Maybe Memories

Things got harder, and never seemed to get any easier. It's hard to tell if they ever will...

Sirius took notice in the fact that Lupin was laughing with them about Snape a lot more.When he asked what was up, Lupin replied, "He pushed my brewing potion off the table on purpose."

"Told you," James said.

"Oh, he did not such thing!" Lily Evans butted in.

"He did so," Lupin replied, making it the first time he had actually argued with Lily.

"I saw what happened," Lily said, "he just passed by when you happened to clumsily hit your cauldron."

"What a coincidence," James said rolling his eyes.

Lupin shook his head, "Whatever, Lily."

Estelle kept her mouth shut, only because she knew Sirius was conjuring some sort of response by now. Peter timidly observed the situation, as usual.

"The bloody git pushed over Remus' cauldron!" Sirius exclaimed, "I was sitting right next to Remus, when Snape passed by, his hand touched our desk!"

"Well, no wonder with the way you guys treat him," Lily scolded.

"I never did anything to him," Lupin insisted.

"Guilty by association," Estelle said.

Sirius and James grinned.

Rolling her eyes, Lily exited the common room.

"I thought she would never leave!" Sirius exclaimed, "So, I've looked into this animagus thing--"

"Sirius, stop it," Lupin interjected.

"I'm being completely serious here," Sirius insisted.

"Well, stop it," Lupin said.

"I'm in on it," James said, "we should do it."

"Yeah," Estelle said.

Hesitantly, Peter nodded.

Lupin sighed, "You guys don't have to..."

"We want to!" Estelle exclaimed.

"Becoming an animagus is a very long and difficult process," Lupin said, "It's not something you can just fool around with. Something could go terribly wrong."

"We have to master transfiguration," Sirius said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Which will be hard to do," Lupin replied.

The first problem was, where were they going to go to practice without looking suspicious? The second was, how were they going to figure this out alone? At least they had a solution to the first problem, scoping the school with James' invisibility cloak.

Sirius sat in the Great Hall pondering how large the castle actually was. He poked at his food, breakfast never was his favorite meal.

His younger brother, Regulus, entered the hall with some friends he'd made, Sirius supposed. He hadn't spoken to him since summer, still.

Sighing heavily, Sirius looked back to his food.

"Hey Sirius," Estelle said smiling.

Sirius looked up and gave a half-smile.

"What's wrong with you?" she questioned.

"Nothing," Sirius said looking back down.

"Well, it's obviously something," Estelle said.

"No..." Sirius replied, "...Okay, fine. It's my brother. He's the only member of my family who doesn't despise me and we haven't spoken since summer."

Estelle shrugged, "Then, go and talk to him?"

"I could..." Sirius glanced back at his brother, who happened to have looked up at that moment, and shot a small smile a Sirius.

At that, Sirius rose and made his way to the Slytherin table. Glares came from all directions.

"Hi, Sirius," Regulus said, smiling uneasily, likely feeling the tension of the whole table. It was like a family dinner all over again.

"Hey, let's talk for a second, okay?" Sirius said glancing around the table.

"Okay," Regulus nodded, glad to leave the table.

Sirius leaned against the wall of the entrance hall, "How do you like it here?"

"It's really neat," Regulus said, "I like it a lot."

"You like your classes?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, I loved flying, Sirius," Regulus said beaming.

"Good," Sirius smiled.

Regulus grimaced, "Mum is so mad at you..."

"I figured as much," Sirius sighed.

"And dad is likely to kill you for leaving like that," Regulus added.

"Yeah," Sirius said looking up at the ceiling, "I can't help it."

"Sure you can! Why don't you just listen to mum and dad?" Regulus said, looking quite upset.

"It's not that simple..."

"Sure it is!" Regulus exclaimed.

Sirius sighed.

Regulus turned back towards the Great Hall, storming away.

Sirius went back to the Greta Hall, only to gather his things.

"That didn't seem to go well," Estelle said.

"Thank you, Estelle," Sirius said, "the obvious had escaped me..."

She shrugged and gathered her things as well. Together, they walked to Transfiguration, which became increasingly interesting to Sirius, Estelle, James, and Peter.

Moping around did no good, so Sirius straightened up and joined James in making fun of Snape on a daily basis, at least.

The search for an empty classroom wasn't going as well as they'd hoped. There wasn't much time, honestly.

It was mail day, and dozens of owls flew into the Great Hall to bring letters to the students. Sirius sighed, when a family owl landed in front of him and hooted. He untied the letter from it's leg. The owl took his toast and made it's way back out. Sirius unrolled the letter:

Sirius Black,

This letter is to inform you that Andromeda Black had officially been removed from the family tree and disowned for marrying Ted Tonks, once whose blood is not pure, and producing a child. Let this be a warning to all members of the Black family that mixing bloodlines will not be tolerated.

House of Black

Sirius crumpled the paper and threw it to the ground. He got up from the table and started out the hall.

"Sirius," James called, "what are you doing?"

Sirius didn't respond. He continued out of the Hall into the corridors. He continued until he reached the Fat Lady.

"Tea leaves," Sirius growled.

The portrait swung open and he entered the common room. He gathered his things for the next class, but first brought out a piece of parchment and a quill.

Dear Andromeda Tonks,

Congratulations on everything. Sadly, I was informed of your wonderful news in a letter telling me that you were disowned from the Black family. It was a 'warning', but I found it to be quite ridiculous. I'm glad to see that I am not the only member of the 'family' who isn't brainwashed into the pure blood madness.

I really do hope you're doing well, and I would love to hear back from you. You really always have been my favorite cousin and I haven't disowned you. Good luck with your new family.

Love, Sirius Black

He folded the letter and put it in the front of his History of Magic book, considering, if he took any longer, he was going to be late for that class. The letter would have to wait.

Quickly, he pushed the portrait open and turned down the corridor towards Professor Binns' class.

"Where did you storm off to?" James questioned quietly, as Binns went on about the Goblin Rebellion of 1456, or whatever it was.

"I had a very urgent letter to write," Sirius replied, in the same whispering tone.

"About what?" Estelle butted in.

"I'll tell you later," Sirius said, becoming annoyed, "Having detention in a ghost's classroom is creeper than you think. So, shut it, Grant."

Estelle made a face, "Any other time you would be trying to out-talk the teacher."

"Well, today I'm not in the mood," Sirius mumbled.