Flashback

Chapter 1

28 Years Earlier

                It wasn't the perfect weather.  But it would do.  There were cloudy skies, occasional showers and a certain sense of hope in the air.  It was good enough for the Hogwarts Express to push through.  It was five o'clock, just about daybreak.  A boy with messy brown hair urged himself to get up.  He knew he had to.  But the undying anxiousness of the big question lingered in his soul: What if I'm in Gryffindor?  He didn't mind being different.  But what would his parents say?  Would he be forever looked down upon by his brothers?  He would never know until he sat on the brown, creaky stool that made history.  He knew some of the greatest wizards known to magic folk had their fate decided on that stool, and under that hat.  Did he want to be what his family called a "Hufflepuff?"  Maybe. 

        "Sirius!" his mother called.  "Breakfast!  Come on, you don't want to miss the train!" well, September 1st, 1971 had definitely arrived.  And he was feeling sick to his stomach.  While everyone else in England was preparing for just another one of their first days of muggle school, an eleven-year old boy named Sirius Black was slipping on a robe and tightening a tie with an embroidered Hogwarts patch on the tip.  He flipped the lock on his battered trunk.  The torn leather and previously stamped stickers advertising different Hogsmeade novelty stores were just reminders of those who passed this down to him.

        "Everybody was a first-year at some point." he heaved nervously under his breath.  With a deep inhale, he struggled to lift the trunk that he eventually carelessly dropped onto his trolley (that had at least  one broken or nonexistent wheel).  Sirius's quivering legs unsteadily guided him down the hallway lined with doorways containing crowded rooms, coated -- no, draped -- in Slytherin spirit.  Eventually, his legs failed and curiosity got the best of him.  He craned his neck towards one of the doorways; elegant yet worn green ties that had seen their day lie on the wooden floorboards.  Sirius could still remember the memories he shared with the one who once lived in that room.

        "Don't look back," he tried to tell himself in a quiet yet stern voice.  The tears that filled his eyes blurred his vision as he recalled the heartfelt memories he called "before Née was a Death Eater." Breakfast was a blur.  He was pretty sure that it was just twenty minutes of sitting down at a table, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that it was the first day of school.  Of course, nobody noticed that he didn't eat breakfast that morning.  The ends of the Blacks' table strectched from each side of the room, and met in the center.  To Sirius, it just seemed like one big monstrosity that gathered his brother, cousins, aunts, uncles, (very) extended family, and friends.  

        "Off to King's Cross!" an eager voice exclaimed.  

        "Don't be afraid.  Don't let the fear consume you.  Sirius.  Stop being melodramatic.  Dare I think about what house I'm soon to be sorted into?  What the hell, this is why you're so nervous in the first place.  Why should I be frightened?  Gryffindor: home of the brave.  Hufflepuff: home of the -- the home for the rest.  Then comes Slytherin."   Suddenly, a force like none other brought Sirius to the ground.