Chapter 6: Field of Innocence

Remus spun around and left the room. James chased after him. "Remus! Wait up!" he called as Remus stalked away.

When Remus heard him, he turned so sharply that James took a few steps back. "What?" he asked.

"What just happened?" James asked.

"We're gay and together. At least, we were together." Remus answered.

"You and Sirius-together. Like…TOGETHER?" James stated in amazement.

"Yes. But Sirius has someone else he's decided to get mixed up with." Remus added.

"Who?"

"Mr. Severus Snape." Remus said statically.

James was silent. "What did - who did - I'm sorry – I - can't understand that concept."

"I have no idea ho wit happened, but they've been talking a lot and I guess they warmed up to each other. Snape is a loser and I can't believe that anyone would ever be attracted to him." Remus sighed.

"I don't understand it either. Sirius is gay?" James asked.

"Yes. Either that, or he's dug himself a hole he can't get out of."

"Remember when we were younger, in our first year?" James asked.

Remus smiles nostalgically. "And we all met."

"Do you remember when you walked in on us changing? You weren't gay then, were you?" James asked cautiously.

Remus snorted. "I don't think so. But then Peter came in and-"

Before they knew it, they were driving down a trip to memory lane.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" a first year Sirius Black yelled at the top of his lungs while on the Hogwarts Express.

The stuffed bear he was trying to levitate blew up. "Dammit!" he exclaimed and plopped inot his chair.

"Aren't you the Black boy?" a young James Potter asked.

"Yeah. Sit down if you want." Sirius said.

James said down. "I'm James. James Potter."

"Sirius Black." He answered.

"So were you trying to do a spell?" James asked.

"Sirius smiled. "Yeah. My dad tried to teach me a few spells but they haven't worked so far."

"You're a Pureblood?" James asked.

Sirius sat down, almost as if he was ashamed. "Yeah."

"Well, I'm a half blood." James offered. "It was quite a shock to my mum." He said and laughed.

Sirius looked at James and began to laugh. Yeah, I know a few people that would have left if I said I was a Black."

"Why would I do that? Because you're 'evil'? Naw, you'd be evil if you tried out a spell on me. By the way, what's with all the stuffing on the ground?"

"Er-" Sirius started but then something slammed into the compartment door.

James ran to the door, opened it, and looked at what looked like a white ball with blonde fuzz. "What are you doing down there?" he asked.

The ball uncurled and said, "Help me!" his voice was high-pitched and he had a cute, round face with blue eyes.

"Why do you need help?" Sirius asked, standing up.

The boy flung himself onto the seat. "Because there are people trying to beat me up!" he squeaked!

"Oh. Well that IS a good reason to hide." Sirius commented.

A large group of students ran down the hall. They boy froze and said, "PLEASE?"

"What do you want me to do?" James asked, horribly confused.

"I don't know! What CAN you do?" he yelled.

Sirius stepped forward. This was his time to shine. He would have the boy praising him in glory for the remainder of his life.

He could see himself now, standing ahead of everyone, James cheering on the sidelines, and several incredibly attractive women over the age of 16 clinging to his chest. He was invincible. He was powerful. He was-

"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" Sirius roared and the blonde boy was raised into the air and hit the ceiling.

The some older students walked into the room. "Have you kids seen a chubby blonde boy over here?" one of them asked, not bothering to look up.

"No." James answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Because he's stolen a Chocolate Frog from us…a Merlin Gold card." He answered.

"You have one of those?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"I did." He replied cooly. "If you see the little rat, be sure to tell one of us where he is." And then he walked out.

Sirius let out a loud sigh and sat down. He moved his wand down, so the poor boy would float back down. Unfortunately, he stayed on the ceiling. James froze. "Why is he still in the air?" he asked.

Sirius blinked. "He should be on the group."

"Well he's not." James replied.

"Um, a little help?" the boy asked, starting to panic.

"Wingarduim Leviosa!" Sirius called again.

The boy fell to the floor at a ridiculously high speed. He cried out, looking at his pants. "My Chocolate Frog!"

Sirius sighed. "Oh good. You didn't bow up."

"BLOW UP?!?!" the boy asked.

"Well, that's what happened to Mr. Fluffy." Sirius answered, motioning at the stuffing.

James let out a laugh. "So that's where the stuffing came from."

The boy stood up. "Thank you." He wheezed at Sirius. "By the way, I'm Peter Pettigrew."

"James Potter."

"Sirius Black."

"Well, I guess we've officially bonded?" James asked.

"I guess so. I don't think I'll ever forget today." Sirius answered and sat down again.

"Do you want my teddy bear, Sirius?" Peter offered sincerely. "I'm willing to share."

Sirius stared at Peter dumbfounded. "No, that'd okay. I got it from my cousin, Narcissa. I don't like her very much."

"Isn't she that good-looking blonde one?" James asked, grinning.

Sirius spun around. "There's nothing good-looking about most of the Black family."

Peter nodded. "Some of them are scary. Like that Bellatrix woman."

"I try to pretend I'm not related to them." Sirius answered. "Please, can we change the subject?"

"Sure" James responded. "Are you three interested in Quidditch?"

"I can't play it if my life depended on it." Peter answered. "But I've been to several Quidditch Cups."

"What did you think about Ireland and Canada playing in the Cup last year?" Sirius asked.

James hit the table. "Ireland flattened them! I think O'Grady is the best Seeker they've had yet."

"Remember when they had Nava? He was TERRIBLE." Sirius commented.

"I agree. O'Grady is an excellent Seeker. But what about Olsen from the American team? She's superb!"

"Yes, one of the best female Seekers out there." Peter added. "Do you know how to play Quidditch?" he asked James.

"I play Chaser usually, but I'm not any good." Sirius laughed.

"I play any position I can, and I can't wait until tryouts!"

"James, they only take 2nd years and older for House teams." Peter said.

James looked put off. "Well, do they have a Quidditch Cup for first years?"

"I don't know. I just heard some first years complaining. They looked like Slytherins." Peter replied.

James and Sirius both made faces at the thought of Slytherins. If they were placed in Slytherin, they'd leave.

"Well, it's not as bad as Hufflepuff, is it?" Peter asked.

"I'm sure it's much worse. Hufflepuffs are just Muggle lovers and tree huggers." Sirius replied. "Ravenclaw doesn't sound too bad and Griffindor sounds great!"

"I don't think I'm cut out to be in any house but Hufflepuff. I'm not brave, I'm not smart, and I'm not evil." Peter said.

James and Sirius laughed. "Well, we'll just have to roll the dice." Sirius replied.

Someone knocked on the door. A pale, greasy haired kid walked in. He had a sad face and hollow eyes. Quite the unhealthy child. "Someone sent me in to collect either the Merlin Gold or Peter Pettigrew's head." He said in a low voice.

Sirius stood up. "Don't think it'll work that way-hey aren't you that Snape kid?"

The boy froze. "Yes." He said sourly. "But the Daily Prophet tells a lot of lies."

Sirius smiled. "Yes, they do. I remember when they described me as a 'child spawned from hell'. My brother and I look so much alike, I guess they got the wrong names."

James held a look of disgust on his face. "Snape, wasn't your dad killed by Aurors?"

"No." Snape snarled. "He was killed by werewolves sent by the Ministry."

"To collect tax money, right?" James asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Look, I don't want to do anything about this right now. Some Ravenclaws promised me 10 Galleons if I retrieved a Chocolate Frog in this room."

"You'll never get me!" Peter squeaked from behind Sirius.

"Look, Peter, just give him the card." Sirius sighed.

"How about I don't?" Peter asked. "How do you know he won't take it himself?"

"Who cares? He'll get his ass kicked at that looks like fun to me." James said, trying to get a response from Snape.

Snape sighed. "Really, it isn't worth your face to insult me."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Accio." Snape said, and James' wand shot out of his hand. "Now leave me alone."

"Wingardium Leviosa!" cried Sirius, performing the only spell he knew. After saying the spell, he knew it had gone wrong.

Snape's robes fell off. He turned beet red, and stabbed the air with his wand. Sirius felt as if he had been punched. He couldn't speak, but James yelled, "Give me back my wand!"

"Then don't mess with me." He said, pulled up his robes, dropped James' wand, and began to walk away. He then stopped, and said, "This isn't over." And slammed the door.

"Sweet Jesus Christ he nearly killed me." Peter breathed.

James laughed and turned to Sirius. "Are you alright?"

Sirius nodded. "I'm fine."

"What. A. Bastard." James commented. "I want nothing more than to curse his privates off."

Sirius nodded and said, "Sounds like fun."

"I guess we'd better change." Peter said.

"Yeah, you're right." James answered and took off his shirt.

Sirius and Peter glanced and each other uneasily and then did the same.

Just as they were pulling off their jeans, each facing a wall so as not to see the other's naked bodies, a sandy-haired boy walked in. He turned beet red and stood there, dumbfounded.

"Can you at least close the door?" Sirius asked quickly, pulling on his black pants.

The boy shut the door, still the color of a stoplight. "I am so sorry." He apologized. "Some Ravenclaws just told me to tell Peter Pettigrew that he was dead. Is he in here?"

"Yes!" Peter said. "But I'm in hiding, so if you could fail to mention that, it'd mean a lot to me."

The boy blinked. "What do you want me to say? That you hopped of the train and a new Peter Pettigrew got on and has no idea about any of the aforementioned?"

"If it works. What does 'aforementioned' mean?"

James buttoned up his robes. "I'm James Potter. Who might you be?"

"Remus Lupin." He answered. He turned on Sirius. "And you?"

Both boys stared at each other a little longer than they should have. "I'm Sirius Black." He replied.

"Sirius, like the Dog Star?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, like the star." Sirius answered. "But I'd rather be Sirius than Dog, you know?"

The boys all laughed.

"I can't believe that all of the things we've been through, we'd just all hate each other." Sirius confessed to Peter.

Peter nodded. "Now, I need some time to comprehend this fact. You had sex with Snape?"

"He's not all that bad, really." Sirius replied.

"You mean you've had man sex before?" Peter exclaimed in shock.

"NO. I mean, Severus isn't such a bad person. Well, he's not as bad as the rest of his family and I can relate to him. I've got the entire Black Family Heritage hating me." Sirius answered.

"I guess I could understand the bondage – er- relationship between you and Snape, but I just don't understand it." Peter said.

"Neither do I. I can't believe how horrible I was to Remus just now. But some of the things he said…" Sirius trailed off.

Peter nodded. "Yeah. I know what you mean. But that doesn't mean you two should hate each other. Can't you just make up? You don't have to kiss…yet." Peter added with a smile.

"I wonder how James is taking all of this." Sirius wondered aloud.

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"When did you discover that you were gay?"
Sirius sighed. "I think it was that all of the girls I've dated just were never right. I've never been interested in any of them. So it just came over me last year when I started talking to Severus. We've had incredibly deep conversations and guys…I guess I can relate to them better."

"Yeah but girls are more fun…" Peter trailed off.

"I'm gay. Girls are fun to talk to, but Sasha raping me was the last straw."

"Remember when life was easy?" Peter asked.

"No. Remember when I blew up my teddy bear for the second time?"

Peter sniffled. "No the second time it was the teddy bear I lent you."

"Oh yeah."

~End of Chapter 6~

I still remember the world
From the eyes of a child
Slowly those feelings
Were clouded by what I know now

Where has my heart gone?
An uneven trade for the real world
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything and knowing nothing at all

I still remember the sun
Always warm on my back
Somehow it seems colder now

Where has my heart gone?
Trapped in the eyes of a stranger
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything

Iesu, Rex admirabilis
Et triumphator nobilis,
Dulcedo ineffabilis,
Totus desiderabilis.

I still remember.

N/A: This was probably the most I've ever written in a single sitting. That chapter came out rather easily (but keep your eye out, I might add one more section to this chapter…) Next chapter? Not so easy. We've got some Remus and James development coming. Prepare yourselves.