AN- Wow, posted chapter one and started chapter two in the same night! Go me! Disclaimer- Still not mine. Any of them.
Enjoy!
Sirius tapped his foot as he slid across the floor of the Knight Bus. He was gone from home for good and off to the Potters'. His mom had finally pushed it too far with the constant insults to his friends; it was more than he could take right now with his own confusing emotions for Remus- who usually got the brunt of her attacks due to his being a 'filthy half- blood'. Sirius winced just remembering it. Remus was far too good to have his named dirtied by the likes of HER. Sirius wasn't all too certain when he'd gotten so touchy about his golden-haired friend, but right now that didn't matter. He was never, ever going back to that infernal house.
"POTTER'S RESIDENCE!" The conductor hollered. Sirius grabbed his trunk and headed for the door. He hadn't even unpacked it from Hogwarts yet. So here he was, the first night of the summer, hoping to anything and everything that the Potters would let him at least stay the night. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
There was a faint 'I'll get it!' and the ominous pounding of feet with a squeak as the person slid followed by a thump as they hit the door. Sirius grinned. James.
Just then, the door opened to reveal a bright red James rubbing his forehead. His glasses were a bit off centered. Sirius just grinned.
"Sirius! What...why..?" James spluttered, unable to say something intelligible.
"My mum's being horrid and I need someplace to stay..." Sirius said quickly, looking at his shoes. The grin was gone now as the reason he was here returned to his active memory.
"Of course! Come in, come in...I'm sure mum and dad won't mind. Here, step inside and I'll ask them. Too warm to be out there anyways. You took the Knight Bus I assume?" Sirius nodded as James rambled, leading him into the main part of the house. "Ah, here we are."
Mr. And Mrs. Potter were seated at the table, evidently finishing up dinner. "Mum, Dad, This is Sirius Black, you remember him right?" They both nodded.
"So nice to see you again Sirius!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed, standing up. "Would you like something to drink or eat? We've only just finished and there are plenty of leftovers, come and sit down..."
"Thank you Mrs. Potter." Sirius said as he did as he was told and sat.
"Sirius needs a place to stay...I've told you about his parents. He's left and come here, please can he stay?" It was a good thing James's parents had already been fine with the idea, because his version of 'puppy eyes' wouldn't have gained him anything.
Mr. Potter looked up then. "Stay as long as you need to."
-------------------------------------------------------
That night, Sirius didn't sleep well. And he knew exactly what the problem was. No music. He'd grown a little too accustomed to listening to Remus's Swing music every night before bed.
"Hey Prongs?" He said softly into the darkness.
James muttered. Evidently not awake. Sirius rolled over and stared at the wall, setting himself up for a sleepless night.
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing..." he sang softly to himself, in hopes that the familiar tune would lull him to sleep.
It didn't, but it was worth a shot.
Counting sheep, that was supposed to work. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7 8, 9, 10.....Wait a minute. All the sheep were wearing fedoras and dancing across the field before jumping the fence. This wasn't working either.
Okay, he was just going to need SOME sort of music. Operation acquire music would begin tomorrow. Until then, he'd just watch the clock.
-------------------------------------------------------
"Sirius, Sirius! Wake up you lazy arse!" James was shaking him rather violently. So he HAD fallen asleep! Shock of all shocks! It had to have been past 4 AM though.
"Padfoot- get your lazy arse out of bed this minute or all the food will be gone."
Sirius was up and out of bed like shot, explaining his sleeping dilemma to James on the way down to breakfast.
When they got there, James started on the problem a little bit earlier than Sirius had expected.
"Dad? Did you and mum ever listen to any muggle music?" James asked as they walked in. Sirius about died of embarrassment at the sudden question- though the Potters certainly didn't know why their son was asking.
"Yes, actually. But it's a bit out of style now." Mrs. Potter chimed in as she walked in the room with a plate of biscuits.
"Well, that's even better then. Do you still have it?"
Mr. Potter smiled. "It's in the attic. If you want to clean up a bit in there, you're welcome to it. There should be a record player as well."
James groaned. Trust his dad to have a job for them to do. But it could be worth it.
"Alright then!" Sirius said as he quickly gulped down his breakfast. "Point me in the right direction."
The Potters, including James, laughed and kept eating.
-------------------------------------------------------
It was a good hour before James and Sirius got started on the attic. When they got up there, Sirius could easily see why Mr. Potter was so willing to part with the music in return for cleaning the place. It was an absolute mess. Things were piled up to the point that it looked like the stacks were about to fall over, in fact- some of them had already done so. There was old furniture covered in sheets that had probably been white at the beginning of their lives, and there was a thick layer of dust covering everything.
Sirius took a deep breath and dived into the dusty work. "Here we go!" He said as he grabbed the first sheet and shook it, sending James into a coughing fit. The first sheet uncovered an old sofa with lions carved into the armrests with boxes of pictures stacked on the seats. James shrugged and moved on to the next sheet. Sirius was transfixed by the sofa, which was not unlike one in his own home with the exception that the Black's sofa has serpents.
"Your family has a long history of Gryffindors then." He remarked before joining James.
They went through about half the room before they hit the jackpot. The uncovered an antique record player that had lions engraved on the sides. James picked it up and examined it.
"Evidently there's a minor obsession with the Gryffindor thing in my bloodlines." He shook his head and sat the player aside in order to look at the box beneath it. There were a good many records, but not many were familiar. Sirius moved closer and began to flip through them.
"Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald- that one's familiar..." Sirius mumbled as he sifted through them. "Well- your dad didn't seem to be much into Swing. He's got one Benny Goodman, two Louis Armstrong, and then all these. About 5 of this Frank Sinatra guy and another 7 of Nat King Cole's."
James shrugged. "We can give those a shot. But until then we at least have two that you know!" He picked up the player again and gestured for Sirius to grab the box. "We might be able to get into muggle London sometime- then you can get whatever you want."
"Yeah, like an album that actually has 'It Don't Mean a Thing' on it..." Sirius mumbled.
"Favorite song?" James asked over his shoulder as he started for the stairs. Sirius nodded. "How come?"
Sirius had never really thought about that. It was just one of the songs that stuck out most clearly in his mind. Remus taught him to Jitterbug to that song. He'd caught on pretty quickly, and it was a lot of fun. He'd gotten the hang of it pretty quickly. James on the other hand...Well, it was a miracle that Lily didn't murder him when she got out of the hospital wing from having her toe mended. Hardly anyone thought twice about him dancing with Remus, everyone knew how close the Marauders were...But Sirius did. He thought more than twice about it, more than twice a day sometimes even. But he wasn't even admitting that to himself- nonetheless James. Therefore, he simply shrugged.
"Just is."
James took it at that and kept walking.
-------------------------------------------------------
It took the two of them most of the week to get the attic cleaned. Sirius had sent Remus an owl telling him what happened and about his initial inability to sleep. Remus had sent him a rather amused reply with the promise that he would come see them soon. Sirius's stomach did a flip-flop when he got the letter and James was almost forced to physically restrain him to keep him from bouncing. After about a week of the overly hyper Sirius, James had had enough of not knowing what was causing it. He drug Sirius upstairs that night after dinner and farced him to sit still on his bed.
"Padfoot- what in the bloody hell has you so damn BOUNCY?"
Sirius was rather taken aback. He hadn't realized how hyper he'd been. But he didn't have to think twice to know why.
"Moony's coming some time soon." He stated simply.
James gave him a look. "So? You don't usually get this excited over a guest. I've known you five years now. There's got to be more to it than that."
Sirius shook his head. "It's Moony, we haven't seen him since school let out!"
"Less than two weeks ago." James stated.
"Two weeks too long then." Sirius was just talking now, he wasn't really thinking about what he was saying. He got up and put on the Benny Goodman record and started humming along with the tune. It was the aardvark song. He grinned. "I miss him. You don't have a fit when I sing along with this and say 'aardvark' instead of 'floy floy'."
"No, but I am about to smash that record, I'm so sick of hearing it. Give one of the others a shot." Sirius picked up the single Louis Armstrong and was about to play it instead. "AND NOT THAT ONE EITHER!"
Sirius pouted and gestured at the stack of other records. "But these aren't Swing..."
"But they might be good. Please Padfoot- give them a try, for the sake of my sanity." James said, burying his head in his pillow.
Sirius sighed and grabbed one of the Nat King Cole albums and plopped it on. "Here goes nothing then..."
L, is for the way you look at me
O, is for the only one I see
V, is very very, extra-ordinary
E, is even more than anyone that you adore can
LOVE, it's all that I can give to you
LOVE is more than just a game for two
TWO in love can make it, take my heart but please don't break it
LOVE was made for me and you.
Sirius smiled at the song as it began to repeat. Not bad at all, in fact, it was really good. Almost better than Swing in his opinion.
"When was this stuff popular?" He asked James who had the record cover.
"Ahh...sometime in the 1950's."
"Just after Swing. I can hear the influences. Very nice. I wonder if Moony's heard this before."
"Probably. Why does everything relate to Remus?"
Sirius was silent for a minute. Then he said slowly, "Because Remus is very important to me." Sirius was just beginning to realize how true that was. But James had just had his suspicions confirmed.
-------------------------------------------------------
Remus was due at the Potter household via Flu Powder at 12:15 on July 2nd. He'd be staying for two weeks before returning home prior to the full moon. Sirius was fretting about him spending the full moon alone, but there wasn't much anyone could do without giving away their secret. In the week prior to Remus's arrival, Sirius had slowly become addicted to the Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra music, he was now spending more time listening to 'LOVE', 'Someone Who Needs Me', 'The Summer Wind', and 'Unforgettable' than to 'Sing Sing Sing'. It was the beginning of a new obsession.
Remus arrived exactly four seconds early. Sirius didn't mind at all, it was four fewer seconds he had to spend without him. James laughed softly as Sirius nearly knocked Remus over in his exuberance.
"Good to have you here Moony. Watch out, our Padfoot's got a new music obsession."
Remus turned to Sirius with a quizzical look.
Sirius shifted uneasily. "Well, James got sick of me playing the same two albums over and over, so I started playing some of the others. Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, have you ever heard them?"
"A bit, not a whole lot. I've always been partial to Swing. They aren't bad."
Sirius grinned. "Good, because you'll probably hear a good deal more of them now. And I'm only 20 years out of style to your 30." He added with an even bigger grin.
Remus playfully slapped Sirius's shoulder. "Well, now the important stuff is settled, where do I sleep for the next two weeks? Hopefully near a record player?"
"Yes actually.." Sirius began, but James cut him off.
"There's another bed set up in my room for you. It's a bit cramped now because it's only meant for one bed, and there're three in there now...But I think we'll manage. The record player holds a place of honor on the dresser. It was my dad's when he was younger. I think Sirius told you how we had to clean the entire attic in order to get it...We'll bring you up there sometime and show you what we endured just because you got this silly puppy hooked on Swing!"
Remus laughed. Sirius was so glad to be able to hear that noise again, it was better than any music ever would be to him.
"That's as much his fault as it is mine!"
By this point they were at the door to James's room. Sirius quickly jumped in front of Remus before he could enter.
"You can only go in if you have an album with 'It Don't Mean a Thing' on it. That one's my favorite and I haven't heard it since the train ride." He said quickly.
Remus pulled out the album in question. "Of course, after all- it's my favorite too!"
Sirius grinned happily along with Remus as they listened to the song. James just sighed and watched them as they sat a little closer together and let their eyes linger just a little longer than anyone who was 'just a friend' would. And he knew that this certainly didn't fall under the category of 'it don't mean a thing', because it certainly had a swing and it was swinging towards love. From both ends.
It was time to play matchmaker.
-------------------------------------------------------
:giggles insanely: That was fun. Expect more soon. Lily's injured toe idea came from something therosewilde said. Thought it would work itself in nicely. And it did!
Tell me what you think- I live for feedback. Still debating on how these two get together. =)