A/N

Hi, it's been a while. I'm in the process of writing the third year of Phoenix Corrupted, I'm currently working on the fourth chapter, sorry it's going a bit slow. I wrote this when I was stuck but hopefully it'll give you a little bit of background information about the paths that diverged from the canon storyline. It's just some stuff that I didn't really plan on writing into my main story, but hopefully will prove entertaining anyway.

I have a few more characters and plots I want to explore here, but I'll be mostly concentrating on finishing the main story, so I probably won't be updating this very regularly.

As for Phoenix Corrupted, I'm planning on posting the first chapter of the third year sometime next week. I'll probably try and update it once a week and I think I'll be able to post the rest of the third year without too much trouble.

Sorry for making you wait so long for the story, I hope this keeps you happy for now. =)


James Potter and Sirius Black carefully approached the building, moving slowly, trying not to make a sound under the Invisibility Cloak. They edged close to a window and peered inside.

"I can't see anything." James whispered.

"No." Sirius agreed. "They should be finished by now, right?"

"Wait, someone's coming…" James said suddenly. "Sirius, move!"

They tripped over each other as they tried to move away from the front door and around the corner of the house. Even last year they barely managed to fit under the Cloak together, but they had both grown considerably over the summer. The Invisibility Cloak wasn't meant to be used by two fifteen year old boys at the same time.

The door opened, and the two boys froze, not daring to make a noise. A black haired wizard emerged from the door and took a step forwards before pausing. He turned his head towards the spot the two boys had been standing just moments ago, then he took a deep breath through his mouth.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black. I'm sure I was told that you two have a detention this afternoon." the man said in a level tone.

James and Sirius let out a groan before they took off the cloak, they looked at the man slightly apologetically and said, "Hello, Professor Riddle…"

"We were just at detention..." James said. "Um..."

"The professor let us out early, said we learned our lesson." Sirius quickly followed, only to have James discreetly try and elbow him in his side.

Tom Riddle raised an eyebrow in amusement, "Professor McGonagall… Let you out of detention early?"

Sirius' eyes widened at the sudden reminder of who they were meant to be serving detention with. "Er… No… I mean..."

"I will speak to her, and reschedule it for tomorrow. I'm sure you have no objections?" Professor Riddle asked with a sly smile.

The two boys nodded in relief. "Can we go inside?"

"Yes, Remus has finished his lessons for today." Riddle said with a laugh. "For once he seemed as eager to finish as you two."

"Thank you professor!" they said, while rushing pass him and into Hagrid's home. They ran up the stairs and stumbled inside a room, not even bothering to knock.

"Remus!" Sirius shouted happily.

The boy in the room, who was sitting by a desk, sorting out sheets of parchment looked up and gave a small exasperated sigh, "I thought you two had detention?"

"It's tomorrow." James said with a grin.

"No I'm pretty sure you said-"

"Don't worry! It's all been sorted out." Sirius gave Remus a friendly clap on the back. "James said he saw a package being delivered here this morning?"

Remus stood up with a glint of excitement in his eyes. "It's here."

He went up to a wardrobe in the corner of the room and took out a package wrapped in brown paper and placed it on the table he had just been working on.

"You haven't opened it yet?" James asked.

"No. Since we all put money towards it, I though I should wait." Remus said.

"Well then Remus, since we're all here..." Sirius said impatiently.

Remus tore open the package revealing a dark wooden box. On the top, carved in ornate golden letters was 'Aurelius G. Marthfish – High Quality Photography Equipment Since 1854'. He carefully opened the box to reveal a shiny new camera.

Sirius gave a whistle, "That looks really nice, almost makes me glad your old one broke."

Remus gave his friend a brief scowl before carefully taking the camera out of the box and examined it from all angles and peered through the lens at his two friends. "James… you never told me how much the camera cost..."

"I don't know..." James said evasively, "I just sent all the money to my dad and told him to find the best one he could get."

"James..." Remus began weakly.

"Oh just shut up and accept it Remus," Sirius said cheerfully while rummaging through the box. "That's your Christmas and birthday present from us this year. Besides, we'll probably be borrowing this one as much as your last one."

James scratched his head and said sheepishly, "And we still feel a bit guilty for what happened to that one..."

Remus snorted, "I was stupid enough to go with the plan."

"Yep, you were. Stupid Remus…" Sirius said. He was looking through a booklet he found inside the box. Instructions on how to use the camera. "Oh, by the way. Can you have a look at our Potions homework? There's a bit we don't really get..."

They had been friends for over four years now and both James and Sirius had known about Remus' condition before they had even met. Rumours had spread before the start of the school year that the Headmaster was planning to allow a werewolf into school grounds. James and Sirius were among the very few that found this to be exciting news, and while most of the school chose to stay away from the boy living in Hagrid's house, the two Gryffindor boys didn't hesitate to try and befriend the young werewolf.

Remus had always hated what he was and he almost decided he didn't want to come to Hogwarts, especially when he found out that everybody had discovered what he was hoping to keep a secret. When James Potter and Sirius Black came to visit him for the first time, he was startled to find that they weren't staring at him in disgust and horror, but seemed to find it fascinating. To be completely honest, that had annoyed him as well, making him feel like a curious specimen behind glass walls. He shot out a few clipped answers to the two boys questions then told them he had something to do.

Remus thought that he would never see them again, but he was wrong. They were back again the next day, talking for a while before leaving again. This time they didn't mention his lycanthropy, but just asked about his day and talked about their own. They visited each day and by the weekend, they had even brought over their homework, asking Remus to help them as they sat around Hagrid's huge dining room table. They didn't get much work done that day, but they talked and laughed, eating cake and drinking the tea Hagrid offered them, and Remus made his first two friends.

Their friendship had come a long way since then. Thanks to his two friends, Remus had come to accept his 'furry little problem', as James would call it, talking about it more easily to the people he felt close to.

It started out with an innocent question, "I wonder what you look like when you transform."

Remus just rolled his eyes and said, "I have no idea, I never really bothered to look."

But he did become slightly curious and if James and Sirius really wanted to know, he thought that he wouldn't mind them seeing him as his other self, as long as they weren't hurt in the process.

The first rather foolish idea they came up with was trying to sneak into the cellar, where Remus usually spent the nights of a full moon, underneath James' Invisibility Cloak taking a quick look and leaving before the werewolf became aware of them. They were stopped by a furious Hagrid, who had managed to find the two boys in his house (thanks to Fang), leading them away to the Headmaster and their Head of House and putting them in detentions for the next few weeks. From then on, Hagrid kept a close eye on them during Remus' transformation nights, making sure the boys wouldn't try something like that again.

If they couldn't be there in person, they thought a picture might be better than nothing. Remus would take his camera, which was a gift from his father when he came to Hogwarts, and try to take a picture of himself before he smashed it into bits. There was no question about that part, he was pretty sure he would break it before he turned back human, but they were hoping that the magic strengthening the camera would hold out for a while, and any further damage could be repaired by a simple mending charm.

Remus was almost sure it wouldn't work, but he thought there was no harm in trying. How wrong he was.

He woke up in the morning when Hagrid opened the hatch on the ceiling and called to see if he was okay. Remus called back, saying he was fine and placed his palms on the floor, trying to get up, but he gave a sharp hiss of pain and lifted his left hand, where a small trickle of blood started dripping onto the floor. He saw a jagged piece of black plastic where his hand had been a moment ago and he suddenly remembered what he had tried to do last night. The camera wasn't just broken, it had been absolutely pulverised and the pieces were scattered on the floor. With a tired sigh he tried to gather all the bits, which they later tried to repair with no success.

"This is amazing..." Sirius said flicking through the instruction manual. "It can practically do everything..."

"Like what?" James asked him he was holding the camera now, playing around with some of the switches and buttons.

Sirius looked excited, "It's waterproof, it can take pictures in the dark. It can even take pictures of invisible things! James you said you wanted to know what a Thestral looked like maybe we can take a picture of one… Oh Merlin..."

"What?" Remus asked at Sirius' sudden change in tone.

"Sweet Merlin, thank you..." Sirius mumbled. "It says you can… you can..."

Remus snatched the manual out of Sirius' hand and quickly read the page. "What are you so worked up-. No."

"Yes!" Sirius replied with a grin.

"What is it?" James asked.

"It can take pictures of… what's underneath people's robes..." Sirius said with a smirk.

James choked out a cough and quickly moved towards Remus, reading what his friend was holding. "Really?"

"I seriously doubt that it means that… It must mean you can see if anyone's carrying any concealed weapons or something like that..." Remus said uncertainly.

"I seriously think that it does mean that." his friend replied, taking the camera from James. "I guess we'll just have to try it out… There's that Ravenclaw girl in the seventh year, blonde, blue eyes… Oh and those Hufflepuff twins in the year above…"

"You're being really creepy Sirius." Remus said with a sigh. James just snickered.

"Maybe we can take one of Lily, eh James? I bet you wouldn't mind having a picture of her..." Sirius said mischievously.

James stopped laughing and his face went bright red. "Don't. You. Dare. Sirius Black."

James reached out and tried to take the camera from Sirius' hands but his friend took a step back with a smirk. "Give it here."

"Guys-" Remus said.

"Fine! Not Lily then… Wouldn't want to risk Snape getting into the picture." Sirius laughed. James took another step forwards, hands raised.

"Guys, can you-" Remus tried again.

With a roar, James jumped at Sirius trying to wrestle the camera away from him. They both held on tightly refusing to let go. "James, you just can't take a joke about Lily...!"

"Guys, please. New cam-" Remus looked worried.

"It wasn't funny!" James snapped and with a sharp tug, pulled the camera out of Sirius' grip, but couldn't keep a hold of it himself. It flew backwards and hit the corner of the table before falling to the floor. A single switch snapped off and shot across the room. The three boys just stared at it unable to move.

Sirius broke out of his daze first and moved to pick up the camera while apologising profusely. "Damn, I didn't mean… Sorry Remus."

"We're really sorry..." James said sincerely, moving to pick up the piece that had broken off.

"You know, I expected it to be at least a week before one of us broke something for the first time." Remus sighed dramatically, but with a smile on his lips. "It should be a simple repair, don't worry."

"What do you think broke off?" Sirius asked, checking the rest of the camera for any additional damage.

Remus looked over at the camera then looked down at the manual he was holding. "Next to that button… behind that thing with the squiggly line… I think it's the switch we've just been talking about."

"The naked thing?" James asked.

"I'm sure it's not a 'naked thing', but yes that one." Remus replied.

Sirius held out his hand towards James, "Well, hand it over. I'll fix it."

James stood still. He looked at Sirius and the camera, then at Remus. Then he quickly moved his hand over to his mouth and swallowed something. He let out a hacking cough and spotted a glass of water on the table, grabbed it and drained it all.

"What… what… what did you just do?" Sirius had to ask, despite knowing exactly what his friend had just done.

"Swallowed it." James cleared his throat a few times. "Thanks for the water Remus."

"Why?" Sirius asked with his mouth gaping open.

"We do not have the wisdom to use such powers responsibly." James said with mock seriousness.

Sirius sputtered, "We can't fix it, unless we have the piece!"

"Too bad." James replied nonchalantly.

"Remus! James just ate a piece of your camera! Say something!" Sirius said indignantly.

Remus shook his head. "I suppose it's for the best."

"Sirius, if you really want to fix the camera, you still can, you know?" James said casually, "It's going to have to come out sometimes… As long as you don't mind going through my-"

Remus gave a loud cough trying to suppress a snigger. Sirius just scowled at his friends. Remus opened a drawer on his desk and took out a roll of film, popped open the back of the camera and put it in. He raised it and looked through the lens, focusing on an image of his two friends bickering lightly. At the sound of a slight snap and whirling noise James and Sirius looked up to find their friend with a wide smile.

"Come on, stop arguing and let's go. Sirius, I'll finally prove to you that mermaids are not as pretty as you think they are. How good is your Bubble-Head Charm?" Remus said as he stepped out of his room. James and Sirius grinned and followed him outside.