The Woes of Parents

The Great Hall was already crowded with students by the time James and Sirius rushed in for breakfast. They found themselves seats across from Jane who looked like she was waiting for them. She held out two pieces of parchment to them.

"Schedules," she said. "From Professor McGonagall. You're late you know."

"We wouldn't be if our lovely dorm mates woke us up." Sirius grumbled. He glared over at Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

"It's not our fault you don't have the ability to wake up on time for yourself." Remus muttered quietly under his breath. Unaware that James and Sirius had heard him. James snorted while Sirius looked offended.

"More like it's his fault he spent so much time on his hair," James snickered to Remus much to his surprise.

Just then there was a rushing sound of fluttering wings. They looked up to see A large flock of owls rushing in and noticeably was the large grey Owl carrying a bright red envelope.

"Is that howler?" Dorcas Meadowes pointed to the owl that was speeding in their direction. "The year's hardly even started. What could someone have possibly done?"

"What's a howler?" Lily Evans asked Jane.

"You'll see for yourself in a minute," she replied skeptically as the Owl landed across from and faced Sirius Black. She looked at him with wide and fearful eyes. Had his family found that he lied about who she was and meeting her?

"Oi mate," James said with concern. "What did you do?"

But Sirius merely looked resigned, like he had expected it. He took the letter and gave Jane a reassuring wink. He noticed that his cousin, fifth year Narcissa Black over at the Slytherin table, watching carefully. He knew she must have been the one who told, as his other cousin, 7th year and head girl Andromeda Black, was looking at him with great concern. He stared Narcissa down as he casually opened the letter. He didn't even flinch as his mother's screeching voice silenced the rest of the hall.

"SIRIUS BLACK! HOW DARE YOU DISHONOR THIS FAMILY! NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF THIS FAMILY HAS A BLACK BEEN SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR! EVEN YOUR COUSIN ANDROMEDA MANAGED AVOID SUCH HUMILIATION! YOU COMPLETELY DISOBEYED ME AND DID NOT SIT WITH YOUR COUSIN ON THE TRAIN! WHAT WERE YOU DOING? ASSOCIATING YOURSELF WITH MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS! I DEMAND YOU SWITCH HOUSES AT ONCE OR I WILL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME! I HAVE HALF A MIND TO SEND YOU DURMSTRANG! YOU UNGRATEFUL AND INSOLENT BOY! YOU BETTER HOPE I DON'T BLAST YOU OFF THE TREE BOY! IF I HEAR YOU HAVE BEFRIENDED MUDBLOODS AND OTHER SUCH FILTH YOU WILL BE SORRY! TOUJOURS PUR! YOU'D DO WELL TO REMEMBER THAT!

The screeching letter burst into flames and landed on his plate in a pile of ashes. The entire hall stared in his direction completely stunned. Never had they seen anyone receive a howler over a sorting. Sure parents expressed disappointment in placements but were generally proud of their children regardless of house or got over the disappointment quickly. But never once had they seen a howler for such a reason and never with such foul and openly biased language. Normally students would see howlers and laugh at the student's expense. But not this time. It seemed that even the professors were at a loss of what to do. Only a few Slytherins snickered at Sirius's expense.

Sirius Black, the subject of the Howler, for his part looked completely unphased. He had expected this howler to come but not so soon. He had been hoping to avoid telling his parents about his house for as long as possible. But of course, the tattle-tale Narcissa must have reported to his mother immediately following the sorting. He considered himself lucky that he wasn't home where he no doubt would have been cursed.

He looked up to where Professor McGonagall was looking down at him from the head table. Though she didn't visibly show it, he could somehow tell she was concerned. Had he received this letter before his late night meeting with her, he might have been more stressed. But he knew now what he wanted. And that was to be nothing like his family.

He looked over to see Jane staring at him with fearful eyes. An unopened package sat in front of her.

"Well that was pleasant," Sirius said in a posh voice. He turned to speak to Jane and nodded at her package. "Forget something, Potter? I wouldn't have pegged as the irresponsible type."

Jane shook herself from her stupor. Realizing what he was trying to do, she turned her attention to her package and responded. "I'm not. I believe Father sent me a gift."

"Oh?" Sirius said curiously. Finally the others in the Great Hall realized that Sirius had completely moved on from his howler and turned their attention back to their own meals and mail trying to forget what had just happened. "Whatever for? Is it your birthday?"

"No," Jane replied. "You aren't the only with…trying parents."

Sirius smirked at the word she used and at her awkward hesitation. Not exactly what he would use to describe her mother. But Jane did well in speaking carefully and with diplomacy. It seemed he wasn't the only one with that sort of training. Only difference was that she had actually attempted to follow it.

"Probably an apology gift." Jane frowned slightly. She moved to open it up.

Lily and James stared between the two of them incredulously.

"Are you just going to ignore that?" James exclaimed.

"Hold on what was that?" Lily said at the same time.

"That was my mother," Sirius shrugged. "That probably won't be the last time you hear from her."

"It was a howler," Jane elaborated for Lily. "Exploding letters parents can send to yell out to their children if they misbehave. It's like some form of punishment."

"But for being a Gryffindor?" Lily and James asked together.

"Yes," Sirius and Jane replied.

Jane noticed the other Gryffindors trying to listen in.

"I'll explain later." She promised Lily.

"What exactly would your father need to apologize for?" Sirius asked. Then he realized that was probably personal and rushed to add, "if you don't mind me asking."

"It's alright," Jane shrugged, opening the package. "It's just because he hasn't been around lately. He's been busy at the Ministry. Both my parents have been. They didn't even come to drop me off yesterday. So it's probably for that."

She reached and pulled at a bouquet of everlasting flowers encased in glass. She looked around at all the different flowers.

"Red camellias for luck, purple hyacinths or an apology, Dahlia's for celebration, blue salvias for 'thinking of you', and a Zinnias also for "thoughts of an absent friend." Jane said, describing each flower and their meaning.

"'Congratulations on your first year of Hogwarts, sorry we weren't there but we are always thinking of you and miss you. Good luck!" James translated.

"I didn't think you would be one to speak the language of flowers, Potter," Lily remarked.

"I think you might find that I can be quite the romantic, Lily, is it?" James said teasingly, wiggling his eyebrows.

Lily huffed and opened her mouth to make a retort but they were interrupted.

"Well , well, well, what do we have here?" Drawled a voice behind the two girls. " A Black hanging around Mudbloods and blood traitors. What would your dear old Mummy say?"

The group of Gryffindors looked up to see Thatcher Avery, a Slytherin in their year smirking down mockingly at them. He was flanked by some of the other first year Slytherin boys like Evan Rosier, Waldon Macnair, Kratos Wilkes, and Lily's friend from the train, Severus Snape who seemed to be hiding behind the other four and avoided looking at Lily.

"I'm sure you already know what she would say," Sirius said nonchalantly. "Or perhaps you need to get your ears checked, Avery."

"I'm not the one who needs to be checked," Avery insisted. "It's clearly you that does."

"Oh and what makes you say that?" Sirius questioned with mock sincerity.

"The filth you seem to have surrounded yourself with," Avery said. "Clearly seems to have distorted your judgement and has apparently rubbed off on you."

"I don't think he's the one that's filthy," James said. Eyeing Severus Snape in the back.

"I highly doubt it's his filth you're smelling," Remus said without thinking. "In case you didn't notice, despite your odd obsession with him, he was late this morning because he felt the need to shower excessively. I suppose now we know why."

The surrounding Gryffindors jaws dropped. So far Remus has been a quiet boy that seemed to do anything to avoid confrontation. Once they had gotten over their shock they all burst into laughter.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?" Remus said. He turned bright red and looked like he wanted to crawl

Underneath the table.

"You did, mate," James said in between his laughter. "And it was brilliant."

Avery looked like he wanted to retort but just then Professor McGonagall appeared.

"Is there a problem here?" She asked.

"No, Professor," Sirius said. "They were just leaving, weren't you?"

"I should hope so or you'll all be late to class," McGonagall said sternly.

Avery grumbled and the group of first year Slytherin boys trudged away.

"Sev!" Lily tried calling out to her friend. " Sev! Severus!"

But he ignored him and kept trudging behind the group of Slytherins. Jane shared a knowing look with James and Sirius.

"Maybe he can't hear you," Jane suggested. "It is quite loud in here. Do you want to come with me back to our room to drop this off?"

She gestured to the flowers from her father. Lily looked at her apologetically.

"I think I'm going to try and talk to Severus first." Lily said.

"Oooooo Snivellus." James and Sirius mocked.

Lily glared at them and Jane cast them a quick look of disappointment. She turned to Lily and placed a hand on her arm. She stood up and gracefully pulled Lily up with her. She then turned and picked up the glass casement of flowers.

"Ignore them," Jane said with a huff. "It's not a problem. I can go by myself. You go find your friend."