Chapter 2

The Thinking Cap

Sirius jolted upright as the train jerked to a screeching halt. He rubbed his eyes groggily, looking around. His hair was sticking up all over the place, and there was still a tiny smear of chocolate at the corner of his mouth. Staring at him in his bewildered and confused state, Remus suppressed a laugh. James tried to, but didn't quite manage. He started to chuckle. "Might want to fix your hair there, mate," he said with a playful smirk. Sirius experimentally raised his hand to touch his hair, gasping in horror when he felt a stray piece of hair pointing vertically upwards.

"Fix me, Moony," he said dramatically, fanning his face. Remus rolled his eyes but obliged. After a couple minutes of intense finger-combing, he stepped back, admiring his work, and gave Sirius a quick thumbs up. They left the compartment noisily, waking Peter who was, like Sirius, quite groggy.

They trudged up towards the carriages, complaining about how muddy and wet it was. With every step, they sank about two inches into the ground, making an unpleasant sucking noise. Just within earshot, they could hear Lucius Malfoy complaining about how hungry he was. "And some utter cunt took all the candy from the trolley!" they could hear him whine to the squat, chubby Slytherin next to him who looked as though he would rather be anywhere else. They snickered to themselves as they got into their carriage, and the invisible horses pulled them home.

"You know, you aren't going to have any room for dinner after all those sweets you ate on the train," Remus teased, poking Sirius in the stomach.

"Fat chance," Sirius scoffed, jabbing him back slightly harder. "I'm starving."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. What happened to 'can't move...too full'?" he said, in a spot-on impression of Sirius Black.

Twenty minutes later Remus choked on his words as he watched Sirius Black down two turkey legs, about a pint of mashed potatoes, several pieces of steak and three goblets of pumpkin juice, and then anxiously await dessert.

The sorting ceremony had been largely uneventful; the hat sang a song much like the one it had sung the year before, and the year before that. The first years were tiny, sweaty, and anxious. Professor McGonagall called the students crisply and quickly by last name, pausing to place the hat on their head while it deliberated over where they would live for the next seven years. When one particularly ugly student (Runcorn, Albert) was sorted into Slytherin, James snorted, "If my son looked like that, I'd have no choice but to disown him!" Sirius thought it was quite funny, Remus thought it was less funny, and Peter thought it was funny because James and Sirius did, and that was reason enough for him.

As they tiredly funneled out of the Great Hall, Remus spotted Alex near a few of his Ravenclaw friends. "You guys go on, I'll catch up with you," he said hurriedly to his friends. Sirius gave a concerned glance before shaking his head and returning to a neutral expression.

"I have to go too, actually. I should say hi to McKinnon. I'll meet you guys in the dorm," he said before disappearing into the crowd of students.

Just as Remus was about to reach Alex, he heard a voice. "Remus, can you help me? We have to lead the first years back to the dorm." It was Lily Evans and she was casting him a desperate look. Behind her was a group of about nine eleven-year-olds.

"Crap," he said under his breath.

"What did you say?" a little girl asked, looking up at him. He turned red.

"Uh...nothing. It doesn't matter" he said, internally dying.

"He said 'crap'! I heard him," a little boy said gleefully. "Crap, crap, crap."

"Please don't say that," Remus pleaded, desperately trying to hush the boy.

"You mothercrapper," said the little girl from behind him. Remus put his face in his hands. He could feel a headache coming on.

Sirius got back to the Gryffindor common room in time to see an uncomfortable looking Remus leading a gaggle of first years, one of whom he thought he heard saying 'crap' over and over again, but he couldn't be certain. He saw Marlene in the corner and walked up to her. "Hey," he said, giving her a quick smile.

"Hey yourself," she said coyly back to him. They had started dating in May of last year, when Sirius had asked her to Hogsmeade as part of a poorly planned scheme by James to get a date with Lily Evans (you don't even want to know). He had been entirely surprised to find that she wanted another date, and then another and another. If asked about her, he would say that she was pretty, that she was nice; that he liked spending time with her. They were no Romeo and Juliet (not that either of them knew what that was), and they were definitely no James and Lily (which Sirius was perfectly alright with).

Before the silence could become uncomfortable, she walked towards him and pulled him in for a kiss. It was wet and sloppy, and Sirius was distinctly aware of the people all around him, but he supposed that he liked it. It wasn't as if he had many kisses to compare it to. He pulled away, too soon for her liking but perhaps not quite soon enough for his. She grinned up at him.

Across the common room, Remus Lupin decided that he really needed to go talk to Alex Norton, ignoring a slight twist in his stomach. He told himself he must have eaten something that didn't quite agree with him.

It was nearly curfew when Remus finally found Alex. It was a mere stroke of luck that he would be in the library. Then again, luck had slightly less to do it when you consider that they both spent about 85% of their time in the library.

Alex was sitting in a secluded back corner. Most of the students had slowly left the library already as curfew got nearer; not that many students had opted to spend their first day back in the library. He looked up quickly when he saw Remus out of the corner of his eye, but his face stayed neutral. He sighed, putting his book down on the table. "What is it, Remus?"

"I've been thinking and I realized that it doesn't matter. Whether you like books, I mean. I've decided that I don't care. I want to see where the story goes and I can't if I don't give it a chance," he said, with a cautious but gentle smile.

Alex blinked twice. "That's wonderful, but I have absolutely no idea what you're on about," He said cluelessly, turning his attention back to his book.

"For Merlin's sake," Remus said. "I was trying to be creative and you ruined it. I want to tell you that I think we should try. Dating, I mean. It doesn't matter that you have stuff to figure out because I like you and I think you like me, and I'm happy when I'm with you," Remus elaborated with an exasperated sigh. Alex's eyes widened.

"Oh...oh. I- I'd like that," he said, grinning ear to ear. He got up, stumbling a bit on his chair, smile unfaltering. Remus grinned back at him. They stepped into each other awkwardly, pausing for a split second to just look, and then they kissed, unsure whose idea it was or who started it but not entirely caring at all.

It was romantic and passionate, gentle and subdued, argumentative but compromising. Alex reached his hands up, wrapping them in Remus' curly golden locks. They stumbled ungracefully into a nearby bookshelf still pressed against each other, giggling between kisses and then moaning as it became more passionate. Alex thudded against the bookshelf, certain he would have bruises on his lower back but too distracted to mind at all. Remus picked him up by his thighs, pressing against him and stabilizing themselves against the bookshelf. He worked his way down his neck, sucking gently at that perfect spot making Alex throw back his head and try to muffle the debauched sounds coming from his mouth. The horny bastards were lucky nobody else was in the library or they'd have gotten quite an eyeful.

When they finally separated, their eyes were shining and their hair was wild and untamed. Remus was grinning ear to ear and Alex was laughing gently as they caught their breath.

"That was...wow," Remus laughed, sighing, drunk on kisses and youthful vivacity. Alex could only nod, breathless from being quite literally swept off his feet.

Alex laughed to himself. "What is it?" Remus asked, still smiling.

"This book is fantastic. Glad I swiped it from you," he said, shooting him a grin.

Remus groaned. "Merlin, don't remind me. That has got to be the worst lie in the history of lies."

"And you call yourself a marauder," Alex said with mock pity and a heavy sigh.

"Shut it, 'Mr.-we-were-in-an-argument'," Remus said, rolling his eyes kindly.

When Remus stumbled through the portrait hole about ten minutes later, thankfully having avoided Filch and- shudder- Mrs. Norris, the common room was entirely empty, save for Lily Evans in her token armchair and a couple of first years, no doubt still in awe after their first day. Lily looked up when he walked in, taking in his appearance and smiling at him. "How's your book?" she asked.

"Fantastic," Remus grinned, throwing himself down into a large chair near the fireplace. Lily was glad.

A few minutes later, Sirius came stumbling down the stairs looking a bit troubled. "Everything okay?" Remus asked, concern flashing in his eyes briefly. Lily politely got up from her chair and went upstairs to the dormitory to give them some privacy. Either that or she just didn't want to be in the same room as Sirius Black...they weren't exactly friends. The first years had gone to bed a couple minutes ago, leaving Remus and Sirius alone in the eerily quiet common room.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just had to get out of the dorm. Peter and James are-" Sirius cringed, "...you don't even want to know," he said with a sigh.

Remus suddenly remembered something. "Hey, back on the train- you were going to say something before James walked in, right? I remember you were upset about something," He said, mentally hitting himself for having forgotten it. He thought he saw Sirius's eyes widen for a second, but he figured he must have imagined it.

"It doesn't really matter...I was just in a bad mood I guess. Low blood sugar and such," he said with a weak smile.

"Well, you definitely solved that problem on the train," Remus said with an eye roll. Sirius grinned, reaching into his pocket.

"I saved a chocolate frog for you," he said, handing him the small foil packet. Remus visibly brightened, hastily unwrapping it and stuffing it into his mouth ungracefully. Sirius stifled a chuckle.

"Fuck, that's good," Remus said, making some, well, indecent noises as he stuffed his face.

Sirius' eyes lit up with glee. "Moony! You cursed!" Remus reddened.

"I curse sometimes," he said defensively, "For chocolate, I'll do near anything"

"Well, don't sell yourself short Moony, or you'll sound like a cheap prostitute," Sirius said with a sly grin. Remus choked.

The laughter died, and there was a pause, along with it a sense that the conversation had shifted.

Sirius spoke, if only to fill the uncomfortable silence that now filled the room. "Listen, Moony, about our fight right before summer hols.." he sighed. "You were right. I was an utter twat and I'm sorry."

"You don't have to-" Remus started, only to be interrupted.

"-No, I do," Sirius said firmly. "Its just-," he sighed. "She was my girlfriend, and I thought- I don't know. But I never meant to make you feel like- well, it doesn't matter. The point is, I was an arse and I'm sorry," he said, offering an apologetic smile.

Remus smiled back. "It's fine. It's forgotten," he said, shrugging it off. He looked down at the chocolate frog card, which he had forgotten he was still holding. "I got Dumbledore," he said, holding it up for Sirius to see. "He's not in his portrait, though," he said, slightly disappointed.

"Of course not," Sirius said with a laugh. "You can't expect people to stick around forever."

Remus pocketed the chocolate frog card. "We should go to bed now, it's late," he said, getting up from the armchair by the fire.

As they walked up to their dormitory, he thought back to the disagreement he had just shrugged off and tried to ignore the tiny bit of guilt at his own recollection, and the crucial piece of information that Sirius could never know.

A/N I'm sorry if you're mad at this chapter. Having them both be so unavailable is so ugh. Be patient. They will get together eventually. I refuse to be one of those authors that creates a really interesting dynamic (though I'm not sure if I even have), then makes the main characters get together overnight. That's boring and upsetting to read. They both have stuff that they need to deal with before they can have a relationship together, and it would be an injustice to them, in my opinion, to get them together super early on. Please leave a review, or a follow, or whatever your heart desires. Thank you for reading this far! -Nameless 3

p.s. I already have chapter 3 written, titled 'Emotional Range of a Teaspoon', but I don't want to post it until I've gotten a head start on chapter 4. It will be a tad shorter, and it will take place in the past, to shed some light on Remus and Sirius' argument.