Selene's bar and records and the pavilion on the hill were short lived, as Remus and his parents had to return to Wales in time for the full moon, and since they didn't want to travel anymore, nor did they think it was necessary, they decided on the last few weeks being spent at home in Wales.

Their usual schedule was resumed, and Lyall returned to London after a few days, with Remus visiting on weekends. Remus had been under the rather naive impression that perhaps the trip to Blackpool would solve all his parents' problems. They hadn't argued much, granted they hadn't really talked much in general, but they had been alone together a number of times which hadn't appeared to have ended in disaster. But it seemed that the different setting had only been a temporary fix, and once they were back home, their relationship settled into its usual broken state. Tensions ran thin, and most interactions between Hope and Lyall were just a series of passive aggressive comments, until they decided to ignore each other instead of start an argument. It was a development at least, but hardly a better one. Especially when the ignoring turned into the silent treatment which Remus hated. He hated the pettiness and the stubbornness, despite being guilty of using it himself sometimes. But he was a child; he was allowed to. His parents were adults, and they should be acting like it.

Remus spent most of his time in his room while his father was around, reading letters from his friends. James must have succeeded in sending on Remus's letter to Sirius, because he got a reply back from Sirius a few days after leaving Blackpool. Sirius's letter wasn't as long as his, but in his defence, he didn't have much to say. His family wasn't doing anything special, and all he had to talk about was the constant parade of pureblood wizards in and out of his home, having meetings that Sirius tried desperately to avoid, but his parents wouldn't allow it, and Sirius was subjected to sit there for hours listening to blood purist discussions.

"I tried to convince my parents not to let Reg join in as well, but they let him now he's eleven," Sirius wrote, going on about how Regulus was nowhere near as reluctant as he was, thinking he was all grown up and special now. Remus didn't like the sound of that at all, nor did he like the thought of Sirius spending two months listening to pureblood bullshit that Remus had tried so hard to keep him away from. Sirius had said time and again now how much he was against all that stuff, but Remus had never actually heard him say that he rejected his family as a whole, which Remus supposed was quite a lot to ask from a kid who hadn't known anything else, but still... what if all these meetings would start to change Sirius's views, no matter how much he tried to ignore them? It was sort of impossible to sit through all that without being even slightly convinced, especially if it was coming from your own family.

Remus wanted to write to him, all the time, and send him books and other things to keep him preoccupied, to forget about everything his family were saying. But he was risking a lot just with the one letter. Was a detailed description of a Lewis Carol inspired fairground ride enough to keep Sirius away from his family? And what about his brother, who'd be arriving at Hogwarts in a few weeks, a mini-version of his parents. A new heir to the Black family who apparently had no intention of being anything other than the golden boy. When Sirius first arrived at Hogwarts, even he had questionable views regarding intermarriage between purebloods and non-purebloods. So Merlin knows what his brother was going to be like. Remus knew that Sirius wanted Regulus to be in Gryffindor, so he could keep him away from the blood purist poison that spread through the Slytherin house like wildfire, and where all the future death eaters seemed to reside. And while Remus agreed that adding fuel to the fire— or in this case, adding Slytherin to the pureblood— was almost guaranteed to check off another follower on You-Know-Who's list, a much more selfish part of him didn't want someone like Regulus anywhere near him, who could potentially be a danger to his entire livelihood if he knew who Remus really was. Sirius wanted to protect his brother, but Remus felt that it may have already been too late, and if that were the case, the only solution left was to stay as far away from him as possible. It was only a question of whether Sirius would be strong enough to do so.

The last weekend before September First found Remus sitting in an armchair which was much too big for him, in his father's dusty room at the Leaky Cauldron, frantically scribbling the last of his summer homework. His parents' new set up wasn't as bad as he had been expecting. Of course, he had experienced a little of it the last time he'd visited during half-term, but things were rather up in the air then and no one had really settled into any sort of routine. But now a proper routine was forming, and Remus found himself finally enjoying the company of both his parents.

At home in Wales, he watched TV with his mother, helped her cook and bake, and even sometimes assisted her in gardening, although he didn't think gardening would ever be much of a potential career for him. He liked caring for small, singular plants; a clipping shoved into a pot and placed on the windowsill for example. He'd happily water it, and keep it in the sun, and talk to it sometimes if he was alone. But a whole garden was tedious, and boring. With bushes needing to be sheared and roses needing to pruned and Remus getting annoying little cuts all over his fingers. He didn't know why his mother enjoyed it so much, wearing her huge-rimmed straw hat and gardening gloves. But they chatted and played games, so it wasn't all bad. And Remus was relieved that any resentment he had towards her was finally starting to dissipate now that his father was no longer around to irritate her and hassle her.

In fact Remus finally felt comfortable enough to admit to his mother that he was getting his period, and surprisingly— but certainly not unwelcomely— she didn't make as much of a big deal over it as he was expecting. She hugged him, said that she would talk to Madam Pomfrey about it, and left him well alone, allowing him to deal with it in his own time, because the last thing he wanted was someone to talk about it, or try and help and point it out or just do anything to remind him that his period even existed. Because other than the blood, and the pain in his abdomen and back, he tried as hard as he could to simply ignore it. Although, that was far easier said than done. He just hoped when his mother talked to Madam Pomfrey they would decide on allowing him to take a higher dose of Morfosis when he returned to school.

As for his father, their relationship was somewhat mending. Lyall didn't seem as stressed anymore, with his only worry being to find a more permanent accommodation, now that his parents were beginning to come to the conclusion that living apart was much more beneficial for everyone involved. And an unstressed Lyall was a man who was actually alright to be around, although was actually far more irresponsible than Remus realised his father to be. For starters, he usually let Remus run wild in Diagon Alley, handing him a grand sum of ten galleons and sending him off into the cobbled streets below, giving him nothing else but a curfew of five pm. Remus didn't know if he should've felt vaguely abandoned or not, but the pre-teen side of his brain kicked in and the pull of no supervision among the row of magical shops was too tempting to ponder. Remus prided himself on being quite mature for his age, but weekends with his father were unravelling this achievement before his very eyes. Because what adult spent all his money in one sweet shop and stuffed himself with liquorice wands and chocolate frogs until he was curled up in bed with a stomach ache? He decided to spend the next weekend in Flourish & Blotts, and didn't touch another chocolate frog for weeks. Not only that but he decided to save up the money his father gave him this time and plucked up the courage to ask him to exchange it for muggle money.

Lyall agreed, although he claimed it was a waste, thinking there was nothing in the muggle world that would be anymore useful than something from the wizarding world, but Remus wasn't thinking practicality. He wanted to buy something for Sirius, ever since he'd heard it in Selene's flat. He didn't want to ask for Selene's copy, because he'd have to give it back eventually, and he wanted this for permanence. He hadn't decided whether he was going to keep it for himself or give it to Sirius, but he didn't think the decision was important, as long as they could both listen to it.

So a few days before Semptember 1st, Remus asked his father to take him into London, to the first record shop they came across, so he could buy Atom Heart Mother Suite on vinyl.

Remus didn't have to worry about playing it when he got to Hogwarts, because record players weren't technically considered exclusively muggle technology, since even wizards hadn't been able to resist their allure, using them frequently for their own magical records. There was even a communal player in the Gryffindor common room that some older student had placed there way before Remus had even arrived, and he knew he'd be able to use it.

Of course, there was a chance a wizarding record player wouldn't play a muggle record, but Remus could figure that out. The way Tobin had done in order to get his radio to work.

He packed the record carefully in his trunk, along with his books and clothes. He went through his clothes the night before, and while he had to wear his uniform most of the time, there were times when he was permitted to wear his normal clothes, outside of school hours. His clothes were a mix of wizarding and muggle, but he always found muggle clothes more comfortable, so he had more shirts and jeans than he did robes. But he looked through all the stuff he had, the normal stuff— checkered shirts, hoodies, blue jeans. It was boring, he suddenly thought. Nothing like the stuff Rosie and her friends had worn, the stuff that his aunt wore. He wanted to dress like Rolanda and Lydia, a desire that had crept up on him ever since he'd met them. And they didn't wear stuff like dull shirts and trousers. They wore leather jackets and ripped jeans and had piercings. Obviously, Remus wasn't about to pierce his ears, mainly because he didn't have anything to do it with.

But he rummaged around in his wardrobe for anything that could resemble the punk stuff his aunt's friends wore. He had a black jacket, but it wasn't leather, and actually, the closer he looked at it, he realised it wasn't even black. Just a dark blue. Maybe he could add badges and stuff to it. Rosie's jacket had badges, although he hadn't been able to read them, but he thought they looked cool. So he searched around his room, looking for stuff to pin to his clothes.

After an extensive search around his room he found a Quidditch badge he'd bought from the last match he went to with his dad. The badge was rather small, but it had one of the Welsh players, Bryn Davis, flying across it, zooming into frame every few seconds. A Dennis the Menace and Gnasher badge had fallen behind the back of his bed. He'd got it from one of his Beano comics, along with a Minnie the Minx badge which he'd unfortunately lost. But he did manage to find a Danger Mouse badge in his bedside drawer.

Three badges, two of which were children's cartoons, weren't a great haul, but it still added to his jacket, and from a distance, if you squinted, he looked a little punk. Although, on closer look, he looked more like a comic-book geek. He tilted his head at his mirror reflection, pondering. He looked at the knees of his jeans, and got an idea. As long as he hid them immediately from his mother, what was the worse that could happen?

Ripping jeans was harder than it looked, at least to make them look like he hadn't deliberately ripped them, which he had. So scissors were out of the question. He just had to try and use his arms, feeding his hands inside the trouser leg so he only had to pull on one thin layer of material until he heard a ripping sound. He looked down, and admired his handiwork. With a few smaller rips here and there, he managed to make it look alright. He didn't want it too ripped, or he'd just look like a weirdo with wrecked clothes. He did the same on the other leg, and tried them on.

Not bad. He was nowhere near the level of Rosie, but it was a start. He'd learn. Most likely from his aunt. In fact, if he wrote to her now she might be able to help him, maybe send a proper badge over.

Incidentally, Selene's letter arrived a day before he left for the station, accompanied with a small package. Her letter was quite short, telling him not to go too far and end up getting in trouble like her friend Lydia, but all in all she seemed proud she'd ended up with a mini version of her and her friends, and her package did indeed contain some proper pins of rock bands, like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, and to his surprise, his aunt had used another undetectable extension charm on her package and Remus pulled out albums from both of these bands— "Don't wear pins of bands you don't know." Selene had explained. "If people ask and you can't give them an answer, you look like an idiot." She'd also sent a chain necklace to put around his neck. The accessories were small, but they made a difference. Remus thought he looked cool, and he spent the last night at home listening to the records on his mam's record player.

September 1st brought with it its own excitement, and the reunion between Remus and his classmates at the platform was worth the wait. James was chatting frenetically, grinning the entire time as his words got jumbled up into new sentences, and being rivalled by Peter who was talking just as fast and loud. Remus and Sirius tried to keep up, but all they could really make out was James visiting some Scottish castle, and Peter talking about Blackpool and dragging a bewildered Remus into the conversation.

Sirius hugged Remus pretty tightly when they first caught sight of each other, and Remus put it down to Sirius having had no interaction with his friends for a good two months. He seemed slightly off, not as bright or energetic as Remus had been expecting. He listened to the others go on about their summers, and he smiled and nodded at all the right cues, but he sort of just stood there, lost in thought. And once they boarded the train, he didn't sit with them like Remus assumed he would. He said he was going to sit with his brother instead, who had already found a carriage on his own; Remus had yet to even meet him.

Ordinarily, Remus wouldn't question Sirius going to sit with his brother, although he would question why Sirius didn't just bring his brother along so they could all sit together. But Remus was a little unnerved by Sirius's secrecy, and him choosing to sit with his brother instead of his friends had some potentially unsavoury connotations. But Remus tried to put it out of his mind as the train left the station, focusing on the stream of classmates wandering in and out of the carriage he, James and Peter were sitting in. Lily and Tobin and Jethro and Owain all made an appearance during the journey, talking about their own stories and sharing snacks they'd bought from the trolley. Not to mention the ripple of nervous excitement over moving up into second year, wild theories being thrown around over what being older would now entail, and what the curriculum would be like. James was mostly focused on finally being allowed to try out for the Quidditch team.

The carriage was loud, and happy and everyone was involved in everyone's conversations. But Sirius's absence, at least to Remus, stuck out like a sore thumb. And he just couldn't shake the growing fear he felt, thoughts of pureblood meetings that Sirius had to sit through, being locked up in a house with his parents for two months, and now that Sirius had finally escaped that environment, he was choosing to spend his time with someone from it, instead of his friends. Keeping the two separate.

Remus didn't know if he should be worried or not.

The Sorting Ceremony was much more enjoyable from the perspective of the table. The second years could smugly sit and observe the new first years walk fearfully up to the Sorting Hat, entirely bewildered by the song (which Remus noticed had changed this year— he supposed the Sorting Hat must write a new song every year. He had to do something for all those months stuck up in Dumbledore's office, or stuck up the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw thought Remus with a slight smile).

Sirius was sitting with them again, acting as cheerfully as ever, although Remus noticed his continuous glances in the direction of his brother, who was one of the first to be sorted.

"Black, Regulus!"

Regulus stepped up to the Sorting Hat, pale and calm. He looked almost identical to his brother, same dark hair, same brown eyes, although his face didn't seem to have the same light as Sirius had. He was all angles and sallow cheeks, his uniform neat, his hair parted at the sides. While Sirius was always missing some article of clothing, tie undone and his long hair falling all over the place. In fact, the longer Remus looked, the more he realised that the two brothers didn't look like each other at all.

Regulus sat there for quite a while, almost as long as Peter had the year before. Sirius was getting tenser by the second. He had been idly fiddling with a fork, but now his hand was wrapped around it in a fist, his knuckles turning white as the minutes ticked by.

Eventually, to the relief of the fork, the Sorting Hat opened the seam of its mouth and shouted: "SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table burst into applause, but Remus, as well Sirius's other friends, immediately looked to Sirius. The boy's face had fallen, and his eyes followed his little brother to the Slytherin table. He didn't look away for a while; by the time he did another three students had already been sorted. He turned back to his empty plate and didn't speak for the rest of the night, even when the feast appeared in a flourish of glory. He didn't sing along to the school song either. Remus, James and Peter decided against singing as well, silently supporting their friend.

When the feast had ended and the second years were led to their new dormitory in the Gryffindor tower, Sirius went straight to bed as soon as he arrived. Or at least, he hid himself behind his four poster curtains— Remus was pretty certain he wasn't sleeping at all. He didn't know what he could be thinking, and a small, selfish side of Remus didn't see why Sirius was sulking in the first place. Why did Sirius want anything to do with his family by this point? If Remus had a family like that, he'd be glad to say good riddance. Then again, Remus had no experience with what it was like to have a sibling, so perhaps it wasn't as easy as just saying good riddance. But if Regulus turned out to be a complete write off, a carbon copy of his parents, then Remus really hoped he wasn't about to lose Sirius to a futile attempt at dragging Regulus away from damnation. And letting himself get ripped to pieces in the process.