"REMUS!" Sirius' loud, strident voice rang out. "There you are! Guys, he's in here!"

"Oh God." Remus muttered, leaping from his seat and glancing about for the closest available exit.

"Nu-uh, you're not leaving." Sirius informed him, blocking the entranceway, arms crossed over his chest. "Not until we talk." He said boldly, stepping aside only to admit Lily and James.

"Talk? Talk about what? About nearly throwing me from the train?"

"I'm sure we can all agree that I would never throw anyone from a train. That would be horrible and barbaric, as I affirmed earlier. Shoving is much more my style." Sirius said with a half-smile, relaxing his stance, edging closer to Remus.

"Well, it's nice to know you have standards." Remus retorted scathingly, backing away from him.

Sirius preened. "Well I—"

"Except either way it ends up with you trying to kill me."

Sirius face fell into its natural glaring state. "No! You just—you're an idiot."

"Oh, I see, can't hurt me with a physical maneuver so you'll try a verbal sparring? That it?"

Sirius glowered and advanced on him, leaving the doorway unattended. "Oh, I could hurt you physically if I—"

Remus's eyes glittered at the prospect of escape and he made a break for the door, but Sirius was not about to let him get away with that. Sirius spun around, jumped up, and slammed into Remus, wrapping one arm across his chest and tackling the much smaller boy to the ground, the two of them rolling out into the hallway. Remus went down hard, ripping his jeans, skinning his elbows, scraping his chin, landing with his face buried in the carpeted floor, with Sirius on top of him. Sirius pulled himself into a sitting position on Remus' back, and beamed up at James and Lily proudly.
"I got him! LOOK! I GOT HIM!" He announced proudly, before adding to Remus, "Now you have to listen to me."

"HELP! He's trying to kill me!" Remus cried out, trying his best to shove Sirius off of him, writhing wildly. "DO SOMETHING!"

"I am not! James, tell him I'm not trying to kill anyone, least of all him!"

"He's lying! I heard him! He said he was—"

"No, you're lying! Big liar!" Sirius retorted, glaring down at the boy trapped underneath him. "And you're stupid! Why would I risk going to Azkaban by killing a year-mate?" Sirius muttered under his breath, "Mental, this one."

"Maybe we'd be a little more inclined to believe you, were you not pinning him to the ground." Lily drawled. "And I would imagine killing anyone would be illegal, not just a year-mate."

"Or maybe we'd believe you more easily if your track record was better. It does seem mightily like you're trying to kill him." James noted, raising an eyebrow as he took in the scene.

"Oh! Sirius, he's bleeding!" Lily exclaimed. "Get up off him!"

"Yes, get off of me!" Remus snapped, writhing again.

"No!" Sirius said stubbornly, shaking his head vehemently. "He's just gonna run away again."

"Not if my patellae are broken." Remus grunted into the carpet.

"Sirius!"

"Fine, Lily, fine, but if he runs away, you'll have to tackle him next. Let that fester away on your conscience."

"Sometimes—no always—you're absolutely ridiculous!"

"How can I always be ridiculous if you've only known me for a half-hour? Didn't your parents ever teach you it's not polite to jump to conclusions?"

"And didn't your parents ever teach you it's not polite to tackle people to the ground? Especially those you don't even know?"

"Well didn't you parents ever teach you not to be a—"

"Hey, I'm sorry to break up your fun, but can we please continue this quarrel after I've made sure all of my bones are in tact? And after I have regained the sanctity of having personal space. This is much to close to comfort."

Sirius looked down at his suspiciously. "Promise you won't run away if I let you up?"

"Sure."

Sirius cocked his head to one side. "I think you're lying."

"Welcome to the club."

Something in this bitter remark must have resonated with Sirius somehow, for he nodded approvingly and slowly got up off of him. He even held out a hand to Remus, which the boy—not unsurprisingly—ignored. "You're bitter and amusing. I like you."

"Well, that makes one of us. Although I would imagine it would be evident from the fact that you completely shed all pretense of respecting personal space."

Lily chuckled. "I think he's just like that."

"Unsurprising." Remus responded, sitting up slowly and gingerly prodding at his ribs. He gave Sirius a quick once over, face expressionless, eyes impassive. "Most likely stemming from an inconsistent maternal bonding process."

"I was thinking that."

"Shut up! You don't know my mother."

James quickly seized Sirius around the waist. "Hey, calm down. Emotions are all crazy now, and let's not make any hasty judgments. How about apologies all around and then we can all start ov—" James paused, looking horrified. "Oh God, I'm turning into my mother. Never mind! Keep on fighting. Anarchy, everyone!"

Lily smirked. It seemed as if Sirius was not the only one with mother issues.

"No, it's all right. I'll acquiesce to be the bigger person here." Remus said with a sigh. "I am sorry, er, Serious, but being almost thrown from a train and later tackled to the ground tends to foster ill will in a person."

"Hey, I did not throw you from the train! It was a push, and by accident, and sorry about that. But you were going to leave and I would tackle you to the ground again in a heartbeat if you weren't listening to me. So I'm not sorry for that." Sirius informed him, crossing his arms over his chest. "I can and will do it again."

"That's as good an apology as you'll ever get from him." James affirmed with a shrug. "Take it or leave it."

"I suppose I shall have to take it, lest I get tackled again and bruise the left side of my body."

Sirius grinned. "Exactly. You know the way I think."

"A fact which does not in any way make me relieved, but rather scares me quite a bit."

"You'll get used to it. Everyone does."

"Which is what I'm afraid of."

Sirius laughed and jovially slapped him on the back, not noticing Remus' wince and audible "oof" as he unknowingly hit Remus just a bit too roughly. "So, now that we're friends—"

"I don't know if I would say—" Remus began, only to be characteristically interrupted by the more excitable youth.

"You've got to come back to our compartment and we can get to know you and tell stories about how we found out we had magic and stuff! It'll be great fun!"

"Oh yes, er, great fun." Remus responded halfheartedly as Sirius steered him out of the compartment with an arm around his shoulders.

Lily sighed, remarking to James, "Is it possible for him to finish a complete, succinct, grammatically correct sentence? One that is certifiably not a run-on?"

"Probably not." James replied cheerfully, wisely choosing not to admit that Lily's own statement was in the realm of 'run-on sentence'. He felt it probably would not help matters.

"So how did I find out I was the dashing wizard you all now see in front of you?" Sirius asked boisterously, grinning broadly. "It's a fascinating, thrilling tale of intrigue, I assure you. You will all be quite spellbound, I am certain, and if you are not it could only mean that you do not have a heart or a sense of adventure. Or an appreciation for good storytelling."

Lily rolled her eyes. "If the story is so amazing, then why have you not begun telling it already? How long is the prologue, already?"

"Patience is a virtue, my dear—"

"I am not your 'dear' and if you don't quit boring us with the prelude and start the story already, than I'll just—"

"OK, OK. Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls—"

"Honestly." Lily muttered under her breath, shaking her head.

"Well, as with any epic tale of adventure and daring intrigue and heroics, our tale begins with an invocation to the muse—"

"SIRIUS!" Lily, James, and Remus exclaimed.

"OK, fine! So it all started one hot summer day six years ago when the dashing hero—yours truly—and his hot-tempered cousin Andromeda were climbing a tree in the pursuit of leisure…"

Summer, 1953

"Haha! I can climb higher than you, Meda!" Sirius cried out triumphantly, swinging onto a high branch of the old oak tree in spacious backyard of Number 12, Grimmauld Place.

"Whatever! We're not even racing!" Andromeda snapped, hitching up her skirt and climbing higher, clearly attempting to draw even with her cousin.

"Are so! I called it!" Sirius protested, stormy gray eyes glaring down at her from behind a mane of black hair.

"You're such a little kid, Siri!"

"I know you are, but what am I?" Sirius responded petulantly. "You're just jealous that you are a bad climber." He stuck out his tongue at her and stepped up to the next branch.

"I'm not a bad climber—as if there even is such a thing—it's this stupid skirt! You'd climb slower if you were encumbered by a skirt!"

"Why'd you wear the skirt then?"

"Because mom forces all of the Black girls to wear them when we're out in public. Believe me, I'd much rather slither up there in trousers."

"That's stupid."

"You're stupid."

"Nuh-uh! You're the stupid one because everyone knows it's stupid to wear a skirt when you're climbing trees and now you're just trying to make excuses. Just accept that I'm better than you!"

"You…are…not!" Andromeda roared. She gritted her teeth, hitched up her skirt again, and quickly covered the distance between she and Sirius, not caring that the branches ripped her skirt and caused runs in her stockings.

Sirius shrieked when he saw her coming up quickly, knowing he was about to be attacked by the older girl for his taunting. He swung himself up higher, balancing precariously by standing up on one of the topmost branches. "Hey, I can see the city from he—"

"Gotcha!" Andromeda exclaimed, leaping towards him and grabbing at him.

Sirius tried to back away from her, but at the same time her hands closed around his thigh and he overbalanced. "Argh!" Sirius cried out as his footing slipped on the branch. He flapped his arms wildly, almost comically, for a moment before falling back, off the branch…

"SIRIUS!" Andromeda screamed, making a mad grab for him and missing completely.

Sirius crashed down through the mass of branches, flailing helplessly as branches lacerated and bruised his bare skin, some breaking as his weight smashed into them. His body came into contact with a particularly nasty branch, halting his descent for a moment. There was a loud cracking sound as his back arched against it, causing him to jerk his head back so roughly Andromeda feared he had snapped his neck.

"MOM!" She bellowed at the top of her lungs. "MOM! DAD! AUNTIE!"

A/N:Yes, I am finally back at school and have balanced out my schedule so that I can write again. Thanks for bearing with me:) I am so sorry the update took so long, but there were intervening circumstances beyond my control...the next updates should not take as long, I promise. :)

I will proceed to reveal stories of the characters' childhoods during the remaining duration of the train ride, so tell me your opinion of that format. I hope you enjoyed this installment, and please tell me what you think!