"I can't believe you went down to the dungeons last night!" James whispered excitedly to Sirius over breakfast the next morning. Sirius gave him a tired smile as he tucked into his eggs and bacon, rolling his eyes at his friend's excitement. They had both been the first up in the morning and decided to head down to breakfast while they were waiting for the rest of the first years to come downstairs. By mid-breakfast, all of the girls had managed to find their way down but there were still three boys missing, including that rude half-blood boy from last night.

"I mean, are you going to go back?" James kept going on.

"I think so," Sirius said, nodding. "That kid I found, he seemed really nice. And it really is horrible down there. Maybe he could use a friend?" James grinned at him, giving him a slight shoulder nudge. Sirius only rolled his eyes, ignoring the mad boy next to him and focused on his breakfast. Just as most people were about to go to classes, the remaining three boys were tearing down the stairs, their robes flapping behind them.

"Slept in, did you?" James laughed, only going for a joke but the greasy-haired boy glared at him.

"Well you could have woken us up," he snapped, pushing past him and heading towards the potions classroom which was their first class.

"Rude much," Sirius muttered.

"Yeah, he's been like that all morning." James and Sirius turned to the smaller boy with straw like hair who had tumbled down the stairs with those who were late. His cheeks were bright red from exertion, obviously not much used to running like that. "His name's Severus Snape or something like that.

"More like Snivellus Snape if you ask me," James snickered, elbowing Sirius who laughed with him.

"Yeah," the other boy chuckled, only joining in after the other two had started laughing. "Yeah, Snivellus Snape!"

"What's your name then?" James asked the boy, holding out his hand for him to shake.

"Peter Pettigrew," he replied. "And you two are James Potter and Sirius Black, aren't you? Ruddy brave you were last night when you told the prefect it was Gryffindor Tower. I thought you were awesome." James's smile widened at this as did Sirius's. It was clear their names were going to be remembered for a long time, and they hadn't even had their first lesson yet!

The three boys wandered down to the potions classroom, chatting excitedly with each other as they went. Peter came from a pureblood family (obviously) who had sworn allegiance to Voldemort when it became clear he was going to win the war, although the Pettigrew family kept their heads down throughout. Being a 'loyal pureblood', Peter had been given automatic acceptance into the school although just by talking with him, Sirius could tell he didn't exactly have a lot of brains. But he was a nice enough lad so Sirius decided he would be a good mate. His mother was probably going to have a heart attack knowing the first two friends Sirius had made were not avid supporters of the Dark Lord. But then again, she had only ordered that he make friends with purebloods, which he had done so she didn't have much to complain about.

Well, except Remus. But she wouldn't know about Remus. Not now and not ever.

In fact, Remus was all Sirius really thought about during potions. It was clear to him that Slughorn was a total bore and potions really wasn't his thing, so he spent the class doodling on his parchment and thinking about the boy locked up in the dungeons. Remus was certainly a mystery. He had spent two years in the captivity of the Dark Lord and yet had been really shady about why. He couldn't have been a muggle because surely he would have told Sirius that and he definitely wasn't a magical creature either. So why exactly was he locked down there? Was he a muggle-born wizard or a half-blood? But either of those would have been in slavery or killed on sight, unless he was a loyal half-blood which Remus clearly wasn't. And then there were those scars that crisscrossed over his face. Those were the most intriguing, but the boy was clearly sensitive about them and it made Sirius scared to ask.

The class ended swiftly and the first years all trudged over to transfiguration next which was taught by Professor Flint. She was a short woman but packed a punch, shouting and glaring at every student who failed to complete her task. Poor Peter was yelled at so many times that Sirius thought he was going to faint on the spot as the first years tumbled out of the class to go to lunch. Charms was next where they learnt the lumos charm to help them in the dark. Professor Fawley was actually an okay teacher which made charms all the more better. Sirius actually enjoyed the lesson, thinking about maybe showing Remus later that night. He left charms in a fairly good mood until he realised what the last class of the day was. Double Dark Arts. Suffice to say that Sirius had not been looking forward to this class at all and by the looks of James's pale face, he felt the same.

They reached the dark arts classroom last, dawdling in and slumping into seats at the very back of the class. At the front, Sirius spotted the three other first year boys chatting excitedly including Evan Rosier (the son of the headmaster), Corban Yaxley and Severus Snape. Already, Sirius hated the sight of them. He was surprised at Snape though. Surely Rosier and Yaxley would have hated him because of his lineage. But no, they were talking to him like they were old friends. It was obvious that they were all dark.

Suddenly, the shutters all snapped closed, plunging the room into darkness. Next to him, Sirius felt James stiffen, his hand reaching for his wand in his pocket. What are you going to do, James? Sirius thought to himself. You don't know any defensive spells at all.

"Good afternoon, first years," a silky smooth voices called from the front of the classroom. Sirius let his eyes adjust until he came face to face with his dark arts teacher. "I am Professor Avery, your dark arts teacher. This class is extremely important if you are going to go on and serve our Dark Lord well, so I suggest that you all pay attention if you wish to go unpunished." Sirius gulped. This man clearly took no nonsense. He had met him once before at a dinner party at the Malfoy's. Even at his young age then, Sirius remembered the hairs pricking up on the back of his neck and a shiver going down his spine in his presence. He felt the same now, staring up at the black-haired man whose face was hard and cold.

"Now, for our first lesson we will be going over a jinx that you can use to attack someone if you come across a threat," Avery continued, turning to the chalkboard and writing the name of the jinx upon it. "It is only minor but are easy to accomplish and therefore provide a good starting point."

Sirius recognised the jinx written on the board as the finger-removing jinx. His mother had once threatened to use it on Kreacher when he forgot to bring out the sugar with the tea. Avery set them on the task of practising the wand movement and the pronunciation for the jinx before bringing them one by one up to the front. Rosier was the first to be called up and he performed a perfect finger-removing jinx on a spider that sat in Avery's desk. The professor applauded him as he sat down.

"Very good, Mr Rosier," he said. "Talented like your father. Who's next?" Each student went up to the front and attempted to perform the jinx. By the end of the class, only James, Sirius, Rosier and Snape had actually managed to perfect it. Some of the girls had managed to make a slash in spider but not sever one of it's legs completely, like Violeta Bulstrode. But Yaxley and Peter were the only two that hadn't managed it and were quickly called out and punished by Avery.

As they walked to dinner that night, Peter had silent tears running down his face as he held his wrist which bore fresh, red marks were Avery had struck a stinging spell.

"It'll be alright, Pete," Sirius said to him as they sat down at the first year table. "You'll get it eventually."

"What kind of class was that, though?" James hissed. "We're first years and already they're teaching us how to cut someone's fingers off? It's barbaric!"

"I'm with you, mate," Sirius said. "But if we're going to survive here, we might just have to go with it." James set his jaw, shaking his head with anger in his eyes.

"I hate this," he said. "This isn't learning real magic. This is learning how to be a mindless torturer!"

"Keep it down!" Sirius whispered, his eyes flicking nervously to the head table where the staff were seated. "We don't want to attract attention to ourselves." James scowled down at his plate, muttering under his breath to himself.

"Anyway," Sirius said, changing the topic. "I was thinking maybe we should go on an adventure tonight." Peter looked up at him, eyes wide with shock.

"An adventure?" He squeaked. "I don't want to get in trouble again, Sirius."

"We won't get in trouble, Pete," James said, turning his eyes up to meet Sirius's with a grin spreading across his face. "What did you have in mind, Black?" Sirius allowed himself to smirk.

"You boys wondered where the kitchens are?" He said. James laughed, his eyes bright with mischief.

"I reckon we should find out," he said. "Can't be that hard to find them. How about we go tonight and steal ourselves a midnight snack, hey boys?"

"Tonight?" Peter asked. "But we aren't allowed out of bed after hours! What if we're caught?!" Sirius resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"We won't be caught," he said. "Come on, Pete, lighten up a bit. It'll be fun." Peter looked nervous and bit his lip anxiously. But the excited look on the other two boy's faces pressured him and he found himself agreeing with what they were saying. Besides, food was food and Peter never missed a good opportunity to find a decent snack.

"Alright," he said. James's face broke out into a grin.

"Good," he said. "This will be so cool!" Sirius smiled and nodded, already thinking about the food they were going to steal and how Remus would love what Sirius was going to steal for him.

***

That night, Sirius, James and Peter all sneaked out of their dingy dormitories and successfully discovered the hiding place of the kitchens. James was the one to figure it out, telling the others that he had heard a rumor about fruit and a picture and put it together from there. Although Sirius was highly suspicious that James had 'heard' this rumor in the two days they had been here, he didn't complain as they stepped through the secret entrance and found themselves in a huge kitchen area.

After that, seeming as there were no house elves around, they helped themselves to plenty of food, mostly just the left overs from the feast that night. They talked and joked as they ate and for once, Sirius actually felt pretty happy. James and Peter were good mates and it seemed that they could make Hogwarts bearable, despite the awful classes and the pureblood mania. 

"Urgh," James groaned, throwing his head back and lying across the table as he clutched his stomach. "I am so full. I don't think I could ever eat again!" Rolling his eyes at his dramatic friend, Sirius picked up his plate and started loading it with food again.

"You can't still be hungry!" James exclaimed, laughing as Sirius was piling up the plate. 

"I'm not," Sirius assured him. "But Remus might be." 

"Who's Remus?" Peter asked, his voice muffled as he dug into his third slice of cake of the night. 

"The kid you found in the dungeons, right?" James asked, sitting up suddenly and looking concerned. "You're going back there?"

"Well yeah," Sirius said as if it were obvious. "I promised, didn't I?" 

"I suppose," James said reluctantly. "But you were almost caught last time. Do you really think it's a good idea to be going back so soon?"

"You don't have to come," Sirius pointed out. James looked conflicted, flitting his eyes to Peter who had once again become engrossed in his food and paid no heed to the conversation. But there was something else there too, something that Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on. It was the third time he had become suspicious of James in the last two days. Not that he doubted that James's intentions weren't good. It was just...something else. 

"Well? You coming or not?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. James looked to Peter but then sighed.

"Someone has to make sure you don't get yourself killed," he muttered, rising to his feet and pulling Peter up with him.

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