chapter one
It had been a long morning for Sirius Black.
He imagined that as a member of a globally known and loved band, the 1971, that his live would be more laid back. Yet, it seemed his life somehow got busier by the day.
Sirius woke up bright and early at 6 AM to pounding on his door.
"I'm coming! Give me a minute, holy fuck." He yelled, rolling out of bed. Slowly but surely, Sirius padded his way to the front door. He unlocked it and swung it open to reveal James Potter, his lovely brother, best friend, and band mate, standing there.
James stood there, smiling like he didn't have a worry in the world. "Hey Sirius! Did I wake you up?"
"James. It's 6 AM. Of course you woke me up." Sirius replied and leaned on the door, still barely awake.
"Oh, sorry man. Now that you're up, do you wanna go running with me?" James said cheerfully.
Sirius cursed everything in the universe for making his best friend the world's biggest morning person. "Since I'm already awake, I guess I have no choice." He grumbled, going to get changed.
"Great. Just a heads up, Lily wants us at the studio by 8:30 this morning!" James yelled at him from the door.
"Of course he's already spoken to Lily this morning.." Sirius whispered to himself.
Once changed, Sirius joined James on his morning run. Even though Sirius could barely handle being awake this early, he was glad to be spending time with James.
The two chatted while running and eventually turned back up to Sirius' apartment at around 7:30.
"I'll see you at the studio, I had fun with you this morning!" James said happily before walking off to his own apartment.
Once in his apartment and while getting ready to head to the studio, Sirius brainstormed ideas to get out of the meetings. Ever since Remus left, he would come up with most random excuses to not attend meetings. When Remus used to be at the meetings, at least he had a distraction. Sirius shook his head, immediately thinking of other things that weren't Remus.
Deciding that he was out of valid excuses, Sirius had no choice to go unless he wanted to be on Lily Evans' personal bad list. The whole band--which consisted on himself, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Marlene McKinnon-- had to endure over 3 hours of meetings that consisted of details about a potential tour, album release party, and other topic Sirius could barely remember. Once free from their duties at around 12 PM, the band found themselves in an empty lounge near a recording studio.
"It feels unreal that the album comes out in less than two days," Marlene said as she plopped down next to Peter and Sirius on the couch in the lounge. "It feels like just yesterday I met you guys."
Peter nodded in agreement, too focused on whatever was on his phone to speak while James let out a small laugh from where he say on a chair across from her. "I feel the same, I don't even know how long it's been since we actually met."
"It's been a year and around 7 month, I think," Sirius said without hesitation then looked over at James to find that his eyes were already on him, almost as if James knew that Sirius would be the one to know. James knew Sirius remembered the date they met. It was around the same time Remus broke things off with Sirius and left the band without an explanation. Sirius stopped himself from thinking about Remus and nodded to James as an attempt to say that he was alright. James raised an eyebrow, still unsure of Sirius.
"Never thought I would stick around this long with you guys, but I'm glad I have. Look on the bright side, we could be touring in the States soon." Marlene noticed the tension between the two and tried to change the subject.
James tore his eyes from Sirius and looked at Marlene. "I know! Imagine all of us in New York or any other big city. I have a couple of people who could give us some American club recommendations."
Sirius laughed, "James in America is definitely going to be a sight."
"I can just envision him faking an American accent to try and blend in," Peter glanced up from his phone to grin to them.
James fake gasped and put a hand to his chest as if he was insulted, "What? Me? Never!"
"Peter! James would never do that." Sirius said while laughing.
James smiled at him, "Thank you Sirius, my one true love."
Sirius winked at him before Marlene suddenly stood up. "I've got this, I can do a perfect James in an American club impression."
"Oh my god.." James mumbled, rubbing his hands over his face in embarrassment.
"My name's James Potter, I'm the guitarist in the 1971," Marlene flirted with a horrible fake American accent while she hobbled over to where James' chair and leaned on the side. "Could I take you out sometime?"
"Hey! I do not sound like that," James said defensively as he playfully shoved Marlene's head.
"I'm sure Lily would argue with that." Sirius said under his breath while laughing with Marlene and Peter.
"You're all evil." James huffed and grabbed his phone from his pocket, trying to ignore the three of them.
"Aw, someone hurt the poor baby's feelings." Marlene frowned playfully then returned to her spot on the couch.
"Careful Marlene, his ego will never be the same," Peter joked.
Before anyone could make anymore jokes, James let out a gasp. "Holy shit guys, have you seen twitter?"
"No? Did something happen?" Sirius was the first one to ask. Sirius, Peter, and Marlene shared a look before looking back at James.
"Just look for yourself." James turned his phone so they could see the tweets.
Sirius knew a lot about himself. He knew he was a singer in a globally known band. He knew he had been disowned by his family years ago and hadn't spoken to his sister in years. Sirius also knew that he was not crazy. However, when he saw what was on James' phone, he started to doubt his mental state.
@thelovefoolsband: meet us at midnight. october 21. all streaming platforms. @moonylupin @rablackofficial @pandarose @realdorkymeadowes
"Holy shit.. Remus?" Marlene said before opening her mouth in shock.
"They're releasing an album the day before us? What are the odds?" Peter said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
Sirius couldn't get words out. He scrolled down to see the replies.
@moonylupin: midnight!!!! with my best friends!!! so excited im crying
@realdorkymeadowes: @moonylupin can confirm he is bawling his eyes out
@rablackofficial: i know a few people who are gonna hate this release date!
@moonylupin: @rablackofficial are u trying to get us attacked before the album even drops
@realdorkymeadowes: BE THERE OR BE SQUAREEEE
@pandarose: everyone's gonna love the lead singer... *evil laugh*
@rablackofficial: @pandarose fav underrated singer he never shouldve played the bass for a Certain Unnamed Band
@realdorkymeadowes: @rablackofficial he wont be underrated anymore #remusfanclub
Besides Remus, Sirius only recognized one name: Pandora Rosier. Evan and Pandora Rosier were twins, but were also Reggie's best friends. Maybe this could allow Sirius to contact his sister again, if she was even alive. After his discovery, Sirius groaned, "Why is this happening right before our album drop?"
"No clue. It's all over twitter. It was bound to happen eventually though, Remus couldn't stay off of the internet forever." James stated as put his phone back in pocket before grabbing Sirius' hand as an attempt to comfort him.
"I know!" Sirius said, clearly irritated. "Why is he suddenly back on the internet but also a band that's dropping an album right before we drop an album? The other people were also making stupid jokes about us, and I definitely don't appreciate that."
Peter sighed, "I mean the comments bother me too, but I'm happy for Remus. He was our best friend and Sirius' fiancé at one point."
"Why does that matter now? He obviously has new friends and doesn't even think about us anymore. Stop bringing up that he was my fiancé when he was the one to dump me!" Sirius practically yelled.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Don't start on that shit, Sirius. We all know he had good reasoning for doing so! You were fu-"
James cleared his throat and cut Peter off. "You both need to calm down. You're acting like children."
Marlene, who didn't have a clue as to what happened between James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus, sat there in shock. Sirius was glaring at Peter, but the door opened before he could do anything else.
Lily walked in, and sighed, "Just by judging the atmosphere in here, I assume you've seen twitter."
"Yeah, did Remus tell you he was releasing an album a day before us since you two are still best friends?" Sirius spat out, still angry.
"What goes on between Remus and I is honestly none of your business Sirius. I'm sorry that this may be bringing back bad memories, but that's no excuse to treat anyone in this room or anyone in this situation badly." Lily stated while she stared at him.
The rest of the band remained still, watching the two. Sirius just simply nodded, pushing his anger inside of him so he didn't start anything else.
"Now that everyone's settled, I do have to inform you that we now have a lot to do today. Due to the other band's tweet blowing up, we have to do some things in order to get the new 1971 album more relevant." Lily said as she sat down in an empty chair.
"What do you suggest we do? There's not much we really can do unless we cause controversy." James questioned.
"Well.. I'm not sure if you guys will like my suggest very much, but I'm not sure what else we can do." She stated, simply shrugging her shoulders
"We're nearly out of options and we need some of the spotlight, so we have to do whatever it takes." Marlene said.
"We're going to have to drop a single before the album drops." Lily sighed.
Sirius groaned. "Are you sure there's nothing else? Dropping a single with ruin the whole suspenseful drop we were planning."
"Look, I know it's not ideal, but unless you want to start a fight on twitter, it's the only solution," Lily paused. "Just to be clear, I'm not happy with dropping a single either."
After a moment of silence, Peter began, "Alright then, it's settled. What are we releasing?"
Lily smiled. "That's the attitude I like! We do have a few options but ultimately it's up to you guys.." She said before rambling about potential singles.
--
@The1971: do you think i had forgotten?
about you. out now.
@1971james: SINGLE DROP SINGLE DROP SINGLE DROP WOOOOO
@1971sirius: @1971james i think he may be excited that there's a single drop
@1971marlene: IMY ON THE TRAIN
@1971peter: @1971marlene IMY IN THE MORNING!!!