Fall So Softly by rynne
Title: Fall So Softly
Author: rynne
Summary: Remus comes to a realization in the falling snow.
Rating: PG
Recipient: kaydeefalls
***
Fall So Softly
The snow was falling softly, silently, outside the common room window. Though Remus loved the snow, and smiled to see it, he couldn't help but be glad that he was inside.
"Are you sure it will work?" Peter asked, doubtfully, surveying the crackers spread before them on the rug in front of the fire.
"No one'll be able to tell the difference," James replied, without looking up from the cracker he was modifying, which was now more like a firecracker. His tongue was sticking out from between his lips, and his wand occasionally sent sparks off; every time it did, the cracker sparked as well. Remus idly wondered what he was doing to it.
"Or at least," Sirius said, from his position face-down on the sofa, voice muffled and barely intelligible, "they won't until people pull 'em. What are you doing to yours, Prongs?"
"Never you mind," James said, haughtily, still not bothering to look up. "You'll see when it goes off."
"Charming it so that the thing inside is a box of chocolates if you give it to Lily?" Remus asked from the window seat. "She'd probably like that more than whatever it is you've got planned. It is to do with Lily, isn't it?"
Only now did James look up, glaring at him, his glasses slipping down his nose, and he pushed them up impatiently. "Bugger off," he said, and Remus knew that his guess was right. "Show's how much you know. She'll love it."
"She didn't love the pumpkin you charmed to sing on Halloween," Peter pointed out, joining the conversation. "In fact, I think she threatened to kill you."
"Not you too, Wormtail," James complained. "I'll show you. Just watch. She'll love it."
"Like she loves cockroach clusters, I bet," Peter muttered, setting another finished cracker down.
"You're too pessimistic," Sirius announced from the sofa, his head now turned and his voice clear. "That's your problem, and Moony's, too. If Prongs says Evans'll love it, she'll love it." He flashed a grin and closed his eyes. "Have a little faith."
"You're one to talk," Remus said, amused, leaning his head against the cold windowpane. "How many times have you made fun of James whenever Lily turns him down? Six million?"
Sirius laughed. "You've been counting?" He rolled over so that he was on his side, then rested his head on the arm of the sofa so that he was facing Remus. He grinned.
"I am still here, you know," James said, loudly. "Peter, am I not still here? Can you not hear me talking?"
Peter blinked, exaggeratedly. "What? I'm sorry, did someone say something?"
"I heard nothing," Sirius replied, though he was still looking at Remus. There was something in his eyes...Remus couldn't see it properly, with Sirius's face turned away from the fire and striped with shadows, but his eyes seemed to glint, for a moment.
"Were you listening?" Remus asked, and looked at James, who was ignoring his sparking cracker in favor of glaring daggers at Sirius.
"Nope!" Sirius said cheerfully. "Paying attention? What's that?" But he seemed to be paying attention to Remus, because he was still looking. It made Remus both warm and uncomfortable, and he didn't know why.
Then Peter yelped, and something went flying over their heads, spraying red and gold sparks everywhere.
"What was that?" James asked, looking around alertly, his wand in his hand. It flew over their heads again, still sparking.
"A cracker," Peter answered, ducking when it came at him, then looking up when it bounced off the mantel and ricocheted in another direction. "I gave a few fuses, like firecrackers that go off and then explode and give you things, and I guess a spark from the fire must have hit it."
"Or your spell wasn't as good as you thought," Sirius retorted, rolling off the sofa and onto the floor when it whizzed by his head. "Surely they're not supposed to bounce?"
But this one was bouncing, and very quickly. It disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitories, and James ran after it, wand and a Freezing Charm at the ready, but his foot slid off the moment he tried to climb. Remus could still hear it, though, bouncing off walls in the enclosed stairwell, and generally making a racket.
When it came down the stairs again, a group of girls followed it, Lily Evans in the lead, clutching her wand.
"Impedimenta!" she shouted, the spell unerringly finding the cracker and causing it to stop in midair, then fall to the floor, sputtering. It gave off a few more sparks, as if half-heartedly trying to continue, and then it stopped and was lifeless.
"Is it over?" Sirius asked, rising to his knees and theatrically peering over the edge of the sofa.
"Yes," Lily said shortly. "Now if you'll give me an explanation as to why you four"--she gave Remus a slashing, disappointed glance--"were setting off fireworks at three in the morning when the castle is trying to sleep?"
She folded her arms beneath her chest, bringing attention to the prefect's badge that she'd managed to pin on, even in the excitement.
"Er," James said, as intelligent and eloquent as usual. He blinked, adjusted his glasses, and stared at Lily. "Er."
"Well?" Lily questioned sharply, green eyes flashing. From behind her, several other girls were also looking less than happy.
Sirius coughed, bringing Lily's glare to him. "You know, Evans," he said, casually, "if you want him to be able to think, you might also want to wear more than a nightgown when you ask him something."
Lily blinked and looked down, and Remus covered a smile with his hand. Her nightgown would not win an award for highest neck, to say the least, and she probably hadn't even realized that she'd been displaying a bit more than her badge.
"Right," James said, sounding almost strangled. He was still staring at Lily, who'd turned a bright red. "Or you could keep wearing that. I don't mind. Really."
Lily turned redder. "In your dreams, James Potter," she said, scathingly. Still blushing, she resumed her glare for a moment. "I'll talk to you four about this in the morning. Some of us still want to sleep!"
And with that, she, and the girls behind her, turned and stormed back up the stairs.
Sirius stood, smirking. Walking over to James, he slapped him hard on the back, causing him to stagger slightly, and said, "Good going, mate. You'll win her heart for sure if you keep this up."
"Six million and one," Remus said from the window, and he stopped hiding his smile when Sirius laughed out loud.
A snowball hit him hard in the back, causing the wind to rush out of his body in a loud "Ooof!" Another one hit him on the shoulder, and he swiftly turned around to face the one who had interrupted his thoughts so rudely.
Sirius grinned at him, another snowball in hand, and made as if to throw it. He laughed when Remus flinched.
"Join the rest of us, Moony!" he shouted, despite being only a few meters away. "Or are you too busy for snowballs?"
"Not possible," Peter announced from beside Sirius, though he was on his knees on the ground, packing snowballs tightly and creating a small mountain of them--a mountain from which Sirius took yet another snowball, turning around quickly to pelt James in the chest before turning back and smiling at Remus again.
"Not busy, really," Remus said, eyeing the small mountain.
"Great!" Sirius said, and bounded forward, catching Remus's hand in his and pulling him forward. A shock ran straight down Remus's spine the moment Sirius's hand touched his, despite both hands being covered with mittens. What was this? But he had no time to ponder it, because just as quickly, Sirius dropped Remus's hand and grabbed a snowball, tossing it to Remus.
There was a strange quivering in his chest, and he didn't know what it meant. His heart was pounding, and he didn't think it was from cold, or from exertion. The thumping seemed to intensify when Sirius caught his eye, but surely that was just his imagination.
"Aren't you going to throw that?" Sirius asked, and Remus looked down and saw that he still held the snowball in his hand. He mustered up a smile, one that deepened when Sirius smiled back, then took aim at a passing Slytherin and threw.
At least half the school, it seemed, stayed over winter break. Remus himself had got a letter from his parents, telling him about the Dark Mark over a house three streets away, and asking that he stay at Hogwarts where it was safe. Judging by the solemn faces surrounding him, he was not the only one to have received such a letter.
But Dumbledore rose to the occasion, as was his wont. Remus had, as a prefect, put several hours into decorating the Great Hall for the feast, and even Lily had smiled at him when he finished hanging the last string of icicles. Perhaps she had finally forgiven him for not restraining his friends when they were modifying their crackers.
And speaking of the crackers...Sirius was looking impatiently at the stack of them on the Slytherin table. Peter was looking almost nervously at another stack on the staff table. James was looking at the one closest to Lily.
Then a bang sounded and a shout went up. Remus turned in his seat, but people at other tables were standing up and also trying to see what happened. All Remus could see, however, was a large puff of red and gold smoke drifting over the Slytherin table; he turned around again, and saw Sirius's self-satisfied expression.
"The smoke isn't the only thing that happened, is it?" he asked. He'd charmed a few of the crackers, and James had done his one for Lily, but most of them were done by Peter and Sirius, and Remus rather thought that this one in particular was Sirius's doing. He looked like he knew far too much about it for it not to be.
"See for yourself," Sirius replied, sounding very smug.
Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. "Apparently the whole hall is fascinated with whatever you've done." He turned around again to see people standing up, some on chairs, pointing and laughing. "I'd be lucky to get close."
"The Muggles have a story, you know," Sirius said, almost tangentially. "There's this bloke they call Santa Claus. He's big and fat, has a long white beard, and wears red clothes. He brings Muggle kids toys on Christmas. We researched him in Muggle Studies." Muggle Studies, the class that Sirius had taken and continued with both because Muggles fascinated him, and because he wanted to make his family angry. Remus had taken Arithmancy instead, but he knew about Santa Claus anyway, his Muggleborn mother having regaled him with stories when he was younger.
But now Remus was beginning to understand what happened. "How?" he asked flatly. Turning someone into a look-alike of Santa Claus at the pull of a cracker?
Sirius waved a hand negligently, obviously understanding what Remus was asking. "Oh, nothing too difficult, don't worry." He still looked pleased with himself, despite the display of modesty. "I just put the suit and stuff, shrunken, inside the cracker. When it was pulled, they were then supposed to get bigger and attach themselves to whoever pulled it. Not a problem, really."
Remus snorted softly. "Right," he said. "No problem."
"There he goes!" Peter said suddenly, and pointed toward the far end of the Hall, where someone wearing a red coat and hat and with a big fluffy white thing stuck to his face, was rushing awkwardly to leave. Despite the distance and the angle, Remus could tell that it was Snape; looking at Sirius, who was watching Snape leave with a satisfied smirk pulling at his lips, Remus rather thought that it wasn't a coincidence.
Another cracker went off, one much closer--Remus could feel the rush of air as it sped upward toward the ceiling. Remus thought idly that it definitely would have been modified to be more like a firecracker, yet still have looked similar enough to the others that no one would know. James abruptly looked up, following the cracker with his eyes, and then he grinned.
Remus looked up as well, twisted his head around so that he could see whatever was going on up there, and bit back a grin when he realized what the cracker was doing. By the time it had finished and dropped to the ground, students were again pointing and laughing, and Lily Evans was red-faced with fury and embarrassment.
Written on the ceiling, and backdropped by a night sky full of clouds and stars, was "JAMES POTTER + LILY EVANS POTTER". Fighting laughter, Remus looked for Lily's reaction, and wasn't disappointed when she reached across the table and slapped James across the face.
"She'll love it, will she?" Sirius said, in between bouts of laughter, as James looked stunned and Lily stalked from the Hall.
"Six million and two," Peter whispered to Remus, biting back a grin of his own as the look on James's face changed to disgruntlement. Remus joined Sirius in laughter, which was only stopped when Sirius shoved a cracker into Remus's own hands.
"Pull it, Moony, go on," he said, smiling at him, his laughter abated for the moment. Remus's heart thumped in his chest, and he put it down to nerves.
"What've you done to it?" he asked warily. "Am I going to be the third person to leave in embarrassment tonight?"
"Of course not!" Sirius declared. "You'll like it, promise. Would I lie to you?"
"You might," Remus muttered, but didn't really believe it; Sirius was devastatingly honest, and never lied to his friends. But Remus still regarded the cracker as he would a bomb, and only pulled when Sirius's smile threatened to make his heart beat its way out of his chest.
The cracker did bang and smoke at his pull, but nothing happened that would run him out of the Great Hall with warm cheeks--instead, a simple box fell into his hands. He opened it, and his jaw dropped, just slightly, when he saw the chocolates inside.
He looked up, his eyes immediately finding Sirius's and holding. "A box of chocolates?" he asked softly, and heard something funny in his own voice, but was unable to tell what it was.
Sirius shrugged, but he looked even more pleased than he had as he watched Snape leave the hall in his transfigured suit. "It was a good suggestion," he said. "Are you complaining? Because I could eat them for you, if you are."
"No," Remus said, looking down at the chocolates again. "I'm not complaining."
"Good," Sirius said, and there was something funny in his voice as well. Remus wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was.
"When is your detention supposed to be?" Remus asked, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets as he and Sirius trudged through the snow. He was cold, and not sure why Sirius wanted him to walk out here with him.
"Next Friday," Sirius replied. "And it's very much not fair that you and Peter escaped it. Why McGonagall only picks on James and me..."
"You and James were the obvious perpetrators," Remus reminded him. "Your crackers went off more spectacularly than any other. You can't be surprised."
Sirius shrugged, but glanced at him with a smile. "But since I took the fall for you, you owe me," he said, causing something in Remus's stomach to twist. Just apprehension of whatever Sirius was about to ask of him, he told himself firmly.
"Do you have something in mind?" Remus asked lightly.
"As a matter of fact," Sirius said, "I do."
He stopped, suddenly, and Remus stopped as well and turned to face him. There was something in Sirius's eyes, Remus noticed, something...nervous? What would make Sirius nervous?
Slowly, awkwardly, Sirius raised his arms and put his hands on Remus's shoulders. "What did you think of the chocolates?" he asked.
Remus blinked. And he wasn't feeling cold any longer, he noticed distantly. Sirius's hands, even in mittens, were sending warm tingles down his spine. What was that about? But he answered, "They were very good, as I've told you before. I've already thanked you for them, too."
Sirius swallowed, and shifted slightly closer. "I know you have," he said. Above them, snow started falling softly, gently. A flake caught and melted on Sirius's cheek. "But did you think about them?"
He really was very warm now, and still getting warmer. And Sirius was looking at him strangely. Was that hope in his eyes? "I--not really," he admitted. "You've given me chocolate before. Was there something special about these?"
Sirius choked back a laugh. "You bet there was," he said. "Remember what you told James? That he'd be better off giving Lily a box of chocolates to show how he felt?"
"Yes," Remus said faintly. He was feeling lightheaded, and that look in Sirius's eyes, something somehow soft...he liked it, and liked that Sirius was looking at him like that.
"And?" Sirius asked, shifting close enough that Remus could see the snowflakes melting on his eyelashes. "What do you think?"
"I liked them," Remus replied, almost wanting to look down but unable to, unable to break their eye contact. And now he thought he knew what Sirius was asking, and it made him feel so warm, and his heart was pounding, and it was wonderful. Everything made sense, now that he understood.
Now Sirius seemed to see his realization in his eyes and smiled, a delighted curve of lips that almost made Remus's heart stop.
"Good," Sirius said, simply. Then he leaned closer, and his lips touched Remus's, and the world seemed to melt around them until there was nothing else to think about than the slide of mouths, the dance of tongues, the awkward and amazing give and take of a first kiss.
And the snow continued falling softly around them.
***
Author: rynne
Summary: Remus comes to a realization in the falling snow.
Rating: PG
Recipient: kaydeefalls
***
Fall So Softly
The snow was falling softly, silently, outside the common room window. Though Remus loved the snow, and smiled to see it, he couldn't help but be glad that he was inside.
"Are you sure it will work?" Peter asked, doubtfully, surveying the crackers spread before them on the rug in front of the fire.
"No one'll be able to tell the difference," James replied, without looking up from the cracker he was modifying, which was now more like a firecracker. His tongue was sticking out from between his lips, and his wand occasionally sent sparks off; every time it did, the cracker sparked as well. Remus idly wondered what he was doing to it.
"Or at least," Sirius said, from his position face-down on the sofa, voice muffled and barely intelligible, "they won't until people pull 'em. What are you doing to yours, Prongs?"
"Never you mind," James said, haughtily, still not bothering to look up. "You'll see when it goes off."
"Charming it so that the thing inside is a box of chocolates if you give it to Lily?" Remus asked from the window seat. "She'd probably like that more than whatever it is you've got planned. It is to do with Lily, isn't it?"
Only now did James look up, glaring at him, his glasses slipping down his nose, and he pushed them up impatiently. "Bugger off," he said, and Remus knew that his guess was right. "Show's how much you know. She'll love it."
"She didn't love the pumpkin you charmed to sing on Halloween," Peter pointed out, joining the conversation. "In fact, I think she threatened to kill you."
"Not you too, Wormtail," James complained. "I'll show you. Just watch. She'll love it."
"Like she loves cockroach clusters, I bet," Peter muttered, setting another finished cracker down.
"You're too pessimistic," Sirius announced from the sofa, his head now turned and his voice clear. "That's your problem, and Moony's, too. If Prongs says Evans'll love it, she'll love it." He flashed a grin and closed his eyes. "Have a little faith."
"You're one to talk," Remus said, amused, leaning his head against the cold windowpane. "How many times have you made fun of James whenever Lily turns him down? Six million?"
Sirius laughed. "You've been counting?" He rolled over so that he was on his side, then rested his head on the arm of the sofa so that he was facing Remus. He grinned.
"I am still here, you know," James said, loudly. "Peter, am I not still here? Can you not hear me talking?"
Peter blinked, exaggeratedly. "What? I'm sorry, did someone say something?"
"I heard nothing," Sirius replied, though he was still looking at Remus. There was something in his eyes...Remus couldn't see it properly, with Sirius's face turned away from the fire and striped with shadows, but his eyes seemed to glint, for a moment.
"Were you listening?" Remus asked, and looked at James, who was ignoring his sparking cracker in favor of glaring daggers at Sirius.
"Nope!" Sirius said cheerfully. "Paying attention? What's that?" But he seemed to be paying attention to Remus, because he was still looking. It made Remus both warm and uncomfortable, and he didn't know why.
Then Peter yelped, and something went flying over their heads, spraying red and gold sparks everywhere.
"What was that?" James asked, looking around alertly, his wand in his hand. It flew over their heads again, still sparking.
"A cracker," Peter answered, ducking when it came at him, then looking up when it bounced off the mantel and ricocheted in another direction. "I gave a few fuses, like firecrackers that go off and then explode and give you things, and I guess a spark from the fire must have hit it."
"Or your spell wasn't as good as you thought," Sirius retorted, rolling off the sofa and onto the floor when it whizzed by his head. "Surely they're not supposed to bounce?"
But this one was bouncing, and very quickly. It disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitories, and James ran after it, wand and a Freezing Charm at the ready, but his foot slid off the moment he tried to climb. Remus could still hear it, though, bouncing off walls in the enclosed stairwell, and generally making a racket.
When it came down the stairs again, a group of girls followed it, Lily Evans in the lead, clutching her wand.
"Impedimenta!" she shouted, the spell unerringly finding the cracker and causing it to stop in midair, then fall to the floor, sputtering. It gave off a few more sparks, as if half-heartedly trying to continue, and then it stopped and was lifeless.
"Is it over?" Sirius asked, rising to his knees and theatrically peering over the edge of the sofa.
"Yes," Lily said shortly. "Now if you'll give me an explanation as to why you four"--she gave Remus a slashing, disappointed glance--"were setting off fireworks at three in the morning when the castle is trying to sleep?"
She folded her arms beneath her chest, bringing attention to the prefect's badge that she'd managed to pin on, even in the excitement.
"Er," James said, as intelligent and eloquent as usual. He blinked, adjusted his glasses, and stared at Lily. "Er."
"Well?" Lily questioned sharply, green eyes flashing. From behind her, several other girls were also looking less than happy.
Sirius coughed, bringing Lily's glare to him. "You know, Evans," he said, casually, "if you want him to be able to think, you might also want to wear more than a nightgown when you ask him something."
Lily blinked and looked down, and Remus covered a smile with his hand. Her nightgown would not win an award for highest neck, to say the least, and she probably hadn't even realized that she'd been displaying a bit more than her badge.
"Right," James said, sounding almost strangled. He was still staring at Lily, who'd turned a bright red. "Or you could keep wearing that. I don't mind. Really."
Lily turned redder. "In your dreams, James Potter," she said, scathingly. Still blushing, she resumed her glare for a moment. "I'll talk to you four about this in the morning. Some of us still want to sleep!"
And with that, she, and the girls behind her, turned and stormed back up the stairs.
Sirius stood, smirking. Walking over to James, he slapped him hard on the back, causing him to stagger slightly, and said, "Good going, mate. You'll win her heart for sure if you keep this up."
"Six million and one," Remus said from the window, and he stopped hiding his smile when Sirius laughed out loud.
A snowball hit him hard in the back, causing the wind to rush out of his body in a loud "Ooof!" Another one hit him on the shoulder, and he swiftly turned around to face the one who had interrupted his thoughts so rudely.
Sirius grinned at him, another snowball in hand, and made as if to throw it. He laughed when Remus flinched.
"Join the rest of us, Moony!" he shouted, despite being only a few meters away. "Or are you too busy for snowballs?"
"Not possible," Peter announced from beside Sirius, though he was on his knees on the ground, packing snowballs tightly and creating a small mountain of them--a mountain from which Sirius took yet another snowball, turning around quickly to pelt James in the chest before turning back and smiling at Remus again.
"Not busy, really," Remus said, eyeing the small mountain.
"Great!" Sirius said, and bounded forward, catching Remus's hand in his and pulling him forward. A shock ran straight down Remus's spine the moment Sirius's hand touched his, despite both hands being covered with mittens. What was this? But he had no time to ponder it, because just as quickly, Sirius dropped Remus's hand and grabbed a snowball, tossing it to Remus.
There was a strange quivering in his chest, and he didn't know what it meant. His heart was pounding, and he didn't think it was from cold, or from exertion. The thumping seemed to intensify when Sirius caught his eye, but surely that was just his imagination.
"Aren't you going to throw that?" Sirius asked, and Remus looked down and saw that he still held the snowball in his hand. He mustered up a smile, one that deepened when Sirius smiled back, then took aim at a passing Slytherin and threw.
At least half the school, it seemed, stayed over winter break. Remus himself had got a letter from his parents, telling him about the Dark Mark over a house three streets away, and asking that he stay at Hogwarts where it was safe. Judging by the solemn faces surrounding him, he was not the only one to have received such a letter.
But Dumbledore rose to the occasion, as was his wont. Remus had, as a prefect, put several hours into decorating the Great Hall for the feast, and even Lily had smiled at him when he finished hanging the last string of icicles. Perhaps she had finally forgiven him for not restraining his friends when they were modifying their crackers.
And speaking of the crackers...Sirius was looking impatiently at the stack of them on the Slytherin table. Peter was looking almost nervously at another stack on the staff table. James was looking at the one closest to Lily.
Then a bang sounded and a shout went up. Remus turned in his seat, but people at other tables were standing up and also trying to see what happened. All Remus could see, however, was a large puff of red and gold smoke drifting over the Slytherin table; he turned around again, and saw Sirius's self-satisfied expression.
"The smoke isn't the only thing that happened, is it?" he asked. He'd charmed a few of the crackers, and James had done his one for Lily, but most of them were done by Peter and Sirius, and Remus rather thought that this one in particular was Sirius's doing. He looked like he knew far too much about it for it not to be.
"See for yourself," Sirius replied, sounding very smug.
Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. "Apparently the whole hall is fascinated with whatever you've done." He turned around again to see people standing up, some on chairs, pointing and laughing. "I'd be lucky to get close."
"The Muggles have a story, you know," Sirius said, almost tangentially. "There's this bloke they call Santa Claus. He's big and fat, has a long white beard, and wears red clothes. He brings Muggle kids toys on Christmas. We researched him in Muggle Studies." Muggle Studies, the class that Sirius had taken and continued with both because Muggles fascinated him, and because he wanted to make his family angry. Remus had taken Arithmancy instead, but he knew about Santa Claus anyway, his Muggleborn mother having regaled him with stories when he was younger.
But now Remus was beginning to understand what happened. "How?" he asked flatly. Turning someone into a look-alike of Santa Claus at the pull of a cracker?
Sirius waved a hand negligently, obviously understanding what Remus was asking. "Oh, nothing too difficult, don't worry." He still looked pleased with himself, despite the display of modesty. "I just put the suit and stuff, shrunken, inside the cracker. When it was pulled, they were then supposed to get bigger and attach themselves to whoever pulled it. Not a problem, really."
Remus snorted softly. "Right," he said. "No problem."
"There he goes!" Peter said suddenly, and pointed toward the far end of the Hall, where someone wearing a red coat and hat and with a big fluffy white thing stuck to his face, was rushing awkwardly to leave. Despite the distance and the angle, Remus could tell that it was Snape; looking at Sirius, who was watching Snape leave with a satisfied smirk pulling at his lips, Remus rather thought that it wasn't a coincidence.
Another cracker went off, one much closer--Remus could feel the rush of air as it sped upward toward the ceiling. Remus thought idly that it definitely would have been modified to be more like a firecracker, yet still have looked similar enough to the others that no one would know. James abruptly looked up, following the cracker with his eyes, and then he grinned.
Remus looked up as well, twisted his head around so that he could see whatever was going on up there, and bit back a grin when he realized what the cracker was doing. By the time it had finished and dropped to the ground, students were again pointing and laughing, and Lily Evans was red-faced with fury and embarrassment.
Written on the ceiling, and backdropped by a night sky full of clouds and stars, was "JAMES POTTER + LILY EVANS POTTER". Fighting laughter, Remus looked for Lily's reaction, and wasn't disappointed when she reached across the table and slapped James across the face.
"She'll love it, will she?" Sirius said, in between bouts of laughter, as James looked stunned and Lily stalked from the Hall.
"Six million and two," Peter whispered to Remus, biting back a grin of his own as the look on James's face changed to disgruntlement. Remus joined Sirius in laughter, which was only stopped when Sirius shoved a cracker into Remus's own hands.
"Pull it, Moony, go on," he said, smiling at him, his laughter abated for the moment. Remus's heart thumped in his chest, and he put it down to nerves.
"What've you done to it?" he asked warily. "Am I going to be the third person to leave in embarrassment tonight?"
"Of course not!" Sirius declared. "You'll like it, promise. Would I lie to you?"
"You might," Remus muttered, but didn't really believe it; Sirius was devastatingly honest, and never lied to his friends. But Remus still regarded the cracker as he would a bomb, and only pulled when Sirius's smile threatened to make his heart beat its way out of his chest.
The cracker did bang and smoke at his pull, but nothing happened that would run him out of the Great Hall with warm cheeks--instead, a simple box fell into his hands. He opened it, and his jaw dropped, just slightly, when he saw the chocolates inside.
He looked up, his eyes immediately finding Sirius's and holding. "A box of chocolates?" he asked softly, and heard something funny in his own voice, but was unable to tell what it was.
Sirius shrugged, but he looked even more pleased than he had as he watched Snape leave the hall in his transfigured suit. "It was a good suggestion," he said. "Are you complaining? Because I could eat them for you, if you are."
"No," Remus said, looking down at the chocolates again. "I'm not complaining."
"Good," Sirius said, and there was something funny in his voice as well. Remus wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was.
"When is your detention supposed to be?" Remus asked, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets as he and Sirius trudged through the snow. He was cold, and not sure why Sirius wanted him to walk out here with him.
"Next Friday," Sirius replied. "And it's very much not fair that you and Peter escaped it. Why McGonagall only picks on James and me..."
"You and James were the obvious perpetrators," Remus reminded him. "Your crackers went off more spectacularly than any other. You can't be surprised."
Sirius shrugged, but glanced at him with a smile. "But since I took the fall for you, you owe me," he said, causing something in Remus's stomach to twist. Just apprehension of whatever Sirius was about to ask of him, he told himself firmly.
"Do you have something in mind?" Remus asked lightly.
"As a matter of fact," Sirius said, "I do."
He stopped, suddenly, and Remus stopped as well and turned to face him. There was something in Sirius's eyes, Remus noticed, something...nervous? What would make Sirius nervous?
Slowly, awkwardly, Sirius raised his arms and put his hands on Remus's shoulders. "What did you think of the chocolates?" he asked.
Remus blinked. And he wasn't feeling cold any longer, he noticed distantly. Sirius's hands, even in mittens, were sending warm tingles down his spine. What was that about? But he answered, "They were very good, as I've told you before. I've already thanked you for them, too."
Sirius swallowed, and shifted slightly closer. "I know you have," he said. Above them, snow started falling softly, gently. A flake caught and melted on Sirius's cheek. "But did you think about them?"
He really was very warm now, and still getting warmer. And Sirius was looking at him strangely. Was that hope in his eyes? "I--not really," he admitted. "You've given me chocolate before. Was there something special about these?"
Sirius choked back a laugh. "You bet there was," he said. "Remember what you told James? That he'd be better off giving Lily a box of chocolates to show how he felt?"
"Yes," Remus said faintly. He was feeling lightheaded, and that look in Sirius's eyes, something somehow soft...he liked it, and liked that Sirius was looking at him like that.
"And?" Sirius asked, shifting close enough that Remus could see the snowflakes melting on his eyelashes. "What do you think?"
"I liked them," Remus replied, almost wanting to look down but unable to, unable to break their eye contact. And now he thought he knew what Sirius was asking, and it made him feel so warm, and his heart was pounding, and it was wonderful. Everything made sense, now that he understood.
Now Sirius seemed to see his realization in his eyes and smiled, a delighted curve of lips that almost made Remus's heart stop.
"Good," Sirius said, simply. Then he leaned closer, and his lips touched Remus's, and the world seemed to melt around them until there was nothing else to think about than the slide of mouths, the dance of tongues, the awkward and amazing give and take of a first kiss.
And the snow continued falling softly around them.
***