good things fall apart • sirius black

Watch me

By their sixth year, there might as well have not been a school uniform for the Marauders. Peter lost his tie within two hours of unpacking his trunk and so had to go without; Remus wore his own brown jumper over his shirt, Prefect's badge begrudgingly pinned on his chest; James had drainpipe jeans on; Sirius was in his leather jacket and combat boots; and Ellie sported a short white dress with her tie around her neck to make it look like she'd made an effort.

You could tell which house they all belonged to, you could tell they were in some sort of uniform, but it definitely wasn't anywhere near what it was supposed to look like.

Lily scolded them all at breakfast, particularly Remus, who was supposed to be setting a good example for the lower years, but he didn't have the patience to listen to her. After the full moon last night, he still had a bit of a headache and was trying to have a steady day. It also didn't help that Mary and Alice had sat with them too, now they were close with the red head, and Ellie had been right. Mary was practically drooling in her scrambled eggs as she continuously stared at him. James and Ellie found it rather amusing, stifling their laughter the whole time, and so Remus kept kicking their shins under the table to make them behave. He didn't want to embarrass Mary, whether he was pleased about her crush or not.

However, there wasn't much time for debating the school's dress code, nor who fancied who, for there was the first big prank of the year to plan. They'd been slacking the last couple of years, for after Adelaide died and Ellie wasn't at school for so long, and then juggling the Animagus project with O.W.Ls, there hadn't been much time to think up crazy stunts. But this year was different since they had no important exams.

    "If it's not got fireworks, I'm not helping." Sirius declared after a while of throwing ideas around.

Lily had been pretending not to listen, knowing there was nothing she would be able to say to stop them, but Mary and Alice had been giggling excitedly the whole time.

    "Agreed." Ellie nodded solemnly, "Something's got to explode so it has the wow factor."

She went to pat Sirius on the head playfully, a grin forming on her lips, but he dodged her hand as he shovelled pancakes into his mouth. Smile faltering, Ellie poked him in the cheek instead, but this time Sirius swiped her away.

    "Stop that, would you?" He grumbled, "I'm eating."

Since when has that got in the way of us messing around before, Ellie thought bitterly, grabbing her coffee mug and taking a long sip to hide her embarrassed flush. The handsome boy was clearly back to being cold for no reason and she just shuffled away from him a little to make sure she couldn't do anything else to annoy him. Not that Ellie knew what she'd done in the first place.

    "Alright, fireworks." Remus nodded, making a mental checklist, "Maybe we don't have a victim, but just put on a show instead?"

    "Could we get the fireworks to spell something out?" Peter suggested, but Sirius was quick to shake his head.

    "That's too simple. We need something flamboyant and just complete extravagance."

    "Do we really want to get detention on the first day?" James' words silenced everyone and Lily dropped her spoon into her porridge with a clatter, "I mean, this year's important for our N.E.W.Ts and I don't doubt they'll even give us homework today."

Everyone stared at him gone out until Sirius let out a bark of a laugh.

    "Yeah, nice one, mate!" He leaned round Ellie to clap the messy haired boy on the back, "What next? We've got to poor that bottle of firewhisky in my trunk down the sink?"