Painted Scars // WOLFSTAR

Year Two: Severus Snape

Time went quickly in anticipation of Remus' birthday. It was the beginning of March, and the snow on the ground was beginning to thaw, though slowly. Spring was never a favourite of Sirius'; he didn't like transitionary periods in any sense of the word, and the season always felt like a reminder of what he was missing out on. That was before he met Remus.

Meeting Remus brought many unexpected and unwelcome changes to his life. One of those changes being his newfound enjoyment of the goddamn spring. It was humiliating, really, to look forward to these months, but Sirius' love for birthdays won out. They were worth anticipating the worst season of the year, even if it was a bit embarrassing.

Things with Peter had gone from bad to worse in the last month, and Peter had seemingly had enough of it. It wasn't until February that he'd come forward to James and Sirius with his apology for what he'd said about Remus. The whole conversation was rather awkward, considering Peter practically spilled his heart out in the middle of their dorm–really, what kind of sicko talks about their feelings in a shared living space?–but by the end of it, they had forgiven him.

Well, forgiven was a bit of a strong word. James had taken him at his word, but Sirius still had his suspicions. While having a month to think about what he'd said might've been enough for him, Sirius worried about Remus' safety. Rest assured, the irony had Sirius in a laughing fit, that Sirius worried about Remus' safety because of Peter's concerns about his own. Either way, he'd at least sounded sincere, so after another few days of eyeing him, he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

And it felt good that they weren't fighting anymore.

Sirius loved Remus, always. But he still sort of missed Peter, despite what the portly boy said about him. And alright, yeah, he loved Peter too. So it felt good, in that roundabout sort of way that sort of made him feel like an arse. So by the middle of March, things were finally getting back to a resemblance of normalcy.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of the classes at Hogwarts that Sirius never felt inclined to think about. There was never much homework, the classes usually followed the same structure, and it wasn't a subject he particularly cared about. Days that the students dueled on, however, he found to be his favourites.

Often, the professor would pair them up and have them practice certain hexes and charms on the other students, but it was rare that she would leave the dueling to the kids. They were always very heavily monitored, and there was a short list of spells the students were permitted to perform. Dueling days were different.

On these days, she would call up two students at random to duel with any spell of their choice, as long as they wouldn't dangerously harm the other. All eyes were on the students, and they had complete and total control; it was bloody exhilarating. Sirius would've loved to have been called up, but it didn't work out that way. The first person called was actually Remus.

"Nice!" Sirius said, clapping a hand against his back as he stepped up onto the raised platform. Remus eyed the crowd nervously, clearly not loving the idea of being put on a pedestal in front of them but drew his wand anyways.

"Next up," Professor Fellowes said, swirling her wand around a large bowl before it picked out a small slip of paper. She opened it and called, "Severus Snape!" Aghast, Sirius shot his head up towards Remus, finding a matching look of shock on his face. Snape, whom he couldn't care to look at for more than a moment, looked almost impish; his ugly face turned into a cruel sneer, and an encouraging pat on the back from his friends.

For Remus' sake, (and partially his own,) Sirius hoped that Remus hexed Snape into next Tuesday.

When he had finally strolled his way up there, the teacher forced the two of them to shake hands. Snape looked more put out about it than Remus did, and he ripped his hand away in less than two seconds. "Alright, boys," the professor said, "I'd like a clean duel. No curses that could maim or harm your opponent; the goal is to disarm or disable, not wound. Mr. Lupin, you'll take a defensive stance, and Mr. Snape, an offensive. Whenever you're ready." The boys took their stances, and Sirius began to worry. Remus was a rather good duelist, but he struggled when it came to defense; something about him having a fighting spirit, maybe.