Finding fireworks || Sirius Black

06

"You don't tap, you don't shag!"

Sirius' POV

Prongs was taking forever, and it was annoying me and his parents. We were all ready to leave, and he kept yelling 'just a minute' from upstairs even though it'd been more like 10. What was taking him this long, I didn't know. It's not like he had to do his hair or anything. It was untamable; he knew it, I knew it, the entire world knew it.

"James, darling, we are going to be late," Euphemia said. She looked at me "Why is he taking so long, dear?"

"I think this girl he likes will be at the party," I said, shrugging.

"Oh, is this that redhead... mmm, Evans, is it?" asked Fleamont.

"No, he's given up on that one."

"Stop giving my parents information about my love life!" Prongs complained, finally making his way down the stairs.

"What love life?" I joked. He made a rude gesture.

"James!" his mother squeaked. We laughed.

"Sirius was telling us you have your eye on a young lady that's attending the ball tonight," said Fleamont wiggling his eyebrows at Prongs. He rolled his eyes.

"That is absolutely none of your business," he said. "How are we getting there, again?"

"Portkey. I refuse to use a chimney; my dress would be ruined," Euphemia said.

We all gathered around a small flower pot that had been enchanted to take us to the ball. I wasn't a big fan of portkeys, so I took a deep breath and shut my eyes firmly.

I had to blink a couple of times to help my eyes adjust to the light when we landed. I couldn't believe this was the same house I'd visited only last week. Mrs. Silverway had truly outdone herself, the place looked incredible. Every bit of decoration was made out of shimmering glass, enchanted so that it caught the light, creating an illusion like the entire place was covered by a silver glow. It was actually really cool.

"Wow, Leonor has really blown it out of the park," Fleamont said. We all nodded in agreement and started walking towards the door.

"Did you attend this thing last year?" I asked James quietly.

"Nope. First time."

"Why?"

"I didn't feel like it. Thought it'd be boring. There aren't many people our age," he shrugged.

"I'm curious, Prongs. Your parents and Jocelyn's parents are very close, you could have been pretty much like cousins for real. Why aren't you?" I asked him.

"Because I'm an idiot, basically," he said. I raised my eyebrow and waited for him to elaborate.

"We were close when we were little. Like, I remember her fifth birthday party in particular. We gave chase to garden gnomes for hours. And, she gave me a super cool new toy broom for my ninth birthday. I promised her I'd be Quidditch captain at school, and that I'd get her on my team. She told me she was sure I would, and that she wouldn't complain much when I bossed her around," he sighed.

"But then we got the letter. It was happening for real. We were going to Hogwarts and I knew she was going to be in the same year as me, and I panicked. I kept thinking 'what if the other kids think it's weird that I'm such good friends with a girl.'"

I had to laugh at that. I remember what it was like being ten and eleven years old. Girls were almost as scary as dementors. We reached the front door but indicated to his parents we were going to wait outside for a bit. I wanted to hear this story. They nodded and went ahead without us.