Hi all. I'm actually on time for once with an update, what is this sorcery? Shorter chapter than usual, so apologies for that, but the mind writes what it wants.

Warnings: mild homophobia which, as previously stated, I don't agree with in the slightest.


The next morning, Peter woke up before any of the others and had already disappeared for breakfast by the time the other four boys had dragged themselves out of bed. If Remus or Benjy had any opinion of the two black haired boys being in the same bed, they didn't show it.

Sirius was worried that James would be awkward about the whole thing and would wake up to regret it. But the sleepy smile he got when he opened his eyes told him he needn't have bothered working up the energy.

"Morning." James said, his voice croaky from lack of use and Sirius grinned back. James reached out to grope for his glasses, and frowned slightly when he couldn't find them. He sat up, careful to avoid dislodging Sirius too much, and looked around the room in search of his glasses. He fisted at his face with a hand, trying to remove some of the sleep dust gathered in the corners of his eyes.

"Good morning." Sirius replied, shoving James away from him when he gave no indication of moving. He glanced over at the clock on his bedside table and made a shooing motion with both of his hands when he was glared at fiercely. "We've got just over an hour until we need to be –. What do we have first?"

"Defence Against the Dark Arts." Remus supplied helpfully as he sat on the edge of his bed so he could pull a pair of socks on.

"Right. Defence." Sirius said, rolling off of the mattress and landing gracefully on both feet. He picked a pair of trousers up off the floor and gave James a pointed look. "And I am hungry, so if you would–" He nodded at the other boy's trunk and that seemed to kick James into action because he shook his head to clear it.

.

When they reached the Great Hall, twenty minutes later, and were sitting down at the Gryffindor table, Remus cast a quick, worried look in Peter's direction. He'd scooted further down the bench when James had made to sit next to him and had only stopped fidgeting when Benjy had planted himself between them.

James shrugged it off, and plopped himself down next to Sirius. The two of them immediately started to fight over the plate of sausages in front of them, breaking into laughter when their forks collided and rebounded off of each other. Opposite them, Evans watched their antics with barely concealed amusement, refusing to be drawn into when she expertly avoided both of their attacks to stab a sausage and drop it onto her plate. McKinnon either wasn't quick enough, or she'd decided to join in because soon the three of them were giggling amongst themselves as they battled over various plates and platters of food.

Peter watched them through narrowed eyes, chewing frantically on his scrambled eggs. He finished before they did and immediately sprang to his feet, slinging his tatty bag across his shoulders and hurrying out of the Hall. Remus watched him go with a frown and then sighed heavily, picking up his own bag and shoving a slice of buttered toast into his mouth inelegantly.

"I'll go and see what's wrong with him." He said when he'd swallowed his bite of toast. The others nodded and after promising to find them in time for Defence Against the Dark Arts, he wandered out of the Hall.

Finding Peter wasn't as difficult as Remus had feared. He'd barely got through the doors into the Entrance Hall before he saw the shorter boy sitting on the bottom step of the Grand Staircase, his head clasped in his hands and his fingers pulling at his hair every few seconds. Remus approached him slowly, careful not to scare him off and he lowered himself down next to him when Peter made no sign of moving.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked kindly after a couple of seconds of silence and he heard the other boy sniff a few times.

"It's not me that has something wrong with them." He answered, not noticing Remus stiffen beside him.

"So what's wrong?" Remus hedged instead, careful to keep the tremor out of his voice.

"I don't want to go to school with people like that." Peter snarled and Remus was taken aback. The usually quiet boy hadn't said a bad word against anyone, and that included Avery, who had spent the entirety of their Potions lesson making obscene gestures at them across the dimly lit classroom whenever Slughorn's back had been turned.

"Who're you on about?" The question seemed to break Peter out of his anger for a moment, because he blinked quickly and looked around the room. Seeing that there were a number of other students around, he sighed and fiddled with his bag strap distractedly.

"I'm fine." He said instead of answering and it did nothing to calm Remus' nerves, but he offered the other boy a small smile.

"If you're sure." Remus said after a moment's silence.

The others poured out of the Great Hall and McKinnon spotted them first, pointing them out to the others and stalking over to them. Laughter surrounded them as they tried to find their Charms classroom, only getting lost once because Benjy turned down a corridor one too early.

As they traipsed along the Defence Against the Dark Arts corridor, Peter pushed to the front of the group when James and Sirius started a conversation with Remus. Sirius stared after him before turning to Remus with an eyebrow raised in question.

"Did you find out what was wrong with him?" He asked, darting around a cluster of third years and ending up in front of them. He looked over his shoulder as he waited for an answer.

"Not really. He wasn't making any sense." Remus replied, his lips twitching when Sirius scoffed.

"When does he ever? Don't worry about it." He said, breezing into the classroom after his fellow Gryffindors. He walked passed Peter, either ignoring or not noticing the other boy flinch away from him, and dropped his bag onto the desk. James and Remus followed, arranging themselves so that James was sitting in the middle.

"Good morning, everyone!" Professor Merrythought called as he walked towards his own desk, a pile of books cradled in his arms. He set them down and looked at his students with a smile. "Now, I'm sure you're all tired of hearing it, and if you're not now, you will be by the end of the week. Over the course of the next year, we'll be studying a myriad of things. Starting with…"

.

The next time Remus had a chance to talk to Peter was after dinner that evening. They were sat in their dorm room, working on the small piece of homework that Flitwick had given them, the other three boys down in the Common Room doing Transfiguration homework with the girls.

"So," Remus said, glancing up from the parchment resting on his knee to look at the shorter boy. "What happened earlier?"

Peter paused, his quill poised just above his inkwell and he looked up, blinking in confusion. "What? What do you –?" Understanding blossomed across his face and he flushed slightly. "It's nothing."

"Clearly it's not nothing if it's troubling you this much. Look, I –." Remus cut himself off, coughing slightly before continuing. "I'd like to think I'm your friend, Peter, or at least, that I could be your friend, if you'd let me. I'm worried about you and my mum always told me that it's best not to keep things to yourself, otherwise you'll reach a point where you can't take it anymore and explode."

Peter gaped at him for almost a full minute before he broke out into a happy smile. "You want to be my friend? Truly?"

Remus gave a small laugh, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. "Yeah, I would. And I know the others would too."

The smile dropped from Peter's face and he went back to his homework. "I don't want to be friends with them. I shan't be friends with them."

"But why not?" When he didn't get an answer, Remus put down his Charms book carefully and padded across the space between their beds so he could sit on the edge of the mattress. "Why not, Peter?"

"Because they're poofs!" Peter burst out, snapping his mouth shut in shock. Remus' eyes widened and he stared at the boy in front of him.

"How can you know that?" He asked, shifting his weight and closing his eyes for a few seconds. "How could you possibly know that?"

"They're soul mates." Peter said quickly, apparently glad that he didn't have to keep it in anymore. "I –. I heard them talking yesterday, after you'd gone to sleep. They're soul mates. With each other. They can see colours, Remus."

To say Remus was shocked would have been an understatement and his mind was reeling. He thought of all the little things they'd done over the past few days that had seemed odd to him; pointing at the banners in the Common Room the first time they'd stepped through the portrait hole, literally laughing at the table at dinner and staring at each other's eyes when they thought no one else was looking. He hadn't really thought anything of it at the time, just that the two of them had clicked extremely quickly, but now that he reflected on it, their being soul mates actually made sense. What he didn't understand was why Peter was clearly panicking about it.

"Good for them." He said after about five minutes' silence. Peter gaped across at him, his nostrils flaring and his brows furrowing low over his eyes.

"How can you think that?! They're poofs." He exclaimed angrily, his face flushing a pale pink and Remus looked at him in confusion.

"You don't know that."

"How can they not be? They're soul mates. Soul mates always fall in love and get married, my mum said so." Peter countered, his voice quieter now although still angry.

"That can't possibly be true." Remus tried to point out, but Peter shook his head and effectively cut off any further arguments. "Look, even if they are soul mates, it doesn't mean anything. Well, obviously it means something, but it doesn't mean they're gay."

Peter sighed heavily and dejectedly, clearly annoyed that Remus wasn't agreeing with him. "Maybe you're right. But my mum says that if you're queer you go to hell, and if you're friends with one then you go too."

Remus kept his response to that to himself and barely resisted rolling his eyes. Instead, he twisted his lips into some semblance of a smile and shrugged. "Perhaps she's right, but you can't just condemn someone when you don't even know if what you think is true."

Peter nodded slowly and relaxed slightly, the tightness in his shoulders loosening. "I'll try." He plucked at his sheets of parchment and licked his lips. "I'm sorry, Remus."

"It's alright. I'm not saying you have to be best friends with them or anything, but they've noticed the way you've been acting and they're getting worried."

"I still don't think I want to talk to them. Not yet, anyway."

"You don't have to." Remus replied, getting to his feet and stretching his arms above his head, smiling in satisfaction as his joints popped back into place. "Just stop treating them like they have the plague. I know they can be… overwhelming… but they are still human."

"I know." Peter mumbled, embarrassed at the way he'd reacted, even though he hadn't changed his mind about it. He scrubbed a hand over his face and yawned.

"Even if they are soul mates, it's not like they asked for it. It's not like they met on the train and just decided that they wanted to be soul mates or anything." Remus paused and then let out a small laugh. "Actually, knowing them, they probably would have."

Peter smiled back unwittingly and then frowned at himself.

"I know you don't like it, but you're probably not the only one. Think about how they must have felt when they first found out."

.

"He thinks you're gay." Remus breathed out the next morning. Despite his promise to try and be civil, Peter had once again woken up before the others and had disappeared down to breakfast before any of them had even contemplated getting out of bed.

James, who had been awake for approximately three minutes, blinked up at him dazedly. He groped for his glasses and tutted at himself when he put them on and noticed the large smudge he'd created across the left lens. "He what now?"

"Peter. The reason he's been acting strangely. He thinks you're gay." Remus didn't mention the idea of them being soul mates. It was their business, and if they wanted anyone to know about it, they'd tell them.

Sirius spluttered from underneath his shirt, his head poking out a second later and he frowned. "Why the bloody hell would he think that?" He shared a confused, yet slightly panicked look with James which confirmed Remus' suspicions.

"That's stupid." James agreed, wrestling to get a sock on his foot.

"I think it's mostly his mum talking. Most of the time he was speaking, his mum was somehow involved in what he was saying, so I don't think he really believes it."

"Funny that." Sirius muttered, leaning across his bed so he could grab his wand and shove it into his trouser pocket. He then got to his feet and smiled. "Right then, I don't know about you but I am starving."

"When aren't you?" James asked dryly, clapping Remus on the shoulder as he headed for the door. "Say, Remus, did you do that homework for McGonagall?"