Prologue

SIRIUS' POV

Sirius' first day at Hogwarts. Sorting is over, and everyone is in their respective common rooms/dorms. Sirius is unpacking his things, but keeping a wary eye on his new room mates. After a while, the tallest of the three walks over to him.

"Hi, mate," He said, running his hand through his already-tussled hair. My eyes flickered quickly between his face and his hands, and he backed up a bit, giving me some space. I inwardly relaxed, but tried to make sure that he didn't notice it. One of the boys in the corner did, I could tell, but I ignored him, and focused on the boy in front of me instead.

"Hello," I responded evenly. He grinned at me.

"So, what's your name?" He asked quickly. I smiled grimly.

"Sirius Black. What's yours?" I smirked when he looked at me sharply, but tried to make sure it wasn't too obvious.

"James Potter. These two-" He gestured to the other boys in the room, who were still standing where he left them. "-are Peter Pettigrew-" The boy on the left waved slightly at me, so I nodded. "-and Remus Lupin." The other boy nodded at me and smiled slightly, and I felt myself begin to blush. Out of all of the boys, he was obviously the sharpest. I definitely needed to keep an eye on him.

While I had been eyeing Remus Lupin, James had continued speaking. "Y'know, I think we're going to be awesome friends. But to become awesome friends, we need to know each other a bit better. Who's up for a game of "truth or dare"?" I glanced up at him and grinned.

"I'm down. What about you guys?" I aimed the last bit towards Remus and Peter, who still hadn't moved. They looked at each other, but both nodded. James and I grinned at each other, and promptly sat down on the floor. The others joined us, forming a circle. "So, who wants to start?"

Two hours later, we all knew almost everything about each other. For example, James was an only child, his parents were old, he loved Quidditch, and he was aiming to become a professional Quidditch player when he was older. Remus was also an only child, his father had died many years ago (we didn't know how, but none of us were stupid enough to keep pressing), he had all of the books that were needed for the year ahead (and some that we didn't) already, and he wasn't sure what he wanted to be when he was older. Peter was an only child as well (when we'd found this out, I burst out laughing. They all looked at me strangely, so I said "Am I the only one who has a sibling here?" to which they all nodded, laughing along with me.), his mum was a nurse, his dad was a gambler and barely ever home, and he wasn't sure what he wanted to be either.

I had made sure that I hadn't told them anything I didn't want to know about me, so, in the end, I had told them that I had a younger sister called Lily, who would rip your dick off if you looked at her funny, my dad wasn't around anymore, and my mum stayed in her office all day, working on some piece of work or another. I also told them that I wasn't sure what I wanted to be, but I was currently thinking either Auror or professional Quidditch player, like James. James and I had shared a grin when I told them this, and I knew that we were going to be best friends.

"Hey, do any of you know pranks?" James asked suddenly. My ears perked up at the word "pranks," and I looked at him. He grinned. "I'll take that as a yes. So, I was thinking, as we're roomies and we're going to be living together for the best part of seven years, why don't we become pranking buddies, too?" I grinned back.

"Hell yeah! This is going to be amazing!" I leant over to James. "Have you got any ideas?"

Finally, the last day of the school year swung around. "So, Sirius, when do we get to finally meet your 'baby sister'?" James asked me teasingly. I grinned and swatted at him.

"Eventually, I'm sure. I wouldn't recommend calling her that in front of her, though. She'll probably slap you," I laughed at the look on his face. "Don't pretend to be so scandalised; surely I've told you enough about her that you'd be able to work that out by now." It was true - through the year, we had been learning more and more about each other, and one of the things that the boys never got tired of hearing about was my baby sister. I would constantly regale them with tales of things that we'd gotten up to at home, and, when I received letters from her, we would all sit around the common room fire, and read them together.

The other side of that was true, as well. We wrote back and forth very often, and while she told me storied of what was going on in "the outside world", I'd tell her stories of the four of us, the Marauders, and the latest prank that we'd pulled, or what the teachers were like, or what Snivellus had done that week. Slowly, the other boys began to write to her as well - it started with James stealing my parchment and adding bits on to the end, then progressed to Remus sending full letters to her, when she expressed an interest in being able to talk to them without it having to go through me first.

Reading that had made me laugh, and of course that then meant I had to explain to my room mates about how she'd found out that I was censoring messages that she was receiving when we were younger, and how she'd blown up at me when she caught me out. That story kept them entertained for weeks, and they teased her about it when they wrote letters back to her. She sent letters back berating me for telling them, and berating them for laughing about it, as it had been a "very serious matter" and I "should be ashamed" of myself, both for doing it and for telling them.

I smiled to myself. Soon, we would be back at King's Cross Station, and I would be able to see her again. I couldn't wait.