Sirius found, as the weeks went by, that living in Gryffindor tower wasn't half as bad as he had imagined. True, he had received several howlers in relation to his placing, that threatened severe consequences upon his arrival home, however Sirius seemed to have stopped caring. Sometimes he frowned as he listened to their whispered conversations at night, but mostly he realised that the three other boys in his dorm didn't really mind who he was, and what his background was. James was, however, the only one who seemed to act normally around him.
Unconcerned and with a slightly bored look on his face, he mostly took to draping himself over one of the armchairs by the fire in the common room, whilst being secretly amused at James' attempts to talk to the fiery red-head he had encountered in his first lesson. They had since learned that her name was Lily Evans, and now James would adopt a soppy look on his face whenever she was mentioned, until somebody gave him a good hard smack.
The year passed mostly without event, aside from the routine detentions James and Sirius received for tardiness, and the box filled with a rather nasty smelling liquid that brought nasty boils up all over Sirius' arm that he received for Christmas from his parents. Charming, he had thought, and sent them back a rather rude piece of his mind. The recollection of this even later in the year as his birthday approached was greeted with a sigh, and the now familiar sinking feeling he felt at the thought of having to return home.
"Sirius." James said thoughtfully, after completing a transfiguration essay in a record ten minutes.
"Yeah?" he replied, looking up from where he had been reading about werewolves.
"I dunno if you would want to but I ...it's just, your family, and er...do you want to stay with me, for a bit, in summer?"
"Duh." Sirius replied, punching his friend's arm playfully. "Thanks" he added grimly, before starting to laugh. James looked confused, and glanced questioningly at his friend. "Why are we sat in here...studying?"
"Er..." James said in response, looking dazed as he looked across the room. "Well, you see-"
"No." Sirius said flatly. "I don't. And I'm bored. Let's go do something."
"I..um. Yeah, you're right." He said. Sirius looked shocked. With Evans in the room, he didn't think he would get such a quick consent.
They found Remus and Peter, who still eyed Sirius with something a little like suspicion, before the four of them made their way down to the edge of the lake, the surface of which glittered rather oddly in the sun. Slumping down in the shade of a tree, James began, once again, telling the other two one of his (very obviously false) stories about saving cats and muggles from trees on his broomstick – at which Remus laughed, but Peter looked at him in admiration, eyes shining. Sirius snorted when he saw this, before resting his head back against the tree, becoming lost in his thoughts again. He snapped back to reality, however, when he realised he had never asked...
"Why don't you trust me?" Sirius pointed the question at Remus more than Peter, who still felt himself recoil a little at the bitterness in Sirius' voice.
"Er..." Remus started, looking at James quickly.
"Oh." Sirius said. "You all have some little secret that i'm not allowed in on. Because I'm...a black?" He finished.
Remus hung his head slightly. "I'm sorry. It's just that..." he sighed, somewhat as a sign of defeat. "I'm going back to the dorm." He stated, before getting up and leaving the three of them, Sirius looking after him in a rather puzzled way, whereas James looked merely...concerned.
"Oi, Black!" He heard a female voice shout. "Having fun with your blood traitor friends?"
Sirius regained that sinking feeling in his stomach that he had become so accustomed to. Narcissa. He stood up wearily, walking over to her.
"It's not my fault. And James and Peter – they're not that bad...I actually-"
"Shhh!" She hissed. "How dare you?" Anger flashed in her eyes, and Sirius was slightly taken aback. He had known that the rest of his family were obsessed by the concept of pure blood, but he hadn't expected this.
"They're my friends, I-" she silenced him with a well placed spell, blasting him backwards to slam into the tree he had previously been leant against. He had hit his head quite nastily and felt one of the boys around him move, flashing lights behind his drooping eyelids. Peter watched his friends with interest, watching as Sirius passed out and slid to lay on the ground, watching as James tackled Narcissa and her friends single handedly.
"Thanks for the backup, Peter." James said coldly as the nurse cleaned up his wounds. Peter only mumbled something in reply about how he thought James had it under control.
Later, they found Sirius angrily throwing things into his trunk. Judging by the tatters of clothes that were strewn across the floor, he had attempted to pack magically and through his emotions, could not focus enough and burnt many of his things. The other three boys made their way cautiously into the room.
"Er...Sirius? School doesn't end for another few weeks yet..." Remus said uncertainly.
"I know." Came the heavy response. He gave his trunk a hefty kick, causing the lid to fall down shut with a bang. "I have to go home."
James looked at his friend, expecting to see anger lined across the boy's twelve year old face, but saw nothing but indifference. "Er...ok...but you're still going to come stay with me right?" he finished, trying to sound bright but failed, letting a little bit of worry escape.
Sirius only shrugged. He had to go back. And he didn't know if he would be allowed to return. He half remembered the angry words of his Mother and the somewhat half-hearted words of his Father as he gazed into space, his eyes losing focus. He looked at his watch, very conscious of the three sets of eyes set on his back. "I have to go home." He repeated, following his statement this time with a sigh.
By the time the other three boys woke up the next morning, he had gone.