Disclaimer: Remus, Sirius, James, Lily and Peter all belong to J.K. Rowling, of course. Although the depth of Remus's obliviousness in this fan-fiction is entirely of my own creation. ;)
Notes/Warnings: Based on an adorable headcanon that I saw on Tumblr once. Wolfstar, Marauder's era Remus/Sirius with a hint of Lily/James. Lots of fluff with a dash of humour and clueless Remus.
The Truth in the Dare
After a few seconds of pointedly ignoring his friend's presence, Remus looked up over his book to see Sirius sitting cross-legged on the floor of the sixth-year boys' dormitory.
"Moony," Sirius told him with a sigh after a few seconds of staring up at Remus, looking very solemn, "I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to snog you again."
Remus stared at Sirius with a raised eyebrow. "Again?" he asked Sirius, definitely sounding more surprised and exasperated than he actually felt.
"It's a dare, you see," Sirius blurted out, looking uncharacteristically flustered as he continued speaking. "All James's fault, or maybe it was Peter's, I can't remember now…Anyway, I can't back out of a dare, can I? Gryffindor pride and all that…"
Remus was hardly surprised that James, Peter and Sirius were taking part in yet another game of Truth or Dare (a game that they played almost as often as Quidditch now, especially after a few firewhiskies on a Saturday evening), and he also wasn't upset about the fact that his fellow Marauders hadn't asked him to play. They knew very well that Remus was rather shy and reserved, and that the thought of playing any games that would force him to 'perform' in front of a crowd filled him with nothing but dread.
No, he was much happier to hide away in the peaceful silence of the dormitory, wearing his jumpers and his Gryffindor scarf, reading one of his many books while he waited for the noise in the common room to die down. Yet apparently the only exception to this exclusion from Truth or Dare was when it came to snogging Sirius, as Remus had somehow been very much a participant in this part of the game ever since he had agreed to the first snog.
Remus was a bit surprised, however, by the idea that the group of Gryffindors who were playing the game had yet again dared Sirius to snog him. After all, it had happened at least twice during the previous game of Truth of Dare last weekend, and about three times the weekend before that, and at least once per game every time before that. Remus really thought that the so-called champions of Truth or Dare would have come up with some new dares by now.
Besides, it didn't exactly match up to James and Peter's usual creativity and originality, to simply dare Sirius to carry out the same dare over and over again.
"I can't believe you're making me watch this, Padfoot! Again!" James Potter mumbled from where he was sitting on the floor by the dormitory door, as though echoing Remus's thoughts. He had apparently been dragged to the room to 'witness' the dare in order to confirm to the other Gryffindors that Sirius had definitely done it.
"Shut it, Prongs, you might actually learn a thing or two from this!" Sirius snapped back at him sarcastically, at the same time giving Remus his usual pleading look with his puppy-dog eyes, silently begging Remus to just go along with it now that he had shown so much bravado in front of James.
Remus noticed that James was blushing, and he couldn't help wondering if in spite of James's appearance of confidence and experience with witches, perhaps he hadn't really had his first kiss yet; it seemed likely to Remus that James was saving himself for the day his 'one true love' Lily Evans finally decided that he wasn't such a prat after all, although Remus was really starting to wonder if that day would ever come.
"Oh, all right!" Remus eventually snapped at Sirius, slamming his book shut.
He was sure that he caught a hint of a smirk from Sirius as he jumped up from the floor and quickly squeezed into the chair next to Remus, so that they were sitting right next to each other, turning their heads so that they were almost face to face.
Remus made sure to let out a loud, obvious, exasperated sigh as Sirius got closer to him, the way he always did when this happened. Although, in all honesty, it wasn't exactly a chore or a burden for Remus to let Sirius snog him.
Remus had once thought that he hated snogging, as the whole thing had always been rather boring with the two witches he had previously snogged, and he had always felt like he had to pretend to be enjoying himself whenever his one and only girlfriend had dragged him away to an old broomstick cupboard between classes last year (the 'relationship' might have only lasted a month, but Remus was still counting her as an actual girlfriend, if only to save himself from any teasing from his best friends about his lack of experience).
But when it came to snogging Sirius in the middle of every game of Truth or Dare, it was the other way around-Remus always felt like he had to pretend to dislike it, when really, he secretly quite enjoyed it. Something about the way Sirius kissed him always made him feel an odd tingling sensation from head to toe that he had never felt before with anyone else, and it made Remus think that perhaps snogging wasn't so bad after all. Yet Remus didn't like to admit to this, because he didn't understand why this would be the case; he couldn't understand why the prospect of Sirius getting dared to kiss him was far more exciting than any past snogging sessions with his former 'girlfriend' had ever been.
Remus didn't have time to give the matter any further thought though, because Sirius had leaned in and started to kiss him before he could let out another pretend exasperated sigh. There was nothing slow or uncertain about Sirius's kisses now, the way there had once been when Sirius had first accepted a dare to snog Remus. Now, the kisses were all tongues (usually at Sirius's insistence) with a little bit of nibbling and lip-biting.
Sirius even ran a hand slowly through Remus's hair as he continued to snog him, while his other hand softly caressed Remus's face.
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus could see that James was watching them with an expression of interest, although he quickly looked away and put on a bored expression when he realised that Remus was staring at him.
When they were in the moment, the snogging seemed to last for ever, but the second Sirius pulled away from him, Remus had the strange feeling that it had ended far too soon.
"Well, thanks, Moony!" Sirius grinned at him, as though Remus had simply let Sirius share a bar of his favourite chocolate with him.
He winked at Remus as he left the dormitory. James quickly followed him, now looking slightly traumatised by what he had just witnessed.
Remus felt a strange sense of sadness as Sirius's footsteps faded away, but he ignored the feeling, telling himself that he was being ridiculous, especially when he saw Sirius all the time.
He simply picked up his book and continued reading, although he couldn't help grinning a bit to himself every time he turned the page as he thought about Sirius's lips on his.
After he had read a chapter or two, Remus started to pick up on various voices coming from the common room, probably due to the fact that those partaking in the game of Truth or Dare were getting louder in their enthusiasm.
From what he could make out, James had just been dared to do some sort of striptease. He heard a noise that sounded like James had jumped onto a table, no doubt hoping to be fully visible and to attract the largest possible audience in the common room, and then he heard Peter and a few of the other boys improvising the music using their voices and various objects and surfaces in the common room, while Sirius cat-called and wolf-whistled at James, apparently encouraging him to go further in his dare.
Remus shuddered to himself. He had seen James stripping off in public, once, after a few drinks, before the four of them had been unceremoniously thrown out of the Hog's Head, so he could imagine what the scene in the common room looked like, although he personally had no desire to repeat the experience first-hand. He tried to ignore the stubborn, curious voice in his head asking him if he would feel the same way if Sirius suddenly started stripping off in the middle of the Gryffindor common room.
"Take it off, James!" he heard Sirius shout out with laughter in his voice, while a few girls squealed in apparent appreciation.
"Come on, Evans!" Remus then heard Sirius call out. "Surely you wouldn't mind a piece of that?!"
"Sod off, Black!" he heard Lily snap at Sirius from the other side of the room.
Remus was certain that Lily had no interest whatsoever in playing James and Sirius's game of Truth or Dare, and she was probably hiding away in a corner with her own group of friends, trying to avoid the Marauders as best she could.
After that, the noise died down again. Remus was therefore a little surprised when he heard the distinct footsteps of Sirius Black on the stairs about twenty minutes later. He was also surprised when a tingle of anticipation suddenly seemed to spread through his body.
"Moony…" said Sirius, the second the dormitory door burst open. The pleading expression was back on his face, and Remus wondered why he could never resist those puppy-dog eyes.
"They dared you again?" Remus asked him, trying all over again to sound exasperated.
"I'm afraid so," Sirius told him, sounding somewhat annoyed but also looking like he was struggling to suppress a grin, and Remus didn't understand why he felt a strange flicker of happiness at the realisation that Sirius didn't exactly look upset at the prospect of having to snog Remus for the second time in one night.
Sirius was followed into the dormitory by James, whose tie was currently fastened around his head, and his shirt was still unbuttoned after his 'striptease', leaving a lot of his bare torso on show, and then (much to Remus's amazement), Lily Evans appeared in the room. She seemed to walk almost casually around the dormitory for at least a few seconds before she suddenly stopped and looked a bit horrified, as though only just realising that James and Sirius had somehow persuaded her that she needed to act as yet another 'witness' to Remus and Sirius's snogging session.
"What I am even doing here?" she asked, more to herself than anyone else. "I'm not even playing Truth or Dare!"
"It must be James's charm and power of seduction," Sirius told her with a grin. "He must have a way of getting pretty girls to go up to his dormitory with him!"
"Shut it, Black!" Lily snapped at him again with a roll of her eyes, although she didn't make a move to leave. In fact, Remus couldn't help noticing that her eyes flickered discreetly in the direction of James's torso every few seconds, and then she seemed to look him up and down with interest, before she quickly turned away from him and blushed.
Well, that was new. It was definitely a change from Lily's usual look of disgust whenever James asked her out in front of all of her friends. Remus decided that he was definitely going to have to discuss this brand new development at some point in the near future, although he didn't think that he would discuss it with James, as his ego would probably no longer fit within the walls of Hogwarts if he heard any sort of hint that Lily was looking at him like that. Perhaps he would discuss it with Sirius, when Sirius wasn't trying to stick his tongue down his throat as part of his latest dare.
"So, Moony, are you up for it?" Sirius asked him, breaking Remus's thoughts.
James snickered to himself as though Sirius had just unintentionally told some kind of hilarious joke, but he quickly went quiet and sat down on the floor with Lily when Remus glared at him.
"What?" Remus asked, feeling confused, temporarily distracted from the game of Truth or Dare by the look on Lily's face whenever she stared at James.
"The snogging," Sirius explained, and Remus wondered if he was only imagining the sudden blush on Sirius's face, and the fact that he seemed impatient to get on with it. "After all, we wouldn't want to let Gryffindor house down, would we?"
Remus really wanted to ask how they could possibly let Gryffindor house down by refusing to snog, but he had a feeling that asking something like that might delay or prevent the snogging from taking place, and he suddenly realised that he wasn't overly keen on the idea of not snogging Sirius.
"Fine," Remus told Sirius with his usual pretend look of irritation.
Remus knew that Sirius must have consumed too much firewhiskey, because this time, he practically climbed onto Remus's lap before he stuck his tongue into his mouth without much warning.
Remus briefly wondered if he should perhaps have recoiled in shock, but instead he responded with almost equal enthusiasm, even wrapping his arms around Sirius's waist to try to pull him closer, as though Sirius wasn't already close enough.
He looked over Sirius's shoulder in time to see James giving the two of them what looked like a fond grin, which was very strange, because that grin was usually reserved for when Sirius and Remus had just carried out some sort of particularly elaborate practical joke, and he was letting them know that he was proud of their latest accomplishment. Remus wasn't sure why James was grinning at them like that right now.
Lily, for her part, was looking from Sirius, who was still sitting in Remus's lap as he snogged him senseless for a dare, to James, who was now removing his shirt, deciding in his drunken state that he no longer had any need for it, while muttering something about saving his body for his one true love. After a few seconds, Remus heard her ask herself, "How is this my life now?"
"You'd better get used to it, Evans," Sirius told her cryptically as he broke apart from Remus. Yet this time, he leaned in for one more quick kiss before he climbed off Remus's lap. This kiss felt more soft and affectionate than any of Sirius's previous kisses. Remus wasn't sure why this idea mattered to him so much.
In spite of his drunkenness, James still managed to roll his eyes at the two of them before he stumbled out of the dormitory. Even Lily called them a 'pair of idiots' before she too left the room, although Remus wasn't sure why she had called them that.
"Thanks again, Moony!" Sirius winked at him before he followed James and Lily out of the room and headed back downstairs.
Remus hurriedly changed into his pajamas, more to find something to do than anything else, because he felt like he really shouldn't be thinking too much about that kiss right now; shouldn't be feeling so disappointed every time Sirius broke apart from him; shouldn't be missing Sirius's presence every time he returned to the common room to carry on with the game of Truth or Dare.
He had to remind himself that Sirius probably hated snogging him. After all, that was the point of a dare, wasn't it? To make someone do something that they were uncomfortable with, something that they wouldn't normally do outside of the game? Moreover, it wasn't like Sirius ever kissed Remus at any other time; he only kissed him when he was dared to do it.
Remus really didn't like this (very logical) idea that Sirius hated snogging him. He put this negative reaction down to the 'werewolf issue', or, more precisely, the knowledge and the fear that most people probably wouldn't want to go anywhere near him if they discovered his secret. The thought of one of his best friends being reluctant to touch him therefore filled him with sadness and regret. Yet a voice in his head seemed to be telling him that there was more to it than that; that his fear of Sirius not really wanting to kiss him ran deeper than his insecurities about being a werewolf.
Remus didn't have much time to miss Sirius however, because less than ten minutes later, the dormitory door burst open again to reveal Sirius Black, standing in the doorway.
"Moony!" he exclaimed, looking, for all intents and purposes, wide-eyed and innocent and shocked. "You won't believe what they've dared me to do again!"
"I think I can probably guess," Remus responded with a sarcastic roll of his eyes, although the strange tingle of anticipation was suddenly back.
This time, Peter followed Sirius into the room to act as witness.
"Let's get on with it, then," Remus prompted, trying to sound practical and logical as Sirius told Peter where to sit and what he would have to say to the others to confirm that the dare had taken place.
With that, Sirius was back in Remus's lap, apparently deciding after last time that this position was now better for carrying out the dare than simply sitting beside Remus, and then they were kissing all over again, while Peter let out a squeak of surprise before he covered his mouth with his hand.
Sirius seemed to take Remus's reduced layers of clothing as some sort of indication that he should be even more touchy-feely than usual when it came to this particular dare, because he briefly ran his hands up and down Remus's torso underneath his pajama top, and he even kissed the bare skin on Remus's neck.
"Is this some sort of new addition to the dare?" Remus asked as Sirius kissed along Remus's jawline and under his ear, sounding a lot more breathless than he would have liked.
"Er…yeah…something like that," Sirius replied, sounding equally breathless, which was surprising to Remus.
Remus tried to say focused, but annoyingly, he found it extremely hard not to get lost in Sirius's kisses and touches. He wondered again why this would be the case, especially when he'd found it very difficult to stay in the moment and not just think about books and Transfiguration essays whenever his ex-girlfriend had been snogging him.
He did find it difficult however, to ignore James's loud, drunken exclamation of, "Just admit it, you pair of prats!" from downstairs in the common room, although Remus had no idea what James meant by that, or if James was even shouting up to him and Sirius in the first place.
Remus had just managed to catch sight of what looked like a fond grin from Peter before Sirius was climbing off his lap and heading back down to the common room to continue with the game.
Remus felt like he wanted to cry in his confusion. He just didn't understand why these kisses with Sirius would be better than any of his previous kisses; why he wanted the kisses to happen over and over again, especially when he had been forced to endure constant questions since third year from almost every boy in his year about which girl he wanted to take to Hogsmeade, which girl he was going to try to ask to the Christmas party, which girl he would like to snog in various broomstick cupboards or old classrooms, which girl he would most like to marry after they left Hogwarts, which girl he hoped to spend the rest of his life with, because that's what wizards at Hogwarts did, after all; that's what they had always done. It was as though the idea of preferring to snog his male best friend was unheard of; like it was something that never happened, and Remus therefore felt like he had no basis for comparison.
Feeling suddenly exhausted, in spite of the excitement of the evening, Remus got into his bed and pulled the covers around himself, wishing that James and Sirius would lower their voices, because he really didn't want to listen to the game of Truth or Dare anymore.
He was just drifting off to sleep when he heard the strangest thing that he had ever heard in his life…
"What? Snog Moony? Again?" he heard Sirius address the common room.
"No, Sirius!" he heard James groan.
"Well, if you all insist!" Sirius continued.
"Nobody insisted, Sirius!" Peter sighed. "Nobody ever insists that you snog Moony, except yo-"
"After all, a dare's a dare!" Sirius interrupted Peter.
"Is it really a dare though, if you dare yourself?" James asked him.
"Yeah, is it really a dare if you dare yourself to snog Moony every single time we play this game?" Peter added, sounding just as exasperated as James.
"Come on, Pads, he's going to get a bit suspicious!" James insisted, sounding like he had lowered his voice.
Remus stared up at the dormitory ceiling, wide-eyed. Sirius dared himself to snog him. Every single time. He wasn't forced to do it by the others. He didn't hate it. If he'd hated it, then he wouldn't have dared himself to do it over and over again...
Well, that was new. That was surprising. That was interesting. Very interesting…
"I'm not going with you this time!" shouted James.
"Me neither! Peter added, and, judging by the sound of a few new female voices joining the game, Remus could understand why Peter might be reluctant to leave the common room.
Remus felt an unexpected jolt of anxiety as he worried about whether Sirius would refuse to carry out his self-imposed dare if there was nobody in the room to witness it, but then he heard footsteps on the stairs and he felt more relieved than he would ever care to admit. He also felt like the strange tingle of anticipation was back, and he couldn't help smiling to himself.
"Moony!" Sirius shouted breathlessly as he entered the dormitory, but then he lowered his voice when he saw that Remus was tucked up in bed. "You won't believe what those prats have dared me to do again…" he continued in a whisper.
"I'm tired, Sirius," Remus mumbled, letting out a genuine yawn. For some reason, he still felt like he had to play along with whatever game it was that the two of them were playing.
"Oh, right, yeah," Sirius replied, and Remus was certain that he caught a flicker of disappointment on Sirius's face. "Sorry, I'll just…"
"What I mean is," Remus quickly interrupted him, feeling irrationally worried that Sirius really would leave the room this time without snogging him, "I'm tired, so if you need to snog me for a dare again, then you'll have to get into the bed, too, because I'm not getting up," he explained, feeling a lot braver after overhearing the conversation in the common room.
He was half-convinced that Sirius wouldn't agree to it, but then…
"Oh, OK!" Sirius agreed enthusiastically, casually, as though Remus had simply suggested that the two of them sit on the bed together to plan the Marauder's next big adventure.
Before Remus could think about Sirius's usual reckless lack of fear, Sirius was getting into the bed with him. He practically climbed on top of Remus and settled himself between his legs, apparently nowhere near as afraid as Remus was by this new, intimate position. Remus wondered if he should have thought this through a bit more.
They stared at each other uncertainly for a few seconds, but then they were snogging again, and Remus stopped thinking about anything but Sirius for a little while.
"What? Snog Evans?" Remus heard James shout out from the common room, apparently trying the same tactic as Sirius. Remus decided that James really needed to work on his acting skills, because his 'spontaneous' dare sounded far too rehearsed.
"Don't even think about it, Potter, you prat!" he heard Lily snap at him, and Remus knew that James definitely wouldn't be doing any snogging tonight.
Remus couldn't help breaking the kiss to laugh at the exchange that he had just overheard. Sirius stared at him with a frown of confusion, like he hadn't heard a word of James and Lily's argument, and Remus couldn't help wondering if Sirius had been too lost in their kiss to think about anything else. This thought made Remus feel strangely smug.
Then Remus decided to stop thinking so much, because he really didn't want to think right now about the fact that he only wanted to snog Sirius Black from now on; that he would make Sirius play every possible game of Truth or Dare at Hogwarts if that was the only way that he could get him to snog him…
Remus pulled Sirius even closer, their lips barely breaking contact, so that it felt like they were cuddling and kissing now. The kisses got slower, but they were no less heated. It felt both soothing and exciting, to have Sirius on top of him while they kissed, and Remus planned on eventually falling asleep like this, with Sirius in his bed, lulling him to sleep with kisses...
"All right, Pettigrew, get over here, you big prat!"
Suddenly, Sirius stopped kissing Remus and his head jerked up, like he was listening intently.
"Marlene's just agreed to a dare to snog Peter!" Sirius whispered enthusiastically with a sly smirk. "I've got to see this!"
He started to disentangle himself from Remus's arms and legs, looking eager to get back to the common room, and Remus felt a horrible twist of disappointment, not only at the threat of the snogging session being over, but also at the reminder that Sirius was still very much a participant in the game of Truth of Dare, and his attention would probably soon be focused elsewhere.
"S-sirius!" Remus called out desperately, frantically, just before Sirius could leave the room. Sirius's hand froze just above the door handle and he turned back to stare at Remus. "I…I dare you to stay here with me, instead of going back down there to the game."
"You mean, forfeit the game?" Sirius asked him reluctantly, and Remus couldn't help feeling guilty. He didn't like being the one to stop Sirius from having fun (and Sirius had accused him of being that person many times in the past), but the idea of Sirius staying with him in the dormitory suddenly seemed much more important than a game of Truth or Dare.
Sirius looked torn. He looked from Remus to the door, listening intently to Peter and Marlene's exchange, but then he looked back at Remus, and his eyes seemed to linger on him for a little bit longer.
"Oh, all right, Moony," he eventually sighed. "After all, a dare's a dare, right?" he winked.
"A dare's a dare," Remus repeated, as though Sirius had simply accepted the greater, or the more logical, challenge of the two options.
Yet as Sirius climbed back into bed with Remus, and his lips were on Remus's again, and he even whispered, "Anything to get to snog you, Moony," in Remus's ear, sounding almost shy for a moment, as though the two of them were sharing an intimate secret, Remus couldn't help feeling like maybe, at last, the two of them had finally found the truth in the dare.