Sirius watched Remus' lean body sprawled out on the armchair, a book in his hands, eyes caressing the pages with some sort of special softness and love reserved only for those damned bundles of inked paper.
More so, it was that muggle book, the red one Remus seemed to love the most.
Sirius had seen it in between the slender fingers more times than he had wanted to, most of them it was opened somewhere near the middle as the golden eyes ran over the same page time after time soaking it in.
What in the world was so interesting?
These times, when Sirius tried to read Remus reading that evil book, were the only times Sirius spent more than five minutes completely still.
Maybe it was the strand of dirty blonde hair, the one that would usually drive Remus crazy as he pushed it back time after time, that was left hanging over his eyes forgotten. Maybe it was the relaxed body, more feline than anything. Maybe it was the peaceful expression that, while it was so very rare on the face usually adorned by cutely scrunched eyebrows, was very becoming. Maybe it was the slight bite of the lower lip.
See, Sirius measured Moony's concentration level on a scale that went roughly from what he liked to imagine being 'Yes, Sirius, oh please talk to me more, as you are secretly more important to me than everyone else' to ' Do not disturb if you like your limbs attached to your body'.
The lower lip bite measured in at about 'Sirius, I will tear you to pieces in your sleep if you try to distract me'.
So Sirius tried his best not to. He just observed, sitting on the ground by the fireplace as the rain beat against the windows and people came and went murmuring quietly.
It was like clockwork, every Sunday Remus would lay himself out in the armchair with a book and Sirius would very inconspicuously slink down and find himself a place from which he didn't look like a creep watching Moony.
It was like a case study.
Sirius promised himself that he was doing this for scientific reasons.
Obviously, he would write a book on werewolf reading habits right after graduation.
A right bestseller it would be.
Even James and Peter would only give him sceptical looks when he left them in the middle of something just to sit there and hibernate with his eyes on Moony.
In short, Sirius chose to spend time pondering why Remus turned pages quicker or slower and why he caressed the covers like the skin of a lover.
Keeping in mind his attention span that was rather short, even Sirius himself had to admit that his behaviour was... atypical. But no one bothered him about it and Moony didn't seem to even notice, so it was fine... he was fine.
James was annoying the lights out of Remus.
"But whyyy?"Potter whined and Remus rubbed his temples, putting his book down in his lap.
The guy was jumping up and down on his knees in front of him on Remus' bed.
They had long since abandoned all ideas of personal space, but sometimes, at times like this in particular, Remus wished that they would have some kind of unwritten rule about never crossing the 'curtain line'.
They didn't though, and he now had an overexcited Prongs, inching closer with a puppy dog expression.
"James, no. It's a terrible idea. I'm not helping."He said strictly and looked the bloke dead in the eye with all the resolve in the world.
Puppy dog eyes or no, the idea was idiotic.
Even by James' standards.
"But- "James pouted and tilted his head to the side.
It might have been adorable to the 'Potter Fanclub' but to Remus he just looked slightly constipated.
"Look, I think she's starting to come around with you being all mellow lately. Why don't you try keeping it up?"
"I'm having withdrawals, Moony. It's terrible!" James wailed and threw his head on Remus' lap, knocking the book to the ground in the process.
"Ja-!"Remus tried to protest.
"I can't! I need to do something! A serenade! A poem! A banner! Cupids dancing and singing her favourite song! Which just by the way-" James flailed his arms.
"Is 'Here Comes the Sun'. So you've told us, Prongs." Remus finished for him and tried to push him away failing as James seemed rather comfortable lying on his back, using Remus' crossed legs as a pillow, his body spread and relaxed even though his arms were flailing to portray extreme dramatics.
"I'm addicted and I can't stop telling her how much I love her! Feel this! I'm shivering from the lack of drug that is my eternal love!" James grabbed his hand and pressed it against his cheek.
Remus wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to 'feel' because the skin simply felt warm and slightly clammy with sweat to him. Surely that was not what 'eternal love withdrawals' felt like.
"James, even with your knack for theatrics, don't you think that it would be far more beneficial to be… well you know?" Remus said softly, giving up. He leaned back and crossed his arms, looking into the upturned hazel eyes of his friend.
"No, I don't know." James frowned looking puzzled.
"Be…subtle." Remus breathed out heavily.
He really wished Potter and Evans all the best, he did. But as the unfortunate confidant of both parties he would usually find himself in the front lines of war. This year had so far been a rather calm one, but from the look in James' eyes he was beginning to wonder whether it was simply the eye of the storm.
"Moony!" James gasped scandalized, "You know we don't mention that word!"
Despite his best efforts Remus couldn't fully hide the small smile, pulling at the corners of his lips.
That moment the door of their dorm opened and Sirius walked in with his eyes on the ground and one hand in his pocket.
As his eyes travelled up he stopped.
"Oh hey, Moo-" He started but the greeting drifted off as his gaze took James in. He stared at them weirdly for a bit. Lips set into a harsh straight line. "Um?"
"Prongs here, insists he has a plan to end all plans. He is wooing Evans for real this time." Remus explained sarcastically, moving his legs as to shake James off, but the bloke didn't budge.
"Stop moving, Moony, you absolutely fail at being a pillow." Prongs complained.
"Oh no. Whatever am I going to do? Well you better get off then and let me work on my skills a bit more until you let that magnificent head of yours descend upon my lap again." Remus agreed and Sirius gave him a small smile of amusement whilst moving to sit down on his own bed.
The smile was off. Remus made a mental note to ask what was wrong later.
"Nah, you'll do for now. I don't really want to move." James replied and there was some kind of mischievous undertone to his voice.
"An honor. I assure you." Remus retorted flatly.
"So what's this plan to end all plans?" Sirius interjected rather coldly.
"Fireworks." James grinned. "Lots of them. Singing. About my beautiful, amazing, incredible, lovely-"
"About Evans." Remus cut him short rolling his eyes.
"Yes." James agreed.
"Not really anything all that different from the norm." Sirius cocked his head to the side with a sceptical raise of his eyebrow.
"He left out a small little detail." Remus grunted. "He wants the grand finale to be fireworks exploding like paint over every single wall in the castle, painting Lily's face on all of them. He says the castle needs a makeover."
"A lot of work." Sirius hummed immediately and it made Remus think that James was not the only one being rather...mellow this year.
Sirius was not his loud self either. Well not quite as loud as usual.
Remus had attributed this to the lack of negative influence as James was too preoccupied with his Head Boy duties, which, according to him, required his constant communication with Lily (stalking, others called it stalking), but he was beginning to see that maybe it was something slightly more subtle than that.
"All great things are." James replied.
"If only you applied that attitude to other areas of your life. Like, oh I don't know, studying." Remus said with a small smirk.
"When there's love at question, who cares about studying? Have you no heart?" James sighed dramatically, throwing one hand up against his forehead.
"My heart's quite fine, thank you. Not even the iceberg you imagine it being." Remus defended.
"Then, Moony, you must understand that there is absolutely nothing worse than being unable to tell the person you love how you feel." James nodded ardently.
"I can think of a few things." Remus shrugged.
"Like being shot down and hated." Sirius murmured and James and Remus' heads snapped to him.
The atmosphere grew heavy.
Sirius' cheeks coloured as the guy looked away with a cautious expression.
Oh, wow, Sirius was...
Remus' eyebrows narrowed with worry.
Just when Remus was about to open his mouth to ask him what was wrong James snorted at Sirius.
"Still better than not saying anything at all. At least you get the answer and can try again from thereon."
"Or you screw things up beyond repair." Sirius argued.
"Fine. Let's all just sit in silence. How the hell people get together at all then?" James huffed.
Remus' darted between his friends and he noted that this conversation was obviously hitting close to home for them both and was about to turn into a full-blown argument which really didn't happen all that often.
He felt the tension between them and couldn't comprehend where it came from.
He patted Jame's shoulder lightly.
"Look, I'm not saying that you should keep silent. Just... you've been trying things your way since fourth year, how about you try things...her way." Remus muttered giving his friend a caring smile.
James froze looking into Remus' eyes for a moment.
He then sighed and got up walking over to his own bed.
"Fineee."He huffed. "I'll think about it."
Remus turned to Sirius, who offered him a feeble smile. The tension was still in the stern line of the bloke's shoulders and so Remus didn't respond with a smile of his own.
Instead he reached out to the floor, stretching to reach his book and picked it up.
Sirius' eyes followed the movement making Remus feel slightly uncomfortable. For whatever reason he couldn't phantom.
"Can I borrow that?" Padfoot said out of nowhere.
"Huh?" Remus breathed confused.
"The book- I need something like that for Muggle Studies." Sirius nodded towards the 'Collected Works of Poetry'.
Remus saw James' head snap in their direction with his peripheral vision.
Remus knew that James never understood why Sirius had taken Muggle Studies in the first place. Remus' inkling was that it was just another small thing to annoy the pureblood parental units.
"This... uh...it's my favourite." Remus whispered softly in silent terror of what was going to be done with it.
"I'm just going to read it; your baby will be fine." Sirius teased a smirk spreading on his lips, grey eyes dancing with mirth.
"Read it?" Remus repeated slowly.
Sirius pouted and glared.
"I can read."
"Really?" Slipped off of Remus' tongue without permission and he gave Sirius an apologetic look. "I mean I thought it was your goal to get through school without reading one thing."
"Goals change." Sirius muttered defensively.
"Uh...it's fragile."Remus murmured clutching his prized possession in his hand.
"I'll take care of it." Sirius rolled his eyes. "Stingy, Moony, oh so stingy."
"Look, the last time-"
"It's not going to be like the last time. I promise." Sirius pulled out his best pleading expression.
For some reason Padfoot's tricks worked wonders on him. Always. James could get on his knees and smoulder him all the cuteness in the world and Remus would shoot him down in a millisecond.
But not Padfoot.
Looking so innocent and honest (though Remus knew better).
"Oh...okay. Just-"Remus agreed hesitantly.
"It will come back to you in perfect condition." Sirius cut him off.
Remus extended the book to Sirius, still having second thoughts, and the guy stood up to take it.
"Seventh year at Hogwarts." James chuckled. "Sirius Black takes an interest in poetry."
"It's for-" Sirius said quickly.
"Muggle Studies. Sure." James laughed and shook his head turning to rummage through his drawers.
Sirius stood there turning red.