Sirius Black was doing something rather unusual for a fifteen-year-old boy. He was sat on the roof of 12 Grimmauld Place, staring at the stars. He had climbed through the skylight window that his father used for astronomy after a rather explosive row with his parents. His mother had gone off on one of her usual spiels about how filthy muggleborns were and how he shouldn't be associating with them. Sirius hadn't been too bothered until she started mentioning that 'god-awful redhead in your classes' meaning Lily Evans. He felt it was his solemn duty to defend James' crush from the old hag, and besides, he considered her to be a friend (although he would probably never admit that out loud).

That was over an hour ago. It was currently 1.30 in the morning and he still hadn't moved from the roof. He didn't mind though, the night was fairly warm, and the stars were out in full force. He had already spotted his namesake and was now searching the skies for other constellations. Just as he was admiring Orion's belt, the sky began to shift and change as though it was morphing. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a tear seemed to rip through the space right above him and create a hole, out of which fell a man who crashed on the roof beside him.

Sirius for once in his life was stunned into silence. Just as he finally came to his senses, the man groaned and slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. The two looked at each other warily, neither sure who would make the first move. Sirius couldn't help but notice that although the man seemed a lot older than him, he was really rather short. This made him slightly more confident that he could beat him in a fight if necessary; that is, until he saw the blades held in place at the man's belt. He gulped.

"Who are you and why did you fall out of the sky?" said Sirius in what he hoped was a calm, non-threatening voice.

The man looked around with confusion. It appeared that he had not noticed that he had literally fallen from mid-air onto a roof.

"My name is Kili, son of Vili" he said slowly. "Prince of Erebor, if we ever get there. Who are you? Is this some sort of secret village? But it can't be, I fell down into the caves…."

Sirius pondered what to say while he tried to absorb all of the information. This man was a prince? Where was Erebor? He had never heard of that place. And what was he saying, something about caves?

"Hello Kili" he said, trying to smile cheerfully. "My name is Sirius Black, and this is No. 12 Grimmauld Place in London. It's not a village, it's a big city. What were you doing in caves? Did you fall off your broom or something, is that why you fell?"

Kili shook his head in a bewildered manner. "I do not own a broom, and even if I did I would not know how to fly one. I imagine Gandalf would though. Myself and my company were travelling through the caves in the Misty Mountains when we were captured by Goblins. My brother Fili fell off the edge of a walkway and before I knew what I was doing I had jumped off after him. I thought I would meet my maker when I hit the bottom, but I never did; it seems I have somehow ended up on this roof instead."

A million questions flew through Sirius' head, but rather than bombard the poor man he decided to go and get some help. Not from his family of course; they would probably murder Kili for being an intruder. Sirius stood up carefully and offered him a hand.

"Come on" he said enthusiastically. "I don't have a clue how you got here or where you have come from so I'm going to need some help. I'll contact James through the floo. Careful making your way into the house, if we wake up mother and father there will be hell to pay, and not in a funny sense either".

"Alright" said Kili brightly. His Uncle Thorin had always said that he was too trusting of strangers, but to be honest he couldn't see this tall skinny lad being any threat. "Can I ask you something though? What is floo?"

Sirius looked at Kili and sighed. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night…..