"Guess what, lads?"
Sirius, Remus, Peter, Frank, Gideon and Fabian all turned to look at James tiredly – it had been the worst day of the week for the sixth year Gryffindors, in which they had to suffer through double transfiguration, double potions and double charms. With their Fridays so stacked full of doubles hell, the boys' usual routine was to laze around after dinner, feeling sorry for themselves and hoping to heal before the weekend, especially if a Hogsmead trip was in store.
Sirius was hanging upside down from the edge of his bed, reading Quidditch Weekly. Frank was throwing pieces of chocolate into the air while Gideon exploded them with his wand, Remus lying beneath and trying to catch the pieces in his mouth. Peter and Fabian watched whilst trying to write a late essay for McGonagall to be handed in before Saturday lunch.
"If you've come up with another way to make Snape turn into a llama using some kind of food at dinner and want to go bribe the House Elves with sugar quills to let us see their ingredients for tomorrow night, I've got better things to do." Remus remarked drily, pumping a fist in the air when he caught a mouthful of chocolate.
"Better than a llama Snivellus?" Sirius asked sceptically.
"If you count sewing patches onto the elbows of my jumpers as better, then yes."
"And you do?"
Remus laughed, making Sirius' stomach squirm pleasantly. No, he thought determinedly, I will get over this ridiculous crush. Remus is obviously never going to drop any of his millions of bloody concubines to even glance at me.
"Nooooo!" James whined, waving his arms around. They all looked back at him and noticed he was waving around handfuls of galleons.
"I said no, Prongs," Sirius grinned, "it doesn't matter how much you pay me, I am not shagging you."
"Oh fuck off you queer." James said cheerily, spilling the money into a fair sized sack on top of a stack of papers, "No, we've finally done it! It took us just under a year, but we've finally made enough to get those mirrors!"
"Are you serious?" Peter asked excitedly, looking up from his parchment. Before Sirius could reply with the usual painful pun, James had jumped up to drag him off his bed. Sirius yelped as his head his the floor with a dull thud and James went on to yank him around the dorm floor in a merry, rather one-sided, jig.
"What mirrors?" Frank. Gideon pulled a face.
"Probably best not to ask so we can truthfully say we don't know anything when McGonagall asks why Snape's a llama again." He said matter-of-factly.
"How many can we afford?" Remus asked from his bed, retrieving what was left of his bar of chocolate and stuffing it in his mouth.
"Two," James grinned, dropping Sirius brusquely, who hmphed and sat up, rubbing the back of his head, "like we agreed, since Peter said he'd break one if he had one. You sure you don't want one, Moony?"
"And get caught with it in my pocket and risk my good guy prefect status? I'm good, thanks. We can just pair up with you or Pads."
Sirius brightened at the thought of carrying out a prank with only Remus as his partner in crime. James glanced down at him and smirked, "Yeah, Pads, we could pair up. You'd like that, right?"
Sirius blinked stupidly at his best friend, who looked away and announced that they were going to throw a celebratory party in the common room. James didn't know, did he? He couldn't. Sirius would die. Horrifically.
Whilst he was contemplating his possibly messy death of humiliation, Remus grasped his arm to pull him up, saying that they needed to go help Prongs get everything ready. He pulled away abruptly, like he had been burned – a habit he had acquired when the other boy so much as brushed against him. Remus gave Sirius a hurt frown, who looked away as though he hadn't seen the painful expression and bounded over to James, grabbing his arm and pulling him down to the common room, the others following.
"Right!" he said jovially in the midst of wary students who glanced at the four Marauders and edged away slowly, assuming they were plotting their next prank, his grin slightly forced, "Moony, Wormtail, you two go down to the kitchens and—"
"No." James said firmly, stepping up and giving Sirius a meaningful look he didn't want to read too much into, "I'll go to the kitchens with Wormtail. The elves love him, eats all of their leftovers the greedy sod."
"Gee, thanks." Peter muttered and was ignored.
"You and Moony can go to Hogsmead and get the alcohol we don't stock here. We're pretty low anyway, so we'll get the rest from the Room of Requirement and empty our stock. And," he lowered his voice so only Sirius could make out his words, "You need to grow a pair and sort this shit out with Remus."
"But—" Sirius started, but James cut him off with a sharp thwack upside the head. Remus looked on sourly, arms folded and hips cocked.
"Oh, I'm sure it would be better for me to go with Wormtail." he sneered, "Wouldn't want Black alone with a fairy."
"You like girls, too." James waved him off cheerfully and shoved the invisibility cloak at him, while Sirius mulled despondently on the reuse of his surname again. He wondered if he should just give in to Moony's charms and give up on his plan to get over him, since they got on a lot better when he did, "Come on, Wormy, let's go. Oi! Spinnet! Spread the word, the Marauders are throwing a Tower-wide party!"
Andy Spinnet grinned and gave James a thumbs up, before he disappeared swiftly through the portrait hole, pulling the Map from his robes, Peter stumbling after him eagerly.
"Come on, then, Black. I need a drink." Remus muttered gruffly, striding away through the portrait hole. Sirius sighed heavily and went after him. The werewolf stormed down to the one-eyed witch near their Darks Arts classroom without bothering to don the cloak and tapped the statue with an irritated, "Dissendium."
They were halfway down the passageway, silent in the darkness, when Remus turned suddenly and shoved Sirius – hard – against the rough wall behind him and before he could react, before he could even consider a guess towards what in Grindlewald's name the other boy was doing, lips were on his. Rough and hot. Angry and sweet. So, so, right…
Sirius' eyes fluttered open just as his hands were inching up to tangle in Remus' hair. Shit, he thought in a panic, oh fucking shit, and pushed him away, panting heavily after the seemingly random attack.
"Sirius," Remus said, his voice low with that husk that made Sirius to want to…argh! Why couldn't he drag his eyes away from the recently-snogged, swollen redness of Remus' lips?
"No," Sirius shook his head, voice coming out hoarse, so he tried again, more forcefully this time. His voice echoed around the passageway as he snarled, "No. I am not one of your…one of your fucking gullible girlfriends or pretty boys, you don't just get to do that to everyone when you just fucking fancy it."
"Sirius—"
But Sirius had already scooped up the discarded cloak, tucked it into his pocket and continued down the passage. Remus followed silently, not daring to come near Sirius the whole way into Hogsmead, who desperately tried and failed to ignore the way his lips tingled and ached. Remus, Moony, his Moony, had kissed him – kissed him – for reasons he had no access to unless he turned around and asked him as they shrunk the crates of alcohol, left money on Rosmerta's counter (an arrangement between the boys and the pub owner that left both parties happy), and turned around to leave, which was so far out of the question it was in Japan, eating rice and sushi with chopsticks.
They snuck back through the castle to the Tower, ducking reluctantly close to each other under the cloak when they heard Filch muttering to Mrs Norris on the seventh floor. Their entrance through the portrait hole was two things – a huge relief and one accompanied by a triumphant roar. Sirius grinned, pushing the last half hour from his head and restoring the crates they had bagged, holding them up victoriously to more cheers.
Sirius wasn't having much luck on the whole don't-think-about-that-bloody-kiss-gods-it-was-goo d-had-no-idea-he-could-kiss-like-that-why-haven't- we-been-doing-that-since-forever matter and things weren't exactly looking up. Well, he supposed if up referred to certain appendages, then things were definitely up. By way of his luck, however, the universe seemed to be taunting him with every bloody ounce of its universey self.
The party was in full swing, the younger students had been scared off to bed by drunken prefects and there were Gryffindors in various states of undress prancing and dancing around the common room. All of the sixth years had taken place by the fire for a game of strip poker Evans taught them, even the seventh years bowing down and making way for the boys who had provided them with alcohol, music and tipsy girls, allowing them the best space in the room.
James kept declaring how much he loved the new card game, probably because of the absence of Evan's shirt, having lost his own and his trousers, too. Sirius, missing a sleeve and the pocket on his shirt for some reason, tried to be pleased that so many fit girls from their year were currently sitting around him missing shirts and skirts, but all he could keep stressing about was that Remus had yet to lose more than his jumper, tie, his shoes and one of his socks. And how he could get drunk enough to get Moony to kiss him again – why had he been so stupid as to stop him when it been so…well, when it had been so.
Once strip poker had been forgotten after a few more bottles of firewhiskey, they had been happily singing along to a Celestina Warbeck classic ballad blasting from the enhanced wireless, when two House Elves had appeared with a chocolate fountain and strawberries to tumultuous applause, arranged by none other than Peter.
Remus, who was sitting across the circle from Sirius and beside Julie, had just finished a strawberry. Being the maniacal chocolate lover he was, Moony was methodically sucking on his own fingers. Sirius tried not to appear as though he was staring as Remus' tongue darted out and licked the escaped drizzled from between his fingers and thoroughly nosedived in the effort of not drooling. If Moony didn't stop doing that with his tongue…
"More chocolate." Remus said distractedly, standing and making off towards the last place the fountain had been spotted. Sirius released a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding and took a long gulp of firewhiskey from his bottle. Remus hadn't spoken to him since the passageway, but Sirius had felt him the whole time, his eyes drawn to the other boy with every movement, every word. He wondered whether if he had let Remus kiss him for a while, the whole thing might have been flushed from his system – Sirius doubted it, but it could have been an excuse. Except his mind telling him that he was just going to be another of Remus' almost neurotic collection of ventures kept him from acting on anything rash.
"Lose your shirt, Moon boy?" James asked jovially, not taking his eyes off of Evans (which really perplexed Sirius as to how he had noticed the absence of Remus' shirt). Sirius looked up and choked on his whiskey. Gideon clapped him on the back rather unhelpfully and Sirius glanced up again, watery-eyed, to peek at Remus wearing that gorgeous wife beater. Remus grinned tipsily as he sat down again, Julie clinging to him the instant his arse touched the floor.
"Some girl wanted it to wear as a cape." He shrugged, throwing Sirius a rather roguish grin – the first glance he had spared for Sirius – and one that sent his libido into overdrive and every intention to stay away from his friend flying out the window and splatting on the ground beneath the Tower. Taking a deep, calming breath, Sirius downed the remainder of his firewhiskey and pushed himself up onto the sofa, leaning back and closing his eyes. If Remus kept this up, he was never going to last the night.
A/N: Just a couple more chapters to go! Just wondering, would anyone like a sequel? I loved writing this story and a sequel would be filled with more random plot bunnies and characters like our dear Sweetie - if so, R&R and mention it in the review ^-^
