The next morning, Remus awoke first and then that Sirius was asleep on his chest. He looked down at the Animagus, who was breathing slowly and evenly. Remus felt a rush of heat spread through him as he realised that their legs were intertwined, and there was an awful lot of Sirius' bare flesh in contact with his. He told himself firmly that it was all perfectly innocent; they were both wearing sufficient clothing, and it wasn't as if they had done anything.

Just then, Sirius let out a sleepy grunt and rubbed his cheek against Remus' skin. Remus moaned softly as Sirius squirmed on top of him, their hips grinding together. Sirius lay still again, muttering to himself in his sleep. Remus was trapped under a sleeping Sirius. He lifted his arm, and, to his delight, saw the remains of a gold shackle slowly melting away. He gave Sirius a gentle push. This only resulted in Sirius whining in his sleep and wrapping his arms around Remus' neck. Remus swallowed. He had two options. Either he could wake Sirius up and insist he moved off, or he could allow Sirius to continue using him as a teddy bear. Remus decided on the second option. He told himself firmly that it would be unfair to wake Sirius up while he looked so peaceful and asleep. That was of course his only reason. He had no ulterior motive whatsoever. Although it did feel very nice… but maybe it would be wise to make his escape so that they could be up before anybody else woke. Such as Peter.

Remus carefully unhooked Sirius' arms from around his neck, and slid backwards. He managed to disentangle their legs, and gently extracted himself. He slithered sideways off the bed, and landed with a quiet thud on the floor. He grabbed his clothes, and put them on. Luckily they had gone to Sirius' bed, so Sirius still being there didn't cause any problems. Remus looked fondly down at his friend, who was now curled in the foetal position, his thumb firmly between his teeth. Sirius looked positively adorable when he was asleep. Sirius was now stretching, curling his hands into fists and yawning.

"Cute." Remus mumbled, putting his tie on. Suddenly, James sat up, and swore loudly.

"Remus, you were meant to sleep with Sirius!"

"I did." Remus said smugly "But I happened to wake up before the parasites did, to avoid trouble."

James sighed.

"But how did you get rid of the manacles?" he persisted. Remus blinked.

"They just kind of melted away."

James looked delighted.

"Why?" Remus asked sharply. James grinned broadly.

"Nothing… just how I enchanted them… certain feelings… to get them off…"

"What?" Remus asked in confusion. James winked, and sauntered off to the bathroom, leaving Remus sitting on his bed, utterly perplexed. By the time Sirius woke up, it was almost time for breakfast. James ordered them to gather on Sirius' bed for the day's instructions.

"Another pointless task to humiliate us?" Remus asked. James looked offended.

"All my tasks have a point; they are tests of character. And this one is in no way humiliating, but may be your hardest yet."

"Go on…"

"Today you must learn to live without each other. You must go until nine o clock tonight without speaking a word to each other. You cannot communicate through expressions, writing notes to each other, or getting somebody else to pass on a message. Basically, you must act as if you have just had a major fall out. Or as if the other does not exist at all. Understand?"

They both nodded slowly.

"And when does this start?"

"I'll give you a minute first." James said. "I need a shower."

"We know." Sirius and Remus said in unison. James swore at them, grinning, and grabbed his towel.

"Okay, so we can't talk to each other for a day?" Sirius said slowly. Remus nodded, and they looked at each other. Suddenly they couldn't think of anything to say to each other.

"Uh… so…" Remus said, grabbing his copy of A Standard Book of Spells Grade Seven and stuffing it into his bag. Sirius yawned, watching Remus comb his hair.

"I like your hair." he said suddenly. "It's a really nice colour, and all soft. Like a puppy."

"Uh, thanks." Remus said. "But yours is nicer. I hate my hair."

"Why??" Sirius asked, reaching out and touching Remus' light brown locks. "It's so cute and fluffy and wow that's hot."

Remus looked at Sirius, who was completely absorbed in examining the top of his head.

"No fleas." Sirius announced, and Remus laughed.

"I don't have fleas, Padfoot. That was you."

"Do not! I washed in special shampoo potion and they all went away."

"Correct, I washed you in special shampoo, and you struggled and shook and soaked me. Remember?"

"I forget the details." Sirius grinned "Anyway, the potion stung! Made my fur all itchy."

"Well, it got rid of the fleas at least."

Sirius shrugged, lounging casually on his bed. His tie was stuffed in his trouser pocket, and the top three buttons on his shirt were undone. Remus stared at the exposed skin, feeling an urge to bite it. Sirius was looking at him again, and Remus had the uncomfortable thought that perhaps Sirius knew exactly what he was thinking. Sirius watched Remus, his fathomless grey eyes unblinking and piercing. Remus was now looking back at him, his chocolate brown eyes shining in the morning sun. Sirius licked his lips unconsciously. Then a sudden noise made them both jump. James was standing behind them, his black hair even more tousled than usual. He pushed his glasses on, and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, no more talking or interaction. Thank you."

Remus had thought that this task would be easy. How very wrong he was. He had never really appreciated how much of the day Sirius occupied. Talking to Sirius, laughing at his jokes… now he had to content himself with looking at Sirius. He looked at the ceiling of the Potions class, and sighed. Lessons had suddenly become extremely boring. He now knew that it was Sirius that made him enjoy school so much. He had James, who was funny and smart, but he wasn't Sirius. To see Sirius in front of him, but unable to talk to him… it was infuriating. Sirius was feeling the same.

"James, say something Remus-ish." he ordered. James grinned.

"Sorry, against the rules."

Sirius sulked, trying to think of something Remus would say. At lunch, he didn't bother smothering his cheese burger in ketchup. There wasn't any point since the only reason he did it was so Remus could chastise him. Remus was watching Sirius eat his burger, and missed reprimanding Sirius for his disgusting eating habits. Scowling moodily, he squirted ketchup all over his burger, until there looked to be more red sauce than meat. He would have to amuse himself by doing the things Sirius usually did. Sirius looking at Remus taking a bite from his burger, and grinned. Then he realised that this was against the rules, and turned away quickly before James noticed. Remus sighed, putting his food down and looking morosely at it. James had been telling everybody that he and Sirius were having a "lovers' tiff," which had gained Remus a lot of sympathetic looks and reassurances from concerned girls (and Peter.)

"I'm sure you guys will work it out," Alice, a seventh year Gryffindor who sometimes hung around with Lily, insisted. Remus nodded. Of course, they hadn't really had a fight. But since they couldn't speak to each other, it kind of felt like they had. Remus thought about the last time he and Sirius had fought. That had been because Sirius had told Snape how to get into the Willow. They had basically had a huge row that almost blew the top off the school, and then Sirius started crying. Really crying, with tears and howling, and clinging. Remus had ended up hugging him for half the night while he sobbed his heart out, and they had been fine the next day.

Sirius took a swig of pumpkin juice, and glanced at Remus. Sirius too was having a flashback. He remembered the time after a Quidditch match when the Marauders had been playing dares in the common room. James had stolen some food from the kitchen, and Sirius made a sandwich for Remus to eat. It was brown sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, crisps, chips, sugar, salt, pepper, peanut butter, olives, pickled onions, cheese, and grated carrot. With sprinkles. Remus took one bite and almost threw up on the common room floor. But he had persevered, and ate the whole thing. Sirius wondered why he remembered this now. Perhaps because of the food surrounding them?

Remus looked at his watch. Eight hours to go, and he would be able to talk to Sirius. Just eight hours… 480 minutes. Each minute seemed to be going much slower than usual. He turned to talk to Lily to pass the time. She started jabbering away about some homework, or teacher, or something. Remus looked over at Sirius, who was roaring with laughter at something James had just said. Remus smiled mordantly. Sirius was clearly having lots of fun without him. If Remus was to leave school altogether, would Sirius actually miss him that much?

"… and so… Remus? Hello?"

Lily snapped her fingers in front of his face. Remus turned away from Sirius.

"Sorry Lily, I was just…"

Lily smiled understandingly.

"You miss him. Don't worry about it though, he'll come around. Do you want me to have a word?"

"No." Remus said "Its fine. I just…"

He hesitated. Would it be okay to talk about his feelings with somebody who thought he already loved Sirius?

"It just feels weird, not being around him. That's all." he said, in a low voice. Lily nodded.

"Let me guess, you suddenly remember every little thing about him that you miss, even those that you never noticed before? Everything seems so pointless without him?"

Remus blinked. That sounded exactly how he was feeling.

"Yeah!" he said in surprise.

"That's how I feel if I have a fight with James." Lily confided "All empty and lonely."

Remus swallowed. But this feeling was completely different… wasn't it?

"Don't tell Sirius." he said. Lily smiled encouragingly.

"I'm sure he misses you just as much as you miss him."

Yeah right, Remus thought dryly.

That evening, Sirius counted silently down to nine o'clock. Today had been the most tedious day of his life. Sure, he got a lot of thinking done, but even messing around with James had lost its charm. He felt so… empty and lonely. Without Remus. And he wanted him back. He felt sort of pathetic; after all, it had been less than a day. He checked his watch for about the fifth time that evening. Five minutes to go, and then he would be free to talk to Remus again. He yawned, and looked over to where Remus was chatting to Lily and some of her girly friends. Bastard was clearly having the time of his life without Sirius.

Remus checked the time, and his heart leapt. One minute to go! He smiled at Lily, and tried to concentrate on what she was saying, but his head was full of something else. "Uh… excuse me for a moment." he said, and without a backwards look at the girls, he crossed the room towards where James and Sirius were sitting. At the same time, Sirius got to his feet, and strode towards Remus. 10 seconds to go, and Sirius and Remus met in the middle of the room. As James called out

"Nine O'clock, everybody,"

Remus and Sirius looked at each other.

"I..." Remus started

"You…" Sirius said, at the same time. Then identical smiles spread across their faces.

"Missed you." Sirius said quietly, so that only Remus could hear. Remus grinned, and hugged Sirius tightly. Sirius lifted Remus and spun him around in the air. Remus laughed, looking into Sirius' stormy grey eyes hungrily.

"Awwwww…" cooed the girls, and James grinned to himself, as he watched Sirius and Remus sit down and start to talk.

"Have fun today?" Remus was asking. Sirius shrugged casually.

"Yeah… yeah it was fun…"

Remus raised an eyebrow, and Sirius grinned.

"Okay, it was crap. Yours?"

"Likewise." Remus smiled.

Hi! Thanks again to everybody who had reviewed. I'm sorry that I've been dragging out Sirius and Remus' relationship, and that they haven't even kissed yet. Don't hurt me! I promise that something will happen in the next chapter; I just wanted them to explore their feelings a bit first... Please keep reading, love you all!