Melancholy || Harry Potter's twin brother

3: chapter seven

It was the middle of the night when Sirius finally understood something that Dumbledore had said in the feast earlier that evening. "Justin?" He asked knowing full well he didn't have a cat in hells chance of waking Ernie up. Once Ernie was asleep, he was asleep.

"Yeah?" Justin mumbled with a sigh.

"If those dementer things are going to be patrolling the grounds, does that mean they'll just be floating around the corridors." Sirius asked. "Because that makes me uncomfortable."

"I doubt Dumbledore will actually let them into the school." Justin replied as he rolled over to face his friend. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"They creep me out." Sirius told him with a frown.

"Me too, but it'll be alright." Justin told him comfortingly.

"I hope so." Sirius murmured.

"It will, now we need to get some sleep or we'll be tired for our first day of lessons tomorrow." Justin managed to get back to sleep straight away, but Sirius was not so lucky.

After trying to get to sleep for around an hour, Sirius gave up and climbed out of bed, going to sit by the window, which looked out over the grounds. There was no movement out there except shadows and the occasional cat, which was to be expected as most people at Hogwarts had a pet cat.

It was as he was drifting off, leaning against the cool glass of the window that he first saw him. A boy, maybe a head taller than Sirius was stood at the edge of the forbidden forest. Sirius couldn't tell if he was hiding, watching or waiting. He didn't seem dangerous, but he did spark Sirius' curiosity. He seemed to be looking at the castle as though he could see something that no one else could. There was also something strange about him, but Sirius couldn't put his finger on it.

Suddenly tired from watching the shadows of the grounds, Sirius retired to his bed, wrapping the duvet tightly around himself as he felt a chill come over him. He could hear Ernie's snores from opposite him and had to stifle a giggle as he heard his friend roll straight into his bedside table. Finally feeling able to sleep, Sirius closed his eyes, all thoughts of the strange boy in the forest and the strange shadows of Hogwarts at night slipping from his mind.

^^^
Mornings always seemed to arrive quickly at Hogwarts, and the friends were in the great hall with plenty of time for breakfast that morning.

"Alright, what do you think will be served today?" Hannah asked, starting off their game for another year.

"Ooh, I'll go for toast." Ernie said.

"Toast?" Justin laughed. "That's a given. I'll go porridge."

"Alright, Sirius?" Hannah shook her head at Ernie's guess.

"Croissants." Sirius decided. They all frowned at him.

"Croissants?" They all asked at the same time.

"Why not?" Sirius asked.

"In our time at Hogwarts, I don't know whether they've served croissants." Justin frowned.

"Well why not? They're great." Sirius replied as they reached the door to the great hall.

It wasn't long after they sat down that Porfessor Sprout handed out their time tables. They surveyed them at once, hoping that their first lesson with the new defence against the dark arts teacher would be soon, so they could figure out what he was like.

"Have you got Lupin soon?" Leah asked from where she and Cedric sat beside them.

"Not until... Wednesday." Hannah replied.

"We've got him this afternoon, I'm hoping he'll be good." Cedric told them, putting his timetable in his bag and grabbing another slice of toast.

"Me too, the last two have been shocking." Justin agreed, taking the butter from where Sirius hadn't quite finished using it.

"I mean, how does Dumbledore even choose them?" Sirius asked, managing to get the butter back so he could finish buttering his toast, only for Justin to take it back from him almost immediately.

"I don't know, it's odd to be honest. Especially seeing as the last one was a literal fake." Ernie agreed.

"Do they not get background checks?" Justin asked.

"Apparently not." Leah laughed. "So where are you four going first?"

"Uh, we have charms." Sirius read from his timetable. "Oh I'm rubbish at charms!" He added in complaint.

"We can help if you like?" Cedric offered.

"Yeah, we did pretty well in third year."  Leah nodded. "I'm better at charms then Cedric though."

"You are not!" Cedric defended himself loudly.

Leah cackled loudly. "Only joking." She patted his shoulder as she laughed.

"Thanks guys, I appreciate it." Sirius smiled at them.

"No problem Sirius, it's okay to find things difficult you know." Cedric told him comfortingly.

Sirius tried not to think about Aro's warnings of him doing best at everything and smiled at them again. "I know, I'll try and ask for help more."

"Alright, we'd better go, see you later." Hannah got up, the boys following her as they headed towards the charms classroom, bidding goodbye to Cedric and Leah as they went.

Jane met up with them on the way. "Morning." She greeted them sullenly.

"Hey Jane." Sirius nodded at her.

"So, everyone ready for a new school year?" Justin asked positively, they all just looked at him, no one was really in the mood to be back at school and learning just yet. The drastic change from all the lazing around over the summer was hitting them all hard and they were struggling to adjust to being back at school again. "I'll take that as a no."

"Sorry Justin, I think we're all just tired." Sirius comforted his friend, who always tried to be as positive as he could.

"Nah I get it, come on, let's get charms over with." Justin laughed, slinging his arm over Sirius' shoulder as they met more of their classmates heading towards the classroom.