Yet another chapter. Has anyone bought the third film yet? I got it yesterday, and I think I like it better than the first time I saw it. For the record, I've seen it three times…

Someone Called 'Voldemort'

We were back—finally, it seemed. Life was boring without the Marauders in my life. I was now thirteen, and on my way to Hogwarts for my third year. I had found James, Remus, Sirius and Peter already, and we had already assembled in our usual compartment, ready to buy sweets, when Sirius pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet. "All right," said Remus, sounding a bit confused, "is it just me, or is Sirius reading the paper?"

Sirius snorted. "Yes, I'm reading the paper. My mother said there'd be an article I should read in here… this must be it, knowing her…"

We crowded around him, looking down at the paper: Mystery Man Terrorizes Muggle-Borns, it read. "Interesting title," I said, glancing at Sirius, who was reading ahead. I sat back down, waiting for the trolley, until,

"It's about someone called 'Voldemort'," muttered Sirius.

"W-what?" I said, breathlessly. I wasn't expecting this Voldemort? Here already?

I gripped the seat I was on, waited until I stopped breathing like I had just run a mile, and looked around. No one had heard me.

"Stupid name," muttered Peter, looking up from his comic.

"Yeah…"mumbled Sirius. He was still reading. "He's one of them…" he continued.

"One of who?" asked Remus.

"They're called the 'Knights of Walpurgis'," said Sirius, with an air of disgust.

"Now that's a stupid name," said James.

Sirius glared at him. "Don't mess," he said, still glaring as Remus and Peter laughed. They stopped very quickly—Sirius had never encouraged anyone to stop laughing at anything. Everyone—except for me—stared at him. "They're not nice people; they go around torturing muggles and half-bloods," he started, sounding angry and sick of the subject. "They're just like my family: all jumped-up, thinking that they're better than everyone else just 'cause they're pure-blood. They've brainwashed my cousins and brother—you know what Bellatrix and Regulus are like. Everyone in my family except for Andromeda and I are like that. The idiots think they're royalty just because they can trace their magical blood back to the middle ages without a squib, or anything. Like that really matters…" he looked angrily back at the paper. "This guy… Voldemort… he's become their leader. He's changed their name to the Death Eaters… reckons he'll be the next Grindlewald, or something… and they don't even know who he really is, his real name, yet."

"Sorry, Sirius," said James, as the food trolley came in.

"Thanks, mate" said Sirius, as Remus took the paper and began to read the article.

After that, we were all pretty quiet. The ride up to school seemed much too long. Sirius seemed to have upset himself explaining who the Death Eaters were, and what the pure-blood craziness was like in his family. We had always known that Sirius didn't like his family, and wasn't like them, but he'd never spoken at great length about them. In fact, I think that, at that point, that was the longest speech I'd ever heard out of him

I saved the paper, later. I took it when Remus had done, and kept it. The article was small- two paragraphs, and no pictures or quotes. Just a filler article on a page mostly taken up by an advertisement for Honeyduke's new store in Hogsmeade, and an article about dragon sightings in England by muggles. I wondered how such a huge thing- Voldemort, the most evil wizard ever, gaining control of the 'Knights of Walpurgis'—Death Eaters—his own private army, could have only earned the smallest possible space in the whole paper.

That night, I found Sirius in the common room with a long piece of parchment. "You can't be doing homework already," I said to Sirius. "We haven't even had any classes."

"No," said Sirius. "It's a letter from my mother. She's written to say that—that Bellatrix has joined the Death Eaters. Like that's a surprise."

"I'm sorry, Sirius," I muttered to him, sitting down on the couch where he was already.

"It's not your fault. I hope she's happy—they're just her type, there."

"No… I'm sorry that you got stuck with the family you did. You don't deserve it. You're not influenced by them, and they all believe in something that you don't. They're all Slytherins, and you're a Gryffindor—which is much better than being a Slytherin anyway."

"Thanks, but I'm still stuck with them," he said, smiling. "The only people in my family who have any sense are Andromeda, but she's in seventh year, and my uncle Alphard, but he lives in Wales somewhere. He went there to get away from all the other Blacks, I'm sure. No doubt Andromeda will follow him. She's bound to marry Ted Tonks, I'm sure, he's been her boyfriend for three years now. He's a muggle-born, so her parents will love that. They already love that my best friends are muggle-borns and blood traitors, like James."

"That doesn't matter, Sirius." It was James. He had come down from the boy's dormitory, and was sitting down on Sirius's other side. "You're not like that, and it doesn't matter if your family is, or what anyone else's family is like. Plus," he continued, smiling, "Andromeda with Ted would really annoy them. I can't wait for that."

"Knowing them," said Sirius darkly, "they'll blame it on me. Send me a Howler, or something…"

"That'll be great," I said, thinking about it.

James laughed, and Sirius hit him in the head with a pillow. James kept laughing, and hit Sirius back.

"Very funny," said Sirius, also laughing now. "My parents won't think it will be great."

"It'll be a long way off, don't worry," said James, hitting him again.

"You might not live with them, by then," I said, grabbing my own pillow from a neighboring chair.

Sirius snorted. "Like my parents would give me enough money to buy my own place to live. I don't think they'd want me out of their sight, or out of my cousin's sights. Narcissa is still here, she's in sixth year, but she's not as evil as Bellatrix is, I don't know if she'd go off and become a Death Eater."

We spoke for another short while, and then, I proceeded up to the girls dormitory, where, of course, Lily, the prefect-in-waiting, was sitting, I swear, waiting for me to come up. "Reilly," she said to me.

"Evans," I muttered to her. Hestia Jones and Emmeline Vance glared at me also.

They continued to glare at me as I started to unpack my trunk. "Did I do something?" I asked them as they continued to stare. Hestia and Emmeline frowned and turned away, but Lily continued to stare.

"No…" she muttered.

"Well, then?" I said, glaring back at her.

"That Sirius Black's family is in league with this guy," she said, showing me the same article I had been reading a few hours ago.

"So?"

"Well, his family—"

"—is absolutely nothing like him. Except for Andromeda Black in Ravenclaw, that is. And, you don't know anything about him. He'd never join this guy, and, did you not notice, but he's in Gryffindor, when all the other members of his family who joined this were in Slytherin."

"But—"

"'Night, Lily," I said, turning away from her and continuing to get ready for bed.

The next day, James had an announcement for us. We were eating breakfast in the Great Hall, reading the newly passed out schedules when James came down, holding a piece of parchment. "'Morning, James," said Sirius, passing him the sausages.

"What took you so long?" asked Peter, taking his third fried egg.

"Look what I found," he said, as if he had discovered treasure in the Common Room. He passed the showed us the parchment which said:

Quiddich Tryouts!

Any one who is second year or above may try out for the Gryffindor Quiddich team. Tryouts are on Saturday, September 6. Available positions are
-One Beater
-One Chaser
-Seeker

APPLICANTS DO NOT NEED THEIR OWN BROOMS

"So you're going to try out?" asked Remus, the last to read what was written on the parchment.

"Yep," said James, looking proud of himself.

"What are you going to try out for?" asked Sirius, as much a Quiddich lover as James.

"Chaser or Seeker, probably. I don't much fancy Beating," said James, taking the parchment from Remus. "What about any of you? Trying out?"

"I don't trust myself on a broom," said Peter. "I like both feet firmly on the ground, thank you very much."

"Same for me," I said.

"I'm not much of a Quiddich player," muttered Remus. "Well, I've never played."

"I might," Sirius added. "But I'm not very good; I prefer to watch."

James and Sirius continued to talk about Quiddich well into our Charms, our first class. Professor Vernes was making us take notes on charms from last year, while Sirius and James had a hushed Quiddich conversation. Eventually, I elbowed James, who was next to me, in the rib and whispered, "You do know he's going to hear you, right?"

"Relax," whispered James back, "he won't hear us." He turned back to talk with Sirius when,

"Mr. Potter," said Professor Vernes, "and Mr. Black. Why am I not surprised that you are the ones disrupting my class."

The Slytherins on the other side of class sniggered.

"Five points from Gryffindor," he said, turning away, and tapping the board with his wand, changing the text written there.

After class, as we were walking out, a mob of third year Slytherins "Hey Black," said one of them, "we hear your cousin has moved on to bigger and better things."

Sirius stopped dead. We stopped next to him and waited. It had been Snape who spoke.

"Yeah, Black," said another one, next to Snape. "Bellatrix has the right idea, on the Death Eater's side."

Sirius turned around.

Snape spoke up again: "So, Black, are you going to go the same way as your cousin, or hang around with Blood-Traitors like Potter and Pettigrew, and Mudbloods like Reilly and Lupin?"

James started to say something, but Sirius stopped him. "I am not going to follow Bellatrix," said he in barely more than a whisper.

"Stay with your precious little Mudbloods, then," said Snape, at the front of the pack of Slytherins. "You'll be the first to go."

Sirius had taken enough. He launched himself at Snape before we had the chance to try and hold him back.

"BLACK!" we all turned. Sirius stopped hitting Snape, and we saw that Snape had hit him back at least once, as Sirius's lip was bleeding. Professor Vernes was standing in the door of the Charms classroom, looking angrier than we had ever seen him. "Detention, Black," he said, walking toward Sirius.

"But Professor—" started James, but Vernes cut him off.

"One word, Potter, and you will have detention too." He looked around. "What are you all waiting for? Get to your next class! Severus, go to the Hospital Wing, I'll give you a note."

We went off, Sirius still bleeding and fuming. "I'll get Snivellus someday, I swear," he muttered as we walked to Transfiguration. "I promise I will."