Four: Best Man
Remus sits at the table with the white table cloth and the glasses of champagne and the white roses in the centre, with Lily and James and Lily’s bony sister and Lily’s bony sister’s fat husband and Peter, and all he can look at is Sirius. He’s holding a glass of champagne (Remus knows Sirius has always hated champagne), and he’s making his best man speech.
Lily’s dress is very white, with pale green trimmings. James looks scrubbed and pressed and happy, although his hair is, as ever, wild. All their friends and a lot of their acquaintances are in this room, in this moment, in James’s and Lily’s moment, and all Remus can think about is Sirius.
As Sirius makes bad jokes and tells embarrassing anecdotes and smiles down at his best friends, Remus thinks about how much has changed. From the days of Lily’s constant refusals and James’s earnest attempts, to this moment. From a time when Sirius and James were really inseparable, when it was impossible to imagine a person who was foremost in his mind over Sirius. Because despite Remus and Peter, the two have always been best friends. And that’s the way it should be. Only now, James has Lily.
Remus is happy for the couple, of course he is. Incredibly, impossibly happy. James has nearly everything he ever wanted, despite the signs of war around them (there are people missing from their guest list). He knows that if Sirius doesn’t mind letting James go to Lily, if he’s happy for them, then Remus can be too.
Sirius sits down to a loud round of applause, and at the clinking of glasses, James and Lily kiss enthusiastically. Sirius turns to Remus, smiling. “How’d I do?”
“Well, I think now that you’ve revealed all of James’s most embarrassing stories to all and sundry, you’ve pretty well done your job.”
“When else do I have free license to tell the world about the Great Casserole Incident without fear of violence? I have to take advantage!” Sirius grins, and nudges Remus’s knee with his own under the table. “Really, though-it was a good speech?”
“It was a great speech,” Remus confirms.
Later, when everyone has finished eating the slightly bland wedding food and wandered off to dance or drink or gossip, Remus goes to find Sirius.
He is standing in the garden outside the reception hall, smoking a cigarette and looking around him at the flowers. “Hey, Moony,” Sirius says, smiling.
Remus, wordless, walks up to Sirius, takes the cigarette and chucks it into the dirt. He grabs Sirius by his lapels and kisses him very soundly on the mouth, smothering protests over the removal of the fag. Sirius stumbles backward a step and then responds, snaking his hands inside Remus’s unbuttoned jacket and pulling Remus towards him by the hips.
“What was that for?” Sirius asks, pulling back slightly and looking at Remus.
“Do you have to ask?” Remus leans forward again, but Sirius holds him back.
“No, seriously-“ Remus snorts, and Sirius grins. “-you looked very determined. Not that I object.”
“I’m just… sorry. That you’re losing James.”
“I lost him years ago, then. I’ve had time to get used to it. And anyway, it’s not as if he’s dead.”
“But it’s… different now.”
“Yes, it is,” Sirius says, and kisses Remus again. “I’ve got you.”
Remus pulls them closer together, securing his arms around Sirius’s shoulders. “Shouldn’t the maid of honour be snogging the best man?” he asks, grinning widely.
“I’m not snogging any maids of honour. I’m snogging you. We could put you in a dress and have you carry Lily’s flowers, but I think you look better as you are.”
“If anyone’s wearing a dress here, it’s going to be you. I’d like to see that.”
“Is that a suggestion?” Sirius asks, teeth against Remus’s cheek.
“Might be,” Remus says.
They both know that this is a distraction, that Remus doesn’t believe Sirius when he says he doesn’t mind the loss of James, and that Sirius’s kisses are just the tiniest bit desperate. But at least one thing Sirius says is true-they have each other.