Disclaimer: No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Furthermore, this was written in accordance to the Ministry of Magick's Public Fiction Code Article X and brings no harm or hex to the reader before, after or during the reading of the piece. However, it was not written in accordance with the Ministry of Magick's Public Fiction Code ILII which states that, beyond holding hands, relationships between two men or two women are strictly forbidden.

Pairings: sbxrl, jp(plus)le, jp(plus)ss, jp(plus)pp, rianxquin

Summary: group projects suck like burning.

Lookie! i'm not dead Okay, i've not been sleeping and thus haven't had time to write… So this took me forever. Anyway, here it is enjoy.

Twenty-Four

In which stars are quasi-luminous.

'To begin with I want maps of the constellations in respect to each other. Then actual drawings from sightings that you will do at different times – remember to use Standard Astronomy Time, refresh yourself on the mythology concerning these. Know the star names, individual and Greek-based. I think that's enough to start with, I'll give you some group time after the lesson. Now, if you look to the west you can see what's called Orion's Belt…'

I sighed and listened. It was mostly review. She went into a little bit of Astrology, promising more Muggle Astrology vs. Muggle Astronomy vs. Wizard Astronomy. Goody. Star Readings. I spared a glance to Snape, he was following Moonstruck and taking notes avidly. My eyes found Sirius unconsciously. Sirius stood out in Canis Major, obviously, and was in a direct line from Orion's Belt. Sirius… Mirzam… Mulihen… Wezen… Adara… Furud… Aludra… Merlin, Sirius. What was I going to do? Could I indulge myself? Should I indulge myself? Could I afford to? Could Sirius? Did he know what he was getting himself into? I mean, it was all nice and wonderful1, sure, but was it going to last? If… if it went further and the wolf claimed him, then… Forever is a long time. Forever with Sirius. I could live with that. Easily could I live with that. Sirius, though? The day that been perfect, Sirius was sweet. Of course, I knew that. And he said that he loved me. He said that and he was kind, not doing anything that he thought would be rushing the relationship. He wanted to do it 'right', he said. He wanted it to be 'perfect'. Perfect. Bloody hells. I'm a werewolf, I told myself. I don't bloody deserve to have a perfect relationship with my ideal mate. I wanted it, but I didn't deserve it.

'Lupin!' Snape's hiss woke me from my thoughts. 'Pay attention!'

'I, oh, sorry,' I looked up. He had a new piece of parchment with the four constellations written on it. Orion. Taurus. Canis Major. Canis Minor. 'Work time?' I asked.

'Yes,' he snarled. Someone was obviously not happy about this arrangement. 'Since we have to be here Tuesday, we can observe before class. At midnight.'

'I…' I nodded slowly, 'okay. We should probably meet to do the writing part, too…'

'I can take care of it.'

'No, I won't let you,' I sighed, 'look, we can meet in the library, and I won't bring James or Sirius.' His eyes narrowed. 'Look, Snape, we have to truce to do this. We don't have to like each other, but we have to talk to do this.'

He looked like he was going to argue with me, but then he hung his head, 'when have you a study period?'

'I haven't. But I've nothing else on Fridays save double Runes in the morning. And I suppose I'm free in the evenings.'

'Tomorrow?'

'No plans that I know of,' I said slowly. Sirius was going to be upset.

'Let's go for eight in the library,' he paused, 'you will be up, right?' I nodded, 'it should be empty then.' He shrugged and started to sketch Orion. He finished and looked up to check on the accuracy. I leaned forward and labelled the stars with their Greek characters. Alpha, beta, gamma, delta… Snape grunted and set to work on Taurus. I took my own quill and started on Canis Major, determined to do that constellation on my own. I did it by memory (I'm not crazy, I promise) and moved to Canis Minor, because somehow two stars was made to be a constellation. Go figure.

The period ended and we hurried tiredly down the stairs and made our way to our dorms. My bed curtains were halfway open and Sirius was propped against the headboard, his eyes were closed and his head lay unsupported in an awkward angle. He looked like he had intended to stay awake but failed miserably in doing so. I smiled softly and crawled in next to him, resting against his chest.

Your skin is made of ivory and gold, the curves of your lips rewrite history.

Sometime during the night he shifted down, and we nuzzled closer together. I was unaware at the time but the evidence was there when I woke with the dawn. I crawled out of Sirius' arms to go through my morning routine before heading off to the library. As I left the bed, however, my wrist was grabbed.

'Moony, s'Saturday. No class. Stay,' Sirius mumbled half-coherently.

'Gotta project,' I shook his hold.

'No. Stay,' he declared.

'Sorry, Siri, can't,' I walked off, wishing that I could stay and cuddle with Sirius, but 'Advanced' indicated that there was more work to be done and I wasn't about to forfeit my grade for a little bit of extra cuddling time, no matter how appealing it was to do so.

Snape was already in the library when I arrived, he as sitting at a table on the far corner of the room. The table he had chosen had a few rolls of parchment and some Astronomy books laid on it already. I slipped in across from him and he looked up, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

We looked at the charts from the previous night and went over our mythology. Thankfully the myths of the four intertwined – although I suspect that Moonstruck intended it thus. We redid the charts so that they were actually legible and neatly wrote in the names and letters and then the constellation names. Connect the dots. (It is, though, a bit of a stretch to imagine two stars as a dog, but I guess that Greek shepherds had little else to do with their time.)

'When do you want to observe?'

'Pardon?'

'The stars,' Snape prompted, 'when do you want to observe them?'

'We need probably ten observations,' I shrugged, 'I guess dawn and dusk and then eight times in-between?'

'Meet me at the Astronomy Tower at six.'

'The Astronomy Tower might not be a good idea,' I bit my lip. I knew right well what some people did there when there was no class. He looked at me curiously. 'It's… um, a popular spot for couples, and, so maybe we could go elsewhere? One of the Quidditch towers, perhaps?'

He blushed, although it was barely visible. 'Six then at the south tower.' The south one, Slytherin. Of course. I nodded and grabbed my things. James had been talking about Quidditch practise and I wanted to watch. Sirius would be there. I ran out to the pitch, sure enough Sirius was flying circles around the pitch, an angry James following after him. They had matching brooms, Nimbus 1042s, and the rest of the team was on the ground, brooms in hand, watching. They were laughing and pointing. Sirius tossed something down to a dark-haired Second Year (Clearance Grommell, I believe). He caught it and stuffed it into his pocket. I doubt James saw because he continued to follow Sirius. The latter landed in front of me, threw his broom down and pulled me to him and kissed me firmly.

'Mooony!'

'You're all sweaty,' I told him, pushing him away.

''Missed you,' he declared, loudly enough for the team to hear. No hiding, no regrets.

''Had some work to so, s'all.'

He leaned forward, 'silly, studious werewolf,' he whispered into my ear. 'We were just teaching Prongsy an important lesson; I am far superior to him and always will be,' he announced.

Grommell snickered. 'Pure bloods, Lupin, you have to humour them, y'know?'

I nodded seriously. 'Indeed, one has to keep them happy else wise they start to have ego issues and we can't have that.' Sirius visibly pouted.

'Practise is over anyway,' Conrad, the captain, added with a large smile. 'Hit the showers.'

Everyone save Sirius and James made a move to leave. James was grinning widely. 'See, Moony, 'told you it would work out.' Sirius turned and whacked James. 'We were planning on going down to Hogsmede to celebrate Sirius' monogamy.'

'All the chocolates you want.'

'Wormtail and I are thrilled that the Night Escapes are stopping,' James continued.

'Sorry, can't.'

Sirius raised an eyebrow, 'Moony, refusing chocolates?'

'Study date,' I shrugged. They exchanged glances. They weren't used to not studying with me. 'Advanced Astronomy.'

'You had Astronomy last night,' Sirius commented.

'And she gave us a monster group-project that we want to get out of the way,' I sighed. 'We're meeting here at nightfall.'

'Who're working with?' James asked.

I sighed, 'Snape.'

Sirius blanched. 'Snivellus? Snivellus! You have to spend free-time with Snivellus? Just do the project and…'

'Look, we're getting out of the way, we didn't pick partners or anything. And it's a lot of work for one person.'

'Moony!'

'Absence makes the heart grow fonder?' I suggested.

James made as if to say something and Sirius gestured him to the changing rooms, before James made to leave, Sirius pulled me to him and began kissing me. I heard James gag but neither Sirius nor I made to leave.

'We'll just have to spend the rest of the day together, won't we?' Sirius grinned.

I rolled my eyes. 'Prat,' I chided resting my head on his shoulder.

'That's why you love me?' he suggested.

I shrugged, 'it's possible, I suppose.'

He ran off then, to quickly shower (at my insistence). When he returned, we wandered through the grounds. Just like before, only not. We just talked, the two of us. We'd been too distanced since the summer, and we used the time to catch up with one another. Because, before everything else, we were friends. You don't know what you have until you loose it. Or something like that.

Our relationship had changed, but it would always be the same. That comforted me, I suppose. We found ourselves, by mid-afternoon, just resting against some tree. Every so often other students would pass, but it didn't matter. It was peaceful and relaxed. It was as it should have been.

(1) Stollism…