Chapter 52: Impressions

"Will you stop moping and open the desk?"

Sirius looked up at Remus who was looking exasperated and a bit beaten up, a smudge of ash on his cheek. He was pointing his wand at the old desk across the room, which shook in an intimidating sort of way.

"I told you he'd never leave it unlocked," Sirius said putting his hands behind his head. "Best to let it tire itself out."

"What could your father have in his desk to protect?"

Sirius shrugged. "Who knows. The whole family is batty."

They both fell back onto stiff antique chairs to wait for the desk to calm down. Remus gestured to the paper, which had prompted Sirius' pouting, with a headline that read The Rise of American Muggle Hunters!

"Daily prophet is reaching to distract us with stories from abroad, I see," said Remus picking it up and flipping it open. Sirius closed his eyes, he estimated it would take Remus ten seconds to get to the juiciest part of the article.

Remus got there in five.

"Padfoot! Have you read this?"

Sirius opened his eyes lazily. "Course I read it."

Remus began to read it aloud any way,"The Sons of Scourers, SS for short, have been a rising nuisance to the American Congress for the last decade, at times creating issues in largely populated cities that host both muggle & wizardry communities. It was in such a town that the Ministry's own representative, Clara Ezra-Mahoney, & her companion made a daring rescue. When asked to elaborate on the issue, Erza-Mahoney replied 'honestly, it was just a few drunks pestering some no-maj. We stupefied them, made sure the no-maj were okay, and then obliterated their memory. We replaced it with a nice stroll in the park so the whole ugly affair isn't a big deal.' "

"Read the next part," Sirius grinned.

"'The Ministry applauds the modesty & heroics of all of its members, auror or otherwise,' Minister Fudge said. 'We sent Ms. Erza-Mahoney as a representative to America to continue our favorable relationship and are pleased that she is continuing to do good work to put our best foot forward. She is truly a reflection of the policies my administration works for in & outside of Britain.'"

"That's the ticket," Sirius said with a bark laugh. "That's the classic bit."

"He'll ham this one up any way he can," Remus said, tossing the paper back on the table. "Anything to help continue his image as the voice of reason. Leave it to Calamity to find trouble like a group of muggle-haters, though."

"She's not called Calamity for nothing," Sirius agreed, a slight smirk on his face. A wave of sadness hit him, as it had been doing recently. With Calamity away, first in her new apartment & now across the Atlantic, and the teens back at Hogwarts the Noble House of Black was even more oppressing than it had been. Remus was here now, but soon he would leave & Sirius would again be left alone sit in his room or pace through the abysmal house like Kreacher. Oh Merlin! He was turning into Kreacher!

Remus could sense the change in his friend. "Forgot to show you this. I found it yesterday in between a piece of furniture and the wall," he said holding out an old photograph. Sirius peered at it and the young faces of Remus, James, and himself smiled back at him, pushing and shoving one another. A compartment door was behind them.

"We have to be eleven or twelve here," Sirius chuckled. "Look at how excited we are."

"It's the first time we met, must have been a train picture because we met Peter after sorting," Remus said with a smile, "I remember all that like yesterday."

Sirius smirked nudging him. "What a romantic."

That night Sirius pulled the picture out again in the darkness of his room, scanning over it with his eyes, memorizing it as he did those poems in Azkaban. He remembered that day & closed his eyes pulling himself back to the scene in his mind's eye.

He could see his mother lecturing him as Narcissa's mother straightened her robes.

"Go with Narcissa. She'll make sure you are with the right crowd" snapped his mother. "Don't disappoint us."

"Yes, Mother," Sirius said. He turned to look at the scarlet red engine steaming before him.

"Walburga," hissed his Aunt. "Look there. That's the Potters I was telling you about. Gwendolyn was telling me that Fleamont's father served on the Wizengamot but caused a scandal for trying to sympathize with trash." She turned her gaze to Sirius and Narcissa. "Best to avoid their boy until we see otherwise."

Sirius could see their boy from where he stood. A mess of black hair on top of his head, looking half pleased and half embarrassed as his mother fussed over him. For a flash Sirius felt jealousy in his stomach, but he saw Narcissa moving away so he followed. They got onto the train and Narcissa disappeared without a word.

He rolled his eyes moving down the train and peaking into the compartments. The first one had Slytherins, a few that looked familiar from his aunt and uncle's political gatherings. He hurried passed. He wasn't sure he wanted any part of that. All the pureblood talk that no one was as great as them. Sirius rolled his eyes to himself. He'd snuck into the muggle park a few times and didn't see what the big deal was. Muggles seemed pretty normal to him. One had even bought him ice cream.

Sirius paused as he caught a glimpse of messy black hair. He backtracked and opened the compartment to find the boy with glasses laying on a seat by himself, tossing a pack of exploding snaps into the air and catching them.

"Bit dangerous, ey," Sirius asked.

The boy looked at him without sitting up. "Bit fun that way, right?"

Sirius grinned. "Mind if I sit?"

"Sure," the boy said catching the cards again and sitting up now. He motioned to the seat across from him. "James Potter."

"Sirius Black," Sirius said sitting down. To his pleasure James seemed unabashed by the name.

"Want to try your hand at these?"

"Now that they're all shaken up? They'll probably blow first thing."

A wicked mischievous grin broke across James' face and his eyes danced, "You think it'd be better to hand them off, eh?"

"Mind if we join?"

James and Sirius looked up to see an older blonde boy, with a Hufflepuff badge, & a smaller sandy haired boy, no badge on his robes.

"Sure," James called tossing them the cards and motioning for Sirius to join his seat, giving him a final sideways smirk.

"I'm Andrew Craig, & this is Remus Lupin."

"Sirius & James," Sirius said, strategically dropping the last name.

"Deal us in," James said.

As predicted, Andrew opened the cards and they exploded on the spot sending a puff of smoke around the lot of them. When it cleared, James was roaring with laughter, slapping Sirius' back. Remus chuckled, though he looked unsure at Andrew, as if he weren't sure it were nice to be laughing.

"Good trick. Let's see if I can't teach you a bit about respecting your elders," Andrew smiled.

They played and moved onto discussions, Andrew left to join his girlfriend & the three soon to be first years were left to become rowdier and rowdier. Sirius had never had friends outside of his family and playmates chosen by his parents. James Potter was the exact opposite of all of those playmates. They always discussed proper things like their new brooms and their bloodline. They rarely joked and when Sirius did they looked at him disdainfully, as if they had been warned of the eldest Black son. Remus was growing more & more comfortable & Sirius was begin to see a twinkle in his eye, like he was just as unfamiliar to the friendship forming as Sirius.

"I heard any house is fine, it just depends on what fits you best, and that's alright," Remus said.

"Even Slytherin," James asked critically. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"My whole family has been in Slytherin," Sirius confessed, preparing himself for a moment of rejection. This was when James Potter & Remus Lupin would realize their were in the presence of a Black and that he would be forced out to another, more suitable compartment where there were no jokes or exploding snaps.

Instead of looking horrified or disgusted James' eyes danced as he said, "Blimey and I thought you seemed all right!"

The boys crowed in laughter and Sirius grinned as James struck a magnificent pose to profess his love for Gryffindor. A sound of disapproval interrupted the monologue at it's height and they all turned to see a greasy boy with a hooked nose, already in his hand me down robes. Sirius felt suddenly very protective of his new friend. Who was this greasy hooked boy who came to ruin their fun with his disdain?

"Got a problem with Gryffindor," asked James.

"No, so long as you'd rather be brawny than brainy," drawled the boy, sneering in a way that made Sirius' blood boil on the spot. He looked at James the way Sirius' aunt had looked at the Potters from the platform.

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither brawny nor brainy," Sirius shot back at the boy's sneer.

James roared with laughter, but the boy looked angry, cheeks getting ugly splotches of red.

"You don't know anything about me, you filthy mudblood," hissed the boy.

Remus & James jumped up so quickly that it surprised Sirius. He wasn't a mudblood, he was a pureblood. It wasn't even an accurate observation & was a terrible insult. Sirius had heard the term before many times in perfectly civil political conversation. Just last week his father had turned to his mother casually over dinner & mentioned that the mudblood over in Wales was throwing a fit about something to do with imported tea kettles. He didn't take much offense.

"Take that back or I'll jinx you to next week," snapped James pointing his wand threateningly at the boy.

"They'll expel you before we even arrive at school," sniffed the greasy boy.

"I think you should apologize to our friend," Remus said calmly stepping between James & the boy. "You shouldn't call people that."

The greasy boy looked Remus up & down with disdain before turning and leaving.

"Don't forget to wash your mouth out, Snivellus," called James after him. He flopped down on the chair pouting. "You know I could have taken him, Remus, I would have been fine with the detention."

"Well, we can't have you get into trouble first thing, I know my mum would be furious. I don't want to start with a howler," Remus said.

James was about to protest when there was an explosion & sound of teens rushing down the corridor.

A few girls passed covering their noses & squealing, "That kid smells like a dungbomb. It came out of nowhere!"

James & Sirius looked at Remus, who innocently looked out the window.

"Such a terrible word. I suppose karma always finds a way," said Remus.

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