Remus didn't know what Sirius and James were up to, but he knew he wanted no part of it. He had NEWTS to study for, and Prefect's duties to attend to. Plus this one appeared to be engineered almost entirely by Sirius, which meant it would be even more off the walls than usual. Sirius's pranks and adventures held just a hint of desperation these days. Probably the stress of his family situation (well, lack thereof now), and the rift he'd inadvertently carved between them with his prank?
The relationship was a little strained even now. Though Remus had forgiven him Sirius seemed unable to stop apologizing in his way, and still walked on eggshells around him at times, especially when they were planning pranks.
So Remus made no attempt to punch through their silencing spells when he saw light leaking out from their bedcurtains in the middle of the night, and was careful not to intrude when they were whispering together in the halls or the common room. He did make their animated note-monsters combust when they started getting too brazen about it. The very fact that they were excited enough to be plotting this consistently and exuberantly meant that it was big news.
He didn't find out just how big until afterward. He woke shortly after dawn that morning and lay in bed for a moment trying to figure out what was wrong with the world. He sat up, rubbing sleep form his eyes and looking around. Dirty socks and rumpled uniforms scattered across the floor. A couple of half-eaten pastries filched from the kitchens. Peter wheezing away in his bed-that was it. No snoring. Sirius snored like a rusty chainsaw and his silencing spells tended to wear off in the early morning, which had occasioned more than a few vigorous pillow bludgeonings. James wasn't much quieter when asleep, and he was even noisier when he woke, usually quite early to get in some flying before breakfast.
At the moment there wasn't a sound from either of them. Clearly he and Peter were the only ones her at the moment. He padded softly to the bathroom, his thoughts mulling around lazily in his head as he brushed his teeth and showered. Rather clever actually, if you were going to sneak off. Do it before being up and about in the castle would equal being out of bounds, and drift back to the castle before breakfast when if caught you could simply say you were out for an early morning walk. Not that it was likely they'd be caught, presumably having the map and James's cloak. But still? And maybe they'd gone off without the map and cloak this time, to hone their skills or some such nonsense.
He left the bathroom in a cloud of steam and almost tripped over one of Sirius's black motorcycle boots. Apparently he would soon have the opportunity to ask what they'd been up to, but he still wasn't sure he wanted to know. He sighed and shook his head, getting dressed and going down to breakfast.
As it turned out he didn't have to ask. He could tell Sirius was dying to tell him, though James looked less-than-eager. Sirius sent him note-monsters in every class they had together, most of them some variation on: I have something Very Important to tell you after class, so you better be around. When History of Magic finally ended Sirius escorted him � la an armed guard back to their dormitory with James rolling his eyes at Sirius's antics but nevertheless following after him.
"All right, all right! I'm here, I?m listening, what is it?" Remus burst out as soon as the dormitory's heavy door swung shut behind them.
"We snuck out last night and went to London!" James said, looking almost unbearably smug about it.
"...You... where did you go? You were out all night?" Even Remus, well-acquainted with most of their shenanigans, was surprised at this.
"We went all over. We hopped around a bunch of different pubs-"
"Sirius is even more of a drunk than I knew,?"James grinned.
"It runs in the family. We went to some clubs too, heard some great muggle bands!"
"If you call that shite music," James said sourly.
"You?ve just got your panties in a bunch because your favorite song was ripped off from muggles!" Sirius shot back, smirking. James colored angrily but remained silent, trying to look as if he couldn?t? care less about it.
"And you?ll never believe it Remus! One of the clubs we went into just had men! Like, they were half-dressed and grinding together and everything!" And Sirius burst out laughing while James drew in on himself slightly.
"...You went into a, a-?!" Remus's jaw dropped.
"Sirius made us stay in there for almost an hour! What a waste!" James tried to scoff but only came out looking embarrassed.
"You can't fool around with birds anyway, you're with Evans!" Sirius replied, exasperated.
"You went to a gay bar-a gay club! I can't believe you guys would go there! You have dirty minds!"
"Hey, I-" James shouted but Sirius shoved him off the bed before launching himself at Remus, slinging an arm around his neck playfully.
"But you do too, so it?s okay right?" Sirius grinned, speaking practically into his ear. Remus tried to ignore the feel of his breath tickling the hair on his neck, and told himself firmly that there was no note of hopeful uncertainty in Sirius's voice. He sighed.
"I suppose there must be some reason I still put up with you," he said, feigning resignation but unable to keep the slight small of his face.
"There's my Moony!" Sirius clapped him on the back before removing his arm, leaving a cold spot across his shoulders. He flopped down across the bed to peer down at James who was still on the floor.
"Do you have any idea how horrifying it is under your bed?" he said lightly, peering to the left.
"No-"
"And he doesn't want to, and kindly, neither do I" Remus said, firmly ending that line of conversation.
"Help me with my Astronomy essay, Moony?" James asked, finally picking himself off the floor, dusting off the seat of his pants.
"Why don't you ask Lily to help?"
"She doesn't really help," he whined
"You mean she doesn't let you copy, you lazy bastard. Do your own Astronomy, Moony and I have business to attend to," Sirius said, grinning mischievously. Remus's stomach dropped down to his shoes. Sirius grabbed his wrist and pulled him along down the stairs, through the common room, out the portrait hole
"Where are we going, and what business must we attend to?" Remus finally asked, getting more nervous by the minute.
Sirius finally pulled him behind a tapestry that happened to conceal a little-known staircase. "We stayed for almost an hour because I met a boy there."
He didn't want to hear this, he really didn't want to hear this. A painfully clear and garishly bright image of Sirius and some handsome young muggle frantically making out, Sirius with his head thrown back, another boy's lips running down his neck?
"He said I had a nice tie," Sirius said. The vision in his head abruptly collapsed. Ties? He was speechless for a moment.
"You were talking with a muggle boy in a gay bar for an hour about ties?" He couldn?t even imagine how confused he looked.
"He said he recognized my tie actually. He'd seen another boy in club with the same tie," Sirius said, leaning toward him slightly, head tilted, looking at him intently with raised eyebrows.
"Really?" Sirius was obviously waiting for him to say more.
"He wanted to know what school I went to, because the boy used to come into the club every once in awhile, and he hadn?t seen him around lately." Sirius paused significantly, but Remus was looking down at his feet, feeling choked. "He wanted to look up that boy. He asked if I knew him too, he had sandy hair, brown eyes, about the same height as you, and he had a light scar across his face? Kind of like this one," Sirius said softly, reaching out slowly to trail his finger across his scar. Remus flinched away and breathed in sharply.
"Yeah. You?re right, okay? I went to some clubs a couple of times over the summer," Remus said quietly.
"You never told me you liked boys too," Sirius said.
"What does it matter that- what?" He looked up sharply to find Sirius frowning down at him, his face perilously close.
"We didn't spend an hour talking about ties, Moony. We were talking about you. He told me all about you, like he couldn't stop thinking about you. Apparently that boy and I are alike in more than looks, aren't we?"
For a moment they just looked at each other, then just when Remus was starting to think he would die if something didn?t happen, Sirius leaned down and kissed him.
And he remembered with startling clarity why he'd stopped going to that club and making out with a boy who only looked like Sirius, because nothing compared to the real thing.
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