Sirius: 2 October, 1971

Sirius was sulking as only Sirius could.

"I still don't understand why I have to go out with her," he huffed, his arms crossed petulantly over his chest.

"Because you told her you would. Now stop pouting," Andromeda told him hastily. They were in an empty classroom, where she was straightening the robes she had somehow acquired for him.

"I don't see why I have to wear dress robes. We're not even leaving the grounds. How did you even get dress robes on such short notice anyway?"

"I wrote to Uncle Alphard and asked him to get you some, and you have to wear them because you want to look respectable."

"No, I don't. I'm only doing this because you're making me."

"Are you always this belligerent?"

"Yes."

Andromeda narrowed her eyes at her cousin and smacked him playfully on the arm. "Liar."

Sirius threw his hands up in frustration. "Why'd you ask me if you already knew the answer?"

Andromeda sighed. "I've got half a mind to put you in detention."

Now it was Sirius' turn to narrow his eyes. "You wouldn't do that."

"I might," she said, crossing her arms over her chest

"You won't," he replied, mimicking her stance.

"I could," she retorted, moving her hands to her hips.

"But you won't," he said, putting his own hands on his hips and imitating the stern look she was shooting him perfectly.

For a moment, he thought she might laugh. She sighed again instead. "Just be polite. She's a very nice girl."

"She's a Slytherin."

"I'm a Slytherin."

"But you're you!"

"And she's her! What's that got to do with anything?"

"You're not like other Slytherins."

"How many other Slytherins do you know, besides the ones you're related to?"

"I know Snape, and he's foul."

"Well, that's true enough, but there are foul people in every house."

"Not in Gryffindor."

"What about that Pettigrew kid you hate so much? The one who decapitated Reg's dragon?"

"We're friends now."

"Oh? When did that happen?"

"A few days ago," Sirius said absently, brushing at a lock of hair that had fallen into his eyes. It was really getting to be time for him to have a haircut. His mother never let his hair get very long, but he had always thought he'd look good with hair down to his shoulders. It occurred to him very suddenly that he could let it grow here and no one would stop him. At least, not until he went home for Christmas. Then his mother would probably attack him and chop it all off.

"Well, if you can make friends with him, you can be nice to Victoria for one afternoon," Andromeda replied, running her fingers through his hair to style it.

"But I don't want to be nice to Victoria," Sirius whinged, jerking his head away.

Another sigh. "Sirius," Andromeda said, a warning in her tone. "Just stop arguing and behave yourself."

"I always behave myself," Sirius informed her, holding his head up high. "Haven't you been listening to all the teachers? I'm a little angel."

At that, Andromeda did laugh. "You're a hooligan. They just don't know you yet."

"You love me," he told her.

"Of course I love you. Doesn't change the fact that you're a hooligan. Now get downstairs. She's waiting for you." Andromeda hugged him briefly before she spun him around and sent him out of the room with a small but emphatic shove. He turned and shot her his best grin before scampering away, leaving her standing in the middle of the classroom shaking her head and muttering about how she'd never have children.

Sirius shuffled down the stairs, pulling at the neck of his robes. He hated dress robes. Their only purpose was to make a person look better than they really are, and he had no patience for those sorts of games. His philosophy was that a person should just be themselves all the time and not worry about what other people thought. He never did understand the lengths adults would go to to impress one another. He understood the things they would inflict upon their children even less. He couldn't count the number of times his parents had carted him out to show off for their friends. They would brag loudly about how smart he was and how talented, when all they told him behind closed doors was that he was stupid and worthless. He thought he might have hated the false compliments even more than the insults. At least the insults were honest. The compliments were only lies designed to make other people feel inferior.

As for his so-called date with Victoria Crabbe, he saw little point in that charade either. She had to be aware that he only talked to her to get the Slytherin password. At first, Sirius refused to go out with her at all. Andromeda had threatened him with all sorts of horrible things that he knew full well she'd never do, each more desperate than the last: from taking a ludicrous number of points to putting him in detention to writing his mother. In a moment of desperation, she even threatened to haul him over her knee. Sirius called her bluff on each idle threat. He thought it might be possible to push her far enough that she really would take a few points or give him detention, but he did not for one moment believe that she'd really write his mother or smack him. She knew his history far too well to do either of those things.

In the end, she simply decreed that she wouldn't speak to him anymore until he "did the right thing". At first, he thought that was a bluff as well, but after two days of being ignored, he began to miss her and relented. Andromeda was his favorite cousin after all, and one of the few people in his life who ever said kind things to him that she actually meant. He didn't like being cut off from her. He was already beginning to worry about what Hogwarts would be like after she graduated.

"Hi," Victoria said shyly when Sirius arrived in the Entrance Hall. Sirius looked around, hoping they didn't run into anyone important. He didn't want anyone to know that his first date at Hogwarts was with a Slytherin who wasn't even pretty. He wondered briefly what it must be like to know you were a person's pity date, and he felt a surge of sympathy for her. She had done her hair up nicely and put on makeup. Too much of it, in Sirius' opinion, although he would never have told her that. She was wearing floaty robes that were almost the same color blue as her eyes. Now that he noticed them, she did have very pretty eyes. Really, she wasn't so bad at all.

"You look very pretty," he told her in his most sincere tone. No one in the world, save a very well-trained legilimens, would ever have suspected he was lying.

She flashed him a very crooked-toothed smile and ruined the effect. "Thank you. You look very handsome."

Sirius was well aware of how good he looked, but he resisted the urge to say so. Instead, he smiled at her and thanked her politely. He was a Black, after all, and a Black was always gracious. Even when the circumstances were less-than-ideal.

"So, what are we going to do?" she asked softly.

"I thought we could go watch the quidditch team practice."

"Oh." Her face fell.

"You don't want to do that?" he asked. He couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to watch quidditch.

"No, it's not that. It's just... I don't really like quidditch."

Sirius looked at her as though she had just sprouted a second head. "How can you not like quidditch?"

Victoria shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't. I never did. I don't like sports at all, really."

"Oh, well, we can go down to the lake then."

"Okay," she agreed. They went to the lake, where he taught her how to skip stones. She wasn't particularly good at it. When they grew bored with the stones, he suggested climbing trees, but she didn't want to. Then he suggested exploring the Forbidden Forest, but she didn't want to do that either. Nor did she want to tease the giant squid, pester the whomping willow, or sneak to Hogsmeade.

Sirius was particularly hoping she'd want to do the latter.

Only a few days before, he and James had discovered a secret passageway behind a statue of a one-eyed witch. Sirius had managed to charm Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist, into telling them the password and that it led to the Honeydukes basement in Hogsmeade. They planned to go down it right away, but no sooner had they stepped into the passageway than Peeves began to shout at the top of his voice about students being out of bed. Sirius and James scrambled back into the corridor and only narrowly escaped being caught by McGonagall. Ever since then, Sirius had been dying to explore it but had not yet had a chance. He had also been dying to get even with Peeves, but he didn't have the slightest idea how to go about doing such a thing.

"We'll get into trouble," Victoria said, as though the thing were unimaginable.

"So?" Sirius asked. He doubted anyone would rat him out to his parents for being out of bounds, and what did he care about detention? It was so tame compared to the things his father usually did to him that it hardly felt like a punishment at all. An hour of scrubbing trophies was a piece of cake, especially when he spent most of that hour faffing about with James.

Finally, Sirius suggested sneaking down to the kitchens, but Victoria wasn't hungry, so they sat in the grass, where she taught him how to make wreaths from daisies. She made him a crown of them to wear and put it on his head, giggling. He pretended to like it and made her one as well. Then they sat by the lake and watched the sunset as she rested her head on his shoulder before they made their way inside and separated at the door to the Great Hall.

"I had fun," she said.

"Me, too," he told her, thankful that he was such a talented liar. She was nice enough, but it had still been one of the longest afternoons of his life.

"Maybe we can do it again sometime?" she asked hopefully.

"Maybe," Sirius replied noncommittally.

"Well, see you," she said, looking at him expectantly.

"See you," he said. He smiled at her and gave a little wave as he turned toward the Gryffindor table, not seeing the look of disappointment on her face.

"Are you king of the forest?" Peter asked as he sat down.

"Hrm?" Sirius asked distractedly.

"You've got flowers in your hair," Remus explained.

Sirius reached up. He forgotten that the daisy crown was still on his head. He pulled it off and placed it on the table before filling his plate with food.

"How was your date?" Remus asked.

"It was okay," Sirius told him between bites. "Only she doesn't like quidditch."

"How could anyone not like quidditch?" James asked, his shock clearly showing on his face.

"That's what I said!" Sirius replied. "She wants to go out again, but I don't think so. She didn't want to do anything fun. All she wanted to do was skip stones and make daisy chains."

"Did you suggest exploring the forest?" James asked.

"Of course."

"What about teasing the squid?" Peter put in.

"What part of 'she didn't want to do anything fun' did you not understand?" Sirius asked his friend, his eyes twinkling.

"That's a shame. When I date a girl, I want her to be the sort of girl who likes to do fun things, like camping and hiking and flying and stuff," James said resolutely.

"Do you think Evans likes those things?" Sirius asked.

James shrugged. "I don't know. Oi! Evans!" he bellowed down the table, leaning backward to look at her.

"What?" she called, leaning backward as well.

"Do you like to go camping?"

"I don't know. I've never been, but I always thought it sounded fun."

"I love camping. You should go out with me!"

"Not for all the gold in Gringotts!"

James sat back up and shook his head. "Mental, that one," he told his friends. "Imagine not wanting to go out with me."

"I thought she liked Snape," Peter said. "Besides, you're too good for her. She's a muggle-born. And I heard her family's really poor."

Sirius sucked in his breath as James jerked his head up from his plate, a look of pure outrage contorting his features. Remus dropped his face into his palm. "Il ne pense jamais," he muttered under his breath, shaking his head. Sirius was surprised to know that Remus could speak French. He also agreed heartily with Remus' assertion that Peter never seemed to think.

"Jamais," Sirius agreed.

Remus caught Sirius' eye. "You speak French?" he asked brightly in French.

"Fluently," Sirius replied, also in French. "I've studied it since I was young. My mother says all the well-bred boys have to know French, but my tutor says my accent is horrible. How did you learn it?"

"My mother's from France."

"Oh, really? Where?"

"Normandy. Deauville, to be exact."

"I've been to Deauville! It's lovely. I like the beach, but my father likes the horse races. We've been all over France, actually. Brittany's my favorite."

"I've been there, too. I like the medieval houses in Rennes. Have you been to Rennes?"

"I have. And St. Malo. Have you ever been there?"

"Yes, and we were trapped on Grand Bé when the tides came in."

"We were trapped on Grand Bé once, too. Wouldn't it be interesting if we were there at the same time and never knew it?"

"Are you two planning to start speaking English again at any point?" James asked loudly.

"You could always learn French," Sirius suggested.

James shook his head emphatically. "My father speaks Gobbledygook," he said happily. "He always said he'd teach me if I wanted to learn, but I never did."

"I'd love to learn Gobbledygook," Dirk Cresswell interrupted to say. He and Michael Wheeler were sitting nearby. They had made a habit of listening in to Sirius and James' conversations, and Sirius really wished they'd stop. Sometimes those conversations were intended to be private, after all.

"It's very different from French," Sirius said skeptically.

"I don't want to learn French," Dirk replied.

"Why not?" Remus asked. "It's a beautiful language."

The conversation continued to revolve around which people wanted to learn which languages, and Sirius took the opportunity to study Peter. He wondered if Peter even knew that Sirius and Remus had just saved him from being shouted at. Probably not, he decided. He still wasn't entirely sure he liked the small, mousy boy, although he respected that Peter was now a part of his group of friends whether he liked it or not. He had to admit Peter had grown on him since the incident with Snape the week before. He had been as surprised as anyone to learn that Peter was the one who made Snape's hat fly off in the middle of dinner.

"Peter did that?" he asked James skeptically in the common room that evening.

James nodded.

"Our Peter?"

Another nod.

"Peter the dragon slayer?"

James snorted and quirked his eyebrows. "Dragon slayer?"

"I like giving people nicknames," Sirius explained.

"I don't think 'Dragon Slayer' is a good nickname. Makes it sound like what he did was brave. How about mascot murderer?"

"Nah, that doesn't have the right ring to it? What about 'Worm Guts'?"

"'Worm Guts' is good." Sirius and James had been referring to Peter as "Worm Guts" ever since. He clearly hated the moniker, but he stopped complaining once it became clear the others had no intention of dropping it. He seemed to not be able to believe his luck at having somehow landed in the inner circle of the two most popular boys in their year. It was obvious he didn't want to rock the boat. Sirius didn't blame him. He and James were amazing, after all, and Peter was decidedly dull. There was still something about Peter that rubbed him the wrong way, but he couldn't quite put a finger on what it was. He was slowly deciding that he had just gotten off the wrong foot with Peter and had been too hard on him. Either way, he had to admit it was fun to have Peter around. He was good for an ego boost if nothing else. He seemed to think James and Sirius hung the moon, and that suited James and Sirius just fine.

Remus did not call Peter "Worm Guts". Instead, he insisted on calling the boy by his name. Remus seemed to genuinely like him, something Sirius couldn't quite wrap his mind around. He still couldn't make any sense of the way the Remus and James would defend Peter's cruelty, insisting that it was accidental. Sirius simply could not believe that a person could be that clueless, although he had to admit that Peter was doing a bang up job of fooling everyone.

Sirius was unused to being around unintelligent people. In his world, every interaction was a battle and each move his parents made seemed carefully calculated to wound someone: the children, their enemies, one another. Accidental cruelty simply did not happen in the Black house. It was always malicious, meticulously designed to be stealthy, brutal, and quick. His mother, especially, had mastered the subtle art of the impromptu verbal blitzkrieg.

She seemed to always choose his happiest moments to lay him bare. When he was proud of himself for having done well, that was when she would remind him that someone else could do it better. When he was lost in some joyful activity, that was the moment she would choose to tell him what a disappointment he was. Christmases and birthdays were her favorite days to go on the offensive, and she was a master at choosing the moments when Sirius least expected it; the moments when he would be caught so off guard that the damage was done long before he managed to understand what had just happened.

That was how he had come to develop such a quick wit. It had been a survival tactic to claim tiny victories out of an impossible situation. If he couldn't stop her from screaming at him, he could at least get in a few zingers himself. If he couldn't save Regulus from being beaten, he could at least make his little brother laugh after it was over. If he couldn't force his two sadistic cousins to leave him alone, he could at least cut them to the quick and stop them that way. Yes, Sirius had been well-versed in the lessons of cruelty and emotional warfare. As far as he could see, Peter clearly had been as well. That he had managed to fool Remus and James so well only served to prove it.

That was the piece that bothered Sirius more than anything: James and Remus were both innocent souls, ignorant of the evil that could lie in the hearts of men. Sirius had never been allowed innocence - at least, not for as long as he could remember. He recalled his father teaching him hexes when he was four and handing him a wand, expecting him to use them. He practiced most of them on Bella, particularly after she got her own wand and discovered she could use it outside of school, rules be damned.

The two of them used to have mini duels when the adults weren't looking. Sirius nearly always won. Bella was a talented duelist, but Sirius was better. Then she would get even by hexing him under the table in the middle of dinner. Sirius could not count the number of times he had been punished for knocking something over because she had hit his leg with a stinging hex. He got quite good at pickpocketing wands so he cast a shield charm and hex her back if necessary.

Once he got good enough at both hexes and pickpocketing that he was always prepared with a wand whenever she came over, the two of them called a truce by unspoken mutual consent. Sirius hoped that had not changed now that he was in Gryffindor. He had no desire to have any more duels with her. Ever. He may have been more talented, but she was nastier and far more willing to fight dirty. Underhanded tricks had never come easily to Sirius. He much preferred to face things directly.

"Sirius. Sirius! Hey! Sirius!" James called to him. "Are you listening to me?"

"What?" Sirius asked, coming out of his thoughts. "Yes, I'm listening."

"Then what were we talking about?" James asked him.

"Gobbledygook," Sirius reported obediently.

"We stopped talking about Gobbledygook five minutes ago. You've really been out of it, haven't you? After dinner, we're going to break into the school broom shed and take some chool brooms for a spin. Want to come?"

"We who?"

"Peter, Remus, and I. And you, if you want to."

"I wouldn't miss that for anything!" Sirius enthused. "I'm an excellent flyer, you know."

"You've mentioned that once or twice," Peter muttered.

"What was that, Worm Guts?" Sirius asked, a hard edge to his tone.

"Nothing," Peter said, a little more loudly. "You know, I think I'm going to sit this one out. I've got loads of homework."

"Suit yourself," James said with a shrug.

"Maybe I will as well," Remus added.

"No!" James protested. "You have to come with us. It was your idea!" Only Sirius saw the pained look that crossed Peter's face. For the second time that day, he felt an uninvited surge of sympathy. He knew quite well how awful it felt to watch someone you cared about openly favor someone else.

"You should both come," Sirius said. "It'll be fun." He looked straight at Peter. "I really want you to come."

Peter blushed slightly, but he also smiled. "Really? You want me to come?"

Sirius nodded, smiling encouragingly. "Of course we do. You're our friend. It wouldn't be the same without you."

"I don't know how to fly," he admitted.

"Then we'll teach you," Sirius said. "It's not that hard. Honestly, it isn't."

"Okay, I'll go," Peter agreed. Sirius thought the poor kid's face would break if he smiled any wider.

After dinner, they hid out in an empty classroom and waited for the Great Hall to empty. Technically, they wouldn't be out of bounds, and no one had ever specifically told them not to fly school brooms unsupervised, but they still knew they shouldn't. When the coast was clear, they ran outside, reveling in the freedom the night air gave them. They were nearly to the broomshed when they heard a deep voice shout across the grounds, "Just what do yeh think yeh're doing?"

They turned to see Hagrid, the oversized groundskeeper, coming toward them. James paled a touch. Sirius couldn't blame him. Hagrid was certainly an intimidating fellow. "Let me handle this," Sirius whispered to his friends. None of them uttered a single protest; they were all watching Hagrid with fear in their eyes.

"What are yeh doin' out here?" Hagrid asked sternly when he got close enough to see them. "Yeh're not supposed to be out here after dark."

"We didn't know," Sirius said, pasting his best innocent expression on his face. "We only wanted to see the quidditch pitch. We're excited about the match coming up, and we wanted to see where we'd be sitting."

"Yeh should be in the castle," Hagrid scolded, but Sirius could tell by his face he was preparing to let them off. He wasn't sure how he did it, but he had always been able to size people up quickly, and with stunning accuracy. Hagrid, he decided, was not the slightest bit threatening, despite his wild man looks. All Sirius had to do now was play him just right and-

"We were going to sneak into the broomshed!" Peter confessed, tears running down his face. "We're sorry. Please don't tell McGonagall."

"Peter! What the hell are you doing?" Sirius snapped, forgetting for a moment that Hagrid was standing right there.

"Watch yer mouth. Yeh're far too young ter be talkin' like that. And yeh lot certainly shouldn't be sneakin' inter the broom shed. Brooms are dangerous if yeh don' know how ter fly."

"But we do know," Sirius told him, taking another tactic. "My parents taught me. Do you like to fly? I bet you're a wonderful flyer."

"There's no broomstick in the world could hold me, but I did get to take a ride on a flying carousel horse once, and I've always dreamed of riding a dragon."

"Oh, do you like dragons?"

Hagrid grew misty-eyed. "Having a pet dragon has always been my dream."

"I love dragons, too. We have a dragon mascot in our dorm. His name's Gawain."

"Oh, yeh're the ones who started all that mascot business?"

"Yes," Sirius told him. "Actually, it was James. Well, we should probably be going. We don't want to be out after curfew. See you later, Mr. Hagrid. Come on, gentlemen." Sirius waved goodbye and charged off across the grounds as though he hadn't a care in the world. His bemused friends followed. They were already inside before Hagrid remembered he was supposed to be punishing them.

"You're really something, you know that," James told him, shaking his head as they headed up the stairs.

"Yep," Sirius said with a grin. "I do. Hey, you want to check out that secret passageway tonight?"

James brightened. "That would be brilliant!"

"What secret passageway?" Remus asked. Sirius told him about the statue of the one-eyed witch and what they had found there.

"I want to come," Peter said excitedly.

"I don't know," Sirius told him. "Are you going to rat us out every time we get caught doing something we shouldn't?"

"No," Peter said, stung. "I didn't mean to do that. I just panicked. Mr. Hagrid's scary."

Sirius smiled. He had Hagrid's number now; he was quite sure the man was a teddy bear underneath. If he played his cards right, he might even be able to make friends with him. Being friendly with the groundskeeper would come in quite handy, he was sure. Maybe tomorrow, he'd drop into Hagrid's hut for a visit and talk about dragons some more. That seemed to be the swiftest way to the groundskeeper's heart.

"Okay, you can come then. But you better not ever give us away again. Remus? Are you coming?"

"I don't know," Remus said warily. "That was a close call we just had."

"That doesn't matter," James retorted. "We didn't get into trouble, and that's the important thing. Come on, Remus. You worry too much. Live a little!"

"Oh, all right," Remus relented. "But if we get into trouble, I'm going to hold a grudge.

"Fair enough," Sirius agreed. But then, it was easy for him to agree when he knew Remus was bluffing.