A/N: I think Sirius will be the hardest to write. He's the one we have the most canon of, and therefore he's not quite the clean slate the others are. Please let me know what you think!

WC: 1,042

The first time Sirius ever goes to Hogwarts, it is for Bellatrix's graduation ball.

The first time he goes to Hogwarts is therefore not going to be for the first day of his first year. This is actually the case for a lot of Pureblood and Half-Blood children, who go for their graduating relatives. It doesn't mean that the day will not be any less special for them, but they might not be as star-struck as the Muggleborns and those who have never seen the castle.

The first time he goes to Hogwarts, it is only for an hour or two. Mother being Bellatrix's godmother is expected to come, so she drags a reluctant Sirius with her. Regulus, being considered to young, stays, and throws a huge tantrum when he learns he can't go. Sirius would have gladly let him have his place, because he isn't particularly close to his cousin. He actually grumbles the whole way there, making Mother rather mad. But then again, she is always mad around him.

But when they get to Hogwarts, everything changes. The place is absolutely enormous, and so full of students everywhere, all from different houses. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor. He knows all the names already. Mother greets a few of the Slytherin Purebloods she knows, and they give stiff nods of the head back. Sirius ignores them completely.

He is absolutely fascinated by the Gryffindors; the way they act so brash, so confident, so not careful, like the world belongs to them and they can do anything they want. Free of obligations and taking up all the space in the corridors.

But Mother is still there, pointing out all the Slytherins he is supposed to know, her favourite places when she was a student, her expectations for him for when he got to Hogwarts. Expectations he has had drummed into his head since he was a child: Slytherin (though this one is rarely mentioned, as it is a given), perfect grades, perfect attire, prefect, head boy and onto being the perfect heir and marrying the perfect wife and producing a prefect male offspring. At nine years old, he already has his whole life planned ahead of him.

But that moment when he sees the Gryffindors, he knows where he wants to be. He spends the entire ceremony looking at them, wondering what it would be like to be part of them. He doesn't even listen when Bellatrix makes her speech, as she is Head Girl. He is far to engrosses by the possibility of Gryffindor.

When he gets home, he's only got one thing in his mind: going to Hogwarts. A place he once thought would be the continuation of his life at home, with all the demands and the lessons, and the morals, and the etiquette. But no, he's just realised that Hogwarts is a place of freedom.

Every single day from them is spent dreaming of the time when he will be able to go to Hogwarts. He curses the fact that he is born in November which means that he will have to wait a year more to be able to go. He thinks of all the other students he could have been friends with, all the things he could be doing there if only he wasn't stuck at home.

Meanwhile, he drives his tutor crazy, plays endless pranks on his brother, does everything to make his mother mad at him, who despairs, and receives more and more severe punishments from his father. But there's the thought of Hogwarts at the end.

Which is why, when Yule rolls around, he has very mixed feelings. He desperately wants to know more about Hogwarts from his cousins, two of them are still there, but at the same time, it will mean having to spend a whole week with them, and frankly, he isn't overjoyed.

Aunt and Uncle are exactly the same as Mother and Father, pressuring him into being the perfect heir, the one who will carry the name Black to the next generation, so obviously, he doesn't like them (though they do make good victims for his pranks).

Then there's Bellatrix. Bellatrix doesn't scare him, but she sure is intimidating. He always gets the strangest chill when he is around her. And there's this strange glint in her eyes nobody seemed to notice last Summer, but Sirius spotted immediately. He doesn't like the idea of having to spend time around her.

After her comes Meda. Meda is the best of his cousins by far. She always willing to listen to what he has to say. They aren't that close, but she is a good listener. He's come close to telling her his secret Gryffindor dreams more than once. But trusting anyone in his family is difficult. Maybe this Yule though…

The last of his cousins is Cissy. He doesn't really understand Cissy. She's too much of a girl for him, and after all, he's only 11 and girls are foreign creatures to him. He doesn't even know one of his age. She never talks to him, at all. Probably thinks he's just her annoying little cousin.

And the worst with all of that, is that Regulus is going to be intimidated by all of them, and will necessarily cling to Sirius's leg the whole time. And if there's one thing he can't bear, it's his brother's clinginess.

So, after lunch on Monday, when they all make their way to their portkey to Aunt and Uncle's house – as they are still to young to apparate – Mother takes Sirius to the side.

"I want you to be on your best behaviour," she growls, holding his arm a little too tight.

He looks her straight into the eye, and with a little defiance he says: "Yes, Mother."

She frowns: "You know what will happen if you aren't."

Sirius doesn't even bother nodding and instead fidgets. They take the portkey.

When they arrive, everyone exchanges greetings, well wishes and they slip into idle chatter. Sirius steals himself for another week with is family. Hogwarts, he reminds himself. He hopes he'll be able to get a couple of stories out of his cousins. And maybe, just maybe, if that happens, Yule won't be too bad.