Best Friends

Best Friends

*

Beginnings

*

"DAMN YOU TO HELL, BLACK! I SWEAR I WILL GET YOU!"

Sirius suppressed a laugh as he ran around the corner. Severus and Remus were there waiting for him. Only he couldn't see them -- until a little potion phial appeared in front of him from seemingly nowhere. Hastily uncorking it and then gulping it down, Sirius felt the familiar tingle going through him as the Invisibility Potion quickly started its work on him.

By the time Potter stormed to sight, a large flower growing on top of his head, Sirius was safely standing next to his friends on the side of the corridor. The potion originally made the drinker invisible to everyone, but Severus had modified it so that anybody under its effect would see everybody else in the same state. It had been hard, but Severus was truly brilliant in potions.

The Invisibility Potion was one of the reasons why they nowadays were leading in the little war. Potter had his Invisibility Cloak, true, but those hidden under it could not work separately. Besides, Remus, being a werewolf, also happened to possess a gift of seeing right through such devices. Potter's gang couldn't hide from them, but they could be hidden from everybody.

"I know you are here somewhere, Black," snarled Potter. "And you're going to pay for what you did!" At this, he whipped his wand at sight, starting to throw hexes anywhere he could. Fortunately, he missed the three invisible boys right next to him.

"Mister Potter!" roared a furious voice from the other end of the corridor. "No magic is allowed in the corridors! Therefore, I'll --" Just then, Professor McGonagall's words were interrupted as Potter, startled by her sudden approach, accidentally threw a Jellyleg curse at her. "FIFTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" she yelled furiously while trying in vain to get to her feet to reach her wand, which had fallen some way further down the corridor. "AND YOU'RE BANNED FROM THE NEXT QUIDDITCH MATCH!" Fortunately to him, Potter had enough sense to run hastily away, not trying to defend himself, as that would have surely gained him even more punishments.

As soon as the professor was also away, having finally reached her wand and reversed the charm, the three young wizards still in the corridor bursted into helpless laughter. Potter with a flower on his head would have been enough, but the incident with McGonagall had been just precious.

"It's a good thing she left," giggled Remus. "I would have split myself if I had had to suppress laughter any longer! I swear, the look on Potter's face when he accidentally hexed her will forever be drawn to my mind!"

"Same here," said Severus with a smirk, then abandoned his Slytherin calmness in favour of laughing. "Every time I think we've made him look about as bad as possible, he puts his foot into something bigger all on his lonesome self!"

"Hardly lonesome," Sirius mentioned, grinning broadly. "Pettigrew has fooled himself often enough, too... Like that time he thought we'd shrank his prick and asked Madam Pomfrey to check it!"

This memory made the two others laugh so badly that they had to stead themselves on the wall. However, the wall slipped under Remus's hand, and he fell right on Severus, drawing the Slytherin down to the floor with himself. After a second they both lay there, on top of each other, face to face, chest to chest... and crotch to crotch.

It took them both a second to realize this. When they did, however, they both blushed fiercely and hastily spun apart -- or as hastily as they could, Remus lying on top of Severus. Their reaction of course didn't go unnoticed by Sirius.

"It looks like the Marauders can make fools of themselves quite effectively, too," he said teasingly. "Say, boys, is there anything you'd like to tell me, hmm? Some heartfelt news, or anything?"

"Shut up, you prick," grumbled Remus angrily. "Like you had never put your foot into it!"

"Well, at least I won't blush if I fall on top of my male friend," the taller of the dark-haired boys said, grinning broadly. "If it's a girl I fall on, well, then that's another story..."

"So you won't mind if I do this?" asked Severus casually. And then he quickly reached out his hand to grasp on Sirius's crotch, and whatever he found there.

Now Sirius did indeed blush. "Queer," he huffed, his face a bright red, jumping away from Severus as soon as the Slytherin let go of him.

"I think we've a long time ago established that yes, I'm indeed a queer," remarked Severus dryly, although with a lot of hidden mirth twinkling in his onyx eyes. "The question is, are you?" And true, they had established that. It was not only pranks and schoolwork they talked about -- sexuality also came up from time to time. Even a couple of experimenting kisses had been exchanged, but those had never led to anything -- at least to nothing that anybody would know of.

"I'm not!" replied Sirius hastily. Then he added, "Well... At least I don't think I am."

Remus grinned at him. "Well, it doesn't matter anything now, anyway," he said cheerfully. "Right now, we have to get back to the Gryffindor Tower before the curfew!"

"Why the hurry?" asked Severus, raising an amused eyebrow. "Don't you trust my potion to last?"

"Yes, I do," replied the werewolf with a bright grin. "But if Potter gets there before us, like he most likely will, he'll be sure to inform the professors, should we arrive even a second too late!" With this, he grasped Sirius's arm and attempted to drag him away. "Come on now, Sirius," he said with a smirk. "Be a good boy and walk on my side."

"I'm not a dog," the other boy said grudgingly. He did not like being teased by his friends. Especially when they were so good at it, having got their lessons from the best -- namely, Sirius himself.

"Oh, yes you are," said Remus, laughing. "At least more than either of us."

"Canines we are all," Severus remarked with dry amusement.

Halfway through their fifth year, Sirius and Severus had completed something they hadn't even told Remus they were trying to achieve. To be exact, the Animagus transformation. As a werewolf was only a danger to humans, they could spend the full moons with Remus in their animal forms. Funnily enough, Sirius's form was a pale-eyed, black dog that resembled a Grim quite a bit, and Severus was a slender, dark grey wolf. Remus had of course been overjoyed, although he'd at first been shocked at the thought that his friends might ever attempt something so dangerous just for him. They'd even created new nicknames for each other. Remus was Moony, Sirius was Padfoot, and Severus was Howler. The Slytherin had at first protested at the name with so many meanings, but as they'd remarked that Severus was much more probable to start yelling at someone than the two other "Marauders," like they called themselves, he'd at last came to accept his playful name.

Animagi forms and the modified Invisibility Potion weren't the only things they'd managed to get to their side in the seemingly endless war against Potter's gang. They had also created something that they called a Marauder's Map. Remus's knowledge, Sirius's power, and Severus's skills combined, they had drawn their very own magical map of Hogwarts that would always show them where everybody on the school grounds was. They were quite sure it was something even some of their teachers might be amazed at seeing, and were right on spot at that. In fact, they were planning to present it to Flitwick as their final Charms project for their current, sixth year at Hogwarts.

After a bit more of bickering after that, however, Remus and Sirius left Severus's company, hurrying towards the Gryffindor Tower. Once there, they were wary as they entered their dormitory. Even though their housemates had forced them into not using any magic or getting into fistfights inside the Tower, neither side had ever been afraid of using Muggle means to get back at the other. A water bucket over the door was the least they could expect.

However, nothing nasty was awaiting them. Instead, they were faced with the rather amusing sight of Potter standing in front of his bed, grinding his teeth, and Pettigrew trying in vain to make the flower on his head disappear.

"What's the problem, Potter?" asked Sirius, not even bothering to suppress his laughter. "Didn't anybody inform you that your head is not a flower pot?"

"Shut up, you prick," snapped the other dark-haired young wizard back. "At least I'm a human, unlike some." At this, he glared pointedly at Remus.

Potter had found out about Remus's Lycanthropy back in their third year. He'd gone to the Headmaster, thinking that he might get at least one of his enemies expelled. However, he'd been informed that the Headmaster already knew, that he didn't care, and that should anybody else find out about it, it would be Potter who was expelled and not Remus. Of course, this had not changed the boy's attitude towards the werewolf any better. After hearing of this, Pettigrew -- who never had any secrets with Potter -- also used Remus's Lycanthropy on his advantage to pick on the other boy at every opportunity where nobody could overhear them.

"Well, at least I don't call myself male when I'm not," replied Remus with equal hatred in his voice. His amber eyes flashed as he sneered at the bespectacled boy.

This was a bad move, however. The comment made Potter even more angry than he'd been, and before anybody could do anything, he'd crossed a line they'd never come over until then. His wand pointed right at the werewolf, his lips formed a throwing curse. The bright bolt of light hit Remus squarely on the chest, coming too fast and from too near for even the werewolf to avoid.

The curse threw Remus backwards with a surprising force, and his head collided with the wall. A sickening crack could be heard, and the young werewolf lost his consciousness immediately. When his body slowly slid some way down the wall, a stream of blood stained the stones at the places where his head touched the wall.

"Remus?" asked Sirius, really shocked. "Hey, Remus, do you hear me?"

He got no response. Starting to get really scared, completely oblivious to his two wanded enemies now behind his back, he crouched down next to his friend. "Hey, Remus, wake up," he said softly. "Please..." Then he noticed something startling. "Bloody hell," he cursed, the shock evident in his voice. "He's not breathing."

Now, even Potter was shocked. Pettigrew, too, stared at them, his mouth open in pure shock. Sure, they hated Remus and his friends and wanted nothing good for them. Sure, they'd often enough shot various curses, hexes, and jinxes at them all. But this... This was something new, something wrong. Their enemy was supposed to jump up, laugh, and run somewhere to pull pranks at new people. He wasn't supposed to get hurt, not really.

He wasn't supposed to get killed.

"Black," started Potter with a trembling voice, "I -- I don't know what to say. I never meant -- I never would have --"

"Shut up, you BLOODY BASTARD!" shrieked Sirius, turning his teary face at his enemies. "You KILLED Remus! You KILLED him!" Ignoring now his stunned dormmates, he turned towards Remus, tears soaking his whole face now. "Remus..." he whispered quietly, "hey, Remie dear... Please, wake up..."

But Remus didn't wake up.