[SIRIUS BLACK]
Sirius is sitting in his first-floor den, on his mother's least-favorite couch, drinking his father's least-favorite brand of firewhiskey. For what feels like the fiftieth time in the last few hours, his grip on his tumbler tightens painfully, and he resists the urge to throw it across the room.
Also for the fiftieth time, his memory flashes back to the source of his misery which occurred only hours ago.
The room had been deathly silent upon Finnie's swift departure. He remembers Tonks hissing something at Remus – he had been reaching for her – and the twins' apologetic, but resolute, faces as they angled their way past him to follow his now lavender-haired houseguest out the door. Tonks had snapped, "Later, Remus, for Godric's sake-," and hustled her way after them, giving Sirius an extremely exasperated look as she passed.
Sirius had tried to hide the fury and hurt he knew was likely written on his face for everyone to read.
Interviewing alternative places to sleep tonight? I just told her I cared about her. Guess the boyfriend wasn't as crucial a component as I had thought.
Almost as an afterthought: What a bitch.
Remus had inhaled through his nose then, awkwardly. He unceremoniously began pouring doses of firewhiskey into a tumbler for himself, and without pause began additionally pouring one for Sirius.
Sirius had realized then that his godson was still poised only a few feet from him. Harry had been approaching he and Finnie as the last few minutes unfolded, theoretically in order to support his godfather. "That didn't go terribly according to plan, did it?" Harry joked weakly.
Ron had scoffed loudly at that. "I'd say not," he exclaimed, moving a hand to rub the back of his neck ruefully, "I'm not entirely certain what you two thought confronting her like that was going to help-"
"Us two?" Harry shot back, turning to face his friend, "I remember at dinner you were quite keen to get to make some sort of point about how Hermione and Ginny would be crushed if she-"
The two of them began arguing in full. Sirius sighed, feeling heartsore but still pissed off, and began to trail a path to the couch to retrieve the tumbler Mooney had so thoughtfully filled. However, he wasn't two steps in that direction, passing the kids, when Hermione caught his eye. His throat seemed to close off as he noticed that hers were filmed with tears.
"W-w-why…," she barely choked out on a whisper. Sirius couldn't manage but to hold eye contact with her, confused at what had prompted this. Was it something he had done? Perhaps he should have tried harder to isolate Finnie, to spare the kids the argument.
Ron and Harry stopped snapping at each other abruptly, finally noticing the state of their friend. Ron in particular made a move to lift a hand towards her, looking just as confused as Sirius felt. "'Mione?" Harry murmured.
Hermione took a bracingly deep breath in, and seemed to shift from inaudibly upset to steaming mad.
"Why-," she hissed out, the stagnant tears now falling disorganizedly from her lids, "-did you say that to her?" Sirius felt himself lean away, his eyebrows raising of their own accord. "Hermione-," he tried to begin in a placating tone.
But she interrupted, leaning towards him in equal measure, her brown eyes blazing, "Why would you throw Sam in her face?" He relaxed, understanding. Her voice grew louder, "How could that possibly have been necessary?"
He had the good grace to wince slightly. He walked away from her then, not completely wanting to admit that it had been a potentially poor tactic. But he had been desperate, unwilling to leave any stone unturned if it would keep her away from the Death Eater soiree.
He had fallen gracefully onto the sofa beside Mooney, taking the tumbler in hand for what would become the first of many drinks that evening. "I'm sorry if that seemed low to you, Hermione-," he had muttered to the girl, lifting the glass to his lips, "-but I thought maybe if someone reminded her of her damned boyfriend-"
"Boyfriend?" she had exclaimed shrilly, "Her boyfriend? Sam is her brother, Sirius! Her fifteen-year-old, dying brother."
The world had seemed to tilt forward at an extreme angle. Sirius barely registered Bill angrily striding back into the room, intent on the rolling bar behind where he and Mooney were seated. He felt frozen, helplessly scanning Hermione's face for any sign that she might be mistaken. Beside him, Lupin was coughing, having just taken a sip of firewhiskey at this pronouncement.
A brother. Sam. Sammy.
Oh, fuck.
His swirling, horrified thoughts halted suddenly, and he heard himself ask weakly, "Dying?"
Hermione seemed to lose a little steam, blinking and flushing at the ferocity of the attention the room was now giving her. "I-I, well…" she cleared her throat, "I don't think she meant to give that away, but earlier today while we were talking…," her voice got a little smaller, "a lot of her stories had to do with her being in the hospital for Sam or her dad."
Harry looked positively horrorstruck. Ron looked sad, but contemplative. Sirius' stomach, which was now located permanently somewhere around his feet, was more inclined to agree with his godson's interpretation of the situation.
Lupin had both hands wrapped around his tumbler, his arms resting on his knees. He was looking sideways at Sirius when he mumbled, "Mate." Sirius grunted in response. Lupin took a quick sip of his drink, but mumbled again, "Sam was her brother, mate."
"Yes," Sirius had snapped, dropping his face onto one palm, the other still holding his drink. "Yes," he moaned more quietly, "I just yelled at a young woman for unwillfully abandoning her incredibly ill fifteen-year-old brother…"
"I'm going to bed," Harry had announced suddenly, turning on his heel. His face was positively crumpling with self-deprecation and regret. That was his godson, always taking the blame onto his slight shoulders. Ron winced theatrically at Hermione before following Harry out.
Once her best friends were out of the room, Hermione had sighed. "She's got another brother, you know," she said to Sirius, a bit archly. "Vince. He's seventeen. So try not to go accusing her of having multiple-"
"I swear to Godric, Hermione," Sirius said thickly between his fingers, "If I manage to somehow make amends for this massive bugger-up, I will never assume anything about any damn person ever again-"
"Because she misses them a lot, you know," Hermione interrupted, needing to get the last word in. "She's sacrificing her f-f-family…-," she took another deep breath, and Sirius felt his heart sink even lower, "-to help us."
She left then, following the boys upstairs.
Now, nearly four hours later, Sirius is on his sixth glass of firewhiskey, and does not feel better in the slightest.
He had genuinely considered going after her and bringing her arse back to Grimmauld Place so he could explain this massive fuck-up. But, after about thirty minutes of silence, Bill had explained how he and Fleur had been arguing. Finnie had nabbed Fleur on her way out, calling Bill names, and when Bill tried to follow them down the street to reclaim his fiancée, the other party-goers had caught up and disapparated with the women.
"Bill," Lupin mutters quietly, "For the love of all that is good, please change this song."
Bill has pulled a chair beside the mantle, closest to the futuristic music-playing thing which no one has yet bothered to turn off. He sets the deck of cards down on one knee, he had been compulsively shuffling them for the last two hours, and glances down at the device. "You're not quite fancying-," he squints at the player, "-'All Time Low' by Jon something-or-another?" Bill might be a bit tipsy.
"Call me buggered," Lupin mumbles, he's slumped on the far side of the sofa next to Sirius, "but it may be hitting just a tad too close to home this evening."
Sirius snorts with unexpected amusement. Lupin turns his head limply to the side to regard his friend. "You know," he says a bit cheekily, with a small grin, "I know you've got some serious work to do in order for her to not set your house afire while you sleep-"
Boy is that an understatement, thinks Sirius.
"-but despite all the fanfare, at least you know now that she's unattached."
Sirius considers this. Despite the continued churning of his stomach, he can feel his spirits lift.
Sam is her brother.
A small smile quirks one side of his mouth despite himself. "Thatta' boy, Padfoot," Lupin crows, pointing to Sirius' upturned features. Remus may be tipsy as well. Sirius allows his smile to grow but softly asks, "How are you feeling?"
Lupin's gaze turns self-reflective, he knows Sirius is referring to his 'furry little problem.' "You know," he grunts out, "I'm feeling a bit wolfish, for certain, but not in a bad way." He wiggles his eyebrows most uncharacteristically. Sirius and Bill are both chortling at this, when suddenly the front door slams.
Sirius feels his senses heighten, and he is immediately sitting up straight in his seat.
I swear to shit, if she went home with some other bloke…
But almost immediately, he hears the familiar timbre of her tinkling giggle, and his posture relaxes. "Feeneeee…," the three wizards hear Fleur pathetically whine, and Bill shoots up to standing. Before he can make any headway, however, the three women traipse into the den from the hallway. Finnie is carrying Fleur across her shoulders, almost in a fireman's hold, striding confidently even in her heels. Her hair is now back to pale blonde, the coloring charm having worn off.
"Oh balls," she snaps out, clearly drunk, but her eyes are on Sirius, "You're still up."
"Hullo, everyone," Tonks sighs, looking like she would like to curl up and sleep on the rug. "Bill, if you wouldn't' mind putting on some music?" Tonks addresses the flummoxed-looking ginger wizard, "Fleur is going to need it."
Still glaring at Sirius, subtlety does not appear to be Finnie's motive this evening, the muggle woman rather unceremoniously deposits her package in front of Bill. Fleur immediately begins to sway to the music, as though compelled against her will. "What's wrong with her?" Bill chokes out, clearly concerned.
"She's in shark mode," Finnie mutters, checking her nails. Bill only looks more baffled. Finnie has turned her back and is blatantly ignoring the freckled wizard, who is now swaying on the spot with his fiancée leaning heavily on him. Tonks, however, takes pity on him and explains, "Apparently, in the future, this term is used to explain an inebriated state during which an individual would be better off staying in motion, lest they lose momentum and get ill."
Finnie gesticulates a thumbs up, seemingly aimed at nothing. "Just keep swimming. You stop swimming, you die," she announces, much to Bill's horror.
Sirius is struck once more by how sexy Finnie looks. Her legs appear to go on for days, and half the buttons of her sheer blouse are gaping open, revealing her tank-top adorned chest. Her wild hair is doing what it always does to him. If anything the vision is aided by her flashing green eyes despite their anger, if the tightening in his pants is any indication.
Down, boy.
"Fin-," he manages to rumble out, but she puts a hand up in his direction. "NO THANK YOU, FIDO," she exclaims, avoiding eye contact with him. Lupin and Tonks snort in unison, Tonks flopping herself on the couch between Sirius and Remus. Finnie raises an eyebrow at the werewolf, "Did you find him a muzzle?" she demands.
"Sjofn," Lupin says through his smile, holding his glass up to his face, "You really ought to give him a chance to explain-"
"NOBODY ASKED YOU, WATSON," she cries just as suddenly, tossing her hands up in irritation. She starts rummaging through the bag at her shoulder, muttering, "Motherfucking Bilbo Baggins, telling me how to live my goddamn life- AHA!" She whips out her fake wand and points it at Lupin, twirling it enthusiastically. "TELL ME- WHERE IS THE ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL?" Sirius and Remus frown, confused. "TELL ME, OR ELSE ILL CURSE YOU WITH ORC-FACE," she collapses into a crouch on the floor, laughing wildly to herself. Tonks is giggling as well, but vaguely.
"Watson," Finnie snaps her face up to Lupin again, suddenly serious, "I'm hungry. Ring Mrs. Hudson for tea." She stands despite her continued mad laughter, heading for the door.
"Fin-?" Sirius calls out, slightly concerned. But she shouts back at him from the hallway, "I'M GETTING FOOD, SIRIUS. YOU'RE NOT MY FUCKING SUPERVISOR."
The three on the couch go quiet, watching the door where the insane little fairy had flounced out. Tonks turns her head to Remus, slurring a quick explanation. "She thinks you look like some actor," Tonks smirks, "She wouldn't shut up about it. Martin something." Lupin says nothing, but nods understandingly. Sirius is considering getting up and going after her, for her own safety, but is still feeling a bit uneasy about the likely vehemence with which he would be received.
"How was your evening?" Lupin slurs politely to Tonks. Sirius rolls his eyes. The two of them are so unmanageably bipolar, it's no wonder they can't seem to remain on the same page. He rolls his eyes even harder as Tonks replies in equal politeness, "Quite good, quite good. We went to a club to dance, which was fine. A bit crowded for my taste…"
Lupin nods as though he knows perfectly well what she means. Sirius suppresses the urge to snort, Godric only knows when was the last time Mooney attempted to dance. "We went to a combination karaoke/hookah bar at around midnight," Tonks continues, wrinkling her nose. "Finnie and Fleur were quite keen on it, and it smelled nice enough, but honestly I couldn't stand to actually smoke out of the community tube."
"Community tube?" Lupin smirks, gazing at her with a rather sickeningly contented smile. Sirius feels extremely jealous all of a sudden. He wants Finnie to look at him like that. He wants to go buy her a hookah of her own. Immediately.
Tonks giggles, sounding like silly girl rather than the proud auror she is, "Well there were about ten of us at that point, and we were all expected to share the same mouthpiece-"
"Feenee eez verra good at making friends," Fleur suddenly announces from the middle of the room. She is slowly grinding on her fiancé to some song Finnie's device declares to be called "Your Body" by Pretty Ricky. Bill looks bemused, but dazed, likely entranced a bit by her veela genes. Swiftly forgetting the conversation, and subsequently ignoring their audience, she begins muttering to Bill seductively in French.
The three on the couch decide to ignore them as well, and Tonks turns back to Remus. "That's true, actually," she tells him matter-of-factly. She flips her head towards Sirius and continues, "She had quite a lot of admirers. Gentlemen and ladies alike. You'd best-"
"Yes, yes, yes," Sirius snaps at her, "I know I buggered up. I'm going to fix it."
Tonks simply raises her eyebrows blearily. "Good sodding luck," she grins, "She loathes you."
Sirius' stomach sinks, but Tonks quickly corrects herself, "No, no, forgive me, that's not true." She reaches blindly behind her for Remus' drink, snags it, and brings it to her mouth. "She is immensely attracted to you, won't shut up about it, really," she takes a fortifying sip, and Sirius' face breaks into a cocky grin. "But now she's fairly certain you're a selfish piece of shite," Tonks finishes, glancing back up into his face with a wince. "You really oughtn't have brought up her brother like that," she adds unnecessarily.
Sirius takes a deep breath in through his nose and reaches over to her to snatch the firewhiskey out of her hand. Lifting it to his lips, he doesn't respond to her but to raise an egotistical eyebrow. "Oh, lord," Tonks mumbles to herself.
"How precisely did you get into the club?" Lupin questions confusedly. "You haven't got muggle ID, and Finnie certainly doesn't have suitable-" But before he can finish Tonks begins laughing. "Turns out," she huffs between giggles, "the disguise I used today in the joke shop was actually a famous muggle actress-"
"Courtney Cox can get into any damn club she wants," Finnie states proudly, striding back into the room. She's now carrying what looks to be a serving tray of Sirius' finest silver, covered in pieces of deli meat, cheese, olives, and pickles. The muggle woman rather unceremoniously drops to the floor on the opposite side of the coffee table, setting the platter down closest to her. "Cox is spelled C-O-X, Remus, no need to look so alarmed," Finnie has begun spearing an olive onto each finger on one hand, continuing, "I wouldn't have Tonks parading around as a damn porn star."
Remus chuckles softly, and as he reaches for a piece of ham he mutters, "I wouldn't mind it in certain contexts, per se…"
Tonks smacks him hard on the arm, but she's smiling.
Systematically sucking the olives off her fingers one by one – Sirius' pants tighten just a hair further – Finnie says, her mouth full, "I don't get the sense that would be terribly difficult to arrange, Mooney." She shoots a downright devilish look at Tonks, "Why just this evening, I discovered during a completely innocent drinking game that your lady over here-"
With a strangled cry, Tonks whips out her wand and points it directly at Finnie's face, "Mimblewimble!"
Her mouth moving wordlessly, it takes Finnie about two seconds to realize there's no sound. Mutely she seems to flail through a string of curses before huffing, stuffing a piece of salami into her mouth, and resolutely presenting Tonks with her middle finger. Lupin chuckles even harder, nudging Tonks playfully as he reaches across her to retrieve his drink from Sirius. "Come on now, love," he tells her, smiling, "That's not fair. I wanted to hear what she has to say."
"Complete drivel," Tonks sniffs, gazing at him from beneath her eyelashes, "Utter nonsense."
While the two of them continue to flirt abstractly, Sirius eases his wand from inside his sleeve and wordlessly releases the tongue-tying curse. Despite their obvious camaraderie and jesting nature, he can't help but feel a lot of disquiet at the muggle woman's inability to defend herself from such a simple spell.
"THREESOME," she suddenly exclaims, placing a hand to her throat and feigning looking around as though to find the source of the pronouncement. Tonks slaps a hand over her eyes in horror, and Lupin blushes, glancing quickly between the two women. Sirius, however, howls with laughter. After barking out a few chuckles, he sees Finnie gazing at him from the corner of his eye.
Is she watching me laugh?
Sobering suddenly, Sirius quickly springs off of the couch, swings round the table, and deposits himself on the floor next to her. She's leaning away from him in alarm, her face hard with resolute dislike. But he powers through, lifting a hand to her face to push a lock of her pale golden hair behind one earring-filled ear. Her eyes flash with something dangerous; he's definitely pushing his luck.
"I'm extremely fucking sorry," he says low, in a rush, "I didn't know who Sam was, I fucked up." Her eyebrows lower, and her eyes harden just a bit more. All signs point to fuck off, but he can't. "I'm worried about you and this Death Eater gathering, but you were right," he continues speaking quickly, in a deep rumble, "We should let you do what you need to do."
She looks conflicted, and Sirius feels stomach warm from its place at his feet. Finally, after a minute or two of contemplation, her face relaxes. It's not inherently friendly, but it's no longer venomous. She leans toward him, and he feels a thrill when he notices he can see white lace at the edge of her low-cut tank top. Her eyes are still a little bleary with drink, but he can see she's dead serious when she bites out, "Don't ever talk about my family ever again." She leans back and relaxes even further, almost swaying towards him in what appears to be an unconscious motion.
Sirius resists the urge to gather her close to him and tell her any promise she needs to hear, but what she says next is almost as satisfying. Her eyes pointed down at her hands in her lap, she mutters, "But, thank you." He can't keep one eyebrow from lifting in surprise, and she flits up her bright green gaze, meeting his eyes to finish, "For giving a shit, I mean. About me." In that instant she looks so lost, Sirius nearly loses his battle with his self-control.
But just as quickly, the moment's gone. She lifts her chin and gives him a mocking half-smile. She raises one of her hands out of her lap, holding it out to him, and offers, "Olive?"
Pursing his lips, Sirius considers her. With a cocky look, he leans forward and opens his mouth just slightly in an invitation for her to feed it to him.
He jolts backwards and laughs as the olive hits him in the eye. Finnie chuckles along softly, and they both turn their heads in time to be met with the sight of Lupin and Tonks openly snogging on the couch.
A silence falls. After a few seconds, Finnie sighs and says, "You need to buy a damn television."