1Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

A/n:

Dogstar'n'Lionheart: Thanks so much for all of your help! I couldn't do it without you!

Freja Lercke-Falkenborg: Sorry the first chapter was so short, and that is was such a cliffhanger! Hope this one's better:D

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Chapter 2

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The Knight Bus slowly pulled up to a house. It was a rather small house in a lower middle class neighborhood, but you could tell that it was cared for. The white paint was peeling slightly off of the walls, and the steps needed a fresh coat of paint, but it was all together a well cared for place.

James Potter sighed as the bus got closer and closer to his house. His fourth year had just ended and already he missed Hogwarts. This had been a good year for him, with the exception of losing the Quidditch Cup. Gryffindor had had a wonderfully successful season until the finals.

They had been up against Slytherin, who had been undefeated. James's father, who was an old Quidditch champ, was there watching, so James had had the never ending pressure of his father's presence. Scott Potter, to be frank, was obsessed with Quidditch. He trained his son James day and night his entire childhood, and holidays were no different. Scott expected the best, and any loses caused the silent treatment towards James for the entire semester.

To say in the least, losing the Quidditch Cup to the Slytherins, was one of the biggest offenses you could do in the eyes of Scott Potter. And James was now having to face the consequences.

James grabbed his trunk, and jumped down the steps of the bus. Slowly he walked up the faded path and turned the knob.

It was locked.

Sighing, James rang the doorbell, and eventually, his father's heavy footsteps were heard coming to the door.

The door swung open and James found himself face to face with his father for the first time since the lose.

"Hey, dad." James said, offering his dad a small smile.

His father simply stared at him, with a unfamiliar look that James didn't recognize. It was as if Scott was staring at a stranger. There was no familiarity in his stare. No recognition.

James tried to walk in the house, but his father blocked his way.

"I'm sorry, may I help you?" His father asked calmly, in a politely inquisitive way.

James opened his mouth and then closed it again. His own father was acting as if he didn't know who he was.

"It's me, James. Your son."

Scott simply stared. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid you must be mistaken. My son wins Quidditch Cups. My son also knows that if he ever happened to lose a Cup, he shouldn't bother returning home until he has won the next one."

James looked at his father lost for words.

Scott said, "I hope you find who your looking for. Because right now, I'm not your father."

And with that, Scott shut the door in James face.

Speechless and hurt, James slowly picked up the abandoned handle of his trunk and pulled it to the end of the path. He pulled out his wand, and summoned the Knight Bus.

With a bang, the triple decker burst in front of James. The conductor jumped out and almost started to recite his speech again, when he realized who it was.

"Weren't 'ou just on 'ere a second ago?" The boy asked James.

At James's nod, the boy continued. "Alright then, where to?"

At this, James froze. He had no idea where to go. His first thought was Remus, who had the nicest family out of all of them, but they were on a trip to their cousin's house in Ireland all summer.

Next, he thought of Peter, but knew that his mother would never allow James to stay, as they barely had enough space in their cramped apartment for themselves.

So finally, with a growing sense of dread, he realized that Sirius was his last hope.

Sirius's family was a horrible bunch of stuck up pure-blood bastards. They greatly disliked Sirius, and he returned the feeling one hundred percent. Sirius hated the holidays, when his parents forced his back home for the summer. He was never allowed to leave the house to go anywhere, and his parents always made sure to make his summer as bad as possible.

Sirius had always told James's that if he was ever desperate, and needed a place to stay, then he could convince his parents to let him stay there for a while. Sirius knew how his dad was and was always worried about James.

James had offered the same thing to Sirius about his house, that is when he had one.

With his mind made up, James looked up at the boy, and said, "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, please."

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James lifted the snake knocked on Sirius's front door and gave it one loud slam, that seemed to echo into the dark street. I bet Sirius just loves the knocker, the lucky bastard, James thought sarcastically to himself as he waited for someone to answer the door.

He was praying that Sirius would be the one to answer the door, anyone else and he'd probably be living on the Knight Bus for the rest of his life.

He heard some distant yelling, most likely Sirius's dad, and then some footsteps coming to the door. His prayers were answered when Sirius answered the door, his face bruised and a murderous look on his face.

At the sight of his best friend, Sirius's face broke out into a smile. He quickly beckoned James inside, and was just opening his mouth, when his father appeared behind him.

"Who the hell is this, Sirius?" His father asked with a dangerous look on his face, as his hand clamped down on Sirius's shoulder. Orion Black was a tall man, with his son's trademark good looks, but there was something meaner, more sharp, about his features then Sirius's.

Sirius's expression turned dark again, and turned around to face his father. He was shorter then Orion, but he held himself high and looked his father in the eye.

"This is my best friend, James Potter. He needs to stay with us for awhile. Remember that you still owe Scott Potter for helping you in that game." James had no idea what Sirius was talking about, but it seemed to be working. Orion was thinking it over, and looking over at James appraisingly.

After a few moments, Orion looked back at his son, and said, "Fine. He can stay. But if he gets in the way, he's out of here, Scott's son or not. Now show him to your room. I'll not be giving a blood traitor like him one of our guest rooms. And when your done come back to the kitchen. We're not done with you yet." And with that Orion turned on his heels, and strode back down the hall, pressumedly to the kitchen.

Sirius turned back to James with a huge grin on his bruised face. "Hey, Prongs! Guess your dad wasn't to happy then? Stupid fucker. Who needs him anyways? Come on I'll show you to my room."

Sirius started walking up the staircase to their right, while James talked for the first time since arriving there. "Yeah, my dad was horrible. Pretended like he didn't know who I was and said that I couldn't come back until I had won the next Cup. Sorry for showing up here, but Remus was away, and I knew that Peter didn't have room for me"

"Nah, I'm glad you showed up! Make this place a little more enjoyable. God, I hate it here. Been home three hours, and already gotten the shit beaten out of me by my parents for no reason whatsoever." Sirius strolled past what looked like to James as house elf heads mounted on the wall. "My dad's still being an ass about my being sorted into Gryffindor, four years ago!, so I guess I have to go back down in a minute."

He stopped in front of a huge wooden door, and pushed the it open. "Welcome to my room." Sirius said sarcastically. The room was small, probably smaller then the other rooms in the house, and it was a mess. The one candle on the desk was already almost burnt out, and books, clothes, and other nonsense things were thrown about the room, as if a hurricane had come through.

"Wow, nice and clean, as usual, you stupid wanker." James said with a grin on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, like yours is any cleaner.", Sirius said as he pulled James trunk into the room for him. "I'll be back in a little bit, sorry, but I have to go finish this, make yourself at home."

Sirius shut the door behind him, leaving James to the horror that was Sirius's room.

James sighed and looked around. His eyes were drawn to several pieces of moving pictures on the wall. As James got closer, he realized they were just pictures.

There were several of the Marauders. One was of them all in their first year, which James recognized as after their exams. Another was from only a few weeks ago, when they had been studying and Sirius had taken a random picture of them all for no reason except that "he loved them all to much". There was also one of Sirius's favorite cousin, Andromeda, who was about six years older then him, and currently pregnant with her first child. Sirius had always said she was the only one in his family that he really liked.

James sat down on Sirius's bed and thought about his dad. He loved him, really he did, but he just couldn't handle his constant pressure. Maybe if he tried to write him a letter and explain it all to him, then he would understand. Maybe he just didn't realize how much pressure he was putting on James.

So James got up and sat down at Sirius's desk, picking up a quill and pulling a piece of parchment out of the drawer. When he was finished, he looked it over to see if it sounded right:

Dear Dad,

I'm sorry that I didn't win the Quidditch Cup this year. I know that it disappointed you, and I'm sorry for that. But I want you to know that I can't help it. Sometimes I'm going to lose. Sometimes I'm going to mess up.

You have to understand that I can't always win. Slytherin had a lucky game, their seeker beat ours. You can't blame me for that, can you? I''m not the seeker, I can't control how and when we catch the snitch. So I just wanted to say that I understand you're disappointed, and I'll stay away if you want me to, but don't be mad at me for the rest of my life, please?

Sorry and hope you'll think it over,

James

James thought it was as good as it was going to get, so he rolled it up and took it over to Sirius's owl, Wanker.

Just as Wanker was out of sight, Sirius burst through the door breathing heavily. He looked at James with a small grin on his face, and said, " I think I lost them, eh?"

James smirked back, until they heard Sirius's parents angry footsteps coming up the hallway. They tried to open the door, but as Sirius was still standing in the way, it only opened a little bit. He jumped away from the door, and his mother, Walburga Black, burst into the room.

"Sirius Black! You ruddy bastard! How dare you shame this great house? Your no son of mine!" Mrs. Black shouting suddenly turned into a nasty whisper as she walked over to Sirius and bent down so only he could hear her. "I hate you, Sirius Black. I loathe the day you were born. And if I had known that you were going to be as worthless as you are, I would have drowned you the day I had you!"

Sirius angry expression quickly morphed into an expression of great hurt. His mother, seeing that she had effectively crushed her son, smirked and turned around, leaving the room. She stopped in the doorway, and turned around looking at James.

"Oh, yes. Where are my manners? Welcome to our noble house, dear. I hope you enjoy your stay here." And with a malicious smile at James, she turned around and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

James was speechless. He had heard what Walburga had said and didn't know what to do to make Sirius feel better. Nothing could change what she had said. She had said that she hated him. Sirius had known that his parents didn't like him, but none of them had ever openly declared hate for each other.

Sirius sank down onto his bed, with his head in his hands. James quickly sat down next to him, and put his arm around Sirius.

"You know it doesn't matter what she says, Padfoot. She's a bitch. She's not the kind of mother you want anyway. No mother should ever say that to their kid. Ever. And don't believe her either. Your not worthless. You're my best friend and that's all that matters." James said trying to make himself believe the pathetic words coming out of his mouth.

Sirius finally looked up at James, his eyes slightly damp.

"Yeah, I guess. I know I'm not worthless, I just can't believe she would say that to me. She says horrible things to me, but I never thought she would tell me that she hated me."

James smiled at Sirius in what he hoped was an encouraging way. "Let's go to bed. I'm dead tired and I'm sure we could both use sleep."

Sirius nodded and got up to get James some extra blankets.

And within fifteen minutes, the room was filled with the musical rhythm of the boys snores.

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A/n: I know that the whole Sirius being bruised may seem a bit ignored by James, and taken to lightly, but I'll get to that later.

Tell me what you think, please! Should I continue, or no?

Bye

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