Sirius Black had always been smart. Smarter than many would give him credit for. Smart enough to escape from Azkaban prison, and smart enough to change the the past and the future.
Sirius couldn't believe his luck. Not only had he managed to escape from Azkaban, but in the space of one night, he'd managed to clear his name to the two most important people in his life. Remus Lupin and, Harry Potter. He had managed to convince them of his innocence, and that made it all worth it. He hadn't managed, however, to bring justice to the culprit at large. Peter Pettigrew, so when Harry and Hermione turned up at his cell ready to break him out, how could he help himself? He'd devised a plan. A good one at that. He waited till he'd flown away with Buckbeak before he started to work out the details of his plan, but he had a job to do, and he'd be damned if he didn't succeed. This mess had gone on too long, twelve years too long.
He woke up in an all too familiar place. Hogwarts express. He was dressed in his old Gryffindor robes and felt his hair much shorter. It had worked.
"Padfoot, you alright?" He snapped his head up to see the all too familiar voice call to him. It was Peter. Young and fresh. He looked around the compartment to see James and Remus in their robes too.
"You must've nodded off mate, we're not going to be much longer I don't think."
"Looks like Pads needs his beauty sleep." James joked. Peter laughed in response and even Remus sniggered. He'd thought he'd have been able to handle this, but it was all becoming a bit too overwhelming. He excused himself in a hurry from the compartment, in a quest for a toilet among the train. He rushed quickly into the stall and took a good look at himself in the mirror. He traced his hands over what was once a tattoo covered chest, over a trimmed beard along his jawline, along his silky, slightly longer wavy hair and over his younger hands. It had really worked. He took a shaky and long breath to steady himself before exiting the bathroom stall, to find Severus Snape waiting on the other side for him to finish.
"Too busy looking at yourself to flush, Black?" He sneered at him.
"Do yourself a favour and wash that greasy mop on your head while you're in there Snape." He sniggered at his remark. He'd missed this quite a lot. He walked back to the compartment that held his fellow Marauder's with a bit more of a spring in his step.
"You're all going to think I've taken a wrong turn and landed myself in St. Mungo's but, what year are we in?" He asked, unapologetically. The three lads all looked back at him questioningly, unsure of what his question meant.
"What are you talking about Sirius?" Remus asked
"Just humour me."
"Oh well, sixth." Remus responded. Sirius just nodded, confused, as he sat back down in his original seat. He was further back than he'd intended. In all honesty, Sirius hadn't planned on going back as far as to go to Hogwarts at all, wanting to head to a couple weeks before Halloween. He was unsure as to how he'd gone back quite so far.
Just as he sat down, he saw a familiar shade of red breeze past the window and knew straight away who it was. Lily. James was quick to notice too and followed out after her. Remus rolled his eyes. Sirius sat quietly in the carriage for the rest of the ride to Hogwarts, trying to soak in as much as he could from the three boys without drawing too much suspicion in his odd behaviour. All that Sirius Black was sure of, was that he had a very large job to do, and he didn't quite know how he was going to achieve it. Nor did he know how he'd be able to manage staying as close to Peter as he was without ruining something. Only time would tell.