Chapter 100
Muggle Jewelry
Sirius made himself at home in the Potter's Mansion much easier the second time around. He didn't expect to be yelled at for every other thing he did, he didn't feel overwhelmed by the Potter's affections, and most of all he didn't get jealous over his friend's homelife.
He almost felt like he was home the moment he stepped in the building. It was a strange feeling, and one he'd missed. Coming home after a long time was a pleasure he hadn't felt in three and a half years.
After throwing his small overnight bag in James' room they all crowded around the table for dinner and it was excellent, as they expected. James told them stories from Hogwarts, all about their snowball fights and the detentions they got (none of them were his fault, of course.) Sirius piped in where he was expected to speak, it was difficult after being told for fourteen years to sit down, shut up, and answer questions in ten words or less. But he thought he was doing quite well for himself.
They were still as busy as ever, their animagus studies making even James dad worried with the amount of time they spent in James' room. Taking a holiday from it, however, was physically impossible at the moment, the spells they'd placed on themselves months ago needed to be removed soon or bones might start breaking. Peter's mom saw less of him than the Marauders did, though it was mostly at night, so she didn't know that.
The one break they forced themselves to take wasn't until the week before Christmas. Remus wanted to take them shopping for presents in a muggle mall. It was something they wouldn't have missed for the world
"Comet, your mum would love this." Sirius pulled out a necklace for the future-stag to examine, and James once again regretted introducing Sirius to the muggle Santa Claus and his reindeer. The brat hadn't called him by his name since.
The necklace Sirius held was huge and rather gaudy, but James knew Sirius was right his mother loved unnecessarily flashy jewelry. "There you go. I told you you'd get the hang of it."
"It's not like your mum's hard, James." Remus snickered. "If it's made of gold and weighs more than I do it's perfect."
They laughed. The muggle mall they were in was foreign to all of them but that was half the fun of the trip. They had pockets full of money and an entire mall to empty them and even Remus had more than he was used to. James and Sirius were in full muggle clothing for the first time in their lives no cloaks, robes, or silly hats, no frog spawn buried very deep in their pockets, no acid pops, chocolate frogs, or abnormal jellybeans, no exploding snap cards, magic chess pieces, for biting frisbees. If an officer searched their every possession they find nothing out of the ordinary besides the strange stick each of them had well hidden but easy to reach (just in case) and one pocket full of enough Mars bars to get a toothless man cavities.
They were quite proud of themselves, though it was Remus who made sure they were dressed properly. Muggle studies class had prepared them, but there was still a lot to learn. Currency was a big one, Sirius found himself extremely confused with all the bits of paper and James had already asked the cashier how fast the broomsticks flew. Thankfully the man had thought it was a very funny joke.
He had been a little confused when Remus drug James out of the store though.
Peter didn't have much trouble luckily for him because they forgot he was there most of the time in their excitement.
"She already has way too much jewelry though," James sighed, glaring at the overpriced necklaces.
"Then why did you drag us to the jewelry store." Sirius complained, not at all comfortable surrounded by women's apparel.
"Because she likes jewelry"
Sirius sighed looking elsewhere, James took forever to pick anything for anyone. He'd go to three stores for one person and buy the first thing he picked up in the first store. It was driving Sirius crazy, Sirius was the type who knew what he was getting before he even left the house.
"Sirius," Remus called holding up a pair of earrings. "These would look amazing on you."
He said in a joking voice but he was perfectly serious and that they would have looked good. There were four pairs on the little piece of plastic. A pair of small hoops, a couple of cross shaped studs, and two pairs that dangled. One pair were wings, an angel wing and a bat wing, and the other pair were swords hanging from a small chain. All of them were real silver and Sirius loved them.
"Mum would never wear silver," James complained missing the point.
"It's not for her."
"Then what's the point. You don't know any other girls." James gave a teasing smile.
"They're for me, Prancer . And I know plenty of girls."
"Not well enough to buy Christmas presents for. What are you going to do stick them on a necklace? It wouldn't look good, mate."
Sirius look at the earrings for the longest time wondering what exactly he would do with them.
"They are earrings, Sirius, they go in your ears. The store does ear piercing for free, you just have to pay for the studs." Remus answered, more than a little amused that they didn't already know what he thought was obvious.
"Ear piercing? What does that even mean?" Sirius looked at the werewolf, his brows furrowed in his confusion. He wasn't particularly fond of the word piercing being in that sentence.
"It's perfectly safe, they put a little hole in the part of your ear that's nothing but skin." Remus grab his own hearing the spot that the piercing would be and took apart the earring to show serious the part that went through the year.
James looked horrified. The idea of someone putting a hole inside themselves wasn't something he wanted to think about. Sirius, however, was curious if only a little nervous.
"Mum's got her ears pierced, she said it only hurts a little and it's gone in an instant."
"I don't know…" Sirius hesitated, he'd seen Mrs. lupines earrings and thought it would be awesome, but the idea freaked him out more than a little bit.
"Muggles do it all the time, I don't think I've seen a girl over 10 years old that didn't have her ears pierced."
"If it's so safe, you do it." James challenged with a smirk, expecting him to refuse. Remus, however, just shrugged.
"Okay."
"You will?" Sirius asked with widening eyes.
"Sure, why not? But if you do it too we can share them. I can't afford to buy these for you on my own, they're really expensive." Remiss peaks again at the price tag, wincing.
"We'll split it." Sirius' eyes were bright, he was much more comfortable with the idea putting holes in his ears when he wasn't doing it alone.
"I'll go first." Remus laughed, seeing his friend's excitement.
The jeweler seemed a little surprised, as they probably didn't have many male customers, but she didn't let it show be on the initial widening of her eyes.
"You lot just keep looking for you what you want, we'll catch up later." Remus told James and Peter who are watching in bafflement, they looked at each other before relenting to their morbid curiosity and staying to watch.
Remus felt only the slightest bit of nerves as a woman picked up the needle and only a little when she pierced his ears. He felt quite pleased with himself when he stood up from the chair with tiny studs in his ears.
his pride faltered only a little when Sirius didn't even flinch. Remus was more accustomed to pain yet somehow Sirius handled it better.
That was just weird.
They bought their things, James finally decided to get his mother a very large broach that the average person would have laughed at, it was so ridiculously large.
Choosing to eat next was unanimous and unspoken, they walked by the food court, Sirius took two steps in the direction of a McDonalds and the rest followed, James still trying to decide if he actually wanted to give his mum the thing he'd just spent way too much money on.
Three hamburgers and dessert later, the severity of what he'd just done finally hit Remus. His mother would be beside herself and he could already hear his father complaining about how his son had gone over to the dark side, and by dark side he, of course, meant tie-dye in bright primary colors. His father was not fond of the hippy movement that was bleeding into England from those weirdos across the Atlantic ocean.
Sirius was trying to not laugh at him, he really was. It was just too funny to see Remus with his head in his arms bemoaning his own stupidity and lack of rational thought.
He hadn't even considered what his parents would think when they saw the little blue stud in his ears, but one word from Sirius about his own parents possible reaction to the muggle jewelry had opened Remus' eyes.
He was in so much trouble.
"Tell them I guilt tripped you, or better yet, make up some story about how Death Eaters showed up and cut your ear and you had to get them pierced to not look like a weirdo, they'll be so busy laughing at the stupidity of it you won't get punished." Sirius suggested trying to be helpful though he was still holding in a laugh.
"I can't lie to them..."
"Then tell them I was too nervous to do it myself. That's true enough."
Remus moaned in his arms, suddenly dreading returning home.