Chapter Text
Cameras flashed at a rapid speed as Sirius Black quickly walked out of his hotel by the back entrance. He didn't know how the press even found their way back here, but that wasn't Sirius' biggest concern right now. With his head held down and hands in his pockets, he squeezed past reporters calling his names, journalists asking him questions about his up coming movie, photographers telling him to look in a certain direction. He didn't look at any of them though. Why should he be expected to? Had they not read the countless articles they had written about him saying he was a horrible person to interact with? They described him as unapproachable, socially dumb, brain dead. All these insults yet they were desperate to get his attention. That was what the word 'famous' did to him. He wasn't just Sirius Black, twenty-eight years old, proud Irish man with a bit of a temper. No, he was famous Sirius Black, twenty-eight years old, proud Irish man with a bit of a temper which certainly didn't help his acting career. Hundreds of thousands of people knew his birthday off by heart, had it marked on their calendar and celebrated it as much as their own birthdays. Sirius Black was famous. That's why there were so many people surrounding him, overwhelming him, trying to touch him, feeling his clothes so they could say they had touched the Sirius Black. All because he was famous.
A black SUV welcomed him at the back of the hotel he had been staying in for the past week. The door was opened, leaving him escape to a whole new, quieter world with black tinted windows and noise cancelling headphones. It was like Heaven. It wasn't an exaggeration. Sirius thought this was where he would go when he died. It was the only place he ever really felt peaceful, and Heaven was all about peace, right?
He stepped into the SUV, leaving the door slam behind him as he ran a hand through his long wavy black hair. It curled around the ends of his fingers as he looked out the window, glad nobody could see him right now. He could feel his cigarettes pressing against his thigh in his pockets, almost calling his name, saying "smoke me, smoke me, smoke me". They'd take the stress he was feeling away, but he couldn't right now. Later though. There was always later.
"What took you so long?"
Peter Pettigrew, Sirius' manager was sitting in the passenger seat at the front of the car. He had short straight blonde hair that looked a bit greasy. Knowing him he had probably skipped his shower this morning just to get to work on time. Sirius Black was his work. Day and night, he was working on Sirius Black's image, which was taking up more and more of his time. He had bags under his light blue eyes that seemed to flicker around the SUV nervously from time to time. He had obviously also skipped his shave this morning. That didn't bother Peter. The only thing that was on his mind right now was Sirius.
"Slept in by accident, Pete." Sirius told him, flickering his eyes open for a second to look at Peter before closing them again. "Had a late night last night. James and Marlene-"
"Of course, James and Marlene - blame them!" Peter snapped back, crossing his arms and sitting in his seat properly again. "Can you never take the blame, Black?"
"I am capable, but not in the present moment, no." Sirius told him, a stern frown on his face.
His so called Heaven was now becoming his new Hell all because of lovely Peter! Sirius just wanted to go back to sleep, but that was deemed impossible as he realised his headphones were dead. With a groan, he took out his phone and scrolled through his subreddit to see if there were any new photos of him up there. To no surprise, there were fifteen new photos of him up there since he had left the hotel. The best one was a picture of Sirius accidentally looking directly into a camera with a concentrated frown on his face as he climbed into the SUV. God, he looked awful. It was to be expected though. Nobody looked great while grieving for their dead brother.
Remus Lupin and Lily Evans pulled themselves away from the large crowd that had gathered around the back of the hotel. It had grown larger as people realised Sirius Black was back there, and still was growing even though Sirius was long gone. It was hard enough to get to the back of the hotel at first, but now it was nearly impossible to get out of it, but luckily Remus and Lily found a way out. Clutching his notepad and pen, Remus walked around the garden of the hotel. Remus Lupin was a journalist for the magazine Monthly Moon. It mainly wrote about pop culture moments and whatever celebrity teenage girls had a crush on at the moment. To Remus' surprise, Sirius was one of those big names the magazine were addicted to. Almost every monthly article they had released in the past year had Sirius' name on it somewhere. To this day, Remus was still trying to figure out what was so special about him.
Lily walked alongside him, linking arms with him as she watched a bird fly around them. Her camera was in her free hand, running her finger around the lens. She was one of the best photographers who worked for Monthly Moon. She had been working there for as long as Remus, which was almost four years now. It was one of the best jobs she had ever had, but there was always better than some trendy pop culture magazine. Her dream was to work for Rolling Stone. Take pictures of some of the biggest rockstars and popstars of their generation. Like Remus, she couldn't understand the hype around Sirius Black, but she didn't hate him. She just didn't find him very likeable. There were too many bad stories she had heard about him, like the time he had thrown a beer bottle across a pub at his manager. Lily could understand managers could be annoying, but that annoying? Lily couldn't find a scenario that throwing a beer bottle would be acceptable in.
"Did you get any pictures?" Remus asked with a thick Scottish accent.
"A good few, yes." Lily replied, smiling. "I'll show them to Mary once we get back."
"Once?" Remus repeated. "We going somewhere else first?"
"Just for a coffee, that's all." Lily told him. "Sev wants to meet us there."
"Severus, great.." Remus said, his voice full of sarcasm.
Lily ruffled Remus' hair, laughing at him as she strolled off in front of him, looking around the park. Remus just watched her, taking in her beauty - she was beautiful after all. They had known each other for years. She was great. His friends had often asked him, why don't you date her? She's every man's dream. That is when Remus would respond and say he was gay and had a boyfriend for the past seven years. He loved his boyfriend. His boyfriend loved him. Nothing would ever change between them. They'd grow old together, adopt a lot of cats, get married, go on holidays. They had it all planned out. No kids though. Grant Chapman didn't want children. That was understandable, Remus didn't mind. If that was the only thing Grant didn't want then they'd live happily ever after.
Stepping into one of the busiest cafes in London, Remus was shocked to see Severus sitting at a table by himself. He had a whole table to himself. He already had a half drunk coffee by his side, warming up his horribly cold hands. His lips looked incredibly dry as he nervously bit down on them once he caught sight of Lily with his dark brown eyes. Shaking his long black hair out of his face, he stood up and pulled out a chair for Lily. Remus watched Lily sit down, pulling over his own chair. Ah yes, Severus would only pull over a chair for Lily, not Remus. Could he make it any more obvious he had a crush on Lily? Yes, Severus Snape - cold, harsh, ruthless and boring - had a crush on Lily Evans - warm, bubbly, kind and chatty. They were complete opposites, but Severus's barely beating heart had chosen Lily. Lily's hadn't chosen his.
"How was your morning, Sev?" Lily asked, smiling brightly at him.
"Fine, how was-"
"We got pictures of Sirius Black this morning - together." Remus cut Severus off, smirking to himself.
If there was one thing Remus enjoyed, it was making Severus jealous. Spending time with Lily - alone - always made his blood boil. It was evident now as Severus clutched his cup of coffee and looked over at Remus with the dirtiest look on his face. Remus had seen that look a hundred times before. He could close his eyes and draw it out onto a piece of paper if he wanted to. Sketch out the way Severus's eyebrows burrowed down, causing the lines on his forehead to come out stronger. How his frown became even bigger and that one vein popped out the side of his head like a mad scientist. It was funny. Remus loved winding him up, especially about Lily.
"Oh yeah," Lily said a bit awkwardly, giving Remus a look before turning back to Severus. "Do you want to see? It's not a great picture, but it's something!"
"Go on, show me." Severus sighed, nodding.
Lily excitedly pulled out her camera and showed Severus the pictures she had taken. She swiped through them, talking about what was happening as she took each picture. Remus looked over her shoulder, looking into the camera and seeing Severus' reflection on the camera. They held eye contact for a few moments until the pictures on the camera had caught Remus' attention. Sirius Black was staring back at him, making direct eye contact with the camera just as he was stepping out of the hotel. He looked as if he was about to blink from the flashes off the camera. He had his hood up, hiding his long wavy black hair that so many fans loved. His dark blue eyes looked back into Remus' for a moment before Lily flicked to the next picture. Remus was almost going to ask her to go back to the previous picture, but then he pulled himself back. Why would he want to see a stupid picture of Sirius anyways? He could see a picture of him anywhere online... but in the picture Lily had taken, Sirius had been looking at him. It felt special, but wasn't really. Celebrities had looked at him multiple times when he was interviewing them. This wasn't anything new. This wasn't anything he should be overthinking.
"I should go." Remus mumbled, getting up from his seat.
He was overthinking though. It was something Remus always found himself doing. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Remus always found himself constantly thinking about small things over and over again, analyzing them. Maybe that was why he was a journalist. He liked picking out the small things. Thinking, rewriting about them and then thinking again. There was always a deeper meaning to something. People did things for a reason. They always did. So, did Sirius Black look at Remus for a reason? Probably not. Remus was just close to Sirius when he left the hotel, that was it. There was nothing more to it, but that wouldn't stop Remus from thinking about it though.
Walking out of the cafe without waiting for a response, Remus made his way down the busy streets of London. He had a meeting with his boss in about an hour. It was about the next few interviews he'd be doing. Nothing special. Nothing new. Nothing that he should be overthinking.
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