metanoia

Chapter Forty

"Look what we got," Sirius happily called as he, Remus, Peter and James returned from their trip to the nearby Muggle town.

Alex looked up from her letter, casting the pieces of parchment aside as she pushed herself off the sofa to find her cousin and Sirius as they tried to find the girls. The blonde pulled her hair into a low, loose bun, smudging the ink that was on her hands.

Letti jogged down the stairs, closely followed by Charlie who was visiting for the afternoon, "Did you guys finally get your shit together?"

Sirius faked a smile at the brunette, who he'd become very close to in the short time they've spent together during the summer break at the Potter residence, "Ha ha very funny. And to answer your question, no."

James unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, in time with the other three as they each adjusted their shirts or collars to reveal what they'd gotten. They each had pink raised skin on their collarbone, meaning that they'd gone and gotten tattoos.

Charlie gasped, clapping happily as she got closer to Peter to examine the tattoo. It was a Wizard tattoo, done by her older brother, of four animals: a rat, a dog, a wolf and a stag; chasing each other on the left side of their chests.

Alex, noticing the extra wolf on the other three boy's chests, silently asked if she could touch it. Then proceeded to lightly run her fingers on James' collarbone, admiring the art with a smile, "This is amazing. The line work is... perfect. I want one now."

"Me too," the other girls giggled, all getting the same idea.

"I'll call my brother," Charlie announced as Alex and Letti ran up the stairs to get dressed to go to town.

The group of friends left the lavish Potter Mansion, laughing as they made their way to the village where Luke Johnson set up his tattoo shop.

"Why don't you become a tattoo artist?"

Alex looked up from the drawing she'd been examining for the past twenty minutes, folding it as she met the eyes of the man who stood a foot taller than her, "Pardon me?"

"You're an artist, you enjoy it. Why don't you become a tattoo artist?" James repeated, quickly taking one of the folded pieces of parchment from her hand to look at the drawing.

"Actually, that one's not mine..." she trailed off, seeing that James had stolen the wrong piece of parchment.

James' eyes unconsciously scanned the paper, reading the lengthy letter to his cousin from Amos Diggory. He looked up from the letter when he realized that he'd invaded her privacy, noticing that the rest of their friends were walking a few feet ahead of them, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have read that."

"Just, uh, forget about it. It's not like I'm hiding anything," Alex stammered, quickly pocketing the letter as she handed James the drawing.

James examined the drawing: it was of the night that Lisette became a werewolf. The sky was filled with stars and lightning strikes and sitting in the tall grass was a howling wolf.

Before saying anything to the artist he called for his friends to slow down so they could see the drawing, handing the piece of parchment to Letti, "You should get this as your tattoo."

"You drew that?" Sirius asked, seeing the beautifully drawn sketch over Charlie's shoulder.

"Yeah, I was just drawing this morning. I couldn't sleep all that well and that just kinda happened."

Letti returned the piece of parchment back to it's owner with a smile, "I'll only get it if you do, Allie."

"Alright."

The group of seven made their way to the village, laughing and joking as they trekked through the winding streets of cobblestone towards Luke Johnson's tattoo shop. Luke specializes in magical tattoos, charming the ink embedded in the client's skin to move as it so pleases. However, he also does normal Muggle tattoos where the ink doesn't move. When they entered the dark tattoo shop, they found a smiling Hogwarts alumni greeting them at the door.

"Charlie! Alex! It's about time you've come to see me again, how've you been kiddo?" Luke greeted, giving her a high-five as the Marauders greeted their tattoo artist as they returned to see him.

Alex smiled up at the light skinned artist, wrapping her other arm around her body to hug herself, "I've been, man. It's been a while because I don't have any money. We're blowing all our school money right now."

"Right on, what can I do for you guys today?"

Charlie eagerly sat in the cushioned client's chair, thrusting her arm out for her older brother to begin inking, "I want a band of flowers around my wrist, bubs."

"How about you two?" Luke laughed, beginning to sterilize his equipment.

Letti took the parchment from her best friend, unfolding it and handing it to her friend's older brother, "And Alex and I would like something this please. She wants it on her right inner bicep and I want it on my right shoulder. But with mine, I'd like another wolf beside the howling one."

"I can do that."

☆☆☆

"So are you really going to pretend like I didn't read what I read this morning?"

Alex gritted her teeth at her cousin, annoyed that he was bringing it up again when she couldn't leave the conversation because she was currently getting a tattoo. James' low question was heard by everyone in the small tattoo shop, catching their friends' attention, "Can we not talk about this right now?"

"Talk about what?" Charlie hummed as she and Letti sat on the couch across the room beside Sirius and Peter, with fresh cling wrap on their new tattoos.

"Nothing," she barked, watching Luke start the shading on her bicep. "James is just overreacting. There is nothing to talk about."

Sirius rolled his eyes, throwing his arm across the back of the couch, "Yeah, it's clearly nothing. What did Prongs read this morning?"

"You know we'd never judge you, Al. So whatever is going on, you can tell us," Remus agreed, squeezing her left hand in a comforting manner.

"It's nothing guys, can we just drop it please? What you read James, is none of your business anyways so even if it was something it's not your place," she snapped, wanting to leave the room but she didn't as the twinge of the tattoo gun piercing her skin reminded her she was temporarily trapped.

"I'm your best friend, your family, of course it's my place. And if it was nothing, you wouldn't be reacting this way about the letter."

Peter cocked an eyebrow at their argument, looking over the top of a pair of James' old glasses he stole, "What letter? What is going on?"

"Nothing, Pete. James just read something he shouldn't have. Just drop it."

James furrowed his brows at his cousin, challenging her silently about whether or not they should keep fighting about whether or not what he read that morning was important or not. He wasn't backing down this time, whether she wanted him to or not, "She's pregnant."

"What?!" Everyone in the tattoo parlor exclaimed, including Alex and Luke.

"That's what Amos said in that letter. He said "I can't wait to become a father, I'm so excited about this baby," James explained, crossing his arms across his chest.

Alex couldn't help but start laughing, finding that out of everything that was in that letter Amos wrote to her he clung to that sentence as the matter that needed discussion. Her friends all looked at her in confusion, none understanding why she was laughing about James announcing she was pregnant. "I'm not pregnant, you idiot. His ex-girlfriend is. She's due in September."

"Oh..."

"I hate you. I can't believe you thought I was pregnant," Alex laughed, flipping him off as he apologized profusely.