Sirius stood before his mirror and carefully thumbed the slowly healing friction burns on his neck. Walburga Black had been using a chocking curse of her own invention on Sirius over the last week, it felt like invisible ropes had been tied round his neck and pulled so tight Sirius had thought his head might explode. She had only called the curse off just as he fell unconscious. The burns were sore and gave off searing heat but he had been, and he was disgusted in himself for it, too frightened to ask for burn potion. He looked around his room and tugged on a polo neck, buttoning his school shirt over the top of it and opting for his favourite bell bottom jeans over his school trousers. He had carpet burn on his thighs from writhing around on the floor during one of his mothers choking sessions and the jeans were much comfier than his school trousers.

He stuffed a few more pairs of socks into his trunk and tugged it down stairs, he shot his mother a dark look and she sneered at him. She began to protectively stroke Regulus's hair, who was deliberately avoiding Sirius's eye and staring at the floor.

"Kreachur will take you both to the station" she smiled cruelly "remember" the smile broke into a animalistic and vindictive grin "Behave"

*

"Stop scowling mum" snapped Remus, his mum had been sulking about him getting rid of her drink for the whole week

"I'm not scowling" she scowled

"You bloody well are"

"Remus! Need I remind you who the parent is again!"

"You wouldn't have to if you stopped acting like a thirteen year old" he muttered meanly

"What did you say?" she said, her eye brows high and defiant

"Nothing..." there was silence as they approached kings cross, which Remus angrily broke "It was for your own good and you know it! Stop acting like such a brat, you can't drink all of your problems away!" he yelled, dropping his trunk on the floor. Her scowl softened

"I know Sweet Heart... I know" she sighed "I always knew you'd end up having to look after me... I just expected to be in my eighties when it happened... not my mid thirties" She said quietly, her tiny voice trembling.

*

"Mum please, people are looking" begged James, his mum's arms were wrapped around him tightly

"I'm sorry James" she let go "Remember, don't get into too much trouble"

"Alright"

"Because you're get a little old for all of your pranks and your father and I do not approve" she said sternly

"Liar! You both think they're hilarious!"

"We do not" she was already smirking "Go on, I have to get back to work in a matter of seconds anyway"

*

"Pete! PETE! OI! WORMTAIL, OVER HERE!" called James across the platform, waving his arms madly. Peter gave his mummy a quick kiss on the cheek

"Bye mummy, love you"

"I love you to Petey!" she said loudly Peter blushed and trotted over to James with his trunk.

"God... mum's eh?" he said in a stupidly deep voice.

"Yeah" smirked James "I saw you coming so I thought I'd wait, c'mon, train's leaving soon" he ushered Peter onto to the train where they found Remus looking for a compartment.

"Hey hey Moony, how's it going?" said Peter brightly

"Morning guys" he smiled "I'm alright, can't find a bloody compartment though"

"Seriously? Ugh... I don't want to share" sneered Sirius who had just appeared behind them

"Hi Padfoot" beamed James

"Hi Prongs, Wormtail" he winked "hey Moony" he opened the nearest compartment door, a small group of fourth year girls, a Hufflepuff, two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw, were huddled within

"Hey girls" said Sirius, flipping his hair out of his eyes, the girls giggled and blushed "Do you mind clearing out of here so we can have our own compartment?" he flashed his winning grin at them and leaned elegantly on the compartment door. The girls all looked at each other, one of the Gryffindors in the group stood up

"We can't leave, but you can share with us, if you like" She said, batting her eyelids at Sirius. Remus rolled his eyes

"Just do it, we're causing a traffic jam" he said impatiently. The four boys filed into the compartment and stowed their trunks away

"It's a bit cramped in here" said the Hufflepuff, shooting a contemptuous glance at Peter, who was taking up rather a lot more room than anyone else. One of the Gryffindor girl stood up again and held her hand out to Sirius

"Hi, I'm Chloe" She had short dark hair and blue eyes, which she kept batting her lashes over

"I'm Sirius" he smiled and very quickly shook her hand

"I know your name, obviously, everyone does" she smiled pertly and hid behind her hair, which fell over most of the left half of her face. She ignored the other boys and shuffled herself into the seat next to Sirius, expelling Remus over to the other side of the compartment, where he occupied the seat of Chloe. He sat by the Ravenclaw, she was rather chubby, had thick glasses, braces and a long ginger coloured plat which hung down her back. She smiled shyly at him

"Hi" he said

"erm... hi" she replied curtly

"Remus Lupin"

"I know... you tutored my sister Katrina. I'm Melpomene... just call me Mel"

"Oh, nice to meet you" Said Remus, she nodded furiously and buried her nose in a potions text book. James appeared to be deep in a Quidditch based conversation with the other Gryffindor Remus recognised as Toby Cheng's little sister, Yumiko. The Hufflepuff who had been scowling at Peter was now staring at Sirius and was, like that Chloe girl, staring lustily at Sirius, who had relaxed in his seat and appeared to be enjoying the girls dribbling over him. Remus curled his lip.

"I think I'm going to go and speak to Lily"

"Oh, tell her I said hi" said James before returning to talk to Yumiko. Remus nodded before striding out of the compartment with a huge scowl on his face. He wasn't bothered by the girls, but the wolf had been growling since the Chloe girl had first started batting her eyes. He shook of the angry feeling the wolf was trying to force in him and began to look round for Lily and her friends. He opened her usual compartment door, but she wasn't there.

"Hullo Remus" Beamed Alice

"Oh hi" he smiled "You haven't seen Lily around have you?"

"Er no, she disappeared off somewhere before" said Alice. A fair haired girl sitting by her added

"We thought she was with you"

Alice looked round at her group of friends and quickly mouthed Severus Snape Remus nodded in response and gave her a quick thumbs up.

"Okay, well thanks anyway" He turned around and left, set on finding Snape's compartment so he could speak to Lily. But he didn't need to find her because she stormed out of a compartment to his left, scowling and huffing.

"I can't believe that... Oh, hello Remus" she smiled sadly

"Hi Lily... are you okay?"

"Yeah, Severus is just being a bit weird with his new friends, that's all. Nothing Serious" she shrugged, Remus suddenly found his shoes very interesting so Lily could have time to dab up the tears building in the corners of her eyes. She cleared her throat and straightened out her robes.

"Did you get the badge?" asked Remus, knowing she must've

"Yep!" She grinned "Did you?"

"For some reason, yes, yes I did" he said showing her the small scarlet badge that had been in his pocket for some time. Lily was already wearing hers proudly on her chest.

"Ooh Remus! That's wonderful! I feel like we've hardly spoken lately! It'll be great to be able to spend some time together again!" She grinned and stood on her tip toes to throw her arms around his neck. "So" she grinned wider "How's things with Sirius?"

"Great again" he smiled "Well, vaguely annoying... he's currently being fawned on by some third years and he's making no effort to tell them to sod off" Remus scowled

"What a dick, that's really off" She scowled in agreement

"Isn't it?" he sighed "I never used to notice how much he let people flirt with him but lately it's just" he bared his teeth and growled in frustration "He kept doing it right through the holidays as well" he took a deep breath "I'm in love with a complete arse, Lily"

"I know Remus, I know" she said sympathetically patting his shoulder. "Your scars are fading nicely though" she smiled and ran a finger along the scar that ran down the side of his nose. The ring on her finger brushed against his cheek. It felt like someone had just flicked boiling water on his face, he inhaled sharply and hopped back.

"That ring's not sliver is it?" he said, trying to breathe through the pain with his hands massaging high cheek

"Yes, yes it is" She said, her hands were clapped over her mouth "What is it? What happened?"

"I'm highly allergic to sliver"

"Oh god Remus I'm so sorry, are you alright?"

"It gave me a shock when it touched me, that's all"

"I'm really sorry! I'm allergic to certain fruits and it really stings when the juice gets on me" Remus took his hand away from the spot on his face and Lily gasped "Oh fuck! That looks like a blister!"

"Not a blister... just a little rash"

"I have some antihistamines in my hand bag, do you-"

"Honestly Lily it's fine, doesn't even hurt anymore" he lied "Don't we have some kind of a meeting we have to go to?"

"Yes! We do! We need to go and speak to head boy and girl in the special prefect compartment thingy. I was just about to come and find you for that actually"

"We'd better get a move on then"

"We'd better had" He and Lily walked to the large plush compartment at the very bottom of the train, where the new head boy, Christian Boot of Hufflepuff, and new Head Girl, Urania Pecknold of Ravenclaw, were giving out details of when and where people would be patrolling. Remus didn't really listen, as he had moved his eyes around the room, scanning to see who had been made new prefect for the other houses. There was Ruth Cohen and Orestus Albert from Hufflepuff, Jim Tracy and Vivian Clement from Ravenclaw and Trinity Greengrass from Slytherin. The Slytherin boy hadn't arrived yet. Urania began to talk about the importance of upholding your authority but Remus had been distracted, he had spotted Fisher. He was slumped right down in his seat, hiding behind Urania while she gave her speech. His hand was held over his clearly reddened face. Remus pretended not to notice him and took up a sudden and intense concern with the dirt under his finger nails. There was a crash as that oh so familiar hook nose appeared several seconds before the sallow face, skinny body and curtains of greasy black hair. Snape. Fucking Snape, who glared at Remus and gave Lily the most sincere apologetic look Remus had ever seen grace that sneering ashen face. Lily rolled her eyes and gave a tiny smile in return as Snape sat down next to Trinity, who wrinkled her nose and smiled insincerely. Snape gave her a curt nod, his eyes still fixed on Lily, who was now watching Christian Boot give a lecture on not taking fuck off for an answer when giving detentions.

*

"I swear Bruce. I swear I thought the baby was daddy's. After everything he did to me, I was sure Bruce, I was so sure" She wept

"Well you were wrong weren't you, you filthy slut! That baby is* black! So it's not mine, it's not Reginald's, it's not your daddy's... it can only be that Bentley's" He screamed, striking her hard on the mouth. Her sexy eyes swam with angry, scared but mostly angry tears of defiance

"You know what Bruce. It is, and I loved every minute I spent with Bentley. He might be a pirate and a petty thief, but I love him! I love more than I've ever loved you" She screamed back at him. He hit her again

"Don't lie to me you whore!"

"I'm not lying, I love him! Not you! Him! In fact I-"

"Remus, we're here" said Lily kindly. Remus frowned slightly and shut his book, it was just getting to a good bit as well.

"That was quick" he said with a smile. The fair girl from before scoffed at him

"It was four hours"

"Oh... well times flies when you're reading a good book" he said cheerfully.

"My spinster aunt has all of them... they're shit"

"I know..."

"Leave him alone Michelle" said Alice annoyingly motherly. The fair girl, Michelle, sighed and pulled her trunk from the compartment. Remus waved them a quick goodbye and trotted up the train to his compartment. To his irritation, that bloody Chloe girl was twiddling with Sirius's hair and the Hufflepuff girl was giggling insanely. Yumiko and James seemed to be going through idea's for formations and Mel still had her nose buried deep in her potions text book.

"Where've you been for the last four hours Moony?" asked Sirius snappishly

"I was in Lily and Alice's compartment, reading"

"You could have read in here" he pouted
"More room in there. No giggly thirteen year olds" He said snidely. That Chloe girl and the Hufflepuff scowled at him.

"What a prick" said the Hufflepuff as she picked up her trunk. She smiled flirtatiously at Sirius "Bye Sirius" she waved, Chloe followed her out the compartment, snapping

"Yumi! Mel! Come on!" Mel looked panicked, closed her potions book and hurried out with her trunk, as Yumiko was about to leave the compartment

"Er, Cheng?" James mussed his hair

"Yeah Potter?"

"Are you going to try out for the Quidditch team this year? Just 'cause, what with Flowers and Collins leaving, we're in need of a more players, if you're half as good a flyer as your brother, we could really use you. Your tactics are bloody brilliant" Yumiko grinned at James and combed her fingers through her shoulder length black hair.

"Alright" she nodded "When are tryouts?"

"Not sure yet really"

"Oh okay"

"For fucks sake Yumi hurry! We need to talk to you!!!" Called the Hufflepuff

"Right!" she called back "Bye lads. See you soon Potter" she waved. Sirius coolly pushed his hair back and grabbed his trunk.

"So Moony? Feeling a bit jealous of my groupies?" teased Sirius

"No" ...yes

"You sure Moony? You looked like you wanted to punch Lauren and Chloe" said Peter

"Was Lauren the Hufflepuff?"

"Yeah"

"Well you're not exactly wrong, but it's only because they were annoying"

"Whatever you say babe" said Sirius casually, running his hand across Remus's arse. Remus glared

"Don't call me babe!"

"Why not?"

"It's incredibly emasculating"

"I'm only trying to-"

"Shut the fuck up and get off the train" yelled James, shoving them out the compartment with his trunk.

*

The sorting was a bit awkward. Things between Sirius and Remus were a bit tense still. Though Remus had said he wasn't jealous or annoyed by Sirius, that it was the girls that had been annoying him, James couldn't help but notice that every time Sirius smiled at a girl, Remus's nostrils would flare or his lips would momentarily tighten. James had thought, at first, Remus was over reacting, and he was just being silly for getting wound up at Sirius for a little bit of harmless flirting. But then James thought about Lily, and how furious he got if he ever saw Lily talk to any boy that wasn't him, never mind wink at them or smile or do any of the stuff Sirius was doing. Just the thought of Lily flirting with another boy made his blood boil.

"James?" asked Peter.

"What?" he growled. His hands were shaking from his too tight grip on his goblet of pumpkin juice, his knuckles were white. He was also glowering at his mashed potato.

"You looked all angry all of a sudden... you alright?"

"Yeah" James let his face relax "Sorry... I was just thinking about something"

"Oh, I know what you mean. Sometimes thinking does that to me too" Peter nodded with an almost wistful look on his face. James curled his lip and wondered how much wasted space there was in Peter's skull. There was probably one brain cell in their sitting in there, playing rock, paper, scissors with a monkey as they ordered Peter's thoughts. The monkey was probably the brains of the operation. James smirked. He looked away from Peter, who had begun chatting with Sirius about why girls were getting so obsessive. Remus flared his nostrils again and stabbed at his meal. James scanned the Gryffindor table for Lily. She was talking animatedly with Alice who was giggling at her. She'd cut her hair over the summer, so it fell just past her shoulders instead of down her back. James loved Lily's hair, it was fantastically shiny and a shade of auburn he'd never seen on anyone else. He loved her eyes as well, bright emeralds that glittered out of her pink beautiful face, when he watched her in lessons, he saw her thirst for knowledge burning in them as she furiously took notes.

Alice tapped Lily on the shoulder and whispered Lily turned to James

"Stop staring at me Potter" she snapped

"Someone obviously thinks very highly of themselves, I might've been staring at Alice"

"Were you?" scoffed Alice

"No, but that beside the point" he snorted, he fluffed up his hair "You cut your hair Evans?"

"Yes, I have" she ran her hand across it

"Looks good. You look... erm really pretty" said James quietly. A light flush crept across her face

"Thanks" she said suspiciously turning back to Alice, who was smirking madly. He cleared his throat and messed his hair up again. Remus was smirking at him.

"What?"

"Nothing... well... it's just... you're lovely really, aren't you?" said his face neutral, his voice still smirking.

"Mr. Moony, I have always been lovely"

*

Remus slunk in the bathroom the next morning, Sirius was getting dressed after his shower, his robes, tie, socks, shirt and (For some reason) polo neck were heaped on the floor waiting to be put on. He was already wearing his trousers and was just buckling his belt.

"Sirius, we need to have a chat" said Remus sternly "The flirt..." he tailed away. Sirius's neck was covered in what looked like a rash. Bright red and the skin broken in some places, his whole neck was covered in sore blue/grey bruises. "... your neck... what happened to your neck?" asked Remus, all his anger melting away as he ran toward Sirius and began to examine the marks.

"Oh... it's rope burn"

"What?"

"Mother punished me with a choking curse she invented. It's like having a rope tied around your neck and being pulled around" Sirius flinched away as Remus placed gentle fingers on his neck "Don't touch it!" he yelped.

"Sorry!" Remus pulled his hand back and stuffed it into his pocket. With his other hand, he drew his wand, and placed the tip on Sirius's neck. Before he even cast the incantation, Sirius's bruising started to fade and the rope burn shrank away while the broken skin repaired itself.

"Wow" said Sirius

"Did you see that!?"

"Yeah! Non verbal healing charm Moony! That's fucking brilliant!" Sirius grinned at him, he grinned back and Sirius clapped him on the back.

"Padfoot... can you do me a favour?"

"Yeah, 'course, anything" said Sirius as he examined the once again flawless skin on his neck.

"Could you just tone down the- the hair flipping and the winking at the girls"

"Aww Moony! You were jealous"

"No! I'm not I'm... it just pisses me off. You shouldn't be giving them more attention than you give me! We're going out!"

"Tell you what Moony" Sirius stepped close to him, the tips of their noses brushed against each other, he wrapped his arms around Remus "Why don't drop to my knees and beg for your forgiveness?"
"But Sirius, there are far funner things you can do for me while you're on your knees"

"True..." Sirius fingered the waist band of Remus's trousers "very true" he tilted his head, about to kiss Remus, but there was a loud crash as Peter stumbled into the bathroom

"That door is an absolute bitch to open" he frowned at the door

"That's because it was locked" Sirius said through gritted teeth, glowering at Peter

"Sorry... were you busy?" he said blankly

"Well, I'm half naked and Moony has a hard-on"
"I do not!"

"Liar. Anyway, so yes Wormtail I'd say yes, yes we fucking well are" Sirius said contemptuously. Peter frowned at them

"Eww... Be quick whatever you're doing, I really have to take a dump" Peter left the room grimacing and Remus began to giggle uncontrollably.

"Why must our friends be such mood killers?" sighed Sirius

"Oh it's probably better he killed the mood then, not about two minutes later. That would have been traumatic for all of us" Remus checked his watch and groaned "We have charms in ten minutes anyway. You need to get dressed, or you'll be late. You should eat too, breakfast is the most important meal of the day" Remus smirked, Sirius rolled his eyes

"Thanks mummy, I'll get right on it"

A/N: If you give me a lovely review, I shall mentally hug you

* 100,00th word! Woot!