Chapter Text
Somehow, or rather miraculously depending on the way Sirius looked at it, they did not receive any detention. He was still questioning how that happened. Even though the prank had been 2 weeks ago, he felt like looking over his shoulder for any angry professor. It didn’t help that the girl, Evans, no longer liked any of them. She kept glaring at them. Sirius assumed it was because of something stupid Potter had told her.
It was now the day before Halloween. Sirius had heard of the extravagant feast the house elves prepared on Halloween from Andy and Bella and he could not wait. Narcissa was too haughty and proper to even consider being excited for something as trivial as sweets. Sirius never minded. She was a right git when she wanted to be. He was always glad to see her sniff and walk away.
The day felt like it had gone on forever and by the looks of Pettigrew and Potter, they felt the same way. Thankfully, it was a Saturday and all he had to do was homework due for the next week. After all, it would never do to have the Black heir fall behind in his classes.
Sirius sighed, relieved, as he dotted his last i and crossed his last t in his final essay for Potions. When he had put away his quill, Potter jumped up.
“Thank Merlin you finished! It’s almost dinner!”
Sirius just shook his head and began putting his books away. Potter came over and helped him while the other boy continued eating his chocolate frog. Both Sirius and James looked at him in disgust.
James leaned over. “I know he’s supposed to be our friend, but I don’t think he would even notice us leaving for dinner. Want to get out of here?”
Sirius laughed. “Sure, Potter.”
“Did you just laugh, Siri? I never thought I’d live to see this day!”
He rolled his eyes and shoved James over. “Shut it, Potter. Now come on, I’m starving.”
They joked their way over to the Great Hall, and although Sirius would never admit it, it felt nice. He had never been able to become friends with anyone deemed unworthy by his parents, 𝘰𝘳 make friends in general. Being able to enjoy someone else’s company was something Sirius never wanted to let go of. And although he would never be able to tell anyone, Sirius thought quietly that James was a very good friend. If his family wasn’t full of blood traitors, perhaps things might have been different.
James waved his hand in front of Sirius’ face, distracting him from any further ponderings. “What are you thinking about mate? Our next prank perhaps?”
Sirius held back a grin. James’ enthusiasm was easy to catch a hold of, especially when he talked about their prank against the Ravenclaws. “Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Potter. Besides, I thought you agreed that I wouldn’t be forced into another prank by you again.”
Immediately, James pouted. “But pranks are so much fun!” Sirius just ignored him and sat by Remus.
Ever since they had come to Hogwarts, there had been something different about their quiet housemate. He had already left the school twice and his story about his mother’s health seemed a little 𝘵𝘰𝘰 coincidental. It was not Sirius’ problem, however, and he was resolved to keep his nose out of whatever drama Lupin was going through.
Still, as they ate dinner, he couldn’t help but notice Remus looked very pale. And so, breaking his promise from 5 minutes ago, he said, “Is everything alright, Remus? You look a bit pale.”
Both Sirius and Remus ignored James’ betrayed cry of, “Why do you call 𝘩𝘪𝘮 by his first name and not me?”
Remus looked a bit uncomfortable as he shifted in his seat. “I’m just visiting my mother soon. She’s coming out of the hospital on November 2.”
Sirius frowned. He could’ve sworn that Remus had said they had kept his mother at home, but he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he just finished dinner and turned to James.
“Alright 𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴. Let’s head back up and play a few rounds of Exploding Snap, shall we? I seem to recall you being a sore loser.”
James gasped. “I did not! You were the one who lost.” Sirius just raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, okay, Sirius. Maybe I was wrong. But now I must challenge you to defend my honor!”
Sirius just shook his head. It was as if Potter never listened to anything he said. “I literally 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 asked you, Potter. Do you ever listen?”
Potter turned pink and he mumbled a quiet '𝘰𝘩' before dragging Sirius away towards their dorm.
Once they had reached their room, James pushed him to the ground.
“You sit there. I’ll go get my cards.”
Sirius sat on the floor, and waited for James to get the cards. With a shout of an "𝘈𝘩𝘢!" from James, he too came over to sit down.
“Could you do your fancy card shuffle from the train? It was so cool, Siri!”
Sirius laughed. “Why not?” With those words, he shuffled the cards and they began.
Within half an hour, both he and Potter were covered in burns and one of James’ eyebrows was still smoking. They were still laughing about it when their door banged open.
Two redheads walked, both of them talking over the other which made it hard for Sirius to understand them. Potter, however, had no trouble understanding them.
“Fabian! Gideon! What are you doing here?”
The two boys grinned. One of them mussed up Potter’s hair and said, “Well Jamie boy-”
“We’ve been hearing all about a little prank-”
“-towards those pesky little Ravenclaw firsties-”
“-and since it wasn’t us-”
“-we decided it had to be you!”
“Plus, the second year dormitory is above this one and your game of Exploding Snap is getting out of hand.”
Without pausing to take a breath, the twins turned to face Sirius.
The twin on the left spoke, “And you must be the famous black sheep of Gryffindor! Welcome! I’m Fabian Prewett and this is my brother Gideon.”
Gideon shoved his brother and ignored the noises of protests. “Nice to meet you mate. If you’re in Gryffindor you’re obviously different from the rest of your crazy relatives.”
James gasped. “Gid, you can’t just say things like that to people!”
Sirius, however, laughed quietly. The last person who had disrespected the Black family had been his Uncle Alphard, and his mother had almost burnt him off the family tree.
“It’s perfectly alright, Potter. It’s not like he’s wrong.”
The Prewett twins shared a look between them as Gideon spoke. “I knew there was a reason I liked you. Now, can you deal us into your little game of Snap?”
With those words, Sirius felt like a new person. Here were two children of the Light who thought 𝘩𝘦 was okay. He had only ever dreamt of something like this would happen. Slowly, a smile spread over his face. Hogwarts really was a chance for his new beginning.
“Of course you can! You’ll probably be able to win against Potter here easily.” Conspiratorially, Sirius leaned in, “It’s not like he’s any good.” James yelped and whacked his shoulder but Fabian and Gideon were already laughing.
“Oh this is going to be good,” Fabian said, rubbing his hands together.
Gideon joined in as well. “And if you helped Jamie boy here with that prank, because let’s be real, James isn’t smart enough to have done it himself, then I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of you.”
“I look forward to it.” And with those words, Sirius dealt the twins in.
After a few rounds, Remus and Pettigrew came into their dorm.
“What happened to our dorm?” Remus yelled in shock as he looked at Potter’s bed on fire from a stray card and their guests. Pettigrew just shrugged and fell asleep on top of his bed with a muttered, “It’s not my problem.”
Sirius grinned up at Remus. “We’re playing some Exploding Snap! Do you want to join?”
For a second it looked like Remus was going to say no, but after a moment of hesitation he sighed and nodded his head. Hastily, Remus added, “But not before you douse the fire on James’ bed.”
Fabian sighed and got a cup to fill with water from the bathroom. “I can’t wait until they teach us how to conjure some water. It’d be so much easier,” he muttered.
Intrigued, Sirius asked, “When do we get to learn it?”
“In sixth year, apparently.”
“Yeah Molly, our sister, said she had to use it on her N.E.W.T.s. She’s a whiz at charms though, so she passed that one with flying colours.”
After the bed was doused, Sirius dealt Remus in and snuck a look at him. He still looked pale, but he was smiling. Perhaps this was a good way to take his mind off of his mother.
Soon, all five boys, with the exception of Peter who had begun to snore, were having a blast dodging the cards. They only stopped playing around when their dorm’s door slammed open. Another boy came in and began yelling at Fabian and Gideon.
“What are you two still doing here? We sent you down three hours ago to make them shut up, not cause more noise! I knew we shouldn’t have sent you.”
The Prewett twins both grinned sheepishly and stood up.
“Sorry Frank we didn’t mean to stay this long.”
“Yeah, honest Frank!”
The newly named Frank just sighed and shook his head. Then he turned towards Sirius, James, and Remus to smile. “Nice to meet you all. I’m Frank Longbottom. I’m in second year, along with these two prats. Sorry to bother you all, but it’s getting late and we really must be going. Good night.” With those words, he grabbed the elbows of the twins and began dragging them out of the dorm.
As they walked out and headed upstairs, Sirius could hear the Prewetts shouting their apologies and goodbyes. The last thing he heard from them was an ominous
'𝘞𝘦’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯!'
Slowly Sirius turned towards James and Remus. “Well that was something, wasn’t it?”
James laughed and got changed to go to sleep. “You can say that again, Siri! Night boys.”
After he had gotten ready for bed and turned off the lights, Sirius grinned. It sure was nice to have friends.