A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, I'm merely playing with them. I promise to give them back when I'm done.
May, 1975- For five days in the month of May, Led Zeppelin played sold out concerts at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London. These concerts would come to be known as the greatest the band had ever given.
The Sneak-Out
"OK, so let's go over the plan one last time," James said in hushed tones as he and his friends left their Charms class one sunny Friday afternoon in May.
"You and I sneak out after the last class today, go to the Hog's Head, floo to London, and find a place to sleep for the night," Sirius said quietly with a grin.
"And in the meantime, Peter and I tell anybody who asks where you are, that we think you're in the library revising for final exams," Remus added with a roll of his eyes. They'd discussed the plans for two weeks now, and it was getting rather old. He had no desire to go with them, but was used to making excuses for his friends' poor behaviour long before now.
"And the two of you will be back to the school by Sunday night, and nobody will ever know where you were—except us of course," Peter concluded.
"Perfect," James said. "I can't wait for classes to end today!"
The hours seemed to pass like days before they finally finished Potions with Professor Slughorn. James and Sirius couldn't have gotten out of that classroom fast enough. The moment Slughorn dismissed them, they tore out of the room and headed up to Gryffindor Tower.
"Are you ready?" Sirius asked, panting from the exercise.
"Of course!" James exclaimed. "We'll just drop our books off, grab the bags we packed, and then we're off. Make sure you get the map."
"It's in my pocket already. Oh we'll have to change our clothes. They don't wear robes like this in Muggle London."
"Right."
When the two boys arrived at their dormitory, they quickly changed out of their school robes and into the coolest Muggle clothes they owned. "Should I wear a bandana or a headband?" Sirius asked while holding one of each up.
"Bandana, I think. I think headbands are out now," James replied as he looked at the acid-washed bellbottoms he'd just put on. "OK, shall we go?"
Sirius picked up his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and pulled out the Marauders Map. "All right, the coast is clear to get to the passage out to Honeydukes. We'll need to run for it, though."
James and Sirius ran through the hallways until they reached the passageway. They looked around carefully before opening it up and slipping inside. It took several minutes for them to run through the dark narrow tunnel up to Hogsmeade. When they emerged into Honeydukes, it was busy enough with customers that nobody noticed when they appeared out of the backroom and ran out the front door.
The Hog's Head was a shady pub where a person could go and not worry about being questioned. They'd decided to floo from there because the proprietor turned a blind eye if students came through his pub on non-Hogsmeade weekends.
The proprietor charged them a galleon apiece to floo from his pub, but they didn't care. They handed over the money, grabbed the floo powder, and rushed over to the fireplace.
Sirius stepped in first. He threw down his powder, waited for the green flames, and cried out, "The Leaky Cauldron!" before disappearing. James waited several seconds before following suit.
The Leaky Cauldron was crowded that evening, so they slipped out easily into Muggle London. "We're here!" James cried. "We made it! We're in London and we didn't get caught!"
Sirius grinned and nodded his head. "Let's go find a hotel and then we can go out on the town," he said as he walked down the block. "Let's try this way."
They found a hotel nearby, and checked in by using false names and conjured fake ids. The hotel room was small, but it was good enough for what they needed. "I don't think we'll be getting much sleep anyway," James said as they threw their bags onto the beds. "I think we need to hit the disco clubs tonight. I brought some gold chains we can wear. They're really stylish in the Muggle world." He held out two chunky gold chain necklaces to Sirius, who quickly slipped them over his head.
"I'm glad I wore the shirt with the open collar, it shows off the chains really well," Sirius said while admiring himself in the mirror. He ran a comb through his hair before carefully running a hand over it to keep it in place. "All right, let's go."
The two young men spent the night dancing in a disco club, until their heads pounded from the music. Not surprisingly, they had no problems finding dance partners. They stumbled out of the club about four in the morning and made their way back to the hotel.
James and Sirius slept until one in the afternoon before getting up and preparing for the real reason they'd snuck out of school the previous night. "So how close are the seats?" Sirius asked again as they ran around the room getting dressed.
"Tenth row," James said, "We might even get on the telly if we're lucky."
"I can't wait! I hope they do 'Stairway to Heaven'!"
The two went out to dinner before walking towards the Centre where the concert was to be held. People poured into the Centre from all directions. Neither James nor Sirius had ever seen so many people gathered at one place before. It seemed like there were more Muggles in this one place now than there were people in the entire Wizarding world.
The concert was something that both boys would never forget. The band played each song to perfection, and the two joined in with the crowd as they sang along. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were something close to heroes in James and Sirius's eyes. Over the past summer, Sirius had spent all his time with James, listening to all their albums and memorizing every lyric and guitar solo.
Partway through the concert, though, they noticed somebody who startled them to no end. James was looking around the crowd, when he grabbed Sirius's arm and yelled into his ear, "Look over there, about three rows in front of us and just to the right."
Sirius looked where James told him to, and gasped. "It's Dumbledore! What the hell is he doing here?" he cried.
"Rocking out, apparently," James said, looking slightly horrified. "A man of his age…anyway, we have to make sure he doesn't see us!"
At that time, Dumbledore turned to look around at the rest of the crowd, and James and Sirius had to duck down quickly to not be seen. "That was close," Sirius sighed.
The boys had to be more careful after that, and were glad that Dumbledore never saw them. The band played late into the night, and ended the concert with "Stairway to Heaven."
"That was the best ever!" James cried as they left the building. "I don't see how I'll get any sleep tonight."
"We should start our own band. I could be the lead singer, and you could be the lead guitarist. Remus could be the bass player, and Peter could be the drummer. We'd be just like the Beatles, except…magical," Sirius said while playing the air guitar as he walked.
As excited as they were, when they returned to their hotel, the boys fell asleep more quickly than they would have thought possible an hour before. They slept in late the next day before packing up and getting ready to return to Hogwarts.
They ate breakfast at a small café before going to the Leaky Cauldron and flooing to the Hog's Head. Sneaking back into Honeydukes would have been too hard without any other students around, so they took the passageway from the Shrieking Shack back to the school grounds.
There wasn't any way to calm down the Whomping willow from inside the passageway, so they had to run for it, and made it past with only a few lashes apiece. They found Remus and Peter in the Great Hall eating lunch together, and sat down to join them.
"How was it?" Peter asked excitedly.
"The most amazing concert of my entire life," Sirius said before launching in on a long description of their weekend.
"That does sound great," Remus said while glancing over his shoulder to look at Dumbledore, who was seated at the head of the Professors' table. "He was really there too? He just seems so…not the rock-and-roll type."
"You never can tell about people, can you?" James said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"I guess not," Peter replied.
"Well I think this was the best weekend of my life," Sirius said. "That has to be the greatest successful sneak-out in all of Hogwarts history. Too bad nobody will ever find out about it."
"Yeah," James sighed. "Well at least Lily won't find out. She wouldn't approve of it."
Remus smiled. "I didn't realize you cared so much about her approval…"
"I don't, I was just making conversation," James quickly replied.
"OK, well then, why don't you pass the trifle. I'm still hungry."
The rest of the afternoon was spent retelling the story of the grand adventure over and over again. It was the best weekend, and the boys would remember it for the rest of their lives.