Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I'm just borrowing the Characters.
A/N: First, I'd like to apologize for the long hiatus. I'll try to update more frequently again from now on. This chapter is more of a fun chapter again. But we will get back to the more emotional side of this story, soon. I promise, drama is coming.
Chapter 10
It was getting colder, Halloween was drawing close, and with it the first Hogsmeade weekend for the students of Hogwarts. Sirius was excited to visit the town again and see how much it had changed in the last forty-some years.
After breakfast he went straight to his dorm to put on his winter cloak and get his money. Then he ran back to the common room to wait for his three friends. They arrived seconds later, also wearing winter cloaks and huge grins on their excited faces. Although they had been to Hogsmeade before, it was still a welcome change from their daily routine.
Together the four boys made their way to the Entrance Hall past the ancient caretaker Filch and out of the castle. On their walk to the small town they made plans for where they wanted to go.
"We need to stop by my dad's shop. I need to get some things from there for the pranks we've planned," Fred stated, his dark eyes glowing with mischief.
"Alright, first stop Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," James agreed easily.
"Is Honeydukes still there?" Sirius asked curiously. The sweets shop had been his second favourite shop, right after Zonko's.
"Yes, it is," Frank confirmed with a nod and a dreamy smile, already thinking of all the sweets he wanted to buy.
"Good, I need to stock up on Chocolate Frogs, Liquorice Wands and Sugar Quills. Maybe some Acid Pops and Berty Bott's Every Flavour Beans as well," Sirius said with a faraway look on his face.
"What do you want Acid Pops for?" James asked, sounding confused. No one he knew had ever eaten them of their own free will. He had only done so once, because Fred had dared him to, something he would never do again.
"To give them to someone else of course," Sirius said. "We could chop them into little pieces and mix them into their food," the smallest of the four suggested with a devious grin.
James answered with a grin of his own. "That's a great idea. It would have to be a Gryffindor though because we don't have access to the food of the other Houses," he pondered.
"That's no problem, we could go to the kitchens and ask one of the house elves to help us," Fred pointed out.
They arrived in Hogsmeade and went straight to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. George usually worked in his shop in Diagon Alley, but on Hogsmeade weekends he came to the small town to see his children, nieces and nephews. The shop owner greeted the four boys warmly and showed them his newest inventions.
"How is school?" George asked them while he showed them a colour-changing-comb that changed your hair colour when you combed your hair with it.
"Alright," Fred answered his father and shrugged. "The Quidditch season is starting soon. Sirius here made it onto the team."
"Congratulations, Sirius," the redheaded man said and clapped the black-haired boy on the back. "I always loved playing on the team when I was at Hogwarts."
"You played beater, didn't you?" Sirius asked his new godfather.
"Yes, Fred and I were both beaters," George nodded with a sad, far-away look in his eyes.
"Hey Dad, did you know that Roxy is going on a date today?" his son quickly pulled him out of his memories.
"Your sister is going on a date? With who?" George instantly forgot his sadness and went into protective father mode.
"Brandon Wood. She's been pining over him for months. He finally got the hint and asked her out two days ago," Fred told him eagerly, intent to pull his father out of his depression.
"Oliver's son? I suppose she could do worse. I assume you and your cousins have already threatened him to treat her right, or else?"
"Of course we did, Dad. I told him we would use him as a test subject for your new products if he ever made her cry," Fred replied with a smirk.
"That's my son," George chuckled in amusement and led them over to the counter where he piled up the products the four boys had chosen, "although Ginny would have hexed me for threatening her boyfriend."
"Did you threaten Dad, when he started to date Mum?" James asked curiously.
"Just a little bit, he was already family at that point."
The four boys paid for their purchases – they got a discount – said their goodbyes to George and left the shop with satisfied grins.
Their next stop was Honeydukes where they bought lots of sweets. Sirius also bought some Acid Pops, determined to go through with the prank they had planned on their way to Hogsmeade. The shop was overrun by students so they didn't stay in there for long. After they had paid, they made their way over to the Three Broomsticks to drink some butterbeer.
Madam Rosmerta had retired some years ago and the pub was now owned by Romilda Vane, Ramona's and Devlin's mother. She and Cormac McLaggen got divorced several years ago and she had gone back to using her maiden name while their two children still carried their father's name.
"Four butterbeers please, Madam Romilda," ordered James, who had offered to buy their first round.
"Here you go," Romilda smiled at the raven-haired boy and placed four butterbeers in front of him. He thanked the woman, handed her sixteen sickles and made his way over to the table his three friends were sitting at.
When James reached the table located in one of the corners of the room, he put the butterbeers down and sat on the corner bench next to Sirius. He let his eyes wander around the pub, recognising some of the other students sitting at the other tables.
"Look, there are Brandon and Roxanne," James pointed out to Fred.
"They seem to be having a good time," Frank remarked as he spotted them.
Fred, who was sitting with his back to the room, had to twist in his seat to look at the couple.
"Yes, she looks really happy," the Weasley agreed. He was happy for his sister, since Brandon was an alright bloke. They played Quidditch together and got along quite well. He trusted the older boy not to hurt his sister on purpose. Although Fred was one year younger than his sister, he was very protective of her, but like most Weasley women she refused to be babied.
"Oh no, there are our Dads," James groaned as he saw Harry, Neville, Oliver and Katie enter the pub together.
"Come on, Harry is not that bad," Sirius defended his new guardian. After all, Harry was a lot more fun than his real parents. He had taken him in without hesitation and treated him like one of his own children.
"And neither is Neville," Fred added, earning a grateful look from Frank. He really didn't mind having his father around most of the time.
Fortunately the four Hogwarts staff members chose a table near the entrance, far away from their children. They seemed to be having a good time together, not really caring that their children were there as well.
"How are we going to celebrate Sirius' birthday next week?" James asked.
"Well, since it's on a Sunday, we could throw a party in the Gryffindor common room," Fred stated and took a swig of his butterbeer.
"Sounds good. Who do you want to invite?" James asked Sirius.
"I don't know. I don't have that many friends, yet. I'll probably just invite your family, the rest of the Quidditch team plus Alex and Liam. Also, maybe we shouldn't have the party in the common room if we don't want the whole House to join in on the fun."
"I agree," Frank chimed in. "Besides, the rest of the House might not like it if we invite people from other Houses into our common room. I could ask Dad if we can use one of the unused classrooms." He emptied his butterbeer. "I'll get the next round."
The blond boy stood up and walked over to the bar to order four more butterbeers. On his way back he stopped by his father's table. They talked for a few minutes before Frank returned to his friends.
"Everything's settled. Dad says we can use the classroom on the sixth floor opposite the Muggle Studies classroom as long as we return to our common room before curfew," he told his friends.
"Great!" Fred exclaimed grinning excitedly.
"See, it does have its advantages to have one of the Professors as a parent," Sirius pointed out to James in a teasing manner.
"Yes, yes I guess it's not so bad," James agreed reluctantly.
On their way back to Hogwarts they saw Teddy and Victoire entering Madam Puddifoot's cafe, obviously out on a date. The couple didn't even notice the four boys, too wrapped up in their own little world.
The Monday after the Hogsmeade weekend the newspapers announced the result of the election for Minister of Magic. James and Sirius usually didn't read the Daily Prophet or any other newspaper but Frank, who received the Daily Prophet as well as the Quibbler, showed them the article. Hermione Granger had been elected as the new Minister. She was only the second muggleborn to hold the highest position in the ministry.
Rose and Hugo were understandably proud of their mother and her achievements but also a little annoyed at the added attention it brought them. Especially Rose seemed torn between following in her mother's footsteps and trying to get out of her shadow at the same time.
On Sunday morning Sirius was woken by James and Fred jumping on his bed and screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Then they plopped down on his bed, ignoring the annoyed looks of Sirius' roommates who were also startled awake by their screaming.
"Did you have to wake me at ..." Sirius glanced at his watch, "nine in the bloody morning on a weekend?" he groaned and tried to hide under his blanket, but it was cruelly ripped away.
"Yes," they grinned unrepentantly. "We have a party to organise and Dad invited us for a family breakfast in his rooms at 10 o'clock", James reminded him."
"Oh, right."
Sirius sighed and reluctantly got out of bed. He sleepily gathered his clothes and disappeared into the bathroom. When he got back out – washed and dressed for the day – Fred and James had left and his four roommates had gone back to sleep.
Sirius went down to the common room where he found James waiting for him. Together they walked to Harry's rooms. On the way they talked about the party they had planned for the afternoon. They actually arrived a bit early but Harry greeted them with a cheerful "Happy Birthday, Sirius" when they entered. Lily joined them only a few minutes later since she was generally an early riser. The last to arrive was Albus. His hair looked particularly wild this morning, as if he had just rolled out of bed.
They all sat at the table and started eating. The house elves had provided a small feast for them with pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, jam, oatmeal, pumpkin juice, hot chocolate, tea and coffee. After breakfast they all handed Sirius the birthday presents they had gotten for him. He received a broom servicing kit from James, a chess set from Albus and a journal from Lily. Harry's present confused him at first. It was a beautiful money pouch made of black dragon hide, decorated with runes stitched in golden thread. But instead of money he found a little golden key inside the pouch – a Gringotts key to be exact. Harry told him that he had never used the money he inherited after Sirius' supposed death and that the Black fortune was now officially his again.
"Grimauld Place can also be yours again, if you want it. I'm currently having it renovated, so it will look nothing like you remember," Harry added.
Sirius looked at him in astonishment. He had never once thought about what had happened to his family's possessions. He had just assumed there was no way of getting them back from whoever inherited them. Not that he even wanted to. But now Harry was just handing everything over to him without even being asked.
"You can keep Grimauld Place. I don't want it," Sirius said with certainty.
"Actually, I was planning to give it to Teddy and Victoire as a wedding gift before you came back. Would that be alright with you?" Harry asked hesitantly.
"Sure. Without you, Dromeda and Teddy would have been next in line anyway, right?"
"Yes, since Bellatrix is dead, Andromeda would've been next," Harry confirmed.
"I hope you get rid of the elf heads and cursed objects before you give them the house," Sirius remarked offhandedly.
"I've already done that. I'm still trying to get rid of your mother's portrait though. She cast a permanent sticking charm on it, so we'll probably have to cut out a piece of the wall to achieve that," Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Trust my mother to do something like that."
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of several owls, each of them bearing a letter and a present for Sirius. Mrs. Weasley – or Molly as she had insisted he should call her – had sent him a knitted scarf, hat and mittens as well as some homemade cookies. He also received WWW products from George, a book about Quidditch from Rose's parents and an owl that he named Talon from Andromeda.
After Sirius had opened all of his presents, he and James thanked Harry for breakfast and left to prepare Sirius' birthday party. They had to make a small detour to the owlery to drop Talon off, before they went to Gryffindor tower to collect Fred and Frank. The four boys walked together to the unused classroom on the sixth floor to prepare it for the party. House elves had already freed the room from dust and cobwebs, so they only needed to take care of the decorations, food, drinks and entertainment.
The room was quite large, so they decided to divide it into two areas. Near the door they pushed some desks together to create larger tables for the guests to sit, eat and talk. The other half of the room stayed free in case they needed space to play some games. Then they placed chairs around the desks and pushed another desk against one of the walls to collect all the gifts in one place. The rest of the desks and chairs were levitated into another empty classroom.
After they had arranged the furniture, James and Sirius went down to the kitchens to organise some food and pumpkin juice, while Fred and Frank went up to their dormitory to fetch the butterbeer, sweets and indoor fireworks they had bought for the occasion in Hogsmeade.
The house elves were delighted to help James and Sirius and packed a plethora of food into a huge basket for them. There were chicken drums, salads, meat pies, fruit pies, éclairs and the elves even promised to bake a birthday cake for Sirius. They also gave them a self-refilling jug of pumpkin juice, plates, goblets and cutlery. They thanked the elves and left the kitchens with huge smiles on their faces.
James and Sirius decided to levitate the basket up to the sixth floor because it was too heavy for them to carry. Back in the classroom, they placed the food and drinks on the tables, grateful that the house elves had placed preservation charms on them. Then they set the tables with the plates, goblets and cutlery. Satisfied with their work they look around the room.
"Something is missing," Fred said and frowned.
"Yes, the decorations. We need balloons and streamers or something like that," Frank stated.
"We should also have some music," James added. "Come on, Sirius, you need to help me choose," he said as he dragged Sirius out of the room.
Choosing the music took some time, because Sirius was unfamiliar with most of James' favourite groups. By the time they returned, Fred and Frank had already finished decorating the room. Red and golden balloons stuck to the walls and ceiling, golden streamers decorated the tables, which were now covered by red table cloths and a large banner proclaiming "HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY SIRIUS!" in all colours of the rainbow hid the blackboard from view.
The four boys finished their preparations just in time for lunch and went down to the Great Hall in high spirits. The guests were invited for three o'clock so they still had plenty of time to eat.
The first guests to arrive at the classroom turned party location were Liam and Alexander. Sirius had not invited the other two boys from his dormitory, because he barely interacted with them. Next were the four Ravenclaws, Lily, Lorcan, Rose and Molly, followed by the two Hufflepuffs, Alice and Lucy. The rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, Brandon, Roxanne, Dominique and Maya, arrived together with Hugo and Louis. Last to join the party were the Slytherins, Albus and Lysander dragging Scorpius (who was not actually invited) with them. Teddy and Victoire also stopped by for a short while to wish Sirius a happy birthday, but didn't stay.
After Sirius had finished opening all the presents, which mainly consisted of sweets from Honeydukes and joke products as well as some books and quills, he thanked everyone. Then they went back to the tables and began to eat. James turned the CD-player on and music started to fill the room. They were all talking, laughing, eating, drinking and generally having a good time together.
"Urgh, I'm full. If I eat one more bite, I'll burst," Maya commented.
"Me too," Alice agreed.
"Come on, let's dance," Maya said and dragged Roxanne with her onto the makeshift dance floor.
Rose, Lily and Alice soon joined the two dancing girls, while the boys were a bit more reluctant. Eventually Maya pushed her brother Brandon to dance with Roxanne and dragged James with her onto the dance floor. The other boys remained sitting at the table, watching their friends move more or less gracefully.
After a while the other girls followed Maya's example and approached the boys who made no move to join them. Rose decided to teach her little brother and pulled Hugo up from his seat while Lily and Alice begged Albus and Frank until they finally relented.
Since Maya, Roxanne, Rose and Frank were the only ones actually able to dance, Sirius, Fred and the others had a great time watching their friends stumble around the dance floor. Their grins quickly disappeared though, when James, Albus and Hugo got tired of dancing and Fred, Lorcan and Alexander were forced by the girls to take their places.
Sirius had actually been forced to learn how to dance by his parents. His cousin Narcissa had taught him and he had hated the lessons with a passion. Therefore he deliberately kept his mouth shut about his ability to dance, instead watching his friends in amusement. He really didn't want to be forced onto the dance floor by one of the eight females in the room.
Frank and Alice eventually returned to the table to drink some pumpkin juice. All the dancing had made them thirsty.
"I'm never going to learn how to dance, I'm as clumsy as Dad," Alice moaned.
"I know how you feel. I constantly stepped on Lily's toes when we were dancing," Albus laughed. "I don't think she will ever ask me to dance with her again."
Alice giggled. It made her feel a lot better to know she wasn't the only one stepping on other people's toes all the time.
The girls eventually tired of dancing and released the boys who gladly fled back to their seats.
"Let's play a game!" James shouted.
"Oh, let's play truth or dare," Fred suggested with an evil grin.
"No, Spin the bottle," Maya and Roxanne argued.
"Seven Minutes in heaven," Dominique added in.
"Sirius, it's your birthday. You decide," James said.
"Let's play truth or dare," Sirius decided. It was a risk and could land them in a lot of trouble but he wasn't particularly fond of the idea of playing a kissing game.
"Well, this was fun, but I still need to study," Molly quickly excused herself. "Don't involve anyone outside this room in your games," the Ravenclaw prefect warned them. "Bye!"
After she left, they all sat down on the floor in a large circle. Dominique casually conjured cushions for everyone. Then they all looked expectantly at Sirius to start the game.
"Truth or dare?" Sirius asked James, who was sitting to his left.
"Dare," James answered confidently.
Sirius tried to think of something. "I dare you to strip down to your underwear and stay like that until your next turn."
James groaned but complied quickly, shivering slightly in the cold castle air. Alice blushed brightly and refused to look at him while the others laughed at his misfortune.
Then James turned to Fred with a wicked glint in his eyes. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare," Fred chose warily.
"I dare you to kiss Maya," James grinned.
Fred laughed, not at all bothered and pounced on the girl without hesitation. He pressed their lips together in a kiss that was not quite chaste. She didn't seem to mind though and returned the kiss with a blush. Hugo, Lily, Alice and Lucy were also blushing and the girls were giggling. Fred ended the kiss after a few seconds and went back to his place with a satisfied smirk.
"Truth or dare?" he asked his sister.
Roxanne hesitated for a moment before she chose "dare" as well.
"I dare you to eat a whole box of Berty Bott's Every Flavour Beans by the end of tonight."
Roxanne groaned but took the box Sirius graciously handed her from his pile of sweets and started eating. The first one she chose was red and turned out to be blood flavoured. Then she looked around and chose Dominique to go next.
Dominique also chose dare, like all the Gryffindors before her. Roxanne dared her to change her hair colour to pink and leave it like that for the next twenty-four hours. Dominique glared at her cousin while she charmed her hair pink. Roxanne had of course deliberately picked her least favourite colour.
Dominique contemplated her options and finally took pity on the shivering James, who was still sitting there only clad in his underwear.
"Truth or dare, James?"
"Dare" James chose quickly.
"I dare you to drink butterbeer mixed with pumpkin juice." James quickly downed the goblet his older cousin handed him. It actually didn't taste that bad, he decided. Then James rushed to put his clothes back on. It was very cold in the castle in november, despite the roaring fireplaces everywhere.
They continued to play until nine p. m. when they decided to end the party and tidy up the room because curfew started at ten o'clock. With everyone helping they were quickly done and left the rest of the cleaning for the house elves. They split up to return to their respective Houses.
Albus, Scorpius and Lysander went down to the dungeons to return to Slytherin, accompanied by Lucy and Alice for part of their way to Hufflepuff. Lily, Lorcan and Rose returned to Ravenclaw Tower while the rest made their way up to Gryffindor.
"That was a great party, thank you for helping me set this up," Sirius told his three older friends as they arrived at the Gryffindor common room.
"You're welcome," James grinned. "But next time we should invite more people."
"You can invite as many people as you like to your own birthday party but I don't want anything bigger than this," Frank replied.
"But mine isn't until July. Yours is only a few weeks away," James pointed out as he flopped down on an armchair in front of the fireplace.
"Tough luck, you'll just have to wait until July," Frank stated with finality.
Fred looked at the clock and said, "It's too early to go to bed. Who wants to play exploding snap?"
The other three all agreed, so that's what the four boys did for the rest of the evening.