::Chapter Four::

Sirius came to a halt, bumped his head into something hard, tripped and fell into the Potter's living room. Mr and Mrs Potter, who sat in the same room, watched Sirius. He was always looking so tidy, but now he was rather dusty. Irritably he stood up and started to dust off his clothes. He looked up.
"Hi." He said and turned to his clothes again.

Mrs Potter smiled. "Hello Sirius. Nice to see you. But I thought you would come tomorrow?"
Sirius looked up again. "Yes, but- I felt like escaping to the nicest parents in the world a bit earlier." He said, flashing a dazzling smile at James' mother.

Both Mr and Mrs Potter laughed.

"I'm really sorry, Mr Black," Mrs Potter said. "but sucking up to me usually doesn't work on me, but…" She smiled. "I can hardly send you back, can I? James is upstairs."

"Thanks." Sirius said gratefully and made his way to the hall. There he happened to meet a mirror.

"ARG!" He said, a look of utmost horror on his face. Almost panicked, he tried to get the dust that had nestled in his hair, out of it.

"At least your shampoo won't be bored."

Sirius turned around, to find a smiling James halfway the stairs, leaning on the rail.

"Prongs." Sirius said smiling, swaying his hair into model again.

"That's me!" James said cheerfully, jumping down the last five steps. "I guess you missed me too much, you couldn't wait another night to see me?"

Sirius snorted. "Fat chance, mate. I was just bored and knew you'd still be up."

James smiled. "Well, it's good to see you. Come, I have to show you something."

Sirius followed James upstairs and into his room. He carefully lay his bag on James bad as he sat down on it. While James was searching for something on his desk, Sirius opened his bag, took Major Muggle out and placed him on his lap.

"There you go."

James let out a "Ha!" and turned around. "Found it- " He looked up and spotted the iguana.
"An iguana!" He blurted out. "You have a bloody iguana!" He sat down next to Sirius, his eyes fixed enthusiastically on Major Muggle.

"Can I hold it?"
Sirius shrugged and placed Major on James' lap.
"His name's Major Muggle."

James smiled, stroking Major over its head. "Suits nicely with Colonel Snobby. I guess your parents don't know about him?"
Sirius snorted. "Are you mental? I bought him in a Muggle shop. They'd mix him in diner's salad if they found him."

James laughed. "How about your guitar, then?"

Sirius hit his hand palm against his forehead. "Shit! I forgot it! I left it on my bed! I have to go and get it tomorrow, then."
"Good idea. They don't like it, right?" James said, not really expecting an answer, for he already knew it.

"No, not really." Sirius muttered darkly.
There was a brief silence.
"Anyway," Sirius finally said. "You wanted to show me something."

"Oh, right." James said, handing Sirius an already opened envelope. "It's from Wormtail. He's asking me on a date."

Sirius got Peter's letter out of the envelope.

Dear Prongs,

How are you? Are you having fun?
It's a bit boring without you guys.
But hey, I asked my mum if you, Padfoot and Moony could come over and stay a while and she didn't see any problems.

Sirius laughed. "Nope! It's clear that Peter still didn't tell his parents about our true nature."

James laughed too.


Listen up, my mum bought tickets for the Quidditch World Cup. She said I could bring a friend with me. Would you like to come with me?

"Oh my god." Sirius said. "He's taking you to the World Cup. He must really fancy you!"
"Yeah," James said, a grin across his face. "But there's one problem. Read on."
Sirius read on.


Only one problem. For we've got only one spare ticket, it's a problem if Padfoot and Moony want to come too.
Let me know about any plans.

Tata,
Wormtail

Sirius put the letter back in the envelope and handed it back to James.
"Hm…" He said, apparently thinking of something. "That'll be no problem. I'll buy my own ticket."

"Alright. What about Moony?"

"No problem either. We'll write him and if he wants to come, I'll buy his ticket too." Sirius said, flopping backwards on the bed.
"That's nice of you." James said, laying the letter back onto the desk. "We could meet before then in Diagon Alley, so we can get our school stuff and your tickets."

"Fine with me." Sirius yawned.

James placed Major Muggle on the bed and went to turn on his wireless radio. He gave the volume button a heavy turn, got a chessboard out of a drawer and a box of a shelf.

"Fancy a game of chess?"

Sirius jumped up. "Chess! You're dead meat, lad."

"We'll see about that, won't we?" James smirked, placing the board on the floor, while Sirius settled himself on the opposite side from where James was sitting.

James emptied the box with pawns on the board. The pieces walked to the right paces themselves.

The fact that by wizard chess the pieces destroyed and chopped off each others heads differently every time they conquered a squire, amused the two boys thoroughly.

By the time James' queen cut off Sirius' king's head and won, it was already one o'clock.
"HA! Won! Loser! Loser!"

Before Sirius could grab him, James jumped on his bed. Sirius also got of the floor and jumped into James. They both fell onto the bed. James had the unfortunate position of laying on the edge, so within a few seconds he was pushed off by Sirius, who in his turn made himself comfortable.

"Aaah…" He said, stretching. "I think I'll sleep here tonight."

"Oh no, you don't!" James stood up and tried to pull Sirius off the bed by his arm.

The door opened and Mrs Potter came into the room. She said something, but neither James nor Sirius could hear her, for the radio was still on. James walked over to it and turned it off.

"HA!" Sirius said laughing. "And victory in mine!"

James snorted. "Yeah, right. I don't want to spoil it for you, Mr Look-at-me, but I do recall a chessmatch of –what?- 2 minutes ago which you lost!"

"James."

"Yes, mum?" James said, turned to his mother.

"Could you please do Sirius' bed? Your father and I are going to bed."

"Mu-um! It's way too early!" James complained.

"James, it's one o'clock. I want to sleep."
"Alright, alright."

James and Sirius took a mattress from the attic and placed it in James' room.

Once they made it ready, Sirius went to the bathroom.

'How could I be so stupid by forgetting my guitar?!' He thought, as he brushed his teeth, observing himself in the mirror.

'If I have to go back anyway, I can bring along my broom too. Yeah, I think I'll do that… take my guitar and my broom and get out of there.'

When he was finished, he threw some cold water in his face, dried it and went back to James' room. He undressed and crawled into his bed.

The two boys talked and laughed for a while and after an hour they got tired and finally went to sleep.