He had been inside helping his mum get dinner ready for later that night when he heard, "James! James! You have got to come see this!" from what sounded like the front yard. Elaine looked over at her son standing next to her at the counter with raised brows, only to have him shrug in turn. He knew that Sirius had said he was going off for a walk a bit earlier, and could only imagine he had found something and brought it back in his travels. "James! Nathaniel! Potter! Sirius! Orion! Black! Requires your assistance on the front lawn! If you! Do not! Mind!" James tried not to laugh as his mother looked towards the front of the house with a worried look on her face. She was still getting used to the idea of having two rowdy and boisterous teenage boys living under her roof. Excusing himself, he made his way outside where he found his best friend standing in the middle of the yard leaning against... Well, James really had no idea what it was. Some sort of rusty metal structure with a black thing stretched across the middle that looked like it was going to fall apart simply from the weight of the other resting against it.
"What in Merlin's name is that?" he asked warily.
Sirius, who had been looking rather smug with himself, broke out into a giant grin, "A trampoline."
Sirius had been living with the Potter's for nearly a month now, and though he had known James since their first year, it was still a bit of culture shock upon becoming a member of the family. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely different from the pomp and circumstance he had dealt with for the past seventeen years and some change. Sitting around in the kitchen with James in the morning, both of them still in pyjamas and matching bedraggled hair as they scarfed down whatever Mrs Potter had made for breakfast, talking between and through bites about their plans for the day was still an odd notion to entertain. Most days were like any other in the fact that they seemed to be at each others side's morning, noon and night, but today he had decided to go for a walk. No particular reason behind it, though there were some things that he wouldn't mind having a few moments to himself to think about.
He hadn't been out too long when he was distracted from his musings by an older man dragging something out from his backyard. Curiosity had gotten the best of him as Sirius moved to the other side of the lane, simply standing right offside the property with his hands in his pockets as he watched the man struggle to get the metal mammoth past his back gate. After a few minutes of merely watching, he spoke up, "Are you fighting that thing?" he shot across the property.
The man who hadn't known he was being observed, paused in his efforts to turn and look over at the teenager. "You could say that," he got out with the faintest of chuckles.
"Why?" The next obvious question, of course.
"My children don't use this anymore," he stopped talking only long enough to give the beast another tug, "And so, I'm getting rid of it."
Sirius was intrigued. "Uh, what is it?"
"A trampoline."
"What's a trampoline?"
The man paused in his efforts, bringing the back of his hand up to wipe his forehead, finding it too complicated to wrangle the trampoline and hold a conversation at the same time. "You bounce on it and... things." Clearly.
Sirius was very intrigued. "Oh?"
"Yep."
"So you're getting rid of it then, yeah?"
"Yep."
"I could always take it off your hands for you, you know. Since you're getting rid of it and all."
Regarding the boy for a moment, the man reached out a hand to grasp around the nearby fence post, his other resting on his hip. "Tell you what, if you can get this thing out of my yard, it's yours."
"You've got yourself a deal."
The trampoline itself was overall not that heavy, but Sirius hadn't exactly thought about how he was going to get it back to the Potter's. The solution was quite simple really- drag it. This had led to the sounds of metal supports scraping against asphalt all the way back to where he was now living, accompanied by a number of odd looks from people who happened to be outside as he passed. He regarded each of them with a wave and an enthusiastic smile as if this was completely normal. By the time he got back, his shoulder was aching the slightest bit from all of that, but that was not nearly enough to stop him from finding out exactly what this trampoline business was about. "James! James! You have got to come see this!"
Between the two of them, it hadn't been too hard to move the trampoline into the Potter's back yard, James getting the feeling his parents wouldn't really appreciate such an eyesore becoming a permanent fixture in the middle of their front yard. Once they had decided to upend it and roll it - such a brilliant plan - past the gate, things had been easy as pie. Well, aside from making sure James didn't squash Sirius who was leading the cololosal thing in front. After it rolling onto the older boy's foot only twice in this endeavor, the weathered trampoline now sat off to the side of the yard. A truly spectacular sight when put against the backdrop of Elaine Potter's beloved garden.
If they had actually given it a thorough go-over, they would have noticed that a screw was missing here or there, as were some springs and really, the thing was mainly held together by the metal that was fused with rust and dirt. But they were Gryffindors, so there was no need for such a thing as precautionary measures. Up onto the stretched material they had practically flown, their combined weight making it dip farther that it already had due to a loss of elastic properties over the years. But it got the job done nonetheless, and soon enough the two had taken to developing a beat that would allow them to jump while holding a conversation.
"So I've been thinking," James said as he vaulted into the air once more.
"That could be dangerous," Sirius replied with a wry smirk as it was then his turn to do the same.
There was a chuckle from James, "Said the genius known only as Padfoot."
Sirius spoke wisely, "Dogs are known for their intelligence, Prongs."
"Too bad we can't say the same about you," James cackled.
"Sod off. Now, what were you babbling on about?"
"This is going to be our last year at Hogwarts, yeah?"
"That would be correct."
"And..."
"And?"
"Lily Evans."
Sirius groaned as James brought up his favourite topic: the girl he was madly in love with, even if he tried to equate it only to a passing fancy. It was quite disgusting, really. "You know, if you don't do something about that this year, I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands."
"What does that mean?" James asked bewilderedly, having seen before how the cogs in Sirius's mind turned and not sure if the delegation of obtaining her attention was best left to him.
"Not sure. I'll figure something out if I have to," Sirius replied conversationally.
Looking over to his left, James and his easily distracted self threw off the rhythm the slightest bit as he watched the neighbor that lived behind him go out to water her plants. "But yeah, I think-"
Sirius's feet had come down too close to the interval in which James' did, effectively double-bouncing the other boy up much higher than he previously had gone. It threw of James's balance entirely, his knees buckling but the force of the trampoline jettisoning him up before he landed down square on his arse with a surprised yelp. Sirius stopped jumping long enough to stare at James for a moment with something akin to concern, but that quickly fell to the wayside as he tossed his head back to let out an uproarious laugh while his hands came to clutch his sides.
"That was priceless! Godric- Oh your face! I don't think I've ever seen you look so scared!" he managed to bark out between peals of laughter.
James began to collect himself, moving onto one knee as he rolled his eyes at Sirius, though ended up breaking into a small chortle himself. "You probably did that on purpose."
Sirius was slowly beginning to sober as he now stood stationary looking over at his friend. "I just wish Dear Lily could have been here to see that. All those years of Quidditch truly have paid off, O' Graceful One."
"Ha. Ha." And with that, James pulled himself up to begin jumping again so that he could actually delve into his plan to get Lily Evans to finally go on a date with him this year.