Black & Blue [Marauder's Era/Sirius Black FF]

01

8th April 1979

"Beady, are you up?" Sirius called loudly for Harriet into their apartment, flicking his wand at each of the cupboards he had left open searching for a plate a few moments ago. He had abandoned the search halfway through as he had almost eaten his toast by the time he got to the fifth cupboard.

Dawn hadn't yet broken and the house was dimly lit by the low-watt bulbs and the place looked dreary, the dark wooden panels of the walls and the old wooden flooring didn't exactly make the already-dark morning any lighter.

Sirius passed Remus in the hall, brushing his teeth as he searched for a pair of socks. His hair was ruffled and standing to attention in every which way. Both of them were dressed from top to bottom in black, cargo trousers and a long sleeve black top making them look like they had just come home from ransacking the neighbourhood.

"Harriet?" Sirius banged his fist against her bedroom door before opening it anyway. Inside he saw the tall, dark haired girl he knew so well hopping around as she tried to thread her feet into her matching trousers whilst doing her bra up with the other hand.

"I'm coming!" Harriet said, quickly grabbing her wand and almost pacing straight into Sirius' chest as she had expected him to rush through the doorframe with her. "Well? Come on then."

"As much as your tits are great," Sirius said with a laugh as she looked down at her torso, realising she hadn't put a top on in her not-so-speedy morning. She ran to her wardrobe and pulled the black top from the hangar and quickly laced her arms through the sleeves. "I don't think you'll be able to woo the Death Eaters with them."

Harriet laughed as he stepped backwards to let her walk from her bedroom and into the kitchen where Remus was sat at the dining table, buttering some toast for her. He slid it across the table on a plate towards her as she rushed around for her socks. Sirius frowned at the plate, sure that Remus must have conjured it.

"I don't understand how someone as dozy as you doesn't cruico themselves in the head six times a day." Remus said as Harriet picked up a slice of toast with the same hand that held her wand and narrowly avoided taking her eye out.

"I'm just lousy with the muggle stuff," She laughed, chewing on her toast at the same time. The two boys shared a look and laughed at their daft friend. "Ask me to stupefy Severus Snape six miles and I'll get him to perform an Olympic gymnastics sequence whilst unconscious on the way there."

With a thump, Harriet landed on her backside by the shoe rack and began to pull her boots on. Sirius was quick to point out she had put them on the wrong feet and she changed them, lacing them up like an relaxed soldier.

Once Harriet was finally ready, they surprisingly had a few minutes to spare so she paced over to the calendar and counted the days between today's date and the middle of the next month where there were two circles drawn, interlocked together, labelled L and J.

"I can't believe how close the wedding is." Harriet said gleefully. It had been less than a year since they had left Hogwarts and it wasn't more than a month after that when James had proposed to Lily. They were young, but love seemed a lot like hope in the face of this war. They had recently attended the wedding of Alice and Frank Longbottom, two other members of the Order and it had only excited Lily and Harriet more.

"We have to make it through the day first." Sirius said, rubbing his forehead. Harriet rolled her eyes at him.

"You're still jealous he's marrying Lily and not you." Harriet ignored him morbid remark and told a joke Sirius had heard continually since way before Lily and James were dating at all. James and Sirius had been the closest of friends since their first days, as did Remus and Harriet, and it came with its mimicking.