Landslide

open up, everything's waiting for you

Six figures sat in a sort of lopsided circle in the Greyson basement. The latest Iggy Pop album was spinning on the record player in the corner. Smoke clouded the air. All of them had smiles on their faces.

“So, who did you say was coming in tomorrow?” James asked, taking a long drag off of the joint that they were passing around. Remus was busy rolling a second, long, nimble fingers working to twist both of the ends.

“My cousin,” Kimberly answered. “Her name is Michelle, only a few months older than I am.”

“She cute?” Sirius asked and Kimberly rolled her eyes.

“Why is that the first question that pops into your head?” Heidi questioned, making a face at the shaggy-haired boy.

Remus chuckled, “Because he only thinks with his other head.”

Kimberly sighed and took the newly rolled joint from where she was sitting on the floor against Remus’ leg. She lit it, inhaled deeply, stuttered out a cough then passed it over to Peter. “Honestly, I don’t know what she looks like now.” Smoke rolled off of her tongue as she spoke. “I haven’t seen her in years, but we used to be best friends.”

“Oh yeah? Had a lot in common? Shared all your Barbie dolls?” Potter asked with a grin.

“I mean, yeah, what else do eight-year-olds do? We rode our bikes and went swimming all the time. We grew up learning magic together. She was better than me at the time, so she might be a total badass.”

“Mm, I like the sound of that.”

Heidi elbowed Sirius in the ribs, making him wince. “Well, I just hope she’s not a total bitch or really weird or something.”

“You’re telling me. That’s my blood I would have to defend. Speaking of bitches, where is Evans?”

“Oi!”

“Calm down, Potter. You and everyone else in this room know that Lily is a total bitch,” James scowled at Kimberly who cracked a wide smile, “But she’s my favorite bitch. No one could get hold of her today?”

The bespectacled boy shook his head. “Owl’d her and no response. Probably hanging out with her stuck up sister or something.”

“We really need to teach you boys how to use a muggle telephone. It’s a lot easier than sending an owl whenever you need to talk to someone.”

“I just don’t understand the mechanics of it all,” Sirius mused. “You speak into one end and then it travels through a cord all the way to a different house?”

“Something like that,” Heidi giggled. “Anyway, I’m getting bored. You lot want to see a film or something once we finish this up?”

Heidi and Kimberly were both Half-Bloods and the cinema was by far the boys’ favorite thing that the girls had introduced them to so far, and there was a lot that they had introduced them to—television, telephones, regular newspapers, stove-tops that weren’t charmed, lawnmowers, rugby, football, and just about every other sport. The list went on and on.

“Yeah, there’s a new Mel Brooks movie out. His are always hilarious,” Kimberly announced. She stood and stretched for a moment, having been sitting cross-legged on the ground for quite some time. Remus seized the opportunity and quickly prodded her in the ribs a couple of times before she slapped his hand away. “Child,” she muttered.

“That may be so, but if I’m not mistaken, Star Wars is still playing and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.”

Sirius agreed with James with an excited, “Oh, yeah! Let’s do that! Let’s watch Star Wars!”

Heidi, Kimberly, and Peter all groaned. “Again? We’ve seen it four times already!”

“Yeah, but soon they won’t be showing it and we’ll never get to watch it on the big screen ever again.”

Kimberly opened her mouth to argue but just as quickly shut it. There were many reasons not to watch Star Wars for a fifth time. It was a brilliant movie, yes, but soon they would be able to recite all of the lines and she knew, she just knew that James, Sirius, and Remus were probably working on some kind of charm that would turn their wands into light sabers and they didn’t need any more motivation for that.

But it was never any use trying to refuse them. They would just look at her with big eyes and pouty lips and plead with her until they got their way. Potters and Blacks weren’t used to being told no and the girls had known them long enough to have learned that they needed to pick their battles.

“Fine, we can go watch it again.”

“Yes!”

“But this is not going to turn into another driving lesson,” Heidi spoke firmly, pointing a finger at Sirius. Kimberly could still vividly remember the little blonde making the mistake of letting their friend try to drive for the first time in his life. He made it about a block, swerving all over the small neighborhood street and pulled over )almost hitting a light post) at a corner after much screaming. Heidi had all but yanked him out of the car and hopped into the driver’s seat. There was now a rule that she, Kimberly, and Remus were the only ones allowed to drive ever again.

“Well, I’ll never get better if I don’t practice,” Sirius whined. He took the last of the very tiny joint from James, nearly dropping it, and sucked at it before setting it in a small ashtray among many of its brothers. Soon, they’d have to clean it out and use that roach weed for a bowl.

”Then get your terribly rich parents to buy you a muggle car so that you can crash that one instead of mine.”

“They won’t buy me anything at this point. Think if I showed up on the doorstep, Orion would probably slam the door in my bloody face.”

Remus clapped his friend hard on the shoulder. “Cheer up, mate. All for the better. Now you’ve got a brother even more irritating than Regulus.”

James did his best to swat the tall boy in the back of the head but was deflected. Remus had always had better reflexes than the lot of them.

The six of them walked up the steps and entered the ground-level of the Greyson house, all shag carpet, hideous curtains, and a long, curving couch in the den.

“Are you about to go somewhere?” Mrs. Greyson called from the kitchen. They could all smell her cooking something and the aroma alone was enough to make Kimberly think about convincing them to go on without her.

“Yeah, mum, we’re going to see Star Wars.”

“Again?”

“That’s what I said,” Heidi grinned, “But the boys want to see it again on the big screen.”

The pudgy little brunette laughed and shook her head. “Just be safe out there.”

They all murmured some kind of confirmation before heading toward the door. “Oh, and Kimmy?”

She peeked her head back around the corner of the kitchen, pushing her glasses up her nose further. “Yes?”

“Do try not to be too late. Your cousin is actually supposed to get in at around eight this evening, caught an earlier flight.”

“Noted. I’ll be back by then. Promise.”

She smiled. “And sweetheart? Spray some perfume on yourself before you go out in public. You lot smell like a bunch of skunks.”

She could hear her group of friends laugh by the front door and blushed. “Thanks, sorry.”

“No, no, I’d much rather you do it here than somewhere else.”

The teenager nodded then turned and caught up with her friends, locking the door behind them all.

“Your mom is probably the coolest woman that I know,” James said.

“Yeah, she’s pretty great.”

Heidi had a cute little station-wagon, white with wood paneling along the sides. It was more of a family car, but it worked out having a group of six or seven all the time. Heidi slipped into the driver’s seat and James took shotgun before anyone else could beat him to it. The other four crawled into the back, a little cramped, but they were used to not having a lot of personal space. When the car rumbled to life, Fleetwood Mac blasted through the speakers and Sirius groaned.

“I am so tired of this damn chick band!”

“Oi!” Kimberly hit him. “Heidi, my love, I will listen to this band with you until the day I die!” The blonde held her hand out for her friend to grab and she did, both of them singing, “You can go your own waaaaaay!

They drove the short distance to the theater with the two girls singing, Peter singing backup every once in a while and Kimberly couldn’t stop grinning. These were her friends. She wouldn’t trade them for the world, even if they made her sit through Star Wars five times.
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chapter title credit to Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way'
okay so this story obviously takes place in the 70s and there's gonna be a lot of song and movie references. I'm trying to keep it as accurate as possible, but there will be some (probably a lot) of mistakes 'cause I didn't live through them. Also, I don't know how long it takes for American music to spread to the UK, so there's also that. All in all, though, I just wanted something light to write in and have some fun and I always have fun with Harry Potter.