Read My Lips
by Bedroom Dancing

A/N: Hey all. My name's Lizzy, and this is a fic I wrote for my someone. There are 10 mini-chapters to it, so I'm going to break them up among 5 or 6 normal length chapters.

un.

Nestled away in the far corner of the less than crowded Gryffindor common room sat four 6th years, huddled around a small table by the blazing fire.

"Bishop to E5," James Potter leaned over the Wizard's chess board, smirking as his bishop moved to across the board and assailed Sirius's knight. He tossed another sickle into the pile of sweets, change and assorted rubbish.

Sirius frowned, studying the chess board. "C'mon, Help me out Remmy," he pleaded at Remus Lupin, who was snuggled in an armchair next to the fire, watching the game over an Atronomy assignment. "I bet my last bit of self-correcting ink."

Remus studied the board for a pensive moment. "Move the queen to take out his pawn and you'll have checkmate."

"Ooh!" comprehension dawned on Sirius's face, his light grey eyes scanning the chess board. "Good one! Queen to F7... And that's Checkmate!"

"No way, that's cheating you bloody git!" James cried as his pawn was smashed into pieces. "How come you help him and not me, Moony?"

"You never asked," Remus shrugged, smirking as Sirius scrambled to shove all of the collateral into his bookbag.

"Not like it matters anyway Prongs, half this stuff will prolly end up back in your hands by the end of the month anyway," Sirius grinned.

James' scowl faded. "Too right. Well, wanna go have some fun before dinner? The Slytherins are out practicing Quidditch, and Flitwick told us to practice that Reversing Charm..."

Peter Pettigrew, who had sat in silence the whole time thus far, squealed, "Yea sounds fun! You could make the bludgers switch places with Malfoy's face!"

"Ahem," Remus chimed in, placing a nimble finger on his assignment. "Anybody checked out the star charts lately?"

"Nah, just you," Sirius leaned over Remus' shoulder and peered at the complicated graph. Frowning, he replied in hush tones, "Oh no wonder you're looking peaky, full moon tonight."

"Okay, we'll have to deal with that later, and I'll visit my dear lady Lily now."

James read the humored expressions on his three friends' faces and tried again, this time more confidently, "I swear, for the first time in 5 years I've really got her right where I want her." He pressed a hand to his head and rumpled his mess of ravenous hair, puffing out his chest before beginning his march into battle.

"Just don't come on too strong, she may get the impression you're obessed with her," Sirius shouted out over the noisy clamor of the common room. James replied with a rather rude hand gesture.

Remus chuckled softly and watched James head towards a small cluster of 6th year girls. One of them, a fit-looking redhead, seemed to spot him coming over and had slid a hand precautiously inside the pocket of her robes.

"You guys wanna head back up to the dorm?" Sirius said, stifling a yawn.

Remus nodded and began to follow, but Peter lagged behind. "I think I'm gonna go do some studying.. In the library, yes, see you later," He rubbed his hands together and fled for the portrait hole.

Neither boy made any notice of this as they wandered up the marble staircase.

"So no girls for you to visit, Sirius?" Remus questioned as the duo headed into the 6th year boy's dormitory, the lock on the ancient door clicking as he tugged it shut.

"Sod off," Sirius snapped.

Shaking his head, Remus flopped down on the bed.

Sirius began to dig through James's trunk, pulling out a floral printed silk cloak from underneath a pile of dirty laundry. "Well here's the cloak, now where'd that bloody map get to?"

"Dunno," Remus replied, biting into a jelly slug. "Ask James once he's done humiliating himself?"

"Do the honors, I'm going to bed," Sirius had already begun to loosen his tie, pulling it over his head before hastily unbuttoning his white uniform shirt. "Wake me up before dinner."

Remus picked up a Jelly Slug that was squirming away and popped it in his mouth, turnkng back to his blank piece of parchment. He scrawled a heading, "Proper Usage of Vanishing Spells", and began to construct an essay in loopy, slightly lopsided, handwriting. But he found his concentraton slipping and his eyes wandering astray, occasionally observing Sirius' sleeping form. Remus watched the slow rise and fall of his chest with every slow, relaxed breath.

The door crept open, and Remus snapped into attention. James, beamind wildly, stood in the threshold of the room. A few shortened chunks of his ravenous hair bore a strangely singed appearance.

"Burned by the flames of love," James continued smiling. "Oh... she's such a cute bird when she gets mad..."

deux.

The following morning, Remus traipsed into the Great Hall in quite a state. Breakfast was well underway, so he avoided most of the inconspicous stares he was doomed to encounter. Limping slightly, he made his way to the Gryffindor House table and gingerly lowered himself into a spot next to Sirius and Peter.

"Bloody Hell. You look like shit," Sirius confirmed after taking one look at Remus. He spread butter on a poppy seed bagel and took a huge bite. "We diffn't sphinx oo er umin fo cass."

"It's better than it looks," Remus grimaced, wiping a spot of blood from the corner of his mouth. He felt a gash on his lower arm reopen, and immediately placed his hands on his lap.

"People are gonna think you picked a muggle duel with that great oaf Crabbe or something," James said. "Though I must say, you're getting brilliant shiner right in time for Valentine's Day."

Remus tried to chuckle warily, but even that irritated the open wounds on his stomach.

"You were pretty fiesty this month," Sirius commented casually, in an undertone. "Sorry if I was a little rough with you."

"It's okay. I'll go back to Madame Pomfrey after classes and she'll just patch me up some more," Remus replied simply.

"Oi, looks like we're gonna be late for class," James commented without the faintest note of distress. Sirius helping to slide Remus off of the bench and Peter carrying his books, the four traipsed out of the nearly vacant Great Hall towards the grounds.

Remus shuffled slowly along the stone fledged path leading to the Forbidden Forest, trying hard not to loose his footing and open up even more wounds.

"Is this the worst you've ever had it?" James ventured curiously.

"Nah," Remus shook his head dolefully. The forest ahead was barely visible through the fog that had settled. "It was worse before you three were with me, I'd beat the bloody hell out of myself."

"Aww Moony was a loooonely werewolf!" Sirius mock howled, earning a playful smack on the arm from Remus.

Scratching his chin, James said, "Don't be sad Moony, think of Valentine's Day. I've got a shrewd idea of someone who may be deserving of a nice little hex."

Remus wasn't sure how exactly this was supposed to cheer him up, but it seemed to sparked something in everyone else.

"Well I always have wanted to get that prat Snivelly back for ratting me out to McGonagall..." Sirius' voice dripped in anticipation.

"So I was thinking, what if we use some transfiguration on Doxies or something to make them look like a potted plant?"

Remus jumped back into the conversation, "C'mon guys, why don't you find someone... not so pathetic to take your anger out on?"

"Well... he's just more fun," Sirius answered gleefully.

"Don't enjoy yourselves too much at the expense of others, Dumbledore made me prefect to control you and-"

"It's not gonna work anytime soon," James replied definitively. The four Marauders had finally reached the small clearing on the edge of the forest for Care of Magical Creatures class. Professor Kettleburn was reaching down into a large wooden crate, the rest of the class watching attentively.

"Glad you could make it, we were all afraid you'd gotten lost in the fog," Professor Kettleburn straightened up, holding a few orangeish red colored lizards in his open hands. A few people in the class snickered and stared at the Marauders. A rosy flush creeped into Remus' cheeks, whereas James and Sirius looked unfazed, if not comfortable in the spotlight.

Please review, 'cause it makes my heart happy. :)