INVISIBLE STRING, marauders era

CHAPTER ONE - Sirius is an Ungrateful Shit (What's New?)

- 1975 -

September 1st 75' : Hogwarts Express - fifth year

Sirius had grown slightly taller over the summer, and he was incredibly smug about it. He acted as if he had grown an extra 5ft, yet Nashira wouldn't have even noticed the height difference if she hadn't watched him mark his height against his bedroom frame every morning for the past three months. The difference between June 29th and today, September 1st, was less than 4 inches, but Nashira guessed every millimetre of growth counted when your best friends were giants.

Sirius' growth spurt also meant that he was taller than Nashira. Not that she cared. For a solid 3 weeks Sirius had been talking Nashira's ear off about how he was 'finally taller than Pete' and how he was almost as tall as James. She sincerely hoped they too had experienced growth spurts over the summer, if only to see the look on Sirius' face.

The Hogwarts express was as busy as always. Regulus had already left to sit with Pandora and Nashira was following Sirius who was racing ahead. He didn't wait up, and when he finally reached the same carriage they had sat in since first year, he barged in and slammed the door behind him, without sparing her a second glance.

Nashira was still dragging his trunk, along with her own, behind her, but in that moment she was tempted to leave it in the corridor and go find her own friends. Sirius had left it on the platform, immediately walking off the second the Black's apparated into the station. She was stupid enough to try and do something nice for him. Next time she should have just left the bloody trunk. Perhaps he would have learnt his lesson when he was kicked out of the welcoming feast for not having his robes. She would have gotten a good laugh out of that.

She pulled open the door and through his trunk into the middle of the carriage. She heard Sirius swear as he clutched his ankle, the trunk clearly nicking him. Good. Serves him right for acting like a douchebag.

Nashira was about to slam the door again when she was pulled into a hug. Annabelle caught her off guard, and despite Nashira's irritation with Sirius, she couldn't help but smile at the genuine affection in her best friend's gesture. She missed the girl more than she cared to admit.

Nashira had limited contact with her friends over the break. Walburga blocked all letters from unrecognised owls, and her own owl had the tendency to be extremely unreliable. Back in first year she bought the cutest tawny owl, one in which she planned to share between her brothers, so she could keep in contact with Regulus back home. Sirius was determined to name him Mercury, after some muggle artist she had never heard of, and she agreed. She liked the idea of Mercury having a name related to the night sky, making her feel like he too was a part of the Black family. However, it turned out that Mercury had a mind of his own. He fitted a bit too well into the Black family with his massive mood swings and all.

It had been two months since she had last seen the owl after Sirius forced him to deliver a massive parcel to James at the start of the break. She didn't blame the bird for disappearing, the parcel looked unreasonably heavy, and she too would be pissed at Sirius if he made her carry that. So, she wasn't too worried about Mercury, he would come back soon enough once the drama queen finally got over his tantrum and began looking for treats.

She was, however, extremely curious on what was in the parcel Sirius sent to James. It looked like a pile of books, and when she went looking in the manor library a few days later to confirm her suspicions, she found her collection of Animagus books missing. But that would be absurd. The very idea of Sirius and James reading made her laugh. Sirius claimed the parcel was just prank stuff he didn't want their parents finding, and that was certainly a more believable excuse, however she was still curious.