Remus's feelings for Sirius grow during a beach trip.

Sirius screamed louder than I did.

He violently pushed his mother aside and ran to Bellatrix, ripped her wand out of her hand, then ran to me as I felt the pain dissolve.

"Get up, get up, get up!" he cried. I got up quickly and ran with my three best friends inside and straight to the fireplace, where we all grabbed some floo powder and went through straight to James's house.

"Remus, oh my gosh," Sirius cried as we fell into the Potters' living room, tears pouring down his face as he threw his arms around me. "I love you! I love you, I love you, I love you!"

I didn't know what he meant by that, but my head was still spinning so much from the curse, that I didn't even think about it until later.

Euphemia and my mum walked into the living room together, both holding coffee, and Euphemia dropped her mug the moment she saw us.

"Did you just come through the floo network!?" she cried.

"Yeah…" James panted.

"Why, we were coming to pick you up in an hour…" she trailed off when she saw Sirius, then she looked at James. "You've been at Grimmauld Place, haven't you?"

"Mum, I'm sorry…" James started.

"I thought I told you to never go there," Euphemia said, interrupting him. "Did I not tell you to never go there?"

"You did, but…"

"Murderers are living in that house, James!" she cried. "People who will torture you, get into your mind, make you go insane… they'll kill you!"

She wrapped her arms around James, and my mum just looked confused. It was easy to forget that she was a muggle, and even if she did live with two wizards, she would have no idea who lived in 12 Grimmauld Place.

"Murderers?" she repeated. "Why would you boys go where murderers are?"

"Mum, it's where Sirius lives," I said.

"What!?" she cried, looking at Sirius.

"It's alright, they're all safe now, it will be OK," said Euphemia, running her fingers through James's hair. She'd calmed down quickly. "But this hair is… questionable."

"It'll grow back to normal eventually," James said. "Can Sirius stay for the summer, too? And Peter if he wants?"

"Yes, alright," said Euphemia. "In July we're going to the beach house, and we're going to the Quidditch World Cup in August, so your friends can all come along for both of those events?"

James nodded happily, and then Peter said that he'd spend a bit of time with his family first, then left through the fireplace.

Euphemia then called down Fleamont and my dad, and the seven of us spent the afternoon playing exploding snap.

Sirius had said he loved me. Had he meant that platonically? Was he only saying it because I was his friend, and he was glad I'd escaped the cruciatus curse?

Or maybe he did love me. The way I loved him, and James loved Lily. Maybe the feelings weren't as one-sided as I thought.

Or maybe I was just being stupid and getting myself all excited and if I was to try to say something about it to Sirius, he would tell me that he didn't like me in that way, and then I'd be really upset and mope around in self-pity like James did when he was rejected by Lily.

I hated myself for thinking I'd even have a chance with him. He was way out of my league. I wanted to tell him, but I knew there was no point. It would only cause more pain to myself. I didn't need that.

I rolled over on the mattress I was staying on. Usually, at the Potters' house, Sirius and I stayed in James's room, but tonight I was in one of the spare bedrooms, and Sirius was in another. My parents in another.

I couldn't imagine living in a house so big that there were multiple spare rooms. My house had been massive in my eyes, there was a bedroom for my parents and a bedroom for me. Before it all blew up.

I couldn't imagine being rich, though. If the Potters' house had been blown up, they could easily afford a new one, probably another mansion. The world really was split up by class.

But who was I to complain about how poor or rich I was? I had good parents, went to a good school, and had food. But I didn't have Sirius…

Sirius. The hot, beautiful, kind, rebellious, sweet, perfect Sirius Black.

The cheekbones, the long dark hair, the skin, the eyes. Oh, the eyes. A piercing greyish blue, so perfect and shiny, and oh god, what was wrong with me!?

I still couldn't believe that James knew, and maybe Peter as well. I still wasn't sure about him. He didn't seem to be the most accepting of it, but he'd never brought it up since yesterday when James had made the big announcement in Sirius's bedroom.

Even though I wasn't sure about Peter, James was nice about it, and I had so much renewed respect for him.

And so much love for Sirius.

I'd only been to a beach twice in my life. Once when I was nine on a day trip with Nana and Pops, and the other time was a day after I was bitten by Greyback, and my parents had taken me to help us all calm down.

Now I was arriving at another beach with my parents, James, his parents, Peter and his mother, and Sirius.

We travelled by car, as it was a muggle beach, and it was an hour-long drive, but as soon as I stepped out, I knew it was worth it. The mid-morning sun shone on the ocean and gave a glint to the sand. James let out a cheer, then ran down to the water and ran in with his clothes still on.

"James!" Euphemia cried, "Can't you put your swimsuit on first?" When James didn't reply, she called out, "You're washing the salty clothes, then!"

"Remus, can you carry this bag?" Dad said, handing me one of the beach bags to take to the house down the beach where the Potters' stayed every summer.

I lugged it through the sand and dropped it near the door once I got inside the house. It was a lot bigger on the inside. After a look around, I changed into my swimming trunks and put an old long-sleeve shirt on as well. No way I was going around without a shirt with my scars on display.

But of course, Sirius did (he didn't have scars all over his chest, though). He'd been getting changed at the same time as me, in another room, and I almost let out a gasp at the sight of his bare chest when he stepped out, but I barely managed to keep it in.

Peter came out of one of the bathrooms soon after, and the three of us ran down to meet James in the water. It was freezing, and Peter and Sirius seemed to agree, as we all stopped as soon as we got ankle-deep.

"Oh, come on, it's nice once you get in," said James, rolling his eyes at us.

"Better be…" said Sirius, running in deeper and diving through a wave. When he came up, fully soaked, I almost wet my pants right there. Perfect Sirius Black.

Peter got in slowly, complaining about the cold the whole time, but I just stood there, stunned. A good two minutes through my standing and gawking, Sirius approached me.

"You alright there?" he asked, giving me the best grin I'd ever seen. I nodded because if I spoke, I would probably sound like an idiot.

Well, you are an idiot, I thought.

Then Sirius pushed me into the water. My head submerged and I thought I was going to freeze to death, and I only got colder when my head was out of the water.

"Sirius!" I shouted. At least I could speak after that.

Sirius just laughed and began to run away from me. I smiled and chased him. He was a lot faster than me, but eventually, he stopped, and I pushed him into the water.

"I've already been under, it doesn't matter," he laughed as he came up. We were a good twenty metres away from James and Peter now.

"Well, it was still satisfying to push you back," I said, uncontrollably smiling.

"Two wrongs don't make a right," Sirius said, smiling back, then pushed me into the water again.

"Oh, so it's war, then?" I said as I came back up, and as I went to push him back, he took my hands and pushed against them, and soon he was holding my hands normally, and I would have melted if the water wasn't so cold.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

In love, I thought. But I said, "Um, cold, why?"

"I mean, after the cruciatus curse, you're feeling OK?" he asked. Oh.

"Yeah, fine, it was two weeks ago," I said. Why was he holding my hands?

"That's good, then," said Sirius. "Lucky it wasn't for long."

"Yeah," I said absent-mindedly.

"So, um, should we go back to the others?" he asked.

"No." I blurted it out and immediately turned pink after I'd said it. Why was I so stupid? "I mean… I can't be bothered to swim all the way back."

A good save, I guess.

"True," he said, smiling again. God, he was perfect. But then he pushed me into the water again.

"Bloody hell, Sirius!" I cried. "I'm going to kill you one day!"

"How nice," he said, grinning. His face moved towards mine for a second, before he quickly pulled back saying, "Forgot you aren't… sorry."

"Forgot I'm not what?" I asked.

"Never mind," he said, shaking his head, then looking back at the beach. "The adults are calling us."

I looked where he was looking to see them all waving at us, and my mum was waving tongs that were gripping sausages around.

"Lunch," I muttered, beginning to walk back through the water with Sirius. "What did you forget?"

"It doesn't matter," he said.

"Sirius! You can't just say something then never tell me!" I cried.

"I can, actually," he said, "It's not a big deal, why do you care so much?"

"Well, I'm curious now," I said.

"It really doesn't matter," said Sirius.

"But Sirius!" I cried.

"Oh, fine, I forgot you weren't a queer," he said. And then he was blushing.

Why was he blushing?

"Oh, yeah, well I'm not…" I said. What a lie. "And… you said you are?"

"Yeah," he said. "I didn't think you'd remembered."

How could I have forgotten?

"Anyway, what does it matter if I am or not?" I asked.

"It doesn't," Sirius said quickly. "So, you like any girls at the moment, then?"

"No," I said, looking down as we came onto the sand and walked towards the adults. They'd cooked us sausages for lunch, and when we were done eating, Fleamont brought out a salad.

"Noooo!" James cried.

"It's good for you," said Euphemia as her husband served some up for everyone.

"Thank you for lunch," said my mum, and everyone else nodded in agreeance.

"Can we walk along the rocks?" James asked.

"You boys go," said Euphemia, "Stay where we can see you, alright?"

"Yep," said James, and the four of us rushed towards a mound of rocks and began climbing up, and when we were at the top, James let out a cheer.

"We were just pushing each other into the water, it was nothing."

"Yeah, but afterwards you two were standing there and talking and looking into each other's eyes," James said, making fake kissing noises. God, he was annoying.

"Do we have to talk about this?" I grumbled, "How about you talk about Lily to me tomorrow morning, instead of dragging me to your room in the middle of the night to try and force me to talk about Sirius?"

"We need a couple name thing for you two," said James, ignoring me. "Remirius? Siremus? Semus? Ririus?"

"No, we don't need a special name!" I hissed.

"Yes, you do."

"What about you and Lily then, do you have a special name?" I asked.

"Of course," said James, "Jily!"

"Jily?" I repeated. "But that's just a combination of your names. It's so boring, shouldn't it be something to do with you? Like… the colour of your hair! Redblack."

"What, so you and Sirius should be Brownblack?"

"OK, Redblack sounds a lot cooler than that, maybe greybrown? For our eye colours," I added when James gave me a confused look.

"What is it with you and the colour of hair and eyes?" said James, shaking his head at me. "It has nothing to do with couple names!"

"What about something each of you likes, for example, you and Lily could be Quidditch-Potions," I suggested, "And Sirius and I… chocolate-hair."

"Hair?"

"Sirius seems to be really obsessed with his hair, I dunno."

"I don't think he's that obsessed with his hair, Remus…"

"My hair looks like shit!"

My dad raised an eyebrow in Sirius's direction at the language but continued pouring his juice.

It was the next morning, and Sirius had woken up with his hair looking like a 'bird's nest', and now he was going crazy.

"Mrs. Potter, can you please fix it with your wand?" he begged.

"If you call me Euphemia instead of Mrs. Potter like I've asked you to a million times, then maybe I will," Euphemia said. "Anyway, it's not that bad, Sirius."

"It looks awful!" Sirius groaned.

"You got someone to impress, hey, Sirius?" said James, his mouth full of cereal.

"No." Although Sirius was facing away from us, he was facing a mirror and I could see his face turning pink through it. Was he going to see someone today?

"Then why do you care so much about your hair?" James asked, which caused Sirius to blush even more.

Perfect Sirius Black.