A/N Ok. More. I can honestly say I have no idea what to write this chapter… so I'll just sit back and let my keyboard do the talking (an exceedingly bad plan seeing as you never know just will come out)
Disclaimer: I don't own. Kindly don't sue. Thaaaanks.
Train Rides
Sirius Black possessed many Gryffindore traits: He was loyal, often thought without acting, and many more. The main thing that one generally saw in all Gryfindores was bravery, something he seemed to be lacking lately.
He had spent most of the summer watching his companion carefully, always thinking how nice it would be to tell him how he fealt. And every time, something stopped him: His conscience.
What if he's not gay and gets all offended… and he is scared away… is still mad about snivellus even though he won't show it…
The reasons seemingly had no end. The other side of his brain, the side in which his ego and astounding confidence usually lived, was saying quite different things.
Come off it! No one can resist your charms! Moony said it himself, he was fine. He was not still mad! And seriously, he's Moony! He would never leave you over something like this.
When it all came down to it, the first half of his brain made more sense and was very pleased to have triumphed over the other one for once.
"Padfoot, I don't want to act like your mum…. Or A mum, but you've barely touched your bacon. You've just been staring into space…" And by 'space,' Remus meant that he had been staring at his mouth as he ate and it was starting to really creep him out. "Seriously, at least blink. And, Merlin Sir, if you turn that into a pun again, I will wipe that permanent smirk off your face.
"If it could be wiped off so easily, it wouldn't be permanent."
"Eat your breakfast," said Remus, droping the smirk-wiping topic and quickly changing his voice to a stern, motherly voice. Normally he wouldn't have cared, so long as Sirius wasn't staring at him anymore, but today they were on a tight schedule. Today was, in fact, September First.
Today was their triumphant return to Hogwarts, and the unholy loads of classes, and the issues with Severus they had left behind three months ago. Oh, joy.
"Oi! Prongs! Wormtail! Over hear!" shouted Remus loudly, as they stepped through the barrier side by side a few hours later.
"Moony!" said Peter, running to give his friend a hug.
"Pads! Moons! Hey!" said James, giving them both hugs as well. They had seen each other a month or so before, so everything was patched up within their friendship at least. It was a relief for all of them, having more to deal with than they wanted as it was.
"Come on then," said James, putting his arm around Sirius' shoulder. "You two are late again! We've gotta go before all the compartments are full." They nodded, and followed as James led them onto the train and into the first empty room they found.
"So how've you two been?" asked Sirius, addressing Peter and James.
"Fine. Mum's made me actually do my homework this summer," said James in mock-agony.
"Tough luck. You Pete?"
"Can't complain. Summer's pretty boring when two of your best friends are so in love with each other that they don't even find time to write!"
Sirius chuckled, feeling slightly bad about that now that he thought on it. "Right… sorry mate. We were. . . busy."
James snorted. The others raised eyebrows at him. "Sorry, that was just a funny comment after the whole 'in love' thing. Never mind." Remus looked unamused.
"Veeeery mature, Jamie," he said, James looking up angrily at the use of his nickname.
"Easy, Prongs" said Sirius, holding back his friend with a smile on his face as James feigned outrage and started flailing madly in an attempt to strangle Remus.
"Jaaaaamiejamiejamiejamiejamiejamiiiiieeeeee!" taunted Remus, smirking, and then they clamed down, laughing. Comments about the Marauders being in love were not uncommon, especially among the Marauders themselves, and Remus had trained himself to be un-phased by them. While much of the female population in the grades around them were madly in love with James or Sirius, or, some of them were this crazy, Remus himself. Peter was not as popular. But another portion of the Hogwarts population, smaller, but still there, were placing bets on which of them were secretly dating. The popular theory being that James and Sirius had been planning to elope as soon as their years at Hogwarts were over, and Remus had to admit, he felt a little jealous. It wasn't that James had done anything, so much as the fact that nobody thought he and Sirius could ever be together. He himself didn't think so, but it still hurt. Just a bit.
"Oi! Rem! Moons! Moony! Moonshine!" said Sirius, snapping his fingers in Remus' face.
"Cut it out, pads," said Remus irritably, swatting his hand away. "And Moonshine? I think not!"
"Suit yourself," said Sirius, shrugging. He'd just have to find a way to make it stick later. Without Remus' knowledge, of course.
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Why were you snapping me out of my thoughtful trance now?" asked Remus, thinking he might just return to it if the answer was not satisfactory.
"You were staring at me," said Sirius simply. "It was creepy." Remus fought the urge to sink into his chair and die, and instead replied.
"Now you know. It was just as creepy this morning when you did it!" Sirius chuckled and shrugged. Their eyes met, and they didn't look away for a moment, unsure of what to say or do.
"I've just had an idea!" said James enthusiastically, rising from his seat dramatically. The others look skeptical. This could not be good. Sure enough: "Why don't you lot help me plan a way to get My Love to admit she missed me this summer!"
"Who? Your reflection? I think all you have to do is look in the mirror and say 'I missed you,'" said Peter, smirking.
"Not cool," muttered James, blushing slightly.
"Better idea," said Sirius, pulling something out of his bag. "What say you, me and moonshine here show you what we were really up to this summer? Hm?"
Remus grinned, helping Sirius unfold the large piece of parchment. The other two looked at it curiously for a moment before Peter spoke up.
"It's . . . Hogwarts…"
"Veeery good!" said Remus sarcastically.
"And?" asked James, knowing his friends brilliance probably meant there was more to this than met the eye, but not quite getting it.
"See that," said Sirius, pointing to a bit of writing that appeared to be moving into a corridor that just ended, presumably one that they had yet to finish drawing in.
"Is that…"
"Mrs. Norris? Right now? Yeah!" said Sirius, his grin widening.
"I put the charm on her just before exams last June. I had the idea, and I thought it might come in handy. We were thinking of having it be a full map of Hogwarts with secret passages and instructions on how to get around and stuff. And we've been trying to work out how to put the tracking charm on the whole castle. Probably gonna have dots as well as the names you see."
"And my favorite part," said Sirius, bringing out his wand, "is this: Mischief managed." The whole thing vanished. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." It reappeared just a suddenly. "Moony's idea of course. Along with basically everything."
"Don't lie, pads. You thought of making it a map. I just thought of tracking people near you and what direction the were in, but this is far more useful."
"You two are bloody brilliant!" interjected James, snatching up the map. "Of course we should make it appear more… gracefully, like it could draw itself on here. That'd be cool!"
"And we should have it write messages to people who try to access it without knowing the password!" said Peter enthusiastically.
"Yeah! Nice thinking, wormy!" said Sirius, who was writing this on a piece of parchment he had summoned.
The group spent most of the rest of the ride editing the map with what they had there and making plans to steal stuff from the classrooms to use later.
Remus smiled, happier that he had forgiven his idiot friends more than he had been at any point during the summer. He would have missed this, and now he didn't have to. With friends like this, he couldn't help but feel safe and warm.
A/N yay! Another chapter! Ok, this is me guilting you into reviewing. It's like any other problem in the world: if you think your input doesn't matter, you wont do anything… AS WILL EVERYONE ELSE! Its like… recycling. You may think you don't have to recycle since it wont have impact on the world, but if everyone thinks that, and everyone does, and doesn't try because of it, nobody would recycle. That would be bad. Every persons input matters. SOOOO: if you think that other people will listen to my pleas for reviews and its therefore not worth the minute it will take from your life to type the constructive criticism I KNOW you have, then think again, because this is what people naturally assume when they know other people are around to do the things they themselves don't want to do. So please, be one of the special people that understands that one review can go a long way. Please brighten up my day just a bit. Please review! xoxoxo
