Balanced

'Hello, James, did you have a good year?' asked Aunt Susan, when she noticed him coming towards her. James shrugged.

'It was school, wasn't it?' With some help from his aunt, James managed to haul his trunk into the car boot. 'BYE SIRIUS!' he yelled across the car park, seeing his friend leaving with his mother. 'BYE PETER!' The two waved and yelled back. James was about to yell to Remus, but when he saw the look on Aunt Susan's face, he settled for waving instead.

Aunt Susan gestured for him to get into the car and he scrambled in over Simon and sat down.

'Hello, crazy boy,' James said to his foster brother. 'How was your year?'

'I'm not crazy!' insisted Simon.

'OK, OK, Simon, how was your year?'

'It was good,' he said. 'I got a gold certificate for being a good boy.'

'Well, I got several detentions because I was a naughty boy,' said James proudly. He caught Aunt Susan's eye in one of the mirrors and decided not to continue.

'Silly James,' said Simon.

'Yes, very silly James,' agreed James. 'So, Aunt Susan, did anything interesting happen?'

'Well, now that you mention it, yes, there have been quite a few car crashes and gas explosions- all over the country, in fact, but I suppose you'll have heard of this.'

'No,' said James worriedly. 'Where? How? Who?'

'Not too many, dear, just more than is normal. I'm sorry to say that the Martins died in a gas explosion only last week. You know, Lucy, Matthew and their son, Anthony.'

'They did not,' disagreed Simon. 'There was a funny cloud, and these people were there, and they screamed really loudly.' James felt his blood run cold as the image of the cloud under which his parents had died flickered into his mind. The Martins had lived across the road from Aunt Susan.

'Nonsense, dear,' said Aunt Susan. 'It was a loud explosion.' She quickly glanced at James. 'He's been on about this cloud, and these people, ever since it happened.'

'It's true!' whined Simon. 'And then more people came to our house and they asked Mummy what she saw, and she said she saw a cloud and people and screaming, and then they put a stick to her head and said a funny word, and she forgot it all. They were going to do it to me, but one of them said not to do it because I'd forget anyway. And I didn't forget,' he added proudly.

'Well, er, I wasn't there, so I don't suppose I can judge which was right,' muttered James. He knew perfectly well that Simon was correct. It was so typical of the Ministry to think that there was no need to worry about erasing the memory of someone as small as Simon; they'd thought James would forget what had happened to his parents. Not in a million years.

'What did you do at school then?' asked Aunt Susan. James set about talking about a wonderful Muggle boarding school that was perfectly ordinary; and Aunt Susan swallowed it hook, line and sinker. James doubted that she was actually listening; he could have told her they rode super-sized frogs to get to and from their lessons and she wouldn't have noticed. Maybe it was just her, maybe it was the memory charm affecting her concentration.

James had only been in the Muggle world for a few weeks when he received a letter from Sirius asking him to come and stay with him for the rest of the holidays. It read,

Jamesy, lovely to talk to you. I know how much you love living in the Muggle world with no one to play tricks on, so I delayed asking you for a couple of weeks (I needed some time to re-gather my sanity). Mum says you can come over soon if you want. She's worried about something and is overworking herself, she also won't tell me and I haven't managed to find out what yet. Owl me back if you want to stay, and Mum will come and pick you up, the Muggle way of course. Remus won't be there yet, but he will be coming for a bit, and Peter lives in our village, so he'll be here.

Sirius

James had to laugh at the idea of Sirius trying to gather his sanity together; it was unlikely that he'd ever be able to do that. James owled his friend back, saying yes, he could stay, before remembering that he should probably ask Aunt Susan. He wondered what was wrong with Sirius' mother - perhaps it was something to do with all the Muggles being killed.

'Aunt Susan, can I go and stay with Sirius soon?' he asked at dinnertime, while he tried to pretend he liked the burnt meat.

'Are you sure his mother doesn't mind?'

'She doesn't; my other friends will be staying for a bit too. She says she'll take us shopping for our school stuff again.'

'Don't you see your friends a lot in term time?' she asked. 'You'll start to get fed up with them if you're not careful.'

'We got sorted into different houses, we're not allowed in each other's common rooms and we do lessons separately.'

'Couldn't you have asked them to switch or something?' suggested Aunt Susan. James had a strange mental picture of Sirius, Remus and Peter all asking to be transferred to Slytherin.

'Er, no, once you're in a house, you're stuck there.'

'You might as well go then, it'll save me a lot of trouble.' James grinned and choked down another piece of meat; he was unsure of what meat it was and he didn't dare ask; he was happy not knowing.

After a bit more organisation over the course of a few days, James was ready for Sirius and his mother to come and pick him up fairly early on Thursday morning.

His friend ran in, out of breath and ten minutes late.

'Don't tell Mum where I am,' he said urgently, and slipped under James' bed. James wondered how often he would end up trying to conceal Sirius in his bedroom in the years to come. He moved over to the wardrobe in the corner and stood in front of it. He heard Mrs Black knock on the door and Aunt Susan let her in. After a brief exchange of greetings, they both came upstairs. Mrs Black was smiling far too broadly.

'Hello, James,' she said. 'How are you?' She was probably trying to catch him off guard.

'Hello. I'm fine, thank you,' he replied politely.

'Do you want to go then?'

'Where's Sirius?' asked James, innocently.

'Oh, I'm not sure, we can go now.' James suddenly realised that she was expecting her son to leap out from his hiding place, telling her not to leave without him. He hoped Sirius wouldn't. Mrs Black would never leave without him, no matter what she pretended.

'OK,' he agreed. 'Did you bring a car? Or are we going by bus? Or some other way?'

'Bus,' she replied. 'I'll give you a hand with your trunk.' The two headed downstairs and out through the front door, after a quick goodbye to Aunt Susan. They reached the end of the path before Mrs Black stopped, looked around, put the trunk down and stared at James, with her hands on her hips.

'All right, you two win this one. Where is he?' James smirked and Sirius came out from behind a parked car, hooting with laughter. James wondered how Sirius had been able to get from James' room to behind the car, but he didn't ask.

'You're for it, Sirius Black!' she warned. 'Now hurry up, we need to catch the bus. The two of you can take the trunk.' She strode off and the two boys grabbed James' stuff.

'What did you do to make her so angry?' asked James.

'Nothing much, she was just overreacting: I set off three Dungbombs and two different types of smoke bomb just as I was getting off the bus, and then ran.'

'Did it look good?'

'Yeah! Mixture of purple and green smoke, and a really bad stink, and loads of confused Muggles. Wish I had a camera. Mum just got a bit iffy because she's got no sense of humour.'

They took the bus to the Leaky Cauldron, and used Floo powder to get to Sirius' house. The two then dashed upstairs to Sirius' room before Mrs Black could yell at him.

James had always liked Sirius' room. It was right at the top of the house, in the attic. His friend didn't have a proper bed because he insisted on sleeping in a hammock and nothing his mother, father nor anyone else said would change his mind on this. One sloping wall was almost completely taken up by a large window with wooden beams separating it into smaller, irregular panes of glass. Instead of a chair or a sofa, Sirius had a large pile of brightly coloured cushions in one corner. His trunk was open and his clothes and possessions were spread all over the carpet so they were easy to find. James wondered where he was going to sleep. Knowing Sirius, probably on the cushions or the floor.

They dumped his trunk in the corner and both boys flopped onto the cushions.

'So, how's your summer been, mate?' asked Sirius.

'Good, I suppose, although Aunt Susan's cooking hasn't got any better.'

'What's up with her cooking?' James just rolled his eyes. Sirius was the sort of person who, if he saw the words: 'Do not eat - poisonous' written on something, he would eat it and be able to describe it as 'yummy' with a completely straight face.

'Sirius?'

'Yeah?'

'Has your mum told you anything about there being something wrong in the Muggle world?'

'No,' said Sirius, looking confused. 'I haven't overheard anything, either. What's up?'

'According to Aunt Susan, there's been quite a few Muggles that have died while we were at school.'

'So? Muggles die every day.'

'Yeah, but there was one down our street. Aunt Susan said she saw a gas explosion, but my foster brother, Simon, said he saw people and a weird cloud. And later on these people came with "sticks" and made Aunt Susan forget she saw it, but not Simon.'

'Oh,' said Sirius, brows furrowed while he thought. 'Mum hasn't said anything, like I said, but she has been quite overworked.' James swallowed nervously, before opening his mouth to tell Sirius his suspicions.

'It's... it's like when my parents were killed. There was this weird cloud thing in the sky above my house, that's what I thought it was.'

'Er... oh...'

'Articulate today, aren't we, Sirius?'

'Shut up!' Sirius said impatiently. 'Should we ask Mum?'

'I don't think so,' said James slowly. 'She'd only tell us it's not for little boys to know. That's what grown-ups always say when you ask them about interesting stuff.'

'James, the last time you asked your parents anything you were six, you were a little boy, how would you know?'

'Adults don't change.'

During they spent most days with Peter, and Remus came over and stayed a few nights several times. The Muggle village that Sirius and Peter lived in didn't have any other wizards or witches in it, and all four boys found that very boring as it meant they weren't supposed to use brooms, Dungbombs or anything else magical.

*

'Wow! It's amazing!' The four were in Diagon Alley, with Mrs Black waiting impatiently as they looked around Quality Quidditch Supplies. They were now staring at the newest racing broom: the Nimbus One Thousand and One.

'It's far better than yours,' James reminded Sirius, who poked his tongue out.

'Mum,' he began in a whiny, begging voice.

'Don't even think about it,' she replied, looking through the posters that were on sale. 'Yours is still a very good broom, you only got it last year.' Sirius' mother had bought him it as a going-away-to-Hogwarts present and had conveniently forgotten that first years weren't allowed them. James carefully looked over the broom; he did have enough money and buying it would just mean he wouldn't be able to afford as many Dungbombs as he wanted. He reasoned with himself; he could really use a broom, and it wasn't like the Potter vaults would be empty any time soon. Sirius looked at his friend's face.

'You aren't seriously...?' he asked. 'There's not even a place on the Slytherin team.'

'It's not like you're on the Gryffindor team and you have a broom,' replied James. 'Besides, there will be a spaces in third year.' Mrs Black peered at the broom.

'It's quite a good one,' she told James.

'Thanks, Mum,' muttered Sirius, grumpily.

'Are you thinking of purchasing this racing broom, Madam?' A shopkeeper had approached the group. 'It truly is an excellent buy-'

'Me?' snorted Mrs Black. 'Waste my money on a floating tree branch? Not bloody likely. James here is quite interested though.' She gestured to James, who smiled sweetly at the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper, a short man in his mid-fifties, got started on the virtues of that particular broom.

'OK, OK,' snapped James, after about five minutes of listening to the wonders of the Nimbus One Thousand and One. 'I've heard enough, I'll leave if you go on any more.' He pulled a large pile of Galleons out of his moneybag. The shopkeeper smiled broadly and wrapped up a broom for James.

'I can't believe you, James!' moaned Sirius, the second they were out of the shop.

'You're just jealous,' said James, smirking. 'Because your broom's crap compared to mine.'

'As long as you don't mind me stealing it once in a while...' said Sirius, trailing off. James rolled his eyes, but nodded.

'Are you lot coming?' said Mrs Black impatiently. She was waiting by the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.

The rest of the holidays passed uneventfully, Remus had to go home for a bit to go for a short family holiday in Greece. James and the others used his new broom a lot and were seen several times; fortunately, the Muggles that saw them were mostly either drunk or too old to be taken seriously.

*

'I thought your mother said to be back by dark,' said Peter, nervously, peering around, as though expecting something to jump out and attack them.

They were in a small area of woodland, fairly close to the village where Sirius lived. The four of them had been there quite a few times before, but never after sunset. However, with only a couple of days left before they were due to go back to school, they were risking getting into trouble. It was fun to be able to explore there, as there were usually no Muggles around. It looked creepier at that time of night, but the four were used to areas that looked dark, forbidding and above all, out of bounds. The trees seemed to grow taller as it got darker, and there seemed to be far more sudden noises. Sirius scowled at Peter for reminding them. James pulled out his torch from his pocket and turned it on.

'Not dark any more, is it Sirius?' Sirius grinned and peered interestedly at the torch. He could never quite get over the fact that it gave off light like it did.

'Can I hold it?' he asked, and James grinned, giving it to him. The light flickered as he played with the switch, but then he held it out and peered around. Bathed in light, the trees still looked unearthly, but not as bad as in darkness.

'Idiots,' muttered Peter. 'Lumos!' his wand lit up. 'I'd have thought you two of all people would have used magic instead of Muggle stuff.' James pulled a face.

'I suppose we should head back, it's a fifteen minute walk at least,' said Sirius.

'I like it out here,' said Remus, staring around dreamily, 'It's so quiet, and peaceful, and natural. But your mum scares me, so we'd better go.'

'It's as bad as the Slytherin common room,' murmured Peter, and James good-naturedly hit him.

They walked a little further before they heard a piercing shriek. James jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise. A shriek, from the edge of the forest.

There it was! James looked into the sky at the glittering skull and snake that had just appeared. He hadn't expected it to come! It was like going back in time, the death of his parents was there, now, once again he was safe, but they were not. The symbol, a huge, glittering skull and a snake, was calmly positioned in the sky as though it was supposed to be there, but James could only see it meaning death. It was quiet again. James could only guess what had happened. He shook himself, it couldn't be his parents, they were dead!

Could it?

No! But whoever it was would be killed!

He had to see who it was! He wanted to know who had killed his parents all those years ago. He ran forward, barely thinking.

'James! Get back here!'

He ignored the call; it seemed so far away anyway, it was behind him, and unclear. He had to see. He ran on ahead, away from his friends. He had to see, to stop somebody being killed and to find the murderer. He stumbled forward, into the darkness and away from the light. There was another scream; sounding closer this time and James thought he could hear the laughter of the murderers.

His nerve failed him.

He nearly screamed himself, but the instinct that had been there when his parents had died took over - and he dived into a bush, hiding, once again. It was like he was six once more, hiding from a murderer. Trembling in a bush. James had dreamt this scene a few times before, but this was real.

He was lying, all alone, waiting for someone to come and tell him it was alright, tell him no-one was hurt, that it was all a big mistake, that he shouldn't worry really, he and Sirius would laugh about it later, nothing was wrong, everything was good. The area was quiet once more. But the symbol hung in the sky, looking down on James, and he daren't look up at it.

He could have stopped it, he'd failed. He'd done nothing. He could do nothing. He couldn't even find out who it was. Like when his parents...

'James!' called a voice from outside the bush. James nearly yelled. Then he realised that it was Peter.

'Where is he?' said Sirius.

'I don't know,' said Remus. All three of them sounded anxious. James stood up, shaking. All three of them jumped and raised their wands.

'James!' said Sirius, lowering his wand and rushing towards his friend. 'You're really pale!'

'You can talk,' said James, smiling nervously, as all three of them were white-faced. Sirius pulled his friend out of the bushes and gave him a sort-of, embarrassed, half-hug, leaving his hand on the other boy's shoulder.

'Are you OK?' he asked concernedly.

'I'm fine.' James was glad of his friend's support.

'Let's go now,' said Peter, and they hurried out of the trees, away from where the screaming had been.

They were confronted by a Ministry official at the edge of the wood, who instructed them to follow him. He looked slightly white-faced too, and the boys didn't argue. At the edge of the forest, slightly hidden by trees, and not very far from where they must have been, stood a few others, inspecting what looked like two dead bodies. James stumbled slightly on seeing them, unable to keep the look of pure terror from his face. He wished he could stop acting like this, none of the others were. Sirius stopped him from falling and James glanced gratefully at his friend. They stopped, barely feet away from the bodies and another Ministry official came up.

'I found this lot at the edge of the woods; judging by the looks on their faces, I'd say they've seen something,' said the man who had found them.

'OK, what did you lot see?' Sirius glanced at the others before speaking.

'Well, we heard someone screaming, then that sign thing went up in the sky, and I think they killed the first person. Then another person screamed, and got killed.'

'What are your names? Where do you live?'

'I'm Sirius Black; this is Peter Pettigrew, we both live near here. Remus Lupin and James Potter are our friends from school, and they're staying with me.'

'Black? Potter? You're wizards?' The Ministry official had obviously thought that they were Muggles.

'Yeah,' said Sirius. 'We're starting our second year at Hogwarts in a few days.'

'Who died?' asked James, and the official looked oddly at him.

'I'm not allowed to disclose that sort of information,' he said eventually. 'I'll get your parents to come and get you. Wait here.' He walked off to talk to a lady who was giving orders to the others and spoke quietly to her; then he Disapparated.

Half a minute later, he reappeared, with the recognizable form of Sirius' mum by his side. She strode over to the four boys and James braced himself for the lecture.

'Are you alright!?' she asked anxiously and gave them all a quick hug. Sirius was in too much shock to comment on her mental health just then. 'Mr Dredon told me what happened,' she said, indicating to the man who had questioned them. She walked towards the lady in charge and the four followed her, hoping she wouldn't notice.

'Good evening, Mary,' she said stiffly and the lady shook her head sadly.

'Not so good, I'm afraid.'

'Who was it?' With a small glance towards the boys, as though unsure whether they were supposed to hear, the lady answered.

'Rebecca Buckland,' she said, and Remus gasped. James recognized the name - she was a Ravenclaw in their year. 'Her family are staying with Muggle cousins in the village, she was out with her cousin and they were both killed.'

'Is it... you know... him?'

'Yes, I think so.' James exchanged a confused glance with the others but none of them understood any better than he did.

' We'd better be going now, I expect I'll have some work to do tomorrow,' said Mrs Black and turned to walk away. She walked quickly and they hurried away from the scene. They walked in silence, not wanting to discuss anything while Mrs Black was there. It took only ten minutes to get back to the house. 'I suggest you go up to your room now and relax a little. Don't scare yourselves. I'll contact your mother, Remus,' and she left the room.

'James, are you OK?' asked Remus, straight away.

'Yeah, I'm fine.' James felt his face grow slightly red.

'Look James,' said Sirius, 'You don't have to be that smart to realize that something was seriously wrong out there. You could have got yourself killed, running off like that.'

'That's the sign, Sirius,' he said, carefully, before filling the others in. 'The night my parents were murdered, that sign appeared above my house, and Simon, my foster brother, remembers that it's been used at least once on Muggles this year because the Ministry didn't memory charm him.'

'Why did you run towards it then?' asked Peter. 'You knew that someone was being killed and you went straight towards it.'

'I dunno,' said James and the others exchanged a worried glance. 'I suppose maybe I wanted to stop it, and I wanted to see who killed my mother and father.'

'Don't you think,' said Remus, slowly, 'that this might be that person Sirius told us about at the beginning of first year?'

'Possibly,' said Sirius. 'There's nobody else I've heard about who's killed people like that. All I heard is that he was gaining strength, but it seems all these Muggles have been killed, while we were at school. It was a witch this time.'

James heard Mrs Black return with Mrs Lupin in the room next to them.

'Sh!' he hissed and went over to the door, and pressed his ear against it. The others shortly followed. The voices were too muffled to hear properly, but James grabbed a glass from the counter and held it up against the door to listen; Remus, Sirius and Peter copied him.

'They're all alright, but it was close,' came Mrs Black's voice.

'Thank Merlin,' said Elizabeth Lupin, relieved. 'They must have been terrified. Are you going to tell Peter's parents?'

'I'll have to see, it might be better not to tell them, they are Muggles, after all.'

'Hmm, maybe, but some Muggles will find out. Martin will have to know.' Martin was Remus' father.

'It's all been Muggles before, I don't know if the killing of a witch was intentional or not. She was a Muggle-born and my sources tell me that's exactly who he doesn't like. Muggles are like pets to him, Muggle-borns are like animals masquerading as humans, he feels they're dangerous. Typical Slytherin.' Sirius sniggered very quietly and James gave him a look.

'Does that mean Remus is in trouble for being a half-blood?' asked Elizabeth, nervously. 'As well as Peter, I mean.'

'Only for the company he keeps,' replied Mrs Black. The four boys glanced at each other, confused. 'I doubt being a half-blood would bother him too much.'

'Is it because Peter's a Muggle-born?' asked Elizabeth, concerned.

'No, although Peter needs to be careful.' Did that mean the killer - James couldn't remember the name Sirius had used - was after either him or Sirius?

'Great move, Mum,' murmured Sirius. 'Now she'll be keeping Remus away from us.' They heard Mrs Black get to her feet, inside the room and all the boys backed away rapidly.

Not quickly enough.

Mrs Black looked down at the four boys: in their hurried movement, Remus had tripped and the other three had landed on top of him, so they were now in a messy heap, each still carrying their glass. James waited for the explosion. She glared at them all.

'Can I not even trust you enough to let me speak privately with a friend? Do I always need to check behind the door?' She wasn't shouting, but she was angry, and disappointed. 'Go up to bed, now.'

The four made no argument as they hurriedly ran up to Sirius' room, still clutching the glasses they'd used.

'What do you think all that was about?' asked Sirius. 'Lord Voldemort is after one of us?' James secretly guessed that it was probably him, because of his parents' murders. Or maybe it was Sirius: he was from a prominent Gryffindor family, though his mother worked as a spy.

'No idea,' he replied honestly. 'And with your mum like that, it'll be a while before we find out.'