When I woke up in the morning, I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. The curtains around my bed filtered most of the light out so that it wasn't piercing my eyes as I blinked up at the ceiling sleepily. This was what it must feel like to sleep on a cloud.
I had no idea where the rest of my family was, Dorcas's house was so big I was fairly certain I could wander around for three days without laying eyes on another member of my family. If that happened to be Petunia, I wasn't really complaining, but I did rather enjoy the company of my parents.
There was something so off putting about being in a house and it being dead silent. Usually, in the Evans household, there was always some sort of noise by the time I woke up. Usually, that noise was Petunia screeching about God knew what was the problem for the day. But in the Meadowes Mansion, it was as if I was the only tenant there.
It was only when the pressure in my bladder became too much that I forced myself to roll out of bed. I stretched, and scratched my rumpled hair and walked over to the window that was in my room and pulled back the curtains. I pushed the window open to let in a breeze and took in a deep breath of the chilly morning air even as goosebumps erupted on my-
"HEADS UP EVANS!"
My eyes snapped open and I gave a shriek as a large snowball came flying straight for my face. I leapt out of the way and watched as it lodged into the wall behind me before dropping to the ground with a wet thump.
I leaned out the window and looked down where Sirius and James stood, pink cheeked, the evidence of a snowball fight scattered around them.
"SIRIUS WHAT IN THE GOOD GRIEF ARE YOU DOING HERE THIS EARLY IN THE MORNING! I'VE BARELY EVEN GOTTEN OUT OF BED YOU CLOWN," I yelled back, hair whipping in my face, arms beginning to go numb from the cold.
"I CAN TELL, NICE SILK EVANS!" Sirius grinned, looking pointedly at my chest. And that's when I remembered that my sleeping attire really didn't cover much as far as clothing went. In my defense, this wasn't what I'd packed for the trip. I distinctly remembered putting an old, baggy shirt and some loose sweats in my trunk which wasn't there when I'd gone rooting through my things last night looking for something to wear.
I don't know when Dorcas went digging through my things and replaced my pajamas but she was going to lose those hands of hers if she didn't watch herself.
My gaze darted to James, who was determinedly looking at the side of the house right next to my face, his face seemed to be turning redder by the second. Instead of responding to Sirius, I simply slammed my window shut, pulled on the first jumper and sweats I could get my hands on, and marched downstairs. I was outside of the house and running to the back, my arms crossed to try and keep warm and found the two hooligans throwing yet more snow at each other.
"What are you idiots even doing here this early?" I asked them as I side-stepped around a terribly aimed snowball thrown by James. For someone who'd led Gryffindor to so many victories as a Chaser, you'd think the man would have better aim.
"We're here for breakfast," Sirius said, looping his arm through mine.
"Breakfast?" I asked as James threw his arm around my shoulder on my other side. "We don't have breakfast, no one's cooked any."
The two of them steered me back indoors where they shrugged out of their coats and scarves and led the way to the kitchens.
"Sure there is," James said and when we walked into the kitchen, there sat the Potters and my parents near a blazing fire, laughing and eating eggs with toast while house-elves worked around them. Petunia was nowhere in sight, which meant that I was in for a treat.
I was ushered onto a stool and a plate of pancakes dropped in front of me with what looked like fresh maple syrup. James took a seat next to me, our elbows brushed, and pushed up the sleeves of his jumper. He grinned down at me and dug into his own breakfast. I couldn't help but note the extra two plates lined up after his first.
"The house-elves weren't here when we came," I said to James as I folded my first pancake and shoved it into my mouth whole. James stared at me for a moment, his mouth slightly open as my cheeks bulged and I chewed.
"Uhhh … we brought them over, mum thought they might be able to lend a helping hand," James replied distractedly. "That's not a problem is it?"
"Petunia will go absolutely wild when she sees them," I muffled around my mouthful of food.
"But she saw one last night," Sirius added in from my right.
"She'd be mighty disappointed to hear you didn't pick up on her melodramatic nature last night. Why are you eating oatmeal?" I asked, staring down at his sloppy bowl of oatmeal. Not that I spent any sort of time thinking about Sirius period, but seeing him scarf down bowl after bowl of oatmeal in the morning, was not something I ever thought would happen.
"It's fucking delicious, I'll have you know," Sirius replied, as he spooned more of the stuff into his mouth.
"If you say so," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders.
"If they would make her uncomfortable, we can just bring them back home with us," James said worriedly. I put a hand on his arm and looked deep into his eyes.
"Pissing off Petunia is exactly what I spend my time doing, they stay," I told him solemnly. And as if on cue, Petunia wandered into the kitchen, her hair an absolute nest, swimming in her baggy sweats and shirt, rubbing her eyes.
I watched as she wove her way around the kitchen, half-asleep by the looks of it, and plopped down directly in front of Sirius. I saw one of the house-elves pop up next to Petunia's knee and slide a plate of fried eggs and bacon in front of her. All three of us silently waited for the shriek that I knew was coming.
Or was it?
Petunia picked up her fork, scooped some egg into her mouth, and mumbled to her side, "Thanks for the eggs . . . whatever your name is," she finished after a brief pause and kept on eating.
We couldn't help but sit there and stare at Petunia as she calmly and quietly ate her food. I couldn't believe my ears or my eyes. To have Petunia react so calmly to something from my world was unusual to say the least. I had taken to never mentioning anything magic related around her if I could help it because I'd learned over the years that it wasn't a good idea.
And something about her just sitting there and quietly enjoying her breakfast gave me a little bit of hope that maybe things would be ok between the two of us some day.
James nudged my knee with his and I looked over at him. Not bad, he mouthed at me and pointedly glanced at Petunia. I couldn't help but give a small smile back at him and I don't know if it was the lighting in the kitchen or something else, but I could've sworn that James's eyes were twinkling.
"You two disgust me," Sirius said and it was like a vinyl coming to a screeching halt. No one could kill a moment quite like Sirius could. James reached over my head and shoved Sirius on his shoulder, hard enough to send the boy careening off his seat.
"For fuck's sake," Sirius yelled as he flailed his arms while he attempted to right himself.
"Language," Mrs. Potter yelled from her seat near my parents, her head sticking around her husband to look at the three of us. A moment later however, she had turned back to her conversation. Sirius shoved James between the shoulder blades as he passed behind him. James stuck his leg out and tried to trip Sirius, who grabbed James's leg and tried to pull him off his seat.
I watched the two of them grapple with each other out of the kitchen, the bangs as they ran into walls growing louder and louder as the two of them made their way back outside, no doubt to return to their snowball fight.
I took the moment to slip away upstairs and find an empty room with a fireplace so I could call Dorcas and give her the most scathing talk down in the history of mankind. I went down the corridor after corridor in an attempt to get as lost as possible to avoid being barged in on by anyone should they decide to come wandering around the house.
Once I was satisfied that I had lost myself enough, I quietly closed the door behind me in one of the many guest bedrooms that were available in the house. Of course there was Floo powder sitting right on the mantel above the fireplace. I lit the fire, threw a handful of the powder in and stuck my head into the flames.
"Dorcas Meadowes, Gryffindor Common Room," I called out clearly and watched as the world in front of my eyes flashed and twisted before finally focusing on an almost empty common room. And of course, there was Dorcas, wrapped up in a blanket, book in hand, three mugs of tea already lined up on the floor beside her.
"You scheming fuck!" I yelled at her. Dorcas jumped about a foot in the air, her book flying behind the couch as she fell over the side, entangled in her blanket, knocking over the mugs below her.
"This is an unwarranted attack," Dorcas said as she rolled around the floor trying to untangle herself. The mugs she knocked over rolled back and forth on their sides around her. Once she'd made it to her feet, after much struggling and banging, she staggered over to the fireplace. She tripped over a stray mug and almost went sprawling again but managed to catch herself in time.
"Unwarranted my ass," I spit at her. "You've completely hijacked my winter vacation!"
She sat down cross-legged in front of me, her mouth curling into a smug smile. "I let you make use of my very big, very empty mansion for the holidays. If anything, you should be thanking me."
"Your mansion that just happens to be neighbours with the Potters', and we both know how scheming you are when you get an idea into that big head of yours," I replied with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm just doing the Lord's work," Dorcas said, putting a hand to her heart.
"You're bored and you're seeing things that aren't there," I told her.
"You and James are clearly into each other, it's almost painful to watch you guys, I'm just giving you guys a push in the right direction," Dorcas insisted. She stretched out on her side, her head propped up on her hand as she looked at me. "You can't tell me you haven't noticed him acting different around you."
I opened my mouth and then shut it again without saying anything. "I knew it!" she shrieked gleefully.
"We don't know that for sure," I rushed, shaking my head from side to side. "You know I'm not very good at picking up on these things."
"I know, it's almost painful how obtuse you are," Dorcas replied drily. "How about this, if there's anything that seems out of the ordinary to you, you just pop your head in here and tell me and I'll let you know what it means?"
I pursed my lips in thought, but it was probably my best course of action. Assuming I even picked up on anything out of the ordinary.
"Alright, that's a pretty good idea," I said. "Okay okay, so today I opened my window and I only had on a tank and no bra and James and Sirius were having a snowball fight and Sirius commented on my boobs, and James went out of his way to not look."
Dorcas's features evened out as she stared at me. "That's called being a regular person, Lils."
I couldn't help but redden in the face at her response, not that it mattered, the redness of the flames hid any sign of the blush spreading over me. "Right. Well. I'll just be going then." And I was ready to pull out my head when I remembered yet another thing I had to yell at her about.
"Where in Merlin's name did you put my pajamas, what's all that nonsense you put in their place?" I demanded of Dorcas. She waggled her eyebrows at me in response and grinned.
"Those things are horrid, they don't show your assets to their best potential," she replied, "we can't have you parading around James looking like that. I'm trying to inspire the man to make the first move here."
"They're not exactly meant to entice a man to shag me Dorcas, they're meant to sleep in. It's not as if I'll be spending my whole day in them," I argued. I didn't even know why I was arguing, it's not as if I was going to get them back any time soon.
"Believe me, you'll spend a lot more time in pajamas than you think you will, you run out of things to do in the middle of nowhere very fast," Dorcas said, nodding her head sagely. "Now go, you're depriving your man of your presence."
I didn't bother arguing with her and instead took my leave of her and went sprawling onto my back into the empty room. I waited for the room to stop spinning before I clambered to my feet and padded back outside. Out in the corridor, I looked around at all the doors lining the hall, all of them looked the same. Unfortunately, in my attempt to make sure no one else in the house could find me, I couldn't even find my own way out.
I took out my wand, placed it flat on my hand and said, "Point me," all the time picturing the main entrance of the house in my mind's eye. My wand led me down corridor after corridor after corridor, each one more unfamiliar than the last. By the time I gave up, I might have been on the third floor? Fourth floor? I didn't know, but my wand wasn't leading me in the right direction so I did the next best thing I could think of.
I found the first room that had a window in it, threw aside the curtain and opened the window. I looked down at the ground and with my wand stuck in between my teeth, I swung a leg over the ledge. I took my wand, pointed it at myself, and began to levitate myself down. When I was only a couple of meters from the ground, Sirius dashed out from around the corner and yelled.
"What are you doing levitating yourself Evans!" It broke my concentration and I went falling the last couple of meters into the snow.
"I got lost trying to find my way out of the house and did the next best thing I could think of," I replied and shook out the snow that had gone down my shirt. James stuck out his hand and pulled me to my feet so quickly I stumbled and fell face first into his chest. On instinct, his arms wrapped around me and held me close to his chest and we stood like that for a few seconds. Sirius let out a whistle behind me and James immediately dropped his arm as if he'd been burned.
"Where's the rest of your merry band of thieves?" I asked the two of them.
"Pete went home to his parents and our dear Remus is staying at Hogwarts for his final year, I think the man will actually miss the place," Sirius said to me as he picked snow out of my hair.
"And what about you?" I asked Sirius.
"Oh you know, I'm dead to my family and all so I've been taken in by the Potters'," Sirius said with a shrug as he walked off. I looked to James unsure if I should keep asking questions but nothing in his expression gave me any indication of what I should do.
"Good riddance as far as I'm aware, absolute fascists the lot of them, well except Regulus, but I suspect they've already corrupted him now that I'm not around to contradict them on every single thing they say," Sirius went on and when he turned around again, he was grinning.
I skipped towards him and looped my arm through his, tugging him close to my side and said, "Well, me and Petunia are no Regulus, but we can certainly be your temporary siblings for this holiday since Peter and Remus aren't here," I said to him and put my head on his shoulder. In a few long strides, James had caught up and kept pace with Sirius and I. When I looked at him, I found him looking at me and Sirius with a warm look in his eye and a small smile on his face.
"You, yes, but I don't wanna think of your sister as my sister, if you get my drift," Sirius said with a grin that hinted at wicked things to come. I could practically see the wheels turning in his head. I didn't know whether to encourage him or be disgusted at the turn this had all taken.
But considering how much I detested every single pretentious, patronizing cell in Vernon's body, I would take Sirius over him any day. And then it hit me.
"Sirius, my dear, dear friend," I started, eyes widening innocently, my voice sugary sweet. "How would you like to cause some trouble?"