Human Design | Sirius Black

xi. All the Kinds of Ways You Can Build Stamina

ON JANUARY FIRST, Reece was the only person in his dormitory who woke up without a hangover. He hadn't returned to the party after his altercation with Sirius, opting instead to run around the Black Lake, thinking it could get him off his mind. That said, nobody was all that energetic or talkative when they walked down for breakfast.

Despite it being New Year, the twelve Christmas trees were still up in the Great Hall, joined by banners that said Happy New Year, 1977 that would give of little firework sparks every few minutes. 

To enter the Great Hall, one had to walk through a golden fringe curtain that had been put up in the large doorway that cast off golden sparkles that looked like fireflies and left glitter on everyone's shoulders and hair. 

Amongst the candles, groups of balloons (or orbs that looked like balloons but weren't, because they would explode to cast off sparkles every once in a while and then regrow; the sparkles vanished as soon as they hit a surface to protect the food) levitated in the air above the tables. Reece understood why everyone kept telling him that he wanted to see it all at least once.

As soon as the group had sat down, Oliver Goldstein and Dylan Spinnet stood up from the Gryffindor table to walk over the short distance to them, neither bothering to give any greeting as the prior turned to Alexander and asked, "So how was it?" with a smirk splitting his face without elaborating what he was asking about further.

"It was nothing," Reece sniggered, picking up a piece of dark bread and reaching for the butter, "cause he had a bit of a problem." It was hard for him to keep a straight face when both Gryffindors turned to him with a questioning look and he elaborated, "Excessive alcohol consumption induced erectile dysfunction." Both Oliver and Dylan threw their heads back in howling laughter.

Alex was scowling, slouching above his plate of eggs and brushing glitter off his jumper, whilst Joshua rolled his eyes. "Híjole, you can just call it whiskey dick, Reece, that's what it's called," he said with exasperation which Reece only responded to with a shrug.

"It's so fucking unfair, isn't it?" Alex glowered, stabbing the yolks of his sunny-side-up eggs with a fork so that they spooled out onto the plate. "Girls can drink as much alcohol as they want and they never have a problem – if anything, alcohol makes them more –" he thought for a moment "– responsive. Who the fuck decided that we have to suffer from this shit?" It was Reece's turn to roll his eyes.

Dylan reached to dry tears from his eyes whilst Oliver was doubled over. "Just drink less next time, Alex."

Alex looked up to glare at him. "Just drink less next time – as if there's going to a next time," he mocked. "I'll fucking kill her if I find out she's been telling everyone."

"What – like how you told everyone when Katie Taylor asked you to have anal?" Reece piped up, swallowing his food.

"That's different."

"How is it different?"

"It just is."

"What a sound argument."

Alex didn't respond more, finally getting around to eating his eggs and the others continued their breakfasts too. Reece watched Dylan and Oliver return to the Gryffindor table, though then his eyes instinctively scanned it until they found Sirius and a shot of guilt seared through him, making the lettuce, egg, and ham sandwich he had eaten half of suddenly much less appetising. 

Chewing slowly, he watched Sirius hit Remus Lupin on the shoulder which made him spill coffee everywhere and retaliate by picking up the salt and dumping the entire jug on top of Sirius's waffle. There was no sign of anything bothering him at all; Sirius had returned to his usual demeanour of slightly annoying humour with a mischievous glint in his eyes and an obnoxious grin curling his lips.