Disclaimer: See, no ownership? None. Whatsoever. Okay, I'm going to stop here. No more disclaimers after this. I don't own anything you recognize down there, by the way. Just trying to keep that clear.

Hm, well, it seems like people actually enjoy this story! I am awed! Well, here it is, second chapter. I already had this typed, by the way, so I just had to edit it a bit. Enjoy!

The next week went by quickly, with James constantly sneaking food and water-and sometimes even toys-to the mysterious creature underneath the hedge whenever he got the chance, and Sirius was grateful for it.

But it was getting harder and harder for young James to sneak anything to Sirius for his parents seemed to be noticing the missing, ah, items from the fridge. James knew it would not be long before his mother and father would start questioning him. Another way was needed but James was running out of options. He really needed to tell someone else about this, but who, James did not know. The boy did not trust anyone much older than himself; they were too mature and would most likely go to an adult, and this left him at a dead end.

James sighed and scuffed his shoe against the ground, wondering about this predicament as he shuffled through the gate that led to the backyard. He wasn't really thinking of where he was going, too caught up in his own worried thoughts, and didn't notice the piercing grey eyes, of which he had become so accustomed to lately, were watching him.

--

Sirius had grown a liking for this boy, as if they were somewhat distant friends, and he didn't like to see the boy so miserable. After all, he dearly owed this boy much for supporting him whilst he hid. Sirius wondered for a moment if James was worrying about him, but he quickly discarded it. Why would James worry about him?

Sirius was brought back out of his thoughts as the boy plopped on the ground five feet away from his hedge and Sirius was suddenly hit with an urge to go over and smack the miserable expression off his face.

James sighed, looked up at the hedge, and murmured, "Hey, Creature, sorry to bother you. Just came back here to think, is all." Then, as an after thought, "Do you have a name?"

Sirius blinked, watching the boy cautiously. Could he…could he really come out and show the boy who he was? Was it safe? Well…he did owe the boy….

Sirius nodded, causing the leaves to shudder and James to stare. "Well, then, what is it?"

Cautiously, ever so cautiously, Sirius began to slide himself out from under the hedge, feet first. James stared, startled, and watched as a boy slunk into his vision.

Sitting up, the boy brushed out various twigs that held fast to his long, tangled black hair and then turned to stare at James with less piercing grey eyes. The boy wore dark grey robes, ones that looked worse-for-wear, and black boots. His face was drawn and slightly pale though it held resolution and a somewhat guarded expression.

"Sirius," he suddenly croaked, "Sirius Black."

Maybe it was the wind, or the idea of a stranger having been living in his yard for the last week, that caused shivers down his back and made his neck hair stand-on-end. He now preferred the idea of it being something less intellectual and more hairy with many legs.

"Wh-what?" James stuttered out, suddenly noticing the boy was still staring at him.

"You asked for my name. It's Sirius Black." Oh…yeah…he did ask didn't he? Well, he hadn't expected an actual answer!

"Oh, uh, y-yeah. James Potter." James answered, still caught up in his shock. Sirius snorted and lifted himself from his position upon his knees, and began to stretch. Moaning and wincing at the slight pain and the uncomfortable feeling, he began to trudge over to the other boy. James was startled. Wait, what was he doing? Sirius Black dropped onto the ground next to him and eyed the boy warily.

James, uncomfortable under Sirius's scrutiny, squirmed and refused to look him in the eye. After a minute or so, Sirius sat back, propping himself with his arms stretched out behind him, and stared up at the soft grey sky. James blinked and followed his gaze, wondering what was so interesting, and found himself looking intently upon a small cluster of much darker clouds that were drifting lazily above them.

"S'going to rain." James heard Sirius mutter and noticed how deep it was and how raspy, as if he hadn't, and it was probably so, used his voice in ages.

James nodded curtly as he turned his attention back to the long, black haired boy. "What?" Sirius muttered, rolling his head and eyes toward James. He was taken aback by the other boy's calm manner, as if this was a normal, everyday thing. "Why were you under my family's hedge?" James asked softly, slowly looking down at the grass. Sirius seemed to think this over before answering much more softly than James had before, "Hiding." "From what?" The messy haired boy asked, slightly cocking his head to the side and raising an eyebrow curiously. There was a long pause and James wasn't sure if Sirius was even going to answer it, then, "From my parents." James looked back to Sirius in surprise, for they both had turned their attention to the clouds.

This boy had run away from home? But why? And where did he live and why run here? Who was he really? All these questions bounced to-and-fro within James's head but he held back many, but a few leaked out. "Why did you run away? Why come here? Why-" James's questions muffled away as Sirius's hand covered his mouth. The other boy smirked and slowly let his hand down, watching as James frowned and glared. Sirius snickered.

A rumble sounded from above and both boys looked up as the clouds shifted and more turned darkish. "'Knew it was going to rain." Sirius said with a smirk, flopping into a resting position upon the ground. James frowned even deeper and whispered, "You can't stay in my backyard forever." Sirius chuckled without even looking at the other boy, "I know." "Then leave." James knew he was being rude but this boy, he didn't like his smug attitude at all. But, then again, James had not an inkling that this was Sirius being very, very friendly.

"'Got nowhere else to go." Sirius answered wryly. James sighed and sat up, glaring at Sirius with all he could muster, which wasn't much compared to what Sirius could do, "I know somewhere you could stay." Sirius opened one eye; he had closed them, and asked, "Where?" "At the end of town, my friends and me call it The Hovel." James answered as he played with a piece of grass. "I see…then let's go." Sirius shot up so quickly it startled James into wrenching the grass out of the ground.

"H-Hey, we can't just go now. We'll go in an hour, okay? Mum'll be doing paperwork then." James stammered out, surprised by the boy's sudden enthusiasm. "Fine." Sirius answered flatly. The two were quiet for a few minutes before a sudden booming thunder shattered the silence. Wind picked up around them and after a few seconds, the rain came.

Pouring buckets and buckets, Sirius and James were already almost soaked through as they jumped to their feet. "In an hour!" James cried as he hurried toward the patio. Sirius nodded and scurried to the hedge. When James reached the protection of the cement roof above, James watched the soaking Sirius slide under the hedge and out of sight. James felt bad for him, sorta. He then turned and headed inside, bracing himself for the scolding he was to get as the water dripped slowly off him.

--

Sirius had never felt so wet in his life. Nothing compared to this, not even the icy water he'd been pushed into while on a boating trip with his family. Regulus had shoved him off whilst their parents had been talking, complaining really, to a wizard about the crowded docks. The water was not meant to be swam in, for a giant squid inhabited it, and so when the three elder wizards heard the splash all of them became extremely worried and upset. His parents mostly because they'd lose an heir. Sirius had gotten a small beating afterwards and a punishment that lasted three months; the worst of it all was Regulus's laughing face as their parents scolded him.

No, this water was numbing, sharp as millions of needles, and persistent as heck to bring about hypothermia. But Sirius could fight it off no matter what. The hour seemed a longer wait than expected, days, months, years is how long the "hour" felt. Where was that boy? He didn't despise James, no, on the contrary, he found him interesting but not exactly a possible friend. No, no one could befriend him. He made sure of it.

Sirius wrapped his somewhat tattered, and muddy, robes tighter and watched and felt the storm around him.

--

James stared at the fire as it sparked and flickered playfully, almost as if it were mocking him. It was five minutes passed the intended hour and James was now trying to think. Should he really help the strange boy? Would it be safe? Well, that's a question. No, no it wouldn't be. But James's conscience was too overpowering and he knew he had to help. But another predicament rose into his mind. Okay, fine, his mother was doing paperwork, easier way to sneak out. Problem, she'd hear and know before he even opened the door. That's what James hated about mothers, they always knew everything, especially his.

Jumping off the couch and hurrying to the window next to the backdoor, James stared gloomily at the hedge and sighed. Slowly he sidled over and stood in front of the door, examining it up and down before reaching out his hand. He grasped the knob and turned it, desperately listening for any sound of his mother's being, and opened the door. Thunder crashed unexpectedly and the wind howled. James knew this would have caught his mother's attention. So instead of staying around to face his inevitable doom, he slipped out the door and shut it softly. James tightened his cloak, turned toward the hedge, and began heading over.

--

Sirius was getting overwhelmingly tired. He, yet again, found himself wondering where James was. Maybe he'd chickened out or wasn't coming at all? The idea of another promise being broken caused Sirius's stomach to create blocks of ice and chill the rest of his body. His whole life had been filled with broken promises and lost friendships. Nobody wanted to be friends with the heir of one of the darkest wizarding families alive. Nobody.

Sirius shivered, one that wracked his body and nearly threw him off balance. Somewhere in the sky lightning crackled and he felt the heart twisting doubt and desertion. How had he thought that maybe…just maybe…he could have someone to count on…even if they couldn't truly be his friend? How could he have?

"Hey! Sirius!" The call was almost drowned in the crack of another blast of thunder but Sirius heard it. He shot up, ramming his head against the hedge. Sirius scowled and rubbed his head before turning to where he thought it may be coming from. "James?" Sirius croaked hesitantly, hoping he wasn't hearing things. "What are you waiting for? I'm getting soaked out here!" Yeah, it was him. As quickly as he could, Sirius slid out of the hedge and into the slightly worse rain, the leaves above him had shielded somewhat, and he found himself wetter than he was prior, if that was a possibility.

James hurried over and, pulling out the invisibility cloak he had stashed in his jean pocket, threw it over them. Sirius was startled at first, then realized what it was; his father and brother owned one. "C'mon." He heard James whisper and they began to hastily make their way out of the yard and down the street.

It seemed even worse out here, the street flowed with water too strong for the gutters to handle, and the streetlamps were almost impossible to see through the wind. Sirius truly hoped James wasn't leading them to their deaths.

After what seemed like hours of constantly fighting with the storm, James steered them right and into an alley. It was dirty and very open spaced, even in areas where rats or cats would usually be residing, but the storm had either washed them away or scared them off.

"How far is it?" Sirius screamed over the blasting noise of the wind. "Not much further!" James bellowed back and began to yank Sirius along at an ever faster pace. Sirius tried to keep himself from slipping in the water or tripping over some unseen object but it was nearly impossible and Sirius wondered how James could skim over it as agilely as he was.

They turned again and then again, having to jump over a few stranded boxes and other such various items washed into the closed space. Sirius looked around, not recognizing his surroundings at all, and started when he realized they were heading toward a large fence, barely holding onto the stonewalls as the wind struggled to push it away.

"JAMES?" Sirius screamed incredulously. "We have to climb over the fence!" James answered, his words nearly ripped away by the wind, but Sirius caught it. How…how would they make it over without being thrown off? Sirius was starting to feel very edgy about this.

They halted in front of the fence and James began looking around and then, obviously not finding what he was supposed to, his face suddenly grew slightly paler and nervous. Finally, I thought for a second there that this kid was fearless.

"The wind must have knocked away the barrels! We're going to have to ram through!" What? Oh heck no…

"One!"

No, hold on…they weren't really going to do this…were they?

"Two!"

No, no, no. They wouldn't make it.

"THREE!"

Ah…no choice then…

They took off like a rocket, throwing all their force into it. At first, it didn't feel like the fence had budged at all and Sirius, for an instance, seriously thought that the fence was stronger than they thought. But, to both boys great relief, it crashed to the ground, and with it followed a raging flood. Both of them screamed as they felt the invisibility cloak be torn off and they soon followed it.

Sirius, who had learned to swim very well due to him being forced by his parents, broke the surface just to be dragged down again. He fought desperately with the raging currents, spots dancing across his eyes as his lungs screamed for air. Yet again he tried to break the surface and this time he stayed up.

Swerving his head around, he searched the waters for James but the boy was nowhere to be seen. Sirius's eyes widened at this and while he tried to fight down the panic welling up in the pit of his stomach, he began to call out the other boy's name but to no avail, the wind was just too loud. Choosing to look instead, Sirius took a deep breath and dived under.

Slowly opening his eyes, Sirius Black searched the waters for any sign of the messy haired boy who'd been more of friend than he'd ever had.

Swimming farther from the fence, or rather, pushed from the fence, he continued to scour while he dodged the debris shooting at him on all angles. And when he thought all hope was lost, a sudden flash of black broke through the clear of the water around him.

What was left of Sirius's energy was spent as he lurched toward the boy and grabbed his arms, pulling him up to the surface. Looking down at James for a split second he noted that his glasses were still, amazingly, clinging to the boy's nose. But he wasn't conscious, or breathing. Fear tore at Sirius's heart as he looked wildly around for anything he could grab onto, anything near for he found no strength to swim.

Keeping James's head above the water, Sirius lashed out his hand and waited for anything to catch hold. Something did. The long haired boy quickly curled his hand around it and felt a lurch as his body was halted against the pulling of the current. Finding what little strength he had, Sirius pulled them atop the, he now realized, ladder and began to climb. It was a slow, agonizing process. One, James's dead weight was even heavier than normal due to the water dragging him down; two, Sirius himself was soaked; and three, he was numb and tired with little to no strength left in him.

As soon as they both reached the top, Sirius dropped James and quickly kneeled by him, checking for a pulse. There was one, but it was weak. Rapidly, but gently, he began to press against James's chest, being too young to take CPR, and after the third push, James spluttered to life. The boy lurched up, confused and disoriented, and had to be gently pushed back down. "Sirius?" was James's hoarse whisper as his blurry eyes swept over him. Sirius nodded.

"James," Sirius whispered urgently, "where is The Hovel?" James, closing his eyes, whispered, "I don't know where we are…but…where the fence was…you turn left and go behind a big bunch of trees," he coughed here, "you'll see it, looks like a big tree house." Sirius nodded and lay beside his friend; trying to give what little warmth he could until morning. And as they lay there, both fast asleep, the wind howled mercilessly all through the night.

Well…hm…there it is! Some action! OMG. Hah, yes, well. If you guys still like it, I'm willing to put up the third, but only if I get at least one review! XD Hah, I am so demanding.

EDIT: Organized Chapter.