It was a Saturday therefore Sirius found it highly appropriate to wake up later than usual and it seemed that his whole dormitory had silently fallen into the same agreement. However, at ten-thirty Cain McGrobbel – their fellow sixth-year Gryffindor – suggested going to the Great Hall to get some breakfast before it all disappeared. Everyone decided to get up and go except for Sirius: he wasn't hungry at all. "Come on Sirius, breakfast is good for you" Remus suggested, trying to hide the worry in his voice but Sirius heard it. He even saw James nodding in agreement– at least he's acknowledging my presence today, maybe he's realised how stupid he was – he thought,but they didn't convince him and so they left.

Sirius felt nostalgic today; it was terrible. He felt as though was host to a pit full of sadness in his stomach and it was slowly spreading to the rest of his body. He always tried to make everyone think that him running away from his parents' house wasn't a big deal for him and that he was doing fine: he managed to convince practically everyone except for Remus, James and Peter – they all knew better. After six years of being friends they could read each-other as though they were open books. Recently, they'd gone out of their way to make Sirius do activities and to keep his mind preoccupied. He was grateful for their actions but he just wanted someone to understand what he was going through.

Though Sirius never truly enjoyed his home environment due to the fact that his family was a bunch of nutters, he was definitely going to miss them. Yes: his family did verbally and physically abuse him but things hadn't always been like that. Before he got sorted into Gryffindor, he was his mother's sweetheart: "this is Sirius, my handsome, eldest son" was the way she'd introduce him to people. She payed extra attention to him and made sure she didn't accidentally hurt him. She'd always help him to look "presentable": this meant that she'd carefully run her fingers over his head to adjust his hair and that she would always gently smooth down his dress robes, and flick any dust off his robes. Before he was sorted into Gryffindor he'd sometimes catch his father beaming at him from a distance, telling other family members how "fast my boy's growing up".

Even then, however, his family was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable. He disagreed with over half of their ideologies but that didn't mean that he wouldn't miss the presence of a loving mother and a proud father. Sirius unfortunately underestimated the extent of how proud his father was.

When Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor he expected howlers the day after – mysteriously, none were sent. It wasn't until he went back home for Christmas that he truly saw his family for what they were: self-absorbed purebloods that wanted nothing to do with something that could potentially corrupt their family image, even if that was their own son. He thought his parents would only hate him for a week and then get over themselves, but that didn't happen. The first Christmas of his first year was the worst one, he felt as though his family had saved up all of their energy after they found out their son had been sorted into Gryffindor in September, and finally lashed out at him during that holiday. His father beat him like a house-elf whenever he made a mistake; they left him at home as if he were an embarrassment to the family whenever there was an important event; his own mother ordered the house-elf, Kreacher, to not cook for him. If it hadn't been for his brother, Regulus, then Sirius would have died of starvation every time he had to come back home.

Regulus was the one Sirius felt the most nostalgia towards. Even if his brother was sometimes pompous and always wanted to impress his parents, he was the only one in number 12 Grimmauld Place that actually cared for him. He would sneak Sirius food when he had none, he would tell Sirius everything his parents didn't, like "you're not disgusting and you're not a waste of space, if anyone is it's our good-for-nothing family". A tear fell out of Sirius' eye as he remembered how him and his brother would stay up together playing chess, talking about each-other's friends, telling one another stories. He still had a strong relationship with his brother but his parents had forbidden Regulus from even making eye contact with Sirius, so it would never be the same again between the two. He quickly wiped the tear off his face but others started falling soon after. Stop, Sirius thought to himself, crying isn't going to make your brother come back. You're mother and father hate you, and you need to get over it. Sirius took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He just thought it wasn't fair: everyone he knew had a family that cared for them except for him. He would do anything to have parents like Mr and Mrs Potter who followed James around as though he was a lost puppy, he would do anything to have a mother like Mrs Longbottom who made sure Frank wouldn't even put a toe out of line because she cared so much about his education and his future.

When Sirius finally managed to wipe all tears off his face he promised himself that he'd never even give his parents another thought in his whole life. He got up and went to meet his friends in the Great Hall, except they weren't there. He sighed out of frustration and sat down on a spot with lots of food in front of it. He extended out a hand to get a croissant when the food on the table suddenly all disappeared, "are you fucking serious!?" he mumbled to himself.

"No" another voice replied. "Can I sit next to you?" startled, Sirius turned around to see a pretty sixth-year Slytherin girl called Maribella Barbonese standing behind him. He frowned.

"Why?" he asked, confused. She was an interesting person and not like the rest of the Slytherins at all. He would always be put next to her in classes with Slytherins that would have an alphabetical seating arrangement; like Transfiguration or Defence Against the Dark Arts. She was an olive-skinned girl with long, curly hair – Sirius always thought she was very attractive but she was a Slytherin.

"Because there's no one at my table" she replied simply. Sirius looked behind her toward the Slytherin table he saw that she was right. He nodded and she sat down. She put down a plate of food that she must have saved from earlier between them. "You can have some if you want," she offered, he always thought she was polite.

"Thank you" he said and took the croissant he'd been eyeing on her plate during their slightly-awkward exchange.

"How's your day been so far?" she asked. Caught off guard and with a mouth stuffed with croissant he replied hastily and not convincingly enough, "great, really great," but Barbonese squinted her ordinary brown eyes, she didn't believe him but she didn't press on the subject.

"That's good" she said. He watched her and she sipped on her glass of milk. Barbonese was an Italian pureblood and she was possibly the only Slytherin that anyone in Hogwarts liked because she didn't hold the same prejudiced beliefs as the rest, and she didn't enjoy jinxing random first years in the school corridors. Apparently, Italian's believe that being a pureblood isn't any different to being a muggleborn. Initially she was confused when she had the word 'mudblood' explained to her, he remembered her asking "why would someone even say that to someone?" Even if she wasn't like the rest of the Slytherins, Sirius often saw common Slytherin mannerisms in her: she could be very cold and manipulative when she wanted to be.

"Did you – um – did you go to Italy over the summer?" he asked, trying to keep the awkward away from the atmosphere.

"Yes, I did" she smiled.

"What do you do when you go there?"

"Well, my whole family live there so me and my parents go to visit them all. We also like going to the beach – they're much different to the ones in England." Sirius looked over her face and saw that she definitely had a tan. "What did you do –" she stopped herself, realising what she was about to ask him. Sirius straightened his back, determined to keep convincing people that he didn't care.

"I ran away from my family. No big deal, they were idiots." He said loudly, putting a smile on his face as he did so. She nodded, having nothing else to say. Sirius looked toward the entrance of the Great Hall and saw Remus, James and Peter standing there, clearly debating whether to approach him with Barbonese next to him or not. She seemed to notice as well so she quickly got up.

"Nice talking to you. Keep the plate, Black, you look peaky." She said bluntly, and walked off.

A few seconds later Sirius watched as Peter, James and Remus approached him with wide eyes. Peter spoke first, "what the hell are you doing? Did you actually invite a Slytherin to this table?"

"No – well, yes. No." he stuttered back.

"Yes or no, mate?" James asked, sitting down beside him with an amused look on his face.

"What, so I'm your mate now?" Sirius retorted, annoyed that James was acting normal as though he wasn't a stingy twat the day before.

"Yes." James said, quickly. He looked up and saw Remus looking at him with a disapproving look. "Alright, I'm sorry. I didn't listen to you and I assumed you were lying, sorry." Sirius shrugged. Remus clearly talked James into apologising to him.

"Barbonese just asked if she could sit next to me because no-one was at her table. I said yes. We only talked for about ten minutes, anyway." Sirius was now eating the sausage that she'd left him on the plate. Remus and Peter sat opposite them.

"She's the hottest Slytherin alive." Sirius cringed.

"Peter, never put the words 'hot' and 'Slytherin' in the same sentence, please" Sirius said with a disgusted look on his face.

"Hm, she is though. I think –"

"Okay, whatever" Sirius interrupted James. Sirius' plate suddenly disappeared, "fucking house-elves, I wasn't done." At that moment, Regulus Black walked in the hall with some other Slytherins. He caught Sirius' eye and winked quickly, then acted as though nothing had happened and walked off to the Slytheirn the table with his friends. "Let's go back to the common room. We have nothing to do today." He said, getting up abruptly.

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