Hello all! Sorry for such a long wait... I've been riding a trough in my creativity. But towards the end I picked up momentum, and so I'm pretty pleased with this chapter. Most other chapters stand alone in a somewhat episodic manner, but this one will flow really well into the next. Which I haven't written yet. But it will, trust me.
So thanks to everyone who's still going with this; I hope you enjoy chapter 4!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine, evidently. The SLASH is.
4. Reactions
It was five in the morning and Remus hadn't even considered getting up for school yet. It was, essentially, still dark, and he was sure his parents were fast asleep in their room down the hall. The bookshop only opened at eight on a weekday, after all. Since they lived above it, they didn't really have to get up until seven at the earliest. In fact, Remus was quite certain that the whole of Hogsmeade was still asleep.
Which really begged the question: why had someone just thrown a stone at his window?
He was quite warm in his bed, thank you very much, and did not particularly want to get up to see who the nuisance could be at this ungodly hour. Although he very much had an idea.
There was another tap. If they kept this up, soon the whole neighbourhood would be awake and cursing.
"Alright, alright," Remus mumbled to himself, "keep your hair on."
Sure enough, when he opened the window he saw Sirius sitting comfortably on a branch of the oak tree behind the shop. It had not been stones he was throwing, but acorns. And how dare he look so awake and alert at five in the morning; how dare he just sit there in the tree like he didn't belong anywhere else?
"Remus!" Sirius said animatedly. "We've done it!"
"Wha- what have we done?" Remus asked, rubbing his hand across his eyes.
"Not you, stupid. James and I. We've only just finished going around town and putting our leaflets in letterboxes!"
Remus forced a smile. It wasvery exciting, of course, but it was five in the morning.
"Can I come in?" Sirius asked. Before Remus could say "it's five in the morning", Sirius was swinging his legs over the edge of his branch and launching himself through Remus's window, nearly knocking Remus over.
"What do you want?" Remus asked, shutting the window as Sirius made himself at home on his bed.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "What do I want? Can't a guy visit his best friend?"
"Well, yes," Remus said, "that would be James for you. Why can't you go swinging through his window at five in the morning?"
"I did, once," Sirius said with a shudder, "and he tried to get friendly with me, if you know what I mean. He'd been dreaming and he thought I was Evans. So I'm never doing that again. Anyway, you're my best friend too. So it stands to reason that I can visit you when and where I like."
"I can think of several times and places where you most certainly cannot visit me."
"If you're thinking of the bathroom, don't forget that I saw your chap when we were camped out at the Shack that time. We all did."
Remus blushed. "It's not my fault someone took all the towels out of the bathroom so that they could build a fort in the kitchen. While I was showering."
Sirius laughed. Remus glared at him. "Could you not? I'd rather you didn't wake my parents."
"Whatever you say," Sirius said.
"So is there any other reason you came here?" Remus asked as he sat sown next to Sirius on his bed, half-hoping there was a reason, half-hoping there wasn't at all.
"Well, to celebrate, mainly," Sirius said.
Remus nodded sarcastically. "At five in the morning?"
"Essentially," Sirius confirmed with a nod.
"You never cease to baffle me," Remus said.
"Good," Sirius said, "I like the idea of being baffling."
They sat there for a few moments in silence. Sirius was fiddling with his hair, twirling one particularly long strand around his finger in an almost-feminine manner, which Remus supposed was why he found it so attractive. He subconsciously copied the movement, but he didn't exactly have enough hair to twirl - his conservative cut came down just below his ears, no further. Sirius, meanwhile, had commandeered all pairs of scissors in his house and hidden them beneath his bed. He'd also bribed the local barber, Peter's father, not to cut his hair whenever his mother took him there and forced him through the door.
"James put a little something extra in Evans's letterbox," Sirius said.
"What do you mean by that?"
"A romantic poem or some nonsense. He's asked her out on another date. Whether she says yes or not..."
"I wish he'd stop pestering her," Remus said. "He needs to take it more slowly."
Sirius laughed. "Oh yeah? And how would you go about winning a fair maiden's heart?"
"I don't have to, remember," Remus sniped, "I'm married to you or something like that."
"That's right," Sirius said with a fond smile. "But say you weren't married to me. How would you get into her pants?"
"I wouldn't want to get into her pants," he said without thinking. If he had thought, he probably wouldn't have said something with such homosexual connotations.
"Yeah, but say you did want to get into her pants. I want a different perspective, and you're the only one of us that Evans actually talks to. James sends flowers and shit poetry, I grab and kiss, and you... ?"
Remus thought for a moment. "To whom Evans actually talks. And I'd befriend her first, as I have done. There's no point in wooing someone with whom you aren't friends."
"Hold on, hold on," Sirius said, "all this crap with correcting my grammar is just a ruse, isn't it?"
"What are you on about?"
"Well, you said it yourself! You befriended Evans. You must want to get into her pants! Which is why you're denying it!"
"I do not want to get into her pants," Remus said.
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much!" Sirius riposted, and Remus had to shove a hand over his mouth to shut him up.
"My parents are asleep," he hissed, "and I'd like to keep it that way."
"Do you want to go to sleep?" Sirius asked, suddenly and bafflingly changing the topic.
"Now that you mention it..."
Not needing to be told twice, Sirius flopped backwards and reclined on Remus's bed.
"I thought you asked if I wanted to sleep," Remus said.
"You can sleep next to me," Sirius said, patting the space - just enough for a thin body - next to him.
Remus was blushing furiously, and desperately hoped that his room was dark enough for Sirius not to notice.
"Oh, come on," Sirius said, "I'm not James, I'm not going to try to touch you because I think you're someone else I've been dreaming about."
When Remus still didn't do anything, Sirius grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him down so that they were lying side by side. Remus was seriously hoping that Sirius wouldn't glance in the direction of his pants, because they were growing tighter by the second.
"See? Nothing's happened yet," Sirius said.
Remus made a noise of assent.
Sirius was asleep within minutes - and fair enough too; he'd been up all night by the sounds of it - but Remus stayed awake until his alarm clock went off at seven. The buzzing jerked Sirius to attention, and he sat bolt upright.
"JESUS CHRIST WHAT IS THAT NOISE?" he shrieked. "REMUS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED?"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Remus said, pushing Sirius back down flat onto the bed, more to quieten him than anything. "This is MY bed!"
"Oh," Sirius said softly. "Sorry. I could have sworn that... oh. Never mind."
Remus cocked an eyebrow. "I don't think I want to know. Damn, you will have woken my parents. What am I going to tell them?"
"Tell them you woke up and found me lying here. Or something."
"Yeah, they'll sure warm to that one..."
Sirius laughed, and Remus suddenly remembered why he hated and loved that laugh so much, and why he had wanted to get out of there. It was awful.
"Just get off my bed, please."
"Alright, alright," Sirius said, looking amused and climbing off the bed to slouch on the floor.
A few seconds later, there was a knock on the bedroom door. "Remus?" his father asked. "Everything alright in there?"
"It's all under control, father. Sirius just dropped in for an early morning chat."
"Oh," came Mr. Lupin's voice from the corridor. "Alright, then. Don't be late for school, boys."
"We won't," Remus and Sirius replied.
"Good," he said, and his footsteps rang out along the corridor as he headed back to his bedroom.
They exchanged a naughty-schoolboy glance. "For once," Sirius said, "I can't wait to get to school. I just want to hear everyone talking about our leaflets..."
"That's what I meant to ask," Remus said, "how did you do it without getting noticed? I mean, did anyone pick up that it was you two?"
"I don't think so," Sirius said. "We had balaclavas. James took them home with him, because his parents don't ask questions."
"Balaclavas! Honestly!" Remus said, more to himself than to Sirius. "Come on," he added, "you'd better head off home so you can get to school in time."
"Do I have to?" Sirius whined.
"Yes," Remus said sternly.
"Fine," Sirius said, sounding for all the world like an infant who had just been refused candy and was trying their own juvenile form of reverse psychology. When Remus did nothing else but look at him disapprovingly, Sirius said "fine" again and climbed out the window, jumping into the oak.
"See you at school!" he offered as a final farewell, and skittered down the tree, landing with an inelegant thud on the ground, before running off in the direction of his home.
Remus laughed slightly to himself as he got ready for school.
When he arrived at around eight, James, Sirius and Peter were already sitting in the usual spot, acting about as innocently as they could ever manage.
"Good morning," Remus greeted.
"You bet it is!" James said. "Everyone is talking about the Marauders!"
"Well," Peter said quietly, "we heard Snivellus whining to Parkinson about the leaflet, and Parkinson said he never checks his mailbox."
"Shut up," James said offhandedly, "everyone will be talking about the Marauders by the end of the day, mark my words."
"Of course," Sirius said confidently, "because we, my men, are geniuses! No question about it."
Peter nodded solemnly. James and Sirius nodded proudly. Remus rolled his eyes.
But of all those who recognised their genius, and all those who despised the leaflets, there was one critic that James Potter feared more than any of them - and she was tall, had long read hair, and was heading towards them with a steely gaze in place right that very moment.
"Potter!" Lily snapped, standing with one hand on her hip and the other thrust forward, clutching a Red, White and Bluelist. "Explain this," she said.
"Oh, yeah," James said in what was no doubt a rehearsed act of ignorance, "I got one of those too!"
And he wasn't lying. James and Sirius had made sure to leave no letterbox in central Hogsmeade un-leafleted, so the blame would have nowhere to be cast.
"Uh huh," Lily said, "so that no-one would suspect you of being the perpetrator. Or, one of them."
As James continued feigning ignorance, Sirius said "you know, Evans, sometimes you remind me a bit of Miss McGonnagal..."
"I bet you were in on this too, Black! It would not surprise me. And Pettigrew too."
Peter blushed slightly, partly because Lily knew his name, and partly because she was associating him with the Marauders.
"What about Comrade Lupinski?" Sirius joked. Remus shot him a glare - Lily didn't actually know that he was Russian, as far as he was aware, but then again he wouldn't put it past her.
Lily laughed. "Remus would get himself into this sort of thing. No, no, this has the terrible trio stamped all over it."
"Christ, Lily," Sirius said, throwing aside all pretence, "who d'you think came up with the idea of a blacklist?"
James slapped his hand onto his forehead comically. "And how else would we have been able to print them without a key to the print room?"
"Yeah, and who could have come up with such a snappy name for the lists?" Peter added.
And Remus realised just how instrumental he had been in the whole affair, and blushed slightly.
Lily's eyes widened.
"Look," Remus began, "I don't usually like to bend the rules in such a manner-"
"Fantastic!" she said.
"What?" James cried. "B- but! It was my idea! The whole subversive organisation thing, and the distribution of literature! Those were my ideas!"
Lily scoffed. "A subversive organisation? More like a bunch of silly teenage boys getting themselves in too deep! But if Remus really did come up with some of this stuff..."
"It was nothing," Remus mumbled.
"Now, now, don't be so modest!" Lily teased. "You've always been the smart one! Hey, you wouldn't be doing anything tonight, would you?"
"I don't believe this!" James cried. "We're going steady! Aren't we? And you're asking one of my best friends out right in front of me!"
Lily laughed. "Going steady my ass; we went on one date."
Sirius snickered.
"So how about it, Remus? You, me, tonight?"
Remus sat there with his mouth hanging slightly open, unable to believe that he - he! - was actually being asked out on a date! James was close to bursting, and Sirius and Peter didn't look too pleased either. It took a moment for him to bring himself to speak.
"I'm sorry, Lily, but I'm busy tonight."
"Damn right you are!" Sirius said suddenly. "You're coming to mine for dinner, remember?"
"Y- yeah," Remus said, thankful for Sirius saving his sorry (and possibly maybe not into women that way) behind.
James relaxed immeasurably.
Lily seemed to pick up that Remus was not at all pleased about the idea of a date, so she let it slide. She wouldn't have gotten much further, anyway, as the bell for their first class rang out across the grounds.
"Sport!" James said brightly. "C'mon, Petey!"
Peter groaned, but not wanting to be left behind he rushed off after the much more athletic James.
"Well, off to biology for me. What have you two got?" Lily asked Sirius and Remus.
"I have French, and Remus has chemistry," Sirius answered.
"How do you know that?" Remus asked, bemused.
"Memorised your timetable," Sirius said with a shrug, heading off in the direction of the French room, leaving Lily and Remus behind.
"How does he do that?" Remus said, staring after Sirius's retreating figure. "I've barely memorised my timetable!"
"That boy works in mysterious ways," Lily said. They set off for the Hogwarts Science Block together. "By the way, you're not really going to his place for dinner tonight, are you?"
"No," Remus admitted sheepishly.
"I guessed as much," she said. "I shouldn't have asked you out like that. I just wanted to rile James a bit."
"Mission accomplished."
They laughed.
"Are you ever going to go out with him again?" Remus asked as they reached the chemistry lab. "You know it would mean the world to him."
Lily blushed. "I don't know," she admitted. "Our first date was kinda fun..."
Remus smiled. Somehow, he thought, James would get that second date for which he was dying. He waved farewell to Lily and took up his usual lab bench: front row, left corner. Just his luck - sitting directly behind him was none other than Severus Snape.
"Lupin," Severus sneered, "I don't suppose you know anything about these leaflets that all our letterboxes woke up to this morning?"
Remus turned around reluctantly. "My parents were looking at it over breakfast... I didn't really get a close look."
"Oh, yes, your parents would be looking at it, wouldn't they?" he said pointedly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Remus said blandly.
"Come off it, Lupin, we all know what sort of things you and your parents had in that dirty little shop of yours before the war."
Remus raised an eyebrow and turned back around, staring fixedly at the blackboard as Mr. Slughorn entered the room.
When he left to go to his next class, he found the words "COMMIE BASTARD" scrawled messily on his briefcase in chalk. He couldn't even be bothered wondering when and how they had found their way there. He skipped most of sport to wash them off in the boys' locker rooms.
The last period of the day was History, and the only class he shared with Sirius. Remus would have been sitting right up the front, but Sirius was more a back-row kind of fellow, so they compromised and sat near the middle. The lesson passed slowly - it was steaming with excess heat in the cramped classroom, and their teacher Mr. Binns was so relentlessly monotonous that he could talk his way out of prison simply by boring the guards to death. The upside to this was that he hardly noticed what was going on in his classroom, and so misbehaviour was rife.
Sirius was drawing a caricature of Binns "boring" a hole through a brick wall in both senses of the word, and Remus was taking lazy notes, punctuated by his staring into space. And during these episodes of staring, Remus was pondering his strange and bothersome attraction to the would-be cartoonist sitting next to him and radiating the heat of the classroom onto Remus. Or perhaps his heart was just fluttering more than usual. Sirius was sohandsome when his face was scrunched up in concentration, staring at his latest drawing.
Remus scolded himself for thinking that, and turned his full attention back to Binns and the French Revolution.
But after a few moments he found his mind wandering. "Let them eat cake" was such a silly comment... almost like something that Sirius would say. And Sirius did say the strangest things. Like having memorised Remus's timetable. He probably hadn't. But if he had... and he had gone to all that trouble...
Remus was snapped out of his destructive daydreaming by the bell ringing, and the frantic scraping of chairs and flow of bodies draining out of the classroom door. Sirius lingered behind as Remus packed his things up.
"Now," Sirius began, "I'm going to find Snivellus and beat the living shit out of him for what he did to your case."
"Is that necessary?"
"Always. Oh, and you should go home."
Remus rolled his eyes. "I usually do after school. You know, what with having homework to do..."
"No, no," Sirius said, "you should go home but be at mine around six-fifteen."
"... why?"
"For dinner, of course," Sirius said with a smile. And patting a dumbstruck Remus on the shoulder, he flung himself dramatically out of the classroom and out of sight.
"Is everything alright, Remus?" Mr. Binns asked from the front of the classroom as he piled his books into a little battered briefcase. "Why haven't you gone home yet?"
"I'm just off now," Remus said, and stumbled out of the room in a daze.
Apparently, he was busy that night.
So what did you think? Liked it, loved it or loathed it? Leave a review, tell me, do.
- Legs
NEXT TIME IN SEX, COMMUNISM AND OTHER SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES: Dinner at the Black Mansion.