"Women trouble, huh?" James asked with a smirk as Sirius entered his compartment, dragging his trunk behind him, while try to keep the owl cage atop it steady.

Sirius looked up at him through his curtain of long black hair, cast him a humorless smile in response, and proceeded to heave his drunk inside the compartment.

"Let me help you with that, mate!" James announced, coming to his aid, taking the owl cage in one hand, and grabbing onto the trunk with the other.

"Thanks," Sirius mumbled, as they finally pulled the trunk into the middle of the floor. Sirius stared at it for an instant, as if wishing it would move itself. After a moment, he added, "Er, we can just leave it here. I don't feel like trying to lift it up onto the racks."

"Works for me." James responded, reaching up to put the cage with Sirius' owl up next to his own, where the two owls proceeded to hoot amiably to each other.

Sirius flopped down into a seat and looked solemnly out of the window, watching as parents called tearful goodbyes to their children. His family was another story altogether; his parents, for one, had already Disapparated. Bellatrix stood with her arms over her chest, looking cross, as she argued with Andromeda, undoubtedly threatening her into revealing her big secret, which he had unthinkingly mentioned. Andromeda, taller, slenderer, and overall more beautiful than Bellatrix had both of her hands on her hips, and was giving just as good as she was getting. Finally, Andromeda withdrew a silver badge from inside of her robes, pinned it to her chest, smiled smugly, and tapped it once, with a long, manicured nail. Bellatrix curled her lip, flared her nostrils in anger, and Disapparated so fast that the displacement of air almost bowled little Regulus over. Andromeda pointed her wand at her trunk vanishing it onto the train, and gave Regulus and her mother and father a small wave before she Disapparated to some other compartment on the train. Her mother, after ushering Narcissa onto the train and blowing her a kiss, Disapparated also. As the train pulled out of the station, Alphard was the only Black left on the platform, holding Regulus' small, bony hand in his rather large one, and waving jovially to all of the family aboard.

As the train began to move, James watched Sirius' spirits seems to dwindle further; he stared out of the window, eyes unseeing, looking steadily glummer.

"Er, Serious, you OK?"

"Hmm?" Sirius asked, without taking his eyes from the window. "Oh, yeah…fine." He responded distractedly.

"You sure, mate?"

"Yeah…"

James frowned; this was not the same brash, hyper, fun-loving boy he had been hanging out earlier. "You seem upset…something you want to talk about? Serious?"

Sirius pried himself away from the window and finally looked at James. "Nah, I'm fine."

"Anyone ever tell you that you're a horrible liar?"

The ghost of a smile flickered across Sirius' face. "Yes, actually."

"I don't doubt it. So, come on, out with it! What's bothering you?"

Sirius chuckled. "You're really persistent. Annoyingly so."

"I'm sure I'll be able to say the same thing about you in time."

Sirius grinned at that. "Very true."

"So?" James prompted. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, really…just family stuff, y'know…" Sirius replied lamely.

"Everyone has family stuff." James said impatiently. "But not everyone sits around moping about it when they could be…I don't know…marauding about the train, playing pranks on people and having a good time."

Sirius gave him a mischievous grin. "Marauding about the train, eh? I like the sound of that."

"Good. But first you have to fess up to whatever it is about your family that's got you all out of sorts."

"Ever heard of the term 'privacy'?" Sirius retorted, frowning slightly. "Or respect for said privacy?"

James smirked. "Nope."

"I didn't think so." Sirius sighed. "I just…I hate my family."

"That's your big secret?" James laughed. "Who doesn't hate their family on occasion?"

"No, you don't get it." Sirius said flatly. "I hate them all the time, and the feeling is very much mutual."

James stopped laughing abruptly at the look on Sirius' face. "You've got to be over exaggerating or joking or something."

"Trust me." Sirius responded, turning his attention back to the window. "I'm not."

"This sounds highly improbably and melodramatic, you know?"

Sirius shrugged. "That's my life. You asked."

"Is this about that cousin of yours? 'Cause she was mighty…unpleasant."

Sirius waved his comment away. "You mean Andromeda? Oh, no, I like her. She's one of only family members I do like."

"That's how you treat people you like?" James asked, shocked.

Sirius shrugged again as he faced James. "That's just our relationship. She's like a big sister. We have our spats, but who doesn't? Nah, Andromeda is really sweet once you get to know her."

James raised his eyebrows, skeptically. He doubted Andromeda was 'really sweet'."

"Yeah, we'll probably make up soon enough." Sirius continued. "I'm not going to apologize of course, for we always learned never to apologize for anything, but we'll just get over it and be friends again. Andromeda's going through a rough time anyway…turning against the family is always rough, but..." Sirius trailed off.

"So, if it's not Andromeda, then what?" James questioned.

"It's the rest of the family…well, except Uncle Alphard, of course. He's always been kind."

"What exactly is the problem with this?"

"Blood status." Sirius responded grimly. "That's all they think about, all they talk about, 'pureblood this, mudblood that'. It's sickening."

James felt as if a sudden chill had gone through him; now he understood the odd reaction his mother had when realizing who Sirius was. He was from one of those Dark Wizard families, the ones his parents always warned him about, told him not to associate with. They were the sort who thought only pureblooded wizards deserved to get magical schooling, let alone live; they were prejudiced against any muggle-born witches and wizards, not even thinking of them as people. They hated muggles, as well, and were even prejudiced against half-bloods, believing them to be substandard witches and wizards. James had even heard that many of these families aligned themselves with You-Know-Who, that Dark Wizard who thought those of lesser blood purity should be exterminated, and many even urged their kids to become Death Eaters. James stared at Sirius, eyes wide, looking the boy over. Could he really be sitting next to a future Death Eater?

Sirius seemed to have interpreted his look correctly; a flush crept into his cheeks and he turned back towards the window once more, leaning down slightly so that his hair fell back into his eyes.

The two boys lapsed into silence. James, too, turned toward the window, fidgeting his hands anxiously. He had heard that kids from Dark Wizard families already knew loads about the Dark Arts. James' eyes ticked nervously to Sirius direction, and back to the window. Since he knows that I know about him, will he try and curse me now? James wondered, unconsciously reaching down into his robes for his wand.

"I'm not, you know." Sirius said suddenly, startling James.

James almost dropped his wand. "What?"

"I'm not a…one of them."

"What?" James repeated, unnerved by the ferocity with which Sirius spoke.

Sirius whipped around to face him, eyes alit with a feverish gleam. "I'm not a Dark Wizard, a Death Eater, or future Death Eater or whatever."

"Oh?" James asked, doubtfully.

"I know you don't believe me now, but I'm not evil. I didn't say anything about my family because people always react like that; they always assume I'm bad though and through. But I'm not. My family might be a load of Dark Wizards, every one of them might've come from Slytherin…but not me. I'm not like them them. I swear. Honestly, I'd rather have any House—even Hufflepuff—than Slytherin." Sirius retorted bitterly.

James frowned at him. "Really?"

Sirius nodded vigorously. "I want to prove to them that I'm not like them. I don't believe in pureblood supremacy, or that muggle-borns are any less worthy of, well, anything. Actually, I think muggle-borns are more worthy, because of the awful way people like my family treat them." Sirius paused, looking James hard in the eyes. "I understand if you don't want to be friends with me anymore…just know that I'm not like that, whatever they say, even if I do get stuck in Slytherin."

James could hear the earnestness with which Sirius spoke, could see the anger in his eyes at the injustice of the situation, could tell that he was being utterly sincere. He also remembered how even after realizing that Sirius was a member of the infamous Black family, his mother had still treated him with kindness—and even more so, compassion—after seeing that he did not appear to show the prejudice of his parents.

"Don't be stupid, Serious." He said with a chukle.

"What?" Sirius asked, confused.

"I said: don't be stupid. I'm not gonna discriminate against you because of who your family is. You can't choose your family."
Sirius appeared extremely shocked by James' change of attitude, hesitantly agreed, "yeah, you can't. Unfortunately."

James smiled at him. "So now that all of that is settled…you up for some marauding about the train, mate?"

Sirius smiled heartily this time, his spirits lifting immensely. "Marauding? Anytime."

"Good! Then let's go!" James jumped to his feet, stepped over Sirius' trunk, and headed towards the door.

Sirius, never the one to be outdone, jumped up, leapt over his trunk, and shoved past James, shoving him to the floor. James glowered up at his friend, straightening his glasses. Sirius merely laughed.

"You've gotta be ready for anything, mate. And I won!"

"Won, what?" James retorted, getting up.

"I beat you to the door."

"We weren't racing!"

"So you say!" Sirius shot back, breaking into a run. "Only losers make that kind of response!"

"OK, now we're racing!" James announced, running after him.

Sirius laughed and ran faster.

A/N: OK, so it looks like there will be a few chapters regarding the Hogwarts Express. However, James and Sirius will actually meet Lily in the next chapter (formally meet her, that is) as well as Remus.

Emi-lus: Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm glad you like it! Yes, I feel really bad for Remus, too. I love young Sirius (he always was my favorite character), and I really like James a lot too: he's endearing.
Jamie88: Thanks! I'm glad you still like it!
-ShIvErInG sMiLe-: I know, poor Sirius does keep getting yelled at, but look at his family...do you doubt he'd get yelled at an awful lot? At least Alphard has his back, as does Andromeda (when she's not pissed at him). He just has a tendency to not think before he speaks. Yeah, James is a bit of a brat, however, in the conditions which he was raised under, it's not surprising he turned out that way...he'll get better though, I promise (at least for awhile). And yeah, I pictured James as one of those kids who is curious about people different from him, and being so rich and sheltered, he'll never have really known any poor people like Remus. However, I do still find James endearing despite his flaws (or perhaps because of them).