Sirius moved quietly across the dormitory in the darkness. It was a cool night, and away from his blanket he felt chilly in his tee shirt and pajama bottoms. He sniffed and rubbed his arms as he reached his destination, another of the four-poster beds.

"Remus," he said, peering down at the sleeping boy.

No response.

"Remus," he repeated louder, and poked him.

This time the werewolf shifted a little bit and opened an eye. Catching sight of Sirius, he buried his head under a pillow. "Go away," he said in a muffled voice.

"But Remmie," whined Sirius.

"What?" groaned Remus.

"I had a bad dream."

Remus stuck his head out from under the pillow. "And what am I supposed to do about that?"

Sirius looked at him pleadingly. "Let me sleep in your bed."

"Oh, Merlin," the smaller boy sighed.

"Please, Moony." He cocked his head and looked at his friend with sad eyes.

Remus cracked. "Well, I suppose if you have to…"

Sirius was already climbing under the covers. "Thanks, Moony."

Remus scooted over. This was, of course, a twin bed, and very close quarters for two people. He could feel Sirius's arm pressed up against his own. They were both on their backs, gazing upward.

"What was your dream about?" he asked.

"My brother," Sirius answered, not elaborating further.

"Oh." Remus was surprised. He had been expecting the nightmare to have been about murderous waffles or something equally ridiculous. It was Sirius, after all. "Why'd you pick me?"

Sirius's eyes flicked to the tawny-haired boy for a second. "What?"

"You could've gone to James or Peter," explained Remus. "Why'd you pick me?"

Sirius thought about that. "Well, James would have laughed at me and told me to go away."

"I told you to go away," Remus cut in pointedly.

"Yes, but you didn't mean it."

Remus frowned. "Whatever you say."

"And Peter," continued Sirius. "Peter probably would have never woken up. And I wouldn't fit in a bed with him anyway."

"Sirius!" Remus whispered scornfully, hitting him on the shoulder. "You're awful!"

"What? It's true!"

"But you don't just go around saying things like that about your friends!"

Sirius turned his head to face his friend, grinning. "Why not?"

"Because," Remus said, frowning again. "It's mean."

The taller boy shrugged, as best as he could lying down, and turned away again. "Anyway, you asked why I picked you."

"Yes, I did."

"Because you're warm."

"What?" Remus did feel a certain warmth spread throughout him when Sirius said this, but ignored it and scooted further away. "I am not!"

"Yeah, you are. It's a proven fact that dogs have high body temperatures."

"I am not a dog!"

"Oh, sorry," Sirius said indifferently. "Wolf, then."

"I'm not a wolf, either," Remus laughed, and hit Sirius on the shoulder again. "You're the mutt!"

"Well, am I warm?" asked Sirius playfully.

Remus considered this question, his hand still resting on Sirius's shoulder. "Um… yeah, I guess so."

"Well, that proves my point."

"Not really. Because we have concluded that while you're a dog, I am not, and therefore my body temperature is equal to everybody else's in the world."

Sirius looked at him.

"Meaning I'm not warm," clarified Remus. "So there is some other reason you chose to infest my bed."

Sirius answered in a quiet voice. "'Cause you make me feel better."

"Huh?" Remus was caught off guard with an actual answer; he'd been expecting more joking.

Now both boys were facing each other, but neither looked directly into the other's eyes. "I can talk to you seriously, but you make me laugh at the same time. I just… I knew being with you would make me feel better. It always does… And also because, no matter what you say, you are warm."

"Well then… Did I- did I make you feel better tonight?"

Sirius smiled. "Yeah, Moony, you did."

"Well, that's good. But," he yawned, "can we go to sleep now?"

Sirius laughed quietly. "Sure. G'night, Remmie."

"Night, Padfoot."

Remus rolled over onto his side, facing away from Sirius. Sirius kept his eyes open, but lay still. He wondered if things would ever get resolved with him and Remus. Well, it wasn't as if there were any problems, really. But whenever he was around his werewolf friend, Sirius felt awkward and anxious. It was probably an extremely stupid idea to go sleep in Remus's bed, because now he felt very awkward and anxious. But Remus had made him feel better, and he had almost forgotten all about his dream.

A few months ago, Sirius had realized two things: he was gay, and he was in love with his best friend. It wasn't as though he could do anything about it, though. Because, first of all, what would his friends think about him being gay? He didn't know. And obviously he couldn't tell Moony about the crush he had on him. He would think Sirius was a crazy creep and Sirius would lose his best friend.

Sirius looked to his left where Remus lay, the shape of his body rising and falling under the blanket. Up, down, up down, slowly.

He then tore his eyes away from his friend and surveyed the dark space around him. Two more beds that he couldn't quite make out in the blackness, but that he knew each contained a sleeping boy. And another bed, but empty. Sirius glanced at the floor. On the floor next to him was a stack of books and two dirty socks. Sirius also knew that under this bed there was a stash of emergency chocolate. He'd always known it was there, but he had never stolen any of it.

"Sirius," said Remus from beside him.

Sirius jumped a little, startled. "What?"

"Sirius."

"What?" he repeated.

"Sirius..."

Sirius scrunched his eyebrows together. "What do you want, Moony?"

Sirius leaned over Remus and looked at his face. He then realized that his friend was not awake to answer him. His eyes were closed, the lashes grazing his cheeks, and his mouth was open slightly. And evidently, he was dreaming about-

"Sirius…" he said again, and rolled over, burying his face in Sirius's chest.

"Okay, then," Sirius said, smiling cautiously as his stomach flip-flopped.

---

Peter Pettigrew awoke early the next morning. He stretched his arms above his head and climbed out of bed. He had begun to wake up early out of instinct, after constantly being annoyed by having to wait to use the bathroom after James and Sirius each spent such a long amount of time in there, prepping themselves. Now he was always the first one up, and got to have the bathroom all to himself.

He wandered sleepily across the room, before a strange sight stopped him in his tracks.

There were two people in Remus's bed. And the second person was Sirius.

Peter rubbed his eyes uncertainly. He and James had previously joked about the possibility of Moony and Padfoot secretly being in love with each other, but it had all been just that – joking. Or he had though so, anyway.

Now, Remus was snuggled with his head tucked against Sirius's chest, and Sirius's arm fell lazily over the smaller boy's body.

Peter scurried back across the room to James's bed.

"Prongs!" he shook James by the shoulder. "Wake up!"

James groaned and opened his eyes warily, squinting up at the figure before him. "Pete?"

"Yes, yes, you've got to come here, quick!"

James grabbed his glasses off his bedside table and grudgingly stood up, letting Peter lead him to Remus's bed.

"Look," Pete whispered.

James blinked several times as he realized just what he was looking at. "Merlin," he blurted out. "You were right, Pete."

"I was?" squeaked Peter, looking up at James.

"Yes, remember? We made that bet about Sirius and Moony. And you said... that they would get together before the end of the year."

Peter frowned. "Oh, well, I hadn't been thinking they seriously would, it was all-" He caught himself, considering. "Yeah. Yeah, I was right. You owe me five galleons!"

"Great," muttered James.

The bodies in the bed both began to move, apparently disturbed by the noises. Remus raised his head up and took in his surroundings – Sirius, against whom he had just been laying, and the two other Marauders goggling at him.

He then turned a very deep scarlet. "Oh, gosh."

Sirius awoke, too, though seemed much less embarrassed. "Hey, guys," he said, jumping out of the bed.

Peter's eyes flickered from Remus to Sirius, and back again several times. "Were you- What were you…?"

"Oh," Sirius flicked his wrist, as if it say, 'no big deal.' "I had a bad dream. I was scared."

"You were scared," stated James.

"Yeah, I was," said Sirius defensively, then turned to Pete and grinned, raising an eyebrow. "What did you think, that we were madly in love with each other?" He snorted with laughter, and Remus, watching from where he still lay in bed, felt a sharp pang.

"No," Peter relied quickly, joining in the laughter. "No, of course not."

Remus pulled a pillow into his lap, picking at the loose pillowcase and averting his gaze from his laughing friends.