I hope everybody will enjoy this...
3. Halloween.
Hogwarts was the best thing that ever happened to Sirius, of that he was sure. Even after only two months he knew that there wouldn't be a better time than he was having at Hogwarts.
It had started of a bit rocky, as he quickly became the boy with the howlers, thanks to his mother. After the sorting his lovely cousin had send word to his mother about the results of that sorting, his mother wasn't pleased. She had send a howler every day that first week, reminding his of the fact that he was now the shame of the family and that he wasn't welcome to join the annual Black Christmas dinner.
Sirius knew his friends were shocked by the fact that his mother reacted like this, but he wasn't too bothered. He just hadn't expected anything else from her. He had written her back, though, after the fifth howler, he just couldn't ignore her any longer. He wrote his mother not to bother with him until next summer and that he would stay at Hogwarts with Christmas.
"That would be even better, maybe I could stay here all year." Sirius had said with an airy voice to James when he noticed his friend looking worried at him. Honestly, the fact that his mother now rather denied ever having created a kid like Sirius didn't bother him at all.
These last two months he had seen that the whole pure blood thing was as he started to suspect completely rubbish. Muggle-borns and half bloods were just as good as wizards as him, Bella and James. The only difference was that the kids grown-up in a wizarding family knew a bit more about the world they lived in. He knew about the soft whisper of danger that was spoken of in the wizarding world. He and James knew the whispers about a dark wizard who was recruiting followers.
Something the muggle-borns didn't knew. There were only a few muggle-borns in his year that knew that there were even dark wizards that wanted to kill all muggles and muggle-borns.
After his letter to his mother the howlers stopped coming. Sirius secretly hoped his mother would just forget about him completely or would just go to ignoring him and let him be. His cousin had come up with an other tactic of making sure Sirius didn't forget his shameful sorting. She kept on pestering him about it, it was like she felt personally responsible for this hick-up in the family.
There wasn't a day that first month that Bella didn't pull him aside and told him to go to Dumbledore to ask about changing houses. This always ended up in a shouting match between the two of them, Sirius had already gotten in detention twice because a teacher found them shouting at each other, wands drawn and ready to battle.
In these cases having friends was really useful, specially having James as a friend. James had been living in utter freedom, his father and mother hadn't made a problem out of it when he practiced his magic during the summer. They had taken him to buy a wand the first day of the summer holiday and he had been using it ever since. James's father, the original prankster, even taught him a few jinxes. Sirius had to admit that he was a bit jealous about it, doing magic before starting school, or before coming-off-age even was something Sirius's parents had been strictly against.
After his second Bella-caused detention with professor McGonagall James suggested to teach Bella a lesson about mingling in things she should keep her nose out off. Sirius recognized the strange light in James's eyes and agreed. This would be fun, Sirius had thought to himself.
It had been the first Saturday of October when James and Sirius got their chance. Shortly after lunch the four friends had walked out to watch the Gryffindor Quidditch practice, to James's dismay he didn't made it on the team as Seeker, he was considered too young, but the boys still loved the game anyway and went to watch as much as they could. During that walk Bella had walked up to Sirius, she had grabbed his arm and started to pull him away from his friends.
"They aren't good friends for a Black." She had hissed.
Before Sirius could even reply James had stepped in front of Bella, his wand pointed at her.
"Sirius is allowed to hang out with his house-mates." James had sneered.
"House-mates?" Bella had hissed, "Only Slytherin's noblest are a Black's house-mates."
"If I remember correctly the sorting hat placed him in Gryffindor." James said calmly.
"A mistake, the sorting hat is losing his wit." Bella had spat angrily.
Bella's face turned red with anger as she tried to stare down James when he didn't reply. It was really funny to watch and even Remus, normally against all sorts of violence, had to laughed at Bella, James just didn't back down. The sound of laughter only made Bella more red with anger.
"Bellatrix Black, I know this might be difficult to penetrate that big inflated head of yours and I know it busted your little happy pure-blood bubble when I was sorted in Gryffindor and I also know that you miss my presence, but I'm a Gryffindor and it won't change." Sirius told her as he took his place besides James, his wand also pointing at his cousin.
Bella shuddered in anger as her eyes flickered between James and Sirius.
"You'll regret this." She hissed and turned away.
"Bella!" James called, "You're wrong."
With those words he waved his wand and muttered the curse, which resulted in one of the best bat-bogey hexes Sirius had ever seen. Screaming and cursing angrily Bella ran off.
"That would earn you some detention mate." Sirius said in awe.
"Nah, she won't go to a teacher, she thinks she's too good for that" James said as he turned back to the Quidditch pitch.
"We should watch our backs a bit more from now on, Bella's friends might want to take revenge." Remus said seriously.
"I don't think that's Bella's style, she'll try to get you back for that herself." Sirius told James.
"I'm looking forward to that." James smiled.
James's action did have the desired effect, Bella left them alone. The only unwanted result was a new wave of howlers from his mother. She wasn't to pleased with Sirius allowing his cousin to be hexed.
An other side effect of the whole encounter with Bella was that after they got away with hexing a student, no teacher had been involved. It had given them a boost of confidence, one they actually didn't need, but was useful to them anyway. Sirius and James, sometimes aided by Peter or Remus, felt free to use hexes and spells on Slytherins more often. It was like the lid was of the bottle and the champagne shot out. Specially Severus Snape was a victim of their new found power. For some reasons both James and Sirius disliked the boy very much.
With the Confundus spell, the Desaugeo curse or the Diffindo charm, Sirius and James made life at school a bit more difficult for the Slytherins. It happened more than often that a Slytherin found his or her bag ripped open, mostly that happened when the first year Gryffindor's walked through the same corridor.
Besides abusing their magic all four of them spend hours finding new charms, spells and curses that would be able to use. Their mischief making days had only just started, and specially Sirius wanted them to last forever.
The day after James had attacked Bella they had done one of the best discoveries in their school career. They had found out how to get into the kitchen. The four friends had been walking the corridors between their potions class and dinner when Sirius noticed a stairway next to the great hall.
"What's there." He had said as he pointed to the stairs.
"Dunno, I still get lost with the normal corridors." Peter said.
"Maybe the way to the Ravenclaw house." James mused.
"Lets have a look." Sirius suggested.
"Not again." Remus groaned.
"What?"
"You remember the last time you wanted to have a look, we never made it to dinner." Remus complained.
Sirius did remember very vividly their last excursion down a corridor they didn't knew. Sirius had been convinced it had been the way to the Slytherin dormitories but they never found it. Instead they got so incredibly lost in the small narrow maze of the dungeons that they search for their way back to the great hall for more than a hour, only to find an angry McGonagall at the end. She told them with a very stern voice that they shouldn't be roaming around the castle and should attend dinner when everyone else was. "Nothing good came from strutting the castle." She had said. That time she had bought the story about getting lost, but she warned them not to be seen wandering in the dungeons again.
"Oh, come on Lupin that was nothing, I'm sure there is no Slytherin down there." Sirius sighed.
"But if you are too big of a coward you can stay up here." Sirius challenged his friend. Sirius knew he was playing it dirty, Remus always gave in to the coward line, but Sirius really wanted to find out where that corridor lead to, he prayed it was to the kitchens which he had been searching for ever since the feast at the beginning of the year. With an deep sigh Remus gave in and the four buy walked down the stair into a long narrow hallway. Both sides were decorated with paintings, most about food.
"You know I think this leads to the kitchens." James breathed as he looked at the paintings.
"That would be awesome, but how to get in, I'm sure you'll need a password or something." Sirius thought out loud.
It was than that a house-elf appeared, it came into the hallway through a hole behind a painting of a bowl with fruit. When the elf spotted the four boys he bowed deeply and asked if he could be of service.
Sirius grinned widely and immediately asked the elf how to get into the kitchen. To all of their surprise the elf told them how to get in.
"Just tickle the pear and the door will open. We are happy to be at service." The elf said as he bowed deeply.
The boys had taken a quick look in the kitchen, Sirius and James already plotting what pranks to pull off with the food. Even Remus, who had quite a bit of talent for potions came with suggestion to alter the food destined for the Slytherins with a harmless but cute potion. The elves had offered them food and drinks but the boys agreed it was better to go up stairs and have dinner at the Gryffindor table.
It was how Sirius spend the first two months at school, exploring the castle, searching for new ways to get himself into trouble, and having great fun with his friends. Today it was Halloween and the four boys had planned their first major prank. The whole school was about to find out that it was no longer the save place they thought it was.
"Mate, are you ready?" James yelled up the dormitories.
"Yes, I'm coming. You know this whole thing would be a lot easier if we were sure no one would be able to actually see us go into the kitchens." Sirius said as he ran over their plan, it was full of things that could possibly go wrong and get them all into a long detention. Not that he really minded detention but he'd rather spend his time annoying Slytherins.
James's face lit up, a slow all knowing smile spread across his face.
"You know, we actually can." James said as he dashed upstairs. Sirius, Peter and Remus followed him, all confused.
"Can you all keep a secret, nobody is to know I have this." James said as he dug through his trunk. "My dad told me to keep this a secret but I think he never did when he was at school. Still no reason to gossip about it."
"What is it?" Peter asked curious.
James straightened and looked them seriously. "Only if you can keep this a secret." He warned.
The other boys nodded silently, their eyes focused on James. Slowly James pulled out a slivery fabric, it was shiny and old, when James held it up completely Sirius gasped.
"You have one?" he breathed.
James nodded with a grin.
"Why haven't you told me before?"
"Well, I just remembered I had it, my father gave it to me the day we left for school. He said 'use it wisely' and that it should stay a secret I have it." James answered.
"But what is it?" Peter asked, looking very confused.
"It's an invisibility cloak." Remus breathed. James nodded with a grin, he threw the cloak around his shoulder and over his head and disappeared completely. Although he expected it Sirius still gasped. His mind was running with all the new possibilities now that they could stay hidden.
"We'll have to hurry if we want our plan to work before the Halloween fest." Sirius said slowly.
"All four of us can fit under it. Lets go." James said, tucking the cloak under his clothes.
The boys crept down the corridors. Invisibility cloaks were very useful, when they would create one that could also stop you from making sounds, Sirius concluded. They moved agonizingly slow.
"Remus are you sure that you told us the right spell?" James hissed as they reached the entrance of the kitchen.
"Yes, just point your wand at the target and whisper the words, remember to whisper or all the food will be tasting off."
The entered the kitchen, slowly looking around. The golden plates on which the food was served were already placed on the tables. The elves turned to see who had entered the kitchen, bowing deeply they offered their services to the boys.
"I would like some tea and something to eat." Peter piped up, his job was to distract the elves so that the others would be able to jinx the plates.
"That's the Slytherin table, right?" Sirius asked for confirmation from James.
"I think so." James nodded.
"I think it's better to leave the teachers table alone, just the house tables." Remus commented, for once Sirius agreed, there was no need to pulled the teachers into this. If they were caught they would be in trouble enough as it is.
Working quickly the three boys jinxed all the plates, Sirius took care of the Slytherin table and helped James with the Gryffindor table. While Remus worked more quickly to do the Ravenclaw and Huffelpuf table. The had come to the horrible conclusion that they would have to jinx the Gryffindor plates as well unless they wanted to reveal the Gryffindors had anything to do with it.
After they finished their last spells they pulled Peter away from his tea and thanked the elves. Grinning widely the made their way back to the Gryffindor common room. Loud snickers erupted as they fell down in the empty chairs next to the fire place.
"This is going to be epic." James laughed.
Sirius had to agree he couldn't wait to see the faces of his fellow students when the food appeared on their plates.
"What have you been up to?" a girls voice sneered from behind Sirius and James. James immediately turned around, but Sirius already aware that he was going to face the hot-tempered red head wasn't so keen on arguing with Lily Evans.
"Nothing." James said as he tried to keep his face innocent.
"You are failing, mate." Sirius hissed at him, it made a grin spread over James's face that Lily couldn't ignore.
"You two have been cursing Severus again, haven't you." Lily hissed angry.
"No! honestly, we haven't been near that slimy git today." James said he sounded a bit shocked by Lily's accusations. Lily just glared at him and Sirius. Not able to resist it Sirius made a kissing sound towards Lily, it was something that always set her off.
She hissed angrily at them and turned away, leaving three of the boys rocking with laughter. Sirius did noticed that James didn't join them in their laughter but didn't pay much attention to it, James had been weird around Lily Evans from the moment he saw her. Sirius honestly could see why James was so fascinated by her, she was a pretty girl, she was very smart, very talented, she could be a great friend as she was loyal to her so called friend from Slytherin, but according to him that was where he major flaw was, she just didn't know how weird she was hanging around with a Slytherin all the time.
When it was nearly time for the Halloween feast to begin the boys headed down to the great hall.
"We seriously have to work on our expressions." Sirius muttered as he looked at James and Remus. Both boys were wearing a grin of anticipation on their faces that wrote 'guilty' all over it. Peter just looked scared, Sirius knew the small boy was deathly afraid of getting caught.
Sitting down at the Gryffindor table Sirius glanced around, he was positioned perfect, perfect view of the great hall. Allowing himself to grin slightly he caught James's eyes. There were full of mischief.
"If they find out we did it." Peter muttered, over and over again
"Peter, will you please shut up. If they find out we'll do detention, so what?" Sirius said with a sigh. Detention at Hogwarts wasn't really bad, not like when he got punished by his mom, that almost always hurt a lot. Until now for his two detentions Sirius had only done useful things, boring but useful. Like helping Filch clean out cabinets of things he had confiscated. Sirius had stolen quite a few things, the caretaker never noticed. Boring but definitely useful.
"Are you sure this won't get us expelled?" Peter whispered.
"Of course, as long as we stop snickering with guilty written all over our faces and act surprised they won't know we did it. Besides I think Dumbledore can appreciate a joke every now and than. It's not like we are poisoning someone." Sirius shrugged. Sirius trusted his gut feeling about this, he and James were sure that although this was a prank it was not something that the headmaster would expel them for. It was within the boundaries Sirius hated.
Dumbledore got up and announced the Halloween feast opened. Plates appeared on the table and large pile of food, then a loud gasped sounded in the great hall. The four boys had to work very hard to keep a straight face when they saw the surprised look on the faces of their fellow students. All the food was colored in the colors of the houses, all the food except the food on the Slytherin table which was just a dull grey.
The teachers noticed very quickly something was wrong and professor Dumbledore himself stood up and walked down to the Ravenclaw table to take a look at the food himself. The four boys, as well every other student watched intensely as the headmaster investigated the food. Sirius could have sworn he saw Dumbledore's shoulders shake softly with laughter. The headmaster pulled out his wand and made a complicated movement Sirius didn't recognize and the food on the plate before Dumbledore turned back to their normal color.
When the headmaster looked up Sirius was sure his eyes stopped for a second on him and James but he didn't say anything. Dumbledore walked back up the platform and raised his voice.
"Dear students, I think somebody wanted to make the feast more festive and decorated the food, it's safe so you can all dig in."
Before returning to his place in the middle of the teachers table Dumbledore looked at the four boys, with a wink he turned around. Remus and James gasped.
"He knew?" Remus breathed.
"I guess so." James said relieved. "but how?"
"I think the elves told him, he is their master, they would tell him." Sirius said thoughtfully. This only occurred to him now.
"The elves, I never thought about that." Remus muttered.
"Peter, next time you'll have to do a better job at distracting them." James nodded seriously.
"Next time." Peter said in a high pitched voice.
"Yes, this was too good to do only once." James smirked and dug in the pile of food he had on his plate.
They ate in silence for a while, mouths to stuffed to talk properly, around them people were chatting and wondering who had jinxed the food like that.
From the Ravenclaw table Sirius heard a fifth year say, "must have been someone from the NEWTS, nobody younger could have done it." It gave him a great satisfaction that his shabby friend had been able to teach them that jinx. People never considered Remus as a talent but that was mostly because of the way he looked, and it bothered Sirius a lot. It shouldn't matter how they looked, if their blood was pure, or what your last name was, everybody should have a chance to prove themselves.
From the Huffelpuf table mutters came about the type of jinx placed on the food, only Gryffindor and Slytherin came close to the truth. Lily Evans was whispering to, Ann Grimbone, the girl next to her, "I'm sure James and Sirius know something about this."
"Lily, you are fighting a war you can't win, they looked just as surprised as anyone." Ann answered.
From the Slytherin table came, "It must have been some stupid blood traitor, maybe that Black kid, if it was a decent person he or she would at least have the decency to stay away from our food."
The four boys didn't utter a word about it and just enjoyed the feast, the food was good and besides from Lily Evans and the Slytherins the company was good, so there was no need not to enjoy themselves.
"We should do something this big every special feast." James muttered to Sirius.
"Something particular in mind?" Sirius asked with his mouth full.
"Not yet." James shrugged. "Valentine's day would be a good one. Easter, maybe."
"Christmas to holy in the Potter household?" Sirius challenged.
"Christmas would be good but you'll have to that one, mate, my parents expect me back for Christmas." James answered casually.
Sirius pulled up a blank face, he didn't want to show his friend how much those words actually hurt. It wasn't that he wanted to celebrate Christmas at home, he'd really rather stay at Hogwarts, but it was the fact that his friend would leave for a loving family. Gifts, good food, joy, and some love, something he secretly wanted as well. Sirius honestly couldn't remember the last time he really enjoyed Christmas, it was always a stiff affair with pure-blood relatives discussing whom their kids were going to marry and have pure-blood kids with. As soon as the word marriage came up Sirius fled the room, he just didn't want to know.
The other boys didn't notice that Sirius wasn't paying attention to their conversation anymore, they happily continued talking about the effect of this prank and what to do with the next. Meanwhile Sirius's state mind spiraled downwards, wouldn't it be nice to use my magic to beat some brains into those stupid pure-blood advocates, he thought to himself as he glanced over at the Slytherin table. His cousin was talking to Macnair, and one of the Lestrange brothers, Sirius knew the two boys had the same ideas as Bellatrix, but Bella was a bit different, a bit more passionate about the whole pure-blood thing, it reached pure insanity according to Sirius, but that was the reason why his family loved Bellatrix so much, Bella was in their mind the ideal daughter.
A few seats to the left Sirius saw his older cousin, Andromeda, he had always like her. Andromeda wasn't like her mother or sisters, she was friendly to everyone, muggle-born, half or pure blood, to her it didn't matter. Besides that she was very talented and smart, she had a certain wit about her. Sirius couldn't figure out why she was sorted into Slytherin, it just so wasn't her. Andromeda had always been a bit of a black sheep in the family, a place now taken by Sirius himself, but Andromeda had openly told her parents that the whole pure-lood thing was non-sense. It has caused a shock in the family and Andromeda was severely punished. After that she had never said a word again, she just did like she didn't hear people talking. Sirius knew it was discussed to ship Andromeda off with a pure-blood husband immediately after she finished school.
Not wanting to dwell on that thought Sirius turned his attention away from Amdromeda and looked further along the Slytherin table he saw Snivellus talking to the head boy Malfoy.
"Yeah, slime your way up. Slimy git." Sirius muttered.
A sudden poke in his side brought him back to his friends.
"What do you think, mate?" James asked.
"What are you talking about, I missed something."
"About joking around a bit more. I thought, and Remus and Peter agree, that we should put more of our time in learning useful spells, jinxes and curses so we could have more fun. I can't wait to help out the Quidditch team with jinxing the Slytherins before the up coming match."
"Using magic to get some sense in the Slytherins I'm all for." Sirius smiled darkly.