Prompt: Prompt: James & Sirius

Position: Seeker

Word Count: 1,567

Slight divergent from canon

A Chance Meeting

Sirius sighs as he stands on Platform 9¾ with his mother, father, and brother. His younger brother, Regulus, clutches their mother's hand as he looks at the passing people warily. His father was standing tall and proud, while his mother looks at him. She opens her mouth to speak, and Sirius just knew that she would lecture him about being a 'proper young man' and to stay away from the 'filthy muggleborns' and to make the 'Black family proud' and bla bla bla.

"Sirius, don't forget to—"

"Yes, Mother. You've already told me," Sirius says, cutting his mother off.

"Young man! Don't cut your mother off," Sirius's father says.

Sirius ignores his father in favor of Regulus. He places his hand on his little brother's head as he smiles down at him.

"I'll see you later, Regulus. I'll write to you every week, alright?"

Regulus smiles and nods his head, liking the plan. Sirius straightens up as he grabs his trolly.

"Anyways, I better go. I don't want to miss the train."

Sirius bids his family farewell as he hurries off towards the Hogwarts Express. He climbs up the steps and enters one of the carriages. Sirius looks around as he searches for an empty compartment to sit in. He isn't in the mood to talk to anyone. He heads towards the back of the train, knowing that most of the students would be sitting near the front part.

Sirius finally makes it to the back of the Hogwarts Express. Luckily, no one is in sight. Now all he needs to do is pick a compartment to sit in for the ride to Hogwarts.

"Perfect," Sirius mutters as he opens the door of the nearest compartment.

Sirius slips into the compartment and closes the door. He sighs in relief as he flops onto the cushioned bench. His trunk lays in the middle of the compartment. Sirius groans, knowing that he should put it on the rack above his head, but he is feeling a bit lazy. Besides, he's not planning on sitting with anyone.

Sirius lays on his back as he looks up at the ceiling. His mind drifts back to the conversation his mother forced him to sit through last night. It was long and boring as bloody hell! He zoned out through most of it, but what he does remember isn't helping him-not at all.

'Make the family proud, or go my own way?' Sirius thinks to himself. 'If I go with what my mother wants, maybe they won't be as hard on me. No...they'd probably be even harder, if that's even possible! If I go my own way, who knows what they would do! And what about Regulus? I can't let them do whatever they want with him. Does it really matter, wondering all of this? In the end, it all comes down to the sorting,' Sirius thinks, sighing at the last thought.

The train suddenly lurches forward. It starts to move as their journey to Hogwarts begins.

Suddenly, the compartment door opens slightly. Sirius abruptly sits up as he looks at the door. He blinks in confusion, seeing as no one is standing there.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Sirius calls out.

No one replies.

'Maybe I didn't close the door all of the way and it opened because of the train's movement. Yeah, that's probably why,' Sirius thinks as he turns to put his trunk away.

Sirius frowns as a putrid odour reaches his nose. He gags as he recognizes the smell.

Dungbomb. A bloody dungbomb. Someone must have placed it in here before he arrived. Or they just placed it in. He is positive that it isn't from his own supply. Sirius had made sure to put them in a container that would keep the smell in.

Sirius thrusts the compartment door open. He looks down the aisle. First to the left, then to the right. Sirius frowns at the empty aisle. He is all alone.

They couldn't have gotten away that quickly, could they? No. It isn't possible. He looks around, trying to see if they are using a Disillusionment charm to hide themselves. Sirius has keen eyes; his mother always complimented on how observant he was. Nothing stood out.

"Bloody hell," Sirius mutters, getting slightly agitated that someone was able to prank him, of all people, and get away with it.

He turns and is about to go back inside, when a noise that sounded like a muffled laugh, suddenly comes from behind him. Sirius whirls around and looks straight ahead.

"I know you're here! Come out now," Sirius demands, waiting for any noise that will give their position away.

Sirius takes a step forward and he hears someone shuffle backwards. He smirks as he takes another step forward, forcing them to take yet another step backwards.

"Gotcha," Sirius shouts as he lunges forward, tackling them to the ground.

"Gah! Oof."

Sirius smiles in triumph as he wraps his arms around them. The wizard...or witch, shifts under him as they try to break free. They grunt in annoyance as they realize escape is futile. Sirius smirks as his captive stops moving.

"Now then, let's see who you are!"

"No! Don't!"

"A-ha!"

Sirius grabs onto the fabric and yanks it off of them. A boy with jet-black hair and dark hazel-almost brown-eyes with glasses appears as Sirius gets off of him. Sirius holds onto the cloak, which becomes visible once he removes it from the other boy's body. He looks at it curiously.

It is a dark red in colour, almost maroon. Covering it is a golden design of some sort. Sirius can't tell what the design is supposed to be.

"Hey! Give it back," the boy says angrily as he leaps to his feet, hands clenched at his side.

"Why should I? So you can just prank me again? I don't think so," Sirius says as he folds the cloak up, placing it under his arm.

"I won't prank you again. Just give it back! My father gave it to me when I got my Hogwarts letter," the boy explains.

"What's your name?" Sirius asks him.

"Potter. James Potter. You?"

"Black. Sirius Black," he said, copying the other boy's introduction humorously, and then asked, "What is this cloak? I've never seen anything like it."

"It's an invisibility cloak. My father told me that it's been in my family for generations," James explains.

Sirius's eyes widen and his mouth opens in shock.

"Bloody hell! Invisibility cloaks don't usually last that long."

"It's very old, we don't know how it was made," James explains to Sirius. "Now give it back!"

"Fine. On one condition," Sirius says as he looks at James seriously.

"What is it?"

"I get to help you prank everyone," Sirius says with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

James eyes widen as he takes an involuntary step backwards, caught off guard with Sirius's condition.

"...what?!"

"So what do you say? Want to be pranking partners?" Sirius asks, holding his hand out.

James looks at Sirius, then at his extended hand. A smile makes its way on his face as he reaches out and shakes Sirius's hand.

"Deal!"

"...and that's how I met your father," Sirius finishes explaining as he looks at Harry. "We'd become quick friends and prankster partners. Teachers despised us and our fellow students loved us...unless we pranked them."

"No way," 15-year-old Harry mutters as Sirius smiles at his godson. "My father pranked you and that's how you became friends."

Sirius smiles as he shifts in his chair. Today's the first time that Harry has been able to visit him in his dark and dreary home.

'I need to clean this up. Can't have Harry staying here with different dark artifacts laying around. Maybe I can find a way to remove my mother's portrait,' Sirius muses.

It's been a couple of months since he was free from his charges and that damn rat was sent to Azkaban. For once in his life, Snivellus did something good.

Sirius comes out of his musing, remembering that he needed to finish wrapping the story up. If you ask Sirius, he feels like he's doing a great job at telling Harry stories about his parents.

"Oh yeah. Your father never let me forget about the compartment prank. We had some epic prank wars while we went to Hogwarts. Moony and Wormtail usually stayed clear of us when we had them though. Guess they didn't want to get caught in the crossfire."

"Do you have any other good stories about you and my father?"

"Well...did I ever tell you the time that James asked for my help to get an engagement ring for Lily?"

"No."

"Perfect! Ok so..."

Sirius continues to tell Harry stories about when his father and himself were younger. A small smile tugs at the corner of Sirius's mouth as he recalls the fond memories. James may be gone, but he still lives within the memories Sirius holds. Maybe one day, in the far future, they can meet again.