The Complications of Falling in Love with your Best Friend

Chapter Nine - All Because of the Snow

Love is a flame that can't be tamed, and though we are its willing prey

My darling, we are not the ones to blame.

~ ~ ~

"Hey guys... guys! Wake up!"

Remus was woken early on Friday morning by a hand shaking him vigorously. Shivering slightly, he poked his head from beneath the covers to blink sleepily at the vague form of a messy-haired boy standing by his bed.

"'Lo James," he yawned. "What's up?"

"It's snowing, it's snowing!" James said, dancing excitedly from foot to foot as he roused the other inhabitants of the dormitory.

Remus smiled sleepily. James was still so very childish when it came to things like snow. Then again, Remus was also quite excited at the prospect of a snowy afternoon on the last day of school. When all the occupants of the dormitory had been woken up, they all made their way down to breakfast.

"Half day today!" Peter was saying happily, as the four warmed up over steaming bowls of porridge. "No Potions, and no Transfiguration!" Peter was notoriously bad at both of these subjects.

"Can't say I would have minded Potions," said Sirius disinterestedly. The Potions master was quite an acceptable teacher, and the darkness and fumes of the classroom meant that any conspicuous looks Remus and Sirius shared were shielded.

Peter shuddered. "There is absolutely nothing acceptable about Potions," he said, shaking his head. "It's a vile subject and I'm utter shite at it."

"Don't say that too loudly," interrupted James. "Snivellus is just over there. Don't want him to hear you insulting his favourite subject now, do you?"

"Potions isn't his favourite," said Sirius, "it's Defence Against the Dark Arts. Slimy git knows so much about the Dark Arts he can do the defence part no problem."

Neither James nor Sirius had bothered to keep their voices down, so Snape, passing by the Gryffindor table had heard every word. He sneered at them.

"Must be so tough for you, Black, and you, Potter," he said with cold malice, "to know I beat you in at least two subjects."

James scoffed. "Two subjects is nothing Snape, when I'm top in everything else. I'm naturally brilliant you see, while you have to bury yourself up to your abnormally large nose in the Dark Arts in order to get anywhere."

Snape scowled. "Watch it, Potter, or..."

"Or what?" Sirius said, almost lazily.

Snape didn't answer, but his face contracted with a flash of subtle triumph and a cold smile crept upon his lips as his gaze slid pointedly from Sirius to Remus and back again. Remus didn't like it at all. This wasn't the usual anger and scorn Snape showed them. This was something far more disturbing. Snape knew something.

"Or what?" Sirius repeated, all traces of laughter gone from his face.

Snape simply smirked and began to turn away. He was stopped when Sirius sprang up and seized him roughly by the front of his robes.

"Sirius!" said James, reaching over to grab Sirius' arm. Sirius shook him off and turned to face Snape, a look of hatred and contempt shared in equal measure between them.

"Sirius!" said Remus sharply.

Sirius clenched his teeth, but with a great effort let go of Snape.

"Funny, isn't it?" Snape said quietly, staring intently at Sirius. "You'll not do what your little friend tells you, but you'll obey the werewolf without question."

Sirius shook with anger, but he composed himself and stared back at Snape, shielding his discomfort with a glare. Snape stepped back and put on an air of disgust as he dusted off his robes where Sirius had grabbed them.

"I'd advise you not to touch me again, Black," he said dangerously, "or you may find things are revealed that you don't want revealed."

There was a pause during which both Snape and Sirius glared at each other, and Remus wondered who would be the first to break the contact. They seemed to be murdering each other with their very eyes, steel grey against stormy blue, tearing each other apart in their minds.

James laughed suddenly, causing Sirius to blink in surprise. He seemed to have forgotten where he was. "Your ominous words and dangerous airs don't scare us, Snape. Training for the theatre, are you? Enough of the melodrama. Don't you have anything better to do? First years to kick? Fluffy animals to torture?"

Snape didn't even reply. He just threw a contemptuous glance at Sirius and a sneer at Remus before striding away.

There was a silence.

"Come on guys!" said James after a pause. "It's only Snivellus for Merlin's sake. He can't do anything! Don't tell me you believed whatever rubbish he was on about? Revealing things or whatever... weird guy, dunno what the hell he was on about."

Remus thought he had quite a good idea of what Snape was talking about. He wasn't completely sure, and he wished his doubts were completely unfounded but the doubts were there all the same. He gave a quick glance to Sirius and resolved to speak to him that afternoon.

***

Classes finished at one o' clock that day and the pupils of all Houses and years were in high spirits. School robes were torn off, and warm clothing was thrown on. Hats, scarves, gloves and coats were found lying around various parts of various dormitories and were pulled on in haste. Bags and schoolbooks lay discarded and thoughts of homework were pushed to the far corners of the mind, in that convenient place where one places thoughts one willingly forgets. Laughter echoed through the stone corridors as pupils milling about poured onto the pristine snow in a blur of colour, and those who preferred to curl up by the roaring fires allowed themselves to be dragged along anyway. In short, the last day of term and the first moment of holiday freedom were embraced with laughter and fun, and any serious thoughts were instantly forgotten as the infectious Christmas Spirit descended upon Hogwarts.

"Hey guys, check it out!" James laughed.

"James, stop it," reprimanded Lily as she eyed her boyfriend warily. He had piled three huge snowballs on top of one another and was standing atop the precarious construction, flapping his arms madly to keep balance.

Sirius laughed. "You look really cool, mate."

"Don't I just?" said James, snapping into a pose.

"James, really, stop it," repeated Lily. "You're going to hurt..." But her words were cut short when James gave a sudden yelp as he slipped and came tumbling down onto Lily, shortly followed by the mass of snow that had crumbled from James' snowball creation.

Remus, Sirius and Peter laughed. In a tangle of limbs and a smothering of snow, Lily emerged, red-faced and furious.

"James, you absolute prat!" she said angrily, cuffing him round the head.

James spat out a mouthful of snow and grinned apologetically.

Lily glared at him. "You could have seriously hurt yourself!" She continued to rant. "So irresponsible... immature... honestly... why I never... can't believe it... stupid..." But once again her words were cut short by James. He suddenly lunged forward and pushed Lily backwards into the mound of snow and kissed her firmly on the mouth, effectively silencing her.

Remus and Sirius laughed. Lily soon forgot her anger and seemed solely concerned in the art of not removing her lips from James'. Peter smiled then walked off in search of an untouched area of snow to continue his building of a snowman that had been rudely interrupted when James stole the snowballs he had made. Further on, Nathalie and Jocelyn were chasing each other with enchanted snowballs and occasionally tackled each other into the snow, giggling madly. Seeing they were now as good as alone, Sirius grabbed Remus' arm and dragged him sideways towards the large tree by the lake.

"Sirius, I don't think..."

"Shh..." said Sirius. "No-one's going to miss us. Peter's off somewhere, James and Lily are busy and the rest of the world is too engrossed in having snowball fights to notice us."

Remus looked around. It was true; nobody seemed to be giving a second glance to anyone who wasn't their next target for a snowball attack. And in the white snow, with the hundreds of pupils milling around in a myriad of colours, who would notice two lone figures huddled by a tree? Suddenly feeling incredibly happy Remus laughed out loud and ran over the snow, skidding and kicking it as he went. He bent down and scooped up a handful, throwing it into the air and letting the freezing clumps rain down on him. He shivered as a fragment of ice slid down his face and onto his neck, reaching the warm skin smothered by a scarf. It tickled him slightly and he began to laugh again, scooping up more snow, throwing it into the air and spinning around as it fell onto him. He felt very childish, but there was such an appeal in just letting go of all constraints and restrictions and regressing into a state where he could laugh at something that was nothing and smile at the simple fascination of a snowflake.

Remus fell to the ground, dizzy but curiously elated. He closed his eyes as he felt the cool flakes melt soothingly on his heated skin and he let their icy drips linger on his cheeks before he brushed them away with a gloved hand. He opened one eye to glance up at Sirius, a dark figure standing above him framed by the dazzling white reflection of sun on snow.

"Sirius?"

Sirius dropped down beside Remus, an almost melancholic smile on his lips. Remus propped himself up on his elbows.

"Sirius, what is it?"

Sirius looked down. "It's nothing..." He grinned. "I guess I'm just going a bit sentimental in my old age."

Remus pushed him playfully. "What do you mean?"

Sirius waved a hand in the general direction of the grounds, sparkling under their snowy canopy. "This is just... well it's so... nice, you know? And you, here... you're happy... and I'm happy. All because of the snow."

"Not just the snow," Remus said, lying back down and smiling at Sirius. He closed his eyes partially and the sun filtered through his wet eyelashes, the rays forming pearly patterns that were imprinted in vivid colour on the back of his eyes. He opened his eyes again and wished he could burn Sirius' beautiful form onto the back of his eyes forever. "I'm happy because you're here."

Without a reply, Sirius rolled over Remus and brought his face to his. When their lips met, they were cold and cracked but neither cared. Sirius pushed his mouth on Remus' with all the intensity and longing that had built up over the seemingly endless days of not being together as they wished. Remus' chapped lip split and a small trickle of blood seeped through. He felt a slight sting as Sirius' salty tongue ran along the cut.

"Vampire," Remus murmured.

"Werewolf," Sirius returned.

"Idiot," Remus said affectionately, drawing Sirius closer.

The snow that slowly melted from under them seeped through Remus' clothes and froze his skin, though he barely noticed it.

Why did he need a coat anyway, when all the warmth he ever needed was from Sirius' embrace?