Entry tags:

complete, faelan, gaius, harry, hermione, james, leila, lily, ron, sirius

Smiling and waving and looking so fine
Characters: Sirius, anyone at the Leaky Cauldron
Summary: Sirius sings



As he pulled out a leather vest that even James couldn't object to, Sirius smiled to himself. They had all been tired and vague when they woke, and had spent the day lazing about the house together, with James steadfastly pretending that nothing much had been said, and Lily looking alternately amused and anxious. When Gaius had finally come home from Hogwarts, Lily had drawn James off to the guest room -- Sirius thought to give him time alone with Gaius, but by that time it was almost time to go and get started on dressing for the show, and definitely too late to launch into a conversation about death.

The T-shirt and vest left his arms bare, so he cast his usual charm to highlight the tattoos on his right arm. Nothing happened. He didn't even feel a tingle. His mouth suddenly dry, Sirius tried again. It worked. Just a coincidence, he told himself. I was lazy with the wand motion. Nonetheless, he couldn't quite push down a feeling of dread.

He started the show with Bowie's Five Years. They might, perhaps, still be in danger, but their wasn't widespread perception of trouble; people should be able to take it as fiction. The charms, to his relief, all worked.

After that, he scanned the audience to see who was there, and then started into one of his own pieces -- Rumble -- with vigor, letting the guitar crash forward like a ship in a storm. He thought he'd made a change in theme until he got to the second verse

Tell me when the light is failing
I'll be the flame for your heart
Call iron bones from the mountains
When worlds would fall apart

Still doom, he realized, even as he dragged the bold chords down into a minor key and teased out the notes to shiver like unsteady ground.

Tell me when the light is burning
I'll save you from the scald
Give you shelter from the fire's storm
at the burning of the world

Won't you ask me
Won't you call me
Won't you tell me when you need me
Don't you know that I'm the one?
Lost from night to night
but shade shift shielding
at the fury of the sun

Still doom. And he wouldn't always be there, but then, no one was.

He switched into a little bit of teen angst with a bare-bones piece called Add It Up, and then went into Swamp, by the Talking Heads:

Now let me tell you a story
The Devil, he's got a plan
Bag of bones in his pocket
Get anything you want

Definitely in a rut, he thought, unable to keep from smiling around the words.

One time too many
To far to go
I-- We come to take you home

Oh well. He'd call Lily up on stage and make up for it. They had a couple of pieces ready, this week.