"Man, you look terrible," said James as he settled himself beside Sirius for breakfast in the Great Hall.

Sirius hadn't been able to sleep a single night at Hogwarts. At first he couldn't sleep because the angry faces of his mother and father danced before his eyes telling him how he had disgraced the family, how he should try being more like his little brother Regulus and asking why he hadn't left Hogwarts now that they hadn't put him in Slytherin. And even after he slept, he had terrible nightmares.

Last night, he had dreamt he was back home staring at what he called the 'wall of elves'. Like always, a row of shrunken, shrivelled up heads of house-elves adorned the wall, but they weren't quite dead like they should have been. Instead, they were whispering and talking among themselves, very much like a certain alive house-elf Sirius knew did in his presence. Before he could get close enough to hear exactly what they were talking about, he had heard great stomping and turned around to find his mother storming down the stairs, screaming at the top of her voice "How dare you come back here?! Such a disgrace! Spoiling the line of Blacks! You are no son of mine!" Before Sirius could say anything in his defence, his mother had turned into a giant dragon and roared at him. And when he had tried to run away, he had realized that there was no floor and that he was standing on nothing at all and had instantly started falling down and woken up in cold sweat to find himself back in the Gryffindor dormitory.

Though, of course, he didn't tell James any of that.

"I had a rough night," he said. "Don't sleep well at new places."

"Did Mommy forget to pack your blankey, Black?"

They both turned around to find Snape sneering at them. Severus Snape was a lanky little Slytherin first year with long greasy hair plastered around his sallow pale face bearing a large hooked nose and cold dark eyes. Sirius and James had met him aboard the Hogwarts Express along with Lily Evans and the four of them had had a less-than-pleasant little conversation before Evans stormed out of the compartment with Snape in her wake.

"You know, Malfoy told me all about your family last night," smirked Snape. "I hope you don't miss Mommy too much, Black, seeing as how she'll probably disown you now that you're not a Slytherin."

"It's still better than having a mother who couldn't care less about her son, Snivellus," Sirius said calmly, though his hands were tightly closed into fists at his side. "When was the last time your mother bought you some shampoo?"

"How- you dare-" spluttered Snape.

"Consider washing the grease off your face sometime, Snape, and maybe your tongue won't slip so much." James added.

"Hey!" called Lily Evans, walking towards them having just enter the Great Hall "Why don't you go prance somewhere else, Potter and leave him alone!"

"Why doesn't he go prance somewhere else and leave us alone, considering this is Gryffindor table?" pointed Sirius.

Lily Evans narrowed her eyes at both of them and then dragged a smirking Snape away with her. "C'mon, Sev."

"Who was that?" asked Remus who was sitting opposite Sirius and looking distastefully at Snape.

"Severus Snape," Sirius told him sitting back down. "Just an upstart Slytherin."

"Don't let him get to your head, Sirius." James patted Sirius on the back, who now having lost his appetite was staring blankly at his bowl of porridge. Though of course it wasn't a question of letting Snape get to his head. Sirius felt as though Snape was already inside it because he had voiced exactly what Sirius had been worrying about the whole night.

All of a sudden, everyone around him gasped. Sirius looked up and like the other first-years around him, caught his breath. About a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall and were circling the tables. Every now and then an owl swooped down as it saw its owner and dropped a package on their lap.

Sirius crossed his fingers beneath the table, unsure of what to expect. On one hand, he hoped he got some sort of letter from his family even if he dreaded what it would say. On the other hand, not getting a letter would confirm they didn't really care, which was something he had feared all his life.

He spotted a smart dusky barn owl, which was the Black family owl and bit his lips in anticipation as it dropped a single letter onto his lap.

With trembling hands, he opened it.

Sirius smiled. So what if he hadn't gotten sweets from his parents like James and Remus or a foot long letter from his mother like Peter, a letter from Regulus was much better than what he had expected. He put the letter into his pocket, determined to remember writing back later.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! :)

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