Chapter twelve – The Yule Ball

Their day had arrived. The day they were going to be stars!

James sat on his bed, arms and legs around his guitar as if he was protecting it. This was the first time he had felt this nervous. Never before in his life had he been that nervous!

If he had had the habit of biting his nails, he probably would have done that also, but he didn't. So he sat there with his new, already quite used guitar and shaking like a leaf. If they had been a few years older, Sirius who sat on his bed watching James and trying to talk some sense into the boy, would have transformed James into a leaf just to see how much it would shake.

Padfoot: Great idea mate! Remember to remind me when we get older!

Prongs: I won't be nervous then!

Padfoot: We'll see about that

But at the moment Sirius had other and more important things to do. He had to get his fellow Gryffindor out of the bed, on his feet and down to the Great Hall so they could start their warm up. Sirius had sent Remus and Peter downstairs already so they would get some time to practise the songs for a bit longer, which had been an hour ago.

"If you don't get downstairs with me right now, I'm going to take Lily for a dance tonight and not letting anyone else get near her!" Sirius said with a serious voice. Finally James started to move.

"I'm not letting anyone get near my Lily tonight. I've even prepared a song for her!" James got up from the bed and started to walk to the stairs leading down to the common room.

"You coming, Sirius?"

Both boys ran down to the Great Hall with their instruments, carefully so they wouldn't break them. "Peter! Remus! Sorry we're late!" James jumped up on the stage, closely followed by Sirius. The boys started to do their warm up, at least Sirius and James. The others had had their warm up a long time ago.

Before the other students started to come inside the Hall, they had gone through some of the songs they weren't feeling completely at ease with and got friendly with them.

Padfoot: It really helps when you know the songs better you know!

Prongs: Yeah, being on a first name basis and all that

"Wow, that's a lot of student..." Peter said. They boys were looking as the students arrived. "I never noticed there were so many of them!" The other boys couldn't agree more. On normal day's people came and ate when they felt like it, and it was a rare sight to see all of the students in the Great Hall at the same time. The only times all of them would be there was the great feast they had a few times a year.

Prongs: And then you don't have an overview from a stage!

"Yeah, lots of them." Sirius agreed. "But we won't let them take us down! We've got some women out there to impress!"

They felt their grins wide as the headmaster introduced them to the rest of the school, thought, there weren't a sole in the crowd who hadn't heard about the boys. They were well known for their pranks.

They walked out of the room they had been hiding in. (Prongs/N: You know, the one behind where the teachers usually are seated...)

James was still a bit nervous, but he thought of Lily and managed to gather all the courage he could. Remus and Peter were also pale, but Sirius just took a deep breath, and muttered to himself: "We're going to the top of the poppermost" and entered the stage.

"Hello," Sirius said in the mike as the other guys settled down on the stage. "We're The Marauders".

They played their first song. They'd decided for Love Me Do. A great, easy, commercial song that everyone knew (Unless they'd been raised by a 90 year old woman out in a forest or on a mountain somewhere).

James played the harmonica and the two of them also sang.

At first the crowd was checking them out. "Are they any good at all?" most of them thought to themselves. And most of the girls thought: "God, they're very pretty". But as the song got to the end there was no doubt in any one in the audience that the boys knew what they were doing.

"We're The Marauders!" James said in his magical microphone. His blood rushing with happy adrenaline and he was so happy they all seemed to like what they had just played.

"On bass and vocals, Sirius Black!" the crowd cheered.

"On lead guitar Remus Lupin!" Remus bowed and gave a weak smile that made all the girls scream louder.

"Our drummer is Peter Pettigrew!" Peter got up and bowed. More cheering.

"And I'm James Potter!" James yelled.

The boys threw themselves out in songs like I Want to Hold Your Hand, All You Need is Love, Eight Days a Week, Day Tripper, Can't Buy Me Love, and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away.

Then James spoke into the microphone. "And now I'd like to sing a song by George Harrison called Something." James looked out over the crowd and found Lily Evans. She was dressed in a green dress, so her eyes looked more dazzling than usual.

"This song is for Lily Evans," James said and began playing.

James kept his eyes on Lily trough out the whole song. At first she looked stunned, but as they played her cheeks burned up and she looked more and more angry. James couldn't understand why. Here he was, in the front of the whole school, playing a song only for her.

Before they even ended the song she walked out of the room. Not even bothering to end the song James gave his guitar to Sirius telling his friend he would be right back.

Sirius was frozen in a couple of seconds. Luckily Peter and Remus had managed to finish the song. Remus had just played an excellent guitar solo, but a lot of people had probably missed that one on account of James rushing out of the room.

Sirius put down James' guitar. "Next song is You're Gonna Lose That Girl!" he said and they started playing it. The rhythm guitar was missing and they only had two singers, but Sirius thought it was the most appropriate one to sing.

"If you don't take her out tonight, you're gonna find her gone" Sirius sang with all his heart.


"Evans! Why are you running!" James screamed after the girl of his life as she ran up the stairs leading away from the Great Hall. Acting as if she didn't hear him she ran not bothering to answer his question.

James being the boy and the one doing sports helped him reaching her before she was able to climb the stairs to the girls' dorm. Making sure she wouldn't get up before he was finished James took her arm and led her to the corner furthers away from the stairs.

"Why were you running, Evans?" James asked.

Taking her time to catch her breath Lily just looked at James with angry eyes. His eyes were full of confusion and showing slightly his anger.

"Because I never asked you to sing a song for me..."

"I did it because I wanted," James interrupted.

"... and I never asked you to do it in front of the whole school!"

"I wanted to make the night special for you, Evans."

"I never asked you to make the night special for me, Potter!"

"Who said you needed to ask?"

"Who said you could just do what you wanted?" Lily countered.

"The headmaster, Evans. He never told us we couldn't sing our songs for someone special!"

"But I never said you could, Potter. Now the whole school will talk about this tomorrow and it's your entire fault!" Lily then pushed James and ran up to the girl dorm before he was able to move a centimetre.

James walked sulkily down the stairs again. He moved through the student mass in the Great Hall (which divided in two for him) and jumped up on the stage again.


Sirius had taken the opportunity to sing Michelle to the girl he was dating that evening, though he wouldn't get to see her too much since they were playing anyways.

But the mood shifted again when James had entered the room.

"So?" Sirius asked. Saying out loud what everyone in the room wanted to hear. James only shook his head, took his guitar and sang: "Day after day. Alone on a hill". Sirius hurried to pick up his flute, while the other two got into the chords and beat of the song.

Sirius sent James some sad, questioning looks with his dog-like eyes that clearly asked: "You all right, mate?", but James ignored him. Rock n' roll was there to drown his sorrows for him!

James took the lead fully now and the sang songs like Mr. Postman, Twist and Shout (where James got totally hoarse from singing) and Sirius got to sing Yesterday while James drank something to fix his throat.

After a while they (with some help from the audience) managed for persuade both Remus and Peter to sing a song each. Remus sang Here Comes the Sun, while Peter sang Octopuses Garden. And James and Sirius sang the rest.

Their last song was This Boy., where James voice cracked. Both from his emotional state, but mostly because he'd screamed his head off the whole night.

"That's all from us folks. Maybe we can force some of the teachers to sing a song or two?" Sirius grinned, and waved good bye. The four boys got off the stage with mixed emotions playing over their faces.


"James!"

'Dammit!' Sirius thought. James had run away after the concert. James could be anywhere! 'I could need a bloody map to where he is right now!' Sirius though in frustration as he headed outside to look.

It was bloody darn freezing.

Sirius showed his hands deep down his pockets. No James. He should head back inside, but instead he ended up just standing and looking at the moon. It was several days until it was full, but it was a beautiful sight anyway.

It was only tomorrow left at Hogwarts, well today really as the time had passed midnight, and then he had to see his family. He kicked his foot into the snow.

"Well, best not think of it. Got to find James anyways," he muttered to himself and went back inside.


James was your typical boy. He was proud to be relatively strong and fast and really good at Quidditch. He was also proud that it had been ages since he'd cried last time. But now he found himself angrily trying to wipe those bloody tears away from his eyes.

He had decided to run off somewhere Sirius wouldn't think of. So he'd hidden in the corridor outside the library. If there's something worse than having your heart broken, the girl you loved hate you and crying, it must be when you best friend find you crying.

Sirius hadn't found him yet at least.

James, was leaning against the wall and let himself cry. Merlin knows he needed it! Lily just didn't see. She couldn't understand the depth of his feelings. James kicked the wall hard. So hard it hurt.

He took a deep breath and dried his tears, and started to climb his way up to the Gryffindor tower. At least it was soon Christmas. He'd see his parents again. Merlin, he missed his mother's good advices!


"You all right?" Sirius asked again for the 100th time it seemed when they ate breakfast the next day.

"Yes, Sirius! Stop asking already!" James answered more aggressive than he felt.

Sirius just poured himself some more tea. "All right, sorry. I'm just worried you know."

James met his eyes. "Are you all right yourself?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius frowned.

"You had another nightmare," James simply stated. Sirius sent him a sad smile. "It's gonna be all right," he just said and finished his toast.

They had both lied. And they both knew it, but didn't want to stretch it further. Instead they used their last day to rider their brooms. They tried to dive as fast as possible towards the ground and wait for as long as possible before they changed the course so they wouldn't hit the ground.

Well, since they were both so stubborn none of them changed course and both of them ended up crashing into the snowy ground most of the time. But time went by too quickly and the day and the train ride went by too quickly for Sirius liking!


When James walked through the doors of his childhood home, he couldn't help it. All of the past memories filled him and he realised just how much he had missed his parents and this house. The familiar smells of his house, his parents and his favourite meal made him happy. His mother had been standing in the kitchen most of the day he understood. The meal wasn't one of those who just took a few minutes to get ready. No, it had to be made for hours. That was one of the things James loved about it, knowing that this meal didn't contain any stress, just pure love from his mother.

While eating the thought of Sirius and his probably horrible holiday vanished from his mind. He tasted every bit of the meal and when he finished he thanked his mother for making it to him. "I love you mom, thank you!" After a hug he walked upstairs to his room. There he began to think about what might happen at his friend's house.

It was almost time for the annual Christmas dinner at Grimmaulds place 12. Sirius hated it. His family didn't even believe in Christmas, so they didn't practise many of the traditions. But, they did have a dinner and even some gifts.

Sirius knew that the Blacks only gave each other gifts because they needed to show off their wealth. "We don't believe in Jesus or Santa Claus and we hate muggles, but we've got enough money to give our kids lots of expensive presents too," that kind of stuff.

Sirius didn't believe in God or Jesus or Santa either. But he liked the proper Muggle way of celebrating. With the stockings on the fireplace, the Christmas tree and everything! That's how they did at Hogwarts even.

He liked that the Wizards had taken a muggle tradition and adapted into it. It brought the two societies closer. Well, except for people like the Blacks.

"Sirius! SIRIUS!" his mother, he refused to call her "mum", was yelling very impationately.

"What!" he called back.

"Get changed and get down here you ungrateful mudblood lover! They'll be here any minute!"

Sirius sighed, but did as he was told, for once. His mother did like to flick her wand around, aiming it with evil curses with everyone who was so stupid as to go against her will.

When reached the top of the stairs, the Malfoys, Blacks and Lestranges were walking into the hall, and greeted his parents and brother.

"Ah, Cygnus how are you dear brother!" his mother called out and kissed her brothers cheek. "And Druella." Druella who's maiden name was Rosier smiled her evil grin. "Waldurga," she said in a strained happy tone.

"Ah, there you are Sirius," his mother said in a nearly civil tone as she looked up. "Come down here and great all your lovely relatives," she smiled. Sirius interpreted it as: get your arse down here or I'll kill you.

He decided to walk down. "You're getting tall," Mr Malfoy stated. "But we've yet to see if you'll be as tall as your father. I rather doubt it." Oh, that evil grin. "We'll see," Sirius just replied.

"Siri, how are you!" Bellatrix Black gave him a hug. (Prongs/N: I have no idea why Pads put a girl name for his own here...)

"I thought I said not to call me that!" he muttered angrily in her ear. "I know," she smiled back, and roughed his hair. "I hear you're doing all sorts of stupid things at school cousin," she said so everybody heard.

"But what to expect with you being in Gryffindor and all that?" she said viciously.

Sirius' mother got angry and embarrassed at once, but tried to hide it. "Why don't we just move on into the living room and have a drink before dinner is served."

They all followed, while Sirius lingered.

Just then the door opened, and Alphard Black nearly fell on the doorstep. "A bad landing," he muttered. "I should probably apparate more often. Some more practise wouldn't harm."

"Alphard, brother. I didn't think you'd come," Sirius' mother said in a harsh tone and didn't hug her brother. "Erm, well. I figured you'd all miss my company, so I showed up," Alphard snapped back and hang his coat up.

"Hey Sirius!" he said. Sirius, for the first time smiled. "Hey, Uncle Alph," he said.

"Madam, the dinner is ready," Kreacher said discreetly to his mistress, and they all walked into the dining room taking their seats.

Sirius making sure to end up next to uncle Alph. His Uncle leaned in and whispered, "I've got a present for you, kid." Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad evening after all? Sirius wondered.

They finished eating and Orion Black, Sirius' father spoke out. "I believe it's time for the women and children to move to the drawing room" he said. All the women rose, as did Sirius and Regulus as well. "No, Sirius. You stay for a while," his father said.

Sirius was utterly confused. This was when the men would drink whiskey and talk about politics right? While the women takes their conversation and drinks in the withdrawing room? He wasn't supposed to listen to this was he?

"Sirius," Orion said seriously as Sirius sat back down by the table. "We've tried to understand, but again and again you disappoint us! Several letters from you teachers we've already received this year. And worst of all is probably your friendship with that Potter kid."

Mr Black took a short break. Sirius was getting into defence mode.

"We've discussed several options for you. Sending you to Durmstrang, sending letters to Dumbledore asking you to be moved into a proper Slytherine class, or take you out of school to teach you ourselves."

Sirius' eyebrows frowned, but he didn't say anything.

"But we've decided to give you one more chance to make up for yourself," his father said. "You will stay away from that Potter kid! Am I making myself clear boy?"

Sirius snorted. "Crystal clear, sir. But I won't promise you anything. The Potters are pure-blood anyways, so what's the problem?"

His father chose to ignore him and just went on:"You remember my sister, Lucretia I'm sure?" he asked, and Sirius only nodded weakly.

How could he forget her? The woman that always insisted on buying him clothes for Christmas. Really expensive clothes that made anyone who saw them think of rich, spoiled pure-blooded brats. No thank you!

Lucretia Prewett was the one person in the family who had specialised on hating half-breeds and magical creatures. Like centaurs, Werewolfs and Vampires.

"Lucretia and Ignatus has a daughter around your age. Her name is Melania. Named after my late mother. And Ignatus and I have agreed that you two should be engaged." Orion's eyes were fixed on Sirius who now rose from his seat.

"You can't be serious!" Sirius' voice broke. "I'm only thirteen years old!" Sirius cried out in panic.

Alphard stood up too. "Orion, you can't be serious? I mean he's still a kid. You can't decide upon that already. That's too medieval even for you," Alph said his eyes locked on Orion.

"Alphard," Orion said calmly and firmly to his brother-in-law. "Sit back down again." Alphard didn't really have any choice so he did as he was told.

"I... you... seriously..." Sirius didn't manage to say anything. He just stared at his father. "I hate you!" he said and ran out the door.


In a house far, far away James was sitting with his parents in the living room. They were watching the muggle TV and enjoying themselves with what they saw. It was only James and his parents there, but still you could feel the Christmas feeling on your body. The house was full of decorations; his parents loved filling the house with them. The Christmas tree was in the living room together with them, giving the room a tiny smell of forest.

Under the tree there were a lot of presents they. When James was younger his parents had put them there after he had gone to sleep on Christmas Eve following the traditions the muggles had. Now as he was older they had stopped doing so, and just laid the packages there whenever they arrived.

The show ended and his parents told him to go to sleep. James walked up to his room as he had been told, but he didn't go to sleep at once. While watching the muggle TV show he had gotten worried about Sirius and intended to send his friend and owl, just to check if everything was alright. Quietly he started to write, but he hadn't written more than a few words before he saw a familiar owl in front of his bedroom window. He opened it and let the owl inside.

"Hey," he whispered, "What brings you here at this time of the day?" He untied the letter, gave the owl some food and water before it left. James then turned his attention to the letter. What Sirius wrote to him wasn't good news, it wasn't hard to understand. Sirius wrote to him what had happened at his house that night; James couldn't feel sorrier for his friend. Without bothering to keep quiet any longer he wrote a letter to Sirius.

Sirius,

Keep your head up mate, I know it's going to be hard for you, but know that I am fully supporting you even though I'm not there together with you. I know it's hard to think of good things when you're at your parents' house, but I suppose you could try to come up with some ideas for a prank or five to let your relatives feel as bad as I believe you are feeling now.

Just an hour ago my parents and I were watching the muggle TV, and we saw a rather funny show there. It was called "Dinner for One" and the countess there was having a birthday party. She was so old though that it was only the butler there and she. The table was set for a number of people thought. The butler gave all the glasses a drink and pretended to be the persons as he made his way around the table after putting the bottle away. Obviously he got more and more drunk, and every time he was on his way to where the bottles were places he banged his foot into the head of a tiger or something which was used as a carped.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow and all the presents. And I hope you like the one I came up with for you. It took me a long time to figure out what I was going to give you, but I think it will fit you.

I have to go to bed now, sorry. My mom is standing in the doorway and telling me to go to bed.

PS: I hope Lily don't throw away my gift for her.

Pps. I'm invited in the wedding right?

James


The next day Sirius wrote a new letter. Very early. Even though Sirius hated waking up early. He resolved it by going back to bed again.

Hi, James

There won't be a wedding, so don't expect an invitation! I'm supposed to meet the girl later today. Melania Prewett is her name. Supposedly one of my cousins that I never met or something. You remember her from school? I know I don't.

Anyways, if things goes wrong I might have to come over. Does your Mum and Dad mind?

I'm in deep water here!

Sirius

"Sirius?" someone said followed by a mild knock on the door. Regulus entered. "Mum said to tell you that the Prewetts'll be here by afternoon tea. You should get up soon," he said. Sirius sat up, "tell those bastards I don't want to meet her!" he yelled.

"Have you even given it a small thought that she might be really pretty? And very nice? Not all Slytherins are that bad Sirius. Not everyone from the Black family is either," Regulus said quietly and sat down by Sirius' desk, where he noticed the newly used quill and ink bottle. Sirius had spilled a lot of ink around on his desk.

"Are you just going to run away? Just like that? You run away from all your problems instead of facing them, you know?" Regulus said watching his brothers moves carefully. "Pretending to be all cool, standing up to our parents, but when it matters you just run away and hide like a scared rabbit!"

Sirius threw a pillow at him. "And what about you? You don't even complain one bit. You just let them do what they want." Regulus just got up and opened the door. "You really should get up you know," he said and left Sirius alone.

A few hours later the living room was filled up with Blacks and Prewetts as far as the eye could see. Well, one Black was missing obviously. Sirius. He had simply chosen not to go down, and was instead playing on his violin. Not for long though. Waldurga had excused herself from the party downstairs and found Sirius in his room.

After a short argument, Sirius was pushed into some of the clothes that Lucretia had given him for Christmas that year and was dragged downstairs.

"Ah, Sirius. There you are!" his Uncle greeted him and shook his hand. Probably trying to ignore that the whole situation was quite awkward. "We can serve the tea now I believe, Waldurga," he said to Sirius mother and sat down.

"This is my daughter Melania," he said to Sirius.

The two kids looked at each other. Eyeing each other up and down. Sirius thought that the girl looked much like him to be honest. Both of them had the characteristic Black traits, black hair, dark eyes and all that. She was quite pretty. Maybe a year or two older than Sirius. A few inches taller than him too, possibly.

"Please take a seat," Sirius said politely and gestured to the table they were standing beside. He took out her chair for her and helped her with it as she sat down. It took his every effort to be this nice to the girl, but he knew he had to make a good performance in front of his relatives, if not his parents would make the rest of the holiday a living hell for him.

The kids hadn't presented themselves to each other, but they didn't need to as their parents had already told them the others names a few times. "So, what do you like to do in your spare time?" Sirius asked, not knowing what else to say.

"Oh, do you mean in school or in the holidays?" She asked him back. She didn't seem to care that it was a bit rude to ask a question to a question, but it had to do with what he had asked so he let it go. Sirius didn't like anyone questioning his questions.

"I meant both actually. You may start with holidays, since we've got one upon us," Sirius answered. As he sat in the opposite seat of the girl he tried to look at her, even tried to smile, but in truth he had no desire to look at this girl. He wanted to go back upstairs and play his violin.

The girl sat there for a long time just looking at him, not seeming to have heard his reply. But when Sirius was about to speak again she answered. "I like to go shopping, see the newest fashion and buying it. I was the one to pick out your outfit, actually."

Sirius didn't know how to make a comment to that statement. He knew all too well that it wasn't something nice he would answer it with, so he just continued asking her the next question. "Then, what about school?"

Sirius didn't know how long he had been sitting at that table, almost interrogating the girl. She had made no move to ask him questions. The eldest son of the Blacks began to wonder how much the girl already knew about him. Sure he knew the grownups had been talking a lot about them to each other, he also knew that his parents probably had made the truth seem more beautiful than it really was, their guest wouldn't have been there if they hadn't. But what had they been telling this girl? By the way she was smiling and looking at him, he knew he wouldn't like to hear it.

"Sirius, dear, it's time for dinner. Please escort young Miss Prewett into the dining room." His mother told him. He honestly couldn't remember the last time his mother had called him:"dear", but the word didn't come as a big surprise for him. His parents were after all trying to seem as perfect they could be in front of their guest.

"In a moment, mother." Sirius stood up and helped the older girl into the dining room.

Sirius laid his knife and fork down. He had used longer time on the meal than he usually would. He didn't want to be a part of the conversation which had been started as the diners had cleaned their plates.

Eating slowly Sirius made sure no one would start to ask him questions he didn't want to hear. But the meal was only so large and soon he found himself in a position where questions could be asked him. And sure enough, he hadn't been more than a couple of minutes before the guest noticed that his plate was empty.

"Boy," Mr Prewett directed towards Sirius, "I hear you know how to play a number of instruments. If I don't remember wrong it was the flute and the piano?"

"Yes, Mr. I do play the flute and the piano, but I also know how to play the saxophone, violin and harp." Sirius answered. He left out the bass and the guitar; the guest didn't need to know how many he actually played. His father looked at him with one of his looks but didn't say anything, they both new it was wise not to brag about too much. "Do you want me to play some violin for you sir?"

Mr Prewett looked at his wife and daughter. "That would be lovely, wouldn't it my dears?" he asked them.

"Daddy," Melania said, "you know I don't like the violin. Make him play the piano instead."

"You heard the girl," Mr Black said to his son. With his head bent Sirius walked over to the piano. He truly had wanted to play the violin. He knew the perfect song for a situation like this. Some really sorrowful sonata .

But he had to play the piano instead. Typical. He decided upon Schuberts Impromptu opus 90 number 4. It was a piece with lots of fast, happy notes in the start and a beautiful middle part. He played the fast notes without the happiness and lightness they required and the middle part had no feelings at all. He evened missed some keys and sauced it with his pedal in the repetition at the end. It was terrible.

The Prewetts thanked him for his performance but his father asked to follow him out in the hall. "What was that, Sirius? We both know that you play better than that!" Mr Black was angry, Sirius had sensed his father anger starting to race just after he started to play, so it didn't surprise him the slightest.

"I'm sorry dad; I think I just didn't have the perfect piano day today, that's why I asked if I could play the violin." This didn't seem to do anything to calm his fathers' anger.

"Go into the dining room and apologise to our guest, now." His father ordered. But Sirius wasn't in the mood to take orders from his parents any longer.

"No dad, I have nothing to apologise for." He said determined. They started to fight about what Sirius was to do. Even his mother came into the hall to them and asked them to keep quiet, they shouldn't disturb their guest, she said.

"Go into the room and apologise now, Sirius!" Mr Black said in a tone which meant that the final word was said.

"No." Sirius said and ran to his room where he found his broom. He then ran to the front door. Sirius didn't look back to see the faces of his parents before he slammed the door behind him.


Sirius arrived at James' doorstep after a long broom ride. It had been snowing all the time. And Sirius was freezing. James opened himself and nearly laughed when he saw Sirius. "You look dashing my dear," he said as he took in Sirius' outfit. "Oh, shut it!" Sirius bit back as he brushed off some of the snow and entered the house.

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