"Don't you two ever quit? Merlin's pants!"
"Good morning to you, too, James," she heard Sirius groan into her neck.
"Seriously, this is disgusting. If my mum doesn't want you snogging in the kitchen, I'm positive shagging in the sitting room is off-limits."
Mrs. Potter's voice called from the hall, "Leave them alone, James, I'll make no such rule!"
All three teenagers perked up and exchanged curious looks.
"What the hell?" muttered Sirius.
"She doesn't want to be hypocritical," said Mr. Potter with a smirk, grabbing a muffin and standing in the doorway, eating it. "That's been our number one rule about rule-making since we had James. If we do or plan to do something, we can't ban James from it. We can make an age limit, but banning it altogether isn't allowed.
James looked like he was going to be sick.
"I just learned more about my parents than I ever wanted to know," moaned James. Mrs. Potter came in from the hall carrying some laundry to be folded.
"What, that we have sex?" snorted Mrs. Potter. "How do you think you got here, Jamie?"
James screwed his face up in horror and rushed out of the room. Decima was fairly certain that he was down the hall sicking up, but she didn't really care. Despite what had been said to James, it was still a bit awkward to be tangled up in Sirius and a blanket, naked, right in front of James's parents.
"Well, I think we ought to leave the lovebirds to put some clothes on, darling," said Mrs. Potter, pulling her husband back into the kitchen. "Breakfast will be ready in ten, you two! I don't think James will feel up to joining us."
"You underestimate him, Mum," said Sirius. "Even with a weak stomach, James doesn't turn down good food!"
"Well," said Mrs. Potter thoughtfully from the other side of the wall as Decima pulled on her t-shirt, "you could be right about that, especially since I've banned you from snogging in the kitchen."
Sirius barked with laughter and gave Decima a swift, hard kiss before lacing his fingers through hers and leading her off to the kitchen. James did join them halfway through breakfast, and the boys began going over their guest list for the annual Marauders summer bash. Sirius occasionally asked Decima for her thoughts or suggestions, and they all agreed Mary MacDonald should not be invited, Gryffindor or not, if Lily and Mary were still fighting by the time invitations went out. They decided to invite all the girls from their year in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw for Peter's sake, hoping that if there were enough females around and enough drinks, he might get lucky.
"Decima," said Mrs. Potter, buttering her toast, "would you like to invite some friends over at some point? There's going to be boys around this place all the time and I know you'll be wanting more female companionship than just myself."
"I would like that," Decima admitted, "if it's not too much trouble…"
"No trouble at all, dear!" said Mr. Potter with a smile. "The more the merrier! You've seen this place; we've got more rooms than we know what to do with. Any time you want someone to come over, you just go on ahead and invite them."
Decima blinked, thanked them, and stared down at her sausage as she ate it. Her parents rarely let her friends come over, and only the purebloods. Gwen had been disallowed in the house after her mother was bitten, but Christa and Philomela had always been more than welcome when her mother deemed that Decima's behavior warranted company. Sirius was right, the Potters were everything parents were supposed to be, and this realization almost made her sorry that she and Sirius would be moving out.
The days were lazy days that summer, exploring the Potters' vast grounds with the Marauders, having Gwen, Lily, and Tien over for girl time, helping Sirius look at houses. The very thought that Decima would be going back to school seemed foreign and strange. It seemed as though the world, the war, all of it, was something which existed outside the confines of the Potter land, and everything which occurred in that zone was a distant memory. Decima existed now on an alternate plan of being, where she was free, happy, and carefree. She had Sirius; she had everything she could ever wish for in life.
Decima had decided that the night before the party, Lily, Tien, and Gwen should all sleep over, that way they'd have a few more people around to help with setup and such, and they could have a girl's night. What's more, Peter and Remus were staying the night, so they made a deal not to disturb the boys in exchange for not being disturbed. Tien wasn't pleased with the agreement, and Decima had a feeling James wasn't either, but their friends held them at bay.
"So," said Tien, "am I the only person in this room who's been to the summer bash before?"
They all admitted that yes, she was, and her grin deepened as she looked out at the toenail painting girls on the floor before her.
"Oh, this is great," she said with a grin. "You'll love it. It's always the highlight of my summer."
"What exactly goes on at these parties?" said Lily, carefully running a nail polish brush along her toenail.
"Oh, the usual," said Tien as she filed her fingernails. "Music, dancing, drinking, smoking, James and Sirius giving drunken speeches, the guest rooms full of people shagging and drunken orgies on the dance floor. Why do you ask?"
Decima, who had been taking a drink of water, spit the water all over Gwen's back. Gwen squealed, but Decima gave a hasty apology before saying, "But Mr. and Mrs. Potter are going to be here."
"Yeah," said Tien.
"And they're just okay with that?" said Lily, her eyes wide with shock.
"So here's how this works," said Tien with a patient sigh, "before the guests get here, all off limits rooms are sealed by Mr. Potter, and he purchases all the weed and alcohol. If we use it all, he doesn't go get more, but that's never usually a problem. Mrs. Potter was a Healer in her younger years, and she says she'd rather be on hand for any potential disasters than have them all sneaking around. She's healed all sorts of stuff through the years, and every girl who walks through the door gets a contraceptive charm cast on her as a rule, just precautionary. If they don't like it, they can't come in, but I don't think anyone's ever said no. But you know the Potters, it's all about the kids having a good time, but knowing they've got adults around as a safety net. And as far as the drugs, I mean, nobody's going to burst into Potter Manor to search the place. They're pretty much too rich to be lawbreakers, as far as the Ministry is concerned."
Lily snorted as this information settled in.
"No wonder Sirius and James are arrogant toerags. Purebloods are all crazy."
Gwen and Decima made indignant noises, but everybody in that room knew that Lily was exactly right. Purebloods were all nuts. It was probably something to do with inbreeding. Still, this crossed all sorts of boundaries as far as sanity was concerned. Beating and abusing your children was one thing, but what the Potters were doing… wow.
"So, other than doing our nails and picking out our clothes for tomorrow, what do you have in mind for tonight, Tien?" said Gwen from the floor, where she was magically drying her nails.
"How about we get wasted?" said Tien with a smile.
"How about we save that for tomorrow?" moaned Lily.
"Oh, Evans, c'mon!" cried Tien dramatically. "Where's your sense of adventure? Besides, I brought alcohol just for tonight, and it's not about to go to waste!"
"Where is it?" said Decima, curious. She hadn't seen any alcohol.
"James has it, now let's go!"
"Woah," said Lily, "no, no, no, we're not doing that! This was supposed to be a girl's night, Tien, what part of that do you not get?"
"All of it," said Tien. "Now c'mon, let's go booze it up, I'm dying here!"
"No," said Lily viciously. "That's a word even you can understand, Tien."
Just then, the door to Decima's bedroom burst open and Sirius led the other boys into the room, each of them carrying two bottles of firewhisky, and Sirius levitating a bottle of rum for Lily, who hated firewhisky.
"Hello, ladies!" said Sirius. "I know the plan was for you to come to us, Tien, but after thinking it over and discussing it thoroughly with Remus Lupin, the paragon of all things logic, we decided it would be more efficient to come to you. We doubted your abilities to get Lily to agree to the plan without a lengthy and unnecessary fight."
"Sirius Black," said Decima slowly, attempting to keep her voice calm, "you are sleeping alone tonight."
This brought a wave of laughter, and Sirius muttered something like, "We'll see about that," but the bottles were soon passed around and all opposition to Tien and James's evil plan was quickly forgotten. Soon, they were laughing, drinking, talking, and there was much making out, which Peter watched awkwardly and Tien simply watched. Even the most awkward things in the world weren't awkward to that girl.
"You look incredibly sexy," Sirius hissed in Decima's ear. He had come up behind her and pressed his body against hers, wrapping an arm around her waist. She could smell the alcohol on his breath.
"Thanks, baby," she sighed. "C'mon, I'm tired. We've got things to do tomorrow. Let's go to bed."
"Thought you'd never ask," he growled, pulling her off to her bed and crawling into it, pulling her down with him and kissing her hard.
Five minutes later, they had both passed out in an exhausted heap, his shirt half off and their clothing otherwise intact.
The following morning, Mr. and Mrs. Potter found all eight teenagers passed out in various states of disarray around Decima's room. The empty alcohol bottles were scattered as well, with only one managing to have been broken in the course of the nights' events, luckily after it had been emptied of alcohol. Mrs. Potter sent her husband to fetch some extra hangover potion and set to work waking up the sure-to-be grouchy young people splayed around the room.
Decima blinked herself awake as Mrs. Potter shook her gently. The girl was tangled up in Sirius, grateful in that moment that she was still fully dressed, and feeling as though the headache she was now acutely aware of was going to kill her slowly.
"Rise and shine, Decima," Mrs. Potter cooed. Every word was like a knife sticking into Decima's skull.
"No," she moaned, hugging Sirius more tightly. "Too bright. Too loud. Make it go away."
"Your party is in a matter of hours, everybody," said Mrs. Potter, "so I'd suggest you all get up and sober up quickly so that you can be ready when your guests start arriving."
It was slow going, attempting to get all the hung-over teenagers to crawl out of their respective sleeping locations, but as soon as Mr. Potter returned with the words, "hang-over potion" on his lips and the bottle in his hand, there was a sudden perking up throughout the group and they fought over who got the first drink.
As soon as they were all well again and Mr. and Mrs. Potter were out of the room, Lily got her shrieking fit out of the way. When Tien, Sirius and James all appeared sufficiently abashed, the eight of them began the preparations for the party, starting with getting something to eat.
Mrs. Potter fed them a large platter of delicious sandwiches and then shooed them off to go and decorate while she made snacks for the party. The girls set to streamer-making instantly. The boys set up the music, arranged furniture, and readied food and drink stations. Decima could hardly believe it as the party shaped up before her very eyes. About a half hour before guests were supposed to arrive, Decima found herself standing in the middle of the ballroom, awed at how young and fresh the entire place looked. Sirius came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her neck.
"We did pretty good, huh babe?"
"Yeah, I guess we did," Decima said, sounding as amazed as she felt, but perfectly happy with the kiss he gave her. "Promise to be on your best behavior tonight?"
"Only if you do, missy," he joked, tickling her sides briefly. "I know you, gotta watch you every second!"
They laughed and joked and went off to get ready for the party in their respective rooms. Decima found Lily and Gwen already glamming up for the party, while Tien lounged on the bed. Decima frowned at Tien, but began sifting through her wardrobe before bothering to ask, "Why are you just sitting there, Tien?"
"Because I'm ready for the party and I'm bored," said Tien, truly sounding bored. "I'm hoping your preparations will entertain me. The boys won't let me sit around while they change."
Decima laughed and pulled out a silver sequined dress for the party. Gwen gasped dramatically.
"Is that the dress, CiCi?" she whispered in a reverent voice.
Decima nodded as the other girls eyed the dress with interest.
"The dress?" said Lily. "What dress? I mean, it's adorable, but what's so special about it?"
"Are you joking?" hissed Gwen, outraged. "That is the dragon-scale sequin dress Decima's father bought her to congratulate our winning the Quidditch Cup last year. That dress costs more than any broomstick in this house, even James's racing broom! It's imported from Australia, and it's probably the reason Regulus jumped her at the end of the year party last summer."
"Gwen," sighed Decima, but she was happy that somebody else gave the dress the glowing bragfest it deserved. She didn't like bragging about her own things. It made her feel materialistic and petty. "Can we just get ready for the party now… please?"
They went about their business, turning on the wireless, dancing around to some music while they got dressed, did their hair, fixed their makeup. Decima caught Gwen and Lily stealing looks at her dress the whole time, probably jealous. She slipped on her go-go boots with a little smile to herself, knowing that Sirius, like Regulus, was not going to be able to resist her in the dress. Not that he did a very good job of resisting her at any time.
By the time the girls entered the ballroom, the booze was flowing, the music was screaming, and the party had certainly kicked off. Decima began scanning the room for Sirius. This was his element, she knew, unlike his brother who had been far more at home at the fancy balls with the high-class dress robes and people with their noses so high in the air it was a wonder they could see anything but the ceiling. Sirius lived for gritty, sweaty, base environments like this, where his animal attraction and unadulterated sex appeal could thrive. The smoke, the sweat, the steam… none of it bothered him. The sticky, dirty floor, covered in alcohol and things a civilized person didn't want to think about didn't bother him. And of course, Decima spotted him over by the drinks, standing in a circle with his friends, his head thrown back in deep, mirthful laughter. He had probably already had a few drinks and was completely relaxed. A little smile formed on Decima's face as she watched him, pushing her way through the bodies that blocked her.
"Hello there, love," he said loudly as she came up to him. "God, you look stunning. I now understand why you birds always show up late to these things. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that…"
Decima rolled her eyes, but allowed him to wrap his arm around her, pull her body tightly to his, and shove a drink in her hand. He began to nuzzle her neck with his nose and she could smell the firewhisky on his breath. She leaned back into him, taking a long sip of the alcohol he had handed her.
"I want to take you out of here right now," he growled in her ear, "but as this party is one-fourth mine, I ought to stay a bit longer. I'm not letting you out of my sight, though."
"Is that a promise?" she said playfully, running a finger down his chest and hearing him growl hungrily.
"Ugh," moaned James. "Go dry hump on the dance floor, you two. You're disgusting me so much that my drinks are threatening to find their way back into my glass."
Tien nodded and said in agreement, "He's right, you know, you're utterly repulsive. If you start having sex on the dance floor, dears, make sure I'm around. I could always do with a good show and I ought to be drunk enough to forget how absolutely hideous Sirius is by tomorrow."
"All right, Tien," said a Lily who was already beginning to slur her words. She must have taken some alcohol while she was getting ready for the party. "Sirius certainly isn't my type, but even I have to grudgingly admit he's attractive. Like, almost unfairly so. What is it about him that makes you think he's so horrible looking?"
Tien smirked, downed a shot of something that had been sitting on the end of the drink table and said, "You really want to know? I'll let you in on a little secret."
"You're a lesbian?" joked Sirius. "Because if that was the case, love, it would explain so much, but I'm afraid I'd have to keep you away from my girlfriend. Hot as that would be."
They all laughed and Tien snorted.
"Not at all, Sirius," said the Asian in question. "No, the thing is, I kind of have a thing for older men. Sirius, I'm not a fan of. Sirius's father, on the other hand," she said with a little sigh. "He could have me any way he wanted me."
The laughter ceased, the smiles faded, and Decima dropped her drink. It fell to the ground in a horrible crash. Tien had no idea of what she had just said, but Decima's fainting was about to educate her.
A/N: So, was it another Tien joke, or was she for once being completely frank? I'll leave you hanging until next chapter to find out. Hehehe… Evil of me, I know.
Anything you want to see in this story? I don't know if you don't review! Drop me a line, whenever you think of something. Not guaranteeing I'll use it, but I'll consider everything fairly and equally! I love you all!
-J