The three Gryffindors came to a halt, their eyes widening at Filch's sight as they stared at him without blinking.

But the silence was broken when Jenna suddenly yelled, "RUN!"

On cue, the three turned around and ran as fast as their feet could carry them, with Filch following after them abruptly, yelling for them to stop.

"WHERE WAS THE DAMN COMMON ROOM!?" James shouted as they kept running, turning each corner and trying to add to their speed.

"STOP THIS INSTANT!" Filch roared out, trying to catch up with them.

Everything happened quickly. Just then, Sirius let put a loud cry when he slipped and fell to the ground, spraining his ankle. He tried to get up and keep on running, but he kept limping.

  "Jenna, wait!" James suddenly stopped, quickly holding onto his sister's arm to prevent her from going any further. "We need to help him!"

Jenna turned to look behind her in horror. Filch had just turned the corridor, rushing toward them angrily.

"C'mon!" said James when he saw that she was hesitating. "It's either all of us, or none of us!"

Without waiting for her, James ran toward Sirius who was still trying to limp forward. Giving up at last, Jenna ran back and with the help of James, they each threw one of Sirius's arms around their shoulders, trying to help him escape.

But not ten seconds later, Filch finally caught up with them and grabbed onto the back of their robes, holding them back.

"I'll get you little devils expelled for this," he growled while panting for air, dragging them all away.

***

Once Filch got them to his office, he ordered them to stay put as he went out to fetch Professor McGonagall. Although none of them seemed bothered by this as they kept sniggering, holding back snorts of laughter.

Around fifteen minutes later, the door to Filch's office burst open and an enraged-looking Professor McGonagall came into the room, followed by Filch who had a nasty smirk on his face.

"Unbelievable! Outrageous!" She yelled, shaking her head at them furiously. "Three students out of bed after curfew! Sneaking into the kitchen — however on earth you've found that on your second day here is beyond me!"

"Well —" James opened his mouth to explain with a grin, but Professor McGonagall cut him off sharply.

"Silence, Potter!" she snapped. "I've never seen such behavior! And I certainly never expected to see three students in my own House break such rules! You will receive detention! And I'll be sending owls to all of your parents tonight!"

Jenna then noticed that for the first time tonight, Sirius's expression suddenly changed and he started to look worried at those words, his smile fading away as he looked down. It was the same look that he had on his face when he was sorted into Gryffindor.

Filch looked rather disappointed. He had probably hoped to either get them expelled, or at least hang them from the ankles in the dungeons.

"Now off to your beds!" said Professor McGonagall sharply. "If I catch you out of the common room after curfew one more time, you will all be expelled! Go, immediately!"

Sirius, James, and Jenna then quietly left Filch's office, returning back to the Gryffindor common room.

Despite McGonagall's warning, of course this wasn't going to be their last time sneaking out of their dorm after midnight. But the next time, they were certainly going to make sure that they wouldn't get caught.

***

The next day, Sirius and the Potter twins sat at the Great Hall for breakfast together, meanwhile Remus was sitting with Peter, explaining to him yesterday's Potions lesson.

At the other end of the Gryffindor table, Jenna could see Lily, Alice, and Marlene sitting together. But soon Lily bid the other two girls goodbye, going to meet Snape at the entrance hall so they could go off to their class together.

Just then, their attention was caught when many owls flew into the Great Hall, bearing the morning mails. Thankfully, James and Jenna yet hadn't received a response letter from their parents.

Although all their eyes widened when an own flew forward and dropped a red letter before Sirius on the table.

It was a Howler.

"Shoot!" Sirius mumbled under his breath before quickly snatching the letter up and making a run toward the Great Hall's entrance.

But he still hadn't reached the end of the Hall that the letter burst in his hands, a woman's shrieks filling the whole place and echoing through,

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! YOU HAVEN'T BEEN GONE FOR EVEN A WEEK THAT I RECEIVE AN OWL FROM YOUR HEAD OF HOUSE!" Now all eyes were on Sirius and the whole Hall fell silent, staring at his direction. "IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT YOU HAVE DISGRACED THE NAME OF MY FATHER BY BEING SORTED INTO ANOTHER HOUSE OTHER THAN SLYTHERIN, BUT TO BE LANDED IN DETENTION ON YOUR FIRST DAY THERE IS UNFORGIVABLE! I'LL BE HAVING A WORD WITH YOU ONCE YOU GET HOME!"

The moment the red letter stopped screaming, it burst into flames and its ashes fell before Sirius's feet. Not a second later, the whole Hall fell into sniggers. But Jenna frowned to herself when Sirius stormed outside, rushing up the marble staircase.

With a sigh, Jenna got to her feet with a frown after the sound of laughter had died down, deciding to go after Sirius.

"Where are you going?" James questioned. "You still haven't had your breakfast yet."

But Jenna ignored him, running out of the Great Hall as she sped up the marble staircase, making her way toward the Gryffindor common room.

Saying the password to the Fat Lady, the door swung open and Jenna walked inside, scanning the room until her eyes quickly fell upon Sirius. She saw that he was now sitting on the floor before the fireplace, gazing into the flames blankly.

"Want some company?" Jenna said as she walked toward him with a smile, catching his attention.

"Not really," Sirius mumbled under his breath, turning his eyes away to look back at the blazing fire again.

"Well, too bad. That's not really your choice to make," Jenna said playfully with a chuckle, going to sit on the floor beside him.

"Look, I don't wanna talk about it, okay!?" Sirius said sharply, hoping that he could somehow hurt her with his tone, so she would go away.

But to his surprise, the girl with blue hair kept on grinning. So Jenna shrugged, saying, "I'm not here to talk."

"Then why are you here?" He raised a brow at her, confused.

"Well, we're going to stare wistfully into the fire, apparently," she said dramatically, turning to look fervently into the flames.

Sirius blinked at her a few times in surprise, not having expected her to act this way and to stay with him even after he had told her off rudely.

"Why are you staring at me?" Jenna asked him with a teasing grin, turning to look at him. "We're supposed to gaze into the fire dramatically."

"I don't understand," he muttered, still watching her.

"Understand what?"

"I don't understand why you're here, and why you aren't laughing at me like the others did," he said bitterly.

Jenna pursed her lips together. "To be honest, there was nothing funny about... the thing that happened."

"The others beg to differ," Sirius mumbled, hugging his knees to his chest as he gazed back into the fire. "It was humiliating," he whispered more quietly.

Jenna didn't dare to ask him about his family, because even from these short few days that she knew Sirius, she had already figured enough that he was facing problems at home.

So she just shrugged and said, "They'll forget about it soon enough. Trust me. If you knew that these idiots care about a simple headache of theirs more than your biggest life crisis, then you wouldn't worry about what they think of you. That's what my mum always told me."

Sirius offered her a smile in response, although in his mind, his problem was way bigger than what the students thought about him.

His problem was that, soon, he had to return back home in a few months for the Christmas holidays, and had to face his family again.