Figure Skating 101
The game went well, Lily and James ended up winning, not because Remus was bad at keeping pucks out of the net or helping Sirius bring the puck up. Mostly because Sirius isn't the best at hockey and James plays forward.
Sirius did end up putting two in the net though so he was calling it a win. They played the next round as James and Sirius against Lily and Remus.
That game went pretty much the same as the first one, James and Sirius won. The last game was figure skaters against hockey players.
“Time to answer the age-old question, who's better, hockey players or figure skaters?” James said. He was trying to be menacing but Lily shot his ego down a few notches “yeah James I wonder, who's going to be better at hockey?”
It made Sirius and Remus giggle, James sighed but didn’t respond.
They started the game, Lily and Sirius didn't really have a strategy but played along anyway.
James came up the ice and Sirius skated right at him and managed to get the puck away from him. Sirius skated down the ice until he got to Remus who was defending, he pulled a more elegant and practiced version of what Sirius did and got the puck back.
Remus sent it to James who wasn't too far down the ice yet but Sirius wasn't catching up to him. Lily got a bit scared that James was going to slap shot the puck at her because of how fast he was going, so she stayed in one place. James slowed down at the last second and neatly brought the puck around her and into the corner of the net.
The next time Lily and Sirius got the puck, they brought it up to Remus together, passing it between each other as best they could as they went.
The puck slipped under Lily’s stick so she had to turn around and get it. James was skating much slower, almost as if he wanted them to score at least once.
Lily passed the puck to Sirius because Remus was getting close to her. The puck went in a slightly different direction than Sirius anticipated because of the uneven surface but he got it. Sirius tried to shoot the puck using the maneuver that Remus taught him.
He flicked the puck up with his stick and it just barely went in the top left corner.
Lily and Sirius’s arms went up in celebration “we did it!” Lily exclaimed as they skated at each other, they caught their arms and because of their momentum, started spinning pretty fast together.
Lily accidentally hit Sirius on the back of the head with her stick, it didn't hurt much but it was funny.
“It's tied one one” Remus said and got the puck out of the net.
Five more intense minutes of hockey playing goes by, along with some amazing saves from both Sirius and Lily. Sirius had dove in the path of the puck and stopped it from going in, then immediately regretted his decision.
Sirius was rubbing along his side as he stood up and skated around to feel better. “Remind me to never do that again”.
They waited until Sirius got the snow off himself before recommencing the game.
James and Remus won but Sirius and Lily weren’t too sad, they were pretty happy with the fact they had scored a goal.
By now they were tired of going back and forth on the ice though so they all hung around on the net for a little break.
“I don’t get how you guys can skate with a stick in your hands all the time” Lily commented, “what do you mean?” Remus asked, “I don't know, I guess it's just different cause we never do” she said.
“Yeah no my arms are tired now” Sirius said, “I mean we’ve always skated with sticks, we don't know any different” Remus explained.
Sirius skated off to cool down a bit and refamiliarize himself with the ice. It's like an itch for his body, when you’re on ice and don't do any skating you're used to, your body craves it so Sirius was just messing around and doing some random edges and twizzles.
Lily joined him and did the part of her dance she actually liked. “What are you guys doing?” James asked and skated closer.
“Skating” Sirius said, “I get that but why all this complicated stuff?” he clarified, waving his hand at them. “It's not that hard, just inside edge, twizzle, spread eagle, cross, step, three turn” Sirius said all the moves as he did them again.
“You lost me at twizzle” James said, Lily giggled “its ok” she said.
“So that's what you're going but why?” “cause we need to” Lily started answering James’s questions, “it feels weird to be on ice and to not be doing random steps”.
Remus came over and watched Sirius closely as he did some more stuff. He fumbled, got caught in a groove and fell.
“Are you ok?” Remus asked and reached a hand down to help Sirius up, “yeah I’m fine, there was just a groove there” he said, pointing at the area where the groove was.
And you watching did not help my nerves
“Can you teach me?” Remus asked, “yeah sure, what do you wanna learn?” Sirius answered.
As long as I’m skating I’ll be fine
“I don't know, anything” Remus said.
Of course he doesn't know any skating terms
“Hey Sirius, let's teach 'em the pair spin thing y’know?” Lily called from where she and James were standing.
“Like this one?” Sirius asked and held his hands out and crossed them but stayed where he was, she nodded with a smile, Sirius smiled back.
They started skating at each other and when they met, Sirius and Lily crossed their arms and held each other's hands. Pushed together to gain speed and then almost squatted in a spread eagle position together.
James and Remus clapped when they came out of it, Lily did a very over the top bow and Sirius followed suit. “What's that called?” James asked, Lily and Sirius exchanged a glance, “I don't think it actually has a proper name so we just call it the spread eagle spin” Sirius said.
They laughed at first and then looked back at Sirius and Lily “is that what that's called?” James needed clarification, “yeah”.
“I mean you have inside and outside spread eagles but yeah” Sirius said, he looked around the ice, “I’ll see if I can do an outside one on this ice, just so you can see what it looks like” he said.
Sirius went first, got enough speed and did it, his back foot wobbled a bit when he hit a rough patch of ice but it did work, Lily followed after and did one too.
“Should have warmed that up first” she laughed when she came back, “an inside one is just this” Sirius said and did a small one from standing. “I’ve seen professional hockey players do it too, around tight corners and stuff, but I’m not sure if you guys have a name for it” Sirius said.
“I’m renaming the spread eagle spin to be the” James paused for a moment to think “two person sitting spin” Sirius and Lily went with it.
“Alright so what you wanna do is cross over your arms in front of you like this” Sirius said and crossed his arms. “Then hold the other person's hands”.
Sirius held Lily’s hands which were also crossed so James and Remus could see how it should look.
They had the crossing part but were struggling to hold on. “Might be easier if you take the hockey gloves off” Lily said, “yeah but then my hands will get cold” James complained. “Aww princess” Sirius faked pity and let go of Lily’s hands to get the extra pairs of gloves from his bag.
Sirius gave a pair to James and a pair to Remus so they wouldn't freeze but also so they could hold on properly.
They went back to trying the move. “Remus you have to cross your arms too, otherwise it's not gonna work” Sirius said. Remus crossed his arms and grabbed James’s hands again, this time both of them came uncrossed.
“I think you both have to cross your arms opposite if that makes sense” Sirius said. He watched Remus put his left arm on top, then his right but he got confused and stopped. “I don't get it,” he said.
Sirius took Remus’s forearms and crossed them and held them there, he took James’s and crossed them with the opposite hand on top, then made them grab onto each other, “like that”.
“It gets more intuitive the more you do it” Lily added. “So now that you're here” Sirius joined Lily again and held their hands up to show what he was doing.
“Pick a direction and both of you pump in that direction” he explained. Sirius and Lily went counterclockwise, “I would recommend pushing with your back leg, whichever way you go” he said.
Sirius and Lily just went slow to demonstrate, James and Remus figured that part out pretty quick, but because they were holding hands, they couldn't use their arms for balance so they fell over.
They got up and tried again, “ok so now you just stop pushing, make sure you're facing the other person, and have your feet angled along the edge of the circle you're making” Sirius said and he and Lily did exactly that.
James and Remus struggled a couple more times before managing to get around one and a half times together “there you go!” Lily and Sirius said.
“That is harder than it looks” James said, “probably cause you've never done it” Lily said.
“Hey do you guys wanna do synchro skating?” she asked, she looked really excited but that made James look more scared.
A reluctant yes came out of them and Lily said it would be fun.
“So line up next to each other and hold onto each other’s shoulders” Lily said, she was in the middle of the line and Remus was next to her right side, with James, followed by Sirius on her left.
“Ok maybe Remus go on the far side and James on this side so that it's less awkward cause you're tall” Lily said and they shuffled places. Now the order was Remus, Sirius, Lily, James.
“Your one arm is gonna go in front and the other behind” Lily said, “let's go with left in front and right behind”
It took a bit more explaining and fine tuning but they got there in the end.
“We’re gonna go left, right, left, just to start then we can make it fancy if we want” Lily said. She called out left, right, and left again so that everyone would step at the same time.
The line became a bit of a weird shape as James pushed with all the power he had, almost as if he was dragging the rest behind him, and he was stepping with the wrong feet.
“Now James, I don't mean to question your education or intelligence, but do you know your lefts and rights?” Sirius asked in a goofy sort of narrator of a tv show voice.
“Yeah, this is left and this is right” and he pointed in the appropriate direction for each, “so then why did you start on your right?”
Sirius was sort of poking fun at James even though he saw Remus step on the wrong feet too.
“I did not! She said left so I pushed left” James argued, “no you didn't” Lily laughed.
Remus held out his hands to de-escalate the situation, “what do you mean when you say ‘left’?” he asked Lily, “step on your left” she said, “there's the problem, in hockey when we say left and right we mean push off with your left or your right” Remus explained.
Now that that had been sorted, they reformed the line and tried again, this time everyone was stepping on the proper feet and James didn't shoot ahead of everyone.
“Ok since we got that down let's add a step at the end” Lily said, “left, right, left, right chasse” as she did the steps.
“Do that again but slower” Remus said and watched as she did just the chasse. They started to copy her on the spot.
“When we were little our coach would always say ‘shaw-say-step’ so we would remember the parts” Sirius said.
“Basically, step on your right leg, put your left foot down and lift up your right leg kinda dramatically then put it down again” Lily said and Sirius did it while saying ‘shaw-say-step’.
James and Remus got the hang of it pretty quick after that, and they did the whole sequence in the line which went pretty well.
“Wait wait, can we do the can-can in this line?” James asked and looked at the rest for approval, they nodded and everyone started kicking their legs.
Lily hit James’s leg cause she kicked to the right and he kicked to the left, she tried to stop herself but still hit him a little. “Ow!” he said, Lily let go of the line and covered her mouth with her hands “sorry”.
“You good James?” Remus asked, James was holding the part of his leg that Lily kicked, “yeah, I’m good, just wasn't expecting it” he said.
They tried the can-can again, this time they all started the same way and it went great.
“That's enough figure skating for one day” James said, he went back to the hockey net to be reunited with his stick and gloves. Remus also skated to the net and took off the thin gloves in favour of hockey ones.
Sirius and Lily continued to do bits and pieces of their solos, dances, and skills while James took shots on net and Remus sort of floated between all of it.
Sirius could hear Remus’s skates scratch the ice when his back was turned but as soon as he looked, Remus had either fallen or stopped whatever he was doing.
Lily’s phone rang from the chair at the edge of the pond, she went over and answered. When she was done with the short conversation, she typed something on her phone.
“Hey guys let's take a selfie” she suggested, “unless you don't want to” she added. The boys looked between each other and gave a shrug of ‘why not’.
Lily brought her phone to the middle of the ice where the others had gathered. “Wait what if you guys hold hockey sticks, that’ll be funny” James said, Sirius nodded and went to pick up the sticks he and Lily had been using.
“Here, Remus, why don't you take it cause my arm isn't long enough to get all of us in it” Lily said and offered her phone in his direction. Remus put his left hand under his right arm and took his hand out of the glove, holding the glove between his arm and his body, then took the phone.
Sirius and Lily held their sticks so the blade end was up and James had put both his arms over his head like he was mid ballerina spin.
They all laughed when they saw what James was doing through the screen. “What? I thought I should do something figure skater-y if you guys have hockey sticks” he said.
The rest laughed but let him continue, Remus took a few pictures then handed Lily’s phone back and put his glove back on.
The group went off and did their own thing. Sirius was showing James how they don’t push with their toes, and how toe picks work. Remus was letting Lily try shooting some goals on him, keeping the puck on the ice though because he had no gear.
The cold started to get to them eventually and Lily got off to untie her skates, the rest followed soon after.
Sirius went to bring the nets back in before taking his skates off and James gathered all the pucks that hadn't been lost in the snow banks.
The boys sat on the chairs and got their skates off “man your laces are long” James commented when Sirius had untied his skates, “yeah I guess so, that's why I tuck them into my pants though, so I can't trip on them like with my old ones”.
The group walked back to the house, they put everything away in the garage and went inside.
Remus offered to make hot chocolate while everyone else got situated in the living room. There was now a row of skates leaning against the shoe rack on the doormat where everyone took their skates out to dry.
It was late afternoon so everyone was a bit peckish but not ready for a meal yet. Remus brought out everyone's hot chocolates on a tray type thing, then went back to the kitchen for some cookies.
“That was fun” Lily said, “yeah other than the fact my feet are freezing” James replied, holding his feet by the fireplace again.
“We should do this again sometime, or maybe when we invite the team, you guys can come too” James suggested. Sirius looked at the floor, he could hear Remus and Lily make the smallest form of agreeance “yeah maybe”.
Sirius looked up to grab a cookie and they were both giving him sympathetic looks and James was visibly confused, “what?” he asked.
“Nevermind,” Sirius said. James opened his mouth as if to further question but decided against it because he closed his mouth without saying anything.
“Who wants to play Uno?” Remus asked when the conversation fell silent. He picked up the deck of cards from a half bookshelf, half cupboard and waited for them to agree.
They all gathered closer around the ottoman, moving some sort of chair for each of them to sit on. They used the tray Remus had brought the hot chocolate out on as a table.
Remus dealt the cards, put the rest in the middle and the game began.
They played Uno for a long time. By the time they were done, each of them had won multiple times and cards were thrown out of frustration more than once but overall it was a good time.
The sun had gone down so Sirius and Lily decided it was time to go home. They put their skates back in their bags, with guards on, and got ready to go outside.
“We’ll see you guys later” James and Remus said as they walked out of the house. “Well that was fun” Lily said after they had closed the door, “yeah, we’ll have to come back more over the break” Sirius agreed as they split up to get into their respective cars.
The radio was playing Christmas music again.
Why do I even leave it on if I know it'll be Christmas music from now until next year?
He switched it to whatever CD was in the car and listened to that until he got home.
Sirius’s mom called him to dinner the second he set foot in the house, he sighed, walked to the table and sat down to eat.
Remus: ice is free tomorrow and its not shitty weather, wanna come skate?