Three months had passed and the term was about to end already. Everyone was in high spirits in the Gryffindor house as Mark Mason, their Quidditch captain, had won them their first Quidditch match against Slytherin. The celebration for the Gryffindor victory had lasted throughout November, all thanks to James who could very efficiently sneaked out snacks from the kitchens late at night, unnoticed by the patrolling teachers and prefects.

One early December morning Sirius woke up to find the grounds covered in several feet of snow and the lake frozen solid. Christmas was near. As the others rejoiced the prospects of Christmas holidays, Sirius's heart felt weighed down by the slightest idea of going back home. Sure he missed his family but just not quite enough to make him want to go back home.

He sat lazily under their usual beech tree watching James, who had somehow managed to bewitch a fat little snowman that Peter had made to swear loudly at everyone who passed.

"What is wrong with you?" James elbowed him, his cheeks flushed red with all the laughing.

"Ouch! That hurts, you know."

"Oh, cheer up!"

"I would, if you stopped doing that," said Sirius, elbowing James back.

"Alright, this is getting quite boring now," said James after a while, pointing at the snowman as it suddenly yelled 'poop head' at a passing by Ravenclaw second year boy who shrieked like a baby and then fled the scene. James got up and brushed the snow off his cloak. "I say we go and meet Hagrid."

Sirius shrugged and stood up and together they walked towards Hagrid's hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"You know," said James, "someday, we should check out the forest. It's the only place we haven't been."

"That and the willow," added Sirius. "Peter heard Davey Gudgeon tell Jason that there's a tunnel between its roots. He saw it just before he got smashed."

Davey Gudgeon was a Hufflepuff fifth year who had nearly lost his eyes earlier that month while on a dare to touch the Whomping Willow's trunk. This incident had made the tree all the more interesting for Sirius and James, though it had also made Dumbledore put a blanket ban on students from going anywhere near it.

"I know," said James. "But I doubt that we'll be able to do that, especially since Dumbledore's asked Hagrid to keep watch."

*

"All right, I'm done!" said Peter as he slammed his Transfiguration book shut. "This is it. I can't do it. Transfiguration is not my piece of cake."

He rolled up his incomplete homework and started stuffing it in his bag. They were sitting on a table by the fire in the crowded Gryffindor common room. Sirius was helping Remus come up to scratch with all the school work he had missed while he was home to see his sick mother and James sat there absentmindedly rolling his wand between his fingers as if in deep thought.

"Why don't you just copy mine," said Sirius as he dug his homework out of his bag and passed it to Peter who took it looking extremely relieved and grateful. Remus opened his mouth, probably to protest, but then changed his mind and continued with his DADA homework.

"You know," James said abruptly, "I wonder what's at the end of the tunnel."

"The tunnel?" asked Remus stealing a glance at James and then continuing with his school work. But Sirius knew from their talk earlier what James was talking about. They had spent the afternoon bugging Hagrid about it too after all. And then discussed it later on their way back to the castle. According to James, the Whomping Willow was just a convenient way to hide a path which led outside Hogwarts.

"Consider all the possibilities, all the sneaking out and all the extra sweets we could get if this were true," James had said. Sirius, on the other hand, wasn't really bothered at all. It was probably just a big hole. Who knew if it even existed; maybe it was all just a rumour.

"You know, the one under the willow." James voice brought Sirius back to the present.

At once Remus's hands stopped on the parchment and Peter looked up at James and then Remus.

"Maybe we should check it out," said Sirius sarcastically.

"Check out- willow- you can't- dangerous-" sputtered Remus. He placed his quill down on the parchment, heaved a great breath and went on.

"The willow's too dangerous. You know what happened to Davey Gudgeon," he said. "And besides, it's against the rules to go anywhere near it."

"Calm down, Remus, I wasn't being serious," said Sirius with the faint smile.

James snorted and then said- "I wish there was a way we could check it out though."

"No!" Remus snapped, wiping the grin off of Sirius's face. "Not the Willow," he said resolutely. 

"Merlin's beard Remus, calm down," said James apprehensively, "We won't really do it."

A faint smile appeared again on Sirius's face as James turned to him and winked dramatically. Remus slammed his palm on the table. "I'm not kidding," he said, "Give me your word."

"Don't you think you're being a tad bit dramatic?" asked Sirius, feeling rather irked. James and Sirius talked about exploring the forest all the time, that had never inspired such a reaction from Remus. He just couldn't seem to fathom why the Whomping Willow was so important to Remus. 

"Give me your word," Remus repeated and looked at them all pointedly, one by one. 

"Okay, okay!" James caved in, "I just don't see why this is such a big deal all of a sudden but if it means so much- fine, you have my word."

Remus cleared his throat. "Well then- I- I think- I'm done for the night," he announced wiping his forehead on his sleeve quickly. He then rolled up his homework, stuffed it hastily into his bag and disappeared up the spiral staircase that led to the boys' dormitory.

Sirius wondered what that was about and was just about to get up and follow Remus himself when James prodded his arms and then pointed at the window across the room. A grey barn owl was sitting on the windowsill outside and tapped its beak on the glass briskly once he had Sirius's attention. Sirius recognized it at once as Grey, the Black family owl, and reluctantly moved towards the window to let him in while crossing his fingers in his robe pockets hopefully. He didn't again know what he wanted as he tore the letter off Grey's legs. A letter from Regulus would be nice but his parents hadn't really written to him even once throughout his stay at Hogwarts.

He unrolled the parchment by the dark window and read the letter, hastily glancing back once towards the table across the room, to make sure that James and Peter were still there and hadn't decided to join him.

Sirius crumpled up the letter and then stowed it in his pockets angrily as he moved back towards James and Peter.

"What's wrong?" asked James and Sirius realized he had been scowling quite furiously.

"Nothing," he said slumping down on the chair beside James's. "Just a letter from my mother," he muttered when James continued to stare at him with concern.

To his relief, they didn't ask him any more questions, instead James pushed his set of Wizard's Chess in front of him and they began playing.

The next morning when Professor McGonagall came into the Gryffindor common room asking for the names of the students who wanted to stay for the holidays, Sirius signed up at once. The letter, more than anything else, had made him determined to never go back to that place if he could help it.

Not that it was horrible there. But as far as he could remember, in his eleven years of life, Sirius had never really felt at home there. It was probably because the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black wasn't really noble at all. Well, at least not according to Sirius. His parents believed that everyone who wasn't a pureblood wizard wasn't even worth existing. They detested Muggles and Muggle-borns alike.

And above all, what Sirius hated most about his parents was that they were supporters of The Dark Lord, who was the darkest, the most violent and most evil wizard to exist for the past hundred years. The Dark Lord was also a strong believer of blood-purity which meant he didn't think anyone but a pureblood wizard or witch was entitled to learn magic and that anyone else trying to do so should be punished severely.

Sirius, of course, hadn't ever understood any of this. Ever since he was little he had found his family's beliefs morally wrong and had therefore shunned them. This had made him a disgraceful son for his mother, Walburga Black, who never missed a single opportunity to remind him of that. And then there was Regulus. He was still too young to tell right from wrong, and to be honest Sirius had always thought that his little brother was a little dim-witted. This however meant that Regulus, unlike Sirius, agreed to anything and everything their mother told him which had gradually made him the apple of Walburga's eyes.

So for the past few years, Sirius's life at number 12 Grimmauld Place- The House of Black, had comprised mostly of being told off by his mother because he refused to called Muggle-borns mudbloods, or being compared to his younger brother who was a much better son according to his mother, or his mother reminding him during meals what a great disappointment Sirius was.

His father was never usually home. He was a trader of Dark Objects, which he mostly did out of his interest in the field. The Black family didn't really require an income as they had enough money to last eleven generations, or so Sirius had heard his mother boast to a house guest once.

Even their house-elf Kreacher didn't treat him like he did the rest of the family. Sirius got his meals served, his clothes laundered and his bed made all right, but Kreacher never really respected Sirius.

But being at Hogwarts had been so different. He didn't have to hear his mother's snide remarks every other minute or tolerate Kreacher muttering insults under his breath as he did anything Sirius asked him. He was also surrounded by people who liked him and genuinely cared for him. Being at Hogwarts had always felt like what Sirius had imagined being at home with an actual family would feel like. And what better place to be at during Christmas than home, surrounded by people who you loved and who loved you back.

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A/N: Thank you so much for reading. If you have the time, please comment and let me know what you thought about this chapter. Also don't forget to vote if you liked it. :)