Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Young and Dumb
Chapter One: The Beginning
The day that Sirius had been waiting for, had finally arrived, September first. He could finally leave the hell of his parents' house and return to Hogwarts for his fourth year with the Maurauders. The moment they reached King's Cross Station, Sirius raced off with his luggage, leaving his parents and younger brother in the dust. He ran recklessly, weaving his luggage trolley between the people milling about the station, and did not stop until he had run head long into the wall separating nine and ten, and found himself on Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
He looked excitedly through the crowd, hoping to see one of his friends. He pushed the cart while searching, so as to avoid his family, and hopefully, not see them until summer. He saw Adelina Benson, Marcus Stebbins, Blake Chang, Erwin Hamilton, Stella Brown, Avery Prewitt, Cassiopia Finley... but not James. Astrid Greengrass accidentally hit him with her luggage and did not apologize. Gareth MacDougal, Oswin Padmore and Hazel Longstaff were running through the crowd tossing a quaffle back and forth. Godric Fei, the new head boy, and his sister Mona were assuring their mother that they would keep their younger siblings out of trouble. Emmaline Vance ran past him, giving him a friendly smack on the head and a wave as she chased a glittering orb with a couple of friends he did not recognize. He ran over Madhari Shafiq's toes and apologized, before continuing on his way. Finally he spotted, not one of his friends, but Lily Evans, which meant that James would be along shortly if he just kept following her. Lily and Snivellus, did not appreciate it.
When James did appear, he wasted little time in trying to impress Lily while also making fun of her friend. When it became apparent that it was not working -especially after Lily had found a compartment on the train and jammed it shut so that they could not follow- they gave up their pursuit and found their own compartment. Once their luggage was put away, Sirius left to go find Peter (and also to set a dung bomb off in his brother's compartment), Remus would not be taking the Hogwarts Express this year, due to the full moon being that night; it was truly a shame, they would have to wait two days to see him.
After the planting the dung bomb in his brother's compartment, Sirius continued on his journey to find his friend. He had not made it far down the corridor, however, when a kitten ran between his legs and Brian Fei dived after it, causing Sirius to lose his balance and fall towards Mona. The red headed girl let out a small shriek, as she also lost her balance and fell backwards. Sirius supported himself on his elbows and looked at the girl beneath him, who's face now matched her hair.
"Hello Mona!" He grinned at her, trying to decide if he should make the situation less awkward or mess with her and suffer the consequences.
"SIRIUS! GET OFF MY SISTER!"
The next second, he felt himself being pulled off of Mona by three sets of hands and tossed into the window. He looked up and saw the Fei brothers, Peader was helping his older sister up, while Godric and Brian glared at Sirius and other students began to form a crowd and watch. It seemed that he would be paying the consequences, even though he had not done anything.
"How many times have I told you to leave my sister alone!" Godric interrogated angrily.
"In all fairness," Sirius defended, "your brother, here, was the one who tripped me and she was just there -Not that I'm complaining, if I had to fall on any girl, your sister is definitely towards the top of the list."
"Sirius." Godric growled.
"He's telling the truth this time, Godric." Mona said, still glaring at Sirius with annoyance. "If it's anybody's fault, it's Peader's for letting that cat out of it's basket."
"Fine." Godric agreed. "But you're still to stay away from my sisters this year, just like always."
"Sisters?" Sirius asked. "Does that mean that the next one is starting already?"
"Calm down Godric," Brian said, "I'm sure that even Sirius wouldn't hit on an eleven year old."
"I suppose you're right about that, I can wait a year, if she's anything like Mona."
Godric and Brian both reached for their wands.
"STOP!" Mona ordered, her bothers. "Brian, you find that bloody cat, Godric, you grab Sorcha and I'll take Peader to Mam and tell her what he did so that she can give him a decent scolding before the train leaves!"
"Fine." The two boys, facing Sirius, agreed, before stomping off in opposite directions.
Mona grabbed her, twelve year old, brother by the ear and pulled him down the corridor towards the exit. James pushed through the dispersing crowd and Sirius saw a wheezing Peter behind him.
"I heard Peter running past our compartment and squeaking about you being in trouble. I thought you were gonna hold off on messing with Mona until tomorrow." James laughed. "Man, the Fei's are gonna be out for your blood all year, now!"
Sirius sighed as he flung his arm over James's shoulder and walking towards Peter.
"And I suppose that I only made it worse, with that comment I made about their little sister." He said, wistfully. "If only Moony had been here to stop me."
Back in their compartment, Sirius looked out the window and saw the Fei siblings saying goodbye to their parents. Judging by the way Peader was rubbing the back of his head, their mother had already finished her scolding. Mr. and Mrs. Fei were now both bent over the small girl, in between Godric and Mona, and talking to her. All Sirius could see of the girl was her curly, black hair, and long skirt. The parents hugged their children goodbye, and gave their younger daughter one more hug, before Godric picked her up and led his siblings back to the Hogwart's Express. Once again, all Sirius could see of the girl was her hair.
The rest of the train ride was fairly uneventful, they mostly just caught up and made plans for their new school year and continuing their plans to become Animorohmagi. The high point was the dung bomb going off in Regulus's carriage. It caused quite a commotion and Regulus came, fuming, to confront Sirius (who did nothing, but laugh). When they finally caught sight if Hogwarts, they changed their robes and got their luggage ready to go.
The three boys made sure to greet Hagrid, before boarding the thestral drawn carriage. James invited Lily into their carriage, and told her that she could even bring Severus. However, he had slipped up and accidentally said 'Snivellus' instead of 'Severus', resulting in Lily trudging all the way down the line until she found one with enough room for the two of them.
In the end, they were joined by Blake Chang (the new Hufflepuff Prefect) his younger sister, Lian and her mousy friend, Anwen Deering. Blake was a decent guy who could take a joke, so Sirius did not mind his presence greatly. Although, the fact that he was now a prefect, meant that they would have to be cautious with their conversation topics. Luckily, Blake solved that problem for them when Lian tried sit next to Sirius.
"Careful Lian, I heard that he still hits on twelve year olds, I'd have my wand ready if I were you!" Blake warned jokingly.
"While that is true, what I really said is that I would be hitting on one specific twelve year old, when I'm fifteen. It's completely different." He looked at Lian who was hesitating to sit down. "Although you are very beautiful as well, you'll probably be giving Mona and Tansy a run for their Galleons in a few years."
Lian suddenly looked at her brother in alarm. The seating arrangements were quickly changed so that three Maurauders, who were present, sat on one side, while the Changs and Anwen sat on the other side, with Lian as far away from Sirius as possible.
"He was only joking, Lian." Blake tried to reassure his little sister as the carriage moved up the path.
"That's not what Aiken says. He told me to be careful around Sirius Black."
"Yes, because he plays pranks on people, just like he's doing now."
"Where is Aiken, anyways?" James asked, trying to change the subject.
"He ran off with his girlfriend the moment we said goodbye to our parents." Blake answered.
"Is he still dating Fawn Davis? I thought they broke up."
"They did. He said that she was being unreasonable -because she was- so she jinxed him. And that was the end of their relationship."
"Good riddance to her." Sirius said. "I tell you, that girl is nuts."
"But she's still in our house isn't she?" Peter asked.
"True, but now every time she's being a bother, we just ask her how she's dealing with the break-up." Sirius replied.
"And especially when we remind her that Aiken is dating someone else now -who is he dating anyways?" James asked Blake.
"Alvina Ness. They started dating over summer break."
"WHAT?!" The Maurauders all exclaimed.
"Those two hate each other!" Sirius exclaimed.
"And they share a room!" James reminded them.
"Didn't they destroy the common room once?" Peter wimpered.
"Only a little." Sirius waved it off.
"Wait -what?" Blake asked.
"Fawn threw Alvina's books and robes in the fire, so Alvina plastered her pages of her diary around the common room -apparently your brother is quite the snogger- and it turned into an all out brawl." James laughed as he told the story.
"And they didn't get expelled?" Lian asked, incredulously.
"Nah. The rest of us cleaned it up well enough, that by the time McGonagall showed up, she only gave them a month of detention with Filch." Sirius said.
"And took about a hundred points from Gryffindor." James added.
"Yeah, that part was a bummer -but seriously, Blake, is your brother trying to get somebody killed?!" Sirius asked.
"I don't think he was aware that it was that bad."
"Well I'll be surprised if there's a not a dead body by the end of the year." James stated. "Because Fawn is just bloody mad and Alvina is a cousin of the Feis, so not only does she fight back, she's got about twenty cousins in the school who will back her up."
"I don't think there's twenty of them." Blake said, trying to be reasonable.
"Well, another one of Godric's siblings is starting this year, so that's five of them." Sirius stared counting.
"And their dad's brother has three kids in." James added.
"That's eight, still not twenty." Blake said.
"We're not done yet." James said. "Isn't Simon their cousin as well?"
"Yeah, his dad is another brother. So that's nine." Sirius said.
"And one of the sisters married a wizard from India; So Alan, Blair and Sinjin are also her cousins. Which makes eleven." James added.
"You forgot Nalini." Blake reminded regretfully.
"Twelve." Sirius said.
"Then there's her father's side." James continued. "Delphina and Althea Weaver, and then Frang, Senga and Daniel Ness."
"Seventeen!" Sirius exclaimed, loudly, with a clap, causing the occupants of the carriage in front of them to look around.
"I suppose that is about twenty." Blake admitted.
"I'm pretty sure there's more." James said, now quite stumped. "Sirius, do you know?"
"Honestly, I keep better track of Mona's family than Alvina's." Sirius said. "I think that she has a few cousins in Slytherin, though."
"Estrella Malfoy." Peter squeaked.
"Estrella? That really sickly girl?" James asked. "...Aren't she and her brother, cousins of yours, Sirius?"
"...I prefer to forget that." Sirius shrugged.
"Why?" Blake asked.
"You know that their parents are cousins, right?"
"Seriously?" Lian asked.
"Yeah, Malina Malfoy is Amos Ness's sister. She filled his daughter, Ariel's, head with all this blood purity dung, and got her to marry her son Abraxas because there weren't enough, available, pure-blood women, who cared about that, at the time."
"Ew." Anwen said quietly.
"Yeah, 'Ew'." Sirius agreed. "That's why all this Pure-Blood stuff is stupid."
The occupants of the carriage were all silent after for the next few minutes. Nobody was really sure what to say after that, but eventually, as the carriage passed through the gates, James ended the uncomfortable silence.
"But, seriously, Blake, somebody needs to warn your brother; Otherwise, there will be a dead body."
They all broke out into laughter after that. They pulled their luggage along with them into the castle, dropped it off and talked a little more until they had to split up. Blake, Lian and Anwen headed for the Huffelpuff table, while Sirius, James and Peter, headed to the Gryffindor table. Sirius, noticed that Godric, Mona and Peader were already sitting down and moved to get a seat across from them, but James stopped him. They liked the Feis, well enough, and James figured that they should give them a break. He also pointed out a perfect spot near, next to Lily and across from Fawn.
Fawn Davis, had her sleek, brown, hair pulled back in a headband and was craning her neck around, with her eyes peeled wide. She was obviously keeping looking for her ex-boyfriend. The three boys sat down across from her, and promptly began to test their theory.
"Hello Fawn." Sirius greeted in the friendliest manner he could muster.
"Hi." She said, briefly without looking at him.
"Who are you looking for?" James asked.
"Aiken, obviously." She snapped, still not looking at them.
"Oh, yes, we're so sorry to hear about your break-up." Sirius said, sounding very sincere.
That got her attention. She snapped her neck forward, and looked at them, rather alarmed.
"Break-up?" Her eyes somehow managed to grow. "What are you talking about? We didn't break-up? We're just going through a rough patch! It was a misunderstanding! He didn't actually mean it!"
"Really? Cause you did jinx him." James said.
Lily looked up, now listening to their conversation.
"So?" Fawn replied as if it were no big deal.
"So you jinxed the guy..." Sirius said slowly. "And then he broke up with you... Why wouldn't he mean it?"
"Well... Be -Because he loves me!" She declared.
Lily was now staring at Fawn in disbelief. James and Sirius were simply gleeful at the new weapon they had discovered, and were preparing to deliver the final blow.
"If he loves you so much, why does he have a new girlfriend?" Sirius asked.
"WHAT?!" Fawn shrieked, slapping her hands on the table. Her face was now red. "You're lying! You're just jealous of our love and trying to destroy it! That's the sort of thing you lot do for fun!" She accused, pointing a finger at them.
"Fawn," Lily spoke up, gently, "I think they might actually be telling the truth this time."
"AND WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW LILY?!" Fawn yelled. "YOU'RE ONLY FOURTEEN! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT LOVE! AND YOU PROBABLY NEVER WILL! NOBODY WANTS A BOOKWORM LIKE YOU!"
"And yet half the boys in this school are drooling over her." James defended.
At this, Lily rolled her eyes and moved to a different seat.
"You're lying!" Fawn seethed. "And I'll prove it when my Aiky gets here."
"And thus we've discovered the real reason he dumped you." Sirius said.
Fawn growled and resumed her scanning of the great hall. It was not long before Aiken Chang walked into the great hall, holding hands with Alvina Ness. Fawn's face contorted with rage and she clenched her fists.
Aiken and Alvina noticed Fawn glaring at them and walked to the Ravenclaw table. They stopped next to Brian Fei, and talked to each other, with their hands held, until it was time for everyone to be seated. Aiken sat next to Brian, and Alvina walked to Gryffindor table and took a seat next to her cousin, Godric. Fawn glared at her the whole way, while the Maurauders snickered.
A second later, the doors opened and Professor McGonagall was leading the new students down the center of the hall. The first years stared around the hall, in utter amazement and excitement, while the older students watched them with happiness and nostalgia. Older students waved to their younger siblings and cousins, who were among the first years.
Other students, began to comment on how cute some of the first years were. There was one in particular, that several students kept pointing out. Sirius recognized the black curls, as belonging to Godric's little sister, but he still couldn't get a good look at her face. He knew that the Feis were a rather good looking brood, but he did not know what could possibly be so special about this girl, that she was receiving so much attention.
It was not until the Deputy Headmistress called out "FEI, SORCHA", that he finally understood. The dainty girl ascended the steps, gracefully, which made her begin to stand out more to Sirius. When she turned around to face the other students, Sirius was dumbfounded. This girl was more beautiful than should be possible for an eleven year old (she looked like a fairy!). What truly set her apart, however, was not her beauty, but the fact that she clearly knew it. Sirius did not what it was, but something made him certain that she knew how to use her looks to her advantage, and she intended to do so.
The girl sat down on the stool with little effort, and the hat was placed on her head. It covered most of her face, but with the way she sat, it did not do much to take away from her fairy-like appearance. As the Sorting Hat deliberated over where to send the newest Fei, Sirius was internally chanting Slytherin. Where else could such a girl go? The girl started swinging her legs back and forth. Sirius could not help but feel that this should be an easy decision, and wonder what the hat was doing. Finally the Sorting Hat yelled out his decision.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Most of the Gryffindor table burst out in applause, with the Gryffindor Feis being the loudest. The hat was removed from Sorcha's head and she turned to face the table. She caught Sirius's eye and grinned, before descending the steps and walking to her sister's side. Sirius had a bad feeling about this girl.
This story is a better written prequel to a not-as-well written story that I'm still writing, Gift of Black. I'm writing this to make more sense of the past events, and understand Sirius and Sorcha's relationship, both for myself and the readers of Gift of Black.
I'm sure that there are several characters that you will recognize from the books and Gift of Black. Many of the characters are never actually in the books but are related to some of the characters, it will probably be easy to figure out the relations.
Thank you for reading, reviews would be appreciated, even critiques.