Chapter 1-Ensamble:
Counting cracks.
Sirius Black lay sprawled out on his bed, elaborately counting the cracks in his ceiling for the fifteenth time this holiday and pretending not to hear his mother screaming for him downstairs, 'Two more days' he whispered to himself turning over and burying his face in his bed in the hope that she might just give up. "Sirius Black do you not hear your mother calling you?" asked a harsh voice that he knew all too well "if she wants to talk to me aunt Druella, she can come upstairs and talk to me" he said aware of how sharp his voice was and hoping beyond hope that she would just leave. But from the irritated tapping sound coming from her drumming her fingers against the door frame, Sirius guessed she wasn't going anywhere, so giving up all hope he pulled himself up and stood straight without making any attempt to look presentable and gave his aunt a lopsided grin. With that he began to make his descent down the stairs to the rest of the family
Remus Lupin sat at the bottom of the stairs trying not to make a sound, he had been watching his mother for the past few minutes in silence, and he couldn't help thinking how much better off she would be when he was gone in two days but then he wondered to if she worried about him telling them about him, when he told her of all the friends he'd made the first year she seemed somewhere between excited for him and terrified they might find out what he was, back then he would have laughed at her and told her that he would never trust anyone enough to tell them but now, he couldn't bring himself to admit that he had told Sirius and James. He couldn't watch his mother worry, besides he was confident that they would never tell anyone, James maybe naïve and not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed but he is loyal and brave and he would do anything for a friend, and Sirius, as much as he pretended to be a flippant, all looks no brains delinquent, he understood what this meant to Remus, he had a good heart and no one was held higher in it than Remus Lupin. As for Peter, he wouldn't be much of a problem, he tended to do whatever James said and should that fail Sirius could always scare him back into submission. No, there was no worry about them telling anyone, still he couldn't tell her, he knew she would worry for the whole year he was away and he couldn't do that to her. Not ever.
Slowly wandering the streets of diagon alley, James potter wondered what it would feel like to be a third year, to finally be back to the place he felt like he belonged, beside Sirius and Remus, his two closest friends. He even missed Peter, but more than that he just missed the feel of it. Hogwarts, even the thought of the name made his head ring with excitement, and who knows maybe this year they could finally make Remus feel like he had a friend, after all these years of him not being able to trust anyone, it would be amazing for him to finally have someone by his side. The prospect of going back to his second home excited him so much that shopping with his parents wasn't so much of a chore as it usually was, he just strode happily down the streets, dreaming of the life he'd be able to live again in just two days.
The least excited of the team was Peter Pettigrew, the pure blood boy had been celebrated by his family like a saint, another brave Gryffindor boy to put on the family record. The truth was, he didn't feel very brave at all, he followed James around like a lost puppy, Sirius had begun referring to him in passing as ' the rat', Remus didn't even acknowledge his existence save to tell Sirius that it wasn't very nice to tell someone there existence is pointless. To be perfectly honest Peter wasn't even so sure that Sirius was wrong anymore, his parents and aunts and uncles kept painting this picture of him as a hero just because he had been put into Gryffindor, it made him consider if the sorting hat hadn't put him in the wrong house after all.
And so with that four boys all faced the last Two days, one with relief, one, apprehension, one with excitement and one with fear and regret. Whatever this new journey was faced with however there was one thing that they all had in common, one thing that would be the same for each and every one of them, weather they were entering this new year with fear or elation, one thing was certain, they were entering it together