Chapter two has arrived. I'm rather confused at the moment. It seems that my HD stories get quite a bit of press, the slash variety more so than anything else, but everything else is irrelevant and shunted off to the side like a pile of moldy cabbage. But I thank my one reviewer and do appreciate it, even if I rarely get around to replying to reviews. Oh well. I suppose I'll have to get back to work on Hero Complex...
Years passed and Remus Lupin still came in nearly every day, still quiet and reserved. He sat at the bar, listened and commented on the tales, was friendly with all, but close with few. He shared very little of his life, remaining the bar's only enigma. A couple of new regulars were initiated after his night of acceptance and they knew even less about him, much less understood how he had become such a part of the small community.
One of them, a young, brash man, Jack by name, leaned across his table, his hand pressing into the wood's scarred surface. "Who is he?"
"What, who?" Ian, Jack's companion, had been there that fateful night.
"'Him, over there. At the bar. The bloke who's here every night yet I still 'aven't a clue who he is."
"Oh."
"What 'oh'? Why 'oh'?"
"He's a friend is all."
"Now I'm curious. Tell me more. Tell me something interesting about him."
Ian looked at him strangely. "Why the sudden interest? Ye've been coming here for years an' now ye suddenly want to know?"
The other man at the table, Dan, snickered into his mug. "No one knows anything about him. Well, except for one thing."
"What?"
"Now, now, that's not for me to tell, is it?"
Jack turned toward him impatiently. "Tell me."
Ian rolled his eyes. "I can't tell more than I know."
"And how much do you know?"
"I'm here almost every night. I'm pretty sure I've heard everything he's ever said. Not that that's saying much."
Jack leaned in. "Tell."
Ian grinned, he couldn't resist an audience.
"Well…if I must."
"Well, get on with it. I don't 'ave all night."
"Yes ye do."
"Fine."
"All right. It's all about this one bloke, Sirius." He looked nervously over to the bar and, not seeing any movement from Remus, continued. "They went to school together, Hogwarts and all. Best pals, them and some other guys. Jack or James or summat like that and some other one, don't remember 'is name.
"Well, they were the big shots around the school, those guys, did all sorts of stuff, got in trouble. Best mates, the whole deal. Well one day they ended up in a broom closet together. Came out of it together too."
"Nuh uh." Jack snuck a glimpse over at Remus, hunched over his glass.
"Yeah." They leaned in closer, conspiratorially. "So they're great friends until the end of school when their pal has a kid, a little black haired brat, and they get this Sirius fellow to guard it, fidelius charm against… well, ye know. Well, things go on and this Sirius guy gives it up, goes over, all that. Horrible. An' guess who the kid was."
"You don't say…"
"I do. Harry Potter 'imself. So they send the Sirius bloke off to Azkaban."
"Didn't he murder some muggles or something?" Dan chose this moment to pipe in.
"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, they sent 'im off to Azkaban with the dementors and all and he escaped, used the dark arts and bewitched the dementors. They say 'e's the only one who ever managed." Ian continued, unphased by the interruption. "They met up again after that, did the whole thing, reunion, save the world, whatever. Well, wanted to. I hear the Black fellow was so riled up after Azkaban they had to keep 'im locked in a room so he couldn't hurt anyone."
"I thought he just went off and lived in the mountains or summat, solitary-like," Jack said, scrunching his nose up.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure he stayed with me after that, though I suppose I could be wrong. Anyone else know anything about the matter?"
They all gawked up at the unexpected figure of Remus Lupin standing over them, sandy hair hanging into bemused eyes.
"How'd you hear that?" Jack demanded angrily.
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Wolf's hearing."
"What wolf?"
"Oh dear. They didn't tell you about that part, did they?" He cast an inquiring glance over at Ian who shook his head, looking a little guilty about his role in the storytelling. "Well then, it's not really important anyway. It's been dealt with. I may have had a bit too much to drink at the time but I remember it well enough." It was the first any of them had heard him speak of that night. It had been a hush hush matter when Remus was around, none of them wishing to risk offending the man by bringing up a potentially sensitive subject. "Maybe more than a bit, actually. I seem to remember a god-awful headache the next day, too." He grinned ruefully.
"So I take it you boys are in the mood for a story. Sirius. It's… well, I have to talk about it sometime, I suppose. Nip the rumors before they spread." He sat down, Jack scooting over to make room. A few heads at neighboring tables had perked up. Hearing Remus speak was enough for that most nights; hearing about the prospect of a story from him… well, that was enough to catch anyone's attention.
"Oh Merlin, I need a drink." On cue the bartender, who he had become oddly close with over the years, plopped one down in front of him. Remus smiled gratefully up at him and sipped it, thinking carefully.
"All right then. It started a few years ago. Quite a few years ago. I was halfway through first year at the time, still lost and scared in Hogwarts. I was the quiet kid who sat at the back of the class. I couldn't figure out why the hat hadn't put me in Ravenclaw. Well, I was in Gryffindor, the lions. Rawr and all that. There were two boys in my year, best friends on first sight and always getting into trouble. Well, one day they decided they liked me as well…"
James Potter, prankster extraordinaire and best friend of one Sirius Black, sat down in his usual chair in the common room, a large, overstuffed red one with little roaring lions embroidered on it. It made him feel like a king, he said, though really he only took it because it was always available, being a little uncomfortable where someone had charmed the lions into steel. Sirius sat down next to him, resting on the floor and pulling out a sketched map of Hogwarts. James grinned and grabbed the map, pressing his finger onto it so that spot turned bright red. "Another one found. At this rate we'll get the whole lot of them by the end of the year. That one behind the knight was a stroke of genius, Sir… hello? Hello? Earth to Sirius?" James Potter was not used to being ignored.
Sirius murmured an apology and went back to staring across the room. "Do you suppose I could get him to help me with my astronomy homework? He looks like he'd be good at that type of thing."
"I don't know, who cares? It's not due until Monday anyway."
"It's Sunday now."
"Wait, what? Sunday? It can't be Sunday. Yesterday was... Oh. I was in the hospital wing yesterday. Blimey. I'd better get started on that, hadn't I?"
"Probably. You didn't do the last one and I don't think Dextra's altogether too pleased."
"Right, go ask him then."
Sirius made his way over to the small boy sitting curled up in an armchair in the corner, engrossed in a thick book. He turned a page and sneezed as a cloud of dust came wafting up.
"G'bless."
"Mm?" Remus Lupin looked up from his book to see Sirius Black standing over him. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What do you want?"
"Help."
"With?"
"Astronomy."
"I'm not very good at that, sorry."
"I don't believe you for a minute. Get over here." He grabbed Remus's hand and pulled him over to where James had taken up a seat at one of the large wooden tables, staring hopelessly at his homework. "Okay, help now."
Remus arched one delicate eyebrow nearly up to his tawny hairline. "You expect me to just help you like that?"
"No, not really. Please?"
He rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'm not much good at this, though, just to warn you."
"Right. So, what's this here?"
They trudged through the homework slowly, Remus picking up as much as he taught. He hadn't been lying when he said he wasn't much good at astronomy, but he turned out to be worlds better than Sirius and James. Combined. The evening reached a peak when James and Sirius started to talk about their plan to hex Snape's hair pink, running through possible spells.
"Just do a fucet. Spell it on the common room door or something – it'll get anyone who walks through."
"Genius!" James exclaimed excitedly. "Now, how would you go about spelling someone furry?"
"F-U-R…oh, never mind. It was you last week then? Who got Lucius?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, well then. If it's him you've got in mind I've got just the thing…"