James Potter had to assure his mother several times that he had not forgotten to pack his textbooks, his potions supplies, his socks or his underwear. She had only given up nagging him when Sirius had shown up and she could nag him instead.

"You have a hole in your robes!" she was exclaiming now, examining the spot on Sirius's elbow where the cloth had worn through. "Here, hold still. I'll fix it."

James rolled his eyes at his friend while his mother fretted, and saw his dad grin at Sirius, nodding his head towards his wife in a fond, but exasperated way. Sirius smiled back sheepishly and looked away. James had never seen Sirius behave with anyone else the way he always behaved with his family. He was quiet, almost shy around James's parents.

"Mum, we've got to go or we'll miss the train," he said, picking up his trunk.

"Right," she said, her eyes darting to the scarlet train. "Here, I packed you some treats for the ride," she said and she held out two bags, one for each of them. He glanced worriedly at Sirius out of the corner of his eye. He had seen firsthand last year how sensitive Sirius could be when he felt he was being patronized (his hand automatically rubbed his nose at the memory), and he hoped that his friend would see his mother's gesture as kindness and not pity. To his relief, Sirius said thank you and looked pleased as he accepted his bag.

They found Peter sitting in a compartment midway down, waving to his parents out the window.

"Good summer?" James asked as they entered, and Peter turned to smile at them.

"Yeah, it was great!" he said. "We went to France. How about you?"

"It was good," James said quickly so that Sirius wouldn't have to answer. "Want to see what I got?"

"What you got?" Sirius asked with surprise, and James grinned.

"I call her Nelly," he said, pulling the toad out of his pocket. It stared at Peter and Sirius from the palm of his hand and let out a single croak. "We got her when I was getting my books at Diagon Alley."

"You got a toad?" a voice said in surprise from the doorway, and they turned to see Remus.

"Yeah," James said, stroking Nelly's head fondly. "She's sweet, isn't she?"

"She's a toad," Peter said, looking at James as though he were mad. James just smiled and put Nelly back in his pocket. He liked the toad very much. He knew that she wasn't the most exciting of pets, but he was very fond of her.

"I just saw Frank," Remus said as he sat down. "He made Head Boy."

"Really?" Peter said, sounding impressed, but James laughed.

"Poor guy," he said, shaking his head with pity.

"Actually, I think it's supposed to be considered an honor." He could hear the mild amusement in Remus's voice.

"All that extra work, and never allowed to have any fun?" James pretended to shudder. "Sounds awful to me."

"What do you want?" James jumped at Sirius's harsh voice, and followed his gaze to the door. A small boy with black hair was watching them calmly. His face, which looked like a distorted version of Sirius's, looked strangely blank.

"Everywhere else is full," he said blandly, watching Sirius.

"The entire rest of the train is full?" Sirius said scornfully. The boy didn't answer. "Go find somewhere else to sit, Regulus. We're full too." He stood and shut the door. The two brothers faced each other through the glass for a moment, then Regulus turned and walked away down the corridor.

"We could have made room for him," Remus said in surprise.

"Why did he want to sit with us anyway?" Sirius scowled.

"He's a first year," Remus said reasonably. "He doesn't know anyone else."

"He'd better not follow me around all year," Sirius grumbled. "I'll hex him to pieces."

James, Remus and Peter all glanced at each other, and Remus reached up and scratched his nose uncomfortably. As he did so, the others all got a good glimpse of the long, nasty cut that ran along his forearm. James saw Sirius wince and Peter look away. He had got used to seeing Remus's cuts and bruises, but a summer apart had made him forget just how awful they really looked, and he felt that familiar rush of helplessness.

Remus followed their gazes and blushed, folding his arms and blocking the cut from sight.

"So who do you suppose Dumbledore got to replace Dearborn?" Remus said, and his efforts to distract them worked. The tension disappeared, they forgot about Sirius's brother and Remus's wounds, and they spent the next several minutes brainstorming possibilities. Sirius hoped that it might be an Auror ("No way," James said dismissively), and Remus looked excited at the prospect of a scholarly author ("I certainly hope not," Peter said, looking horrified).

An hour or so into the ride, the door opened again. This time it was a Ravenclaw girl whose name James didn't know, and their fellow Gryffindor, Lily Evans. Evans looked very uncomfortable.

"Hey Evans," Remus said, and she smiled embarrassedly at him.

"Hey," she said. "Everyone, you know Enid Greengrass, right?"

"Hi," Enid said, giggling shyly. James followed her gaze to Sirius and rolled his eyes in understanding.

"Hi," everyone said back. A very awkward silence fell over the compartment. Enid was trying to look casual, but kept looking at Sirius with undisguised hope. Sirius was smiling back tentatively, though looking slightly confused. Peter was sitting wide-eyed, glancing between James and Remus, looking for some hint of what to do. Remus and Evans were exchanging miserably exasperated looks, and James was trying not to snicker as he watched it all.

"So," Remus said finally with faked cheerfulness. "How was your summer, Evans?"

"Good!" she said, looking relieved that he had broken the silence. "How was yours?"

"It was good," he replied.

"Well, see you around!" she said before the silence could resume. She grabbed Enid's arm and dragged her out of the compartment. James, Remus and Peter breathed a collective sigh of relief as the door shut. Only Sirius continued to stare at the door, looking slightly dazed. James recognized that look.

"She was kind of cute."

James almost choked, failing to hold in a laugh as he saw Remus mouthing the words at the same moment Sirius said them.

"What?" Sirius asked, startled back into reality.

"Nothing," James said, shaking his head.

"Well she was!" Sirius insisted defensively.

"She was lovely," Remus agreed. "Excellent conversation skills."

The three boys snickered. Sirius looked extremely put out.

They didn't have any more visitors until early that afternoon when Frank Longbottom poked his head in to say hello as he patrolled the corridors.

"Congratulations," Remus said, nodding to the "Head Boy" badge on his chest. Frank was clearly trying not to look too pleased with himself.

"Thanks," he said proudly. Glancing around to make sure no one was listening, he confided, "I actually thought Everett would get it. I was really surprised."

Sirius snorted. "Everett Lynch is a Quidditch player. He's not smart enough to be Head Boy."

"Hey!" James exclaimed, insulted, and Sirius looked at him guiltily.

"Sorry, mate," he said quickly.

"You going to try out again this year?" Frank asked.

"Colin McLaggen left, so there's an opening," Remus added.

"McLaggen played Beater," James said, rolling his eyes at Remus's ignorance.

"Well, yes," Remus said. "But Michael Kirke wants to play Beater more than he wants to play Keeper, and Eleanor Peakes wants to play Keeper more than she wants to play Chaser, so it could end up that there's an opening for a Chaser, couldn't it?"

James made a mental note to never think of Remus as ignorant again.

He felt slightly sick at the thought of try-outs. He remembered how wretched he had felt when he had failed to make the team the year before. He did not relish the idea of feeling like that again. On the other hand, he couldn't resist the possibility of playing for the house team. "Yeah, I'll try out," he said, trying to keep his voice even and casual. From in his pocket, Nelly croaked encouragingly.

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Author's Note:

"Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at..." –Hagrid

I figure that means toads had to be in fashion at one point, right:)

So I've gotten year three underway! I'm back at work and school is starting again. My goal from here on out, pathetic as it is, is to get one chapter up a week. Maybe two, depending on homework. I'm hoping I'll get some writing time each weekend. I'm back to doing shorter chapters, also due to time constraints.

As always, I love reviews.