Remus was in awe of the way that Sirius moved across the dance floor, his body swaying freely to the music, not caring or maybe thriving on whatever attention he received. "Come on, Moony!" he said cheerfully, beckoning to the floor.
Remus looked around. The Great Hall, admittedly, had been transformed; the long tables had entirely vanished and the starry ceiling sparkled with paper lanterns. There were punch bowls and snacks all around, and teachers scattered across the room watched students dance with amusement in their eyes. Professor Sprout and Flitwick were actually dancing with each other. Everyone was preoccupied with something or another, and for once in his life, Remus came to the realization that not everyone was looking at him.
"Fine," he said, grinning, and walked up to join Sirius.
"Really?" Sirius's eyes shone.
"Really. You have to teach me, though," said Remus, "so that I don't look like a massive prat."
"I don't think you've ever looked like a prat in your life," Sirius said.
Remus felt the tension in the air and did not know what to do with it. "You, on the other hand…" he supplied.
Sirius laughed, but it was his little bark-laugh, hardly sincere.
"Okay, so what you want to do," he said, "is just move, first of all, it doesn't really matter how you-" Sirius suddenly stopped talking; a slow dance had started to play.
Remus simply looked at him, his stomach turning somersaults.
"What, aren't you going to teach me how to waltz?" he asked weakly.
"Didn't think that'd be quite up your alley, Moony," said Sirius, "but who am I to begrudge you some, er, classical training?" He took Remus's hand into his own, bringing his other arm down around his waist, and the two began to dance, slowly, tentatively.
Somewhere, deep down, it crossed Remus's mind that this was not normal behavior for two friends.
He could see all the couples on the dance floor- Dorcas and Marlene stood out in particular for their refusal to do anything but boogie- and he thought that he and Sirius must look like a couple, which was not the worst thing in the world by any means; except what if someone said something, and Sirius said, no, are you kidding, I don't go for blokes and even if I did he's not my type.
"Hey," said Sirius, "you stepped on my foot, you idiot. Get out of your head." Despite the gruff tone, he was beaming.
Remus laughed. "Sorry about that."
"Moony! Pads!" James's voice rang out over the hall.
"Prongs," Sirius said, stepping away from Remus and looking up. James was tailed by Lily, who looked flushed, almost like she'd just broken a fever.
"You okay?" Remus asked her.
"Oh, yeah," said Lily vaguely. "Just a hard day."
James nodded. "This ball is not quite going to plan."
"I don't know," Sirius said wryly, "everyone seems to be enjoying the slow dance." Remus looked around, blushing at the sheer amount of snogging that surrounded him.
"Yeah, it's great!" said Peter, appearing out of nowhere.
James smiled warmly. "Thanks," he said, "but I was actually coming to tell you that Lil- Evans and I are gonna go for a walk."
"That's definitely not allowed," Remus said. James winked and pulled a long stretch of silvery material out of his coat pocket.
"Is that a-" Lily began, gaping.
"Invisibility cloak, yeah," James said casually. "It was my dad's, and his dad's, and his dad's-"
"And he gave it to you for school?" Lily asked, incredulous. This was a good point, in Remus's opinion. Not a very wise parenting choice.
"That's how we do it at the Potter household," said James, and with a laugh, Lily followed him out the door.
Remus gave Sirius and Peter an awkward smile. "I think I'm gonna call it a night," he said lightly, "I've got an essay that's just begging me to-"
"No!" Sirius said, his voice uncharacteristically sharp. "C'mon, stay, for just an hour or two."
Remus, of course, had always been entirely unable to say no to Sirius. "Alright, fine, just another hour."
"Why do you care, Sirius?" Peter asked, taking a swig of butterbeer. "You wanna finish up your dance?"
"Oh, er-" Remus began, flustered.
"Yes," said Sirius plainly, cutting him off.
For the millionth time that evening, Remus's stomach turned, and he could feel sweat on his palms. He told himself that this was just the way Sirius was. Getting teased and flirted with was a condition of his friendship, but it didn't mean anything more than that. Sirius was teaching Remus to dance because he thought it'd be funny, and that was it.
"So, are you guys, like-" Peter gestured in the space between them. "Dating or something?"
"No, not at all," Sirius said quickly. See? Remus berated himself internally. Just friends.
Peter laughed. "Thank god, mate, that'd be so bizarre, can you imagine?"
"What'd be bizarre?" Remus said without thinking.
"I mean, I'm just so far the opposite way, it's like, hard to imagine," Peter continued.
"What is?" asked Sirius tightly. Remus could feel something rising in his throat as he listened to Peter talk. Is he saying what I think he's saying?
"Being gay, you know? It's just gross, everyone's queer these days, I mean, Dorcas and Marlene, and I heard Jacob was dating-"
"Oh, shut up," said Sirius, and the tone was casual but his eyes were blazing. "Just because you can't get any gender to like you, Peter-"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Peter said sarcastically. "Why, are you gay, too?"
"Yes, actually," said Sirius. What? Remus almost choked on his own tongue.
"Oh-" said Peter, wildly flustered, his freckles blending in with his red cheeks.
Sirius grinned bitterly. "It's okay, Pete, s'pose it's better to know now that you're a homophobe."
Remus had to say something too; this was not how or when he wanted to come out to his friends, but Sirius looked so hurt and of course Remus had to jump in.
"Yeah, uh, I'm queer as well, so," he said, meeting Sirius's eyes, which were just the slightest amount wet.
"Yeah?" said Sirius, with a smile.
"Yeah," he said weakly, barely conscious of his trembling hands.
"Well, I mean, that's fine, I have no problem-" Peter said hurriedly.
"Eh, you said it was gross a fucking second ago," Sirius replied.
"I didn't know-"
"I think I just need a second," said Remus, "er, to think." He felt like laughing and crying and screaming all at once.
"Yeah, me too," said Sirius, and to Remus's great surprise he followed him out of the hall.