The End of the World
"What would you do if you knew the world was going to end tomorrow?" Sirius Black, who was sat with a contented Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, inquired aloud to no one in particular. The four of them were huddled in a mismatched line on the cold, grey stone bricks that made up the roof of the Gryffindor tower. Sirius had thought about this question for a good few minutes in their contented silence whilst staring up at the stars, and had now decided to share it with his companions.
"Um- Scream?" Peter suggested halfheartedly with a shrug, but suprisingly James was ready to take the question a little more seriously.
"I think I'd like to have one last maraudering session, preferably one that ended with Evans falling for my indubitable charm."
Sirius let out a snort of laughter whilst James, furrowing his brow, cast him a mock wounded look.
"Well it's a bloody good job the world isn't coming to an end tomorrow then, eh?" Sirius grinned, patting James' shoulder paternally, "Because I think you might be sourly disappointed mate."
Peter and Remus smiled as James nodded reluctantly in agreement; he was still no closer to wooing Lily "the eyes" Evans than he had been in the previous year. Although, it did have to be said that his attempts had been achieving much more positive results in recent times and he was as ever, yet to give up hope.
"What about you Remus?"
"Oh I don't know," Remus said quietly, disliking the shift in attentions and staring determinedly at a suddenly fascinating fingernail on his left hand.
"Surely you can think of something?" James pressed on.
"Er- I'll have to think about it."
Sirius rolled his eyes, smiling fondly at his friend "That's just your problem Moony, you're always thinking."
It took just a moment of silence before Sirius spoke once more, "How about you Pete?"
Twisting his hands together awkwardly, Peter looked uncomfortable. Something had eventually come to mind when they were discussing the question, but he was far too embarrassed to share it with his friends.
"Gosh- I er- no- can't think of a thing!" Peter said a little too quickly, causing James and Sirius to exchange knowing looks.
"Shut up Wormy, you know you're a horrible liar. What is it?" James asked, more curious now.
"Well, I'd quite like to," He paused, why was he always the one left to be embarrassed? "KissDorcasMeadows."
James' curious smile erupted into a bout of hearty laughter whilst a red blush grew progressively larger in Peter's cheeks. Sirius half smirked, half grimaced at the revelation as Remus frowned his disapproval at James.
"Oh Pete, you are such a girl!" James managed to say as his laughter subsided.
"Says the president of the I-Love-Lily fan-club." Remus chimed in uncharacteristically, making two of the three remaining boys fall about laughing.
After the laughter of all four boys had eventually ceased, the conversation proceeded to take many further twists and turns lasting well into the early hours of the morning. The yawns grew more frequent as the boys grew more tired and as James let out his twelfth yawn of the night he stood up and announced, "Right that's it, I'm going to bed."
"Yeah, me too," Peter stood beside James with a slight stretch of his arms, and together they made their way back down to the dormitory, but not before Sirius could utter, "We'll be down in a minute." And he took Remus' hand, as the sandy haired boy made to stand up, pinning it back down on the floor to prevent his movement. Remus gave him a questioning look, opening his mouth to speak before being cut off by a familiar voice.
"Moony," Sirius sounded uncertain, hesitant even, "Remember earlier when I asked you- what you'd do if the world were to end tomorrow?" Sirius began, not really expecting an answer but getting Remus to recall the conversation that had taken place a few hours ago.
"Yes." Remus replied, now equally as unsure.
"Well- you said you'd think about it- and I was wondering if you had- you know, thought about it?"
"Oh, well I-"
Sirius interrupted, "You see, I've been thinking about it for a while now- and- you know, the best way to say it-"
Remus was frowning, but Sirius knew it to be his harmlessly perplexed and contemplative frown. As this thought crossed his mind, Sirius almost blushed (and I say almost because Sirius Black NEVER blushes), knowing that he'd spent far more time studying his strictly platonic friend than was entirely appropriate. But he couldn't help it, Remus was- exquisite- and as he heard himself use the word 'exquiste' Sirius widened his eyes and hurriedly pressed on.
"-But I've got an idea of what I would do."
"And- And what's that Padfoot?"
Remus' upper lip was curving into that memorable smile as he cautiously questioned the mess of nerves that was Sirius Black. It was- it was irresistible. And no sooner had Sirius begun to question just when it was that he had started describing his best friend using these overly girlie adjectives, than he found himself leaning towards Remus to steal a desperate kiss. But not only did he steal it, he well and truly commandeered Remus' lips as he snaked his arm upwards to place a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder.
Sirius couldn't gauge Remus' reaction very well as his initial movement had obviously shocked the much shyer boy. But he had allowed Sirius to deepen the kiss and was, unless Sirius was imagining it as he had done so many times before, kissing him back. Remus was kissing Sirius, kissing him! And- and- Remus had his fingers running through Sirius' hair, through his hair! And as the latter made this realisation, his stomach gave the most pleasant flip he had ever experienced and a warm sickening fuzzy feeling grew unexpectedly in his chest.
When they finally broke apart, neither of them spoke for a moment. Remus was blushing considerably, not looking at his friend, but all Sirius could do was think about how incredibly adorable he looked as they sat abreast in the dark and the silence.
Eventually, after many attempts at speech Sirius began very quietly, "So- what would you do if the world ended tomorrow?"
Remus paused for a moment, desperately trying to think of the right thing to say. Then he allowed himself to look up at Sirius and as he did so, his features broke into an inescapable smile that he just couldn't restrain, didn't want to restrain... Perhaps he did think too much.
"I- I think that pretty much covers it."