Drunken Deals

A/N: I've taken the liberty of writing outlines for the this and the next chapter, which makes me want to write them both because, I'll admit it, I know what's going to happen and even I want to know how it's going to go in the way of words. But, I digress. On to what you're here for!
Disclaimer: A girl can wish, can't she? Apparently not when it all belongs to Jo…

Chapter Four: The Ship Is Sinking

They left breakfast quickly after that. No one had tangibly followed them out, but plenty of people were watching their every move and disappointed to see them leave in such an unceremonious manner. Remus could almost hear them thinking 'why in the bloody hell haven't they touched yet?' in an infuriated mindset. Because, even he knew, everyone at breakfast that morning wasn't just hungry for food.

The first class of the day was Double Potions, and it started right after breakfast formally ended, granting them an hour break before lunch would start. Sirius had forgotten his book back in the dormitories and so they had returned back to retrieve it.

"Well I've got on a red and gold tie, thank you! These things burn Slytherin skin. Can't you just let me in, woman?" Sirius verbally abused the Fat Lady while he racked his brain for the password that had been given to them just the night before. He was yelling, although not in a quite angry tone, while brandishing his tie like it was a sword for the portrait to shrink back from in fear.

Tugging on the sleeve of Sirius' robes, Remus got the taller boy to lean down slightly so his ear was right next to his mouth. "It's sherbet lemon, Padfoot," Remus whispered, with a grin. He got an enthusiastic kiss on the cheek for this and blushed as the Fat Lady gave them a reproachful look.

"I apologize for shouting at you dear, erm, Lady. May I call you Lady?" The Fat Lady opened her mouth and looked ready to decline this offer in rude words, but had no chance to. "Anyway, would you know it? I've known the password all along. Sherbet lemon, as it were. You do so think of the best passwords. I've heard the Slytherin password has been pure-blood for just years."

The Fat Lady's portrait swung open, whilst she rolled her eyes, and the couple had rushed inside. Sirius found his book after a few moments of searching. Remus tried to tell him that there was a slim chance that his book had found it's way into Peter's trunk but Sirius only shook his head and distracted him with a quick kiss on the lips and they left through the portrait hole.

During their time in the dormitories the majority of students had left the Great Hall and were either roaming the halls or making their way to the first classes of the day. Now, Remus wanted to make his way down to the dungeons and get to class early, avoiding the stares of curious people and the whispers of devious ones. But Sirius insisted on taking a leisurely stroll through the halls with their hands clasped together, greeting people who couldn't meet their eyes and chasing down the people most uncomfortable with the situation and making small talk with them. It went generally like this when they caught someone:

"Well hello there! Haven't seen you since last year."

"I've never even talked to you."

"Right, well, I only said I hadn't seen you. Isn't that what I said, Rem, love?"

"Erm."

"Look, can you two poofters just leave me alone?"

"Merlin, it's not like we wanted to talk to you anyway. Isn't that right, Rem, love?"

"Erm."

It wasn't that he was as uncomfortable with it as the vast majority of his schoolmates. In fact, he probably would have been fine with the entire thing if everyone wasn't making him feel as if he was in a spotlight. It felt as if he was the star of an extremely awkward play and the majority of people in the audience were there to laugh at him, not with him.

Because, actually, there were a select few faces in the audience that acknowledged them in a positive way. A group of Ravenclaw girls waved at them with genuine smiles and several kind words from fellow Gryffindors. One young Hufflepuff girl, she looked to be a First Year, even approached them and called them cute with a blushing face before she ran away from the two who then broke out into laughter at the sheer unexpectedness of the event.

Remus could handle that if only there wasn't the other ninety percent of the school around them. It was much like a giant ocean all around them of gawking students who could talk of nothing else but the unlikely pair. Here and there was a recluse island of someone who didn't mind so much and, if they were lucky, supported them to a point. It was all too rare to find someone who felt that way, though, for Remus, and he found himself clinging to Sirius who seemed to bask in the attention, negative or not.

Potions class was, quite literally, a sea of opposition with only one island for safety. They shared this one class with the Slytherins who used the moment that the two entered to snigger at their expense. James and Peter were not yet in class, and Remus wasn't sure whether he should embrace this fact or wish that they were there. Lily, thank the stars, was their island for this class. Remus had to drag Sirius, who wanted to sit in the front of the class, to where Lily sat in the back.

"Well hello there, Evans. How are you this lovely morning?" Sirius' voice was loud and clear for the numerous people who were trying to listen in on their conversation. Said people shot glares at him. It was no fun to listen in when they weren't making any attempt at keeping their voices down.

Lily shot Remus a pitying look. As if to say: 'How do you put up with him?' Remus shrugged, meaning something along the lines of: 'I don't know, but he is quite entertaining sometimes.' Lily gave them both a smile and then, matching Sirius' tone replied to his greeting. "I'm doing well." At which point her eyes narrowed and she let her gaze drift towards the door of the classroom. "Was doing well, sorry."

Sirius and Remus, whose backs were to the door, turned around only to see James and Peter enter. Here was the real show, the climax of the first act of this play, where the spotlight turned from Remus and on to James who had his moment to shine. But he flaked under the pressure and, without so much of a glance to the people he called his best mates, hurried to the front of the class. Peter followed in his footsteps, but did warrant the three sitting together a wary smile. Perhaps there was some hope after all.

Class was, from that point, a long and grueling affair. Lily, Remus and Sirius barely had time to talk as Professor Slughorn gave them instructions on what they would be studying this year and how it would affect their futures in the Wizarding world. Sirius kept asking himself why he had taken this class again and Remus assured him it wouldn't be all that hard. His words were killed when they were, on the first day of school, assigned an essay on Everlasting Elixirs.

"As if I didn't have enough to worry about. First I have to remember a password and now I have to write an essay one of these uselessly alliterated potions?" Sirius was either acting or was actually unmindful of the feelings of his fellow classmates towards the way in which he displayed his affections, which included a kiss on the cheek whenever Remus did something that was helpful, no matter what it was.

"You can borrow my quill. No, it – it starts with an E Sirius, an E. Well, I suppose if it blew up you would get expelled. It doesn't really matter if it turns pink or orange, either way you get a raw deal in the end. Your book is right there, in front of you, love." Sometimes Remus felt that Sirius was making things up just so he had an excuse to shock everyone with yet another display of affection. And once again, he wouldn't have minded very much if the mass of the audience wasn't squirming because of these displays.

All the while Lily was watching them with a look Remus couldn't quite read. He knew she approved of the nature of their relationship. The redhead had no problem with the fact that they were both male, but he also knew that she didn't think Sirius was right for him. She took care to make sure that this opinion did not show on her face as she observed them, and so that her voice was indifferent to the situation.

"So you're alright with us, right Lily? It doesn't bother you that Rem and I are dating?" Sirius voiced this question a few minutes before class was set to end, as most students were getting antsy and had already shut their books.

Lily's eyes flickered between the two and then she smiled calmly. "If what you're asking is whether or not I mind the fact that it's you and Remus dating, I'm not going to answer that. But, no, it does not bother me that you two are gay or whatever you are." Her look faltered and she looked at Sirius in a rather questionable way. Before Sirius could respond to these remarks Professor Slughorn dismissed them for the day and they were left to their own devices, Lily having shot out of the classroom the minute their instructor had spoken.

Now it felt as if he was drowning in the ocean. He wanted to punch Sirius for being so flamboyant about the affair. His attitude about the entire thing was just making everyone dislike them even more. Because what Sirius was saying had to be what Remus was thinking, seemed to be what most everyone rationalized about the pair even though that line of thinking was completely untrue.

It was that gossip though, that had hunted Remus down. Found him with Sirius' arm around him, a shield between him and the words that hit like bullets. Sirius was bullet-proof after all, a shield made of smiles and laughter. But the gossip had found an uncovered part of the werewolf and hit him squarely in the back, pushing him deep into the ocean and away from Sirius.

The gossip was personified by none other than Regulus Black, who had pulled Sirius away abruptly as they had been headed to the Great Hall for lunch after wandering around for the better part of an hour. Sirius had promised he would be right there and advised his boyfriend to go to lunch as if it was a simple thing to walk into a huge room when all eyes were on you.

The ocean was in full storm mode, bashing Remus about but never looking at him. They avoided him and ran into him as if he wasn't there. He found a few islands but none that he fancied staying near for any amount of time. He saw James, atypically on his own, and their eyes met for a moment and it appeared that his mate might say something at this point, but Prongs ran away from the chance to exchange words with Moony and very soon the halls were empty and both Remus and Sirius were conspicuously absent from the midday meal.

"What ever are you doing in the halls at this time of day, my good sir?" The voice of Nearly-Headless Nick was brash and inquisitive, yet in a friendly way that Remus was almost relieved to hear. At this time he was wandering around aimlessly and had found himself heading for the library, a haven if there ever was one. He figured that if he couldn't hide among people, perhaps he could fall into a book and escape their stares for a short while.

"I just don't feel like eating much, Nick, but thanks for asking." Remus offered the ghost a tight smile and words that he thought were sure to be the end of the conversation. They were quite a pair, a dead man and a werewolf. All they needed was a few house elves and a vampire or two and they could have a club rivaled by no other.

"Ah, and this wouldn't have anything to do with your boyfriend, now would it?" Remus opened his mouth, aghast at this statement. Since when did Nick know a think about his love life? "Sorry, but it's all I've had the misfortune to hear being talked about by every person that goes to this fine place of learning all day. And I thought to myself, goodness, these children cannot keep their thoughts to themselves, can they? I began to wonder, I did, who exactly they were talking about at which point I remembered the ruckus at the Gryffindor table this morning which I connected with my rather awkward intervening on a seemingly private matter. Putting two and two together, or rather one and one, I realized what was going on."

Remus was simply speechless, as Nick so obviously was not on the matter. It only figured that Nick would know what was going on. He probably knew better than anyone in the school what was going on. All the ghosts probably knew more of the students business than anyone else could even begin to imagine because no one took much notice when they were in the room. Remus could almost imagine them staying up all night and exchanging stories about who was doing what. Gossip wasn't even killed when the body was.

"Well, perhaps it does have a bit to do with Sirius," Remus admitted. He then went on to tell Nick about what was going on. Every once and a while the ghost would bob his head off of his shoulders and simply replace it as he listened to the boy talk. "Basically, I want this to work. I really do like Sirius, more than a friend, that is. But I'd like to survive the process just as much as I'd like this to work."

"Oh, let me tell you, I know of the qualms of love," Nick said in a remorseful voice. "Why I remember, in my nineteenth year, just a bit older than you, I met a beautiful young woman by the name of Catherine. Well, she was betrothed to a man of high status, something I, unfortunately, was not. But we met and, as such things go, status did not matter once we saw one another. Yet, only a few months later she was married and I never did see her again. Oh, there is a point to this." He said this to Remus' somewhat questioning stare as to how this applied to him. "Love knows no boundaries, my dear boy, and I can fully understand that. It may take a bit of getting used to for me, but I can certainly imagine stranger people coming together."

Remus would later tell this to Sirius, who would smile and laugh. They both found it somewhat ironic that the first adult to approach them on the circumstances with an offering support had come from Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, a man who had died in the fifteenth century. Then again, by this point, they were both looking for support wherever they could, even if the other didn't recognize this fact.

A/N: If you can't tell, I have rather fond feelings for Nick. He really is a dear and I think a few hundred years is enough to build up some toleration of the different forms of love, don't you? And it's fun to write out his long eloquent thoughts on the matter. So there he is. As for James, my goodness he's being stubborn, isn't he? We'll see what's up with him the next chapter, I believe. Review even if you hate it and thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far.