Hey guys! This is a re-do of a different story of mine, which kind of... crashed and burned. Anyways, I was up to about chapter twelve on that one, so updates will probably come very steadily until they're through. I've just got to proof-read them, and I'll also be working on future chapters. Writer's block kicked my butt on this, but it's been a couple of months so I hope my ideas will start flowin better
With that being said, here we go!
Chapter One
"-And there goes McDonald, she's got the quaffle! She shoots-SHE SCORES!" Cheers erupted from the Gryffindor's side of the stands. Remus Lupin watched his friend, James Potter-who also happened to be Gryffindor Seeker of their Quidditch team-do a fist pump in the air before twirling a few times on his broomstick. Remus couldn't help but grin. James was so cocky.
"And Gryffindor is now up 160-130-close game if I ever saw one! Belby's got the quaffle, passes it to Smith. He shoots, HE-misses." Boos from the Slytherin end. A few Hufflepuffs let out a cheer; if Slytherin won the match, Gryffindor would place third, bumping Hufflepuff up to second. James wasn't going to let that happen. Remus watched him shoot across the Quidditch field, eyes wild with concentration. Black sped after him, apparently noticing the same thing James had. Sirius-who was also Remus's friend-did a sharp intake from the commentator's stand. "Yes, Potter has obviously seen something we haven't-could it be the snitch? Black follows Potter, less than a few inches behind him." Sirius's voice began to get excited and flustered, speech becoming more mingled together. Remus watched the scene with bated breath. Sirius's brother against his best mate. Remus was rather amused to find that Sirius much more wanted his friend to win than his brother. Understandable, though; Regulus was a git.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT-POTTER'S GOT THE SNITCH!" As Sirius's voice boomed around the stadium, Remus stood up, cheering madly. The whole stadium was a deafening roar of cheers and boos. James showed the snitch off to the stadium, doing a couple of flips in midair before landing safely on the ground.
Remus nearly fell down the stairs as he tried to reach the bottom of the bleachers. People were running around madly; he could barely see where he was going.
"Peter!" he yelled, having completely lost his friend. He didn't know how he was going to find him, he was so short.
He found James through the crowd, surrounded by fans. Sirius was already by his side. Peter was nowhere to be found; probably still fighting his way through the ecstatic crowd.
"Brilliant, James!" Remus said, patting his friend on the back. "Ruddy brilliant! Meet you back in Gryffindor tower! Party!" He and Sirius wove their way through the crowd, snagging Peter on the way. They dropped by the kitchens and returned to Gryffindor tower, pockets and arms full of food.
The party was well under way. Everyone surrounded the Marauders, wanting food. Quidditch games always left everyone famished. A little while later James was squeezing through the portrait hole, looking tired by excited.
The Gryffindors cheered, and Sirius hoisted James up on his shoulders while everyone yelled his name.
"JAMES! JAMES! JAMES!" Remus about yelled himself hoarse in the process. Finally, exhausted, he left everyone to it and retreated to the fire, a full blaze going. He grabbed a handful of Berty Bot's Every Flavor Jelly Beans and stuffed them in his mouth, waiting until James finally emerged from the crowd with Sirius at his side.
"Hey guys," he said, panting slightly as he reached his friends. "Sorry I'm a bit late." Sirius waved it off.
"No worries, mate. That was bloody good match. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go look for Mary...she must be here somewhere..." His friends snorted. Mary McDonald was arguably the best-looking girl in their year. Only James had to disagree.
"Where's Evans?" he asked, peering over Remus's shoulder. Remus raised an eyebrow.
"I'd have thought that you would call her Lily now, seeing as you two are friends."
"Right. Force of habit." No, Remus very well knew it wasn't force of habit. James did it because it drove Lily insane. Remus wasn't quite sure that was a good thing, but no matter how loud he talked, none of his words seemed to penetrate James' thick skull.
"Give her some time," Remus said, grabbing James' arm. "She'll come around if you leave her alone. We don't need you scaring her away."
"What?" James sputtered. "Since when have I 'scared' Evans-"
"Lily," Remus corrected him.
"-Lily, whatever, since when have I scared her away?"
Remus pretended to be thinking hard. "Hmm, maybe since the first time you asked her out?"
"It was before that, Remus," Peter said seriously. Remus laughed, and, James, after a moment, joined in with them.
"But seriously," he said after a moment, "I'll see you later. I'm gonna find Ev-I mean, Lily."
James disappeared into the crowd, leaving Remus with Peter. "I'm going to get some punch," he decided. Peter followed him.
Remus yawned and rubbed his dry eyes. It must've been at least midnight by now. He was lounging in an armchair near the fireplace, James on his right and Peter on his left. To the left of Peter sat Sirius and Mary, snogging so furiously that it looked like they were eating each other's faces. Peter seemed quite uncomfortable about the arrangement. All of the Gryffindors besides the sixth and seventh years had drifted off to their bed.
"Right," said James, still eying Lily. She was talking to Amanda Bones, who was in her sixth year. "Now that all of the youngsters have gone up to bed, who says we play a game of Spin the Bottle?" Remus snorted. He could see where this was all going. And he had to admit, it wasn't that bad of an idea.
"I will," he volunteered. Sirius and Mary broke apart, agreeing to play also.
"What about you, Peter?" James asked. Peter looked rather uncomfortable.
"Well-er..."
"C'mon, it'll be fun." Remus really doubted that it would be much of a game for Peter. He had never kissed a single girl in his life, and he was pretty sure no girl was in a hurry to kiss him either.
"Leave him alone," Remus said, coming to Peter's rescue. "If he doesn't want to play, he doesn't have to." James turned to Lily and Amanda.
"What about it?" he asked. Lily looked rather reluctant, but Amanda said encouragingly,
"C'mon Lily; just one round."
"Oh, fine. I will." James little by little recruited everyone remaining in the tower to play. After ten minutes everyone was situated in a circle in the middle of the common room. Remus glanced around. James was on his left, sitting next to Sirius. On Sirius's left was Mary, followed by Amanda and Lily. Next to Lily was Arnold Reagans, a fellow seventh year, and next to him was Zach Aurlas. Sitting next to him was Amy Scott. Remus did a head count. Eight. Not that bad.
"Who's going first?" Sirius asked, glancing around at everyone.
"I will," James said compulsively, reaching forward and giving the bottle a good spin. Everyone watched as the bottle went around once, twice, three times before slowing to a stop. The head of the bottle was pointing almost directly between Amy and himself. James looked up.
"Well?" he said.
"Not me," Remus said almost immediately. "No way." James grinned at Amy. She slid up next to James and their lips locked. Sirius wolf whistled and Zach laughed. After a moment Amy pulled away, but James almost immediately pulled her back in.
"Nuh uh," he said, almost teasingly. "Not until the bottle's spun again." Sirius glanced at James and then took his turn at spinning the bottle. Remus tried his best not to look at James and Amy. James was a rather loud kisser. After the bottle rested at a stop at Lily, Sirius grinned at Remus and broke Amy and James apart.
"My turn," he said, almost evilly.
"Was I picked again?" Amy asked disbelievingly. Sirius shook his head.
"Lily was." James' face turned a nasty red color and he shot daggers at Sirius with his eyes. Lily glanced at Amanda rather reluctantly, and Amanda nodded.
"You agreed to play the game," she pointed out. Lily wrinkled her nose and turned to Sirius, kissing him reluctantly. Remus could tell he wasn't trying too hard.
In no time at all it was Remus's turn. He took a deep breath and spun the bottle, watching it spin around and around in circles. Hope it's Amanda... he thought. Just as the motion of the bottle began to make him feel dizzy, it stopped, point at Sirius. Remus just stared at Sirius.
"Well mate," he said, laughing, "you did agree to play the game."
"Right..." Remus said slowly, glancing at Sirius nervously.
"C'mon, it's just a game," Sirius said, grabbing the front of Remus's shirt and pulling him towards him. The only thing that went through Remus's mind was how odd it was to be kissing Sirius. One of his best mates, whom he had known ever since their first year. He had never snogged a guy, and Remus felt especially awkward because he surrounded by six other people. Surely this was going to reach the whole school's ears by the following day.
It was a relief to break away from him, and as he resumed his position in the circle, he ignored everyone's wolf whistles and side comments. He felt highly embarrassed. He couldn't even look at Sirius for the rest of the night; every time he did, all he saw were his lips. And that thought grossed him out entirely. Why couldn't it have been a girl? He moaned to himself. Why me?
Surely Sirius felt the same; it must've been as awkward to kiss Remus as it had been for him to kiss Sirius. The difference between the two was that Sirius acted cool about it, like it was nothing to worry about. As long as it doesn't happen again, right?
It was two in the morning before the students finally headed off to bed. They had been playing Spin the Bottle the whole time; Remus now felt like his lips were going to fall off. He massaged them, fervently hoping they wouldn't.
As they were all dressing for bed, Zach, who was to his right, said, "That was some kiss, wasn't it?"
"Which one?" Remus asked. There had been a lot of kisses that night, so he wasn't sure which one he was referring to.
"Oh, you know," Zach said, laughing airily as Remus pulled back his cover around his bed so he could look at Zach. "And I thought you two were just friends."
James, who was on his right, sniggered. "That's what I thought, too."
"It was just a kiss!" Remus said hotly, face burning. "We were just playing a stupid game."
"Didn't look like it to Sirius," James said, lowering his voice considerably and glancing towards the direction of Sirius' bed. "He was all into it."
"Was not," Remus muttered. "I'd think I'd know."
"You had your eyes closed, though," Zach pointed out. "You didn't know what Sirius' face was like."
"Oh? And what was it like?" Remus said scathingly.
"He was enjoying it, mate," James said. "You could tell."
"He was not," Remus said dismissively, although he was starting to have second thoughts about it all. "You guys are just making a big deal out of something that was obviously nothing. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some sleep. We had a Hogsmead visit planned." James raised his eyebrows.
"Whatever you say, Moony. G'night."
"'Night," he yawned to both Zach and James. Rolling over, he stared at the coverings of James bed. What did he mean, he was all into it? The kiss seemed rather forced and awkward, but maybe that was just him. He didn't know. Besides, how could he concentrate on anything besides the fact that he was kissing one of his best mates? He was conscious of his arms dangling limply by his sides, but he was almost sure that Sirius had been holding his face. Which made the whole ordeal much more awkward than it would've been. And the fact that everyone was watching them? Maybe he should've kept his eyes open as a sign that the kiss meant absolutely nothing to him. But if it did, then why was he bothered by it so much, and Sirius wasn't?
"You're overreacting, Remus," he said to himself. "Get over it. It was just a bleeding kiss." By the time he began to fall asleep, though, he was doubting the surety of his words.
Thank you for reading this far, and I hope that you'll drop by a review! I forgot to mention this above, but in later chapters it will interchangeably switch between Remus's and Sirius's point of view.
Also, ConCrit is very much welcome!