“Today's the day!” Sirius called out in a cheerful greeting. “As well as the first time for Harry, need I add? What d'you think it'll be this year?”

Harry, barely awake as he trudged down the stairs, desperately tried to comprehend what Sirius was talking about, but came up with nothing.

“What're you talkin' 'bout?” Harry muttered, rubbing his eyes drowsily.

“Do enlighten us,” Severus said, looking grumpy as he came down behind Harry, who wasn't really surprised. He found that Severus was often grumpy in the mornings when he didn't get enough sleep the night before.

“You're usually the first one up,” Sirius commented, surprised.

Severus scowled. “You don't say?”

“Anyway, don't you remember, Hun-bun? The annual town play?” Sirius shook his head, now talking to Harry. “The town, during the summer, usually puts on a play. Last year it was… oh, what was it? I dunno, I forget the name, but it was different.”

“That? You're excited over that? Well, you and Harry can go, but as for me—”

Sirius groaned. “You're not still mad at me, are you?”

Severus scoffed, standing in front of Sirius in the foyer. Harry stood on the last step and watched the two in front of him. “Why would you assume that?”

“'Cause you just want me and Harry to go,” Sirius pointed out.

“I don't enjoy it!” Severus said. “Absolutely trivial…”

Sirius groaned. “Don't tell me you really don't to go! We always go! Why?”

“It's ridiculous!” Severus exclaimed. “Completely ridiculous. Especially last year.”

“Why?” Harry asked slowly. “What happened last year?”

Sirius sighed, walking over to Harry and putting his arm over his shoulder as they followed Severus into the dining room. “Last year, in one scene, Normy Johnson and Gale Holowitz were the main characters, and Normy was supposed to kiss Gale and tell her how much he loved her, but Normy began laughing so much when they got to that scene that they weren't able to finish the play.”

“Ridiculous,” Severus said again, accompanied by a scowl. He sat down in his chair.

A grin slipped onto Sirius's face as he stage whispered, “I think our little softy Sevvy here wanted to see the happy, mushy ending.”

“Oh, of course,” Severus agreed sarcastically. “Especially the rainbows and flowers in the Valley of Contentement and Everlasting Love, where Gale's hardly dimwitted hero Normy Johnson carries her off to, so they can live happily ever after. That would have made my day.”

Sirius loudly cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence that had followed, obviously trying to hide his laughter that threatened to escape as he said, “Well… er, Snape, that was quite a picture you've painted for us… but, I believe it was rainbows and gumdrops, not rainbows and flowers.”

Severus shot Sirius an exasperated look. “Certainly it was, how could I have been so foolish as to neglect to remember that fact?”

Sirius shrugged his shoulders. “I'm sure you'll get over it… but will you come with us? You always used to go. Don't stop now.” Sirius looked disappointed as he realized he was getting no where with Snape, so he gave Harry a look, jerking his head in Severus's direction. Harry looked back confused, trying to understand what Sirius was trying to say. Again, Sirius made more handmotions towards Severus when he wasn't looking.

“I'm not blind,” Severus began loudly, startling Sirius, who quickly dropped his hands down on his lap. “I can clearly see what you're doing, and I know you're trying to get Harry to make me go.”

“You can never say no to Harry,” Sirius muttered, finally paying attention to the food on the table.

“I can say no to Harry. I've done it multiple times,” said Severus.

Harry frowned. “That's what you were doing?” He turned towards Severus, doing his best to put on a pleading expression. “Why don't you go with us? I've never gone to it before, and I would like it very much if both you and Sirius went.”

Sirius looked over at Severus, trying to imitate Harry's expression. “Yes, Sevvy, ple-e-ease?”

Severus stared at Harry while the boy even began to pout. Finally, with a sigh and a nod, Severus said, “Very well. I'll go, but only for Harry.”

Sirius grinned broadly. “Brilliant! Oh, Harry, you'll love it. It's hilarious sometimes. The town decides on a play, and then the people who direct it and everything—that would be Elizabeth Hawlen, Colleen Prindle and Steve Jarsen—well, they choose people in the town who would fit the role.” Sirius smirked. “Severus even got offered a role once, years ago. You'll never guess what the role was.”

Harry glanced up at Severus, who was blatantly ignoring their conversation and becoming fascinated with the food on his plate. Once again, Harry was too caught up in listening that he had completely forgotten about eating.

“Scrooge!” Sirius finally exclaimed before Harry could say anything. “Scrooge! I honestly think he should have accepted, but he didn't, and some other bloke got it instead. We went to go see the play anyway, and I think Snape here would've been perfect! I would have loved to see him in it… but now I'll never get the chance.” Sirius sighed in disappointment, looking at Severus forlornly. “If only.”

“And you don't know what the play is this year?” Harry asked, starting to eye the bangers on a plate, next to the bacon. He had only remembered his hunger then as his stomach had reminded him with a growl.

Sirius frowned. “No, actually. We usually hear it sometime before the actual play date.” Realization crossed Sirius's face. “Well, I wasn't here for a while, so that's why I don't know… and Snape probably didn't leave the house, so he wouldn't have heard either.” Sirius purposely avoided Severus's eye.

The house became quiet as the three silently ate their breakfast. It seemed that Sirius had brought up a touchy subject, and he seemed to realize that, too.

Harry felt something soft rub against his foot. He pushed back and ducked his head underneath the table to find Black staring at him with wide, greenish-yellow eyes. The kitten meowed as Harry straightened up and pushed the chair back towards the table.

“I need to feed Black when I'm finished,” he said. Harry made a face as a thought struck him. “Right… and upstairs at the end of the hall? Black seemed to have had an accident. I guess he still needs to get used to the stairs. I'll clean it up.”

Suprisingly, Severus looked extremely amused. “Yes… poor Black, not bathroom trained…”

Sirius frowned. “I thought they said he was litter trained?”

“Oh, he is,” Severus said lightly.

It took a second for it to dawn on Sirius. “Hey! Harry was talking about the cat, not me!”

Severus smirked.

--

Sirius was impatient the rest of the day as he waited until seven o'clock, which was the time they were going to leave. Harry sat by Sirius in the their room in front of the television; both abandoned the couch and decided to sit in bean bag chairs instead. Sirius had insisted that they watch The Wizard of Oz, and when they invited Severus to join, the professor had hastily declined.

“Did we ever name this room?” Harry asked, peeling his eyes off the screen to look over at Sirius. “I mean I just know this room as 'our room'.”

Sirius glanced at Harry, a thoughtful look crossing his face. “No, I don't believe we ever did. D'you wanna name it?”

Startled, Harry said, “Really? A—are you sure?”

“Of course!” Sirius said cheerfully. He seemed to like the idea. “Any thoughts?”

Harry looked around the interesting room. What could be a fitting name for this room? Harry drew a blank.

Harry turned around in the chair as he heard Severus say, “We should be leaving now.”

Sirius's eyebrows rose in surprise. “It's seven already?”

“You have your watch, do you not, Black?”

“I don't,” Sirius admitted. “I need a new one. My other one was faulty; kept making this incredibly annoying beeping noise.” Sirius stood, turning off the television and stretching. “All right, let's head out. We'll think of a name after, kid.”

“How are we getting there? And where is it?” Harry asked either Severus or Sirius—whoever answered first.

“The plays are usually down at the Hall,” Sirius said. “We'll be walking. It'll probably take us around fifteen minutes or so.”

“Everything in this town takes at least fifteen minutes or more to get to,” Severus added sarcastically as he lead the two down the hall. “Black is down here, is he? I don't want another mess upstairs while we're gone.”

“Yup, he's down here somewhere,” Harry answered.

“I hope it's as great as last year,” Sirius said excitedly, changing the subject. “Harry, you'll love it! The town holds such interesting things.”

“And Black loves every one of them,” Severus muttered. “I begin to wonder why he was never chosen for one of those frivolous roles in the past.”

Sirius pouted. “Don't remind me about it. I don't think it's very fair, either! Oh, Harry, your shoes are over there in that closet. Speaking of Harry, he was never offered any roles.”

“Thank Merlin.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow as he slipped into his own shoes. “You wouldn't like to see your son up on stage? I would have been so proud.”

Severus didn't say anything. In fact, he acted as if Sirius had never said anything in the first place. He waited until Harry and Sirius were ready until he opened the door, letting the two go through before he closed it shut behind him.

“Severus, dear!”

Severus cringed at the sudden highpitched, female voice. Harry looked back at Severus in confusion, wondering where the voice had come from. Then, from the house next door, a short, plump lady with frizzy auburn curls began to wave her arm in the air at Severus. As fast as she could, she approached the three.

“Goodday, Maddie!” Sirius said cheerfully. “I'm sure Severus is glad to see you!”

Maddie looked up at Severus with a broad smile. Harry noticed that she wasn't exactly the most attractive woman.

“Oh, he better be!” Maddie said, wrapping her hands around Severus's arm. “Tall, dark and quiet—that's how I like 'em!”

Severus remained expressionless, but Harry clearly caught him wince. Maddie, however, remained oblivious.

“Lovely,” he muttered sarcastically. Maddie remained oblivious to his sarcasm, as well. “Well… shall we? I assume you're going to the Hall?”

“Right righty!” Maddie replied. “Glad to be arriving with such a handsome escort.”

“Aren't I handsome too?” Sirius stuck his bottom lip out in a pout. He took hold of Harry's shoulders and guided the boy in front of him. “And what about this one? He's mighty handsome too. He must get that from me.”

Maddie grinned. “Goody! I have three handsome escorts!”

Sirius let Maddie and Severus walk ahead of him and harry. “We'll tag along back here,” Sirius whispered. “Let Maddie and Sev have some privacy.” He winked.

“Wow,” Harry said, his voice thick with surprise. “You called him Sev… and not sarcastically.”

Sirius didn't seem too surprised. “Well, it's not the first time. I do sometimes happen to slip. Snape doesn't seem to appalled when he's around and the slip happens, either.”

Harry grinned. “Does Severus sometimes slip, too?”

Sirius nodded. “Often, yeah. At first it was weird, but now it's just normal, and we just go on acting like it's nothing.”

“You're that used to it?”

“Pretty much.”

“So it must be quite often, then.”

Sirius laughed. “I guess.”

“So,” Harry started off awkwardly after a pause. He briefly looked at the colorful sky, which was a mixture of a light blue, a bright pink and a soft purple before he asked, “You and Severus weren't exactly the best of friends during your schooldays, were you?”

Sirius's enthusiasm dimmed a bit. “He told you his story then, huh? Yeah… I imagine us Marauders didn't sound like the best people.”

“That's what you called yourselves?” Harry asked. “The Marauders?”

A faint grin grew upon Sirius's face. “Yeah, and it's true, we weren't the nicest people to Snape. I guess that's what caused most of the unfriendliness between us, too.”

“You were friends with my mum, though,” Harry said cheerfully.

Sirius laughed again. “Lily was a great friend. A great person. James was always a little mad at me because she liked me better than him.”

“And probably because she was friends with you and not him,” Harry added. “But you and James were good friends, too?”

“The best of!” Sirius declared. “He was like my brother. His home was my home. I didn't have the greatest family, you see, so James's family kind of adopted me as their second son, I guess you could say.”

“When you graduated Hogwarts, did you ever have a job in mind?” Harry asked. “Unless you have a job, I don't—”

“No, no,” Sirius interrupted. “I always planned to be an Auror. James, too. We went to training, but then… after what happened to Lily and James… it was sort of like I fell off the face of the Earth. Then, helping raise you became my job. I took other jobs around town here, too. Some lasted a while… some were only just temporary jobs. Anywhere I could help out.”

“Sirius!” Maddie suddenly called over her shoulder.

“Yes, my blossoming rosebud?”

Maddie giggled. “You make me feel like I'm twenty years old again!” She sighed. “How I wish I was. I'm getting too old! Anyway, Siri, luv, can you convince this dark, handsome sugarpie to visit this old lady sometime? I don't think he'll listen to me.”

Smiling, Sirius agreed. “I'll make sure to do that, Maddie. Hey, look, it seems we aren't the first people to arrive here!”

Indeed, Harry noticed that tons of people seemed to be gathering around something outside of a small, white building. As they drew closer, Harry noticed what they were crowding around.

“A concession stand!” Sirius gasped. “They never had this before!” His hand immediately dove into his pocket. “And I have money! Brilliant—Harry, go over and choose whatever you want.”

Harry turned red. “I—I don't know—”

“Oh, c'mon, kid, what d'you like? There's licorice, ice cream, giant freezies… candyfloss…”

Harry shook his head. “I haven't had any of that before.”

Maddie, behind them, apparently heard. “Waddya talkin' about, Harry? Of course you have!”

Harry laughed weakly. “Right, well, I was just kidding… I wanted to see what Sirius would say, that's all.”

Maddie nodded and grinned. “Ah, I see.”

The corner of Severus's mouth pulled up briefly, and then he spoke. “If you would excuse us, Maddie?”

“Of course!” Maddie moved over to another group of people, finally letting go of Severus's arm.

“Nothing? You haven't even had candyfloss before?” Sirius hissed, frowning. “You're kidding.”

Harry shook his head silently.

“Go get whatever you want,” Severus allowed softly. “Today I'll permit you to get a stomachache.”

Grinning widely, but still looking concerned, Sirius pulled Harry towards the stand. “First we'll get you a huge freezie, any color,” Sirius said. “It's almost the length of your arm! We'll get you licorice, too… then how about an ice cream? I think we'll leave out the popcorn, we have that at home… uhm, oh! Then we'll get you a bag of candyfloss.”

Harry stared at his godfather in amazement. “I can't eat all of that!”

“I'll help you,” Sirius offered quickly. “I bet you didn't know that Snape has a soft spot for candyfloss, too. Uh huh, so I'm sure he'd gladly help with that.”

Harry, still in disbelief, watched as Sirius went to the front and ordered freezies, licorice and a bag of candyfloss. Obviously, Harry thought, Sirius realized that he couldn't order the ice cream until later on, because it would melt.

Clever.