AN- Okay, here's chapter 3! Will be working on Chapter 4 today on paper, so it might be a bit longer for me to type it up afterwards....Stupid story inspired me to go out and buy 'Nat King Cole- Unforgettable'. Great CD. Disclaimer- Let's see, STILL NOT MINE!
The first few days of Remus's stay at the Potter house passed in lazy hours of avoiding the heat and listening to alternating records of Swing and Jazz. James was just thankful for the variation. However, sometimes it seemed as though a battle of music was being waged in the middle of his bedroom- which was composed more of 'beds' than of 'room' these days.
Sirius was currently sifting through his stack of records until he found the one he was looking for. James looked up and groaned. Frank Sinatra. Again.
"Moony!" Sirius called as he scrambled over the beds towards the record player. "You've got to hear this one!" Remus looked up from his book- most likely something about Swing...James took a closer look. Nope, in fact it was a muggle novel called 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. James logged that information in the back o9f his mind for future reference.
Sirius was now at the record player. He carefully stopped and removed Remus's Glenn Miller album and started getting his playing. It was only a few moments before he'd found the song he'd wanted. James groaned as he recognized the tune.
"Twenty-six. That is twenty-six times you have played this song since you first heard it!" James sighed and covered his ears with a pillow.
Remus quirked his eyebrow in amusement before turning to Sirius. "That good, eh?"
Sirius just nodded as the words started. It was obvious that he'd listened to it a lot because he was singing along.
Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars
Let me see what life if like on Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand
In other words, darlin' kiss me.
Fill my heart with song and let me sing forever more
You are all I long for, all I worship and adore
In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you.
Remus smiled. James noted that his eyes had remained fixed on the obliviously singing Sirius who was singing with his eyes closed and thus hadn't noticed the attention.
"Not bad. Who sings that? Other than you of course."
Sirius blushed slightly, something he very rarely did. "Frank Sinatra. He has a lot of really good songs."
"And most of them are really sappy." James chimed in, trying to get a reaction out of either of them. It was true, but it didn't work. He sighed and re-fluffed the pillow that had sheltered his ears.
Sirius turned and glared at him, but Remus laughed so he was forced to turn and look that way. Having the middle bed had its disadvantages. "What's so funny?"
Remus smiled. "It's just that I never pictured you as a sap before."
Sirius shrugged. "Looks can be deceiving." He grinned at Remus who was smiling back and it probably would have continued had James not butted in.
"Okay, I don't think there is a single record in this entire house that I haven't heard at least five times. Whether you like it or not, we're finding a record store first thing tomorrow morning so that I can at least have a little variety here!
Remus turned his smile to James. "Kippy, there was another album by Benny Goodman that I wanted to get."
Sirius just bounced, even more than he had previously.
James sighed and decided that playing matchmaker was going to be a lot harder than he had thought.
---------------------------------------------------------
Next morning at about 10:00, James, Sirius, and Remus stepped out of the Leaky Cauldron fireplace after a quick trip via Floo Powder from the Potters'. James's parents had no problem with their venture, provided they were home in time for dinner. It took them a good half an hour just to find a record store. They arrived inside with little trouble only to be faced by a lot of music that wasn't Swing or Jazz, but something else entirely.
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home dad?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then.
Sirius blinked and turned to Remus. "Moony, what's this?"
Remus shrugged. "Evidently the popular music of today." He said quietly, so as not to be overheard by the numerous muggles in the store. "What we want will be this way." Remus led the way to the back of the store where there weren't many people, except for a couple of older people. James walked back with them far enough to realize that there was absolutely no one around the Swing music except Remus and Sirius.
"Well," he said, "I'll leave you two to your odd obsessions with swing and overly sappy music and try and develop my own musical obsession so I have something to join the music battles." James smirked and sauntered off down another aisle, not realizing he was only moving about another ten years from Sirius's music. He stopped at a picture of four guys in mid-stride across a muggle street. He picked it up. "The Beatles. Sounds interesting..."
Meanwhile back in the Swing section, Remus had found his Benny Goodman album and Sirius had found his own copy of Louis Armstrong that featured 'It Don't Mean a Thing' in addition to another Nat King Cole record.
"So how's your summer been?" Sirius suddenly asked as he examined the Nat King Cole record, wondering what the songs sounded like. One of them was called 'Nature Boy'. It reminded him of Remus, just the title.
Remus smirked. "It's been alright, a bit boring. No one to argue with about 'aardvarks'."
"I told James that and he just threatened to break my single Benny Goodman record. I was being too bouncy about you coming to visit."
Remus laughed. "Well, I guess you'd best watch out then. Breaking a Benny Goodman record would be a sin in my book."
"I'll just have to try not to get so hyper about seeing you then. I missed you Moony!" Sirius frowned and gave him the puppy dog eyes. "You should stay."
"Can't," Remus's heart did a flip, Sirius wanted him to stay. He'd missed him. "Full moon, I have to be home." Never had Remus so hated the moon and it's phases. "I really wish I could stay though."
Sirius frowned and sighed. "I'll just have to bombard you with letters that say 'aardvark' every five lines alternating with other such nonsense."
Remus smiled and tugged some of Sirius's hair that was falling over his shoulder. It was really long now; it was almost halfway down his back. "Dindy puppy." Sirius smiled and blushed a light pink. That was how James found them a few minutes later when he walked up holding a few Beatles Albums.
"We ready to go?" He asked, breaking the awkward silence. Remus swiftly let go of the bit of hair that he had been absently running through his fingers and Sirius swiftly spun around.
"Er, yeah. I'm getting pretty hungry. How about an ice cream before we head home?"
Remus quickly agreed, still slightly flushed from his momentary lapse of sanity. James sighed to himself, having overheard the entire conversation. They really were pitiful if they couldn't figure out the other's feelings. Either that or very oblivious.
---------------------------------------------------------
"Say it's only a paper moon
Hanging over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make believe
if you believed in me!"
Sirius sang along enthusiastically. James had his ears covered again and Remus was secretly watching from over the top of his book. James leapt up as soon as the song ended.
"Alright, MY turn now. That one didn't even make sense...Paper moon indeed." James grabbed one of his records and plopped it onto the player. "Lets try...this one." Music that was obviously a bit more recent came spilling out instantly.
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
"And you say MY music doesn't make sense!" Sirius exclaimed. "What is this?"
"Beatles. Big muggle hit. Still popular, unlike your music." James smiled.
"Blegh, It's alright. But they've got nothing on Frank Sinatra."
"Just because it's not all about love. I honestly don't get the obsession Padfoot."
"It's good music!"
"And you get all dreamy-eyed when you listen to it."
Sirius turned bright red and was at a loss for things to say. Remus came to his rescue.
"Leave him alone James. Just shows he's not as shallow about his affections as you and Lily. Constantly resorting to physical and verbal violence is not a normal way to show someone you fancy them."
"I do NOT fancy Evans!" James grumbled. How had his perfect matchmaking scheme suddenly backfired entirely? This was not how things were supposed to work!
Sirius seemed to have recovered by now. "Sure Jamie-boy. Sure."
"I hate that name and you know it." James was coming dangerously close to attempting to growl, not something most stags were any good at.
"But your mum doesn't!" Sirius crowed happily.
James grumbled and stomped off towards the door. "I'm going down for a drink. You're hopeless. The BOTH of you." So much for matchmaking. He was utter crap at it and he knew it. They'd just have to figure it out themselves. Merlin knows how long that would take. And if there was one thing James hated, it was the fact that they were right. He did fancy Lily, but he wasn't about to admit it.
Maybe she'd do better with the whole matchmaking thing. James decided to owl her while he was downstairs. Hopefully she wouldn't choose to burn the letter rather than help him. Honestly, the two of them were driving him crazy.
---------------------------------------------------------
James gave up on any more matchmaking attempts during Remus's stay, seeing as the two of them would just gang up on him about Lily. Lily, who had not ignored his letter, but sent a very short reply back. All it said was 'Find out how Sirius feels and right me back. I may be able to help. But this is for them. Not you, Potter.' He'd decided to ignore the last bit and just be happy that she'd acknowledged his existence.
So now he was doing as she said. It was late at night and he and Sirius were just getting ready to go to sleep. There was a lot more space in his room without the third bed.
James pondered to himself what the best way to approach this would be. Then he realized what song was playing. It Don't Mean a Thing. Once again. Sirius had been playing it constantly since Remus had left. So often in fact that James had actually started to just block it out. Now it suddenly occurred to him where he'd first heard it. At the party after they'd won the Quidditch cup, Remus had been dancing with Sirius to it just before the 'Lily fiasco'.
"It's just now occurred to me that this is the song we danced to at that party." Sirius looked up quickly and blushed lightly.
"Yeah, it is. That was a lot of fun." Truth be told, he remembered the feeling every time he heard it.
James watched the expressions flit across his best friend's face before taking the plunge.
"He's the reason you listen to all the sappy love songs, isn't he?"
Sirius's jaw dropped and flapped. James smiled. "Thought so. You love him, eh?"
"I, err, I..." Sirius floundered. Was it really that obvious? Had Remus noticed it? He was turning beat red now. He couldn't come up with any proper words so he just nodded. Damn James and his perceptiveness! Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
"Are you okay with that?" He asked worriedly. "I mean, you don't hate me or anything? Because if you do...I can leave..."
James's eyes widened in shock. "Bloody hell Sirius! Of course not! You're the same person you always were, and all you just did was completely confirm something I've known for weeks."
Sirius let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Thank Merlin!"
"So are you going to tell him?" James asked, already knowing the answer.
"No, of course not." Sirius answered as though James had asked if he were going to jump off a bridge. "He means too much to me to risk losing his friendship."
"You should still give it a shot though, I mean, there's always a chance."
"Leave it be James. Just go to sleep."
James complied, but the subject was far from 'let be' in his mind. He had a letter to write to Lily in the morning.
---------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile Lily was contemplating the very same thoughts, though Sirius's feelings were still unknown to her. She knew Remus loved Sirius very deeply, but was too scared to lose one of the only friends who'd ever fully trusted him, the closest of all his friends. He didn't think he could live if Sirius hated him, therefore he wouldn't risk. She only hoped that Sirius would be just as blunt in his feelings about Remus as he was about everything else in his life. But from what James had said, that wasn't going to be the case.
It seemed to be that Remus was the only subject about which Sirius was entirely serious.
---------------------------------------------------------
And in yet another part of England, there was a wolf that was incredibly unhappy about not having its pack that night.
Remus cowered in the corner of the wolf's mind; only dimly aware of the mess his body would be in come morning. For now, he kept himself sane with thoughts of Sirius and how enjoyable their time together had been in the past weeks. He thought of all the little things Sirius had done, and how he'd been missed. It made him smile to think that maybe there was a chance for him, just maybe.
When the moon set, Remus Lupin slept soundly.
---------------------------------------------------------
Sirius Black remained awake half the night, thinking over what James had said about giving it a chance. Oh how he wished things could have remained normal between Remus and himself, that he could be content with just friendship. But ever since that dance, Sirius's insides did a somersault every time Remus was near him. It was like a burst of nerves combined with utter joy. The strangest thing he'd ever felt. Yet he wanted more of it. Always more because Sirius Black never did things halfway.
---------------------------------------------------------
And Peter Pettigrew had no idea that anything was even wrong. Lucky little bugger.
---------------------------------------------------------
Two voices mumbled softly to themselves on opposite sides of England as the moon set and they wandered off to the land of dreams.
"It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing..."
Review! Give me feedback! It makes me write faster! =)