Summary: MWPP Era. Sirius and James have their annual talk concerning Sirius' summer with his family.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter rights do not belong to me.
Sirius Black decided, as he stumbled through the dorm room with a certain Katie Nash from Ravenclaw at his heels, that he much preferred his time spent at Hogwarts than at Number 12 Grimmuald Place.
In the pitch black, he tripped on an open trunk, crashing into his bed, taking his companion with him. Somehow, being Sirius Black, he managed to gracefully pin the petite girl under him and laughed into her neck.
"Shh! You're going to wake him up," Katie whispered, casting a worried glance to the bed above her.
"Who, James? I'll have you know he goes to bed extremely early so that he can get up at dawn to work on potions extra credit. Likes to get a good intellectual start to the day, that one."
James Potter, who was in fact not asleep, but had only just crawled in bed moments before the pair arrived, opened his mouth to argue such a ludicrous idea. He was quickly shut up with a swift warning kick to the ass from the bunk below.
Yes, Sirius decided, as she made no objection as his hand slipped up her shirt, this was much more enjoyable than bonding time spent with the Black family.
She quickly discarded his shirt, and moved her attention from his mouth to his chest, gasping suddenly.
"I know, I know. My physique is incredibly impressive," Sirius said with a cocky smile.
She looked up at him with raised eyebrows, smacking him lightly, "No you prat, what the hell happened to your chest?"
All traces of happiness draining from his face, Sirius looked down at what had attracted her attention. A large red burn wrapped itself from his right side around his back.
He sat up quickly, growing extremely uncomfortable, only to be greeted with a larger gasp.
"Holy shit! What happened to your back?" she asked, slightly horrified, staring at the dark bruises covering his backside.
"Does that hurt?" moving her hand to touch the marks, Sirius quickly snatched her wrists, stopping her progress.
Sirius noticed that as her eyes swept over his body, they turned suspicious then began making a dangerous journey to sympathetic. He immediately began thinking up a story involving an army of angry chocolate frogs or perhaps a particularly tricky piece of treacle tart to explain his appearance, before he began the tale however, another solution occurred to him.
"Kristen, just leave it alone," he snapped at her.
"My name is Katie!" she scrambled off the bed, straitening her clothes, "God those girls were right, you are a complete jackass."
For a few minutes after she left, Sirius stared at the sheets in silence. Then, grabbing his shirt, he walked out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind him.
The noise reverberated around the room until a small voice said, "Should I…"
"Nah, Moony, it's okay. I'll go."
Walking quietly down the stairs, the scene before James was one he had grown used to seeing at the start of every school year. He already knew the basics of the conversation that was bound to take place.
Sirius sat in front of the fire, resting his back on the table behind him, drinking from a glass. Silently, he conjured another cup and sat it next to him, giving indication James could join him.
"Jesus, Padfoot, I hate this. Why can't you stay with us? My parents like you more than me anyways"
"You know I can't," he answered tiredly.
"I reckon you should see Madame Pomfrey."
"No."
"That burn looked bad, what if it gets infected? I swear you gamble more with your health than anybody I know"
Sirius smirked slightly at this, "You realize you turn into your mother after every summer, right?"
Seeing as this effectively shut him up, James took a sip out of the mug, and soon after spit it out back into the cup.
"Goddamn, Padfoot, warn me before adding a bucket of firewhiskey to my teaspoon of orange juice would you?"
"Aw little Prongsie can't handle his drink?"
"No! Just a bit out of practice… I'm sure you'll take care of that problem for me soon enough, along with all of the Gryffindor upperclassmen. Actually," he added thoughtfully, "I think last year you introduced your never ending stock to some unsuspecting second years as well."
Sirius just continued to gaze at the flames, "Yeah well, I'm not quite out of practice."
"There seems to be a few things you haven't forgotten how to do. Second day of classes and the legendary Sirius Black brings a girl up to his dorm and forgets her name," James said, trying to lighten the mood.
"I knew her name."
James gave him a questioning glance.
"Yeah, I talked to her on the train for awhile. Katie. She has two dogs, favorite food is chocolate chip ice cream, hates horror movies, and, obviously, she quite enjoys talking about herself. Now at least she's going to bitch about what a man-whore I am to the entire female Ravenclaw population and forget all about..." Sirius trailed off, red creeping onto his cheeks.
This whole situation was humiliating for him.
"Please tell me what I can do to make this better." James stated softly.
James was starting to think he wasn't going to answer, when Sirius finally replied, "Well… I suppose there is one thing"
His best friend nodded eagerly, "Name it"
Sirius murmured so quietly that James had to lean in to hear him, "Maybe… well…. I mean this is kind of personal," James nodded emphatically for him to continue, "okay, well if you wanted, I suppose getting Lily, Sam, and Ali to come down here and play a game of strip exploding snap might make this horrible aching deep within the inner most confines of my heart sizzle down a bit, even if just for a minute." He gave the best vulnerable puppy look he could muster.
Apparently it did not go as planned as James looked at him incredulously, "Horrible aching deep within the confines of your heart?"
"No Prongs, the inner most confines."
Another stare.
"Milked the ending a bit too much, eh?"
"Just a tad, but I'll tell you what- your pathetic efforts have convinced me enough to give in," James said, getting to his feet.
"Really?"
"Dead serious," before his friend could open his mouth he continued, "I swear to god, you make one joke about that word, I will march back up to our room and you can kiss your hopes of seeing Sam in a bra goodbye."
"Fine."
James cast him a suspicious look.
"No joke," giving him a wide, mischievous smile, "I'm Sirius."
If it wasn't for the fact that he had just witnessed the first moment of genuine happiness from his best friend since the term started, he might have followed through with his threat instead of allowing his own grin to spread across his face.
"Oh and one more thing," Padfoot yelled as James was halfway up the girl's staircase, "ask them if they would enjoy some refreshing juice. I find it makes the game go somewhat faster."
Author's Notes: I know practically every Sirius story makes some joke about his name but I still find them amusing. And let's just assume for this story's sake that being the ingenious maurderers that they are, James and Sirius have figured out how to get up the girls' staircase without a problem.
Reviews are much appreciated.