Tons of thanks to Lucy Fair for pointing out a mistake I made. (Instead of saying "sixth year", he says "fifth year") I originally placed this fic as Harry's fifth year, but then the book came out and changed everything, so I'm sorry that I missed that. Have a canary cream!

And also thanks to kateydidn't for pointing out that I misspelled "fraternal". I blame it on my spellchecker this time, though. It keeps insisting that neither my name, nor the word "clear", nor the country "Portugal" actually exist, so it's a bit screwed up. This is a good indication that I need to look over my chapters more closely, though.

CHAPTER SIX

.and he saw something fly at him.

Instinctively, he stepped to the side and it whizzed past, landing with a rather disgusting splut. It groaned and began to slide down the opposite wall. Harry took a closer look - apparently, it was another boy. And if he didn't miss his guess.

"SIRIUS!" A boy that looked just like him (his hand instinctively went to fix his hair, only to meet perfectly in place locks) yelled at the still groaning form of Sirius Black. "What the hell did you think you were doing?!"

Harry fell into the act. "Beside trying to scar me for life, you mean?" He added sarcastically and tried to look appropriately ticked off. Sirius groaned again from the floor.

James Potter grinned. "Sorry, but Sirius is nuts. Forgive him." Harry felt an eerie shiver when he looked at his father. He remembered James's gleeful face in the pensieve.

Remus Lupin was trying to hold back his laughter. "Though it was funny to see you finally get your due, Sirius."

James grinned. "He's right, actually. Where'd you learn to move like that?"

Harry just *looked* at him.

Remus laughed nervously, obviously thinking he was angry. "Really, sorry about that."

Sirius raised an arm and groaned louder. They ignored him.

Harry shrugged and looked at Remus. "Don't worry, I don't blame you. It looks like he got what he deserved, anyway. Tell me, exactly what was he trying to do?"

James only laughed harder - he was turning an alarming shade of maroon. Remus rolled his eyes. "He doesn't need something to do, just people to terrify."

"He's going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that."

James let out a whoop and clapped him on the back. "I think I like you already." Not necessarily a good thing, Harry thought darkly.

Sirius groaned again, then grabbed onto James's leg. "Help.me."

James just smirked at him. "It's your own fault you're down there, Sirius. Don't expect me to help you, you big oaf."

Sirius, with a great deal of huffing and moaning, got to his feet. He glared at Remus and James, then turned to Harry with a huge grin on his face. "Hi, I'm Sirius Black."

Harry raised an eyebrow. This Sirius was far more outgoing than he had thought he would be, but then again, Sirius probably learned to be friendly. Coming from a dark family, he would've needed all the friends he could get.

"So I've heard." He waited a beat, then added, "I'm Daniel Graham."

Sirius seemed unabashed. "Sorry, mate. Good to have another sixth year, though." Suddenly, he looked excited. "We outnumber the girls now! Yes!" And with that, he ran down the stairs.

James, Remus, and Harry just looked at one another for a moment, all confused, until they heard several shrieks and a shrill voice scream, "BLACK! GET OUT!!!"

The next few seconds were unintelligible, but they distinctly heard a thump and surmised that one of the girls had thrown something at Sirius. Then, they heard his footsteps descend the girls' stairs and go up theirs.

James muttered, "Maybe we can lock him out."

Remus shook his head sadly. "He'll just bang on the door all night."

"Hey!" Sirius had heard them.

"Hey, yourself!" James shot back. "What were you thinking, going into the girls' dorms?"

Sirius grinned. "We outnumber them now! I wanted to rub it in their faces!" Suddenly, he scowled. "But I didn't see anything. Lindsey and Monica hadn't even changed yet, and Lily-

James growled and hit Sirius upside the head. "Don't you dare finish that sentence."

While the two continued to carry on, Remus said to Harry, "We'll show you the ropes tomorrow. You'll meet Peter, then, too. I think he's asleep already."

"You can just go up to the girls' dorm?" Harry remembered Ron's attempt to go up the stairs.

Remus shrugged. "There's a spell in place, but Sirius figured out how to get past it."

James broke his conversation with Sirius to interject, "We're crazy - but we're fun!"

Remus rolled his eyes, and Harry grinned mischievously, "We could lock them out."

Hours later, Harry lay awake in bed. The Marauders were a shocking change from the friendly camaderie he had with his dorm mates. His year was divided into groups, but not these boys. They were open and friendly, and he immediately felt more comfortable with them than anyone else in this time. Then again, he surmised, that might be because he knew them already.

But he still felt like an outsider. He felt a yearning for Hogwarts as he knew it. He missed hanging out in the common room till past midnight, ragging on Hermione and Ron in turn as they faced off. He missed Quidditch, and especially his Firebolt - but most of all, he missed Ron and Hermione.

One of his biggest worries now was that his nightmares would come back with a vengeance when he was near these people. Never mind the fact that he was far better at Occlumency, he still got nightmares from his own mind. Seeing them alive only made him dwell on their deaths, and their murderers, Voldemort, Lestrange.. And Pettigrew - how was he supposed to handle him?

He sincerely hoped this Peter bore no resemblance to Wormtail other than looks. Otherwise, he wasn't sure what he'd do, especially if he had one of those nightmares.

He sighed, and turned over to go to sleep.

Author's Note: You know, it was kind of interesting writing this. For fanfiction, I had to separate my desires and motivations from Harry's.

And I discovered something about myself. My dad died when I was little, too, and most people say, "I'm sorry" the second they hear this. It gets rather irritating after a while. I mean, what did they do? From some people, it also feels so condescending ("Oh, you poor dear! How ever did you get along?" type of thing), though I don't think people mean it to be that way. I have had a completely normal childhood, and I have a loving mom. From my perspective, I think I'm pretty lucky. (Honestly, some of my friends parents!)

But then again, it wouldn't do to have people going around saying, "That's too bad" or "That's life" to statements like that. Does anyone know of a good thing to say when you learn about someone's dead parent/loved one? I'm honestly interested in hearing it.

AH! Sorry about the uploading difficulties - It looks actually nice on my Word program, but when I upload it. gah!

Oh, and due to my several hundred reading of the various books and the fact that one my best friends is half-British (and uses the slang and drinks the tea :::eye roll:::), I'll probably attempt some of the British terminology. Emphasis on "attempt", please. Oh, and I'm still sticking to American slang for a lot of it, because Order of the Phoenix made me stop and think a couple times ("Why is McGonagall giving Harry a dog biscuit?"). Especially with "spotty". I've been told it means zits/acne/pimples, but to me it sounds stupid. Not flowing with that, dude.

And I'm trying to keep the canon on this fic. Canon (to me) is both what's in the book and what Rowling has said. Screw the movies. Harry's father is a chaser, Lily and the Marauders are all Gryffindors, James was not a prefect, so on. So there.

By the way, the Thomas twins are of no relation to muggleborn Dean Thomas, that I know of anyway. They keep me out of the loop on some things.

I'm planning on exploring Harry's ambivalence toward his father, and the fact that he is still grieving for Sirius and he's not sure if being near him is making it better or worse. Deeper friendship with the more decent Remus, and encounters with both his hated rivals and (equally hated) allies.

Oh, and we might see Skeeter, what do you think about that?

We'll see more of Dennis, too, don't worry. And Harry's going to meet the Longbottoms. maybe he'll take some pictures for Neville.

It's much harder to keep Harry in character than I thought. I still visualize him as being angry and frustrated, but now that the truth's out I think he'll be more focused. O.W.L. results will be discussed later. I've listed them already, but I'll discuss them at some point.

I'll probably put more focus on Harry's dark side that usual, his lying talent (and how it's bothering him), his thirst for revenge, his manipulative and sadistic side Rowling's given us such startling glimpses of, and over all, his amazing will power.

And lest we forget, our dear Harry speaks in tongues....