We Need You!
"James mate shut it!" Peter shouted over the noise. They could all play instruments, and they all sounded good. Except for the singing: that was awful. None of them could sing to save their lives, but they loved music.
Peter loved his keyboard, starting off by playing classics his mom wanted to hear and then changing to things like Nirvana and My Chemical Romance.
Remus didn't know who he'd be without his bass guitar, keeping him sane when he was in the hospital and when he was learning to walk again. (James dubbing him Optimus when he got the mechanical legs), and he can sit on a stool, too, when they start rubbing.
Sirius was the lead guitarist, but he wasn't the leader, even if he pretended he was. At first, it was a way to rebel against Walburga and Orion. He was horrible when he started and he hadn't bothered to learn until James said Effie was getting him a drum set for his thirteenth.
Speaking of the drum set, that hadn't changed over the years, apart from a logo on the centre. A proud lion stood on its hind legs with a red background and a silver crest. Thank God Lily was amazing at art, otherwise it would look like a five year old had painted it.
Maybe it was unfair to say they couldn't sing. They could sing, but not to the level they needed. Not well enough to hit an F5, or low enough for a B2.
"Someone has to do it." James argued. "And we've tried with all of you lot and you're just as bad."
"Speak for yourself." Sirius muttered.
"Regardless," Remus interrupted before things got tense as they often did when they were arguing over a vocalist, "We need to find a singer, and fast."
"We could do it without a vocalist." Peter suggested.
"A vocalist completes it." Sirius said.
"How about we hold auditions next week then? That gives us two months before the competition." They all nodded in agreement. "I'll ask Lily later."
"Oh? Is it date night?" Sirius teased.
"Yes, a date night where Lily gushes over her secret girlfriend and I check out all the guys there." James smiled.
"You kiss one girl at fifteen and suddenly you're dating for three years." Sirius looked out dreamily, laughing when James threw a drumstick at him.
There was a drawer full of them in their studio (James' garage), as well as a tray of guitar picks Sirius only uses because they look cool. Opposite the instruments and the amps was the garage door Peter had painted to look like the crowd (black blobs with fireworks at the top) one day when James didn't want to leave the garage.
Next to that was an old couch, a coffee table in front of that and a rug in the centre of the room. It wasn’t anything special or fancy like Fleamont eagerly suggested, but it was what they wanted.
When the band had gone home and it was just James and Sirius, James prepared for his ‘cafe date’ with Lily. She was a wonderful person, so willing to see the good in everyone but also realistic. Minus her dream, Petunia would say, of owning and running her own cat cafe with her art on the wall for sale.
“You ever gonna tell Effie and Monte?” Sirius asked, lying on the bed with a cigarette in his mouth.
“Yeah, yeah. At some point.” James messed with the side of his jacket. “Just…”
“Not yet?”
James shook his head. “They’ve been so supportive of this band, and of our dream, even though both were definitely not what they had planned. I don’t… It’d be too many surprises right now.” James looked at Sirius through the mirror. “It’s weird that you’re allowed to call them that.”
Sirius shrugged, “They love me more.”
During his ‘date’ with Lily, she gushed over Mary again and told him the plans they had for the weekend. She asked him about any ‘potential suitors’, and he said nobody talks like that anymore apart from Remus occasionally, and that no, there was not. She said he’d have to take him to a gay club at some point.
When he mentioned the singing, Lily said she’d have a poster done by tomorrow and she’ll send it over, but it might take longer because she had a study group. She had no printing credit left after she printed leaflets detailing about a woman’s period after she heard a group of guys say it wasn’t painful and laugh about it.
When James went out, Remus walked in, telling Euphemia he left a necklace behind. First, he did go into the garage, but then he headed upstairs. “Took you long enough.” Sirius teased, kissing Remus square on the lips, barely waiting for the door to close.
“Sometime you should come to me, you know.” Remus said.
“You’re quieter sneaking around than I am.”
“Hm, I wonder why.” Remus smiled while rolling his eyes, pulling Sirius in for another kiss.
“I’m a loud walker.” Sirius chuckled at his own joke, pulling Remus onto the bed with him and kissing away Remus’ fake scowl.
After kissing for God knows how long, Remus pulled away. “Any idea when James will be back?”
“Not for another hour at least.” Sirius said, flipping them over.
Why was every fucking printer in that school broken? James really wished to know, because he’d been around every building and even asked in the teachers lounge if he could use theirs - McGonagall sarcastically told him no, and whatever McG says goes.
And James was also alone, since Sirius didn’t have a lesson until one pm, Remus had physiotherapy, and Peter refused to get to school early.
Finally, James ventured to the back of the school where the drama studio and music rooms were. Walking to the music room with Lily’s poster in hand with no creases, James went to burst the door open out of frustration. Before he heard a voice.
Fuck, it was a beautiful voice.