It's been a horribly long time I know, sorry about that.
This is something I wrote a while ago and sort of forgot about. If I get enough reviews saying it's good, I'll continue it.
Also, guess the song that gave me the idea! (I have no idea if anyone will get this, it's quite old and was never very popular)
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"Rem?"
"Mmm?" Remus replied without looking up from the transfiguration essay he was working on.
"Are you okay?" Sirius asked looking towards the boy bent over the table in front of the fire in the common room.
"Fine." Again Remus kept his focus solely on the essay on the table in front of him.
"Are you sure?" said Sirius, willing Remus to look up at him and talk to him properly.
"Completely." There was still no real reaction.
"It's just… you know… you've been acting differently lately." Sirius was determined to get Remus to talk to him, whatever it took.
"In what way, may I ask?" replied Remus, once again keeping his focus on the parchment. This time, however, Sirius noticed, he had given a slight jolt and was no longer following the words on the parchment with his eyes. This small reaction gave Sirius hope.
"Well, firstly you haven't really spoken to anyone in the last month. We're all starting to get a little worried about you." Not the complete truth, the others were a little worried but he was starting to go crazy not knowing what was wrong with Remus.
"Well if you're all so worried, where are Prongs and Wormtail?" Remus had finally looked up and was scanning the vicinity for any sign of James or Peter, even though he knew for a fact they were both down in the kitchens scavenging food from the house elves.
"Umm, well, okay maybe they're a little less worried than I am, but they definitely do care." Sirius didn't want Remus thinking that they weren't interested, because they were. They would probably kill him when they found out he had confronted Remus without them. He wasn't completely sure why he had done so, he just knew that for some reason he wanted to be the one that Remus confided in.
"I know that." said Remus matter-of-factly.
"So why aren't you taking? I mean, I know you've always been the quietest of the group, but you haven't been this quiet since you were trying to hide your furry little problem from us," this was what Sirius was really interested in; what Remus was hiding that caused him to barely talk to anyone and ignore Sirius especially.
"If you're suggesting that I'm once again hiding something then you're wrong!" said Remus defensively. He seemed to have tightened all his muscles as though ready to curl into a ball at any moment. Remus obviously wasn't comfortable with where the conversation was going. However Sirius couldn't just stop now, it would be better for them both if he knew what was going on.
"No, I wasn't suggesting that… I was just wondering." Sirius didn't want to aggravate him further before he started making any real progress in the situation.
"There's nothing wrong, okay?" Sirius could tell this was a lie by the way Remus' body was still tensed and his eyes were wide in silent terror. Whatever was going on, it was big.
"No it's not okay, because I knowyou're lying! I know there's something wrong and you're not getting rid of me until you tell me." Sirius settled himself even more firmly into his armchair and crossed his arms, ready to wait it out.
"You're going to be there an awfully long time then as there is nothing to tell." Remus moved to once again focus his attention on his essay. It seemed like Remus was right, he was happy to just let Sirius sit there. Sirius decided to have another go.
"Is it… is it to do with me?" This had been bugging Sirius since the beginning as Remus seemed to ignore him the most of all.
"There is nothing wrong!" Remus cried, throwing his hands up frustration and once again focusing his eyes on Sirius rather than his essay.
"It is to do with me isn't it? And don't you dare try and tell me there's 'nothing wrong'!"
"Well there isn't!" replied Remus with quiet force.
"Look, Rem, whatever it is I'm sorry. Is that good enough for you, will you talk to me now?" Sirius doubted it would work but everything was worth a try at this stage.
"It's nothing you did." Remus said quietly. Sirius noticed a blush rising from under Remus' collar and was for a moment completely transfixed.
"… But it is to do with me? … I'm right aren't I?" said Sirius, snapping back into the present. Analyzing Remus' blush Sirius got the strange feeling that he was getting somewhere.
"…No."
"I am!" Sirius exclaimed. He didn't know if this was a good or bad thing.
"No, no, no. Look it's not your fault at all! It's all my fault and now you all hate me because I've been ignoring you and I'm sorry, I don't know what else to do!"
"Whoa, Rem, calm down a second. Who ever said we hated you? I'm sure I just said we were all worried about you, so where's the hatred coming from?" Sirius was startled to find out Remus thought they hated him, although if he was honest it wasn't that surprising seeing as Remus had believed they would hate him when they found out about his lycanthropy. Instead they had spent the next three years of their lives working on becoming animagi so that they could keep him company on full-moon nights and stop him from hurting himself in frustration.
"No, it's nothing." replied Remus again. Remus went back to staring at his essay, even though he wasn't really seeing the words.
"No Rem! Please just talk to me, whatever's wrong! You know I'd help you out, I mean you've helped me out enough times, I owe you. But how will I know how to help if you won't say what this silence is about?" Sirius was speaking with desperation now. He was really worried about what was going on.
"I can't talk to you, I can't talk to anyone!" Remus practically screamed, luckily the common room was empty except for them and a few seventh years in the far corner who didn't seem to be paying any attention to their conversation.
"You can! You can always talk to me, no matter what it's about. Even if it's about something silly like… oh, I don't know… knitting! You can talk to me!" Sirius tried - probably in vain - to lighten the mood and get a laugh out of Remus.
"Well, you can rest assured it has nothing to do with knitting." amazingly, Remus did give a slight chuckle and Sirius couldn't help but feel extremely happy that he had been the one to cause it.
"I'm glad," he chuckled. "Now, how about you tell me what it is about?"
"No." Remus stated bluntly, and Sirius wondered if he would make any progress at all.
"Come on, Rem! Please!" begged Sirius. He employed his infamous Padfoot eyes in the hope that, as they did with everyone, including Remus, they would succeed in getting him what he wanted.
"Don't you try those eyes on me, I'm not looking!" Remus instantly looked in the other direction in an attempt to protect himself.
"Well, how else am I supposed to get you to talk to me?" pleaded Sirius.
"If I'm not much mistaken we seem to be talking now?" replied Remus, his words positively dripping with sarcasm.
"Yeah… but not about… oh for Merlin's sake just tell me!" Sirius was not in the mood to be dealing with Remus' sarcasm.
"Oh come on Padfoot, you can think of a better come back than that surely?" Remus smiled at him. Sirius decided Remus was having entirely too much fun when the whole point of the conversation was to get him to talk about what was wrong.
"No, Rem, you are not going to change the subject. I'm waiting for you to tell me." Sirius once again moved into his waiting position; snuggled deeply in the chair, arms folded, smile on his face.
"And as I've said before you will be waiting for an awfully long time if you don't give up. I am not about to tell you anything." Remus seemed determined not to tell him. Sirius decided it was time for a new approach.
"Fine, I'm off to bed. See you tomorrow Moony." And with that he walked away, up the stairs to their dormitory; leaving a very confused Remus, looking blankly at the armchair that Sirius had just vacated.
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Sirius awoke the next morning with his head full of thoughts of Remus. He'd had the most wonderful dream involving Remus sweeping him off his feet and up into the (for once) empty dorm room. The only thing that dampened Sirius' mood was the fact that his dream would never – could never – come true. However, Sirius had long since decided not to dwell on such insignificant things, and therefore was wholly planning on spending the day happily reliving every single detail of the night's dream.
This ambition, however, was not to be. Sirius was distracted by the subject of said dream who was sleeping in the bed directly opposite his own. The way that Remus was gripping so firmly and tightly to his bedcovers made Sirius' thoughts travel in an entirely new direction. In his sleep, Remus looked so vulnerable that Sirius couldn't help but feel that his previous line of thought was totally wrong and unsuited to the Remus he actually knew and loved. The sight made Sirius newly determined to find out what was bothering Remus and fix it, whatever it took.
Remus started to rouse at that exact moment and Sirius took the advantage of Remus' sleep-addled brain for another round of questioning.
"What's wrong?" Sirius had moved close to Remus' bed so that their conversation would not rouse James and Peter.
"What? ... Oh Merlin, not this again Sirius! There is nothing wrong!" Remus had started to pull back the covers from his bed so that he could get away from Sirius and into the slight safety of the bathroom.
"Remus," Sirius very rarely used his full name, Remus took this as a sign that he really wasn't going to give up. This revolution, however, only made Remus more determined to say nothing. "Why can't you just get it into your head that I know you're lying to me and I'm not going to give up? Not ever!" By this time their conversation seemed to have woken James; who was now staring at the pair with bleary-eyed curiosity.
"… Whaz goin' on?"
"Nothing, Prongs, you can go back to sleep." Remus said whilst walking, once again, towards the bathroom.
"Rem!" Sirius' plea fell on deaf ears as Remus had just passed through the door separating their dorm and the bathroom.
"Padfoot? What's going on?" James had climbed out of bed and was standing next to Sirius; both of them watching the door Remus had just disappeared through.
"Nothing, Prongs, you can go back to sleep." Sirius repeated Remus' words from a moment earlier, turning dejectedly towards his bed.
"Sirius… did you talk to Moony without me?" James' voice conveyed to Sirius just how hurt he was by not being involved.
"Merlin, James! Don't be such a baby!" Sirius flung himself at his bed, landing face down on the pillows.
"No, Sirius, you stop being a baby!" James whisper-shouted, conscious to not let Remus hear their conversation. "We agreed we'd talk to Moony as a group… as a pack."
"Yeah? Well, I took the opportunity while it was there!" Sirius was being much less careful about his noise. However, amazingly, Peter still seemed to be asleep.
"And look how far that's got you! You've made it worse!" James' volume was rising steadily along with his anger.
"Like you could do any better!"
"I'm not saying I could. What I'm saying is that if we'd done this as a pack, we may have made some progress." James couldn't believe Sirius, he'd got Remus all worked and there was now no way they were going to get it out of him. "Since you've proved he's not going to open up to you, I think me and Pete should go about this on our own."
"Good luck with that, Prongs." Sirius said scathingly. "I'm not giving up though. We'll see who he talks to."
"Fine." With this last word, James changed and left the dormitory, dragging a half-asleep Peter along with him.
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Drop me a review if you want me to continue this :)
