AN: There is some reference to nudity in this chapter (a few lines)
1st September 1971
James bounded towards the train, a wide grin plastered across his face. The fact that he'd slept for only four hours the night before had no impact on his energy levels. His endlessly patient but seemingly constantly sleep-deprived parents trailed after him, pushing the trolly that carried his trunk indulgently.
He jumped up onto the train, stopping just inside the door and turning to take one end of his trunk. His Dad, a greying man of indiscernible age, stooped to pick up the other end and balance the owl cage on top. While inside the train James seemed to manage to keep his bouncing to a minimum, walking backwards into a nearby empty carriage. His Dad followed, and together they managed to get the trunk up onto one of the overhead luggage racks - the owl cage going onto one of the seats near the door.
James flopped onto a seat with a groan, "Remind me not to pack so much next time, Dad."
The greying man chuckled.
"I did try to tell you that whatever you pack you have to carry, but you didn't want to know, Jamie."
"Aw, don't remind me, Dad! I know it's all my fault…"
"What's all your fault?" A voice came from the door.
The owner of the voice was a boy about James' age with black hair and regal features.
"Everything, according to my Dad," James said, rolling his eyes.
"Hey now. The state of the Chudley Cannons team isn't your fault," Mr Potter said with a smirk.
"What's your name, kiddo?"
"Sirius, Sir. What's your's?" He said, extending a pale hand for Mr Potter to shake before offering the same to James.
"Nice to meet you, Sirius. My name is Fleamont Potter - this is my son, James." Mr Potter answered, looking at Sirius knowingly.
James took the offered hand, ignoring the minor look of shock that crossed Sirius' face at their names.
"Do you need a hand with your trunk, Sirius?" Mr Potter asked, eying the luggage that lay partially blocking the hallway behind Sirius.
"Please. If you don't mind."
Without much effort, the three of them had managed to haul Sirius' trunk up onto the rack beside James'. But when they'd just slumped onto the seats, Mr Potter had glanced at his watch and instantaneously got back up, shooting James a quick look.
"Righty-ho, it's 10:50 now, Jamie-"
"Dad! It's James," James sighed, throwing a slightly nervous look at Sirius.
Mr Potter sniggered and stood, "Alright then, kiddo, let's go say goodbye to your Mum."
James got to his feet, his cheeks red, and made his way off the train.
Mortifying. His Dad was just mortifying.
His Mum was waiting over by the trolley drop off sign, people watching contentedly. James ran over to her quickly, wanting to get this surely embarrassing display of public affection over and done with - preferably before his Dad caught up with him.
"Hey, Mum! Have a nice year! Bye-" he was cut off by something tugging abruptly at his throat.
Mrs Potter smirked, releasing the hood of his Hogwarts robe.
"Not so fast, young man. Don't I get a hug?"
James grudgingly wrapped his arms around her - a very (very) distant part of his brain enjoyed the familiar, safe sensation.
"Ah, you caught him, I see?"
James groaned and pulled away from his Mum, "Daaad! Did you have to embarrass me like that in front of Sirius?"
"Of course I did. You know how it works - I'm your Dad, I exist only for your embarrassment. Now come, give me a hug. I'm not going to see you for three and a bit months - still got a bit more embarrassing to fit in to tide you over."
James just sighed and hugged him - at least his Dad couldn't follow him to school.
"It's 10:55, Jamie you should probably get on board. Now. Be good. Don't cause any trouble-"
"And if you do, don't get caught-"
"Fleamont! No, Jamie, don't cause trouble. Do your best. Make lots of friends. And have fun!" Mum said, raising her voice slightly as the noise level on the platform rose.
Jamie nodded furiously, hoping he could escape without the customary hair tidy, and yet another hug.
"Now let me just give you a bit of a tidy, and you can get on the train-"
James backed away with a cheeky grin, "No thanks, Mum! See you at Christmas."
She rolled her eyes and shook her head but still grinned at his antics.
Freedom! He pushed through the growing crowd of people all trying to get on the train, eager to get to know that boy from before - Sirius. He'd seemed posh, aristocratic; which suggested that he was pureblood. But there hadn't been any questions from him about their own blood status. Nor had he pushed his last name: almost like he hadn't cared. Which was unusual for a pureblood; the purebloods James had been forced to socialise with every sixth months, were of families with a lighter background then most, and so lacked the boasting pride the darker houses had - but they were the exception not the rule.
Finally, he managed to push his way back onto the train and return to the compartment he'd left not ten minutes earlier.
Sirius had since pulled a book from somewhere and was leaning against the window with it propped up in front of his face.
"Do your parents not want to say goodbye?" James asked, pushing the door closed.
Sirius lowered the book and glanced at him speculatively.
"We said goodbye earlier."
"Oh, okay. What're you reading?" James asked, determined to be friends with this boy.
"Hogwarts: A History," Sirius said, scrunching up his nose.
"Is it any good?"
"It's a bit boring, to be honest."
James laughed, "It looks it. You could probably knock out a mountain troll with that brick."
Sirius smirked and snapped the book shut.
"So, what-"
The door rolled open forcefully.
"Oops, sorry. Can I sit here, please?" A boy with brown-blonde hair asked from the doorway, a full-looking bag slung over his shoulder and a trunk blocking the corridor behind him.
James glanced at Sirius, his eyebrows raised and shrugged. He didn't mind if Sirius didn't. The boy shrugged too.
"Go for it, do you need a hand with your trunk?"
He nodded, dropping his bag onto one of the unclaimed seats. Together they'd lifted the boy's trunk onto the other overhead rack. Managing to get it securely in place just in time before the train started moving, knocking them both off their feet and into their respective seats.
James stood, quickly adjusting to the movement under his feet and clambered over Sirius to get to the window. Through the crowd of people, he could just about make out his parents. He waved, sticking his whole arm out of the window.
Within a minute they were out of sight of the station, so James pulled his arm back in and sat down with a thump. He smiled widely before looking around the carriage. Both of the boys had their heads buried in books.
He launched himself into the seat next to the boy who wasn't Sirius, his arm falling loosely around his jumper clad shoulders. The boy jumped, dropping his book and knocking James' arm off his shoulders.
"So! I'm James. What's your name?"
The boy looked up at him shyly and held out a hand, "Remus."
James looked at the hand. He was more of a greeting with a hug person than a shake hands person. And as these people were going to be his new friends, it was probably best that they started off on the right foot. So he knocked Remus' hand aside with his arm, going in for a full hug. As his arms wrapped around him, Remus stiffened - seemingly unused to hugs. Well; he'd have to do something about that. It took a few seconds for James to realise that the boys' discomfort may have been related to James' hand resting on the bare skin of his lower spine (just above his trousers) rather than a lack of familiarity with hugs.
"Why didn't I get one of those?" Sirius asked indignantly.
James shrugged, releasing Remus and falling back in his seat.
Sirius snapped the book shut for the second time that morning and slid it into the bag at his feet.
"So…" he said, grey eyes glittering, "What house do you think you'll be put in?"
-HN-
1st September 1971
Lily wasn't sure whether this day could be counted as great or not. It had started off okay. They'd found and made it onto the platform on time, and she'd located a carriage with friendly people in it, Tuney hadn't been too horrible. So all in all a good, if not great day. That was until James Potter had crash-landed into it.
It had happened as she'd clambered off the train, bag in one hand, Athena's basket in her other. Just as she'd stepped onto the platform, a force had rammed into her from behind sending her sprawling onto the pavement. As she'd brought her hands up to catch herself, she'd dropped the cat basket - which had sent the frantically spitting, clawing, hissing feline through the gap in the top of the basket and hurtling through the forest of nearby students' ankles. To make things worse, as she'd stood up, palms bleeding lightly, people had laughed. On her first day, people laughed at her. So much for a new start.
It was only later when she'd made friends with a girl named Marlene on the boat crossing that she'd found out what happened. James Potter had knocked her over in his haste to exit the carriage. Apparently, he'd been playing 'Tag' with Sirius Black (Marlene seemed to know who everyone was, which was a little worrying considering Lily only knew Marlene and Sev) and hadn't seen her. That, Lily thought stiffly, wasn't any excuse for not stopping to check she was okay.
The second incident had taken place just after Potter had been sorted into Gryffindor and practically thrown himself onto the bench next to her. He'd smiled at her like he hadn't been the cause of the humiliation an hour earlier. She'd snorted and launched herself to her feet. But in her haste to get away from the idiot, her foot had caught on the bench, and she'd sprawled onto the cold stone floor. As a result, for the second time that day, what had felt like the entire world had laughed at her because of that prat, Potter.
The light at the end of the tunnel had come in the shape of a pale hand belonging to Remus Lupin. Lily had taken it hesitantly; she'd known of the budding friendship between the boy and Potter. But strangely enough, Remus had just looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, and pulled her gently to her feet. No witty comments, no laughter, just a concerned smile. He'd released her hand as soon as she was upright, but instead of expecting her to sit elsewhere as she'd presumed he would, he'd moved up the bench to make room for her - forming a clear barrier between Lily and Potter.
Then, in a move that completely floored her (although this time, thankfully, not literally), Remus had berated Potter, in front of everyone. Lily had had to actively prevent her jaw from dropping. Maybe this day wasn't completely overshadowed by bad - making two new friends was hardly something to sniff at. That Potter now glared at her was inconsequential.
-HN-
17th September 1971
They tiptoed down the corridor. It had been a bit of a squeeze to fit the three of them beneath the cloak, but they had managed it. Their footsteps were almost silent on the stone flags. It had taken a close run-in with Filch the Caretaker earlier that evening for the louder two boys to realise that whilst the Invisibility Cloak made them…invisible - it did absolutely nothing to reduce any noise they made.
Remus had found it challenging to breathe thanks to a fit of silent hysterical laughter during that particular incident. That James and Sirius' chatterbox natures had interfered with their other primary love, pranking, was ironically hilarious; given how often Remus had asked them to shut up, and the amount of times they had declined on the grounds that it simply wasn't possible to hold in 'that much genius'. Apparently, pranking, and pranking alone, was the only reason worthy of restraining their 'genius'.
That night's pranking was almost at a close. They'd just finished the set up of the prank, now all that was left to do was activate the potion they'd spent the early hours of the morning distributing. Despite not being quite as enthusiastic about it as his friends, Remus had to admit the brilliance of this prank. He was confident that the level of spell work and potion making required for the operation to work would place the three of them far beyond the eyes of Professorly suspicion but still provide enough flair to put them in the Hogwarts history books.
However, the almost instant friendship that'd sprung up between the three boys and everything that'd come with it had given Remus more than just friends. It had provided him with a home, a place to belong where he could just forget about being a werewolf. And this pranking obsession of the other two boys, although not originally something he was interested in, had snuck its way onto his 'Fond of' list. It'd provided him with a physical distraction, a way of blowing off steam, whilst also allowing him to research strange topics he wouldn't otherwise know about and expand his knowledge base.
The prank itself was practically poetry - and so far beyond the perceived talents of a 1st year that they were almost guaranteed anonymity.
They stopped a few minutes' climb from the portrait hole, where the fat lady couldn't see them.
James pulled the cloak off and stuffed it in his pocket.
Each of them pulled their wands out, checking over their shoulders for peeping eyes.
On the count of three, they cast the spell. Light erupted from their wands, moving off in almost imperceptible tendrils in every direction.
"Well?" James asked, "Did it work?"
Sirius grabbed a wadded up ball of paper from his pocket and lobbed it at a nearby staircase.
Remus felt his eyes widen, "Yep, I'd say that worked, Jamie."
Sirius bounced on the balls of his feet eagerly.
"Tomorrow is going to be brilliant. I can't wait to see everyone's faces!"
Remus glanced down at his watch and cursed.
"Speaking of tomorrow, chaps…" he flashed his watch in their direction, light from nearby oil lamps reflecting off the face.
Remus had found that while it was always fun to stay up at night when everyone else was in bed, the following morning classes they had to attend on three hours sleep were much less so. It was shocking how many times their dorm had fallen into this trap in the two weeks since they had arrived at Hogwarts for the first time.
James pulled the cloak out of his pocket and threw it over them. As they passed under a gas lamp, Remus could clearly see the wide smile spread across both boys' faces. They lived for this.
The problem arose a few minutes later when the portrait hole, while clearly in sight, was up a flight of stairs. Remus shook his head, irritated. He should've thought of this - they should've thought of this.
The staircase that stood between themselves and the safety of the common room had been altered for their prank. Consequently, it was impassable. They'd have to find an alternative route.
Remus groaned. It would take at least another twenty minutes to traverse a route that didn't require them to go up or down a staircase they'd fiddled with - and that was assuming they didn't get lost.
"Guys. We can't go up this staircase." he said out loud when his fellow pranksters had shown no sign of stopping.
At his words they halted, staring wide-eyed at him through the gloom under the cloak.
"We didn't?... Did we?" James asked, his face mildly horrified.
Remus rubbed at his face with a weary hand, "We did."
With a sigh and much collective grumbling, they set off on their detour, cursing their lack of foresight.
Twenty minutes later they were back where they'd started, albeit at the top of the staircase rather than at the bottom. Remus was just mildly shocked and very relieved that they hadn't got lost on their way around.
Muttering the password to the Fat Lady and ignoring her protests at not knowing who was speaking, they stumbled into the common room. None of them seemed all that eager to get up to bed.
James ripped the cloak off and launched himself backwards over the back of the sofa in front of the fire, his head thrown dramatically off the front. Remus collapsed onto a nearby armchair, slightly more delicately, and the right way up. Sirius neatly folded himself onto the rug in between the sofa and the fireplace. He rested his head on the sofa cushions beside James and stared at him.
"Jamie, what's that on the side of your neck?" Sirius asked, slightly more awake than the other two and peering intently at his friend's neck.
James slapped his hand over the offending spot, his face turning red. He'd later claim that it was his position upside down on the sofa that'd caused the reddening in his cheeks - not that anyone would believe this.
"It's nothing."
"Aw," Sirius sang, "Has Jamie got his Soulmark?"
The blush on his friend's face got deeper.
Remus jumped in to save him.
"Have you not got a similar mark on your arm, Sirius?"
James sent him a thankful look.
"Sort of? It could just be a particularly elegant group of freckles. I mean, it's me… even the unruly bits of me are ravishing," Black smirked, undeterred.
James rolled his eyes dramatically.
"You've both got these marks, yeah? What if you're each other's Soulmate?" Remus exclaimed, immediately regretting saying anything.
Both boys looked mildly uncomfortable.
"Could be, I guess. Dunno. My parents have said to just ignore any Soulmarks that show up until I'm older," James answered slowly.
Sirius' forehead wrinkled.
"No, it can't be you, Jamie. We shook hands the first time we met. So it would be on our hands if you were mine."
Remus' soulmark either hadn't appeared yet, or it was somewhere he didn't see every day. He resolved to check himself over tomorrow… Today, he corrected, when he had his morning shower.
Reflexively he looked at his watch. He closed his eyes briefly with a small groan and a shake of his head. 6:30. It was 6:30. They had classes at 9:00 and still would need to have breakfast and shower. Remus suspected he wouldn't see his nice, comfortable four-poster bed until that evening.
He'd known he shouldn't have let them talk him into pulling the prank on a Sunday night, but as they'd put to him, a prank on such a large scale deserved to be used on a day when everyone in the school would be exposed to it.
Remus buried his face in his hands. There was no solution to this beyond tea - and lots of it. Even sleep wouldn't help at this point (unless it was a full, uninterrupted twelve-hour nap).
"What's wrong, Rem?" James asked, extracting himself from the sofa.
"It's 6:30. We have to do a full day of classes on no sleep."
James dropped back onto the seat, the right way up, his enthusiasm seeming to increase exponentially.
"That was our first all-nighter! Amazing! We're properly best friends now that we've done one of those."
Remus exchanged a look with Sirius. Neither of them has the faintest idea as to what their friend was so excited about. They weren't in an Enid Blyton novel.
James sighed and rolled his eyes. "Just think of the looks on everyone's faces when they activate! That'll make it worth it. And, we'll be able to get to class sooo much faster."
One and a half hours later, after a light doze and an invigorating shower (where Remus searched every inch of skin for any darkening and was rewarded with a faint, oddly shaped patch over his lower spine), the three first years stepped out of the Gryffindor portrait hole and surveyed the carnage.
The stairs they'd so carefully applied a 5th-year level potion to the night before were now covered in a layer of ice so thick they'd had turned into a slope perfect for sliding down.
Grinning at each other, lack of sleep forgotten, they charged towards the staircase they'd been denied going up the previous evening. Throwing themselves down the ice sheets, Sirius and Remus had to agree with James' statement - it was worth it.
HN
22nd September 1971
Sirius sat down gingerly on the bed closest to the door, the crisp linen giving slightly beneath him. He wrinkled his nose. The Hospital Wing always smelled funny.
"What can I help you with, Mr Black?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"Sirius," He corrected without thinking.
"Very well, Sirius; what brings you to the Hospital Wing today?"
He blushed slightly, this was going to be a very awkward conversation.
"I think there's something wrong with… it."
Madam Pomfrey narrowed her eyes, "It?"
Sirius stood up and began unbuttoning his school trousers. The nurse's eyes widened before she closed the curtains around the bed with a quick flick of her wand.
Sirius, being by no means shy, made quick work of his trousers and pants. On the pale skin just above his penis lay a slightly darker patch. Unlike a freckle, the dark patch had a discernible shape.
"Mr Black- Sirius; despite a rather... odd placement," Madam Pomfrey stated, ignoring Sirius' smirk, "It appears to be a soulmark."
Sirius frowned, the smirk disappeared.
"But I already have one?" he said, rolling up his sleeve. Prominently displayed on his lower arm, was a faint tattoo-like image of a pair of antlers.
Madam Pomfrey smiled.
"You can have more than one soulmate, Sirius."
He blinked.
Like all young pureblood wizards, he'd been instructed in the 'Soulmark Issue' as it had been termed at home. His parents had made it clear that Soulmarks were to be ignored if they appeared, and banished as soon as possible. This was to prevent anything from getting in the way of their duty to continue their line with someone who was just as pure of blood. Nothing was to come before that, which meant that sacrifices had to be made.
Luckily, Sirius had never been one for rules. And it seemed like fate, or his body, ran with the same sentiment. Never in his parents' education' had they ever mentioned even the vaguest possibility of having more than one soulmate or soulmark.
"How… common is it? To have more than one, I mean?" he asked.
Madam Pomfrey paused for a second.
"Not overly so. I usually see one trio every two year groups, occasionally every three. As you probably know, Sirius, your head of house will address soulmarks in a meeting at some point before Christmas."
Sirius nodded, they'd been told they'd have a meeting in their houses in a few weeks when information would be given about Soulbonds, and questions could be asked in regards to them.
"I would suggest addressing any in-depth questions with Professor McGonagall. She's been doing this a long time and knows pretty much everything there is to know."
He nodded again, reaching down to tug his trousers and pants back up his legs and into place.
"I presume, due to its… unique placement, you know who it is?"
"Yeah," Sirius smiled slightly. That particular piece of information was truly very obvious.
"Well then, Sirius. Let me be the first one to congratulate and wish you the best of luck."
Sirius ducked his head, "Thanks."
He left the Hospital Wing quickly, relieved at the 'diagnosis'. It was interesting that his parents had lied about so much. He'd known that they'd lied about muggleborns being completely inferior - it was just illogical given what he'd observed in the past couple of weeks. But to altogether leave out something that big. He mused, ambling down the corridor back towards the common room, no longer in the frenzy of panic he'd been in on the way to the hospital wing.
Sirius smirked, thinking back to the events of this morning that had, as it turned out, led to his trip to the hospital wing. It had started when he'd stolen some of Remus' chocolate from his stash in his trunk. (The chocolate had been there, and he'd been too hungry to wait for lunch.)
FLASHBACK
Earlier that day…
"SIRIUS! MY CHOCOLATE! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH- NO! COME BACK HERE!" Remus bellowed.
Sirius sprinted down the Gryffindor boys staircase, clutching a half-eaten bar of chocolate in his hand.
He tripped on the last step and tumbled into the common room - where half of Gryffindor sat staring at him in surprise. Ignoring all of them, he'd stumbled back to his feet and attempted to get to the portrait hole. No such luck. Remus appeared at the bottom of the stairs before he was even halfway across the room.
"Give it here, Sirius! Now!"
Sirius smirked mischievously before stuffing the chocolate down his pants and holding his arms out wide.
"Come and get it then," he dared.
The common room seemed to collectively groan disgustedly before turning back to the activities they'd been occupied before the 1st-years had disrupted them.
Remus, one eyebrow raised, stalked towards him and extracted the remainder of his chocolate delicately. Turning on his heel, the boy had returned to their dormitory promptly. Sirius gaped after him.
END OF FLASHBACK
Sirius collapsed on his bed in a heap. It was exhausting, this whole thinking your dick's going to fall off lark. Thankfully, Remus wasn't in the dorm, so Sirius hadn't had to face him just yet. But he knew he would have to in the next few hours. He wasn't sure how he was going to handle it. If it was a soulmark (Madam Pomfrey had seemed certain), then Remus would also be developing one; only on his hand.
Sirius sighed dramatically. Knowing who this soulmark represented made him even more eager to find out who the one on his arm belonged to.
The door swung open. Remus walked over to the trunk at the end of his bed, casting a glare at Sirius before unlocking the luggage with the key around his neck.
Sirius focussed intently on his friends' hands, intent on seeing the developing mark and confirm his theory (despite being confident in who it was).
Remus, having got the textbook he'd been searching for out of his trunk, turned to face him abruptly.
"What is it, Sirius?" Remus snapped.
He froze, not knowing what to say. Every way he thought of just sounded ridiculous.
"Sirius?" Remus asked, his face losing the harshness it'd previously held.
"Ithinkyoumaybemysoulmate," he blurted, face turning bright red.
Mortified, he buried his face in his pillow.
"What was that, Siri?" Remus asked gently, sitting on the bed beside him.
Sirius turned his face away from his Soulmate and repeated himself.
"I think," he swallowed, "You may be one of my soulmates."
He fought the urge to bury his head under the pillow and hurriedly continued before Remus could point out how ridiculous the notion was. It had been just last week the other boy had suggested that maybe Sirius and James were soulmates; for Remus to turn out to be one now, was just preposterous. What was also absurd was that it'd taken three whole weeks of living in the same dorm for them to have any skin to skin contact.
"Because I stole your chocolate, and then you touched me, and now I have a soul mark there. Or at least that's what Madam Pomfrey said it was. And you're the only person other than myself who's touched that bit of skin. I know it's ridiculous because we've known each other for three weeks and we only actually touched skin to skin today. But I've been thinking about it, and we have touched, just not skin on skin. You've grabbed my arm through my jumper, and I've patted you on the back through your shirt..." Sirius trailed off, his thoughts spiralling even more than his speech.
Remus was going to think this was ridiculous, that he was ridiculous. Then what would he do? He couldn't change dorms; the other Gryffindor first-year male dorm was full. He could always ask to switch; that boy, Pettigrew, might be amenable if given the right incentives.
"I agree," Remus said mildly.
Sirius' brain screeched to a halt.
"Pardon?"
"I agree, Sirius. I think we are soulmates,"
Sirius sat up just as quickly as he'd laid down and stared at him.
Remus placed his hand between them on the bedspread. On the back of his hand was a light grey pawprint.
"We are then? We're actually soulmates?" Sirius gasped, struggling to process.
Delighted laughter came from the doorway.
"That's brilliant!" James said, darting across the room and throwing himself on the bed with them, "Congratulations!"
He pulled Remus into a hug, before releasing him and attacking Sirius with a hug.
Remus gasped, "James, the mark on your neck, it's the same as Sirius' on me!"
James pulled back off Sirius.
"Really? Let me see," he asked, taking Remus's offered hand.
James smiled softly, "So it is. Looks like we're soulmates then as well as best mates."
Sirius pretended to vomit, "That's disgustingly cheesy, take it back. Now."
James laughed, shaking his head.
"So what's mine?" Remus asked, leaning against a bedpost.
James flipped his left hand over; a light grey waning moon, identical to the one on Sirius' nether regions, sat neatly on the skin of his palm.
"Do you want to see mine?" Sirius asked, a gleam in his eyes.
Remus' eyes widened comically, "No, Sirius, don't-"
Too late. Sirius had wiggled out of his trousers to the extent that they could see far more than just Remus' soulmark.
Amidst cries of horror and shielding of their eyes, Remus and James each grabbed a pillow and threw them at the offending party, - only for him to seize their ammunition and launch it back at them. The following pillow fight, whilst not large enough to go down in the Hogwarts History books, was still sufficient enough to get Sirius to put his trousers back on and ensure that when they all slumped back onto his bed, they were very much out of both breath and energy.
Sirius smiled, relaxing back against his headboard. Remus was lying next to him, but with his head resting flat on the bed. James, as usual, was at an angle to both of them, having collapsed dramatically on top of them. His arms were hanging off the side of the bed, the crescent moon on his palm seeming to stare at Sirius.
"Hey, Rem… do you know why yours is a moon?" Sirius asked, tracing the symbol on James' palm.
Remus squirmed uncomfortably.
James placed a soothing hand on his arm, "If you don't want to tell us, it's fine."
Remus tensed, sliding his legs out from underneath James.
"No, you should know," he paused, looking down at his hands and the pawprint on one of them, "I'm a werewolf."
Sirius stopped breathing.
That was quite a secret. It didn't make a difference, given that he knew who Remus was, and knew he was the opposite of a stereotypical werewolf. It was the fact that it had been kept a secret that bothered him most - did Remus not trust them? But then, had the two of them not been trustworthy, it would've had a devastating effect on his life. Sirius could forgive the secret so long as there weren't any other major ones lurking in the wings.
Remus leapt off the bed and ran towards the door.
"Remus? No!" James exclaimed, already going after him.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Sirius said, freezing the werewolf just before he reached the door handle.
"Nope. No running away, Moony. Hey! Sirius - that could be Rem's nickname during pranks. Then we have even less chance of getting caught," James added eagerly, catching Remus before he fell over. (They'd decided after accumulating three detentions apiece in the first week, that the time outs weren't much fun and so should be avoided.)
Sirius nodded, looking at the frozen boy.
"Can I release the spell without you running off? I just think we need to talk. And we can't do that if you run away."
Remus stared at him.
"Oh. You can't reply. Um, blink once if you're gonna run, twice if you're not," Sirius amended.
Remus blinked twice. Sirius cautiously cast the counter charm (thankful his parents had forced him to read the textbook before letting him go anywhere near Hogwarts).
Remus slumped slightly in James' arms as the spell released.
"Now, no running, Mr Moony," James chirped, leading his Soulmate over to Sirius' bed.
"Why aren't you running to tell everyone there are monsters inside Hogwarts?" Remus whispered, eyes downcast.
"Because there's not a monster inside Hogwarts, Moony," James answered as if he was speaking to a three-year-old.
"Stop calling me that," he snapped.
"Only if you stop referring to yourself as a monster," Sirius answered calmly. It was clear that Remus was beating himself up over what he was; Sirius wasn't going to add to that pain by expressing his irritation over not being told Remus' perfectly-understandable secret straight away.
"But I am," he said, staring intently at his hands, "I'm a werewolf. Werewolves are monsters."
Sirius watched a dark cloud of determination pass over James' face.
"No. Werewolves are people. People can be either good or bad. And Remus you're not a bad person. Not in the slightest, you've just been through hell. Our choices make us who we are. Bad werewolves are bad because they're bad people, not because they're werewolves," James said fiercely, "Do you understand me, Remus?"
The werewolf looked slightly taken aback at the power and utter belief James had put behind his words. It had been clear that the usually hyperactive boy meant every word.
Sirius considered what James had said - he agreed with every word. The same thing applied to him, only he hadn't ever put it into words. He was the white sheep in a sea of black ones. It was the choices that they made that defined them, not where they'd come from or what they were by name.
Remus nodded to confirm he understood.
Sirius grinned, "GROUP HUG!"
He met James' eyes and smiled, they moved together rapidly, squashing Remus between them.
James gasped slightly, his eyes having lost the seriousness they'd held only a moment earlier.
"It's a Remus sandwich!"
Remus shook his head slightly, "Nope, it's a Moony sandwich."
James and Sirius both cheered loudly, before Sirius steered the three of them back onto the bed.
When they were once again settled, Sirius asked the question that'd been pressing on him.
"I wonder why ours are in weird places, Jamsie. The first time we touched was when we shook hands - so theoretically they should be on our hands."
AN:
Hi!
Thank you for reading - I hope you have a lovely day. :)
Thanks to: my mate, Li, and every_colour_of_the_rainbow for betaing this :) I really do appreciate all your help in its awesome glory.
Also, a serious amount of thanks to everyone in the FB group chat for this challenge - it's been so much fun interacting with you all, the companionship for both the sprints and writing in general, have really kept my drive for this fic going. It would not exist without you guys. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explore this (Hella Awesome) ship from a perspective I wouldn't have ordinarily. It's been great. I shall now go and devour all of your fics :).
SNR