Boarding Hogwarts Express was different this time for Sirius than all his previous years. He didn't have to care about his parents, or hide the fact that he was hurt because they didn't give him a proper farewell. He boarded the train with his best friend and with the love, care and attention of Mrs and Mr Potter.
Sirius could already feel the change in the air around him. Although the wizarding world was at war, and with everyday arrived the news of another death – Sirius could feel that things were going to change and significantly so.
James and Sirius found the other two Marauders and the four boarded the train together, grinning happily as they waved their parents goodbye.
Aye! Sirius waved James's parents goodbye; they had made it plenty clear that he must never feel like he is at a stranger's place, it will always be his home and they will be as much his parents as James's.
They walked past the excited first year students who were looking around the train they had boarded the first time in an awe. Sirius remembered himself just like them when he had boarded the train for the first time and immediately met James. He couldn't help but smile brightly.
"I'll come find you after the prefect meeting," Remus's voice interrupted Sirius's train of thoughts. He nodded with the rest of the Marauders as Remus walked away.
"Let's find a place to sit," James draped his hand over Peter's shoulder and the two walked ahead of Sirius to find an empty compartment, Sirius hot on their heels.
"This one is empty," Peter pointed at one compartment and James immediately opened the door and the three claimed it as their own. James and Peter sat down side by side and Sirius sat down on the opposite end. They listened to Peter telling them about his summer vacations but both of their minds couldn't be farther away.
Sirius hadn't seen Marlene after the whole ordeal with his mother. He tried to find her after Euphemia Potter had taken Sirius away from Walburga Black, under the pretext of finding James but James walked around the corner only a few seconds later.
He wanted to find Marlene, not for anything specific, just for seeing her once. Unlike James, Sirius wasn't planning on talking to his crush or anything similar.
After a few seconds, an "oh" escaped Peter's lips as he looked outside the compartment, his lips forming an O shape.
Sirius followed Peter's gaze and he could immediately hear his heart beating loudly like a drum. He gulped hard and tried to supress the smile forming on his lips. Marlene and Mary were standing outside their compartment, facing the corridor. It was a little while later that Sirius realised, they were frozen, until Marlene spoke to someone before they both pulled out their wands.
"What is going on?" James vocalised Sirius's concerns as the three Marauders got up from their seats and Sirius being closest to the compartment door, slide it open with force, while simultaneously pulling out his wand.
Anger boiled in the pit of Sirius's stomach as his hand tightened on his wand and he let out a sigh. His jaw was clenched so tightly, James wondered if Sirius's teeth were going to fall out.
"Black," Mulciber spat out, his eyes boring into Sirius's grey orbs as Sirius stood right behind Marlene and Mary. Both Marlene and Mary spun around fast and Marlene let out a sigh of relief quietly as she smiled at Sirius, making his heart skip a beat. Mulciber wasn't alone, his friend Avery was standing right beside him.
"Mulciber," Sirius spat back, and then shifted his gaze to Avery. He ran his finger through his locks and then looked back at Mulciber, who looked angry but Sirius couldn't be bothered less.
"Do you want something?" Mulciber asked in a threatening tone, Sirius could only scoff, rolling his eyes. Mulciber was nothing but an idiot in Sirius's eyes; he wasn't any kind of threat, far from it! If Sirius wanted, he could punch Mulciber again, right at this moment; but he refrained because he knew his friends would get involved and that meant detention for all of them.
"You can sit with us," Sirius looked at Mary as he offered them seats. His heart was already pounding loudly just by standing close to Marlene, he couldn't look into her eyes and form a coherent sentence; offering seats directly to her was out of question. He just hoped that Marlene would feel just as welcomed to join them and if she didn't, Sirius was sure that James would invite her too.
Peter and James exchanged glances as they witnessed Sirius offering seats to Mary kindly.
James could read Peter's eyes; he was practically shouting "She is the one!" with his eyes. James on the other hand, wasn't too sure if it was Mary or Marlene.
"Yes, let's sit inside, it's too crowded here," James made way for Mary and Marlene to enter the compartment.
"Thank you," Marlene mumbled as she walked in first and sat near the window.
"Thank you," Mary followed after her quickly, sitting beside her.
James took Peter's wrist in his own hand and dragged him inside before Sirius to sit down on the seats opposite to Mary and Marlene.
Throwing a last glance at Mulciber and Avery, Sirius entered the compartment and shut the door behind himself, putting his wand back in the pocket of his trousers. He froze as soon as he turned to face everyone already sitting, silently, eyes on Sirius.
James and Peter were spread out on the whole seat, leaving no space for Sirius to sit. "Prongs, mind shifting a bit?" Sirius mumbled, the silence in the compartment made his voice sound louder than it was. Sirius almost flinched at the sound of his voice.
"You can sit there," James replied, jerking his head in the direction of the space beside Mary.
Sirius huffed loudly and clenched his teeth, before sitting beside Mary, putting some space between himself and her. Had Marlene sat in Mary's spot, Sirius would have rather sat on James's lap than sitting beside her. He was sure, he would faint if he sat down beside Marlene.
"Where is Alice?" James asked Mary and Marlene after an uncomfortably long silence.
The problem was that Marauders had never interacted much with Lily's friends. Remus was Lily's friend, both being the Gryffindor prefects, Sirius would occasionally tease Lily, James would miserably fail to flirt with Lily and Peter would strike up normal conversations with Lily; but Lily's three friends were a mystery to them.
"We let her sit with Frank," Mary chuckled as she answered James.
"Frank wanted to ask Alice out for the longest time –" James started; mindlessly.
Sirius cut off James in mid-sentence, "almost as long as James wanting to ask Evans out," making James blush furiously, as he kicked Sirius's foot. "Oof!" Sirius let out, rubbing the spot where James had hit him with the heel of his shoe, giving rise to a dull ache.
"But Prongs hadn't succeeded yet," Peter continued, earning a glare from James.
"Don't tease him, James might be able to go on a date with Lily," Marlene looked over at Sirius and then at Peter as she shrugged.
"Don't give him false hope," Sirius jested, and his eyes instantly went wide as he realised, he spoke to Marlene directly. His heart was in his mouth and he quickly recomposed his face and gulped in hard.
"She isn't giving him false hope. Lily won't admit it but as soon as her unhealthy friendship with Snape ended, her perspective about the three of you has drastically changed," Mary told them.
"Just the three of us? What about Remus?" Peter asked, making James and Sirius's face turn towards Mary curiously.
"Remus had been her friend since fourth year. Why would she be friends with him if she didn't like him?" Mary questioned back.
"She has a good point," Peter sighed and Sirius nodded.
"Wait, she doesn't like us?" James's frown was hilarious to Sirius.
Before Mary or Marlene could answer the compartment door opened and the five of them jumped back, and all of a sudden, they realised, they were inching closer towards each other as if holding a secret meeting.
Their eyes drifted towards the compartment door and noticed Remus and Lily standing in the doorway.
"I was looking for you both everywhere," Lily spoke to her friends.
She kept standing in the doorway, Remus entered the compartment and started sitting beside James.
Sirius quickly caught him by his wrist and pulled Remus to sit beside himself. Remus landed with a thud beside Sirius and glared at him. Sirius silently looked at Lily and then James, before looking at Remus and his friend nodded.
"Hello to you too Evans," Sirius grinned before her friends could respond to Lily. Lily's gaze shifted towards Sirius and she tilted her head to one side before speaking.
"Hello Black," she sighed and then looked at her friends again.
Sirius couldn't help but notice at how she was taking extra precautions to not even spare a glance at James. His best friend on the other hand was looking at Lily with the most lovestruck expressions on his face. Anyone could read it in James's eyes how much he adored Lily, and his lips were slightly parted almost as if he was in a trance.
"We were finding seats and everywhere else was full, and then Mulciber cornered us out of nowhere," Mary spoke in a low voice.
"Where?! When?! Where are they now?!" Lily's brows furrowed together and her teeth clenched. To Sirius it was almost comical how Lily, the sweetest natured girl he had met, turned feisty and protective of her friends in a matter of seconds.
"Right out there," Marlene gestured towards the corridor before sighing as she continued, "These three offered us seats."
"I am going to find them right now!"
"Calm down tigress," Sirius smirked, making Lily glare at him. "They are not worth getting detention for, sit down," he continued and pointed to the seat next to James, with his hand, his palm facing upwards.
Lily finally looked at James and Sirius noticed the slight blush creeping up on Lily's face. He smiled to himself and then looked at James, who seemed to have gone in shock, when he realised Lily would sit beside him. Lily slowly closed the door and looked at the empty space beside James.
James shifted towards Peter, squishing Peter between the window and himself. Sirius let out a laugh before covering it up as coughing.
"Hogwarts is a long way Evans, sit down," Sirius told Lily. Peter's pained expressions were almost as hilarious as James and Lily's bewildered expressions.
"I – where is Alice? Should I go find her?" Lily turned to her friends.
"She is with Frank, you don't need to go find her," Marlene told Lily and innocently gestured her to sit down; which Lily did after letting out a small sigh. She was sitting as far away from James as the seat could possibly allow.
The silence in the compartment was almost unbearable for everyone. Sirius was getting impatient as he kept looking at James and Lily, waiting for them to strike a conversation. But neither of them were even looking in each other's direction. To make matters worse, Peter would let out small whimpers as James squished him further between the window and himself.
"Swipe places Prongs, you will kill Wormtail before we reach Hogwarts," Sirius told James and without a second thought James got up from his place. Sirius rolled his eyes and got up from his seat as well.
Once the two of them swiped places, Sirius only smirked as James and Lily realised they were now sitting face to face with each other, making it harder for them to avoid each other's gaze now.
"What were you talking about before we came?" Remus finally broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Frank and Alice," Peter lied smoothly. Making all the gazes turn towards him and he sunk back in his seat at the sudden attention. His cheeks turning a shade of tomato.
"We asked where Alice was, and they told us she was with Frank," Sirius clarified quickly, taking away the attention from Peter, for which he was thankful.
"Did Mulciber and Avery do something?" Lily asked her friends; she was more relaxed now that James was not sitting right beside her. She was no longer sitting at the edge of the seat and her posture eased up as well.
"No, they just used their words," Mary shook her head and Marlene dropped her gaze, making Sirius wonder what had they said to them. He wouldn't mind going after the two. Merlin knows Sirius wasn't done with Mulciber! He hadn't hit him enough and if Mulciber thought he could come back and do something again, he was seriously mistaken.
"What did they say?" Sirius couldn't be more thankful to Lily at the moment. She had stolen the words right out of his mouth and his curious gaze turned towards Marlene.
"The usual, reminding us about blood purity," everyone could hear it in Marlene's voice and see it on her face, the way her lips turned into a frown and her brows raised ever so slightly when she answered, she was growing more and more despondent.
Sirius shifted in his seat uncomfortably and his gaze dropped. Everyone knew the blood purity mania of the Black family and he wondered if Marlene, Lily and Mary put him in the same category as the rest of his family. He wanted to clarify that he wasn't like the rest of them, he was different but he could not vocalise himself.
"Has anyone heard the whispers about the secret society?" Remus spoke in a low voice. When everyone including the Marauders shook their head, Remus explained what he had heard during the summer break. "Some seventh-year students have joined it too," he completed.
"Can't we do it too? Join this secret society?" Marlene asked Remus and Sirius's eyes grew wide. Was she really thinking of fighting against Voldemort? He almost couldn't hide his smirk when he realised how serious Marlene looked to fight against Voldemort and his death eaters.
"I guess we'll first have to find if these rumours are true and if they are, whom to contact," Remus shrugged.
"If you find something let us know too," Marlene spoke and looked at her friends, who nodded in agreement before their eyes settled on Remus.
"Of course," Remus smiled.
A/N: Hey Readers,
Thank you so much Aamarylis once again, for your encouraging words. I am so sorry for taking so long to update, I had some things going on that needed my immediate attention. Please leave a review and let me know what do you think about the chapter. Keep reading.
Thank you!
-JT