Of Weirdness and Holy Hair
Summery: Having the Marauders over for summer was always a bit...dangerous but with weeks filled with philosophy and tinsel, how could Remus not love his friends? Oneshot
Disclaimer: I really, really want to but I don't own Harry Potter or the Marauders.
The good thing about having the other Marauders over for the summer, reflected a fifteen year old Remus, was that things were never boring. The bad things were that they messed up his room, hogged all the food, tried to fit into his clothes-and stretched the hell out of them- dyed his rug purple, and kept 'accidentally' raiding the attic.
Remus had to wonder how you could accidentally raid something, but it was probably best that he didn't know.
They'd also managed to drive his super-tolerant father and sweet and patient step-mother from the house, after just three days. His father had left him with hugs, food money and the statement that he 'had the patience of all the saints and Merlin combined'.
So he'd feel guilty about it later, but thank Merlin Peter hadn't been able to make it!
Remus groaned as he unloaded the groceries from his mother's old car, piling the many bags onto the counter in the kitchen, well aware that he'd either have to put it up all alone or that by the time he was going to do so the food would already be gone.
Sirius and James, he speculated, ate enough for a entire family of giants and that was driving Remus to the store every two days. He could only thank all things holy that nobody in the little town knew enough about the Lupin's, or their mysterious son, to figure out that he shouldn't be driving alone.
It wasn't that his two best friends would be totally unwilling to help him if he asked, it was just that their help turned into a one hundred percent chance of messes- the first time a slice of cheese had somehow ended up stuck to the ceiling of the shower and all the salami had taken hours to scrape off the wall- a seventy nine percent chance of a food fight and basically resulted in more harm than help.
It wasn't intentional, he didn't think.
But Remus was well aware that with Sirius and James you could never really be sure enough.
Sometimes they caused terror, panic, hysteria and a number of other feelings one didn't want to experience, accidentally. Once Sirius had mistakenly transfigured a bomb when they'd smuggled into the kitchens for Peter's birthday in place of a party hat.
Another time, when James had been attempting to teach the giant squid how to tap dance, for whatever doubtlessly stupid reason-made all the dumber by James not knowing how himself- it had actually started to climb out of the water and the Potter heir had simply coaxed it along. He, of course, hadn't noticed the terrified flock of first years fleeing into the castle screaming bloody murder.
And that certainly hadn't impressed Lily much.
He'd just finished lugging the last heavy sack, stacked high with bags of potato chips, TV dinner boxes, microwavable chicken, and pounds of cereal onto the counter-top when he heard feet rush across the upstairs hall and a sharp yelp as a body-perhaps two- slammed into the wall by the stairs. Six feet clumsily trampled down said stairs and Remus whipped around, not at all surprised to see James fighting down laughter and Sirius crouched down on the floor-all to much like Padfoot.
They were both covered in not only plain gray dust but James' hair infested with purple fuzz balls and Sirius had bright gold mini-tinsel strings pulling his hair back in pigtails. They had, most obviously, been in the attic again. The pink combat boot and glass high heel James wore, and the neon orange furry bow wrapped around Sirius' neck, which didn't complete his toga at all, couldn't have come from anywhere else. Or they had attempted to give each other makeovers...again. (Oh yes, that had happened.)
"You know," He told his mentally confused, somewhat of a canine friend, merely glancing at the last boy as he slowly turned purple, "If thats your idea of fashion sense then well...well I just don't know anymore." He whined, burying his face into his hands. It was only with his very sharp hearing that he picked up the footsteps 'sneaking' toward him. He didn't need any improved senses to feel the wet trail Sirius left behind as he gave his best friend a lick, from the base of his neck up to his chin.
The werewolf blinked at his best friend.
"If you keep doing that I'll start treating you like a real dog. The whole nine yards and everything, baths with the garden hose, giving you kibble, getting you neutered...brushing your hair."
Sirius had sat through it all with an unwavering pair of puppy-dog eyes, though they started to water at the mention of neutering, but the suggestion that Remus brush his hair- the one thing the Black truly worshiped and thought holy- was too much for him and he whimpered, scuttling across the wood to cower behind James, who'd lost his fight and was rolling around guffawing across the floor.
Remus watched the strange scene his best friends made and smiled to himself as Sirius tried to steady the Potter to be a more capable shield from the 'angry Remmy wolf of doom' and James allowed his body to sprawl limply across the floor, trying and failing to play dead as his chest heaved.
Sirius quickly took the opportunity to sit on him and a tickle fight ensued, complete with shrieks and girly giggles more fit to a six year old cooing over barbies than a pair of teenage boys.
They were easily fulfilling their new philosophy, he decided.
'As weird as I want to be, I can be. As weird as I can be, I want to be."
Not that, he chuckled to himself, they'd had to change at all to do so. He watched with amused eyes as Sirius fell off the flailing Chaser and James flipped onto his stomach, Padfoot climbing onto James' exposed back, transforming and raining wet dog licks onto the nape of the Potter's neck.
James collapsed to the ground, tears of laughter falling from his eyes before, with a grin, he followed the Black's example.
Remus rolled his eyes as a stag marched around his living room, a quivering black dog balanced perilously on it's back.
Oh yes they were weird, but Remus loved his friends wouldn't have wanted them any other way.
They trotted down the hallway and Remus followed behind when there was an enormous 'crash' and suddenly he was covered in a hug from both of his oldest friends. "We're so sorry Moony, don't kill us!"
And even now?
No other way he'd want them.
Author's Note: So this has been lurking on my documents for a while so I figured I might as well post it. Its not meant to be awesome or anything, just sorta a bit of warm-fuzzy fluff between our beloved three Marauders. And I have no Beta so if you spot anything that looks like a typo please point it out.-Also when I put that James and Sirius were Remus' oldest friends I didn't forget Peter, but I've always had the idea that Remus met with the two on the train and they made friends with Peter once they were roomed with him.-