Parallel Universes • s.black

IX

-Sirius Black-

I swatted James' fidgeting hands away as I tried to straighten his bow tie.

James had attempted to tie it himself five times before he finally let me at it. I'd had a lot of practice in my fucked up family. Peter was still in his underwear trying to furoiusly iron his crumpled dress robes. Remus had been ready for a while and was sitting patiently on his bed, reading a book.

"Shit, what's the time? God I can't be late. If I'm late she'll kill me and the plan for her to fall in love with me will be ruined!" James fretted.

"Calm down Prongs we have Fifteen minutes." Remus said lazily.

"I'm done. Calm the fuck down." I said slapping his shoulders.

James had gone for deep navy robes that almost looked black. Remus was wearing charcol and Peter was wearing brown. I, of course was wearing black. Black always looked classic and it would match whatever my date was wearing.

My date. Nina Argent.

She'd caught my eye the minute she waltzed into the Grand Hall on that first day and I was well aware that I had caught hers. She had chocolate brown hair and amber eyes and she was gorgeous. She came from a very strong wizarding family and the day after I asked her, my mother had sent me a letter saying how much she approved of this match. The minute I read those words I wanted to take all of mine back and just go stag -ha James.

But I didn't. I smiled and was a good boy.

So the day was finally here and despite everything, I was excited. It was going to be a wicked night.

There were no classes today, not because the teachers didn't think we should have class on Christmas Eve- believe me they did- but because the girls needed a whole day toget ready. A whole day? Ridiculous. It took me barely an hour to shower and chuck on my robes. I didn't even comb my hair, just hastily ran a hand through it.

I glanced at the clock. We had ten minutes. James was meeting Lily outside the Common Room and we were going to walk over together. Peter hastilly threw on his still crumpled robes while James bounced anxiously on his feet.

In all my life I had never seen James this nervous. It was quite hilarious actually.

Once we were all ready to go, we hurtled noisily down the stairs and through the common room to wait outside for Lily. James tried to usher us off and though we kept our distance, we were close enough so that we wouldn't miss a single detail. This was truly iconic.

"Padfoot!" He suddenly whipped around to face us, and all the amusment was gone from his expression. He looked petrified. I walked over to him.

"I'm not ready. What if I stuff this up? Ruin it all? I've waited for years for this and what if I ruin it?" He blurt out.