Twenty-six: Ice Cream
August 26th, 1976
Remus doesn’t want to go to Diagon Alley with the others. It’s hot out, and frankly, he’s feeling distinctly lazy. And he’s spent the last four days successfully avoiding Sirius, so he doesn’t want to stop now, for fear of-he doesn’t know what. But he does need to buy his new books and replenish his stock of school supplies, and it would probably be more fun to go with his friends than his parents. Assuming, that is, that he isn’t spending the entire time trying not to say anything to Sirius.
He feels guilty, and doesn’t know why. Like he’s done something that seemed a good idea at the time and now seems completely wrong. Like he’s failed a test he could have easily passed.
Remus tries to say no, when they show up in his living room brushing soot off their shoulders and Floo-dizziness off their minds. “Oh, I can’t today, I’m busy,” he says, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder.
“Doing what?” James asks innocently.
“Oh, er, um,” Remus says, trying desperately to think of a plausible answer.
“Come on, Moony,” Sirius says, and Remus gives in. Why is it so difficult to say no to Sirius?
Next thing he knows he’s leaving a note for his parents and being shepherded into green flames and shouting “Diagon Alley!” James is hard at his heels, he stumbles into Peter, and Sirius is last, most elegant, stepping out of the fireplace into the Leaky Cauldron.
“Where to first?” Peter asks brightly. He can tell something is up, but he’s going to studiously ignore it and hope it goes away soon. That is Peter’s way.
“Best get all the necessities out of the way first,” Remus suggests, as James and Sirius lead the way into the yard behind the Leaky Cauldron, speaking to each other in the complicated language of gestures and facial expressions and lone words understood only by them two.
Sirius taps the brick, (three up…two across…Remus has known since the first time he came to Diagon Alley, before he was old enough to have a wand to tap it with) and Diagon Alley opens before them.
-
It’s beginning to get late-the sun, in the waning of summer, is already sinking past the edges of Gringotts and Flourish and Blott’s. They’ve eaten a lot of ice cream and nothing resembling dinner, which Remus suspects is a Very Bad Idea (though he can’t help his fondness for chocolate and peanut butter ice cream).
They’re passing Madam Malkin’s, when James cries, “Didn’t you need new dress robes, Peter?” and drags him inside the shop, leaving Sirius and Remus to stand outside. Remus turns to Sirius and opens his mouth to say something, and then closes it again. Sirius is a bit pink in the cheeks, he notices, but he can’t tell whether that’s because of all the ice cream or something else.
“Er, Remus, would you come over here?” Remus looks over to see Sirius standing in the alley between Madam Malkin’s and Flourish and Blott’s, looking at him hopefully. He slips into the alley beside Sirius, conscious of how small the space is and how he can see Sirius going even pinker. It can’t be the ice cream, unless he’s about to be sick, in which case the small congregation of dustbins behind them will come in handy.
“Did you, really…not want to kiss me?” Sirius asks, and he really does look like he’s going to need one of those dustbins.
“I, uh, I already said-oh, bugger.” Remus stops short, staring, and then launches himself at Sirius and presses their mouths together. Sirius stumbles backward into the wall of Madam Malkin’s, and grabs Remus’ chin, unwilling to stop whatever it is they’ve started. This time the kiss has the benefit of being at least semi-deliberate, so it isn’t sloppy and wet like the second or uncomfortable and crooked like the first. It’s a third kiss, and neither of them is any good at it, but they’re getting better, and they laugh into each other’s mouths.
“I think I lied,” Remus mumbles, speaking into Sirius’ jaw. “Sorry about that.”
“So, erm,” Sirius says as Remus backs away to look at him, a small smile on his face. “I’m sorry, what?”
At that, Remus grins like a mad thing, like Sirius when he’s at his most wild, and says, “Come here, you idiot.”
-
When James and Peter come out of the shop and find the other two missing, James grins and says, “Come on, let’s go get more ice cream.” Peter, slightly bewildered, follows.
Overhead, the stars are coming out, and the moon is a pale silver crescent hanging like a bowl in the sky. Remus has never been able to say no to Sirius.
Day Twenty-Seven