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Sometimes, things just happen. Sometimes, people are thrown together and make friends that no one, not even the best divination master could predict. But most often, these are the people whose friendships last long after the turning of the final page...

The platform was bustling. People were pushing and shoving each other with great vigour, and no one would have thought it was a Sunday- it looked more like the rush hour. Most of the crowd was made up of family groups with children wheeling trolleys laden with suitcases and bags for a seemingly long journey ahead, and concerned parents asking them if they had remembered everything and to write the minute they arrived to make sure they hadn't fallen out of the train on the way there. The ordinary working people just watched with fascination at some of the clothing they wore; most were wearing the usual attire worn out of doors, but others looked like they were attending fancy dress parties. They wore long black gowns, even the men, and kept glancing around and beaming brightly at perfectly normal everyday objects. And every so often, if you kept focusing on them, they would disappear through a seemingly solid pillar in the middle of platforms 9 and 10. The attendants were forced to shake themselves to make sure they weren't seeing things. Had there really just been a family disappearing? It hadn't seemed to have riled the rest of the crowd though; they were content to mill around waiting their turn.

One of those families was stood in the middle of the throng looking down at everyone around them. It was a group of about five of them, the mother and father easily distinguished simply by their height and the richness of their robes. All of them were draped in black though, and it appeared to be like they were attending some kind of family funeral when coupled with their drawn expressions. One of them, a teenage girl, had slanted little eyes that darted this way and that as she took everything in, and whenever another teenager or child got too close she let a loud hissing noise escape her throat and they would jump back as though they'd been shot at. She let out a cackle at the third time, and the mother smacked her around the head, her own slanted eyes flashing dangerously. "Bellatrix, that is enough! You'll draw attention to yourself!"

"Let them look." Bellatrix sneered, snapping her head around to look at the one who had disciplined her. "Let them bask in the glory of a pureblood." Her eyes began their darting game again.

"You are lucky we didn't make you get on the train by yourself. Your own parents are away on business, so we took it upon ourselves to take you with us. So behave, you do not want to squander your values in front of these pests." The mother wrinkled her nose slightly as though a bad smell had just wafted down her nose. "I can almost smell the mud bloods around here."

One of the boys, aged at about eleven, shifted from foot to foot whilst leaning lazily on his trolley. The small black screech owl he had in its cage looked back at him, hooting dolefully. "Can I get on the train yet?" he whined, resting his chin on the bar. "This is boring, standing here looking noble. I can do that any day."

"Sirius, hold your tongue." His father hissed, not hesitating in giving his son a clip around the ear. The boy yelped. "You'll go when we tell you to."

Sirius inwardly groaned but decided to save it; he didn't want to get his parents any more irritated than they already were. It was all Bellatrix's fault, after all- her presence put people on edge, even her parents despite their pride. He brushed a bit of black scraggly hair out of his face and heaved out a bored sigh, looking around him with the look of a person who doesn't wish to be where they are. The large amount of wizarding families were probably setting them off too, he noted. They usually made sure they were there early so they didn't have to wait around for the 'dirty bloods' to go first. Knowing them they expected a red carpet rolled out so they didn't have to share the same floor space as everyone else, he thought grimly.

He felt a short tug on the sleeve of his robe and looked down. His younger brother, Regulus, was looking up at him with the large eyes of a child. "Are you gonna be okay, Sirry?" he asked wonderingly, those blue eyes of his only a shade less intense than Sirius's. "Is Hogwarts scary?"

Sirius smiled fondly. He did like Regulus; he wasn't yet corrupted by their parents, and Sirius was beginning to wonder if it was only he who had managed to find some wonderful kind of immunity to it. Regulus was innocent and sweet, and the thought of him turning into a miniature version of their parents made Sirius twitch. "Of course it ain't. It's scarier when you know Bella's running around it. But you can live in hope, Reg'; by the time you get there it'll be all rainbows and sunshine with her gone."

"You shut up you little half- pint!" Bellatrix said indignantly, folding her arms against her chest and glowering at him.

Sirius chose to ignore her, though he knew she was prone to violence whenever it suited her, and looked out past the crowd to a small family on the outskirts. He frowned lightly as he spotted the child, evidently the one going off to the school, flinch every time someone past him. He looked scared to death. His parents did too; they kept casting anxious eyes around them with a hint of suspicion in them that Sirius didn't quite understand. What he also couldn't get was that whilst his parents were wearing relatively neat clothes, their son's were a lot worse for wear. They were ripped and torn in places, and Sirius could spot a small white kneecap peeking through a tear in his robes. He raised an eyebrow. That was odd. He turned to ask his parents about it, then thought better of it. They wouldn't know, and even if they did they wouldn't make much of an effort to understand. They didn't care about anyone but themselves, and he guessed that the scruffy boy he could see was the least of their problems. They would probably spit on the family if he pointed them out. So he kept quiet.

"Sirry, Sirry!" Regulus cried, tugging on his sleeve again. Sirius looked down, blinking to clear the haze that had fallen over them during his daydream.

"Yeah Reg'?"

"There's enough room now! There's enough, see!" his younger brother pointed to the queue for the pillar, and it was decidedly smaller than before. Sirius looked up at his parents for affirmation that he could move forwards, and they nodded, sweeping their cloaks tighter around them as they all stepped forwards as one.

The path seemed to clear for them like they were respected, though all of the family knew it was out of fear- Sirius figured it was for all the wrong reasons. He kept his head down and felt his cheeks flame with embarrassment. He hated it when this happened. If they were ever in Knockturn alley wizards and witches alike would stop and bow to them like they were reigning deities. Sirius hated it so much. He wanted the ground to swallow him up whenever it happened. His parents revelled in the attention, as did his cousin Bellatrix. Regulus was still a bit too young to understand the reason why they were so 'revered', and was quite content to remain oblivious to it all.

He could feel all the eyes on him like they were burning, and could definitely hear whispers about him amongst the crowd, which made him duck his head down even more so he was practically gluing his face to the trolley. He did like attention, he didn't deny it, but not this kind of attention.

He sensed his family around him increasing their pace, and he did the same, having to resort to a crude half- jog to keep up with the long strides of his father and mother. Poor Regulus was almost sprinting beside him, and when he raised his eyes to see how far they had left to go he was met with a solid wall. He flinched and shut his eyes tightly, waiting for the impact he knew in the back of his mind would never come, but instinct screamed that it would.

He didn't open them again until the smell of smoke filled his nostrils and he heard his father say, "For Merlin's sake boy, open your eyes, you're not a child facing a monster!" He blinked them open to see the familiar scarlet steam engine of the Hogwarts Express towering like an imposing teacher above him. He was relatively average in height for his age, but even so, the train looked huge to him. It was however nothing he hadn't seen before; the Hogwarts Express had been seen by him a few times when he had been dragged along to see Bellatrix and Narcissa off. The latter hadn't come along with Bellatrix when she'd flooed to meet them, but Sirius wasn't necessarily worried about her. He wasn't very close to any of his cousins really; he didn't see the point seeing as they made no effort to be bothered with him.

Bellatrix herself was already flouncing off, using her heritage to push through the milling throng of people surrounding the train. There was no need; the way was parting for her as though she was the reincarnated version of Moses, many students shooting looks of mingled fear and annoyance at her presence. She pranced onto the train without a backward glance. Sirius gripped even tighter to his trolley despite the fact his parents were already ordering their house elf to take his suitcases onto the train.

Kreacher was an odd little being, and that was something Sirius put lightly. He had never really liked the house elf; Kreacher liked nothing better than to punish him on the orders of his parents, and so would snoop around like a bloodhound in search of any mischief Sirius could possibly be getting into (which for a boy like him was usually quite frequent, and usually more than possible) and immediately report anything back to Sirius's father for a reward. Frankly, Sirius couldn't see why throwing him into a cauldron full of boiling water didn't constitute as a reward. The little creature had apparated beside them without Sirius realising, and the vile thing had given him a sour look as he scuttled to fulfil his master's wishes. Sirius didn't even bother to acknowledge his presence.

"Now, do you remember what we told you, boy?" His father barked, jolting Sirius' senses back to the real world.

He looked sheepish, and dove his hands into his pockets. "Uh…"

"Imbecile", his mother tutted, "always was, always will be. You'll have to remind him, Orion."

He looked up at his father and saw him inhale sharply, then exhale as though explaining was some great effort that required a lot of annoying effort. "You are to make friends with the families we have mentioned before."

Sirius wrinkled his nose slightly. "Do you mean…Lucius?" Lucius Malfoy was an acquaintance of his family, and was doted upon by his mother even more so than Sirius himself. He was a few years his senior, but Sirius still didn't like him very much.

"Yes, Lucius", his mother snapped, breaking into the conversation as Sirius knew she would, "he is a fine boy, quite upstanding I think. He'll make an excellent man one day."

"I'll congratulate him when that happens", Sirius muttered under his breath, earning himself another clip around the ear.

"He is a fine boy, and I have already told him to look out for you", his mother hissed. Sirius' stomach sank. That meant he wouldn't be able to do anything without Lucius dashing back to his parents.

The train suddenly gave out a loud hoot like an aggravated owl, and Sirius jumped in surprise. A boy on the platform next to him laughed. Sirius shot an irritated glance at him. The boy continued to laugh. He had confident and boastful air about him, something that immediately sent Sirius' hackles up, but there was a slight glint in his eye that he liked. It seemed…more mischievous than truly spiteful in his arrogance. He had stopped laughing now and had pushed his glasses up his slightly snubbed nose.  Sirius continued to glare at him, but the boy had then turned back to his aged parents, having clearly lost interest now Sirius wasn't being a baby.

Sirius' actions had however attracted the attentions of his family. "Don't be a shivering wreck, Sirius. You are meant to be upholding our grand family name, not splattering it all over the pavement due to your nerves", his father scorned.

Sirius blushed furiously and ducked his head down to hide it beneath his hair. He hated it when his father did this; it often felt like everyone in the entire world had stopped what they were doing and were staring at him like a museum exhibit. "It surprised me", he defended weakly.

"A Black should never be surprised", his mother said sharply.

His father shook his head and laid a hand on Sirius' shoulder. It tightened like an eagle's talons. "Now, now, enough of this pathetic glares and stares, Sirius. You can hex him once you're on the train. It appears that Kreacher has loaded your luggage." And so he had. The elf jogged back over to them, ignoring the points and stares he was accumulating, and stopped before them. He bowed.

"The young master's things are on the train, master and mistress", he simpered. Sirius pretended to gag, making Regulus beside him giggle nervously.

"Excellent, Kreacher. Now, on with you." His father gave him a slight push forwards. Sirius very nearly tripped.

"Clumsy", his mother remarked.

Regulus stepped forward, his large eyes filled with sadness. "I'll miss you!" he said in a voice barely louder than a whimper, and Sirius smiled at him.

"It's okay Reg', I'll be back before you know it. I'll write to you, promise." Sirius hugged his little brother rather awkwardly, for outward displays of affection weren't part of the Black family name either, and then stepped onto the train. Regulus sniffled but waved all the same, and Sirius continued to wave at him until the door was shut and the train began to move off. Regulus was the only one who really saw him off properly; his parents waved for a matter of minutes before trying to usher their youngest son away.

Sirius couldn't help but smile at his brother's farewells, but as the platform melted out of sight and there were no small figures to be seen, he realised he had taken far too long in getting on the train, for the walkway was now clear of people. "Great", he muttered under his breath, and started to walk, peering into the compartments every now and again. Most of the ones he looked in were full, and he cursed his slowness. There was no way he was going to sit with Lucius for the entire trip; after a particular incident with a body binding curse applied to the legs of the older boy, they had not been on speaking terms since. Sirius had made it quite clear that he did not like Lucius as much as his parents did. He found him too slimy for his liking, both in looks and personality.

He managed to steer clear of any of those compartments and stopped instead at the only half empty compartment there. As he looked in he saw that it was the same boy from earlier, the one who had been laughing at him on the platform. It might not have been the best of places to sit, but there didn't seem to be any other seats available, and he was not going to wander down the corridor for the entire journey. So he swallowed his pride and slid the compartment door open.

The boy looked up at his entrance and both brows went flying up into his unruly hair. Sirius swallowed painfully, nerves rising from the pit of his stomach. He managed to supress the gnawing fear however and instead just slipped into the compartment and shut the door with a click behind him. He flopped down as casually as he could into the seat opposite the other boy, though he wasn't sure if a boy who was mocking him earlier would like to speak to him. He tried to avoid eye contact, but he could feel the boy's eyes boring into him. He glanced at him. "Alright?" he mumbled gruffly before turning back to the door.

The boy blinked. "Yeah, you?"

"Brilliant."

The boy fell silent for a moment. Then he said conversationally, "I am so bored already. Mum confiscated all of my dungbombs before I got on here. I was planning on throwing them in a compartment or two. She's such a spoilsport, swears I'm gonna be expelled before I even get there."

Sirius looked back at the other boy and watched him quietly. He definitely could talk when he got going, he mused as he turned to face him. But his complaints rang true with him too-  he'd been threatened that if he so much as looked at a prank item he would have something to regret. "Dungbombs?" he questioned.

The other boy nodded eagerly. "Yeah. Bought them specially! And then she goes and takes them off me. Mothers, eh?"

"Yeah…mothers…" Sirius trailed off, looking away for a brief moment, before glancing back and grinning. "Dungbombs are overrated though."

The boy looked thunderstruck. "You must be joking! Dungbombs are the timeless classic!" he said incredulously.

Sirius shook his head. "Nah, dungbombs are playschool stuff. They've been annoying people for centuries! You'd need to let something like a…" he thought for a moment, wracking his brains, "…like a Self-Pouring Substance. It changes what comes out every time you pour it."

The boy's eyebrows disappeared again. "Wow! I thought those weren't allowed to be sold in case they started pouring like…acid or something!"

Sirius smiled proudly, nerves slowly dying away the longer he sat talking. "They're not, unless you know where to look."

The boy held out a hand with a rather awed expression. "I believe we should meet properly. James Potter."

Sirius laughed and took the boy's outstretched hand. "Sirius Black, the one and only." He then stopped. "Well, I'm the third one of the family, but I am the best one", he added.

James laughed. "Good to meet you, Sirius. You know, I was sure I wouldn't meet anyone like me here."

Sirius snorted derisively. "Pfft, yeah. Like that would ever happen. There are always people that are up to no good. But I am gonna beat them all at their own game."

James grinned. "You talk my kind of language!"

Sirius shrugged. "You have to be remembered for something, right?" he said with a smile.

They were suddenly interrupted by the door sliding open to reveal a petite girl with fiery hair and freckles sprinkled across her cheeks. Another thing accompanying her cheeks were fat beads of tears that trailed down her face, leaving silver trails behind them. She walked into the compartment wordlessly, pushing past Sirius and James and depositing herself down on the seat farthest away from them, which happened to be next to the window. Sirius stared at her for a few moments. "What is it with girls?" he mouthed to James, who sniggered. The girl made a soft wailing noise and Sirius cringed away. "Er…so…" he began, completely wrong footed by the girl's entry.

James looked slightly awkward too, but they couldn't exactly tell the girl to leave; she looked far too upset to do anything. So they talked as though she wasn't there. "What was your first major thing then?" James asked.

Sirius frowned. "How do you mean?"

"I mean, what's the worst trouble you've ever been in?" James persisted.

"Well…" Sirius thought back. There were quite a few things he could have mentioned. "I suppose setting my Uncle Cygnus' hair on fire when I was six was a pretty bad one."

James burst out laughing, to Sirius' surprise. "That's brilliant! Why did you do that?!"
"I didn't mean to!" he defended. "He was saying my hair was getting too wild and my mother had to do something about it. So I got a bit angry, and it just happened", Sirius said with a casual shrug, earning more raucous laughter from James. "Mother was furious, but…" he began to smile as he thought about it, "when she tried to put out the fire he turned bald." At this he joined James in his laughter, and realised how infectious it really was. "And…even now…" he said begin fits of giggles, "if he comes round…he checks his head…just to make sure…it's still there!" Another round of laughing ensued, and both had completely forgotten about the girl at the window.

So ignorant were they of her that in fact a slender and unpleasant looking boy managed to slip into the compartment without them even acknowledging the fact he'd appeared. He sat down next to the girl and as their laughter calmed down, Sirius heard her say rather wretchedly, "I don't want to talk to you."

By now though their humour had stopped, and James was retelling his own story. "It was about a year ago. I was on my broom, and we live a bit far out in Godric's Hollow, so there's no danger of muggles spying us. Anyway, we have this neighbour…"

Sirius was only half listening; he was also listening to the furious conversation the other two inhabitants of the compartment were having.

"Tuney h-hates me", the girl was saying sadly, "because we saw that letter from Dumbledore…"

"So what?" the boy said. His voice was snide and sharp, and instantly Sirius felt a dislike towards him.

"So she's my sister!" she said, glaring at him.

"She's only a…" The way the boy seemed to stop himself before he went further made Sirius realise that he was going to say the word 'muggle'. So this girl was Muggle born? His parents would hate it if he became friends with her. All of a sudden she became a lot more interesting. "But we're going!" the boy then said, recovering. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" By now James had stopped telling his story, knowing full well that Sirius was not paying the slightest bit of attention to him, and was also eavesdropping on their conversation. The boy had just said, "you'd better be in Slytherin", and James very obviously looked straight at them.

"Slytherin?" he said, as though it was a disgusting word. Sirius' stomach twisted rather painfully. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James said, focusing back to Sirius.

Sirius inwardly shied away. Clearly this boy already had a clear idea of what meant a house was good or bad, and apparently Slytherin was a bad choice for anyone to make. He lifted his head and tried to answer as simply and casually as he could, "My whole family have been in Slytherin."

James' brows resumed their disappearing act. "Blimey, and I thought you seemed alright!"

Sirius grinned, knowing by the tone that James was meaning it in a light way. He was kind of right though; Sirius didn't act like the typical 'Slytherin' candidate. In fact, he wasn't quite sure what he acted like. He certainly didn't act like his terrifying cousins. "Maybe I'll break the tradition", he said absently, hoping in his heart of hearts that that were true. "Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?" he asked James.

The boy wielded an imaginary sword, causing Sirius to smirk at him. "'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!'" he announced nobly, every bit the Gryffindor as he pretended to hack and slash at first Sirius and then at the boy and girl with them. "Like my dad!" he added proudly at the end.

The other boy's lip curled, clearly not amused at James' rendition, and made a small belittling noise that sounded like it came from the back of his throat. James immediately rounded on him. "Got a problem with that?" he demanded hotly.

"No," said the boy, though his slight sneer was a big giveaway. He was like a wisp of wind, Sirius noted, and his hooked nose and sallow skin made him look about as appealing as a mudsprout. His hair, black like his own but not nearly so well kept, hung lankly down his face in thin curtains, and Sirius brushed a hand through his own hair consciously. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy…" he began in the same sneering voice.

Sirius glowered at him. "Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither of those two?" he intervened coolly, before the boy had a chance to finish his scathing remarks about James.

James roared with laughter, and Sirius smirked, liking the fact he was able to make his new found friend so amused so easily. His ego was beginning to swell by the second.

The girl sat up straighter and fixed both the guffawing James and the uncaring Sirius with an expression of utter contempt and dislike. There went the 'making friends' idea, Sirius thought to himself. She seemed rather flushed too, though whether it was with embarrassment for herself or for her friend he didn't know. She certainly didn't seem the type to hang around with someone like him. But, he considered as she continued to cast them scathing looks, he could barely talk- his family prided themselves on their prejudices. "Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment", she said loftily, rising to her feet in a single bounce.

"Oooooo..." James and Sirius chorused, imitating her voice as she just stuck her nose in the air and stormed out of the compartment with the boy now known as Severus following behind her like a shadow. James, Sirius spotted, tried to trip the boy up as he passed.

"See ya, Snivellus!" he said with a smirk, and it was Sirius' turn to laugh.

"What was his problem?" he asked.

"Who knows. Slytherins are a bit…" he trailed off as Sirius' head lowered, and he quickly recovered by saying, "but everyone's different. He just fits the bill."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Yeah. What a slimeball. I felt like I needed to shower just looking at him." He wrinkled his nose.

James pretended to shudder. "Tell me about it. Shame about her, though."

"What?"

"Well… she was pretty", he commented.

Sirius grinned in slight relief, glad that he wasn't the only one who thought so. "Doesn't make sense, her running around with such a…such a…"

Words appeared to fail him, but James was more than happy to pick up where Sirius had left off. "Such a Snivellus?" he tried. This sent the boys into further fits of laughter that pulled their thoughts away from the pretty girl and her less-than pretty companion.
Sooo this has been something rotating around in my cranium for a while now, and in the light of the sudden Pottermore explosion (which I have very willingly thrown myself into :XD: ) I thought it was a great time to get some fanfiction written. I want to try and get something that's not got any of my own OCs/fanchars in it, because I want to see if I can get into the head of characters that aren't my own. And obviously, Sirius Black just had to be my guinea pig :XD: I've loved him loooooong time. And here's just an account of how, in my opinion, he met James.

I can just see those two clicking instantly. Friendship at first sight. |D I also had to embed a little bit of J K Rowling's writing where Lily and Snape were concerned, so if it sounds familiar that is why :lmao:

Well, I hope you like it, and please leave me a comment, I don't bite :meow:

All characters mentioned are (c) to J K Rowling/Harry Potter franchise. Damn. |D
© 2012 - 2024 KesiLegend
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