The Complications of Falling in Love with your Best Friend

Chapter 8 - You're All Mine.

I feel so extraordinary - something's got a hold on me.

I get this feeling I'm in motion - a sudden sense of liberty.

~ ~ ~

"Well," said Sirius, yawning widely. "I'm off to bed."

"We'll be up in a bit," muttered James, frowning darkly at the parchment in front of him. "Damned Charms coursework," he added, prodding it resentfully with the tip of his quill.

"You done yet Peter?"

"Not yet," Peter replied, his brow furrowed anxiously. He groaned in despair. "I'm still missing twelve inches!"

"Remus?"

Remus smiled at Sirius, who was very nearly pouting at him. He knew Sirius wanted him to come upstairs, where they would have the dormitory to themselves. It was rare to find such moments of peace as both Sirius and Remus had agreed not to tell anyone about their relationship just yet. Remus was getting slightly worried at the prospect of having to sneak around but he didn't think he was quite ready to announce his 'news' yet. He shifted away from Sirius, who was currently leaning towards him with puppy-dog eyes, an arm draped on the back of the sofa.

"Sorry, Padfoot," he said with sincere regret. "I promised Peter I'd help him finish the essay."

"Yeah," said Peter, not looking up and so missing the longing gaze Remus and Sirius were sharing.

"Fine," sighed Sirius resignedly. "I'll see you all later." And without thinking, he leaned forward and dropped a quick kiss on Remus' cheek.

Face burning, Remus pushed him away abruptly. Realisation dawned on Sirius' face and he stared, horrified, at Remus.

"What the hell?"

Remus turned sharply to face James who was staring from one to the other, a look of mingled confusion and shock on his face.

Sirius was the first to recover. "Night, Remus!" he said quickly. He stood up and strode over to James and Peter, giving them both quick kisses on their cheeks. Ignoring the way his friends stared at him as though severely concerned for his mental health, Sirius gave a cheery wave and a wink before wishing them all a good night and striding purposefully towards the dormitory stairs.

There was a very, very long pause.

"What's got into him?" Peter suddenly yelped, his face rather pale. James meanwhile was frantically scrubbing at the spot where Sirius had kissed him with the edge of his robe, emitting strange gurgling sounds.

"I mean, what the bloody hell was all that about?" Peter said, looking alternately at the stairs where Sirius had just gone up and Remus who was sitting silently, nervously pulling at strands of his hair.

"Well," he said, anxiously chewing his lip. "It's late... he's tired... he does sometimes act a little strange under lack of sleep."

"That was more than a little strange," said James frowning. "It's the Slytherins, I just know it." He punched a fist into his palm. "That's it! Those bastards must've spiked his drink with something tonight... oh, wait 'til I get them, they'll pay, those slimy gits..."

Remus rolled his eyes as James continued his stream of incoherent grumbling. "I'm going up," he said loudly. "You can finish the essay yourself, right Peter?"

"Well..."

"Excellent. I'll see you all later." With that, Remus made a hasty exit towards the dormitories.

He knocked softly on the polished oak doors before entering soundlessly. It was dark in the dormitory, except for a thin stream of moonlight filtering through the frosty windowpanes casting dancing shadows on the carpet.

"Hey," said Remus simply as he slid down next to Sirius who was sitting cross-legged on his bed.

Sirius turned and grinned somewhat apologetically. "I know, that was stupid and thoughtless of me."

Remus grinned back. "Don't worry about it. Your unusual behaviour has been put down to poisoning, lack of sleep or insanity."

Sirius let out a short laugh. "We'll go for the insanity part then. It's far more convincing."

There was a silence.

"Are we insane?" asked Sirius quietly.

"I don't know," mused Remus. "This whole situation is pretty crazy."

"I'm crazy about you."

Remus' breath caught in his throat. "I'm crazy about you too," he finally said.

"So let's not give a shit whether we're crazy or not, because all that matters is us being crazy about each other, right?"

"Right..."

"...You don't sound convinced."

Remus sighed. "It would be a lot easier if we just told people. Then we wouldn't have to sneak around all the time."

"I know, I hate it too... we'll tell them soon, promise. Think you can hold it in 'til then?"

Remus laughed humourlessly. "I have spent the last twelve years of my life lying and covering up about being a werewolf. I think I can last another few weeks for this."

Sirius gave him a quick comforting hug. "That's settled then. And I'll try and think before I do stuff... I don't fancy having to kiss James and Peter every time I slip up. Can you imagine if I'd kissed you on the lips?" He suppressed a shudder.

"Well that'll teach you to think before you act," Remus said, grinning. "However," he continued as he inched closer to Sirius, "if you had kissed either of them, I would have been very angry."

"How angry?"

"Very, very angry."

"Is that so?"

"Oh yes, you're all mine now. I won't share you with anyone else."

"Possessive, are we?"

"Very. You're mine, Sirius Black."

And before Sirius could make any sort of comeback, witty or otherwise, Remus had pushed him backwards, slid over him and pressed his lips up to Sirius' in a passionate kiss which left no room for doubt that Sirius definitely was all Remus'.

***

"Good morning, all!"

It was Monday morning and Sirius Black came bounding up to the Gryffindor table, a wide grin stretching across his face. "Beautiful day isn't it? Absolutely marvellous!"

Remus looked up towards the ceiling of the Great Hall, and was amused to see thick grey rain clouds swirling menacingly above their heads.

"Hi..." said Peter warily, evidently afraid that Sirius was going to kiss him again.

"Oh, don't worry Wormtail," said Sirius cheerily. "I'm not going to do anything, don't look so terrified."

"Are you going to tell us what all that was about yesterday?" asked James, looking expectantly at Sirius.

Sirius gave an almost imperceptible glance towards Remus before speaking. "Oh that was nothing. Just a little joke. You all looked so bloody bored with that Charms work I thought I'd liven up the atmosphere a bit."

"Well next time you decide to liven up the atmosphere try to refrain from doing so on my cheek and just stick to a sensible prank on the Slytherins or something."

"Righty-o, Prongs!" said Sirius still obstinately cheerful. "I'll remember that." He began buttering his toast, whistling somewhat tunelessly. Remus couldn't help smiling. Sirius' good moods were infectious.

"You're cheerful today," Peter remarked.

Sirius dropped his toast in mock astonishment. "What an observation Peter! Your powers of perception shall never cease to amaze me."

Peter blushed slightly. "I meant..."

"The correct thing to ask me, Peter, is why am I cheerful today," said Sirius munching on his toast.

"So why are you? It's Monday morning and we've got two hours of History of Magic first thing."

Sirius put down his toast and stretched contentedly. "Because, Wormtail my friend, I just had the most wonderful dream." He looked down almost lazily at Remus, his gaze shielded from the others by his long eyelashes.

"What about?" asked James curiously.

"That," said Sirius grinning mischievously, "is none of your business."

"Aha," said James, "being mysterious, eh? Must be someone he fancies."

Sirius closed his eyes and put a hand to his forehead, sighing theatrically. "Prongs, you know me so well."

"So who is she?"

"Who?"

"The girl."

"What girl?"

"In your dream."

"Who said there was a girl?"

"You did!"

"Didn't."

"As good as."

"But not quite."

"..."

"..."

"So who is she?"

"Who?"

"THE GIRL!"

"What girl?"

"ARGH!"

James and Sirius continued to bicker like this for a while before Peter finally stopped them with a well-aimed flick of porridge that spattered James' glasses, causing him to yelp in surprise. Overcoming his initial shock, James retaliated by shooting pieces of toast directly at Peter's forehead. Clumsily, Peter tried to throw more food at James but only succeeded in showering some fifth years further down the table. Soon, a small-scale but intense battle broke out at the Gryffindor table as students threw a variety of breakfast condiments at each other while trying to avoid being caught by the professors. Toast, bacon, egg, cereal and the occasional potato flew through the air. In the general mess and confusion that followed, Remus, Sirius, James and Peter quietly slipped out before they could be assumed responsible. The Marauders did have a reputation preceding them as being the official troublemakers and they were working hard to perfect their pranking skills to make them untraceable and thus avoiding being proven guilty. This was a project James was working on with energy and motivation as it was becoming harder to be the troublemaker with his head-boy status.

As they left the scene of commotion without a single reprimand from a teacher and made their way towards their first class, Sirius laughing loudly all the way, Remus smiled to himself. It was shaping up to be a very good day.