As Summer Should Be

Life at Potter Manor was almost exactly like Remus had imagined it would be.

Mrs Potter - whom he still referred to as such, despite her insistences that he call her Arianne - seemed to spend all day in the kitchen. She prepared them four full meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, the table stacked so full it rivalled the Hogwarts elves work. Between said meals, she was constantly plying them with baked treats and pastries. She seemed to have made it her personal goal to fatten Remus up as much as possible in the weeks before they went back to school.

Mr Potter - same story, different name - was James' complete opposite, despite the striking similarities in looks. He was a very calm, quiet man, who spend most of his time off work shut up in his library. He had a fascination with Muggle objects and customs, and often asked Remus to explain something he didn't quite understand about the Muggle world. He was also a very well read man, and Remus decided he like him rather a lot.

Remus spent a lot of his time in the vast library. Mr Potter had shown him around it on the evening of his first day there, much to James displeasure and protestations, ' I've never been allowed in there!' to which Mr Potter simply replied, ' You've never shown an interest in books.' There really wasn't any arguing with that statement, and James had taken Sirius into the living room and promptly set something alight. No doubt in retaliation.

This bookishness, however, was only allowed in the evening though, and nights when he couldn't sleep. Through the days, James and Sirius made sure he barely had time to sit down. It was rather exhausting, but he had to admit it was a lot of fun.

On his second day - because the first was spent sleeping and eating - they had explored the gardens, which were ridiculously vast. It was a maze of random shrubs Remus couldn't name and flowers so bright they blinded him when they caught the sun just right. Halfway down, once hidden by the plants, Sirius had transformed and thoroughly enjoyed jumping out of bushes at an unsuspecting James.

When they eventually reached the bottom of the garden, they had struggled through the boundary hedge and found themselves of the bank of the river passing through the town. Or a branch of it, at least. Complete with what was, essentially, their own private beach. They had returned the day after and spent the afternoon trying to catch fish, which was a remarkably spectacular failure.

The day after that, Sirius had declared that they should have a bonfire when Peter arrived. They had trekked to the woods down the river and gathered wood to Muggle way, seeing as how they were all still underage. It had taken a lot longer than it should have, with a significant amount of jumping out at one another and hollering 'BOO', resulting in a lot of dropped twigs.

By the time Peter had actually arrived, they had the little beach set up like a proper, if downsized, campsite. The wood was set up as neatly as Sirius could manage, surrounded by a ring of stones on Remus' advice. James had borrowed a tent from his dad, and set it up by hand - which Sirius had found hilarious, and Remus had to admit was rather funny to witness.

After a few awkward glances at Sirius, and Remus' nose, Peter settled into the relaxed atmosphere. James snuck out a bottle of Fire-whiskey and Mrs Potter had packed them a picnic supper and they spent the afternoon laughing and joking, then the evening drinking and talking and laughing some more.

It could have been considered a little childish, Remus thought, for four sixteen year olds to be giggling around something they had set on fire. But it wasn't. It was fun and carefree and almost normal. And he was thoroughly glad of it.

Things were only going to get harder for them. The war was still going on all around them, getting worse by the month. Reports on Muggle television of 'sudden, unexplained gas leaks' were becoming dangerously frequent, and everyone in the wizarding world knew there was only one spell that killed you without leaving a mark.

The ministry were keeping it quiet though, and who could really blame them? They were losing. Remus couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before they - the next generation - were pulled into the fight.

Remus was pulled back to reality when a very drunk black-haired boy fell into his lap.

' Wotcher, Moony!'

' Prongs. Is there a reason you're sat on my knee?'

' You were thinking again!'

' Yes,' he replied, dryly. ' I tend to do that.'

' Well, one of us has to, eh!' James hiccoughed.

' Quite,' Remus agreed.

As if to prove the point, Peter bellowed what can only be described as a battle cry and hurled himself into the stream, which was, thankfully, not very fast-flowing.

' I think I should probably do something about that,' James mumbled and he staggered to his feet and wobbled down the sandy incline.

Remus watched in silence as James balanced precariously on the bank of the river. He was talking to Peter, hands gesticulating sickeningly quickly. He teetered dangerously for a second, before pitching into the water. Remus wondered if he should get them out before one of them drowned.

' Water isn't that deep, they'll be fine.'

Remus jumped as Sirius sat beside him. He was clearly in a better state than the other two boys, and had moved almost silently.

' I suppose that's why we call you Padfoot,' Remus muttered. ' Sneaky bastard.'

' No,' he laughed. ' You know it isn't. Maybe it should be though.'

A comfortable silence fell between them as they both watched the boys frolicking in the water. That was another thing Remus was glad of. Whatever was going on between them, it hadn't made things too weird.

He wasn't sure what it was, exactly, but there was something there. They hadn't talked about the kiss, which was good because he really wouldn't know what to say. But there were moments. On more than one occasion, he had caught himself staring at Sirius' lips when he talked. And he had nearly broken his ankle tripping over the stones they had set around the fire, because he was too busy watching Sirius bend over to pick up the sticks.

Okay, admittedly, that one was a bit weird. But it wasn't at all one sided. Sometimes he could practically feel those grey eyes burning into the back of his head. But at the same time Sirius, who had always been a very touchy-feely sort of a person, hadn't so much as prodded him since that first day here. It was all very confusing.

He supposed it was because they were friends that this was so complicated. Neither of them wanted to do something that could ruin that friendship, ruin the Marauders. Then again, he could be completely wrong. He didn't actually have any idea what Sirius made of the whole thing. He could perfectly well be imagining it all.

Remus glanced at the darker boy and found him gazing thoughtfully into the fire. It was a peculiar look, not often seen on that handsome face. Not wanting to interrupt whatever was going through his head, Remus just looked at him.

He had changed since he had left home. Some of it was obvious. He was wearing Muggle clothes now, something he had never done before. James had said this was because he left home without any clothes with him, but Remus wasn't so sure. It seemed to him like Sirius was trying to be exactly the opposite of what he had been with that family. So instead of expensive wiizards robes of rich materials, he was sat in cheap denim jeans and a very nicely fitting cotton t-shirt. He had also taken to wearing - after seeing some Muggles in the town in them - Doc. Marten boots and, bizarrely, a dog collar.

Remus hadn't asked, and didn't ever plan to.

But there were other changes too. Smaller ones, more subtle. He sat up straighter. It was an odd observation, Remus was perfectly aware, but not untrue. Sirius definitely wasn't slouching as much. Even now, knees drawn up and his elbows resting on them, gazing into the flames, his back was straight. It might have been pride, Remus thought.

It was entirely deserved, of course. It was easy to hate people you don't really know, people like Snape, who you never exchanged two words with. But to hate the people you know you're supposed to love, your family, the people you grew up with. As much dislike as there was there, it can't have been easy to turn his back on that completely.

' You lot are my family, you know,' Sirius said quietly, not looking away from the bonfire.

Remus fleetingly wondered if his thoughts were really that loud, and tilted his head towards the other boy.

' Not them. They haven't been for a long time.'

' I'm glad you got out,' Remus said, without thinking about it.

' Me too,' Sirius said. ' It took me five years, five summers, to build up the courage, and I finally did. Best thing I've ever done.'

Definitely pride, Remus thought, smiling. He turned back to the splashing, giggling figures of James and Peter in the water, idly playing with the sand between his fingers. He jumped a little when something warm touched his skin, and looked down to find Sirius' hand on his.

' Well,' he said, still looking resolutely at the fire. ' Second best.'

Aw! I needed a fluffy chapter, so here you go. Yay for twenty chapters!

All my best friends are boys and we did stupid stuff like this when we were 16. We once got locked into a Cemetery. Rather interesting night, I'll tell you.

Thank you again to all my reviewers! Hooray for 50 reviews! That's rather amazing.

And to Azlarok Tolkien, all I could think when I read your review was Whoa… Hah hah! So, err, Thanks? I think.

Thank you for reading, once again! Danke Shern!

AUTHORS NOTE! I have taken down chapter 21! I was ill and half asleep when I proofed it and posted it, save to say that is never a good idea. I re-read it, and really wasn't happy. So it is gone, and I will fix it soon! Sorry!