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“Are you scared?” Sirius mocked, walking deeper into the dark house.
“I’m not,” James said loudly. Unfortunately, Sirius knew him and knew well he was lying. “Shut up,” James said annoyed when he Sirius turned around and smirked.
“All we need is to clean this place and it can be the perfect home for us, don’t you think so?” Sirius turned around and walked deeper into the darkness.
James stared at Sirius, cursing him for being more reckless and fearless than he was. “Yeah, if you want to live in a haunted house,” he said and followed Sirius.
“You know as well as I do that ghosts do not exist, at least not the muggle kind. And you can easily scare poltergeists with a spell.” James knew that, but that knowledge didn’t help his fear. Maybe it was because he was brought up in a bright and happy home, where the the only darkness that was found was their own shadow. And Sirius grew up in a home where light didn’t really get through the heavy curtains.
James was also afraid of ghosts. Not the kind he met at Hogwarts, but the kind which enjoyed haunting houses, who wanted to bring pain to the living. He didn’t quite know where the fear came from, but now, at age sixteen, he still struggled.
“Sirius,” he called out into the darkness when he realised Sirius was no longer in front of him. “Sirius,” he tried again.
Suddenly there was a loud sound from his left, and something came flying towards him. James wasn’t able to stay calm and screamed while he tried to hit whatever had attacked him.
Only when he heard Sirius’ laughter did he calm down. “You arse,” James yelled and tried to hit Sirius. “That was not funny!” Sirius didn’t seem to care about James’ attempts to hurt him and fell down to the floor, laughing until he couldn’t breathe.
”I’m leaving,” James said annoyed after what seemed like forever. He refused to stay with Sirius if all he wanted to do was laugh at him.
“James, please don’t go,” Sirius managed to croak out between his fit of laughter. James wanted to ignore his best friend but found it difficult to do.
Shaking his head, James returned to Sirius who was still laying on the floor. “Get up then,” James said in a bored tone.
“Why won’t you get down?” Sirius asked, this time using his seductive tone. “Did I ever tell you that one of my fantasies were to do it in a haunted house?” Sirius said with a smirk.
“I thought you said this house isn't haunted.”
“Who cares if it’s not really haunted, it’s still considered a haunted house.” James wasn’t able to refuse Sirius right then, not when he looked up at him with his big grey eyes. No matter how hard he tried, he could never say no to his best friend.