A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter related

5th September 1971

Sirius awoke on Sunday morning to warm, golden sunlight filtering through the window above his four-posted bed, he would have been quite content to skip breakfast and lay in a little longer had it not been for the sound of James' voice.

"it's about time you woke up! Come on Sirius, I'm starving!" he said, "I would have gone without you but Remus still isn't back yet"

Sirius grunted in reply as he pulled back his covers and climbed out of bed. He quickly dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt and he and James made their way out of Gryffindor tower and began their long journey to the great hall.

Neither of them had seen Remus since the previous morning and they were both starting to get worried, he was more sensible than them, but he had become their friend rather fast. They had decided the previous night that if he hadn't shown up by lunch time today they'd go see Professor McGonagall.

They were half way down a long corridor, nearly at the last staircase standing between them and breakfast, discussing a prank they had been planning on Mr. Corrigan the caretaker when an all too familiar voice rang from behind them. Sirius cringed visibly at the sound.

"ohhh Siriuuuus!" the voice had called.

He stopped mid step and turned to face its source, a tall, thin, girl with straight white blonde hair reaching down to her waist. She wore a high waist pleated black skirt which barely reached half way down her thighs and a long-sleeved pear green blouse with a black rounded collar, matching green knee-high socks and black platform heels. A boy wearing a black three-piece suit stood tall at her side, blonde hair slicked tight against his scalp, peering at Sirius down his nose.

"Narcissa. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Sirius asked sarcastically, he knew exactly what she wanted.

"oh, I just wanted to congratulate you on being sorted into Gryffindor Sirius! How proud your parents must be, the first in a family centuries old to attend Hogwarts and not be sorted to Slytherin, you do like to be different though don't you?" she exclaimed in a mocking tone that Sirius may have mistaken for genuine kindness and excitement, had he not already known her.

"well! Thank you, Cissy, in fact my parents are incredibly proud, they wrote me yesterday in fact, said I might even get my pick of an heirloom!" Sirius replied, matching her tone.

"no they didn't Sirius, you know as well as I do that they'll be far from pleased about this. I wrote Bella two days ago, so you can probably expect an owl from them today" Narcissa retorted, her tone far sharper.

Sirius felt himself pale at her words, as he stumbled in his mind trying to think of a clever retort the blonde boy snorted audibly.

"and what in the bloody hell is this? Your pet swine?" Sirius asked Narcissa, clearly getting annoyed.

"I'll have you know that this is Lucius Malfoy, to whom I am set to wed following our graduation" she said, her tone and posture stiffer than ever.

"in that case welcome to the family old chap!" Sirius replied, reverting to his mocking tone.

"I am a person who can provide you with powerful connections or ruin you in this word and you would do well to remember that" Lucius scolded as he and Narcissa turned and started off down the corridor.

"who was that?" James asked as they started walking towards the great hall once again.

"my cousin" Sirius replied.

"seems like an absolute riot!" James joked.

"oh, you think she's great? You should meet her older sister Bella! She's an absolute blast!" Sirius joined in.

As they entered the great hall and sat down in some empty seats James spotted the greasy haired Slytherin boy who had mocked Gryffindor before the sorting by the door and pointed him out to Sirius. They had made a list of spells to test on him from a book in the library, nothing too serious, they didn't want to get expelled, but just enough to teach him a lesson for being an insufferable know it all. They had already given him pimples all over his face, warts to match the following day and yesterday James had somehow managed to shrink his robes a few inches, not that they'd fit him well to begin with.

Today it was back to being Sirius' turn, he pulled the small sheet of parchment out of his pocket and looked at the fourth spell down.

"this'll be a good one James!" Sirius said excitedly as he pointed his wand at the boy then chanted the spell.

Sirius and James watched with glee as the boys' shoe laces tangled in amongst each other tying his feet firmly together.

"Severus! Are you ready?" came the voice of Lily Evans as she walked down the Gryffindor table towards him smiling, he had clearly been waiting for her.

The two boys continued watching, though more subtly as they each reached for the same slice of toast. There was a sudden thump and roars of laughter as the greasy haired boy fell to the ground in a lump. He got up and Lily tried desperately to work out how to undo his shoes before he simply took them off and ran out of the hall, leaving the laughter of hundreds of students in his wake.

James and Sirius continued to laugh as they kept eating, Sirius fell suddenly silent at the sound of the post arriving, his cousins warning lingering in his head.

'I wrote Bella two days ago, so you can probably expect an owl from them today' she had said, Sirius couldn't help but be petrified at the prospect of that letter arriving. Sure enough a familiar bird came swooping down from above, a neatly rolled piece of parchment in its claws. It was an awful looking, huge black owl with piercing eyes, Sirius usually got along with it but today it bit his hand, he knew this wouldn't be a pleasant letter.

As he tore away the seal, he felt it stinging in his finger tip, he knew instantly that this one was from his father, who preferred a special type of wax seal which caused the person who opened it to get a hideous red rash on their hands for several days after, rather than the howler method of punishment that most parents preferred. He unrolled the parchment, ignoring the stinging feeling spreading across his hands and read the letter it held.

Sirius,

Your mother and I are deeply disappointed to have received word of your house placement at Hogwarts.

Not only have you broken family traditions which are centuries old, you have also raised the eyebrows of our colleagues and peers.

Note that your cousin is not our only method for keeping a watch over you Sirius, something that we will be doing extremely carefully from this point forward.

Do not embarrass us like this again or the consequences will be severe.

-O.B

"O.B?" asked James as he read over Sirius' shoulder.

"Orion Black" Sirius responded, "my father, we don't deal with pleasantries like mum and dad in my house"

"Black? Potter?" came a deep voice from behind them, they turned to face its source, an angry looking 7th year boy, "Alastor Moody, Gryffindor head boy, mind if we have a quick chat?"

Moody grabbed each of the boys by an ear and lifted them from the table, dragging them out the front of the castle.

"I have just had Corrigan up my arse for not keeping the two of you in line, I'm told you've been cursing your classmates in the halls, you best be stopping it right now or I will be forced to start deducting points from Gryffindor! I'm told you've got a fair amount of homework for Professor Slughorn due tomorrow, I suggest you scurry off to the tower and get to it because if I see either of you out and about in the castle for the rest of the day I'll be telling Corrigan I saw you tie that Slytherin boys shoe laces together. Got it?" he yelled at them, before turning on the spot and storming away.

Sirius and James made their way back to the tower and stayed there for the rest of the day, not studying, but planning a prank to thank Mr. Corrigan for his efforts. It wasn't that the boys were afraid of Alastor, but more to the point, James knew his father was well acquainted with Alastor's grandfather. His mother would kill him if she knew he'd already been in detention twice less than a week into term.