A/N: Here it is, the long-awaited Chapter Two! Also, you should know that the year in this story is 1978, which conveniently is the year in which both Grease and Superman came out! We also get our first real glimpse of Sirius! So I'd better let you start reading!

Chapter Two- It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!

You might have heard I run with a dangerous crowd.

We ain't too pretty, we ain't too proud.

We might be laughing a bit too loud

Aw, but that never hurt no one.

-"Only the Good Die Young"

If there is one thing I don't like to admit, it would be that I don't know something. But as I stared at my reflection in the mirror, I had to admit it: I had no idea what a movie was like.

I guess it's understandable. There haven't been Muggles, or even Squibs, in my family for at least seven generations. I grew up with the Banshee Brothers and the Floo network, not Disney and theaters. But then, so did Crysta, and I was betting that she was leagues ahead of me in this whole business. She always seemed to be.

For example, what exactly did one wear to the movies? Was it casual, dressy, or could it go either way? I decided to throw on a plain T-shirt with black pants. That looked okay.

I glanced at the clock; eleven forty-two. I had told Crysta I'd meet her at noon, but it never hurt to be early. After a last, fruitless attempt to flatten my hair, I Apparated into an alley behind the diner.

The alley was a tad cramped, but then again, alleys are not generally known for their spaciousness. I squeezed through two trash cans and stumbled out into the bright light that was the market street. Squinting for a moment against the noon sun, I scanned the outside tables, looking for an empty one. As I looked, I saw someone waving at me; apparently Crysta had also decided to be fashionably early.

I made my way through the tables and sat next to my fiancé in the shade of a red-and-white striped umbrella. I compared her outfit to mine; she was wearing a light blue top and a simple white skirt, and her long brown hair was decorated only with a small jeweled clip. (I had bought her that clip; I still didn't know if she'd realized they were actually rhinestones.) All in all, I thought I'd dressed properly. Not that I actually cared.

"Hello," I greeted her with a quick kiss. "So you didn't like my noon idea?"

"I didn't want to be late," she said, then added, "and plus, I just couldn't wait to see you, hon."

"Why are you sucking up? I already proposed," I informed her. She laughed.

"Yes, but you get to pick where we go, and I really don't feel like looking at motorcycles again."

"Okay, first, that was Sirius's idea, not mine," I said in my defense. "And second, I already picked where we're going, and you're going to like it."

"Oh, good," she said, satisfied. "So, are you going first, or should I?"

Right, facts. "You can go."

"Okay, well, I'm terrified of watermelon. When I was eight I almost choked on a seed, and I've avoided them ever since."

I tried not to frown. I had intended this to be more serious, not trivial information. But she could hardly be expected to know that. I couldn't tell her that I wanted big secrets because I wasn't sure whether or not I should marry her.

"I'll keep that in mind," I said, then took a deep breath. "Two years ago, Death Eaters came to my house." She gasped sharply. "No one was home, but they burned the place down. We only just finished rebuilding it."

Hopefully that would clue her in to the nature of things she should be telling me.

"That's….wow," she said rather lamely, looking very discomfited. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't say that," I scowled. Crysta looked hurt, and I added to my statement. "It pisses me off when people say they're sorry for things they didn't do."

"Oh."

I knew she didn't understand, but I wasn't going to press it. We sat in silence for a minute or so before a soft "You've got to be kidding me" alerted us to the presence of our waitress, who was wearing a nametag that said LILY. Lily was our server. Go figure.

"Hi, Lily," I said bravely. She was apparently not happy to see me. "I didn't know you worked here."

"Yeah, well, I didn't want to lose touch with where I come from"—I understood this to mean the Muggle world—"and the tux and robes place doesn't quite pay all the bills. So here I am," Lily concluded. "Our specials today are the meatball sandwich and chicken corn chowder. Can I start you off with a drink first?"

* * *

About an hour later, Crysta and I were walking toward the movie theatre. I'd told her that we were going to see Grease shortly after we set out, and the idea was a hit, as I knew it would be.

Having Lily as our waitress was deeply awkward, but at least it seemed to be that way for her too, and she stayed away from our table whenever possible. I got a meatball sandwich, and Crysta got a salad. It was a pretty good lunch.

When we arrived at the theatre, I saw a large poster for Grease plastered to one of the windows. Featured was a young man about my age, who seemed to be fixing his hair in quite a conceited fashion, was wearing quite a spiffy leather jacket, and had a girl clinging to him. Poor fellow, I thought sympathetically. Not because of the leather jacket, which really was very nice and I suspected Sirius of having one just like it. No, I pitied him because of the evidently very clingy girl he was with—Sirius had had his fair share of those as well, and they were incredibly irritating.

Speaking of Sirius, I immediately felt a hand thump me on the back, almost knocking me over.

"Prongsie!" he exclaimed loudly enough for many people milling about the theatre's doors to turn and give him strange looks. "And you brought the woman-folk." He bowed pompously to Crysta, who looked up at me as if unsure of what she was supposed to do.

As entrances go, this was fairly typical for Sirius Black. Boisterous and excitable, he was always great fun for those who understood him, but for people unused to his oddities, he could be confusing and more than a little terrifying. He was a strong believer in the maxim "If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit," and therefore was not exactly a model student. When he learned that I had made Head Boy, he didn't speak to me for a week.

But that was in the past. In the present, he was turning to me and asking, "So, what brings you to this Muggle-infested Mecca of movies?"

"Well, I was going to take Crysta to Grease," I admitted reluctantly. I was sure he would mock me for my choice in film, and I was not disappointed. My statement was greeted with an exaggerated grimace from Sirius.

"You're not serious, are you?" he asked. "I saw that with Carolyn, or was it Catherine?" he asked himself, frowning slightly before waving a hand and continuing in his previous train of thought. "It was a drag, mate! Everyone was dancing and singing the whole bloody time! I thought I was going to be sick!"

"So you're coming to see it again?" I asked shrewdly.

"Hardly, Prongs," Sirius returned, looking affronted and drawing himself up to his full, shorter-than-me height. "I am going to see Superman. Now that's a movie! A superhero saving the world….You coming, Prongs?"

I looked down at Crysta, who shrugged with a bit of a defeated look in her eye. "Do whatever you want, honey," she told me, squeezing my hand.

I walked up to the ticket booth and ordered three tickets to Superman.

* * *

"That was AWESOME!" Sirius cried as we exited the dark room where we'd watched the movie. "Did you see that earthquake?"

"Yeah!" I joined in. "I'm not going to lie; I was bloody impressed by that Superman! How could he do all that without magic?"

Sirius and I eagerly discussed the film for several minutes, and he invited me to go to Icarus Fortescue's for ice cream, and I readily acceded. That was when I noticed that Crysta hadn't said anything the entire time.

"Are you coming, love?" I asked. She shook her head.

"I think I'll stay and see Grease after all," she said. "Plus, with eating out for lunch every day this week, if I got ice cream too I won't fit into my wedding dress," she quipped.

"All right," I said, handing her some Muggle money for the show. "Have fun," I told her, giving her a quick kiss before walking into the bright sunlight with Sirius.

I spent about two hours with Sirius that afternoon, and it was like tonic for my soul. We joked around and acted like kids again, something I hadn't been able to do for a long time. Crysta was not the type of person around whom one is inclined to act like a kid. And when Sirius dumped his ice cream cone on my head? Well, it was all part of the fun! That didn't stop me from chasing him around the shop while threatening to hex him, though.

* * *

I left for my flat at about five o'clock, leaving Sirius, who said he would do likewise after he finished his third ice cream. However, he didn't get back to his flat as soon as he anticipated. This was because as soon as he finished, a figure stepped from the early evening shadows nearby.

"I need your help, Sirius," she said.

A/N: Relatively short chapter, but there's nothing like a cliffhanger! Sorry about that, folks. Also, there is significance in the whole Grease—Superman thing, although probably no one but myself will get it.

Hey! If any of you are familiar with The Music Man, check out my spoof! It's called The Slushee Man, and is actually the only Music Man fic that's written in English….as you can tell, that section doesn't get too much attention. So what do I do but put a commercial of sorts in one of my other fics?