All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Fifth Year : 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Saturday 20th December 1975

“I will literally curse you both with a lip locking charm if you plan to do that all the way to London.” Lily threatened, pointing her wand at Sirius and Mary. There wasn’t a trace of humour in her expression; she appeared, for all the world, to be deadly serious. Mary disentangled her arms from around Sirius’s neck, sticking her tongue out cheekily.

“You too, Wormy!” James said quickly, smiling eagerly at Lily as if awaiting her approval. Sometimes Sirius wondered how he’d ended up as the dog, when James was so clearly willing to roll over if Evans so much as breathed in his direction.

Peter and Desdemona separated, looking mildly sheepish but still very pleased with themselves.

Their carriage was jam packed—eight people, all crammed into one car. Sirius had Mary pressed against one side and James on the other, with Remus squashed over by the window. On the opposite row of seats, Lily, Marlene, Peter and Desdemona created a similar tableau.

“We’re just saying goodbye,” Mary purred, nestling her head against Sirius’s shoulder. Her springy curls tickled his chin.

“It’s only two weeks, and you can write to each other,” Lily sniffed, primly.

“Er...actually, better if none of you write to me.” Sirius said, “I’m not likely to get the letters anyway, and unless you want my dear mother reading them...”

“You’ve got the mirror, though?” James asked, for the fiftieth time, “You can still get in touch with us if you need to?”

“Yeah, ‘course.” Sirius smiled tightly, reaching up to pat his jacket pocket.

He turned back to Mary, trying to ignore to cold finger of unease running down his spine. He knew James meant well, but his friend’s anxious gaze and earnest questions only contributed to Sirius’s own nerves about the situation. Besides, it wasn’t as if his friends needed to worry—it wasn’t like this was anything that Sirius couldn’t handle. He wasn’t going to be in any actual danger; they were just his family, after all.

Mary had started chatting with Marlene about their latest Care of Magical Creatures assignment, moaning about how difficult it was to identify bowtruckles. Sirius grinned, glancing over at Remus—he knew for a fact that the boy still hadn’t gotten anything less than Exceeds Expectations on a single one of his Care of Magical Creatures assignments.

Remus was staring out the window, head leaned against the glass, a faraway look in his eyes. His pupils moved rapidly, watching the trees pass by outside. Sirius wondered what he was thinking about.

Whatever it was, it had him totally enthralled—Remus didn’t notice Sirius making a face at him, and he didn’t even bat an eye when the trolley witch arrived with her bounty of snacks.

“Oi, Moony, wakey wakey!” Sirius called, snapping his fingers, “Trolley’s here, don’t want to miss your lunch, do you?”

“Oh, cheers,” Remus said absentmindedly, blinking as he turned away from the window. James was scooping as many pasties as he could hold into his arms, while Sirius and Peter grabbed fistfuls of sweets.

“We’ll never get through all of this!” Lily tutted.

“You’ve clearly never seen Moony eat,” James countered, winking.