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Chapter Six: A Broken Mirror, A Slightly Broken Promise, and a Broken Resolve
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early wednesday evening
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Remus was valiantly attempting to do his homework. His grey quill flew over the page as he wrote his Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. "Despite this species' vicious nature, and its fierce will to survive, the last known manticore died in 1437 due to the rampant hunting of its species by humans. Like many magical creatures, the manticore has a bloody history filled with attacks on towns, kidnappings of young girls, and lairs strewn with the bodies of failed warriors. This, however…"
THUMP THUMP WHAM!
"Owwww!!"
"Ha ha ha!!! I am the master!!! Didn't think you fooled me that time, eh, James?!"
Remus smacked a hand to his forehead. Sirius and James had wrapped a scarf around a shoe and were trying to peg each other with it in turn. The young werewolf had long ago closed the bed curtains in a lame attempt to shut them out (also since Sirius, with his hair half out of its ponytail, leaping on James every few minutes was very, very distracting).
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
CRASH!!!
There was a sound of tinkling glass, and complete silence. Remus gritted his teeth and swept the bed curtains to one side, advancing menacingly on Sirius and James, who were standing guiltily over the remains of the full length mirror that had stood in the corner.
Remus pointed his wand at the mess. "Speculum reparo." The shattered glass shards rearranged themselves, leaving the mirror complete once more. "What are you two doing?!"
"We were…we were just, ah…" Sirius trailed off, blanching.
"Don't you two have homework to do?!" Two high spots of color appeared on Remus' cheeks.
"We'll…get around to it," James said meekly.
Sirius picked up the shoe and scarf combo. "Come on, Remus, don't be such a wet blanket! Wanna have a go at pegging James?"
"No!!!"
Sirius winced and hid behind James, who hid behind Sirius, who hid behind James (which had the effect of looking like some strange sort of dance).
Remus threw his hands in the air, marching towards his bed once more. "You're all barking mad!!"
"You love us for it, though, yes?"
Remus just growled, pulling the curtains shut behind him with a swish. For a time, there was quiet, and the grey-eyed boy breathed a sigh of relief. "This, however, would have been prevented with the creation of the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures, founded in 1853, which would have insured that such creatures that are naturally dangerous to humans would not be persecuted solely because of that nature…"
"DEATH TO THE EVIL PILLOW ARMY!!!!" James yelled. This was followed by another crash, some evil-sounding cackling from Sirius, and the rather obvious sound of something being hit repeatedly with a pillow.
Remus got very slowly and quietly out of bed, walking across the room until he was standing over Sirius, who was busy burying a struggling James in a large mound of pillows and blankets.
"AAARRRRGGGGHHH!!! I'M DYING!!! YOU'VE FOILED MY PLANS ONCE MORE, EVIL PILLOW-MASTER!!!" This was followed by some fake death hacking from James, and some very theatrical twitching.
Remus cleared his throat. Both black-haired boys froze, looking up guiltily. The young werewolf, despite the fact that he was shorter than both of them, towered very threateningly. "If I have to, I will move all my papers and all my books downstairs into the common room or the library to do my homework, but I would really rather not, since I rather like doing my homework on my bed. It's very comfortable. I hate working in the library, because it's dusty and Madame Pince doesn't like me for some reason. There's always too many people in the common room, not to mention the fact that the entire second year girl's dorm has a crush on me, and I can never get any work done past all that giggling." Sirius and James looked very close to bursting with laughter at that.
Remus colored. "Fine! Fine then, just laugh all you like! And lose Gryffindor two hundred points while you're at it! See if I care! If you're going to spend perfectly good study time acting absolutely ridiculous and childish, would you do it someplace else? I work my arse of nearly twenty-four hours a day to do as well as I do, and you just waltz into every class and make perfect marks even though I never ever see you studying! AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT??? IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!!!" the brown-haired boy roared, tears glittering unshed in his eyes.
There was a shocked pause all around, the only noise in the entire dormitory being Remus' rapid breathing. The young werewolf suddenly realized what he had done, went pale, and rushed to his four-poster with his hands over his face.
Sirius and James sat in complete silence for a moment, staring guiltily at each other, as quiet sniffling could be heard from behind Remus' bed curtains.
James gave Sirius a "you deal with it, you're shagging him" look, and got up, going around to gather up all the pillows they'd flung. Sirius braced himself, stood, walked cautiously over to Remus' bed, and held his breath as he reached out one hand to open the curtains surrounding his grey-eyed love.
"Moony…?" he said tentatively.
"G-Go away." Remus' blankets quivered pathetically.
"And why would I want to do such a thing?" Sirius said imploringly.
"B-Because I j-just screamed at my two b-best friends and I'd like some time to f-feel sorry for m-myself," Remus replied, voice quavering on the verge of tears.
"Ssh." Sirius lifted one side of the covers, sliding beneath them until he was spooned up behind Remus. He wrapped his arms around the waist in front of him, stroking the young werewolf's stomach in a comforting manner. Soon the sporadic, spasm-like catches in breath had subsided, and Remus relaxed into the familiar embrace.
"I'm sorry," Remus said softly.
"You've nothing to be sorry for, lovely."
"I shouldn't have yelled like that, I…"
"Shh." There was a long pause, in which Remus sniffled and Sirius tightened his hold on the other boy, bringing his lips to rest gently against the nape of Remus' neck. "How long has it been bothering you?"
"Hmm?"
"How long has it been bothering you that Jamie and I never seem to do any work?"
Remus laughed humorlessly. "Almost as long as I've known you."
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Sirius sounded slightly hurt.
"It's not the sort of thing you usually just bring up, you know, Padfoot."
"I wish you would. It's not good to keep things bottled up like that."
"I know." Remus sighed. There was a more contented pause, where Sirius laced Remus' fingers together with his own.
"Jamie and I will try not to play around while you're doing you're homework, okay?"
Remus turned suddenly, bringing himself nose to nose with Sirius. "Don't you dare. It just wouldn't be the same without you two banging around and breaking things every night."
Sirius smiled as he pressed his lips softly to those before him, hearing Remus sigh softly around their kiss – and all was right with the world.
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later wednesday evening
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"Look, I'm really sorry, I'll make it up to you, please don't be mad…" James looked sadly at a rather put out Lily.
Being rather put out, Lily naturally fell back into Prefect Mode. "You should have known that whatever you were doing would land you in detention! That's the problem with adolescent boys! You never think things through before doing them and don't think how many other people are going to be affected by what you…mmh!" James had kissed her, in front of the entire Ravenclaw table – as well as the entire Great Hall. There were a few catcalls and whistles, and Lily, instead of pushing him away like she meant to when she raised her hands, ended up burying her fingers in his hair. James' lips were so, so soft and Lily felt like she would just melt, something in her stomach fluttering strangely.
After what seemed to Lily a blissful eternity, James pulled away, gave her a lopsided grin, and said, "See you on Saturday night at 7:00, milady." He bowed graciously before heading back to the Gryffindor table, leaving Lily out of breath and blushing madly.
The redhead turned to her friends. "At least now you'll believe me when I say I've been kissed!" She stuck out her tongue.
Sirius and Remus, in the meanwhile, were eating their dinners, legs touching and ankles crossed over one another's. They were staring longingly at each other over their chicken casserole when two letters were dropped by a large tawny owl that had swooped over the table.
"Gah!" Sirius rubbed his head where his letter had struck him. Remus fished his letter out of his salad, opening it and discarding the Italian-dressing soaked envelope.
You will be joining me in my
classroom for detention tonight at
7:00 PM. Come prepared to work.
-Professor McGonagall
"Bloody hell." Sirius, apparently, had also opened his letter. "Detention for you too?"
Remus smiled wryly. "Of course."
Sirius grinned deviously, letting his tongue glide out to wet his bottom lip. Suddenly he realized something, and his face fell. "Oh no! McGonagall always stays until the bloody end! She'll never leave us alone!"
Remus burst out laughing. "Is that all you think about?"
Sirius thought for a moment. "Pretty much, yes." He tossed his letter across the table, where it hit Peter in the shoulder. Peter glared for a moment, then returned to buttering his biscuits. "What is this for, anyway?"
"Don't you remember? Sunday? The fight with the Slytherins in the corridor?"
"Oh yes…I'd completely forgotten about that."
"How on earth could you forget that? I'll never forget the way McGonagall shrieked at all of us all the way to the Hospital Wing…"
"Ahhhh, that fight with the Slytherins in the corridor!" Sirius took a sip of his pumpkin juice. "All I could remember for a moment about that night was you trying to figure out what spell Parkinson used to give me that tail…"
Remus blushed, and pinched Sirius rather hard on the thigh.
"Ow!"
"Hush, you, if anyone else heard this conversation…"
"Oh, don't fret, lovely, even if anyone was listening to this conversation, they couldn't know that it's your closeted kinkiness that's being discussed."
"They could now." Remus gave Sirius' thigh another pinch.
"Ow!…Oooohhh…" Sirius waggled his eyebrows as Remus' pinch became a teasing caress up the side of his leg.
"Kinkiness, eh? Sirius, darling, you haven't seen the half of it." Remus gave an enigmatic smile.
"Moony, mon ami, I would be delighted to see this 'half' that you speak of," Sirius said, bringing their faces very close indeed to one another.
"Mmm, is that so?"
"Will you two just cut it out???" Peter angrily stabbed one of his biscuits with his fork, stood up suddenly, and marched from the Great Hall, leaving the fork sticking ominously out of the gruesomely butter-oozing pastry.
Sirius and Remus nervously eyed Peter's retreating back, then the slow death of the innocent biscuit.
"Er."
"That was rather uncalled for, don't you think?" Sirius went back to picking at his casserole.
"Perhaps, perhaps not." Remus was still staring thoughtfully at the door from which Peter had made his abrupt exit, suddenly guilty. Somehow, that was my fault.
"If you're thinking that that was somehow your fault, you're probably wrong."
"I'm not so sure. I mean, Wormtail and I…" he trailed off, blushing just slightly.
"You and Wormtail what?" Sirius noted Remus' faint blush. "You shagged him, didn't you?" the black-haired boy said playfully.
"No, I did not 'shag' him, as you so maturely decided to put it," Remus said, spearing a piece of chicken on his fork. "You know you were my first."
"Ah yes, there is that…" Sirius smiled as he bent over his plate, picking the celery out of his salad and making a small pile on the table.
"And oh, Sirius, I'm so glad you were," whispered Remus hotly in his ear. Sirius' fork clattered unnoticed back onto his plate as his eyes went wide.
"So, Moony, how long do we have until detention?" said Sirius, turning to Remus with a deliciously devious grin.
Remus looked at the clock. "About fifteen minutes."
"That should be long enough. Come on, darling." Sirius grabbed Remus by the wrist and dragged him out of the room.
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Peter, once again, sat under the stairs, curled into a ball, his head resting upon his school robes.
"Aha, Wormtail, there you are!" James stuck his head underneath the gap in the staircase, then plopped down, cross-legged, next to the blond boy.
"Hi Prongs," Peter said sadly.
"Hey, what's the matter?" James cocked his head to one side, covering Peter's hand with his own and squeezing.
Peter's breath caught in his throat at that, and he felt rather bereft when James' hand left his and settled back again on its owner's knee.
"Nothing." Peter sat up and shook his head.
"I don't believe you."
Peter wrapped his arms around his knees. "Why not?" he whispered, looking down.
"Because you always come under here when you're upset."
Peter folded his arms on top of his knees, resting his chin on his forearms. He gave a tentative smile. "You've really noticed that about me?"
"Of course I have." James grinned that crooked grin that always made Peter's heart flutter. "Now come on, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to play Exploding Snap."
Peter beamed. "Okay."
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(swish and flick)
Finitum Part Six!
To be continued…
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PS: I made up all the stuff Remus writes in his DADA essay about manticores, so don't think it's at all valid canon or anything. Thought you ought to know…*collapses* ^_~
