July 28th, 1977, 1:52a.m., a shabby but cozy house in London

Remus

When Sirius, James, and Peter arrived at his house earlier that day – well, technically yesterday, going by the clock –, Remus had thought they would play a few rounds of poker with his Exploding Snap deck, or a board game, perhaps mess around with James's miniature Quidditch set. He certainly did not expect the four of them to be huddled under the same blanket, Sirius hugging his arm, Peter completely hidden under Sirius's shirt, and James screaming and grabbing Remus's other arm every five seconds while watching a film.

He didn't really think Carrie was that frightening anyway.

"HOLY SHIT!" James shouted, for the eighth time by Remus's count, Sirius yelped and ducked his head under Remus's chin, Peter whimpered even though he couldn't even see the screen and Carrie's arm sticking out of the earth.

Remus looked at them. "What is wrong with you," he said.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" James replied in a shout. Remus was made glad for the seventeenth time that he had put Silencing Charms on his walls before starting the movie. "DO YOU NOT SEE THAT?"

"It's just a hand," Remus said with a shrug. "It's not real."

"Are you sure?" Sirius murmured. His scruff was tickling Remus's neck.

"It's all completely fake," Remus laughed. "It's a movie."

"I don't want to watch anymore," Peter mumbled.

"You stopped watching half an hour ago," Remus reminded him.

"I don't want to watch anymore!" Sirius said.

"YOU'RE NOT!" James shouted.

The credits started to roll and Remus pulled off the blanket to get up; Peter immediately screamed and James grabbed it away from him. "HOW DARE YOU TAKE OUR SAFETY NET AWAY THIS IS THE ONLY THING BETWEEN US AND THE DEMON."

"If you'll let me get up, I'll turn it off," Remus told him.

"No, Moony, don't leave me!" Sirius begged, grabbing his arm.

Remus slipped out of his grip and crossed to the small television set and VCR that his dad had helped him move into his room. "I'm guessing we shouldn't watch The Exorcist then."

"EXORCIST? YOU MEAN MUGGLES KNOW WHAT THAT IS?"

"Put on a kid's movie or something," Peter whimpered, still hidden under Sirius's shirt. Sirius hugged him tightly and patted his head.

"It's okay, Wormy, I'll protect you," Sirius murmured to him.

"Stop taking the mickey, Sirius," Peter said, flapping his hands at him, but he didn't pull his head out from beneath Sirius's shirt.

"I'm not taking the mickey!" Sirius insisted. "I'll protect you, you protect James, James'll protect Moony, Moony'll protect me. 'Course, I don't really trust James to protect Moony properly, so I'll protect him too."

"Oh, shut up, Sirius," James said, finally lowering his voice from a shriek to normal conversation tones.

"What? No one could properly protect my Moony but me!"

Remus rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the flush creeping up his cheeks. He stopped the tape, then hit the rewind button; he crossed his arms over his chest and stared at it while he waited.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"Waiting for it to rewind so I can put it away," Remus said. "It's always a pain in the ass when someone doesn't rewind a tape completely before they put it away."

"What does that mean?" Peter asked.

"The film has to rewind from the end back to the beginning," Remus explained.

"I thought that I was the pain in your ass?" Sirius asked.

James burst out laughing, then choked on a mouthful of popcorn he'd just eaten, Peter whipped his head out from Sirius's shirt to look at him with an expression of "are you fucking kidding me", and Remus turned to Sirius with a raised eyebrow. Sirius merely shrugged.

"You're the biggest pain in my ass possible," Remus promised him, which made Sirius grin.

"As long as I'm the only thing in your ass."

James legitimately choked and Peter clapped a hand to his forehead; Remus raised the other eyebrow at him. "If you don't watch your tongue, Sirius Black, you will not be going near my ass every again."

Sirius saluted. "Yes, sir!"

Peter reached across Sirius and thumped James on the back, because he was still choking. Remus heard the VCR stop and turned around to stop the tape, then ejected it, quickly putting his hand over the tape flap to catch the VHS before the VCR spat it out across the floor. He put the tape in its sleeve, then set it on top of the VCR next to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist. He hadn't been joking earlier when he said they shouldn't watch it. Even he got a bit uncomfortable during it. Remus started back towards the bed where James was spitting popcorn kernels onto the floor and both Peter and Sirius were hitting his back, stopping to pick up and put away Jaws when he accidentally kicked it. His mother was quite the collector of horror films.

"So, I know Sirius is sleeping with Moony tonight anyway," James said, having cleared his airways finally, "but I left my teddy bear at home because I didn't expect to be terrified by a teenage girl in dress robes."

"It's called a prom dress," Remus corrected.

"Why?" James said.

"I dunno, it's an American thing."

"Peter can be your teddy bear," Sirius said. "Instead of me being his. Because Moony is my teddy bear."

Peter pouted and released Sirius. James held out his arms, and Peter shuffled over Sirius to huddle under the blanket beside James.

"That's everyone teddy bear-ed up," Remus said. "I assume this means you want to go to bed?"

"Yep," Sirius said. "I want to see if I can fuck you quietly enough that James doesn't notice." Remus legitimately flushed, while James gave a cry if indignation. "I'm joking, I'm joking!" Sirius said hastily, ducking James's fist.

"I thought you were serious?" Peter said, poking his head out from beneath the blanket innocently.

James stopped trying to hit Sirius in favor of laughing again; Remus staggered back to the bed and collapsed onto it, clutching a stitch in his side, all the while Peter looked quite pleased with himself. Sirius gave Peter a sharp high five for the master level of punception he had achieved.

"I trained you well," Sirius said.

Peter beamed. He then snuggled back beneath the blanket, and promptly began to snore.

"Hey, come on, this is my bed!" Remus protested. "It's bad enough I have to share with Sirius, get your own bed!"

"Bad enough?" Sirius spluttered.

James rolled his eyes while Peter got up, grumbling; he wrapped himself up in the blanket then climbed the ladder to the top bunk and resumed his snoring.

"So, I do actually have to share with Peter?" James said.

"Unless you'd like to sleep on the floor," Remus told him. "Get off my bed."

James huffed and stood up; Sirius stretched out and winked at Remus, who flushed again. James pointed an accusatory finger at Sirius, wagging it at him with a scowl. "No fucking Remus." Sirius responded by pointing an accusatory middle finger at James, who ignored him. "This bed will shake and I will know if you're breaking dorm rules."

"We're not in the dorm!" Sirius protested.

"It is still not fair!" James insisted, climbing the ladder to join Peter.

"You're not fair!"

"You're not fair! You're gay!"

"Bisexual!"

"Still dating your roommate," James said. "Totally not fair."

Sirius echoed James's huff as Remus joined him on the bed. He opened his arms and Remus settled in beside him, resting his head on his chest. Sirius pressed a kiss to his forehead and Remus shut his eyes.

"I wasn't joking when I said you were my teddy bear," Sirius murmured.

Remus opened one eye. "Am I spooning you or not?"

"You are. Just warning you."

Remus rolled his eyes and draped an arm over his chest, hugging him quickly. "It's fine, Sirius."

"Did you put the silencing charms on the whole room or just the bed?"

"The whole room," James answered.

"Oh, shut up!" Sirius snapped.

Remus sighed. It was going to be a very long night.