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Remus got to the library early, hoping to get some homework done before he had to tutor some poor bastard for an hour.
Part of the reason he got his scholarship was due to his ability to retain information easier than most—that and his ability to write a banger-ass essay. Unfortunately, the scholarship available didn't include housing, and since this damn school was in the middle of nowhere… Well, let's just say that housing was important. After a long conversation with the Headmistress (scary af lady, but surprisingly understanding) they had come to an agreement: he could stay at a dorm room if he tutored some struggling students and helped some teachers afterclasses.
All in all, he had gotten away easily, and to be completely honest, Remus didn’t mind tutoring people—he actually enjoyed it quite a bit, getting to help.
He had also been lucky with his roommate. Some “Peter Pettigrew” fella who was quiet the first couple of weeks, but Remus grew to know better and realized he was actually a super fun guy to be around. Annoyingly good at chess, unfortunately, since Remus was competitive.
Remus managed to finish his English essay that was due the following week so he quickly put that away and got out his math homework, hoping to at least get started (it was due the following day, but math was never his strong suit and procrastination is a bitch), but before he could start reading the first problem the table shook with the 3 textbooks dropped on it by a guy that had just walked up next to Remus.
Remus looked startled, only to find a handsome dark haired boy smiling down at him.
“Remus Lupin, right?” He asked, extending a hand. Remus nodded and skeptically raised his own to shake it, trying to remember where he had seen this boy before, “pleasure to meet you! I’m—”
“Sirius Black.” Remus blurted out—without really meaning to—finally remembering where he had seen the boy before. He blushed slightly, quickly letting go of Sirius’ hand, and looking. He was about to apologize for interrupting but before he could Sirius let out a laugh.
“Yup! Have we met before?” He asked, head tilting as he sat down in the chair next to Remus “I don’t think we have. I'd remember you.”
“Oh, umm, no. I don't think so. You’re just kinda… popular, I guess. We’re in the same house, too.” Remus mumbled.
Sirius was definitely not one of the kinds here on a scholarship. Everyone had heard of the Black family—famous government people. Very scary, very rich. Remus would have thought that this made Sirius some kind of snob, but now that he was here face to face with him, he realized that he actually seemed like a pretty cool guy. No wonder he had so many friends. Completely unaware of this whole thought process Remus just had, he continued talking.
“Cool, maybe I’ll see you around, now that I know your face.”
“Yeah, sure,” Remus said putting his Geometry homework away and taking out a few blank pieces of paper and his Chemistry textbook, “So, I heard you’re struggling with Chemistry—”
“Ughh, dude it fucking sucks, its not my fault its impossible.” Sirius groaned and raised his hands to cover his face, pulling it down and giving him a weird and frustrated look.
Remus chuckled and reached out to pull Sirius’ (very soft hands???) from his face, and set them down gently on the paper he had brought out for Sirius, “It’s actually not that complicated if you understand some basic concepts.”
Sirius looked at him skeptically which made Remus roll his eyes and smile softly, “Look, we’ll start small. Just tell me what you’re struggling with.”
“Everything!”
“Okay, well, that's not something small,” Remus joked, which got a small smile out of Sirius, “How about starting with Isotopes?”
“Iso…what?”
“Isotopes. They’re atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons. Atoms of the same element have the same number of protons. Different neutrons make the difference. That's why the chemicals of atoms stay the same, because protons and electrons stay the same!”
“Dude… none of what you just said makes any sense.” he groaned.
“Okay okay, think of it like this: the atoms are like burgers from the same restaurant, but with extra toppings. They’re all burgers, just… different versions.”
“In this scenario the burgers are the atoms and what—the restaurant is the protons and toppings neutrons?”
“Exactly! Hey, you just got it!” Remus said, more excited about this than he probably should be.
“Wait okay… I sort of get it now. You’re saying it can be the same element but what makes them different and isotopes—or whatever the word is— are the neutrons that you add.”
“Sirius, that’s exactly what. Now just remember that mass equals protons plus neutrons, and you're done with isotopes” He said smiling, Sirius looked up at Remus with a wide smile.
“Great! What's next, teach?” he responded, writing the formula down, eager to keep going, now that he was beginning to understand what the fuck the textbook was taling about.
“Okay. Next we can do SigFigs, aka significant figures. Do you know those?” Sirius shook his head, "They're actually quite simple, they’re just the number of—well, numbers that actually matter most when you're talking about chemistry.”
“...don’t all numbers matter—?”
“Technically yes. But sig figs are what you use to know the decimal points that you move and all that stuff during chemistry.”
“Whatever you say,” he sighed.
“I swear they're really simple. It's basically anything except zero. And you only count the zero if it's between two numbers or anything after a decimal.”
“What if it’s 12.00? Would that be two or four?”
“That’d be four. Basically the more digits after the decimal, the more precision. And even those only count if it's after a number. If it's something like 0.0012 it would only be two SigFigs.”
“Yeah no, that's confusing.
“It's not!” Remus laughed, “just remember that you only count non-zeros, middle zeroes, and trailing zeros. Everything else can go fuck themselves.”
“Okay, I think I got it…”
He didn’t get it. Both boys spent a few more minutes on it—Remus writing down examples and Sirius saying the significant numbers. After a while though, Sirius got the hang of it, bringing him back to his good mood.
“Okay Sirius, next up… how about Ions?”
“Sounds complicated.”
“Everything sounds complicated to you.”
“No it doesn't!"
“Then tell me what Ions are.”
“...fuck you.”
“Good. Now shut up and listen,” Sirius huffed, defeated, “An Ion is basically just an atom or a molecule that gains or loses electrons.
“Wait, I thought you couldn’t lose electrons because they were the same as protons and you can't change that.”
“No, you can. It just changes the balance of it. But you're right, in neutral atoms protons do equal electrons…just not in Ions.”
“Dude. I’m telling you. Complicated.”
“It’s chemistry. It’s hard. Deal with it.”
“You know, for such a nice person you're actually really mean.”
“Well, that's on you for thinking I was nice in the first place.”
“Oh, how I was mistaken.” he retorts, keeping a teasing smile on his face, which was readily returned by Remus.
“Can we go back to Ions now?” Sirius groaned again, “Great! I’ll take that as an enthusiastic yes. There are technically only two things you need to know about them: losing an electron gives it a positive charge (called a cation), and gaining one gives it a negative charge (called anion).”
“Isn’t that kind of backwards? Like… gaining one is negative and losing one is positive?”
“Yup, but that's the way it is. The way I remember the names is because Anion is A Negative Ion. Get it? A N ion.”
“How about cation?"
“I don't know, that's always just the other one.”
“How about… OH! How about paw-sitive. Get it? Because its a cat-ion.”
Remus turned to stare at him. “Im leaving.”
Sirius barked out a laugh and reached out to hold his arm to prevent him from leaving, “Wait don’t leave! It’s a good pun!”
“It was awful.”
“At least now I’ll remember.”
“At least there's that.” He rolled his eyes.
“Anything else about Ions?”
“Oh yeah, just that actions and anions attract each other. But I think that's pretty much it.”
“Huh, maybe that's why I’m so attracted to you. Because you’re so negative.” He winked.
Remus blushed slightly but retorted with “I’m guessing that would make you the positive one. As I recall you’re the one that keeps complaining. Although it would make sense that you lost a few electrons.”
“You know… I should probably be offended by that. But I’m just glad that I actually understood what you just said.”
“Good job,” Remus laughed. “Are you ready for acid now?”
“Ugh there’s more?!”
“Sirius. You have a test next week, all chem classes do.”
“Wait. Shit. I didn’t know. I have to tell James.”
That stumped Remus a bit, until he remembered the guy that Sirius was always with. Probably his boyfriend he thought to himself. Although why would he be hitting on Remus if he was in a relationship?
“Who’s James?” He asked, although Sirius could probably tell why he was asking because he let out a chuckle,
“Nah don’t worry. He’s my brother, and he’s also in my chem class—”
Again, this stumped Remus. Because it was well known that the Blacks had two sons, but James was too casual a name for the “Great and Noble House of Black”. But Sirius continued talking
“—well, he’s not biologically my brother,” he turned to wink at Remus,” see? Big, science-y words. But yeah. My ‘real’ brother—whatever that means— is Regulus, you’ve probably seen him around school. But yeah anyways, neither James nor I understand shit about chem, so that’s why I’m here.”
“Oh. Okay, that’s cool,” Remus nodded, “love the ‘found family’ trope”
“The… what?”
“Nothing,” Remus sighed. Maybe the next thing he would tutored him in would be English, “anyways. Acids next right?”
Sirius just grumbled in agreement.
“Okay great. You know polyatomics right?”
“Ha, I think it’s the only thing I actually know.”
“Cool. So basically an acid produces H+ ions when dissolved in water; either that, or donates protons (H+) in a reaction. They always start with an H.”
“What about all the ‘hydrogen whichevers’?”
“That might be the most confusing part. It basically depends on what the H is paired with,” after Sirius’ obvious confusion, he continued, “the formulas are pretty simple. H+element or H+polyatomic with oxygen.”
“Wait. That’s it?”
“I mean yeah, basically. Oh and the end changes too. If it was -ate it now ends with -ic. And if it ends with -ite it now ends with -ous.”
“Like you ate and it tasted like ick. And you’re riteous like righteous.”
“Is this how you remember stuff?” Remus asked, incredulous.
“Yup. If it works it works, Lupin.”
“Whatever you say, Black.” he chuckled.
Sirius' eyes suddenly widened and head snapped to look at the clock near the door. His whole body relaxed when he saw what time it was.
“Shit, sorry man. I promised James I’d practice with him. They have a match this weekend, but it’s all good. I don’t need to head out for another 15 minutes,” he smiled at Remus, “You must be a good tutor, this went by really quick.”
“Thanks,” Remus rolled his eyes, “If you have to go, you can though. I don’t want to hold you back, I won't tell anyone.”
“Wow, you’re really that eager to get rid of me, huh?” he joked.
“Okay smartass, stay then. I’m just giving you the option.” he rolled his eyes.
“Great! What’s next, Professor Lupin?” he winked
“Shut up. But we are actually almost done. Only Physical and Chemical properties left, I think. Oh, and Homo and Heterogeneous.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Fine. Physical changes are changes you can observe—like colors, melting points, solubility, whether it's a solid, liquid, or gas, or things like volume and mass. It's basically ‘same stuff, different form’. Chemical is the actual substance changing. Like the chemicals in it—flamability, ability to rust, reactivity, toxicity, decomposition. Get it?”
“Wait. I actually get that. This just might be the easiest thing you’ve told me. Keep going, we’re on a roll.”
“And finally, we are homo and heterogeneous.”
“Like gay and straight? Because if so, then same.”
“No, dumbass. Not like sexuality. Something homogeneous is sort of like a solution, that's all the same throughout. Completely uniform. Things like salt water, air—I don't know—gatorate? Basically just something that looks like one thing. And something Heterogeneous is something that you can see different parts of. Different throughout, like salad, or pizza… sand and water in a bowl, oil and vinegar.”
“Wait so homo is like… uniform and well dressed because we have the best style and are so perfect—and the heteros are all weird and different and all over the place?”
“I—Sirius…” Remus looked at him incredulously.
“What? It's true.”
“True stereotypes maybe.”
“Stereotypes are there for a reason.”
“You can’t say that!”
“Watch m— oh shit, I actually have to go now.”
“Go go, I’ll clean up.” he reassured.
“Thank you Lupin,” He breathed out as he packed up his things, “Hey, you should come to the game this saturday.”
“I probably have a lot of homework. Maybe next time.” He replied, quickly declining the invitation. Because honestly, Sirius was probably just inviting him out of politeness. He probably didn’t give a rat's ass whether he actually went or not. But Sirius kept going,
“Please? I promise it’s not that boring.”
Remus raised his brows.
“I swear. Scouts honor.” Sirius said, raising a hand to his chest.
“You are so not a scout.”
“I could be!”
“No, you’re not.”
“No, I’m not.” he agreed, with a smile.
Remus chuckled, “Dude, go. You’re going to be late.”
“Oh shit, James.” he said, forgetting again
He grabbed his backpack and ran towards the door, but before he fully excited he turned around and shouted, “I’m saving you a seat, Lupin. You better be there.” and ran out. Mrs. Pince, the librarian, shushing the empty air left behind.
Remus finished packing up, a light blush on his cheeks. He was technically supposed to stay and finish more homework, but decided to go to bed early and do it in the morning.
On his way to the dorm room he couldn’t keep his mind off the raven-haired boy. For the first time since getting to this school he wasn’t worried about his scholarship, or his classes, or any upcoming tests… he just kept replaying the last hour in his head, enjoying the way being around Sirius made him feel more relaxed than he had been in ages.
His last thought before bed wasn’t how he hadn’t actually done his math homework, or that he had that same chem test the following week.
His last thoughts were those silver-colored eyes, and the fact that he was going to go to that damn football game—if only to be near him again.