Remus banged at the door till someone came and opened it.

"Remus, what are you... Oh my goodness is that Sirius!?"

"Yeah he had an accident, he flew the whole way here in this weather, he's hurt and he's freezing and he's drunk and he might be ill" explained Remus as he stumbled indoors, the many guests cleared a path for him, he dropped Sirius on the sofa, by the fire.

"Oh Merlin, Charlus, get them some blankets, quickly!"

"I don't need any it's him that's ill"

"I dunno Rem... you're looking a bit blue round the lips... I could sort that though" mumbled Sirius evocatively, licking his lips

"Sirius!" he growled. Mrs Potter ran at them both with blankets and threw a very thick and hevy one over Sirius and wrapped one firmly around Remus. She checked Remus's forehead

"You're running a bit of a temperature" she checked Sirius "Oh! Dear you're boiling Sirius!"

"No I'm still freezing" he said defiantly

"Oh dear. I'd better get you up to bed... are James and Marianne still up there?" asked Dorea

"Yeah" She ran toward the stairs "oh god, wait Mrs. Potter!" Remus ran up behind her

"Where are you two going?" asked Sirius, following Remus up the stairs as he followed Dorea. The three of them walked down the upstairs corridor, Dorea, without knocking, unlocked the door to James's room. Remus cringed in preperation for what he might have been about the witness.

"James? Ah, Sirius and Remus have been out in the cold for a while and they're both running temperatures, I want them both in bed"

"Okay mum, that's fine. As long as they're all right" Remus peered into the room, James and Marianne were looking ruffled, to say the least. Marianne's t-shirt was on inside out and James's trousers were undone. His previously neatly made bed had the quilt heaped up and thrown back and the sheets very crinkled. While his mum was distracted with hurrying Remus and Sirius into the room, he quickly fastened his jeans. She sat the two of them down on James's bed, while James and Marianne shuffled uncomfortably in the corner

"Oh, you're both soaking. A hot air charm should sort that" Dorea quickly pulled out her wand and dried them both "Sirius let me take a look at that arm... oh dear, that's broken. What did you do to it?"

"Tree got in my way while I trying to land" he grumbled

"Poor thing" she cooed "only looks like a minor break, I'll get that fixed" she tapped her wand on Sirius's arm, sending a gold wave of light up it. "That feel any better?"

"Miles... wow" he moved his arm back and forth. She took their temperatures again.

"You're both even hotter than before. Get into bed" they lay down in James's large bed "The spare room is full of bags and coats at the moment, so you'll have to share, is that okay?" she asked as she sat them up against a pile of pillows and waved her wand tucked them in so only their heads were visible, cocooning them together tightly. Sirius coughed dryly, wrenching forward.

"Sharing's fine with me Mrs Potter" said Sirius, licking his lips at Remus. He coughed dryly again

"I hope you haven't gotten yourself a chest cold... or pnuemonia... oh and all for the sake of getting to this silly party. What would your mother say?"

"I imagine she'd say something along the lines of: Good, this is what you get for going to a party full of filthy mud bloods... crazy fucking bitch" James flushed at seeing such obcenities uttered with his mother in such close proximity

"Language, Sirius" she said lightly, she walked round to the side of the bed Remus lay on. "You're temperature's not quite as high as Sirius's... does your chest feel okay?" Remus considered, breathed deeply in and out

"Yeah, fine"

"Good. I'll bring you both something to bring your tempretures down and something Sirius's chest" she left the room walking determidly

"So Prongs, care to explain why, her shirt's inside out and why your bed smells like sex?" slurred Sirius, still drunk

"Well Sirius" answered Marianne "if you must know, me and my Jamesy made love. I'm breaking up with you"

"Sweet!" cheered Sirius

"Jamesy is my boyfriend now" she went toward him and flung her arms round his shoulders

"Say what?" he said terrified

"You're my boyfriend now"

"Oh shit..." he muttered, Sirius and Remus convulsed with laughter till Sirius broke into dry cough's again

"Stupid fucking girl" Sirius spluttered "He just wanted to fuck you, he doesn't want you to be his girlfriend"

"No, he's my boyfriend aren't you James?"

"No... sorry Marianne"

"Why not!? It's not like you're going out with anyone... and you do think I'm pretty and stuff, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do... it's just... I can't go out with you"

"Why not?!" she whined, pulling her arms off James and stomping at the ground

"Becasue... I love someone else..." he said shyly, he rumpled his hair and turned away from her

"WHO?" She screeched

"Lily Evans..." he mumbled

"You love her?" asked Sirius and Remus together

"yeah... yeah, I think so"

"I hate that Evans bitch" she huffed "Why her over meeee" she whinged

"Because she's smart, caring and completely stunning, where as you're pretty but you're also thick and insane" said Sirius flatly, too drunk to care about who's feelings he hurt "Why would James pick some random slut like you over someone like Evans?" he snapped. She tossed her hair and stormed out the room, and Remus couldn't help but notice she had tears streaming don her face

"Sirius!" exclaimed Remus and James

"What?" he asked cheerily

"That was fucking horrible!" shouted James

"So, I got rid of her... finnally. No more whatserface to worry about" Sirius slurred as he snuggled close into Remus

"You just don't say that to people!" James snapped

"Whatever, too drunk and ill to care" with that James scowled and stomped out

"Sirius, for christs's sake" snapped Remus

"Shhh... sleepy. Need some one to cuddle" he muttered nuzzling into Remus's hair, gently kissing Remus's earlobe

"That's cheating! I'm trying to tell you off here" he kissed his earlobe again "Oh nevermind" too tightly tucked in to menouver himself onto Sirius, or to roll over, Remus twisted his neck as far round as he could get it and shuffled forward slightly and pulled Sirius into gentle kiss

"I want more than this Rem" Sirius mumbled

"What d'you mean?"

"I want more than just the occasional snog or blowjob or whatever in the dorm if we get left alone"

"You mean you want sex? Because I thought we were just going to let it happen when it-"

"-happens yeah. I didn't mean sex, I meant like... 'cos I'm your boyfriend. But only in secret.... I don't want to be your secret anymore and I don't want you to be my secret. I want to be a proper couple, I want to walk down corridors holding your hand, I want to snog in public, I want people to shout get a room when they see us, I want to tell people... I want everyone to know exactly how I feel about you" said Sirius, still slurring, his nose now sounding stuffy. Remus couldn't tell if it was the fever or the alcohol, or both, talking but he could no longer control the word which had been violently threatening to escape his lips for months,

"I love you Sirius" Sirius's eyes widened, he stiffened

"You do?"

"Yeah" he said feeling himself blush

"No one's ever told me they loved me before" he said with such an childishly innocent, sad little smile, it was all Remus could do not to have his heart break right there and then "I love you too Remus" he blushed. Just as he was about to lean in for a deeper longer kiss, Dorea entered the room wielding her wand and an armful of potions, Remus rolled over quickly, but Sirius re-burried himself into Remus's hair and pretended to be asleep. Dorea giggled

"Comfortable Remus?" she grinned just like James

"No, but I don't suppose there's anything I can do about it is there?" he smiled and rolled his eyes

"Bless him" She placed her hand on Sirius's shoulder and pulled him back "Sirius? Are you awake?"

"mmm" he grumbled, giving Remus a sly wink

"Take this love, for your temperature..." she put the lip of a potion bottle to his mouth, tipping it gently upward he drank "there you go and this for your chest" she did the same with a different potion and then she walked over to Remus with the potion for temperatures and helped him take that "I'll let you two get some rest"

"Before you go Mrs. Potter, what time is it?" asked Remus

"About half six"

"So I'll be stuck up here with sleepy all night?"

"'fraid so" she smiled "That potion will make you quite drowsy though, so I expect you'll be asleep soon as well. Maybe you can come down later, but I want you both in bed till those temperatures go down" she said matronly before leaving the room again, this time, turrning the lights out. Sirius jumped

"What?"

"Where'd the light go?"

"She turned them off"

"huh? Surely... what?... candles need putting out"

"The Potter's have muggle light fittings that run on electricity. You only have to flick a swick and they go out"

"Fuck me! That's magic that is"

"Acctually, it's quite the opposite" Remus smirked to himself, Sirius simply looked confused. He nuzzeled himself back into Remus's hair and fell asleep, and Remus, not realising how tired he had been, quickly followed suit.

*

"Remus, you awake sweet heart?" asked his mum's familiar whisper

"mmm" he replied, with no desire to be wrenched from the warm and pleasant slumber he was wrapped in

"Dorea told me about what happened"

"mmm"

"It really is plain stupid to go out doors in weather like this for so long without a coat"

"I know but I needed to watch for Sirius"

"You could've watched for him from James's room"

"No I couldn't" Remus wasn't fully awake yet, and hadn't yet regained his foresight "James and Marianne Ball were having sex up here"

"They were? Oh my..."

"So I could hardly hang round down stairs and face" He yawned "Awkward questions from Dorea. I was sick with worry anyway, so outside seemed like the best thing for me"

"Oh... thats lovely"

"What is" he said irriated, just wanting to snuggle closer to Sirius and go back to sleep

"That you were so worried about your friend"

"I'm not just his friend Mrs Lupin" piped Sirius sleepily

"Pardon?"

"I'm his boy friend. Now shoo, so we may sleep again"

"Alright" She grinned and kissed them both on the forehead before she left

"Don't tell my mum to shoo" groaned Remus

"I love that you're annoyed by that, but not by what I just told her"

"Oh please, it's my mum, she doesn't care I was going to tell her anyway"

"Remus... When are we going to start telling people?"

"I dunno... soon?"

"oh... m'kay" Remus wondered if this required further discussion or not, but Sirius was already back to sleep

*

"Moooooony" Remus awoke, Sirius proding him in the ribs

"mmm"

"I'm not tired any more"

"How wonderful" he tried to shuffle away from Sirius but he was tucked into too tightly. Remus began to wonder if Dorea had put some kind of permanant sticking charm on the quilt

"I wanna go down stairs" he whined

"Well go, I'm still tired"

"I can't... I need your help"

"What?"

"I can't get out of the quilt... it's like somekind of a squashy duck feather prison" Sirius thrashed fruitlessly.

"Hang on, we'll just pull at the edges out from underneath"

"Yeah... that's an idea" Sirius slid beneath the covers where he scrambled around for a little while. He flopped face first onto the floor from the opposite end of the bed "Freedom!" Remus pulled the quilt back and stood up

"well done"

"Now if only we had light" exclaimed Sirius. With a roll of his eyes, Remus flicked the light switch, Sirius gave a little jump

"Those electric things are brilliant" he crawled around on the floor, trying to pull himself up, but failing abysmally

"I've no chance of you sobering up anytime soon, have I" Remus offered a hand to help Sirius up

"Doesn't look like it" Sirius took his hand and pulled himself up. After he was standing, he didn't let go "What time is it?" Sirius asked. Remus looked around the room for a clock, there was a small one on James's bedside table

"Oh Jesus, nearly midnight – we'd better get down stairs" Remus tried to take his hand away, but Sirius held it tighter

"We're being a proper couple from now on" Remus couldn't help but notice Sirius was still slurring. As he lead them down the stairs into the Potter's busy living room, he stumbled frequently and could barely walk in a straight line. He pulled Remus into the small crowd of very drunk wizards who were shouting over the very loud David Bowie record (Remus couldn't work out if it was Diamond Dogs or Aladin Sane) which was playing, where they stood for all of two seconds before the song changed on the Bowie record. Hearing a very famous guitar riff Sirius made an odd, but pleased face

"Oh God! Rebel Rebel! I fucking love this song Moony!"

"It's alright... Sirius! What the hell are doing?"

"I'm dancing" He wasn't so much dancing as he was rubbing himself up against Remus and shaking his shoulders a bit "C'mon Moony, dance with me!"

"This is not dancing!" Sirius ignored him. He was too busy trying to out sing Bowie

"YOU'VE GOT YOUR MOTHER IN A WHIRL – HA! Like me! SHE'S NOT SURE IF YOU'RE A BOY OR A GIRL – that's you Rem! HEY BABE, YOUR HAIR'S ALRIGHT – That's me again"

"Sirius..."

"Loosen up Moony, for fucks sake! Dance!" Sirius put his hands on Remus's hips and moved them side to side in time with the song, he took his hands away and Remus kept moving "See! Now move your shoulder's a little" Remus obliged "There you go! Like Bowie's about to say – WE LIKE DANCING AND WE LOOK DIVINE! That was weird" enjoying Sirius rubbing against him, Remus's dancing slowed down, as he was dragged into a Sirius enduced trance "Keep dancing! I know you love it - YOU WANT IT MORE AND YOU WANT IT FAST! THEY PUT YOU DOWN, THEY SAY I'M WRONG – THIS SONG IS, LIKE ABOUT US MOONY – YOU TACKY THING, YOU PUT THEM ON" Sirius grinned and his grinding on Remus became more violent, Sirius opened his mouth to sing the next line, but Remus beat him to it

"REBEL REBEL!"

"YOU'VE TORN YOUR DRESS" Sirius replied, taking turns with each line, they continued

"REBEL REBEL!"

"YOUR FACE IS A MESS"

"REBEL REBEL"

"HOW COULD THEY KNOW?" The next line, the sung together

"HOT TRAMP, I LOVE YOU SO!" they both burst into uncontrollable giggles. As they were about to kiss, Charlus Potter bumped passed, not noticing them, he turned the record off, to the great dismay of his guests

"Oh stop whining! It's time to start the count down!" He looked at his watch and they all waited "... now!"

"TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" a few guests immediately burst into a drunken sloppy rendition of Auld Lang Syne but most pulled the person nearest to them into a drunken sloppy kiss. Remus felt a familiar but very cold clammy hand on his face

"Happy New Year Moony"

"Happy New Year Padfoot" They began what Remus intended to be a very quick kiss on the cheek, but a very drunk Sirius decided that this kiss should move to the lips, it should also involve open mouths, tongues and hands on arses. After a few minutes or so, chatter had tailed off and Auld Lang Syne tailed off into silence. Remus, who's eyes had been closed for the kiss, opened them to see the entire room staring at them

"Sirius..." he said through the kiss, he tried to disconnect "Sirius..." Sirius ignored him again, he shoved him lightly " SIRIUS!" he shoved him a little harder

"What the fuck?" he snapped, Remus guestured to the room full of people watching them

"Oh..."

"HA! I FUCKING KNEW IT!" called James from the middle of the crowd, which he shoved through "I knew it! I knew it! You've been acting funny for months!"

"We are deffinately broken up now Sirius" Snarled Marianne from near where James had been standing

"Oh good lord, how embarassing" Remus heard his Dad groan, he was standing quite near them and had his head in his hands

"Is that your Dad Rem?" snapped Sirius, glaring, poutily but furiously

"Yeah" said Remus shyly

"Oi! Lupin!" he called, his dad looked up through his fingers "What's wrong with you"

"Where do I start?" he said, his face burning red

"Your sons gay, you're going to have to deal with him having a LOVER sometime!" at the mention of the emphsised word, the room began to mutter "Yes, his lover! Well done all for not being deaf"

"I don't have a problem with Remus having a..." he swallowed, Sirius waited for him to finish his sentence "you know... having a... friend... a special friend"

"A boyfriend, Dad" said Remus exasperatedly

"yeah, one of those. I don't have a problem with that. I just don't like it on display infornt of me"

"Well, there were a lot of men and women kissing, you didn't seem to have a problem with them" Sirius advanced on Remus's father. The image of 5 ft 9" Sirius trying to intimidate his 6ft 5" father was, in an odd sort of way, quite funny

"The other couples didn't involve my son!"

"Padfoot, he's got a point, just leave him" Remus was now buring as red as his Dad. Atleast now he knew where he got his blushing problem from

"No Remus!"

"Sirius... please?" Remus pulled his secret weapon, the puppy dog eyes. Instantly the glare on Sirius's face melted into an apologetic smile

"I'm sorry Remus... he shouldn't make like you've done something wrong"

"I know, thak you for sticking up for me"

"love you" said Sirius, pulling Remus into a tight hug

"love you too"

"Awwww!" trilled the party guests. Remus felt himself flushing bright red again, Sirius quickly let go of him. James hopped over to them

"Well? When did this start"

"First full moon in Novemeber"

"Oh" said James knowingly with a cheeky twinge of his eye brows "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"We were't sure how you'd take it" shrugged Remus

"Oh come on! I dealt with your furry little probem pretty spectacularly, didn't I?"

"Yeah... it's a bad reason but... we just weren't sure how to break it to you" said Sirius, losing his balance a bit

"I'd already guessed"

"I know" said Remus "So you're alright with it?"

"Yes stupid" he said, ruffling Remus's hair. He turned to the staring crowd, who awww-ed again "Well! Carry on! It's rude to stare you know!" with that, Charlus Potter clicked his record player back on and the party quickly returned to it's previous merry drunken state.

A/N – I bet you didn't know Sirius Black invented Grinding.