A thousand thanks to my wonderful beta, Mel/Lady Scorpion/Larissa James, one of the most loffly girls ever.
"She's a beauty, isn't she?" Sirius Black said admiringly, his eyes caressing.
"How do you know it's a she?" came the questioning voice of James Potter, who stood a few feet from the vehicle, a look of perplexity crossing his face as he scratched the back of his head with one hand, the thumb of his other hand hooked in one of the belt loops of his jeans.
"Well, because…." Sirius stalled, unsure of how it was that he could determine gender by looking at it. "Well, she looks like a she, doesn't she?"
"I still don't get you, even after all these years of living with your insanity," Remus Lupin added, hands shoved in his pockets, head tilted to the side. "You can't tell. Anyways, it's an inanimate object; it doesn't have a…a gender." He gave his friend a sideways look, seemingly assessing his mental stability.
Sirius groaned in frustration. "She's a girl. There's no question about it, end of discussion." He gave the chrome handlebars of his new motorcycle a pat, leaning his weight against its seat. "Do you think that I would be so stupid as to not know what I'm getting?"
"Well, actually, Padfoot," began Peter Pettigrew, but was cut off by a death glare from the gray-eyed man.
"So who's going for the first ride with me?" Sirius asked immediately as he swung his leg over the seat. "Remus?" The man shook his head swiftly, clearly not trusting what was going to happen. "Peter? James?"
The messy-haired man nodded almost too quickly, and climbed on behind Sirius as the engine began to roar. "You may want to hold on," he called over the din of the bike as he pulled on a pair of dark sunglasses, a grin spreading across his face. "It'd be…wise, mate."
"Do you have any idea how queer that would look, though?" retorted James, leaning back to avoid touching his friend.
Sirius shrugged. "It'll be your head, then."
With that, the motorcycle took off with an incredible burst of speed, instantly lifting off the ground. James was flung back, nearly toppling off, but clung to the back of Sirius's jacket just in time to steady himself.
"It flies!" he cried in utter shock, glancing down to the ground where the miniscule figures of Remus and Peter stood, staring skyward, a shell-shocked expression on both of their faces. James let out a brisk laugh, pumping a fist into the air. The joy and excitement etched on his face was only beaten by the smile that was slowly expanding across Sirius's face as he silently marveled at the ability of the machine.
It was freedom. It was relief. It was everything that he had lusted after for the many years of his life that he was trapped in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, home of the Toujours Pur. There were no words to describe the feeling that had swelled inside of him; it was too great of a combination of what was joy and surprise and longing for more.
And he flew among the clouds, knowing that in his hands, he held the handlebars of freedom.