What Sirius never said

Chapter 48

Back at school, things returned to normal. Sirius broke the news to James that he would be moving in with them. James whooped so loudly in the entrance hall that teachers started to gather, suspicious of the boys being in such a good mood.

A week after we returned, Sirius had his 17th birthday. When I arrived in our advanced magical theory class the morning of, I took my usual seat next to Lily. Sirius turned round in his own chair, excitement blazen in his face.
"Hey Trudy, James and I are going to the pub later for my first legal pint. Do you want to come?"
"Sure" I agreed, "happy birthday by the way".
"How are you guys planning on getting out?" Lily asked us, confusion written all over her face.
"You can leave for an evening as soon as you turn 17" I explained to her. "Didn't you have your birthday a while back?"
She nodded. "In November. But I've never gone for a pint. I didn't realise you could. In all honesty I largely forgot that you're of age when you're 17. I always think it's 18 like in the Muggle world."
James snorted. "Why would they wait until they're 18? 17 makes so much more sense".
I rolled my eyes and Lily opened her mouth like she was about to say something, but at that moment McGonagall stepped up to the front of the class and our conversation died.

"Do you want to come to the pub with us?" I asked Lily a little later in the lesson when we could get away with talking again. She chewed her lip for a minute, glancing at James.
"You don't have to sit next to him" I told her, so she gave a quick nod. "That would be really nice, thanks".

I sat with Sirius and James for lunch that day and asked if Lily could come. James perked up at the prospect. "She's only going to come if you relax about this James" I warmed him. "Be cool okay? No harassing the girl".
"I don't harass her" he grumbled into his soup.
I caught Sirius' eye and laughed.
"Are Remus and Peter coming too?" I asked.
"Remus is. Peter hasn't turned 17 yet so he technically can't, but he'll meet us there".
Of course that was how this was going to go down. It wouldn't be a Marauders birthday without a bit of rule breaking would it.

As it was, I needn't have worried. When I met them in the entrance hall that evening Lily was walking in step with Remus and chatting happily with him. I fell into step besides Sirius and James.
"You look nice" Sirius commented.
"Thank you" I smiled at him. I had put in effort, to be fair. "It's not every day we leave the castle now is it".
"I like your necklace" James commented, evidently trying to be a complimentary friend just like Sirius appeared to be.
I thanked him too and clutched at the pearl pendant as it hung against my collar bone. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sirius smirking. "Are you not going to comment on Sirius' new signet ring?" James asked.
We trudged down the steps and beat the well worn path across the grounds to the gates.
"I hadn't noticed it I'm afraid".
Sirius showed it to me and I oohed and aahed appropriately. "The guys got it for me" he smiled.
As we passed through the gates I asked Sirius "so what's the first thing you're going to do now that you're of age?"
"Get a pint?"
"No, I got that one, but you've just left the school grounds. You can do all the magic in the world. What are you going to do?"
Sirius seemed to panic for a moment "I don't know. I've had my entire life to think about this, why don't I know what I want to do?"
"Mate, just levitate something and be done with it. It's not that big a deal" James chimed in.
"Aw come on, I can do more than levitate something. That's the oldest trick in the book" Sirius jibbed back. "What did you do?" He asked us both.
"I...." I paused to think about it. What had I done? I'd been at mum and dad's over Easter. I guess I had turned my light on and off? I told him. And then my memory flashed back to before being at mum and dad's. To being at the Blacks, when I had used a severing charm to get rid of those awful cuffs on my dress. And then to when Sirius had summoned our bags... "I was wrong" I interrupted James's tale of rescuing a muggle girl over Christmas using Expeliarmus.
"I used a severing charm on the cuffs of a dress. Over Easter."
James hmphed about my interrupting his story for that (a story which I was sure was exaggerated. When he had told it the first time just after the Christmas holidays, he had only caused a bin lid to bang, scaring the potential mugger away from the girl, as opposed to single handedly duelling five deatheaters as he now told it). Sirius however, glanced smuggly at me. He was evidently remembered the story too. James didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and we carried on our walk regardless. When we approached the village Sirius still hadn't done any magic and he was starting to panic slightly now.
"I can legally do magic. Why haven't I?" He complained.
"Just do it when you need to" I suggested, while James made more and more radical suggestions which I was sure would get us thrown out of the pub, let alone the village. As it was, Sirius' first legal magic was thoroughly underwhelming. As we stepped off the curb to cross the street to the pub, Lily tripped. Remus reached out to grab her but she fell too quickly. Sirius flicked his wand at her and she levitated a few centimeters off the ground before he flicked his wand again and set her upright.
"See" he grinned at James. "Now we both have stories where we rescued a girl."
James laughed but I couldn't help but be ever so slightly jealous of Lily, that she got his first magic.