Note: Once again, it rises from the dead! And hopefully this time, it will also be functional. Instead of a zombie…
Page Three: Spring
The day of the match itself had excellent weather. A few clouds breezed high overhead and hand made banners flapped in the gentle wind. Peter was huddled against Remus, grinning and shivering as they sat on the edge of the Gryffindor crowd. "We're going to win this one," he said rather loudly into the werewolf's ear, causing the other to wince slightly. "I can feel it. James'll beat all those Slytherin bastards!"
Remus felt it wasn't the time to remind him that James was not the entire Quidditch team.
After Christmas, the relationship between Remus and Sirius seemed to cool off considerably. It was as though the crescendo of their kiss had been nothing more than a bad ending to a bad plot. Though Remus' heart still longed to be near his friend, he knew that pushing anything was going to end up with both of them in a fight that neither wanted to have. It was better this way, Remus tried to convince himself. It was better to forget that anything had happened between them.
Both teams entered the field, Aberdee Hooch in the lead for Gryffindor and Meernya Demuri in front of the Slytherins. They glared at each other and grinned horribly while shaking hands. Professor Puree blew his whistle and they were off.
For a moment, no one breathed. And then suddenly, the voices from the stands rose like a flood to fill the stadium. Roddy Jordan was at the magical microphone shouting commentary over the cries of the fans- "And Hooch catches the ball… Who - Oh, it's Yurgis… That's ten more points for Gryffindor!"
Remus' eyes followed James as he wheeled high above the field. Demuri was tracking him rather than watching for the Snitch herself. Even from so far below, Remus could catch that predatory glint in her eyes. She was the perfect Slytherin- pure blooded, cold blooded, and utterly gorgeous. He vaguely remembered a story that was passed around during second year about her chasing after Lucius Malfoy, but decided not to believe it. The only thing Demuri had to chase was a Snitch. Everything else came to her.
Suddenly, a blur dashed past the Gryffindor section of the stands and a loud CRACK! resounded in everyone's ears. Many of the first year students shrieked and covered their ears with their mitten-clad hands. Everyone else turned towards the blur, which now appeared to be Sirius, shaking and rather wide-eyed.
The dark haired boy looked down at Remus and gave him a trembling smile. "Sorry," he mouthed.
"And it appears that Sirius Black caught the Bludger before its wild turn could harm the crowd! Way to go, Sirius!" crowed Roddy over the mouthpiece.
Sirius hung in the air just over Remus' head for half a second, then he flashed back into the melee. Peter whistled. "Thought those things were charmed to avoid anyone other than the players…" he said loudly into the little werewolf's ear. "Spell musta worn off or something."
Remus nodded distantly, his eyes darting first to Sirius' quick broom movements and then to James- still circling overhead.
"GO JAMES!" shouted Peter, jumping up and down.
And, indeed, a second later, James did go. Straight down.
A cry lifted up from the Gryffindor stands as he plummeted to the ground. Then, in a flash, he shifted to the left and up a little, hand outstretched. The cry turned into a roar as the crowd suddenly began to see what was happening. Demuri had caught on at once, but instead of following James' plummet, she had looked quickly for the Snitch and began a direct path towards it. Her broom was faster, but he had seen it sooner.
Remus felt himself rise to his tiptoes despite the fact that he had a clear view of the field. He trembled slightly and he could hear the word "James" escaping breathily from his lips.
Demuri suddenly banked to the left and her broom tumbled tip over bristle. The Slytherins let out a shout of dismay, and then suddenly cried out in joy. Between her long fingers, a glint of gold hit the sun.
"Aaaaaaaand it's Slytherin by exactly one hundred and fifty points!" Roddy shouted.
~ * ~
"I almost had it!" James said for the tenth time in the past hour. He held up his thumb and forefinger, indicating the distance that had been between his hand and the golden ball. "It was this close!"
"Will you shut it, already?" snarled Sirius, who was in a bad mood. He had been bragging earlier that week to Snape that Gryffindor would SURELY win. Humiliation was not a good color for Sirius Black. "You should have knocked her off her broom!"
"Isn't that your job?" Remus asked- irritated that they were too absorbed in describing how close Gryffindor's win had been to pay attention to their homework. "You should have hit the Bludger towards her."
Sirius shot him a venomous glance which quickly turned into puppy eyes. "Aaaww… Remus… be nice. It's been a rough day." He moved over to the other boy and sat down next to him. Remus suppressed a shiver. It was the closest Sirius had gotten to him since Christmas. Since… the kiss… He blushed and looked over at Peter who was struggling with star charts.
"… and anyway, his spellwork doesn't nearly match up to yours," James was saying to Sirius. "He's just a greasy little-"
"JAMES HAROLD POTTER!" A whirlwind commonly known as Lily burst into the room. Her red hair flew around her like snakes and she pounced on the dark haired boy with all the fury of an angry tomcat. "How could you, how could you, how could yoooouu?! It was THIS CLOSE!" She held up the same distance between her fingers that James had before. "How could you miss it?!" And, huffing, she stood up straight. "Now I have to wear that horrible green hat for a week!"
"What green hat?" Peter asked politely, not looking up from his homework.
Lily tilted her hips to the side and placed her hands on them. "Erula Montegue bet me that Slytherin would win. I said no way and if I lost, I'd wear this awful awful green hat of hers that her great great grandmother sent her last year. If I won, she would have to live as a Muggle for a day. And," she growled "I LOST. No thanks to you, JAMES."
Remus sighed and wished he had something to plug his ears with. When it wasn't James and Sirius, it was Lily. He lifted his book up higher, hoping that they would get the hint that he wanted to study. Unfortunately, the three of them were too involved in their own battles to pay any attention to him.
"I HATE THE COLOR GREEN!"
"It wasn't my fault, Lily!"
"And then he went for it, but NOOOOOOOOOO she got there first. And did he knock her off? NOOOOOOOO!!"
"And then there's the whole PRIDE ISSUE!!!"
"YOU shouldn't have made the bet in the first place!!"
Finally, Remus couldn't take it any more. He stood up, books in hand, trembling just slightly. Everyone stopped yelling to turn and stare at him. "Get over yourselves," he said tersely. After that, he stalked upstairs to the dormitories where he hoped he would not be disturbed by rampant ghosts or something of the like.
Fortunately the dormitory was silent. Remus sighed and curled up on his bed, spreading the books out in front of him and opening them to the pages he wanted with a simple charm. Dusty pages of astronomy and magical history smiled up at him in silence. Ah blessed sile-
Just then, Sirius barged into the room and slammed the door shut behind him, locking it with several complicated spells. He panted heavily for a minute, and then slumped to the floor with his back against the wall. "Woo! I never thought he'd get that mad at a simple burning spell…"
"Sirius…" Remus' tone was dangerously close to angry.
"Hey, Remus!" He didn't sound quite as angry as he had earlier in the common room.
"Sirius, what are you doing in here?"
"Running away from James." Sirius looked a little guilty. "And, I kind of wanted to talk to you." He made a bit of a face and then smiled shakily. "I wanted to apologize… about… Christmas."
Remus had to force himself to keep his jaw from dropping. He had thought the subject would never come up again. In fact, he had been trying his hardest to forget that it ever had happened. Nothing good could come out of remembering something that Sirius clearly wanted to put behind them. "You… apologize… ah… uh…"
Sirius turned pink and bit his lip. "I miss how close we were… I miss you, Remus. And, I really did like… uh… kissing you." Sitting on the floor, his hair mussed and his face flushed deeply- he was beautiful. Remus wanted nothing more than to kiss him again. And here he was saying that he wanted to…
Remus slid off the bed. "Did you really?"
"Yeah. And I… can we do it again?" Sirius was now a brilliant red and his hands were shaking a little.
"Yeah," Remus breathed, inching closer. This time, he wouldn't mess it up, he promised himself. This time, he would just be quiet and kiss. Just… kiss…
This time, it was twice as electric as at Christmas. This time, it was shaky but more sure. This time, it was beautiful and painful and full of childish longing. This time, Remus was quiet after they broke apart. His lips tingled and his heart burned, and he was silent. Sirius watched him with studious eyes.
"Did you like it?" Sirius asked after a moment. Not exactly the most polite thing to say after one has just kissed one's best friend, but it was certainly better than walking out.
"Um…" Remus blushed and then nodded.
"Lily kissed James," Sirius said, offhand, not looking at the boy he had just kissed.
Remus' face fell. So that was it. As usual, when Sirius was jealous of James, he ran to Remus. That kiss was a jealous kiss. A needy kiss. Obviously, Lily had kissed James downstairs and he ran up… to kiss Remus. Because Remus was "like that". Because Remus loved him. Because he could use Remus. "Oh," he said quietly.
"I guess I was jealous at first," Sirius said rather calmly, given the situation. "I mean, it wasn't that he got a kiss from Lily- I don't like her like that. Or him, for that matter. But he only told me this summer. Remember when you took that sleeping potion that she screwed up? Yeah… apparently he-"
Remus flung himself onto Sirius and planted an impromptu kiss on his cheek. "Oh god!" was all he could say, before beginning to laugh into the other boy's shoulder.
"Remus?"
"Oh god- Sirius… I though…. I swear… I thought you had just run up here because she kissed him downstairs. And you were… jealous or something…" Remus pulled back and his face was shining. "But you really kissed me, didn't you."
For a moment, the dark haired boy looked confused. Then he started to laugh, too. "Yeah, I really did kiss you. Remmie…"
"I miss that name!" And their arms were around each other. It was as if a fire had suddenly been lit in the room. The warmth swelled and surrounded them, and Remus felt as though he was going to explode from sheer relief. Sirius, too, trembled as though he held some great emotion in check.
"I'll call you Remmie any time you want."
Remus smiled and leaned against him. And, for once, he forgot he was a werewolf.
~ * ~
Of course, all beautiful things come to an end- and just a few weeks later, the four boys were packed onto the Hogwarts Express and shipped back to Kings' Cross. Sirius and Remus sat close to each other, while James was attempting to teach Peter the fine art of making a trash princess out of their discarded Chocolate frog wrappers. Sirius was unhappy about returning home, but Remus had mollified him with the promise of daily letters and that they would have to get together at some point. After that, Sirius had settled grumpily next to him and they held hands under the folds of their robes.
It wasn't that they wanted to hide their budding relationship from James or Peter- they just didn't know where it was going. And as Sirius pointed out, it would be pointless to get them all worked up before anything happened. Besides, the most touching they had done recently was hand holding. They had both been very busy with exams, and when they weren't, Quidditch season was coming to a close so they barely had time to see each other. Much less see each other alone.
"LOOK!" shouted Peter excitedly. "The trash princess arises!!!"
And indeed, a trash princess had taken shape and wobbled around the car for a few minutes before falling into pieces again. This only encouraged James to try again. This time, though, they decided on a trash monster.
About halfway through the return trip, Remus fell asleep. When he woke up, the train had stopped and Sirius was sadly shoving him off. "Remmie- we're home."
"Damn," Remus said softly.
Sirius chuckled and wiggled his shoulder. "Come on, let's go."
James and Peter had sprinted off the train with their precious trash monster in hand, leaving the other boys alone. Remus stood up and stretched a little. "Do we have to go home?"
Without answering, Sirius just scooped the smaller boy closer and kissed him. "I really like you."
Remus would have answered with something witty or endearing, but as it was he was tired and only came up with, "Yes."
To be continued…
End Note: Thanks to all who have been sticking through this with me. I promise there will be more- I do not know when. It has been very difficult to get through this chapter… but hopefully with the advent of the Animagus breaking upon us… things will change. Also, I ordered a single that makes me think of Sirius and Remus' relationship… so it will be easier to work with that music.