OOO

Sirius Black pinched himself for the fourth time that minute, earning strange looks from the fifth year sitting a few meters away from him in the Gryffindor Common Room. He didn't mind; the boy could stare for all he wanted. For all Sirius knew, he could just be looking off into the distance with a confused look on his face.

That probably wasn't it.

Maybe he was just wondering why Sirius Orion Black, the charismatic, wonderfully talented, handsome, charismatic, and smart third year was spending Christmas Break at Hogwarts, instead of going back to his family in London. Sirius sighed and pinched himself again. It wouldn't do to keep thinking about his family. Merlin, if he didn't know any better, he would think that he was homesick or something equally horrific!

That most certainly wasn't the case, though. Why would he be homesick if he had voluntarily chosen to stay at Hogwarts? Regulus had gone home, happily in fact, and hadn't even bothered asking his older brother why he had chosen to stay at school. It had been very Slytherin of him, and had doubtless made the rest of the Black family happy.

Sirius squeaked quietly as he realized that perhaps his sixth pinch had been a bit too hard. He quickly got up, deciding to go for a stroll to the kitchens. He obviously had nothing better to do; after all, anything was better than sitting by himself in the Common Room, staring morosely at the fireplace while pinching himself every time he started to think about his family. Yes, going to the kitchens sounded like a brilliant idea.

But once he got there, he realized his plan was flawed. Dinner was in half an hour, and the house elves were all busy making food for the professors and the few students that had stayed. Only two of them noticed Sirius when he walked in the in large room, and one ran up quickly to him, franticly wringing his small hands.

"Mister Black is needing to leave! Dirny is getting in trouble with professors because he is letting Mister Black in kitchens every day! Dirny is promising headmaster that he is stopping Mister Black and friends when they is coming. Oh, but Mister Black is in kitchens now, and Dirny is liar!"

Sirius snickered at the house elf's panic.

"It's fine, Dirny. If I can get an apple I'll be on my way, and nobody will have to know that I came to the kitchens."

"Fine, fine, Dirny is getting Mister Black the apple. But after that, Dirny is going to hit his head on the tables twenty times so that headmaster is not getting angry."

"I-I don't think that Dumbledore would want you doing that, Dirny…. In fact, why don't you just get me the apple and forget that I ever came here?"

"No, Dirny is not lying. Here is Mister Black's apple."

"…I'll leave you to your business then, Dirny."

Sirius left the kitchens quickly, tossing the apple in the air while vowing to himself that he would stop visiting the kitchens when Dirny was there.

He sat down in a nearby nook, biting into the apple before leaning back and staring at the fruit. It was red, as bright and proud as the Gryffindor red Sirius had become so familiar with in the past two and a half years. It was odd, really, because Sirius's favorite apples had always been the green, sour ones. It hadn't been because he had been raised to think of green as the ultimate pureblood colour. It had nothing to do with it, in fact. He just preferred the taste. Regulus liked red apples, yet he was a complete Slytherin.

But eating the red apple still made Sirius a bit depressed; the odd little twinges in his stomach only intensified, completely ruining the third year's appetite. He stood up and started to walk back to the Common Room, and stopped a first year Hufflepuff.

"Y-yes? Do you want anything?"
"Not especially. I just saw you walking towards me and thought that you looked like a promising smart young man. So I have decided to bestow upon you this apple."
"So you want me to take your apple?"

Sirius grinned and opened the Hufflepuff's hand and placed the half-eaten apple in it.

"Precisely."
The Hufflepuff looked bewildered, and stammered out his thanks before running away.

Sirius watched him run, his grin only growing wider as the boy stumbled and fell into a nearby suit of armor. Hufflepuffs were a funny bunch, and were always funny to tease.

The grin suddenly disappeared as Sirius realized what he had just thought. It had been dangerously close to what seemed to be Slytherin's unofficial motto: "You shall not let a Hufflepuff pass without ruining his day in any way possible".

Merlin, he was turning into his brother. Soon enough, his parents would be owling him, saying that they loved him and were proud of him. Narcissa would no longer ignore him in the hallways, and Bellatrix would call him her cousin again, forgetting that she had practically disinherited him the day he got into Gryffindor.

Sirius pinched himself again. It wouldn't do to be homesick. After all, his only real home was Hogwarts.

OOO

And here's the third and last chapter of Odd Little Twinges! Yes, I know I promised to update a lot quicker, but then school was a pain and I only just got the time to write now.

On another note, Odd Little Twinges won the Homesickness Competition! So thanks to RootsOfAHotelWindow!

I'd like to thank you all for reading these one-shots, and would love it for you to review. They really improve my writing, and make me happy. If that matters.

I'd like to thank the following people for reviewing: Starkid McFly and RootsOfAHotelWindow

Once again, thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

ItsOnMars :)