Meeting the Marauders (Sirius Black)

PROLOGUE: Back to Hogwarts with a Quidditch captain and a prefect

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was bustling with people the morning of the first of September.

A scarlet steam engine was waiting on the railway tracks next to the pavement. A cloud of smoke drifted from the engine, floating over the heads of the rowdy crowd. Cats of every colour wound between their legs, and various owls hooted from the cages on top of their trunks, calling one another.

A sign hanging overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o' clock. The big clock on top of the timetable of the station indicated that it was half past ten.

   Two teenage boys were leaning against a column in front of the fuming train, in the middle of the crowd. With their arm around each other's shoulders and a complicit smile on their face, the both of them looked with leisure at all the people moving frenziedly across the platform, some saying goodbye, others greeting each other, and others searching hectically through their trunks, probably remembering something they should have brought. There were two big trunks next to the boys, with the initials S. B. and J. P. carved on them.

One of the boys was thin and tall, and had long dark hair and grey eyes. Instead of his school robes, he wore a black leather jacket and jeans. His friend was a black-haired, bespectacled boy, whose red and golden striped sweater, with a Quidditch Captain badge attached to it, added to his athletic look.

'Can't believe Remus is arriving later than us,' said the first one.

'Yeah, it's not like himself,' agreed his friend. 'Although, there's plenty of time, of course.' He cast a glance at the clock of the station. 'I suppose he doesn't want to stay out here for an unnecessary long time.'

   Neither of the two seemed to notice the stares directed at them from several students around — and if they did, it didn't bother them — but Remus probably didn't enjoy other people's attention much.

   'This is already tradition, James...,' the first boy shook his head, grinning ironically.

   His friend turned towards him, smiling too.

   'I missed you this summer, mate. It would've been cool if you'd stayed at my house, like last year, when we went to see the World Cup...'

   'Yeah, I would've preferred being with you too..., but they didn't let me, you know.' He fixed his eyes on the floor and his look became gloomy, while the negative memories of the last two months flooded him, the ones that he had only got away from that morning, when he met his friend.

   Before James could say anything thereon, three boys approached them.

   'Hey, James, Sirius!' the first of them, a tanned teenager, gave them a flashing smile.

   'Boys.' James grinned too, and shook the three newcomers' hands.

   'What's up, Sirius,' said another one of them, a blond guy, while he greeted him.

'Ethan.' Sirius stretched the corners of his lips, striving to act normal. 'Nate, Ryan, who's it going.'

   The three boys were from the Gryffindor House, like James and Sirius, but from the year below them.

   'James, I see you're the new Quidditch Captain,' pointed out the first one, Nathaniel, checking out the badge that shimmered in the sun, on the alluded's sweater.

'Right on,' James grinned confidently, puffing out his chest proudly.

'D'you already know when you'll be holding tryouts for the team?' Nathaniel glanced at his friends sideways and back at James. 'I'm thinking of showing up.'