Circumspect
By RD
Sometimes, Remus thinks they've gone one too far.
"Jesus, you're such a prude," Sirius complains. "It's just a prank, Moony!"
Remus often wonders how many people will have to be humiliated in the cause of 'just a prank'. He wonders how much someone will get hurt one day, how many friendships will be broken, how many teachers infuriated, how much he can take, all in the name of 'just a prank'.
And so Remus covers up his prefect badge for a moment and buries his head in a book, and pretends not to see the others, and in return, they let him sit this one out. He stays statue-still in his maroon velvet chair with a book unread in his hands, waiting for the shrieks of shock and cries of success from outside the common room (though not turning his head to acknowledge them).
Across the room, through the buzz of noisy talkers and last minute studiers and the hum of ever-moving bodies, Remus sees Lily part her lips and lick the backs of her teeth. He taps the leather cover of his book. She flicks her eyes up to meet his for half a second that feels like an hour, and slowly, consciously, she closes her eyes. When they open again, she is looking away. Remus watches her tongue dart out to wet her thumb, then that thumb linger endlessly on a page of her book before turning it. Remus' fingers tighten on his own tome.
He hears footsteps outside the portrait hole. He doesn't realise he has taken his gaze from Lily until he looks back and she is gone.
And then Sirius is there, spreading himself all over Remus' lap, his head between Remus' eyes and the space where Lily was.
"You should have seen Snivellus' face!" Sirius grins and his teeth don't seem as white as usual. "He's always skulking around the portrait hole anyway. Probably been kicked out of the dungeons by all the other Slytherins," he flops his arm around Remus' shoulders, and adds, with an air of knowledge, "Probably the smell."
Remus shifts uncomfortably. He'll report you, he says.
"So?! What do I care? You can just take seventy million points from Slytherin if he does."
Remus knows better than to argue.
"The boys and I are popping 'round the back for a celebratory cigar or five," Sirius says with a faux upper-class accent, "Care to join, Moony old chap?"
Before Remus can reply, Lily is right there and her hand is clutching the velvet next to Remus' head and her nails are painted red and she smells like forget-me-nots, which Remus thinks is odd because of her name, only he can't quite think straight right now.
"Can I come?" she says.
"Piss off," Sirius growls, and his grip on Remus tightens (instinctively? Remus wonders).
Lily's face contorts for a moment, then she shakes her head, and murmurs unsubtly, "You're such a kid." Sirius gives her the finger, jumps up, and grabs Remus' wrists to pull him up.
Remus watches Lily's back until she is gone.