October 31st
Harmony burst open the door to the sixth-year boys' dorms, causing Sirius Black to scream like a little girl and cover his bare chest with a shirt.
The other marauders, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, were all standing by the doorway rolling their eyes at Sirius. They didn't even blink twice when Harmony burst through the doorway. It happened quite often and was usually followed by verbal violence. Sometimes physical violence, too. Depends on the type of door slam.
"Why aren't you ready?" Harmony demanded, crossing her arms and glaring at Sirius. "Honestly, Liven is faster. You're such a girl, Sirius."
James snorted.
"I'm working on it! Jeez, don't get your knickers in a wad." Sirius mumbled, throwing a hoodie on following his shirt.
"If only I was wearing knickers to get in a wad." Harmony commented idly, inspecting her fingers while leaning on the doorframe.
Sirius froze along with James and Peter, their mouths hanging open, eyes wide and looking at Harmony. Remus chuckled.
"Close your mouths, you'll catch flies." Harmony cracked a smirk and turned on her heels, walking back down the stairs.
When she got the the bottom, she muttered, "They're all like little horny chihuahuas."
Becca suppressed a smirk, having heard this comment. "What did you do now?" she whispered.
"I told Sirius I wasn't wearing any underwear."
Becca burst out laughing, causing Lily to look over.
The group's other two dorm mates were already at the Great Hall. Alice Prewett had gone down with her crush, Frank Longbottom, and Liven Pameo was off snogging some bloke from Ravenclaw. She'll probably show up half way through the Halloween feast, hair all over the place and clothes askew. Lily would lecture her at dinner for a half hour and then bombard her with questions later that night in their dorm.
About thirty seconds later, the marauders came down the stairs. Peter was still blushing and looking at Harmony. Becca giggled.
The group of eight made their way down to the Great Hall.
As Harmony walked contently beside Sirius, she pondered the group. It was now a well-known fact that Harmony and Sirius were pretty much best mates. That was old news. They had stopped receiving the envious stares and the little hisses of conversation whenever they walked down the hall together.
Harmony suspected it was mostly because Sirius shouted "Yes, we're mates. Get the hell over it!" at a group of girls who broke out in furious whispers when they spotted Sirius laughing at something Harmony said one afternoon. This was a few weeks back, and needless to say, the gossip pretty much ended there. Harmony was extremely grateful for this.
Sirius met Harmony's glance and smiled. She blushed slightly and smiled back, but looked away and started cracking her knuckles, something she did when she was uncomfortable.
Why was she even blushing? Harmony thought.
A little voice in the back of her head said in an obvious tone, It's Sirius Black. Who wouldn't blush?
She blushed more and wished that the voice was a different person so she could stab it.
"What's up, Harmful?" Sirius asked, breaking her out of her internal cursing.
"Harmful?" she questioned, her blush fading from her cheeks.
"Yeah. It's your new nickname because you always have harmful items on you. And you just generally cause harm wherever you go." Sirius concluded, grinning and nudging her shoulder with his own.
"Hey! I only do that sometimes. When I want to." Harmony replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Only when you want to!" Sirius laughed. "You cause harm unintentionally all the time."
"You're lying!" Harmony mock-glared at him, her hair falling into her face. She pushed it back irritably and huffed in annoyance.
Sirius smiled wider. "Remember that time last week when I picked you up and forced your feet in the lake because you called me a hippogriff? And then the fireworks in your socks went off and shot at that boy sitting near us?"
"Shut up. That was your fault. If you didn't make my feet go in the lake then we wouldn't have had a problem." Harmony swung her hand to hit Sirius, but he dodged it, still grinning. "I rarely even carry fireworks in weird places like that but you caught me on a day where I did. I'm not even carrying any dangerous items on me now anyway."
"You're a bad liar." Sirius stated bluntly.
"You're a bad liar!" Harmony retorted intelligently. She wasn't at the almost-top of most classes for nothing, after all. He was right though. She was currently carrying a muggle lighter in her back pocket.
"I'm a a marauder. Therefore, a fantastic liar. I told you your hair looked fine when you made me wait for you to go to class yesterday." Sirius grinned, waiting for Harmony to get the insult.
She stopped walking and turned slowly to him. "You are a terrible person. It did look like a hippogriff trampled it, didn't it?" Harmony tried to hit him again. Alas, she missed.
"Nah, just kidding. I like your crazy hair. It reflects your personality." Sirius tugged at a ringlet that touched the bottom of her back, making her shiver.
Harmony swatted his hand away. "I'm just going to take your remark as a compliment. I don't think I can afford to miss another hit to your body. It's hurting my ego."
"Good choice." Sirius grinned and gave the small of her back a little push to get her moving forward again.
They caught up with the group as they entered the Great Hall. Becca and Remus were talking together, each of them blushing slightly.
Harmony jabbed Sirius in the ribcage, gesturing to the pair ahead as they sat down next to each other at the Gryffindor table.
"Look at their faces!" Harmony giggled.
"Icke Moony-kinz is growing up so fast." Sirius sighed dramatically as he too sat down at the table next to Harmony.
Harmony laughed as she waited for the food to fill the hungry students' plates. "So. What's the Halloween prank this year?"
"I can't tell you. It'll be wicked. Just wait." Sirius grinned.
"I hate waiting, you know that. You're such an arse." Harmony pouted as the plates suddenly filled with food and the sound of knives and forks scraping dishes filled the already noisy hall.
"I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you. And I quite like you, surprisingly." Sirius shovelled a forkful if food into his mouth.
Harmony wrinkled her face at him. "Why do you and James eat food like you'll never see it again?" she took a gulp of her pumpkin juice.
"You only live once, Harms." he replied before shoving a whole pork chop into his mouth, chewing loud and disgustingly for Harmony's sake.
"You're revolting." Harmony commented, taking a bite of her pasta.
"Nah, just hungry and under-mannered." Sirius replied between mouthfuls.
"You just made that word up now." Harmony accused. Sirius grinned.
The magnificent feast carried on, the Great Hall ringing with laughter and buzzing with conversations about the upcoming Hogsmeade trip.
"Gotta hot date for Hogsmeade, Harmful?" Sirius asked.
"Nope. Isn't it a bit early to be asking though? It's like a month away. It's just before Christmas break." Harmony replied. "And besides, I don't want to outshine anyone with my good looks. Think of their ego if they caught sight of themselves standing in comparison to me?" Harmony grinned as she said this.
"Of course. How tragic." Sirius muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "So you don't have a date, I don't have a date. You'll be coming with the rest of the marauders. And before you yell at me, James and I won't try to get you drunk." Sirius held his hands up as Harmony opened her mouth.
James and Sirius, after seeing a very drunk Harmony at the beginning of the school year, decided that she was a 'fun drunk' and relentlessly tried to spike her pumpkin juice or discreetly add firewhiskey to her morning coffee. Sirius almost ended up without a nose. And James without his - well, little friend.
"You better not. Or I'll really remove it this time." Harmony stabbed her fork in James' direction.
Sirius gulped. "We won't! There will be no need for that!"
"I sure hope not. I'm afraid Lily would be quite disappointed." Harmony grinned as she glanced over to where Lily was chit-chatting casually to James. Korey List, Lily's boyfriend, was murdering his broccoli with his fork and shooting daggers in James' direction. James noticed this, and was barely concealing a grin.
"Do you think they'll end up together?" Sirius asked Harmony.
"Yeah. They're perfect. Lily just doesn't see it." Harmony replied.
"Yet." Sirius smirked.
Harmony started humming under her breath as she merrily cut the rest of her food up into little pieces.
"Why are you doing that?" Sirius was looking at Harmony, eyebrows furrowed.
"Doing what?" Harmony put her fork down along with her knife.
"Playing with food. You're wasting it!" Sirius exclaimed, causing Remus to break his steady conversation with Becca to say, "Padfoot, shut up."
Sirius rolled his eyes and checked the watch on the fifth year boy's wrist sitting next to him. "It's time!" he hissed at his best mates across the table. They stopped their conversation immediately and grinned, a scary glint in their eyes. Especially Sirius' grey eyes - they grew brighter, Harmony noticed, when he was about to do something mischievous.
The boys waited in anticipation, Sirius practically jumping off the bench. Every time he bounced his shoe hit the wood with a bang bang bang.
"Stop that!" Harmony shrieked in annoyance.
"Shh!" Sirius squeaked in excitement.
How very Peter of him. Harmony grinned at her own thought.
Suddenly, the candles blew out in the Great Hall. Every single one at once. This was probably due to the fact that the large double oak doors at the entrance of Hogwarts had been blown open, the wind blowing the doors to hall open, too.
Shrieks echoed around the hall.
"Sirius!" Harmony whispered in alarm, grabbing his arm. She felt immediately stupid afterward, as this was clearly part of their prank. It was just so sudden.
The hall was silent, nervously wondering why their feast had been interrupted.
"Shh, it's fine." Sirius whispered in Harmony's ear, his breath cool against her skin. She shivered again, and not from the draft blowing through the doors.
Just then, a clanking noise was heard coming from the corridors.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!
Harmony smiled inwardly at Lily's hand that was clutching James shirt, his hand on her lower back. How cute is that?
Stealing a glance at Dumbledore, Harmony saw that his eyes were twinkling in the dark and he was grinning. Then, he turned and caught Harmony's eyes and to her surprise he winked merrily and took a bite of lamb chop in anticipation.
Just then, a lone suit of armour appeared in the doorway of the Great Hall. The moonlight casting long shadows down the row of tables.
"You did this?" Harmony squeaked, half laughing, half honestly kind of scared, as she slid closer to Sirius on the bench.
"The other marauders helped." Sirius said, glancing into her eyes. His own were swirling with excitement, and were practically glowing in the dark along with Dumbledore's.
The suit of armour stopped walking for a moment. Then it broke the silence of the hall with a cold hiss. "Tianna."
A shriek came from the other end of the Gryffindor table, followed by several more shrieks as suits if amour materialized out of thin air all around the Great Hall's walls.
"Fuck!" Harmony jumped about four feet in the air as one appeared right behind her, looking down into her face. She felt like it was looking into her soul, even though the thing didn't even have eyes.
Screams echoed around the hall as people scrambled around, trying to get away from the suits of armour that were trying to follow them, hissing and whispering their names in cold, lifeless voices.
Harmony was so going to have nightmares about this.
"Sirius! What the fuck, this is actually creepy!" Harmony launched herself as far away as possible from the suit of armour that was whispering in a silky voice, "Harmony." over and over again.
Students were scrambling out of their seats and into the aisles between benches, screaming. There were still quite a few people laughing, and four of those were the marauders.
Sirius fought his and Harmony's way through the crowd of screaming, (some) laughing. Through the mad scrambling of people frantically trying to get away from the talking armour, food was falling on the floor and people were shoving and elbowing their way in all directions. The suits of armour were everywhere, and Harmony briefly marvelled at how genius this prank was. The hall was still in complete darkness spare the moonlight and stars twinkling from above, but that didn't stop the utter chaos going on inside. If anything, being in the dark when all this happened only fuelled the terror and hilarity of it all.
Harmony was genuinely a little scared of the armour, but she tried her hardest not to show it. Everyone was trying to get out of the Great Hall all at once. The group of sixth years started peeling off in different directions, as the lifeless suits pressed in on those still seated on the benches, and Sirius gestured to Harmony for her to follow him. She nodded, secretly relieved.
"You okay?" Sirius gasped, as he pushed out of the thick crowd of loud students all trying to get into the entrance hall.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Harmony was trying to control her breathing. There were so many people and every few seconds an armoured knight wolf find her and lean in close, whispering, "Harmony." until another person was there to take her place.
Sirius was blissfully grinning to himself as they were pushed against the staircase, a large group of fourth years making a beeline towards their common room. That prank was so going to be worth the punishment. And the endless hours of planning and researching.
"Let's-let's go." Harmony yelled, trying to wait out the massive wave of students. How to clear out the Great Hall 101, she thought to herself.
Sirius heard a clanking to his right and discovered a suit of armour making its way towards them from a corridor over. Harmony involuntarily tensed up, and Sirius noticed.
"Beat it! Go scare someone else!" Sirius yelled at the armour that had stopped hissing, "Harmony." and was now repeating, "Sirius." as it advanced on the sixteen year old boy who just tried to boss it around.
Sirius had to admit, it was slightly terrifying.
Good thing it'll only last for a minute or so more.
Suddenly, with a burst of energy, Harmony shot through a brief opening in the crowd. Sirius vaguely registered the screams echoing around the Great Hall. It was still an uproar in that place. Naturally, being Sirius-the-manliest-man, he bolted away from the advancing armour and down the way Harmony went, leaving the old hunk of metal behind him.
He stopped running and listened for any signs of Harmony. He walked slowly down the corridor while pondering why she was reacting like this to the prank. It was out of character for Harmony to run away from much of anything, never mind a prank.
Finally, he heard panting coming from the end of the corridor he was currently walking down. He spotted her frame leaning against wall near the window.
"Harmony?" Sirius asked softly.
Harmony jumped when she heard a voice, but then realized it was just Sirius. She laughed a little and muttered, "Sorry, I'm okay."
"Harmony, I wouldn't have done it if I knew you were going to react like that. I'm so sorry." Sirius said sincerely, his grey eyes clouded with concern.
"You didn't know. I don't know what's wrong with me. I guess there was just too thick of a crowd or something. And those things were truthfully really fucking creepy, man." Harmony shivered in her loose fitting t-shirt, and held her fist out for Sirius to props. He did, smiling slightly.
Sirius tried going for the comedy approach. "This is going to sound tacky, Harmful, but you need to take my sweater. You're freezing."
A light smile grace her lips and she chuckled, "I'm okay."
"No, you're not." Sirius pulled off his hoodie and gave it to Harmony. "Here."
She pulled it over her head and inhaled the scent of cologne and Sirius. He assisted her in pulling her dark curls out from under the fabric.
Harmony fought off the heat in her cheeks and said sarcastically, "Thanks, my saviour."
Sirius laughed. "Don't mention it, Harmful."
Harmony looked out the window at the clear night sky, searching the stars, counting, reading constellations. She felt the breeze blow her hair, blowing that one annoying curl away from her eyes again. It was calming, quiet, peaceful.
The pair of sixth-year Gryffindors stood like that for another moment before Sirius broke the silence again. "Harmony?"
"Yeah, Sirius?" she questioned, dragging her eyes from the stars outside the window to the eyes of Sirius. They were so dark in the cool corridor that it was just like looking into a cloudy night, the flicks of silver being the stars still shining faithfully beyond the clouds.
Sirius studied her green-brown eyes, glowing in the darkness, down to the line of her cheekbones, to her mouth and her straight teeth just visible behind her lips and back to her eyes again. "I'm assuming you don't want to go back into the Great Hall?" he said instead.
She shook her head automatically, then stopped. "Well, sorry, if you want to-"
Sirius cut her off. "No, no. I'm fine." he smiled down at her. "Let's go somewhere. I know just the place!" Sirius grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her with him forcefully.
Harmony was sort of confused, as she couldn't quite gauge the atmosphere between them. Was it serious? Was it more of a joking kind of vibe? She couldn't quite grasp it. Harmony considered her relationship with Sirius. He was probably now a closer friend than most of the other Gryffindors in their little gang of friends.
Who would have thought?
If someone told her a year ago that a year later she would be this close to Sirius Black, she would have hexed them and suggested a local mental hospital. But now? This friendship was rapidly growing. In a matter of two months she had became best mates with the most popular womanizer at Hogwarts.
It was a weird feeling, but a natural one. It was a new and different experience, being friends with someone you never foresaw interacting with on a daily basis.
Finally Sirius arrived at their destination - the astronomy tower. Harmony almost burst into tears at the very sight of the stars twinkling above, glinting like diamonds against the dark contrast of never-ending space.
"Look at them!" Harmony squealed and jumped around.
They suddenly seemed a billion times more beautiful with Sirius there, for some reason.
"I know. They're brilliant." Sirius whispered. His hands were deep in his pockets as he looked up the heart-stopping, mouth-dropping sky. He suddenly looked down at Harmony, right in her eyes; a cloudy dark sky meeting a forest, it seemed like. His eyebrows were furrowed, Harmony noticed.
"Sirius?" Harmony asked quietly, her smile vanishing. "What's wrong?" she walked up to him and squinted in is face.
"Harmony. I've been thinking about this for a while. This is about to get serious, okay? I'm going to show you something. But I need you to promise me first." he looked down to her face and pulled a hand out of his pockets to catch a curl before it covered Harmony's eyes. He moved it back behind her ear, and she felt a stone drop in her stomach. What was this about? She hated confessions with a passion because they scared the shit out of her. They could be so life-changing that you'll never be able to think in the right way again, or they could be "I ate the last biscuit you asked me not to, sorry, mate" and then you'd be all worked up for nothing.
"What is it, Sirius? What's the promise?" she asked, trying to ignore the flipping in her stomach at the unexpected contact between her and Sirius.
"I need you not to tell anyone, okay? Promise me?" Sirius asked sincerely, looking into her pretty face.
Pretty face? That's forward. he thought to himself, shocked that his brain actually addressed the matter head-on. But hey. He thought a lot of girls were pretty. Not like Harmony pretty. the little voice inside Sirius' head commented.
What the heck? Where was this coming from? They were mates.
"I promise, Sirius." Harmony raised her eyebrows and said back, breaking Sirius from his sudden thoughts. His confused thoughts.
Sirius stepped away from her. "Sirius?" she questioned, holding that same curl back from her face as the wind tried to blow it free from her fingers.
He sent her a steady look that she couldn't decipher. "I'm about to shock the shit out of you."
Harmony didn't get the chance to reply, however, because suddenly Sirius wasn't standing in front of her. It was a large, shaggy black dog on four furry legs calmly looking at a stunned Harmony.
Harmony froze, staring at the big dog in complete shock. She then realized that the dog's coat was the same shade as Sirius' dark waves, the dog's eyes the same stormy grey eyes that she was just looking into a moment ago.
"Sirius?" she choked unattractively, stepping forward the tiniest bit.
The boy in question appeared again before her.
"You're-" she started.
"-an animagus, yeah. So are James and Peter. Remus is-" Sirius was cut off.
"-a werewolf. And so you guys-" Harmony was cut off, too.
"-became illegal animagi to help him on full moons, yeah." Sirius shrugged nervously, burying his hands in his pockets again and looking at Harmony.
"Sirius Black. You are officially one of the most irresponsible, daring reckless, and caring people I have ever met. Wholy fuck you just turned into a dog." Harmony stated in complete disbelief. "Like a four-legged furry creature who runs around on four hairy legs."
Sirius grinned, knowing that she was okay with the fact that he broke the law and ran around with a werewolf every month.
"Well it's not that different because I usually run around on two hairy legs, so." Sirius said. Harmony just continued staring at him in shock.
"You trust me enough to tell me this?" she muttered, looking up at him.
"Harmony, you're one of my best friends. I had to tell you or you'd figure it out at some point. I'm glad you already knew about Remus, though." Sirius smiled slightly, pleased at how well she was taking the news.
"Thanks, Sirius." She smiled. A warm, pleasant feeling spread from her chest outward when Sirius said 'best friends'. "Do it again." she demanded.
When he returned back to full human form, Harmony was laughing. She plopped down on the stone floor of the astronomy tower and looked up at them. "Wow." she commented. They were quiet for a moment.
"It's always kinda been a fear." Harmony blurted suddenly. "Darkness. Things emerging from the darkness, pulling me, touching me, whispering things to me in the darkness. It's stupid but hey, I don't know why it decided to make an appearance tonight. I usually have it under control. I think it was the people and the slight claustrophobic tendencies I have acquired." Harmony confessed. "Don't you go apologizing. You didn't know, Sirius." Harmony said because she watched him suck in a breath to start talking, his lips parting.
"I'm still going to say it anyway: sorry." he said, sitting down next to her.
"I didn't know you had this whole sensitive side, Black. It's kind of nice. And a bit odd, to be honest." Harmony glanced over at him, then looked back up into the sky.
Sirius grinned. "Thanks, I guess." then he added on, "I reserve it for special people."
Harmony did that little grin where one side of her mouth perked up more than the other. She laughed. "My friendship with you seems so deep sometimes. I rarely have deep conversations with anyone. But there's something different about you, Sirius Black." she wagged a finger at him mockingly, like a mother would do.
"I'm touched! Am I special to you too?" Sirius asked, face lighting up like a child in a candy store.
"Sure you are, kid." Harmony ruffled his hair which caused him to squeal and dodge her hand. Sirius' fingers shot up to fix his perfect waves dramatically, for Harmony's entertainment.
"Now I look like a hippogriff stomped on my head." he muttered, joking.
"Nah. You look fine." Harmony turned from him to hide her smile. When it started to hurt her cheeks, she decided to grin evilly at the dust on the Astronomy Tower floor rather than a certain messy-haired sixteen-year-old boy.
Sirius stopped attacking his hair and turned to Harmony. "Are you sure?" he asked.
"You look beautiful, Black." she said, her voice laced with laughter.
"You're lying!" he exclaimed, gasping so loudly that he choked.
Harmony snorted. "Nah."
"Harmony Sea!"
"I am a good liar!" Harmony stood did a little victory dance with her hips. She then leaned over the side of the stone ledge, looking down.
"You did that same dance when you were drunk at the beginning of the year." Sirius grinned at her then leaned over also.
Harmony blushed. "Let's not talk about it, please."
Sirius just laughed.
"I reckon we should get back, Pups." Harmony yawned.
"Pups?" Sirius asked, an eyebrow raised.
Harmony grinned, ignoring him. "What time is it?"
"Uh-" Sirius checked his watch. "Almost ten." he concluded.
"Lily!" Harmony groaned. That fiery red head was going to skin them and eat their remains for being out after curfew so early in the year.
"Wanna run?" Sirius asked like a little kid.
"Yeah I do!" Harmony replied excitedly and bolted off towards the common room.
The odd pair of sixth-years ran, laughter echoing around the hallways as they stumbled up stairs and tripped over rugs. Harmony even ran into a few suits of (now still again) armour which made her scream.
They got back to the common room at quarter after, clutching their stomachs from laughing and wincing at the stitches in their sides as they gasped for air.
"Well, it's about time!" a shrill voice came from by the fireplace.
The pair looked up and immediately wished they hadn't. Lily Evans herself stood up and advanced on the terrified Sirius and Harmony.
"Er, goodnight ladies! Thanks for tonight, Harms." Sirius called as he bolted up the stairs of the boys' dorms, not forgetting to throw Harmony one last glance that went along with his thank you.
"What exactly was he thanking you for, if you don't mind me asking?" Lily asked.
"Mind out of the gutter, Lils!" Harmony held her hands up. "We just went up to the Astronomy Tower and talked for a while. Deep stuff. Don't worry about it." she added on or Lily would surely drill her for information.
"It's really not a good idea to be out after curfew." Lily pointed a finger at Harmony.
"Okay, Mum. You won't catch me, I'll be careful." Harmony said sincerely.
Lily pondered the wording for a moment and found the loophole. "Correction. You will not be out after curfew again."
"No promises." Harmony saw the look on Lily's face and then said, "Whew! Look at that time! I'm off to bed, Lils. Love ya!" Harmony copied Sirius and bolted up the stairs of her own dorm room, the girl whose head was flaming (red hair pun intended) hot on her heels.
A/N: I planned out the next few chapters, so I'll have a general direction about what the heck I'm writing about. Because up until now, I just sort of went with it. Whatever, it's not a bad thing, is it?
Anyway. Sirius and Harms are getting a little more serious. (Haha, pun intended hah). Thanks to all my story followers, reviewers, and favouriters!