Warning: well... I hardly want to spoil it, it's not too graphic but I'd like to think I've earned my M rating thank you very much.

One of Lily's favourite nights were the nights she had patrols with Severus. With his new "friends" and everything, they hardly got to speak these days. Sometime he made her blush, sometimes he made her smile, sometimes he made her laugh and once or twice he made her cry. Not that she ever did this in front of him.
"Lily..." he began, raising his hand to his hair, but quickly lowering it again. Lily turned and perked her eyebrows.

"Were you going to say something?" she asked. He shrugged.
"The Ball. Are you going?" he asked quietly. She nodded. "With Lupin?"

"Yes." She frowned slightly, knowing Severus had been messing around with Legilimency lately. "How did you know?" She asked. His dark eyes rolled, he sneered.

"He's your friend. You used to fancy him." He shrugged "It makes sense"

"I did not fancy him!" she laughed, only lying a little bit.

"Whatever." He sighed very heavily. And continued his voice cracking mid sentence "Why didn't you ask me first?"

"Well." His cold gaze caught hers. She narrowed her eyes dangerously "I assumed, with your new friends, you wouldn't want to be seen with me" Severus's face relaxed and he almost looked sad. Almost.

"I would never not want to be seen with you"

"Why didn't you ask me then?" she tutted.

"I don't know." He was sneering again "Thought you'd want to go with Loony Loopy Lover boy Lupin"

"Leave him alone Sev. I know you hate James and Sirius even more than I do but Remus isn't that that bad"

"He is! He is!" he spluttered Lily raised her eyebrows sceptically "There's something funny about him! He disappears all the time. Every month! Every full moon! And I've seen them skulking around"

"You're obsessed"

"You're either blind or stupid"

"Puh-lease! You're the blind or – or – or the stupid one Sev! I'd rather have gone with you. Any day I'd rather have gone with you"

*

"Sirius I don't know what to say" Mumbled Remus, plucking at the brand new robes he was wearing. They were gold and a bit loose in some places, but otherwise fit excellently. He smiled at himself in the mirror and couldn't help but feel just a little guilty. They must have been expensive. Very expensive. Sirius grinned and got up off his bed, he rested his chin on Remus's shoulder while he looked at the new robes in the mirror.

"What about thank you?" he suggested "Sirius you're the greatest thing that has ever happened to me? Sirius you have impeccable taste? Erm... Sirius I'll do filthy filthy things as a reward?"

"All of the above... I can't believe this... they must have cost a bomb" he ran his fingers over the soft, impeccably stitched fabric.

"I'm a Black dear Moony, money is no object" Sirius tutted at him.

"Very true... Jesus..." Remus massaged his forehead, as if trying to rid himself of the small frown forming there "I did tell you not to give me your charity"

"If you're that bothered we won't call it charity" said Sirius with a roll of his eyes "we'll call it an early Christmas present"

"How about we call it an early Christmas present and you don't get me anything for the next ten years"

"Sounds fair." He grinned and snaked his arms around Remus's chest "I'll still buy you stuff anyway, but it sounds fair. So you like them then?"

"Yeah! I mean... I don't really wear gold but-"

"They'll bring out your eyes!" piped a half naked James (trousers and shoes, no shirt, jacket or waist coat or robes or whatever James had decided to wear) in a horrible girly squeak. Sirius scowled, let go of Remus and threw a nearby balled up pair of socks at him.

"Shut it you! We were having a nice moment there!"

"Yeah and your nice moment is in our shared room, so I'll say what I like." James mussed his hair as he knocked Sirius and Remus out of the way of the mirror. He twisted at a strange angle and examined himself
"Remus, you should know these things, how does my arse look in these trousers?"

"So much tact and subtlety" Remus rolled his eyes and sighed "It looks fine"

"Just fine?"

"It looks lovely"

"Excellent. I want Evans to know what she's missing" James mussed his hair again and went to put his shirt and robes on

"I don't think Evans will care mate, but please yourself." Sirius laughed. He then scowled at the bathroom door "How fucking long does Wormtail want to spend in there?"

"All night apparently" muttered James as he tugged on his shirt "But it's only you who hasn't showered yet so" James shrugged "Who cares?"

"I do!" snapped Sirius

"You'll get over it" James rolled his eyes and pulled on a jacket. Beginning to fasten an unnecessarily complex knot in his navy blue tie, which matched the rest of his outfit. Peter emerged from the bathroom fully dressed, his hair arranged into an awkward, ridiculous looking quiff.

"About bloody time" moaned Sirius, scooping up his robes and banging into the bathroom.

"Well?" said Peter expectantly. Expectantly at Remus, who rolled his eyes.

"You look very nice Peter. I'm sure Kate will be very impressed" Peter beamed and turned to James, the same expectant look on his face. James cocked a brow and gave a tentative thumbs up.

A moment later Sirius banged back through the bathroom door, his hair slightly glossier than usual, in his, bordering on obnoxious, bright red robes, tight fit on his torso and billowing toward the bottom over his tailored black trousers and expensive looking dragon hide shoes.

"I'll assume I look good from that look on your face, Moony" Smirked Sirius. Remus blushed.

*

Lily and Alice were already in the common room by the time they got down. Lily looked disgustingly pretty in a short green dress made out of a kind of silky floaty material, the hair on her face pulled back and the rest of it hanging long and full down her back. Alice was stood next to her, looking a bit wistful, in a longer scarlet dress, her dark hair back in a loose elegant bun, a few loose curls hanging down around her face. Her face twisted in a combination of annoyance and mild amusement when she saw Sirius.

"Jesus Christ. We match." She slapped her hands over her eyes "You could have warned me you'd be wearing red. I have a blue dress with me I could have worn instead, you know!"

"You'll get over it love. And may I remark on how ravishing the colour looks on you? Even if it does match me?" Sirius said with a smile, taking her hand and kissing it. She blushed.

"Sod off... And thank you" Sirius began what seemed like an almost pre-prepared speech on how nice Alice looked and Remus pretended not to be just a little bit jealous. He instead walked over to Lily and grinned
"You look... gorgeous, Lily"

"thanks... you look nice too" she smiled "Gold? I'd never guessed you'd wear gold... it's nice to see you in colour though. Brings out your eyes" she said affectionately.

"Thanks... same with that green dress on you really... you do look really lovely, Lily"

"Thank you... I think it's too short to be honest..." she tugged at the bottom of her dress. Remus shrugged

"James doesn't thinks so" he smirked pointing at James, whose jaw had been on the floor since they had entered the common room. Peter was stood next to him giving Alice a longing stare. Sirius sniggered and called

"Put your tongue away James! It's rude to stare, never mind staring and dribbling" and James scowled and ruffled his hair

"I'm only staring because the four of you look like giant fucking Christmas decorations" The boys, especially Peter laughed hard, Alice sniggered and Lily frowned at James and tugged at her dress again. Lily patted Remus on the arm and said quietly.

"Can we go, please?" she asked with a bit of a desperate look on her face, like James's very presence caused her pain. Remus thought a moment.

"Um... Sirius, Alice? Do you want to go? Now?" he asked them. Alice and Sirius exchanged a glance.

"I don't want to leave without James" shrugged Sirius "Oh, and Peter, I suppose"

"I'm not bloody well leaving without my date" sighed Alice. Remus turned to Lily and shrugged apologetically, she gave an impatient smile and rolled her eyes.

Soon Yumiko appeared from the girls dormitories, her hair left loose, she was in a blue floor length dress which had some kind of intricate starry pattern at the bottom and at the centre. She looked hurried and had her shoes in her hands, she jerked her head behind her and snapped

"Move move move!" She ran to the portrait hole ushering them to follow her "I don't want to have to spend the entire evening with my friends! Chloe's just behind me! Come on!" with those last dangerously growled words James smirked and ran after her. Sirius ran after James, Remus after Sirius, Alice and Lily after them and Peter bounding slowly behind.

On the way down to the Great Hall they stopped off outside the Hufflepuff common room, to pick up Peter's date, Kate Finch. She was extremely quiet and quivered and blushed when James shook her hand. She had ditched her usual pig tails in favour of a plait adorned with an ornamental butterfly which matched her cheerful yellow dress. Peter fawned over the girl, who blushed and smiled but didn't take her eyes off James. Who didn't take his eyes off Lily, that is, until Yumiko slapped him and warned

"What did I say about gawking Potter?" she had a playful smile on her face but there was some exasperation in her tone that betrayed the girl knew she was in for a long night of gawking.

They weren't too far from the Great Hall and Lily and Alice were deep in conversation, so Sirius walked next to Remus and whispered softly into his ear

"You really do look great tonight Moony" Remus felt himself flush, Sirius grinned "Especially with that blush" Sirius stopped mid walk and grabbed Remus, letting the group walk a while ahead of them. He put his hand onto Remus's cheek, brushing it with his thumb and lay his forehead against Remus's, their noses touching as well.
"Merlin, I love you" He kissed Remus quickly but deeply on the lips then grinned, grabbing his sleeve and leading him back to the group.

*

"I like your dress Yumiko" said Lily sweetly, ignoring James's beseeching stares.

"You do?" she smiled "I don't. My mum's making me wear it" She brushed her hair behind her ears and tapped James. "Can we dance?" James smiled and they went to the dance floor, near where Peter and Kate had been dancing for the last hour, Peter's face was bright red and his hair was damp with sweat.

Sirius smiled at Remus across the table. The Great Hall had been beautifully decked out with fir tree's decorated with enchanted tinsel, which changed colour every now and then from green to red to blue to gold, and never-melt-icicles hung from every extremity on the walls. The ceiling was showing a raging snow storm, swirling gracefully above them.
Remus had been staring, utterly transfixed by the ceiling when suddenly his head dropped, and his eyes met Sirius's. A positively evil grin spread across Remus's face and Sirius felt something rather soft and sock like slide up his leg, he made a feeble attempt to kick Remus away (it was a very feeble attempt at that) but failed rather miserably and ended up clutching at the table cloth with a werewolf foot pressed against somewhere feet were not intended to be pressed.

"Is everything alright Sirius?" asked Alice

"Hmm!?" He said, painfully aware of how mental he must have look right now. His eyes were wide and he could feel the deep flush flowing on his cheeks.

"Erm... you look a bit... strange" she looked concerned. Remus snorted and crossed his arms.

"Pay no heed to that Alice, he always looks strange"

"Cheeky bastard" mumbled Sirius, fighting the need to squirm and cry out. He sank his teeth into his bottom lip and waited for this to be over.
And just as it was about to all be quite wonderfully, fulfillingly over Remus took his foot away. He took his fucking foot away.

"You know what Lily?" he said brightly "I think we should dance, I like this song" he grinned and she smiled

"Well, alright then" she smiled back and trotted onto the dance floor with Remus. Sirius glared at him.

"Fucker" he muttered under his breath, thanking Merlin that he'd gone for the robes that were loose at the bottom.
"You're not going to want to dance at any point this evening, are you?" he asked Alice

"No..." she sighed "I don't dance... unless you want to?"

"No! No no. Thank Merlin for that" he sighed. He could sit merrily with his hard on all evening without having to worry about stabbing poor Alice on the dance floor. "How's the Frank situation going?"
"There's nowhere for it to go Sirius, he's my teacher" she huffed

"..and?"

"What do you mean and? He could lose his job, I could be expelled" Her eyes were wide and miserable "It's like fucking molestation. He could even get put in prison for fucks sake."

"That's only if he gets caught molesting you though" Sirius winked

"I know that! But it's not like he even wants to molest me"

"True... why don't you seduce him"

"I couldn't"

"I bet you could!"

"No... M'not pretty enough, I..."

"Don't start this Alice. You're gorgeous, you're a hottie and a smoking one at that"

"If I was such a" she made air quotes "a hottie then why don't you fancy me, eh?"

"Because..."

"Because why? Hmm?"

"Because... damn it woman, because I'm gay as a bloody may pole"

"What?"

"You heard me... I'm camp as a row of pink tents. Bent as a nine bob note. Queer as a flock of-"

"Alright enough with the similes, I've got it" she snorted and took a heavy gulp from her pumpkin juice "Fucking hell... you might have crushed the dreams of about sixty poor little girls" she sniggered "And sixty is a fucking understatement" She sniggered again. And Sirius shrugged. "I don't believe it you know... sometimes the universe just doesn't make sense to me. It made Sirius Black a poof and me hopelessly besotted with my Defence against the Dark arts professor."

"Well, I can't say I blame you. Frank is pretty fit" He snorted and she burst out laughing.

"This is so weird! Have you any other startling revelations for me. Since we seem to be getting our secrets out in the open"

"Go on then. You know why I was being weird before?"

"No, why?"

"Because Remus Lupin had his foot on my cock" he trilled. She snorted

"That makes sense" she smirked

"I was perfectly straight before he came along as well"
"Well, maybe if Lupin can seduce you, there's hope for me yet"

"Frank will be happily molesting you before the end of the year. I bet"

"Bollocks. But thanks for the false hope" she grinned "Maybe we should dance"

"How upset would you be if I told you I couldn't because of the foot cock thing I mentioned earlier"

"I..." Her eyes widened and she sniggered again "Oh... gross!"

"It wouldn't be gross if I was Frank"

"Too bloody right it wouldn't" she said in a surprisingly lairy tone with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows.

"Alice Prewett, I am surprised at you! You're from a good respectable pure blood family!"

"So are you!"

"Aah! Touché."

*

"Remus" said Lily as she placed her arm loosely over his shoulders when the song slowed down

"What is is Lily?" he asked taking a light hold of her waist.

"You really are a terrible dancer." She laughed "You know that?"

"Painfully aware of it" he mumbled as he bent his large feet awkwardly to keep himself from treading on her. "sorry"

"I don't care, I was hardly expecting John Travolta"

"Who?"

"Never mind"

*

"Oi, Potter"

"What?"

"You were moping... and gawking actually"

"sorry"

*

After a good half an hour of dancing James, Remus, Lily and Yumiko sat back at the table with Alice and Sirius, who were both giggling madly. Just as Remus was about to ask what was so funny, Samantha Bradley, the Gryffindor keeper, came over and gave the announcement of a piss up being held in the Common Room after the Ball.

"That should be fun" James grinned. There was a happy murmur of agreement

"I don't imagine any of your parents would be happy with you all coming home hung over" said Lily with frown. Sirius tutted at her.

"Don't be such a wet blanket Evans"

"I am not a wet Blanket" she tapped her foot defiantly

"Yeah you fucking are" laughed James

"Alice! Back me up here!"

"Lily..." Alice said tentatively "you do have some wet blankety tendencies"

"Just because I don't want to get drunk with the rest of you, that makes me a wet blanket"

"Well... yeah, it does a bit... it's Christmas. Lighten up!" Grinned Yumiko, Lily sighed.

"Maybe... I'm going to go and say hello to Valerie"

"Oh I'll come as well" piped Alice getting up and trotting after Lily with a smile. Yumiko slumped down against the table and pushed her hand through her hair, looking miserably at James as he stared longingly at Lily. Remus gave him a stiff kick underneath the table and he opened his mouth to protest, Remus glared and pointed his gaze at Yumiko. James sighed in understanding.

"You look beautiful Cheng... I haven't said so yet. But you do"

"Thank you"

"Do you want to go and dance again?"

"Erm... yeah okay. I'd like that"

"And no more gawking at any one other than you. I promise."

"That's what I like to hear" He took her hand and they went back out to the dance floor. And suddenly it was on Sirius and Remus left. Sirius leaned across the table and hissed at him

"You bastard"

"Why, whatever are you talking about Sirius?" he said innocently. Sirius narrowed his eyes

"Remus Lupin, you are the devil himself"

"Again Sirius, you must elaborate for I am quite unaware of what you're talking about" Remus raised his goblet of Pumpkin juice to his mouth to try and disguise his grin

"I'm talking about you and your bloody half finished... foot... jobs" Sirius pouted. Remus snorted at him

"Foot jobs! Brilliant"

"So... are you going to finish what you started?"

"Well... it would be nice if I did... but it would be far funnier if I didn't"

"If you take the funny option, I'll... beat you to death with your own shoes!"

"I'd like to see you try" sung Remus. Sirius looked desperately back and forth

"Look... there's what... half an hour, forty five minutes left before we go back to the common room. What do you say you and me get out of here?" Sirius grinned. Remus's first thoughts were shouldn't we warn James? We should tell Lily and Alice certainly. Will Lily be upset if I just go? But his second thoughts spoke in a louder voice, that over rode the others

Fuck James, fuck Alice and fuck Lily. Fuck that bitch right in the ear.

He was shocked at his own thoughts. And it suddenly dawned on him how near it was too the full moon.

"Let's go"

*

They hit Sirius's bed with a loud creak of springs and the sound of lips and clothes and soft moans. The robes, the shirts, the trousers, the boxers hit the floor with the quietest flop of fabric on carpet.

"You ready?" Remus asked, sitting on Sirius's chest. Gasping and hard and completely beautiful.

"For what?" Sirius asked dumbly

"What d'you think?" said Remus, with the ghost of a smirk on his face, panting, sounding breathy and hoarse. The light bulb of realisation lighting up in his head, he nodded. Slowly but surely, Remus nodded back. He leant over to grab his wand, muttering some incoherent spell on himself, then on Sirius, as he tugged the hangings shut around the bed. The light is faint and tinged red by the hangings drawn around them, intensifying the scarlet on Remus's cheeks. He spread Sirius's leg, resting his ankles on his shoulders, he smiled shyly and whispered

"This'll hurt... I'll be gentle, but it will hurt" He pressed his fingers against Sirius's entrance. He bent down and spoke so softly into Sirius's ear, his tongue drifting over the lobe as he did. "And you need to relax" and soon the fingers were replaced by something far wider and harder and clumsier. Sirius gasped and squirmed as he stretched and burned. Remus worked himself inside Sirius, distracting the him from the pain with affectionate kisses and touches on his face and lips and torso, murmuring declarations of love and reassurances and giving a hundred more kisses and light touches in the process. Once he was fully inside, they stayed still for a moment, panting, Sirius gradually getting used to the foreign uncomfortable feeling.

"You okay for me to move?" Remus asked gently. Sirius gave a little whine but nodded. "You sure? We can stop... we can try again another time if-"

"No! Please... just move" Sirius asked, trying to remove that whine still present in his voice. It hurt, but he was still painfully hard. He wanted Remus to move. He needed him to move. Remus slid back and gave a slow gentle thrust and another, gradually picking up speed. And soon the pain was overshadowed by pleasure, and they moved together. Remus hit a spot inside Sirius that caused his hips to buck. He lurched forward and groaned, electricity shooting all the way through him. Remus hit that spot again straight after and his hips bucked violently, he whimpered, he was close. Remus's breathing became unpredictable and his thrusts erratic, but he hit the right spot again, sending Sirius flying over the edge. His entire body convulsed as he came, his torso lurching forward and he called Remus's name breathlessly. A few more erratic thrusts later and Remus was finished too. Moaning loudly as he collapsed down onto Sirius.
He moaned again, pulled out and rolled so he flopped down beside Sirius panting. Sirius grabbed Remus's arm and pulled it around him. His eyes heavy, every muscle in his body feeling achy and stretched, but incredibly sated all the same. Remus buried his face into Sirius's hair, muttering a final declaration of love, before the two of them fell asleep.

A/N: Well it took me long enough but we finally got there, yay!
Reviews are wonderful wonderful things that make desperate writers very very happy!

Thanks for all the reviewage and general readage and favouritage last time!

Yay exclamation marks!