Right, well, this is my first attempt at a humor fic, so I hope you actually think it is funny. I laugh a little bit when I write it anyway.
As a warning, there are slashy thoughts and mentions, etc. It's a pretty large theme really, but you shouldn't get too uncomfortable. The rating is really mostly for language. Everything else is pretty mild. Also, I am always nervous that I might rate it too low, so I have always rated everything T.
Please review! I always get people reading my stories, but I hardly get reviewed. Yeah, that's about enough propaganda for one day, and I hope you enjoy!
"What an idiot," she said loudly tossing her hair over her shoulder with a quiet chuckle.
Lily watched with amusement as James Potter and his gang of cohorts scurried down the hallway. Her dark haired friend beside her looked at her quizzically, but she shrugged and made a noncommittal noise of agreement. Lily only vaguely saw her friend's movement out of the corner of her eye; her attention was focused on the retreating back of James Potter, the resident Hogwarts big-head.
Lily's mouth twisted into a grimace as she caught the tail end of her thoughts. She had no idea why she was thinking about him, again. No, not again, she just was. And that's all there was to it. Promptly, she turned her attention to Black and Lupin instead. Their heads were astoundingly close given the speeds their bodies were moving at, but it seemed they were managing a conversation of sorts.
Actually, it looked a bit cozier than an average conversation. Black barked a short, sharp laugh and Lupin's own laugh warbled around them. Lily thought this was strange. And she had seen many, many strange things in her short life.
"Did you see that?" she asked her friend.
"See what?"
"Umm, just Black and Lupin. I mean, they seemed awfully close."
"All four of them are awfully close, Lily; you need to be more specific than that."
"It's just–do you think Black and Lupin could be together?"
"As in together, together?
"What other together is there?"
"Lily, I don't think so. You know how Black is, and why would Lupin ever agree to let his, ah, significant other run about screwing everything in sight. And isn't Lupin supposed to be dating Gracie Fitzroy?"
"Fitzroy was last month–he's supposedly single again. I don't know, but there was something there with him and Black. I'm sure of it," Lily stated while watching the doorway the four Marauders had disappeared through. Her brow was furrowed slightly, and her bottom lip was barely pouted. Lily was thinking. Then she turned to completely face her taller friend and said, "And I will prove it, too."
Her companion snorted quietly and rolled her eyes. Lily was far too obsessed with the Marauders for her taste, but to each her own.
Later that evening as Lily reclined by the fire with a completely un-school related book, the four Marauders stampeded into the common room. They were all laughing and wheezing simultaneously with their faces flushed and their eyes sparkling as they shooed a few first years off the couches and collapsed. Potter and Lupin crashed first and were sitting more or less upright on the couch when Pettigrew flopped between them and shoved Remus slightly into Black who was perched precariously on the sofa arm. Lupin grabbed the back of Black's robes and pulled him away from the brink of disaster, but he pulled too hard. Lily watched as Black smashed into Lupin and Pettigrew and spread across their laps. His legs dangled comically off the end of the couch and his grin was unnaturally large. "Just can't keep your hands off me, can you Moony?"
In response, Lupin laughed and pinched Black's stomach hard enough to make him yelp. Black's smile did not waver, and Lily noticed. She also saw how Black seemed to have absolutely no intentions of moving from Remus's lap. Granted, he was also partially in Peter's lap, but she was willing to overlook that fact as Black and Lupin were once again talking quietly between themselves. At least they were, she sighed to herself, before Potter poked Black in the head and made an off color comment about Professor McGonagall's underwear choices. Lily decided she didn't want to know about whatever they had gotten into and returned back to her book.
Even though she was reading–really, she was–she still noticed when Potter and Pettigrew stood and wandered up to their beds. She told herself she was watching because she wanted to see if Black and Lupin would linger romantically together before the fire and watching James Potter's backside going up the stairs was just a precaution to be sure he actually went up to bed. And Lily was sure she was only smiling because she was no longer being stared at and could continue to observe her two subjects.
When Lily turned back to look at the remaining two Marauders, they were sitting facing each other on the couch and seemed to be having a serious conversation. Lily found it remarkable that they were capable of having serious conversations, but she continued to watch anyway. Remus's face was darkening into a scowl as his potential lover continued to talk, and his eyes were aimed at a particularly odd shaped stain on the floor under the table beside him. Lily thought she might have seen a bit of a teary sparkle in his eyes, but she was fairly sure that was just wishful thinking.
Suddenly Remus's eyes jerked to Black's face. The look in them was heavy and dark, and Lily was thankful no one had ever looked at her that way. She watched as a light flush slowly suffused Black's cheeks as Lupin spoke to him quietly but obviously forcefully. There was no mistaking the tears shimmering in Black's eyes. Lily almost felt bad for him, but she was sure whatever he had done warranted this punishment; Lupin was the most levelheaded of the Marauders, though Lily often suspected that did not mean much.
Just as Lily was contemplating sliding into hearing distance, Black leapt to his feet with a snarled, "Fine! If that's what you bloody well want, fine!"
"No, that's not what I want you bloody idiot! I've told you a hundred times that I need more time to think, but no! You need me to just say 'Oh, Sirius, everything's just fine and fucking dandy' instead of actually telling you the truth!"
By now Lupin and Black were both standing and staring at each other. Their chests were heaving and their eyes looked wild.
"I know the truth, Remus. I can see it in the way you walk beside me and avoid me unless you can't. I don't need to hear you tell me to know what's going on."
Lily had never heard Black sound so defeated. If she did not know better she would have said Black was hanging his head slightly and scuffing the carpet with his toe, but she knew things like that only happened in hallucinations of the strangest sort.
Perhaps she should pay better attention to Potter during Potions to be sure all of this was not his fault.
Remus reached out and gripped Black's shoulder. His eyes were soft now and sad. "You know I'll forgive you, Padfoot," he said with a strange half-smile, "but I just need some more time to work everything out."
"Until then…?"
"I don't know, Sirius. I really don't know."
With that, both boys slinked off to bed and left Lily staring where they had stood with her jaw hanging slightly open and her curiosity piqued. Really, she thought, curiosity killed the cat. But then again, cats had nine lives, didn't they?