Chapter 30

The four boys and Dani were sitting in the common room, waiting for the right time to act. Dani seemed to be rethinking her great plan, but not by much.

"It would be easier if we had more protection," she muttered as she looked at the plan she had drawn up. None of the other guys could see, except Ben, who was going with her.

"Well, I'm the diversion, not you," Ben muttered, still not looking overly happy. Once he had seen her plan, he had been outraged and that had resulted in a thirty minute argument which had been broken up only after Sirius yelled at both of them.

"Exactly! You're supposed to be seen, not me. I'm supposed to be slinking through the shadows while you take on all of those nasty Slytherins," she joked and looked back to her plan. Ben tried to comprehend what she said while James suddenly looked thoughtful. Randomly, he got up and ran up the stairs. Dani looked up after him and Sirius got up in confusion.

"Where's he going?" Remus asked, looking at his friends. Sirius shrugged and Dani shook her head. Ben didn't even appear to notice that anything had happened. Moments later, however, James returned with something that looked like a silvery piece of cloth.

"That's an invisibility cloak!" exclaimed Ben, looking at it and finally reacting to his surroundings. "That's awesome!"

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" asked Sirius. He had thought that James told him everything, yet here he was, revealing a new secret. Sirius didn't like it much.

James just shrugged and held it out to Dani. "I got it for my birthday, it was my dad's, I guess. I was waiting for the perfect time to get it out to use."

Dani smiled slightly while Sirius looked offended. They always told each other every little thing that happened to them, what they got, and what they were going to do with what they got. It was not fair. Dani was coming in and ruining everything! It was like she was trying to take over his spot as James's best friend. Well, Sirius would not allow that to happen.

"So…" Sirius started, "when does this brilliant plan begin to work?"

Dani looked at him, a smile once again lighting up her face. "Tomorrow morning, when the Slytherins come down for breakfast," she answered looking excited and ready. "Are you ready with your part of the prank?"

Sirius nodded in grim satisfaction. At least he had done that much. It had been harder than he had first thought to find out how to make food dance and sing, but it wasn't really a hard spell.

"Do you have the dye ready?" asked James, looking at Remus, who nodded and looked tired.

Ben and Dani got up randomly and headed out of the common room, much to the surprise of the others. "Where are you going?" asked James, half standing up. Dani turned back around and faced him, a small smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

"You do want this plan to be carried out, don't you?" she asked, placing her hands on her narrow hips. James nodded slightly and she continued, "Then Ben and I should probably get cracking." And with those words, she led Ben out of the room, leaving silence behind them.

"Well…" Remus finally said, "What do we do now?"

Sirius smiled slightly. "We could spy on them," he suggested. "I'm very curious to know their plan."

"Sirius," James said, a silent warning in his voice. "They deserve to do things they want on their own. We should respect their privacy and let them do their part of the prank without our intruding."

Sirius opened his mouth to respond, but he randomly became dizzy and he gripped James's arm to keep from falling over. James immediately steadied his friend and looked at him in concern. "Are you alright?" he asked, looking closely at Sirius.

Sirius shook his head to clear away his dizziness, and said, "I'm fine, just a little bit tired, I guess." The next moment, he was falling to the floor in a dead faint.

Flashback dream thingy

"I'm James Potter," the boy with messy black hair and glasses said, holding out his hand. Sirius was eight years old and was living on the streets in Diagon Alley after his parents had kicked him out of the house for being mute. James was waiting for his parents to finish up some business.

"I'm Sirius Black," Sirius responded, holding his hand out in return, a small smile on his face.

"You're…who, I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," a confused James asked, looking at the boy as if he had gone insane. Sirius rolled his eyes and tried again, this time mouthing the words clearly.

"I'm Sirius Black," he repeated, a smile flashing across his face.

"Okay," James said slowly, looking slightly confused. "Why aren't you speaking Sirius? I know your family is evil, but are they stupid too?"

At that statement, Sirius grinned broadly, and cast a spell mentally it seemed. In James's head, Sirius's voice came clearly, "I'm mute, because my evil mother decided she didn't like the sound of my voice and magicked it away. So now I live on the streets of Diagon Alley, because she decided to kick me out. Fun, right?"

The hold over James's mind seemed to vanish and Sirius suddenly looked exhausted. "I'm sorry," he apologized to the Black boy. "That sounds terrible, really."

Sirius nodded slightly and looked around for his parents, just as a man and woman walked up to James. They looked at Sirius curiously and then turned to James, who was obviously their son. For an instance, Sirius was jealous, but he quickly shook away that feeling. He wasn't allowed to feel jealous. Blacks' just weren't supposed to show any emotion.

"This is Sirius Black," James introduced for him. Sirius gave a short wave. Instantly a look of caution flashed into the Potters' eyes. They were not comfortable with the Black family, even if the child did appear to be harmless. Before they could say anything else, James explained the Black boy's predicament. "His mother made him mute and then kicked him out of her house. He's living on the streets here. Can he come stay with us for a while, until he finds somewhere else to stay?"

The Potters seemed grieved by this and instead of arguing or even hesitating, they nodded and took the boy home with them, hoping that he really wasn't like the rest of the family. Over the next three years, Sirius became their son, deeply involved with every family activity and loved as if h were their own flesh and blood.

End flashback dream thingy

Sirius opened his eyes somewhat groggily. Somewhere in the distance he could here James's voice calling out, "Hey, he's waking up!"

Forcing his eyes to open completely and focus, he saw James leaning over him with Remus, Ben, and Dani sitting next to him. They all seemed to be relieved that he was doing okay. "What happened?" he asked sleepily.

"You just passed out again," explained James.

"Which I don't understand, considering you just left here a few weeks ago," added Remus. "What's wrong with you?"

Sirius shrugged and looked at Madame Pomfery, who was standing at the end of his bed looking sorry and regretful.

A.N.- sorry that took so long. I wasn't expecting school to jump in and disturb my writing process, but there you go. Christmas-I mean winter-break is beginning in two days, so…I'll write more then, hopefully. Until then…review! Thank you!