Chapter One:

It was a bright and early September morning and London's King Cross Station was buzzing with commuters. The place was swarmed with stressed-looking business people carrying suitcases and newspapers as they hurried down the platform to catch their train. In the very middle of the chaotic and fast-moving rush hour crowd, somewhere on platforms 9 and 10, one young girl managed to see something rather peculiar taking place right in front of them the adults around her did not.

"Mummy, mummy, look!" the girl cried, tugging on her mother's sleeve to draw attention. "A girl just fell right through a wall!"

"Don't be silly, Emily," her mother replied while continuing to look for the right directions at a message board. "People cannot fall through walls."

"No mummy... I saw it-" the girl started again, but she trailed off helplessly at the stern glare of her mother, who sighed impatiently.

"Sweetheart, I don't have time for this nonsense. What you thought you saw cannot happen."

"But-"

"It wasn't real. End of discussion. Now move along, we have a train to catch."

The mother grabbed her protesting daughter's hand and dragged her along to the nearest entrance of an intercity train to Exeter, ready to depart on platform 9. When the little girl was about to board the train after her mother, a mischievous-looking guy in his late teens winked at her, before disappearing through the massive brick wall he had walked right up to. He only had the briefest of seconds to hear the girl crying: "Mummy look! That boy just-" before he left one world behind and entered another.

The guy had arrived at platform 9 3/4 and was about to board the Hogwarts Express to start his seventh and final year at the wizarding school. And he could not be happier to return to Hogwarts and spend one last year hanging out with his mates and pranking younger students before graduating and having to adapt a more serious way of life: having fun was going to be his top priority this year.

He was still smirking to himself about the little prank he had just pulled on the muggle girl when he noticed two fifth year Ravenclaw girls – Dee Greengrass and Hyacinth Birch if he remembered their names correctly – were smiling at him. Hyacinth even winked flirtatiously. Hang on, did they think he had been smiling at them? Not that this little encounter surprised him in any way. To be Sirius Black was to be a catch for many of the girls at Hogwarts. He had become aware of his good looks (and started taking shamelessly advantage) halfway through his third year, when he started growing tall and athletic, which especially complimented his aristocratic features (about the single good thing that comes with being a member of the Black family). Sirius knew it sounded extremely arrogant (and James would never let hem hear the end of it if he knew), but he sometimes liked to look at himself in the mirror and wond if there was any other guy in Hogwarts that even came close to looking as good as he did.

Still, he was not particularly interested in getting closer to either Dee or Hyacinth, so he merely waved back nonchalantly as he moved along the platform and looked for his friends. Luckily, Remus was only a few yards away. "What's up, Moony!" Sirius said, carelessly dropping his trunk next to Remus's and sitting on top of it.

"Morning Sirius. Had a good Summer?" Remus asked, for a moment blissfully unaware of what had taken place in late July, before his mind shot back into gear and he pulled a face. "Argh sorry Pads. Besides the fact you decided to walk away from home, I mean... James told me. That must have been tough."

Sirius shrugged, responding in the same cold and indifferent way whenever someone asked him about his family background and the way his parents treated him. "It wasn't too bad, actually. Was bound to happen at some point. They weren't sorry to watch me go and if anything, it's only a blessing I will never have to look at that sour face of my mother again."

"And the Potters took you in?"

Sirius smiled. "Yeah... James's parents rock. I spent of the Summer at their place and visited Andromeda last week. She was totally cool about what happened. Said she thinks my parents letting me go might be the only decent thing they have done in a century. What have you been up to?"

Remus was still laughing at Sirius's last comment when he said: "It was not too bad, I suppose. The transformations were a bit lonely, though…"

"Oh yeah, I really missed those moony nights, too!"

Remus arched an eyebrow. "I could do perfectly well without full moons. It is just easier when you guys are with me."

Sirius recovered quickly and kindly patted his friend on the back. "Of course I knew that's what you meant, mate. It's yet another reason why should be celebrating going back to Hogwarts."

When he turned around to look at the Express, his eyes suddenly fell onto a brunette who had just arrived on Platform 9 ¾ and he felt himself straightening up slightly. It was one of his Gryffindor classmates, Mary Woods*: best friend of Lily Evans, who had been James' object of affection for the last six years. It was not that odd Sirius liked looking at Mary; most of the guys at Hogwarts did, because she was a pretty girl. Although she had not always been that popular.

During their first few years at Hogwarts, Mary was an intelligent, but shy Muggle-born who spend most of her days in the library with Lily and their other close friend, Brice McDonald. However, when their fourth year had come along, Mary had started to develop into a fine young woman. This was the time Sirius started to notice that some locks of the brown wavy hair falling in loose curls onto her back almost turned auburn in the sunlight. Or the miniscule freckles on her cheekbones, and that she slightly screwed up her nose whenever she disagreed with anything someone was saying. But the most striking thing about her had to be her eyes, which were a remarkable blue shade that stood out compared to her pale skin and dark hair and and lit up every time she laughed.

He was handsome and popular and she was beautiful and popular as well. To any outsider, Sirius Black and Mary Woods would be a match made in heaven. There was only one problem: Mary hated his guts. He could not even remember the last time she had smiled at him. In fact, the only looks she would generally cast him were those of utter detest.

For the life of him Sirius could not figure out why. Or actually... That was not entirely true. Sirius suspected Mary's hostility towards him might have something to with his numerous status of womanizer. That, and possibly the fact he went out with Brice for about a week in fifth year before dumping her for a Beauxbatons exchange student. Either way, everybody at Hogwarts knew Mary highly disliked Sirius. He did not think this was a fair assumption, though. In fact, he knew for a fact that if she would agree to go on a date, he could soon convince her that his intentions were sincere. He did really like her after all, although Sirius was not nearly as head over heels as James was with Lily Evans.

However, Mary having a change of heart about him clearly was not about to happen anytime soon. The sullen look on her face when she approached him and Remus was not exactly promising. Still, Sirius thought confidently, I bet I can make her smile today.

He casually leaned back against the pillar, making sure he looked totally cool in his jeans and leather jacket, and eyed her from head to toe. "Hey Woods, looking great this morning. What'd you do all Summer? Driving all the local men in whatever country you were staying into madness with your dazzling appearance?"

Sirius thought this was a rather nice compliment – and not inappropriate at all – but Mary did not seem all that amused. She merely rolled her eyes in annoyance before ignoring him completely and asking Remus about whether he had already heard that Lily (a former prefect) had become Headgirl.

"Yeah, she wrote me about it over the Summer," Remus replied. "I guess it will be quite the happening once she founds out that James was made Headboy."

Mary blinked, looking astonished. "What? She is going to freak out! How is that even possible?"

Remus shrugged apologetically. "She didn't know, Mary. James guessed you and Lily were corresponding all the time. He told me to keep this quiet so it could be a nice surprise."

Sirius snorted. "I actually told him to. Thought it could be funny. Cannot believe the prat went for it, though."

Remus shook his head, laughing, but Mary was shooting him yet another annoyed look. "You know, Black, I should have known you would be the one to…"

"OI!"

James, a rather lean and tall guy with glasses and black untidy hair standing up in every possible direction, was calling them as he leaned out of one of the carriage doors. "You lot up for missing the Express? It's almost eleven o'clock!"

Sirius, Remus and Mary simultaneously turned to look at a large clock hanging above the platform and swore as one. It was only two minutes to eleven. They grabbed their trunks and hurried towards the carriage door where James was still waiting for them. James helped to get the trunks into the Express before the three could hop on it themselves.

Remus got in first. Mary was up next, but right after she had placed both her feet on the stile, the train gave a sudden jolt, which caused her to lose balance and fall back into Sirius's arms, who happened to be standing right behind her. Mary froze in his arms when he caught her and held her tight so she would not fall down. Time seemed to stop for a moment and then the train slowly started to move.

"Come on, you two, hurry!" James called, before Remus leaned forward to pull Mary onto the carriage. Sirius only just managed to jump on as well, because the carriage door was slamming shut only a few seconds later.

Mary was still panting slightly when she got up to check on her cat Coco, traveling in a box she had tied on top of her trunk. The feline appeared to be in good health, although she was mewing in a rather annoyed manner. Coco hated being stuck in a narrow space with no real possibility of escaping, so Mary was not too worried.

"Phew," Remus said, leaning back against a window for a moment as he wiped his forehead. "That was close."

Sirius chuckled. "I say this is a promising start of our last exciting year at Hogwarts, Moony. You didn't hurt yourself there, right?"

He was directing the last part at Mary, who suddenly looked a little uncomfortable and started to blush, making Sirius wonder if she was thinking about their little embrace mere moments ago too. He had not minded catching and preventing her from falling down at all, but he suspected this feeling was anything but mutual. "Er no, not really."

Sirius could see she was hoping he would not comment on her reddening cheeks, but he could not help himself: he had to tease her about it. "Now Woods, I've gotta say... A short distance running like that and already you're successfully impersonating a tomato. Perhaps it's about time you started working on your condition a little, love."

Mary was now looking downright embarrassed. James chuckled appreciatively before following Remus towards a carriage upfront. Sirius was about to head after his friend, when - "Sirius, wait," Mary suddenly said hesitantly. "I don't think I would have made this train without you guys, so it's only fair to… er... I just wanted to ehm… thank you would be the word I'm looking for, I guess."

Sirius could not help but grinning smugly. "My pleasure."

"Okay."

"No really, It was my pleasure. When I mentioned this was a promising start of the year, didn't you think I was referring to you?"

And with that, Sirius gave her a last playful wink before turning around and walking off in the direction Remus and James had gone, leaving an utterly bewildered Mary behind. Just the way he liked it.