So I don't know why but the formatting and stuff for this is really weird, I hope you guys don't mind that.

Also, I am LOVING the response this is getting and I cannot thank you guys enough for the interest y'all are showing and the reviews and interactions; it means so much to me 3

Alytiger: Thank you so much! It took me a while to come up with something that hasn't been done before, tbh.. At least regarding Padfoot because I'm fairly sure people have used some variations of the stories for the other two. Also, yes, it isn't complete yet, there are another couple chapters to go so thank you for bringing that to my attention. I thought I had rectified it, but apparently not!

Enjoy, and don't forget to review! I would love to hear your thoughts, especially on this chapter.

Word count: 3672

(1/11/17)

The next day, Remus was out of the house to run some long overdue errands. He also said something about seeing Marlene, because he made a promise to see her every day? Sirius didn't really get that, but he had just shrugged and asked him if he'd be back for dinner. When Remus said he wouldn't, and that Sirius shouldn't wait up for him, Sirius was hit with a strangely domestic feeling. Before he could ponder on it, though, James had walked in through the door, obnoxiously announcing himself. He had made himself at home, no surprise there, and turned on the television to the ongoing cricket match. What did not help the already weird domestic feeling was James going so far as to order Sirius to get him a beer and some chips.

The only thing James got was an empty can to his head, however.

"You know, my head still hurts," James grumbled twenty minutes later.

Sirius smirked, not at all looking sorry for what he did. "Aww, do you want me to kiss it better, ickle Jamesie?"

James scowled at him but before he could say anything else, Sirius blurted out what he'd been meaning to talk to him about for a while now.

"I told Remus about my family. The whole deal; Walburga, Black madness, my insomnia, everything."

James blinked in surprise, both at the abrupt change in topic and at what Sirius said. "That was quick." Sirius shrugged, looking down at his hands.

"Did you also tell him about-?" he eyed Sirius meaningfully.

Sirius bit his lip. "Not..exactly. I kind of insinuated it, and I think he knows but I didn't outright say it."

James took in a sharp breath. "You never talk about that."

"I-uh, he's gone through something similar and I, I didn't know how else to make him feel better," Sirius admitted hesitantly, not knowing whether he was correct in divulging something Remus had told him in confidence but this was James and there were no secrets between them.

"Are you telling me he was abused as well?" James gasped, horror filling his light hazel eyes.

Sirius shrugged again, not wanting to say anything else. "I..wasn't really abused, per s-"

"Don't you even try, Sirius," James growled, cutting him off mid-sentence. "They starved you, and you have fucking cigarette burns on your legs. If that isn't abuse, then what is?"

The raven-haired man didn't say anything, knowing what James was saying was right but not being able to reconcile that knowledge with that he was feeling. It wasn't an easy fact to admit, and the first time James had come to know about it, he was even more nonchalant about it than he was now because he truly did not think it was something to be worried about.

Of course, James wrenched him away from that notion quickly enough.

Sirius sighed, "That doesn't matter now, anyway. It was years ago and it's no use talking about it now, anyway."

James scowled but didn't carry the topic any further. After a minute, he spoke again.

"What prompted you to start talking about it anyway? You usually hate anything to do with that time."

Now it was Sirius' turn to scowl darkly, his grey eyes darkening with anger. "Walburga saw it fit to send her first letter of the year. Got it in the mail yesterday, broke a couple glasses."

James looked at him in concern. "What'd it say? The usual?"

Sirius scoffed bitterly. "Of course. 'You're such a disgrace, you don't deserve to live, blah blah' I personally thought the most hilarious part was when said claimed that I'm 'blackening our family name' because they truly don't need me to do it for them."

James sneered. "Fucking bitch. Who does she think she is, going around calling you names and telling you off?" he shook his head, "I really don't get why you still insist on opening these letters even after all these years, because it's not like she tries to hide the fact that they're from her, and you already know what they're gonna say. Why bother even looking at them? I say you just throw them in the trash as soon as the postman brings them to the house."

"Just call me a masochist," he shrugged. James narrowed his eyes at him, knowing there was more to it than he was divulging, but he just grinned back at him, although he knew it didn't look remotely like his usual teasing self.

Even though he didn't want to tell James, mostly because he didn't want to believe it himself, he kind of had an inkling why he always opened her letters, despite knowing what they would contain. Deep down, he knew they wouldn't suddenly turn into rainbows and flowers, asking for him to come back and saying that they were family for what they did and how they acted. He knew they wouldn't have a sudden change of heart and turn into semi-decent people. And yet, he hoped. He ached for them to say it just once, tell him that they were proud of him, that they didn't mind his sexuality, that they would accept him as he is: gay, tattooed and long haired. But no, it wouldn't happen, that day would never come. He knew it and yet he longed for it.

He didn't tell James because even though there were no secrets between the two of them, he couldn't bear to take his pitying looks when he realized what Sirius was holding on for, and he couldn't bear James thinking that it wouldn't ever happen, because Sirius had always been able to tell what his best mate was thinking. He wouldn't be able to take James hesitating around him, no telling him what he actually thought because he didn't want to hurt him, or didn't want to sound cruel and harsh. He didn't want this because they'd never been worried about speaking their mind around each other, they would say the cruelest of things if they thought the other needed to hear it.

James knew his family was his weak point, the one place he was unreasonably sensitive and if he started censoring himself because he thought Sirius' wouldn't be able to take it, then that was something Sirius could not accept.

So instead of acknowledging this complicated mess, he just decided to keep these thoughts to himself.

"I think I'll make a cup of tea for myself, you want?" he asked after a while, getting up. His legs were cramping from sitting in the same position for so long and he also wanted to get out of the room to clear his head a little.

James gave him a knowing look but replied, slight distaste clear on his face that made Sirius chuckle. "If it's your disgusting green tea, then no thanks. I can do without that crap in my body."

This James was what Sirius wanted, the one who wasn't afraid to speak his mind, even if it's to insult everything Sirius believed in.

He smiled, eyes twinkling with happiness. "I'll make you your English Breakfast you fucking snob, but one of these days I swear I'll get you to drink green tea and actually like it, just you wait."

James scoffed. "Well, I'll be waiting eagerly for that day to arrive, mate."


"Moooooooooooonyyyy," Sirius called out as he saw the now familiar head of brown hair just ahead of him. He had just gotten out of class when he spotted Remus hurrying about in front of him, books clutched to his chest and a weird expression on his face.

At the sound of his nickname, and Sirius' voice, Remus turned around suddenly. He didn't even think anything of the nickname, more than used to it by now in the past couple months. True to how Sirius and James got their names, he had an embarrassing experience to credit to his name as well. Well, another embarrassing experience that gave him this particular nickname, to be exact. Even thinking of it now made his face, and neck flame bright red. He could remember it as clear as day. It was about 3 months after he had moved in.

Remus was standing in his room, just a towel wrapped loosely around his waist. He was fresh out of the shower, his hair was dripping and he was trying to figure out what to wear for the day. He wasn't planning on going out, but there was a chance he would go out for dinner with a couple friends from uni and he didn't want to change twice.

So basically he didn't want to dress too casually in case he went out, but not too dressy in case he ended up staying in.

Yes, he was lazy. Sue him.

After a few minutes of deliberation, and quite some hair pulling, he decided on a casual grey t-shirt and a pair of khakis. If he did go out, he could just throw on a flannel shirt or something. Simple.

Grinning, he dropped his towel, bending a little to grab his boxers from the drawer.

"Hey Re-HOLY FUCK!" The sound of his door opening and an exclamation coming from behind him made him freeze in horror, midway through picking up his underwear.

"Oh my fucking god," he heard a second exclamation coming from another person. He closed his eyes in resignation, knowing his pasty arse was now thoroughly seen by BOTH Sirius and James. He looked upwards in a 'God help me' way.

"Fuck, we are-shit, so so sorry, Remus, we'll just be-" he heard Sirius stuttering out before the door was slammed.

He still kept his eyes screwed shut, hoping this was all just a terribly humiliating dream that he would wake up from.

No such luck, though. He should've known. Why would the universe listen to him?

He tried to look at the silver lining, that at least he hadn't been turned around and they hadn't caught him with his bollocks out or something but oddly enough, it didn't really work all that well. Wonder why, he thought sarcastically.

When he had managed to calm himself and his blushing face down, and gotten properly dressed, which took the better part of an hour, he was ashamed to admit, he hesitantly went out to the living room. As far as he could see, only Sirius was there, worriedly pacing a hole into the living room carpet (which was another thing that still made his head go round, an actual carpet. His house never had one, nor had his friends and the less said about the dorm rooms, the better)

He briefly wondered where James was, before quickly dismissing the thought, thinking that it was probably for the better that he deal with only one person who had seen him in the buff rather than two.

"Uh, hi," Remus thought it was better to break the ice himself than work himself into a nervous sweat over what Sirius was thinking.

Sirius whirled around at the sound of his voice, "Oh uh Remus. Hi!" His voice was a little too high pitched but neither of them decided to comment on it.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly when the silence stretched for a little too long and just as Remus was about to blurt out that it wasn't a big deal and he was a grown man and shouldn't feel embarrassed over something like this, which was bound to happen at some point, Sirius spoke again.

"James..left, because he thought it would be a little too awkward and well, can you blame him?" he shrugged, widening his arms a little bit, "He told me to apologize to you, though."

Remus waved his hand, "Oh no no, it's no issue. I'll tell him it's okay next time he's here."

Sirius let out a laugh, "Don't be worried if it's a little while before that happens. And by that, I mean like three days."

Remus raised an eyebrow, "That's your definition of 'a little while'?"

Sirius shrugged again, "Well, you know Prongs and how often he's here so, yeah."

The silence had set in again but this time it was Remus who broke it. "Okay, but seriously, don't let this make things awkward, please. I should've locked the door."

Sirius immediately shook his head, making his hair fly around wildly, "Oh no no no, it's definitely my fault for opening the door like that without knocking or anything. It's just that I still haven't really gotten used to having a housemate. I mean, living in a boarding school kind of desensitizes you to that stuff and well, James never really cared and-"

Remus cut him off before he could ramble even more, not that it wasn't cute but he wanted to assure Sirius that it wasn't his fault. "Let's just forget this happened okay? There's no need for you to blame yourself, yeah?"

Maybe the hope he was feeling inside that they could get past this and maybe never mention it again showed up quite clearly on his face because Sirius chuckled quite loudly.

"Ah Remus, in that case, you wouldn't mind if I call you Moony, would you? You'll truly be part of the gang, then."

And well, after that, there was no looking back.

Back to the present, however, at the sound of Sirius' voice, a relieved expression crossed his face, making Sirius even more suspicious. Something was wrong, and he going to find out what.

"Hey, Sirius!" Remus greeted as he changed course and headed towards the raven haired man. "What're you doing here?"

"Just got out of class," Sirius shrugged. "I was about to head home when I saw you. What time are you done?"

"Uh," Remus looked down at his watch, "about ten minutes? I have to return a book to the library, so I was just heading there."

"Cool!" Sirius exclaimed happily, "I'll give you a ride home then."

Something warm fluttered in Remus' stomach when Sirius casually said home, but he ignored it, as he had learned to do for various such mysterious feelings over the months.

"I-No, that's no problem, I don't want to hold you up," Remus tried to tell Sirius but he wasn't having any of it.

He just waved his hand carelessly. "Nonsense. We're going to the same place, why wouldn't I give you a ride?"

Remus sighed in defeat as he realized Sirius wouldn't relent and he was stuck going with him. Not that he really minded but some...things...would probably happen that would lead to shit and he didn't really want to dwell on that so he just shook his head and nodded at Sirius, telling him he understood. Sirius beamed at him and started walking towards the library.

Remus' could feel the desperation leaking into his face as he saw Sirius walk at an unhurried pace, obviously waiting for Remus to catch up with him but he couldn't…..

He looked over his shoulder, but there were was nothing unusual there so he quickly hurried forward, the anxiety leaving him as he realized he could get to Sirius without being interrupted.

He should have known he wouldn't be so lucky, however. Just as Sirius turned the corner, and Remus was about to, someone stepped in front of him, effectively and deliberately blocking his path. His heart dropped to his stomach as he looked up at the not very tall but certainly intimidating frame of Severus Snape. His hair was his usual oily self, falling over his eyes. He was dressed in pitch black and he didn't really cut an impressive figure. But once you looked into his eyes, you would realize why people were afraid of him. They were like bottomless pits, pitch black and emotionless. Not once in the time that Remus had known him, and he'd known him for three years now, had he showed a single emotion. It was always a sneer, or a smirk, or a snark or a raised eyebrow. But his eyes never showed anything, and perhaps that was the most intimidating part about him. No one truly knew what he was thinking.

"Well, well, well, Lupin, where are you hurrying off to?" he drawled in his usual voice. One could describe it as silky, but it wasn't even remotely similar to Sirius' whose voice always felt seductive. Snape's voice felt like thousands of bugs were crawling over you, making you want to wipe them away at the earliest.

"Snape," Remus' eyes flashed, caution and anxiety swirling in his honey amber orbs. "What do you want?"

"I merely want to know where you're staying, Lupin, why are you getting so defensive?" the slimy bastard smirked, clearly knowing what effect he had on the other man.

Remus took a deep breath, anger flashing through him at Snape's words. The fucking nerve of him. "I don't really see how that's any of your business, so..if that's all then I'll be going. Nice chatting with you." With that, he stepped to the side with the intention of going to the library and not looking back but apparently, Snape had other plans. One swift flick of his hands and all the books in Remus' hands clattered to the floor. He cursed himself for forgetting his bag today of all days, when he had most of his classes. He was late in the morning and his bag wasn't fully dry from the rainfall the previous day. He didn't have time to look for another one and so just decided to carry it all with him.

He closed his eyes in resignation, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop this. He knew from experience that if he said, or did something, it would just prolong it and make it worse but if he didn't say anything, he would be let off that much quicker.

Instead of Snape's voice, however, he heard another, more familiar and much more welcomed voice. Sirius' voice. But it wasn't how he remembered it. It was cold, steely and demanding. Remus quite thought that if he opened his eyes, Sirius would look like how he did that night he found him amidst a circle of broken glass, a letter clutched in his hand.

"What, exactly, do you think you're doing, Snape?" That voice was enough to send shivers down Remus' spine and not in the good way. It was taut with anger, ready to snap at any moment and he would not want to be in the way when it did.

He could hear more than see the sneer in Snape's voice when he replied, "None of your fucking business, Black. Fuck off."

Remus slowly opened his eyes, not able to take not knowing what was happening anymore. In front of him, Sirius had come back through the corner he had turned and Remus was right, he did look like that night. His grey eyes were blazing and his fists were tightly clenched.

Snape, on the other hand, looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. And yet, he managed to twist his lips up in a sneer.

Remus tried to get between the two of them. "Guys, guys, nothing's wrong here, how 'bout we all jus-" He was cut off by a snarl from Sirius, who turned to him.

"Remus," he spoke in a tight voice, so different from its usual airiness, which was the first red flag. The second was the fact that he said Remus, instead of Moony, which had been his preferred choice since he was christened with the name, "I saw what he did. He had no reason to and yet he toppled your books over, so don't even try." Then he turned to Snape again.

"You think you're so cool, so scary don't you? Using seventh-grade scare tactics in your third year at university?" he snarled, hate clear in his voice.

"You know nothing, Black, so I suggest you stay out of it," Snape replied, his voice laced with anger.

"I don't need to know anything to understand what just happened. I also don't need to know any more than I already do, Severus Tobias Snape," At that, Sirius moved forward until he was almost nose to hook nose with Snape.

"Don't think I'm not aware of what you did to Remus, you bastard," he hissed, "And I would advise you to not forget who you're talking to as well. I know Dumbledore likes covering your ass, but even he won't be able to stand in front of the whole Board and reasonably justify keeping a student who deals drugs on his campus while kicking the star student out when James Potter and Sirius Black, of the esteemed families, 'innocently' put in a complaint."

Snape paled, his first sign of any form of fear throughout this whole debacle, and just that one action was enough for Remus' jaw to drop. He had never seen Snape anything but completely self-assured and arrogant. This was quite a pleasant change.

"Are you threatening me, Black?" Snape managed to bite out, despite his current state.

"Label it however you want, Snivellus. If you don't stop, I'll turn it into reality," Sirius issued one final threat before backing up, his glare never lessening in intensity.

With a deep shuddering breath, Remus realized the whole corridor was silent, watching the confrontation with bated breaths. They weren't disappointed.

After a few seconds, Sirius bent down to pick up the fallen books and held them comfortably in one hand. When Remus finally realized what had happened, he tried to protest and take the books from him, but Sirius did not relent. Remus only eased away when Sirius gave him that look, the one that made him look all intimidating and commanding and did funny things to Remus. He had an inkling of what it was, but as he had asserted earlier, he didn't quite want to get into it now. Preferably, never.


I know it's cut off at a weird place but it was getting ridiculously long and I had to end it somewhere xD

Next chapter will be a direct continuation of this.