The Marauders: Year Six #Wattys2017

Sharing a Room With Vernon

Sharing a Room With Vernon

The cottage was small and grey and on the ocean. There were three bedrooms, each with two beds, and Mrs. Evans had Sirius put Petuna and Lily's suitcases in one room, hers in another, and he dropped his own bag on one of the beds in the third - this meant that the girls would be sharing and so would Sirius and Vernon Dursley. Sirius wasn't sure how he felt about sharing a room with Vernon Dursley, but he supposed it would be alright - after all, it wasn't as though Vernon could be any more messy or loud than he was used to with the Marauders' dormitory, yeah? So he stood beside the bed in the room and overturned his bag of things onto the bed.

There wasn't much in there. Hadn't packed much. Then again, Sirius Black didn't have much to pack. There were a new pair of pyjamas (Mrs. Potter had given Sirius new ones and thrown his old ones away when she saw how short they were on him), and a new pair of swimming shorts (another gift from Mrs. Potter when she learned Sirius was going to the sea on the little holiday he was taking), a couple band t-shirts, and a few t-shirts that Sirius had fashioned himself from blank colourful t-shirts where he'd magicked words upon the fabric... He had a hat, a bottle of potion to keep from burning under the sun, the Polaroid camera, the two-way mirror, his little knife, a magazine James had given him about music and punk rock bands, and a tape with a sample song by a new band called The Ramones that had come with the magazine because the band was featured on the cover. He also had a picture of Remus.

Oh and Snuffles's collar.

Sirius shrugged off his leather jacket and hung it over the foot of the bed, withdrawing his wand from the jacket's pocket and putting it down on the mattress as he kicked his boots off. He quickly put his clothes into the drawer of the dresser and put the rest of his stuff on the night stand by his bed and was just sitting down with the magazine to wait for Lily to finish unpacking her things when Vernon Dursley came into the room, carrying a thick suitcase and putting it down on the bed. Sirius looked up.

"Hullo," Sirius said, friendly. Vernon Dursley looked at him, nodded without actually speaking, and opened his suitcase, which was bursting full of stuff. Sirius looked over, "Wow you packed a lot of stuff for a week."

"It's always best to be prepared," Vernon replied, and he started tucking all the clothes he had brought along into a drawer in the dresser as well. He had suit jackets and ties and nice shirts and shirts to wear under the nice shirts and three pairs of swim shorts and two pairs of pyjamas and multiple pairs of shoes, even, and Sirius thought that this boy had managed to pack more than he even owned.

Sirius asked, "Do you and Petunia go to school together?"

"No. I went to Smeltings. Graduated two years ago now," Vernon replied, "I work for my father at --"

"Grunnings, yes, you mentioned," Sirius said. Vernon looked annoyed that Sirius had interrupted him. But Sirius continued, "And you date Petunia?"

"Yes," Vernon replied. "We are going out."

"That's nice," Sirius said. "How did you meet?"

"A dance," Vernon answered.

"Oh cool," Sirius grinned, "So you enjoy dancing then?"

"No," Vernon replied.

Sirius stared at Vernon for a long moment, waiting for him to go on, but he didn't. Finally, Sirius said, "I love dancing."

Vernon Dursley didn't reply.

Sirius continued, "I could dance all night. Especially after a couple glasses of firewhiskey."