good things fall apart • sirius black

Tattoos together

With the wizarding world in the state which it was, travelling anywhere unnerved people. The only safe place was your home, and even then, circumstance could change quickly. It had been seen with the Gryffins long before people even accepted there was a war coming, Adelaide falling victim in her own home. Somewhere that was supposed to be a fortress.

So it was understandable that the adults kicked up a fuss when Ellie and Sirius announced they wanted to visit and stay in London for a night.

At the end of summer they'd made plans for the beautiful girl to get tattooed, plans that involved going on Sirius' motorbike to the same place he'd gone in Diagon Alley. They were both still set on going, convinced that one night wouldn't do any harm, but they struggled to convince Euphemia and Cyrus the same. The loving woman asked why they couldn't just floo and do the trip in one day, and Cyrus wanted James and Lily to go to for safety in numbers, but the pair resisted. This was something they wanted to do alone, on Sirius' motorbike, and the handsome boy didn't fancy a near six hour round trip, so an overnight stay was necessary. Afterwards, they'd work on a way to make his motorbike faster.

Though regardless of protests, the pair were going to go, and so the adults had to accept that they wouldn't be in control of this. Ellie packed a rucksack of clean clothes for them both as Sirius told James to enjoy his 'alone time' with Lily, and the adults all congregated outside to wave them off. Cyrus stood there with his lips pursed, questioning whether he should've ever endorsed this relationship between his daughter and the motorbike riding, tattooed runaway, but it was too late to do anything now. Sirius had already cast a spell this morning to turn Ellie's hair bubblegum pink.

    "It's up to Bristol and then basically the M4 all the way across, but follow the road signs once you get near." Fleamont told them as Sirius revved his engine impatiently, Ellie sat behind him tightening the straps on her rucksack, "To the Leaky Cauldron?"

    "Yeah. It'll be easy to get a room there and it's closest to Diagon Alley." Sirius replied.

    "No messing around." Euphemia pointed a stern finger, "You go straight to Quality Quidditch Supplies and back to the pub, no dilly dallying, and absolutely nowhere near Knockturn Alley."

That was the lie they'd conjured up for Euphemia about their trip, that they both needed new Beater's bats for when the new school term began, for she wasn't a big fan of tattoos. James had backed them up, as Captain after all, saying that they were going on his orders, and thankfully, the loving woman brought it. Cyrus and Fleamont were obviously more suspicious, but neither had voiced their scepticism and so Ellie and Sirius took that as a win.

    "There and back, we've got it!" Ellie agreed, "Wish me luck. Let's hope Padfoot won't crash."

    "We won't bloody crash." He grumbled.

    "You better not." Euphemia scolded firmly, but it only had them both chuckling.

Before Ellie wrapped her arms around Sirius to make sure that she wouldn't fall as they set off, she placed a carefully hand on his shoulder so that he knew what she was going to do. Careful and cautious as to not squeeze him too tight, she then snaked her arms around his waist.

    "Is this okay?" She whispered.

    "It's okay." He replied with a shaky sigh, "You'll need to hold on tight so don't worry about me."

And then, without warning, he wheel-span down the driveway, flicking up white gravel everywhere as Ellie screamed.

Now, the handsome boy didn't have a Muggle licence, nor really knew anything about the rules of the road, but neither did Ellie. They sped so fast that the scenery turned into a blur, and she had to tuck her face into Sirius' shoulder to hide from the wind - she had never been more pleased with herself for braiding her hair that morning. Weaving in and out of other traffic, making other vehicles swerve, crossing over onto the other side of the road frequently, it was fair to say that Sirius wasn't exactly riding safely. But that didn't matter, for they were both laughing the entire time.