Author's Note: Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season 8. Team: Puddlemere United. Round: Practice. Position: Chaser 3; prompt: Leisure- Free time. Extra prompts: (dialogue) "I let you borrow it like a month ago." (word) belief (dialogue) "I'm trying to apologize." Word count: 1506

For anyone outside the league reading this, this is mostly Shifting Lines canon compliant and while it will not be a scene in the story it may inspire a scene for the story. I say mostly because this has Remus and Sirius not together yet somewhat close to the OWLs and I am not going to say whether they're actually together or not at this point in Shifting Lines. ;)

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All Remus wanted when he walked into his dorm was to collapse into bed and rest after a long, exhausting day of classes and homework. However, he knew that wouldn't be in the cards before he even reached the door. He could hear crashing sounds, and arguing. He hesitated outside the door, hand on the doorknob for a second; then, with a sigh, he pushed the door open to find a huge mess everywhere. They had been tearing the dorm completely apart!

"—ISN'T MY FAULT!" Sirius was yelling.

"I LET YOU BORROW IT LIKE A MONTH AGO!" James yelled right back.

Remus rubbed his forehead as he crept in, trying to sneak past them. Sirius whirled around immediately, practically pouncing on him. "Moony!" His fingers curled around Remus's wrist tightly. "Did I or did I not give Prongs his stupid jacket back? The red leather one?"

Remus blinked a few times, trying to wriggle free. "I don't know, I don't keep track of your stuff!" He finally managed to yank his arm free, stumbling towards his bed. "Did you perhaps leave it at home?"

James shook his head. "No, I let Sirius borrow it and now it's gone."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "It's not my fault. I gave it back. You lost it."

Remus slung his satchel onto his bed then plopped down, gladly kicking his shoes off. "Where's Pete?"

"Turned into a rat, hiding under his bed," James grumbled as he began going through his trunk again.

Remus drew his legs up, considering helping out for a moment, then just fell backwards, relishing in the feeling of resting. He was supposed to have a nice, relaxing evening to unwind. He deserved it! Most his homework assignments were done and he didn't have any prefect duties. Was it too much to ask for an hour of quiet?

He flinched as James swore loudly, throwing something. Apparently it was too much. He rolled onto his stomach, pulling his pillow over his head. "Just use the damn Summoning Spell!" he snapped. Both friends fell absolutely silent. Remus peeked out from under the pillow, glaring at them. "Seriously? Neither of you thought of doing that? Oh for Merlin's sake!"

"He just blew up at me," mumbled Sirius as he got his wand out. "I was too busy trying to defend myself to think. Accio red jacket!" He flicked his wand and the jacket came flying off the top of James's canopy bed. Sirius caught it, then fixated a glare at James who began smiling sheepishly.

"Oops," he said, taking a few nervous steps over. "I—ah—er… haha… imagine that."

"Yeah." Sirius threw the jacket furiously at James. "Imagine that!"

There was a quiet popping sound from under Peter's bed and he poked his head out, looking rather miserable. "Are you guys done now?"

"Um." James fiddled with the jacket in his hands, shifting from foot to foot. "Yeah. Sirius—"

"I need to use the bathroom." Sirius stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him as he muttered about James.

Peter scrambled out from under his bed while Remus just put his head back under his pillow. James just stood in the middle of the mess looking miserable. "You did let him borrow it," Peter said, patting James's back. "It's… um, understandable why you thought…" He trailed off, then pulled a face as he realized he didn't want to take sides.

"I guess with exams coming up I just…" James tossed his jacket onto his bed then sat down on Remus's bed. Remus closed his eyes, wishing he had just holed up in some hidden passage for his peace and quiet.

"We've all been pretty antsy," Peter agreed, also sitting on Remus's bed. "I think the teachers are purposely trying to torture us. I still have so many essays to write. I don't know how I'm gonna get done. I still have a few feet to write by Monday!"

"Same!" James flopped backwards across Remus's legs. "Reeeemuuuusss! Could you help me?"

Remus counted to five so he could hopefully sound calm as he replied. "I'm really tired tonight, guys. The full's tomorrow and classes were very tiring today. I was just really hoping to spend this evening relaxing." He hated pushing them away. Since they had done so much for him he was usually more than happy to help them with whatever they needed but he was too much on edge tonight.

"Ohhh Merlin, I'm so sorry, Remy, I completely forgot," James said, twisting so he could rub Remus's back.

Remus bit back a reply of wishing he could forget about the full moon. "It's all right. You should probably go apologize to Sirius though, not me. I think you really upset him."

James climbed off the bed, brushing himself off. "Yeah. You can get some rest, okay?"

Remus couldn't help but snort. "How magnanimous of you."

"I know you're just using nerdy words to insult me so I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that," James said as he swept out of the dorm.

Once alone, Peter explained to Remus that Sirius had indeed escalated the entire fight. James had been asking about the jacket, and Sirius got very testy and defensive over it. More than he should have been (in Peter's opinion). "Hopefully it's over now," he said as he went back to his own bed leaving Remus to savor the quiet.

He knew it had been pretty crazy to go for OWLs in every elective, but he still stood by his decision, even if it meant having hardly any spare time at all. When he did, it typically ended up like it had tonight: James and Sirius causing a ruckus. Although this was different from the normal loudness, what with them arguing instead of joking around. He believed Peter saying it had been mostly Sirius's fault since it seemed like Sirius was losing his temper more and more often lately. He almost always seemed to be in a grouchy mood. It made Remus a little worried sometimes; he didn't want anything pulling their group apart. He just wished Sirius would talk about whatever was going on.

Remus had nearly fallen asleep when the door banged open again. They were arguing again. Or still. Peter gave a slight squeak, cringing back on his bed, while Remus went back under his pillow to block out the sounds of their raising voices.

"Look, I—I'm trying to apologize here, but you're just shutting me down before—" James was saying, but Sirius cut him off.

"I said it's fine but you're not listening to me!"

"You're not fine!"

There was a thudding sound, probably Sirius kicking something. Remus sat up, watching his friends now. "I'm angry that you didn't believe me! James, I've never lied to you—"

"I never said you lied to me! I just—I only meant that I thought you still had it!"

Peter cast a glance at Remus who gave a helpless shrug in return. Neither of them knew what to do to ease the situation.

Sirius folded his arms, jaw clenching as he stared down at James. "Except you didn't believe me when I said I gave it back!"

"The last time I remembered seeing it was giving it to you," James said, pinching the bridge of his nose, obviously struggling not to shout. "And I am sorry. C'mon, Pads."

Sirius remained motionless, arms still crossed. He blinked a couple times then slowly his arms eased up. "Yeah. I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have overreacted."

James gave Sirius a half hug, smacking his back cheerfully. "It's all right. I know you've been really tense lately."

Remus stiffened a little as Sirius glanced briefly at him before his eyes darted back to James. "Yeah, I guess the pressure for the OWLs at the end of the year and all." He gave James a hug too then they were back to their usual smiling selves. Peter was smiling too, relieved the argument was finished with.

Remus sorta smiled too but he mostly just felt confused over the fact Sirius had looked his way at the mention of him being tense. Had he done something to upset Sirius? It wasn't the first time he wondered this in recent weeks. Sirius had really been acting weird around Remus especially. Some days he was practically glued to Remus's side; teasing, joking, pouting whenever Remus didn't spend all his time with him. Then other days Sirius seemed like the thought of spending five seconds in a room alone with Remus was the end of the world and made any excuse he could to not be close to him. Remus had been trying to ignore the hot and cold but now he felt like maybe he should talk to Sirius…

Remus eyed Sirius for a moment then lay back down, curling up with his back to the room. He didn't want to push Sirius, especially not after what just happened with James. He just had to hope that whatever was bothering his friend would blow over soon.