Disclaimer:Not mine, all JKs except for the plot and Adhara.
After he had snapped at her, Lily became much more distant and although she sat by him in all the lessons they had that day. Sirius suspected that she was only doing it because she hadn't made any other friends yet. On the other hand, Remus Lupin had certainly warmed up to him a lot and actually seemed to be ignoring James Potter which was surprising as they had appeared to be best friends the previous night at the sorting.
So it was with one of the first real smiles he had had in years that Sirius sat down at the Gryffindor table between Remus and Lily for dinner that night, pointedly ignoring all the glares he was getting from the rest of the school and talking animatedly with his new friends. Both ensured that they mentioned absolutely nothing about Sirius and his family and stuck to safe topics, namely talking about all the amazing bands that had graced the Earth with their presence recently and explaining to Lily the basic rules of Quidditch. However it was when these subjects became exhausted that trouble began to arise as Lily asked, thinking it could in no way offend Sirius, "So, where abouts do you guys live?"
Sirius glared at her in anger and snarled as he furiously stood up "Can't you just shut up for once, I thought I made it clear I didn't want to talk about that."
Annoyed, he stalked out of the Great Hall, oblivious to James shouting after him, "What is your problem you twat?"
He knew he had messed up again, Lily would surely hate him now, as would Remus. Blinking back tears he quickly walked out of the school and settled under a tree by the huge lake where he took a packet of cigarettes out from a pocket in his battered robes, lit it and sat smoking it, concentrating on inhaling and exhaling the fumes he thought of what Adie would say if she saw him now, she still thought he had given up smoking. He was so engrossed in thoughts of his sister that he didn't even notice as someone silently sat beside him, causing him to jump as Remus spoke his name. "Sirius? You smoke?"
"You don't say." Sirius gruffly said, laughing to himself at Remus' stupidity, however that laughter soon turned into a hacking coughing fit as phlegm from his damaged lungs caught in his throat.
"Are you OK?" Remus asked when the coughing fit finally subsided.
"Yeh, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Sirius replied hastily, refusing to look Remus in the eyes.
"It's just you sounded like you were dying then," Remus laughed hesitantly, "and you totally bit Lily's head off for asking a completely innocent question, I really don't get you Sirius, one minute you're all cool and chatting normally, then the next you're having a go at someone for doing nothing. I mean I can't exactly say much because I've only known you for about a day, but you really need to cool it mate, I mean you're like eleven and you're already smoking and sound like you've been doing it for ages. I just don't get it."
Finally, Sirius raised his eyes to look into Remus' soft amber ones, he saw that here was a boy he could trust, a real friend and so slowly and uncertainly he began to open up to the youngster: "My life has always been kind of fucked up. Me and my sister, we ran away from home when we were eight, we just couldn't take the crap anymore. I could bare it when it was just me, but when they started on Adie I had to get us out of there. We…"
Sirius' story was cut short as Remus quietly interrupted, "What did they do Sirius?" He kept on gazing into Sirius' beautiful azure eyes, forcing the other boy to look back at him and tell the truth.
Keeping his eyes locked with Remus', Sirius slowly undid his robes, then equally slowly he undid the thin, tattered shirt he wore underneath and slowly pulled it back off of his shoulders until he revealed his back. Remus gasped with shock as Sirius showed him a back criss-crossed with scars, pale white scar tissue marred the otherwise handsomely tanned and muscular sinew of Sirius' upper back. As Remus stared in horrified fascination at the other boys back, only imagining the horrors he must have gone through to gain so many wounds on his back, Sirius simply sighed before turning to the person he was trusting his deepest and darkest secrets with: "That's not the worst of it you know." He said prior to rising from his place by the lake, shrugging his shirt and robes back over his disfigured back and setting off for the school.
Remus watched his new friend walk quickly back towards the school, a lump rising in his throat as he thought about exactly what Sirius had been through and pondered his last words: 'That's not the worst of it you know.'
A/Nwoo, that wasn't that bad, at least I don't think it was, oh well…you can tell me what you think when you review, yeh?
Title is a song by Snow Patrol, they are a good band, give them a listen.
Reviewers
Unimyth:I updated, just 8 months after you asked me to…sorry!
HappyDappyDrunk:nice user name, again, sorry about the 8 month wait, and I can't remember if I've checked out 'One Blank Wall' yet, I'll have to go read it as soon as I've posted this chapter…
LunasStar:thank you (I really need to think up a better reply to a review than that, but oh well)
Fox of Midnight: don't worry, Adhara will be in the story soon…or maybe she won't, there might be a twist in the story (not giving away much am I?)
A friend: sorry hun, you don't come into it, it's in a different story that I haven't posted that I based the character on you.
passion4trinity: I continued it, I've lost all my writers block, YAY!