Chapter 4

Chaotic Calamity

Grey fog swirled and swayed in the dark night. All vision of surroundings were coloured black. The still night was somewhat quiet yet disturbed by the tiny outbursts of the crickets and their on-going conversations. Nothing seemed to lurk among the dark but when all seemed just fine, a pair of luminous violet eyes appeared from the shadow. What was it If only a little closer, the image of the owner's eyes would be in clear view. But there was no such luck. A loud grunt echoed in the air, however the possessor of the sound was not in sight. Everything began to spin out of control and seemed unclear. The last thing that there was, was heavy breaths and smeared blood painted upon the dusty ground…

A sudden gasp released from Sirius' lips as he had finally had awaken from his irritated slumber. His thoughts were tainted with the harbouring nightmare that lingered in his mind. He sat up, regaining a steady breathing pace. Drops of sweat trickled down his warm face as he analysed his area. No one had strung from their sleep in connection to Sirius' sudden interruption of silence in the room. He sighed, thankful he had not bothered anyone. Sirius tried to close his eyes and get back to sleep but no matter what, it was nearly impossible.

The boys' dormitory was cast in shadows except from a hint of light that escaped from a little exit from the curtains. The string of light just stood still, lighting up a piece of the floor. The room was completely silent. All that was heard was the boys' breaths and sighs escaping from their mouths as they continued to sleep peacefully.

Finally, Sirius rose from his bed and stepped onto the cold floor as it creaked with the new weight that pressed upon it. He made his way out of the sleeping chambers and to the Gryffindor common room. Sirius noticed a blazing fire in the fireplace. He watched it burn as tiny red and orange ambers flew up the chimney. The flames hissed and crackled as it slowly deteriorated the dry wood. Sirius walked slowly to a nearby armchair and took a seat. He sat without a noise and placed arms and hands, resting them, on the arms of the chair. He could feel the faint warmth emitting from the fire to his face. He sat back and comfortably enjoyed it.

Then out of no where, a cough sounded throughout the room. Sirius froze and looked to the left to where the sound came from. What came into view was someone holding on to a book in front of their face. It was Remus. Sirius was baffled and outrageously startled.

"How?" Sirius began to ask. "I . . . when . . . Hmm . . ." He took some time to just take a breather.

Remus did not leave his eyes from his book but answered. "I've been here since four in the morning, which was probably about three hours ago." He stated in a consistent tone of voice. He was always good at that, being aware of what was around him, even though to many it looked like he was lost in the pages of his beloved books.

Sirius raised a brow. "Just reading?"

Remus spoke answering his question. "Yes." He flipped over a page, which he had just finished. "You could burrow one if you wish."

"Really?"

Remus nodded.

Sirius smiled gleefully, like a little boy on Christmas day ready to open his presents. He searched the piles of books and looked for one he would be interested in. Finally, he decided on a book titled DREAMS.

"Thanks, Remus. I'll most definitely read it soon!"

"No problem." Remus replied, still glued to his chosen literature.

Sirius placed the book on the side of the table, making up his mind to read it later. He quietly made his was out of the common room, closing the portrait door behind him, that inhabitant none other than the Fat Lady herself. It was a Saturday and only seven in the morning, no one was up just yet. The hallways were empty. Sirius' footsteps echoed through the halls, emphasising the leviathan silence that lived on Saturday mornings. But soon enough he escaped the deserted hallways and headed out of the castle, walking across the grounds. The dark trees were bare, naked without their leaves. The green grass was welcomed by wet morning dew, making it really slippery. Sirius looked up to the Forbidden Forest and glanced for any answers that may be located in the secretive shadows of the forest but they gave him nothing. Sirius sighed, still tired from waking so abruptly. But as luck would have it the shadows seemed to read his mind as a pair of bright eyes came into clear view. They flashed with an amethyst shaded light. Sirius' gaze went wide, surprised. This was his chance to perhaps get some unsolved questions answered.

"Hey you!" He called out, as he began to run towards the forest. His adrenaline started to flow through his veins and his heart began pumping as he wildly raced to catch the mysterious being from the woods.

As he closed in, at being 7 feet away, he had lost his footing. He had stumbled backwards caused by the slippery grass. Misfortune prevailed. Sirius was flat on his back and he groaned in disillusion of such bad luck. He laid there for a moment or two as a soon appearing shadow that came onto his face. Sirius looked up meeting a pair of green eyes, a pasty pale skinned face matted with tangled oiled black hair.

"Well, well, well . . . It's Sirius Black having a taste of dirt for once. You're the last I'd expect to be out at this hour."

Sirius blinked, reminded he was still awkwardly on the wet ground. He quickly scrambled back up to his feet and stood. "Oh . . . hello." Sirius held out a hand, discarding the rude remarks.

The oiled haired boy was in disbelief. So the rumours are true. I guess I just had to see it for myself. I probably could use this to my advantage. He thought. "Severus Snape." The greasy haired boy said, taking Sirius' hand and shook it.

"Sirius. Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all my mine." Snape said with a devilish grin pasted to his face.

From beyond the grounds to the castle doors, the doors swung open with an effortless push. Three students headed in the direction of Sirius and Severus' way. It was James, Remus and Peter.

"See, told you he was here." Remus said.

Peter waddled towards the group and bumped into Remus, having not looked where he was going. It created a domino effect as Remus had launched forward and shoved James to the ground.

Snape smirked evilly. "Always so out of order . . ."

James lifted himself up and Remus stood up as he brushed his pants off. In unison they both looked back at Peter and in aggravated tones had shouted, "Peter!"

"Sorry . . ." Peter said in a squeaky voice.

James sighed and looked to Sirius. "Why are you hanging out with him, that greasy old git?"

Snape looked sternly at James and his gang. As for Sirius, he blinked and was surprised at James' rude statement. "What do you mean? He alright." Sirius said calmly. He saw James' aggravation. "Actually, he's a new friend of mine." He said, proudly.

James eyes went wide, nearly leaving his sockets. Peter's jaw dropped, meanwhile Remus just stood silently completely having nothing to say or make things sound better. Nothing would seem to help anyway.

"What? Has the owls nibbled at your brain, Sirius Black? Have you completely gone mad? Snape . . . ahh . . . ahh . . . a friend?" James almost had to spit in out, having trouble himself to even listen to the words in his mind. He was so in shock that he couldn't believe those words had slipped from his own mouth.

"Yes." Sirius nodded, confirming it.

James was so confused and angry. Why did this have to happen to my dearest friend, Sirius? He thought to himself. It isn't fair. Nothing is fair . . . He reached into his pocket and whipped his wand out, pointing it at Sirius. "Well then, if your memory can't come back voluntarily, I'll make it come back. James was driven to his breaking point. He completely lost it. He couldn't bare to see his best friend with his most hated enemy. Remus raced forward and grabbed James' wrist of his occupied hand.

"Potter no!" Remus yelled. "That's no way to let things take their course." James tried to brush him off. Remus narrowed his eyebrows and was disappointed in James' rash behaviour. "James! Stop acting like an irrational delinquent."

"But I am an irrational delinquent!" James called back.

"Er! Peter help me! Do something. Anything." Remus pleaded.

"Alrighty!" Peter gave a small, short salute in Remus' direction and jumped to the ground and held onto James' left foot. "James stop it."

At this point, the scene seemed very hysterical.

"You bunch of fools!" Snape sneered.

"Really James, you are an odd one." Sirius said. "C'mon Severus, let's go get some breakfast." So, at that the two headed back into the castle.

"Hey, don't walk away from me, Sirius Black! I was talking to you!"

"Oh, give it a rest already, James." Remus said, softly.

"Ya . . . James take in a breath of fresh air." Peter spoke.

"Who asked you?" James said, harshly. "You both can let go now! Who said you could step in, anyway?"

Remus and Peter let there grip go and gave James a little space.

"Well . . . ever since you happen to go crazy on us and started not to think so clearly." Remus answered. "We know how you feel but you have to take things slow, mate."

Suddenly, James raised his hand, fiercely swung it, and slapped Remus across the face. Remus' face burned with immense pain. Every pore on his abused cheek screamed in agony. But Remus stood still with a straight face and looked directly at James in the face.

"How would you know how I feel?" James hissed.

Peter just had his jaw dropped, having no idea how to react to this event. The four of them had never laid a violent hand on each other. This was a first.

"Well, currently as blind as you seem lately, the vivid notion you seem not to realise yet is you aren't Sirius' only friend who is desperately worried about him. Just think about that, James Potter." Remus then just walked away, he too heading back to the castle without another spoken word.

James tried to find his voice but it was too late when he had a chance.

"You should go Peter and get something to eat." James said almost in a whisper.

"You sure?" Peter said, almost scared to have spoken out.

"Yes, just go."

"Alright, if you say so." James picked himself up from the grassy floor and headed back inside.

James was so frustrated. One by one, he was losing his friends. Things were bad but now they only seem to be transforming into something worst. Only one word could describe it, a catastrophe.

As time went on and the day grew older, most of the students ventured into the hallways, to the grounds or to the library. From in the library, the tall windows projected the bright golden light into the room. The rows of bookshelves were the many homes to the variety and thousands of books that rested there. The librarian quietly reminded the students to keep their voices down as she continued to magically count and collected the overdue, late and returned books. It was awfully tiring, holding her wand was such a tedious job or so the librarian would say. As well, there were a couple of tables perfectly aligned throughout the room for the students who chose to come in today to either study, catch up on homework or merely read.

In one of the chairs, seated at a nearby table sat a rather handsome young boy, Sirius Black. He sat quietly, free from homework. Rumours were flying about that the new Sirius had completed all his homework lately, started to have an excellent attendance and was actually beginning to receive high scores making him one of the top students in some of his classes. As for these rumours, they happened to be true. Sirius now had a new record and was reported to be involved in intellectual conversations rather then trying out the latest planned prank on any of the students at Hogwarts.

This afternoon, Sirius had brought Remus' book on DREAMS to read. He had begun to fly through the first few pages. It was pretty interesting. Ever since he's been having dreams on those violet eyes, screams and of smeared blood, he wondered if that dream was trying to tell him something. Considering it was only dream, it seemed to always be on his mind. He just had to know what it all meant. It just seemed so oddly familiar yet so foreign all at the same time. So he continued flipping through the pages of the book. It had said that some dreams seem to dwell on the past, giving the dreamer bits and pieces of the experience or sometimes images are created so after it is seen in reality, it creates déja vu. But overall, dreams always have an inner meaning and develop through the type of emotion the person may be having whether it be happy, sad, angry or even stress. As for Sirius, it was a puzzle with scattered pieces everywhere. He just needed to find them all and place them together. He decided he would try to sleep longer and try to view the dream further into it so he could gain any last bit of details he could squeeze out of it.

Suddenly, a bright coloured piece of paper was flashed in Sirius' face. His face jumped back as he looked to it and then up at the intruder of his rambling thoughts. A young girl with a ponytail, smiled sweetly and said, "Hi! Just handing out some flyers. School Dance. Next week on Friday. Costume Party. It's all there." She squealed in a high pitch girlie voice and then left the flyer with Sirius and headed off to invade the other tables. Sirius peered down at the piece of paper. He blinked at it, glancing at the picture. It was moving. There was a girl and a boy dancing elegantly in lavish costumes, smiling and twirling around the decorated room. Sirius then took his eyes away from the image and read the information. It read:

Masquerade Ball

Held on upcoming Friday

In the cafetorium

Begins at 7 o'clock and end at Midnight

Sirius nodded. "Well, going to have to find myself a date." He said to himself.

So he rose from his seat and gathered all his things, heading out of the library. He walked down the hallways, when he finally found a group of girls huttled together. He got a little closer, overhearing that they were talking about dates and dresses for the dance. From the corner of his eye he noticed a shining glint, something one does usually glass against light. He directed his vision towards it and noticed it was James Potter and he was coming this way, James looked sad look but also had a desperate hungry expression on his face for his chance to ask Lily to the dance. Sirius could see that James was taking his chances now with Lily. But Sirius was the closest and approached Lily first. He nicely tapped her shoulder.

"Miss Evans." He said softly. Lily spun around and faced him. "May I have a word with you?"

"Sure." Lily answered. They both took a few steps away from the girls.

The Sirius took his chance. He showed the dance flyer to Lily quickly and then asked, "I was wondering if you would gladly accompany to the dance." He said hopeful.

James was so close, he could hear every word of Sirius' request but he kept well out of view. His jaw gave away, dropping in shock at Sirius' question which lingered in the air waiting for its reply. James was starting to lose his grip on the life he once known. How was this possible? His best friend was asking his only true girl that he had liked for along time and she was being taken away by him . . . Sirius had always known this fact and as much as girl crazy Sirius could be he always stayed clear from Lily, not having much interest in her anyway. Questions raided his mind. So why was this happening? Why? Oh yes . . . Now I remember that stupid accident. Why doesn't he just get better? He sighed, remembering Remus' words 'Let things take their course'. James knew Remus was right. He wished he could make amends about the incident but he was so scared, angry and embarrassed to face mostly anybody, mostly Remus. He wished none of this had happened. But it did happen. James then snapped back to reality from his wandering thoughts. He slowly walked down the hall, heading back to Gryffindor common room. The last thing that rang through his ears as he left was, "Yes, Sirius Black, I'll go to the dance with you. I'd love to!"