Chapter 1
The lights dimmed, the air was hot, the venue reeked of alcohol, cigarettes, and weed. The crowd was screaming for them. They were on stage just liked they started out every show with the curtain closed but lifted just enough so you could see their shoes and though they always changed their places if you'd payed close attention to each of their styles you would know that the Doc Marten were Sirius', the hightop black converse were Remus', the white vans were James', and the hightop mustard yellow converse were Peters.
They stood there for a moment before the right Doc Marten started tapping against the stage floor, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat. This has kind of become a mutual understanding between whatever crowd they play for and themselves because as soon as it starts tapping the people on the receiving end of the stage rush to the front of it or rush to the walls to clap against them in time with Sirius.
Behind the curtain where the four boys stand James and Remus look at each other with a knowing grin and strum their instruments in time with Sirius’ thumping. The yellow converse steps in front of the others and disappear behind them to sit on their drum set.
The lights turn off completely leaving everybody silent for a moment. Sirius’ voice starts first as the curtains start parting for him, “My lover’s got humor, she’s the giggle at a funeral, knows everybody’s disapproval, I should’ve worshipped her sooner” The crowd sings along gently. Gently as in the song is a person in a delicate state and the crowd is the person helping them. When someone important to you finally shows they trust you and lets you in and you feel a sort of wave of emotions. You feel relief because they’re not going through things alone anymore and they feel comfortable enough to be sharing these things with you. But then the feeling of darkness sets in when you realize that they have been keeping all of this in for so long. Feeling this way and you wonder how many times they have said that they are fine when they’re not. And you don’t know what to say so you hold them as if you are holding a broken glass that some irresponsible kid let slip through their hands.
James picks up where Sirius left off to play the keyboard, “If the Heavens ever did speak, she’s the last true mouthpiece,” Pete starts to add a little bit of a beat, and Remus starts playing. He looks up to see in hopes of sneaking a glance at Sirius before continuing but as if he’s reading his mind they both look up at the same time. Sirius gives him a cheeky smile before winking at him and taking his microphone again picking up where James left off, “Take me to church I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies, I’ll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife,” He goes to slide on his knees and stops at the edge of the stage high fiving all the people in front of him.
Out of the four boys Sirius has kind of always been more of the one who interacts with the crowds when they’re on stage, James is one of those people who dances like nobody’s watching so put him on a stage in front of a crowd and he will be so calm, he knows exactly what the people want to see and he enjoys it but put him in front of Lily and see how fast that confidence goes away, and he starts turning red and sweating.
Going along with losing confidence in front of people, when Peter gets in ‘drummer mode’ as they call it he becomes a whole new person. Peter believes that if you put him behind any drum set or makeshift drum set, his hands take over. He says it’s like they have a mind of his own and half the time in shows he doesn’t even think about what he’s going to do, he just does it, but in any other social scene, he is a mouse. He is shy and quiet and if you didn’t already know who he was then you probably wouldn’t notice him.
And then there’s Remus. Remus who loses himself in the bass, in the way the strings feel against his skin, in the voice of Sirius Black. Remus is a painting, he is a painting of a sunset in the way that he is beautiful, and to look at him would be like looking at the heart and soul of Sirius Black himself. Remus thinks of himself as a painting of a sunset, of a fake when in reality he is the sun. He belittles himself into not only thinking that he is a sunset although sunset are beautiful, he thinks that he is a mere painting of something so beautiful and Sirius will never understand why he thinks that way.
“Welcome people of this moving rock we live on. My name is Sirius Black but you probably already knew that given that I am here every week but if you didn’t, hello here I am in the flesh, don’t speak to me before 10 am and my favorite books are children's books.” He takes a bow and the crowd cheers him on boosting his ego, “Now who do we want to learn about next?” He points the microphone to the crowd waiting for their decision. There is whispering among the crowd as they all try to remember the order that this goes in.
The crowd responds back, “JAMES! JAMES! JAMES!”
Sirius has a look of pride on his face proud that people actually pay attention at their shows. “Well the people have spoken,” He turns to James handing him the microphone.
“Thank you, thank you, folks. And thank you, my dear Padfoot.” James goes to stand next to Sirius throwing an arm around him kissing his cheek which Sirius gags at and hurriedly rubs it off, “How is everybody tonight?” the crowd cheers, “Yeah now that’s what I like to hear, I hope that everyone is having a great night so far because the night is not over yet, am I right?” The crowd cheers in agreement a couple yes’ and screams. “Now my darling people who do I introduce you to next. Remus or Wormtail over there behind the drums?” This is Remus’ favorite part because he sees how happy Peter is whenever he gets introduced like people actually care about him. “Wormtail! Wormtail! Wormtail!” James walks over to Pete giving him the microphone letting Peter introduce himself until it’s Remus’ turn. The awkward tallboy with tree branches as limbs as uncoordinated as the sea almost trips over the microphone wire while reaching for the microphone that Pete was handing him. Keyword almost because right as he was about to stick his arm out to block his fall Sirius was right there beneath him letting him squish the smaller boy, and though he should probably be in pain for having such a giant like Remus on him he looks the happiest he’s been since the beginning of the show.
They both stand up once Sirius tries to get up breaking Remus out of his thoughts. Remus pushed himself off the floor beside Sirius’ head, and once he’s up he lends a hand to Sirius, both of them have still not said a word so Remus decides that he’ll be the first since technically he fell on him, “I’m sorry for falling on you.”
“No, I suppose it’s my fault for trying to make sure you didn’t fall.”
“No, it was a kind thing for you to do.” Before they could continue dumbly staring at each other Peter interrupts from behind the drums.
“Alright, fellas enough with the love stares we got a show to play.”
That comment didn’t sit well with James but he didn’t make a comment about it he just gave Peter a look of disgust as well as a ‘we’ll talk about that later’ look. After everyone settled down Remus introduced himself and they went on with the show.
Their setlist after “Take Me To Church” consisted of “Cleopatra” by the Lumineers, “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees, “Cough Syrup” by Young the Giant, “Cupid’s Chokehold/ Breakfast in America” by Gym Class Heroes, “Scotty Doesn’t Know” by Lustra, “Twin Size Mattress” by The Front Bottoms, “Female Robbery”, Baby Came Home 2 / Valentines”, “Nervous”, “Sweater Weather” all by The Neighborhood, and ended with “Foreigners God” by Hozier.
“Thank you good night and if you attend the horror of a boarding school that is Hogwarts I suggest you get a move on and if you don’t, drive safe.”
They packed up the stage, Remus putting away his bass case, James putting his guitar away, along with Sirius and Peter moving the drumset into the back room. It’s about two in the morning and they were all pretty tired no one said a word as they approached Hogwarts sneaking in through the side door that Lily had left open for them. Peter slept in his bed in the right corner, James in the left in front of him there was Sirius and beside Sirius, there was Remus’ bed.
“Goodnight guys.”
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”