Melancholy || Harry Potter's twin brother

3: chapter three

"Sirius!" Hannah shouted as she and Justin met the boy outside the leaky cauldron. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too Hannah!" Sirius replied with a smile as he hugged his friend. He then turned to Justin and hugged him. "Hey Justin! How do you feel?"

"I'm fine, honestly." Justin replied, he knew his friends were very worried about him after he was petrified for a few months, but it was all he could do to reassure them that he was fine.

"That's great!" Sirius grinned. "So have either of you seen Ernie?"

"Is he not already here?" Hannah asked in surprise, Sirius shook his head.

"No, I thought he was gonna come with you." He replied with a frown, trying to figure out where on earth Ernie could be.

As if by magic, Ernie appeared along the corner of the street, running towards them, red in the face.

"Sorry I'm late." He puffed. "My train was delayed."

"Dont worry about it mate, how are you?" Sirius hugged his friend, getting there before the others could.

"Alright thanks Sirius, how are you?" Ernie asked as he hugged Hannah and then Justin.

"I'm alright." Sirius nodded, as Hannah led the group inside.

"Well I don't know about you lot, but I'm starving!" She announced, they agreed with her in unison, not having realised they were hungry until she had pointed it out.

"So seeing as you don't have your trunk Sirius, how long have you been here?" Ernie asked as they sat down in a corner of the leaky cauldron.

"A week or so." Sirius replied, the astonishment on his friends faces made him laugh.

"What happened?" Justin asked.

"So, Harry blew up our Aunt." Sirius replied.

"What?" Hannah asked, her eyes wide.

"Not like that, more like a balloon." Sirius cleared up quickly, his friends already thought bad of his brother, he didn't want to add to that.

"How?" Ernie asked, it wasn't particularly a usual thing and that was clear to them all.

"I don't know, he said she was talking bad about our mum and then she started swelling." Sirius replied. "I looked out the window and she was like floating in the sky."

"Wait you weren't there?" Justin asked.

"I was in our room, she's our uncles sister and I don't like her so I was hiding." He replied.

"I don't blame you, so you left then?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah, Harry came into our room and was like we're going." Sirius continued. "I didn't question it, he's quite scary when he's angry."

"Hasn't it been boring here by yourself?" Justin asked.

"I had Harry." Sirius defended his brother knowing exactly what was coming next.

"And he's a bundle of laughs. Lucky we're here now." Hannah told him grandly, Sirius had to laugh, he'd missed his friends too much not too.

"I'm glad you guys are here." He told them.

"I'm glad we're here too. Also I can't wait for our camping trip." Ernie grinned.

"We're actually doing that?" Sirius asked in amazement. Hannah shook her head at him.

"Of course!"

^^^^
"This book list seems completely normal, and then theres the monster book of monsters." Ernie said as he surveyed his list of books. "What's that about?"

"It'll be for care of magical creatures. I think Hagrid is teaching it this year." Sirius mused as he examined the list himself.

"The groundskeeper? Why him?" Hannah asked as she decided upon which new quill she wanted.

"He knows a lot about animals apparently." Justin said, he was stood by the inks, considering whether to get an electric blue ink just to annoy the teachers.

"I thought he just had a lot of pets." Sirius said, he was loitering by the door, hoping that they would be finished soon. He wasn't a fan of stationary.

"Well he does, but I think he also knows stuff you know." Ernie said as Hannah finally selected her quill, a rather large and expensive Peacock feather.

"He once told me all about flobber worms, still have no idea what one is, but I have to say it was surprisingly interesting." Hannah said as she fished her money from her pocket. "They eat lettuce or something and they're slimy. I considered getting one for my cousin, as it sounds like her, but my mum wouldn't let me. For whatever reason."

"Can't imagine why." Sirius replied dryly.

"I know!"

"So this monster book of monsters, so you think it is what it says it is?" Justin asked as they headed up the street.

"As in a monster?" Hannah asked. "I hope so."

"I doubt it." Sirius said as they entered the shop to see a bedraggled looking man seeming to be losing his will to live.

"You're not Hogwarts are you?" He sighed.

"Unfortunately." Justin told him sympathetically.

The shopkeeper turned to a cage of big brown books that were attacking each other, counting them he breathed a sigh of relief. "There are four here, take them." He passed Sirius the cage. "Right, what else do you need?"

After finally getting all of their school supplies, the group wandered through diagon alley, heading back to the leaky cauldron.

"Let's get icecream!" Hannah decided excitedly.

"You know what, why not!" Ernie agreed. "Come on then!"

^^^
A few days later the group were at their campsite, attempting to set up their tent and failing miserably.

"If we could use magic outside of school it would be done by now!" Hannah grumbled lifting her tent pole through the material and stabbing Sirius in the stomach with it.

"Ow!" He complained, helping her lift the tent up.

"If you were paying attention, then that wouldn't have happened!" She shot back at him.

"Sorry, I got distracted, I've never been to a campsite before, Aunt Petunia hates public toilets." Sirius defended himself.

"Come on, we've almost got it!" Justin said encouragingly as he narrowly missed being hit on the head by Ernie with the mallet they had brought to hammer the tent pegs into the ground.

"Hey, it's not bad." Sirius said happily, surveying their only slightly wonky tent.

"It'll do, but it's also about to rain, so let's get this lot inside." Hannah pointed to their bags, sleeping mat and blankets.

"Yeah." Ernie agreed, grabbing a handful of bags and diving into the tent dramatically. The others grabbed the remaining items and followed him into the tent.

"Cosy." Justin said approvingly.

"My mums a muggle-born and she says the muggle way to camp is the only proper way." Hannah told them. "Wizard tents are like mini houses and she's convinced it's cheating."

"They say camping is to get close to nature, so that makes sense." Sirius agreed, helping Justin set the beds up.

"I'm not gonna lie guys, this is going to be fun."