Prompt 8 - Skate
@wolfstarmicrofic January 8, word count 975
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“Hey, has anyone seen James?” Sirius asked. They’d eaten dinner and were having a few drinks to toast Henry, but now his uncles’ friends were leaving, and they’d have to go soon, too.
“He got a phone call and said he’d be back in a bit,” Effie said as she began gathering empty glasses to take back to the kitchen.
“Euphemia Potter, you put those glasses down. You are a guest and don’t need to tidy up,” Alphard called across the room sternly. Effie glared at him.
“Are you trying to tell me what I can and can’t do, Alphard Black?” She replied, deadly calm. Alphard swallowed nervously and shrank back into his chair.
“No. Thank you, Effie. You’re an angel.”
“It’s the least I can do after the feast you made us. It’s so nice having someone else cook for you,” she smiled sweetly and walked off towards the kitchen.
“Bless that woman; she is a saint, but she doesn’t half scare the pants off me,” Alphard whispered.
“And you’d better remember it!” Effie called from the kitchen. Alphard paled and picked up his book, burying his face in it so he didn’t open his mouth again.
“I’m going to go look for James,” Sirius declared and left the grown-ups to it. Monty and Henry were back to discussing the clock. Henry had jumped up when his last guest, apart from them, had left and gone to get his little toolkit and started to take the clock apart. Sirius had been fascinated for a while watching him remove each delicate part with steady, careful hands.
“Oi, Potter, where you at?” He called up the stairs after checking the rest of the rooms on the ground floor and sticking his head outside, and not finding his best friend. Sirius started up the stairs and heard a hurried shuffling and the bang of a door closing. He stepped up the last step and saw James hurrying towards him from the far end of the landing, his hair stuck up at every angle and his shirt untucked. He looked flushed. “Hey, are you all right? I hope you’re not coming down with something,” he eyed him up suspiciously. The last thing he wanted right now, when he had a few days off, was to spend them with snot dripping down his nose.
“Huh, what? No, just locked myself in the bathroom and couldn’t get out,” he laughed, running his hands through his hair.
“Why didn’t you text me? I could have come and helped.”
“Oh, er, left my phone downstairs,” James said quickly.
“Mate, it’s literally in your hand,” Sirius pointed out. “James, how did you get that bruise?” He asked, pointing at the round little mark on the side of James’s neck. James’s hand snapped up to cover it.
“Oh, er, I er, I was putting my skates away, and one skate fell back off the shelf and caught me on the neck; it must have hit harder than I thought it did.” He laughed nervously.
“You’re being weird,” Sirius pointed out.
“No, you’re being weird. Come on, let’s go back downstairs. I need one last cuddle with Padfoot before we go. I swear I’m going to hide that dog under my jumper and sneak him out of here,” James squeezed past him and disappeared into the living room. Sirius stared down the landing where he’d first spotted James. The bathroom was the door closest to where Sirius was standing at the top of the stairs; the only rooms where James had been standing were his and Regulus’s bedrooms. Something wasn’t adding up, but Sirius had no idea what. He let out an exasperated breath and went back downstairs to say goodbye to his uncles and Padfoot, whom he had to wrestle off James before they left and then had to return him to Uncle Alphard when he’d copied James and popped him under his jumper to take him home.
“I won’t let either of you back if you don’t stop stealing my dog,” Alphard grumbled as they hugged him goodbye.
They were almost to the car when Uncle Alphard opened the front door again and yelled after them. “Fleamont Potter, you bring my dog back right this instant.”
“Aww,” Monty huffed and lifted Padfoot out of the bag they’d brought Henry’s gifts in, walked back to the house to hand over the puppy.
“I’m putting a tracker on him. I don’t trust a single one of you,” Alphard grunted as he slammed the door in Monty’s face.
“I think if next time we work together we can get that puppy back to the house,” Effie mused as they clambered into the car and set off back to theirs.
“Or we could ask them where they got him and see if he has any siblings,” Sirius said.
“I’ll text them now,” Monty said with glee and took his phone out, tapping each button with his middle finger until he’d written his message. It took so long that Effie had pulled into the drive and turned the engine off. “There. Oh, I hope there’s some left.”
“What are you going to call yours?” James whispered into Sirius’s ear as they unbuckled seatbelts. “Wolfie, after your little crush?” Sirius punched him in the arm and got out of the car.
“See you guys later, I’m heading home.”
“Oh, won’t you stay, darling?” Effie asked, walking over to him.
“I want to get a bit of practice in at the rink tomorrow, and it’s easier from the flat. I’ll come over the day after, promise.”
“All right, darling, let me know when you’re home,” Effie conceded and pulled him into one of her famous hugs. Monty grabbed him next, and then James rounded it off.
“See you soon,” he called as he got in his car and sped away.
