The hidden side of the Wizarding World

Chapter 12: Late, only yesterday and her Sirius

27th of June 1992

"Dad! We're going to be late", Harrison shouted running up the stairs, "Mum says we had to leave a minute ago."

"I'm right there, cub." Remus calls out from the other end of the corridor, closing the door behind him.

He tried to straighten his robes to look decent. Merlin, why was he always late when he could not afford it?

"Let's go, Harrison."

The duo went down the stairs and quickly made their way towards Evelyn.

"Your cloak, Remus." She held out the black cloak, which he gladly took and put on.

She ran her wand over Remus' clothes, mumbling some spell that Harrison didn't recognize.

Satisfied with Remus', now clean and straight, robes, she grabbed some floopowder.

The flames flared up and Lady Black was gone.

"Go on, Harrison." Remus gently pushed Harrison towards the fireplace.

"The ministry of Magic!" Harrison said with a small voice, not really trusting the floo, yet.

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The court became silent as soon as the Aurors lead Sirius inside.

He looked awful, for lack of better words. He looked even worse than after that night when he'd run away from home, so much worse. Remus knew that was to be expected when you're in Azkaban for almost 11 years. But he hadn't expected to see Sirius look this bad, although he wasn't quite sure what he had been expecting.

His hair, that he always took so much pride in and would hex anyone but Evelyn if they even dared to touch it, was now dirty, messy and clumped together. It was hanging in his face, which made it hard to look at Sirius' expression. He looked thinner than Remus had ever seen someone. Dried blood coloured the black and white, half ripped pieces of fabric (you could not call those things clothes, Remus thought) that hung loose on his body.

At first he didn't look up, not until he was safely secured on the chair in the middle of the courtroom.

The tension in the chamber was not comparable to the feeling that had been in the air last time that Remus had set foot in the place, with the trial for Harry's custody.

Sirius locked eyes with Remus. The werewolf's heart started beating faster and faster until he eventually had to look away and try to keep his heartbeat under control.

His friend, his best friend since first year, was sitting in a chair, chained with magical, heavy, metal chains for a trial about betraying their best friends. How in Merlin's name did it come to this? It was only yesterday in Remus' mind that the four of them were sneaking through the corridors late at night under James' invisibility cloak to finish their magical map. Only yesterday that Peter and Remus watched Sirius and James fail to flirt with their crushes. Only yesterday when he spent months watching their friends doing yet another illegal thing and making Remus tear up in the bathroom at least once a week because of the love his friends showed while becoming an animagus just for him. Only yesterday when the other three stayed with him every full moon fully knowing the deathly risks of their actions and landing in the hospital almost every other full moon with wounds that left permanent scars. Only yesterday when he saw the huge claw mark on James' back when they were changing the morning after he was excused from the hospital wing and Remus had to puke after breakfast of the guilt he had fel. Only yesterday when he hold his cub after a full moon. Only yesterday that he fell on his knees in front of the destroyed Potter residence, bruises everywhere from the full moon the night before.