Author's Notes:

I want to thank everyone who left reviews! It was so wonderful to hear that people are enjoying this story. It was really the confidence booster that I needed to motivate me to continue!

I will be trying to post regularly, and my chapters will be less like chapters and more "What I was able to get done in one sitting." I figure that it will be nicer to have shorter updates more regularly, than having to wait forever for a long update.

Anyway! On with the story. Let me know how my chapters hold up to previous ones!

Sirius waited around his room for several hours, hoping that Remus would come back so that he could lay into him with all of the great come-backs that he'd not been able to muster on the spot., but when dinner rolled around his stomach told him to give it up. He wasn't too concerned about going to dinner alone, as he was usually quick to make friends, despite his record thus far. And while his exchange with Lupin had left him feeling a little shaken he was glad to find that not everyone was as hard to deal with as he had been. While some of the boys were very clearly tormented by some unknown affliction, most seemed like normal boys in a boarding school. It quite reminded him of the boarding school he'd attended before his brother's untimely death. His parents had been so proficient at keeping Sirius out of the way that many people thought that the Black family had only one heir. He remembered at his brother's funeral how many guests were shocked when they learned that Regulus had a brother. Sirius had become talented at adapting to whatever environment his parents threw him into.

Being so well adapted, Sirius found himself sitting at a table with two boys that he'd met in line while they were all fed and pilled like cattle. He'd been approached, one might even call it head-hunted, by a boy with short wild hair who had told him, more than asked him, to join the futbol team. He'd introduced himself as James, and Sirius immediately took to him. The friend that James had following along, Peter, was less impressive to Sirius, though he saw no immediate reason to dislike him. Once settled at a table James began to give Sirius the quick-and-dirty on the 'school' and it's residents.

"…so then classes were canceled for the rest of the day because they couldn't get the horrible smell out of the hallways." James barked with laughter, even while he still had food in his mouth.

Sirius was laughing as well, though his face was twisted in disgust at the detail James had included in his story. James was trying to explain the difference between the "misunderstood" residents and the "truly crazy" residents, as he'd put it. Sirius was starting to think he had a point.

"You should tell him about Marcus." Peter prompted excitedly.

"Mary Marcus!" James hooted with laughter again. "You might want to think about cutting your hair a bit shorter, Sirius! This kid, Marcus, goes nuts if he sees men with long hair. Says they're evil women in disguise out to get 'im!" James paused to swallow around his laughing to keep from choking. "Apparently his mum off-ed his dad and then dressed him as a little girl. Took police 5 years to catch her. That poor kid's never gonna be level again." Even though he was lamenting Marcus' sanity, he did it with another hoot of laughter.

"They say that he's so afraid of women now, that he's turned into a shirt lifter." Peter cackled a little.

"We both know there's more than just him around here." James countered.

Sirius just smiled to himself, amused by their "who's gay" gossip that followed. He'd never considered himself gay, but that certainly didn't mean he'd not dabbled. His first homosexual experience was part of a fantastic stab at his parents' sense of propriety. He knew that they would be appalled to find out their son had been balls deep in another man, and promptly gave them the opportunity to catch him doing just that. He grinned wider to himself as he remembered his mother's look of horror and his father's dry heave. It had been beautiful. While that first time had been specifically to infuriate his parents, he'd decided that being with another man could be quite appetizing, and didn't mind going back to his all boys boarding school afterward. He'd always found it funny, that as punishment for sleeping with another boy he'd been sent to an all boys school.

"Well there's Lupin too." Peter added to their list of names.

Sirius's thoughts were brought back to the conversation as he heard the familiar voice.

"Shut it, Pete. That's not a story for someone's first day." James said, suddenly not seeming as amused.

"Wait a second. Remus Luping?" Sirius asked looking between them as their eyes bugged out a little.

"How do you know Lupin?" James asked, seeming very serious now.

"The wanker's my roommate." Sirius scowled, remembering the annoying way he'd spoken to him a few hours before.

"You're joking!" Peter spit out, turning to look at James. "I didn't think he was gonna get another one!"

"I said shut it, Pete!" James snapped, then looked back at Sirius, hazel eyes rigid. "Have you spoken to him yet? What do you know about him?"

"Just that he's a complete knob, horrible with conversation, and on a mission as we speak to get me moved out of his precious, tidy, boring room." Sirius said with a trademark quark of his beautifully arched brow.

James and Peter exchanged glances a second, then looked back at him.

"Take the opportunity to move out." James said firmly.

"Definitely." Peter agreed.

"Why? He just seems like a stuck up brat to me. I can handle a bit of bad attitude. I actually have one of the best bad attitudes around. He won't know what to do with me." Sirius grinned, expecting them all to fall into laughter again, though James and Peter just exchanged meaningful glances again before looking back at Sirius.

"It'd probably be best if you just move rooms." James said solemnly.

"Alright." Sirius finally huffed, "Just what is supposed to be bad about this guy?"

James and Peter looked at each other again, as they tried to decide silently whether to divulge any more.

"Out with it!" Sirius raised his voice a little, though he was more annoyed by their behavior than angry.

"Well… it's just that we don't normally tell people this right off." James said slowly. "It tends to freak people out." Peter agreed.

"Do I look like I'm going to be bothered?" Sirius asked, scowling a little.

"Fine." James finally said with a sigh. "It's kind of a long story, but we'll give you the quick version."

Peter looked up and down the aisle that they sat on and then scooted forward as James did, who had dropped the volume of his voice, as though to keep people from hearing their conversation.

"Lupin murdered his last roommate." James said heavily, then paused, as though expecting a reaction that Sirius would need time to recover from.

"…" Sirius stared at him a second, then said in an overly calm voice, "I appreciate your shortened version… but maybe you should tell me a slightly longer version. Perhaps a version that actually explains something?"

James rolled his eyes some, as though annoyed that it wasn't just obvious that what he was saying was true.

"Look, about two years ago we had this new guy come in. Jona. He ended up being a good friend of mine, actually." James said, as though suggesting that this gave his story more credibility and that Sirius should believe him so as not to insult him. "He was roommates with Lupin. He was the only guy I'd ever seen who'd actually become friends with him. I mean, Lupin's always been a shut in, right? Even before he became a murdering psychopath." He exchanged looks with Peter again. "Well, the next thing we know, Jona's found in the halls dead. Arrow right between his eyes." He pressed a finger between his own brows.

There was another pregnant pause as Sirius waited for them to continue. When they didn't, he sat up straighter.

"Well, I think that's pretty hard evidence…" He paused, "That you two suck at telling stories."

"What?" Peter asked, seeming shocked.

"That story was shit! It doesn't explain anything. A) What makes you so sure that it was Remus who'd done it, and B) why would he have done it if they were friends?" He counted the two points on his long, elegant fingers and tried not to laugh when he caught Peter looking at them like he wanted to do horrible things to them.

"Well A)" James said, mocking Sirius' finger counting, "Everyone knows that Lupin is at the top of the archery club and the only one who could have made such a wicked shot, and B) did you forget about the gay thing? Clearly he'd gotten the hots for Jona, and when he was turned down, flipped shit and killed him."

"We have an archery club?" Sirius suddenly asked, seeming surprised.

James opened his mouth to argue again, but then his non sequitur caught up with him.

"A school full of nut-jobs and suicidal teens… has an archery club." Sirius said more slowly, letting the irony and stupidity of the thought sink in, and before long all three of the boys had broken down into laughter again

Sirius was satisfied to find that the room was still trashed when he returned after dinner. After their fit of laughter had been done they continued to argue about whether or not there was enough evidence to support the that Remus was a murderous, jilted lover, or whether James and Peter were full of shit. They never did reach a consensus, though Sirius still leaned toward the latter.

While the thought was interesting, Sirius had a hard time imagining Lupin as a murderer. He still struck him as merely a spoiled kid who was used to getting his way. Sirius chose to ignore the irony of his thinking this about someone else. It was tantalizing though, adding yet another layer of information to egg on Sirius' urge to snoop into his things and into his life. He loved to know secrets, and he was starting to think that this boy had a few good ones just waiting to be uncovered. Whether or not he was actually gay was a good place to start.

Sirius was lounging on his messy bed, face in a music magazine when he heard the door open. He decided that he should just play it cool and ignore him for a while, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of his attention, though that only lasted until he heard the door click shut, then he peeked over his magazine at him.

Remus' face was still mostly passive, though his brows were knit just a little, making him look frustrated, though It was a subtle expression. What caught Sirius' attention, though, was that he was looking anywhere, but at Sirius. Sirius grinned when he realized something.

"They wouldn't move me, would they?" He asked, grinning cheekily.

"Don't speak to me." Lupin said evenly, though Sirius could hear a small twinge of anger behind it.

"I'll take that as a 'no'" he said around a chuckle.

He felt a flip of excitement in his stomach when he saw his brows come together further. The thrill he felt surprised him for a second. It was exhilarating to see that little break in Remus' well constructed barrier, and he shocked him to realize that the thrill was almost sexual. It was like the feeling of excitement when you finally get to see or feel or taste some part of a lover's body that you'd been working so hard for. That little quark of his brow was his reward and he found himself gnawing on his lip around a lewd grin. He liked this game.

He found himself watching Lupin almost predatorily as he moved over and started calmly making his bed again.

"What's wrong? No one for you to cry to who can get me out of your hair. Awww, poor Remi-pie." He teased in baby talk and felt another jolt of pleasure as he saw the curve of his jaw that was showing through his gentle curls tighten as he clenched his teeth.

Sirius suddenly realized how to win this game and he barely kept himself from releasing a clichéd, villainous laugh.

"You know," He began conversationally, sitting up and crossing his legs so he's facing Lupin's back, tilting his head to admire his surprisingly attractive ass, "I think we had a bad start. We should be friends."

Sirius thought that he might come in his pants as he saw the look of rage that flashed briefly across Lupin's face as he spun around to look at him.

"Excuse me?" Remus ground out through his teeth, something Sirius was used to his mother doing, but somehow gave him a wholly different feeling when Remus did it.

"Yeah." Sirius said casually, pretending to not notice his anger. "I mean, we're going to be living together, spending all kinds of time together, sharing stories late at night while we wait to fall asleep. We should be friends."

Sirius wasn't sure why he enjoyed angering people so much, or why angering this boy in particular seemed to bring him an almost erotic pleasure, but he was beside himself as he saw Remus take a very deep, slow breath, his too-long lashes fluttering as he tried to compose himself.

"You will not be staying here. And we will not be friends." He said quietly, though Sirius thought he heard a slight tremor in his voice.

"Why not?" Sirius asked, feigning ignorance and pulling a perfectly practiced expression of disappointment.

"Clearly you've not heard anything about me." Remus muttered, more to himself than to Sirius as he turned back to fixing his bed.

"I heard that you killed your last roommate." Sirius said nonchalantly.

He was rewarded with another whip-around look of shock.

"Is that right?" Remus asked, trying less hard to cover his anger this time.

"Mm." Sirius nodded once, giving him a small smile as he tried to keep himself from shuddering at the power of emotion coming off the other boy.

"Well then maybe you should take the stories a little more seriously before I kill you next." Remus drug the words along his teeth, sending another shiver through Sirius without realizing it.

"Oh my," Sirius fluttered his eyes flirtatiously, "Is that a confession?" he asked, as though he were asking something naughty.

"What if it is?" Remus threatened, obviously thinking that he was being intimidating.

"Well then I would ask if you killed him because he'd refused to suck your cock."

He had been waiting for this moment. He wanted to see pure, unadulterated fury on Lupin's face, and thought that if it was as wonderful as he'd imagined, he might just have to touch himself. What he saw instead was a sudden surge of another emotion cross his features. A deep hurt flashed across his golden eyes and the glowing light behind them that Sirius had rather admired suddenly went out, leaving them dull, plain, and just brown. Sirius felt a cold spear shoot through him, all pleasure he'd gotten from this game gone, then he felt his own pain and realized a little too late that it had come from Remus' fist smashing against his aristocratic cheekbone.

Sirius took the blow without retaliation, falling back onto his elbows as he watched Lupin storm out of the room, not seeming to realize or care that curfew had already been called.

TBC…