Hit me with your best shot!
17
A/N: Firstly, I own nothing you recognise. I have gone back through and re-edited, after realising how truly terrible it was I hope its better! Mikki's full name is Mikayla George Henderson. Johana's full name is Johana-Lee Sophia Spritz. Alice's full name is Alice Marie Walker, Lily's is Lily Elizabeth-Ann Evans (for her Mum and Nana), Sirius' is Sirius Orion Black, and James' is James Brian Potter (for his mother's father). I stole Mikki's first name from somebody I meet at leadership camp, who was really nice, and I loved her name.
-Chocolate Fish
I am sick of him. What right does he have to enter my world and shake it up like a chocolate milkshake? No right at all. At the end of fourth year, we first started to flirt mercilessly with each other. Big mistake. Despite the fact that we flirt habitually, I can't stand him! He gets on my nerves like no-one does, and the fact that we flirt makes it worse! Nobody believes me when I say that I really don't like him! And, I know for a fact that he feels the same. Why is he so good at frustrating me???
"Come on, Mikki, we have to go!" Shouted a short, dark-haired girl, with a kind round face and sparkly blue eyes. Alice Walker, one of my three best friends. She has really pretty hair; it is pin-straight and a dark chocolate brown. She thinks that it is one of her best features, and she is right. Johana, another of my best friends, walks in balancing a stack of books and an apple atop her blonde, curly head. She is practicing her posture, not that she needs to. Johana Spritz equals drop-dead gorgeous. She has naturally platinum blonde hair, shiny apple green eyes and a svelte figure, plus a phantabulastic dress sense. Like I said, gorgeous.
"Mikkindoodle! Come on! Get your lazy arse off your bed and come down to breakfast! We are going to Hogsmeade! And we can all apparate, so we can apparate to Muggle London again, and no-one will be any wiser!" Alice's mum taught us, and our other friend, how to apparate just before fourth year, just in case of emergencies. We have been doing this for most of our Hogsmeade trips, the only difference is, this year we, as seventh years, have officially learnt how, have our licences, and are of age!
I need some new shoes. My favourite pair of shiny silver plimsolls both have holes in them. I sling my hot pink wool coat over my arm, (it is lightly snowing outside, but I won't need it until later) and follow Alice and Johana downstairs, where I promptly walk headlong into one Sirius Black.
"Move it, Black." I say bluntly, as he is standing right in front of my face, leaning in and peering into my pink-rimmed, square-framed glasses.
"Did you know that your eyes are the exact same colour as chocolate ice-cream?"
"Yes actually, Black, I did know that my eyes are brown."
"Not brown, chocolate ice-cream coloured." Sirius contradicts. What's he playing at? He just picked up one of my chestnut-red spiral curls, examined it, and then smelt it. My hair is the perfect colour red, I can wear all colours of the rainbow, and none of them clash. Although, sometimes it is annoyingly curly.
"I like your shampoo, Henderson, Raspberries are my favourite fruit," What a strange thing to say. "And your hair is the exact colour of my bed hangings at James' house." Black says, in a conversational tone, as if he is merely commenting on the weather.
"Padfoot, shut up. Come on, I'm hungry." James says. I suspect that his eagerness to get down to the Great Hall is less to do with breakfast, and more to do with the fact that his 'Lilyflower' sits at the Gryffindor House table, munching bananas on toast. Lily is my last best friend. James has been fawning over her since second year, and with good reason. Lily has bright, emerald green orbs that seem to glow, lush auburn locks and a smattering of cute freckles over her button nose. Cuter than a litter of puppies, she is.
"Yeah, yeah. Do you girls want to come with us?" Sirius asks self-assuredly. Alice goes red as Frank Longbottom, her boyfriend of two years, winks at her from across the room. Obviously, she is not paying any attention to the conversation taking place. Just like Sirius, I too am poised and confident. I sling one arm around his neck, and one around James' and we all start walking, with Remus and Johana walking in front of us, and Alice waiting for Frank in the common room. Peter must have disappeared to wherever he goes.
"How about a race down to the top of the entranceway stairs? Who's in? Winner gets to treat all losers as slaves for the rest of the weekend." I say as I raise my hand in example. Both Sirius' and James' hands are thrown into the air. I look at Jo.
"Don't look at me; I don't want to be nobody's slave." I turn to Remus.
"Don't look at me either, I wish to be somebody's slave as much as Johana here does." I sigh in resignation. I know a lost cause when I see one. Jo starts counting down from 10.
"3, 2, 1, GO!"
And the three of us are off. Before I knew that I was a witch, (I'm a muggleborn.) I was the best runner at my school and wanted nothing more than to become a professional runner when I was all growed up. I still go for a long run around the grounds every Saturday morning. Neither one of the boys, fit as they may be, stood any chance of winning.
"HA! I won, and in 3 inch heels to!" I gloat as I reach the top of the steps a good 30 seconds ahead of James and Sirius. We all lean against the wall, both catching our breath and waiting for Remus and Johana.
"I didn't know that you could run so fast, Henderson!" Sirius exclaims in disbelief.
"Yeah Mikki, how did you get to be such a fast runner?"
"Jamesie, do you really think that I would tell you my secrets? I've always been a good runner. Also, I go for long runs on Saturday mornings at 6:30." I reply, laughing at their expressions. Just then, Remus and Johana come round the corner, and start walking down the stairs. They were in such deep conversation that they didn't even notice us.
"They didn't even notice us!" exclaims James, again stating the obvious.
"Yeah, let's go down to breakfast; I'm starved." Sirius says causally.
"Wait!" I half shout, "Carry me downstairs. You two are my slaves for the weekend." They nod, understanding my meaning, and both grab me under my armpits and my elbows, then lift me easily. I bend one leg and point the other as they carry me down the 74 steps. I once counted. Everybody looks up at our grand entrance. Some applaud, much to my absolute delight.
Jo turns around, smirks then calls out "Make way for Princess Mikki and her transporters!" Sirius' face splits into a grin, as does James'. When we reach the bottom, they put me down.
"I take it Mikki won." Remus says. I nod enthusiastically.
"Johana, we are not Mikki's transporters. Have you ever been so insulted, Padfoot?" James says mock-angrily.
"No, I have not Prongsie." 'Padfoot' replies. I think that James just screams to be called names with a -sie on the end. "Well, that was fun. I've never carried anybody down stairs before. Certainly not anybody as light as Mikki here is." Sirius continues. Aww, a compliment. Maybe I don't hate him that much if he is going to compliment me.
"Flattery will get you everywhere, Sirius, but not today. Who wants to make my breakfast?" By now, we are all sitting at the Gryffindor table with Lily. James has managed to wrangle a seat next to her, Remus is on Lily's other side, and I am opposite her with Sirius on one side of me, and Johana on the other.
"I will. Two pieces of toast with raspberry jam and white coffee with one sugar?" wow, Black knows exactly what I eat for breakfast. Strange.
"Thank-you, Sirius." I reply graciously.
"Why, pray tell, is Sirius making Mikki's toast?" Lily questions.
"He and James lost the race to the top of the entranceway stairs." Remus says casually, while pouring himself a pumpkin juice. To her credit, Lily doesn't even bat an eyelid at this.
"Are you two complete idiots? Challenging Mikki to a race? She is a total running star." Everybody seems to be complimenting me today. I tell this to the table in general. They all scoff (Johana) or ignore me. How rude.
"I need to get some new shoes today. And a bra." I've never been a shy one.
"I'll come with you if you want. You are about a 12C aren't you?" Sirius says, sizing up my bust.
"Yes actually. And my trouser size is 12, my shoe size is 8 and my t-shirt size is 12. Anything else that you might want to know?" I say in a pleasant tone, with a well hidden trace of sarcasm that is not wasted on Sirius.
"Yeah, what is your favourite flower?" Ummm…
"Red roses. Yours?" I reply.
"Blue gerberas. Colour?"
"Pink. You?"
"I rather like red. What's your favourite muggle movie?" Sirius says,
"BBC Pride and Prejudice. What's yours?"
"I rather like that one that says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." At the end. What's it called?"
"Casablanca. Wait, you like Casablanca? It's a romantic comedy, you do realise?" I ask, not completely surprised. I reckon that Sirius has a softer side.
"Sorry to break up this enthralling conversation," Johana starts, "But as we have all finished our breakfast, I thought that we might leave. Are you boys coming with us?" Aforementioned boys nod their assent. I wonder where Alice and Frank are…
"Does anyone know where Frank and Alice are?" Sirius queries. Great minds think alike. Huh, I just called Black a great mind.
"Frank was staying behind," Remus starts to explain,
"Yeah," Johana continues for him, "and Alice said that she was going to stay with him. They are going to get married someday." She finishes casually as we all stand up and walk out to where Filch Sr. was waiting. (There are two of them. The old one is at least fifty. Filch Jr. is only 20-something. Filch Sr. isn't very good with magic, and Filch Jr. Is a Squib.)
"Move along." Filch says irritably.
"What did we ever do to him?" Lily mutters under her breath.
"Nothing!" I say brightly, "He just has a stick up his arse!" Everybody laughs.
The walk down to Hogsmeade is virtually silent. Once there, we all stroll down to the end of the road out of Hogsmeade, past Dervish & Banges, and stop.
"Boys, we are going to apparate to Hyde Park, behind the Peter Pan statue." I explain to them.
"Wait," James says, "I thought that you were joking earlier? It's against the school rules." Since when has he obeyed the rules? I tell him so.
"James, we've been doing this since fourth year." Lily adds. He gapes at her.
"But we only learnt to apparate last year." Sirius states. I look at him knowledgeably,
"Alice's mum taught us how to the summer before fourth year. We had daily lessons."
"But, you couldn't apparate straight away when we were learning! Remus was the first to get it! Then it was Riley McIntyre from Ravenclaw." He argues.
"Yeah, you should know, you were going out with her at the time." James adds in.
"You don't honestly think that we would've been stupid enough to look like we had already done it?" Johana says incredulously. "Anyway let's go." She commands. And with six *pop!*'s we are there.
"Ok. Let's split into groups of two. Sirius, you wanted to go with Mikki, didn't you. Remus?" As always, Lily takes control, organising everyone.
"I just want to go to a bookstore. I don't mind who comes with me." Remus fills in her gap.
"I'll come, as long as you don't mind coming to a few other shops." Johana offers. Remus nods and James' face lights up in visible delight. Lily keeps speaking.
"Okay. We have to be back at the castle by 5 o' clock, it is 10 o' clock now. We will meet up at The Cove, you know the place?" We all nod. "Well, we will go there for lunch at 1:30pm, and then we can do something all together." Everybody nods, and we split off.
Sirius and I start to walk through the park.
"So, Henderson, we need to find you a nickname. What is your Patronus form?" That's not a weird question.
"Uhh, a Tiger. Why?"
"Stripes shall be your brand new marauder nickname. Congratulations. Where do you want to go first?" Good question. Where do I want to go? Oh yes, a shoe store.
"Harrods. I need some new shoes. Then can we go to Rigby & Pellar's? I need several new bras and a new nightdress. Where do you want to go?" I swear, I would not normally tell people about my undergarments. But it's Sirius; he knows what I wear anyway.
"Okay, we can go there first but, then can we go to the park? I want to run around." What? Run around? I tell him about my confuzzledness over his need to run.
"Oh, didn't you know? Well I am an illegal Animagus." I bet James is too. Remus can't be; he's a werewolf. I figured it out myself. I told Remus that I figured it out. He said that it was fine, and for some unknown reason, apologised for not telling us sooner and said that I could tell the girls if I wanted.
"Ok. What are you? What about James? What's he? Is Peter one? Remus isn't, though. Can you teach me?" I say in a rush.
"Yes, if you want. I'm a black grim-dog. James is a stag, Peter is a rat and how did you know that Remus isn't one?" Dog. Padfoot, I get it! Stag. Prongs! Oh, I feel clever. Rat, Wormtail. Peter didn't get to choose his name me thinks.
"He is a werewolf." I say factually. "I figured it out in fourth year. Huh, everything important started in fourth year. Here we are!!! Shoes!" Sirius laughs. I'm not entirely sure what at, maybe the comment that everything important happened in fourth year. I state my query. He laughs again, and says
"That everything important happened in fourth year. You know, I ran away from the monsters that I used to call parents in fifth year. That was important." Well, I suppose so.
"Ok. Shoes are on the fourth floor, do you need to get anything here?" He shakes his head and we get in the elevator. We spend half an hour looking around the shoes before I find the perfect pair. They are a dark navy blue, with multi-coloured sparkles all over them. They are plimsolls, and not only do I love them, but Sirius is fascinated by them. He keeps watching the sparkles glitter (I cast a quick charm on the plain navy canvas to add the glitter.)
"Let's go across to Hyde Park again so that you can run around as Padfoot. Can I call Padfoot 'Snuffles'? It sounds so much cuter."
"What if Padfoot wants to be a manly dog, not a cutie one?"
"Honey, Padfoot is never going to be a manly dog, she's a dog." Ha! I insulted his manliness, and dogginess in one sentence! Well done Mikki!
"Now, don't be mean Miss Mikki Mouse. If you want, you can look at Padfoot to make sure that he isn't a girl. Hurry up! I haven't had a good run in ages! Hey, later do you want to come see my old house?" If I didn't know better, I would say that he liked me. But he doesn't, I know that for sure. Even if he did, I don't like him back as more than a friend.
"That sounds good; it's in Grimmauld place isn't it? We can go there after Rigby & Pellar's, and then we will apparate to Fleet Street to have lunch with everyone. We have an hour and a half at the park, an hour at Rigby & Pellar's, and half an hour at your monster's house."
"Ok. I will transform now so that I can start running as soon as we get there." Sirius is an idiot. But it's ok. At least he's a nice idiot.
"Hey, Sirius! Get back here! Snuffles!" He raced off and started chasing several squirrels around the park. I discreetly conjure a Frisbee -not a fanged one- and chuck it at Sirius. He jumps up and catches it in his mouth. I bet he has brilliant abs. I think that I will go for a run. I call Sirius over and tell him what I'm doing. He nods his smiling doggy head, and I shrink my bags.
Snuffles and I run around the perimeter of the park for half an hour then he transformed back into a Sirius. I love magic!
"I love running! And Frisbees! And squirrels!" He sounds dementedly happy. Ooo! We just passed F.C.U.K.! I want a new sweatshirt. They have lovely fluffy sweats.
"Siri! Can we go in? I really need a new sweatshirt! Please?"
He looks at my pathetically beseeching face and says, "I suppose so. Since when do you call me Siri? What happened to 'Only fan-girls make up silly short names like Siri'?" He has a point, and I ignore it.
"Do you like this one, Siri?" I ask. It is hot pink with F.C.U.K. in big letters in the front.
"Get the light grey men's one with the smaller writing." I look at where he is pointing. That is cool; I think I might get it. I tell him so.
"It'll look koolies with my hot-pink straight leg jeans. Do you want anything?" I ask. He nods, grabs a red t-shirt with what looks to be an Oakland logo on it, and walks up to the counter with me. I place my sweatshirt, and the pair of racing-car red stiletto heels that I nabbed on the way in, on the counter. He places his t-shirt on top and pulls out his wallet. I protest slightly, but if he wants to buy me shoes and clothes, who am I to complain.
"Why did you pay for my stuff?" I ask when we are out of the shop, and on our way once more to Rigby & Pellar's.
"Because that is what a gentleman does. And I want to be able to lay claim to that sweatshirt if I want to borrow it. You brought it like, four sizes too big for you." Figures. I never really realised how tall Sirius is, he must be at least 5' 10. And he has bulked up since the end of fifth year. I'm uber short, only just 5' 3.
"How tall are you exactly, Black?"
"5' 11. Why? How tall are you? You only just come up to my neck, Henderson." Thanks, I really needed to be reminded of how short I am.
"Only just 5' 3. That's pretty sad. To think, I am never going to grow again. Oh well. Hopefully you don't grow anymore either. You are already so damn big. Can we just apparate to just across the street from the shop?" He laughs (Is it just me or has there been lots of laughing?)
"I promise not to grow, Mikki. We should apparate; it would be so much easier." A zing, zang and a *Pop!*, and we are crossing the road and in the shop.
The sales woman looks over as we walk into the shop, and she obviously deems us worthy of her attention, sorry, I should say that she deems Sirius to be worthy of her attention.
"Hello! Welcome to Rigby & Pellar's. How may I help you?" She says in an annoyingly chirpy fashion. Instead of directing the question at me, as one would expect as we are in a lingerie shop and I'm the only one of the two of us who is a girl. No, the sales lady did not aim the question at the girl but instead at the Hot Guy standing next to her, otherwise known as Sirius. He puts his arm around my shoulder. That's kind of strange. Oh, I get it! He is making the Lady think that we go out so that she doesn't hit on him. She gives him a look that plainly says 'Why are you with her'
"Hello." I say semi-brightly with my society smile, "I need a 12C please, would you be able to show me where I might find them?" It's like *insert-fake-smile-here* city. She leads me over to several racks of pretty pink coloured bras.
"Here you go. If you need any help, just call." I beckon Sirius over, and start to sort through the racks to find one that I liked. I hold up a cute pink spotted one with ruffles,
"Do you like this one, Sirius?"
"No other girl that I know would ask me that. In fact, no other girl I know would take me shopping here. I like it, but it's not you. I like that one with the hearts. And the ducky one, ooo! The bright red one with the black lace!" I like it. It isn't slutty lace-y, but classy lace-y.
"Koolie-o's. I shall get the smarty-hearty, Ducky-Wucky, and the Racy-lacy ones. Onto the night dresses!" The rude woman who tried-and-failed to hit on Sirius looked over at me disdainfully and Sirius laughed as we walked over to the delicate looking night dresses.
I walk out of the shop later with my three bras, one light pink satin-y nightdress, and one fire engine red with black lace one: "It'll match your bra, Kayla." Sirius had said. Nobody has called me 'Kayla' in forever. My full name is Mikayla George Henderson. Since turning 11, people have generally stuck to the names Mikki, Henderson, Georgia, Mikkindoodle and now, Stripes. Not Kayla. It was like a blast from the past, when my Mum would call me that.
"Crapindoodle!" This word is how I got my nickname Mikkindoodle. "It is 1:25! Hurry, Black! We are late. Apparate to The Cove, it is 1 The Piazza, Convent Garden, London." Two *Pop!*'s and we hurry up through the pastry shop to meet everyone. We sit at a booth where everybody is already sitting. Remus and Johana were on the end, with Lily and James next to them.
"What are you guys going to get?" James asks. That boy is always thinking about food. I feel like something sweet. Apple and raspberry pasty sounds good. I have a terrible sweet tooth.
"I am going to get the traditional Cornish pasty, I heard that woman say on the way in that it was exceptionally good." Sirius says. Personally, I think that it is strange that Sirius the one person, who you would assume has a hugeantic sweet tooth, doesn't.
"Sirius, I need to teach you the art of sugar. I'm getting the Apple and Raspberry pasty. See, instead of getting steak and what-not, you get sugar!" I say chirpily. He snorts at my tone, and I stick my tongue out. "Sirius, should we go to the monsters house after lunch?" He nods, and I turn to Lily and Jo, "Guess what I got, girlies."
"What?" Johana says, loudly. People glance around quickly before returning to their individual conversations. I pull my shopping bags from next to Sirius. He insisted on carrying most of my bags; there were a lot of bags.
"I got these shoes," I show them my navy plimsolls, "These gorgeous shoes" I get my race-car red stilettos out dramatically. They gasp and almost squeal. "And I got this koolies sweatshirt that Sirius picked out for me."
"That looks like a guy jumper." Clever observation, James.
"It is. And, I got one light pink satin-y nightdress and one fire engine red with black lace nightdress, and three padded bras with underwires. One with ducky's, one with hearts, and one un-slutty red and black lace one." Remus and James looked ever so slightly uncomfortable at my listing my undergarment purchases. I laugh at them, and Remus goes faintly red.
"Sounds good, Mikkindoodle. Anyone want to know what I got?" Johana sys. She sounds ridiculously excited.
"But of course, Miss Spritz." I say in a fake posh voice. Sirius snorts loudly,
"You sound like my monster-mother when you talk like that." He says between chuckles.
"I don't mean to keep you from your flirting," Jo says loudly, "but would you two mind looking over here? I got this gorgeous dress. It is made from recycled Sari's." It is fabulous. It is all flippy, and is pretty and girly. "I also got these shoes. I love them so much. They will be fabulous for the seventh and sixth year ball that Dumbledore is holding this year." They are two and a half inches high, pearly cream high heels that match her dress perfectly. In short, I love them.
"Where did you get them? And what did you say about a ball?" I haven't heard nothing about said Ball.
"Dumbledore said that in these dark times, we must celebrate, and so the sixth and seventh formers get a ball." I can tell that she is excited to say the least. I'm not particularly. It's just a dance. "It is guys choice, girls are not allowed to ask, just drop hints and say 'Yes' or 'No', I think that that is slightly sexist to do this, but what the heck, at least I don't have to ask anyone." I suppose that she is right. The food arrives and we start eating. I wonder who shall ask me.
Once we have all finished eating, we walk outside and dispute where we are going to go.
"Can we please go to Ben's Cookies?" Lily asks. "They have the bestest cookies in the whole of London." Don't I know it. I love their cookies; I go there with my parents all the time.
"Of course, Lilyflower." I hear her grumble at the name, but she doesn't say anything.
"Then we are defiantly going to Hamleys, I need to get something for my nieces second birthday." Johana says. Her niece is gorgeous; she has Jo's eyes and Jo's sister's dark mahogany hair. We all nod our agreement.
"Then I was going to show Kayla my monster's house. Can we all go there after?" Sirius says. We all nod once more, and start walking to Ben's Cookies.
"You know," I start, "over summer break, I was searching the internet." Sirius and James look at me as if I'm growing horns. "It is a computer thing, with pages from all over the world. Anyway, you all know how I have this thing for quotes?" They nod. "Well, I found this awesome one, which I adore. It is; "What you see before you my friends, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate." - Katharine Hepburn. Isn't that awesomely koolies?" James is still looking at me as if I'm growing horns, Remus is looking half interested, but also incredibly preoccupied, Johana is completely preoccupied, I never knew that Remus was quite so interesting. Lily is smiling, as if enjoying a private joke and Sirius is laughing.
"Henderson," You know, other than our teachers and Slytherins, Sirius is the only one to call me Henderson, and I'm the only one who calls him Black. Strange. "That quote practically describes your life story." Sirius says between guffaws. I guess it does. I shrug and loop my arm through his, its cold and he seems to be an electric heater. I can feel his heart beating methodically. It's a nice feeling. Woah, woah. Since when did I find Black's heartbeat soothing? Total weirdosity here. Eh. I'm too cold to care too much.
We decide to apparate across the road from Ben's Cookies. Once inside, I take a deep, deep breath in order to inhale as much warm cookie-smell as possible. Remus looks at me strangely, but doesn't comment. I get four milk chocolate chunk cookies and two triple chocolate chunk cookies as per usual. Everyone else dithers and changes their minds several times. I walk outside with Sirius, me still cuddled under his arm keeping warm. We had both chosen our cookies already, and the shop was too crowded to stay in there (He was second quickest, and got one coconut, one double chocolate chunk, one white chocolate chunk and three peanut butter cookies).
"You know, Sirius, those peanut butter cookies are a crime against cookies everywhere." I tell him teasingly. He shakes his head frantically, and I start to laugh loudly at how funny he looks. Somebody taps me on the shoulder from behind and I turn around, startled. It is my mother.
"Mother, uh, um. Hi." I say lamely, I can feel Sirius shaking with laughter at the lameness of my statement. You know, I can't remember when I have ever not called her Mother. It's not that she is intimidating, scary or overly strict or anything, but that's just the society that I grew up at the heart of. Daddy is not Dad, and Mother is not Mum.
"Hello, Mikayla. Why are you not at Hogwarts? And who is this young man?" She gestures at Sirius, who still has his arm around me, but is standing straighter, looking very much as if he was back under the thumb of his monster-mother. He looks even more handsome, sexy, and pure-blood-ish like that. Damn, I can't believe that I just thought that. He detaches himself from me, walks forward, and offers his hand to my mother, (who by the way, reeks of aristocracy, upper-class-ness, and nobility) and introduces himself in a voice that I have never heard before It's not his 'You Know You Love Me' voice, or his 'Worship My Feet' voice, but a voice that I imagine only years of living the lifestyle in which he was brought up, could give you. I have a voice that sounds just like it, if fact, I automatically reverted to it when I greeted my mother.
"Hello, Mrs Henderson. I am Sirius Black. I am in the same house at school as Mikayla. It is a pleasure to meet you." Black says, somehow sounding cold and formal, but still warm, and friendly. If that makes any kind of sense. She smiles an actual, genuine smile (A rarity with people whom she does not know.) and shakes his hand delicately.
"It is a delight to meet you also. Please call me Grace, dear. I do not believe that I have met your parents?" Oh. She has obviously assumed that because she has not met his parents then he's not as important as she thinks she is. Wait, since when does she invite my friends to call her Grace?
"No, you probably haven't. They do not like to go out in society often." A lie if I've ever heard one. "Although, I'm sure that you would have met my Uncle. His name was Alphard Black. He was rather influential within the British Ministry." I find it very hard not to laugh at this, Sirius is talking, of course, about the Ministry of Magic, but he is also carefully calculating his words, with just the right amount of truthfulness to be convincing, yet still laced with lies so my mother is led to believe that his Uncle Alphard is a muggle. She nods as if she knows exactly whom he is speaking about, which I know she doesn't.
"Yes, yes. I have met him, yes. Mikayla, I do believe that you did not answer my previous question. Why are you and your boyfriend not at Hogwarts?" She thinks that Sirius is my boyfriend. She must be off her rocker completely. Just because he had his arm… around, um, me in a, er, very boyfriendly way… um.
"Sirius is not my boyfriend Mother; we are close friends is all. Also, it is a Hogsmeade weekend, so as seventh years we can apparate into London." I am so glad sometimes that my parents are both two of the most ignorant muggles that I know. Well, they are ignorant when it comes to me anyway, not in a 'we-don't-care' way, just a 'we-don't-know-about-the-wizarding-world' way.
"Okay, darling. Maybe you can tell me when the next 'Hogsmeade' weekend is, and we can go out for lunch. You would be welcome to come as well, Mr Black." I doubt that anything of the sort would be happening.
"Thank you, Mrs Henderson for the invitation, it is much appreciated. I regret it, but Kayla and I must be going, we don't want to be late back." Sirius says with an easy smile. You know, I don't think that I hate him at all. He seems to have been upgraded to friend status. This is quite a big conclusion to come to in just one day.
"Please, call me Grace. Ok, darling. I will see you another time; I don't want you to get in trouble. Au revoir, darlings." The only French words that she knows are Au revoir, and bonjour but she insists on using them all the time to appear bilingual. She kisses my cheek, bids us both farewells one last time, and walks up the street.
Remus, Lily, Jo and James all walk out of Ben's Cookies, apparently they had been watching us through the window.
"How did you manage to get out of that mess, Mikki?" James asks, almost incredulously.
"She is a muggle, and therefore doesn't know any of the rules. It was really funny, just because of how you held, and presented yourself, Sirius, she completely overlooked your attire!" He is dressed well, in nice jeans and a royal blue t-shirt with 'I solemnly swear that it wasn't Me.' written in silver writing on it. He looks nice, not scruffy at all.
"What is wrong with my attire?" He asks, indignant that I would even suggest that something was wrong with it.
"Absolutely nothing," I placate him, "but my mother thinks that a proper young man, of your, our, 'breeding' should be dressed formally in a suit at all times."
"How preposterous!" James exclaims, "Why would anybody wear a suit all the time?"
"Regulus does. Has done so since he was 14, well, last year really. Before I ran away, monster-Mother made me wear a suit, remember how that was what I was dressed in when I arrived at your house at 3 in the morning. Actually, it was rather comfortable, for a suit. A nice rich black too." Sirius' royal-like upbringing doesn't come through very often, but when it does, it is obvious. The suit thing for example, most 17 year old boys, young men, would not appreciate a fine suit, well cut and a rich colour, but Sirius does. And how he speaks sometimes, quite formally.
"All of my boy-cousins do. They are all over the age of 13, some older than I. I only have 5 male cousins, and one female cousin. She was married a few months ago actually." I was invited, but I couldn't go due to school. I wasn't too disappointed; she was never very nice to me. I only really got along with Richard. He is the same age as me but goes to Eton College, I find it amusing that he has two more years of school than I do, but we always get together in the holidays.
"That's great, now can we go to Hamleys?" Johana says, ever impatient. Although I do have to agree with her, I love Hamleys almost as much as I love Harrods.
"Alright, alright. Lead the way." Lily says in a very motherly voice, which for Lily is not actually strange.
An hour and a half later, and Johana has found the perfect teddy bear for her niece (Hamleys Wafer' Teddy Bear), and the rest of us have all scoured the shop several times. I brought glowy stars for the dorm.
"Mikki, let's save my lovely dungeon house for another day, I don't really feel like coming face to face with my Mother today." Sirius says quietly into my ear. I nod; it is perfectly understandable that he doesn't want to see his dear Mums. After what I've heard of her, I wouldn't want to either.
"I don't know about anyone else," Said Remus, "but I don't need anything else. I think that we should shrink our shopping, and go back to Hogsmeade." We all agreed and shrunk all of our many shopping bags and put them all in our pockets, and then we walk into an alleyway before apparating back to the stile.
"Do you mind waiting for a while, I need to go to Scrivenshaft's for a quill."
"I might go with you, Lilyflower." James says. Well done, Lily, you didn't even flinch.
"Ok, James. I suppose that the rest of you will be in Zonko's?"
"You'd be right! But we might go to Honeydukes, so if we aren't there, y' know where we'll be." Sirius says cheerfully. He sounds way too excited for me to not be worried. Johana and I share a look that says that she is thinking the same thing.
"Ok. Let's go James." Lily says before walking off with James.
"If I didn't know better," Remus says thoughtfully, "I would say that they are going out. But they can't be, although, she didn't exactly object to him calling her 'Lilyflower' or going with her. Does she still hate him, Johana?" Leave me out then.
"I don't actually think that she ever really hated him, Remus. But she didn't want anyone to know that." Jo replied. She is dead on. We walk into Zonko's and Sirius goes straight over to the pranking tools with Remus. I have a feeling that we will be in here for a while.
Three hours later, and I am sitting up in Gryffindor tower. Dinner is down in the great hall, and everybody else is there but I honestly cannot be bothered. I will get something from the kitchens later with Sirius or James, or someone. I have had a lot to think about today. It almost feels like I've been concealing the fact that I quite like Sirius from myself. Why shouldn't I like Sirius? He is smart, handsome, my Mother likes him, and we both get along, sort of. It isn't as if I don't enjoy his company, so why have I been hiding it from myself? To be honest, I really don't know.
~One month later, a Sunday morning~
Yawn. Why on earth did I wake up at 5:00am, on a Sunday of all days? The last day of sleep-ins before school inhabits my world once more. I know that once woken, I will not be able to get back too sleep; so I swing my legs out of my lovely, warm, cozy bed and place my feet on the cold, hard stone floor. Quickly, I cover-dive to find my socks- I always kick them off at night. The stone flags that cover the dorm floor are always cold. One of the disadvantages of living in Scotland during the term.
What should I wear later tonight? I feel red today. I think that I shall wear my sports-car red shoes that Sirius brought me. And black lace stockings, and my purple just-above-the-knees, sleeveless, cotton, Sabrina-cut dress. It is the perfect colour purple, Royal Purple according to my Crayola crayon colour chart. How shall I do my hair…? I promise that I am not normally this fussy about what I am going to wear, but today is the day when I challenge Sirius. I think that I like, like-like him. I've been thinking about it, and that is the only conclusion. Remus told Johana (no, they don't go out. They are just great friends. Ok, so they almost go out.), that Sirius like-likes me also. We have practically become best friends since the last Hogsmede trip, I am closer to him than I am with Jo, and we are super-uber-close. I'm glad about being good friends with him, it's nice to have a guys perspective on things, although he can still be rather annoying. Not everything has changed after all.
Anyway, I have a surprise for him at dinnertime. I think that I shall just wear my pink skinny jeans and the grey sweatshirt that Sirius brought me for the better part of the day actually; I can change later, in time for dinner. I don't want to ruin the surprise. I shall have my shower, then, and go down beg for food in the kitchens. No, the house elves love me; I won't have to beg.
I love hot, long showers. It is now five twenty, and I am just walking out of the common room towards the kitchens, in my uggy-boots, for my breakfast after a lovely long shower. Do you think that it could be called a brinner, because it is so early? Breakfast and Dinner combined, just like Brunch is breakfast and Lunch combined. I shall broach this subject later on today with Sirius. I tickle the pear and step into the vast kitchen, and am immediately assaulted by tiny bodies.
"Miss Mikki! Hello Miss Mikki! Would miss like an early breakfast?" A little elf named Slinky, with whom I am good friends, calls loudly. True to the stereotype of house elves everywhere, Slinky has a squeaky little voice, very little hair and hugeantic ears. She's wearing the standard Hogwarts pillowcase, which Dumbledore doesn't actually make them wear. She is also wearing colourful socks, one hot pink with lime-green polka dots, and one lemon yellow with blue bowties all over them. I gave them to her.
"Miss Henderson! It's an honour having you in our kitchen!" An elf with extraordinarily large ears squeaked delightedly.
"It's ok, ok, calm down." I half yell at the elves crowded around my knees. "Yes, thank-you, Slinky, I would like an early breakfast. Would I please be able to have chocolate chip pancakes?" Slinky nods and I turn to the elf with unusually large ears "It is a pleasure to meet you too. What is your name?" The small being looks completely star-struck, which I have a hard time not laughing at. He moves his startlingly navy round eyes up to my face, and squeaks (in a surprisingly low voice for a elf, I might add,)
"Such politeness, Miss. My name is Seamy." Strange name. Kind of cute though.
An hour later, at precisely 6:13am, I know because I just checked my watch, I walk out of the kitchen and run headlong into Johana
"Hey, Jo! Why are you up this early?" I ask, completely forgetting that I too am up this early, in fact, I was up earlier.
"I could ask the same thing of you. I always wake up early. I like going out the window in our dorm to watch the sun rise on my broomstick. Then I come down to the kitchens; the fire there is the only one still alight in the castle at this time of the morning." Huh, I never pictured her for a morning person. I myself never could be; I'm a night person through and through. So is Sirius, unsurprisingly. Both Lily and Remus are morning people, James is definitely a day person, and I always pictured Johana to be one too.
"Huh. What are you going to do today, Jo?" I think that I will go to the library. I need to revise human transformation for transfiguration; we have an informal assessment on Tuesday afternoon.
"Oh, I thought that I would go and relax by the lake this afternoon. Read the new book that my Mum sent me. I think that it was called "Gingerbread" by Rachel Cohn. It looks quite good; I haven't had a good book since our trip to London." You wouldn't guess it by looking at her, but Johana is a huge bookworm. I read, but I prefer to write.
"Sounds good. I'm going to study in the library. I still haven't studied properly for McGonagall's test on Tuesday." I say, smiling slightly at my own lack of organisation.
"Don't you mean that you are going to stare blankly at the text book, humming quietly, for half an hour before you pick up a quill and keep writing the story that you started, based on Riley McIntyre from Ravenclaw and that handsome Diggery fellow from Hufflepuff that she's been hanging round with." Jo retorts sarcastically, but with a smile hiding in the corners of her mouth. Not many people can out-word me, but Jo is one of them. The list goes on to include Sirius, Alice, Lily, Remus, and my families house keeper, Lynnette. My cousin Richard (The one at Eton) once told me that I'm the type of person who must constantly be in the company of those who ridicule me, to "save my head from becoming too large." I don't know if the need bit is true, but the constantly-surrounded-by-people-who-ridicule-me bit is.
"No, actually, Johana. I thought that I would sing today, I need to practice." She nods with false knowledge. She looks like she knows what on earth I'm on about, but she really doesn't. The only person who I told my brilliant plan to was Alice. She is the best at keeping secrets. And she is adept at charms, and so set all of that magical-ish stuff up for me.
"Ok. I'd best be off then. I'll see you later, Mikki." She walks towards the kitchens, and I give the Fat Lady the password, (Pohutukawa) then climb through the portrait hole, and walk over to my favourite rocking sofa chair in front of the fire. It's lovely and toasty at night, and it faces a window so that I can stare aimlessly out of it. It also helps that it is crimson suede, and one of the comfiest chairs in the common room. I sit on it sideways, my legs dangling off the arm, and pick up the notebook and pen that I left next to it last night. I start writing from where I left last night. The story's about Pirates.
I sit like this for a good two hours. Nobody bothers me. Nobody, that is, until Sirius comes down, fully clothed, albeit in the clothes that he wore yesterday. He puts his hands over my eyes, thinking that I didn't sense him come down the stairs behind me, and says, in a fake girly voice,
"Guess who?"
"Who indeed." I reply, rolling my eyes. "Morning, Sirius. Did you sleep in those clothes?" It looks like he did.
"Only the pants. Are you going to come down to breakfast?" I am kind of thirsty… Why not?
"Ok. Just let me put on some proper shoes and put away my notebook." I run up the stone steps to the girls dorm, and put on my banana yellow wood-heeled mini platforms. Very cool shoes, I love them. They match my pink skinny jeans nicely. I skip down the steps, and run into Sirius, who appears to have changed.
"Ready!" I chirp. He grins and we walk out of the common room. As we walk out, I hear a fourth year say to her friend "Do they go out or something? I've never seen Sirius hang around with one girl for so long." I look at Sirius, who is now cracking up in silent laughter, and ask with my eyes if he heard. He nods, and I laugh loudly. You know, I've noticed that Sirius never smiles, he only grins. Strange.
"That girl in the common room sounded jealous, maybe you should go and reassure her, you know, tell her that even though you're not attached, you don't go for fourth years." I smile angelically at him as I say this. He sees the un-voiced sarcasm and grins.
"Using that much sarcasm must be bad for your health." He says, half seriously, (Heh, Siriusly, seriously…) as we walk up to the top of the entranceway stairs. I grin in reply, and skip down the stairs as fast as I can, making a racket, but having fun. I wait for Sirius at the bottom, and we walk into the great hall for breakfast.
Three cups of coffee and an hour later, I finally walk into the library and sit at my favourite table, right at the very back behind the 'Z' shelf. The only squishy chair in the library (except for Madame Pince's) is there. I pull out my transfiguration textbook, and, true to Jo's prediction, I end up staring into space, humming Twinkle, twinkle little star after an hour and a half.
Awhile afterwards, James walks into the library, (a rare occurrence, I tell you) and sits down next to me. He looks somewhat pleased with himself.
"Guess what." He states. Not as a question either.
"What?" I ask distractedly, now focused on my story. (Johana knows me too well.)
"I found out where Snivellus keeps his shoes." Typical.
"You mean that you broke into the Slytherin common room again?" Last time, in fifth year, when he and Sirius broke in, they charmed all of the Slytherin Boys' clothes pink. Literally all of their clothes. Socks included. It was hilariously funny.
"Yup. This time, we put itching powder in all of their school shoes. But not their normal shoes, we didn't want to be too mean spirited." Huh. That's a first. I tell him so.
"Yeah, well. There's a first time for everything. What 'cha doing?" What does it look like, genius? Writing!
"I'm just about to go find Jo. Lunch's in 40 minutes, if I read my watch correctly." I'm hungry, after all of this studying.
"Remus, Sirius and Lily are with her, I think. I'll come with you." He says, watching so very helpfully as I pack up my stuff. We walk out of the library, Madame Pince's eyes following us beadily. We arrive at the lake and find all four of them sitting under a tree. I lie down, my head on Sirius' lap, and close my eyes. I open them again when I feel his eyes looking at me.
"Thanks for asking me if you could lie on me." He says, not hiding the grin on his face.
"Mmm, can I?" I ask, staring up into his warm grey eyes.
"If I said no would you get off?"
"Let's see," I pause in mock thought, "nope." I conclude, smiling prettily up at him. His only answer is to shake his head, I hear the rest of our little group laugh at us, and Lily whispers quietly, thinking that we can't hear her,
"I predict a new couple before the week is out." If only she knew.
Looking up at Sirius, I see his eyes are closed, but there is a smile on his face, I think that I just proved Remus correct. It's been a surprisingly sunny and warm day, considering how cold the floor was this morning.
It is 20 to 7.00pm, when Dinner starts, and I'm up in the dorm, putting my lace stockings and red lacy bra on. I pull on my fire-engine red stiletto heels, which fit as if they were made for me, and stand up before sitting in front of the vanity dresser, wearing only my undergarments and robe. I don't want to wrinkle my lovely royal purple dress. I think that I shall just leave my hair in ringlets. Sirius likes it like that. I comb it out, and put some of my raspberry scented shine serum in my hair. Mother brought it for me. I love how nicely the more-red-than-chestnut colour of my hair compliments my "English Rose Complexion" as Mother puts it. A little bit of blush, a smidgeon of light red lipstick, and my hair and makeup is done up to a standard that would make Mother proud. I learnt how to present myself nicely early on in my life, which colours suit me etc, etc. Useless at the time, but handy now, I suppose.
It's ten past seven. I slip my dress over my head, admire how well it fits and silently thank Mother for fussing over bust size and cut and all of the things that I don't pay too much attention. I spin on my heel, and march purposefully down the many staircases to the closed doorway to the Great Hall. I have timed my grand entrance so that I am right between tea and pudding, that way I don't get food on my shoes.
Running back through the lines in my head one last time, I throw the doors open dramatically. I step daintily onto the bench half pushed under the Gryffindor house table, and then up onto the table, using every scrap of Grace my Mother tried to instil into me when I was small. Every eye is on me, Dumbledore's twinkling; he must know that I set up muggle speakers in the hall awhile ago, with an invisibility charm cast (by Alice) on them, and an enchanting spell on them to make them work with so much magic around them. I hooked a magically-modified CD player into the speakers and cast a charm on it, so that they work despite the high levels of Magic. I say the magic word to make the speakers play, and everyone gasps as the music starts to play. I start to sing, looking straight at Black.
"Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history,
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me,
That's ok,
Let's see how you do it,
Put up your dukes,
An' let's get down to it" I march up the table slowly as I sing, ending up right in front of Sirius. As I sing the chorus, I dance up and down the table, obviously having fun. I sing the words loudly, but still musically, to Sirius.
"Hit me with your best shot!
Why don't cha hit me with your best shot?
Hit me with your best shot,
Fire away" I keep dancing, jumping the short distance across to the Hufflepuff table, and dance, still smiling and singing, still looking at Sirius. Everybody is smiling and enjoying the performance by now. Well, except for the Slytherins, but what can you expect? All of the Muggleborns and most of the Half-Bloods are smiling appreciatively at my choice of song, Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar.
"You come on with the come on,
You don't fight fair,
That's ok,
See if I care!
Knock me down,
It's all in vain,
I get right back on my feet again
Hit me with your best shot!
Why don't cha hit me with your best shot?
Hit me with your best shot,
Fire away" I jump back across to the Gryffindor table. People are actually cheering now! Oh, this is exciting.
"Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history,
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me,
Before I put another notch,
In my lipstick case,
You'd better make sure you put me in my place!" I'm still looking at Sirius, who is grinning, and has a mixture of admiration, sheer delight, and challenge reflected in his eyes. I keep singing, my eyes never leaving his, but still dancing and performing.
"Hit me with your best shot!
Come on!
Hit me with your best shot,
Hit me with your best shot,
Fire away
Hit me with your best shot,
Why don't cha hit me with your best shot?
Hit me with your best shot,
Fire awayyyyyyy! After I finish the last, long note, the hall erupts with cheering, and clapping. I bow, turn on my heel, stepping off the table, and walk out of the great hall. I climb halfway up the stairs and then sit down, waiting. He'll come.
I am not disappointed. Sirius stands at the bottom step, looking vaguely anxious. He returns the smile that I'm beaming at him with his own grin, and walks up slowly and methodically, (i.e. absolutely-uncharacteristically-slooowly) to sit next to me. He looks nice, a black v-neck t-shirt, with blue jeans and nice sneakers.
"So, was I completely terrible?" I ask him, a note of laughter mingled with nervousness in my voice.
"Nah, you were great. You should be a singer or something. Who was the song by?" Sirius questions. He must have been lying about the singer thing. Totally not true.
"It was Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar. Did you like it?" We are extremely close to one another.
"I loved it. It was amazing, like you." He smiles.
"I can beat you," I tease lightly; "I love you, Sirius Orion Black." He looks happy, and I'm sure that we are wearing identically goofy grins, but I can't find it in me to care. He cups my jaw with his weirdly-smooth-for-such-a-rough-looking hand and leans in to kiss me. I deepen the kiss, it's like coffee, exhilarating and yummy and warm and lovely. We pull away and he says,
"I love you too, Mikayla George Henderson."
"That's good, because I'm not ever letting you go." I whisper seductively into his ear, He grins and captures my lips in his once more. I separate my lips from his, stand up, and pull him with me. He groans in protest; he must have liked our previous activities.
"Come on, we don't want the whole school to witness this, there are a few innocent eyes out there," I smirk, loving the way his eyes are boring into mine.
"Mmm, but to be honest, I don't care." He says, pulling me to him, and effectively snogs me senseless. There are catcalls and giggles in the background, and more than a few cameras go off, but we are so wrapped up in one another that we hardly notice. Life is beautiful.
A/N: I'm sorry for the extreme level of mush, but its Sirius and Mikki; I couldn't help it. There has to be mush. That and that I am a hopeless romantic. Shish, details. For all of those musicians out there; yes I do know that technically this song wasn't written or recorded in the Marauders' seventh year. But I'm just going to ignore this tiny insignificant detail. I really love this song, and I do hope that you enjoyed this fic.
3 you all,
-Chocolate Fishy