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Ace


Lily took a picture of Sirius straddling his bicycle in front of the ferris wheel on the boardwalk, holding his arms up in a great V over his head as the coloured lights flashed on the ride. He stuck the photo in the pocket of his jacket with great care along with the photo of himself opening the Morris Mini’s door and he said, “Evans, this has already been quite a fabulous holiday.”

She smiled, “And it’s only the first day of it. Tomorrow we’ll get one of you on the Ferris Wheel and one on the Carousel, too.”

Sirius grinned. He really liked taking pictures of himself. He liked taking pictures of other people, too, and he snapped several of Lily Evans when she wasn’t looking - one when she was eating a floss candy and he pushed it so she had ketchup on her nose and she was laughing so hard her eyes were squinting in the picture and the sunlight caught her ginger hair and made it look like her head was on fire in the blur of the photo. He liked that picture quite a lot.

They found a gift shop just off the pier, not far from the cart they bought their floss candy from and Lily led the way ‘round the building so they could lean their bicycles against the wall while they went inside. Sirius was getting a lot better at the stopping and starting of the bicycle riding than he’d been when they had first set out from the cottage. He leaned his against the wall behind hers and then let out a gasp.

“OH LOOK AT IT,” he cried, “IT’S BEAUTIFUL!!”

Lily turned to see what he was looking at - it was a black motorbike with a shiny black body and gleaming silver handlebars. Sirius danced over to it, practically salivating and grinned at his reflection in the lovely chrome of the engine exhaust pipe. Lily stood by and watched him appraise it for several minutes before finally she said, “I’m going inside.”

“Coming, sorry,” he said, jumping up, though he looked longingly over his shoulder at the motorbike as they walked away from it. “I want one of those so ruddy bad. I don’t reckon the galleons the Minister gave me and James would cover one though.”

“Dunno,” Lily answered, thinking that Sirius Black was likely to smush himself into the pavement if he had a motorbike and rather liked the idea of him not having one.

“How much is a galleon worth in muggle money anyway?” he asked.

“I usually divide by three. So if something is fifteen pounds it’s about five galleons, if that makes sense? Maybe a little off, but it’s the fastest… One galleon is just over 3 pounds.”

“Nice. I’m rich.” He grinned.

Lily laughed.

They went into the little gift shop, which was terribly kitschy with loads of cheap-looking tourist gifts, plastic buckets for playing in the sand, jewelry made from sea shells, some books and magazines, stuffed animals, and a large spinning rack of postcards. Sirius hurried to look through the spinner for postcards for Remus, James, and Peter while Lily wandered about, picking up paperweights shaped like seashells and key chains with names printed on them that hung on colourful displays.

“Sirius Black?”

He turned around, surprised to hear his name, and his eyes lit up when he saw the tall, lean form of Ace Dante, the young man who lived in Godric’s Hollow, across from the old churchyard. Sirius had spent almost the entire of the summer before watching Ace Dante’s motorbike stand in his carpark - it had been Ace Dante’s motorbike that he and James had stolen the time when they’d gone looking for Remus via paying Dumbledore a visit in Hogsmeade after Sirius had accidentally called him a monster… when Remus had given Sirius his father’s ring… the ring Sirius no longer had…

Sirius quickly shook that thought out of his mind and said, “Wow, hey Ace, hey man - what’s up, man?” he wanted so desperately to sound cool.

Ace smirked at Sirius’s eagerness, “I’m alright - how about yourself, little dude?” Like Sirius, Ace was wearing his leather jacket, despite the heat outside. He had his hair slicked into a pompadour, which Sirius found terribly good looking.

James would look fucking amazing with his hair like that, Sirius thought absently.

“I’m good, great. Brilliant, really. I’m on holiday, with my mate, Lily. She’s about here somewhere.” Sirius said excitedly. “Are you on holiday, too?”

“Nawh,” Ace replied. He had his hands in his jacket pockets as he stood there. “I got a new bike, just breaking her in… Thought a ride up the coast would be a good way to do it.”

“Bloody hell, is that beautiful motorbike in the lot yours, then?” Sirius asked, “The shiny black one with the brilliant chrome?”

“That’s her,” Ace answered, nodding.

“What happened to your old bike? The red one? I liked that one a lot.” Sirius found it quite sad that the bike with the shiny Gryffindor-red body was gone.

Ace shrugged, “I still have it. It has a few scuffs in the body and the engine needs a little work. I’m going to fix it up and sell it.”

Sirius’s heart rate picked up. “You’re selling it?”

“Yeah,” Ace said.

“How much?” Sirius asked, breathless at the thought of it.

Ace laughed, “Probably more than your allowance would allow for, kid.”

“I’ve come into some money recently,” Sirius replied. “How much?”

“Maybe fifteen-hundred pounds or so,” he answered, shrugging. “Bit more, depending what sort of work it needs.” It was clear Ace never expected him to be able to afford it.

Sirius thought for a moment, trying to remember the pricing formula that Lily had just taught him in the lot. He squinted, “Oh Merlin,” Sirius said, “I could afford that. I want it. I want your bike. Can I buy it from you?”

Ace looked surprised, “Where in hell did you get fifteen hundred pounds from?”

Sirius said, “Just around. So what do you say? I can bring you the pounds next week when I get back from holiday. I’ll help fix it up, too! I’m staying with my mate James again after this for the rest of the summer. It’ll be brilliant.”

Ace looked Sirius over a moment, considering, then a sly smile broke across his face, “Alright. I’ll hold off ‘til next week doing any work on it and you bring me the pounds and I’ll help you fix’er up real nice-like.” He held out a palm to Sirius and Sirius saw he had thick silver rings on his fingers and tattoos on his knuckles. He had a tattoo ‘round his wrist, too, that looked like flames coming up in a cuff from his hand, reaching up onto his forearm.

It was the coolest thing Sirius had ever seen.

He eagerly shook Ace Dante’s hand.

Lily came ‘round the corner then and saw the pair of them shaking hands. She was carrying a necklace, a tea mug with the ferris wheel and boardwalk silhouetted around the bottom of it, and two key chains - one that said Peter and one that said James on it. She couldn’t find anything with the name Remus on it - not being a common name and all - so she’d thought Rey would like the mug to drink his aconite tea in. She paused when she saw Ace, then walked slowly up to them, “Hullo,” she said.

“Hey Lily! Ace, this is Lily. Lily… Ace Dante.”

“Hey Lily,” Ace replied, nodding to her as he released Sirius’s hand. He looked at Sirius, “Stop by when you get back to Godric’s Hollow. We’ll work out the details.” He saluted them and walked away, carrying his motorbike helmet and headed out the door of the gift shop.

Lily looked at Sirius with a raised eyebrow, “Ace Dante?”

“Neighbor of the Potters, sort of,” Sirius replied, “Nice bloke. He’s just sold me a motorbike. My dream motorbike, mind.” He grinned.

“Oh bloody hell,” Lily murmured, thinking how fast he’d managed to get that accomplished.

Sirius laughed. “Don’t worry Evans, I’ll let you take a ride on it.”

“That was so not my worry.”

Sirius snickered, grinning. “You’ll love it, Evans.”

She doubted it.

She had a feeling motorbike may just be one of her least favorite forms of transportation. Probably only narrowly following the Knight Bus.

To change the subject, because the idea of Sirius on the motorbike was already making her nervous, she held up the mug. “Do you reckon Remus would like this?”

Sirius nodded, “Yes. Merlin knows that boy drinks more tea than anyone else I’ve ever seen. Except maybe McGonagall.”

“They should have a tea party.”

“They’d be adorable.”

“Very.”

Sirius grinned and snatched up a handful of postcards, selecting them at random, and they went up to pay for their items. They rode their bikes back to the cottage then, because it was getting close to dinner time and though they’d eaten the floss candy, they were both famished from the sea air. All the way back along the road, Sirius went on and on about the motorbike he was going to buy and how bleedin’ amazing it would be, the wind in his hair and the clouds at his feet as he flew through the sky… “Just picture it, Evans, driving up to Hogwarts on a bloody Bonneville?”

Lily said, “McGonagall would so not approve.”

“I’ll bloody bring her for a ride on it, too!” Sirius said with a grin.

Lily laughed because the image of Minerva McGonagall on a motorbike was possibly the funniest thing that had ever crossed her mind. She could just see her, in her dark green robes and spectacles, clinging to Sirius Black as he zipped through the air on a motorbike with a loud “wooooooo hooooooooooo!”