No Rain

8. Wallowing In Self-Pity

Chapter 8-Wallowing In Self-Pity

“Addison McKinnon, Addison McKinnon, Addison McKinnon,” Sirius chanted as his brother slammed a pillow repeatedly upon his head. That name, her name, was his inspiration for not losing his cool on Regulus.

“What sort of funny name is that?” Regulus Black taunted, stopping momentarily to nag his brother.

“This coming from a kid whose name is Regulus?” Sirius retorted back. He flipped over on his bed and started looking at the letter the school had sent him two weeks ago. Sirius had already gotten all his materials (mainly due to the fact that Regulus was starting this year) and was anxiously awaiting the hour he was to board the train. This hour, the last hour, was the longest hour of his life.

He had already consumed nine large doughnuts, two decent size praline pies, a dozen apples, the bag of lima beans in the cupboards, the candy his mum stashed away in the hall closet, and five hearty bowls of cereal. His stomach was aching for attention, more nourishment, but he was too excited to eat.

Regulus now felt that torturing Sirius was the most productive way of consuming his time. At the moment, he was flicking Sirius’ ear.

Sirius carelessly took his wand out of his back pocket and pointed it in his little brother’s face.

“Do you wish to die so young, little brother?” Sirius asked, making a sympathetic face towards his twisted blood relative.

Regulus whipped out his own brand new wand and shoved it in the face of his brother. “That won’t work anymore, Sirius. I can do magic now too.”

“Sure you can,” Sirius replied sarcastically. “No matter what year you’re in, I’ll always have a year up on you. There is nothing you can do that would surprise me.”

With that, he breezed down the stairs at the sound of his mother’s wretched voice calling for him and his brother. Sirius hadn’t had a pleasant summer, that much was true. He missed his friends, the castle, girls, the food, the Quidditch matches, the classes, even McGonagall.

When he had arrived home, he was greeted with the cold shoulder from both his parents. Only Regulus and Kreacher talked to him, both reminding him that being a Gryffindor was a sin in the Noble House of Black.

He couldn’t wait to be free again. To be himself. To be home.

“Mum,” James whined. “I need to find my broom. I need it.”

“Potter men and their Quidditch,” Elizabeth Potter muttered, Apparating throughout the house in hopes of finding the broomstick lying around somewhere.

“It’s gone,” James demised. “Someone stole it.”

“Yes, James,” his mother replied breathlessly. “Someone broke into our well protected house, wandered through it, and only took your broomstick. That must have been it.”

“Wait..” James said, pausing for a moment and walking down the stairs. “Never mind! I had it sitting by the door.”

Elizabeth sighed and then smiled. She would miss him. He was twelve years old and growing up so fast.

“Be sure to welcome all your friends over for Christmas,” Mrs. Potter reminded him before they left for Kings Cross train station. “I heard Sirius mention a girl. I think her name was Lily.”

James looked at his feet as he walked out the door. He really didn’t want to think about Lily Evans.

“She’s a real poet,” Sirius said as launched into the compartment he and his friends would be sharing. “That Lily sure has a way with words. She couldn’t have said it any better.”

Remus was slightly uncomfortable every time James, Sirius, or Peter brought up that day in conversation. He knew that it was his fault, the entire thing, as he was a werewolf. Dumbledore had found him stunned in the forest and had levitated him to the nurse’s office. He had assured him that extra security would be put on the shack from now on.

James was blushing, at a loss for word, and slightly put out by the fact that someone hated him. Only his first year there and someone already hated him. A very pretty someone, in fact. He didn’t like to be hated.

“Wow, Sirius, that cart woman gave you and James a dirty look when you got on the train,” Peter reported to his friend.

“She was just instantly attracted to me and couldn’t identify her emotions correctly, is all,” Sirius brushed off, opening a Chocolate Frog from a candy wrapper.

“I think it has to do with the fact that you stole her cart last year and ran someone over with it,” Remus deduced.

“Could be,” Sirius mused. “So what are we going to do this year? Party in the bathrooms. Give a Slytherin a wedgie from hell? What’s it going to be?”

“Wallow in self-pity,” Peter, James, and Remus all answered.

“That was not an option,” Sirius mumbled. “How about this? We talk about something that has nothing to do with self-pity. Leopold, you start.”

“Well, over the summer my parents had a picnic and invited people from our neighborhood. It was very fun,” Peter said optimistically. Sirius nodded in approval, allowing Peter to go on. “There was a balloon toss, an egg toss, a catch the Chocolate Frog relay race. Yet, there was the part about me being allergic to the ambrosia salad old Mrs. Figg made. I broke out in a rash and it’s killing me right now and I really think I need to see a d-”

“Self-pity!” Sirius screamed. “Stop, stop, stop. Self-pity. That’s quite enough of that, young man. I need to hear something refreshing and exciting that mainly focuses around me.”

The three others in the compartment were filled with silence.

“No one has any stories to tell?” Sirius asked. “I’ll just have to tell you a marvelous joke then. There was three men going into Ollivanders..”

The girls returned to their dormitories with much anticipation and satisfaction. Smiles bright on their faces and eyes sparkling, they were all finally home. Well, only one girl wasn’t smiling. This was most likely due to the fact that her twin sister was noisily humming the theme song from a ridiculous soap opera shown in the fireplace.

“Would you stop humming the theme song from ‘Days of Our Wands’ so I won’t go bloody insane?” Addison shrieked after ten minutes of incessant humming.

“You’re just jealous because you don’t watch it,” Mackenzie replied back, letting Arielle join in with the humming. Arielle stopped humming after five more minutes and decided to whistle as she liked to whistle more.

“Just so you know,” Maimee whispered in Addison’s ear. “I am officially on your side. Is it just me or do you feel the need to strangle them?”

“I think they get more annoying by the second,” Addison insisted.

Lily was sitting on her bed, rubbing her temples and muttering to herself.

“Must never watch wizarding soap operas,” she murmured over and over again.

“Imagine being stuck with that for the summer,” Addison said to Maimee, pointing at her sister who was now jumping up and down on her bed.

“Has anyone seen Sirius Black?” Mackenzie asked to the entire dorm. Alice Bones shook her head and resumed trying to permanently stuff her ears with pillow in attempt to drown out Mac’s singing.

“He’s probably got his head stuck in a trolley back at King’s Cross,” Addison said. “His fat head most likely wouldn’t fit, but one can only hope.”

“Fat?” Mac demanded. “He is not fat.”

“I hope that James Potter is stuck with him,” Lily said menacingly. She was now flipping through a magazine vigorously. “I am twelve years old and I will be damned if I don’t enjoy my time here because of him.”

“Lily, don’t say damn,” Maimee scolded. “Besides, James seems very personable.”

“Obviously you don’t know him like I do,” Lily told her, her green eyes hiding a secret detail about James. Addison caught on to this.

“Obviously not,” Addison replied.

“You three have got to be the most boring individuals I have ever had the misfortune of becoming acquainted with,” Sirius yawned, throwing a bouncy ball back and forth from his bed.

The other three were sprawled on their beds, wallowing in self-pity.

“You do realize that there are babes out there. In the Common Room. Look lustrous and waiting for male attention. Swooning at our feet,” Sirius said, hopefully trying to use inspiring enough imagery to get his roommates out of the dorm. No such luck.

“Lily hates me,” James groaned.

“I’m not worthy of the common room,” Remus complained.

“My rash itches,” Peter whined.

“That’s disgusting,” Sirius commented. “Why don’t we turn those frowns upside down? Did you not hear the words ‘swooning at our feet’ come out of my mouth? Obviously not.”

“Who would swoon at your feet?” Peter asked. “You don’t believe in cooties.”

“That made absolutely no sense whatsoever,” Sirius informed Peter. “You need to work on those comebacks. In the meantime, I want to go down to dinner.”

He stared intensely at James as he said the word dinner. He watched as the word processed itself in his friend’s fragile little mind. The syllables expanding slowly and eventually his comprehension. Din-ner.

“Dinner,” Sirius repeated. “Dinner.”

“Dinner,” James said almost mechanically. He leaped up from his bed. “Dinner. Food.”

“Good job, Potter,” Sirius mumbled. “You’ve reached the intelligence level of a three year old. I am so proud.”

Remus joined them as well, leaving an itchy Peter Leopold Pettigrew to fend for himself and find chamomile lotion on his own time.

When James entered the Great Hall with one thing on his mind, food, he suddenly remembered why he had previously been wallowing in self-pity. Penetrating green eyes were marking their warpath on his skull.

He took a hard breath and sat down on the opposite side of the Gryffindor table. He tried to eat, but could only think of her repeating those words.

“I hate you.”

“I hate you.”

“I hate you,” Sirius said. James snapped out of reality.

“You what?” he protested to his friend.

“I asked you to pass me the rolls,” Sirius reminded his friend. “You really are out of it.”

James passed his friends the rolls, but also tried to overhear the girls’ conversation. Addison, Lily, Maimee, Mackenzie, and Arielle were all seated. Surprisingly, Mac wasn’t chatting everyone’s ear off.

“She’s only quiet when she eats,” Addison informed her friends. “I always try and enhance her intake of food so I can have a couple more moments of peace.”

Maimee, who would normally be against something so cruel, was nodding vigorously in agreement.

“Lily, would you like some of these delicious peas?” Mackenzie offered.

“Ok, she’s only quiet when she’s eating food. Otherwise she’s gabbing away about boys, soap operas, and what she ate,” Addison mumbled.

“No thanks, Mac,” Lily said, shaking her head sullenly. “I hate peas.”

She hates peas and James Potter. Wow, I’m learning more about her already, James thought to himself.

A/N: Fairly long. Deserves a nice lengthy review. So leave one!