Disclaimer: JK owns them allll! Unfortunately. I want to own Remus. Just for a day? Please?? Oh, except the Potions teacher, who is mine, but is rather useless.
Er.... here, read the chapter.
Peter was sitting at a table, with Remus and Sirius across from him. Remus had finally given in and made Peter a cup of tea to get him to calm down enough to talk.
"You see," Peter began for the twelfth time.
Remus laid his head in his hands on the desk, giving up on any chance of finding out what had happened.
However, Peter continued. "You know, don't you, that I'm not doing so well in potions." He ran his fingers around the rim of his teacup nervously. "And... well, Professor Mugwort assigned Snape to tutor me."
"Yuck," Sirius interjected. Remus gave him a look.
"Anyway, so… well, he thought it would be funny, I think, to tell me the wrong ingredients for the potion we were practicing… and it…" Peter looked over his shoulder at the remaining overturned shelves and torn tapestries, "seems to have caused a chain of explosions."
"Great," Sirius muttered. "You'll be in detention for weeks, you know. Won't be able to come out for the full moon."
Peter looked into his empty teacup. He thought he could see something unpleasant in his tea leaves. "I know. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Remus muttered from the surface of the table. "It was Snape's fault."
"No, I just should have studied harder. I know I could do it if I put my mind into it, I just… well, I just always seem to wind up taking the easy way out."
"It's okay, Wormtail," Remus said, lifting his head up and resting his chin in his hand. "Um… we'll help you clean up, then we have to talk to James about something." He gave Sirius a meaningful look, and a strange combination of anger and mischief appeared on Sirius's face.
"Right."
-----
Sirius held James pinned against the wall.
"James Potter, you are in deep trouble," Remus snapped. "What on earth possessed you to lock two of your best friends in a closet?"
"Well, you were being right pigheaded about the whole thing."
"What whole thing? I wasn't aware that there was any whole thing. I ought to lock you up in a room and see how you like it."
James grinned and tilted his head up to the ceiling. "If that's what'll make you happy, Moony."
Remus sighed and threw up his hands. He went up to the girls' dorms to get Molly. Yes, it was against the rules, but it just had to be done. Fortunately Molly came quietly.
"How did you two even find out about this room? I've never even seen it before." Sirius was asking the question this time. Molly and James were tied to two chairs in the Gryffindor common room.
"Well, James and I were going around trying to find a place to put you two," Molly paused, blushing, "and finally we just stopped, and I started pacing, thinking we needed a place no one else could get into and you couldn't get out of. And suddenly this door just appeared in the wall."
"Trippy," Sirius said sarcastically.
Remus chuckled in spite of himself.
"So, you were just sitting around and decided to lock us up?"
James shifted in his chair. "Well, no."
Sirius looked at Molly; Remus looked at James.
It was Molly who spoke next. She looked at Sirius. "After you went upstairs the night you broke up with me--"
Remus cut her off. "You broke up with her? When was this?"
Sirius shrugged. "Two nights ago?"
"Oh… why?"
Sirius didn't answer. Instead, he turned to James. "So why did you do it?"
"Well, Molly had told me… what you said…"
Remus looked at James. What he said? What had he said?
Sirius looked annoyed. He turned to Molly now. "Would it have killed you to keep a secret?"
Molly looked down. "Well, I thought—since he was your best friend--"
Sirius growled under his breath. "And what happened then?"
"Well, Remus had said something to me, too," James replied, "and we decided to lock you up. Obviously, it was a bad idea."
Sirius glanced over at Remus. "That was very vague."
"Yeah."
Sirius was nervous. "What... exactly did you tell him?"
"Well, it's not so much that I told him as he walked in on it, but…" Remus looked down, trying to keep the hot blush he felt at the tips of his ears from spreading to his cheeks. He looked back up at Sirius. "I'll tell you later. What are we going to do to them?"
Sirius looked thoughtful. "I think tying them up and dropping them in the lake would be satisfactory."
"No, Sirius. We don't want to risk expulsion."
"Hum. You're right. What do you suggest, Moony?"
Remus thought for a moment. "Well…"
His head snapped back over to James and Molly. They were gone. James must have gotten his wand out of his pocket and used it to free them.
"Damn it," Sirius cursed. "We should have taken their wands!"
Remus looked around, but there was no sign of them. They must have Disapparated. "Damn…"
Sirius's gaze slid over to Remus. "So, Moony… what was it you were going to tell me?"
-----
Remus felt the blush creeping back into the tips of his ears. It spread to his temples, and he tried to fight it down. Not succeeding, he settled for looking at the table. "I, um… James just… it was nothing. It was something stupid."
He could feel Sirius's eyes on him.
"Oh."
Remus looked up. Grey eyes held his glance. They were so clear, like water reflecting a cloudy sky. Remus shivered as the back of his neck prickled.
"What happened back there? When we were in that room?" Sirius asked.
"What do you mean?" Remus felt like his voice was coming from far away. Sirius filled his vision; his clear eyes, his long black lashes, his hair, such a dark brown it was almost black… his straight nose, the curve of an unconscious smirk on his lips… the line of his jaw, as pronounced as James's but not as sharp, somehow… his face was thinner than James's.
"Well… I don't know…"
Remus thought he detected a hint of nervousness in Sirius's voice. That was another thing. His voice. Deep, slightly scratchy, intoxicating; a hint of humor lifting the ends of his words, even when he was angry.
Sirius continued. "It seemed like… like we were getting very close, right before the explosions. It wasn't just me, was it?"
"No…" Remus swallowed. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He hadn't been breathing. He opened his eyes again.
"Okay. So... what was going on? Do you…"
Remus wasn't sure whether Sirius was going to say, "Do you know what happened," or, "do you have feelings for me," but it didn't matter. He was going to tell him anyway.
"I think I'm in love with you, Sirius," he said, but somehow what came out was, "It didn't mean anything." Remus cursed himself. And he was still looking Sirius in the eye! That wasn't good at all. He'd think… oh, Lord, he'd think he meant it. But he couldn't say anything. Now, he actually wanted to, but he couldn't. What was the matter with him?
-----
Everything was falling apart. And all Sirius could do was watch the flames. Things had started happening, so quickly, he was sure Remus would have found out everything. And now, somehow, he hadn't. And he didn't want anything. He had looked Sirius in the eye and basically said "no." Damn. Shit. None of this was supposed to happen.
Remus was looking at the table now, tracing a signature that had been carved into the wood. Sirius stared at him. His sandy hair stood up in loose curls on his head in a way that made Sirius want to brush it down, even though he knew it would do no good—it was too short to lie down properly yet. He smiled, glad Remus had decided to let it grow. Long hair would look good on him. Sirius wanted to reach out and touch one of the curls, but then he remembered Remus's rejection. That stopped him in his tracks. Much as he might want to, he didn't want Remus to feel awkward around him.
This chapter was rather inconclusive... but the next chapter involves Christmas shopping, alcohol, and Lucius Malfoy, so stay tuned!