All the young dudes

Chapter 4: Raw Power

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Sirius wakes up on Christmas morning to the owl he and Regulus share tapping on his window. When he grabs the letter, he sees it addressed to ENORMOUS BERK, 12 ROTTEN STUFFY PLACE, ISLINGTON in James' chicken scratch handwriting.

Sirius,

I don't know why you don't just CURSE the lot of them and make a break for it. The one we tried on Aubrey would work nicely—keep them distracted long enough, anyway. Then you could start your life as a VAGRANT, living on the streets and beating people up and hanging out in dark alleys. It sounds like a right exciting life if you ask me.

Answering your question about 'the plan': THERE IS NO PLAN other than 'James sneaks into the Restricted Section and digs out all the Animagus books he can find and distributes them between his two dumb and useless friends', which we've already got covered. Now that I've got some free time away from Remus I might be able to get somewhere with it, but I've just been through this bloody book for about the four thousandth time and it STILL reads like it's been translated into Gobbledegook. When we get back we're going to have to have ANOTHER party in the Restricted Section to look up all the stuff we don't get in these, and then another one to look up all THOSE words, and so on and so on and so on until we figure it out OR die but if we DO DIE we will die knowing we gave it the OLD GRYFFINDOR TRY, and what more can a man expect of himself, I ask you?

So, to summarise:

THE PLAN (AS IT STANDS):

-become ANIMAGI (DIFFICULT AND IMPROBABLE)

-do it WITHOUT REMUS NOTICING (more DIFFICULT AND IMPROBABLE)

-be GODS among MEN

I eagerly await your response about the cursing, and if you haven't got the guts to do it then you'll have plenty of time to work on your Animagus book, won't you? Me, you, and Pete can write up notes and stuff and compare when we get back, or rather you and Pete will fill me in on what you read because mine has, as mentioned, been translated to GOBBLEDEGOOK or perhaps MERMISH.

Happy Christmas,

JAMES WARREN BHARGAVA POTTER

Sirius has just sat down at his desk and pulled out a sheet of parchment when a loud crack behind him makes him jump.

"Kreacher! What've I said about that?!"

"Young Master's door was locked," comes the croaking reply.

"That's when you're supposed to knock."

"Mistress Black asked Kreacher to fetch Young Master."

"I'm not going."

Kreacher glowers up at him. "My Mistress wishes Young Master to come downstairs."

"Are you deaf as you are ugly?" Sirius growls, pushing past Kreacher. He throws himself down onto his bed and says into the bedspread, "I'm not going."

"Kreacher has his orders from Mistress Black, Kreacher must obey his orders—"

"Then I order you to leave me alone. Or just die, whichever you like."

With a crack, Kreacher vanishes. A few moments later, a scream drifts up from downstairs.

"Sirius!"

"Euuuugh." Sirius falls back onto his bed for a moment before shouting back, "Coming!"

Sirius hates Christmas.

He does his best to stay out of this house, and normally he's fairly good at it. He wanders in the city or visits Brianna or, when he feels like navigating the Underground, visits Remus. When he can't do those things he locks himself in his room and writes letters to his friends. They don't let him do any of that on stupid bloody Christmas.