Guys I wrote a fic. Ivy helped.
Title: Revenge is a Snowball Best Served Cold.
Summary: What goes around smacks you in the back of the head.
Characters/Pairings: Mostly marauders genfic. There's more Remus/Sirius than I had originally intended. Also some unrequited James/Lily
Genre: Fluff, gen, Marauders Hogwarts era. There may also be a bit of angst, but nothing major.
Ratings/Warnings: PG, for a bit of swearing.
Beta: ivybgreenflower MOSTLY SHE JUST HUMORED ME WHILE I WAS COMING UP WITH THIS SHIT AND SHE MADE SURE MY COMMAS WERE GOOD.
Word Count: ~4300
Aiuthor's note: I wrote this as a fic exchange gift for hh_sugarquill (which if you don't know, is where all the fic and fanart is posted at hih.)
swooshsmack!!! James feels the sting of the first snowball of the first snowball fight of the holiday season. The sensation catches him by surprise. It hurts, and at first he doesn’t know where the bugger came from.
“Fuck,” he mutters, rubbing the sudden smarting of his left cheek, near his nose. He soon ignores the pain and bends to collect snow to pack together and fashion into his spherical revenge. He sees the footprints scurry away from him. He knows there’s only one person those tracks can belong to. “Padfoot, I know it’s you. You bastard, you’ve got my cloak!” And he chases after the trail, using his wand to raise the snowball, ready to fling at the opportune moment.
Sirius doesn’t look behind him, but he knows James is fast, and he hasn’t got a second snowball to defend himself with. He transforms into his animagus form, and congratulates himself on his quick thinking as his arms stretch out in front of him and transform into furry black paws. It’s difficult to stay under the cloak as a dog, so he shakes it off, choosing to rely merely on his canine speed.
“Dirty mutt!” James mutters as he chases after his best friend. He picks up his invisibility cloak when he manages to catch up to the place where Padfoot dropped it. He sees the black dog come to a halt several metres ahead of him. Padfoot eyes the snowball that James has levitating, as if to issue a challenge. James rises to the challenge and pelts the dog in the face with the snowball, and picks up more snow so as to do it again.
“POTTER!” James knows the voice. He’s memorized the different ways she’s screamed his name at him. Although, it’s never been in the way he’d like for her to scream it. Not yet, but soon. He turns away from Padfoot, to look at Lily. She looks really cute, James thinks, even though she’s clearly, at the very least, quite irritated with him.
“Oh. Hello Evans,” James says sheepishly, dropping the snowball in his hand. “What can I do for you today? Fancy a stroll to Honeydukes?” James asks, gesturing with his hand towards the sweets shop down the road. He ignores the fact that the dog that he knows as his best friend (and current four legged nemesis) is creeping up behind him, and bats his eyes at the redheaded girl he’d been crazy about since girls started being a thing that mattered. He figures it's worth a try.
“Uhm...” she begins in a cross tone that makes James not really care how lowly she thinks of him. “Not especially. No. Especially since it seems you’re busy harassing animals.” Her voice brims with contempt.
“Oh.” James said, suddenly realizing what pelting a dog in the face with packed snow in the middle of the street must look like. He curses Padfoot mentally, but loud enough in his head so as to make sure that Sirius hears it. “This isn’t what it looks like,” He attempts.
“I never really pegged you as one for mindless animal abuse, Potter. This is a new low even for you,” Lily says, and before James can get a word in edgewise, he sees the girl crouch down. And he’s going to kill Sirius because he’s now looking at Lily with the most pathetic literal puppy dog eyes he’s ever seen.
He can see Lily’s eyes melt from anger towards him to a sappy pitiful gooey look towards Sirius who is apparently “such a pretty dog.” But James sees him preening his fur as Lily pets him and he has never wanted to kick an animal so much in his life, not since the time Peter’s overweight Siamese cat threw up on his pillow. He can see the mischievous look in Padfoot’s eyes saying that he is thoroughly enjoying his friend’s shame and intends to milk this for all it’s worth. Lily hugs the dog, and the dog takes that opportunity to cop a feel of her breast with his paw. She laughs and merely says “down boy,” at Sirius’s attempts to get fresh. James feels vaguely like dying.
Just as James considers sinking into the snow and laying down to die, (not without dragging Sirius down with him) Lily mentions something about going to meet a date at Madame Puddifoot’s. She looks back up at James, pulls a face that only the most hopeful of souls could call a grin, and says “cute dog.” She flips her red hair that makes James want to write sonnets and bury his head under a mound of snow, and walks away.
As much as he would like to, Sirius doesn’t change himself back to his human form so that he can laugh at James’s expense. He considers it, but his mind is changed when he sees Peter and (more importantly) Remus walking towards them. Remus looks mildly miffed over something or other. But that doesn’t stop Sirius from running towards him and giving him the best greeting he knows how.
Remus doesn’t feel like smiling as he greets his friends. And it isn’t the fact that Padfoot chewed up the book he had been reading that morning that has him in a twist, or the fact that he’s made a somewhat regular habit of eliminating anything that stands in the way of Remus’s attention being on him as often as possible and it isn’t the fact that as he approaches his friend to have a word with him he is thrown to the grown and assaulted with a face full slobbery dog kisses. “Get off of me, you big oaf,” Remus says, trying very hard not to laugh or show affection for the mangy mutt. What has Remus in a twist is that he’s become the person he seems to be around Sirius these days. There’s something that’s different between them. He wipes the slobber from his face and tries not to think about it.
Sirius loves Remus. He always has. Remus is the only one who gets face-fulls of Padfoot’s slobbery dog kisses (unless it is a day in which Sirius is feeling particularly affectionate, on which days everyone gets Padfoot’s slobbery dog kisses.) But with Remus it is different. Remus isn’t the one who chases him with levitated snowballs and a vindictive gaze. Remus is the one who reads books and advises Sirius not to be stupid and pretends to be much more put off by Padfoot’s affection than he really is.
“Will you look at the man’s face, Pads.” James says, gesturing towards the long suffering Remus, who lies on his back, “Get off him, your drool is clearly offending his studious sensibilities.”
Sirius obliges. James summons his invisibility cloak and walks Sirius to a secluded area where he changes back into his human form. Peter and Remus stalk behind the. “Well, the gang’s all here,” Peter notes.
“Brilliant observation, Wormtail.” Sirius says, “Truly inspired.” He reaches up to his hair and scratches at what he hopes isn’t the beginning of a bad case of fleas.
“Well, we’ve got three hours left until Hogsmeade closes.” Peter says. “Have you lot got any ideas of what we should get up to?” he asks.
James’s eyes sparkle. He’s been replaying his run in with Lily in his head since it had happened. Inspiration has struck. “Boys, we’re going to pay a little visit to the ladies at Madame Puddifoot’s.”
Sirius grins with pleasure. Remus groans. Peter looks confused.
~~~
Remus feels sheepish and stupid. He’s known for 7 years what Hogsmeade weekends mean with his friends around this time of year. Normally he can mold himself to fit in with his friends, and blend in with whatever havoc the gang is wreaking. But between him and nobody else, he’d wanted this year to be different. He’d had this stupid idea for his last year at Hogwarts. He’d thought maybe this year he could possibly attend Madame Puddifoot’s for the reason most students do. Most students, that is, who aren’t being lugged around by notorious troublemakers, but would rather sit hand in hand with someone who they maybe care about more than they’d comfortably like to admit.
He’s not five steps into the cafe before he sees Sirius slinking towards a table where a lonely girl is sitting. “Is this seat taken?” He wastes no time in attempting to put the moves on the impressionable fifth year. Remus looks away, and sees James scanning the too-cozy room, no doubt in search of a shock of bright ginger hair. Peter is bumbling the way he often bumbles, constantly hovering around James or Sirius, or Remus himself. He is no doubt waiting for cues to find his own young lady to harass, no doubt in hopes that one day his endeavors will bear fruit. They won’t, of course. Because this is Peter, and while the four of them are all varying levels of hopeless, Peter is the one who is least aware of just how utterly hopeless he really is.
James’s eyes light up when he spots her. He hasn’t come to stalk his prey or anything so objectionable as that. He’s merely come because he knows that he is in love with Lily Evans, and who is James Potter to stand in the way of wooing his own true love?
Lily knows that James has followed her into Madame Puddifoots. She expects no less of him than to follow her wherever she goes. Truthfully, she all but gave him an open invitation to do so. But Lily is smart and she knows better than to leave herself defenseless in a place such as this. Especially in the presence of dolts such as James Potter.
“Really, I understand you want to shield yourself from him, but I’m not polyjuicing myself into a boy,” Lily’s friend Emily says.
“Fine then. Tuck your hair into your hat and put your arm around me. I need you to be my boyfriend!” Lily looked around frantically to make sure James wasn’t in the vicinity yet.
“I don’t understand why you don’t just go out with him Evans, “ Emily says for the millionth time. She shakes her head and creates a glamour to make herself more masculine. “Hey baby,” she husks, making a smoochy face at Lily.
Remus grabs Jame’s shirtsleeve as he sees him start to meander in the direction of Lily Evans. “James, are you about to do something we’re all going to regret?” Remus acts.
“If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be James!” Peter announces.
“Pfft,” James says. “I’m a Gryffindor. I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘regret.’” Remus releases James from his grip and sets the inevitable into motion.
James approaches the table where Lily is situated. He sees her canoodling with a boy in a hoodie that he’s never seen before. James is indignant. He can canoodle. He can canoodle with the best of them. He doesn’t understand what Lily sees in this boy’s conoodling prowess that he couldn’t offer in tenfold.
James clears his throat, announcing his presence.
Lily looks up at him. She doesn’t look pleased, but James tells himself it is only a facade. “What do you want, Potter? Can’t you see I’m with my boyfriend?” Said boyfriend giggles in a way that James finds puzzling, but he pays it no mind.
“I’d like to talk to you,” He says. “In private.” he smiles.
Lily is not pleased. “Five minutes, Potter.”
And five minutes is all it takes. In that span of time, James begs Lily to go out with him a dozen times, and narrowly avoids being slapped just as many.
Five minutes is all it takes for James to return Lily to her table, and come back to see Sirius getting ready to snog Lily’s ‘boyfriend.’
“Emily, I leave you alone for 5 minutes!” Lily shouts.
“Emily?” James asks. Clearly he’s missed something.
“Ah, I see that introductions are in order.” Sirius smiles. “Emily, this is my good friend James. James, this is Emily. Whom, I might add, makes a very convincing man, as well as a very lovely lady.” Emily blushes.
“I’d like to leave,” James says
“I’d like you to leave, as well,” Lily agrees.
~~~
The following days bring the beginning of the winter hols, and the Hogwarts Express delivers homesick students back to their homes and to their worried families. A war is brewing, and even muggle families, such as that of Lily Evans, know that something is beginning.
In the emptied out Gryffindor tower, three boys find a haven. Most of the Gryffindors have abandoned the tower in favor of their own beds. Sirius stays because he no longer has a family to go home to. James and Remus stay so he doesn’t have to be alone. Peter doesn’t stay. But he’s made sure the gang knows he would have, if he could.
James is antsy. He’s got no Wormtail to do his bidding for him. He’s missing his distraction in the form of emerald eyes (and other cheesy metaphors for his obsession with Lily Evans.)
“Shut up,” Sirius says.
“I didn’t say anything,” James whines.
“No, but I can hear you thinking and you’re being incredibly loud. Think of Moony,” He says, kicking Remus lightly on the ankle. “The poor bloke’s trying to read. How’s he supposed to learn anything about Canadian Hippogriffs when you’re whinging so loudly about your ginger girlfriend?!”
“I’m not whinging, and she isn’t my girlfriend, no small thanks to you,” James laments
“No, she’s not,” Sirius says “And you can’t blame me for something you’ve been bolloxing up every day since fourth year.” James is still quite keenly feeling the sting of embarrassment that had taken place at Madame Puddifoot’s days prior. Sirius is no longer having it. “And quite frankly, Moony and I have more interesting intellectual pursuits to discuss. Such as the mating habits of North American Hippogriffs. Isn’t that right, Moony?”
Remus grunts, refusing to look up from his reading.
James mutters something under his breath and resigns himself to his fate of loneliness. “I’m going to bed,” He declares. Sirius looks at him in a way that warns if you cannot be bothered to put a sock on the door at least use the proper locking charms.
“Shut up,” James says.
Remus and Sirius are the only ones left in the common room. They’re silent for a moment as Remus focuses as much attention as he can muster on the book in his hand. The atmosphere feels pregnant with the words swarming around in his head. Sirius is itching his head again. “Fleas, they’re murder,” he mutters.
“The full moon is in a week. If you give me fleas I will eat you.” Remus’s threat is an empty one.
“But really, Moony, what is so interesting to you about Canadian Hippogriffs?” Sirius asks earnestly.
“It’s called ‘research’, perhaps you’ve heart of it. I’ve NEWTS to worry about, after all. And so’ve you,” Remus says pointedly.
Sirius, doesn’t let himself be bothered to wax poetic about the evils of studying during winter hols and how Remus, though very dear to him, is a terribly disturbed individual for doing so. Instead he opts to become Padfoot and lower his paws and head into Remus's lap. The dog looks up at his friend expectantly.
“I know what you’re doing,” Remus sighs. “I’m not going to pet you. You’re an undignified animal and you’ve no shame or decency.”
Sirius wags his tail and rolls over, exposing his belly.
Remus loses hold of his resolve. He gives into the dog’s devilish canine wiles. “You really are quite a nuisance, Sirius. I don’t even want to pet you.” He rubs Padfoot’s belly, begrudgingly.
Remus abandons his book on the side table, in favor of the dog who is adamant for a bit (all of) his attention. Even as a dog, Remus can see the goofy face Sirius makes at the gesture. He knows his canine friend is pleased.
“You’re a good dog, Pads,” Remus says, scratching him behind the ears. Remus pulls his legs up onto the couch and reclines. Padfoot cuddles to his side and rests his head on Remus’s chest. he whines softly, and looks Remus in the eye. “You’re terrible, I mean,” Remus says, not sure which statement holds more truth. He smiles.
Padfoot yawns and shifts his body underneath Remus’s head, forcing him to sit up. Remus is now situated with a dog that is too big to fit comfortably with him on the Gryffindor common room couch. “You’re shedding all over the upholstery,” he says with a grin. He doesn’t really care. He turns his head and lays an innocent kiss on the dog’s fuzzy head. Padfoot closes his eyes and exhales contentedly. Remus closes his eyes as well.
Not an hour later, Sirius stirs. He'd fallen asleep as a dog, he's sure of it. But now he's most definitely a human. And his body is being not quite crushed by an also very human Remus. He doesn't remember transforming back into himself, but he must have at some point while he was sleeping. It wasn't the first time it had happened, but it wasn't a common occurrence. Especially not while cuddled up with Remus in the middle of the common room. The couch is barely big enough for the both of them, even when Sirius had himself curled into a ball of dog, let alone two teenage boys. Remus is a quarter inch from falling off and Sirius contemplates pulling him closer to prevent it. He wants to. He doesn't let himself. He'd rather not risk waking him. Sirius gently pulls his arm out from where it is being squashed beneath the other boy. He doesn't mind the proximity, they've always been a rather hands on group of friends. Sirius initiates most of the contact, even when it annoys the others. Especially when it annoys the others. This is different. He doesn't want to tell himself what is different about this. He thinks it will ruin the moment.
James awakes from what he'd hardly call sleep. He casts a quick tempus and sits up in his four poster bed. He scans the room to see if he's been joined by his roommates. He hasn't. He isn't really surprised by their absence but he is curious enough to go investigate. He knows he won't be able to get back to sleep for a while anyway. He listens to the sounds coming from the common room as he descends down the dormitory stairs. He hears nothing and assumes that Remus and Sirius are asleep.
He reaches the bottom of the stairs and turns the corner into the common room. He's greeted by the sight of his two best friends curled on the couch together. So they had fallen asleep. Together, it seemed. It wasn't a common occurrence, he knew. but James is too tired to make anything of it. Remus is definitely still asleep, by the rhythm of the rise and fall of his chest, and the goofy grin on his groggy face. James looks at Sirius and realizes his eyes are open. Their eyes lock. "What are you doing?" he asks.
“Don’t wake him up.” Sirius says. James shuts up, and Sirius smiles. He closes his eyes and lays his head back down on the arm of the couch.
“Are you two going to come upstairs?” James notes he peculiarity of their closeness, but chooses not to question it. That’s a discussion for another night.
“Shoosh.” Remus mutters, his words slurred with sleep. James obliges and heads back to his dormitory where things makes sense.
~~~
Remus’s hatred of snowball fights, and general ill will towards anyone (usually his best friends) who involves him in snowball fights, has never been a secret. Remus likes it much better when the others decide to stay indoors and wreak havoc on the castle and unassuming first years. He finds that sort of activity vastly preferable to being pelted with a ball of ice at high velocity.
Today, Remus is a different man. He is still himself, he supposes. He doesn’t feel the effects of the full moon drawing nigh. What he does feel is the distinct urge to punch Sirius in the face for reasons that don’t really make sense to him.
Remus had been woken up unceremoniously alone on the floor of the common room that morning. The common room had been empty. He’d gone upstairs to find his two best friends not in their respective beds. They’d gone to breakfast without waking him. That or he’d slept in and the duo had already gotten started on filling their quota of mischief for the day.
Today, Remus feels, is telling him to re-evaluate his feelings towards the snowball. To become one with the snowball. He steps out of the corridor, onto the snow driven courtyard. He holds what he is positive is the most dastardly snowball he’s seen, while levitating many more in his wake. Today, the first person who crosses his path will be very sorry indeed. He hopes it is Sirius. But he won’t be too upset if it is James. He probably won’t hit an innocent bystander, he thinks, but today is weird and he can’t be completely certain.
He’s startled by noise coming from somewhere in his periphery. The break in his concentration almost causes him to drop the snowballs he endured such great pains and cold hands to make. “Sirius, is that you?” he asks the air around him. He sees an owl land on a snowy hedge. The bird looks at him like he’s gone round the bend. He thinks perhaps he has.
He keeps walking in pursuit of his victims. He hopes to catch them by surprise. After all, initiating a war of this nature and magnitude is hardly something they would expect from him, after knowing him all this time.
He hears a shuffling noise behind him, swooshsmack! Before he knows it, he’s become the sneak attackee before he could be the sneak attacker. It is nothing if not typical. He doesn’t bother to look before turning around and firing his own snowball. James is laughing. It misses both of them. He flings another one, this time hitting Sirius square in the nose.
“Fuck!” Sirius says. Remus has more snowballs on him, and thus has the upper hand. None of them move or start to run. “Mate,” Sirius says, staring at him strangely. “What was that?”
And Remus wants to yell, but he doesn’t. “Didn’t think I’d retaliate, did you?” he asks, a bit breathless. He feels the weight of the his friends’ eyes on him and he wishes he hadn’t retaliated. He wishes he’d just whinged and refused to be a part of the shenanigans, like he’s done in the past. He wants to run past James and steal his invisibility cloak and run up to the tower and hide there alone and fall asleep again in the place where he’d woken up. He feels silly.
“That was really good, Moony,” James says. Remus raises a hand and brushes off the condescension. They stand there for a moment, puzzled.
“Well, I--” Remus begins.
“Moony,” Sirius interrupts him. “Did you make all these snowballs for us?” His eyes are bright and it takes all the self control that Remus can muster not to pelt him with another one. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this proud in my life.” He feigns a sniffle and a tear. He approaches Remus with zero regard for ceremony, and assaults him with a bone crushing hug. Remus drops his snowballs and refuses to let himself be pummeled to the ground.
“Get off of me, Sirius, I am extremely displeased with you!” Remus’s protests fall on deaf ears and Sirius grips him harder and begins babbling about epic snow fights and how he’d never thought he’d see the day.
James watches the scene in front of him, unsure what to make of it. He is, however grateful to Sirius for making Remus forget about his pile of snowballs. He stalks over to the forgotten pile and grins. He sees the opportunity bright and gleaming before him. He levitates the lot, pelting them at his friends in quick succession.
Remus grabs on to Sirius for support they pull apart and run from the attack. James chases them with a maniacal look on his face, flinging snowball after snowball at Remus and Sirius in alternation. A particularly large one hits Sirius’s shoulder. Injury is added to insult as Remus slips on a patch of ice and takes Sirius down with him.
They land side by side on the ground. Remus turns his head and is startled to see Sirius’s face merely inches from his. “Now, Moony? Why on earth is it me that you’re extremely displeased with?” Sirius asks.
Remus laughs. He laughs, and he turns to his best friend and grabs the hand lying in the snow beside his. “You’re right, Padfoot, that Prongs is a real pillock.” Their eyes meet and something shifts. Remus lifts himself up to support his upper body on an elbow. He sits up, and as he does he’s met with another surprise attack. This time, in the form of Sirius’s lips on his.
The kiss is slow and hesitant and lacking in grace. Despite the fact that all his limbs are borderline frozen, it warms him to the core. James has stopped laughing. He can’t see his eyes, but Remus supposes they must be the size of saucers. He hopes this leaves him speechless for a while.
Summary: What goes around smacks you in the back of the head.
Characters/Pairings: Mostly marauders genfic. There's more Remus/Sirius than I had originally intended. Also some unrequited James/Lily
Genre: Fluff, gen, Marauders Hogwarts era. There may also be a bit of angst, but nothing major.
Ratings/Warnings: PG, for a bit of swearing.
Beta: ivybgreenflower MOSTLY SHE JUST HUMORED ME WHILE I WAS COMING UP WITH THIS SHIT AND SHE MADE SURE MY COMMAS WERE GOOD.
Word Count: ~4300
Aiuthor's note: I wrote this as a fic exchange gift for hh_sugarquill (which if you don't know, is where all the fic and fanart is posted at hih.)
swooshsmack!!! James feels the sting of the first snowball of the first snowball fight of the holiday season. The sensation catches him by surprise. It hurts, and at first he doesn’t know where the bugger came from.
“Fuck,” he mutters, rubbing the sudden smarting of his left cheek, near his nose. He soon ignores the pain and bends to collect snow to pack together and fashion into his spherical revenge. He sees the footprints scurry away from him. He knows there’s only one person those tracks can belong to. “Padfoot, I know it’s you. You bastard, you’ve got my cloak!” And he chases after the trail, using his wand to raise the snowball, ready to fling at the opportune moment.
Sirius doesn’t look behind him, but he knows James is fast, and he hasn’t got a second snowball to defend himself with. He transforms into his animagus form, and congratulates himself on his quick thinking as his arms stretch out in front of him and transform into furry black paws. It’s difficult to stay under the cloak as a dog, so he shakes it off, choosing to rely merely on his canine speed.
“Dirty mutt!” James mutters as he chases after his best friend. He picks up his invisibility cloak when he manages to catch up to the place where Padfoot dropped it. He sees the black dog come to a halt several metres ahead of him. Padfoot eyes the snowball that James has levitating, as if to issue a challenge. James rises to the challenge and pelts the dog in the face with the snowball, and picks up more snow so as to do it again.
“POTTER!” James knows the voice. He’s memorized the different ways she’s screamed his name at him. Although, it’s never been in the way he’d like for her to scream it. Not yet, but soon. He turns away from Padfoot, to look at Lily. She looks really cute, James thinks, even though she’s clearly, at the very least, quite irritated with him.
“Oh. Hello Evans,” James says sheepishly, dropping the snowball in his hand. “What can I do for you today? Fancy a stroll to Honeydukes?” James asks, gesturing with his hand towards the sweets shop down the road. He ignores the fact that the dog that he knows as his best friend (and current four legged nemesis) is creeping up behind him, and bats his eyes at the redheaded girl he’d been crazy about since girls started being a thing that mattered. He figures it's worth a try.
“Uhm...” she begins in a cross tone that makes James not really care how lowly she thinks of him. “Not especially. No. Especially since it seems you’re busy harassing animals.” Her voice brims with contempt.
“Oh.” James said, suddenly realizing what pelting a dog in the face with packed snow in the middle of the street must look like. He curses Padfoot mentally, but loud enough in his head so as to make sure that Sirius hears it. “This isn’t what it looks like,” He attempts.
“I never really pegged you as one for mindless animal abuse, Potter. This is a new low even for you,” Lily says, and before James can get a word in edgewise, he sees the girl crouch down. And he’s going to kill Sirius because he’s now looking at Lily with the most pathetic literal puppy dog eyes he’s ever seen.
He can see Lily’s eyes melt from anger towards him to a sappy pitiful gooey look towards Sirius who is apparently “such a pretty dog.” But James sees him preening his fur as Lily pets him and he has never wanted to kick an animal so much in his life, not since the time Peter’s overweight Siamese cat threw up on his pillow. He can see the mischievous look in Padfoot’s eyes saying that he is thoroughly enjoying his friend’s shame and intends to milk this for all it’s worth. Lily hugs the dog, and the dog takes that opportunity to cop a feel of her breast with his paw. She laughs and merely says “down boy,” at Sirius’s attempts to get fresh. James feels vaguely like dying.
Just as James considers sinking into the snow and laying down to die, (not without dragging Sirius down with him) Lily mentions something about going to meet a date at Madame Puddifoot’s. She looks back up at James, pulls a face that only the most hopeful of souls could call a grin, and says “cute dog.” She flips her red hair that makes James want to write sonnets and bury his head under a mound of snow, and walks away.
As much as he would like to, Sirius doesn’t change himself back to his human form so that he can laugh at James’s expense. He considers it, but his mind is changed when he sees Peter and (more importantly) Remus walking towards them. Remus looks mildly miffed over something or other. But that doesn’t stop Sirius from running towards him and giving him the best greeting he knows how.
Remus doesn’t feel like smiling as he greets his friends. And it isn’t the fact that Padfoot chewed up the book he had been reading that morning that has him in a twist, or the fact that he’s made a somewhat regular habit of eliminating anything that stands in the way of Remus’s attention being on him as often as possible and it isn’t the fact that as he approaches his friend to have a word with him he is thrown to the grown and assaulted with a face full slobbery dog kisses. “Get off of me, you big oaf,” Remus says, trying very hard not to laugh or show affection for the mangy mutt. What has Remus in a twist is that he’s become the person he seems to be around Sirius these days. There’s something that’s different between them. He wipes the slobber from his face and tries not to think about it.
Sirius loves Remus. He always has. Remus is the only one who gets face-fulls of Padfoot’s slobbery dog kisses (unless it is a day in which Sirius is feeling particularly affectionate, on which days everyone gets Padfoot’s slobbery dog kisses.) But with Remus it is different. Remus isn’t the one who chases him with levitated snowballs and a vindictive gaze. Remus is the one who reads books and advises Sirius not to be stupid and pretends to be much more put off by Padfoot’s affection than he really is.
“Will you look at the man’s face, Pads.” James says, gesturing towards the long suffering Remus, who lies on his back, “Get off him, your drool is clearly offending his studious sensibilities.”
Sirius obliges. James summons his invisibility cloak and walks Sirius to a secluded area where he changes back into his human form. Peter and Remus stalk behind the. “Well, the gang’s all here,” Peter notes.
“Brilliant observation, Wormtail.” Sirius says, “Truly inspired.” He reaches up to his hair and scratches at what he hopes isn’t the beginning of a bad case of fleas.
“Well, we’ve got three hours left until Hogsmeade closes.” Peter says. “Have you lot got any ideas of what we should get up to?” he asks.
James’s eyes sparkle. He’s been replaying his run in with Lily in his head since it had happened. Inspiration has struck. “Boys, we’re going to pay a little visit to the ladies at Madame Puddifoot’s.”
Sirius grins with pleasure. Remus groans. Peter looks confused.
~~~
Remus feels sheepish and stupid. He’s known for 7 years what Hogsmeade weekends mean with his friends around this time of year. Normally he can mold himself to fit in with his friends, and blend in with whatever havoc the gang is wreaking. But between him and nobody else, he’d wanted this year to be different. He’d had this stupid idea for his last year at Hogwarts. He’d thought maybe this year he could possibly attend Madame Puddifoot’s for the reason most students do. Most students, that is, who aren’t being lugged around by notorious troublemakers, but would rather sit hand in hand with someone who they maybe care about more than they’d comfortably like to admit.
He’s not five steps into the cafe before he sees Sirius slinking towards a table where a lonely girl is sitting. “Is this seat taken?” He wastes no time in attempting to put the moves on the impressionable fifth year. Remus looks away, and sees James scanning the too-cozy room, no doubt in search of a shock of bright ginger hair. Peter is bumbling the way he often bumbles, constantly hovering around James or Sirius, or Remus himself. He is no doubt waiting for cues to find his own young lady to harass, no doubt in hopes that one day his endeavors will bear fruit. They won’t, of course. Because this is Peter, and while the four of them are all varying levels of hopeless, Peter is the one who is least aware of just how utterly hopeless he really is.
James’s eyes light up when he spots her. He hasn’t come to stalk his prey or anything so objectionable as that. He’s merely come because he knows that he is in love with Lily Evans, and who is James Potter to stand in the way of wooing his own true love?
Lily knows that James has followed her into Madame Puddifoots. She expects no less of him than to follow her wherever she goes. Truthfully, she all but gave him an open invitation to do so. But Lily is smart and she knows better than to leave herself defenseless in a place such as this. Especially in the presence of dolts such as James Potter.
“Really, I understand you want to shield yourself from him, but I’m not polyjuicing myself into a boy,” Lily’s friend Emily says.
“Fine then. Tuck your hair into your hat and put your arm around me. I need you to be my boyfriend!” Lily looked around frantically to make sure James wasn’t in the vicinity yet.
“I don’t understand why you don’t just go out with him Evans, “ Emily says for the millionth time. She shakes her head and creates a glamour to make herself more masculine. “Hey baby,” she husks, making a smoochy face at Lily.
Remus grabs Jame’s shirtsleeve as he sees him start to meander in the direction of Lily Evans. “James, are you about to do something we’re all going to regret?” Remus acts.
“If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be James!” Peter announces.
“Pfft,” James says. “I’m a Gryffindor. I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘regret.’” Remus releases James from his grip and sets the inevitable into motion.
James approaches the table where Lily is situated. He sees her canoodling with a boy in a hoodie that he’s never seen before. James is indignant. He can canoodle. He can canoodle with the best of them. He doesn’t understand what Lily sees in this boy’s conoodling prowess that he couldn’t offer in tenfold.
James clears his throat, announcing his presence.
Lily looks up at him. She doesn’t look pleased, but James tells himself it is only a facade. “What do you want, Potter? Can’t you see I’m with my boyfriend?” Said boyfriend giggles in a way that James finds puzzling, but he pays it no mind.
“I’d like to talk to you,” He says. “In private.” he smiles.
Lily is not pleased. “Five minutes, Potter.”
And five minutes is all it takes. In that span of time, James begs Lily to go out with him a dozen times, and narrowly avoids being slapped just as many.
Five minutes is all it takes for James to return Lily to her table, and come back to see Sirius getting ready to snog Lily’s ‘boyfriend.’
“Emily, I leave you alone for 5 minutes!” Lily shouts.
“Emily?” James asks. Clearly he’s missed something.
“Ah, I see that introductions are in order.” Sirius smiles. “Emily, this is my good friend James. James, this is Emily. Whom, I might add, makes a very convincing man, as well as a very lovely lady.” Emily blushes.
“I’d like to leave,” James says
“I’d like you to leave, as well,” Lily agrees.
~~~
The following days bring the beginning of the winter hols, and the Hogwarts Express delivers homesick students back to their homes and to their worried families. A war is brewing, and even muggle families, such as that of Lily Evans, know that something is beginning.
In the emptied out Gryffindor tower, three boys find a haven. Most of the Gryffindors have abandoned the tower in favor of their own beds. Sirius stays because he no longer has a family to go home to. James and Remus stay so he doesn’t have to be alone. Peter doesn’t stay. But he’s made sure the gang knows he would have, if he could.
James is antsy. He’s got no Wormtail to do his bidding for him. He’s missing his distraction in the form of emerald eyes (and other cheesy metaphors for his obsession with Lily Evans.)
“Shut up,” Sirius says.
“I didn’t say anything,” James whines.
“No, but I can hear you thinking and you’re being incredibly loud. Think of Moony,” He says, kicking Remus lightly on the ankle. “The poor bloke’s trying to read. How’s he supposed to learn anything about Canadian Hippogriffs when you’re whinging so loudly about your ginger girlfriend?!”
“I’m not whinging, and she isn’t my girlfriend, no small thanks to you,” James laments
“No, she’s not,” Sirius says “And you can’t blame me for something you’ve been bolloxing up every day since fourth year.” James is still quite keenly feeling the sting of embarrassment that had taken place at Madame Puddifoot’s days prior. Sirius is no longer having it. “And quite frankly, Moony and I have more interesting intellectual pursuits to discuss. Such as the mating habits of North American Hippogriffs. Isn’t that right, Moony?”
Remus grunts, refusing to look up from his reading.
James mutters something under his breath and resigns himself to his fate of loneliness. “I’m going to bed,” He declares. Sirius looks at him in a way that warns if you cannot be bothered to put a sock on the door at least use the proper locking charms.
“Shut up,” James says.
Remus and Sirius are the only ones left in the common room. They’re silent for a moment as Remus focuses as much attention as he can muster on the book in his hand. The atmosphere feels pregnant with the words swarming around in his head. Sirius is itching his head again. “Fleas, they’re murder,” he mutters.
“The full moon is in a week. If you give me fleas I will eat you.” Remus’s threat is an empty one.
“But really, Moony, what is so interesting to you about Canadian Hippogriffs?” Sirius asks earnestly.
“It’s called ‘research’, perhaps you’ve heart of it. I’ve NEWTS to worry about, after all. And so’ve you,” Remus says pointedly.
Sirius, doesn’t let himself be bothered to wax poetic about the evils of studying during winter hols and how Remus, though very dear to him, is a terribly disturbed individual for doing so. Instead he opts to become Padfoot and lower his paws and head into Remus's lap. The dog looks up at his friend expectantly.
“I know what you’re doing,” Remus sighs. “I’m not going to pet you. You’re an undignified animal and you’ve no shame or decency.”
Sirius wags his tail and rolls over, exposing his belly.
Remus loses hold of his resolve. He gives into the dog’s devilish canine wiles. “You really are quite a nuisance, Sirius. I don’t even want to pet you.” He rubs Padfoot’s belly, begrudgingly.
Remus abandons his book on the side table, in favor of the dog who is adamant for a bit (all of) his attention. Even as a dog, Remus can see the goofy face Sirius makes at the gesture. He knows his canine friend is pleased.
“You’re a good dog, Pads,” Remus says, scratching him behind the ears. Remus pulls his legs up onto the couch and reclines. Padfoot cuddles to his side and rests his head on Remus’s chest. he whines softly, and looks Remus in the eye. “You’re terrible, I mean,” Remus says, not sure which statement holds more truth. He smiles.
Padfoot yawns and shifts his body underneath Remus’s head, forcing him to sit up. Remus is now situated with a dog that is too big to fit comfortably with him on the Gryffindor common room couch. “You’re shedding all over the upholstery,” he says with a grin. He doesn’t really care. He turns his head and lays an innocent kiss on the dog’s fuzzy head. Padfoot closes his eyes and exhales contentedly. Remus closes his eyes as well.
Not an hour later, Sirius stirs. He'd fallen asleep as a dog, he's sure of it. But now he's most definitely a human. And his body is being not quite crushed by an also very human Remus. He doesn't remember transforming back into himself, but he must have at some point while he was sleeping. It wasn't the first time it had happened, but it wasn't a common occurrence. Especially not while cuddled up with Remus in the middle of the common room. The couch is barely big enough for the both of them, even when Sirius had himself curled into a ball of dog, let alone two teenage boys. Remus is a quarter inch from falling off and Sirius contemplates pulling him closer to prevent it. He wants to. He doesn't let himself. He'd rather not risk waking him. Sirius gently pulls his arm out from where it is being squashed beneath the other boy. He doesn't mind the proximity, they've always been a rather hands on group of friends. Sirius initiates most of the contact, even when it annoys the others. Especially when it annoys the others. This is different. He doesn't want to tell himself what is different about this. He thinks it will ruin the moment.
James awakes from what he'd hardly call sleep. He casts a quick tempus and sits up in his four poster bed. He scans the room to see if he's been joined by his roommates. He hasn't. He isn't really surprised by their absence but he is curious enough to go investigate. He knows he won't be able to get back to sleep for a while anyway. He listens to the sounds coming from the common room as he descends down the dormitory stairs. He hears nothing and assumes that Remus and Sirius are asleep.
He reaches the bottom of the stairs and turns the corner into the common room. He's greeted by the sight of his two best friends curled on the couch together. So they had fallen asleep. Together, it seemed. It wasn't a common occurrence, he knew. but James is too tired to make anything of it. Remus is definitely still asleep, by the rhythm of the rise and fall of his chest, and the goofy grin on his groggy face. James looks at Sirius and realizes his eyes are open. Their eyes lock. "What are you doing?" he asks.
“Don’t wake him up.” Sirius says. James shuts up, and Sirius smiles. He closes his eyes and lays his head back down on the arm of the couch.
“Are you two going to come upstairs?” James notes he peculiarity of their closeness, but chooses not to question it. That’s a discussion for another night.
“Shoosh.” Remus mutters, his words slurred with sleep. James obliges and heads back to his dormitory where things makes sense.
~~~
Remus’s hatred of snowball fights, and general ill will towards anyone (usually his best friends) who involves him in snowball fights, has never been a secret. Remus likes it much better when the others decide to stay indoors and wreak havoc on the castle and unassuming first years. He finds that sort of activity vastly preferable to being pelted with a ball of ice at high velocity.
Today, Remus is a different man. He is still himself, he supposes. He doesn’t feel the effects of the full moon drawing nigh. What he does feel is the distinct urge to punch Sirius in the face for reasons that don’t really make sense to him.
Remus had been woken up unceremoniously alone on the floor of the common room that morning. The common room had been empty. He’d gone upstairs to find his two best friends not in their respective beds. They’d gone to breakfast without waking him. That or he’d slept in and the duo had already gotten started on filling their quota of mischief for the day.
Today, Remus feels, is telling him to re-evaluate his feelings towards the snowball. To become one with the snowball. He steps out of the corridor, onto the snow driven courtyard. He holds what he is positive is the most dastardly snowball he’s seen, while levitating many more in his wake. Today, the first person who crosses his path will be very sorry indeed. He hopes it is Sirius. But he won’t be too upset if it is James. He probably won’t hit an innocent bystander, he thinks, but today is weird and he can’t be completely certain.
He’s startled by noise coming from somewhere in his periphery. The break in his concentration almost causes him to drop the snowballs he endured such great pains and cold hands to make. “Sirius, is that you?” he asks the air around him. He sees an owl land on a snowy hedge. The bird looks at him like he’s gone round the bend. He thinks perhaps he has.
He keeps walking in pursuit of his victims. He hopes to catch them by surprise. After all, initiating a war of this nature and magnitude is hardly something they would expect from him, after knowing him all this time.
He hears a shuffling noise behind him, swooshsmack! Before he knows it, he’s become the sneak attackee before he could be the sneak attacker. It is nothing if not typical. He doesn’t bother to look before turning around and firing his own snowball. James is laughing. It misses both of them. He flings another one, this time hitting Sirius square in the nose.
“Fuck!” Sirius says. Remus has more snowballs on him, and thus has the upper hand. None of them move or start to run. “Mate,” Sirius says, staring at him strangely. “What was that?”
And Remus wants to yell, but he doesn’t. “Didn’t think I’d retaliate, did you?” he asks, a bit breathless. He feels the weight of the his friends’ eyes on him and he wishes he hadn’t retaliated. He wishes he’d just whinged and refused to be a part of the shenanigans, like he’s done in the past. He wants to run past James and steal his invisibility cloak and run up to the tower and hide there alone and fall asleep again in the place where he’d woken up. He feels silly.
“That was really good, Moony,” James says. Remus raises a hand and brushes off the condescension. They stand there for a moment, puzzled.
“Well, I--” Remus begins.
“Moony,” Sirius interrupts him. “Did you make all these snowballs for us?” His eyes are bright and it takes all the self control that Remus can muster not to pelt him with another one. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this proud in my life.” He feigns a sniffle and a tear. He approaches Remus with zero regard for ceremony, and assaults him with a bone crushing hug. Remus drops his snowballs and refuses to let himself be pummeled to the ground.
“Get off of me, Sirius, I am extremely displeased with you!” Remus’s protests fall on deaf ears and Sirius grips him harder and begins babbling about epic snow fights and how he’d never thought he’d see the day.
James watches the scene in front of him, unsure what to make of it. He is, however grateful to Sirius for making Remus forget about his pile of snowballs. He stalks over to the forgotten pile and grins. He sees the opportunity bright and gleaming before him. He levitates the lot, pelting them at his friends in quick succession.
Remus grabs on to Sirius for support they pull apart and run from the attack. James chases them with a maniacal look on his face, flinging snowball after snowball at Remus and Sirius in alternation. A particularly large one hits Sirius’s shoulder. Injury is added to insult as Remus slips on a patch of ice and takes Sirius down with him.
They land side by side on the ground. Remus turns his head and is startled to see Sirius’s face merely inches from his. “Now, Moony? Why on earth is it me that you’re extremely displeased with?” Sirius asks.
Remus laughs. He laughs, and he turns to his best friend and grabs the hand lying in the snow beside his. “You’re right, Padfoot, that Prongs is a real pillock.” Their eyes meet and something shifts. Remus lifts himself up to support his upper body on an elbow. He sits up, and as he does he’s met with another surprise attack. This time, in the form of Sirius’s lips on his.
The kiss is slow and hesitant and lacking in grace. Despite the fact that all his limbs are borderline frozen, it warms him to the core. James has stopped laughing. He can’t see his eyes, but Remus supposes they must be the size of saucers. He hopes this leaves him speechless for a while.