I know I said I was going to wait for ten reviews, but I wanted to try this edit out on an audience, so here we are.
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I think a moment before moving on, "This next bit is going to be out of sequence but I want you to see a bit more of James before we deal with anything else."
I take us to our dorm room on a bright October afternoon. Our younger selves aren't there just yet. James sighs and closes his trunk just as Sirius and I enter the room, "Either of you blokes seen my cloak?"
"It's right there James, on the doorknob," I respond as I drop onto my bed.
"Not that one Moony, I mean my invisibility cloak." He turns to look at Sirius, who's standing between our beds, as if he's unsure if he should sit on my own or his. "If you know where it is Sirius, tell me."
"Sorry James, I haven't seen it in more than a week," Sirius tells him sincerely before looking at me and dropping down onto the edge of my bed, "But it looks like you might know Moony."
I give him my best innocent eyes, "I don't know what you mean Sirius."
He leans closer, "Now I know you're lying, you gave me the innocent eyes."
"The innocent eyes?" I ask, not moving an inch.
"Give it up Moony," I shake my head no and he starts to tickle me. "What do you know?"
"Not a thing," I reply moving backwards on the bed and trying to tickle him in return.
Sirius laughs, covering my body with his own to keep me from escaping, "I know you've got something to tell us Rem, now give it up."
"Quit tickling me Siri. I don't know anything," I'm close to breaking.
"I don't believe you," Sirius' hands slip lower, tickling skin now.
"Okay!" I cry out suddenly, "Stop tickling me! I was planning on going to Hogsmeade tonight and I borrowed it, it's in my trunk."
Sirius stops tickling me but makes no move to let me up, "You were going to Hogemeade and you didn't tell me?"
I use the opportunity to turn the tables, tickling Sirius, "I was going to take you along. I just wasn't going to say anything until I was ready to leave."
"Alright then," Sirius says grabbing my wrists with little effort.
"Always finding some excuse to touch each other," James mutters, clear as day to my ears now that I'm not focused on Sirius but completely unnoticed at the time. He clears his throat to get our attention, "Can I have my cloak please?"
"Sure James. What do you need it for?" I say leaning across Sirius to retrieve it from my trunk.
"I was doing some dives after quidditch practice yesterday. Just making sure I don't get rusty incase Hensen ever lets me play seeker instead of chaser. I think I left my quidditch robes on top of the lockers rooms," James explains grinning sheepishly.
"So you were trying to impress Sparrow and her friends again. James when are you going to learn that some girls, fourth year Gryffindor girls in particular, are immune to your charms?" Sirius asks as I sit back.
"The day they stop drooling all over you Sirius," James replies lightly.
"What? They do not drool over me," Sirius protests. "Yes a couple of them stare but they do not drool."
"Oi stuff it, I'm sick of this nonsense, and though you neglected to ask Moony yes you can borrow the cloak tonight, but put it in my trunk when you're done with it." He starts to leave the room but stops, "You might as well come with me Sirius, practice is in fifteen minutes."
"You've got a point. We'll talk about Hogsmeade later Moony," He gets off the bed almost reluctantly.
"I'll come with you, we can talk about it while James fetches his robes. It's not as if I won't end up wandering down to watch practice at some point anyway. You two have turned me into a quidditch groupie," I'm still not sure if I had meant that as a joke.
"You're not a groupie until someone on the team has ownership of some of your pants," Sirius tells me smirking.
I smile, "Good, I didn't really want the title, truth be told."
"Finished?" James asks impatiently.
"You'd think he had a date or something, wouldn't you?" Sirius asks as we make our way out of the room.
We reach the pitch as Natasha Sparrow takes to the air and begins practicing quick, graceful dives. She's in our year and shares every class with James but won't give him the time of day. So naturally James is positively infatuated.
James' hand unconsciously starts to muss his hair as he takes a step toward the pitch. I suppress a chuckle as Sirius and I grab him by the elbows to stop him from doing something stupid. Sirius laughs, "Slow down there Tiger, you need to fetch your robes first remember?"
James doesn't respond, he simply throws the invisibility cloak over his shoulders and mounts his broom.
When James is gone Sirius pulls me into the locker room with him. After making sure we're alone he starts to change and asks me, "So why are we going to Hogsmeade tonight?"
"The next Hogsmeade weekend isn't for more than a month and I need more sugar quills and to pick up those books we ordered for James' birthday."
"The ones that start insulting you at random when you read them? I though you got those months ago," He comments sitting beside me.
"They didn't have any more in the store. I had them order some for us, but they only got them in yesterday." He nods knowingly.
"He'll be in any minute, we should talk about something else. Like why you don't want to be a Quidditch groupie…" He teases me.
"Well, firstly, and most importantly I might add, I don't think everyone who ever played Quidditch is shag worthy," I try to sound reasonable, as if I've said nothing out of the ordinary.
"Deciding on a case by case basis?" He grins at me, and my breath catches, "Anyone worthy of the time of day?"
"A few," I try to be as noncommittal as possible.
"Oi Sirius, you're still not ready?" James says as he comes in pulling on his robes.
I look away from Sirius, glad to escape that topic without saying too much.
"I was… distracted," Sirius explains as he pulls his hair back in a vain attempt to control it while flying.
"Let's get out there," James calls over his shoulder.
Sirius gets up and begins to follow him. After only two steps he stops and turns to face me, "Fly with me after practice Rem?"
"Wouldn't miss it Siri," I promise smiling.
"See you soon," Sirius says hurrying outside.
We watch as my young self rinses his face and takes a few deep breaths before heading out to watch practice. The three of us sit in the front row of the stands. While he watches Sirius we watch James. I picked this particular practice for a reason. At the start James shows off for the girls who are watching practice.
"Bit of an arrogant prat isn't he?" Sirius asks beside me.
"More often than not," I concede smiling.
As we speak to each other one of the chasers has stopped nearby and is talking to young Remus. A few minutes later the same chaser is hit by a bludger while in proximity to Sirius. She rounds on Sirius furiously, "What the hell was that for?"
"It was an accident," Sirius says actually sounding apologetic. Unfortunately neither the chaser in question or James believed it.
"Did I actually think the innocent act was going to work?" Sirius asks me amused.
"More often than not it did," I tell him shrugging.
"Look Black, I'm not stupid. You did that on purpose. Why?" She's absolutely seething.
"It was an accident," Sirius insists.
James pulls them both aside, coming to a stop nearby. "What the hell was that Sirius?"
"I was distracted, it was an accident," Sirius tells him pleadingly.
"I think I understand what's going on. I'll take care of this Sirius, go ahead and get back to practice," James says calmly.
"This better be good," She warns James as Sirius flies off.
"He really thinks he didn't do it on purpose. You see Sirius is a little… protective of Remus…" James lets his voice trail off.
Young Remus isn't even really listening.
"What does that have to- Oh! I see," She says staring curiously at Sirius.
"You're not injured are you?" James asks sounding terribly concerned.
"No, I'm just fine." She drops her voice, entirely unaware that I can hear her clear as day if I'm paying any attention at all, "What about Remus?"
"I'd have to say he enjoys having Sirius' attention," James responds after a wary glance at me.
"Too bad," She murmurs and flies off.
We continue to watch through the end of practice. When it's over we follow them down to the broomshed so James can put his away while young Remus retrieves his. Not far from the path a second year cries out and falls down. He starts to get up and falls again, panicking. Without so much as a though James goes to him, "What's wrong?"
"I twisted my ankle," The boy manages to tell us.
"That's nothing Poppy can't mend, let's get you up to the hospital wing," James says helping the boy up.
"If someone asked him he'd deny he was just being nice helping that boy," Sirius says at my side smiling fondly. "He wanted so much to seem the bad boy, he just wasn't capable of it."
"Oh, he was a bad boy, he just couldn't repress some of his better nature despite himself," I tell him chuckling.
"I guess I was a bad boy myself then," He tells me grinning.
"The worst," I tell him almost breathlessly. Before I can do something uncalled for I clear my throat, "Now back to the next thing you need to know about yourself." I move us to the next memory. It's quiet in the second years' dorm room as James and I are both finishing our vampire essays, and then the door bangs open and Sirius comes directly to my bed with possibly the dirtiest leather bound book I've ever seen in his hands. He sits beside me and opens it, sending a cloud of dust into the air, I sneeze uncontrollably. "Sorry Moony," James had given me the nickname earlier in the year and now Sirius used it around others. Rem had become half-private, spoken only when we were alone. He mutters a cleaning charm and the dust disappears. "But look at this."
I laughed, "It's an illustration of the Animagus transformation. We've seen it done in person Sirius."
"Close, my dear pup, but not quite, it's instructions on how to do the Animagus transformation. We're going to do it, we're going to keep you company during moon times," Young Sirius exclaims triumphantly.
"And we did it," Sirius murmurs at my side and then Padfoot is licking my hand. Then he transforms back, "James was a stag," as if he had called it up once again, we were outside under the light of a first quarter moon and Prongs cantered past us. "And Peter... Peter is a rat," He says it as if he feels the anger but still doesn't know why. The rat scurries past as well. "Things were better, after this."
I knew he meant more than moon time tortures, "Yes, but not all because of this, we've skipped parts of what helped." I direct us to chilly November morning beside the lake in fourth year.
Sirius and I are sitting beside the lake. I'm the one to break the silence, "Have you ever wondered what Love feels like Siri?"
"No, I can't say that I've ever actually wondered about it," Young Sirius responds, a bit too casually. "Thinking of finally giving into one of the more persistent admirers?" I didn't see it then but he is so obviously jealous at the prospect of me thinking I was in love with someone else.
"No, I'm just wondering what love feels like," I responded, I wasn't about to tell him I thought I was in love, let alone that I thought I was in love with him.
"I was so blind," Sirius says at my side.
"We were young and we were on the edge of something huge. Maybe even something too big for us, I forgive us a bit of utter stupidity," I tell him.
"I said I don't wonder, not that I don't know," Young Sirius says softly.
"So, you're in love with someone then?" Young Remus says with a tremor in his voice, and this time young Sirius notices.
"I have been for as long as I can remember," he responds.
"Who?" Young Remus says nervously.
Young Sirius moves in close and whispers simply, "Guess," before kissing young Remus and changing both our lives.
Sirius puts his arms around my waist at this, "Not that I'm not enjoying reliving this one but I remember all this. And as we're working on bringing my memory back, perhaps we should move on. We can revisit this one later."