Senior Year: November, Day Before Thanksgiving Break
James
A door closing, woke me up. I sat up in what I realized thankfully was my own bed. I rubbed my temples trying to remember last night or I guess if we want to be literal, very early this morning. My head throbbed, and the morning light streaming in through the curtains made it difficult to contraste. This was the worst hangover I have ever gotten. Eventually the party came back to me in brief flashes. The sweaty 'dance floor', the many different choices of drinks, and the epic loss of the ping pong championship (That would explain the black out). I glanced over to Sirius' bed, suddenly remembering he never came back to the party.
Sirius was a lump under a mountain of blankets. One of his arms jutted out from the pile, and his black hair rested on the pillow. Vaguely I remembered coming home last night. Sirius was slumped on his bed in a similar fashion to now, but Remus was also here. He was sleeping on the area rug Sirius had bought recently. My eyes traveled down to the floor. A pillow and blanket sat atop the rug, but no Remus.
Maybe it was my hangover, but guilt bubbled in my stomach of the remembrance of the stupid arguement Remus and I got into. Fuck. I should apologize, but I don't even know what I would say. 'Hey Remus! Remember that argument we got into yesterday, and I lowkey slut shamed you. Yeah sorry, lol. I'm just kind of jealous because I love Lily. Haha sorry!'
Bile rose in my throat and I bolted for the bathroom. My throat burned and my eyes watered from disgust. I love Lily Evans. I just confessed that I loved Lily Evans. Remus' girlfriend. The girl who hates my guts. Maybe apologizing to Remus is a good idea, I'm a god awful friend.
I stood up from where I was sitting in front of the toilet and leaned heavily against the sink. My head was protesting every movement. I turned the faucet on and cupped my hands, so they could be filled with water. For being sink water, it didn't taste bad, and it helped ease the burn in my throat. I then swallowed an Advil and slowly made my way to find Remus.
I had walked into the hallway, and the door of our dorm had already shut before I remembered that I had left literally everything inside. I was phoneless and keyless, and looking down at my appearance, I was also shoeless. (I was also in last night's outfit but it could be something worse, so I was grateful). . I probably should have thought this through a little bit, but it was too late. I could not turn back now, so I continued down towards Remus' room.
I took a deep breath , and knocked. I didn't think he was there, and I was about to walk to Lily's room to see if he went there, when the door opened.
"Oh, James. I was about to check if you were awake." Remus stood in the doorway looking a lot less hungover than me. "I need to tell you something."
"I'm sorry." I blurted out. I didn't know what he wanted to tell me but I had to come clean. I didn't want to risk throwing up again.
"For what?" Remus asked.
"For being an asshole and slut shaming you and taking a sock from each pair you have. I don't know why I'm acting like this but I'm-"
"James," Remus laughed. Why the hell was he laughing? "What about we have this conversation in my room?" I realized I was still in the hallway, and I had caught some people's attention.
I did a sheepish smile, "Yeah, let's continue this in your room." Remus stepped aside, and let me walk through. Peter wasn't there and the lack of things on Remus' side, made the room feel bare. Empty.
"James, it's fine." Remus closed the door, and made his way to his bed. He leaned against it and rubbed the heel of his hands into his eyes. Maybe he was hungover but he was Remus. Secretive and hidden but in a cool, hot way. " Although I would like my socks back," he chuckled. "Jesus, remind me not to start shit with you."
"Shit yeah, there in my room. I can go get them..." I was about to head towards the door when Remus stopped me.
"You can get them later," Remus said, waving his hand. " I need to tell you something first."
I bit my lip out of nervousness, Remus spoke in a tone of seriousness, something out of character of him. Remus wasn't one to share and tell. Remus continued, "Okay, you have to promise to not tell Sirius I told you this. He can't know it was me or else he will hate me and-"
"Okay! I get it, Sirius won't know." I said impatiently. Remus was freaking me out.
"Sirius got kicked out of his house, and now he's refusing to ask for help, and he's gonna live in his car for thanksgiving break and for gods knows how long" Remus spilled out so quickly, his words came out jumbled and took me a moment to process what he said.
"When?"
"Um, when he," Remus stuttered, hand running through his hair. "When he was at his house, and the video was leaked."
I let out a sigh. Fuck. I should have known that something happened when Sirius went home, but I didn't want to push him. I felt a pang of betrayal that Sirius had told Remus and not me. Did Sirius not trust me? They have been friends since they were eleven, and he'd known Remus for what, 3 months?
"I'll talk to him." I eventually concluded.
"No! He'll know it was me-"
"Remus! There's not that much time left before break,"
"He won't forgive me," Remus pleaded.
"He'll be angry at first, but he will eventually realize what you did was right. He'll forgive you in no time."
"I don't know-"
"If you care for Sirius, let me help him," I begged. Remus' eyes glistened and his jaw was clenched, this was the most emotion I had seen from Remus. "I won't let Sirius get rid of you."
"Okay."
Sirius
My eyes squinted open, slowly adjusting to the bright light. I rubbed them, hoping my hangover wouldn't be as bad as I thought it was going to be. I sat up with only a minimal headache forming behind my eyes. My stomach didn't even hurt that bad considering the amount of disgusting vodka Remus and I drank last night. Oh, Remus!
I looked down beside my bed, no Remus. He must have gotten up before me and left. I barely convinced him to stay over last night, but he was not handling the blue raspberry vodka well and finally relented. I vaguely remembered him saying something about leaving earlier today. Family issues? CPS visit? Oh, therapy! I think it was something about therapy.
Before I could check the time, someone began banging loudly on the door. "SIRIUS!" James' voice echoed.
I rolled my eyes, but swung my feet onto the floor and slowly made my way to the door. I opened the door to find James rumpled and shoeless waiting in the hall. "What the fuck are you yelling about, and why don't you have shoes on?"
I stepped aside to let James into our dorm as he answered, "I locked myself out and you are a sound sleeper. As for the shoes, I was really hung over."
He walked over to his bed, sat down, then promptly got back up and started pacing. "Prongs, you good?" I asked. James only paced when he was really stressed about something.
"Uh... yeah," he replied, still pacing. I noted that he seemed paler and wouldn't make eye contact with me. "I have to talk to you about something."
Uh oh. If James was taking this long to tell me something it had to be bad. Shit. What if it's about Remus. Maybe James thought we were doing stuff because he slept here. "If this is about Remus, I promise nothing happened. He just wasn't feeling good and I wanted to keep an eye on him," I blurted out. Not to mention he's dating Lily, though I'm sure that wouldn't really be a problem considering what he said last night.
"No Pads, this isn't about Remus. I... have something important to talk to you about, but I don't think you're going to like it."
I racked my brain for topics that would make James this uncomfortable to talk about. Only one stood out, the outing. Though I'd already expressed my feelings on the topic, it looked like James really needed to say something so I let him continue.
"So, how did your parents react to the whole kissing Barty thing?" he asked.
No, no, no. I didn't want to lie straight to his face. "Uh, they luckily didn't see it so I'm in the clear," I lied.
James looked me in the eyes finally, a sad, borderline pitying expression on his face. "Sirius, I know."
Fuck. Shit. Bitch. Whore. Dick. My mouth went dry, "Know what?" Yeah Sirius, play dumb, that always works, my subconscious sneered.
James looked at the ground then back at me, "I know that your parents kicked you out over that picture, and you have nowhere to go over break."
"Fucking Remus!" I said in an angry disbelief.
"Padfoot, come on, stay at my house for Thanksgiving," James tactfully avoided saying anything about where his information came from.
"Well, Remus was fucking lying! Just like he lied about his whole life! Did you know he's a foster kid, and leaves every month to go to therapy with his new 'family'?"
"Sirius, stop! He was just trying to help. And judging by your reaction, he definitely wasn't lying."
"Oh so you're going to believe some drug addict over your best friend! I forgot to mention, Remus tried to get me to take drugs with him last night."
Tears were starting to stream down my heated cheeks. I angrily wiped them away. James just stared at me, seemingly both disappointed in my reaction and shocked at the information I couldn't stop spewing.
James opened his mouth to talk again, but I just couldn't stand him rationalizing this betrayal. Remus promised, PROMISED, not to tell him. It was the one thing I asked him not to do.
"Oh and he cheated on Lily, just thought you should know!" I spat, throwing on my slippers and stomping out the door.