"Ollie, wake up."
I was shaken awake and felt hair in my face. I pulled it away from my face.
"Oi, I thought I awoke you quite respectfully, and you yank my hair out in return!"
I opened my eyes, squinting in the sharp sunlight to see Sirius' face rather close to my own.
"Sorry, I thought it was my hair, I didn't expect you to be quite so close to me."
"Well, will you let go of it?"
"What?" I then realised I was in fact still gripping onto his hair. It was rather soft. It smelt good. I let go of it, knowing my face was pink and rolled off of Sirius, who I had apparently fallen asleep on.
I opened the car door, walking slowly and stretching out my stiff legs and looked at the barn. It was old, and ivy crept over the face of it, but it was beautiful. Lots and lots of wild flowers grew all around it, and a field of all kinds of vibrantly coloured flowers grew just behind it, and a patch of strawberries not too far away too. The sun was beginning to set slowly, sending out glowing colours of orange and red, hints of purple turning it all the more breathtaking. I breathed in deeply and smelt the fragrant smell of all the different flowers and smiled at the boys, who were all taking in the marvellous scenery too.
"Welcome to the Barn!" I exclaimed, and jumped onto James' back, who promptly neighed like a horse and ran towards the front door. I barely clung on, screaming with fits of laughter.
Sirius and Remus followed, laughing too, carrying James and my bags.
"Oh, Remus, please don't touch that." Remus had picked up my staff and begun to carry it to the house. I jumped off of James and walked over to him.
"Oh, sorry," He gave it to me, then asked, "What is it really, I mean, shouldn't other people touch them?"
"Uh, well. It's a staff." I said dumbly.
"Well that much was obvious." Sirius said, with a sarcastic expression on his face.
"My father taught me how to make them, and I made this one specially suited for me. I mean it's not bad for others to touch them, but it's like if I got a hold of your wands."
They all nodded, then James asked, "So is it just like a big wand, then?"
I screwed up my face, thinking of a good explanation, "Sort of. I mean you don't need a wand to perform magic, it's just like a prop to direct it through to make it more concentrated. Like a lightning conductor, sort of. Now the staff is much bigger, so if you learn how to use it properly, your magic could be more powerful. If you see here," I held out the staff for the boys to see, and they all came in a circle around it, "You'll see engravings, runes. Some are for the wood itself, so it's stronger than normal wood and won't break, but others are to enhance magic."
"Dope." Said James.
"Yeah, that's pretty neat stuff, and you did all this yourself?" He asked, examining the runes. I nodded.
"Hang on, if staffs can make your magic more powerful, how come all strong wizards have them?" Sirius asked.
"Well, one thing is the practicality. They're not exactly light, and a drag to travel with. Then there's also the fact that it will only properly work for the witch or wizard who made it, it is unique to the person, and it is rather tricky to make. It can also be used as a non-magic weapon, I mean if you hit someone with it it'll twinge quite a bit, and if you learn how to fight with it you gain a new set of skills. Not everyone has the patience to work with properly channelling their magic through it if they already are excellent with a wand."
"I see, that's some quite advanced magic then. Now, don't take this the wrong way, but why would your father teach you how to make a staff if you don't need it, and if it's useful to the most powerful wizards."
I had thought about this myself, "I think it was an exercise. If you remember, I couldn't really control my magic and I always had accidental magic, and my metamorphing abilities were all over the place. I reckon he did it so that I'd learn better control over my abilities and understand that magic was about more than just wandwork."
"I suppose that makes sense." He answered.
"Can you show us some stuff with it?" James asked, looking excited.
"We're not allowed to magic outside school, remember?" I said, rolling my eyes.
"Yeah, but did you learn to fight with it?" I nodded, "Show us!"
I felt suddenly embarrassed at the prospect of performing for them. I shook my head and looked down at the ground.
"Oh, please, Ollie!" He urged me. The other two began begging too.
I sighed, "Not today, anyway, it's getting late and all the mosquitoes and stuff are coming out."
They all moaned, "Oh alright then, but another time, promise?"
I groaned, "Fine! I promise."
They carried all the bags in, now cheering and I looked around the fields before bringing my staff inside.
--
"Okay, how about two of us make the pizza dough, so me and one of you three, then the other two cut up and put on the toppings?" I asked, sitting down on one of the chairs in small kitchen we had gathered in after making up our beds in the big room where all the animals had once been. Though the room was big, however, we had all put up our beds close to each other so that the evenings would be cosy.
"Sounds good, I'll help you with the dough," Remus said, smiling.
"Thanks, Remus, we'll just get started now because the dough has to rise for at least half an hour." I said, to which Remus nodded, and began rolling up his sleeves.
"We'll go try out that swinging rope thing!" Sirius exclaimed, referring to the rope that was tied to the ceiling you could use to swing from a platform down into a large bed of hay. Remus and I had had a lot of fun doing that as children.
I turned on the small radio in the kitchen and started finding out all the ingredients.
As we made the dough, or rather, as I made the dough and Remus watched, we talked. It felt great. I hadn't seen him in three years and I had almost forgotten just how much I missed the boy. Almost.
"So, ickle-Remmikins, any girls you fancy?" I sneered jokingly at him.
He gulped and answered, rather quickly, "No, I couldn't say so."
I scoffed, "Your reaction didn't agree with your words."
"Well, that's strange because there aren't any girls I fancy." He replied, calmly. Though he had seemed stressed when I first asked him, I could tell he wasn't lying now.
"Alright, alright. what have you all been up to at school anyway, what subjects are you taking this year?"
"Well, all us boys have gotten into a fair bit of trouble- well, Sirius and James mostly, they play all those practical jokes all the time and aren't clever enough, or rather careful enough, not to get caught- I've actually been chosen as a prefect."
I beamed at him, "Excellent, Remus. You deserve it."
He smiled back at me, though it was a little strained, "Yes well, I'm not sure about that. Anyway, I have all the normal subjects as well as arithmancy, care of magical creatures, and divination. James has divination and care of magical creatures, and I think Sirius has ancient runes, muggle studies, and care of magical creatures."
I let out a "hah" when I heard Sirius took muggle studies, he had probably chosen it just to spite his parents.
"I know, right," Remus smiled, "What subjects have you taken?"
"Well, it's not really been that straight forward, really, as I hardly ever went to school. I've learnt a fair bit about care of magical creatures, ancient runes, and arithmancy. Father never taught me divination, he thought it was a load of crap."
Remus scoffed, but grinned, "It really is, but it's an easy O. What will you choose this year then?"
"I reckon I'll do arithmancy and ancient runes, but I'm supposed to talk to Dumbledore before school starts. I really want to do alchemy too, though it's only for sixth and seventh years, but I'm not sure."
I laid a cloth over the bowl of dough to keep any flies off and grinned, "All done!"
We walked through the doorway to the barnroom to see Sirius and James in a rather compromising position. James was lying on the ground, erupting with fits of giggles, and Sirius sat on top of him, his knees on either side of James' waist, tickling him relentlessly.
"Oh, sorry boys. Put a sock on the door next time!" I yelled. They both froze and looked at Remus and I, who were now laughing hard, then Sirius rolled quickly off of James, who sat up and brushed hay off his clothes.
"You're just jealous it wasn't you, eh?" Sirius said, smirking at me, and walking up to me to tickle me my throat with a piece of straw in a way that was clearly supposed to be seductive.
I felt my entire face burn up, but answered as sarcastically as I could, "Oh yes, Black, all for you," I paused, wondering if I dared continue, "Daddy." I whispered in his ear.
He froze again, and though he merely looked down at me with a smirk, I could see that his eyes had grown darker, and his ears were slightly pink, though hidden well under his thick hair.
"Oi, Sirius, quit flirting and come help me cut these flipping tomatoes!" James called.
A/N
So we're over 1k reads, exciting times! I'm in the middle of my exams, I've got maths tomorrow and I've been preparing for the last two months but I still don't feel prepared enough.
Hope you're all well,
Lots of love,
21stCenturyMarauder