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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 110: The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

After all the general crashing, smashing, and cursing wore off, it was nice to find themselves in a normal part of the castle such as the staff room. A game of chess had been interrupted by Frank, and all the pieces were yelling at him for it, cloaks were hung over the back of a few chairs, a stack of books anyone would peg to be McGonagall's had been overturned, and Professor Sprout had apparently been in the middle of grading a few assignments upon their entrance. Someone had even been reading the paper, Frank noticed as Alice picked up the copy with today's date. He shooed away a pawn that was still berating him and went over to see it had been covering the book, but as he picked it up he looked sharply at her instead as she gasped loud enough to drown out everybody else's mutterings.

Without prompting she read out Umbridge's new position as Hogwarts High Inquisitor, and just what exactly that was. By the end all of them had a nasty pit in their stomach, and Frank was gripping the book like it had toad slime covering it. She'd only been there one week and already had equal power to the Headmaster? What madness was this?

Sirius watched in disgust as Longbottom read the chapter title as repeat of that stupid self-imposed ruling from the toad, but announced the article was read by Harry himself and was forced to reread it, as they all knew the book wouldn't let them skip. It sounded no better the second time, like a worm digging in one ear and down the throat, but sadly gave Sirius's mind a chance to wander and go back to watching Regulus with deep contemplation.

He was chasing the lost chess pieces around, and finally came up with all the white ones, offering Peter a game, who instantly agreed. He watched the two walk away, that pit in his stomach growing.

Some instinct still wanted to go over there and stop this before it went any farther. Logic told him that these two had ended up being Death Eaters without the others' influence, wouldn't them hanging out just fast forward that process?

Then he watched Regulus laugh again, and Peter actually smiled with a kind of pride Sirius couldn't claim to have ever seen.

This whole experience had gone from weird, to kind of cool, to horrifying, to traumatizing, to now just kind of, common place. The last time he'd thought about dealing with Regulus in any capacity had been ages ago now, the Marauders' own business being blown up and finally settling into an uneasy agreement had pushed his brother far from his mind, but now watching the two, he was kicking himself more than ever for it all.

Even being forced into his company Sirius had never properly reached a hand out to Regulus, as Peter himself had once so eloquently put it. He'd begun thinking of his dorm mates as his brothers by the end of second year, and third year had all but confirmed it by the time Regulus walked into school. Peter had even sort of absently replaced Regulus in his mind, the kid brother he could give shit to but nobody else in the world could. James was his equal now, the first to turn to when he had a problem and always had a good solution. Remus even had Regulus' biting sarcasm that he wouldn't let anyone see but his real friends, otherwise he was the face of cool and calm. He'd finally admit to himself watching them now he could have two baby brothers, right?

"Padfoot?" James hopped up on the table beside him where he'd landed and never moved, watching his line of sight. He tried to hide his unease Sirius was scrutinizing the pair again. If Sirius went off again about trying to get them to stay apart, James had no idea how he could step in and stop any of it. He still found it weird himself, but neither was doing any real harm. If anything, James would have to admit the two always seemed in a better mood hanging out with each other.

"It's not too late for us, right James?" He asked quietly, eyes on Moony now as he went over to the cupboard and rubbed his hand thoughtfully along it. Harry and Ron had once hid inside it and listened to the devastating news of Ginny's death and had saved her life in impossible odds.

"No," James said instantly, even if he still wasn't entirely sure what Sirius was getting at. He, as usual, was watching Evans, sitting by Longbottom's feet with Alice and the two whispering suspiciously as Harry's lessons went through without Umbridge, yet, in History of Magic and Potions, though the later of which was still a miserable experience for all.

She hadn't defended Snivellus in some time now, he'd very pleasantly noted, and in fact as talk turned to OWL grades she hadn't even glanced up at the book through the whole class. Maybe she was finally starting to see the git he was?

Then, as the twins arrived, her eyes flickered to him and away so fast, he'd swear his eyes were playing tricks on him. She still thought he was like them, only a troublemaker and nothing more.

He didn't want to open up his own prank shop though. While a worthy cause he'd invest in, he had other goals and aspirations for his life. He'd walked away from his career advice even nurturing the idea of being an Auror. Surely she'd see that as a good thing?

"We've always made our own future," James said practically, now grinning at Moony who was hovering as close to the three as he dared, clearly very invested in this whole teacher grading outcome. None of them acknowledged him, which in itself was a kindness to the fear-filled looks he was probably expecting. "I say we keep doing that."

"Yeah?" Sirius sounded a bit hopeful now. James grinned as he shook his shoulder for emphasis.

"Yeah. You're a bloody impulsive idiot, and I'd never change that, but maybe next time you lay into them, just, think about how bad you felt last time?" He felt stupid putting it as a question, but it was more than obvious Sirius felt bad for something regarding those two in particular. The list of reasons that could be wasn't exactly short, but when James tore his eyes back away to see Sirius honestly considering his words and eyes back on Regulus and Peter, he put it together with Sirius's reaction to Percy's letter.

Sirius wanted to make amends to the two, and he didn't want it to get ripped up in his face.

He tore his eyes away from their game, Peter was winning, and grinned at him. "And you Prongs? Going to put all that practice of annoying Evans finally sink in and try something else?"

"I might," he said honestly, going in vivid detail in his mind over all the times he'd interacted with her, specifically the ones where she hadn't started calling him an arrogant birk. The ones that stuck out were when he'd stopped trying to make her laugh, oddly enough, but had just talked to her. How strange. "Worth a shot."

The two were interrupted by the book, as Umbridge entered Trelawney's class.

"Bet you a galleon someone's going to walk away from this dead," James said uneasily.

Sirius wasn't taking that bet, this was definitely going to be a horror show. It started out memorable enough for sure, Harry giving Ron the task to analyze his dream about drowning Snape gave everyone a grim laugh, even if Lily would deny any such thing. Then Umbridge started asking some routine questions that quickly devolved into Trelawney's shriek of insolence that she could not See upon command. The spectacle finally ended with Trelawney's dour announcement that Harry was to die, again, and honestly it hadn't been as bad as they thought.

"Can I still get that galleon?" Sirius asked.

"No," James huffed.

Umbridge's own lesson in fact ended up being worse, as it ended with Harry in another detention! James snarled in disgust, his hand itching to go for his wand and suspend this woman up by her ankle and leave her there for eternity if she kept doing this to his kid! Sirius was so outraged he stood up on the desk and began shouting several expletives, while Lily let her face fall into her hands. She couldn't stop herself hearing this, but she couldn't keep watching.

"I can't help but be rather impressed with him," Peter said quietly to Regulus as he watched Sirius's face start turning colors. "A lesser man would have backed down after what Harry went through, this kid's still pushing her."

"Being an idiot about it though," Regulus corrected, also frowning in concern at his brother. "You really think getting detentions would change anything but make her happier? Harry would be better off finding some other way to fight back than bowing down." He preferred the idea of getting in her good graces and destabilizing her from the inside.

"It's not as if the Order is exactly sharing how to do that," Peter disagreed, but he could definitely see Regulus's point. Both of them were very aware that if Umbridge were here now, it would be Sirius and James in those detentions and not them.

"Hopefully someone will come up with a better answer for Harry then," Regulus muttered, or the people listening to this were probably going to break the sound barrier first.

Their game forgotten, the two cringed into their seats until Remus finally came over and convinced Sirius to stop threatening for a few breaths or they'd never hear the end of it. Harry's new Quidditch captain and even McGonagall adding insult to injury was improving no one's mood though.

Still, it was nice to see Sirius's temper lash out at someone else for a change, Peter and Regulus even found themselves smiling a bit as the three's not so quiet mutters of what kind of pranks they'd be doing to that Umbridge filtered in the room.

Lily found herself listening grimly to the lot rather than Umbridge and McGonagall's back and forth. It deeply bothered her she found no ill will for listening in detail to their horrible pranking, but was she any better when she'd just been imagining slipping in a slow-acting poison into her next meal?

At least she'd only been imagining it...right? She warred with herself just how far she'd go to put a stop to this, if her own hand was being cut open, if some little first-year's was. The idea of having children was still above her, but she wouldn't deny she felt protective of Harry enough she wasn't going to stop the Marauders if they got the chance of meeting her any time when they got back.

It didn't make their vile ways of doing these kinds of things to anyone that annoyed them any better, especially Sev, but this was also not the first time she understood why they did it. It scared her just as much as her own wavering answer she realized she was actually starting to understand those idiots.

Frank found that things only continued to get worse as Umbridge followed Harry to his next class, Care of Magical Creatures. When Harry was given yet another detention for defending Hagrid from Malfoy's past stupid mistake, he had to fight the urge to join in with Lily this time as she cursed vividly, though not as loudly as Black started doing all over again.

This was beyond disgusting, his Mum would never stand for this happening in Hogwarts! Then Frank looked miserably at Lily, and glanced sadly at the godfather, and reminded himself Harry didn't have anyone to really go to this with.

When Hermione brought up the subject of them just learning Defense Against the Dark Arts straight from Harry, he and Alice exchanged another terrified look. It was such a singular moment to them, they didn't even register anyone else's reaction, this was their own bubble of worry.

Neither had spoken of it because the book itself hadn't, but what if Neville started getting these detentions as well? Was Harry the only one here? Doing this to him was bad enough they already wished someone would step in, but it seemed a disaster waiting to happen if Neville, Ron, Hermione, those twins, and a host of other students were to join Harry.

Frank still remembered Luna Lovegood and Ernie Macmillan declaring themselves publicly believing Harry, and he fidgeted with unease if Harry would still think he was in the right if those around him started suffering his same punishment.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HP #OotP #Wolfstar #Jilly #James Potter #Marauders #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Peter Pettigrew #Frank Longbottom #alice Smith #Lily Evans

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imaginejamesandsirius · 4 years

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Heyy can I request a story(hopefully long, if it's not a trouble?) about Slytherin Sirius trying to score Gryffindor James? And James being an oblivious cutie?I really love your stories they are so great!! Thank you very much and please don't feel pressured.

"You're being obvious," Regulus said through gritted teeth.

"I know." Sirius was completely unbothered by that, mostly because he was hoping for James bloody Potter to see him and realise that something was going on. Because as it stood, giving him chocolates hadn't worked, telling him he was fit hadn't worked, and sitting on his lap that one time hadn't worked. How James managed to rationalize all this in his mind, only Merlin knew. Honestly, what did he think for any of that? And Sirius knew that James wasn't trying to let him down easy, because he'd seen James turn someone down before and it hadn't been nearly as confusing.

"Do you think you could manage to not be so bloody embarrassing for two seconds?"

"I could, but I won't."

Regulus sighed, shoulders slumping.

"You're free to move seats if you want."

"And deal with any of these buggering people?"

"Watch your language."

"Excuse me?" Regulus said incredulously. "You are telling someone to watch their language? And since when do you care if I curse?"

"Since two hours ago."

Regulus narrowed his eyes at him, then his expression relaxed and he rolled his eyes. "You're trying to get me to stop bitching about Potter."

"Correct, ten points to little Reggie." Sirius ruffled Regulus's hair, just to piss him off.

"I wouldn't have to complain about him if you would stop talking about him."

"I wasn't talking about him, I was staring at him, and you brought it up. If you don't want to hear it, maybe you should stop instigating it."

"A possibility, but I'm going to try a different approach. Go ask him on a date," Regulus said, pointing a finger directly at Gryffindor table. "Ask him on a date and say it in as many words so he can't bloody misunderstand. Then he'll say yes, and you can stop being such a tosser."

"I'm not a tosser."

"You're a stupid liar, is what you are." Regulus paused. "And a tosser. And a bloody nuisance in my life, sweet Morgana, will you please go inflict your presence on somebody else for once?"

"Alright. When you're right, you're right," Sirius said, pushing himself up.

"Wait, what? You're going over there? Right now?"

"You just told me to."

"I didn't think you'd listen."

Sirius rolled his eyes and left, giving Regulus's hair another ruffle. He made his way towards Gryffindor's table and was relieved to see that there was empty space on the bench next to James. Some people were already done eating, so it wasn't packed full like it was at the start of supper. He could stand while he asked, but that was much more severe than the aura he wanted to project. Casual. Nonchalant. That's what he was going for, and Salazar willing, he would manage it.

"Hullo Potter," he said, dropping to sit next to him with a smile. "Going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

James's eyes narrowed. "It's not an Hogsmeade weekend."

"So? Madame Rosmerta doesn't snitch if you pop in for a butterbeer."

"I wouldn't know," James said primly, and Sirius got the feeling that he had already lost him. But how? James loved butterbeer, and Sirius knew for a fact that he didn't mind sneaking out of the castle for a pint every now and then.

"No? How about Honeyduke's? Word has it they have a new truffle collection from Belgium."

"I'm sure Remus would love to try it."

How did this keep happening to him? Sirius may not be a good person, but he was a good looking person and surely that was enough to secure him one measly date at seventeen years of age.

"Er," Remus said from across the table. He looked just as confused by James's refusal as Sirius felt. "I'm pretty sure Remus would not love to go on a date with him, but thanks."

"It wouldn't be a date, you berk," James said, and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that mate." He clapped James on the shoulder and left-- read: sulked-- back to the Slytherin table.

"How'd it go?" Regulus asked, a knowing smirk on his face.

"Fuck off."

"That's not a good way to make friends."

"We're not friends, we're brothers, and you couldn't get rid of me if you tried."

"And Salazar how I try," Regulus muttered.

Parties were either fun celebrations in the common room with butterbeer and snacks from the kitchen, or it was a group of people in your year getting totally smashed and making questionable decisions-- most of them sexual in nature, cause they were teenagers. This party was one of the latter. Firewhiskey-- and a couple muggle liquors that only the muggleborns and half-bloods touched since they didn't have the same bite as firewhiskey-- was the drink of choice, of course, but there were some butterbeers and fizzy pop floating around so you didn't get pissed too quickly. Unless you were Marlene, who took five shots in a row then puked all over the carpet like she hadn't expected for that to happen.

Sirius was more than a little tipsy when he decided he was going to give it another shot with James. "Aaayyyy Jamie," Sirius said, trying to sit next to him suavely and only succeeding in flopping half on top of him. Okay, maybe he was actually drunk, not just tipsy. He put an arm around his shoulders for balance, and then that was a nice position to be in, so he scooted a little closer.

"M' name's James, not Jamie."

"Funnily enough, I noticed that. Enjoying the party?"

James sighed. "I was," he muttered, and it sounded very pointed.

"Er." Sirius took a quick look around-- which made him dizzy-- but he didn't see anybody else. "I didn't interrupt anything?"

"You interrupted my peace and quiet," James said, leaning forward, picking Sirius's arm up from around his shoulders, then leaning back again.

Sirius frowned. He was too drunk for this, and James was too sober. "Do you hate me or something?"

"I don't hate you, you hate me, and you keep bloody rubbing it in all the time," he said, getting to his feet.

Sirius listed, having to put a hand down on the cushion to stop from falling over entirely. Something had gotten lost between Sirius's mouth and Jame's ears, but fuck if he knew what or where it had occurred.

James wasn't seen for the rest of the party, and Sirius barely remembered it when he woke up with a hangover the next morning. The memory came back as the day went on, and Sirius did what he always did: bothered Regulus in the hopes of good advice. "James said he thinks I hate him," Sirius said after he found Regulus at a table in the library. "That's not normal, right?"

"Normal for all people who bother their brothers because they don't have any bloody mates? I think so."

"Language," Sirius said, and Regulus gave him an incredulous look like he always did. Sirius didn't feel like explaining that it was because if Regulus slipped up around their parents, he'd get a curse faster than he could say 'sorry Mum'. Why their parents cared so much about foul language, he had no idea, but it wasn't a pleasant experience; best to avoid it entirely. "Honestly, that's not normal. Why would he think that?"

"Who knows? Gryffindors are weird, you know this."

"They might be weird, but they're so cute," he sighed, eyes taking on a dreamy quality. He shook it off before looking at Regulus again. "Have I done anything to make him think that?"

"No."

"Reggie, you gotta work with me here."

"I am working with you; you haven't done anything. Potter's a bit mad, that's his problem, not mine. I don't see how you could possibly be more obvious about being arse over kettle for him."

"Never test my limits, I can always be more obvious."

"Short of snogging him and telling him you love him, I don't see how." Regulus paused. "Don't do that, what if he actually doesn't feel the same? That'd be too embarrassing to recover from."

"I can recover from quite a bit," Sirius said, his tone too thoughtful to be safe.

"Er, Sirius, whatever you're thinking, whatever you're planning, don't."

"I'm not thinking anything," he lied.

"When you get that look, it means you're going to get in trouble."

"Don't be stupid, I'll be fine. Thanks Reg," he said, then left without waiting another second.

Regulus stared after him for a moment, then shook his head. He had an exam to study for, and Sirius was going to get himself in trouble whether or not he tried to stop him.

For Sirius's part, he was thinking that maybe he needed to be more direct. He'd been obvious, sure, but the intention may not have been clear. Well, he'd been plenty clear actually, it was more a matter of making sure James couldn't misunderstand. They hadn't gotten on back in the first couple years of school, so maybe James still thought that was lingering? It was the best guess Sirius had, and with Regulus's advice, he was sure that this would take care of it.

The plan had been to find James and ask him on a date, no build up just 'you, me, date, maybe kissing'. Unfortunately, Snape-- the absolute tosser-- thought that now was a great time to bother him with stupid insults and inane, rhetorical questions. Pro tip: answering "Yes" when someone asks "Do I look that stupid to you?" was likely going to end in a fight. Sirius didn't get hurt (obviously) but he did get detention.

They were in Transfiguration when Sirius decided he had the perfect opportunity. He didn't have the perfect date idea, but if he waited for both, he wouldn't be able to ask for a date until after they graduated. Professor McGonagall let them loose to practice their spells, and lots of people were moving to sit next to their friends so they could tease each other and talk while they half-heartedly did the assignment. "Are you busy right now?"

"Yes," James said, but it was clearly a lie since all he was doing was doodling a snitch on his parchment.

"Excellent," Sirius said, turning around to face him fully. "D'you want to go on a date with me?"

James's hand jerked, ruining the picture.

Sirius blinked. "Erm."

"Taking the piss in front of my mate's is one thing, but why are you doing this? I thought we got on alright until the other day when you started babbling about Honeyduke's."

"I wasn't babbling," Sirius said defensively. "I was perfectly reasonable until you tried to foist me off on Remus, you arse."

"Language, Mister Black!"

"Sorry Professor."

Professor McGonagall shook her head, fully aware of the futility of making him watch what he said.

Sirius waited until she had moved on to continue talking. "I've been trying to get you on a date all bloody year, and you keep pretending not to notice. Or actually not notice, I'm not too clear on what's happening there."

"You do not want to date me. Have you seen you? You're buggering gorgeous-"

"Language, Mister Potter."

"Sorry Professor. You're gorgeous, and you could do so much better."

"Better?" Sirius repeated, disbelieving. "I'm sorry, who exactly am I supposed to be shagging that's better than you?"

James started to blush, eyes darting around to see if anyone was eavesdropping. "I didn't say anything about shagging," he hissed.

Was James a virgin? That was rather unbelievable, but anything was possible. "Fine, dating, whatever you want to call it. Sure I'm the best looking bastard around, but you're- I mean, bloody incredible, for one. If anyone can do better, it's you."

"Me? Are you daft?"

"Not generally."

They stopped talking and glared at each other for a minute.

"Are we really arguing over who's too good for the other?" James asked.

"That's what it sounded like."

They kept staring at each other.

"So?" Sirius said.

"What?"

"Are you going to admit you were wrong?"

"Never."

"Berk."

"Fucker."

"Language, Mister Potter."

"Sorry Professor."

"Heh, you got in trouble."

"You got in trouble for the same thing twenty seconds ago!"

Sirius stuck out his tongue. "Are we going on a date or what? C'mon James, I've been trying this for months, you gotta give me something."

"You already know the answer's yes."

"Not until you just said it. Any idea for what we should do?"

James reached a hand up and mussed his hair. "I dunno. Picnic? Sneak out to Hogsmeade?"

"Hogsmeade," Sirius decided. "I really do want to try those new truffles."

"Hullo Regulus, are you busy?"

See, normally when someone said those words in that tone, it was Sirius, about to bother him. Except that wasn't Sirius's voice, it was James bloody Potter, the bane of his existence. The two of them dating hadn't made Sirius talk about him less. Somehow, he was talking about him more. Instead of hearing about how cute he was, Regulus had to hear about his buggering hands and the calluses on them in very specific detail and wasn't he so great at Quidditch? It was enough to drive a bloke completely mad.

James and Sirius were sodding made for each other, because when Regulus just stared at him, brow creased and mouth ajar, he said, "Great," and sat down. "So I was wanting to do a nice surprise for Sirius, do you know what sort of things he likes?"

Regulus continued to stare. Was this really his life? Was this actually happening right now? Was he hallucinating? He almost hoped he was hallucinating because the other option was that he really did play relationship adviser for his brother and that brother's boyfriend.

"Y'know, like flowers or favourite food?"

"Ask him, you weirdo," Regulus blurted.

James wasn't offended unfortunately. He rolled his eyes, looking eerily like Sirius in that moment. "Tell me what I want to know and I'll leave you alone?"

Oh great, Sirius had given him advice on how to deal with Regulus. Why couldn't they ask for Regulus's advice on how to talk to him? It would be so simple. Step one: walk up to him. Step two: walk away without saying a word. See? Easy!

"The sooner you tell me, the sooner I go. You'll have peace and quiet and all that social distance you're dreaming about."

Regulus shot a v at him. "He likes burgers. He pretends he doesn't, but he does. And flowers are fine, but he'd prefer a necklace, depending on how fancy it is. Something red or silver, never blue, and he's not particularly fond of gold either. If you want to bring flowers though, red is definitely the color, he doesn't care about type." He paused, then added, "But roses are probably a safe bet, he's a bleeding romantic, that one. Anything else?"

"Does he like muggle music?"

"Didn't he tell you?"

"He's being pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, it's pretty weird."

"It's called punk or... rock... or summat. There's a lot of guitar, I dunno. He's got a leather jacket that he says looks the way the music sounds, if that makes any sense to you. Can I do my homework now?"

James waved him off, thinking over the information he now had. "Yeah. Thanks mate."

"I'm not your mate," Regulus muttered, but he knew it was hopeless.

"Whatever you say, mate."

#prongsfoot #fanfic #james potter #sirius black #marauders #filled #hogwarts time #getting together #no voldemort au #slytherin sirius #siriuslystarbucks #Anonymous

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casualmaraudering · 4 years

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These hills have eyes (and I got paranoia)

AO3 LINK

Pairing: Sirius/Remus

Rating: Mature

Warnings in the tags!

Wordcount: 3839

Summary:

Remus feels his stomach twist uncomfortably. In an instant, he turns away and walks out the door, not caring whether Sirius hears it closing. He feels his eyes sting as his brain screams at him; it all makes sense, in the worst of ways. But he refuses to say it to himself, even if all the dots slowly connect. Sirius wouldn’t. He’d never do that. Not his Sirius, no.

Turns out I’m your Santa @invisbledragon 😉 I went with the “betrayal” prompt, and it accidentally turned out into this very cliche ‘not what it seems like’ fic, i hope you can forgive me for that! Hope you had great holidays and that you’ll have a great new year!

Sirius has been acting strange. More than strange, even.

Remus notices something’s wrong on Monday. For the longest time, their Mondays were pretty much the same; Remus has afternoon classes, and Sirius has evening ones. They’re both at home by 8, so they order takeout and start watching something on Netflix, usually late into the night cause they’re both free on Tuesdays.

It may not be much, but it’s their thing. They always spend Monday evenings together. Always. So it comes as a surprise when Sirius isn’t home til well after midnight, without even sending Remus one text about why he’s late.

He’s not drunk when he finally gets home, so that’s good, but Remus still sits on the couch with his arms crossed, refusing to acknowledge Sirius for a moment, waiting for some sort of explanation.

“You’re still up?” is the first thing Sirius asks. Remus scoffs at him.

“Of course I am. I was waiting for you.”

“Why?”

Remus furrows. “It’s Monday, ” he hisses out. Usually, he wouldn’t even care much, but that’d be if Sirius let him know he’d be busy; instead, Remus spent hours worrying like crazy only for Sirius to stroll home as if he didn’t just ignore Remus’s texts for half a day.

“Oh.” Sirius looks to realize it, an apologetic look appearing on his face. “Shit, Rem, I’m so sorry, I-... I guess I just… forgot.”

Forgot.

“Right.” Remus chokes out. “And didn’t bother looking at your phone at all, all day?”

“I’m really, really sorry. James wanted help with some bullshit and I completely blanked and forgot it’s Monday.” Sirius comes to sit down next to Remus, putting his hand on Remus’s cheek. “I’m an idiot, you know that. Forgive me?”

Remus lasts approximately five seconds before a smile creeps onto his face.

“You’re lucky I like you.”

Next morning, Remus wakes up alone. The fact the place next to him is empty startles him enough to leave the warm and comfortable bed. Sirius never wakes up before 10 on a free day, and it’s barely past seven.

Remus’s first instinct is to check the bathroom, but then he hears a noise from the kitchen, so he heads there.

“Yeah, that works great.” Remus furrows when he hears Sirius clearly talking to someone. Do they have guests? So early in the morning?

No response comes, and Sirius speaks once more.

“Can I just meet you there?”

He must be talking on the phone, then. Remus crosses to walk into the kitchen; Sirius is standing facing away from him, so he doesn’t notice Remus’s presence in the doorway.

“Can we do that? I just… I don’t want my boyfriend finding out,” Sirius says in a hushed voice.

Remus feels his heart skip a beat in an unnerving way. What is it that Sirius doesn’t want him to know?

“Okay, yeah, that’s fantastic. You have my number, in case you need anything.” With that, Sirius says his goodbyes and hangs up.

“Who was it?” Remus says in the most calm voice he can muster while his head goes through a long list of ‘what is it that Sirius can’t have me knowing?’

Sirius, startled, almost drops his phone as he abruptly turns to face Remus.

“Jesus, you scared me,” Sirius laughs. “When did you come here?” Remus can clearly tell Sirius is nervous. But why would he be? What is it about this conversation that Sirius doesn’t want him hearing?

‘Just now,” Remus lies, hoping it’s believable. “Who were you talking to?”

“Oh? That, uh, that’s just James. You know him, the asshole has the audacity to call me at this ungodly hour,” Sirius comes up to Remus, puts his arms around his waist and leans to kiss his neck. “Wanna go back to bed? We can have a lie in.”

Ah, yes. Distracting me with sex. Typical.

Although he knows Sirius is just straight up lying to him - if it were James, Sirius would talk to him for at least an hour more, and he’d happily put him on speaker for Remus to talk to as well - he lets himself be led back into their bed. Soon enough, Sirius makes him forget all about everything he might’ve worried about. Even if just for a moment.

As Remus is lying inbetween the messy sheets, Sirius’s chest against his back, listening to the other man breathe (of course, Sirius is already asleep, and Remus suspects he’s gonna stay that way til noon), this morning and the night before creep back into his mind.

‘I just forgot.’

‘I don’t want my boyfriend finding out.’

What was Sirius hiding, exactly? Was he hiding anything at all? And why would he even need to hide anything from Remus? They’ve been dating since high school, friends since elementary school, surely Sirius trusted him enough to tell him just about anything… right?

Remus doesn’t want to just jump into theories about Sirius’s behaviour like that, but he can’t help but be curious, if not a little worried.

The first thing that comes to mind is Sirius’s family. In the past, whenever Sirius was acting off, it always had to do with his relatives. But that wouldn’t really make sense right now, would it? Ever since his biological parents died (a fact Sirius hasn’t been upset about at all, and Remus really didn’t blame him) over a year ago, there wasn’t anything that could really upset him in that front. And he’d surely tell Remus if he got into a fight with Regulus, since Sirius has always loved to be vocal about his brother’s shenanigans.

Other than that, Remus doesn’t really have any idea as to what might be wrong. They’ve always told each other everything, Sirius would tell him if something weren’t okay. So what’s with all the secrecy?

Remus decides to, for now, let it go, and try to forget about it. If it were something serious, his boyfriend would tell him soon enough. Maybe all Sirius needs is a little bit of time.

By next Monday, Remus is convinced that something is definitely wrong.

Sirius had been acting strange all week long. He seems nervous all the time, he keeps glancing at his phone every second, and hides its screen out of view anytime Remus is anywhere near him - which he’s never done before, hell, Remus knows Sirius’s passcode, and yet Sirius randomly started behaving as if there’s something he needs to hide.

Whatever they’ve been watching that Monday afternoon is long forgotten as Remus is straddling Sirius on the couch, feverishly sliding his hands underneath Sirius’s t-shirt. Remus can tell Sirius has been distracted with something all evening (although, of course, he’s no idea what’s Sirius distracted with), but now it all seems gone as he feels Sirius’s fingers creeping up his shirt and ghosting over his spine. They take their time, lips and hands travelling up and down, and Remus slowly starts rutting against Sirius’s hips.

Yes, it’s all going quite wonderful, and Remus is now down on his knees in front of Sirius, when, of course, Sirius’s ringtone sounds off in the room.

“Ignore it,” Remus breathes out, and kisses Sirius’s stomach as his hands work on the zipper. And he expects Sirius to do just that. But instead, Sirius takes the phone out of his pocket, looks at the screen, and promptly swears. He then pushes Remus’s hands away with a “wait.”

Remus leans back to sit on his heels, confusion spreading on his face.

“Give me a second, I have to take this,” Sirius says in a hurry, and then he clumsily gets off the couch and leaves for their bedroom, and then Remus can even hear the balcony door opening.

Remus is simply sat down on the floor, staring at the door in complete confusion. Sirius didn’t even mention who called, he just hurried off with no explanation, and that’s nothing like Sirius. He’s usually never to answer the phone when they’re about to have sex (Sirius has a policy of ‘nothing is more important than sex’, which Remus doesn’t necessarily agree with, but it has Sirius always putting his phone on silent if someone’s disturbing them), and if he does, he always tells Remus who’s calling. And why would he even leave? He’s never this secretive about people calling him!

Remus spends a good minute sat on the carpet until Sirius comes out of the bedroom. But instead of an explanation, or a ‘sorry, let me make it up to you’ and then fucking Remus all the way to next week, Sirius heads towards the door and starts putting his jacket on. Shoes follow.

“I’m so sorry, I really need to go, this-... thing, uh. Came up. James needs me, you understand, right?” he gives Remus a peck on the forehead, and just like that, Sirius is out the door.

And Remus spends another five minutes on the floor because what the fuck was that.

He doesn’t bother waiting for Sirius. He leaves the lounge, climbs into bed, and tries not to listen to the stupid things his mind is trying to feed him.

And so Monday turns into Tuesday and that turns into Wednesday, and Sirius is still acting weird. When Remus is back from his classes that day, he has every intention of confronting Sirius about everything.

His plans don’t really work out, though.

Sirius is on the phone - again - and therefore doesn’t hear Remus come in. Whoever he’s talking to, it’s quite a heated discussion, it seems.

“I can’t just do that, come on. Who do you think I am?... Listen-... James!”

Ah, of course. Who else if not James?

“He might start suspecting things. Hell, I think he already might know something, and I can’t have him know. He cannot know. He thinks I’ve been with you on Monday so you better come up with something you needed me for cause I’m fucked if he finds out.”

Remus feels his stomach twist uncomfortably. In an instant, he turns away and walks out the door, not caring whether Sirius hears it closing.

He feels his eyes sting as his brain screams at him; it all makes sense, in the worst of ways. But he refuses to say it to himself, even if all the dots slowly connect. Sirius wouldn’t. He’d never do that.

Not his Sirius, no.

He manages to admit it to himself next Tuesday.

“So, anything interesting happened since we last saw each other?” Poppy asks him, with her usual polite smile on.

After the usual bunch of questions about his mood (could be worse), and whether he’s been taking his meds (no, not for a few days now - and Sirius hasn’t even noticed, when usually he'd keep an eye on it), if the dose isn’t too strong (it was perfect, when he was taking it), and whether he thinks his anxiety is behaving a little better (nope), there comes this. And for once, Remus isn’t sure what to say to her.

She’s been his therapist for years now, and helped him in pretty much everything that’s been bothering him, but that was usually his mental health. Depression, anxiety, that. Not his private life. Can he even talk to her about that?

Poppy seems to take his lack of answer for an answer of itself.

“Is something wrong, perhaps?”

Remus swallows silently. “I think so.”

Poppy raises a brow in an unspoken question of ‘ what is it, then?’

“I’m… You know Sirius, right?”

“Your partner, yes. You’ve told me quite a bit about him,” Poppy smiles at him with encouragement.

“He’s really been acting weird lately, and I didn’t want to think it’s something bad at first cause you told me not to jump to the worst outcome right away, but…”

He loses his voice for a minute. He doesn’t want to think of it, he doesn’t want to say it because that’ll make it real and Remus cannot handle it. He can’t handle loosing Sirius like that.

“Did you argue with him?”

Remus shakes his head, and takes a breath. He closes his eyes, and breathes in an out again.

“I think he’s cheating on me.”

Silence follows him. Remus’s heart is hammering in his chest, and he feels he might vomit. All the signs are there, but he can’t be sure, right? Not until he makes Sirius admit it, at least. There’s still some chance it’s something completely different.

“And why would you think that, Remus?”

And Remus tells her everything. About the phone, and the sudden ‘emergencies’ with James, and the fact that James seems to know, because of course, if anyone would know about Sirius having an affair it would be James because Sirius tells James absolutely everything.

Poppy waits for him to finish before she speaks again.

“I’m not going to tell you you’re completely misunderstanding the situation, because it does sound really unlike Sirius. But you’ve been together for so long, and he’s been loyal to you through and through, so it doesn’t seem likely to me. Talk to him. Be honest, tell him you’re worried and that he’s distancing himself.”

“And what if he tells me he’s leaving me?” Remus chokes out.

“Then at least you’ll know for sure, and then you can move on. If he is, then clearly you deserve much better. But,” Poppy smiles at him. “I think he might yet surprise you.”

When Remus comes home, he finds the apartment empty - much to his relief. He wants to clear things up with Sirius, but he doesn’t think he’s quite ready for that right at the moment. He finds a text on his phone telling him Sirius is going to be working on his project at university today, and that Remus shouldn’t wait up - Sirius won’t be back til late. He sends that along with a picture of the people he’s working with, so at least Remus knows Sirius isn’t out with whatever guy he’s been sleeping with on the side.

Don’t think about that, Remus scolds himself. Poppy said you jump to conclusions too quickly.

Remus plans to make himself a cup of tea and relax in bed after an emotionally exhausting day (or more like few weeks), but when he goes to the kitchen, he finds a piece of paper on the counter. Expecting it to be a note from Sirius, of course, he reads it.

It’s a receipt from a rather posh jewellery store in central London - it doesn’t say what it is that was purchased, but Remus doesn’t even focus on it; there’s something written on the other side.

You have an eye for jewellery - it’s a beautiful gem! I’m sure it’s gonna fit like a glove.

I’m free on Tuesday evening - get me a coffee (you know my order by now, I hope!) and we can talk about everything else you wanted to.

Seán

Remus’s blood goes cold in his veins, and this time, he’s almost sure he will throw up.

All of Poppy’s words of encouragement are thrown out of his mind as Remus runs to the bedroom and pulls out a suitcase.

Sirius,

Don’t call me or message me. I need to take everything in, alone.

Maybe I’ll be back long enough for you to explain yourself, but I don’t think I ever want to listen to you speak again. I hoped and prayed that I’m just being an idiot, and you’ve been acting strange because of something you’re not quite ready to talk about yet. Even Poppy told me that you seem so loyal that there’s no way you’d do this to me.

I’m not gonna ask how could you, or why, because I can’t stand don’t want to know. I don’t even want to tell you how fucking hurt I am, because you don’t deserve to know.

Tell Lily I’ll talk to her sometime soon. Unless she also knows? Yes, I know you’ve been lying and James covered for you each time. I can’t believe both of you would do this to me. I can’t believe I love you

I hope you’re happy with Seán. I’m kindly out of your way now, so you don’t have to sneak around anymore.

His mum worries, of course. By the morning, she stops asking why is he here, but Remus can tell she knows something happened. Remus told them he needs a break from the city, but he’s never been the best liar.

He doesn’t talk with his parents much. Mostly he walks around the fields and the forest, and lets himself cry.

He hates crying. He always has. It’s always made him think of weakness, something he despises to display. Ever since that time when he was 16, he promised himself to show his parents he’s strong. He’s watched them fall apart enough as it is.

Though, right now he’s not really all that good at pretending. Sirius has been a permanent part of his life ever since Remus was a child. He’s never quite imagined they’d end up apart, that Sirius would hurt him the way he has. He’s been there through every bad day Remus has had, he’s always helped and told him he loved him; he even was there when Remus was 16 and suicidal and was stupid enough to cut his wrists enough to get himself landed in hospital. He’s been through it all, never leaving Remus’s side, always there with encouragement and words of love.

Remus’s biggest fear has always been not being enough. For his parents, for his friends. And for Sirius. And now it’s happened. Sirius clearly finally realized just who he was dating. And found someone better already.

It hurts so, so much. Remus never thought he’d hurt quite as much because of his emotions. He’s got days where he’s numb and feels nothing and oh, how he wishes to have that feeling again. Anything to stop the ache in his chest.

Quite funny that, just as he finally started thinking he’s really happy, his life completely fell apart.

It’s late in the evening, and Remus is restless. He can’t really sleep much ever since he’s been back in Wales, so instead he sits downstairs in the kitchen with an untouched cup of tea. He’s not really in the mood for tea either, but he’s never been above lying to himself.

It’s pouring rain outside, so much that Remus cannot see any of the dark outside. He probably should head to bed soon. Even if he won’t fall asleep til much later, his mum will worry if she finds him here this late.

He’s about to head to the stairs when there’s a pounding at the front door. Remus furrows. His parents haven’t mentioned expecting any visitors, especially not this late and in such a downpour. He goes to the door and cautiously opens it. And then he almost shuts it’ except a hand stops it.

“Listen to me.”

Of course, Sirius Black stands on his doorstep, soaking wet.

“Why the fuck are you here?” Remus hisses out, suddenly all melancholia turned into anger. “How dare you be here-”

“Give me a minute to explain!”

“You can’t possibly explain all of this!”

“Yes I can!”

“Oh, really? What, are you gonna call your-”

Remus’s words die in his throat as Sirius pulls out a black box from his pocket. Sirius opens it; inside, there's a ring.

“You got it all wrong, I swear. I’m fucking rubbish at keeping secrets from you and that’s why I’ve been acting so bloody weird, I was worried I’d blurt something out before it was ready. I’m not sleeping with Seán, he owns the jewellery store I went to and he helped me out with this and it’s a miracle he even put up with me because I’ve been so fucking picky cause I wanted you to like it and all the calls and late days out were all about making sure this is perfect cause you deserve it and I’m fucking sorry cause I can see how you’d think what you thought cause I acted like an asshole and never assured you that I’m just doing something for you, and… yeah. I’m not good at this, but I’d never do something like that to you, I swear on everything, and at first I was so fucking pissed that you’d even think I’d ever do something like this but I noticed you haven’t even been taking your meds and that’s how you get when you don’t… So, yeah. That’s it. I just wanted to ask you to marry me. I promise, that’s all. I love you, I wouldn't hurt you like that.”

Remus isn’t sure what to say through the wave of emotion and relief and then another wave of anxiety because of course he thought of the worst thing and was so wrong; so what he does is he closes the distance between them and lets himself feel Sirius’s embrace again, and it feels like his life is right again, even with the rain drenching him in no time.

Remus is sobbing - because truth be told, Sirius is right, Remus turns into a hell of mess if he doesn't take his meds - when he even thinks to say something.

“Yes,” he chokes out. “If you’ll still have me-”

“I wouldn’t want anyone else,” Sirius mumbles, hugging him a bit tighter. “I love you. I promise, no more stupid surprises.”

“I promise to ask you about things next time,” Remus sniffles, burying his face in Sirius’s neck. “And not just jump to conclusions. I’m so sorry.”

“Just take your stupid medication and listen to Poppy next time.”

They’re both completely soaking wet, on the front door of Remus’s parents’ house, and Remus is sure the neighbours must be watching them by now, but he doesn’t even care.

When Remus pulls away enough to see Sirius’s face, he can’t help but laugh.

“We’re such a mess,” he says, bringing his hand up to brush away the wet strands of hair stuck to Sirius’s face.

“That’s always been the case,” Sirius replies, and leans down to kiss Remus. For the first time in a very long couple weeks, Remus is finally relaxed.

“Remus? Is that Sirius?” They pull away and see Lyall and Hope standing in the front door.

“Hi,” Sirius says and waves.

“I’m glad you’ve joined us son, but please, leave the reunion for the inside next time, you’re both dripping wet.”

“I’ll get some towels,” Lyall sighs as they get inside.

“So, Sirius, why didn’t you just get here with Remus?”

“Oh,” Sirius smiles, his gray eyes twinkling even more than usual (most likely because of the drops of rain on his eyelashes). “I needed to pick up this little thing.”

He casually drops the little box onto the table, and then laughs as Hope squeals excitedly, and then pulls them both into a hug, getting her pjs wet.

Truly, what a mess they are. Remus wouldn’t have it any other way, though.

#wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin #sirius x remus #fanfic #my tag #tw suicide attempt mention #tw depression #tw anxiety #tw self harm mention #self harm and suicide are in only one line but still #im not too happy with this but i hope its a nice gift???

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lilydeerwrites · 5 years

Text

A Muggle Studies Moment 3: Part 3. A Lily and Sirius Sidequest.

After dinner, Lily had owled her mum about the neighbor’s motorcycle. Mrs. Evans, still proud to have a witch in the family and well accustomed, for a Muggle mum, to sending post via owl, did not respond until two days later. In the interim, it seemed that Sirius might actually implode into a little ball of nothing. James did his best to keep him distracted with mischief, while Remus distracted him via ... other means, but the jittery excitement was always there, just under the surface. When the owl came, Mrs. Evans had indicated that she had spoken to the neighbor, who was over the moon at the idea of someone buying the thing and had priced it quite reasonably. Mrs. Evans had also told Lily to bring her friend over for dinner if they were going to come for the motorcycle, a little fact that had James burning with jealousy.

They were to wait for the next Hogsmeade weekend, and have their Saturday in Muggle London. James, Peter, and Remus had made plans to welcome their friends back by readying the shed at Potter Manor that Fleamont and Euphemia had gladly given their permission for their nearly-adopted son to use for his newfound project. The issue of money also had to be resolved. Leaving home had left Sirius cut off from most of his funds, except for the inheritance he had received from his Uncle Alphard. Those funds were now under the guardianship of the Potters until Sirius was of age, his blood family not being able to touch that money. Fleamont came to Hogwarts to take Sirius out for an early dinner after his classes ended on Friday, took him to Gringotts, and helped to arrange and explain the Muggle exchange rate. Lily had assured them both that should Sirius forget how Muggle money worked, she would make sure things went smoothly.

By Saturday morning, when the Marauders met Lily in the Common Room, Sirius was in the best mood of his life, and Lily was starting to wonder what on earth she was supposed to do with a ridiculously happy Sirius for half a day on their own. The most time she’d ever spent alone with him, he’d been hurt and half out of it, then recovering and trying to catch up on his school work. After that, he’d leaped straight back into mischief and Quidditch with James. He’d remarked a little too casually from time to time that Lily was his hero and that she’d saved his life, but she had always shushed his praise and told him he would have done the same.

Muggle London had always fascinated Sirius, but he had never been allowed to experience it. The few times he had managed to steal away to a Muggle music shop or convenience store, he had either had to hurry so much he hadn't been able to appreciate much, or he had gotten caught and been punished for associating with Muggles. He found Lily to be an excellent and entertaining guide. She stopped at a fast food kiosk so he could try an "American style" hot dog, and get some practice counting Muggle money out. He had the hot dog gone in three bites and fortunately, the vendor was from Eastern Europe and didn't find it odd that a boy with an English accent couldn't count his change out without assistance. He probably just thought Sirius was from Australia or New Zealand or something.

Still working on her own hot dog, Lily sat on a public bench and offered to share her chips. Boys her age seemed to be oddly bottomless pits where food was concerned, she had noticed. James and Sirius in particular seemed to burn off so much energy with Quidditch and generally high levels of activity that they could eat twice what any normal human being ought to and never gain a pound. He hesitated, clearly wanting the chips, but trying to be a gentleman and not steal her food. She sighed.

"I got extra for you, Sirius. I thought you might like to try more Muggle foods. Of course, now we'll have to pretend to be hungry for dinner so we don't hurt my mum's feelings."

He accepted the chips and smiled sheepishly. "I won't have to pretend. I'll be hungry again in about an hour. Remus said I was clearly eating for two and asked if there's anything I need to share with him. He said if I'm pregnant with alien babies, he'll help me raise them to be good, upstanding citizens of this planet. Then we got into this weird conversation about whether alien babies raised by gay wizards, one of whom is a werewolf, would be accepted at Hogwarts, and what to do with our alien kids if they turned out squibs."

Lily snorted inelegantly with laughter, picturing Remus' serious expression as he declared his willingness to help raise his boyfriend's alien babies with integrity. "He's as ridiculous as you and James."

"Merlin, I love him," Sirius sighed.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lily grabbed him in a spontaneous hug and squeezed. It took him a moment, but he returned the hug, his hand hesitantly patting her back.

"Lily? Everything all right?"

She let go of him and smiled. "Sorry, I was overwhelmed by how horribly sweet you two are on each other and I just wanted to show you that I'd like us to be actual friends, not just mutual friends of Remus who sometimes talk."

He smiled, a genuine, slightly shy smile that was so different than his usual smirks and grins that Lily caught a glimpse of how Remus must have seen him to fall for him so hard.

"I think I'd like that. And, now that we're friends, I feel I must inform you that James Potter has an enormous crush on you. Like ... it's huge."

"Bigger than his ego?"

The retort was automatic, but there was no real anger behind it, not anymore. And he could tell, the absolute wanker. He knew.

"Look, I'm not going to harass you about it. I know your opinions of James are founded in the reality of his complete lack of social graces where you are concerned, but ... you used to hate all of us, then you got to know Remus and became friends with him. I - I'd like to think getting to know me a little made you change your mind about me a bit. I know watching you treat Remus so kindly made me change my mind about you."

Her jaw dropped. "Me? What did you used to think of me?"

His eyes widened as he realized what he had said, and he immediately began to backpedal. "I mean, I didn't know you, not really. All I knew was that you were always mad at James, who is basically my brother, and so when he was upset by something you did or said, it didn't make me have a good opinion of - oh, bollocks! I'm making it worse! What I meant is that you were always with Snape and sticking up for him, and - and - "

"And you hate him, so you hated me too? Were you only not bullying me like you did him because James thought I was pretty?"

"No! It's more complicated that that. Please believe me."

He looked worried. Really worried. However upsetting it was to find out that someone you used to dislike actually disliked you as well, it was a moot point. She didn't dislike him any longer. She wanted to be his friend, and that meant that she needed to listen and communicate and not scare him half to death. She took a deep breath.

"I'm not mad. We're still friends. I was just surprised, that's all. It hadn't occurred to me to think about how you lot saw me, you know?"

His sigh of relief was immediate and noisy.

"I didn't mean to be insulting, Lily. I just - "

She raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Friends talk to each other. It's fine if we don't agree on some things, okay? What was the issue with you and Snape? Why do you hate him so much?"

If she hadn't been so curious, she would have felt badly for even asking. Her question seemed to suck the joy of impending motorcycle right out of him.

"I suppose it was mostly Regulus, for me. And a little bit James. You know what my insane family is like. Regulus is my brother and I love him, but James is the brother who chose me, you know? He looked past my family's pureblood bullshit and gave a shit about me. So, when Snape and James got into it, I was Team James. Then, when Reg came to Hogwarts and got into Slytherin, Snape saw him as a way to get back at me. He started filling his head with - with reasons why I wasn't someone he should care about. Reg gave him access to a lot of pureblood society, and suddenly he was hanging out with Mulciber and Malfoy and they started teaming up to help my family make me miserable. And James saw it and fought back for me, and then it was this awful cycle. Every time there was an altercation, Snape would spin it a certain way to Reg, and then he'd ignore me or worse, tell our parents. They never let me explain anything, never cared what really happened, just that I'd embarrassed them again, and then they'd - "

She shushed him softly, rubbing his arm gently to reassure him that she understood, and he didn't need to say it. "And there I was, defending a person who directly led to you being hurt. I'm sorry for that. I really didn't know. I just hated to give up on someone who used to mean so much to me. Severus has it in him to be kind and sweet, but his fascination with the Dark Arts always worried me, and now it's carried him away from me. I'm so scared I'm going to find out that he's taken the Dark Mark. I miss his friendship, how he used to be, but I'm so mad at him for calling me ... that word, and thinking I'd be happy to be his exception to policy for hating Muggleborns."

Sirius winced sympathetically. "I worry about Reg taking the Mark too. When I was a little kid, before Hogwarts? I didn't know that word was bad. James told me. It's just what my parents always called people whose parents are Muggles. I had no idea it wasn't okay until I saw James' face when I said it. He pulled me aside and asked if that's how my parents talked at home. He knew how some pureblood families are and gave me the benefit of the doubt AND explained things to Remus and Pete so they wouldn't think I was some snobbish git."

Lily felt that now-familiar stirring of curiosity about who James Potter was to his friends and family. The picture painted by Remus was of a loyal friend who kept and defended his secret, and Sirius described a friend who became a brother who looked after him when his own had abandoned him. Her own view of James Potter had been colored by a friendship that was no longer viable and informed by a source who was no longer a reliable narrator. Yes, he was annoying when he constantly praised her and asked her out, but was his bravado simply that? A facade he wore to hide the depth of feelings that made him feel vulnerable and awkward? And, he had actually stopped, now that she thought about it. It had been a good long while since he had asked her out. He had complimented a few times, but it had mostly been about her academic accomplishments or if she had done or said something nice for or about one of his friends. She had grown and changed since the day she found out she was a witch, to finding out that Remus was a werewolf, to the moment she had realized that she was unwilling to continue to ignore Severus' views, to the moment she had discovered that Sirius wasn't who she had thought. Maybe James had gone through a similar path? She had stopped excusing Severus' increasing darkness, and maybe James had stopped constantly asking her out for similar reasons?

Aloud, she mused, "That makes sense. How were you to know if you were never allowed to associate with anyone to tell you otherwise?"

"It's still a poor excuse. I don't know how anyone could see how good you are at everything magical and not understand that you're every bit as magical as me!"

She ruffled his hair, ignoring his halfhearted protests not to mess it up. "That is my favorite thing about you, New Friend."

Still patting his glossy black hair back into place, he said, "My hair? I know, me too. It's pretty much perfect,"

"Don't be a vain git. You know what I meant. I like that you're not prejudiced. That you respect me and people like me."

"Firstly, I am a vain git. Ask James, Remus, or Pete. Secondly, my capacity for talking about my feelings is just about maxed for the week, and thirdly, I've been on the wrong end of a Lily-hex and a healthy dose of respect and fear is more than appropriate. I don't care that your parents are Muggles, especially not when you can do things with Charms that even Remus can't figure out."

She rolled her eyes at him, but she was smiling. No wonder Remus liked him so much. He was entertaining to say the very least. "Sorry I taxed your capacity for talking about your feelings. I appreciate you listening to me. I need to tell you one more thing. I - I don't know if my mum told my sister about us coming for dinner. Petunia hates magic, always calls me a freak, and ... well, I just wanted you to be prepared if she's an utter bitch. It's not personal."

Sirius stood from the bench and collected their trash, offering Lily a hand. "Believe me when I tell you that I get the whole sibling thing. I promise not to purposely provoke Petunia," he said, popping each "P" with purpose.

She giggled. "Promise?"

"Positively. Now. Motorcycle? Please?"

She laughed. "Yes, motorcycle. Come along. We've got a bus to catch!"

"Hey, Lily?"

"Yes?"

"You know who else likes to talk about their feelings?"

"Am I going to regret asking who that might be?"

“James. It's James. There's a bloke you won't wear out with that subject. Of course, I think about 75 percent of his feelings in some way pertain to you, but ... there you go."

#marauders fic #marauders fanfiction #fanfiction #fic #Harry Potter #Marauders #the marauders #marauders era #James Potter #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #peter pettigrew #Lily Evans

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

All in the Family

Chapter 138: Excess of Phlegm

A gnome tried to bite him on the nose. James snatched the thing by its ankle right before the teeth broke skin and was already hurling it as far away from him as he could before he'd even properly gotten to his feet.

The fact that none of them suffered from their brains melting for the recurring switch between night and day was the real mystery to all this. There was a big green pond full of frogs Longbottom was sloshing his way through, the place was lined with gnarled trees and plenty of plants he'd been able to identify from Herbology class and a few he hadn't. The Burrow was just visible in the distance and his stomach snarled with hunger, they really should have taken advantage of Slughorn's food selection while they had the chance, but then he saw Regulus storming over there and decided he'd starve rather than dealing with that arrogant child right now.

His scowl intensified when he saw Peter going after him, Merlin what he wouldn't give to have just left that kid behind! Between him and Snape, who ever would have guessed these two bothersome ones would cause so much misery along this blasted trip.

Sirius was coming over to him eagerly, and he did a double take as he saw the Polyjuice Potion had completely worn off of him and glanced down at himself in surprise to confirm the same, only just realizing everything was fuzzy back around the edges again not from his head still being sore from his latest impact with the ground. The feeling of moving like they were was worse than changing bodies, who knew?

"Odd," he pulled the ripped up shirt off and passed it back, half a mind to steal more clothes from the Weasley's for both of them while here. "Doesn't feel like it's been an hour."

"That spell I put on Longbottom wore off with the jump," Sirius recalled as he passed his glasses back. "To us, it definitely wasn't long enough to have done so. Guess this mess makes even the magic we use on each other wonky, how annoying." It would have been sort of interesting to somehow find a way to gauge time before now if they'd thought about it, but James found when he slipped his pants back on he still had the Polyjuice Potion in his pocket anyways and sighed as he uneasily patted it.

He looked back to see Sirius giving him a beseeching look. His eyes flickering to where Regulus had vanished and back with a look James couldn't quite believe, was he really fixing to defend that kid?

"Listen Prongs, thanks, really, but I wish you'd let him keep going. I hadn't even realized, but he needs to get all that off his chest if he really has a problem with you and I'd rather him take that out on me even unintentionally anyways." Sirius still finished with a guilty look in place that set him bristling.

"You don't deserve that Sirius!" He snapped back at once.

"He thought I was you," Sirius quickly reminded.

"That's not the point!" James insisted. "I wouldn't have just stood there letting him yell at me! He's not your bloody parents, and I'm not going to let him start doing that shit to you if you're hoping that makes it all better! I'm not even sure why you're trying!" He regretted the words the instant they slipped out, Sirius looked so confused and he'd been trying so hard to bite his tongue against saying anything, letting Sirius make his own decisions about his little brother.

"What do you have against Regulus?" Sirius didn't quite demand it, but he sounded so surprised James chose his next words carefully, he'd already felt vaguely paranoid before this. He'd only just turned fourteen after all.

"You never talk about him Sirius, less than even your parents. I always wondered, well, how much he knows about, well, some of your punishments," he admitted, and didn't like the response when Sirius rubbed absently at his shoulder and didn't look at him. Moony wasn't the only one with scars, but some weren't so visible.

He pressed in now that Sirius didn't flat deny it, "I'll not have you feeling guilty you didn't keep that in your life if he stood by and did nothing instead of helping you in that forsaken house."

Sirius let his hand drop and looked back at him steadily. "I don't know okay, I honestly don't want to know if he knows. He's not been in the room and laughing, if that's what you mean. Mostly he just hides in the attic when I start going at it with them and doesn't come down until he's summoned and I've usually cleaned myself up by then. If he suspects anything he hides it well."

"A trait you two share," James grudgingly let some of the ire trickle out of his voice, at least Regulus had never actually hurt Sirius then to appease his parents, the nightmare he hadn't been able to shake. Hearing Voldemort do so to his Padfoot had not let the idea rest though. "I still can't say I'm all gung ho helping you out with him Padfoot, especially if he's going to turn that temper on either of us."

"Hasn't had the best role model from anyone," Sirius quietly muttered.

"You're working on it," James gave a sort of laugh in admittance. Better than having come down the stairs and the two dueling to the death he supposed. He still didn't quite like Sirius just taking this in stride though if this was the alternative, it wasn't natural to not see Sirius fight back.

He sighed when he heard Smith starting the book and decided to brave the house alone for now as he distracted Sirius, "I'm going to see if there's food, and get us both a change of clothes. Go find Moony would you, haven't seen him exiting the garden with the others. Tell him for me I don't bloody care who he snogs in the meantime, will you?"

Sirius looked so hilariously startled that James wondered if he'd gotten it wrong then, but it was probably even better he leave the two to it then. Whatever the hell they were up to, it was helping Sirius, he could tell that much as Padfoot grinned and took off.

James walked with his head held high into the kitchen and made straight for the stove. The others crowded around the table watched him when he walked in, the book still having a few leaves clinging to pages in Alice's hand as she alternately read and shook her head at whatever conversation abruptly stopped at his entrance.

Snorting in derision as if he was supposed to care about being talked about, weather it was a group this size, the whole of his house annoyed he'd lost such a huge chunk of points for his latest prank, or the whole of Hogwarts laughing both at him and with him whenever a prank or counter prank was in action, he strode over to the stove and followed the basic steps of potions class to get a fire going and setting a pot in place before pausing in confusion.

Alice disengaged herself from the table, both of them ignoring the annoyed look Evans and Longbottom gave each other as she came up to him and asked, "like some help?"

"Sure," he smiled at once. "Know how to make grits? Ever tried syrup in that, it's to die for!"

She grinned at his enthusiasm and promised, "oh I'm sure we can whip up some of everything."

He couldn't help but smile at her, there was just something about her round face that radiated kindness, it wasn't hard to see why Longbottom was so smitten even if she was a little too timid for him to get the full appeal. She was short too, barely a few inches difference to Peter, but she nudged him aside gently and he didn't even think about stepping aside for her as she began going through the motions and talking in a level voice everything she was doing, though he hadn't actually asked for a walkthrough.

He listened though. He was painfully aware because of this future his parents clearly hadn't survived to take care of Harry, and it twisted up something in him to ever wonder for long how much time they had left, had they ever shown up in his wedding photos to Evans? While he could go home now and ask his mum to teach him this, he instead likened more to the idea she might not just laugh along with her boy for once, but give her something to be proud of as he studied her wand movements and copied with wavering success.

The milk, water, and salt were all carefully blended together and at a steady boil, even if he was sure they came out a bit too lumpy when Alice quietly redirected, "I hope everything's okay with those three."

The invitation was clear. He ruffled up his hair, his wand slipping and the stirring stopped for a moment as he considered telling her yes, and he would deal with his problems, again. That hadn't exactly been working out for him so far though, and damn if she hadn't been right back in Sirius' own house. Maybe if he'd just bloody talked to Padfoot before this future slammed him in the face he wouldn't have broken his ear drums and had his feelings so viciously kicked into him.

"Not sure how to get Sirius and Peter to talk to each other," he finally admitted his problem. It may have even worked there for a second in Slughorn's house, before Regulus had so rudely interrupted he was sure. "Padfoot's trying, but ah, he's not the best at using his words." He was always more of a free spirited, gestures, and reactionary kind of bloke, and he rarely tried to hide any of it. Maybe if Padfoot hadn't been suppressing how little he'd forgiven Peter on his behalf it wouldn't have been so bad! James wouldn't change him for the world. "I know he tried back in Malfoy's room, but it doesn't seem to have done much good."

He and Remus had been worried about just that, but hadn't let themselves interfere. "I'm not their mother, I can't just make them apologize to each other, but I don't know how else to help. What the hell do I say?"

He finally tapped the pot to get it stirring again lest something burn. It still felt weird to be saying this to anyone but Remus, but he hadn't anything else to offer but an apologetic shrug and mutual agreement there was just no mending this broken bridge with magic. At least Moony had promised he'd keep the two away from each other if he wanted, but that wasn't helping anymore than the two interacting the past few times. They'd been faking it thus far for his sake, and he knew that.

Now Regulus was trying to throw his opinion in, and he'd probably just pushed Peter farther away towards that kid. It's not like Wormtail had stood up for Sirius against the brat! He still didn't appreciate the last time Peter had shouted at Sirius back in the forest!

When Alice finally spoke, her voice was quiet but gentle, she seemed to respect he still was not trying to air their business and the others talking quietly at the table over their game once more should not be able to hear. "I don't know them as well as you do, but I hope you see laughing this off just isn't helping."

He grit his teeth to stop himself snapping at her that wasn't helping either, he still didn't know what else to do!

"I'd say, first step, just make sure you're all on the same page. Then, maybe, see where they want to go from there. Sometimes, we outgrow people, and that's not always a bad thing." She frowned at Evans, and James refused his own look to confirm it even if he knew in his heart what she meant and it was very, very true. He didn't see it as the same thing at all, Peter had never done anything like old Snivilius had. Sirius had over reacted in his anger, but this future wasn't letting up on them for a second about how awful things to come could be, he was entitled to an emotional outburst! He and Remus had tried to stop him from doing Peter a real harm!

"That's not very helpful," he huffed, removing the pot from the heat and grabbing down bowls.

"Sometimes the advice we need isn't what we want to hear," she shrugged, but she still looked sadly at her friend, and then back at him. "I'm sorry."

He huffed and changed the subject to syrup, bacon, and gravy, at least her company wasn't as bad as her fortune cookie nonsense.

Remus was still leaning against the apple tree he'd landed face first on and hadn't chosen to move, instead knocking his head softly against the bark in hopes it would knock some sense into him. Anger at himself still dominated rather than Padfoot not giving him some bloody warning for their stupid prank as he kept replaying what Sirius had said.

A break? They weren't even together as far as Sirius was concerned and he was already laughing about a break. What if Remus never asked for a break, would Sirius keep hooking up with him along with how many others when they got back? Would he be able to keep himself in check and go along with that, pretending to ignore any such thing was happening? He very much doubted it, and it only confirmed in him what he should have known back in that alley way, he really should put a stop to this now.

Amongst the cawing birds in the bright morning sun and the frogs still splashing about in their water, he heard someone approaching him and looked around in mild concern when he realized no shouting had resumed. If James and Regulus were off killing each other, they were doing it quietly.

It was the real Sirius this time, of this he was very confident of as Prongs would still be looking at him like a concerned parent about to give him the sex talk.

"You told him?" Sirius confirmed in delight as he barely came over in arms reach. He even turned around like the conversation was done there and they could go off to join James like nothing had happened.

He should have expected the gleeful smile. Sirius made himself as clear as possible on Slughorn's bed, Remus quickly reminded himself, and even before that. He only sees you as a playfriend, get over it!

Remus' scowl deepened, some of his self-anger getting an easy redirection. "No you arse, he figured it out when I didn't know it was you!"

Sirius just looked confused for a few more moments before he got it, and then he laughed as he edged closer. "What did you do?"

Remus shoved him back away in disgust. "It wasn't funny! What the hell are you so happy for?"

"I wanted to tell him," Sirius reminded with an eye roll, "what are you so angry for?"

Remus bit his lip rather than answer, this was going as horrible as it was possible to! "Look, it means something, different to me, telling people, alright." He tried to plead with him to understand. He clearly didn't. "Sirius, I know you don't see it as a big deal ever to tell us of your last dalliance, but it does to me, okay!"

Sirius just cocked his head to the side and kept watching him as if waiting for further explanation, like he couldn't fathom what other meaning there was, like he really couldn't picture telling his brother who he was hooking up with for any other reason than the fun of it. Remus tried to take some comfort in that Sirius really just didn't have the capacity to even be looking for anything more with anyone, not just with him.

"Okay, fine," Sirius mercifully gave in, though it was clear he still didn't get what Remus' problem was. Remus breathed in relief. "If you don't want him to know yet, I'll push him off what happened. I'd still like to know what you did," he added with a grin.

"How the hell do you think you're going to get away with that?" Remus demanded.

"If I can get McGonagall to not give me detention for transfiguring Eckers into a rocking horse I can do anything!" Sirius declared with the greatest hurt to his pride Remus was questioning this. He still hadn't stopped grinning. "You still have to tell me so I know what I'm working with."

Remus groaned and put his face in his hands, was this not bad enough without the teasing? "I hate you so much."

"Love you too Moony," Sirius casually agreed. "Now come on, work with me!"

Remus finally dropped his hands so he could glare at the bastard, and then let his hand rest on the inside of his thigh of the real Padfoot this time, leaning forward and whispering with as much annoyed suggestiveness in his voice he could, "is that a challenge?" He quickly dropped his hand and crossed his arms with a huff.

His pissed off attempt didn't really work, Sirius' eyes still glazed over with lust for a moment and he licked his lips before he shook his head and muttered, "yeah, that's not very subtle. Any more context I should know?"

"I still never got my pineapple," he sulked, as if that was really his biggest concern.

Sirius gave him a cheeky grin as he patted his bag. "Moony, I'm insulted, you really think I'd leave you hanging?"

He could not imagine where and how Sirius had found the time to nab that in between everything else that had gone on. The thoughtfulness in the action stunned him. Damn him for still getting aroused by this asshole when he wanted to keep glaring at him.

Padfoot's eyes flickered around the garden for inspiration, they even listened to some of the chapter in mutual silence as Harry finally confessed to his friends of the Prophecy hanging over his head and the Phlegm being Fleur Delacor back in wedding bliss to Bill Weasley, but that wasn't striking much. Remus' concern grew even Sirius' silver tongue wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Look, just hang around out here if you want to, avoid Prongs and the others, I'll cover for you, just like always." Sirius finally sighed. "I promise I'll get some actual food for you for the next spot, okay?" He even sacrificed the crystalized pineapple now, tossing him the box and not even taking a single one for himself.

"Don't bother," he grumbled as he caught it, but pocketed it. Deciding to scale the tree for now in any relief to get away, and half tempted to pitch himself off head first. Sirius pouted at him the whole way up until Remus was crunching on an apple so loud he could pretend he didn't hear him walk off.

Sirius kicked and huffed and paced the whole way back to the door, taking twice as long as the trip should be. Great, yeah, even Moony was mad at him now, this just really could not be going worse. He knew he couldn't force the guy to relax about being gay, or whatever he considered getting off with another guy to be. He'd heard plenty of horror stories from other kids in school for their parents' reactions. He had no wish to envision Remus anywhere near that, but did he really think so little of Prongs? Sirius just had to find a way to get him to relax about this, it was by far the easiest problem to focus on, he knew Moony so well he was sure he could come up with a solution to this. It was too bad he couldn't turn into another animal for him to help, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

He walked in and found himself plenty distracted by Alice teaching James how to cook. She was being really nice about it too, even as Sirius watched he waved his wand a little too enthusiastically and sent a packet of bacon flopping to the ground. She corrected him and he got it right in the next go with a very pleased smile and a half glance at Evans, who was ignoring him and playing cards at the table with the others again. James turned away remarkably fast and wasn't even trying to talk to her but kept his focus on Smith. The book was left open at an empty chair, so at least nobody was reading it to try and get them out of a nightmare.

Regulus at least looked in a semi better mood. He wasn't shooting death threats at Prongs at least, but just flat ignoring him, and he didn't at all look up at Sirius' entrance as he took the deck from Evans and shuffled with quite a bit of skill. Peter at least looked around with a half smile at him before waving him towards the food.

Sirius needed no such invitation and leaned next to the stove, stuffing himself silly and still not quite sick of breakfast meals despite the fact they'd been having that in abundance lately but purposefully leaning on Alice's other side and not engaging as her and Prongs chatted casually about their mums different home spells, something he couldn't join in on anyways.

James had never had a problem making friends, Sirius thought back, it was him who'd made the four of them friends, Sirius was still half convinced sifting through memories it would never have worked without Prongs as their buffer until they were all used to each other. So it was still his fault really James was now keeping himself on the outs and not engaging with the rest, but instead sticking by Sirius and keeping himself apart, something he and Moony much preferred.

Attention was one thing he'd had all his life, whether he wanted it or not. He glorified in it at school as much as Prongs, but still far more enjoyed their private jokes alone in their dorms once the laughter had died down, a choice when to be in the spotlight for his amusement and when to leave it, something he'd never been allowed before James.

It wouldn't kill the rest of these guys to understand a good joke and curiosity could do wonders for their own moods.

Stuffing the last of his food into his mouth, he went back to the scullery for a new change of clothes rather than this ripped up shirt, maybe that would help Remus at least somewhat. It greatly irked him nobody did ask why he was outside still even with a ready excuse.

Maybe it was slightly better this way, Remus would refuse this on principle and spoil what Sirius was going for.

He snatched the bottle of Polyjuice Potion out of the back of James' pocket and snagged five cups down, slamming them on the table and pouring a dollop into each, keeping just enough left in the vile he slipped it back in for Remus later and glared at the lot.

"Don't even dare tell me you're not curious?" He accused each and every one of them.

Alice came over at once plucking a thin black strand of hair away. "When I tried in class it was too lumpy, nearly a solid it was so gross, Slughorn gave me an A and I was worried it would be the wrong color if I tried. Thanks Sirius," and she dropped it in.

It frothed and bubbled for only a moment before settling on a beautiful shade of the lightest yellow, like a soft warm light, it even looked kind of fuzzy, like a baby chick.

She grinned in delight, but none of the others exactly looked encouraged to play along.

"Frank?" She sighed.

"I already know what mine is," he tried to put off, glancing guiltily between her and Lily and needlessly rearranging his hand. Sirius had no idea what was going on there. "It's blue, love, and yours is beautiful of course."

She was still pouting at him with those large amber eyes of hers, and so he finally gave in and winced as he came away with some loose blonde hairs, dropping them into his own.

Blue indeed, a very dark royal shade that had the consistency of a squashed berry. She still smiled in delight and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek, but neither went so far as to offer swapping cups and bodies, apparently even they weren't going to indulge them that far.

Peter glanced around but finally went next to at least show a spot of good faith, his mousy brown hair vanishing into the mud for moments before it changed. It was a speck of the light, just before the dawn sky showed a hint that was not quite black. It even had little sparkles of the stars, he'd swear it, the pinpricks desperate to still be seen as the opaque of the day began forcing its way through the peaceful night. In the crest of the velvet, just before the nocturnal animals would end, he smiled and shook his head fondly for the deep purple color.

"Come on then," Peter even reached over and gave Regulus a light prod. "They really didn't mean anything by it this time."

"I'll just wait for my own potions class when I do it," Regulus said stiffly, still only glaring at his plate as he played a card.

Alice knew better than to try and talk Lily into any such thing, she was too stubborn and probably already knew hers anyways considering her advanced potions work.

She was half right, Lily did know what color it was going to be, but with one last begrudging look at Potter to make sure he knew this wasn't for him, she gave her and Frank a friendly smile and plucked a red hair free for them to see.

It was the soft blush just under the surface, the light airy breath that flashed over and warmed the skin. Her breath caught in her throat again as she could already taste how lightly it would flit down one's throat. She brushed her hand through her hair and smiled softly to herself with pride, she'd never been fond of the color pink, it had always been Petunia's favorite, but she looked almost gleefully now at how it softly glowed in her cup, warmth seeping right through to the tips of her fingers once more.

Sighing in resignation of being left out and only for Peter's sake and not the other two, Regulus finally pulled a hair free as well.

Trapped in the forest, it would be the first hint of light. The faint sun flicking through trees, the slightly thicker grass getting just a little more springy with each step, the same shade of hazel flickering out of the corner of his eye when he was on a broom and the Forbidden Forest was just lively enough to grab his attention. The darkest shade of green, or a freckled shade of brown, he smiled softly as he tipped the cup this way and that to catch every last glimmer it would show.

Lily took all of their distraction to collect all of the cards this time and pocket them with purpose when Alice told she was going to finish the chapter.

Alice beamed at everyone smiling once more and mouthed a thank you to Sirius, who graciously acknowledged this with a competitive smirk. She made sure to catch James' eye before picking up the book to finish, and he nodded his resignation at last, their quiet whispers before Sirius had entered finally sinking in.

HPHPHPHP

And just because I don't have a better time to share this considering the location of the future chapter it shows up in I won't spoil, you got these now and this below:

Luna- light Orange/ Hermione- Dark Orange

Ron- Dark Brown/ Neville- Light Brown

Dumbledore- Gold with silver flecks

Fenrir*-

It looked more like smoke resting in the cup, the thick cloying kind that would choke your lungs and suffocate you faster than the fire could reach you. Even being nowhere near the lips, the urge to gag, plug up the nose and run was the first instinct upon seeing it. Surly such a vile color was not meant to ever be seen, let alone consumed, for it would never let go once it latched on.

Voldemort-

It's the color he feels pulsing all around him when that sense of purpose, power, rightness, and even triumph surrounded him. He could feel it now, almost burning out of the cup as the color reflected back his soul. It would darken with time just like the murky little depth of solid black color in the center was now, turning deeper and deeper shades with every new murder he granted those not worthy of this life, but always in the very edges before the liquid traced the rim of the cup, you could still see burning red.

Umbridge- pink

It sits like a heavy film over the tongue once swallowed down, leaving an almost chalky, lingering weight behind. The fluorescent, almost painfully bright color would be bitter, like the darkest tea, and would curl into a nauseating feeling the lower down your body it traveled.

Bellatrix- light green

The neon glow was enticing to look at, as if the vividest shade of a particularly tart apple were sizzling in the cup. One sip was all it would take, and you could not stop. You would keep drinking, even when you were out of breath, and the tang became painful because your mouth was burning, you would still keep swallowing happily for the phosphorescent liquid of the verdant shade. ( I can not believe the books literally glossed over what this canon color should be!)

Snape- light purple

It seemed painful to even look at, the image of drinking it would be worse. The morbid feeling of prodding this color, the heavy purple would whiten slightly and then turn back an even darker shade, to have that inside of him made him want to be sick. He wished it would mottle to the greens and yellows of a fading bruise, but feared it would never happen.

Don't worry, you'll get Remus' eventually. I think mine would be similar to a lime green, and sweet with a nice kick at the end. Let me know yours?

*You would not want to drink Remus/ Fenrir's, or any other werewolves FYI. I have a headcanon of what would happen if you tried to use polyjuice potion on a werewolf, and it's similar but more gruesome than what happened to Hermione when she tried to use it on a cat. Check out my AU, Proper Life, chapter 5 for details if you're curious, it's in the very first section so you don't have to read much if you're not invested in the whole thing.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HBP #HP #Weasley Garden #Polyjuice Potion #Wolfstar #Jilly #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Peter Pettigrew #Regulus Black #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith #Lily Evans

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

All in the Family

Chapter 137: Horace Slughorn

Regulus crashed headfirst into a toilet with a knitted cover on the lid to soften the blow. He still cursed and grumbled for it while looking around and found the rest of the décor matching. A knitted stuffed cat on the sink by the soap and a box of crystalized pineapple, unopened. There was a walk in shower, as well as a pile of knitting pattern magazines for reading leisure in a wicker basket he'd knocked over along with the book, its silver spine standing out in here.

Not exactly tempted to sit on the toilet to read, he exited into the hall to find pictures on the wall that weren't alluding to an easy hint of where they were, an array of kids of various ages in frames down to the stairs. He stopped to admire them for a moment, taking a second to realize he could only know they weren't wizards because they weren't moving, but otherwise there was no clear difference. How fascinating, Mother always spoke as if there should be something. He no longer tried to convince himself he just wasn't seeing it, but maybe there just wasn't anything inherently 'different' about them either, aside from the lack of magic.

The entire house was still silent though, not a stair creaked as he went down into the dimly lit living room where a scene of total devastation met his eyes. The others were frozen in place, as if afraid to move once more and find something they shouldn't. Surely their landing hadn't caused this destruction, and his pulse quickened with worry.

The door was blasted off its hinges, a grandfather clock lay splintered at their feet, its face cracked, its pendulum lying a little farther away like a dropped sword pointing right at where Evans was still on hands and knees. A piano was on its side, its keys strewn across the floor, Peter tangled up in the wires. The wreckage of a fallen chandelier glittered nearby, Longbottom and Smith still had bits of it in their hair and clothes. Cushions lay deflated, feathers oozing from slashes in their sides, the Marauders weren't even at fault judging from the stark white faces; fragments of glass and china lay like powder over everything, and there were even chunks and gashes in the walls. Regulus immediately lit his wand and raised it high, giving illumination to something darkly red and glutinous spattered over the flowered wallpaper.

When Peter saw him at the foot of the stairs, the streetlights outside glinting off the bright cover of the book even before he'd lit his wand, and completely unharmed he couldn't help a relieved sigh. He'd done a quick count as always and hysterically wonderd for a moment if Regulus had just been blasted to smithereens from this recent slam. Instead, as he hovered on the last stair with the book in hand and a white face, he quietly whispered as calmly as he could, "start getting us out of here please?"

He swallowed convulsively, eyes still flinching to every corner looking for something none of them wanted to see again, but finally opened and read the chapter title that illuminated some horrible answer to this.

"What the hell has he been up to in this future?" Potter quietly demanded, getting slowly but steadily to his feet. Nothing attacked him like Moody's place, so the others cautiously began doing the same, but nobody wanted to answer him.

Dumbledore and Harry had no idea what they were fixing to walk into with their pleasant little evening stroll, destination this place. He even read right over the passage on Inferi like that was nothing in the face of this. They all felt beside themselves Harry was fixing to just be brutally reminded of the casualties of war even with the headmaster there for him this time.

So when the ruse was revealed, nobody could quite blame Potter shouting at the top of his lungs, "that arse!"

Regulus was so disgruntled at his near heart failure being a trick himself he gave the book an ugly toss into the mess and heavily contemplated for a moment jabbing his own wand into every available bit of furniture just to be safe. Still muttering some of Kreacher's favorite foul tongues, he went over to the piano and began helping disentangle Peter.

The others all went to scatter away in frustration from here, Alice and Longbottom heading towards the kitchen, Sirius and Lupin going up the stairs, but the other four stayed uneasily in the mess, an answer still more tempting to them even if they would have given their potions teacher a good whack upside the head for it.

Evans finally went for the book again with a look of distaste like she used to give Potter all the time. He still watched her avidly for a few moments before an odd look passed his face and he went jogging up the stairs. Regulus's stomach was still twisted into a painful knot of unease for this abrupt turn around of their environment being all a farce and glared at his retreating feet. At least Sirius was making an effort, he wouldn't be surprised though if Potter went up there and encouraged Sirius to stay the hell away from both of them at this rate.

Peter watched too in fascination as that was the first time in his life he'd ever seen Prongs purposely turn away from her when he had no good reason to. He was tempted to follow and ask, but still he hesitated.

Sirius had offered him a bridge, back there in Malfoy's room, but it wasn't just Sirius' continued attitude that was putting him off trying to coexist with the other three. Remus and James had never been so vivid in their reaction to him, but he still felt it sometimes. Like the chunks missing from the wall. The place still stood around them, but even when it was fixed as it was in the book, he doubted he could ever get the image from his mind again of how that betrayal felt he'd never want to cause. It still felt safer then to never let it go that far at all. He still wanted to try and be friends, just maybe not best friends anymore. Like Neville he supposed, he could stay on the fringes and still be on good terms with them, right?

Instead, he turned to Regulus and gave an explanation he knew was owed, now that there was no chance of a dead body being around. "Sirius is worried about you, by the way. In case you were wondering."

Regulus looked startled at the abrupt change of topic, but then smiled in a way Peter so rarely saw as he glanced at the stairs.

"He was apologizing, for back in the Forest, said he was sorry for getting in the middle when he knows he hasn't been helping before that. Well, in his own way," Peter finished with an awkward laugh. "It's pretty funny to watch someone roll their eyes when they're closed." He tacked on for levity.

Regulus just watched steadily for the rest, that didn't feel like something Sirius wouldn't say in front of him.

"Okay yeah," Peter relented, "he also tried to ask what we were talking about, but I wasn't telling him what you told me. Not unless you want me to."

"Thanks," Regulus whispered in surprise, though he didn't know why he was, he knew Peter was good at keeping secrets. It wasn't even really a secret he was so afraid of this future, but nobody had ever given him the option before to decide who knew what about him.

He was tempted to go find Sirius now and talk to him, but Peter told him quietly, "maybe give Sirius a moment? You probably don't want to bother them messing around here."

Regulus didn't quite get the odd tone but believed him. He'd waited this long, he could wait a bit longer to try talking to his brother, they had plenty of time left and he was still plenty curious to pay attention to this.

Remus shivered in distaste for the room he wandered into, despite its clear opulence. The silk sheets and plump pillows spoke of a well rested bed, but he quickly bypassed that for the window despite the fact he could feel well enough there was no full moon, but the mist clung to these very streets as well. He made nonsense patterns in the dew and thought hard about how he could get around his stupid promise to Sirius about telling James and yet knew full well all secrets had a way of coming out eventually, Slughorn hadn't been able to avoid Dumbledore for long- Then someone grabbed him from behind.

"Stop screaming you idiot, it's still me."*

"Sirius, I rarely find that less of a reason to scream," Remus tried to laugh, but Sirius didn't seem in the talkative sort of mood as his hands dropped to his waist. "Are you insane?" He giggled even as he flicked his wand and the door locked. Not permanently, obviously, but it would give them some warning. "This isn't just a bit weird?" He still half expected Slughorn to pop up any moment after that heart attack moment, he'd never look at furniture around that man the same way again.

"It's on my bucket list to do this in a teacher's office," Sirius breathed into his ear. "This is the next best thing. Not up for it?" He pressed his lips down hard on Remus's throat and moaned when he felt Remus swallow convulsively.

'Ask you idiot, now, before this goes any further,' he tried keeping a straight head even as he let himself be pulled towards the bed, shamelessly helping Sirius out of his clothes with every step. "This um, list of yours-" he was panting already, what the hell did it matter again what this meant to Sirius so long as he kept doing that with his lips? "What, um, I mean who," he'd already forgotten his question anyways as Sirius sunk onto the bed and grinned up at him.

"Relax Moony, I'll give you a break when we get back, I wouldn't peg you for wanting to do half the shit I get up to anyways," he laughed as he coaxed Remus on top of him.

He'd only been half listening as he eagerly straddled him, nipping at his neck and jaw while palming him through the last of his clothes, but froze suddenly as what he said really sunk in, and a flair of possessiveness caused his hand to constrict.

Sirius gasped eagerly, but Remus' voice came out more clipped than he'd ever believe while holding Sirius like this, "what does that mean?"

Padfoot didn't seem to hear the warning, that wild, addicting laugh inches from his lips, his legs nudging him into a rocking motion as he teased, "I'll let you see the rest later. You really want to talk about this, now?" His breath was whiney and nearly pleading by the end as Remus hadn't yet moved again.

'Yes,' he knew he should have said. "Nope," he whispered, eagerly succumbing.*

It was far enough back on his neck even Sirius had to twist in the mirror to see it right. Nobody should be able to do the same, his hair covered it well. Sirius checked himself one last time as he smoothed the long black locks back perfectly to hide the mark, deciding he only looked as rumpled as everyone else for this near constant ricochet through reality before finally exiting the bathroom, prize now in his bag. Who kept sweets in their bathroom besides this lunatic? Remus probably would if he got his own house...He licked his lips longingly as he looked back towards Slughorn's room, but knew better than to go back, telling himself he'd risked enough for now. Moony needed a break and would understand if he just didn't come back, maybe he really did just want an alone moment Sirius wasn't giving him.

He'd pretty effectively blocked out Evans's voice as Slughorn already tried reminiscing to Harry about his old position, but the only thing he cared about for this anyways was that Snape should now be gone. He certainly hoped so, it was the only plausible reason he'd allow for this old walrus being back in school, none of the Marauders particularly liked him, so it wasn't at all surprising when he found Prongs behind a secret wall and rummaging through several jars of potions unabashedly, a golden vial flashing about, a strong smell of chocolate lingering in the air as he uncorked something and then quickly put it back.

"Moony okay?" He asked without looking away, he clearly wasn't that concerned with the small yelp of fright he'd caused Remus before muffling the door. "Heard something, what were you guys doing down there? Found this shit though-"

Sirius grinned in delight as he leaned against the wall to see him holding a glass flask full of a thick, mud like substance up curiously with a look Sirius was already on board with. "Fancy a swig Prongs?"

"Yeah, actually," he grinned remorselessly as he pulled the stopper out. "Care for a wager Padfoot?"

"Whoever gets caught first owes the other a galleon," Sirius instantly agreed.

Everybody would surely enjoy the laugh once they realized what the two had pulled, and this was a harmless spot of fun! Sirius grabbed up two dusty but waiting glasses and blew on them impatiently as James pulled out the cork and let the disgusting semi-liquid squelch out a shot into each.

James pocketed the rest and casually plucked a few hairs from his head and dropped it in. It looked almost as if it was pulsing in the cup, the thick maroon concoction was quivering along the edges just waiting for something to happen. He reached a finger out and traced along the edge with an amused smile, he was tempted to drink it himself no matter the uselessness of the action. He glanced curiously at Sirius to see him hesitating though and snorted in amusement as he was running his hand vainly through his hair. "Not going to make me drink your toenails are you prat?"

Sirius was quite tempted to spit into his just to lord that over him, he knew James would still drink it anyways, but ah, do to recent activities, he wasn't sure how much of it would be his own. So glaring at the arse, he delicately plucked at one precious lock, and winced with little pain as it came loose but watched eagerly as he dropped it down.

It was the brightest of scarlets, like if the sun had struck a ruby just right and dumped the color into his cup. He swirled it about like a fine wine and pursed his lips to stop the urge from licking it, but finally swapping cups and grinning like the loons they were as they tossed them back.

The two gasped in unison for how unpleasant the whole thing felt, but thankfully it was over quickly enough. They were shaking their heads though, still unintentionally mimicking each other as they held their new hands in front of their faces.

"Glory Prongs, it's a good thing you haven't lost your glasses. You'd be even more useless without them." It was so weird to hear his own voice, the deer nickname coming from his throat. James decided he didn't really like it as he figured out why the world was blurry and painful to focus on, removing them and passing them wordlessly along. His nose felt weirdly light and bare despite the fact Sirius' should feel no such thing.

Finally though he could properly see, himself. He briefly wondered for a moment if this could be sort of like looking at his son later, before quickly reminding himself like he had downstairs to knock off those kinds of thoughts now.

The two wordlessly exchanged clothes and kept uncomfortably flexing their shoulders and stretching, but by the time they were done it felt almost bearable.

"Don't know how that Crouch Jr. freak managed this for a year," James grumbled, still disturbed to not hear his voice come out and be staring at himself. "This is weird."

"Well thankfully the effects aren't permanent," Sirius sniffed, scratching oddly at his bare neck. "May the best man win!"

"I intend to," he said at once, fighting back the urge to pull Sirius' hair into a ponytail, it was heavier than he'd expected and he felt flush. Though after running his fingers uncomfortably through it for a moment he admitted to himself he had no idea how and he'd probably just hurt himself and either cause Sirius to piss himself with laughter or threaten bodily harm, either was likely.

The book had still been going, and Sirius grinned eagerly as he made his way towards the living room, at least that was a familiar expression on his own face. He obviously thought he could last longest around Evans, and he was probably right, he'd just have to stand there looking at her, the git. There was no fun in that though, and while Sirius was probably more concerned with winning and bragging rights, James wanted a challenge, so he went off in the direction he'd seen Remus go.

He found him quickly enough in Slughorn's room of all places and tried not to look too pleased he found him fidgeting with his shirt and a contemplative look on his face. The bed was all kinds of messed up like he'd been jumping on it for some reason. He had to remind himself not to try and falsify his voice when Remus glanced up. "What's on your mind Moony?"

"My treat," he sniffed. "Where's that pineapple you promised, I'm withholding round two until then."

James silently cursed himself and instantly regretted this, clearly he had missed a conversation between them and had no idea what they'd been up to. Still, he was nothing if not adaptable, and stepped forward to try and sooth out, "you'll get that crystal pineapple when I get mine."

At first he'd thought it might have worked, Remus got a smirk in place that always meant he was up to something, but then he whispered, "is that a challenge?" His hand moved to rest on the inside of James' thigh.

He jumped back like he'd been electrocuted again, accompanied by a high-pitched yelp that he would deny upon death he could ever make. He heard distantly something dropped in surprise in another room, his nose scrunched up in involuntary disgust as he watched Remus in concern. "The hell mate?"

"What-" he looked as confused as James felt now, but then he scrutinized him for several long seconds and demanded, "James?" His own face puckered with some anger and grotesque now.

"Yeah?" It took a moment for him to remember why his voice still sounded odd, and it wasn't all shock. He'd honestly forgotten he was in Sirius' body there for a moment. "How'd you know it was me?" He was only minorly distracted as he realized he lost and still watched his hand wearily, though it had fallen back into his lap.

"Because Sirius has never in his life done that," Remus said stiffly, and James froze in surprise as Moony's eyes flickered up to his own hand, which had been unintentionally ruffling up his hair with nerves. He cleared his throat awkwardly and smoothed his hand down the long main instead, but he knew the gig was up.

"Right," he muttered, far more concerned than anything still and not trying to play it off. "Found some Polyjuice Potions in Slughorn's stores, thought we'd have some fun, sure you didn't find anything you shouldn't have drunk? Like Essence of Insanity?"

Shock quickly collapsed down on Remus, he surged to his feet with a look of pure terror. "Oh shit, James? Um, look, we, I mean I, he was going to-" his eyes began darting to the door and back to him and changed to cussing fluently and backing away from him nearly to the wall.

"Hey, Remus, relax," James quickly soothed, taking a step towards him without even thinking. "I'm not angry, alright, breathe mate. Just, what the hell?"

Remus took several shaky breaths and still wouldn't even look at him, and James was starting to feel really bad. In his defense, that had come out of bloody nowhere, but Remus obviously hadn't done it on purpose, right? Maybe he'd been trying to grab at Sirius as a weird joke or whatever, hell is that what they kept whispering about, had Padfoot figured it out? They'd made weirder werewolf jokes to each other if so. He didn't at all want Remus to think he'd care if the guy was gay, he half suspected it sometimes as he showed such little interest in the girls back at school.

"Everything okay in here?"

The two jumped and turned around to see Evans of all people standing in the doorway, a look of genuine concern on her face as she watched the two. "There's been shouting." She clarified when the silence persisted.

"Um, yeah," he thought he grinned believably enough. He now had to fight off the compulsion with more effort than ever not to rumple up his hair in delight at the mere sight of her and was almost grateful for Moony catching him at that.

She still hovered, and both suddenly realized the book had been silent for quite some time, but there was still some kind of raised voice they'd been blocking out, and maybe it wasn't 'Sirius' shouting she'd meant. "Might want to check on your mate," she finally said, and confirmed as she shrugged and walked back off.

The two exchanged a very concerned look, what the hell had Sirius gotten himself up to? James went after her at once, beckoning to Remus without a second thought and filing this away for later. Moony thankfully followed without hesitation, even if he was a few paces behind than was natural.

She'd only got about halfway through the chapter and was feeling quite dispirited their teacher was on the run from Death Eater's in this Muggle neighborhood, but at least he'd agreed to come back. Dumbledore had been stepping into the broom shed back at the Burrow when Potter came in. There was an odd air about him, he kept scratching at the back of his neck and rotating his shoulders as he went and sat on the floor watching her with a stupider look than usual on his face.

Regulus and Pettigrew had been having some quiet kind of conversation about this new development and all it entailed for Hogwarts staffing. It didn't seem Potter was going to participate, until Pettigrew turned to him and asked, "What do you say Prongs, would you swap Vector out for anyone or take our chances?"

"Um," Sirius stuttered for only a moment. Damn, he hadn't taken Arithmancy with those three idiots, but he'd heard them complain enough over the years he could get along. "Guess we'll keep her around and avoid her, we've enough practice."

Regulus gave him a rather testy look he couldn't begin to guess at, he really didn't know his brother at all anymore.

One bridge at a time, he amended in his head. He still wasn't even clear on Regulus' loyalties. He was asking questions now and clearly trying to loosen up, but still defending the house-elf that got him killed and he still could not separate from their parents no matter what Regulus tried to say.

Peter kept going in an off-hand kind of way of forced casualness still, "look, I'm sure you're curious what Sirius was saying-"

"Not really," Sirius grinned.

Peter looked floored and a little hurt, so Sirius quickly gave himself a mental kick and redirected, "it's between you two." He stopped there and bit his tongue, he wasn't going to speak for Prongs and say everything was all good. James had been the one to convince him to even start at forgiving Peter, but he wasn't going to assume that meant he was all good either.

"He listens to you though," Peter tried to keep going, "and I was just hoping you could tell him-"

'Oh crap,' Sirius tried right then to give it up, he was not going to let Peter think he was talking to James and cause another fight later for this stupid prank! "Hey Wormtail-" Peter was already looking so annoyed, how had this gone so wrong so fast?

"Would you let me finish real quick-"

"No, really mate, I'm not-"

Regulus snapped.

He admired Peter was trying to keep going now around the obnoxious bloke still not taking a hint, but he couldn't just sit here and watch this anymore. "Can you not let him finish one bloody sentence without your opinion! I am so sick of you thinking you know what's best for everyone around here, no one elected you leader!"

He did not hear the thunk of something being dropped in the kitchen, nor realize Evans had lowered the book and was looking at them wearily before getting up, probably to finish reading in another room, though he doubted he'd take in a word of it now.

Peter felt too floored to notice any of it either, fighting down the urge to get between Regulus and James any second, but James didn't go for his wand. He didn't even seem upset or angry. Instead, there was some mingled look of pity, almost regret on his face which didn't at all track with the way he kept side-eying Regulus lately.

Sirius watched, half in fascination half in guilt as he let Regulus tear into Prongs, wincing for each blow his little brother dealt and glad to be taking this for James regardless.

"Ever since Sirius came home that first bloody summer all he's talked about is your bloody opinion on everything and I'm sick of hearing it!"

Sirius was starting to get annoyed by that point, he wasn't some mindless yup like his little brother and let Prongs speak for him, but he forced himself to hold his tongue and let Regulus get it all out now, he didn't even notice the other three coming back down the stairs.

James sure as hell wasn't going to allow the same when he took the scene in. He wasn't going to let Sirius' new passive approach to the two of them allow them to dog ear his best mate like that, and he immediately shoved Regulus. "Back off you bastard, now!"

Regulus looked stricken for just a moment before his face settled back into that cool mask of indifference the Black's carried so well. Sirius felt a pang in his heart the kid managed that at his age, his little brother even twitched for his wand, but Sirius forced his way between the two, snatching the vial out of James's pocket before this could escalate.

"Listen, we swapped bodies, okay! James and I, we found some Polyjuice Potion, we thought it would be fun! Merlin, how long you been holding that in Reg?" He still didn't really regret it when Regulus gave the both of them a look of deepest loathing and stormed up the stairs, slamming something up there. He didn't want to know what Prongs really would have said to him if he'd been down here this whole time.

Evans gave them a scathing look as well and turned quickly away to finish, muttering about their idiocies and stupid pranks again. Even Moony wouldn't meet his eye and Longbottom and Alice were watching from the kitchen with slightly open mouths like they still couldn't believe the stupidity they got themselves into.

Only Peter was left actually looking at them, and he was biting his lip to hold back a smile. Little shit. Whether he actually found the whole thing funny or was laughing at them neither could really be sure, and that was as irksome as Regulus' reaction.

The two gave each other exasperated looks, Sirius finally saying, "think we should hold off trying to get the others to laugh for now Prongs?"

"Guess there's no point in a prank if no one's going to laugh, not even us," he huffed in agreement, still eyeing the stairs with great dislike Sirius was far too used to seeing on his own face regarding his brother, but for the first time realizing James hadn't just been defending him, or himself, whichever. There was something else in what had just happened.

Evans watched them for a few more moments before saying with a guilty look upstairs the chapter was done and finishing good as her word.

HPHPHPH

You didn't really think I could go the whole book without some sibling drama did you? I wouldn't know what to do with myself at this rate!

* Porn will be posted in a separate post shortly.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HBP #HP #Jilly #Wolfstar #Marauders #James Potter #remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Regulus Black #Peter Pettigrew #Lily Evans #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith #Horace Slughorn's House #ish

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

All in the Family

Chapter 80: The Unexpected Task

Lily's landing was actually not uncomfortable for once. She floundered in place upon her back, but it was soft material ruffling behind her whatever it was. Worry spiking if this was some sort of trap to compel her to get comfortable, she sat up abruptly, bunching the silk blanket in her hand suspiciously. She found herself in a luxury room fit for a princess.

The canopy bed was baby blue with pink lace, the pillow looked scandalously shaped perfectly for her head, there was even a thin film draping's that were almost see-through and felt cool as rain to the touch, but were blocking out almost all the light. The moment she pushed them aside, they glided away without a second thought, and she could see a window, leading out onto the Hogwarts grounds. She stood at it for a long time, seeing Hagrid's cabin in the distance, and got a strange guess of where she was, but wanted further proof. She got it almost immediately when she passed the trunk at the end of the bed wide open with Beauxbatons uniforms neatly folded inside, and The Book resting on top. They must be inside their carriage then, possibly with Fleur making a larger appearance in the coming chapter.

Inspecting the area just a bit more, she found a private bathroom that resembled a spa more than anything, and would have believed it if someone told her she spent a weeks worth of time just enjoying being by herself and not thinking of anything but how warm the water was, even if she couldn't read any of the french labels. Once she got out she swayed on her feet for a few moments with comfortable exhaustion, for once, deciding that as she'd landed in here and nobody had come to call yet, another good rest was in order. They'd all stopped plenty of times in the past with mutual sleep at hand. It took nothing else to convince her to crawl back into the strange bed and the slightest of tugs had the curtains back around her before she was out.

Frank dithered uncomfortably in the hallway. He'd grudgingly passed several open and inviting beds in the long, candelabra lit hallway just to find Alice, to assure she was alright and this wasn't some weird trap for Harry's next task, but he'd found her peacefully asleep. She'd even found a room with some muggle invention that had music playing from a big black disk she'd figured out how to work, it sounded like a nice string quartet in the whole room. However, he didn't want to assume just because they'd shared a bed together once she'd be okay with it again, especially in even more, ah, private quarters as all of these rooms seemed set for individuals. He'd just turned away and decided to just sleep in the room across, honestly the floor looked comfortable enough to nap on at this rate, when a giggle behind him made him twirl around to see she'd rolled over and was laughing herself silly at him before beckoning him to get in while wiggling to the far side of the bed.

"But Moony!" Sirius whined, managing to sound like an irritable six year old despite being ten years plus that. "Why not just take the opportunity while we can to not have to sleep in the same place as those two wankers, I quite enjoyed it last time."

"Because last time, we hardly slept a wink," he didn't need to elaborate, and was glad they hadn't found the other two yet as he couldn't quite suppress a blush. "We're finding them first you dolt."

They'd already passed several rooms containing their other quest members asleep, and Remus was just beginning to wonder if he'd passed them accidentally somehow when he came across a room with stripped bedding, and now sure at least they were thinking the same as him, he kept his hold on Sirius and dragged him along until he found what must be the equivalent of a living room in a mansion inside this pumpkin carriage. Peter was already curled up on the queen sized sofa, fidgeting with his school tie despite the fact it was loose enough to come off. James was upside down in a squashy armchair Maxime herself could stretch out in, his glasses placed carefully on top but eyes wide awake.

There hadn't been this much awkward silence between the four of them since their first year, those first few months before they'd even decided if they liked each other, let alone would become the best friends they were supposed to be. Both of them still grinned when they entered, and Sirius couldn't stop a small, albeit grudging smile as he shook his head at the lot of them, calling them sentimental fools as he snatched some covers from the floor and padded down in yet another available couch next to the purple lit fireplace that had wine goblets only half empty he'd save for breakfast. Remus barely had time to smile before he too passed out amongst the synchronized snoring, letting his feet tangle together with Sirius' but resting on the opposite arm of the couch.

Regulus stretched languidly as he awoke, still as disoriented as ever to find the light outside was exactly where it had been when he'd gone to sleep, but the comfortable bed had rivaled his own and who evers room he'd borrowed had good taste. There were posters of all of the French National Quidditch Team doing their signature move, the Blitzen Ballet, across several posters, which had been what had drawn him into the room in the first place.

He pulled some individually wrapped macaroons out of his pocket and began eating those as he went through the rest of this persons belongings, finding several textbooks all in French he couldn't follow, but not the book they needed. He didn't really fancy going through every room to find it, but he also didn't want to start until he knew everyone was awake- "The Unexpected Task." He crumpled a purple one up in his hand in surprise all over the blokes belongings. Well, clearly Evans didn't have those same reserves.

James startled awake with a yelp, flopping right out of the chair and confused for several long moments. Whoever would have thought waking up to the sound of Evans' voice would give him heart failure? The others were stirring with only slightly more dignity, he couldn't even blame Sirius when the first thing he did was reach up and snag those wine glasses to finish them off as her voice echoed around them before they'd even had morning tea.

"Evans does an impression of McGonagall telling off Harry too well," Peter groaned, trying to shove the blanket through his skull.

Remus looked like he was trying to burrow into the couch for more rest without comment, and James and Sirius woke up too hungry to really be paying much attention as their head of house held up Ron and Harry after class for something as silly as not paying attention. The two of them were busy trading a basket of fried fish back and forth and lamenting how fast it was vanishing when they simultaneously choked on the cold batter upon hearing no detention was being served, but quite the unexpected task indeed.

"Harry has to wha-?" Remus actually jerked his head free from his cocoon.

"Get a date, and dance her?" Peter repeated, inspecting the sleep he'd rubbed from his eyes as if expecting to find something else contaminating him.

"Or him," Sirius corrected with a suddenly wicked smile, "maybe he'll ask Ron, you don't know Wormy." The snide remark had slide easily from his tongue as he envisioned the fun of Hogwarts hosting something like a dance, it wasn't until he looked over to see his mate blush and stammer at the idea that he really, fully woke up. He wouldn't have believed it five seconds ago himself.

Peter was smiling to himself despite not able to look over at Sirius, and James swooped in to save the awkward silence. "Listen to this poor kid telling McGonagall he isn't going to do it! A books not good enough anymore, I'd pay money to see this in action!"

For just a moment, they all got a good laugh out of that.

They weren't the only ones, Frank and Alice were having their own fits of laughter still curled up in bed. Frank could at least sympathize with Harry though as he struggled to even conceptualize asking Cho out, he'd had a crush on Alice for months before he'd over heard her struggling with Charms and offering to tutor her. Asking her out, outright and to a dance, would have been insanity at that point. They both listened intently for any hint of what Neville would be up to during all of this. As much as they sympathized with Harry not being able to go alone because of his public dancing, they very much hoped Neville would at least be mentioned going with some friends rather than not at all.

Lily was giving herself a very hearty pat on the back for deciding to read this one alone. She was sure it wasn't just her imagination hearing the obnoxious laughter of the Marauders over this adorable idea, barely a teenager Regulus' pompous expression and possibly boasting he'd been trained to waltz before he could walk, and worst of all Frank and Alice's adoring looks at each other. She liked the both of them, more and more as they talked honestly, but her own life right now didn't leave her in a good position to be happy the only two people she could possibly count as friends during all this were dating and she felt like she was a third wheel half the time around them.

It was even more than that, if she were being honest with herself. While the idea of getting to dress up like that for the evening sounded nice in theory, she had about as much chance of going with anyone as Harry did Cho. Her heart sank for the poor lad as his crush admitted she was going with Cedric. Her prospects were even less endearing. Potter would ask her, of course, and anyone who proceeded to afterwords would likely end up in the hospital wing for one various reason or another until the offers stopped for a time again. And Sev...

She flipped the page hurriedly, it would be too obvious now if she stopped to stew over this, someone may come and see where she was and she wanted to actually enjoy this alone chance while she had it.

Regulus listened with the most absent of attention to these teenagers getting turned down left and right, the Marauders laughter echoing out into the hallway as he went exploring the rest of the carriage. Was he the only one who still remembered someone had put Harry in this tournament for more than embarrassing him? Nobody had even bothered to speculate on a suspect in ages, Regulus didn't really buy it was Karkaroff himself. It wasn't improving his mood he'd had no one to talk to in a while now, of course now that Peter had made up with his friends and they were all chummy again he'd go right back to being ignored. He should have known nothing about his life would ever really change no matter how much he heard.

He startled in surprise upon opening the next door as an orange cat came tottering out of the room, immediately twirling around his legs and purring in affection. Shaking his head in disbelief someone would bring their pet on this trip, he bent down regardless and gave a friendly scratch on the felines rump as he looked around once more, finding something new to wonder on. Why was it the pets were usually present? Magical animals as well, he reminded himself with a shiver of disgust at the basilisk. The paintings had all been present to, but he'd have never considered them as people. What was the criteria then for what was left behind as they were thrown around this place? It was something to ponder on at hand anyways, as he found himself sprawled on the floor, covered in cream colored fur while Hermione Granger dropped the surprise she'd gotten a date but wasn't telling who.

The chapter was finally coming to an end with everyone successfully getting dates, and Regulus snorted in disgust, was he the only one not obsessing with romance around here?

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #GoF #Marauders #Wolfstar #Jilly #Regulus Black #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #James Potter #Peter Pettigrew #Lily Evans #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith

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