Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and its characters; that privilege belongs to J.K. Rowling alone.
A/N: I have changed the name of this story from "Not Only This Night" to "Despite the Crescent Moon."
2
No War Within These Walls
• • • •
Somewhere near the Ravenclaw table, Lily was censuring a group of fourth years for violating some trivial rule Remus himself had never heard of before. James was gazing at her wistfully, his eyes following her hands as they gesticulated wildly in the air, and his spoon, laden with pudding, was suspended midway to his mouth. Little by little, the pudding slipped off the metal, splattering onto his robes. James didn't seem to notice. Remus rolled his eyes, his gaze straying toward Sirius, who was staring intently at him. Their eyes locked for a split second before Sirius pulled away a little, his lips forming a small smile. Sirius had been quiet ever since Remus kissed Lily, and though he wasn't behaving as overtly absurd now, Remus still made a mental note to wheedle him about it later. To Remus' left, Peter slurped at his pudding very avidly and noisily.
Lily plunged down on Remus' right with an air of exasperation. James immediately ran his hand through his head, ruffling it up; his eyes were still fixed on her, glinting with jovial expectation, and it wasn't until Lily shot him a glare of vexation and disgust that he finally steered them away. Lily wrenched her head solely toward Remus, her crimson cheeks limned with rage.
"Honestly, with You-Know-Who rising and all, the selection of Head Boy and Girl should have been left to McGonagall. Dumbledore's just got too much on his mind, dealing with the War; maybe he's starting to lose judgement—well, energy, more like, not that I blame him much. I wouldn't put that much thought into the school either if I had the power to stop You-Know-Who—"
"Lily, what are you getting at?" Remus asked, really for the sake of asking.
"I'm saying that if McGonagall had chosen, we would have a far more responsible Head Boy who hasn't broken all the rules himself."
James was gaping at her, looking hurt, but Lily kept her eyes facing Remus.
Remus grinned. "Maybe instead of grumbling about how inept James is at keeping order, you could take the mantle upon yourself. You know, ignore the part where there is a Head Boy and just be the Head yourself."
Lily seemed to take this under consideration. At long, she said, "That sounds a lot like something a Slytherin would do."
James chortled noisily, sounding relieved. Remus sighed and, without reason, looked over to the Slytherin table.
Lily slapped him lightly on the cheek. "Don't look at them, you backstabber!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus found Sirius staring again, his face slightly contorted and tense. Remus rubbed the place where Lily slapped him. "Oh come on, it's not like the sheer image of them will convert me—"
"Don't joke about it!" she snapped. "They're the ones who are culpable for all this shit!"
"You know, you're sounding a lot like James right now."
"Don't—oh God, Remus!" Lily threw her hands up, fuming. For a long time, Remus' tolerance of Slytherin House was something he shared with Lily, but that changed immeasurably after Snape showed her his Mark last year. "I will not further discuss anything to do with those Death Eaters and Death Eaters in the making."
Remus let it drop. "Then maybe you two"—he pointed at Lily and James—"could fulfill your duties as Head Boy and Girl and start delegating tasks to the prefects."
James looked horrified. "Don't tell me I'll have to escort those first years to our dormitory." He shuddered. "Children."
Lily glared at him. "Of course you're not bringing them up. You'll probably poison them with your prankster attitude and tell them exactly how to get under the teachers' skin."
"Oi, I've given up on the pranks, remember?"
"You've given them up. Doesn't mean that you won't deploy your minions to do them for you."
"Evans, you really need to start trusting me if you ever want a chance with me."
"I'm relieved to hear that my chances with you are still at zero. Anyway, I'll lead the first years with Remus, and I suppose the Sixth Year prefects from the other Houses can lead their first years." Lily paused. "I guess I'll inform them now."
As Lily got up to leave, James stood up as well, his hand extended as if to grab her. "Wait, what do I do?"
"You can be on your best behavior and stop sabotaging my plans," Lily quipped, keeping her arm far away from James.
She made to leave again, but James called out, "Wait, I'll go with you."
Lily froze and stared at him, disbelief written in her eyes. Then she slammed her hands against the table and brought her face level with his. "Don't you dare pretend to be responsible, Potter," she said dangerously. "You will get the credit you deserve, which is to say, none."
"I'll work," James said a bit too eagerly. "I swear by Merlin I'll work. I'll do whatever you want, Evans, please just give me a chance. I'll lead the first years with you"—Lily opened her mouth to object—"and I won't poison them with… what was it again? But it doesn't matter; the point is, you can keep me in check, and I swear I won't resist." His lips twisted up. "When have I ever resisted you anyway, Evans?"
Lily didn't speak for a while, holding James' gaze. "I gave Remus the task," she said softly, her resolve clearly withering away.
"I'm not very fond of children," Remus interceded, at which the two spun to look at him, James obviously grateful and Lily utterly betrayed. "So, with that settled, I'm assuming I won't have to do anything now? Oh, how the tables have turned." He smirked at James, whose thankful expression was at once replaced by an indignant scowl.
Lily let out a sound of defeat and stormed off, James scrambling after her. Remus watched them go for a while before turning back to the table. Then Sirius started laughing, banging his head down on the table as he convulsed.
"Damn, if only that was what he needed this entire time—" Sirius broke out guffawing again, and Remus frowned as if Sirius had gone completely bonkers, despite this being the first show of normal Sirius behavior in the entire day. "You know Moony, I never took you for a matchmaker, but damn."
Remus was about to say something when Dumbledore stood up and shushes swept across the room.
"Welcome, students, for another year back at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, his voice carrying through the Hall. Tonight he sounded less cheery, more pensive than usual. "I will be quite forthright with you all tonight, for in a time like this, I do believe that every second is precious—whether we use it practically or simply to enjoy ourselves, it may be the last seconds of our lives…. Of course, I am regarding Lord Voldemort." Strident gasps arose all around the Hall, and even Remus was a little astounded at Dumbledore's audacity: nobody would use the Dark Lord's name. The air grew tense.
"Yes. Lord Voldemort and his followers, whom we know as Death Eaters. If you have been keeping tabs with the Daily Prophet, you will know that over this summer, Muggles and Muggle-borns have been persecuted, and still remain to be persecuted. The Aurors at the Ministry are working hard to combat the Death Eaters, and we teachers have fortified the school against Voldemort to the utmost best of our ability." At this, the tension in the atmosphere very noticeably unclenched. After all, if the teachers (and most importantly, Dumbledore) established the protections around the school themselves, then Hogwarts was probably the safest place in the world to be.
"There will be no war within these walls of ours," Dumbledore continued. "School rules will be stringently enforced, and I do not wish to see any misdemeanor from any one of you. This is a dark and dangerous era, and if you do not comply with us, you are putting yourself in danger—danger not from us, but from Lord Voldemort himself. There will be no sneaking around at night, no pranks to be pulled, nor dabbling in the Dark Arts." All eyes rounded on the Slytherin table.
"Now, now," Dumbledore cautioned. "Let us not be prejudiced against anyone or a certain House. Unity is pivotal in this storm of discord. I believe that if Hogwarts holds together as one, Lord Voldemort cannot possibly force his rule upon our grounds.
"Dire warnings aside, let us proceed with a new school year! Let us move forward with our magical studies and bring our knowledge to new heights, so that if the time should ever come, we may successfully evade Lord Voldemort. And above all, allow us enjoy what precious time we have left to us and find happiness amid this darkness, tempering within our hearts not just a flicker of light, but a great, consuming inferno."
• • • •
Lily was going to kill Remus. Well, kill was slightly far-fetched, but she would definitely hex him a great deal.
Lily kept her eyes expectantly on James, who stared blankly at the little faces peering at him. How strange it is that haughtiest person in the whole school is the one who lacks the most leadership skills, Lily thought. For so long James stood rooted to the spot as if paralyzed, his mouth an centimeter open, his eyebrows drawn together; the only part of him that remotely moved was his hands, which fidgeted nervously with the fabric of his robes. Lily reveled in his discomfiture, or at least she did, until she realized how openly she'd been ogling him.
NO. Lily tore her eyes away from James. LILY EVANS, THAT IS THE LAST TIME YOU WILL LOOK AT HIM LIKE THAT.
Panic stirred in her chest and her throat began to constrict; such was the acuteness of her antipathy for James. There was no better word for it, though sometimes Remus would tell her she was wrong; for what reasons, she did not know.
She hated James Potter and everything about him: his arrogance, his perennial presumption that Lily would one day fall in love with him, his smirk, his unkempt hair, his amber eyes, his ridiculous glasses, the way he mounted his broom with expertise on the Quidditch field, the way his fingers so easily enwrapped the Snitch she saw him playing around with in fifth year…. No, she admonished herself. She would not give James Potter that much space in her head, and she shuddered to think of how she even knew or remembered all that. Her panic intensified.
In an attempt to distract herself, she trained her eyes on the first years that crowded around her. None of them looked back at her. But of course: James Potter had always gotten all the attention.
Then Lily realized that they weren't exactly staring at James, but at his robes. Lily frowned. What were so interesting about his robes? Sure, they were new—further evidence that he was spoiled—but so what? A great deal of these children had new robes as well. Then she saw it: at the front, right where his genitals were (Oh God, Lily), was a huge yellow smear of pudding.
Lily smirked against her will, and many faces—including James'—whipped toward her.
She looked innocently around and sighed. "Oh come on, guys, it's not like we aren't all seeing the same thing," she said. "You all want to laugh, but you're just too scared to."
Smiles then began to light up the first years' faces, and soon the hallway was filled with snickers and chortles. James was frowning in a manner that was nothing but hilarious; Lily waited patiently for the moment when he would smile just to fit in with the rest of the crowd, and then his eyes found hers, and a smile did creep across his face.
"Guess I finally made you laugh, Evans?" he asked. Oh Potter, how blissfully ignorant you are.
Lily glanced at him coyly and returned his smile. "Potter, it looks like you just came all over yourself. With pudding." (She hoped the first years didn't comprehend the sexual jargon.)
His head tilted downward and his mouth flew wider. "Shi—"
"POTTER!" Lily yelled. "No profanity in front of children!"
"But you just said 'ca—'"
"That's different! It's more obscure!"
James shoved his hands into his robes, searching for his wand. Then he looked up, staring at Lily in disbelief. "My wand… I left it in my trunk."
Now Lily really started laughing.
James had never looked more distraught. "Can you… you…?"
"What, take over while you clean yourself up? You volunteered to help, remember? No backing out now, Head Boy," Lily sneered. Maybe she wasn't going to hex Remus after all, if the ball was going to stay in her court like this; as if James becoming Head Boy wasn't a big enough joke as it was—now she would extract every last remaining drop of hilarity from it. This was turning into a blessing in disguise.
James gave her his puppy dog eyes, to which she was obviously immune. She glared at him and did a gesture with her head, signaling him to begin his duty. The pale skin on James' face was so incredibly scarlet, and it took all of Lily not to laugh her innards out.
Finally, James croaked, "Alright first years. Em… following me?" Then he whirled around, concealing the pudding, and strutted awkwardly toward the Gryffindor common room. The first years, still giggling, followed suit, and Lily came last after them.
Given the pace at which James hurried to the common room, they arrived at the portrait door in no time at all. The Fat Lady observed the incoming train, then looked squarely at James' crotch. James shifted quite noticeably.
"Oh! Need the bathroom, I suppose? Password?"
"Tenebare?" James said, increasingly uncertain as he spoke.
The Fat Lady cocked an eyebrow. "Bare? Are you trying to make puns, boy? Not a very good one, I must say, since you're not baring anything. Yet. Where's your friend, the smart one? He usually opens the door for you, does he not? He should have led these kids; he's a prefect too, isn't he?"
"Well, fu—"
"TENEBRAE!" Lily screamed over the heads of the children.
The Fat Lady peered around James' figure at Lily. "Ah, she's a smart one too. Well, in you all go!"
The door swung open, and the line moved fast. By the time Lily went through the hole, James had already bolted out of sight. Sighing in irritation, Lily moved to the front of the line and brought the first years to their dorms herself.
• • • •
Peter left the Hall after they were dismissed, saying something about being tired from all that food. Sirius and Remus decided to stay behind at the table, watching James and Lily from afar as they corralled the first years. Or least Sirius was. Remus was only paying half his attention to the pair, his eyes more or less fixed on Sirius. He was acting so normal now, so much like the Sirius Remus knew… but there was something different, wasn't there? Remus couldn't simply ignore Sirius' aloofness on the train and through most of the feast. He wanted to know what had nettled Sirius so badly… but now he seemed so happy, without a care in the world, and a pang of guilt ate at Remus as he envisioned knocking the smile off Sirius' face.
As the group of first years amassed, James was gradually pushed into the hallway outside the Hall, and Sirius, with a smirk, gestured at Remus to follow. As Remus got up and leapt off the bench, he accidentally crashed into a girl; he reached his arms out and steadied her. Then he looked down—for the girl was a head shorter than him—and he went rigid. He'd recognize that hair anywhere: the long waves cascading down her back, shining with the color of sunset. Astrid Clearwater, or as the Marauders knew her, Remus' last ex. His eyes grew big.
"Shit I'm so sorry," he heard her mumble. "I—Remus?" She jerked against his touch, her eyes also widening in shock.
Remus spun his head toward Sirius as if pleading help, but Sirius stared at them uncomprehendingly, his eyes just as large as theirs. Aside from shock or surprise, they were very much so unreadable.
"Hey… Astrid," Remus said awkwardly. "How's… um… your summer?"
"Filled with paranoia."
Remus nodded. The Clearwaters were, after all, Muggle-born—both Astrid and her older brother.
Which led to the next awkward question: "Nobody… got hurt in your family… right?"
Astrid was smoothing her hair off her face. "No. Well, I should go now. My brother's waiting for me." She indicated her brother loitering near the door of the Great Hall, looking at her with a frown.
"Yeah, alright. But I'm—" Remus choked. This was so awkward. "—really glad that no one got hurt."
Astrid searched his face. "I am too. And Remus, you don't have to act all concerned about me. I know I'm not your number one priority, so don't bother pretending that I am." Remus opened his mouth but Astrid continued, "God, that sounded bad. What I meant to say is that… I know you were asking out of sheer politeness. You always were so kind, and I've always liked that about you." She stopped, hiding her face from him. "But if you're not going to be with me, please don't talk to me. It hurts to even see you."
Her last word came out cracked, and as she strode hastily away, Remus' gaze slid after her, his heartbeat beating unbearably hard. A while later, he turned to address Sirius, who still stared at him with that same shocked expression, though now it was mingled with a bit of unease.
"What was that about?" Sirius asked as Remus started forward.
"Nothing," Remus said curtly.
"Oh come, that was definitely something—"
Remus rounded on Sirius, his eyes blazing. "And that was definitely something on the train too. Didn't hear you filling me out on it."
Hurt registered on Sirius' face for a split second before fading. "What does that have to do about anything? We're talking about your love life here."
"Oh don't play coy with me," Remus snapped. "You think I don't know that it's something about your love life that's bothering you?"
"I—well, I broke up with her, okay? That much you know."
"And I broke up with her. That much you know." Remus' face grew unaccountably hot. "I don't know the details of your break up, and you don't know the details of mine. I say we're pretty even."
Sirius continued to walk toward the front door, picking up his pace exponentially, and Remus, giving a huff of annoyance, trudged grudgingly after him. Both boys kept their eyes glued to the floor.
"I like someone else," Sirius suddenly blurted. Remus brought his head up and stared at him. Sirius always treated crushes as conquests, for which he strove with absolute determination, and whenever Sirius saw a girl with bigger tits than his girlfriend, he'd mark the former on his list and unfeelingly dump the latter.
Sirius Black was fickle, and did not give two shits about the other end of his relationships. Remus had never seen him fall for someone in a way that flustered him, especially to such a great extent.
Thus, Remus was highly dubious. "That's it?"
"Yeah. And I'm telling you right now that I won't spill who it is. That's where I draw the line." Sirius' voice was startlingly firm. His eyes glossed over Remus' face. "You don't believe me, do you?"
Remus bit his lip, rendered uncertain by Sirius' adamance. He managed a weak smile. "What do you think, Padfoot?"
"I think that you want to believe me but you just can't, since you can't entertain the possibility that Sirius Black might be in lo—might have a serious crush on someone."
Sirius' slip-up did not go unnoticed by Remus, who pressed his lips together to suppress laughter. Remus drowned himself in thought as they walked through the doors and out of the Hall. The corridor was deserted, James and Lily long gone. "I'll buy your lie for the time being," Remus decided at last.
Sirius smiled. "So, now that you know about my break up, why don't you tell me about yours?"
Remus rolled his eyes, slightly exasperated. He didn't want to tell Sirius this story for a reason, but Sirius, being Sirius, would get to the bottom of it sooner or later, and Remus wasn't keen on having a prospective confrontation with his best friend. "Well, the Death Eaters started purging Muggle-borns last year, right? So over spring break, Astrid was back home with her best friend Samuel, who, by the way, is a half-blood. Then the Death Eaters came after her.
"There was quite the skirmish at the Clearwaters', and Astrid almost got nicked by a Killing Curse, were it not for Samuel, who—no, Sirius, he did not die," Remus interposed at Sirius' horrified face. "Samuel pushed her out of the way in time to save both of their lives, but in their confusion another Death Eater shot curses straight into Samuel's pupils. Long story short, he had to go to St. Mungo's, and now he's irrevocably blind. Can't even attend Hogwarts, since he can't study or see where his spells are flying at."
Remus felt his breath catch with shame, thinking of how Dumbledore permitted Remus—a monster—to attend Hogwarts, while someone as innocuous and filled with integrity as Samuel was barred from continuing.
Recollecting himself, Remus continued. "Astrid came back physically unscathed, of course, and she came to me for comfort. We got closer than ever, but that's not really contributive to the point. Anyhow, over time, she started becoming like the Slytherin-hating Lily we know now, except Astrid was even more extreme. She hated anyone who had any connection to the Death Eaters, which, regrettably, includes you."
Sirius seemed to understand where this was going. "She asked you to cut me out of your life."
Remus nodded, his face cast to the ground. "I refused, obviously. I tried to reason with her, told her that you hated Death Eaters as much as she did, but she wouldn't listen. She gave me an ultimatum between you and her. I chose you."
They were approaching the Gryffindor common room, and the silence of the night outside the castle seemed to seep into the hallway. Remus was looking straight ahead now, while Sirius had his head down. Finally, Remus said, "Padfoot—"
"Did you love her?"
The question threw Remus off guard, though he didn't know what else Sirius could have said. "I wouldn't go so far to say love," he said. "But I did like her plenty, and she made me happy."
"Then why?" Sirius asked, suddenly grabbing onto Remus' forearm. Remus stared at him in the eye, knowing ruefully that this was going to happen—hence his attempts to keep his break up to himself. "Why give up your happiness for someone like me? Were you any other person I would understand, but you Moony, you aren't blinded by my arrogance or my good looks or whatever it is that other people see in me. You of all people know that I'm nothing special—I'm not a piece of shit, of course—but I'm too ordinary to be worthy of such a sacrifice."
Now this shot a spike of anger and incredulity through Remus' veins. "Ordinary? So you're telling me that defying your parents at every turn is something every kid does, huh? Ordinary purebloods don't tamper with Muggle motorcycle engines, trying to enchant them to fly, Sirius. You're the first person from the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black to ever step foot in the Gryffindor common room, and you have Gryffindor posters hanging back in your old room as we speak. I could go on and on about how extraordinary you are, but it doesn't really matter, does it? I didn't choose you over Astrid because you're worth more than her, or because you're more extraordinary than her. I chose you because you're my best friend and I will always choose you, over anyone or anything." He dropped his voice, "The minute you and James and Peter decided to become Animagi for me, I proclaimed a series of predetermined choices that can never be revoked. Keeping you and losing Astrid was one of them."
The grip on Remus' arm slackened, and Sirius looked at Remus as if debating between something. Then Sirius removed his hand completely and strutted onward, nearing the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Does it still hurt?" Sirius asked once Remus caught up with him at the door.
"Only because she's hurt," Remus replied. "But I'm over her, if that's what you're asking."
• • • •
The first thing they saw in the common room was Lily strolling down the stairs from the male dormitories.
"Lily?" Remus asked, sounding worried for the mental health of his friend.
Sirius grinned unabashedly. "Looks like Prongs finally got some."
"Oh shut up, Black." Lily rolled her eyes. "I was just escorting the first years to their dorms. Had to get the girls done first, then the boys. Potter ran for his life the minute he got through the door." She smirked. "You two wouldn't happen to know about a certain stain on his robes and the placement of that stain, would you?"
A realization seemed to dawn on Remus. "The pudding?" Lily nodded, and he barked with laughter.
"You know, Remus, I was thinking of all the ways I would hex you for setting me up with Potter, but that pudding just saved your stupid prick. His reaction was priceless."
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Did I just hear Lily Evans indulging in a prank?"
"Black, seriously? Shut up." Lily made her way to one of the couches beside the hearth, and Remus plopped down on the couch across from her. Sirius was still standing awkwardly a few feet away from the portrait hole.
"How'd you do it, anyway?" Lily asked, her arms bent on her knees as she leaned toward Remus.
"I didn't. James was too busy ogling you to remember how loaded his spoon was with pudding."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Typical Potter. At least it came back to bite him in the arse this time." She moved to recline on the cushions behind her, getting so comfortable it seemed she might just sleep there. "This is probably the first time I've ever said this, but I'm actually excited to go patrolling with Potter. Leadership just does not work with him at all."
Sirius harrumphed, feeling a bit indignant on his friend's behalf. Remus and Lily both turned their heads to him.
"He leads us just fine," Sirius said pointedly. "Right, Moony?" He glared at Remus as if reminding him of what he said a few minutes earlier.
Remus shrugged. "Leads us into chaos, sure."
Sirius threw his hands up. "We feed on chaos."
Remus arched an eyebrow. "I never said anything otherwise. He's a great leader of the Marauders, and the most abysmal leader of the student body." Remus pursed his lips. "Since when do you care, anyway? We've never hailed Prongs as our high and sovereign leader; in fact, some may think that there's some sort of power struggle between the two of you."
Sirius scoffed. "The Marauders are all leaders as they are followers. We embody unity like no other."
Lily twisted a bit of her hair around her finger. "Well, I'm not going to sit here listening to you boast about how great your fraternity is, so let's talk about something else. Black, I'm afraid the topic I have in mind will bore you, so I'd advise you to go to bed."
"Or maybe I'll have a taste of this topic of yours and judge for myself."
Sirius and Lily glared at each other.
I'm fighting over Moony, Sirius realized suddenly. After what happened in the hallway, I'm fighting over him like he belongs to me. There was no mistaking his intentions for something less than intimate, and something disgusting rose at the back of his throat. This is wrong, this is wrong...
"The password's got a dark sense of humor," Lily began.
Remus nodded. "Tenebrae. Latin for 'darkness.' You would have thought that they'd chosen something like 'lucem' or something. It'd set a much brighter mood."
"Or maybe the password doesn't do anything to the mood since nobody here knows Latin," Sirius retorted, and immediately wished he didn't. He was jealous. Jealous that Remus and Lily found mutual interest in something as tedious as Latin. Jealous that he couldn't match Remus' intelligence, or his interests, in the way that Lily consummately could…
Remus smirked, and Lily threw Sirius another glare. Sirius rolled his eyes, trying to appear nonchalant. It was so much easier now, after having moved from the denial phase, to set his feelings for Remus aside and act normally around him. It was, after all, his denial that brought about his agitation and stirred the fury in his head.
Yet it was one thing to acknowledge something, and another to endorse it. He could not deny that he wanted to seize the collar of Remus' robes and snog him senseless, any more than he could deny how wrong his feelings were. He would never let himself lose a friend like Remus, not after everything Remus had done for him; was that how Sirius planned on repaying Remus for breaking up with Astrid? By making him all uncomfortable and guilty and tentative, effectively ruining their friendship? No, Sirius declared. His affections cut far too deep for that. He refused to let this crush change anything, and it filled him with a fierce determination to salvage every bit of normalcy with Remus.
And in time, he hoped, he would learn to love that normalcy, and the rejection that ran beneath it.
• • • •
"YOU KNEW ABOUT THE SODDING PUDDING, DIDN'T YOU?" James screamed the minute Sirius traversed the threshold. "You put it there! You were sitting next to me, so you were the only one who could have!"
Sirius blinked, confounded. "Actually, I didn't. I don't even know the full story of what happened. Something about you dropping pudding on yourself—"
"Me? Dropping… what? Who told you this?"
"Uh." Sirius scratched his ear. "Moony."
"HE KNEW?" James growled. "He knew and he didn't tell me? That fucking tosser."
Sirius felt his face boil, but he ignored it. "What happened, anyway?"
James drew his pillow over his face. "There was some pudding on my robes, right where the sun doesn't shine, and I was stupid enough to leave my wand up here. Then Evans started laughing at me and egged on all the bloody children to laugh along with her."
Sirius' lips stretched into a grin. "Well, she was still thinking about it downstairs with Moony."
James groaned and pressed the pillow deeper against his face. "Moony too?"
"Please, Prongs. I would have laughed too, if I had seen it myself."
James whimpered, smothering himself some more. "I can't believe I embarrassed myself so much in front of Evans."
"Well, on the bright side, you're all she can think about right now."
James peeked an eye at Sirius. "She said that?"
"Something along those lines, yeah."
Sirius didn't need to see James' mouth to know that he was smiling.
• • • •
A/N: Thanks for reading and please please review! It really means a lot to me. And thanks to the two of you who did. :)