AN: This story will be over three chapters, hopefully updated every Saturday
I do not own Harry Potter or any of the songs I use
Sirius raised his head from the table by a fraction, hardly daring to believe it might have finally ended.
"But Remus, you have to admit their covers of muggle songs are amazing, they add some wizarding flair to already brilliant songs!"
"Saying the songs they cover were already brilliant is questionable enough, but they certainly don't add anything of much value to them. Name one song that has any emotional depth to it."
Sirius let his head fall again, landing with a soft thunk onto his now crossed arms, his forehead hadn't approved of the table.
"They're not supposed to be all deep and profound," Tonks' voice came from across the table, mocking the words with a pretentious accent, "They're to dance to, meant to just be good fun!"
"Are you implying that songs with a real exploration of emotions or a meaningful storyline are not enjoyable?"
"Of course! You can't dance when the singer's busy telling you how miserable they are, it feels wrong."
"Ron and Hermione." Sirius suddenly declared, straightening up to address the two people currently filling his kitchen with their argument, wearily noting that it was now getting dark around them.
"It feels wrong cause you're not supposed to dance to it, you're supposed to appreciate the story that's being told." Remus replied as if Sirius hadn't spoken.
"It's like I'm not even here!" Sirius declared.
"Sorry, Sirius," said Remus, finally turning his attention to the man beside him with his eyebrows raised in challenge, a small smile playing around his lips, "I wasn't aware you had something of value to add to the conversation."
The glare Sirius gave him was enough to motivate Remus to continue, "All I heard was you naming some of the children, I'm surprised you miss them already since they only left yesterday but I'm glad you're so fond of them."
Sirius and Remus stared one another out, a silent battle to see who would back down. The familiarity of the exercise was comforting, and because Sirius could see the twinkling of amusement in Remus' eyes he conceded to break the stare first. He instead turned to face his cousin across the table, her bubble-gum pink hair lightening the gloom of the dreary kitchen, and used the moment of silence to continue his point, with the secret hope of bringing this tedious argument to a close. He couldn't face this debate of the merits and failings of the Weird Sisters continuing into the next day.
"I just wanted to make the light observation that we seem to have got rid of Ron and Hermione's endless bickering only for you two to take up the job in their place."
In the dim light of the kitchen he looked first at Tonks, then at Remus, and wondered if they got his point yet. The slightly awkward shift in the atmosphere suggested it had clicked, but the blissful silence erased any guilt Sirius might have felt about making this so.
"So in conclusion to what I have suffered through today, don't give me that look Moony, I have suffered. I think perhaps we could all just agree that it doesn't matter and move on."
"You pick who's right then, Sirius." Tonks declared.
"What? You can't ask me to do that, besides like I just said, it isn't important." He replied, hoping she didn't continue to push this idea.
"You know for the first time today I agree with Nymphadora, as you yourself pointed out, you've listened to the whole debate, you choose who is correct."
The confliction on Tonks' face as she battled between reprimanding Remus for using her name and accepting it because he was agreeing with her would have been amusing to Sirius were it not for the situation he now found himself in. Conscious that he risked losing a friend for the remainder of the evening, he decided on diplomacy,
"Fine, if I am being forced into this, then I will say that I like both. I like the Weird Sisters, not as much as you do of course Tonks, but like you say, they're good to dance along to, and you could never have a wedding reception without at least one of their songs, plus on the note of muggle covers, that one you were playing the other day was pretty good, what was that one again?"
"Hooked on a Feeling! It's one of the best from that album!"
"Yes, that." Sirius continued, pointing dramatically as he got into his speech. "But, that said, I also agree with your taste, Moony. Nothing wrong with a good miserable song either, especially some of the Springsteen records you have, you can never go wrong with a bit of sad harmonica."
For a moment silence reigned and frankly, he felt, he should have been a politician.
"Well," declared Tonks, pushing back her chair from the table with a loud squeak, "if you're not going to give us an actual answer we can continue debating it some other time."
Sirius let out a groan of despair and allowed his head to resume its former position on the table as she gathered her coat and scarf. Remus also stood up, his manners impeccable as always, and Sirius heard her footsteps begin to make their way to the door, but soon stop rather closer to where Remus was standing than the to the doorway. Smirking to himself, Sirius kept his head on the table under the guise of dramatic agony, but in reality giving them a moment to themselves. Well, as much to themselves as it could be with him listening intently to whatever they would say, but he reasoned it was the thought that counted.
"So, see you tomorrow night then to continue this?" Sirius smirked even more at the hopeful and slightly desperate tone through Remus' voice, and wondered if Tonks could hear it too.
"Oh, I can't actually do tomorrow night, Mad Eye's got me on night shifts for the next few days, but when I'm back we'll continue it." She replied, sounding genuinely regretful.
There was nothing left to be said, and so a moment of silence followed, in which Sirius suspected Tonks was deciding how to say goodbye, before seemingly settling on just leaving as her footsteps moved towards the door again.
"See you, Sirius" she called over her shoulder.
"G'night" he mumbled, finally rising now that he was sure he wasn't preventing anything from happening. Remus moved to make some tea, before sitting down in what had formerly been Tonks seat, staring contemplatively at the table in front of him. After the incessant conversation moments before this new silence was somehow even more stifling, and Sirius found he had to break it.
"So, that was a decent evening altogether."
"Yeah"
Sirius tried again, "Tonks is a nice girl."
"Of course," Remus muttered, clearly not listening.
Just as Sirius was about to open his mouth to demand to know what going on, Remus suddenly looked right at him, eyes piercingly serious.
"You used to play the guitar, didn't you?"
Startled by this seemingly irrelevant question, he became momentarily distracted thinking of a summer between Hogwarts spent learning muggle songs on an old guitar they found in James' house, it had been his friend's idea, another crazy attempt to impress Lily no doubt but Sirius hadn't realised that at the time.
"I used to know a bit, yeah, why?"
"Teach me one of Tonks' songs."
AN: Come back next Saturday for chapter 2!