A/N: Just got back from NYC… bought a bunch of stuff from street vendors… I love street vendors! So friendly! D and I thought this up on the way home… time for yum-ness… D Oh and I sort of stole a scene of this from an episode of the O.C… just the very basic concept though. Sorry Josh Schwartz!
44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
But Sirius didn't talk to Remus in the morning. Or the next, or the next, or the next, or the next. They didn't talk about their situation for an entire month- they just participated in forced small talk.
A full moon came and past. Sirius was there, of course, but wasn't in his usually happy mood. Remus had stayed in his wolf form an extra hour after the moon was gone as his book had predicted, but he hardly noticed, he was too busy sulking.
Things were boiling under the surface. Remus felt he was going to crack under the pressure of everything- the extra-hard lessons, his non-fight with Sirius, the full moon approaching again, and James being too busy sneaking off with Lily to talk to him. The slightest thing would set him off- which was exactly what happened.
Remus had been innocently walking from Potions, trying to figure out where he had put his Charms book, when Sirius walked by, his arms wrapped around Miss Necavit who was his current girlfriend. Sirius didn't even acknowledge his presence, but that was to be expected. He did knock into Remus, though, pushing him to the ground.
A sort of animalistic fury came over the werewolf. He dropped his back on the floor and rammed into his fellow Marauder with all his might, sending him flying up the stairs. Sirius turned to face him, his nose bleeding slightly, a cold glint in his eyes as he pounced.
As they wrestled on the floor, Sirius seemed to be winning to the outside viewer, but really it was Remus who had the upper hand, because it was Remus who had a calm mind naturally, and who remembered that he was a wizard.
Whipping out his wand, he called out the first spell that came to mind, an Advanced Transfiguration hex that they had used on Snape. "FELINIFY!"
Sirius stepped back, clutching his head, eyes wide in fear of what was going to happen. But he couldn't stop his hair from turning bright orange and scrunching together to form a small, angry cat that was attached quite firmly to his now-bald head.
The crowd that had gathered began to roar with laughter, but not for long, because two could play at this game. Sirius also pulled out his wand, quickly pointing it at Remus, sending a red jet of flames from it. Remus tried to scramble away, but the flames grazed his back, making a huge circle of flames across it. He felt it char his flesh, but didn't bother with it- he knew it was Engulfing Fire, only Sirius or someone much more skilled at magic than either of them could put it out.
Trying not to scream in pain, Remus started spewing out a long line of hexes, most of which Sirius dodged, but the last of which, a long golden whip, managed to wrap itself around his legs. The crunching of Sirius's bones was deafening, but Sirius had already shot another spell.
The fight looked like it could have gone on for much longer if it weren't for a new voice, furious and female.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Lily roared, and immediately they went as rigid as boards. With another swing of her wand, they were levitating, floating limply next to their stuff, which she had also charmed.
The crowd dissolved as Lily led them off, lecturing them darkly about how lucky they were that it was she who had caught them and not a teacher. She began to remove most of the magical effects bestowed upon them, but it was a lot of work. Not only were Sirius's legs broken and the cat still scratching up his bald head, but his ears were steaming and flashing different colors, several elephant trunks were growing out of his arms, and his upper eyelashes were braided with his bottom ones. Remus was worse off though- his back was still on fire (which Lily easily put out, being the top of the year), one of his hands was swollen to the size of a basketball and his nose was growing longer and longer until it grazed the floor. The worst of it was that his shoes were biting madly at his legs, which were bleeding quite heavily.
Lily pushed the door to the infirmary open, and levitated Sirius and Remus into it. Though they were quite annoyed by her at this point, she redeemed herself slightly in their eyes as she wove a carefully put together story about her missing cat, the Whomping Willow, and a few misplaced inferno charms. Madam Pomfrey looked like she didn't quite believe it, but sent Lily off to Charms and began to work on the two boys injuries.
44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
Sirius didn't know how he got himself in these situations. Madam Pomfrey had them fixed up by dinner, during which the two were handed a large stack of work that they had missed from that day. They had grudgingly returned to their Common Room and begun on it, working until the early hours of the morning. Everyone else was long gone by the time Sirius realized he had a problem.
Due to stress, he had just snapped all the quills he had with him. To go up to the dormitory and shuffle through his trunk for another one would be to wake up light-sleeping James, who would yell at him. There was no one else around to borrow it from, and the room was quite barren of forgotten items, except for two small coats in the corner.
With a loud sigh, Sirius grudgingly enlisted Remus's help.
"Lupin? Can I borrow a quill?" he asked wearily, peering across the table at the werewolf. Remus looked up, one eyebrow slightly quirked, and then slowly reached into his bag for a quill, which he slid across the table, muttering something.
"What was that?" Sirius asked angrily as he deftly caught the quill. Remus's eyes bored into his, defiance glinting in their tawny depths.
"I said, 'You're welcome, Baldy.'" He said cruelly, his gaze flickering up to Sirius's hair, which was quite a bit shorter than it had been before- despite a large amount of Hair Growth Potion that he had begged the nurse for.
Sirius growled. "You are an ass, Lupin."
Said boy laughed bitterly. "You would know, Black."
Sirius rose from his chair and reached for his wand. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, I wouldn't expect you to understand, you are quite idiotic. What I mean is, if anyone is an ass, it's you. Do you understand that, Black?" Remus spat, also standing and snatching his wand.
The tension in the air thickened almost visibly as Sirius's eyes narrowed nearly to slits. "How do you figure that, wolf boy?"
"Making out with that seventh year slut right in front of me, knocking me around, ignoring me?" Remus snarled, his wand half-raised.
Sirius stared at him like he had grown a second head. "I plead guilty to two of the three accounts, but it is you that was ignoring me, but don't worry, I know why."
"Oh really."
"Yes."
"This should be stunning."
"It's because you're afraid. You're afraid I would hurt you, even though you know I wouldn't. You're afraid of what people would think, even though it shouldn't matter. Oh, and you're probably afraid of the kissing bit, since you are so inexperienced." Sirius said smugly. Remus's eyes widened. He had expected Sirius to be right.
"I'm… I'm not afraid of that last one!" Remus replied feebly. Sirius barked with laughter.
"Prove it!" He said, grinning wickedly.
Remus knew that Sirius was baiting him. He knew he shouldn't fall for it, even as his feet drew him around to Sirius's side of the table, and as his hands grabbed his robes and pulled his friend down the few inches between them so that their lips met.
Sirius pulled him closer, pushing his tongue into his mouth roughly. Remus moaned slightly, digging his fingers through Sirius's newly shorn hair. Their animosity was forgotten as they drew closer.
All of a sudden, Remus found his back pushed against the table, Sirius practically lying on top of him, his tongue exploring his mouth, his hands drifting to the buttons on his shirt.
The sound of laughter broke the intense silence. Sirius peeled himself off Remus with a look of annoyance. There were two third years, holding on to the coats that had been left on the chairs. They quickly scurried away, but they obviously weren't keeping any secrets.
Sirius looked worriedly at Remus, wondering if he would take off again. But Remus simply looked amused.
"I'm not afraid anymore." He said softly, buttoning his shirt up again, and heading off to bed.
44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
This rumor had spread even faster than the Transfiguration one, or the one about the public fight. Everyone seemed giddy with the whole scandal of it. They whispered obviously in the hall. They pointed and called out who they were to their friends in the Great Hall. But strangely, Remus found he couldn't care less. He hadn't talked to Sirius much. He had, however, kissed him for long periods of time, so he assumed things were good.
That was more than James could say about his relationship with Lily. They, too, had been spending a lot of private time together, but she was acting very strangely with him whenever they were in public. It finally came to a head during breakfast, the day after Sirius and Remus's fight.
"Hey Lily, what time do you want to meet tomorrow for Hogsmede?" He asked idly as she talked to her friends. A tinge of pink colored her cheeks as she looked at him strangely.
"Why would I want to go to Hogsmede with you, Potter?" She asked harshly, and returned to her conversation with her friends as James looked blankly at the bacon sitting on his plate.
When Lily's friends had finally left, she turned to him with a small frown on her face. "I'm so sorry, James, but I've abused you for five years to my friends… I don't want anyone to know that we're dating…" She said quietly, refusing to look him in the eye. A look of shock spread across his face.
"You're ashamed of me!" He said accusingly, which just made Lily flush more.
"No, that's not it! I'm just…" Lily began nervously, which just spurned James on.
"Whatever it is, I think it's well time to cure you." James began clearing out the food from in front of him, drawing a few curious looks. He drew even more looks as he hoisted himself onto the table. He scanned the teacher's faces quickly. While most looked amused, McGonagall looked like she was about to scream. But the teachers weren't really his concern.
"Hello, everyone! Sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but I have something to say!" He announced in a loud voice. In the corner of his eye he saw Lily's friends pause at the exit, and Lily's face growing redder.
"Well, a month or so ago, me and Lily Evans here, we got together. I'll spare you the details, but we've been together for a while, but she still won't acknowledge me publicly. But I still think I might love her, and I'm pretty sure she likes me. So Lily, if you want me, you're going to have to get up here and take me, before I fall, because that would be really, really humiliating." James continued. He heard a few titters of laughter and conversation, but other than that there was dead silence.
For a few seconds, James thought Lily was going to ignore him. But then she shakily rose to her feet, and stepped up on the table next to him, her eyes nervously catching his.
"Now what?" She asked quietly, but her voice echoed through the silent hall.
"Kiss me, silly girl!" He said with a laugh. She smiled, her bottle green eyes sparkling and then closing as she pressed her lips against his.
The Great Hall seemed to erupt into applause. In the background, James could hear Professor McGonagall trying to calm everyone down, and then Dumbledore telling her to calm down. She did, eventually get her way, after a few minutes of James and Lily shamelessly snogging on the table. She nearly pushed them down and told them to take their relationships elsewhere.
44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71
A/N: This is as far as I have planned, I think… Next chapter may come a little slower unless my muse kicks it up a notch.
Thank you my lovely reviewers: Nyx Vasquez, sesshomaruhasafluffytail, Tanya J Potter, Icy Sapphire15, checkmarks, Moony's puppy, Psycho Demon-Witch, SlashyKitty, QFan, LiTOSWTAZN, Charlotte Lazarus, actually omniscient, Wolfstar, Audrey G. Black, billy, Ryyne, elsie777, Viosil Uab and miranda!