"I don't want to hear that you're up to no good, James." A tall woman glared at her son who stood beside her.
"I'll make sure that you wouldn't hear of it, mother!" James beamed.
His father sported a slight smile but it disappeared as soon as he felt his mother's reprimanding glare.
He added gruffly.
"Yes, James, behave yourself"
James' clever retort was lost in the hoot of the Hogwarts express as it signaled all the students aboard.
"You must get going", his mother said as she bent down for a quick hug and handed him a box containing enough Knutts and other homemade goodies.
He pulled himself out of the hug and ran up to the door of a nearby cabin. He heaved his trunk onto the train with the help of a boy much of the same age and having black hair just as long as his though much less unruly.
He turned around and waved to his parents until the train jerked and began gaining speed. He finally turned around to see the boy properly and offered his hand.
"James Potter, you?"
"Sirius.." He said but added with a reluctant sigh," Sirius Black"
James took back his offered hand and greeted the boy coldly with a curt nod.
"Hey, it's nothing I'm proud of either!", Sirius scowled as they both made their way along packed cabins carrying their trunks, until midway down the carriage they found a cabin occupied by only two others.
The occupants were too busy in their conversation to notice the two newcomers budging into the cabin. A hunched boy wearing black robes, his face curtained by greasy hair, was practically whispering replies to a cheerful and rather loud, red haired girl. He was the first to notice the two boys and immediately fell silent. His silence made the girl turn around and finally notice the boys sitting across from them.
"And who, may I ask, are you?" She demanded pompously.
"No, you may not." James replied as a grin broke Sirius' face. This boy was amusing.
The girl huffed in response and crossed her arms. After a few minutes of glaring at the boys, she decided to ignore them completely resuming the conversation that she had been partaking with the silent boy.
The boy narrated in a cold voice.
"There's a hat-a Sorting Hat which reads your mind and sorts you into one of the houses-Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin". The girl was intently filling her mind with all the information while the boy seemed to linger on the last word.
James snorted,"And I suppose you want to be in Slytherin? Your appearance is befitting of a Death Eater."
The girl looked curiously at James but sensing that his comment had tensed her friend she placed her hand on the boy's hand and stated haughtily,
"Don't pay attention to them, Severus"
Sirius tried to outdo James.
"Yeah, don't pay attention to us Snivellus!", he said as a grin slowly grew on his handsome face.
The two boys chuckled at the name Sirius had coined. They were too lost in their mirth to notice the way the boy and girl retreated their hands as though electrified. The girl broke the awkward silence between them and spoke over the chuckles of James and Sirius.
"I bet Slytherin is the best of the houses."
This silenced both James and Sirius.
As though oblivious of their presence Severus replied.
"Slytherin is known for the cunning wit that the house boasts about-"
"Other than breeding Death Eaters"
James stood up taunting the boy.
Severus stood up continuing
"- quite unlike Gryffindor or Hufflepuff both of which are for arrogant -" he glared at the two boys "-fools!" He finished with a sly smile playing on his thin lips.
Both boys stood ready to brawl. However, Sirius sat back relaxed, placing his right leg on his other knee, enjoying the scene. Seeing Severus itch to grab his wand from inside his cloak, the girl stood up and caught Severus' arm.
"Let's leave Severus", she said sweetly, almost pleading. His cold stare suddenly melted and he nodded loosely muttering "Locomoter Trunks" and their trunks lightly floated behind them as the glass door banged shut.
"Show-off!", James shouted as the duo left. "I'm sure he just did that to impress the redhead", he shook his head dramatically.
"I'm surprised she's even lurking with that Slytherin wannabe!", he exclaimed.
"Yeah...she didn't even whisper a word when you mentioned Death Eaters...", Sirius observed.
James looked thoughtful and jumped to the conclusion that Severus must be threatening the poor girl. Sirius was more than thankful when James finally let the topic be changed.
"But you are a Black, I've heard about your family, a pack of Slytherins..", James reminisced
"About the same reason I don't like to introduce myself as one. I hate Slytherin and will never be one of those Death Eaters!", Sirius exclaimed with zest.
"Spoken as a true rebel, you'll be in Gryffindor, no doubt about it.", James said with a grin masked onto his face, the two new friends high-fived at the thought.
Sirius went on to describe the way all Black offsprings were tutored politics, Dark magic besides the basics in order to excel at Hogwarts. His father expected nothing less than E in his tests or assignments. James told him how carefree his parents were and recounted all the tricks and pranks that he had pulled off on the neighbours' son, who was a fat muggle with not much brains. Sirius felt like he had befriended the perfect person to get going with his plans to widen his base in the wizarding world (except for the morose pureblood families he had already been introduced to) as well as to irritate his parents.
It was in the middle of James' tenth prank story that a middle aged witch knocked on the glass door; she was carrying refreshments and candies.
Bettie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Licorice Wands, Pumpkin Pasties among loads of other candies shone in her shelves. A plump, short boy had been following the lady and seemed to wish to eat more than he could afford; He was unusually shabbily dressed. James bought a little bit of everything using up most of the Knutts from the box his mother had handed him.
"Come share it with us", James smiled at the boy who stared at him with wide eyes.
"M-Me?", He asked, bewildered.
"Yeah..", He said but seemed to change his mind suddenly," On second thoughts, you don't happen to be a Slytherin , do you?", He asked intimidatingly.
"N-NO! No! I hate Slytherin! Hate it!"
The short boy bellowed convincingly.
"Splendid!", James cracked a charming smile before Sirius opened the door to the cabin and James settled their treasure on the seat. The kind lady walked further along the corridor offering snacks and candies to other Hogwarts students.
"Sirius, this is..", James started.
"Peter..Peter Pett-tt-igrew", the boy squeaked as he gulped down a Chocolate Frog and shook hands with Sirius. "Sirius Black"
"James Potter", James flipped his black hair only to make it more askew as he offered Peter his hand.
The three boys took only a few minutes to finish all the candies. James had used his wand to clear off the litter when an idea struck Sirius like a lightning bolt.
"We've about an hour for the journey-"
"How do you know that?", Peter asked, astounded.
Sirius simply pointed at the sunset out of the window.
"We reach by night...so we can use this hour to the fullest..", He finished with a glint in his eye and a wicked smile. Seeing Peter's confused face, he elaborated further.
"We will not be caught if we use our wands here.", He added meaningfully and something dawned on James' face. James had to agree, he had found the best partner in crime. However, Peter still looked confused.
"We are going to prank some passengers using our wands", he exasperatedly spelled out the plan to Peter.
"But that could be dangerous", Peter squeaked.
"No, it could be fun!", James exclaimed on the same page as Sirius. In a few minutes, James and Sirius had chalked out a plan. Peter was to guard the corridors while Sirius and James let loose a few dungbombs so that they could use Aguamenti to wet some students while the prefects were busy with the dungbombs. As a bonus, James had decided to use his Invisibility cloak which was long enough to cover both the eleven-year-olds completely.
James lifted his cloak enough to allow his hand to be visible to Peter.
"You figure if he chickens out, our whole plan is out in the open for the prefects to see?", Sirius nudged James uncertainly.
"He won't chicken out. Not if he wants to get pranked next.", James said with a wicked grin that reciprocated on Sirius' face complimenting his cheekbones. James signaled a 'Go' to Peter and threw a few dungbombs to his right and Sirius did the same to his side.
Almost immediately, Peter squeaked loudly,"Ugh! What's that smell?"
"Dungbombs?!", His voice was mirrored by another first year. James and Sirius ran along the corridor pushing and heaving through the gathering crowd in the corridor, taking care not to jump into the way of all the Prefects who had rushed out from their respective Cabins. They made a beeline towards some of the cabins which seemed to be occupied by Slytherins.
"Aguamenti!", James and Sirius cried out in unison as spurts of water issued onto a bunch of Slytherins huddled in a cabin.
"Avery, Mulciber?! Who did this to you?!", An infuriated Slytherin Prefect with long blonde hair came to the rescue of the two first years.
The two wet and drabbled first years shook their heads miserably.
"Don't know..came out of nowhere", one of them managed to speak.
Sirius and James, who were a few cabins away, immediately stopped watering the Slytherins and pushed in their wands walking past the fuming Prefect. Upon nearing the crowd, they easily removed the Invisibility Cloak and merged into the crowd of students that surrounded the Prefects. A Gryffindor Prefect questioned Peter.
"You were the first one to smell the dungbombs, weren't you? Did you happen to see who did it?", He asked strictly as though in a court hearing.
Peter whimpered and looked around at the students and James quickly caught his eye. He glared at him and shook his head very slightly.
"N-No", Peter stuttered. James grinned victoriously.
"Maybe it was a diversion..", A boy mused aloud, he had brown hair and browner eyes. He wore patched and frayed clothes. He was startled when all eyes turned to him; his eyes turned glassy and he tried to hide himself behind some tall second years.
James knitted his eyebrows curiously at the boy but was nudged in the ribs by Sirius, who was looking behind them.
"Move, Get Aside!", An infuriated voice made its way to the center. James recognized him as the Slytherin Prefect who had almost caught them.
"Weasley.", He nodded curtly.
"Malfoy.", The Gryffindor Prefect returned a cold stare and curt nod.
"The dungbombs were a diversion. Mulciber, Tell him what happened. "
The blonde Prefect pushed ahead one of the two first years whom the pranksters had attacked.
"T-Two voices...Aguamenti..water..out of nowhere...", the drabbled boy stuttered.
"Alright. Everyone please return to your cabins. We'll be reaching in about fifteen minutes. Mulciber, come to the Prefects' cabin.", The red-headed Gryffindor Prefect sent orders to everyone. The crowd started dispersing with many students whispering excitedly; everyone offering theories to support the identity of the culprit. Sirius started walking towards their cabin but was pulled by James in the opposite direction.
"What?! Whatz wrong-Ah!", Sirius protested to no avail.
"I've got to do something before we change into our robes.", James said with a mad glint in his eye before turning around and running through the crowd.
Sirius sighed and followed him down the corridor.