Next morning, Tuesday, Sirius watched Peter stumble out of bed searching with puffy sleep deprived eyes for his clothes which always ended up scattered around the floor.
Sirius had recently been folding his own clothes and picking up after himself.
So it annoyed him.
Moony hated living in a mess, so would it really have killed Peter to not leave his things all over?
Sirius let his eyes trace the door, waiting for Remus to come out of the bathroom so that he could go in. Then his gaze slipped to the slim red book lying next to his wand on the nightstand.
Sirius rubbed his temples feeling his chest tighten painfully.
"Where's James?" Peter asked snapping Sirius out of the trance like state.
"Dunno. Was already out when I woke up." He answered shrugging.
"Weird."Peter mumbled back.
And it was. Usually they would have to drag James out of bed by force on weekdays.
And, speak of the devil, James came in, fresh and clean with his uniform in perfect condition and a sullen look on his face.
"You're up mighty early." Peter commented.
"Yeah, when did you wake up anyway?" Sirius added, combing his messy hair with his fingers, trying to get it to lie at least half down.
"Six. Okay, five maybe." James muttered flatly walking over to his bedside table and starting to sort through the textbooks and papers.
There were not many things that could keep James up at night to Sirius knowledge.
Actually there were just a select few. Moony, pranks, and Evans.
Moony and pranks were not it today.
"This about Evans?" Sirius asked.
James stopped, dropped his head down and sighed.
Yes. Evans.
Sirius observed his friend and felt bad for him. Usually they would play everything off. Brush it aside with a joke or two. Lately neither Sirius nor James could.
Not because something was broken between them. It was just that before at least one of them would genuinely be in a good mood and pull the other along.
This here, the air vibrating with weight which seemed to caving in on them, making their knees buckle, was not something either of them knew how to deal with.
"I don't really want to talk about it." James hummed.
"Look, it'll be fine. Just do what Moony says and-" Sirius responded trying to calm James.
"And what if that doesn't work. I can't. I can't do it simply and with a serious expression. That way a rejection would not feel like a joke either." James whispered under his breath.
And Sirius wanted to offer some kind of advice or maybe even a solution. But he couldn't.
The tightness in his chest squeezed harder as he realised that he was not in the position to tell others what to do.
"James-"He said slowly.
"Don't push it, okay?" James didn't let him finish and maybe it was for the better as he didn't know what he was about to say. "Don't push me or I'll start asking you about your sudden interest in poetry." Prongs hummed and looked up with a hint of a teasing smirk.
Sirius felt his cheeks begin to flame.
"Muggle-"
"-Studies are doing muggle machinery at the moment." James responded.
Sirius sat there with his jaw agape, silently imitating a fish looking for a reasonable excuse.
Unfortunately, Remus chose that moment to walk out of the bathroom, clean shaven in his white undershirt and uniform pants, all wiry muscled arms and ruffled golden hair, looking like rainy Sunday mornings, cosy fireplace warmth and sex dreams.
"All yours." He nodded at Sirius with a small friendly smile.
And Sirius snapped his mouth shut repeating to himself like a mantra.
Not what he meant. No, not mine. Not mine. Not mine.
He clenched his jaw and bit the inside of his cheek.
"Yeah, thanks." Sirius mumbled and slinked into the bathroom not meeting James' eyes and doing his best not to let his gaze stray to Moony.
"You okay, James?" Remus asked watching him push food around the plate at breakfast.
"Uh-huh." James grunted.
"It's not because I refused to help you with your plan?" Remus tilted his head frowning.
"Nah. I'm 'ait." James shook his head.
But Remus knew James wasn't "'ait", speaking of which neither was Sirius, currently chewing a piece of toast slowly staring at the table as if it had the answers to the universe.
"You sure?" Remus asked James bringing his eyes back.
"Yeah." James nodded not even looking at him.
Oh, great.
Well, at the very least Peter was just fine munching scrambled eggs with healthy ardour and love in his eyes.
Remus decided that he needed to talk to Lily. He had once promised himself not to intervene but this was getting ridiculous. James was not shovelling food into his mouth- the end was near.
Remus also felt an uneasy lump in his throat when he looked at Sirius.
The questions that pushed one another around all wanting to come out at the same time were shoved right back by the weird feeling that this conversation with Sirius was better left until later when he managed to get the bloke alone.
Instead Remus just pushed a cup of tea towards him and gave him a small reassuring smile.
He was met with averted eyes and the lump in his throat got bigger.
A great sunny day this was shaping up to be.
Lily was sitting in the library at the desk after the classes were over minding her own business.
She really was.
When in stormed Remus with a determined look in his eyes and stopped right in front of her, simply staring.
She stared back, unsure if in the cases of sudden staring ambush one says hello or if the etiquette was different.
"We're talking about James." Remus said finally and sat down, crossing his arms over his chest.
Lily felt her eyebrows rise.
"What has he done this time?" She grumbled.
"Nothing. We're talking about James." Remus repeated this time adding much more meaning to his friend's name.
"Okay?" Lily responded slightly confused.
"You and I are going to have this conversation and you don't have anywhere to run. I cornering you. Do I make myself clear?" Remus said his eyes flashing with warning. And Lily thought that interrogation might just be a possible career path for him.
"Uh. Okay, I guess." She responded putting her quill down to the side. Was it bad that she wanted to flee?
"Good." Remus nodded. "Do you like him?"
Lily almost choked. No sugar coating apparently.
She tried to compose herself under the fiery stare that Remus was examining her with.
"Uh...um...you know how it is with him." She hummed hesitantly.
"How is it with him?" Remus pressed his lips into a line.
"He's... well he's Potter, Remus, what do you expect me to say?" Lily grumbled slightly aggravated.
"So you...like him?" Remus tried carefully.
Oh, Merlin, why did boys never take a hint?
"No...he's just...annoying. Pompous. Craves attention." Lily sighed.
"Right." Remus replied simply and looked up at the ceiling solemnly. "So you dislike him?" he asked after some time.
"Well, no-" Lily answered all too quickly and stopped herself. "Look, I have no feelings for Potter. None. Whatsoever. He's not as annoying as he was last year and I'm glad. Good for him."
Remus brought his gaze back to her eyes. He had this penetrating type of stare that made her think that he could see every little part of her, even the dark corners of her she herself wasn't too familiar with.
Remus Lupin could be mighty scary sometimes. In a calm inconspicuous way.
"Okay, then." He nodded. "I see."
But Lily had a feeling this was not over.
Or maybe some little part of her didn't want it to be over, because she felt like she just did something very wrong.
Why? No idea in the slightest.
"Alright then, Lily. Alright." Remus repeated more to himself than to her. "I want you to think it over again."
"I told you I want nothing to do with-"
"And that would be perfectly fine." Remus nodded interrupting her and his soothing baritone was driving her crazy for some odd reason. "But I want to make one thing clear to you. A few more times at most. He's going to try a few more times. But even James can only take that many blows and he will stop."
Lily gulped unsure of why she felt like a child being scolded. This was just Remus.
"And then you will leave school and move on. Both of you. He might not like the idea now, but he will meet someone, who will see him for the warm kind-hearted person that he actually is when you take away all the mischief and the theatrics," Remus smiled softly his voice ringing with indulgence and affection. "And he will forget you. He will realise that he did all he could and he will forget you. A fond memory of that girl he used to fancy back in his school days. That is what you will be."
Lily shifted in her chair, feeling that it was suddenly very uncomfortable somehow. The library air felt suffocating and cold.
"And because I want him to be happy, I think that if you really don't like him you need to talk to him right now. So that he can start moving on. On the other hand, and I'm saying this because I care about you too, if there's even a sliver of affection in there somewhere," Remus gestured vaguely in her direction. "You need to stop denying it and pushing and pulling him just because he always bounces back. No more snogging other blokes, no more nose-in-the-air-I-don't-even-see-you attitude, no more 'oh, how I hate Potter'. You are hurting one hell of an amazing person, which would be reasonable if you didn't like him, since you then wouldn't owe him anything. But if you do like him, Lily, this is your heads up- you will kick yourself in the future. And there won't be a thing that you can do. And I will not even try to help you."
The numb expression Lily knew she was sporting was met with an unrelenting stare that held her locked in some weird state of shock.
Then, as if nothing happened, Remus switched back to the usual calm smile.
"Glad we talked."
Lily's jaw dropped.
The library's door opened.