Grah. Not a great response for the last chapter. I HOPE THIS IS BETTER!
Lily pulled away anxiously, looking at James' face nervously. His eyes remained closed as he took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Well, say something, Potter." Lily finally snapped, her nerves rising to the surface as she chewed her nail. "Because frankly, I don't know if I just made the biggest mistake."
"You didn't." James' eyes stayed closed as he stored away every single sensual detail from the kiss. Opening his eyes, he dipped his head, tangling his hands into her hair as he placed a soft kiss onto her lips.
After pulling away, Lily looked up at him once more. "This doesn't mean we're officially a couple. I'm just giving you a trial period."
"That's all I ask." James replied, dipping to kiss her once more before his mind cleared and the bet floated to the forefront of his thoughts. "Lily, as much as I'd love to stay and keep kissing you, I have – er – Quidditch practice. Really soon." Placing one final kiss on her lips, he started running, before dipping back and kissing her once more.
"Go, you idiot." Lily stated, rolling her eyes as James took her advice and immediately ran off.
Whilst James tore through the castle in search of Remus, the sneakily hidden werewolf lay in the Shrieking Shack, a dastardly good looking pureblood still firmly attached to his lips.
The two of them rolled across the bed, until Remus was the one straddling Sirius. Grinning at this small victory, the smile rolled off his face a second later, as Sirius rolled them over again, straight onto the hard floor. The wind was blown out of Remus for a moment, as a cloud of dust surrounded them, and Sirius began attempting to apologise.
"Don't worry." Remus grinned, wrapping an arm around the back of Sirius' neck and pulling him into a sharp kiss. "It was definitely worth it to have you straddling me."
"I bet." Sirius grinned. "So, how does it feel to be in the arms of a sex god?" Remus grinned, before pushing the pureblood off him.
"I wouldn't know. Do you know where I could find one?" Remus grinned, smirking as he realised his school shirt was half unbuttoned. Pointing at the open shirt, he nodded. "You are very subtle, I'll give you that."
"You're easy to distract." Sirius grinned, whining in disappointment as Remus re-buttoned his shirt.
"I've got to go to the library. Homework." Remus shrugged, leaning down to place another kiss on Sirius' pouting lips. "However, we can continue this later, I assure you."
"Promise?" Sirius asked, a wicked smile covering his lips. "Because I am desperate to know how this ends."
"Oh, you know." Remus smirked, looking to the floor as he tucked his shirt in. "See you later, Padfoot." Remus smiled, grabbing his books and walking calmly out of the shack.
Sirius virtually floated up to the dormitory, collapsing onto Remus' bed contentedly. He lay in content silence for a good ten minutes, before rising onto his elbows as he heard the door open, seeing a red head of hair pop into view.
"Evans!" Sirius yelled as he spotted her, too happy to let her dampen his joy. The red head jumped a mile in the air as his voice shot through her, and he waved as her eyes fell upon him. "Is there a reason you're in the boys dorms, poppet?"
"No." Lily stated defensively, stood still in the middle of the room. Shaking off her shock, she relaxed a little. "No. I was just looking for… Never mind." She sighed, looking around the room once more.
"No." Sirius climbed off the bed, walking to where Lily stood with her arms firmly crossed. "I know that look anywhere. Miss Evans, you little minx, you look thoroughly snogged."
"I do not!" Lily declared defensively, outraged at his comment.
"Oh, you most certainly do, my dear. And, for my own sake as well as his, I sure as hell hope it's a certain Mr Potter you've been romancing." Sirius stated. "He's so depressing when you're with another man, it's really not fun to be around."
"Just go away Black." Lily huffed, storming towards the door, but Sirius ran around, bodily blocking off the door.
"Now, Lily, if you're going to romance Mr Potter, you're going to have to get used to me. Package deal, you know." Sirius grinned, leaning against the door frame cockily. "Sucks to be you, huh?"
"Most definitely. Now get the bloody hell out of my way!" Lily thumped him in the chest, before he grabbed her arms and pushed her to a seated position on the nearest bed, looking at her with sudden inquisition.
"Evans?"
"Yes?" She huffed exasperatedly in reply, looking at Sirius in annoyance as he glanced away, brow furrowed.
"She said she was looking for someone." He muttered to himself, before turning his attention back to Lily. "It was James who thoroughly snogged you, right?"
"If I answer will you let me leave?" Sirius nodded. "Yes, it was James, okay? Why else do you think I'd be up here, to gloat? Now, will you please leave me to my embarrassment?" Lily huffed, but Sirius seemed to ignore her, instead looking over to James and Remus' beds in the hope of a revelation.
"Something's not right." He stated as Lily stood. Lily stared at him for a moment, before sighing and sitting back on the bed.
"What's not right?" Sirius turned to face her, brow furrowed.
"If you gave Prongs anything, even a kiss, he should be hanging to your shoes so tightly you'd be at risk of him pulling off a foot." Sirius retorted, pacing the dormitory. "Come to think of it, Moony made a pretty hasty exit, too…"
"Moony?" "Isn't that what you guys call Remus?" Lily looked at him for a moment, before her jaw dropped. "Oh Merlin."
"Huh?"
"You're one to talk about looking thoroughly snogged!" Lily exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "It's not much of a surprise that you turned the other way, your promiscuity meant you'd eventually run out of willing girls, but Remus…"
"What – I don't –"
"Oh don't play dumb with me, Black! You're blushing more than I am!"
"Whatever. At least I picked the prettier Marauder." Sirius stuck his tongue out, before coming to a standstill and rolling his eyes. "Oh God, don't tell James I said that, he'll accuse me of making Remus more appealing to you or some other such nonsense… Look, we need to focus. Prongs and Moons are clearly up to something."
"Why must someone always be up to something, Sirius?"
"Look at it logically for a moment, Evans. If they weren't up to something, then you and I would not look thoroughly snogged, we would be in the process of being thoroughly snogged."
"James told me that he had Quidditch training. I came up here in the hopes I might catch him before he went to the pitch. I'm sure Remus has an equally valid reason for disappearing so quickly."
"Lily. If there was Quidditch practice right now, where do you think I'd be?" Sirius asked, beginning to pace the dormitory once more. "And Remus told me he was going to the library as he had some homework left, but its Friday and it's Remus, he always does his homework on the day we receive it, so he always has weekends free for us. He hasn't been given any homework today, he's only had classes with me and we didn't get any homework." Sirius huffed, turning to face Lily. She wrinkled her nose a few times, the beginnings of a smile on her lips, causing Sirius' eyes to narrow. "What?"
"You know exactly how Remus spends his weekends." Sirius shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Sirius Black, you are so smitten!"
"What, because I know how Remus spends his weekends?"
"No, because you care how Remus spends his weekends. You care about what days he has free to focus on you."
Sirius looked squarely at her for a moment, before shaking his head in disbelief. "You're such a girl, Evans."
"Are you trying to say you're not smitten?"
Sirius stood still, opening his mouth as if to speak twice, before closing and biting his lip. Finally, he raised his hand, forefinger and thumb positioned inches apart. "Maybe a little bit." He conceded. "Are you going to try and deny that you're falling for my best friend?"
"I daresay, if I can get rid of your influence, he might stand a chance of becoming a half decent human being." Lily smiled, avoiding the question. "God only knows how monstrous you'll make poor Remus."
Sirius blinked at Lily's choice of adjective, before shaking his head and moving towards James' trunk. "They're up to something, I know it."
Lily's eyes widened as he swung open what was clearly James' trunk. "What on earth are you looking for, Sirius?" Lily asked, going forward and tugging on his arm. "This is a complete invasion of James' privacy."
"One thing you will need to learn, as the future Mrs Potter, is that James keeps a written record of everything. And I wouldn't have to invade his privacy if I thought he'd just give it to me."
"How are you going to find whatever you're looking for?" Lily asked as she approached the trunk, scoffing in disgust as she spotted a dead rat in the depths of the disorganised trunk. "There must be a thousand old parchments in there!"
"Trust me, when I see it, I'll know." Sirius stated, continuing his search through the piles of parchment. "Aha!" Sirius exclaimed, holding the tattered parchment aloft, before lowering it to eye level. "Those cheeky bastards!"
"What?" Lily leaned over his shoulder to read. "Covenant between Esq. James Harold Bartholomew Potter and Dr. Remus Jadoki Lupin – Remus' middle name isn't Jadoki, is it?" Sirius shrugged, eyes not leaving the parchment. "You don't even know your best friend and lover's middle name?" Lily exclaimed disbelievingly.
"I know it begins with a J." Sirius retorted. "And you didn't even mention the inclusion of 'Bartholomew' in James' name, so you can't be too sharp on knowledge of your new lover, either… just shut up and read on."
The two read in silence for a moment, before Lily exploded once more. "WHAT? Give me that parchment, I'm going to shove it so far up James Potter's arse that he won't walk straight for a month!" Lily tried to dive across Sirius, but he held her back, his eyes never leaving the parchment as a conspiring grin spread across his face.
"Darling Lily, I do believe we can use this little piece of gold to our advantage." Sirius grinned, pointing to one sentence and turning to watch Lily's reaction. As a similar grin spread to her own face, Sirius began to stand. "Lets go have some fun."
xx
Remus walked through the castle calmly, searching the halls for James. Though he had felt bad for lying to Sirius about the homework, he needed to tell James to prepare to bare all as soon as possible, to give the boy time to prepare (and worry).
Fifteen minutes later, he huffed tiredly. He had searched nearly all of James' usual hideouts, so there was only one place to check. Approaching the fat lady, he opened the portrait just as he heard a voice behind him.
"Moony!" James yelled, a sweet victorious smile plastered upon his face.
"Prongs!" Remus grinned back, entering the common room slightly as James followed him.
"I won the bet!" They both exclaimed at the same time, before freezing. "What?"
"No, Remus, you can't have won the bet," James started, shocked. "Because I won the bet."
"You kissed Lily?"
"Actually, Lily kissed me." James grinned at the memory, before focussing once more. "And whilst I know Sirius was on his way to kiss you – you can thank me for that later, by the way – there's no way he did it in the time between leaving me and me kissing Lily."
"James. Its Sirius. He doesn't waste any time." Remus grinned. James winced slightly, before his smile returned.
"I don't want to know the details, thanks. When did you kiss Sirius?"
"About 20 minutes ago!" James' face fell a little, before he gained composure once more.
"Well, I kissed Lily 21 minutes ago, so I win!"
"Oh, as if." Remus scoffed.
"Fine. First one to bed their partner!" James exclaimed, ready to run and find Lily immediately before Remus grabbed his arm tightly
"Lets not." Remus stated, as James started muttering about how the werewolf was only refusing as he knew he wouldn't win. "James, I'm the one whose partner is Padfoot. Trust me, if I whistled now I could bed him in the next 5 minutes." James opened his mouth to protest, before Remus raised a hand to cut him off. "Look, this is easy enough to solve; the kisses must have happened within seconds of one another, so I vote we call it a tie and forget about this whole mess."
"A tie you say?"
"A tie says I." Remus nodded, offering a hand to shake. James pushed his hand out to meet the werewolf's, but a second before there was contact, a voice reverberated through the common room.
"Moony!" Sirius grinned as he flew down the dormitory stairs, James and Remus retracting their hands at the speed of light as he threw himself at Remus. It took all Remus' wolfy strength to keep the pair upright as Sirius barrelled into him, lips colliding in a fierce embrace that made Remus feel soft at the knees (though far too hard in other places, considering the public location…)
"Ahem." James coughed from behind the pair. Remus pulled away, eliciting a light moan of disapproval from Sirius, before he continued to place open mouthed kisses along the werewolf's jaw line. Nipping a particularly sensitive area, Sirius grinned as Remus moaned quietly. Remus looked at James, biting his lower lip as he spotted the pink, vaguely embarrassed look on his friend's face, before he shifted across to look at Lily's mildly amused, yet (for some reason unbeknownst to him) very annoyed face, and then around the common room, realising they were far from alone in the silent common room. "Merlin, if I have to deal with this sort of sex show on a daily basis, some unforgivables are going to end up flying." James muttered, causing Sirius to pull away from the now squirming werewolf with a grin.
"James, I know you want a part of this, but using the imperious to get me and Rem into bed with you is going a bit far." Sirius grinned, hugging Remus fervently.
"You wish." James grinned, before turning to the other occupants of the room. "Okay, everyone, back about your business." The common room remained frozen, everyone staring at Sirius and Remus with mouths agape. "Now!" James yelled, causing the students to jump back into action.
"Black." Lily called, hands firmly on her hips. "Can we get on with this now?"
Sirius sighed, untangling himself from Remus and walking to stand by Lily. "I suppose." He conceded, turning to Remus and James. "Gentlemen, before we were graced with your presence, I daresay Lily and I were having a quiet discussion." The slightly evil, unbridled excitement in Sirius' eyes, along with the amused, calculating glint in Lily's didn't bode well for James nor Remus, and the two glanced at each other with wide, worried eyes. "It would probably be best if we moved to a more private location…" Remus and James both gulped what may well have been their last fresh air, before nodding and ascending the proffered stairs.
"What the hell is going on?" Remus hissed back to James, climbing the stairs as slowly as possible.
"I have no idea, but Lily looks torn between killing me and snogging me senseless." James whispered back. "At least she's considering not killing me, though; that's a start, isn't it?"
The pair reached their dormitory far too quickly, turning as they watched Lily and Sirius enter behind them, before locking the door. Both of their expressions had changed on the walk upstairs; Lily looked as if she was struggling to contain a grin, whilst Sirius had a blank face, except for the small twinkle in his eye.
"Gentlemen." Sirius stated, motioning to the still unoccupied bed of Peter Pettigrew, who remained holed up in the Hospital Wing. The pair sat down gingerly, very confused and ever so slightly worried. Brandishing the parchment with a flourish, Remus and James both winced as they recognised the parchment in Sirius' hand.
"Padfoot…" Remus started, before a sharp look from Lily silenced him.
"Lily and I were talking innocently, when this piece of parchment happened to fall upon our feet. Given the fact your names were both on it, we thought it would be best to wait for you two to be present before we began reading." Sirius grinned, unrolling the parchment slowly. "Covenant between Esq. James Harold Bartholomew Potter and the rather fetching Dr. Remus Jadoki Lupin." Sirius looked up, grinning. "Oh, that's you two, isn't it?" James looked like he was about to be sick, whilst Remus looked torn between denying everything and confessing.
"The aforementioned parties will compete for the affections of certain persons. I wonder whose affections they might be fighting for?" Sirius questioned, pausing to look aside pensively. "Lets keep reading, shall we? Something about Beedle the Baird… Oh! Here we are! "Esq. Potters' affections shall be aimed towards the emerald beauty, Lilabeth Regina Evans-Potter. Oh, oh that's you, isn't it?" Sirius said, feigning ignorance as he looked at Lily. "Whilst Dr Lupin shall romance the one, the right honourable, the gorgeous Sirius Black. Well, this is embarrassing." Sirius smirked.
"We can explain." Remus stated nervously.
"Oh, Rem, don't you worry, I think this parchment explains all." Sirius grinned, eyes leaving the parchment so he could wink at Remus. Handing the parchment over to Lily, he wrapped an arm round her shoulder, leaning on her lightly. "You know what my favourite bit is, Evans?"
"No, Black." Lily replied, with a self-satisfied smirk covering her face. "What is your favourite bit?"
"The part where it says, and I believe this is verbatim, The losing punishment shall also apply if either of the other participants find out about said agreement." Sirius said, not even bothering to hide his delight as he looked at his two friends. "Oh! Lily, aren't you and I the 'other participants'?"
"I believe we are, Sirius." Remus and James both closed their eyes, trying to make Sirius and Lily's almost identical malicious grins disappear.
"How awkward for you two." Sirius scrunched his nose, shiny white teeth still on display as he walked towards the bed, dropping his arm from Lily's shoulders as he reached the bed. Standing with his feet either side of Remus', he grinned widely, taking advantage of Remus' closed eyes and leaning down, licking a long stripe up Remus' face.
"Sirius!" Both Lily and Remus exclaimed, as Sirius rolled Remus backwards onto the bed. James opened his eyes at the exclamations, before firmly closing them when he saw what was occurring beside him.
"Oh God, my eyes!" He exclaimed, gagging.
"Can't you wait two more minutes, Sirius?" Lily asked exasperatedly, watching the pair of them with veiled interest.
"I've already waited far too long." Sirius replied, nuzzling into Remus contentedly. "They know that first thing tomorrow they will be thoroughly punished for their little bet. So its time for me to give Remus his own little punishment."
"You disgust me." James stated, one hand covering his eyes as Lily grabbed his spare hand, pulling him towards the door.
"Unless you want to be further disgusted, I suggest you find somewhere else to sleep tonight!" Sirius called, resting his elbows either side of Remus' face. "Hi."
"Hi." Remus grinned, pulling Sirius into another mind numbing kiss.
"Am I going to get lots of silent treatment?" James winced as soon as they were out the door, smiling at Lily optimistically as she turned around. Looking down at the girl who held his heart, his smile widened as he realised she wasn't about to kill him.
"You're lucky." Lily stated, climbing back up to James' step. "I think tomorrow's punishment will be more than adequate. And besides, if the sounds emitting from in there are anything to go by, Remus is receiving no more punishment, so I don't see why you should." Lily conceded, nodding towards the dormitory.
James' smile seemed to widen even further as they descended the stairs. "You're softening!"
"No I am not!" Lily replied, less heatedly than usual.
"You are!" James exclaimed, picking her up from behind and spinning her. "You're virtually putty in my hands!" He grinned as they entered the common room.
"You're doing yourself no favours here."
"That doesn't matter. You like me too much to do anything!" James smiled overconfidently. "Lily and mee, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-oomph." James sang, before Lily shut him up in the most effective way. Pulling out of the kiss, she put her hands on her hips, watching him gape like a fish in an attempt to recover.
"May I suggest you stay quiet in the future, or I won't shut you up in such an appealing manner." Lily stated, climbing up the girl's set of stairs. "See you in the morning, Potter. I'm thoroughly anticipating your appearance at breakfast."
"I bet you are, you beautiful pervert!" James grinned, causing her to spin and raise a groomed eyebrow.
"Pardon, Potter?"
"Er, you're a beautiful princess?"
"Better." Lily conceded, continuing her assent.
Spinning to face the common room, James examined the occupants, who were frozen into shocked silence for the second time that evening. "You can clap." They sat still for another moment, and James frowned, raising his wand and charming them into a standing ovation. After basking in the applause for a few minutes, James sighed, waving regally as he exited the common room, oblivious to the gorgeous shade of green that Lily had charmed his skin as he skipped through the castle joyfully.
*Squeeee*
It's almost over, one chapter to go! So now is the time to pull your fingers out, people, and review! This is probably going to be my last multichapter fic for a while, so thank you all so much for seeing it through with me, I LOVE YOU GUYS.
