The Boys Are Back In Town
<<This is a bad idea.>> murmured Peter, torturing his lip with his teeth <<and you’d get me in trouble. My father might kill me.>>
<<Relax. Lene is out with the car, if something happens we have an escape plan.>>
<<You might, I don’t, I have class.>>
<<Peter how would they know you were the one that let us in?>>
In between him and Sirius was James that with a pat on Peter’s shoulder had tried to be reassuring and separate the two before they started bickering like kids. Not like they were about to do something mature, but, still, there were limits, and that limit was being caught before having done something concrete.
<<No one will catch us and it’ll be fun. Just like old times.>>
Peter didn’t look very convinced <<We got caught.>>
<<We’ve grown, we learned.>>
What James hadn’t kept in mind was that none of them was sharp enough to learn from their mistakes. It was probably something that went over their intelligence quotient and their mental capacity. Keep a low profile was not an option, but a distant fantasy.
So far away.
They had entered the university from a second door that was usually deserted: the morning the university students had to pass from the main entrance to tick themselves off the sheet of attendance, protocol put in place after a slightly older professor forgot to take the register, or was put in a fix by the students. They had decided to give the students less trust than was necessary and someone had complained, but James and Sirius were the living proof those precautions had been necessary. By chance, that morning hadn’t been different, and Peter had given them the go.
Their prank wasn’t anything sophisticated, thinking about it, it had probably been recycled, a child’s play, you see: it had been too long since they had thought something up, they were rusty and their only aim was to laugh at their old sixth form classmates. But Peter had the impression it hadn’t been something done by chance: he distinctly remembered the time when they had poured some old sauce gone bad on top of someone’s head, their old aquaintances would be happy to receive something with the Marauders’ signature on it. The thought made him smile, because, no matter the trouble he was risking, he missed how much school was fun with those two. Of course, it wasn’t the same thing as they went somewhere else and he was alone most of the time. The thought that he was the only one still at university was a bitter thought that he tried to keep in a corner of his mind, trying not to think about James’s luck, golden parents happy with everything he did and accepted at an apprenticeship in a sporting agency before he finished college, and about Sirius’s courage that had run away from something written for him and was making his own story, brick by brick and step after step, something Peter could only look at in admiration, because he had followed the dotted line without complaining and had no talent to do something without going to university. Or well, no talent that was worth it, music didn't count. He knew he wouldn’t have done anything with it and that was good enough.
<<Are you sure they have class here Pete?>>
<<Yes, they’re with me, I’ve told you twenty times. And there isn’t much those people can do: Economy, Finance, stuff like that, we’re bound to have a class together.>>
<<Okay, okay, sorry.>>
<<You two, give me a hand.>> James was complaining while he dragged a large bucket of glue by himself. Sirius turned in his direction while he played with the string that would’ve served to hang it from.
<<What, Muscle Man? I thought you would’ve done all the dirty work.>>
<<Ha ha, very funny.>>
The idea was to use a huge display case next to the classroom’s entrance to put the bucket on and make sure that the rope went through the library, because it’s entrance was parallel to the class, so that they could pull it without being seen, and use the other library’s entrance as exit for James and Sirius. It was stupid and childish, millions of things could go wrong, but they were already risking a lot: entering a building they didn’t go to illegally wasn't something they had done yet. The stupidest thing of all was that they had no plan B except to run.
Because for the terrible idea of the bucket with the glue to work, they had to secure the rope to the library’s door and position it well on the glass case, only managed to do thanks to James’s well toned shoulders that had brought Sirius to the right height to place it, while Peter strategically moved the rope around.
<<Right, when does class start?>>
When Peter checked his watch he almost fainted. What a terrible idea, they would’ve never made it, he was sure. He just had to wait to get in trouble. His father would’ve disinherited him and he would’ve lived on the streets.
<<Five minutes.>>
<<Holy shit.>>
<<Padfoot, you’re gonna snap my neck, be careful.>>
<<Sorry if I don’t wanna get caught.>>
Rope handed over to the two, that instead of worrying they were snickering happily, he had anxiously bid them goodbye, going to sign in, chastising himself for having done something so stupid. For the whole way to the reception he was trying not to chew at his snails. Maybe, that time would’ve been the day his mother had been right about the fact he’d have made his fingers bleed.
<<How come you’re only coming now to sign in?>> It had been Frank that had asked him that as he had walked over, and even though it had been genuine curiosity, Peter suddenly felt under pressure. But if there was one thing Peter knew how to do well, it was lie: he wasn't the Marauders’ rock for nothing, from the first joke, from the first ink on the trousers of the first professor, since he, James and Sirius had become a team
<<Bathroom. I had gone in and didn’t have time.>>
Frank nodded slowly, signing him in and accepting that they were simply late and Peter mentally thanked whichever divine force had helped him. Then a lamp switched on in hi head: why not hit two birds with one stone? Maybe the universe was on his side after all. Maybe the prank would've gone great and they would’ve gotten rid of the bass player problem in one, lucky day.
<<Frank, you play the bass right?>>
Jokingly they brought a hand to their chest <<Peter, you wound me. You’ve been the one to teach me how to read music, you should know what I play.>>
Peter laughed softly.
<<I was just checking you hadn’t just switched to trombone. Anyway, would you still be willing to play? Like, in a band?>>
Frank looked at him with a raised brow, as if amused <<Are you trying to get me to join your band?>>
<<Maybe?>>
<<Oh.>> Frank sounded genuinely surprised. <<Pete I’d love to, really. But I already play with someone.>> The universe wasn’t on his side.
<<What?>>
<<I know, crazy.>>
<<You should’ve told me earlier, kidding? I’m happy for you.>>
<<Well, you never asked.>> Frank only needed a glance in Peter’s direction to realise he hadn’t said the right thing. Obviously the problem wasn’t about the statement itself, there hadn’t been anything offensive, but what hid behind it, the remorseful smudge about what had gone on between them and the others. Peter knew, but he still found himself slightly embarrassed by the idea of neglecting someone he had known from secondary school like that, even though there were enough reasons to keep the bare contact. And the worse thing was that Peter had never set out to do it on purpose, he had never been good at keeping friendships close to him and the exceptions were really small. He knew that in that case he wasn’t the only one to take the blame and the circumstances weren’t the best, but he couldn’t help but mull over it. Frank gave him a pat on the shoulder as if to comfort him, one of the ones that make you feel like everything wrong in the world is going to be alright.
<<Hey, it was just a stupid line, don’t think about it too much. You always have time to ask everything you’d like, I’m not going anywhere.>>
<<When you perform I’m coming to see you. If you’d be okay with it, obviously.>>
It was a promise he’d have kept whatever the cost. Frank replied with a smile, ruffling his hair.
<<How would I not want you to? I’d say the same thing for you, but if you’re looking for a member->>
<<A bassist. You were the first person I asked because I know you, I wanted to have a sure element.>>
<<Well, there are bassists that are much better than me.>> that was his try at consoling him.
After all he couldn’t leave his band, as much as Peter’s words made his heart ache. <<I’m sure that->> Frank didn’t even finish his sentence, when a thump was heard around all the walls of the university. A sound that was way too loud for a simple tub of glue.
Oh no.
Sirius and James could only guarantee that it hadn’t been intentional, because everything was going smoothly until someone came into the library before what they had thought. How could they hide if they were holding the rope attached to the bucket? If they went away it would’ve toppled without hitting anyone, all their efforts in vain. But if they hadn't done something in time, the person would've seen them and they would’ve been in huge amounts of trouble. James wanted to send Sirius to distract them, wanting to use his friend’s irresistible charm, but forgetting that he wasn’t from this school as much as he was, so it would’ve been a huge bullshittery either way. Unfortunately Sirius had explained everything with too much passion, that was the only way to get to James’s stubborn head, but the best way to catch the attention of whoever had just entered the room. When they heard footsteps coming towards them, they, of course, were thrown into a fit of panic. Where to hide? How to save themselves?
Lady Luck was usually on their side and had always contributed in putting their insane ideas in action: Luck was probably on their side for personal amusement and their pranks were hilarious enough in a childish sense to attract her divine attention, making them succeed almost always. Almost.
In fact, in that same moment, Lucius and the rest of his gang, that Sirius and James knew all too well, was about to pass through the entrance of the room. The two got ready to drop the rope and take advantage of the chaos to run away to the library undisturbed by whoever came in. Piece of cake, right? It had been exhilarating to see glue attach itself to Lucius’s platinum locks and create another layer on Severus’s, to then hear them yell a colourful array of curses. Sirius had almost been impressed by how their imagination had improved since last time. It was impressive.
But the library was full of unimaginable and dangerous traps: bookshelves. Bookshelves that would have blocked their passage, because neither was ready to accept that they were there before their arrival and that they had serious problems right from the start. Because who would’ve imagined they were so delicate and would’ve started rocking? Honestly, for how much it cost to attend here, bookshelves should be indestructible and not risk falling at every movement. Someone should sue the building, at least that’s what Sirius thought. But the books had fallen when James had bumped against them. Catching the attention of who stood behind. In the panic, Sirius had one idea.
<<Help me push it down.>> they turned with a wild look, while laments and insults kept raining down from who got glue in their hair, covering their voices.
<<Are you mental? If someone’s behind, they risk losing their life.>>
<<What should we do then?>>
James took too little to think about what came next: he gave another push to the shelf and even though the idea was to make other books fall to distract who was on the other side, he heard a thump- A terrible thump, that couldn't certainly be a book. A dictionary couldn't make a noise like this. Only important things that fall and break make that air of buzzing that make you sick to the pit of your stomach, like those small children that break family vases running around even though they shouldn't.
They heard a voice outside the library <<What happened?>>
<<Run.>>
And Sirisu ran because he couldn’t think of a better solution, trying with all his might to not look behind to see what James had made fall.
<<I think you still killed someone either way.>>
<<Save your breath and run.>> Said James surpassing him, Sirius cursing his athlete legs while he tried to keep his pace with a great deal of huffing. While James spent days practising, they were definitely out of shape and the last time they ran so much it was because their life depended on it, they were sure. And if that wasn't enough, Luck decided to throw in another curveball, just to have some fun, because Sirius couldn’t understand how in hell he ended up against someone at the next corner. He was about to resume his sprint when he realised that was a very familiar face.
<<YOU?>> the guy showed a puzzled look, raised eyebrow and a surprised face. But his exclamation was justified, how was he to know he’d find him in that exact moment? And he didn’t seem to think it that differently-
<<I didn’t know you went to this uni.>>
<<Surprise?>> Sirius tried to take some tension away, but the other didn’t seem that convinced.
<<Why are you running then?>>
<<That’s a great question to which I have a rational and logical reply.>> he said nodding slowly and remembering that he was in the middle of a chase and he had to start going towards the exit.
<<Um, yes, so->>
<<Rem, c’mon there’s been a real shitsto->> the voice suddenly stopped and Sirius had to turn around to check that his eyes weren’t deceiving him because of the adrenaline, hearing voices or seeing ghosts. But the green eyes now staring at him were definitely Lily Evans’s that was now with a mouth wide open and books sprawled on the ground. To call him back to reality was James, reminding him they were definitely in trouble. James’s voice while he was staring at Lily. James and Lily. And the stranger from the cafè. Shit.
<<Well Rem, it’s been a real pleasure, see you soon.>> he said before pointing behind his shoulders and going back to a full sprint.
<<GO GO GO.>>
When they launched themselves in the car, Marlene had already started it. James was sure he heard some voices clamouring in the distance, but they had managed to escape before they were identified. Mission accomplished. One one hand he was happy that all the blame hadn’t gone on the poor person in the library at that moment. He could’ve also celebrated were it not for the fact that Sirius almost had them caught talking to who knows: so his way of showing it was a punch to the shoulder.
<<What were you thinking?>>
<<Ouch, what do you want? We made it.>>
<<For some miracle, did it seem like a good idea to stop and chat?>>
He got an annoyed huff and his best friend’s back, now looking outside the window <<You don’t know who I met, don’t get angry with me.>>
<<Who did you meet?>>
There had been a second of silence before Sirisu turned around, blue eyes set on James in an imitation of the most desperate and lost person in the universe. His friend almost fell for it.
<<I’m not gonna tell you.>> he said before pulling a face. And if James first wanted to strangle him, now he wanted to bury him and dance on his grave. To express his bloodlust he hit him on the head, which was then reciprocated.
<<Stop being babies in my car, if you ruin the seats you’re buying me a new one.>> It had been Marlene to interrupt them by slightly increasing the radio volume and rocking her head to the beat. The threat would have been taken seriously were it not for the fact that James had gifted her that car.
Guess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that had been away
Haven't changed, had much to say
But man, I still think them cats are crazy
Sirius looked out of their window with their head resting on his palm, frowning. Partly because it was fun to play hurt with James, partly because strange thoughts wandered through their head: if the week prior he thought Lily Evans had left for some prestigious foreign university at least 3 years ago, knowing she was in London, and attended the same Uni that Peter went to in the last 72 hours had been simply absurd. Had she ever even left? If he knew he'd have been the first to let the plan go. Then he thought again at Alice and how he told her the mysterious stranger at the cafe was attending the same university. He had voluntarily forgotten it from his head and cursed himself for not asking more about it, for having decided for his good and James’s to not know it a few days ago. Meet them by chance in a school of 700 students? That was an absurd coincidence, that could’ve happened in a better moment and not when they were trying to escape after having infiltrated a well known school and ruined the library, covering some students from head to toe in glue.
I said (the boys are back in town)
(The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(The boys are back in town)
Who else went there? The thought of all those people in there made his heart clench. A part of him had stopped realising how each of the people he had met were all going through the same adulthood and had not stayed behind in his youth. Not that he didn’t know, there was a limit to egocentrism that even Sirius couldn’t surpass, but the realisation and the effect of all those sudden thought made his head hurt, as if he needed to know what the other people in his life were doing: it was fun to think he was keeping an eye on it, in a romantic and abstract way, like looking at people pass in a cafè, but actually doing it was something so strange, almost dangerous, like realising someone else’s humanity could hurt him for life.
Down at Dino's Bar'n'Grill
The drink will flow and blood will spill
And if the boys wanna fight, you better let 'em
That jukebox in the corner blastin' out my favorite song
And suddenly he was asking himself if Lily was studying law like she wanted to, if Mary was having fun like she had promised to do after the end of school, if Frank had managed to find themselves like they had wanted to. Sirius started asking himself why they hadn’t grown up together like they had promised to do, what had gone wrong so that they split. It was typical of him to leave memories behind and forget about the past: if there was something in front of him he couldn’t care less, there was always something further away. But he still felt nostalgic, of the old group, of the old school, of the old carefreeness, of the old freedom, old dreams, old hopes. What had made them fall apart? What had really changed in two years? Had they really grown up that fast?
The boys are back, the boys are back
The boys are back in town again
Been hangin' down at Dino's
The boys are back in town again
The car ride was slow, a suffocating silence, a glum James, a Marlene in her own head and the music and Sirius that was slowly letting curiosity of a future that he’d never have and lives he’d lost eat him away slowly. The only thing that could be heard was the radio, uninterrupted, with Thin Lizzy’s music coming out of the windows and spilling on the streets. Because when you get to 20 even the most egocentric person starts looking around. Because if their childhood is really finished what to do? Was their life really destined to work and all those critiques that he once had mocked in adults? The same ones they had sworn not to follow the path of, no matter what?
Sirius had buried her parents' footsteps, blown by the wind of her rebellion and left to rot while he looked the other way, face towards the sky. He wanted to be something big and he wanted to do it with his friends and maybe he had already lost part of his wish. What would he have given to go back and fix all his mistakes, or find concrete evidence, a particular moment, something that really marked the end of his youth. Sirius wasn’t sure he’d remember, he could’ve done many hypotheses, but, finding every smudge with how things had gone and how things should’ve instead gone to not have any problems.
But Sirius had loved smudges, the imperfections had been what gave them an air of relief, because if everything has smudges it means that theirs were okay and they didn’t have to hide them. Perfect lines bored him and he could be described as pathological allergic to anything simple, linear and habitual. If things didn’t have highs and lows Sirius didn’t get them, finding halfways was something that made him distressed and gave him the same feeling of someone that burns their skin. Boredom and calm for Sirius meant unpleasant thoughts and the need to find something to do. Tranquil moments had to be followed by something or someone, otherwise it was very easy to turn into anguish.
And maybe that was the problem with his friendships or relationships: Sirius couldn’t stand moments of compete calm, and couldn’t accept that people needed it. It was this unconscious part of his brain that automatically registered a breather as something finished, and he would quickly throw himself into the next thing or insisted in a morbid manner for it to end. This could be a character trait to which giving all faults would be simple. It would’ve been nothing to completely lose a group of friends. Sirius had thought about it, at times, to do the biggest fuck up for a bit of action, a bit of movement, fresh air, new, clean. To leave the habit. It was too easy to give himself all the fault. Sirius could see a solution and everything would’ve ended there. Instead he had the irritating notion that he hadn’t been the direct cause of it all.
With a loud sigh, they took their phone out. What he was about to do was simply out of curiosity, nothing more nothing less. He would’ve hurt himself, he knew, he was scared. He had never looked for people because of that precise reason: maybe he would’ve seen they had gotten on with life, they had gotten over nostalgia and had accepted that life goes on and people that are around you change, and that was something that Sirius would’ve rather not realised in a car with Marlene and James. But their finger scrolled down to look for Lily Evans’s profile. When had they stopped following each other? There hadn’t been any real fight between them. Maybe it was better this way. When they found it, they stopped to look at the profile picture for a second. He could swear the mysterious guy from the cafè was there too and now he was dying of curiosity. It could’ve been so simple, he could’ve given an answer to so many questions buzzing in his head.
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