Sirius yawned and stretched. He got dressed and went to Remus' room. "You up yet Rem?" He called. Remus grunted from inside. "Come on Rem we're going to James' house today." Remus grunted again. Sirius turned the doorknob it was locked. "Don't make me do this Remus." Remus didn't respond. Sirius pulled a bobby pin from under his hair. He bent down, inserted the bobby pin in the lock and listened to the lock. It unlocked and the door opened. "How'd you do that?" Remus asked from his bed. "I've gotten myself locked in my room enough times to know how to get back out. Now get up." Sirius left the room.
The boys spent the last week of summer at James' house and were on the train to school. Soon after the train started there were crashing sounds outside the compartment. Remus looked around and noticed Sirius was missing. He through the door open just as Sirius and Snape crashed to the ground in a muggle duel. "Sirius!" Remus yelled as Malfoy pulled out his wand. It was to late. Sirius was hit with the curse and flung into a wall. There was a resounding crack as his head hit the wall. He slid down the wall at was lying unconscious at its base when prefects started to pour out of compartments. Remus smelt blood. He looked at Sirius' unconscious form. Red was staining the wall where his head first made contact and there was a streak running down the wall. Sirius' black hair was slick from blood. "He's bleeding!" Remus called as he ran to Sirius. A Ravenclaw prefect pushed him out of the way and took off her cloak.
She bundled it up and gently pushed it against the back of Sirius' head. "Hold this Lupin." She ordered. "I'm going to tell the driver." She and a Gryffindor prefect went to the front of the train. Remus' blood boiled with rage. James was kneeling next to him. There was only one word that could describe James: livid. Lily bent down and took their wands, Sirius's too. She was sure that any second stem would start coming out of James' ears. Remus' iris' went from their normal honey amber color to pure gold. A moan from Sirius kept him there. Sirius' eyes fluttered open and stayed open for a moment before closing again from blood loss. The cloak under his head was completely soaked.
The train pulled to a stop and McGonagall, Ganush, and Dumbledore came onto the train. McGonagall was enraged. She grabbed Malfoy by the ear turned him over her knee and smacked his backside a far few times before handing him off to Dumbledore. Ganush stopped the bleeding and healed Sirius' head. Sirius was levitated into the first carriage. The three adults and Malfoy joined him. McGonagall was holding the unconscious twelve year old like she would a young child.
Dumbledore and Malfoy went to Dumbledore's office to get the expulsion paper work done. Ganush took Sirius to the hospital wing and McGonagall went to the great hall to take care of the sorting and telling the students the rules and such.
Sirius was sent to St. Mungo's three days later. The Gryffindors were exceedingly subdued. Friday night three weeks after Sirius was sent to St. Mungo's the doors to the Great Hall opened. All heads turned to the doors. All the students began to go wild as a certain Gryffindor walked to his table. The Gryffindors were going round the bend. The teachers were politely applauding his return, except McGonagall who started crying. Lily threw her arms around his neck sobbing. Remus wrapped his arms around him going hysterical. Peter hit gently on the back a few times. James pulled him into a hug and lost it completely. The only ones that weren't happy were of course the Slytherins.
Sirius smiled and sat down. He hadn't eaten for nearly three weeks and was hungry. His body was thinner from transforming while unconscious. Even though he was starving he still ate slowly and with manners. Sirius knew from past experiences that to eat a lot and eat fast you could harm yourself and make yourself sick.
"Hey guys let's start a tradition." Sirius said out of the blue while they got ready for bed. "Like what?" James asked. "I dunno but let's call our selves The Order of the Forks." Sirius said. "The what?" Remus looked skeptical. "That could work." James reached over and grabbed an old quill. "Transfigure that into a fork Sirius." He said tossing the quill to his best friend. Sirius did so and gave it back to James. "Now do these three." Sirius did as he was told. "Know we need a theme song." James said with a spark in his eyes. Remus mumbled something after a short silence. "What was that Rem?" James asked. "We are, we are, we are, we are The Order of the Forks. We are, we are, we are, we are The Order of the Forks." Remus repeated while feeling quiet stupid. "Let's say woohoo after Forks." James said thinking it over. "Oh we could walk around the room and jump when we say woohoo." Peter added. "Oh, oh, oh! For initiation we could say 'Stand up please, on your chair please, bend over please, POKE!' and poke them in the backside with our special OotF forks." Sirius said. "How are we going to tell these forks from the ones in the hall?" Peter asked. "Use your eyes Peter OotF is engraved on them." James said and Sirius rolled his eyes. "Let's initiate the head boy tomorrow evening." James said as he lay down. "Who is the head boy?" Sirius asked. "Alez Burberry." Remus said lying down as well. The boys fell asleep.
In the evening at dinner the boys waited till everyone was immersed in conversation or their food. Sirius had the OotF fork in his pocket for Alez. They took out their own OotF forks and stood up. They began to walk around the room chanting their OotF theme. "Stand up please." They chanted when they stopped at Alez. Alez stood up hesitantly. "On your chair please." Alez was getting nervous now. "Bend over please." Alez was flat out scared as he bent over. "Poke!" The boys called and poked Alez in the backside with their special OotF forks. "We welcome you to The Order of the Forks. Here is you Order of the Forks fork." Sirius handed the fork to him. The entire Great Hall cracked up at that one. "We need a name for ourselves." Sirius said as they entered the common room. "We have one." James said. "No I mean like for just us four." Sirius responded. "The Marauders?" Remus asked. The other three looked at him. "Well that's basically what we do, marauder." There were the appropriate murmurs of 'yeah basically', 'I guess you're right', and coming from Peter 'I like ice cream.' That one got funny looks.
Remus walked down the stairs to the common room just before sunrise. Sirius had for some reason fallen asleep in the big, brown, rocking chair in the corner. (Not one of those old lady rocking chairs, kinda like a Lazy Boy chair that rocks) His legs were pulled up close to his body and moved when he breathed. He had his head resting on his knees with his hair flopped in his face. In the sunrise Remus could see the actual color of Sirius' hair. It was so dark that it was actually a very deep blue mixed with black and when the sun hit it right there seemed to be a incredibly dark purple thrown in. Under the closed shades were eyes that held a puzzling glint in their dazzling blue silver irises. Remus crept over to the chair and knelt down. Gently he pushed the dark locks away from Sirius' face. "Wake up Padfoot." He whispered. Sirius didn't rouse. "Padfoot wake up." Remus whispered gently shaking Sirius' shoulder. Blue-silver eyes fluttered open. "Come on go upstairs." Remus helped Sirius up to his bed. As Remus turned away to go back to his own bed Sirius grabbed him. He pulled Remus down and pressed his lips gently to Remus' forehead. Remus thought nothing of it considering Sirius was more than half asleep and probably didn't know what he was doing. Little did he know Sirius knew what he was doing.