First Friend

Sirius, as a three year old, felt miserable. He didn't understand it, he just felt miserable and lonely.

He knew what was making him miserable and his annoyance and frustration about not having any chance to do anything about it was making him even more miserable. He was only three for goodness's sake, he's supposed to be playing with his toys and running with friends.

But that wasn't his life. Oh, no.

As he glided along the backyard of their house, staring intently hard at the grass skimming his feet, he held onto his broomstick tightly. This was the only toy that he managed to get away from the prying hands of his mother, as she was about to give it to his little baby brother, Regulus. After pointing out that Regulus could barely crawl much less fly, she scolded him and attempted to grab the broom away from him. He ran out of the room as fast as he could, hugging his broom tightly.

His life took a very different turn as soon as he turned three. After an extremely generous helping of chocolate cake, he was asked to sit down for they, his parents, were about to tell him something.

Sirius, as he thought about this memory, frowned. He didn't understand most of what they told him, and he can barely remember the things that he did understand. He knew it had something to do with the muggles, though.

A look of comprehension drew in his face. Now he remembered. They said that muggles are very different people. His mother was particularly fierce about it. She said that muggles are dirty people that he shouldn't be in contact with, and that he should call them mudbloods.

Sirius was confused at this statement, and an hour later, looked out the window. When he saw the muggles he pointed out that they looked clean to him, and he got such a telling off that he remembers the pain that his buttocks to this day.

He laughed as he grabbed his buttock instinctively. He heard a sharp noise from inside his house. He stopped and got off his broom and walked to the farthest point in the backyard. He thought that it was probably some family that hated muggles too, and he didn't want another set of parents telling him what not to do.

He heard his mother's screeching laugh. Sirius cringed. He thought that she sounded like a banshee, although he would never dare say that to her, she might take away his broom, and much worse, force him to eat his vegetables.

A door shutting alerted Sirius again to the door. The noise was closer, and when he looked at the backdoor there stood a little girl whose eyes had spotted him and was staring intently at him. He quickly hid his broomstick behind himself. No one will take away his broom from him.

The girl walked over to him. Sirius didn't back away. He was a boy after all, and she was only a girl. He was supposed to be brave.

"Hello," the girl said brightly, giving him a toothy grin. "What's your name?"

Sirius didn't say anything. He was observing the girl. She was wearing a simple red dress with a bow tied to her long curly strawberry blond hair, and was wearing red sandals to match her dress. She looks nice, thought Sirius. "What's your name?" he asked.

The girl pouted. "I asked first," she said, "so you should tell me your name first."

"But this is my house," retaliated Sirius, "so you should tell me your name first."

"That's not fair," she said.

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"Nu-uh."

"Yeh-huh."

"Nu-uh,"

"Yeh-huh."

"Nu-uh!"

"Yeh-huh!" said Sirius, grinning. This was the first time that he has met a girl who's like him. It was fun. Maybe she could stay and be my friend, he thought.

"How about this," said the girl after some thinking. "Why don't you say your name at the same time I say my name? That way we can both say we said it first."

Sirius frowned. "But then I wouldn't hear your name, I wouldn't be able to hear you tell me yours," he said, "that would be stupid."

The girl must have been insulted as she pouted extremely hard and looked accusatory at Sirius. Sirius, not wanting to miss out on having a friend for the first time in his three year old life, hastily said, "All right, my name's Sirius Black."

The girl looked at him. "Sirius?"

Sirius folded his arms above his chest. "Yeah, Sirius," he said. He was fond of his name, and thought that he might not like this girl if she decided to make fun of his name. "What's your name?"

"Bridgette Waters," she said proudly. "I like your name Sirius. It's in-im-intirestwing."

Sirius frowned at her. "What does im-ing-ingtwestwing mean?"

Bridgette shrugged. "I don't know," she said simply, "but mummy and daddy use it all the time."

Sirius nodded and looked at her and then to his broomstick and then back to her. "I don't have any more toys," he said sadly, and looked down at the grass. He dearly wanted to have some toys to share with Bridgette, so that she would like him more, but he had none to give.

"Where did all your toys go?" asked Bridgette.

"To my baby brother," he replied, a bit bitter. This was the most injustice he felt towards his mother. He frowned at the grass. "I wasn't even bored of them yet."

Bridgette gave him a sympathetic look, and pulled out something from her dress pocket. It was a set of cards. "We can play with this," she said, "Exploding Snap cards."

Sirius grinned, and nodded. They decided to build a house of cards with the pack, until one of the cards decided that it was time to explode. It toppled the entire tower, but Sirius and Bridgette only laughed. "That was fun," said Bridgette, giggling. "Let's see if we can go farther."

They spent a lot of them playing with the set of cards, and by the end of it, Sirius and Bridgette's faces were both covered with ash, but they didn't mind. For Sirius, he was having the time of his life.

After a few more minutes, Bridgette suddenly asked, "Where are your other friends? Maybe you can tell them they can come play with us?"

Sirius put down his pack of cards and looked down at the grass once again. "I don't have any friends." He mumbled.

"Oh," said Bridgette sadly, "how come?"

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know," he said, "everyone around our house are mud-bloods –"

Bridgette gasped, which interrupted Sirius from what he was saying and looked up at Bridgette, who looked very shocked. "What?" he asked, "what did I say?"

"You said the m word," she whispered.

"Mud-"

Bridgette gasped again. "Mummy and daddy said that that's a very bad word," she said, "you shouldn't be saying that word!"

Sirius thought about it, and thought that what she said was probably true. After all, with everything he knew about his mother in his life, he should've known better than to say that word.

"Sorry," he said, and meant it. "Muggles, they're muggles. Mum won't let me be friends with them."

"Why not?"

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know," he said, "my only friend is this toy broomstick."

Bridgette said nothing for a minute, and a welcome distraction came when her pack of cards exploded as she was holding them. Bridgette looked up at Sirius who was fighting not to laugh, since soot was in her nose. Bridgette smiled. "I'll be your friend, Sirius."

Sirius looked at her, and suddenly forgot about the cards that exploded. "You'll be my friend?"

Bridgette nodded. "I think you're very nice," she said, "and we had fun today didn't we? We can be really good friends."

Sirius grinned the biggest grin that he could muster and nodded enthusiastically. His first friend. He had a friend. He looked at his broom, and thought that its only purpose was flying now, now that he had someone who would actually answer him back. But he reminded himself not to forget about his broom, and keep it clean every night.

Bridgette suggested a game of hide and seek, and Sirius was it. He accepted excitedly and leaned against a big oak tree and counted to 20. Sirius thought that his life would be different now, now that he had a friend, and everything would be better. He grinned at himself and then thought of something really important.

"Hey Bridgette!" he shouted. "What comes after ten!"