Familiar
It had been an hour since James had interrupted the mysterious stanger’s practice session, and in doing so he had all but abandoned his own endeavors. He instead traded his drills for mindless skating about the rink that did nothing to quell his mind of the millions of thoughts circulating about his brain.
James can still vividly remember all those years ago when he had met Lily Evans for the first time, and how his mind had instantly told him that she was the one. She was what he had thought about growing up as a witness to the love of Euphemia and Fleamont Potter. All those dreams he had had of the faceless figure, he could finally put a name to it.
James can also remember the chase that came with Lily that had never made it easy. He can still remember how after his 27th attempt at asking her out she had looked him square in the eyes, in front of his friends and said, “I’ll date you on my own bloody terms, alright Potter?.” James still remembers answering with a feeble “yes” and thinking that if at all possible he had become more in love with Lily.
But James can also remember on his 18th birthday when Lily had come to him in private and just nodded okay, and how she had kissed him, leaving him breathless before leaving his dorm at uni and returning to her own.
They lasted for one month.
He still remembers how Lily had ushered him into her dorm where she proceeded to tell him that she simply wasn’t attracted to him at all. James remembers slowly reaching his thumb out to brush away the tears welling in her eyes, and how in that moment James didn’t feel angry, or numb. Of course he was sad, but the sadness came to replace itself with pride as Lily started to tell James all about her roomate, who she happened to be slowly falling in love with.
Most of all James remembers how Lily had made him feel; he stayed in love with Lily for some time after that, perhaps a part of him still was. However in all the time he had spent pining after Lily and simply just being her friend, he had never felt for her the feelings his heart managed to evoke from the mysterious stranger who had been nothing but mean to him just an hour before.
James couldn’t lie, the stranger also happened to be easy on the eyes. James can still remember how small flecks of ice had glittered the man’s hair when he fell on the ice, and how when he had reached his hands out in protest to James helping him up, how their color had caught the lights of the rink. James remembers watching as the man’s cheeks got all flushed before James had seen his eyes, gosh his eyes. For one fleeting moment, before the man seemed to remember himself, the storm in his eyes had been nothing but warmth and fondness and familiarity.
Familiarity. That is also what struck James. Besides the eyes, the man also had a dark mane of curls that contrasted starkly with his pale slender face. He sported a shrewd haughty look, and his stare reverberated off of James. And before the collision, when James had been watching him practice, his technique, his attitude, the way his hips had moved to the music with an effeminate swank that couldn’t be fabricated they just all seemed well–familiar.
Needless to say James felt enchanted. In the span of five minutes James had felt how his heart had almost jumped out of his chest. As if to rewrite his future to somehow include that man in it in any way he could. There at the ice rink James silently thanked his watch for being programmed wrong.
—
James had told Sirius to meet him at a different ice rink from their usual before they picked up Remus to go to the Halloween party that was happening at Peter’s house later. It was a short walk from Sirius’ job, a record store, and when James had first sent him the address to the ice rink Sirius had to take his lunch break early in order to compose himself.
Sirius hadn’t been to the ice rink where he grew up skating in four years. Four years ago when he left the Black family team, left his brother. However, Sirius couldn’t deny that despite spending the last four years trying to wash himself of the black family name, he had left in terribly good fashion.
He recalls how much Walburga, his mother, had detested disobeying tradition. They must always dance to a classical track, “nothing to take away from the performance.” The same outfits, the same routines. Sirius can admit that the Black family was very good at what they did. Orion and Walburga had set countless records in duos competitions, olympic medals, trophies; and as soon as they were out of their prime the public eye turned to Sirius and Regulus. They set records in duos and singles, they were on the track to be the youngest pair of figure skaters to ever make the Olympic Trials in the United Kingdom's history.
Sirius can recall how excited he was to take over the world with Regulus; but there were reasons the Black family was so good at what they did. Sirius can still remember the diets, the punishments when things didn’t go Walburga’s way. While the public saw Sirius and Regulus’ singles competitions as competitive practice, the brothers saw the real reason later on when they would be put against each other. “Why didn’t you win a gold like Sirius! Sirius you need to get as good as Regulus at your spins!” Sirius also remembers after hours when Regulus would visit Sirius with tears in his eyes, sobbing on about how he was sorry Maman had said that to him. Sirius remembers how every time without fail, he had pulled Regulus into his arms and rubbed his head until his heaving sobs turned to a gentle whirring as Sirius kept repeating the words “I know, I know, I know.”
He knows. All he had ever said was that he knew. The night he ran away he remembered looking back and thinking that it was his fault Regulus had never joined him because he never thought to tell Regulus that their mother was wrong about him as well. He never thought to go crying to Regulus. He didn’t even tell him what he was doing before he did it that night. He did what he always did, caused mass destruction, and fled.
So Sirius was shocked when James had emailed him to address, and he’s even more shocked as he walks into the arena to see James mindlessly skating about the rink instead of doing hockey drills like he said he would. Their mutual friend Peter, whose family owned many different sporting arenas in the area, was standing off to the side watching with amusement.
“Oi Pete! What’s up with Jamie?” Sirius asked him playfully.
“Oh hiya Sirius, yeah um d’know I just got here about fifteen minutes ago, and he’s been doing that the whole time. I hope he doesn’t keep this up much longer. I have to run the Zamboni over the ice soon.”
“Oh well we have to leave to pick up Remus soon before we come over to yours for the party.”
“Oh fantastic, did you make sure to invite some others.”
“Yeah, Marlene said that Dorcas said they’d bring over some of their friends, and I’m sure there will be others. No one can deny a good Pettigrew party.”
“Yeah, right about that one. Did you change your mind about having a cake, after all your birthday is in a few days.”
“Yeah, I wanna keep it pretty simple for my birthday this year, nothing crazy.”
“Sirius Black keeping it simple?” Peter feigned surprise, clutching his pearls and letting out a dramatic gasp.”
“Ha, Ha, Ha, very funny,” Sirius shrugs, “I don’t know, I guess I just feel like keeping it small.” The truth is Sirius hadn’t celebrated much since he ran away, despite being more free that ever, it wasn’t the same without Regulus around. The other boys acted like they didn’t know why, but despite their limited knowledge surrounding the topic of Sirius’ mysterious younger brother, they knew that it was a sore subject for him, so it was often dismissed.
Sirius turned his gaze back to James who was still skating about. Peter not being able to bear it any longer, “Oi Potter!” James flinched as he cocked his head towards the pair before skating on over.
Despite the low energy workout he seemed to have been having James’ hair was still riddled with sweat as he went to wipe the condensation off of his glasses. “Hiya Sirius, hi Pete.”
“Are you gonna skate around like that all day? We told Remus we’d pick him up in 20 minutes,” Sirius said, checking his watch.
“Aw, sorry mate, I just-” a glazed look cast over James’ eyes under his glasses, a look Sirius hadn’t seen since Lily. “-I just, I think I’m in love!” James uttered loudly.
“Oh James, didn’t this same thing happen in that coffee shop you were in last week?”
“Well yes-”
“And that bloke you saw at the movies last month,” Peter chimed in with a grin.
“Seriously James, what was it this time, he helped you clean off your skates?”
“Well no, actually, he was really quite mean,” James said, furrowing his brow “but there was just something so comforting about him,” James met Sirius’ eyes and cocked his head, confused. “Well actually, Sirius, he looked a bit like you actually.” He said with a funny look, but whatever James was thinking disappeared quickly.
“Well maybe you should just marry me then,” Sirius replied with a hearty chuckle. A joke that wasn’t returned by neither James nor Peter. Before Sirius could wonder what they were going on about, he felt a slight vibration in his pocket. Looking at his phone he saw that Remus was calling.
“Speak of the Devil,” James said with a grin, all Peter did was give him a swift kick to the knee which James followed up with a dirty glare.
What the hell were they on about?
“Hiya Remus.”
“Hey,” Remus replied out of breath, “How far away are you and James, these guys are pretty trash,” Sirius could hear someone in the background yell a playful ‘hey’ at Remus, probably Frank who was almost as good a basketball player as Frank, minus the height advantage. Remus just chuckled.
“Sorry Moony, James has fallen in love so we got a little held up over here. We’ll be over soon.” Sirius still remembers when he, James and Peter had given Remus that nickname. It had been a few years ago, after Sirius had run away, when he was living with his Uncle Alphard, and taking classes at the nearby university. He quickly made fast friends with the other boys, and remembers giving Remus the nickname because of the amount of times Remus had snuck out in the middle of the night. The boys had joked that Remus had a secret lover until they had followed him one night to find that he had been going to the basketball courts just so he could play more. That day they had started calling him Moony; saying that he was sneaking out to be with the moon.
Sirius’ reminiscing was cut as Remus answered back “Isn’t he always.”
“Yeah I don’t know, we’ll be right over though and he can tell you all about it.”
“Alright see you, until then I guess I’ll just have to beat these guys some more in basketball.” Another distant ‘hey’ in the background before Sirius heard the click of the phone call ending.