"James, I swear on..." Remus paused: not entirely sure as to quite what he could swear on that would successfully convey the meaning behind his words to James Potter. They were sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, having just witnessed the sorting of the new first years and made a vague attempt to welcome several first year Gryffindors.
"On quidditch?" Sirius offered in suggestion, having paid great attention to the one of the most ridiculous arguments he'd witnessed taking place between two of his friends, because not only was it ridiculous, it also incredibly half-hearted and for the most part, just couldn't help itself when it came to being pathetic.
Sirius was sat beside Remus, being generally thankful that the height difference between the two was not so immediately obvious when they were sitting, which was largely due to the fact that Remus had this habit of slouching over a table and looking ready to curl up around it, but in earnest, the guy never seemed to have gotten enough sleep, and that was fault of nothing other than his furry little problem, or as James had once described it 'his man period that involved just as much blood and just as much fur, and maybe just a few more murderous tendencies' - Lily, had however overheard him one time and slapped him over the head with the nearest book: successfully putting the use of the nickname to a rather firm halt.
"Yeah, but Remus doesn't care about quidditch - you've got to have something we mutually care about." James spoke with a mouth full of food, which was only something the other three had gotten used to over the years.
Peter grimaced a little: sat next to James on the opposite side of the table, before finding that the perfect solution had sprung to mind. "Lily!" He proclaimed just that little fraction louder than necessary, and in consequence, catching the attention of the redhead herself, who was sat just a few spaces down the table next to Marlene McKinnon, Alice Longbottom, and Mary Macdonald, who she shared a dormitory with.
Lily turned in response to her name, however quickly let out a sigh and found herself ready to turn away when she caught sight of the dumbfounded expression upon James' face, accompanied by Peter's somewhat guilty look.
Sirius, however, decided it would be insanely amusing to see just how much he could make James blush in the space of a minute or so, and with this in mind, caught Lily's attention again. "Hey, Evans!" His voice was a little quieter than Peter's had been yet still succeeded in capturing her attention, and a few odd looks from the girls around her.
"What is it?" She called out in response: making a point of looking directly at Sirius, as not to give James false hope that she'd actually willingly partook in a conversation with him, because doing so would only lead him on, and really that was the last thing she wanted to do, yet of course, it had been a long four years, and James still hadn't got the message.
"Can you confirm that 'the hug' was a simply and strictly platonic concerned kind of hug so James doesn't end up jinxing Remus on the grounds of treachery?" He let a smirk fall back onto his face as he watched James glance in disbelief between Lily, Remus, and Sirius.
Peter continued to eat his chicken, which left Sirius assured it would be quickly solved and nothing would come of what he would in time inevitably deem one of the most pathetic arguments ever.
Lily rolled her eyes a little, inhaling deeply before turning to look James Potter in the eye - which she knew even in that moment would be something she'd come to regret. "James, stop being such a prat, it was just a hug, and hey, it's not like I'm going to be even considering hugging you any time soon, is it?"
"Lily..." James let out an odd kind of lovestruck drawl, sounding an awful lot like he'd just downed a bottle of firewhiskey, and all in all, creating such a great impression of Gryffindor house for the few first year students that had turned their heads in all the commotion. "This is our first conversation of fifth year, so I think you should at least try to be nice to me, I'm only-"
"James." Lily interrupted him: suddenly very aware that half of Gryffindor house was listening in on their conversation, and in turn, of the prefect badge displayed with pride upon her robes, and in consequence, just what wouldn't be a good idea to yell at James Potter down the table. She gave a little sigh, deciding that her best bet was just to lay it out plainly for him, "I do not want to date you. I am not even remotely interested in dating you or even having much of a conversation with you, so long as you keep being such a prat. Yet, neither am I interested in dating Remus, so don't make him out to be a 'traitor' for being my friend, instead grow the hell up and move on."
"Pffffttt..." James made an odd, incredibly intoxicated sounding noise with his mouth, and in the process of doing so, sprayed Peter and a first year with spit, which was, indeed so very lovely and considerate of him. "I was joking, come on, Evans, take a joke. Do you not know what a joke is?"
"I do." She snapped: very quickly losing all her patience, and immediately, Peter stopped eating, which set off alarm bells in Sirius' head. "I am very well aware of what a joke is, James Potter. You are a joke. Your whole life is a joke, James, so kindly, stop talking to me and leave me alone."
And with a vague gasp from several first years and a couple of second year girls, Lily fought to keep a smirk off her face as she turned back to her friends, leaving James' ego bruised as he woefully chewed a roast potato.
"So is Remus still a traitor, or?" Peter piped up after a few moments: unsure whether it was all good for him to continue eating in peace or whether there was going to be another argument.
"Remus isn't a traitor." James looked up from his plate and met Remus' gaze, sighing he continued, "I'm just a bit of an idiot. She really doesn't like me, does she?"
"No, she doesn't!" Remus exclaimed: unable to figure out how it had possibly taken him this long to determine the most simplest of facts. Remus was even sure that all of the first year Gryffindors, after having been in Gryffindor house for all of fifteen minutes, had gathered that Lily Evans most certainly did not like James Potter in the slightest.
"Well..." James' words were somewhat breathy: contorted slightly as he spoke, which gave his voice an odd, nervous tone to it, that was somewhat unheard of when it came to James Potter. "Just guess I have to try hard, don't I?" His face lit up into a grin, high fiving Peter for emotional support, who nodded in agreement and continued to eat as James held his hand out to Sirius, who only rolled his eyes a little as he high fived him, and then finally to Remus who shook his head in disbelief.
"Oh, come on, Moony," Sirius gave him a gentle shove: grinning slightly, "give the prat a ruddy high five." He met Remus with a wide, careless grin that Remus seemed to be unable to resist mirroring, and offering James what was a very lacklustre high five, but was accepted anyway, as James had some potatoes to continue eating angstily and Sirius found himself feeling like someone had stabbed a great spear through his gut as Remus Lupin just sat there, and smiled.
-
"Lily, help me, I have no idea what I'm doing-" Remus confessed: his eyes widening slightly as he walked through the Gryffindors in order to practically cling to the redheaded girl like the responsible prefect he was.
"Remus, honestly," she shook her head and turned back to Marlene momentarily and muttering a quick, "look, just meet me in the common room, okay?" before she turned back to a rather unwilling looking Remus Lupin. "For crying out loud, Remus, they're eleven, we've just got to lead them up to the common room and tell them the password, and boom, that's it - you can get back to listening to James mourn the 'death of our friendship'."
It wasn't that Remus was really intimidated by the group of about fourteen eleven year olds, it was just that he really did not have the slightest clue how to go about being a responsible prefect; he didn't want to give these poor kids false hope in him, like hell, he didn't have the slightest idea what the password even was, and- and well... there was the small, well a little more than small matter of the great looming scar upon his face that one of them was bound to ask about sooner or later.
No one had directly said anything about it so far, besides Lily and Sirius, but people had very much been looking, and it would only take time until they got comfortable enough with their curiosity to just spring it upon him and demand some form of clarity in regards to the matter, which would leave Remus forced to make some form of awkward excuse or just plainly run the hell away like the brave, role model Gryffindor student and prefect he was.
"Lily, can we do it together?" He pleaded with her: golden eyes wide and hoping, and Lily found herself giving it, because well Remus had been through enough to warrant her putting up with him being a little bit hopeless.
"You have to lead the boys up to their dormitory, you know?" She reminded him, but began to turn to the first years who were stood awkwardly chatting amongst themselves, with Remus at her side: nodding meekly, and frantically trying to brush his hair into his face to hide his scar, which didn't quite work when the damn thing pretty much separated your face in two horizontally.
"So first years," she raised the tone of her voice slightly in order to get the attention of the group of first year Gryffindors, having accentuated the authoritarian tones in her voice as she glanced over the group of students, "I hope you're all happy to be sorted into Gryffindor house as that's where you'll be for the next seven years which you spend at Hogwarts. I'm Lily Evans, and me, and Remus Lupin," she gestured to Remus, who continued to stand there feeling far too tall for his body and far too irresponsible for the badge on his robes, as she spoke, "are fifth year Gryffindor prefects, and you can come to us with any queries you may have, or if you're lost or-" She glanced across at Remus and found him shaking his head slightly at the first years, "well, you can come to me if you have any queries and to Remus only if it's absolutely necessary. You have anything to add?"
Remus flushed an awkward shade of red as he felt full attention on him, "uhh... hey, I'm Remus, and we're going to lead you to your common room, now, aren't we, probably?" He looked across at Lily with a panic stricken expression across his features. "Uhh... any questions?"
"What's that scar from?" A first year boy with seemingly bleach blonde hair asked: pointing vaguely at Remus, as if that was necessary, because everyone knew exactly who he was talking to.
"That scar?" Remus' eyes widened slightly: finding himself inhaling all too fast, as he reached a finger up to face and pointed to it, as if only to highlight it further. "This scar?" The first year nodded, "oh, this scar, you know this scar that's absolutely none of your fucking business, yeah-"
"Remus!" Lily practically shrieked at him, "they're eleven, and-" She found the first years erupting into an awkward kind of laughter, to which she only shook her head, "we're going up to the common room now, come on."
Lily wasn't quite sure whether she was angry or incredibly amused, whereas Remus just found himself overly pleased with the fact that a good six eleven year olds thought he was moderately cool because he accidentally said the word 'fucking' in conversation. This reminded him an awful lot of eleven year old Sirius Black, and he found himself recalling that it wasn't too far off the story of the beginning of their friendship, as sheltered Sirius Black was very much enthralled by wide selection of rather vulgar language that eleven year old Remus Lupin had come to Hogwarts equipped with.
-
"Honestly, how did he become a prefect?" James continued to slur his words as the three boys made their way through the crowds and up to the Gryffindor common room - at this point, Sirius and Peter had found themselves just getting accustomed to it, and within the hour, Sirius didn't doubt that they'd even be betting on as to just how long he was going to continue to talk in such a manner.
"I have no idea." Sirius found his tone loud and exaggerated, but his words rather plainly and exceptionally honest, "he's got everyone fooled, he has - he makes him out to be this good, innocent little shite, and-"
"Well, he's not exactly little is he?" James could resist a smirk, "you're the little one, aren't you, Sirius?" James stood up close to the shorter boy and let out a snort, "little baby Sirius-"
"You can fuck off." Sirius gave him a half hearted shove, before grabbing Peter with his arm around his shoulder and presenting the even shorter boy to James, "Peter's the little baby."
"No, Peter's nice to me so Peter's exempt from teasing, you, however, are quite the little shit, are you not?" James found himself in a state of glee at the stormy expression upon Sirius' face, and indeed, the pout, and as such was compelled to grab Peter by the arm and twirl him around in the corridor, which wasn't the best of ideas as it resulted in him tripping and falling straight into Professor McGonagall.
Who was just less than pleased to see him.
"Potter..." She let out a sigh: seemingly taking a moment to compose herself before she really faced the boy. Peter used this opportunity to sneak away and make out that he'd been stood with Sirius, out of trouble all along; Sirius found himself unable to look anything but slightly amused by the whole ordeal. "Would you not care to watch where you are going? And pray tell me just what the function of a corridor is, because as far as I am aware it is not for dancing."
Sirius did however have to admit that Professor Minerva McGonagall was just that little bit intimidating: somewhat in the same way that Lily Evans was, in that they both found themselves perpetually irritated by James Potter and tended to just know everything. Lily was just that little bit prettier than McGonagall, though, and Lily didn't turn into a cat at random times throughout transfiguration lessons, so there was that.
"Sorry, professor, I was just-" James found himself stumped, looking back at Sirius as if he might have an excuse tattooed across his forehead or something of the like.
"Just being foolish. Think, Potter, because despite popular belief you do indeed have a brain." McGonagall glanced behind James towards Sirius and Peter, who remained dumbfounded in the middle of the corridor, "Mr Black, Mr Pettigrew, would you please do me the favour of going up to your common room and not standing in the middle of the hallway," she turned to James, who stood there: the expression painted upon his features increasing with guilt by the second, "and Mr Potter," her tone seemed to soften slightly for reasons unknown to the three boys, "I'd like to see you in my office for a few minutes."
James shot Sirius and Peter a 'help me' glance as Professor McGonagall began to lead him to her office, even going as far as to mouthe a rather over enunciated 'tell Lily I love her', to which Sirius rolled his eyes and decided that perhaps relaying such a message wouldn't be for the best.
"I smell really like fur?" Peter turned to Sirius with confusion evident upon his face: having misread James' lips.
"Maybe you do, Peter, maybe you do." Sirius knew exactly what he meant, but only offered him a grin before making his way towards the common room.
Sirius and Peter made it into the common room to find a group of awkward looking first years just stood in the corner, along with a group of third year boys who appear to be discussing hexes with a great deal of excitement, and then Remus Lupin taking up an entire sofa with his unbelievable long legs, as he conversed with Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon, who were sat on the sofa opposite.
At the sight of Remus and Remus' long legs and oh man, Remus' hair, and Remus'- well, Sirius got a little over excited and pretty much sprinted across the common room and leapt onto the end of the sofa Remus was sprawled across, but of course stumbled over Remus' ankles in the process of doing so, which caused the taller boy to elicit an involuntary yelp as he struggled to process quite what was happening, and resorted to his instincts which were just to shake whatever it was off him, however, Sirius Black did fall, but Sirius Black did not fall away from Remus Lupin.
In short, a rather flustered Sirius Black ended up on top of an equally flustered Remus Lupin, as Peter made his way over at a much more leisurely pace and sat down awkwardly in the space next to Lily.
"Sirius, what are you doing?" Remus struggled to ask, as both of them attempted to sit up at exactly the same time.
Sirius only blushed a brighter shade of red before eventually managing to find the only free space on the sofa, which was between Remus' legs, which wasn't the most comfortable of positions for either of them, so Remus sat up himself with his back to the side of the sofa where his head had been, and Sirius sat between his legs, now with the offer to move to the free half of the sofa, instead however, Sirius found himself only leaning back into Remus' chest instead, and Remus decided that he was far too tired to pretend that he'd minded.
"Are we alright now?" Remus found himself asking as Sirius began to press the back of his head into Remus' sweater.
"Mmm... yeah I-" Sirius didn't quite have time to reach the extent of a full response before the portrait hole opened with a slam and a cry of protest from the fat lady, and James Potter made his way into the room with a particularly obnoxious smirk upon his face.
"Here we go..." Remus couldn't help but sigh a little as he watched James ensure he had everyone's attention by leaping on top of a table, which the third year boys had been sat around, and seemed not to really appreciate the sudden addition of a rather smug looking James Potter to their conversation.
"Attention!" James was pretty much screaming: the slight slur to his voice having disappeared, however, which Sirius, personally found just a little bit surprising. "Hello, Gryffindor house, I, the exceptionally awesome wizard, James Potter, have an announcement to make."
"If this in any way relates to me, I will-" Lily turned to face James, having raised her voice so that the common room could hear her also.
"It does, but it relates to everyone." James met Sirius' eyes and offered him a grin, "well, I am no longer only, James Potter, exceptionally awesome wizard, but, James Potter, exceptionally awesome wizard, and...." He looked around the room expectantly, before pointing to a group of first years, who really must have been having quite the evening, "drumroll, please," he gestured wildly, and continued to grin as a few first years began the world's least enthusiastic drumroll.
Sirius, however, stood up, still between Remus' legs and pointed dramatically at the first years, "you're not bloody Hufflepuffs, you can do better than that!" To which, there was a slight murmur throughout the room, but the quality of the drumroll did increase.
"Sirius, stop bullying the first years," Remus requested calmly and tugged him gently by the arm, back down between his legs, which caught James' attention for the first time since he'd made his way into the common room, and caused him to stare for a moment, even going so far as to forget about his announcement.
"Drumroll end!" James called out, pointing at the first years, who were quite sure as to whether they were enjoying this experience or to some degree terrified for their lives, because there was this great six foot tall guy with wild hair and massive glasses yelling at them from the top of a table. They did however cease the drumroll and seemed to relax slightly in consequence, "so where was I?" James found himself asking aloud, gaining a few snorts from a couple of older students, and in particular, Remus Lupin.
"Aghhh..." James groaned for a moment before shrugging it off and continued regardless, "well, that doesn't matter, what I'm saying is that, you, lovely people, are looking at not just James Potter, but James Potter, captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team!" And with that, James let out a scream and jumped off the table and onto the carpeted floor.
"How? How in the hell?" Lily retorted, shaking her head in disbelief as most of the students began to clap: Sirius being the most enthusiastic and a group of seventh year girls in the corner being the least excited by the matter. And some of those first years probably didn't even have the slight clue as to what the hell quidditch could possibly be, but still, they were clapping like maniacs, or maybe they were just clapping the successful jump from a table - who knew?
As the clapping died down, James took a bow, before sitting down in the non-existent space between Peter and Lily, causing Lily to move very, very close to Marlene, and Peter to be practically sat on the armrest of the sofa.
"Honestly, I thought McGonagall was going to tear my arm off or something, but she just sits me down, stands there sighing for a good forty five seconds and then is like," James paused, sitting up before performing the absolute worst impression of Professor McGonagall known to man, "So, Potter, as you may be aware, the Gryffindor quidditch team is without a captain this year, and as irritating and insolent you are, you are a talented quidditch player, you are the best quidditch player ever, in the history of the world-"
"I think just maybe she didn't quite say that." Remus offered with a disbelief look frosting over his face; Sirius still with his head resting against his chest, for reasons that no one really found much use in questioning.
"No, I absolutely assure you she did," James deadpanned, before breaking into a both massive and massively irritating grin. "Also some bullshit about responsibility, but like pshht, who cares?"
"You've got to be organised, though, James, or we're not going to win the cup, you know and people will come after you with a series of hexes if we don't," Marlene chose to remind James, because Gryffindor house did indeed have this habit of just being awfully over competitive, and especially when it came to the quidditch cup.
"I will, I will. I'm so organised that we're even going to hold team trials on Saturday!" James beamed, looking between Marlene and Lily, all while looking all too proud of himself, and as much of an idiot as he appeared, James was actually very passionate about quidditch and if someone really desired to be captain of the team, it was him.
"We're?" Peter asked: unsure as to who 'we' was responding to, because he wasn't all that keen upon leaving his bed when he didn't have to.
"Me and Sirius," James explained, gesturing to Sirius without even asking him first; Sirius, however was more than happy to help, as he did indeed share James' passionate for quidditch. "Because, Sirius is an automatic member of the quidditch team."
"On what grounds?" Lily asked: her eyes narrowing as she glared across at him.
"On the grounds, that he's totally fucking awesome, and my best friend, and I don't want to do it on my own."
Sirius was beaming, and even offered Lily a small smirk, "totally fucking awesome," he reiterated: seemingly all too proud of the most simple and rushed compliment.
"That's debatable." Lily looked across at him blankly.
"It's really not." Sirius insisted: shaking his hair out of his face, pouting slightly and tugging at his shirt collar: exposing the tip of one collar bone, without even realising he had been doing so.
And Remus fucking snorted, because Sirius was less of totally fucking awesome and more of a total fucking dork.
-
"Remus Lupin, what do you think you're doing?" James Potter's voice seemed to reverberate throughout the boys' dormitory: carrying a tone false of authority and even falser dignity, as the aforementioned were clearly two characteristics that James Potter did indeed lack.
"Going to bed..." Remus let out an odd cross between a grumble and sigh as he turned slightly to see the curly haired boy practically marching across the Gryffindor dormitory in order to reach him, where he stood beside his bed, pulling at the covers.
"It's midnight!" James continued: making it evident that he was absolutely horrified that Remus found himself more inclined to sleep than stay up and listen to his prat of a best friend moan on and on about nonsense and Lily Evans, and well, mostly Lily Evans.
"Exactly!" Remus exclaimed: standing up fully in order to use the couple of inches between him and James to his advantage. "It's nighttime, and I'm going to bed." His voice was stern, as Remus found himself very sure of himself and indeed very sure of the fact that he was tired, and yet perhaps even more sure of the fact that James was absolutely the worst person in the world to share a room with, and yet, Remus had survived the past four years, and indeed, so had James.
James looked ready to launch into the second argument of the day: condemning Remus as a traitor for a third reason, and with particularly enthusiastic conviction as well, because the thing was, James'd had this absolutely awful idea, which in his eyes, was of course absolutely brilliant, and Sirius, being Sirius, had shared much of the same opinion and helped to ensure its execution, all while Peter had stood there rather smugly, because he had indeed suggested it at first, despite receiving absolutely no credit for his own idea, but after being best friends with James Potter for four years, being overshadowed was indeed something he'd grown accustomed to.
However, just as James was ready to fully condemn Remus as a traitor, the dormitory door opened, revealing a smirking Sirius Black: long black hair flowing out behind him as he had rushed up the stairs two at a time, and behind him, the sounds of Peter rushing to catch up were audible. Remus knew immediately that this was incredibly bad news, and something he most certainly did not want to get involved in, especially with being such the responsible prefect he was, yet somehow, he did indeed see the inevitability of his involvement, coupled with the slim likelihood that James would just let him go to bed, and therefore let out a sigh and silently agreed to put up with whatever awful plan James had concocted this time.
This sudden agreement, was of course, absolutely everything to do with a new realistic outlook on things, and absolutely not the sudden entrance of Sirius Black with his pretty face and his long hair and his jeans, that had once been Remus' in about second year, because the Blacks would never allow him to own muggle clothing, and a dark grey t-shirt: again a little too big for him, and had not been James', but still was James', who seemed to care slightly less than Remus did when he had no clothes left to wear.
James and Sirius had always been like brothers, even from first year; they were practically clones of one another, however James was slightly more arrogant, and Sirius was slightly more pretentious, but they really did fit together instantly. Whereas, Remus, although just as close with Sirius as James was, found themselves having a different kind of relationship, however it seemed to exist on terms that neither could explain, because indeed they were best, best friends, but they didn't have the whole practically brothers thing that had been second nature between James and Sirius.
Remus had wondered if this was his fault, but he indeed decided that it was better not to dwell on it, as it wasn't negatively impacting their friendship, in fact, it wasn't impacting it at all; Remus was just being paranoid, and over thinking, as Lily would say.
The thing wasn't so much of a relevant issue now, now that Remus was fifteen and had the threat of near death to look forward to every month, but instead something tucked away at the side of his mind, that liked to play up and ruin everything for him every once in awhile; this thing, was that little crush he'd developed on Sirius Black in third year.
Which had indeed been the be all and end all of the entire world at age thirteen, when Remus was stumbling over his own feet when it came to sexuality and who he could possibly be, and the fact that he found his stomach doing backflips whenever he looked at one of his best friends certainly didn't help, but with time, and with several conversations with Lily, who was indeed surprisingly good at issues pertaining to relationships and sexuality, he had come to terms with himself, and the fact that he was bisexual, which had kind of meant the entire world when he was thirteen, but was just something he found himself brushing over now.
And what had been a world destroying crush on one of his best friends had dwindled with time and faded out into an occasional reminder that Sirius was indeed incredibly attractive, whenever the fifteen year old might happen to pout, or grin, or exist, but that was harmless, that was nothing, because the general consensus throughout the school was that Sirius Black was attractive; Lily had even conducted an anonymous survey upon several Gryffindor girls to prove the point to Remus, which he had very much appreciated, but also found himself feeling slightly jealous of, which was perhaps the most ridiculous thing of all, because Remus didn't own Sirius - Sirius could date and do whatever (and whoever) he wished, and it just happened that it seemed that to be that he was only interested in doing such things with girls, which had been an emotional hurdle at first, but was now absolutely fine.
Remus occasionally enjoyed a glance at Sirius Black's ass or leaning into him in the sofa, or teasing him to the point it was practically flirting, but he accepted that there would never be anything more than that, because that was the thing - it had been almost two years of knowing who he was, but Remus had never quite managed to tell anyone besides Lily, who had pretty much found out herself, because she was Lily Evans, and seemed to possess this absolutely unfair ability to read things from people like they were books.
It wasn't like Remus was keeping anything from them, or not purposefully at least, because he really did dislike the whole confrontational aspect of coming out, and Remus Lupin was so much more witty comments than a big James Potter show of jumping up onto a table in the middle of the common room and declaring it from the top of his lungs, and as such, he had told himself that he'd just casually slip it into conversation somehow, eventually, but somehow the opportunity had never quite arisen, because it wasn't the same as being gay, because he could still talk about girls, and indeed Remus Lupin was very attracted to girls, but just attracted to boys too.
He wondered if it would come down to just grabbing a guy and a girl at the same time and kissing them both in front of his friends, but he did suspect that would enforce some rather negative stereotypes about bisexuality. And it wasn't like they were homophobic either; they hadn't really mentioned the topic of homosexuality very often, and when they had brushed upon it, it was rather simply and casually handled, and he knew for certain that James would be perfectly fine with him dating anyone as long as they weren't a Slytherin, and Peter would agree with James as Peter had a certain habit of doing, and Sirius... he didn't quite know about Sirius, but he knew that Sirius valued his friendship with him much more than who he might be kissing.
Or at least he hoped so.
"Did they agree?" James' voice snapped Remus out of his own thoughts: certain thoughts that may or may not have gravitated towards Sirius' adam's apple and his eyes, and his- Remus forced himself to cough slightly, and look away from Sirius in general: managing to compose himself into a sufficient state of apparent heterosexuality by the time Peter had made it up the stairs.
"Well, Evans did suspect that this might be all a massive ploy to get her to kiss you, which I do admit, after thinking about it, she has a point, but I'm not going to judge you because it's a relatively good ploy considering that despite this, they still agreed to play." Sirius offered James a knowing wink, leaving Remus stood even more confused than he had been before, as to what James could possibly be planning that involved himself with a chance of kissing Lily Evans.
"You've got to admit this was an awesome idea," James beamed, looking at his own reflection in the mirror, and winking, leaving the other three boys to cringe horribly, because James Potter was easily the worst person in the world.
"I still have no idea what is going on," Remus reminded them, folding his arms as he leaned back against his bedpost and raked his gaze over the other three boys: wishing that he possessed Lily's people reading skills, in order to just extract the answer from Peter's face or something, however, he most certainly did not, and all he got from Peter's face was that he was far too excited about what was possibly to come.
"We're playing truth or dare, with the girls, in the common room," Peter spoke up, face falling into a grin, "it was my idea. It's a muggle game, have you played before?"
Remus knew immediately that this was a bad idea, yet also had the possibility to be terribly amusing and terribly embarrassing both for himself and for other people, and in truth, there was no point weighing out the negatives and positives because he was undoubtedly going to get dragged into this regardless of whether he really wanted to or not. "Course I've played." Remus found himself remembering last summer at his cousin's house and the massive game that had spanned on for several days and was responsible for the demise of a kitchen sink and the dignity of almost all of the players. "Can I ask why we're playing, though?"
"Cause James wants one of us to dare him to kiss Lily." Sirius was very nonchalant about the whole matter: seemingly unconcerned by the very immediate truth that Lily Evans would rather do anything than kiss James Potter, and in turn, the kinds of arguments that could come of this, but then again, Sirius never tended to think about things logical, or in particular the negative consequences of them, and as annoying as it was, it was a vital part of what make him Sirius Black, and Remus couldn't argue with that.
"James, have you ever actually played?" Remus found himself asking, wondering just quite how such an idea had come into James' head- well Peter, obviously, but as to how such an idea had come from Peter's words to something James considered to be an excellent idea.
"Yeah, I played when I stayed at Peter's over summer - some muggle things are actually quite cool, you know?" James seemed awfully proud of himself, and glanced around as if he deserved an award for having played truth or dare once in his life. "Sirius." He stressed, meeting the shorter boy's eyes with a smirk.
"It's my family that are all anti-muggle, not me." Sirius shot him an awkward kind of half hearted glare: as if he wasn't quite sure whether to bother with being offended or not, or as if he actually was offended, but all such offense fizzled out when he tried directing it at James Potter, because in truth, Remus doubted that Sirius and James had ever had a serious argument. Thinking about it, he doubted that any of them had ever had a serious argument with one another. "And I am very open to playing truth or dare," Sirius added: his eyes boring into James, as if to make a point, which was likely to be his sole intention, considering that he was Sirius Black, and that 'petty drama queen' was practically his middle name, "I'll have you know."
"And what about you, Remus?" James turned his attention back to Remus with a very typical shit eating grin, that seemed to be sponsored by his soon to be crushed and devoured hopes and dreams of kissing Lily Evans at some point within the next hour or so. "Or would you rather go to bed?"
"I mean..." Remus trailed off: a small smile tugging like an excited child to a hand at the corners of his lips, "I am pretty tired, but... there's the possibility of watching you getting totally humiliated, so, fuck sleep."
"Ever so eloquent, aren't we, Moony?" Sirius shook him a smirk as James and Peter made their way out of the dormitory and towards the common room; he, however, stood lingering in the doorway as he watched Remus grab one of his several hundred sweaters and pull it over his head and roll the sleeves up his arms in order to retain the function of his hands, before making his way after Peter and James.
"Of course, of course." Remus gave him a grin as he walked through the doorway, driving Sirius' heart into a backflip for reasons he still hadn't quite managed to decipher.
-
Within fifteen minutes or so later, Sirius found himself sat in a circle on the Gryffindor common room floor, with Remus to his right and James to his left, and indeed wondering whether this had all been so much of a good idea, because in all honesty, he wasn't entirely sure as to what was just about to occur, but from what he had gathered from Peter and James, you either picked truth or dare, and then someone gave you either a dare to complete or a truth to tell, and if you failed to do so, then you'd be given a forfeit.
Sirius didn't even have that much of an idea as to what could possibly come of the game, yet somehow found the mystery of it all intriguing, and from the way Remus couldn't keep a grin off his lips for a solid minute, (not that Sirius was paying all that much attention to Remus' lips, of course) and indeed the way that Remus had actually willingly chosen to partake in this, for the sake of witnessing what could possibly come, as opposed to going to bed, have most definitely given Sirius high expectations.
In truth, he did feel somewhat guilty that they'd prevented Remus from sleeping in order to drag him down to the common room to play some game with the girls which may or may not result in James getting severely embarrassed, because Sirius couldn't help but find himself incredibly well aware of how tired Remus tended to be, despite the amount of sleep he might get, and indeed Sirius didn't doubt that he could sleep just about anywhere at any time, and through anything.
This was of course down to Remus' 'furry little problem', and it was that which left Sirius feeling quite so guilty, because despite how Remus was always the first person to joke about how ill it made him, and indeed werewolves in general, which was likely due to the fact that since he couldn't do anything to cure it, he might as well make the best of it, which was a pretty good mentality to have, in earnest, but still, Sirius felt slightly concerned- well more than slightly concerned for Remus, because especially with school starting, he needed to get some sleep, otherwise he'd undoubtedly end up in the hospital wing more than he needed to be, and this all wasn't helped by that scar: cutting Remus' face in two.
Because as much as Sirius was determined to simply write off its existence and ignore it, and treat Remus as what he was, which was so much more than his injuries, and so much more than a scar; he just couldn't help catching sight of it, and feeling an odd stinging cross his heart, because he wished terribly, he wished more than anything that he could even fathom something he could do in aid of it that would really make some kind of difference, that would make indeed any kind of difference, because as little as he wanted to admit it; Sirius had found himself with this nagging sensation at the back of his mind, which flagged up whenever he caught sight of the scar, because there was indeed no way around the truth in the fact that this was the worst injury Remus had given himself on the full moon, at least the worst in four years, but Sirius highly doubted that Remus had ever possessed such power at ten years old.
And Sirius found himself brought back to the winter of third year when Remus had cut into his back and come close to damaging his spine, which had left everyone on edge for a good few months afterwards, but in the end, Remus had been fine, and he had in fact be the only one who'd remained calm and even somewhat jovial throughout the experience, even when he'd been in the hospital wing for a week straight, and Sirius found himself going there to sit by his bed: regardless of whether he was awake or not, often just to avoid the arguments and cut-throat atmosphere that Remus' prolonged absence had left up in the dormitory; James had started snapping at everyone and everything and had even yelled at Peter once before quickly apologising after Peter's face fall drastically and Sirius had thought for a moment that Peter was about to cry, because there had never been any doubt that Peter thought the world of James Potter, and that in that moment, his expectations had shattered slightly.
He couldn't bare things to come to that extent again, and he found himself promising that they wouldn't, because somehow, maybe if he just kept hoping and wishing, Remus would be fine and this scar would be a one off because indeed that scar from third year had been a one off for the most part, and things had been fine- well, no worse than normal for the months that followed, but gradually, things had definitely gotten worse over time, and Sirius knew he couldn't be the only one who'd thought so, and indeed knowing Remus, who never wanted people to fuss over him, he had noticed, and he had noticed before Sirius had and never said a word to anyone.
Besides Lily; Sirius had gathered that Remus had said something of meaning to Lily over the summer due to that hug, which certainly held a great deal more meaning than any other hug - there was no way around that. Much as there was no way around the odd feeling of jealousy Sirius found himself acquainted with when he thought of what Remus had found himself able to confide in Lily, but not him. He did however try to brush it off, and wonder if Remus would tell him with time, as Remus had always talked to Sirius about his 'furry little problem' more than he had to James or Peter, and this was likely as when the time came, Sirius did possess the ability to become suddenly very quiet and very solemn, and listen to Remus talk for hours, and never interrupt and yell like Peter and James simply couldn't help themselves from doing.
And in earnest, Sirius wasn't entirely sure as to where such a power had originated from, because he knew himself to be indeed anything but a patient person, or a quiet person, or a calm person, which made it clear, if only not to Sirius, that it was Remus himself who had this effect upon him.
And in earnest, Sirius couldn't help fear the next full moon perhaps as much as Remus did, or indeed judging by the almost nonchalant grin that hung loosely across his lips, more so, because it was at this point, at fifteen years old, that Remus was starting to get tired of it all, because he'd lived through over a decade of transitions, and to some degree, it simply didn't matter quite so much more to him at this point, because a scar was what you made of it, and he was definite that his scars would be nothing more than scars, and he would be a werewolf, indeed, but by no means a monster.
Remus threw Sirius a grin: the grin was however constructed on a rather unstable foundation of concern and worry, having happened upon the distant, perhaps startled light in Sirius' eyes, and the way he'd seemed to have zoned out slightly, "Sirius?" His voice had come out somewhat more croaky than he'd anticipated and he quickly covered it with a cough as he felt the warm, red fingers of a blush crawling at his cheeks.
"Oh... uhh.." The dark haired boy blinked slightly: stumped when it came to thinking of an explanation or indeed anything to say that differed significantly from 'tell me why it's getting worse, I don't care if you don't know, please just tell me something, because I can't stop looking at that scar, and I don't think I'll ever stop worrying'.
Thankfully, however, Sirius found such a hurdle removed from his path as the low murmur of conversation that had filled the room in the form of background noise ceased with a loud sharp clap as James threw his hands together, and pulled his gaze around the circle before offering each person the absolute honour of witnessing James Potter at full arrogance potential, which was indeed quite the intriguing sight, but of course, intrigue didn't always go hand in hand with the good in the world.
"I think we're about ready to start." James announced after a good fifteen minutes spent discussing the rules with Lily, who wasn't at all content with just a few rushed ideas that Peter had suggested for James to add in a much louder tone of voice; no one of course really blamed Lily for her dissatisfaction, considering that it was practically common knowledge that the initial purpose for this entire escapade was the thin possibility of James somehow managing a kiss from Lily Evans, and in the end, Lily had resorted to writing out a full set of rules, which Alice had begun to contribute to also, and Alice was very much known for writing much more than was necessary and going off on unnecessary tangents, which she really couldn't be blamed for - it wasn't her fault that she had a lot to say, and she most certainly sat in a better position than Sirius who for the most part had absolutely no opinion on things such as mandrake repotting, or the use rare ingredients in potions, which were namely two essays he'd gotten just a little more help from Remus than was perhaps looked positively upon.
"No, I think you should spend another two hours making another set of rules, you know, just in case that set doesn't quite work. Like a backup set?" Remus gained a few laughs at his comment, but a full on glare from Lily, who didn't quite seem to appreciate how casually Remus was taking the whole game, or indeed his whole life, and her argument for that was the fact that he faced the possibility of death or severe injury on a monthly basis, yet it was also Remus' argument for taking things quite so casually.
"Nothing wrong with a backup set, James." Sirius found himself adding: shuffling closer to Remus as James' eyes began to tear into him: hoping that Remus would somehow protect him with the power of oversized sweaters and unnecessary sarcasm, which when put together were definitely truly terrifying.
"Nothing wrong with you stopping being a prat, Sirius." James countered, only managing to retain the facade of anger, for a good ten seconds before simply throwing Sirius a lazy grin instead, "although that might be a bit difficult for you, mightn't it?"
"You can talk." Sirius scoffed, and there was indeed no doubt about the fact that he had the support of the entire circle on that one.
"Right," Lily raised her voice slightly, "are we playing or not? Because I don't recall this being my idea, or even something I was all that keen to agree upon-"
"Come on, Lily, don't be a spoilsport." Surprisingly, it was Remus, not James who the prior comment came from, which seemed to surprise the entire room to an extent, leaving Remus looking just a little too amused with himself.
"Alright, Remus." She seemed to take much more kindly to that kind of comment on Remus' behalf, and in turn, simply did all she could to ignore the way James was staring at her, with his mouth open slightly, and indeed in anything but a manner that could even consider being described with a word such as 'discreet' or any of its derivatives. "So, the rules," she held up the piece of parchment she had previously complied, with help from Alice, and much displeasure on James' part, "rule number one: you pick either truth or dare, and you don't get to change your mind. Then the last person who played gives you a truth or a dare, and you complete it. Sounds simple, huh? It is. If you don't, the forfeit is that the whole group decides upon a much harder truth or dare, so say you declined eating a vomit flavoured Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean, then someone could get you, to, I don't know, kiss James as a forfeit, as that's obviously a much worse option. Speaking of kissing James, I will, absolutely under no circumstances be doing so, I do not care, you can all shove off. And those are the official rules."
"Seeing how long you took, those aren't actually very comprehensive," Remus found himself speaking up, and Sirius found himself unable to prevent a smile from creeping over his lips, "for a start, those rules apply that absolutely anything goes, so therefore someone could be like, hey Lily since you won't kiss James, how about you go and have sex with James in a cupboard - it's a dare," Remus wondered if he might regret that example at how overexcited James looked at the prospect, "and then you'd left with a forfeit, and I think we'd really struggle to think of anything worse than sex with James, so then you might have to go and have sex with James and Peter, so-"
"Okay!" Lily yelled: her cheeks going quite red, "nothing too explicit or just outrageous, say if you think your truth or dare is outrageous, then we can vote on it?" There was a general nod from the group; James however, still found himself faced with the moral dilemma of whether he'd still agree to have sex with Lily if only on the condition that Peter was also involved, and therefore far too consumed in his own head to consider even a small nod.
"Who's going first?" Mary asked, looking around the circle with particularly wide eyes, as if she might intimidate someone into volunteering, and indeed, somehow she had, although, it was suspected that it wasn't quite her doing, and more so, the fact that Sirius Black was an idiot.
"I'll go first," he proclaimed, glancing up at Remus: looking somehow proud of himself, "I'm gonna go for dare." And indeed everyone had seen that one coming because Sirius Black was all outrageous, unexplainable ridiculous acts that always seemed to get him into more trouble than it was worth, and a total absence of heartfelt confessions relating to his personal life.
Lily took the liberty of supplying Sirius with his dare, since she had declared herself as somewhat of the leader of the game, seeing as she'd gone as far as to write out a specific set of rules, because as largely vague as they had turned out to be, she had put that kind of effort in, and well, she deserved some sort of compensation for that, or if not, compensation for the fact that the only thing between her and James Potter was a rather nervous and giddy looking Peter Pettigrew.
"Okay, I dare you to..." She paused slightly as several ideas ran through her head, as she did indeed consider just what she felt so inclined to pressure Sirius Black into doing; she was indeed a lot better when it came to thinking of truths, and she didn't want to start the game off with a kind of painstakingly cliche dare. "Hmm... hey, I dare you to wear your hair in braid for the next week." There was a slight giggle in response, as everyone glanced at Sirius in order to gauge his reaction.
Sirius, however only shrugged it off, "sure. Why not? Nothing like a new hairstyle choice, is there?" He winked around the room, yet found himself with the certain problem of finding his gaze fixating, almost automatically on Remus, who in truth, looked slightly red faced. "I can't braid, though." Sirius admitted with a shrug, "so if someone wants to do it for me, then I'm-"
"I can." Remus' voice appeared rather timidly at first: with all eyes on him and indeed a thousand questions around the room. "Lily taught me in first year - I'm not entirely sure why, but..." Remus only found himself shrugging once more, and indeed somewhat at a struggle to push words out as he found Sirius moving closer towards him and brushing his hair backwards with his fingers. "I'll do it."
"Sure, you couldn't do better than that, Evans?" Sirius found himself more than amused at the prospect of wearing his hair in a braid for the following week, which was inevitably something he would come to regret by tomorrow at least, but it'd certain cause quite the reaction, and it was widely known fact that Sirius Black was quite the sucker for attention. "Alright, so how do we-" He choked on his own words slightly as he felt the slight tug of Remus' long fingers in his hair, and that shouldn't have done anything to him, but suddenly there was this buzzing sensation all over him, and- "decide who goes next?"
"Oh we probably need like a bottle to spin or something, or we could just go around the circle? I mean, it doesn't matter so much, does it?" Alice offered, speaking to Sirius and indeed looking in his direction, but with her gaze fixated on Remus' fingers pulling his hair into a braid much more than on the matter of making eye contact.
"Circle seems easier," Lily agreed and followed the circle around from Sirius to James, and perhaps immediately regretted her decision.
"Okay, so James," Sirius felt one hell of a grin fall onto his face as the power to potentially humiliate James fell into his hands, "truth or dare?"
James didn't wait one second before letting out a screech in the form of, "dare!" Which Sirius couldn't help himself from laughing at, because James looked like an idiot now, and it'd certainly be one hell of a challenge to make him look more like an idiot - if such a thing were even possible.
"Alright," Sirius leaned back into Remus, glancing up slightly and catching a slight grin on his lips as he continued to braid Sirius' hair, which was something that Sirius couldn't deny that he was perhaps slightly intrigued to see the results of - who knows? Maybe it'd look cute, maybe he could totally rock it, because who the fuck said braids weren't punk rock, because they were fucking wrong. "I dare you... to... wait- hey, Moony, do you remember that poem that he wrote in like third year-"
"Absolutely fucking not you can fuck right off right there!" There was no denying the fact that James instantly flushed a horrible shade of red, and there was no denying the fact that Sirius was laughing so hard that he was struggling to breathe.
"I dare you... to just... not even read this poem, but just explain the premise and story behind this poem, and maybe just recite that excellent first line, all while you look Lily in the eyes." Sirius finished: already far too proud of himself, and James couldn't blame him, because besides the fact that was he feeling personally victimised right now, it was a fucking amazing dare.
"What poem is this?" Lily found herself making the mistake of daring to ask.
"I wonder who it could possibly be about." Marlene added, giving Mary a slight nudge with her arm as she gestured between Lily and James, which looked a lot like she was pointing at Peter, which initially rendered Mary just that little bit confused until she finally managed to stitch things together.
"Well..." James let out a sigh, considering punching himself in the face as indeed the preferable option in that moment, "in third year, I decided to write a poem for Lily, about Lily, and well, being thirteen, it wasn't such a good poem... and... Sirius found it one day, and I ended up being blackmailed by him for a good two weeks on the threat that he'd show the thing to Lily, until I eventually snatched it back and burned the thing."
"And that first line?" Alice prompted: eyes wide with interest, and cursing the fact that a treasure as great as a James Potter love poem had to be lost, as it was truly a relic of their time.
"Lily, you are as beautiful as a lily flower but a red one because you have red hair." James found himself burying his face in his hands as the room exploded with laughter.
"Did it by any chance continue with 'lilies are red, Lily's eyes aren't blue-" Marlene began: her words punctuated with uncontrollable fits of laughter, that indeed neither James nor Lily seemed to particularly appreciate.
"Moving on!" Lily exclaimed with a particular exertion of vocal force, "I believe it's Peter's turn next, is it not?"
"Uhh... truth..." Peter's face was already a bright shade of red, and it was evident that he didn't particularly fancy reciting poetry or donning a braid for the next week, and was only hopeful that James won't pull up something particularly traumatising to ask him, but Sirius, for one, didn't put such a thing out of James' power.
"How many people in this room have you had inappropriate thoughts about?" James' words came accompanied by a wink and and absolutely horrified look upon Peter's face.
"That's a bit vague, don't you think?" Lily spoke up: perhaps trying to save Peter from the absolute terror that was James Potter, as she could very much relate to his current situation - the situation of James insisting that she do something that she'd rather die than do, which was something she experienced far too often and even to the point that she found herself somewhat accustomed to it.
"Yeah, should be something like how many people have you kissed, except maybe not this room because I don't think Peter has kissed any of us," Mary continued, however she only left Peter blushing further, because it was indeed a well known truth that Peter Pettigrew had not kissed anyone.
"I haven't kissed anyone-" Peter admitted, and truthfully too: a red flush clinging to his cheeks as if held to them by dozens of tiny little hands.
"That's anti-climactic. I want some answers, can I ask another question or can I have my original question?" James seemed to be more than determined to embarrass Peter, and considering the poetry incident, Sirius couldn't quite blame him; Sirius was also beginning to think that Remus didn't have as much of an idea how to braid as he had promised, since he was taking much longer than Sirius would have deemed necessary.
Yet, the truth was that Remus was perfectly well aware of how to braid, but just so fucking well aware of how nice it was to play with Sirius' hair, and in truth, he'd found himself getting somewhat lost with half a braid forming in Sirius' hair and a hell of a lot more on Remus' mind.
"How about?" Alice proposed, letting out a sigh, "we do it as a group thing, and everyone says how many people they've kissed, but no names, and hey how about the person who has kissed the most people wins and gets... like a free pass?" It wasn't a bad idea, and indeed an idea Sirius would have been very much behind if he had kissed anyone other than this one girl when he was ten, which really hadn't been much of a pleasant experience in the first place, because the thing was, that Sirius had been asked by at least ten girls now to go to Hogsmeade or spend some time with him, or anything along those lines, and Sirius had turned each and every single one of them down, and for nothing other than the simple fact that he just wasn't interesting in kissing those girls - sure he was interested in kissing, but, hey maybe he just had high standards- and well, in truth, Sirius was a little stumped on the matter. Therefore, he decided to lie, and go with a solid three in hopes that people would believe him.
"Okay, so I've kissed two people." Lily began, looking directly at James as she spoke, as if to prove a point.
"Four." Alice offered with a smile, leaving Sirius definite that he wasn't going to win this free pass regardless of whether he lied or not, because three was believable, five was pushing it.
"One." Marlene admitted, grinning a little, which was something Sirius didn't quite comprehend, because she was quite pretty, but then again, he'd also consider himself quite pretty- well, really very pretty.
"Two." Mary added, glancing expectantly at Remus, who suddenly found a bright red colour encasing his cheeks in the silence as he came to realise that he was required to answer.
Eventually, however, he let out a muffled, "six." To which, Lily nodded - as she could confirm the details of all of Remus Lupin's romantic adventures as they had been described to her in at times unnecessary amounts of detail, however, James was nowhere near as satisfied with Remus' response, and was about to call him out on it, when a voice called up from the other side of the portrait hole.
"I can hear you in there, especially you, Mr Potter. It's one in the morning, go to bed! You have classes tomorrow, are you not aware? I thought as quidditch captain you may have assumed some responsibility, but it seems not."
James' eyes widened in shock, letting out a startled whisper that took the form of, "McGonagall - run," before he leapt to his feet and ran across the common room and up the stairs, leaving the others to follow.
And in the commotion, Sirius found himself tripping slightly and grasping at the nearest thing he could find in order to keep himself from falling, and that thing just happened to be Remus Lupin's hand, which left Sirius' eyes somewhat wide as he realised just what he'd done, but he felt Remus' fingers only gripping him tighter as he pulled him closer and up the stairs: leaving the two just at the dormitory door as the portrait hole swung open: undoubtedly to reveal Professor McGonagall, although neither of the boys were inclined to check, as they stumbled into the dormitory after James and Peter, leaving Sirius somewhat dumbfounded as he felt an odd sort of disappointment all over as Remus' hand finally slipped from his.
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honestly this chapter 11k words thats some just off the key of reason type shit i don't know what happened i am a wreck vote and comment if u are also a wreck love u v much !!! :))