A/N: Here it is, the new, better-than-ever Black Thoughts! Typos removed! If you find any, send me a message please! Or anonymous review so I can delete it when I've fixed them. Thank you muchly! If you're new to this story, then welcome. You should know straight away that I watch this story on traffic, so I know if people read it without reviewing. Hundreds of people do it and it gets on my nerves. Please, please review! I will love you forever if you do. I won't know who you are if you don't.

OK? Ok. Enjoy.

-for you.

The Black family were earlier than usual this year, and the big clock in the middle of the station read quarter to eleven as they marched past platforms 7 and 8 with their elegant, straight noses in the air. They all looked so alike, the same tapered features, black hair, strict posture. Right down to the expression of disgust on their faces when they sent their haughty gaze toward the rushing crowd of Muggles around them.

Yep, thought Sirius resignedly. Slytherin pure-blood bastards, the lot of them. He was well shot of them.

They were his family, by blood if nothing else. Why, then, was he so different to them? He had broken the family tradition of belonging to Slytherin house. Lost on him were all the family beliefs of pure-blood hierarchy. And they knew it. Right from the day the Sorting Hat had placed him a world apart from them. And he needed no convincing to see that his was the better world.

He was at the station with James, having lived in the Potter house all holidays after his haphazard departure from Grimauld Place. He couldn't be what they wanted him to be. His Gryfindor friends... they appreciated that.

There was Moony now, looking a little shabbier than he had last time they saw him. He grinned wolfishly – everything about him was a little wolfish – and wheeled his trolley over to them. "Hey," he said breathlessly. "Good summer?"

"Great," said James. "Padfoot's had its ups and downs, though, didn't it mate?" Sirius grunted in assent as Remus Lupin's grey eyes contracted in pity.

"Ran away from home," he grunted. He jerked his chin towards his blood brother. "That git joined the Death Eaters." Moony patted him on the back.

"S'pose it was only a matter of time," he said, shrugging the hand off him as Moony and James both nodded. "Hey, there's Wormy!" They didn't need to look around. They could hear the frantic argument from a mile off. Peter Pettigrew was having a "disagreement" with his mother.

They were another two that hardly seemed related; Peter was small and ratty while his mother was a large woman who liked to shout. When finally he caught up to them and managed to shake off his mother, who was earning him a lot of attention, he sighed miserably.

"What's up, Wormy?" James slapped him on the back so hard he stumbled and almost fell over. He blinked his watery eyes nervously.

"I didn't want to tell my mother my O.W.L. Results," he said. "She found out in the car that I failed Transfiguration and Potions." James and Sirius exchanged raised eyebrows and rolled eyes. Moony looked incredulous.

"After all those study notes I gave you, all that revision, you still failed Transfiguration?"

"Merlin's mercy, Wormy, how thick can you get?" His gaze dropped to his shoes.

"I know," he said sadly. "I'll never be as clever as you guys."

"But where would the world be without stupid people?" said James cheerfully, making to clap his back again. A look from Moony stopped his hand and started his mouth. "We love you anyway, man." Peter smiled weakly.

"So what did you guys get in your O.W.L.s?" Moony slipped in an hour later as they wandered through the train, back from a search for the lady with the food trolley.

"I received Outstanding results," said Sirius dramatically, shaking back his long hair. "Only got an 'A' in Astronomy, though – I reckon they took points off 'cause I knocked over old Tofty's chair." James laughed and even Moony chuckled. "James?"

"Mostly 'O's. Couple of 'E's, I think. Failed History of Magic, but only just and who cares about that anyway?" He said noncommittally.

"That's the spirit, mate," said Sirius and Peter seemed to brighten at the news that even James Potter failed something.

"Here's our carriage. Still empty, shall we - oh, no, it's not..." There was a girl sitting in one corner, dressed in brightly-coloured Muggle clothes with her knees drawn up to her chest. She was poring over a thick book, reading fast with a concentrated frown. She had dark hair and bold brown eyes. Her unusually pale wand was scratching at the pages. "Never seen her before," whispered Moony.

"Come on," said James impatiently and slid the door open. The girl looked up and smiled at the four boys with full lips. Peter tentatively smiled back, and the others grinned.

"I don't mind," she said in a thick Scottish accent.

"Good," said Sirius, slumping heavily into the seat opposite her. "It was our carriage to start with." James pushed himself down next to him. Moony rolled his eyes at his friends' rudeness, but cast only a fleeting smile at the girl before sitting too. She went back to her book with a faintly amused grin on her delicate face. Sirius arrogantly considered her for a bit. She was quite pretty, he saw. Pretty enough to almost make him flush as she looked up at him through long lashes. Sirius looked around the carriage in pursuit of a new topic.

"So," he said awkwardly. "Uh... what subjects are you guys taking?" Moony and James laughed at the tone of the statement, but Peter missed the humor.

"Well, I don't really know anymore," he said sadly. "Do you think Professor Dumbledore will let me do Transfiguration? Or Mum'll kill me."

"I don't doubt that," said James in a mock-worried voice. Peter didn't get the touch of sarcasm, however, and his nervous face began to look terrified as Sirius joined in the cheerful baiting.

"Nope, I don't reckon you've got a chance, mate," he said seriously. Peter went pale. It always gave Sirius a kind of savage pleasure, taunting Peter like this and watching him squirm. Especially when he had just been embarrassed in front of someone like this girl. It made him feel bad sometimes when they went too far, but Sirius had learned to quash his conscience.

"I reckon you'll be okay. Professor Dippet will work something out," said Moony soothingly. Sirius shook his head in disgust as Peter turned a shining face up to his savior, full of hope.

"You really think so?" Moony sent Sirius and James a warning glance.

"Yes," he said firmly. Sirius' hands curled into fists and he turned to look out the smudged window. He needed something to release his pent-up frustration from the Black family. And if Moony wouldn't let him tease Peter...

He willed up a savage remark to throw at his best friends, but his mouth was hardly open when he bit it back. Moony didn't deserve it. He was just looking out for his friends. And he, Sirius, was just being Black. I guess you can't change what you are, he thought sadly. He rested his head on the cold glass of the windowpane. Worthless. Just like them. James shifted in his seat to lay a hand on his shoulder.

Voices in the corridor. A boy and a girl, arguing viciously with raised voices, uncaring of the whispers accumulating around them. Sirius felt James stiffen beside him. He looked around – he knew that voice. His handsome, fine-boned face cracked into a smile.

"Snivellus."

Lily's pretty face was flushed with anger, a lock of her smooth red hair falling untidily over her face. Snape's usually pale face looked like wax now, pallid complexion shining eerily in the half-light of the train passage.

Like a torch on dry straw, the sight of the gawky, batlike teenager set Sirius' piled-up anger aflame. He plunged a hand into his pocket, but James grabbed his arm. Sirius looked around at the boy behind the gripping, goblin-like fingers, and saw an expression of such hatred and disgust on his face it almost made him feel better about his own feelings.

"Is this thing bothering you, Evans?" Lily shot James a look of distaste before turning back to Snape. Sirius couldn't decipher the strange look that crossed her face as she looked at him. His dark eyes were pleading.

Lily sighed. "Yeah," she said softly, not looking at anyone. "He is." James let go of Sirius' arm and grabbed his own wand. Sirius followed suit and the two of them flanked Lily, wands pointed at Snape. James gave his wand a flick towards the back of the now curving train.

"Go," he demanded, jerking his head to follow his wand. The black depths of Snape's narrow eyes gazed beseechingly at Lily. She took a shaky breath and looked up at Snape.

"Just go, Severus," she said, so quietly even Sirius beside her had to strain to hear her. "Just go." A tear spilled over the edge of his eye and drizzled down his sallow cheek. Abruptly, he turned and stalked jerkily down the corridor.

"What's going on? Who's that?"

The crowd gathered to watch the argument all turned to the newcomer. It was the girl from the carriage.

"That," spat Sirius savagely, "was Snivellus Snape."

"Don't call him that. You've no consideration, any of you." She shot James a look that would have caused the leaves on a tree to shrivel and die. James opened his mouth but she was quicker. "I didn't ask you to interfere!" She muttered something that sounded like "Boys," and turned to walk away.

"I know," said the girl calmly. She looked at Sirius and grinned teasingly. "Terrible." Lily observed her with raised eyebrows. "Laura," she said, putting a hand out to Lily. The latter regarded it, and for a second Sirius thought she was going to ignore the offer. Then Lily Evans smiled back and took the hand. The two girls walked the way Snape had moments ago. Sirius watched them go, a faint smile playing on his smooth face as their words drifted back to him:

"You must be new here."

"I'm from Scotland."

"Sirius!" The high, girlish shriek issued from the crowd behind the boys. The aforenamed boy winced visibly. Sniggers emanated from the crowd as he turned slowly, dreading the eager attention the girl lavishly spread over him like butter on bread. He grimaced involuntarily and attempted to turn it into a smile.

"Eva," he said jovially through clenched teeth. James snorted beside him as she ran up to him, a huge smile splitting her tanned face.

"I've missed you," she said breathlessly, and before he could stop her, she threw her arms around him in a suffocating hug.

"Eva," he choked, "No hugs! Let go!" She did so, reluctantly. He looked down slightly and saw her widen her huge blue eyes.

"Why not?" she was the picture of innocence; an angelic innocence with her blond straight hair and blue eyes; an innocence that was lost in Sirius' irritation for her unfaltering affection.

"I'm... not a hugging kind of guy." The words sounded lame, but Eva seemed to buy them. She pouted prettily for a second before changing the subject.

"Well, Sirius, are you coming back to Care of Magical Creatures? You know what fun we used to have in that class," she said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Are you kidding? Professor Kettleburn scares the willies out of me."

"Well, let's hope he doesn't scare the willy off you! You might need it!" The crowd joined her girlish laugh. Sirius tried not to scowl. At that moment, the train stopped with a jerk.

"About time," Sirius growled amid James and Moony's faint snickering. Through the dark of night outside, he could see the lights of the vast castle.

Home.