Sirius Speaks Out
- "Excuse me?" Sirius said timidly. "Can I say something, Mrs. Lupin?" -
Page 75… Charms for Everyday Use…brilliant. Rachael sat up on her bed and leaned backwards on her pillow. How could the professors expect them to enjoy their summer if they gave them mounds of homework over it? It was near impossible! Professor Flitwick, nice as he may be, gave them two chapters to read and a two-foot long essay about them. Well, Rachael didn’t have to cramp her hands writing them at least. Ms. Marshall agreed to write any homework she had. All Rachael had to do was dictate it.
But it was still a pain to read all the chapters. Rachael sat up and kicked her book closed. Work, work, work… that was all she was able to do. She couldn’t go outside and play in a game or something. Now that Becky wasn’t abusing her, she was inviting Rachael to hang out with her. But Rachael had to decline all the offers. For one thing, she was still a bit uneasy about hanging out with Becky… It was such a spur of the moment change that she hadn’t been able to process it right away.
Second… how could she possibly have time to enjoy herself when her homework was at such an alarming rate? Even her father managed to give them a considerably large amount of homework. He had them analysing the qualities of vampires, skrewts, and werewolves. Luckily it was only three creatures, but they had so many qualities it was as if he had assigned quadruple the amount. She rubbed her eyes and rolled over on her stomach. The dormitory was empty, which she was glad about, she liked having it quiet. The only source of noise was the gentle hooting of Emerald as she snoozed in her cage.
She looked up at the wall clock to see that it was seven in the evening already. The day was almost over and she hadn’t accomplished so much as a sentence of homework. Feeling that she should at least have read something, she gently opened her Charms book again and began to read.
“On three, pull,” Remus said as he, James and Sirius grasped the rope that pulled down the attic door.
They had each taken turns in trying to pull the attic door down and each attempt proved futile. First Remus tried, he grabbed the rope and yanked it down, the door shifted a bit but other than that it just stayed put. Sirius then tried, he managed to pull the rope, but the attic didn’t come down. Instead he pulled himself up until he was hanging off the rope, which he quickly used as a vine and did a few swings and then jumped down before the attic door came crashing down on him. James then tried and yet again there was failure. Remus wondered how his mother could pull it down when three boys couldn’t.
“Okay… three!” They pulled with all their might until the door fell down, knocking the three boys down.
“Well that worked,” Sirius said sarcastically, helping James up.
“Yeah, next time let’s try and pull the door off the hinges,” James added as he dusted his shirt off. Remus pulled the folded stairs down and they began their climb up. The attic was a dark room; it was near impossible to see the light switch. Remus had to grope the wall to find it. When he did bright lights came on, revealing the Lupin attic, cluttered with old boxes, a Christmas tree, several blankets, and the old mattress and bed frame in the very corner.
“It’s cold up here,” James said, shivering slightly.
Remus nodded and they began walking over to the corner, avoided knocking into some of the boxes on the way. Remus noticed as they walked their shoes left footprints on the wooden floors. How long has it been since anyone was up here? Remus climbed over a particularly large box and stopped in front of the mattress. He kneeled down and picked it up, resting it on its side. Then he went behind it and began gathering the pieces to the bed frame.
“I could use some help, you know,” Remus said irritably when he realised James and Sirius were off in another part of the attic. They didn’t listen to Remus when he spoke. “HEY!”
James and Sirius jumped.
“You could’ve asked!” James joked.
“Very funny.”
“Look what we found.” James was pointing to the large box Remus had climbed over.
Curious, Remus stood up, walking around the mattress, which took up more space now that it was lying sideways, and crawled down to his knees in front of the box. He saw that James had wiped the dust off it and there was now a large sign on it that said Remus and Rachael: Home Videos. Remus never remembered them having home videos… that was odd.
“What’re home videos?” Sirius asked, looking at the box with utter bewilderment.
“Something Muggles use to record memories or something,” Remus answered. There was only one person in this family that would have had the idea to do this… his dad. His dad always had a passion for Muggle objects. He had no doubt in his mind that the moment his father heard of home videos he went right out to get everything he needed to make them.
Remus pulled the masking tape off the box, crumpled it up and threw it in a corner. He pulled the cardboard open and saw a large stack of black, plastic rectangles. What were these? He took the stack out and counted them, there were eight, one for each year of their life. He looked inside the box again and found a large rectangle with a cylinder sticking out of its front.
“What is that?” James asked, staring at it in amazement.
“I think it’s called a camerea… or something like that,” Remus answered, looking inside the cylinder. “I remember my dad talking about it to the Muggle Studies professor at school…. I think she needed it.”
Sirius shrugged and suggested getting the bed down to his sister’s old room and then having a look at the rectangles. He grabbed one end of the mattress and Remus took the other, while James picked up the pieces of the frame and led the way back down the attic steps. They spent a good ten minutes setting up the bed for Sirius and Remus’s mum came up carrying some sheets for them to put on it.
“Mum?” Remus said as he tucked in the sheets. She looked at him. “Can we look at the home videos that were in the attic?”
“Well you need a television,” she answered.
“A what?”
“A television. A box that pictures come out of, Muggles use it. There’s a small one in the attic. You can use it.”
Remus nodded and watched as his mother walked out. He had been careful to not mention they were home videos of him and his sister; otherwise she would have forbidden it in a second and went to burn the tapes. They finished setting up Sirius’s bed and went back up to the attic where Sirius and James sorted out the tape from age one to eight and Remus went to go find the television. Since the television was needed for the videos, he figured it wouldn’t be too far away from the videos.
Remus moved aside the Christmas tree and found a small box looking thing. It had a screen… this must be it. He looked at it wondering how to make it work. He leaned on his stomach on the cold wooden floor and stared at it. There were some knobs on it, he turned them but they didn’t do anything. There were several buttons with little words scrawled above them. Remus squinted his eyes to look at them. One said ‘volume’, ‘tuning’, ‘off’ and the one he was looking for ‘on.’ Remus pushed the button and blinked quickly as static appeared on the screen, slowly dissolving and revealing a fuzzy moving picture of a man and a little boy talking.
“Well I got the te-le-vi-sion on,” Remus said, turning his head to look at James and Sirius. James nodded and he and Sirius picked up the stacks of tapes and brought them over. They stooped down to their knees and handed one to Remus. He looked at it and saw Remus and Rachael: Age 7 written messily on a white label. Jeez, he thought incredulously, my parents actually took the time to record what we did when we were seven, weird.
Remus looked at the rectangle, which he learned was actually called a videotape, and then looked at the television. Where was he supposed to put it? He tried to put it through the screen, but wasn’t able to. Sirius peered at the television and spotted a little rectangle shaped piece that he could put his finger through.
“Try here,” he said, pointing towards it.
Remus turned the tape and stuck it through. Immediately the screen turned black and another fuzzy picture began to appear. At first he wasn’t sure what it was, the picture seemed out of focus. Then it began to come into clearer view and he realised he was looking at himself at his old Muggle school’s play. He remembered that, he was seven and they were doing this Muggle play called Peter Pan. He had been a lost boy; he forgot the name of his character, though.
James and Sirius were obviously trying not to laugh as their faces were turning a deep shade of red. Remus was in the middle of singing a song with his fellow classmates and his sister. What role had she played…? Oh that’s right, she was Peter Pan. How could he have forgotten she was the lead? She was singing now. Remus had forgotten what a nice singing voice his sister had. As they watched Remus could hear his mother say from the side of the camera, “I could sit forever listening to her sing.” How could that be the same person who disowned her?
They watched a bit more of that video, being that it was only the play. Remus took it out and James handed him one from when they were four. Remus watched the four-year-old version of his self, he was so small, his eyes seemed a bit too big for his face and his hair was very long. Remus had to admit he was a strange looking four year old. Wait a minute… if that was him… no. A minute later another four year old walked in with short hair, small green eyes and a tiny bit taller. Had he just confused himself for his sister? I’m losing it. He and his sister were talking to their dad as he taped them. He was asking them all these dumb questions such as, “where do Blast Ended Skrewts come from?” knowing that they didn’t have the answer.
A few more minutes later the television ran out of power and shut off. Remus took the last tape out and packed them up. As they were walking back down from the attic Remus couldn’t help but still think about those tapes, even though he doubted they would be looked at again for a long time. How was it that his family had once been happy together? It didn’t seem possible anymore now that it had only been him and his mother living in the house for four years while his dad was off working at the Menagerie and Hogwarts and Rachael was living in an orphanage. He didn’t think that family ever once existed, but seeing it all again… it did.
They went down to Remus’s room where James and Sirius examined some of Remus’s possessions. They were really fascinated with the self-charting moon chart he had to remind himself when the full moons were.
“Where’d you get it?” Sirius asked as he looked for the full moon for that month.
“My mum got it for me at Dervish and Banges a few years ago,” Remus answered, stooping down next to Sirius and looking at the chart. Sirius scanned the chart a bit more and discovered the full moon would be two nights before he and James left.
“There’s the next one,” Sirius said, pointing to July 30th. Remus nodded. Sensing that Remus didn’t want to look at the chart anymore, James quickly pointed to a sneakoscope on Remus’s nightstand and began to look at it. Remus got up and picked up another one he had lying on his nightstand. He didn’t even know why he had them, he didn’t use them and he doubted they worked, but he liked them anyway.
Rachael was walking down a corridor in the orphanage towards the common room. She had to get out of her room and away from her homework… it was driving her up the wall! Also, this was probably the first time she didn’t leave her room to get away from Becky. She was being so nice to her that it was getting kind of creepy.
But comparing the new Becky with the old Becky, Rachael had to say she liked the new one a lot better. It was nice to wake up to the birds chirping and not a wakeup call. Still it was odd… very odd… okay it was the weirdest thing she had ever witnessed in her life… and she had seen plenty of strange things in her life. She sat down in one of the armchairs and watched lazily as some little kids drew pictures on the tables. One of them was constructing what looked like a house, but it was missing a door.
“Did you hear, Lupin?” said a rather snotty voice from behind Rachael.
Rachael leaned her head back to discover her two least favourite people on the planet: Brandy Culkin and Brenda Lewis. “Hear what?” she snarled.
“There’s a talent show next week, you should sign up! You could show everyone your talent of being incredibly stupid,” Brenda said mockingly, expecting Rachael to yell at her, but instead she was smiling.
“Oh, I believe that was your area of talent, not to mention self absorbed snot. But you’re right about something; I am going to sign up. Where’s the notice?”
Brandy jerked a finger towards the notice board behind the television. Rachael jumped off the chair and ran over to look at the note.
Talent Wanted
The orphanage will be hosting a talent show amongst our residents, which will be held next week on July 18th. All are invited with whatever talent you wish to show. To enter please sign up with the talent you possess.
Rachael grabbed the pen under the notice and scribbled her name and singing for her talent. She capped the pen and walked past the girls with a satisfied smirk.
It was dinnertime at the Lupin household. Remus’s mum had made quiet a spread of food in honour of James and Sirius’s first night staying there. There was steak, vegetables and potatoes, a whole lot of them. The boys sat down and immediately started eating while they listened to Remus’s mum ask them questions about school and then talking about her days at Hogwarts, which weren’t remotely interesting. She was now going on about how she and her fellow Ravenclaws would sneak out and (what she thought was hilarious but in reality wasn’t even the least bit funny) roam around the grounds.
Sirius faked a smile and engaged his two friends in conversation before Remus’s mum could get out another word. “So… err… James, going to try out for Quidditch this year?” he asked James, who was busy cutting up a piece of steak and humming quietly so as to drown out Mrs. Lupin’s endless rambling.
“’Course I am, they’re looking for Chasers on the Gryffindor team,” James answered. “I think Bridget Becker left school last year so I’m going to try and get her place.”
“Aren’t they looking for more positions?” Remus asked interestedly.
“Yeah, Melanie Bigg and Craig Johnson graduated last year too, so they need a new Beater and Seeker.”
“Why don’t you try for Seeker?” Sirius asked.
“I dunno I don’t much fancy seeking.”
“You’re all in Gryffindor?” Mrs. Lupin asked unnecessarily. The boys nodded. “Who else is?”
“Our friend Peter Pettigrew,” Remus said, counting them off on his fingers. “Alice Gordon, Frank Longbottom, Lily Evans and Rachael.” Remus’s mum made a noise of disgust. “Yes she’s in Gryffindor, Mum!”
“I hope you don’t talk to her.”
“Oh yeah like I’m going to ignore my sister, especially when she’s right there and I don’t want to ignore her in the first place.”
“Well you should ignore her!”
James and Sirius exchanged nervous glances. They really didn’t want to witness a row between Remus and his mother, but they also couldn’t stand to listen to what they were hearing.
“Excuse me?” Sirius said timidly. “Can I say something, Mrs. Lupin?”
“Of course, Sirius,” she answered, suddenly adopting a pleasant voice quite different from the one she had been using.
“Well… you can’t really blame Remus can you? She is his sister.”
“Yes, but she is also a horrible kid.”
A flash of anger appeared in Sirius’s eyes that neither James nor Remus had ever seen before. They knew this wouldn’t be good. “A horrible kid? A horrible kid?” he stammered, in a forced calm voice. “She is not a horrible kid! She’s anything but that! Anything! You haven’t seen her for years how do you know she’s the horrible kid you think she is? Has she ever been?”
“Of course she has!”
“Tell me something terrible she’s done - other than the accident you think she caused.”
“Well… well… back when she was five…err… Okay, Sirius, I can’t name any, but that doesn’t excuse her from what-“
“From what you think she did!” Mrs. Lupin didn’t know what to say. When she invited James and Sirius over she didn’t ever dream that she would be arguing with one of them… and here she was, arguing with a twelve year old. “You just think she’s terrible! But she isn’t, she’s as far away from terrible as you can get!”
All in all, Sirius won the arguement, which quite shocked Remus and James. Never had they heard Sirius speak so passionately about something. When James and Sirius went to bed Remus was forced to apologise for Sirius’s behaviour. But if he wasn’t forced to he wouldn’t have because Sirius was right… his sister wasn’t to blame.