DISCLAIMER: They boys are not mine.

WARNING: Slash.

For Hannah.

Body Heat

By

LizzY Tears

When you're English and you're seventeen, and there's a castle ground full of pure white snow, there is only one thing on your mind.

To Remus Lupin, it is catching up on homework.

To Sirius Black, it is a snowball fight.

It is also a snowball fight to James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, which means that by default it means a snowball fight to Remus Lupin, too.

Which explains why they were all marching down towards the doors that would lead them to the greatest snowball fight in the history of snowball fights. Well, everybody else was marching, armed with brooms, and wands and mittens and beanies. Remus was struggling, armed with curses, hexes and swear words. But the point still remains that the Marauders made their way out of Hogwarts and into the thick of the winter wonderland that awaited them.

It started, as most snowball fights start, with a single, unexpected blow. When James whirled around with one side of his face red and cold, splodgy snow dripping down his collar, the whole gathered might of the school knew there was no turning back now.

Suddenly, there was nobody in sight. Huge snow forts suddenly appeared and missiles of ice were flying dangerously into the midfield. Sirius and James led a courageous tactical maneovre and managed to wipe out half the battalion on the other side of the field, while Remus and Peter stocked up the supply of ready made, tightly packed ice balls, and kept the weeds down on the home front.

The day wore on.

By the time the day had darkened into submission, everybody had been given their fill of cold, wet snow and all the wanted was a hot, wet bath, which posed a problem for the Hogwarts hot water supply. Which is why Remus and Sirius sat shivering in a corner of their dorm room while Peter and James enjoyed the first long, luxurious shower, having won the race back to the castle. Considering Peter was getting pudgy, this was an amazing feat, but Remus had a very odd feeling that Sirius had been holding onto his hand not to be propelled forward, but to be held back.

So they sat side by side in the corner, unwilling to let their beds get wet, both of them trying not to touch the other too much. That is, until Sirius wrapped his arms around Remus and held him tightly.

"Body heat." He ground out through chattering teeth and Remus nodded his agreement. Any excuse would do and this was a perfectly logical one.

But when Sirius turned his head and pressed his lips to Remus', Remus couldn't quite see the logic. He'd never heard of this before. After he kissed Sirius back, he opened his eyes and raised his eyebrow.

"Body heat." Sirius said again. "If we kiss, and we like it, we get hot, then we get warm and don't die of pneumonia."

"Ah." Remus said. "That makes sense."

"I'm so glad you think so," Sirius said with a wicked glint in his eye. "Because I'm really cold right now."

"So am I." Remus admitted. "So kiss me."

"I intend to." Sirius told him and did. And then they got warm.

Soon after, the door opened and James and Peter came in, expecting to find their sodden friends turned into icicles.

Instead, they found Sirius lying on top of Remus, half of their clothes removed and Remus' fingers wrapped securely in Sirius' hair. The pair stopped their actions as they heard their friends emerge and the four boys stared at each other for a moment.

"Body heat." Remus and Sirius said together.

"If you say so," James muttered under his breath and shook his head. Then he stopped in his path towards the door, turned and stared at them with a thoughtful look on his face. "Do you think that would work with Lily?" He asked them. They shrugged, still perched together.

"Maybe." Remus told him, angling his neck to see him better. "You may as well try it. Although you're all warm and showered now."

"Not for long!" James exclaimed and disappeared from the doorway. The two looked at each other, looked at the door, looked at each other and then looked at the window. Seconds later they scrambled over towards the window and sure enough, James was cavorting in the snow. They watched as he threw snow in the air, tossed it into his hair and rubbed it into his clothes.

They glanced at each other and with a single thought, they sped for the bathroom before James could come back, realise he was freezing, realise Lily had probably already had her shower and demanded the rights to the bathroom again.

But despite the steam billowing from the cubicles, Remus and Sirius found that they were still cold. So two cubicles became one cubicle and suddenly everything was okay.

That, and James was now pounding on the door, and that was enough to make anything just brilliant.

Finite.