The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

CII: I Found Us a House!

"You've become a lightweight in your old age, love," Sirius said from inside the house.

"I'm not old," Remus replied moodily. "You're older than I am."

"You wouldn't know by how rusty you're acting," Sirius said.

Remus inched closer, trying to keep Sirius in his view. "I mean, I suppose I am a bit rusted, but --"

"We used to do stuff like this all the bleeding time, Moony."

"Uh to be fair, we actually never broke and entered into a strange house, no," Remus called back.

"Me and Prongs did," Sirius said lightly.

"You - what?" Remus blinked in surprise. "When?"

"I mean, it was their house actually. It ended up being, at least. Before he bought it. We were walking through Godric's Hollow and he saw it and - Remember it was all run down and rather how this one is before he went and fixed it all up? And he just busted through the door - just as I've done here now - and he starts strutting about like he owned the bloody place already."

"He was always such a confident bastard, wasn't he though?" Remus laughed. He could practically picture James Potter, swaggering onto any scene as though he really did own everything in the entire world, always acting as though life was easy. Especially in those early years, when they'd first met, when he was a specky little shit with no credentials to back him up, before he'd grown into his ego. Later, of course, he'd more than earned every turn of braggery that the younger version had ever made.

"Yeah, he was definitely a confident fucker for sure," Sirius answered, smirking.

Remus was standing closer to the door, slowly being lured forward as Sirius walked deeper into the house. Remus leaned against the door frame, his palms on the posts, feet firmly planted outside on the porch, and leaned so that his head was inside and he was peering about. Dust particles flew about the room, line marked the furniture where Sirius had dragged his finger through the collected motes as he walked past.

"Oh hey, look - a bed." Sirius grinned.

"Filthy, I'm sure," Remus answered.

"Will be when we're done with it at any rate," Sirius said, grinning. Then, "Hm, looks as though someone's already done the head board in on this one." He snickered. "Remus do you remember the time we broke the headboard?"

Sirius had been waiting a stupid amount of time to ask this out loud.

"Yes," Remus said with a flush. "I do remember that. Quite well, actually."

"Your sense of adventure wasn't maxed out that day!" Sirius hooted.

"No but yours may have been..."

Sirius laughed, "You underestimate me."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I do."

Sirius stared at him for several long moments, grunted a laugh, and stepped on through the bedroom door with a grin on his face.

Remus sighed and stepped through the door, looking around like he was waiting for the ceiling to fall down on him. Remus felt a tingle to his nose and sniffed, his eyebrows knitting in concern. "Sirius, do you smell --"

A manic laugh came from the bedroom Sirius had just ducked into.

Remus waded through the dust, hands in his pockets, sure he was smelling what he thought now and he hurried to see what Sirius was laughing about. He looked into the bedroom and there was the filthy broken bed, and just past it was Sirius, face flushed with amusement. Out the back window was an absolute field of green plants, growing quite thick. The yard had all the looks of something that had once been closely tended and was now overgrown, surrounded by a neat wooden fence about six feet high. Sirius was bent, staring out the back window.