"From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."

Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Prologue, Lines 3-4

—October 26th—

Remus was trying very hard to ignore the boys at the table behind where he and Lily had been sequestered for the last hour. It was midterms season and he and Lily Evans, a girl he'd met in orientation and grown close to in the last two months, had agreed upon a study date—if only so they could rent a table and spread out all of their books and journals.

Somehow, James had gotten wind of their study plans and practically begged Remus to be invited, going on about having seen a stunning girl named Lily Evans in his English class, and how he wanted to ask her out but needed to determine if she'd say yes or not, and wouldn't Remus play a wingman just for the night? Remus had scowled goodnaturedly but agreed, on the condition that James brought Peter so as not to monopolize the whole evening with stolen glances at the "girl of his dreams." Remus relayed as much to Lily—the 'friends are joining me' bit, not 'my roommate thinks you're his soulmate' one—who'd replied that if his roommates were half as kind as he was, they were welcome to join.

So the three trudged off, Sirius having opted to stay behind and read. He'd been doing that a lot lately, opting out of spending time with the three of them, and although the swore he was fine, Remus wasn't entirely convinced. Losing a sibling, especially so young, wasn't something that a person just got over. But he couldn't force Sirius to spend time with him and the others, despite how much friendlier he'd gotten with the dark-haired boy. Tonight, Remus had settled for an 'I'll text you if I need anything,' which, he supposed, was better than nothing. After the incident in September, the two had finally saved each other's numbers—Remus going for a practical "Sirius Black Roommate," while Sirius typed in "Remus 'Moon Boy' Lupin," much to his roommate's amusement.

Arriving at the library, Remus shot off a quick text to Sirius to let him know they'd arrived before locating a waving Lily and directing his suitemates to follow him to the table. After what might have been the most painfully awkward introduction Remus had ever seen from James, the three boys sat down and took out their textbooks. Flipping through the pages, Remus landed on the collection of short stories he was expected to review for his exam and sighed. Lily looked up at him and smirked.

"Long day?"

"Long week is more like it."

Lily giggled, and an attractive flush spread across her cheeks, causing James to look up and Peter to roll his eyes.

"Remus, it's Tuesday."

"Yes and?"

"Yes and how is the week already exhausting to you when there have only been two days of it so far?"

James jumped in, eager to join the conversation. "Hey, give our Remus a break there, he's been busy!"

Remus brought a hand up to his face in embarrassment as he felt his ears redden.

"Busy doing what?" Lily challenged, an eyebrow raised in amusement.

"I don't know for sure, but a little birdie told me that someone in room 412B had a date last night," James replied in a sing-song voice, and Remus was sure his face couldn't get any warmer.

"It wasn't a date, James," he ground out with mild frustration, "it was just two friends going to see a movie."

Peter snorted. "Hate to break it to you man, but two guys who are into dudes going to see a rom-com by themselves...kind of sounds like a date."

"It was NOT a Rom-Com!" Remus whispered indignantly, "10 Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. I told you— both of you," he gestured at James and Peter helplessly, "It's a classic, and we both agreed that Heath Ledger deserved an award for the movie, so we went to see it. That's all."

James chuckled. "Whatever you say, man. We aren't here to judge you," he smirked, "just to cast well-wishes on your past and future dates with Matthew."

Remus rolled his eyes and stared intently at his textbook, waiting for his suitemates to go back to their own work before speaking again in a hushed tone to Lily, who sat across from him.

"If you must know, I was a bit under the weather and ended up sleeping for most of the weekend, but now that I feel alright, it's a bit like I never had that weekend at all."

"Remus!" Lily's voice came out in a near-shout and Remus crashed his head down onto his hands as some nearby students shot irritated looks their way.

"Sorry," Lily offered apologetically, "but why didn't you say something? Was everything alright?"

"Uh, well…" Remus trailed off, knowing his suitemates were listening, despite their feigned focus on their respective journals. For what it was worth, Remus decided, they already knew this side of his story, and Lily didn't seem like the type to abuse this information. Plus, she was bound to find out eventually, wasn't she?

"I, uh, had cancer," Lily's eyebrows shot up, homework abandoned and Remus hurried to reassure her. "It's all good now, I've been in remission for a few years. But I'm, you know, on medication, and whatever the health center gave me for the flu symptoms I was having must've interacted poorly and just knocked me out."

A sympathetic expression came over Lily's face, and she reached out to squeeze his hand. "Well I'm glad that you're okay, but if things go south, you know you can give me a call, right? I mean, we see each other every day, it's not like I don't care about you!"

Remus glanced at their hands and smiled softly. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, Lils."

"Of course."

"But anyway, that's why I'm so tired this week, I suppose. Must've thrown off my circadian rhythm or whatever."

"Makes sense. Well, want to set a timer for fifteen minutes from now and we'll discuss the first two stories when it goes off?"

"Sounds good to me."

"—which I think is because the author…" Lily trailed off mid-sentence, her eyes darting worriedly to something past Remus' shoulder.

"Lily? You okay?"

"Yeah…" Remus raised an eyebrow and Lily relented.

"Well, not quite." Remus continued to level a curious look at her until she sighed and met his gaze again.

"Remember when I told you about that absolute asshole that I went to high school with?"

"The one that you had been friends with who ended up bullying you for dating someone else and putting up those awful posters about it?"

Lily glared at him, and he grimaced apologetically.

"Yeah, that one. Don't look now but he's sitting at the table behind you."

Remus shifted in his seat to look anyway, but Lily yanked his arm, causing him to tumble forward into the table and knock their textbooks off of the side with a 'thump' that echoed through the open space.

"I said don't look now, Remus!" she hissed, before her eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "Oh great, now he's seen me. He's going to come over here, God I should've chosen a different school!"

Remus' eyebrows shot up in surprise. "He was that bad?"

Lily nodded. "Whatever you're thinking? Double it. Still not bad enough. I could spend hours telling you about the trauma he inflicted on my friends and I, but it's really not worth it. He's not worth it," she said as her eyes flicked back up to a space above Remus' shoulder.

"You didn't tell me he went here," Remus said quietly.

"I didn't think it was important. I'd hoped I just...wouldn't run into him. Bad luck on that one, it'd seem."

Before Remus could respond, a slender boy with chin length black hair had strolled up to the table and bent down dramatically to pick up Lily's small textbook between his thumb and his forefinger.

Dropping it unceremoniously on the table in front of her, the boy spoke. "I believe that belongs to you, Evans?" James and Peter looked up, and after exchanging a glance with Remus, placed their pencils down in anticipation of the drama that was about to unfold.

"Go away, Snape."

"Well, that's no way to speak to an old friend! To think if Slughorn could see you now," the tall boy, Snape, clicked his tongue sharply three times, "he'd be so disappointed that his favorite student was so rude to his nephew."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Get lost, Severus. You stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours."

"Mm but where's the fun in that? It's so much more amusing to stick around and see what nonsense I can get up to by being in your way. What's that phrase? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?"

"I'm not sure what your deal is, but she said to get lost, and I think you should listen," James spoke coldly from the seat next to Remus. While Remus knew James well enough to find him about as threatening as a small puppy, there was a certain intensity and fierceness about his suitemate that made him intimidating when he chose to be. James was tapping into those things now, it would seem, his chest puffed a bit and his arms crossed in clear displeasure.

"Oh, what's this? Got yourself another boy-toy to swoop in and save the day, Evans? Is he the first one you've trapped this year, or is he," he paused, pretending to do the math on his fingers with a smirk, "in the double digits?"

Remus was shocked and more than a little confused. Lily didn't seem like that type of person, but even if she was...That was her choice to date around, if she wanted. Why did Snape care so much about her love life?

"Hey!" James interjected before Lily could respond, "Leave her alone, man. It doesn't matter what number I am. Get out of here."

"At least you've got a man who'll stick up for you this time around. What about this one, does he not talk much?" Snape gestured at Remus lazily, before his eyes landed on the tri-colored flag pin on Remus' backpack. "Or is he just too much of a princess to speak up?"

"Leave Remus out of this."

"Remus..." Snape paused, "You wouldn't happen to be the Remus Lupin living with Sirius Black, would you?" Remus froze. That seemed an oddly specific piece of information for this boy to know.

"Why does it matter?"

"Because he's an asshole, and I'm trying to see if it's contagious."

"Bold of you to think I'd agree with your assessment of my roommate." Remus responded coolly, before he could stop himself.

Snape opened his mouth to speak but Lily cut him off. "Severus, enough. If you want to be a dick to me, then have at it, but leave my friends alone."

Narrowed eyes surveyed the four of them coldly. "Whatever Evans, have fun with your pets," he spat, before turning on his heel and walking away.

As soon as he'd left, Lily dropped her head down to look at her book, seemingly fixated, while Remus and his suitemates exchanged glances. James spoke first.

"Uh...Lily? Are you okay?"

"What do you think?"

James held his hands up in an easy surrender. "Hey, no need to get snippy, just wanted to make sure he didn't—"

"He didn't what, exactly? Hurt my feelings? I've known Severus for 15 years, this isn't new," she stated darkly, furiously copying down something into her notebook. "And beyond that," she said, tossing her pen down as she tore through the page of her journal, "I don't need help defending myself against him, especially not from the likes of you."

Remus was thrown off by the commentary, and looked between James and Lily with confusion.

"What, you don't think I've seen the looks you've been giving me in class? Defending me from an idiot that I've been sparring with for over a decade isn't the way to get a girl to date you, Potter."

A hurt expression crossed James' face, and he quickly started packing up his things. Peter followed his lead, and a moment later, the two were gone.

Remus watched his suitemates leave before turning back to face his friend. "That was a bit harsh."

"He's been staring for weeks. He needs to move on. And I don't need someone to fight my battles."

"Evidently."

"Not you too! I'm a perfectly capable young woman and I don't need to be dating someone right now, especially not someone who can't even be bothered to get to know me before making a pass at me."

Despite the outward perception of his suitemates' actions, Remus quietly disagreed with Lily, but was wise enough to keep this opinion to himself for the time being.

"Alright, well...Back to The Yellow Wallpaper then?" he offered hesitantly. Lily nodded and turned her head back to her journal, twisting a strand of her hair around her finger anxiously.

"The Library is now closed, but will reopen tomorrow at 7am. Please return all outstanding rentals to the carts near the elevators. Thank you."

"That's our cue," Remus stated quietly. Lily murmured her assent with a smile that didn't reach her eyes as she started packing up her things to leave. Remus frowned, taking a cursory glance behind him to check on the boy from earlier, but the table was empty.

The two made their way to the front of the building with their books in tow, Remus offering up bad jokes under his breath that had Lily giggling by the time they reached the exit. Holding open the door, Remus allowed Lily to walk through first and nearly ran into her back when she stopped abruptly instead of continuing down the steps.

"Lily? Are you alright?" he said as he edged around her figure to get out of the doorway.

"So he can speak. How quaint."

Remus rolled his eyes. Severus Snape was leaning against the railing, a cigarette dangling between his fingers and the friends he'd been sitting with in the library now nowhere to be found.

"Do you have something meaningful you'd like to say to either of us, or can we get on our way?" Lily bit out in frustration.

Snape chuckled. "I do, actually." He began walking towards the two of them, and Remus instinctively moved in front of Lily, to the dark-haired boy's delight.

"I get it," he angled the hand with the cigarette towards the stairwell and then towards Remus as he spoke. "The other one has the snappy comebacks and this one stands between you and a threat. You really do get around, don't you?"

"Oh shut up, Severus. You have no idea what you're talking about."

The boy smirked cruelly. "At least your taste has improved, you could've been stuck with this one's queer roommate, you know."

Remus stiffened. "What did you say?"

Snape shifted his eyes off of Lily, taking a pull off of his cigarette and flicking it away as he stepped closer to Remus and blew the smoke into his face.

"I said that at least she didn't end up with your queer roommate. You'd probably know better than anyone that he's an emo freak—"

Remus' hands came up to push Snape away from him before he could question the action. The boy staggered back, almost tripping over the backpack that he'd left on the ground behind him.

He heard Lily exclaim behind him, but his indignation at someone insulting Sirius largely drowned it out.

"Don't talk about Sirius like that," he ground out. He could handle those comments when they were directed at him, but Sirius? Sirius didn't deserve that. He took a step back and turned to face Lily again with a furious look on his face. "C'mon, let's go."

The two began walking away from the library when Remus heard his name from behind and turned sharply, only to immediately stumble and fall against the steps as he was met by an angry fist making contact with his face.

He heard the crack from his nose before he felt it, and within seconds there was blood flowing over his mouth. He knit his eyebrows together and squinted as the pain registered, and heard Lily gasp and move from where she'd been standing beside him. The sound of a slap echoed and Remus' eyes shot open.

"Severus, get away from him! He didn't do anything to you," his friend was saying, before she rushed back to Remus' side. "Go! Keep away from him—and me. I'll call the campus police on you if you come anywhere near us again!" she shouted towards the other boy before turning back to Remus.

"Remus, are you—" she moved to stand in front of him. "Move your hand, come on now, let me see." Remus shifted his hand away from his face and Lily gasped. "That's a lot of blood." Remus smirked with a wince before turning to spit some of it out from the back of his throat.

"Not exactly how I expected my first fistfight to go, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

Lily rolled her eyes before surveying the rest of him and reaching down to offer him a hand up. "You've got blood all over you! Come on, we should get you back home so you can change into clean clothes." Remus chuckled before taking her hand and standing up properly.

"I don't need an escort, you know."

"Don't start with me, Remus Lupin."

Remus sighed before accepting the offered arm around his waist, and the two students began slowly making their way back to his dorm.

Walking into the boys' dorm, Lily snorted slightly at the sight of James and Peter passed out on the couch, a movie still running quietly on the television.

"Alright, which one's your room? I'm going to go wet a washcloth and try to fix..." she trailed off, gesturing at his face, "this business."

Remus smirked. "Not sure there's much you can do about the state of things, Lils. And I've got ice packs in the mini-fridge that Sirius and I have in our room, you know. I'll be fine."

Lily sent a glare his way, daring him to defy her again. "Remus, there's still blood streaming out of your nose. I have half a mind to take you to the health center and make them look you over," Remus' eyes grew wide. "Yeah exactly. Just be grateful I'm willing to take care of this myself. Now, which one is yours?"

Remus pointed at the room on the right with one hand, his other holding a tissue under his nose as he tilted his head down. Lily grimaced and turned to leave the dorm and head to the bathroom at the end of the hall, pausing before she walked out the door.

"Go sit down in there, okay? I'll be back in a minute or two."

Remus nodded and unlocked the door to his and Sirius' room quietly, hoping his roommate had already gone to sleep. No such luck, as Sirius began speaking without looking up from his book the moment Remus stepped through the door.

"How was studying with Evans? James told me about Snape, did he give you guys any more trouble after they left?"

Remus shook his head and then realized Sirius wasn't watching him before speaking.

"Uh, no he left us alone the rest of the time we were in the library." It wasn't technically a lie, Remus rationalized, he really didn't give them any trouble until they'd left the building.

"That's good at least, the guy's a di—" Sirius stopped mid sentence. "Shit, Remus! What happened to you?"

Remus, who had turned his desk chair around to sit in it, looked up sharply at Sirius' exclamation and winced. He hadn't gotten a chance to look in a mirror yet, but he knew his nose was still bleeding, if nothing else. Now that he thought about it, the tissue under his hand did feel a bit damp. He pulled it away and cursed quietly as he fumbled around in the desk drawer behind him to find another tissue and came up empty-handed. He held two fingers up to the bottom of his nose and turned around fully to find his first aid kit, nearly falling out of his seat when he rotated back around and saw Sirius standing in front of him with a concerned expression.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Remus blushed. He knew enough about medical emergencies to know that this certainly wasn't one. "Nothing a little soap and water can't take care of, Sirius. It's fine."

"Bullshit. There's blood all over your clothing and it's pouring from your nose."

Remus felt like that was a bit of an over exaggeration, given that his nose was barely dripping at this point, but gave Sirius a pass since he was covered with an alarming amount of blood.

Sirius knelt down in front of him, and reached a hand out to get a better look at his roommate's face.

Remus flinched and Sirius visibly recoiled, horrified at the younger boy's reaction. The dark-haired boy stood, taking a step back before giving Remus another once-over, slowly working his way from Remus' blood spattered shoes, to his slightly torn jeans, to the puddle of blood just under his chin. He avoided eye contact for a moment before Remus sighed tiredly.

"I didn't mean to...It's okay," he said quickly, "really, I'm fine. I don't think the adrenaline's worn off yet, that's all. Give it ten minutes and I'll probably be asleep after exhausting myself," he smiled crookedly, trying to reassure his roommate.

Sirius' eyebrows were furrowed but he knelt in front of Remus again, challenging Remus with his eyes to stop him if he was uncomfortable. Remus chuckled lightly before huffing out "Well go on then, what's the damage?"

Sirius moved closer then, and gently tilted Remus' chin up to get a better look at his face. He took in a sharp breath as he surveyed the evidence of the fight and Remus felt their breaths mingle when his roommate let out a slow exhale. Sirius' thumb moved across the space above Remus' mouth, and the younger boy felt his heart stutter as Sirius met his eyes with a furious expression. When he spoke, Sirius' voice was quiet and tense, a violin string stretched to its breaking point.

"Who did this to you?"

Remus forgot how to breathe for a moment, not used to seeing this much intensity from his roommate, and was grateful to hear someone clear their throat from the doorway.

Sirius' eyes lingered on Remus for a moment longer before sliding up to meet the gaze of the redhead leaning against the doorframe with a damp washcloth in her hand.

"Glad to know somebody has sense here," she said with a smile, chuckling. "Did he try and tell you that he was 'just fine' too?"

Sirius snorted. "Would you believe that he told me soap and water would do the trick?"

Lily walked into the room properly and handed Remus the washcloth to clean his face before looking at him with a curious expression.

"Take off your clothes," she said suddenly, and both boys whipped their heads around to face her.

"Uh, Lily," Remus started, a bit unsettled by how forward his friend was being, "I value our friendship a lot, but I think it's important to tell you that I don't quite see you that way and—"

Lily burst out laughing across from him, and Remus exchanged a confused look with Sirius before facing his still-laughing friend.

"I'm not asking you to strip for me, dear God, no. I meant for you to take your clothes off so I could try to get the blood out of them," she said amid gasping chuckles. "Jesus, you need flirting practice."

"Oh."

Lily snorted. "Oh indeed. Sirius, is it?" The boy in question nodded. "Want to step into the common area to give Remus some privacy?"

Sirius followed her out the door and Remus quickly took the opportunity to stand up and look at himself in the mirror. He really did look like a mess, he supposed, as he examined the blood stains and tears in his clothing. There was a small cut going through his upper lip and he smiled, testing how much the skin pulled with a wince after. He'd wiped most of the blood from his face, but there was still a bit dried around his nose that he'd missed.

There was also a small trickle still trailing from his nostril and he groaned and swiped at it before surveying his face overall. He'd looked worse, he decided. You've also looked far better, a voice that sounded suspiciously like his mother retorted in his head, but he brushed it aside to grab new clothes. After swapping his jeans and sweater for a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and a soft t-shirt, Remus opened the door back up for his friends.

Lily was holding out a plastic bag and Remus dutifully dropped the clothes into it before sitting back down at his desk chair. Sirius leaned back against the desk and looked at him with an inscrutable expression, and Remus suddenly had the utterly odd notion that his roommate was trying to puzzle out his secrets. He shifted in his seat and Lily turned to face him, having thrown his clothes into her backpack.

"Damn, your nose is still bleeding. Are you sure you don't want one of us to take you to an Urgent Care?"

Remus waved her concern off easily. "No, it's fine. Facial injuries always bleed a lot, and anyway, it's slowed down considerably, so really, I'm fine."

Both other occupants of the room gave Remus a skeptical expression and the seated boy rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on, you guys. My mom's a nurse, I grew up with this stuff."

A gentle smile crept onto Remus' face as he watched the tension leave both of his friends' postures. Much to his mother's dismay Remus had never been one to harp on his injuries, and as such, he didn't often find himself on the receiving end of this much concern from his peers. A warm feeling settled in his chest at the idea that he'd made friends who cared so fiercely for him after such a short period of time. "Honestly guys, it's slowed a lot already, it should stop soon. I'm really fine."

Lily sighed dramatically before grabbing her backpack from the floor. "I should take these back so I can start trying to get the blood out. You'll let me know if you start feeling weird?"

Remus nodded, and stood to walk Lily to the door, but the redhead shook her head and pointed him back to his bed. "None of that. You'll get in bed and relax. Sirius can walk me to the door"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at that, but walked the girl to the door without complaint before coming back into the dorm and climbing onto his bed. Remus could feel Sirius' eyes on him, but he refused to look over, instead grabbing a book from the bag hanging on his bed corner and pretending to read despite the fact that he couldn't focus for more than a few lines at a time. Sirius turned on the television on their dressers after about 15 minutes, and grabbed a book himself, only barely paying attention to the program.

Lily had been gone for nearly an hour when Remus spoke softly, his voice barely audible over the quiet dialogue of the actors on their television. "Snape."

Sirius put down the book that he'd been half-heartedly reading. "What?"

"You asked me who did this. It was a guy named Severus Snape; apparently he was an ass to Lily in high school."

Sirius was quiet for a moment before rolling on his side to face his roommate. "Tall, skinny, shoulder-length hair, nose that looks like it's itching to be in other peoples' business?"

Remus snorted. "Yeah, that seems like an apt description." Sirius frowned.

"He sits behind me in Wilson's class. But why would he get into it with you? Do you even know each other?"

A reddish tint bloomed high on Remus' cheeks, and he deliberately ignored Sirius' gaze.

"Uh...Not exactly. He was being a dick when we were in the library and Lily told him to get lost, but he was waiting for us outside when we left."

"And he just...punched you? For no reason?"

"Well..." Remus trailed off, the red on his cheeks deepening.

"Remus?"

"I may have shoved him first."

Sirius' eyes grew wide, and he sat up to face Remus properly. "You, Remus 'Do No Harm' Lupin, shoved Severus Snape?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "No idea when you decided that 'Do No Harm' was my middle name, but yeah, I did." He paused for a moment, still pointedly not looking at Sirius. "And I'd do it again."

Sirius was quiet then, and Remus wondered if his roommate had given up on the conversation when he heard a wrapper being opened and twisted his head around to face the other bed. Sirius was opening up a chocolate bar, and when Remus caught his eye he smirked before pulling a second one out and tossing it across the gap between them.

Remus caught the candy deftly, propping himself up against the back wall and opening the package with careful movements before breaking off a piece and tossing it into his mouth. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall while the chocolate melted on his tongue, and when he looked up again, Sirius was looking at him with an amused expression.

"You're an odd one, Remus Lupin."

Remus chuckled. "I suppose I am," he shrugged, "But this chocolate is good."

Sirius shook his head softly before leaning up against his own wall. "Are you going to tell me what Snape said, or am I going to have to force it out of you?"

Remus turned his head so quickly he winced, and Sirius grimaced apologetically. "Not like that, I just meant am I going to have to pester you with questions all night about it."

"Oh," he ran a hand through his hair, causing some of the curls to break loose from their usual position and fall into his eyes. "I mean, if you're really that invested I suppose I could tell you."

"The stage is yours, Moon Boy," Sirius responded with a smirk, and Remus rolled his eyes.

"Well like I said, he'd been giving Lily a hard time in the library. When we came out, he kind of just...picked up where he left off, and eventually I got tired of it and shoved him."

Sirius shook his head. "You're a shit liar, you know that?" He chuckled. "Even Peter could've done better than that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus inquired dubiously, placing another piece of chocolate into his mouth in an attempt to avoid being asked to respond anytime soon.

"I may not have met Lily before tonight, but between you and James and Peter, I've heard enough to know that she's more than capable of fighting for herself—and that she would've been much more pissed when she showed up with you if you'd tried to defend her." Sirius shot a pointed look at Remus, who sighed.

"Talked to James, did you?"

"Mmhm. So...Want to try that again?"

Remus took a deep breath. "When we were in the library, he made a vaguely homophobic comment that I think everyone else brushed off, but when we went back outside he made another one and insulted yo—" he cut off, pretending to choke on a piece of chocolate as he rephrased what he had been about to say, "insulted someone and I thought it was out of line so I told him to cut it out."

Sirius looked at him curiously, his own chocolate bar forgotten. "What did he say to you?"

Remus shrugged, staring at the television with feigned interest. "Nothing much, just that I was a princess."

Sirius' jaw clenched. "Who gave him the right—" he began, but Remus cut him off.

"Honestly, it's fine. I'm not exactly subtle about my sexuality. Have you seen the pins on my backpack?"

Sirius snorted. "Point taken. But then what did he say when you left? If it wasn't about you, then…" he trailed off looking at Remus, whose face was coloring at an impressive rate and who was deliberately avoiding making eye contact. Again. Two and two suddenly slammed together into four in Sirius' mind and his eyes widened.

"Oh my God. It was me, wasn't it? He insulted me, didn't he?"

Remus stayed silent, but the hand holding his chocolate bar tightened almost imperceptibly. Almost. Sirius looked on in shock. "You'd have told me if it was someone else. It has to have been me," he said quietly. "Remus, what the hell?"

The younger boy turned to face his roommate at that comment. "You didn't deserve what he was saying, it wasn't right. Who did he think he was to comment on someone's sexuality? I don't care how you identify, he had absolutely no right to be that much of an absolute asshole to you, especially when you weren't there to defend yourself."

An touched expression broke out on Sirius' face, before it quickly turned to one of amusement. "Well for starters, I'm gay. Very much so, so it sounds like he got one thing right there."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Doesn't make it any better," he muttered angrily.

"Well no, but it sounds like there was something else too. Or are you just going to start shoving all of the homophobes that you see on campus? Not that I'd complain, mind you, but that feels like a bit of a tall order for one kid."

"Only the especially greasy ones, I think," Remus replied, biting back a grin.

Sirius smirked before adopting a more earnest demeanor. "Really though, Remus, what did he say? I promise I can handle it, whatever it was."

"You really want me to tell you?" Remus asked hesitantly, and Sirius nodded.

"He said that you were an 'emotional freak,' and I think he had more to add but…" Remus trailed off, "well, he didn't exactly get to finish."

Sirius looked shaken for a moment before turning away to stare at the television instead of his roommate.

"And you told him off, just for that?"

"Of course I did, it wasn't fair! He has no clue what you're going through—what you've been going through—it wasn't right to let him run his mouth like an idiot."

Sirius smiled from his side of the room. "You're a good friend, Remus."

Remus blushed. "I only did what any decent person would've done."

"No, you didn't," Sirius said, shaking his head. "But that's okay. I appreciate it."

"Anytime."

The two sat in silence for a while, finishing their candy bars and pretending to watch the program now playing on their television while thoughts raced through their minds.

Remus was glad to hear that Sirius wasn't angry with him—not that he'd expected it, but after Lily's response to James earlier, he supposed anything was possible. He stood by what he'd said: Snape shouldn't have said those things to begin with, but especially not when Sirius wasn't there to defend himself. It was a cowardly action, and Remus rolled his eyes in frustration at the thought of it.

On the other side of the room, Sirius was floored. He wasn't usually one to be at a loss for words, but then again, he wasn't used to people coming to his defense. In fact, now that he thought about it, this was the first time he could remember anyone having done that. He angled his head slightly to look over at his roommate and shook his head in mild astonishment. Remus really hadn't needed to do that, and from the look of his nose he was going to be sore as a result of his actions for a bit. He did that for me, Sirius thought, and a strange feeling settled in his chest—one that made him feel cared for, and maybe even wanted.

Remus got up a few minutes later to turn off the lights in their room, but on the way back, he paused by Sirius' bed. "Hey Sirius?"

Sirius made a noncommittal noise in response.

"I meant what I said. If he tried any more of that nonsense, I'd gladly do it again."

Sirius was immediately quite grateful that the lights had been turned off, or else Remus would've seen the flush spreading quickly across his cheeks.

"Thanks," he said quietly. "And Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"For what it's worth, I'd do the same for you."

Remus chuckled. "Of course you would, you're Sirius 'Take No Shit' Black." A laugh escaped from Sirius' throat before he could contain it, and soon Remus joined him. Once they quieted Remus heard Sirius sigh contentedly before he spoke again, more quietly this time.

"Hey Remus?"

"Mmhm?"

"We still on for taking on the homophobic idiots together, then?"

"Obviously," Remus snorted before an easy smile made its way onto his face. I'd take on anyone who tried to hurt you like that.