A/N Hullo. Thanks to all who are still reading and a SPECIAL thanks to those of you who were awesome enough to REVIEW! :D So I'm trying to keep up the momentum so I can write as much as possible before I'm off to camp in, like, a week and a half. So yeah. Wish me luck on that. Now on with the show!

Btw, I wrote that before camp. I started writing this a month ago. Pathetic.

Chapter Four: In Which Sirius Feels Man-Pain.

That morning was a Monday morning. Meaning school.

Remus awoke early, as was usual once he had recovered from his post-moon fatigue, and smiled fondly at the dog who was curled up against him. Deciding not to wake him, he left a note.

"Midnight, my pet,

we're off to class (as some people still have to attend). Peter'll bring you lunch sometime during lunch block. James has a free in the afternoon so he'll come check in on you. I would during my morning free, but I have a meeting with Prof. Binns about an assignment. See you later, and do attempt not to shred any more of my socks.

-Moony

PS Yes, I know that was you!"

After taping that securely to the snoozing dog's nose, he rose and left with the other two.

The day them proceeded as follows:

In the morning, Remus, Peter and James all shared a double potions, in which Remus exploded a cauldron. This was not unheard of, as Potions was essentially the only class at which Remus didn't excel, but Remus liked to think he had cut back since his second year, so that it almost never occurred those days. James laughed hysterically. Peter did not, as most of the failed attempt at whatever sort of potion it was had ended up soundly in his lap. Lily had been kind enough to give Remus some tips on the second try, but had stalked back to her table after an interesting encounter with James' wandering hands, leaving the boy with snapped glasses.

After that, they had a History of Magic class that was, unsurprisingly, completely and utterly uneventful in every possible ways. Somehow Remus managed to take notes on whatever it was that wasn't going on.

Then they walked to lunch, and, true to their words, Peter was sent back early to feed the dog before Herbology.

"Midnight! Here boy!" cooed Peter as he entered, his arms laden with chicken and some cake. "Oh! Sorry, boy! This isn't for you!" he said, jerking the cake he had been holding out deliberately away from Sirius. "No chocolate for dogs!"

"Arf!" which meant something along the lines of 'touché' or 'well played, good sir.'

"Here, have some chicken, I've gotta get to class," said Peter. "Ta!" he shouted as he shoved the extra cake into his own mouth and ran out the door.

Sirius spent the entire time until James' visit eating the chicken and gnawing on the bone.

"Sirius!" shouted James when that time came. "Hullo," he said with a little smile upon seeing his best friend. Sirius had brought him the remnants of the bone, which James refused to take. He just stood and looked down amused at his friend.

"Just because you're a dog doesn't mean you need to act like one." Sirius barked and jumped up and licked him. "Oh right, I forgot. You act like one anyway. Thank you for reminding me," said James, scratching his ears. "I figured what with your boyfriend being busy in class all day someone should remember to stop by and remind you that you're human."

"Grrrrr," grumbled Sirius at the 'boyfriend' comment. He was very defensive about Remus and most comments from James concerning him.

"Down boy," said James, still with his classic, somewhat-goofy grin.

Sirius gave a last, grumpy grunt, but calmed himself nonetheless.

"So how was your morning," said James, settling down upon Remus' bed, as he saw no reason to let Sirius shed on his own if there was already a designated dog bed. Sure enough, Sirius padded over and leapt up beside him in a place that was surely soon to be covered with fur.

Sirius then made a gesture that a lesser being may not have recognized as a shrug. James got it, however, and responded accordingly. "Yeah, I guess being a dog would be rather dull. At least in here," he glanced around. "Looking forward to spending some time with Rem, though?" asked James, and Sirius knew from the expression that he was not poking fun. James was a prat, but he cared for his friends.

Sirius nodded.

"I really thinks he likes you, you know," said James. He had never told Sirius this before. "I just don't know if he's fully understood that yet. He get's super jealous of your girlfriends, that's for sure. I'd give him a bit of time, but I think you should tell him soon. I don't think Remus will make the first move. So if he doesn't seem to like you, don't let it get to you. There's always the chance that I'm wrong, but you see, he thinks you're straight. And Remus is the type to sacrifice everything of his own for the happiness of a friend. He wouldn't tell you if he thought there was no chance of you returning the feelings, and lets face it, sexual orientation issues aside, Remus hasn't got the highest self-esteem ever." It was the longest talk James had ever had with Sirius about his love for Remus, and he felt like he had finally said all he had to say. He hadn't wanted to share his theories on Remus' feelings, but Sirius really looked like he needed help on this one.

When Sirius grunted in reply, James knew that he had wasted his breath. Sirius would deny the obvious till the death if it meant not having to put himself out there. In matters of love—as opposed to the somewhat more physical or casual feelings of affection he had for his previous girlfriends—Sirius had none of the usual confidence that defined his actions in almost every other area of life. It was on the idea of close relationships that Sirius' family had scarred him most. They shouldered the blame for why any crush Sirius felt strongly about went unmentioned, any romantic relationship going to far emotionally was casually cast aside, any friendships were superficial and playful, all lacking serious emotional attachment and why family was a concept Sirius declined altogether. The Marauders were the only three that understood this; the only three that had broken through his light-hearted, casual façade into the deeper, amazing person he actually was.

"Be that way," said James, who hadn't really expected him not to be that way in the first place. He heaved a sigh and just stroked Sirius' head absent mindedly. After a while, James spoke. "So you missed an amazing History of Magic class," said James, to which Sirius made a noise that was clearly a scoff. "No, I'm serious," to which Sirius longed to reply 'no, I am!' "Catharine and Jordan invented a game. So basically they had to flick things through Binns and each person had to flick something the same size or bigger and the person to actually make him stop talking or react lost. Good in theory, right?" Sirius made an enthusiastic noise of ascent, thoroughly amused at the idea of such a brilliant game. "Yeah, so you know how that chalk board looks as old as Binns himself?" yes. "yeah, well Jordan finally matched Catharine's old broken ink well with an apple and the whole board collapsed!" Sirius barked in an obvious laugh. "And wait, wait" said James, also cracking up now. "This is the best part: Binns kept talking!" and with that, they both collapsed into peels of laughter, breaking only for air or for James to mock the old ghost's droning voice.

Sooner than the two would have liked, James' free was over and he had to get back to class.

This left Sirius alone and, free from the distraction of more light-hearted conversation, Sirius' mind drifted back to and stubbornly dwelled upon James' earlier comments.

James is a moron. There's no way Remus likes me. He's never shown interest in me… he's never shown interest in blokes… come to think of it, he's never shown interest in anyone. Probably felt it though… he doesn't like to let his emotions show much… but seriously, why would Remus like me? I'm just…. I'm…. I betrayed his biggest secret in life to the biggest git alive, I'm from a rubbish, pure-blood family that persecutes him for everything in life he can't help but be, I'm not as hard working or amazing or beautiful as him… I've got nothing. He's too good for me…

Considering Sirius had the highest self-esteem known to man, he could really be harsh on himself when he wanted to be. It just took a lot.

Having settled once more on the fact that James was imagining things and Remus would never like him, Sirius eased his mind with a nap.

He awoke what must've been much later, as he was greeted, and most likely awoken in the first place, by the scent of left-over chicken. Having his sense of smell enhanced, he recognized it before it entered to room, and therefore was waiting to pounce on whoever was holding it when they came through the door.

Remus, as it turns out, was the bearer of food, and consequentially ended up on the ground in no time, his hands instantly relieved of their burden, minus the napkin, which it seems Sirius had been gracious enough to leave behind along with the task of disposing of it.

Sirius' night was filled with debriefing of missed material, courtesy of Remus, actually making a decent attempt at helping with homework, given how tired Remus looked, but ending up being forced to some extent to let his friend do it for him, and gnawing on a chicken bone. He and Peter hung out a bit, but perhaps it was a testament to Sirius and Peter not being the closest of the four that Peter found it not dull, perhaps, but more trying on his patience to converse with a dog than the other two had, and vice versa.

He finished the night much like the previous two, with climbing into Remus' bed, snuggling against him and hearing the words of Charles Dickens spoken to him until he felt asleep.

The following day, much to Sirius' displeasure, he was left alone yet again. It passed, in fact, much the same, only that day he received a visit from Remus and James, and none from Peter. The pair entered at 1, arms laden with scraps of lunch for their friend, and stayed for just over an hour.

"So Midnight, how've you been entertaining yourself this morning while we suffered through potions?" asked Remus, watching from his perch on his bed as Sirius devoured the remnants of a pb&j with relish. In answer, Sirius rose from his spot and dragged out what looked like something that had most probably once been a tie belonging to Remus. As it was a generic Gryffindor tie, there was no actual proof of this, but the fact that Sirius seemed to take such amusement in presenting the scrap to Remus seemed to be a hint.

"Charming," said Remus, rolling his eyes to the sound of James' suppressed snickers. Not in the least amused, he merely pointed his wand casually at the ex-tie and muttered 'repair,' and watching as it attempted and mostly failed to stitch itself back together. Sighing, he chucked the lost cause into the bin and shook his head at Sirius, who was still looking rather pleased with himself.

"Done anything useful?" prompted James, still smirking at Remus' exasperation.

Sirius blinked at him. Though he had occupied his time with more than just clothing-destroying, he couldn't classify it as useful. James didn't expect him to and he knew it.

"Ah Padfoot. Didn't spend all morning lying in Remus' bed pining for him again, did you? Tsk tsk tsk…" said James in a pitying voice. Sirius growled at him suddenly, and then stopped himself. He knew as a human his panic might've translated into something more subtle, but as an animal it all seemed much more obvious and suspiciously defensive. Remus, thank god, hadn't seemed to notice anything strange, as a certain amount of, for a lack of (want for) a better word, joking homoeroticism was not terribly uncommon amongst the Marauders. They were always making comments like James' and apparently Remus hadn't paid enough attention to catch onto a change in reaction.

"That was a yes," said James, and Remus smirked a bit too, still not taking it seriously. Sirius wanted a way to send the "I'm gonna kill you" message to James without confirming that, in fact, he had spent some of the morning doing just that. It wasn't his fault his dog nose could smell Remus' scent perfectly when he lay tangled in his sheets and that he found that completely irresistible.

"Aw, don't worry, Sir," cooed Remus, sounding more Jamesy than Remusish. "You'll have me tomorrow. You get to roam free tomorrow. I'll even let you wander the grounds while we're all in class, okay?" he put on an adorable face and pinched Sirius' cheeks while Sirius made a noise of excitement.

"It actually does sound kinda wicked," said James, after suppressing a snicker at how much Sirius was enjoying being pet by Remus. "I mean, no classes, you can go wherever you want, you're a dog. I mean, being an indoor dog is boring, sure, but now you can go wherever you want! You can go play with Hagrid and Claw! They'd love you!" continued James. Though he knew it was a serious suggestion, Sirius grimaced with distaste at the idea. It was not so much Hagrid Sirius feared as Claw, his aptly named bloodhound who was widely known for scratching indiscriminately, be the victim dead or alive. He was also rather large, slobbery and not fixed, a thought that concerned Sirius. Mind you, Sirius wasn't either, but that was a whole different set of circumstances surrounding that issue. In fact, as the thought occurred to him, Sirius promised himself, with a sudden pang of disgust, never to refer to the neutering of pets as 'fixing' them. Who even started that?

Disgust aside, Sirius had his doubts about how fun the company of Claw would be, but he knew he would probably end up in his neck of the woods eventually and should probably just get it over with soon and of his own will.

Soon afterwards, Sirius once again found himself deprived of company, and therefore opted to doze off on Remus bed once more, inhaling deeply as he did so. When he awoke, he realized that he must've slept far longer than anticipated, as it was dark and there was someone beside him. He craned his dog neck as best he could without disturbing who he assumed must be Remus. He wasn't sure if it was because of his tendency to fall asleep first or if tonight was different, but Sirius felt his heart skip a beat as he looked down on Remus, his hair a mess and his scars shining in the moonlight, with his arms draped protectively and possessively around his black furry body. Sirius could smell that Remus had left out dinner for him, but he found that he didn't want it. He just wanted to fall asleep to the sight of Remus undisturbed as he was just at that moment in time.

A/N so he didn't exactly spend the whole time angsting, but I did elaborate a bit on the self esteem issues deep under the extremely cocky exterior. Sorry I took so long. Super busy. But I'll try to be quicker. Anyway, review, alert, favorite, read my other stuff… you know the drill. Catch ya later. xoxoxo