When They Were Young
Sirius Black was a five year old rebel. He spent his days creating new weapons out of things he found in the back garden or throwing things at his older brother, Regulus.
His mother and father always told him off, despite knowing he wouldn't listen and they were sure he would one day get into more trouble than he could handle.
That particular summer afternoon was no exception to Sirius' rebellious behaviour. He had found a ball of string in the kitchen cupboard and thought it would be rather fun to trap everyone in the house. He tied the end of the piece of string to the front door handle, then ran around the house several times with the ball of string before tying it to the back door handle.
He looked admirably at his work as Regulus tried to open the back door, only to find that it was jammed.
"Sirius Black let me out of here this instant!" he shouted, despite only being eight years old he had considerable authority over Sirius.
"Nope," Sirius replied, laughing at the angry look on his brother's face.
"I'll tell dad and he'll hit you again!" Regulus shouted, glaring at the laughing five-year-old on the grass outside.
"So?" Sirius said, still laughing at his brother.
"You cried for hours last time he hit you! Do you want that again?" Regulus asked, still glaring at Sirius.
"How's he gonna hit me if I'm out here and he's in there?" Sirius asked, laughing hysterically at the even more annoyed look on his brother's face.
Suddenly Sirius' father was at the door looking extremely angry at Sirius. "Open the door now you stupid child," he snarled, trying to force the door to open.
Sirius looked scared but shook his head, thinking that if he didn't open the door his dad wouldn't be able to hit him. This however only made everything worse and his dad forced the door open in fury and hit Sirius harder than he ever had before. Sirius just lay on the grass outside the house crying for hours.
As soon as he had managed to recover enough to move without being in agony he went into the shed, picked up his bag of food he had put there the day before and ran down the garden path, out of the gate and into town where he met another boy who was alone.
"Hey," Sirius said, looking at the boy and wondering if they could be friends.
"Hey," they boy replied, looking up at the slightly taller boy, "I'm James. What's your name?"
"Sirius," he replied, "Nice to meet you James."
"Nice to meet you too," James replied, smiling at his new friend.
"Where are your parents then?" Sirius asked, looking around for them.
"I dunno. They don't care about me anyway!" James replied, looking down.
"My parents don't care 'bout me either," Sirius said, showing James the massive bruise he had on his leg where his father had kicked him.
"That looks painful," James said, looking at the bruise.
Sirius nodded, "So did you run away then or did they lose you?"
"They lost me. They forgot to tell me they were goin' somewhere and left me here," James said, sighing, "They're stupid sometimes."
"They don't sound too clever," Sirius said, laughing.
"So what did you do with your parents then?" James asked.
"Ran away from 'em," Sirius replied, "I mean if they're gonna beat me up I'm gonna leave. I told 'em I would and they didn't believe me. Their problem now, ain't it?"
James laughed at the way Sirius left letters out of everything and changed words to suit him.
"What you laughin' at?" Sirius asked, looking amused.
"Nothin'," James replied, deciding he'd do the same thing.
A couple of adults came out of a shop then and spotted James talking to a strange, scruffy looking boy. "James! There you are! Where did you go?" the woman asked him.
"I didn't go anywhere! You forgot me!" James protested as his mum picked him up.
"Who's this?" she asked, giving Sirius a funny look.
"Sirius Black, Miss," Sirius said, looking up at her and giving her a goofy smile.
"Where are your parents?" she asked looking concerned.
"I don't know and I don't care," Sirius replied.
"Come on, we'll have to find them," she said.
"I don't want to though," Sirius replied, looking annoyed.
"Why not? They're your parents!" she asked sounding rather surprised.
Sirius showed her the bruise on his leg and she looked quite surprised that his parents had really done this. He then showed her the newly forming bruise where his dad had hit him earlier and she felt sorry for the boy.
"They're still your parents though, Sirius," she said, taking his hand and leading him back in the direction he had come from. He felt sad, having not wanted to go home. They met his parents half way down the road and Sirius received another beating for running away.
He didn't care about the beating. He cared about his new friend James though. He hoped he would see him again one day.