Taste of Youth

It's strange the way you miss things you've spent time away from. Returning to Hogwart’s after winter break with the boys was an almost nostalgic affair, so much had happened while we were gone. Sirius settled down next to me in the compartment leaning gently against my shoulder looking sleepy and tousled. I fingered the edge of the photo I now used as a bookmark and smiled quietly at the group of teenagers in it. It was Mrs. Potter who demanded a commemorative photo of my first Potter Christmas, the one I now used as a placeholder was merely a copy of the original. We looked terribly happy and young with our hair covered in melting snow and our faces open with laughter.

"It's a good photo," Sirius murmured into my hair eyes half shut with sleep.

"Yes." I whispered back smiling softly at him.

The two of us had gotten comfortable with each other after a few nights standing guard for Remus. We had stayed up till morning the night before talking about nothing on the Potters roof. I wasn't so sure of what being back at Hogwart’s would be like now, the strange looks, the hostile people. I hadn't noticed how difficult those things made it to be around him until they were gone. I almost regretted coming back.

Peter slumped into the compartment looking smudgy and tired; he offered a half smile and half of his breakfast to me with a yawn. He settled across from me picking through the mess of pastry wrappers the others had already mowed through. Sirius slipped his head down into my lap and promptly fell asleep muttering about the coming school.

“He really likes you ya know,” Peter whispered leaning in his eyes sparking with this warm sort of amusement, “I mean we all like you but he likes you best.”

He suddenly tilted his head up a smile breaking across his face, “Just don’t tell James - he likes to be the favorite.”

I muffled a laugh in my sleeve and gently tapped my fist to his. The two of us talked quietly as to not wake the sleeping boy in my lap. We didn’t really talk about much before Remus and James slipped their way back into the compartment. Everyone fell into a strange sort of silence as the rain started outside the train.

There was something fragile about our return like we had somehow forgotten how weak our foundation was until we lived in something sturdy for a while. A jagged sort of silence hung over the entire train some perhaps to do with the extra long obituaries in this mornings paper. Everyone was walking softer afraid to hurry to be just loud enough to be noticed.

The whistle of the incoming station startled the silence and the sleeping group from their uneasy sleep. Lily had sent me a letter earlier in the week promising to meet us at the gates having left a few days earlier. I could see in her face that she had read through every name each worse than the last. Hogwart’s felt almost empty with so many of the students having stayed home. I leaned against her shoulder for a moment and we headed up to the castle as a group.

Sirius had decided he wanted to walk all the way back and Peter had agreed so soon the lot of us were out of breath and freezing. James made a quick joke about Sirius’ lack of forward thinking and we laughed. We found Alice and Frank in the Great Hall both sprawled across the two sides of the table with people at either ones feet and head.

“What are you two doing?” Lily asked amusement curling the corners of her mouth.