HOLY POOP! Guess what? I updated. That hasn't happened in like ten years. I'm very sorry everyone, but school is a MOSTER! I finally found some break time to work on this and I got a chapter out of it plus most of the last chapter, which is the next one. It's coming to an end guys.

Brenngt14: I'm sorry James doesn't find out in this story! I don't want him having to deal with that until he's older, and I just can't imagine that Sirius would tell him about it. I mean, his own cousin doesn't even know, and I made them to be pretty friendly to each other.

Mentallyinsane188: Glad you like.

Hermione21: Hello again! It makes you sad! I'm writing it. tears

Cascadingmagic You can say it's wonderful as much as you like! J Ummm…I wasn't planning on writing a sixth year fic, but if enough people wanted it, I could do it.

Magma Rose: You really added it to your favs? Oh thank you so much! And what do I do for you, I make you wait for the next chapter. Bad Mina, BAD! Well, I hope this one's good.

Celebrean I'm glad I made you feel better in your time of aliment. Hopefully your better by now, considering it's been like two months, I'm sure you are. I hope this one makes you happy too!

Shadow929: Like Remus a bit? Me too! He's so precious. Too bad I can never write a good story about him. Well, this chapter a bit of Sirius pondering Remus. I just didn't imagine them being such fast friends, and if it took Sirius and James until November to like each other, it should take Sirius and Remus a bit longer.

Well, on with the show!

Chapter 5

Sirius slammed his Herbology book shut and declared, "That's it! I'm sick of studying."

Lily looked up at him from across the table. "But Sirius," she protested, "we've only been sitting here for fifteen minutes."

Sirius nodded. "I know, and I'm bored as Hell."

"Sirius!"

James rolled his eyes from his seat next to Sirius. "Oh, get over it Evans," he drawled. "Little goodie two shoes."

"No one asked your opinions, Potter," she snapped back.

James leaned back in his seat and smirked. "It's hard for me to have opinions when I'm right all the time. So really, it's more like I'm spouting off facts."

"You are so bigheaded," Lily yelled. "I'm amazed you can walk properly. How in God's name do you get such good grades? What cheating spells are you using?"

"Hey," James said offended, "I don't cheat." Sirius and Peter watched the exchange like one would watch a tennis match until Remus suddenly yelled, "SHUT UP!"

The other first years and even some of the older students turned to look at the usually quiet boy with evident shock on their faces. Remus was rubbing his temples and continued, "That's enough of your pointless bickering. Have some consideration for others for once."

Sirius ginned and clapped. Remus shot him a death glare. "What?" Sirius asked. "I'm with you. It won't be funny again until they come to physical blows." Remus rolled his eyes, but Sirius caught a slight smile on his face.

Remus went back to his studying, and Sirius watched him with a slight frown. Remus had been sick the day before, and right now, he looked terrible. Actually, Remus looked terrible quite a bit.

Sirius wasn't technically keeping track, but it seemed like the boy disappeared once a month. He had numerous excuses: he was ill, his mother was ill, his very elderly grandfather had taken a tumble down some stairs, his mother's great aunt Mildred was in for the weekend and wanted to see him. The list went on and on. Every time he came back, the kid looked like he went through Hell. Jokingly, Sirius had once asked if he had a monthly visitor. Remus had then paled to a shade of white Sirius had not thought possible for the living.

Ever since early childhood, Sirius had been taught to read people, and, to him, it was very evident that Remus was both nervous and lying when he gave out excuses. Sirius was getting suspicious. What was going on that Remus couldn't tell them?

But Sirius had no real evidence, no proof of anything. He would never confront the other boy until he had it. And so, until then, he would keep his opinions to himself. But that wouldn't stop him from wondering.

The harsh whispered bickering of Lily and James brought Sirius away from his inner thoughts. He rolled his eyes at them and hopped up from the table. He made his way over to the exit, Lily calling after him, "Where are you going?"

"Exploring," Sirius called back just as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung closed behind him. Sirius knew that the prospect of fighting with Lily would keep James in the Common Room, so he would get some alone time. Sirius strongly suspected a bit of a crush on the part of James, but the other boy would never admit it.

Sirius hummed lightly as he strolled through the halls. Looking out on the grounds, he could see many of the older students studying, the fifth and seventh years looking especially stressed. Sirius was glad he wouldn't have to deal with that for another four years.

Sirius wandered for another half hour before beginning to feel slightly out of place. He couldn't be too sure, but he had a feeling that he was somewhere along the third corridor. He stuck his head down in a door and was met with a face full of cobwebs and dust. Coughing and waving his hand, he pulled back. It was likely no one had been down there in a while. He was content to leave it that way for now.

Sirius began to retrace his steps. He soon came upon a statue of a one eyed witch with a hump. Sirius raised a brow at it. Why did sculptures in the wizarding world find it necessary to create such strange and ugly works? Stupid looking hump, he thought and knocked on it with his fist.

The statue shuddered.

Sirius jumped back. What was that? "Hello?" he said. Nothing happened. Sirius blinked at it. He walked around to the back and attempted to push the statue away, but it was too heavy. Taking a step back, Sirius smirked. Where human strength failed, there was always magic. Sirius took his wand from his pocket and tapped the statue. "Open up," he commanded.

Again, nothing happened. "Right," he muttered to himself. "A spell. What's a good one? Er—Dissendium" The statue shuddered but didn't move.

"Oh, come on," Sirius said hitting the witch's hump with his wand, "Dissendium's a good one!"

Suddenly the statue jumped, and the hump moved aside. Sirius blinked in surprise and slowly stuck his head inside the hole that was now visible. "Lumos." With the wand's light, Sirius could see that the hole was the entrance to a tunnel. Curious as to the tunnel's destination, Sirius entered, the statue closing up behind him.

It was hours later before Sirius returned from Hogsmeade. Grinning like a maniac, Sirius stuffed the last of his toffees into his mouth, and carefully opened the statue of the witch. His ice colored eyes traveled up and down the corridor, and when he was sure no one was coming, Sirius squeezed out of the tunnel. He quickly closed the statue and made his was back to the Tower to tell James.

As he turned a corner, Sirius collided with another student. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I didn't see you—Oh, Severus."

Indeed, it was Severus Snape. Although Sirius didn't like him much, Snape had been one of his so-called playmates for years. "Well, hello, Sirius," the oily boy said. "How nice to see you back in the castle."

Sirius blinked in confusion. No one had seen him leave. What was the other boy talking about? "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"No, you wouldn't," Snape noted. Sirius frowned at him. He had better grades than Snape could dream of. How dare he? Observing his hand, Snape casually said, "I just thought you'd like to hear that the teachers have been looking for you for hours. From what I hear, James Potter didn't even know where you had gone. Professor McGonagall is seething. I can't wait till she finds you."

"What makes you think I did anything wrong," Sirius asked. No one could prove a thing.

Snape stared back at him with a pointed look, as if to say Well, duh! The other boy shook his head. "Sirius," he said, "I've known you since we were babies. When something goes wrong, you are always the root cause. I thought your parents had it bad enough before school, but then you were made a Gryffindor. Could you possibly shame your family more?"

Sirius growled. He heard quite enough of that from his parents; he didn't need it from a greasy boy like Severus Snape. "You have no clue what you're talking about," Sirius snapped. "You don't know what the Sorting Hat said to me. I tried to make it listen, but it put me in Gryffindor. I tried to get McGonagall and Dumbledore to let me try again. The whole school heard that. I never asked to be a Gryffindor. I wanted Slytherin!"

Both boys turned at the sound of something hitting the ground. Sirius's jaw dropped at the sight of James standing barely ten feet away, his eyes wide with shock. The messy haired boy quickly retrieved his dropped wand before turning on his heels and walking briskly down the hall.

"James!" Sirius called after him. The other did not stop. Sirius turned on Snape in a blaze of fury. "Now look what you did!"

"Me," Snape cried indignantly. "You were the one screaming your hate for Gryffindors."

"I never said I hated them," Sirius snapped. He turned and took off down the hall. He stopped at the corner and turned his icy gaze on the Slytherin. "You should watch out, Snape," he said coldly. "I might be the white sheep of my family, but you have just angered a Black. You know the consequences."

Snape did not say anything as Sirius disappeared from view, but he did look slightly nervous.

Sirius caught up with James a few minutes later in the courtyard. "James," he said. "Hey look, what you heard, it—"

James turned and stared coldly at him from under his glasses. "What I heard, Sirius? You don't need to tell me what I heard. My hearing's just fine. You said you never wanted to be a Gryffindor but a Slytherin. A Slytherin!"

"But James—"

"No, Sirius," James interrupted. "Hearing what you said makes me wonder, were you ever really my friend? My grandparents were right. Once a dark wizard, always a dark wizard."

Sirius could only stare. James thought he was a dark wizard? How could he ever think that of him? Sirius's best grades were in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Against!

"James, you're wrong," Sirius said quietly. "I don't hate you. You're my friend…my best friend. You're the first friend I ever had. All those Slytherins only talked to me because their parents made them. Yes, at the beginning of the year I wanted Slytherin, but that was only so my parents wouldn't be mad at me."

"So why were you spouting all that off to Snape?" James asked, his voice still a bit harsh.

Sirius dropped down on a bench. "He was talking about how I always shame my family, and how everything bad is always my fault. It just got me mad, and I blew up at him." Sirius looked up at James with eyes begging his forgiveness.

Sirius said, "I really don't want to be a Slytherin anymore. I never want to have anything to do with those people. I hate the Dark Arts and dark wizards, with good reason." Immediately, Sirius's hands flew to his mouth. He shouldn't have said that. He should not have said that. He only hoped James wouldn't question.

"What reason?"

Damn. Well, at least his voice wasn't angry anymore.

Sirius shook his head furiously and refused to move his hands from his mouth. "Sirius?" James asked sitting down by him. "What happened?" He placed a comforting hand on the Black heir's shoulder. Sirius lowered his hands wondering what would happened if he did tell James.

Would the other boy be shocked? Would he try to help Sirius get away from it? Would he do nothing? What if he saw just how pathetic Sirius really was and refused to associate with him anymore?

Sirius couldn't risk it. "Nothing," he choked out. "Don't worry." James gave him a look that clearly said he wasn't buying it. "Really," Sirius pressed. "It's just not any fun living with dark wizards, honest."

James sighed but decided not to press. "Understandable."

The boys were silent for a few minutes before Sirius peeked out from under his bangs and offered the other a sheepish smile. "So, am I forgiven?"

James burst into a string of laughter. He stood and offered the other his hand. "Sure," he said. "Why not?" Sirius took it, and James pulled him off the bench. "Let's go terrorize someone," James said with a grin.

"Yeah," Sirius said taking off for the castle, "and wait till I tell you what I found today on the third corridor!"

I have most of the final chapter written, so hopefully (cross your fingers) it shouldn't take too long to get out. Enjoy. REVIEW!