It was a dark stormy night. Rain beat down in hard icy slivers, and wind howled around corners. The perfect night to be inside, drinking warm butter beer to the light of charmed everlasting candles.

Fourteen-year-old Sirius Orion Black trudged down the street, shivering in the rain. His long, straight black hair, which he'd spent so long growing to just below his shoulders, was sopping wet, and large droplets of frigid water dripped from the ends down his robes and T-shirt, and then ran in rivulets down his jeans to collect into pools of cold water in his battered muggle high-tops that his mum hated. Normally, the fact that he was wearing something his mum didn't like would have made him happy, but at the moment, Sirius was far too cold, tired, hungry, ill-feeling, and lost to enjoy the feeling of flouting his mother's strict anti-muggle-things rule.

Stupid mum. Stupid effing mum and dad and Regulus, his stupid effing suck up of a brother. Stupid Belli and Cissy, who laughed in his face when his stupid family kicked him out on his arse in the pouring rain. Stupid rain. Stupid London. Stupid wet hair. Stupid-

"Sirius? Mate, is that you? Are you OK?"

Sirius whirled around, his wet hair flying and shaking out the droplets of water much like a large dog.

"James?" Sirius dropped his heavy trunk and embraced his best friend.

"So it is you, Padfoot. Why're you out here in the rain? I thought you hated getting wet!"

"Yeah, well, I don't have much of a choice about being out," grumbled Sirius, " my parents kicked me out. All I have is my trunk with my school stuff."

"Really? Well, come back with me and my family then-"

"Sirius? Is that you dear? You look frozen! Come with us, honey, your about to catch your death of cold, or flu!"

Rebecca Potter, James's mother, had just rounded the corner, clutching several large bags of what looked like books. Her long, wavy dirty blonde hair was held back in a messy braid and seemed very wet and her dark purple glasses where sliding down her nose. As always, she managed to tightly hug Sirius. Sirius felt a sharp pang of jealousy around Ms. Potter- she was everything that he wished his mum was- kind, generous, loving. But he brushed it aside. Ms. Potter was like a second mum to him, never mind that she didn't give birth to him.

"Mum, Sirius's family is really awful and they've kicked him out of the house so can he come stay with us when we don't have school?" James grinned at Sirius.

"Well, I suppose so…. You're a Black, are you?" peered curiously at a soaking wet Sirius, who nodded. "Yes, well, I can see why you wouldn't belong with them. Your aunty Druella and I suppose it would be your mum, Wallburga, where a couple years behind me at school, and…" Ms. Potter made a face. She stuck her wand into the street, and a second later, the bright purple knight-bus bumped into view.

"Come along, boys, " said Ms. Potter, stepping into the warm, dry bus. Sirius did not need to be told twice, and practically jumped into the vehicle. He had never rode in the knight bus before-his family always used the floo system to traveling with the 'common riffraff' on the knight bus- and was more excited than he'd admit to travel on it. James followed him up, and they sat down on the large armchairs that lined the bus.

"You've never been on the knight bus, have you?" James grinned at his friend, who was glancing around the bus with a look of awe on his face .

Sirius shook his head, sending more water spraying around the area.

"Here, honey, no need to be that wet." Ms. Potter flicked her wand at Sirius, and he was immediately warm and dry.

"Thanks, Ms. Potter!" He ran his fingers through his now dry hair, and enjoyed the feeling of being completely dry for the first time in a day.

"Of course, Sirius. Now, if you don't mind me, I have a conference to attend, so I'll be dissaparating, but the bus will drop you at our house, your dad will be home around 10:00." Rebecca smiled, hugged James and Sirius quickly, and then turned on the spot and vanished.

"How are you, padfoot? Really? Bellatrix been awful to you? And your mum?" James leaned toward his friend.

"Terrible. Ugh, you have no idea." Sirius looked out from under is thick dark bangs.

"Belli's boyfriend dumped her by owl. Apparently her hair was too frizzy or something-" Sirius grinned, and James chuckled. Unlike the rest of the Black women, with long, straight blonde locks, Bellatrix had thick, untamable curly hair that was what you could call a sore spot. Meaning, she immediately jinxing anyone that said anything about it.

"She must've taken that well, " chortled James.

"Ahh, not so much, " Sirius shook his head. " You know how her mum and mine are so close, so she spent the holiday at our place, and trust me, once she stopped sobbing hysterically in the guest bedroom and randomly hexing things, she was…nasty." Sirius pulled a face, not needing to explain further. Both him and James knew that Bellatrix was touchy and moody at her best, and scarily vengeful at her worst. "And of course, my mum sided with her, and got mad at me for suggesting that Belli use some of that Sleakeazy Hair Potion. "

Both he and James rolled their eyes.

" But Padfoot, what'd you do to get kicked out?"

" I… Regalus has been doing so much dark magic lately, and I, uhhh, told my parents they where being awful parents by letting it go and that I hated them for not saving my little brother from himself."

James stared at his friend. " You-you actually said that to them?"

Sirius nodded. " I don't regret it. They're all obsessed with the dark arts, every stinking one of them. I'm glad to be gone. And if Regulus wants to go down that road- well, its his choice. I'm finished. "

James silently nodded and patted his best friend on the back. James had never seen his crazy, loyal, determined friend so down on everything. He assumed part of it was not having eaten in a few hours- Sirius ate like a black hole, all the time, consuming everything available.

At just that moment, the knight-bus bounced several times in a row, and rocked jarringly over what seemed like a bunch of boulders

Sirius moaned and clutched his stomach. His face was tinged green, and he hunched over in his seat. He didn't think he would be taking the knight bus again anytime soon. He glanced at James, begging him not to laugh. He didn't.

" We'll be there in a minute, Padfoot, don't worry. Lots of people get ill on the knight-bus, and once we get home my mum has a brilliant potion she uses for when someone gets sick to their stomach, I know where she keeps it."

"Uhhhghhh," Moaned Sirius, clapping his hands over his mouth.

"Po'er, it's your stop, best 'urry an' take your friend, 'e looks downrigh' ill!" the conductor yelled from the front of the bus, levitating Sirius's trunk out of the knight bus with his wand.

Sirius and James hurried out of the bus, just in time for Sirius to be sick on the driveway in front of the Potter home.

" Lovely, padfoot." James said sarcastically, although he reached out a hand and helped his friend to his feet.

" Just for you, prongs," Sirius replied, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of robes

"So, did the knight-bus live up to your expectations?, " James asked with a smirk, leading Sirius into the house. Like the Black's, the Potter's where a pureblooded family with a huge fortune, but they donated masses of it to charity every year, and their house was, while not exactly small, cozy and warm.

"Hungry?" Asked James with a smirk, swinging down to sit on one of the polished wood stools that stood in the large kitchen. He knew that Sirius would always be hungry. Unsurprisingly, Sirius nodded enthusiastically.

"Ready to go back to school tomorrow?" Sirius asked through a mouthful of chocolate cake.

"Always- a whole new year of pranking and making trouble awaits us!"