Chapter Text
Sirius has made a point to never learn the names of anyone in other Houses. In his astute opinion, there was no need. Everyone who was not in Gryffindor must lack some intrinsic qualities which would therefore make them utterly intolerable as companions. And the Marauders - all three of them - did not need any intolerable fourths, thank you very much.
Which was a well and fine philosophy to have until fifth year began and he inched closer to his 16th birthday, realizing, oh well actually some of the birds in other Houses had a number of qualities that were not intolerable at all. And it seemed they were happy to share their not-intolerable qualities with long-haired Gryffindors with jaunty smirks. James was still saving himself for the Hufflepuff redhead (and no, Sirius would not be learning her name for aforementioned reasons ) and Peter had done little more than snog his long-term girlfriend, Dorcas, so Sirius quickly became the coolest and most experienced Marauder. Perhaps the coolest and most experienced boy in all of Gryffindor.
A lot could change in the first two weeks of fifth year, he thought cheerfully, while buttoning his trousers. The girl he was with, Jane - who had remarkably shiny hair, Sirius notes almost enviously - was adjusting her own robes and opened her mouth to say something (probably about Sirius’ skill, handsomeness, or both) when the sound of someone clearing their throat echoed through the empty corridor.
Jane clapped a hand over her mouth to conceal her loud gasp, and Sirius spun on his heel to watch a tall figure come closer to the two of them. In the orange glow of torchlight, Sirius can make out the lad's swotty fucking Prefect’s badge. And he’s a Ravenclaw - the biggest swots of Hogwarts.
Sirius narrows his eyes at the mousy-haired lad, noting instantly the scars slashed across his long nose. To Sirius’ surprise the boy is wearing a very faint grin as his eyes (they were remarkably honey-colored) flicker between Sirius and Jane. Sirius crosses his arms across his chest, ready to challenge this peeping tom, when Tom begins to speak to Jane.
“Keeping busy already, Jane?”
To Sirius’ surprise his date for the night chuckles into her palm, “Oh you know how I am, Lupin.”
Sirius looks back at Jane who’s still leaning prettily against the wall, but her eyes are locked on the mysterious ‘Lupin’.
Lupin turns to Sirius then, and shoots him a wink that is so quick Sirius might’ve missed it had he not been watching him so closely. In Sirius’ experience, Prefect’s always meant trouble. Even the tall disarming ones with nice eyes and cool scars.
Lupin looks over his shoulder, cups his hands to his mouth, and shouts, “All clear down here, Lils!” He turns back to Jane and Sirius, lifts a finger to his lips in silent instruction to be quiet, and then turns to rejoin ‘Lils’. Sirius is gobsmacked.
“He’s the nicest.” Jane whispers while she extracts herself from the wall and motions for Sirius to follow. “I was so relieved when I saw he was made Prefect. I knew he’d go easy on other 5th years.”
“He’s a fifth year?” Sirius frowns. He hadn’t thought fifth years came in such tall sizes.
Jane looks at him with a curious frown of her own. “Well, yeah. He’s Remus Lupin… Y’know, president of the Dueling Club? Currently working as a research assistant for Kettleburn? Top of our class?” When Sirius’ blank stare persisted, Jane huffed a surprised breath, “Huh. I thought you Marauders knew everyone.”
Sirius scoffs, suddenly feeling very haughty. “No, love. Everyone knows us .”
Jane bit her bottom lip and grinned at him - properly charmed. Sirius kissed her briefly goodnight and split off to return to Gryffindor tower.
-
“There he is again!” Sirius gasped, and used his spoon to jab unceremoniously across the tabletop and towards the Ravenclaw table. Porridge flew from his spoon and landed on Peter’s nose.
“What, the Prefect you keep going on about?” James asks through a yawn. He’s spreading so much jam on his toast, Sirius is beginning to wonder if there was even a slice of bread there to begin with.
“I don’t keep going on about him -”
Peter, still wiping porridge from his nose, scoffs, “Ever since you got back from fooling around with that Hufflepuff it’s all you’ve talked about.”
Sirius glares at him, and considers tossing more porridge in his face, when James decides to interject with his own unasked for commentary. “Yeah, he’s right. What’s the big deal about him anyway? So he let you off, there are plenty of Prefect’s who are chill-”
“It’s the way Jane talked about him.” Sirius says, “As if I was out of the loop for not knowing the bloke’s name. As if I, Sirius Black, was supposed to know a Ravenclaw’s name. And what kind of name is Remus , anyways. He’s lucky he’s cool I guess-”
“Oh wait.” Peter sat up straighter, and cocked his round head to the side in interest, “You’re talking about Remus Lupin? Why didn’t you say so.”
Sirius narrows his eyes and opens his mouth to say something biting and unnecessarily harsh, when James adds with a light-hearted chuckle, “Yeah, hang on, I know Lupin too. Nicest lad you’ll ever meet.”
Sirius feels utterly betrayed. His two friends clearly do not notice his ire, because they go on with one another in all their idiot glee.
“He’s been tutoring me in History of Magic since second year.” Peter says, more so to James than Sirius, since Sirius is glaring at him viciously.
James adds, “He has me listed on the Dueling Club roster even though I can only go to every other meeting - ‘cause of Quidditch and all. He said he understood and was still happy to give me the credit on my transcript.”
“ And, of course, he’s best friends with future Mrs. Potter.” Peter supplies, while rolling his eyes. James flushes and kicks Peter’s shin under the table.
“Just because he’s Lily’s best friend doesn’t mean I can’t like him separately-”
“Right because there’s nothing Remus can offer for you- ”
“Can I just say!” Sirius snaps, feeling very ignored which is probably his most despised feeling, “I think it’s absurd you gits have been carrying on facilitating friendships with members of other Houses. He seems like a great big swot to me-”
“You were just saying last night you thought he was capital-”
“Because he let me off without detention.” Sirius snaps at Peter. “Besides,” He rounds on James now, who is munching away on his pile of jam, “I thought you despised every bloke who came within a 10 meter radius of your Hufflepuff. What’s this sudden change of heart?”
“He’s gay.” James says simply, after a massive swallow.
Sirius flounders - opens and closes his mouth like an idiot trout - and then whines, “How the bloody hell do you know so much about this bloke!”
James says, “Dueling club.” just as Peter supplies, “Tutoring.”
Sirius glares down at his untouched porridge and pouts. He isn’t sure why the idea that his best mates were already keen on the interesting Ravenclaw Prefect - that Sirius had thought was his own exciting discovery - ticked him off so fiercely. Though as James and Peter did whenever Sirius got into one of his unreasonable moods, they barreled on and came up with a prank so absurd even Sirius’ moping could not hold out against it.
-
“So, we meet again.” A familiar voice says a few meters away from where Sirius was charming a handful of dungbombs to the back of a suit of armor. Sirius nearly jumps out of his skin.
“Fuckin’ hell, you’re a sneaky bastard aren’t you?” Sirius hisses. Lupin has his hands hitched in the pockets of his robes, and lifts one shoulder in an infuriatingly casual shrug.
“I’ve been told I have light footsteps.”
“Well that’s putting it lightly.” Sirius hadn’t even realized the pun until Lupin raised an eyebrow and grimaced. Sirius sighed.
“Look, I promise I’m not doing anything… Unseemly.”
“Oh yes I’m sure.” Lupin nods with sarcastic confidence, “Nothing suspicious at all about sticking dungbombs onto a suit of armor’s arse.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.” Sirius chirps with a face-splitting grin. Lupin grins back at him.
“Look, I let you off the hook once, but I really can’t keep giving you a pass-”
“Oh but why not .” Sirius sighs. And perhaps he’s whining, but Lupin deserves a good whinge.
“Because I’m a Prefect,” Lupin even motions to his stupid little badge, as if Sirius was especially dull, “and I’d quite like to keep the job an extra year, thanks.”
“Why?” Sirius snaps. He crosses his arms and lifts his chin - internally cursing Lupin and his abnormal height. Utterly unlike Sirius who is a perfect height for a 15 year old.
“Well,” Lupin leans against the wall and actually looks like he’s considering his answer to Sirius’ petulant demand. He waves around the arm not pressed to the wall and says, “I would like to get into a good university program after Hogwarts, and being a Prefect looks rather impressive on an application.”
“Yeah, well…” Sirius racks his mind for a retort. Fuck Lupin and his mild-mannered grin and logic . “I’m sure admissions counselors would also like to see some… Excitement.”
Remus raises an eyebrow and looks playfully intrigued. “Is that so?”
Sirius nods, “Sure. Perhaps a-er… A brush with the law.”
“Certainly.” Remus nods once, “My next plan, after becoming Prefect, was actually to be arrested.”
Sirius bites so hard on the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, he thinks he might’ve drawn blood. Going off Lupin’s knowing grin, Sirius is sure he did a poor job hiding his mirth.
From somewhere over Lupin’s shoulder there was the sound of approaching voices. Lupin glanced back once, and then turned to Sirius with a resigned expression. “Oh just go on.” He says with a sigh, “But if you’re obvious enough to get caught again I’m giving you detention.”
“I accept your challenge.” Sirius says, and makes no effort to conceal his smile. Lupin waves him off dismissively and then turns to rejoin his other Prefects in the corridor over. Sirius watches him round the corner before hightailing it towards Gryffindor tower, blessing his luck and unflappable charm. Without both there was no way Lupin would’ve let him go again.
-
It’s like he sees Lupin everywhere after that. Sitting in Charms, he looks over and there’s the tall bloke scribbling away on a piece of parchment. In Care of Magical Creatures, there he is again, hoisting different tanks and cages from one side of the room to the other for Kettleburn. At lunch, who else would be sitting directly in Sirius’ line of sight, devouring a sandwich and reading a textbook.
“ Oi, gerroff me.” James grunts, and shoves Sirius bodily off of him. So perhaps ‘directly in Sirius’ line of sight’ is more like ‘directly in Sirius’ line of sight once he drapes the entire upper half of his body across James to get a better look’.
“I think he’s stalking me.” Sirius says. “That’s the only explanation.”
“You’ve gone mad.” James replies. But then a certain Hufflepuff with wild red hair comes jogging into the Great Hall and James promptly starts to choke on his pumpkin juice. And Sirius is the mad one.
-
Sirius manages to forget about his stalker for the next few weeks. He makes good on his assurance to Lupin and does not get caught after hours again.
He hooks up with Jane a few more times, just for the bragging rights really, and then sets his sights on a sixth year Gryffindor who gives him eyes after a Quidditch match. “I love a good Beater” she had said, and while Sirius thought that was the worst chat-up he’d ever heard, he appreciated the effort.
The night before his first soiree with Ms. Sixth Year, he has James pierce his ear for him. There’s a lot of screaming involved, some blood, some tears (Peter’s, inexplicably), but all in all it’s worth it when the 6th year Gryffindor is feeling him up and says “Oh how cool .”
The next morning, when Sirius is trying to brag about his escapades from the night before, James gets a faraway look in his eye and asks slowly, “Hang on… Why’d you want your ear pierced again?”
Sirius scoffs, “Because it’s cool .”
“And… It has nothing to do with Lupin?” James raises an eyebrow. His lips are beginning to tug into one of those asinine grins of his. Sirius flushes but he isn’t sure why - what does Lupin have to do with anything?
Sirius asks as much and then Peter supplies (unhelpfully, as usual), “Well because Lupin’s the only other bloke I know in our year with his ear pierced. Just the one - same ear you got yours in, actually.”
Sirius’ face feels like it is moments from catching on fire. “I didn’t… I didn’t notice-”
“Oh mate, ” James tosses his head back and cackles. A barking laugh that Sirius does much better. “What is it with you and Remus? You can’t have said more than 15 words in total to the lad-”
“I didn’t notice he had an earring!” Sirius whines and begins self consciously tugging on the small copper hoop. They had transfigured a Knut to make it and it looked bloody sick. Feeling determined to not let his very cool, and totally Lupin-unrelated, piercing go to waste he huffs a dignified breath and says, “And besides I don’t want just one . Tonight we’re gonna do my cartilage too. And my other ear. And maybe my nose.”
Peter turns pale, but James’ face splits into an eager grin. Sirius would be so much more rock and roll than Remus Lupin could ever dream to be.
-
Sirius’ birthday party is in full swing, and he is preening under the attention. Sirius decided he was going to try to look like the Muggle singer, Iggy Pop, so wore a white undershirt and trousers that were a size too small. James insisted he looked incredible, and even Peter - who has no taste whatsoever - looked impressed.
“So yeah ,” Sirius slurs. He’s using one arm to prop himself up against the wall - a shorter girl with curly black hair looking up at him adoringly from under the crook of his elbow. “That’s how I ended up… Wait.” Sirius’ easy grin slips off his face as quickly as his train of thought derails. “Wha’was I saying?”
The girl is laughing at Sirius’ stumble, but then her attention is drawn to something above Sirius’ head and she looks momentarily startled. Intrigued, Sirius drops his arm and twirls around. He comes face to face with, “Prefect!”
Lupin is out of his usual Ravenclaw get-up, now just in blue jeans and a jumper. He’s got wide shoulders for someone their age, Sirius thinks not bitterly.
“Delinquent!” Lupin replies in a mock of Sirius’ cadence. He’s smirking teasingly. Sirius sticks his tongue out at him and Lupin bites his bottom lip around a low chuckle.
Lupin says, “I was about to head out,”
As Sirius says, “I’ve got a earring-”
“-but I wanted to say happy birthday-”
“-d’you like it?”
“What?”
“What?”
Sirius sways on his feet - coming dangerously close to Lupin’s chest - before Lupin reaches out and holds his biceps in a surprisingly firm grip.
“Fuckin' Prefect.” Sirius mutters. Lupin laughs loudly.
“Wow, you’re proper smashed mate.” Lupin shakes his head. Sirius squeezes his eyes shut and whines,
“Now don’t go on doing all that. When you move your head I swear there’s about 15 of you suddenly. Giving me bloody vertigo, you are-”
“Y’know what,” Lupin says under his breath, as though talking to himself, “let’s get you to James.”
“James!” Sirius cries delightedly. While he was busy thinking about James, and the splendor of the world’s greatest best friend, Lupin had taken Sirius by the wrist and gingerly pulled his arm around his shoulders. Those wonderful shoulders, Sirius’ brain supplies. Lupin keeps hold of Sirius’ wrist, and his other arm snakes around his waist which makes Sirius think perhaps he should’ve put on some more clothes.
“Yes, James.” Lupin says slowly, as though he was talking to a child.
“I can’t believe you know James.” Sirius sighs. He leans heavily into Lupin’s side because the Gryffindor common room is turning in menacing circles all around him.
“He’s quite hard to miss.”
“Ha!” Sirius barks, “You’re funny… Funny little Prefect, you are. Swotty little funny Prefect. And fucking tall!”
At this point Lupin is laughing so loudly other people have taken notice. One such person being a certain wild-haired Indian boy - who proceeded to fall flat on his face after a valiant attempt to hop over the back of the couch. Lupin gasps, “Shite! James are you alright-”
James clamors clumsily to his feet, “All good, all good!” He chants. His glasses are hanging menacingly off of a single ear, and his feet are doing a square dance without any seeming consent from the rest of his body. He lurches forward and grabs one of Lupin’s arms, while his other hand starts petting the side of Sirius’ head, “Look at him!” He shouts. “Sixteen!”
Lupin nods slowly, “Yes, he is sixteen-”
“Tha’s my brother.” And while Sirius's vision may be blurry, he can still see an oncoming James Potter Emotional Breakdown with the skill and foresight of Hagrid hunting down garden gnomes. James sniffles and drops his arm from Lupin’s. He pinches the bridge of his nose, and after a shaky breath says in a choked voice, “I love you s’much, man.
“And I believe that is our cue, Rem.” A soft voice says from Lupin’s other side. Sirius catches a quick glimpse of red hair and an exasperated eye roll and thinks viciously, and who is she to call him ‘Rem’.
“I love you.” James sobs, and throws his arms around Sirius’ neck. Sirius squawks rather indignantly and stumbles backwards with James’ tall, lanky, weight now entirely leaning against him. Sirius looks over James' shoulder and catches Lupin’s eye. The Ravenclaw lifts his hand in a stilted wave, and smiles pointedly at James who is now blubbering incoherently into Sirius’ neck.
Sirius holds eye contact with him, until the redhead next to Lupin (and okay , an irritatingly reasonable part of his brain thinks, her name is Lily ) gently tugs his arm and the two leave the Gryffindor common room arm in arm.
-
The next time he runs into Lupin, he’ll admit it’s only partially on purpose.
He had some lovely Ravenclaw girl going down on him, right there on the steps to the Astronomy tower, and the sound of a curt little “ Oh!” made Sirius laugh so loudly the poor girl below him looked mortified. She glared up at him and, with her mouth now free of any obstructions, and looked about ready to give him a piece of her mind. But then that awkward little “Oh!” became: “That’s it, Sirius. I’ve gotta give you detention.” And then the door to the staircase opened and closed once more.
Stacy’s indignation morphed into mild curiosity. Sirius shrugs one of his shoulders, and says, “Prefects, right?”
-
“Hold on.” Sirius stood in the threshold of the Charms classroom. Before him was a meager collection of other unlucky students ranging in age from 12 to 17. Sirius cocks his hip and points accusingly at Professor Flitwick at the front. “I thought Lupin ran his own detentions?”
Flitwick tittered, “No, Mr. Black. My prefects dole out the detentions which I sit for them… But I assure you, I am not a dull prison guard!” The small man claps his hands jovially, “I thought we’d spend the next hour playing trivia!”
There was a collective groan from the room - except from Sirius. Sirius rather enjoyed trivia.
-
Lupin managed to evade Sirius’ attempts to find him for almost the entirety of December. Sure, Sirius was still certain Lupin was engaging in mild stalking - what with how often Sirius noticed him hanging around all of his classes (or at least the ones Gryffindor had with Ravenclaw), eating meals at the Ravenclaw table exactly where Sirius could see him, sneaking off to the loo in the middle of class and thereby distracting Sirius, walking with Lily from the dungeons after Sirius had followed them down there, et cetera - but catching the bloke one on one was proving complicated.
Sirius’ frustration was only exasperated by his traitorous best mates. Peter “oh yeah, I was with Lupin in the library yesterday working on DADA” Pettigrew, and James “I dropped in to a Dueling Club meeting yesterday, Lupin was showing everyone some wild shit” Potter.
So, desperate times called for desperate measures, and Sirius decided another trivia-filled session of detention would be worth the reward. He had Lupin’s rounds practically memorized at this point, so it was only a matter of minutes before he heard a familiar sigh at the mouth of the corridor he was loitering in.
“I must say,” Lupin says while walking slowly towards Sirius, “this is lacking in your usual salacious grandiose.”
Sirius has to bite his bottom lip to keep his smile from growing any wider. “You’re just a pervert, Lupin.”
“Oh, right.” Lupin nods magnanimously, “I forgot doing my job and keeping these noble hallways safe from the deviants of society could also be seen as uncouth.”
“It only seems uncouth to those deviants you so rudely interrupt, Mister Prefect.” Sirius scoffs, and feels a delighted flutter in his chest when Lupin chuckles.
They were standing just a few steps away now. Closer, Sirius notices the deep purple bags under Lupin’s eyes.
Tactless, and unashamed to be so, Sirius asks, “Are you sick?”
Without missing a beat, Lupin lifts his shoulders in a lackadaisical shrug, and says, “Pomfrey believes it’s the flu.”
“What flu?” Sirius persists with an impatient lilt to his voice.
“The Sirius-Black-Is-Annoying-Me-Flu . It’s highly contagious, so do keep your distance.”
Lupin continues walking, continuing his rounds without so much as commenting on the fact Sirius was out of bed past curfew. Sirius scoffs, “I was certain you were immune!”
“Oh no,” Lupin says over his shoulder, “turns out I’m highly vulnerable.”
Sirius fell into step beside him. He knew he was pushing his luck joining Lupin on his rounds, but he hasn’t said anything opposed to Sirius’ company (aside from the flu comment) so Sirius would continue to insert himself and hope for the best.
“So…” Sirius holds his hands behind his back and kicks out his feet exaggeratedly with each step he takes, “Where are you from?”
“Wales.” Lupin replies without missing a beat. “A little piece of nowhere that’s about forever outside of Cardiff.”
“That’s neat. I’m from London.”
“When I was younger,” Lupin says with a thoughtful expression, “I always wanted to live in London or Edinburgh. But then Jimi Hendrix died in Notting Hill and I became convinced London was cursed.”
“Jimi Hendrix… The Muggle singer?”
“10 points to Gryffindor.” Lupin says jokingly, but then there’s the tell tale sound of a small chime. Lupin looks hilariously gobsmacked - his jaw hanging open, his eyes widened - and he mutters, “Ah fuck… I forgot when I say that now it actually works .”
Sirius’ barking laughter fills the corridors. Lupin shakes his head with a small, self-deprecating grin. His corkscrew curls tumble back and forth against his forehead.
“So I take it you’re Muggleborn?” Sirius asks, still a bit breathless with laughter. Lupin continues walking, so Sirius continues matching his stride.
“Half.” Lupin replies, “But I was raised on the outskirts of a Muggle town. My dad works a lot, and my mum left when I was little, so I was basically raised as a Muggle. Does that make sense?”
“Sure.” Sirius shrugs. “Your dad wouldn’t happen to be Lyall Lupin would he? That bloke we read about in DADA third year?”
Sirius’ eyes remain forward, but from his periphery he could swear Lupin’s perfectly mild mask falters for just a moment. His back tenses, his mouth quirks downward - but then as quickly as it had come, like a ripple in a pond, he smoothes out and becomes an easily graceful teenager once more.
“Yes.” He replies, and though the entire exchange was less than ten seconds, Sirius feels like he just learned more about Remus Lupin than the other boy even realizes.
Feeling emboldened by the peculiar snapshot Sirius just caught, he clears his throat and says, “No offense, but I hated your dad’s stuff.”
Lupin hums thoughtfully. “Did you?”
“Mhm.” Sirius nods. He clasps his hands behind him again. “It was that lesson that convinced me to take Care of Magical Creatures, actually. I got so annoyed with how he talked about Dark Creatures it was like… I dunno.”
“No.” Lupin says very gently, “Say more.”
Sirius looks up at Lupin and finds he is looking directly back at Sirius. Amber eyes boring into his, in the flickering torchlight. Sirius thinks if Lupin unwittingly let Sirius into a part of himself he didn’t mean to, then Sirius could do the same. So he shrugs, and averts his gaze, and says, “I know this sounds bizarre, and perhaps incredibly privileged of me, but it reminds me of how… How some people talk about me?” He doesn’t know why it came out sounding like he was asking Lupin.
He shakes his head and continues on, still staring determinedly over Lupin’s right shoulder, “It’s like I’m a Black and there’s nothing else to me. I’m destined to be an incestuous, bigoted, ponce just because of my surname. And the way your dad talks about werewolves it’s like he gave them no chance to be something different, either. It’s not like it’s my fault I was born into a shit family, just like it’s not their fault they got bit, or whatever. I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.” Sirius laughs dryly.
“I’m glad you did.” Lupin replies quietly. He bows his head a bit, as though trying to crane his neck to catch Sirius’ downcast eyes, and Sirius can not help but grin at him. Big tall swot.
“Well my brother isn’t doing me much favors,” Sirius says, trying for a lighter tone, “He’s certainly gone eagerly into the ‘I’m a dickhead’ stereotype.”
Lupin huffs amusedly. “Well,” He lifts his hands and makes the motion of weighing two things in his palms, “I suppose, to be fair, there are also some werewolves who are simply dickheads.”
“No.” Sirius snaps. Lupin startled at the harsh finality in Sirius’ voice. “No, I don’t think any werewolves are dickheads… Actually perhaps that Greyback lad is a dickhead - y’know the one they arrested recently? He seems like a total twat, but other than him, I think werewolves are just fine-”
Sirius has to stop speaking because Lupin is laughing so loudly it is echoing through the corridor. A portrait to the left of them flips them off before trying to settle back to sleep.
“What’s so funny-”
“Nothing.” Lupin interjects, but now he’s wiping mirthful tears from his eyes, “Nothing, sorry. Just… Remembering something Lily said earlier.”
“Lily is funny?” Sirius gasps. This makes Lupin laugh even harder, and Sirius joins in with him. When they reach the end of the corridor, there’s the sound of quiet voices coming to intersect them.
Sirius sighs and begins to walk, as inconspicuous as possible, towards a secret passageway he and Peter had found in second year. “Till we meet again, Prefect.” Sirius says with a salute.
Lupin hitches his hands back in his pockets and nods to him, wordlessly, and then slips off into the darkness to meet up with his fellow Prefects.
-
Two days later, Remus isn’t in class. Concerned, Sirius ditches potions to loiter outside the Hospital Wing.
“I’m looking for Lupin.” He tells Pomfrey.
“I’m sorry dear, but he’s not here.” She tuts.
Sirius frowns, “But… I thought he had the flu?”
Pomfrey shakes her head once, “No. He went home for the remainder of the week.”
“What? Why?”
“His mum is sick.” She says with a sympathetic frown, “He’s gone home to help his father take care of her.”
Sirius’ stomach turns.
-
Sirius spearheads an idea for a prank just for an excuse to be out in the corridors when he knows Lupin will be too. James and Peter are thrilled to comply, and blissfully ignorant to Sirius’ true intentions. They’re busy charming paintings to sing dirty pub songs in the dungeons, while Sirius is lingering in his newfound favorite corridor.
Like clockwork, he sees a tall silhouette approaching him just at the strike of 10pm.
“And we meet again.” Lupin sighs. Sirius is burning with questions ( why did Pomfrey lie about you, why did you lie about having the flu, what did you actually have, are you okay now ) but when Lupin comes into his sight Sirius’ curiosity falls flat on his tongue. Or, actually, it increases tenfold, but for none of his prior inquiries.
“Godric’s balls, Lupin!” Sirius lurches forward and presses his fingertips to the nasty red scar that cuts from the left side of Lupin’s jaw, down his neck, and disappears under his collar. “Did you get into a pub fight while recovering from the flu?”
Lupin startles at the feel of Sirius’ cold fingers, and Sirius is only slightly insulted when he jerks away from the touch. Sirius takes a step back from him, feeling uncharacteristically untoward for forcing himself into Lupin’s space.
“Well I did say I was planning to be arrested.” Lupin says with a bland smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. His terribly tired eyes, Sirius should add.
“Lupin…” Sirius frowns at him, but then Lupin shakes his head jerkily which makes Sirius pause.
“Can we please just talk about something else.” He says through gritted teeth.
Sirius takes a few slow breathes. He was unused to willingly accommodating anyone else, but Lupin seemed genuinely distressed, and Sirius felt so bad for the guy.
“Alright well… What are some of your other favorite Muggle singers? I like Iggy Pop, and David Bowie.”
Lupin immediately smiles again. They walk down the corridor, side by side, as Lupin begins, “Well, I do love Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. But in terms of solo performers… Would you judge me terribly if I say Joni Mitchell?’
-
On their way to the train station, packed and ready for their winter holiday, Sirius wonders aloud: “What should I send Lupin for Christmas?”
Beside him, his latest female companion - a Gryffindor named Beth - whines. “What are you getting me? ”
Sirius freezes. Did he have to get her a gift? Was that a mandatory thing he had to do for people he was groping in dark corners?
Sirius opens his mouth to reply, closes it again, opens it once more with the hope that something smart will find its way out.
Before he could close his mouth again - and by now, Beth was looking exceedingly annoyed at him - Evans gently squeezes herself around Sirius’ side to get to the front of the crowd of fifth years heading to Hogsmeade Station. She laughed under her breath, and said just as quietly, “He’s Jewish, dumbass.”
Sirius stops so abruptly, Peter barrels headfirst into his back. Beside him, James was frantically patting his own hair and attempting to say, “Oh hi there, Lily!” but what actually came out was just a single, breathless, “You!”
While Peter complains, James stutters, and Beth starts laying into Sirius about his inconsideration (which, he can admit is warranted) Sirius throws his arms out to his sides and shouts, “Why didn’t he tell me!”
-
Dear Mr. Prefect,
How DARE you, sir, not inform your favorite delinquent - the debonair, brilliant, show-stopping Marauder - that you celebrated Hanukkah? I looked like a right PONCE trying to come up with things to get you for Christmas. Well, I attached with this letter a new quill from the set my cousin Andromeda sent me. It’s blue, and made me think of Ravenclaw, which thus made me think of a certain 10 foot tall swot (TRAITOROUS swot that is).
I’ll get you another seven things once I figure out a way to sneak out and get to James’. Do you like chocolate? Actually, I’ll have James’ mum make you sandesh - it’s to DIE for, Lupin. You’ll never be the same again.
Yours in debauchery,
Sirius
-
Sirius had been sneaking out of Grimmauld since he was twelve. At first his parents raged over his insubordination - hunted him down and dragged him home by the small hairs at the back of his neck. Now, it was as though they expected him to leave just a few days after he returned home. Their indifference was, sometimes, as jarring as their anger.
He was only at James’ for a day when a letter arrived for him.
Dear Mr. Criminal,
Oh I do apologize for not informing you of my religious persuasions. My usual introduction upon meeting new people goes something like ‘Hello, I am gay, I am Jewish, I am Welsh, and my name is Remus.’ or some variation of such. I was just so distracted by your illustrious reputation as a rule-breaker all my senses flew out the window.
I do appreciate the Quill - your cousin Andromeda has excellent taste - but please do not worry about sending me anything else. My da and I aren’t big on gift-giving, so I haven’t received eight presents in many years. It seems a bit excessive, don’t you think?
As I write this, though, I realize how badly I want to try Mrs. Potter’s sandesh… So perhaps I am not the perfect, selfless, Jew I should be but alas I am trying my best.
Since you do celebrate Christmas, though, I’ve sent you a book I read last year that I think you will enjoy. It’s a Muggle book and it is well… You know what, I’m not going to even attempt to describe it to you. I hope it gives you a laugh, and occupies the rest of your winter holiday (it certainly occupied the entirety of my summer).
Yours in propriety,
Remus
The book was called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . After reading the first chapter, Sirius was hooked.
-
Charms was his first class after the holiday. They had a pop quiz concerning the readings they were supposed to do over break. Sirius stared down at his parchment full of questions and thought hysterically, Hunter S. Thompson didn’t mention anything about levitation charms.
He scribbled some nonsensical answers onto his parchment. While O.W.L’s were fast approaching, Sirius could not find it in himself to be so bothered with grades. He leaned back on his chair, balanced precariously on the back two legs, and looked over at the desk next to his to see James was watching him. Sirius gave him two thumbs up, and James bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing.
James silently mouthed, I have no fucking clue and motioned to his paper. It was Sirius’ turn to clamp his teeth around his bottom lip. He shrugged one of his shoulders, and made a crude gesture that loosely translated to: and so what?
James turned his attention back to his desk and Sirius let out a great heaving sigh. He tipped his head back, his fringe hanging off his forehead. There were a collection of girls around him that he hadn’t noticed last term - had his and James’ desks always been surrounded by the opposite sex? - and they were all watching him raptly.
Sirius tipped his head and saw two seats along from the girl behind him was Lupin. He had his head bowed and was writing determinedly on his piece of parchment. The tip of his tongue poked out of his lips as he wrote furiously, and then after completing whatever sentence (or by the looks of it, his novel ) he had been working on, he sat back with an accomplished huff. He picked up his parchment with his spare hand and began to read over his answer, and used the end of his quill to scratch his chin.
He looks up, and before Sirius can be caught staring, he turns and sets his chair back down on all four legs with a resounding bang . There’s a collection of giggles around him.
He looks down at his answers and can hardly wait to show Lupin what he wrote.
10.) Explain, in detail, what part of your assigned reading was most interesting to you.
“Every now and then, when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only real cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas. To relax, as it were, in the womb of the desert sun. Just roll the roof back and screw it on, grease the face with white tanning butter and move out with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.” I liked this part because I don’t know what ether is, and I don’t know how to drive, but now I want to learn both.
-
A few days later, Sirius was heading to lunch after a brief mid-day romp with a Hufflepuff with incredible lips. He had a pep in his step, and swung into his usual seat at the Gryffindor table with his usual flourish, saying, “And lads, that’s how you French a lady-”
But then he choked on his words, his foot slipped, he landed roughly on the bench - and most certainly bruised his arse - because sitting across from him, in Peter's usual seat, was Lupin.
He knew he was gawking, but there was little he could do to stop at this point. He was gripping the edge of the table, still shaken from his near brush with death-by-braining-himself-on-a-bowl-of-stew, and gaping stupidly.
“Comment c’etait?” James asks from Lupin’s other side. He was shoveling spoonfuls of stew into his mouth while Lupin subtly moved the open textbook between them away from James and his sloshing meal.
“What are you doing here?” Sirius asks, ignoring James entirely.
Lupin grins benignly, “James asked me to go over our last Astronomy lesson since he somehow lost his notes-”
“They were in my bag,” James interrupts, looking beseechingly at Sirius, “but then I tried that hair-changing jinx we’ve been working on, right? And it backfired and ended up turning all my shit pink. I got it off my body just fine but now all my books are drenched in pink dye. Fuckin’ rubbish luck.”
“And so you asked…” Sirius makes a vague gesture towards Lupin, who in turn raised his eyebrow.
“Why Sirius, it sounds as though you’re unhappy to see me.” He says and then pouts over-exaggeratedly. Sirius’ face feels about a million degrees too hot, suddenly.
“Why wouldn’t I ask Remmy?” James interrupts with a confused frown. As though there was no one else in all of Hogwarts to ask.
Lupin grimaces, “James, anything but Remmy-”
“Loopy, then-”
“Absolutely not-”
“Rem-attack-”
“No-”
“LooLoo-”
“I give up.” Lupin sighs. Next to Sirius, Peter cackles.
James too, is practically glowing under Lupin’s dry wit. And why wouldn’t he, Sirius thinks bitterly, Lupin is hilarious . He’s sarcastic, biting, and then oddly playful.
And, most importantly, he’s Sirius’ friend.
“Mate,” Peter interjects then, looking eagerly at Lupin, “You hear Lou Macari’s thinking of trading over to Arsenal?”
Lupin scoffs, “Not likely. He’s got an insane deal with Manchester right now, there’s absolutely no way he’d pass that up.”
“I don’t know, Remus.” Peter says thoughtfully, “Stranger things have happened.”
Sirius only vaguely understood they were talking about Muggle football. The conversation drifted then to Quidditch (as most conversations do, when James is present) and James found it simply hilarious how little Lupin understood of the sport. The Astronomy textbook was abandoned not even five minutes into lunch, and the remainder of their hour was spent laughing and pressing Lupin about his Quidditch cluelessness.
Or, well, the remainder of Sirius’ lunch was spent moping and glaring daggers at his plate. Of course he wanted his mates to be friends with Lupin - Sirius was horribly uncomfortable with the prospect of befriending anyone without the approval of his other Marauders - but Sirius had assumed he’d be the one to introduce Lupin into their group. He’d be the one sitting next to him and showing off all the wonderful, hilarious, things about the Prefect he befriended.
But, as it turns out, Lupin hardly even spoke to him once. He was so busy talking about whoever the fuck Lou Macaroni was, and then laughing at whatever asinine comments James made.
The bell in the hallway signified their period was ending, and Sirius could not have stood up faster. Still glaring down at his untouched lunch, he starts collecting his bags.
“Hey, Sirius?” Lupin says quietly. Sirius is only slightly embarrassed by how quickly his head shoots up to meet his eye.
“I love the…” Lupin uses his right hand to tap his own nostril. “The ring looks sick.” Sirius touches his own nose. The gold hoop had been a winter holiday addition, after he and James realized there were few more places left he could pierce. He had three copper hoops in one ear, two in another, and then a number of cartilage piercings on each ear. Might as well start puncturing his nose, as well.
“Oh.” Sirius says and lifts his chin, “Thanks.” He shrugs casually, brushing off Lupin’s compliment. Lupin chuckles at him, and Sirius thinks he is far easier to read than he’d like to believe.
-
February came and brought with it a blizzard. Sirius was indifferent to the cold, but James saw the snow as a personal slight against himself. James was practically born for the summertime - happy to be sticky with sweat, basking in the heat like a desert plant.
Though any hatred he had towards the weather was squashed by his love of seeing Lily Evans bundled up in her yellow scarf and hat, a bright bit of sunshine against the white backdrop. Hence why Sirius was out in the courtyard with him and Peter, following closely behind Lily and Remus as they laughed with one another.
“Oi, Evans!” James shouted (despite the fact they were within a speaking-in-a-normal-volume range).
Remus glanced over Lily’s shoulder and smiled warmly at the three boys. Sirius flushed.
“What now Potter?” Lily sighs without turning around.
“Y’know a Hogsmeade weekend is coming up.” James jogs a few steps forward to fall into step with her. Taking even her exasperated tone as an invitation to speak with her. “And, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there are some brilliant date-spots all over-”
“Oh, lovely.” She says in a deeply sarcastic tone, “You can take Peter and Sirius.”
“Hey!” Sirius shouts sharply, “He couldn’t land me even if he tried.”
“And I have a girlfriend.” Peter adds with a soppy smile that makes Sirius groan.
“Well, actually,” James barrels on, still looking only at Lily, “I was hoping you would join me.”
Remus glances back at Sirius and says in a hushed voice, “Persistent, that one.”
Sirius barks out a laugh, “You don’t know the half of it, mate.”
Remus might’ve replied, but at that moment Severus Snape brushed past and rudely shoulder-checked him. His beetle-like eyes glared at Remus for a single moment before he turned his attention towards Lily. The small group of them stopped instantly, and Sirius had a biting retort on the tip of his tongue (he was making the snap decision between whether to go with a slimy hair joke, or perhaps just a run of the mill rude name) but Snape spoke before any of them had the chance to.
“Lily.” He says coldly.
“Severus.” She replies.
While Evans and Snape had been the Slughorn super-duo last year, something split the two of them at the start of fifth year. The tension between them was palpable, despite the pathetic way Snape looked longingly at his former friend every time she turned her back to him.
And now was no different. Lily’s hackles were clearly raised as she stood stock still and glared at the taller boy, and the latter stared down at her shoes mournfully.
Apparently snapping out of his stupor, Snape looked up again at her with a cold mask of indifference. Lily remained unruffled, and slowly raised her eyebrow in silent question.
Snape looked as though he was about to turn to leave, until he became fully aware of his audience. He turned jerkily in Remus’ direction and sneered.
“ Half-breed. ” He spat venomously, and then Lily was moving as fast and raging as a crack of lightning.
“ STUPEFY! ” She roared and with a blast of orange sparks Snape went flying across the courtyard, landing heavily in a pile of snow.
“Lily!” Remus cried. He spun around and grabbed her hand - the one which held her wand aloft - and pushed it firmly towards the ground. He was staring down at her, wide-eyed and horrified, “You’re a Prefect -”
“ Fuck him.” Lily snarled, and snapped her head around to face Remus. Her green eyes were practically glowing with rage.
“What is going on!” McGonagall’s shrill voice broke the heavy quiet. She marched up to the group of them, and her glare was angry enough to rival Lily’s. “Who in their right mind was using such a spell against a fellow student- ”
“It was me.” James says loudly, which causes them all to turn from McGonagall to him. It was the first Sirius noticed that James, too, had his wand raised. Sirius had no doubt James was seconds away from casting his own spell against Snape, but Lily beat him to the punch.
“Mr. Potter.” McGonagall hisses, “In my office, now .” With that, she turned on her heel and walked back into the school.
Lily watched James walk away with a slightly horrified expression, “James no-” She began weakly. But James lifted his hand to silence her, and looked at her pointedly.
“You’re a Prefect .” He whispers, echoing Remus’ concern. Had Lily been caught casting a defensive spell against a student she'd undoubtedly be stripped of her title, and this realization seemed to slowly dawn on her. The fire in her eyes was snuffed, and her rosy cheeks blanched. She nods at James curtly, and Sirius could practically feel the guilt radiating off of her.
Sirius stood rooted to his spot as Remus forcefully grabbed Lily’s arm and tugged her back inside in the wake of McGonagall and James. Sirius only got a passing glimpse of his stoic expression.
Half-breed repeated in his mind - mingled with both his anger and his intrigue - and he thought yet another insight into Remus Lupin was inadvertently presented to him.
-
“Maybe he’s part Veela.” Peter says, laying on his bed and tossing a Muggle handball at the wall behind his bed frame. It bounces with a dull thud , and he catches it in one hand.
“What?” Sirius snaps, and glares at Peter from where he lay on his own bed.
“Remus. Maybe he’s part Veela and that’s why you’re so weirdly obsessed with him.”
“I’m not weirdly obsessed with him!” Sirius cries much too quickly. He’s relieved James is serving his first (of many) detentions with McGonagall, because he would’ve called him out immediately.
“Well,” Peter says, unperturbed by Sirius’ sour attitude, “I can’t imagine any other half-breed he’d be.” He says with a surreptitious glance in Sirius’ direction. It’s only because the two boys have lived with one another for the past five years that Sirius can read Peter’s purposefully aloof expression.
So they both know what other half-breed Remus could be.
-
Two weeks later, Sirius watches the full moon break the horizon, and finds sleep comes uneasily. He wakes up at the first sign of daybreak and, feeling restless, slips out of bed and rifles through his things for a cloak to toss over his pajamas.
He pauses at the threshold of their dorm, wondering if he should take James’ cloak, but decides against it. He’ll only be a few moments, and there’ll hardly be any Prefects, teachers, or Filch’s awake at 5 o’clock in the morning.
He walks swiftly through the corridors with easy familiarity, and slips into the kitchens just as some House Elves were beginning breakfast.
“Excuse me?” He whispers to the nearest one, who looks up at him with a warm - albeit tired - smile. “May I have-erm… Some tea?” He feels ridiculous for asking but he doesn’t exactly know the proper decorum when visiting your ‘potentially-a-werewolf-friend’ the morning after the full moon. The House Elf returns with his tea before he could second guess himself further.
He makes it to the Hospital Wing and hovers awkwardly outside the double doors. He looks down at his slippers, and then some of the sleeping portraits on the walls, and thinks this whole idea was incredibly stupid. How was he even supposed to get in to see Remus? Who knows if Remus is even there? And now he’s standing about with a mug of tea, wearing nothing but his flannel pajama bottoms and a strange Muggle t-shirt (James insists Spider-Man is ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ to Muggles but Sirius thinks he looks like a git), waiting for his ‘potentially-a-werewolf-friend’.
He’s about to just give up and return back to his dorm with his lukewarm mug of tea, when, suddenly, the doors to the hospital wing crack open. The door slightly ajar, Sirius waits and watches with baited breath, but no one follows the mysteriously opened door. Sirius is momentarily convinced he’s hallucinating, until he sees a familiar ripple of light moving incrementally towards him, and he lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Scared the shit out of me, Jamie.” Sirius whispers. There’s the sound of rustling fabric, and then James appears in front of Sirius as though he had just apparated there.
“Wotcher.” James says just as quietly. He glances down at the mug of tea in Sirius’ hand and grins.
“Funny… I brought tea, too.” He looks up at Sirius with a self-deprecating grin, and Sirius huffs a breathy, humorless, laugh
“Didn’t know what else to bring.”
“Well, now at least he’s got plenty of tea.”
Sirius wrings his hands around the mug and looks deeply down into its contents while he asks: “How’d you figure it out?”
James sighs, and leans against the wall beside Sirius. Sirius glances up at him but James is looking all around the corridor with a sad frown. “I had my suspicions. I realized earlier in the year that every time he missed class it was also the Purnima.”
“God you’re fucking cranky on those days, it’s hard to notice anything else.” Sirius mumbles under his breath. James punches him in the arm but, despite James’ protesting groan, they’re both grinning fondly at one another.
“Shut up , why don’t you try fasting for a full day.” James scoffs. After a moment, he looks down at his own slippered feet with a somber expression, “And then what Snape said… It left little to the imagination, at that point.”
“Fuck Snivellus.” Sirius groans. James makes a vague noise of agreement.
“I think that’s why Lily stopped hanging out with him. I think he figured out what Remus is.”
“Well, good for Lily then.” Sirius says and feels viciously angry all of a sudden. Lily should’ve done even more than just cut Snape off. She should’ve reported him to Dumbledore for endangering another student. She should’ve gotten him expelled.
“Here,” James says softly, interrupting Sirius’ internal tirade, “take the cloak. I’m gonna head back before Pete wakes up.”
Sirius thanks James, and lets him drape the heavy cloak over his shoulders. Sirius tips the hood over his head, and then James salutes the space where Sirius had once stood.
Sirius makes quick work of sneaking into the Hospital Wing, and it takes him little time to find the one occupant laying in the far left corner of the room. He rounds the privacy screen between his bed and the neighboring one, and instantly has to clamp his mouth shut to keep from gasping aloud.
Remus looks, to say the absolute least, like a disaster. His neck and arms are entirely bandaged, there’s a thick gauze taped over one of his eyes, and there are big purple bruises almost everywhere that isn’t already covered. Sirius gingerly sets down the mug of tea next to the other one there - the one James must’ve brought - and realizes, only after his hands are unoccupied, that they’re trembling.
He doesn’t know how long he stands there and watches Remus sleep - frozen in place and feeling both horrified and empty - but then there’s commotion at the door to the Hospital Wing and he snaps out of his daze.
He hears Madam Pomfrey’s thick Jamaican accent. “-still sleeping, love.”
And a quieter, but no less familiar, voice says, “Alright. I’ll just go sit with him in case he wakes up before class.”
Lily and Pomfrey say some more quiet words to one another, and then Lily is walking back towards where Sirius is.
Lily rounds the privacy screen, and upon seeing Remus, her pale face collapses into raw, fragile, grief. “Oh, Remus .” She whispers to no one. Sirius has never felt so intrusive in his life, and he quickly starts to make his exit.
As he walks towards the entrance of the Hospital Wing, he turns over his shoulder and watches as Lily pulls a spare chair up beside Remus’ bed. She hastily wipes her eyes with the cuffs of her robe and says wetly, “I’m gonna find a way to fix this, I swear. I know I swear it every month but I will .”
-
None of the Marauders told Remus they knew about his condition, but if Remus suspected something was awry in the way all three of the boys clung to his side, then he didn’t mention it.
Any class the Ravenclaws had with Gryffindor saw James, Sirius, and Peter bombarding Remus at the threshold of the classroom.
( “Hey there, LooLoo!” “Remus! How’s the weather up there?” “Remus, did you do something different with your hair? Without consulting me ?” and so on.)
During meals, James would shout for Remus’ attention before he could make it to the Ravenclaw table, and his own expectant group of friends (who were either taking his kidnapping rather well, or they were too nervous to deal with the wrath of the Marauders if they chose to challenge them).
In the library, while Remus was trying to tutor underclassmen, the three boys would plunder his space and speak so loudly Madam Pince would kick all four of them out.
And while Remus seemed a bit peeved to have his study times interrupted, no one was more annoyed than Lily Evans.
“Oh for Merlin’s sake .” She growled one afternoon when she and Remus had been reading quietly out in the courtyard - until James, Sirius, and Peter had decided it was far more important for Remus to join their two on two snowball match. “Potter has stolen every ounce of my sanity these past five years and now you want to steal my best friend? Find your own!”
“Now, Evans.” Sirius says with a derisive scoff, “Haven’t you ever learned the value of sharing?”
“Lily, you can play with us too!” James shouts, because apparently he loses all concept of an ‘appropriate volume’ when speaking to Lily.
Remus clears his throat, and Sirius is almost embarrassed by how quickly he turns to face him. “While I’d love to see how this argument plays out, I should be going. I’m leading a tutoring session in ten.” He says after looking down at his wristwatch. He turns to Lily and says, “Meet you by Hufflepuff later?”
She nods, “Sounds good.”
“ Tutoring?” Sirius whines, “That’s no fun.”
Remus shoves his paperback into his messenger bag, and then stands. He grins down at Sirius. “Well, not everything in the world can be as thrilling as a snowball fight with the Marauders.”
Sirius’ tongue suddenly feels far too large for his own mouth. He wonders for a second if someone just hexed him, but then he squeaks out an unintelligible, “Yeah-” which makes no sense in reply to Remus’ comment. His cheeks begin to overheat, and he looks away from Remus to avoid that piercing amber gaze. He catches Lily’s eye and she’s smirking at him in a way that makes Sirius feel entirely too exposed. Is this a part of lycanthropy, he thinks hysterically, the ability to make the most suave student in all of Hogwarts feel like a bumbling idiot?
At some point in Sirius' lapse of coherency, Remus turned and left the courtyard. Leaving just the boys, and Lily, who said through a sigh, “I know I’m going to regret this but… It’s Remus’ birthday in a few weeks. The tenth of March, to be exact. And I wanted to throw a surprise party for him in the Room of Requirement-”
“On it!” James chirps. He beams at Lily, and then to Sirius and Peter he says, “We’ll start collecting the alcohol tonight-”
“Wait.” Lily interjects with a deep frown, “What-”
“Oh and the fireworks.” Peter says.
Sirius claps James on the back, “I’ll be in charge of drugs, as usual-”
“Oh fucking hell.” Lily mutters and begins shoving her books into her bag, “Y’know what, fine. But if anyone dies, it’s on you three.”
-
The planning for Remus’ birthday party was as extensive as any Marauder sponsored event. True to their word, the three boys stockpiled their bedroom with decorations, alcohol, drugs, and the occasional explosive, in preparation for the big night.
James was beside himself with excitement, seeing as they were planning this party with Lily, and therefore they had ample excuse to hang around one another without Lily calling him a rude name and then storming off (though that did still happen a handful of times like, for example, when James suggested a ‘kissing booth’ at the party but the only person allowed to kiss him would be people named Lily Evans).
True to its nature, the Room of Requirement was the perfect space for the night of the party. After some cajoling from Lily, the hidden door opened into a long, sparsely furnished, room. At the center of the room was a wide empty space ( “perfect for dancing” James had said), while tables lined the outer walls, and a massive Muggle soundsystem sat in the far corner.
Lily was arranging the music, Sirius and James were hanging magical streamers, and Peter was out making sure Remus was distracted for the day by pretending to be flunking in DADA and therefore needing Remus’ expert tutoring help. (Sirius had a nagging suspicion Peter’s eagerness to do this part of the job was coming from the fact he actually was flunking DADA, but Sirius kept that to himself).
Through word of mouth, they had told practically everyone in their year and above that the party would begin at 9 o’clock. Using her Prefect privileges, Lily sneakily ‘ did her rounds ’ while actually guiding students to the Room of Requirement.
It was 9:30 and Sirius was immensely impressed by the sheer number of people who turned out - from the 7th year Gryffindors who walked in with barrels full of mead, to the 6th year Ravenclaws who kept trying to sell everyone Muggle adderall, it seemed Remus Lupin had no shortage of admirers.
Sirius was practically trembling with excitement when the clock struck 10 o’clock and Peter opened the door while saying distractedly over his shoulder, “Would you mind helping me study in here , Remus?” And just as Remus stepped over the threshold into the vast room, everyone shouted “ Surprise !”
Sirius was relieved he saw the flash of cameras, because Remus’ expression was absolutely priceless.
And then, like that, the Marauders' party began.
The party was well underway when Remus finally made his way around to where Sirius, James, and Peter were demanding people do keg-stands. They were all comfortably drunk at this point, and shouted overeager greetings at the birthday-boy.
“Mates!” Remus gushes, and looks to each of them with his unfairly sparkly eyes, “This is… Thank you!”
“Don’t thank us yet!” James shouts, “I haven’t given you your gift yet!” James races off to find his gift, which Sirius knows to be a t-shirt that reads ‘#1 Best Professor’ .
Peter claps Remus on the shoulder and says, “I assure you, it’s not as good as the Manchester United socks I got you.”
Remus laughs loudly - too loudly - and Sirius realizes with delight they managed to get Lupin tipsy.
“Follow me, I’ll show you my far superior gift.” Sirius interjects. He grabs Remus’ wrist and tugs him through the dense crowd. By the time they make it to the back of the room, and away from the throngs of Remus’ adoring fans, Sirius is breathless and a bit nervous. He worked hard on Lupin’s gift, seeing as he considered it a comeback from his Hanukkah-Christmas mishap.
“Ok, are you ready.” Sirius spins on his heel, dropping Remus’ wrist in the process, and looks up at him with a stern glare.
Remus looks a little dazed, but he manages to nod assuredly. Sirius grins and then turns once more to grab the wrapped gift behind him.
It’s pretty obvious what it is, despite the fact it’s wrapped (blue and copper wrapping paper, since Sirius thought Remus would appreciate the homage to his House), because there aren’t many things that are flat and perfectly square. Unless Remus thought Sirius got him a wall calendar, but how stupid would that be.
Remus smiles knowingly, and begins to gingerly unwrap his gift. Of course he’s not the type to tear off wrapping paper with abandon, the way Sirius and James do.
The record sleeve is plain white, and transfigured from a stack of parchments. On the front cover Sirius wrote in his best calligraphy: Remus Lupin’s Spectacular 16th Birthday Gift From His Favorite Criminal . Remus was staring down at the front cover - gawking, more like - and Sirius was growing antsy. Afterall, it’s not like the gift was his excellent handwriting (though, that was certainly a marvel in its own right).
Sirius impatiently took the record back from Remus’ hands and turned it over, showing him the back where he listed the songs on the a-side, and b-side. “So it took me ages to work this spell, but I managed to take a regular old record, strip it of all it’s former songs, and then embed it with all your favorite songs.” Sirius gushes, while holding up the record for Remus to read. “So now you don’t have to switch between a million records just to listen to your favorites, right? See I got some Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell - of course - and that one Beatles song you like.”
Sirius points to each song as he explains. “It was super tricky because I had to borrow so many records from other people to learn what the grooves of each song look like. So I’d take someone’s record, enlarge it, draw an exact diagram of what the rings in the record look like, and then transfigure your record to match. It was really interesting actually, and…” Sirius looks up and catches Remus' eye, and his emphatic explanations die on his tongue.
Remus is watching him with such intensity that Sirius feels momentarily like he can’t breathe. Embarrassed, Sirius quickly shakes his head and barrels on, “Right, uhm… As I was saying, then, what I’d do is-erm… Then…” Sirius is staring down at Remus’ shoes. Trying, for the life of him, to remember where his train of thought had been heading.
Before he could make a fool of himself any further, Remus steps forward and slips his arms slowly - tentatively - around Sirius’ waist. He holds him there in a hug that is far too tight, and yet somehow not tight enough, and mumbles against Sirius’ temple. “ Thank you , Sirius. I love it.”
Remus pulls away, and Sirius realizes he’s still holding the record between them. He looks down at it, then up at Remus, and whispers, “No-uh… No problem, Remus.”
Remus gently takes the record from his hands, and continues to stare at Sirius like there’s something more he wants to say. Sirius can’t pull his eyes away from him. Remus swallows thickly and suddenly Sirius is looking at his lips. His heart is racing, and his palms are suddenly much too sweaty, and then-
“Loopy! There you are!” James booms. Sirius startles so violently he actually stumbles backwards a bit. Remus, too, looks momentarily shocked before quickly schooling his face back into placid interest.
He turns to James, keeping his new record securely under his arm, and says, “James, I thought you promised for my birthday you’d start calling me Remus .”