(You reviewers make my day!!! After this Chapter, the action starts! Soundtrack for the Chapter: The Damnwells – Golden Days.)
Ten - The Last Celebration
(New Year's Eve – Year One/Year Two)
POOF! The familiar purple puff curled once again into the air. Every member of the Order of the Phoenix had been captured. Captured in yet another moment, that was.
With relief, the members dissipated from the tight positions, laughing and merry.
None were merrier than Sirius Black.
He pulled a wizarding cracker, making it snap and allowing a live mouse to pop out and scurry away!
Perhaps the five or so butterbeers he had consumed, along with endless bubbling champagne and a solitary glass of wine, made him a bit merrier, but that was to no matter!
Everyone was celebrating! It was the New Year, and it was a new dawn for resistance… Dumbledore had promised a chance to help fight soon enough. But until then…
James was whispering into a giggling Lily's ear; Sirius was glad they looked so happy. Since the death of Mrs. Potter, it had been tough for all who had known her. The pair of lively, red-headed twins, Gideon and Fabian Prewitt, was entertaining Peter, Marlene, and Remus with a show of apparent "muggle magic", involving playing cards.
Frank and Alice Longbottom, an Auror couple who had graduated a few years prior to Sirius's group, were sharing stories with Caradoc Dearborne, and his best friend, Benjy Fenwick. Hagrid was attempting to persuade Dumbledore and McGonagall to enlist Quintapeds for the Order. Diggle, exceptionally short, was trying to dance with Vance, exceptionally tall. Even Mad-Eye Moody looked less freakishly paranoid than usual as he stood, his eye swiveling from his perch in the corner.
This night was necessary! Amidst all of the dark news, and all of the oncoming feats, some comic relief was needed for the souls!
Everyone was loud and happy and bubbling and spinning and bright and happy and wonderfully happy! Celebrations were simply spectacular!
And as for Sirius?
"Look at them!" He cried, eyeing both James and Lily and Alice and Frank. "They look so, so happy! Married!" He caught the attention of Dorcas. "Dorcas whatever-your-middle-name-is Meadows," He laughed, stumbling onto one knee. "Will you marry me?"
"Of course not." She smiled, tapping him on the nose. Sirius turned to Remus.
"How 'bout you then?"
"Sure." Moony replied sardonically.
Sirius grimaced. "Ugh. I take that back. Sorry, mate, but I prefer women."
Dorcas snorted. "Well, we can see that."
Sirius stood up and threw an arm around her. "You, Dorcas, are an extremely clever witch. Are you positive that you don't want to rethink your decision?"
"Yes." She assured. "And if you weren't so drunk, I'm sure you'd want to rethink asking in the first place."
Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "How could you say that?! Look at you! You're so pretty! And I am extremely handsome. I think that if we were to have children, they would be beautiful."
"Oh, God," Remus moaned. Dorcas cast Sirius a hopeless glance.
"Thirty seconds 'til the New Year, everyone!" Elphias Dodge wheezed.
"Can I at least kiss you at midnight then?" Sirius turned his puppy eyes to Dorcas. She groaned, and turned to Remus.
"Is he always this… desperate looking?"
"Oh, please, you know I'm completely irresistible!" Sirius complained.
"Ten, nine…!" The group began to shout.
"We're counting!" Sirius exclaimed with glee.
Dorcas laughed.
"Five four…!"
Firecrackers went off, Fillibuster fireworks were bouncing with colors everywhere, and the world was in a stupor like it had never felt!
And perhaps it was because it was the New Year, or perhaps it was because she knew that this would probably be the last celebration held for a long while in times to come, but Dorcas agreed and gave Sirius a peck on the lips as the cluck struck twelve. Perhaps those were the same two reasons everyone else was so carefree and so willing to give into the wildness of the night, as well…
(To come: finally some Death Eater face-offs, and perhaps maybe the first Lily/James escape from You-Know-Who…)