Truths and Dares

Intermission (starbucks pairing)

This is just a cute Starbucks (Sirius and James) one-shot that reflects my mood.

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 Sirius leaned back in his chair. "Guys, I'll be your Secret-Keeper. You trust me, no one else does, no one else even likes me... what better choice could there be?"

Everyone at the table turned to stare at him. "Also, Defense and Occlumency are literally my best talents, so no one will be able to get the secret out of me even if they used the Cruciatus Curse," he finished.

"What about the Longbottoms? Their child needs you too. And no one would ever guess that they'd use you, unlike if you were their Secret-Keeper," said Molly, eyeing him in a patronizing way.

"I think it's a good idea," James blurted out from his spot in the corner. "And if Lupin had come here tonight, you all know that he would agree."

"That is true," agreed Lily. She walked closer to the table and looked at them firmly. "We all know Sirius. We all know how much loyalty Sirius has to his friends, a.k.a, us. We also know how impulsive he can be when making decisions, which would probably be a good trait to have in this scenario. And we all know that Peter turns to the most powerful force, which, at this time, is Voldemort. We are on the losing side, and it would take a miracle to tip the balance. Do you want to trust him not to turn to the Death Eaters as a precaution for if we lose?"

"Thanks, Lily. Thanks, James." He looked at the rest of them pleadingly and felt a sense of foreshadowing come over him, a feeling that if he didn't get the rest of the Order to agree, something extremely terrible would happen, and he did not want to lose James. Or Lily, he thought quickly.

Dumbledore looked thoughtfully over the rim of his glasses at them, and after a moment, he finally complied. "All right, we'll try it. But you have to perform the Fidelius charm somewhere that no one but you three knows about."

Well, that'll be easy enough. We're the creators of the Marauder's Map, for Merlin's sake! Sirius grinned. He had finally made sure that his friend was going to be safe, and that Harry, his honorary nephew, or so James had declared on the day of Harry's birth, was going to grow up the way he never could; with loving, supportive parents, a beautiful house, a peaceful community, and warm, delicious, home-cooked meals.

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Later that night, when the meeting had adjourned, he started writing a letter to James.

"Dear James,

Can you believe that the rest of the Order let me be your family's Secret-Keeper? Now that weaselly Peter won't get the chance to turn over all our secrets to Voldemort.

As for where the charm should be performed, I'm thinking that we should do it in the room under Honeydukes. Not even the owner of the store knows about it, and the floorboards above it are so dense and tightly-packed that even Molly's twins, Fred and George, wouldn't be able to hear, especially if we locked the door to the room. I know how much they like to go exploring, and since they inherited their mom's near-perfect hearing and their dad's knack for getting into as much trouble as we did when we were in school, it's saying something if they can't find us. However, we'd probably have to keep an eye out for Cockroach Clusters. What are your ideas?

Anyways, how's Harry doing? I heard that he used that broom I gave him for his birthday to smash an "ugly" vase from Petunia. Tell him that he did a good job; I never did like your mom's sister anyways. She's too snappy, too nosy, too perfectionist, and she doesn't know the difference between private conversations and things to gossip about.

I wish I could see you outside of meetings, but you're always doing something: chasing Harry, sleeping, going shopping, or things like that. Do you think that our friendship will ever go back to the way it was before you met Lily? I've honestly been fantasizing about playing a game of Quidditch with you. That's how much I miss spending time with you. So much that I'm fantasizing about dropping the Quaffle on someone's head, getting hit in the chest by a Bludger, and spending time in the school infirmary because I fell off my broom, accidentally inhaled the Snitch because I was screaming so hard on the way down, and broke a rib. I'd go through all that just to have our friendship be the way that it used to be. It's so dull here, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm a ghost because most of the time, people just walk right past me without noticing anything.

From, your BF forever,

Sirius."

Sirius cursed. Why did everything he wrote have to come across as needy? He was supposed to be the independent friend, the person who could operate without the others helping him out with every decision he made. He couldn't send this letter. He crumpled it up and tossed it on the floor. He sighed, disappointed in himself. He decided to go to sleep, and so he got up from where he was sitting, changed into his pajamas, called Kreacher in and asked him to clean the bathroom, turned off the lights, and crawled into bed. As he closed his eyes, Kreacher slowly picked up the finished, signed, addressed, and crumpled-up letter and scurried out of the room with it.

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In the morning, when he woke up, he stretched, not knowing what had happened last night. However, when he stretched, he saw a letter fall off him, and he quickly jumped out of bed and picked it up. On the back, he saw his name. It was penned in a fluid-looking peacock-blue ink, but that wasn't what made him so hopeful. It wasn't because of that.

He was hopeful because the letter was from James.