The Shoebox Project

Part 3(2): Late September, 1975. Many Notes, One Photograph, One Confrontation

Sirius is waiting when he gets out of class, shifting twitchily from foot to foot with an expression of noble suffering
in the face of terrible betrayal on his face. This is going to be hard for Remus. Everyone knows he can't stand up in
the face of a confrontation, but his friends most of all. There's a pinched wrinkle furrowing the center of his brow.

"All right," Sirius says angrily, folding his arms tight across his chest. "The point is you should have just told us you had to study with him."

Remus' face tightens, self-chastisement unreadable across his features. "All right," he agrees. "All right."

"Well, why didn't you--" Sirius starts, and then blinks. "Say what?"

"All right." Remus holds up his hands, pressing his books against his chest with his elbows. "I said all right. I should have told you I had to study with him, so you and James could have interrupted us every two minutes, and I could have blown the entire dungeon up." A slight flicker of wickednessreplaces the worry lines tugging his scars over the bridge of his nose and the angle of his chin.

"Yes!" Sirius says, with great vehemence that seems somehow misplaced. "Yes, you should have." Some part of him suspects that he has been tricked, and he does not appreciate it.

Remus is watching him, injured innocence writ large across his features.

"And--and you shouldn't have--thrown that last note so hard!" he adds, feeling stupider by the minute.

"I thought you looked rather dashing, nearly snorting it up into your nose like that." Remus pauses, licking his lips.
Relief shows in the backs of his eyes, dark, the color of murky mahogany. "At least, you and James aren't the only ones with good aim, you know."

Sirius twitches and glares, but without real feeling behind it. "You should have been a Beater."

"Don't be silly." Remus fusses with his collar, scratches the back of his neck, and shifts his shoulders back to comfort, all while keeping an impressive number of books steady against himself. "I didn't enjoy fishing that first one out of my underwear, either. Let's just say we're even."

"Fine," Sirius says, deflating. "I'm hungry anyway."

Remus closes his eyes, fingers easing against bindings, relaxing against pages. "Then let's go eat. If," he adds,"Peter's left anything over for us."

"Doubtful," Sirius says with a barking laugh. He slings an easy arm around Remus' shoulders--and then freezes.
"Hang on, aren't we in a fight?"

Bugger.

Remus nearly says it. His shoulders definitely say it.

Bugger.

"Not anymore?" he ventures. "We've been very mature. We've definitely resolved the issue at hand."

"Yes!" Sirius says, immensely relieved. "Maturity being our middle name. Our collective middle name. Sirius and
Remus Maturity Black-Lupin. What's for lunch I wonder?"

"Peter's leftovers," Remus replies, and nearly leaks relief all the way down the hallway.

***

From Lily Evans to All; wrapped up in James Potter's invisibility cloak.