Fic: A Series of Important Talks
[mood| 
exhausted]
[music| New Years Day - RENT]
Author: Stephanie (Gildedmuse)
Title: A Series of Very Important Talks (3/4). It has occurred to me that this is a horrible title. I'm just far too lazy to do anything about this. Besides, there is only one more chapter anyway.
Fandom/Pairing: Harry Potter, Sirius/Remus, James/Lily
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,834
Summary: Boys should never be allowed to make important decisions by themselves.
In the first chapter James told Sirius he was a poof and in the second Peter does not deny this. In this one, Lily has a nice stern talk to Remus who isn't in denial. Only in avoidance. (A/N: And much thanks to nimerha for the read through.)
Ms. Evans and Her Remarkably Clear In-Sight on the Relationships of Remus Lupin
“Sirius,” Lily says, “is a prick.”
Remus nods. Not because he thinks Sirius is a prick, although Sirius certainly acts in such a way that the greater part of Hogwarts tends to think he is, but because Lily starts out at least half her conversations with how immature the Marauders are. Remus finds it easier to simply agree.
Remus’s nodding only makes Lily more upset. She sits down across from him in a huff. “If he’s a prick why are you friends with him?” she asks.
Remus shrugs. He writes something down on the Astronomy chart he is working on. He wonders how Sirius is doing on his, and then wonders why Sirius even took the OWL level course considering that he never particularly liked the class. That thought quickly flutters away. Remus is very good at avoiding confrontation, even in his own mind.
Lily tries to get Remus’s attention with a loud sigh. She moves until her robes are hitched high enough to show off her calves. She crosses her arms, making it look like she has more cleavage then she will ever really own. She straightens up her back, licks her lips, and pouts. If James was there, he would be drooling.
Remus looks up briefly and says, “I’m not sure,” and then goes back to his paper.
Lily thinks about this for a few seconds before her body goes back to it’s normal and much more comfortable position. “I want you to know that I only told James because he already suspected as much.”
Remus nods without paying any attention to what Lily is saying. He draws Mercury’s orbit on his charts and scribbles a few more sentences down on the roll of parchment.
“I already figured it out a long time ago,” Lily says. “By third year, in fact. So it’s all right if you tell me. Because I already know.”
Even in his inattentiveness Remus recognizes something wrong with this conversation. Mainly his utter lack of understanding when it comes to what Lily is going on about. Also, Remus thinks all this knowing things about him sounds rather important. He decides it might be worth listening to.
“You know,” Remus stays as calm as possible for one who believes he is sitting across from a mad woman. “I have no idea what you know.”
They both take a moment to digest this fully.
Lily bites her lip. “Really?” She doesn’t seem convinced.
Remus nods. “Really,” he answers.
“Oh.” Lily sounds honestly surprised. She starts twisting her hair around in her fingers the way some girls do to avoid eye contact. Remus notes that there has been a lot of avoidance of eye contact with him in the last few days.
“Well then,” Lily says, pointedly watching her own hand. Remus rubs his nose and cheeks and worries that he has started chewing on his quills again. Having a face covered in ink is as good reason as any for people not to want to look at you. “I guess we should clear that up, first.”
Remus brushes off his shoulders to check for dandruff.
“I want you to know,” Lily says, “that I don’t think any differently of you.”
Remus remembers that time in first year that James “accidentally” turned his face a bright, glowing purple. He tries to discreetly sneak a look at his own cheeks by puffing his mouth full of air.
“Because you’re still my friend, still James’s friend, no matter what.” Lily hopes Remus doesn’t notice her rambling and wonders how long she can put off the actual point of this conversation. Because even if she already knows and knows that it doesn’t matter if she knows because she likes Remus the same regardless, it is still a rather awkward talk to have with someone.
Remus crosses his eyes to make sure his nose is still in place.
“I mean, of course I’ll still like you… In an utterly none crush sort of way,” Lily adds.
Remus feels around his forehead to make sure someone hasn’t charmed something up there.
“So it’s perfectly fine that you’re gay.”
Remus pulls at his ears to make sure they’re still ear shaped.
“Do I have something on my face?” He asks.
Lily thinks she has been spending too much time with James. She has the unexplainable urge to blow something up. “Remus,” she says in a severe voice she stole from Professor Mcgonagall (the same one that, on rare occasions, even manages to keep Potter and Black in line), “are you listening to me?”
Remus gives a noncommittal “hmm” and pats down his hair.
“I said,” Lily’s voice sounds eerily like she might sprout poisoned tipped fangs at any moment, “that it’s all right if you like guys.” The way she says it makes it seem like Remus has two choices: like other guys or suffer a horrifying and painful death.
Remus considers pretending to have gone deaf. He takes one look at Lily and decides against that plan. He glances around the room for a quick exit, but the way Lily’s hands and fisted into her robe convince him otherwise. He starts to accept the fact that his choices have been narrowed down to one.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lily rolls her eyes. “Oh come on,” she says. “It’s not like it isn’t completely obvious.”
She lifts a hand and counts off on her fingers. “First you and Connor had that study group.”
Remus tries to look insulted. “We were studying,” he says.
“Because I always come back from study groups looking like I’ve been snogging.” She pauses, thinks about this, and adds, “I mean, before I started going out with James.”
Remus gives up trying to look insulted at the idea and goes for utterly indignant. “I don’t think looking slightly messy-”
“Well kissed,” Lily corrects.
Remus ignores this correction. “-is proof of anything other than me falling asleep on books.”
Lily snorts, which is a perfectly normal way to react to the idea of Remus falling asleep in the library. She counts off another finger. “Then there is the way you watch quidditch.”
“All boys watch quidditch!” Remus protests. “James watches quidditch and you don’t go around accusing him of… of sodomy!”
Lily gets a slightly glazed look in her eyes for a few seconds. Remus chooses to believe she is thinking about James and quidditch rather than James and sodomy. “But,” she says, shaking away the haze. “you watch it like my roommates watch it.”
She clarifies with, “You watch it like a girl.”
“I do not,” Remus retorts. “Just because I’m not as obsessed with it as James or Peter or Sirius doesn’t mean I only watch it for the boys in uniforms and what not.”
Lily gives him a look and a flustered Remus adds, “And I only say that because that is what you and Cassie and Iris are always going on about. That’s all.”
“It does,” Lily says, “give James quite a cute butt.”
There isn’t even a full beat before Remus says, “I wouldn’t know.”
Lily goes into another one of those temporary dream states before counting off another finger. “Then there is Davis Jones,” she says. “Whom you snogged in the charms room. It’s probably a good thing he decided to stay in the closet and date Endora. He was a real bastard anyway, Remus. I always imagined you had better taste.” She says this as though she’s been holding it in for much too long. Lily has always been the type of girl to give her opinions on all matters, and having to keep quiet about something like that is not healthy for her at all.
This catches Remus off guard, and all he can do for a few seconds is try and get his brain functioning again. In the meantime Lily counts off another finger.
“And did you think no one would notice how you and Alistair sat knee-to-knee for a most of the third year?
“Excuse me!” Remus snaps after his powers of speech return. “We were friends. We didn’t do anything.”
“Which is too bad,” Lily says. “You would have made a cute couple, and he so obviously liked you. Shame you were still in denial back then. I’ll bet he’d still go out with you if you asked. I see the way he looks at you in Transfigurations.”
For a second Remus’s imagination gets loose and he tries to think up ways for Alistair to look at him, but this is soon stamped out by the much larger, stronger part of him that is in utter denial that he’s even having this conversation. He shakes his head and all those thoughts vanish.
“There’s the fact that you’ve never dated a girl, which could be written off as you being… you,” she reasons. “And then there is the way you spend History of Magic staring at Sirius like… Well, kind of like how James stares at me.” As an after thought she adds, “Only slightly less pathetic.”
“I don’t stare at Sirius,” Remus replies. His voice has lost more of its determination at this point. Lily lowers her hands back into her lap. She thinks she should be smiling since she’s obviously won against Remus’s sense of denial and avoidance, but the way Remus is staring at his lap makes her feel guilty.
They both sit in a very awkward silence. Remus keeps fidgeting with his robe and Lily worries her lower lip with her teeth.
Lily takes a deep breath and decides to try again. “Sirius,” she says, “is a prick.”
Lily watches Remus for a reaction. Remus watches the floor. Lily sighs. “But,” she continues, voice begging Remus to take part in the conversation, “he’s your prick.”
Remus looks up.
Lily shakes her head. “That sounded wrong,” she admits. “What I mean to say is that you don’t think Sirius is a prick because, even though he is one, you see, you…. No, that doesn’t work either.”
Both fall silent and think over what Lily has said, or what she is trying to say. After a while she takes another deep breath. “I mean… Bugger this.” Lily isn’t the type to use such language. In this instance she feels the situation calls for either foul language or slapping Remus´s head.
“Sirius,” she says, “is also gay… Like you.” She gives this a second out her mouth to make sure she really said that. “Sirius and you are both gay.”
Lily stands up. She brushes off her robe. She makes a point of looking at her watch and not at Remus. “So,” she says, “that’s that.”
Lily leaves Remus to deal with the rest on his own. She’s done all she can do and the boys would simply have to sort the rest out on their own.
She can’t help but feel that both boys are doomed.
exhausted]
[music| New Years Day - RENT]
Author: Stephanie (Gildedmuse)
Title: A Series of Very Important Talks (3/4). It has occurred to me that this is a horrible title. I'm just far too lazy to do anything about this. Besides, there is only one more chapter anyway.
Fandom/Pairing: Harry Potter, Sirius/Remus, James/Lily
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,834
Summary: Boys should never be allowed to make important decisions by themselves.
In the first chapter James told Sirius he was a poof and in the second Peter does not deny this. In this one, Lily has a nice stern talk to Remus who isn't in denial. Only in avoidance. (A/N: And much thanks to nimerha for the read through.)
Ms. Evans and Her Remarkably Clear In-Sight on the Relationships of Remus Lupin
“Sirius,” Lily says, “is a prick.”
Remus nods. Not because he thinks Sirius is a prick, although Sirius certainly acts in such a way that the greater part of Hogwarts tends to think he is, but because Lily starts out at least half her conversations with how immature the Marauders are. Remus finds it easier to simply agree.
Remus’s nodding only makes Lily more upset. She sits down across from him in a huff. “If he’s a prick why are you friends with him?” she asks.
Remus shrugs. He writes something down on the Astronomy chart he is working on. He wonders how Sirius is doing on his, and then wonders why Sirius even took the OWL level course considering that he never particularly liked the class. That thought quickly flutters away. Remus is very good at avoiding confrontation, even in his own mind.
Lily tries to get Remus’s attention with a loud sigh. She moves until her robes are hitched high enough to show off her calves. She crosses her arms, making it look like she has more cleavage then she will ever really own. She straightens up her back, licks her lips, and pouts. If James was there, he would be drooling.
Remus looks up briefly and says, “I’m not sure,” and then goes back to his paper.
Lily thinks about this for a few seconds before her body goes back to it’s normal and much more comfortable position. “I want you to know that I only told James because he already suspected as much.”
Remus nods without paying any attention to what Lily is saying. He draws Mercury’s orbit on his charts and scribbles a few more sentences down on the roll of parchment.
“I already figured it out a long time ago,” Lily says. “By third year, in fact. So it’s all right if you tell me. Because I already know.”
Even in his inattentiveness Remus recognizes something wrong with this conversation. Mainly his utter lack of understanding when it comes to what Lily is going on about. Also, Remus thinks all this knowing things about him sounds rather important. He decides it might be worth listening to.
“You know,” Remus stays as calm as possible for one who believes he is sitting across from a mad woman. “I have no idea what you know.”
They both take a moment to digest this fully.
Lily bites her lip. “Really?” She doesn’t seem convinced.
Remus nods. “Really,” he answers.
“Oh.” Lily sounds honestly surprised. She starts twisting her hair around in her fingers the way some girls do to avoid eye contact. Remus notes that there has been a lot of avoidance of eye contact with him in the last few days.
“Well then,” Lily says, pointedly watching her own hand. Remus rubs his nose and cheeks and worries that he has started chewing on his quills again. Having a face covered in ink is as good reason as any for people not to want to look at you. “I guess we should clear that up, first.”
Remus brushes off his shoulders to check for dandruff.
“I want you to know,” Lily says, “that I don’t think any differently of you.”
Remus remembers that time in first year that James “accidentally” turned his face a bright, glowing purple. He tries to discreetly sneak a look at his own cheeks by puffing his mouth full of air.
“Because you’re still my friend, still James’s friend, no matter what.” Lily hopes Remus doesn’t notice her rambling and wonders how long she can put off the actual point of this conversation. Because even if she already knows and knows that it doesn’t matter if she knows because she likes Remus the same regardless, it is still a rather awkward talk to have with someone.
Remus crosses his eyes to make sure his nose is still in place.
“I mean, of course I’ll still like you… In an utterly none crush sort of way,” Lily adds.
Remus feels around his forehead to make sure someone hasn’t charmed something up there.
“So it’s perfectly fine that you’re gay.”
Remus pulls at his ears to make sure they’re still ear shaped.
“Do I have something on my face?” He asks.
Lily thinks she has been spending too much time with James. She has the unexplainable urge to blow something up. “Remus,” she says in a severe voice she stole from Professor Mcgonagall (the same one that, on rare occasions, even manages to keep Potter and Black in line), “are you listening to me?”
Remus gives a noncommittal “hmm” and pats down his hair.
“I said,” Lily’s voice sounds eerily like she might sprout poisoned tipped fangs at any moment, “that it’s all right if you like guys.” The way she says it makes it seem like Remus has two choices: like other guys or suffer a horrifying and painful death.
Remus considers pretending to have gone deaf. He takes one look at Lily and decides against that plan. He glances around the room for a quick exit, but the way Lily’s hands and fisted into her robe convince him otherwise. He starts to accept the fact that his choices have been narrowed down to one.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lily rolls her eyes. “Oh come on,” she says. “It’s not like it isn’t completely obvious.”
She lifts a hand and counts off on her fingers. “First you and Connor had that study group.”
Remus tries to look insulted. “We were studying,” he says.
“Because I always come back from study groups looking like I’ve been snogging.” She pauses, thinks about this, and adds, “I mean, before I started going out with James.”
Remus gives up trying to look insulted at the idea and goes for utterly indignant. “I don’t think looking slightly messy-”
“Well kissed,” Lily corrects.
Remus ignores this correction. “-is proof of anything other than me falling asleep on books.”
Lily snorts, which is a perfectly normal way to react to the idea of Remus falling asleep in the library. She counts off another finger. “Then there is the way you watch quidditch.”
“All boys watch quidditch!” Remus protests. “James watches quidditch and you don’t go around accusing him of… of sodomy!”
Lily gets a slightly glazed look in her eyes for a few seconds. Remus chooses to believe she is thinking about James and quidditch rather than James and sodomy. “But,” she says, shaking away the haze. “you watch it like my roommates watch it.”
She clarifies with, “You watch it like a girl.”
“I do not,” Remus retorts. “Just because I’m not as obsessed with it as James or Peter or Sirius doesn’t mean I only watch it for the boys in uniforms and what not.”
Lily gives him a look and a flustered Remus adds, “And I only say that because that is what you and Cassie and Iris are always going on about. That’s all.”
“It does,” Lily says, “give James quite a cute butt.”
There isn’t even a full beat before Remus says, “I wouldn’t know.”
Lily goes into another one of those temporary dream states before counting off another finger. “Then there is Davis Jones,” she says. “Whom you snogged in the charms room. It’s probably a good thing he decided to stay in the closet and date Endora. He was a real bastard anyway, Remus. I always imagined you had better taste.” She says this as though she’s been holding it in for much too long. Lily has always been the type of girl to give her opinions on all matters, and having to keep quiet about something like that is not healthy for her at all.
This catches Remus off guard, and all he can do for a few seconds is try and get his brain functioning again. In the meantime Lily counts off another finger.
“And did you think no one would notice how you and Alistair sat knee-to-knee for a most of the third year?
“Excuse me!” Remus snaps after his powers of speech return. “We were friends. We didn’t do anything.”
“Which is too bad,” Lily says. “You would have made a cute couple, and he so obviously liked you. Shame you were still in denial back then. I’ll bet he’d still go out with you if you asked. I see the way he looks at you in Transfigurations.”
For a second Remus’s imagination gets loose and he tries to think up ways for Alistair to look at him, but this is soon stamped out by the much larger, stronger part of him that is in utter denial that he’s even having this conversation. He shakes his head and all those thoughts vanish.
“There’s the fact that you’ve never dated a girl, which could be written off as you being… you,” she reasons. “And then there is the way you spend History of Magic staring at Sirius like… Well, kind of like how James stares at me.” As an after thought she adds, “Only slightly less pathetic.”
“I don’t stare at Sirius,” Remus replies. His voice has lost more of its determination at this point. Lily lowers her hands back into her lap. She thinks she should be smiling since she’s obviously won against Remus’s sense of denial and avoidance, but the way Remus is staring at his lap makes her feel guilty.
They both sit in a very awkward silence. Remus keeps fidgeting with his robe and Lily worries her lower lip with her teeth.
Lily takes a deep breath and decides to try again. “Sirius,” she says, “is a prick.”
Lily watches Remus for a reaction. Remus watches the floor. Lily sighs. “But,” she continues, voice begging Remus to take part in the conversation, “he’s your prick.”
Remus looks up.
Lily shakes her head. “That sounded wrong,” she admits. “What I mean to say is that you don’t think Sirius is a prick because, even though he is one, you see, you…. No, that doesn’t work either.”
Both fall silent and think over what Lily has said, or what she is trying to say. After a while she takes another deep breath. “I mean… Bugger this.” Lily isn’t the type to use such language. In this instance she feels the situation calls for either foul language or slapping Remus´s head.
“Sirius,” she says, “is also gay… Like you.” She gives this a second out her mouth to make sure she really said that. “Sirius and you are both gay.”
Lily stands up. She brushes off her robe. She makes a point of looking at her watch and not at Remus. “So,” she says, “that’s that.”
Lily leaves Remus to deal with the rest on his own. She’s done all she can do and the boys would simply have to sort the rest out on their own.
She can’t help but feel that both boys are doomed.