★彡

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─ ✦𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐇 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐘 , because of course it does, and Rain really shouldn't have expected anything less.

The moment he steps foot onto the train, he bumps shoulders with Severus Snape, and he's immediately greeted with a glare so nasty that he nearly shrivels down to his feet. Thankfully, the encounter lasts only a few seconds, and it's over just as fast as it started.

Halima materialises out of nowhere after Severus walks away, glances at the mildly disturbed look on his face and grabs his wrist to drag him down to the compartment he and the rest of their friends usually occupy. "Wipe that look off your face. It doesn't suit you," she comments in lieu of a greeting.

Her braided hair is tied up in a high ponytail, and it swishes from side to side as she walks. "Well, hello to you too," Rain finally says to her, the tone of his voice a bit passive aggressive.

"We've been waiting ages for you," Halima continues, completely ignoring whatever Rain has said. "Where the hell have you been?"

"You can't exactly blame me. You know how fussy my mum gets when the school year starts," he explains. "If River wasn't there to calm her down, I swear she would've just dragged me back home."

If Achilles had been there with him, the goodbyes with his mother would've been much shorter. A sweet smile from him here, some reassuring words there and Solhee Fairchild would have caved and let him go. But he wasn't, and Rain didn't know exactly for what reason. Even his own brother had trouble convincing her, so it really makes no sense how Achilles has the ability to do it so effortlessly.

Halima releases his wrist, then proceeds to throw her arm around his shoulders. Rains hunches just the slightest bit to accommodate her height. "Someone needs to tell her that not every year will be like the third. It's been years already. Why is she still so paranoid?"

Rain rolls his eyes and smiles faintly. "I think that's quite a normal reaction after one of your children ends up being a kidnapping victim."

Rain may joke about that now, but the nightmares from that long, horrible week still haunt him sometimes, but he's used to them by now.

Halima slows down seconds later, her hand sliding open a compartment door as she forces both herself and Rain through the entrance. Achilles is sprawled across the full length of the seats on the right, while Mateo sits on the floor in the middle with a miffed look on his face. Sunhee is avidly talking Achilles' ear off about something she witnessed during the holidays, but she immediately cuts herself off when Rain and Halima walk in.

"Rain!" She exclaims, an excited smile lighting up her face even more. Achilles turns away from her, glances at at Rain once then looks back to Sunhee without a word. Mateo waves at him half heartedly, still sulking.

Rain narrows his eyes at Achilles, then steadily walks up to the seat he's sprawled on and shoves his legs out of the way. He ignores the offended sound Achilles makes and sits himself down, smiling at Sunhee with just as much enthusiasm as her.

She stands up and leans over to hug him tightly. "I missed you! You wouldn't imagine how horrible it's been not being able to see you for so long," she laments.

Rain pulls back from the hug and smiles at her bemusedly. "I missed you too, but hasn't it only been two months? I wrote to you every week."

Sunhee groans and falls back to her seat, landing on Halima instead who took her place beside her. "It wasn't the same! I don't think I've ever gone this long without seeing you. It was like experiencing withdrawals or something." She shudders. "Bloody awful."

"We have all the time to make up for it, don't worry," Rain consoles her. He looks at Mateo in his sulky position and he smiles even wider. "I see you're the one on the floor this year."

Mateo looks up at him with a frown. "I wasn't even the last one to get on. This is completely unfair," he complains.

Halima snickers at him and throws an arm around Sunhee this time. "It's your own fault for not having the spine to stand up to Achilles. I mean, look at Rain," she points her chin at said boy. "He's sitting next to him and he's totally fine."

"That's because he's had ten years to get immune to his face. You can't blame me for being terrified of him! Have ever been on the receiving end of his dead eyed stare?"

Halima thinks for a moment before shrugging nonchalantly. "Well, he's terrified of me, so..."

"He's sitting right here," Achilles finally speaks up, his head leaning against the window. Rain remembers his grievances with him, and he leans back on the seat with his arms crossed. "You can address me straight to my face, Mateo. I don't exactly bite."

Mateo eyes him warily. "I highly doubt that. I'm good, thanks," he mumbles and scoots away further from him.

Sunhee snorts in amusement. "Coward," she comments, and Mateo doesn't bother to get offended by the insult.

"Right," Rain cuts in. He turns to Achilles with an eyebrow quirked. "Would you mind explaining why you didn't wait for me this morning? Considering how I barely saw you this summer, I expected to atleast find you before we came to the station."

The train lets out a loud whistle and it slowly starts to move. Rain eyes flit to the window, and on the other side stands his older brother, waving him goodbye with a kind smile. Their mother stands tall beside him, no apparent emotion visible on her face but Rain knows she's going absolutely mad with worry. He feels a bit sorry for River, because knows he'll have a difficult time getting her to settle down before leaving for work.

Rain waves back, just until they're out of sight, and he looks at Achilles, who is very intently staring at the top of Mateo's head. "My father had me go somewhere earlier," he explains, short and terse. Rain frowns at the strange tone he uses, and also because he can immediately tell that it's a lie. He decides not to question it further, atleast until Achilles fixes whatever problem he has with him.

Rain looks the rest of his friends. Halima shrugs one shoulder, and Sunhee's smile fades into a concerned frown. Mateo locks eyes with Rain and mouths 'Is he alright?'

And for the first time, Rain has no fucking idea. "Sure. I'll ask you again when you're ready to tell me the truth," he shoots back. Achilles sets his jaw, and he lifts his gaze to look out the window.

Rain turns to Sunhee and smiles at her again. "You were talking about your trip to Belgium? How did it go?"

Sunhee's eyes light up again. "You wouldn't believe it if I told you! I met this absolutely brilliant witch, Johanna? She befriended the sprites living in an endangered forest behind her home and she went absolutely livid trying to protect it from the muggles that wanted to tear the whole thing down-"

Sunhee recounts most of her holiday experience for the next half hour, and Halima complains about how boring hers was. Mateo talks about visiting his mother's side of the family in Colombia, and Achilles stays silent half the time, or pretends to be asleep for the rest of it.

Halfway through the entire train ride, Everyone in the compartment is fast asleep, aside from Rain. He's wide awake, a leather bound book in hand. By the time the excitement of seeing other again died down, Mateo had sought refuge in Rain's lap before falling asleep. By now, his legs have gone numb, but Rain doesn't have the heart to brush him off.

The book was a gift from River. He'd come with it as a souvenir from an assignment in America, and he thought Rain would love it because of the whole mystery surrounding it. No title, no author, a complete lack of extra transcription apart from the actual text itself to clue in a reader on the origins of the book. According to whoever gave the book to his brother, only three people had read the book so far. Rain is the fourth.

Rain had said it was presumptous of him, but he's been attached to that book for the two days he's had it anyway.

The story revolves around a woman living in isolation somewhere in the Himalayas after she accidentally caused the death of seven witches and wizards while trying to create a cure for lycanthropy.

In her guilt, she condemned herself to living in despair and isolation as she drowned in the horrors of the accident everyday. Rain doesn't know whether the accounts of the story are based on real life events or if they're purely fictional, but some part of him is convinced of the former.

He's well his way into the seventeenth day of the woman's isolation when a burst of laughter from outside the compartment floats into his ears. His nose twitches in annoyance, and he tries refocusing.

Then it comes again, and again, and again until he finally has enough.

"What the bloody hell are you idiots doing?" He says when manages standing up to slide open the door.

See, he didn't take into account of what he'd find when he opened the door, but seeing Sirius Black and one of his equally as annoying friends pushing each other down the hall was the last thing he expected.

So to speak, he doesn't regret his choice of words, but he regrets deciding to not mind his own business. Just look at what that brought down on him now.

Sirius has an arm thrown over the shoulders of James Potter, because of course it is. Rain doesn't think he's ever seen one of them without the other and he has alot of questions about their relationship, but again, that's none of his business.

Rain annoyingly notices alot of things about Sirius Black, and it's not a voluntary thing, thank you very much. For example, how he's gotten taller over the summer, as if he wasn't tall enough already, or how the mischievous grin that has permanent residence on his lips widens when he catches sight of Rain. The latter is hardly anything new, and Rain suspects it only does so because Sirius finds some kind of joy in driving him absolutely mad.

The two of them come to a halt, and Sirius slides his arm off of James's shoulders just to step forward. Rain narrows his eyes in suspicion, then holds out his own arm to stop the taller boy from getting any closer. "You would do well to think carefully before you try anything to test my patience this early, Black," he states firmly.

That hardly deters Sirius. If anything, his smile gets wider and his eyes get this shine to them that makes Rain feel like a few years have been shaved off his lifespan.

"Now, is that any way to speak to an old friend?" Sirius shoots back so casually like he just hasn't said the most ridiculous thing in the world. "Surely, you must have missed me in the time we were apart."

Rain scoffs. "I'd sooner chew off my own foot that admit to something so ridiculous."

Sirius fucking Black has the audacity to put hand on the space next to Rain's head, leaning in with that treacherous smile that makes his stomach swoop up and down for reasons unfathomable. Rain is sure that if he had a tiny shred of the insanity most Gryffindors carry with themselves, he would have his wand out by now to send this stupid boy flying out of his personal space, consequences of his actions be damned.

"Come on. You can say it if you want to. Nothing embarrassing about that, you know," says Sirius. Rain clenches a fist at his side and counts backwards from ten in his head to calm himself.

If there's one thing he's learned from all the years spent doing this weird push and pull thing with Sirius, is that walking away from conversations with him is the surest way to keep his dignity, and sanity, because somehow, Sirius manages to always leave him speechless out pure fury or shock. He almost never wins with him to be quite honest.

Walking away is usually his best option, especially when none of his friends are around to keep him from doing something he'll come to regret. He does just that, except this time, it's in the form of him taking a step back into the compartment and sliding the door shut in the two idiots' faces.

And that's a crisis averted. For now, atleast.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙▪︎⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

Alright, so maybe he spoke too soon.

The last remaining carriage stands a bit further away from him, and his jaw clenches at the thought of stepping foot into it.

"Come on, it's not the end of the world, " Sunhee tries consoling, but she doesn't understand that it might as well be. She looks just as wary as he is about this situation. "We can just squeeze ourselves into the farthest corner and ignore them. I'm sure they won't try anything if we don't talk to them."

Rain turns to look at her in disbelief. "Have you met them?" He whispers to her harshly. "They're not capable of any self-restraint whatsoever. I'd rather walk all the way to school instead."

As if by chance, thunder rumbles across the sky and two fat rains drops fall into his hair. Both he and Sunhee face the sky, and he sees dark rain clouds covering every inch of it. He holds the palm of his hand out, and three more drops land on it. Then a steadily growing shower trickles in.

"This has to be a scheme orchestrated by the universe," he mumbles spitefully. "You can't tell me this is a coincidence."

Sunhee smooths down the front of her robes habitually out of nervousness. "You can't walk in this weather. You'll get sick." She stretches out her hand and wraps it around his own. "If you insist, I'll just follow you and then we'll both get sick, and I'm sure you don't want that."

She doesn't give him much room to argue and promptly drags him towards the carriage. Perhaps he's being too lenient in letting his friends do whatever the hell they want with him. He momentarily considers pulling himself away from her grip, then take off running towards the school, and them it occurs to him how utterly childish the idea sounds. He still thinks it's preferable over what awaits him in the carriage. Most things are, in matters concerning being anywhere near Sirius.

There's chatter within the carriage when both he and Sunhee are within hearing range, and it suspiciously quiets down when the four boys catch sight of them. Sunhee warily waves at them all, and she climbs in with little hesitation. Rain stays still for a moment, furious heat unfurling within his chest as Sirius quirks an eyebrow at him as if asking 'Well?'

Rain is cold, and the light shower is getting heavier with each moment he spends out in it, but he wants to be stubborn and petty because he's certain things might get ugly if he gets into that space with Sirius.

But again, Sunhee makes the decision for him. She looks like she's had enough of his drama, so she stretches out her hand and yanks him inside. He yelps in surprise, and the force of Sunhee's hand has him stumbling enough to lose balance, and so of course. He falls right into Sirius's lap.

Clearly, some higher power has it out for him.

For a second, Sirius is taken by surprise. His hands are around Rain's forearms in a steadying grip, and his eyes are wide with wonder. Rain feels just a shocked as he looks, if not more. His face is getting warm, and he's absolutely mortified. Without any prompt, his stomach swoops again, and that is what jolts him out of his stupor.

He rips himself out of the hold, finding it within himself to glare at Sirius, forcing away the embarrassment of the situation out of his system. He brushes non-existent dust from his robes, watching with trepidation as the shock on Sirius's face gives way to amusement.

Someone whistles, and it pops the bubble of silence surrounding them. James and Peter start laughing, while Remus- who, before all this, Rain thought him to be the most level-headed of them all- smiles at him teasingly, and it makes him feel like the fool, for more reasons than the situation at hand.

His left sleeve is yanked down, and he falls into the empty space next to Sunhee. "Alright, that's enough, lads. I'm sure you'd prefer it if we all got to school in one piece," she says before he does anything. Absently, Rain's hand reaches for his wand, tucked away in the confines of his robes, but Sunhee's hand catches it before it does. Rain lifts his eyes to meet hers, and she smiles at him in that sweet, unassuming smile of hers that promises violence to those who don't know better. But he does knows better, and he relents his murderous urges.

He threads her fingers with his and takes a deep breath, then takes the time to slowly count backwards from ten.

By the time he's at four, he's only glaring mildly at Sirius, who's paying him no more attention as he chats avidly with his friends.

"You look like you want to cut his head off," Sunhee leans in to whisper into his ear. "So once again, I'm reminding you that murder is illegal."

"I wish it wasn't," he muttered right back. "He'd be the first to go if I had my way."

Sunhee grabs his chin and forces him to look at her, and she's frowning disapprovingly at him. "I know. I'm sure all of Hogwarts knows because of how you look at him any time he so much as breathes in your direction, but thinking about murdering him won't do anything. Just ignore him. It's not that hard."

Rain gives her a look, like she's completely mad. "You and I have very different perceptions of things that aren't hard. Do we go to the same school? Again, have you met him?"

Rain doesn't it's physically possible to ignore Sirius Black. The same could be said for his three friends, but it's like Rain gets tunnel vision anytime he's involved, then all he thinks about is Sirius and only Sirius. That should be concerning in and of itself, considering the fact that he hates the bloke, yet it seems like he's practically obsessed with him.

Sunhee looks at him like he's the one with problems, which in this case might uncomfortably true, but he ignores her and focuses his gaze on the floor of the carriage, forcing himself into a state of silence for the rest of the way.

The Sorting ceremony proceeds with no interruptions, and the feast begins. Rain finds himself sitting next to Barty Crouch at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, which obviously means that Evan Rosier is right alongside him, and because Evan hardly ever goes anywhere without him, Regulus Black is right across from them. Rain looks at him, and he's so suddenly reminded of Sirius that he looks down at his plate and stabs at his food with all the violence of a murderer.

His cutlery rattles on the table, and someone in the vicinity coughs.

"Alright there, mate?" He hears someone ask, but he ignores it.

He usually sits with Achilles, but his best friend suddenly finds appeal in avoiding him. First, in the train, then with the carriages when he swooped away with Mateo and Halima in his tow, both eager to find out what his problem is, thus leaving Sun-hee and Rain stranded.

This day has truly been awful. If anything else tests his patience, he's not sure he'll be able to hold