Hola!
So, this is my first Harry Potter fanfic in a while, and well, you can't not ship them. Anyways so this is just a one shot that came to me at 2am and then decided to bug me until I started writing it all down. So, voila!
On a side note, I've made Molly and Arthur a bit younger here so they're marauder age, idk it just seemed to fit.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I simply worship and pray.
James remembered the whole affair rather well; he even remembered exactly how it all started. "She's gorgeous, you know? I can't even explain it, she's just a firecracker- and I mean that in both words! Oh the way she moves, the way she talks to me!"
"She only ever insults you James!" Sirius laughed, his laughter echoing around the virtually empty common room. James tried to huff off the comment and a strand of his messy hair briefly floated before landing on his forehead in a far more irritating place than before. It was no use to try and dissuade James though, he was borderline obsessed with Lily and to suggest she would never return his affection- no matter how true- would lead to him sulking for at least an hour.
"Yeah… but… can you just imagine kissing her? I mean, her lovely lips, so red and plush…" James trailed off and a dazed look came into his eyes, causing Sirius to roll his eyes and shove him slightly.
"Come off it James, in your mad hunt for the pretty little red head, you've missed out on the other girls out there- I mean have you seen Molly? She's just as lovely… just as red too," Sirius pondered, James snickering as his face fell, "Course… there is the whole deal with Arthur. He isn't very scary, but I wouldn't like to see him defending his girl… again. "
"Y-you haven't kissed her though… have you?" Peter spoke up suddenly, looking rather anxious. Arthur Weasley generally got on well with everyone, a sweet, gently spoken young man who was found more often then not to have his head in a muggle studies book. He would never have been described as violent or dangerous- that was until Peter had tried to kiss an unwilling Molly under some mistletoe last Christmas. The black eye didn't fade for weeks.
"Nah, course I haven't- I'm just using her as an example," Sirius looked contemplative once more, "Kissing girls is an art form. It requires skill, precision and perfect timing. You can't just go in for it, you have to have a game plan," At his words Peter perked up immediately.
"What kind of plan?" He asked excitedly, causing Sirius to look on with glee and Remus to roll his eyes.
"Well, first of all you have to get their attention, nothing big or anything, just something subtle. Let me show you what I mean," At that, Sirius nudged Remus's foot just enough to get him to look up from his book, a slight glare marring his features. Sirius winked before turning back to Peter. "Next, you charm 'em, flatter them a little- watch," Sirius turned to his friend and grinned broadly whilst wrapping an arm around Remus.
"Moony, did I ever tell you how intelligent you are? I mean, all the work you put in is amazing! I never have the time to do homework and such the lark, it's great I have a friend like you to do it for me," at that, James burst out laughing so hard he almost snorted and the rest had to quickly quieten him to stop him waking up the rest of the house.
"Thanks Sirius," Remus muttered, so sarcastic it nearly caused James to lose it again. Sirius grinned smugly, gesturing with one hand to Peter and using the other to firmly push the book off Remus's lap. He went to pick it up but was stopped by the weight of Sirius sliding onto his lap, looking up at him through his lashes and fluttering them causing another bout of laughter from James.
"Want a kiss Moony?" He cooed, laughing himself before he suddenly found himself on the floor, an angry looking Remus standing above him dusting off his robes and leaning to collect his book.
"Didn't you think you had taken the joke far enough? You didn't need to mock me! You know I've never… because of my… you know why! I knew you were insensitive- but I never thought you just didn't care! Poor little Lupin, sixteen and yet to ever kiss a girl, let's make him look as stupid as possible!" Remus was beyond the point of trying to keep his voice down for the rest of the house and was half way through his angry tirade before he was interrupted by a sleepy looking Lily half way down the dorm staircase.
"Remus- are you okay?" Remus's budding friendship with Lily had sprung up due to their shared love in academics. Not only that, but not long ago she'd found out about his nightly escapades due to an overzealous James accidently letting it slip to her in a bid to be more impressive. Remus hadn't minded so much, she'd sworn not to tell anyone and she'd not broken it. James hadn't minded anything like as much as what Remus had expected, in fact it was rather the opposite, he saw it as the perfect opportunity for Remus to spy on her and pass information back to him- not that Remus did. It was great to have someone to work with in class who could keep up with him. Although Remus was sure that both James and Sirius were intelligent enough to have a capable conversation about ancient runes with him, neither of them would lower their reputation to allow themselves to show their abilities. Not only that, but when he was feeling at his worst, she was always there to offer a certain kind of comfort that sixteen year old boys were incapable of. Anything he wanted to discuss she was all ears for, even things he wasn't perfectly comfortable with…
"I- yeah, I'm fine, thanks Lily," Remus's cheeks flared pink and she glanced at him, then at a ruffled Sirius still on the floor looking rather comically shocked. Lily nodded slowly, before going to climb back to her dorm.
"Well, you know where to find me should you want to talk," She replied, walking briskly back up the stairs, only just catching Remus's nodded of affirmation. The door to the dorms closed, leaving an embarrassed Remus, a bemused James, a fearful Peter who had always feared the fierce red head and a sombre looking Sirius. Remus turned back to his friends, but found he had nothing to say, so moved towards the dorm as quickly as he could.
"Remus," James called out to him, causing him to pause, "I'm sorry if we upset you, I didn't mean to." He looked rather upset at having offended his dear friend and Remus felt his face soften.
"I overreacted, I didn't mean to shout- none of you meant it I'm sure," He deliberately avoided Sirius's eyes and instead clambered the rest of the stairs and disappeared into the girl's dorm.
"What do you think that was all about?" James muttered, still feeling a little ashamed over his friend's outburst. He'd seen how uncomfortable his friend had felt and yet he hadn't done anything to stop it. They all knew about his lunar disposition and the way it stopped his making friends and more. The truth was, had it not been for the werewolf part of him, he'd have been a massive success story. The kid was bright, more then bright he was the smartest in the year. He was well mannered, gracious and kind to all- even to James's horror, Snape- and yet he was stuck being a background figure. Forcing himself to slip under the radar in order to avoid attention. It was rare he burst, and it was usually due to a build up of emotions over time, with one last snap to send him over. Both James and Sirius felt a little ashamed for not picking up the problem earlier, Sirius most of all, suddenly feeling overwhelming foolish for what had seemed like a small joke- certainly not intended to hurt his friend's feelings.
After a long pause, James suddenly spoke up.
"Well I don't know about you two, but I sure as hell want to find out what's been bugging him, and there's one way to do it…" James didn't quite finish because before he could, Sirius had the invisibility cloak in his hand.
Since they'd been getting older and were now rather tall 6th years, it was a struggle to fit all three under the cloak as they tried to make their way into the girl's dormitory. Every so often one would trip over another's feet and send them all into a dangerous lurch towards the floor. With a lot of shuffling, grunting and swearing they finally made their way into the corridor, each as puzzled as the next as to which way to go then.
"It's stupid though Lily, I just need some time to get over it, I'm sure it will pass. He can't ever know! No… I mean… be serious Lily. He'll never feel the same way, why would he?" Remus's muffled voice filtered in the corridor and all at once the trio rushed towards the nearest door, all trying to press their ear against the door at the same time, leading to another close call. Finally James managed to beat the others and carefully pressed his ear to the door whilst Sirius and Peter listened as intently as possible.
"Sirius is a close friend, I can't risk losing him simply because of… a misunderstanding," At Remus's words Sirius looked even more downtrodden, unable to believe he'd messed up quite so much. That was, before a harsh whisper reply caused shock to spread into all of them.
"Have feelings for someone doesn't count as a misunderstanding Remus! Honestly, how do you know he doesn't feel the same way?" previously Lily must have been whispering quite quietly as this was the first time they'd heard her voice. James found himself stuttering with nothing to say, but his expression was nothing compared to that of Sirius Black.
"What, the infamous woman eater, player and absolute dog," he paused to chuckle at his own humour despite the clear sign of tears in his voice, "Sirius Black? Don't be foolish Lily, you're far too bright for it. It's just a silly crush; I'll get over it sure enough. Besides, even if he did- which he doesn't- I couldn't be with him. I can't be with anyone Lily, it isn't fair on them. I'm dangerous, scrawny and far too broken to be of any use to anyone-"
Lily didn't let him finish before she cut across him, "Sure, you're a little run down- but by hell that doesn't change anything! You're a wonderful person, even if you can't see it-I can! Anyone else would have crumbled facing the kinds of things you have, and yet look at you! You're still going strong!" A sleepy groan was heard and a giggled hushing before she continued in a stage whisper they strained to hear, "You need to tell him Remus, if only so you can move on with your life,"
James glanced over at his quickly paling friend, wondering quite how they had all managed to miss it. As far as they had known, Remus had never shown an interest in anybody- never mind someone like Sirius. Although the two were very close friends, that didn't mean they didn't rub the wrong way. Sirius's playboy, I-don't-give-a-damn attitude and his lack of care for his studies often lead to arguments between the pair and more often than not Sirius had criticised his friend for his studious tendencies and unwilling to occasionally break a few rules.
Looking back on the situation, James was sure that they could have made it all the way back to their own dorm without Lily or Remus ever being aware of their presence to the conversation, all if Peter had not had a very unfortunately loud sneeze. Sensing it was coming, both James and Sirius- who was looking less shocked and more pleased with himself- tried to stop it, even as far as jabbing him with different spells and jinxes whispered harshly under their breath to try and cease the noise before it came. Neither succeeded.
"What was that?" Lily's voice was loud and clear, too loud and before they realized what was about to happen, the door swung open and light filtered out into the corridor. "I can't see anything…" Standing as still as possible, which was rather tricky since Sirius's last idea had been to try and stuff a lone Berty Bott's bean which had been laying in his pocket up Peter's nose and was balanced on one foot with a bean between his thumb and finger. Lily looked seemingly fooled, but it was clear Remus wasn't having any of it.
"I know you're there, come out of the cloak James, Peter… Sirius," His voice sounded stern like it often did when he was about to lecture them, however the fear in his eyes offset his whole effect. The small flecks of silver in his sandy hair showed just how tired he was, if the slight bags under his eyes didn't make it obvious enough, and at that moment James would have kissed Snape's feet just to make sure it didn't all kick off. He glanced over at his friend but noticed Sirius wasn't looking nervously at the floor, wasn't smirking or looking overly impressive, in fact he was looking ever so slightly startled but more over mildly happy, thrilled and a little embarrassed. "I don't know what you heard…" Clearly he was hoping the answer would be nothing. But as there was no reply his face fell even more. "Well…"
There was a slight pause as they all shuffled out of the cloak, Peter looking mortified at having being caught whilst James just felt a little sheepish, not down and out enough not to wink at Lily in her nightclothes. She wasn't impressed.
"Remus…" Sirius began and for a second James wondered if he was about to plant himself into a bad situation, but to his and he was sure everyone else's surprise he proved them all wrong, "You should have told me, you're one of my best friends beat only by Jamesy- did ya really think I'd be cross?"
"Y-You're not cross?" Remus replied shakily.
"Course I'm not, why, it's actually… sort of strange. Cause you see… I've…"
"Spit it out Black!" Lily burst in, looking far too invested in the conversation for Sirius's liking. She appeared more eager for the outcome than Remus himself, a little worryingly, but James couldn't hold it to her- he after all was strangely excited to hear what Padfoot had to say for himself.
"I… like you… sort of… too…" Sirius mumbled, barely intelligible. The scream of glee Lily let out though was anything but quiet and for a moment they all wondered if she'd woken the whole house up. Before they got a chance to see, Lily ushered them all into her empty dorm.
"They're all out for the Easter Holiday," She explained as James looked downright unimpressed at the fact he had to share a dorm with three loud, messy and unthinking boys (bar Remus really- mainly Sirius) where as she had the luxury of such an empty and clean dormitory. Though the more he thought about it, the more he was responsible for most of the mess, though the scattered sugar quills were definitely Peter's.
Once they were all inside the room, the air became thick with tension with no one knowing quite what to say. Eventually, as expected, it was Lily who broke the silence.
"Well, if it's now totally confirmed that you like each other back, would you mind just getting on with it? I do want to go back to sleep tonight, if you don't mind," Lily huffed and Sirius gave a short nervous bark of laughter. With all the courage a young Gryffindor could muster, and that was quite a great deal considering the circumstance, closed the distance between Remus and himself and apprehensively pressed his lips against his friend's. Whatever occurred between the two in that private moment wouldn't be known, but it wasn't a bad result as they then continued.
"I think… we should probably go back to our dorm…" Remus muttered quietly, to the agreement of everyone else in the room who was pleased but slightly shocked, except Peter who was sure that two people kissing was the worst thing he'd ever seen in his life. It was rather obvious he hadn't seen much of it.
As the boys filed out the room, Remus and Sirius standing a little closer than usual, James turned back to Lily with a smirk.
"Any chance you feel like…"
"Not a chance Potter."