Sorry for the shortness of chapter. I think school's trying to eat me alive. Which isn't as fun as it sounds...

We were cold, tired, and achey when we made it up to the common room to warm up before lunch, but something about the buzz of a snowball fight of such epic proportions was still hanging in the air. We had thrashed the Slytherins, with the help of a couple of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. It was like a massive bonding time, bonding with people I'd never spoken to before. I didn't even know some of their names, but it was still fun.

"Did you see it when I hit your cousin? Flat on in the face!" James was saying, full of self praise.

"I so did!" Sirius replied, still ecstatic from this morning. "It was awesome!"

"I think I heard her squeal..." Remus said quietly from his spot on the floor, making James and Sirius burst out laughing again.

"Aren't you guys all cold and wet?" Lily asked, curled up by the fire.

"I don't feel the cold much any more," Sirius grinned.

"Sure you don't, Paddy," James replied.

"Paddy?" I asked.

"Just a new nickname we're trying out," James explained.

"Ah. It sounds kinda... Irish."

"Well... I could be Irish," Sirius joked, his eyes lighting up again as they did when he was creating some extravagant tale. "In fact, I am Irish. I was born to two leprichorns just outside Dublin and then they were kindof mad because they wanted a girl and threw me down the wishing well. And I must have wished to be human, because... Well, that's what I am now."

"Sirius," Remus said, "That is the least sense you have made in a long time, and that's saying something."

"Well, it's my pleasure to confuse you some more," Sirius grinned.

James frowned and laughed at the same time. "Well, we weren't confused before... But I'm pretty sure we are now."

"Should I just stop talking?"

"Yeah."

We sat there grinning for a while in the quiet, whilst some students who were in the years below us were watching and egging on a game of wizards chess. Sirius was staring over at the chess board.

"E7 to F8," said the white player and his bishop moved across one place.

"No no no no no!" Sirius said in anguish. "Should have castled then! Should have castled, do you hear me?'

"We hear you, man."

"I play the winner, 'kay?" Sirius called across to them.

The fourth year who was playing black looked up at him with a challenging grin. "You're on."

I looked over at him. "How do you know that he's going to win?"

"Look at the board, it's pretty obvious. It they play it right it should be checkmate in three go's."

And he was right, Freckly-Forth-Year had ended the game pretty quickly. I'd have been pretty intimidated by that, but Sirius, jut walked up to the table cooly, a cocky smile on his face. It looked like he was being over confident, but Sirius was really, really good at chess. Maybe it came from years of practice, maybe it was inherited, or maybe it was just a gift, but it didn't matter - he was easily one of the best chess players in the year, maybe even the school.

"Hey, you're Sirius Black, right?" Freckly-Forth-Year said, and Sirius just smiled and nodded. "Yeah, cool, I'm Derek. I've heard you're real good."

"Well, Derek, that may be because I am," Sirius replied, and so the match began.

Derek was a promising talent, but Sirius had the advantage of age and a competitive family with a 'better-than-you' mindset. He was also very good at tricking people to make them think that he was struggling, when he knew exactly what he was doing. He always tried to play life like he knew exactly what he was doing, and what everyone else was thinking.

But none of us know exactly what anyone else was thinking.