Author's notes: one, they're not mine, whether or not they live in my
house. Two, anything you don't recognize, is. Three, there's slash,
insanity, hate crimes, and lots of other fun stuff. Four, Sirius is MY love
puppy!
Prologue – The Life
The train station was crowded and loud; Sirius' cat meowed loudly from her box as he pushed his trunk through the throng. The fifteen year old boy wove his way neatly through the Muggles, ducking the occasional swinging bag or avoiding the sobbing lost child, heading for the platform he knew wouldn't be there when he looked.
He finally came to it, the barrier between platforms ten and nine – the gateway to Platform 9 3/4, the Hogwarts Express, and the next year of his life as a wizard-in-training.
He took the barrier at a wild run, hair whipping behind him, grin etched on his face and his eyes a bit wild with the rush. ~Fifteen or not, I've got to let the inner child out every now and then… or else it throws a tantrum in my head and gives me headache. Headache bad,~ he thought to himself.
He came out on the other side in the midst of another crowd, but these voices were different somehow. They were familiar, known, welcomed, something his mind recognized. He had missed very much the altogether experience of Hogwarts over the summer. Sure, Snape was an ass, and Potions class was a bitch, and they had a lot of homework (not to mention the burden of teaching themselves the Animagus transformation – which Sirius had actually finished over the summer and practiced, the first of them to finish. James had said in a recent owl that he was almost done. Peter didn't dare even try without their help over the summer, so he still had a while to go…) but Hogwarts was the best thing that ever happened to him. Hogwarts, and James, his best friend of… how many years? Thousands, they'd convinced themselves as children, 'soul brothers' who were destined to be best friends for eternity. They'd done the blood-bond at age eight with each other, and renewed it on the same day every year – the day equidistant from their birthdays – February 16th and planned to for the rest of their lives.
Speak o' Prongs, there he was standing laughing with Lily and Peter by the train. Jamie turned to look at Sirius and their eyes met and they howled their typical greeting.
"DUDE!"
They ran to hug each other, leaving Lily and Peter and several other of their friends and fellow Gryffindors laughing all the harder at their display. The entirety of Hogwarts knew, like the sun rose in the east, that James and Lily were disgustingly, sickeningly sweetly, hopelessly in looooooove, that Sirius was just plain crazy (and rumoured to be 'bi') – and that neither one of them gave a flying ferret as to what anyone thought of them. They were laughing and slapping each other five, despite the fact that they'd seen each other three weeks past. Then again, they weren't the Psycho Twins (as Sirius' father had called them at the age of four, and it stuck until their group grew) for nothing.
Lily tossed a glance at the two and grinned. "Damn Jamie's beautiful."
Peter rolled his beady eyes. "Lovebird."
"You bet your tail." Lily tossed her looooong flame-red hair over her shoulder to fall to her knees. (She claimed she's never cut it. They believed her.) "Come on boys, get over here!"
Sirius and James walked over to Sirius' trunk, still laughing and talking rapidly, something about blowing up a chocolate factory to use the explosion to propel the semi 'cause there was too much chocolate for the engine to move the weight of it, as they wheeled the trunk and Sirius' cat over to the others. The three boys chatted for a moment – they always made it a point to get there quite early just to hang out with each other, and had decided to never get on the train unless all four of them were there. Remy-kun, as Sirius had dubbed Remus after a run in with waaaaay too much Japanese animation (aka anime), was not here yet, so they stood outside to wait. Lily tossed in the occasional comment until her best friend arrived, and the two huggled and giggled as enthusiastically as James and Sirius had. They too fell to chatting, not having anywhere better to go.
Finally (perhaps five minutes later) Remus walked up with a soft smile and a quiet hello. Everyone heard him, though, because they knew his voice and it had a way of slipping insidiously into the mind and catching one's attention. Sirius turned to greet his friend with a hug and a strangely not- manic grin. Remus returned the smile and greeted James, Peter, and Lily in his lilting tenor.
"Shell we then?" James waved at the train. They hefted their trunks and pets and climbed onto the train, finding an empty compartment rather easily to stow their things away in, as it was relatively early still. They claimed seats – James and Lily sat on one bench, staring at each other, across from Sirius and Remus. Peter was squished in between James and the window as the five made bad jokes and caught up.
Several interruptions and "Hey, how was your summers?" to those who walked in later, the train lurched to a start. They were off, on their way to Hogwarts, to begin another year of magic, pranks, sneaking, and a whole shitload of fun.
Prologue – The Life
The train station was crowded and loud; Sirius' cat meowed loudly from her box as he pushed his trunk through the throng. The fifteen year old boy wove his way neatly through the Muggles, ducking the occasional swinging bag or avoiding the sobbing lost child, heading for the platform he knew wouldn't be there when he looked.
He finally came to it, the barrier between platforms ten and nine – the gateway to Platform 9 3/4, the Hogwarts Express, and the next year of his life as a wizard-in-training.
He took the barrier at a wild run, hair whipping behind him, grin etched on his face and his eyes a bit wild with the rush. ~Fifteen or not, I've got to let the inner child out every now and then… or else it throws a tantrum in my head and gives me headache. Headache bad,~ he thought to himself.
He came out on the other side in the midst of another crowd, but these voices were different somehow. They were familiar, known, welcomed, something his mind recognized. He had missed very much the altogether experience of Hogwarts over the summer. Sure, Snape was an ass, and Potions class was a bitch, and they had a lot of homework (not to mention the burden of teaching themselves the Animagus transformation – which Sirius had actually finished over the summer and practiced, the first of them to finish. James had said in a recent owl that he was almost done. Peter didn't dare even try without their help over the summer, so he still had a while to go…) but Hogwarts was the best thing that ever happened to him. Hogwarts, and James, his best friend of… how many years? Thousands, they'd convinced themselves as children, 'soul brothers' who were destined to be best friends for eternity. They'd done the blood-bond at age eight with each other, and renewed it on the same day every year – the day equidistant from their birthdays – February 16th and planned to for the rest of their lives.
Speak o' Prongs, there he was standing laughing with Lily and Peter by the train. Jamie turned to look at Sirius and their eyes met and they howled their typical greeting.
"DUDE!"
They ran to hug each other, leaving Lily and Peter and several other of their friends and fellow Gryffindors laughing all the harder at their display. The entirety of Hogwarts knew, like the sun rose in the east, that James and Lily were disgustingly, sickeningly sweetly, hopelessly in looooooove, that Sirius was just plain crazy (and rumoured to be 'bi') – and that neither one of them gave a flying ferret as to what anyone thought of them. They were laughing and slapping each other five, despite the fact that they'd seen each other three weeks past. Then again, they weren't the Psycho Twins (as Sirius' father had called them at the age of four, and it stuck until their group grew) for nothing.
Lily tossed a glance at the two and grinned. "Damn Jamie's beautiful."
Peter rolled his beady eyes. "Lovebird."
"You bet your tail." Lily tossed her looooong flame-red hair over her shoulder to fall to her knees. (She claimed she's never cut it. They believed her.) "Come on boys, get over here!"
Sirius and James walked over to Sirius' trunk, still laughing and talking rapidly, something about blowing up a chocolate factory to use the explosion to propel the semi 'cause there was too much chocolate for the engine to move the weight of it, as they wheeled the trunk and Sirius' cat over to the others. The three boys chatted for a moment – they always made it a point to get there quite early just to hang out with each other, and had decided to never get on the train unless all four of them were there. Remy-kun, as Sirius had dubbed Remus after a run in with waaaaay too much Japanese animation (aka anime), was not here yet, so they stood outside to wait. Lily tossed in the occasional comment until her best friend arrived, and the two huggled and giggled as enthusiastically as James and Sirius had. They too fell to chatting, not having anywhere better to go.
Finally (perhaps five minutes later) Remus walked up with a soft smile and a quiet hello. Everyone heard him, though, because they knew his voice and it had a way of slipping insidiously into the mind and catching one's attention. Sirius turned to greet his friend with a hug and a strangely not- manic grin. Remus returned the smile and greeted James, Peter, and Lily in his lilting tenor.
"Shell we then?" James waved at the train. They hefted their trunks and pets and climbed onto the train, finding an empty compartment rather easily to stow their things away in, as it was relatively early still. They claimed seats – James and Lily sat on one bench, staring at each other, across from Sirius and Remus. Peter was squished in between James and the window as the five made bad jokes and caught up.
Several interruptions and "Hey, how was your summers?" to those who walked in later, the train lurched to a start. They were off, on their way to Hogwarts, to begin another year of magic, pranks, sneaking, and a whole shitload of fun.