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The Inconveniences of Being a Werewolf	By : froste Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Slash - Male/Male Views: 2685 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-The Inconveniences of Being a Werewolf
- 1
The Inconveniences of Being a Werewolf

It was always an inconvenience for Remus, being a werewolf. There were the mood swings when the moon was almost full, the unbearable pain when skin stretched, bones cracked and re-grew to accommodate a more ferocious form taking over. Not to mention the scar-littered body that came afterwards and the foggy recollection of how they got there.

Unfortunately, there’s more than just the physical pain that comes with being a werewolf. There’s also the emotional pain of witnessing how the majority of people despise your kind. Fearing and being disgusted by you just because of what you are without getting to know who you are. It could sometimes be heartbreaking. But the most stressful part about being a werewolf is hoping that those you share your secret with are trustworthy enough to keep it a secret.

For the better part of five years, Remus had struck gold with that one. There was James Potter (the unofficial leader of their group of miscreant friends contained a vast sense of loyalty that’s almost to a fault), Sirius Black (the residential playboy, not just of their group but of the entire school, who understood that sometimes the blood that runs through your veins doesn’t determine the person you will become) and Peter Pettigrew (the unfortunate lapdog of their gang, whose own insecurities about belonging tends to look past societies’ prejudice views) who gave Remus something that, at an early age, he had given up hope of ever getting.

Friends…

The four of them, The Marauders as they had dubbed themselves, did everything together. From creating havoc among the student body, to keeping the teachers on their toes when they were around, to getting into detention for their more … inventive pranks, the four of them were there for each other. Brothers in arms, there wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do for each other.

James, Sirius and Peter even became animagi so they could watch over Remus during the full moons, which led them to creating a map, the Marauder’s Map. In their animagus forms they learned more about the grounds of Hogwarts than even Filch the caretaker. There was also nothing the four of them wouldn’t except about each other.

They all accepted Sirius, whose fear of being trapped, and still trying to figure out his own place in the world, often led him to breaking several hearts of both genders. Homosexuality wasn’t rare or looked down upon in the wizarding world. Wizards and witches could produce heirs, even in same sex relationships, mostly with the help of potions. But Sirius wasn’t gay. He wasn’t even bi. He was more of a free spirit, going where the wind blew him, no matter how many hearts he broke along the way.

“Hey, is it my fault they read too much into a little snogging here or there. I can’t help it if I’m just too irresistible?”

Then there was James and his obsession with Lily Evans, with his constant swooning about how her hair flowed down her back in a torrent of flames more magnificent than the sun’s, or how her emerald eyes dazzled more brilliantly than the jewels themselves.

“I DO NOT SWOON! But you have to admit, Lily’s eyes are simply amazing, the way they light up and sparkle even more than Dumbledore’s when she laughs, or darken when she’s particularly angry,” James swooned.

Let’s not forget Peter, whose constant desperation to be a part of something big tended to lead him into deeper trouble than he was able to handle.

“I’m not desperate … not constantly anyway.”

And of course, there’s Remus, who’s so boggled by how lucky he was to be sorted into Gryffindor and befriend such clever, loyal friends that he tended to ignore their more dangerous tendencies.

“They’re not that bad, honestly. Sure they can get a little carried away, but they’re harmless really.”

Now however, Remus can no longer ignore those same harmless tendencies since they were the very reason that another student almost got killed. It was the beginning of their sixth year. A prank … just a stupid prank … pulled in a drunken stupor while roaming the halls after curfew. James and Sirius had been celebrating the completion of the Marauders Map with a couple of Firewhisky bottles the two had swiped from James’ parents’ cellar before school.

James had been so wasted that he had passed out as soon as he stepped foot out of the portrait hole leading to Gryffindor Tower. Sirius, having a higher tolerance for alcohol, laughed at his bespectacled friend before leaving him behind and heading for the Shrieking Shack alone – Peter was serving detention after getting caught leading Filch’s cat, Mrs. Norris, to Hagrid’s Hut. It was where the grounds keeper’s boarhound dog, Fang, slept and he had been very interested in his new play thing.

Unfortunately, that’s when things went wrong. Something ended up happening that night that should never have happened, should never have even been a passing thought through the infamous Black’s mind whether induced by intoxication or not. But it had happened and there was no turning back the clock to rewrite the wrongs done, and now the once inseparable foursome was slowly falling apart.

Feeling only confusion and anger, Remus went from believing his friends were a gift, a dream come true, to more along the lines of a distant memory, a pleasant dream turned nightmare.

“…How could you…” was his dazed frame of mind as he tried to absorb the information and make sense of it all.

Appalled by his own actions, Sirius was becoming a recluse, only uttering the same two words over and over again to his friends, unless he was avoiding them like the plague.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeated so sincerely that you’d never know he’d never uttered those words to anyone before that fateful night.

Angered by the actions of his brother, in everything but blood, James was no longer talking to Sirius unless it was to berate him.

“You do realise how devastated Moony would have been if he had been responsible for Snape’s death!” James yelled, too angered by what happened to noticed he had refrained from degrading his nemesis by calling him Snivellus.

Peter, like the follower that he was, adopted James’ viewpoint and looked down at Sirius’ actions.

“Yeah…” Peter added as he shook his head in disappointment.

That was how things went from the day of The Incident. The two moons since that day had been a blur of pains, both physical and mental.

Moony had been furious on the first moon after realising that his playmate wouldn’t be coming. He had scratched and bit at his chest, trying to get at the deeper pain inside his chest. James and Peter had tried preventing most of the damage during that moon, but Moony had been too wild to control by them alone.

A stag was too slow to keep up with the werewolf and a mouse was too small and weak to temper the canine’s more violent tendencies. In fact, the only thing that was big enough and yet quick and strong enough to keep up with the werewolf was the Grim Sirius turned into, not to mention that Moony preferred his canine companion over the others.

“This moon was particularly painful for Remus so I want you two to be on your best behaviour,” Madam Pomfrey ordered as she led them into the room.

“Okay,” Peter said at James’ silence when they entered the room.

The sight that greeted the Animagi the day after the second moon was simply heart-wrenching. If they had thought the moon before had been the worst Remus had gone through, looking at their friend now erased that notion.

Moony had been more violent with Padfoot’s second absence and took out all of his frustration on Remus. Moony had hysterically rammed the walls, trying to get out and find Padfoot for himself. When Prongs and Wormtail had tried to stop him, he turned his vicious nature on himself once again, this time with a vengeance.

Now Remus lay in bed with a concussion, as well as several serious injuries. He had several broken bones and new scars that coved his arms, chest and leg. This was all on top of the normal aches and pains he got in his bones after each transformation.

“How’re you doing Remus?” Peter asked, knowing that his brainy friend would simply be incapable of telling him the truth.

“I’m okay,” Remus said in a hoarse voice.

He was given away immediately though, when he flinched as Madame Pomfrey adjusted his pillow. She left the private room Remus was in soon afterwards, giving them some privacy while she handled her patients in the main wing.

“Liar,” James mumbled and watched Remus flinch again, though this time it wasn’t from the pain. “Another moon like this and you could seriously hurt yourself.”

“Don’t you think I know this,” Remus snapped, clenching and unclenching his fist. “But there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Actually, there is,” Peter said, and then seemed to regret it when two sets of eyes turned to him. “You could let Sirius-”

“Finish that sentence and you’ll be the one lying in one of these beds,” Remus scowled, his physical pain forgotten, as his eyes turned from light amber to molten gold.

“But he’s the only one that can control Moony.”

“I don’t care,” Remus said resolutely.

“You could die Remus.”

“I DON’T CARE!”

“Don’t yell at me,” Peter squeaked as he flinched. “I’m only worried about you. James and I can’t handle the wolf alone. With Sirius not there to stop the worst of it, Moony could actually end up killing you.”

Remus said nothing to this, knowing that his friend was probably right. The problem was, however, not the fact that he might actually die during the next full moon, but that he didn’t even care. In fact, the thought that he might not wake up after his next transformation was more appealing to Remus now than it had ever been. When James caught on to this, he rushed to his friend’s side.

“Please don’t give up Moony,” James said as he clasped his friend’s hand. “Things will get better. I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, James,” Remus smiled though it didn’t reach his now lifeless eyes.

“Things will get better,” James said with more determination, giving his friend’s hand a little squeeze of reassurance. “I promise.”

Remus only smiled up at his friend with sad, unbelieving eyes.

“We brought you chocolate,” Peter said, trying to break the tense atmosphere.

“Oh right,” James said, searching through his school bag until he pulled out a bag full of sweets. “My cousin keeps sending me chocolates from France. She’s trying to bribe me into going to her wedding there during the Christmas holiday.”

“You’re not going are you?” Remus asked, even as he was unwrapping one of the chocolate bars and biting off a piece.

“Nah,” James smiled mischievously as he watched his friend saviour the expensive chocolate. “But I won’t tell her that.”

= =

“What are you going to do?” Peter asked as the left the hospital wing. “How’re you going to make things better?”

“You’ll see,” James said, his eyes set and determined.

James and Peter walked into their first class of the day, Charms, with Ravenclaw. The first thing they spotted as the door closed behind them was Sirius Black. Usually during Charms, Sirius sat in the middle of the class with James. It was one of the few classes where you were allowed to cast spells on your fellow classmates, and Sirius and James were more comfortable with each other because they were so evenly matched. Now, however, Sirius was sitting at the front of the class with his current boyfriend, Tobias McCormick.

Sirius had actually broken up with McCormick the day before The Incident. However, after Remus had found out what Sirius had done, the werewolf had threatened to move out of the dorm himself. James had objected and asked Sirius to move out instead.

Now Sirius was living in the Ravenclaw dorm with his old-new boyfriend. They were practically joined at the hip, and thinking that he had succeeded where many had failed, McCormick wasn’t complaining. In fact, he had welcomed his boyfriend back with open arms, not to mention the attention he got with being the only person to have captured the heart of the infamous Sirius Black. A rumor held strong mainly because no one, aside from the marauders and McCormick, knew that they had broken up.

James hadn’t complained either at first, thinking that Sirius distancing himself from the rest of them was a good thing. But after seeing Remus lying in that hospital bed, and coming so close to death without even caring about it, the bespectacled teen was starting to see things from a different perspective. Things were going to have to change and change quickly.

Walking up to the front of the class with a determination, James grabbed Sirius by his collar and dragged the shocked teen back to his original seat in the middle of the classroom. As that happened, Peter sat in Sirius’ vacated seat next to Tobias, who looked not only shocked but angered that his boyfriend had just been kidnapped.

“Okay class, settle down,” Professor Flitwick said, in his tiny voice, at the ruckus Sirius being dragged from his seat had caused. “Today we will be learning the Bubble-Head Charm,” he continued as he stood on his desk. “When cast correctly, this charm will create a bubble around the castor’s targets head. Mr. Pettigrew, would you mind standing beside the desk so I can demonstrate…”

The rest of Flitwick’s lecture was ignored by both James and Sirius as the tiny man performed the spell. The two marauders had used that charm (and perfected it so you couldn’t see the bubble) at the start of term when they had snuck into the Slytherin dormitory and set off several dungbombs in the common room and the boys’ (namely Snape’s) dorm.

“Does you dragging me out of my seat mean what I think it means?” Sirius asked hopefully, seeing this as an opportunity to get his friends back.

“If you’re talking about me forgiving you for almost getting someone killed -”

“It was only Snivellus,” Sirius interjected.

“That shouldn’t matter!” James insisted as his voice raised, surprised that the boy beside him still didn’t think what he did was wrong.

“Gentlemen,” Flitwick said, hearing James’ end of the conversation. “Is there a problem?”

“No sir,” James said, his temper waning.

“Then I suggest you get one of these plants to practice the charm,” the Professor said, gesturing to one of a few bushy plants still left on his desk. They were rather small, fitting in the palm of ones hand, and emitted a blue-gray mist from the soil where their roots were hidden.

“Yes sir,” the bespectacled boy said before getting up from his seat and grabbing one of the last plants.

Normally James or Sirius would have just accio’d the test object to their desk. It was quicker that way and they did learn the charm from this class so they knew Flitwick would approve. But talking to Sirius for two seconds already had James riled up. He needed some time to cool down so he could help Remus. This was all for his sake.

When James returned to his seat, it was to find Sirius fiddling with his wand, a nervous gesture the other teen rarely showed. That, more than the stroll to Flitwick’s desk and back, deflated James’ temper.

When he sat down, he placed his and Sirius’ plants on their desk. Then he instantly, cast the charm on their plants (the original one, not their new and improved version). This caused the mist-emitting plant to fill up with smoke within seconds instead of floating over their desk like with some students.

“I wish I hadn’t done what I did, you know,” Sirius said when he was sure James had calmed down.

“Only because now we’re not talking to you because of it,” James guessed.

“No,” Sirius shook his head. “That’s not true. I never wanted to hurt Remus.”

“And there in lies the problem. You don’t get that almost making him a murderer did in fact hurt him. And if I hadn’t pulled Snape back, Remus would have killed him and he would have been devastated.”

“I know,” Sirius said in frustration, though James could see that he really didn’t know and was only saying that to placate him.

James sighed as he tried to regroup his thoughts. This little talk was going nowhere fast. He needed to say his piece quickly before he lost his temper again. Otherwise, he was going to strangle the clueless boy beside him, and Remus’ life would be as good as forfeited.

“It’ll be a few days until Remus returns back to class,” he said to veer the conversation in the right direction. “Last night was very gruesome for him. He almost…” James couldn’t finish his sentence, but from the look on Sirius’ face, he didn’t need to. His point was made, and James had Sirius’ full attention. “Padfoot’s absence made Moony very upset and he took it out on our little friend. Next month will be different, however. Even though it will be against our friend’s wishes, Padfoot will be there.”

When Sirius opened his mouth, about to speak, James pinned him down with a withering glare. At that look, Sirius clamped his mouth shut before nodding his head in agreement.

“Good,” James said in an eerily calm voice as he turned away from Sirius. “Now this doesn’t mean that we’ve forgiven you. In fact I am using incredible restraint right now since all I want to do is punch your face in. But this is for Remus. When this class is over, Peter and I will continue to ignore you, and you will continue to have no contact of any kind with us until Remus says otherwise. If he doesn’t forgive you within a month’s time, Padfoot will wait until Moony appears again before he shows himself. Do I make myself clear?”

Dejected as he bowed his head with a sigh of defeat, Sirius nodded.

“Good, now I think it’s time you went back to your own seat. Peter seems to be having trouble with his Bubble-Head Charm, and McCormick is of no help to him,” he said, referring to the smoke that was spilling over Peter’s side of the desk while McCormick merely glared at James from across the room.

Closing his eyes for a moment to hide the hurt within them, Sirius got up and went back over to the desk he shared with McCormick, who lit up at his boyfriend’s return. Peter stood up gratefully at Sirius’ reappearance before picking up his plant and dashing over to the now vacated seat next to James.

After the class had ended and the rest of the day was passing by, James, Peter, and Sirius kept to their arrangement. They went about their day as if the scene in Charms class had never happened, keeping their distance from each other as if nothing had happened.

However, one set of ears and eyes did know it had happened and was curious to find out what it all meant. What could have caused the pranksters of Hogwarts’ bond to shatter to pieces so irrevocably? What had Sirius Black done to cause his brother-in-arms to treat him with such loathing? The answers to everything seemed to be focused around the once-again absent Remus Lupin. He was the key to solving this puzzle, and puzzles were meant to be solved.

= =

A few days after the full moon, Remus was allowed out of the Hospital wing. It was Saturday by then, and since he had already been bedridden the days before, Remus was taking the opportunity to enjoy the open space of Hogwarts grounds. He, James and Peter were currently relaxing underneath one of the old oak trees that overlooked the lake.

But finally being let out of the hospital didn’t mean Remus could just lounge about. He had missed three days of school because of the mess he had been in, and he had to finish his missed work. That was why he was currently nose deep in a textbook, one of the chocolates James had given him in one hand, while he tried to catch up on what he had missed.

“Moony, give yourself a break,” James said as he tried to snatch the book from his friend’s grasp.

The lycan, however, had better reflexes than he did and pulled the book out of his reach. Idly, James thought his werewolf friend would have made an excellent Seeker for their Quidditch team if his morals about unfair advantage didn’t get in his way, that and the fact that Remus was terrible at flying.

“I can’t James. I have to finish these assignments or I won’t get marks for them, and what if one of these things is on a test and I fail because I didn’t study?”

“First off, you could always copy off of me and secondly, all the teachers know about your furry little problem and don’t put things on tests they know you were away for.”

“First off James,” Remus said rolled his eyes. “I get higher marks than you, so why would I lower myself to your level-”

“Ouch,” James chuckled as he mimicked stabbing himself in the chest.

“-and secondly,” Remus continued as if James hadn’t spoken, “they might not put it on tests, but it could show up in our NEWTs next year. After all, the teachers don’t control what’s on those tests,” he finished before taking another bite out of his chocolate bar.

“You’re such a spoil sport,” James said, dejectedly before flopping onto the ground.

Unbeknownst to James, Remus watched as his wild-haired friend picked at the grass in boredom. Remus sighed at the sight. As much as he would like to disagree, he knew he was a boring person to hang out with.

The only reason being a marauder was so much fun was because Sirius was always around to lighten the atmosphere. Now with the absence of his partner in crime, James’ only source of entertainment was a bookworm and someone who was more of a follower than a leader like him.

“You know, if you want, you could talk to him,” Remus said softly, unable to say the name of his once close friend.

James knew what he meant and who he was talking about, if the sudden jerk of his head towards the werewolf was any indication. Remus tried to keep eye contact with his friend as the other boy stared him down. Sometimes James could be really intimidating when he wanted to be.

“I won’t go if you don’t want me to,” James shook his head before lying back down on the grass. “Not if it’ll cause you more pain.”

“Listen,” Remus sighed, and only continued when James turned his head to look at the shy boy. “The only thing that hurts right now is realising that I’m the reason two best friends are avoiding each other.”

“That’s not your fault,” James insisted as he sat straight up.

“Maybe, but I can’t help feeling that it is,” Remus said, and hurriedly continued when he saw James was about to interrupt him again. “You just said you wouldn’t go if I didn’t want you to, even though this whole mess is between Sirius and me. I don’t want you sacrificing your friendship because I’m angry with him.”

“I’m angry at him too, you know.”

“But you also miss him,” Remus pointed out. “It’s okay. I do too, even though I can’t stand him right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive him for what he did, but I refuse to be the reason why you two are no longer talking to each other. Go to him,” he said before spotting the aforementioned teen coming out of the castle. He had a resigned look on his face as his boyfriend clung to his arm while whispering in his ear. “I’m sure he would appreciate the distraction.”

James turned his head to where Remus was looking. When he spotted Sirius’ dilemma for himself, he couldn’t stop the satisfied smirk that appeared on his face. But slowly the smirk turned into a frown and James realised just how much he missed his friend. Turning once again to Remus for reassurance, which the lycan gave, James got up from the ground and headed for the dejected boy.

“You can go too if you want,” Remus said to Peter, who had been quiet during the whole conversation.

“Nah, that’s okay,” the mousy boy said. “I need help with my Charms homework anyway. I still can’t manage that stupid bubble charm,” he grumbled.

= =

Life had come back to Hogwarts after that fateful Saturday morning. Everyone could feel the tense atmosphere surrounding the marauders begin to lift. It was still there, of course, but it was no longer as pronounced as it had once been.

Sirius was back to his boisterous self, much to the chagrin of some students (mostly the Slytherins). Within the span of a day, Sirius Black had moved back into the Gryffindor dorms and back into his own room, dumped Tobias McCormick without a moment’s hesitation, and found himself a new boyfriend, another Ravenclaw fifth year named Liam Walden. The majority of students, (and teachers for that matter) were glad that things were getting back to normal. The sight of a depressed Sirius Black was starting to worry some of them (even a few Slytherins).

Now it was Sunday afternoon and currently, Sirius was in the Gryffindor common room with the lips of his current fling sucking on his neck like a leach. Sirius was far from complaining if his glazed expression as James explained their latest prank was any indication.

“We’ll have to sneak into the kitchen and pour the potion into their drinks though. I’m just not sure the elves will cooperate,” James wondered.

“I’m sure they won’t mind as long as they get to serve their food.”

“I hope you’re right. The thought of their skin matching their house colours will be hilarious.”

“Personally, I think red and gold would clash horribly with my hair,” Sirius joked.

“Nonsense, nothing could make you look bad,” Walden said, in the brief moment his lips weren’t attached to Sirius’ neck.

“Oh go on,” Sirius smirked before capturing his lover’s lips. “No really, go on. I never tire of people’s admiration of me.”

“Focus Pads, we have much work to do,” James said, irritated that he was being ignored.

“Do my ears deceive me?” a feminine voice interrupted the duo. “Has Potter actually grown up and realised the value of hard work?”

James looked up from his irritation with his friend to find Remus and Evans walking up to them. A little bit of envy arose in James’ chest, knowing that his friend and crush had just come back from the library together. He knew they were only there for a study session they held each week, but the thought that he wasn’t invited irritated him.

So what if he’d only spend the time admiring Evans’ gorgeous flaming hair? So what if he’d only stare at Evans’ soft, pale completion rather than study? So what if he only wanted to go so he could get Evans to go out with him? It was still very rude to exclude someone.

“Not likely,” Remus said, depositing his books on the table by the fire before sitting in the chair nearby.

“Evans! Fancy meeting you here,” James beamed, forgetting all about his prank and ignoring Remus’ remark. “How about you and me go to the next Hogsmeade trip together?”

“How about you stuff a Hippogriff in your mouth and choke on it?” Evans said without batting an eye.

“Ouch,” Sirius chuckled.

“Did I hurt you, love?” Walden asked, looking concerned when he came up for air again.

“Not enough for you to stop,” was Sirius’ cheeky response, to which Walden smiled before continuing to suck on Sirius’ neck like a depraved vampire.

“You’re disgusting, Black,” Evans sneered.

“And you’re deprived, Evans,” Sirius said without missing a beat. “Why don’t you take James up on his offer and put the Prefect’s bathroom to good use?”

“Not if my life depended on it,” Evans said, disgusted by Sirius’ suggestion and James’ subsequent hopeful expression.

“Methinks the lady doth protest a bit too much.”

“Whoever introduced you to Shakespeare should be burned at the stake,” Evans mumbled, shooting a glance at Remus (who sank lower into his seat at the look) before huffing and leaving the boys to their own devices.

When Monday rolled around, Sirius was once again known as the playboy no one could help but love (even if he leaves them for their best friend, if McCormick’s constant flirting was any indication). James was once again swooning over Lily Evans (who he was sure was just refusing to go out with him because she was too in awe of his greatness). Peter was once again free to admire James’ awesomeness (as James liked to put it). Remus was once again back to his studious habits (like sitting at the breakfast table and ignoring his food while he read several chapters ahead for his Potions class that morning).

The Slytherins were also their normal, despondent selves as they sat at their house table, wondering how in the world the four hooligans over at the Gryffindor table managed to turn the skin of every student in their house green.

To the outside world, everything was as it should be. But one person in particular could see past the foursome’s act. Even though they sat at the same table, and talked and laughed together. Sirius and Remus never once interacted with one another. In fact, they were down right ignoring each other.

Well, actually, Remus was ignoring Sirius. And if you knew what to look for, you could tell that Sirius was clearly put out by it. Even though he tried to mask his hurt with jokes and pranks with James, it was obvious that his laughter never quite reached his eyes.

= =

As December arrived, Hogwarts castle became witness to an abundance of pranks, detentions, flings, (courtesy of Sirius Black after he broke up with Walden), and assignments. Outside, the once cool air became cold, the trees were now completely bare, and the once lustrous grass was now crisp with frost.

Decorations were placed all throughout the castle in preparation for the festive season. Professor Flitwick outdid himself this year by conjuring tiny fairies to fly around the castle, singing Christmas carols. The suites of armor handed out little boxes to random students that burst (the boxes, not the students), sprinkling red and green confetti everywhere. Understandably, Filch wasn’t too impressed until he realised that the confetti disappeared as soon as they hit the ground.

Celebrations of Christmas started earlier for the Gryffindors though, as their Quidditch team won their first match of the year against Hufflepuff. James as Captain and Chaser, along with his best friend Sirius as Beater, was not surprised at the win. That didn’t stop them from enjoying their victory with a party in their common room.

By the time the night of the full moon approached, only a few significant things had happened. James had finally managed to go through one month without getting a detention in order to impress Lily Evans (the girl of his wet dreams as Sirius liked to put it).

“One day we’ll be married and have lots of little James and Lily’s running around our feet, and we’ll see whose laughing then,” James huffed as his friend laughed at his expense. “And if you don’t stop laughing this instant, I’ll make Peter my best man instead of you.”

“I don’t know why you even bother with Evans,” Sirius asked in mirth, though he had stopped laughing. “The girl’s a bore. You could do so much better than her.”

Another thing that had been a surprise for the marauders was that Peter had managed to go through one potions class without blowing something up (mostly due to Sirius chucking something into his cauldron after seeing it starting to bubble over).

“Thank you, thank you, thank you Sirius,” Peter said with an abundance of gratitude. “I thought I was a goner there.”

“You’re so over dramatic, Pete,” Sirius rolled his eyes. “It was only Amortentia. The most it would do is make you fall for the first bird that crosses your path … and you do that anyway.”

“I’d be careful what you eat from now on, Pads,” James smirked as he teased his friend. “I think I saw one of those girls sneaking some of their potion in their bag.”

The most significant thing that had happened though, must have been when Sirius started secretly dating twin Hufflepuff fifth years, Amber and Adam Sing (who just so happened to be Chasers for their Quidditch team).

“How did you ever manage it, Pads?” James asked in disbelief. “Isn’t Adam the one you pelted in the arm with the Bludger?”

“He is,” Sirius said with a smile of satisfaction. “But I felt deeply troubled for his well-being,” he said with mock concern. “So after the game, I went over to the Hufflepuff changing room and waited until everyone else had left. Then I snuck inside and offered to help him change out of his clothes. Then one thing led to another…” he smirked, leaving the rest to his friend’s imagination.

“But what about his sister, Pads?”

“You know how it goes, Prongs. Twins love to do everything together.”

There was only one thing that hadn’t changed during that time, and that was Remus’ insistent that Sirius be nowhere near him during the full moon (something Sirius had wanted most to have changed).

“Are you sure you want to do this,” James said as he and Peter (who had changed into his Animagi form already) followed Remus underneath James’ invisibility cloak as the lycan walked through the halls. “I mean, the wolf could kill you this time,” he warned, referring to Remus’ refusal to let Sirius join them tonight.

“He’s not going to kill me,” Remus scoffed. “If he does, he dies as well.”

“But Sirius is truly sorry for what he did.”

“Yeah, but he’s sorry for all the wrong reasons,” he huffed. “Listen, I’m just not comfortable around him okay. The wolf’s just going to have to get used to the idea of only you and Pete keeping him company until I do. Besides, I go through full moons alone when school’s out and I get by just fine.”

“But-”

“James, drop it,” Remus snapped as he opened the castle doors. “The last thing I need right now is to get all worked up before the change. Now quiet, I think I see Madam Pomfrey up ahead.”

James shut up then, not wanting to get caught by Pomfrey. At first, all he saw before him was the wildly swinging limbs of the Whomping Willow. When they got closer though, James could make out the nurse looking towards the ground, most likely to look for a tree branch long enough to steady the willow’s swinging arms.

“Hello Madam Pomfrey,” Remus greeted as he stopped beside her. “You don’t have to see me through tonight.”

“Are you sure?” Madam Pomfrey asked uncertainly. “Your transformations are getting steadily more violent each month.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. And I’m sure you wouldn’t want to keep your other patients alone together for very long.”

“Yes, you’re right,” she agreed quickly at the mention of her other patients. “I don’t know what made those two boys think it was a good idea to throw Bludgers at each other even when they aren’t a part of their Quidditch team. I shouldn’t say this, but I think the hat got it wrong when it placed McCormick and Walden in Ravenclaw,” she ranted, more to herself than to Remus. “Are you sure you’ll be alright by yourself?”

“I’m sure,” Remus said, smiling to keep her reassured.

“Well then, I shouldn’t keep you any longer,” she nodded. “I’ll leave you to it then,” she said before finally turning to go.

Remus watched as the woman retreated from the Willow and head back towards the castle. When she was far enough away, Peter scattered from James’ shoulder and hit the knot on the tree, stilling its branches instantly.

“Besides, if I’m not mistaken, Sirius is off somewhere, visiting those Hufflepuffs he’s dating,” Remus said, with a little more venom than he had expected.

James said nothing to this comment for two reasons. First off, he knew that continuing this line of conversation would only irritate Remus more, and James learned a long time ago not to irritate Remus when the moon was so close by. Secondly, Sirius only mentioned the twins to throw Remus off (when in actuality he was in one of the rooms in the Shrieking Shack, hiding in wait until Remus changed).

Whether Remus liked it or not, Padfoot was making an appearance tonight. James was really hoping his plan works and Padfoot’s presence calms Moony down some. If not, they were going to have to think of something fast because who knew how much more of this Remus could take.

Walking into the shack that night was equivalent to walking in a graveyard for Remus. The thought of him not living past this night was weighing heavily on his mind. He tried not to relish in the chances of that happening, but he couldn’t help himself. A part of Remus had died on that grave day in September and he couldn’t seem to get any of it back.

He tried forgiving Sirius, several times in fact. He missed the canine’s company more than he let on, joining in on pranks, laughing together at James’ total failure to win Lily’s heart, playing wizards chest since Sirius was his only real competition. But the moment he would see Snape’s face, staring down at him in disgust and fear, Remus would change his mind. How could he forgive someone who could so flippantly make him a killer?

Shaking his head of these confusing thoughts, Remus entered the room where he would be transforming. He closed the door (leaving James and Peter on the other side) before removing his shirt, trousers and underpants. He placed them in the charmed armoire (charmed to only let human hands open and close it) and sat down in the tiny space between the headboard and the wall.

Even though he let his friends come to the shack with him, he still felt self-conscious when they saw his scared body. He would always make sure to wake up each day before them so he could take his shower. Then at night he would change into his nightclothes in the washroom only after the rest of them had already finished.

“You can come in now,” he said as he drew up his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs.

James and took two steps before shifting into his animagus form. Wormtail scurried into the room behind him and scampered onto the bed while Prongs folded his legs as he sat down beside his stressed friend. Remus stared out of the only window in the room (magically unbreakable so nothing could get through) and watched as a bright cloud shifted to the side, revealing the source of his eternal suffering.

Sooner than he would have liked, Remus started feeling the change. His fists clenched as he felt the pain rush throughout his body. His skin stretched and ripped. His arms, legs, fingers, toes and everywhere in between made loud and painful popping sounds as they cracked to adjust to his new form. His face stretched as his nose grew longer. His ears became pointed while his teeth grew longer and became sharpened. He started sprouting hair everywhere and finally he was no longer Remus Lupin. The once loveable, good-natured bookworm was gone, and in his place was a blood thirsty (and extremely pissed-off) werewolf.

The wolf reared his head and howled insanely before pinning his yellowed eyes on the stag now standing a few feet away from him.

“Where Padfoot?” The wolf growled in his animalistic state of mind, saliva dripping from his lips as a hint of how crazed he really was.

“Padfoot coming,” the stag said, his usual sense of communication reduced while in his animagus form. He stood tall before the wolf, showing that he wasn’t intimidated by the wolf’s fury.

“Prongs hiding Padfoot,” Moony accused. “Why Prongs hide Padfoot from Moony? Prongs bring Padfoot out NOW!” The wolf growled as he bared his teeth in anger.

“Moony?” A new voice said. Moony stopped growling at once and snapped his head towards the voice. Instantly, his eyes spotted Padfoot coming from behind Prongs.

“Padfoot come back,” Moony yelped, his tail wagging excitedly at the sight of the larger canine.

“Yes, Padfoot come back,” Padfoot said as he came closer to the wolf.

“Padfoot no more angry at Moony,” he said, his head tilted to the side as if he wasn’t quite sure.

“No, Padfoot never angry at Moony,” Padfoot said shaking his head as he stood before the wolf.

“Then why Padfoot not come before now?” Moony growled, his temper rising as his eyes darkened. “Why Padfoot leave Moony alone?”

“Because Moony mad at Padfoot,” the larger canine said, ignoring the stag’s indignant huff at Moony’s dismissal of him and the rat.

“Moony not mad at Padfoot. Moony want Padfoot here to play.”

“Not wolf Moony, human Moony,” Padfoot shook his head again, trying to explain as best he could through his animagus-induced vocabulary. “He angry at Padfoot.”

“Human Moony stupid. Moony hurt human boy. Teach him no more be mad at Padfoot.”

“No!” All three animagi shouted as Moony was about to bite into his arm. “No more hurt human Moony,” the canine said as he pounced on the wolf, pinning him so he couldn’t hurt himself. “Padfoot here now. Moony play with Padfoot instead.”

“Play?” Moony asked, quickly calming down as the other canine got off him.

“Yes play.”

“Then Moony play,” the wolf said before suddenly pouncing on the surprised canine before him.

= =

The next morning, Remus woke up, bracing himself for the pain that usually came after his transformations. Oddly enough though, there was no such pain this morning. In fact, instead of the usual aches and pains he got in his bones after the transformation, Remus was feeling rather good. It was almost too good to be true.

“Good morning Remus,” a cheerful voice said as he started to wake up more. “I don’t know what happened yesterday, but last night’s moon was rather merciful on you,” Remus heard Madam Pomfrey say. “There are only a few scraps, which will heal before lunch time. I would like to take you to the hospital wing to check you over thoroughly, but I’d say you could join your friends before breakfast ends.”

As Madam Pomfrey talked, Remus tuned her out. He realised that he was still in the Shrieking Shack, lying in the bed with the covers wrapped around him. He figured it was Madam Pomfrey’s doing, seeing as how neither James nor Peter felt comfortable lifting up his unconscious and naked body.

But besides the fact that he was currently lying within the deceptively comfortable bed in the Shrieking Shack, Remus wanted to know why he was in such good shape. It was mind boggling. Surely he should have more than a few scrapes. Well, he was expecting more than this anyway. Judging from the pleased look Madam Pomfrey was giving him, she had been too.

Remus tried to recall what had happened last night to cause such surprising turn of events. Most of the time, images were a bit too foggy to recall. Other times though, he could remember what happened to him during his time as Moony.

The image of a brave, proud stag standing before him was the first thing that came to his mind. Then he remembered Moony’s anger at Sirius’ continued absence. Then … then … then Remus remembered Sirius. But that couldn’t be. Sirius wouldn’t have come, not when Remus had explicitly forbid him to. Remus told himself that he must be mistaken. Last night Sirius was out, sneaking around and doing Merlin knows what with his twin lovers.

Even as he tried to convince himself of that, images of Moony bouncing around the Shack with Padfoot behind him was creating doubt in his mind. Images of Moony and Padfoot running around in the Forbidden Forest, pouncing on each other, soon followed.

Remus tried to be angry at the thought that Sirius had disobeyed him, but couldn’t find the indignation he knew he should feel inside. Instead lay a solid sense of gratitude and relief. Remus guessed this meant that he had forgiven the mutt. However, it didn’t mean that he would be telling Sirius anytime soon. The heir to The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was going to have to try a bit harder than that.

= =

When Remus walked into the Great Hall for breakfast that morning, it was to find the entire Gryffindor table packed with students, some of which weren’t even from his house. In fact, the only place left to sit was right next to Sirius Black. Remus rolled his eyes, hoping that this wasn’t a ploy (most likely by James and Sirius) to get him to forgive Black. It wasn’t going to work though, considering that he had already forgiven the mutt. But that didn’t mean Remus couldn’t play his own little game.

Remus walked up to his friends (saying good morning to James and Peter) before taking his seat next to Sirius. The aristocrat turned to him with hopeful eyes until Remus proceeded to ignore him by taking out his Transfiguration book and begin reading.

“Yesterday was a good night I see,” Sirius said, as a way to start a conversation with the lycan. “It must have been if you were able to come to breakfast so soon afterwards,” he continued when Remus didn’t answer.

With a snap as he closed his book, Remus shoved it back into his bag before grabbing an apple from the table.

“I’m not feeling that hungry. I’m just going to head to class early,” Remus said as he got up from the table. “See you two there.”

And then he was gone.

“Damn it,” Sirius yelled as he slammed his fist against the table, causing his goblet of pumpkin juice to spill in his lap.

“Be patient Pads,” James said as he watched Sirius flick his wand at his clothes, cleaning them in an instant. “I’m sure he’ll come around. Just give him more time.”

“And how much more time should I give him before he finally forgives me?” Sirius asked harshly, trying to keep his voice down before they attracted too much attention.

At the moment though, all he wanted to do was scream. What if Remus never forgave him? What if the only contact he’d be able to have with his lycan friend was through his werewolf counterpart. The whole thing was just so frustrating it hurt.

“I think you should at least wait until you’ve calmed down some. I doubt he’ll be too eager to forgive you if you’re breathing down his neck.”

“I’m not breathing down his neck,” Sirius snapped, offended by his friend’s insinuation.

“I just mean give him some space,” James explained irritably. “When he’s ready to forgive you, he’ll talk to you.”

“But what if I back off and he thinks I don’t want to be his friend with him any more?”

“Trust me. That won’t happen,” James said, with a resolve to avoid that outcome. “You just need to be patient.”

“Great,” Sirius groaned, resting his head in his hands as he sighed in defeat. “We both know patience isn’t one of my greatest virtues.”

= =

“What do you mean you’re not staying?” Remus asked later that day during their spare before lunch.

The four marauders were lounging in the Gryffindor common room. James was sitting on one of the chairs on one side of the roaring fireplace while Peter sat on the other, leaving Remus to sit beside Sirius on the couch. James had just finished telling Remus that he would have to be leaving with the rest of the students during the Christmas holiday.

“You remember I told you about my cousin getting married during the holiday.”

“Yes, but you said you weren’t going.”

“Yeah well… It seems my cousin’s been in touch with my mum and now she’s making me go to the wedding. I got a letter from my parents during breakfast this morning,” James said.

“That’s so not fair,” Remus pouted as he slumped against the couch. “Both you and Peter won’t be here for Christmas,” he said, knowing that Peter’s family wanted him home for the holiday. “It won’t be the same without you guys.”

“Don’t worry Remus. I’ll make sure to bring back a trunk load of chocolate for you when I return. And besides, you won’t be alone. You’ll still have Pads to keep you company.”

Remus sighed as he ignored James’ obvious attempt to get him to forgive Sirius. Instead, he just sat on the couch, wondering if James really got a letter from his mother, or was he just using his cousin as an excuse to force him to talk to Sirius again.

= =

All of the marauders were up bright and early on Saturday morning. This was usually a strange occurrence since both James and Sirius refused to get out of bed before noon on a weekend. But today was a Hogsmeade weekend, the last one before the holiday and the four of them still needed to get some last minute Christmas shopping done.

It had snowed the day before, heavily in fact, and everyone was bundled up tightly as they trekked through two feet of snow towards Hogsmeade. But most knew the journey would be worth it when they reached the bustling town with its variety of stores to choose from.

“Where should we go first?” Peter asked, his breath coming out in white puffs, as the four friends stepped foot into Hogsmeade.

“How about Zonko’s Joke Shop?” James suggested in true marauder form.

“But we always go there first. Why don’t we go into Honeydukes instead? I heard they got some really exquisite chocolate in their last shipment and I’m just dying to take a look.”

“Remus wants to go and drool over chocolate,” James rolled his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?”

“I do not drool,” Remus said, offended.

“How about this,” the bespectacled boy said as he clasped his hands in delight. “We split up into two teams. Team one will be me and Worms, who will go into Zonko’s seeing as we’ll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning and won’t get a chance to visit there again until after break,” he said, his hands wrapped around his back as he paced in front of his three friends like a drill sergeant. “That leaves team two, who will consist of Moony and Pads. They will go into Honeydukes because I know our little friend will simply die if he doesn’t at least get a glimpse of the exquisite chocolate there. We will stay in our teams and travel around Hogsmeade until we met up again at The Three Broomsticks for lunch at noon. Are there any questions? Yes Pete,” James said with his mousy friend shot up his hand.

“What will we do after that?”

“I don’t know. Goof around,” James shrugged. “Okay teams. You have your orders. Time waits for no one,” he said, and with that dragged Peter down the road towards the joke shop, leaving Remus and Sirius alone together.

“I think being captain of our Quidditch team has gone to our dear friend’s head,” Sirius chuckled. “What do you think?”

Instead of answering, Remus merely rolled his eyes before heading off to Honeydukes. Without haste, Sirius followed and soon the duo was assaulted by the sweet scent of chocolate as they entered the shop. There were already a few students inside, who were browsing through the shelves of goods.

Rows upon rows of shelves were lined with sweets and chocolates that Remus paid no attention to. Chocolate Frogs, Ice Mice, Pepper Imps, Jelly Slugs, Cockroach Clusters, Liquorice Wands, Blood Lollipops, Acid Pops and Sugar Quills were all ignored in favour of glimpsing the new display that had been set up.

He licked his lips, determined not to drool and cause James to tease him more. They looked more like wands than anything else, only with different colourations and designs. Not to mention that they were smaller in size. However, everything else about the chocolate made up for its petite size. In fact, the smell alone assaulted his senses.

“This is it?” Sirius spoke up from behind the lycan.

“They’re called Chocolate Wands,” Mrs. Flume, one of the shop’s owners, explained. “Its Belgian chocolate,” her eyes slightly glazed over as she spoke. “It doesn’t melt in you hands like most chocolates do, and comes in all different kinds of flavours like dark, milk and white chocolate as well as mixtures of those and others. No matter what the flavour though, when you put them in your mouth, it’s simply magical,” she said, smiling when she realised that she had caught the attention of some of her other customers, mostly girls.

“How much are they?” Sirius asked, intrigued by the decadent morsels.

“Two galleons,” she said without batting an eye.

“Each?” Remus asked shocked, knowing that he couldn’t afford any.

“Trust me. They’re well worth it, especially for that special someone,” she said with a wink. “They also come in boxes of four or nine.”

“I think I’ll take the Chocolate Frogs instead.”

When the duo finally stepped out of Honeydukes, Remus consoled himself with the loss of those delectable Chocolate Wands by biting the head off of one of his Chocolate Frogs. Sirius trailed behind his despondent friend, wanting to start up a conversation but not knowing what to say.

After stopping at several more shops, getting quills, inks and parchment for Remus and clothes for Sirius, the two of them tracked through the snow towards The Three Broomsticks where they met up with James and Peter. They were sitting at their usual booth near the back of the pub. When Remus offered to get their drinks and food, Peter ‘offered’ to come alone.

“So how’d it go?” James asked once Remus was out of earshot.

“Horrible,” Sirius said as he buried his face in his hands. “He wouldn’t even say two words to me,” he frowned as his hands dropped to the table. “And I almost lost him three times. Now I know why the sneaky devil never gets caught during one of our pranks.”

“Don’t worry. After today, you’ll have the whole holiday to get him to warm up to you again.”

“I sure hope so,” Sirius said as he watched Remus and Peter coming back with their food and drinks.

“Peter, you’re so lazy, making me carry most of this stuff,” Remus said as he was coming towards the table, carrying considerably more than his lethargic friend.

“But Remus, you’re obviously the stronger of the two of us,” Peter said as he slid in the seat beside James.

As the bespectacled boy laughed and Peter smiled smugly, Remus rolled his eyes. In that moment though, when he had taken his eyes off of his cargo, his fingers slipped. The food tray he was carrying slid to the side and would have fallen over if it wasn’t for Sirius’ quick reflexes as he balanced the tray with his hands before helping Remus lower it onto the table.

“Thanks,” Remus smiled gratefully before he could stop himself.

Beaming at that one simple word, Sirius turned to James, who was giving him thumbs up of encouragement. With confidence he didn’t have a moment ago, Sirius was more determined to get his friend back (believing now that it wasn’t going to be as hopeless as he had first thought).

= =

When the Christmas holidays rolled around, with James and Peter’s departure, the dorm of the sixth year Gryffindors never seemed so empty. Even with an energetic Sirius creating mischief throughout the castle, the dorm itself felt like a graveyard. Neither he nor Remus seemed to ever be in the same room at the same time (much to Sirius’ chagrin).

From the moment James and Peter waved goodbye to their friends, the two remaining marauders spent most of their time apart. If Remus wasn’t in the library studying, he was in the Great Hall eating. If he wasn’t eating or studying, he would be in bed sleeping. That was all Remus’ schedule consisted of; sleep, study, eat, study, eat, study, eat, study and then sleep again. It wasn’t like he was hiding or anything, because you knew where he was, but it was obvious that he was avoiding Sirius.

Sirius, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. To get his mind off of the fact that his once best friend was avoiding him, Sirius played a record number of pranks on the students, ghosts (including Peeves who wasn’t too thrilled about being on the receiving end of one of Sirius’ pranks - but than again, who was) and teachers alike who had stayed over the holiday. No one complained though, since the pranks lacked the kind of havoc Sirius was known for. Some even speculated that the resident bad boy of Gryffindor was loosing his touch.

All of that changed Christmas morning.

Remus was having a peculiar dream where he was dressed up in a bear costume, telling little boys and girls how to prevent forest fires. But whenever he tried using the Aguamenti Charm to snuff out the bonfire he had created, no water came out.

In fact, the only things gushing from his wand were twigs. It was very frustrating, especially since the children were laughing at the crazy bear who was trying to take out a camp fire by waving a piece of wood at it.

Luckily, Remus’ strange dream came to an abrupt end when he felt someone shaking him out of his confused slumber. When he opened his drowsy eyes to look upon his saviour, his golden orbs fell upon none other than Sirius Black.

The animagus was currently kneeling in front of Remus’ bed, fidgeting anxiously. It looked as though he had just gotten out of bed himself. All he had on were pajama bottoms (his normal sleepwear even in the dead of winter) and his eyes had that tired look he gets after first waking up.

“Sirius, what’s wrong?” The groggily teen yawned, finding it odd that the other boy was up before him. “What time is it?” Remus asked as a sweet scent caught his attention.

“It’s 6 o’clock,” Sirius said nervously.

“Really,” Remus asked, looking surprised. “What are you doing up so early?”

“Its Christmas morning and I thought it would be nice if we opened presents together,” he explained, gesturing to the presents at the foot of Remus’ bed. “That is, before you dash off to the library.”

“Oh,” was all the werewolf could say as he turned to the gifts on his bed. “Alright then,” he agreed before sitting up and reaching for the first gift as Sirius went towards his own.

The first one Remus picked up was from James. It was a book on healing charms (something Remus had wanted to get for a while now but couldn’t because it was so expensive). Remus figured James got this because of how horrible the werewolf’s transformations had been over the past months (excluding the last one of course).

When Sirius opened his present from James, he found that he also got a book of charms and potions from the bespectacled teen. Only this book was full of more marauder-approved spells than Remus’.

“Figures,” Remus rolled his eyes. “You can always count on James to know exactly what you want without you even asking for it.”

“The things I could do with this book,” Sirius commented, his eyes alight with mischief as he shifted through the book.

“Okay, next present is from Peter,” the other teen said as he unwrapped his present and found an alarm clock inside.

“An alarm clock,” Sirius said, a little disappointed at the sight of his own present. “You can always count on Pete to know exactly what you don’t want without you even asking for it.”

Chuckling at Sirius’ words, Remus explained how the clock worked. It wasn’t a normal clock like the boys knew Muggles used. You could set as many alarms as you wanted, only the owner could hear the alarms so as not to disturb anyone else, and they also had automatic repair charms on them (for those who tended to chuck their clocks against walls in order to shut them up). There were other, more entertaining, functions on the clocks but Remus wanted Sirius to discover those on his own.

“I still say it’s useless. It won’t do me much good if I don’t set it.”

“Then I guess I’ll just have to set yours for you, and James as well seeing as you guys end up rushing in the morning ‘cause you don’t wake up on time,” Remus said smugly as he reached for the next present, a collection of fairytale books (both Muggle and wizard) from his father and romance books (both Muggle and wizard) from his mother. Remus was a sucker for both.

“I got a set of keys from Uncle Alphard.”

“Well that was nice of him,” Remus said, amused by Sirius’ confused expression. “Does it say what the keys are for?”

Sirius searched in the box the keys had come into and found a note from his uncle inside. Reading it quickly, a broad smile formed on his face. It appropriately lit up like a Christmas tree.

“They’re for a house in London, a vault of money at Gringotts he’s leaving me and a motorbike,” Sirius said, the last bit in intense glee. “I knew there was a reason I loved that man.”

“I’m happy for you,” Remus smiled. “Just promise me that you won’t get yourself killed. Those bikes can be very dangerous.”

“I’ll do my best,” the bad boy of Gryffindor smiled, his day just getting better and better. He was pleased at Remus’ concern for him and at how easily they were getting along. “Who’s that present from?” Sirius asked as he spotted an extra present.

“I don’t know. The card just says from a friend,” he said as he turned the present over in his hand.

Shrugging his shoulders, Remus hesitantly pealed off the wrapping to reveal another, very familiar (at least to Remus) book.

“It’s a book,” Sirius said a little disappointed before reaching for his own unmarked present. As Sirius held the last present in his hand, he turned to Remus, whose eyes had gone wide in horror. “What is it?”

“It’s a book on werewolves” he said, his once joyful expression replaced with complete terror. “Someone else knows about me.”

“Are you sure? It looks like one of those romance books your mother gave you.”

“I’m sure. It’s called The Complete Guide of the Everyday Werewolf by Lord Stoddard Withers.”

“Who’s that?”

“He’s a magical creature specialist from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. He’s the one that tried to get wizards to play polo on flying horses,” Remus explained.

“That game would have been so awesome,” Sirius laughed.

“I’ve heard of this book. It’s infamous,” Remus said, his intrigue with the book outweighing his worry that someone knew about his lycanthropy. “He spent years actually living with werewolves, trying to understand them and getting other wizards to understand them as well. He wrote a book about them but the ministry burned them all and banned further publication.”

“Why?”

“They said it romanticized werewolves too much and feared little children might go out on full moon nights, hoping to get bitten if they read the book.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Sirius scoffed.

“That’s the ministry,” Remus said nonchalantly as he flipped through the pages with interest. “But it was rumored that Lord Withers rewrote the book and put a complicated spell on it so only werewolves could read it. He camouflaged it to look like a book the owner would normally read.”

“Like how this book looks like a romance novel,” Sirius said, smirking.

“Whoever got this book must have gone through a lot of trouble to find it,” Remus said, ignoring Sirius’ jab at him as his anxiousness returned. “Do you think it was Dumbledore?”

“It would make sense,” Sirius shrugged. “But even if it wasn’t, if someone went through that much trouble to get that book for you for a Christmas present, I’m willing to bet their not going to tell anyone about you.”

Remus put the book down on his bed and stared at it, his anxiety over who could have given it to him overwhelming the slight teen.

“Here, hopefully this will cheer you up,” Sirius said as he handed the unmarked present he had been holding in his hands for a while now.

“What is it?”

“My present for you,” he said nervously, his hand outstretched for Remus to take the gift from him.

Remus raised a brow at the taller teen before hesitantly taking the present. Instantly, the delightful scent he had smelled since he had woken up filled his senses.

“What is it?” Remus asked again as he sniffed the package.

“Just open it, will you,” Sirius said impatiently.

Rolling his eyes at Sirius’ impatience, Remus pealed off the wrapping paper, exposing a box with dark and light brown swirls on a white background. Looking up, Remus gave Sirius a confused expression.

“It’s upside down,” Sirius said and flipped the box on the right side, revealing the intricate words of Chocolate Wands.

“You didn’t,” Remus said even as he practically ripped off the lid and exposed the nine chocolate covered wands inside.

Remus practically drooled at the sight of the chocolaty morsels. He licked his lips and reached out his hand with trembling fingers. Then, as if waking up from a trance, Remus shook his head and pushed the box away from him.

“You really shouldn’t have. They must have cost a small fortune.”

“Not really,” Sirius shrugged nonchalantly, though was secretly disgruntled that Remus had rejected his gift. “Besides, you were practically drooling buckets when you saw them at Honeydukes.”

“I was not, and I didn’t get them because they weren’t worth the price.”

“I would eat one of them first before you pass judgment. You never know, you may find they are worth it.”

“No,” Remus said as he closed the box. “Take them back to Honeydukes. I don’t want them.”

Sirius pursed his lips together in irritation. Sometimes Remus could be so obnoxiously stubborn.

“Fine,” he finally said as he snatched the parcel from Remus’ fingers before tossing them on his bed. Then he went to his trunk, and started searching through it.

“What are you doing?” Remus asked uncertainly.

“I’m going to get dress and go outside. I need some fresh air,” he said without looking up as he grabbed a bunch of clothes before leaving without another word.

Remus looked out the window at the blizzard raging outside. He sighed as he slouched on his bed. He knew he had upset Sirius by refusing the gift, but it really was too much. And Sirius should know by now that Remus hated it when people spent a lot of money on him. It made him feel uncomfortable, even unworthy, of the gift.

Sighing at his dilemma, Remus glanced at the slightly opened parcel and failed miserably to block the tantalizing scent from his nose. But werewolves were known for their keen senses and the chocolates were just begging to be eaten.

When Sirius came back into the room, changed and hair still wet after his shower, he tossed his pants onto his bed before realising that something was different. Turning to the bed next to him, Sirius couldn’t help the giddy feeling in the pit of his stomach at seeing Remus nibbling on one of the chocolate wands as the box lay opened in his lap.

“I thought you wanted me to return them,” Sirius said as he walked over to Remus’ bed.

“I was upset and needed something to make me feel better,” the aforementioned boy shrugged as he bit off a piece of the wand.

At those words, Sirius sighed and dropped down on Remus’ bed. “I’m sorry for snapping at you,” he said sorrowfully. “It’s just that you can be so stubborn sometimes.”

“I’m not the only one,” Remus defended.

“True. I honestly just thought you would love my present.”

“I do,” Remus admitted. “I’ve never tasted chocolate this good before. They’re even better than the ones James’ cousin tried to bribe him with,” he smiled.

“That’s good to hear,” Sirius chuckled.

“And I’m afraid they are worth every galleon you most likely paid.”

“Well that’s reassuring seeing as you’ll be getting another box at the beginning of each month for a whole year.”

“What!” Remus shouted as he sat up straight on the bed.

“I couldn’t resist. I know how much you love your chocolate. And they’re going to come in different flavours each time, kind of like Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.”

“I hope I don’t end up getting a bogey-flavoured one,” Remus joked and was rewarded with the sound of Sirius’ laughter. “Honestly though, you shouldn’t have done this,” he said, feeling uncomfortable at the gesture.

“Just accept it already because I’m not canceling the subscription.”

“Fine,” Remus grumbled before chewing off another piece of the wand. “But not before you accept my present,” he said as he slouched over the other side of his bed.

“You got me something?” Sirius asked, surprised.

“Of course,” Remus said as if he thought Sirius was daft for thinking otherwise. “It’s very rude to not give your friends presents for Christmas,” he said as he placed a frumpy parcel on the stunned teen’s lap.

“Does this mean we’re friends again?” Sirius asked, hopeful.

“I guess it does,” Remus shrugged nonchalantly. “Now are you going to open your present or are you just going to stare at me like a fish out of water.”

Closing his mouth with a snap, Sirius turned to his present and subsequently tore at the rapping paper haphazardly. What lay inside had Sirius’ jaw dropping for the second time in less than a minute.

“A leather jacket,” he said astonished as he lifted up the jacket.

“It’s not real leather, and I couldn’t afford the helmet that goes with it,” Remus said, embarrassed. “You’re supposed to wear it when you ride your new bike.”

“So you and my uncle…?”

“He wrote to me asking what you might want for Christmas. He seemed to think that a house and a vault full of money seemed a bit lacking,” he joked. “I thought he was crazy but gave him a picture of that bike you’ve been drooling over ever since you visited me over the summer. Turn it around, there’s more.”

Obeying his friend, Sirius turned his new jacket around and came face to face with a picture of the wildest canine he had ever seen. It was bigger than an average wolf and was covered with thick black fur. It stared at Sirius with cool, grey eyes that glowed predatorily as it bared its teeth in a ferocious growl.

“It’s pretty obvious why it reminded me of you when I saw it. I got it in Muggle shop though. That’s why the picture doesn’t move. Do you like it?”

“Are you kidding? I love it,” Sirius beamed as he hugged the jacket to him, fearing that it might disappear if he let go.

“Good,” Remus beamed, glad that Sirius liked his present.

Then suddenly, Remus was knocked back as Sirius pounced on him, wrapping strong arms around the surprised teen.

“This is the best present in the world.”

“It’s only a jacket,” Remus laughed.

“No, I mean you being my friend again,” Sirius whispered as he held onto Remus tightly. “I missed you so much.”

“I know,” Remus said, patting the other boy on his back in comfort. “I missed you too.”

“I thought you hated me.”

“Not you, just what you did.”

“I thought you’d never forgive me.”

“So did I. But after that last moon, I realised that forgiving you was easier than I thought.”

“Really,” Sirius asked as he finally let go.

“Yeah, and thanks for coming even though I told you not to. I don’t think I would be sitting here right now if you hadn’t,” Remus said, unable to look his friend in the eye.

“I can’t take all the credit for that. James practically threatened me into coming.”

“Figures,” Remus huffed as Sirius snatched the half-eaten Chocolate Wand out of his hand and ate it. “You can always count on James to know exactly what you need even when you explicitly refuse it.”

= =

By the time the two reacquainted friends put their presents away (Remus put his stuff neatly in his truck and used Evanesco on the wrappings while Sirius tossed everything, wrapper and all, into his trunk) and went down to breakfast, the blizzard outside had dissipated.

“Let’s go outside afterwards and play in the snow,” Sirius said as he looked up at the enchanted ceiling.

“I can’t. I should really get some studying done today.”

“Oh come on Remmy, loosen up a little. Now that we’re friends again, we should do something to celebrate.”

“I thought opening the presents was the celebration.”

“No way,” Sirius scoffed before pulling Remus out of his seat. “That was just a warm up, an appetizer before the main course.”

“Is food the only thing you think about?” Remus asked as he was dragged out of the Great Hall.

“No, it’s not the only thing,” Sirius said with a smirk. “And thinking about food would do you some good. Get some meat on those scrawny bones of yours.”

“Hey, I eat plenty,” Remus exclaimed, offended. “It’s not my fault my metabolism is hyperactive.”

“I wouldn’t go around admitting that so easily. You’ll end up with dozens of girls trying to find out your dieting secret.”

“Yes, I can just imagine their faces when I tell them all they need to do is get bitten by a ferocious beast and their weight problems will be history,” Remus mumbled sarcastically.

“Just think of the money you could make with that confession,” Sirius said as he suddenly stopped, causing the wolf behind him to smack into his side.

“Siri, don’t you even think about it,” the shorter teen said as he saw the gleam in his friend’s eye.

“I was only kidding,” the mischief-maker smirked as he started walking again, his hand still grasped around Remus’ wrist.

When the duo finally reached their dorm and dressed up for their day in the snow, they left the tower and cast warming and water repelling charms on themselves before going straight outside. In no time at all, the two of them had built snow forts, engaged in a snow fight with other students who had stayed behind and (much to Remus’ amusement) made snow angels.

“My snow angel’s bigger than yours,” Sirius stated smugly.

“Yes well, being taller does give you that bit of an advantage,” Remus rolled his eyes.

“Yes, yes it does,” he said proudly.

“I guess stuffing your face in at every possible opportunity does have its benefits after all.”

“Yes, yes it- Hey!”

Laughing at Sirius’ offended expression, Remus had barely a seconds chance to escape the barrage of snowballs the other teen started throwing at him.

After a few more hours of playing in the snow, Sirius and Remus headed back inside and snuck into the kitchens for some hot cocoa. After that, they put the book James had given Sirius to good use and proceeded to prank several Slytherins that resulted in the duo having to hide from the punishment that was sure to follow if they got caught. They needn’t have bothered though since charming the Slytherins’ hair into nests of snakes clearly had marauder written all over it.

“I thought they would love it, give them true Slytherin spirit,” Sirius tried to reason with Professor Flitwick, who was too impressed with the display of charm work to be properly cross.

By the end of the day (with an afternoon of Sirius scrubbing cauldrons clean for his punishment), Sirius and Remus ended up on top of the Astronomy Tower staring out at the night’s sky.

“I still don’t get how you got out of scrubbing cauldrons with me,” Sirius grumbled, lying back on the blanket beneath him as he crossed his hands behind his head. “You’re the one that came up with the prank in the first place.”

“Because unlike you, I’m smart enough to be content with the fact that the spell worked instead of sticking around and watching the Slytherins screaming when their hair started attacking them,” he said as he came back from the ledge and sat down beside his difficult friend.

“It was worth it,” Sirius defended with a chuckle.

“Then stop complaining,” the wolf said, lying down beside his friend.

Remus looked up at the sky then and stared at all the stars shinning down at him. His eyes absently trailed to the moon, half hidden by snow clouds. When he felt a prickling sensation like someone was watching him, he turned his head and his eyes locked with Sirius’ in puzzlement.

“What?” Remus asked at the strange look his friend was giving him.

“I’m just glad we’re talking again is all,” Sirius shrugged, his expression unreadable.

“Me too,” Remus smiled, causing his friend to smile in return before they both turned back to stare at the sky.

= =

The rest of the holiday was basically the same for Sirius and Remus. They ate, played outside, snuck in the kitchens and drank cocoa, played pranks on several students, got detention for playing pranks on several students (at least, Sirius did anyway), separated for a few hours (Sirius serving his detention while Remus studied in the library), and then spend the rest of the night up in the Astronomy Tower before going back to their dorm to sleep.

It was a routine Sirius was happy repeating as long as Remus was still talking to him. And that was what made this Christmas holiday the best he had ever had. The only problem was that Sirius couldn’t help but feel like he needed more. From Remus or from himself, Sirius didn’t quite know. All he knew was that whenever he was with his werewolf friend, he got these strange urges that confused him.

Like that first night in the tower as he looked at his friend, Sirius’ heart beat rapidly in his chest. He knew he wanted to do something but didn’t quite know what that something was. It was an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach that confused him to no end. He found that the feeling never quite went away during the day. He could ignore it for the most part, but he couldn’t escape the feeling that he wanted, needed to do something.

When the holiday finally ended and the rest of the students returned to the castle, Sirius couldn’t help but feel dejected. Though he knew he should be glad that his other two friends were returning today, he liked spending time alone with Remus. Sirius figured it was because the two of them had barely said two words to each other for three months prior, even though that same nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach kept telling him it was more than that.

“Did you miss us?” James said as he searched through his trunk.

“Not really,” Sirius shrugged, surprised that he was speaking more truthfully than he had expected.

“Liar,” Remus said as he read one of his romance books. “I bet you’re just dying to share some of those spells in that book James gave you. At least then you’d have someone to spend detention with,” he teased.

“Yeah, that’s right. Because James would stand by me, face the consequences with pride, instead of sneaking away like you, you little traitor,” Sirius joked.

James’ face broke out into a broad grin as he stared at his friends. “Whoa, whoa, hold on a second. Do my ears deceive me? Does this mean you guys are finally talking to each other again?”

“Apparently,” Remus said absently as his eyes roamed over the words in his book.

“That’s awesome. The Marauders are back in action. I can’t wait to get started on some much needed mischief making. I have a lot of good ideas to start off this year. No one will know what hit them.”

“I thought you were toning down your pranks so you could win fair maiden Lily’s hand.”

“Nah, after five years of trying to woe that girl, I’ve decided to cut my losses.”

“Oh James,” Remus said, spotting the hurt in his friend’s eyes.

“No worries. Like Sirius said, there are plenty of fish in the sea, plenty of birds waiting to flock to the greatness that is me.”

“And which one of these little fishes, or birdies, are you planning on capturing.”

“I already caught one,” James said smugly. “She was at my cousin’s wedding and we hit it off immediately.”

“A long distance relationship I see. Or is this girl just a figment of your desperate imagination?”

“Neither. In fact she goes to Hogwarts a year above us.”

“Who is it?” Sirius asked, truly curious.

“Alice Prewett.”

“You mean Longbottom’s girlfriend?” Sirius asked in astonishment.

“They broke up months ago,” James said defensively. “She said she couldn’t stand his mother.”

“Another red-head. Why am I not surprised?” Remus rolled his eyes.

“Isn’t it going to be hard when she suddenly leaves you all alone when this year ends? Aren’t you worried even a little bit when she realises that Frank’s mother isn’t as irritating as she first thought?”

“I’m not worried.”

“How about the fact that Frank is our Beater and will probably pummel you to death with Bludgers when he realises you’re dating his girlfriend?” Sirius asked, amused.

“Ex-girlfriend,” James corrected irritably.

“I hope this isn’t just some misguided ploy to get Lily jealous?” Remus asked, finally putting down his book.

“She’d have to actually like him first,” Sirius smirked.

“You know what Pads, bite me,” James snapped before storming out of the room.

“I think you hit a nerve,” a small voice said from the bed beside James’.

“Bloody hell Pete… When did you get here?” Sirius asked in shock, causing Peter to frown.

“I think he’s right Paddy. James is obviously torn at giving up his first crush. The least you could do is show a little bit of understanding.”

“Alright, alright, I get it. I’m an arse,” Sirius grumbled.

“Among other things,” Remus shrugged. “Just find him and apologise. I’m sure the shock alone will get him to forgive you.”

“Fine,” Sirius sighed as he got up off his bed. “But the little bugger better appreciate it or I swear-”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure James will know what a sacrifice you’re making for him. Now go,” Remus shooed.

When Sirius left the room, grumbling curses as he climbed down the stairs to search for his upset friend, Remus continued reading his book, which was actually the one given to him by his mysterious friend.

“Boy, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sirius so whipped before,” Peter said boldly now that the aforementioned teen was no longer in the room.

“Don’t worry. He’ll be back to his normal irritating self in no time,” Remus said as he came across a passage about a werewolf’s inheritance.

“You say it like I want Sirius back to his normal self. Frankly, I like this new whipped version better.”

Remus chuckled at Peter’s words, knowing that the mousy boy would never have had the guts to say that while either Sirius or James’ were there. It was unfortunate since the other two marauders would actually respect him more if he spoke his mind more often. Realising that Peter felt more at ease with him than the other two, Remus went back to reading his book, all the while wondering how long Sirius’ strange behaviour was going to last.

= =

When school started up, the whole of Hogwarts noticed the dramatic change within the Marauders. James had seemingly given up hope for Lily Evans (who claimed that she was relieved and was not in fact jealous of the pretty seventh year Gryffindor) and was now openly dating Alice Prewett. At the same time, Sirius was (for the first time since third year) without a dame or bloke hanging off of him. Many thought this was cause for concern, but both boys seemed to be as carefree as usual.

Their pranks sure didn’t suffer. In fact, the potency of their pranks on the unsuspecting was downright unnerving. It was like Armageddon had come to Hogwarts. No one ever got hurt physically. Laughter just seemed to run ramped within the halls of Hogwarts. Most of them were aimed at the Slytherins while others were just enjoyed by the general public, even the targeted.

The teachers for their part were exhausted with the two boys’ antics. But since, for the most part they were unable to catch the boys in the act, James and Sirius’s pranks didn’t suffer.

“I don’t know how you boys managed to get the whole school to drink that bouncing potion, but I severely hope you two have the antidote for it,” Professor McGonagall said sternly as she stared at the raven-headed boys.

“Whatever do you mean, Professor?” Sirius asked innocently as he literally bounced up and down in front of her.

“Surely whoever was clever enough to slip this so-called potion to every student in the school, they were clever enough to think of a way to negate the effects,” James said as he too bounced up and down, doing somersaults, before his Head of House.

As if on cue, one of the previously bouncing students walked past the Professor, books filled within her grasp.

“Miss Evans,” McGonagall said, astonished. “How in the world did you manage to stop bouncing?”

“I don’t know Professor. I just went to get some books from my dorm and the moment I stepped, or rather bounced, past the Fat Lady, I stopped bouncing,” Lily explained, looking a little disappointed by the discovery, though she tried to hide it.

“Very well… Thank you Miss Evans. You may go,” she said and watched as one of her most studious students headed towards the library to study. “As for you two, off to the Gryffindor Tower with you.”

“As you command my dear Minnie,” Sirius saluted before he and James took off bouncing towards the stairs.

“Those two will be the death of me.”

Spirits were definitely high those several days after the holidays. Even Remus, who decided to join in on his friends’ antics by helping pull off most of the pranks with them, laughed along with the other marauders as their plans unfolded.

“I think we’ve set a record for how many pranks we can pull off in a week,” Remus said as he sat in the couch in front of the fire in the common room.

“I think we’ve set a record for how many detentions we’ve gotten,” James said as he slumped in one of the chairs.

“I think we’ve set a record for how many detentions we’ve escaped from,” Peter added with a broad smile as he jumped into the other chair.

“Nah, no one can top Remmy, who hasn’t gotten a single detention since starting Hogwarts,” Sirius joked as he sat slouched elegantly in the seat beside his canine friend.

“At least you have James to keep you company,” Remus smiled cheekily.

When James laughed at the truth of Remus’ words, a hand slid over his shoulder, causing the bespectacled boy to almost jump out of his seat.

“Did I scare you?” the amused voice of Alice asked as she came into sight.

“Sweet Merlin, Alice,” James said as he held his girlfriend’s hand and pulled her to sit in his lap. “Never come up behind me like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” Alice giggled, not feeling the least bit remorseful.

“I’ll teach you to laugh at me,” James smirked before capturing Alice’s lips in a kiss.

Sirius rolled his eyes at the display, wondering if he ever sounded as sickly sweet when he was with someone. Just as he was assuring himself that he never sounded as gross as his misguided friend, the sight of another red-head caught his attention as Lily approached them.

“Are you ready for our study session, Remus?” Lily asked, her eyes darting to the kissing duo for the briefest of seconds.

“Let me just get my bag and I’ll be right with you,” Remus said, catching her glance.

As Remus got up and dashed up the stairs for his stuff, Sirius turned to the red-head (the ones whose lips weren’t attached to his friend’s).

“It appears you’ve lost your chances with our little Jamie, hey Evans,” Sirius goaded, hoping for a reaction.

“Oh how ever will I survive?” Lily scoffed scathingly as she rolled her eyes, but the bold marauder could see her irritation at the sight of Alice in James’ lap.

“Alright I’m back,” Remus said, bag over his shoulder.

“Good, one more moment with your friends and I think I’ll choke myself,” the red-head said before heading for the portrait.

Giving his friends a confused look, before his eyes fell on Sirius’ cheeky grin, Remus followed Lily out of the portrait hole. The moment the study duo were gone, James and Alice came up for air from their kiss.

“So how was it?” Sirius asked, amused by the glazed look on their faces.

“Better than expected?” Alice said, earning a smug look from James.

“I’d hype it up a bit more than that if you want to get Lily’s attention.”

“How did she react?”

“Like a barely contained fire pixie,” Sirius revealed with mirth.

“Are you sure?” James asked, doubtful. “She didn’t sound too put out.”

“Oh James, you’ve got a lot to learn about love,” Alice said as she turned to her faux beau. “If you want to know what someone is truly feeling, you must watch their eyes and lips. They are the keys to the window of their soul.”

“Very poetic,” Sirius approved.

“Why thank you, Mr. Black,” Alice smiled.

“If only you truly were after my fair James’ heart. You two would be great together.”

“Sorry to disappoint, but I only have eyes for one Gryffindor.”

“But lips for two,” Sirius smirked.

“Bet you wish it were three,” Alice flirted.

“Always…”

“Hey, stop flirting with my girl,” James said, never liking when he was ignored.

“Don’t worry James,” Alice laughed. “I have a feeling your best friend only has eyes for one Gryffindor as well. And I assure you, it isn’t me,” she said with a wink at the shocked aristocrat.

Sirius’ heart rate sped up at Alice’s words. Did she really know? Was he really that obvious?

Over the course of the beginning of term, Sirius came to the shocking realisation that his feelings for Remus weren’t as platonic as he had previously assumed. He found out about his infatuation with his friend through a very vivid dream about the two of them, bathed in chocolate, as they made love. The dream had a very intense impact on the marauder, who took to leaving the room every time he saw Remus sucking on one of those chocolate wands he had given him.

Unfortunately, Sirius was positive that he wasn’t only sexually attracted to his friend. In fact, Sirius was starting to think that he was actually falling in love with the wolf. The thought alone frightened the hell out of him.

From the moment he realised his feelings, Sirius knew he could never act on them. He had finally gotten his friend to forgive him for his stupid prank. The last thing he needed was for the wolf to start avoiding him again with this new development.

Sirius was sure Remus didn’t suspect a thing, nor James or Peter for that matter. In fact, he had been sure that no one had suspected his feelings for his friend until that very moment.

“Quick, Longbottom’s coming down the stairs. Kiss me,” James said as he looked over Alice’s shoulder.

“Oh the sacrifices I must make in the name of love,” Alice said, spotting Frank as well before locking lips with James once again, just in time for the older Gryffindor to spot them and promptly rush back up the stairs.

“I love this school,” Sirius sighed, forgetting his worries, as he watched Frank’s retreating figure.

= =

Later that evening, after returning from a grueling Quidditch practice (with Longbottom constantly aiming his Bludgers at James’ head and nearly having the two boys coming to blows), Sirius walked into his dorm, leaped onto his bed before closing the curtains and collapsing in an exhausted heap. He was followed moments later by James (whose temper wasn’t to be tested at the moment), who grabbed his clothes and headed for the showers. As Sirius was drifting off to sleep, the door opened once again before his keen hearing picked up someone dropping onto the bed next to his.

Opening his eyes and pulling the curtains back just a bit, Sirius caught sight of Remus lying in his bed. The wolf was currently on his stomach as he read what looked like one of his romance novels. Sirius guessed that it was actually, the book Remus’ secret friend had given him. A tiny bit of Sirius was a little jealous of Remus’ secret friend. Remus was practically glued to the pages of that book, and Sirius couldn’t help but wish he had been the one to give Remus that gift.

Sirius was, however, content in the knowledge that Remus liked his present just as much. In fact, the studious teen was taking out one of those decadent morsels. Sirius’ eyes were glued to his friend as Remus took the chocolate wand and delicately slid it between his lips. Remus sighed as the cocoa assaulted his taste buds.

That sound alone had the blood in Sirius’ veins rushing south towards his groin, even as his face heated up. If only Remus realised what he was doing to his dear friend as he twirled his tongue around the wand before slowly sliding it in and out of his mouth.

Sirius licked his lips and shifted in his bed, creating a delightful friction in his pants. He watched Remus swirl the wand around in his mouth and suck hard before taking it out with a pop. Then he darted his tongue out between his lips and lapped up the bit of chocolate that had escaped.

Sirius had never been so turned on in his life if the painful bulge in his constricted pants was any indication. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes away from his friend’s lips. It didn’t help matters when he started imagining said friend was sucking on a different kind of wand. Sirius impulsively thrust his pelvis hard into his sheets at the thought and barely contained a groan that threatened to escape.

“SIRIUS BLACK!” A voice shouted furiously on the other side of his bed and Sirius nearly jumped out of his skin.

Turning his head as his heart beat rapidly in his chest, Sirius came face to face with an irritated James.

“I think you and I need to have a little chat,” the bespectacled boy said sternly, grabbing onto Sirius’ arm before the other teen could protest.

Once James and Sirius were in the washroom, James used several spells to lock and soundproof the door. Then he proceeded to pace back and forth in front of his anxious friend, whose fright had caused his previous arousal to completely disappear.

“Please,” James finally said after several long seconds of silence. “Please,” he repeated a few seconds later. What James was begging for, Sirius didn’t have a clue. “Please tell me you were not just trying to get off from watching Remus,” he finally said as he suddenly stopped pacing and faced his friend.

Sirius opened his mouth with a quick denial at the tip of his tongue. But for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to lie to his best friend. Instead he snapped his mouth shut and diverted his eyes, ashamed. James growled in frustration, causing Sirius to flinch at the sound.

“I swear, sometime I think you have a death wish.”

“How long have you known?” Sirius braved to ask.

“I could ask you the same question.”

“I realised that I might like Remus a little more than normal shortly after the Christmas holiday was over. But I think I liked him before than.”

“If that’s true than you might be surprised to know that I’ve suspected the same thing since last year.”

“What! No way! How’s that possible?”

“It was little things, like that one time when you snapped at those girls who were flirting with Remus, and then suggested that the two of you move in together after we graduated.”

“I knew Remus was worried about where he’d go after he’d finished school. He was feeling uncomfortable with the idea of living with his parents for the rest of his life.”

“So you said before,” James admitted with amusement. “There were other things as well though, like how excited you were when you found out that your Animagus form was a canine like Moony.”

“Because we all knew that another dog would be the perfect companion for Moony when he changed.”

“Nice choice of words, ‘perfect companion’ to describe it.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Then there was the fact that you were never with someone on the day of the full moon,” James continued as if his friend hadn’t spoken.

“Of course I was,” Sirius insisted, shocked.

“No you weren’t. I watched you.”

“Well then it was only because I didn’t want any of them wondering where I was going every full moon. It would have given Remus away.”

“You were always thinking of our little friend, weren’t you? Let’s not forget the times when I would catch you sneaking from Remus’ bed in the morning.”

“You know he has nightmares and I’m the only one who can calm him down,” Sirius argued, wondering if he really did have feelings for his furry friend longer than even he suspected.

“There’s also the fact that Remus is the only one that could get you to do anything he wanted, even apologise to me for being an arse, and you’re always an arse so that’s quite a chore. The clincher though, was from Alice, who pointed it out for me quite boldly actually.”

“What did she say?”

“She asked me if I ever noticed how your eyes glazed over or you liked your lips whenever Remus was eating one of his chocolate wands. I guess there really is truth to finding the keys to ones soul by watching their eyes and lips. She really is quite observant.”

“Remus is very observant,” Sirius said, starting to panic. “Do you think he knows?”

“I doubt it. From the look he was giving me when I dragged you out of the room, I’d say he’s as clueless about your feelings for him as you once were.”

Instead of reassuring his friend as James had thought, his once carefree friend looked downright terrified.

“But I did realise it eventually. What if Remus does as well?”

“Than you two will shag, marry, and have lots of little cubs together.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I think Remus likes you as much, well maybe not as much, but you two are always hugging and touching each other a little too intimately. I also noticed that Remus’ never been with anyone before. Actually, if it weren’t for all of your flings, I would have thought you two were dating years ago.”

Sirius wanted to say something to that, defend himself in some way. But he found that he was too shocked at how much he really wanted James’ prediction to come true.

= =

When the duo finally returned to the dorm, it was to find Remus, lying on his back on his bed with his pillow pressed against his face.

“He’s been like that ever since I got here,” Peter said from his side of the room.

“Jeez Pete, carry a bell or something. You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Sirius said before dropping gracefully onto his bed.

“Pads, give Pete a break,” James said as he collapsed on his own bed before turning to their distressed friend.

“What’s wrong Moony?” Sirius asked, beating his friend to the punch.

Muffled sounds came from beneath Remus’ pillow, indicating that Remus had responded to the question. But none of them knew pillow-talk (well Sirius did know one kind of pillow talk, but thinking about that in relation to Remus wasn’t a good train of thought at the moment). Raising a brow at Remus’ response (and trying to resist the thoughts about Remus and him using pillow talk while making love and being bathed in chocolate), Sirius got up from his bed, walked over to Remus and tossed the pillow from his friend’s face. What met his eyes nearly broke his heart.

If Sirius was ever considered the mutt of the group, Remus was clearly the puppy. Sad, golden eyes stared up at him as his friend’s lips formed a small pout of displeasure. Sirius had an intense desire to just capture those adorable pouting lips between his own and slip his tongue between them. He wanted to make his canine friend moan into his mouth as he tasted the decadent chocolate that rested within and even feel those pouting lips wrapped around his-

“So Remus, why are you so down?” James suddenly asked, helping his friend to snap out of his dangerous train of thoughts.

“It’s my book,” Remus said as he sat up on his bed, pout still firmly in place.

“Which one,” Sirius asked, his voice huskier than he would have liked.

“The one I got for Christmas,” Remus explained. “The one from my secret friend,” he continued when Sirius raised a mocking brow at him. “I just finished reading something that hasn’t put me in the best of moods.”

“Why, what did it say?” James asked.

“Well, you know how on your seventeenth birthday, wizards get their magical inheritance? They get magical boosts of magic, or get special abilities from being part magical creature?”

“Yeah,” Sirius said as he sat down beside Remus, who rested his head against the taller boy’s shoulder.

“Well werewolves have an inheritance as well,” Remus started, missing the look Sirius and James exchanged at Remus’ position. “Apparently, our inheritance doesn’t occur until the full moon after our seventeenth birthday. After that night, the wolf in us will-” Remus stopped, too embarrassed to continue.

“Will what?” James asked in anticipation. “Come on Remus, you can’t just leave us hanging.”

“Thewolfinuswillwanttosearchforamate,” Remus mumbled in a rush, his cheeks flushing.

“I’m sorry. I don’t speak Remus-mumble. Pads, translate,” James ordered.

“What makes you think I know what he said?” Sirius asked in indignation.

Instead of answering, James just gave Sirius a ‘do you really want me to answer that question here,’ look, to which Sirius sighed.

“He said the wolf in him will want to search for a mate,” Sirius said, and then wrapped his arms around his distressed friend when Remus suddenly covered his hands over his face in shame.

“Imamonster,” Remus said, his words too muffle for James or Peter to understand, but Sirius did.

“No, you’re not a monster,” Sirius assured at James and Peter’s confused looks.

“Of course you’re not a monster!” James exclaimed. “Whatever would make you think that?”

Dropping his hands in his lap, Remus turned his head and gave James an ‘are you kidding me?’ look. To which James replied with an ‘I don’t get it,’ look.

“Everyone else in the world gets to choose who they want to spend their life with. Me, I have to rely on my stupid werewolf side to find someone.”

“So you’re like a veela,” Peter smiled.

“Not exactly, veelas connect with their soul mates from birth, since I was bitten at a young age, any chance of finding a soul mate are slim. And veelas don’t have to worry about their mates rejecting them because they have an allure to help them out.”

“Is that why you’ve never been with anyone before?” James asked, shooting Sirius another look.

“No,” Remus said defensively. “I mean, I don’t think so,” he added more miserably. “I’ve always been careful about hiding my scars. I was pretty sure it would prove difficult if I was with someone. But now that I’ve read this book, I don’t know what to think,” he said before he buried his face in his hands again and then buried them in Sirius’ shirt for good measure.

“Wait, you said the wolf will choose for you,” Peter asked. “So you could end up with a complete stranger?”

“No, nothing like that,” Remus said as he came up from within Sirius’ embrace. “It’s definitely someone I already know. It has to be because it said the wolf will search for someone it knows I trust, feel safe and at ease with. It won’t do that with a complete stranger.”

“Then what are you so worked up about?” Peter asked, and then got a pillow thrown at him for his question. “Hey!” Peter exclaimed as he threw the pillow from his face. “I was only wondering.”

“What if the person doesn’t want me? What if they’re already with someone else and choose them over me?”

“Nonsense, anyone who knows you would be crazy not to want you,” Sirius reassured, his heart rate speeding up at his statement.

“Yeah because anyone would just feel so lucky to be mated to a werewolf,” Remus said sarcastically.

“I know some people definitely would,” James said, a hint of a smirk on his lips.

“For my sake, I hope you’re right, because if my mate rejects me, I could end up going mad like Greyback.”

“And we definitely don’t want that,” Peter said, to which another pillow was thrown at him. “Okay, I deserved that.”

= =

Later that night, as Sirius was unwrapping one of the chocolate wands he had swiped from Remus’ trunk, he heard rustling coming from the bed next to him. He sighed, wondering how much his friend was going to have to go through before he caught a break. As he slipped the milk-chocolaty morsel in his mouth, his curtains were suddenly pulled open and Remus was standing before him.

“Did you have a bad dream?” Sirius asked as the teen crawled into his bed.

“I did,” Remus said simply as he slipped under the covers. “It was about this guy who was going through my things. And he had the nerve to steal one of my chocolate wands,” he said, his gaze trailing to the chocolate wand in Sirius’ hand.

“Oh,” Sirius said, chuckling nervously.

If there was one thing the aristocrat knew, it was that touching Remus’ chocolate was like an invitation to have your limbs cursed off.

“I was just… I mean I needed…,” Sirius tried to say.

Sirius tried to explain and apologise to his friend, but it seemed that his brain and mouth didn’t want to cooperate. Giving up, he just handed the barely touched wand over to his friend in surrender.

However, instead of taking the wand back, Remus bent his head towards the wand and slipped it between his lips. Sirius’ breath hitched in his throat as he watched his friend’s lips move up and down the wand, his tongue darting out as he took the chocolate deeper.

“Remus,” Sirius said in a husky voice as he watched his friend.

Looking up, Remus merely smiled at the glazed look in his friend’s eyes. He then let the wand escape his lips with a pop that had the blood in Sirius’ veins rushing south. Remus then let his tongue slowly slip between his lips, licking up the chocolate that coated them.

“You know what I think,” Remus asked in a wispy voice as he gazed at the dazed teen.

“No what,” Sirius said, his eyes solely focused on the chocolate-coated lips.

“I think I would rather be sucking on a different kind of wand.”

As Remus spoke, Sirius nearly jumped from his bed as he felt his friend’s hand grazing his thigh. Suddenly, Remus was straddling him, sitting directly over Sirius’ attentive arousal. Then the wolf leaned in and said softly into his ear.

“I could do all sorts of naughty things with this wand,” he whispered in a husky voice of his own, turning Sirius on even more. “I could stroke it,” he said, his fingers wrapping around the aroused teen’s aching member. “I could lick it, suck on it,” he said, nibbling on Sirius’ ear. “I could even take a little ride on it. How would you like that?”

“I would like that a lot,” Sirius groaned, thrusting into Remus’ fingers.

“I just bet you would,” Remus chuckled. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint you, now would I?”

Unable to speak, Sirius could only shake his head. Then he watched as his usually reserved friend lowered his head until it was just mere inches from his exposed cock. Remus then licked his lips, Sirius doing the same in anticipation, before the wolf took the whole of his friend’s member in his mouth.

Sirius sighed in bliss as the length of him was engulfed. He shuddered, delightful jolts of electricity coursing through his veins, when Remus moaned as he bobbed his head up and down.

“Merlin Remus,” Sirius groaned.

Remus chuckled, letting Sirius’ length escape his lips with a sound pop. Sirius’ groaned quickly turned into a whimper at the loss of Remus’ lips around him.

“Don’t worry,” Remus said huskily as he straddled the other boy once more. “I’m not done with you yet.”

“Funny,” Sirius said with an intense look in his eyes. “I was just about to say the same thing.”

The next thing Remus knew, Sirius had him naked and lying on his back. Sirius hovered over him, spreading the wolf’s legs apart, as his throbbing manhood poked at Remus’ opening.

“What are you waiting for,” Remus teased, thrusting upwards so his entrance brushed against Sirius’ leaking member. “I know you want to.”

Griping Remus thighs to his chest, Sirius leaned forward and pushed all the way into Remus’ hole with one powerful thrust. The usually quiet teen gasped out and arched his back up in bliss.

Pulling out almost all the way, Sirius thrust in once against, hitting that sweet spot within the wolf. Over and over again Sirius thrust, faster and harder, making their bodies sweat as their skin tingled with pleasure. Feeling himself coming closer and closer to completion, Sirius grabbed onto Remus’ own leaking cock and stroked it in time with his thrusts.

He could feel himself getting bigger and bigger. At any moment he knew he would explode. Sirius bit onto his lips and as he was about to come, he was suddenly jolted with a douse of cold water washing over him.

“What the bloody hell!” Sirius screamed as he shot up from his bed.

Looking up, Sirius found that he had been lying in his bed, Remus no where in sight, and an empty bucket dangling in the air. The next thing he knew, he was suddenly dry and the bucket of water that had turned over on him had turned back into his alarm clock.

“Are you awake yet?” Remus asked as he suddenly pulled open the curtain, letting streams of light shine through.

Sirius groaned as he slumped on his bed. It had been just another one of his dreams. He was really starting to hate those dreams. Actually, it was a love-hate relationship. He loved it while it was happening. But he could never seem to tell whether they were dreams or not until after he had woken up.

“Was it the bucket that got you?” Remus asked as he was unaware of his friend’s turmoil. “It got James as well, though his was funnier because he actually fell out of his bed,” he laughed before he saw the dazed look on his friend’s face. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just peachy,” Sirius grumbled sarcastically as he propped himself up with his elbows, “except for the fact that I’m going to strangle Pete when I get my hands on him.”

“You’ll have to wait in line. James’ currently got first dibs,” Remus smiled. “Hurry up and get dressed. Breakfast is almost over.”

“Can’t I just have a few more minutes?” Sirius asked, not completely over his dream.

“I’d advice against that. You’re going to need your energy this morning. We have double Potions with the Slytherins first thing.”

Groaning, Sirius slumped back on his bed and screwed his eyes shut, willing the images of his dream to go away. When he opened them again, it was to find Remus gone. Now Sirius was only left with the aching desire to have his dreams turn into reality.

= =

As the days leading up to the full moon approached, Remus (whose temper was usually short so close to this time of the month) seemed even more irritable than usual.

“Don’t worry, Pads. Moony’s just PMSing,” James reassured his friend after the wolf had snapped at his canine companion for daring to laugh in his near vicinity.

“This is more than just Moony’s normal Pre-Moon-Syndrome, Prongs,” Sirius spat as he and James sat in the common room after classes had ended that day. “His birthday is in less than two months. He’s stressing out about his stupid inheritance.”

“Than I suggest you comfort him instead of bitching about it to me,” James spat back.

“You know what, maybe I will,” Sirius said, before getting up from the couch and dashing up the stairs.

When Sirius opened the door to their dorm, it was to find Remus on his bed, hurriedly searching through his ‘romance novel’ as he sat on his legs with his back to the door. He had been searching through that book on and off ever since he found out about the wolf’s inheritance.

“You know, if there is a way out of this inheritance thing, I’m sure you’ll find it,” Sirius said as he tentatively approached his friend.

Sighing at the comment, Remus slammed the book shut and tossed it onto the table next to his bed.

“Sorry I snapped at you,” he said, not looking at his friend. “Pre-Moony and all,” he tried to explain.

“It’s okay. I get it,” Sirius said as he sat on his bed.

“Do you?” Remus asked, his eyes finally locking with the other boy’s. “Do you really get it?”

“Maybe not as much as I would like,” Sirius said hesitantly, realising that trying to comfort Remus might not have been such a good idea.

“Well that’s lovely,” Remus said sarcastically as he flopped back down on his pillow. “If my best friends don’t even understand me, how the bloody hell am I going to get this stupid mate of mine to!”

Sirius flinched at Remus’ raised voice, not used to the usually quiet boy cursing. He didn’t have a response to the question, and really wished he did. A part of him had hoped, when he had first heard about the inheritance, that the wolf would choose him for a mate.

That thought was quickly discarded though, when he remembered his stupid prank on Snivellus. After that instance, Remus had sworn that he could never trust Sirius again. Sure, Remus had forgiven him, but trust and forgiveness were two different things.

“Most werewolves go insane and become bloodthirsty beasts when their mates reject them,” Remus said in a defeated tone. “I’m not the greatest of catches. I don’t have people practically lining up to date me like you and James do.”

“Nonsense,” Sirius said as he rushed to his friend’s bed. “You’re smart, clever, funny, handsome,” he said, his heart rate picking up at the last bit. “I bet there are loads of people who would love to have you choose them as your mate.”

“But what if they don’t?” Remus whimpered, terrified as he buried his face in Sirius’ clothes.

“Then I’ll convince them otherwise.”

“What are you going to do? Curse them until they fall in love with me,” Remus sniffed as he laughed.

“That’s a possibility,” Sirius smiled, not completely ruling it out. After all, if Moony didn’t choose him, he’d be damned if he let whoever he did choose turn his precious Remus into a monster like Greyback.

“Well, I don’t think that’s very ethical, or legal.”

“Legal schmegal,” Sirius continued as he found himself lying on Remus’ bed, with his crush wrapped contently in his arms. “If there’s anything I can do to make sure you stay our kind, lovable Remus, than I’ll do it.”

“Well, if my mate is as caring as you are, I don’t think I’ll have to worry.”

“You should be so lucky,” Sirius said jokingly, though he meant every word.

“Maybe,” Remus said tiredly before slowly drifting off to sleep.

“Definitely,” Sirius whispered to the drowsing boy.

= =

As the night of the full moon came and went, Remus appeared to be back to his normal self. He was as studious as ever, played pranks with his friends (though didn’t get detention with them), and laughed and cheered with the crowd as Ravenclaw beat Slytherin in their Quidditch match near the end on the month. It was like Remus’ little breakdown had never happened.

He even helped plan a little surprise birthday party for a certain, red-headed, Gryffindor Prefect.

“I can’t believe you guys did all this,” Lily said as she looked around the common room.

She and Remus had just come back from their study session to find the room unusually packed with birthday streamers, party food, and a large banner that read ‘Happy Seventeenth Birthday’ in big, bold, red and gold letters.

“Any excuse for us to throw a party,” Remus said before leaving her so she could mingle with her friends.

The party was jammed packed with students, most of them wanting to wish the birthday girl a happy inheritance while some of them only showed up to get closer to two certain marauders.

“Back off ladies, he’s mine,” Alice said over the music as two girls tried to get James to notice them.

As if to prove her point, Alice promptly wrapped her arms around James’ neck and captured his lips within her own. This display was not only noticed by the two girls (who frowned and walked away in disappointment), but also by Longbottom and the birthday girl.

Unfortunately, while James had Alice to fend off the ladies for him, Sirius was left defenceless as (past as well as wannabe future) girls and guys approached him. A part of Sirius had hoped that Remus would get jealous of the attention he was getting, but the smirking wolf seemed to be enjoying watching Sirius trying to fend off his suitors.

“Serves you right,” Remus gloated as Sirius finally escaped and slid beside him on the couch. “I told you chasing after everyone like you do would get you into trouble one of these days.”

“I thought you were talking about getting one of them knocked up or something,” Sirius panted.

“You should read Hogwarts: A History sometime. Maybe then you’d realise that you can’t get anyone ‘knocked up’ as long as you’re within these walls.”

“Why read the book when I have you to tell me these things?”

“I give up,” Remus sighed.

“It’s time for the birthday cake!” Someone shouted. A few seconds later, the light had gone out and the entire room was bathed in darkness except for the light on the candles in the cake. A chorus of ‘Happy Birthday to You,’ shortly followed, leaving the normally collected Prefect to hide her face in her hands in embarrassment.

“You’re very lucky, Lily,” one of her friends said as the song ended.

“Why’s that?”

“Because your seventeenth birthday’s on the night of the new moon,” her other friend explained.

“Yeah, they say that having your birthday on this day is extra special, because any wish you make when you blow out your candles will be sure to come true.”

“That’s rubbish,” Lily laughed.

“Try it and see. Wish for something that you really want, and then see if it comes true.”

In the darkness of the room, no one could see Lily’s eyes darting to the corner, where James and Alice were currently locked in a battle of the lips. No one that is, except for two canines that watched her every move.

Sirius smirked at the girl’s obviousness. He was hoping that she’d temp fate and make the wish he knew she wanted to make. Remus though, was conflicted. A part of him prayed that she wasn’t going to do what he suspected, while another part of him had wished the new moon had fallen on his seventeenth birthday instead.

Finally Lily blew out her candles, her eyes flicking over to James and Alice once more before a satisfied smirk formed on her lips.

“What did you wish for?” One of her friends asked when the light eventually came back on.

“Don’t tell anyone, Lily,” her other friend warned hurriedly. “If you do, the opposite will be sure to happen.”

“Guys, you know I don’t believe in that kind of stuff,” Lily laughed. “I just wished for good whether this season.”

“Well now that you’ve told us, we’ll be getting the worst whether ever,” her superstitious friend said.

Lily rolled her eyes at her friends’ antics, as presents were suddenly presented to her. After the opening of presents, some of which from people she didn’t even know, the party resumed.

“So do you feel any different?” Remus asked as the birthday girl joined him in the couch.

“Not really. I mean my fingers keep tingling, but other than that, I feel pretty much the same.”

“That’s actually very normal for a Muggle-born,” Remus said matter-of-factly. “With a slim chance of having mixed blood, like from a veela or vampire, the most you’ll probably get is a boost in magical energy. For instance, wandless magic might be accessible for you now, or you might find certain areas of magic easier to do, like Transfiguration or Charms.”

“I hope it’s the latter. I’ve grown too used to using a wand.”

“I bet there’s a wand in particular you’d like to be using,” Sirius commented with a smirk.

“Behave Sirius,” Remus said absently.

“Personally, I can’t wait for James to come into his inheritance,” Alice said as she sat in James’ lap as they took up the chair by the fire.

“And why’s that?” Sirius asked.

“Because than he’ll be of age and I could do all sorts of wicked things to him,” she said cheekily as she slowly ran her finger along James’ face, which earned a devilish look from her faux boyfriend.

“Why wait?” James asked as he played along.

“Patience, love. All good things come to those who wait,” she said, resting her finger on James’ lips.

“Excuse me,” Lily said, suddenly feeling nauseated as she got up from the couch.

As Lily left the quartet, a shattering crash was suddenly heard from behind them. When everyone turned to the sound, they found Frank Longbottom waving his wand at broken glass on the floor. Then with two flicks of his wrist, Longbottom had the shattered glass forming back into a small plate before the contents of the plate (assorted pastries that had been scattered across the floor) vanished.

“Looks like someone has the case of the butterfingers,” Sirius said in amusement.

= =

As the weekend came and went, the weather outside Hogwarts hadn’t changed much. It had snowed, of course, two inches over night, leaving the students with the urge to make snow forts/men/women/angels and have snow fights.

“And have snow pudding,” James added as he and the rest of the marauders trekked in the snow towards Herbology after lunch.

“Snow pudding? What’s that?” Peter asked, giving the other teen a strange look.

“I’m glad you asked,” Sirius said with a mischievous grin the mousy boy failed to interpret. “You see, it’s a gift, a present of sorts. First I grab a handful of snow like this,” he demonstrated as he stopped to scoop up a big wad of snow in his hand, getting the full attention of the unsuspecting marauder. “Then I roll it, pat it, and mark it with a ‘P’-”

“Pads don’t,” Remus warned, not liking where this was going.

“Don’t what?” Peter asked naively. “I want to know what a snow pudding is.”

Sirius turned to Remus, puppy-dog eyes firmly in place as he held the ball of snow eagerly in his hand. Remus only rolled his eyes before dismissively waving his hand at Sirius, giving the other teen permission to continue.

“Don’t say I didn’t try to help,” Remus said as he saw an evil grin appear on Sirius’ face.

“Now as I was saying,” Sirius continued. “I mark it with a ‘P’,” he smirked as he threw the ball of snow in Peter’s face, “before I chuck it at your face with laughter and glee.”

“I tried to warn you,” Remus sighed at the sight of his surprised friend and the sounds of James and Sirius’ laughter.

“Ah gross, that had pieces of dirt in it!” Peter spluttered indignantly as he tried to swipe the snow out of his mouth.

“Of course it did,” Sirius said, looking insulted at Peter’s suggestion that it shouldn’t. “Everyone knows that good pudding needs spices in it.”

“So how was it Pete,” James asked, leaning on Sirius as they tried to stay up straight through their laughter, “besides crunchy?”

“Cold,” Peter frowned, wiping his face, “wet and cold.”

= =

As the day continued and classes had ended for the day, a new development had James deciding that it was time to take his animagus companion aside for a little chat.

“I think it’s time, Messer Padfoot, that you and I have a little talk,” the bespectacled said as he cornered his friend in their dorm.

“About what,” Sirius asked with disinterest as he rested on his bed while flipping idly through a Quidditch magazine.

“About you being Moony’s mate,” he said as he sat down on his bed.

That got Sirius’ attention.

Sirius’ head snapped up at James’ words, his eyes darting around the room as if expecting something … or someone … to pop out of nowhere and pounce on the unsuspecting teen.

“Don’t worry, Moony’s at his study session with Evans.”

“It must be hard,” Sirius smirked, recovering from his shock, “having the object of your wet dreams be bosom buddies with one of your best buds while she continues to think you’re despicable.”

“We’re not talking about my love life. We’re talking about yours.”

“What love life? I haven’t been with anyone in over a month.”

“And we both know why. You’re hoping that Moony will choose you as a mate and the two, or rather three of you will run off into the sunset and have lots of litters of puppies.”

“Your point,” Sirius asked, hoping to cut this little ‘chat’ short.

“There’s no point. I’m just wondering, if you’re so desperate to be Remus’ mate, why in the bloody hell are you going out with that Hufflepuff sixth year?” James asked, his voice rising by the end.

“Who told you?” Sirius asked nervously as he sat up on his bed.

“Pete.”

“Bloody traitor,” Sirius mumbled as he turned his head away from the look on his friend’s face.

“Sirius!”

“What!”

“What possessed you to ask her out?”

“I didn’t ask her out. She asked me.”

“Then why did you say yes?” James corrected, his temper flaring.

“Because, I’m a hormonal teenager and like we established at the beginning of this little discussion, I haven’t been with anyone in almost two months,” Sirius said, his own voice rising through his frustration. “I’m suffering from withdrawal and just need a quick fix,” he defended himself as he got up from his bed and started pacing.

“This is going to come back and bite you in the arse, you know,” James warned.

“Hopefully, she will,” Sirius smirked, though there was bitterness in his voice.

“Pads, I’m serious!” James yelled, frustrated beyond belief.

“So am I,” he full out smiled.

“Stop fooling around! Remus is already a wreck, thinking that his mate might already be with someone else!”

“And the chances of that mate being me are next to zero! Remus told me himself that he could never fully trust me again, and that’s one of the things the wolf is looking for in his mate,” Sirius confessed, his temper flaring as well, “so let’s stop deluding ourselves in thinking there’s going to be any sunset riding or little puppies in the future for me and him because there isn’t,” he ranted, his heart racing and face red.

“There definitely won’t be if you keep this up,” James insisted, his tone cold. “You need to put an end to this before you both end up getting hurt.”

“I’ll start taking your advice when you start taking it yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“This little farce of a relationship that’s going on between you and Alice,” Sirius said, going on the offensive.

“That’s completely different,” James said dismissively.

“Oh really, how so,” the mutt asked, eager to hear James talk himself out of this one.

“Because we both know that Remus likes you,” James said in frustration, tired of having to repeat himself to his dense friend. “You don’t have to find out otherwise through a fake relationship. I, on the other hand, do.”

“And how’s that going?” Sirius asked with his arms folded in mock interest.

“It’s going…” James started unsurely. “Alice thinks Lily is coming around but I honestly don’t see it,” he confessed dejectedly.

“Well then, my friend, I guess you and me are in the same boat.”

“I don’t like boats,” James grumbled.

“Neither do I, my friend. I prefer riding by air myself.”

= =

“So Remus,” Lily said as she finished up her essay ‘Discuss the effects of the Draught of the Living Dead’ for their Potions class. “How are things going for you in the Black department?”

“There not going at all,” Remus said, his eyes focused on his own essay, though Lily could see that she had distracted him.

“What, why not,” Lily asked, eager to help her friend. “I thought you were going to take my advice and seduce him.”

“For starters, I told you that I was rubbish at seduction. Sirius didn’t even notice with all of his groupies surrounding him. Secondly, it’s kind of hard seducing someone when you’ve been angry with them for most of the year. And thirdly, certain things have recently come to my attention that will make my falling for my best friend not even matter.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s nothing. I just know that come my birthday, I’ll have a whole new set of problems.”

“Does this have anything to do with your monthly problem?”

At those words, Remus snapped his head at Lily, his eyes filled with surprise. “What?”

“Or should I say furry little problem,” She corrected, watching her speechless friend. “You know, at first I thought you had a poorly behaved rabbit or something,” she said thoughtfully. “Then I started noticing things about you. Like how you always seemed to get cranky around the same time of the month and then disappear a few days later. You also always seem to reschedule our study sessions at that same time.”

“I’ve been visiting my mother,” Remus quickly lied, his rehearsed line spilling from his lips in fear of loosing such a good friend because of his condition. “She’s very sick and I visit her once a month and sometimes her condition stresses me out,” he explained in one breath.

“Along with the pet name Potter and Black gave you, ‘Moony,’ it all just makes sense,” Lily said, ignoring Remus’ lie. “Don’t worry though. You’re condition doesn’t change how I feel about you. I’m still your friend,” she reassured him as she rested her hand on Remus’ in comfort.

“You’re the one that gave me that book for Christmas, aren’t you?” Remus guessed.

“Lord Withers is supposed to be the expert when it comes to magical creatures, and I heard Dumbledore mention this book once to Professor Kettleburn.”

“Dumbledore, why am I not surprised he’s involved.”

“Because the man’s a genius, even though he acts as crazy as a loon most of the time,” Lily grinned, her eyes shinning with her smile. “How’s the book going anyway?”

“I really don’t think we should be discussing this here,” Remus said, turning his head around, hoping no one was eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Don’t worry. I cast a charm around us a few minutes ago. All anyone will hear when they come near us is a faint buzzing sound,” she reassured the paranoid boy. “So… What did the book say?”

“Most of the things in the book, I already knew about from other books. It just seemed to put a new light on it is all. No prejudice and all that.”

“But there was something in there that made you think being with Sirius would be impossible, something that will happen after your birthday.”

“It actually happens on the first moon after my birthday. Apparently, the other side of me will start looking for a partner then … a life partner.”

“You mean like a mate?” Lily asked, unfazed. “And you don’t think your werewolf side will choose Black?” She continued, and then rolled her eyes when Remus’ head shot around the room at the word ‘werewolf,’ as if expecting the students in the library to charge at him with pitchforks.

“Please don’t say that word,” Remus begged as his expression turned desperate.

“Fine,” Lily said dismissively. “We’ll just stick with your friends’ term of endearment. So you don’t think your ‘furry little problem’ will choose Black?”

“Knowing my luck… The book says that it will look for someone it feels I can trust and feel comfortable with. It makes sense considering, but something happened at the beginning of term that has me worried.”

“Do you not trust him anymore because of it?” The red-head asked sympathetically.

“Not as much as I used to. No,” Remus sighed, defeated. “I used to trust him above all others. But recently there are people I trust more, and I fear the other me will take that into account.”

“But surely he knows that you love Black.”

“I don’t think he’s looking for love, only trust. Unfortunately, you can love someone without trusting them, and trust someone you don’t love. I just hope he knows the difference, but I’m preparing myself just in case.”

“Prepare for the worst. Hope for the best,” she summarized. “What if your little problem does choose Black?”

“Then that’s one problem solved and another created.”

“Why?”

“I’m not foolish enough to think that a major player like Sirius Black would appreciate being tied down to one person.”

“I think he’d make the exception for you,” Lily said, a knowing smile on her lips.

“If he did, it would be out of obligation, and I don’t want that.”

“It might not come to that,” Lily suggested. At Remus scoff, she continued. “As much as I think there are better choices for you than Black, I have noticed that he hasn’t been in any flings since you two made up. He seems to be settling down a bit. He might not see this mate thing as an obligation.”

“One can only hope,” Remus sighed, before a smirk formed on his lips. “Or they can always make a wish for it on a new moon birthday.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lily said as she feigned reading over her essay.

“I saw that look you gave James and Alice on your birthday. Others might believe that gripe about wishing for good weather. However, I think someone might have actually been wishing for a certain duo to break up.”

“Please,” Lily scoffed. “They’d have to actually be dating for that to happen,” she said before turning to Remus with an intense look in her eye. “Do you honestly think that I believe for a second that James is dating Alice Prewett?”

“Stranger things have happened,” Remus said vaguely.

“But this is just absurd. He has been in love with me for the better part of five years. You don’t just get over someone after so long overnight,” she said, more irate than she intended.

“No one said he was over you,” Remus said wisely as he watched his friend calm herself down as a small sense of hope shone in her eyes. “But he is of the impression that his dreams of running off into the sunset with you have only been just that, dreams. Is it so wrong of him to want to move on?”

“If he loves me as much as he claims to, then yes,” Lily said stubbornly, her eyes shinning.

“But is that fair to him?”

“I don’t know,” Lily admitted, defeated as she started packing away her things. “I have to go.”

In no time at all, Lily was packed and leaving the library in a hurry. All Remus could do as he watched his friend leaving in near tears was hope that things worked out for his two friends, and soon. Otherwise, there would be a lot more tears to come.

= =

As Sirius was up in the dorms, playing exploding snap with James, Remus came back from the library. The look in his eyes seemed intense, almost fierce and both boys wondered which one of them would be getting an earful from their friend. When Remus’ eyes snapped to Sirius, the grim gulped anxiously.

“I had a very interesting conversation with Amelia Bones a few minutes ago,” the wolf said a little too calmly.

“Who,” Sirius asked, and he knew instantly he had said the wrong thing at the flash of anger in Remus’ eyes.

“The Hufflepuff girl in our year,” Remus explained and noticed Sirius’ slight flinch. “She was gushing to me a while ago about how excited she was about your date,” he said as he walked to his bed and dropped his books on the table next to it. “But that’s hard for me to believe when you didn’t even know who she was.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Sirius assured.

“Maybe not to you,” Remus said, his temper flaring, “but Bones is of the impression that you two will ride off into the sunset and have lots of little babies together.”

“She’ll get over it,” Sirius said dismissively.

“Just like McCormick and Walden did? Siri you can’t keep breaking people’s hearts like this,” Remus said, more frustrated than angry. “It isn’t right.”

“What do you want me to do, become celibate?”

“No, but you could show some consideration for other people. Honestly, I thought you were finally starting to grow up,” Remus scolded and was grateful when he saw the shame in Sirius’ eyes. “And as for you,” he continued as his gaze snapped to James so suddenly, the animagus thought he might have whiplash.

“What did I do?”

“I hope you’re sham of a relationship doesn’t come and bite you in the arse. And if this ends up hurting more people than it helps, I will personally make sure you regret it.”

“Ah Moony, you’re such a spoiled sport,” James joked, though he was feeling a little unnerved by the look in Remus’ eyes.

“I mean it, James. If you hurt Lily because of this thing you’re doing with Alice, you’ll have me to answer to. And trust me, you don’t want that,” he promised before leaving the room once again in a huff.

“You see what you did,” James hissed as the door slammed shut.

“Me? He was mad at you too,” Sirius argued defensively.

“More so than he would have been had he not already been mad at you. I told you this would come and bite you in the arse.”

“It seems to have bitten both of us my dear Prongs. And I don’t think I care for the pain.”

“Me neither.”

= =

As the month rolled forward, Remus’ irritation with his two friends only seemed to grow. Neither boy seemed to be prepared to halt their misguided ways. Even though some seemed to benefit from it (like Alice Prewett and Amelia Bones), others weren’t doing too well (like Lily, Frank Longbottom, James and Sirius’ fan club, and Remus himself). In fact, the only one of his friends that wasn’t annoying him at the moment was Peter.

As it got closer to Remus’ time of the month, the wolf boy was more irritable than usual. Everything sent him over the edge, from shouting at random students for the smallest incursions to having the overwhelming urge to burst out into tears at the most inappropriate moments. After snapping at a second year for eating too loudly at dinner, Remus resolved to get a little bit of help.

“Here you go, a Pepper-Up potion,” the nurse said as she handed Remus the bottle. “It will curb some of your more severe mood swings. I can’t give you more than that, though, since I don’t know what the side effects would be so close to your transformation.”

“Thanks,” he said as he took the potion in his hand. “I’ve been so on edge lately. Just a moment ago, I wanted to bite someone’s hands off for snapping their wrists.”

“Disgusting habit really, snapping your wrists. Are these mood swings due to your upcoming birthday?” The nurse asked wisely.

“How did-”

“Dumbledore,” she explained as if he should have known.

“Of course,” Remus nodded, as if he should have known. “I guess it doesn’t help that my birthday is less than a month away. Once that next moon passes, my life will change forever.”

“I do hope things work out for you.”

“I hope so too,” he said mournfully as he took the cork off the vial and downed the potion in one go before cringing at the taste. “As much as I need this potion, I sometimes think it’s not worth the torture to my taste buds.”

“I believe that was the point when making this potion. Too much of a good thing can turn out bad for you sometimes,” she said as she took back the empty vial. “If you don’t see a change in your behaviour soon, come back and see me as soon as possible. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day,” she said, a smile donning her face for her favourite patient.

“Thank you.”

= =

As it turned out, the rest of Remus’ day wasn’t all that enjoyable. He didn’t snap at random students anymore, since no one dared approach him for fear of extracting his wrath. His friends were even avoiding him, and Remus was starting to feel extremely alone. So alone in fact, that he had to take drastic measures to cheer up.

When James and Sirius (and even Peter) came back from their Quidditch practice it was to find Remus lounging on his bed, book in hand and strawberry-flavoured chocolate wand in mouth.

“So how was practice?” Remus asked as he leisurely sucked on his wand.

At the sight of his friend, practically lapping up chocolate from his pouting, kissable lips, Sirius rushed into the washroom without a word.

“That bad,” Remus said, misreading Sirius’ reaction.

“It was terrible,” James said furiously, tossing his broom across his bed in frustration. “If I have to duck one more Bludger because of Longbottom, I’m going to strangle him with my bare hands.”

“Well he couldn’t possibly be doing it on purpose, now could he?” Remus asked sarcastically. “I mean, why would he? It’s not like you’re dating his girlfriend in some misguided scheme to win another girl’s heart, now are you?”

“Ex-girlfriend, Remus, and stuff it,” James said as he slouched on his bed. “I’m not in the mood to hear your gripe right now.”

“Would you rather I gripe at you when you’re in a good mood then?” Remus asked, amused.

“I would rather you not gripe at all if you could help it.”

“Sorry. I can’t do that, since I seem to be the only sane person in this little group of ours.”

“What’s little?” Sirius asked when he finally came back. “Certainly nothing to do with me,” he smirked.

“Remus is basically blaming me for Longbottom being an arse,” James grumbled.

“That’s rich, ‘Longbottom’ … ‘arse’ … couldn’t have put it better myself,” he said as he lounged on his bed. “The guy’s lost his nut.”

“I wonder why,” Remus said, his sarcasm reaching its peak. “Could it be that he’s hurt that James in dating his girlfriend? Because to him that’s what Alice is,” Remus said in a rush when James opened his mouth to protest. “It obviously doesn’t matter that they’ve broken up. He still loves her. How would you feel if Lily started dating someone, Snape for example?”

“I would kill him,” James said in a deadly tone.

“With Bludgers maybe,” Remus asked, making his point. “You guys have to realise that the human heart is a very fragile thing. If you poke and prod it enough times, it will break.”

“Guess who?” A sudden voice announced, shocking the four teens in the room. “Oh, you’re decent,” she said with a mischievous grin on her lips.

“Hey Alice,” James said as he scratched the back of his head in discomfort.

“Why so glum, love,” the red-head asked as she walked into the room and promptly sat on his bed, to which Remus rolled his eyes.

“Nothing,” James sighed. “Remus is just being his annoying self again.”

“So nothing new then,” she said with an amused smile on her lips. “Well how about I give you something to cheer you up?”

“I doubt you could say anything that will cheer me up right now.”

“We’ll see. I saw you guys at practice today. It was … very interesting to watch.”

“I bet it was,” James grumbled.

“You know who else saw you?” Alice asked with a mischievous grin on her face. “My red-headed sister in arms, and she was quite concerned with a certain Captain’s well being.”

“She was?” James asked as his interest peaked. “I didn’t even think she liked Quidditch.”

“She was with a few of your fan-girls that I might have convinced to drag her along.”

“You little sneak.”

“I try. I just wanted her to see you in action when you don’t know she’s watching, and I must say, you put on quite a show. Her eyes never left you once and she cringed every time that Bludger came pelting at your head. She was griping her scarf so hard that by the time practice was over her knuckles were as white as snow. But the real fun didn’t happen until I ‘accidentally’ bumped into her.”

“You didn’t,” Remus hoped, though knew it was no use.

“Of course I did, and it was a good thing to. Our conversation was a real eye-opener.”

~flashback~

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there,” Alice said in false surprise as she bumped into the red-head near the bottom of the Quidditch stands. “Lily Evans, I didn’t know you were a Quidditch fan.”

“I’m not. My friends are,” Lily said briskly as she continued to descend the stands.

“I’m not one myself,” Alice said as she followed her target, “but I like to support my boyfriend,” she smiled, waiting for the other red-head to take the bait.

“Which one,” Lily said predictably as they reached the bottom of the stands.

“Well someone’s a little touchy today.”

“Forgive me, but I’m not in the best of moods,” Lily said, not sounding the least bit sorry.

“I must admit, neither am I,” Alice agreed. “I nearly had a heart attack every time that Bludger came at James’ head.”

“If you ask me, I think it would serve him right.”

“Excuse me, but I don’t think anyone deserves a Bludger to the head.”

“You obviously don’t know Potter very well,” Lily scoffed as they entered the castle. “The boy is a menace. A few blows to the head might do him some good, knock some sense into him.”

“I think he has a lot of sense. The things that clever brain of his comes up with, I find quite ingenious.”

“I’ll admit that he’s clever, but I also think he’s childish,” Lily said irritably. “There are far better things he could do with his knowledge besides tormenting the general student population,” she said as she turned to the seventh year. “He could do great things if he just applied himself more, and he was proving that so well before the Christmas holidays.”

“I think it’s high time you learned to accept people for who they are, rather than who you think they should be,” Alice said at the jab Lily obviously aimed at her.

“Too true Miss Prewett,” Professor McGonagall said as she passed by.

“Thank you Professor.”

“But Professor, she’s talking about Potter,” Lily tried to make her idol understand.

“Well in that case…”

“See,” Lily said smugly as she turned back to the other red-head.

“Well then I guess it’s a good thing I’m his girlfriend and not you,” Alice said as she stepped closer to the Prefect.

“We’ll just see about that,” Lily countered before the two girls huffed and went their separate ways.

“Teenagers,” McGonagall sighed, thankful that she had grown out of that adolescent stage long ago.

~flashback finished~

“She didn’t,” James said, thinking his ears were deceiving him.

“She did,” Alice smiled in triumph. “I’m starting to wonder if maybe I should be keeping an eye on that girl. She might be after my sweet, clever boyfriend. And we wouldn’t want that.”

“Not yet anyway,” James smiled as his mood lifted.

“You guys are unbelievable,” Remus huffed as he packed his stuff and got up from his bed.

“Ah come on Moony,” James tried to reason. “What we’re doing is obviously working.”

“But at what cost, James? I think what you’re doing in wrong, I think its torture, and I will not support it.”

“You won’t tell her, will you?” James asked as he anxiously got up from the bed.

“Don’t worry, James,” he said with a scathing expression. “You won’t need me to have this whole thing come crashing down on your head. Your little scheming will do that well enough for you.”

“If it’s of any consolation,” Sirius said suddenly, stopping Remus. “I broke it off with Bones,” he said, wanting the wolf to at least not be mad at him.

“I know,” Remus said, his expression turning sad. “Moaning Myrtle was telling me that Bones was crying in her washroom and I figured what must have happened,” the wolf said before leaving the room with the intention of seeing Madam Pomfrey, the potion apparently having worn off.

= =

The days leading up to the full moon were always trying for Remus and anyone who was unlucky enough to cross his path. He was irritable, snappish, inconsolable and basically a pain to deal with. Most of his friends assumed he was that way because the wolf within him was nearer to the surface during that time (his Pre-Moony-Syndrome or PMS as his friends had affectionately dubbed it).

Remus encouraged this assumption, because the real reason he was this way was rather embarrassing. He had nightmares. Now he knew he shouldn’t feel embarrassed that he had nightmares, but Remus knew all too well that sometimes you just can’t help how you feel about something.

Most of his nightmares were about one thing and one thing alone. The night Greyback had bitten him. It had been a traumatic experience when it had happened, and the trauma had lasted even now.

Sometimes he would wake up screaming and in a cold sweat. He wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep for the rest of the night and end up being very cranky in the morning. If he were lucky, Sirius would wake him from his nightmare and then stay with him the entire night. The misty-day scent coming from his crush always helped lull him back to sleep.

The night before this particular moon was no different.

“I’m sorry I woke you,” Remus said after he was awakened from his nightmare.

“No worries. I was already up,” Sirius yawned as he slipped into Remus’ bed.

After getting under the covers, Sirius started getting comfortable. He pulled the sleepy teen towards his embrace and wrapped his arms around the disturbed teen. It always seemed to help ease Remus back to sleep, especially while running his fingers through the wolf’s golden locks.

Sirius was doing just that when he suddenly felt the slight teen wiggling against him. Usually, Sirius wouldn’t have minded since Remus only squirmed when he was anxious about going back to sleep. It would pass within a minute or two and then Remus would be fast asleep.

This time though, Remus’ leg kept brushing up against Sirius’ thigh, sending delightful jolts of desire cursing through the animagus’ veins. Sirius needed to stop his friend’s squirming and quickly or he would have a lot of explaining to do. When one of Remus’ legs suddenly brushed up against Sirius’ apparent erection, and all squirming ceased, Sirius froze.

“Is something wrong?” Sirius asked hesitantly, his heart pounding in his chest.

“No, no. I’m okay,” Remus stuttered, unable to look up at the other teen.

Sirius silently cursed his luck. Remus rarely stuttered and only when he was really uncomfortable.

“Do you want me to go to my own bed,” he asked, pulling away even though he wanted nothing more then to pull his friend in closer.

“No! Don’t,” Remus said urgently as he pulled his friend back to him. “I-I won’t be able to fall back asleep if you leave.”

“Are you sure?” Sirius asked, trying to adjust himself so the other teen wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable, but his arousal was just too noticeable.

“I’m sure,” Remus said as he rested his head against Sirius’ chest.

Sirius quickly conceded, and tried to get comfortable once again. It was harder this time. His arousal didn’t seem to want to go away, and the fact that Remus was still squirming in his arm didn’t help matters much.

Then Remus decided to suddenly slip one of his legs between Sirius’ own. Sirius stilled as Remus’ leg brushed against his length. It twisted in excitement and sent pleasant chills down his back.

“Remus,” Sirius warned in a husky voice.

“Shh,” Remus hushed as his breath ghosted over Sirius’ bare chest. “I’m trying to get comfortable.”

Then he wrapped his other leg around Sirius’ waist, bringing their bodies flush up against each other. That was when Sirius realised that Remus was just as turned on as he was.

“Remus,” Sirius said, both in arousal and surprise.

“I said, shh,” Remus hushed once more as his fingers brushed up against Sirius’ exposed nipples.

At the slight touch, Sirius’ nipple became erect. When he quickly grabbed Remus’ wrist and pulled them away from his chest, Remus looked up at him with confusion.

“What are you doing?” Remus asked as he looked up at his friend.

“I could ask you the same question,” Sirius said with his voice unable to hide his desire for his friend.

“I told you, I’m trying to get comfortable,” Remus said innocently, even as he trailed his leg up Sirius’ own and pressed their hardened lengths against each other.

“Bullocks,” Sirius said as he let go of Remus’ hand only to grasp onto his thigh. “You never used to do this to get comfortable before.”

“Well you never used to react this way before,” Remus said idly as his hand roamed across the aristocrat’s chest. “Or maybe you did and I just didn’t notice,” he continued, brushing his lips against Sirius’ erect nipple as he spoke.

“If you don’t stop what you’re doing, you might end up seeing a lot more reactions.”

“You make it sound like a bad thing,” the wolf teased before wrapping his lips around Sirius’ nipple and sucking on it.

Sirius grasped onto Remus’ thigh at the gesture and thrust his hips against Remus’ groin. Remus moaned against Sirius’ nipple and slid his hand up Sirius’ chest and over his shoulder.

“You might not be prepared for what you’re getting yourself into,” Sirius said as he rubbed himself harder against Remus’ own arousal.

“And what if I’ve been waiting for this exact moment?” Remus moaned before latching his lips against Sirius’ neck.

“Then I’ll have to make sure not to keep you waiting any longer,” Sirius groaned, loving how the wolf nibbled on his neck.

Sirius quickly shed Remus’ trousers and boxers before discarding his own. Then he pulled Remus’ shirt over his head as he grinded their erections together.

“I need you inside of me, Sirius,” Remus breathed huskily. “You said you wouldn’t keep me waiting.”

Sirius’ blood boiled as Remus’ lips descended on his neck. The wolf sucked on his neck so hard it was sure to leave a mark. Growling in arousal, Sirius rolled over on top of Remus and spread the shorter teen’s legs apart. Then he pressed his hardened length firmly against Remus’ opening before thrusting his hips forward.

“Which one of us should do it?” Sirius heard a familiar voice say as he thrust in and out of his wanton friend.

“Not me. He looks way too comfortable,” another familiar voice said. “I don’t think I want to get on his bad side first thing in the morning,” the more timid voice claimed.

Sirius tried to drown out the voices. He’d much rather focus on Remus’ panting and pleas to go faster.

“Well one of us should do something before Remus catches him.”

“You’re right. And although I would love to see Remus’ reaction when he finds Sirius humping his pillow, I would much rather live to see my seventeenth birthday,” the voices returned.

“Either way, someone’s going to get it. And I would rather that not be me,” the more timid of the two said.

Sirius groaned against Remus’ neck, kissing it to calm himself down. The animagus wanted to enjoy making love to Remus but the voices were distracting him too much. Couldn’t they just leave them alone so he and Remus could enjoy themselves in peace?

“Okay, stand back,” the braver of the two spoke and Sirius recognised that voice at once. It was- “Aguamenti.”

Before the full impact of the spell registered with Sirius’ brain, a gush of cold water hit him with full force, causing him to jump up and subsequently fall out of bed.

“What the bloody hell did you do that for?” Sirius shouted as he jumped to his feet.

“I was trying to save you from a fate worse than death,” James said, still pointing his wand at his irate friend.

“Well you won’t have to worry about that yourself because I’m going to kill you,” Sirius said before jumping over the bed at his friend.

Through his anger, Sirius failed to notice the wand still pointed at him. That was why he was caught off guard when he was suddenly spelled frozen in mid jump.

“First you douse me and Remus with cold water while we were enjoying ourselves and then you freeze me,” Sirius said in a deadly calm voice. “If you don’t put me down this instant, I will make sure your deaths are slow and painful.”

“Now hear us out, Pads,” James laughed nervously. “We were only trying to help you out. If Remus had-”

“If I had what,” a voice asked from behind them.

When the three boys turned to the door, they found none other than Remus, standing in his normal weekend clothes that consisted of a long-sleeve shirt and brown trousers. He was currently carrying a stack of books in his arms while the bag over his shoulder carried even more.

“Why is Siri hanging over my bed, dripping with water?” Remus asked before his eyes caught sight of his bed. “And why is my bed soaked?”

“We were trying to wake him up,” Peter said hurriedly as he hid behind James, who still had his wand pointed at Sirius.

“Are you kidding me?” Remus asked as the wolf turned to his dripping friend. “You’ve only just woken up?”

“I…” Sirius said in confusion.

How in the world did Remus manage to not get hit with that jet of water? He had been right underneath Sirius, moaning for him to go faster when it had happened. Unless…

Sirius groaned in disappointment. It must have all been just a dream. But some of it had to have been real, otherwise it would have been his bed to have gotten soaked, not Remus’.

As Sirius began to calm down, he started to remember. Remus did have one of his bad dreams last night. Sirius had woken him up from the nightmare and had been able to get him to fall back asleep within a few seconds.

Apparently, Sirius had followed shortly afterwards and ended up having one of the most inappropriate dreams he had ever had. Not only did he have that dream while sleeping in the same bed as his crush, but he had apparently been caught by James and Peter. He was never going to hear the end of this. Sirius was just grateful that Remus was still clueless.

“Sirius is probably still half asleep,” James covered up. “We’ll dry up your bed while Sirius goes and takes a long, cold shower,” James said, trying to hold back his snicker when Sirius turned and glowered at him. “Then Sirius will be right as rain when we go down to breakfast.”

“That would be a wonderful idea,” Remus said sarcastically, “if it weren’t almost lunch time.”

“You’re kidding,” James said, clearly shocked. “Well then… apples and peaches,” he said, waving his hand and letting Sirius fall out of the spell and right on top of Remus’ soaked bed.

Without a word, Sirius got off of Remus’ bed and grabbed a handful of clothes before heading to the washroom. Then, even though James said he would do it, Remus waved his wand at his bed, drying it at once.

When all four marauders were finally dressed, they headed down to the Great Hall for lunch. Sirius quickly made sure that he wasn’t sitting beside Remus, the memories of his dream still too fresh in his mind.

As the day passed, Sirius continued avoiding his friend. He tried to be subtle about it, but every once and a while, he caught Remus sending curious glances his way.

“He probably doesn’t want you snapping at him again,” Lily had suggested when he had mentioned Sirius’ strange behaviour. “I mean, he broke things off with Amelia for you and you’re still angry at him.”

“I’m not angry, just disappointed,” Remus frowned. “I was just beginning to believe that Sirius was actually starting to grow up. Then he just had to go and prove just how much he hasn’t changed.”

“Sometimes change takes time,” Lily said wisely. “You just have to be patient. He’ll get there.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we’re both gifted with an abundance of patience.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m sure you don’t,” Remus rolled his eyes.

= =

“Hey Moony,” a voice called to him the morning after the full moon.

“Paddy,” Remus said groggily as his eyes opened to see his saddened friend kneeling beside his bed in the Shrieking Shack.

“Last night was another good moon for you. Moony was very well behaved,” Sirius smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Paddy, what are you doing here? Madam Pomfrey will be coming any minute.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve sent James and Peter on ahead to distract her. We have a couple of minutes.”

“For what,” Remus asked, aware that he was completely naked. When he glanced down, he found a blanket was covering him and then noticed that Sirius wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“I wanted to talk to you about Bones.”

“About what,” Remus asked in confusion. “Whose bones,” he asked, clearly not all there.”

“Amelia Bones,” Sirius chuckled.

“Oh,” Remus said, finally understanding. “Listen, about that,” he said as he sleepily rested his hand on Sirius’ bare chest. “I just want to see you with someone you actually care about, you and James. I just want to see you guys happy.”

“And you think being with those people doesn’t make me happy.”

“Does it,” Remus asked, hoping the answer would be negative.

“I used to think it did, but now I know otherwise.”

“Then why do you continue to be with them?”

“I won’t anymore. Bones was the last one. The next time I’m in a relationship, it will be with someone I really care about,” he said as he gripped onto Remus’ hand, hoping that next time he was with someone, it will be the boy lying in the bed before him.

“I’m glad,” Remus said, hoping that he would be that lucky someone.

For a long moment, neither boy spoke, each hoping for the same thing as they stared at each other. Sirius ached to capture those sweet lips before him, not knowing that Remus wanted him to do the exact same thing. Subconsciously, Sirius leaned forward an inch, the need to feel those lips against his winning over his senses.

Sirius’ heart pounded in his ears, and wondered if Remus could hear it, as the wolf closed his eyes. His lips were mere inches from his crush’s own when he chickened out and kissed Remus’ forehead instead. Remus’ eyes fluttered opened and their eyes locked in unreadable expressions.

“Pomfrey will be arriving soon,” the aristocrat said with uncharacteristic nervousness as he stood up. “I should go.”

“Don’t forget your shirt,” Remus said as he held up the blanket.

“Keep it. It’s cold in here,” Sirius said as he opened the door.

“It’s colder out there,” the wolf insisted.

“Most likely, but I have fur to keep me warm,” the animagus smirked. “I’ll see you later,” he said before disappearing behind the door.

“Bye,” the tired boy said as the door closed softly. He then sighed, his heart aching before he held the blanket close to him and breathed in the wonderful scent of his friend.

= =

As it turned out, Madam Pomfrey agreed with Sirius’ assessment about it being a good moon for Remus, who was quickly let out of the nurse’s care. With the time it took him to return to his dorm, shower and change, he knew he wouldn’t make it in time for breakfast. So instead he headed for his first class of the day, Transfiguration. As he was walking down the hall towards class, he spotted a familiar red-head already standing outside.

“You’re here early,” Remus smiled.

“So are you,” Lily smiled back. “How was last night?”

“Besides the aches in my bones and the tiredness, very good,” Remus said as he rested his back against the wall.

“I’m surprised Madam Pomfrey let you out then. Usually, she’s very protective of her patients.”

“She is,” Remus laughed. “She made me promise not to exert myself too much and if I feel the least bit unwell to come straight to her. She also has the teachers watching me to see if I’m actually okay. She seems to be of the impression that I’d choose education over my own health.”

“Is she wrong?”

“Not in the least,” Remus chuckled.

“Well then you can just add me to the list of people watching over you,” she said with mock sternness.

“I already have,” Remus smiled, causing his companion’s own smile to brighten her face. That is until she spotted someone behind the wolf.

“It seems your friends have finally finished stuffing their faces in,” she rolled her eyes as Remus turned to where she was looking and spotted his friends trekking towards them.

“See anything you like, Evans?” Sirius smirked as the three of them stopped by the Transfiguration door.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Lily smiled with an odd look in her eyes.

Before any of them could ask what she meant by that, she held Remus’ face in her hands and latched her lips onto his in a kiss. James, Sirius and Peter all had their mouths hanging open in shocked outrage. At first Remus, too stunned by the move, merely stood there and took the kiss. When he caught on to what his friend was doing, Remus moaned into the kiss as he wrapped his arms around the red-head.

“Excuse me, but there is a time and a place for this kind of public display and it is certainly not in front of my classroom,” McGonagall said sternly, causing the two lip-locking students to break apart in surprise.

“Sorry Professor,” Lily said, her face heating up at being caught.

“No need for apologise, Miss Evans,” McGonagall said, though you could see the shock in her eyes at catching her two most studious students in such a compromising position. “Class is about to begin though, so I suggest you take your seats,” she said as she opened her classroom door.

When McGonagall was inside, Lily turned back to Remus, who face was as red as hers was, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“I’ll see you inside,” she smiled shyly, her eyes darting behind Remus before she rushed into the classroom.

When she was gone, Remus turned to his friends. He not only saw their faces caught in complete and utter disbelief but found that their entire class was looking at him in shock as well.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” James said, the look in his eyes unnerving the wolf.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell guys, but everything happened so quickly,” Remus shrugged, finding an odd sense of satisfaction at the look in James’ eyes.

“When,” Sirius asked in an oddly hoarse tone.

“Recently,” Remus said nervously, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest. “We should be getting to class,” he said, before dashing into the classroom as well.

Once inside, Remus spotted Lily at the front of the class, fidgeting in her seat. When Remus sat down beside her, she turned to him with a hesitant look in her eyes.

“Whatever possessed you to do something like that?” He whispered harshly as the sounds of the rest of the class entering the room caught his ears.

“I just wanted to prove a point,” Lily said with resolve as she turned to face the front of the class.

“And what point would that be?”

“That hurt goes both ways,” she said cryptically.

As the day progressed, Remus found that he was spending most of his time with his new, and unexpected, girlfriend. During their classes, he could feel his friend’s eyes boring holes into his back. At lunch only Peter found time to scarf down his food while James and Sirius gloomily pushed theirs around with their forks.

The news about Remus and Lily’s ‘relationship’ had spread around the school like wildfire. Surprisingly, most of the students didn’t even seem surprised by the news. Some of them had expected something like this since the two studious students had so much in common and spent a lot of time together.

Remus and Lily had found this bit of news comical, though neither James nor Sirius had found this easy acceptance quite as amusing. Remus knew James’ anger was routed in his own obsession with Lily. Unfortunately, and frustratingly for the red-head, Remus assumed Sirius was only upset because he wouldn’t have anything to taunt Lily with anymore (that and the fact that Remus had seemingly kept their relationship a secret).

= =

“They’re all really mad at me,” Remus said as he and the red-head studied in the library. “Lily, what have you gotten me into?”

“Nothing I’m sure you can’t handle. You are a Marauder after all,” Lily said hopefully. When Remus sighed at her words, she decided to ask him something that had been on her mind for a while, so she quickly cast a mumbling charm around them. “Remus, do you think it’s wrong of me to want more from someone.”

“Lily, I know you mean James, so let’s drop the subtleties.”

“Alright fine,” Lily huffed. “Do you think it’s wrong of me to expect more from James because I know he could do better, even if I know he doesn’t want to?”

“Though it might not be entirely healthy for either of you, I must admit that I do the exact same thing with Sirius.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Lily smirked.

“He’s really a good person. I should know. I’ve seen it when he thinks no one is watching. He doesn’t believe it though, so sometimes I have to give him a little push in the right direction. It’s the same with you and James. You know there’s good in him. It’s not wrong of you to want to see more of it.”

“Do you think he’ll change?”

“Not completely. But for you, I think James is capable of a few surprises.”

“Of that, I’m well aware,” she said, her eyes trailing over to Alice, who was lounging in James’ lap as if she belonged there, “but enough about James. I think we should start getting our stories straight.”

“With what,” Remus asked curiously.

“With our relationship silly,” Lily said with a smile plastered on her face as she grasped his hand.

“We’re not seriously continuing with this, are we?” Remus asked, though he plastered a smile on his face as well.

“If James can do it, in an obvious attempt to make me jealous, then I don’t see why I can’t do the same to him.”

“But do you really need me for that? We both know that I won’t be able to go along with it once the next moon passes.”

“I know that, and I’ve already come up with a backup plan,” the red-head said, unfazed.

“Lily Evans, this is so unlike you,” Remus said, a little impressed. “It’s so marauderish … so James.”

“Well two can play his game.”

“Don’t you mean four?” Remus asked cheekily and was rewarded with a beaming smile from his very first faux girlfriend.

= =

“So when did this little affair of yours happen?” James asked Remus as soon as the wolf entered the dorm that night. Apparently, the two animagi had been waiting for him while Peter had apparently already gone to sleep.

“Sometime after Christmas break, during one of our study sessions,” Remus said with hesitation since he was currently being cornered against the door.

“And you failed to mention this to us because…”

“I was worried you might have thought I was betraying you.”

“And you think finding out this way was much better?”

“I didn’t plan for you to find out this way. I swear I was going to tell you,” Remus said, panicking at the terrible look in James’ eyes. “Paddy, some help here please,” he begged, not liking the feeling of being closed in.

“No can do Moonshine,” Sirius said, his expression closed as he lounged on his bed. “You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out.”

Hurt flashed through Remus’ eyes before he turned back to James, whose own expression was as cold as ever.

“You knew damn well that I’m only dating Alice to see if Lily liked me.”

“But Lily doesn’t know that, and she actually likes me,” Remus said, near desperation.

“And what about your other side,” James asked, his eyes boring into the wolf. “What’s going to happen to this budding relationship of yours when our little wolf friend chooses someone else as its mate.”

“I must admit that was a concern of ours-”

“Ours,” James’ eyebrow rose as Sirius got up from his bed.

“She knows about me,” Remus admitted. “She’s the one that gave me that book for Christmas and she doesn’t care about my wolf side. She said she would accept whoever the wolf chose as a mate.”

“Do you trust her?” Sirius asked, his expression becoming intense as his heart began to ache.

“More so than others,” Remus said, his heart pounding so hard that he thought it would burst through his chest.

Without a word, James moved away from Remus. Then he climbed onto his bed before shutting the curtains around him. When he heard a muffled spell from the other side, most likely a silencing charm, Remus turned to Sirius, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of the wolf.

“Do you think he’ll forgive me?” Remus asked anxiously.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” Sirius said before he too climbed back into bed and closed the curtains around him.

= =

The next morning was a somber affair for Remus as he climbed out of bed early that morning and got ready for the day. He usually got up before his friends, wanting to get some extra work done before they all went down to breakfast together. But today Remus was up early so he wouldn’t have to face his friends again.

Yesterday had been the first time he had ever been on the receiving end of his friends’ anger and he didn’t like it one bit. His heart ached at the looks they gave him. He actually felt like crawling underneath a rock and dying. How could he have gotten himself into this mess? More importantly, how was he going to get himself out of it?

Lily had assured him that she had things figured out, but wouldn’t tell him what it was. Remus only hoped she executed her plan quickly, or he was going to be in a lot of trouble.

“Hey Remus,” a voice called out to him as he descended the stairs to the common room. “I thought you might like a little bit of company today.”

“I think I might need more than a little bit,” Remus said as he sat down beside Lily. “So have you put the second phase of your plan into motion?”

Looking around the room to see if anyone was listening in, Lily cast a muffling charm around them before she began.

“Yes I have, and I think this whole mess we’re in will be resolved before you know it,” she said with a pleased smile on her face.

“And what exactly did you do, or am I not aloud to be privy to the details.”

“Well, I was wondering… I believe James is dating Alice because he wants to make me jealous, but what does Alice get out of it?”

“She makes Frank jealous.”

“But why,” Lily asked eagerly. “Everyone knows Frank is completely smitten with her. They were dating for three years and I heard him tell her countless times how much he loves her. So why would she need to make him jealous?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“Too right you are,” Lily smiled. “It happened over summer vacation. I heard Frank and Alice spent a couple of weeks over at her house where Frank asked her father for her hand in marriage.”

“And he said no,” Remus guessed.

“Wrong. He said yes, and welcomed Frank into the family with opened arms.”

“So what went wrong?”

“Well after getting Alice’s father’s permission, she and Frank went over to his house so he could give Alice his great-great-grandmother’s wedding ring,” she said with a knowing smile.

“I think I see where this is going,” Remus said catching on. “The reason why Alice can’t stand his mother-”

“-Is because his mother didn’t want to give him the ring. She said that if he married Alice, he would no longer be a part of the family.”

“Why would she do that, though?” Remus asked, confused.

Alice was a mother-in-law’s dream. She was a pureblood, came from a wealthy family, magically gifted, clever, funny, and devoted to the love of her life. So why then, was Mrs Longbottom apposed to the marriage?

“Personally, I think his mother was just testing him, wanting to see how much he truly loved her.”

“Let me guess, Frank failed miserably.”

“He told Alice that he wasn’t sure if he could give up his family for her.”

“Ouch.”

“That’s what I thought when I heard.”

“So what does this have to do with your second phase?”

“Well I figured this was why Alice was going along with this. She probably thought that seeing her with someone else would give Frank a little wake up call. So, after hearing all of this from one of Alice’s friends, I might have convinced Frank that love is sometimes worth sacrifices, and that if he was really apposed to Alice dating James, he should do something about it. With any luck, Frank will single handily take care of all of our problems.”

“You know, you would have made a wonderful Marauder,” Remus smiled.

“I’ll try to take that as a compliment.”

= =

“She sure does fight dirty,” Alice said during break that day as she joined James, Sirius and Peter on the couch in front of the fire. “I must say, I am impressed.”

Trying to be discrete, both James and Sirius kept sneaking glances at their crushes, who were sitting at the table on the other side of the room. They tried eavesdropping on the couple’s conversation, but all they could hear were strange buzzing noises. When they spotted the object of their affections holding hands as Lily was cuddled in Remus’ arm, the two animagi began to sulk.

“Could you two be any denser?” Alice rolled her eyes. “She’s obviously doing this to get under your skin, both of your skins.”

“What do you mean?” Sirius asked as he snapped his head towards her in fear. “Do you think she knows about me?”

“It can’t be a coincidence that she chose to kiss Remus, and you did say she kissed him right after you taunted her.”

“But Remus wouldn’t agree to do something like that, not after he practically bit our heads off a few days ago,” James insisted.

“Not unless he was trying to prove a point. And I must say that it does seem to be working.”

“I don’t get it,” Peter suddenly said, causing three pairs of eyes to focus on him. “Why is it such a big deal that Lily and Remus are dating?”

“Is he always this daft?” Alice asked without malice as she turned to James.

“More so than you realise,” Sirius answered instead.

“Sweetie, James doesn’t want Lily dating anyone but him because he fancies her.”

“I know that,” Peter said, offended that he wouldn’t know something so obvious.

“And Sirius doesn’t want Remus dating anyone because he wants to date your little friend instead,” she continued as if Peter hadn’t spoken.

“You mean they’re not already dating?” Peter asked, sincerely confused.

“Of course we’re not,” Sirius said, clearly irritated with his friend.

“Sorry. I just figured you guys were together with the way you two acted around each other. I mean you guys are always touching and fawning over each other like a couple of lovesick puppies, like when you guys gave each other those nicknames.”

“Wait a minute, how long do you think those two were dating?” James asked, truly curious since the nicknames had only come after the Marauders had discovered what their animagi forms would be, which had happened in fourth year.

“I started noticing by third year. I figured you two got together sooner than that, seeing as how you guys are always telling me how slow I am,” Peter said with a little bitterness in his voice.

“And I guess it failed your notice that I’ve been with other people during that time?” Sirius asked scathingly as James laughed in surprise.

“I thought you guys had an open relationship,” Peter said as an explanation. “I mean, it wasn’t odd for you to be dating more than one person at a time.”

“I would never do that to Remus,” Sirius snapped, his eyes burning with anger.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything to me about it?” James asked with more fascination for his friend than he had ever been.

“I thought you knew,” Peter said truthfully as he shrugged. “You guys were always telling each other things that you don’t tell me. I just figured this was one of them.”

Sirius stared at Peter with utter disbelief while James laughed uncontrollably. Alice laughed along with him, realising how much these two boys had underestimated their friend.

“You have no idea how much respect I have just gained for you, Pete,” James said as he shook his head in amusement.

Smiling, Peter took the compliment eagerly, hungry for the other boy’s approval.

= =

As the days past and Remus’ birthday grew closer, Frank had yet to come through for them. Lily had to repeatedly reassure her wolf friend that things would work out soon enough. However, Remus couldn’t seem to stay reassured for long.

The only bright side was that, after the first couple of days, James and Sirius had stopped glowing at him and Lily whenever they were in their presence. But the animagi still refused to talk to him.

It was then that Remus realised how attached he was to his friends. Every time he looked over at them, he longed for their companionship. It had gotten to the point where Remus had started skipping meals, hoping for a few hours where he didn’t have to think about anything.

It was during one of those meals that Remus found himself locked up in one of the stalls in the boys’ washroom. It had not been one of his better days and the absence of his friends had finally taken its toll. Try as he might, he couldn’t seem to keep the tears at bay.

When he had reached the washroom, though, Remus felt free to just let the tears fall where they may. People came and went as dinner finally came to an end when a familiar scent caught his attention.

Remus sucked in his breath and furiously wiped at his eyes. He lifted his feet from the floor and hugged his legs to his chest as he rested his forehead against his knees. He really wasn’t in the mood to deal with any confrontations at the moment. Even as the footsteps came closer, Remus prayed that he wasn’t discovered.

“Remus,” Sirius’ voice called out hesitantly, causing the wolf’s heart to pound in his chest.

He didn’t say anything though. The last thing he needed now was to talk to Sirius when he was like this. If he was lucky, the animagus will think he wasn’t there and leave him alone.

“Remus, I know you’re in there. I have the map in my hands.”

Remus cursed his luck, but kept quiet, hoping that Sirius would take the hint and go away.

“Remus, please come out,” Sirius said desperately. “I really need to talk to you.”

“We can talk later, I’m kind of busy right now,” Remus sneered, his voice more croaky than he would have liked.

“Fine if you want to be like that. I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way. Alohamora,” he said and in an instant, the door to the stall Remus was currently hiding in flew open.

Remus was on his feet in an instant, tears still streaming down his cheeks even as his eyes burned with anger.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I told you that I wanted to talk to you.”

Sirius was taken aback by the puffy eyes and tears trailing their way down his crush’s cheeks. He instinctively reached out to wipe the tears away.

“So now you want to talk,” Remus asked as he quickly slapped Sirius’ hand aside. “You guys didn’t seem too keen on that when I wanted to talk, and you guys completely ignored me,” he said furiously as he pushed past the other boy.

Not one to be denied, Sirius spun around and wrapped his arms around the shorter boy’s waist, before pulling him close to his chest.

“I noticed you’ve been skipping meals,” Sirius said softly, changing the subject as he rested his chin on Remus’ shoulder.

“So,” Remus said defensively as he tried to get out of his friend’s grip.

“So, you’re losing too much weight,” Sirius said as he held on tighter and felt how skinny his friend had gotten.

“That is none of your concern.”

“It is. You should start coming back to meals. I’ve missed you.”

“Well you sure have a funny way of showing it,” Remus said before elbowing Sirius in the ribs in hopes that it would set him free. But Sirius merely linked his arms together, effectively keeping Remus within his hold.

“I’m sorry for that,” Sirius continued in that same calm voice. “I was just shocked is all. You haven’t kept a secret like that from me since we found out about your furry little problem,” he tried to joke.

“None that you know of anyway,” Remus said bitterly, not moving from Sirius’ tight grip.

“Don’t be like this, Remus,” Sirius said as he spun the other boy around and rested his hands on Remus’ shoulders. “I’m trying to make this right.”

“So you suddenly think you’re Mr Fix-It?” Remus asked, unable to look Sirius in the eye as his anger at the boy faded away.

“Who,” Sirius asked as he pulled Remus into his arms once again.

“Nothing,” Remus said, his voice muffled as he buried his head in Sirius’ chest, his anger now completely gone.

The two stayed like that for several minutes, both feeling comforted by their embrace. Remus slowly breathed in Sirius’ aroma, becoming reacquainted with the rainy-day scent that surrounded him. It always seemed to calm him down whenever he breathed it in and Remus really needed that right now.

Sirius held his friend close, wanting nothing more than to kiss Remus’ troubles away. The only reason he held back though, was because of the wolf’s relationship with Lily. Although, he was elated that Remus finally returned the hug before burying his face deeper within the embrace.

“I have a surprise for you,” Sirius said, breaking the comfortable silence they were in.

“I don’t think anyone’s in the mood for any more surprises,” Remus mumbled into Sirius’ shirt.

“I think you’ll like this one,” Sirius chuckled as he pulled away.

Both of them felt the loss of the others’ embrace, but Sirius was determined to make things right with all of the Marauders. He led Remus past the Fat Lady, through the crowded Gryffindor common room, up the stairs and finally into their dorm. Their, Remus found both James and Peter lounging on their beds, half empty Firewhisky bottles in their hands.

“Well hiccup if it isn’t hiccup the traitor,” James said drunkenly as he sloshed the burning liquid down his throat.

“Why am I not surprised?” Remus frowned as he turned to Sirius. “You always did think alcohol was the answer to every problem. Well I don’t think it’ll work this time,” he said as he made to leave.

“You never know,” Sirius said as he grabbed Remus’ arm. “It worked whenever James and I were angry at each other.”

“But you and James have a special bond that only alcohol can sustain,” Remus said sarcastically. “I, on the other hand, have evolved past drunken binges to solve my problems.”

“At least give it a try,” Sirius said as he presented the wolf with a bottle of his own. “The worst that could happen is that you have a slight headache in the morning.”

As Remus’ need to have his friends back overrode his sense and sensibility, he took the offered bottle into his hands. Then he popped off the lid and took a hesitant sip. He spluttered as it burned his tongue and he heard the sounds of James and Sirius’ laughter.

“I knew Remus was a virgin,” James laughed as he gulped down his bottle.

“Don’t worry,” Sirius smiled in that way that always had Remus blushing. “The first gulp is always the worst. You’ll get used to it.”

Remus couldn’t understand how anyone could drink something as foul as this and enjoy it. It was like drinking acid, though Remus was smart enough not to test that theory. But if this was what it took to get his friends back, tongue be damned.

Hours later, as bottles of Firewhisky littered their floor, Remus was absolutely sure of one thing. Alcohol did seem to melt your troubles away. In fact, he couldn’t even remember why he had been so upset in the first place.

He was sure it had something to do with … something. But Remus couldn’t remember what that something was. The wolf shrugged his shoulders in indifference. If it wasn’t important enough to remember than it wasn’t important enough to worry over.

“I think we should have a toast,” James suddenly said as he raised an almost empty bottle in his hand.

“I think the bottle has to be full in order to make a toast,” Sirius said as he looked at his wobbly friend. Or maybe it was him that was wobbling.

“You know, I think you’re right,” James said as he looked at his bottle. With any excuse to drink another bottle, James downed the rest of his Firewhisky before grabbing another one from his trunk. “There. Now on to the toast. To Remus. Happy birthday.”

“It’s not my birthday silly,” Remus giggled, the alcohol having quickly gone to his head. “My birthday isn’t until tomorrow.”

“But Moony,” James whined. “It is tomorrow.”

Turning to the clock that Peter had given them all, Remus tried to make out the time. When he finally did, after tripping over Sirius to get to it and practically slamming it against his head so he could read it, Remus came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, his birthday.

“Well I’ll be,” Remus said in wonderment. “I’m of age,” he said with a broad smile on his face.

Remus turned to his friends, who were all staring at him with broad smiles on their faces. He smiled back, his worries completely gone as he whooped for joy.

“Ha,” he said in triumph. “I’m of age now, which means I can do all sorts of wicked things you guys can’t.”

“Like what?” Sirius asked in objection, not liking the thought of being out done.

“I don’t know,” Remus shrugged as he looked at his friend. Then a thought entered his head, one that he never would have followed through with if he had been in his right mind. “Like this.”

In a move that delightfully surprised Sirius, Remus straddled his legs and grabbed onto his collar before capturing the animagus’ lips. He instantly gave into the kiss, parting his lips to let the wolf slip his tongue inside. As, Remus moaned into the kiss, heat started rushing throughout his body. His skin started tingling all over as he tasted Sirius for the first time. It was more intoxicating than the alcohol currently flowing through his blood.

With their friends forgotten, their hands were soon everywhere, grabbing at each other’s clothes and discarding them in a rush. Sirius had Remus’ shirt up and over his head before the wolf even realised they had broken their kiss. Sirius’ shirt was next as Remus practically ripped it from his chest.

Remus’ nails trailed slowly down Sirius’ broad chest, grazing the aristocrat’s nipples. Sirius groaned softly and returned the favour by trailing kisses down Remus’ neck, eliciting a deep moan from the boy on top of him. Then he started sucking and nibbling his way down Remus’ chest before grabbing onto his buckle, trying to get rid of the offending article. Wanting out of the constricting clothing as much as Sirius did, Remus stood up and ripped his pants down before quickly tossing them aside.

Sirius, who had stood up as well, did the same with his own trousers before capturing Remus’ lips once more. With only their boxers remaining, Sirius guided them towards the closest bed, their hands touching everywhere, before they disappeared behind the curtains. All the remaining occupants of the room could hear was their friends’ constant moaning.

“It’s about time,” James said as he saluted his friends with his drink.

“Should I be worried that I was extremely turned on by that?” Peter asked curiously.

He stared at the closed curtains, licking his lips as he heard the orgasmic sounds coming from the other side. When he turned to his friend who had failed to answer him, Peter found that James had already passed out, Firewhisky still in hand. Shrugging his shoulders, Peter made to take another swing of the bottle when he passed out as well.

Hidden behind the curtain, Sirius and Remus continued their eager activities. By now, Sirius had Remus pinned to the bed as he passionately kissed the boy beneath him. Remus snaked his fingers through Sirius’ silky hair as he deepened the kiss. He then wrapped his leg around Sirius’ waist, desperate to have their bodies as close as possible. When Sirius gripped Remus’ thigh and ground their hardened members together, the wolf thought he was about ready to explode.

“Oh Gods,” Remus moaned, breaking their kiss as he bucked his hips against Sirius’.

Spurred on by Remus’ moans, Sirius captured Remus’ lips once more. He trailed his fingers along the waistband of the wolf’s boxers and slipped his hand inside. He started caressing Remus’ thigh before slipping elegant fingers between his spread legs. When Sirius found the object of his search, he grasped onto the base of Remus’ arousal and slowly slid his fingers along the shaft, coating them in pre-cum as he reached the head.

Remus moaned desperately into the kiss once more, panting as Sirius’ tongue and hand caressed him in the same way. He was in delirious bliss as he was being stroked. With his drunken state giving him the courage to return the favour, Remus removed his fingers from the confines of Sirius hair and trailed them down Sirius’ neck, electing another groaned from the boy on top of him. His fingers continued their path down Sirius’ well-toned chest, circling a finger around his erect nub before darting past his stomach.

Remus hesitated as his fingers brushed up against Sirius waistband, but with an impatient growl from his lover, Remus slipped his hand inside. He found his prey with ease and grasped it within his fingers.

“Fuck that feels good,” Sirius breathed out, pumping his cock into Remus’ grasp as he locked lips again.

Without warning, Sirius grabbed onto both of Remus’ hands and pinned them above the wolf’s head.

“I though you were enjoying that,” Remus said, his eyes clouded with drunken arousal. He thrust his pelvis upwards, mourning the loss of those delectable fingers that were firmly stroking him. “I know I was.”

“Then you’ll love this,” Sirius smirked as he dipped his hand between the two.

Without wasting another second, Sirius had pulled his leaking cock out of the confines of his boxers. Then, with one hand, he slid his shaft within Remus’ boxers until their lengths brushed together. They both moaned out loud as electricity coursed throughout their bodies. Sirius bent his head forward as he started thrusting against Remus, brushing their arousals together.

“I think I’m about ready to explode,” Remus gasped, his hand still restrained as Sirius continued his thrusts.

“I’m going to be right behind you,” Sirius whispered huskily.

The feel of Sirius’ hot breath caressing his neck was all it took to push Remus over the edge and he spilled his seed all over the inside of his boxers. Sounds of Remus’ own release pushed Sirius over the edge a few thrusts later, spilling himself inside Remus’ boxers as well.

Spent, Sirius released his hold on Remus’ wrists before rolling off of the now sleeping werewolf. Then with practiced ease, he wandlessly cast a cleaning spell on them before drifting off into blissful slumber.

= =

As Remus woke up the next morning, it was to a lurching feeling in the pit of his stomach and a pounding ache in his head. When the tell-tale liquid pooled in his mouth, Remus clamped his hand over his lips and jumped from his bed. He dashed across the room, burst through the washroom doors and fell to his knees before dry-heaving into the toilet.

With his throat sore as he continued to throw up bile, Remus absently wondered if he should have eaten dinner the night before. Maybe then, he wouldn’t feel like he was trying to heave up his intestines through his throat.

A tired groan escaped his lips as he collapsed on the cool floor. As he rested there, hoping the earth would just open up and swallow him whole already, Remus heard footsteps coming towards him.

“I think I’m dying,” Remus croaked, his throat feeling like someone had scraped his throat with sandpaper.

“You’re not,” Sirius chuckled as he knelt down beside the wolf. Then he reached out his arms and slipped them underneath Remus’ knees and shoulders. “You just have a hangover,” he explained as he lifted his friend up from the floor.

“I think my hangover is trying to kill me,” Remus said pitifully as he held onto the animagus and buried his head into his friend’s chest.

This time, Sirius out right laughed. He had tried to keep it quiet, but failed and saw Remus flinch at the noise. Taking pity on his suffering friend, Sirius carried Remus out of the washroom and back into their dorm.

Though he loved the feeling of Remus in his arms, Sirius didn’t like how skinny his friend had gotten. He placed the slight teen on his bed before grabbing a bottle that laid on his nightstand.

“Drink this,” he said as he uncorked the bottle and handed it to Remus.

“What is it, poison?” Remus asked even as he took the bottle and downed it in one go. “It doesn’t taste like poison.”

“That’s because it’s not poison,” Sirius smiled. “It’s a handover potion me and James came up with. It’ll get ride of your head and stomach ache quickly.”

“Why does it taste fruity?” Remus asked, feeling better already.

“Because if it tasted awful, no one would want to take it, and then you wouldn’t want to get drunk for fear of taking it,” Sirius explained.

Remus moved aside as the aristocrat talked so he could lie down in his own bed. Sirius silently accepted the invitation and jumped into his bed. He quickly got comfortable as he rested on his side, his head resting in his hand.

“This way, you can get drunk as much as you want and then have the pleasure of drinking this fruity cocktail the next morning,” he continued, holding up the empty vial with pride. “It also gives you the added bonus of giving your breath that fresh, ‘I didn’t just throw up my guts’ feeling.”

“Why am I not surprised that you and James came up with something like this?” Remus asked, shaking his head in amusement.

“Because you know us too well for that,” Sirius said, giving his friend one of his most winning smiles. “By the way, happy birthday.”

“It is my birthday, isn’t it,” Remus beamed, his eyes shining with a light that made Sirius want to swoon. “I’m finally of age now.”

“That you are,” Sirius said, trying to control himself so close to his half naked friend.

“That means I can do all sorts of things you guys can’t.”

“Like what?” Sirius scoffed, doubting that the wolf would do anything without them.

“I don’t know,” Remus shrugged as he looked at his friend.

An odd sense of déjà vu fell over Remus, but he couldn’t figure out why. He stared at Sirius, trying to remember last night. He had a feeling he had this conversation before.

“Does all of this seem familiar to you?” Remus asked, thinking maybe his friend could shed some light on it.

“What, you mean like you lying in my bed while recovering from a hangover? I doubt that. Though I’ve tried to convince you before, I know this was your first time drinking.”

“No. Not the drinking, though I’ll make sure to never do that again. But I mean this,” he said as he gestured between the two of them. “I have the feeling that we’ve had this conversation before.”

“You mean about you being of age?” Sirius asked and received a nod from the other boy. “It does seem a little familiar now that you mention it. I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I never remember anything after my drinking escapades. Personally, I like it that way, spares me from awkward feelings in the morning.”

“I bet you’ve been spared a lot then.”

“Maybe, I wouldn’t know,” Sirius smirked.

Remus laughed at his troublesome friend, loving that he could joke around with him again. He felt more at ease now than he had in a long time.

= =

“I see you’ve made up with your friends,” Lily said to Remus during Transfiguration that morning.

“We got drunk the night before and apparently, that was all it took for them to talk to me again,” Remus said, rolling his eyes at the foolishness of it.

“Men,” Lily rolled her eyes before lowering her voice. “So, do you know if Sirius is your mate yet?”

“No. Not until after this full moon.”

“Excited,” Lily smiled.

“Not particularly, especially if things don’t end up going my way,” Remus sighed.

“Don’t be such a worry-wart. I’m sure everything will turn out for the best, for everyone involved,” she said as she glanced at the two marauders sitting across from them. “But until then, the show must go on.”

As Remus and Lily went back to their assignment, subtly flirting in plain sight for their prey to see, Sirius and James pretended to do their own work while actually plotting to break up their perspective crushes.

“I’m telling you, once the next moon comes and goes, we won’t have to worry about breaking them up, Moony will have done that for us,” James tried to convince his friend as he glanced at his crush brushing her hand against his friend’s.

“And what if our little friend ends up choosing Lily?” Sirius asked, also glancing at the objects of their conversation.

“That won’t happen,” James scoffed. “Moony might feed off of who Remus trusts, but he doesn’t know Lily. He knows you and I’ll bet my Nimbus 3000 that Moony chooses you over her.”

“And if that happen-”

“When,” James insisted.

“When that happens,” Sirius corrected himself. “What are you going to do? You’re still with Alice.”

“Well obviously, my plans to make Lily jealous aren’t working. Alice assures me that they are, but I told you that I can’t do this anymore.”

“How’d she take it?”

“Not too well. Apparently, breaking up is really hard, even if the relationship is a complete shame.”

“Well I could have told you that,” Sirius rolled his eyes.

“I bet you could have.”

= =

News of James and Alice’s ‘break up’ spread like wildfire. A pool had started up, by a Hufflepuff no less, to see who the single duo would end up with next. Many students had speculated. The Ravenclaw, and some Gryffindors who knew the pair, had bet that James would go back to fawning over Lily while Alice would end up with Frank, who had seemed oddly chipper since the news about the break-up had surfaced.

Some, like the Slytherins, bet that they would end up getting back together, ‘because Gryffindors were stupidly loyal that way,’ as one Slytherin had stated. Others, like the Hufflepuffs, bet (or rather wished) that James and Alice would choose someone from another house all together (hopefully theirs). Even the ghosts and portraits were taking bets on it.

As the days went by, and the fuss about the break-up went under the radar, all of the marauders and Lily became more and more anxious about the upcoming full moon. It seemed like so much was riding on what an unpredictable wolf was going to decide.

If it went one way, a lot of people were going to be very happy. If it went any other way, a lot of people were going to be very unhappy. Either way, a lot of lives depended on that wolf.

No one though, went through more anxiety than Remus, though others came close. The closer the moon came, the more irritable he got. It had become so bad that many had wondered if maybe there was going to be another break-up within the halls of Hogwarts.

Lily had joked about how close to the truth they were, but Remus seemed far from amused. Even the surprise birthday party James and Sirius had sprung for the wolf didn’t seem to alleviate his worries. In fact, it only seemed to make things worse.

By the time the morning of the full moon arrived, Remus was a complete basket case. He couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything for more than two seconds before his mind wandered to that upcoming night.

The only time he had been distracted long enough was during dinner time. It had started out as a normal dinner. There had been roast beef, steak, mashed potatoes corn on the cob and peas for the main course. This was followed by pumpkin pie, chocolate cheese cake and double chocolate ice cream for dessert, and pumpkin juice to wash it all down.

Everyone was enjoying their meal immensely. When many had started their dessert, Frank Longbottom had suddenly got up from his seat. He walked over to Alice and promptly got on one knee before proposing to her.

The girl had been so shocked that it had taken Lily impatiently shouting ‘Oh just say yes already’ before the seventh-year finally answered. Afterwards, Dumbledore had gotten up from his seat and congratulated the engaged pair before telling everyone to enjoy the rest of their meal.

A lot of people had been very pleased by the outcome, most because they had bet for the pair reuniting. None so more than Lily, who had placed an extra bet that the duo would be engaged before school let out.

“Call it woman’s intuition,” she said when asked how she had known.

Things settled down for some after dinner, namely Remus, who was once again worrying over that night.

“Relax Remus. You have nothing to worry about,” Lily said as she grasped his hand in comfort.

The both of them were sitting before the fire with the rest of the Marauders, all trying to calm their friend.

“Yeah mate. Everything will work out for the best.” James said, misreading the gesture.

Suddenly Remus laughed. It was unexpected and a little unnerving. His four companions looked at him with worry.

“I just thought of something,” Remus chuckled. “What if he chooses James?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Lily said, hoping more than she expected that she was right.

“You never know,” Remus insisted with a manic gleam in his eyes. “I trust James explicitly and Moony might pick up on that.”

“He also might pick up on other, more important things than trust, like love,” she said calmly, ignoring the alarmed look on James and Sirius’ face.

Honestly, James didn’t know what was worse, the possibility that one of his best friend’s wolf side wanted to mate with his crush, or that it wanted to mate with him. Sirius was basically in the same boat. He didn’t like thinking about the possibility that the wolf might choose James. He was sure Remus trusted James more than him, but Moony preferred Padfoot. Surely that counted for something.

“At least something good has come out of today. Frank and Alice are engaged now,” Remus said, trying to find a distraction as best he could.

“My mum always says the moon makes fools of us all,” Peter said without thinking, to which four sets of wary eyes turned to him. “We should go now,” he said, feeling uncomfortable at the attention.

Knowing there was less than a half hour before Remus had to be at the shack, the five of them silently stood from the couch and chairs they were sitting on. They walked out of the Gryffindor common room and into the halls before taking that long trek towards the Whomping Willow.

“You lot look like you’re walking to your doom,” Madam Pomfrey said as the group walked up to her as she stood before the willow. “You seem to have switched up your group,” she said as she spotted Remus’ entourage. “Hello Miss Evans,” she said as she spotted the red-head gripping onto Remus’ arm. “But where is Pettigrew?”

“He wasn’t feeling too well, so I said he could stay behind,” Remus lied.

Peter had, of course, come with them. He had changed into his animagus form before they had left the castle. He had been hiding in Remus’ pocked before scampering away, unnoticed, towards the trunk of the willow.

Like most months, Madam Pomfrey would send Remus’ friends back up to the castle before curfew. James and Sirius always made a show of following her orders. While she escorted Remus up to the shack, though they would hide out of sight and wait. When she returned and headed back to the hospital wing, Peter would hit the knot on the willow so James and Sirius could sneak inside.

This plan always worked. Madam Pomfrey never suspected that the two troublesome boys would be foolish enough to want to see a fully grown werewolf. The only problem this month, however, was that Lily was with them. The two marauders needed to think of something quick to ditch the red-head so they could accompany their friend on this important night.

“I don’t know what you do to help Remus during these moons,” Lily suddenly said as they headed for the castle, “and honestly, I don’t want to know. It’s something illegal no doubt,” she said matter-of-factly as she turned to their stunned faces as they reached the castle. “Nevertheless, I’ll leave you be. Goodnight gentlemen. Take good care of him, and yourselves.”

“We always do,” Sirius said, his surprise at the red-head’s gesture not enough to stop his scornful comment.

Nodding her head at the two boys, Lily turned and headed the rest of the way to Gryffindor Tower alone. When she was out of sight, James turned to his animagus companion with a broad smile of his face.

“She called me a gentleman,” he said, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree. “She loves me, I know it.”

Sirius wasn’t willing to point out the fact that she had called them both gentlemen. Instead, he merely rolled his eyes before turning around. He wanted to keep a lookout for Madam Pomfrey. This was one moon he didn’t want to miss.

It was a long wait for them. It seem like the nurse was taking a much longer time to come back than normal. At one point, the two mischief makers had wondered if maybe they had missed her. But when Sirius changed forms and rushed towards the tree, Peter had assured him that the nurse had not come back yet.

It wasn’t until they heard the faint howling sounds coming from the shack that the nurse finally appeared. The wolf sounded particularly angry that night, but the three teens had to wait impatiently for the medi-witch to return back to the castle. It felt like forever before she was out of sight.

Once she was, Peter instantly had the Whomping Willow stilled. Sirius was the first in the passageway and had sped halfway down the path before James had even stepped foot inside. When he reached the end of the tunnel, he stopped to catch his breath. He needed to wait for the other two before they could go on ahead. Now that Remus had already changed, things were going to be a little trickier.

Usually during the full moon nights, James, Sirius and Peter would change into their forms at the shack and wait in the room with Remus until he changed. That was because none of them could open a door while in their animagi forms. But since Remus had already changed, things were going to prove difficult.

“Stupid woman,” Sirius growled as he heard a particularly gruesome growl just as James and Peter arrived. “Why did she have to take so bloody long leaving?”

“She was probably worried about him and didn’t want to leave him alone,” Peter suggested.

“And now he’s hurting himself more than ever because we’re not there,” Sirius snapped.

“Easy Pads,” James tried to sooth as he rested his hands on the irate teen’s shoulder. “No need to take it out on poor Pete. Now let’s go before Moony tears up our little friend to bits.”

Being careful, the marauders entered the shack before quickly changing into their animagi forms. Then Wormtail jumped on Padfoot’s back before the Grim took off for the stairs. They followed the sounds of Moony’s howls until they stopped in front of his room.

Wormtail jumped from Padfoot’s back and turned the knob on the door before quickly changing back. It wasn’t a moment too soon because as soon as he had changed back, the door burst opened and Moony charged at them.

“Moony, it’s just me,” Padfoot said as he was rammed in the side.

“Moony not like being alone,” the wolf growled as he rammed his head against the other canine. “Padfoot leave Moony alone. Moony hurt Padfoot.”

“But if Moony hurt Padfoot, Padfoot can’t give Moony his surprise,” Padfoot said, flinching at a particularly painful head-butt.

“Surprise, what surprise?” Moony asked as his head-butting stopped, though his fury hadn’t gone.

“Today special for Moony. Moony start looking for mate,” Padfoot said as hope spilled through his voice. “Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs celebrate. Take Moony out. Run free in forest.”

“Run free?” Moony asked, his temper vanishing at those two words. “Moony want to run free.”

“Does Moony know who his mate is?” Padfoot asked, unable to stop himself.

“Moony want to run free,” he repeated before dashing down the stairs to the tunnel’s entrance where Prongs was waiting for them. “Moony want to run free now,” Moony demanded as the tall stag blocked him from leaving.

“Than Moony can run free,” Padfoot said from beside him.

Moving to the side, Prongs let Padfoot pass him and dash into the tunnel. Moony soon followed. After Wormtail jumped on Prongs antlers, the two other animagi trailed their canine friends.

Padfoot and Moony easily dashed the length of the tunnel and reached the opening before their companions. Prongs, however, had a much more difficult time. Because of his antlers, he had to bow down so he could fit.

When he finally reached the end of the tunnel, it was to find that Padfoot and Moony were already on the other side of the Whomping Willow. Wormtail jumped from Prongs’ antlers and hit the knob on the tree so the stag could escape its branches. It had begun swinging wildly because of the canines.

Once clear of the willows branches, Prongs followed the two canines towards the Forbidden Forest. They ran deep within the forest, the canines both howling at their freedom.

When they found a spot to truly run free, after chasing all sorts of creatures that lived within the forest, James sat down on the ground. With Wormtail securely on top of his antlers, they watched their canine companions playing a sort of doggy-tag that James promised to tease them about the next day.

= =

“So, do you know if Black is your mate yet?” Lily asked as she and Remus sat outside during their break that morning.

“No,” Remus said in confusion as he rested against one of the tall oak trees in front of the lake. “I feel the same. It’s like nothing’s changed.”

“Well that’s a little anticlimactic.”

“You’re telling me. When I looked in the book to see how I would know who my mate was, they said it depended.”

“On what,” Lily asked as she turned to her friend.

“On everything,” Remus shrugged, frustrated. “They said every wolf is different and as such every wolf searches for their mate in different ways. It did give examples though. This one wolf was able to keep her mind while she searched for her mate. It ended up being one of her school mates.”

“That’s good,” Lily smiled, thinking this was good news. But she became confused at the uncertain look on Remus’ face.

“She hadn’t even really liked him though,” Remus said as he got up in frustration, “And there was also this one wolf that ended up staying a wolf for two weeks before he finally found his mate, and it ended up being his best friend! How could it have taken two weeks if it was someone he was really close to?” Remus asked, his voice rising in irritation.

“I don’t know,” Lily said as she stood beside him and the two of them started walking towards the castle. “I’m sure that won’t happen to you though. I mean, at least you’re not still a wolf,” she said reassuringly as she rested her hand on his shoulder. “We’ll just have to look for clues that suggest Black is your mate.”

“If he’s my mate,” Remus corrected, depressed.

“Because he’s your mate,” she insisted.

As the duo walked towards the castle for their first class of the day, Lily spotted something in the corner of her eye. She smiled mischievously as an idea came to her and she quickly dropped her hand from Remus’ shoulder.

“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” she raised her voice sorrowfully as her eyes shinned brightly with fake tears.

“What?” Remus asked as he looked at her with confusion.

“It’s just become too much for me. I think we should break up before I start getting too attached to you.”

“Huh?” Remus said stupidly.

Lily barely contained rolling her eyes at her friend. For someone who was one of the smartest students in the school, he was really slow sometimes.

“I know this will be difficult for you,” she said as she suddenly hugged him before she quickly whispered that his friends were watching them. “But deep down, I think we both knew that we weren’t meant for each other,” she said as she let go.

“You ev-” Remus said as he caught on. Sometimes that girl was just too much for him.

“No don’t say anything,” she said as she covered her fingers over his mouth to prevent him from talking and blowing her plan. “You mean the world to me. I hope we can still be friends.”

“I think I can manage that,” Remus said sarcastically, earning a cheeky grin from the red-head.

“Great,” she said in a bright smile, before giving him a peck on the cheek. “A kiss to say goodbye to one relationship and hello to another,” she explained. “I’ll see you in class.”

With that, Lily turned and headed back to the castle, leaving Remus where he was, confused and irritated. Her whims were really starting to give him a headache. He wished she would at least give him a heads up before pulling something like this on him.

The sounds of crunching grass getting closer to him told the wolf that he was going to be having company really soon. His suspicions were confirmed when a hand clamped on his shoulder before grey cloudy eyes locked onto his own.

“Are you alright mate?” Sirius asked as he stared down at the wolf.

“Never been better,” Remus said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“At least she didn’t do it in front of the whole school,” Peter offered.

“It’s a small conciliation.”

“We can’t win them all,” James said, trying to hide the relief he was feeling from his face. “Evans is one tough catch to keep.”

“At least you got farther than James,” Sirius joked.

“Hey!” James exclaimed, insulted.

“It’s true,” Sirius smiled.

“Yeah but you don’t have to go broadcasting it,” James sulked before an odd look appeared in his eyes and he turned to Remus. “So you and Evans have split?”

“Apparently,” Remus said, knowing where this conversation was going.

“Would it be alright if I asked her out?”

“Would it really matter if I said no?” Remus asked, knowing the bespectacled boy had been wanting, but unable, to pursue Lily for months now.

“Yes,” James frowned, giving Remus a heartbreaking look.

“Knock yourself out,” Remus said, the sarcasm gone. “We’re not together anymore.”

“I’d be careful what you say to him, Remmy. Knowing James, he might actually get himself knocked out if he thought it would impress his fair maiden,” Sirius smirked.

“Shut up and let’s just get to class before we’re late,” James ordered.

= =

Like when James and Alice broke up, news of Remus and Lily’s split had spread like wildfire. Remus had heavily suspected that Lily had been the one to personally spread that bit of news, and she had seemed very pleased at the outcome. She had even secretly started a betting pool on who would end up with the split duo.

She had hinted that Remus had a high chance of getting together with Sirius. Remus had almost strangled her when he heard the news. However, he figured she had suffered enough when (much to her irritation) there were even higher odds that the red-head would finally end up getting together with James.

“I would rather date the Giant Squid,” Lily frowned during her and Remus’ study session after classes ended.

“It serves you right,” Remus rolled his eyes at his friend’s denial. “What ever possessed you to start that pool?”

“I thought some people would get a kick out of it,” she smiled, her mood lifting. “It might please you to know that a lot of people agreed with me,” she said encouragingly. “Even his old flames thought so. They were all very jealous of you, it seems.”

“Me?” Remus asked in confusion.

“Would I lie?” Lily asked, feigning offence, though quickly continued at Remus’ raised brow. “Apparently, they claimed that Sirius paid more attention to you then he did to them.”

“I wouldn’t read too much into that,” Remus scoffed. “Sirius paid more attention to Peter than he did to them. That’s why I never understood why he was always with them.”

“Why can’t you just take anything at face value?” Lily asked, frustrated at her stubborn friend. “All of his flings thought he had a thing for you. They only figured Sirius never did anything because they thought you were straight. Why can’t you just let yourself believe the same thing?”

= =

“I think he’s faking it. I bet he knows who his mate is and he’s just torturing us,” Sirius grumbled as he lounged on the couch before the common room fire, his arms crossed as he pouted.

“I don’t think he’s faking it,” James laughed as he played wizard chess with Peter, who was loosing spectacularly. “I think he really doesn’t know.”

“Well he better find out soon or I’m going to go crazy,” the grim said in frustration.

“Still having those dreams?” James smirked, his eyes still on the game.

“Yes, and they’re getting worse,” he growled as he pulled at his hair, practically ripping it out. “If I don’t get put out of my misery soon, I’m going to go insane.”

“But what if Remus doesn’t choose you?” Peter asked as his he tried desperately to save his queen from James’ advances.

Suddenly, a large, fluffy object smacked him square in the face. When the mousy boy looked up in shock, it was to find both of his friends giving him death glares.

“No one asked for your opinion,” Sirius snapped.

“I only meant-”

“Well take your meaning to someone who cares.”

“I’m sure Pete didn’t mean anything by it,” James said, trying to sooth his friend. “You know how he tends to speak without thinking,” he said as he stared at the timid youth.

“I bet I can fix that,” Sirius said as he brandished his wand.

= =

Later that day, when Remus had come back from his study session with Lily, he had every intention to change out of his day clothes and go straight to bed. However, when he stepped foot into his dorm, he knew he wasn’t going to be that lucky.

The first thing he noticed was that James had once again swiped the snitch from the equipment room. He was lying back on his bed, a frustrated expression on his face, as he played catch and release with the winged ball.

The second thing Remus noticed was that Sirius was also lying back on his bed. His arms were crossed behind his head and he was just looking up at his canopy with a sour expression on his usually humoured face.

The oddest thing Remus noticed, however, was Peter. It took less than a second for Remus to realise that something was wrong. Peter’s behaviour was definitely strange. The usually timid boy was grabbing at his throat, his mouth opened, as he pointed at it. Then he grabbed at Remus’ robe, eyes pleading, as his lips moved about without a sound escaping.

“Paddy, give Peter his voice back,” he said tiredly.

“I don’t have it,” Sirius said evenly, feeling indifferent to his friend’s plight.

“Tell me the spell you used?” Remus asked, patting his distressed friend on the back as the mousy boy wept silently.

“I don’t remember,” he said stubbornly, causing Remus to sigh in frustration.

“Don’t bother, Remus. I’ve been trying to get him to tell me for a while now. He’s as stubborn as a mule.”

Rolling his eyes at Sirius’ childishness, Remus brandished his wand and aimed it at Peter. His throat was hit was a spark of light, causing the frightened teen to squeak in distress.

“There, all better now,” Remus smiled.

“Are you sure?” Peter asked, before realising he had answered his own question. Then he squeaked thankfully and hugged Remus in gratitude.

“You’re welcome,” Remus laughed as Peter let him go. “Now, tell me why Siri did this to you? He’s usually not so cruel unless provoked.”

Peter had barely opened his mouth before he caught sight of Sirius standing behind his saviour.

“Say one word Pete and I’ll make sure you never speak again,” Sirius warned in a deadly tone and Peter promptly shut his mouth. “I know a very nifty spell that’ll remove your lips. You’ll never eat again either.”

“Sirius, stop picking on him,” Remus said in a warning tone of his own at the frightened look on Peter’s face at the prospect of never eating again.

Though he didn’t move from his spot behind Peter, Sirius seemed to shrink back at Remus’ stare.

“Come on Peter,” Remus said as he wrapped his arm around his frightened friend, though he was staring at Sirius. “How about you and me go to the kitchen and get the house-elves to give us some of that delicious chocolate moose they served at dinner?”

“That sounds nice,” Peter said, a little unsure as he spotted Sirius’ displeased stare.

“Good,” Remus smiled, unfazed by Sirius’ attitude. “Do you want to come as well James,” he asked, knowing that his friend would decline.

“Nah, that’s okay. I think I’ll stay here and try to knock some sense into our stubborn friend,” James said predictably, which earned him a sudden glare from the grim.

“Very well,” Remus nodded. “We’ll be back before curfew.”

Without another word, Remus guided Peter out of the room and towards the kitchens. When the duo was gone, it took a whole three seconds before Sirius was soundly smacked in the head.

“What the bloody hell was that for?” Sirius asked as he rubbed his sore head.

“You idiot,” James snapped. “The last thing you need right now is to get on Remus’ bad side. If you’re not careful, he might really end up choosing someone else.”

“I can’t help it,” Sirius cried in defence as he slumped on his bed. “I’m telling you Prongs. This not knowing is really driving me crazy.”

“Well then I suggest you do whatever you have to do to get a grip.”

= =

That night, Sirius tried to take James’ advice. He started when he was sure everyone else had gone to sleep. He sat up on his bed, crossed legged, with his hands, palm up, on his knees. Then he proceeded to wipe all thoughts from his mind.

He had learned this trick from his parents, who had wanted their children to learn Occlumency at an early age. That way, no one could sneak a peak into their minds and find out about the many dark objects lying hidden at Grimmauld Place.

As Sirius steadily breathed in and out, his mind slowly fell at peace. Bit by bit, the worries and uncertainties about his future with Remus calmly melted away. In its place, Sirius pictured an open field, the wind blowing the grass to and fro, as he sped across it in his grim form.

He pranced up and down the field, the wind whipping through his fur, as his tail wagged behind him in delight. It was calming. It was peaceful. It was worry free. As Sirius rolled around in the grass, his tongue rolling out the side of his mouth, he caught the sounds of the wind whispering to him.

“Do not worry precious grim,” it whispered to him as he rolled on to his stomach. “You have been chosen. Remus is yours and yours alone. He is yours to love, to cherish, to spend the rest of your life with.”

At those words, Sirius instantly changed back into his human form. The next thing he knew, the animagus was sitting in the grass with Remus straddling his thighs.

“I want to be yours forever,” Remus said as he looked deep into Sirius’ eyes.

“Then you shall be mine,” Sirius said before capturing Remus’ lips.

As Sirius’s bare chest rubbed up against Remus’ nightshirt, he knew the offending article of clothing had to go. He immediately slipped his hands underneath the nightshirt, pulling it up and over the wolf’s head, before tossing it aside.

“There, much better,” Sirius said, his voice husky at the sight of his love’s bare chest.

Unable to resist himself, Sirius grabbed onto Remus’ butt cheeks before pulling the wolf closer to him and grinding their groins together. He relished the sounds of Remus’ whimpers and became instantly hard at the sight of the wolf licking his lips before biting them.

Remus draped his arms over Sirius’ shoulder, collapsing against his chest. Sirius groaned in delight at the feel of their chests caressing. Desperate for more, Sirius once again captured Remus’ lips. He slipped his tongue between Remus’ lips, wanting to explore every bit of his love through their kiss.

As Remus ran his fingers through Sirius’ hair, the aristocrat felt himself getting closer and closer to the edge. His heart pounded in his ears and his body was so flushed that he could feel the sweat dripping from his brow. He could feel Remus’ own arousal rubbing up against his thigh and it spurred Sirius on even more as he thrust their groins even harder against each other.

Remus was the first to come, breaking their kiss as he cried out his completion. Sirius was close behind, the sounds of Remus’ cries bringing Sirius over the edge. As the last of the waves of pleasure rushed through him, Sirius fell back on the grass, bringing Remus down with him.

Their hands roamed idly over the other’s body, Remus exploring Sirius’ chest and Sirius caressing Remus’ back. It was the most relaxed Sirius had felt in months.

= =

As the weeks went on, all of the Marauders, and even the teachers, were seeing a new side of Sirius Black. There were no more spontaneous duels between him and the Slytherins in the corridors or cursing random students ‘just because he felt like it’ and no more interrupting classes to announce his undying love to the teachers, for which Professor McGonagall was grateful.

In fact, Sirius Black was calm and collected. He raised his hand to answer questions, which shocked everyone, he was polite and courteous. He was even doing his homework without Remus having to ask him several times. All in all Sirius was becoming a model student. It was quite frightening.

On the day before the next full moon, Remus was convinced that something had possessed his close friend. The only problem was deciding if he should be worried, or grateful. The last class of the day had just finished, and the wolf was already off to the library with Lily (and Peter, who had begged them for help on his Transfiguration homework due the next day).

That left James and Sirius alone to their own devices. In the end, they decided to just loung against the old oak tree by the lake where the Giant Squid dwelled.

“I don’t know how you’ve managed to do it, Sirius Black, but you have completely turned yourself around,” James said several days after the stealing-Peter’s-voice incident.

“Why thank you, Mr Prongs,” Sirius said during their spare that day.

“You’ve gone from angering Remus, to confusing him with your sedated composure. I’m impressed. Whatever have you been doing?”

“I’ve been meditating. I was doubtful at first, but after that first day, I’m convinced. They really seem to be working. I’m still having dreams about Remus, but they’re different now. They used to be completely sexually explicit, but now we’re just kissing. Mind you, they’re more intense than ever. I’ve never had dreams like these before. I can actually taste his lips now and feel my fingers caressing him in the most-”

“Enough already,” James snapped. “This is Remus we’re talking about. He’s one of my best friends and I don’t think I could take you saying one more word.”

“-inappropriate places,” Sirius finished his sentence, a cheeky smile plastered on his face at James’ pained expression. “The point is that the meditation is working.”

“Then I hope it works long enough for Remus to make up his mind. I don’t think I’ve ever gone this long without pranking someone. Remus better appreciate what we’re doing for him because I think I’m going to start going crazy.”

“Do you want to try meditating?” Sirius asked with a straight face, though he knew what his friend’s answer would be.

“I think I’ll survive without it, thanks.”

“If you insist,” Sirius said, resisting a smirk. “How about we get something to drink instead?”

“Sounds like a plan,” James said as he and Sirius got up from the ground.

= =

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Peter said in gratitude, holding his finished Transfiguration homework in his arms as if expecting that someone would snatch it from him.

“It’s alright, Peter,” Remus reassured. “Just don’t go telling James and Sirius that I helped you, deal?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Peter said gleefully before dashing out of the library, Madame Pince giving him her most intense death glare as he left.

“You know they’ll just bully it out of him,” Lily said as she watched the odd boy scurry away.

“I doubt it. It’s usually Sirius who bullies Peter, but he’s been really good these past few weeks. Besides, I needed Peter to go away so I could talk to you.”

“Is this about the mate thing,” she asked as she cast the muffling charm around them.

“Yes, this is about the mate thing. At least, I think it is. Recently, I’ve been having these strange dreams. You see, they’re … about Sirius.”

“That can’t be strange. Surely you’ve had dreams about him before,” Lily said, truly intrigued.

“Not like this. Before, my dreams were flimsy … surreal … intangible. I knew they weren’t real even as I was dreaming them.”

“And now,” Lily asked.

“Now it’s like I can actually taste him, feel him … and the feeling doesn’t go away even after I’ve woken up in the morning,” he said wistfully.

“Do you know what I think,” she smiled knowingly. “I think this is a sign that Sirius really is your mate.”

“Maybe,” Remus shrugged.

“What do you mean ‘Maybe’?”

“Well, you’d think if I were to dream that Sirius was my mate that we’d actually be mating.”

“You mean you don’t? I thought you said…”

“We’re intimate yes, but we never go all the way. I can feel that he wants to, and I know that I definitely want to… But I always hold back … I purposefully hold back.”

“I can’t believe it,” Lily sighed. “Even in your dreams, you’re still bashful.”

“But I’m not,” Remus insisted. “I want it more than anything in the world. I ache for it,” he said with frustration. “But I stop myself every time. It’s driving me crazy.”

= =

“I don’t want to hear it,” James said as he placed his hands over his ears, and then scrunched up his eyes for good measure.

The two of them were currently half way through their second bottle of butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks when Sirius decided to retell one of his Remus-filled dreams to his best friend. Though he would have liked to at least be a bit tipsy while Sirius retold his dream, James was sure the mention of Remus straddling his best friend would have sobered him up anyway.

“But James, it was amazing,” Sirius said as he lounged in his seat, his eyes glazed over as he thought of the last dream he had. “It felt so real. His lips were pure magic. The way he sucked on my neck, I thought he was going to draw blood.”

“Sirius, you’re killing me here,” James shook his head, trying to wipe the images of Remus and Sirius snogging from his mind.

“Consider it payback for all of those Lily-induced dreams you insisted on telling me,” Sirius smirked. “Even when I insisted that you didn’t.”

“You’re so evil,” James scowled.

“So I’ve been told,” Sirius smirked as he took a swing of his butterbeer.

“Are you boys all done here,” a feminine voice the two Gryffindors were all too familiar with said.

“Not quite Rosmerta, my darling,” Sirius said to the bar matron with one of his most charming smiles. “I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind gracing us with a parting gift only a lady as lovely as yourself could bestow upon us.”

“I’m afraid I’m a bit too old for you lads,” Rosmerta smiled with mock disappointment, though her cheeks were now tinged with a pinkish glow.

“A shame,” Sirius said, looking convincingly disappointed, before the smile was back. “A consolation prize then…”

An hour later found James and Sirius strolling back into their dorm room before dumping bottles of Firewhisky onto their beds.

“Where did you guys get all of those from?” Peter asked as he stood up from his bed.

Before anyone could answer Peter, a flash of light suddenly hit his chest, causing him to loose his balance for a few seconds, before the light died down.

“What was that?” Peter asked when the flash had completely vanished.

“They’re Firewhisky bottles, Pete,” James said as he turned to the mousy boy, just missing the light show. “Pads and his winning personality managed to convince Rosmerta to give us a few bottles.”

“I merely relayed to her that it was my birthday tomorrow and it would be unthinkable to commemorate the joyous day without ingesting of few bottles of this precious liquid. It’s a right of passage no teenage boy should go without.”

“Huh?” Peter asked, momentarily forgetting about the flash of light.

“That’s what I said. But Rosmerta, bless her soul,” James said with a dreamy look in his eyes, “merely smiled before kicking us out with a few of these as a birthday present.”

“As well as a little bit of action,” Peter said, wiggling his eyebrows in what was supposed to be a suggestive manor, but ended up making him look slightly constipated.

“I told you we shouldn’t have taught him how to speak,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes as he stacked his loot by his bed. “In case you’ve forgotten in that tiny brain of yours, James and I are spoken for already. Flirting is as far as we go now.”

“Then what’s that on your neck?”

Curious, and slightly alarmed, at the remark, Sirius took the mirror he kept by his bed and pointed it to where Peter had gestured to. Curiosity getting the better of him as well, James stood behind his friend and surveyed Sirius through the mirror as well.

That’s when they spotted it. It was faint. A good blush would have covered it up nicely if Sirius had been the kind of person to be easily embarrassed. As it was, it was clear enough for the two usually perceptive Gryffindors to wonder how it took someone like Peter to point it out to them.

= =

When Remus returned to the dorm room just before curfew, two things struck him as odd. The first was the slight ringing sound he heard the moment he opened the door. It sounded like some sort of a bell, like a cow’s bell.

Remus sighed.

“Siri, what did you do to Peter this time?” The werewolf asked as he put his books and things by his bedside table.

“What?” Peter asked with a frightened look on his face before checking to see that all of his major body parts were still in tact.

Sirius smiled mischievously at the sight of the weak link in their group padding his body down.

“It’s just a little spell I came up with. The little rat has the annoying habit of popping up unannounced,” he smiled nonchalantly. “Don’t worry though, only those living with him will be able to hear it.”

“So how was your day, Remus?” James asked suddenly. “Find out anything interesting?”

“Like who your mate is?” Sirius asked bluntly. The taller boy never was one for subtlety.

Looking between his three friends reminded Remus of the second thing that struck him as odd when he came into the room. It was a curious feeling that had ended with Remus’ initial question about the ringing sound that resulted in Peter frisking himself. But with James’ question, the second strange occurrence returned. All three boys were once again staring at him with a disturbing look in their eyes, like they knew something he didn’t and that ignorance was going to cost him dearly.

“No, not yet,” Remus said hesitantly. “Why, do you think you know who it is?”

“It’s not that,” James said evasively. “We were just talking about it and realised something. After what you told us about the other werewolves finding their mates, we think we might have figured out why you haven’t found yours.”

“You did?” Remus said, feeling surprised, impressed and eager to know what they knew all at once. “Out with it then,” he said, his lack of patience in no mood to play their games.

“Maybe you haven’t found him because he hasn’t come of age yet. It would make sense after all, seeing as how a full grown werewolf wouldn’t want to mate with, what in their mind would still be a cub.”

“That does make sense,” Remus said, sitting down on his bed as his mind worked overtime to assess the possibility. “How did you guys figure it out when Lily and I have been racking our brains about it all this time?”

“Just chalk it up to the brilliance that is us,” Sirius said smugly.

“Now if only you could apply that brilliance to your school work,” Remus teased as he got up from his bed.

“Where are you going?” Sirius asked as he watched Remus heading for the door.

“I’m going to find Lily. I want to tell her about your theory. Maybe with her help, we can narrow down who my mate could be.”

“But it’s after curfew and we’ve yet to celebrate Sirius’ birthday,” James all but whined.

“Yeah, we even got party supplies,” Sirius said, going from nonchalant to giddy in a matter of seconds before ducking over the side of his bed and returning with two bottles of Firewhisky in each of his hands.

“Where did you get those?”

“Rosmerta, bless her soul,” Sirius smiled as he held the bottles to his chest as if cherishing them. “She insisted that I have a few of these so the four of us could properly celebrate my upcoming birthday.”

“I think I’ll pass. I’m still trying to get over the last time I had some of that stuff.”

“But you have to participate,” Sirius insisted as he jumped on Remus’ bed. Then he draped an arm over one of Remus’ shoulder and rested his chin on the other. “We did it for your birthday and James’. It’s tradition now,” he said, giving the wolf his best puppy dog eyes

“Wouldn’t you rather remember your coming of age, though?” Remus said as he refused to turn his head and meet his crush’s eyes, knowing that one look would be the end of him.

“Oh I have a feeling nothing could make me forget this night,” the aristocrat smiled.

“But we have classes in the morning,” Remus pointed out, though his resolve was crumbling.

“And we have hangover potions in my trunk,” Sirius persisted as he pulled Remus closer to him. “Come on, you know I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” he said, whispering softly into Remus’ ear as he held an open bottle of Firewhisky in front of the wolf.

Maybe it was the tone of his voice, or the breath that ghosted over his neck, that gave Remus goose bumps. Maybe it was both. All he knew was that as his cheeks started to flush, he uttered the one word he knew he would come to regret.

“Fine,” he said as he grabbed the bottle from Sirius’ hand before taking a swing.

= =

“You know,” Remus slurred as he finished off his first bottle of Firewhisky. “I never understood why … hiccup … vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies. I mean … hiccup … we’re both creatures of the night … hiccup … we’re both hated and hunted by wizards and muggles alike … hiccup,” he continued to slur even as his words became more confident. “We should be brothers in arms … hiccup … not brothers armed against each other.”

“Here, here,” James cheered drunkenly as he raised his second bottle of Firewhisky, already half finished, before taking a swing.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re cute when you’re drunk?” Sirius asked as he smiled at his drunken friend.

Remus blushed fiercely at the comment, with only a timid hiccup as his response. He then tried to hide his reddened cheeks by taking another swing of a new bottle of Firewhisky.

Sirius’ smile merely widened at the gesture. He wasn’t nearly as drunk as the others, having only just finished off half of his first bottle. After all, he wanted to remember this night in its entirety.

“Easy Padfoot,” James whispered to his mischief-making companion, appearing surprisingly sober for someone who had just finished his second bottle. “We’re not trying to scare our wolfy friend to death.”

“I know,” Sirius said with a mischief gleam in his eyes as he watched Remus get up on wobbly legs and walk over to the window. “But if we’re wrong, I’ll never get another chance to do this.”

Leaving James on the floor with the rest of the Firewhisky, Sirius got up to join Remus by the window.

“He’s so close I can feel him,” Remus said drunkenly as he rested his head against the window frame.

“Who, you’re mate,” Sirius asked, his heart pounding in his chest in anticipation as he purposely stood right behind Remus.

“No, Moony,” the wolf said. “I can feel him trying to get out. Something’s making him very anxious to break free,” he said as he turned to face Sirius.

When Remus turned to face his friend, his heart stilled for a moment at realising how close they were. Though they were still inches apart from an actual kiss, Remus could practically taste the Firewhisky off of his friend’s lips. Then Remus could sense Sirius leaning closer.

“What are you doing?” Remus asked, his heartbeat pounding anxiously in his ears.

Without a word, Sirius leaned in the rest of the way and let their lips touch softly. It was a chaste kiss, so unlike Sirius when he was in seduction mode. He usually just dove right in, focusing more on the chase and the pleasure he got from it more than anything else. But Remus wasn’t just someone to seduce and James’ words were like a drum pounding in his thoughts not to scare his friend away.

Sirius pulled back from the kiss. His lips tingled, begging for him to do it again, and the aroused teen was tempted to oblige them.

“Why did you do that?” Remus asked, his eyes glazed over and his lips slightly parted in shock.

“Because I wanted to,” was Sirius’ simple response.

“Well don’t do it again,” Remus ordered half-heartedly before he subconsciously licked his lips.

“Okay,” Sirius agreed before capturing Remus’ lips once again.

As he kissed Remus the second time, Sirius grasped the other boy’s arms, fearing the timid teen would pull away. Sirius wanted to savour this kiss for as long as possible, needing it to last him for a while, in case things didn’t turn out the way he hoped.

As Remus moaned into the kiss, Sirius’ grip on his arms disappeared. A second later, Remus’ own arms were wrapped around Sirius’ neck as he deepened their kiss. Remus sighed into his crush’s talented lips, loving the feeling of their tongues sweeping against each others. Soon Sirius’ arms slipped around Remus’ waist, bringing their bodies closer together and feeling just how much the other was enjoying their embrace.

Sirius, too far gone into the kiss, slid his legs between Remus’ and rubbed their groins against each other. He was rewarded with a deep groan from the boy in his arms. A moment later a definite thrust from his crush’s groin was Sirius’ response. He groaned at the friction, and thrust harder against the wolf. The shorter boy gasped at the delightful sensations coursing through his veins, causing their kiss to end.

The two looked at each other. Sirius’ eyes flicked to his crush’s lips, as the other boy licked them in anticipation. A moment later, the usually shy boy was tearing off Sirius’ shirt and tossing it to the ground. The shorter boy’s shirt was next as Sirius pulled it over his shoulders and tossed it away.

Their lips once again found each other as they maneuvered towards Remus’ bed. As they collapsed onto the soft mattress, Sirius latched his lips against the wolf’s neck and repeatedly thrust his groin against the moaning boy underneath him.

Any doubt that the other teen would reject him quickly disappeared as he heard the sounds the slight teen was making. Those sounds alone were enough to push Sirius over the edge. It was like those dreams he used to have. However, Sirius now knew they were more than just dreams. They were really sleep-induced memories from when wolf-Moony was seducing him.

Hold on a second.

With a great show of restraint, Sirius pulled away from his would-be lover, who moaned out in displeasure at the loss of contact.

“Padfoot no stop,” the wonton boy panted as he reached out to try and resume their activities. That is until Sirius pushed him back down.

“Remus?” Sirius called out, hoping his suspicions weren’t confirmed, even as he saw the moonlight shinning through the window.

“Remus sleeping,” the slight teen said with eyes glazed over with barely contained lust. “Only Moony now.”

“Bloody hell,” Sirius said as he rolled off of the other teen.

“Padfoot no stop,” Moony said as he quickly straddled Sirius’ hips. “Moony need Padfoot,” he said before capturing Sirius’ lips within his own and grinding his groin against the taller boy.

For a moment, a moment that would forever be engraved in his veins, Sirius wondered why he had stopped. It felt so good, letting his tongue caress against Remus’, having Remus rub up against him…

But then sense and guilt brought him back to reality. This wasn’t Remus, though he could convince himself otherwise if he tried. He, along with James, Lily and sometimes even Peter, try very hard to convince Remus that he and the wolf were different. To say they were the same now, only because of the delicious friction Moony was creating against his groin, would be wrong. But even if it was tempting to just give in, it would only hurt his friend in the end, and that was something Sirius wasn’t willing to do.

So with great restraint, Sirius grasped onto Moony’s arms – ‘Moony’ because that’s who was in control now. That point was quickly driven home when Moony pushed at Sirius’ arms, forcing his mate to let go of him before wrapping his arm tightly around Sirius’ neck.

“Padfoot Moony mate. Mate ready now. Mate no leave Moony,” Moony said between kisses that left Sirius breathless and his mind in a haze.

Just as Sirius was trying to clear his mind again and remember why he needed to stop, Moony was suddenly ripped from his arms. Sirius was left panting on the bed, wondering who had saved him from his delightful torture. When his mind finally cleared and he could finally see passed the cloud of lust that surrounded him, he could see his saviour struggling to hold onto his mate.

“I think we’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re Remus’ mate, don’t you?” James asked as he tried to maneuver his arm out of the way of Moony’s snapping teeth without letting go all together.

“I think we have,” Sirius said as he finally managed to get up from the bed.

“Then what do you suggest we do with the little biter?”

“Prongs let Moony go,” Moony said as he continued to struggle. “Moony need mate … Moony need Padfoot. Prongs let Moony go,” he said over and over before trying to bite James again.

“Moony stop trying to bite Prongs and he’ll let you go,” Sirius said.

Instantly Moony stopped struggling and looked up at his mate with intense eyes that spoke of nothing but want and need for the teen before him.

“Okay Prongs, you can let him go,” Sirius said as he held out his hand.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea Padfoot,” James said warningly.

“It’s okay Prongs,” Sirius reassured as he kept his other hand close to his side. “Trust me.”

Nodding his head at the small gesture, James let go of his restless friend. Everything that had happened afterwards happened so quickly that neither teen could help the pounding in their chests at the aftermath.

In the back of their minds they knew that once James had let go of Moony, the wolf had charged at Sirius, ready to resume their mating. They knew that once Moony had charged at Sirius, the armed teen had pulled out his hidden wand and had cast a stunning spell at the wolf. They saw that once Moony had been hit, he had collapsed in a heap in Sirius’ arms.

But only Sirius saw, just before Moony had been hit, the hurt and rejection in Moony’s eyes before they closed in unconsciousness. It was that, more than the thought of Moony waking up and pouncing on him again that had Sirius up the rest of the night.

= =

“Bloody hell Siri, you look like crap. Did you get any sleep last night,” James asked.

He had spotted his friend, when he woke up the next morning, and started to worry. Sirius was just sitting on his bed, starring at Remus, who was peacefully sleeping in his own bed. James walked over to his distressed friend and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“He’s fine,” he reassured. “We made that spell ourselves and tested it on Pete loads of times. If there were side effects we would have seen them by now.”

“You don’t understand James,” Sirius finally spoke. “Moony thinks I rejected him, I saw it in his eyes last night. And Remus always feels the closest to Moony this time of the month, so he’ll feel like I’ve rejected him too.”

“But Remus was plastered last night. Most likely, he won’t remember a thing, just like last time.”

“You don’t have to remember it to know something went wrong. He could sense it.”

“He definitely will if you continue to stare at him like some wounded puppy throughout the day. Just act normal and see what he does before you do anything.”

“You’re right,” Sirius said with a brightened mood as he got up from his bed. “I guess you’re not as stupid as you look,” he said as he patted his friend on the shoulder before heading to the washroom.

“Ungrateful prat,” James called out after his friend before the washroom door closed behind him.

= =

When Remus woke up later that morning, he felt exactly like how Sirius had looked that morning, like crap. He quickly searched through Sirius’ things until he found what he was looking for. When he found the potion that would relieve him of his blistering headache, he noticed a new kind of pain and looked towards his clock.

If the time was correct and, judging from the position of the sun outside, it was, he had missed the beginning of breakfast. It explained the rumbling sensation in his stomach and the reason why none of his friends were still snoring away in the room with him. After rushing to get ready, Remus dashed down to the Great Hall in order to join his friends for what was left of breakfast.

“Why didn’t you guys wake me?” Remus asked as he sat down beside Sirius.

“We thought you could use some extra sleep, what with you having to deal with your furry little problem later tonight,” James said.

“That is the very reason why I need to eat. I have to keep up my strength.”

“Don’t worry, Moony,” Sirius said as he wrapped an arm around Remus and pulled him close. “We wouldn’t have let you starve.”

Turning to Sirius at the touch, Remus was hit with an overwhelming urge to shrink away, as if he wasn’t worthy of Sirius’ touch. It was a sudden and unexpected feeling and Remus had to hold his head in his hand and force the feeling to go away. When it did, he turned back to his friends, who were all now staring at him and each other with concern.

“I’m fine,” he reassured them, though a little irritably. He hated it when they worried about him. “I just need to eat something and I’ll be fine.”

However, as the day progressed, Remus became more and more irritable. He had snapped at several students from various years and houses. He even managed to make a seventh year Slytherin boy wet himself, and that was really hard to do.

It wasn’t until he had made a second year Hufflepuff cry that Sirius suggested that he go up to their door and cool down. Remus had instantly obeyed, feeling an overwhelming need to please the aristocrat. When he had reached the dorm, Remus felt very pleased that he had followed Sirius’ order, never bothering to wonder why it was so important to do so.

= =

“Have either of you guys noticed how Remus is acting today?” Lily asked, sitting down on one of the couches by the fire after she had finished consoling the Hufflepuff.

Lily was only mildly surprised that the common room was empty even though it wasn’t curfew yet. Remus usually had the ability to empty rooms with a mere look when he was in one of his moods. No one wanted to get on Remus’ bad side during those times, and those that didn’t care or know about his wrath would soon regret their ignorance. It was a lesson the seventh year Slytherin and second year Hufflepuff had to learn the hard way.

“I mean, I know he’s grumpy so close to the full moon, but he’s never this bad, even on the day of the full moon. He snapped every time someone so much as breathed near him. The only person he didn’t snap at was Sirius. He even calmed down completely when Sirius told him to go upstairs and rest when he had nearly bit my head off for suggesting the same thing moments before,” she said suspiciously.

“I take it Remus hasn’t told you about our theory then, or you would have figured it out by now,” James said, though not smugly.

“What theory?”

“Sirius and I told Remus yesterday that we think the reason he hasn’t found his mate yet might be because his mate hasn’t come into their inheritance.”

“That makes sense, which would rule me out as a possible mate since my birthday was months ago,” Lily said, though she didn’t look surprised. “When are your birthdays?”

“Peter’s isn’t until the end of the year, mine already past, but Sirius’ is today,” James said, knowing the woman of his dreams was starting to figure it out, if she hadn’t already.

“But that only raises more questions than it answers.”

“Why’s that?” Sirius asked, looking a little anxious.

“Let’s say, hypothetically, that Sirius was Remus’ mate.”

“Sirius is Remus’ mate,” James agreed.

“Good,” she said impatiently. “And let’s say that Remus-”

“No, he means that I really am Remus’ mate. Moony said just that when he was trying to jump my bones last night.”

“You’re kidding. But then Remus should be giddy at finding his mate instead of more snappy than usual. The only time a wolf would get worse is when their mate rejects them.”

Lily looked at the boys and saw the nervous glances they were giving each other. She sighed at their stupidity and held her head in her hands, hoping that her suspicions weren’t true.

“Please tell me that you didn’t reject him.”

“I didn’t,” Sirius said earnestly only to shrink back when Lily focused her green eyes on him, “not exactly anyway.”

“What happened?”

After explaining to the red-head what had transpired the night before, Lily merely shook her head in frustration.

“That explains a lot, but if Moony really thinks you’ve rejected him, things could get ugly.”

“I know, I know. If Remus thinks I’ve rejected him, he could go insane.”

“That’s a possibility, but it’s not always the case. Right now, Remus feels like you don’t believe he’s worthy enough to be with you. He’ll try to prove to you that he is. If he thinks he’s failed at that, he could end up getting depressed and putting an end to his misery,” she ended solemnly.

“You mean he could end up killing himself,” Peter said, his face turning completely white at the thought.

“That or he’ll become a vicious killing beast like Greyback. That’s what would most likely happen, and Remus feared that it would be the way he’d end up.”

“I won’t let either outcome happen,” Sirius said with absolute resolve. “I’ll make him see that I want him just as much as he wants me.”

“How are you going to do that exactly?” Lily asked warily.

“I’m not going to take advantage of him if that’s what you’re thinking,” Sirius snapped, disgusted that the red-head thought so little of him.

“It’s not like you haven’t done it before,” Lily said, defending her mistrust.

“But I’d never do that to Remus. It’s why I didn’t give in to him last night. I knew it was Moony and not Remus.”

“So you plan to some how convince Remus that you want him without actually giving in to him,” James said to stop the potential fight between his best friend and future wife. “Good luck mate. You’ll need it.”

“Oh ye of little faith…”

The sounds of footsteps quieted the four of them until they saw who it was.

“It’s time for me to go,” Remus said as he walked up to them, though his eyes were on Sirius. “Will you be coming tonight?”

“Of course,” Sirius said. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he reassured Remus and was rewarded with a relieved smile from his mate.

= =

After Madam Pomfrey had left Remus to his own devices, he waited for his friends to join him. When the guise of James’ cloak revealed his friends (bar Lily who had actually followed the nurse’s orders and went back up to the Gryffindor Tower) Remus could barely contain his relief at the sight of Sirius among them.

Remus knew he had to control himself, but his recent dream had seemed to rattle him to his very core. He couldn’t control himself anymore. The feeling of rejection that dream had left in Remus had broken something within him. Only pleasing Sirius seemed to cure that feeling, or at least alleviate it.

“We’ll be right outside the door,” Sirius said, snapping Remus out of his thoughts as the aristocrat rested his hand on the wolf’s shoulder.

“Okay,” Remus said, missing the comforting touch when the hand was gone.

Now that he was alone in the trashed room, Remus proceeded to discard his clothes before locking them away in the armoire. Then he sat down in his usual spot before calling for his friends to come in. When they did, James locked the door before shifting to his animagus form with Wormtail already sitting on one of his antlers.

Sirius was the last to change, sitting down beside Remus before turning into his grim form. Then he nestled his head against Remus’ leg, nudging at his hand and urging the teen to scratch behind his ears. It always seemed to work as a form of comfort for Remus during this time, more so now with his need for the grim’s touch.

As the change started, it was the crushing emotional pain more than the physical that had Remus cringing. His bones cracked and stretched before his skin ripped to accommodate his new form. But it was the devastating sense of rejection that forced him to scream out before the wolf took over with a deafening howl.

Moony whimpered in pain as the last bone cracked into place. He shook his head to rid himself of the last reminisce of his human companion. This marked the first time Moony didn’t relish the freedom that came with taking over the boy’s body. For today it meant facing the very being that had rejected him the night before.

Padfoot stood before him, his tail down and head cocked to the side in wonder. He seemed content enough to stay in Moony’s presence but the wolf wasn’t so sure. The grim had tricked Moony once already and the wolf was now weary of the beast.

Instead of pouncing on the canine playfully like he usually did, Moony stood still, unsure of what to do. It wasn’t until Padfoot began to come closer that Moony became defensive. His ears flattened back against his head and his eyes grew large and round as his pupils dilated. He tucked his tail between his legs, twitching anxiously, as he stared at the grim, watching his every move.

Padfoot stopped then and watched when the corners of the wolf’s mouth drew back, his lips slightly curled, exposing his white teeth. His nose wrinkled and the hair on his neck and back stood up as he began to growl. The grim stood, hesitant as the wolf lowered his body in a crouching position, putting all of his weight on his hind feet in case he needed to pounce.

“Moony, stop it,” Padfoot said as he stomped his paw against the floorboards, causing dust to filter through the air. “I won’t hurt you.”

At the command, Moony’s posture changed instantly. No longer feeling the need to pounce, he lowered his hind legs and his tail made small, less tense, swings. He stopped growling and the hairs on his neck and back lowered and his nose unwrinkled.

Moony then lowered his eyes in submission, allowing Padfoot to come closer. When the grim did, the wolf licked at his mouth and face and then nudged the grim’s nose with his own. When Padfoot returned the gesture, Moony raised his forepaw and whimpered.

“Padfoot no more upset with Moony?” Moony asked as he nuzzled against the grim.

“No. Padfoot not mad at Moony. Padfoot Moony’s mate.”

At those words, the Moony Padfoot was used to seeing during these nights returned. He crouched down low, his front lowered and hind end raised as his tail wagged playfully in the air.

“Then Moony play now,” the wolf said moments before he pounced on the other canine.

= =

As Remus began to wake from his Moony-induced state, he looked around the tattered room only to find that he was once again not alone.

“Hey,” Sirius said as he looked at the waking teen.

“Hey,” Remus said, his throat feeling slightly sore from last night. “What time is it?”

“Don’t worry,” Sirius assured as he watched Remus looking around the room anxiously. “Pomfrey won’t be coming for a while now. I asked James and Pete to wait at the base of the willow and watch out for your escort.”

“Why?”

“Because I needed to talk to you.”

“What did you need to talk to me about?” Remus asked as he started sitting up from the bed.

“About me being your mate,” Sirius said as he helped Remus to sit up.

“Being my…” Remus started as he stared at his crush, his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

“I would have talked to you about it yesterday, but Moony was so close to the surface I wasn’t sure if I would be talking to him or you.”

“You think you’re my mate?” Remus asked, daring himself to hope.

“I know I’m your mate. Don’t you remember what happened last night,” Sirius wondered, “or the night before?”

“I…” Remus began, remembering bits and pieces of those two nights. His fingers touched his lips as he remembered their kiss and his need to mate. “But that was only a dream.”

“Yeah, Lily told me about your dreams,” Sirius said, effectively snapping Remus out of his thoughts. “But only after I told her about mine,” he said reassuringly at the mortified look on the wolf’s face. “It didn’t really matter though, because they weren’t really dreams.”

“They weren’t?”

“No. As it turns out, Moony was being very naughty and was coming to me during those nights.”

“Sweet Merlin,” Remus said mortified beyond belief, knowing full-well what those nights entailed.

“Don’t worry. I quiet enjoyed our little rendezvous,” Sirius smirked as he whispered huskily in Remus’ ear, causing the wolf to shutter. “Especially when you gave me this,” the animagus said as he pulled down his collar.

Remus blushed at the sight of the reddened blemish on Sirius’ neck. He definitely remembered giving Sirius that particular mark. The animagus merely smiled as he lowered his lips against the flushed teen’s shoulder before bringing them up as they caressed Remus’ neck.

“Before the day’s done, I hope you let me return the favour,” he said before leaving butterfly kisses on Remus’ neck.

Remus’ eyes rolled back up in his head, loving the feel of Sirius’ lips against his neck. He prayed to every deity he knew to let this be real. To have Sirius actually kiss him so gently, caress his skin so lovingly.

However, he should have wished to not be interrupted because just as Sirius’ hand was sliding down Remus’ side and underneath the blanket that covered his naked form, James’ warning call interrupted them.

“What is it?” Sirius said as he held up his charmed mirror to reveal his friend’s face on the other side.

“Pomfrey’s coming. She’s already in the tunnel so you better hide before she catches you.”

With the matron’s imminent appearance, Sirius put his mirror back inside his robe. Then he turned to Remus, who was looking adorably flushed.

“I guess we’ll have to finish this later,” he said, quickly kissing Remus on the neck one last time before disappearing from the room.

A moment later Pomfrey entered the room. But even her constant words of concern over his flushed state couldn’t distract Remus from thoughts of later.

= =

“Why isn’t he here yet?” Peter asked as he sat with Sirius and James at the Great Hall for breakfast that morning.

“I don’t know,” Sirius shrugged. “When he woke up, he was fine.”

“Are you sure you didn’t do anything to him?” James asked ever so subtly.

“I didn’t jump his bones if that’s what you’re asking,” Sirius said irritably. “I didn’t have time to do anything nearly as delightful as that.”

“Why do you insist on using that kind of language,” Lily said as she sat down with the trio.

“Should I say ‘screw his brains out’ instead?” Sirius asked sarcastically.

“You could say nothing at all,” Lily responded, unfazed. “That would be a big improvement. So are you guys expecting Remus to show up soon?”

“He should have been here by now,” James answered. “Last night wasn’t bad at all so Poppy doesn’t have a reason to keep him for so long. He should have been here by now.”

“So what did you do to him?” Lily asked, though this question was aimed at Sirius.

“I didn’t do anything,” Sirius snapped, drawing the attention of several students nearby. “Oh go mind your own business,” he snapped before getting up from the table and leaving the Great Hall.

“Well I do believe I hit a nerve,” Lily said, more amused and curious than offended by Sirius’ outburst. Then, as if nothing happened, she began to pile her plate with food to start her day.

= =

“Well this is a first,” Pomfrey said as she looked over her charge. “In all my years of working here, a student has never asked to stay in here after I have discharged them. The world must be coming to an end,” she joked.

“Not just yet. But it’s getting close,” Remus said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Are you still having trouble finding your mate?”

“No. In fact, I’ve found him already,” he smiled nervously.

“Really, well that’s wonderful. Who is it, if I may ask?”

“It’s Sirius.”

“Black?”

“The one and only…”

“And you’re displeased with the outcome,” Pomfrey guessed.

“Oh no. On the contrary, I’m very pleased,” Remus said, a small smile forming on his lips as a bit of pink tinted his cheeks.

“Than he isn’t fine with it,” Pomfrey guessed again.

“No. I mean, he seemed more than fine with it,” Remus said, the memories of earlier that morning turning the light tinge on his cheeks completely red.

“Then I’m lost. What exactly is the problem?”

“Well. This is Sirius we’re talking about. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s a bit of a player.”

“Oh I know all about Mr. Black’s reputation,” Pomfrey sniffed, showing exactly how much she disapproved of it. “I’ve had a few instances where normally intelligent students have done incredibly foolish things trying to vie for his attention.”

“Exactly, and I’m not the competitive type at all. Most people think I study so much because I’m competing with Lily to get the highest marks. But I honestly just like learning.”

“And you think someone will come along and compete with you for Mr. Black, and he’ll choose them over you.”

“No. I know he wouldn’t hurt me like that.”

“Then what’s the problem dear?” Pomfrey said, getting a little flustered with trying to get a straight answer out of the teen.

“I just don’t know if he’ll be happy. I’ve been trying to get him to stop being such a gigolo and be with someone he could be happy with even though he seemed very content with just…” Remus paused, unable to fine the words.

“Sowing his royal oats,” Pomfrey helped, gaining a smile out of the anxious teen.

“And here I come and make him feel like he has to stay with me or I’ll go crazy.”

“People do change, you know? Have you ever considered that he might actually want to be with you?”

“I only dare to in my dreams. Fate seems to find screwing with my life amusing.”

“So you plan on showing them that you can do that all by yourself,” Pomfrey guessed sarcastically. “That will show them,” she said, walking away, but not before giving Remus one final pointed look.

= =

“Class is almost about to begin and he still hasn’t shown up,” Sirius said as he paced in front of his friends, who were both lounging on the couch before the fireplace. “Maybe he’s more hurt than we realised and Pomfrey really is keeping him from us. Maybe he’s waiting for us to go and visit him. Or maybe Lily got it wrong and he’s avoiding me because he doesn’t want me to be his mate.”

“And maybe you should calm the bloody hell down because your pacing is giving me a headache,” James snapped, which effectively got Sirius to stop pacing and slump gracefully next to him. “Now if Remus really wasn’t well, whose care would we rather him be in? Poppy’ll fix him up good as rain and we’ll see him sooner or later. If Lily was wrong, which I highly doubt my future wife could ever be,” he said and ignored Sirius rolling his eyes, “then we’ll also find out sooner or later. The bottom line, let’s just get to our first class before we’re late. Once there, we’ll just assume everything is okay until we’re proven other wise. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Peter nodded.

“Agreed?” James repeated more insistently when Sirius remained silent.

“Agreed,” Sirius said reluctantly, but deep down a dozen or so more scenarios were running ramped through his head, each one more disconcerting than the last.

The trio left the common room after that and headed for their first class of the day, Charms. When they got there, the room was already half full with students, and sitting beside Lily in the front row was Remus. Before any of them could approach the teen (who had seen them come in only to turn back to the front) Flitwick came into the room and told them all to take their seats.

“He looks okay,” Sirius whispered to James.

“Maybe Poppy just let him out,” James suggested.

“Or maybe he is avoiding me,” Sirius said suspiciously.

“We’ll know soon enough.”

‘Soon enough’ didn’t come soon enough for Sirius. It wouldn’t have been so bad for him. Normally Flitwick would let them group up into pairs and practice various charms on each other or various objects. However, on the one day Sirius needed one of those classes, their teacher decided to make them read the chapter on Advanced Counter Charms. For obvious reasons, they weren’t allowed to practice them. Thus, they were left, sitting at their desks with their head in their books.

“This is crap,” Sirius grumbled at his bad luck.

“Patience Pads,” James warned as he pretended to be reading.

“Patience isn’t a virtue the Blacks were lucky enough to inherit. Insanity and a frightening fascination with inflicting pain on others however…”

“Insanity and sadism aren’t virtues.”

“In my house they are. Either way, Blacks weren’t meant to just sit around and do nothing. They were meant to act now and ask questions later.”

“I thought you would have learned by now that that isn’t the best course of action.”

“Blacks also have a short attention span and often make the same mistakes more than once. It’s how I explain my brother’s existence,” Sirius said at the disbelieving look James gave him.

As James continued to try and talk Sirius out of doing something stupid, Remus was busy multitasking between reading the assigned chapter and watching Sirius. It wasn’t that hard since he was sitting across from them. What was hard was not giving into the urge to pester the animagi about the importance of studying.

“They’re going to get themselves into trouble if they don’t start working,” Remus said as he looked down at his book.

“Sirius is probably just anxious to talk to you,” Lily replied, not looking up from her book but knowing who her friend was talking about anyway. “Why didn’t you come to the Great Hall for breakfast?”

“Pomfrey,” was all Remus said, hoping she would drop it.

No such luck.

“But you couldn’t have been that hurt. Sirius told us that you were fine this morning.”

“Never mind what Sirius said,” Remus turned to her. “Why did you tell him about my dreams?”

“I only did that after he told me about his dreams,” Lily said dismissively. “He also showed me that nice little hickey you gave him,” she smirked. “And here I thought you were the passive one,” she teased.

“That wasn’t me. That was Moony,” Remus insisted, flustered. “And you knew full well I didn’t want you telling Sirius about my dreams.”

“But they weren’t dreams, were they? They actually happened and Sirius remembered them just as well as you did, and if I’m not mistaken, he enjoyed them just as much too.”

“Of course he enjoyed them,” Remus said dismissively, causing Lily to raise a brow in surprise. “He’d enjoy a Chihuahua humping his leg,” he admitted before turning to the teen in question. “And speaking of Chihuahuas,” he added disapprovingly.

Lily had to look over Remus’ shoulder to see what he was talking about, but once she did, she couldn’t help but scoff at the sight. There, sitting behind the dastardly due and trying desperately to get Sirius’ attention, was McCormick. Lily rolled her eyes at the way McCormick tried to start a conversation with a boy that was clearly not interested.

Sirius smiled and said a few words to be polite, something Lily was sure he got from Remus. But poor McCormick had no clue that once Sirius turned away, he rolled his eyes at James before pretending to read again. Unfortunately for Remus, he didn’t see that part either.

“He’s not interested in McCormick,” Lily said reassuringly.

“I know that,” Remus scoffed. “He’s already had McCormick.”

Right as Lily caught on to what Remus was saying, but before she could relieve her friend of his insecurities, Flitwick stood up on his desk and informed his students of their assignment. As soon as he dismissed them, Remus quickly packed up his things and headed out the door.

“Did you ask him why he didn’t come to breakfast?” Sirius asked her before she could follow Remus. “What did he say? Is he avoiding me? Why is he avoiding me? Did I do something wrong?”

“Let the woman answer one question before you ask another. Otherwise her head will explode,” James said, rolling his eyes at his friend’s behaviour.

“I’m perfectly capable of keeping track of more than one question at a time,” Lily snapped before turning away from the teens, and then let them follow her out of the classroom. “Yes I did ask him. He hinted that it was because of Madam Pomfrey,” she answered the first two questions, “though I don’t believe him,” she added at the relieved look on Sirius’ face. “Yes he is avoiding you. He has doubts about your intentions with him. I don’t think it’s because of anything you’ve done wrong recently, though the sight of McCormick flirting with you during class sure didn’t help matters.”

When Lily finished she turned to James. He looked at her with something akin to awe as she smirked at him.

“So how’d I do?”

“Marry me,” James said absentmindedly, causing Lily to roll her eyes at him.

“Well, we can’t talk to him now,” Sirius pointed out. “He has Ancient Ruins, Evans has History of Magic and we have Muggle Studies.”

“Don’t worry,” James said as he grasped his friend’s shoulder in support. “We’ll catch up to him sooner or later. You know he can’t hide from us forever,” he said, with thoughts of using the Marauders’ Map to locate their absentee friend if need be.

As it turned out, it didn’t take long for one of them to catch up with Remus. It was during their spare before lunch. When the four of them had returned to their common room and Remus was nowhere to be found, James had snuck off with the map and started searching for his wayward friend.

James found him easily, and surprisingly enough, in one of the boys’ washroom. After wondering why anybody would want to hide in the lavatory, James put the map away and headed for the restroom with the intention of confronting his friend. When he reached his destination, it was to find Remus sitting cross-legged on the tiled floor.

“Remus, what are you doing?” James asked as he walked in.

“Sitting,” Remus said, not bothering to look up at his friend.

“You do know this is the boys’ lavatory.”

“I guess that would explain the urinals,” Remus replied nonchalantly.

“Come on,” James said as he held out his hand, gesturing for Remus to take it.

It was a few seconds, but Remus took his friend’s hand and was lifted up from the floor. As he walked over to the sink, James followed.

“Well then. Now that you’re not currently arse-deep in urine, care to tell me why you’re avoiding us.”

“I’m not avoiding you guys-” Remus started.

“No, just Sirius, who’s taking it quite badly I might say. Do you want to know why?”

“Because he doesn’t like rejection…”

“That’s part of it. He hates the thought of being rejected by you.”

“Even though a rejection from me would free him,” Remus scoffed.

“Are you out of your mind? That’s the last thing he wants. Do you know how long he’s been driving me crazy about being with you? And then you told us about your inheritance and he was freaking out that Moony wouldn’t choose him.”

“Look, I love Sirius. Thoughts of us living happily ever after together have plagued my dreams for years. I won’t deny that. But I don’t think Sirius has fully grasped what Moony choosing him for a mate truly means,” Remus said bitterly.

“He does. Don’t you see that?”

“They say seeing is believing. But for the past five years, James, all I’ve seen Sirius do is break hearts left and right at this school.”

“I think you must be blind, Remus. He’s only been doing that because of you.”

“I doubt I had anything to do with any of Sirius’ breakups,” Remus scoffed.

“You’d be surprised,” James said. “Haven’t you ever noticed that every time there’s a full moon coming, Sirius is conveniently single?”

“That’s not true,” Remus rolled his eyes. “Sirius was with McCormick for three months before they broke up.”

“Actually he did break up with him at the beginning of term. But after the incident with Snape, you weren’t talking to him. And when he moved out and had nowhere else to go, Sirius went back to McCormick.”

“Okay then, what about the twins? He had moved back into the dorm by then and only broke up with them after the full moon.”

“Actually, he broke up with them the day before the full moon. He said hanging around one Hufflepuff was bad enough. Honestly Remus,” James laughed, “is it really that hard to believe that Sirius might feel the same way about you as you do about him.”

“Of course not,” Remus said, his voice trembling. “Sirius and I are good friends, like you and Sirius.”

“At first, I thought so too. But then I started noticing a few things. He doesn’t act around you the way he acts around me and Pete.”

“Peter and me,” Remus couldn’t help but correct.

“He was a wreck when we weren’t talking to him. Even after he moved back into the dorm and Peter and me had forgiven him-”

“Peter and I-”

“Even after we forgave him, he still wasn’t himself because you still weren’t talking to him. You should have seen him, Remus,” James continued at the lycan’s doubtful silence. “He was desperate to have you forgive him. He would go on and on about how he would give anything to have you talk to him again, and how he didn’t think he could take it if you didn’t stop hating him-”

“I didn’t hate him,” Remus interjected.

“But he didn’t believe that. Even after I told him that you would forgive him in time, he was still convinced that you’d hate him forever, and he was devastated by that thought.”

“James, stop it,” Remus begged.

“No. Not until you see what I’ve been seeing for a very long time now. Sirius loves you, more than you’re willing to admit, even to yourself.”

Remus’ breath hitched, unable to take in James’ words unless he wanted to feel even more pain than he was already feeling. He closed his eyes, shaking his head to rid them of the possibility that James was right.

“Why are you fighting this, Remus? Just give him a chance.”

“I can’t! Don’t you understand?” Remus snapped in desperation. “This isn’t some sort of one off thing? Once he’s with me, he can’t be with anyone else or Moony will go crazy and take me with him,” he continued before getting himself under control. “Look… I’ve read that book from cover to cover and it says that if I’m the one that stops this, before anything happens, everything can go back to normal. Moony won’t go crazy, I won’t turn into a monster and Sirius won’t be tied down to me for the rest of his life.”

“And in the process, you deny yourself what both of you want so much.”

“If he loved me the way you say he does-”

“He does!” James insisted.”

“-Then he’ll understand.”

“That’s bullocks. You know how Sirius is. He’ll think that it’s his fault that you don’t want to be with him.”

“Then I’ll tell him it isn’t.”

“He won’t believe you,” James said in exasperation. “When Sirius is convinced of something, not even moving heaven and earth will get him to change his mind.”

“Than what do you want me to do?” Remus asked, more frustrated with the situation than with his friend.

“Be happy. That’s all I want for you two. And being with Sirius would make both of you happy.”

= =

“Have we lost James as well,” Lily said as she sat beside Peter in the great Hall during lunch, not realising she had called him by his first name.

“Do you think he went off to find Remus?” Peter asked, stuffing his face with food, as he sat across from Sirius.

“I hope so,” Sirius sighed, playing around with his food. “I don’t think I can take any more of this,” he said before running his fingers through his hair.

Soon enough, Lily started helping herself to the delicious food, Peter helped himself to more, and Sirius resorted to tapping his foot anxiously. They turned their heads when the doors to the Great Hall opened and James walked in. Sirius, however, became as still as a rock when Remus walked in a second later.

Their eyes locked as Remus walked over to their section. Sirius tried to remember how to breathe but was afraid that the sight of his mate was really a mirage and that one small breath would blow the image of Remus away.

“Hey,” Remus said to the group as he sat down beside Sirius.

“Hey,” Peter smiled, cheerful now that his group was once again complete.

“Long time no see,” Lily smiled at her friend, not even bothered that James had boldly sat down beside her.

“Isn’t anyone glad to see me?” James asked, smiling as he wiggled his eyebrows at Lily, who only rolled her eyes and turned back to Remus.

“We’re thrilled,” Sirius said distractingly since he was still looking at Remus.

By now Remus had started pilling food on his plate. When he heard Sirius speaking though, the lycan turned to him and the rest of his friends with a bashful smiled.

“I know I must have worried you guys. I’m sorry about that. I was a little worried about some thing. Luckily, James set me straight.”

“What kind of things were you worried about?” Sirius asked, half afraid to know.

“It doesn’t matter, but I wanted to give you this as an apology,” Remus said, and before he could loose his nerve, grabbed Sirius’ face and captured the aristocrat’s lips within his own.

It was a quick kiss, not more than five seconds, but the repercussion of that one kiss was tremendous. Being the Marauders meant that there was at least one pair of eyes on you at all times. Most of the time it was the staff, but at that moment it was a seventh year Gryffindor, a female by the name of Alice Prewett.

She squealed in joy at the sight of the pair kissing. This alerted several other students to look in the direction she was looking at. This lead to more squeals, sighs, and cries.

Most of the noise came from those who had bet on who Remus would end up with after his breakup with Lily. They squealed and sighed over their winnings or losses. Most of them had lost, but some, like Lily of course, had won big time.

The cries, however, came from Sirius’ fan club. They were the ones that knew of the playboy’s feelings for Remus and that this kiss would be the end of any of them ever claiming a piece of the boisterous teen.

When the five seconds were done and Remus had detached his lips from his mate’s, the hall was engulfed in silence. Every single soul in the Great Hall waited with baited breath for what the unpredictable Marauder would say.

“Thanks James,” he smiled as he turned to his friend, surprising a few. “And to show you my appreciation, I have a gift for you. Before you showed up, Lily called you by your fist name. She seemed very concerned that you had disappeared.”

“You did,” James beamed.

“I did no such thing,” Lily denied with a passion, though her burning face betrayed her.

As the two of them bickered over the meaning behind Lily finally calling James by his first name, the rest of the Great Hall went back to normal, with some collecting their winnings. As all this was happening, Sirius turned to Remus, who was smiling at him. Sirius smiled in return before leaning in closer to the wolf and whispering so quietly into Remus’ ear, only his canine sense of hearing gave him the ability to pick up the words.

“I’m glad I didn’t scare you off,” he said before pecking Remus on the cheek.

“I’m glad I didn’t scare myself off,” Remus replied, giving Sirius another kiss on the lips.

= = =
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The Inconveniences of Being a Werewolf