Chapter Text
-SIRIUS-
They were all sitting by the fire, the Gryffindor common room almost empty except for some seventh years revising for their NEWTs, listening to “Led Zeppelin IV” on James’ record player, nodding their heads to the beat of the songs. These were Sirius’ favorite moments.
It was Saturday, past midnight, but none of them felt tired at all due to one of the Firewhiskys Marlene had nicked from her parents’ liquor cabinet over summer. The marauders would usually use James’ invisibility cloak to sneak their way into Three Broomsticks and steal some of Madam Rosmerta’s liquors, but Marlene took one for the team and saved them the trip.
They were chatting casually over the songs, but once Sirius’ anthem, “Black Dog”, came on, everyone knew they had to shut up -- it was his moment.
Hey hey mama said the way you move
Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove
He immediately stood up and started jumping and dancing around, pulling Mary to her feet and making her dance with him. James, following Sirius’ lead, also stood up and took Lily’s hand so she could accompany him. Remus and Marlene were sitting in the couch grinning drunkenly at the pairs while also banging their hands to the song, while Peter was sitting in the carpet playing air drums. Once Lily got tired of the jumping, she sat down next to Remus and James jumped on the coffee table and started playing an air guitar as if he was a rockstar.
Sirius, holding Mary’s hand and twirling her around, still managed to pull his usual performance to his favorite song from his favorite band, screaming the lyrics and, to everyone's surprise, he would always hit every note, every single time.
“Come on, Moony, come dance!”, Sirius said to a laughing Remus who was looking at James’ performance as Jimmy Page.
“Nah, I’m good Pads, thank you very much”, he said, drunkenly.
But Sirius would never take no for an answer. He grabbed Remus’ hand, making him stand up at once, and started jumping and singing the lyrics. Remus laughed as he lost the battle and danced to his friends’ favorite song. At that, Marlene and Lily also stood up and joined the group as they all danced around their favorite spot in the common room.
All I ask for when I pray
A steady rollin' woman won't come my way
Need a woman gonna hold my hand
Tell me no lies, make me a happy man
Ah ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah ah, ahhh.
Ah, yeah!
As the song came to an end, they all returned to their seats, panting due to the performance they had all just pulled.
“No sympathy at all, huh?”, said Frank Longbottom, a seventh year, to the group as he stood up from his study table and started to make his way to the stairs leading up to the dorms.
“Sorry, Frank, my friend, but the show must go on!”, James returned to the boy who snorted at the response.
“You say that! I wish I could still be here next year to see if you lot will still pull your little gigs while having to study your arses off to try to become something in life”, Frank said in a serious tone as he turned and headed to his dorm, though they could all see he wasn't really angry.
They all giggled at that, and were quiet for a moment trying to slow down their breaths.
“Ah, that was beautiful, lads!” James said with a grin.
“D’you know what? We should form a band!” Sirius said excitingly, as if he had just had the most brilliant idea of his life.
“Ha, you can’t be serious,” Remus half laughed.
“I’m always Sirius, dear Moony,” he returned with a smirk. “No, really, imagine how amazing we would be! We could be rockstars! Legends! Led Zeppelin’s got nothing on us!”
“You’re too drunk,” Lily laughed.
“Am not! And just so you know, Evans, my most brilliant ideas come under the influence, thank you very much,” he protested and looked over at James sitting in the armchair opposite to his. “Prongs, what do you say, mate?”
James looked at him thoughtfully for a brief moment and grinned from ear to ear, “Padfoot, my friend, I think that’s one of the best ideas you’ve ever had”.
Sirius punched the air in victory, “Yes! That’s what I’m talking about! That's why we’re best mates!” He said, and James laughed in response. “So, who’s in?”
They all looked at each other, trying to tell if the raven haired boy was actually being serious about this whole thing.
“Well, I’m definitely out,” Remus spoke first, “can’t play an instrument to save my life and don't even get me started at my rockstar-like stage presence”
Mary giggled, “Yeah, I’m out as well. But don't worry, Black, I’ll bring the posters and scream when you touch my hand from the stage”
Sirius gave her a little wink and looked over to the rest of the group who had not spoken yet. They were all quiet for a brief second, but Marlene broke the silence.
“Ok, I’m in!” She said as she lifted her hands from her lap as to gesture to finally giving in to their crazy idea.
“Really?” Lily looked at her in shock.
“Yeah! I mean, I don't know if you lot would believe, but I did learn how to play bass as a kid, my brother was rather good and taught me some... so yeah, I’m in. And plus, Dorcas would definitely find that very hot,” she said with a smirk as she mentioned her girlfriend of almost two years.
“Always knew I liked you, McKinnon,” Sirius said and she poked her tongue out at him. “Ok, so I’m obviously the frontman, James can be the guitarist and McKinnon is the bassist,” he said more to himself than to the group, organizing his thoughts. “I reckon we just need a drummer. Anyone?”
They all looked around at each other. “Well, I’m definitely not a drummer,” Lily said, “but, if you need a manager or anything...”
“Wow, so this really is serious, huh? Management and everything,” James said, grinning at Lily, which she rolled her eyes at, though Sirius could see she fought to hold in a smile.
After that, they were all quiet, and Peter was the only one who hadn't said anything yet. “Wormy, what about you?” James said to the boy laying on his back in front of the fireplace.
He sat up at once, clearly surprised at his fail at being left out of this whole band thing. “Me? I- I don't know, lads...” He hesitated.
“Come on, Pete, I saw you playing air drums as if you were fucking John Bonham himself! I bet there’s a rockstar inside of this body of yours!” James said encouragingly.
Peter looked at the group for a moment, looking for someone to save him from the situation, but no one said a thing. He sighed, “Ugh, okay, fine! But really, I’m not a drummer! It’ll be a disaster.”
“I have faith in you, Pete,” Marlene said to comfort the boy, “I'm sure you’ll be brilliant”.
Peter blushed and gave the blonde girl a half smile as a ‘thank you’, and returned to his laying position.
“Okay! We have a frontman, guitarist, bassist, drummer and even manager! This is gonna be a success, lads, I can feel it!” Sirius said with such excitement that his band mates couldn't help but mirror it.
“What are you going to sing, though?” Remus asked in a slightly concerned tone.
“Well, we could sing some Muggle band songs to start,” James suggested. “Led Zeppelin, of course, some Rolling Stones, The Beatles, David Bowie, whatever you lot feel like. And if we ever come to write some originals, we could also do that”.
“Originals? Do you lads really think any of us could pull writing a decent song?” Mary said.
“I wouldn't say that,” Lily smirked, looking over at Remus who was sitting beside her. “Mr. Lupin here writes some damn good poetry.”
They all stared at him in shock. “Poetry? Moony, you write poetry?” Sirius said to his friend, surprised by the news.
Remus was looking at Lily as if he was going to rip her head off, “Lily! That was personal!”, he hissed at her, “I- Look, poetry is one thing, but writing music is a whole different one. And my poetry is not even good. I just write for fun...”
“Oh, don’t say that! I’ve read some of your work, it’s beautiful! I’m sure you could write some good songs! Just give it a try!” Lily encouraged.
He looked around nervously to the group, who were all looking at him waiting for his response. “Ugh, fine I guess I can try... and no, Sirius, I’m not letting you read my poetry”, he said as Sirius opened his mouth to speak and closed it as the brown haired boy said the last sentence.
“We still need a name, though,” Marlene said.
Sirius waved a hand, “Ah, don't worry about that, we’ll figure it out”.
Mary stood up and yawned, “Well, since that’s all done, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed. You coming, Marls?”
“Yeah, sure. Lily?”
Lily looked briefly at James, who had now crossed their little spot to speak to Sirius about their first rehearsal. She sighed and got up, “Uhm, yeah, coming”.
At that, the boys also stood up to head their designated dorm rooms. Before everyone disappeared under the darkness of the stairs, Sirius said, “Lads, this is the start of an era! I can feel it!”
They all snorted at that, waved their goodnights and nodded as Mary reminded them all to drink water before going to bed. What they all didn't know was that Sirius was right. Things were going to change from that point on, and in the future they would all thank Sirius’ stupid band idea for it. It really was the start on era.