A/N: I really tried to get this out for Christmas but it didn't happen and now I have to split it into two parts, three if I get caught up in myself. anyway, thanks for reading. have fun

Sirius was sitting on the window sill looking out the window of the Gryffindor boy's dormitory.

"Tempus" he muttered. The time showed 7:34 am. Sirius huffed, leaning his head back against the wall. He couldn't stand waiting. Waiting was the worst thing ever. Waiting meant anticipation and anticipation only ever gave Sirius anxiety because anticipation never meant something good in his experience. James jumped out of bed, yawning and stretching as he walked over to see what Sirius was staring at.

"What are you up to, Siri?" He asked sitting opposite to Sirius on the windowsill. Sirius turned to face James and the young potters face scrunched up in confusion. "Did you sleep at all last night?" Sirius's eyes were red and had dark circles underneath them.

Sirius' eyes bulged out of his head, "What? No," he shook his head, "I mean of course I did," he said not meeting James' eyes. "I just got up early, that's all," Sirius got up from where he was sitting and moved over to his trunk to finish packing.

James knowingly raised an eyebrow and shook his head, "Whatever," he muttered whilst heading towards the bathroom. "What time does the train leave?" He asked before he headed through the door and shutting it behind him.

"Eleven," Sirius yelled, not looking away from packing his trunk. He stared intently into one of his sweaters before setting it down and heading over to the window. Sirius looked back at the door James disappeared behind and ran to the door leading to the common room. "I'm going out to find him," He yelled dashing down the stairs

"Fuck it all," an annoyed Kingsley Shacklebolt said covering his face in his pillow.

Sirius ran down the corridor as fast as his legs would carry him, meanwhile bumping into unsuspected students who stood in his way. Sirius nearly toppled over Professor McGonagall before finally reaching his destination. He rushed into the hospital wing and looked for his favorite lycanthrope. When he found Remus, the dark-haired boy grinned and began to approach him. Madame Pomphrey walked over to check on her patient and seeing that he was sleeping peacefully, she gave Sirius a look that said, "Wake him up and I might just admit you here for the entire holiday"

Sirius sat in the chair near Remus's bedside, watching as his friend's chest went up and down. Suddenly amber eyes met silver. Remus smiled when he recognized it was Sirius waiting for him to wake up.

"How long have you been here," Remus said swallowing to try and wet his dry throat. He reached over for the water sitting next to his bed. Sirius helped him sit up so he could take a drink. "Thanks."

"Not long," Sirius said sitting back down, "I hope I didn't wake you, mostly because I think Madame Pomphrey might kill me if I had."

Remus chuckled and then winced, "I won't tell if you won't."

Sirius smiled softly before looking down at his feet, "I packed your trunk for you. I figured you probably wouldn't be up to it this morning. Especially since we only have about three hours before the train leaves." He said nonchalantly swinging his feet up on Remus's bed.

"What?" Remus said quickly sitting up and then regretting it.

Sirius brought his feet down and put his hand on Remus's shoulder. "Calm down, there's plenty of time for whatever the hell you're worrying about. Don't get your wand in a twist." He said pushing his friends back into a resting position.

"Your right," Remus said relaxing into his pillow, "Besides don't you have an end of term prank to be executing?"

Sirius grinned mischievously, "I'm gonna go see if Madame Pomphrey will let me take you back to the dorm before we leave and then you'll have a front row seat to the event." He said winking to his fellow marauder before jumping up to go find the Medi-witch.

"I don't think it is fair that Moony has to stay in the Hospital wing and miss the prank he thought up," James whined while hoisting Regulus up to the edge of the stairs. The boys thought of an ingenious way to sneak into the girl's dormitory and get passed the slide. Instead of climbing the actual stairs they were going to climb up the edge of the stairway.

"How the hell did I get roped into this? And since when did we start calling Remus Moony?" Regulus said looking down to the potter boy currently shoving him up the side of the stairs.

"Look, you're the next lightest after Remus and even though I'm the strongest of the group, I'm still not that strong. Also, Sirius and I came up with the name last night. Clever, right? Do you have the jar?" James asked giving Regulus one last push.

"Yup, got the jar" Regulus replied, "However, I really don't understand how this is a good tactic to get Lily to like you."

"You first years know absolutely nothing. This is a brilliant tactic to get Evans to like me. if this doesn't work, I don't know what will." James reached up to grab the hand Regulus lowered for him.

"We're doing this to get Evans to like you? I thought it was just to prank the second-year girls in general." Sirius asked reaching up to James, who was now successfully on the first level of the tower.

"Well of course it is, but I added an extra part especially for Evans. I think she'll like it. By the looks of it, she enjoys slimy looking things if her being friends with Snape says anything." James said pulling Sirius up.

"One more bloody level to go," Regulus growled.

An hour later they met Remus down by the train before they boarded. Remus was found sitting on his luggage trying not to fall asleep.

"So, did you, wankers, pull it off as flawlessly as I would of?" Remus asked as they walked over and dropped their luggage down.

"It would have if someone hadn't tried to be smart," Sirius grumbled glaring at James.

"It wasn't my fault! How should I have known omnino engorgio would make the kelpy that large. In my mind, it would only make it slightly bigger than we originally planned. The book doesn't tell you how much bigger! It's the book's fault really." James said crossing his arms grumpily.

"That wasn't a part of the plan James, you were supposed to stick to the plan!" Remus said throwing his hands in the air. He then cringed, grabbing his shoulder.

Sirius smiled justly towards James and then turned back to Remus, "Let's get you on the train. Reg, get his trunk." He said throwing his arm under Remus'.

"When did I become your servant? Why do I have to get his luggage? Why not James?" Regulus said glaring at his brother. Before Sirius could answer a large silhouette shadowed them.

"Don' worry mister Black, I'll get it," The Groundskeeper, Hagrid, said.

Regulus smiled back at the half-giant before grabbing onto James's Shirt and dragging him away from staring at a certain redhead he had caught a glimpse of.

Regulus turned to James before they followed, "Go on ahead James, I'll catch up with you guys later."

"There you go Remmy," Sirius said as he set Remus down on the seat closest to the window. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Remus said yawning and laying his head against the window. "Wake me up when we get to Kings Cross.

Sirius sat down next to him and kicked his feet up on the opposite seat. James shoved the boy's feet off so he could sit across from Remus. James glanced at his best friend.

"Do you forgive me yet?" James asked the dark-haired boy.

Sirius glared. "You ruined my prank."

"Technically, it wasn't your prank."

"You still ruined it."

"But I apologized!"

"No, you asked if I forgave you yet."

James frowned, "It's the same thing."

Sirius glared some more at the Potter. "Do you really want forgiveness?"

"Of course!"

"Then tough luck," Sirius said folding his arms and slouching down more in his seat. James peered over at his friend who was staring intently at his lap.

"Do you want to play exploding snaps?" James asked as if he was trying to tempt a child with a piece of candy.

Sirius didn't answer for a moment. Then he finally looked up and smiled, "Alright."

Meanwhile, after Regulus got on the train, he waited around for a certain redhead and her slimy friend to board the train. As Lily and Snape came bounding through the train, Regulus stood up to get in their way.

"Hello, Lily," He said nodding his head at her and did the same to Snape. "Severus." He then turned back to Lily, "would you like to sit down?"

"Why?" Lily asked trying not to sound too suspicious.

"I wanted to talk to you both," Regulus said licking his lips and swallowing. Lily sat down and Severus sat next to her.

"What would you like to talk about?" Lily asked propping her chin up on her hand.

"Well," Regulus said sitting down and letting out a breath through his nose, "I guess I'll start with an apology for my brother. There's no real excuse for why he does the things he does. I don't approve of it any more than either of you."

"Oh, so you didn't help them put an enlarged kelpy in my dormitory?" Lily asked sitting back and crossing her arms.

"No, I mean, well, I did," Regulus started. Lily hmphed. "But you have to understand, they guilted me into it!"

"What? Did they threaten to send you to the mercies of your parents if you didn't help?" Snape asked raising an eyebrow.

Regulus rolled his eyes, "I said they guilted me, not blackmail. Besides why I did it is no concern of yours and not why I came here."

"Then why did you stop us?" Lily asked.

"I want to be friends." Regulus said, "I go along with them because I have no other choice and no other friends. Maybe if I had someone else to ally with, I wouldn't hang around them so often."

Lily and Snape stared at the younger Black brother. Snape smirked, "How on earth did you get put into Gryffindor?"

"What do you mean, Sev?" Lily asked, her brow furrowing.

Severus glanced between Lily and Regulus, "That was such a Slytherin move, or even Ravenclaw depending which way you look at it. There's no way he's Gryffindor material."

Regulus sighed. "I think you, and my friends, really have the wrong idea about the purpose for the houses. Whether you are put into Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or even Hufflepuff doesn't define whether or not you are courageous, cunning, clever or courteous. It doesn't define who you are or even who you are supposed to be. The houses are not supposed to define you at all. You are put in your house because that house is what will help you the most to shape your future. I was raised Slytherin. I am cunning, ambitious, and even clever if I do say so. However, I was put in Gryffindor because it wouldn't do anyone any good for me to be in Slytherin. All it would do is give my parents a string to control me with. I am not about to be a puppet."

The two second years sat back in contemplation of the wisdom this twelve-year-old boy laid out in front of them.

"For hundreds of years, there's been a misconception about it. How did you come to this conclusion?" Lily asked after another moment of reviewing the information.

"Also, then why are most Gryffindors so terribly brash and haven't a logical bone in their body?" Severus asked haughtily.

"Severus, what's wrong with you?" Lily said, looking affronted.

"I didn't mean you, Lily."

"No, but you did mean my entire house. The Marauders are idiots, that's a given. But just because they're brash and illogical doesn't mean all Gryffindors are."

"Anyway," Regulus drawled out, "To answer your questions, I'm not brash and give myself lots of time to think, especially when I'm at home. Gryffindors tend to be brash but that's only because the type of people who need to be courageous don't always need to think before they act. It is also just a stereotype. I can name at least ten Gryffindors who are logical. One of the Marauders included. Two, every once in a while, when James doesn't have Lily on his mind."

"Are you saying I make Potter think illogically?" Lily asked with an annoyed look.

"No, of course not. I am saying that he doesn't think at all when you're in the equation."

"Gross."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Alright. If you would like to our friend I," he huffed, "I wouldn't object."

Lily thought for a moment, "Me either. I guess we agree then. You can be our friend." Regulus smiled.

"Thanks," He sighed, "so, what were you two talking about before I interrupted."

Lily raised an eyebrow, "The giant Kelpy on my bed."

The train rolled into Kings Cross station at 7:55 that night and Mr. And Mrs. Lupin were patiently waiting for their crew of boys to get off the train.

"Remus!" Mrs. Lupin shouted when she saw the light-haired boy exit the train. When Remus saw her, he grinned and hurried over to his family as quickly as his body would let him.

"Mummy!" Remus said as she scooped him up in a hug.

"Aw, my beautiful boy," she said into his hair. She then pulled him out of their hug and inspected her son's face and arms, "How was last night? How hurt were you this morning? Was the train ride alright? Were you able to sleep or did your friends keep you awake?"

Mr. Lupin smiled sweetly at his wife and put his hand on her shoulder, "Hope, Darling, don't embarrass him in front of his friends. Give him some space."

Remus swallowed, "Hey dad," he said not meeting the man's eyes.

Mr. Lupin stared at a fresh scar on Remus's jaw. "Hello Remus," He said with a disappearing smile. He sighed and stared at the train. Finally, Sirius and James caught up with the lycanthrope. "And I suppose these are the friends you've told your mother so much about."

"Merlin, Remus, for having just been through hell and back you can still run pretty fast," James said after catching his breath. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin. I'm James Potter. This prat behind me is Sirius Black and the boy who looks exactly like him can be identified as Regulus, his younger brother. He should be around somewhere," James said looking behind him at the train to look for another set of grey eyes paired with a black head. "However, I don't see him." He mumbled as he was still staring back at the train.

"You mean the boy standing to your right?" Mrs. Lupin asked.

"Hello." Regulus said. James turned and jumped.

"What the hel-heck mate? What was that for?" James asked bent over with his hands on his knees.

Regulus laughed, "It's not like I tried it. Besides, serves you right after what you put me through this morning."

"Besides, where were you Reg? you never caught up with us after you boarded the train. We started to wonder whether or not you were jumped by a Slytherin gang." Sirius asked but before he could get his answer Mrs. Lupin pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.

"Come on Hope, let's get these boys home and something to eat as I'm sure they must be starving by now." Mr. Lupin said before turning back and leading them across the barrier