A/N: Hello guys! I haven't thanked any of you for your support so far, so here I am, letting you know that I appreciate it very much. I know there are only a few of you, but every review, every follow, every favorite makes me want to write more and more. Please stick around and don't hesitate to leave me any questions or opinions. Your reviews fuel me, and each one I get, the faster I get to writing because you guys backing me up means the world to me :) So anyway, yeah, happy reading and please review! This chapter is a bit longer than the others, so I hope you enjoy! xx

"Hey Remus, I think I left my wand in the common, mind if I go ahead?" Peter asks from his bed next to mine as he reaches down to knot his shoelaces.

"Oh, yeah, sure," I say, absentmindedly brushing my pinky finger against my lips as I lean on one of the posts of Peter's bed.

I watch him leave as my eyes sting with fatigue and I struggle to keep them open. Only a handful of hours have passed since I found myself on the common room floor, dimly lit by the fireplace, snogging Sirius Black. My head is too hungover and in a state of such utter shock to wrap around the idea that it even happened. That it wasn't some figment of my imagination. From the moment I had woken up, I have been looking for loopholes in the memory. Some sign that it was some sort of a fabrication I had formed through my overflow of delusion that Sirius could actually want me. But I couldn't pass it off like that at all. Not even considering the fact that I was heavily intoxicated. Not when the first thing I noticed as soon as my eyes flew open almost an hour ago was the way my jumper smelled like his scent of sandalwood and wet grass. The second piece of proof was the taste of treacle pies, the ones he took from my pile of stolen treats before I could have a single bite, and Firewhiskey in my mouth. The third was the sight of the empty four-poster bed across from Peter's which didn't look like it'd been slept in.

As much as kissing those enticing, full lips and tracing every part of his toned body are things of fantasies I have conjured over the past few years, I never wanted it to be like this. The fact that it took two bottles of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey for us to get there wasn't ideal. Besides, none of those fantasies had concluded with Sirius walking out on me.

"Lupin? You okay?" Frank Longbottom asks from the bathroom doorway.

"Huh?" I turn around and snap back to reality, though my thoughts are still tugging down the corners of my mouth. "Oh, yeah. Just thinking."

Frank casts me a doubtful look. "Well, if you say so. See ya at Charms."

"Yeah, see you there."

He makes his way across the room, grabbing his bag from his bed on the way and closes the door behind him, leaving me alone to my thoughts.

Heading over to my own bed, I shrug on my school robes and shake my head so as to let my unkempt hair fall to my face, covering the heavy bags underneath my eyes. I bend down to stash my books and quills into my bag, trying to ignore Sirus' unwrinkled bed, wondering why he never returned to the dorm last night.

Whether it was simply because he'd had too much to drink and ended up passing out on one of the sofas when he returned to the common room last night, or because of what happened, is beyond me. But as I zip up my bag and sling it over my shoulder, I find myself hoping it was the former. I definitely don't like the thought that snogging me was revolting enough to keep him away from the comforts of his warm bed due to its three-meter distance proximity from mine.

As I try to peel off my thoughts, I walk to the door, but before I can reach it, it bursts open. James, with an arm around Sirius, comes stumbling in, both of them tear-eyed in laughter.

"Seriously, Prongs!" Sirius exclaims between guffaws. "I've never seen that greasy little tosser that surprised since we went –"

He cuts himself off as he sees me, and takes James' arm off him, the latter still in a fit of snickers.

"Oh, hey, didn't know you'd be up for today, Remus. Er, good morning," he says awkwardly, struggling to maintain eye contact. "We missed you at breakfast."

It takes all I have to not cringe at his unusual formal tone, and I nod. "Yeah, I... I just thought I'd sleep in for a bit."

James, who just stopped laughing now, shoots me a questioning look. "You? Sleep in? Reckoned you were ill or something. "

"Yeah, I'm just a bit knackered."

"Why, what were you up to last night?"

"I was just reading up for our Potions essay... The one due tomorrow?" I answer in a heartbeat, trying to keep my voice steady.

Raising his eyebrows, he stuffs his hand into his bag and retrieves a book. My potions book. I can feel my face drain of all color as he tosses it to my bed. "You lent it to me last night because I left mine back at the dungeons. It's been with me ever since."

"Oh...b-but I meant that..." I stammer hopelessly before I trail off.

Sirius steps in, his face all flushed as well. "Hey just leave it, Prongs. Let's head to Charms, okay?"

James, looking dumbfounded, leans back on the door frame and crosses his arms. "What's wrong with the two of you?"

"Leave. It." Sirius mutters again, looking at James pointedly.

"I just want to know what's going on! I don't exactly share the whole puppy telepathy you lot have got going here," he says, smirking. "Come on, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Sirius and I snap in unison, eliciting a snort from James.

James raises his arms up in defeat. "Woah there, okay, okay. No need to get your knickers in a bunch."

Sirius shakes his head, making his raven locks even more tousled. "Whatever, Prongs. Come on, let's get going."

He walks out the door, running his hand through his hair again. It's a gesture he always does when he is panicking, earning a minuscule smirk from me, even under the circumstances.

James and I, falling behind a little, walk down the stairs behind him. Still extremely curious, he mouths, "What happened?"

I narrow my eyes at him, giving him a warning look.

James sighs and mutters under his breath, "Merlin, you two are acting like you've been up all night snogging or something."

My heart skips a beat and I feel my feet root to the floor as I cringe. Cautiously looking at Sirius, I ease a little seeing that he's far enough in front to not hear what James said. I feel my cheeks burning as I continue walking down the stairs, trying to compose myself.

Though to my dismay, James notices.

He squints at me. "Honestly, what is wrong with y–"

James breaks off as we take the last step to the common room and something catches his eye. I follow his gaze, and see two big bottles discarded on the floor.

He stops in his tracks, turning to me with his eyes wide and stunned as his jaw drops.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KID-"

Panicking, I rib him hard, shutting him up just in time, as Sirius turns around, his eyebrows raised.

James, recovering, shoots him a convincing smile and throws an arm around my shoulders. "Moony here was just telling me that Evans asked about me when they were patrolling the other day."

Sirius rolls his eyes, flashing an alluring genuine smile that adds to the hangover-induced weakness in my knees. "Hard not to mention you when you spent all your free periods last week stalking her, mate."

Laughing, I look at James who is shooting daggers at Sirius. "Sod off, Black."

"Come on, Prongs. No need to get your knickers in a bunch," he mimics, before turning on his heel and continuing to walk. "Flitwick will have our heads if we're late again," he calls over his shoulder.

James takes his arm off me and smirks.

"Don't even say anything, Potter," I murmur, rubbing my head in a vain attempt to lessen the pounding.

"Trust me, Moony. I don't even know where to start," he says, stifling a laugh, before we quicken our pace to catch up with Sirius.

I distractedly flip through my copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, ignoring James' unyielding stare, the product of him trying to take in my narration of what happened last night. Other than us, the only other people in the library are a group of Ravenclaw sixth years and Madam Pince. The latter of whom has been casting James, who never spends free periods in the library unless Lily is around, suspicious looks.

"Damn, Moony. Y-you and Sirius. Snogged. My two... best mates. Snogging. You...and Sirius...Blimey," James stammers, finding it hard to swallow every fragmented thought spilling out of his mouth. "And I thought you coming out to me in third year was surprising."

I glare at him. "Stop it, will you? Say it any louder and you'll be giving those Ravenclaws something to talk about. Skeeter's with that lot, you know."

James props his head up with one arm, his other hand tapping at the table, successfully annoying me. "And he just walked away? Where did he go?" he asks, ignoring my concern.

I shrug, still scanning through the book as if I have taken in a single paragraph. "I haven't got a clue. But from the looks of his bed this morning, he didn't sleep in the dorms last night."

James looks thoughtfully at his pile of untouched books as a look of comprehension dawns on him. "Oh, that's right, I didn't notice. When I woke up he was already dressed and was badgering me to get up and go down to breakfast with him. I wondered why he was in such a hurry to leave the dorm. He berated me for trying to wake you up as well."

"Well, that's flattering, him not wanting me around," I say gloomily, looking up from my book.

James gives me a reprimanding look. "Rubbish. He's just in shock. Merlin, who wouldn't be? Even you were dying to get rid of him all morning."

I lean back and cross my arms, giving up on the book in front of me. "Well this is just fantastic. There goes our friendship."

"Nah, you guys will make it through, I'm sure of it."

I raise an eyebrow, curious. "Well you sound surer than usual."

James tilts his head and looks at me like I'm missing something obvious. "Moony...You and Sirius have gone through worse."

I sigh, having nothing to counter with, knowing he is referring to The Prank last year. My heart tugs down at the memory. That night really took its toll on all of us, stealing away the comfort I had in Sirius for weeks. It knocked me out of my stability and nothing but bitter thoughts encompassed me. Sirius and I didn't talk for a long time and the only trace of acknowledgment of existence between us was the empty stares. In one night, what we had evaporated.

It took a lot for me to sort out what I felt. Betrayal and anger surged through me whenever I thought about it at the time. As for Sirius, it took him a couple weeks before his stubborn pride and denial boiled down to regrets and seclusion. Both of us isolated ourselves from Peter and James, almost as much as from each other.

I was already in love with him at the time, which exhausted me even more. The boy that made me feel the most alive turned into the person that made me want to collapse and never wake up. What he did was gut-wrenching and traumatizing. It shattered my trust into a million intangible pieces.

Towards the end however, when the bitterness in me faded away and the trust was carefully rebuilding, I realized that even with all the bleak thoughts and emotions encompassing me, I never stopped loving him. It was that very fact that delayed me from patching everything up, the fear that I loved him too much for it to be healthy to get close again. So I kept the distance longer, as he continued on in confusion and consuming guilt.

But just when everything was seemed unrecoverable, somewhere between him awkwardly offering to help with my Defence Against The Dark Arts O.W.L.S. three months later, which was the first time we talked in that span of time, and me letting him come with James and Peter to accompany me for the next full moon, what seemed irreparable got mended so that it seemed it was never tampered with in the first place.

Still knee-deep in memories of the year before, I feel a little hope trying to seep in. "Yeah, I guess you're right. We got through that ruddy hell, I think we can handle a drunken mistake," I say, offering him a sad smile.

James reaches over to ruffle my hair and I try to duck away, to no avail. "That's my Moony! You two will work things through, trust me. Just you wait, McGonagall will assign us another twenty inches of parchment this afternoon and he'll have to crawl back to you."

I laugh at his adamant expression. "Is that all I am to you lot? A passing grade?"

"Of course not!" James says fiercely, but then adds to his retort. "When you do our homework, we get way more than a passing grade, actually."

I roll my eyes and thump him on the head with one of his untouched books.

"Ow! I was just kidding!"

I snicker and set the book down. "Seriously though, you're right. Things will go back to normal. They have to."

James grins smugly. "Of course I'm right. Besides, after lunch, it'll be his turn to pull me aside and confess what happened. I'll talk him round then."

"Thanks," I offer, gratefully smiling at him.

He shrugs and winks me. "No problem, Moony."

Finally having my peace of mind, I return to my reading. But before I can even finish a sentence, James pipes up again.

"Can I ask you something, though? It's kind of important if I'm gonna help you two sort everything out," he whispers in a serious tone.

I look up and see his deadpan expression and feel a little worried. "Shoot."

His blank face dissolves into a huge smile and wriggling eyebrows as he asks the question. "The snogging, was it any good?"

Not being able to help it, I laugh along with him. "You're a wanker, you know that?"

His grin grows wider and raises his eyebrows at me. "I try. Was it any good?" he repeats.

I roll my eyes and give in.

"The best."