Author's Note: Sorry about the wait. School got to hectic for me to even read through the chapter for errors. However, it is now summer and this should mean that I get the next chapter out to you in a timely fashion as promised. Warning: Sirius is getting dangerously close to being a teenage girl here.
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Chapter Four: In Which Sirius Unnecessarily Angsts
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Sirius looked around him, and wondered if the common room was ever going to clear out, or if he would just have to run through the crowd, waving his wand madly and ultimately fill the room with smoke. The students of Gryffindor tower weren't strangers to strange purple fogs that would unexpectedly fill the common room, and knew enough to all sit around for a few minutes until the Marauders were sure to have made their spectacular exit.
"Just wait," Lupin kept saying. "James is leaving just before eleven, and we're following him out." Sirius grumbled again about James getting to stay out as late as he wanted on account of being Head Boy. "Well, he deserves a reward," Lupin said, and Sirius raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Even if said reward is snogging with Lily in the Astronomy Tower," a smile crept up his face.
James came bounding down the stairs, just as Sirius was about to bolt for the portrait hole yelling, "For freedom!" "Hello!" he greeted them brightly. "Are you ready for me to escort you to go discuss your Potions N.E.W.T.s with the Headmaster?" Both Sirius and Lupin responded with affirmative nods, and James graciously led them to the portrait hole, where he let his voice drop. "I checked the map," he murmured, handing it over. "You can throw the cloak on over by the statue of the Viktor the Vulgar, and exit through the tunnel next to the Hufflepuff dormitory."
"Thanks again!" offered Lupin. "Always knew you'd be great for this sort of thing as Head Boy, you know...makes it easier for you all to get out during full moon, too, I guess." He tucked a scrap of parchment into his robes, presumably with the instructions for the rare plants he needed for Herbology. This was bound to be much more interesting than hunting down with everyone else down around the lake the next day.
The three boys walked purposefully down the hall for a bit, but James soon broke off to go to the Astronomy Tower. Sirius resisted yelling remarks such as "Don't forget to wipe the lipstick later, Prongs!" mainly because he was still a bit nervous about the Forest. Still, it was nice to be up to some good old-fashioned sneaking-out-with-your-friends again. The last few times he'd sneaked out of the school had been by himself in an attempt to sort some of his thoughts out--something he could never admit doing to James, since it was much easier for everyone to imagine his numerous rendezvous with random girls.
Lupin and Sirius approached the statue, and Sirius removed the cloak from his robes. He threw it around the two of them, glad not to be alone under the cloak for once. They proceeded to the tunnel by the Hufflepuff dorm, and entered the dark passage.
The tunnel was notoriously long, but one of the Marauder's long standing favorites, as it was well worn, with no sudden steps to make you trip. They turned right and headed that way for awhile, breathing quietly, Sirius with the cloak tucked under his arm, and stopped at one of the portraits near the front of the school. "Just a minute. Let me check the situation," Lupin whispered, and positioned himself behind the eyeholes. After a moment, he turned and gave Sirius an affirmative thumbs up. Then he slid the portrait aside (after throwing the Invisibility Cloak back on) and carefully set it back into place.
Years of practice were put to work as Sirius and Lupin slipped out the front doors and ran towards the Forbidden Forest. Once hidden from view of Hagrid's hut, they pulled the cloak off and grinned at each other. "So, what exactly does this plant of yours look like?" Sirius asked.
Lupin lit his wand, and pulled the sheet of parchment from his robes. He read over it silently, and nodded a few times. "Look for a small blue budding flower with purple leaves," Lupin told him. "It should grow along the path, so we won't have to worry much about the other...things that are here."
"Great…" mumbled Sirius, scanning the ground as he lit his own wand. There was a lot of grass, and quite a few ferns that looked as if they were oozing blood. Hopefully a blue flower wouldn't be too hard to find—especially since Sirius wanted to get his explaining over and done with.
"They like water, too," offered Lupin as they proceeded farther into the forest. "So if it's not right along the path, it might be on the banks of any sort of stream. Then again, it might grow in the dung of a hippogriff, so you might want to watch where you step," added the werewolf, suppressing a chuckle at his bit about the dung.
"What?!" exclaimed Sirius, whirling around. "That's disg—" He stopped and sighed as Remus Lupin burst out laughing. "Moony, your jokes really need to get better…that was just weird! I assume the water part was true, though?" A nod from the werewolf confirmed his suspicions, and Sirius turned back around as they continued down the path.
Sirius squinted on the sides of the path, looking for random puddles, so he wouldn't have to wander too deep into the trees looking for a stream. Unfortunately, after about fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, Lupin pointed to his left. "I hear running water right over there. Let's go look." Sirius didn't want to appear too reluctant, so he only leaned back for a moment before following his friend into the tree line.
How the bloody hell could Lupin be so casual about this whole thing? Sirius narrowly dodged a tree, and tried his best to force a natural looking grin on his face. He noticed Lupin smiling back. Wait, what was that? Did Lupin's eyes just dart nervously around him? Sirius squinted, and noticed that, yes, Moony kept glancing over his back.
Barely able to conceal a grin, Sirius walked silently beside Lupin, watching as the werewolf got steadily more cautious. Finally, unable to hold it in, he jumped in the air and grabbed Lupin by the shoulders. "What's that?" he gasped. "I think I heard something, Moony, maybe we should get back on the path, I think there's something just over there, it's - BLOODY HELL!" Sirius threw himself to the ground, arms protectively over his head, and laughed quietly into the grass.
"What?! What is it! Sirius, are you oka--oh, please, Padfoot," groaned Lupin after he realized what Sirius had done. Sirius rolled over, laughing as if there wouldn't be a tomorrow. His grin could probably power a Muggle light bulb if he tried. Lupin only shook his head, a faint smile crossing his lips. "I suppose I should expect that by now...you never cease to surprise me, though." He extended a hand, and Sirius took it as he was pulled up.
"Thanks, Moony," he chuckled, but his laughter quickly stopped when he stumbled as he was pulled up. He lurched forward, but was saved from being reacquainted with the ground when Lupin caught him. Sirius felt his face turn red as he disentangled himself from the werewolf's arms. "Thanks for that, too." He felt his shoe squish in a muddy puddle as he stepped back, and pointed his wand on it as he glanced at the ground. Saved by a mere fraction of an inch from his shoe was a flower was purple leaves. He grinned as he bent down to pick it, and handed it to an astonished Remus Lupin.
The werewolf took the flower, and checked it against his Herbology notes to make sure it was the right one. "Wow...thanks!"
Sirius grinned. "Just call me...um...Sirius Black. You know, I thought that finding that plant would be a lot harder, considering we had to travel all the way out to the Forbidden Forest to get it." He looked at Moony carefully, ready to analyze his behavior.
Lupin shrugged, scribbling down things on his sheet of paper. "Well, if you weren't such a prat and so bloody clumsy, it might have taken us another hour to find." He stopped writing, looked up, and smiled. "Now we have ample time to discuss what you've been working so hard to hide from me."
Damn him. He had known it would hardly take them any time at all to find. He just wanted to draw Sirius's secrets out slowly and painfully. Sirius vaguely wondered when Lupin had become such a Marauder. "Well..." How was he supposed to start explaining this? How was he supposed to finish explaining this? How was he supposed to explain everything without really telling Lupin anything at all?
Sirius nervously pushed his hair out of his eyes, and chewed his lip. Explaining things was going to be hard, although it could be summed up in three words. But it wasn't time for that yet. It wouldn't be time for that for a quite a while (unless he found some very strong firewhisky first). There was no getting out of it, though. "Moony, can we go sit down somewhere? Please? This is going to take a while."
Lupin nodded. "Of course...this isn't a simple problem going on, is it?" Sirius made no reply, and they walked silently farther into the woods, stopping in a slightly less dense area a few minutes away. The light of the half moon illuminated a few rocks and a log, and Sirius collapsed onto the rotting wood. The werewolf gracefully seated himself next to Sirius, and looked into his eyes. "So what's going on? Why have you been so different lately?"
He tore his gaze away from those damned golden eyes, and studied the ground. "Don't do this to me, Moony, please...No, you're right. I owe you this." But where did he start? Things had started two years ago, but it would be easier to start with the letter. Maybe. "Snape and Regulus...were the ones who sent me the letter. It was..." He trailed off, unable to say the word "Blackmail." Once he said it, he knew the real explaining would follow. Lupin still watched him expectantly.
"Oh Merlin...how do I..." Sirius rubbed his face, and wished with all his might that he was talking about this to James. Good loyal James Potter – who might be a bit of a prat and was currently snogging Lily in the Astronomy Tower – but was a trustworthy friend. And one that Sirius wasn't in love with. Honestly, James's attraction to Lily Evans was really quite disgusting. "That's it!" he sat up, and turned to Lupin. "You know how we got kicked out of the library the other day and Evans gave Snivellus and I that detention?" He got a confirming nod from his friend. "Well, before the detention I heard him and Regulus talking about how they could benefit from the situation. They sent me a letter that threatened to tell the whole school that we were..." he blushed despite himself. "...romantically involved."
Remus Lupin gave out a sound that Sirius couldn't quite identify. "You mean from when you were being the great clumsy dog you are and fell against me? That suffices as a romantic entanglement? I shudder to think about what changing your Quidditch robes in the same room as other blokes means." He noted Sirius's face and his amused look sobered somewhat. "He threatened to tell your mother, didn't he?" Sirius didn't move. "I can't believe it. Your own brother...blackmailing you. I didn't think family members did that to each other."
"Yes, well, my family has a long history of, how you say, unorthodox practices." Lupin thought of Sirius's descriptions of the elf heads mounted on the wall. "Where do you think the term Blackmail came from? One of my ancestors coined the phrase. Old Mum couldn't be prouder of the sod." He kicked at the dirt, shoulders hunched. "I hate my family," he sighed. "My own mother wishes I'd just go off and get myself killed already, so why do I feel so horrible for despising them?"
The werewolf wasn't quite sure what he should say. For once, logic and books didn't have a ready answer. "It's...not your fault, you know. Emotions are what make you human, and no one's really supposed to control them. They just happen." The response didn't make perfect sense, but Sirius accepted it with a nod.
"Thanks, mate. I just wish my pathetic excuse for a family had a few emotions besides hate and power." He pulled up a few pieces of grass, and shredded them before allowing the grass to be blown away. Lupin's comment had been true on many levels--was it intended to be that way? "They don't understand...things...Even though they're supposed to give you support no matter what...but they don't understand...even when they're right..." He was rambling now, and he knew it. He wanted his friend to understand everything while still remaining blissfully ignorant. He didn't know what he wanted.
An owl hooted as the two sat without speaking for a few moments. Finally, Remus Lupin broke the silence. "Padfoot, you know you can tell me anything--and I mean that." He waited for a response from Sirius, who was chewing his lip again.
So, this is what it meant to be between a rock and a hard place. He could either forget the system, let his family do what they wanted, his ladies' man persona blow away, risk everything just to finally give a straight answer. Or he could stay silent, remain conflicted inside, share smiles that could always mean something more, or exchange words that were encrypted with hidden meanings. If Sirius told him, would the following days, months, years be too catastrophic to bear, or would they be worth it?
The end of the world would be worth Remus Lupin. The problem lay in if Remus Lupin thought the end of the world was worth Sirius Black.
Well, Sirius decided, straightening up, looking Lupin straight in the eye, if this didn't work than he'd just have to live in shame. The Black family had never been one to settle for something less than what they wanted, they had never backed down from a challenge, and if there was one trait that Sirius begrudgingly shared with his horrible family, it was stubbornness. If he was left embarrassed and crushed, then so be it, but he wasn't going to let this go on any longer. Snivellus, Regulus, his mother, and the world be damned.
The werewolf blinked at the sudden change in Sirius. There was some sort of fierce determination about him, and it crackled like blue lightning. Could it be that Sirius finally felt secure expressing whatever it was that had plagued him for so long? Lupin had a few ideas of what had been bothering Sirius, but he had never known if he was right. It looked as if he was finally going to find out.
There was a second of utter silence aside from the wind in the trees before Sirius began to speak. Sirius had to pull himself out of the depths of his friend's eyes before he could begin to speak. "Remus..." Sirius was shocked at himself. It was the first time in years he had been able to use his friend's name without worrying about what it would do to him. "Remus, do you remember when I told you last year that...I was..." He was blissfully spared from being forced to finish the thought when the werewolf nodded his understanding, and sucked up whatever determination he had left. "You are the only one I've ever told, and I'm grateful for that. You've never made me regret anything."
Remus Lupin blinked, but didn't look away. Was it really possible that Sirius hadn't been joking when the two of them had laughed over...them? Was there a possibility for more? He had only thought that he had been a random crush, but that was until the crush had returned to haunt him. Nonetheless, his logical mind had kept that thought hidden in a dark corner of his mind, one he rarely allowed himself to visit.
"Sirius..." Lupin didn't know exactly what to say in response to this. But strangely enough just his name seemed to be enough. So he said it again. "Sirius..."
Then in a surprising move, Sirius reached out and grabbed his hand. His eyes were wide and filled with a strange pleading look that Lupin had never seen before. He was always sure of himself, that was just who Sirius was. It was the reason he could talk about snogging the entirety of Hogwarts, and introduce himself as "Sirius, Sirius Black", and dance around the Gryffindor common room in a pair of Lily's knickers. So, Remus put his other hand over Sirius's and smiled reassuringly at him.
"When I told you last year that I fancied you, that was the truth, I don't think I've ever lied to you before. I don't want to lie to you. But..." he paused then pushed on. "It wasn't exactly the entire truth, well maybe it was the entire truth at the time, but now it's not anymore. Ever since that day I've been going crazy thinking about you, and I try not to, I mean I've taken walks, and snogged girls, and even slammed my fingers in textbooks on more than one occasion, but none of it works. After all that I can only come to one conclusion. And that's that I love you Remus Lupin. I love you more than I think I've loved anything ever in my entire life, and I don't care if you don't love me back, I mean, it's all right, but I really have to tell you before I go crazy, and really that's what this entire thing has been about, and I know I'm rambling, but I love you, and I just need to know if you love me back."
The world stopped for a moment as Remus Lupin inhaled, slightly surprised at having to take in so much information so quickly. He didn't look away as he searched Sirius's own eyes, and knew that everything he had said was true. "Wow, Sirius. I don't think I can answer that. I mean—"
Sirius looked quickly away as he blinked back tears. He wasn't going to cry. He couldn't. "It's okay, Moony…I understand, don't worry."
"No, I didn't mean that at all! I just…can't answer it in words." Without any more hesitation, the werewolf disentangled one of his hands, and pulled Sirius toward him. Lupin had a split second to enjoy the look of shock and happiness that dominated his friend's face before he closed his eyes, and their lips met. After a few moments, Sirius pulled away, unable to keep the smile from his lips any longer.
"Wow." His face was lit up, a picture of joy spread across his face. "Wow, Moony, I never expected-"
"Shut up, you idiot," Lupin interrupted, unable to keep a grin from creeping into his features as well. "You're ruining the moment." Sirius happily obliged.
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They stayed in that spot for an indeterminable amount of time, talking some, laughing some, and smiling endlessly. Sirius finally was able to explain the blackmail situation thoroughly, and despite his protestations, Remus found it to be hilarious. "Oh honestly, Sirius. Were you bred for angst? What's your mother going to do, write me a fancy protest letter?" He had a point, Sirius thought. Howlers were bad for the family reputation, and any hexes would give the staff an excuse to lay punishment on Regulus. "If you don't have your mother's respect, I shouldn't either," Remus continued sleepily, "and my own parents have loved you for ages."
The pale morning sunlight had begun to creep into the forest when Sirius uttered his reply of "Thanks, Remus. That really means a lot to me." He scratched his head, and pushed himself into a sitting position. "Bollocks...the sun is rising. D'you think we should go back?" Anxiety was almost apparent on his face, but it was chased away by sleepy contentment.
Rolling out the stiffness in his neck, Lupin sat up as well. "I suppose...wouldn't it be easier just to stay here all day? We don't have to worry about running into Patricia that way, and then we could simply snog for a while." An impish grin appeared on his lips, but Sirius knew he was joking. The two stood up, and brushed the grass off of their robes before looking at each other again.
"One more before we go, though." He quickly brushed his lips against Lupin's, and they began to walk back towards the trail. After they found it, Sirius realized that there were too many of the little blue and purple flowers to count. "I knew you had something planned all along after I found that flower so easily. Did you expect it to turn out like this?"
Lupin gave him a cryptic smile. "Oh, I don't know. I've heard the flower is really quite difficult to find, which is why the Professor insisted that we take a class trip today and all look for it together." Sirius gaped at him. "Just wanted to get a head start on my homework, that's all." He stretched his arms above his head and yawned. "Are you as worn out as I am? Let's go get some sleep."
Sirius's stunned silence lasted until they spotted a moving figure. Patricia waved from a distance and stopped in front of them, jogging in place. "Good morning, boys! Get done what you needed to?" Patricia, unlike every other student at Hogwarts, had grown up in the States, which made a few of the more worldly students worry about the condition of the country. "Ah, well, even if you haven't, doesn't matter. Peter told me all about it, I won't say a word. If you need me to I'll tell McGonagall you got up for an early breakfast." She smiled cheerfully, and winked, then took off again.
A delighted grin was spreading across Sirius's face. "Can you believe it? Peter's finally found himself a girl, a real live girl to snog on a daily basis! No matter that she wakes up at ungodly hours to jog, we now have a cover when we stay out late!" He looked as if he had just been informed that his house had burned down. "Not to mention the teasing that will ensue. We'll have to get out all our old posters and change 'Hippogriffs' to 'Patricia'."
Lupin chuckled, and shook his head. "That's probably the only girl Peter's ever talked to! I suppose they might as well snog." It was pretty strange, considering it seemed highly unlikely that anyone would ever snog Peter. Then again, it didn't exactly seem likely that anyone would ever snog Patricia. "Wonder how Peter and James are going to react when they hear about, you know, us."
A groan escaped from Sirius's lips as he pondered the idea. "Why can't we just keep it a bunch of secret little rendezvous, Remus? Patricia seems to think we have some sort of new homework hobby, and you heard her say she'd cover for us!" The conversation died, though, as they came within reach of Hagrid's hut, where they could hear him moving around inside.
"Come on, we're almost there," whispered the werewolf. The dew glistened on the grass as they neared the castle, slowly dampening the bottoms of the robes of the two boys. Lupin got out the Invisibility cloak, and the two boys silently entered the passage.
Once they had crept back into the Gryffindor common room Sirius began to speak again. "I mean, wouldn't it be a lot easier to just, well, keep everything a secret? That way I wouldn't have to break the hearts of the female population around here."
Lupin rolled his eyes. "Don't be such an idiot, Sirius. Either we tell our friends, and face the poor crying deluded girls, and tell your brother and Snape to sod off because I don't care how many persuasive essays your mom writes to me, or we just forget about this whole thing." His eyes were firm.
"You mean after all of...of this you'd be willing to just call everything off because I don't want people to know?" He shook his head incredulously. "I swear Moony, you are obviously not familiar with the phrase, 'never give an ultimatum'. Let's go tell my idiot of a brother then, so he can be triumphant for a shining minute."
A look of confusion crossed the werewolf's face as he pondered Sirius's last remark. "Who said it would make him triumphant? His only goal was to make you look like an idiot with his 'lie,' but since it's true and you're all right with it, to me that makes him the loser, don't you think?"
There was a moment of silence before Sirius blinked. "Wow...how do you come up with logical stuff like that all the time...I mean...that was instant!" Lupin shrugged and grinned sheepishly.
"And you don't have to tell him now, you know. Breaking in to the Slytherin dormitory at this hour might cause a few problems." Remus Lupin readjusted his robes, and felt around for something in the pockets. "Just a minute though, Padfoot. I need to run upstairs and get something." With that, he turned around and proceeded up the stairs, leaving a bewildered Sirius standing in the room below.
He returned a minute later, clutching a small box to his chest. It appeared absolutely ordinary. Plain brown wood, no visible latches or openings. But Sirius knew better than to assume it was nothing more than just a wooden cube. "What is that thing?" he asked.
Lupin handed it over, and Sirius found he was able to easily fit it into his palm. "It's something I've been working on for awhile." Sirius turned it over in his hands, inspecting it for anything out of the ordinary. "It's a box that can hold all the mischief you want it to, or all the secrets you don't want revealed. Up until the other night I was struggling with how to keep it foolproof. Then you gave me this." Remus held up the chocolate frog card Sirius had handed him after detention. "If you press it against it right there," he motioned a panel that was the same as the others aside from the fact that it's grain went in a different direction, "face down, it'll open for you."
Sirius took the card, stunned, and pressed it against the side. The panel popped off. Inside there were already dung bombs safely stashed, along with the recently used Marauder's Map, and even James's invisibility cloak. "You did all this?" Sirius gaped, looking up from the strange contraption. "What's the occasion?"
Lupin's eyes flashed with what had to be called glee. "Well, it was originally intended to hold things for anyone of the noble profession of Marauder to give anyone strongly disliked their fair share of hell. Obscenely large amounts of hell, if you will." He took the box back for a moment, and whispered a word that Sirius could not hear. With that, the box shrunk to pocket-size. "It can shrink, too. So if you ever feel the need to give certain Slytherins-who-don't-need-names-mentioned a bit of trouble, then it's all yours."
The grin continued to sit on the werewolf's face as he looked at Sirius inspecting it. He had thrown any modesty he had out the window after he had invented it--it was genius. After all, how many boxes could shrink to that small of a size without negative side effects to their contents?
Sirius looked up in awe. "This is bloody brilliant, Moony! Do you know how much you could do with this?" He continued to go over all sides of it, fully appreciating the magic behind it. "You said something about it keeping secrets, though. What exactly did you mean by that?"
"Oh, well," a look crossed over his face. One that was not easier to classify than any of the other faces Remus Lupin made, and Sirius found himself disconcerted. He didn't like not being able to read people. "It's just that...you know...if you have...uh...keepsakes or something..." A shade of pink tinged his cheeks.
Sirius raised an eyebrow and stared at Lupin for a minute before a look of recognition flashed across his features. "You can't be talking about..." he started laughing, "Like gentle rain on a rose, Moony, you're talking about love letters!"
"Who's talking about love letters?" Sirius took the box and shoved it under his robes, but continued to chuckle. Lupin turned an even darker shade of red. "Well? What love letters? Sirius, don't think I don't know what you've been up to." Lily Evans stood at the bottom of the staircase, shaking her finger at the two Marauders. Sirius's laughter stopped. Evans had found them out? "I know you've been reading the letters that James writes to me, and if you think that for one second I'll let you use them in one of your 'brilliant' plans, you're sorely mistaken..." She trailed off as Sirius was now gripping Lupin for support, he was laughing so heartily.
A confused expression crossed the brow of the Head Girl, and she raised an eyebrow. "Why is that funny? I certainly don't see you being in love with anyone, so I know you're not talking about your own letters." She shook her head, but her eyes narrowed at a small bulge in Sirius's robes. "And what is that?" she demanded, pointing.
Slightly reluctantly, Sirius removed the box from the folds of his robe, and held it out. "As you can see, my dear Lily, this is a cube of the utmost craftsmanship. It is a token of affection from our very own Remus Lupin, who has just declared his undying love to me!" He spread his arms wide for dramatic effect, and pretended to swoon into Lupin's arms. At least, he would have if Lupin had caught him. Instead, he fell on the floor.
The other two stared at Sirius on the floor for a moment before anyone spoke. "I'm sure he did," said Lily, who smiled and rolled her eyes. She helped Sirius up, before turning and proceeding to the portrait hole. "See you boys later, I suppose!"
"Wait," Sirius said, stepping forward and grabbing a hold of Lily's arm. "You can't just leave like that. Where are you going at four in the morning on a Sunday?" He stared at her critically.
Lily shook her arm free of Sirius's grip. "First of all, it's four thirty, and secondly, that is none of your business really. But if it will get you to let me alone, I'm going to eat breakfast and then head to the library to work on an essay."
Sirius looked as though his eyes might jump out of his skull and bounce a few times on the carpeted floor. "You woke up this early to work on an essay?" He shook his head in amazement. "I can't believe it. An essay for which class? When is it due? Did you even get any sleep last night after the date with James? And what exactly-"
He stumbled forward as Lupin pushed his shoulder, and stopped mid-sentence. "Get a hold of yourself, Padfoot!" exclaimed the werewolf. "Give her one question at a time! And do you really need to know things that don't necessarily involve you?"
"Oh, come on, Moony," complained the other boy. "You want to know just as much as I do. To the best of my knowledge, the Head Girl doesn't usually make a habit of waking up this early. She has no legitimate reason for being awake." Sirius shot an all-knowing look at Lupin, as if his statement was the most profound thing he had uttered since his conversation in the woods from a few hours ago.
Lily let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, all right. I'll tell you, Sirius. There is no essay. As it just so happens, last night was fine. But I can't find a good spell to cover up an...um...well..." She trailed off, and blushed as she tried in vain to cover a bright red splotch on her neck with the collar of her robes. "I'm going to the hospital wing, okay? I'm hoping Madam Pomfrey can give me something to cover it up." With that, she stormed out of the common room, muttering something that sounded vaguely like "Boys..."
Sirius and Lupin were in the common room alone again for approximately ten seconds before they looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Jamesy's going to be in for an awfully big surprise," Sirius managed to wheeze out once he had composed himself. "Oh yes, yes he is."
"Stop that," Lupin said, prying apart Sirius's hands which had started to rub together evilly. "We can't just let it be known to the world that Lily has, or had, a hickey." Sirius's face fell as if to say "We can't?" "Because," the werewolf continued, "then everybody would forget about Patricia and Peter, and we can't have that happening, now can we?"
The grin that crossed Sirius's face was only interrupted by a yawn. "I knew I liked you for a reason," he said draping an arm over Lupin's shoulders. "What do you say we catch some winks before plotting anything devious?"
The yawn was contagious, and it hit Lupin before he could mutter, "Yes, I suppose we should...no use creating mischief if you can't be awake to see the results." They headed upstairs together, and sleepily mumbled "G'night" to each other before falling asleep, despite the fact that it was technically morning.