Is It Over Now?

Chapter Ten

He was tired of pretending now that he knew what it meant to smile with all the sharpness of a wolf and the grace of a fox, as he ran with a black cat through the night as birds flew high above; all of them finally free of the chains that tried to shape them into someone they were not and never would be again.

He was tired of pretending to be good when he knew that he wasn't and now had people that didn't ask him to be.

—-

Time passed as it always does: much too fast, and all too slow. By the time that March rolled around the rest of the lions had eased around the scarred boy, finally accepting what they should have always known, which was that Remus wasn't one to abandon those that he calls friends - that he calls family if he were to be honest with himself - and that the Marauders would need to adjust.

The wolf wasn't sure if they could, but was woken up on March tenth with three lions jumping on his bed with bright smiles and a chorus of Happy Birthday spilling from each of their lips nonetheless.

"To youuuu!" The three all but screeched with voices not made for singing.

"Asshats," Remus cursed, but he was smiling despite himself.

"Our best spell caster is now seventeen," James started conspiratorially as the three peeled themselves off of the bed, dragging the tallest of their lot with them.

"Just imagine all of the chaos we can now create, Prongsy," Sirius said in that joking voice of his that made teachers immediately hide anything that they wouldn't want used in a prank, something Slughorn had taken much too long to realize.

"Indubitably so, Mr. Padfoot," James agreed with a dramatic bow.

And Remus laughed as he always did at the pair's antics despite himself as Peter grinned at him, because he loved them even as he knew that they loved a softer version of him.

The four laughed as they walked down to breakfast, all Gryffindor warmth and bravery as they spoke of the party that would be held later, as was almost every year when one of the Marauders birthdays came around. But the smiles of three of them soon shrunk as they approached the Great Hall, while the fourth's only grew.

"We just want to steal Kit over here for a moment," Evan said before the older teens could speak, his hands held up in a mock surrender. "Then you lot can have him for the rest of the day."

Remus raised a brow at the others, but Dora only pointed to where Meadows was standing off to the side, a muggle camera held in the girl's hands, a Polaroid.

"I'll be in there in a minute," the wolf said, already sliding past the rest of the lions to venture towards the snakes. The Marauders watched him go, and knew that this was something that they would have to be okay with now if they wanted to keep the fourth lion.

Dorcas stood in front of the five students that had no right to be around one another as they were if the rest of the world had any say in the matter, and held the camera up to her eye as the five gathered together; Remus in the middle with his arm around Regulus's waist and the other across Pandora's shoulders as Barty and Evan crouched before the three. Five pictures were taken, one for each of them that the snakes, lion, and egal all put into books to be kept safe from prying eyes.

Remus and Regulus watched as the others left, the pair staying behind in the hall off to the side of the entrance. Their hands were laced together and the Gryffindor knew that this was a feeling that he would never get tired of.

"Close your eyes," the snake said softly, lifting Remus's hand as the older teen did so. Something cold was pressed into the lion's hand, metal he realized. 'Open them."