Sirius almost had to carry Remus out of Divination. That sickening aroma must have a stronger effect on him because of his acute wolf senses. Sirius thought back through the class and remembered the strange looks Remus had been giving him in there. As soon as they'd left the class, Remus had pulled brusquely away from his grip, looking definitely affronted. Sirius had asked him if he was OK as they walked down to Herbology, where they met Jamie and Peter. Remy had not been able to look him in the eye, it seemed as he answered, "Yeah...um..just a bit dazed from Divination..sorry".
Sirius knew his kind friend was lying, which was something Remus didn't normally do. The only other time Sirius could think of Remy lying was after a transformation, about how much pain he was in, but Sirius had always been able to get the truth out of him then with a simple look. But Sirius had a feeling now that Remus wasn't going to share this time, no matter how disbelieving he looked at him.
And he seemed to be refusing to look at him anyway. Remy preoccupied himself in his work and Sirius gave a questioning look to James, who Remus didn't seem to be as distant with. His response was shrugging his shoulders and Sirius couldn't help but feel he had done something wrong. He tried to think over things that he could have done, but nothing sprung to mind. It wasn't as though Remus seemed mad at him anyhow, just, evading him. This continued through the rest of their classes that day and when they finally sat down to eat, Remus was at the table five minutes before using homework as an excuse to leave.
Sirius had given James and Peter a frustrated look and asked, "Did I do something? He's like, ignoring me. He's been doing it since Divination.."
"Ack, I'm sure it's something silly..", James said as though he was covering for Remus. He sounded as though he wasn't telling them something and it was then that Sirius remembered what happened before Potions. Before he was able to ask, however, three seventh-year Gryffindors had sat down beside them. They were all beaming at Sirius. It was Melanie Brown (the most gorgeous girl in the school), Bertha Jorkins and Davie Jordan, the Gryffindor Quidditch team captain.
"Is it true about what you did to Professor Reficul?" Bertha asked in hope of getting the gossip first-hand.
"Depends what you've heard. I didn't do anything really..."Sirius said shrugging his shoulders. They all looked incredulously at him and he asked, "What?"
James sighed and said, with evident pride in his voice, "Hmm...not like Sirius Black to be modest. It was bloody brilliant the way he stood up to Reficul." Peter nodded furiously in agreement and seemed to have forgotten his fearful glances at Sirius in exchange for reverent ones.
"I bet it was", said Melanie, giving Sirius her most lustful look, she licked her lips tantalizingly then, "Perhaps not always modest, but always brave...and gorgeous". She didn't even try to cover the fact that she was flirting with him. Sirius smiled at her compliment, but said he'd talk to them all later, "I'm gonna go see Moony...Remus" he added to Melanie's confused look. She looked as though she didn't want him to go, but she said bye anyway. James got up too, and Peter followed. At Sirius's inquisitive look, James said, "I wanna see Remus too" and Sirius nodded and lead the way up to the Gryffindor Tower. "Gillyweed", said Peter as they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
They entered the hole as the portrait swung open. Sirius spotted Remus sitting in a comfortable armchair by the fire, staring with a troubled look into the fire. Sirius turned to stop Peter and James from advancing.
"Prongs, I know you know something here", and James hung his head in a guilty fashion, "What the hell happened before potions? I know it has to be something to do with how Remus is acting. It has to be.."
"You have to drop this one Padfoot. Come on. You're right it's to do with before potions and maybe a combination of something else...but I wasn't meant to guess..." James trailed off. "You'll find out in time, I guess, but it's not my place to tell any of you.."
"It's not nice you two keeping secrets from me or Sirius you know!" Peter said pompously.
Sirius looked like he was biting back some words, before saying, "OK. I'll drop it", and with a meaningful look at Peter, "We'll both drop it, won't we Wormtail?"
Peter nodded reluctantly. Sirius then added, "But it doesn't mean I'm not going to try find out why I'm being ignored just now" and he walked over to Remus and sat on the rug before the blazing fire. He leaned back to lie down and rested his arms behind his head. James sat in another of the surrounding chairs and Peter sat in the chair next to James.
"You done your homework then, Moony", Sirius asked, looking at the ceiling. He felt Remus's eyes on him, but as soon as Sirius turned his head to him, Remus's eyes had darted back to his hands, staring at them with renewed interest.
"Yeah, didn't have as much as I thought", Remy answered with quite an emotionless tone. Not betraying his thoughts I see, Sirius thought. He continued to ask questions of Remus, staring straight at his face all the while and Remus didn't once place his eyes on Sirius, and he gave many one word answers to him. Sirius was increasingly becoming annoyed at his normally honest friend. His face had been unreadable. Sirius had to bite his tongue to stop himself shouting after Remus as he left for bed. He was very very tired apparently. Peter had gone up too and Sirius had half the mind to go up himself, but knew he and James had a mission for tonight, so he stayed, though aversely.
Once the Common Room had cleared of stragglers, James popped up stairs and reappeared a moment later with a cloak, a frilly light blue floral dress, a piece of parchment and a small vial of pink liquid. Sirius pushed thoughts of Remus quickly from his mind and grinned easily at their mischief. Ah, now this is what I'm here for..payback on Snape, he thought happily as James put the potion in his robes and threw the cloak over the two of them.
James was happy to see Sirius grinning. At least there would be no more questions about Remus for the moment. I can't believe Remus fancies Sirius...maybe more than fancies him..how could I not have noticed before? How has Sirius not noticed? The looks he gives Sirius sometimes..I suppose he does that when Sirius isn't looking though, but I've seen it all along yet only just noticed! I suppose you don't look for things like that though..you don't expect one of your closest mates to fall in love..(was it love?) with your best mate. How long? James forced this train of thoughts from his mind as he and Siri walked out of the Common Room. He muttered, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" pointing to the parchment with his wand and a map began to form on it almost immediately. The map had always come in handy, ever since they'd used advanced magic to make it in just their second year of Hogwarts.
Sirius had his own wand out and had illuminated a small area of the ground before them with the glowing tip of his wand. They watched the map carefully. It was amazing really, because it did not only bear the entire structure and labeled rooms of the school, it also allowed the people with it to see where anybody was in the building. They were able to see if teacher's were rounding corners to catch them or if the caretaker, Apollyon Pringle, was lurking about. They made their way to the dungeons and towards the Slytherin Common Room.
Sirius stopped outside the ugly portrait covering the entrance and James looked at him as he faced him. "How do we get in? We don't know the password, Prongs", Sirius said in confusion.
"Ah, Padfoot! You think I would miss such a detail in my cunning plan? We do know the password" James said brightly. James enjoyed being knowledgeable. He told Sirius how he had sneaked down after Snape after the welcome feast and heard the password. He also told of how he'd watched which dorm Snape had left for and this was when he had planned the prank. James laughed at Sirius's expression of proudness and he said the password to the portrait.
They carefully stepped into the Common Room. It was cold and looked like a completely different room to the Gryffindor one. There was no fire in the grate, the walls were rough stoned, everything was neat and the armchairs and the pristine tables were all set in a cold organised manner. None looked placed for socialising and a shiver ran up James' back as he walked through it and up the cold stone steps to Snape's dorm.
They carefully pushed the door open and instantly found Snape's bed; it was the one closest to the door and there was no crimson hangings around the bed to block him from view. They had thick green quilts, thicker than the Gryffindor ones and James supposed they were their luxury, instead of hangings.
Snape lay there breathing loudly, but not quite snoring. His greasy mop was spread distastefully around him on his pillow. James heard Sirius give a grunt of disgust and he knew exactly how he felt.
"Can we hurry, I'd like to get away from that filthy bugger as soon as possible", Sirius whispered. James nodded in agreement. He opened Snape's trunk and took out his robes. He flung them under Snape's bed, so he wouldn't find them and put the dress in it's place. James took out the vial and dripped most of the potion on the dress, leaving only a couple of drops left. He then went up to Snape's face and pulled his jaw slightly down on his chest, shuddering at touching the horrible cold skin, and poured the remains of the pink liquid into his slightly opened mouth.
James recoiled as soon as he could from Snape, who shuffled slightly and swallowed satisfactorily. "I'll be scrubbing my hands for weeks! Yuck!" he said. James heard Sirius stifle his laughter as they left the Slytherin dungeons. They were both shaking with silent laughter when they finally set foot in their own wonderfully cosy Common Room. Sirius let out his usual bark of laughter as he flung the invisibility cloak from him and collapsed into a nearby chair.
"Mischief managed", James managed to say to clear the map before collapsing similarly next to Sirius.
"I can't wait to see Snape's face when he discovers what we've done!", Sirius said, sounding considerably cheered up after their long day.
James smiled warmly at him, imagining it..It would just be so funny. Sirius finally stopped laughing and said to James, "If that's to happen in Potions tomorrow..I want to be wide awake to witness it. I'm gonna go to bed, Prongs".
"Yeah, me too! So, I might not have a problem getting you up tomorrow for class?" James asked hopefully. Sirius grinned and put a hand round Jamie's shoulder as they walked up to their dorm, "We'll see".
Remus woke up this time to Sirius shaking him slightly. He instantly backed away from the beautiful boys touch and felt his heart breaking as Sirius looked hurt, but said nothing. James also stood over him and Remus determinedly focused his eyes on him instead. Peter was standing looking as though his robes had been flung on. This was all very hard for Remus. He couldn't look at Sirius after behaving that way in Divination and he also didn't want to be alone with James as he felt an awkward talk about his behaviour would follow.
"You don't wanna miss the start of potions, Moony! Seriously.." James was saying. Remus was ready ten minutes later and they walked down to potions. He knew that James and Sirius were up to something. Must be that 'retaliation' thing James spoke about. Thank God that it's not another double period, Remus thought. He wondered what kind of new scene he was to face in Reficul's class.
They reached the dungeon doors and most people were already inside. Professor Reficul spat at them to sit down quickly. Remus looked around the class and when he couldn't find Snape, he turned to James, frowning. He merely pointed towards the door and said "Just watch the doors".
Remus did so with the other Marauders and the people in the class seemed to have noticed, because they too were looking at the door, then back to the Marauders, then to the door again. Remus waited anxiously. What came was more than a shock to him. He both dropped his jaw because he was startled and burst out laughing because it was damn funny.
Snape strode into the class, looking flustered for being late and really confused at the roar of laughter that went up around the class. He looked, for a moment, as though he was missing something, then shook it off and went to Professor Reficul.
"Sorry Sir, I couldn't find my robes", he said and the class' laughter rose at the comment. Snape's mate, Rosier was even stifling a laugh. Professor Reficul looked at him in shock and disgust and Snape looked slightly worried.
"So you decided to wear a floral dress instead?" Snape opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off when the class laughed impossibly louder. Snape was red in the face and Remus turned to James and asked through laughter, "How the hell did you manage to make him wear that?" But James shook his head, "Well he doesn't know, does he?" and more laughter. Snape simply looked hideous. Remus was sure his sides would rip apart soon if he didn't stop laughing.
"What do you mean a dress?" Snape's voice yelled, just above the crowd, which only made the laughter more deafening. Reficul put his hand to his chin and looked in thought for a second. He must have found which ever memory he was searching for because a second later he cleared his voice and shouted to the class, "BE QUIET". And almost immediately silence bounced off the dungeon walls and seemed to echo.
He pulled out his wand and to James and Sirius's disappointment, he muttered the countercurse on Snape. Of course, Snape still stood there in his pretty dress that clashed horribly with his ugly frame, but it seemed he was now able to see what he was wearing. Remus could tell that the class were just holding back their laughter now and some people had tears falling down their faces from the effort. Also people were shaking from silent laughter. Remus didn't know how he or the rest of the class managed to hold it in when Snape looked down, horrified at what he was wearing and ran straight through the door he came in.
Reficul looked up, furious at the class. Even the silent laughter subsided at his evil penetrating glare. It was directed at the Marauder's table. Remus looked to see how the others were reacting to this. Peter had lowered himself in his seat, cowering under the staring. Sirius, though Remus was reluctant to look, was sitting casually in his chair, tilting it back on it's two hind legs as though he had not a care in the world. James was sitting looking up at the teacher's desk with an innocent look that could charm a snake and Remus realised he'd better stop looking at them guiltily and presume his own look of innocence. He tilted his head to the side and looked eagerly to the teacher. Well, he was innocent, but he knew better than to take that fact for granted. Reficul, he felt, would just love to put the blame on him.
"If I catch who did that to Severus Snape, I shall make sure they will regret it for years to come. I will have the culprit parade themselves in front of the whole school wearing their own pretty, and pink, dresses!" Peter whimpered, but the other's just sat there and nodded gravely. Reficul's face turned a flame color at this. Remus knew what the other two weren't worried in the slightest for there was simply no proof. And no proof, no dress parades.
Remus was massively relieved when the class was finished. It was hard work keeping himself from laughing. As soon as the Marauder's left, as well as the rest of the class, laughter rang through the building. By the end of the day, everyone was talking about it. It also seemed common knowledge, of course, that it was definitely a Marauder antic and people were winking at them as they walked by or patting them on the back. Snape had always been unpopular and the only people who were not pleased at this prank were his fellow Slytherins.
It had seemed to ease some of the tension between himself and Sirius. Remus still felt wary that he might do something silly and avoided looking too much at him, but it was definitely a lot easier. Remus noticed happily, that Sirius was very pleased that Remy was talking to him again. He wondered briefly how he had been able to be so cold with Sirius, it wasn't as if he knew why Remus was staring at him in Divination. That much was clear and even James had seemed to let go asking about or speaking of what he had found out. Yes, things were finally getting back to normal.
Friday came quickly after a slow start to the week. Classes were quite demanding and Remus watched as Peter became increasingly stressed. He was coping really well with the pressure himself, and Sirius and James seemed as though there wasn't anything to be coped with in the first place. Though, they did complain a little on hearing they had weekend homework. Remus had heard Sirius ask a teacher to be let off some homework as he already had a detention on that night to handle. Even James was lightly shocked at his friend's daring, as it had been the stern Transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagall he'd chosen to plead with. But she had simply smiled at the charmingness of Siri and said, "Now what good would a detention do if it did not put the participant in some kind of fix, Mr Black?" Remus had laughed when he heard Sirius reply, "Well, Miss, I'm sure we both realise that detention will do nobody any real good. Perhaps we should cancel that instead?" McGonagall had simply shook her head with a soft chuckle. Even the toughest of teachers had a soft spot for Sirius's charms. Well, except certain potion's teachers..
Reficul's classes were also getting more and more arduous and Remus was having points taken from their house by the cruel teacher, even though he always managed to create the required potion. Thankfully they made up the points in other classes and Siri and Jamie were noticed to be making a little extra effort not to have points taken from those classes, but added instead.
At half past four, Remus had finally persuaded Sirius to come with him to Reficul's class to receive their punishment. Remus did not wish for them to be late. He had been made to almost drag Sirius down just to make him speed up. Sirius was walking at the speed of about two miles an hour and Remus had been hesitant on allowing himself to touch Sirius, but felt forced to. He'd been finding himself too easily settling back into the old routine of staring at Sirius whenever he looked away and it became increasingly strenuous to stop staring when he turned back.
They reached the dungeon doors with, for all Remus' half-hour long efforts, just less than two minutes to spare. At least they weren't going to be late though. "Wonder what he'll make us do", Remus commented. Sirius looked at him, smiled and said, "Well, I doubt it'll just be lines" and Remus laughed. He stopped this abruptly when the dungeon door opened.
"I doubt you'll be laughing in an hour, Lupin. Follow me", Reficul said, voice thick with hatred. They were lead onto the school grounds and Sirius had trodden on the back of Reficul's shoes to try trip him up. Reficul stumbled a little, turned to glare at Sirius then walked on growling after Sirius said, "Sorry Sir, must be all too keen to get there that I didn't even notice you were in front of me. I say we speed up!" Remus bit the sides of his mouth to stop himself from smirking. Reficul seemed as though he wished not to get too much on the wrong side of Sirius after Monday and was quite lax, unlike how he was with Remus, where Sirius was concerned.
They were lead to a huge pile of wood a little off from where the gamekeeper, Ogg, lived in a small hut. It was near the edge of the woods. Reficul pointed to two tree stumps and between them were two rather blunt axes.
"You chop all the wood into pieces a foot long by about ten inches wide and thick. You have not to leave until either you have chopped it all or until, if I do, decide to take pity on you. I may just leave you to it all night..." Reficul said through a sardonic, twisted grin that made Remus feel nauseated. Sirius, however said in a sweet voice, "Our pleasure, Sir" and grinned patronisingly at Reficul. Remus turned to hide a smile.
"I'll leave you to it then", Reficul said, the smile wiped from his face. They watched as he stormed back up to the castle, black cloak billowing out behind him. Sirius waved at the retreating figure and turned his hand to make a rude gesture.
Remus smiled and they both got down to it. It was hard work. Apart from the axes being blunt, the whole process was taking about three times longer than it should have and they had both agreed that Reficul must have bewitched the wood to hold more resistance against their merciless axes.
The day was beautiful, but cruelly hot. Nevertheless, it was a breathtaking scene. The sky held not a single cloud and Remus knew it would be a wonderful clear night. Stargazers would certainly appreciate how it would be. It wasn't long before large numbers of girls were out on the grounds and sitting nearby. Some were casually staring at Sirius and some others were hiding it, but little better. Remus wanted to force them all back into the castle. Through the heat, Sirius took off his robes and stood topless with a pair of light blue jeans, that clung happily to his perfect hips. This sent a soft wave of cooing and gasps of pleasure up from the girls and they watched open-mouthed as Sirius continued, seemingly not having noticed.
Remus stole himself many glances at his friend's perfectly tanned and toned muscly body, lightly beaded with the smallest drops of sweat. Remus figured many of the girls were imagining they were licking it off, as he himself had the strong urge to do so. He had to pull himself from the reverie of running his hands down Siri's chest in the simple, yet erotic moment. Once it approached nine, the girls headed back into the castle. The night was perfect as Remus had imagined and he and Sirius were almost finished.
Now, alone, Sirius began to speak. "Snape'll pay for his remarks" and Remus remembered how Snape had come to gloat over their punishment. Remus normally wished the Marauder's to go easy on Snape, but had been having a rising disliking for the Slytherin.
After finishing, Sirius stopped Remus from heading up to the castle. "Moony, I want to talk to you about something", Sirius said soberly. Remus didn't want this conversation.
"We need to get back up to the castle", he said, happy to have found an excuse. But Sirius shook his head.
"No. Reficul said that if we weren't finished, he might come down and let us off, himself. Well, he doesn't know we're finished, so we have permission to be out at this time", Sirius said in a resolute voice.
Realising he had lost, Remus asked with a resigned sigh, "OK, what about", knowing perfectly well.
It appeared Sirius wasn't quite sure how to phrase his question and gave up trying as he bluntly exclaimed, "After Divination you avoided me. You'd been acting weird since Monday before potions when you and James shared that weird moment. James won't tell me what happened, just says I'll probably know in time, but I want to know now, Moony. I think I ought to know what this has to do with me. And don't say it's not about me, for it obviously is".
"Sirius, I don't know what you want me to say. I don't know why I've been acting this way", Remus lied.
"Well you haven't been weird with James or Peter", his voice rising with impatience. Remus hated this. He wished with all his might that Reficul or someone would stop this conversation that was easily turning into an argument. "What have I done Remy", voice now calmer and showing sadness that made Remus's heart melt.
"You haven't done anything Sirius", Remus said, thinking, except from being incredibly amazing. Remus looked away for a moment. He looked up to the stars and spotted the beautiful bright and shining Canis Major formation and saw immediately the brightest star in the sky, the Dog Star, Sirius. When looked back, Sirius was closer than Remus wished him to be. He tried to shake himself free of his burning desire to kiss Sirius. Sirius angled Remus's body to face his own, holding Remus's shoulder to do so. Forcing Remus to look him in the eye. He saw Sirius was looking deeply hurt and was shocked to find, his eyes were shining, close to tears.
Sirius had never cried. It seemed he was making much effort into not doing so now. Remus didn't understand. His friend's sadness almost made himself cry too.
"Moony, I don't wanna lose you as a friend. If I have done something that's hurt you, tell me and I won't do it again. It's been murder having you being so distant from me. I couldn't even take that from Peter!"
Remus quickly wiped a tear from his face on his robes at these words, deeply embarrassed at being so emotional. So that's why he's nearly crying! He actually thinks I don't want to be friends! I'd rather die, was what Remus thought. "Sirius! Of course I want to be friends! I'm sorry that I've been distant, OK? But please don't ask why. You honestly didn't do anything. Can we please let this go? Please?"
Sirius nodded and pulled Remus into an impossibly close hug. Remus hugged back, but tried to keep his lower body away from Sirius as he wished not to reveal he was strongly aroused by the contact. He was glad when Sirius released him, all traces of his being close to tears gone and he grinned, "Right, back up to the castle then?" Remus was enormously thankful to the darkness of the night for covering his blushing face. They walked up to their dorm, making amiable conversation all the way. Remus felt so happy. The awkwardness he had felt in being alone with Sirius had definitely alleviated and Remus found himself wishing they did not need to return to the tower.
It was not until he went to bed that he found his bones ached dully from the labour. But that night, Remus fell into one of the most contented slumbers of his life. He had dreamt of kissing Sirius after they had hugged on the grounds and Sirius had told him he loved him. Remus lay dreaming with a smile on his lips and it stayed in place throughout the peaceful night.
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