Disclaimer: I do not own it. Absolutely nothing, except for a few, pop-in characters. In which case they are mine.

A/N: I still have no beta. I would love one, even if I think I do pretty well by myself. So, if you wish to help me get these out, please let me know.

Becoming Moony: Marauders Ascending

Remus didn't know what had happened. One day he had felt completely normal. His life had been going fine. He ate right, he brushed his teeth, and he didn't know what was wrong with him.

But then, something had happened. He had been walking down the hall and suddenly he had Evander Bradshaw's tongue down his throat. It had been surprisingly good. It didn't hurt that Evander was the best-looking Ravenclaw seventh year in the school. His dark, wavy, hair and bright, baby blue eyes, made many a girl drool. It also made many a gay boy drool as well.

Remus had jumped slightly when he had first been "attacked", but had relaxed during the kiss. He had actually been slightly weak in the knees.

Evander's parting statement, "See you later, Remus." had brought Remus back to reality with an ungraceful and unsatisfying thump. What the hell had just happened? He had thought. He had just been kissed by a boy and liked it.

These thoughts ran rampant around his mind throughout the week. He could barely pay attention in class, several pranks that should have been pulled of without a hitch went sour, and every time Evander Bradshaw looked at him, he blushed horribly.

He hoped to Merlin, or anyone that would listen, that Sirius and James didn't find out. Sirius had already gotten his, rather scandalous, reputation as a womanizer. There was no girl or woman around that wouldn't feel weak in the knees if Sirius grinned at her. James, still embarrassingly infatuated with Lily, had a rather bad habit of blabbing a really juicy bit of news to anyone who asked. He hadn't told anyone about Remus's "furry little problem" and promised to take it to the grave with him. For some reason, Remus knew that James wouldn't tell anyone about that secret, but knew that if he found out that a boy had kissed Remus, the entire school would know the next morning.

As Remus mused at his rather jumbled thoughts, Sirius came up and plopped down next to him.

"Hiya Remus!"

"Hello Sirius."

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

"You wanna tell me anything?" A sly smile accompanied this statement. Remus felt his eyes widen and face flush. Sirius couldn't possibly know, could he?

"No."

"You don't want to tell me anything? Especially about a special person that you seem to have acquired?"

Remus felt dread fill his body. Oh no, Sirius knew about Evander. He was going to die. "What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing in particular. Just wanted to know about your little lady friend."

Lady friend? He didn't have a- oh. Remus laughed mentally, Sirius thought he had a girlfriend. How funny, thought Remus.

"I don't have a "lady friend" Sirius. Where would you get a silly idea like that?"

"Well, the word on the street is that little Miss Amaryllis Du Bois has a thing for you."

"Amaryllis? I don't think so Sirius. We're in a study group together, sure. I don't think she 'has a thing for me' as you so eloquently put it."

"A study group. Sure. If that's the way you want to phrase it." grinned Sirius.

Yes that was how Remus wanted to put it, that's the way it was. Amaryllis was a nice girl sure, but Remus didn't like girls like that, at least, not anymore. He wouldn't have dated her even if he had liked girls, she was a little annoying. Her voice was slightly higher than average, her hair always had a full bottle of hairspray in it, and her lipstick was the most annoying shade of pink Remus had ever seen.

The hair thing was probably what bothered Remus the most, the style that was in was horrendous. The bouffant thing was terrible. So much curling and twirling, and it didn't even move. It had no flow. She was also blonde and blondes were not Remus' cup of tea. Blondes tended to be giggly. Giggly was bad.

Amaryllis, while nice, was not Remus's type and was slightly insulted that Sirius thought she was. Remus hoped to Merlin that the 'word on the street' was incorrect. Study sessions would become very awkward if she did. Although, he wondered why no one, especially Amaryllis, hadn't mentioned it before. She wasn't shy by any stretch of the imagination. She was loud and boisterous. She was a little like Sirius, if Sirius had been born blonde and female.

"You still alive over there Remus?"

"Yes. I think that you need to check your sources Sirius because they are terribly wrong."

Remus stood. He didn't feel like listening to Sirius babble on about some female anymore. What he did feel like was finding Evander and doing something to him. What he would do, Remus didn't know. When he found Evander he would know.

/page break/

Remus was going to kill James Potter if he kept breathing in Remus' ear like that. He was going to kill him and then have to explain to Harold and Josephine Potter why, exactly, he had killed their darling son.

"Remus…Remus…guess what? I had a great idea. Wanna hear it?"

"Why do I have to hear it at TWO in the morning?"

A pause, "Remus…want to hear my idea?"

Remus reached over and grabbed the collar of James' pajamas. He brought James real close to his own face and whispered quietly to James, " James, if you don't go back to bed I am going to hurt you."

"Oh…okay. Right, I'll just go now." mumbled James, realizing that Remus was truly going to hurt him if he didn't leave. Remus was not a morning person and, therefore, was rather grouchy if woken up. You didn't wake a werewolf up, they were liable to break your face.

"You do that." Remus grumbled, turning over and tried to go back to sleep. A sudden whispering brought him back to reality. Sirius and James's voices were hurried and nearly silent. Or they would have been if Remus didn't have werewolf hearing. What normal people would have heard was a quiet mumbling, Remus heard thus:

"….that's great…"

"…what about?"

"…nah, it'll be okay…."

"…sure?"

"Yeah...we'll just"

"If you two do not shut the hell up I am going to kill you."

The hurried conversation was quickly stopped. A squeak of the floorboards, a crunch of bedsprings, and two quiet, "Night Moony" 's was the ending of that particular conversation. Remus grinned, sometimes it was good to be a grouchy werewolf, people were less likely to bother you.

Remus heard mumbling coming from James's bed. Something about it being a really good name or some sort of rubbish. Remus sighed, he would get no sleep until James told his idea to everyone under the sun. Remus got out of bed stiffly.

"James, tell me your brilliant idea so I can get some sleep."

"No."

"Stop being a two-year-old."

"No."

"Fine."

"You know how McGonagall's always calling us hooligans?" started James, "I came across a better name."

Remus grinned in the dark, "Did you now?"

"Yeah. We're the Marauders."

"The Marauders?"

"Yeah, it means we're, like, rogues or something like that."

"Or something like that." Remus said. The name really was a good one, not terribly accurate, but still good. They didn't go around plundering but pillaging was a definite possibility.

/page break/

By the next afternoon, everyone knew the group of four as the Marauders. Even the professors knew. People would snicker as they walked up and down the school, Sirius and James strutting proudly. They looked like peacocks. It was a wonder someone hadn't smacked them by now. Besides Lily of course, because Lily hit James at least twice a day now. It wasn't unprecedented either; James regularly made an ass of himself. Whether it was dropping some sort of food object on her or pulling some sort of prank that made her mad, he was sure to be hit.

For all of James's crush on her, Sirius didn't seem to like Lily very much. Remus thought she was quite a lovely person, not a nasty bone in her body, unless your name was James Potter. Maybe Sirius felt threatened. By what, Remus couldn't tell, all he knew was that whenever the opportunity presented itself, he was deliberately cruel to her. Remus knew that he didn't have a crush on her himself, he grouched about James' 'stupid infatuation with a redheaded bimbo' enough to disprove that theory.

Then again, Sirius liked and flirted with nearly every female in the school. He had even managed to flirt his way into a good grade. The teacher had left the next year though, apparently out of embarrassment.

Remus wasn't going to diss on them too much. He knew that if anyone knew about Evander, he would be laughed out of Hogwarts. Speaking of Evander, Remus thought, he hadn't seen him in awhile. Remus meandered down the halls in search of the elusive Evander Bradshaw.

"Looking for me?" came a voice from behind Remus. It was Evander.

"Maybe." answered Remus, turning with a smile on his face. Evander approached slowly.

Remus knew that if anyone found out about them, things would probably go to hell, but hell kissed exceedingly well.

/page break/

When Remus got back to the dormitory, he knew something was amiss. Sirius and James were perched on his bed, excitement written all over their bodies. Remus approached with extreme caution, when they were like this, anything could set them off. Extreme excitement was always a danger zone for these two. Excitement usually resulted in two weeks worth of detention.

Remus seriously hoped that tonight was not one of the nights in which the two boys drug Peter and himself into some sort of mischief that resulted in bodily harm. Those nights were nearly always worse than the two weeks of detention nights.

"Can I help you?"

Sirius and James exchanged wicked smiles and then leered at the teenage werewolf. The looks promised pain and agony for some poor sod. The poor, werewolf, sod.

"I wonder, James, what Evander Bradshaw has that Amaryllis Kring doesn't?" said Sirius, a wicked little grin upon his face.

Remus's body went cold. Oh no.

"Well, Sirius, I would suppose that he doesn't have the same body shape." replied James, laughter in his eyes.

"Very true. Very true. What do you think Remus?"

"Uh…"

"It seems that he is speechless."

"Much like he was not twenty minutes ago, Sirius."

"Ah, yes, when he conveniently had Bradshaw's tongue down his…"

"Enough! I can't take it anymore! What do you want me to say? That I like boys? That I happen to like Evander? What more do you want from me?" Remus had cracked. The two boys on the bed reeled back as though they had been physically struck.

"Whoa, chill out Moony. Don't freak out." Sirius said, "We were just playing with you."

"Yeah, we don't mind. Honestly." said James, sitting forward on the bed.

"You…don't?" asked Remus, disbelief in his voice.

"Come on Remus, on a scale of one to ten I think the werewolf thing rates higher than the 'likes boys' part." said Sirius.

"Oh…what did you call me a minute ago?"

"Moony. It fits doesn't it?"

"How so?" asked James.

"Moony. The moon, you know werewolf. Moony."

"I don't get it but that's okay." said James, pondering Sirius's sanity, or lack thereof.

"Me either. Does it really matter though?" asked Remus, the nickname was kind of nice. It was a testament to the fact that they took Remus they way he was, not by what he hid.

" I want a nickname! Give me one too!" cried James, bouncing up and down like a two year old on a sugar high.

"How about dumb-arse? That fits." laughed Sirius. Remus laughed as well, James and Sirius really were crazy. But they were great to be around. They were truly one of a kind.

/page break/

And so Remus was no longer Remus and was now known as Moony. Many people wondered where the name had come from, after all they hadn't heard of anything illicit happening. Unless the Gryffindors weren't talking no one knew about the origin of the nickname.

Then again this was the sixties and, therefore, plenty of illicit things happened under other people's noses that no one ever heard about. Even in Hogwarts, things like marijuana and LSD went under the tables. The teachers knew for sure, because every year at the starting feast some mentioning of muggle, and wizarding, drugs were done. There was no real stopping it; the students were very good at what they did.

Many students wondered if that was where the Marauders got their popularity. Maybe they did drug trafficking. That would explain Remus's new nickname at least. Moony, who had ever heard of such a ridiculous nickname?

Only the four boys knew the truth about Remus's nickname. The boys would be the only ones to know, ever.

Remus's taboo relationship continued on for the rest of the year, even if two of the Marauders knew about it. They didn't mind, or at least, so they said. Evander graduated at the end of the year and moved on to become a top-level auror. He got married to a nice young muggle girl, sufficiently breaking Remus's heart just a little. The Marauders soon learned not to mention the handsome Ravenclaw that had brought Remus his first kiss. Remus got over it within the summer months, having dallied with a striking young French transfer. Remus learned that, while love was great and all, it wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Shakespeare was delusional, thought Remus, either that or he had some serious drug related problems. All Remus knew was that love hurt and everyone left, even if they said they wouldn't. Love wasn't worth the pain that came with it, at least, not with anyone he had ever been with.

A/N: Well there you have it. It ended up slightly bitter for some odd reason, don't know why, I am a romantic. I hope that you enjoyed this. I'll try to have the next one up as soon as I possibly can. I still need a beta! Please let me know if you are interested.