And So It Began
James Potter, newly sorted Gryffindor as of last week, sat up in his bed. It was a beautiful morning, the sun streaming through a small gap in his hangings, the birds singing...
James smiled and streached mucles that had lay unused for hours, basking in the morning glow. Then his eyes lit upon Black.
He scowled slightly, then winced as his back popped. How on earth a Black had made it into Gryffindor was beyond him, they were rumored to be the worst of the worst. Mum had always said to give others a chance before judging, but c'mon, a Black? James had even caught the kid hexing another student! Sure he was a Slytherin, so he couldn't be too bothered, and he'd managed to take down a third year, which was slightly impressive. But still...
James sighed, feeling only slightly guilty for early sterotypes, and grabbed a towel. The shower awaited. Then followed classes.
That had to be the only downside of Hogwarts. Learning.
James shuddered and closed the door behind him.
Sirius Black, newly sorted non-Slytherin as of last week, groaned and rolled over. Why anyone would want to get out of bed was beyond him as he pulled the hangings closed and turned his back to the sun. Society hadn't been all that welcoming of the Black gone Gold.
Sirius had always been a rather talkative person, so he supposed that the Gryffindors had probably picked the worst punishment they could, the cold shoulder. Only the Slytherins would converse with him, though that wasn't exactly pleasent either. He'd even resorted to hexing a family member last week because they just wouldn't shut up. Sirius sighed and sat up, rubbing sleep from his tired eyes, he didn't want to go to breakfast, but he had to or risk even more rumors. He decided to get up and shower first to postpone going into the great hall. He knocked on the bathroom door.
"Taken."
Sirius sighed and sat back down on his bed to wait.
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James eagerly scanned the owls at breakfast, looking for his family's owl. His mother had said she was going to send him and Remus and Peter some of her famous homemade chocolate chip cookies and any child in his right mind would scan for an owl in that situation. He spotted his owl finally. It was engaged in a small tussle with and elegant looking black owl. His owl gave up, ruffled its feathers and brought the package down to James. He grinned.
He relieved the owl of his delicious package, no reason for the poor thing to suffer. After he had sent the owl on its way with a piece of bacon, he looked around the table to see who the black owl belonged to, it had to be a Gryffindor's because it was the Gryffindor table they were fighting over.
A logical conclusion, isn't it?
He saw it belonged to Black. James was surprised though when Sirius gave it a wary glance before taking the letter from the owl. The owl nipped his finger and took off, cuffing him upside the head with its wing as it did. Sirius glared, made a rude gesture at the owl. He rubbed his head before opening the very extensive letter.
James tried to use the look on Sirius's face to have some sort of idea about the letters contents. But he gathered about as much information from that as he would have had he tried staring down a roll of toilet paper. And he knew how hard THAT was to do.
Sirius stood up, calm and cool as ever, and left the hall. There was only one clue that led him to feel that something was off.
The boy's hand was trembling. Just slightly, but it was there.
James had never exactly been friendly with Sirius, but he didn't want to see his dorm mate be freaked out about something or another and be left alone, evil family or no.
Such a noble little boy, wasn't he?
James grabbed a few pieces of cookie, muttered an "I'll see you in transfiguration." to his friends, and turned to follow the distraught boy out of the hall.
He followed Sirius out of the hall, through a few passages, up a few staircases, and after covering about half the school (he assumed that Sirius was casually trying to throw off anyone following him) finally ended up at the now familiar portrait of the slightly overweight lady.
It was rude to call people fat.
Sirius went up the staircase to the boy's dorm. He glanced warily around before he entered the first year doorway, and locked the door.
James waited until he heard the noise of curtains being violently closed until he cast the unlocking charm and went in quietly.
"Sirius?" James asked awkwardly, not exactly knowing how to speak to the boy he'd been ignoring for the last week.
The springs squeaked, James could only assume that he'd jumped at the unexpected sound of his voice.
There was the sound of someone clearing their throat.
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
"It sure doesn't seem like it," he said with a small smile that Sirius couldn't see.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, I don't know, but I can only assume that it had something to do with that letter you got."
There was no reply.
Sirius opened the curtains slowly and James was thoroughly shocked to see that his eyes were slightly bloodshot.
"James, tell me, why do you care?"
"I care because I'm not going to sit and watch my house mate cry with no one to talk to." James said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Sirius was quiet for a minute or so, but James didn't go away.
"What was the letter about, then?"
Sirius sighed, the one time he'd been "Displaying his emotions for the world to see" he'd been caught. Well, wasn't exactly as if he'd been having the greatest of luck lately. Mother would just love this. But he'd thought he'd been alone. James had clearly no intention of leaving until he heard the story, and that had to be a step up from being completely ignored. After all, he was only trying to get the Potter boy to go away...
"My mother isn't all that happy with me," he said finally.
"From what I just saw, that seems to be the understatement of the year," said James with a small laugh, Sirius laughed also. James liked his laugh, it sounded like his own, happy and full of mischief waiting to be released. If people could be judged on only their laugh, then Sirius would quite possibly be his best friend. As it was...
Well, a lot stood in the way.
"You're right, she's downright furious with me, all because I 'stained the family name' by getting into Gryffindor, the family name is stained enough with out me doing anything to it." He said bitterly.
"That's it, all that just for getting in the wrong house?" James asked, shocked. He'd thought that Sirius's dog had died or something, not just a letter from his mom, who he apparently didn't like anyway. Seemed a bit stupid really, but he was judging again. That had to stop.
"Well, no. You see, I don't exactly agree with my family on everything, and I've, er, made sure they know it. This was just the final straw. Read this." Sirius sighed and flung the letter at James, he read it.
It was horrible. He couldn't believe that any person on earth could say some of these things to anyone without wanting to wash their mouth out with soap, let alone their son. There were words had never even heard of before, yet he knew were terrible things to say. James knew that his mother would be furious to even see such thing mentioned, much less used to hurt another intentionally. But there was one thing that was just out of line beyond all others...
"That's uncalled for," said James in a matter-of-fact tone.
"What?" Spluttered Sirius. He'd imagined a reaction, but that wasn't quite what he had envisioned. Maybe a bit of laughing, a hearty 'I agree', but this?
Well, the teachers had already been talking about what a strange boy James was.
"That's uncalled for," James reiterated with a smile, "She called you an animal, and I am almost 100 percent positive that you are, in fact, a human." Said James, still using the matter-of-fact tone. Sirius laughed again, but this time it had a much happier ring to it, James smiled.
"What my dear mother would say," said Sirius wistfully "Me, heir to the Black fortune, sitting and laughing with a Potter willingly, she'd probably call it treason."
James smiled. So Black did have a sense of humor. The way he'd been walking around you'd think somebody stole it right out of him and replaced it with with a cheap off brand version of what was funny, like toilet humor or something.
"Well, I know what I would say." James grinned.
Sirius wilted, here it was, the rejection, what he knew was imminent but didn't want to think about, the Potter boy was even smiling about it.
"And what would that be?"
James climbed to his feet, brushing the invisible dust off his robes.
"I would say, stand up and have some cookies, mate." James held out one of his mother's delicious treats, and a hand to help Sirius up.
Sirius stared. He could do one of two things, and they could possibly alter his life forever. He could ignore James, like his good Mother would want, an go one being aloor and antisocial, in grace with the family he disagreed with so much, and miserable.
Or he could take the helping hand. He could have friends who liked him for him and not his status. He could have friends who didn't learn dark magic at the age of six. He could have unprejudiced, rational, non-murderous, true to the end friends like he'd always dreamed about. And he could annoy the crap out of his mother.
It was a no brainer, really.
Sirius grinned back and took the hand. And the cookie too.
The two trudged up to the castle and plopped themselves down in the great hall. One boy smiling but very tearstained, the other with a bunch of lint on his robe from sitting in the sock pile. Remus looked up.
"This is Sirius Black, our new partner in causing mischief and chaos."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Remus Lupin."
The other boy looked at James for confirmation. James nodded.
"And I'm Peter Pettigrew," he smiled.
Professor Minerva McGonagall didn't know why, but when she looked over at the newly formed foursome, It sent shivers down her spine. One week from that fateful day, she would learn to always trust her instinct, when she walked into the great hall with lime green hair, and neon orange robes, and saw the faces of four smiling Gryffindor's.
Sirius rolled over into the bar of sunlight spreading across his sheets and smiled into his pillow. It was nice to be cared for.
And So It Began
I like this story a lot, and I would like to know if you do too, so it really would nice to get a review, I'm new to this and I haven't gotten many.
Completely revamped as of 2/15/07 when I should be control excersizes for solo and ensomble. Ah, well...
