James sat in his room hating himself for lying to his best-friend but knowing he had no choice. Ever since they had become friends Sirius had spent his holidays at James', or Remus' before he moved. Not once had he returned the invitation. This year, he supposed, it had just got to him. But as he sat now he remembered that look of hatred Sirius had given him as James had got off the train and was immediately showered in hugs and kisses from his parents. James had watched as Sirius was ushered quickly away from the train by two stony-faced people. It was only now he realised that it was a look of jealousy, not hate.

To say that James knew nothing of Sirius' home life would be a lie. He knew that Sirius didn't get on well with his parents. However, he had always assumed it was a thing they would get over. Apart from that he knew nothing, and for him to have that look…

"Mum, I'm going to Sirius," James shouted to the house.

"No, you're not," came her reply.

"But mum, he whined.

"I said no. You haven't even been home a day yet, and you've told us nothing of what you did at school."

"But it's really important."

"James, your mother said no. Now get down here and talk to us," his father's voice bellowed in a tone that he had to obey.

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James shivered as the Knight Bus pulled away leaving him on the dark road. Being just three in the morning he decided it wasn't a good idea to knock at the house. Instead he sat on a wall opposite number 12, waiting for signs of life. Trying to block out the state of the near run-down street, James' thoughts drifted to how much trouble he would be in when he got home. He went to the house when he saw a light go on inside and a figure moving was moving about, but he was shocked when his watch showed it was only four o'clock.

He knocked quietly on the front door. It opened slowly to reveal a young house elf.

"Yes?" it asked impatiently.

For some reason this made James nervous. "Er, I'm here to see Sirius. Am I at the right house?"

The elf looked him up and down with distaste. "Does sir know what time it is?"

James was about to respond when a gruff voice cut in. "Does Kreacher know that when we have guests they are not to be interrogated or Kreacher will be looking for a new family?"

"Yes sir," the elf responded before shuffling away muttering "Wait 'til ma'am hears about the blood-"

"Kreacher!" the voice bellowed at him.

The elf shut up and left the room with a curt bow.

"What are you doing here?" asked the gruff voice as its owner stepped into the light.

"Sirius, I-"

"Because you're supposed to be at your aunts. More importantly you're supposed to be in bed, asleep."

"The same could be said for you. Why are you up at four am?"

Sirius stared at him before walking down the hall. "I always am," he told James with a casual shrug.

James followed him; they came out in a kitchen. Sirius started doing washing, both laundry and dishes, after ensuring the rest of the room was tidy he moved onto the next. James watched before helping him, having received a stony silence as response to his offer. At around six the entire house was tidy and light footsteps could be heard from upstairs. Sirius seemed to take this as a sign to start cooking.

"Sirius, why are you doing all this?" James asked him. In school Sirius didn't care whether their dormitory was tidy or messy; in fact, he prided himself for making it so unliveable.

Sirius stopped what he was doing to smile wryly at James and say "Because it's my job." He went back to cutting some fruit when the footsteps could be heard again, this time on the stairs. Sirius looked up horror-struck when he found James was still there. "You have to go," he hissed nervously.

James was about to protest when a woman appeared in the room.

"Boy, is my break…Oh, we have company." The woman said, and looked, coldly. "And who might you be?"

"He's no-one mum," James heard Sirius say protectively. "He was just going."

"Nonsense he's staying." She looked directly at James. "Have a seat and tell me your name boy."

James was terrified. Well, maybe not terrified so much as struck with a fear that made him obey.

"Now, tell me James, how do you feel about muggles and mudbloods?"

James looked away from her at the sound of pans and plates clattering loudly. The woman spun and growled at her son. "Be careful," she hissed. "I don't want bits of china in my food."

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James was sat outside on the wall again. He'd been thrown out of 12 Grimmauld Place for…Well he wasn't entirely sure what for. All he had done was tell Mrs Black that he really had no opinion when it came to muggles. As far as he was concerned they were a friendly bunch of people and he was glad that there were such good relations between the magical and non-magical world. He also told her he had lots of muggle-born friends and didn't like the term 'mudblood'.

After he said that she got very angry. Her pale face turned a deep red shade and she began shouting. He wasn't entirely sure what she'd said, it all just blended together. He'd heard words like "muggle-loving" and "traitor" before being pushed out of the house and having the door slammed in his face. There had been a lot of noise in the house after that, mostly screaming and shouting, but now there was silence. The lack of noise enabled him to think about what had happened. He could only reach one conclusion: The Black's were a family of muggle-haters; Sirius seemed to be the exception and thus was outcasted and treated like dirt.

Think of the devil, here he was now. James jumped off the wall as Sirius walked over to him moodily.

"Why did you come here?" Sirius asked angrily.

"Because I was worried about you," James answered calmly.

"Me? Why?" Sirius seemed surprised by this answer.

"The way you were on the train and what I just saw in there-"

Sirius stiffened and cut him off, apparently not liking where the conversation was headed. "You didn't see anything. And even if you had it's my life. Just stay out of it." He growled before walking away.

--------

The anger James had received from Sirius was nothing compared to that of his parents when he eventually got home. After a night of no sleep, dangerous rides on the Knight Bus, getting interrogated by your best-friends mum, being thrown out of their house, realising why said friend kept his family a secret and then getting shouted at by him. Going home to angry concerned parents wanting to know where you've been and why you snuck out of the house really isn't a good thing. Especially when all you want to do is forget everything that happened and go to sleep.

"Well?" asked his mother hysterically.

James didn't know what to say. If he told her the truth, she'd get worse. If he lied, she'd get worse. And shrugging really wasn't an option.

She looked like she was going to get worse either way until his father conjured up a mug of violet coloured liquid for her, saying "Relax Joanne. He's here now and he will explain before the day is out."

There was something in his tone and look that made James nervous.

"But Henry," Joanne responded before stopping, unsure of what she was going to say.

Henry seemed to know though. He nodded at her before telling her she should go to work. Once she was gone James turned to go upstairs.

"Where do you think you're going?" Henry demanded as James' foot touched the bottom stair.

"To bed. I really need some sleep."

"Oh no, you don't." James felt an arm drag him back. "You and I are going to have a little chat." James groaned as he was forcibly led into the lounge.

"Look, dad, it really was important…"

"I don't care if you were on a spy mission for the Minister of Magic himself. You do not leave this house in the middle of the night just so you can go visiting your friend."

"But dad-" James tried to interrupt.

"Especially when you have already been told that you can not go." Henry continued, oblivious to his son's protests.

"Dad-" James tried again.

"You will, of course, be punished. You are grounded for the next three weeks – I don't care if that's half your holiday gone, you should have thought about that before you snuck out. And you will not be having treats of any kind over the summer."

James had had enough. "Dad!" he cried, rising to his feet. Finally Henry stopped talking and looked at his son. "Sirius' family are terrible. I was looking out for him," James explained.

"How so?" Henry asked.

Twenty minutes later James had cleared everything up with his father, who promised he would look into it for him. This seemed to satisfy James, though he wasn't happy that his punishments weren't reduced. Or that his constant badgering had resulted in a further week of grounding.

Finally he was able to go to bed. Exhausted he half sleep-walked to his room, waking in the late afternoon to find two letters on his desk. He read the un-enveloped one first. A note from his father informing him that he had gone to work, he would check in at the Black's first, and that Helena, the house elf, would be checking in on him regularly. "So don't even think about trying anything," James could almost hear his father's voice as he read that.

Smirking, he moved onto the next letter. It was heavy and delicately packaged.

Jay,

Nice try, pity it didn't work. Your dad was great though, you should have seen the look on mums face…Anyway, that's not what I'm writing to tell you about (we can do that face-to-face), which leads me to the point: Open the paper. Just say my name into the glass and we can talk.

Sir.

Frowning James was almost scared to open the paper, this was Sirius who was sending him it after all. Sirius who had just a few hours earlier had told him to stay out of his life. Still, curiosity got the better of him. Opening it he saw a small square mirror. It looked old, and also a little dirty, as though someone had uncovered it from centuries old junk and hastily wiped it to see what it was. Was this some kind of joke? Still…

"Sirius Black," James spoke into clearly, feeling like a bit of an idiot.

A second later Sirius' grinning face appeared in the glass. "About time, I've been waiting hours. Now, let me tell you what your dad did…"

James smiled, now this was going to be interesting.