Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything and I am not JK.

Rating: PG-13 (mild slash, probably some language later)

A/N: This chapter took me absolutely ages, but I think I got there in the end. The next one will probably take at least as long, as I've started several other things since this.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------

They arrived in Godric's Hollow a little before noon the next day. James' mother must have been watching out for them; she opened the front door before they got there to welcome them all in. James got a hug, as did Sirius, much to his embarrassment. She shook Remus and Peter's hands, smiling broadly, and showed them all to their rooms.

They had stayed here before, of course. These were the same rooms they were always given, at the top of the large house with a whole empty floor between them and the rooms that Mr and Mrs Potter used. This seemed to Remus to be the only sensible thing to do; he personally thought they must both be mad to allow all James' friends to stay over so often. They had stopped short of destroying the house, but they had caused their fair share of trouble. Well, James and Sirius had.

They had planned to go down to the town that afternoon, but the weather took a drastic turn for the worse. By the time they had finished lunch, the sky was an ominous black and it had started to rain. They considered going anyway, but decided against it. Half an hour later, they were very glad they had, as the rain had become a thunderstorm.

They watched the weather from James' room. Sirius, James and Peter were playing Exploding Snap; Remus was reading.

"I thought you'd ask Lily to stay," remarked Sirius. "Can you stand two weeks without seeing her?"

"Ha ha." James did not seem amused.

"You two do seem practically glued together, sometimes," said Remus without looking up from his book.

"Or most of the time," said Sirius.

James ignored them. "Snap!" he shouted, and the cards went up in Peter's face, singeing his eyebrows rather badly. Sirius gathered up the remains of the pack for the next game.

"Actually," said James, as if it had nothing to do with the previous conversation, "she's coming round next week."

Sirius exchanged a knowing look with Remus and Peter, and they started chanting.

"Told you! Told you!"

"Oh, shut up," grumbled James, going slightly red. "Just wait until you get girlfriends. Then we'll see."

Sirius glanced at Remus. They were not likely to get a better opening. Remus sighed and put his book to one side.

"It's funny you should say that," said Sirius, looking carefully out of the window rather than at James. "Because Moony and I are... sort of... dating."

James made a triumphant noise and started laughing. "Ha! Both of you? And you kept this secret from me? I'm impressed. Go on, who?"

Sirius shot Remus an alarmed look. He did not need to be a mind reader to translate it: your call, Moony.

"Um... each other."

James' laughter stopped abruptly.

Peter was goggling at them. "What?"

"We've been seeing each other in secret for a few months now," said Sirius, still refusing to look at any of them.

For a moment James continued to stare. Then he started laughing again.

"Oh, very good, Padfoot. You know, I've come to expect this sort of thing from you," he said, sounding uncannily like Professor McGonagall, "but how on earth did you convince Moony to go along with it?" Peter began laughing as well.

Sirius glanced at Remus, who shrugged, going red. They had envisaged many possible reactions, but this total disbelief has not been one of them.

"Like this," said Sirius, and he leaned over and kissed Remus. The laughter died away again, and when they looked up both Peter and James seemed thoroughly shocked. Sirius slid closer to Remus, putting both arms about his waist and waiting for the reaction.

"Well... um..." James was apparently speechless. "That's... unexpected." Peter was opening and closing his mouth as if trying to say something, but no sound emerged.

"Oh good," said Sirius. "We weren't sure we were doing a very good job of covering it up."

"How long...?"

"Oh, it was last November. Wasn't it?" Remus nodded. A look of astonishment grew on James's face.

"After the full moon!" he exclaimed. "I found you by the lake..."

Sirius contrived to look ashamed of himself as they both nodded. "Yeah. I kind of pounced on him. He was almost as shocked as you are. And he was cold," he added defensively. Remus swallowed a laugh.

"And you hid it all this time?"

"We weren't sure how you'd react," said Remus quietly.

James looked suddenly worried, and backed away from them without noticing he was doing it. "You don't... I mean, I... you know I'm not..."

Sirius frowned at him, but Remus thought he understood what was worrying James. He had half-expected this might happen.

"Oh, don't worry, Prongs," he said lightly. "You're not my type. I can't speak for Padfoot, of course, but I promise that if he does get any ideas I'll make him regret them."

For a second Sirius looked as shocked as Peter and James. Then he collapsed on the floor, laughing so much there were tears on his cheeks. He pulled himself upright, clutching a stitch in his side, and leant on Remus' shoulder, still laughing.

"Your face!" he gasped, pointing at James.

"Actually," said Remus mischievously, "he did have a crush on you a while back, didn't you, Padfoot? Luckily for me he came to his senses before too long."

James gaped, lost for words.

"You're not serious?" asked Peter, astonished.

"No, I'm..."

"Shut up!" all three of them shouted before Sirius could complete his usual – and very terrible – joke.

"Well," said James in a very strained voice, "I'm... glad you got over it." Remus, who had managed to keep a straight face so far, had to look away before he started laughing as much as Sirius. Sirius pulled him into a bone-cracking hug in a sudden fit of affection and Remus, blushing, elbowed him sharply, nodding towards James and Peter. Both other boys were still gaping at them. As Sirius glanced up, still grinning hugely, James snapped his mouth shut and instead gave them an odd, appraising look.

"What?" demanded Sirius. Though he had let go, Remus was still leaning back against him. It was comfortable, and he was so relieved to be able to drop the pretence, even if only for these two weeks.

"You're glowing," James replied dryly. They both looked down at themselves in alarm, and James snorted. "Not literally. Just... glowing." He sounded almost wistful, but seemed to come to himself a second or so later. "Oh, shut your mouth, Wormtail," he said irritably. "You look even stupider than normal." Peter snapped his mouth shut immediately, flushing slightly and looking at the floor.

As if that was the signal that everything was back to normal, Remus sighed and picked up his book again, as Sirius moved back towards the others, reached for the cards and began shuffling.

Later, when the cards had exploded in everyone's faces once too often and they had resorted to lounging around doing nothing much and sighing as they looked at the torrential rain through the window, Sirius caught James watching him and Remus again. He frowned and James looked away.

"Hey, Moony, did you get those pictures developed?" asked Peter suddenly. "The ones you took at Christmas?"

"Yes, I did. I think I've got them in my room, actually, if you want to see them?" Peter nodded and Remus got to his feet with a smile. "Come on, then, let's see if I can find them. There's a few of my family on the end of the film, though."

"Prongs?" asked Sirius quietly when Remus and Peter had left and the door had swung closed again, breaking the horrible silence that seemed to emanate from James. "Are you all right, mate? I mean, are you all right about..."

"About you and Moony? Yeah, fine. Why shouldn't I be? Really, I mean, it was a bit of a shock..." he broke off at Sirius' sceptical look and snorted. "Okay, so it was a hell of a shock," he admitted. His voice had been strained, but now it was almost back to normal. "But, I'll get used to it. I guess you suit each other. Don't know why I didn't see it before, thinking about it. You're obviously... er... well, you're... I meant that, about the glowing, you know. It was... weird." Silence fell, slightly awkward but not as strained as it had been earlier, and stretched for maybe thirty seconds before James spoke again.

"Me and Lily, do we... um... do we..." the wistful tone was back in his voice but he could not seem to say what was on his mind. Sirius took pity on him.

"Sometimes. When you haven't annoyed her too much recently." James shoved him, with an exasperated shake of his head, and with the worst of the awkwardness gone even before Sirius shoved back, grinning, they were talking normally again when Remus and Peter reappeared with the photos.