A/N: I know I said I would update sooner, but things happen and I feel really guilty. Anyway this chapter is a bit shorter than usual, but I figured you guys would rather have a short chapter than no chapter at all because it would take me. Enjoy.
P.S. I was watching Jeopardy today and under the category of astronomy there was a question about something to do with a "dog star" and I was like "no, Sirius can't possible be the answer." And it was so, yay for padfoot!
James watched the rain drops hit the window and slide down zigzagging across the glass in an array of patterns. His mother sat beside him and Frederick beside her. A driver from the ministry was driving them in a Muggle car to the platform.
His father should have been driving, but as always he'd been called back to work and in place of him was this silent menacing man.
His mother had scolded him when he had complained about his father's absence because his father had taken an extended amount of work time off during his Christmas break so they could spend it as a family.
"Why couldn't we take a portkey?" James asked his mother again hoping for a different explanation.
"You know why," his mother said looking at her only son as if he were trying her patience.
"No, I don't," James said sourly. He didn't buy for a minute that it was because for safety purpose an anti-portkey charm had been placed on the platform, which meant the portkey would bring them to the Muggle side of the platform. If Muggles didn't notice people disappearing into a brick wall, James doubted they would notice the three of them appearing out of thin air.
"Stop acting childish, James," Frederick said, "We're almost there anyway."
The train station came into view and to James's surprise his mother said they could board the train on their own. She hugged them each goodbye saying they were both to owl her immediately once they were back at Hogwarts.
James grinned at his new found freedom as he dragged his trunk and owl behind Frederick toward Platform 9 ¾.
"Keep up," Frederick muttered when James purposely lagged behind. He looked around watching the Muggles strolling around, most of them were in such a hurry that they barely glanced once at the two boys in long robes hauling some strange items.
Once onboard the train, James separated quickly from Frederick's watchful eye glancing every so often into a compartment to see if he recognized anyone in them. In the fifth compartment he looked in, he found Peter, Cory, Lily and Andrianna.
"Hey James!" Peter greeted in that squeaky voice of his. Peter became visibly more animated as soon as James entered the compartment.
"Had a good break everyone?" James asked as he slid the door shut behind him.
"It was good until now…" Lily murmured softly.
"Didn't catch that Evans?" James said smiling at her.
"I said it was restful," she quickly recovered her face turning red, "Andrianna was just telling me how she got a kitten for Christmas."
Just then the train jerked forward, sending James, who was still standing; straight into Peter who dropped the bag of chocolate caramel balls in his hand.
Lily and Andrianna interrupted into giggles as James tried to gain back his dignity by straightening his robes and finally finding a seat.
"Here, I'll help you pick these up," Cory said rolling his eyes and bending down to help Peter.
"Sorry about that Peter, I'll buy you something off the cart when it comes by to replace it."
The long journey back to the Hogwarts castle finally ended. James and Cory raced up the steps to their room in the Gryffindor tower. James reached the room first and burst in with Cory right behind him. Cory fell breathless on the floor, "Merlin, Potter, how can you run so fast?"
Peter poked his head in a few moments later his face flushed from trying to keep up with the other two boys.
Remus and Sirius glanced up at the boys from the position where they were laying on Remus's bed. There were numerous amounts of books scattered around them.
"Hello guys!" James exclaimed brightly feeling the familiar warmth of the room wash over him. The red and gold decorated curtains, sheets, carpet all helped make the room feel very homey.
"Hey," Sirius and Remus both said neither picking up their heads from the books they were apparently engrossed in.
"Don't tell me you've been studying the entire break!" James exclaimed jumping alongside the bed to have a better look at the books.
James picked up one of the books quickly flipping through it, "Looks boring."
"There are some very valuable spells in these books," Sirius said, "Watch." He tapped one of the books hard twice and then flicked it saying the incantation. "Now Potter, try and pick the book up."
James rolled his eyes reaching for the book, but every time his hand got near enough the book would move away just out of his reach.
"Brilliant," James said, "Think of what we could do…"
"Do?" Remus interrupted, "Why do you need to do anything with it? I just showed Sirius these books to further his knowledge on some spells."
"Well it's our choice on how we use this new found knowledge, right?"
"I guess…" Remus said warily.
"So if we happen to curse everyone's forks in the dining hall so they can't eat, you shouldn't blame yourself, Remus."
"You wouldn't really do that?"
"Why not?" James asked lightly sharing a grin with Sirius who was watching their exchange with amusement.
Apparently Remus couldn't think of a reason not to, so Remus countered, "Well how would you like it if someone enchanted your items."
"I'd find it extremely amusing and I would know that who ever did the prank was smart, intelligent, great sense of humor, good looking…"
"Well I wouldn't," Remus said sticking to his principles.
"It would be a little bit funny, Remus, you have to admit that," Sirius added.
"What about you Peter?" Remus demanded hoping for someone on his side.
"I'm with James and Sirius."
"Ah, traitors," Remus mumbled, "And you Cory, please tell me you have some sense?"
"Well I wouldn't mind as long as it was temporary."
"Well I may be outnumbered, but these books are mine, I could just take them away from you," Remus aid grabbing the books in their hands.
"Ah, come on Remus," Sirius said, "At least we are learning something…"
"And putting it to a practical use…" James said.
"Fine, fine," Remus conceded laughing, "As long as you don't come crying to me when you get caught for using one of them."
"Deal, but we won't get caught, will we Sirius?"
"Never, have a little faith in us."
"You are the best Remus," James said grabbing a chocolate frog from his pocket and tossing it to him, "My last one, it's all yours."
Remus who could never resist chocolate stuffed it into his mouth.
Snape was attempting to get some work done in the library. The Hogwarts curriculum wasn't any harder than what he had dealt with at home, but it kept him very busy.
He groaned inwardly as James Potter walked into the room. Now Potter didn't just walk in, his walk was more of a strut. Potter announced his presence in a way Snape was sure he would never learn or care to learn.
And he knew he wasn't imagining Potter's walk for almost all the students in their vicinity picked up their heads as well to look in his direction. If Potter noticed he didn't let on, nor did it seem that it was done purposely. It was in his cocky nature, in his noble blood, destined to stand out in a positive way.
Now if Potter couldn't sink lower in Snape's eyes, he sat down with some undesirable company; Sirius Black, the black sheep of the Black family. According to the latest rumors Black and Potter considered each other friends.
Slytherins didn't have friends.
Companions
Acquaintances
Allies
Ties, Bonds, Pacts, but true friendship was not something one strived for.
On the train to Hogwarts when Snape had first met Black, having heard all his life how they had to aspire to be in the same league as the Blacks, he hadn't been impressed with their eldest son.
Still he was a Black, and it would take many generations for the Snape's to even hope to gain their status, so if Black had made it to Slytherin, he would have befriended the boy.
Snape carefully watched Potter and Black converse. Using some of the knowledge his relations had taught him, he could tell they were planning something by reading their body language. He could almost sense it that those boys were up to no good.
Black caught his eye and in seconds he found himself staring into Potter's hazel eyes. Potter glared at him, but his eyes missed the venom he was used to seeing in adversaries' eyes.
Potter may turn out to be a nuisance, but Snape felt he was too good of a person to ever do any real damage.
Sirius was startled out of a daydream as James took a seat across from him.
"Let's do it tonight."
"What?" Sirius asked.
"We haven't explored that passage yet, I think we should do it today."
"Any particular reason why today?"
"No time like the present and I think we could both use some excitement."
"I guess."
"Come on, I expected a bit more enthusiasm from you…"
"I'm thrilled, Potter, really," Sirius said trying to sound sarcastic.
"Now I know Remus wouldn't want to come, but would you mind terribly if we kept this from Peter?"
"I don't care, he'd probably get in the way."
"Yea, but he was the one who found it."
"You were the one to bring it up. Again it doesn't matter to me. Though, what he doesn't know, won't hurt him."
"No need to convince me further. I say we skip dinner and go exploring. Everyone will be in the Great Hall, so the hallway will be emptier."
Sirius nodded in agreement.
A few hours later, Sirius watched James try to unsuccessfully convince Peter to go to dinner without them.
"Remus said he'd meet us there," Sirius added, "We both have stomach aches, Peter. We must have caught it from each other."
"I don't like sitting by myself, I'll skip too."
"You'll be starving in a few hours."
Sirius was becoming rather agitated by Peter's lack of realization that they obviously wanted to get rid of him. Any another person would have gotten the hint by now.
Thankfully Lily walked by at that time and James called out to her.
"Evans! Over here!"
"What is it?" she asked tiredly, she looked stressed out.
"Are you going to the Great Hall?"
"Yea, I was just about to."
"Can Peter go with you?"
"We both don't feel good," Sirius said using his smile to his advantage.
"Both of you?" Lily asked suspiciously.
"Yes, both of us," James said evenly, "Can he go with you or not?"
"Yea, no problem. Come on Peter, I hope you don't catch whatever they have," she twirled around and Peter had no choice but follow her.
"About time, I was about to strangle him," Sirius said once he was sure they were far enough away.
"Me too, but Peter really isn't that bad most of the time. Anyway let's wait a few minutes and then head out. And make sure you bring your wand."
"I've been taught since before I could walk to never go anywhere without my wand."
"So have I," James said glancing strangely at Sirius.
The tunnel turned out to be rather spacious. They could have walked side by side, but through silent agreement James took the front and Sirius the rear. They both had their wands lit.
"Do you see these strange markings on the wall?" Sirius asked pausing briefly to get a better look.
The marks looked burnt into the stone, black strange characters, but it seemed to be creatively and painstakingly placed in such a way that it looked as though the marks should have made a pattern, but it was impossible to figure out the actual pattern.
After about 50 meters the markings abruptly stopped and did not appear again for the rest of the journey. The tunnel stayed in a straight direction. Every so often there was a side passage that lead to a room, usually about the size of an average classroom and always completely empty. The strange part about the rooms was the absence of dust, cobwebs and crumbling of stone, unlike the hallway.
"Let's keep going," James said once they scoured one of the rooms not finding anything worth investigating further.
After about twenty minutes of walking, they reached the end. The hallway made an abrupt turn into a solid wall.
James glanced at Sirius, "Should we?"
"Anything could be on the other side of that wall…"
"But that is why we're here, to find out where it leads to,"
"Yea, alright on the count of three, we can both push," Sirius agreed, "ONE, TWO, THREE."
Though the door looked heavy, it opened very easily and they both fell into the room.
The room was twice the size of their Common Room with chairs, couches, and tables spaced evenly about the perimeter. The room had five walls. Four out of the five walls were decorated with the four House Colors. There was one wall for Slytherin, one wall for Gryffindor, one wall for Ravenclaw, and one wall for Hufflepuff.
The fifth wall had a glamorous painting, done in some sparkly substance of a sleeping dragon. The Hogwarts School Motto was written above it "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus" (Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon).
The dragon was indeed sleeping and Sirius noticed in surprise that children dressed in the Hogwarts uniform were darting in and out of the picture trying to wake the dragon.
"Is this?" Sirius turned to James for conformation.
James nodded, "This must to the teachers lounge."
"This room is incredible. You wonder why they ever bother coming out to teach us."
Indeed in addition to an array of books and other things to occupy your time with, there were snacks placed on various tables and a small fountain labeled with different drinks.
And that's when they heard what suspiciously sounded like multiple feet heading into the room.
James and Sirius silently spun around and groped at the part of the wall where the door had been. Apparently like many inanimate objects in this castle the wall decided not to slide open from this side.
Sirius and James dived behind a couch just as McGonagall and Sprout walked into the room.
He could not hear what they were saying.
Sirius glanced back at James in hopes that under that messy hair of his, he'd have some plan.
James though seemed engrossed with something under his robe. He threw over himself a slivery type of material and then he disappeared. Sirius almost yelled in alarment, when James's hand appeared and he pulled Sirius under as well.
"Where did you get this?" Sirius whispered softly.
"I'll explain later. Keep quiet!"
"Did you hear that?" Sprout said, "I swear I heard student's voices."
McGonagalls catlike eyes scanned the room and Sirius felt his breath quicken. James signaled silently for Sirius to follow his lead quietely. Then they both slowly stood up and inched as close to the wall as possible.
"I don't hear anything and there really isn't anyplace to hide in this room."
"I must be hearing things then. I wanted to show you a report done by one of your students in my Herbology class. It's an excellent paper."
As the two teachers sat down at a table with their backs to where James and Sirius stood under the cloak, the boys were able to slowly inch their way out of the Teacher's lounge. They were rather lucky they were so small and the cloak was so large, otherwise they would have easily been caught.
James decided they should take a walk outside to calm down from all the excitement. Even though it was a bit chilly outside, James said his mother had taught him a simple heating spell to keep them warm.
They stood side by side silently looking out onto the lake.
"Have you seen the Giant Squid yet?" Sirius asked craning his neck hoping for a glimpse of the tentacle.
"Yea once."
"So where did you get your invisibility cloak? I know those are not only rare, but expensive."
"My dad gave it to me."
"Just like that?"
"It's a family tradition…a family heirloom, though it's hardly as exciting as that snake ring you inherited."
Sirius turned abruptly toward James surprised he even remembered the ring.
"Why don't you ever wear it?" James continued.
"How can I? I'm a disgrace, a traitor to the family name."
"So you still are part of the Black family, right? Well that means you have every right to where it."
"What if I don't want to wear it?"
"Well as long as it's because you don't want to wear it, and not because you feel you don't deserve to wear it."
A few moments of silence went by.
"Did you know our fathers were in Hogwarts together? Same year too, just like us."
"Interesting," Sirius muttered.
"They hated each other. My dad was telling my mum that the reason he didn't trust the Black's is because he's known them since Hogwarts."
"Are you trying to subtly tell me you don't trust me because I'm a Black?" Sirius asked completely bewildered about the direction Potter was taking this conversation.
"No, no. I was thinking how easily we could have ended up like them. You know despising the other and then when we have kids that they would also hate the other and it would be a never ending cycle."
"Well I guess in a way we stopped the cycle without even meaning to."
"I'm glad we explored that tunnel together, you know, just the two of us. We haven't really had a chance to really..." James stopped without finishing the sentence looking a bit embarrassed.
"I admit it did beat the usual schedule of eating dinner and then finishing up the homework."
"And we didn't get caught."
"And now that we have the cloak that opens up even more possibilities. I mean you can't very well be punished for something you weren't seen doing. Maybe we can even get Remus to come along, with the safety of the cloak, he can't use his excuse of getting caught."
"So you think I should tell them about the cloak, Remus and Peter?"
"I don't think that's something you keep from your friends," Sirius commented casually.
James nodded placing his hand for a moment on Sirius shoulder, "Let's go inside."
A/N: Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think by hitting that review bottom.
Irish Anor: James's dad is ok with the friendship, but he's still a little wary about trusting the Black's, but don't worry that will change once he meets Sirius
Dween-angel: yea I understood what you meant and I'm glad that the gradual way Sirius is turning from his family is working in the context of this story and is plausible
Kylaa: thanks for your review, glad you're enjoying it!
Spork Princess: lol, I was wondering where Celebrean went…and I figured you must have just changed your name. I think especially the first year, not everyone is in love with Sirius and James and wants to be their friend. Their popularity will increase as the years pass and when they get more of a name for themselves.
brennQT: the Blacks are going to resort to "any means" to try and get Sirius to be a proper heir. Yea I was struggling with the whole present thing when I was first writing the story and how to go about it, but I liked how it turned out.
EsScaper: I figured Sirius doesn't hate Regulus completely yet, they are brothers after all, though I think a big rift occurred between them when Regulus was sorted into Slytherin and showed he was the proper son
Kate: to answer your question about how many more chapters maybe about five more in this year and I wanted to continue a few chapters into their second year…not completely sure but I better get writing on those chapters if I want to get this story done before Half Blood Prince comes out. Then I'll probably write a sequel to the story, but jump a few years ahead to their fifth year.
Nicole: Thanks for your suggestion, I'm always willing to get them. Like you said, I wasn't really planning to make Sirius a girl crazy player. I don't deny he was popular and because of his looks especially with the girls, but I'm definitely toning it down, so don't worry
Koriaena: the Potter family is considerably better than the Blacks and you'll just have to wait and see how James's father will react when he meets Sirius, but don't worry he'll grow to like him like a second son
Moony391: I'm happy my version of Peter isn't unbearable and thanks so much for the review
Inferno Elf: yea I always write more than I intend to, the chapters always turn out longer than I planned. The same goes when writing papers for school, which is beneficial when you have to write an 8-10 page paper. Anyway I'm glad to hear the chapters are worth waiting for because it seems I can never update as soon as I would like. As always thanks for your review.
Jeanne2: yea I did put a lot of work into that chapter and rewrote almost every part because I felt it was important to the development.
Old lady: Well since you did finally review, I guess I can forgive you for not reviewing before, lol. Thanks you so much for your praise on my writing and I swear I'll try really hard to update more quickly.
Anonymous: Thanks for your review, I'm glad you like my portrayal of Sirius
Magicgirl45852: thanks for your review, I'm happy you found my story, hope you continue to enjoy it