Champagne Problems (vi)
word count: 4,517
“For truth or dare, of course,” James waggled his eyebrows. Sirius tore his eyes away from Y/N at this. “Truth or dare?” he asked James. James had a twinkle in his eye that Sirius recognized as mischief; he hoped Y/N hadn’t noticed. “What are we, children?” Sirius raised a brow. “Yes, actually, we are. We’re teenagers and we’re playing truth or dare. Drink up, Y/N/N,” James grinned determined to set his plan into motion. Y/N took the two shots like a champion before handing the glasses back for James. “Lighten up, Sirius, I don’t mind. It’s just a game, right?” Y/N tried to convince him. Everyone joined in agreement. “Alright, alright. Everyone sit in a circle,” Sirius scooted over to make room for Y/N.
“I’ll ask first,” Lily declared once everyone was settled. “Remus, truth or dare?” “Dare, of course,” Remus smiled confidently. “I dare you to pick someone to style your hair, any way they want to,” Lily told him. Remus pondered in answer while he looked around the room and finally settled on Y/N. “Y/N/N, you’re up, make me gorgeous,” Remus stood up and Y/N did the same. “Bold of you to assume I know how to style guy hair,” Y/N teased as she followed Remus to his bathroom. “Well, shit, go nuts then,” Remus only shrugged, but Y/N laughed out loud. “I think we can still make you pretty yet,” she gave him a half smile before going to work on his hair with the products Remus had available. When the two emerged back into the sitting room, the rest of the teens joined a chorus of “ooh” and “ahhhh” “Well done, Y/N/N, I might wear it like this every day,” Remus said striking a pose. Y/N smiled sheepishly and the game continued.
“Y/N, truth or dare,” Remus asked cooly. “Truth,” Y/N felt her cheeks heating up with the fire whiskey, she was definitely getting drunk, but she was still afraid of being dared to do something silly. “What’s got you in such a slump tonight?” He asked. Y/N was taken aback by this. “I um, I don’t..” Y/N shook her head. “We can all tell something is up. What happened?” Sirius prompted her to answer, but gave her an out, “If you don’t want to answer you can take a shot. But we’re here for you.” Y/N nodded and took a deep breath. “I had to kiss Peter Williams in front of an entire audience tonight. I guess I’m just feeling a little put on display. I mean my family usually has eyes on us but they literally paraded us to the front of the room and shoved us together like ‘now kiss!’” “Was he a good kisser at least?” Lily asked. Sirius shot daggers at her and James exclaimed, “Babe!” “Listen I’m not asking for juicy details I just want to know if it was okay or if it was miserable!” Lily defended herself, earning a laugh from Y/N.
“Y/N/N, we don’t have to discuss this if you aren’t comfortable,” Sirius told her, more because he didn’t want to hear it, than anything else. “I mean it was miserable, because of the circumstance and the audience, but I suppose if you take all that away, it was fine. It was nothing. Really, I don’t know. I don’t have anything to compare it to,” Y/N felt her face flush as everyone’s eyes turned to her. “You’ve never…” Sirius started, but swallowed his words. “Nobody?” Lily asked incredulously. Y/N shook her head, “I mean, why would I? I’ve been promised to the same boy forever, it didn’t ever make sense to kiss anyone else,” Y/N ducked her head and hid her face behind her hair. “I mean, yeah, why would you,” Lily agreed, nodding solemnly. “But please, can we move on? That’s enough about me,” Y/N asked sheepishly. “Sure, I’m next!” James had been oddly quiet through the conversation, so his sudden interest made Sirius suspicious.
“Okay, Prongs, truth or dare?” Y/N asked. “Dare,” James waved his hand’s dismissively, as if to ask ‘what else would I choose?’ “Um…” Y/N thought hard for a moment before speaking up again, “I dare you to do the funky chicken for a whole minute!” Everyone laughed, including James who proudly danced for the whole minute straight. “Padfoot,” James said mischievously. “It’s not my turn, mate,” Sirius shook his head and sipped on his fire whiskey shot. “Oh it is, now!” James declared. Sirius had no clue what James was plotting but he knew that for the first time in his life, he did not want to be involved with this one. “Uh-uh,” Sirius shook his head. “Nope, it’s your turn, truth or dare,” James insisted. Sirius looked around the room for help and other than Y/N being confused, everyone seemed to be on James’s side. There wasn’t any way in hell he was going to let James bamboozle him into confessing his feelings for Y/N, so naturally, he calmly said, “Dare.”
“I dare you to kiss Y/N,” James grinned. for a moment, you could hear a hairpin drop. The teenagers sat in stunned silence before Sirius spluttered out, “That’s not fair! Y/N doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to do!” “Who says she doesn’t want to? You’re a good sport, aren’t you, Y/N?” James turned to Y/N who now was nearly frozen in place. “Oh! I mean I… I um.. Well, I,” She didn’t know what to say. Part of her, a large part did want to kiss Sirius and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why. Would it be uncomfortable, like with Peter? Or would it be easy, because he was so familiar? His lips looked like they’d be nice and soft…. “James, she just complained about kissing someone in front of an audience and now you want her to,” Lily pretended to check her notes, “Kiss someone in front of an audience?” “I just think it’s only right for her to kiss someone she knows in a comfortable setting for once in her life before she-“ James attempted to defend himself but Y/N cut him off, “I’ll do it,” she nodded. “You’ll what?” Sirius whipped his head to look at her.
“He’s right. I might never get to kiss anyone else again, I might as well play the game and kiss you now,” Y/N looked into Sirius’s eyes as his searched her face for any signs of uncertainty. “Well, alright,” Sirius nodded, “C’mhere,” he stood in the center of the makeshift circle the teenagers sat in and opened his arms. Y/N nervously stood up and met him there. No one spoke, everyone held their breath as Y/N shuffled into Sirius’s arms. “You’re sure about this?” he asked her one last time. Y/N bit her lip and nodded, allowing Sirius’s hand to cradle the back of her head as both of their eyes fluttered closed and their lips met. This was nothing like kissing Peter. Sirius’s lips were warm, soft, and inviting against her own, his fingers slightly tangling in her hair as his other hand reached up to cup her cheek. With Peter, things had been chaste, quick, this was not that at all. Y/N’s hands flew up to the back of Sirius’s neck, eliciting a sound from him she would do nearly anything to hear again. Their lips moved in sync, each of them pulling the other closer, closer, closer. Until, “Ahem, if you want to get a room, the guest bed is down the hall,” Remus spoke up, causing Y/N to fly three feet back in embarrassment.
“Oh, I, um, I didn’t, I…” Y/N was at a loss for words and when she shyly looked to Sirius, it was clear he felt the same way, his mouth opened and then shut again at least three times before he decided to just remain silent. “Well, I think Padfoot won truth or dare so… what shall we do next?” James spoke up, trying and failing at trying not to look too pleased with himself. “I reckon it’s time for a snack break,” Lily spoke up, standing and stretching her arms and legs. “We’ll head to the kitchen,” she ushered James and Remus up out of their seats and toward the kitchen. Sirius and Y/N stood in silence for a few moments before Sirius reached out to lightly touch Y/N’s arm. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable at all,” he began to apologize but Y/N shook her head. “No, you didn’t. It was fine, really,” She smiled weakly. “Are you sure, because you look a bit pale,” Sirius pointed out. “Oh, I think I just wasn’t expecting… that,” Y/N admitted. “I guess I didn’t really know what to expect. But I just thought it would be different,” She said.
“Different how?” Sirius asked. He didn’t want to pry but he was dying to confess how he was feeling and he needed her to be on the same page before he did that. “I guess I just didn’t expect to…like it? I dunno,” Y/N shrugged sheepishly. “You liked it?” Sirius perked up at this, his signature smirk returning to his face. “Oh, sod off, will you?” Y/N laughed as she lightly pushed him. “It was nice, alright? We’ll leave it at that. I’m still getting married to Peter, and I don’t want to make things weird,” she said. Sirius was absolutely crushed, but he wasn’t about to let Y/N in on that. “Nothing weird here,” he promised, sticking out his pinky for Y/N to shake. Y/N reached out and wrapped her pinky around his, each of them kissing their own thumb before releasing the swear, like they did when they were children. “Thank you for letting me be your friend,” Y/N said, suddenly serious as she quickly squeezed Sirius in a hug. “Thanks for wanting to be my friend,” he smiled, squeezing her back and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I reckon we better go help with the snacks,” Sirius said, reluctantly letting go of Y/N. “You’re right,” Y/N nodded, the two of them trailing into the kitchen with the rest of their friends.
*
It took little time for everyone to get settled back in at school but as much as Y/N hated to admit it, something had changed between her and Sirius at that party. They agreed things shouldn’t be weird, and they weren’t, so why did Y/N feel so strange? All she wanted to do was spend time with Sirius, yet as soon as he came near, her stomach would start doing somersaults. She was getting too comfortable with him, too careless. She nearly forgot she had a role to play at school as well as at home. Nearly. It was only when Cynthia and Dawn confronted her in the library with Sirius that she realized she hadn’t thought about being seen out with him. “Since when do you spend your free time with Gryffindor blood traitors?” Cynthia whispered venomously, crossing her arms as the two girls approached the table where Y/N and Sirius were sitting. Y/N’s cheeks flushed with worry as she imagined the word of her spending time with Sirius getting back to her parents.
“Oh, I-,” Y/N started but Sirius spoke at the same time. “There’s no need for name calling, Cynthia. If you’re attracted to me you can just say that,” he gave her a sarcastic smile and blew a kiss. “As if,” Cynthia scoffed. “Y/N does Peter know that you hang out with… this kind of people?” Dawn asked quietly, avoiding eye contact. Y/N hoped they couldn’t see the panic she felt creeping in. “Well-“ She started “We aren’t hanging out, we got paired to write an essay for history of magic together. You both can un-wad your knickers now,” Sirius cut Y/N off and though they were clearly annoyed with Sirius’s comment, both of the girls visibly relaxed. “Well,” Cynthia hummed, looking around the library. “Try not to let his filth rub off on you,” she said to Y/N, turning to leave with Dawn trailing behind her before Y/N could say anything else.
When she was sure they were out of earshot Y/N said softly to Sirius, “You didn’t have to jump in and lie like that.” “I didn’t want to get you into any trouble,” Sirius shrugged. Y/N gnawed on her cheek. She felt guilty that Sirius felt like he needed to hide their friendship. Sirius noticed her distress and nudged her to get up and follow him. Taking care to make sure no one was around to see them leave together, Sirius led Y/N out of the school and down to the cliff overlooking the black lake. They each took a seat, hanging their legs over the edge. Finally, Y/N sighed. “Sirius, I’m sorry this is so complicated,” she said. “Not your fault, Love,” Sirius shook his head. “It kind of is. If I didn’t care so much about what my parents think, it wouldn’t be like this,” Y/N mumbled. “I mean that’s true,” Sirius agreed, earning a bewildered look from Y/N. “But I don’t blame you. You love them and you want to keep the peace, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Sirius continued. “It just isn’t fair that it has to be so black and white,” Y/N huffed. “‘This is our way and that is theirs.’ It’s just stupid. I’ve done everything they’ve ever asked of me and I’m not even allowed to pick my own friends,” she grumbled. Sirius only put an arm around Y/N’s shoulders as she continued her rant.
“I’m so tired of it all. The whole charade. ‘They’re lesser than us because of their lineage.’ Like get a fucking grip, would you? We’re all the same. Hell, Lily is muggleborn and she’s better at magic than I am! It’s all just bullshit to make people like my parents feel better about themselves. It’s a fucked up system,” The words were coming out and Y/N couldn’t do anything to slow or stop them. “Sometimes I just.. I wish I could leave it all behind. Find something normal to do and just live my life like everyone else,” she admitted, surprising herself with the revelation. Sirius couldn’t believe that she had said that. For a moment, he felt a glimmer of hope in his chest. A chance to win her over, a chance to not have to let her go in a few months. He chewed on his lip for a minute before answering. “You could,” he offered quietly. Y/N laughed without humor. “Yeah, right, sure,” she shook her head. “I mean it. I’m not saying you have to, but I am saying you could. Could leave it all behind and slum it with the lot of us when school ends. We’d be more than happy to have you,” Sirius told her. I’d be more than happy to have you, he thought to himself. But Y/N shook her head again. “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. You’d all get tired of me so quickly. It would never work,” she murmured. Sirius could feel the opportunity slipping out of his grasp but he was scared of pushing too far. “Well, do what makes you happy, but the door is always open,” Sirius squeezed her into his side for a moment before loosening his grip
but not letting her go.
*
They were more careful after that. Made sure no one was watching when they snuck out to the forest, and opting to sneak Y/N into the dorm after Cynthia, Dawn, and Ellie had fallen asleep in her own room. This had become the new routine. Trips to the forest after dinner, showers, back to dorms until everyone was asleep, and then into the marauders dorm to hang out as a unit without the eyes of Y/N’s upper class peers on them. If Y/N was tired from the lack of sleep, she didn’t notice. She was having the time of her life with Sirius and the marauders. Every day she woke up invigorated, excited to find out what they would get into next. As much as she hated to admit it, she was falling in love with her secret life.
Before anyone knew it, it was time for the next phase of operation bowtruckle: smuggling Millie into the castle. The previous Saturday, Y/N and the marauders had gone into Hogsmeade to find a nice plant to “decorate” Y/N’s dorm that was bushy enough for Millie to hide in and blend with. Getting Millie into Y/N’a robe pocket was easier than any of them expected, but the hardest part was going to be getting her into the plant without Y/N’s roommates seeing. Y/N split off with the guys and Lily before dinner to drop Millie off in her dorm. To Y/N’s surprise, the dorm was empty when she arrived. She peered both ways down the hallway before be sure the coast was clear before closing herself into the dorm. “Alright sweet girl, here’s your new home,” Y/N opened her hand in front of the decorative plant for Millie to check out. The bowtruckle was apprehensive at first but eventually climbed into the plant. Y/N rewarded her with woodlice before explaining to her that she was to stay hidden.
The door to the dorm suddenly swung open and in poured Ellie, Dawn, and Cynthia. theatre three girls took in the scene: Y/N perched next to her nightstand, unusually close to her decorative plant. “Y/N, are you… talking to your plant?” Ellie asked, concern evident in her voice. “Oh, um, yes. I was reciting poetry. I read somewhere that plants thrive off of the energy you put into them so sometimes I like to recite poetry or read aloud to them,” Y/N straightened her back and spoke with practice and poise, praying silently that Millie would listen and stay hidden. Her dorm mates eyed her for a moment before Dawn cracked up laughing. “If you would have told me at this time last year that Y/N would be the one that turned into a hippie before graduation, I would have laughed in your face. Certainly we all thought it would be Ellie trying to make friends with the foliage,” Dawn snickered and Cynthia cackled along with her. Only Y/N noticed the way Ellie’s shoulders slumped at being the butt of the joke. “Laugh and call me a hippie all you want but when my gardens win awards someday, don’t pretend you didn’t think I was silly for loving my plants,” Y/N said playfully as she dramatically made to exit the room, hoping the girls would follow her and pay no mind to the plant on the nightstand.
*
The end of the school year was approaching quickly, and with each day that passed, the sense of dread building in the pit of Y/N’s stomach grew larger and larger. She knew what the end of school meant- it meant she had to marry a man she didn’t love. It meant the end of her secret life that she had grown to love so dearly. She was trading her happiness for a stuffy life as a trophy wife and Y/N could feel the walls starting to close in. The marauders pretended not to notice, but they worried for her. They secretly worried for Sirius, too. He was about to lose the person he loved the most, even if he wouldn’t admit he loved her out loud. No one would say it, but there was definitely a shift beginning in the group dynamic.
“Is no one going to bring up the end of the year ball? Because I have like 18 different prank ideas and no one has said anything about it yet,” James broke the comfortable silence the marauders were lounging in about their dorm with Y/N and Lily. The last thing Y/N wanted to think about was having to go to another stuffy event with her stuck up dorm mates, however, the idea of the boys causing chaos and mucking up the event did intrigue her. “What have you got, Prongs?” she asked when no one else did. “Thank you for asking, Y/N/N. First, I thought we could spike the punch with giggle water, but then I wondered if that was a cheap trick because it’s so glaringly obvious…” James rattled through prank ideas and Y/N’s mind started drifting. If only I could hire him to ruin my wedding… she caught herself thinking and shook her head at herself. James misinterpreted this and de-railed his prank list, “Okay, so Y/N doesn’t like the idea of slugs slipped into everyone’s dinner-noted.”
Y/N, who hadn’t been listening, was grateful for the divine timing of her head shake. “Yes, I do think the event will be even more insufferable than usual if we have to stay there the whole time with nothing to eat,” she told him. “I do like the Giggle Water in the punch idea. But you’d have to do it later in the evening or people would catch on and it wouldn’t have the same effect.” “I rather liked the idea of releasing a bunch of billywigs in the middle of the ball,” Remus interjected, looking up from the book he was reading. “Oh, I liked that one too!” Peter agreed. “Where on earth would you get a bunch of Australian insects?” Y/N asked. “Prongs knows a guy,” Remus shrugged, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “Of course he does,” Y/N narrowed her eyes before giving in to a laugh. “Of course he does,” she repeated, unable to hold back her grin. “We could always do both?” Lily offered. “No one will know why they’re giggling until they start levitating, or maybe not levitating,” She smirked. “What do you think, Sirius? You’re being uncharacteristically quiet for a prank planning conversation,” Y/N asked, scooting over from her place at the end of his bed to next to him so she could nudge him with her shoulder.
“Hm? Yeah, let’s make it a giggle fest, send students flying all over the place, sure,” he shrugged in a noncommittal way, but only Y/N seemed to notice. She linked her pinky with his and gave a small squeeze as James spoke back up, “I’m loving the enthusiasm from you all but I still have like nine other ideas…” Sirius lifted his gaze to Y/N who raised an eyebrow at him to ask are you alright? He gave her a smile that wasn’t entirely convincing but Y/N let it go. Whatever was bothering him, she wasn’t going to bring it up in front of everyone. Y/N turned her attention back to James, and Sirius squeezed her pinky. She glanced back at him long enough for them to share a look, and then turned her attention back to James once more, willing her cheeks not to show the heat from where Sirius hadn’t unlinked their pinkies. Y/N tried to focus on what James was saying, but the tingle where her hand she was connected to Sirius’s was difficult to ignore.
“And then I thought it would be hilarious if we somehow enchanted the instruments to only play SKA!” James laughed. “Why ska?” Remus piped in. “Because it’s nearly impossible to dance to, duh,” James scoffed, as if everyone should know that. “Well I’m still team Giggle Water and billywigs,” Remus replied. “Me too,” Peter agreed. “Well babe, two out of 18 isn’t a bad turnout?” Lily offered. “I do think the billywigs will be especially comical,” Sirius finally said, and Y/N agreed, “Let’s cause a scene.” Glancing at the clock in the marauders’ dorm, Y/N groaned. “I suppose I should be getting back to my dorm,” she said. Even though I’m growing to hate it and most of the people I share it with, Y/N thought bitterly. She’d come to realize how cruel Dawn and Cynthia were to people they deemed “less than,” but Ellie seemed to have a heart under her cool exterior.
“I’ll walk with you,” Sirius offered, standing up as Y/N retrieved her shoes. “Sure, yeah,” Y/N nodded, walking to the door and waiting for him there. After bidding everyone a good night, Y/N and Sirius made it to the Gryffindor common room in silence before Y/N spoke up. “Are you feeling alright?” she asked gently. “I’m grand,” Sirius gave her another smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Y/N narrowed her eyes at him, but he wouldn’t relent. “Look, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s one thing. But don’t just lie to me about it,” Y/N chewed her lip as she waited for Sirius to respond. He was quiet for a moment before he finally admitted, “You’re right.” Y/N waited for him to go on, expecting him to confess why he had been acting weird. But all he said was, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Y/N let out a surprised scoff. “Well alright then. We won’t talk about it,” Y/N quickened her pace a
few steps ahead of Sirius until she made it to the common room door. “I can make it from here,” she said pointedly, looking anywhere but at Sirius.
“Wait, there is something I’d like to talk to you about, if you’ll let me walk you to your common room,” Sirius offered, extending his hand. Y/N gnawed on her lower lip for a moment before cautiously taking his hand, “Alright…” The pair walked quietly for a few minutes, fingers loosely intertwined. Finally Sirius spoke up, “I was thinking, this end of school ball isn’t going to be all that fun if you spend the whole time with your dorm mates and we keep to ourselves,” Sirius started. Y/N didn’t say anything, but when he glanced over at her, he had her full attention so he continued. “I thought, maybe if you could get away for just a few minutes- before we send it all to hell, anyway-we might could manage to make it a little fun, and then you can go back to your friends and act surprised when we cause trouble,” Sirius offered. “I’d really like that,” Y/N nodded. “Where will we meet? How should I get away?” she asked. “Truthfully, this is not one of my better thought out plans, I just wanted some extra time with you,” Sirius admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.
Y/N couldn’t help but smile. “That’s okay. We’ll come up with something,” she assured him, squeezing his hand as they approached her common room door. Sirius let Y/N’s hand go and opened his arms for a hug and Y/N gladly stepped closer to wrap her arms around his neck. “Goodnight, Y/N/N. Get some sleep,” Sirius murmured as he snaked his arms around Y/N’s waist and pulled her tightly to him. “Goodnight, Sirius. Don’t get caught going back to your dorm, please,” Y/N replied, stifling a yawn. Sirius chuckled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head before releasing her. “I never get caught,” he smirked, winking at her before turning and making his way out of the dungeons.
