Chapter 1

The early morning air was sharp and chilling. The paper boy shivered and pulled his jacket more tightly around him as he tossed a paper into another yard. It was peacefully quiet. This was the boy's favourite time of day. It was so peaceful. At this time in the morning it was as if nothing could ruin the silence. "SIRIUS BLACK!" the boy jumped at the explosion of noise, then grinned. The noise was coming from the Potters house. There was no question in the boy's mind as to what had happened.

James Potter was the same age as the boy, but the similarities stopped there. James was loud, confident, good looking and popular, but the thing that really defined James Potter was his tendency towards trouble. He was always playing pranks and he always seemed to get away with it. And this summer, the pranks had only intensified. The reason? James' best friend, Sirius Black.

The boy had met Sirius on several occasions and from what the boy could gather, he was exactly like James, only ten times worse, or ten times better, depending who you were talking to. Sirius was also extremely good looking. He had black hair that hung just above his shoulders and really spectacular blue-grey eyes. The boy new through James that when they were at school (James and Sirius attended a boarding school somewhere on the other side of the country) girls practically threw themselves at Sirius's feet, but Sirius barely acknowledged them. He was far more interested in playing pranks. The boy smiled. Poor Mrs Potter. She thought she had it bad with just James in the house, but that was before she met Sirius. The Potters had adopted Sirius like a second son, but this Summer he had been really been pushing his luck. He had the Potters at their wit's ends with all the pranks he had been playing. But five o'clock in the morning? He was going to cop it big time for this one. The boy shook his head and laughed to himself as he continued his paper route.

"SIRIUS BLACK!" A rather pretty, middle aged woman was storming up the stairs of the house in Godric's Hollow. Her face was locked in a struggle of trying to look angry and trying not to laugh. Her straight black hair reached halfway down her back and her hazel eyes were shining. She reached the top of the stairs and started down the hallway towards the bedroom at the end.

"SIRIUS BLACK!"

"Wha..." James Potter was jerked into conciseness. He groped around on his bedside table to find his glasses and slid them on, just in time to see his best friend, Sirius Black, disappearing into his wardrobe. "Padfoot...?" James asked groggily. "Shush!" whispered Sirius.

"What the hell are you do…"

James was cut off when his bedroom door burst open and his mother entered the room. She took a sweeping glance around the room, saw Sirius's empty bed and then turned to James.

"Where is he?" Her eyes were shining and there was a hint of amusement in her voice. "Where is Sirius?" she asked again.

"He's…oh…um…who's Sirius?" He made a feeble attempt to keep his mothers eye. There were only two people on the face of the planet who could intimidate James, and Sadie Potter was one of them.

"Nice try." She said with a smirk, "But when Sirius comes out from wherever he's hiding, tell him I need to speak with him IMMEDIATELY." With that Mrs Potter turned and swept out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

"Okay Padfoot, you can come out now, she's gone." James yawned.

A guilty looking Sirius emerged from the cupboard. "What did you do this time?" James enquired as a Sirius climbed back into bed.

"Shut some horned-flying frogs in the pantry." Sirius said sleepily, "They're probably zooming around your kitchen right now."

"Don't fancy being you when my mum finds you. I think she thought it was funny but that's not going to stop her from making you her personal slave for the day."

"Nah." Replied Sirius with a grin on his face," I got your mum wrapped around my little finger."

James snorted into his pillow.

James woke again three ours later to find himself alone. "Sirius must have already gone down to breakfast." He thought out loud. James had a quick shower and got dressed and then headed down to the kitchen, where he found his mother sipping coffee with a smug look on her face. "Morning." She smiled at him, "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, great mum…err…where's Sirius?" James asked.

"Prongs?"

The very handsome head of Sirius Black had emerged from the other side of the table, but instead of Sirius's normal voice, he heard a high pitched squeaky noise. James hurried round the other side of the table to find Sirius Black on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush.

It was all too much. James collapsed on the floor in laughter.

"Prongs!" squeaked Sirius, "I just cleaned that floor now GET UP AND SHUT UP!"

"Mum!" James gasped through fits of laughter, "You did this? You have got to be the only person in history – more laughter- to EVER break Sirius Blacks dignity! HAHA! He looks like a bloody house elf with the scrubbing and the voice!"

"That was the general idea." Replied Sadie with an amused look on her face. "And by the way Sirius", she continued," That charm on your voice won't wear off for the rest of the day and I decided that today would be a perfect opportunity to go to Diagon Ally to get your school things."

Sirius looked capable of murder as James collapsed into another fit of Laughter.

James tumbled into the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron and jumped out of the way as he remembered Sirius's habit of leaving immediately after him in order to land on top of James and cause a lot of unnecessary pain on his behalf. He was just in time. A second later Sirius Black landed in the fireplace, jumped up and brushed himself off. He was smiling. Sirius loved travelling by floo. James hated it. It was one of the few things the two friends disagreed on.

"Moony said he was staying in the Leaky Cauldron this week, we should see him here. Do you know anything about Pete?" James asked Sirius as they walked through the opening in the brick wall and into Diagon Ally.

Sirius scowled as he realised he was going to have to talk out loud and then squeaked back "He won't be here. Said he got all his school stuff last week." He attempted to whisper, but a group of girls near by heard and turned around to see who was making the odd squeaking noise. Sirius scowled as he recognised them. "Typical." He thought, "Of all the people we could have run into when my voice is like this it has to be the 6th year Gryffindor girls." Charlotta Bandren, Elise McKinnon, Lily Evans and Kali Baison were in the same year and house as James and Sirius.

"Hi Evans…girls." James started ruffling his hair up and trying to sound cool. James had been infatuated with Lily since the first time he laid eyes on her. Only problem was, Lily loathed James with a passion.

"Potter." She spat back at him, her eyes flashing dangerously, "Black, was that you making those weird squeaking noises?" she asked in a more civil and slightly amused tone. "No!" squeaked Sirius indignantly and the girls all fell apart laughing. "That is without a doubt one of the funniest things I have ever heard." Declared Elise when they had all managed to stop giggling, "The Great Sirius Black sounding like a house elf. Wait till your fan club hear about this!"

"Shut up McKinnon!" squeaked Sirius angrily. Elise McKinnon and Lily Evans were pretty much the only two girls in Hogwarts who didn't worship the ground he walked on. Their friends tried to hide it, but Sirius could tell that they were just as infatuated with him as the ditzy Hufflepuff skanks who threw themselves at him on a daily basis. Well maybe they weren't that bad but he knew they definitely had a thing for him. He could see it in the way Charlotta was swinging her hips at him and the way Kali was batting her eyelashes. Hopeless. 'But,' he thought to himself, 'I am irresistible.' Sirius noticed that James had spent the last five minutes drooling over Lily and thought it was time they left. "Uh, we gotta go girls, sorry." He squeaked and then dragged James away. Sirius just couldn't see why James liked Lily so much. Most girls would beg on hands and knees to go out with James but he had eyes only for Lily, who detested him. Was it really worth the constant rejection? Sirius didn't think so. Lily was pretty, but not outstandingly so. She had dark red hair that fell to just past her elbows and green eyes. The eyes. Sirius groaned to himself. He had been hearing about Lily's 'Gorgeous emerald eyes' since he had met James six years ago. This needed to end. Maybe if he threatened to hex Lily she would go out with him and he, Remus and Peter would have some peace of mind. Sirius grinned. And on this thought he stepped into Flourish and Blotts bookshop with a smile on his Face.

"Moony!" James's eyes lit up when he saw his friend, waving at him and Sirius. Moony was not his real name of course. Remus Lupin was the 'sensible' one of the marauders. He was not tall yet not short either. He had blonde-brown hair and grey eyes. He was more conservative than James and Sirius, but that didn't stop him from coming up with some pretty good pranks. There was one more important fact about Remus Lupin that you couldn't tell by looking at him. He was a werewolf, therefore earning him the nickname moony.

James shifted his bags of School stuff off the chair next to him so moony could sit down.

"Hi padfoot! Prongs! Have a nice summer?" asked Remus as he joined them outside Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour. Sirius merely nodded. "Okay James," said Remus, "What did you do to Padfoot? I have to say it's an improvement, him not speaking and all but is he sick or something?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" said James. There was something malicious in his voice. Sirius glared at James. "Come on Sirius! What's up?" asked Moony. Sirius just shook his head, a look of contempt on his face.

"Okay Padfoot, if you won't tell him I will." Said James with a laugh, "Sirius

thought it would be amusing to set some horned-flying frogs loose in my kitchen this morning and my dearest mother, as amusing as she found it, decided that Siri-boy deserved to sound like a house elf for the rest of the day." James chuckled as he re-lived the event. Sirius glared as Remus snorted with laughter. "Your mother will be lucky if she doesn't wake up with purple hair and sounding like a troll tomorrow Prongs!" Sirius squeaked angrily. Remus guffawed at the sound of the squeaking.

"I highly doubt you'll get away with that plan Sirius. Mum's an Auror, remember? She has wards all over her room."

Sirius grinned. "I have my ways Prongsy, I have my ways."

Mrs Potter was sitting in the living room bent over some paperwork when the boys arrived home that evening. This time, Sirius successfully landed on top of James. "Oww! Padfoot, get off me!" James groaned as Sirius grinned and stood up. Sadie Potter smiled as she saw her son and his friend scuffling on the floor. "I kept some Steak and vegies warm for you, it's in the kitchen." She told the boys. "I'm going up to bed. I'm rather tired after being woken up at a very unreasonable hour this morning," She looked pointedly at Sirius who grinned sheepishly, "and I have a very busy day at work tomorrow." She stopped when she reached the top of the stairs. "Oh and Sirius, unless you want to sound like a house elf until you're a week into your term, don't try anything on me tonight." She smirked when she saw the look of alarm on Sirius's face and ascended the final stairs up to her bedroom.