Disclaimer: These wonderful boys are not mine, but I solemnly swear to put them back once the mischief is managed.
A/N: Written for day 10 of LJ's Tell Me A Kiss challenge; the prompt was a photo of a bunny, and the era is "Hogwarts."
About fifteen minutes into Tuesday's Care of Magical Creatures lesson, Remus notices that Sirius is surprisingly absent…and it's March tenth too. In almost five years, he's never failed to spend all of Remus's birthday dispensing chocolate, attack hugs, and presents for no reason other than it's Remus's birthday. And you can only turn sixteen once…the best way to do so is obviously in the company of friends, which hardly exists if one fourth of your group is missing. James and Peter don't seem to care about Sirius's absence, though, since they completely fail to pay attention to Professor Blackvine when he tells them what they'll be studying in the next lesson. Honestly, though…occamys are hardly part of the Hogwarts curriculum, and as for jarveys, well…at least James would have something of his own intelligence level to have a conversation with for once.
Rolling his eyes, Remus chuckles about how he knows that that's not a fair comparison. After all, James might be more intelligent than those cursing, gnome-chasing, overgrown ferrets, but he certainly talks like one. Too bad for him they're self-sufficient and don't need care from wizards and witches. Further too bad for him, Lily is a smart girl in more ways than one; the relevant way here is that she too fails to see the "machismo" and "sex appeal" that are apparently inherent in cursing like a sailor. As he looks around the crowd for Sirius, Remus only catches snippets of the introductory lecture, but, since they're just doing nifflers again, he reckons that it's okay. They did them in class last year too, and the OWLs are coming up, but it's the first green day of the year, so Blackvine thinks they'll be fun.
Blackvine doesn't notice that Sirius is missing until he's handing the nifflers out; conveniently, he passes up James and Peter, going straight to Remus Prefect Lupin. Lying to anyone, let alone a teacher, is hardly honorable, but, then again, so is abandoning your friends to the cruel wastes of detention and losing points. Without a stutter or blink out of place, Remus manages to make up a story about how, after breakfast, Sirius suddenly fell ill and had to go see Madame Pomfrey, and Remus wishes he could be there with him, but James and Peter don't pay attention, and Sirius wouldn't want to miss the high points of the lesson, though he'll hate missing nifflers.
…And Blackvine bloody believes it. He nods, smiles, musses Remus's hair in that way he does for all the Gryffindors, and says something under his breath about Sirius being lucky to have such "concerned friends." Egotistical as ever, James grins, inserting himself into the equation, and Peter gives a hopeful smile; Remus gets a quick, internal laugh at James's crestfallen look when only Peter gets a nod. That's really not fair either, since James and Sirius are, essentially, brothers – separated only by blood, surname, and two months, eleven days, and seven hours (Sirius is older). But still…if he weren't such a pillock, prattling on about jarveys and how he's going to "impress" (by which he should mean "repulse") Evans this week, then he would have noticed that Sirius was missing and he'd have a right to insert himself into this. He can redeem himself at lunch, though, and he probably will.
The procedure with the nifflers is the same as ever: set them loose in the dug up ground, where they'll look for the fake Galleons, bring them back to their student, and whoever gets the most gets something interesting. Remus hardly pays attention to his nifflers, though…Sirius is really the more pressing concern. When the nifflers start to finish up, he's still not back. What could be so wrong that he'd miss nifflers…and Remus's birthday? But…there's a patch of snow still left leading over to the Willow, and in it is a trail of paw prints, or, at least, they look like paw prints. Oh Merlin. That prat. Here Remus is lying for him and saying that he's bloody ill, and he's gone off to Hogsmeade. That's really the only logical conclusion: the passageway leads into the Shack, but there's no reason for him to go there…actually, there's no reason for him to go off to Hogsmeade either, especially when there's classes to go to and things to learn.
Looking up from his niffler, Remus sees a tiny, black, vaguely dog-shaped dot coming up the horizon…not even a year as an Animagus, and he's already abusing it to cut class. He doesn't even look up at the class, but sneaks into the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. Bloody hell, Sirius, Remus thinks with an exasperated sigh; James looks over to him inquisitively, and he rolls his eyes in response. Marauder Facial Code. Peter soon inserts himself into the silent conversation as well, quizzically at first, but picking up on the message sooner than James. When James finally gets a clue that Sirius probably isn't coming back for class, he voices Remus's same opinion, albeit with more colorful language, and Peter nods…then Blackvine has to humorously cuff him on the ear to get him to hear that he's won the interesting thing.
It's a bar of Honeyduke's Best again, and he covertly slides it to Remus, sort of as an "I forgot to get you a birthday present" birthday present. Remus smiles, and cocks his head towards the forest. James and Peter nod in unison, and, when Blackvine dismisses class, the three of them split off on separate paths; Remus knows they'll make excuses for him if necessary. And, unlike James, who can get quite angry sometimes, he's not at risk for killing Sirius. Mindlessly slipping amongst the trees, he draws his scarf and patched up cloak tighter to protect himself from the biting wind as it rushes through…sure, green could show up for his birthday, but how about some nice warmth as well? Alas, March is March and he's never had a warm birthday.
But at least he finds Sirius quickly: he has since shifted back into his usual self, has a large bag sitting by his legs, and is bent over something nestled underneath some low-resting plants. Although Remus knows that he should finally start being a bloody prefect and tell Sirius to get off his arse and come up to lunch…there's something so peaceful about the scene that he can't interrupt it. Instead, he kneels next to Sirius, but he still has to cough to alert the dark-haired boy to his presence.
"Wha- oh!" He's flustered, and laughs it off quickly. It's kind of cute, especially that laugh and the way he scratches the back of his head, embarrassed and blushing in his grin. That blush is enough to make Remus blush too, albeit slightly.
"Nice to see you too, Pads," Remus chuckles softly, giving him a smile.
"What'cha doin' out here, Moony?" Sirius calms down and lowers himself back to the ground, this time sitting on the forest floor rather than kneeling.
"Well, usually, when a friend skips class, there's something wrong. And if it just so happens to fall on another friend's birthday…"
"Oh…right. I was going to explain it later, honest!"
"Care to do so now, since I'm here?"
"Okay then…see, I woke up today and realized it was your birthday, and I immediately felt like such a shite friend because we were in Hogsmeade last weekend, but I forgot to get you something."
"Presents are nice, but not complete-"
"Yes, they are completely necessary. I mean, it's your birthday, Moony! Anyway, so I ran it over in my head a few times and came to the conclusion that missing Magical Creatures wouldn't be too terrible, since I'm going to pass the OWL but not go to NEWT-levels with it. Then I went and bought you some stuff, and came back through here so no one would see, and…look what I found!"
He grins even wider and gestures emphatically at whatever's nestled between the plants; Marauder Face Code for, "take a look." Knowing better than to spoil a good mood on his birthday, Remus nods and leans in close to see: sleeping between the plants and a small rock is a tiny, brown kit rabbit, so cute, and helpless…just like Remus when Sirius pulls himself up and kisses him lightly on the cheek. What surprises him more is that, when Sirius pulls away, he turns his head and kisses back, on the lips this time. Both are far too short to be allowed, and Sirius brings the bag around to the front.
"…Wanted to do that for a long time," he sighs, smiling (and looking both relieved and hopelessly happy). "I was hoping you'd open the other presents first, but if you'd rather have a birthday snog…won't hear any complaint from me."
Remus pauses, considering this. Finally, he looks Sirius in the eye and whispers, "I'd like that very much, actually…but inside, if you don't mind."
If it's possible, Sirius's smile appears to double in size as he quickly scrambles to his feet and, like a gentleman, helps Remus up as well. Even though it's lunch and Remus's birthday, they head for an empty nook and the presents go unopened until later: a new set of flannel pajamas ("Yours are so old," Sirius explains as he brushes hair out of Remus's face); enough Honeyduke's chocolate and Chocolate Frogs to last well past next Christmas; and, buried furthest in the bag, a large stuffed dog that bears an uncanny resemblance to Padfoot, down to the black eyes, even if they are just buttons. Since they're in the dormitory and alone once more, Remus leans in and kisses Sirius again, whispering, "Thank you, Pads," into his open mouth.
Although Sirius says nothing, his tongue says, "It's your birthday, you prat," and slowly gets him another smile.