Chapter 3

Remus' POV

Remus sniffed loudly, looking around at the sparse furniture in the small classroom. "What are we doing in here?" he whispered in Alice's ear as heavy footsteps halted outside the door.

Shrinking back into his heavy wooden chair, his eyes fell on a particularly gruesome poster behind a scruffy desk. It showed a small girl tripping over a log in a dark forest, a giant wolf approaching her, sniffing her before tearing her brutally to shreds.

Wincing and looking back at Alice expectantly, he resisted the urge to vomit. She glanced at him, her face set, "… Lessons," she said uncertainly, "Remus, whatever you do, never never believe anything they tell you."

Frowning, he went to speak but Alice hushed him as the door was scraped open. Getting to her feet, Alice grabbed Remus' shoulder and pulled him to a standing position too.

"Good Morning scum-bags," a very dark figure said cheerfully. When no-one replied, he raised an eyebrow, "Pardon? I don't think I heard that."

"Morning Mr Black," the werewolves chanted dutifully, the chairs scratching the floor as everybody sat back down.

"You've got it easy for your first day; Mr Orion Black refuses to touch any of us and resorts to magical means instead," Alice informed him.

"How is that easy? Magic hurts more."

Alice shook her head, lips pursed, "No, he daren't go too far with the magic in case he permanently disfigures somebody …or kills them," she added as an after thought.

Sliding down in his seat and wondering why exactly this was lucky, he watched as the teacher steadily paced in front of the class and the silence permeated every dark corner.

Sirius' POV

Sirius smiled happily as he and James left their first ever class together.

"So… What you wanna do now?" James asked brightly, almost prancing about with excitement.

Sirius sighed, his face falling, "I can't. I have to go see some stupid old smelly people."

James frowned, pushing his glasses back up his nose, "Why?"

Sirius stared at him, "I - I dunno." Then he shrugged, "My mother told me I have to."

James crossed his arms, "Let's play hide-and-seek instead, that way she might not be able to find you."

Sirius brightened up immediately, "Or we could go and play in the attic. There's loads of old stuff and she never goes up there."

James nodded hastily, "Let's go."

And the two six year olds tore down the corridor, laughing to themselves as they raced each other.

Sirius finally had his friend.

Remus' POV

"So you're the new one," Orion huffed as he looked down at the cowering form of Remus, "How old are you?"

Trembling, Remus opened his mouth, "I'm six. Sir," he added hastily.

"Same as my son then," Orion mumbled more to himself.

"Can I play with him?" Remus asked, brightening up at once.

Looking outraged, Orion slammed his fist on the table, "You? You? No chance. My son doesn't associate with the likes of you."

Remus said nothing else but took to sticking his tongue out whenever Orion turned his back on the class.

After what felt like hours, a high pitched bell rang out. Gripping his ears and scowling, Remus frowned at Alice. "End of lesson," she whispered, only wincing slightly at the purposefully painful sound.

Once back in the pitiful dorm room, Alice and Remus sat on a bed together.

"So what did you all make of today's lesson?" Richard had asked conversationally.

Most of the werewolves shrugged, and Remus rose his eyebrows, "I didn't listen to him. Didn't want to."

The others laughed lightly, sharing knowing looks. "Can't do that for long I'm afraid, they'll be a test soon," Daniel told him with disapproval.

Remus only shrugged defiantly.

Sirius' POV

Scrambling up the stairs, James and Sirius were laughing as they stumbled into the over-crowded, dusty loft.

"What a load of crap," James declared as Sirius snorted.

"You just sweared."

"Did not. Crap's not swearing," James insisted.

"It's not?" Sirius blinked as James shook his head. "Crap." Sirius smiled. "Crapcrapcrapcrap."

Rolling his eyes, James peered through the gloom, his eyes falling on an old sword. "Cool!" he exclaimed, rushing over to it.

Finding an armoured chest plate, Sirius put it on, laughing when it drowned him. Going over to a mirror and concentrating really hard, he began to shrink it.

Mouth dropping, James appeared at his side, "How are you doing that?"

Sirius shrugged, "Dunno. Magic."

They both giggled and started going through some old, musty smelling boxes. They had the occasional good find, like an old record player that had no doubt been thrown out by his pureblood maniac parents and then random things like half a toilet or a cracked mirror.

The best find however, was when Sirius found a huge, coffin like box. "Wonder what's in here."

James giggled, "Vampire."

Sirius stared at the box, suddenly loathe to touch it. "Nah," he said eventually, "My parents wouldn't keep a vampire in the loft."

"They keep werewolves in the basement," James pointed out.

"Let's just open it," Sirius told him and with a bit of panting and heaving, they managed to push the lid right over. Standing back and waiting for centuries of dust to settle, James and Sirius shared an excited look.

After two minutes, they rushed forward and peered over the stone edge.

"A secret staircase!" James exclaimed.

They grinned at each-other, "Cool!

Remus POV

"Daniel and Michael, you're on Kitchen duty. Alice, Michelle, you two are with me. We're in the garden this afternoon," Richard informed them, squinting down at a piece of parchment.

"What about Remus?"

"He's to stay here, to keep up his strength. Full moon in two nights and Mrs Black doesn't want him to die immediately after arriving; he actually has a family outside," Richard replied.

The rota for afternoon jobs had been posted just five minutes ago through the tiny slit in the door. Each room of werewolves were allocated either morning lessons and afternoon jobs, afternoon lessons and evening jobs or evening lessons and morning jobs. This meant that although the werewolves might see each other in passing, none of them actually met.

Sitting on his lumpy bed, Remus watched as the others were let out and he was locked in. Feeling more lonely than ever, he moved to Alice's bed and curled up with his nose squashed into her pillow.

Sirius' POV

After searching around, they finally found a self-lighting candle and wasted no time in shining the light down the stairs.

"Ready?" Sirius asked nervously as James tried to see past the looming darkness.

Grabbing the sword he'd found and an old whip for Sirius, he nodded enthusiastically, "We're like real explorerers now!"

Holding the whip in one hand and the candle in the other, Sirius climbed over the side and dropped down lightly onto the top step. James was with him in seconds.

Sharing glances half fearful, half excited, they grabbed hands and started to edge nervously down the cold damp stairs.

The light of the candle hardly seemed to penetrate the depth of the darkness and it was with a lot of luck that neither of them slipped to their deaths. Shivering, they took one step at a time, jumping at every little clang of the pipes, or creak of a faraway floorboard.

As they got further and further down, the air seemed to thicken and become saturated by damp. The walls were slimy with green gunge and the stone steps turned to a wooden ladder.

After what felt like years, they finally emerged onto a space of flat ground. The floor was made of compressed soil and two separate tunnel both a meter in diameter, led off in opposite directions.

"Which one?" Sirius asked, hugging his hands to his side as his teeth chattered.

James pointed to the left one and without another word, they dropped to their hands and knees and started crawling.

"I don't like this, let me go at the front Sirius," James whined as his head whipped over his shoulder for the twentieth time. Sirius stopped and James bumped into him, "What?"

"We'll go side by side, it might be squashed but none of us will be at the back."

Nodding, James hurried to be aside his friend.

Their knees were getting sore and their stomachs starting to growl when they reached a dead end. Scowling, they both sat with their backs against the tunnel side.

"Well that was crap." Sirius announced.

"Yhup."

Remus POV

Remus was drifting off to sleep when voices reached his ears.

Sitting up straight, he thought the others were back already but his keen senses soon found that the voices were actually coming from under him.

Puzzled, he put his head over the side of Alice's bed but saw nothing except plain stone tiles. He frowned, and strained his ears.

Allowing the wolf to follow the noise, he ended up under his own bed with his ear pressed against the floor. The voices were loud and clear, almost as though they were next to him.

It was then he saw the outline of a small trapdoor.

Sirius' POV

They stopped talking and fell into silence, both too disappointed to go back already.

Sirius was thinking how the candle was going to burn out soon when he heard a hesitant knock above him.

Jumping, two heads snapped up and then they saw it.

Light shining through a crack and highlighting a trapdoor.

Sorry it's soooo late! Been busy...

So this has pretty much just been wrote so please, please point out any mistakes and I'll correct them right away. In fact, I might end up changing some of it tomorrow so if you get two alerts, sorry.

The next chapter will probably be the last from six year old p.o.v and if anybody wants anything including or explaining about the Black's, feel free to suggest!

Review xD