Nyctophobia - Sirius Black

Chapter 29

Sirius grumbled as he moved the last of his stuff back into the dorm. James had been extremely persistent, much to Sirius's annoyance, but at least they had helped him move everything back, not that there was that much anyway. Ruby had helped too and had insisted that they would still study in the classroom.

In all honesty, Sirius had pretty much forgotten about the scars. The school uniform had covered them completely and Ruby had never made any comment; she had enough scars of her own, and she already knew the cause. So he hadn't used the spells to hide them in months. Out of sight, out of mind.

Well, that became a problem when he came out of the shower without a shirt on, a habit he had started since the classroom was warmer than the dorms.

"What happened to you back?" It actually took him a minute to remember he even had scars there. Then he mentally cursed himself for forgetting. Because they didn't know. Then he scrambled to come up with a believable excuse, but what could explain his numerous scars when for all they knew, his parents just ignored him on vacations, and he hadn't been disowned. And he couldn't say it had happened a long time ago, because they'd never seen any of the scars before.

"Uhh, I got attacked... by a cougar." Remus looked at him unimpressed.

"I'm the werewolf, not you."

"Fine. It was Death Eaters." Voldemort was just now becoming famous with people whose parents didn't support him. Barely any of them knew anything about him. Just that he hated Muggleborns and Muggles.

"You're a pureblood, and a Black no less." James exclaimed, pointing out the serious flaw in his lie.

"I was at a Muggle concert. Death Eaters attacked." He shrugged, trying to make it seem like it wasn't that bad.

"You are not okay! There are scars all over you, especially your back. You look like you were captured and tortured for days!" Remus shrieked, motioning wildly to Sirius's back. "Who even healed you? You're parents ignore you and you said your brother hated you."

"Ruby." He admitted. That much at least was true. "She found me after they left, and healed me." Luckily, none of them knew where she lived. They couldn't find the flaw in that. Sirius realized he was a horrible liar. "And it wasn't even that bad. Just a few cutting jinxes. A lot of the muggles got way worse." He said, pulling a shirt on, if only for the minor protection from their concerned gazes. He hated it. He hated everything. He hated the scars. He hated the concern. He hated that his parents had done this to him. He hated that he had forgotten about them, and that now they had seen.

"Pad-" James started, but Sirius cut him off.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said, and climbed into bed. He drew the curtains around the bed, surrounding himself in darkness. He cast a silencing spell first, before casting the spells to hide his scars. Maybe if they didn't see them again, they wouldn't ask, and poke holes in his horrible lies.

Or maybe they would notice his scars were gone.

Either way, he made sure that he changed in the bathroom the next morning instead of in the dorm.

He stood in the Great Hall, not entirely sure where to sit. The other three were still getting ready. He had taken as long as they did before, but the classroom was significantly farther away than the dorms, which meant he had to get ready faster or lose a few minutes of sleep. He had chosen the former option.

Ruby noticed his predicament and waved him over, smiling happily. He sat down next to her, nodding awkwardly in greeting to the Slytherins. They didn't really get on well, but they managed to be civil at least.