(A/N): Remus's POV, after the incident with Lily, Elaine, and the letter from Leo. The Marauders and Elaine discuss the course of her relationship with Leo.
Trigger Warning:
Remus says something disturbing about dead cute animals as a comparison, so if you want to skip that, it's in the third paragraph, the second sentence- after 'The letter that had made Elaine's face drop'. Although, if you've made it to that point, it might be too late for you not to see it, so maybe just skip the third paragraph entirely. It's just Remus saying Elaine hadn't seemed surprised, so the girls must have gotten her to tell them, and he supposes that it had something to do with Leo's letter, that Elaine was upset by Lily pulling out of her bag.
Remus
The twenty-seventh of December, 1975, was a day full of surprises. Firstly, Elaine had been in a really, really good mood- it wasn't like she was usually in a bad mood, but I had never seen her quite so... unabashedly cheery.
Then, Lily had revealed that she- and the other girls, apparently- knew that Elaine had snogged Leo and I. Sure, I had kissed her in front of half the school in the Great Hall, when Lily and I had been trying to help her distract herself from Leo and Brooke, and James had walked in on us snogging in the Room of Requirement, but other than that, the only person who had known that Elaine had snogged both of us, was Leo.
Clearly, since Elaine hadn't seemed surprised by their knowledge, they had somehow convinced her to tell them- and I assumed it had something to do with Leo's letter. The letter that had made Elaine's face drop, like she'd just seen a box of dead puppies, when Lily had pulled it out of her bag.
It wasn't shocking to me that Lily had stolen the letter- it was shocking that this was the letter she had chosen to steal. After everything, all of the secrets that Leo had made it clear he was keeping- from her specifically- and all of the letters we hadn't been all that inconspicuous about censoring, exclusively for her benefit, I was surprised that she hadn't stolen one before now.
Watching Elaine- confident, unapologetic Elaine- plead with Lily not to reveal the contents of the letter had been damn near heartbreaking- and, given the outline Lily had given us, I couldn't say I blamed her for resorting to begging.
'What, you don't want people to know that Leo told you he's in love with you?'
I had figured that Leo and Elaine had kissed before- other than their first, accidental kiss, which she had let slip when we were in Hogsmeade- before the... 'snogging pass off', as Elaine had called it. I had assumed something had happened after Leo had returned from St Mungo's after I had attacked him on the full moon- after all, Elaine had blushed, and told me that they had 'gotten distracted', and what else could that possibly mean?
The first- and only- time I had seen them kiss- on the lips, anyway- had been right before the snogging pass of, and had, in fact, led into it. They kissed places other than the lips a lot- they had been kissing on the cheek for a few years now, or the forehead, or dropping kisses into each others hair. Wherever they could reach at the time- the tip of the nose, the underside of the jaw, the hand- I had even seen Elaine kiss Leo through his shirt, around the rib area before.
I had noticed them getting more comfortable displaying physical affection with each other- throughout the years, and especially recently- and honestly, it was easier to watch them interact with each other when they weren't all flustered every second of every day.
Once Elaine had convinced Lily to give her back the letter, and disappeared up to the girls dorm to put it away- to hide it, more likely- we had all torn into Lily for her indiscretion. Mary, Marlene and Alice may not have known what Elaine had meant by, 'especially not now', but they had been just as- if not more so- angry with her as James, Sirius, Peter and I had been. Maybe because they had been present when Elaine had first read the letter, or maybe because Lily had misled them as well as Elaine, when she had gone back to steal the letter.
It was five minutes- if that- before we heard Elaine coming back down from the dormitory, and halted our chastising, in the hopes that maybe she wouldn't know, and be further embarrassed by it. Of course, the second she laid eyes on Lily, she could tell- and, rather appropriately, scolded us all for it. With a few words, and some pointed looks, she had put James, Sirius and I in our place- everyone made mistakes... and the three of us had made more than our fair share of them. Especially me.
It was only later, after most of the day had passed- we had missed breakfast completely, because of an ill timed staircase movement- that we had managed to sit down, and actually talk about things. Well, Elaine, the other Marauders, and I were talking about it, at least. I'm pretty sure Lily was getting another talking to by Mary, Marlene and Alice, since Elaine's scolding had fallen flat with them, because they hadn't made any devastating mistakes that Elaine could remind them of.
We had dragged Elaine up to our dorm, and we were now crowded around her, where she sat on Leo's bed- hugging his pillow to her chest, resting her chin on the top of it.
"Start talking." It wasn't the most eloquent way James could go about things, but I doubted that being well spoken would have helped him in this case.
"I'm not-" He cut her off, holding up a hand.
"We don't want details-" Now, Sirius cut him off.
"Speak for yourself! No pressure, of course, Laney." Sirius told her, and I rolled my eyes.
"Just- an outline? How did it happen- How did you get from barely being able to talk about your crush, to telling us all that you snogged him, in passing?" Sirius scoffed at James' question, smirking.
"Obviously, James, The Plan worked." Elaine and I shared a look- we knew it had nothing to do with the plan James and Sirius had made- because they had never actually made a plan, and the only plans Leo followed were his own- and even then, he rarely had the luxury of being able to stick to them.
"Fine. The summer before third year, Leo showed up at my house in the middle of the night." Uh, what? I could tell that the other boys were just as confused by where she was going with this as I was. "I was outside, on the swing set, because I couldn't sleep." Because of the nightmares. About her father. Right. "He said something about going for a run- I pointed out that he lived in Derby, not Nottingham, and the fact that it was so late, but he kind of shrugged me off. I don't know if he had actually been going for a run, or if it was just an excuse." Knowing Leo, either were likely- going for a run in the middle of the night was probably a normal occurrence for him.
"Okay? What-?" She cut James off.
"We talked for a bit, and he left, because my brother came out to check on me. About a week later, I owled Leo to ask him to come see me again. He agreed, and the next night, we talked on the swing set again. I fell asleep with my head on his shoulder, but when I woke up, he was still awake, keeping watch." Well at least one of them was being careful- was this before or after Jonothan, Leo's uncle, had attacked her?
"Was this before- or after-?" I made sure not to say anything that gave James and Sirius anything to work with- Peter didn't 'work with things'- and Elaine knew exactly what I was asking about.
"Before. This was near the start of summer... that, was right after Leo's Birthday." Summer before third year, Leo's thirteenth birthday- they had only told me once we were back at school, I remembered scolding them for it, for not telling me via letter- clearly they had kept more than just Jonothan's various attacks from me.
"What was?" James asked, and Elaine gave him a tight look that made me worried. It wasn't a look of, 'not going to happen', it was a look of 'not yet'.
"I started to get up to go inside, because I knew Jay would be getting up soon, but I tripped- Leo caught me, but I fell on him, and our lips touched. As Lily pointed out, when I told her and Remus in Hogsmeade, neither of us pulled away immediately- it was really awkward for a little while after that." I bet it was. Technically, Peter had been there too, but he hadn't exactly contributed much to the conversation- and Elaine probably didn't want to rat him out (heh) to James and Sirius for having known and never told them.
"I'm sorry, when did you tell Lily and Remus? What Hogsmeade trip was this?" Sirius demanded, and I knew that he wasn't going to like the answer.
"Uh... the first one." He threw his hands up in the air, like he was well and truly done with- with her, with Leo, with life itself. "The one where he met up with Greygorry for the first time, and Cipicia showed up and attacked him, and you found out he was a vampire." His mouth gaped for a second, then snapped shut. "Yeah, I didn't think me letting it slip that Leo and I had kissed was that important, in comparison." And then I had let it slip that Leo liked her.
"Where were we?" Elaine shrugged.
"Harassing Leo and Brooke across the room, I think." Wait... if Leo and Brooke had been across the room at the time... Wouldn't Leo have heard me tell Elaine? Was that why he had come back, so suddenly? In fact... Wouldn't he have heard her admit, a minute earlier, that she liked him? He- with his hearing, he couldn't possibly have missed it, right? I mean, I know if he wasn't paying attention, certain things could slip past his super senses, but... this was Elaine. If there was anyone he was paying attention to at all times- especially after she had been at the point of his mothers wand- it was Elaine. But, if he had heard it, he had never said anything, and he had never done anything about it- that I knew of, anyway.
"So... how did you go from accidentally touching lips, to snogging every time our backs are turned?" Elaine turned bright red, at Sirius teasing question.
"It's not- every time!" All of our eyebrows shot up, in sync.
"But it is a lot of times?" Peter checked, and Elaine crossed her arms over her chest, defensively.
"...That depends entirely on your definition of 'a lot'." Wow.
"Wow." Sirius said, speaking my thought out loud. "I'm so proud of you two." Well, that certainly hadn't been swirling around anywhere in my head.
"Thanks." Elaine was being sarcastic, but Sirius still shrugged proudly. "We kissed a few times accidentally after that- After I overheard Leo tell James that he loved me-" James blinked, and I think we were all scribbling that into our mental timeline of events. "-We confessed to each other that... feelings were happening." What a way to put it. "But by that point, obviously, he was dating Brooke- and Brooke, being half veela, is a lot less likely to die if he loses control, which is one of Leo's requirements for a relationship, apparently." Apparently. That didn't surprise me at all.
"But now they're broken up." Peter pointed out, and Elaine shrugged.
"That doesn't mean anything." James opened his mouth, and she held up a hand to silence him before he even made a sound. "Leo's whole justification for not dating me is that I'm a fragile human-" Human, yes. Fragile? Fragile wasn't a word I would ever put anywhere near Elaine- but I wasn't a vampire. "-That hasn't changed, so I severely doubt his conviction has." That made sense- Elaine's assertion, not Leo's determination to sabotage his own happiness. Their, happiness.
"But if he's snogging you, doesn't that kind of render it pointless?" Elaine shrugged, giving Sirius a pointed look for his contribution.
"I don't know- but if anyone reminds him of that, they will pay dearly for it." Sirius jolted, and scratched his temple with his fingertips nervously.
"Um... duly noted." James's eyebrows furrowed.
"You said you kissed accidentally a few times, then skipped to confessions- where does the snogging come in, if you two only confessed after he started dating Brooke?" Elaine's face sobered at his question.
"Now, don't get mad, but..." His heavy sigh could have blown a pig's house down.
"Oh, for the love of..." He rubbed at his eyes in an exasperated manner, pushing his glasses up to his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Well." Sirius said. "Two girls at once. My respect for Leo just went up." He was joking, but Elaine still rolled her eyes.
"Of all the reasons to respect Leo, that's the one you pick?" He shrugged, grinning wolfishly.
"It's probably one of the few things he would let me express my pride in him for." It was silent for a second, as we all realised that he was most likely correct.
"Anyway." Elaine said, changing the subject. "Leo and I's first- non accidental- kiss, was after the full moon- after he got back from St Mungo's." Oh. So they hadn't- that was the first- no wonder she had been so flustered.
"Who kissed who?" I asked, and Elaine cocked an eyebrow at me.
"Do you really think that Leo would've kissed me first?" ...No. It was one of the things I liked most about Elaine- her forwardness.
"Do you initiate every kiss you two have?" Sirius asked, and James looked like he was curious, but didn't want to actually hear the answer. Well James, if she could beam it to you telepathically, I'm sure she would.
"Not every kiss- once we're alone, and being affectionate, and I make it clear that kissing is on the table, sometimes he'll initiate." That sounded... complicated. "Kissing him first is the quickest way to get that message across, but there are other ways." What other ways?
"Other ways? What sort of other ways?" Once again, Sirius had taken the words straight out of my head- although he was a lot more suggestive with them than I would have been.
"Why? Are you and Mary planning to team up?" What was that supposed to mean?
"What do you mean? What's Mary got to do with it?" Elaine smirked- something she rarely did.
"Mary asked me if I was okay with her trying to make a pass at Leo, when he gets back." All of our eyebrows shot up.
"And what did you tell her?" I asked- finding myself hoping that she would be jealous, just as I always was.
"I told her to go for it. I'd love to see Leo's reaction to Mary blatantly hitting on him- wouldn't you?"
(A/N): Sirius: 'So, you and Leo snog every time our backs are turned?'
Elaine: 'I wish!'
also
Sirius: 'Do you initiate every kiss you and Leo have?'
Elaine: 'No. I mean, most of them, yes, but not all. If I make it clear that kissing is on the table, sometimes he'll initiate.'
Elaine: 'The problem is, is that kissing is ALWAYS on the table... and when he kisses me, I MELT.'
Elaine, also: 'I would kiss Leo on a table.'
I originally said that they missed breakfast and were almost late for their first class because of an ill timed staircase change, and then I remembered that not only is the 27th a Saturday, but it's also the Christmas Holidays, and there's no class anyway.