Sirius, James and Remus made for their usual seats by the fire. Sirius noticed that James was shivering violently. 'You okay, mate?' He asked concernedly.

'F-f-freezing', James breathed, closing his eyes, and inching his chair closer to the fire.

'I thought that spell might have after effects', Arthur commented grimly, 'those potent ones usually do.'

'Here', the first year girl with auburn hair handed James her scarf, and added, 'you played really well. Eva and I were watching.'

James nodded his thanks (his teeth were chattering too much for him to speak) and wrapped the scarf around his neck.

A pretty, dark-haired girl came over. 'You were really brave', she said to Sirius, gazing at him admiringly, 'defending your friend like that.'

'I was an idiot', Sirius shook his head, 'I lost Gryffindor fifty points.'

'It was worth it, to see that annoying first year's face rearranged', Adam remarked cheerfully, 'you all right, James?'

James opened his eyes briefly, and nodded slightly. An icy cold had filled him, inside and out, when Snape cast that spell, and he was finding it difficult to shake off. 'Thanks for the scarf...er...'

'Lily', the girl replied, 'Lily Evans.'

'And I'm Eva', the dark-haired girl added, smiling.

There was a tap at the window. Adam strode over, and opened it; a large, black owl flew in, dropped a letter on Sirius' lap, and flew out again.

'Never saw an owl like that before', Eva commented, making a face, 'really ugly.'

'Uh-oh', Sirius mumbled. The letter on his lap was in a red envelope, and was starting to smoke at the corners.

'Uh-oh is right', Adam said, sticking his finger in his ears, walking quickly away.

'A howler', Sirius said miserably, 'from mum.'

There was no avoiding it. He ripped open the envelope, and a high-pitched, nasal shriek rang out.

'SIRIUS BLACK, YOU ARE A DISGRACE! AN UTTER DISGRACE! GRYFFINDOR! HOW COULD YOU DO IT TO US? YOUR POOR FATHER BECAME QUITE ILL WHEN HE HEARD THE NEWS. WE ALWAYS KNEW ARAMINTA HAD BEEN LUMBERED WITH AN ODD CHILD WHEN ANDROMEDA WAS BORN, BUT WE NEVER EXPECTED IT TO HAPPEN IN OUR OWN IMMEDIATE FAMILY! WHAT SORT OF EXAMPLE ARE YOU SETTING FOR REGULUS? I WANT YOU HOME AT CHRISTMAS, WE'RE GOING TO SORT YOU OUT ONCE AND FOR ALL!'

The letter burst into flames. Sirius sat on the edge of his seat, stunned. James, who was still shivering violently, gave him a sympathetic look.

'Andromeda?' Adam (who, despite having his fingers in his ears, had been unable to avoid hearing Sirius' mother) said, looking puzzled, 'Is she a relative of yours?'

'Yeah', Sirius said quietly, 'my cousin. Do you know her?'

'We all knew her', Paul said, 'her parents gave her a horrible time when she got into Gryffindor. Disowned her and everything.'

Sirius nodded silently. He remembered seeing his father blast Andromeda's name off the Black family tapestry years ago. Himself and Andromeda. The black sheep of the Black family.

'Sorry Sirius.' Eva said softly.

'What're you apologising for?' He asked, startled.

'Sorry you're getting such a hard time because of the kind of person you are.' Eva looked truly upset.

'No offence, mate, but your mum sounds like a horrible old hag.' Remus remarked.

'She is', Sirius agreed. Suddenly, he felt exhausted. Snape had given him quite a few bruises, but he certainly wasn't going to admit that. 'I'm going to bed', he announced.

'M-me too', James felt a little warmer now, and had stopped shivering. He smiled gratefully at Lily, and handed her scarf back to her.

'It's only four o'clock in the afternoon', Adam was surprised, 'bit early to go to bed, don'tcha think?'

'I don't care', James and Sirius said together. The quidditch try-outs felt a long long time ago to Sirius. They trudged up to their dormitory, where they found Jed, Tobias and Peter talking animatedly. Sirius groaned inwardly; he had hoped to go to bed without having to talk to anyone else.

'We heard the Howler', Jed told him, 'sorry about that. God, James, you look awful what happened?'

So James gave an abbreviated version of the events of the past few hours to the trio. Peter's eyes widened as he listened. 'I told you we should've gone down!' He moaned, 'see what we missed by staying up here?'

'Believe me, it was a lot less fun being there', James yawned, and got into bed, 'now shut up, or go to the common room.' Jed, Tobias and Peter got up, and left the room. Sirius fell into bed, his mother's last words echoing his mind: '...at Christmas, we're going to sort you out once and for all!'

With this ominous phrase reverberating around his brain, Sirius fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, scure in the knowledge that nothing else could go wrong...today, at least.