Posted on 25th April, New Delhi time. Got my deadline. Okay, out with the boring chapters and in with the good ones! Cheers to that everybody! Fair warning: we get to see the Black side of Sirius. This one is going to be one of my longer chapters, so please don't get bored.

I sincerely wish I owned Harry Potter, but until I own my own multi-million dollar franchise I will have to make do with rather pathetic copies of someone else's.

Onslaught of Terror

The next few days of Sirus' life were relatively boring. They set fire to the tapestry on the fourth floor, they had a little fun with a runaway hipogriff, and there was an incident with a couple of dungbombs that no one was supposed to talk about.

And now, they were down to a month, with a cracking record of detentions. Remus had pointed out very astutely, that they were going to have to slack on the area of detentions next year, as it was NEWT year. A similar scenario had been viewed during OWL year, where the marauders had decided to not disturb everyone's revision time and study themselves.

Therefore, this being the last year to get as many detentions as possible, they had decided to break all previous records of detentions in one year. It was a plan – they wanted to break their highest previous records by Christmas, and then proceed to finish the year with the subsequent breaking of all records.

All of them set out – James setting creatures loose around the castle (creatures provided by Remus), Peter talking people into walking into doxy infested areas (infestations provided by Remus), and Sirius was in charge of doing the grand effects.
Remus on the other hand would try to make sure that the teachers found these little explosions of rebellion, while not getting caught himself (prefects are weird).

Within a month they had two weeks worth of detentions.

Sirius was really self satisfied as he strutted down the corridor. He grinned smugly to himself - he was going to trash the transfiguration room.

"Oh! Ouch! I'm so so-sorry!" Sirius had banged head first into the girl from the carriage. What was her name? Oh yes - June Leto.

Sirius grinned at her cheerfully, "No harm done. I would think you orchestrated that."

She shook her head vigorously, and Sirius chuckled.

"Why so shy, Leto?" he asked playfully.

She said nothing.

"You're a very strange girl." Sirius grinned at her.

"Oh?" she said softly - for lack of having anything to say.

"For one thing -your skirt is on fire."

June immediately checked her skirt - which sure enough, Sirius had set on fire.

Sirius in the meanwhile disappeared down the corridor, laughing.

June didn't panic - It wasn't in her nature to. She twirled her wand and put the fire out without a word or exclamation. She slowly repaired her skirt with the charm she had learnt from the Advanced Book of Spells: Handiness and Hurt, in around her third year.

No one had told her it was a book for the sixth year.

"Aright class,put your quills down." McGonagall issued loudly.

There was ashuffle as everyone shut their books and stuffed their parchment inside. They had been given a test on the relative difficulties of the vanishing spell - something that absolutely no one yet had managed completely. While their snails managed to disappear, their rabbits remained very persistently visible.

Lily had been watching June Leto in every class they shared by now. June Leto never displayed any outward happy emotion in class, but managed to do everything asked of her quietly and efficiently.

Her papers were graded outstanding nearly everywhere (Lily peeked a little here and there) and her practical work was flawless.

Yet, none of the teachers noticed her.

Lily had noticed June vanish away her entire rabbit in the first go itself, and yet it seemed that professor McGonagall's eyes simply slipped past June, and went into the blaring normalness of the rest of the students.

And while Sirius played his normal tricks on her - putting strange ingredients in her food, making all her hair go red (courtesy of Dervish and Bangs) or even making her levitate on her ankle, Lily noticed how she didn't seem even mildly ruffled. She simply performed a little spell Lily had never heard of, and went on her way.

Somehow,Lily didn't have the courage to go ask the teachers about June Leto. She was sure the little blonde was deliberately keeping out of the way of everyone else. She didn't want to break the little bubble without finding out more about her, by asking June herself.

So Lily chased down the halls. She had a full free period to devote to June Leto.

And JuneLeto had just been seen heading towards the library.

June was searching the Hogwarts library shelves with her quick scanning eyes. She began piling the books in her hands neatly, one on top of the other. Balancing her papers on top, she carried the heavy books to the table nearby.

June was a little worried about Sirius Black. He had been bothering her for the past one week without a fail. He kept pulling of some 'pranks' on her. He had caused her mouth to be stuffed with soap, made her teeth tiny fangs so that nearly everyone called her 'the ugly vampire' now, and he had levitated her on the ankle.

It wasn't as bad as she had faced before of course, but it was a little hurtful.

She'd get over it. She always did.

"Are you using that book?" came a quiet voice.

June jumped a mile high.

"I-I-I was bu-bu-but yo-you can ha-ha-have it," she said, panicked.

Lily pursed her lips. "How about we share?" she asked, and didn't wait for an invitation. She sat down beside June and smiled encouragingly at June's anguished expression.

She pulled the book towards her, and asked June with a smile, "Working on your transfiguration essay?"

"Fin-fin-finished it already." June murmured.

"Did you really? It was one of the most difficult yet." Lily said pleasantly.

June inwardly cursed her own honesty.

"Do you mind if I have a look at it? I'm swamped - I don't have any idea how to write it." Lily asked in her most charmingly flattering tone.

June was very tempted to say no - but she knew she couldn't. It was an inborn ability to simply do as anyone asked, and not say anything.

She handed her essay over without a word, and continued on her notes.

Lily Evans flipped through June's essay, and it became blazingly clear that she, Lily, was completely insignificant compared to this girl right here.

The essay was quiet brilliant, really. June's research was extensive and comprehensive. She had written it in a rather brilliant manner with a very easy format of using bullets and timelines - something Lily had never thought of.

People had always said Lily was a brilliant student - but if Lily was brilliant than June must be borderline genius.

"Did - did you write this?" asked Lily after half an hour, raking the essay with her green eyes and being more and more convinced that it was quiet out of the ordinary.

"I-I did." June muttered without emotion, "It-it's not ve-very go-good, I know."

"What do you mean?" asked Lily, completely baffled as to why someone would call this essay 'Not very good'

"I did-didn't have ti-time. Ve-very mess-messy." June explained, continuing with her notes.

"Where?" asked Lily, unable to keep the incredulity out of her voice.

"He-here -" June pointed at the particular paragraph on how the spell had evolved, "I ha-haven't ex-explai-plained the in-instan-ances which led to the ne-need for the sp-sp-spell in the fir-first place. And here -" she pointed at a set of points that described the different ways in which the spell was performed, "I sh-should ha-have do-done th-this me-method before that one - it being sim-simpler."

Lily watched June enumerate her apparent mistakes and degrade the essay so that it looked like a third year had written it. It just raised her respect for her - she could see her mistakes just as well.

And just as Lily was about to say something about how that was all not true, how the essay was the best she had ever seen, how the power of the words had almost moved her, Lily stopped herself.

It occured to her quiet suddenly - June Leto had no idea how other people wrote essays.

She was friendless - that much was obvious. Hence she had never compared her essay with others, never seen other people's essays, never really interacted with other people enough to know that her essay was quiet brilliant. She accepted that nearly everyone wrote essays like her.

"I suppose you're right." Lily muttered after June had finished killing the essay all together.

And Lily proceeded to finish her own pitiful essay.

June didn't talk too much. She didn't seem to want to. In her mind, her worst suspicion had been confirmed. She had known the carriage ride would mean disaster.

Now she knew why. It wasn't Sirius Black who might end up destroying her - it was Lily Evans.

But for some reason, she couldn't think of anything bad about the girl. Lily Evans just wasn't a bad girl.

It was the second of October, and it was Kevin Sommers' birthday.

It was marauder policy to treat their close friends with a large party. And since there was a quidditch match on the same day, it seemed like all themore reason to celebrate. No one doubted James' ability to lead the team.

So Remus and Sirius disappeared to the kitchen to sneak food for the party, and happily, the elves had made a huge surplus since they knew it was a Quidditch match that day.

"Here we go," Sirius said panting as he piled the food on his arms.

"I don't know where exactly where we go - since my vision is obscured most indecently by the amount of food you people seem to eat." Remus replied irritably.

"Hang on," Sirius said immediately. He pulled out the marauders map, and glanced at it.

June Leto was hiding out in the west tower balconies - somewhere where no one goes.

"Why don't I catch you later, Moony?" Sirius said distractedly.

He immediately piled his own food on Moony's arms and disappeared - not even bothering to hear the loud 'oomph' Remus gave as the extra load was piled indiscriminately on his arms.

"Such great mates I have," grumbled Remus. He set the food down on the floor, frowning on the problem of transporting it to the common room.

"What's up, Remus?" came a casual voice from down the corridor.

"Mmh? Oh, hi Marlene." Remus said distractedly, the crook of his finger, arching against his nose as he stared at the food.

"Hungry, are you?" asked Marlene good naturedly.

"Hmm? Oh not me - this is for Kevin."

"Sommers? That idiot? What is it - his eighth birthday?" asked Marlene indignantly.

Remus laughed, "No, its his sixteenth one. He is a bit dim though."

"Dim? That buffoon can't tie his shoelaces right!"

Remus laughed again. "All the same, I need to get this food to the common room." he said reasonably.

"You just need to learn a little elementary, my dear Remus," said Marlene cheerfully. She flourished two scarves out of her bag, and brandished them at Remus.

"What are these?" she asked him belligerently.

"Two rags?" asked Remus, humouring her.

"Fie, fie!" said Marlene, shutting her ears and shaking her head dramatically, "Thou is unaware of the slight thou placed upon these gods."

"I'm not sure if that's English."

"These, my friend, are my saviours." she said with a straight face. She grabbed half the food and put it on the scarf, knotting it into a sack. Comprehension dawned on Remus' face.

"And people call you smart," Marlene said smugly.

Sirius ran along the corridor, and pushed open the west tower door. He stared at the blank wall in front of him.

Sirius gave a quick glance at the map, which showed him pressing a brick on the wall. Sirius took sometime figuring out which brick - but a lucky guess worked.

There she was - sitting there as if nothing was wrong. She was reading a letter quietly, breathing deeply as she did so.

Sirius snuck up on her, and grabbed the letter.

"Hey!" she said angrily, and got up. Immediately fear crossed her face.

"Wh-wh-what do you wa-want?" she asked.

"So this is your love letter?" asked Sirius, pushing it out of reach.

"N-n-n-no. Just a le-le-letter." She said softly.

"And are you desperate that no one sees it?" asked Sirius jauntily.

"I-please-ju-"

"Are you desperate?" asked Sirius again.

"Yes." whispered June.

"Will you be my slave?" asked Sirius.

"Wh-what do yo-ou mea-mean?" asked June.

"Not a literal slave. Just a slave of sorts. Do the stuff I am to lazy to do."

"Bla-blackmail." whispered June.

"You got it!" grinned Sirius. "Don't worry, I won't read it - come to the party by the way - might need you."

and he skipped away jauntily, not a care in the world. But for June Leto, it was the end of the world.

For a second it seemed everything was gone and dead. She curled on the floor and began to cry. She had read the letter - the contents weren't the best, but she was horrified to think what would happen it someone found the letter. Or worse - if Sirius read it."

"Oh!" she said to herself, contemplating the onslaught of terror coming her way, "I h-h-h-hate Sirius B-b-bl-black!"

Alrighty everyone, that's that. I told you there would be a lot of the Black side of Sirius. Aside that, please review, I would love some feedback - if you don't want to - well, my loss. Anyway, the fourth chapter is nearly done, need to add one more paragraph or so and proof it once, after that it should be up around Sunday.

Stay Alive, good readers.