Halfway through July, Sirius ran out of his parents' house. He couldn't stand them and their Slytherin pureblood idiocies any longer. Regulus was only thirteen, and they were already talking about how he'd be the perfect Death Eater – it made him sick. He packed everything he had (which wasn't much) and left. He didn't know where he was going to go. His first thought was the Potters, but he didn't want to impose. His next thought was his favorite cousin – Andromeda – but she had a baby now, and he wouldn't want to impose on her either. He walked for a while, not really knowing where he was headed. Before long, he found himself walking up the front steps at the Potters and ringing the bell. James opened to door, vaguely surprised to see him there.
"I left," Sirius panted. He had not realized he had been running. "I left and I'm not going back." James opened the door properly so Sirius could enter.
"Mum! Dad! Sirius is here!" James called, running down the hall to where his parents were in one of the parlors.
"Good," Sirius heard Mr. Potter announce. "He can listen to you blabber on about Lily."
"Dad! Shh!" James exclaimed.
"I already know," Sirius said, finally entering the parlor, rolling his eyes. "Before you leave Mr. Potter, and Mrs. Potter, um… I ran away from my pureblood Death Eater family. Can I stay here until we go back to school?"
"Of course you can," Mrs. Potter said. "Haven't we always said you were welcome here?"
"Thanks," Sirius said. He jumped onto one of the many sofas and stretched out. "So tell me about this girl."
The July full moon was quite a lot of fun. James and Sirius invited Remus over to the Potters, so they could explore the sizable woods behind the house. Remus reluctantly agreed, and even Peter joined them. The beginning of August, a large owl arrived for Sirius – an invitation to Andromeda's daughter's birthday party. He immediately agreed to go – Drom was his favorite cousin and none of his other hideous relatives would be there. However, in order to save teenage face, and not to look too eager to go to a toddler's birthday party, he dragged James and Remus with him. Peter was on vacation with his family in France. Suckers. Peter was a git anyway, in Sirius's opinion. Andromeda and her Muggle-born husband, Ted Tonks, didn't live too far off, but Mr. Potter loaned them his car anyway.
"Next year we'll be 17, and we'll be able to do magic and Apparate," James observed as he drove them out into the country. "No more of this walking and driving nonsense."
About an hour into the party, Sirius realized that a toddler's birthday party was probably the most boring place on earth, except perhaps a library. Andromeda had left the three teenagers in charge of little Nymphadora, who, even at age 3, despised her name, and wanted to be called "Tonks". Sirius stood up shortly after.
"Well, we need to find the Firewhiskey. I'm sure she has some around," he said. "Come along, men."
"I'm good, thanks," Remus said. "I shouldn't drink in the week before the… I'll just watch Nymphadora."
"DON'T call me Nymphadora!" Tonks said, very angrily.
"Tonks. Tonks, sorry," Remus said to the obstinate three year old. Sirius mimed a whip, and he and James left to find Andromeda's liquor stash. Remus surveyed the girl. "And now what do I do?" he asked no one. Tonks, her hair as bright pink as ever, toddled away from him, but before he could run after her, she returned with her father's guitar. "Thanks," Remus said. He assumed this meant she wanted him to sing to her. He began to tune the guitar, and sing a few songs to her. Lullabys, Christmas carols, "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles, and "Our Last Summer" by ABBA.
"Hey Moony," James said, wandering back in, his speech slurring. "Drom's husband keeps some Muggle alcohol back there. That stuff is strong." He saw the guitar. "Hey, a guitar! Cool!" He snatched the guitar from Remus and began to strum it. Sirius sat down next to Remus and Tonks.
"This is going to be a good show," he said quietly to Remus.
"I wrote this song," James announced. "And, it's about this girl I like. Okay, here goes." He cleared his throat and began to strum a tune. "She's tall and fun and pretty, she's really, really skinny, LILY! I'm the Mickey to her Minnie, the Tigger to my Winnie, LILY! Wanna take her to the city, wanna take her out to dinny… LILY! She's cuter than a guinea pig…. I wanna take her up to Winnipeg – THAT'S IN CANADA! …"
"Okay," Remus said, taking the guitar back. "I think that's quite enough singing for you." James pouted for a second, but then brightened.
"You know, that's a good idea," he said to Remus, as if Remus had given him some inspiration. "I'm going to tell her how I feel. See you." He took off, in the direction of the front door. Sirius and Remus exchanged looks before following him to the door. James left the house out the front door, walked by the car, down the driveway, and onto the road before pausing. It seemed he didn't know which direction he wanted to go. Sirius ran down to him, before he got run over by a passing car. Remus made to follow, but something tugged on his pantleg. It was Nympha- Tonks, he corrected himself in his head.
"Yes?" Remus asked her.
"Can you sing me more songs, please?" Tonks asked, pouting a little. She was too cute to resist. He took her back into the living area, and sang her some more ABBA songs.
"Why are you singing her ABBA songs?" Sirius asked, a while later when he showed up again.
"We're kicking it to ABBA," Tonks informed him. Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"Alright then. James and I are gonna take off," Sirius told Remus. "You can use the Floo to get anywhere you want to go whenever you're ready to leave." Remus nodded his understanding to this, and kept playing the guitar.