A/n sorry this one took so long, things have been hectic lately, school, yearbook, friends. There's just no time after school anymore. And I finally got my learner's license. Driving is so totally not all its cracked up to be.

Chapter 8

Just Like the Littlest Hobo

"Lunch" Mrs. Weasley called as she came in with a tray of sandwiches. Sirius heaved a sigh and took one last glance at the tapestry he and Harry had been studying. He grabbed a sandwich and sat down, thinking about the day he had left home

"Your cousin Nacissa is getting married next month," Mrs. Black said as they all sat down to have their dinner.

"To whom?" Mr. Black asked

"Lucius Malfoy."

Sirius rolled his eyes, another arranged marriage compliments of their messed up pureblood family. Needless to say he didn't want to go.

"Do I have to go mum?" Sirius asked. Mrs. Black set down her fork.

"Yes, and you'll keep a civil while you're there too."

This time it was Sirius's turn to put down his fork. He'd had enough.

"For heaven's sake mum! I'm almost sixteen! When are you going to stop dragging me to these stupid family events? It's always clear I'm not wanted there so why bother? I hate the lot of them."

"Now that's enough Sirius," Mr. Black said sharply, "did it ever occur to you to try and talk to the rest of the family? I think you need to take a leaf out of Regulus' book and--"

"Oh shut up!" Sirius interrupted, leaping from his chair. This was the last straw. "I've had enough of your crap! Regulus this and Regulus that. Perfect little Regulus. Well you three can go to the wedding and be the perfect little pureblood family, but leave me out. In fact you can leave me out of the rest of the summer as well. I'm leaving!" He threw his napkin down and charged out of the house, anger pulsing through him. He had no idea where he would go, but he kept walking anyway. After almost half an hour Sirius sat down on a park bench to rest. What was he going to do? He reached into his pockets looking for money to take the Knight Bus, but all he had was the note James had sent two days before telling him that he was going off to Blackpool for a few days. He would be back the day after tomorrow. Now what? Sirius tried hard to think. James was gone, Remus lived in Manchester, and going to stay with Peter just wasn't an option. He wasn't that desperate. To top it all off Sirius realised that he hadn't brought his trunk with him either. After a few more minutes he got up and started towards The Leaky Cauldron. If he hurried he could go to Gringotts before it closed and get some money. Or he could get a room and then pay Tom back in the morning.

A good hour later a very tired Sirius opened the door to The Leaky Cauldron and stepped in. He hurried through the crowd of witches and wizards, most of who were leaving after having their supper, and entered into Diagon Alley. Sirius checked his watch; six-thirty. Gringotts would be closed. He turned around and went back into the pub while he figured out what he would say to Tom.

Sirius plunked himself down on a stool in front of the bar. Just next to him, slumped over the other side of the bar, was someone sleeping. No one else was around. He prodded the sleeping figure a couple of times but whoever it was didn't wake up. Just then Tom appeared

"Carter! Carter! Wake up!" he said loudly, shaking the sleeping figure. It turned out the sleeping person had been Ellie and she jumped when Tom had yelled.

"I'm sorry, I just put my head down for a minute and the next thing I know I'm asleep. I'm so sorry."

"You told me when you took this job that it wouldn't be a problem"

"It's not, I'm just tired. Please don't sack me, I need this job. My hours at Flourish and Blotts were cut and this is the only other job I could get. I'm sorry"

"Don't worry about it. Just don't do it again okay? When you're finished serving Mr. Black here you can go home. I expect you here first thing in the morning."

Tom left and an idea struck Sirius.

"Ellie?"

She turned around

"What can I do for you?"

"I really hate to ask, but you see I ran away from home and--"

"You need a place to stay. You can stay with me for a few days as long as you don't order anything so we can leave now." She smiled and lowered her voice "I hate this job"

Sirius laughed. "Yeah, let's go. Thanks."

"No problem," she said as she hung up her apron. "Have you ever ridden in a car?"

"No,"

"Want to?"

"Sure, but where would we get a car? And neither of us can drive. We're not seventeen yet."

"That's what you think." she said and pulled a card out of her bag. It was a Muggle driver's licence.

"How did you get that?"

"Nicked my mom's at Christmas and used magic to change it to be in my name. Even says here that I'm seventeen. Mom deserved to have it stolen. I call it compensation."

"Okay, but we need a car."

"I've got that taken care of too," she said as they walked into a nearby parking complex, "bought this one off Arthur Weasley. He's a nice bloke, do you know him?"

They stopped in front of a midnight blue Cadillac. "Yeah, he's my cousin."

Ellie opened the car doors and they both got in. She put the key in the ignition, but it didn't seem to want to start.

"Stupid piece of crap" she said angrily, kicking the pedals.

"That's not very nice, I'm definitely not going to start now." a voice said.

"Come on!"

"No."

"Who are you talking to?" Sirius broke in.

"The car, Arthur put some sort of charm on it. It's got a will of it's own."

Sirius couldn't help but laugh. It seemed just the sort of thing Arthur would do.

"We're going to have to take the underground. Dammit."

The two of them got out of the car and walked down to the subway station where they just caught the train. Several stops later they got off and started walking. The sun was setting, casting a golden hue on the deserted street.

Suddenly someone behind them yelled "Eleanor you gobby mooke!" The person had a Scottish accent. Ellie turned around and her face lit up.

"Jeremy!" she shouted happily and hugged the tall boy behind her, who spun her around.

"I haven't seen you for ages." Ellie said, "Sirius, this is Jeremy, my best friend. Jeremy, this is Sirius, a friend from school."

"Alright?" Jeremy said, shaking Sirius' hand. Jeremy was almost the same height as Sirius, with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Nice to meet you" Sirius replied.

"Have you had dinner yet Jeremy?" Ellie asked, "we were just about to eat, you're welcome to join us."

"Alright then, where are you living now?"

"Just up there," Ellie pointed to the upper story of the house across the street.

She led the two boys across the street to the house and up the fire escape to the very top window.

"Can't you get in from the inside?" Sirius asked as Ellie pushed the window open.

"No, the door to the attic's been sealed. This is the only way in."

She threw her bag in and folded herself in through the window. Jeremy went next, followed by Sirius. He was amazed at what he saw. The slanted ceiling and walls of the attic had been painted a deep blue and was covered with drawings of what seemed like everything, plants, animals both magical and Muggle, buildings and people, one of which he recognized as himself.

"Wow El, I knew you liked to draw, but this is nuts." Jeremy said, taking it all in. Once Sirius had torn his eyes away from the walls, he regarded the rest of the living space. It was all hardwood floors, with a small icebox and stove in one corner, a green leather chair, a television and a hammock in another, and a door, which presumably lead to a loo. The rest of the space was crammed with musty cardboard boxes and trunks, creating a labyrinth of paths between them to walk about.

Ellie began to rummage about in the cupboards and roughly half an hour later the three of them were seated around the television eating macaroni and sausage, Ellie in her hammock, Jeremy in the chair and Sirius sat on one of the many trunks.

Conversation was light and pleasant. Mostly Ellie and Jeremy talked about the pranks he was pulling at school, which included Jeremy filling one of the teacher's cars with Styrofoam packing pellets, switching other student's locks on the lockers and filling shoes with peanut butter. But when Ellie reached over to take his plate when dinner was over he seized her wrist and the mood changed. "I thought you said you'd quit that shit." He said quietly, running his thumb over a burn on her hand.

"I did, I burnt my hand at work last week, I didn't do it myself if that's what you're thinking!" she shot back and pulled away.

"I just worry about you sometimes, El. After Christmas…" he trailed off.

"I'm okay, you don't need to worry Jeremy, and it's not going to happen again, I've made sure of that. I'm not going back." She said as she disappeared behind a stack of boxes and putting the plates in the sink. When she came back the television was turned on and they spent the rest of the night watching various programs. Ellie fell asleep in the hammock and Jeremy left, leaving Sirius alone with the television. He'd lost thread of what was happening on the program so he turned it off and settled into the green chair, falling asleep moments later. It had been a long day.

The next morning Sirius woke to the sound of some very noisy birds. It was early and he could just make out the silhouette of someone moving around in the dim golden light. He could hear the water running in the bathroom and a few minutes later Ellie slipped silently out the window. Sirius had a crick in his neck and couldn't get back to sleep, so he got up and went into the "kitchen" to find something to eat. There wasn't an awful lot there, but he did manage to find some cereal and milk, and he ate it while he watched the television.

It was a great thing, television. Thirteen choices, thirteen different things to watch. In fact, that's what Sirius spent the day doing, changing from one channel to the other, and sometimes watching four or five things simultaneously until it gave him a headache. By six that evening he still hadn't made up his mind whether he like Sesame Street or the cooking show with Julia Child better. It came as quite a shock when the news came on and Ellie appeared through the window. He'd lost track of time.

"Had a good time?" she said. She was carrying a flat box in one hand and a bottle of milk in the other.

"Oh yeah, you Muggles do have something here with this, what was it you called it, fellytision."

"Television." she corrected him and set the box and the milk down. Sirius suddenly realised he was hungry as Ellie sat down on the floor next to him with a slice of pizza.

"Help yourself," she said when she noticed Sirius eyeing her slice.

"Oooh I ate too much" Sirius moaned half an hour later. He'd eaten six slices.

Ellie laughed, "I'm sorry for avoiding you all this time"

"You have nothing to be sorry for, I'm sorry for being such a prat at Christmas."

"Well I'm sorry my car wouldn't start yesterday"

Sirius laughed, now she was just being silly.

"Well I'm sorry my cousin sold it to you. It's all my fault." he said in mock shame.

"Well I'm sorry you're sorry. We're a right pair of sorry people aren't we?" Ellie said, laughing.

"Damn right. Thanks for letting me stay here, I'll be gone tomorrow."

"Don't mention it." she replied with a yawn and put her head on Sirius's shoulder. He put his arm around her shoulders and within minutes they were both asleep.

Sirius hauled himself out of the memory with a sigh. What he wouldn't give to go back to that day, or any other time before Azkaban.