Fallen Stars Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/36584029. Rating: Not Rated Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Category: F/F, F/M, M/M Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Relationship: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Sirius Black/Severus Snape, Sirius Black/James Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, Regulus Black/James Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes Character: Sirius Black, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans Potter, Dorcas Meadowes, Marlene McKinnon, Mary Macdonald, Remus Lupin, Lyall Lupin, Orion Black, Regulus Black, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Ending, Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Stats: Published: 2022-01-22 Completed: 2022-02-18 Chapters: 8/8 Words: 11002 Fallen Stars by asterialunar Summary They take the Hogwarts train going all the way... Notes Hey everyone! This is my attempt to write a maraduers fiction. I don't claim that my story will be completely different from other ones you read but I'll do my best to come up with original ideas. I have lots of headcanons that I'd like to share. Looks like it's gonna be a long journey. Hope we can make it till the end Finally if you want to be mutuals you can add me on insta or tumblr by @asteria.luna Jelly Slugs and Licorice Wands September 1st, 1971 It was crowded. More crowded than he was ever used to. Of course, there were times when his house was so crowded with strangers he had seen for the first time. Men and women in black robes would walk around, hurriedly, discussing things he couldn’t quite comprehend. In those times he would feel invisible. None of the adults would notice he was there. But the crowd he was in right now was even bigger than that. At his house there would be ten or twenty people at most. Now there were hundreds of them. Not just adults too. Children. Around the same age as him. Usually he would feel so small in the crowd, back at home. Now the crowd around him was making him excited. He was getting stares. He was being noticed. Deep down, he knew the reason behind those stares. It wasn’t about him. It was his mum. Walpurga Black. She was keeping her head high. Looking proud. Looking down on everyone. And his father. Orion Black. His existence in a place was enough to make others uncomfortable. Everyone knew who they were. They could guess. Hence, the stares. But Sirius was not feeling bad about it. He’d liked being seen. He felt like he mattered. It wasn’t a feeling he was accustomed to. “Time to go,” his mother announced. He nodded, quite nervous to look at her directly in the eye. “Makes us proud.” His father said. Sirius looked at him and nodded though he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to do that. He was to be chosen to Slytherin, he knew that of course. But it wasn’t even something he could control. So what else could he do to make his parents proud? He was uncertain. He wasn’t expecting a good-bye hug. So he attempted to leave. He stopped moving when he heard his little brother’s voice. “Siri,” the voice said. Only then, Sirius realized. Going to Hogwarts meant not being with his brother for a whole year. He was so keen on the idea to go to Hogwarts that he hadn’t give a thought to the fact that he would be apart from him. “Oh,” he said, not knowing what else to say. “You’ll write to me won’t you?” Regulus asked. “Of course I will.” Sirius said. They both looked like they wanted to say something more but Walpurga Black interrupted the two young boys. “Come on Regulus. We shall leave so your older brother can go. Being late is a sign of weakness.” She opened her mouth to say something else but Sirius finished her sentence for her. “And Blacks don’t show any weakness. Yes mum. I know.” “Good,” Walpurga nodded approvingly. “Go then. Time to leave.” Sirius looked at them one more time before nodding and walking to the train. The moment he stepped in the big and old train, he forgot everything. He forgot he was a Black. He forgot he’d left Reggie behind. He forgot he had duties. Only thing he could think of was the new things that were ahead of him. All of the people around him could be his friends. His house mates. Except for him, he thought to himself as a familiar face bumped to him. “Oh,” he said. “You’re here.” The other boy looked at him. “Of course I am.” He said with a funny look on his face. “Why wouldn’t I be?” Sirius rolled his eyes. “I always thought you would be a squib. That’s what mum says. When your blood gets mixed with muggle blood it loses its magic. And you are a half-blood. A traitor, even.” Other boy looked furious. But the ginger girl standing next to him was even more furious. Her face was almost in the color of her hair. “That’s ridiculous. Your blood had nothing to do with the quantity or the quality of your magic.” She spitted out. Sirius frowned. “It doesn’t?” He asked, genuinely confused. The girl, whoever took his confusion the wrong way. “You are a lunatic. Ignorant. Let’s go Sev. He’s not worth it.” The boy she called “Sev” opened his mouth to say something but Sirius’s mind was too occupied with thinking what did he’d said wrong. When they left -the girl had pulled boy by his arm and dragged him away- Sirius found himself standing alone in the empty corridor. He looked around the compartments. All of them seemed occupied. Bollocks, he murmured. Now he had to ask someone to sit with them. His heart started to beat faster with anxiousness. His mum would always tell him to choose his friends carefully. How was he supposed to know who were the right type of friends? He walked around, hesitant to open any of the doors. After walking for a while though, he encountered an open door. He realized the reason why the door was open. Because there was a lady standing in front of it with a trolley. Sirius tried to see what was inside the trolley. He’d thought the students in the compartment hadn’t seen him but he realized he was wrong when he heard a voice inside. “Looking for someone?” The voice said. Sirius came closer to the door. Now he was standing next to the trolley lady. “No. I-,” he said but couldn’t finish his sentence. The boy with funny hair and round glasses talked, Sirius realized it was same with the voice that first spoke to him. “Oh okay,” he said. Sirius stood there, awkwardly. Was he supposed to ask them if he could go sit with them. To his chance another boy talked. “We were buying candy.” A boy with round face and chubby cheeks talked. “Would you fancy some?” This was a type of offer Sirius would enjoy. Other boy with glasses talked quickly. “Oh yeah, Of course. Would you want to join us?” Sirius looked at them. The boy with glasses, the one with chubby cheeks and the third one who hadn’t said a word yet. They seemed arright. His mum hadn’t given him specifics of what “right friends” meant so she couldn’t have been mad at him for not knowing. As he opened his mouth the trolley lady spoke. “Come on lads I don’t ‘ve got whole day.” Sirius nodded. “Okay I fancy some of those.” He pointed a random candy and regretted the second he did that but kept his silence. Others also bought some stuff before the trolley lady went away. “I’m James.” The boy with glasses spoke. “James Potter.” “I’m Peter Pettigrew.” The one with chubby cheeks said but he was barely understandable because his mouth was already occupied with candy. Sirius thought about these last names. He knew both were pure-bloods. Not the ones his family was close with but still, pure bloods. He looked at the third boy, eager to learn his name. The boy wasn’t looking at him though. He was reading something. A pentagon card with a moving picture on it. “What’s your name?” Sirius asked, taking the boy’s attention. He lifted his head up from the card and looked at Sirius with tired looking honey eyes. “Remus,” he paused and added after a second. “Lupin.” Sirius’s eyes grew with excitement. “Lupin?” He said. “Any relation to Lyall Lupin?” Remus looked uncomfortable. “How do you know him?” He asked, concerned. “He established the Werewolf Legislation Act. Didn’t he? My lads say what a great thing he did." The boy named Lupin was visibly panicked now. He was squeezing the card in his hand, Sirius realized. His knuckled had turned white. Even Whiter than his abnormally pale skin. “What is that?” He asked. “How do you know about it?” Sirius, very glad he was going to show off with his knowledge, began to explain. “The Black library is filled with plenty of books.” He was going to continue but James interrupted him. “Bloody hell!” He exclaimed. “The Black Library? Have you been to the Black house? I heard it was a dreary place.” Sirius’s face dropped a bit even though he tried to hide it. “I live there.” He said, witnessing the look on James’s face froze. “I’m Sirius. Sirius Black.” “Bollocks,” James said. “Sorry mate. Didn’t know.” Sirius shrugged, giving them a half smile. “No worries.It is in deed dreary.” * For the next hour no one really talked. Lupin boy was still looking uncomfortable. James looked sad about what he’d said about Sirius’s home and Peter was too occupied with eating candy. When he realized Sirius was looking at him, Peter tossed him a pack of Jelly Slugs. “You haven’t eaten anything. You should try those.” Sirius shook his head. “Mum says candy makes you weak.” Peter chuckled. “Wot? No it doesn’t. Candy is the bloody best thing in the world.” This was the second time today that someone was implying that Walpurga Black was wrong about something. Sirius was hesitant but he didn’t want to look like a chicken to his friends so he tried the candies. In short time, he was very pleased with eating candies. He tasted Jelly Slugs as well as Licorice Wands. They had spent quite a time with trying to figure out every flavour in Bertty Bott's every flavour candies. But the real fan began when they encountered a Quidditch player in a Chocolate Frog card. Now knowing James Potter was a quidditch fan too, Sirius couldn't seem to shut himself up. The two continued to talk about it the whole way to Hogwarts with occasional comments from Peter whilst Remus Lupin was in complete silence. Bat Horses and Talking Hats Chapter Summary sorting ceremony :) The four young boys get off the train, all with stomachs filled candy. All of them were amazed of what they were seeing. The glorious castle was ahead of them. All the other students were bickering. They saw lots of young ones following older ones like ducks. One might expect some pure bloods or half bloods to look less surprised because they were born into Wizarding families. Though, all of the students looked equally amazed by the magic laying in front of them. “How are we going to go across,” they heard a stranger voice asking. Now they were curious about the answer too.The four boys looked at each other. None of them knew the answer to that. It was then, when Sirius saw. He pointed his finger to the lake. “Look!” He exclaimed loudly. “Ships!” A girl’s voice was heard though they could only see her from behind because she had already walked them by. “It’s a boat.” Other three boys continued to stare at Sirius but he was amazed of what he was seeing. Realizing Sirius wasn’t!t going to say anything else, the three boys also turned their heads to the lake. “But how are they moving themselves without anyone directing them?” Peter asked, confused. “It’s magic.” Remus replied. “We’re at Hogwarts after all.” This was the first thing spoke since the train ride. “Maybe they are driven by something invisible. I know for a fact that being invisible isn’t that hard.” James talked, excitedly. But Sirius wasn’t getting all the fuss his friends were making. “Horses,” he said. “Bat Horses.” James looked even more excited now. “Yeah! So I was right wasn’t I Sirius. It’s directed by invisible horses.” Sirius frowned. He wasn’t looking at James. His eyes were locked on the big black creatures. They almost looked like they had no flesh. Big horses with bat wings. Black from head to toe. “Invisible?” He asked. James didn’t took his question as one though. “Invisible! You must’ve seen their picture right? In your family’s library. So how do they look like?” Sirius was’t sure what to say to him. He hadn’t seen a picture. He had seen them. Was he seeing a dream? A hallucination? Maybe he was a squib. He was in a magical place which he wasn’t belong to so it had drove him crazy. He thought what a disastrous scandal it would be. A Black squib. He would be disowned that’s for sure. So he decided to go with James’s game. “Yeah. Totally. I don’t recall their names. Though I remember reading something about invisible horses. With huge bat wings. It was quite amazing really.” He lied. He was a good liar. It was part of living in the Black household. “How did they paint a picture if they are invisible?” Peter asked. Sirius’s stomach turned upside down. How was he supposed to answer to that? Luckily enough he didn’t had to. Head Boy approached them and told them to get into the boats. So they did. And once, they did they had forgotten all bout the invisible creatures. They were all so keen on seeing the humongous castle ahead of them. * In short notice they found themselves in the Great Hall. “It’s the ceremony.” James said excitedly. “It’s starting.” “I have been waiting for this feat since I was 7.” Peter laughed happily. Sirius was beginning to get nervous. The ceremony also meant the sorting ceremony. He knew he would be sorted into Slytherin. It was pretty obvious. But what if his friends weren’t? James looked too loud and over-sharing comparing his mysterious and dark family -all the Slytherins he knew-. Maybe he would be a Gryffindor. Peter seemed nice. Way too nice. He was giggling all the time. And also Sirius had realized the small boy would flinch often. A Slytherin would never be afraid, his mum would remind him. So maybe, Peter would be a Hufflepuff. Sirius was’t sure what to think of the Lupin boy. He was rather quiet than the rest of them. But he had this intelligent look on his face that Sirius wasn’t sure why. He always had his brows frowned and through the whole road he had spent reading the frog cards. Maybe, just maybe he was a Ravenclaw though something inside Sirius didn’t want him to be. He had never seen any Ravenclaw befriending a Slytherin before. He also realized he had never seen a Slytherin being befriended with any of the houses actually. But it could also be because his family were all Slytherins. For generations. “Who is that?” Remus asked, pointing at the old man with white beard. “Armando Dippet,” Peter answered. “He has been the headmaster since the 40s. Quite a long time aye?” “I wonder why is he wearing that ugly hat all the time?” James asked. “Never seen him without one.” Sirius giggled. “My brother and I think he’s bald because he’s so old.” With what he said James and Peter laughed loudly. Remus looked like he was still trying to figure out what was going on around him. * “It’s starting,” James whispered excitedly. “I wonder where we’d end up.” “Hope not Slytherin,” Peter said with fear. “Why?” Lupin asked. He looked genuinely confused. “They’re not that bad,” Sirius wanted to defend them because he knew its where he would end up in and didn’t want his friends to abandon him because of it. “I heard most of ‘em are, mate.” James said with an empty expression on his face. “My cousin, Andromeda isn’t.” He said. “She’s the nicest person I know. Well, except for my brother but he’s only 10 so we don’t know his house though I’m pretty sure he would be a Slytherin because all the Black family is.” “Are you a Slytherin?” Remus Lupin asked. From the way he said the word “Slytherin” the boys figured it wasn’t a phrase he was used to using. “Not yet,” Sirius explained. “We shall see in a minute.” “There are four houses, we will each be sorted into.” James begin to talk to Remus, realizing he wasn’t aware of what was happening. “Slytherin, the snakes. Hufflepuff, the badgers. Gryffindors, the lions and Ravenclaws, the eagles.” Remus frowned. He seemed to do that quite often, Sirius thought. “Why is called Ravenclaw if they are eagles?” Sirius had never thought about that before. Really though, why was it called Ravenclaw if they were eagles? “What’s a Raven?” Peter asked. Before Remus , Sirius answered. “A bird right?” He directed his question to Lupin. “A black bird, like a crow.” Remus nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Like a crow.” Sirius smiled. He’d liked being assured. It wasn’t something he was used to at home. * So the sorting ceremony began. Sirius watched all his friends being sorted in Gryffindor. He didn’t know a lot of things about his family. But he knew that they wouldn’t approve any Gryffindor to be his friends. His heart sunk on his chest. He was feeling overwhelmed as he was waiting for his turn. Then he heard the headmaster say. “Black, Sirius.” He heard his name. The world around him seemed to stop. He walked to the sorting hat, passing near the Slytherin table. He saw his cousin, Narcissa. He wished she was Andromeda instead of Narcissa. Maybe then Slytherin would be more tolerable for him. He stopped breathing when the hat touched his hair. “Mmmh, another Black,” he heard the hat saying. “We hadn’t seen of you for the last few years.” Hat paused. “You’re sure you belong to Slytherin aye?” Sirius frowned. Could the hat see inside of his head? If he could then he could also choose toe house he wanted to be in. He could pray the hat to put him into Slytherin, so his parents would be proud. He could pray the hat to not put him into Slytherin because his friends would think he was evil. He decided that it was dumb to ask the hat to put him to a specific house. So he thought about what he wanted most and hoped the hat would put him into a house in which he could fulfill those dreams. Please let me have fun with my friends till I graduate. Please let me have fun with my friends till I graduate. Please let me have fun with my friends till I graduate. Please let me have fun with my friends till I graduate. “You are a loyal one aren’t you?” The hat said. “You’re just not sure where your loyalties lay.” Sirius didn’t know what that meant. He was too nervous to think about anything anyway. “GRYFFINDOR!” The hat shouted. Sirius froze. This could be the best or worst thing that had ever happened to him and he wasn’t sure which quite yet. Disappearing in yourself Chapter Summary Sirius writes a letter to home... 5th of September, 1971 First four days went by, trying to adjust. Boys were very overwhelmed by classes they were meeting for the first time. Other students they were only beginning to get to know. It was hard. For all of them. But they were quite happy. Sirius was able to feel the magic for the first time. He had learned that magic was not scary if it’s not aimed at darkness. He was realizing lots of things that his mum told him could be wrong. He’d never thought his mum would be wrong. She seemed like a person who knew everything about everyone. So it was weird for Sirius, to learn there were things beyond what his mum told him. It was a Sunday. James had convinced them all to go see a Quidditch Practice to spend their day. Since they had no classes, all had agreed. Peter, Sirius and obviously James knew what to expect but Remus was new to whole game. For the first ten minutes or so he was amazed. Sirius didn’t know was it because of the game or because he was strange to the idea of brooms flying. But after the first ten minutes he had lost interest, Sirius had realized. Though Remus looked off for the whole day so maybe that was why his attention span was so short. After the Quidditch practice four boys left the field to go to the Great Hall for dinner. They all settled down, Peter being the first one to dig in the food in front of them.