Brown sugar

how come you taste so good?

I was sitting in the Gryffindor common room when the greatest band of all time - The rolling stones - got on the radio. Oh how I love muggle monday hour.

"Could you turn that up, hun?" I asked the second year who sat close to the radio. She gave me a shy smile and did as I asked. 1 second later the whole common room was echoing with Mick Jaggers sexy voice singing Brown Sugar, one of my absolute favourite songs. I put my homework down and started dancing and singing with him, very loud and very false. Singing had never been one of my strenghts.

"Oi, Ruby! Could you please shut it so I can keep my hearing?" I turned around and saw my cousin, James Potter, coming towards me with his trademark grin and messy hair.

"And why should I listen to you, my dear cousin?" I asked with an equally mischevous grin and started dancing around him and kept singing.

"Yes Prongs, why should she listen to you when your oh so handsome best friend says that she should keep going. Singing in tune is so not rock'n'roll!" Sirius Black advanced through the students sitting in their circles and completing their homework, trying not to step on anyones quills.

I had been hot for Sirius ever since he was a weird kid with an even weirder family. At 10 years old I scared him off at a birthday party trying to get my 7 minutes in heaven with him. Now, at 16, I was beginning to think I should try again. Maybe.

"Standing by while others sing and dance isn't that rock'n'roll either, especially not when they're playing The Stones." I said. "How about you join in? Unless you're afraid to get caught in the sex drugs and rock'n'roll, daddy-o." I said with a mock-american accent. Flirting sober wasn't exactly one of my strenghts either.

"Luv, I've had so much of all three you wouldn't believe me if I told you." He said with a grin. "Unfortunately, I have somewhere to be right now. Maybe another time, if you can handle it." He blew us a kiss and went out the portrait hole. I turned to James, wide-eyed and triumphant. "Well cous, seems like I'm finally getting somewhere with your boyfriend!" James threw his arm around my shoulder and ruffled my long auburn hair. "Hallelujah, she's almost in my best mates pants! This demands some celebrating! Come on my dear, to the grounds!" We went out the portrait hole and sneaked our way through the castle and out to the Hogwarts grounds. The term had just started, and at mid september the air was still fairly warm. We sat down by a tree next to the lake, a pretty view to our right and a place to see if anyone was coming toward us from the castle to the left.

"Did you bring the stuff, hun?" I asked him while I pulled out my zippo lighter, my pride and joy.

"How stupid do you think I am?" He asked and pulled out a joint from his robe pocket and stretched out for the lighter. "I got this from a Hufflepuff, I paid 10 galleons for it so it better be worth it. I told him that if it wasn't I'd hex him to the next bloody century, and I intend to stand by my word!" he said and lit it up.

We weren't exactly potheads, James and I, but we had enjoyed an occasional break from the stress and pressure the teachers put on us now that we were on our 6th year of studies at Hogwarts, ever since our 4th year started. To prevent us from having melt downs, if you catch my drift.

"Don't be greedy James, it's my turn!" I told him and reached for the joint.

"Now, luv, who was it that paid for this? If you want to smoke as much as you want to, you have to pay up more often!" He said and switched hand so I couldn't reach it. "I'll just have one more blow and then you can have it, it's not like we're in a hurry." he said smilingly.

"I can take more than you, and I'm not best friends with a bloody prefect mind you!" I said scoldingly. I didn't exactly know Remus Lupin, he was just a face among others in our year to me, but a prefect was bound to report pot smoking, even if the smoker was one of his best friends.

"Dont worry about Moony, he'd never turn me in! He hasn't yet, and I don't think that he intends to start now. We're friends, and friends don't do that!" James looked at me and gave me the joint. Finally. I inhaled the sweet smoke, excited that I'd soon be free of worries like being caught by prefects, teachers and how to get in bed with Sirius Black. I inhaled 3 quick times and turned to James, now lying on his back watching the stars. Suddenly he reached out his hand, trying to grab something in the air.

"What is it?" I asked, a bit slurry. I guess the Hufflepuff guy was true to his word.

"I'm trying to catch a star for Lily, but I can't seem to get a hold of it!" James replied, as equally slurry as I and slightly irritated. He sat up and pinched the air with two fingers, as if he tried to catch a fly. It looked hilarious, so naturally I laughed my arse off.
"Do you realise how ridiculous you look, cous?" I said between my outbursts of laughter. "I wish I had one of those muggle recording cameras so I could show Lily how you try to win her heart, she's got to go out with you if she saw this, hahahaha!"

When James heard 'muggle recording camera' he stopped his star catching and looked at me with huge, glistening eyes.

"Muggles have RECORDING cameras? That record the things you do? Not just moving pictures but recording your actions for several hours and replay them over and over again?" as he talked he leaned closer and closer to me, as if he could see my answer through my eyes if he just got close enough. "James, get out of my face will you? It's your friend I want to snog not you. And yes, there are. My dad gave me one for christmas last year!" James wrinkled his nose and put out his tongue at the snog remark. We weren't a cousin-wedding family as many other pure bloods did. Then he got up on his feet, a bit unsteady, and looked at me accusingly. "Your dad gives you something like THAT and you don't tell me? What kind of a shitty cousin are you? Is it here? CAN WE USE IT?" His eyes started glistening again, red rimmed and brown in the middle. I wish I had brown eyes. And black hair. Damn, I wish I had the Potter looks. Why don't I have the Potter look? Oh right I'm not a Potter. Fuck. "Hello, Ruby? Are you there?" I snapped back when I heard James' voice. "Oh yeah right, yes it's in my dorm. Why?" James dragged me up and started walking in a race speed towards the castle. "Because WE ARE GETTING IT. I've got to tell Padfoot about this. This is banging. We can record our pranks!" I put my heels in the ground, refusing to move any further. "It's MY camera James, MY camera. The only thing involving Sirius that is going on there, is him stripping off all his clothes and taking me very hard. Preferrably in the great hall. It's not your crappy prank documenter!"

James waved off my comments "Oh, all right I won't use it for documenting our pranks, which by the way are not crappy! I just want to have a look, that's it!" I shot him a look filled with suspicion, I'd never heard of James 'just having a look'. "That's what you said about my sunglasses, my super cool cactus, my desert rose and my hamster. Guess what they all have in common?" James looked a bit guilty as I spoke. He better feel guilty. "Yes, they're all. Freaking. Gone. Even the bloody hamster." I poked his arm, hard, at every word. He bloody deserves it, who knows what he did to my poor hamster.

"Ouch cous, no need to get physical here. The hamster ran away, and I didnt MEAN to sit on your glasses, and I didn't MEAN to over water your cactus, and I didn't MEAN to cut off your rose. And give it to Lily."

"YOU. DID. WHAT?!" suddenly I felt very sober and very angry. That rose was my baby, and now shit has hit the fan. "Lily fucking EVANS got my desert rose? The rose I paid fucking 20 galleons for as a fucking 10 year old? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THAT IS, JAMES? DO YOU?" James looked a tad frightened as my voice rose. He better be very damn afraid. Nobody messes with my roses.

"Well, you see luv I just wanted to give her something as original and beautiful as she!"

"Original and beautiful MY ARSE. Cut off your own bloody roses!" I kicked him in the knee, as hard as I could.

"OUCH! Be careful, will you?"

"Hrm."

"What was that?" I turned to James and asked.

"What was what?" James looked dumbfounded and looked at me as if I were an idiot.

"That, miss Hart, was me clearing my throat."

We jumped at the sound of professor McGonagalls voice.

Shit. Has. Hit. Fan.

Fuck.