The Losing One || Sirius Black

29. Initial Denial

"Mr. Black!"

Sirius startled as the DADA teacher called his name. At the same time, James dug his elbow into his rib to get his attention, but it was too late, the whole class was already looking at him.

"Sorry, Mr. Edwards. Bad night's sleep.", he tried the puppy eyes technique which, thankfully, worked. Mr. Edwards just shook his head and turned back to the board to continue his sketch of various wand movements for defensive spells against simple hexes.

When Sirius sank back into his seat, he noticed James' suspicious eyes, "What?", he frowned at the boy.

James kept the suspicious look, "What were you daydreaming about?"

This made Sirius laugh, So that's what this is about. He put on a smug smile, "Don't worry. I was just thinking about the map, nothing similar to your daydreaming.", he provoked the boy with glasses.

Even if James didn't believe that he actually liked Lily Evans, Sirius knew it. His friend would just zone out in classes and look at the red haired girl without even noticing what he was actually doing. Luckily for James, Sirius was a reasonable man, he will let him figure things out on his own, but a couple of jokes here and there won't hurt anybody.

Instantly, rosy blush spread across James' check, "I don't daydream.", the boy deadpanned. Sirius just raised an eyebrow at that statement and turned back towards the board, Mr. Edwards probably won't be that forgiving the second time around.

* * *

"Are you okay, Remus? You seem sick again?", Sirius questioned the tall boy once the Marauders sat down for lunch. It was a common knowledge among them that Remus was always sick, probably even once a month.

One more thing Sirius noticed was that Remus would somehow feel the sickness creeping in on him almost seven days before it even started. That would result in a week with cranky, irritated and angry Remus whom nobody had the guts to annoy.

Granted, it was quite a fair exchange since Remus would put up with most of their shenanigans throughout the rest of the month. Sirius supposed that even the most understanding and thoughtful people had to have some wild days.

Still eating an impressive amount of potatoes and chicken, the tall boy lifted his gaze in irritation. He then swallowed the bite currently occupying his mouth and gave Sirius an annoyed look, "I'm fine.", he exclaimed and then returned to his little feast.

Just like every other time, the boy gave a short answer, wanting to indicate to Sirius to leave the topic alone. Sirius just sighed to this ridiculous behavior. After all he was allowed to be concerned about his friend, especially since it seemed like Remus had some chronic illness.

Nonetheless, he kept his mouth shut and turned back to his plate as to not irritate the boy even more since just him breathing seemed to do the trick.

* * *

The rest of the day passed quickly, except for the History of Magic which always seemed to last a lifetime with professor Binns' monotone voice. At least Sirius and James invented a new guessing game. At the start of every class, they would bet on how many students will fall asleep and how many will actually pay attention.

So far James was winning, or at least they thought that James was winning since they couldn't keep count for the last fifteen minutes because they, too, had fallen asleep.

Sirius was woken up by slight shacking of his shoulders, "Sirius, come on. The lesson's over.", he could recognize Peter's voice, but just the thought of moving seemed quite unappealing to him.