The Change

"Watch out James!" I yelled, ducking behind a tree as a snowball came zooming past my head. I grabbed a handful of snow and threw it back at my attacker. I heard Peter yell as it hit him in the face. James laughed and gave me a thumbsup, quickly throwing two more at Remus.

We played like this for another hour until we all collapsed into the snow. Now completely exhausted, I looked up to see what damage we had caused. Peter had a bruise forming above his eyebrow where I had hit him with an ice ball by accident and James had a cut from falling into the bush, but other than that we were all fine. After a few minutes of lying quietly, Remus said, "So, who won?"

James sat up right away, all thoughts of exhaustion lost. "What do you mean, who won? Sirius and I killed you."

Remus smiled at him and said, "I don't know. I think it was pretty close. Look at that cut you've got. What about you, Pete?"

"We won, no question," Peter replied, throwing Remus an impish grin.

"What are you guys talking about?" James said, standing up. "Sirius and I won. You guys surrendered."

"Did we now? I thought we all surrendered at the same time when we fell to the ground," Remus replied.

"No," James said and I could tell he was starting to get angry. "Sirius, we won right?"

I looked at Remus who smiled at me, and I said, "I don't know James. I think they may have won."

"What?" James screamed. "You can't possibly be serious."

"No, I'm definitely Sirius."

"Shut up," he snapped.

"Oh grow up, James, we're just messing with you," Remus said.

"Really, James, always so competitive. You make it way too easy," I put in, lying back down.

"Oh," James said sheepishly, sitting back down. He was quiet for a few minutes and then he said, "So we won, right?"

James was nearly knocked over as three snowballs hit him at once. James tried to look angry with us, but we were laughing so hard that he finally gave in and grinned also. After a few minutes and a few more snowballs I stood up and put my hands in between my friends. I took a dramatic breath and said, "My friends, we must stop this. We are wasting precious time and energy fighting amongst ourselves when we have much better things to be doing."

"You're right," James said, hanging his head in shame. "We should go back inside and sort this out like the mature people we are."

"Of course, you're both right," Remus put in. "A pillow fight it is, then."

"Yes!" James, Peter and I yelled.

"The last one to the castle is a rotten egg!" Peter yelled before running off. James ran off after him, hitting him with one more snowball as he ran past. Remus and I exchanged a look before chasing after James.

"Hey James, look at this," Remus said, tossing James the Daily Prophet. James caught it and opened it to look at the front cover.

"Another mysterious disappearance? What's your point?" James asked.

"Don't have one, really. I just think it's a little odd that so many people have been disappearing lately, don't you? All of them work for the Ministry, too."

I grabbed the paper. A picture of a young witch was waving on the front page. She had gone missing Monday on her way home from work. "Does it say what department she works for?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think she's an Auror," Remus said.

At this James sat up straight and said, "Have all the disappearances been Aurors?"

Remus looked thoughtful and said, "Yeah, I think so. All Aurors or families of Aurors."

James paled and said, "My Dad's an Auror."

"Oh," Remus said.

I put a hand on James's shoulder and said, "I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Don't worry about it. Your Dad will be fine."

"Yeah," James said, but he still looked scared. I glanced around the Great Hall trying to find something to distract him. My eyes landed on our future victim and I smiled widely.

"James, look. It's our favorite Slytherin," I said pointing across the Great Hall. James looked around and took out his wand.

"What do you have in mind?" James asked.

"I think Snivellus might want us to spice up his lunch, don't you?" I said, standing up.

"Guys," Remus, said frowning at us.

"Don't worry Remus, James and I are just going to have a little fun."

We walked away from the table and I heard Remus say, "That's what I was worried about."

We walked up behind Snape and I poked him in the back with my wand. Immediately his hand shot for his but I was quicker and grabbed his wrist. "What's up, Snivy?" I asked.

"Get off me," he spat in my face.

"That's no way to act. James and I just came over here to ask how your day was going. Someone should teach you some manners," I said. I was watching James out of the corner of my eye as he quickly poured a small vial onto Snape's food. He nodded at me and I turned back to Snape. "Well, dear Snivellus, we must be going. We should get together sometime to talk about your problems. I think I know a few spells that could help."

We walked away from him and I heard him say, "Stupid blood traitors. You'll pay. You'll all pay."

We sat back next to Remus and he gave us a questioning look. "Wait a minute, Remus. Patience is a virtue."

Peter quickly turned to the Slytherin table, staring at Snape with a strange look in his eyes. He looked almost hungry, like torturing Snape was what made his day worthwhile. James frowned at him. "Pete, if you like to see Snape pranked so much why don't you help us?"

Peter looked back at him and said, "I'm not as talented as you or Sirius. I'd mess it up somehow."

"You've got to have more confidence in yourself, that's your only problem, Pete," Remus said.

"Can we please discuss Peter's many problems after we have our fun," I asked, turning back to the Slytherin table where Snape was taking a bite of his food. "Yeah, eat up, Snivellus," I muttered.

Another Slytherin first year sat down next to Snape and they started talking. After about thirty seconds Snape looked down at his plate and dropped his fork. He grabbed his hand and started running out of the hall but he tripped and when he stood up again everyone was staring at him. Snape was covered in fastgrowing, black hair. I laughed and shouted, "Forgot to shave, Snape? Can you even see with your hair so greasy?"

James and Peter fell over laughing and Remus just frowned before turning back to his lunch. Professor Marchi led Snape out of the hall and everyone turned back to their food.

"That was brilliant," James said.

"I'm glad you thought it was so funny, Mr. Potter. Twenty points from Gryffindor and two days of detention for you and Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall said, coming up behind James. She turned on her heel and walked away, leaving James looking moody and Remus nodding.

"What are you nodding at, Remus? It was fun, just some harmless fun," I said.

Remus glared at me, "It was mean and you should leave him alone."

"What did he ever do for you that you're defending him?" I asked.

"Nothing, but nobody deserves to be treated like that," he said, "You treat him like a toy. Like he's something for you to test your experiments out on. The only reason you even did that was because James was upset and you wanted to distract him."

"Stop acting so noble. You always help us when we prank the Slytherins," I said.

"When they deserve it yes, I do. That was uncalled for. Plus we don't normally single the Slytherins out and embarrass them."

James was glaring at Remus to now, "You don't think taking their underwear or dying their clothes pink is embarrassing?"

"We weren't singling them out then. You were just being bullies now."

"If you didn't like it why didn't you stop us?" James hissed.

Remus stared at him, grabbed his books, and stood up, "I'm going to the library. I have to look some stuff up for Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'll see you guys later."

I watched him as he walked out of the Great Hall and James mumbled, "He always runs away to the library."

"Yeah, don't worry about him, he's just being Remus. It's like he feels he has to be nice all the time," I said.

"Yeah, I know. I mean Snape deserves it, right? Nasty Slytherin," James said.

"Definitely. Come on, let's go back to the common room," I said.

James, Peter and I walked out of the Great Hall and up the staircase. We reached the seventh floor and went to turn down the hallway to the Fat Lady when four people blocked our way. Rough hands pushed me backwards and I looked into the glaring eyes of Rodolphus Lestrange and his brother Rabastan. My cousins Bellatrix and Naricissa were standing off to the side.

"What do you want Bella?" I asked, grabbing my wand.

"Just to have a little chat with you, dear cousin," she replied, sneering at me.

"Then talk," James said.

"I don't remember saying I wanted to talk to you, Potter. I'd never sink so low. You and Pettigrew can go to your common room. This is between Sirius and me," Bellatrix said, never taking her eyes off of me.

"No, whatever you say to me they can hear," I said.

"We're not leaving, Bella," James said.

"All right, fine," Bella sighed and signaled to Rodolphus, who pointed his wand quickly at James and then Peter and Stunned them.

"Hey!" I yelled pointing my wand at Bella. "Wake them up."

"No," she said. "We need to talk privately. Why do you think I'm here, Sirius?"

"I thought you were going to get us back for Snape," I said.

"So trivial. No, dear cousin, I will let Snape handle his own revenge. I'm here to talk about something much more important," Bella said, glancing around one more time to make sure no one was listening.

"Spit it out, then," I said. My shoulders relaxed. I could tell Bella really did want to talk, at least for now. She was being too careful not to be heard. Although, I thought to myself, standing in the middle of a hallway wasn't very private.

"I assume you've noticed the attacks on the Auror families," she said.

"Yeah, what about them?" I asked.

"They aren't random attacks, Sirius. There is a new dark power rising. Everyone in Slytherin house is talking about him. He calls himself the Dark Lord, or Lord Voldemort. He has a great plan to rid the wizarding world of mudblood filth. He is staying underground now, gathering followers. I don't think my parents have joined him yet, but it's only a matter of time. Lucius Malfoy has plans to find him and join his forces. Slytherin house is practically buzzing with excitement waiting for Lucius to return and tell us more about this Dark Lord. I know we're young to be thinking about these things but it is just such a great idea. As soon as I am old enough I will be joining. What I wanted to know, Sirius, is are you interested in helping the cause? Just because you were sorted into Gryffindor doesn't mean you have to abandon all your principles. You are still my cousin, Sirius, and I'm willing to allow you to be part of this incredible event."

I stared at her. Had she really just said that? Immediately I thought no, I wouldn't want to join them. I looked a Bella about to tell her to go suck a dungbomb when I thought of something. My parents would forgive me if I joined this new Dark Lord. They would love me, again. I realized again how much I missed them. I missed having parents who cared about me. I wanted them to be proud of me.

"Well, Sirius?" Bella said.

"I..." Looking at her again, I knew what I had to say. "Let me get this straight. You want me to join a dark force that wants to kill all mudbloods? He probably wants to destroy anyone who isn't a pureblood, right?"

"Eventually, I guess," she said.

"Ok, now explain to me why I would want to help you kill the only people that have showed any compassion for me since I got sorted into Gryffindor. I'd be signing Remus, Peter and James's death warrants by joining. James isn't considered a pureblood, by you people, is he? Blood Traitors won't live either, I'm sure. Sorry, Bella, I just can't see how this would be a good idea. You have fun torturing innocent people," I spat in her face.

She shook her head, "Poor cousin. Letting your Gryffindor traits get in the way of this opportunity. You remember this, Sirius, when you find yourself at the end of one of our wands. You have made the wrong decision, cousin." She turned to Rodolphus and Rabastan and said, "Teach him a lesson. One like his father tried to teach him."

She stepped back next to Narcissa, who smiled at her. Rodolphus and Rabastan came at me and I stepped back. Rabastan was the youngest and he was three years older then I, Rodolphus was four. "Bloody hell," I muttered.

Rodolphus knocked me to the ground and Rabastan kicked me in the chest a few times. I felt something crack. I tried to get up and fight back but Rodolphus just pushed me back down. After a few more punches I heard Bella tell them to stop. She walked towards me and I stood up, not letting her see that I was hurt. "Is that all you've got, Bella?"

"No, now I'm going to have my fun with you," she said and for the second time that month I heard a spell that was new to me. I fell to the ground as my knees gave out and I yelled in pain. It only lasted a second and Bella said, "We can't have you yelling for help when we leave. Silencio. Now back, to what I was doing." She shot another spell at me and suddenly I couldn't see, or hear. I tried to get up but found my legs wouldn't move. I felt one more curse hit me and I tried to yell in pain but no sound came out.

Nothing else hit me and I was relieved and terrified. I was alone in this hallway. I couldn't move, I couldn't see and I couldn't yell for help. How long would I be stuck like this? After a few minutes my eyes flew open. I sat up and found Remus looking at me.

"You missed an exciting duel," he said, and I saw a deep cut going across his face.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"Much better then they are," Remus said, smiling. I looked behind him to find my cousins and the Lestranges passed out on the floor. Bella had tentacles growing out of her head and Rodolphus was doing a jig in his sleep.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I came down here. Saw Bella had her wand on you and you weren't moving. I hid on the stairs and stunned Narcissa and Rabastan before anyone even noticed. Then Rodolphus saw me and we had a little duel. I won."

"Thank you," I said.

"You're welcome. You should probably go to the hospital wing," Remus said, looking concerned.

"Yeah. They didn't do much. I think I cracked a rib, that's all. You should go too," I said.

"I'll come. Maybe we should wake Peter and James up, too." He said, smiling. He turned around and pointed his wand at them.

"What's going on," James said sitting up.

"Remus and I are just heading to the hospital wing. We had a little duel while you slept," I said, starting to walk away. I stopped suddenly and looked back, "Hey, James, why don't you take my cousins and their cronies and hid them somewhere while we're gone?"

James stood at attention and said, "Will do!" He walked to Bella and started rolling her down the hallway.

I laughed and Remus and I walked to the hospital wing. Suddenly Remus said, "I'm sorry for yelling at you guys before. I was just upset because my Mum is sick again. I probably have to go visit her soon."

"No, it's okay. We probably were a little out of hand," I said.

"OK. So anyway," Remus said. "What was that about?"

"I'll tell you later. James has to hear it, too. I think we're all in for an interesting adventure."

"Not another one," Remus said.