Author's Note: Harry Potter and all the rest is to J.K. Rowling.

Epilogue

"She knew it wasn't me?" said James, for perhaps the hundredth time. Remus had already begun rubbing at his temples and wishing Sirius and Peter would hurry up with the food so James could finally have something else to do with his mouth.

"Yes. James, if you don't mind, I still have work—"

"What did she say, exactly? Come on, Moony. Sirius can help you with those Arithmancy tosh later on. Merlin, make him do it all. What's the point of having a boyfriend if they can't do the smallest things for you?"

"Do you ask Lily to do your homework for you?" said Remus, drily.

"'Course not. But that's different." James waved the idea away with his hand and went back to relevant matters. "Tell me what Lily said exactly, and I won't tell on you for eating Sirius' share of pie yesterday."

"He ate Peter's already. I was just balancing it out nicely," said Remus. But then, with a sigh, he indulged James anyway. "Okay. She asked me if I was all right, see, and I said I was, of course. And she said that I wasn't acting like the James Potter she knew and she asked me what was up."

"So she knew it was really you?"

"I guess so."

"Then she knew it wasn't me because she knew it was you?"

"That would seem to be the case, yes. Get off my essay now?" Remus tried to pull at his Potions essay gingerly, knowing how Slughorn would be all chuckling and falsely sympathetic the next day if Remus goes to class with his work half-done. It was only because he hung around with James and Lily Evans that Slughorn really paid much attention to Remus Lupin. Given different circumstances, Remus would have been left alone, as he preferred things to be. "James, I still need to get that work done on—"

"But then it means that Lily doesn't know me at all!"

"She does, and she will further if you keep your head to its original size. Come on, James. It wasn't like you knew the Lily you had gone out with wasn't really her."

"A hundred points to Remus Lupin, none for James Potter!" said Sirius, who had chosen that moment to burst into the dormitory.

"I wish I could've seen that," said Peter, annoyed. "Sirius in a skirt! How come I never see the best parts?"

"Wormtail, my friend, nobody saw me in a skirt. I was Lily the whole time," Sirius pointed out. He glanced at Remus, who only shrugged and smiled. "Where were you yesterday, anyway?"

Peter blushed, trying to hide his face behind a particularly large box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. "Nowhere important."

"I smell a date," said Remus.

"And a rat," said Sirius.

"A rat on a date he's not ratting to us about," said James.

"It wasn't a date!" Peter protested. "I was just helping Trelawney with some books and all."

"Never mind then," said Sirius, with a laugh. "If it's Trelawney."

"Oh, and how did you get along this Valentine's Day?" said Peter, looking at Remus, but addressing Sirius. "I gather you just paid James his ten Galleons."

"Well, yes," said Sirius, airily. He sat down the desk next to Remus, pushing James over. "Such a blow to my fragile ego that was, getting rejected by the love of my life. Comfort me, Moony?"

"Why don't you go to Edith Blewett, then?" said Remus.

"I do believe Mr. Moony is jealous."

"What person goes to the one who rejected him for comfort, anyway?" said James. He had narrowed his eyes at them, raising his eyebrows at Remus.

"A persistent person, Prongs," said Sirius, at the same time Peter said, "A fool."

"What monster have you created with this bet, James?" said Remus, pushing off Sirius with one hand and trying to save his Potions essay with the other. "Sirius, can't you act normally for once?"

"Normal is overrated," said Sirius. He stopped fooling around, though, and began applying himself to a box of Peppermint Toads. "Want one? Here you go."

Remus opened his mouth accordingly. He could already feel the jumping in his stomach when he noticed James looking at him and Sirius with the same calculating look their friend wears when looking around for the Snitch.

"Is something wrong, James?"

"You know, Lily was right about you two."

"What did she say?" said Sirius, idly.

"That it was about time somebody did something about it," said James. "Tell me something, will you. Did you really lose the bet, Sirius?"

"You have ten Galleons to prove that, don't you?" said Sirius. "Unless you'd much rather give it back, for which I will be eternally grateful."

"Of course not."

*

"He's not an idiot, you know. He'll know about it soon enough."

"Yes, well, we don't have to make life easier for him, do we?" Sirius laughed softly, tracing the line of Remus' left hand with his fingertips. "He really should be satisfied with those Galleons and leave things alone."

"You really hate it that he won, don't you?" Remus took his hand away, laughing at the expression on Sirius' face before running the same hand across Sirius's hair. "If it goes against your grain so much, why didn't you tell him the truth? Your hair's getting too long."

"I like it long. Don't you?"

"I don't dislike it, certainly." Actually, there was probably nothing much Sirius can do with himself that Remus would not like, but Sirius was getting hard enough to live with without hearing that.

"Won't you hate it if I told everyone about us?"

"You already did," Remus pointed out, justifiably.

"It's different this time." Sirius frowned. "Do you want me to take it all back? Like, do we have to break up in public?"

"So we can keep at it in private? Why bother?"

"If it's going to make other people stop looking at you." Sirius sat up, peering up at Remus from under his fringe. Remus looked despairingly at his still unfinished essay before finally giving up on academic pursuits altogether. At least, until Sirius Black would be satisfied enough to leave him alone. "I mean, if you feel uncomfortable about being noticed."

"This is fine, Sirius. Remember the time you tried to keep Snape from noticing me?" Remus said. His voice was too soft to be chiding, but Sirius winced, anyway.

"Well, you shouldn't have tried to defend him so much."

"Defend? What are you talking about?"

Sirius had the sort of complexion that didn't show if he was blushing so easily, but Remus knew what the other boy was feeling anyway. It had something to do with the way he held himself, and tried not to meet anyone's eyes. Remus liked watching Sirius Black. He didn't realize until later what exactly it was he'd been doing when he should have been taking down notes during class hours, but looking at Sirius was certainly more interesting than listening to Professor Binns.

So Sirius felt uncomfortable about what he was going to say, and was searching his pretty head desperately for the words that he thought was going to make Remus less angry than he could be.

"Well, you're always telling us off for hexing him—"

"In case you haven't noticed, Padfoot, I'm a prefect."

"And you always look disapproving when we laugh at him and all. I mean, you don't say anything, but I know you don't like it when we do that." Sirius took a deep breath. "He was always following you around, too. So I thought—"

"Merlin, you were jealous of him!?" Remus laughed.

"Why should I be?" said Sirius, hotly. Then he did blush, and had to look away from Remus before getting himself back together again. "That bloody—" he looked at Remus' face "—nosey parker."

"Sirius—"

Sirius leaned down, placing his mouth close to Remus' ears. "I told you, I'm the only one looking at you. You just have to invest on the idea a bit."

"Hey, you bloody poofs, why don't you come down here and help us with this shite, will you?" James called out at the, banging the door open. "Someone's put a jinx on the giant squid and the whole lake's pretty much drained."

"Jelly-legs jinx, probably," said Sirius, standing up. "Tried that in our first year, really. Don't these kids know enough to do something new for once?"

It was a familiar complaint. Remus stood up as well, reciting it along with James and Peter.

"Something creative."

"And risky, don't forget risky."

"And they call themselves wizards!"

"Excuse me, genuine articles coming through."

*

And so it really does end, this time.

Thanks really for getting this far! Until the next time I try to write something this effing long again! (Or maybe this time, you'd be writing it and I'd be at the enviable position of reading the whole thing.)