All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Fourth Year : Christmas

Monday 23rd December 1974

Though they left behind picturesque mountains of glittering snow at Hogwarts, the marauders were greeted in London by a grey, southern drizzle. The weather remained dreary and damp for most of Christmas break, which meant sledging wasn’t an option, nor were snowball battles.

This made for a boring first few days before Christmas, which they tried to make up for with trips into the village under Mr. Potter’s huge black umbrella. The three boys spent their afternoons in the muggle cinema there, a novelty to both Sirius and James.

It was Remus, of course, who convinced them to go, babbling on about a film called Death Wish which apparently his muggle friends (it was still disconcerting to Sirius to hear him talk about friends outside of Hogwarts) had told him about over the summer. Admittedly, it was quite good; though Sirius had his doubts, he found himself enraptured by the moving pictures that he’d read about in Muggle Studies, which were quite violent and highly entertaining. It was especially interesting to try and figure out how, exactly, the pictures were moving without magic—their textbook had been a bit iffy about that part. The boys ended up going to see the film twice, so that James and Sirius could try to figure out how the projector worked.

The third time around, though, neither was very eager to see the same film again—although Remus seemed just as excited about it as he had been for the previous two viewings. Still, there was nothing much else to do, so James and Sirius agreed to go back. They were discussing the mysterious workings of the projector as they stepped up to the queue—only to find themselves directly behind a group of muggle girls.

Peter’s surprise win when it came to the snogging bet hadn’t been forgotten, and Sirius was determined to kiss someone before the end of the year—if only to salvage his reputation. The only problem was that now there were technically no stakes behind it, as he’d already paid out his galleons to Pete, which meant that if he snogged a girl at Hogwarts people might think he was doing it because he fancied her, and that would ruin his image as the aloof heartbreaker of Gryffindor tower.

These muggle girls, though…well, they weren’t bad looking, dressed all in miniskirts even though it was December. They kept glancing back and giggling, batting their eyelashes the way girls did when they were trying to flirt with you. Sirius leaned against the wall, trying to look effortless and cool, staring at the freckled girl with honey-blonde curls. She had very long legs, and a very nice smile.

The girls finished buying their tickets, and went in to the second screen. Remus stepped up to the booth, counting out the muggle money that Mr. Potter had given them.

“Moony,” Sirius said quickly, knowing well enough to take an opportunity when it presented itself, “How about we see something different today?”

“Yeah,” James agreed, trying to flatten his hair.

Remus glance sceptically up at the poster above the door—The Great Gatsby. He wrinkled his nose,

“Ugh, it’s a romance, though, what do you want to see that for?” The other two ignored his protests, ushering him into the second screen.

Remus settled into the front row with a resigned sigh, and James and Sirius sat down next to him. When Sirius turned to glance behind them, the theatre was mostly empty. The freckled girl caught his eye, wiggling her fingers in a shy wave as her friends giggled beside her.