*Okay, I don't know James' mother's name, so I'm gonna call her Elizabeth. If someone knows her name according to the series, I'd only be too happy to correct it. Also, this one is exactly 2000 words, all included. I like. You?*
'That was the first hint that I should have taken. We were becoming friends.'
I shrugged into my Quidditch robes early Saturday morning. When James was ready, we slung our identical Silver Arrows on our shoulders and headed out. As usual, the girls were waiting for us. Chasers Dawn Mason and Catherine Wilmington and our famous beater twins (it seemed like we always had twins for beaters) Shane and Sophia Summers. Shane, the only guy there, was at ease amongst the girls, laughing and chatting with them.
Bianca was curled up in one of the big chairs by the fire, seeming sleepy.
"All right." James called out. Almost talking to himself, he began to count. "Me, Sirius, Shane, Sophia, Catherine, Dawn…where's Bill?" Bill Verdi, Chaser extraordinaire, and the youngest team member, was missing.
"I'll go get him." Shane said quietly. He went to the fifth year's bunks and practically threw him out of his bed. The funny thing was, Bill was already dressed in Quidditch robes and his Cleansweep was on his bed next to him. We all remembered how it was in our fifth year, so we didn't feel too bad about him passing out the way he did. Merlin knew James and I were much worse.
"Huh?" He jumped out of bed, looking kind of like a monkey with his hair ruffled the way it was.
"Practice, Sleeping Beauty." Shane told him, jabbing him in the ribs with his wand.
"Oh yeah." He said, still sleepy. He shoved his glasses on to his face and scrambled down. "Do you think we can grab breakfast really quick first?" He asked hopefully.
"Here." Dawn chucked a granola bar at him. "God knows that's more than we got."
I really wanted to tease her about it, but I decided to spare her. Knowing James, he was thinking along the same lines. He ushered everyone out of the common room, and I followed thoughtlessly.
We were already at the grounds when McGonagall met us. As head of house, she would come to the first practice – another tradition.
"Last year's victories were spectacular, but we still won the Quidditch Cup by a narrow margin. Blow the Slytherins to the very bottom, would you, Potter? Professor Slughorn has been crowing about unfairness since last year."
"Yes, ma'am." He said, grinning at her. The one thing they agreed on was Quidditch.
"And Black, this means an extra week for you." She looked in my direction disapprovingly, but I would swear I saw a glint of laughter behind her glasses.
Hell. "But Professor," I said in a low voice, "she's asleep. No use in waking her up and dragging her here on a Saturday morning!" I protested.
"I made myself very clear, Black. Don't follow the rules, and I extend your detention." Man, she wasn't kidding that first day when she said she wanted to see me squirm. Great.
I stormed back into the common room after practice. I was stupid enough to try to budge McGonagall one more time. Didn't work. And now she was laughing at me.
Everyone had already gone down to the Great Hall for breakfast. The cheery blue sky was horribly happy compared to my black mood.
"Are you very mad at me?" Bianca asked in a small voice when I slumped into my seat a couple of minutes later. I was glowering at McGonagall, who still seemed to be in very high spirits. I didn't know why, but I thought it was to do with me. Of course, it could have been because our practice went really well, but I still thought that it was because of me.
"Huh?" I turned toward her. "Why would I be mad at you?" I asked, perplexed. Yeah, I was a little slow that morning.
"I fell asleep." She said sheepishly. "I can imagine what McGonagall must have done for you to look at the teacher's table so murderously."
"Naw, don't worry about it." I shrugged it off. It wasn't that I was just being nice; I honestly wasn't mad at her. That was the first hint that I should have taken. We were becoming friends.
Lily was MIA that afternoon. In her usual place sat Remus.
"Fill me in, Padfoot. There's so much I've missed out on lately. First off, you have a…" He at least tried to put it politely, "a charge?"
I repeated my story to him, and Remus was shaking his head at the end. "Puts a bit of a damper on our monthly 'walks', doesn't it?"
"Oh come on, Remus. I'd never ditch you like that. You know that."
"No, no. Don't misunderstand me, Padfoot. I wasn't blaming you. I'm just saying it'll be difficult for you, won't it?"
"We'll work around it." I said, and we fell into a companionable silence while I copied his Ancient Runes homework.
"You know I've made a ton of mistakes, right?" He asked me, correcting my misspelled words with his wand.
"Don't feel like applying my mind at all." I said listlessly.
"This is easy, Sirius. Look at it. It's last year's stuff."
I took a glance at what he was showing me. "Schaeffer must be getting homesick." I said gleefully.
Our Ancient Runes professor was a relatively young American, Alexa Schaeffer, only gave us easy homework when she was about to take a break. Finishing the work was actually easier than copying it.
When I was finished, James plopped into the seat next to me. "What do you say to meeting up in the room of requirement at around eight tomorrow?" He said abruptly.
"Will you bring firewhiskey?" I asked.
He looked at me as though I'd asked him if the sun set in the west. "Then I'm in." We both looked at Remus. "I'm in, too."
"Great." I said, lapsing into a short silence. There was a slight complication for me to sort out. What was I to do about Bianca? I didn't know whether or not I could trust her to stay quiet. I really couldn't afford more detention.
It was my day off, it seemed, and Bianca didn't seem to want to interrupt it, so she kept mostly to herself. When she needed to go to the Owlery, she seemed almost reluctant to ask me to go with her.
"You don't have to be so afraid to ask, you know." I told her casually. "I don't mind coming with you."
I expected a snappy retort. "Thanks." She said faintly instead.
"Always." I repeated to her what she had told me.
"My brother wrote me." She told me suddenly, as though she was bursting with the news. "He's going to be in the vicinity!" The excitement was coming off her in giant waves now.
"Really? That's great." I told her sincerely. When you spend two weeks with Bianca, it's hard not to know a lot about her brother, and he seemed like a great guy. She missed him a lot, and to her, the best part of coming to England was being able to meet her brother occasionally.
"When's our first Hogsmeade trip?" She asked me, referring to a very long letter. The handwriting wasn't even that big.
"October 9th. Why?" I asked.
"Brad is going to see if he can come!" She said.
"That's nice."
"Mmm-hmm." She said, humming to herself as she called to one of the snowy white school owls.
Suddenly, a set of talons landed on my shoulder. I realized it was my tawny owl, and she had a heavy package tied to her talon. She hopped down on to the table so I could untie it.
"Hello, Vee." It was short for something Russian, and I thought Vee suited her better. She nipped my finger affectionately.
"Letter from home?" Bianca asked me, humming a bit.
"No. My folks don't write me." I said shortly. Vee decided that I was taking too long, so she pecked my wrist.
"Ouch, stop it!" I told her. "I'm removing it!" When I finally got it undone, I fed her one of the toffees from my pocket and she hopped up to one of the perches and looked at me expectantly.
On the package was the neat, curvy calligraphy of Mrs. Elizabeth Potter.
I shrunk it to put inside my pocket, and pulled out the letter.
Dear Sirius,
How are you? I was writing James this morning and since his last letter was
absolutely devoid of any details about his sixth year whatsoever, and because you
have not yet written me a letter, I decided it was time you heard from me, too.
I hope you're not in too much trouble, Sirius. James' father says he's proud of you if you are.
You had better send me a list of the things you're going to want to buy over Christmas,
because we were planning to go for a vacation over the winter. I'll stock up on it early. Now, this leaves
you boys with two options. You can either have the house to yourselves or you can come
skiing with us. You can let us know later, decide amongst yourselves.
Now, Lily Evans? The pretty girl we heard so much over the summer about?
What about her? Heaven knows he won't tell me a thing about her. You're his friend, but you're
my friend too. Even if you won't tell me about her in particular, at least
tell me if she'll be coming over for Christmas break?
There's chocolate fudge and Bavarian pies enclosed. I know they're nothing like
the Hogwarts food, but I thought you should have some tuck from home.
With love,
From,
Elizabeth.
I pulled out a bit of spare parchment from my pocket and scribbled on it, Thanks for the food. Write you properly later. I'll tell James to write, too. Not in trouble. Sirius.
I tied the hastily scrawled letter to Vee's talon again, giving her another toffee. "I promise I won't make you go on too many long trips this year." I told her softly.
Vee flew out the window with the school owl that Bianca was using.
"Shall we go?" She asked.
I nodded and we were on our way. "So who is it from?" She was prodding me, just like I had been prodding her the other day.
"James' mother." I said resignedly.
"Why does your mother not write to you?" She asked softly.
I grinned at her, showing her it was okay. "I got disowned." I said cheerfully. "My family's big on being pure blooded and all that crap, and I am a blood traitor." I said proudly.
"You have a brother here, though, right?" She asked tentatively.
"Yeah. Regulus. Hate him too. And all my asshole cousins like Malfoy."
There was a short silence, which she broke disbelievingly, pityingly. "Don't you feel bad about it? They are family, after all."
"No, I'm pretty happy with the way I am. Mr. and Mrs. Potter are really nice."
She looked at me incredulously, and suddenly, I found myself spilling the truth only James knew. "Yeah, it hurts. It hurts because I remember a time when my brother and I were the best of friends, and my mother used to love me. It does hurt, but it's only a memory. I'm almost okay." I told her, my voice rough.
She didn't have the condescending look I expected, but a look of understanding. That was when I realized that I did trust her. In the course of two weeks, we had become friends. The thought made me smile.
My mind was made up. "Would you like to come to our game night tomorrow?" I asked her suddenly.
"Yeah, I'd like that." She said. Success!
*Suggest, comment, recommend?*
Rose.