Marauders & their Evans

Third Year 1974

Chapter Eighteen

The first full moon of the year 1974 was on January 8th, so on that date I took a single mandrake leaf with the sole purpose of leaving it in my mouth for a whole month until the next full moon. I'm not going to lie, keeping the bloody leaf in my mouth was harder than I expected. I couldn't not talk because then it would be suspicious, since my friends say I never stop talking, and eating was very hard since I had to find a way not to swallow the leaf.

The first try didn't work out since on my birthday, Peter, like he always does, decided to smash my face right into the cake, making me choke between the cake and the leaf I accidentally swallowed. The birthday prank however, was like always, completely epic. Landing us this time three weeks in detention, our highest record.

Remus has once again undergone a full moon alone, and this time one of his friends started to pay attention a little more closely. Sirius had noticed back on Christmas holidays that Remus had faint new scars on his hands and he was leaning more on his left leg. While Remus limping was gone Sirius suspicions weren't.

One morning Sirius held Remus back while James and Peter went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. "Is everything all right Sirius?" He asked his friend suspiciously. "Your scars," Remus took in a deep breath. "I've seen them, and you don't have to hide them." Remus looked at him in confusion. "It's alright I have them too." He turned around lifting his sweater to show him. "The best way to ignore the pain is to pretend you're somewhere else." Sirius said quietly as he turned back around. Remus looked at his friend as a wave of utter sadness crushed him. "Sirius, how did you get those scars?" Remus asked, terrified of his friend's answer.

***

Sirius was going crazy, he couldn't help it, he was pacing back and forth in the empty room waiting for his brother. His conversation with Remus earlier that day had him questioning his entire existence. He looked up when he faintly heard the door closing, and he quickly stood up straight and smiled, he couldn't let Reggie know something was wrong.

They talked for hours, catching up on what they had done over the holidays. Regulus told him about how boring the Christmas ball was without him, how their cousin Bellatrix hexed one of the waiters who had spilled wine all over her. Sirius laughed only wishing he was there to see that moment. In return Sirius told him about the snowball fight, the sledding, and all the fun they had at James's house.

He dreaded telling Regulus what was on his mind but he knew he had to. "Reggie, do you think our parents love us?" He gave him a confused look and answered. "Of course they do." "You don't think our mother is sometimes harsh, even almost cruel." Regulus hesitated for a moment then answered. "I suppose she can be, but that's only because she wants us to be perfect."

Sirius was trying to keep in his emotions as he was taught since he could remember but now it seemed like an impossible task. "That's the thing Reggie, she expects too much from us, and what she does is not normal." "I don't understand." "She's cruel Reggie, that is what I'm trying to say." By now his heart rate started speeding up and his breath started coming out in pants.

He knew his brother didn't know what he was talking about, the worst thing Walburga had ever done to him was shout at him, she never laid a hand on him, Sirius made sure about it. He no longer was talking to Regulus more like to himself, his mouth started saying things before his brain could even register them.

"She is cruel, so so cruel. I used to think like you. I convinced myself that what she does is to teach us, to make us better, but that's not how things should be." He grabbed his hair with his hands and kept talking. "The beatings, the curses, hexing, yelling, that's not normal, no parent should ever do that to their kid." By now tears were falling from his eyes and it was getting harder and harder to breathe.