By Serendipity
Author's Note: Nice long chapter here. Dunno how I got it all out. I had no clue what was going to happen in this chapter. I wasn't even planning on starting on this story for awhile. But one day I was in a writing mood and I asked my friend which one of my stories I should work on and she told me this one, so I wrote this one. Not too much Harry and Ginny in this chapter but there's some definite Ron and Hermione. I was disappointed that they didn't really hook up in Book Five so this is for everyone else who were disappointed.
Disclaimer: Don't own anything that you may recognize. I don't own Carrie, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Keanu Reeves -hides Keanu in a nearby closet-
Motel Adventures
"...such an irresponsible, senseless thing to do! Never had this problem with my older children! Honestly, such a raucous party taking place at my home?! Don't know what you four were thinking!"
And so were Mom's words Sunday morning. Her and Dad had left for my third cousin's house after our game on Saturday to help her take care of her newborn sextuplets while the nanny was away, and they had come home this morning to find bottles, cans, and Draco Malfoy spewed across the front lawn. After about ten minutes of both of them yelling at the twins, Ginny, and I, they forced us outdoors with garbage bags to pick up the mess. You would think that the yelling would end there, but not for my mother. She sat on the old rocking chair on our porch and continued her yelling with Dad nodding his agreement every now and then.
"What if the cops would have shown up? Who would be there to bail you four out of jail?"
I wasn't really paying attention to what Mom was saying. I had tuned her out long ago and now focused my whole attention on getting a tangle of toilet paper out of the one tree that we have in the front yard. Fred was near by, throwing empty bottles into a bag.
"Sounds like Malfoy is waking up," he muttered as he passed me by.
I glanced over to where Malfoy was lying and suddenly realized that none of us had thought about rolling him onto his back. He was on his stomach with his arms and legs sprawled about him, his mouth slightly open. At first I didn't see a change but then I heard a low groan.
"Stop yelling!" he whined, lifting his head a bit, his eyes only opened slightly.
Everyone froze and even Mom stopped yelling. Dad looked unsure as to whether or not he should help Draco or call Mr. Malfoy and he ended up staring dumbfounded and standing stock-still. Draco was now looking around the yard and seemed thoroughly confused.
"This isn't my yard!" he announced before slipping back into unconsciousness.
We didn't have much longer to wait until a silver Mercedes cruised down the street and parked in the middle of the road that separates our house from the beach. Mr. Malfoy stepped out of the car and looked around with disgust before strolling up to Draco and nudging him with his foot.
"Come Draco, we don't want to be late for church."
Draco lifted his head once more, yet again looking confused.
"Church...wha?" Draco mumbled.
Mr. Malfoy grabbed Draco by the shirt collar and helped him up, to which Draco stood, swaying dangerously. He suddenly winced with pain and brought his hands up to his head.
"Uh, Dad, I don't feel so good."
Mr. Malfoy quickly turned his son so that he wasn't facing him.
"Don't throw up on me, I just got this suit."
That was Mom's cue. She came rushing forward and ushered a retching Draco into our home. Hopefully he made it to the bathroom. Mr. Malfoy looked disinterested with the rest of us. Dad tried to make small talk with him, which seemed very hard for him to do. They were talking about how messy it was to raise children.
"This one time when Draco was about five, his fourth nanny had just walked out on him and with his mother in Vegas, I had no choice but to watch him for a whole day. At first everything was alright, he ate some pizza and then was jumping about playing with his toys when all of the sudden he stops, looks at me and then throws up all over my clothes." Mr. Malfoy paused there and shuddered. "I never fully recovered from that shock," he admitted. My father was giving him a look of utter disgust.
Suddenly our front door opened again and Mom came out with Draco under her arm. He was wiping his mouth sheepishly on his sleeve.
"Don't you worry about it Draco, dear," Mom was telling him. "A good cup of coffee and a nice nap and you'll be feeling better in no time!"
Draco mumbled some form of thanks and continued walking towards his father; not making eye contact with the older man. He stopped in front of him, keeping his eyes focused on his shoes.
"Feeling better?" Mr. Malfoy asked him.
Draco nodded sullenly.
"You're not going to throw up in the car are you?"
Draco shook his head.
"Alright, come on then."
And the two left without a backward glance.
I woke up Sunday morning to Sirius calling out obscenities in the living room. I dressed quickly and went to see what the commotion was all about.
"Golf, golf, golf, tennis...where the hell are the cartoons?"
I found Sirius in his boxers and a T-shirt, sitting on the couch and flipping frantically through the channels. I rolled my eyes.
"Today's Sunday, cartoons are on Saturday mornings Sirius," I told him. He jumped when he saw me and turned the TV off.
"Oh, you're up," Sirius said.
I chuckled and shook my head.
"Do you want pancakes for breakfast?" I asked him. "I've been having cravings for blueberry pancakes all week."
I shuffled into the kitchen and began getting out the ingredients that I would need, Sirius followed. He looked a bit sullen and seemed to be in deep thought. Stopped at the island counter, he began tracing the tile patterns with his index finger.
"You cook?" he asked, gazing at the black surface of the counter.
"Yeah," I replied. "Who do you think does most of the cooking back at the...the place where I used to live." For some reason I couldn't bring myself to say Dursley's.
Sirius sighed and sat on the counter, watching me crack some eggs for the pancake batter.
"James didn't cook," he announced suddenly after a few minutes of silence. "He tried a couple times but he was never really good at it. Your mom was an excellent cook though," he added a bit more cheerfully. "That's one of the many reasons why she was so perfect for your father."
We were both silent for a few more minutes as I stirred the batter slowly. I knew that we were both thinking about my parents. Finally I cleared my throat and asked something that I wanted to ask him ever since I met him those few years ago.
"What was my dad like?" I asked as I reached for the blueberries to put in.
At first I didn't think that Sirius heard me. He continued to gaze at his feet and didn't reply right away; but after a few seconds, he lifted his head and looked at me as though he were sizing me up and deciding how much he should tell me. Finally he spoke:
"Worse than you," he said, and he returned his gaze back to the floor.
I waited until I had dumped a ladle full of batter onto the pan for the first pancake before I talked again.
"What do you mean, 'Worse than me'?" I asked, unsure as to whether or not I wanted to know the answer.
It wasn't until I had flipped the pancake over that Sirius answered.
"You have all of the admirable qualities that your father has," he started, looking at me once again. "You're brave, smart, athletic, even good looking in that rumpled sort of way," he said, smiling and ruffling my already wild hair, "however, James wasn't as..." Sirius paused here as he thought of the right word to use, "good as you are," he finished.
I knitted my brow in confusion.
"Wasn't as good as I am?" I repeated. "What do you mean by good?" I asked slowly. The pancakes were done and we moved to the table to eat them. "What, he wasn't as athletic or smart as me or something?" I asked.
Sirius winced as though he were having an internal struggle.
"No, what I mean is, you already know that we were a bit of...well...pranksters in school. I mean, I know that you can pull a good prank when you want to, but you're more mellow than we were."
"Oh," I said, feeling a bit better, "so you guys were like Fred and George?"
Sirius had that look as though his consciences were arguing on his shoulders again.
"Sort of," he said, drawing the words out. "We did pranks like Fred and George do, only we were more vindictive about them."
"What do you mean vindictive?" I asked. I was getting a sinking feeling in my stomach, and I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to finish my pancake.
Sirius sighed and leaned in closer to me, as though he had decided to just tell the whole truth and get it over with.
"Listen," he said quickly, "Fred and George do pranks to make people laugh, not to make someone feel bad. Fred and George would never do something completely spiteful to a person just because they're there. We weren't really like Fred and George, Harry," Sirius said, and I could feel my mouth getting dry, "we were more like," Sirius paused one last time, racking his brain through a mental list of my classmates names, "Draco Malfoy," he finished at last.
I dropped my fork; my half-eaten pancake lay slathered in syrup, completely forgotten.
"You guys did things like that?" I asked. I knew that I looked hurt by his confession.
"It's not as though we're proud of them."
"Maybe you, you're grown and matured now, but my dad died when he was twenty two! How do you know that he was sorry for the things that he did to people?"
"Because your mother changed him!" Sirius said loudly. "She made him see what he was doing to people. He became soft hearted long before I did!"
"People like Draco Malfoy don't change, Sirius!" I said firmly.
Sirius shook his head.
"I shouldn't have told you," he said, looking down and going back to his pancakes.
I shoved my plate away and stormed back to my room.
"Hermione, would you come down here a minute please?" my mother's voice called from down the stairs. I held my breath, figuring that it must have something to do with finding out that our security system had been disarmed the night before even though I'm almost positive that I activated it. But both of my parents were smiling when I reached the bottom of the stairs and my dad had a blindfold.
"We've got a surprise for you," he said, tying it around my eyes.
"What for?" I asked as they led me to only God knew where.
"A late birthday gift," my mom explained.
I felt the cool breeze of outside as they led me to what I guessed was the front yard.
"Alright," said my father as he took off the blindfold.
There in the driveway was a brand new white convertible with a red ribbon around it. I had just gotten my license the week before.
"Oh my God, it's..."
"Isn't it something?" my mom asked, hugging me happily. My father was leading me to it and taking off the ribbon.
"It's..." I tried again, but was at a loss for words. My dad held the door open for me and handed me the keys.
"First tank of gas is on us, why don't you take it for a spin?"
I threw my arms around my parents and thanked them profusely with tears in my eyes. Then I got in and turned the key in the ignition. The car purred and backed out of our driveway as smooth as can be.
I drove around downtown for awhile, debating where I should go. Lavender or Parvatti's? No, they'll see it at school and they can coo over it there. Then I decided to take it to the Weasley's and it wasn't long after, that I realized that that was where I had unconsciously been heading all along.
The twins and Lee were skateboarding on the street when I arrived and Ron and Ginny were on the porch playing some card game. The seniors stopped their skateboarding when I pulled into the driveway and they came up to the car singing it's praise.
"Wicked wheels, Mione!" Fred complemented, and I tried not to blush at him when he used my nickname. Ginny and Ron were still on the porch. They were talking in low voices and smiling at my new car as the other three began to circle it.
"Hey, pop the hood," Fred ordered from the front of the car.
"Pop the trunk," Lee echoed from behind.
I did as requested and I soon heard voices from under the slabs of metal.
"Look at this engine!" George exclaimed.
"Look at this trunk space!" Lee added.
The twins closed the hood and looked at Lee oddly.
"What?" Lee asked, emerging from the trunk. "You could probably fit five people in there!"
They laughed and closed the trunk as Ron and Ginny finally came off of the porch to get a better look.
"Cool car, Mione!" Ron exclaimed. "When did you get it?"
"Just a few minutes ago," I replied. I noticed that Ginny was holding the phone. "Do you want to go for a ride?"
"Yeah," said Ron exuberantly and he got into the front seat. Ginny looked longingly at the back but ended up shaking her head.
"Harry might call," she explained.
Fred and George started teasing her about Harry and I raised an eyebrow at Ron who wasn't looking at me. I turned back to Lee and the twins.
"What about you guys?" I asked.
They consented at once but then Ron reminded them of a huge Spanish test that they were having tomorrow at school. The color drained from the twin's faces.
"You guys have fun," they said, but they stayed on the driveway and watched us back out and we heard Lee yelling 'Vamos' at them from down the street.
"So where do you want to go?" I asked Ron.
"Anywhere," he replied.
I watched TV in my room all day and wasn't bothered by Sirius until about three in the afternoon when he knocked on my door.
"Harry, I'm going to work," he called through the door when I refused to open it. "I'm leaving you something outside of your door. You may not want to see some of this stuff but it will help you understand your parents."
I waited until I was sure that Sirius left then I opened the door. On the floor was a large cardboard box, and in the box were a bunch of home movies. I picked up the first one. Written in a handwriting that I didn't recognize was:
'James: 2 years old.'
With some difficulty, I dragged the box into my room and popped the video of my father as a two-year-old into my VCR.
The movie was short and consisted of my father running around in circles until he fell over. Though I got a chuckle out of it, I soon grew bored of it and began searching through the box for another movie. 'James: 3 years old,' was the same as the first only now he was kicking a soccer ball around in a circle until he tripped over it and giggled uncontrollably.
The next movie perked my interest when I read the unfamiliar scrawl. It said:
'James and Sirius: 4 years old.'
I popped it in. A park showed up on the screen and I heard a woman's voice, which I assumed belonged to my grandmother.
"Are you getting him?" she asked someone behind the camera.
"Where is he?" came a man's voice.
"Under the monkey bars," replied the woman. With a wave of static, the camera shifted and I saw my father standing under the monkey bars with another unknown boy.
"Who's the boy that he's with?" asked the man behind the camera.
"I don't know," said the woman.
My dad noticed his parents watching him and proceeded by grabbing the other boy's hand and leading him over.
"Mommy, Daddy!" he shouted. "This is my friend, uh..." he stopped and turned back to the other boy. "What was your name again?" he asked him.
"Sirius," the boy said softly, and I gasped.
He was very dirty and thin. His hair fell to his shoulders and the brown shirt that he was wearing looked as though it had once been white. He seemed very jumpy around adults as if he expected them to punish him some how.
My grandmother got down so that she was level with the boys.
"Sirius," she said softly and Sirius shrank behind my father. "Where's your mommy and daddy?"
"Mommy had been drinking the grown up drinks again and I spilled my milk, and she got mad at me and drove me to the supermarket," Sirius paused for breath here. "She told me to get out so I did, but she didn't get out with me; she drove away." He was still cowering behind my dad.
My grandmother exchanged a worried glance with my grandfather who for some reason was still filming. Grandma turned back to Sirius, and I noticed that my dad was growing a bit impatient. He seemed to have realized the seriousness of the situation however because he stayed quiet and still though his gaze began to wander.
"Sirius, honey, do you know your last name?" she asked him.
Sirius nodded shyly.
"Can you tell me please?" she asked.
Sirius looked at my dad who told him that he could trust his mommy.
"Black," Sirius said finally and my grandmother exchanged a knowing glance with my grandfather who also got down to the four-year-olds level.
"Sirius," he said, "when did your mommy leave you at the store?"
Sirius thought for a moment.
"A few days ago, but she may come back someday soon!"
The two adults started whispering but I couldn't make out what they were saying because of the static so I looked at the two boys. My dad put a comforting arm around Sirius.
"Sirius," said my grandmother, tentatively taking Sirius's hand, "how about you come home with us? We'll clean you up and get you something to eat."
"Yeah come home with us, Sirius!" my dad shouted. "You could be my new brother!"
The movie went out with Sirius giving his first smile.
I sat there for a long time, shocked by what I saw. I devoured all other movies after that. My grandparents had adopted Sirius and he was clean and happy with my father. I saw a memorable afternoon where my grandfather had the two five year olds in his arms and he was spinning them around in the back yard. I almost laughed because both boys were wearing tie-dyed shirts and had Beetle-like haircuts. And when my grandfather put them down I realized that Sirius's shirt said 'War is not the answer'.
Next was a school recital when the boys were in the third grade, however it started with a girl with red hair singing sweetly. There was something familiar about that girl and I scooted closer to the TV, cursing the shitty cameras of the seventies. Suddenly two boys with black hair rushed out onto the stage. The one with the straight hair was playing a banjo very badly and the one with the messy hair was singing some weird song and dancing a jig. I realized who these two boys were just as the messy haired boy grabbed the red headed girl and started dancing with her.
"James, you idiot!" she shouted, slapping my father across the face. My dad proceeded by trying to kiss her; he got a kick for that, and soon after the rest of their classmates joined them onstage for an all out brawl. A middle age woman tried to subdue them but having no luck at it, she merely raised the microphone and said wearily:
"And that was Lily Evans singing our National Anthem accompanied by Sirius Potter on banjo and James Potter on vocals."
That one sentence brought plenty of questions to my head. The girl was my mother and if Sirius had taken the Potter surname, then why did he switch it back to Black?
The next couple of movies were about the same and I notice that by the Christmas when my dad and Sirius were ten, my grandfather had gone prematurely grey. By the late seventies, Sirius and my dad started making their own movies consisting of tricking other kids into doing dangerous stunts such as skateboarding by hanging off of a back of a station wagon, which I realized with a sinking feeling, a twelve-year-old Sirius was driving. The eighties brought their teen years along with heavy metal T-shirts and I realized that they had started talking like Keanu Reeves from that Bill and Ted movie. The pranks got worse and usually ended with some nerd rushing home near tears. Along with the prank movies came party movies which were pretty funny but made no sense because nearly everyone was drunk. I also noticed that two new people had joined the James and Sirius show. One was my eighth grade teacher, Remus Lupin. Though Remus was considerably calmer than my dad and Sirius, he fit in well with the group. The other I realized (with a jolt in my stomach) was Peter Pettigrew, the man who had killed my parents and framed Sirius. I wondered why the hell he was there with them but then soon realized that he was the butt of nearly all the jokes and pranks. I did not feel sorry for him.
Then came the senior recital. My mother was singing again. She looked really beautiful and I wished more then ever that she were here with me. I caught myself smiling but my smile soon faded when a huge vat of blood was dumped upon my mother. It was like that movie 'Carrie' and I was disgusted. I nearly threw up when my father and Sirius came upon stage and announced to the world that they had done it. My dad abruptly stopped laughing when he saw how hurt my mother was. Sirius continued his laughing, as my dad became genuinely sorry for the first time in his life.
The prank and party movies stopped and I soon found myself watching my parent's wedding. The last movie was a barbecue merely a few months after I was born. It started with Sirius and Remus fighting over whom got to hold me. My dad settled the matter by picking me up and kissing me on my cheek. Maybe it was de ja vu but I suddenly became happy. And that's where the movies ended.
Numerous bugs fluttered around the uncovered light bulb outside of the cheap motel. The bugs were annoying me and making it considerably harder for me to deal with my now angry parents.
"How could you go so far on only one tank of gas?" my father inquired over the phone. "Weren't you paying attention to the road signs?"
"Well, no," I admitted, playing with the pay phone's cord. "I didn't realize how far we had gone until we crossed the state line."
My father sighed.
"It's late and it'll take us all night to get to where you're at. You're at a motel right?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Well, use your emergency credit card and spend the night there. There's a friend with you right?"
"Yeah," I said again, only this time a bit more slowly.
"Well, you two share the same room, it'll be cheaper that way and I'll feel better if you were with someone at all times. Who's your friend's parents, do I need to call them?"
"Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," I told my father, "and no, they're finding out now."
I heard my mother's worried voice in the background.
"It's alright, dear," my father told my mother, "Hermione and Ginny are just fine."
I swallowed a lump in my throat and decided not to tell my dad that it was Ron that I was with and not Ginny. He'd get several speeding tickets if he knew that I was going to spend the night in a motel with a boy.
"We should be there around seven tomorrow morning," he told me. "Make sure that you and Ginny are ready to go by then."
"Er, thanks Dad," I told him, feeling guilty.
"And Hermione," Dad started.
"Yeah," I asked.
"We'll finish this at home!"
And after a quick goodbye he hung up. I walked over to where Ron was having his own problems. I could hear Mrs. Weasley's yells a foot away from the phone. Finally Ron hung up the phone looking very grim.
"I'm grounded until I'm eighteen," he told me. "But Fred said that he and George will remind her of all the stupid things that they had done. Hopefully that will make her cut the date back a little."
"I'm sorry about all of this Ron," I said. "This is all my fault."
"No it isn't," said Ron, but I had started to cry anyway.
He hugged me.
"I'm starving," he announced suddenly.
I pulled away from him, smiling slightly.
"There's some vending machines over there."
It was past midnight when Sirius finally came home. I was waiting for him on the couch, the tapes were back in the box at my feet. He looked at me to the box and back again.
"Thought that you'd be up," he said, kicking off his shoes and sitting in the Lazy Boy next to the couch. "So, do you hate us?"
I took my time answering.
"I did," I said truthfully.
Sirius nodded.
"I don't blame you. I hate how we were too."
"I have a few questions," I told him.
"Shoot."
"You took on the Potter surname?"
"Yep, Sirius Potter, that was me!"
"Why did you change it back to Black?" I asked.
Sirius didn't hesitate to reply.
"When the cops started suspecting me, I changed it so I wouldn't muck up a good name."
"That was nice of you," I told him.
He shrugged.
"It was the very least I could do. I owe everything to the Potters."
"Did you ever hear from your real family?" I asked cautiously, not wanting to bring up touchy subjects.
"No, they didn't care about me. Though, unbeknownst to James, I kept track of them. I got a baby brother only a few months after I left them. I didn't even know that she was pregnant."
"What happened to him?" I asked.
"Drugs," Sirius replied. "He's dead now. So are my folks."
"Oh," I told Sirius. We sat in silence for a little while and I soon became tired and yawned.
"Why don't we get some sleep?" Sirius asked. He too was yawning.
"You can ask me all you want tomorrow after school."
The candy bars were long gone and I was now trying to get comfortable on the hard, cold floor. It was dark and I saw Hermione's outline against the window. She was sitting up in bed.
"Are you really going to be grounded until you're eighteen?" she asked.
I propped myself up on my elbow.
"No, that's just Mom over-reacting as usual. Fred and George are grounded for life as we speak. I'll probably just get a week or so."
Hermione was looking at me, but I couldn't see her face because of the darkness.
"Spider," she said suddenly, pointing next to me. I looked at where her finger lead and saw a huge spider only a foot or so away from me.
I cursed loudly and jumped up to join Hermione in the bed. My heart was racing and I was breathing loudly. It took me several moments before I realized that Hermione's face was very close to mine.
"Maybe you should just stay in bed with me?" she suggested slowly in a whisper. Her face was so close that I felt her warm breath against my cheek. I slowly turned my head toward hers as she placed the covers over my legs. A minute later we were still sitting up, our foreheads touching one another. Then she put her arms around me and slowly pulled me down with her. Minutes later my heart rate was still going fast, but it wasn't because of the spider.
Another Author's Note: Cliffhanger, sort of. Hope you guys liked this chapter. It is kind of long but, hey, long chapters are good. I had something else to tell you guys but I forgot. Please, Please, Please review!!!!!!!!!