A young boy perched on the edge of a sofa, attempting to keep from fidgeting and readjusting his dress robes. He looked up every now and then as a house elf scurried past, laden with platters of delicious looking foods. The Black family was famous for their fantastic parties and Mrs. Black was determined to uphold the family reputation.

Across the room another boy was slouching back against the fireplace poking aimlessly at the fire. "Sirius." The first boy said, "You really oughtn't do that. Mother would go mad if she saw you. And if you get soot all over your dress robes again I'm quite certain she would simply murder you." Regulus said.

"Shut up Regulus-" Sirius stopped talking as his mother swept into the room, a short man frantically scribbling on a pad of paper as he followed in her wake. Sirius sprang to his feet, earning a scowl from his mother. "Sirius!" she glared at him and opened her mouth as if to scold him but shook her head. "No time for that, you two be on your best behavior. I had to invite the Minister of Magic of course, Mudblood that he is and he's brought along a few of his putrid lackeys and I want you two to act as a true Pureblood family should." She pulled Sirius' green and black dress robes straight and nodded. "Boys, I want you two stationed at the fireplace to greet and then entertain your little friends until dinner." She said.

"Yes Ma'am." Sirius replied dully. He hated these parties, getting all dressed up and being polite to people he didn't even know.

He slouched against the fireplace holding the family's FlooFighter. It just wouldn't do for the guests to show up for the party covered with ash. With a flash a boy in his late teens stumbled out of the fireplace in a cloud of soot.

"Well now, if it isn't the little ferret boy." The youth sneered.

"Shut up Lucius." Sirius snapped.

"Ooh, Mommy, Sirius isn't being very nice to me." Lucius Malfoy sneered at Sirius, "You're a splotch on your family name you know." He turned to Regulus who was looking up at his idol adoringly. "And poor Regulus, stuck with such a prat for a brother." Lucius smiled at the younger boy and Sirius struggled to keep from shoving the older boy away from his little brother.

With twin flashes Lucius' parents appeared in the fire and Sirius instantly put on his polite host face. According to his mother the Malfoys were important people and if any news of him being impolite to them got back to his mother he was in for another lashing from his father.

"Mrs. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you Ma'am, I'm glad you could make it to the party, might I escort you to the ballroom?" he asked politely, offering her his arm. With a quick smile that Sirius knew was as fake as his own she accepted and he escorted her in.

Soon the house was filled with chatting adults and the children sat around in one of the parlors to talk. Theodore Nott the III motioned for Sirius to sit down next to him which Sirius did with an inwards sigh. They were all dolts for the most part, his brother included. Nott nodded. "So you're starting at Hogwarts this year too then, Black?" Sirius didn't bother to answer, he knew Nott knew already. They all knew the names, ages and faces of every one of the elite Pure Bloods, Nott was just making conversation and Sirius wasn't in the mood.

"The place is overflowing with Mudbloods now. Our fathers were considering sending us all to Durmstrang you know. Much better school really." Nott said. Sirius nodded absently, his mind not on the conversation. Sirius wasn't completely certain what it was about Mudbloods that made them so horrible but perhaps he would find out once he went to Hogwarts.

* * *

"James Potter, pleased to meet you." The boy said. He waved the fifteenth wand that Mr. Ollivander had given him absently before it was snatched away by the elderly wandmaker. He extended a hand to Sirius who shook it. "My name's Sirius Black. You a first year too?" Sirius asked.

James nodded then grinned as the wand he held began to shoot sparks into the air gleefully. He flourished his new wand as he paid Mr. Ollivander. "How about I wait for you while you get yours." He suggested.

"Yeah! I've still got to get everything else on my list and I wanted to stop and Dervish and Bang's and Quality Quidditch Supplies too." Sirius said. He began to try wands as fast as Mr. Ollivander could bring them out, glancing at James to see what the other boy would say.

James grinned devilishly, "Great! I need to stock up on Dungbombs and they've got a new broom model in that I wanted to take a look at. Dad said I could have a new broom for my second year if I want to play for my house. Plus, and this is even better, I heard that Dervish and Bangs has a whole bunch of new joke books that sound great." He said.

Sirius grinned at him. "I've never actually bought anything in there, only looked around. My mother doesn't really encourage jokes in our house. But since I'm going to Hogwarts and she's not here to see."A devilish grin lit up his face as he considered all of the possibilities that lay at Hogwarts, "I can't wait!"

James looked up as he heard a change in the other boy's voice. As a grin blossomed on Sirius' face at the thought of being away from home a light twinkled in his eyes that hadn't been there before. Then James blinked. "Wait, you've never bought anything there? Boy this is going to be great!" he exclaimed.

Sirius reached into his pocket to pay for the wand he had just found and the boys thanked Mr. Ollivander before heading to Dervish and Bang's.

"Gosh! That place is officially my favorite place in the world!" Sirius exclaimed a half hour later as the boys emerged from the shop each trailing a train of floating shopping bags stuffed with goodies. "I can't believe I've missed out on this all my life." He said. He could believe it actually, he really couldn't see himself using any of those things at home. But Hogwarts was a whole different story.

James grinned at his new friend as they entered into "Scribbled Scrolls" to get their books for school. "Hogwarts?" the young man standing behind the desk asked. They nodded and handed him their booklists. He nodded and waved his wand. Two stacks of books appeared on the counter. "There you are then." He said.

James paid for his books and then nudged Sirius who had his nose stuck in a book he had picked up from a shelf nearby. Sirius looked up with a start and then put the book he had been reading on top of his pile. "This too please." He said, pulling out a handful of Sickles to pay for his purchase.

James peered at the book his friend was so interested in with curiosity and Sirius showed his friend with a grin. "The Trickster's Guide to Tricks, Traps and the Occasional Treat. Ooh, nice choice, that one's got some good ones in it. Luckily, none that you'll be able to pull on me, I am the Master when it comes to this stuff." James said.

Sirius just smiled.

* * *

"I hear you went gallivanting around Diagon Alley with some boy not from the Families." Mrs. Black said. Her eyes flashed with barely concealed anger as she looked at Sirius, "Who was he?"

Sirius swallowed, his day with James had been more than enough to pay for whatever punishments were to come but he dreaded his mother's rages. "Er, his name is James Potter ma'am." He said. Mrs. Black reached for a giant book that was covered in ancient leather with green and gold tooling. "Potter.potter." she flipped through the pages of the book until she came to the entry she was looking for. "Let's see, Henry Potter, well known ministry official.ah here we are, fourteen generations of pure bloods on his side. Fifteen on his wife's side. That makes this little Potter boy you're hanging about with acceptable I suppose although they are supporters of our disgusting Minister." She spat contemptuously at the mention of Phillip Hastings, the Minister of Magic who happened to have a Muggle ancestor somewhere in his bloodline. Sirius ignored his mother, pleased that there wouldn't be any objections to his friendship with James.

"Did you have fun in Diagon Alley Jamie?" Mrs. Potter asked as her son came bounding into the room. "It was great Mum! I met another boy who's going to be going into his first year too. We spent all day together!"

"Does your new little friend have a name?" Mrs. Potter asked.

"Sirius Black." James said.

Mrs. Potter's brow clouded for a moment and James looked at her, curiosity apparent in his brown eyes. "What's wrong Mum?"

"The Black family." Mrs. Potter trailed off and then smiled. "It's nothing much, your new friend sounds very nice. I'm sure you'll love it at Hogwarts."

James smiled. "I know I will." He said. His mother chuckled as he dashed off up the stairs, his bags from Dervish and Bangs still trailing behind him. Mrs. Potter frowned as the last bag disappeared around the corner, she wasn't sure she wanted her young son mixing with the Blacks. At the least that family was always up to no good.

* * *

"Oy! James!" James looked up to see Sirius hanging out one of the windows of the Hogwarts Express. "Load up your trunk and get in here!" Sirius shouted. James grinned and waved as he stowed his trunk in and then dashed into the train to greet his friend.

Sirius was lounging on one of the long seats of an empty compartment and he grinned when James burst through the compartment door. "Took you long enough to get here. I've been waiting for about half an hour." Sirius said. James shrugged apologetically as he sat down.all the way to the floor. James yelped as he slid through the portion of the bench that he had attempted to sit on. Sirius laughed as James leapt to his feet indignantly.

"Oh, if you could have seen the expression on your face!" Sirius gasped before dissolving into fits of laughter once more.

James slowly smiled. "Very funny. Ah, I should have seen that one coming, I've read that book often enough." He said.

"So you're "The Master" huh?" Sirius asked with a grin as James dusted off the seat of his pants and took a seat on another piece of the bench after testing it carefully with his foot. "So how was the rest of your summer?" James asked.

Sirius' stopped laughing and shrugged. "It was alright." He said. "What about yours?"

"Not very exciting but it wasn't too bad. I was too excited about starting at Hogwarts to really think about it much. I can't wait to be Sorted. Which house do you think you'll be in." James said.

"Slytherin probably, just like all my other little "friends". All my family was in Slytherin. They always have been so that's probably where I'll be." Sirius said.

James frowned, what was it that his mother had said, "The Black family." and she had stopped but James thought somehow that the rest of her sentence was not going to be "is a wonderful, happy family." James shook his head, he didn't care what Sirius' family was like. Sirius was his friend.

"I want to be in Gryffindor. Bravery, adventure, it just seems like the perfect house for me. My dad was in Gryffindor but my mum was a Ravenclaw. I guess I wouldn't mind Ravenclaw much either. Nothing wrong with being smart." He said.

Sirius was about to answer when a young woman with a cart filled with goodies stopped outside the doorway. "Would you two like anything?" she asked. Both the boys leapt to their feet eagerly, digging in their pockets for money.

James took a little of everything and retreated to his seat with his feast of fine foods. He and Sirius were sharing a Dancing Dog when the compartment door slid open again.

A boy Sirius recognized vaguely was standing in the doorway, covered with what looked like Dung. James and Sirius stared as the boy stood in the doorway for a moment and then said. "Er, may I come in?" Sirius nodded numbly and the boy staggered into the compartment. "My name's Peter Pettigrew." The boy said, his voice almost a whimper.

James and Sirius were still dazed by the boy's appearance. "What happened to you?" Sirius asked finally. The boy just shook his head with a small whine. Two more boys stormed into the compartment and grabbed Peter by the back of his robes. "There you are filthy little Mudblood. We aren't done with our fun yet. You'll wish you'd never even heard of wizards by the time we're through with you little Muggle boy." Lucius Malfoy sneered.

James snarled at the burly seventh year regardless of how much larger and stronger the older boy was. "Take your hands off him, what's he done to you?" James asked.

Lucius turned his attention to James with a snarl. "Muggles don't belong here. We're just getting rid of this one." He said. He turned to Sirius, seeing him for the first time. "Hey there ferret. You keeping company with Muggle lovers now. Tsk, tsk, what will mommy say when she hears?"

Sirius snarled and lunged at Lucius who just laughed as he shoved the younger boy to the floor. "Stay away from me ferret." He said. He gave Sirius a kick in the side and Sirius doubled over, his wind knocked from him. "You know better than that. Come on Crabbe." He aimed another kick at Sirius and started to drag a frantically scrabbling Peter out of the compartment. "There's still some fun left in this one." He said.

James leaped at Lucius, wand outstretched and whispered something under his breath. Lucius roared as he was flung backwards out of the compartment by the giant pink bubble that had sprung from James' wand. In his hurry to get out of the compartment Lucius dropped Peter who now lay limply on the floor. James sprang forwards to lock the compartment door and turned to look at Sirius. "You know that kid?" he asked.

Sirius managed to nod with a groan and James went over to help him up. "Are you okay Sirius?" he asked, concern prominent on his boyish features.

"I'll be okay, but you better check on Prentew or whatever he said his name was. He doesn't look so good." Sirius said softly as he stumbled to his feet, still holding his side protectively.

Peter Pettigrew was still lying on the floor where Lucius had left him and blood was trickling slowly out of his nose as he lay on the floor. James helped him up and gave him a tissue to stop the bleeding.

"So that guy attacked Peter just because he's Muggleborn?" James asked Sirius who gave a tired nod in response. "Well, once you get cleaned up come on back here Peter, you can ride with us till we get there." James decided, pointing Peter in the direction of the bathroom.

"I hate him!" Sirius burst out as Peter closed the door behind him.

"Who? Peter?" James asked.

"No you prat, the idiot who was just in here. Lucius Malfoy." Sirius said.

James nodded solemnly and settled in for the rest of the ride. It passed uneventfully.

* * *

Sirius gulped as "Baddock, Amanda." Walked forwards to place the sorting hat on her head. He was next. The seconds seemed to go by so slowly as she sat there with the hat over her head until finally, "Slytherin!" the Slytherin table erupted with cheers as Amanda walked forwards to sit with them.

"Black, Sirius." Sirius walked forwards and sat on the stool as the Professor placed the hat over his eyes. "Well, well, another Black. You're wanting Slytherin I suppose." Sirius jumped as the Sorting Hat spoke into his ear. He knew that he should want Slytherin but. "A little undecided are we then. You'd do well in Slytherin but your heart's against it. Let's see. If you're not to be in Slytherin we'll put you in.Gryffindor!" the Gryffindor table broke into surprised applause and Sirius walked over to the table and sat down amidst the congratulations from his new house mates.

"My parents are going to kill me." He whispered. He risked a glance over to the Slytherin table only to see that they were all staring daggers towards him. He gulped, maybe he should've asked for Slytherin. His family was going to kill him.

James looked concernedly over at Sirius as he made his way up to the Sorting Hat, his friend didn't look very happy about his Sorting and James was willing to guess that it was because of his family. James turned his attention to the Sorting Hat and waited anxiously as the Professor placed it onto his head.

"Please, put me into Gryffindor." He thought as hard as he could.

"You want Gryffindor eh? Well, you've got plenty of bravery, and you'll do well there. Gryffindor! It is."

James headed over to the Gryffindor table where Sirius welcomed him with a happy grin. "We'll be together then!" he exclaimed.

James smiled. "Gryffindor won't even know what hit it once we arrive." As the last students were sorted into their houses James and Sirius tucked into their meal eagerly as the other new first years introduced themselves.

"I'm Chris Randolph." One of the boys said. He looked around at the first years gathered around the table with a grin. "Who're all you guys."

"Sarah Hastings."

"Lily Evans."

"Kyle Griggs."

"Alyse Watson."

"Remus Lupin."

"Peter Pettigrew."

"James Potter."

"and I'm Sirius Black." Sirius finished. Three other girls were already deep in conversation with a few of the older students so the first years skipped past them in their introductions.

Chris was looking around the hall in delight, staring at the ceiling and the floating lights. He smiled. "A few weeks ago I would have called you crazy if you even tried to tell me this sort of thing existed. Now here I am, about to learn to be a wizard." He said.

Peter nodded in agreement as did Lily and Kyle. "I'm half Muggle half wizard." Remus said. The boy shook a piece of his hair out of his eyes and grinned. "Mum was half out of her wits with surprise when she found out. Dad told her the day before their wedding when he mistakenly Transfigured the wedding cake into a puppy." He explained.

James chuckled. "I'm all wizard but I've got a few friends from my Muggle school and I'm constantly having to explain away all the odd sorts of things that seem to happen around me." He said.

The first year Gryffindors ate until they were stuffed to the gills with delicious food. Sirius groaned as he stood up from the table. "You're my friend right?" he asked James.

"Of course." James said.

"Then kill me now. Please. Just put me out of my misery." Sirius pleaded. James swatted his head with a grin as the group followed the Prefect up the stairs. A portrait of a fat lady stood at the turn of the corridor. "God, how far away is this place?" Sirius asked as he staggered along.

The Fat Lady looked at the approaching group. "First years?" she asked the prefect and he nodded. She smiled down at all of them crowded in front of her portrait. "Password then."

"Rancid Blastwort." The Prefect said and the portrait swung open to admit the first years into the Common Room. "Boys follow me, girls you go with Wendy." The prefect said and he led the boys up a winding stairway to their room. "Right, you all get settled in, lights out is in a half an hour."

Sirius grinned around the room as he and James claimed two of the top bunks. Gryffindor robes lay on each bed and Sirius shook his out to try them on. "Perfect fit. How do I look?" he asked. He turned around as if modeling the robes until a pillow hit him square in the back of the head. He turned around to stare indignantly at the culprit, one Remus Lupin.

"Sorry about that Sirius old boy, I'm quite afraid my hand slipped." Remus said with a straight face. He sounded completely sincere and there was pure innocence written in his eyes. Sirius was beginning to think it really might have been an accident when his mind snapped back to reality.

"Ha! You're good at that. Where'd you learn to lie so well?" he asked disbelievingly.

Remus shrugged with a smile. "I'm afraid I've got no notion what you're talking about." He said.

James snorted from his perch on the end of his bunk. "I'm sure you don't. Gee, you could get away with anything with a face like that." He marveled. Sirius shook his head at Remus as he took off the robe and climbed back onto his own bunk.

"Night guys." Chris called out as he climbed into bed. The others followed suit, stifling gigantic yawns that threatened to dislocate their jaws.