I'm not the weakest link - Thanks for your kind word .

Author's Note: Yay! Another chapter! I actually have up to chapter 16 done and ready to post, but I won't post them all at once I'm not done with the fic anyway. Lol! Well You know the disclaimer shtick; JKR you ROCK XD!

Chapter 6: Sirius's Letter

"What do you mean 'he's nowhere to be found'?!" James yelled scrambling to his feet. "You can't just disappear off the face of the planet!"

Peter, who was beginning to shake, nodded in agreement.

"I meant nowhere to be found in this room, yeh git!" Sirius snapped, dressing into his daily attire. "Maybe you should ask around during breakfast."

James blinked.

"I should ask?" He asked concernedly, "What about you?"

"I have to deal with something first."

Sirius had now grabbed his cloak and scuttled out of the room leaving Peter and James bewildered. The both them still wore their pajamas and their hair sticking up every which way; James's hair really didn't look any different from the usual messy style it always had. After dressing, they went out of their room, and hurried down the spiral staircase into the common room.

"Remus!" Peter cried rushing forward.

James looked up to see Lupin and Professor Dumbledore standing before them. James' face lit up and he walked toward them. As long as he's all right, James thought to himself he looked at Remus.

"Where've you been?" James asked trying to catch his breath. "We were all worried about you!"

"W—Worried?" Remus repeated, his tone of voice as if not to believe what James had just said.

"Yeah, worried!" James exclaimed glancing up at Dumbledore. The old man beamed brightly at James through his half-moon spectacles and James rumpled his hair again in embarrassment.

"James Potter, am I right?" said Dumbledore in a calm voice. "I was just discussing a few things with your friend, Remus. Remus seems to speak of you, Pettigrew, and Black a lot in our conversations, isn't that correct?"

Remus nodded, his face turning slightly pink. Peter smiled cheerfully at the lot of them while James stared at Dumbledore with much amazement in his eyes.

"I see a lot of promise in the four of you." Dumbledore said again looking around at the three of them. "By the way, where is young Black?"

James had nearly forgotten and he was stunned that he had nearly forgotten Sirius.

"Oh no." James gasped, "Excuse me, will you, Dumbledore, sir. Remus, Peter, we should get going."

James ran out of the common room, followed by both Remus and Peter.

"What's wrong, James? Where's Sirius?" Remus asked as they turned a corner and walked down another marble staircase.

"He said he had to do something important." James answered walking quickly down the stairs, "I'll bet you it has something to do—Peter be careful—something to do with that cousin of his."

Peter had nearly tripped and fallen forward when James caught him just in time. When they had reached the first level, walking in the corridor, they heard some distinct voices from somewhere off the hallway; it was the same empty chamber the first years were put in before Sorting. The three of them instantly recognized one of the voices as Sirius and the other voice they made out to be Bellatrix. James had been correct on his theory.

Upon walking into the chamber both Bellatrix and Sirius had both stopped their argument; Sirius didn't look very pleased to see them there, but Bellatrix looked thrilled.

"Oh look!" She squealed with excitement looking at them. "Your friends are here to save you, Sirius! Are they really your friends? No wonder you're not in Slytherin."

Sirius seemed to wince at the word 'Slytherin' but he continued to glare squarely at his cousin. Bellatrix looked strangely delighted and gestured James, Peter, and Remus to come closer. Sirius, on the other hand, refused to look at the three of them.

"I can read the letter to them too." Bellatrix smirked pulling out a piece of parchment from her pocket.

"No!" Sirius yelled rushing toward Bellatrix in efforts to take the parchment from her.

"Come now, Sirius, you should be more open. They are your friends after all, they have a right to know about your personal life." She sniggered flipping the parchment over to read from it:

"Sirius, you are a disgrace to the Black Family! You aren't even fit to be called my own son! How could you even consider going into Gryffindor, and breaking the Black Family tradition?! You are not allowed to come home for Christmas you hear me? I want you as far away from this family while your father and I sort things out. Don't expect to see your room the same way you last left it when, or if, you ever set one foot into this house again. You are a horrible example to Regulus! Making friends with those blood traitors, the Potters, RUBISH! YOU HEAR ME?! When you get home at the end of this year do NOT expect very much from me, you insubordinate little brat—"

"ENOUGH!" Sirius screamed, snatching the paper from Bellatrix and tearing it to pieces. His face had flushed red from anger and James, Peter, and Remus couldn't find anything to say. "Tell that woman that I don't even want set foot into that house!"

Bellatrix's lips curled into a sly grin. The girl seemed very satisfied by Sirius's remark.

"Very well, Sirius." She said swiftly turning to leave. "I'll tell her just that."

When Bellatrix was finally out of sight, Sirius fell to his knees and sighed deeply. James was really worried, but was also concerned about how Sirius felt toward them now that they had learned more about how his family treated him. James also realized exactly why the Black Family supported Voldemort's ways.

After a few minutes of absolute tense silence, Sirius stood up and glanced back the three who were apparently frightened of what he was going to do.

"Erm…" James mumbled, "Sorry."

Peter nodded in agreement to James, and Remus looked to the ground.

"It's all right, mate." Sirius croaked walking toward them. They all noticed that Sirius's face was much paler than usual. "My mum's a pain. So should we head to the Great Hall for breakfast?"

They could see the pain that Sirius held back from behind his eyes, and they didn't want to push the topic any more than Bellatrix had. James realized that Sirius's family wasn't very nice to him, but from what Bellatrix had just said in the letter, it was much worse than he could have ever figured. Peter was quivering in fear, and Remus was still had his eyes to the floor.

James smiled weakly and said, "Yeah, breakfast. That would do us some good."

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The usual routine of class took place after breakfast and they were all too busy to discuss anything other than their studies. Defense Against the Dark Arts that day was the one that peaked most everyone's interest. Remus was, without a doubt, the best in the class with the subject, and he answered all the questions that Professor Flitwick asked with ease. By the end of the lesson, Gryffindor was leading by fifty-seven points.

The Slytherins, who also took DADA classes with the Gryffindors, found Remus's knowledge of Dark Arts rather annoying. It particularly angered Severus Snape, who also seemed to like the class.

"I don't know what Professor Flitwick sees in you." Snape said walking toward Remus at the end of the class.

"If you knew the answer, you should have raised your hand." Replied Remus calmly packing away his books. Sirius and James were nearby, eyeing Snape with every intention to attack if necessary. Seeing that he was outnumbered, Snape decided it would be best to not start anything.

By Friday, the four of them had memorized how to find their way to get to their classes. Seeing that they, as first years, got their Friday afternoons off, there wasn't really much for them to do, except Remus who continued to read.

They were hanging around the Gryffindor common room to spend their time. James was sprawled out on one of the fluffy red couches staring up at the ceiling. Sirius and Peter were playing a game of Wizard's Chess and Peter seemed to be loosing each round they played.

"Shouldn't you be doing that essay for Potions, James?" Remus suggested, turning a page of the book Hogwarts A History.

"You mean the one about aconite?" James asked turning toward Remus. "Finished it Hey, did your hair grow longer, Remus?"

"Yeah," Remus said calming, flipping the page, "My hair tends to grow faster than usual."

"Oh! That's what was different about you that one night you went to talk with Dumbledore!"

Remus smiled gently, but kept his eyes on the book. James sat up and walked over to where Sirius and Peter were having their game of chess and looked at the position their pawns were in. From what he saw Sirius looked like he was going to beat Peter again, but quickly noticed a defect in Sirius's strategy.

"Who's turn is it?" James muttered looking at the chessboard.

"Peter's." Sirius replied watching Peter carefully.

"All right then." James replied, and he then ordered the knight to move in another L shape. When the knight had finally moved into it's position, Sirius and Peter realized what James had just done.

"Check mate!" Peter exclaimed. "I won! James, you're the best!"

Sirius frowned; his winning streak had just been cut short. James patted Sirius on the back and said, "Now that you've lost, wanna go exploring?"

"Exploring?" said Sirius with curiosity in his voice. "Explore what?"

James smirked.

"Explore around Hogwarts of course!" he exclaimed causing Remus to look up from him book. "Didn't you notice that Filch somehow pops up where ever you go? I mean he can pop up out of nowhere just like Peeves the Poltergeist!"

"What are you trying to say, mate?" Sirius asked eyeing James in a curious fashion.

"I'm trying to say that, there must be some hidden and unknown passage that we don't know about." He explained to them. "So I'm suggesting that we take a close look around Hogwarts."

"Sounds promising." Remus said walking towards them. "You wouldn't mind if I came along?"

"Of course not! What do yeh say, Sirius?" James asked, "Yeh up for it?"

"I'm in. If you're getting put in detention, I wanna be in there with you." Sirius replied, smirking. "How about your Peter?"

"A—As long as Mr. Filch doesn't catch us doing something we're not supposed to," Peter replied. "I'm all for it!"

James smiled widely. He could already tell that the rest of the year would be a blast, as long as his friends were around.

::TO BE CONTINUED::

Next Chapter: Snivellus

If you read the far I bow to you! You have a lot of patience :D! Please Review, that is, if you dare...