A gloomy Saturday evening in November found Remus Lupin curled around the cushion on his favourite couch in a snug corner of the Common Room. He was absently humming along with the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans ad jingle that was issuing from the radio in the midst of a group of chattering fifth year girls, and just starting to read the most recent publication of 'Werewolves in Society' ( which was cleverly disguised behind the cover of a handsome wizard turning into an eagle and back again ). Just then, he heard a loud pattering of footsteps and a swishing noise behind him and looked up just in time to register a rather frantic looking James Potter stride past him in his haste to get to the table on which the day's newspaper and magazines were kept.

Mildly intrigued, Remus watched as James rummaged through the haphazard stack and grabbed a slim volume. He lifted it to the light and stared at it for a while, before tucking it away under his arm, and swivelling around to face the bulk of the Common Room again. He looked eager now, and he winked at the fifth-year girls (who blushed promptly) while walking back. He spotted Remus a second later, and stepped over a scattered pile of Chocolate Frog Cards to arrive at the couch.

"Ben, you take your pile of Cards from the floor, or I'm changing them into a bunch of angry bees " he yelled over his shoulder in the authoritative 'Head Boy' voice he had perfected over the weeks, much to Remus's amusement, Sirius's chagrin and Peter's overflowing, but extremely predictable, adoration "Hello my darling Moonpie! Aren't you supposed to be at the library working on the project?"

Remus shrugged as a second year boy ran up behind James, looking sulky. "Rachel has Quidditch practice, so we're meeting tomorrow. And for Merlin's sake James, don't call me Moonpie!"

"Hmph. But its alright if Sirius calls you that, is it?"

"What? No! I've told him off too!" said Remus a tad defensively. He secretly liked Sirius using the term of endearment to address him, but he hadn't thought that James would notice.

"And oooooh you and Rachel have a study date!" James crooned idiotically " Wait! The Ravenclaws are practising today are they? Sod it, they're definitely beating us in the practice hours department"

"That's the only thing they are beating us in Prongs " Remus assured him, before he could pitch a full-blown worry tantrum "Did you see Moira Bloom play in the last game – Rachel says she couldn't catch the Snitch if it was following on her tail!"

"Now, now Moony don't be rude – she just needs a little practice is all" said James sagely "though she played like a blind bat in the last game" he added thoughtfully.

Remus had barely finished rolling his eyes, when he felt a pair of hands massaging his scalp for a brief moment before pulling away.

"Padfoot!" he snapped involuntarily as he felt the muscles on his head tighten inexplicably. Remus did not like people playing with his hair or even touching it, which explained why Sirius did it a lot.

"Yes, Moony Moo? Reading the book on lycanthropy again, are you? Didn't I ask you not to do that last year?" A second later Sirius appeared in front of the couch, a slight frown on his face as he looked at Remus.

"Did you rub – I dunno – mud into my hair? " Remus said, not paying heed to most of what Sirius said . He lifted a hand to touch his scalp – and discovered that the annoying berk had gathered his sandy hair into a small pony, that was now sticking out the back of his head like a short tail .What was more, the band refused to pull out from his hair, Sirius had obviously magicked it to be so.

"It's a pony, you tosser! And it looks ace – with hair that long you're going to be mistaken for a girl!"

"Right, because it's so much longer when compared to yours" said Remus dryly, tugging fruitlessly on the band. " Padfoot" he whined "Please remove this!"

Sirius was unmoved."On me its manly, on you it just looks girly! " he declared settling down on the carpet at the foot of the couch with effortless grace, and ignoring Remus's plea with the eager anticipation of a person who seemed all set to trouble, annoy and irritate guileless werewolves. "Isn't that so Prongs?"

James spared an absent look at Remus, and held up three fingers in mock appreciation, before returning to staring at a page on the book. "85 %, 85 %" he muttered.

Sirius who was obviously expecting a more spirited reply, frowned and reached a hand up to tug James down, who collapsed in an undignified heap. Remus tried not to stare at the newly acquired muscles in Sirius's arms that rippled with the movement, made all the more obvious by the black sleeveless Weird Sisters T-Shirt that he was wearing. Only Sirius could wear something that out of place in the Common Room, and make it look completely normal. He was not the only one staring at Sirius though - the group of fifth-year girls were openly ogling him, and the French exchange student who was formerly flirting with her cultural partner, looked over at him appreciatively.

He sighed internally, these weird tingly feelings he had been getting for the past three months, whenever Sirius was looking at him or talking to him, with that exclusive brand ofaffection that inherently belonged to him, really had to stop. Remus didn't really understand when, why and where these "feelings" were coming from, and he was in no hurry to analyse them, preferring to gather them and lock them away in a secure corner of his mind, where they could hopefully wither into oblivion, thank you very much. He buried himself in the book, but found that he couldn't concentrate anymore. Stupid Padfoot and his Stupid Distracting Presence.

James was now rifling through the pages fanatically, and had apparently came to some happy conclusion. "85%" he said, raising his arms victoriously "85%!".

He stood up unsteadily, a dreamy look in his eye and Remus immediately knew that the '85%' was somehow related to Lily Evans. James was probably going to burst into song right this moment, about how red Lily's hair was, and how green Lily's eyes were and how amazing Lily in general, was. And Sirius would probably either scream himself hoarse at James or sulk through the whole evening at what a whipped arse he had for a friend.

"What are you on about, you gormless git? " said Sirius irritably, snatching the magazine away from James's limp hand.

"Hey give that back!" warned James fiercely, before crouching and launching himself at Sirius, who immediately raised his arm above their heads to hold the book out of reach. After a brief tussle, which involved lots of grunting, howling and punching, Sirius pulled himself onto James's back, one strong hand holding both of James's wrists together to prevent him from reciprocating and the other hand re-arranging the book(which is miraculously in one piece) so that he could read it using five fingers.

"Ahem" Sirius cleared his throat, ignored the impressive stream of cuss words from James and glanced at Remus to see if he had caught his attention (and just at the right moment, Remus had been looking at Sirius's biceps again ). Only then did he go on, unaware of the pleasurable flush he had induced by that simple gesture of Maraudership.

"What have we hereee that you don't want us to seee? " He squinted at the page for a minute before letting loose his characteristic loud bark-like laugh. " Horoscopes Love Match? Prongs mate, we all know you're unhealthily obsessed with a certain redhead, but this is taking it a mite too far!"

Now the entire common room was looking expectantly at Sirius who, gleefully aware of the fact, rose to his feet and skipped to the centre of the room, book in hand, before James could do so much as utter a horrified exclamation.

"Ladies, gentlemen, trolls aaand pixies, as you all know, James Potter here, esteemed Marauder and reluctant Head Boy has been chasing Lily Evans, esteemed Member of the ..um..Gobstones Club and Head Girl since fourth year – this speech is addressed to all those people who think he doesn't stand a chance with her, which I presume is the whole common room, am I correct? – And why, you ask? Because, I say, the world-renowed Witch Weekly magazine which James has been avidly reading for the past hour or so, states that Ariens" – a broad gesture towards the mortified, but rapidly recovering, James – " and" – a squint-eyed look down at the magazine –" Aquarians, I think, such as the charming Ms. Evans have a romantic compatibility of 85% - 85%! which" – here he paused dramatically to scan the rest of the page, and the previous page – " is the HIGHEST of all compatibilities save...around seven others. Three cheers for James, who is finally going to have his dearest wish fulfilled, and end up with lots of specky red-haired babies! Hip Hip Hurrah"

After a spell of stunned silence, noise erupted in the common room, and everyone was either laughing their heads off, staring at Sirius as though he had grown a foot-long golden-yellow horn from the middle of his forehead or rolling their eyes, though a couple of girls were coyly asking Sirius how compatible they would be with him.

Rubbing his wrists, James seemed unable to decide whether to hex Sirius's bollocks blue, laugh it off along with nearly the whole of Gryffindor Tower or Apparate to the most distant planet in the universe. He settled for shaking his fist at Sirius and vowing solemn revenge, while smiling ruefully at the small crowd of people who, funnily enough, were applauding him rather sincerely. Remus finds that he's quite enjoying the spectacle, he realises there's a wide smile on his face, though he would have definitely opted for Apparating to the furthest galaxy if he was in James's place.

After a while, Remus looked around the room searching for Sirius, when he found to his surprise that Sirius was looking right back at him from between the fireplace and a knot of people from all years , his lips quirked up in a small smile. When he caught Remus's gaze, he winked mischievously and started to move forward, causing Remus to swell with sheer happiness. He loved how Sirius kept seeking him out – to check if he was unhurt after the full moon, to check if he was smiling after a joke, to check if he was impressed after a particularly well-executed prank – he'd always noticed this and had decided that it was an unconscious gesture, like how Peter reached for a Chocolate Frog as soon as he got up every morning, but Remus treasured it more than anything else in the world, the feeling of being genuinely loved and wanted, despite the fact that he turned into a bloodthirsty beast once every month.

He wrenched his wandering mind back to the present with a stupendous effort, just in time to witness James twisting his hand in a complicated gesture that turned Sirius into a clown, complete with multicoloured hair and a bunch of purple balloons in one hand.

Now everyone in the common room was laughing uproariously. James, on all fours, was actually pounding the ground with one fist, all the while mouthing something incoherent and the French girl was laughing aloud – a deep throaty sound, her head thrown back. Remus was overcome with a bout of hysteria at the sight of a bewildered-looking Sirius standing right under the grand chandelier, touching his face gingerly, his mouth set in the shape of a perfect circle. Remus pressed his free hand to his mouth, while doubling up in silent laughter.

Suddenly there was a dip in the couch, and Remus turned his head to find a drowsy-looking Peter leaning back into the cushions with a half-eaten lollipop in one hand. He was looking at Remus with a raised eyebrow, probably because it was a rare sight to see him laugh this freely.

'What did I miss?'

-0-

Propped up by his pillows, Remus stared out of the window at the waxing moon, feeling the dull ache of sadness reverberate through his very bones – he knew he should never have borrowed the book on werewolves from the library. Now it was 1 in the morning, and Remus's mind was cluttered with too many painful thoughts of bloody limbs, tragic suicides, and harsh Ministry policies, to fall asleep. Besides the bloody ponytail didn't really allow his head to assume a comfortable position on the pillow. He was going to kill Padfoot after he was dispatched from McGonagall's room ( James had admitted that he didn't know the counter-curse to the clown spell, and after Sirius had stopped being righteously angry for around 5 minutes , his eyes had lit up and he had practically run from the common room, followed by a gaggle of excited firsties and Peter. Unsurprisingly, he was found being escorted by Filch to McGonagall's office, a couple of hours later. )

He heard the door to the dormitory opening, and footsteps echoing –eerie and loud – in the extreme stillness of the room. Remus remembered seeing Peter's and James's bed curtains shut, so this had to be Sirius. He sat quietly, wondering whether he should pretend that he was asleep.

Sirius took the matter into his own hands.

"Moony?" a head-shaped blob poked in through his bed curtains and Remus could see the gleam of Sirius's eyes in the semi-darkness. Thankfully, he had been de-clowned, seeing that creepy face in the moonlight would have given Remus a heart-attack. He has a secret fear of clowns, ever since he saw a scary cartoon involving the repulsive characters in question, at age 5, and he really really does not want Sirius or James to discover that.

"Hey Pads" Remus whispered. He sank back into the pillow so that his profile was in the shadows again.

Sirius was still for a second, and then he was parting the curtains and settling into the bed on the opposite side of Remus. He crooked his leg in such a way that the toes of his right foot nudged Remus's middle.

"You OK?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Remus said, but the 'be' comes out whispered and strange, and he could almost feel Sirius's brow furrow.

"Lumos" Sirius lit his wand. Remus flinched in the bright light and covered his eyes with the palm of his right hand "Well 1) You weren't snuffling as you always do, when you're asleep, and you're always asleep by 11 2) I could see your pointy little nose outlined against the moon.

Sirius leaned forward and gently removed the hand from Remus's face. In the wandlight, the Animagus's grey eyes had an ethereal cast to them, and they were intensely scrutinising. "Was it the werewolf book, Moony?"

Remus flushed.

"I do not snuffle, that's a word reserved exclusively for you, Mr Snuffles!" he hedged.

"HEY, it's normal for a dog to do that!"

"Not every minute or two, it's not."

"You wait – Im going to come up with an equally mortifying name for you and James and Peter for what you'll do when in Animagus form."

"Im not an Animagus" Remus corrected automatically, immediately regretting being such a wet blanket – he had always enjoyed bantering with Sirius and James.

Sirius waved this insignificant detail away "You know what I mean!" He exhaled loudly and squeezed Remus's hand, that was still grasped in his. "Don't think about the book, Moony – you have us, you'll have us till the end – that Jasper bloke was ill-fated, even his parents didn't want him. Don't you dare compare yourself to him! I'm – We –are not going to stand for any kind of injustice to you, you hear?"

"Till the very end?" Remus blurted out, and immediately looked down at the sheep on his pyjama pants, ashamed. There were likely to be so many factors that would affect their lives later on, causing them to grow apart – getting a job, looking for a place to stay, a commitment of the romantic type– atleast for the other three, he reminded himself with a renewed pang of dejection, and here he was selfishly asking for the prolonged care and protection of his boring werewolf self from his friend.

But Sirius raised their clenched hands to his heart "Till death do us part " he said solemnly, bending down and trying to catch the werewolf's eye. "Seriously Moony!"

Remus could not help thinking how much like a wedding vow the first line sounded, and immediately felt the heat creeping up his neck, his cheeks, and to the very tips of his ears. He smiled helplessly up at Sirius and whispered "Thank you".

Grey eyes twinkling, Sirius pulled Remus towards him in a messy hug " You can hold me to that promise forever, you know – what did you think, that we would drop you like a stone once we leave Hogwarts? God, Moony, is that all you think of us? Ill have you know that Full Moon Nights are a sacred Marauder tradition, and there's no way we are letting go of that – even if Prongs becomes Chaser with the Canons – or Wormtail gets eaten by a cat or – or... "

"Or Padfoot gets lugged away to a dog pound for indecent behaviour." Sirius could feel Remus's smile against his neck.

"Hey!" he said pulling back after squeezing Remus tightly once "What have you got against poor little Padfoot?"

"Oh, only that he turns into you ever so often"

"Arse" huffed Sirius.

"Twit"

"Dunderhead"

"Speaking about heads, could you please remove this stupid band" Remus turned his head sideways.

"Only if you say that Padfoot is a marvellous specimen of a dog"

Remus giggled "Never"

"Fine, stay that way, don't come to me when half the girls of Hogwarts follow you around tomorrow and keep cooing about how cute you are."

Remus laughed, even while his stomach gave a funny little wiggle." Ok, ok 'Padfoot is a marvellous specimen of a dog."

Sirius grinned " And don't you forget that"

He reached forward, muttering something under his breath - and slipped the band off .

"Aah, I feel liberated" Remus grinned and shook his head like a puppy just out of water.

He turned forward expecting some witty comment, but froze at the expression on Sirius's face. Adoration was shining in those grey eyes, mixed with something some other strange expression that caused goosepimples to erupt on Remus's cheeks.

Remus felt as if the world had gone still, that time had slowed, had he gone deaf? But how could that be when he could clearly hear his heart beating out a loud drumroll?

In the awkward pause that followed, Sirius seemed to come back to himself very slowly

"Heh yep. Liberated. Ok Im off to sleep, Moony. Er... good night. Sweet dreams."

"G-Good night"

Sirius got up and shuffled off quickly.

"Goodnight" Remus whispered again to the blank wall in front of him. What on earth, had just happened? He felt slightly disoriented. Did Sirius like him too? Forcefully, he quelled the hope that seemed to be bubbling violently in his stomach, and slid back into the covers. He would not think about it, it would just lead to disappointment.

As Remus started drifting off into a slumber, Sirius's unusual expression came to his mind once again, and involuntarily his lips curved upwards.