27 Sirius Black

The tense atmosphere dissipated. Everyone turned and looked at the woman who had a friendly smile on her face. James had already put the wand away. Anastasia quickly stopped pointing it at James.

"Let's get out of here! What will you do, Gwen?" asked Anastasia looking at her best friend.

Gwen looked at James. Then back at her best friend's face, after a few seconds, she replied sighing, "See you James... I hope you stay in Slytherin, though I don't think so." she said, mumbling the last sentence. She felt disappointed and quickly followed her friend.

The whole group left the compartment, leaving James alone next to Shadow, who didn't understand the situation at all.

"Would you like anything, dear?" the woman asked again, looking at James.

"Yes, please." he replied as he went out into the corridor to look at the cart and buy things to eat. He bought lots of chocolate frogs, every flavour of beans, some tasting horrible.

Suddenly, he found himself in a compartment with just his owl and eating a large number of treats while looking out the window at the scenery, "It wasn't supposed to be like this...' muttered James.

Ten minutes passed while James watched the scenery and ate treats. No one entered the compartment.

'Don't tell me I'll be traveling alone...' thought James with a strange expression, staring at the door and waiting for someone to come in. His parents had told him to have fun and make friends, but now he was alone in a train compartment eating sweets. Besides, unlike before, he also wanted to make real friends.

'A Rothschild is not afraid of adversity... I mean a Potter!' thought James, getting up from his seat. He put away the treats and grabbed his heavy trunk and Shadow's cage which complained about being moved since he was sleeping.

"Don't worry Shadow. Your owner won't be a loner." James muttered, to which the owl hooted in annoyance.

He opened the door as best he could and began to walk down the aisles of the train. He reached a compartment door and placed his ear very close to the door, trying to listen. It would be very uncomfortable if he opened the door, and that the seats were full.

'He heard more than four voices. There must be no seats' thought James going to the next compartment and doing the same.

'They're all girl's voices,' he thought as he heard high-pitched, squeaky voices, so he went on ahead. James wanted male friends, a brotherhood. For some reason, the few friends he got were female: Gwen, Emily, and Penny. If the latter could be considered a friend.

As for Emily, he would have time to reconnect with her later, as it would be hard to find the carriage where she was. He found it a bit odd that Gwen was not with Emily. Instead, she was with first-year Rabastan Lestrange.

'Well, Emily never got along with Gwen's friends...' thought James, as he kept looking for a compartment.

Finally, he reached a compartment where he heard no voice. This could mean that there was only one person, or there was more than one person, but they were silent, 'Well, this is it...' thought James, taking a deep breath for some reason, getting friends made him more nervous than fighting the troll.

As Edward, he never had problems in meetings where everyone wanted to talk to him, but now it was different. He wanted to get real friends, so he felt more nervous.

With determination, he opened the door. He could see three people in the compartment. All three turned their heads and looked at James. They were two boys and a girl. All three had black robes without any crest, meaning they were first years like him.

"Hi... Can I sit here?" asked James in a tense and somewhat robotic tone because of nerves.

"Yes, of course. My family doesn't own the Hogwarts Express, so you're free." replied a boy with a confident demeanor and a slight smile.

The boy who answered was sitting alone. The girl just nodded her head. The other black-haired boy who was sitting near the girl didn't speak and stopped looking at James.

"Thanks, my name is James Potter. What's yours?" asked James. The boy's response made a good impression on him. He seemed confident in himself, but not as arrogant as those Slytherins or that boy Rabastan. He had a more joking and relaxed air about him.

"Nice to meet you, Sirius Black," said the boy, stretching out his hand to greet James.

Sirius was a tall boy, even a few inches taller than James. He was fair-skinned, with medium-length, lustrous black hair. He had striking gray eyes and an air of casual elegance.

When James saw him, he assumed he was a pureblood wizard, but he didn't think he would be from the Black Family. One of the largest, oldest, and richest pureblood magical families in Britain, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

'Is my luck that bad...?' thought James with a slight frown. As he accepted Sirius' handshake.

If Sirius was anything like Rabastan, the conflict could flare up at any moment. Specifically, the moment he said his family were blood traitors.

"I've heard of the Potters..." said Sirius, but before he could continue, James spoke in an unfriendly tone, "What are we blood traitors of?" he asked.

"Eh...? Well, that's one of the main things I heard about, but I don't care about that pureblood and Sacred Twenty-Eight bullshit... although my family does." Sirius said, surprised by James' sudden change.

"Really? So, you're different from them..." said James, pleasantly surprised. He never expected the son of House Black to have such thoughts.

"Them?" asked Sirius, curious. James went on to tell him about their little conflict, with Anastasia Nott, Rabastan Lestrange, and other Slytherin.

Sirius, upon hearing the story burst out laughing, "Hahaha. You are something, taking on several Slytherin and all second years." Sirius said, trying to control his laughter, but imagining the outraged expression Anastasia Nott would have put on made him start laughing again.

James couldn't believe it. One of the Black heirs agreed with what he had done. Sirius seemed to know Anastasia, Rabastan, and the others, but he didn't seem to like them very much.

At this James smiled, "You should have seen the look on that fat girl's face when I insulted her grandfather." James said with a slight smile.

"Her cheeks must have puffed out more than usual!" said Sirius, laughing.

"You don't know how many times I had to put up with that pig in meetings. 'Oh, Sirius Black, you must behave like a pureblood who is part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight!" said Sirius as he imitated Anastasia, puffed out his cheeks, and narrowed his eyes to look more like the girl.

James upon seeing Sirius' imitation began to laugh out loud. The imitation was identical, "Poof...her tone is more like that of an unbearable squealing pig." James said, laughing. Sirius nodded and began his imitation again. This time, his voice was squeakier and higher pitched.

The girl and boy in the front seat had started to look at James and Sirius who were ignoring them.

The girl with long red hair, a color that stands out amply with her large, oval, emerald, green eyes, looked at both boys with both eyes wide open. She couldn't believe they were so rude, teasing a girl over and over again about her physical appearance. She felt a great dislike towards these two boys.

'What arrogant and obnoxious boys.' thought the redhead, averting her eyes and trying to ignore the comments. However, their voices were very loud, and they kept making mocking comments.

James never laughed so much in his life. He felt a lot of disgust towards Anastasia and other pureblood supremacist kids and always put up with their stupid comments. He couldn't tell his parents all these mocking comments, but with Sirius it was different.

The greasy black-haired boy next to the redhead looked at James and Sirius with a scowl on his face. He also disliked these two boys, though the reasons were different.

"Hey... can you guys please speak in a lower tone?" the redhead said, but her soft tone went unheard.

"Hey!" she exclaimed with more anger. Both James and Sirius looked at the girl. Sirius started coughing he almost choked from laughing, and the sudden scream startled him. A bad combination.

"What's wrong?" asked James with difficulty as he tried to control his laughter.

"Can you guys keep it down? They're shouting." replied the girl.

"Oh yeah, sorry." said James, scratching his hair. Sirius looked at the girl with a frown but said nothing as his new friend had spoken. He felt a great connection with James. As if they could easily hit it off.

"Hey, Sirius. Which house do you want to stay in?" asked James.

"My whole family's been in Slytherin..." mumbled Sirius.

"And here I thought we were on the same page!" said James, acting hurt.

"Maybe I'll break tradition," replied Sirius with a grin, though he thought it would be really bad to do that, as his mother wouldn't like it at all, but he didn't prove it to James.

"And you? Where would you go if you could choose?" asked Sirius, curious.

"Gryffindor. Just like my parents, though I wouldn't mind another house, as long as it wasn't Slytherin" James replied. He couldn't stand to be with Anastasia, Goyle, Rabastan, and other people with the same putrid thinking.

The black-haired boy sitting across from them made a contemptuous little noise. James ignored him, but Sirius turned to him.

"Is something wrong with you?" asked Sirius.

"Not at all" replied the boy, though his scornful expression belied it, "If you'd rather have muscles than brains..."

"Where would you like to go that you have neither?" asked Sirius with a smirk.

James couldn't hold it in and let out a laugh. This boy was hilarious, he thought. The redheaded girl hearing this straightened up with an angry look on her face. She couldn't let them make fun of her friend, these two such arrogant boys.

She looked first at James and then at Sirius with dislike, "Let's go, Sev. We'll find another compartment." she said, getting up from her seat and walking out angrily.

James couldn't stay behind Sirius. Besides that, a boy nicknamed Sev was the first to start, so he mimicked the girl's haughty tone, which caused Sirius to laugh out loud again, and the girl's frown deepened. She looked at James angrily.

She slammed the compartment door shut, and the two disappeared, "They brought this on themselves," Sirius said disdainfully.

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