What's in a Name?
by Lirulin
Disclaimer: Nothing in here belongs to me; all is property of J. K. Rowling (although I wouldn't say no to Sirius…).
Author's Note: This simply popped into my head and begged to be written, I don't even know where it came from. Probably Sirius' bad influence…
"Why did my parents have to name me Orion? "
James Potter looked up from his roll of parchment and over to his best friend who was currently lounging on a couch with his head upside down over the armrest, gazing at the flames in the fireplace.
"The last time I checked your name was still Sirius. Or did I miss something?"
Sirius huffed in what seemed to be exasperation and rolled his eyes.
"Think, Prongs. I'm obviously talking about my middle name here."
James sighed surreptitiously. It was after midnight, he could barely keep his eyes open and he still had to write more than a foot and a half for Slughorn before he could finally go to bed. He was most definitely not in the mood to listen to Sirius going off on a tangent again.
"I don't know, Padfoot. Something to do with stars? Common theme kind of thing? And it is your father's name as well, right? Ask your parents, they chose it."
Sirius chuckled humourlessly, and James mentally slapped himself. After the shouting match he had witnessed at the end of the holidays, Sirius would not be asking his parents anything for a long time. He returned to his essay, wondering for the thousandth time why he had not done this sooner. But honestly, who in his right mind could concentrate on Memory Potions and whether Jobberknoll feathers were more effective whole or broken apart when the sun was shining outside and Snivellus was just so conveniently sitting on a rock on the edge of the lake? Too bad Flitwick had seen him and promptly issued a detention. Why couldn't Sirius simply go to bed and leave him to finish this in peace?
"I wish my middle name was Lee."
James gripped his quill tightly. It would not do to stab his friend with it, no it would not. He could not imagine it at the moment, but he would surely regret it later on. Perhaps he should just get this over with.
"And why would you want that?"
Sirius had rolled off the couch and was now sitting on the floor, picking at the carpet and looking at James with twinkling eyes.
"Do you know James Bond?"
James blinked a few times. Even he sometimes had trouble following the seemingly random leaps of Sirius' thought processes. He just shook his head in mute puzzlement, and watched as Sirius jumped up and started pacing in front of the fireplace.
"Moony told me about him. He's some kind of muggle fictional character guy. He's doing all this great stuff, battling evil and getting all the hot women. And he always introduces himself with, 'My name is Bond, James Bond'."
James rubbed his head, seeing his chances of ever finishing this essay getting smaller and smaller.
"Do your ramblings have a point, Paddy?"
Sirius gave him a look of mock hurt, then started beaming again, ambling over to the table and coming to stand in front of James.
"Of course, I always have a point. Can you imagine how cool that would be? My name is Black, Sirius Lee Black. Do you get it? Do you? Perhaps I should start wearing more black clothes, that'd be even funnier."
The quill snapped in two, and James flung the pieces at a still madly grinning Sirius who was now rapidly retreating to the staircase.
"Are you crazy? When do you come up with this stuff? . . . On second thought, I don't want to know. Take your Black self and your ideas somewhere else. I've work to do."
Sirius just laughed at him. Who knew that best friends could be so annoying?
. . .
Oh hell, who was he kidding? This was Sirius Black, for crying out loud!
"But Prongs! Aren't friends supposed to support each other in their endeavours? I'm only trying to better myself. Besides, you know what they say: 'All work and no play make James a dull boy.' We wouldn't want that, would we? Can't have you losing your edge."
James briefly wondered whether he would feel better if he started banging his head on the table, but decided that the resulting headache would not be worth it.
"Please, Sirius. Please leave me alone so that I can finish this. I don't want another detention. Not with Halloween coming up and all the planning we still have to do."
Sirius flashed him another smile, saluted and finally made his way up the stairs to their dormitory. Grabbing another quill, James turned back to his parchment, studying the vast expanse he still had to cover in dismay. He would be dead on his feet tomorrow morning.
Just then, Sirius voice floated down the staircase.
"By the way, Prongs. If you look to your left, there's my essay on the couch. You can copy it, just change a few sentences around. Wouldn't want it to look too similar, right?"
Then he heard the sound of a softly closing door. James smiled to himself, looking at the scroll lying innocently on the couch. Sometimes having a best friend by the name of Sirius was the best thing in the word after all.
The End
Me: So, did you like it? Just a short random piece, like the random things Sirius thinks about.
Sirius: Hey! My thoughts aren't random. They are deep, profound and insightful. No one ever appreciates me, they always make fun of me, never listen to me and...
Me: Yeah, whatever. Please review, or he'll likely never shut up.