Sirius lugged his trunk up to his room, which was on the second floor. He was glad to see it unchanged after his being away from so long.

True, the walls were a dark green and the bed frame twisted about, meant to remind him of a snake and his heritage, but the rest of the house was grim and dark, and most importantly filled with all of his crazy relatives.

He set his trunk down in the corner and flopped down onto his bed. Sirius grabbed a picture of the Marauders, laughing, at Hogwarts. They were all so happy, Prongs, throwing his head back with laughter as he, Padfoot, grinning, whispered in James' ear. Moony and Wormtail were off to the side, still laughing, but with slight looks of reverence on their faces. He had noticed it before, how Wormy looked cowed when Prongs or Sirius spoke to him, how Moony never called them out on their pranks, no matter how serious, even though he well could as prefect.

But now he thought that Moony and Wormtail didn't really know him, they only knew this false version of him, the version who was always laughing, cocky and full of himself. It was nice to pretend. But in the end it always came back to one thing: if you're a lion in a den of snakes, you either die, or become a snake yourself.

If they came to Grimmauld Place, they would see, if his mother didn't kill him and whichever one of the Marauders he brought with him first.

Sirius found himself resenting the other Marauders, all the rest of them. They would never understand. He didn't know what they saw in him. He was insidious, evil, just like the rest of his family. A pretender, and that was that.

He crumpled the Marauders photograph, catching a glimpse of the photo Prongs' face falling as he chucked it across the room. It floated down past the top of his dresser, and the small picture on the wall, and almost past the fireplace.

But suddenly, the fire sparked and flickered green, and Sirius saw a pale hand reach out of the fire and grab the crumpled photograph. "Easier than catching a snitch," James proclaimed as he climbed out of the fireplace.

Sirius grinned. "And what are you doing here?" He knew just as well as James did. Prongs was here to cheer him up. All the Marauders, especially James, knew him far too well.

"I'm coming to play a prank," James said.

Sirius buried his face into the pillow. "Stop. Wait. No. I'm not in the mood," but James ignored his faint pleas, came over, and sat on the bed.

Sirius heard a soft crumpling and knew that James was looking at the picture. He groaned, but apparently James didn't hear him. "Ooh. Taking your fury out on your fellow Marauders, are you?" Sirius just about said no, but he realized that what James said was true and shut his mouth before a single sound escaped.

"Listen, roll over, will you?" Sirius rolled over onto his back. He knew there was no point in resisting, and that if he didn't talk to James, he would leave, and then Sirius would regret it for the rest of break. "What I was saying, was that I am here to play the best prank ever." When Sirius didn't respond to James' proclamation, he continued as if he had never stopped talking. "We're going to crash your family's Christmas party."

"What?" This got a response out of Sirius. "No! Are you possessed? Have you met my cousins? They'll blast us to bits before we even yell 'BOO!'"

"That's the genius of it! We'll be in our Animagus forms. No one's going to mess with a big wolf-dog and a giant stag, let alone a bunch of old geezers who can hardly manage a Stupefy spell." James looked proud of his plan. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"If you think that, I should go introduce you to my grandmother. She's no nice old lady," Sirius muttered, but he found himself liking the plan more and more by the minute. To spice up his winter a little, to bring some fun to what would otherwise be a dull, tortuous break of Slytherin pride and taunts from everyone in his family, except perhaps Andromeda.

"Come on," Prongs pleaded. "It'll be fun." James' look said 'I'm pleading, but I know you already like my plan.'

"Fine," Sirius conceded. "Sounds good."

"Good! Now, you'll have to hide me until Christmas, though," Prongs said, pretending as if this was a complete afterthought.

"What? No! Someone'll find you. And destroy me."

"You can't make me leave. I snuck out of Hogwarts. All the other Marauders don't even know I'm gone. If I come back early, Moony will report me, even if he is a little less harsh on us sometimes than he ought to be."

Sirius sighed. He knew he was beat. "Fine. But you're sleeping in the closet."