Yay, I'm getting so many reviews!
I'm starting to write on WordPerfect 9 instead of WordPad (don't ask... just know that my computer had problems and now they're fixed).
Alright, here's chapter six! Enjoy!
Hate Is Such a Strong Word
Chapter Six:
Uptight, Eh?
By PotterScar
Sirius walked into the platform, and he felt many pairs of eyes upon him - or, more accurately, on his bruise.
He reddened slightly, staring resolutely at the ground and trudging towards the train. He could hear his cousins snickering, his aunt trying to convince his uncle that he'd deserved it, and the crowds of students muttering behind their hands.
Sirius sighed, continuing on his way. This Christmas was most definitely the worst he'd ever endured at the House of Black.
The second Sirius arrived on the platform from Hogwarts, he was dragged away by his mother, who mumbled to him the entire way.
"Honestly... Gryffindor... you'll get your just reward, boy, and I'll be surprised if you don't beg Dumbledore to give you a Resorting to Slytherin!"
Sirius gulped, lowering his eyes to the ground as his mother dragged him to the Floo system in the Wizard inn next-door to the train station.
The week that had followed had been miserable, but the second-to-last day of break had been the worst...
Sirius sat on his bed, his History of Magic textbook open on his lap. Chewing on his lower lip, he jotted something about troll wars down.
Just as he was heading his paper to begin his other essay for HoM, there was a sharp knock at his door.
Sirius paused, his quill beginning to drip on his paper, and paled as his dad strode into the room.
His father had been away on "business", as he called it, and Sirius realized that he had just gotten home; he was clutching a small bag, which had some black material sticking out of it (a robe? Sirius thought) and his hat was still perched on his head - but Sirius could still see the fire in his eyes as he stared at his eldest son.
"So... boy..." he spat out the word with contempt. "We were earlier informed that you got into Gryffindor. The house of blood-traitors."
Sirius thought it wise to stay silent, so he stared at a spot over his father's shoulder and didn't respond.
"And when we asked you, quite politely," Sirius nearly snorted at this. So a Howler was polite now? "To request a Resorting, your cousins in Slytherin told us that you were still in Gryffindor. Is that true?" His voice was deadly quiet now.
"Yes, sir," Sirius said quietly. He sounded much braver than he felt.
His father's neutral expression turned to rage, and he strode the three steps to his son's bed and slapped him hard across the face. Sirius flinched, but didn't cry out.
"Such insolence! Disobeying a direct order from a superior!" he yelled, his face barely an inch from his son, who couldn't help but stare back.
With that, he turned and strode out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Sirius looked up, and saw James just turning away from the window. Sirius, if possible, got even redder as he saw Remus and Peter looking out. He hurriedly looked away, boarding the train and yanking his trunk after him.
When Sirius looked in each compartment, either the Slytherins smirked at him, the Gryffindors stared at him with raised eyebrows, or the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws gaped at him.
He found himself getting desperate as he looked in the car containing James, Remus, and Peter. He could hear James sharing his Christmas, talking about the snowman he and the neighbor kids had made.
Sirius sighed, thinking, Why the heck am I doing this? before shoving open the door. James abruptly stopped talking, turning to look at him. Sirius expected him to take one look at the bruise streaking across his face and sneer at him, saying something snide. Instead, he could see pity unwillingly reflecting out of the Gryffindor's eyes.
"Mind if I sit here?" he asked quietly, and the three others shook their heads and made room for him. Peter seemed a little hesitant, Remus seemed serene, and James was unusually quiet, but no smirks came his way.
The train ride was uncomfortably quiet. Remus or Peter would try to strike up a conversation occasionally, but neither James nor Sirius were listening whatsoever.
Nearly halfway into the ride home, several thumping noises, like heavy footfalls, sounded outside of the compartment, drawing the occupants of the compartment out of their individual reveries.
The door banged open, and there stood Bellatrix Black, Narcissa by her side. For once, she was without her posse of Slytherins.
She sneered at the other three, before glaring at Sirius. "Has your trip home taught you nothing!" she shouted at him, and Sirius looked defiantly back. He was silent for several seconds as Bellatrix's face got redder and redder, before he spoke. His voice was quiet but firm.
"Yeah, it taught me something. It taught me that our family is full of nuts," he said coolly, watching Bellatrix with a self-satisfied expression on his face.
Bellatrix's eyes widened, as did Narcissa, and the eldest Black sister grabbed her wand out of her pocket. Sirius just watched her calmly.
"No magic on the train, Bella," he said, and Bellatrix glared at her cousin, before grabbing her little sister and pulling her out of the compartment, but not before saying, "Sirius, you will get your just reward - or should I say punishment?" She smirked, before slamming the compartment door shut.
"Madwoman," he grumbled under his breath, before looking at the others. They were gaping at him. "What?"
"That - that - that was awesome!" James stuttered. "She's a third year!"
Sirius couldn't help but smile.
The entire school was shocked when the Black heir and the Potter heir came back from the holidays, acting as though they'd been friends their whole lives.
The two of them sat down at dinnertime nearly a week later, laughing about something James had done to Severus Snape.
"Then, I levitated this bucket of water and soap over his head, and spilled it all over him! Then I was like, 'Your hair looks so much better, Snape!'" Both boys roared with laughter (A/N: Hey, 11 year-old boys laugh over stupid things!).
"That's vile," spat a redhaired girl who was sitting down the row from them. Both James and Sirius raised their eyebrows.
"And who might you be?" Sirius asked, cocking his head to the side as he asked the question.
"Lily Evans, and it's not nice to prank people!" she scolded, and James rolled his eyes.
"Yes, Mother," he said, and Sirius snickered.
Lily huffed, before sending James a death glare and turning back to her meal.
"Uptight, eh?" Sirius muttered into James' ear, and James nodded.
"Looks like it."
Yes, I know this chapter is a tad on the short side. I've been getting so much homework lately, it's insane!
I promise, though, to update on or around the 7th of October - that's my birthday! Woohoo!