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It was the full moon.
That was the only viable explanation for what Remus could see. The full moon seemed to have that effect on him sometimes, messing with his perspective and giving him strange hallucinations. Still, this would be a new one.
In front of him, on Platform Nine and Three Quarters on the first day of his second year, were two Sirius Blacks. The same tall, thin frame, the same mess of dark hair and thick eyebrows, the same aristocratic posture.
So it had to be residual madness from the full moon, two days prior. Either that or Remus had finally cracked under the pressure.
Both of the Siriuses were stood behind identical luggage trollies, and both were now staring at Remus where he had stopped dead in their path. It was now that he noticed the differences. One appeared perhaps an inch or so taller, and his face had fallen into a shit-eating grin.
“Moony!” he shouted, pushing his luggage trolly into Remus’ legs and barking out a shout of laughter.
The other Sirius was frowning, his eyes distant and guarded as he surveyed Remus, who could now see that maybe their faces were not quite the same. This other Sirius’ face was a little longer, and his lips a little thinner. He did not smile.
Remus blinked from the real Sirius to this strange, slightly wrong version.
“There’s two of you,” he said stupidly.
His Sirius laughed again and pushed his trolly at Remus a little harder before spinning it around, almost taking out a family stood nearby so he could come alongside him.
“How could there possibly be two of me?” Sirius teased, throwing his arms around Remus’ shoulders. “I’m one of a kind!”
Remus continued to flick his gaze between the two, before frowning at his Sirius. “This is-?”
“Regulus!”
Oh. Okay. Now there were three of them, and even more confusingly, one of them was a girl.
The female Sirius looked slightly different of course. Her features were finer, her hair significantly longer and tied in an intricate braid, and she had a lighter, more delicate way of moving. Still, the grey eyes that turned to him as she drew level with the second Sirius (Regulus, had she called him?) were eerily familiar after a year sharing a dormitory with Sirius.
“Three of you?” Remus queried slightly faintly, now feeling like he should ask the Hogwarts Express to drop him at St Mungo’s on the way to school.
Sirius tightened his arms around Remus’ shoulders, dragging him towards the other two.
“This is Regulus, my brother. And Ophelia, my sister. Twins, first years. This is Remus.” There was a slightly hard edge to Sirius’ voice when he introduced Regulus, that had entirely vanished as he introduced his sister. It was clear to Remus who Sirius was fonder of. A quick glance at his friend confirmed that he was watching the girl warmly, his gaze passing over the boy like he was not there.
Remus cleared his throat self-consciously, feeling idiotic. Siblings made much more sense that whatever he had thought initially. Although he did think it strange that he had shared a dormitory with Sirius for the whole of last year and as far as he could remember, the other boy had never mentioned any siblings at all.
“Hi,” he said, waving awkwardly. “Uh. welcome.” The twins did not say anything, continuing to stare at him silently, but the girl dipped her head in brief acknowledgement before turning back to her twin.
“Reg, mother was looking for you. She wanted to say goodbye.”
Regulus’ cheeks flushed and he appeared irritated, but he obediently turned his luggage trolly around in search of Walburga Black.
Sirius’ eyes flashed with poorly disguised amusement.
“Are you saying that mother didn’t want to say goodbye to me?” he asked, innocently. “I am hurt and shocked, shocked I say.”
Remus snorted. Whilst Sirius might not have mentioned his siblings, he had certainly talked about Walburga. Initially, Remus had been sceptical about his description of the fierce witch, unsure how accurate Sirius’ stories could really be. What sort of parent would really care about which house their child had been sorted into after all? That was before the first howler arrived her voice had rung through the Great Hall over breakfast, screaming about tradition and respect and family. Remus had quickly learned that Sirius’ family was not like his.
“Don’t be silly,” Ophelia said, her tone flat. “Obviously she doesn’t want us, we’re disappointments.”
As an only child, Remus had no siblings, so perhaps he was not the best judge of what was normal amongst larger families. Still, that seemed like an odd dynamic.
Sirius’ smile dropped, and he frowned at his sister. “You’re not a disappointment yet,” he said seriously, before he leaned in conspiratorially. “Although I have high hopes for you.” He grinned at Remus. “’Phelia could be Gryffindor.”
The girl narrowed her eyes and tossed the braid over her shoulder impatiently.
“Don’t hold your breath,” she said. “I go where Reg goes.”
“Don’t say that,” Sirius dramatically sighed. “We both know he’ll end up with the snakes. You could do so much better. Listen, I won’t even laugh at you if you end up in Hufflepuff. Just don’t go to Slytherin.”
Somehow Remus doubted that this girl was Hufflepuff material. There was something sharp in her expression, even as she looked at the brother who clearly adored her. She clearly did not like this conversation, likely one that she had had before. Instead, she started to steer her luggage trolly towards the train.
“It wouldn’t do to disappoint mother again,” she said over her shoulder. “If I’m not in Slytherin, she’ll pull me out of school.”
Remus bit back his laughter when he realised that Ophelia was not joking. “Wait, really?”
Both Sirius and Ophelia shrugged, and Remus was once again conscious of how different his family was to Sirius’. Remus’ parents had been so happy that he could go to school at all that he could have been sorted as the caretaker and they would still be proud. The very concept of a family whose affection (well, maybe affection was a strong word. Approval?) was conditional on an arbitrary label was baffling to Remus.
Sirius stepped forward to help lift their luggage onto the train, and Remus was struck again how alike these siblings seemed, at least superficially. There was no mistaking them for anything other than relatives, and yet despite their similarities, he could feel the restless energy in Sirius, who had the aura of someone about to tell the punchline. Ophelia was more still and solemn, and he fancied that there was something more cautious, more calculating underneath that cool exterior.
She was choosing to ignore the continuous needling from Sirius about sorting, simply allowing him to keep going under his own steam. As she stepped up onto the train herself, she threw Remus a quick look as if to say don’t you have anything to say to this. But of course, Remus said nothing. He never did. Ophelia’s sharp gaze was searching, and Remus squirmed under what felt like inspection. Whatever she found did not seem to surprise her, because she quirked her eyebrows as if to say of course, and turned away from him. Remus could not help but feel like he had somehow disappointed her.
Remus hauled his own luggage into the compartment after Sirius and found that Ophelia had taken the seat closest to the door. She had already taken a book from her bag and was studiously ignoring Sirius’ ongoing quips and taunts.
“Moony, help me out here,” Sirius panted after they had hauled the last of the suitcases into the luggage rack above their heads, throwing himself into the seat by the window. “Tell her that there isn’t a single snake who’s a good person.”
There was an audible sigh from behind the book, and Remus blinked owlishly at Sirius.
“Um,” he started intelligently.
“Like, remember after the Slytherin-Ravenclaw match last year, the Ravenclaw seeker showed up with tentacles coming out of her forehead?” Sirius ploughed on. “Bullstrode and Snyde got months of detention for that.”
“Slughorn wrote to their families,” Remus supplied, and Sirius nodded darkly.
“Yeah, fat lot of good that would have done. All pure blood maniacs, the lot of them. Davenport was half-blood, so their mums were probably proud.”
At this, Sirius sent a furtive look at the book that was hiding Ophelia’s face and frowned.
“We don’t subscribe to any of that, do we ‘Phelia?” Sirius’ voice sounded sure, but there was a twitch in his jaw that gave him away. The girl still dd not respond, but did lower her book slightly to return Sirius’ look before she shrugged casually. “Blood status doesn’t matter,” he continued doggedly. “It doesn’t change who you are as a person, or how good of a witch you are. Or wizard,” he added hurriedly.
Ophelia raised the book, once again hiding her face from the two boys and continuing to opt out of the conversation. Sirius’ frown deepened, and he jerked his head meaningfully towards Remus then Ophelia.
“Right,” jumped in Remus. “Everyone knows that the best witch in our year is Evans and she’s muggle-born.” At Sirius’ eager nodding, Remus continued. “And Mulciber says he’s pure blood but he’s practically a squib.”
The compartment door slid open and the third Black sibling stepped in, carefully pulling his own luggage. Remus took the opportunity of the distraction away from the tense subject matter, and jumped up out of his seat to help Regulus lift it into the luggage rack. Once it was secured away, Regulus slipped into the seat between Remus and Ophelia, and leaned in to read the book over her shoulder.
“Thank you,” he murmured quietly to Remus, in acknowledgement of his help but not actually making eye contact with him. Remus awkwardly tipped his head and sat down.
Sirius was watching Regulus with a hard expression. “So what advice did mother have?” he asked, but no one was fooled by the sweet tone of voice. “Was she giving you the list of approved playmates?”
Regulus snapped his head in Sirius’ direction and scowled, but he said nothing. Ophelia nudged his leg with her foot and he slowly turned back to her, but Sirius was not finished.
“You know Reg, this is your chance to get out from under her thumb. She can’t get to you at Hogwarts.”
Regulus snorted derisively. “Says the boy who must have received a howler every other week in his first year.”
“The howlers didn’t bother me”, Sirius shrugged. “It’s actually better than her screaming at me at home. At least I can set the howlers on fire.”