Chapter Two:
Starry Nights, Sunny Days

✶

Monday,
September 5th,
1977.

     The Astronomy Tower was rather peaceful at night.

     It gave Archer Reyes some time alone to think and relax—to just breathe for a minute. Just him and the stars and the moon. It was all he'd ever needed. They were the constant in his life. Wherever he went, whatever he did, the stars and the moon were always there. No matter what.

     This thought comforted him as he listened to music on his record player. Despite it being just before midnight (and on a school night no less!), he had not been caught. Add in the fact that he was listening to some music, and, well, he was a little shocked at how poor the security was at Hogwarts. Like—and this was completely hypothetical—a convicted mass murderer could walk into the castle without them even knowing.

     Thank Merlin he had not been caught. It was a fucking miracle!

     There was a brief pause as the previous song ended, and the record player waited in silence for Archer to tell it the next one. The boy hummed in thought, and then told it what song he wanted it to play. A few seconds later, Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang by Silver started playing.

     Starry nights, sunny days, I always thought that love should be that way.

     Archer suddenly frowned, a startling thought occurring to him. He hoped he hadn't jinxed it—he did not want to be caught outside of his dorm past curfew.

     Then comes a time when you're ridden with doubt, you've loved all you can and now you're all loved out!

     All of a sudden, a loud crash sounded. Archer froze. He heard an irritated shout, and he figured it was Argus Filch, the caretaker, who was often found scolding students who broke the rules. It was obvious he was following someone, trying to hand them a number of detentions no doubt. Archer cursed under his breath—he didn't want Filch giving him a detention!

     Look out, baby, this is not what it seems—!

     The tune of Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang was abruptly cut off as Archer waved his wand hurriedly and shrunk his record player. Scrambling to collect his things and hurriedly rushing out of the tower, he cursed again.

     Yep, he had definitely jinxed it.

✶

Sunday,
July 10th,
1977.

     It was still early in the morning, and yet despite this, the world around Archer was wide awake—the birds outside were singing melodies and the sun was shining through the bedroom window, awake and ready for the day ahead. He, on the other hand, was not.

     Well, until that moment.

     Tap! Tap!

     The irritating tapping sound came from the direction of the window. Bandit, his owl, gave a hoot. Archer hardly stirred, only letting out a grunt.

     "Shh, Bandit. I'm sleeping," he mumbled, his words muffled by his face being buried into the pillow.

     Tap! Tap!

     With his tousled hair and sleepy brown eyes, Archer groaned as he lifted his head. His movements were slow and laggy, still infected by sleep. He looked over towards the window, and simply blinked, too stunned to say anything at first. It took a moment for his brain to process what was happening.

     "Sirius?"

     And there he was—squatting outside the brunet's window, a mischievous smile on his face and his grey eyes lit up like a firework... Sirius Black. The boy waved at Archer.

     Archer frowned a little, sitting up in his bed, elbows propped behind him. The covers slightly off of him, revealing his vintage Elvis Presley t-shirt. "What...?" He was at a loss for words. But simply sitting in his bed wasn't going to answer anything, so he got up and opened the window so he could talk to Sirius. Archer was definitely wide awake now.

     "I knocked on the door, but no one answered..." Sirius said. "I was going to see if you wanted to hang out today?"

     Sirius' words warmed Archer's chest for reasons he couldn't explain.

     "Hang out?"

     Sirius nodded. "Yeah—I mean, if you want to...?"

     "Yeah!" Archer nodded back a little too enthusiastically. He cleared his throat, then rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and attempted to play it cool. "Yeah, totally."

     Sirius smiled.

     "Here, um—come in..." Archer moved out of the way so that Sirius was able to lift himself through Archer's window.

     Once Sirius was through, he stood up straight, and Archer was visibly reminded that Sirius was slightly taller than he was. When they were kids, Archer had his growth spurt early, and he had prided himself on being taller than Sirius was. Times had definitely changed.

     "So..." Archer said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

     Sirius didn't answer—he couldn't. Moments after Archer had asked the question, a knock sounded from his bedroom door. Almost immediately, Archer violently gestured for Sirius to duck behind the bed. Harvey seeing Sirius in his bedroom would raise a lot of questions that Archer wasn't entirely prepared for right now.

     Barely a second later, Harvey peeked his head into the room, a puzzled smile on his face. "Hey, Archie—did you say something?" Harvey said. His hair was wet, clinging to his forehead, leading Archer to believe he had only come out of the shower minutes ago. He was holding his wand up to his hair, and Archer eyed it with a faint curiosity as it seemed to be blowing out air—Oh! Like a hairdryer!

     "Erm, no, I didn't!" Archer said.

     Harvey shrugged. "Huh. Okay. I thought I heard something—thought you might've yelled out to me."

     Archer knew he needed to change the topic before Harvey caught on to him. He nodded in the direction of Harvey's wand, which was still blow drying his hair. "That's new," he said.

     "Oh, yeah," Harvey said, distracted by the change of topic. "You're never too old to try something new..."

     "Wait a second—Aha!" Archer exclaimed, a sense of satisfaction overcoming his features. "You're using that book I got you for your birthday, aren't you?"

     Harvey grumbled, "If I say yes, can we stop talking about it?"

     "Admit it—it's a good book!"

     "Humph."

     The book that they were talking about was this book that Archer had bought Harvey for his birthday a few months ago—admittedly, as a bit of a joke—and Harvey swore to him that he wouldn't use it. It was all about hair, and it contained these super wicked tips and tricks for wizards. Harvey, although he would never admit it, had an affinity for hair. The conversation had come up when they had found all these old photos back from when Harvey was Archer's age, and well... his hair! It was so wicked. His curls looked much like they did now, except they were a bit longer and bouncier back then.

     Harvey sent Archer a look. Archer grinned back. "Anyway," he said, "I've got to go into town to grab something. So, I'll see you later, Archie. Love you."

     "Love you, too."

     After Harvey shut the bedroom door, Sirius stood up from behind the bed. Archer had almost forgotten he was there. Sirius cooed, "Aw, how sweet!"

     Archer half-heartedly shoved his shoulder, laughing and scowling at the same time. "Shove off!"

✶

Tuesday,
September 6th,
1977.

     It was now midnight.

     Archer had left the Astronomy Tower in a rush, his mind in a panic. His breath came out in shortened puffs—he wasn't used to running this much—and his feet thudded on the floor like a drum. He wasn't entirely sure where Filch was coming from, nor did he know the distance—he hoped it was far away, far enough that Archer would have enough time to be well on his way to the Ravenclaw Common Room without Filch's knowledge.

     A little paranoid, he threw his head back to make sure no one was coming after him. But in doing this, he failed to look at where he was going, and as he turned the corner sharply, his body collided with someone.

     Fuck.

     Thankfully, it wasn't Filch. Though, dare he admit it, he almost wished it was Filch—standing there instead, in all his glory, was Sirius Black.

     Archer and Sirius stood there, facing one another with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Neither of them had expected to see the other there—especially not under the current circumstances. It was like time had slowed down. Archer was rooted to the ground, and although he was still in a bit of a panic as he had been in before, his mind suddenly stopped working and he couldn't formulate words, let alone move his feet. He needed to run... but he couldn't bring himself to move.

     "Come on, Arch!"

     The next thing he knew, Sirius was grabbing his hand and dragging him back in the direction that Archer had just come from. But he wasn't alone; Sirius' partner-in-crime, James Potter, ran past them.

     Still in a daze, it took Archer a few seconds to figure out what was happening but as soon as he did, he stopped abruptly. This action caused Sirius to stop, which in turn caused James to stop, too.

     "I don't need your help," Archer frowned at Sirius.

     Sirius huffed, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, Arch. We gotta go!"

     "Nuh-uh," Archer said, shaking his head. Look, he knew that it wasn't the time for this, and that if they stayed there any longer then they were bound to be caught, but in that moment he didn't care. And he knew he was being a little petty, he knew that, but it wasn't his fault that Sirius and him had parted on bad terms... right?

     James called out from the top of the stairs, words jumbling together in a rush. "Padfoot, mate, we really gotta leave now if we don't want Filch to give us a detention!"

     "I'll meet you back in the Common Room, Prongs," Sirius called up to him. James looked at him oddly, but still turned around and ran in the direction toward the Gryffindor Tower. Archer guessed that it definitely wouldn't look good if the Head Boy was caught out past curfew, especially since the boy had only held the title for a few days.

     Sirius turned back to Archer and tried to pull him along, but he wouldn't budge. Archer knew that Sirius was just trying to help, but he wanted nothing to do with him. He didn't need a repeat of what happened that summer.

     But then Sirius looked at him, really looked at him, his grey eyes frantically boring into Archer's soul—or at least it certainly felt that way!—so intensely that Archer forgot to breathe for a second. "OK, look, Filch is going to come around that corner in a second, and if we're here when he does, then I guess I'll be seeing you in detention."

     Archer bit his lip. He knew that he should swallow his pride just this once so that he didn't get detention, but at the same time he didn't want Sirius to think that Archer had forgotten what happened in the summer—because Archer hadn't forgotten. Not at all.

     Sirius knew that they were desperate for time and that running away was no longer an option for them. There was a broom cupboard next to them, however, and the black haired boy obviously saw no other option than to push Archer in it, and so he did. Archer's sounds of protest were immediately muffled as Sirius rushed to whip the palm of his hand against the boy's mouth. As they made eye contact, Archer's words died out and his throat went dry.

     It was as though all of his senses were on overdrive. His heart was beating so fast it could've beat right out of his chest, and his attempts at slowing his breath weren't entirely successful. He couldn't help but feel like he was being so loud—and that was not something he wanted to be, not with Filch hot on their trail.

     He could just make out the sound of Filch's taunting footsteps outside, the soft purrs of his cat—Mrs. Norris—accompanying him. Archer froze. Filch slowed down a little bit, and right when Archer started to think that it was all over—that Filch was going to open the door and give them detention—Filch kept walking, and the sound of his footsteps grew quieter. Archer didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he was sure that Filch was gone.

     Archer desperately wanted to send a glare Sirius' way, but his gaze faltered. He couldn't bring himself to do it. The brown haired boy couldn't forget all of the hurt that Sirius put him through, but he couldn't deny that the space (or lack thereof!) shared between them was something that he had missed dearly.

     He wasn't sure whether it was the close-proximity of Sirius or the running away from Filch that had got him in such a fluster.

     Well, he knew which one it was... he just didn't want to admit it.

word count: 2210
29.08.2021