“Alright girls?” Sirius said as he walked into their room.
“Jesus Christ!” Lily exclaimed in surprise as she scrambled off of her bed and straightened her clothes. “How do you keep getting in here?”
“I invited him, I figured he’d want to hear my new albums that I got for Christmas,” Mary responded digging through her trunk.
“Okay,” Lily said squinting at Mary, trying to figure out if this was some kind of joke before clarifying, “that doesn’t really answer my question. How does he keep getting up the stairs?”
“I imagine he walks,” Marlene said from where she was lounging in the purple beanbag chair in the corner. Sirius walked over and plopped down on the floor next to her.
“Yeah, that is typically how I approach staircases,” Sirius agreed, stretching out his legs and leaning back on his hands, “but when I go down sometimes, I’ll ride the railing.”
“That’s true I have seen him do that,” Mary said as she grabbed a vinyl with a mostly black record sleeve and headed over to join the others.
Lily rolled her eyes as she realized that they were fucking with her.
“Okay, this one is called Sheer Heart Attack. It’s brand new, it only came out in November but it's already huge. A couple of the singles are all over the radio back home, but I waited until I was back here to listen to it fully.” Mary said.
“I-“ Lily started but then weighed her options and decided that Sirius was unlikely to solve this mystery for her tonight, and she hadn’t really had much time with her friends since coming back from break. She chose to let it go and join the group. “Do you want me to set up the player or do you have it?”
“I’ve got it,” Mary said, smiling at Lily brightly. “Did you hear any of this back home? It’s Queen.”
“No not much, my sister isn't really one for rock music,” Lily said sitting down across from Sirius with her back to the window. It was technically true, Petunia despised rock music, but she had a particular distaste for Queen since she had heard a broadcast speculating about the sexuality of the lead singer.
“Oh, but it’s not even proper rock, it’s more like glam rock.” Mary reasoned, taking the record out of the sleeve.
“Do you know what any of this means?” Marlene stage whispered to Sirius.
“I think they’re talking about the different breeds of music.” Sirius stage whispered back.
“Yeah, Petunia doesn’t much care for Queen though, and its genres of music, not breeds.” Lily corrected.
“She’s got a problem with Freddie then?” Mary guessed.
“A bit yeah, she’s…” Lily searched for a polite term, “traditional.”
“Oh yeah,” Mary hummed, “I forget that your family is like properly religious.”
“They’re not though, Petunias just gotten real into it since I left. Something about them thinking witchcraft is an abomination.”
“No offense Lily but your sister’s kind of a bitch.” Marlene said as she took out a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of her jacket pocket.
“Don’t smoke those in here,” Mary said glancing up from where she was fiddling with the dials on the enchanted record player.
Marlene signed and dropped them back into her pocket rolling her eyes.
“No offense taken, I’m aware.” Lily said, “Mary did you ask your sister for her copy of Waterloo?”
“Yeah, but she wouldn’t give it to me. I tried to slip it into my trunk, but she went through it the night before I left and took it out.” Mary explained.
“What a little sneak!” Marlene exclaimed.
“I mean it was hers in all fairness.” Lily reasoned.
“I meant that Mary was the sneak,” Marlene explained and sent Mary a cheeky grin when the other girl sent her a glare.
“Are we ever going to listen to this record?” Sirius asked. “Not that I don’t find this conversation riveting but I was told it was going to change my life.”
“Patience is a virtue, Black.” Mary said with a pointed look as she adjusted the needle. She then maneuvered herself so that she could sit on the other open beanbag chair and turned the sleeve over so that she could read the back. “Okay, this first one is called ‘Brighton Rock.” She flicked her wand, and the record started to spin, and bells and sounds of a parade floated out through the speaker, and as the guitar and drums filtered and Lily saw Sirius’ eyes light up, she secretly agreed that it was a cool motif to start an album with.
The next 40 minutes passed in a whirl, with some comments from each of the friends though they were all quickly silenced in favor of hearing the music. As the last notes of dramatic guitar at the end of ‘In the Lap of The Gods…’ play and the tonearm lifted and went back to its rest position they all sat in silence for a moment, taking in the album they had just listened to.
“Wow.” Marlene said.
“Yeah.” Mary agreed tilting her head back in thought.
“That was fucking incredible!” Sirius exclaimed, he had switched positions part way through Killer Queen and was now sitting with his legs crossed leaning forward.
“Was that not the best thing you’ve ever heard?”
“I don’t know if I loved it. There are definitely some good songs but there were some misses too. The Leroy song sounds like something my dad would listen to.” Marlene said.
“Okay that wasn’t my favorite either in fairness, but you can’t disagree with the absolute majesty of Killer Queen!” Sirius argued. “Plus, you seemed to like Stone Cold Crazy.”
“No Sirius, you seemed to like Stone Cold Crazy,” Marlene said. “I still think ABBA is better.”
“You can’t compare everything to ABBA!” Sirius said exasperated.
“Why not?” Marlene asked. “They’re the best musical talent of our generation.”
Sirius’ jaw actually dropped at the suggestion.
“What did you think Lily?” Mary said, interrupting what was sure to turn into ridiculous bickering.
“Well far be for me to agree with Black but I thought it was actually quite good.” Lily said, “I liked the drums, and the lyrics, and whoever they have on bass has a gift.”
“Don’t start with your obsession with bass lines.” Marlene joked.
“Or her obsession with bass players,” Mary commented giggling. Lily blushed and rolled her eyes.
“You have an obsession with bass players?” Sirius asked.
“Hush, both of you. Mary which songs had you already heard?” Lily said quickly, changing the subject, she was not about to let Sirius Black in on anything related to her type.
“Killer Queen and Now I’m Here, and I think I must have heard part of Brighton Rock.”
“Probably the guitar solo then? It was half of the bloody song.” Marlene complained.
“I happened to like that guitar solo,” Lily admitted.
“You would.” Marlene shot back.
“I like Lily of the Valley quite a bit,” Mary said.
“You always like the ballads, Mary,” Marlene noted.
“I’m a romantic, what can I say?” Mary said throwing her braids over her shoulder.
“I like it too, and not just because it has my name in it. The harmonies felt good to me, you know? It felt very,” Lily searched for the right word. “Flowy? A bit like swaying in the breeze you know?”
“I thought that too!” Sirius nodded. “Maybe you’re not so bad, Red.”
“I don’t love that I’ve been outvoted on this album,” Marlene said. “And I don’t love that I’ve been out voted by Sirius of all people.
“It’s not your fault you’re a disco queen Marls,” Mary said giving her a kind smile.
“Yeah, you can’t be blamed for bad taste.” Sirius agreed giving her a less kind smile.
“Oh, fuck off, you like disco too, I’ve seen you dance to Elton John and Wings.” Marlene accused.
“I’ve seen him dance to ABBA,” Mary said.
“You have not.” Sirius and Lily said at the same time with a look of horror and glee on their faces respectively.
“I have to! First Quidditch match party this year, Hestia put on Ring Ring, and I watched you practically give Potter a lap dance to Nina, Pretty Ballerina.” Mary shrugged.
“Nina, Pretty Ballerina would be a terrible song to lap dance to! That is a slanderous lie!” Sirus said.
“If you don’t listen to ABBA, how do you know if it’s a good song to lap dance to?” Lily asked with a smirk.
“First of all: everything nice I said about you,” Sirius said pointing at Lily.
“The one thing?” She asked.”
“Yeah, I take it back. Second of all, I didn’t say I didn’t listen to ABBA; I said I didn’t dance to it.” Sirius explained.
“Whatever, I know what I saw,” Mary said teasingly as Sirius huffed and rolled his eyes.