See previous chapters for all this stuff
Some of this chapter is a bit different to normal- based on something I saw online somewhere- Still, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 14- Sirius' Surprising behaviour
Remus returned panting his dormitory, where five boys were getting ready- Well four. Peter was still snoozing. 'Hey you four! I'm back! I has to go home- My dad's ill.' He quickly said. James looked at him, a questioning look, and asked,
'Again? I swear he was ill a month ago!'
'His illness came back. We...don't know what it is, but it returns now and then, and he needed both me and mum to look after him when it does.'
'And it involves you getting hurt? What sort of illness is it?' Remus could feel James's gaze lingering on the new task on his face and arm.
'We...think he may, err... have been cursed a few generations ago. Some curses can resurface in other descendants which may include my dad. This thing causes him to...well...loose control over his magic every few months, even monthly itself. Sometimes it lashed out, but with us, it is much rarer than anyone else.' Both James and Sirius agreed that whatever Remus just said, was made up on the spot. They, however, had no intention of pushing this issue, Remus was extremely pale and looked unhappy, and they trusted Remus, there must be a good reason for hiding the truth. However, while James put water over Peter to wake him up, Sirius thought over it, and formulated his own idea. They made their way over to the Great Hall, bumping into a group of first year Slytherins. It was definitely a most uncomfortable walk. James glared daggers at Snape, who returned the look. James muttered something then hung back from his group of Gryffindors. He then ran up to his dormitory and pulled a package from under his bed. In it were two toys. One was of a dragon (Norwegian Ridgeback) the other, a cat, both looking suspiciously innocent, like puffin Peter received for Christmas. He grabbed the black and white cat toy and headed to the owlrey.
His eagle owl jumped onto his shoulder. This sharp orange eyes were coloured like fire, but were friendly and warm. His soft brown feathers glistened in the morning son. James gave him a treat, but then went to one of the school owls. His owl looked upset, but James laughed slowly and said,
'Oh Emilos, I'm afraid your to good for this one- It's for Snivelly!' The owl relaxed and hooted happily.
'Here, thanks this to Snape, he's in the Great Hall.' He spat out Snape's name. The brown owl looked at him for a second, before taking of, and gliding outside. James raced down to breakfast, and began eating, shovelling food down his mouth, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
'What did you do?' Sirius asked inquisitively. James looked over at Peter and Remus, smiriking.
'Well, I forgot to give Snivellus a birthday gift, it was earlier in January, do I though't I'd give him one now. It's like anew version of Peter's Christmas gift from me.' Sirius, Remus and Peter all understood and their eyes darted to the top window, waiting for the owls to enter. Their wish was granted, as a mass of owls flew into the Hall, a mass of feathers and hoots, before dropping the many letters and parcels to their respective owners. The boys followed a tattered barn owl with light brown feathers, as it landed gracefully on Snape's table, with a little fluffy cat. Snape looked at the toy curiously, and the four Gryffindors took in a a sharp intake of breath, as Snape took his finger out, and prodded it. It then instantly changed into a toy lioness, who opened her mouth and began to sing in an high-pitched opera voice.
'THE BOLDEST AND THE BRAVEST!
WE ARE ALWAYS CHIVALROUS!
WE ARE CLEARLY THE BEST!
WE ARE GRYFFINDOR!
WE'RE WHAT YOU NEED IN A QUEST!
WE TAKE RISKS IN ANY TEST!
WE'RE WAY BETTER THAN THE REST!
WE ARE GRYFFINDOR!' The hall was suddenly super silent. They all stared at the lioness, who had now curled up, asleep. Professor Dumbledore than got up, and said,
'What an interesting performance! Although I must say, I don't think the house rivalry should be encouraged. All houses should be equal, as it was when the founding four founded the four houses after they founded Hogwarts itself.' He sat down and continued eating, smiling pleasantly at the teachers besides him. James glared at him.
'As if the old man doesn't have a preference for Gryffindor- I've heard several stories of him very clearly showing his Gryffindory ways. Lupin looked offended.
'Dumbledore isn't just an old man...'he started.
'How did he manage today that last bit?' Peter interrupted.
'What? The founding four founders the four houses after founding Hogwarts itself?' Sirius repeated quickly and precisely. His friends looked absolutely astonished.
'I had a boring childhood, had to improvise fun, so I ended up trying to learn to say those tongue twisting things in my free time. I got rather good at it.' The three still looked stunned.
'Oh, speaking of my family, are you family nice to you Remus- honestly?' His face was dead serious, even his twinkle in his eye was gone. The three were even more stunned.
'What...well..yes, of..of..course!' Remus spluttered. James grabbed Sirius and went into an abandoned corridor.
'What are you on about?' James asked him.
'You knew he was lying earlier. So, what does he do when he goes home in those nights? Why does he return covered in scars? I swear, if he's being abused...' James' mouth dropped open.
'My parents are mean, but they don't abuse me. That would be one step further than they are now...' James hit Sirius on the head with the only thing he had in his hands. A spoon. Well, it still seemed to work. His eyes were wide with horror, and the look was not missed by Remus or Peter.
"Sirius.' Remus began, his voice smooth, relaxing and enjoyable. 'I swear it's nothing like you probably think it is. I...can't tell you the actual reason, but I am not getting mistreated.' Sirius looked at Remus, certain he was telling the truth.
'Well, some can get mistreated without knowing it. He dashed off to the library.
' I have never seen Sirius act like that!' James tried to nearly shouted it.
'My guess is that that was his caring side in full action.' Remus actually whispered.
'Unfortunately, I believe he is going to make his own situation worse, instead of fixing yours- He doesn't know that he's abused by his parents! What happens if he finds out?' Remus and Peter both paled slightly.
'I mean, he's still a first year, so he has to see his family most holidays until he leaves in his last year, and some wizards and with he's still go to their parents after that. But if Sirius knows what his parents are doing to him. All those holidays will become nightmares!' Peter nodded and said quietly,
'We need to stop him.' James looked down at his feet.
'But...he needs to know the truth, right? Just, not in this way.' The other two boys seemed extremely concerned for James too, it was rare to see him act so downtrodden. The three walked through the corridor, silently, their footsteps echoing off the walls, keeping them from silence. When they reached the library, they found a much- more relaxed Sirius looking around. Remus's tapped him on the shoulder.
'You know, the muggles are kind of good at this stuff, so, I could order you a muggle book on it?' Despite Sirius looking so gloomy, it was easy to see the temporary twinkle of an eye when he talked of muggles.
That sounds great!- Well I don't need to continue searching now!' He strutted out of the library, his brown wavy hear bouncing behind him.'
Sirius seemed much happier after that, contrast to the other three, who were much more solemn. All of them were woken out of their thoughts by a second year sitting by them.
'What happened to you three? Did a prank go wrong? Well, you're still first years, so the pranks you play aren't really that advanced so calm down.' The second year boy turned back to his friend. James glared at him.
'Well, how about we do pull a grand prank?' Sirius suggested. James suddenly smiled.
'Yeah! How about one in the middle of class?' And so, the planning began.
'Now, that is way to hard Sirius, that potion is meant to be third year material!' James groaned.
'Oh come on! In transfiguration, we are already doing second year stuff! You can't deny, we are advanced for our age!'
'Transfiguration, Sirius, transfiguration. This is a potion we are on about!'
'Well, a lot of our pranks use magic way beyond us! Sirius retorted.
'Half the time the magic is done when we get them, or you've already learnt the spell from you uncle or my family! Others do the advanced stuff for us!'
'What about the colour changing spell? Glisseo?'
'You are the one who has mastered it. You know you are good at those spells as you had to learn those types of spells for your parents!'
'Well, let's try one of those!' James opened his mouth, but closed it again. Actually, if they were going to do something new, the 'household charms' book was the place to start. Sirius dived into his trunk and pulled out the book he got in his first detention. Remus and Peter looked at the book inquisitively.
'Oh, you don't know about it do you? Well in my first detention, we found this secret room on the seventh floor and I found this book and several other useful things inside it. We tried looking for it again, but we could not find it.' Sirius flicked through the book, occasionally stopping. He was nearing the end of the book, when all of a sudden he smiled.
'Perfect. A charm to make writing illegible. I think some of the Slytherins would like that for that long potions essay. And maybe we can use the amplifying charm so that we can all hear their response!'
'Cool! The only problem is, is that we don't have a long potion essay. And I'm sure Sluggy can't really give a good response. His reaction to the fireworks was no fun.'
'I mean Amorrow and Bergelmir from my potions class. We've got Mr Barchi, that short tempered teacher we met in the hallway the other day. That's why I wanted to use the amplifying charm, so you could hear it next door.'
'Great!' Remus added in. 'Our first potions lesson is tomorrow first thing. Do it then, I hate starting the week with potions.' James smirked.
'Never thought I'd hear Remus encouraging us to perform a prank.'
'Well, I'd never thought I could beat James in a transfiguration test.' Reminding James of the tragic events of Friday's transfiguration lesson, where his transfigured box still had the cylindrical shape of the tin can, despite it having to be a cuboid. As a result Remus had beaten him. James closed his eyes, as if the memory hurt him.
'Illegibilus.' Sirius muttered. James homework immediately became smudged and blotched. Sirius looked at it with horror. 'I didn't think it would work the first time!' His sentence was drowned out by James shouting,
'I SPENT AN HOUR ON THAT, IT'S DUE TOMORROW!' He grumbled as he picked up his parchment and started writing again.
The next day started with the pounding rain waking up all the boys. They grumbled their way out of bed, and Sirius and James made up with each other from yesterday over complaining about the rain.
'The rain is sooooo annoying!' James groaned.
'Oh my gosh, yes, it always makes Quidditch so much harder to play!' Sirius swiftly replied. It seemed to be less than 10 minutes later that the two were best friends again. Of course, another factor in this, was the upcoming prank. Most of their pranks were merely improvised, but planned ones always seemed to be better, and more exciting. Sirius made his way to potions 10 minutes early.
'Ah, Mr. Black! You're here early!' Mr Barchi greeted Sirius warmly. As much as Sirius liked to deny it, he was good at potions, but wasn't boastful, like the Slytherins in his class. He was definitely one of the professor's favourites, which he must preferred over being Slughorn's favourite. He had unpacked all of his things when the first students-The Ravenclaws unsurprisingly- entered. Everyone had entered, and Sirius then offered to collect the homework. He smirked at Peter as he whisked around, collecting everyone's long pieces of parchment, careful to keep the two Slytherin's pieces on the top. As he came back to his own table, Peter's parchment somehow fell of the table, not pushed off discretely by an excited Peter Pettigrew, and so Sirius had to bend down to pick them up. Only Peter heard Sirius saying,
'Illegibilus' twice. Sirius then walked up to the Professor's desk, smiling innocently, a little sparkle in his eye the only sign of the mischief he had been up too. He sat down quietly at his potion, smirking at Peter. The professor picked up the first piece of parchment-
'Viridi Bergelmir. Let's see what you...' he stopped abruptly as he turned the paper over.
Sirius and Peter watched with anticipation as Professor Barchi's face got redder and redder.
'Like a tomato' Sirius said to Peter.