Tales from the Pensieve: Chapter 3: To Dance
Title: Tales from the Pensieve
Summary: It’s 1979: Remus Lupin’s trying to find somewhere to live. Sirius Black is taking far too many risks. Peter doesn’t feel he’s taking enough responsibility whilst James and Lily struggling to keep a handle on things.
Notes: Remus centric and Marauder centric with lovely little cameos from other members of the Order family in-between following the major events between 1979 and 1981.
Characters/Pairings: James/Lily, Remus, Sirius/Marlene, Peter/Marlene McKinnon, Albus Dumbledore, Frank/Alice, Ted/Andromeda. Nymphadora Tonks
Notes on this chapter: Wedding! Lots of Wedding. Sirius being an arrogant git and Remus's parents all in one place. Huzzah!
Chapter 1 - To Share
Chapter 2 - To Fight
Chapter 3 - To Dance
Chapter 4 - To Learn
Chapter 5 - To Smile
Chapter 6 - To Fear
Chapter 7 - To Cry
***
"Sirius was lounging in his chair at his ease, tilting it back on two legs. He was very good-looking, his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance neither James's nor Harry's could ever have achieved, and a girl sitting behind him was eyeing him hopefully, though he didn't seem to have noticed.”
― Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 28: Snapes Worst Memory
Chapter 3 - To Dance
Being a Pettigrew meant a lot of things for Peter. The first was that he was blonde. Everyone in his family had been blonde, then white and then balding as it was quite clear on his grandfather’s head. He had never known his father but apparently he had been balding too. The second thing was that he was always behind everyone else in terms of well…everything. Peter’s mother had been second best at everything her whole life and he had watched, just behind. She had always tried so hard and she was never upfront. Peter always felt he had the same problem. Though hanging around with Remus, Sirius and James had not made his life any easier.
But then Marlene turned up, Marlene had said he was brave and bold, Marlene had thought him a part of her life, she’d not said so but she had let him be in her bed, let her hold her like no one else had ever let him.
Today that’s where he lay, staring at her ceiling that danced with multi-coloured lights.
“Mar?” he asked her, his girlfriend was curled up next to him and his eye line traced the lines her shoulders made. She was all skin and curves and hips like he could never imagine. “Mar? Are you awake?”
“Do I have to be for this conversation?” she spoke into her pillow with a groan, her hair spilling out behind her like a fan.
Peter smiled and leaned over to kiss her shoulder turning back to look at the ceiling. “Why can’t I be your date today? For the wedding?”
Marlene finally looked round at him, to look at her lover, blonde and blue eyed and small in build. She was in comparison long in every sense of the word, long hair, long chin, long nose, just long…as tall as most of the order members. This morning as she looked to Peter her eyes were distant and blurry and all he wanted to was to help her take the sleep out of her eye but thought against it.
“Peter we’ve discussed this. I don’t want to tell anyone…”
“But it’s been two months. Two months Mar…” he insisted.
“I’m not ready, you can understand that can’t you?”
Peter looked away from her, his gaze boring into him and he lay back into his pillow. “Well, I will need to get changed into my robes for the big day. Will you be there?”
Marly scoffed a little. “Peter, I’m her bridesmaid.”
Of course she was, how could he forget that sort of detail? “Oh, right…of course. Maybe you could save a dance for me?” the words spilled out too late to take them back. Was it so bad of him to want to dance with her in public?
Marlene McKinnon gave him one of her fiercest looks and he turned away not wanting to face another glare and jumped out of bed to get changed.
“Oh and Petey?”
“Yes Mar?”
“I’m going to need my flat tonight, order business. Can you come over tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure!” Optimistic for another night like the one he’d just had. “Sure thing, I’ll be with you tomorrow but I’ll see you later today anyway.”
Because today was a nice wedding, a nice little wedding. Just what the order needed to pick up their spirits.
***
“Did you know he’s not changed his bed-sheets since I arrived? Or washed the dishes?”
James knew that Remus was only changing the subject because he was now standing at the front of a very simple registrar office waiting for his bride to be and his best man to turn up.
“Sirius has never been domestic Moony, you know that. If it bothers you so much, why don’t you tell him instead of telling me?” James’s eyes searched the crowds of people behind them, though you couldn’t call it crowds merely a gathering of friends. It was only a max of fifteen people and that included mostly Order members on duty. Dumbledore stood near the back with Mad Eye Moody who seemed to be exchanging jokes; Minerva McGonagall was also sitting near the back, looking lost in her own thoughts and James wondered if her beau had asked her to marry him again and if she had declined - again. Silly woman.
Otherwise the rest of the crowd included Frank and Alice Longbottom who had married straight from school, Dorcas Meadows a nice young witch who had graduated in September, Remus’s mother and father whom Lily had met one summer in Diagon Alley and of course his other marauders himself, Remus and Peter. Lily’s father and Marlene were obviously with the bride herself but that was it in terms of their little gathering.
Sirius was the only one who hadn’t arrived yet despite Remus’s assurances that Remus had woken him and told him that the wedding was today and where and the time.
“You try telling Sirius to do anything in that place…” Remus muttered he was also focusing on his parents in one of the back seats before turning to James.
“You will tell Lily again for inviting them?”
“I will, but so should you, for the fiftieth time. I don’t even know how they met?”
“That makes two of us…”
He checked the time again and he was getting more and more impatient, playing with the silly tie that Lily had said colour co-ordinated with her dress.
“It’s a dress, what doesn’t it matter?” he said under his breathe, his eyes still on the back of the room when Mad Eye opened the door to let in a very hurried Sirius.
“Phew, no bride, thank merlin. I think she would have killed you if I was late-” Sirius intoned but from the look on his friend’s faces Lily was the least of his problems.
“Where were you?”
“I err…got lost?”
“You’re wanted to be best man, and what’s happened to your suit?”
Sirius looked like he had been dragged through a hedge, his hair tangled now matched his dusty attire that Remus started attending too brushing down his shoulders. James was standing with his arms folded, very happy actually for the distraction of Sirius being an ass compared to his future wife being about to enter.
“I sort of run into someone this morning.”
Remus didn’t say anything but James swear he heard a noise of tongue clicking as he fixed the frays in Sirius’s brand new jacket.
“Who did you run into Padfoot?”
“It was nothing.”
“Then tell me.”
Sirius swallowed hard. Remus finished fixing his suit so Sirius looked less like a zombie and more like a dashing rogue. At least all the dust was gone. Sirius pulled at the lapels of his jacket before he spoke but Remus knew just from the way he half met James’s gaze that the marauder knew already he was in the wrong.
“Bella was skulking around near the flat and so I wanted to give her a piece of my mind.”
That was enough to make James’s eyes widen, he looked round to the guests who were fortunately too far taken with their own conversations. Even Mad Eye wasn’t his paranoid self as Dumbledore offered him a Bertie-Botts Every Flavoured Bean.
“You fought Bellatrix Lestrange - wearing your best man robes? Where did she think you were going, to work as a muggle waiter?”
Sirius swallowed, his own realisation was starting to sink in. Poor guy just never knew when it was good to be impulsive. “She knew about the wedding she said-“
There was no time; James shook Sirius’s shoulders. “Just…go and tell Albus what happened and don’t tell anyone else. No more panic. There are plenty of protection spells on this place…we should be in the clear.”
“But Prongs!”
“But nothing, and once your done, come back here and try and calm me down without telling me rude jokes about my future wife? Alright?”
Remus had never seen James look so pale in his life, tight-lipped and Adams apple bobbing up and down like a yo-yo.
“You alright?” Remus asked and James finally turned to Remus to look him straight in the eye. He saw fear in his eyes and it wasn’t Bellatrix Lestrange.
“Yeah, yeah I think so. Big day.”
“The biggest.” Remus said softly, he turned back towards the exit watching Sirius rush over to Dumbledore who excused himself out with the marauder in tow. “You’re a lucky guy.”
James smiled, Remus’s words tickling him, a spark coming back into his face. “Why thank you Remus.”
“You are, Lily is lovely. I couldn’t think of a better wife. I see the way she dotes on you, on all of us. She’s totally everyone’s mum.”
“Not everyone’s.” James said with a bit of a wince, “Or that would be a bit weird.” He continued looking out towards the door. “She really does do her best doesn’t she? To take care of us?”
He could almost hear the lopsided smile from where Remus stood as James kept checking the door.
“Well, we can’t be trusted to take care of ourselves and I haven’t got the energy to take care of all of you by myself but I’m into deep the friendship now to pull myself out.”
“You wouldn’t want to even if you had the choice.”
A deep chuckle. “No, that’s true.”
Before they knew it Sirius was back, looking a little pale but all right, they didn’t ask about Bellatrix. Remus took his seat next to Peter and Sirius kept poking the groom to distract him until at long last the back door opened to the registrar’s office.
Lily looked stunning, Marlene doubly stunning as he bridesmaid and Remus watched James’s fear completely fade away. The werewolf caught his smaller friend watching Marlene, whose legs were very, very long indeed and Remus wondered if the intention of Lily was to put her best friend in the shortest dress she could find.
“Isn’t she pretty Moony?” Peter said quietly before Lily reached the front. Despite the fact he was looking at them both Remus had to wonder all of a sudden whom Peter referred to.
“She is,” he said with a smirk akin to Sirius’s. “They both are.”
The pair shared a glance, but said nothing sharing a mutual understanding, Peter a little red faced as they looked on to watch James and Lily tied the knot at last.
***
The dancing was what Sirius was looking forward to most from today, the outrageous dancing to muggle music that Lily had picked for them. Of course, it was a small crowd and usually small crowds don’t like to dance outrageously but this small crowd that were determined to enjoy themselves.
Lily and James started the bandwagon of course with their first dance, but soon Sirius was dancing on his own. It didn’t help that Sirius had requested “Boogie Wonderland.” The threat from this morning was over at least and James had not focused on the problem for the rest of the day.
Despite having a muggle mother, the song startled even Remus. He was unable to stop the laugh that escaped him as Sirius Black started parading around the little room they had made their reception hall. It started to get much worse and Remus despite bobbing on the spot had no intention from dancing with them all, he suspected as he stood staring at Mad Eye who was also looking grumpy that he was destined to remain the non dancer of his group.
“You’re not dancing?” asked Remus’s mother, who had just put on her coat. It appeared that new modern music was just too much for the older Lupins and their son couldn’t blame them.
“No way.” Remus said with a matching smile. “I’ll just watch, I can’t dance.”
Hope Lupin kissed his cheek. It was only as he got close that Remus sense something was wrong. He had had to keep Sirius in check most of the day he hadn’t even thought to go over to his parents to see if they needed a check up…he swallowed.
“Is everything alright?”
“Come to the house next week? Have dinner? Lily called on us a few weeks ago…”
Ah. Remus was going to have words with the bride tonight about that little slip up.
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“I’m your mother, I’m allowed to worry about you.”
“So what exactly I am I allowed to do?”
“Come over for dinner and not feel guilty for eating with us.”
She kissed his forehead, which to do meant he had to bend down so she could reach and he saw something in her eyes, unspoken, hidden. He said nothing but gave her a little nod and waved to his father who stood at the door and then without any fuss the pair of Lupins disappeared out of sight.
He tried to shake off that thought but turning back to guard the dance floor. It had got worse in the time he had turned away. Even Peter was up dancing to the Electric Light Orchestra’s “Don’t Bring Me Down”. Remus was hoping he didn’t have to watch Dumbledore dance. He was fearful that if he did he wouldn’t get the image out of his head and he was still not used to Dumbledore being a colleague not his headmaster.
Sirius finally joined him by his table, heaving and panting. “This is great.”
“How much have you had to drink?”
“A couple of firewhiskeys. Why ain’t you dancing?”
Remus gave Sirius a look, “Do you think I’m going to dance? With you lot?”
“You have before, what’s the difference now?”
Remus knew that that time before was after having his drink spiked by Mr. Padfoot and Mr Moony gave him hell for it for almost six months. Sirius Black leant up against the table, admiring the pretty Order girls whom had come to the wedding and he nudged Remus in the stomach with his elbow.
“Isn’t she just shining tonight?”
Remus caught Sirius’s line of sight, Marlene was spinning with Lily whilst James had gone to grab a drink.
“Careful,” Remus said softly, “Peter carries a torch for her.” Their Peter who was currently with James who was patting him on the back as they waited to get to the little bar.
“Wormy?” Sirius spat out. “Oh Please. Like he would ask her for a dance, let alone anything else.”
Remus frowned, “You know that’s not fair, he’s not like you.”
“You mean dashingly handsome?”
“No,” Remus snapped, unhappy with Sirius’s attitude. Peter was their friend, not a random stranger. “I mean as in he doesn’t falls for everything with legs and a pretty face.”
“And If don’t leave it?”
Remus sighed; it wasn’t as though Peter would stand up for himself against Sirius. Remus just raised his arms in defeat. “Just be nice to him won’t you? Dorcas is free over there. See her, she’s very free and she’s pretty.”
Very pretty. She was almost complete contrast to Marlene. Dorcas was dark haired and short with a figure. Marlene was all legs with long blonde hair. Sirius checked Remus’s line of sight but he was smirking.
“Do you a deal, I’ll leave Marlene alone for Peter, if you go dance with Dorcas.”
Remus opened his mouth in protest, not feeling very good about this agreement. “Oh that’s not fair, you know I don’t - I mean-“ Remus felt his collar seem to constrict his breathing and wished he could remove his tie. Sirius was chuckling even though he looked like he was the one who was lecturing now.
‘You’re a man, Remus, sometimes it’s a good idea to act like one.”
“And if I refuse?” Remus said, his Adam’s apple wedged in his throat.
“I’ll beg Marlene to dance with me and she won’t refuse me.”
Remus rolled his eyes in annoyance, “You are a cocky ba-”
He didn’t get to finish because Sirius decided in that moment rushed off to dance and Remus wishing he had a drink of his own sighed.
“The things I do for my friends…” He told himself, before having to remind himself to put one foot in front of the other started to move onto the dance-floor.
***
Peter and James put down their drinks on the table, the amount of people were now much less, a lot of the older order members had decided that there was no signs of disturbance inside and were trying to avoid dancing to the awful muggle music and were patrolling outside letting the younger set have their fun.
“Where’s Remus?” Peter asked, hoping he hadn’t left yet, he’d just got him a drink, which he wasn’t sure he’d drink himself.
James nudged Peter laughing. “He’s dancing.”
“No way. Remus doesn’t dance.”
But there the werewolf was, Remus was unashamedly dancing, if you could call it dancing with Dorcas Meadows, who seemed more than pleased to dance with him also. Sirius was also dancing, with Marlene McKinnon.
As James laughed with surprise, Peter’s mouth opened, staring at Marlene and the way her hips were gestured in Sirius’s direction. All of sudden Peter started to feel like someone was gut punching his insides.
“James, I’m sorry but I’m going to go home.”
The newly wed looked over from the dancing in surprise, then to Peter. “But you just bought drinks…!” He insisted, looking upset his friend was leaving already.
“Remus can have my drink, if he wants, don’t worry…I’m just feeling a little…queasy…might have ate something bad…”
James saddened at Peter’s premature departure merely nodded worriedly. “Don’t forget to say goodbye to Lily-”
“Can you say goodbye, please…I really do feel sick…”
Before James could even say goodbye Wormtail was gone and James tried to get back into the dancing mood by sipping his drink as he watched his friends dance to Dire Strait’s Sultan of Swing.
Lily finally found her husband; tired and giddy she leant into him after all of her dancing with friends. “Where did you go? You were gone for ages.”
“Blame our bartender and his useless lack of being able to count drinks…Peter had to go.”
“Oh that’s a shame, was he alright?”
James nodded, “Think he felt sick…I’ll call on him tomorrow.”
Lily was still holding James when she noticed whom was left of James’s friends and who they were dancing with.
“Is that…Dorcas and Remus…dancing?”
James pressed a kiss to her cheek, absorbing her into his arms as they turned to watch the little group. “I thought you would of noticed by now. Do you think Sirius spiked his drink again?”
“I hope not.” Lily frowned but at least he looked happy, even if he was doing a sort of half dancing motion holding Dorcas’s hand who was positively beaming at him. It was cute actually. Remus didn’t date, ever. One of his many quirks. She wondered what had changed his mind about that this evening. Weddings she knew can be eye openers for people, maybe Remus had had an epiphany…?
Meanwhile Sirius and Marlene were getting a bit to into their dancing, red faced and clearly smitten Marlene was holding onto every piece of Sirius she could get her hands on and James was tempted to shout get a room but they were so enhanced by each other’s company they didn’t notice anyone else. Sirius especially did not notice the way Remus was glaring at him either.
The music finally died down, the crowd started to disperse. Couples went off home, others started to tidy the room. James and Lily were seeing the last of their guests off in an attempt to shoot off themselves. They weren’t having a honeymoon the Order was too important, but they had told Dumbledore that they planned to spend the next week having a personal shut in - and they would resume their Order duties the following week. Dumbledore did not protest in the slightest.
Remus was standing close to Dorcas, but he seemed distracted by the way Marlene and Sirius were giving the married couple a run for their money when it came to their kissing prowess.
“Remus, mate I…me and Marlene…” Remus frowned as he heard the drunken slur that was Sirius’s current state but said nothing, his own stomach in knots.
“We’re going back to hers for the night. The flat’s free for…guests.”
Remus blushed both out of embarrassment and Sirius’s insinuation continued to say nothing After a quickly giggly goodbye to the newly weds Sirius and Marlene were gone barely separated from the hip the entire time. Remus sighed, whilst James and Lily said goodbye to some other people, the werewolf looked to Dorcas who wore a very kind expression. Her brown hair almost fell into her eyes, short and just under her chin. Remus had known for a long time he thought she was pretty, but this was the first time he could say he knew he had a thing for brown hair. He just wished things were different.
“I take it from that look you’re planning to leave me here alone?” she was smiling but the question was unavoidable not far from the truth. Remus swallowed.
“I…don’t date. I thought everyone in the Order knew I didn’t date.”
“I think I knew, but I still wanted to dance with you either way.” Dorcas raised an eyebrow at him to suggest she knew exactly where this was going but she shrugged her shoulders. “Pity, if this was a date, it would have been a great one.”
Remus continued to get hotter under the collar, not daring to tell her he had only danced with her because Sirius made him.
“I did enjoy dancing with you,” he said, embarrassed and wanting to kick Sirius really hard in the shins. “I really did.”
“Then…if dancing isn’t dating I wouldn’t mind going dancing again, sometime.”
His ears were reddening by the second and were sure he could pass off as a Weasley, running a hand boyishly through his brown hair he just nodded.
“I would like that…sometime.”
Which he suspected would be no time. He suspected a lot of things like dancing wouldn’t be priority soon.
Dorcas just smiled at him, distantly to which Remus understood that feeling, and she left to go, leaving the werewolf, James and Lily behind so they were now last in the room; a room that had had a wedding in just a few hours before.
“Well, that’s the end of our wedding day.” Lily said softly, looking tired. It had been a hard day all round even at it’s highest moments.
“Congratulations again, Mrs Potter” Remus chimed, distracting himself from his own failures as a human being, “and of course, Mr Potter. I’ll be seeing you in a week when you come out of hibernation.”
“Don’t kill Sirius in the meantime?” James said and Remus quirked a smile.
“I don’t think it’s me killing him you have to worry about, have a good honeymoon.”
With that the werewolf left the room to leave and apparated to his home, to Sirius’s flat and despite knowing he had enjoyed the day, that he had enjoyed the dancing he felt very flat about the whole affair. Despite his hard attempts he couldn’t stop thinking about the way Peter had looked at Marlene that afternoon before the wedding started, or the way Sirius had dismissed the young man’s feelings.
Poor Peter. Remus thought as he tucked himself into his bed on the couch at Sirius’s after pulling off his suit jacket and kicking off his shoes. Poor anybody for that matter. Who could ever look like a catch when they were weighed and measured on all sides by the beautiful Sirius Black?
***
Chapter 4 - To Learn here
Summary: It’s 1979: Remus Lupin’s trying to find somewhere to live. Sirius Black is taking far too many risks. Peter doesn’t feel he’s taking enough responsibility whilst James and Lily struggling to keep a handle on things.
Notes: Remus centric and Marauder centric with lovely little cameos from other members of the Order family in-between following the major events between 1979 and 1981.
Characters/Pairings: James/Lily, Remus, Sirius/Marlene, Peter/Marlene McKinnon, Albus Dumbledore, Frank/Alice, Ted/Andromeda. Nymphadora Tonks
Notes on this chapter: Wedding! Lots of Wedding. Sirius being an arrogant git and Remus's parents all in one place. Huzzah!
Chapter 1 - To Share
Chapter 2 - To Fight
Chapter 3 - To Dance
Chapter 4 - To Learn
Chapter 5 - To Smile
Chapter 6 - To Fear
Chapter 7 - To Cry
***
"Sirius was lounging in his chair at his ease, tilting it back on two legs. He was very good-looking, his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance neither James's nor Harry's could ever have achieved, and a girl sitting behind him was eyeing him hopefully, though he didn't seem to have noticed.”
― Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapter 28: Snapes Worst Memory
Chapter 3 - To Dance
Being a Pettigrew meant a lot of things for Peter. The first was that he was blonde. Everyone in his family had been blonde, then white and then balding as it was quite clear on his grandfather’s head. He had never known his father but apparently he had been balding too. The second thing was that he was always behind everyone else in terms of well…everything. Peter’s mother had been second best at everything her whole life and he had watched, just behind. She had always tried so hard and she was never upfront. Peter always felt he had the same problem. Though hanging around with Remus, Sirius and James had not made his life any easier.
But then Marlene turned up, Marlene had said he was brave and bold, Marlene had thought him a part of her life, she’d not said so but she had let him be in her bed, let her hold her like no one else had ever let him.
Today that’s where he lay, staring at her ceiling that danced with multi-coloured lights.
“Mar?” he asked her, his girlfriend was curled up next to him and his eye line traced the lines her shoulders made. She was all skin and curves and hips like he could never imagine. “Mar? Are you awake?”
“Do I have to be for this conversation?” she spoke into her pillow with a groan, her hair spilling out behind her like a fan.
Peter smiled and leaned over to kiss her shoulder turning back to look at the ceiling. “Why can’t I be your date today? For the wedding?”
Marlene finally looked round at him, to look at her lover, blonde and blue eyed and small in build. She was in comparison long in every sense of the word, long hair, long chin, long nose, just long…as tall as most of the order members. This morning as she looked to Peter her eyes were distant and blurry and all he wanted to was to help her take the sleep out of her eye but thought against it.
“Peter we’ve discussed this. I don’t want to tell anyone…”
“But it’s been two months. Two months Mar…” he insisted.
“I’m not ready, you can understand that can’t you?”
Peter looked away from her, his gaze boring into him and he lay back into his pillow. “Well, I will need to get changed into my robes for the big day. Will you be there?”
Marly scoffed a little. “Peter, I’m her bridesmaid.”
Of course she was, how could he forget that sort of detail? “Oh, right…of course. Maybe you could save a dance for me?” the words spilled out too late to take them back. Was it so bad of him to want to dance with her in public?
Marlene McKinnon gave him one of her fiercest looks and he turned away not wanting to face another glare and jumped out of bed to get changed.
“Oh and Petey?”
“Yes Mar?”
“I’m going to need my flat tonight, order business. Can you come over tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sure!” Optimistic for another night like the one he’d just had. “Sure thing, I’ll be with you tomorrow but I’ll see you later today anyway.”
Because today was a nice wedding, a nice little wedding. Just what the order needed to pick up their spirits.
***
“Did you know he’s not changed his bed-sheets since I arrived? Or washed the dishes?”
James knew that Remus was only changing the subject because he was now standing at the front of a very simple registrar office waiting for his bride to be and his best man to turn up.
“Sirius has never been domestic Moony, you know that. If it bothers you so much, why don’t you tell him instead of telling me?” James’s eyes searched the crowds of people behind them, though you couldn’t call it crowds merely a gathering of friends. It was only a max of fifteen people and that included mostly Order members on duty. Dumbledore stood near the back with Mad Eye Moody who seemed to be exchanging jokes; Minerva McGonagall was also sitting near the back, looking lost in her own thoughts and James wondered if her beau had asked her to marry him again and if she had declined - again. Silly woman.
Otherwise the rest of the crowd included Frank and Alice Longbottom who had married straight from school, Dorcas Meadows a nice young witch who had graduated in September, Remus’s mother and father whom Lily had met one summer in Diagon Alley and of course his other marauders himself, Remus and Peter. Lily’s father and Marlene were obviously with the bride herself but that was it in terms of their little gathering.
Sirius was the only one who hadn’t arrived yet despite Remus’s assurances that Remus had woken him and told him that the wedding was today and where and the time.
“You try telling Sirius to do anything in that place…” Remus muttered he was also focusing on his parents in one of the back seats before turning to James.
“You will tell Lily again for inviting them?”
“I will, but so should you, for the fiftieth time. I don’t even know how they met?”
“That makes two of us…”
He checked the time again and he was getting more and more impatient, playing with the silly tie that Lily had said colour co-ordinated with her dress.
“It’s a dress, what doesn’t it matter?” he said under his breathe, his eyes still on the back of the room when Mad Eye opened the door to let in a very hurried Sirius.
“Phew, no bride, thank merlin. I think she would have killed you if I was late-” Sirius intoned but from the look on his friend’s faces Lily was the least of his problems.
“Where were you?”
“I err…got lost?”
“You’re wanted to be best man, and what’s happened to your suit?”
Sirius looked like he had been dragged through a hedge, his hair tangled now matched his dusty attire that Remus started attending too brushing down his shoulders. James was standing with his arms folded, very happy actually for the distraction of Sirius being an ass compared to his future wife being about to enter.
“I sort of run into someone this morning.”
Remus didn’t say anything but James swear he heard a noise of tongue clicking as he fixed the frays in Sirius’s brand new jacket.
“Who did you run into Padfoot?”
“It was nothing.”
“Then tell me.”
Sirius swallowed hard. Remus finished fixing his suit so Sirius looked less like a zombie and more like a dashing rogue. At least all the dust was gone. Sirius pulled at the lapels of his jacket before he spoke but Remus knew just from the way he half met James’s gaze that the marauder knew already he was in the wrong.
“Bella was skulking around near the flat and so I wanted to give her a piece of my mind.”
That was enough to make James’s eyes widen, he looked round to the guests who were fortunately too far taken with their own conversations. Even Mad Eye wasn’t his paranoid self as Dumbledore offered him a Bertie-Botts Every Flavoured Bean.
“You fought Bellatrix Lestrange - wearing your best man robes? Where did she think you were going, to work as a muggle waiter?”
Sirius swallowed, his own realisation was starting to sink in. Poor guy just never knew when it was good to be impulsive. “She knew about the wedding she said-“
There was no time; James shook Sirius’s shoulders. “Just…go and tell Albus what happened and don’t tell anyone else. No more panic. There are plenty of protection spells on this place…we should be in the clear.”
“But Prongs!”
“But nothing, and once your done, come back here and try and calm me down without telling me rude jokes about my future wife? Alright?”
Remus had never seen James look so pale in his life, tight-lipped and Adams apple bobbing up and down like a yo-yo.
“You alright?” Remus asked and James finally turned to Remus to look him straight in the eye. He saw fear in his eyes and it wasn’t Bellatrix Lestrange.
“Yeah, yeah I think so. Big day.”
“The biggest.” Remus said softly, he turned back towards the exit watching Sirius rush over to Dumbledore who excused himself out with the marauder in tow. “You’re a lucky guy.”
James smiled, Remus’s words tickling him, a spark coming back into his face. “Why thank you Remus.”
“You are, Lily is lovely. I couldn’t think of a better wife. I see the way she dotes on you, on all of us. She’s totally everyone’s mum.”
“Not everyone’s.” James said with a bit of a wince, “Or that would be a bit weird.” He continued looking out towards the door. “She really does do her best doesn’t she? To take care of us?”
He could almost hear the lopsided smile from where Remus stood as James kept checking the door.
“Well, we can’t be trusted to take care of ourselves and I haven’t got the energy to take care of all of you by myself but I’m into deep the friendship now to pull myself out.”
“You wouldn’t want to even if you had the choice.”
A deep chuckle. “No, that’s true.”
Before they knew it Sirius was back, looking a little pale but all right, they didn’t ask about Bellatrix. Remus took his seat next to Peter and Sirius kept poking the groom to distract him until at long last the back door opened to the registrar’s office.
Lily looked stunning, Marlene doubly stunning as he bridesmaid and Remus watched James’s fear completely fade away. The werewolf caught his smaller friend watching Marlene, whose legs were very, very long indeed and Remus wondered if the intention of Lily was to put her best friend in the shortest dress she could find.
“Isn’t she pretty Moony?” Peter said quietly before Lily reached the front. Despite the fact he was looking at them both Remus had to wonder all of a sudden whom Peter referred to.
“She is,” he said with a smirk akin to Sirius’s. “They both are.”
The pair shared a glance, but said nothing sharing a mutual understanding, Peter a little red faced as they looked on to watch James and Lily tied the knot at last.
***
The dancing was what Sirius was looking forward to most from today, the outrageous dancing to muggle music that Lily had picked for them. Of course, it was a small crowd and usually small crowds don’t like to dance outrageously but this small crowd that were determined to enjoy themselves.
Lily and James started the bandwagon of course with their first dance, but soon Sirius was dancing on his own. It didn’t help that Sirius had requested “Boogie Wonderland.” The threat from this morning was over at least and James had not focused on the problem for the rest of the day.
Despite having a muggle mother, the song startled even Remus. He was unable to stop the laugh that escaped him as Sirius Black started parading around the little room they had made their reception hall. It started to get much worse and Remus despite bobbing on the spot had no intention from dancing with them all, he suspected as he stood staring at Mad Eye who was also looking grumpy that he was destined to remain the non dancer of his group.
“You’re not dancing?” asked Remus’s mother, who had just put on her coat. It appeared that new modern music was just too much for the older Lupins and their son couldn’t blame them.
“No way.” Remus said with a matching smile. “I’ll just watch, I can’t dance.”
Hope Lupin kissed his cheek. It was only as he got close that Remus sense something was wrong. He had had to keep Sirius in check most of the day he hadn’t even thought to go over to his parents to see if they needed a check up…he swallowed.
“Is everything alright?”
“Come to the house next week? Have dinner? Lily called on us a few weeks ago…”
Ah. Remus was going to have words with the bride tonight about that little slip up.
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“I’m your mother, I’m allowed to worry about you.”
“So what exactly I am I allowed to do?”
“Come over for dinner and not feel guilty for eating with us.”
She kissed his forehead, which to do meant he had to bend down so she could reach and he saw something in her eyes, unspoken, hidden. He said nothing but gave her a little nod and waved to his father who stood at the door and then without any fuss the pair of Lupins disappeared out of sight.
He tried to shake off that thought but turning back to guard the dance floor. It had got worse in the time he had turned away. Even Peter was up dancing to the Electric Light Orchestra’s “Don’t Bring Me Down”. Remus was hoping he didn’t have to watch Dumbledore dance. He was fearful that if he did he wouldn’t get the image out of his head and he was still not used to Dumbledore being a colleague not his headmaster.
Sirius finally joined him by his table, heaving and panting. “This is great.”
“How much have you had to drink?”
“A couple of firewhiskeys. Why ain’t you dancing?”
Remus gave Sirius a look, “Do you think I’m going to dance? With you lot?”
“You have before, what’s the difference now?”
Remus knew that that time before was after having his drink spiked by Mr. Padfoot and Mr Moony gave him hell for it for almost six months. Sirius Black leant up against the table, admiring the pretty Order girls whom had come to the wedding and he nudged Remus in the stomach with his elbow.
“Isn’t she just shining tonight?”
Remus caught Sirius’s line of sight, Marlene was spinning with Lily whilst James had gone to grab a drink.
“Careful,” Remus said softly, “Peter carries a torch for her.” Their Peter who was currently with James who was patting him on the back as they waited to get to the little bar.
“Wormy?” Sirius spat out. “Oh Please. Like he would ask her for a dance, let alone anything else.”
Remus frowned, “You know that’s not fair, he’s not like you.”
“You mean dashingly handsome?”
“No,” Remus snapped, unhappy with Sirius’s attitude. Peter was their friend, not a random stranger. “I mean as in he doesn’t falls for everything with legs and a pretty face.”
“And If don’t leave it?”
Remus sighed; it wasn’t as though Peter would stand up for himself against Sirius. Remus just raised his arms in defeat. “Just be nice to him won’t you? Dorcas is free over there. See her, she’s very free and she’s pretty.”
Very pretty. She was almost complete contrast to Marlene. Dorcas was dark haired and short with a figure. Marlene was all legs with long blonde hair. Sirius checked Remus’s line of sight but he was smirking.
“Do you a deal, I’ll leave Marlene alone for Peter, if you go dance with Dorcas.”
Remus opened his mouth in protest, not feeling very good about this agreement. “Oh that’s not fair, you know I don’t - I mean-“ Remus felt his collar seem to constrict his breathing and wished he could remove his tie. Sirius was chuckling even though he looked like he was the one who was lecturing now.
‘You’re a man, Remus, sometimes it’s a good idea to act like one.”
“And if I refuse?” Remus said, his Adam’s apple wedged in his throat.
“I’ll beg Marlene to dance with me and she won’t refuse me.”
Remus rolled his eyes in annoyance, “You are a cocky ba-”
He didn’t get to finish because Sirius decided in that moment rushed off to dance and Remus wishing he had a drink of his own sighed.
“The things I do for my friends…” He told himself, before having to remind himself to put one foot in front of the other started to move onto the dance-floor.
***
Peter and James put down their drinks on the table, the amount of people were now much less, a lot of the older order members had decided that there was no signs of disturbance inside and were trying to avoid dancing to the awful muggle music and were patrolling outside letting the younger set have their fun.
“Where’s Remus?” Peter asked, hoping he hadn’t left yet, he’d just got him a drink, which he wasn’t sure he’d drink himself.
James nudged Peter laughing. “He’s dancing.”
“No way. Remus doesn’t dance.”
But there the werewolf was, Remus was unashamedly dancing, if you could call it dancing with Dorcas Meadows, who seemed more than pleased to dance with him also. Sirius was also dancing, with Marlene McKinnon.
As James laughed with surprise, Peter’s mouth opened, staring at Marlene and the way her hips were gestured in Sirius’s direction. All of sudden Peter started to feel like someone was gut punching his insides.
“James, I’m sorry but I’m going to go home.”
The newly wed looked over from the dancing in surprise, then to Peter. “But you just bought drinks…!” He insisted, looking upset his friend was leaving already.
“Remus can have my drink, if he wants, don’t worry…I’m just feeling a little…queasy…might have ate something bad…”
James saddened at Peter’s premature departure merely nodded worriedly. “Don’t forget to say goodbye to Lily-”
“Can you say goodbye, please…I really do feel sick…”
Before James could even say goodbye Wormtail was gone and James tried to get back into the dancing mood by sipping his drink as he watched his friends dance to Dire Strait’s Sultan of Swing.
Lily finally found her husband; tired and giddy she leant into him after all of her dancing with friends. “Where did you go? You were gone for ages.”
“Blame our bartender and his useless lack of being able to count drinks…Peter had to go.”
“Oh that’s a shame, was he alright?”
James nodded, “Think he felt sick…I’ll call on him tomorrow.”
Lily was still holding James when she noticed whom was left of James’s friends and who they were dancing with.
“Is that…Dorcas and Remus…dancing?”
James pressed a kiss to her cheek, absorbing her into his arms as they turned to watch the little group. “I thought you would of noticed by now. Do you think Sirius spiked his drink again?”
“I hope not.” Lily frowned but at least he looked happy, even if he was doing a sort of half dancing motion holding Dorcas’s hand who was positively beaming at him. It was cute actually. Remus didn’t date, ever. One of his many quirks. She wondered what had changed his mind about that this evening. Weddings she knew can be eye openers for people, maybe Remus had had an epiphany…?
Meanwhile Sirius and Marlene were getting a bit to into their dancing, red faced and clearly smitten Marlene was holding onto every piece of Sirius she could get her hands on and James was tempted to shout get a room but they were so enhanced by each other’s company they didn’t notice anyone else. Sirius especially did not notice the way Remus was glaring at him either.
The music finally died down, the crowd started to disperse. Couples went off home, others started to tidy the room. James and Lily were seeing the last of their guests off in an attempt to shoot off themselves. They weren’t having a honeymoon the Order was too important, but they had told Dumbledore that they planned to spend the next week having a personal shut in - and they would resume their Order duties the following week. Dumbledore did not protest in the slightest.
Remus was standing close to Dorcas, but he seemed distracted by the way Marlene and Sirius were giving the married couple a run for their money when it came to their kissing prowess.
“Remus, mate I…me and Marlene…” Remus frowned as he heard the drunken slur that was Sirius’s current state but said nothing, his own stomach in knots.
“We’re going back to hers for the night. The flat’s free for…guests.”
Remus blushed both out of embarrassment and Sirius’s insinuation continued to say nothing After a quickly giggly goodbye to the newly weds Sirius and Marlene were gone barely separated from the hip the entire time. Remus sighed, whilst James and Lily said goodbye to some other people, the werewolf looked to Dorcas who wore a very kind expression. Her brown hair almost fell into her eyes, short and just under her chin. Remus had known for a long time he thought she was pretty, but this was the first time he could say he knew he had a thing for brown hair. He just wished things were different.
“I take it from that look you’re planning to leave me here alone?” she was smiling but the question was unavoidable not far from the truth. Remus swallowed.
“I…don’t date. I thought everyone in the Order knew I didn’t date.”
“I think I knew, but I still wanted to dance with you either way.” Dorcas raised an eyebrow at him to suggest she knew exactly where this was going but she shrugged her shoulders. “Pity, if this was a date, it would have been a great one.”
Remus continued to get hotter under the collar, not daring to tell her he had only danced with her because Sirius made him.
“I did enjoy dancing with you,” he said, embarrassed and wanting to kick Sirius really hard in the shins. “I really did.”
“Then…if dancing isn’t dating I wouldn’t mind going dancing again, sometime.”
His ears were reddening by the second and were sure he could pass off as a Weasley, running a hand boyishly through his brown hair he just nodded.
“I would like that…sometime.”
Which he suspected would be no time. He suspected a lot of things like dancing wouldn’t be priority soon.
Dorcas just smiled at him, distantly to which Remus understood that feeling, and she left to go, leaving the werewolf, James and Lily behind so they were now last in the room; a room that had had a wedding in just a few hours before.
“Well, that’s the end of our wedding day.” Lily said softly, looking tired. It had been a hard day all round even at it’s highest moments.
“Congratulations again, Mrs Potter” Remus chimed, distracting himself from his own failures as a human being, “and of course, Mr Potter. I’ll be seeing you in a week when you come out of hibernation.”
“Don’t kill Sirius in the meantime?” James said and Remus quirked a smile.
“I don’t think it’s me killing him you have to worry about, have a good honeymoon.”
With that the werewolf left the room to leave and apparated to his home, to Sirius’s flat and despite knowing he had enjoyed the day, that he had enjoyed the dancing he felt very flat about the whole affair. Despite his hard attempts he couldn’t stop thinking about the way Peter had looked at Marlene that afternoon before the wedding started, or the way Sirius had dismissed the young man’s feelings.
Poor Peter. Remus thought as he tucked himself into his bed on the couch at Sirius’s after pulling off his suit jacket and kicking off his shoes. Poor anybody for that matter. Who could ever look like a catch when they were weighed and measured on all sides by the beautiful Sirius Black?
***
Chapter 4 - To Learn here