Almost no sooner had Sirius, James, and Lily returned to their compartment and stowed away Lily's trunk and owl cage, and settled in to relax, when another commotion from close by soon distracted them.

"So what house do ya' wanna be in?" Sirius asked, lounging back in his chair and throwing his feet up onto another, as he removed a deck of cards from the pocket of his robes.

"House?" Lily echoed distractedly, jerking her head up from the book she was reading.

"Yeah. House. Y'know, the four houses of Hogwarts."

"Oh! I suppose Ravenclaw would be fitting. Although I daresay Gryffindor might be more exciting." She added, a slightly wicked smile playing on her lips. "What about you?"

"I'd like Gryffindor, 'cause then I'd be with James, fighting the good fight, living The Gryffindor Way and all that…but if my family has its way, it'll be Slytherin." He replied grimly. "And apparently blood always outs." Sirius concluded darkly, glaring down at his cards.

James glanced at Sirius, eyebrows raised, concern creasing his forehead, but said nothing.

Sirius removed them from the pack and methodically began to shuffle them, purposely averting his eyes from the others.

Lily frowned at the bitter tone to his voice and his odd actions, but knew better than to press what seemed to be a sore spot for Sirius, especially since she did not really know him—although it nearly killed her to not know. "What about you, James?" She tried to change the subject.

"Oh he'll be in Gryffindor." Sirius cut in, his tone acidic, still not hazarding a glance at the others flicking through the cards. "The Potters are always in Gryffindor." He tossed the Ace of Spades onto the seat next to him.

"They are?"

"Sure. Don't you know about the Potters?" The King of Diamonds joined the discarded Ace of Spades.

Lily shook her head. "No."

Sirius looked surprised, but that quickly changed to understanding. "Ah, yes, I forgot you were muggle-born." Another flick and the Queen of Spades joined the in the slowly mounting stack by his feet.

"So?" Lily snapped.

Sirius caught her gaze and held it, a smirk forming at the corners of his mouth. "Easy. Don't get your knickers all in a twist, I meant no offense. Honestly. See, James and I are both from wizarding families, two of the oldest and richest. And, as sure as Potters will always be in Gryffindor, Blacks will always be in Slytherin. It's like fate or something." He paused in his slow shuffling of the deck, frowning at the Nine of Diamonds. Lily noted that it was with apparent reluctance that Sirius allowed the card to join the pile at his feet.

"Why are you doing that?" Lily suddenly burst out, struck by the Sirius' seemingly out-of-the-ordinary actions.

"Doing what?" Sirius asked, shuffling again. "Shuffling? 'Cause it's relaxing I suppose."

"Well yes, that and the whole picking out and removing certain cards."

"Because he's saving them to cheat later." James remarked jovially, not at all concerned or disturbed by Sirius' peculiarity.

"Am not." Sirius retorted. "And I dunno why I am. It just seems like something to do."

Lily opened her mouth to push the matter further when raised voices from the compartment next door drowned her out.

James jumped up, eager to finally get a good fight in, as Lily had braved her own battle.

Sirius grinned, evidently thinking the same thing, and gathered up the discarded cards, sliding them under his top card, the King of Hearts. "Yes! Some action."

"You two are honestly going to run out and plunge headfirst into something which is not your affair and potentially unsafe?"

"Well yes, that's about the gist of it." James replied affably, off of a nod of encouragement from Sirius, who was slipping the deck back into his pocket.

"You don't have to come." Sirius informed her. "We didn't ask you to, anyway. Don't feel obliged."

Without another word, he and James had exited the compartment, leaving her all alone and in consternation. Lily's jaw clenched at the abrupt rudeness he had just bestowed upon her. She hated to be excluded from anything. After a moment of internal conflict of whether to follow them on their undoubtedly foolhardy mission, she sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Boys." Lily muttered, and hurried after them.

"Hey!" Sirius shouted, entering the problem compartment. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Leave him alone!" James ordered, equally fierce, glaring contemptuously at the scene which befell them.

A young boy, desperately in need of haircut, attired in the shabbiest robes James had ever seen, stood in the middle of a throng of much older boys, any possible exit cut off. A fresh bruise was mounting on his cheek, and he held up his hands above his head, blocking his face with his arms, in a defensive posture. One of his attackers looked a great deal like the dark-haired boy who had been harassing Lily earlier, the one Sirius had referred to as "Rabastan", except this person was certainly much older, most likely a seventh year. Rabastan's brother perhaps?

Slightly aloof from the ring of physical abusers, stood a self-assured, cocky-looking fellow with a cruel sneer and a shock of long, white-blond hair. He held his wand in one hand, while he twirled what was undoubtedly the shabbily dressed boy's wand in his other hand. All eyes turned toward James and Sirius upon their entry; the stocky youth who looked like an older version of Rabastan froze with his fist midway to the defenseless target of his vitriol.

James' mouth dropped open in shock. He recognized the boy they were using for a punching bag! Evidently, so did both Sirius, and the boy himself. Sirius' face split into a grin, while the boy let out a low, disconsolate moan.

"You're Remoose!" Sirius exclaimed.

The boy closed his eyes for a moment, his form sagging slightly.

James jabbed him in the ribs, and Sirius amended the exclamation. "No, I mean, Remus! Remus, yeah, that's it!" Sirius beamed at the boy. "Don't you recognize us?"

"All to well." Remus frowned at him; it was definitely not the reaction Sirius expected.

"We're here to save you!" Sirius added enthusiastically; as if this would make everything better, solve every problem, simply by saying so.

Remus grimaced. "I think I'd rather take my chances here."

Sirius' smile faded; hurt appeared in his stormy gray eyes. "Aren't you glad to see us?"

Remus did not have to dignify that question with an answer, for the boy who looked like Rabastan had stepped out from amongst the throng. "Get out of here you lot." He growled. "Or else we can make things unpleasant for you, too."

"I don't think so!" Lily announced, storming into the room. "We could probably make things a great deal more unpleasant for you, too. Leave him alone."

The boy looked her up and down, a derisive grin on his face. "I'm sure. And what is a filthy little mudblood like you going to do about it?"

Lily shoved past James pour forth all of the power of her formidable glare upon him. "Plenty. Just ask your little brother."

Rabastan's brother roared at the comment and looked as if he was about to spring forth and attack her himself, until he was stilled by a single command of "stop" from the boy with the long blond hair.

"Stop. Rodolphus, calm yourself. Let me handle it."

"I should have guessed it would be you leading the attack, Lucius." Sirius spat out.

The boy, Lucius Malfoy, froze for an instant before regaining his composure. He flipped his long blond hair over his shoulder and smiled warmly at Sirius. "Ah, Sirius Black. What a surprise." He turned to Rodolphus and the rest of his crew, to say by way of explanation, "this is Sirius, Andromeda's dear younger cousin." Lucius turned back to Sirius. "Now, any friend of Andromeda's is a friend of mine, and as her blood, bound by ties of family, you are even closer to her. I would not think to offend a relation of such a beauty as she. Come, what is it that you wish, Sirius?" He asked silkily.

Sirius curled his lip in disgust at Lucius' manner. "That you leave Remus alone, Lucius."

"Done." Lucius clapped his hands and Remus was released and ushered—well, more like shoved—forward. "Anything else?"

James and Lily gaped at Sirius, watching to see what he would say next.

Sirius was all-too-aware of the astonished gazes of everyone else upon him, as he thought fast for another condition. "And none of you bothers Lily any more." He added. Lily made a noise of protest, but James pulled her back and shushed her.

Lucius frowned slightly. "Truly? You wish to protect a mudblood? Surely you jest. Now, a poor little half-blood—and an odd one at that—I could understand, but a mudblood? What would your mother say?"

"To hell with what my mother says. That's none of your business, now is it?"

Lucius gave him a mirthless grin. "Surely not. But why the mudblood?"

"She is my friend. As is Remus."

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "Well then to be sure, they will have no further problems from us. Although, I caution you in your choice of friends, especially at so young an age. This one, this half-breed," Lucius nodded at Remus, "he is of the poorest and most detached families of the wizarding world. My father says it is suspected that there is something odd about him."

"That is of no consequence." Sirius bit off. "You will leave him alone." It was an order, not a question.

"Yes, as long as, well, as long as you do not inform Andromeda of this whole affair. There is no need to get her involved in a man-to-man confrontational situation."

"Of course." Sirius replied.

"Then we understand each other." With a cursory nod to Sirius and James in turn, he gestured to his friends and the group trudged out of the compartment.

"How did you do that?" James hissed at him. "How did you just get him to let go of Remus?"

"Because fancies my cousin." Sirius responded disgustedly. "He wants me to put in a good word."

Lily snorted. "Boys. You're all the same. Will do anything for a girl."

"You just wish there were boys that smitten with you." Sirius shot back, as he walked over towards Remus. "See, I told you we'd save you!"

Remus glared at him. "Yes, I'm sure. Save me. Good one. What are you really here to do? Destroy my books? Throw them about and dirty them, maybe rip out their pages? Punch me on the left side of my face? After all, that side did not get nearly enough of a beating to match the right. Or, no, wait! I know! You're here to push me off the side of the train, aren't you? Onto the tracks below. Perfect. Splendid. Let's commence with it, shall we?" Remus ranted scathingly.

Sirius gaped at him, shocked and confused. Before he could formulate a response, Remus had gone on.

"Save it." Remus snapped, his face flushing with embarrassment and anger. "I don't need your help. I don't need your pity. I don't need you to go about saving me. Matter of fact, I would rather you didn't try. You don't seem the type whose supposed saving actually improves the quality of life."

With that, Remus stormed out of the compartment, leaving Sirius, James, and Lily wondering what had just transpired.

A/N: I am so sorry about taking so long to update! I was camping and the day after that was over, I had to go right to school to move in and start the new semester. Thus I have had very little time to just write non-school related stuff. I will try to update all of my stories as soon as is possible. ;) Thanks to everyone who has reviewed; please continue to do so!