When the Stars Align

Chapter Nine

"Shut the bloody hell up!" Sirius yelled, wanting desperately to get out of his chair and slap James across the face.

"Thou doth protest too much," James said, a smirk on his face.

"Sirius is going through a lot right now," Remus tried to explain, but it only made James madder.

"Oh yeah, he's told you stuff then? That's funny, I thought I was his best friend. I guess I was wrong about that," he said, getting up to leave. Why couldn't he just stay for once? Why did he always have to run off when something angered him?

Sirius tried to calm himself down. His situation wasn't going to get any easier if James wouldn't talk to him at all. He panicked as he saw the boy leaving. He had to tell him something now, before he lost the opportunity. He shot an appreciative glance at Remus for trying to help him and quickly clambered after James.

James was walking through the hallways quickly and seemed to be gaining speed as Sirius attempted to catch up with him.

"Wait!" he called, running out of the little breath he had been able to catch before chasing after him. His heart felt as if it was beating in his throat. James didn't look back, just kept walking ahead. "Don't be so bloody passive aggressive, Prongs, I need to explain something to you."

James whirled around, his face red with anger. "No, I'm done with your explanations, Sirius. I'm done with you thinking you're better than me!'

Sirius thought that he would continue to walk away, but James was stopped in his tracks. This was his chance to talk.

"First of all, I don't think I'm better than you, why the bloody hell would think that?" Sirius said, panting in an attempt to fill his lungs with air.

James looked exasperated, "You never want to be with us, except Remus and we all knew he's the smart one. And you talk like you know everything, like you've got all this wisdom. Look I know your family's pure-blood or whatever, but that's just a fancy way of saying you're inbred and it doesn't make you better than us."

"You think this is about my family? Do you want to know something about my family, James?" Sirius said, almost chuckling, though the comment about being inbred stung a bit, knowing that it was true.

James rolled his eyes, "Please enlighten me, oh great and wisdom-full wizard."

"My family doesn't want me. They kicked me out and I'm not allowed to go home," Sirius replied, matter-of-factly. He watched as the anger in James' face faded and the red was replaced with his impossibly pale skin.

"R-...really?" He said, his voice small as if he felt badly for the way he'd been acting. Sirius supposed that he did feel badly, but he didn't want James' pity. He didn't want anyone's pity, really.

"Yeah, really. Why would I lie about that?" Sirius said, looking down.

"You lie about other things enough..." James commented, trailing off at the end as if he wished he hadn't said it.
Sirius knew it was true. He'd lied to James too much in the past year and that wasn't what friends did. He didn't know how to reply. He wouldn't lie again, and the best was to avoid lying was to keep his mouth shut.

There was silence between the boys for a moment. Neither one was sure whether they should be the one to speak first and neither one knew what to say to the other.

Finally James broke the silence by asking, "Why?'

Sirius' mind was racing. He really should just tell James. He wouldn't judge him, he knew that much. But he couldn't do that. He couldn't just couldn't. So he lied, breaking the internal promise he had made only a moment ago, "I don't know, they're crazy. They've never been proud of me, but I guess they can't bear to welcome home a wizard who graduated as a Gryffindor." At least it was partially true. That made it seem more right.