Rodger

Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me. All rights go to JK Rowling/Warner Bros. I do not profit in any way.

Dedicated to Anna, to whom I've owed happy!Sirius for quite some time! Hope you like it :)

It was a hot July afternoon, and the sun was beating down on the Potters' garden, bathing the two teenage boys residing there in golden light.

One of the boys was relaxing on a sun bed, dressed only in swimming trunks. He was rather scrawny for his age, but any spectator could tell you that he was surprisingly toned. His messy dark hair spiked in every direction, only flattening against the blue nylon of his chair. Square glasses rested on the bridge of his nose and reflected the sunlight.

The other boy was broader, and probably taller too, although it was impossible to tell from his position hunched up on the grass. He'd long since abandoned the sunbed beside his companion, and he shifted his position on the grass every few seconds, restlessly.

He was dressed in a black t-shirt and dark jeans, but he didn't seem to mind the heat. His dark hair was longer than the other boy's, flowing straight in all one direction and stopping just above his chin. He glared at the grass.

Into this scene, a dark-haired, rather portly middle-aged woman entered. She spoke to the boys for a few moments, then ruffled the hair of both and left through the garden gate.

"I'm bored," Sirius said, approximately thirty seconds after Mrs Potter had left them.

"You're always bored," James said, lying back on the sunbed, putting his hands behind his head. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feel of the sun on his skin. "Personally, I think we should just take a nap."

James closed his eyes for a moment, but was roused a few seconds later by handful of grass fluttering down onto his face.

He opened his eyes to see a slightly smirking - and notably upside-down - Sirius Black standing over the head of his sunbed.

"You really are bored, aren't you?" James said.

Sirius shrugged as James sat up. "As enthralling as it is to watch you sleep, mate, we've been rather deprived of risk and danger recently."

James smirked. "What did you have in mind?" he asked as he stood up, pulling on the crumpled white shirt he'd abandoned in the heat.

"Reckon it's about time to take Rodger out for a spin."

James looked at him strangely. "I thought Mum confiscated it? After the whole running-over-the-neighbor's-cat incident last week?"

Sirius snorted. "Cats are bloody useless animals anyway, I don't know why they were so pissed off."

"The owner was nine, Padfoot."

"Yeah, well. We taught her young about the fragility of life."

James grinned and shook his head. "Where's the motorbike?"

"In the garage," Sirius grinned at him. "Love your mum, Prongs, really, but she has to be more imaginative about her hiding places."

James raised his eyebrows. "In the garage? Really? It's like the woman wants us to sneak out."

Sirius made a confirmative sound as they started striding across the garden towards the garage, leaving the two sunbeds abandoned. "He still looks all in one piece too. Good old Rodger. Wasn't damaged by the suicidal cat."

Together, James and Sirius lifted the heavy garage door, and there, bang smack in the middle of the spacious garage, sat Sirius's beloved motorcycle.

James laughed. "My mother," he said. "I would have thought she'd learnt by now."

"To be fair," Sirius inputted, walking over to the vehicle and brushing off the little dust that had settled in a week. "I only found him this morning, after searching the house for objects that looked like they'd been transfigured for six days."

"So Mum's bad at hiding things, and you're bad at finding them," James said. "Brilliant. Can you just start the thing?"

"Rodger is not a thing," Sirius said. "Rodger is a beautiful piece of machinery."

"Rodger is an inanimate object, and therefore not worthy of your personified pronouns."

"Don't listen to him, Rodger."

"I'm beginning to think you're having an illicit affair with Rodger."

Sirius snorted as he started the engine, his grey eyes flicking from the ignition to James's laughing ones. "Shut up, Prongs."

James smiled, and Sirius wheeled the motorcycle outside the garage, leaving the helmets inside and slamming the door shut with a grunt.

James tried to jump on the bike whilst Sirius was preoccupied, but he turned around and said, "Don't even think about it," just as James was swinging a leg over the seat.

"You always get to be in front!"

"He's my bike!"

James had settled himself on the front half of the bike, but under Sirius's glare, he shuffled back, sighing.

Sirius nodded haughtily, getting onto the driving seat and revving the engine. "Ready to go?"

James would have asked where they were actually going, but Sirius had already kicked off, and they were speeding down the driveway, and then tilting up into the air.

"Where the hell are we, Padfoot?"

Sirius and James had pulled over, leaving the bike on the side of the country road, and sitting up on the grassy verge, looking out over the fields below. It was a lovely view, but there was no civilization for miles, as far as James could see.

Which could be mildly problematic, for he had no idea how to get home, and he was certain Sirius didn't, either.

"Lovely out here, right?" Sirius said, still grinning from the thrill of the motorbike. He leaned back on his hands and tilted his face towards the sun.

James had never seen Sirius look more relaxed than when he was coming down from some adrenaline high. It was half the reason he agreed to these little excursions. Merlin knew, Sirius needed the distraction, after a month estranged from his own family.

"Great," James said, "But if we're not home by the time Mum is, she's going to strangle us."

"Relax," Sirius said, closing his eyes. "I thought you wanted to nap."

"So I'm allowed to sleep now we're twenty miles away from home?"

Sirius didn't reply, he just closed his eyes, his head leaning on one of his own shoulders as he tilted it to absorb the sunlight.

A few more seconds, and James lay down.

He was woken up half an hour later by Sirius poking at his arm.

"So," he said when James opened his eyes. "D'you know the way home?"

James straightened his glasses. "I knew you didn't know where we were going!"

"Well," Sirius said. "I'll take that as a no, shall I?"

"Mum is going to kill us. Slowly and painfully."

Sirius grinned. "We came from that direction," he said, pointing to the left. "So we have to go back that way. Simple."

"We have an hour and ten," James said, glancing at his wristwatch. "You'd better not be talking out of your arse."

Twenty minutes later found the two boys on an unfamiliar road, riding through a muggle town. Sirius had brought the bike down from the air to save fuel, for they were running out quickly, and James was beginning to get a little worried about his mother's reaction if he and Sirius got home hours after she did.

(Hogwarts teachers are right when they remember James Potter and Sirius Black had no regard for their discipline, but when it came to Mrs Potter... well, she knew just how to place her punishments. [Quidditch bans were especially effective, she found.])

But as James was thinking over the reaction from his mother, he saw the red telephone box and had a sudden, mental idea.

Lily Evans was bored.

Terribly, dreadfully bored.

She lay on her bed in too-small shorts and a vest top with the window open, staring at the ceiling.

Her room was a mess, and she didn't dare to complain about her boredom to her mother, for she'd surely tell her to tidy.

It was too hot to do that, so Lily remained discontent, staring at the ceiling and trying to keep cool.

Really, she didn't know why she looked forward to summer. Things were more exciting at Hogwarts, at least.

The silence of Lily's room was interrupted by a familiar ringing sound from downstairs.

Lily didn't make an effort to move, she just closed her eyes. She could pinpoint the sound to the hallway directly below her bedroom. She heard someone pick up the phone and offer a muffled greeting.

"Lily! It's for you!"

She started, eyes flying open, her heart racing. She hadn't had any contact from her friends since Marlene had been to visit two weeks ago, and Merlin, it seemed like longer than that.

With newfound energy, Lily leaped up from her bed and bounced down the stairs.

Her mum had left the cream-coloured receiver sitting face-down on the table.

Eagerly, Lily picked it up.

"Hello?" she said.

"Evans?"

"Potter?!"

Needless to say, it was rather a surprise to have James Potter call her home. They'd been getting on better through sixth-year, but they didn't even exchange letters, let alone phone calls.

"Oh good, it's the right Evans this time," James said.

"What are you going on about?" Lily asked, "And how did you get my phone number?"

There were a few seconds of muffled laughter from the other end of the phone, which Lily noted as being definitely not James's, and then James said, "Sod off, Padfoot."

"Potter?"

"Not you!" he said quickly, and there was an involuntary smile growing on Lily's face again.

"I don't go by 'Padfoot', so I assumed not," she said, twirling the curled phone wire around her finger. "And calling me up and telling me to sod off would be rather counterproductive, wouldn't it."

"I- um, yeah, I suppose- Damn it, Evans, how come I'm rusty and you're sharp as ever?" James exclaimed, exasperated.

Lily let out a silent laugh, looking at herself in the mirror at the end of the hallway. She was faintly blushing. "I didn't even know you had a phone, Potter."

"Mmm," James said, "I don't, actually. This is a public phone."

"And you knew how to use it?"

"I pay attention in Muggle Studies!"

"I'm sure."

Lily turned around when she heard the door to the living room open. James was still talking on the other end of the phone, but Lily was distracted for a few moments by her mother mouthing 'A boy?!' with raised eyebrows, pointing to the phone.

Lily rolled her eyes and gestured for Mrs Evans to leave her alone, and with a grin that was much like her daughter's, the older woman obliged.

Lily had grown ever closer to her mum since her dad had passed away a few years previously, and she knew she'd be required to give an explanation later.

"So you see my problem, right, Evans?" James's voice brought her back to the matter in hand.

"What?"

"It was Sirius's idea! We thought that going by ground would save fuel, but the bike isn't going to go any distance, and we have no idea where we are!"

"Wait, wait," Lily said, "You mean the motorbike Sirius didn't stop talking about all term?"

"The very same."

"You went out on it, and you ran out of fuel," Lily said. "And you're hopelessly lost and are calling me for some kind of guidance?"

"Yours was the only phone number we had, so... yes."

"And how did you get my number in the first place?"

"That's beside the point," James said. "The point is that if you don't get a map out and tell us where we are, you are going to lose two housemates to slow murder at the hands of my mother."

"Oh, how you tempt me."

"Not funny, Evans."

"You're right, I wouldn't want your mum to go to prison. She's my favourite Potter."

"You've met her once, for thirty seconds on the platform."

"No competition."

"So not funny."

Lily smiled. "Fine, I'll get a map."

"Have I ever told you how wonderful you are?"

"Give me a second," Lily put the phone down on the table, and then picked it up again on a second thought. "You're not going to run out of change, are you?"

"Nah," James said brightly. "Sirius charmed the phone."

Lily put down the handset again.

"She's gone to get the map," James said with a grin. Unnecessarily, perhaps, because the phone box was so small that the two lanky teenagers had to practically cram themselves in, and Sirius could hear every word Lily said.

"I can't believe you're not letting me apparate us. It would be so easy!"

"No."

"Do you know how annoying your irrational phobia of apparation is?"

When he got no reply, Sirius rolled his eyes, turning to look out of the window. "Hurry up, then, I want to get out of here. Spending half an hour flirting isn't going to help us."

"James?" Lily's voice came from the phone, and James lifted it to his ear. It was still odd to hear her disembodied voice, and even odder to hear her use his first name.

"Lily," he said.

"What's the name of the road you're on?"

James's eyes flicked to Sirius, and he pointed to the road sign outside their phonebox.

"Lakefield Road," he said. "We think we flew South from Sussex."

There was some rustling for a couple of minutes, and then Lily gave a triumphant sound. "Got it," she said. "You're about ten minutes from my house by car. Thirty from Godric's Hollow. I'll come and pick you up."

It was so sudden that James's mouth dropped open, hardly believing his luck. "Are you serious?"

"Summer holidays," Lily said, "Are very, very boring when you don't have your best mate living with you. I have a driver's license and Mum's car at my disposal... might as well make use of them, right?"

Before James could stutter out something dangerously close to a confession of love, Lily said, "Just one condition: You have to tell me how you got my phone number."

And with that, she hung up.

Mrs Evans didn't stop her daughter from borrowing the car, and so Lily found herself on the road James had told her about, looking out for two lost teenage boys with a motorcycle.

They weren't too difficult to find. Sirius was polishing the bike sat up on the pavement, ignoring the strange looks he was attracting from the muggles who were forced to walk out on the road.

Lily pulled up beside them, and wound down the window.

"Potter, Black," she said, and they looked up at her at the same time.

James just smiled at her, and somehow his extended glance made her blush. It felt like she hadn't seen him in years, but his hair was still the same unruly mess it always was, and his eyes had that look to them, shining behind his glasses.

"Rodger will never fit in there," was the first thing Sirius said, eyes flicking away from Lily's face and examining the small powder-blue Mini she drove.

"Rodger?"

James made a cut-throat gesture to her behind Sirius's back, and Sirius himself looked rather affronted, so Lily let it go.

She pulled out her wand, pointed it at Rodger, which promptly shrunk to the size of a child's tricycle.

"Hey!" Sirius said, looking down at his precious bike with a scowl. He looked up at Lily and said, "That'd better go back to normal when we get back."

Lily rolled her eyes, and there was a blare of a car horn as it swerved round her.

"Get in the car," she said.

The boys looked at each other, and then James walked across to the passenger seat, and Sirius got in the back with his tiny motorbike.

"About your condition, Evans..."

James spun round to glare at Sirius through the gap between his and Lily's seats, momentarily forgetting his car-related anxiety.

He'd never ridden in a car before, and it was with some trepidation that he watched Lily steer with the wheel, and move that stick around between their seats.

"Oh, yes," Lily said, glancing towards James quickly with a half-smile before looking back at the road. "I'm sure it's an interesting story."

"I heard it once, and I remembered it," James said.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Maybe you'd better concentrate on driving."

"I could eject you right now, you know," Lily said, completely straight faced as she looked out at the road. James recognised the neighborhood they were in now; it was mere minutes from his house. "There's a button under my dashboard that would propel your whole seat out of this car with a big spring."

She said it so seriously that James couldn't tell whether she was joking or not.

"She's lying," Sirius said from the back seat, although he seemed uncertain too. He'd been in a car as many times as James had.

"Where about is your house?" Lily asked as they pulled into Godric's Hollow. "Seeing as I haven't taken the liberty to memorise your address."

There was a small smile spreading across her lips, then, although she looked as if she were trying to hide it.

With the sun streaming in from her side of the car, illuminating her crimson hair, he swore she'd never looked so beautiful.

"Third cottage on the right, once you take this left turn," he said after a few moments, relishing in the excuse to stare at her.

Two minutes later, and they were sat outside James's house.

"With ten minutes to spare," Sirius grinned from the back seat. "No need to panic, Prongs."

James turned to scowl at him, craning his neck. "Only because we hitched a ride."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Sirius looked at Lily, and allowed her a small grin. "Thanks, Evans, I guess," he said. "But if this bike doesn't go back to normal size, I won't be happy with you."

He opened the door and stepped out onto the grass with his miniature motorbike, leaving James and Lily alone in the car.

Lily looked at him, and she smiled.

James couldn't believe how this day had turned out.

"Thanks for the lift," James said, "Really."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "You still haven't abided to my condition."

James laughed, "I told you," he said. "You repeated it about three times to your friends once in the common room, and I remembered it."

"How did you remember an eleven-digit number?" Lily asked, her eyebrows still raised, although he could see the smile still pulling at the corners of her mouth.

James didn't tell her that he remembered the number because he had been so determined not to forget it, that he'd repeated it over and over again in his mind until he had some paper to write it down, and by that time he didn't need the paper at all. Fifteen-year-old James had been far more confident in his affections than his seventeen-year-old counterpart was, and he'd been sure he'd find occasion to use it within the year.

No, he didn't tell her even a little of that.

James just smirked, and he almost ran a hand through his hair, but managed to stop himself just in time.

"Oh, I remember everything about you, love," he said, oozing charm.

Lily didn't buy it, as he knew she wouldn't. She just shook her head, smiling, and said, "Get out of the car, you big prat."

James grinned, bit his lip for a millisecond, and made an impulsive decision.

He reached over and pecked Lily on the corner of her mouth, and then before she had time to react, he was out of there.

"Potter!" she exclaimed as he slammed the door behind him.

"Later, Evans," he called through the open passenger window.

He grinned at her.

Lily didn't say anything else before driving away, and she pointedly avoided his gaze after seeing his grin.

But he'd be damned if he hadn't seen her smile for just a second before she was out of his sight.

A/N: Long time no see?

Sorry!

I've been working on my original story, so I'm not writing as much fanfiction these days (although I do sometimes write short drabbles and post them on my Tumblr - link on my profile).

Anyway, I hope you liked this, and your feedback in reviews would be much appreciated, as always!

Love,

Abi x