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Wonder Woman


Sirius sat on the stone wall at the church again, staring at the motorbike in the driveway. James was off down the street, showing Maryrose about Godric’s Hollow - she’d come via the Knight Bus to visit him and Sirius had quickly felt like a third wheel and let them off by themselves. He stared at the detailing on the motorcycle, at the shiny curves and reflections and thought those were the sort of curves to get excited over - not the strange new ones on the girls like James had done back at Maryrose’s party. Sirius pictured the weight of the motorbike between his legs, the rumbling vibration of it and the way the handles would feel with his hands wrapped about them tightly, the brakes beneath his stretched knuckles… He pictured the hum of it, the roar when he hit the gas… Except this one - this cranberry-red beauty - this one would pur.

Suddenly the front door of the house opened and Sirius watched as the man who owned the motorbike came out and walked across the yard, carrying his helmet under one arm, stowing a billfold into his jacket pocket. He slid off the stonewall and ran across the street. “Hey, man,” he said, trying to sound casual, “How’s it going?”

The man looked up and nodded to Sirius, “Morning,” he said as he zipped up his jacket and swung the helmet onto his head.

“I’m Sirius Black, I don’t think I said that before,” Sirius said, sticking out his hand.

“Dante - Ace Dante,” the man answered, shaking Sirius’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you Sirius Black.”

Sirius watched as the man swung his leg over the body of the motorbike and he walked around to be facing him, “I’m sorry if I’m being weird, I just really like your motorbike. It’s the best motorbike I’ve ever seen. I love the color. Have you had it long?”

Ace Dante shook his head, “Not too. Got it for myself for a birthday present just in April. Used, but only barely… There’s a shop in London, sells motorbikes at fair prices.”

Sirius nodded, “In London you say?”

“Yeah, just outside of.” He reached in his jacket and pulled his billfold out again, flopping it open and unfolding one of those long plastic photo holders. He had loads of pictures, mostly of a pretty brunette woman.

“Is that your wife?” Sirius asked, pointing.

Ace laughed, “Her? Good God, no. I wish. That’s Lynda Carter.” When Sirius didn’t look like he recognized the name, Ace supplied, “Wonder Woman? On the telly?”

The only telly Sirius had ever seen was the episodes of Doctor Who that James had made him watch, trying desperately to explain who everyone was and what was going on so that Sirius could understand and enjoy the show, too. Sirius’s favorite parts had been the adverts, which were bright and flashy and had music in them. He’d never seen Wonder Woman. He stared at Ace Dante for a moment, then shook his head.

“Well. She’s great, I like her a lot. You should take in the program sometime, it’s very good,” Ace said, and he reached into a side pocket in the billfold and pulled out a business card with a drawing of a motorbike on it. “Here you are,” he handed it to Sirius, “That’s the shop.”

“Thanks,” Sirius said, taking the card.

“Yeah, no problem,” Ace said, and he carefully folded all the pictures of Lynda Carter back up and closed the billfold, returning it to his leather jacket pocket as Sirius turned the card over, running his finger over the bump of the raised ink. Ace adjusted his jacket. “Alright, Sirius Black, I need to go.”

“Alright.” Sirius nodded.

“I still owe you that spinner ‘round the block. Come by again sometime. Maybe Saturday morning or something.” He started up the motorbike as Sirius nodded and stepped back, watching as Ace Dante rolled backwards down the driveway and into the street, waved to him, and drove away.

Sirius looked down at the card again, turning it in his hand so the sunlight caught different sides of the raised ink, and finally slid the card into his pocket and started walking along down the street, past the houses that lined the road, his hands in his pockets, headed down the lane, away from the center of Godric’s Hollow, past the church, and along the road.

He ran his hands over the brick wall out front of a large white house as he walked… his fingers running over the uneven stone...

Rounding the corner he came out to the small lake and he slid along down the path to the water’s edge, staring off across it to the spot where they came out through the woods behind the Potter’s. He picked up a rock - smooth and flat - and skipped it across the surface, watching it bounce once, twice, three times before falling under the water. He kept playing at it for a bit, his best shot bouncing seven times before it went under…




James bought Maryrose an ice cream and they walked along, eating the softserve. She really liked Godric’s Hollow, she said, she called it quaint and James pointed out at a least they wouldn’t end up attacked by inferi here and Maryrose laughed. They passed by a small bookshop and a pharmacy owned by a wizard who specialized in muggle medicine as well as potions and was known ‘round the Hollow as the best person to see no matter your ailment by muggles and wizards alike. James pointed out Bathilda Bagshot’s house and led her off down the lane to show her the old Dumbledore house, where the headmaster had grown up.

They found Sirius by the lake, throwing stones, and he joined them walking the rest of the way back to the mouth of the Potter’s cul-de-sac, they shopped there, though, since Maryrose couldn’t see the house because of the Fidelus Charm, and therefore she wouldn’t be able to go in, either. James held her hand and fidgeted from foot to foot as he stared down at the space between them, Sirius wandering a bit away to give them privacy as they said goodbye.

When Maryrose had got back on board the Knight Bus, James and Sirius walked down the cul-de-sac to the house. Sirius glanced sideways at James. “Do your parents know about her? Maryrose, I mean?” Sirius asked.

James shook his head. “Nawh.”

“Why not?”

James shrugged. “My mum will get all funny about it again.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, when I went to the cinema with Evans back at Christmas she went mental, practically had me marrying her in a matter of minutes.”

Sirius laughed, “So she’s where you get it from.”

“It’s different when mum says it,” James answered, “She isn’t joking.”

Sirius raised his eyebrow, “You’re never joking when you say it, either, Potter.”

He shrugged. “I just don’t want her getting like that about Maryrose. It would be weird.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah.” James nodded, “I mean, I like Maryrose - I do. She’s great. And the snogging is great. But -- I dunno. Just weird. My mum makes things so awkward. Like I bet that was half the issue with what happened between me and Evans at the cinema. Too much pressure and I dithered it up.”

Sirius laughed, “Yeah, it had nothing to do with you engorging her sister’s throat.”

James grinned, “That horrible prune deserved it. You’d understand if you met Petunia Evans. You’d want to engorge her neck, too.”

Sirius snickered.

They arrived back to the Potters and ate dinner and James insisted they watch Doctor Who. “Have you ever seen Wonder Woman?” Sirius asked James, but James said he hadn’t and Sirius didn’t know what the program was about to describe it at all.

That night, Sirius lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling after spending a good deal of time talking to Moony in the mirror, listening as Remus excitedly telling Sirius about the twin Charkorais birds and how Newt Scamander was trying to find some way to get artificial moonlight that might help keep the birds alive until the real full moon.

“Why can’t you just feed them now?” Sirius asked.

“Because we can’t see their mum, can we?” Remus said.

“It seems like it would be easier to make an artificial mum than it would be to make an artificial moon,” Sirius sai.d

Remus had thought about it, and run to share that idea with Newt Scamander, leaving Sirius alone.

Suddenly there was a shout in the hallway and Sirius sat up and went out, poking his head out in the corridor. James’s head was poking out of his bedroom door, too, and they looked at one another before rushing out to the stairs, where the shouting was coming from. It was a horrible scene - Charlus laying on the stairs, clutching the rungs of the bannister, choking, coughing, thick black smoke coming from his throat as he lay there. Dora leaned over him, sobbing, and she looked up as Sirius and James came down the stairs, “Quickly,” she sobbed, “Quickly. We have to get him to St. Mungo’s…”

Sirius hooked his arms beneath Charlus’s and James hastened to grab hold of his dad’s legs and they carried him carefully down the stairs. Charlus coughed so hard that his whole body seemed to be trying to fold in on itself and the smoke as so thick that they looked like a funny sort of train, carrying him out of the house and onto the lawn. Dora was pulling a scarf ‘round her head and the moment they’d crossed over the Fidelus Charm’s reach into the square, Dora gathered Charlus up into her arms. “Now get back inside before something happens. Go.” She watched just long enough to be sure the two boys got back into the yard and then disapparated with Charlus leaning into her.

James and Sirius stood on the lawn, staring at the place they’d just been, James’s face pale from the moon and nerves. He looked at Sirius in shock. “I thought he was doing a lot better, he said he was doing a lot better,” he stammered.

Sirius’s mouth turned down in a frown.

“He’ll be alright, won’t he?” James asked.

Sirius nodded, “Of course. He’s… he’s your dad. Mr. P will be alright.”

But the boys stayed up, waiting for news, just the same… playing wizard chess in the living room to pass the time.

Dora didn’t come back until after dawn the next morning, her face pale. “He’s alright,” she said thickly, falling into the cushions on the couch. “But they’ve kept him there to see if they can help him. His lungs are really damaged from the smoke.” She stared blankly ahead. “I don’t know what I’d do without him,” she murmured, her trembling hand covering her mouth. “He’s my entire world.”

Sirius and James looked at one another uncomfortably as Dora started to cry.