The group in the kitchen fast-forwarded the next few sections of video tape, as they had little desire to watch every lesson of the Marauder's first day at Hogwarts. Remus had explained to them that Peter had had a very short lived idea that if he filmed their lessons, he would never fall behind. It was a concept shattered by the subsequent boredom the footage caused and James' constant mocking. They began to play it once again when the younger James and Peter were in their dormitory, dressed in a uniform of childish stripy pyjamas.

It seemed as though James was filming.

Peter's voice sounded. "And look what McGonagall gave us! Two more chapters, as well as the stuff Binns gave us. It's only the end of our first week!"

The image of the screen was of the crimson canopy over presumably James' bed, and the shot zoomed in and out on it. Occasionally, bare feet would swing into the bottom of the shot.

"Are you going to do any, James?" Peter's voice squeaked out.

"Nah, not tonight," James' voice said loudly, as he was closest the to camera.

"Good attitude," commented George approvingly, earning a 'The Hermione,' as her disapproving look was now jokingly named.

James' voice rang out again. "I think I've mastered the zoom on this thing. Got to admit that the Muggles sure make some cool toys."

"You should see some of them James. The zooms can go to about five times that amount, and you can get cameras that change the shutter speeds automatically and everything, so that-"

Peter's voice was cut off by James'. "Yeah, but can they make the pictures move?"

A pause indicated that Peter had no retort for this.

The group in the kitchen heard the sound of a bolt scraping back and a door opening, before the shot swung round to show the young Remus exiting the bathroom clutching his robes in his hands and dressed for bed.

James spoke again. "You can get changed in here you know It's not like we're gay or anything." Peter's laugh could be heard off screen, but the camera followed Remus across the room to his bed, where he carefully folded his robes, a blush creeping up his neck. It was a detail that Harry wondered if he only picked up because he could guess why Remus would have been reluctant to change in front of others.

The younger Remus laughed nervously but didn't answer.

The subtle reaction from the image of the young Remus was clearly lost on Ron. "Bet you weren't too happy when Sirius turned out to be gay!" he laughed, slurping from his cup of tea.

Remus laughed too. "We weren't bothered at all to be honest, but a lot of the school had the same reaction as you."

Ron looked surprised. "You mean, you didn't mind changing and stuff in front of him? But he could have, you know..." Ron seemed to suddenly realise that he was insinuating that Sirius had been perving on his former professor and tailed off quickly.

"Just because they were all guys doesn't mean that Sirius had to fancy all of them," snapped Ginny, clearly annoyed at Ron's bluntness. "That's like saying that just because you and Hermione are friends, you have to fancy each other."

'Yeah I suppose," muttered Ron, but Harry thought he saw a faint blush spread on Ron's cheeks.

"To be honest with you," interrupted Remus, "I think that considering they had only confronted me about my lycanthropy about a month before Sirius admitted to us that he was gay, his problem never really seemed to even register as an issue. Mine was far more interesting."

"That was very mature of you all though," said Hermione seriously.

Remus nodded sadly. "Yes, it was really. Not many boys our age would have been so accepting.

A sudden cry of delight from the screen brought their attention back to it. The shot had followed Remus back to where he was standing, pointing out of the window. "Look, their playing Quidditch!"

The camera shot bounced about suddenly as James' pyjama-clad body darted out in front of it. He had clearly thrown the camera down onto his bed. The shot now showed the backs of the three boys on the left, craning out of the window and chatting excitedly.

"Looks like Ravenclaw. They're meant to be really good so no wonder they're practicing already." James, already the tallest, was peering over the top of Peter's head to get a better look.

Peter however, sounded less inspired. "Look how high they are… don't know if I'll want to do that."

James spoke again. What? Are you joking? Quidditch is the best sport ever! Have you never played?"

"My mum never let me." Peter sounded slightly embarrassed to admit this.

"What about you Remus?"

"I've never played either."

The admittance of this caused the young James to take a step back toward the camera lens. "Oh good god!"

Harry wondered vaguely how his father would react if he knew that his son had never even heard of Quidditch before Hogwarts. This depressing train of thought was interrupted by the sudden movement of all three boys on the screen, who all suddenly turned to stare at something off the right hand side. They heard a door slam and footsteps march across the room.

"Hello to you too." James had snapped the words sarcastically, so the viewers in the kitchen were left in no doubt over whom he was talking to.

The camera had fallen in a position so they could only see the very edge of the group of boys on the left, and the corner of Sirius' bed on the right. Harry thought that they were lucky to see anything at all considering the speed at which James had abandoned camera duties.

There was apparently no reply from the young Sirius, but the camera shot was just wide enough to catch James exchange a thoroughly pissed off look with the young Remus.

James stepped forward so that he was now visible fully in the frame. "Look, it's been a week now Black I think we all know that you're not going to be transferred to Slytherin or Durmstrang or wherever the hell you want to go. So if you're going to be stuck here with us you might as well try to be civil."

"Or we could just ignore each other."

Sirius' drawled reply made Harry think of one particular Slytherin.

"God, he sounds just like Malfoy!" exclaimed Ron in horror, confirming that Harry had not been the only one to hear the uncanny resemblance.

Remus chuckled lightly. "Ah yes, the classic pureblood drawl. A trait picked up with the single eyebrow lift and the subtle smirk."

"Malfoy ticks all of those boxes," said Ron, grabbing a Crunchy Nut from the plate.

"I think we have footage of Sirius attempting to teach us how to do them in this box somewhere," Remus said, gesturing to the box of videotapes by his feet. "I'm sure we'll come to that soon enough."

Sirius had now appeared in the camera shot.

"He looks ill," remarked Hermione.

Harry took a closer look at the young Sirius' face, and agreed that he definitely looked tired. He had the same tired and drawn look that Harry himself developed over the course of his summer holidays. He knew that it was the result of not sleeping and forced loneliness, but there was no way he was going to comment on that aloud.

"What, so you plan to spend the next seven years just ignoring us completely?" The young James sounded incredulous.

"I don't intend to be here that long. There's no way on earth I'm spending seven years in a house of blood-traitors and Mudbloods like you."

The sound of three outraged gasps hissed from the screen, along with the noises of disbelief in the kitchen.

"He did not just say that!" exclaimed Ginny, visibly shocked.

Harry too felt a pang of upset, tinged with anger. How had Sirius been so different? "I cant believe he was that horrible."

His tone of voice must have disturbed Remus, who froze the screen with a wave of his wand. "Harry, look, Sirius was only eleven. I'm not excusing his language," he added quickly, seeing Harry's outraged face, "but he had spent eleven years being brainwashed by his family."

"Like Malfoy," commented Hermione, chewing her lip and clearly disturbed.

"Exactly like Mr Malfoy," continued Remus. "Do you know what Sirius told us when we eventually became friends after Christmas? He said that he was practically unaware that there was another word for 'Mudbloods."

"What do you mean?" asked Fred.

Hermione spoke before Remus had the chance to reply. "Do you mean that he hadn't heard of the word Muggleborn?" she asked slowly, hardly daring to believe what Remus was saying.

Remus, however, nodded. "Exactly. We were disgusted, obviously."

Fred let out a low whistle. "No wonder these people are crackers," he commented, with all the insight of a Rita Skeeter article.

Remus flicked the screen back on quickly, evidently attempting to divert another long argument about Wizarding primary education which he had been forced to partake in with Hermione after the previous video they had all watched. The girl was clever, but sometimes he just wanted to watch camcorder videos.

James was shouting, in mid-flow. "-disgusting! My dad always said that your family were nasty pieces of work and now I know why."

They young Sirius didn't seem bothered by this statement at all. "At least we're not blood traitors like the Potters. You could have been noble and great, but you've tainted yourself."

James stepped further into the shot, now looking very red in the face. "You slimy little git!"

"Leave it James. Let's just- let's just go to bed." Remus' peace-making attempt was evidently ignored by both arguing boys.

The young Sirius now had a very ugly look on his face. "Everyone knows that the Potters are the worst kind of blood-traitor. If my father even knew I was talking to you-"

James shouted over him, causing the speakers on the screen to crackle a little. "Well, it doesn't seem like your father cares! They sent you a Howler didn't they? And they haven't sent you any post or letters so I don't think your parents care at all!"

The shot showed Sirius' face go very pale and crumple a little, as though James' words had really hit home. Harry felt a sudden pang of sympathy for the boy in the video.

They saw no more of the young Sirius, but a door slamming indicated that he had marched out of the dormitory, leaving a crackly silence on the screen behind him.

James gave a low whistle. "Jesus…"

"That was quite harsh," the young Remus said, so quietly that Harry nearly missed it.

James looked slightly guilty but shrugged. "It's true though, isn't it? There's no point in him going on about his parents thinking this and that if they ignore him."

"He looked quite upset." Peter had now stepped in to the frame, the camera still lying forgotton on James' bed.

James replied, sounding slightly irritated. "Yeah, well I don't have much sympathy for someone who throws Mudblood around."

"Yeah, I can't believe that…" The young Remus now moved fully in to shot to sit down on the bed opposite the camera. He bit his lip and looked uncomfortable. "This cant continue for the whole year though."

"Nah, he'll get down off his high-horse soon enough." It was as James said this that his eye was caught suddenly by the camera, as he had presumably noticed the red light glinting at the top of it. "Oh crap, we left the camera on!"

The camera shot suddenly swung about madly and they were rewarded with an unflattering close-up of Peter's chin as he peered down into the lens. "The battery is nearly gone. Better turn it off." And the screen went black.

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