Adunatio

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Day Three

Remus awoke to someone saying his name, very lightly, right in front of him. It was a whisper, even the ghost of one, but Remus had always been a pretty light sleeper.

He opened his eyes, waiting until they adjusted to the darkness, and found Sirius' nose almost touching his own. Sirius' eyes were open also, and by the faint sunlight creeping in through the slight gap in the curtains, Remus could only see blackness in those eyes. Blackness, surrounded by a very slim ribbon of blue, and Remus slowly realized that Sirius' pupils were dilated. Probably the darkness...

A curious feeling was settling around the front of his left thigh. Something like...wetness. Gasping, Remus drew himself backwards, and accidentally fell out of bed. Some shifting came from above, and Sirius' head poked itself over the side, pushing the curtain outwards.

"I'm sorry!" Sirius actually sounded embarrassed, though his voice was quiet, so as to not wake their friends up. "I can't help it, Remus. Not when you're right there, and all I can smell and see..." He cut himself off abruptly, but he had already said enough. Remus looked up at him from the floor, astonished.

"I...you..." Remus couldn't get words out. Sirius had wanked off to the sight of him? This meant...

"I mean, a warm body was next to mine," Sirius said then, seeming to correct himself. "I was dreaming about Gwynne Osmer, you know, Lily's friend, and I guess my body just...reacted to the feeling of someone being next to mine." Remus made himself nod, but he didn't believe his friend. Not when Sirius had whispered HIS name. But his nod seemed to relax Sirius.

Reaching out a hand, Sirius smiled down at him. "Come on, it's only four in the morning. You're probably still tired after last night." They had worked on the essays until about midnight, way past the time when everyone else had gone to bed. Remus had helped Sirius with his, since Sirius couldn't write anything legibly with his left hand.

Remus allowed himself to be pulled up, his thigh still wet, and a wet spot on the bed itself made him weary. But he WAS tired. He made himself ignore the wetness as he looked into his friend's face. "I thought you went to Hogsmeade with her that one time," he said. "Didn't anything come of it? She said that you two...you know."

Sirius sighed. "No, we didn't do anything. She went with me, but ended up going back to the castle with that bloke who finished a year before us-red hair, really tall...remember him? The Hufflepuff?"

"Mmm. Ricky Darwin. He was a right sod, wasn't he?" Remus smirked. "That prat thought I was talking to one of his girlfriends once, and he threatened to hex me. Got sent home for suspension a week later, after he threw that Dungbomb at the Slytherins during breakfast one day, right in sight of the teachers."

"Yeah, I couldn't stand him." Sirius looked closely at Remus. "I never knew he threatened you. Why didn't you say something?"

Remus smiled at the familiar-sounding protectiveness in his friend's voice. "I can take care of myself, Sirius. Besides, he didn't end up doing anything." He shifted so that his head lay more comfortably on the pillow. "Sorry he stole your girl."

"Nah, she wasn't my girl," Sirius replied. "I just thought she was hot."

"She was," Remus agreed. He could smell the evidence of Sirius' earlier action, but he chose not to mention it. "I slept with Naylia."

"What?"

"Naylia Thatcher. I'm answering the question that you asked last night in the showers." Remus felt a little more open, which was why he decided to tell Sirius. "It was last year, when we were dating."

Sirius sounded astonished. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Remus shrugged. "Like I said, it wasn't your business. Plus, I didn't want to say last night because...well, it didn't seem appropriate to be standing naked next to another naked boy, talking about shagging a girl."

"And now, laying in bed next to me after I've wanked off, it IS appropriate?" Sirius asked, his voice light. "Was she the only one? How many times did you shag her?"

Remus laughed a little. "Yes, she was the only one. And I only slept with her a few times."

"Did you...like it?" Remus thought the question sounded a little forced. He thought back to one of those nights, in her own dorm room, in her bed, the sweat, the feel of her breasts pressed up against him, and way her legs had wrapped around his hips so tightly that he could hardly move.

"Yes. What's not to like about sex?" Remus had felt almost completely satisfied after every time, but there had been something...missing. He never found out what that was. Perhaps love? He never loved her. He just...liked her a lot. She had finished school, and didn't return his owled letters during the summer holiday. He had never heard from her after that.

"I've shagged three people," Sirius said suddenly. Remus was startled. The way Sirius bragged about it, he would have thought that Sirius had the run of the entire school. Everyone usually looked upon Sirius as being a bit of a lad.

"Who were they?" He actually found that he was quite curious.

"Erm...well." Sirius seemed embarrassed. "There was Robyn, first."

Remus grinned. "You were going out with her in Fourth Year!"

"Yes, it was then." Sirius smiled back at him. "It was so awkward, too. Couldn't get into the right rhythm, and her knees were still kind of knobbly, and I was so much taller than her. It was strange."

Laughing lightly at the image in his head of a fumbling Sirius, Remus shook his head. "I never thought I'd hear you be the one to admit to having a not-so-perfect shag." Sirius laughed with him. "Who were the other two?"

Sirius stopped laughing. "Oh, well...I'll tell you some other time. It's kind of embarrassing." He wasn't looking at Remus now. "I promise I'll tell you later. I just have to...think about some things first."

Remus watched Sirius' face, the way the moonlight drifted in from the window, silvery light through their open bed curtains, illuminating the smoothness of skin. There was the slight hint of dark stubble on Sirius' square jaw and upper lip, and the shaggy, straight dark hair fell in a tangle across his forehead. Remus moved his gaze back to Sirius' eyes, which were still not looking back at him.

"You know you can trust me with anything," he said. Sirius looked at him, then.

"I know," came the whispered reply.

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"Ten inches of parchment on the properties of Melding Potions, to be handed in on Tuesday." Professor Wauldin walked across the front of the classroom, a smirk on his face as he glanced down to where Remus and Sirius were sitting. "And since you two are sharing a brain this week, it'll be twenty inches for you, to make it fair to the others."

Remus groaned. He'd have to write the whole thing himself, since Sirius was obviously not able to do so.

"What was that, Lupin?" Wauldin asked nastily. Remus looked up at him.

"I didn't say anything."

"Detention, Lupin. Monday night, seven-thirty, this classroom. And twenty points from Gryffindor for your cheek." Wauldin sneered. "And if your predicament is not resolved by then, Black may accompany you to get a head start on whatever detention he may get later on this year for one of his insolent pranks."

Remus opened his mouth to argue, but Sirius squeezed his wrist. The bell rang then, and Sirius half-pulled him up out of his seat in eagerness to leave.

"Ouch, Sirius!" Remus made a grab for his bag and swung it onto his shoulder, letting himself be dragged out of the room, around the still-sneering Professor, to join up with James and Peter, who were waiting. Sirius shot an apologetic but thin smile back at him.

James was biting his lip as they approached, a sure sign that he was holding in laughter. It was his trademark, the face he made when a prank had been pulled and he didn't want to be blamed. Peter, however, smiled full on.

"You two sure have been sticking around each other a whole lot, lately," Peter said, raising his eyebrows. James let out a snort, but recovered quickly as Remus glared.

"Glad to provide such entertainment for your pleasure," Sirius replied calmly, blowing a blast of air up to clear the hair out of his eyes. His hair didn't look as tidy as it usually did, and James pointed it out with a flicking finger. Sirius did not look amused.

"Watch it," Remus told James. "He's mad because I wouldn't help him tidy up his hair this morning, and he couldn't really do anything with it but run fingers through it one-handed. He's a bit put off."

"I'm not," Sirius argued. "You just think it's funny that you still have use of two hands, and I don't."

Remus huffed. "Yeah, I think it's HILARIOUS that I have to write twenty inches of a stuffy, sodding, bloody stupid essay on a potion that we already KNOW the dangers of."

"Settle down, you two," James leaned in, patting a glaring Sirius on the shoulder. "You can't be fighting this week. There's still, what, four more days to go after this one?"

Remus was about to tell James where to stick his four days when Lily showed up, grinning up at her boyfriend and letting him lean down to give her a quick kiss. She turned to Remus and Sirius.

"You know, I've been reading up on Melding potions," she told them. "I found a way to dispel the effects of the potion if human skin is involved-"

Remus whooped, interrupting. She shot him a look, the kind of look that a parent gives to a child to make them behave, and he cleared his throat, abashed. She continued.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I found a way to dispel the effects, a potion, but it has to be applied to the joined skin within three hours after the occurrence. Sorry." She gave Remus a sympathetic smile and wrapped her arm around James' waist. She looked up at him. "I have to get to my lesson, and so do you. I'll see you later, okay?" Giving another smile to Remus, Sirius, and Peter, she waved and trotted off down the hall.

"Well, you heard what she said," Peter said, leading them back to the dorms to exchange their books. "I wish she could have found that solution in the right amount of time. Do you reckon Wauldin knew about it?"

Remus snarled. "I'm sure he has a whole stock of it in his office." He felt a squeeze on his wrist, and turned to find Sirius watching him. "What?"

"You're snarling," Sirius told him.

"I don't snarl!" Remus snarled back. Sirius grinned. "What's so funny?"

"What're you so hacked off about?" Remus didn't answer the question, but instead dragged Sirius over to his bed as soon as they reached their room, getting out his things for Herbology.

The truth was, Remus had started feeling edgy since that morning. Nothing in particular happened, he thought. Sirius had snapped at him when he refused to help with hair styling, and the shower was once again awkward, and the lingering, pungent smell from the bed caused his head to ache. He was feeling twitchy, irritated, and confused. And the worst thing was, he wasn't even sure why.

He wasn't sure if he could survive the rest of the week from Hell.

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"Let's go outside for a walk," Sirius said to him later. It was evening, after Astronomy, and the common room was still crowded. Remus and Sirius were sitting at a table in the corner, playing chess, and Remus was losing spectacularly. At the thought of fresh air, he nodded and stood, suggesting the borrowing of James' Invisibility cloak to get outside without bringing the wrath of teachers down upon them.

When they got outside, hidden under the cloak and heavy winter robes made of wool, they headed towards the lake. Shimmering faint white light gleamed down upon the grounds around them, lit by the partially hidden half-moon, almost obscured by the clouds. The trees from the Forbidden Forest were black shadows in the distance, and the lake was an eerie calm, nothing breaking the smooth surface of the water.

Remus sat down next to Sirius, facing the lake, and slid the cloak off of them. Taking a deep breath, he felt himself relax. It had been a long, tiring day.

"I need a haircut," Sirius mumbled quietly, moving a lock out of his eyes with his left hand. Remus turned to look at the profile of his friend.

The length suits him. Remus moved his left hand, carefully, to the top of Sirius' head, feeling the black strands tangle around his fingers. "No, it's nice," he said. He separated his first finger and his middle finger, unknotting a snag. "The length adds more...I don't know. It adds something good to your face. It's better this way."

Sirius' eyes were closed, only wincing slightly when Remus tried to untangle some more strands. "Really? You don't think it makes me look like a girl?"

Smiling, Remus shook his head, even though Sirius wasn't looking at him. "You look completely masculine, I promise." A smile crept onto Sirius' lips, which made Remus watch them. "Besides, my hair's longer than yours. Am I girly-looking?"

"Of course not," Sirius barked a laugh, and then leaned his head closer to Remus' hand, his face becoming serious. "Remus..." The blue eyes opened, and the dark head turned towards him. Remus felt his stomach fluttering. It was similar to what he had felt the first time he had kissed a girl, but...strangely comforting, as well.

But...Sirius is a bloke! Remus jerked his hand away from Sirius' hair, and tore his eyes away to look out across the lake, staring at the tiny ripples in the water made by the slight wind. He scooted a little further away from the warmth of Sirius' body, and heard his friend sigh, but he didn't ask what was wrong.

Instead, they only sat for a moment longer before Remus steeled himself to look at Sirius again, and told him that he was tired. Nodding, Sirius stood, and helped Remus up, and the two of them wrapped the cloak around themselves, making their way back up to the castle, not exchanging another word.