DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and all it's characters belong to J K Rowling.

Author's note: Please rate and review! Constructive criticism and thoughts on the story are greatly appreciated!

Can I Be Serious With You?

Sirius trudged up the stairs to the sixth-year boys dormitory. He was absolutely tired out of his mind. Literally. He had almost gone into the wrong room, twice, stopping only when he realized that his bed wasn't there; and that the room was void of Remus. The lanky boy never attended any of the Gryffindor parties, preferring to stay in the room reading a book or working on homework. Sirius had never understood the call of 'being responsible'. Though the feeling had been changing recently as he recalled how peaceful Remus' life was. He never got into detentions, never got into trouble at all, and he was the pride of many of the teachers, and the love of many of the girls. Nobody had doubted that he would be made prefect come fifth year and the celebratory party for it had been prepared months in advance.

Sirius had had to sneak to that party, he recalled. Since the letters came in the summer, he had been at the prison they made him call home, and there was no way that his parents would have allowed him to attend. It had been a fun party. James had hosted it, so it had been a grand thing at James' house. He had even called a couple of fifth-year girls to celebrate Lily Evans' rise to a prefect as well. Although, that had probably been to impress her—not that it had succeeded. She had been completely cool towards him all of fifth-year, shouting at him most of the time for the things that they did. 'The fun that they had', Sirius reminded himself. It wasn't his fault that his favorite punching bag had been Lily's childhood friend.

Of course, nowadays, James was asking him to cut down on teasing (insulting) Severus. Apparently, he wanted to get in Lily's good books and this was the only way to go. Sirius didn't really mind; he was getting tired of it anyway.

When he finally reached his room, after confirming that Remus was sitting on the bed next to one that looked like his, he tore of his shirt, pulled down his pants and jumped onto the bed. Remus' bed, to be more precise. The boy in question raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say a word. He moved his books so that Sirius could have more space to lie on and went back to writing. Sirius stared moodily at the ceiling trying to get to sleep. The party celebrating Gryffindor's victory against Ravenclaw had drained him out, so he expected to fall off almost immediately. When that didn't happen, he turned to his side and started breathing deeply, hoping to calm his mind and clear his thoughts.

'Not happening,' he thought after a while. He turned around again so that he was facing Remus and stared at the taller boy until he was noticed. After a few seconds, Remus said, "What?" without even looking up.

Sirius sighed, causing Remus to look up at him, as that action was quite a rare one for him, happening only when the boy was really depressed.

"I got a letter from my parents today."

Remus nodded slowly, looking up to see Sirius' face, "Okay. What did they want?"

Sirius sighed again, "They wanted to tell me that they were finalizing a marriage proposal for me. It will come into play as soon as I leave school."

Remus raised his eyebrows again, "Oh." He shifted a little so that he could see Sirius more clearly and waited for him to continue.

"Yeah, oh" Sirius said, scowling into the mattress, "They didn't even discuss it with me. Just informed me that it would be happening."

"Can't you say no?"

Sirius snorted, "Like hell I can. If I do, they'll threaten to disown me, and where will that leave me?"

"Frankly, where you've wanted to be for a while now," came the blunt reply.

Sirius glanced up sharply and saw that Remus was being quite serious with him. He was staring at him evenly, waiting for his reply. Sirius thought about his answer for that benefit before saying it out loud.

"Why do you think that?"

Remus let out a breath. Looked like he wasn't as unaffected as he seemed to be. "Because you're unhappy with them. It's very obvious that you are. And frankly, they're not very good parents. I know you, Sirius. I know you're getting tired of it all. With the way your mind works, I'm betting that you'll end up running away from home soon, unable to stand it anymore. If that happens, of course, you're always welcome to stay with me during the summer. James would offer you his house as well."

"I know that! But they're my bloody family!"

"Are they, Sirius?" Remus said archly, "Are you afraid that you'll be leaving your family, or that you'll be leaving your fortune?"

"Remus!"

"Answer me!" Remus no longer sounded like the boy who just went along with the others and had the uncanny ability to stay out of trouble. He sounded commanding and, mostly, angry.

"I don't know!" Sirius exclaimed, exasperated.

"Then figure it out." Remus bit out. He went back to his work, acting like he hadn't a care what Sirius would decide. But his set shoulder and shaking hand told otherwise.

Sirius thought about it for a while. Remus did have a point. His parents were hardly parents, they just thought of him as the heir to the Black house—nothing more, nothing less. They expected him to be exactly the way they wanted him to be, expressed extreme disappointment in him as much as they could for all the littlest things and, generally, made his life at home a living hell.

But they were his family. They were all he had.

'You have James and Remus,' a small part of his brain reminded him. And he did. He knew that they would always stand behind him, whatever the cost. He could be accused of killing someone and they would back him up without a question.

"I like girls," he said finally, causing Remus to stop his work and look at him.

"I know," he said wryly, "I see you hanging off of them enough."

"And I like playing around with them."

"Something else that is utterly obvious."

"I don't want to be tied down to one as soon as I leave school."

"No one would—unless, of course, your name is James Potter and the girl is Lily Evans. Though for that to happen, she should start sparing him the look of utter disgust."

"Yeah," Sirius grinned, "Do you think they'll get together?" The change in topic would probably help clear his head a little, and diffuse the slight tension in the room at the same time.

Remus nodded almost immediately, "Of course they will. He just has to grow up a bit, and she just has to learn to be more accepting."

"You really do know everything, don't you? Or think you do, at least."

"Not really. I'm just good at reading people."

"Yeah. Do you know Andie ran away after she finished school to marry Ted Tonks? She had to do that because he was muggle-born. She got disowned for it."

"Andromeda Black?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, well, is she happy?"

Sirius nodded, "Yeah. Even pregnant. Mum was shrieking about it for a while last summer. Yelling about what a disgrace she was to the family."

"If she's happy, I don't see a problem with what she did."

"Yeah," Sirius said softly, "If she's happy." She had done it for that reason, he recalled—to become happy. She had felt stifled by the family and forced into things she hadn't wanted. Just like him.

Sirius quietened down for a while and went back to thinking about how things would change if he made the decision to run away. They would be better in one sense, obviously. He would be with one of his best friends, the only people in the world who understood him. He would also be away from the people who pretended to love him and used that love to strangle him. After a while he said, "I really want to be happy, Remus."

"I know," the other boy replied softly.

"Will I really be welcome at your houses for the summer?"

"Yeah, though I suggest you go to James' rather than mine. His is more suitable to where you were living before."

"I don't really care what your house looks like" he said indignantly. To think that Sirius would judge him because of his lack of money! He had plenty of all that mattered.

"I do, though. Plus, James' parents would love to have you there. Mine have enough on their hands as it is."

"Yeah, okay. I'll ask James later"

"So, are you going to do it?"

"Looks like it," Sirius said grumpily. "It's the only way I can escape the marriage. And once I turn seventeen, they can't do anything to me."

"Yeah" Things were quiet again for a while before Remus finally said, "Listen, you should get onto your own bed, you look like you're going to fall off any minute."

Sirius scowled and got up. He dragged his feet to his own bed and fell into it, tiredly pulling the blankets over himself. Once he got settled, he closed his eyes and within seconds, fell asleep. Seeing the slumbering boy, Remus gave a small smile and closed his books. Without turning, he called out, "You can come in, you know. He's gone to sleep."

James Potter walked into the room hesitantly, smiling a little sheepishly. "How do you always know that we're there?"

"Magic," Remus replied archly.

James snorted, "Yeah, right."

"Where's Peter?" Remus asked him. The fourth member of their group was rarely left on his own; he couldn't handle crowds and needed the others for their protection. They humored him for most of the time.

"Fell off to sleep on the couch." James answered as he removed his own clothes and climbed into the bed next to Sirius'. He sat up inside the covers and looked at Sirius' sleeping face.

"He's been worried over that all day."

"I know."

"And pretending like he didn't care."

"Well, seeming like he has normal emotions goes against the policy. The one that's supposed to ensure that he gets girls. Not that it has really worked before now, anyway."

"Yeah. Anyway, I'll tell him in the morning that he's always welcome at my home. For whatever he wants."

"Yeah, you do that." James nodded sleepily and lay down on his back.

"Good night Remus. Thanks for getting him to see sense."

"It was no problem—my pleasure, in fact. Good night."