I Own Nothing

The first year girls were all sitting in the chairs by the fireplace, giggling. "Hey James, what do you think they're talking about?" Peter asks his new friend as he stared at the girls.

"I dunno Pete, why don't you walk over there and find out?" James asked as he ruffled his hair in a mirror.

Peter squeaked. "I couldn't do that! There's a bunch of them over there!"

Sirius laughed. "Well how about I come with you?" With a flourish of his robes and a flick of his hair Sirius grabbed Peter's arm and stormed over to the group of girls.

"Hey, what are you giggling about?" Sirius asks as he pokes his head in the middle of the group. "Pete wants to know."

"I do not!" Peter whispers, his face red.

With a sigh Lily turns to the boys. "If you must know I'm telling the girls about nail varnish. It's the muggle way to get color on your nails." She holds out a hand with chipped pink varnish on the nails.

Peter tugs Sirius away from the group. "Okay!" He squeaks.

Remus laughs at the pair. "Find out anything interesting?"

"Well Rem, the girls have a varnish that works like a nail color charm. It's one of Lily's muggle things."

"Cool." James turns to Sirius. "Wanna play Exploding Snap?"

The common room was mostly deserted, everyone else was at dinner. Sirius walks up to Lily as she is preparing to walk out of the portrait hole. "Hey Lily?"

"What?" Lily scowls. "I'm trying to get to dinner. "Shouldn't you be there already with the other toe-rags?"

Sirius held his hands up in surrender. "I just wanted to ask you about the varnish. Does it only come in pink?"

Lily tilted her head to the side. "No, it comes in loads of colors. It's for girls though, why are you asking?"

"Well… Could you tell me where to get some?"

Lily looked at him hard before tentatively smiling. "I've got some other colors in my trunk if you don't mind being later for dinner?"

Sirius beamed. "That's fine!" He plopped down in a chair and watched as Lily ran up to the girl's dorms. She came back down with an armful of bottles. She set them all out on the table next to Sirius. "I want to try that one!" He said, picking up a Gryffindor red.

Lily giggled. "Alright, give me your hand." She carefully coated his nails in layer of red varnish. "Don't touch anything yet. It still has to dry." Sirius nodded and carefully placed his hand in his lap. "Now give me your other one." She repeated the process on his left hand. "There. Now you wait a minute until it's dry and then you're good."

She stood up and took all her bottles back to her room. When she came back downstairs she nodded to Sirius and started to leave the common room. "Wait! You can't just leave me here by myself!"

Lily snorted. "I'm hungry. I don't have to wait with you."

Sirius gasped and chased after her. "How rude, making me wait by myself like that."

Lily sighed. "Just make sure you don't smudge it before it dries."

"Lily can you do me a different color? The red is chipping." Sirius whines at the breakfast table.

Taking a deep breath Lily replied. "How about I just give you a bottle and you fix it yourself?"

"Okay!"

Lily sighs. "Give me some money and I can have my parents buy you your very own varnish."

A few days later Sirius had three new bottles of nail varnish (Gryffindor Red, Gold, and Black) and he was sitting cross-legged on his bed scowling. "This is impossible!" He gripes, unsteady hand holding a brush. "Lily made it look so easy!"

Remus snorted from his bed, not looking up from his book. "Well it makes sense that painting someone else's nails would be easier than doing your own."

Sirius bounced on his bed, almost knocking the open bottles over. "Can you do mine then?" He gave Remus his best puppy-dog eyes. "Please?"

"Fine." Remus sighed as he set the tomb down and climbed onto Sirius' bed. "Just this once."

"Hey Remus?"

"Learn to do this yourself. Honestly."

"Rem?"

"I won't keep doing this."

"Hey Moony!"

"This is the last time."

"Moooooooonyyyyyyyyyyyy."

"Which color Pads?"

Holding the black bottle. "Your varnish needs a touch up."