Gazing

~~~

Sirius was in a bad mood. He'd spent half the morning searching for Remus, but the boy seemed to have gone missing. He wasn't in Gryffindor Tower, he wasn't in the Great Hall, and Sirius wasn't sure if he took first period Divination with Remus at all; it was, after all, an elective class.

He had lost track of Remus the night before after Peeves had discovered them. He could have sworn Remus was behind him. After all, you got discovered, you ran; it was common sense, no? But when Sirius had reached the Gryffindor common room, Remus was nowhere to be seen. So Sirius, never liking to leave anyone behind, turned back to look for him. When he arrived back at the common room twenty minutes later, James was there. Sirius smiled at the sight of his best friend waiting for him. "Did you see Remus?" he said immediately.

He remembered James just standing there and giving him an odd look. "No, but it's pretty late. He must be in his room already."

Sirius had groaned. He didn't know what room Remus slept in, and it was pretty late. He could talk with Remus in the morning.

That had been his plan last night, but now he couldn't find the brunette anywhere, and it was ticking him off. James, on the other hand, seemed to be in an unusually good mood, planning more pranks than usual.

Then finally, during second period Transfiguration, he spotted Remus again, sitting in a corner. But this time Sirius didn't yell out Remus's name in front of everybody, no. This time he crept up behind him and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy in a friendly bear hug. Remus yelped instantly.

"Where did you run off to?" said Sirius. "I looked everywhere for you!" He broke the hug, allowing Remus to breathe properly again, then sat by Remus's left, looking at him.

Remus fixed his tousled robes and opened his book, not looking at Sirius.

"Remus?" Sirius wondered after a long pause.

"That is not your seat," Remus said in a very calm voice.

Sirius tilted his head to one side. "Aren't you going to sit with James and me today?"

"No, I'm not."

"But I thought we had fun yesterday."

Remus didn't answer and slithered a bit farther away from Sirius. The text about transforming beetles into spoons looked very interesting.

"Remus," Sirius poked him on the shoulder. Remus moved farther away. Sirius poked him on the shoulder again. "Remus! Wasn't yesterday fun?"

Remus stared at the words in the book, but Sirius kept poking and poking until he just broke. "Yes, I did! All part of your plot, I assume. Entertain poor, lonely Remus until he trusts you, then just leave him behind so he can get in trouble!"

Sirius blinked, allowing the words to sink in. "Did someone catch you?" he said.

"Detention, Sirius!" Remus yelled. "My mother is going to kill me!"

"Over one detention?"

"Yes! Now if you'd please just leave me alone, I'd appreciate it."

"But don't you want to sit with-"

"No!" Remus said, slamming his book shut. "What I want is for you to leave me alone. I don't want to be your friend."

Something shattered deep inside Sirius. He felt a prickle in the corner of his eye. Remus turned his head away and opened his book again, appearing to read it. When Sirius touched his shoulder he flinched, and Sirius took the hand away.

Then out of Remus's lips came a miserable, whispered plea. "Just leave me alone, Sirius, please."

Sirius's determination wavered, and then he fled to the other side of the room where James was.

"What's wrong, Sirius?" James asked after Sirius had sat down beside him. Sirius opened his mouth, muttered something then closed it again.

"Could you repeat that?" said James.

"Remus," Sirius said in a shaky voice, "Remus got detention because of me, and now he doesn't want to talk to me anymore."

"Well, that's a pity," James said, and Sirius thought it didn't sound very truthful but shrug it off anyway. "Just let it go, Sirius. He's just too much of a bookworm."

"Don't call him that," Sirius whispered.

"What?"

"You heard me. Don't call Remus a bookworm."

James opened his mouth for a moment then closed it again. He and Sirius didn't talk for the rest of the class.

~~~

By lunchtime no one was happy. Remus ignored Sirius's every attempt to talk to him, and Sirius and James were not speaking at all. Sirius was moping and tended to snap at anyone who asked him something, especially the girls. He had to fix things, first and foremost with James. He wasn't about to let two years of friendship down the drain. But he would wait, wait and give James some time to cool off. There was another thing he could do first.

After lunch he searched the castle high and low until he found Professor Urran, the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher and head of Slytherin. The man wasn't particularly hate-worthy, but he was still from Slytherin, and it didn't take much for a non-Slytherin to push him over the edge.

"What do you want, Mr. Black?" Professor Urran said with a croak.

Sirius just smiled, opened his mouth and said, "You're an ugly git."

~~~

James was sitting alone in the Great Hall when Sirius slumped down beside him, grabbed a plate and served himself some dinner. "We need more stink bombs when we go to Hogsmeade next weekend." James didn't say anything so Sirius continued, "We also need more acid popsicles to give to the first years."

James chuckled. "Don't forget the blood-flavored lollipops that we can pass as cherry flavored ones," he said with a grin.

They laughed together. Just like that, their feud was over.

Ten minutes later they were talking about the issue at hand.

"So Remus got detention because of you?" James asked.

Sirius nodded.

"And now he's not talking to you?"

Sirius nodded again.

"And you don't like that?"

Sirius shook his head.

"You really do have a crush," James whispered.

"What?"

"Nothing," James countered innocently. "Anyway, do you have any sort of plan on how to approach him?"

Sirius grinned. James just rolled his eyes. He should have known.

~~~

Remus knocked on McGonagall's office door at exactly seven o' clock in the evening and waited until he was asked to come in. He went inside the room and almost froze when he saw that Professor McGonagall wasn't alone as he had expected. Sirius Black sat facing her from a chair.

"Please sit down, Mr. Lupin," said Professor McGonagall in a tired voice as she pointed toward the empty chair beside Sirius. "I don't think the back of Mr. Black's head is that interesting." Remus strode quickly to the chair and sat down, not even sparing a glance at Sirius. "For tonight's detention," Professor McGonagall started after Remus had sat down, "I don't think we need to bother any professors since it's only the two of you, so you'll both report to Mr. Filch on the third floor corridor. Let's make it clear that I don't wish to see you wandering the halls past curfew again, Mr. Lupin" - Remus lowered his head - "and you, Mr. Black," she said, turning to Sirius, "I don't ever want another professor coming to me with a claim that you've just insulted him!" Sirius nodded. McGonagall looked at the two boys. "Go on, then," she ordered. "Try not to end up here again, especially you, Mr. Black."

The two boys fled McGonagall's office with a little rush to their pace and headed quickly out of the vicinity of Gryffindor Tower and down the hall that would take them to the third floor, where McGonagall said they would find Filch.

Remus walked ahead. In a few hours it would all be over. No more detentions, no more Sirius Black, no more threats by Sirius Black's best friend. Just one hall left. He could see the stairs now.

"Remus?"

Remus kept walking. His mother did have that saying: 'If someone is bothering you, just ignore them.' And he had already gotten in trouble once because of Sirius; he was not going to be taken for a fool twice. 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.' Wasn't that what they said?

"Hey, Remus."

Keep walking.

"Remus. I need to talk to you."

Just keep walking.

A firm grip snatched his arm and forced Remus to a halt. Sirius was suddenly in front of him, his face less than a foot away from Remus's. Remus noticed that Sirius had grey eyes.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said bluntly.

"You left me behind," Remus accused, shaking Sirius's arm off.

"I thought you were right behind me."

"Did you even bother to look if I was?"

"Er, no."

Remus walked off again. He had just finished climbing the stairs to the third floor when Sirius caught up with him again. The taller boy leaned over his shoulder and spoke in his ear while Remus kept walking. "I said I was sorry," he murmured.

Remus had to conjure all his strength to ignore the softly spoken words, and then Sirius grabbed his hand and held him back. "I even got myself into detention."

"McGonagall said you insulted a teacher."

"Professor Urran. Walked right up to him and called him an ugly git."

Remus suddenly had an odd look on his face, and for a second Sirius feared that Remus didn't approve of his method. Then suddenly Remus was laughing, so hard that he had to cover his mouth, and soon after Sirius joined him. They laughed at Professor's Urran's expense until Filch appeared, cursing under his breath and muttering something about irresponsible students.

~~~

Detention, Remus discovered, was not as awful as everybody claimed it to be, assuming, of course, that one had the right company. Cleaning pots and pans by hand was tiring indeed, but Sirius's behavior and jokes made up for the labor. As part of their detention, they had to wash one hundred dishes, dry them, and put them on a table where the Hogwarts elves would pick them up later. Sirius washed the dishes then handed them to Remus, who dried them with a piece of cloth and then placed them on the designated table.

"So, how many times have you done this?" Remus asked after they had settled into a comfortable pace of washing and drying.

"Wash dishes? My mom makes me do it all the time. I think she hates me-"

Remus let out a soft chuckle. "No," he said, "I mean detention, on purpose."

"Oh," Sirius grinned, "I usually tend to avoid it most days," he said jokingly, and Remus laughed heartily.

"Can't wait for tomorrow so James can actually meet you," Sirius said suddenly. "He was angry at me because I ignored him the other day."

"Angry?" Remus said in a slightly worried voice. He remembered his encounter with James the night before.

"A little, but we're okay now. We cleared things up."

Remus thought about telling Sirius about what James had said to him, but didn't. "My parents will have a riot when they find out I talked to you."

"Why?" Sirius asked as he gave Remus another plate to dry.

"I told them about the time you and James got caught for flying your brooms all over the castle after midnight. I think my mother's exact words were, 'That's very irresponsible. I don't want you to socialize with boys like that," he imitated in a motherly voice.

"You're doing the exact opposite she told you to do!" Sirius laughed. "But really, James and I aren't that bad. We just like to have fun, sometimes at other people's expense." He said the last line with a bit of guilt. "But we never intend to be mean on purpose."

Remus looked at him skeptically as Sirius gave him a large pot to dry. Remus carried the pot over to the table with great difficulty, and by the time he returned to Sirius's side there where two more plates waiting for him.

"Stupid Muggle water thingies," Sirius muttered under his breath. "My hair's getting all wet!"

Remus laughed.

"You think that's funny?"

"Very," Remus answered. There was a grin on Sirius's face, and Remus was still laughing. Sirius took the small pot he'd just cleaned, filled it with some water and threw the contents at Remus, soaking most of his head.

"Sirius!" bellowed Remus as he stood back, water dripping down his face.

"Still think it's funny?" Sirius taunted mischievously.

Remus glared, pushed Sirius aside as he took the pot from him, let it fill with water and threw it at Sirius before the boy had a chance to stop him. Sirius, with water droplets running down his face, lunged forward.

It took them an extra hour to finish their task.

As they walked up to Gryffindor tower, soaked from head to toe, Sirius hummed a song happily and Remus, Remus was convinced that detentions were overrated and that Sirius Black could be his first real friend.