Chapter 2 - A True Black
The rest of the holidays passed by in a blur. Although they never told James and Sirius, the boys knew the appearance of the Dark Mark was worrying James' parents. The seriousness of the matter got to the boys and they were subdued - not at all like themselves, Mrs Potter had commented - until it was time for school.
At the King's Cross Station, it was a busy morning as usual. None of the Muggles noticed the family of four as they crossed over to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. But over the other side, the wizardfolk seemed to have taken interest in the Potters and Sirius. Sirius learned, from Mrs Potter, that Timothy had written yet another bold article against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. A few respected his view and even agreed with him, but most thought he was too daring for his own good, to speak ill of the Dark Lord like that.
"You should have been prepared to hear the remarks, Tim," Mrs Potter told her husband dryly, when Mr Potter received yet another pitiful glance. James looked rather irritable to be stopped so many times by his father's readers, but Sirius wasn't bothered. He listened quietly as though he was collecting information and restrained himself from commenting.
"Hey!" Remus waved vigorously at the family of four as the Lupins approached. Damien Lupin and Mr Potter started to converse among themselves, both faces grim. Sirius wanted to step closer to listen to what they were talking about, but frankly, Mr Lupin was terrifying. Mr Lupin had been furious with him when he heard of the Snape incident and Sirius didn't think he would ever forgive him. Which, he supposed, suited him fine. He was so sick of Mr Lupin giving him that pitiful look whenever he spoke of Sirius' parents.
Speaking of which. The Blacks (Arden, Elizabeth and Regulus) stood as far as possible away from the group of them. Sirius listened half-heartedly to Remus and James, his eyes trying hard not to look at his own family but failing. His mother bent down to hug Regulus and Sirius' heart nearly broke. She never hugged me, he thought vacantly. For a split second, Sirius thought his father was staring at him and he sucked in a breath of hope, before realising, in wonder, that his father was coming for them.
Yes, Sirius begged silently, Please take me home. He didn't care that his father had been ruthless to him, didn't care that his mother had already blew off his name off the tapestry - Sirius just wanted his home back. He wanted his room, his parents and even his bratty little brother.
That was when he realised Arden Black was not looking at Sirius at all. He never was.
All this time he was glaring at Timothy Potter. "The nerve of you," Arden Black hissed to Mr Potter. "Writing an article like that. You best be careful that no Death Eaters kill you in your sleep."
Timothy's hazel eyes flashed. "Are you suggesting that you are one?" he asked flatly.
"I bloody am not!" Arden was fearsome when he was furious, that Sirius knew. "Timothy Potter," he spat, "Don't be too smug of yourself or you will find yourself-"
"Father!" Sirius blurted out, knowing exactly what his father was about to say. What he didn't think was him, Sirius Black, no longer had rights to calling Arden Father.
"I am not your father!" Arden snarled. For the first time since the summer he ran away from home, Arden was looking at his oldest son. "You are no son of mine!" By now, most of the people on the platform was watching them. Sirius swallowed, barely feeling the comforting hand of Mrs Potter on his shoulder. Arden Black glared at the whole group of them for a moment longer before stalking back to his own family.
His own family. And Sirius was not part of it.
"Are you okay?" James asked worriedly as they boarded the Hogwarts Express. Sirius smiled weakly and nodded, pulling himself up the steps. James and Remus exchanged a look. James pushed open the door of the nearest compartment to three Ravenclaw girls. "Hey, get out. I need this compartment." When they looked at him blankly, James pointed at his Head Boy badge. "Head Boy orders," he snarled. "Get a move on!"
As the Ravenclaw girls scrambled out to find a new compartment, Peter came towards them. "Patricia made me play with her the whole night," he complained, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Peter had two sisters, Penny and Patricia. Patricia was only nine. "I could barely get a wink of sleep." The smallest boy in the Marauders sensed the tension and looked curiously to Sirius, before shutting his mouth immediately. Being friends of six long years had taught him to read his friends' expressions.
"We have to go to the prefects' compartment," Remus told James, chewing his lower lip as he watched Sirius take the window seat. The other boy was staring out the window in silence. Usually, Sirius Black would at least make an effort of pretending things were okay. The rest of them didn't know whether they should panic because right now, he wasn't pretending at all.
"I don't like this, Moony," James said darkly to Remus as he closed the compartment door behind him and followed Remus to the front of the train. He scowled. "How could Mr Black say that?"
"I hate that too," Remus admitted with a sigh. "What else could we do?"
The door to the prefects' compartment pulled open. "I heard voices," a feminine voice said and Lily Evans poked her head out to see James and Remus. Her smile froze when she spied James' Head Boy badge.
"Hello Lily," Remus said dryly. "You have met my friend before. James Potter? He's Head Boy."
The other seventh year prefects in the compartment looked either shocked or blank. Amos Diggory snorted. "Is this another sick joke of yours?" he asked James, admiring the Head Boy badge. "Not bad. The badge actually looks real."
"It's not funny," Lily said unsmilingly, refusing to even glance at James. She stared ahead at Regan Beaumont, the other Hufflepuff prefect, who nodded but was smiling warmly at James.
"It's not a joke," James retorted, scowling at Diggory. Remus recognised the frustrated look on James' face and groaned inwardly. This was going to take forever.
While James and Remus were trying to convince the other prefects that James was Head Boy, Peter felt awkward being left alone with Sirius. Many wondered why Peter was in Gryffindor but James once told him that the Hat must have its reasons for putting Wormtail in Gryffindor with them. Peter sucked in a breath and jabbed Sirius in the knee.
"You okay?" he questioned concernedly. Sirius nodded, but Peter thought it felt more like an automatic response that a sincere answer. He frowned, but before he could say anything else, the compartment door flew open. Peter sighed in relief, turning his head to greet James and Remus but he stopped when he noticed it was none other than Severus Snape. Sirius too was staring at Snape, a gleam entering his grey eyes. A gleam Peter didn't quite like.
"Why, if it isn't Snivellus," Sirius drawled, his earlier depression forgotten for the moment. Sirius stood up and so did Peter. Peter wrung his hands nervously; would Sirius dare to try something? How was Peter going to stop him? Sirius was obviously much stronger... It didn't occur to him that perhaps, Sirius was trying to vent his anger and disappointment on Snape.
Snape's eyes narrowed. "What do you want, Black?" he sneered. Peter noticed his hand slipping into the pocket of his robes. Apparently, so did Sirius, whose hand was already holding his wand. Snape smiled mockingly. "No, wait. You're no longer a Black, are you? Mr Black stated so at the platform quite obviously."
"Expelliarmus!" Sirius hissed, but Snape had obviously saw that coming, and shouted, "Protego!" Sirius' wand flew out of his grip and into Snape's. Sirius leapt at Snape and socked him in the face. Had Snape saw that coming, he would have ducked, but he didn't and Sirius' fist slammed into his nose, causing it to bleed. They struggled for a moment, with Peter attempting - but failing - to pull Sirius away when a voice stopped them.
"What's going on?" James demanded at the doorway. James and Remus were back from their prefects' meeting, along with Lily, who stood beside Remus and was looking disapproving of the Gryffindor and Slytherin on the ground. She slanted a look at James and quite obviously, put him in the spot. Any idiot could tell she was testing to see if James would make a fair decision between his friend and his enemy.
James cleared his throat. "Sirius, would you get off Sniv - Severus?" he said firmly. Sirius did as was told, but his hands were still balled into fists. He snatched his wand back from Snape and glared at the Slytherin. Snape stood up with difficulty, since no one - safe for Lily, whose attempt was ignored - helped him up. He shot the five Gryffindors an unreadable look before storming back to the end of the train to look for a new compartment. Poor Snape's nose was still bleeding.
"What in the world were you doing?" James demanded to know when Lily was gone. Remus closed the door quietly and sat down next to Peter.
"Why didn't you defend me?" Sirius wanted to know. His grey eyes shot off sparks and he was so furious that Sirius was seeing spots. Sirius was apopletic with anger, angry that his father refused to acknowledge him, angry that he'd let Snape get to him, angry that James hadn't hex Snape. Perhaps he was too mad to listen to logic but Sirius didn't care. He wanted an answer.
"I couldn't!" James exclaimed. "Did you see Lily there? She was waiting for me to slip up!"
"A girl's more important than your mate, is it?" Sirius shouted, ignoring Remus' attempt at trying to get him to lower his volume.
The Marauders sat in silence after that.