I woke up to find that Sirius and I were still sitting on the couch by the fire in the common room. Sirius' head leaned against my shoulder and his hair fell over his eyes, which were puffy and red from crying. The fire was slowly dying in the hearth and outside the sky was a faint purple, the first vestiges of light coming through the clouds over the Forbidden Forest. It was still silent in the Gryffindor dormitories, but I could tell it wouldn't be long before everyone would be up. "Sirius," I whispered, rousing my friend, "We've gotta go up to our dorms before everyone wakes up. I'll walk you to your bed. C'mon, mate."

Sleepily, Sirius followed me up the steps to his bed, where I helped him climb up onto the mattress and carefully tucked him in. I felt a fierce surge of protectiveness over my friend, wondering what would reduce this brave boy to such a state. Sirius drifted back to sleep the moment his head hit the pillow and I swept the hair off his forehead before heading to my own room, crawling back into my own bed and tugging the blankets up to my chin.

It seemed as though my eyes had only been closed a second when I felt Lily shake me awake. "You should be getting up, or we'll be late to Defense."

I grumbled, rubbing my eyes and sitting up blearily. "I've been up all night, just couldn't get to sleep for some reason." I didn't feel like it was my place to tell her Sirius had been having night terrors.

"We're going to be late to class," Lily replied.

"Go on without me. I think I'm gonna skive off to sleep."

Lily frowned. "McGonagall will hear about it, though, you know she's not going to approve of you skiving off class,"

I shrugged, and let out a fake cough, "I'm not feeling too well. I'll explain it to her when she gets ear of it. I'll do the detentions if she's got a problem with it." As soon as Lily would leave for class, I was going to watch over Sirius, and let him sleep. I might even take a snooze in Remus' bed for the hell of it.

"But-"

"It's not your problem, is it?" I demanded, "You go on to class so she's not angry with you, and when Tutman asks just tell him I'm going to Madam Pomfrey's"

Lily frowned, hesitant to listen, before nodding. "Alright, well feel better."

As soon as her footsteps faded off down the stairs, I waited a minute before popping into the boys' room.

Sirius was fast asleep, thankfully. James looked about to pounce on him to wake him up, but I held up my hand. "I was up with him the whole night. Let him sleep, I'm skiving off class to stay with him."

James cocked his eyebrow, and sat down. "There's no way you two are getting to skip class and I have to go. I'm staying here, then, too."

I shrugged. "Ok. Mind if I have a quick nap on your bed? Wake me when he's up." I gestured to Sirius. James nodded and I slowly laid back into his pillow, falling back to sleep.

It was several hours later when I felt James sitting on me, trying to get me to wake up. I giggled, and sat up. Sirius was sitting up on his bed already, his Defense book open on his lap, waving his wand and practising a simple shield charm quietly. "Morning, Princess." he lowered his wand and closed his textbook.

"Morning," I replied.

The happenings of the night before seemed to hang between us, as though we were each waiting for the other to say something about it, neither being sure what would be best to say. James crossed his legs and stared at us, likely wondering what was going on. I stared at my hands awkwardly.

Sirius cleared his throat. "Thanks," he said meekly, "For - know - last night. Being understanding and… and all."

I nodded, "Anytime, Sirius." I then explained to James what exactly had happened. His eyes widened in sadness.

"Mate," James said once I had finished explaining, "If you ever want to, you know, talk about it… we're here to listen, alright? I won't butt in or anything, but just so you know. If you want to, we're here."

Sirius nodded.

James got up and walked over to his desk. He started to pick up his own Defense book, but his eyes fell on the box holding the invisibility cloak, still sitting on his desk, where we'd left it after we'd shown Peter the cloak's abilities the night before. He turned back to Sirius and I. "Do you guys want to give the cloak a go?" he suggested.

Sirius looked up, a grin spreading slowly over his face, and I smirked.

It wasn't easy, walking with all three of us under the invisibility cloak. The boys weren't nearly as short as I, either, so the cloak only just covered them both. We practised walking about in the dormitory before we snuck down the stairs, through the empty common room and out into the corridor through the Fat Lady's portrait. Everyone was in their first classes, so the halls were mostly empty except for the occasional student on their way to the toilets or one of the free-period Hufflepuffs, who were wandering about.

We hadn't even had to discuss where we would go once we had the cloak on, but instinctively headed in the direction of Filch's office with the goal of getting our hands on the information about the secret passageways for our map of the castle. We crept along until we were only down the corridor from Filch's office and hung out there, peeping around the corner, trying to decide if the office was empty or not.

"Have either of you seen Mrs. Norris anywhere?" James asked, and Sirius and I shook our heads.

"I wonder if cats can see through invisibility cloaks?" I wondered aloud.

"Dunno," replied Sirius.

We waited for several long moments, and then James said, "I don't think Filch is in there."

"Shall we go for it then?" I questioned.

"Alright," Sirius agreed, and we counted to ten before creeping out of our hidey nook and scrambling down the hallway to Filch's office door. I pressed one ear to it, listening carefully through the thick fabric of the invisibility cloak. Not a sound stirred within. "Sounds clear," I hissed.

Sirius pushed the door in and we stepped inside the caretaker's office.

James let out a low whistle.

Filch had a very impressive collection of ancient torture devices hanging up 'round the walls with thick chains and a motley collection of prank items spilling out of a drawer in a big mahogany desk. Trick wands, bendy fish, tyres and more, all clustered together in the depths of the drawer. James slowly pulled the cloak off our shoulders so we could look about more easily, folding the cloak over his shoulders like a shawl. Sirius began to open up the drawer and rummaged around in all the stuff Filch had confiscated over what had to be years.

"Right on - Fanged Frisbee!" muttered Sirius, taking the frisbee out and shoving it carefully into his pocket, "And dungbombs! These'll come in handy…"

As Sirius filled his pockets with prank items, James and I had a look around. I spun an old globe on a low bookcase filled with textbooks that looked as though they'd been magicked by crafty students - one of which was hiccupping. The windows were high and narrow, and little light was let into the dusty office. Considering how uppity Filch gets about dirt getting in the castle, this office is awfully dank and musty, I thought. There was a filing cabinet and I reached for a handle to the drawer, opening it up. The drawer sprang out a lot longer than I had expected, and it hit me in the stomach, making me stumble back several feet for the length of it. "Blimey," I laughed, pulling out a random folder. "He keeps notes on every misdemeanour ever!" I placed the random file, which had several notes about a student who consistently tracked in mud on their trainers.

James came over and grabbed a thick one labelled 'Weasley, Bilius'. "Look at this, Bilius' got his own folder!"

"I've found a whole stash of Filibuster's!" Sirius replied.

James leafed through the likely impressive laundry list of pranks Bilius had committed during his Hogwarts career. "Bilius is a bloody genius," James muttered.

I began to read over his shoulder, and Sirius appeared at his side with a pair of omnioculars he was staring through backwards to make everything look far off and bumped into James' shoulder with a chuckle. "What's that?"

"It reads like a bloody guide book to mischief," replied James proudly.

Sirius lowered the omnioculars to have a look and laughed, "That's a thick folder!" he exclaimed, then, with a grin, "I hope ours is as thick by the time we're in sixth year."

"We'd better get crackin' if we're going to keep up with Bilius," replied James with a smirk.

James started to put the folder back but I stopped his hand. "Keep it. You might be able to mine it for ideas." I winked.

"Good call," James replied, and stuffed the folder into his book bag at his hip.

"Where do you reckon the map could be?" I asked, looking around.

"Desk drawer?" Sirius suggested.

We converged on the desk, each taking a separate side and pulling open the drawers. More joke shop items cluttered these, along with broken quills and dried ink wells and bits of parchment. We unfolded every bit of parchment we came upon, hoping to find a map on the opposite side. We got to the very bottom drawers before we found anything worth mentioning to each other. "Look," Sirius said, waving a list in our faces, "These look like passwords. Yeah, see, Gryffindor Tower - Bat Bogey Hex. That's our common room password. These must go to everything all over the castle."

"Are there prefect's toilets on there?" I asked, getting excited.

"Sure are," Sirius replied, "Look, Slytherin prefect's toilet - Salazar. Figures, they use their founder's name, how bloody original."

James grinned, "At least now we can find out what Tutman was up to in the toilet!"

"Or else just see what a Slytherin toilet looks like. Could explain Snivelly's greasy hair if there's no bath in there!" laughed Sirius.

"Else none of the other Slytherins let him use it, in fear of an oil slick," I quipped.

Before one of them could respond, there was a sound in the corridor - Filch's voice! - James rushed to pull the invisibility cloak from 'round his shoulders as Sirius and I dove toward him. We raced to the corner of the room, wedging ourselves between the bookcase where the hiccuping book lay and the wall. We'd only just gotten the cloak over us - in fact, Sirius was bent over making sure his trainers were under, when the door opened and Filch came in.

"Skiving off classes to muck about in the library," Filch was grumbling, "Causing trouble, no doubt, trying to look up some restricted book, were you?" he was dragging a student behind him, "Lying about it, too… sit. Sit." he shoved the student into a chair opposite his desk and scurried around it himself, nearly walking into the filing cabinet's open drawer, which James had forgotten to shut. Filch paused at the drawer and stared at it for a moment suspiciously. "Somebody's been here," he croaked lowly.

I was so busy worrying over Filch that I didn't even notice who the student was until Sirius elbowed me and pointed. It was Severus Snape, looking sour with his arms crossed and his greasy hair hanging long over his forehead, casting a shadow over his nose.

"I was just looking up something for homework," Snape snapped, "For Tutman's class. You can ask him. He'll verify I needed to look something up."

Filch was too busy being distracted by the open drawer, though, his eyes running over the files and I winced when I saw Filch pause at the gap where Bilius' folder should have been. I couldn't believe we forgot to close the damn drawer! Filch's lips slowly mouthed Weasley and his face turned quite red.

Severus' eyes had widened, meanwhile, and he turned to look around the office anxiously, his eyes darting around the room for a moment, a wild, confused look on his face. I had the very unsettling feeling that perhaps Severus somehow knew we were there. I looked at James and Sirius and nodded my head toward the door. We slowly inched our way away from the wall, trying very hard not to make a sound.

Filch turned around and glowered at Severus a moment. "Were you being a distraction?" he demanded, "Trying to lure me away from my office? What are you playing at?"

"A distraction?" asked Severus, looking back at Filch instead of the place where we had been, "A distraction for what? I told you, I was trying to look something up for Defense Against the Dark Arts, that's it." He glowered right back at Filch.

"Well somebody's been in my files!" snapped Filch, "Somebody's been rummaging about in my office!"

We were nearly to the door.

"I didn't have anything to do with that," Severus snapped angrily, "I was just trying to use a bloody library."

"Before it was opened!" shouted Filch. He paused at the sound of a knock at the door. Sirius had reached out and rapped his fist against it in hopes of making Filch open it up. Severus turned around and glared at the spot where we were, twisted in his chair. "I'm busy!" Filch snarled, "Who could possibly - with a student - how can I be expected to - punishments are never doled fairly - should've let me keep me chains - bloody interruptions…" Filch stormed 'round the desk to the door and Severus' eyes narrowed at the empty doorway as Filch flung open the door to reveal nobody was in the corridor. "PEEVES!" shouted Filch, overcome with rage. He shook with anger and rushed into the hall. "SHOW YOURSELF, POLTERGEIST, OR I'LL HAVE YOU THROWN OUT OF THE CASTLE-" his voice echoed down the empty corridor.

James, Sirius and I ran faster than we'd ever run in our lives, panting and wheezing by the time we reached Gryffindor Tower. "BAT BOGEY HEX, BAT BOGEY HEX!" wheezed Sirius as we approached the Fat Lady, tearing off the cloak as we fell through the portrait hole and into the common room, dropping to the carpet in a heap of cloak, trainers, sweat, and laughter.

"Blimey, that was a close one," I laughed, tears of amusement in my eyes.

Around lunchtime, I heard the sound of the portrait hole open, and I looked up from the files Sirius, James, and I had spread out all over the floor of the common room to see Remus and Peter crawl through. James and Sirius had started scrambling madly to collect a mess of parchments laying about us on the carpet. "Don't worry guys, it's just Remus and Peter." They dropped the parchment back down to the carpet.

"Well?" Remus asked, "Has Pomfrey diagnosed you three as lazy layabouts, then?" James laughed, but with a glare from Remus, he stopped. "Tutman was in a right state."

"I was actually ill, you know!" Sirius replied. "I was up half the night."

I nodded, "So was I, with him. I've never seen anybody puke like he did, it was like a Filibuster's had been set off in his guts." I grinned at the disgusting mental image I'd fabricated.

"Ugh." Peter groaned, not one for gruesome images. "That's nasty! No wonder you didn't want to go to class. I wouldn't either."

I had organised the parchment pages into several stacks, and Remus pointed to them. "What's all this, anyway?" he asked, going over and sitting down. Peter crawled over and sat behind him on the couch.

"This, Remus, is brilliance in the written form," James replied. We then launched into an embellished retelling of our invisible adventure to Filch's office and the acquisition of our prize of prankster gold.

By the time we'd finished the telling of it, Remus' expression was somewhere between amusement and disapproval. "You stole Bilius' file and now you've read it?" he asked, eyes wide, "That's invasion of privacy, or… or something."

"Yeah, but listen to this," I said, grabbing a piece of parchment that James had set aside as a favourite. "Offender, Bilius Weasley, second year Gryffindor. Offense," I grinned, "Transfiguring books in the library to have wings and setting them about flying around the room, causing much distress to Madam Pince. Update, several volumes escaped through an open window and had to be captured by members of the Ministry of Magic's Muggle-Liaison Office once spotted flying over a Muggle community over one hundred kilometres from Hogsmeade." I looked up. Peter laughed so hard he toppled sideways on the couch cushions and wheezed, hugging himself as he rocked about.

"But what if one of the books had ended up in Muggle hands?" Remus asked, horror-struck.

James rolled his eyes, "You sound like Evans," he said, "Laugh, Remus… it's funny!"

Remus stared at us, amused but clearly fighting it.

"There's loads of bloody genius things Bilius has done, all here, like a guidebook, a gift to us," Sirius said. "This is the sort of stuff legends are made from."

"Yeah, well…" Remus said, pretending to still be quite disapproving. "You've gone and used the invisibility cloak without Peter and I."

Sirius grinned. "Only for a test run, mate. No worries. We've got loads of plans for other adventures!"

Once we had collected up all the parchments of Bilius Weasley's file and tucked the whole thing, plus the silvery cloak, back up into James' trunk, the five of us headed down to the Great Hall for lunch. Lily, Alice, Derek, Bilius, Frank, and Bilius' girlfriend were already clustered around the table, along with several others from Gryffindor house. Derek stood up and waved us over the moment we walked into the Hall, an excited look on his face as we joined them. Lily looked down from her plate as James, Sirius and I sat across from her. "Hey, there's the first years, we were wondering where you lot were at," said Bilius with a grin.

"Sirius was ill," James said.

"Sorry to hear that, mate," Derek said, "Ought to have some dandelion tea. It brightens me up drinking it. Grand for indigestion, you know."

Sirius nodded, "Sounds spiffing," he said.

"Speaking of us being ill… Lily, could I borrow your notes from Defense Against the Dark Arts this morning?" I asked, slightly embarrassed.

"You can borrow mine," offered Peter eagerly.

I looked to Lily with pleading eyes. Peter's notes would be pointless and we both knew it. She glanced over at Peter. "You were doodling half the class anyway," Lily said. "You were going to borrow my notes too, remember?"

"True," Peter agreed. "Sorry, Sabrina."

"Thanks anyway, Pete." I said with a smile. Since his argument with James, I wanted to make him feel more included, and part of the group. There were certain times where, me being the only girl of the group, I felt left out myself. I knew what it was like to stick out.

"And yes, you can use my notes," Lily said, spooning applesauce onto her plate.

"Thanks," I said again.

That night, I was in the boys' dormitory, laughing and reading more of Bilius Weasley's pranks from his file, when a little knock came on the door. We were already in our pyjamas, except for Remus, who was still pouring over homework that had been assigned to us. He got up and pulled open the door and was surprised to find Lily standing there. "Uh… hi," he said, keeping the door closed a bit.

"Who is it?" called James, leaping up from the bed and bouncing up behind Remus. He wrenched the door away from Remus before he could say any sort of warning answer, and found himself standing before Lily Evans in his ratty old quaffle-print pyjamas. "Evans," he said, shocked.

Lily gave him a once-over. "Nice get-up, Potter," she said.

James dashed back into the room, horrified. He threw a pillow at me, and I fell over, laughing. "All you girls aren't supposed to be in the boys' dormitories! It's not fair, we can't go in the girls'! What in the bloody hell are you doing up here?" Peter, Sirius and I were laughing.

"I came to see Sabrina. You wanted notes, right?" Lily asked.

"Well blimey, this couldn't wait 'till tomorrow?" demanded James, his face red.

Lily laughed, "Get over it, Potter, I don't give a damn about your knickers." She turned to me. "You said you wanted them, and I figured it could help with the homework we have…"

"Yeah, sure," I replied. "Let's go down to the common room. That way this lot can calm down."

"Alright," Lily said, smirking. She looked over at James and winked, like he used to do to her the first half of the year, and left the room, headed back downstairs.

James was redder than the Gryffindor house banner hanging over his bed.

I gathered my things and ducked on down the stairs. Lily was at a wide table in the common room, her own notes, quill, and ink laid out on the table before her. I walked over and dropped my things down on the table. "Wow, that's a lot of notes," I murmured as she unrolled one of the scrolls she'd filled with notes.

"I take detailed notes," Lily offered.

"Me, too," I said in appreciation. Lily started to walk off, but I stopped her. "Where are you going?" I asked.

"Back to the dorm?" Lily said.

"Well hang on, I'll copy these and see if I've got any questions before you go. Then, if you don't mind, I'll bring them up to the boys. Peter wanted to see them, too," I reminded her. Lily glanced back at the stairs, then shrugged and went over and sat down with me. I dunked my quill into the inkwell at the edge of my page as I started copying the notes down meticulously with my messy handwriting. She was watching my quill tip scrape across the parchment.

"So," she said after I silently copied the first couple lines down, "How was your holiday?"

I shrugged, "Just… was, I guess. Had a nice Christmas with my parents, who are still reeling with excitement over the fact I'm a witch. They got me some new books, and a broomstick that I'm looking forward to bringing here next year." I didn't tell her that I'd essentially lost all of the few friends I had, and spent the holiday filled with crippling loneliness. "How was yours?" I asked.

Lily shrugged, too. "Like you said. Just was." she frowned. "I've got a twin sister who's not magical and she's jealous of Hogwarts and everything. Hates me for it. We haven't spoken, basically, since I got my letter." She sighed, "I wish she'd forgive me for being a witch without her."

"She's your twin you say, and you're a witch and she's not? That's interesting," I said, "You'd think you would be the same."

"We're fraternal," explained Lily. "We're quite different. We look entirely different and everything. I suppose it isn't terribly shocking we wouldn't both be witches. But Tuney seems to think I'm wicked for having magic when she doesn't. As though I chose to leave her out of it."

I nodded. "Sometimes, people just don't understand when there's something different about somebody else… good or bad." I sighed. "For what it's worth, I don't think you're wicked."

"Well, thank you," Lily replied. I'd copied down about half the first page of parchment already. I dipped my quill in the ink again, as she asked, "Have you got any siblings?"

I shook my head. "Just me. No Muggle friends, now, either, just my parents and I."

Lily was silent for a moment, pondering what I'd said. I faked a yawn to break the silence, and went back to writing.

"Not having any trouble reading the notes then?"

"Not really, no," I replied.

"Good, I'm really tired," she explained, "Peter can copy the notes over in the morning. You can keep them 'til then, and hand me them back in Charms."

I nodded, "Alright. Well, thanks for letting me borrow them. I appreciate it."

"No problem," Lily packed up her things and headed back up to our dorm, her gorgeous red hair bouncing with her steps. I didn't notice I was smiling until after she left, before going back to writing.

I hadn't realised I'd fallen asleep 'til I felt a gentle shake. It was Sirius, giving me a haunted look. He was covered in sweat and trembling, and that made me think he'd had those nightmares again. I closed up my things, and we sat in front of the fire. I was determined not to fall asleep like last time. I chewed on my lower lip and Sirius watched the flickering of the flames dancing in the hearth. He rubbed his nose and sniffled.

I looked over at him and said, very gently, "You know, when I have nightmares, my mum, she tells me that talking about it will make them go away. If you want to talk about it… I'll listen."

"I doubt very much that talking about it will make my nightmares go away," mumbled Sirius.

"You never know," I said, "Sometimes just getting the poor thoughts out of your mind will clear them off."

Sirius shook his head slowly, "They aren't just thoughts for me, Sabrina. They're memories or something… realisations, maybe. They're the truth."

I shifted so I was facing Sirius, "Then tell me about it and we'll figure out how to make it not be the truth."

Sirius took a deep breath, looking down at the cup of tea I had made. "You can't undo who my parents are, mate."

My brow stitched together. "Did something happen on holiday?" I asked, with concern in my voice. "What happened?" I asked. "Let me help."

Sirius hesitated for a moment more, but he couldn't hold it back anymore. "They hate me, Sabrina," he choked the words out, as though it strangled him to say them.

"I'm sure they don't hate-" I began, but Sirius cut me off.

"Yes, they do," he said fiercely.

I remembered Sirius saying, way back when we'd first come to Hogwarts, that his mum and dad would be angry with him being sorted into Gryffindor, that the Blacks had spent decades and centuries cycling through Slytherin, and Sirius was the first Black ever to be a Gryffindor. I had honestly thought Sirius had been exaggerating the anger that his parents would feel about the sorting, but the look on Sirius' face now… all pale, blotchy, and afraid… said otherwise.

"Mother used the Cruciatus Curse on me," he whispered fearfully. "It's one of the three illegal Unforgivable Curses, and it causes extreme pain on the body. It was because I'd talked to a Muggle, one of our neighbours. She used an Unforgivable Curse on her son, Sabrina. She hates me. She's going to blast me right off the family tree one day, I just know it, and then where will I be? I'll have nowhere to go… no place to call home… no food, money, anything. I'll be homeless, living on the streets like a dog-"

"Shh, sh, sh," I urged, waving my hands for Sirius to bring down the volume of his voice as he'd slowly gotten louder and louder as he spoke. "First off, you aren't a dog. Secondly, Sirius, you're foolish if you think for a second I'd like you have no place to go! If something awful like that ever happens… ever, even if you just want a break from it all… you come to my place."

"Your parents would... Would be okay with that?" Sniffled Sirius.

I shrugged. "If not, we have a basement. I could hide you out."

Sirius rubbed the tears from his eyes that had sprung up. "Really? You swear it?" he asked.

I nodded solemnly, "Yes, Sirius. You won't ever go without so long as I'm around to see to it that you're alright. I promise." I smiled.

Sirius smiled back. "I literally do not know how to repay you, ever, Stratford."

I shrugged, "That's what friends are for, Black."

He hugged me.