"SIRIUS!"

Sirius knew that voice. Would know it anywhere, anytime. Sirius whirled around in his seat and came face-to-face with…James!

"You're back!" James exclaimed, brown eyes glinting in excitement, beaming widely at him, in a very un-James-like smile, showing teeth.

Sirius offered him a half-smile, not sure what to make of this new James Potter. Like Sirius and Lily, James was dressed in the same white robes, with the same little black ankle bracelet gleaming against his tanned skin. James did not look that different; he still had wild, unkempt hair sticking straight up from his habit of running his fingers through it, he still wore his glasses, he still had the same tall, muscular build. The only difference now was that James was barefoot, and escorted by three rather large men in flowing white robes, who had James' arms drawn behind his back and handcuffed there. When the men dragged James closer, Sirius could see an odd, unhinged gleam in his eyes, and a cruel twist to his smile. The men shoved James down to his knees, removed his handcuffs, picked him up and dropped him rather unceremoniously into the seat next to Sirius.

"You're back!" James repeated enthusiastically, seizing Sirius in a bone crushing hug. "Lily, he's back!"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "I had noticed." She replied dryly.

"Hey…mate." Sirius greeted hesitantly, struggling against James' hold.

James released him finally, after maybe a little too long for Sirius' liking, and looked him over, while Sirius wheezed and checked to see that his ribs were still in tact. "So, where ya been, Pads?" He asked, a little too overzealously, still managing to grin while he spoke.

"You called me 'Pads'." Sirius said huskily.

James chuckled good-naturedly. "Well yeah. I always call you Pads. Or Padfoot. Or Paddy. Or Sir Paddi—"

Sirius held up a hand. "Yeah, I get it, I get it. I just…why?"

James cocked his head slightly, peering at Sirius concernedly with wild hazel eyes. "Why do I call you Padfoot?"

"Yeah."

"Why are you asking me?" James asked suddenly, his demeanor changing drastically from light and excited, to angry and suspicious. Behind him, Lily shook her head rapidly, nonverbally urging Sirius to drop this line of questioning.

"I just wanted to know."

"You already know. You call me Prongs, I call you Padfoot, we—"

"Just humor me. Tell me why we have these nicknames."

James glowered at him. "Who are you?"

"Sirius. You know that. We've already been over this."

"No, you're not. You're not Sirius." James leaned in close, eyes feral, inspecting every inch of Sirius' face.

Lily smirked. "Classic paranoia." She muttered.
Sirius shifted uncomfortably, suddenly ill-at-ease, pulling back from James' intense scrutiny. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm me. Don't be stupid James."

James shook his head viciously. "No, you're not! You're an imposter!"

Lily sighed. "No, he's not, James."

"How do you know?" He demanded.

"I read his ID bracelet."

"Anyone can steal an ID bracelet."

"Look at him, James."

"Anyone can cast a simple Glamour."

"In here? Are you sure about that? There is no way anyone could cast any sort of spell or steal any magically protected ID bracelet without the staff knowing."

James' eyes ticked from Lily to Sirius and back again. Several tense moments passed without anyone saying a word. Without warning, James abruptly launched himself at Sirius, barreling into him, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

"You're both in on it!" James shrieked. "Both of you! You're all against me!"

"James!" Lily screamed. "James, stop it! No one is against you!"

"Get off of me!" Sirius roared, trying to shove him back. But James seemed much stronger than Sirius remembered, and fought back valiantly.

"Traitor! Liar!" James continued to rant. "I won't let you!"

"Let me what?" Sirius snarled, blocking a badly aimed punch with his arm, and landing a punch of his own to the side of James' face.

James reeled back for an instant, but a split second later, before Sirius could gather his thoughts and get back on his feet, he was on Sirius again, straddling him, pinning him against the ground. "You're trying to steal my soul! I won't let you! I won't!"

"No one is stealing anyone's soul!" Lily attempted to interject some sort of sanity into the proceedings.

"Like I would believe his accomplice!" James snapped.

"I'm not an imposter!" Sirius shouted. "And I am not trying to steal your soul!"

At the same time Lily griped, "I am no one's accomplice! I always work alone. Like a private contractor." She crossed her arms over her chest and sat back down in her seat, looking extremely put-upon.

Sirius parried another blow and retaliated, but James on the defensive. "Can you just try and not be crazy for one minute?"

"This from the soul-stealing imposter?" James scoffed, getting in a hard jab to Sirius' ribs, already aching from receiving his earlier bear hug.

"Both of you need to shut up." Lily grumbled to herself. "Since you're both evidently crazy."

The guards, busy breaking up another fight, and finally gotten wind of the scuffle between James and Sirius, and hurried over, surrounding the pair with a great storm of white robes and thick, shiny black boots. Strong arms reached down to tear them apart at the same time that boot clad feet stomped down on fingers, limbs, chests. Chaos erupted as the other asylum denizens realized that the guards were so busy dealing with the fight that they could take the opportunity to do whatever they wanted. The air was thick with shouts, curses, and spells.

The last thing Sirius remembered was an intense pain shooting up his body from the region where his kidneys resided, and the glimpse of an odd weapon like a muggle gun, but crackling with some kind of blue-purple energy. The object hissed and crackled as the guard brought it down towards Sirius' face.

The last thing Sirius heard was Lily laughing gleefully, while clapping her hands, as if witnessing a particularly good play.

That was when everything went black.

A/N: Sorry it took so long for the update. I have a lot of ideas for this story, but there did not seem to be much interest in it. Due to recently renewed interest in seeing the story continued, I have decided to work on it more. There will be morefrequentupdates in the future. Please read and review!