Life without friends is like the sky without the sun---Anonymous

Sirius was engulfed in a lung-crushing bear hug. "It's so nice to have you here," Mrs. Potter said as she let go. Sirius took in a deep breath and smiled. He looked around the kitchen; it was modest, with a clock on the wall and fading tiles adorning the floor. A box of cornflakes sat on the table.

"It's nice to be here, Mrs. Potter," He said. Mr. Potter patted him on the back, and James' uncle smiled kindly.

"Though I would like to know why you're not getting ready for school tomorrow," Mrs. Potter said. She took Sirius' suitcase and levitated it on to the kitchen table with her wand. The cornflakes toppled over.

"Oh," She giggled and cleaned it up with a simple spell. "Sirius, we were just about to eat lunch… how about you stay here for some?"

"Mum," Said James, stepping in. "I was hoping he could, er… stay the night…"

Mrs. Potter suddenly looked serious, not wasting a moment to ponder why Sirius wouldn't be getting ready at his own house. She knew the Black family too well, and Sirius was not a bit like them. "Yes, you can." But the look on her face asked for an explanation, though she did not outwardly ask.

"I… I ran away, Mrs. Potter. I couldn't take it there anymore. Their pureblood notions grinded me down until I just couldn't stay. My little brother would have ratted on me, would have told my parents that I had plenty of half-blood friends," Sirius said. "I don't think I would have gotten the usual punishment this time; they've warned me too many times… I don't want to go back, Mrs. Potter. But I have nowhere to go."

Mrs. Potter pursed her lips and suddenly gave off a determined air. She didn't state her feelings about the Blacks; that would have seemed irresponsible. Without bursting out, she turned to her husband.

He smiled, nodding. "Sirius, you know you can stay anytime you want," He said. Putting a reassuring hand on Sirius' shoulder, he turned to his brother. Sirius felt a warm feeling flow through his body… for once in his life, he felt like he was in a family… a real family.

"Of course he can stay the night," James' uncle said, with a huge smile. "He'll have to crash on the couch, however. With you here I'm all out of guest rooms. Locomotor suitcase." He levitated the suitcase of the kitchen table and out of the room.

There was an awkward silence. It wasn't often that a kid came to your doorstep after running away from home. Mrs. Potter coughed. "I'll start lunch, then."

James tugged on Sirius' shirt. "Let's go up to my room," he said, as Mrs. Potter got to work. Mr. Potter started to set the table, opening the cabinets with his wand.

The two friends walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Unlike the Black's house, there were more photographs of people rather than old, musty paintings. The white walls didn't seem so entrapping.

James started pointing out photographs in his uncle's house. "That's my father, right after Hogwarts. If you look closely, he's about to put a hex on my uncle. Dad told me about that… got a good punishment for that one, he did."

"Er… there's my grandfather, he's dead now. Don't know how though… my parents never told me." He jabbed at a photo on the wall and laughed as his grandfather yelled.

"That's me, there," he said as the young James jumped up in the photo. "About four, I think. They didn't have glasses on me yet. Didn't figure that out until I was six, when they started to see me running into walls and boring great big holes into them, so I could get through. I just thought the doors were locked, and that's why I couldn't open the plaster…"

Sirius laughed, and as they finished climbing the stairs, he stopped to look at a huge family photo… everybody was there, happy, laughing. James noticed that his friend had stopped and turned back.

"Oh, we took that a year ago. That's about everyone in the family, there. Here I am… next to my cousin, he's half-blood; his father married a muggle from France. They visit there often. Myfather was there withthemlast summer.Everybody loves him and his sister," He squinted through his glasses and his finger waved around the picture. "…There. Next to my mother. She's a squib though… can't even levitate a pin. But of course, nobody cares, she's always here at the celebrations…"

Sirius stared at the picture. Any squibs in his family were disgraced, thrown out… were seen as too muggle-like to be in the family…

He frowned a little, but then walked past the photo and followed James to his room. When he got inside, he couldn't help but smile at the plain disaster he was looking at.

"I thought you were packed, mate!" Sirius laughed. "I expected a mess, but this… isn't your uncle mad that you've messed up his house?" A sock fell off the door and hit him on the head. He blinked, picked off the sock, and stared at James.

James burst out laughing. "I kind of couldn't find my Quidditch book… and so I… er… dismantled my room trying to find it…and I still haven't found it. Besides, I figured the house-elf would clean it up… but then my uncle said that the poor thing had died two months ago."

"I don't depend on house-elves," Sirius grunted.

"You've got Kreacher, though," James said, knowing full well how much Sirius hated that house-elf.

"Do you think I actually LIKE having that toerag scurrying around my room, shuffling about? He's young, but my mother's already gone about to teaching him that he's in the 'best of families.'" Sirius laughed.

"Well, we should really have a go at this room," Said James, staring at the mess as if it were his masterpiece that he had to destroy. "So I can find that Quidditch book."

"We?" Sirius asked, joking. Sirius moved forward, and his foot collided with something hard. He bent down, removed a robe, seven socks (all different), a sweater, a Mars bar wrapper, and a shoe (with gum on the bottom) before coming to a book. He picked it up and read the title out loud. "Quidditch, the Rules and Culture of the Game."

James looked disgruntled but still let out a small laugh. "Give me that…" He snatched it out of his friend's hands.

Sirius shrugged. He started to pick up the trash littering the floor. "Hey! I see a floorpanel!"

"Really? What color is it?" James said with a mildly surprised expression.

Only about 30 minutes later, they had made some progress, and James' trunk was 1/3 of the way packed. Then, Mrs. Potter called them to lunch.

Sirius wiped a couple beads of sweat off his face and wiped some black hair out of his eyes. "Finally… I was starting to feel like I was working in a sweatshop…"

James laughed. "I should pay you for this, really."

They clambered down the stairs, the photographs' eyes' following them, and hurried into the kitchen. Mrs. Potter was setting down some sandwiches and glasses of limonade (A French drink that Mr. Potter fancied) rice pudding sat on the counter for desert.

Sirius sat down next to James and Mr. Potter. "Limonade!" Said Mr. Potter, and snatched up a glass. Sirius cocked his head at the glass in front of him.

He grabbed his own glass and took a sip. It was sort of like lemonade, but it had a lime flavor to it. Despite its water-like form, it was fizzy and bubbles popped in his mouth. Sirius, expecting sparkling water, choked.

James thumped him on the back. Everybody burst out laughing. "Right," said Sirius. He smiled. "I've never tasted that before."

"When he went to France last year," James explained, "he brought back a case of that. It was gone in one week."

Mrs. Potter smiled. "Eat," she said, and nodded to the tray of sandwiches in the center of the table. She grabbed one herself.

"Wheat bread?" James' uncle asked, inspecting the dirty-colored bread. James laughed.

"Mum found an article in a muggle newspaper on wheat bread," James said, shaking his head. "The next day, we had no white bread left in the house, and we knew we were never getting it again."

Sirius took a bite of his. It wasn't bad, though he thought he broke a tooth on a piece of grain stuck in the bread. It didn't matter; he always got fancy French breads and Italian breads at the Black house. He had only tasted white bread at Hogwarts, but they rarely served that.

After lunch, Sirius and James went back up the stairs to his room to get back to packing and cleaning. Mrs. Potter came up around 9 o clock to tell them to go to bed. "What a mess!" She said. They had cleaned up everything except a t-shirt and a sock, which lay on the bed.

Sirius went downstairs to the sofa. James' uncle had brought out some extra sheets and pillows, which made the rather crusty, old couch a little more homely. His trunk lay at the foot of the sofa. He smiled up into nowhere as he fell asleep.

"Wake up! WAKE UP!" Someone was screaming. "COME ON! JAMES! NOW!"

As Sirius came to his senses, he figured out that that someone was Mrs. Potter. She was currently pounding down the stairs. He decided to leap off the couch rather than hear her scream. He lay on the floor, disgruntled and trying to look occupied when she came in.

"WAK—oh, you're up, dear," She smiled. "Hurry up then; we're going to be late!"

10 minutes later, everyone was in front of the front door, saying good-bye to James' uncle. It wasn't even light out.

"Come on," Said Mrs. Potter, "There's a bus stop two blocks away…" They grabbed their trunks and started walking.

"We have to ride the bus?" Said James with a horrified expression. Mr. Potter didn't seem any bit more settled than him. Sirius didn't say anything, though he was equally disturbed.

Sure enough, they saw a bus stop, and sat down on the bench, looking very odd. Mrs. And Mr. Potter hadn't changed out of their robes, though Sirius and James looked pretty normal.

The bus came almost 5 minutes later, and they hurried on to it. "This will take us to King's Cross, right?" Mr. Potter asked anxiously. The bus driver looked up at him, looking clearly grumpy.

"Yes, it's on the stop list," He grunted, eyeing Mr. Potter's robes. And so they set off for King's Cross, the Potters and Sirius all looking like they were all going to throw up.

At the stop, they all wobbled off the bus and paid the fares with money Mrs. Potter had, though she had no idea what it was. She handed him a 10-pound note and they hurried off the bus. The bus driver stared at the note, shook his head, and started up the bus.

They all hurried to the platform. The bus had taken so long that it was only ten minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. Mr. Potter took one glance at the clock and shook his head. "Howdo muggles stand to travel like this?"

Sirius and James took the platform at a run, and crossed the barrier to see the great black train, which was spewing steam and who knows what. James' parents followed. "Hurry!" yelped Mrs. Potter, shunting them along.

They jumped onto the train and began to look for their friends. Remus was probably in the prefect car, but he would come back after the prefect meeting. Though when they walked past the 5th year prefect window, and saw all of the new, pompous brats that would come in, they got an idea.

James smiled. "Dungbombs or stink pellets?" He asked.

Sirius grinned back to him. "Dungbombs. Definitely Dungbombs."

8 screaming prefects later, James and Sirius were running down the train, laughing. "James! Sirius!" They looked up ahead to see little Peter Pettigrew saving a car for them.

They slowed to hurried walk and quickly went into the compartment. "How are ya, Wormtail?" Said Sirius.

The pudgy boy smiled. "Just fine, Padfoot."

James stopped to catch his breath, bending down a little. After resting a minute, he stood up and laughed. He lowered his voice and said, "How about we raid old Snivelly's compartment?"

James pulled out a long, silvery cloak from his trunk. He smiled. "Want to come, Wormtail?" Peter looked pretty skeptical.

" I don't know… What are you going to do?" Peter asked, a small smile on his face.

Sirius thought for a second with James. "Turn his hair pink?" He suggested.

"Hogar's Maximum Itching Powder in his robes? I got a bottle of that in Diagon Alley. We haven't used that before," Said James.

"Burping Hex? I looked that up in my Uncle Alphard's book stash last time we visited. It'll have him burping for hours," Laughed Sirius.

"Well, we could switch any food they'll serve to him on the cart," Pondered James after Sirius. "We could put the Burping Hex on the butterbeer. Do we have anything to put in the pumpkin pasties? He just loves those, I've seen him stuff his disgusting face with them."

"Hmm… my uncle's book had a good one on truth… its not strong, but it does make you blubber out some good secrets," Sirius said.

"Let's do it."

Hours later, it was time for the cart to come by. James and Sirius put on James' invisibility cloak. Peter decided that he would wait for Remus, who would be coming back soon.

Severus Snape and his gang of Slytherins were sitting in a compartment 10 or 12 cars down from theirs. When the cart came by, they all pulled out their Knuts and Sickles and payed for their treats.

Severus, sure enough, picked up some pumpkin juice, some butterbeer, and a load of pumpkin pasties.

James and Sirius slipped into the doorway, preventing it from closing, and aimed their wands. "Ebullio!" Whispered Sirius as he aimed his wand at Snape's butterbeer.

"Specialis pateo!" James whispered, pointing his wand at Snape's pumpkin pasties.

Looking at all of the rest of the Slytherin's, they decided to add hexes to their treats too. After several moments, they left, hearing several loud burps as they hurried back to their compartments.

"I—I didn't mean to say that." They heard someone yelp. Someone ran out of the compartment, looking furious. It was Bellatrix.

Shaking with suppressed laughs, they threw open the compartment to find Peter and Remus, who seemingly had just come back from the prefect meeting, playing Exploding Snaps. James pulled off the cloak and quickly stowed it away.

Remus' eyebrows rose. "What did you do?"

"Well---" Sirius started, sitting down. But at that moment, someone furious and burping threw open the compartment door, absolutely fuming. It was Snape.

"What are you doing here, Snivellus?" James growled, acting as if nothing funny had happened at all.

"I know it was--" He burped. "I know it was you who--- (burp) jinxed the drinks."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Snivelly," James laughed. At that moment, Bellatrix was about to walk by, burping, still raging down the train. "But now that you're here… do you really have a crush on Bellatrix? I've been wanting to know."

Snape looked horrified as he blurted out, "Yes." He childishly smacked a hand against his mouth. Bellatrix stopped, looking at Snape in horror. She burped, but it was muffled, as she had covered up her mouth with two hands.

"Oh, Bellatrix!" Said Sirius, acknowledging her happily, as if she wasn't his hated cousin. "I heard you've been flaunting around with Rodolphus. That true too?"

Bellatrix glared at Sirius, burped a muted burp, and to her own horror, said yes in a forced tone. She squeaked and covered her own mouth, took one look at Severus, and ran off.

Snape glared at them, furious, and pulled out his wand. "You will pay for this," He growled.

"What is going on here?" Professor Lanser, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, had appeared behind Severus.

Snape lowered his wand, glaring horribly at the four. He quickly exited the compartment and ran down the train after Bellatrix.

Professor Lanser looked at the four suspiciously and left.

As soon as he left, James closed the door and all but Remus (who merely grinned a little) started to laugh hysterically.

After laughing for quite a long time, Peter and Remus both asked what they had done.

"We put a Burping hex in all of their drinks, and Sirius put a good truth jinx in their food," James laughed.

"I knew it," Peter sighed. "Bellatrix has been crawling all over Rodolphus all year."

Remus nodded. "But what I didn't know is that Severus liked Bellatrix. How did you guess, James?"

"Well, he tries to hard it really well, but you should see how he stares at her in Herbology!" James laughed.

Remus sighed. "So… what's gone on this summer?" He asked. James and Sirius looked at each other, and Sirius began to tell him of his escape from Grimmauld Place.

Please review!!!! I'd really appreciate it! More interesting chapters coming up soon.

0.o Blackwishes