PART 1: 'NO FRIENDSHIP IS AN ACCIDENT' - O. Henry

NB: While I am avoiding details about Sirius' childhood in this chapter, abuse is implied.

Chapter 10 - Chess-mate

'Checkmate,' James said not too quietly. 'I told you I could beat you!'

Sirius glanced over at Peter's bed, hoping James hadn't woken the boy. The last thing he wanted was for their midnight chess games to be disrupted by Peter, either insisting on wanting to play or watching them in awe the way he had on Friday in the common room.

It was Saturday and James and Sirius were alone in their dormitory, if Sirius ignored Peter, which he hoped he'd be able to continue to do for the rest of the night. Remus had gone home to see his mother who was unwell. He had left a note on his bed explaining that he wasn't sure when he would be able to return, but that he hoped he'd be back by Monday evening.

Peter had been particularly devastated by the note: 'this is just like that Prewett sister! Remember what Jorkins told us?! She had to go home all the time to visit Fabian, not knowing if he'd be okay.'

'Well, if it's just like that, his mother will be just fine,' Sirius had said, thinking of the now healthy Quidditch captain, but knowing that this wasn't really what Peter had meant.

James had seemed able to show Peter more patience.

'Do you think there something we should do?' He had asked the small boy.

Sirius didn't like how James had taken to to the team analogy Remus had used. Sharing a bedroom with someone didn't mean you were on the same team. Sirius had shared a house with his supposed family all his life; he shared their so-called 'pure' blood and he was decidedly NOT on their team. Anyways, teams were as weak as their weakest link, and Peter was weak.

Peter had shrugged helplessly (because, that was what Peter did): 'I don't know... Maybe... maybe just show him that we care?'

'How?' Sirius had asked unimpressed at Peter's obvious remark. Of course they should show Remus that they cared. Idiot.

'Let's write to him,' James had suggested, resulting in the boys sending Remus a letter earlier that afternoon.

'Keep your voice down, will you?' Sirius hissed to James now. 'And yes, congratulations. That makes it what? Three-one to me?'

James shook his head: 'No, it's one-null to me.'

'Ignoring my previous victories, are we?'

'Different format,' James shrugged.

'The normal format you mean?' Sirius asked.

'Well, yes, because most wizards and witches are boring. Rematch?'

They were sitting on the floor between their two beds, playing wizard chess into the night - the way friends did - because James Potter was Sirius' friend. And that was something to write home about, if Sirius had had anyone to write home to.

James' hand was already hovering over his wand, which he had turned into a sort of stopwatch using a spell he had learned from his father. Of course, James had been inventing new varieties of wizard chess with his family... While James' skills told Sirius that the Potters probably never went easy on their son in the way of competition, the games they played would have been loving ones, because that was the sort of life James Potter had lived.

Why Sirius didn't hate the git was something even he found difficult to explain to himself.

'Alright, but let's play the normal - boring - way and see if I can make it a four-null.'

James looked unhappy, but didn't argue. He'll push back when the novelty of not getting it his way wears off, Sirius thought about his friend. But there was no bitterness in his thoughts.

Though Sirius would never tell James, he didn't want a timer on so that the two could keep talking more freely. This wasn't only because Sirius knew this was James' one big weakness - talking and therefore stopping to pay attention to the game - no, it was because Sirius enjoyed talking to the messy-haired, bespectacled boy.

Sirius threw another look towards Peter's bed, but thankfully, no mousy-haired boy was poking his head out between the red hangings. Good. There was something Sirius needed to discuss with James.

'James, you're pureblood,' Sirius said, tentatively, about fifteen minutes into the game. He wasn't quite sure how to approach this. Sirius knew how to be guarded - he did not know how to let it down. Even Regulus, whom Sirius believed liked him, maybe even looked up to him - a little - was someone Sirius couldn't fully open up to, because Regulus wanted to make his family proud, and that made him dangerous to Sirius.

'Here's with the blood status, again,' James said, but unlike the previous times James had remarked on this, there was a slight smile on James' lips. That had to be a promising sign. James trusted that Sirius wasn't about to say something awful.

'How come you don't seem to know anything about my family?' Sirius asked, quickly. He immediately regretted asking the question. This wasn't a topic he should discuss with anyone. How could he be sure James wasn't going to exploit his vulnerabilities? That's what people did. That's what his family did to him, and if Sirius was honest with himself, that was also what he did to his family. It was how the world operated.

Except, James already seemed to know how cursed Sirius felt by his family name, because he had continued to have Sirius' back unquestioningly throughout the past few days. Without understanding the importance of any of it, James had walked with Sirius to the owlery in the dead of night, and he had made it clear that his loyalty lay with Sirius first.

James' hazel eyes moved from the sorry and uneven fight between a pawn and a bishop to meet Sirius' eyes. He seemed to consider the question, which James rarely did. Merlin, Sirius hated how much he felt that the other boy's answer would matter.

'I dunno,' James said after a pause, seeming unhappy about the unhelpful answer. 'I would say it's a bit conceited of you to think everyone knows your family, but ... they all seem to do, don't they?'

Sirius didn't answer that one. They all did seem to know. Naturally, Walburga Black had raised her sons in the belief that being Black was more or less the same as being royalty, but Sirius had harboured some hope that she had been as mistaken in how known the name Black was as she was about everything else.

James told his bishop not to get too cocky after an easy fight, and looked up at Sirius: 'honestly, you'd think these chess pieces hadn't experienced a game before.'

This earned James some angry remarks from his chess pieces, but he just told them to prove him wrong.

Sighing, James picked up the conversation again: 'look, as you like to point out, my parents are very old. They are not ones for throwing big parties, or having lots of guests over. Dad's also really shy.'

Sirius raised an eyebrow. How on earth James could be related to anyone shy was beyond him.

'He really is,' James insisted, 'he's brilliant - and brave, but he's not one for people.'

Sirius found himself indulging in the same pleasant feeling he had on the train to Hogwarts. James' love and admiration for his father was infectious.

'I wrote to them about you - all of you,' James continued, and Sirius snapped out of his euphoria. Right, here we go, Sirius thought tensely. The Potters would certainly not want James to be friends with a Black, so how long would James continue to defy his parent's wishes? Assuming the Potters knew his family... but yes, they would know.

'Mum just told me to take care of you,' James said, studying Sirius.

'I don't need taking care of!'

Sirius had managed this far on his own, hadn't he? Unlike James and all the other boys, Sirius had been forced to face the world alone - lest he turned out as deranged as the rest of his family.

James didn't respond for a bit. Instead both boys refocused their attention on the chess game. In his frustration, Sirius made a stupid mistake that could cost him the game, and he was just grateful that his chess pieces were intelligent enough to keep quiet about it. Maybe James wouldn't notice.

'Not everything is about what we need, y'know that, don't you?'

'Maybe not for you,' Sirius said simply. He didn't want to get into this any further than they already had. It had been a silly idea, talking to James about this. How could James understand?

'Fair enough,' James shrugged, recognising the dismissal, 'but as I always get what I want, and I want to be your friend, you can't deny me that!'

There was something defiant in the way James looked at Sirius. Defiant and trusting and good.

''Suppose not,' Sirius said, trying to sound offhanded. 'Just don't go all soft on me, Potter.'

'Well, I don't think you need to worry,' James said, a hand gesticulating towards the chessboard and the crushing victory it seemed James was in for.

One stupid mistake and Sirius was looking at his first real loss against James Potter. Orion Black would have been furious with Sirius for making a careless mistake - for letting emotions interfere with his play.

Chess had been the only way Sirius had known to earn some slight... not exactly respect, but positive attention from his father. Sirius was brighter than Regulus, even when accounting for their one-and-a-half-year age gap. But Sirius wasn't foolish enough to believe that the challenges he could throw his father's way in form of a good chess game would make up for his utter betrayal by being sorted into Gryffindor. And that was a good thing, Sirius reminded himself, it made things easier. Previously, Sirius had sometimes been conflicted between the need to stand up against his family and the slight thrill of seeing approval in Orion's eyes when Sirius played a particularly good game. Now he didn't have to worry.

His mother, of course, had been a lost cause for years. When he was younger, Sirius knew he could get lost in London because his parents were magic and would inevitably find him. He had enjoyed sneaking out of the house and luring his parents into ever more public spaces in the heart of the capital, knowing how much his family detested muggles. This had provided Sirius with a source of entertainment and payback against his parents, until one day, age nine, his mother didn't come for him.

Sirius, though increasingly familiar with the city, had been thoroughly lost and was forced to walk the streets until a muggle cab driver picked him up in the middle of the night, taking pity on him. Though he would never admit it, the terror of walking around alone, directionless, had been greater even than the punishment that awaited him at home.

'Another game?' Sirius asked James as he saw no way of being able to come back from this one.

'Isn't it getting a bit too late?' his friend asked, grinning.

'Yeah, you're right,' Sirius agreed, not entirely understanding why it was so easy to understand James.

'So one more game?' James asked, predictably.

'One more game,' Sirius agreed.

'If we use a timer we might be able to do two more games,' James offered innocently.

'Nice try,' Sirius said, and threw his spare pillow at James.

A/N

So, first chapter with Sirius' point of view. I desperately needed some Starbucks time (platonically ofc), although I can't let it go too far at first. They are too young and Sirius is still too scarred (and scared) to open up to James in any capacity. I am sure Sirius felt like he went too far and James can't understand why Sirius didn't ask anything important at all.

My ambition is for everyone to be friends by the end of Part 1, but I am not entirely sure that I can move Sirius' feelings towards Peter that far in that short amount of time. I know how I want to get Peter to regard James and Sirius as his friends, but with Sirius it might be a bit one sided in the beginning. We will see.