Author's Note: If you've read my other story, you know how lame I am at making up nicknames so let's just say, I can't wait until they get their animagus forms so I can use those nicknames (but I still have to come up with one for Daisy). And if you've read my other story, you know how much I love perspective shifts. The good news is, this story will only have 3 different perspectives instead of the insane 7 (at least) I have in my other one. Bit less confusing this way. It's been a little weird trying to put myself in the mind of a 15-year-old boy when I've never been a 15-year-old boy before. But that's all part of the fun of writing!
Content Warning: drug use (marijuana).
CHAPTER 2
JAMES
Girls! Girls! Girls!
I emerged from the fireplace, hauling Daisy's trunk with me, and Sirius arrived a moment later, holding her rucksack. We found her coughing and spluttering on the stone floor in front of us. She looked like an old-timey chimney sweep, or rather, the tool that would be used to clean the chimney. We arrived just in time to hear my mother (both of my parents having been waiting patiently for our return) asking in a sympathetic voice whether the floo travel had done that to her hair. Evidently, this was the wrong thing to ask.
"Ex-cuse me? Listen, I don't know where I am and I'm very sorry for intruding, but you see for as long as I can remember I have been a victim of the Marauders' sick jokes, so I'll just be leaving now. Comprenez-vous? Verstehen Sie?" she snapped not very politely as she pulled herself up and attempted to dust herself off. Obviously the journey had done nothing to dampen her temper.
"Oh dear," my mother laughed, "what a little firecracker you've brought here, James."
"What?" Daisy muttered, turning around. Her face changed to a shade of bright pink mixed with the black ashes when she saw me.
"I invite you into my home and then the first thing you do is insult my parents?" I asked her as a smirk slid onto my face at her horrified expression.
"Oh," she said in a tiny voice, turning to my parents, then looking at me, then looking at them again. "I didn't really— I mean, I'm terribly sorry! I didn't— how exactly did I insult...?"
"You implied that they were German!" I breathed disapprovingly, "but even worse than that: you implied that they were French!" I shook my head and made tutting sounds.
"Oh, James, don't be such a twit," my father said, shaking his head. "The girl looks like she's been through enough." Daisy laughed nervously in reply to this as my father took out his wand. He waved it in our direction and the three of us were instantly clean.
"Well now, can I make you kids anything? Sandwiches? Soup? Tea?" my mother asked.
"Oh, d'you think you could make some of those cracking little cocktail weenies wrapped in dough? Pigs in blankets, yeah?" Sirius asked enthusiastically. "And some crisps and some lemonade."
"Of course, Sirius," my mother said, ruffling his hair fondly as he walked past.
"All right, pick up the pace, people! We've got some catching up to do," he continued, making his way to the stairs. "And it's my choice of tunes," he grinned as he paused at the foot of the stairs. Daisy and I exchanged wary glances.
"All right, we'll see you mum," I said, kissing her cheek and walking past.
"You just have fun now, all right?" she told us, patting Daisy's shoulder as she passed, then the three of us went upstairs to the magnificent work of art that is my bedroom. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my bedroom is the ultimate hangout haven. Even if I spend about 90% of my time at Hogwarts, it's very important that I have a super fly zone for the summer. That's what Sirius and I do anyway; a lot of fantastic business goes on in my bachelor pad in the summertime.
Sirius closed the door behind us, rubbing his hands together in excitement. I dropped Daisy's trunk onto the floor while Daisy herself sat on the bed.
"Would you be a dear?" I asked Sirius, motioning to the crack under the door. He quickly threw a sweater down to cover it, then he went over to the window that he opened. Sirius knew the drill.
"Sorry about freaking out at your parents, James," Daisy said sheepishly. "I started to get paranoid that you and Sirius had sent me to Albania or something, and when I saw them...well, you know. They're a tad old aren't they?"
"Yeah they are. Had me late, didn't they?" I answered, plopping down onto the bed beside her while Sirius fiddled with the muggle radio contraption I used to stay fresh with new music. "Not how I'm going to do it, though. When I finally bag Evans, the two of us are going to commence with the baby-making instantly! Right? I want to have kids while I'm still young-ish. So I can take them to concerts and Quidditch matches, and we can play Quidditch together and whatnot. I'm going to be best friends with my kids. You know, I'm thinking of having a girl and two boys. How does that sound?"
"Well, you should probably talk to Lily about this sometime," Daisy scoffed.
"Oh, don't worry— Sez, you taking the piss, mate?" I turned to ask Sirius as he had apparently landed on a station. He rolled his eyes at me.
"I don't know what your deal is," he replied, "you never accept my music taste."
"Oh, you think I don't? Just because I don't sing 'Rock the Boat' every day in the shower?"
"Hey! I don't only sing 'Rock the Boat'!" he protested, waving his hands at me. "Anyway, I happen to like this station, so stuff it. It's my choice today, anyway."
"All right, well just give Daze a chance to listen to her Simon & Garfunkel, eh? You know how she gets if she doesn't get to listen to 'the Dangling Conversation'," I laughed loudly at the look that Daisy gave me. "Ultimate zone-out song for her." She hit me in the arm.
"Shut up! Stop making fun of me for that!" she groaned. "But I did bring all my records so… yeah, we'll have to listen to it." We all started smoking pot in third year. Hell, it'd be strange if we didn't. We've all been plopped into a world that's just overflowing with crazy culture and music and everything, and it's all fuelled (in some small degree or whatever) by marijuana. Hippies may be on the decline, but cannabis culture is still going strong. Sirius leapt onto the bed just as the song on the wireless turned to "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" by Stevie Wonder.
I produced a small tin from my bedside table, inside of which was a neatly rolled doobie, a lighter and an ashtray. I lit it, then leaned back on the bed, holding the smoke inside. Sirius prodded Daisy to tell us about her summer vacation, which she did reluctantly. The more she told us about, from her parents to her parents' friends, to the family reunion, she got ever more heated up and wordy. Whenever I passed her the joint, there was a brief halt in her ranting, but it always took up again just as ferociously as ever. A cloud of smoke always billowed around our heads, as if resting before taking the great leap through the screen in the window and out into the world of summer.
"Mm, that's nice," I said after a while. Both Daisy and Sirius looked at me to continue. "That candle, what flavour is it?" I directed at Sirius. I was now leaning on the wall with my hand resting above my head.
"Ah, that's the pink grapefruit one," Sirius replied with a loose grin.
"Mmm, fruity," I muttered.
"You two sound like such women right now," Daisy noted with a laugh.
"Yeah I suppose we do," Sirius grinned. "We went out shopping specifically for scented candles today." This sent Daisy into a fit of giggles.
"Oi, ease up there, tiger," I said as the laughing attack only got worse. She was now grabbing onto my knee and laughing into my shin. I began to laugh at her, at how comical she looked with a red face and watery eyes, hardly making any noise anymore. I put my hand on her head, absentmindedly playing with the frizzy bunches of curly, confusing hair. Sirius had started singing along to "Band on the Run" by Wings.
"Oh dear, please try to stop that from happening again," Daisy breathed. "That was way too exhausting." She was now leaning on my legs. We both sat for a while, watching as Sirius was now doing minimum effort disco moves, still sitting down.
"Okay, come on, I think a drastic change in setting is necessary right now," I said, grabbing Daisy's arm and dragging her over to the four different coloured beanbag chairs situated on the floor. I sat down in the red one, Sirius sat in the blue one and Daisy sat in the yellow one. "Aahh, much better. So then," I looked around at my two friends, "any feelings on going into fifth year?"
"We'll be able to finish the procedure," Daisy muttered.
"Exactly! Aren't you all excited? Hm?"
"Yeeah," Sirius said thoughtfully. "Animagi at last. I wonder what I'll be..." He started scratching behind his ear intently.
"I hope I can fly..." I breathed. That seemed like it would be truly fantastic. Perhaps I could be a duck. That would surely be the best animal to be; you can swim, you can walk and you can fly. That would be ace.
Oh, about the animagus thing: from the very beginnings of the epic group known as the Marauders, there was something wrong. Every month our mate Remus would have to leave the school to "visit his sick Aunt" for three days. It was all very secretive and the teachers talked to him about his visits. So, being the naturally curious children that we were, Daisy, Sirius, Pete and I went into sleuth mode to find out what was up. This was, of course, the year that we really began to get into the "mischief business".
So then, one night, we intercepted Professor McGonagall guiding Remus in secrecy out into the grounds. Oh yeah, did I mention I have an invisibility cloak? Well, I have an invisibility cloak. It's an old family heirloom and I honestly don't know why my parents gave it to me if not for the express purpose of sneaking around and getting into trouble. I mean, they've met me, right?
We had already more or less worked out what was wrong with him. I mean, we had our suspicions. Sirius and I did, anyway. Can't count on Daisy and Pete for much; Daisy hadn't been raised on the same stories as us, and Pete, well he's a bit soft in the head. Sweet, but not very bright. Anyway, Sirius and I were fairly certain we had worked out the pattern, and we doubted it had anything to do with a sick aunt. Unless he had an aunt that happened to require a visit every full moon. But we needed some solid proof. Also we were young and reckless and how many opportunities does one get to witness a werewolf transforming? And it's not like considering consequences was really our bag. So we decided, unwisely, sure, to investigate on our own.
The four of us were quite small back then, especially Daisy and Pete, the latter having quite filled out by now thanks to his obsession with sweets. We all fit under the gauzy cloak and it concealed us completely, so we followed McGonagall and Remus outside to where they pressed a knob on the Whomping Willow, causing it to freeze in motion, and that's where Remus disappeared. Upon closer inspection, as McGonagall walked away, we found that there was a passageway among the tangled roots of the tree. We wasted no time in crawling through it, and when we got out, we were inside the house on the hill in Hogsmeade. It was kind of nice, if you discounted the torn up boards, huge gouges in the walls and the beat up furniture. I mean, it was spacious. High ceilings. Prime real estate.
We went upstairs, just as the sun was setting, and when we entered the bedroom, Remus was there. An absolutely horrified look came over his face when he saw us, all four of his best mates, standing in the doorway. He started babbling frantically, then when he couldn't get his point across, he merely began shoving us all back down the stairs. It was too late by that time though, because it was dark outside, and his whole body started shuddering. We all started backing up at this point, as he began screaming and changing. It was the most painful-looking thing any of us had ever seen, but our eyes were glued to it.
Then it was finished, and he had transformed into a relatively small werewolf, being quite a skinny little kid back then. This was probably when we figured out that it was time to go. We each let out some form of frightened scream, or disbelieving mutter, and then we all turned one by one, like dominoes falling, and flew down the stairs, through the halls, and into the hole in the wall. We didn't stop running until we reached the Whomping Willow again, and by that time we could still hear the yowls and screeches from the house.
The next time we saw Remus, he looked roughed up, but also mortified, as if his life was over. Would you believe he even tried to get us to stop being his friends? That guy. So, we all had a think, and we ended up in the library, researching methods to A) cure lycanthropy, B) make it better for him or C) (and this was the improbable one) all become werewolves ourselves. After much researching, we found that werewolves were not all that opposed to animagi. A little more research and we found a method, even if it was a painstaking, painful, time consuming and quite advanced method, to become animagi ourselves. Not to mention totally illegal, because we did not intend to register ourselves.
Roughly three years later, after doing all the required steps in all the required timing, and we are on the verge of finalizing the spell. We planned it so that it would all come together on the first day of our fifth year, so that we could all sneak out after the back to school feast. Oh, the shenanigans we'll be able to get into once we can change into animals. Genius. Whyever didn't we think of this earlier?
"Oh, yeah..." I muttered, as I tuned into the radio. "This song is great." I grinned, nodding my head to "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. How lovely. "This reminds me though," I added, in a more business-like tone, sitting up, "I should make a note to serenade my darling Lily with 'Close to You'. Yeah, that'll really tug at her heartstrings, hehe."
"Oh lord," Daisy groaned. "I was really doing well there until you had to bring her up again. I actually think that might've been a record for you; you didn't mention her for at least half an hour there."
"Ahh, relax my feisty friend," I grinned, patting Daisy on the shoulder. "I'll get her this year, trust me. Then it'll be all over and we can continue on with our lives." I'm the most bloody romantic womanizer there is, I swear. And I get results, too.
"What happened to your kids?"
"Kids? What kids?"
"Snaaacks!" I heard my mother calling and I jumped up.
"I don't know about you two, but I'm fucking ready for some weenies," Sirius said in all seriousness.
"When aren't you ready for weenies?" Daisy asked him with a sneer.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" I laughed raucously as I opened the door. "That was a good one, Blondie. We all know Sirius's little secret." I winked at Sirius who answered our taunts by running and attacking me. I burst out laughing even harder as we struggled together in a play fight. "Hm? Little sausage-lover? Ah-ha-ha, come on, you're tougher than that! Oh!" I waved my arms around as Sirius lifted me above his head. "Attaboy!" I roared as he flipped me over and lowered me onto the beanbags. "Yes! Violence!" I clapped my hands loudly as I lay back on the floor.
"Oh, get up you fucking hyena," Sirius laughed, kicking me in the side. He walked over to the door where he put his arm around Daisy's shoulder as she was about to walk out.
"Aww, you two would make a beautiful couple," I remarked, sitting up a little. "In fact, I'm counting on it. Kiss, kiss, kiss!" I chanted. This time Daisy jumped on me, hitting me anywhere she could reach while straddling me. I could only laugh.
When we first met Daisy, she was a prim and proper little girl, always wearing skirts and crossing her ankles when she sat. Now she's a bloody brilliant Marauder. A job well done on my part. I take all the credit for turning her cool.
"All right, sweetheart, you've beat me to death. How about a little sugar now? Hm?" I tapped my lips. She scowled and stood up. "Hey! Come on, plant one right here, lover." I looked up at her, shrugging innocently.
"Don't be such a prick," she said. "Get up." I snickered a little, but I stood up, then I pulled her into a rough hug, involving much swinging from side to side while her arms stuck out awkwardly.
"Oh, we thought you'd never come down," mum said when we entered the kitchen at last. "Have you been having a good catch up?" We all nodded together.
"This is a beautiful house, Mrs. Potter," Daisy said sweetly. She clasped her hands in front of her and stood up straight in a sickening impression of Shirley Temple. Do the little mouth thing and I'll hit you. I reached over past Sirius and poked her hard in the small of her back. She yelped and stepped forward, glaring at me. I raised my eyebrows at her cheekily. Sirius wasted no time getting to the food and beginning to carry it back up the stairs.
"Cheers, mama," I said, giving my mother a kiss on the cheek. "All right, back to business now, chums."
We all filed back into my room where I made a dash for the bed and flopped down heavily on it calling out "yeeah! Bullseye! Did you see it? Right in the middle!" And, inconceivably, Daisy and Sirius were unimpressed. In fact, they were both more interested in the food. Baahh, gotta hate those munchies. But hell, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And try to eat as many little weenies as possible before Sirius gets to them. I made a sort of Godzilla-destroying-Tokyo noise as I descended on the plate of food and grabbed a handful of itty bitty pigs in blankets. I threw them viciously into my mouth and made monstrous sounds of delight as I rent them all to bits with my sharp fangs.
"Hey, hey!" Sirius cried out in horror. "You just ate five!" I gave him a pleased grin as I reached my hand out again for another round. He made a wrathful rumble in the back of his throat and pulled the plate away, shoving even more than I had eaten into his mouth.
"You two pigs just ate them all! I got one!" Daisy whined.
"Kissy-kissy?" I mumbled through a mouthful of decimated weenies. I made kissing motions with my mouth and she mimicked being sick.
"You two are absolutely disgusting," she said in a haughty voice as she shielded her eyes. Sad to see that we still haven't been able to hammer out that posh accent. It'll happen eventually, though. Soon, she'll be saying "wank" and "piss" every second word and I'll wipe tears of joy from my face as I lament that "they do grow up so fast".
That evening I took Daisy to her own personal guest bedroom, not the one beside mine, that was Sirius's, the one beside his. How many do we have? Wouldn't you like to know. She let out a sigh as she flopped on her back on the downy bed with one of my mother's quilts. Mum loves quilting. There's a quilt on my bed, a quilt in my closet, a quilt on Sirius's bed, a quilt in his closet, a quilt on Daisy's bed, a quilt in her closet, a quilt on my parents' bed, a quilt in the living room, a quilt in the lounge. Quilts galore. I dropped all of Daisy's belongings at the foot of her bed and then stretched my arms above my head, letting out a yawn.
"Well then, you can expect your crust of bread and bowl of water at six o'clock sharp tomorrow morning!" I announced in a squeaky old voice as I backed out of the room.
"So now I'm your prisoner?" she asked as she sat up on the bed.
"Prisoner? What in the world would make you think that?" I asked in bemusement. She raised an eyebrow at me. "Oooh, you mean the crust of bread thing? No, no, no. I just mean that you're fat." I laughed gaily as she fumed, folding her arms across her chest and shooting daggers at me. "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite! Seriously; they're vicious in this bedroom especially." I winked then closed the door behind me.
"Matching?" I asked Sirius as I entered his bedroom with a set of silk pyjamas slung over my arm.
"Matching," he agreed, nodding and grinning in a cheeky manner. We both changed into our pyjamas, mine were navy blue with black lining the collar and cuffs of the shirt and pants. Sirius's were black and dark grey striped. We high-fived at our sexiness, then entered the main bathroom on that floor, each holding a toothbrush. Daisy was already standing at the sink in the midst of brushing her teeth, wearing a black "Velvet Underground & Nico" shirt, with the Andy Warhol banana on the front, as well as a pair of baggy, black and white and blue plaid pyjama shorts.
We silently took our places on either side of her, each toothpaste-ing our toothbrushes and commencing brushing our teeth, pretending not to notice her one bit. She eventually finished brushing her teeth and crossed her arms, giving us each annoyed looks.
"What are you doing?" she asked at last.
"Just maintaining good dental hygiene, my dear," I said innocently as I rinsed my mouth out.
"Have a problem with our cleanliness?" Sirius asked in an identical tone as he too rinsed out his mouth.
"Well, I do recall the fact that each of you has your own ensuite bathroom in your bedrooms," she replied. "Funny that we should all bump into each other in this bathroom, hm?"
"Free country, mate," Sirius shrugged.
"I suppose you've forgotten who's keeping a roof over your head?" I asked her in an "ungrateful-brat" kind of voice.
"Physics, thank you very much," she said as she played with her hair a bit in order to make it presentable, though the only good it did was to make it stand up even more. Shall have to remind Sirius that the two of us should awaken very early tomorrow morning to jumpstart Daisy out of bed. I just love the way her hair looks right after waking up and her enraged, half-asleep face should only add to the hilarity. "Now goodnight, dear sirs."
"Such a rude tenant I've taken on," I muttered, shaking my head and leaving the room with Sirius on my tail.
"WAAAAHHH-WAKE-UP-DAISY-THE-HOUSE-IS-ON-FIRE-OH-MY-GOD-ANGRY-HIPPOGRIFFS-FROM-OUTER-SPACE-WANT-TO-EAT-YOUR-BRAAAAINS-OH-DEAR-LORD-THEY-BROUGHT-NAIL-FILES-AAHHHH-EVERYBODY-RUNFORYOURLIIIIIIIFE!" Jumping up and down on Daisy's bed, banging frying pans together. Sirius had brought a spray bottle was feverishly spraying Daisy with it.
Funny story, guys; remember when I yelled all that crazy stuff at Daisy? Well, forget about all the other stuff we were doing (including blasting "Sweet Emotion" quite loud), the second I started yelling, she spazzed out and screamed and jerked up in bed, putting her hands in her pig's nest of hair, her green eyes like saucers.
"Oh, good morning, Daisy," I said as I jumped off the bed and Sirius turned the stereo down. "I forgot you were in here."
"You...you..." Daisy was shaking.
"Heart attack?" Sirius asked. Daisy clutched fistfuls of the quilt, pulling it up to her chin. Her eyes were still about as wide as they could go.
"Eeeeeep..." she squeaked in a tiny voice. That was it. I spluttered and then launched into a full-on laugh attack: James Potter style. No one laughs like I do. I have a lot of practice when it comes to laughing. Fucking everything, that's what I laugh at. Life is just one big goddamn joke and too many people take it way too seriously.
"Fah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Oh fuckin' A, man! Fuckin' brilliant, Daisy! Ah-ha-ha-ha! You should see yourself! You- you look like a bush baby that just stuck its tail in an electrical socket!" Her face was now slowly morphing into a tight-lipped glare as she recovered. "Ah well, we'll see you downstairs." I let out a few more breathless laughs as I made like I was wiping tears from my eyes and I walked out of the room.
"Laters, lover," Sirius said as he followed me out.
It wasn't until we were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and "reading the newspaper" (imagine me doing air quotes) that we saw her again. She grumped into the room and plopped down in the chair beside Sirius, folding her arms and wearing a moody expression on her sleep-puffy face.
"I hate you both," she growled at us.
"Good morning to you too, sheesh!" Sirius shook his head.
"I forgot how fucking knackering it is to be around you two without Remus to keep you in check," she muttered. "Lord."
"You love it," I said, "Remus just makes things less fun."
"Yeah, he makes us consider other people's feelings and rules and decorum and such," Sirius agreed. "Just absurd."
"Quite," Daisy scowled sarcastically.
"Ah, cheer up, sweetheart," I said, patting her on the back. "We're going to do some muggle-watching today."
"What?" she asked with a frown.
"We're going to go to a shopping mall," Sirius explained. "Have a bit of fun." His grin indicated that he was quite excited. Sirius always got a bit over-excited about things he saw. Especially when high. Then of course there's the girl aspect of the mall that I know the two of us are looking forward to.
"I hate malls," Daisy huffed. "What are we going to do there?"
"I dunno, loiter?" I shrugged. "There's plenty to do, don't be such a grumpy Gus."
"I can't believe you just called me a grumpy Gus," Daisy laughed.
"You're a dozy twat, is what you are. But let's not get too specific here," I said. "We'll eat breakfast then hurry off."
"Ugh," Daisy grumbled, subconsciously putting a hand to the nest on her head. "What's for breakfast?"
"I'm making pancakes!" Sirius announced gaily.
"Oh, bollocks." Daisy shook her head.
I raised my eyebrows at Sirius from across the rickety metal table at the coffee shop within the mall, making cryptic hand signals at him which he mimicked. Daisy rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee sullenly. Jerking my head in the direction of two girls— they looked like sisters— and I put an end to the sign conversation, standing up with a screeching from my chair.
I mussed up my hair as I sauntered over to the two girls, the taller of which had long, straight, mousy brown hair, down to the middle of her back. She was wearing a mini dress, leaving her legs visible to everyone around. The shorter one had the same colour hair, but it was cut just below her ears and held back by a pink barrette. I figured Sirius would want the younger-looking one. He always did have a thing about corrupting youngsters. And me, well, let's say it's never bothered me.
"Why hello there, ladies," I started in a sophisticated tone. "My god," I breathed then, in supposed awe, as if seeing them for the first time. "I thought you were fit from far away, but now that I see you up close...you two are stunning!" Not my usual card, but I felt a special hand was needed for these ones. The younger one raised her eyebrows disbelievingly, which disconcerted me a little.
"That's very kind of you," the older one said with a smile. "But, Jan and I don't usually talk to strangers at the mall."
"No, of course, I understand," I said easily. "I just wanted to let you know what beauties you are. You should consider modelling, you know. You," I said, turning to the younger one, "you look a lot like Leslie Caron."
"I never liked her," Jan replied drily. "She looks like a goldfish." I laughed out loud at this, seeming to alarm the older one.
"Oh, that's brilliant. I never realized that, but it's so true." I laughed some more, slapping my knee at one point. When I quieted down, I saw Jan's mouth slightly curling up at one corner. "Wondered when you'd finally smile," I said, nodding at her.
"You can be sure it had nothing to do with you," she replied.
"Jan!" her sister whispered, alarmed at her rudeness.
"Oh yeah? What will it take for me to make you smile?" I asked, taking up the challenge.
"Buy me a coffee?" she suggested with a nonchalant shrug.
"I like your style," I said with a grin. "I'm James. James Potter."
"Janice Wendt. And this is my baby sister, Susan," she replied. Oops, my bad. Well, at least I was right about them being sisters.
"Pleasure to meet you," I said, taking Jan's professionally outstretched hand and leaning down to kiss it. I saw a slight blush appear on her cheeks and grinned triumphantly. "My friends are waiting over there, come on." I led them over to the table, sneakily sliding in between them and putting a hand on each of their waists. They each seemed exasperated by it, but neither of them did anything about it. "Sirius, Daisy, these are two lovely sisters I just met. This is Janice and this is Susan."
"Hi," Sirius greeted them, leaning over the table to shake both their hands with a toothy grin. He turned to the next table, hooked his foot around the leg of a metal chair and pulled it beside him. "Please, sit down," he offered to Susan. She smiled at her sister, then slid in beside Sirius and Daisy.
"Come on, now, Jan, dear," I said, "let's go get some coffee." Susan told us what she wanted, then Jan and I joined the queue.
"You can keep your hands to yourself," Janice stated firmly as she deflected my attempt to put my arm around her shoulder.
"Sure I can, but I don't want to," I replied cheekily, encircling her again.
"I'm serious!" she snapped, pushing me away.
"No, Sirius is over there," I said. I reached down to hold her hand instead. She glanced down, then back up at me where I greeted her gaze with a wink. That little curl of the lip happened again, though it still wasn't quite a smile.
