The Pond
Remus: I wanted to ask you in person but whats the jump you were doing and what was your coach doing?
Sirius: the jump is a double salchow and my coach was helping with the harness, idk its easier to explain irl
He was trying to not let it get to him but a couple days after that day at practice, Sirius felt it. People making fun of him for skating didn’t usually get to him but this time it was different, someone he knew and liked is friends with the people who call him gay for skating.
Bellatrix and Narcissa didn't help either, that all happening on the same day was by chance but that doesn't make it any better.
Sirius was sitting in English class and twirling his pen around instead of paying any attention to the teacher. Thankfully he sits in the back row so the teacher doesn't really notice or care.
At lunch Sirius went to join Lily at their usual place, on the landing of the stairs between the first and second floor.
“Don't tell me you're still thinking about what Bellatrix told you” she said as soon as she saw Sirius, “you know she's just doing it to get a reaction”
Sirius sat “no, its the hockey team” “fuck them, in the figure of speech way, not the literal way” Lily said.
Sirius stared at her “you swore” he said, “I have the power to swear but I only do it when it's important” she said and got a small laugh out of him.
“Remus and James are friends with them though, what if they say and think all that stuff behind our backs?” Sirius asked, “since when are you this insecure? Since when have you ever cared this much about what a hockey team thinks of you?” Lily rebutted.
Sirius looked up, “since they were Remus’s friends” he paused and shook his head “you're right, I shouldn't care, I’ll just assume James and Remus are telling the truth and that they really do want to be our friends even though I skate” he said, “there you go”.
“Maybe they were doing the same thing as Bellatrix” Lily said, “maybe they don't usually do that or were only doing it to get a reaction out of you or Peter, maybe even to try and get a reaction out of Remus”
Sirius tilted his head to the side “what do you mean?” “I mean maybe they know Remus likes you and wanted to prove themselves right by being mean to you in order to see if Remus would say something to protect you or stop them” Lily explained.
Sirius was mostly over the sadness now and was just curious on how the team dynamics work. If they knew Remus might have a thing for Sirius or if they know he might like boys and what they think of that.
They spent the rest of lunch talking about hockey, James, and Remus, then complained about having to go to their afternoon classes when the bell rang.
*The Ice Kids*
Remus: I checked up on the weather and the pond recently, looks like its gonna be cold enough to go skating soon
Lily: ooh fun
James: how soon?
Remus: first weekend of christmas break
Sirius: let us know and we’ll be there
---
Another week goes by and the snow is almost gone again, “why is our weather like this, just when you think it's winter, the snow stops again” Sirius commented as he and Lily were walking out to their cars after school.
“Yeah that's just how it goes I guess, January will be colder, we can probably go then” Lily said, Sirius nodded as they approached their cars.
Driving home Sirius had the radio on, which has been playing exclusively Christmas songs since the first of December. He changed the radio station, another Christmas song, rinse and repeat for another four stations until Sirius gave up and turned the radio off.
It was two days until Christmas break, and a bit more than a week before Christmas yet Sirius was not in the Christmas spirit. The spirit days at school weren’t helping either.
At least tomorrow's pajama day
It just didn't sit right with Sirius to be excited for Christmas when there was barely any snow on the ground, though he had to admit the decorations in most of the storefronts he passed by were looking really good.
Sirius sat in his room on his phone until he mustered up enough energy to try doing homework, after acquiring a snack to eat while doing it.
*The Ice Kids*
James: at this rate we’ll never get to skate together
Remus: be patient, this happens every year
Lily: maybe it’ll have to wait till next year ;D
Sirius: very original joke, never heard that one before
Lily: someone has to make that joke
James: it wasnt that bad
Remus: your sense of humour is just broken thats all James
James: hey
Sirius walked to the window in his bedroom, snow was falling.
Sirius: guys look outside
James: that means I have to get up though
Lily: its snowing!
James: I’m glad someone checked for me
Remus: told you it would snow eventually
Lily: now you can get into the christmas spirit Sirius
They had gotten their wish, in fact it snowed pretty much nonstop until the same time the next night. It had snowed so much that night alone that the schools were closed on Friday so they got one extra day of winter break.
Everyday is pajama day on Christmas break anyways
Sirius had been assigned some homework to do but he wasn't one to start work on the day it’s given, especially when he has two weeks to do it.
---
Tuesday was the day they had settled would be the day they all go pond skating. So on Tuesday, Sirius packed his old skates into a bag along with an extra pair of gloves and the proper socks, hoping that Remus would have everything else they might need.
He pulled on his coat and hat before leaving the house. There was about half a foot of snow on the ground now, and an inch on Sirius’s car.
This is one of his least favourite parts of going anywhere in the winter. Sirius put his bag in the backseat, turned on the car and started brushing off the snow again.
I should really let the car warm up for a while before I even come out
When he was done, Sirius got in and drove to the address Remus had sent them.
Remus lived in the country, where his nearest neighbour was at least a kilometer away. The house looked nice and homey from the outside, like people actually lived there instead of looking like a model house.
James was already there, but he didn't see Lily’s car anywhere.
Sirius got out and took his bag with him to knock on the front door, Remus opened the door.
“Hey Sirius, do you wanna come in while we wait for Lily?” he offered and stood to one side of the door so he could pass by and get in.
Homey and lived in was in fact the proper description of Remus’s house, the set up was different than James’s, the living room was right next to the front door and Sirius could see James lounging on the couch with his feet close to the fireplace.
“You can take your boots off and leave them here for now” Remus said and Sirius did as he was told then went into the living room.
“Where are your parents then?” he asked, “at work”, as soon as Remus said it Sirius realised how stupid of a question that was, of course they're at work, its the middle of the day on a Tuesday.
“So Sirius, can you play hockey?” James asked, “well probably not but I can try, knowing how to skate is part of it right so I’ll just need you guys to fill me in on the rest” Sirius said.
“Yeah, we brought a couple sticks in case you guys don't have your own” James said, Remus nodded, “it'll be fun to teach you guys”.
“Do you guys like to skate with people who can't skate too? Cause it's really fun for me” Sirius said, they nodded.
There was another knock at the door, Remus went to answer, it was Lily. “Alright, let's get this show on the road!” James exclaimed and leaped off the couch.
The group gathered on the doormat and put on their coats, hats, mitts, and boots. “We have to make a quick pit stop in the garage to get chairs and stuff” Remus said, everyone nodded.
When they were all ready to go, Remus led the way to the garage and assigned something to everyone.
“James, you get the chairs, Lily you can carry the bucket of pucks, and Sirius you can bring the sticks” they nodded and went to grab the items.
“Remus, don't we need snow shovels too? I mean the ice is under a bunch of snow right?” Lily asked while they were still in the garage, “nope, me and James went out earlier today to do that”.
Remus brought a net with him and they set off towards the pond at the back of Remus’s yard.
Sirius was glad they had chosen today, there was no snow falling and the wind was minimal, as an added bonus it wasn't overly cold either, only about minus fifteen.
After the five minute walk into the forest at the back of the yard, the group had made it to the pond.
It was a good size, not so small that they would trip over each other, but not so big that it would take ages to shovel.
James put the three chairs down in the snow on the bank of the pond. Remus gestured for Lily to give him the bucket of pucks, she gave it to him and he dumped them all out onto the surface of the ice then flipped the bucket over to use as a makeshift chair.
“Where should I put these?” Sirius asked and shifted the weight of the sticks around so they knew what he was talking about. “You can just put them over there” James said and pointed to another hockey net that was already on the ice.
Sirius shuffled into the ice in his boots and put the sticks on top of the net, two of them fell off. As he tried to pick them up and put them back, another fell.
Lily and the two boys were laughing which made Sirius start to laugh too, “I swear these things are coated in butter and that's why they slide off there so easily” he joked, which fueled the laughter.
They had gotten all that sorted out and each of them took a seat on a chair to tie their skates, except for Remus who sat on the upside down bucket.
“So what's the game plan?” Sirius asked, “get you guys orientated with sticks then maybe play a little game” James said.
One by one each of them had finished tying their skates to their liking. Sirius had to retie his right skate and James was making jokes about how it takes Sirius and Lily more time because their skates are too complicated.
They all waited for each other before getting on the ice. Remus and James grabbed their sticks before getting on and Sirius and Lily just got on the ice and took a lap.
“It's really bumpy over here” Sirius remarked while skating over the far edge of the pond, the rest began scoping out the state of the ice and letting each other know of the worst areas.
“Alright let's play some hockey!” James exclaimed. Sirius and Lily skated back over to where the one hockey net with all the sticks on it.
James and Remus each picked up two sticks and held them out. “Are you guys right or left handed?” Remus asked, Sirius held up his right hand, he and Lily said “right” at the same time.
“Right then we won't be needing these” Remus said and put the left handed sticks back on the net. “Pick whichever one suits your fancy” James said.
Sirius ended up taking a black one with red tape and Lily got an old looking white stick with black tape.
“That stick might be a bit big for you Lily” James said, he glanced at Lily holding the stick “actually, it might not be as bad as I think, but if you do need a shorter one later, there are some on the net” James said.
Sirius and Lily had the basic hockey knowledge of how hockey works, get the puck into the other team's net, and they knew how to hold a stick, they hoped that James and Remus would tell them about everything else.
James skated around the pond and brought most of the pucks to an area about fifteen feet away from the net and was lining them up.
“Even though we should probably be teaching you guys how to stick handle, it'll be more fun to just shoot on net first” Remus said.
James had finished lining up all the pucks and told everyone to watch him. He started shooting the pucks at the net and only stopped when he ran out of pucks, most of them had gone in.
“Like that, but probably not anywhere near as fast” Remus said, James was skating by to collect the ones that he missed “because I’m so good” he bragged and then immediately hit the bank of the pond and landed face first into the snow.
The rest laughed and helped Remus get the pucks out of the net and line them up again while James picked himself up out of the snowbank. James wiped the snow off his face and hit his hat a few times to get the majority of the snow out of it before putting it back on his head. “Well at least now I know for sure that I’m awake” James said.
Lily went first because frankly, Sirius didn't want to make a fool out of himself right at the start.
For the first round of shots, James and Remus said nothing, they just observed to see where Lily and Sirius’s abilities were at.
It took Lily much longer than James and she didn't have half the power but she got through all the pucks and about half of them went in.
“I think the problem is, the net is too small, soccer nets are the size that hockey nets should be,” Lily joked as they all went up to collect pucks.
They had lined them all up again for Sirius to try.
He stood behind the first puck for a few seconds to look between it and where it needed to go before actually trying.
What did not help was that this is pond ice which is bumpy and uneven so even though Sirius had sent the puck in a perfect straight line to the net, there would be a patch of bumps that would bounce it around so much that it would veer off course and not make it, like a bowling ball going into the gutter after going down the perfect line.
After Sirius had sent pucks to the net with varying degrees of success, half went in. “Yeah pond ice might not be the best to learn on but it's the best we’ve got” James said, “we’re also not trying to be so good that we’ll go to the NHL, this is for fun” Sirius said.
They went through shooting the pucks again but this time James and Remus offered help on how to make their shots better.
“Sirius, if you tilt your hand back as you're shooting, the puck will go in the air a bit so it won't have to travel on the bumps” Remus explained.
Sirius looked at the three of them and moved his left hand on the top of the stick, which did tilt the stick just not in the way Remus meant.
That can't be right
Remus skated up to him and put his hand over Sirius’s right hand and angled it the right way.
“There, so now you do the same as before but right as you're about to send the puck, tilt your hand like that and it should work” Remus said and backed up so Sirius could shoot.
Sirius tried it and it worked a little too well. The puck went sailing over the crossbar, “that's the idea, just less” James said.
He did it again, his motion was choppy but the puck got closer to the net. The next time it hit the crossbar and came back to him.
Eventually, he got it.
“There you go!” Remus exclaimed, James and Lily skated over for a group hug. They came in with more force than Sirius or Remus were ready for so the hug didn't last long before they all toppled onto the ice together.
This caused a roar of laughter to erupt from them. The ice was cold though so soon after everyone got up again.
Lily and Sirius were brushing the snow off themselves, James and Remus watched as if that was something they were witnessing for the first time.
“Do you guys not fall enough to bother brushing the snow off?” Lily asked, “I guess we’re always just wearing so much padding we can’t feel it” Remus answered. They nodded.
“Did I miss any?” Lily asked Sirius while trying to look at her own back, Sirius skated up to her and gently brushed his hand along her lower back to get the snow off. She did the same for the spots he missed.
“Let's have a game” James said, “ok, uh what are the teams then?” Lily asked. “Logically speaking it seems a bit unfair to have two hockey players against two people who don't play hockey so one hockey player on each team” Remus said.
“Yeah and we can always change the teams,” James said. “Should we do you and Lily and me and Remus for the first match then?” Sirius asked even though he basically already knew the answer.
Everyone was looking between each other and nodding. “Ok it's settled, me and Lily versus Sirius and Remus” James announced and claimed the side of the ice that already had a net.
Remus skated to the edge of the pond to bring the other net on, James and Lily were clearing all the pucks off the ice and putting them into the bucket.
James kept one puck on the ice that was decided to be the game puck. Remus had set up the net to where he figured was the middle of the other end of the pond and stood in front of it.
“Sirius you take face off” he said, Sirius looked at James and Lily who were whispering to each other, probably about strategy before they both came to center ice.
“Ok just to make it fair, Lily’s gonna do face off and I’ll drop the puck” James said. The three of them were gauging where exactly center ice would be based on the trees beside the pond and settled on a spot.
“We’re gonna win” Lily said, “we’ll see about that” Sirius responded. They had their heads down and were pressing their sticks on top of their legs like how they have seen players do many times before.
“Alright, first team to three points wins!” James said, to make sure everyone was clear on the terms of the game.
“Ready?” Lily asked, “yeah as long as you don't smack me with the stick” Sirius said.
They lowered their sticks to show that they were ready to start the game. James dropped the puck and the game started.