All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Fourth Year : Christmas

As the lights went down, Sirius felt his heart speed up—this was it. His chance to officially snog a girl, no strings attached. If it went horribly, he could take comfort in the knowledge that he would never see her again, and no one at school would have to find out that he had no idea what he was doing when it came to kissing.

He waited for a few minutes, trying to work up the courage to sneak back. What if he’d misread the looks the girls had been giving him, and he went back only for them to laugh at him and turn him away? Sirius would never be able to live it down!

But no—no, he definitely knew how to recognize flirting by now, and what had taken place in this small, slightly sticky muggle picturehouse was most definitely flirting. Next to him, James was bouncing his leg nervously, and Sirius knew that his friend was thinking along the same lines. At least if they went back together, James wouldn’t be able to make fun of him if they both got rejected…

But Remus would. Bollocks.

Sirius elbowed James, shooting him a meaningful look in the dim light of the movie screen. James gave him a look right back, as if to say, You first. Sirius rolled his eyes and stood, carefully, trying not to draw attention. He crept cautiously out of the front row, with James following closely behind. Remus appeared to be completely unaware of the movement, staring entranced at the characters on the screen.

As it turned out, Sirius had not misread the situation, and in a handful of minutes he found himself pulled to the back of the theatre by the long-legged blonde, who pushed him down into one of the folding seats. A few places down, James was going through a similar series of motions with one of the girl’s friends.

“Haven’t seen you ‘round here, before,” the girl leaned in to whisper, so that her hair tickled his face. Sirius resisted the urge to pull back.

“Not from around here,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant and mysterious—but it came out a bit strangled. She was straddling his lap, her skirt hiked up around her thighs. They were very pale.

“My name’s Holly,” she murmured, smoothing her hands over his shoulders, “What’s yours?”

“Err—Sirius.”

She laughed.

“Serious?”

“Like the star,” he clarified, feeling very stupid. Her brow wrinkled in confusion, but she continued to smile, not seeming to care much either way.

Snogging, Sirius soon discovered, was not nearly all it was cracked up to be. He truly had no idea what everyone had been on about—it was mostly just bumping their faces together, trying to figure out how to keep their noses from poking into each other’s eyes. When Holly stuck her tongue into his mouth it tasted like wet popcorn, which was not entirely pleasant.

He supposed that it got a bit better as things went on—as they figured out how best to position their faces, and she put his hand on her thigh, and stuck her fingers in his hair. He had no idea what to do with his own fingers, and settled for squeezing, gently—she was very soft. At one point, Holly pulled back and began to kiss his jaw, but it was a bit awkward in the dark, as she didn’t seem to quite know where his face was, and ended up sloppily kissing just under his eye.

There was still a third of the movie left when Sirius finally extricated himself, weathering one last peck from Holly before she hopped off his lap and pranced back over to her friends, who immediately began squealing and whispering. Sirius grabbed James and the two made their way back to the front row—only to find that Remus had disappeared. They turned to scan the back of the theatre, but Holly and her friends were all in one place, and there didn’t appear to be a gangly boy amongst them.