The next morning brought an unreasonably happy Sirius, a bad-tempered, wolfy Remus and a staring James and Peter. Sirius stretched cheerfully, pushing the hangings aside, where the other two were peeking through as Remus sat up beside him, grumbling and muttering – things to which he was prone in the mornings.
"Out the way, gentlemen," Sirius grinned, "Need to make myself pretty for Slughorn."
"We saw your bed empty, so we went to ask Moony where you were and…" James started, glancing at Remus who was giving Sirius a meaningful glare which he guessed meant that he didn't want the others to know about this particularly nasty full moon, "Why were you sleeping together?"
"Oh, come on, Prongsy!" Sirius said as he started pulling out clean robes from his trunk and sending Remus a wink to let him know that his secret was safe with him, "We always used to do it when we were scared little first years."
James' reply was swallowed up by the more violent than usual slam of the bathroom door. Sirius, James and Peter stared after Remus, blinking stupidly. James turned to Sirius, furious, as Peter busied himself with getting dressed, pretending to mind his own business.
"What hell did you do, Sirius?" he demanded, stomping up to him.
"What? I—nothing!"
"Right. So you didn't come onto him, then?"
Sirius' jaw dropped, his robes tumbling to the floor at their feet, good mood vanished. "What?" he asked, hearing his voice come out hoarse and hating it. James folded his arms and cocked his hips, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Ever since we found out that he does guys, too, you've been acting weird." He accused. Sirius gulped, feeling his doom creeping up on him. "I thought you were homophobic, but obviously not."
"You, err, remember that?" Sirius asked, turning and busying himself with picking up his robes, hiding his panicked flush from his best friend – the best friend who could read him like a bloody book.
"Obviously," James said scornfully, "Why would I have set him up with Sweetie if I didn't?"
"Right." Sirius nodded, as though he wasn't thinking stupid, stupid, stupid. When James didn't say anything further, he turned to find his best mate watching him closely in manner that made him uncomfortable.
"Why would I come on to him?" he asked quickly, "I don't swing that way, mate."
"Like I said, you've been acting weird." James shrugged, "And there's the fact that you come on to anything that moves, so I wouldn't put it past you to try it on with one of your best mates."
Sirius narrowed his eyes dangerously, "I haven't come on to you."
"Well yeah, 'cause that'd be gross," James grimaced, wrinkling his nose in disgust, "You're like my brother, Black, you twat. If you tried it on with me, I'd break your nose and ruin your pretty face."
"While I'm glad you think I'm pretty, I honestly have no interest in you, Prongs," Sirius said jokily, pulling on his robes, "or Moony. Or Wormtail, either, now I come to think about it. He's not cute enough."
"Charming." Peter commented drily from across the room. Meanwhile, James was still watching him closely.
"You're sure you don't…you know?" James asked, finally looking uncomfortable himself with the topic of conversation, "Like, are you sure that you're not just curious, or…fascinated? And, you know, wanna try it out?"
"Why not? Moony's a fine specimen under all that wool." Sirius grinned wittily – which was probably the wrong thing to do, because James' face darkened. Sirius took a step back when James took a step forward, the backs of his knees knocking into his bed.
"Don't you dare mess with Remus," he snapped, showing a rare bout of anger that looked odd on his usually carefree face, "You know what he's like – even if he's hurting, he'll take it on headfirst and pretend everything's fine. If you hurt him in any way, I will personally make sure you can't procreate."
Instead of commenting on the intelligent choice of words, Sirius retorted, "You don't know shit, you fuckwit," and stormed from the dormitory, grabbing his bag on the way out. Remus emerged from the bathroom as the door slammed shut and blinked in surprise, most of his bad mood gone, but still feeling irritable and wrong in his own skin – daytime was better than night-time around the time of this kind of full moon, but he was still prone to mood swings and an uncomfortable ache. He looked to James questioningly.
"What's up with the dog?"
James just shrugged, "No idea. Maybe he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Oh, no, sorry. More like the wrong bed altogether."
Remus frowned as James moved away to get dress and Peter walked past to claim the bathroom. He shook his head with a heavy sigh and pulled on some old muggle clothes – a pair of old worn jeans and a too-big, large-knit jumper.
"You not coming to lessons?" James asked, his face softening as he watched Remus struggling to bend down far enough to tie his scuffed walking boots; may as well be comfortable in old clothes if he was going to feel like ripping his own skin off all day long. He shook his head and immediately wished he hadn't, losing focus for a second.
"I'm not going to Pomfrey either." Remus informed him, getting to his feet a little unsteadily and slinging his bag over his shoulder, "I've got essays to write. And anyway, we've got customers coming at lunch, right? I wouldn't be able to escape the hospital wing once I'm there to come and help."
"We'd be okay," James assure him, "You should—"
"I'm fine." Remus snapped, turning away and leaving the dorm in a huff.
"Merlin…" James sighed to the empty room, bending to pull his socks on, "You'd think I lived with a bunch of women."
Sirius found himself walking to potions with Evans, who had been gracefully descending (in that irritating way she did), the girl's staircase at the same time he had been stomping down the boy's. She had asked him what was wrong and if that toe rag Potter had done something stupid again and, somehow, Sirius had ended up confiding in her kind green eyes that usually flashed dangerously at him and her sympathetic smile. Of course, he hadn't disclosed any names or specifics, but she pieced together the general gist of the issue and had dragged him out of the common room to discuss it.
"Listen," he said awkwardly as Evans pestered him for more details, "I don't really feel comfortable talking about this."
"Just tell me!" she persisted, nudging him in a friendly manner that he wasn't familiar with when it came to James' apparent reason for living.
"Fine." He sighed, "I know that they're interested in someone else."
"How would you know that?" Evans asked sceptically.
"Told me."
"Seriously? She…that's…cold hearted. What a bitch!"
Sirius realised that Evans had assumed they were talking about a girl and grabbed the idea and ran with it, throwing her even further off the scent of trying to guess who it was, "No, she doesn't know I like her. Just thinks I'm a pal."
"This person she likes doesn't like her back?" Evans asked as they reached the potions classroom in the dungeons and waited, leaning against the wall, as she had dragged him down much earlier than he – or anyone by the look of it – had ever cared to.
"She said he thinks he does." Sirius shrugged miserably, "But she thinks he likes the idea of her, not her. Whatever the hell that means."
"Oh." Evans said in surprise, "She means this guy only likes her because she's pretty, or mysterious, or unobtainable. I think Potter thinks that way about me, actually."
Sirius looked down at her, surprised.
"I think he only wants me because I've said no the whole time. Like I'm a challenge."
"Evans," he laughed disbelievingly, "Trust me, by the way he drones on about you every waking minute, I think anyone would have trouble even considering to believe that."
Evans lifted a brow in a way that reminded Sirius of Remus, "What does he say?"
Sirius smirked at the interested smile she was trying to hide and shrugged mysteriously, "Why don't you ask him yourself?"
She fell silent, leaving Sirius to feel guilty in peace as the rest of their class started to show up and Slughorn let them into the classroom; he shouldn't have blown up at James like that, he had only been concerned about Remus. Sirius knew the feeling, so he should have understood. He sighed, earning a curious glance from Evans. James had been so close to uncovering his badly covered secret, it had freaked him out. He followed his classmates in, almost face-planting a girl's head in front of him when none other than Severus Snape pushed past him to get to Evans, to whom he whispered angrily, "what were you doing talking to him?"
Sirius laughed cruelly and slung his arm across Evans' shoulder to pull her towards his table, calling over at Snape, "She talking to someone worth talking to, Snivellus. Go take your greasy hair to bother someone else."
"Thanks." Evans muttered bitterly as she sat at Sirius' usual table on the stool beside him. Sirius shrugged.
"Saw that your friend wasn't here. What's her name? Julie? So I knew Sluggers'd pair you with greaseball over there and anyway, Remus isn't here today. So you owe me, by the way."
"So chivalrous." She laughed, shaking her head. Sirius decided that making Evans laugh was a much more pleasurable experience than tormenting her, seeing as his balls hadn't yet been hexed into a pair of damned heavy melons.
"You won't think so when Prongs gets here." He grinned evilly, fully expecting an annoyed sigh or an agitated statement. Which meant he was completely blown away when she tried and failed to suppress and small smile.
"Oh my…Evans, do you like Prongs?" he demanded. She shushed him quickly, flapping her hands around desperately.
"Shut up, Black!" she snapped, back to her old, she-devil self, "Merlin, I don't know. Sometimes I think he's alright, like when he pushes my hair behind my ear, or gives me that smile when he asks if I'm okay. But then he does something utterly irresponsible, like turning first years' robes into dresses, or sending me singing goblins." She sighed resignedly, "Please don't say anything. I don't want him to have hope if nothing ends up happening."
Sirius blinked at her, surprised, but nodded dumbly. Honestly, he'd had no idea.
"Black, you say anything and you're dead." She hissed as James and Peter entered the rooms. James almost tripped over his own feet at the sight of Evans at their table where Moony usually sat, followed by a discrete hex under Slughorn's nose at Snape, who made a snide comment about his balance and his big head.
Remus sat in the library, collapsed in defeat over his stacks of books and smudged parchment, having officially Given Up. He was tired and felt like his bones were too big for his body. He had snapped at a group of first years for talking, when they hadn't actually uttered and word and then almost cried over his cruelness in a dark corner, alone with his books and essays. Usually, books always made him feel better, but with an intense moon like this coming up, nothing much was working. He wished someone would touch him like Pads had the night before, but that would mean asking someone, which meant asking for help, which meant admitting weakness.
Which was not cool.
So it was lucky that Lily sat herself down uninvited at his table and reached out to lay her hand on top of his. He jumped at the sudden contact, but smiled when he looked up and saw who it was.
"The full's tonight, isn't it?" she asked gently. Remus nodded with a quiet sigh – Lily knew, of course, about his lycanthropy issue (it had been growing far too difficult keeping his mysterious absences from his patrolling partner and study partner, especially when she had been so close to figuring it out anyway), but the other Marauders didn't know she knew and she didn't know they knew. Kept it simple. Sort of. Okay, not really, but he didn't need any more pity-filled glances exchanged across the common room, thank you very much.
"Why aren't you in the hospital wing?" she asked concernedly. Remus shrugged, unwilling to disclose information about Wolf Wares reopening that afternoon, thanks to their finally sorting their new stock out and relocating it.
"Why aren't you in class?"
Lily seemed to get the message and changed the topic, much to Remus' relief.
"Arithmancy was cancelled. I sat on your table in potions this morning." She added casually.
"Why?" Remus asked, raised a brow, "Decided to torture yourself with James?"
Lily laughed, "No, Julie's ill, so Black saved me from having to pair with Severus."
"And how bad was James?" Remus asked in amusement, thankful that Lily hadn't moved her hand away, somehow seeming to silently understand, "Did he profess his love to you again? Try to slip you a love potion? Again?"
"No…" she trailed off distractedly, her eyes losing focus, "He was actually…normal. Didn't say anything inappropriate and spoke to me like a sane person. It was nice, really."
"Isn't it time that you just went for it and said yes, already?" Remus asked with a wry smile. Lily shrugged, smiling mysteriously.
"I'm still not sure. If he can prove that he's not a complete idiot more than once a week, I'll give in at last."
"At last." Remus agreed, nodding and propping his head up on his free hand. Lily lowered her eyes pointedly as Madam Pince swished down the aisle, making her rounds spying on students who she suspected to be talking too loudly and making sure no one misused her books.
"Any progress on your love life?" Lily asked once the hawkeyed and dog-eared librarian had vanished, her tone lower, "Still with that guy James set you up with?"
Yes, Lily knew about Sweetie, too, but Remus had told her his name was Alan (which was actually true, but more off-putting than one would expect) and that James had introduced them in Hogsmead. She also knew that he was bisexual. Which was inevitable, really, since he wasn't exactly secretive about the fact – which made it ridiculously hilarious that his three best friends had somehow managed to miss the fact that he was shagging girls and boys.
"I'm not with him, Lils, I've already told you that. I'm just bedding the guy." Remus corrected, rolling his eyes when Lily scowled, "I know it's not good, but he's okay looking and a good screw."
"But you told me you're crush knows you're with Alan," Lily frowned, confused, "Won't that send him the wrong signals?"
"First of all, it's not a crush. I'm not a girl," Remus smirked playfully.
"Well I am, so I'll call it what like ." She huffed, but smiled back.
"Second of all, I don't think he likes me, I think he likes the idea of me."
A flurry of expressions passed across Lily's face and he only caught surprise and pleasure. Remus, suspicious, was about to ask her what she thought she knew, because she obviously believed she had guessed something, but she checked her watch and stood, gathering her things.
"Lunch." She said shortly, helping a slightly unsteady Remus to his feet, "Wanna come with?"
"Can't eat before a full." Remus said, shaking his head – slowly, since quickly made him feel like he was being shaken around between a hippogriff's teeth, "I'm going up the dorm."
"Want me to walk you up?"
Remus hurriedly squashed an unreasonable, sudden fit of anger at the sympathy and shook his head again, swallowing tightly. Lily nodded warily, seeing the change in his eyes and the set of his jaw. She helped him pack his books away and walked with him out of the library, where they parted ways, Lily's sly smile still pulling at the corners of her mouth.
A/N: Started a new story by the way. Don't worry, I've already got this one written up to the end, so it won't go unfinished or uncared for :) So check out Behind the Charm, an AU in which Remus (again), is a bit of a badass, but in a different way...seeing a theme here?
