Title: Delicate Treasures
Author: Stardrops
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG 13 (For slash and occasional swearing, precautions only)
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter. I do, however, own the plot. I am very proud. But the rest belongs to our creative genius, J K Rowling.
Chapter Five: Hogsmeade – Christmas Shopping!
Several months later, things hadn't much changer – except that Peter was becoming an extremely shady character. He often slipped off between classes, and wouldn't tell anyone where he'd been. He also disappeared randomly in the middle of the night, and wouldn't get back til early the next morning. The other Marauders noted this, but couldn't figure out the behavior. So they ignored it, much to the delight of Peter.
It was a beautiful and bright dawn on a Saturday morning. The Marauders were up and about early for once. The reason? Today was a Hogsmeade visit.
Everyone looked forward to these, especially the Marauders. They'd almost completely run out of their supplies of tricks and prank-stuff, and needed to restock. Plus, they loved Butterbeer in the colder months, and stocking up on sweets for the Christmas period from the sweetshop was always a delight. Christmas shopping for the Marauders was never very difficult.
Peter, of course, nicked off as soon as they got out of the school and into Hogsmeade. He muttered something about having to go see something in the post office, and scuttled away before they could ask him more or follow.
James and Sirius, of course, dragged Remus over to Zonko's. Remus, protesting about how he was cold and wanted hot Butterbeer, soon shut up as they examined the new arrivals. They left the shop a while later, their pockets full of the new and old tricks, but with not much money left.
Remus dragged them all over to Madam Rosemerta's. Sirius and James, of course, immediately began flirting with the young bartender. She loved their attention, and gave them all a free drink.
As they were sitting at their booth, James asked, "So – what are we doing about Christmas presents?"
"What do we normally do?" Sirius asked.
"Well, we simply give each other presents. But I reckon we should do a Secret Santa this year."
"A what?" Sirius asked in disbelief.
"A Secret Santa. It's where you put everyone's name into a hat, and then you draw out the names so each person has a different name. Then you buy that person a present."
"And what happens if you get yourself?" Remus asked.
"Everyone puts the names back and we all pick again."
"So this is a subtle way of being a cheapskate, huh?" Sirius winked at Remus.
James threw a coaster at Sirius. "I just think it's more sensible."
"I agree," Remus said. Sirius shrugged.
"Well, three against one, I think we're doing it!" James crowed victoriously.
"Uh, James? Peter didn't say yes or no."
James waved that aside. "Oh, come on. He's always going to go along with majority. So, Secret Santa it is!"
They were looking for Peter an hour later. It was nearly two o'clock by the time they found him, in the post office, wrapped around a girl.
"Peter! You go man!" James yelled. Sirius wolf whistled, and Remus gave him a thumbs up and a huge wink.
Peter turned and saw them, blushing a brilliant shade of crimson when he caught sight of the trio making fun of him. He made his way over, still clutching the hand of his girlfriend, but trying to hide if from his three friends.
"Hello there Mariah. Nice to see you." James put on an air of politeness, all the while giving Peter a huge wink, which Mariah, thankfully, did not spot.
Sirius shook hands with her, and she smiled at Remus. "Where have you two been?"
"Oh – you know, here and there........." Peter trailed off.
James rolled his eyes. "Right, well, we're about to head back to school. You love birds going to follow us?"
Mariah answered for Peter. "No, he's going to be just a little longer."
Sirius and Remus struggled to keep their faces straight as James winked and waved at Peter. "Ciao, man!"
As soon as they were out of earshot, the three burst into laughter. "Who would have thought that Pete would finally get a girlfriend?!" Sirius howled with mirth.
"Didn't they look adorable together?" Remus chuckled.
James stopped laughing and stood up straight. "Lily ahead," he muttered to the other two, who immediately stopped as well and tried to look cool for James's sake. As they sauntered past Lily and her friends, James gave a smile and a wink. Lily glared, but all her friends burst into fits of girlish giggles and flirty pouts in desperate attempts to make the three handsome boys interested in them.
"Ugh. Why on earth do girls do it?" Sirius muttered as soon as they were past. "Giggling is one of the most evil things in the universe."
"You've been known to giggle once in a while, Sirius," pointed out Remus.
"I have not!" Sirius retorted.
"What do you think, James?" Remus looked to his friend for support of the argument.
"Yeah, sorry, Sirius, you have definitely giggled several times in the while I've known you. It's really sad, but there you go." James grinned evilly.
Sirius lost no time in bending over and grabbing two handfuls of snow. His left hand pegged a snowball at James while the right flung one in the direction of Remus.
Both snowballs hit their targets – James in the face, Remus in the arm.
"Holy crap, how did you manage to throw with both hands?" James asked in awe, looking rather amusing with snow in his eyelashes and eyebrows.
"I'm ambidextrous."
"Hmph." James took his turn to peg a snowball at Sirius, and soon they were flinging snow everywhere, and would have carried on doing so except that Lily and her friends flounced past, hair bouncing.
"You're all so extremely childish," claimed Lily, her friends agreeing in high-pitched voices, punctuated by the odd giggle.
Naturally, Sirius had to throw handfuls of snow in their direction, which started a snowball fight between the two friendship groups.
"Ha! Take that!" Lily yelled, throwing a large one extremely hard at James. It hit him in the stomach, and he sat down, looking incredibly surprised. Remus roared with laughter, and flung a snowball back at Lily.
Professor Sprout came bustling over. "Girls! Boys! You are in the middle of a town; you cannot have a snowball fight here. Go back to school and fight there. Honestly." She bustled off again, tutting under her breath. Lily and her friends immediately marched off, and James followed suit, dragging Sirius and Remus close behind him.
They were all back in the dormitory except for Peter, who, they presumed, was off with Mariah somewhere.
James was lying on Sirius's bed playing with a pack of Exploding Snap cards, and Remus was sitting on his bed with Sirius at his feet. He was using gel to spike Sirius's hair, something he'd been bugging Sirius to let him do for ages now.
"She threw a snowball at me. Is that a good sign?" James asked.
"Er – sure, why not? Physical violence is always a good sign." Remus poked Sirius in the back of the neck to shut him up; he didn't want to depress James.
"If she was paying more attention to you than to the rest of us, it's a really good sign, James."
"What should I get her for Christmas?" James seemed satisfied with Remus's reply, though he threw a withering look towards Sirius.
Remus thought for a moment. "Girls are into jewellery and all that, right?"
Sirius nodded. "Mostly. Just give her some flowers and chocolates, though, she'll love them."
"But that's so clichéd. Everyone's done that before." James rolled over, shuffling the cards pensively. "Maybe I should have gone to the jewellery store in Hogsmeade."
"Possibly," Sirius replied. He was finding it rather hard to concentrate with Remus's fingers lacing through his hair.
"Well, Lily likes flowers. Why don't you just conjure her up some, like Sirius said?" Remus asked. Sirius felt a momentary flicker of pleasure at Remus agreeing with him.
"Because! It's been done. Over and over and over." James buried his face beneath his pillow.
"Why do you ask our advice if you're going to knock back everything we say?" Remus asked.
"Sometimes you guys have good ideas."
Sirius snorted. "Sometimes. Oh, thanks."
James had an idea. "Wait, I had a really good magazine a moment ago – oh, bugger, where did I put it? – It's a girly magazine that my mother had lying around the house last holidays. It somehow got mixed up in my books."
"Oh, sure. 'Somehow.' Don't lie to us, James, we know you secretly love reading girly magazines!"
"Ha, ha," James said dryly, ignoring Remus and Sirius's chuckling. He left the dormitory to go and look in the common room.
Remus withdrew his fingers from Sirius's hair. "There you go, go look at that in the mirror."
Sirius got up with a feeling of slight apprehension, and peered at his reflection. "Hey, I don't look too hideous at all!"
Remus rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Oh, thanks."
Sirius turned and studied Remus's hair. "How come you never do your hair like that?"
"Because I can't do mine properly."
"Well, then sit down. I'll do it for you."
Remus grinned and took a seat. "Why do I feel really scared now?"
Sirius cocked his head. "I'm not sure. Then again, if I had Sirius Black and gel playing with my hair, I'd probably be a little worried as well."
"Great, that is a wonderful recommendation."
Sirius spiked up the front first. He was always amazed at just how silky Remus's hair was. It was like running his fingers through silk – and it was always so shiny. He could never get his hair to glisten like that. And no matter how much he tried, his hair was coarse and dry all the time. Once the spikes were done, he went around to the back and gelled it into separate tiny locks. The sandy curls lay beautifully flat against Remus's head, and Sirius stood back to admire the effect.
"All right, check yourself out in the mirror."
Remus got up and looked nervously into the mirror. "Holy god, I look so incredibly weird." He turned back to Sirius. "What did you do to me?" he asked dramatically, with a playful tone to let Sirius know he was only joking.
James reentered the room and stopped still. "What the bloody hell have you two been doing to your hair?"
Remus and Sirius looked at each other and grinned. "Primping?"
"Let it be known that from this day forward, girls are not the only ones who spend hours trying out hairstyles and different appearances." James gave them the magazine. "There, see if you can find something suitable in that."
Sirius looked up at James with an arched brow. "James, this is an embroidery magazine."
"Ah." James looked a little embarrassed. "Well, its not like I ever looked at it for long enough to realize."
Remus took pity on James's woeful predicament. "Fine, look, we'll help you conjure some really awesome chocolates, like – I don't know, we'll come up with something. Tomorrow, okay?"
James relaxed visibly. "Thanks guys." He studied their hair. "You reckon that would work on mine?"
"Not a chance."
"Your hair has a mind of its own," said Remus.
"Just try anyway. Please?" James grinned hopefully.
They spent the next hour or so trying to make James's hair sit down flat, and eventually, with a lot of water, gel and even a few hair potions James had for some really odd reason purloined from some of the girls in the common room the previous evening, they managed to make it look reasonably normal.
"Hey, if I ever go on a date with the great Lily, you have got to do my hair like this."
Remus snorted. "You've got to get the date first."
"Will do. I'm on it." James settled into his pillow.
"Uh, James? You kinda need to wash the gel out first?" James's response was a snore; he'd already fallen asleep. Remus grinned.
"He'll regret that in the morning."
Sirius followed Remus into the bathroom where they washed out the gel as best they could. Collapsing onto their beds, Remus was asleep within seconds. Sirius watched his friend sleep with the tiny sliver of moonlight that crept in through the window illuminating Remus's face.
TBC
A/N: Well, there we go. It's almost Christmas at Hogwarts. I had to speed it up; it was going so slowly I couldn't even be bothered to write it. Hope everyone likes the updates! Please keep reading, and don't forget to review! Special thanks to everyone who has already review this story, your comments keep me writing!
Author: Stardrops
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG 13 (For slash and occasional swearing, precautions only)
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter. I do, however, own the plot. I am very proud. But the rest belongs to our creative genius, J K Rowling.
Chapter Five: Hogsmeade – Christmas Shopping!
Several months later, things hadn't much changer – except that Peter was becoming an extremely shady character. He often slipped off between classes, and wouldn't tell anyone where he'd been. He also disappeared randomly in the middle of the night, and wouldn't get back til early the next morning. The other Marauders noted this, but couldn't figure out the behavior. So they ignored it, much to the delight of Peter.
It was a beautiful and bright dawn on a Saturday morning. The Marauders were up and about early for once. The reason? Today was a Hogsmeade visit.
Everyone looked forward to these, especially the Marauders. They'd almost completely run out of their supplies of tricks and prank-stuff, and needed to restock. Plus, they loved Butterbeer in the colder months, and stocking up on sweets for the Christmas period from the sweetshop was always a delight. Christmas shopping for the Marauders was never very difficult.
Peter, of course, nicked off as soon as they got out of the school and into Hogsmeade. He muttered something about having to go see something in the post office, and scuttled away before they could ask him more or follow.
James and Sirius, of course, dragged Remus over to Zonko's. Remus, protesting about how he was cold and wanted hot Butterbeer, soon shut up as they examined the new arrivals. They left the shop a while later, their pockets full of the new and old tricks, but with not much money left.
Remus dragged them all over to Madam Rosemerta's. Sirius and James, of course, immediately began flirting with the young bartender. She loved their attention, and gave them all a free drink.
As they were sitting at their booth, James asked, "So – what are we doing about Christmas presents?"
"What do we normally do?" Sirius asked.
"Well, we simply give each other presents. But I reckon we should do a Secret Santa this year."
"A what?" Sirius asked in disbelief.
"A Secret Santa. It's where you put everyone's name into a hat, and then you draw out the names so each person has a different name. Then you buy that person a present."
"And what happens if you get yourself?" Remus asked.
"Everyone puts the names back and we all pick again."
"So this is a subtle way of being a cheapskate, huh?" Sirius winked at Remus.
James threw a coaster at Sirius. "I just think it's more sensible."
"I agree," Remus said. Sirius shrugged.
"Well, three against one, I think we're doing it!" James crowed victoriously.
"Uh, James? Peter didn't say yes or no."
James waved that aside. "Oh, come on. He's always going to go along with majority. So, Secret Santa it is!"
They were looking for Peter an hour later. It was nearly two o'clock by the time they found him, in the post office, wrapped around a girl.
"Peter! You go man!" James yelled. Sirius wolf whistled, and Remus gave him a thumbs up and a huge wink.
Peter turned and saw them, blushing a brilliant shade of crimson when he caught sight of the trio making fun of him. He made his way over, still clutching the hand of his girlfriend, but trying to hide if from his three friends.
"Hello there Mariah. Nice to see you." James put on an air of politeness, all the while giving Peter a huge wink, which Mariah, thankfully, did not spot.
Sirius shook hands with her, and she smiled at Remus. "Where have you two been?"
"Oh – you know, here and there........." Peter trailed off.
James rolled his eyes. "Right, well, we're about to head back to school. You love birds going to follow us?"
Mariah answered for Peter. "No, he's going to be just a little longer."
Sirius and Remus struggled to keep their faces straight as James winked and waved at Peter. "Ciao, man!"
As soon as they were out of earshot, the three burst into laughter. "Who would have thought that Pete would finally get a girlfriend?!" Sirius howled with mirth.
"Didn't they look adorable together?" Remus chuckled.
James stopped laughing and stood up straight. "Lily ahead," he muttered to the other two, who immediately stopped as well and tried to look cool for James's sake. As they sauntered past Lily and her friends, James gave a smile and a wink. Lily glared, but all her friends burst into fits of girlish giggles and flirty pouts in desperate attempts to make the three handsome boys interested in them.
"Ugh. Why on earth do girls do it?" Sirius muttered as soon as they were past. "Giggling is one of the most evil things in the universe."
"You've been known to giggle once in a while, Sirius," pointed out Remus.
"I have not!" Sirius retorted.
"What do you think, James?" Remus looked to his friend for support of the argument.
"Yeah, sorry, Sirius, you have definitely giggled several times in the while I've known you. It's really sad, but there you go." James grinned evilly.
Sirius lost no time in bending over and grabbing two handfuls of snow. His left hand pegged a snowball at James while the right flung one in the direction of Remus.
Both snowballs hit their targets – James in the face, Remus in the arm.
"Holy crap, how did you manage to throw with both hands?" James asked in awe, looking rather amusing with snow in his eyelashes and eyebrows.
"I'm ambidextrous."
"Hmph." James took his turn to peg a snowball at Sirius, and soon they were flinging snow everywhere, and would have carried on doing so except that Lily and her friends flounced past, hair bouncing.
"You're all so extremely childish," claimed Lily, her friends agreeing in high-pitched voices, punctuated by the odd giggle.
Naturally, Sirius had to throw handfuls of snow in their direction, which started a snowball fight between the two friendship groups.
"Ha! Take that!" Lily yelled, throwing a large one extremely hard at James. It hit him in the stomach, and he sat down, looking incredibly surprised. Remus roared with laughter, and flung a snowball back at Lily.
Professor Sprout came bustling over. "Girls! Boys! You are in the middle of a town; you cannot have a snowball fight here. Go back to school and fight there. Honestly." She bustled off again, tutting under her breath. Lily and her friends immediately marched off, and James followed suit, dragging Sirius and Remus close behind him.
They were all back in the dormitory except for Peter, who, they presumed, was off with Mariah somewhere.
James was lying on Sirius's bed playing with a pack of Exploding Snap cards, and Remus was sitting on his bed with Sirius at his feet. He was using gel to spike Sirius's hair, something he'd been bugging Sirius to let him do for ages now.
"She threw a snowball at me. Is that a good sign?" James asked.
"Er – sure, why not? Physical violence is always a good sign." Remus poked Sirius in the back of the neck to shut him up; he didn't want to depress James.
"If she was paying more attention to you than to the rest of us, it's a really good sign, James."
"What should I get her for Christmas?" James seemed satisfied with Remus's reply, though he threw a withering look towards Sirius.
Remus thought for a moment. "Girls are into jewellery and all that, right?"
Sirius nodded. "Mostly. Just give her some flowers and chocolates, though, she'll love them."
"But that's so clichéd. Everyone's done that before." James rolled over, shuffling the cards pensively. "Maybe I should have gone to the jewellery store in Hogsmeade."
"Possibly," Sirius replied. He was finding it rather hard to concentrate with Remus's fingers lacing through his hair.
"Well, Lily likes flowers. Why don't you just conjure her up some, like Sirius said?" Remus asked. Sirius felt a momentary flicker of pleasure at Remus agreeing with him.
"Because! It's been done. Over and over and over." James buried his face beneath his pillow.
"Why do you ask our advice if you're going to knock back everything we say?" Remus asked.
"Sometimes you guys have good ideas."
Sirius snorted. "Sometimes. Oh, thanks."
James had an idea. "Wait, I had a really good magazine a moment ago – oh, bugger, where did I put it? – It's a girly magazine that my mother had lying around the house last holidays. It somehow got mixed up in my books."
"Oh, sure. 'Somehow.' Don't lie to us, James, we know you secretly love reading girly magazines!"
"Ha, ha," James said dryly, ignoring Remus and Sirius's chuckling. He left the dormitory to go and look in the common room.
Remus withdrew his fingers from Sirius's hair. "There you go, go look at that in the mirror."
Sirius got up with a feeling of slight apprehension, and peered at his reflection. "Hey, I don't look too hideous at all!"
Remus rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Oh, thanks."
Sirius turned and studied Remus's hair. "How come you never do your hair like that?"
"Because I can't do mine properly."
"Well, then sit down. I'll do it for you."
Remus grinned and took a seat. "Why do I feel really scared now?"
Sirius cocked his head. "I'm not sure. Then again, if I had Sirius Black and gel playing with my hair, I'd probably be a little worried as well."
"Great, that is a wonderful recommendation."
Sirius spiked up the front first. He was always amazed at just how silky Remus's hair was. It was like running his fingers through silk – and it was always so shiny. He could never get his hair to glisten like that. And no matter how much he tried, his hair was coarse and dry all the time. Once the spikes were done, he went around to the back and gelled it into separate tiny locks. The sandy curls lay beautifully flat against Remus's head, and Sirius stood back to admire the effect.
"All right, check yourself out in the mirror."
Remus got up and looked nervously into the mirror. "Holy god, I look so incredibly weird." He turned back to Sirius. "What did you do to me?" he asked dramatically, with a playful tone to let Sirius know he was only joking.
James reentered the room and stopped still. "What the bloody hell have you two been doing to your hair?"
Remus and Sirius looked at each other and grinned. "Primping?"
"Let it be known that from this day forward, girls are not the only ones who spend hours trying out hairstyles and different appearances." James gave them the magazine. "There, see if you can find something suitable in that."
Sirius looked up at James with an arched brow. "James, this is an embroidery magazine."
"Ah." James looked a little embarrassed. "Well, its not like I ever looked at it for long enough to realize."
Remus took pity on James's woeful predicament. "Fine, look, we'll help you conjure some really awesome chocolates, like – I don't know, we'll come up with something. Tomorrow, okay?"
James relaxed visibly. "Thanks guys." He studied their hair. "You reckon that would work on mine?"
"Not a chance."
"Your hair has a mind of its own," said Remus.
"Just try anyway. Please?" James grinned hopefully.
They spent the next hour or so trying to make James's hair sit down flat, and eventually, with a lot of water, gel and even a few hair potions James had for some really odd reason purloined from some of the girls in the common room the previous evening, they managed to make it look reasonably normal.
"Hey, if I ever go on a date with the great Lily, you have got to do my hair like this."
Remus snorted. "You've got to get the date first."
"Will do. I'm on it." James settled into his pillow.
"Uh, James? You kinda need to wash the gel out first?" James's response was a snore; he'd already fallen asleep. Remus grinned.
"He'll regret that in the morning."
Sirius followed Remus into the bathroom where they washed out the gel as best they could. Collapsing onto their beds, Remus was asleep within seconds. Sirius watched his friend sleep with the tiny sliver of moonlight that crept in through the window illuminating Remus's face.
TBC
A/N: Well, there we go. It's almost Christmas at Hogwarts. I had to speed it up; it was going so slowly I couldn't even be bothered to write it. Hope everyone likes the updates! Please keep reading, and don't forget to review! Special thanks to everyone who has already review this story, your comments keep me writing!