Hey there! Damn, you all are absolutely horrible people. HORRIBLE. Mainly because of the fact that I've gotten, what, a billion reviews in the past 4-5 days? Honestly, you guys are cruel. Keeping me working like this. Pssh, no respect for my summer! Damn you all! But really, I love you guys – reviews bread and butter for a writer, etc. ANYWHO, I finished the final HP book, shan't say anything more than the fact that I've finished it and I'd love to remind you that reviews are for commenting on the story, not ranting about any portrayal issues in the actual, canon book. I probably agree with you on any points that you could make anyway, so let's keep the reviews about whatever I'm churning out? I'm also planning on keeping this and the reviews relatively spoiler free for those of you BAHAHAH JAYNE who have yet to receive or finish the book. And yes, I am cruel.

And oh! By the way, there was a little confusion about how I placed James as the Chaser in my previous chapters – the first Harry Potter movie said that he was a seeker, but that is in fact, an error confirmed by Rowling herself. He was, originally, one of the three Gryffindor Chasers he was playing with a Snitch in the flashbacks because it seemed more impressive to the ladiezzz, apparently. Now, let's carry on, shall we?

Oh, and one more thing. When I say that I'm gonna try to have it posted by my xxxth review, that means that while I haven't started it, my vague plan is to have it done by then. Sometimes I have it done in time, most of the time I don't, so when I'm late, it isn't in a sort of "FWAHAHAH I HAVE IT BUT YOU SHALL NOT READ IT"… intent. Or whatever. So yeah, sorry again for the lateness! I'm also sorry for the upload and reupload - don't kill me? D:!

"Take a wild guess, Remus

The werewolf's grip on Sirius' arm had tightened significantly, his fingers making little white indents through his friend's clothes and into the other's skin. A soft groan from Padfoot barely registered in his mind as he stood there, utterly mortified.

"You can't possibly think that it's my fault!" He lifted the Animagus between them over a step, shuffling through the half-darkness bemusedly.

"Your fault?" James was there in an instant, heaving him past a vanishing stair and awkwardly trying to push his way past Remus, "Of course it's your fault!"

The light-brunette paused, staring at him with an air of disbelief and irritation about him before he continued tugging on Sirius insistently, attempting to half-carry him through the little passage. A small grunting noise from the young man who was being hauled about like a sack of flour was, as usual, completely ignored.

"I never asked for this to happen," Remus mumbled, glaring sullenly at a moldy candlestick holder about five feet ahead of them. He did not notice Sirius' small shifting on the dusty floor.

"Don't you get it, Remus? If this doesn't work out, the Marauders are finished, we'd be completely done! It would break us up, it would ruin us! I can't just let that happen! Peter and you and Sirius and I…" His voice broke off and he fell into an awkward pause, a frown deepening the lines in his face.

"I fail to see how this is completely and utterly my fault. He… Padfoot… I don't know what he wants, but if it was me that he nearly killed himself over... Look, James, I don't want to-"

He was cut off by the hurried footsteps of Lily and Peter, who had only just caught up with their minor procession through the passage. Waving off Lily's question of if they had been interrupting things, Remus waited for James to silently take up one of Sirius' arms and pull him along. And, within moments, Peter had broken their awkward silence as they set off again to babble about the exact shade of Sara Cress' shoes and the pitch of her laugh and how her hair smelled like vanilla and blueberries.

By the time that they had reached the Fat Lady and heaved him through the portrait hole, the victory party was in full swing. A resounding cheer erupted at James' and Sirius' entrance accompanied by slight laughter. The cheery atmosphere, while it greatly contrasted with the icy chill that had visited Remus during his and James' brief conversation, did not do much to help his own disposition and, as soon as they deposited a rather weak Sirius on an empty armchair, they went in completely different directions. Remus was immediately seized and whisked away by a friend of the fifth year whose cat he had fed and engaged in pointless conversation about the girl's health. In truth, he was horribly grateful to be pulled away from James, who had already been immersed in a huddle of his pleasant-faced teammates.

However, even as the younger girl beamed and continued on about how her friend would be out of the hospital wing by tomorrow afternoon, Remus couldn't help but constantly glance back in the Animagus' direction, checking on him as several girls carried a firewhiskey to the now-barely-conscious Sirius Black. He took it with a grateful but shaky hand and cast them a sort of debonair smile, cheered the air and took a swig. Remus, having long since associated firewhiskey with rough, almost stubbly kisses and alcohol laden breath against his skin, found himself staring at Sirius rather blatantly now, an obvious longing present in his topaz eyes. He had to be pulled back to earth with a slightly violent shake from the girl that he had been talking to who pouted in what she probably thought was an adorable move before returning to her insanely one-sided conversation with the werewolf.

Peter had broken away from Lily by now to talk to several first years who found him to be impressive (likely for his role in the Marauders rather than his wit, charm or the attractively damp butterbeer stain on his shirt). Lily was speaking to someone else in her dorm while James, (who was stealing glimpses of her but keeping a close eye on Remus and Sirius as well) broke away from his gaggle of fans to discuss the upcoming match with Hufflepuff with their Captain.

"So, Abbott said that you were showing off for some girl!"

Sirius, who had taken another heavy gulp of his firewhiskey, his head comfortably propped up on a pillow that a blonde witch had conjured for him, nodded lazily much to his surrounding fanclub's delight. Slate eyes were still halfway closed as he pulled the bottle away from his slightly chapped lips, distraction obvious in his expression. The girls surrounding him pretended not to notice.

"I was showing off for someone, yeah," he affirmed, casting a pointed glance across the room at a certain Marauder. Remus, unfortunately, did not notice nor overhear. He seemed to be much too busy staring off into the distance wistfully. A girl giggled in an annoyingly high pitch, clasping her hands together eagerly.

"Who was it? Must've liked her a lot to nearly crack your head open for her!"

"Hmm," he murmured in agreement, eyes still fixed on his friend who had only just been freed from a probably painful conversation with that annoying 5th year. He seemed to be deliberating something or another in his excessively clever mind, calculating out odds and risks, gains and possible losses… Sirius knew his friend's mind rather well, after all. A tap on Black's shoulder brought his attention back to the surrounding issues at hand.

"I asked who it was!"

Sirius made a vague hand motion, trying to think up a name of someone who he had seen before and failing. He gave up, shrugging softly and answering that she had interesting orange hair that he thought had deserved a few stunts. Several faces fell in disappointment. Others were already attempting to figure out who Sirius had been showing off for, but Sirius ignored them, his attention fixed on Remus from over the rim of his bottle of firewhiskey. James, having moved away from his group of combination casual friends/fans, shooed some of the girls away to perch on the arm of Padfoot's chair, like a lean, bespectacled bird of prey.

"Alright mate?" His voice was low and quiet in comparison to the other drinking, more rambunctious students. "You look tired."

"Hmm," It wasn't an answer, really, but James took it as one, watching silently as Sirius took a long drink from his half-empty bottle. His fingers were clumsily holding onto his drink, his eyes distant, pondering something or another. James fell into an awkward, tentative silence, leaning forward to grab a bottle of firewhiskey from the table before them before shifting in his spot, choosing to look over in Lily's general direction distractedly rather than concentrate on Sirius' attitude or thoughts.

By now, Remus had wandered over to a table packed with food and drinks, picking out several chocolate frogs and a flask of pumpkin juice. He could feel those slate eyes on him and he had to keep himself from glancing back over to Padfoot's chair in return. He had to tell him, Remus couldn't just hold it in any longer, but… with James right by his side, it didn't seem to be the smartest thing to do at the moment. So, Remus lingered by the entrance to the boy's dormitories, trying to keep his heart from pounding in his chest as he indiscreetly tried to look over at Sirius, his ears going a rosy shade of pink as their eyes met for the slightest moment. Quickly looking down into his flask, he turned away, cramming the chocolate frogs into his pocket hurriedly before ascending the stairs with an air of embarrassment. He couldn't tell him, it wasn't nearly as easy as Lily had said it would be… and why was he taking advice from a girl who wouldn't even admit that she liked a certain James Potter anyway?

Pushing open the dormitory door with a shoulder, he sighed a little in relief as the music and loud voices faded considerably when the door closed behind him. He could think here, unlike in the endless din downstairs… He was the only one upstairs but he still started a little every time someone in the common room laughed rather loudly or whenever someone broke a glass… paranoia was surprisingly easy to come by after his argument with James earlier.

How could he say those things anyway? It wasn't as if James wasn't endlessly pining after Evans- so he wasn't allowed to have a relationship just because he wasn't a girl? It was completely ridiculous.

Collapsing onto his four poster bed, the werewolf groaned faintly, pulling his pillow into his arms and holding it tightly, his cheek pressed flush against the mattress. He wouldn't do it. He couldn't, he shouldn't… As much as he hated to admit it, James was right. It was too big of a chance, it was foolish, it was… exactly what he wanted.

Giving a frustrated sigh, he closed his topaz eyes and blindly kicked off his shoes, not caring where in the room they landed for once. About to slip into a doze, his entire body jerked as he heard footsteps thundering up the stairwell and angry voices reverberating through the halls. After careful listening and an attempt to stay totally still, he recognized the voices to be that of Peter, James and Sirius. James seemed to be leading the argument, his words occasionally slurring. Sirius was retorting whenever James gave him space to answer and Peter was mainly tacking on unhelpful comments whenever there was a gap in the conversation. They were lingering outside in the hall, probably an attempt at keeping Remus from hearing their conversation.

And, as if they were in the room, watching him pretend to sleep, Remus remained almost motionless on his bed, his fingers only moving to clutch onto his pillowcase tighter.

"I think it's a stupid idea and that's that," James was half-shouting, his voice probably raised by an indefinite amount of alcohol. Peter clucked his tongue rather faintly, but Sirius shot him a look and he stopped immediately. When Padfoot spoke, his voice was considerably more hushed.

"It's not stupid, you prat!" he hissed (it was hard for Remus to hear him through the heavy wooden door, but he managed to catch some of it anyway), "it could work, if you weren't so bent on interfe-"

"I'm not interfering; I'm the only one out of us that makes any sense! I don't care if you heard me speaking to Remus-"

He sat up abruptly, so quickly that his head ached. His eyes snapped open, mouth gaping wide in shock. Sirius heard them? Gods, of course! The groaning, the small movements... he hadn't been unconscious like they had assumed, he'd heard the whole thing… Oh damn, oh damn…

James was still talking and this time, the werewolf clumsily stumbled to his feet, to listen closer to the door and catch the words that were so hard to hear.

"…Didn't you hear him?" James took a deep breath only to repeat back in an angry, slightly slurred but mocking voice, "He didn't ask for this to happen- he knows that this could break us all apart! Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. You change girlfriends like you change socks, Sirius! How is Remus supposed to be any different?"

The boy leaning against the dormitory walls was shaking with repressed anger. He wanted to shout, just bellow it out in James' face that he could make it work, that he was different and that he and Sirius would…

A thin hand rose to his brow, fingers pressing at his temples. That he and Sirius would what? Live happily ever after until they were both old and gray? Would he even be able to keep Sirius satisfied for half that time? A quarter of it?

"Remus is not a girl," he could faintly hear Padfoot growling and the sudden shuddering of the wall made him jolt. Sirius had slammed his fist into the wall in his anger and Lupin had leapt to his feet, hearing those footsteps get closer again. And even though he knew that James was merely pacing, he hurried to get back into his bed, pulling the curtains shut and feigning sleep. His heart was pounding fervently.

The rest of the argument was a blur of muffled words that barely even made slight sense to Remus, who had curled up against the wall in an almost defensive posture.

"Just trust me," "There's nothing about trust in this!" "Just bugger off, alright? What I choose to do is none of your business!" "You'd be ruining everything!" "You're mucking it all up by acting this way, you idiot!" "I don't want to lose your friendship, alright?"

He had fallen into indifference by now, staring numbly at the wall. Blank. The knot in his stomach had grown to epic proportions, wadding up to cause him further discomfort. He didn't notice the awkward pause, topaz eyes closing wearily.

"Mate…" Sirius' voice had gone quiet, an obvious sort of understanding in that single word, but for now, he was utterly speechless.

"Shut up, Sirius," James had stopped pacing now to turn and stare at his best friend, "just shut up."

He moved to push open the door, to lurch into their shared bedroom and to topple over onto his bed, obviously exhausted. Sirius' head was throbbing horribly but for once, he understood. Slowly following him into the room and glancing towards Remus' four poster, he stopped by where James had collapsed, leaning down to murmur something.

"We would still be friends; things would just change a little. It'd happen anyway if Lily ever said yes to you."

The werewolf did not catch the last few words, but at that point, he didn't care. Completely drained of all energy, he had fallen into a kind of half doze, so tired that he didn't even hear Peter bidding the three of them to have a good night and, for the first time in several days, James' good-natured reply.

Alriiight! Done. Took me a little longer than I had hoped, but it's done! A little short too, so sorry on that front. D:

I'd love to add that this chapter did not go the way that I initially intended, but I'm still sort of kind of pleased with it. I've been in South Carolina lately! Yeah, I went on vacation with limited internet/computer time, so I suppose that's my latest excuse. Astroturf and gravesites. Faaantastic. /sarcasm Also, an interesting fact, this chapter was written in 6 different US states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Hurrah for laptops?

OH, and remember what I said in the beginning: Please keep the reviews about this fic only. I want this to be spoiler free, so don't be all killjoy because that's retarded. I'm not particularly interested in what you liked and disliked in the canonical book, so… yeah. Keep it to yourself, kay?

Alright. SO, Next update will be about… 155-160 reviews? Probably before then, but you guys went so fast to 125 that I'm absolutely exhausted! Hope you all liked it! More interesting stuff (IE: smut) is coming up in future chapters, I promise. It's rated M for a reason, XD.

And hey, as an added note, I'd love it if people would add me and talk to me on their various messenger things. I fucking love talking to random people that I dunno, XD no, that isn't sarcasm, honestly, so feel free to add me on AIM (screenname: electricalsun) or MSN (screenname: electricalsun (at) hotmail . com take out the spaces, XD). So drop me a line, people!