Two Sex Pistols

(a timeless love story)

'Another Christmas alone' Gabi thought as she turned a page in her diary. Gabi sat cross legged by the fireplace, as colors from the lights on the Christmas tree doused her peely-wally face in a splatter of neon light. Somehow this solitude didn't bother Gabi. She had come to terms with the fact that no one would be able understand the confusing darkness which is her mind. There was even a little pride in being so blatantly odd, it was like knowing a riddle that no one else could solve. Thinking this made Gabi snicker. She quickly stopped, remembering having read that "laughing while alone is a sign of insanity." But really, what could be wrong with having a little inside joke? Frankly, it would be ridiculous not to laugh at the world. Even language, if you think about it, is just people contorting their mouths making odd sounds. It's truly amazing that people can communicate concepts such as justice or equality. No wonder so much gets lost in translation.

*CLIP CLOP* A bumping on the ceiling brought Gabi out of her trance. She glanced at her watch- 11:44 pm, her father and mother would be asleep. *CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP* Gabi cocked her ear in no particular direction. It sounded unequivocally like someone or something on the roof.

'Could it be Father Christmas?' the instinctive child inside Gabi wondered.

'No, don't be ridiculous, you're 18 years old, it's probably just some snow' the more hardened Gabi chastised.

*CLIP CLOP*

'Snow that walks?'

'SANTA ISN'T REAL!'

'And what if he is, are you going to pass up that opportunity to meet him? There is still a chance, no matter how slim.'

'FINE. F U.'

Gabi snatched her jean jacket a size too big, and scampered out the door mumbling about why she always ends up doing "shit like this". Backing away from her house, the motion sensitive lights flickered an alien glow and her boots crunched into the snow. Not bothering to have put socks on, drebs of snow began melting into her boots.

"Let's make this a quick little reconnaissance mission" Gabi grumbled, squinting up at the roof. Her house looked like a shadow against the dark blue sky, any real details, even the chimney, were obscured by snow which, incidentally, had begun to fall with increasing speed.

'Well, I can't see anything up there. Time to call it a night' Gabi thought.

'But what if it's a burglar? You should really go on the roof to check. Just to make sure.'

'If it's a burglar I sure as hell ain't going on the roof.'

'Coward.'

'I know I am!'

'Why do you always talk to yourself! Is that even normal?' Gabi thought, shuffling through the snow towards the rusty ladder which clung tenuously to the side of the house.

'If I fall at least there will be snow to break my fall,' she thought as she pulled herself up ring after ring until finally stepping out onto the sloped, triangular roof. Spreading her lanky arms and legs, Gabi hugged the roof and clambered up. Passing the chimney, Gabi balanced on the rooftop, standing at the vertex on the triangle.

'Well, I highly doubt anyone would be insane enough to go walking on the roof in a storm like this,' she lowered her voice, "the coast is clear".

DING DONG! The clock struck midnight and erupted in a very loud and very sudden clang. Gabi, startled, slipped from her perch and began slowly sliding down the roof like a sickly cat descending down the wall. Hitting the brick chimney she toppled backwards head first down the chimneys black, sooty mouth.

It's Christmas Eve in 1978 and the grand living room of 12 Grimmauld Place couldn't have been more empty. Not even Kreacher, the family house elf, was sulking at this hour of the night. Only in the farthest corner, nestled within an ancient armchair was a melancholy young man, sprawled out, his molton brown eyes reflecting the flames of a dying fire. As Sirius Black thought longingly of his Hogwarts family, his Marauders, all gathered at the Potters' home in merriment, the dark room he lay in suddenly felt even colder. "Merry Christmas, mates." he whispers into the darkness, closing his eyes, hoping for his 18th Christmas in Hell to end soon.

KA-BOOM! A shock wave of dust rippled through Sirius' dimly lit living room, as wood ricocheted from the fireplace. A piece of debris bounced off of his head. "Bloody hell!" roars Sirius as he witnessed the carnage that his, moments ago impeccable, living room suffered. An unmoving Sirius stands at the ready, wand drawn, waiting for the dust and debris to settle down. He scanned the room for intruders, adrenaline coursing through his veins. The quiet slowly fell around him, interrupted only by a high and airy voice drifting from the dismantled fireplace singing,

"I didn't ask for sunshine and I got World War 3".

Shocked at this line from his favorite Sex Pistols song "Holidays in the Sun", Sirius lowers his wand and slinks towards the voice. "They're looking over the wall and they're looking at me" Sirius sings back, peering at the girl's figure through the rubble of the fireplace. Under a pile of bricks, still lying in the hearth, he sees a twiggy arm, paler than the moonlight, waving to the tune of the Sex Pistols. Immediately he starts tossing bricks off of the girl.

"Hello?" she squeaks from below the rubble. "Sorry guys, I think I fell down the chimney, Stephan, is that you? Stupid, I told you you shouldn't have gone on the roof", she chastised herself.

"Sorry Kitten, it's not Steph," smirks Sirius as he tosses bricks off of her, "but it's someone even better, so the ladies tell me". He grins wickedly at the dusty girl in the hearth. "It's Sirius, Sirius Black, and you? Could you be Cinderella? Santa Claus?" He winks at the blond girl in front of him.

"Thank you for helping me out of your fire pit, Sirius," the girl rasps. "And it's Gabrielle, but you can call me Gabi". Sirius notices her valiant attempt at returning the wink, although it looked more like an eye twitch. A splotchy pink coated her cheeks.

"Gabi", the name rolls off his tongue like honey, "the pleasure is all mine."

'Ok, I am in a stranger's house, and this Sirius Black is a little unstable if you ask me. Anyone who listens to Sex Pistols is a bit of a nut job.'

'You listen to Sex Pistols.'

'Exactly. Thanks for driving that point home.'

Gabi surveyed the chimney, wondering weather climbing back up it would return her home?

'Hold on, people don't just fall down a chimney into a some rando's house. There is only one reasonable explanation. You're on LSD.'

'Well, there is a couple of problems with that theory. For one I didn't take LSD.'

'Wait a sec, there is a way of figuring out if this is a hallucination. They say that if you're dreaming, the characters have faces of people you know. That you can't fabricate a face.' Gabi thought.

Gabi inspected Sirius with increased intensity. He looked so real with his lean build, chiseled facial features and shock of thick dark hair which cast a shadow over his face. But what struck Gabi most pronouncedly were his eyes. Despite the glimmer of amusement, there was a deep seeded pain. Seeing someone with such anguish gave Gabi chills. She wanted to hold Sirius in her arms and banish anything else from hurting him.

Gabi's heart fluttered, 'Well, I certainly have never met anyone as interesting as him' Gabi thought, tearing her eyes away from his, and blushing at the floor.

"So you're a fan of Holiday in the Sun" Sirius' low voice was soft, as to not startle the strange girl.

"Yes, I had family trapped behind the Berlin Wall." Gabi chirped shifting some rubble as she stepped out of the fireplace.

"You know what Kitten, sometime I feel like I'm stuck behind that iron curtain." Gabi noticed Sirius' eyes skid ever so quickly to a portrait of an old woman whose face seemed contorted in a permanent grimace.

"How did they end up escaping?" Sirius asked turning his attention back to Gabi.

"They didn't escape. It was only when the wall fell that they were able to come here to America."

There was a pause, Sirius seemed lost for words. Gabi used this silence to peer around the room. What an interesting house it was, with a scattering of old statues, a cabinet with engravings of goblins, and jars which shimmered with strangely colored liquids. On the blackwood table Gabi spotted a newspaper with pictures that appeared to move, she stepped closer, as to get a better look, but was caught off guard by the date-

"1978" she mumbled.

Sirius watched as the girl's lip began twitching, the spasm spreading down her arms into her hands which vibrated curiously.

"What year is it?" the strange girl whispered.

Was it possible that Gabi really thought that the Berlin Wall had fallen? Did she think she was in America rather than the UK? No, in all likelihood she was probably just messing around.

"Why it's 1978 of course" Sirius chuckled.

THUMP the girl collapsed into the rubble in a faint. She meakly lifted her head and blond hair fell a tangle around her face. Blood was dribbling down from her lip. Gabi raised her hand to her mouth, gingerly touching the gaping hole where her tooth used to be and where blood now gushed profusely.

She coughed out blood as she screeched "Hey!"

Gabi pointed her finger accusingly at Sirius, "You knocked my tooth out!"

Sirius twitched with the sudden loudness. "N-no I did'nt" he stuttered. "you fell on your own accord, I didn't touch you!"

Gabi stared unblinkingly as she pursed her lips.

"That's not how I recall it." She retorted pompously. "Here I was minding my own business until you pushed me."

Sirius shook his ragged hair in disbelief "All I said was the year!"

"And that is a verbal push."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest but Gabi interrupted, "well aren't you going to help me find it?" Gabi asked, plunging her hand into the dirt. Sirius stared dumb-founded and then slowly bent down until his hand scraped amongst the debris.

"This is a fucking needle in a haystack" Sirius muttered

"What's that you're muttering about boy?" Gabi snapped

"Nothing nothing" Sirius grinned, suppressing a laugh. What a strange girl this was, with snark that could rival his own. Suddenly, under his index finger Sirius felt a smooth square tooth.

"Hey! I found it" Sirius held the tooth above his head and beckoned Gabi over.

Gabi extracted her glasses from her breast pocket, and pushed them up the ridge of her nose with a snort. Shutting one eye, Gabi shoved the other eye so close to the tooth that her glasses bumped against the tooth's edge.

"I don't remember my tooth being this yellow" Gabi grumbled. "No, I don't think it is mine" she concluded.

"Are you BLOODY kidding me!" Sirius shouted "of course it's yours! Who else's would it be"

"Fine. Give it here" Gabi exclaimed. Sirius leaned casually against the wall letting Gabi pluck the tooth from his hand.

"Now, how to get it back in my mouth" Gabi whispered in thought.

"I can help you there," Sirius reached into his pocked extracting his wand. "Look this way kitten" Sirius directed. In one swift swoop, he pointed the wand at Gabi's mouth. In a low booming voice Sirius bellowed "EPISCI". The tooth flew from Gabi's spindly fingers and snapped into place amongst her other teeth.

Gabi inhaled abruptly, "How did you… what the…but my tooth...fixed...how?" Sirius saw Gabi begin to sway and reached out his arms to catch her before she fell again. However Gabi, in an attempt to stop herself from falling, began to stumble quite quickly away from him until THWACK.

Her head cracked, face first, against the ground. Gabi lifted her head from the rock, revealing a small pile of white powder, the remnants of her front tooth, which had taken most of the impact and had been pulverized.

"Oh well" Gabi muttered in a lisp "I don't weelly need that toof. I mean, you have two fwont teeth fow a weason" she shrugged her shoulders toward Sirius.

"Yah, and if anyone can pull off the one tooth look, it's you."

"Thats right! I like the way you think. Hey Sirius, why haven't we met before?" Gabi exclaimed punching Serius playfully in the arm.

"Umm, maybe because you're from a different continent and time period?"

Both Gabi and Sirius broke out laughing.

Laughter overcame Gabi. The kind of laughter that you can't control. The kind of laughter that makes you piss a little bit in your pants. Gabi glanced at Sirius, whose eyes were shiny and wet from tears.

'Darn it all. I just had a nervous breakdown, my tooth is gone, it's MIA, ain't never coming back. My lisp is worse than ever. I'll just pretend that's how Americans talk, the good ole American accent.'

All of a sudden, a screech resonated through the living room. Dust was shaken from the ceiling and the glasses on the Gabi's face cracked. Gabi looked around wildly, her eyes falling on the old woman in a painting.

"Looks like you met my ol'e mum" Sirius yelled trying to be heard over the old devil's screech. "What's that? You want me to pet your bum?"

Sirius shakes his head and mouths "let's get out of here." He grabs his guitar in one hand, and Gabi's hand in the other, and with a loud crack, dissaperates.

A thin gloss of snow frosted the barren landscape. A white fox skittered across the winding trail which carved a path through what once was a grass field but now looked like the surface of the moon. The sky was gray and the sun just began to peak over the horizon. Flurries whipped around them and Gabi realized she was still holding Sirius' hand. The two trudged through the snow towards a red house which slowly began to emerge over the horizon.

"Where are we going?" Gabi asked, pulling her jean jacket more tightly around herself as wind tussled her straw like hair. Sirius glanced at Gabi and draped his arm around her, pulling her into his black fur coat. Gabi nestled her face amongst the black fur and whispered in a voice barely audible "soft, so soft" as she gently caressed Sirius' arm with her pointer finger.

"We are going to my friend's house." Sirius gestured to the looming red house in the distance.

"James Potter!" Gabi piped. "Will Peter and Lupin be there?"

Sirius studied her seriously. "Have we met before? How do you know James?"

Gabi blushed,

'Sirius has no idea about the Harry Potter series… '

'I'm gonna tell him!'

'No your bloody not! He will think you are literally insane.'

'Great, now you're using the word bloody. Well I've got a news flash for you- you're not British! Also, shouldn't I warn him? As of now, he's heading towards 11 years in Azkaban and a premature death...'

'Honestly, if you interfere you will only make things worse. Sorry but it's the goddamn truth"

'He will hate me if I don't try to save James. All I need do is pick off Peter..."

'Yep, and he'll hate you if you kill Peter, his other best friend. Also, you're not a wizard so IDK how you'd actually go about killing Peter.'

'I could choke him, push him out the window, the good old stabbing method. I mean he's pretty weak, I could probably do him in with a butter knife...'

'NO! Peace not hate! Love not war!'

Sirius taps Gabi on the shoulder "Hey Gabi, how do you know my mate James?"

Gabi sighs, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Morning found Gabi and Sirius trudging through a fresh snow in a wide open field. In the distance a lovely red house glowed, puffing smoke through its chimney. As the couple approached the front gate of the cottage Sirius bent down, patting a compact ball of snow in his glove clad hand. Winding back, he flung the snowball into the top left window. "Oi Mate! Your Christmas presents' arrived!"

A groggy young man with wild, dark brown hair and glasses opened the window. He's in red flannel pajamas with a JP embroidered into the breast pocket. As he looks down on the pair, Sirius throws another snowball which explodes in the young man's face. "Oi James! Let us in!" guffaws Sirius. With a bark the boy slams his window shut, rattling the shutters.

A few minutes later the front door is opened by James Potter himself, clad in a red and gold robe, his face a mix of glee and irritation at seeing his best friend. Noticing the spicy girl standing suspiciously close to Sirius, James raises his eyebrows, a twinkle in his eye as he looks to Sirius.

"And who might this lovely lady be?" Asks James.

Gabi, ever the feminist, interrupts Sirius' introduction for her. "I'm Gabi. And if you don't mind, I can talk for myself." She shoots a glare at Sirius.

"Feisty." Says James with a laugh. "I like her, Padfoot." He opens the door, allowing Gabi and Sirius to enter into the kitchen.

"So what's my present?" asks James, smirking at the dark haired wizard as they began walking through the house. Sirius, gives a sickly sweet smile.

"Me." he bats his eyelashes sarcastically. The two friends banter as James walks them down the warm hallway, sun streaming in through the kitchen windows. He leads the group up the stairs, to a pair of empty rooms. As they passed the hall of bedrooms Sirius suddenly banged on one of the doors.

"Morning Mate! Happy Christmas!" They hear a low growl from within. "Ha! That's good Ol' Mooney for you," chuckles Sirius to Gabi.

Following Sirius' lead, Gabi bangs on another door yelling "hi mate!" In a high pitched squeal. A shriek is heard from within and a rat scampers under the door. "Don't mind him, that's just ol' Wormtail!" chuckles Sirius, noticing Gabi's embarrassment.

It was midnight and a fire crackled low in the hearth of the Potter's fire place. The Marauders were all passed out on the couches, exhausted from an evening of merrymaking. Only one lay awake, one who was stretched out by the hearth, looking up at the most beautiful girl he'd ever met. Just a day ago, she didn't exist in his life, but now, he couldn't see his life without her. She made him laugh out loud, not intentionally, but through her own spacy ways. She made him think about things in ways he never could have imagined, and most importantly, beyond all the quirks he recognized a rebel, a dreamer, an activist, a kindred spirit within her. As they sat together by the crackling fire, Sirius slowly began to lean it. The warmth of the fire wasn't necessary anymore, for the fire in each of their hearts was raging. Their eyes slowly fell shut and as the sweetness of the moment began to unfurl….screamo twinkle twinkle little star started to blare from Gabi's butt pocket.

The Marauders sprung to the ready, wands drawn, and Sirius grinned in amusement as he pulled away from the girl he was quickly falling for.

"You want to get that?" He asks Gabi, laughing. Gabi mumbles something as she answers her phone.

"Morning Gabini." Chirps the voice of her twin brother Stephan. "You're in for it this time. Sneaking out on Christmas night, gone for the family breakfast…."

The Marauders look up, grinning as they heard the echo of Gabi's brother scolding her. "…..you are BUSTED ahahahahahahahahhaa" they hear Stephan shout though the phone. In the background of the phone, Gabi can hear her grandma shout in a polish accent, "Let me talk to her!"

As Stephan puts their Grandma on the phone Gabi exclaims in a rush, "Grandmama great to hear from you too, call you later bye!" Her cheeks turn red from embarrassment as the room goes silent, all eyes on Gabi.

Peter makes a gesture to the black calling device in Gabi's hand. "So...what IS that thing?"

Sirius the expert in muggle devices chimes, "that's a cellphone, and looks like Gabi has the most modern version!"

As the night passed on, one by one the sleepy Marauders headed back to their rooms. Soon the couple was alone. "So where were we?" Sirius asks, a sparkle in his eye.

Think of something witty, Gabi thought to herself. "Talking about the nature of muggle and wizard relations?"

"Oh like this?" He leans in to kiss her, cupping her face in his hands, drawing her close to him, and then, as their breath hung between them like a morning dew, Gabi felt a violent suction coming from the fireplace! Before she even knows what's happening, she is ripped from Sirius' tender arms and shoots up into chimney. The last thing she hears is a broken echo of her name, torn from the pair of lips she would never get to kiss.

Moments later she was thrown from a fireplace, skidding spread eagle across the living room floor, screeching to a halt at her grandma's slippers.

· "Hi….." she says timidly to the angry family. "Just went for a midnight walk and lost track of time."

The End