Nyctophobia - Sirius Black

Chapter 23

James did his best to ignore him. He wouldn't confront the loss. He'd prank alone, or maybe drag Moony and Wormtail along.

He was good at hiding his pain, or he thought he was anyway. He'd hide that it hurt that Padfoot had betrayed them, just like he hid how much it hurt when Evans yelled at him.

Did he notice Sirius was hanging around Ruby more and more every day? Maybe he saw them out of the corner of his eye, but if he did see, he looked away, so not really.

Did he notice how lonely Sirius would look when James would catch him staring at him from across the classroom? Yes. He noticed. But he did nothing. Sirius had betrayed Remus, and knowing Remus, he would be forgiven soon, if he hadn't already been forgiven. Someone had to make sure Sirius knew what he'd done wasn't okay.

They'd sworn not to tell anyone of their friend's lycanthropy, but Sirius had the audacity to tell Severus Snape of all people.

No matter how many times Ruby told him it wasn't his fault, Sirius couldn't help but blame himself. Ruby insisted she was fine, and she didn't care about the werewolf accident anymore, but he still felt the crushing weight of guilt.

He had made a mistake, and hurt a lot of people. All of his friends had paid for the accident in one way or another. Part of him almost wanted everyone to stay away so it wouldn't happen again. Maybe that was why he never stepped out of the room when he knew Remus was standing outside the door.

Peter was scared. He was the weakest of the four, and Padfoot, who he had always looked up to, was now estranged. What would happen if he slipped up? Padfoot and Prongs were brothers in everything but blood, but now they wouldn't even look at each other. Peter had always thought the bond of the four friends was nearly unbreakable, if not entirely impossible to break. It scared him that it could be shattered so easily.

He discreetly watched Padfoot, noticing how often the boy watched them longingly. Peter wasn't brave. How he'd gotten into Gryffindor was a mystery to him. He supposed that if he was brave, he would have talked to Sirius by now. But he wasn't brave, so he stayed where he was behind Moony and Prongs, secretly watching them and Sirius. He saw when Remus glanced sadly over at the friend who had betrayed him. He saw how often Sirius would watch them, until Ruby would walk up next to him and start talking about something. He saw how James purposely kept his gaze away, focusing resolutely on Lily Evans until she looked about ready to hex him. And he did nothing. He said nothing. He just watched sadly as all four of the Marauders slowly crumbled.

Believe it or not, Ruby knew what was going on. Distracting Sirius from them only lasted for a while. She could see how they all withdrew behind walls of fabricated emotions. She didn't particularly care about any of the other three, but Sirius was important to her now.

Ruby marched resolutely to the classroom Sirius used both for a dorm and for tutoring. She saw a small ripple where nothing should have been and reached to grab whatever it was. The fabric came off the person, and Ruby saw that her hand seemed to disappear when she held it. This was the invisibility cloak.

She looked up at the startled boy. It was Remus Lupin. Perfect.

"Hello."

"Uh, h-hi." He stuttered.

"You're going to fix your friendship right now. You're here, obviously waiting to do it, so go in there and apologize for ignoring him."

"but-"

"He deserves an apology at least." Ruby said, furiously. "I don't care what it's doing to you, but it's tearing him apart, and I will not let that happen without trying my hardest to keep it from happening." He nodded mutely and turned to the door. Ruby didn't understand why he looked rather afraid, but she wasn't going to let his fear keep him from fixing his friendship with Sirius.