Chapter Text
May 3rd, 1973
“Remember to be professional,” James said as he grasped the vertical gold door handle and attempted to push on the glass door.
“I’m always professional,” Sirius responded with a flip of his silky black hair as James finally figured out that the door was a pull and not a push. Then, opened the door to a grand lobby of the large downtown London office.
“Right, yes of course,” James said with a knowing grin and placed a friendly hand on Sirius’ shoulder, “Maybe today you should be a bit more professional than your normal hugely professional self.”
“You make a rather good point, good sir,” Sirius smiled and turned with a flourish to walk to the receptionist's desk. The counter was a dark mahogany with almost gothic-style wood carvings that looked completely gouache with the surrounding interior design. The whole lobby seemed to be mismatched with the artistic styling. It was like playing a music lover's mixtape that had songs that went from a classic American Hank Williams song to Janis Joplin’s crooning to Beethoven. Sirius wanted to make this building his home.
“We’re looking for Minerva McGonagall,” James said with his award-winning grin. People said that James Potter lived an easy life, and so far, he had. Around three-fourths of the reason behind said good life was because he was born into the best family to have ever existed, at least in Sirius’ opinion. The last quarter was because of that grin, the one that could convince almost anyone of anything. However, the receptionist did not seem convinced of shit.
The severe-looking woman raised a singular eyebrow at the two men (boys more like) and asked with some serious doubt, “Do you have an appointment?”
There was a pause where both of the boys thought about what to say. They really should have known what to say, they’d been rehearsing this exact scenario for the past several weeks ever since they got the grand idea to just show up at Wizardry Recording unannounced. However, with all their worrying and practicing, they forgot to actually make a decision on what they would say when it came down to it.
“Well- no- but that’s just because of the circumstances,” Sirius said.
“What circumstances,” the woman asked dryly.
“We haven’t met her yet, but as soon as we do I’m sure she will be scheduling many more appointments,” Sirius explained with all the conviction he could muster and James sighed. They’d try again another time.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave-” Before they could be thrown out, James nudged Sirius and pointed to the lift door where a woman who was very tall and had very grey hair and looked like she could step on them like a grape was waiting for the lift door to open. It was the woman that they’d spent a good part of a month researching and, as some people might describe as, stalking. Without saying another word, Sirius and James ran after her.
“Minerva,” Sirius shouted as he ran.
“Professional,” James hissed and batted gently at Sirius’ shoulder, “Remember.”
“Oh right, Mrs. McGonagal!,” Sirius shouted as the woman turned around to spot them. With her strong countenance looking down (yes, down, she was a few centimeters taller than both of them) at them,
“Hello, hi, good morning,” Sirius said, going through all of his polite greetings.
“I’m James and this is Sirius Black.” James smiled casually as though they hadn’t just chased her through a lobby. “He’s a musician. Has the voice of an angel.”
“I do, I’ve been known to bring grown men to tears with only my voice,” Sirius nodded along.
“A real talent of his, bringing men to tears,” James agreed.
“Especially my father,” Sirius added and earned him an elbow in the side from James. Sirius glared at his best friend with his best betrayed face.
“Right, well-” McGonagall nodded, “While I’m sure you have a lovely voice, I really must be going.” Her eyes flicked to the still-closed lift door. Sirius thanked the God of lifts who let this one be so slow.
“You need to sign him,” James responded abruptly, “he’s a once-in-a-lifetime talent.”
McGonagall flattened her lips and when she felt sure that the lift wasn’t going to save her, she sighed and asked, “Do you have a tape?”
“Yes!” Both boys announced at once and proceeded to look through all of their pockets to find the tape. Reaching his hand into Sirius’ inside coat pocket, James pulled out the tape that they had more or less illegally recorded and passed it to the woman. It wasn’t the highest quality, but they convinced Sirius’ boss to record him singing at the restaurant he sang at. Then of course they stole the tape.
“Do you have original songs?” She asked.
“Yes,” Exclaimed James at the same time that Sirius solemnly said, “no.”
“Well you sort of do,” James said in a bad whisper, giving Sirius a nervous look. They were worried about this coming up.
“Nothing usable,” Sirius responded, and really, he was telling the truth. If Sirius had even an ounce of ability to compose a song, he would in a heartbeat, but any time he tried it ended up trite and cliche,
“The one about the egg wasn’t all bad,” James shrugged and Sirius glared. The one about the egg was actually all bad.
“We are really only signing talents that write and sing their own music right now,” McGonagall shook her head and pressed the lift button again.
“Why would you do that?” James asked, trying his best to salvage this.
“It’s easier and cheaper,” She responded “I really am sorry boys.” Sirius and James looked at each other. They couldn’t go home now. This might be their only chance to meet with McGonagall. They’d do anything to convince her. Sirius was willing to get on his knees and beg, among other things.
James was the first to burst. “That’s exactly what’s wrong with the music industry right now! We have great singers being forced to write their own crappy songs and amazing songwriters having to use their own lackluster voices to sing them. Say what you will about 50’s music but the singers you heard on the radio or in concerts could sing their hearts out. Sirius Black could be your next big name if you just let him sing.” James ranted. Sirius thought his rant was bullshit, but if it got him a chance he’d stand behind it with his life.
The lift door dinged and McGonagall gave one last apology, but before she could get on the lift, she was stopped by the literal voice of an angel. Right there in the lobby, Sirius Black started belting out Golden Slumbers. Everyone in the room turned to watch. Sirius didn’t just have the voice but he also had the presence. To see him perform was to see Apollo himself perform. Sirius knew this and now so did everyone in the room. Once he was done and the whole room burst into applause, the two boys stared down the stern woman.
“Do you have a pen and a piece of paper?” She asked.
“Right yes, I do-” James said as he pulled out his wallet and a loose pen he found at the bottom of his pocket. He rifled through his wallet for something to write on and pulled out one of his father’s business cards.
“Please write your name, address, and phone number,” She said and watched disapprovingly as James scribbled out his father’s information and wrote his own. Sirius couldn’t believe that this was happening.
“Hear you go,” He said as he handed her the piece of paper.
“It was a pleasure meeting you,” McGonagall said as she stepped onto the lift that had returned for her. “Please be sure to have an appointment next time you come.”
“Of course.”
“Definitely.”
Once the lift doors closed behind them, the two boys turned to each other, “Padfoot, did that actually happen?” James asked with wide eyes.
“I believe it did, Prongs,” Sirius grinned.
“Fuck yeah!” James shouted and literally started jumping for joy which Sirius quickly joined.
“Fuck yeah!” Sirius agreed and then kissed the lift doors. Then security gently escorted them out of the building
—-------------------------------
Remus Lupin stared at the telephone with utter contempt. Why on earth Lily had brought this loud obnoxious machine into their home, he’ll never know. Remus was in his own apartment, why would he want someone else to be able to, at any time day or night, be able to call him up? If he didn’t answer he had to listen to thirty seconds of screaming from the infernal baby blue piece of technology. However, if he did answer it he would have to have a conversation with someone. It could be literally anyone. This whole situation was insanity.
By the seventh ring, he finally reached forward to grab the phone off the hook. Lily didn’t like it when he ignored phone calls and, after all, Lily was in charge around here. He shook his head at the injustice of it all.
“Hello,” he sighed into the phone.
“Hello- is this Mr. Remus Lupin?” A woman’s voice which he didn’t recognize asked through the phone.
“Yes- this is he,” Remus responded. He wondered about that phrase. It was the sort of thing you say in these situations, but Remus was curious if it was just the common man’s awkwardness at referring to oneself that caught on or if it was actually correct English. It certainly didn’t sound like correct English but Remus wasn’t an expert.
“Well- I’m Minerva McGonagall calling from Wizardry Recording to talk to you about the songs you sent me,” She paused briefly. Remus racked his brain to try and come up with a reason why this woman would think he sent her any songs and came up blank. He barely let his girlfriend hear his songs.
“What songs?” Remus said sitting up.
“I received several in the mail signed with your name and this phone number,” Minerva answered, “The songs were ‘Cut Me Off,’ ‘Who to pick,’ and ‘Lily.’ Does any of this sound familiar?” The last song title gave him the hint he needed to figure out who could’ve sent these songs. Of course, Lily was the one who sent the songs, who else would? He of course loved her, but she had a nasty and quite lovely habit of not being able to stay out of other people’s business, especially when it came to Remus Lupin.
“Right, I’m sorry. I didn’t send those to you.” Remus groaned into the phone. If only she had called when Lily had been home and then Lily could deal with this uncomfortable conversation
“So you didn’t write these songs?” She asked with a disappointed sound in her voice. “Do you know who did?”
“I mean- I did write them but I wasn’t the one who sent them,” He responded awkwardly.
“Do you think it’s of the utmost importance right now who sent the letter?” She asked with a bit of an admonishing tone. Remus glared into the phone.
“I don’t know what is important right now, you haven’t told me why you called,” Remus sassed back and immediately regretted it. He really needed to learn how to not be an asshole one of these days.
“I’ve called because I would like to use your songs for a project.” She answered.
“I’m not a singer,” Remus said quickly.
“And I’m not in the business of giving singing careers to people who I’ve never heard sing before. Besides, the mystery sender of your songs included the fact that you have no interest in performing.”
“Well, alright then,” Remus murmured because he couldn’t think of an actual excuse to say no.
“I’d like to set up a meeting with you and a few other people sometime this week, if that’s okay with you.” She said. Remus paused. He knew what this was, he wasn’t stupid. If some record label wanted to use your song, you said yes. It was his dream, after all, to be able to live off of his songs. He just hadn’t really been putting a lot of effort into making that dream come true.
“I’m off on Thursday,” Remus responded. He wasn’t sure about all of this. What project did they want the songs for? They weren’t especially good, he definitely wouldn’t have sent any of them to a record label himself.
“Thursday is perfect, would two PM be alright?” She asked gently now that he was behaving himself.
“Yeah- okay. I’ll be there.” Remus said and there was a pause where neither of them spoke.
Minerva gave him the address and the details of how to get into the building. “I’m excited to work with you Mr. Lupin.” She said earnestly.
“Me too.” He said because it was the polite thing to say. Then the line went dead. Remus put his phone back onto its hook and stared blankly at the wall for a few seconds. He had two thoughts going through his head at that moment. The first one was, what the fuck just happened? Did a record label really just call him up to talk about his crappy songs? How was that even possible? They must get thousands of songs every day and they couldn’t possibly call everyone who sent a song up to set up a meeting. They wanted to use his music.
The second thought he had was that he was going to absolutely murder Lily, and then probably thank her but that will only happen after he murders her. What right did she have to go through his music and send it to strangers? She was going to come back from classes in thirty minutes and then he was going to have some stern words with her, and then likely, she was going to have significantly sterner words with him. This was the problem when your girlfriend becomes a law student.
He and Lily had always gone to school together, they grew up just two doors down from each other. They had been thick as thieves as small children and they never really grew out of it. When they were in secondary school and people seemed to start pairing up, Lily was the only girl Remus wanted to spend time with. Really, she was the only person at all he wanted to spend any time with. She truly was the best person he knew.
They didn’t have a passionate messy love affair like you’d read about in books but they did love each other. One could see that as easily as they could see that the sky was blue. They had a quiet life and Remus was fairly content with it. Lily was his best friend and he was so pleased that he got to spend every day with her. Except when she secretly sends his songs to fucking record agencies.
Remus put his copy of Carole King’s Tapestry on the turner and laid down on the couch so that he could process what the fuck just happened and wait for Lily to come home then he could ask her what the fuck just happened. While Carole sang about feeling the earth move under her feet, Remus felt the earth stop moving entirely. His life felt like a slingshot and right then was that moment right before the operator let go, when everything was completely still and all you had time for was to take a breath. He was on the precipice of something huge.
Lily began unlocking the door to their apartment right as Carole was singing about waking up every morning with a smile on your face. When Lily entered a room, it lit up. She had natural straight auburn hair that went down to her waist. She had pale skin that was covered in freckles along with scary bright green eyes. She wore corduroy pants and a yellow sweater that she had hand-embroidered small flowers into.
“Good day, Remus,” she smiled at him as she flung her keys into a little bowl by the door.
“I got an interesting phone call today,” Remus said, sitting up and crossing his arms. He wanted to portray a betrayed look.
“You answered the phone, all by yourself?” Lily joked, “I’m so proud!” The corner of Remus’ mouth turned up as he fought the small laugh.
“Shush-” Remus gestured for her to stop, “I got a phone call from Wizardry Recording”
“No!” Her eyes went wide, “I mean, of course, they would want your songs. They’re magnificent, but I assumed they’d be getting thousands of songs sent to them every day so they wouldn’t even look at yours. Oh gosh, I’m actually so proud of you!”
“It’s funny- I don’t remember sending my songs to them,” Remus raised his eyebrows and he saw the moment on Lily’s face when she realized what he was getting at.
“Huh, that's weird. Maybe you forgot,” They both looked at each other for a moment. “Okay, so obviously you know that I sent the songs. I understand why you would be angry about this but someone needed to send them and you clearly weren’t going to. They really are some of the best songs I’ve ever heard and you were depriving the world of your talent. So, actually, I’m not at all sorry and I would do it again. Now please let me know what they said.” She put her hands on her hips.
“You really know your way around an apology,” Remus huffed and fell down on the couch as he realized that his short-term fight was over and he’d lost.
“I didn’t apologize,” Lily crossed her arms and smirked. She always won.
“I noticed,” Then, knowing that there was no use in this discussion he continued, “Some lady called and set up a meeting with me for Thursday.”
Lily squealed and ran towards him, tackling him into a hug. “I’m so so so proud of you.” She said. “Mostly for answering the phone.”