a bad thing.

"Hello," somebody said rather loudly. Strange: the moment he wasn't looking at the door, someone came and opened it. A watched pot…

Sirius looked up and nodded. The boy was his age, he suspected, and had black hair and glasses. Sirius nearly rolled his eyes at the other boy's state of disrepair. His (muggle!) clothes were scruffy, his glasses were askew and hadn't been fixed because he was lugging a huge, unwieldy suitcase. And his hair! Merlin, his hair. It didn't bare contemplating. Sirius nodded his greeting and looked back out the window.

Of all the people who chose to enter my compartment, he thought, I had to get this one.

"I'm James, by the way," the other boy said, sitting down across from Sirius. Sirius sighed. Damn, if this person wasn't persistent.

When Sirius looked up, he saw James smiling and holding his hand out, and there was something in his eyes that Sirius couldn't help but like.

"Sirius Black," Sirius said, shaking the other boy's hand as he had always been taught to do.

"Orion Black's son?" James asked.

"Yes," Sirius said. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing," James said. "Just wondering."

They both stared out the window for a minute, watching students all hurrying past and parents waving goodbye. The silence was limited, because of the noise beyond the door and window, but the silence between them was quite a heavy one.

"Is this your first time?" James asked.

"First time what?"

"First time leaving home," James clarified.

"Oh," Sirius paused, thoughtful. "Yes, it is."

Sirius ducked as a huge vase was thrown and smashed against the wall. He picked up another couple of things, throwing them into his trunk and ran to the next room, ignoring his mother's wild screams.

"And he's not even a pureblood!" she cried. "Your friend is not even a pureblood! Filthy, filthy halfblood!"

Sirius swallowed his pride and chose to pack more things hurriedly, rather than come to James' defence in this. He grabbed some school books off the top of the desk in the study, tossing them in and then running back into the hall.

"Argh!" Walburga screeched, and Sirius ducked a hex as it whizzed past his ear. He smelt his singed hair and cringed.

"What do you even care?" Sirius yelled at his mother as he ducked into his own bedroom. Last lot of stuff and he was gone. "You never have to see me again! Your loathsome Gryffindor son."

He wanted to smile at the howl of rage that she let out, but he just couldn't do it. Solemnly, but quickly, he grabbed the last few items of clothing that he had and packed them in, shrinking his suitcase at last and grabbing his broom. He ran out the door and down the stairs, listening to the ominous footsteps of his mother chasing him down to the front door.

"You are never to step foot in this house again," she cried.

"And I never bloody will," Sirius screamed back, wrenching the front door open and gulping in the fresh air. He tossed on James' borrowed invisibility cloak and jumped on his broom, hooking the miniaturised suitcase over the handle.

He kicked off the ground and flew up into the air, glancing back once at the house to see his mother stomping and screaming on the front doorstep. And up in his brother's bedroom window he saw one tiny solitary figure, shoulders slumped and face obscured by the sunlight glaring on the glass.

Goodbye, he thought. And he was gone.

"You got everything?" James asked, looking over all Sirius' carefully packed bags and trunks and boxes of things.

"I think I do," Sirius said. They both stood there, hands in pockets, contemplating the spread of things. James reached up and scratched his chin, and Sirius ran a hand over the back of his neck, glancing over at his friend.

"Well, I think I should probably be off, then," Sirius said.

"Yeah. I suppose Remus'll be waiting for you," James said, nudging one of the boxes with his foot.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, shoving his hair back out of his face. He breathed out a deep breath through his nose and chewed on his lip a bit.

"Mum says you have to visit," James told him. "Though I don't reckon I'll be here for too long, but still. She says you have to come and have dinner and the like."

"Of course," Sirius said. He looked up at his friend and they both gave that horrid little half-smile that people do. It's the flat-lipped 'I guess this is it' smile, and for a moment they both took it seriously. Then they smiled for real, and then they laughed.

"I'm going to miss you, mate," James said, roughly embracing his friend. Sirius laughed.

"I'm not going all that far," he said. "And you can visit any time."

"Yeah, I know," James said as they pulled back from the hug. "I guess you'd better be off, then. You're a big boy, now. Time you left home and made it on your own," James said, laughing.

"Yeah, mate," Sirius said, grinning. "I'll see you soon."