Moon and Stars
Blue Smoke
Theme: Smell
Summary: MWPP-era, In which Sirius smokes and Remus makes a fool of himself.
Warning: Sirius smokes cigarettes in this story, but I don't agree with smoking. But they were in school during the seventies, when it wasn't as loathed as it is now. Yeah.
Note: This is my first HP story, so please be gentle.
---
Remus darted out of the library, tucking his unfinished assignments into his book bag. The library was closed for the night, and Madam Pince had finally gotten around to shooing the werewolf away. It was late, and the candles lining the walls did little to light the corridors as Remus retreated from the library and trekked off towards the Gryffindor common room.
He'd been so set on finishing his potions essay for Slughorn that he hadn't watched the time tick away until he was finally the last one in the library. Not that he could very well blame anyone for not being in the library on a Friday night. Remus seemed to be the only student, minus a couple Ravenclaws, who saw the beneficial outcomes of finishing an essay early.
"I'll just finish it tomorrow after breakfast," Remus told himself. He'd have enough time to squeeze in between breakfast and the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tomorrow. He wasn't truly as captivated by the sport as his fellow peers, but Remus had to admit that there was a certain charm about the sport. He'd even accompany Sirius and James to Quidditch practice, and the two said boys were convinced that Moony was growing fond of the sport. Of course, Remus never betrayed the true reason he accompanied the two boys down to the pitch, and knew that Sirius didn't need that kind of an inflation of his ego.
Remus shook his head distantly and sighed, inhaling the smell of and old, haunted castle—for it truly did have its own distinct smell. He climbed up a flight of steps and exhaled again, rubbing his forehead lightly as if trying to banish a headache.
It was then that Remus realized he was wandering. He frowned at the unfamiliar hallway and watched as a Hogwarts' ghost meandered by before disappearing through the wall. Smiling wryly and pulling his book bag a bit higher up his shoulder, Remus tried to make out where it was he was going.
Frowning, he turned the corner and was nearly bombarded by a rather foul scent. Wrinkling his nose, the prefect paused in his journey back to the Gryffindor tower to try and make out the smell. As he progressed forward, the scent steadily grew and almost caused Remus' eyes to water.
He peered around the corer, almost expecting to see Peeves preparing havoc for unsuspecting first years the following morning when he realized that Sirius Black was tucked away behind a statue of a rather gruesome looking witch, a small curl of blue smoke ascending towards the ceiling.
"I am a prefect, you know," Remus said as a greeting and Sirius jumped, looking up at his friend in alarm. Shortly after, however, the shocked looked dissolved just as quickly as it'd appeared and he grinned cheekily up at Remus.
"Jesus, I thought you were an actual prefect," Sirius joked, blowing out the smoke from his cigarette idly.
Remus' frown deepened and gave him a withered look. "What do you mean an actual prefect?"
Sirius grunted and didn't answer. Instead, he scooted over and left a small amount of space for Remus behind the statue of the unsightly witch. Remus relented and flopped down next to Sirius, watching as the older boy smoked.
"Why are you out here, Padfoot?" Remus asked casually, ignoring the beating of his unsteady heart. It was always like that when he was alone with Sirius, which was a rarity in itself.
"Smoking," Sirius said bluntly. "Obviously."
"Very funny," Remus remarked snidely. "You know what I meant."
Sirius took a long drag before exhaling the curling smoke from between his lips. Remus was assaulted by the disgusting scent but made no comment. He was never truly partial to cigarettes himself, but it seemed to calm the black-haired boy considerably, which was always a good thing for everyone.
"Relaxing," he said logically. "No one ever comes down this hallway." Then he quickly amended, "Except for you, apparently."
"I got sidetracked," Remus admitted. He'd been daydreaming again. "Do you always come here?"
"Sometimes," Sirius said casually with a shrug of his shoulder. "Where were you? You disappeared after dinner."
Remus shrugged, also. "Library."
"On a Friday? My God, Moony, we've got to get you a bird," Sirius said, looking quite scandalized. He flicked his cigarette, reduced to ashes, away from him and it skidded across the long hallway. Remus clucked his tongue and gave Sirius a disapproving glance, happy for the excuse not to go further on the girl topic.
He extracted his wand from his robes and summoned the cigarette butt before muttering a quick, "Evanesco."
Sirius watched as the object disappeared and extracted another one from the package within his robes. With a flick of his own wand—releasing a small purple flame—the cigarette was lit and the blue smoke was curling towards the ceiling again. Both the boys watched it curl around the witch's stone head before disappearing into the castle air.
"That is bad for you," Remus scolded.
"And how's that?" Sirius questioned, though he didn't look the least bit interested.
Remus tried to think of something that would cause distress for his egotistical, vain friend. "They'll make your teeth brown," he reasoned, appealing to Sirius' desire to look handsome, "and stain your fingers."
"Pfft," was his only reply. "I don't need you to lecture me."
"Someone's got to take care of you, you big lug," Remus said snidely, and sniffed. He tucked his wand back into his robes and sighed wistfully, looking off into the darkness of the hallway. Sirius said nothing, just busied himself with his cigarette.
After a long moment Sirius offered the pack to Remus and the said werewolf pulled a rather disapproving look. "No, Padfoot. Have you been listening to a word I've said?"
"No," Sirius said truthfully. "But you're only saying that crap because you haven't tried it."
"I have no intention of trying it," Remus agreed and pushed his friend's hand away, ignoring the flutter of his heart when his fingers brushed over the dark-haired boy's.
"All the birds think it's sexy, Moony," Sirius accused and waved his finger at Remus.
Remus' eyes narrowed. "I highly doubt that all of them do. Besides, I have no interest in girls."
He looked away quickly when Sirius fixed him an odd look. The dark-haired boy shrugged and blew smoke in the opposite direction. Remus dared to glance back over his shoulder and watched Sirius' simple movements.
"Try one," Sirius spoke to the witch statue in front of him, blue smoke curling upwards. The smell was horrifying but Remus resisted the urge to gag at the mere thought of indulging in a forbidden item at Hogwarts.
"That goes completely against my morals," Remus snapped and refused to take the slim stick. Sirius shrugged.
"You're too prudish, Moony," Sirius joked, jabbing a finger into Remus' arm. Remus gave him a forewarning look but Sirius was hardly one to heed such a dark warning, especially from Remus, who he particularly enjoyed tormenting. "And don't feed me crap about morals and your prefect duty. If that were true, you'd actually take house points from us."
Remus knew that Sirius spoke the truth, but that didn't stop him from feeling slightly annoyed. It was true though, Remus rarely had the courage to say anything against Sirius and James. They were his friends, and he feared their judgments more than anyone else in the world.
"Five points from Gryffindor," Remus said hotly, being as defiant as he dared.
"Hey!" Sirius protested, but there was no malice in his voice. He grinned cheekily at his werewolf friend and clapped the frail boy on the back. "Why you…!"
Remus' annoyance melted away instantly with such a soft look in his friend's eyes. He felt his cheeks turn pink and turned away, blowing out air as if he'd actually taken a drag from the cigarette dangling between Sirius' fingertips.
"I'm surprised James isn't out here with you," Remus said, deciding that a change of subject was needed, lest he accidentally say something that needn't be said.
Sirius laughed acrimoniously. "Well, you know how Prongs is… with Lily, and all."
Remus instantly knew that his change of subject was a backfire. It was their seventh year, and Lily was finally giving James the attentions he'd so readily yearned for since second year. Undoubtedly, a man like Sirius, who'd always been by James' side and vice versa, was missing the presence of his best friend. Sirius was completely loyal to his friends, especially James.
Remus felt guilty instantly for bringing up such a sore spot in Sirius' life. Sirius had been James' best mate since the first time they'd stood on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Obviously Sirius indulged in James' fantasies of finally going on a date with Lily, but now that he finally was going out with her, Remus could understand that Sirius was feeling empty and ditched.
Perhaps that explained the curling smoke.
"Don't get me wrong," Sirius said suddenly when Remus couldn't think of anything to break the awkward, uncomfortable silence. "I'm happy for the guy; he's my best mate, after all. I just…"
"Ah," Remus said, cutting his friend off when it became obvious Sirius was approaching a cliff he wasn't ready to jump off yet. He cleared his throat, searching for something to say to guide them away from such a sensitive subject. "It's late."
"Hm," Sirius said. His smoky eyes stared at the floor.
"I think you've had enough, Padfoot," Remus said skeptically as Sirius lit up a third cigarette.
"Nah," Sirius breathed in, his eyes closing in a temporary moment of bliss. The smell wafted by Remus' nose and he cringed. "I'm fine."
Remus plucked the cigarette from Sirius' mouth and ignored the boy's large outburst in protest. He reached for the cigarette but Remus leaned backwards, pulling his arm away from Sirius' grasp. The said Gryffindor could not be daunted, however, for he quickly reached over Remus to try and grab the small object back. His body smashed against Remus, and the werewolf laughed nervously as he rolled away, hiding the cigarette from Sirius' reach.
"You suck, Moony," Sirius barked, laughter in his voice as he pushed Remus to the ground and tried to reach out and grab his smoking stick.
"And you're a prat," Remus accused, speaking as best he could through his laughter. Sirius barked and made a swipe at the werewolf, who nimbly dodged.
Remus continued laughing and kicked the heavier boy off. Sirius grunted and rolled away and Remus scurried around to the other side of the atrocious witch statue.
"Who's there?" a voice barked and the two boys ceased their antics immediately. Remus turned a bewildered look towards Sirius.
Sirius cursed and fished in his pocket before extracting the invisibility cloak. Remus, dropping the cigarette, scrambled over to Sirius and nearly leapt into his arms as Sirius quickly covered them both in the cloak.
"Where did you get that?" Remus hissed in his ear.
"Borrowed it."
"You mean stole it," Remus amended and felt Sirius nod. He hoped James wouldn't notice that his best mate had stolen his precious invisibility cloak.
Under the cloak, Remus became increasingly aware of Sirius right next to him. He could smell the smoke on the boy, but also something that was distinctly Sirius. Remus was almost tempted to say he smelled like a dog, but knew that Sirius would take mock offence to such a thing and make a spectacle of himself over the matter.
Sirius was breathing heavily, out of breath from his attempts to reclaim his cigarette, which now smoked dully on the ground in the hallway. Remus could smell his breath, and silently decided that Sirius needed to brush his teeth more.
The caretaker wobbled out from behind the corner and looked around. Remus was struck by the sheer absurdity of the situation and started laughing hysterically. Sirius gave him a wild look before slamming his hand against Remus' mouth.
The caretaker swiveled his head around. "Who's there?"
"No one," Remus squeaked out stupidly. Thankfully, Sirius muffled his voice with his hand, but this still sent Remus into another frenzied fit of giggles.
Hearing nothing out the ordinary, but looking increasingly peeved, the man bent down and picked up the smoking cigarette butt.
"Someone's breaking curfew," he muttered to the cigarette. With that, be began hobbling away in the direction he thought the rouge student had disappeared to.
"Well, there goes that," Sirius said sadly under the cloak.
Remus giggled stupidly as the caretaker padded away, grumbling about students out after hours and litterbugs running afoot. Sirius pressed his hand against Remus' mouth as the said boy continued to laugh foolishly under the invisibility cloak.
"I hope you're happy, Moony," Sirius hissed, his hot breaths dangerously close to his ear.
The delicately questionable closeness made Remus still, his laughter dying in his throat. "Q-quite happy, actually."
"Arg," Sirius bemoaned the loss of his cigarette. "It took me forever to nick those things from Hogsmeade, too. Thanks a lot, Moony."
"You're welcome," Remus said, though he knew perfectly well that his friend was being sarcastic.
"Well, we might as well get back to the dorms. Prongs and Wormtail are probably worried about us," Sirius said slowly and stood up, tugging on Remus' arm to haul the lanky boy to his feet.
Remus tilted against Sirius, feeling the warmth beneath his cloak and feeling the wisps of black hair against his cheek. Sirius rolled his eyes and helped the boy walk down the hall.
---
For some reason after that eventful night, Remus found himself lingering longer than necessary in the library while working on his homework. He was used to the solitude of the library, and no one questioned the bookworm Lupin in the corner of the library. Remus would wait until the last student left the library near closing time before he'd get up from his table and retreat towards the rarely used hallway.
He'd meander down the hall until he saw Sirius' legs sticking out from behind the stone statue of the ugly witch, in which he'd promptly approach the boy and give him much needed company. For having company whilst smoking, in Sirius' own words, was always a friendly reminder that Remus could always bum free smokes.
Of course, Remus never took Sirius up on the offer. He'd sit with Sirius while the latter smoked, and Remus would scold him on smoking too much, and gently pluck his pack of cigarettes away. Remus, much to his own surprise, was growing tolerant of the smoke lingering on Sirius' hair and clothes. There was something about wizard cigarettes that weren't quite as bad as muggle ones—obviously it was the magic.
Remus would even dare say that he was starting to like the smells that lingered on Sirius.
They continued their nightly rendezvous every night, schedules and moon permitting. Sirius was always there when Remus arrived. Sometimes Sirius would smoke, while other times he wouldn't. Sometimes he'd offer one to Remus and other times he wouldn't. On those occasions when Sirius would offer, Remus was almost tempted to take the dark-haired boy up on the offer.
On one particular night, about two weeks after their first initial fiasco in the night, Remus watched the blue-grey smoke dancing in the stale air and humored the idea of just taking the cigarette from Sirius' mouth, taking a drag, and blowing it in Sirius' face, if only to be as defiant as he possibly could against the troublemaker.
As was custom, when Remus sat down Sirius offered him the pack of cigarettes. Seizing up the courage that supposedly put in him into Gryffindor in the first place, Remus reached out his hand and grasped Sirius' own.
Sirius looked up in surprise, not expecting Remus to actually take him up on the offer.
"Atta boy," he said, the first thing he'd said since Remus appeared that night.
Remus lifted his other hand and, while still holding Sirius' wrist possessively, went to open the cigarette case. But when he opened the package, Remus was surprised and extremely disappointed to see that it was, indeed, empty.
Sirius peered into it for the longest time, as if expecting a magical cigarette to appear out of thin air. Remus frowned.
"Ah well, that must be someone up there telling me not to," Remus said with a shrug.
Sirius was silent for a long moment before plucking the cigarette dangling in his mouth from his lips and offering it to Remus. Remus eyed it skeptically.
"We can share," Sirius said unnecessarily. He jerked his hand holding the cigarette and Remus continued to look at it.
Remus hesitantly reached out a hand and grasped the small, white stick and plucked it from Sirius' fingertips. The said boy grinned brightly as Remus stared down at the thing incredulously.
"I'm not sure," Remus said uneasily. Now that he had it, he wasn't sure if he wanted it.
Sirius waggled his eyebrows. "Come on."
Remus sighed and brought it to his lips. Hesitantly, he inhaled and almost immediately started coughing.
It was in that moment that Remus realized why the cigarette smelled so bad—it was because it tasted bad, too. Remus felt like he was dying.
Sirius roared with laughter, holding his stomach as Remus coughed and tired to bring filtered air back into his longs. He was dying, and the prat was doing nothing but laughing! Remus wheezed and choked for a second before he started getting a hang of himself. He pounded his balled fist against his chest and waved his other hand holding the cigarette around.
"You did it wrong," Sirius snickered.
"Bloody hell," Remus wheezed, lifting his head with water in his eyes. "How can you stand it, Padfoot?"
"It's an acquired taste, my friend," Sirius said remorsefully, with barely contained mirth in his sparkling slate eyes. Remus' own eyes narrowed. "You get used to it, let me tell you."
Remus breathed with difficulty but soon his breath returned to normal. That had certainly been an experience, but Remus hated to think that Sirius thought he was a coward for not being able to handle it. He eyed the cigarette in Sirius' mouth skeptically before sighing dramatically.
"I can't believe you like that," he mourned.
Sirius' eyes twinkled with mischief. "It just means I'm cooler than you, Moony."
Despite the truth of that statement—Sirius was rather popular, whereas Remus was the boy who followed after the two most popular boys—Remus gave his friend a rather withered glare. "That is most certainly not true," he protested. "Those things are terrible. And now I've got proof."
"Spoken like a true loser," Sirius teased. There was no cruelty in his statement, and Remus felt no anger from such an announcement.
Remus reached out a hand. "Give me that cigarette."
"Never!" Sirius declared loudly and turned away from his friend, sheltering the said cigarette.
Remus' lips curved into a slight smile despite himself and he inched closer, pushing his arm over Sirius' shoulder, causing him to press unnecessarily against Sirius' back for half a second.
"Give it here. I command you as a prefect," Remus declared, in a rather Sirius-like manner.
"Well then, my friend, I must decline," Sirius said valiantly, once again overshadowing Remus in the dramatics department, "for you are a prefect, and thus, evil."
A wrestling match began, much as it had the first night, where Remus attempted to steal the cigarette back and Sirius narrowly dodged escape. Sirius crashed into the stone witch at one point and, with stilled breath, the two watched as she tipped to the side dangerously, only to fall still again.
Sirius started laughing his barking laugh again as Remus scrambled after him around the statue, trying to catch up to him.
"Sirius!" Remus said, frustrated, "I'm serious here."
Sirius laughed again and the werewolf knew that, if not for Sirius' hysterical laughter, Padfoot would more than likely make some kind of comment about the pun in his name.
Just as Remus was sure this was going nowhere, however, Sirius paused and, breathing hard, fixed Remus with a cheeky grin. Remus' eyes narrowed before he leapt off the ground and tackled his friend to the ground.
They both laughed stupidly and released large 'oof's as they collided with the stone floor, Remus on top of Sirius.
"You bloody…" Sirius trailed off as he opened his eyes and looked at Remus. His breath died in his throat.
"What?" Remus asked and opened his own eyes, only to see Sirius' face only a small breath away from his own. Remus jerked his head up, out of reflex, only to realize that he was on top of Sirius.
"You're a bloody loser," Sirius said, only warmth in his voice. His satisfied slate eyes gazed up at Remus.
Remus' eyes widened as he stared down into Sirius' tender, sweet face. He smiled warmly up at Remus, who laid sprawled out over his body. Their noses were almost touching. Their eyes locked and Remus felt his cheeks turning pink.
Still grinning, Sirius lifted the cigarette Remus had tried so hard to obtain to his lips and took in a long drag. Remus watched him curiously, not willing to get off Sirius and feeling that Sirius not saying anything against it was a plus side.
Then Sirius blew smoke in his face and Remus started coughing. His eyes watered and his throat constricted before he coughed, rather loudly and purposefully, into Sirius' face.
"Ew," Sirius said loudly, wiggling a bit. "Moony, that's disgusting."
"You deserved it, you prat," Remus whispered, his throat hurting from the massive amounts of smoke. He was quite thankful when Sirius flicked the cigarette butt away and it rolled limply and almost innocently off to the side of the stone witch.
But that meant that they were still in the position from earlier. While the situation at hand wasn't the most ideal and romantic of situations, Remus had to admit that he didn't mind too much being pressed against Sirius so completely. But that didn't mean that Sirius liked it, too.
"Remus," Sirius said, opting to use the true name instead of a nickname.
It'd been a long time since Sirius had called him by his real name. The last time had been last year, after that prank, in which Sirius had tried to get forgiveness and Remus had not spoken to him for four months. They made up a little while after Christmastime. But there friendship had never been the same. Something had shifted, at least in Remus' humble opinion.
"Remus," Sirius said again, trying to draw the werewolf's attention again. The said prefect turned his head slightly, gauging Sirius' reaction to the situation.
He was giving Remus a soft, warm look again and Remus felt as if his face would never return to its natural color. Remus realized vaguely that this would be the perfect opportunity for Sirius to lift his head and kiss him. That idea wasn't an unpleasant one, either.
"Yes?" Remus murmured, not daring to lift his voice any higher, lest it squeaked and cracked as if he was thirteen again.
"You smell funny," Sirius said, rather unromantically.
Remus gave him a mystified look, but didn't pull away. Their noses were so close. All he had to do was lean forward and the distance would be bridged. Sirius wasn't pulling away, and there was no mischief in his eyes.
Remus' eyebrows furrowed. "That's your smell. You smell like smoke."
"So do you," Sirius accused. "It's the curse of being friends with a smoker."
"Ah," Remus agreed, his honey colored eyes dancing over Sirius' face, taking in every curve and angel of his handsome face.
"Close your eyes," Sirius commanded, his slate grey eyes staring up at Remus. Sirius lifted a hand idly and traced the scar running down his jaw line. Remus felt his eyes closing, despite himself.
Then he felt soft lips pressed against his own, a shadow of a kiss. A hesitant kiss. A kiss that was so unlike Sirius that Remus was floored for half a second before, hesitantly, his own lips moved against Sirius', seeking the reassurance both of them craved.
Silently, Sirius pulled away and the world was bathed in silence. No words passed between the two. Quietly, with his hands holding Remus softly, Sirius sat up and pressed Remus against the wall, his eyes searching through Remus' own, searching for something Remus couldn't see.
They paused for only half a second before their lips touched again. Sirius' lips moved over Remus' in an easy grace that Remus could never hope to obtain, a startling contrast to their first kiss. It seemed that he was hanging, suspended in air, for all eternity, never moving—always hanging in that one spot.
After what felt like an eternity, but could have very well been only a couple moments, Sirius pulled away from Remus, their lips only a fraction of an inch away from one another's.
"You taste like tobacco," Remus muttered against Sirius' lips. Sirius chuckled, in that way that he was often known to do. Remus frowned and his fingers breezed over Sirius' jaw line.
"So do you," Sirius shot back, only warmth in his voice.
Remus wrinkled his nose. "I wouldn't be expecting that next time."
"Next time?" Sirius whispered, his eyebrows lifting. Remus felt his heart die in his chest. Had he assumed too much? He gave Sirius a wild, fearful look, wondering if he'd just completely destroyed everything he held dear. As Remus' cheeks turned bright red, Sirius chuckled quietly and drew Remus' face in closer. "Yeah, next time."
Remus' heart soared and he delved into everything that was Sirius. The smell of tobacco melted away into nothingness.