the cadence of part time poets

Chapter 43: Cherry

Man has always wanted a woman by his side to keep him company,
Women always knew that it takes a man to get matrimony and harmony;
Everybody knows that a man who's feeling down wants some female sympathy,
Gotta have love to carry on living,
Gotta have love 'til eternity...

- "People Need Love" ABBA, 1972

Really it was kind of Kenny to hand over the common room for their last night at school. Remus doubted it made him or any of his friends very popular, but other kids stayed away for the most part, deterred by Sirius' sign and the threat that any party-crashers would receive detention and in the very least, a nasty wedgie.

All of them piled in together and turned the couches into a single ring the way Simeon and his friends had done the year before. The fire burning in the grate was doing its job of keeping them warm with the windows cracked, though they had more than enough booze for that anyway. Invites had been extended to all of their closest friends, including a few plus ones. It had seemed like a good and fair idea at the beginning, but unfortunately Mary's choice of company couldn't have been worse. While Lily and James snuggled up to one another on the sofa and Peter and Lottie brought along their own respective partners, Mary called upon a year 13 bloke she'd been seeing named Bryan. Remus thought he could see the interest—Bryan had wavy brown hair with baby blue eyes and chiselled jaw to boot—but it only took about ten minutes for the rest of them to figure out he had the personality of sour milk.

While Lottie and Mickey disappeared to share one of the spliffs Remus had rolled, Sirius had set up the common room's turntable, only slightly frustrated that the needle needed a ten pence taped to its top to weigh it down so that it didn't skip. Everyone seemed content to sit back and let Mary and Sirius have it out over the music—Mary favoured Diana Ross and Bay City Rollers while Sirius wanted Faces and ZZ Top, so naturally they compromised with The Moody Blues and The Beach Boys.

"Always thought The Beach Boys were a little too buggery to be any good," Bryan said as Sirius set Pet Sounds on the turntable.

"Tell me Bry," he said wryly, "do you prefer painting everything in black and white, or just rock and roll?"

"You call 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' rock and roll?"

"Yes. They're a rock band."

"Pink Floyd's a rock band."

"Oh, you hear that, Pot?" Sirius called. "Pink Floyd's a rock band. Did you know?"

James shook his head; "Nah, could've fooled me."

"All I'm saying is there's levels," Bryan said.

" 'Levels'?"

"Yeah, like Syd Barrett had this whole thing going on—"

"Pretty sure that was the acid actually," Remus interjected. "The last few songs he wrote for the band were unplayable."

"Yeah well, these poofters couldn't hold a candle to real music."

"Oh save me from the follies of my betters," Sirius huffed sarcastically. "This is one of the albums that made the sixties."

"And 'Dark Side of the Moon' absolutely blows it out of the water."

"Syd Barrett wasn't even in the band when they produced that album!"

"That's enough ladies, we all have ears and opinions of our own," Mary said from her spot on the couch next to Bryan. "Now get back here, Sirius, so I can finish your eyeliner."

Looking pointedly at Bryan, Sirius set up the needle and waited until the song had started before crossing back to Mary and dropping down in front of her on the rug. It'd been several weeks since Remus had last seen him wearing the makeup or polish, but he supposed going home for the holiday had Sirius wanting to push the envelope once more. He didn't mind either, it made the blue in his eyes stand out—made them 'pop', or whatever the girls were always going on about.