"I'll bet you 10 sickles that-" Elphaba began dryly, but before she could finish, Glinda elbowed her gently.
"Elphie! It's not nice to make fun of them over something like this!" she chided her green-skinned girlfriend.
"Well what?! It's been years and anyone with eyes can see that those two idiots were made for each other!" Elphaba defended herself.
"Perhaps so, but don't you remember? You weren't exactly one of the brightest stars in the sky either," Glinda reminded her with a smirk. She was referring to just how painfully long it had taken the green-skinned Gryffindor to realize that Glinda was flirting with her.
"I thought it was only simple friendship!" Elphaba cried defensively.
"Then you really can't blame Remus and Sirius for believing likewise about each other, can you?" Glinda asked smugly.
"No, I suppose not," Elphaba grumbled, crossing her arms and pouting. This earned her a laugh from Glinda, which lessened her frown slightly.
The two were presently sitting together in the library, discussing the matter of two of Elphaba's closest friends: Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Anyone who knew them knew that they had amazing chemistry together, yet ironically enough, Remus and Sirius themselves seemed oblivious to this fact. It was something Elphaba liked to make jokes about, though as Glinda had just now pointed out, Elphaba hadn't exactly been the best at detecting romance either, so it wasn't really fair for her to tease Remus and Sirius over their own blindness.
"But still! We need to get them together! Watching them dance around one another so obliviously is killing me!" the green girl cried dramatically, earning another laugh from her girlfriend.
"I'll help you in any way that I can," she promised. Although Glinda did not know the two other Gryffindors as well as Elphaba did, she did still consider them distant friends and she was more than happy to help them hook up if that was what would make them the happiest. Besides, Glinda always loved playing the role of a matchmaker! She wouldn't miss out on this chance for anything in the world! Especially if it was Elphaba who was asking. To anyone who knew them, it was clear that Glinda would do pretty much anything Elphaba asked of her. This little attempt at bringing Remus and Sirius together was no exception.
30 minutes later, Glinda found herself sidling up to the shy, young Gryffindor boy hiding away in the corner of the library.
"Hey Remus," she greeted softly as she approached. He was very deep into his book and her greeting, although it had been gentle, startled him.
"Oh! H-hey, G-Glinda!" Remus was always a rather shy, quiet boy, especially around Slytherins and pretty women. Glinda, being a combination of both, was just that much more intimidating to poor Remus. Glinda found it all very amusing, tossing her golden curls just to tease the boy a little bit more. Who said her inner vixen could never come out? A lot of her closer friends were certain she was at least part Veela and there were occasions when Glinda almost believed them!
But once Glinda decided that she was done scaring poor Remus half to death, she cut to the chase of why she was visiting him today.
"Elphaba, Sirius and I were going to go swimming in the lake tomorrow afternoon and we were wondering if you wanted to come along," she said.
"Just you, Elphaba and Sirius?" Remus sounded surprised. He was used to James and Peter coming along with them.
"Yeah, well, you have to remember that Peter still has a potions assignment he hasn't finished and James is serving another detention for disorderly conduct," Glinda snorted. These were both lies, but she was telling them anyway because the goal of tomorrow's outing was not to get the Marauders together, but rather, to get Sirius and Remus to finally become a couple. That couldn't happen if James and Peter tagged along, even though Glinda was very fond of them too.
But they had to sit this one out, so Glinda had quickly come up with alibis for them and Remus believed her easily enough. Because he knew she was one of the nice Slytherins who did not pick on him for any of his quirks or oddities, he didn't even think to question the validity of her statements regarding the other two Marauders. Besides, both of the alibis were just so realistic that even if Remus hadn't trusted her, he still would've had to admit that the likelihood of her story being true was still very high.
"So, what do you say?" Glinda asked as Remus continued to ponder her offer. "Since James and Peter can't come along, consider Elphaba and I to be their temporary replacements for the day!"
"And you would be James? Or Peter?" Remus couldn't help but tease and Glinda laughed despite herself.
"Well, I am not half so foolish and cowardly as Peter, but I must confess that I find James to be quite irritating," she said with a huff of mock disdain. "I am not sure I like either of the options you are presenting me with!" and this earned a laugh from Remus. Good! That meant he was warming up to her! Again, although Remus did consider Glinda a friend, it was clear that he still felt a bit nervous around her. That simply would not do if Glinda were to get him to play along with her and Elphaba's little plot to get him with Sirius.
"Alright, fine, I'm in!" Remus decided at last and Glinda let out a soft sigh of relief.
"Don't worry Remus, it'll be great fun!" she promised, patting his shoulder happily. With her request accepted, Glinda had no more reason to linger, so after giving Remus that friendly pat, she skipped away back towards the heart of the library. As she left, she whispered one last thing to Remus, although she knew he wouldn't hear it.
"Your whole life is about to change, and it's all because of me!" and she sounded very proud of herself.
At the same time, Elphaba had been busy working on Sirius. He was, at the moment, down near the Quidditch pitch, trying to enchant the brooms into doing something crazy.
"And just what are you up to?" Elphaba sneered playfully as she drew near to Sirius, watching him wave his wand over an old broomstick.
"Trying to see if I can make flight a little bit more… exciting," he replied mischievously, not bothering to look up at her as he continued to mutter the incantation. He knew she was a fellow rebel at heart and that she would never rat him out for pulling a stupid stunt like this.
"Aha!" Sirius drew away from his broom proudly. Elphaba caught a glimpse of a silver aura of light flickering around the broom but, only half a second later, it had gone.
"What exactly did you do?" Elphaba raised an amused eyebrow.
"You'll see!" came the mischievous reply, then Sirius hopped up onto his broom and shot into the sky. Only five seconds later, the broom began to buck wildly like it was trying to throw Sirius clean off of itself.
"Yee haw!" Sirius bellowed in delight, tightening his legs and hands around the broom as it thrashed wildly beneath him. A normal, sane person would've been terrified out of their wits, but Sirius was neither of those things and he, instead, got quite a thrill out of trying to stay on a broom hellbent on throwing him off.
Elphaba watched him ride with an amused shake of the head. This was Sirius in a nutshell: a crazy, diehard rebel who liked to cause trouble whenever and wherever it was possible. She had no doubt that that spell was not only going to affect Sirius' broom. It was more than likely that he was already plotting to hex a lot of other brooms as well, but not hers. He and Elphaba were in a pact not to prank one another. Though Elphaba was pretty sure she'd be able to stay on a wild broom, she had very strong fingers and thighs after all. This thought made her smirk lewdly.
"WOOOOAHHH!" at last, Sirius was successfully thrown from his broom. Elphaba watched him fall, waiting to see what he would do to save himself. As reckless as Sirius was, she knew he wouldn't have done this without a backup plan.
"Levicorpus!" and sure enough, Elphaba proved correct. Sirius pointed his own wand at himself and shouted the incantation, making himself float back upward, and then he gently lowered himself to the ground.
"You idiot," Elphaba grinned at him good-naturedly as his feet returned to the Earth.
"The one and only! The very best!" Sirius agreed, grinning right back at her. "But what brings you out here? I'm assuming you didn't just come out here to spend time with little old me?" he teased.
"You are right," Elphaba replied with a smirk. "I came here on important business."
"Oooh, and what might this important business be?" Sirius asked.
"Glinda, Remus and I were going to go swimming in the lake tomorrow afternoon and we were wondering if you wanted to come along," she said.
"Just you, Glinda and Remus?" Sirius sounded surprised. He was used to James and Peter coming along with them…
After repeating much of the same things that Glinda had told Remus, Elphaba finally got Sirius to agree to their little outing.
"Alright, cool, I'm in!" he decided at last.
"Great!" Elphaba replied. "I'll see you then!"
"See you then," he echoed, then the two shared a brief but hardy hug before parting ways, Sirius going back to his crazed broom while Elphaba returned to the castle, rolling her eyes affectionately Sirius one last time before he was out of her sightline completely.
The very next day, the quartet found themselves standing on the edge of the black lake.
"It's so beautiful!" Glinda sighed, admiring the dark emerald waters and how they sparkled in the warm sun. She wasted no time in diving in.
"Ehhh," Elphaba made a strange noise in the back of her throat. Although only Glinda knew the real reason why, it was no secret to anyone that Elphaba had a fear of water. It was one of the things Sirius had actually asked her about when she first invited him along on the outing.
"I thought you hated water!" he had said.
"But I love Glinda," was the reply, and that was all Sirius needed to hear to understand. He knew that Elphaba and Glinda were a couple and he thought it was awesome! Keep in mind, he was very much a rebel, so traditional gender and marital roles were the last thing he cared about. The entire stupid system about men and women marrying to produce pureblooded heirs was complete and utter nonsense to him and he wouldn't have minded if that entire institution, metaphorically, burned down over night. He was in full support of anything that went against the system, including Elphaba and Glinda's love story. But despite this rebellious attitude, he still seemed oblivious about his own feelings towards Remus, even though they were rather bold, especially during this outing.
"Hey," Sirius threw a chummy arm over Remus' shoulder.
"Hey," Remus looked up at him with wide, adoring eyes.
"You planning on going in?" Sirius asked, cocking his head towards the water.
"Maybe in a little," Remus replied quietly. Although he really did plan on swimming today, he wanted to just enjoy the nice, quiet, beautiful serenity of nature before he got lost underwater. Glinda was already there, and she was slowly persuading Elphaba to join her, discreetly using a water repellant charm over the green girl's entire body so that the water could not harm her at all. But that didn't mean Elphaba was ready to just jump in head-first. It was still taking a bit of coaxing on Glinda's part to get the green girl in the water.
"Eh, well, whenever you decide to take the plunge, tell me so I can push you in," Sirius shrugged, smirking as he said this.
"Sure thing," Remus snorted back. The two continued to stare at one another, unaware that Elphaba and Glinda had stopped in their own little games to watch them closely. Although no one could see it, Glinda's fingers were crossed under the water.
"Jeez, it's hot out!" Sirius muttered at last, taking off his robes. Remus inhaled sharply. Sirius had a very attractive body. It was large, muscled and toned. There was a roughness to it, but that roughness didn't make it look gritty or ragged. It made it look handsome and fierce. Remus didn't even realize he was staring until Sirius started to move along the shore again, forcing Remus to sort of chase after him.
"If those two idiots don't start kissing in five seconds-!" Elphaba growled.
"Give it time, Elphie!" Glinda whispered back, tugging gently on Elphaba's arm. But it was clear she was just as anxious as her Gryffindor girlfriend. The objects of their watchful gaze, however, remained oblivious. They continued to walk back and forth across the shore before Remus finally decided to hop in the water. As he removed his robes, it was Sirius' turn to look a little starstruck. There were some nasty scars on his body, which only he and the other Marauders knew the story behind, but Sirius thought they looked… beautiful, in a strong and powerful kind of way. That was not to romanticize the horror Remus endured when he got those scars, but it was to say that when Sirius saw them, he didn't see ugliness, weakness or strangeness, he saw a survivor, and as a survivor of his own past, Sirius held a very deep respect for every single one of Remus' scars.
This kinship to fellow survivors was also what drew Sirius to Elphaba. They had grown up with very similar lives: less-than-stellar parents, a favored sibling that was not them, the feeling of not belonging, and the rebellious heart. Remus, too, had shared a similar story. It was what attracted Sirius to him as well even though he didn't quite seem to understand that yet. Sirius understood that he found Remus to be quite pretty and cute, and that he liked Remus' scars, but the romantic part of these feeling were still somehow going right over Sirius' head.
Remus slid into the water first.
"Gah! It's cold!" he complained. Glinda and Elphaba laughed at him as they swam over.
"Baby!" they both teased. Sirius continued to watch from shore but, the moment the other three were all within arm's reach of each other, he cannonballed in, having waited patiently for this exact moment when he could splash all three of them at once.
"SIRIUS!" three outraged voices filled the warm, sunny air, but it was drowned out by Sirius' own laughter as he resurfaced, spitting a fountain of water at all three of them. This earned even more outrage but, like before, it had no effect on Sirius.
For the next couple hours, the quartet laughed, played and swam together, sometimes doing laps for fun and sometimes doing races and sometimes trying to invent new games to play while in the water. By the time they all clambered back out, all of them looked like prunes (minus Elphaba, who was still being protected by the water-repellant spell) and the sun was finally starting to set.
"But they still haven't-!" Glinda whispered urgently to Elphaba, pointing her eyes towards their two male companions.
"I'm well aware of that," Elphaba muttered darkly, but then a sly smile slowly spread across her face. "But just leave it to me…" and Glinda was suddenly very interested in what Elphaba was about to do…
In the end, it was nothing special. Elphaba just led them all towards a spot halfway between the Forbidden Forest and the school. There was a small piece of the forest that was a safer end and it was there that Elphaba was going.
"Are you really taking them to our…?" Glinda trailed off, eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Yes I am," Elphaba whispered back. She was taking them to one of the places where she and Glinda first began falling in love. It was a small patch of forest with a little creek running through it. It was a serene and beautiful place and one could get a great view from the sunset while there. Maybe it would finally be enough to get Sirius and Remus to stop being so blind…
At last, the quartet was standing in the place where Elphaba and Glinda had shared so many memories.
"Why are we here?" Sirius asked first, looking confused. He had been expecting more adventure.
"It's just a nice place to watch the sunset," Elphaba replied easily as she sat down on a nearby stone. It was flat and smooth, perfect for sitting.
"You've watched the sunsets here before?" Sirius sounded doubtful now. Weren't the views better from the rooftops or a tall tower?
"With Glinda, yes," Elphaba gave Sirius a meaningful look and then it finally clicked. He was surprised that Elphaba was so willing to share such a meaningful place with him and Remus, but he certainly wasn't going to let that trust go unappreciated. He smiled fondly at the green girl but before he could speak, Glinda picked up where Elphaba had left off. Maybe they hadn't exactly had time to rehearse a script, but they knew one another well enough to initiatively feed off of one another whenever they needed to get something done together.
"Yeah, Elphie and I have spent a lot of days and nights alone here together, just enjoying each other's company," she began. "And honestly, after today, we both think that you and Remus deserve to see this place too because we think that you might be able to see it in the same light that we did…" it was the most explicit thing either she or Elphaba had said all night and it finally seemed to do the trick. It planted a seed in the minds of Sirius and Remus and that was exactly what Elphaba and Glinda wanted.
"Me and Sirius?" Remus was the first one to pipe up, looking genuinely surprised at Glinda's remark.
"Mmm-hmm!" Glinda replied with a smile. "You two kind of remind me of Elphie and I, and we thought that you'd like to hang out together in this place just like Elphie and I do!"
"Oh," Remus didn't seem to have a more intelligent reply than that, but that was because, at the moment, he was busy mulling over Glinda's words.
"Come on, Remus," Glinda sighed, voice dropping into a soft and chiding whisper. It was the same voice she'd used when talking to him in the library and it was the same voice she had used back when she and Elphaba first started becoming friends. It was that gentle, guiding tone, pleading for the person listening to really hear and understand what she was trying to say.
"Oh," Remus repeated, but this time, there was something more in that single syllable than before. He was finally starting to get it. All those stolen looks and shared glances and gazes. All those admiring stares and lovestruck thoughts. Remus was finally starting to realize that it was more than a brotherly idolization that he felt whenever he was around Sirius. It was a different type of love. It was the type of love Glinda felt whenever she was admiring something wonderful that Elphaba had done. It was the type of love Glinda felt whenever she was with Elphaba at all. Remus never really was able to connect the dots until just then, but suddenly, it was like a light had been turned on.
"Oh!" and Elphaba and Glinda exchanged relieved glances. They had done it. Now all they needed to do was watch it all unfold…
Sirius had been much quieter, but his mind was running a similar track. Was it true? Was the way he looked at and felt for Remus really the same as the way Elphaba looked at and felt for Glinda? Did Elphaba feel the same protective rush over Glinda that Sirius felt for Remus? Did she feel that same amusement and adoration? That desire to protect, cherish and be beside forever? Did Elphaba ever look at Glinda's petite figure and just fall in love with it? And had Sirius being doing the same thing with Remus all this time? Yes. Sirius was beginning to think that he had…
As the silence continued, Remus and Sirius continued to stare at one another, still half-lost in their own thoughts. To bring them back to the present, Elphaba and Glinda slowly started up an idle conversation. On reflex alone, Remus and Sirius joined in, but after a while, Elphaba and Glinda slid back out of the conversation, slowly letting Remus and Sirius carry it all. Suddenly, four had been cut down to two and Remus and Sirius were all that remained. Elphaba and Glinda exchanged satisfied looks before carefully creeping away, leaving their two friends lost in each other and each other's conversations. Even the sun had gone down, giving the two boys their proper privacy. But even though the sun had left them in peace, the stars continued to shine brightly overhead.
It was very late in the night when Remus and Sirius realized that Elphaba and Glinda had abandoned them and the two boys turned boyfriends shared a laugh over it before deciding to head back to the castle as well, returning to it in a very different state than they had left it just a few hours ago. But right before the two of them crossed the castle's threshold, they took one last look out at the beautiful night sky before turning to one another and then slowly, slowly, slowly, and then all of a sudden, they were kissing. It was warm and soft and strange and new and wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
Elphaba and Glinda might've been in bed by then, but somehow, both of them knew that, at long, long last, Sirius and Remus had finally figured it all out. The stars remained bright long after all of them had finally fallen asleep, but the brightest stars of all were the ones who were in human form. Those particular stars continued to shine even after the sun rose the next day.
AN: Marauders era Gelphie where Gelphie helps Wolfstar become canon. Hope this was what you wanted, elphiegranger2508.