Sirius and Remus kept in touch over the summer, texting regularly. He kept in touch with his other friends, too. He was sad that he didn't get to see Marlene much, though. Her parents planned a lost minute trip. Sirius missed her. However, he was too busy to dwell on it.
He and James had underestimated how much work camp was going to be. James was a natural at working with kids. His kindness and empathy shining through. Sirius, on the other hand, was always saying the wrong thing. He enjoyed being around children, but he didn't have a good handle on what was age appropriate and what wasn't. He was relieved when camp finally ended, vowing to never work at one again.
Luckily, camp had ended with a bit of time to spare before the start of school. Lily planned a trip to visit James and Remus tagged along. The two stayed at a hotel and they spent two weeks going to all the places they were too busy to see during the school year.
Lily and Remus dragged the two boys to the Rare Book Library and a series of bookstores. They went to an array of different restaurants and Sirius researched the bars they would go to each night. The group spent hours walking around the museum and went to a bunch of smaller galleries.
The group even got to see a Cindy Sherman exhibit, which Sirius loved. She was a photographer who took self-portraits depicting herself as a bunch of original characters. The works they saw were from her series called Untitled Film Stills, a series of black and white pictures that depicted stereotypes of women in film. They had walked through the expansive gallery, admiring the architecture and art. When they left the gallery, they strolled through a large park. The entire trip left them wondering why they didn't do things like this more often.
Fleamont had once told Sirius, "you can tell the tourists in the city because they look up at the buildings. The locals look at the ground." As if living in the city, you stopped seeing the wonder in it. But for those two weeks they were tourists in their own city. These days were some of Sirius's favourite, out of the entire year. He was sad when Lily and Remus left to go home, even though they would be back at school in no time. A part of Sirius wished it could be like that forever, the four of them exploring the city together.
By the time the school year started, Sirius was getting antsy, though. He needed the structure and routine that school provided. Even if he was always late or forgetting things, having a set schedule served him well.
Sirius and James were rooming together again, which was a dynamic that worked well for them. He was jealous, though, because Remus got his own room. He was a residence advisor, which meant that he dealt with any issues on the floor, and handed out condoms. These odd tasks afforded him his very own room.
The first night back, Sirius lay across the floor of Marlene and Lily's dorm. "I'm tired," he whined.
"Glad to know I'm such thrilling company." Marlene rolled her eyes. "Thought you might have missed me this summer."
"I did," Sirius reassured her. "But I'm tired. How much alone time do Lily and James need? When can I go back to my room?"
Marlene glanced at her watch. "I dunno. I would wait till she comes back here."
"Fine," he huffed. "What majors did everyone pick?" Sirius was curious, because they all had to choose them before going into second year. He was sad that his friends would be in different classes from him, but the foundation year had been frustrating at times. He had never enjoyed taking painting and drawing classes. But he had found sculpture even worse. When they had done ceramics, he could hardly make a bowl out of clay. He kept getting distracted, causing the clay to fly off the wheel and get all over him. "I know James is doing sculpture, Remus is in painting and you decided on film. What's everyone else doing?"
Marlene looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "Pete's in graphic design, so that's already decided on. Lily took painting with Remus… you and Mary will have classes together. She's taking photography too."
"Oh, that's exciting!" Sirius said, yawning. "That's it. I'm leaving."
"Back to your room?" She asked.
"Naw… I'm gonna see if Moony will let me sleep in his room," Sirius explained. "He's got a big bed and no roommate. Might as well go bother him."
"You could sleep on Lily's bed?" Marlene suggested.
"Naw… I would feel weird about that." Sirius was grateful that she didn't ask why he wouldn't feel weird about sleeping over with Remus. In fact, he wasn't even sure it wasn't weird. Sirius walked over to Remus's room and he convinced himself that it was weird by the time he got there. But he had already texted James telling him the couple could have the room... So he needed to knock on Remus's door or return to Marlene's room and explain why he turned around.
When his friend opened the door, he had a big smile on his face. "You're lucky. I haven't gone to sleep yet."
"About that…" Sirius said, worrying his bottom lip. "James and Lily are in my room…"
"Oh," Remus said, chuckling.
"I kind of told James she could sleep there. I could go back to Mar's…"
"You can stay here," Remus said.
Feeling relieved, Sirius jumped onto Remus's bed, finding a large sketchbook open. He eyed it. "Can I look?"
Remus nodded his head, looking apprehensive. Sirius delicately flipped through the pages, finding pencil and charcoal drawings. Pages filled with eyes and hands, he found there was a progression, a steady incline in the quality. Then he found photos of their friends, taped into the pages, accompanied by sketches of them. Even finding sketches of himself. He lightly touched one. "You drew me?"
"I drew everyone," Remus said, blushing. "Sorry, is that weird?"
"No," Sirius breathed. Finding a charcoal drawing that he particularly liked. "I like this one a lot."
"You can have it," Remus told him, tearing the page out.
Sirius put it aside. He would later hang it on the corkboard in his room, with a collection of photos and cards.
Eventually, the two put on a movie. He didn't remember falling asleep, but when he woke up, his face had pressed into Remus's chest, whose arm had pulled around him. Sirius lurched up, pulling away. He didn't remember cuddling into him and he hoped Remus didn't either. Sirius rolled over, staring at the ceiling. The rest of the night he rolled back and forth, uneasy. When he woke the next morning, he felt like he hadn't slept at all.
Remus was getting ready for class. "You should get up," he told him. "You have a class, right?"
"Yeah," he groaned. "History of Photography." He lay there for a moment, squinting. "Why does the class I am the most excited for only have an 8:30 option?"
"Did you get into the Historical Processes class?" Remus asked.
"Yeah, Professor McGonagall likes me for some reason and let me in," Sirius told him. It had excited him to learn how to do Cyanotypes and Daguerrotypes, which were historical photography processes. The class had been full, so he had to reach out to the professor to see if she would push her cap, and he had gotten lucky.
This and History of photography were the two classes he was the most excited for. Historical Processes was a night class, though. History of Photography only had an 8:30am option. Normally, he wouldn't take morning classes unless he had to. He could get up to work in the studio, but being in a lecture required a lot of focus. Something he found difficult when he was tired.
"Get out of bed," Remus said, pulling on his foot. "I'm kicking you out. You need to go to class."
"It's only the first day. It's just the syllabus. I could skip it," Sirius pleaded.
"What kind of tutor would I be if I let you do that?" Remus said, handing him a cup of black coffee. Sirius took it and rolled out of bed, sipping the bitter liquid, feeling the life slowly returning to him. Remus tossed him a granola bar, which Sirius shoved into his mouth.
"I'm sad we don't have many classes together anymore," Sirius said, before rushing to his class.
He found Mary sitting in the lecture hall and sat next to her, grateful to know someone else in the class.
Sirius had been correct the teacher mostly went over the syllabus. They would begin talking about the camera obscura, a dark chamber or room with a hole, which would project images. Then they would move to:
Heliography and Daguerreotypes Photography of movement: photographic study of a man jumping a horse The early attempts at colour photography Kodak bringing photography into people's homes with the Kodak Brownie.The course would finish with how photography moved to an artistic medium and cover early conceptual art photography.
He scribbled into his notes as the teacher talked. "Photography literally means drawing with light. It derives from Greek. Photo means light and graph means to draw." Written with light. Sirius thought that sounded pretty.
The professor ended the class by assigning them a small assignment. She encouraged them to think about why people wanted to create cameras. Sirius spent the afternoon in the library working on the assignment, and going to the photography studio to pay his lab fees. By the time he got back to his room, he was tired and irritated. James was still in class, which suited him well. He turned the light off and was listening to a podcast. Sirius closed his eyes and listened to the man's voice, sure that he was going to fall asleep.
He was startled as his phone buzzed. He grabbed for it, struggling to pick it up.
Moony: How was your first day?
Sirius: it was good
Sirius: i am actually really excited about the history of photography class
Moony: Glad you went?
Sirius: yeah!
Sirius: thanks for forcing me
Sirius: how was your drawing class
Moony: It was good but wasn't the same without you
Sirius: anyone give you a handful of sugar packets?
Moony: Well, there was this one guy…
Sirius: ARE YOU REPLACING ME?
Moony: jk
Sirius: I WAS WORRIED
Moony: The caps lock might have tipped me off
Moony: I didn't even know you used capital letters
Sirius: RUDE
Moony: Okay, stop shouting!
Sirius: NO
Sirius: YOU'RE REPLACING ME
Moony: I won't take sugar packets from anyone else. Just stop with the shouty texts!
Moony: Happy?
Sirius: yes
