Every Piece of Me. (Marauders Era)

Haley

The ball is around the corner and Sydney is more nervous by the minute. She and I experiment hairstyles during free periods and I teach Sirius how to play guitar when no one else is around, knowing it's something we will share just between the two of us. By the day of the ball, Sydney and I are ready for the ball with our hair and makeup and Sirius and I are more inseparable than before. We all are anxious for the ball and sit by the fire all of Saturday morning and afternoon, reading and saving our energy for the night. Dinner is going to be served in each dorm room, where most people will be preparing for the night.
I'm sitting in my room, preparing for the chaos of everyone at dinner and then all of the girls to get ready. Since Sirius and I have the biggest rooms, we are the ones that have the dressing rooms for events like this. I hear the first knock and see Sirius come in with his plate, heading to the table we set up for eating and sets it down. He walks over to my reading corner where I was engrossed in a book and takes it from me and closes it. "But I was almost done!" He laughs at me and teasingly leans on the chair so that his face is inches from mine, "Well that's too bad. Now it's time for family and-of course- me." Once he finishes talking, I quickly steal a kiss as he picks me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. I laugh and climb off of him to make my way over to the door where I heard a knock. When I open it, I find James and Remus with the girls are a few paces away. I keep the door open as Sirius takes the plates and puts them at the places he "assigned". I smile as Sydney and Lily come in and Sirius puts them in their correct place. I take my spot in between Sirius and Sydney and strike up conversation with her and Lily, who is across the table from me. The boys all talk loudly and we end up joining their conversation quickly, not having the energy to argue against them. As we are laughing, I hear my alarm going off. I clear the dishes with a flick of my wand as the boys slide a table and a few chairs across the hall to Sirius' room. They say goodbye and Sirius kisses my cheek on his way out. Lily sighs and flops on my bed, "Aren't we lucky to have boys like them?" Sydney and I nod in agreement, "we are very lucky but don't have time to think about that now." I make both of them sit in the leftover chairs so that I can do Sydney and Lily's makeup the muggle way and it turns out as beautiful as I hoped. I do my own makeup in my bathroom as Lily and Sydney begin curling their hair. I straighten my hair the muggle way and pull it all into a bun on the back of my head. Bangs fall from the bun and I curl those quickly and messily. I look into the mirror, curls surrounding my face and the light smoky eye coloring making the crystal blue of my eyes seem darker with mystery but lighter in color. I slide into my dress after helping Sydney and Lily zip their own. Sydney zips up my dress as I place some flowers in my hair, giving it a bit more elegance. The midnight blue color of the dress meshes with the forget-me-nots and baby's breath perfectly. As we are pulling on our heels, we hear the first knock. Our conversation freezes as Lily walks over to the door and opens it slightly, calling over her shoulder that Remus was here with Sydney's corsage- a muggle tradition the boys thought to try out- and was ready for her to come to the ball. She hurries over to him and I can see the look of adoration come over him as she draws near. He pulls out a small corsage and slips it on her wrist with a peck on her forehead. They say they will meet us downstairs and he tells us that the other boys will be over soon. He shares a laugh with us, he had escaped since he wasn't good at helping tame James' hair and that the other boys will here shortly. They hurry down the stairs with giggles echoing from Sydney. "They're such a cute couple," I hear Lily say from behind me. I walk back over to the couch we all were resting at and I agree with her while plopping into a seat. We sit there for awhile- talking through the summer and what it might entail- and soon James and Sirius come to the door, opening it after a few short knocks. Lily squeals and runs over to James, who picks her up and spins her around, making her laugh echo through my room. As he sets her down, I feel Sirius wrap his arms around my waist and he rests his head in the crook of my neck. I grin as we watch James puts the corsage on her wrist and she gasps at the sheer beauty of it. Her corsage is full of baby roses and white lilacs, and matches her red dress perfectly, even though it practically is the size of her arm. It is very different from Sydney's, who had white and purple flowers and black ribbon. He gives her a quick kiss and they go downstairs to meet Sydney and Remus. Sirius then twirls me around and I am met afterward with a kiss. I wrap my arms around his shoulders as his hands leave trails of goosebumps on my back. He pulls away first to take my hand and slide a corsage onto my wrist. I gasp at the sight; Sirius got me a corsage of forget-me-nots -my favorite flower- and midnight roses, matching the flowers in my hair perfectly. While it isn't as large as Lily's the subtlety is perfect. I look up into his eyes and see him watching me, almost nervously waiting a response. "I love it, but not as much as I love you," I whisper to him. He pulls me in for another long kiss and then begrudgingly leads me down the stairs to our friends. We all walk to the ball and join everyone who's already there dancing. I hear gasps and muttering as we enter, "When did Lily and James get together," or "Sirius has been with that girl for a while. And is that, no it can't be, a promise ring," or "I knew Remus and Sydney would be a couple". By the end of the gossiping, I'm blushing as if they had all seen me naked and have my head tucked into Sirius' shoulder. He lifts my chin with a finger and puts his lips on mine. I hear gasps but I don't care, nothing can stop this glorious feeling within me. As we pull away, he whispers, "See. Nothing to worry about." I giggle and nod, I shouldn't be worried about what people think.
Sirius and I outlast the other couples we're with, dancing with grins even though I knew my feet would hate me in the morning. Lily and James come back from a punch break and join us once more as Sydney and Remus leave the dance floor and go to a table to save for us all when dessert comes. By the time dessert does arrive, Sirius is barely pulling me off the dance floor, he's getting exhausted and hungry again. I laugh as we sit down next to each other  because Remus says, "Finally cared to join us, eh?" I push curls out of Sirius' eyes and say, "This one was getting tired, I could've kept going for awhile more." Everyone starts pulling dessert from the middle of the table and Sirius takes a chocolate covered strawberry off of the plate. He lets me take a nibble of it to decide if I want one. He eats the rest of it in a one big bite and I laugh as he takes another and feeds it to me. "Why thank you, sir," I tell him jokingly. He wraps an arm around my shoulders and I rest my head on his shoulder. We all sit and talk for a while more before going back out onto the dance floor.
When they begin playing another slow song, I feel Sirius pulling me into him from the group circle we had made. I rest my head on his shoulder and he holds me close. I see Sydney and Remus dancing and James and Lily on the other side of us doing the same. Sirius leans down and kisses my forehead and then rests his head on mine. As the song reaches the chorus, I hear Sydney sigh and see that she's watching us. I look up at Sirius and he holds my head in his cupped hand. He leans in to kiss me and I swear there are fireworks everywhere around me. I pull away and he goes back to holding me close. As the song finishes, everyone sighs or boos as they say that that was the final song. We all make our way up to our common rooms and everyone goes to bed except for my group of friends. We sit down there, sharing jokes and food until a first year comes out and says we are being too loud. We all then go up to Sirius' room. I'm shocked to see how much he's decorated since I helped him. His room is clean surprisingly, since I saw how bad they all can be about picking up at his and James' house. He actually added more pictures to his collection, making me walk over to see what they are and I see a lot of us. He has pictures from all of the Christmases and the one I love of when we all were sitting on the couch with me and Sydney in Remus' and his laps. I was giggling and he was watching me as he held me tight. There was another one of when we kissed under the mistletoe and the one of my opening my present from him followed by one of him and I dancing at James' house. I admire his wall of pictures and feel him wrap an arm around my waist from behind, "What do you think, Hays? Think it looks good?" I look up at him and kiss his lips. "It's wonderful. I love it." "I love you, Hays." I turn to face him and place my head on his chest, "I love you more." "Hey! Are you two lovebirds done snogging over there? We're going to start a game of Truth or Dare," I hear James call from behind us. Sirius sighs and nods, giving me another kiss before whispering, "We'll finish this later." He wraps his arm tighter around my waist as we walk over to the group, where we have two of the couches from my old house facing each other. Sirius sits down on the same one as James and Lily, and I sit right next to him. Remus smirks and spreads out on the other couch as Sydney does the same, laughing the whole time. James starts us off, smirking, "Sirius truth or dare?" Sirius looks down at me and says with a smirk, "Dare." James grins mischievously, "I dare you and Haley to get matching tattoos." I laugh, "And where are we to go and do that?" He chuckles, "Sydney is an artist. She can do them. We just have to go to the Room of Requirement." I shrug and Sirius looks at me worried, "How are you so willing to permanently ink your body?" I run a hand through his hair, "I trust Sydney and it will probably be fun." Sirius leans back into his chair with a slight smirk, "I'm in. Let's go." James gapes at me, "We've really turned you bad. Sirius, change her back." I burst out laughing as Sirius shakes his head, "I kind of like this new Haley. It fits her well."
James and the boys run to change and get their map and the two invisibility cloaks, one of which is a tattered old one they found in their first year. The nicer one is the one James got from his father; it is the nicest quality invisibility cloak I have ever seen. The girls hustle to change in their room as I nestle into Sirius. He kisses my forehead as we talk about tattoo designs before shooing me out to change. I run to my room and slip out of my ball gown, slipping my black cropped shirt on with a pair of black leggings. We all meet back up in Sirius' room and the boys quickly usher us under the cloaks.
We sneak out of the tower successfully and practically sprint to the Room of Requirement. James stand closest to the wall and ushers us in quickly after transforming it into a tattoo studio. He sits Sirius and I down on the padded bench as he sets up Sydney's equipment and then hands the two of us shot glasses. Sirius takes the shot with questioning him but I hesitate. James sighs, "It'll help take the edge off of the tattoo pain." I roll my eyes and shoot the liquid back, washing it down with a swig of butterbeer. Sydney and James deliberate about what our tattoos should be before finally coming to a conclusion. She slides her chair over to me first and asks me where I'd like it placed. James sits in the open chair near Remus and Lily, whispering to them, and I roll my eyes as they all laugh to themselves. I slide my shirt up, tucking it into my bra, "Right about there." She nods and rubs my skin quickly with an alcohol wipe and then begins watching into my skin. I bite down on my lip as my skin stings for the amount of time it takes her. Sirius squeezes my hand as she begins the "last part." She pulls away and admired her work for a second before refilling the pen with ink and turning Sirius away from me. He slips off his shirt and points to his shoulder. She shrugs and gives him her seat. She stands over him as she works, drawing out a paw print and then filling it in. By the end of shading it, his whole right shoulder blade is practically covered in a paw print design with a tiny "H" written in cursive under the paw. She grabs a mirror and shows me mine finally. I have a paw print as well but there is a partial heart outline adjacent to it. I grin as Sirius runs a hand over it, "That's really good, Sydney." She blushes and accepts the compliment, "Thank you. You should see yours probably." She hands the mirror to him and goes about wrapping my side, ensuring the tattoo is covered in a bandage. Sirius brags to the boys about his new tattoo and how he was the first to get one. I roll my eyes as Sydney bandages him up and has him slip a shirt on as we head for the door. She cleans her hands off with a spell before sliding under an invisibility cloak with Remus and Lily. We head as quickly to the common room and are let in without any problem, surprisingly. The boys lead us back up to Sirius' room and we all abandon the previous game of Truth or Dare, just enjoying our time to sit and talk.
Lily and Sydney both yawn soon, excusing themselves to bed. Remus and James get up walk them to their room. Sirius kisses me and I melt into him. He holds me close and pets my hair. I close my eyes and sigh, "I love our group of friends. They're the best family we could ever ask for." He agrees and asks if it's alright that the boys spend the night in his room. I ask why he had to get my approval and he laughs. He just wanted to make sure that I knew that there would be a bit of noise. I yawn and say that it's fine by me. The other boys get back and Sirius says that it's fine that they spend the night. He picks me up and holds me as he walks me to my room. He carries me to my bed and sets me down. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. He kisses me back and sits down next to me. He looks at my promise ring and says, "What would you think of marrying me?" I look at him shocked, "You know I would love it. You would be the best husband for me." He holds my head in his hands, "Promise me this. You'll marry me and let me hold you always." I nod with tears in my eyes. He pulls me in for a brief kiss before he has to go back to the boys. I say goodnight back and lay on my bed for a few seconds more until getting up and heading to the bathroom. I slip out of my shirt and pull the bandages partially off my tender skin. "Mother, please forgive me. For I have broken one of your rules," I mutter to myself as I trace my new tattoo. I reapply the the bandages to their place again and head back to my wardrobe. I pull out Sirius' sweatshirt and slip on as soon as my bra is off and I slip off my leggings before climbing back into bed. I go to bed, thinking about a future with the previous owner of my favorite sweatshirt. But, most of those thoughts are purely dreaming about our wedding.