The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

Shadows

"YAAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!"

The motorbike soared into the sky, spinning fender over wheels as it shot up - up - up, taking a spinner 'round about Big Ben's tower and through the spires of Westminster, following the path of the Thames toward East London. Sirius's hair flapped behind him as he clutched the handle bar and Jasper clung tightly to Sirius, arms wrapped about the other boy's waist as he peered down at the lights of the city.

"Won't somebody see us?! Aren't we breaking about a thousand laws right about now?" Jasper worried, shouting over the wind that whipped his hair about his forehead and threatened to throw him off the back of the motorbike.

"Invisibility charm!" Sirius called over his shoulder, proudly, "I set it up so that it goes on automatically once the motorbike's taken off. Pretty clever, inn'it?"

"Very impressive!" Jasper admitted, then, "But what about that muggle in Trafalgar Square?"

"You know muggles! If they can't explain it, they certainly aren't going to tell anybody about it. Everyone would think he's a nutter if he said two kids took off from the top of the lion statue on a flying motorbike and then disappeared as they flew off toward Westminster!"

Jasper nodded and turned his attention toward enjoying the motorbike ride, rather than worrying about it. Sirius seemed to know what he was doing alright, and Jasper's mind a wee muddled from the ale.

Sirius drove the motorbike along, dipping down over the Thames so that the wheels nearly skimmed the water, and taking back off into the sky as they went below Tower Bridge and turning back in a wide arch toward Elephant and Castle. The motorbike lowered to the ground on a quiet side street, roaring as the wheels bumped on contact to the roadway. Sirius pressed a button and there was a belching sound from the exhaust pipe behind Jasper, and he glanced back to see a confused looking cat peeking 'round a parked car on the side of the road, and realized Sirius must've done away with the invisibility charm.

The bike roared along the road and Jasper watched lights of late night pubs whiz past, the music from within them blending together into a terrific stream of sound, and he laughed, smiling, enjoying the feeling of the world becoming a blur.

"This is brilliant!" he yelled.

"I know!" Sirius yelled back.

They were speeding along, Sirius cutting down side streets and making a show of his driving skills - something he'd been itching to do, really - and even popped a wheely at one point, which made Jasper clutch on even tighter, his panic making Sirius laugh. Then there was a horn and Sirius glanced at his little round mirror on his handle bar and was greeted with the brilliant blue of a muggle police car's headlamp.

"Now you've done it," Jasper said, "You've got a jam-butty after us."

"A what?" Sirius asked.

"The policyman! The muggles call them jam-buttys."

"Why?"

"I haven't the foggiest!"

"Bloody muggles..."

"You're supposed to stop for them when they flash their lights like that," Jasper advised, glancing back over his shoulder as the police car.

"What for?" Sirius asked.

"So they can give you a ticket!"

"A ticket? I don't like those." He wrinkled his nose, "Bloody hell, what are they policeymen doing giving out drugs like that for? Aren't they supposed to be against that rot?"

"What? No, Sirius -- It's an order to pay a fine."

"Well, why the bloody hell would I purposely choose to stop to be punished?" Sirius crowed with laughter and Jasper floundered for words to give him a proper answer before Sirius continued, "It's alright. We can lose them." He sped up.