"Welcome back to Hogwarts." Headmaster Rosier's speech began with that and yet Sirius didn't feeling very welcome. Rosier was a tall man, his hair a dirty blonde and his eyes icy blue. As he looked down from his stand on the first years, Sirius wanted nothing more than to shrink away. This man was evil and he knew it.

"I hope this year is filled with learning for you all," Rosier continued. "The Dark Lord must have able and capable servants and so if you are to secure the best positions at his side I suggest you all listen and obey." He paused for a moment, staring down at the first year table. "For those of you that are new, there are some rules. You are expected to attend each class and maintain a good grade average. You are not to question your professors for they have been put in place by the Dark Lord. There is a curfew at 8 o'clock each night so no students out of bed after that. However, the most important rule is that you are forbidden from entering the dungeons at any time unless you are with a member of staff and have written permission. There are many prisoners we keep in the dungeons and they are dangerous to your pure magical blood. If you want to practise your spells on a specimen then ask a professor to bring one up for you. Otherwise you must never go down there. Failure to comply with the rules will mean severe punishments."

The silence rang around the hall as everyone stared up at the headmaster. Looking around, Sirius could tell that there were two types of student at Hogwarts - those who loved the Dark Lord and those who were too scared to speak their own opinion. It became apparent that he needed to decide which one he wanted to be.

"Now, enjoy the feast."

The only good part about the evening was the food which was as delicious as Sirius always imagined a Hogwarts feast would be. Judging by James's face, he was right to be excited. Conversations had begun around the Great Hall, filling it with the kind of noise Sirius had expected. Yet still, there seemed to be a darkness that hung over Hogwarts that didn't quite belong. This should have been a happy place but it clearly hadn't been for a decade, perhaps since the old Headmaster Dumbledore went missing.

As the curfew approached, students began to leave their tables and head to their dormitories. Two prefects, one boy and one girl, came to collect the first years from their seats and took them up the moving staircases, explaining the patterns along the way.

"We're headed to Gryffindor Tower," James said excitedly. Unfortunately for him, the boy prefect heard him and clipped him round the head.

"We don't call it that," he hissed as James looked up at him, clearly shocked. He obviously had never been hit before. Sirius was jealous of the thought. "It's called Pureblood Tower now. You would do well to remember that." James fell silent after that but Sirius put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

The way to get into 'Pureblood Tower' was by pricking your finger and pressing a drop of blood onto a stone basin. Sirius watched in fascination as the blood seemed to move on it's own towards the centre of the stone then sunk into it. "Only pure blood will allow you to enter," the girl prefect said as the basin dropped into the floor and an empty portrait swung open to reveal the first year common room. "Are there any half-bloods on scholarship here?"

One boy raised his hand timidly. Sirius looked over him, a frown on his face. He had long, black, greasy hair which seemed to hang around his face like a curtain. His nose was much too large for his other features and his clothes extremely shabby. The boy caught Sirius staring and sneered at him, making him blink in surprise. There was no need to be rude.

The girl prefect nodded but looked suspicious. "You'll have to say your password instead," she said. "Your head of year will give it to you each month. For now we'll just let you in normally."

The first years were guided through to the common room where the prefects explained it was where they could do their homework or just chat. "The boy's dormitories are to the left and the girl's to the right. As you're a small group, you'll be able to have a room each as there are seven floors in the tower. We'll leave you now to settle in."

Sirius and James were on the dormitory steps first, hurtling up to the top floor in a race. The two boys laughed as they ran until they reached the top, Sirius reaching the top room first. "I win!" He exclaimed, laughing breathlessly. James smirked at him and went down the few steps that separated the sixth and seventh floor.

"At least I'll be next door then," he said, opening up his room. Sirius did the same, noticing that as he stepped through his trunk suddenly appeared. The room was huge, obviously meant to house at least six students. The only bed was placed by the back wall, the rest of the room a cold and empty space other from the bathroom. Sirius hated it. He hated the loneliness of it. It was just too empty.

Stepping back out into the stairwell, Sirius ran down to James's room to find it much in the same state as his. "This is rubbish," James said to him once he realised Sirius was standing in the doorway. "We should be all together, not separate."

"Not enough students, too much space to fill," Sirius said. "It's definitely horrible." James hummed in agreement. "I don't know, maybe when we learn a shrinking charm we could shrink your bed and bring it up to my room? Then at least we'll both have a mate?" Sirius suggested, hating to see his new friend all glum. This was definitely not what James had expected of Hogwarts, Sirius knew, so he wanted to make it better for him. Immediately, James brightened up at the idea.

"Yeah," he said. "That would be great."

Despite the awful day, Sirius went to bed knowing that he at least wouldn't be alone in this horrible school. But he couldn't sleep. The bed just wasn't comfortable, the room was too silent. Everything was wrong. His head was filled with questions. Why weren't they allowed out past 8 o'clock? What was so bad about questioning his professors? But Sirius kept going back to one question over and over again: why were the dungeons so forbidden?

Against his better judgement, Sirius decided that he should find out just that.

Wrapping a cloak around himself, he crept down the stairs, through the empty common room then out into the halls. Everywhere was silent and dark, only the moonlight through the windows to guide him as he wandered down the stairs. He passed the Dark Arts classroom, the Transfiguration room and eventually found himself at the foot of the stairs for the dungeons. That was where he hesitated. Rosier had clearly said not to go down here without a member of staff so that meant that it probably was dangerous. But surely if they were all behind bars then he'd be safe? He wanted to know what kind of prisoners the Dark Lord kept down there and why they were so terrible. After all, if Sirius was going down there for a learning experience...well, the professors could hardly say no, could they?

Sirius slowly walked down the steps, making sure he was as quiet as possible. Once he reached the bottom, he followed the long corridor lit by burning torches until he reached an iron gate. To his surprise, it was open and unguarded, allowing him to slip into the dungeons unseen.

The dungeons were huge. It was a long stone corridor lined on both sides with cells each occupied with someone or something. Each cell was cut off from the corridor with iron bars, stone walls in-between each one so prisoners couldn't talk to each other. It was cold too, so cold that Sirius could already feel the freezing temperatures seep into his bones. He put his hand to his mouth as he walked through the dungeons, peering into each cage to see muggles huddled up in corners and beautiful creatures in chains. Most appeared to be asleep on the straw that was provided but some were awake, staring at him with vacant and tortured eyes. Some even tried to reach out to Sirius to beg for help.

Sirius all but ran to the end of the dungeons to try and find a way out of the nightmare. He had to be dreaming, he thought. This was too horrific to be real. But all he found at the end was a brick wall stopping him from going any further. He turned back, thinking he might throw up if he stayed here any longer but a voice stopped him.

"Are you alright?" Sirius almost jumped out of his skin, his wand slipping into his hand despite the fact he knew absolutely no defensive spells at all. The voice seemed to have come from the cell to the left and Sirius slowly approached bars, swallowing nervously.

"Who's there?" He asked, trying to make himself sound menacing. It seemed to have the desired effect because as he got closer, Sirius could see the figure of a boy crouched down in the back of the cell. "Who are you?" Sirius called out again. "Come closer."

"What will you do if I do?" the boy said softly. Sirius was slightly taken aback. The slight tremor to the boy's voice sounded like he was scared of Sirius. But why would he be scared? Sirius wasn't going to hurt him.

"Just talk to you," he replied. "Sorry if I sounded scary. It's just...well, you scared me first, you see." There was silence for a moment but then the figure came closer, shuffling through the straw until he was just by the bars. The light from the nearest torch hit his face and it took everything in Sirius not to gasp.

The boy was clearly his age, his hair a light hazel brown colour with chocolate eyes. His clothes were tattered though, only just held together by the threads they were made from. He was thin as well. Sirius wanted to grimace at how prominent the boy's cheek and collar bones were. No doubt he could probably count his ribs as well. Trailing up to his face again, Sirius tried not to stare at the horrible dark shadows under the boy's eyes or the awful scars that cut across his skin. Try as he might, though, the boy caught him staring and shrank back into the shadows again, hiding himself away.

"No, wait!" Sirius said, scrambling forwards to hold onto the bars. "Wait, I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to scare you. It's just...well, I didn't think you'd be so young." In the dark, Sirius could just about make out the boy looking sceptical, like he knew Sirius was lying. Sirius sighed, crouching down and sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Look, maybe we could start again? I think we both made a bit of a mess." He stuck his hand through the bars. "I'm Sirius Black." From the darkness, Sirius could only just see the boy's chocolate eyes which watched him fearfully. Finally, he crept forwards again, sitting just on the edge of the light. Sirius smiled at him, trying to look as nice as possible.

The boy tentatively reached out, shaking Sirius's hand. "Remus Lupin," he whispered.

"Nice to meet you, Remus," Sirius said with a grin.

"Nice to meet you too, Sirius," Remus replied shyly, bringing his knees up to his chest and hugging them close to him. He looked down at the floor just beyond him. "So what brings you here then? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I should be, yes," Sirius said. "But I couldn't. It's my first night here."

"Do you miss home?" Remus asked softly.

"Merlin, no," Sirius laughed. "Home is not that homely, believe me. I think it's because I already don't like it here. I don't believe in the whole pureblood thing but it seems most of the school does. I just hate it here alre-" Sirius cut himself off, suddenly realising that he had no right to complain about the school when sitting in front of him was someone who was locked up in the dungeons. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't be complaining."

"No, it's alright," Remus said, scooting a little closer to the bars. "I don't mind hearing about it."

"But here I am complaining when you're..."

"Locked up?" Remus gave a faint smile, looking down again. "It's okay, Sirius. You don't have to tip toe around it." Sirius licked his lips, swallowing hard.

"How-er," he began awkwardly. "How long have you been here?" Remus looked up, clutching his hands together.

"Here? About six months," he replied. "But captured as a whole? Almost two years now. They moved me from place to place for ages until I ended up here."

"Two years?" Sirius echoed. "That's awful. I mean, you seem nice, Remus, and not dangerous at all. Why on earth would you be a threat? Why would anyone in this dungeon be a threat?" Remus suddenly looked uneasy, shifting slightly. He clearly didn't want to talk about it and so Sirius decided not to push. He didn't want to scare his new friend again. Noticing that Remus was shivering slightly, Sirius frowned and undid his cloak.

"Hey, do you want this for a little bit while we talk?" he asked, pushing the cloak through the bars. Remus looked surprised, his hands running over the soft material of the cloak in fascination. "It's okay, you can use it," Sirius added. "I don't mind."

"Thank you," Remus said, wrapping the cloak around himself. It was a bit big for his thin frame but it would do for now. Sirius thought to himself that he should bring Remus an extra blanket next time he came down here (because now he knew there would definitely be a next time).

Suddenly there was a sharp clang as the metal gate right down the end of the dungeons was pushed open. Sirius jumped up in surprise, recognising the voice of Headmaster Rosier at the end. "Oh Merlin's beard," he said. "They're going to find me."

"Sirius," Remus said, also standing up. "There's a tunnel just below that big stone there. It will take you out." Sirius turned frantically and stood over the stone Remus was pointing to. Bending down, he found that the stone wasn't actually stone at all, but a different, lighter material that he could lift up. Below, just as Remus had said, there was a gap with a ladder below that Sirius quickly scrambled into.

"Wait, Sirius!" Remus whispered. "You forgot your cloak!"

"Keep it," Sirius replied. "You need it more than I do. I'll come back tomorrow night!"

"But-"

"Bye, Remus!" And Sirius pulled the fake stone over his head just in time.

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