December arrived at Hogwarts in spectacular fashion. Within the first couple of weeks, the grounds had already been tucked-in safely beneath a crisp blanket of pure white snow. However, at that precise moment in time, the snow was acting with ill-construed innocence as snowflakes drifted small and angel-like to the ground.
Emma forced her eyelids open in order to watch its progress as it slowly drifted past the frosty common room windows. Her eyes flicked to the roaring fire that spread warmth throughout her entire body and cast her in an orange glow. She closed her eyes again with a contented sigh as she snuggled her head farther into the crook of Sam’s neck. Sam responded by kissing her lightly on top of her head and snaking his arm further around her shoulders. Emma moved her hand under his jumper and gently stroked his stomach through the fabric of the t-shirt that was underneath. She felt Sam smile into her hair as he began to trace his fingertips lightly along the top of her arm in a circular motion.
Moments like this were very rare between the two of them. All of their friends - and the rest of the school, for that matter - were still unaware of their union; as far as they knew, Emma and Sam had just become good friends. So, the pair pretty much had to grab their alone time when they could. The only reason why they were able to be so cosy at the moment was because Lily, Remus, Hayley and James were all currently at the last Prefect meeting of the term and Kirsty, Sirius and Peter were all out frolicking about in the snow.
Not that they would have had any problems with Hayley anyway, seeing as she had currently been banned by Kirsty, James and Sirius in particular and partially by Sam too, owing to her guiding Ravenclaw to victory against Hufflepuff in her first Quidditch match of the year. It was rather a sore subject, because Hayley had somehow managed to do the one thing that Kirsty hadn’t: catch the Snitch. James had announced that they had only banned her jokingly, though the look in his eyes had told Emma that there was some seriousness in it. After all, Kirsty, James and Sirius all got way too competitive over Quidditch. Emma guessed that it must be a Pureblood thing.
Hushed voices emanated from outside the portrait hole, and Emma sat bolt upright. Beside her, Sam lazily opened his eyes and removed his arm from around her. Emma uncurled her feet from beneath her and inched herself away from Sam ever so slightly as Kirsty, Sirius and Peter walked into the room, each covered in a light dusting of snow.
“Aw, would you look at that,” commented Sirius upon seeing the two of them seated on the sofa. “Our Emma and Sam all snuggled up together.”
Emma scowled at him, and Sam laughed nervously behind her.
“He’s sexy. He’s fine. He’s anything but mine. It’s Northy boy!” sang Kirsty, frightfully out of tune, staring pointedly at Emma. Emma aimed her now-more-prominent scowl at Kirsty instead. Kirsty simply grinned wickedly and avoided her gaze by looking over at Sam as she continued her song. “Hey, Sam, she’s mad”“
“”she wants you in her pants! Oh, Northy-boy!” interjected Sirius, wailing horribly, and dancing along to his line of input.
Peter roared with laughter as Emma and Kirsty both shot Sirius looks of disgust. Sam chuckled appreciatively beside Emma, and she reprimanded him by backhanding his arm.
Kirsty hit Sirius around the head. “Oooh, kinky!” he replied with a flirtatious grin.
Kirsty clicked her tongue. “You’re a lost cause, Sirius Black.” Sirius grinned proudly in response.
The sofa groaned slightly next to Emma as Sam jumped up and walked around the back of it. Stopping directly behind Emma’s head, he leaned over the back of the sofa and sang in her ear, loud enough for the other three to hear, “Hey, Em, that’s fine. Come and see me anytime. Go Northy-boy!”
Emma whipped her head around so fast that her neck cricked. She stared at Sam with a mixture of incredulity and annoyance, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other three looking at them in shock and amusement.
Kirsty stood, pointing between the two of them with an outstretched finger, her mouth opening and closing like a fish, obviously completely stunned that her plan to embarrass Emma had backfired.
“Come on, let’s go upstairs and get into some warm clothes so that we can leave these two lovebirds alone!” suggested Peter teasingly.
Sirius grinned and offered a wink Emma’s way, before following in Peter’s wake, dragging Kirsty along behind him, since she was still pointing from Sam to Emma and back again in complete disbelief.
“What did you do that for?” asked Emma, jumping up from the sofa as she saw all three of her friends disappear up their separate staircases.
“I’m sorry, I only did it for a laugh. They won’t put two and two together anyway,” replied Sam.
“Well they might now,” noted Emma, coming to a standstill in front of him with her hands placed commandingly on her hips.
“Look, I’m sorry that I’m not all that sorry, alright?”
“No,” stated Emma defiantly.
“Is this our very first lover’s tiff?” asked Sam playfully.
“No,” she replied, relenting slightly as she gazed up at his smiling face. “Okay, maybe it’s a little bit of one.”
Sam laughed lightly. “Look at us acting like a proper couple.”
“Hmm,” sighed Emma as she inched forward and gave him a lingering kiss on the lips.
Sam brought his hand up to run it through her hair before bringing it back down to cup her chin. He then gently rubbed his thumb lightly across her cheek and cast a loving smile her way, before he turned to ascend the staircase.
Emma watched him go, and as he reached the middle of the staircase, he stopped in his tracks, pulled his wand out of his pocket, and fired a spell behind his back as he continued upwards.
The light from his wand formed itself into four words, and Emma squinted upwards to read them. ‘I’m still not sorry.’
“Damn,” muttered Emma as a small smile pulled at her lips.
--------------
Over a week had passed since James had returned to the common room after the Prefect’s meeting to be informed, by a rather flummoxed Kirsty, about the latest goings on between Emma and Sam. It had been a week in which snowmen had been built, snowballs thrown and icy puddles smashed. Hayley had finally been allowed back into the common room by James, who claimed that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he was stuck on his Arithmancy homework, and McGonagall had routinely come around to take down the names of those students who would be staying at Hogwarts over Christmas. James, along with the other three Marauders and Sam, had hastily added his name to the list, even though his parents had been dreadfully upset upon hearing the news that he and Sirius would not be returning to spend Christmas at home. James had felt guilty but explained that he couldn’t miss staying at Hogwarts during his last year as a student. His parents had eventually relented, telling him that they would try their best to send him all his presents.
The girls, however, had to explain their Christmas plans to McGonagall. They were to go back home on the train for the first week of the holidays, but they had all promised the boys that they would return via the Knight Bus to Hogwarts on Christmas Eve.
It was now the end of their lunch break, and James and the rest of the group were all eagerly awaiting their last Defence against the Dark Arts lesson of the term. He hastily knocked back the last of his pumpkin juice and turned around to meet Lily, who had just arrived behind him. In one fluid motion, he stood up and entwined her hand in his whilst giving her a swift kiss on the cheek. It still seemed unreal to him that he could now hold her hand and peck her on the cheek whenever he wished.
“Ready to go?” she asked him as their rabble of friends also started making movements from behind them.
Without giving an answer, he reached down with his free hand and swung his bag over his shoulder before leading her out of the Great Hall.
“Looking forward to the sleepover tomorrow?” he enquired as they ascended the staircase.
Sirius’ birthday had been two days previously, and they had all decided that they would have a sleepover in the common room on the last Friday of term to celebrate. It would also be a nice way of sending the girls off, before they went back home the next day.
“I can’t wait. It should be fun.”
“Oi, just because Lily’s finally succumbed to your charms, it doesn’t mean that you can walk off without us!” yelled Sirius from behind them as he ran to catch up with them.
“Jealous,” Lily whispered into James’ ear. James laughed lightly, and Sirius gave them both a sceptical look as he drew level with them. There was then a thundering of footsteps behind them, and James turned to see the rest of the group running up the stairs in Sirius’ wake.
“Merlin! It’s impossible to get a moment alone in this place!” exclaimed James.
“Tell me about it,” replied Emma huffily. Everybody gave her questioning looks, and Emma cast her eyes downwards.
“So,” began Lily as they continued on their way. “Do you think that we’ll finally be doing Patronuses today?”
“Patroni,” corrected Emma from behind them.
James and Lily halted in their tracks and turned to survey her with raised eyebrows.
“It’s not Patroni; it’s Patronuses,” Kirsty stated giving her a befuddled look.
Emma snorted. “This coming from the girl who says sheeps and deers.”
“And fishes,” added Kirsty proudly.
Everybody apart from Emma started to laugh.
Calming down, Hayley announced, “I think I’m going to have to agree with Kirst on this one, because it is in fact Patronuses.”
“But surely it follows the same rule as octopus and genius?” questioned Peter, sticking up for Emma as the group began their slow walk once again.
“Yeah, but you say ‘we’re a bunch of geniuses’ not ‘we’re a bunch of genii’,” Kirsty informed him.
“That’s debatable,” commented Remus dryly.
“Look, let’s just get in there and see what Sir calls them, shall we?” suggested James.
“Oh, if he says their Patronuses I’ll definitely be calling them Patroni,” piped up Sirius.
“When are you going to stop this feud with MacIntosh?” asked Lily.
“Never!” exclaimed Sirius indignantly as they arrived outside the door to MacIntosh’s classroom.
*
James had his face screwed up in concentration as he repeatedly muttered the Patronus incantation under his breath. “Expecto patronum.”
Yet another wisp of silvery looking gas emerged from the end of his wand, and James gritted his teeth in frustration, angry at himself for not being able to produce something corporeal. Obviously, his happy memory wasn’t happy enough. What could possibly be a better memory than winning your very first Quidditch match? he wondered.
Suddenly, there was an almighty bellow of ‘Expecto patronum!’ from the right-hand side of the room, and James turned to see a great silver animal with wings erupt from Kirsty’s wand. It soared magnificently into the air above them all, before hurtling back down in a secure landing and strutting along the floor towards its caster. Kirsty stared at it in awe. “Wow,” she gasped audibly.
Sirius was standing beside her and seemed unable to decide whether to be proud, impressed or annoyed. However, his features soon formed themselves into a scowl when Professor MacIntosh strode over to the two of them and boomed, “Absolutely magnificent, Miss White. I am astounded. You have truly outdone yourself. A corporeal Patronus so early in the lesson. Well I never. Thirty points to Gryffindor!”
The Gryffindors in the room applauded, whereas the Slytherins muttered under their breath and threw scowls and looks of utter distaste in Kirsty’s direction.
Kirsty grinned bashfully at her teacher, before turning back to the spot where her Patronus had been. Even as James watched, the eagle disappeared from the room in a swirl of what seemed like fog, leaving Kirsty looking bitterly disappointed and quite lost without her new companion.
James then looked away from Kirsty and Sirius to concentrate once again upon a memory. But before he had even had the chance to regurgitate a memory from inside his head, Lily muttered the incantation from her position just inches away from his left shoulder, and something erupted from her wand and cantered around the room.
James and Lily both squinted after it in order to try to recognise its form, but it was only when it turned back to face them that all became clear. James turned to gaze at Lily in wonder, but she stood staring straight ahead, the image of the silver doe shimmering in her eyes.
He lightly touched her elbow, and she tore her gaze away from the Patronus to look at him. Love for him glistened in her eyes, and she didn’t seem nearly as shocked as James did by the doe’s appearance.
The stag and the doe, he realised, sending a loving smile in Lily’s direction.
“It looks like you’ve had more of an impact on me than I thought, Potter,” she informed him teasingly.
“I’ll say,” he replied, placing his hand on the small of her back and bending low to kiss her cheek. He stayed in this position for a moment, as out of the corner of his eye, he could see Snape watching them with flaming hatred in his eyes and his face contorted with disgust and disbelief. “We’re being watched,” James informed her, raising his head a little so he was able to whisper in her ear.
Lily looked at James and then to the far corner of the room to which he was indicating. A defiant look appeared in her eyes, and for a moment she looked quite fierce, but then she turned back to James and said soothingly, “Ignore him,” before wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss on the lips.
James felt quite dazed when she released him. He couldn’t believe she had just done that in the middle of a Defence against the Dark Arts class - it was just so unlike Lily. He gave her a half-amused, half-sceptical look and asked playfully, “Now who’s the one antagonising Snape?”
Lily smirked. “Come on,” she announced, going for a change of subject. “You’ve got a Patronus to cast, and you’ve already been beaten to the punch by two girls.”
James reached down and gave her a playful pat on the bum, and Lily made a noise of mock indignation. Once again, he closed his eyes, and this time a happy memory came to him in an instant. He concentrated hard on the image of a silver doe bursting from a wand, and Lily’s love for him burned like a beacon inside his chest. He opened his eyes and, flexing his wand-arm, he muttered, “Expecto patronum,” continuously under his breath.
Nothing was happening. It didn’t help that, out of the corner of his eye, he could see what looked like a silver owl flying around Hayley’s head, indicating that she too now had her Patronus. Determination rose within him, and he carried on with his chanting. Just when all seemed lost, James felt the sensation of a pair of soft lips kissing him lightly on the hollow of his throat. “Expecto patronum!” he roared with all his might, and finally a huge beast of a shape exploded from within his wand.
He turned to his left to see Lily, inches away from his shoulder, smiling sweetly up at him. “You’re so predictable,” she informed him.
James gave her a puzzled look, and she nodded to a spot in front of them both. James swivelled around and came face to face with a ghostly-looking lion. It looked at him complacently, and it seemed to be awaiting orders. “Brilliant,” he affirmed with a giddy grin.
“A Gryffindor through and through,” Lily observed, rolling her eyes with a loving smile.
Over at the other side of the room, Professor MacIntosh was doing his rounds again, and came to a stop next to Sirius, who was waving his wand around manically trying to produce the slightest hint of silver.
James dismissed his Patronus with a wave of his wand as he and Lily moved further towards Sirius and the professor to investigate. Kirsty was perched on the desk behind the two adversaries, kicking her legs out in front of her and watching with giddy amusement.
“Still trying, Mr Black?” James heard MacIntosh ask as they came to a stand-still beside Kirsty. “Well, never mind,” the professor continued. “It’s a very hard spell to master, and I’m sure you really are giving it your best. Maybe you’ll have better luck next lesson.”
Sirius gave MacIntosh a fierce look as the professor wandered away, and Kirsty began to chuckle to herself from beside James.
“Oh,” said the professor, coming to a halt and turning back around. “But if I may offer you some advice? I’d say that you’d probably be a lot more productive if you didn’t spend half of your time gazing at Miss White out of the corner of your eye.”
Sirius’ mouth dropped open, and his face formed into a scowl as he glared at MacIntosh’s retreating back. Kirsty had stopped giggling and was now looking at the back of Sirius’ head with a raised eyebrow and a perplexed look about her.
James leant towards Lily and whispered, “MacIntosh one; Sirius one.” Lily laughed appreciatively.
“How come this seems to be so much easier for you girls?” asked Sirius, sounding miffed. This statement did in fact seem to be true as the majority of the corporeal Patronuses in the room had indeed been cast by the female populous.
“Because girls can multitask and concentrate on casting the spell as well as focusing on a happy memory, whereas boys can’t,” replied Kirsty happily.
“Humph,” huffed Sirius. He then muttered, “I’ll show you,” though whether it was addressed to MacIntosh or Kirsty, James didn’t know, before brandishing his wand for the last time that lesson and yelling, “Expecto patronum!” Just as the bell signalled the end of the lesson, a whirl of silver left Sirius’ wand and formed itself into the biggest Patronus the class had seen that lesson.
“I get a lion, and you get an eagle, but Sirius always has to go that one better,” James commented, and Kirsty nodded in agreement.
A majestic Griffin with a rather arrogant demeanour strode confidently towards Sirius. “Fantastic!” he exclaimed, throwing a smug look in his teacher’s direction.
“Quieten down everybody! Quieten down!” instructed MacIntosh over the still-present mutterings of incantations. “Fantastic work today, everybody! I never expected to see so many corporeal Patronuses”“
“Patroni,” said Sirius through a feigned cough.
“”in the first lesson, but please do keep in mind that they are much more difficult to cast in the presence of a Dementor. Just because you can do it now, in broad daylight, does not mean you will be able to do it when and if the situation arises”“
“Oh, great,” muttered Emma under her breath as she, like many others, had not produced her corporeal Patronus this lesson. She approached them from behind along with the rest of their fellow Gryffindor seventh years
“”which is why we will return to Patronuses after the Christmas break. Again, brilliant work, everybody, and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Goodbye!”
*
The following evening, Sirius was standing in the centre of the Gryffindor common room watching the spectacle before him with intrigue. It was just after eleven o’clock, the common room had been cleared of all other students, and Kirsty was currently huffing and puffing as she struggled down the stairs with a huge bundle of sleeping bags and blankets piled high in her arms. Sirius had to admit that she was doing very well given that she couldn’t see where she was going. As Sirius moved forwards to relieve her of some of them, she stumbled on the second-to-last step and slid into the common room, landing hard on her bottom.
“Ouch!” she groaned.
In two long strides, Sirius stood in front of her. He hastily bent down and removed the blankets and sleeping bags that hadn’t fallen to the floor out of Kirsty’s arms and carried them over to a vacant armchair.
“What a gentleman!” cried Kirsty. “You could have at least helped me up!”
“You’re right, I could’ve, if you’d been clever enough to realise you were a witch and carried this lot down using your wand.”
“Well, that was my plan,” argued Kirsty, standing up and wincing. “But Emma kind of dumped them on me and ran off to the bathroom before I could ask her to pass me my wand.”
“So, it’s all Emma’s fault?” queried Sirius.
“I’m glad we see eye-to-eye on such matters,” Kirsty announced. Sirius chuckled despite himself. “Do you reckon we’ve got enough stuff here?” asked Kirsty.
“Oh, I’d say so,” affirmed Sirius, retrieving the rest of the blankets from the floor.
Kirsty, meanwhile, was counting sleeping bags. “Nine,” she announced. “So that’s one for me, you, James, Lily, Peter, Remus, Emma, Hayley and …“
“”Sam,” supplied Sirius.
“Sam’s coming?” she asked.
“Yeah, I asked him. I thought it would be a bit mean to have a sleepover and leave him in the dorms all alone.”
“We’ve left Lesley and Mary up there without us,” Kirsty pointed out.
“Yeah, but they have their own friendship groups. Plus, I thought that the more we put Emma and Sam together, the more likely that something will happen between the two of them.”
“Ah,” said Kirsty in comprehension, pointing to her head with her index finger and then at Sirius.
“So where’s everybody else?” asked Sirius, keen to get his birthday celebrations underway.
“Well, Emma and Lily are both upstairs getting their pyjamas on; I’ve put Hayley in charge of munchies”“
“”meaning that she’s gone downstairs with Remus so that he can show her how to get into the kitchens,” interjected Sirius.
“”and as far as I know Peter, Sam and James are all still upstairs too,” she finished, giving him an annoyed look.
“Sam is; Peter and James aren’t,” Sirius notified her.
“Why, where have they gone?” she asked, intrigued.
“All in good time, my friend.”
She gave him a slightly sceptical look.
“Pillows!” announced Sam, coming down the boys’ staircase to join them.
“Excellent!” exclaimed Lily, walking down her own staircase at exactly the same time and helpfully taking some of the pillows off of Sam.
“See, even Lily’s more gentlemanly than you, Sirius,” announced Kirsty.
Lily gave her a puzzled look. “I’ll take that as a compliment, shall I?” Kirsty gave her a sheepish grin in response. “Now, who’s going to sleep where?” pondered Lily.
“I call the spot next to the fire!” shouted Kirsty.
“And I call being the one to push Kirsty into the fire in the middle of the night!” shouted Sirius mockingly. Kirsty gave him a dubious look. “That means I want the spot next to you,” he elaborated. Kirsty looked happier with this response, though she still seemed slightly suspicious as to why Sirius wanted to sleep next to her.
*
By the time Hayley and Remus had returned from the kitchens with platters full of food, Lily had turned the Gryffindor common room into a well-organised campsite. Kirsty, Sirius and Sam had now also changed into their pyjamas, with Sirius being scolded by Lily for wearing a baggy t-shirt and a pair of shorts in the middle of winter.
As the group were all sat around the roaring fire talking animatedly, the portrait hole creaked open, and James and Peter emerged from underneath James’ Invisibility Cloak, scaring Sirius, and everybody else, to death in the process. All was quickly forgiven, however, when they all laid eyes upon the huge crates full of Firewhisky that Peter and James were levitating in front of them.
“Do I even want to know how you managed to get hold of these?” asked Lily sternly. James levitated the crates to the ground, and gave Lily a swift smile, before walking over and giving her a kiss.
Peter, too, put his crates on the floor, before folding up a piece of paper and slipping it back into his pocket.
“What was that?” asked Hayley, clearly not missing a trick.
“Oh, nothing,” replied Peter quickly, sharing an alarmed glance with Sirius. After all, the girls were not supposed to know the last remaining secret of the Marauders.
“Don’t worry, Lil, we intend to pay Madam Rosmerta back for her kindness,” James reassured her, nodding in the direction of the crates.
“I don’t think I want to know how,” Lily stated.
“Oh, I bet Sirius has some ideas on how he’d like to repay Madam Rosmerta,” announced Kirsty suggestively.
Sirius darted a look of shock and indignation her way; Kirsty seemed tipsy already and they hadn’t even started drinking yet. “No, I don’t,” he informed her unconvincingly. She raised her eyebrows at him and snorted.
“Let’s get some alcohol down us, shall we?” suggested Remus, stepping forward, grabbing two bottles, and exploding the tops off of them with his wand.
Once everyone had been handed a magically refilling glass, courtesy of Remus, James stood in the centre of the group and raised his glass. “Here’s to our Padfoot, who’s all grown up,” he announced, nodding at Sirius. “Happy birthday, mate, and may there be many more of them to come!”
“Here, here!” chorused everybody else in agreement, before the entire group took a swig from their glasses.
“I have an idea,” announced Sam as he laid his glass down to rest on the top of his thigh. “Why don’t we make this drinking malarkey more interesting?”
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Lily, giving Sam a stern look. “Whenever anyone says ‘let’s make things more interesting’ it always ends up in some macho drinking competition with everyone becoming unbelievably drunk.”
“Ooh, that sounds like a good idea! Let’s do that!” yelled James excitedly, earning himself a slight look of disapproval from Lily.
“Hey, come on, guys. It’s Sirius’ birthday, so let him decide,” implored Hayley.
Sirius gave her a grateful smile. “Oh, what the hell, let’s get pissed!” he exclaimed jovially.
A cheer erupted from the male population, whereas the girls shared apprehensive glances with each other. They seemed to know that they were in for an incredibly rough night.
*
“Now, the game works like this,” began Sam. “Each person says something that they’ve never done, and if anybody else has actually done it then they have to have a drink. For example, if I said ‘I’ve never played on a house Quidditch team then I’d have to drink, along with James, Kirsty and Hayley. Everyone got it?”
“Yes, let’s play!” shouted James eagerly.
“Okay, birthday boy, you can go first,” instructed Peter.
“Hmm, okay, we’ll start out easy,” decided Sirius, “I’ve never performed magic.” Sirius raised his glass along with everybody else in the room.
“Go on, Kirst, you next,” announced Emma, opting for a clockwise direction of play.
Kirsty’s brows knit together in thought, before she looked at Sirius with a giddy grin. “I’ve never had suggestive thoughts on how I’d like to repay Madam Rosmerta for ‘borrowed’ Firewhisky bottles.”
Sirius scowled at her and took a sip, the Firewhisky burning his throat on its way down, and Kirsty let out a squeal of laughter.
“I’ve never intentionally ruined someone’s potion in class,” said Emma, letting out a small giggle and bringing her hand up to cover her mouth.
Kirsty gave her a searching look, and Sirius, James, Peter and Remus all took the chance to take a gulp of their drink behind her back. Peter, however, choked slightly on his because of a small and involuntary snort of laughter. That was it; Peter had managed to trigger them all off with that, and the entire circle of friends, except Kirsty, roared with raucous laughter.
Kirsty swivelled her head around, eyeing them all sceptically. Sirius and James smirked at her, before laughing hysterically once again. Seeming to catch on to what was happening, Kirsty jumped in on Lily’s turn and exclaimed, “I’ve never intentionally ruined one of Kirsty’s potions in class!”
Sirius, James, Peter and Remus all drank deeply once again.
“You rotten gits!” she yelled, hitting Sirius on the shoulder.
“Oh, but it was so funny!” cried Peter, tears of mirth glistening in his eyes.
“So how many times exactly did you do this?” asked Kirsty angrily.
“Oh, I think it’s safe to say that the first five melted cauldrons were all you, but the ones after that definitely involved some Marauder-type interference,” replied Remus, sobering up.
“I hate you all!” she declared, only half joking.
“Poor Kirst,” sympathised Sirius with a small chuckle, embracing her in a brief, one-armed embrace.
“Hmm.”
“And speaking of Potions … I’ve never wanted to become a Death Eater,” announced Lily with a vindictive edge to her voice.
“Was that just a dig at our dear old Snivellus?” James queried with a smile.
“Maybe,” she replied evasively.
To Sirius’ and everyone else’s surprise, Kirsty took a small sip.
“What?” she asked quietly upon noticing them all staring at her, mouths agape.
“Seriously?” asked Hayley.
“Well, yeah, but only for like a millisecond. I mean, you can’t say you’ve not been intrigued to know what it’d be like… And also you have to admit those mask things they wear are pretty cool.”
The other members of the group all laughed, whilst Sirius merely contented himself by shaking his head with a small smile.
“Moving swiftly on,” boomed James, changing the subject. “I’ve never been into the Prefect’s Bathroom.” He raised his glass with a simpering smile in Sirius’ direction, before he downed the rest of his glass in one.
With smiles upon their faces, mostly smug but some apologetic, everybody else apart from Sirius and Kirsty placed their glasses to their lips.
Sirius and Kirsty shared an irked look, before Kirsty flipped the circle in general a v sign. Sirius, however, not being one to be shown up by a girl, didn’t allow his middle finger its companion, instead leaving it to stand solitary, staring defiantly into James’ eyes.
“I’ve never spent the night in someone else’s dorm,” confessed Remus.
Sirius smugly took a drink as he was the only one of the guys to do so, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kirsty sip her drink with a small wink in his direction. “Notice how it’s just us two?” he asked her with a smile.
“And notice how it’s consisted of you two sleeping in each other’s beds,” added James with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows.
“I don’t like what you’re insinuating, Potter,” growled Kirsty.
“Oh, I do,” admitted Sirius. “It makes me sound like a right stallion.”
“He should have had a horse Patronus,” muttered Emma out of the corner of her mouth.
“I’ve never had a crush on a teacher,” stated Hayley, putting a halt to the conversation and quickly drinking up.
Lily, Emma and Kirsty all followed suit.
“I wonder who that could be,” growled Sirius, displeased.
“I’ve never gone to bed wearing nothing,” announced Peter.
Sirius drank and everyone looked at him in surprise. “What?” he asked, licking minute drops of Firewhisky from his lower lip.
“Why did everyone just glance at me then?” asked Kirsty hysterically.
“Because you know that fact better than anybody else here, Kirst,” teased Sirius. Kirsty screwed her face up in confusion. “Let’s just say that it’s a good thing that your hands don’t wander in your sleep,” Sirius elaborated. Kirsty whipped her head around to stare at him in horror. “Joke,” admitted Sirius with an angelic smile. “But I have slept naked before.”
“I don’t know what you’re all smirking at,” said Kirsty, staring at the other three Marauders. “That just means he’s done it whilst in your dorms.” The smiles immediately slid off all the boys’ faces, and were replaced by looks of repulsion. “Maybe it’s not me that Sirius is trying to ensnare after all,” said Kirsty conspiringly, sending James a wink.
Sirius demonstrated his annoyance at this comment by shoving hard into Kirsty’s side. However, his reprimanding of Kirsty didn’t allow him to miss James mouthing to Remus, “I told you.” Sirius gave the conspiring pair a worried look, but James, seeing Sirius watching them, simply gave him a friendly smile in recognition.
“I’ve never played for my House’s Quidditch team,” proclaimed Sam, raising his class to his fellow Gryffindor team mates.
Kirsty, James and Hayley all drank, leaving Sirius feeling every so slightly ridiculed.
As the night progressed and the alcohol began to flow freely, the questions started to become that bit more dangerous.
“I’ve never glued Sirius Black’s hair to his pillow,” announced Sirius, watching Kirsty’s reaction closely. To Sirius’ vindication, she drank deeply from her glass. “Aha!” he yelled triumphantly. “I always knew it was you who had pulled that prank, Kirby!”
“So?” she shrugged. “You’d been a complete arse that day; you needed taking down a peg or two.”
“It was a brilliant prank, Kirst. It had me in fits for days,” admitted Peter.
“I really do have the best friends in the world, don’t I?” asked Sirius dryly.
At this, everybody lunged forward out of their seats and lurched towards him in order to envelop him in a drunken group-hug.
“I’ve never fancied any of the girls in this room,” stated James, continuing on with the random order in which the game was now being played. He raised his glass to Sirius with the air of somebody who knew he had just royally stitched up his best friend.
“Thanks, Potter,” grumbled Sirius before taking a sip.
All of the other four boys also drank, looking rather uncomfortable, and the girls seemed to be a mixture of giddy, shocked and flattered by this response.
Lily received a lingering kiss on the lips from James, in order to demonstrate where his affections lay, though Sirius was sure that nobody was in doubt anyway.
“Do you care to elaborate?” enquired Kirsty, surveying all the boys before bringing her gaze to rest on Sirius.
“Yes, Sirius, please do elaborate,” instructed James devilishly.
In Sirius’ opinion, someone was definitely going to receive a punch in the morning. He found that both Remus and Peter were also looking at him eagerly, and Sirius suspected that those two were now also in on his not-so-secret crush too. James was definitely dead-meat in the morning. Although it was of course possible that James had divulged his secret in retaliation for Sirius embarrassing Lily by announcing her and James’ union to the whole of the Great Hall within thirty minutes of them becoming a couple.
“Well, personally, I find you all to be extremely attractive young women,” answered Sirius, smiling at all the girls in turn.
Kirsty was looking at him as if she wanted to laugh, but she settled for smiling graciously back at him.
“Ooh, I like that answer; I’ll use that too,” announced Sam.
“Here, here!” concurred Peter.
“Yes, you’re all lovely,” complimented Remus, smiling bashfully. “Now, to turn the tables,” he continued with an intrigued look. “I’ve never fancied any of the guys in the room.”
The girls all shared wary glances with each other, before drinking up in turn.
“Well, we all know that I fancied Sirius once upon a time,” confessed Kirsty.
A little spark ignited in Sirius’ chest, but it soon began to dim. Hang on, fancied? he thought, startled.
“And may I ask what’s wrong with me now?” he demanded of Kirsty.
She simply gave him a drunken wink in response, leaving Sirius to narrow his eyes at her as he tried to suss her out. Peter raised his eyebrows suggestively at Sirius, and Sirius huffily turned his back on him.
Lily kissed James back, and no further explanation was required, whereas Emma announced, “Well, mine’s damn obvious!” before downing the rest of her glass in one and watching in fascination as it began to magically refill once again. Sam gave her a kindly smile in response, and Emma blushed ever so slightly.
“I think Sirius’ answer’s going to come into play again,” said Hayley guardedly, and no further elaboration was offered.
Once all of the girls had drank, James also took a small sip of his Firewhisky. Everyone looked at him incredulously. “What?” he asked. “Am I the only one who finds Padfoot attractive?”
Sam, Peter and Remus all gave him compliant nods before also taking a sip. The girls hooted with laughter, and a giddy grin planted itself on Sirius’ face.
“I’ve never been in love,” admitted Kirsty, bringing a more serious tone to the game, and in turn leaving her own glass in its position on the floor.
James and Lily were the only ones to drink, and whilst everybody else pulled sickened faces behind their backs, Sirius, his face turning sombre once more, stared longingly at Kirsty.
It’s just a crush, he told himself sternly, just like he had been doing for the last month. I don’t love her. Fancy her - yes. Want her as my girlfriend - maybe. In love with her “ no. No, I can’t be. How could he be in love with someone who didn’t reciprocate his feelings? That was just plain stupid. But James has loved Lily for years, piped up a little voice inside his head. But that was different - that was James, and it had all worked out for him. Maybe it could work out for me, too. No, no, it couldn’t. Kirsty’s never shown any signs of being interested in me. She didn’t kick you out of her bed, that’s a sign, a pretty good one too, he reminded himself. But I initiated that. Kirsty may not have objected, but she’s never actually made the first move, he argued. And until something did happen between him and Kirsty, he was going to try and remove her from his mind.
But maybe tonight’s the perfect opportunity to make something happen, he thought elatedly. We’re sleeping in close proximity after all, it seems such a pity to waste so good an opportunity. So Sirius decided that tonight would be his last shot; if nothing happened, then he would keep his feelings bottled up inside him forever, but if something did happen then he was never going to let her get away from him. So you do love her then, pushed his conscience. Oh, shut up! he commanded defensively.
Sirius pulled his gaze away from Kirsty, and stared down at his glass as it moved upwards in an involuntary twitch, but Sirius could not find the courage within him to drink, and so the ‘I’ve never’ came to pass.
“I’ve never kissed a Quidditch player,” said Hayley, her glass never moving an inch.
Lily swigged down a few gulps of Firewhisky and Sirius, too, brought his glass to his lips.
“What?” choked Hayley, her eyes swiftly scanning Kirsty.
“Why does everyone keep looking at me?” demanded Kirsty, sounding extremely unnerved. “Is there some sort of conspiracy against me?”
“Oh yes,” replied Remus with a smirk.
Kirsty furrowed her brow, and looked to Sirius who shrugged as if he knew nothing.
“Care to elaborate, Padfoot?” mimicked Peter.
“I kissed James,” Sirius replied simply.
“What?” screeched everyone but James at once, though Lily’s screech was the loudest.
“It was for a dare,” admitted James quietly.
Kirsty snickered.
Sirius looked over to Emma, to see what scathing comment she was going to come up with about him being gay, but to his surprise, he saw that she seemed to be dealing with some sort of inner turmoil. Then slowly, inch-by-inch, she raised her glass to her lips.
“What?” yelped Sirius and Hayley simultaneously, as apparently Sirius was not the only one to have seen this gesture.
Everyone in the circle followed the pair’s gaze, and Sam looked on in mild intrigue.
“Who have you kissed?” asked Hayley.
Emma’s eyes flitted in Sam’s direction, and it looked to Sirius like a plea for help.
“That would be me,” confessed Sam, and everyone swivelled their heads around to gape at him instead. “Unless, of course, there’s something you want to tell me, Em?” he enquired politely.
Kirsty jumped up squealing, and gasps of disbelief went around the room.
“One month that lasted for,” said Emma, grumpily.
“A month!” screeched Lily. “That long! Oh my God, you guys!” Lily dived forward and pulled Emma into a hug.
Kirsty had sat back down again and everybody else, minus Sirius, had run over to accost both Emma and Sam. “Looks like your party’s over,” Kirsty informed Sirius regretfully. Sirius laughed lightly and gave her a weary smile.
“Happy birthday, Mr Black,” she said quietly, shifting towards him and ruffling his hair softly, before planting a kiss close to his jaw. She looked into his eyes and smiled at him, and Sirius’ heart jumped into his throat. She squeezed him briefly on his thigh before getting up once again.
Sirius watched her, a broad grin on his face, as she sashayed over to join in with the celebration and ridicule of Emma and Sam. “I’ve never been in love,” he said to himself quietly, and he raised his glass of Firewhisky before him and drained its throat-burning contents in one swift gulp.
Things Aren't Always Black and White by padfootsgirl1981
Chapter Notes: Hi, everyone! Sorry about the delay! I only got back from Australia a week ago and then I was ill and starting back at school so it's been a very busy week! I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter (yay I finally have two couples together!) and that you will enjoy this one too! Just to warn you this chapter contains substance abuse in the form of alcohol. A big thanks goes to my beta readers star_falling13 and h_vic, you rock! Oh and can I just say a HUGE thank you to luinrina who nominated Kirsty for a QSQ award! You have no idea how much that meant to me! So as a thank you I dedicate this chapter to you :D! Enjoy!
Chapter Endnotes: Bless him! Awwww! Hope you liked it! Just to let you know that the 'Northy song' goes to the tune of a song sung in a Knight's Tale by Chaucer (my beta actually worked that out, I was impressed!). Also I'd like to know what you think of the gang's Patroni (teehee)! Thanks for reading and please take the time to review! xx