Season Seven, Round Two: That's the Day I Fell in Love with You

A/N: For the Quidditch League. Title comes from "The Bro Duet", which you should totally listen to, it's the perfect song for 99% of gay ships. Anyway...

Disclaimers and Warnings:

- I don't own Harry Potter.

Team: Puddlemere United

Position: Keeper

Position Prompt: Write about a character(s) who thrives in luxury and decadence having to live a minimalist life OR write about a high-strung character(s) learning to relax and just be.

Word Count (Minus A/N): 2204

Beta'd By: falling winter roses, GrangerBlackPotter, and ginnys01. Special thanks to ginnys01 for betaing extensively and giving tons of help, this fic is ten times better thanks to her!

"Come on, it's our last week at Hogwarts, might as well enjoy it!"

"I can't, I need to study for N.E.W.T.s," said Remus, without looking up from his textbook.

It was a warm, bright day in the June of 1978, and Sirius was trying to get his friend to go outside and get some actual sunshine for once, instead of getting it all filtered through heavy library curtains. Sirius didn't get why Remus took this stuff so seriously—sure, exams were important (not), but why would you choose to stay inside when you could be swimming in the Black Lake and tickling the Giant Squid?

"You can study later," said Sirius, tugging at the sleeve of Remus's robe. "It's beautiful outside! We should relax!"

"What," said Remus flatly, "almost as beautiful as you?"

Sirius wasn't blushing at all. Not even a little bit. "Exactly."

"That—" Remus yanked his sleeve out of Sirius's grip "—that was sarcasm."

"Whatever you say, Moony. I know that you find me quite dashing."

"Leave me alone, I need to memorize the equations behind Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

"No, Moony, please! James and Lily are being gross and Peter is on that hot date with that Hufflepuff. I'm lonely."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Remus looked up at him. "How about I—"

He flicked his wand, and his textbook flew up in front of his face, blocking Sirius's view.

"—stay here and keep studying?"

Sirius huffed, standing on his toes to look over the floating book and see Remus's irritated expression.

"How about you come out just for an hour?" said Sirius. "Then you can stay here and suffocate to death in this dust all you like."

"It's not that dusty," was Remus's immediate response. "Madam Pince does her job." He lowered his voice, glancing around. "I don't like her, but she does her job."

"Of all the things you get out of that sentence, you get the bit about dust?"

"Sirius, I have to study," Remus insisted. "You don't know what it's like, you're a Black—"

Sirius opened his mouth.

"—yes, I know, they disowned you, but still—and you're a pureblood. You don't need to get good grades on these, no one would dare turn down a job application from you. And that's even if you need a job; you're rich—you said that your Uncle Alphard gave you money—and even if he didn't, James has lots of money."

"That's—"

"But I have to get perfect grades for people to even consider me for a job. I'm a w—" Remus looked around furtively "—I have my 'furry little problem,' and no one would even look at me, never mind actually consider me for a job if they knew that and I had awful marks. I need all Os and recommendation letters from all the teachers, best case scenario, to get anywhere in life."

Sirius stared at him helplessly. Remus staying inside all day couldn't be healthy—and not even the fun kind of unhealthy, like chugging Firewhiskey or smoking or playing pranks on McGonagall. But Remus made good arguments, and Sirius, well, wasn't good at debating.

"How about you bring your books outside?" Sirius said, perking up as the thought hit him. "That way you can study, and you can get some sunshine!"

Remus opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"All right," he said, and Sirius cheered internally at the victory. "Let me just—"

Remus swished his wand, and all of his books and rolls of parchment went flying into a bookbag at Remus's feet. It was Remus's enchanted one, charmed to be bigger on the inside—for some reason Remus laughed when Sirius described it like that to him—but not endless. Because endless was illegal and Remus was boring and uptight about not breaking more laws than he needed to. And, it was featherlight!

Remus picked up the bag.

"But if I'm going out, you're carrying this," he said, shoving it at Sirius. "You said I have to relax, and I can't relax when I'm carrying a bunch of textbooks."

"Yeah, fine, alright," said Sirius, taking the bag. Again, it was charmed to be featherlight. Sure, Remus was being lazy and could easily carry it on his own, but Sirius could bring the bag if that meant Remus would come out to the grounds with him.

Except he stumbled when he grabbed the strap, and he was forced to clutch it to his chest with both hands. Remus smirked as Sirius got the bag steady.

"What the hell?" demanded Sirius. "Why is it so heavy?"

"Karma," said Remus simply, and walked out of the library. Sirius staggered along behind him.

Remus lay on the grass under the birch tree by the lake, books and papers spread out around him. The younger years running around gave him a wide berth, but Remus didn't seem to mind.

"You know," he said to Sirius, who was tossing a quaffle stolen from the broomshed up and down next to him, "I think you were right. I needed this."

"Told you," said Sirius. A thought came to him, and he grinned, chucking the quaffle into a gaggle of third-years. A brown-haired girl caught it and shot him a thumbs-up, then she and her classmates organized themselves into teams and spread out through the grounds. "You know what? We can do better."

He pulled Remus to his feet.

"What are you doing?" he said, as Sirius tugged him closer to the lake. Suddenly realization dawned in his expression. "Oh no, don't you dare—"

Remus struggled, but didn't break free of Sirius's grip as he pulled them onto the pier that students liked to dive off of into the deeper part of the lake. "Sirius, you fu—"

"Language, Moony, there are children!"

And with that, Sirius pushed him into the lake, jumping in after him.

He opened his eyes underwater, and saw Remus staring back at him. Remus looked almost ethereal, with his robes billowing around him and his hair floating out like a halo and the almost eerie green light coming down through the lake water. Sirius wanted to swim closer, maybe k—

Okay, enough gay thoughts!

Both of them shot to the surface, gasping for breath. Remus's hair was flat against his head, heavy with water, and Sirius brushed his own hair away from his face, where it stuck to his back somewhat uncomfortably.

"I hate you," Remus got out, despite his half-grin. "I absolutely despise you, Sirius Black."

"Aw, I lo—"

Sirius froze, and began to sink a bit, before remembering that oh yeah, he had to tread water, that was a thing that stopped you from drowning.

"Sorry?" said Remus, noticing his hesitation.

"I was saying," said Sirius, shaking his head to clear it, "I love you too, Moony."

Remus rolled his eyes, and was it just Sirius, or was his face tinged red?

"I'm going back inside," Remus declared, beginning to swim back toward the shore. "I'm going to change, and then I'm going to study. I've had enough sunshine for today, thank you very much."

"No, Moony, come on," said Sirius, following behind. "I'll put a drying charm! Stay!"

"Nope, I'm done," said Remus. They got to shore, and Remus stumbled to his feet before emerging from the water and shaking his hair. (He looked unfairly hot, and not just because of the weather.) "Bye!"

"Okay, okay, how about this?" said Sirius. He dried them off with a charm—let it be said that Sirius Black wasn't completely incompetent—and grabbed Remus's arm. "You stay outside. I'll help you study."

Just the thought made him want to groan, but it was studying with Remus! It wouldn't be one hundred percent boring!

"You, help me study," Remus repeated, smirking. It was the kind of smirk he wore when he was trying not to laugh—Sirius almost wanted to be offended. "Right."

"No, seriously."

"Ha, ha, very funny."

"Wha—oh. I wasn't making a pun!"

"Yeah, and my name is Bambina Bergancia and I'm the lead kazooist for the Weird Sisters."

Sirius opened his mouth indignantly, but Remus continued.

"All right, fine, I'll stay, but you…don't dump me in the lake again. I won't take up your offer on helping me study 'cause you'll just be a distraction, but I'll stay."

"Done!"

They went back to the tree by the lake, where Remus's books and notes were—miraculously—still spread out. Remus took a textbook, then scooted back to lean against the trunk of the birch tree and began to read. Sirius fidgeted, and looked around, where the group of third-years seemed to be playing some Muggle sport with the quaffle; it was like Quidditch, but on the ground, and without bludgers and a snitch. When one of the players noticed him looking—it was the same girl from earlier, he realized—she mouthed something at him that looked suspiciously like "Just go ahead and shag him already!"

Sirius looked away quickly, blushing deep, as one of the girl's teammates yelled at her to focus on the game. He turned his gaze back to Remus; Remus's tongue poked out in concentration as he read, and it was, objectively, the most adorable thing ever. And his hair caught the sunlight at this angle, making it all shiny and gold, and Sirius was very highly extremely gay.

"Sirius?" Remus said, snapping Sirius out of his reverie. Sirius's face flushed even redder, and he hoped that Remus hadn't noticed him staring. "Could you pass me that ream of notes over there?"

"What the hell is a ream?"

"A sheaf. A stack. Just, those notes, over there."

"Oh, right."

Sirius handed Remus the notes. He jolted back slightly when their fingers brushed, which was stupid, because they were best friends and their hands touched all the time. Never mind that his feelings had veered sharply away from "best friends" at least two years ago, maybe more.

They were silent for a few more minutes, until Remus tossed his textbook to the grass, where it fell with a surprisingly loud thump. Remus buried his face in his hands.

"I can't focus!" he moaned. "I'm reading this page over and over again and taking in none of it!"

"See, Moony, this is why you need to relax," said Sirius. He swept his wand over the textbooks and notes, gathering them into a stack and directing it into the book bag. "How about we, uh, just take a walk?"

"Wouldn't that be too 'boring' for you?" said Remus, not looking up.

"No!" said Sirius, pushing at Remus's shoulder. "Come on, just one lap around the castle. Maybe that'll clear your head a bit."

Remus sighed, shoulders slumping. "Fine. Might as well." He took the hand Sirius extended to him, pulling himself to his feet. "Are we just going to le—"

"Your books won't be stolen," said Sirius. "What would anyone want with a textbook? And anyways, I can always just buy you a replacement."

"Sirius—"

"Come on, Moony, just relax. If you come with me I'll give you my stash of chocolate bars that Uncle Alphard sent me from that trip to Belgium he took."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!"

Sirius and Remus walked by the border of the Forbidden Forest, talking and laughing. Remus seemed to be finally loosening up.

"Stop it, Sirius, that pun was awful," Remus gasped through his choked laughs. "Please, I can't breathe."

"No, no, next one!" Sirius wracked his brains, desperate to keep Remus laughing. He loved the sound. It was absolutely adorable—he could probably listen to it forever. "Uh, what do you say to water after it's boiled? You will be mist. Get it? Ooh, or uh, how do you organize a galactic party? You planet!"

"That was terrible!" Remus managed to get out. He covered his mouth with his hands; Sirius wish he'd remove them, because it muffled Remus's voice.

So before Sirius knew what his hands were doing, he pulled Remus's hands away, and didn't let go. Remus gave him a strange look, tinged with…something else. Was he blushing?

"What are you doing?" Remus whispered.

Sirius dropped Remus's hands like he'd been burned.

"Sorry," he scrambled to say. "I—don't know what—"

"No," Remus said over him, "it's fine, you're—"

They both went silent. Then they spoke up again at the exact same time.

"You can go ahead—"

"Uh, say what you—"

They both shut up again.

"I, um," said Remus finally. "I think there's something I should tell you."

"Me too," Sirius said, quiet.

"You can go first," said Remus.

Sirius shook his head. "No, you can go."

"At the same time?"

"Okay. Um, on three?"

"Yeah. Three, two, one…"

Remus and Sirius both spoke.

"I've liked you since fourth year."

"I've had a crush on you since we were sixteen."

"What?"

"What?"

They blinked at each other incredulously.

"Are you serious?" said Remus.

Sirius grinned. "I'm always Sirius."

Remus turned away, even despite his face breaking into a wide smile. "Nope, my crush is gone. That was terrible. I thought you were done with Sirius/serious puns."

"Never," Sirius declared.

There was a pause.

"So," said Sirius, "are we going to, like…"

Remus rolled his eyes, then stepped forward to press a soft kiss against Sirius's lips.