-ˋ 46

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by hvgwcrts

by hvgwcrts

CHAPTER FORTY SIX
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-: seventh year :-

── IN WHICH SIRIUS EXPRESSES DOUBT

. . .

The afternoon of Christmas day 1977 turned to evening, and from that to night. But whilst Euphemia and Fleamont had retired to their room long before, that didn't stop the group of teens.

They had all gathered in James's room with bottles of Firewhiskey, with no wish to get extremely drunk but just tipsy enough to lose sense of what they were doing. It was the proper way to say goodbye to the final Christmas of peace.

A Muffliato charm had been cast around the room and mattresses covered the floor for Sirius and Peter. Tiger would be in her boyfriend's bed of course, and she already was, covers pulled up over her knees and a set of keys cradled in her palm.

The shocks of silver against red seemed to be discarded as Tiger let go of the keyring, sitting up further and reaching over to James. "Firewhiskey, please." She reached out her hand in a grabbing motion, smiling when the Potter boy placed the amber-tinted bottle in her hands.

"I can't believe we graduate this year." Peter mumbled, looking up as he watched Sirius clamber onto the end of the bed. "Padfoot? What are you doing."

"Now that you two-" His words were slurred and a hand hurried to brush his hair out of his eyes before pointing a finger between the both of them. "Now that you're moving in together.."

He didn't finish his sentence, instead just frowning.

It was obvious that Tiger had accepted James's offer. She had been rather taken aback to hear that he had been in possession of the keys and house since their summer holidays, and she had chewed him out for being so impulsive. But she had walked back into the living room firmly holding his hand and the sound of metal clinking in her pocket.

Everyone acted surprised for all of two seconds before Tiger managed to figure out that they all already knew.

"Yes?" Tiger asked, blinking over at Sirius as she waited for an answer. "We're moving in together when we graduate - and does.. Moony know yet?" She turned to look at James, who waved his hand dismissively. "He's going to kill you if you don't tell him."

"Or he's going to wait until a full moon and rip you apart." Peter chimed, the three other teens staring at him for just a second too long.

"Alright, no more Firewhiskey for Pete." James pulled himself out of the covers and moved to take the bottle off of the Pettigrew boy, instead taking sips out of it himself. "But that's just semantics. You're already living with me, what difference does it make?"

"You'll be alone." Sirius blurted out. "All alone. Big house, a James and a Tiger. All alone."

Tiger frowned in confusion, glancing over to her boyfriend for answers. James seemed to be staring at Sirius with an unreadable emotion in his eyes. Then, he surprised all four of them before sitting up and throwing his arms around Sirius's neck.

"Does he usually get this.. touchy-feely when he's drunk?" Tiger asked, head tilted. "I would know, except I'm usually halfway to a blackout when he's only had a shot or something."

"He can be." Peter nodded grimly, clearly reliving some traumatising memory. "Just give him a minute.. or five."

He was right, and about five to ten minutes later James was pulling away, Sirius evidently not having enjoyed it as much as the Potter boy - the frown on his face spoke volumesm

"Don't be silly mate." James sat back in the bed, not bothering to apologise for hugging the life out of him for the past few minutes. "Just because we're living together doesn't mean that you can't stay there too. Right?"

He turned back to Tiger, who nodded hurriedly and dragged herself to sit next to her boyfriend and their bestfriend. "Right - everyone's welcome. You, Pete, Rem, Lily - any of the girls. Hell, I daresay even McGonagall is invited to come along if she really wants." The Howell girl shrugged, smiling.

"How did you know I was waiting to ask you that?" James grinned, voice dripping in sarcasm. "But she's right, Minnie can stay any time she likes, as you can you lot."

"Not much is really going to change." Peter spoke up, sneaking to take the Firewhiskey bottle that Tiger had left behind and taking swigs of it. "We'll just be fighting a dark wizard and this time we won't have to press pause to go to Potions or something."

"Would you look at that? Even Pete sees the positives." James lay back down as laughter littered through the group, none of them having any idea that the Muffliato charm had died a long time ago and now Fleamont Potter was stumbling over to his son's bedroom door to tell them to go to sleep.

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a/n
before, peter was to tiger that
person you don't talk to unless its
about a class or something or the
weather but now i'm using this as
a chance to show how much closer
they've gotten