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angstymarauder · 3 years

Text

Arch Enemies {M.M}

Marlene McKinnon x Female!reader ; marauders era

summary: where two long-time rivals realize how thin the line between love and hate really are after an unfortunate quidditch incident.

word count: 3.4k ish

contains: angst, fluff, a heated kiss?, side of wolfstar,

a/n: i didn’t re-read it bc I'm lazy. Also if people could drop some wlw angsty harry potter recs that would be phenomenal.

· · · ∞ · · · · · · ∞ · · · · · · ∞ · · · · · · ∞ · · ·

Marlene McKinnon has been your rival since as far back in your Hogwarts years as you can remember. Always at each other’s heads. Always a competition between the two of you. Always striving to be better than the other.

The two of you made just about everything a competition. Chess Matches. Pranking. Grades. Eating. Walking. Detentions (you almost got kicked out of Hogwarts that year.)

Anything that could somehow be made competitive, you two competed. And while you tended to beat her with grades, she often beat you in things that took place outside of the classroom.

The Marauders, apparently, have been placing bets and keeping track of your wins against one another. Lily even claims that one time she walked into their room unexpectedly and caught them writing on a poster on their wall that had both your names in big letters on each side and a series of tallies below each with dates and event names on the bottom, but as soon as they saw her one of them casted a spell to make it disappear.

This year was no different. You knew it was stupid to believe that maybe, just maybe, you’d be able to try out for the quidditch team without Marlene fighting you for the same spot. You have no real desire to be on the quidditch team, quite honestly, but your older siblings play quidditch, your parents played quidditch, your aunts, your uncles, your cousins, your grandparents, your great-grandparents.

You have a quidditch family and you do not want to can not disappoint them.

The hope that Marlene may leave you alone for this one was shattered, as you expected it to be, when you walk into the team's locker room, a bag of quidditch gear in your hand. “Y/L” Marlene spoke as soon as her eyes met yours. Her eyes widened more than usual, a change most people don’t notice, but then again, you’re not most people. You know Marlene better than anyone else, you’ve memorized the meaning of every look in her eyes, every curve of her lips, every flick of her hands. You know her brain, how she works, what she is thinking, for the most part at least because right now you found yourself momentarily confused by the surprise lacing her voice. Why is she so surprised? Did she not expect you to be there? Your thoughts are cut short when the blonde standing at the other side of the room clears her throat in an attempt to reactive her favorite tone of voice when speaking to you, cockiness, “you going for the beater position too?”

“Yea,” you respond, walking over to one of the lockers.

“May the best player win,” you continued unpacking your bag, putting on the final touches to your uniform, but you didn’t need to look at her to know that she was smirking as she spoke, you could hear it clear enough in her voice.

She awaited a snarky response from you, you know that, but you didn’t want to waste your energy on a catfight right now. Your anxiety is already through the roof, there is enough pressure on you at the moment that you feel like your brain physically cannot handle any more conflict, so you ignore her.

Her eyes burn holes into your body as you continue to pull your knee pads on. Eventually, the door opens and you listen to her steps as she walks out of the locker room, closing the door with a slam and leaving you all alone.

It’s not long before you’re 100% ready for tryouts. You stare at yourself in the bathroom mirror for a moment before leaving. Taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm your nerves. Calm your mind. It helps a little bit, but maybe not enough.

· · · ∞ · · ·

“Y/L! Watch out!” is the last thing you hear before everything goes black.

The tryouts were going great, James was the captain this year and after stealing a glance at his little sheet, you could tell that you were going to beat Marlene out for this spot.

You should’ve been happier with that knowledge than you were, but somewhere deep down you almost wanted Marlene to beat you. This wasn't what you wanted and by the look in her eyes, you knew that this was what she wanted. A strange feeling arose in your chest each time she looked at you during tryouts, her eyes conveyed a message you hadn’t seen her wear yet and all you wanted to do was decode it. To understand why her eyes looked… sad? Almost. Like she knew you were going to beat her and she was upset about it. She’s never been upset before, always a team player. She took her losses as they came and just vowed to beat you next time. But for some reason… for some reason this was different.

· · · ∞ · · ·

Marlene’s Pov:

You looked so pretty. Flyaway hairs and a look of determination on your face as you swatted away Bludgers so effortlessly. She loved quidditch, but she wasn't as good as you. Jealous, not because you’ll win whatever competition the two of you are probably making out of this, but jealous because she knows she won’t get the position she’s been working her ass off for. Lost in thought she doesn't even notice the bludger coming towards her, luckily she hits it just in time, but then… Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Marlene watched as the bludger tumbled straight towards you, “Y/L! Watch out,” was all she could get in before it hit you right in the head.

· · · ∞ · · ·

The first thing you felt when you woke up was an intense pounding in your skill that caused an unconscious groan to leave your mouth. As you increasingly became aware your head began hurting more and more. You went to bring your hand up to rub your eyes in an attempt to wake yourself up when you felt another hand on yours. Opening your eyes only increased your headache, but the desire to know whose hand was holding yours overruled the pain. Their hand was soft, warm, it felt like … like home. That's the only word you could find in this pain-forsaken state to properly describe the feeling.

The blur of a person who held your hand made you think you were crazy. You found yourself blinking a few times in attempts to clear your vision, not initially trusting your eyes and barely trusting them now as you see Marlene McKinnon's hand, holding yours.

Marlene McKinnon.

Your arch-nemesis?

The one who practically hates you?

Yea… her.

What the fuck.

Why is she holding your hand… and why do you never want her to let go?

You can feel your lips curve up into an unconscious smile as you stare at the place where her hand connects with yours before roaming your eyes up to her figure to her sleeping face being held up by her other hand, elbow resting on her armchair next to your bed. She looks so peaceful, so beautiful, and you wonder why you’ve never noticed how gorgeous she was before. How her lips look so soft and her skin so smooth. The way the waning gibbous moonlight shines into the room from the large infirmary windows and lights her face up in a way you’ve never seen in before and in that moment you want nothing more than to stare at her face like that forever. You don’t even notice your other hand moving up to touch her face until you hear a voice whisper from a few beds over from yours. “Oh, you’re up.” Startled, you feel like you were just caught committing a crime and immediately pull your hand back to where it was before. Marlene shifts in her sleep from your quick movements and you’re watching this moment slip through your fingers, silently begging whatever runs the universe to let you stay in this moment just a little bit longer. Thankfully, they answer and Marlene stills, returning to her peaceful sleep. “Don’t worry, Lils says she sleeps like a log.”

You giggle at these words, turning to face Remus with a smile, “yea, she does. We can never get her up in the morning.” “It’s the same with Sirius. He never wants to wake up.” The two of you giggle quietly, afraid to wake up anyone in the castle this late at night, especially the girl sitting beside you. You talk about Remus first, asking if the full moon the night before was really that bad that Pomfrey made him stay overnight again and if he's okay. He assures you that he is fine and redirects the conversation to you, “What about you? Are you okay?”

“I don’t even know what happened to me,” you tell him, “or why my head hurts so much or why M-” you pause, now looking at the girl. You’re scared of speaking the words out loud, afraid it may reveal that her presence is only a dream or a figment of your imagination and that you will sound crazy if you speak about it.

“Or why Marlene is here, holding your hand.” Remus finishes your sentence.

“Or that.” you turn your gaze back to Remus, now wishing the moon was a little darker so your close friend can’t see the blush that is surely on your face.

“Well to answer your first questions,” started Remus, “You got hit with a bludger during tryouts, Marlene and Sirius rushed u in here while I was taking a nap - thanks for that by the way”

“Sorry” you giggled

“- and then Sirius went back to practice, as for McKinnon there, she refused to leave. I think she feels bad cause she's the one that hit you. Pomfrey said you probably have a concussion which means you can’t … well you can’t play quidditch this year.” You should be focusing on the quidditch part, it was something you were working so hard for, but you can’t stop your mind from trailing off to her. Is she only here because she feels bad? Or is there more to it? You hope it's more. You’re not sure when these feelings came to fruition, but they’re there now and you’re worried about getting your hopes up because it means risking yourself getting let down.

“I think she likes you,” you take a minute to process the werewolves' words, glancing between the blonde’s head and her hand.

“You think so?” you say with a hopeful smile.

“I think she’s liked you since first year and you’re just too oblivious to realize it,” you look up with him, your confused face causing a slight chuckle to leave his lips, “I’m observant, you know that but it's not that difficult to see how in love you two are, even though you act like you hate each other. I think she knows what she feels,” you both glanced at the girl, “and I think you just figured out what you feel.”

You smile at his words. “I think you’re right,” you admit, too tired to be stubborn and reject what your heart says is a fact.

“Just wait till January to tell everyone please, I have a bet going with the boys and- “ Suddenly the door to the infirmary opens, Remus goes quiet with confusion and Marlen begins to stir from the noise. She’s really waking up this time, you immediately close your eyes, unsure of what else to do or even say to her. You can feel her eyes on your face, her hand holding yours. “Good morning sleepyhead,” remarked Remus. You curse out his name in your head as you feel Marlene’s hand immediately rip out of yours. All you want to do is look at her face, read her mind. Was she embarrassed? Ashamed? Your mind went to the worst.

“How’s the girlfriend?” marked a new voice, Sirius. Of course. Who else would come to the infirmary this late other than Sirius to check up on Remus?

“She’s not my girlfriend.” remarked Marlene, her tone sending a brief stab of pain through your own heart, “I don’t even like her,” another stab.

“Yea, okay, and Moonys not my werewolf boyfriend.” You would’ve laughed, hearing the noises of Remus hitting Sirius in response to his words, but your mind was stuck on the words of the girl who was still standing close enough for you to feel the heat radiating off her body.

“I don’t like her,” she said, her words laced with annoyance and anger, “In fact, I hate her. We’re literally enemies.”

“Then why are you here then?” Remus rebutted, he probably meant to be helpful, but the words she spoke next only made your heart ache more.

“Because I’m not a monster! I hit her with the bludger and I felt bad. That’s it. Nothing else.” you were almost thankful when you started to hear her moving around, collecting her stuff, tears were threatening to spill out of your eyes and you didn’t want her to see. “I’m tired so I’m going, goodbye.” And with that you waited, listening to the sounds of her footsteps, getting quieter with each moment. You listened to the opening and closing of the infirmary door and only dared to open your eyes again once you could no longer hear the clicking of her shoes down the hallway.

“You okay?” Remus spoke first, witnessing the silent tears now streaming down your face. You wish you stayed asleep. You wish you never looked at her. Never let yourself feel something you knew she wouldn’t reciprocate. You curse yourself for believing Remus’ hopeful words.

“Fine,” you spoke quietly before turning to your side, the back facing the two boys who get to share the kind of romance you find yourself only able to dream about.

“M’Sorry,” you heard Remus whisper, before the weight of your head and your heart lulled you into a dreamless sleep.

· · · ∞ · · ·

You woke up to Madam Pomfrey's voice urging you awake. Her soft voice reminded you of your mother and made you want to curl up into her arms and cry, Marlene's words last night still resting their weight on your chest. “How are you this morning, love?” she asks, placing a plate of food on the bedside table, you're thankful that she doesn't mention the tear stains that probably made their home on your cheeks last night.

“M’fine,” you mumble, “better.”

“Good, good,” she smiles, handing you a glass of water that you didn’t realize how much you needed until the whole glass was gone in a minute and Madam Pomfrey had to fetch you a new one. “Took a big hit yesterday, that Miss McKinnon has a good arm.” You hum in agreeance, an attempt to not be rude to the elder in front of you, but hearing her name still hurts, the wound of her words still leaving scars on your heart that haven’t even begun to scab. “Speaking of the devil,” the nurse spoke, your head raising up to see Marlene's figure entering the curtain that surrounded your bed. Her hair looked so soft, messier than you usually see it, but you liked it. You couldn’t stop your eyes from travelling down her face, taking in her beauty while she was awake. Bags plagued her beautiful brown eyes, she didn't sleep much last night. Your gaze moved to her lips, the same lips that unknowingly cut scars along your heart mere hours ago. Memories from the night before that you had allowed yourself to forget for a moment returned as fast as they left, returning the heartache that accompanies them. Suddenly, you found the hem of your shirt more interesting, keeping your gaze and your hands on that. “I’ll leave you two alone,” spoke Madam Pomfrey, ignoring the tension-filled silence that laid in the air, “I’d like to keep you here for a little while longer but you should be discharged by dinner,” and with that she left the two of you alone, your breaking heart not even strong enough to look at her.

“Hey,” she spoke first, breaking the silence, but not moving from her spot where she stood at the end of your bed. “Sorry I hit you with a bludger,” she tried to joke, but the tension was too thick that it was just awkward.

“Why are you here?” you ask, a sudden surge of bravery coming from the anger that stems from your sadness.

“Wh-What?”

“Why are you here?” “Because I feel bad? Because I'm not a total bitch and I care about you?” she remarks.

“Why do you care?” your voice grows louder, angrier than you want it, but you’re too stubborn to stop speaking now. “I can’t play anymore, you got the spot on the team, didn’t you? “I mean you said it yourself we’re enemies, right? You hate me?” you continue, repeating her words from last night. “So isn’t this what you wanted? You won. You beat me. Congratulations.”

“So you were eavesdropping?” she asks, her tone attempting to stay angry, but her eyes revealing that look you’re slowly seeing more and more often.

“It’s not eavesdropping if I’m lying right there.”

“Merlin, y/n, I don’t hate you!”

“Liar.”

“You’re so stubborn,” she yells, getting closer to your face.

“If you don’t hate me then why would you say it?” You sat up, both your voices were raising, anger surging through the air.

“Because I don’t hate you! I love you,” she yelled, and then everything went quiet. She loves me? Only now did you realize how close your faces were. Her lips were inches from yours, your ragged breaths intermingled with one another, both of you already exhausted from your previous argument. You looked up from her lips to her eyes, just to find them already staring into yours.

“You what?” you whispered so low that only she could hear it.

“ I-” her eyes were filled with fear. Fear that her feelings won’t be reciprocated. Fear to express the vulnerable emotion that has plagued her heart for how long? You don’t know. So you move forward and capture her lips in yours.

After the initial surprise, Marlene began to kiss you back, her hands finding the back of your neck and your head while yours found her hips. You broke apart too soon for your liking and she rested her forehead on yours. One of your hands moved to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear before speaking. “I love you too.” You watched as her eyes lit up with joy and you couldn’t help but smile. “I get a point on the leaderboard for admitting it first,” she chuckled.

“Mmhm,” you hummed in agreeance leaning forward again so your lips brushed against hers as you spoke, “but I get one for kissing you first.”

“Dammit,” she whispered, before leaning in for another kiss.

· · · ∞ · · ·

“So Gryffindor Beater, huh?” you asked Marlene. The two of you laid together in the infirmary bed, her back pressed up against half of your chest, your arm hanging around her shoulder twirling and untwirling her hair with your one hand while both her hands played with the fingers of your other.

“Yea, James said it’s mine if I want it, but I don’t need to take it if you don’t want me to.”

“No, merlin no,” you said quickly, “I know how much you want that spot, I barely even wanted it. Was only doing it because with my family I felt like I had to.”

“Really?” She looked up at you hopefully, “you don't mind.”

“Nope.” “Promise?”

“Promise.” She gave her a peck on the lips before turning her head around again. “Plus, you’re going to look so hot in that uniform, I feel like I’ll be the real winner in this situation.” Your words earn a loud laugh from the girl in your arms and you feel like you're on cloud 9. You place a quick kiss on her temple and want nothing more than to be the one to make her laugh for the rest of your lives. Lives that you hopefully get to spend together.

Meanwhile…

“Told you so,” he whispered.

“I should’ve kept my mouth shut,” the second boy groaned, placing coins into the other boy's outstretched hand.

“Yea, but look how cute they are, Moony the Matchmaker.”

“Oh shut up Padfoot,” he groaned, “I’m hungry, let's go to dinner.” “Whatever you say handsome,” barked the boy before looping arms with his lover and walking away from the two girls in the infirmary who looked utterly and completely infatuated with one another.

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nah-she-didnt · 3 years

Note

I’ll just choose a random one! What about... 17? From the promp list xx

Hello! Thank you for the prompt, I’m sorry it took so long. I just could not get the right angle on it. I actually wrote an entire Hinny response to this, but I accidentally deleted it (womp womp). Anyway, please enjoy this Jily moment!

Read on AO3!

All Your Moments

The atmosphere inside the common room was like that of a poorly-attended funeral. Forlorn students milled about the room, still wrapped in Gryffindor scarves and clad in gold and crimson face paint. A lone banner with a large, moving lion lay crumpled in the corner, forgotten after the devastating loss to Slytherin.

Lily sat among her friends in front of the crackling fire. Peter hugged his knees to his chest as he stared dismayed into the flames. Mary and Dorcas began a sullen game of wizard chess, prodding their pieces around the board half-heartedly. Sirius and Remus sat in the same squishy armchair, Remus’ head resting against Sirius’ chest.

Sirius sighed loudly. “Thank god I got disowned, I don’t think I’d ever hear the end of this from Reg if I still lived at home.”

Remus laughed, but Peter’s face remained unchanged. “I can’t believe we fucking lost,” he muttered into his knees.

Remus threw a pillow in his direction. “Buck up, Pete. It’s not like you lost, just your team.”

Peter gaped at Remus. “You know, Remus, you’ve never really understood the beautiful game that is quidditch.”

“At least he understands his Transfiguration homework,” Sirius snapped.

“Boys, boys,” Remus sighed, throwing a sharp look in Sirius’ direction, “let’s not fight, yeah? Tonight’s depressing enough.”

Lily glanced towards the boys dormitory. James had disappeared up the stairs after the game and had not resurfaced since. She knew he had to be hurting right now. Quidditch had been a massive part of his life ever since he started at Hogwarts, and to lose the championship game as captain in his seventh year had to be devastating. At this thought, Lily hoisted herself up from between the squashy couch cushions and stood, shoulders squared, facing the boy’s dormitory.

“I’m going up there,” she said confidently and moved towards the staircase.

Sirius caught her arm. “Lily, no,” he said gravely, “you haven’t been dating Prongs very long, but let me tell you. He is an insufferable crybaby when he loses at quidditch.”

Lily scoffed. “Oh come on, he can’t be that bad.”

“No, he’s worse,” Peter grimaced, “remember when they lost to Hufflepuff in fourth year and he disappeared into the forest for four hours?”

“Maybe he needs a bit of cheering up,” smirked Mary as her knight decimated Dorcas’ pawn.

Lily glared at Mary. “I’m not going to shag him out of his misery, but thanks for the suggestion.”

Mary shrugged. “It would work, that’s all I’m saying.”

Lily very much doubted Mary’s words as she climbed the stairs to James’ room. She remembered that loss against Hufflepuff. James moped around the castle for a full week, barely speaking in classes, which at the time had been a blessing. Now she felt her heart drop when she recalled the look on James’ face as he dismounted his broom on the quidditch pitch, the Slytherin players celebrating and hoisting the Quidditch Cup in the background.

Lily reached James’ door and knocked softly. There was no reply.

“James?” she called tentatively, knocking, again, “are you alright? We thought you might like to join us downstairs.”

There was no response. She knocked again.

“James, I know you’re upset, but please come down. It’s not the same down there without you.” She pushed open the door, but the dorm was empty.

“That was fast,” Dorcas grinned as Lily approached the group again, “bit of a quick draw, is he?”

“Shut up,” she snapped, “Remus, I need the map.”

Remus frowned. “What makes you think I have it?”

“Because that map is like your baby, now hand it over.”

Remus grumbled but reached into his pocket for the map. Lily snatched it out of his hand and started to scan the corridors for James.

“He must have slipped out under the invisibility cloak,” she murmured as she searched.

“I’m telling you,” Peter sighed, “he’s off to the forest. Someday we’ll tell our kids, ‘oh yeah, I remember James Potter. He was a giant sore loser who marched into the forest one day, never to be seen again.’”

Lily ignored this, her eyes sweeping over the Hogwarts grounds. Finally, she spotted him. “Gotcha.”

She triumphantly stuffed the map into her pocket. Remus flinched at the way she manhandled his craftsmanship, but she couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment.

“Right, I’m off to find my crybaby boyfriend, pray that I don’t get caught by Filch.” The others echoed calls of luck as she made her way out of the dormitory.

The castle was dark and silent as she crept along the walls. Every shadow was Filch, every squeaking mouse was Mrs. Norris. She realized about halfway to the entrance hall that she was in a stupidly vulnerable position. She knew that if she were caught she could just say she was out of bed on official Head Girl business. However, if she ran into any Slytherins on her way out, she would almost certainly be outnumbered. She forced herself not to think about that possibility and pressed on.

She stopped just before the great oak doors to the castle and pulled the map out of her pocket again. There he was, still sitting motionless in the middle of the quidditch pitch. Drama queen, she thought as she suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. No, she needed to compose herself and support him now.

The night air was crisp and warm, not quite the oppressive heat of summer but still pleasant enough without her cloak. She traipsed through the grass damp with mist and across the grounds towards the pitch.

She didn’t know as much about quidditch as some of her friends, but even she could tell that James had played badly that day. He seemed distracted, like he was always one step behind his teammates. In one particularly bad moment James had turned his head to bark orders at his keeper and completely missed the bludger that soared right into his throwing arm. He played out the rest of the game, but he hadn’t been able to make any more goals.

Lily halted at the entrance to the pitch and scanned the dark grass. The pitch appeared empty, but Lily knew better.

“Oi, Potter!” she shouted into the night.

A moment of silence passed. Then a floating head popped into view.

“Over here,” he called. She could hear the defeat in his voice.

She walked the length of the pitch until she was level with James, then plopped to the ground beside him. The water from the grass beneath them soaked through her knee high socks.

“You don’t play fair,” he muttered miserably, “I came out here to mope away from everyone, but you got the map off Remus, didn’t you?”

She grimaced. “I didn’t want you to be all alone.”

James glanced up to the goal posts in front of them. “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I’ll never play another proper game of quidditch. The whole time leading up to the game all I could think about was winning, but I never thought to just enjoy my last moments up there.”

Lily nodded and reached out to clasp his hand. “I’m sorry, James. You’ll play quidditch again someday.”

“Yeah,” he sighed, eyes still pointed to the skies, “but it won’t be the same. I’ll get over it, I suppose, but I wish I’d played well enough to remember it fondly.”

Lily didn’t know what to say to this. She knew she couldn’t disagree with him. He knew as well as anyone that he played poorly that day, and any attempt to contradict him seemed feeble. She offered him a small smile.

“You know, you have your whole life ahead of you. You’re an incredible man. You’ll do things that are much more important than winning the quidditch cup.”

He laughed and squeezed her hand. “That doesn’t help as much as I’m sure you intended, but thank you.”

Lily tugged at him. “Come on, let’s get you inside. Everyone’s waiting in the Common Room.”

James shook his head. “No, I just want to remember this place for a bit. But could you stay with me? Honestly, after this shit day, I just want a hug.”

She nodded, and they laid back in the grass together, gazing up at the sky. She rested her head against his chest and draped an arm across his waist. They lay in silence for a few minutes, listening to the light wind whip across the open field. Lily could feel water soaking the back of her sweater now, but she didn’t care.

She never knew how nice it would be to share his failures with him as well as his triumphs. Here he was, solemn and dejected, but still open. She realized in that moment how much she wanted from him. She wanted all his moments, his great booming laughter and his silent disappointment. Every new emotion with him felt right.

James finally smiled over at her through the blades of grass that separated them. “I’m a real joy to be around right now, I’m sure.”

Lily laughed. “It’s alright, I like it out here with you. And you never stay down for long, you know. Even now you’re joking around like everything is alright. That’s one of the things I love about you.”

James’ smile slid from his face and was replaced with surprise. She’d never said that word to him before, but it felt natural in the moment. Even now she realized she did not regret her words.

“You love that about me?” he whispered through the darkness.

She nodded softly. “Yeah. I love you, James. I do.”

James blinked stupidly for a moment as if he were processing her words. Then he sat up quickly. “Wait,” he said, eyes narrowing, “you’re not just saying that to make me feel better, are you?”

Lily laughed as she sat up too. “No, I mean it. I love you, James Potter.”

James sat stunned for a moment. Then he jumped to his feet and whooped with laughter.

“I’m sorry,” she said, also clambering to her feet, “what exactly is funny about that?”

James dived at her, picked her up, and spun her around. When her feet landed on the ground once more he held her close and pressed his forehead to hers. “What’s funny, Lily Evans, is that I never in all my life thought you would say those words to me.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Don’t be daft,” she said, trying and failing to look annoyed, “you must have known.”

“Never,” he beamed down at her then kissed her gently. The wind tugged at her hair and clothes as they swayed for a moment, gripping each other tightly.

Lily suddenly broke the kiss. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What? Oh! I love you too, of course,” he grinned, “I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you.”

“That’s more like it,” she laughed, then tackled him back to the ground.

#Nina writes #jily one shot #jily #james potter #lily evans #sirius black #dorcas meadowes #mary macdonald #remus lupin #peter pettigrew

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ourloveisforthelovely · 3 years

Text

In Love and Death Part 12

Harry Potter AU

Link to Part 11

Pairings: Regulus Black x Reader

Rating: M

______________

Regulus followed you upstairs to the bedroom with a pleased smirk on his face. He had wiped whatever bit of toughness that Harry had in him away. If the little git thought that Regulus cared for one minute what he had to think then the “chosen one” had another thing coming. At the moment, it was Regulus’ personal pleasure to make Harry regret ever being born. Sure they were on the same “side” but it didn’t mean that they had to like each other.

You closed the door behind you as Regulus gave you the small smile that he reserved for you alone.

“Why did you tell Harry to play in the street?”

You asked. Regulus shrugged.

“Well, darling, if he actually listens to me and goes to play in the street then he isn’t that smart is he? If he gets hit by a car...obviously he doesn’t know the concept of moving”

You shook your head, giving your boyfriend a disapproving mother-like expression.

“That’s mean, Regulus. I don’t understand why you two are so jealous of each other.”

Regulus sat down on the bed. He was not jealous of Harry and Harry was not jealous of him...well...maybe he kind of was. The only “jealousy” that Harry felt toward Regulus was because of the relationship that he had with you.

“He’s the jealous one. I’m just being my loveable self.”

Regulus attempted to justify it with a smile. He was pleased when you returned the smile. Shaking your head, you took your place on his lap with a leg on either side of his body.

“You’re only loveable to me.”

You replied as Regulus leaned forward for a kiss.

“Well then I am doing nothing uncommon now, am I? I’ll play nice when he does. The little git seems to fancy you in a less than friendly way. He’s lucky that I haven’t hexed him.”

You didn’t need much encouragement to eagerly kiss Regulus back.

“He’s wasting his time. I’m in love with you. The quicker that he realizes it the better off that he will be.”

You said, not pulling your mouth far from Regulus.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

This made you pull away and sit back up. Regulus immediately began to regret his decision on asking what was so important. He wanted nothing more than to have some private time with you. It seemed like the private time the two of you shared seemed to be a series of quickies when both of you could sneak off.

“Evan let it slip to my grandmother about the potion and what we are trying to do.”

Regulus immediately rolled his eyes. After his less than cheerful meeting with your grandmother a few months beforehand, he wanted nothing more to do with Mrs.Rosier.

“Of course, he did. What are her terms? I know that she has some.”

You nodded as you reached out and slowly unbuttoned a few buttons on Regulus’ shirt. He raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering why you were trying to undress him to give weird news? Would this require him getting “buttered” up to accept?

“She thinks that if we are going to be trying to have a child then we should be married. Reg, you know how old school my grandmother is.”

Regulus had to agree on that one. Mrs. Rosier was extremely old school. She was the reason that Evan and Emily were married so young when you were born. It only made sense that she would shove this old school belief on her granddaughter. Regulus internally smirked at the idea of Mrs. Rosier stalking about the Rosier manor mumbling about her granddaughter being pregnant with Regulus Black’s bastard child. He knew he didn’t have to envision it, it was probably happening as the two of you spoke.

“Love, you already have my ring. I told you before if that’s what you wanted…”

“Is it what you want though?”

You interrupted. Regulus gave you an annoyed look before continuing.

“I don’t go around trying to make a child with someone that I wouldn’t want to be in my life forever. Y/n, you know that’s what I want. I don’t know why you worry about such things.”

You quickly got off of his lap and went to stare at the street below. Regulus frowned. What was going on? You didn’t act like this.

“So, what else did grandmama say to get you in such a twist?”

“That was it.”

You replied. Regulus stood up, running a hand through his hair before joining you at the window.

“I’m not an idiot, Y/n. Something else is going on and you know how I hate being left in the dark.”

You sighed and finally looked up.

“I’m pregnant.”

Regulus blinked a few times.

“You literally took the potion less than an hour ago and we haven’t even done anything.”

“I was pregnant before I took the potion, Regulus! I didn’t know...Tonks had me take a test just to make sure and it came out positive...how I don’t know. I didn’t tell Tonks that it was positive. I pretend it was negative and ran off before she could ask to look at it. For the record, we have been doing it a long lot lately.”

Regulus’ mouth dropped as he took in your words. You had to fight smiling at the confused expression that had taken over his face.

“Please say something.”

You whispered. Regulus immediately smirked.

“You may want to call that healer and ask for our money back. I don’t want the old bat thinking she fixed something that she actually didn’t do.”

You gave Regulus a displeased frown.

“I tell you that I’m pregnant and that is your response? Lovely...excuse me.”

As you turned to walk out of the room, Regulus reached out and pulled your body back against his.

“Don’t get mad. I’m sorry. Y/n, I’m happy...I’m thrilled actually. It just shows that we don’t need some magical help to be able to take the next step of building our life together. Also, this is another example of there being nothing wrong with you. I promise I’m happy. What about you? How are you feeling about this?”

You laid your head against his shoulder.

“I’m very happy. I just don’t feel very well. I see why Tonks was throwing up in the neighbor's bushes when she was pregnant. Regulus, I’m not ready to tell the others just yet.”

Regulus gently ran his hand through your hair.

“We don’t have to tell anyone until you are ready or at least until you start showing. We won’t be able to avoid it then.”

The following weeks passed without much excitement. Both Regulus and yourself were keeping your “condition” as secret as possible. If you started feeling ill, you would find some way to slip out of the room without being seen. You were honestly shocked that Tonks hadn’t picked up on it yet. Normally, she would pick up on any secret that you had before you ever got the chance to say anything.

Of course, this is the one thing that she doesn’t pick up on.

You thought. Part of you was desperate for your best friend to “figure” things out. You wanted nothing more than to have another party in on the secret.

The house had been mostly quiet since Harry, Ron, and Hermione returned to school. Regulus’ jealous mood had eased and your lover was back to his reserved self. You dreaded the day that Harry figured out what was happening. That was going to be one hell of a disaster!

Sirius, meanwhile, was headed to his room to find something to harass Kreacher about. As he walked down the hall, he stopped noticing Regulus sitting on the floor beside the heating vent. The expression on Regulus’ face was unreadable. Shrugging, Sirius walked into the room and sunk down beside his brother.

“We used to spend a lot of time sitting by this vent. I don’t think mum and dad ever realized we could hear right into their bedroom. We heard all of the yelling and screaming”

Regulus, just realizing that his brother was in the room, blinked a few times. He had been lost in his own world for the past hour and a half. For the past few weeks, Regulus had been watching you get sicker and sicker. It was beginning to wear on his mental state. He couldn’t help feeling a bit selfish for wanting a baby with you so bad that you had to be ill for it to happen. Sure, that was what most women experienced but you weren't most women. You were his and Regulus didn’t like seeing you ill.

“We never heard anything romantic”

Regulus finally replied. Sirius made a repulsed expression. The last thing that he wanted to think about was his parents having sex. Granted, if Walburga and Orion didn’t have sex neither Sirius nor Regulus would be in existence. That fact, however, didn’t make Sirius any less repulsed by the knowledge of his parent’s sex life.

“First, gross. Second, I think that stopped after you were born. I meant overhearing what they were talking about. We could hear what kind of trouble we were in when we misbehaved and come up with a joint story.”

Regulus remembered those days well. Those were the days when he and Sirius were best friends and caused joint chaos. For example, the day Regulus caught the drapes on fire and Sirius blamed it on Kreacher. Walburga believed the elf over her two children.

“One would think that they would have figured it out. Do you think that I will be a better father than our father?”

Regulus didn’t turn to meet his brother’s confused then stunned expression. Sirius blinked a few times before his mouth dropped.

“Is Y/n pregnant?”

Regulus nodded, not realizing what he was doing. With one nod of his head, he told the secret that he was supposed to be keeping to himself.

“I’m not supposed to tell you but yes….yes she is.”

Sirius was stunned. He didn’t expect it to happen THAT quickly!

“That didn’t take long. That healer knows her shit. Is this why you are sitting by the vent looking lost?”

“That could be the reason. The healer and her potion also did nothing. Y/n was pregnant before she drank the potion. She took a test the day that she drank it and it was positive. The doctor that we have been seeing also confirmed that she was pregnant so there is that too.”

Sirius couldn’t help but be a tad bothered that neither Regulus nor yourself had said a word to him. He figured that he would be the person that the two of you would come to first. As much as Sirius wanted to make a comment on it the expression on Regulus’ face stopped him. His little brother looked lost and close to losing what grip on sanity that he had. Regulus didn’t need to be talked down to like a child and Sirius didn’t want to end up being hexed for making a snide comment.

“Reg, you’re not dad and Y/n isn’t mum. You’ll do just fine”

Regulus finally turned to his brother.

“What if I mess up?”

Sirius smiled at that one.

“All parents mess up. Turn the control freak perfectionist off, Reg. Just do what you think is right. You know that I am here for both of you. So is Remus and Tonks and all of the others...they just don’t know it yet. How far is she?”

“3 ½ months”

Regulus replied, quietly. Sirius held a hand up.

“You meant to tell me that she has been pregnant that long and no one has figured it out? Neither of you had said a word?!”

Regulus smiled.

“We are good about keeping our mouths shut when we need to.”

Sirius crossed his arms over his chest like an impatient child.

“But I wanted to know. This is a big deal. I need to brush up on my being an uncle skills”

Regulus rolled his eyes. He wasn’t surprised by Sirius’ dramatic reaction. Regulus had already mentioned it to you about telling Sirius before anyone else. His older brother would probably be ecstatic to be the first one in on the secret.

“You know now. Don’t tell anyone else yet. Y/n won’t be able to hide it much longer. She’s starting to show. I figure if she can make it until Christmas that will be the time she says something.”

“But she not been sick or anything”

Sirius commented as he tried to think about any weird behavior that he missed. He couldn’t think of anything that raised alarm bells in his mind. You seemed like normal Y/n.

“Again, we keep our mouths shut when we need to. She’s only been ill a few times. I consider it lucky. She’s not felt well but none of the actual vomiting.”

Sirius leaned his head back against the wall.

“Wow, I am totally shocked by the level of sneaky that the two of you have reached. I won’t say anything.”

(meanwhile)

You stood in the kitchen “attempting” to prepare a chicken for dinner. Molly and Arthur were due back in a few weeks and you couldn’t be more ecstatic. You missed Molly’s cooking. Most of all you missed Molly doing the cooking. Cooking had to be one of your least favorite activities and clearly you had no talent in it. There had been many nights that you just threw out whatever it was that you tried to make and ordered take out.

“God, this is so gross.”

You muttered as you pulled the skin off of the chicken. A wave of nausea washed over you as the slimy skin came halfway off.

“Oh, fuck no.”

You snapped and threw the chicken down to wash your hands and possibly throw up in the sink.

“Are you okay?”

You quickly looked up to see Evan standing in the doorway. He was looking at you with a concerned expression that he seemed to be wearing a lot lately. Evan had calmed down his super sassy “I hate all of you” attitude and was somewhat tolerable.

“Yes, I’m just fine.”

You lied, swallowing back the urge to gag. Evan raised an eyebrow and looked over your shoulder to the half skinned chicken. Shrugging, he stepped into the kitchen and sat down in one of the chairs.

“I’ve never seen someone almost vomit from cooking a chicken. You’ve seemed ill a lot lately. Maybe you should see a healer?”

You shook your head.

“Nah, I’m good...just fine actually.”

Evan nodded and turned to a magazine that was on the table. He knew exactly what was going on.

“I know that we haven’t had many chats that have gone well. Whether you like it or not, you are still my daughter and I know a lot about you.”

“That’s nice.”

You commented, practically begging Evan to keep yapping. The more that he talked then you could focus on that and not your churning stomach.

“You should try peppermint. It works well for an upset stomach.”

You breathed in, hoping a nice deep breath would help your current condition.

“My stomach is just fine.”

You knew that you were being stubborn but you couldn’t help it. What if you started caring for Evan and he just disappeared or became a death eater again? You wouldn’t be able to handle that.

There was also the knowledge that you would have to explain to your child one day why their “grandfather” looked the same age as mummy and daddy. That was going to be one awkward conversation!

Evan, meanwhile, put the magazine that he was holding down.

“When your mother was pregnant with you, she would vomit anytime someone came near her with a raw chicken. She was sick all the time. It didn’t matter how many times I asked her if she was ill, she would always say no.”

Evan fought the urge to smile as you began to resemble a petrified deer.

“You’re pregnant, Y/n and I am just curious does Regulus know?”

________

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

TLTNL- SNAPE’S WORST MEMORY

Vague note before you read; I don't like Snape. I never switched to honestly feeling anything other than vindictive 'I want to punch him in the face' syndrome for this guy. I never transgressed into the wondering realization he's a good person just because he loved someone. Yes he had a hard life, yes he sacrificed it to protect someone else, but I'm sorry, it does not make up for the countless things he does to children. Call it a cover, call it whatever you like, I don't condone it.

Sorry if that disappoints you or you at all disagree, feel free to argue back as I do love differences of opinion and will never scorn anyone for thinking otherwise. At least know I will never put such things into the fic, verbatim anyways, because Harry clearly thinks differently, and this is his story. Like with all other characters who people have different opinions about, all sides will be shown, even Snape's.

HPHPHPHP

Remus glanced at the clock and saw it was getting close to lunchtime, but he decided to keep going now with even the slimmest of hopes Dumbledore would make some miraculous return. He just couldn't imagine it, Hogwarts without Dumbledore?! Even in Harry's second year the idea had trouble him, and the Ministry had caused that one as well, admittedly through Malfoy instead of Fudge, but how on Earth did this keep happening? He forced himself to remember it wasn't right now, Dumbledore was up at the school this moment helping them fight off Voldemort for now, so he had to remain focused on that to begin, and immediately regretted it.

BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

"Oh not another one!" James demanded, though at some point he really should have stopped being so surprised.

Dolores Jane Umbridge (High Inquisitor) has replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-eight.

"That's not even, the Ministry can't-" James spluttered. The Ministry decreeing teachers at the school was mind blowing enough, but now apparently they could just assign headmasters to the school! What next, they were going to start put wizards behind the desk at Gringotts?

"I can not imagine this," Sirius groaned in disgust. "That, that kitten stalker behind Dumbledore's desk, and now with total control of the school! Is there anything she can't get away with doing now?"

Remus was so gray in color it was almost terrifying. The image wouldn't even form in his mind, the kind headmaster who had allowed him into the school replaced by that- that- he didn't even have any insults left!

Lily felt petrified for the students well being, she almost couldn't breathe for a moment at the thought of what all she could get away with now in regards to those detentions.

Signed by the Minister of Magic. These notices had been put up in the school overnight, as well as the story spreading of Dumbledore's miraculous escape from said Minister, The High Inquisitor, two Aurors, and the Junior Assistant to the Minister.

"Percy wasn't there when that happened," James corrected. "He'd left before Dumbledore started the fight."

"I'm surprised the school wasn't adding in a whole Auror department to the list, so I didn't correct them," Harry shrugged.

Details of this had gone away with people, such as one girl insisting to another Fudge was now in St. Mungo's with a pumpkin for a head,

"I wish," Sirius grumbled.

but what was surprising was how accurate the rest of their information was.

"How did they know everything?" Harry asked bemusedly.

"The portraits," all four at once reminded him.

Such as the detail that only Harry and Marietta were witnesses, and as the later was still in the hospital wing trying to get her curse removed, Harry was now being bombarded with first-hand account requests.

"There's nothing new," Harry sighed.

When told to Ernie, on their way back from Herbology, he at once assured Dumbledore would be back, and even divulged his own herd information from the Fat Friar, that Umbridge had later been seen trying to get back into the office, but was now bard. Apparently she'd thrown a right tantrum when unable to get in.

"Ha!" Sirius' bark of triumphant laughter was heavily echoed by all of them. It wasn't nearly what the cat barf was owed, but for the smallest moment, they got to enjoy her misery instead of the other way around.

Hermione viciously said how much she'd have loved to seen that. Fancying herself up in the Head's office, lording over all the teachers while being a puffed-up, power-crazy old-

Cut in of did Granger really want to finish that sentence?

"Yes, yes she does," Sirius protested of whoever had interrupted something nice for a change.

Malfoy had come upon them.

"Why am I not surprised," James muttered as he buried his face in his hands, somehow knowing this was only about to get worse with that albino reject involved.

He at once declared he was going to have to take points from both houses.

"Prefects can't take points away from other houses," Remus scoffed.

"I'm sure he's just already been promised Head Boy and was practicing," James rolled his eyes.

Ernie corrected only teachers could dock points from houses that weren't theirs.

"I wonder how many times he's had to be reminded of that when trying to bully little first year Gryffindors," Sirius scowled.

Ron reminding they were Prefects too.

"Actually sometimes I forgot," Harry muttered. After the initial shock, Ron had never made much of a show of it except for a few occasions.

Malfoy agreed prefects couldn't dock their points, also referring to him as Weasel King,

"Clever," Remus sneered with exaggerated sarcasm.

but the Inquisitorial Squad-

"The what?" Remus was interrupted by all four of them, which he found unnecessary as he'd been wondering the exact same thing.

he was cut off by Hermione demanding what that was.

Malfoy pointed to the I silver badge he had on his robes above his own Prefect badge, stating it was a select group hand picked by Professor Umbridge.

"I'm going to cry," Sirius vowed. "I, this, how do they keep managing to make shit up as they go along!"

"I never would have believed the school could turn into something so," James trailed off, without words for how different this place had become from his memory.

The Inquisitorial Squad did have the power to dock points from anyone.

"That just, completely undermines the whole system," Lily rubbed furiously at her forehead, thinking Fudge should be done with it already and rename Hogwarts 'The pre-Ministry of Magic.'

Then he continued with his first though, taking five from Granger for insulting the Headmistress, five from Macmillan for correcting him, five from Potter because he didn't like him,

Harry's eyes had narrowed with every insult Malfoy had given, even after all these years he still managed to find ways to be the most insufferable person in that castle, his only saving grace was he wasn't as bad as Snape and Umbridge, yet.

then five from Weasley for his shirt being untucked,

"Just take a round hundred why don't you, it'll be faster!" Sirius felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head if he rolled them any harder.

oh, and he'd almost forgotten, an extra ten from Granger for being a Mudblood.

"Nice to know he forgets sometimes," Remus said testily, "I certainly never fail to forget how much of an arse he is."

Ron furiously reached for his wand, while Hermione pushed his arm down and hissed at him not to.

"Is she off her rocker?" Lily snarled. "I'd have cursed him at the start of this already."

"Trust me, none of us would have stopped you," James growled.

Malfoy was uncovered, stating new Head, new times, they'd better be getting used to this. Then they left.

The four turned to the hour-glasses that showed all house points, worrying that this couldn't really be happening,

"I wish I'd thought that for even a second," James shook his head, but he'd long since stopped questioning the depths that woman would go.

but even as they watched, the points shot down. Whereas Gryffindor had been neck and neck with Ravenclaw this morning, now they were both significantly less, as was Hufflepuffs house showing immense drops, the only unchanged one being Slytherin.

Lily looked about ready to pull her hair out in frustration. She couldn't believe such blatant favoritism could continue, the system had been slightly off kilter before and now it was just rampant.

The twins arrived then, commiserating Montague had tried the same thing with them during break.

"What does he mean, tried?" Sirius eagerly demanded.

Ron asked what he meant by tried?

Sirius was so giddy to hear any bout of revenge, he didn't even bother to gloat he'd just mimicked Ron.

Fred said without concern he hadn't gotten all the words out, as they'd stuffed him into the Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor before he could.

All five of them burst out with laughter for this, Harry's feeling a little more forced than he understood why.

Hermione looked shocked, saying they'd get into trouble.

Fred disagreed, at least not until they found Montague, and that could take weeks. Then they declared they still didn't care.

"Did they ever?" Lily rolled her eyes.

"Never been expelled were they," James defended. "Clearly they had some restraint."

Lily wasn't sure how he was able to say that as if it were actually a good thing.

Hermione asked if they ever had?

George said of course, they'd never been expelled.

Without looking up, Remus reached over and put his hand against Sirius' mouth so he could keep going very loudly. Sirius waited impatiently until his hand got tired and he removed it before bursting out anyways, "Lily and James mimicked them!"

"Thank you Blackie, I hadn't noticed," James said blandly, while Sirius crinkled his face in disgust for that nickname.

"Shut up Comet," Sirius snapped back.*

Fred pointing out they'd always drawn the line, George correcting they might have crossed it occasionally, but Fred pointing out they'd never caused real mayhem.

"Honestly, I'm not quite sure why," Remus mock pouted.

"I know I wouldn't have the restraint with the year I've been hearing about," Sirius agreed.

Ron asked about now?

Fred and George simultaneously agreed mayhem was exactly what their new Head deserved.

"I love them!" James declared. "Lily, we need to have twins."

Lily smacked him upside the head even while she was repressing giggles.

Hermione said they couldn't, Umbridge would have them expelled.

"I recall a conversation where they don't care," Sirius said eagerly, wondering how on Earth this could be Hermione's first thought.

Fred shook his head at her naivety, saying they didn't care, they'd leave right now except they wanted to pay their dues to Dumbledore first.

James was still bouncing in his seat like an excited toddler, glee and eagerness to hear what he'd been expecting from the pair of them ever since Umbridge had kicked his son off the Quidditch team. He had no clue what they'd been doing in the meantime, but surmised that the change may well have been they'd finally gotten premises for wherever their shop was to be. Glory this was going to be worth the wait, of that he was confident.

Then George informed them they may want to toddle along to the Great Hall so the teachers could see them peacefully at lunch.

Hermione asked why, and George promised they'd see.

"I'd fear for my life if I were Umbridge," Remus' grin was stretching into one Harry had grown to associate with a Marauder story.

"She hasn't the sense, and I'm almost glad for it," Sirius corrected with the same look in place.

Fred and George disappeared, and Ernie quickly did the same muttering about homework.

"I forgot he was there," Lily snickered. "I wonder how well he knew the twins before this to have such a reaction?"

"Clearly quite well, as he knew to make a run for it," Harry said with a smirk.

Hermione said perhaps they should go get some lunch.

James clucked his tongue at Hermione, Dumbledore couldn't have dragged him away from watching this.

Ron instantly agreed, and the three tried to move in with the rest of the que,

All three boys groaned loudly in agitation, they would have paid anything to get front row seats for whatever the twins had planned, and their boy was walking away from it!

Harry hardly looked upset at their reaction, he was vividly remembering already that they wouldn't have long to wait for details.

but when Harry turned around, he came face to face with Filch. He quickly took a step back, the caretaker was best viewed from a distance.

"Filch is best viewed not at all," Sirius corrected while all of them frowned for what this news could be for. Filch did not single out students for good reasons.

He told Potter the Headmistress wanted to see him.

"Don't call Dumbledore a woman," James rolled his eyes.

Harry at once stupidly said he didn't do it, his mind still on Fred and George.

Lily busted out laughing loudly at the look of chagrin on Harry's face and the three boys affronted look their boy was such a terrible on the spot liar. It hurt their soul.

Filch gave a silent, wheezing laughter at his guilty conscience, then instructed him to follow.

"Don't do it Harry," Sirius said at once.

"And what, run the other way and get in more trouble?" Harry demanded.

Sirius declined answering no matter how tempted he was to say yes, run all the way to Grimmauld place. Who'd have thought he'd ever even think such a thing?

He exchanged a look with Ron and Hermione before doing so, and as they left the crowd, he saw Filch was in an extremely good mood.

"Great, now I'm starting to fear for your life," Remus groaned.

"At least I have the sense to agree," Harry sighed.

He hummed to himself all the way up the marble staircase before informing Potter things were going to be changing around here.

"We've noticed," James said harshly, it had been disturbing him for quite some time.

Harry coldly said he'd noticed.

"Oh good, I thought it had just been us," Sirius tried for a happy snicker, though it was clear how distracted he was he hadn't realized this had been said twice.

Filch continued he'd been telling Dumbledore for years he was too soft on the students.

"And your idea of correcting that was medieval torture," Remus pleasantly reminded. "I'm sure he can understand why normal teachers methods are better."

These filthy little beasts dropping Stink Pellets every which way, they wouldn't have been doing so if they'd known he had the power to whip them raw.

Lily blanched in horror while the boys smiled grimly. They just couldn't believe Filch would ever go through with it, considering how often he'd threatened this and he'd always been laughed off.

Nobody would have been throwing Fanged Frisbees down the corridors if he could've strung them up by the ankles in his office.

"Why doesn't he ever just go for the Heretic fork, that's a grand old torture," Sirius offered in what he was sure was a helpful tone of voice.

"I don't even want to know what that is," Lily shook her head.

When the new Educational Decree Number Twenty-nine came through though, oh he'd be able to do that and much more.

"If he ever goes through with that, I'll give the man his own award," Remus snickered with a bit of an edge, implying it wasn't a trophy kind.

The Minister had even signed an order for the expulsion of Peeves.

"They're going to blow up that castle trying," James said conversationally.

"Hopefully the twins stick around long enough at least see that," Remus said without concern.

Harry was not happy to hear the lengths Umbridge had gone to to get Filch on her side, but he knew they'd pay off considering his extensive knowledge of all the school's secret passages, rivaled only by the Weasley twins.

"While that's true," Sirius sighed, "I still can't find him anymore of a credible threat than his cat. Timing is key in avoidance of him."

He finally stopped outside Umbridge's office, so very familiar to Harry from his many detentions.

"I'd be very pleased if you stopped reminding me of that," Lily hissed, though it wouldn't actually help, as that was ingrained into her being as much as the back of his hand.

The usual pink décor was as eye watering as ever, the only new thing the block of wood on her desk declaring her as Headmistress.

Remus adopted quite a cruel smirk for that was all she could claim, a useless block of wood. The school would never follow her.

Also his Firebolt and the twins Cleansweeps were chained to the wall behind her desk with iron pegs.

Lily raised a brow and stated, "a bit overkill," while James and Sirius looked physically pained at the thought.

She thanked Argus for his fetching Potter, while Harry took a seat. Not knowing what fresh horror to expect,

"I stopped wondering that and now just dread it," Remus grumbled.

he was completely started when she asked him what he'd like to drink.

"Don't do it Harry," James said at once.

"It's probably poisoned," Sirius agreed grimly.

"I just wouldn't accept anything from her on principle," Remus crinkled his nose at the thought, all of them wondering at what she hoped to accomplish by the sudden nicety.

When he hesitated, she prompted tea, coffee, pumpkin juice?

"The most fast acting poison you have," Lily muttered.

He at first refused, but upon her persistence, he picked tea.

She turned her back and made quite a show of pouring it into the cup as well as some milk before turning back to him.

"I'm starting to think that wasn't a joke," Lily told Sirius.

"I never meant it as one," Sirius agreed.

She requested he drink up while they have a chat, but when Harry still only held the cup, she impatiently waved him to try it.

The look on Harry's face was clearly strained, and they could all understand why at having to play niceties at this. The real problem was they couldn't put their finger down on why she was doing this.

He finally raised the cup to his lips, but froze at the last second upon spotting a kitten with very blue eyes, the same shade as Mad-Eye Moody's special eye. He could easily imagine what the old Auror would say to him drinking something from a known enemy.

James's mouth popped open with outrage. "You mean you actually were going to take a sip before you saw that?"

"But I didn't," Harry protested, starting to rub in agitation at his forehead, somehow knowing he'd be quite grateful for this, though not a clue as to why, she hadn't really poisoned that had she?

"At least Mad-Eye left a good impression, even the fake one," Sirius grumbled.

Instead he falsely took a sip with his lips firmly pressed together, and once he had, she asked if he knew where Albus Dumbledore was.

Lily was getting a worse feeling by the second, and she hadn't thought it could be possible, considering his company. "Why does she think you'd know that?"

"No clue," Harry sighed, as always wishing he had a better answer for them.

Harry instantly said he had no clue, and Umbridge went right back to encouraging to drink up his tea.

James kept shifting his weight with heavy unease, wishing she'd stop with the farce of politeness in this drink already, though perhaps that's the only way to be nice she knew, the fake kind. All he really wanted to do was transform her into a teapot and shatter the pieces already.

When she repeated the question but got the same answer, she switched to asking for the whereabouts of Sirius Black.

Remus choked hard, he couldn't even get his full name out, but he didn't need to, it was clear they'd understood.

"No," James hissed, looking nearly faint.

"No, she can't have, there's no way she knew that was you!" Lily protested. "I, you, you've actually been really careful, and smart, and..." she trailed off, because her words gave her no comfort, and it was clear they were going straight past the others.

"Okay, okay," Harry practically yelled to keep their attention before they had an utter panic attack to rival the one screaming in his head. "She doesn't know where he is, that's why she's asking!"

"But why!" Remus snarled, his eyes glued to the words, ignoring how hard it was becoming to breathe from the mounting fear. "She shouldn't have any clue what you know about him, as far as they're concerned he's still after you!"

"Something's changed," Sirius said slowly, and honestly the scariest part to all of them was how hard Sirius was clearly trying to keep up his usual calm in regards to this. "The only thing I can think of was that Azkaban break. Despite their stupid story they published, they realized something wasn't right, and they're trying to find some alternative. The only one they've got is what Dumbledore offered, so if they believe I was out trying to help Harry..." he trailed off with a miserable shake to his head. He had no hope that this change would help him at all, they'd still do everything in their power to bury all this even while looking for someone to blame.

Remus was not comforted, none of them were. It terrified him to keep going, to know what else Umbridge had called Harry up there to ask, though what in her sugar frosted mind made her think he'd answer was beyond him. Most likely she was just looking for a tell, some way to show he was lying to throw him back in detention.

Harry's stomach turned violently, the teacup in his hand shook and he pretended to take another long drink to stall, spilling some over his chin before answering he had no clue to this as well.

James couldn't help his high pitched keening noise. Harry was a terrible liar, they'd well established this, so if Umbridge had any uncertainties before, she'd know now Harry did know something.

Harry recognized that look, and flinched with guilt. He could feel tears stinging his eyes in frustration that he couldn't do Sirius any help, that somehow he was in fact going to make this all worse for his Godfather.

Umbridge was not impressed, saying she knew there had been someone in the Gryffindor tower, all the Floo Networks were being watched, except her own of course.

Harry made much the same noise James just had in distress. Remus gave him a sympathetic look for all the wrong reasons, but all they could think of was how upset Harry was he'd be going the rest of the year without talking to Sirius, something none of them had ever had to do.

Her Inquisitorial Squad was going through all mail, Filch keeping an eye on every secret passageway. If she found one shred of evidence-

BOOM!

"Thank you," Sirius nodded solemnly. "I really wanted her to be cut off."

James had to think hard past his unending worries regarding his brother to recall where or why this noise would be made, and had never yet been more grateful for the twins.

The floor shook, Umbridge nearly slipped off her chair, as both looked in surprise to the door. Umbridge took off at once, and Harry only paused long enough to dump his still full cup into a plants vase before darting after her.

"I'm sure that saved your life," Lily shook her head, they still hadn't ruled out that drink being deadly.

He could hear people running and screaming several floors below.

"Well Harry certainly has an alibi now," Remus muttered.

The source was not difficult to find.

"I'd be disappointed if it was," Sirius rolled his eyes.

One floor down, pandemonium reigned. Somebody (and Harry had a very shrewd idea who)

"Flitwick?" James offered helpfully.

"No, no, Crookshanks must have set something off," Sirius said blandly.

"You're both ridiculous," Remus told them fondly, "obviously it was Ginny."

Harry found a smile somewhere in him for their antics. He couldn't help it, they never ceased to be able to do that no matter how heavy his mind got.

had set off what seemed to be an enormous crate of enchanted fireworks.

"Moony," Sirius pouted, "why do you always get the best parts."

Remus scowled at him, honestly thinking that heart failure over what Umbridge could know had hardly been worth discovering whatever the twins were up to, but merely smacked him upside the head in response.

Dragons comprised entirely of green and gold sparks were soaring up and down the corridors, emitting loud fiery blasts and bangs as they went; shocking-pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter were whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers; rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls; sparklers were writing swear words in midair of their own accord; firecrackers were exploding like mines everywhere Harry looked, and instead of burning themselves out, fading from sight or fizzling to a halt, these pyrotechnical miracles seemed to be gaining in energy and momentum the longer he watched.

Filch and Umbridge were standing, apparently transfixed in horror, halfway down the stairs. As Harry watched, one of the larger Catherine wheels seemed to decide that what it needed was more room to manoeuvre; it whirled towards Umbridge and Filch with a sinister 'wheeeeeeeeee'. They both yelled with fright and ducked, and it soared straight out of the window behind them and off across the grounds. Meanwhile, several of the dragons and a large purple bat that was smoking ominously took advantage of the open door at the end of the corridor to escape towards the second floor.**

Umbridge screamed at Filch to stun them before they could get away while firing off the spell herself.

The others had been far too enraptured listening to such descriptions to dare interrupt, but now that it was clear their details had been shut off for now, they still couldn't quite force words of wonder from their mouths, they were actually stunned stupid by something so spectacular occurring in their old hallways.

"The, twins, managed..." Remus trailed off there, words weren't good enough to cover this fantastic feat.

"These are the best kids ever!" Sirius shouted, his vivid imagination nearly not enough to cover this.

"I don't care what we do, we have to make sure at least this is managed again," James stated in no uncertain terms.

Lily was too busy giggling in agreement to add in.

However, the moment the red spell connected with a rocket, it exploded and tore out a chunk of wall. Umbridge at once turned on Filch and told him not to do that as if he'd suggested it.

"I'm not surprised she blames her actions on others," Lily managed to get out less hatefully than normal considering she was still laughing.

Filch needlessly agreed, being a Squib he could do this no more than swallow them,

"No, but I'd like to see him try," Sirius said with enthusiasm.

but instead went for a broom and tried swatting at them, only managing to achieve setting that on fire.

"Probably his most brilliant idea ever," Remus cackled.

Harry ducked away still laughing like crazy, and found the twins in the nearest corridor listening to the chaos with suppressed mirth.

"They've far more restraint than I would have thought," Lily managed while her shoulders still shook. "I would have expected them to proudly be standing under them."

"No sense when everyone will know who did it, but then you can't prove it," James corrected.

Harry told them he was impressed, they'd put Filibuster out of business for sure.

"Well I should hope not," James couldn't stop smirking. "A little healthy competition is good for them."

George whispered he hoped she tried Vanishing them next, that made them multiply by ten.

Impossibly, fresh and renewed laughter began again in here, now they were all wondering the ways these things could get better the more magic you tried to use on them.

The show continued for the rest of the day, often disrupting classes, though the teachers hardly seemed to mind.

"Because we have the best staff ever," Harry managed in between roaring with laughter.

For instance, when a dragon came soaring through the room, McGonagall blandly asked Miss Brown to go fetch their headmistress without out so much as looking up from her desk.

"I miss McGonagall," Remus wheezed out.

The highlight of all this being Umbridge spent her first day as Headmistress running around the castle covered in soot in her attempt to be rid of the firework, whom the teachers seemed incapable of expelling without her around.

"But of course not," Sirius widened his eyes with mock concern despite a few tears still pouring out of them. "We have no idea what kind of magic is behind these, who knows whose subject they relate to," which only managed to fill the room with even more laughter.

Flitwick had even been seen thanking her for the help, after all, he wasn't sure he had the authority to do this himself, before slamming the door in her face.

Lily nearly fell off the couch in utter hysterics, her infant laughing loudly along the only restraint holding her together.

The twins were the heroes of the common room that night, taking orders from everyone in the school for their own set of Weasleys Wildfire Whiz-bangs. Hermione fought her way through just to congratulate them, and they offered to add her to the list for a discount.

She returned to Harry and Ron to find them watching their bags as if hoping the homework would spring out and do itself.

"Wait, wait," James insisted with a rewind motion, and continued with the most important question yet, "did she buy some?"

Harry just blinked innocently without response.

Hermione offered they could do that later as wheel went whizzing past the window.

"I knew it!" Sirius pumped his fist in triumph. "I knew that one had to have more fun in her life than we'd been led to believe."

Ron asked if she was feeling alright, and she happily informed them she was feeling a bit rebellious.

"I'm so proud," James didn't even have to fake rubbing tears from his face.

"Only took her group getting disbanded to admit it," Harry chuckled.

"Though how she went from an illegal study group to not doing homework as rebellious is beyond me," Sirius said only semi-intelligible from laughing so hard.

Even when he headed up to bed they were still going full strong, a sparkler pausing right at their dorm window to write out Poo.

Harry was starting to get worried none of them had stopped laughing for so long, surely they were all going to run out of air soon, and yet none of them could seem to care. This was far too brilliant and a perfect shot of relief after all the stress they'd been dealing with of late.

He got into bed grinning at what Fudge would think when he heard of Umbridge's first day at Dumbledore's job,

"Probably furious," Sirius said with chipper.

"I can only hope it gets worse," Remus insisted with a grin, though he was flabbergasted how after that display.

and how Fudge would react when he heard that the school had spent most of the day in a state of advanced disruption.

"Oh I'm sure he'll find some way to cover it up, that's what he's best at," James rolled his eyes.

The moment he closed his eyes though, he was back in the long dark corridor of the Department of Mysteries, racing to the black door that opened to his touch.

The smiles slipped right off all of their faces like Snape had just appeared into the room. It felt impossible it should happen so fast, but the reminder of this dream and how deep Harry kept going just couldn't feel any good for them as it only reminded them of Voldemort's unexplained connection, and obsession with this place.

He was inside the circular room lined with doors . . . he crossed it, placed his hand on an identical door and it swung inwards . . .

Remus released a sharp breath, he didn't want to keep going, to find out how far Voldemort had gone inside this place. Whatever Voldemort was after it wasn't a good thing, couldn't those fireworks just wake Harry up again already.

Then he was in a new, rectangular room full of odd ticking sounds with odd specks of light, but he didn't investigate and kept pushing on into the next room, which was the largest yet, as big as a cathedral and filled with enormous rows of small, dusty looking spheres...and he knew this was it, he wanted something in here more than anything...and his scar was hurting-

BANG!

Remus finally sighed in relief, shaking slightly from failed adrenalin in the face of coming within arms reach of this mysterious whatever it was. He glanced up at the others, to see if they had any idea of what to make of that new information, when he saw Harry in a right state.

His face was screwed up tight, once tears of mirth now clearly were burning out from something far more unbearable. It was heartbreaking, to watch him flip so drastically all because his mind was forced to live through so many things at one time, things he couldn't even put into words without fearing something far worse happening than just pain.

Lily was trying to surge forward even still cradling her infant, but James beat her to the punch, trying to make his sitting on the edge of the couch casual even as he hovered over Harry in pure agitation he couldn't be of more help than this.

They all wanted to do more, say something for him, but he seemed paralyzed with pain, and Remus would do anything to help him, and so he did the only thing he could think of.

Harry awoke back in his dorm, confused and angry to hear laughter all around him, Seamus shouting about how cool that was,

"No, no it isn't," James grumbled petulantly as he continued to rub at Harry's back.

Remus agreed, having to fight hard to keep his attention on the book.

all four of them crowded around a window where a wheel and a rocket seemed to have mated.

It took an extra moment for them to reel back and remember what they'd just been laughing so hard about, and Harry wished he could feel more regret for ruining their moment of fun instead of always being the source of a problem with his blasted mind.

Harry did not get up and join them, instead left stewing with disappointment, like he'd been denied a wonderful treat.

Harry forced out a laugh that sounded nothing but hollow to everyone, even his own ears. He almost longed for that feeling now, it would be better than the wash of other things he kept feeling as a constant mention of that place continued to make him sick with worry.

A glittering pink and silver winged piglets was now soaring past the windows of Gryffindor Tower outside, actually catching Harry's attention.

Lily opened and closed her mouth in fasciation, longing to just go back and marvel at the twins magic with these things, and yet never having been less interested in magic as her child fought to retain any sense of normality.

Yet he still could not and join the whoops of joy from those around him, as he now remembered he had an Occlumency lesson the following evening.

"Oh boy," Sirius grumbled distastefully, while Harry somehow managed to look all the more worried about that.

He spent the whole day worrying what Snape's reaction was going to be when he saw Harry had gotten even farther, and his guilt only rose when he realized how long it had been since he'd bothered practicing his Occlumency.

"Can't even blame you," James shook his head pitifully for everything Harry went through on a daily basis, how Dumbledore, Snape, or anyone expected Harry to empty his mind of all that was beyond him.

There had been too much going on since Dumbledore had left; he was sure he would not have been able to empty his mind even if he had tried.

"Honestly understandable," Remus sighed, his heavy eyes hadn't really gained much back with so many sleepless nights in a row from here, he could imagine it being just as bad in the months for Harry with longer to dread on these things than they gave themselves.

He doubted, however, whether Snape would accept that excuse.

Lily made a deep throated noise of agitation, entirely not looking forward to what Snape was going to say to him about this.

He tried to empty his mind during classes, which helped nothing as teachers kept shooting review questions around.

"Well I could have warned you of that," Sirius tried for a smile that still felt forced. They'd gone from roaring laughter to sickened with worry about Harry in the span of a second, and now nothing was being helped by the tense set up of another bout of Snape insults directed at Harry.

He trudged miserably down to the dungeons that night, and was very grateful for the distraction of spotting Cho. She'd been standing there watching the hour-glasses, Gryffindor's was nearly empty.

All five of them made a small little noise of agitation, even at something so small still so pestering as that blasted made up group of Malfoy's.

He asked how she was doing, if Umbridge had given her any grief for her membership of the DA.

Cho said no, but took the opportunity to say she'd never dreamed Marietta would tell on them.

Harry reflected back that Marietta was still in the hospital wing with her pimples and couldn't come up with a response for Cho for that.

All of them felt a vindictive laugh somewhere inside themselves for that, Hermione really was something special.

Cho kept going she was a lovely person, she'd just made a mistake.

James blinked in surprise, and just a little admiration for Cho still standing by her friend like that. He of course wanted to add a few more curses to Marietta for what she'd done to Harry, but Cho had just earned herself a few points.

Harry looked at her incredulously, demanding a mistake? She'd sold all of them out!

"I still wish I had some sort of motive for her doing that," Remus scowled.

"Not one good enough to excuse it," Sirius scoffed.

James and Lily frowned slightly, knowing they more than likely would have defended their friends if they'd done the same thing, but then again, they just couldn't imagine their friends doing this. Cho probably hadn't either, and it really was good of her still sticking with her through that.

Cho insisted everyone had gotten away.

"Thanks to Dumbledore," Remus shook his head slowly, he still wasn't quite sure how to wrap his mind around all of that.

Her mum works for the Ministry,

"I haven't forgotten," Sirius said in disgust with a slight shiver. Miss Edgecombe had nearly been the death of him, he wasn't likely to forget that.

Harry cut off to say so did his friends dad, and he didn't have sneak written across his face.

Cho snapped that was a terrible trick of Hermione's.

"Nah," James smirked, honestly considering this Hermione's best move yet, even trumping what she'd done to Skeeter.

She should have told she'd jinxed that paper.

"Well if she'd done that than hardly anyone would have signed it." Lily rolled her eyes.

"She could have told them all after the fact," Remus offered with a grin.

"Nah, this was much more fun, the person couldn't consider their consequences before they made the crappy decision," Sirius decided.

Cho scoffed that of course if Hermione had thought it a good idea, her eyes now bright.

Harry snapped at her not to start crying again.

"Harry, you do know that does not actually prevent anyone from crying?" Sirius asked him in concern.

Harry just huffed, he really hadn't been expecting this fight with Cho, but somehow was relieved for it to finally have happened all the same. However pretty she still was in his memories, her flat refusal to acknowledge the stupid thing her friend had done had finally driven out any feelings he had for her.

She shouted back she wasn't going to!

Harry said just as loudly good, he had enough to cope with.

She told him to go cope with it then before storming off.

"Well, I think that's done with," James gazed at the book with some pity for Harry's first crush having so many disasters back to back.

"The wrong sparks did fly," Remus agreed with a sad little smile.

Harry just clucked his tongue, still not as angry now as he was then, far more concerned with other things in his mind he couldn't reach, and that cemented it for the lot of them. Harry clearly didn't seem to care all that much for his relationship with Cho just evaporating.

Harry went off in an even worse temper, but now instead of dreading Snape, he was thinking of a few more things he'd have liked to have said to Cho.

"You're one of those who always comes up with the comebacks after the fact," James told Harry pleasantly.

"I premake up most of mine and wait for the situation," Sirius smirked.

"Suppose that leaves more room for you to follow the conversation," Lily snipped at him.

He arrived with Snape once again depositing memories into a Pensive.

"Just what does he keep in that?" Remus rolled his eyes.

Harry twitched hard in unease, he had a bad feeling he was about to find out, but it mostly went unnoticed as they all thought he was just preparing himself for another lash of Occlumency.

They began as usual, squaring off with wands out on either side of the desk, but before Snape could cast this time, the door banged open and Malfoy sped in.

"I'm surprised that hasn't happened before now," James rolled his eyes, "him barging in there to tattle on some first year Slytherin taking his favorite chair."

"What a sight to walk in on though," Remus raised a curious brow, he'd certainly pause at this with some concern.

He paused in shock upon the sight though, Snape lowering his wand first and asking what Draco needed.

Remus rolled his eyes, finding Snape referring to Malfoy by his first name really showed the depths to the two's relationship. The teachers should always refer to the student by last name out of sheer habit. He found this proof that Snape had a more familiar relationship with Malfoy, as if he'd needed it before now.

Potter was just here for remedial Potions.

"With their wands pointed at each other," Sirius emphasized. "If that wasn't a dumb enough excuse before, it gets worse every time."

Harry had not seen Malfoy look so gleeful since Umbridge had turned up to inspect Hagrid.

"And I know how much you long to see that expression," Lily scowled.

He would have given a great deal to be able to shout the truth at Malfoy,

"Why?" All four of them demanded of him.

"To make that stupid look disappear," Harry told them like he thought they were being very stupid on purpose.

or, even better, to hit him with a good curse.

"That's the response I was expecting," James nodded, feeling the world back on balance.

Malfoy put whatever he had to say about this on hold as he informed that Umbridge had requested his Professor,

"She's already tried to poison one student this week, I don't see how he could help with that," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Lily wanted to be more furious that Snape was in Umbridge's good graces like this, but then again, it was all the more sad she wasn't surprised considering how much the two seemed so alike.

They'd found Montague,

Sirius spluttered like he had a broken jaw.

"They did that how long ago?" Remus interpreted. "I think that's a new record."

"Ours only lasted a day, tops," James pouted.

"What even is that thing?" Harry demanded, quite sure his level of unease with this thing had nothing to do with the Slytherin Quidditch captains fait.

"You shove people in it, and they vanish," Sirius came back enough to helpfully explain.

Remus rolled his eyes at his inept friend and more properly said, "I'm sure you remember as vividly as we do that Nick broke one above Filch's office in your second year."

Harry nodded eagerly, he was still wondering what about that felt so significant. "Well there's matching pairs, always are. The one on the first floor the twins used is probably the still functioning one, but without the other to go through, it'll just leave you in limbo until it finds an opening to pop you out, but the magic is very vague about it all, and we have no clue what it's indications were when this would happen."

"It was pure need to understand such magic that we kept testing it," James offered with an impish smirk.

Remus' mouth was twitching in much the same way as he watched Harry curiously to see if he'd gotten it.

Harry wanted to smile back, but his mind felt torn in two. He still wanted to ask more about these things, but something about the Marauders and that look on their face...it was all fun now, but he had a feeling it bothered him for some reason soon.

He tried tentatively to understand all of this by asking slowly, "so, when you lot, err-"

"Put someone in cause they annoyed us," Sirius offered helpfully.

"Right," Harry paused to roll his eyes, "it just pushed the person out the other one?"

"We had to disable it for our needs to work," James's eyes widened innocently. "It was no fun if they just reappeared."

"We put it back together when we were done though," Remus still couldn't wipe a smirk away. "Couldn't have the teachers knowing we were messing with it."

"Never as badly as what Nick did though," Sirius was still laughing heavily, "so Merlin knows if they even are fixable now."

"Let me get this straight," Lily said dangerously. "You shoved people into a magical item, you had no clue what it would do to them, and then you continued to further break it apart to see what else would happen to them?"

"It happened to me first," Remus offered in defense of them. "Some Hufflepuff James had gotten last week shoved me into one for revenge, I made a reappearance a day later."

"It sort of just spiraled out from there," Sirius agreed.

Lily had spent the entire conversation frowning heavily at the lot of them, she'd never enjoyed hearing about their blatant ways of dealing with people that annoyed them. It was nice to see Harry wasn't exactly amused by this, but he was also clearly distracted by something so she wasn't sure how much he'd been paying attention past their actual words.

Absolutely none of Harry's thoughts had been helped by them, now not only was he positive something of these things should not be laughed at, but his lesson with Snape was feeling more foreboding than ever. He still nodded at Remus to indicate he was done for now.

he'd turned up jammed inside a toilet on the fourth floor.

James and Sirius roared with laughter, Remus trying hard to hide his own amusement behind the book and failing a bit.

Snape demanded how he'd wound up there, and Malfoy said he had no clue.

Snape dismissed Potter, saying he was to come back tomorrow to continue. Malfoy only paused long enough to mouth remedial potions at him before following.

"That's going to bite him in the arse later," Lily tisked loudly, though it hardly did anything to dampen the boys new found amusement. They'd gotten to hear the end results of yet another prank from the twins and had Snape's stupid lesson pushed off for a moment longer, they were now jovial, and hoped their mood would help Harry out of whatever funk his mind was clearly still stuck in.

Seething, Harry replaced his wand inside his robes and made to leave the room. At least he had twenty-four more hours in which to practice;

"There's the bright side," Lily persisted in pointing out, though clearly being ignored by all.

but all he really felt was the expense Malfoy was going to put into telling the school of his remedial Potions.

"I'm surprised Smith hadn't done that already," Sirius rolled his eyes.

He was at the door when he saw it, dappled lights dancing off the glass jars, that reminded him of his dream in the Department of Mysteries.

All five of them shivered heavily at the reminder, Harry looked ready to fall off the couch every time this was mentioned.

He turned around and saw it was only the Pensive still shining brightly, and wondered again what was in his memories?

"So quickly run from the room, otherwise you might see him again when you've so graciously been deprived of that," James said enthusiastically, he really hadn't a care for what could be in there.

Harry gazed at the Pensive, curiosity welling inside him, what was it that Snape was so keen to hide from Harry?

"Oh Harry," Lily sighed in exhaustion, wanting to press her face into her hands already as she felt where this was going. "Did you learn nothing from your lesson in Dumbledore's Pensive?"

Harry did not answer, though considering the feelings pumping through him, he was confident he hadn't thought that far ahead.

Harry took a step forward, his mind convincing him this must have something to do with the Department of Mysteries.

"I wouldn't honestly be that surprised," Remus agreed, "but you've no idea how to work that thing, so you'll just be plunged into the last thing he was thinking of when he put memories in there."

"Though that may honestly be it," Sirius said with a calmer tone creeping in Remus instantly regretted. "He wasn't hiding away private memories from his childhood, those were still in his head when Harry went in. Maybe it is Order business he's more worried about. If Harry wants to find out about them, this is the place I'd look."

"You're encouraging this," Lily yelped furiously. "Show some privacy!"

"He's not showing Harry any," James rolled his eyes, instantly tagging along to Sirius' side. Though he did raise his hands in surrender upon Lily's flashing eyes. "I wish he wouldn't, he has no way to get himself out of the memory, only Snape can do that, but I'm sick of him never being told anything and I know you are too."

Lily scowled heavily at the both of them as she didn't find that the point.

He tried to guess how long Snape would be gone, surely as the Slytherin Quidditch Captain, even after Montague was unstuck from the toilet, he'd be escorted to the hospital wing.

"The time frame is irrelevant," Remus scolded. "You weren't the one to put those memories in, so you can't pull yourself out until you've seen them all. Could be days worth of storage in there."

Harry wished he'd known that, but again, he now knew he hadn't thought that far ahead, and he had a bad feeling he'd soon regret it.

He stepped even farther forward, using his wand to tap the surface, and the image instantly turned so that Harry was now looking down into the Great Hall.

"Not at all what I was hoping for," Sirius sighed, he'd honestly been hoping for Dumbledore's office, or even Grimmauld places basement, something he'd been hoping for in relevance to whatever Snape was up to. An image of Voldemort, Snape talking to some member of the Order, anything other than what the man had for breakfast. There was no way something interesting to them happened in there, he'd probably just been admiring Umbridge's technique of making children cry.

He hesitated, but suddenly his anger seized him, of Snape, Cho, and Malfoy. He took a great breath, and plunged face first in.

"There you have it," Remus sighed without surprise. "Harry's a dead man."

"So he is some new kind of ghost," Sirius chuckled while prodding at Harry. "Fascinating, can I name him?"

"No," all four of them said at once.

The sensation of falling through black, spinning through nothing- and then he was standing in the great hall, except instead of the House tables, there were desks all over, quills scratching against parchment, it was clearly exam time.

"Huh?" James looked floored at this start, why would something of Snape's school years be so precious to hide away? He couldn't imagine doing the same.

"I know exams are close so they'd be on his mind, but this is ridiculous," Sirius rolled his eyes and yawned already out of sheer boredom.

Remus kept going blandly, and some disappointment. Harry was going to be in the worst amount of trouble yet, and apparently he wasn't even going to get to see anything good out of it.

He began looking around in the sunlight room for the man, this was his memory so he had to be here somewhere.

Though James did smirk a bit Harry may get a glimpse of him, he was sure his son would at least get a kick out of that.

When he did find him, it was a teenage version with a stringy, pallid look, like a plant in the dark.

Lily scoffed heavily and rolled her eyes, finding too much of his father's influence in that description. She'd always thought of him as a sickly pale, thin hair a silky black, admittedly too thin but still with a smile that drew her in to know what he was thinking. She supposed it was all in the eye of the beholder, as that was still how she'd describe him at fifteen. Picturing him now as the hateful man tormenting her son and his classmates, she may well have called him many of the same things Harry just had.

He read the parchment he was working on upside down, which said Defence Against the Dark Arts- Ordinary Wizarding Level.

"Uhoh," James hummed in concern, suddenly hurrying back to his Lily Flowers side, he hadn't expected it to be this exact OWL.

Lily felt a burning in the back of her eyes at once, this was her worst childhood memory. Far worse than anything Petunia had ever said to her as a child. Of all the things Snape would keep stored away, she could almost understand why he'd want to keep this one in particular away from Harry. Shame she would hope, for utterly humiliating her that day, though she was sure it was something far more related to his own status, just like always, considering the events having led up to that.

Harry watched his parents with wide eyed concern for this reaction, looking to the other two for some sort of explanation he could already feel he wasn't going to like, but they were avoiding his eye. This really had been just any other day to them, but for Lily, well this was still something she should have shared with Harry, what a way for the poor kid to find out.

Remus waited until Lily snapped at him to keep going before he could do this to her, though it hardly felt better with permission.

The call for five more minutes echoed around, and Harry saw Professor Flitwick up front, passing by a boy with untidy black hair, that stuck up in the back.

James sighed, not exactly thrilled he'd gotten his wish. He hadn't nearly paid Snape back in kind for what he'd called the love of his life that day, still, he hoped Harry at least enjoyed his attempts.

Harry moved so fast that had he been tangible, he would have sent desks flying as he moved to see his father at fifteen. It was like looking at himself with deliberate mistakes.

"That is a very good description for the pair," Remus muttered mostly to himself.

His eyes were hazel, his nose slightly longer and with no scar, but the thin face, and untidy black hair were all Harry's, they'd even be the same height.

"You weren't wearing your glasses," Harry noted, grinning wildly at finally having such a vivid memory of his dad at such a young age. He clung to that feeling as long as he could, there was definitely something off about this promising it wouldn't last.

"They're only reading glasses, I only use them for long periods, or something important," James shrugged. "The exams weren't long enough I bothered."

James yawned and looked right through Harry to grin at a boy a few seats back, and Harry felt another thrill upon spotting Sirius return the grin. He was leaning back in his seat, tilting it back on two legs and very aware of how good-looking he was.

Sirius snorted mirthlessly and gave James a very superior smirk, telling without a hint of remorse, "I knew I loved your kid. He only called you a thin, messy git. At least he acknowledges who the handsome one is."

James gave him a very heavy glare, even while fighting back a grin for his best friends endless teasing.

His dark hair was swept with an elegance James nor Harry could ever achieve, and he was completely ignoring a girl who was eyeing him as well.

Sirius' grin only widened, turning outright flippant, and Harry was quite sure he was going to be given an account of this girl and all sorts of details he never would have asked for, but Remus had not paused long enough to be of help, to Harry's relief.

Two seats away and another row back, Harry spotted Remus, looking peaky, and he wondered if a full moon was near.

"It was that Monday, actually," Remus mumbled.

Harry blinked in surprise. Not only did it wrench at him for Remus to know so explicitly when each was, meaning they must all stand out very clearly in his mind and that only emphasized how painful each must be, but even after a few days rest Remus was only just starting to look healthier. In the days leading up he'd grown quite pale and exhausted at all hours, he couldn't imagine having to study on top of all that.

Harry concluded that must also mean Wormtail was around here somewhere.

Remus flinched hard at the reminder, not even needing to glance up and see the others as well. Harry had never actually known him as more than the traitor, but it was still impossible for them to think back on nearly any memory from their time here without finding him as well. Now they were being force fed one! Snape's memory had just turned into the worst thing for all of them.

Sure enough Harry found the mousy-haired boy with a pointed nose biting at his nails as he scratched at his paper.

Sirius' features were twisted violently, he still felt that need pulsing through him at every small reminder of him to go and rip his head off. The forcible act of not being able to respond to this made him feel like he was on fire just sitting here instead. He'd learned his lesson, he'd just have to be patient...

He turned his attention back to James and saw he was doodling now, having already drawn a Snitch, and now working in detail on the letters L. E. He wondered what that stood for.

Lily fidgeted with a few strands of hair in unease while eyeing James, who wasn't even blushing at the reminder. The unease came from that very sharp hurt her son hadn't known her maiden name, or at least, hadn't put together what it would mean. Instead she sighed heavily and flippantly told him, "I suppose it's better than L. P."

James offered her a wide grin for the tone, wanting to hold her even closer than he was for her still taking shots at him rather than dwelling on this particular memory from her past.

Finally time was up, Flitwick summoned all of the exams to him, and James took to his feet and stuffed the paper and quill away into his bag,

"It literally just said Flitwick summoned all the papers to him," Harry scratched at his head in confusion.

"You mark your final answers on the exam," Sirius explained, "Prongs was still messing with his scratch paper."

"Couldn't students still know what to expect on the exam then?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Nope, the exam changes every year," Remus sighed.

which he slung over his back, and stood waiting for Sirius to join him.

"I always had to walk over to his arse," Sirius said with an exaggerated eye roll. "If I wasn't the one to meet him, he'd pop me on the head for making him walk."

"Hark, look who's getting memory problems of his own," James tisked. "If I walked up to you, you'd groan about me making you wait around, at least if I waited long enough you'd get bored and come to me."

"They are actually arguing about who walked over to whom the most," Remus informed the other two like they'd miss this.

"I'm aware," Lily shook her head in exasperation, "I'm waiting for you to cut them off already."

Remus hadn't just because he enjoyed watching them pick at each other so much, especially with memory of the one who was missing hovering right there in front of them, but he supposed he couldn't ignore it forever and instead kept going in hopes Harry would blot him from sight.

Harry spotted Snape leaving the Entrance Hall, oblivious to his surroundings and still studying his own paper, even his walk reminded him of a twitchy spider.

James snorted enthusiastically Harry so easily caught onto one of their favorite jokes of referring to him as a bug in every way.

A gang of chattering girls separated Snape from James, Sirius and Lupin, and by planting himself in their midst,

Remus twitched again in agitation, though it was slightly less so than moments before. He supposed that being referred to by his last name was still better than not having been mentioned at all like the other one, though he still had to remind himself it was his own fault Harry hadn't a reason to call him anything else.

and by planting himself in the middle he was able to keep in sight those he wanted to see and still be in Snape's company.

By ignoring those around him, he could still hear Sirius happily asking Moony if he'd enjoyed question ten.

Lupin agreed he'd loved it, name the ten signs that mark a werewolf. One, he's sitting in this chair, two, he's wearing clothes, three, check the name at the heading.

Lily felt a surprised giggle crack out of her before she could stop it.

"Ha!" Sirius barked in triumph. "See Prongs, told you you should have let Moony try some humor around her, she clearly doesn't partake to yours."

"And have the love of my life swoon over his brilliance," James insisted on looking mock affronted while he played along. "I'd rather kill them both."

"It's a wonder I didn't fall into your arms sooner," she told him drolly.

Wormtail was the only one who didn't laugh, instead groaning that he'd only gotten three, but he couldn't remember the last two.

James was aghast, considering he ran around with one once a month.

All five of them were turning an ugly gray color for having to see this, to relive it and be forced to once again come to terms with how close they all were, saying anything and everything to each other as they'd always done, when did that change for him?

Lupin implored him to keep his voice down as they headed outside to the lake, and Harry was worried that if Snape broke off, he'd have no choice but to follow.

"True," James tried in vain to keep the strain from his voice, failing miserably. "You'd be dragged along." His voice cracked at the end, he couldn't pretend to keep going, and was starting to more than pity Remus at having to be forced to read all this.

Clearly Harry was as well, whispering, "did you want me to-"

"No," he snapped without looking up. "May as well get on with it, not like he's actually doing anything." Except ruining more memories from his past, his biting innards were now constantly reminding, but they were all feeling the same way, it would help nothing for Harry to do this instead.

Sirius kept things going by stating that had been a piece of cake to him, he'd gotten at least an Outstanding.

"And did you?" Harry couldn't help but ask, infusing as much mirth into his voice as was possible.

Sirius watched Harry for a long moment with a set look in place that was all the answer he needed before he finally admitted, "no, got an E."

"We did though," James tipped his head towards Remus with a purposeful grin that didn't completely hide the hard set in his eyes. "Gave him hell for it."

"He probably missed one too many questions about harpies, getting them confused with himself and all," Remus told solemnly, at least this was one thing that rat could never take away, and they'd always find more ways to pick at each other.

"At least I got an O on my Transfiguration that someone got an A on." Sirius returned flatly, but there was finally a real grin coming back as well.

"You cheated," Remus insisted. "The lot," very heavy wince, "both of you," he quickly corrected. "Bloody extra practice and all, too many years ahead."

"You're just jealous you got O's in two classes to my three," Sirius insisted.

"Padfoot the only thing I'm jealous at you about is your never ending idiocy. How do you continue to make a fool of yourself?" Remus pleasantly returned.

James had only just opened his mouth to butt in as well when Lily cut in above them all with a relieved smile on her face. "Honestly, the lot of you, you're still arguing about this how many years later? You're all idiots, no matter what those grades said."

"There's my wife, keeping us all in perspective with her- how many OWLs did you get?" He suddenly broke off by asking her, she'd never answered him in school and it hadn't come up in recent times.

"I'm not telling," she insisted with a grin, "because it is pointless now." She honestly admired all of them, for still finding ways to make each other laugh with the rat being so vividly present now more than ever, but they couldn't ignore this forever. Remus paused and had to swallow hard before going back, when all he really wanted to do was snap this shut, he didn't want to reminisce about what came next any more than the couple.

James agreed himself as well as he pulled out a Snitch, almost casually letting it go before seizing it again with excellent reflexes.

James managed quite a pleased smile he'd impressed his son with his fun.

Wormtail watched him in awe.

Which vanished instantly, his face flushing red, though he was still so pale he looked more pink and still likely to start screaming if he had to keep remembering how much he'd enjoyed his friend indulging his every whim.

Much to Harry's relief, Snape folded himself into a nearby bush, while the group of four took up shade near a beach tree. By staying with the group of girls who were in the middle and now dipping bare feet into water, he could still be in between both.

Lily was brushing at her hair with vigor now, her nails catching on a few strands. This memory had replayed so many times so vividly in her head she didn't need Harry's descriptions, and vainly hoped that for once, this time would be different, that her son wouldn't even recognize her because nothing special had happened that day...

Lupin had pulled out a book and was reading.

"Don't even start Sirius," Remus told him without looking up. "It's my misfortune of the universe repeating these circumstances."

"But it's hilarious," Sirius insisted like Moony was missing on the joke of a lifetime.

"No, it's not," Remus rolled his eyes behind the pages and kept going loudly.

Sirius stared around at the students milling over the grass, looking rather haughty and bored, but very handsomely so.

Sirius flipped his hair over his shoulder and preened, Harry fighting the urge more every moment to tell his godfather to cool it. Normally his bravado was endearing, and hilarious, though that part was probably unintentional. He couldn't even really find anything wrong with this scene that should bother him, aside from Wormtail they seemed to be acting casually enough, why was the idea of being in here weighing so heavily on him he wanted to snap at all of them?

James was still playing with the Snitch, letting it zoom further and further away, almost escaping but always grabbed at the last second.

Harry remembered his mum and dad mentioning that earlier, and now realized why he would have seen this. He supposed he could see his mums point in him showing off a bit, but it's not as if he had an audience watching like the twins so often did, he was just entertaining himself.

Wormtail was watching with an open mouth, often cheering and applauding at the more wild catches. After nearly five minutes of this, Harry wondered why James didn't tell him to get a grip.

Underneath the visage from being so bluntly reminded of his many fond memories of this, some shock creeped through, as that had never even occurred to him. Why would it? He'd loved impressing everyone, especially his own friends. Tainted as it was now, he was left questioning all of this for the first time. Was Peter faking it? Was he actually envious? He still hadn't gotten his answer of why someone he cared so much for would do to him in their future.

James was clearly enjoying the attention though, occasionally ruffling his hair,

Harry had noticed his dad doing that quite a lot, and he almost smiled just a bit that no matter the torment his friend's reminder did to him, at least some parts of him had stayed the same.

and glancing to the girls at the water's edge as if hoping they were watching.

Finally though, Sirius seemed to grow bored of this and told James to put that up.

James did, and Harry had the distinct feeling Sirius was the only one he'd do this for.

"This is true," Remus tisked loudly over his own beating heart pounding through his head, despising the reminder of this hurting them all so much, and Harry may not even understand why yet. It was clear from his expression something of this day was bothering them all, but while he could wrap his head around it was the not so simple thing of vividly remembering Wormtail back in their lives so casually for the Marauders, he was yet sure what had his mother so near to tears.

He forced himself to keep going loudly with his first train of thought, even in the awkward silence. "Whenever I tried, he just told me to shut up, because he was doing it for me."

"Honestly, the only reason I told him to stop was because I was fixing to suggest we go take a swim in the lake, otherwise I would have joined him," Sirius shrugged, ignoring how forced the casual movement was.

Sirius instead said he was bored, wishing it was a full moon.

Lupin said from behind his book he would, but if he really wanted something to do, he could quiz him on some Transfiguration, even offering it out to him.

"Did you actually think that would work?" Lily arched a brow at him.

"I didn't want to go swimming, as I knew full well he was fixing to say," Remus shrugged. "I was delaying for a moment so I could claim to go back inside and work in peace."

Sirius simply snorted, saying he didn't need to look at that, he knew it all.

"That is also true," Remus muttered with an eye roll Harry must have missed at the time.

James got his attention by finding something else to liven up Padfoot, and Sirius turned like a dog that had scented a rabbit.

"Your descriptions are as accurate as ever," James told Harry with a straight face, but Sirius merely winced instead of the laugh he really felt. The two weren't exactly proud they'd started this fight between Evans and Snivellus. Sirius watched Lily tentatively, a need to defend himself this was common place, he hadn't known he'd resort to calling her that when this exact set up had happened countless times in their past already without such a thing happening, but the words died before they could start. An apology would probably just make her angrier, but now at him.

He softly said in excitement Snivellus, and Harry looked to where Snape was standing back up, James and Sirius now with him.

Lily groaned miserably as she kept eyes on her infant. James and Sirius exchanged a look, but as one decided to risk it and said, "sorry Lily."

"Don't bother," she snapped, clearly Sirius' prediction had been right. "You don't mean it."

"I am sorry," James insisted. "I never would have thought he'd-"

"You're sorry for what he did," Lily corrected harshly, "not for what you did, so save it."

James closed his mouth without bothering to agree, and Harry's bad feeling was growing worse than ever. This wasn't really...

Lupin and Wormtail remained where they were, Lupin keeping eyes on his book though his eyes were not following words. Wormtail was watching with a look of anticipation.

Remus' face folded as he easily recalled that look. He'd used to love seeing all the spells they learned in class in action on others. He hated how much it hurt to remember even the tiniest details about him. Thankfully Sirius and James were now plenty distracted by Lily they seemed more apt to ignoring this, but since Remus had kept himself out of this one, it was a bit harder for him to continue ignoring the rats every motion.

James repeated the nickname loudly after him, and Snape reacted so fast it was as if he'd been expecting the attack.

"He was, considering-" Sirius began with a sneer, now itching for a rematch just to let off some pent up frustration all of this was dragging up, which he sadly wasn't going to find in here. He only stopped as Lily glared at him with an old familiar look he hadn't seen in awhile, and that wasn't helping to clear his mind of this.

He dropped his bag and went for his wand, but before it had even cleared his pocket, James had shot Expelliarmus at him.

Snape's wand shot twelve feet away, Sirius letting out a bark of laughter before shouting Impedimenta, and Snape fell to the ground still feet away from his wand.

All three of them were so distracted, tense and waiting for a blow they never would have wished upon Lily, they all missed the look growing on Harry's face at recalling this scene.

The students around looked up curiously, some even eagerly as James and Sirius sauntered forward.

James began taunting how his exam had gone?

Sirius answered for him he'd seen his nose pressed to the parchment, it would be so grease marked no one could even read the answers.

Several people laughed, Snape was clearly unpopular.

"Least you've gathered the important details already," Sirius told Harry absently, glancing at him for a moment rather than watching Lily, and blinking in surprise Harry hadn't laughed along like he always had when they'd taken shots at Snape in here. Sirius wasn't actually sure what that face was, but he now frowned more heavily than ever for what Harry was thinking without sharing.

Wormtail sniggered shrilly.

Remus made a guttural noise of agitation, wishing Harry would quit noting such things already. They were all well aware if it wasn't Sirius and James starting the fight it was him egging them all on, but Harry reminding them of that only made this all far worse than they would have thought.

The boy on the ground snapped at them to just wait until he got his wand ba-, but Sirius didn't give him a chance, finishing for him to wait for what, him to wipe his nose?

Snape began saying curses and hexes intermittently, but still nothing happened from his wand still ten feet away.

James decided he didn't like his language and used Scourgify on him, causing bubbles to come out of Snape's mouth.

A new voice shouted to leave him alone!

"That actually took two curses longer than usual," James insisted on pushing for a casual tone of voice when addressing Lily. "Exactly how long had you been on the fence about him before this happened?"

Lily pursed her lips, not particularly wanting to answer him, and then she glanced at Harry and saw the look on his face. The expression surprised her, but she supposed he'd put together what this day was for her, but if he clearly had no care for the answer than she wouldn't indulge James' curiosity on this.

When her silence persisted, Remus kept going anyways. James had been well aware, as often as he'd mentioned it, that Lily had been seen out of company of Snape more often than not their last few months of fifth year, so he didn't know what his mate was trying to accomplish by asking such things, but he would try to save him from the answer anyways.

James and Sirius looked around at a girl with dark red hair and green eyes, Harry's mother.

James eagerly at once called out to Evans, making his voice go deeper, more mature.

Remus made some attempt at a laugh, speaking absently, "more idiotic than anything," but he didn't even pause for James to defend himself even if he would have.

Lily repeated for them to leave him alone, looking at James with great dislike.

Sirius was looking for it now, and watched another line cross Harry's face, his eyes growing as tight as his mothers for all of this coming back to him. Sirius wanted to reassure him that as bad as it was for Lily to be remembering all of this, that part was the common place, but he didn't want to interrupt right now in hopes Remus was almost done already, or even better, the actual Snape would show up and stop this. Quite an odd want, but it was killing him to watch this eat away at Lily, and he'd never have wanted Harry to see this in person, it was bad enough being told what the creep had once done to his mother.

She demanded what Snape had done to him?

"This time, you really should have emphasized that point," James told her, though she continued ignoring him in hopes he'd take the hint this wasn't helping. She pulled out of his arms and laid against the armrest instead, the baby still cradled tight in her arms her only comfort right now.

James looked hurt, he'd only been trying to help, but for now he crossed his arms and gave her her space.

James pretended to deliberate before deciding it was more the fact he existed.

James still found that to be true, that Snape had grown up knowing Lily and never seemed to value that enough but instead spent far more time in the company of pre Death Eaters, that his mere existence felt like a blocker to what James wanted more than anything, to be close to her, but there was always that sniveling used napkin in the way that Lily kept defending.

Harry made some kind of noise, but James was too distracted watching Lily to process it. He supposed Harry would have been plenty confused about all this in his time though.

Many of the surrounding students laughed, Sirius and Wormtail included, but Lupin, still apparently intent on his book, didn't, and nor did Lily.

Remus glanced up curiously, he'd felt Harry turn sharply to him and watched for a moment in confusion as Harry scrutinized him, but was he really looking at him like that because he hadn't laughed at the joke? Harry didn't offer anything though, and Remus went back to reading feeling as heavy as ever this couldn't just be done with. He almost would have preferred Harry to interrupt, it probably would have been a better distraction than forcing out this mess.

She coldly informed him he was a bullying toe rag, and to leave him alone.

James said he would if she'd go out with him.

"Bad timing there mate," Sirius helpfully inserted what he'd been thinking at the time.

"Thank you for not sharing that at the time," James rolled his eyes, "wish you'd carried that on."

Lily said she wouldn't even if it was just between him and the giant squid.

"Would you look it there, I beat out that sea creature after all," James seemed to almost pleasantly inform her, and he saw almost a twitching smile come back to her.

Sirius commiserated to Prongs this was bad luck before shouting in surprise, but too late.

Snape had been fighting off the curse this whole time, and had finally reached his wand, shooting a spell at James that cut across his cheek and splattered his robes with blood.

James whirled on the spot, there was a flash of light, and then Snape was hanging upside down showing off gray underpants.

Lily, whose furious expression twitched into a smile for just a moment,

"Really? I didn't see that," James blinked in surprise, he hadn't thought he'd gotten a real smile out of Lily for at least another year. How many other times had he made her smile without getting the pleasure of seeing? More importantly, how long had Snape been acting an arse to her before this happened for her to be doing it so openly now?

No one answered, especially not Harry, who was still processing all this so slowly he felt like his head had filled with molasses. All he was sure of, was that he didn't feel like laughing along right now like his dad was clearly hoping someone was.

but instead shouted at Potter to let him down.

James did so with a careless wave of his wand, but the moment he was back in the grass, Sirius shot Petrificus Totalus at him, and Snape fell back to the ground stiff as a bored.

"Payback complete, now where's a broomshed," Sirius muttered for himself.

Lily shrieked at them to leave him alone, drawing her own wand. The two looked at it warily.

"The first proper response of their day," Remus agreed absently.

James told Evans not to make him hex her.

"That would be a duel to see," Sirius hummed, though thankfully it had never gone that far, and at least now it never would. Lily mostly just shouted at them, and that was more than enough to stop Prongs, which in turn was just enough to stop the rest of them.

She snapped for the curse to be lifted then, and James did so with a deep sigh first before telling Snivellus he was lucky Evans was here-

Remus wanted to stop. He dreaded the next words to come pouring out of his mouth, because usually, the fight stopped there. Lily came forward and her and Snape walked off. This time though, he had to take a very deep breath before finishing.

Snape shouted back he didn't need help from a Mudblood!

Remus frowned hatefully, never in his life having wanted to say that word, and detesting he truly just had in regards to one of his friends.

Harry gasped, as it finally snapped together for him. She'd told him she'd stopped being friends with Snape because he'd called her that in public one day, screamed it at her in the middle of a courtyard, were her exact words...but he hadn't realized it had been this exact day! He looked desperately to her, but she wouldn't look at him, wouldn't look at any of them.

James was aching to put his arms back around her, to promise she wasn't alone, but she didn't want his comfort right now. She didn't blame him for this anymore, as she had for the rest of that year. Things had changed over the summer, she'd changed when she finally realized her relationship with him was irreparable like this day had proven.

Lily blinked once, before telling Snivellus to wash out his mouth.

James roared at Snape to apologize, but Lily shouted just as loudly she didn't want to make him apologize, he was just as bad!

James looked truly offended, saying he'd never call her such a thing.

Lily snarled that didn't excuse his strutting around corridors, always cursing people who annoyed him. She made him sick!

Then she stormed off.

James tried calling after her, but when she didn't respond, he demanded of Sirius still next to him what was with her, his tone trying to say the answer was of no real importance, and failing.

James didn't bother to deny this, even as Sirius politely told him, "you failed at that every time by the way."

Sirius offered that reading between the lines, he'd guess she found him conceited.

"Exactly how big were those lines?" Remus asked of him.

Sirius made his eyes go big with confusion, and so Remus just rolled his own.

James looked more furious than ever as he turned back to Snivelly, asking of the watchers who wanted to see him take off his pants?

Harry never found out if James had.

"Nah," James huffed, "Hagrid showed up then. Though I might have if he really hadn't apologized, I was still wanting one even without her around," he said in no uncertain terms.

Far from looking reassured, Harry's expression only darkened, much to all of the boys confusion, and Lily was still keeping eyes only for her infant and wasn't watching any of them.

A hand closed around his arm like a vice, and glancing up, Harry saw the adult Snape.

"Uroh," Sirius hummed. This must be why Harry was looking so off, no one would be happy being caught doing this.

Harry was dragged back, feeling as if he did a flip before finding himself in the dungeons again, Snape still holding fast to his arm. It was scary, his lips were shaking, his face was white, his teeth were bared.

Lily did look up sharply at that, anger now the most dominant thing rather than the hurt of her youth. Yes Harry was in the wrong, but if he hurt her boy, Snape was going to wish she'd killed him that day instead of simply dropping him from her life.

Snape hissed what an amusing man his father had been, shaking Harry so hard his glasses slipped from his nose, before he was released, and shoved so hard he hit the stone floor.

James and Sirius snarled in outrage, all eyes flashing furiously for Harry being treated like this. All of them were trying to reach for their wand now, growing more worried by the second Snape was fixing to turn on Harry with worse than the curse that had left a scar on James that day.

Harry though could hardly react, this moment of seeing Snape trying to remind him of something he just couldn't concentrate on right now, still far too wrapped in an all to living realization.

The shout of get out, and never to come back echoed behind him as Harry got to his feet and ran, a glass of cockroaches exploding above his head on the way out. He didn't stop running until he was three floors ahead, slumping down into an empty plinth as he rubbed at his bruised arm.

All four of them made a noise of outrage Snape had really hurt him. He'd deserved a detention certainly, they wouldn't have even argued if Snape had done a number of things like emptying house points or weeks of detentions, but actually harming him was far past crossing the line. The oddest part was, Harry wasn't even rubbing at his arm now, for all the world his face showed he couldn't care less, and it was depressing the lot of them to see him go so silent with no idea why.

Harry didn't know where to go. He didn't want to go back to the tower and tell his friends, and it wasn't because Snape had thrown a jar at him.

"I thought you or him exploded that by accident, he actually threw that at you!" Sirius barked in outrage.

Harry had no reaction, he wouldn't look at any of them.

It was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him,

Remus' brows shot up in surprise as they were finally getting an idea of why Harry hadn't spoken a word during that whole exchange, and that's the part he'd focused on? He finished curiously,

and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him.

and hadn't been expecting that.

HPHPHPHP

*Nicknames offered by Xovercrazy and MelodyGirl239 in that order

**I think I'm allowed some direct quotes from the books, and these are just too magnificent to pass up.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #OotP #Snape's Worst Memory #reading the books #HP #Jilly #James Potter #Lily Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black

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jiilys · 4 years

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good crimes

also on ao3

Lily Evans to Sirius Black: do u think i should get a fringe

Sirius Black: depends if u want james to fuck you again

Lily Evans: harsh

Lily Evans: a fringe wont effect my GREAT boobs

Lily Evans: ive rung mar im doing it anyway get fucked

Sirius Black: have fun becoming a born again virgin just to spite me

“Do you think Jane Austen could’ve written more convincingly about love if she’d been married?”

Sirius, lying on his bed scrolling through Twitter and ignoring Remus’ emails, didn’t look up.

“Jane Assrim?”

“Jane Austen,” Lily flopped onto the bed and made Sirius drop his phone down the side of it. “I’ve just read the most infuriating article”

Sirius, phoneless, not quite ready to let the joke go: “Jane Offramp, did you say?”

“- think you have to married to write about love? Is it a fucking prerequisite? And what does ‘write convincingly about love’ even mean? Like Sense and Sensibility isn’t fucking incredible-”

“That was a good movie.”

Lily turned to him, “I know you read the book.” He had, but only because it was cheaper than getting Lily a birthday present last year.

“He said Sense and Sensibility would’ve been more convincing if Jane was married?”

“Yes. I mean, I’m paraphrasing, but yes.”

“She wasn’t?”

“No. Do you listen when I talk?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“Pity. Maybe then you’d be better at pub quizzes.”

“One time!” Sirius shoved his hand down the side of the bed, grasping for the phone, “One fucking quiz! I’d had eleven gins!”

“It was seven gins”

“Thirteen gins!”

“Seven, at best.” Lily sat up, “I don’t know what to do about this, I’m thinking about scrapping my entire thesis to exclusively write about why this guy sucks one.”

Sirius finally grasped the phone, “That sounds unwise.”

“We won’t know till I’ve tried it.”

“I think we know now.”

“Buzzkill. Go have another gin.”

Sirius Black to Lily Evans: you home for dinner tonight

Lily Evans: ill be in

Sirius Black: im going to combine spaghetti and baked beans in a pot and make spaghetti beans

Lily Evans: im out

Sirius Black: ive bought wine

Lily Evans: back in

“You’re not naked in there are you!”

“Why would I be naked?”

Sirius poked his head around the door holding a cup of tea. Lily was sat on the bed, laptop open, fully clothed. He ventured inside. “’Heard Potter and didn’t want to interrupt kinky shit.”

“We’re trying to decide how to email my landlord about mowing the lawn,” James’ voice, crackly, through the laptop, “But if that does it for you Black I’m not judging.” He’s wearing a top that is definitely Remus’ and hasn’t bothered to button it.

“Have you brought me a tea?” Lily asked, sweetly.

“No. I came to ask if you knew where the sieve was and Potter’s out here with his shirt undone like this is a porno.”

“Sorry for turning you on this early.” James said, gleeful.

Lily leant back against her pillows. “Give me the tea and I’ll tell you where the sieve is”

James, the traitor, laughed. Sirius squinted. “Are you kidding.”

Lily held out a hand and after taking a second to weigh his options (leave, sieveless, back at square one or hand over the tea, make a new one, gain sieve). Sirius gave her the mug.

Lily blew on it. “We don’t have a sieve” She said, solemnly, and James howled. Sirius lunged for the tea.

“Kidding!” Lily swooped it out of his reach as James continued to make inhuman noises that were surely annoying at least half of the California population, “Top drawer above the oven!”

Unknown to Lily Evans: lill

Unknown: its siriius

Unknown: am out lost phone pls call uber

Lily Evans: where are you

Unknown: nandos on main

Lily Evans: the one where i broke my heel or the one you and james are banned from

Unknown: banned

Lily Evans: number plate is JKY879 u have three minutes

Unknown: thank u lpve u

James Potter to Sirius Black: call me

Sirius Black: you call me

Sirius Black: im not paying three pounds a minute for you to tell me to check my email

James Potter: its not abt emails

James Potter: we’ll bill it to the company

Sirius Black: we are the company

Sirius let the phone ring four times before he picked up. “’Bill it to the company’ are you mad?”

“I’ve literally left a meeting to ring you and you can’t even pick up quickly. What was the name of that guy from that 2014, that investor, hated us-”

“All of them.”

“But he liked Remus-”

“Again, all of them.”

“-had that terrible tie, remember? It had birds on it and his last name was, like, ‘brain’ or something and he got really shitty when we wouldn’t stop going on-“

“Harvey Brain. Pronounced Bry-an” Sirius said, instantly, “We nicked those mints they had in reception.”

“Brilliant. ‘Ring you when I’m out of this.”

“You look terrible” Sirius said to Lily, who did.

“The fringe does not react well to heat.” She opened the fridge and stuck her head inside it.

Sirius, in a show of great maturity, did not say ‘I told you so’. Lily, who knew he was thinking it, said “Shut up” anyway, so what was the point.

Lily Evans to Sirius Black: so help me god. if the dishwasher isnt empty when i get home. i will murder you. actual and full death will come your way

Lily Evans: this is not a joke i will actually kill you sirius

Sirius Black: mark zuckerdick if ur reading these she rlly is threating me

Sirius Black: call mi6

Lily Evans: ill happily go to jail if people empty the dishwasher there

“I need you to come get me-“

Lily sat up, “Who is this?”

“Fuck off” Sirius’ voice, annoyed, vaguely drunk but mostly not, “I know you know”

“I was asleep.”

“You don’t sleep.”

She avoided that. “What happened?”

“Bar. Fight. He started it.”

“Oh really.”

“Believe me, would you?”

“I try but it’s hard seeing as I know you.”

“Don’t tell the boys. I’m in Croydon.”

“Croydon?”

“Don’t start. I’ll pay your cab fare.”

“You won’t”

“I will. Be quick.”

Lily, already with shoes on, “I’m not even out of bed”

“Liar.”

“Do I need bail money?”

“I’m at the hospital”

“What?” Lily’s heart, suddenly in her knees.

“Bruised ribs. It’s nothing. They won’t let me walk out alone.”

“Hospital?-“

“Some snitches. Black eye. It’s nothing. You should-“

“Don’t say ‘see the other guy’-“

“I was going to say ‘see me’ by which I mean hurry up-“

“Ungrateful!” Lily pulled on a fresh shirt, hands reaching for her house keys, “Watch yourself or I won’t come.”

“You bloody will.”

“Yeah.” Reaching for the door handle, “hey-“

“Yeah?”

“No murders?” their dumb code meaning, you good? Meaning: do I have to kill for you? Meaning: I would, just say.

“No murders.”

“See you in forty, don’t say-“

“Speed.”

“Asshole. I hope I get every light.”

Lily Evans to we’re not calling the company massivesoft: remus tell potter anytime he wants to talk to me and not my boss i am available

Remus Lupin: isn’t he talking to you??

Lily Evans: he always rings me on the work phone hes been talking to narelle for fifteen minutes

James Potter: dont be jealous that narelle and i have a special relationship

Lily Evans: didnt think my greatest threat would be my 57 year old boss and yet

Remus Lupin: yeah i had bets on sirius

Sirius Black: honestly me too fuck up narelle

“Would it fucking kill you to remember anything-“

“Moony, hold on-“

“I’m serious-“

“Actually I’m-“

“Fucking don’t I swear to Christ-“

Sirius grinned, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, “I forgot, shit- I forgot about the call, I’m sorry.”

Remus sighed, bone-deep and familiar, “I need you on those things. Otherwise I just get-“

“- Walked over.”

“Out-negotiated-“ He sighed again.

Sirius bit his lip, “Did it go well?”

“I rescheduled. I can’t do that shit without you.”

He smiled. “World’s worst lawyer.”

“This is business. It requires a blind confidence and ability to bullshit which-“

“- I contain in multitudes.”

“Look at you, quoting me.”

“If you were any good at business you’d bill me for that.”

Remus snorted. Sirius could picture it, Remus, exhausted, rubbing his face over his computer, almost laughing. “I am sorry about missing the call.”

“I know.” Remus, leaning back against his office chair, head to the ceiling, phone to his ear. Sirius could feel it like a toothache. “It’s bullshit that you’re not here. If you were here I could force you onto the phone.”

“Oh Moony, it’s almost like you miss me.”

“It’s this heat, it’s making me fucking crazy. How are you, anyway? Lil said she’s growing out the fringe due to your bullying.”

Sirius Black to Lily Evans: what the fuck is in the fridge

Lily Evans: is this about the bird

Lily Evans: the neighbours cat was eating it!! i had to bring it inside

Lily Evans: the bin was full and we’re out of bags i didn’t know where else to put it

Lily Evans: i thought if i left it out it would start to smell

Lily Evans: I wrapped it up!! i couldn’t just leave it!!

Lily Evans: can’t believe im getting roasted for caring about nature

Sirius Black: was actually talking about the skim milk but glad we got the bird thing out of the way

“Mar’s coming round,” Lily said, “She’s bringing wine.”

“I thought you had that test thing.” Sirius was eating sour cream with a spoon right out of the pot.

“That was today, it went fine. But Nathan sent Mar a follow request on Instagram, then messaged her on Facebook to ask if she’d gotten it.”

“Hence the wine.”

“Yeah, he’s not blessed with your moves.” Two years ago, drunk on New Year’s Eve, Marlene and Sirius had fucked in Remus’ bed. This was a source of constant amusement for everyone, except briefly for Remus while it was occurring.

“What I have can’t be taught.”

“But it can be caught,” Lily took the sour cream out of his hands, “You’re foul. We’re making popcorn.”

Lily Evans to Sirius Black: remus just told me what him and james call us

Sirius Black: is it not our names

Lily Evans: the lady and the tramp

Sirius Black: HA

Sirius Black: found my next tattoo

“Your party sucks.” Lily said, shutting the sliding door. Inside, she hears a glass break.

“Most of them are your friends.” Sirius, chain-smoking over the balcony, didn’t look over. Lily walked over to stand next to him.

“It’s the music that’s the problem.” Mary’s voice, mixed in with thumping drum and base, seeped under the door, apologising about the glass. The balcony was littered with cigarette butts. “Twenty-three, Black. You’re proper old now.”

“Tell me about it.”

“We need some Springsteen.” She said, which actually meant we need James. “Whose playlist is this? Where’s Born to Run?” Sirius doesn’t say anything.

The horrible thing was, when James had first told her about the Visa issue she’d thought it was funny. It was funny, to everyone, at the time. Sirius, on some USA Visa watchlist because of some prank he’d pulled on this mother at fourteen that grounded two planes and killed four seagulls. Now, in the dark, in this year, it seemed entirely less funny. James and Remus in Silicon Valley, setting up the company for real and Sirius, left behind. Eleven again, still.

He flicked his cigarette to the floor and crushed it with his foot, still hunched over the railing. Lily put her head on his shoulder and hummed the chorus of ‘Hungry Heart’ quietly, and Sirius is pulled back to this year, twenty-three, with broken glass inside the flat, grounded again.

James Potter to exclusively business: god this accountant smells like cheese

Sirius Black to exclusively business: that’s not very businessesy

James Potter: ur right

James Potter created the group cheesy accountant

James Potter added Sirius Black, Remus Lupin

Sirius Black: are you seeing the accountant for the business though??

James Potter: god right again

James Potter created the group exclusively cheesy accountant business

James Potter added Sirius Black, Remus Lupin

Remus Lupin: is this why ur in the goddamn bathroom james get back here

Sirius Black: does he smell like cheese moons

Remus Lupin: it is pungent yes

“The service here is terrible.” Sirius said, slumping on the counter and looking awful.

“He means can we please have some fries.” Marlene said, looking marginally better, wearing Sirius’ jacket.

“Funny,” Lily skated over, “Didn’t sound like it.”

Marlene grinned, “Rollerblades day?” Sirius’ head jerked up.

“Jay’s here so Narelle is making us.” Lily said, flatly, and pretended to charge them, “Swipe your card, or something.”

“Every day should be rollerblades day.” Sirius was recovering quickly, “No one rocks The Blades like you do-“

Lily ignored him. “At least pretend to swipe a debt card Mar, what is that?”

Marlene held it up, “My library card.”

“I’m going to start calling you ‘Blades’, recognise your talent-“

“Go away.” Marlene and Lily said, nearly in unison. Sirius held his hands up and slunk off.

“He was basically in a coma this morning,” Marlene swiped her library card, pretended to type a pin, “I had to drag him here, this is giving me an error notice by the way.”

“Stop pressing buttons, was it a good night?”

“It was alright. I lost him” she jerked her thumb to Sirius, collapsed against a table, “But ended up seeing him later. Wish you were there- I think I’ve broken this machine. It won’t give me my card back-“

“Christ, how have you done this-“

“Me? It’s your machine-“

“When are you even at the library-“

“Are you saying I can’t read-“

“What? When did I say that-“

“I’ll pull this side, you pull the other-“

“That is a terrible idea-“

“Ready?”

Sirius, appearing from nowhere, yanked the card out in one swift motion and presented it to Marlene. “McKinnon, I didn’t know you couldn’t read.”

Lily Evans to James Potter: you awake

James Potter: its two over there go to bed

Lily Evans: yeah yeah

Lily Evans: wanna hear my voice

James Potter: god yeah

James Potter: give me two minutes im about to go through a tunnel ill ring you

Lily Evans: see you on the other side

Lily Evans: ‘god yeah’

Lily Evans: you wont get this till ur out of the tunnel but shit im mad for you

Lily hit Sirius in the face with her bag strap, “Wake up.”

He didn’t flinch or open his eyes, “What?”

“Jesus, you’re not even asleep.”

“Yes I am.”

“Liar. Get up, you said you’d come with me to this thing.”

“The Masters mixer?”

Lily rolled her eyes, “It’s a mixer-“

“- a Masters mixer-“

“- for Masters students. There is no need to give it a name.”

“But ’Master’s mixer’ rolls right off the tongue.”

“Get up-“ Lily hit him with her bag this time, “You said you’d come-“

“Ow-“ eyes open now, “Those things suck, everyone always thinks we’re dating.”

“I’ll tell them you’re my brother.”

“That’ll never work, I’m way better looking than you.”

Lily turned away, “Right, you’re uninvited-“

“Hey!” Sirius’ arm shot out, grabbed her wrist.

“I’m Masters Mixing without you-“

“You said I could go!”

“Invitation rescinded.”

“Come on! I’ll wear a tie!”

Lily looked smug, “You are so predictable.”

“Please,” Sirius sat up, “You’d be so bored without me there.”

Lily, who would be, said: “I’ll say you’re my step-brother”

“You can still date your step-brother.”

“Not with a clear conscience, you can’t. Get up, I’ve rung a cab.”

Sirius Black to Lily Evans: sleep nutty professor

Lily Evans: just had major breakthrough with The Thesis i cant

Lily Evans: also tell the girl/guy/person ur with to not drink all the milk tmrw theres barely any

Sirius, stationed outside the Lily’s room, banged on the door again. “C’mon Evans!”

James, distantly, from the phone hung by Sirius’s leg. “Maybe she’s not in”

Sirius put the phone back to his ear, “I know she’s in,” He continued to bang but returned to James, “Does this mean you guys are going to be meeting Bill Gates?”

“Dunno. I guess it’s his money so, like, maybe? Oh God-“

“If you met Bill Gates without me I’m going to be so fucking pissed-“

“How could we met him with you you’re in London-“

“EVANS! OPEN UP! WE HAVE MONEY NEWS!” Sirius returned to the phone, “You’ll probably get a picture with the ghost of Steve Jobs or something, God, I’m already annoyed about it.”

“If we met Steve Jobs’ ghost I promise to put him in a jar and send him home.”

“You had better-“ Sirius, who had paused in his banging to finish the Steve-Jobs-ghost threat, could hear something coming from the other side of the door. Music, played just low enough for someone who didn’t want people outside to be able to hear. “She’s playing the Sense and Sensibility Soundtrack.”

“What?” James’ whole tone changed, “Is she alright?”

Sirius banged again, “Evans!” Nothing. She turned the volume down.

“Are you sure its Sense and Sensibility?” James, insistent.

“Of-course it is.” Sirius banged on the door again, “Evans, What’s wrong?” No answer.

“Do you think there’s any chance it’s because I look a little bit like Hugh Grant and she hasn’t seen me in eight months?” He sounded a little desperate.

Sirius snorted. “You do not look like Hugh Grant.”

“Sirius-“

“Honest to God, do you actually think you look like Hugh Grant?”

“Would you-“

“Total opposites, honestly, never looked less like a person-”

“Sirius,” James cut him off, “Something might be really wrong, you have to let me talk to her.”

“Oi, Lil!” Sirius called, “Do you think James looks like Hugh Grant?”

A voice, thick, from behind the door: “Fuck no.”

Sirius knocked again, politely, letting the phone drop to his side (James, distantly: “I said a little, put Lil on, Christ-“). Lily opened the door, face red, puffy eyes, hand gripping the door edge.

Sirius stared, James forgotten. “What happened.”

“Petunia is engaged.” Lily’s voice, raw and wrong, “To Vernon. Eliza Hunt told me at the supermarket.”

Sudden flashes of Petunia, the only time he’d ever met her, sat in the back of Lily’s twenty-first, pinched and whispering. “Whose Eliza Hunt?” This seems as good a thing to say as any.

“Our old neighbour. She got an invite to their engagement party last week.” She sniffed, rubbed a hand over her face. Sirius couldn’t think of anything to say, except that he wanted to throw Petunia into a very deep ocean.

“What’s the news?” Lily asked. She looked so tired. He cannot remember the last time she’d slept.

“Bill Gates’ foundation is giving us a ton of money and James is going to post me Steve Jobs’ ghost.”

Faintly, Lily smiled. “Is the money to buy the ghost?”

“Nah he’s going to steal that, moneys for the business.” She smiled again, stronger. Jackpot. Sirius handed the phone to her, James’ voice barely audible. She reached for it, and he gripped it tightly, only for a minute. “Hey.” She looked at him, red eyes, hand out-stretched. He can read her backwards.

“I’m good.” she said. He kept looking.

“No murders?”

“Yeah,” half-smile, “No murders.”

Remus Lupin to Lily Evans: tell him to check his fucking emails im going fucking feral

Lily Evans: will do

Lily Evans: he says so be it

“Keira Knightley’s in it.”

“Is it Pirates of the Caribbean?”

“No-“

“Why isn’t it? Let’s watch Pirates of the Caribbean” Sirius, lying across the couch, kept throwing remote in the air.

“Just because you think you look like Orlando Bloom-“

“I do look like him-“

“Only if you shut your eyes and drop acid-“

“Hey-“

“We are not watching Pirates of the Caribbean again. You’ll like Atonement, I promise, it’s like an epic war love story-“

“So like Pirates of the Caribbean but without-“

“- He’s not your twin-“

“My twin-“

Lily rolled her eyes, considered pushing his legs off her lap, didn’t: “You can’t only watch films because you look a little like one of the actors.”

“So you do think I look like him!”

“No I said think you look like-“

“You said ‘look a little like’! Ha!”

Lily pushed his legs off her lap. “If you look like Orlando Bloom then I look like Molly Ringwald.”

“Nah, you know who you look like,” Sirius tilted his head, “The kid from Finding Nemo with the braces. The one who holds the fish in a bag.”

“Oh my God-“

“Only a little-“

“You suck. You fully suck.” Lily was laughing.

“Let’s watch Finding Nemo! See your twin for a change-“

“You’re pushing it now.”

“Fine, maybe twin is a little strong. Cousin.”

“Second cousin. And you and Orlando could be, like, half-brothers if I have two beers and squint.”

“I’ll take it.”

Sirius Black to Lily Evans: what the fuck

Sirius Black: evans its three

Lily Evans: sorry i dropped a tray promise ill b quieter

Lily Evans: dont worry im not making brownies again

Sirius Black: thank god those were shit

Lily Evans: fuck you

Sirius Black: you were the one that put them in the bin

Lily Evans: go to bed judas

“We’re trying to stay positive.”

“I’m not trying that hard.” Sirius confessed, and Lily punched him on the arm before going back to the phone.

“We’re just waiting for the locksmith. If we still had a spare this wouldn’t be happening, but-“

“If you took your keys!-“

Lily punched him again, and Sirius groaned and fell back against the grass.

Over the phone, Marlene finally composed herself. “You two are tragic. Come ‘round and sleep here.”

“Can’t, we said we’d wait around. You could come here though.”

“And lie on the lawn in the middle of the night with you and Mr Positive? I’ll pass.”

“Hey, Sirius,” Lily held the phone away from her ear, “I think that’s an ant’s nest.”

Sirius leapt up so quickly he almost hovered in the air. He stared at the empty ground, wide eyed, before turning back to Lily, who was laughing so hard she’d dropped the phone.

“Oh, very funny, you’re hilarious. McKinnon,” he picked up the phone, “You’ve got to get over here, I’m going to kill Evans and I need you to call the cab to move the body.”

Sirius Black to Lily Evans: ive bought eggs and cheese

Lily Evans: ur cooking tonight so looking forward to the meal of cheesy eggs

Lily Evans: sirius im kidding please dont make that

Lily Evans: sirius

Lily took the phone and didn’t even say hello, “You’ve got to stop ringing,” she said, meaning none of it, “Narelle really thinks you’re on the verge of investing. It’s not on.”

“Hey, I always say I’m ‘thinking about’ investing,” James pointed out, “I could be thinking about anything. I’m thinking about finishing my engineering degree, I’m thinking about ringing my mother, I’m thinking about investing in your diner-”

“it’s not my diner-“

“it will be when I invest in it. One of my stipulations.”

“Wouldn’t that be buying the diner?”

“Don’t get all technical on me, Evans.”

“Apologises. You were saying you were going to give me the diner.”

“Yes, what a great boyfriend I am.”

“You’d be even better if you just gave me the money.” Lily spun the phone cord around her finger, grinning as James laughed.

“C’mon, I’d let you rename it and everything. ‘Lily’s’ has a ring to it.”

“Unoriginal.”

“What would you call it?”

“I dunno. ‘Star Wars’ or something. Get some publicity off the lawsuit.”

“Moony would defend you.”

“Ah yes, with his degree in financial law.”

“I didn’t say he’d be any good at it.”

Lily smiled. “How’s California?”

“Boring without you guys.”

“Don’t let Remus hear you say that.”

“Eh, he’d say the same.” James paused, “Sirius alright?”

Flashes of Sirius, flushed, spread on the carpet, What if everyone was right? Head lolling, party over, I don’t know where I’m going. I thought I’d know.

“Yeah. Last night he tried to make you guys a Wikipedia page.”

James snorted, “He’s been trying to do that since high school.”

“Don’t say ‘he’ like you weren’t also trying.”

James, again, grinning. She can tell from an ocean away. “You sleeping?”

“With other people? No.”

“Thank god for that, but really. My sources say you’re even more awake than usual.”

“Sirius doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“My sources are actually highly knowledgeable.”

“But still can’t make a Wikipedia page.” He doesn’t say anything, and Sirius is such a traitor. He has him worried. “I’m fine, really. Just a bit of a weird one. I’m going to sort it out.” She meant it.

“Okay. Don’t be pissed off at my sources, Marlene also ratted you out.”

“Terrible mates.” Lily lied.

“Yeah, worse luck, having people give a shit about you. Just wait till you own the diner, then they’ll only want you for your money.”

“Tell me about it, why do you think I’m with you?” And again, miles away, he laughed.

Lily Evans to crab on the cob: sirius just started doing karaoke

Remus Lupin: I didn’t know byo’s did karaoke

Lily Evans: neither did the owner

Lily Evans: the whole byo is now singing take on me

Lily Evans: we’re doing mamma mia next

Lily tapped on the window and Sirius, smoking outside, swung around. She pointed to other side of the bar, past the people, where Marlene and Nathan were grossly making out against the pinball machine. Sirius made a face, stamped out his cigarette, and went inside.

“Christ, you can see the tongue from here.” He took the beer out of Lily’s hand and drank some, “No respect for the festivities.”

“At least someone is getting some.”

“Aw, Lil,” he nudged her arm, “I’ll hook up with you if you want.”

“I’d rather eat glass, but thanks though.”

“Anytime.”

She took her beer back from him. Mary, a few feet in front of them, was drinking a ghastly pink thing that James used to call flamingo piss, and talking to Diner Natalie (as Sirius called her) about Love Island. Narelle, who had gotten wind of the party, was standing by the counter arguing with the bartender about the peanuts on offer.

“Twenty-three Evans,” Sirius said, echoing her, “You’re proper old now.”

“Still younger than you though.”

“Funny how that works.” He took her beer again. She couldn’t remember when they had started drinking the same brand. It had been such a long year, but next month the boys would be home for three weeks and this morning James had sent flowers and Remus a vase, and Sirius said he’d pay the water bill so technically it was a three-way gift. You could practically hear Remus’ eyeroll through the phone. They were too good to be believed.

“’Glad I live with you.” Sirius said, suddenly, holding her now finished beer. “You’re- I’m just glad. I’m glad it’s you.”

Lily looked at him, “Me too.” She said, and squeezed his wrist. He knocked a hand against her thigh. This was the real gift.

“Offer to hook up still stands.”

Lily laughed, “You know, if you think about it you’re one hook up removed from Nathan.”

“What?”

“You fucked Mar, Mar is now getting felt up by Nathan. That’s, like, one degree of separation. I’m not getting with anyone whose gotten with Nathan-“

“Okay, wow, I have not gotten with- wow, this is low, I’m being nice and you’re out here saying I’ve fucked Nathan-“

“Hey, no judgement and no murders and all that, but I have ground rules-“

Sirius, laughing, “I hate you. That’s my ground rule.”

Lily, singing: “And happy birthday to meee-“

“God, get away from me. I can’t believe I’ve accidentally hooked up with Nathan.”

“Maybe getting me another beer would make you feel better.”

“Wow, you’re always looking out for me huh?”

“You know it. Make sure it’s chilled, would you?”

#yes i have been promising this for going on a year but its done!! its large and finished #sirius black #lily evans #carolineswritingtag #no murders!! no murders till they die!! probably from sleep deprivation as theyre both A Mess thank god they have each other #atlas verse #anyway please do talk to me abt this i feel like ive been picking at it forever please tell me what works and what doesnt #bc at this point i have no clue all i know is that lily loves sense and sensibility and sirius eats straight (ha) sour cream

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slo-liveblog · 4 years

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Witch’s Heart: Bonus Stage Final Thoughts

Hello hello! Honestly I can’t believe I finished Bonus Stage after all this time... took me quite a few months, oof. Many thanks to the handful of you that stuck around during all that, and to the few new people who popped in too! Hope you’ve all been taking care of yourselves, and don’t mind the long post.

CHARACTERS

Claire: After finishing the first game, I didn’t know it was possible to love Claire even more. I was absolutely wrong. The way she took charge at the end was incredibly powerful and I’m so fucking proud of her, even if it’s sad as hell. I really really like how the game both criticizes and respects her unconditional empathy, I think there’s definitely room for both conversations and they’re both incredibly fascinating. I do think she suffers from some of the most writing pitfalls out of everyone, though. Like I said while playing, there’s really no reason given why she wouldn’t confide in Leon, or at least acknowledge that he’s likely the person there she can trust most. In addition, I found it really bizarre that Claire just... never tried to talk to Reynaldo or Sirius after learning about their pasts. Like, at all. I understand why the emphasis on Ashe was important, but it was jarring and kind of unsatisfying to see Claire act so uncharacteristically by not even really acknowledging them after their stories were over. It’s more of a story problem than a character problem though, I think, and I understand why it had to be that way especially considering the conclusions will touch on a lot of the missing pieces- I just wish there could’ve been more of a justification for it. The way her personality was explored through her interactions with everyone, and how other characters were depicted based on their reactions to her ideals, was incredible and I would die for her.

Ashe: Oh Ashe. Fuck Ashe. I do appreciate the depth given to his character, he’s definitely far more complex than I expected and kudos on that. I don’t really empathize with him as much as I do the other four mains, but I do think his writing is incredible and his relationships with Leon and Claire continue to be some of the most interesting to see play out, if not THE most interesting. Star shaped carrots man. Fucked up. Super excited to see how his dynamics with everyone continue, and he’s probably the character I’m the most interested to see make decisions going into these conclusions. His arc feels the most... unfinished, he’s never really reached any sort of closure at any point of the story so far and especially not bonus stage so it’ll be cool to see where he ends up.

Reynaldo: MY BOY. I’M SO FUCKING PROUD OF HIM... going into bonus stage my expectations for him were pretty much rock bottom from the moment I realized he didn’t have a single line in the opening scene outside of saying his name. Like, I kinda made my peace with the possibility that the writer just wasn’t that interested in developing him, and would rather spend time on the rest of the mains. But holy SHIT did he pull through in the second half of the game. The subtle but noticeable build to him deciding to side with Claire was so, so well done. I still wish there was a little more solidity to his characterization- I do have to reach way further to understand him than I do any of the other mains- but I think what we DID get for him was wonderful and god, I appreciate him so much. Definitely the character that improved the most for me from the first game to bonus stage. I can’t wait for his conclusion, here’s to hoping we do in fact get it this year. The way his similarities with Claire were set up makes me SO excited to see how their relationship develops when it’s actually the focus, and how he’ll be fleshed out more in general so we can finally have a clearer picture. Because to be honest, as much as I like the development he was given in bonus stage... there’s still a LOT of gaps to fill in with him.

Sirius: continues to be the perfect human being 1000000/10

Leon: Sweet baby boy whose expressions always make me cry. Leon is still a character I’m sort of on the fence on. Like, he’s very well written and easy to sympathize with. But I realized I’m always far more interested in how OTHER characters react to HIM than the other way around, though. He’s not really a character I personally would find interesting in general, he’s a little simple for my tastes, but that doesn’t mean I’m not 100% invested in seeing him end up happy... eventually. Something tells me it might be a while.

Charlotte: I feel like Charlotte definitely got the short end of the stick in bonus stage, moreso than any other character. Her only memorable scenes that I can think of off the top of my head were when she told Leon he could kill everyone but Claire, when she thought about how Ashe probably can’t be saved, and when she reacted to Claire after the completion of Ashe’s backstory. None of those scenes even come close to hitting the same level of intrigue or emotion as the sparse Charlotte scenes had in the first game, even if that last one does have some interesting bits in it. I said at the end of the first game that we’d only really scratched the surface and I was interested to see more from her and, well, my opinion hasn’t changed. I don’t think there was much I would’ve wanted out of her here anyway unlike the boys, so I’m not especially disappointed. Just hoping we get more excellent Charlotte moments somewhere down the line.

Zizel: I would’ve liked Zizel’s deal to be... a bit more built upon, to be honest? I could just have missed things along the way, but her triumphant moment is a little harder to get in to when we know almost nothing about her or the way she thinks beyond stuff reveled about her in the same scene. I could definitely see that her siding with Claire was being foreshadowed, but I think there needed to be juuust a bit more characterization given to her for that particular development to have the impact it seemed to be going for. Still, it was a good moment, and I think it definitely made up for a lot of the sore lack of Zizel in both games. Can’t wait to see what she does from here.

Lime: Goddddd. Okay look, I still love Lime probably more than I reasonably should. She’s wonderful and I love her design and her personality and her backstory and her motivations but... yea she’s a very very bad person. Bonus stage did really make it clear that she’s not just lashing out occasionally, and this isn’t anywhere near harmless teasing. She’s full on the primary villain of the game, in some ways, and has been doing pretty horrific stuff knowing (and intending for) exactly what she’s causing. Which we sort of knew in the first game anyway, but now it’s very explicit. And like, damn dude... I do wanna see what’s gonna happen with her. It’s tough, wanting to see a character get their comeuppance and stop hurting others while simultaneously just wanting good things for them. this really is how y’all ashe stans feel huh

Side Characters: I gotta say, I really loved a lot of the smaller characters introduced in bonus stage and the way their presence added to the development of the mains. Dorothy and Nicholas, the old dude and the thief woman (I didn’t actually realize until just now but nobody in Wilbert’s backstory had a name, huh. It may not have been intentional but considering that he might literally just not remember that far back I actually really like that decision.), and Ashe’s family and friends were really smartly integrated into the story’s themes and I appreciated that a lot. also lucy and coco rights

Overall This one gets a fucking 10/10 from me chief, some small issues certainly but as close to perfect as they get, in terms of the kinds of stories I like.

STORY

I debated breaking this up into chunks, like I did in the first game with the scenarios, but I feel like the writing quality is more or less consistent throughout the game so it would be a little redundant. I definitely need more time to think on bonus stage before I have a really solid opinion, but at the moment I kind of think the story was even better than the first game? My only major issue was the aforementioned use of Claire’s character, where she’d only really react to the boy’s backstories as she finished hearing them, with the exception of Ashe’s. And her not confiding in Leon. But other than that, it was a constant rollercoaster, with pretty much every scene being jam packed with 3000 layers of character development and relationship building with lore sprinkled in. The elements that were amazing in the first game, like the fun dynamics between the characters and the subtle and unobtrusive exposition, are nothing but improved upon. I do wish we got to play more with the idea of the demon girls living alongside the mains, I think that aspect was severely downplayed almost immediately after it was introduced, but I’m crossing my fingers those potential dynamics get some time in the conclusions. Once again, my biggest gripes with the story are just that I feel like there’s so much more to explore and I can’t wait to see how the rest plays out. still giving this bitch a 10/10 on this one it was everything I wanted and more

GAMEPLAY

Combat: This was kind of... not even really utilized in bonus stage, which I didn’t actually realize until just now. There weren’t any real “boss battles” in the way there were in the first game, the closest thing to it would I guess be Dorothy’s showdown. Considering I didn’t even notice, I think that was a perfectly fine decision. The climax worked well without any actual fights. The battle mechanics continued to be functional and everything, just... not much of a thing.

Demon Requests: It could just be because I played a lot of bonus stage at a very different pace than I did the first game but the demon requests didn’t feel as frequent or intrusive this time around. I was always really excited to get to the request portion anyway cause of the photo booth and all the cool new areas, I had a super fun time using the deep sea bubble and I think overall the stuff that was added to the fantasy spaces was really neat. also lucy and coco rights

Minigames: Very hit or miss. It felt like the minigames were either so quick and easy they were hardly memorable or so tedious they made me wanna die. Take that with a grain of salt, though, I’m really bad at video games. There were very few of them anyway so it doesn’t matter much, but I guess it would’ve been nice if the minigames were less... Like that. To be fair, they were all still pretty charming or cool conceptually. Can’t really complain about getting to fucking shoot people as Dorothy even if it was hell to play.

Overall The demon requests were actually really enjoyable this time around, but the minigames and combat were kind of downplayed. Not to big of a deal, though, it’s not as if they were a focal point of the game to begin with. 7/10

ART & SOUND

Character Design: Not much to say that I didn’t already say after the first game, but the special bonus stage outfits are absolute bangers and I wish they got shown more often. And maybe I would’ve liked the guys to have a little more variety to their suits. But that’s nitpicking, Claire and the demon girl’s dresses are absolutely gorgeous.

Sprites and BGs: The overall art quality definitely got shaky in places but I gotta say, they pulled out ALL the stops for the sprites in this one. Ashe just fully has an entirely new set of them, and everybody else gets tons of new expressions too, all of which are super super good at conveying incredibly specific emotions. All I’m saying is, this would be a totally different game for me without the sprites, and I was always ecstatic to see new ones and figure out what was going on in the character’s head based on them.

OST and Sound Effects: Again, pretty much the same deal as the first game. I think there was a bit of a higher frequency for songs that made me immediately want to search for them so I could listen to them later though, thank god for that. So many good tracks.

Overall Continued to impress me, and then some. Only a slight improvement from the first game, in my opinion, but even that is pretty impressive since I didn’t have many issues with the first game to begin with. 8/10

So uh, in other words, I really really loved this game. Cannot WAIT to start best boy’s conclusion!!!

#witchs heart #slo reviews #slo talks #LETS GOO

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pads-and-moons · 4 years

Text

In which Sirius misses a full moon after the prank.

Sirius had been avoiding the hospital wing all day. Normally it was impossible to get him to leave after a full moon, but last night’s events had left him unable to face Remus.

He was pacing in an empty classroom near the owlery. Remus would be out of the hospital for dinner soon. Sirius didn’t think he was ready to face him, but he also figured that the longer he left it the worse it would be. He headed for the dorms, too sick to eat and figuring he wouldn’t want to speak to Remus in the great hall in front of everyone anyway.

He had expected to have half an hour to himself once he got there but he was greeted with the sight of Remus sitting on his bed, eyes hard and jaw set.

“Remus.”

He didn’t know what else to say. Oh god I shouldn’t have come up here yet, I’m going to be sick, he thought.

“How could you do this to me?”

Remus’s voice was small, and he was visibly fighting back tears.

“Sirius how could you possibly tell Snape how to get past the Whomping Willow, he could have died, I could have killed him. I would be locked up forever! Do you ever think about how your actions affect other people? I trusted you.”

On the last line he broke, his voice cracked and tears started streaming down his face. Sirius had never felt worse in his life, he had never done something this bad before.

“Re I’m sorry…” he started, but it felt feeble and weak.

“I-“ he tried again, but no sound came out of his mouth. He didn’t have anything to say, he knew he had done irreversible damage this time.

No amount of apologising would fix this.

“Just go Sirius, I can’t even look at you right now,” he said shakily.

Sirius gave one last desperate look at him, and with a sinking feeling in his chest he turned and walked away, leaving his boyfriend staring despondently at the floor alone.

He didn’t make it very far before the tears welling up in his own eyes spilt. Sliding down the wall and sitting on the floor, sobs wracked his body.

The next few weeks passed slowly and hazily. Nothing felt real. He retreated far back into himself and didn’t talk to anyone. James tried, of course, although he tended to stick with Remus for meals and classes and left him alone after Sirius made it clear he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He threw himself into his schoolwork and quidditch training, and made sure to come to the dorms late each night so he could avoid speaking to the other boys.

The teachers had noticed. McGonagall called Sirius into her office for tea and biscuits one Friday afternoon.

She started off saying “Mr. Black,” quite firmly, however at the look on his face she started again.

“Sirius,” she said, softer this time. “I am becoming concerned with your distance from your friends. None of you are happy, and frankly the potions room is becoming incredibly out of order without you all in detention sorting it out every week.”

He gave her a half hearted smile at that, but said nothing.

She continued.

“What’s happened between you? I never thought I would see the day when you and James weren’t attached at the hip, let alone Remus and Peter.”

Sirius shifted in his seat, unsure of what to say.

Before he even realised he was talking, he was spilling the story to his head of house. Leaving out the parts that would give away he was an Animagus, he told her everything. Her expression remained stoic while he talked.

“Sirius,” she began, “I understand that you made a mistake. But I can see how sorry you are for it. I think you should try and talk to Remus again and try to explain once more.”

“There’s no point. He hates me now,” Sirius said miserably.

“I think your bond is strong enough to survive this Sirius, you just have to show him how sorry you are.”

Sirius thanked her and left, biting his lip and thinking about everything she had said.

The full moon was that night and Sirius had no idea what he was going to do, he desperately wanted to go but he didn’t think he deserved to. Glancing out the window, he saw that it was nearly moon rise. He knew Remus would be in the shack by now, and James and Peter would be heading down in about half an hour after dinner. There’s no way Remus will want me there, he thought. He hasn’t even looked at me since the day after the last moon in the dorms. I’ll just try and get this essay done for Charms, Remus doesn’t want me there. At that thought, he blanched, still not having come to terms with the fact that at one point he was the only person Remus would have wanted there, and now he was the last person. Gripping his quill tightly, he began writing his essay, although he wasn’t sure he was making much sense with it.

He didn’t have the cloak or the map since James and Peter had taken them earlier that evening, but he had been causing mischief long enough to know the prefects rounds and all of the good hiding spots on each floor. Casting a disillusionment spell just for good measure, he set off.

After briefly hiding from the Hufflepuff prefects on the second floor, he made it out of the castle. He removed the disillusion spell, transformed into Padfoot, then headed to the edge of a clearing in the forest where he knew they would be. Expecting to see Prongs and Moony playing as usual, he was shocked to see the wolf angry and snarling. With a low growl, Moony turned around and made eye contact with Padfoot. Shit, he can smell me. Without a second thought, he turned around and sprinted back to the castle, not stopping to see it he was being followed. Panting, he collapsed into his bed and tried to catch up with his thoughts. Remus was so angry, he was so angry at me. He definitely didn’t want me there, I shouldn’t have gone to see what was happening, I’m just glad Prongs and Wormy didn’t see me because at least Moony won’t remember. Falling into a fitful sleep, he drifted off with his mind on overdrive.

He woke up the next morning to voices.

“I can’t believe he didn’t come!”

“James, he hasn’t even looked at us since last month of course he didn’t come.”

“But he’s always there Pete, I didn’t think he would miss it even after this. Remus was so upset about it.”

The voices faded as James and Peter left the dormitory, and Sirius felt quite sick.

Was Remus really upset that I didn’t go? I thought that he wouldn’t want me to be there ever again after what I’ve done. And Moony was so angry when he saw me last night…

Realising he couldn’t get back to sleep after that revelation, he got out of bed and decided to head to see Remus instead of breakfast. He wasn’t hungry anyway.

After quickly getting ready, he found himself pacing outside the door of the hospital wing, unable to make himself go in.

Steeling himself, he inhaled deeply and pushed the door open, ignoring Madame Pomfrey’s protests as he walked straight to the bed he knew Remus was in.

Pulling back the curtains, he lost all of his nerve as they made eye contact.

“Sirius?” Remus croaked.

He looked worse than ever, Sirius hadn’t seen him this bad after a moon since before they joined him as Animagi.

“You didn’t come last night.” Remus said, his voiced tinged with an emotion Sirius couldn't quite place.

“I know I’m sorry I just… thought you didn’t want me there. I didn’t think I deserved to be there, after what I did.” He said this extremely quietly, and stared at the scratchy linen sheet beside Remus’ head.

"Right." Remus said shortly.

"Re... I'm so sorry. I can never ever apologise enough for this. But I have to try, I can't just let you walk out of my life without a fight. I know what I did was stupid, so fucking stupid. It's the worst thing I have ever done, and I will spend the rest of my life regretting it. In the moment I wasn't thinking of you and I should have been. I was only thinking of hurting Snape. I didn't think about how much it would affect you and I didn't think through the consequences. I love you so much Remus, and I will spend forever trying to make it up to you. Please say you'll let me make it up to you." His voice was becoming desperate, he knew, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. "Remus I'm begging you with everything I am, please let me show you how sorry I am. I love you."

Remus held up a hand to signify he should stop talking, so he did.

“Sirius… I can’t honestly tell you that I can forgive you right now. It was such a huge betrayal of my trust. After everything I go through each month I thought you of all people would understand that. I know that you're sorry, and I know you would take it back if you could, but you can't. It's done. Snape knows my secret, I nearly killed him, and I can never be sure that he won't tell anyone. I would be okay if you wanted to join us at mealtimes and in classes again, but I can't see our relationship continuing as it was after this. I think it would be best if we officially stopped seeing each other for the time being."

Sirius felt his heart break instantly. He supposed he had known all month that things would never be the same, but hearing it straight from Remus and having it real now was so much worse than he thought it would be.

Clearing his throat, he said "Yeah I... yeah whatever you want Moony- uh, Remus. I have to go now but I'll see you later, yeah? Feel better."

Before giving the werewolf a chance to respond, he bolted from the room, not sure he could keep his emotions under control any longer. He ran out of the castle into the forest and immediately turned into Padfoot. He found that a good run around as a dog never failed to help clear his thoughts, and he really didn't feel like talking to anybody right at that moment.

A few hours later found Sirius stepping out of the shower and trying not to talk himself out of speaking to James. He knew he needed to make amends, at the very least apologise. He hung up his towel and quickly dressed, then steeled himself for the conversation he was about to have. He walked downstairs to the common room and stalked over to the table where the other three Marauders were sitting.

"Prongs," he muttered. "A word please."

James' eyes widened, but he stood up and lead Sirius out of the common room to an empty classroom in the corridor.

"Sirius," he said, face flickering with a range of emotions. Relief, uncertainty, shock, confusion.

Sirius inhaled deeply, then began his apologies.

"James. I wanted to say sorry. For what I did. And for not being there last night."

"You should be apologising to Remus mate, not me."

"I have. Wait, he didn't tell you?"

"No? He hasn't said anything. What happened?"

"This morning, I went to see him in the hospital wing. I apologised, explained everything to him. He broke up with me officially. Said he couldn't forgive me." He looked at the ground for the last part.

James looked solemn, which was a rare sight.

"And how do you feel about it all?" he questioned.

"I've been a right bloody mess about it all day. But I've been thinking. Done a lot of that lately, with all my spare time not in detention with you lot," he smiled briefly at this, then continued. "I wanted to thank you, firstly, for saving Snivellus. I don't know that I would have done the same, at the time, but seeing what it's done to Remus even when he made it out has been enough for me. I would never want him to feel the guilt that it would have put him through. And I wanted to apologise for brushing you off at the beginning of it all, you tried to talk to me and I was a right prat. I miss you, so much, and I know nothing will be the same as it was before, but will you please let me try and make it up to you? Remus and I won't be together, but I can't go on being so alone. I need you James, I'm asking as your brother."

"Fuck, Sirius. I missed you too you bloody wanker. Does this mean you'll sit with us again in classes and at meals?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready to face Remus after he broke up with me... but I'll sit with you in class and stop acting like a bloody pillock."

The boys talked some more after that, with James catching Sirius up on everything he had missed in the time they hadn't spoken.

Things would not go back to normal straight away, with the other Marauders still hesitant to open up to Sirius about anything, but being on speaking terms again was a good start.

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imaginejamesandsirius · 4 years

Note

A pretty woman AU???

Sirius was having a shit day. It had started with his father coming into his office and requesting that Sirius do a specific task for him. Talking to Orion was punishment enough, but he was sending Sirius on a two week trip to get his 'personal opinion on the situation' since apparently the people Orion hired to oversee that branch were trustworthy enough to be running the place but not trustworthy enough to believe their figures. "It'll be an easy visit," Orion had said.

"Then why do I have to be there for two weeks?"

"It's always good to remind them that we are watching."

Sirius had thought that was so sodding stupid, and he'd said so, but Orion was-- unsurprisingly-- standing firm.

Then Regulus called him up and said that he'd gotten a gig over in bloody America and could Sirius cover for him? Thanks. Then he'd hung up. So Sirius had to run by their flat and make sure Reg had remembered to lock the buggering door-- he hadn't-- and call their usual dog sitter (Remus, who put up with them for god only knows why) to see if he was free. He wasn't, so Sirius had to bring Snuffles to a fucking dog spa place that he barely had time to look up on his phone, let alone see if he trusted them for shite. He trusted them not to kill Snuffles, and that was going to have to be good enough.

The silver lining was that Gilderoy had broken up with him a few days ago so he didn't have to worry about that. The not silver lining was that Gilderoy had dumped him for someone "more glamorous, less ashamed of himself, you know what I mean?" and it's not like Sirius had been in love with the bloke or anything, but talk about insulting. Sirius was plenty glamorous, he just didn't paint everything with pink and gold glitter. And he wasn't fucking ashamed of himself, but he didn't want to grind on his boyfriend in public either. He was glad to be rid of him honestly, but it still made Sirius angry to think about.

So Sirius was in a pretty piss poor mood when he got in the car, and he couldn't imagine that the next two weeks would make him feel much better. He was a god damn business man. It's not like he hated his life or anything, but a business man? He could very honestly say that this was never what he imagined for himself. Hell, Reg was out living the dream more than he was. Him and his mates had made a band together, and they played enough shit locations until someone saw the talent and started paying them. They weren't anywhere near rock star levels, but he was making money off of it, able to get a new piercing when he wanted instead of asking Sirius for some cash-- not that Sirius minded, fuck knows their father paid him more than enough to finance whatever whim Regulus was having that week. The part that really got to him about his job was that it was so boring. He didn't need to be excited all day every day or summat, but it would be nice to tell people what he did every day without them nodding and immediately excusing themselves.

He was in a shite mood when he got in the car, and he'd finally started to feel better when he felt a headache start to form behind his eyes. Sodding hell this was the icing on the bloody cake, wasn't it? It started to get worse in a hurry, the sunlight seeming far too bright behind his sunglasses. He pulled into the first gas station he saw, figuring he might as well refuel while he looked for medicine-- and maybe a snack, because c'mon, all driving longer than ten minutes required a snack.

He found powdered sugar donuts, but no headache relief. Marvelous. He was not going to be able to make the rest of this drive like this. He was going to have to wait until it went away or risk crashing. Sirius had just about resigned himself to wasting a couple hours when he saw someone standing by the side of the road, poking at his phone aimlessly. He had dark skin, messy black hair, thick glasses, and if Sirius weren't fighting off nausea, flirting might be on the table. But thinking about his powdered donuts made him want to sick up his lunch, so he was going to keep any and all flirting ideology to himself.

"This is going to sound weird," Sirius said as he walked up next to him, rubbing at his temple as it pounded, "but can you drive me to my hotel? It's not very far, you'd be driving my car, I just need to get there before I feel any worse."

"Er."

"Please? It's all aboveboard, I promise. I'm not going to murder you or whatever."

"Shouldn't you be worried about me kidnapping you? If I'm the one driving, I mean."

Sirius gave him a look. "What would you even do with me? I'm a pain when I'm playing nice, do you really want to see what I'm like when I'm trying to be contrary?"

"That's a fair point." He bit his lip, thinking. Then he sighed. "Where to?"

Sirius rattled off the address, then pulled it up on his phone and showed it to the man. "Business bullshit, I just need to get there and hope this bloody headache fucks off to greener pastures."

"Best of luck to you," he said. He sighed again. "Alright, I'll take you, but only because I've got nothing better to do. My mate just canceled on me."

"Rude of him, good for me."

He snorted, raising a hand to muss his hair. It made Sirius wonder if his hair was naturally messy or if he was causing it by messing with it all the time. Either way, it was a good look on him. Any time Sirius had a single hair out of place he looked awful, but this made the bloke even more attractive. What an arse. Being interested in him was just making his headache worse. Or maybe the headache was getting worse for completely unrelated reasons. Either way, Sirius wanted some bloody shuteye. He squinted his eyes against the light that suddenly seemed piercing, and he somehow managed to get to the car and toss his keys on the dashboard.

There was the distinct possibility that this guy would like, steal his car or summat, but in the moment he didn't give a single fuck. It all worked out in the end, he parked the car in the hotel's lot and turned off the car, setting the keys in front of Sirius. "Hope you feel better mate," he said, but Sirius grabbed his arm before he could leave.

It's not like he'd meant to grab his arm, but he needed to stop him from leaving before Sirius could thank him. Words weren't working so well. Hence, grabbing his arm. He fumbled for his wallet, pulling out a bill and handing it out to him.

"Er."

Sirius shook his hand a little in invitation. "For driving me," he managed to get out.

"That's twenty quid."

"Yeah," Sirius grunted.

"Are you... sure?"

Sirius just kept holding it out to him.

"If you're sure," he said with a shrug. Or at least what Sirius assumed was a shrug, it's not like he was looking at him.

He left, but Sirius stayed in the car for a while, waiting for it to get to a manageable enough level for him to make his way into the hotel. He managed to get in there and check into his room, but if he was asked how he did it, he wouldn't have been able to say. The time from car to his hotel room was a blur, and all he knew was that he managed to pass out face-first onto the bed in a blissfully dark room.

Somehow he'd been smart enough to set an alarm for the meeting he needed to get to on his first day. His headache was gone by that time thank fuck, and he rolled off the bed, figuring he could use a quick shower before he went down to strike fear in the hearts of these people that Orion didn't want to deal with himself. He turned on the water then stripped, ducking under and giving himself a quick scrub with the body wash provided. There wasn't going to be time to properly dry his hair-- even if he used the blowdrier-- so he'd tie it back and call it a day.

Sirius had been in this place for just over one day when he saw him again. Now that it didn't feel like his head was going to split open, it was a lot easier to appreciate how attractive he was. Broad shoulders and a tilt to his hips that looked very inviting. He wasn't wearing his glasses right now, which made his nose look bigger and his jaw more square. His trousers were so tight they looked painted on, and his button up shirt was half undone and translucent besides. He had a brief flash of what it would be like to push him against a wall and peel him out of those trousers, but they weren't at a club and that was a damn shame because Sirius would give his right leg to get some time with him.

He was so caught up in appreciating all this that it took him a minute to recognise exactly what was going on. Men didn't stand on street corners dressed like that for no reason. He was a rent boy. Which meant... that Sirius didn't have to give his right leg for some time, he could purchase it nice and easy with cash. And that was pretty damn great. He did a quick check to make sure that yes, he had enough cash, but also that he didn't have anything else to do tonight. He didn't have to go back to the office, he never did, so he wasn't sure why he bothered to double check, but he always did.

The man saw Sirius approaching and he grinned. "I see you got to your hotel safely."

"It was a pain in the arse, but I made it instead of dying in a car crash thanks to you."

"You already paid me for that," he pointed out.

"Consider this a completely separate offer. Are you busy tonight?"

He shrugged. "Difficult to have plans when you don't know how much time people want."

"How much to get you until tomorrow morning?"

He raised an eyebrow. "That'd be pretty expensive."

"I can pay."

"I'm sure you can, mister twenty-quid-for-a-car-ride."

"I'm going by Sirius these days."

"James. You gonna take me to your room, or are we getting started here on the street?"

"Tempting as that is, the hotel's not very far away."

A few people they passed gave them strange looks, but Sirius couldn't care less. It hardly mattered that James was dressed like he'd been clubbing and Sirius was in a full suit-- vest, tie, even the bloody jacket on top with the three buttons and perfectly pressed trousers. Maybe Sirius had gotten boring the more adult he became, but he was pretty sure this was about to be the best night he'd had in a bloody long time.

When James woke, Sirius was trailing circles against his shoulder. "Everything alright?" James asked at the concentrated look on his face.

"I was thinking, if you're not otherwise engaged..." Sirius trailed off, but James wasn't going to make a leap because being wrong would be ridiculously embarrassing for him. "I'm in town for the next two weeks," he continued. "Would you like to keep me company? It would only be nights and the morning after, I'll be working all day." Normally he had Saturday's off for Shabbat-- not that he observed it most of the time-- but since this was a special assignment he'd be working straight through.

"You sure you can deal with me that long?" James joked.

"I think the real question is if the money's good enough for you to put up with me for that long."

"You realise you're not hideously unattractive, right?"

Sirius snorted. "Right, cause my face is always the problem."

"Not to make assumptions about your relationships, but it kinda sounds like the people you dated were absolute pricks."

Sirius shrugged instead of answering because he didn't really want to get into it. Gilderoy had been an arse, Marlene had wanted a casual relationship when he wanted something more committed, and the less said about the shit show with Lucius, the better. He'd been on dates with several other people, but those were his three main relationships and even though Marlene had liked him, it had still ended in a disaster. Maybe this was what he needed, a fun affair with no strings. Sirius had more money than he knew what to do with, and James could probably use it if only to take it easy for a couple weeks while he was here. Or, hell, he could put some aside when business was slow; Sirius didn't really know how all that worked, only that it was too stressful for him as a job. "You can think about it."

"Don't need to. I'll give you my number and you can ring when you're ready."

"Sounds good," Sirius said, leaning down from where he was propped up on his elbow to kiss James.

Sirius had texted James, asking him to come by, and he looked at the clock in worry as the phone rang. The hotel gave him two keys so he'd given one to James, which meant that if he needed an extra minute, it was going to look like he called James up just to waste his time. He thought about ignoring the call, but it was Regulus's name and picture showing up on his screen and he couldn't leave him hanging, especially not when Reg was on a bloody different continent. "Hey."

"Hey so er," Reg said, and he only sounded like this when he was about to say something he thought Sirius would be uncomfortable with. Used to be that he only used that tone when he needed money, but those days were behind them. Nowadays, Reg used that tone when he was asking Sirius to let down his hookup from the night before or to cover for him to their parents. Considering that he was in another country already, both of those options were unlikely.

"What?"

Regulus cleared his throat. "I met someone."

"Congrats?"

"He's Irish, he was over here for university but he's done now. He's so sodding wonderful, Sirius, he's the perfect boyfriend, I swear."

"Okay?" None of this information was telling him why Reg was sharing it in the first place.

What Reg said next was spoken too quickly for him to make it out over the fun.

"Take a fucking breath and say that slow enough that I can hear you."

"I want to bring him home with me."

The world screeched to a halt. "What?"

"Sirius," Reg said, a distinctly pleading note in his voice, "I love him. He's so great, and he actually likes my music! I know you love me, but you don't give a shite about it. He- he likes me, he actually likes me! Nobody sodding likes me, and he's smart, it's not like he'll be in the way, he just doesn't have a place to stay since he's been over here for four years."

Sirius rubbed tiredly at his eyes. It had been a pretty long day-- he'd had to fucking fire someone and now everyone else there was acting paranoid as if the bloke hadn't completely deserved it-- and he had been looking forward to unwinding tonight. Not sex or anything, probably, but the company would be nice and James was always so sweet to him that he didn't much care that it was fake-- that was James's job, after all, to be there for him and make him believe it was real. "Reg, how long have you known this guy?"

"Don't give me that. I know when something's real and when it's not, I'm not a child."

"Yeah that's great, you're not a kid anymore-- I noticed, funnily enough-- but I also don't want some stranger living in our flat, I don't care how in love with him you think you are, it's bloody stupid." He heard the lock click and the door open, and he turned around, giving James an apologetic smile. He covered the speaker to his phone and whispered, "My brother, I'll only be a minute."

James nodded, came over to give him a quick kiss, then went back to the door to take off his shoes.

"Can't you meet him before you make that sort of judgement? When you meet Remus, I swear you'll understand. He's perfectly trustworthy."

"How the hell do you know if he's trustworthy? You've known him a week."

"I seem to remember you trying to run off to marry Lucius after you'd been dating a week."

A familiar feeling of shame crept in, and Sirius started to feel frustrated; Reg wasn't listening to him, he was just trying to piss Sirius off enough that he gave in. It usually worked for him, but Sirius wasn't in the goddamn mood to deal with it right now. "We'd been dating a week, we'd known each other longer than that, and if you recall, it ended terribly."

"All your relationships end terribly, maybe it's not them that's the problem, maybe it's you. If you don't want him there, fine, I'll move out and you won't have to deal with either of us any more and you can be happy in your stuffy flat with your boring friends after coming home from a job you hate," Regulus spat, then hung up.

Sirius grit his teeth, pushing down the urge to scream or throw something. He knew that Regulus didn't mean it, he was just in a mood and upset that he'd found someone he thought was perfect for him but Sirius wasn't falling in line with his dream. It happened a few times a year, and after they both calmed down a little, it was fine. Knowing all of this didn't make it any fucking easier to deal with, and his hand tightened around his phone until his knuckles whitened.

"You okay?" James asked gently.

"Brilliant," Sirius growled. He threw his phone at the couch and stomped off to the closet. He'd texted James before he changed out of his suit, and now he wanted little more than to rip it apart with his bare hands. Not that he'd be able to even if he tried. So he settled for angrily undressing.

"You wanna talk about it."

Sirius huffed out an irritable breath, ready to say no, but he started bitching about Regulus instead. "It's like he's so busy trying to have a romantic, adventurous life that he forgets he can get hurt! Did you know that he moved in with someone that tried to kill him? The fucking arsehole was already hitting him, and he thought it would stop if he committed. Have you ever heard of something so sodding stupid? And now he's picked up someone over in the States where he's fucking around playing with his band-- which he didn't tell me about until he was already gone, by the way-- and he wants to bring some berk back with him to live in our flat! He knows nothing about this guy, but he knows this is how love stories go so he's- fucking going in head first without thinking about it."

"There's something to be said for romance," James said with a crooked smile, but he dropped the expression after a moment. "Do you know how much he knows about him? Maybe they've been spending every minute together so he knows him pretty well."

Sirius glared at him. "Are you on his side?"

"'Course not, I'm on your side because you're the person I know, and it sounds like yes, maybe he's going into this too quickly and he's going to get hurt. But mostly I was trying to offer an explanation that would make him seem less stupid."

"You don't need to, I already knows he's a fucking idiot," Sirius grumbled, but he was less angry than he'd been twenty seconds ago.

"Hmm, you say that, but I sense forgiveness in your tone," James said, coming up behind him. He wrapped his arms around Sirius's stomach and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. "Are you going to call him back and let him know?"

Sirius leaned into him, starting to relax from the stress of the day. "No. He's already planning to bring him back and so long as I don't kick him out he won't go anywhere."

James hummed again, a comfortable warmth against him. Sirius was going to miss the hell out of this when he went back to London. "Not to sound too judgmental, but you're not the best at relationships, so you could let him try to enjoy this. Maybe it'll turn out for the best."

Sirius frowned, the beginnings of relaxation vanishing in an instant. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe that bloke he found is as perfect as he thinks and they'll get to live happily ever after. Get married and annoy the shite out of you," he said with a chuckle.

"What do you mean I'm 'not the best at relationships'?"

"Hm? You said that the other day didn't you?"

Yeah, but he'd sort of hoped that James wouldn't agree. That somehow, in the week of their acquaintance, James would have gotten a different experience out of what it meant to be dating Sirius Black. He'd been wrong. And that buggering hurt. He took a careful breath in, released it, and accepted that it didn't matter. What he had with James wasn't a romantic relationship and thinking about it that way would only get him hurt. He was starting to catch feelings, but that sort of thing happened, right? Sirius might be a complete dumb arse, but he knew not to think about this as anything other than what it was. That being said, he could use some fucking cuddles right now, and James had that on offer.

Sirius blinked, and it felt like the bottom of the world had been tugged out from under him. "What?"

"I knew you wouldn't approve, that's why I didn't invite you," Regulus said over the phone.

Sirius couldn't believe it. He really fucking couldn't. He couldn't even form words.

"And I know it was rather stupid," Reg continued, "but Sirius, I swear, once you meet Remus you'll understand. He's so wonderful, you'll love him, I know it. There wasn't even a ceremony, you know? We signed a paper in front of the judge with one of those witnesses they offer, and that was it. I did want you there if that helps, I just knew that you'd try to talk me out of it. And- you know, I was thinking, I could get a job between all the band stuff-- it's not like it takes that much time anyways-- and I'll be able to move out soon. Stop bothering you all the time, yeah? I know you don't want me around messing up your flat and using all your money, so this'll get me out of your hair. You'll finally have the space to bring your dates home, listen to your own music, just- I don't know, have your own life without having to take care of me." Regulus stopped talking, clearly waiting for a response. "Sirius? Are you going to say anything? Anything at all?"

Another long pause. It's not like Sirius wanted to keep him worrying, but his throat worked and nothing came out. Next to him, James stirred awake. He saw Sirius, leaning up, body tensed with his cell against his ear.

Regulus blew out a breath. "Alright, you need some time to process. That's fair, I've dropped a lot of information on you, you need to think it over. Just- fuck Sirius, don't shut me out. You're still my brother and I love you, I just love Remus too, you know?" More silence. "I'm gonna go. Er. Thanks for listening. I had someone take a picture. I can send it to you or show you when you get back home, if you want. Bye."

Sirius swallowed thickly, his hand falling in front of him. Reg was leaving. A few days from now, Sirius would go back home and he'd never see James again. He hadn't seen his friends from university in years. Walburga was dead and good fucking riddance, but Orion was still there and Orion didn't give a shit about him as he was, only Sirius as his heir. Regulus had always been there, through all their family bullshit and Sirius's bad mistakes and his university issues. He found someone better to love and now he was leaving, it didn't matter what reassurances he was trying to give Sirius that he still cared, he was leaving and that's all there was to it.

"You okay?" James mumbled, putting a hand on Sirius's back.

Normally it was fine. Normally Sirius leaned into the touch and answered him as best he could, but right now wasn't fucking normal and he couldn't deal with this. James's affection was bought and paid for, and that was the only reason he was around. Sirius couldn't keep anyone around. No one cared about him, not really. All his dates, all his friends, the way his own damn father sent him away, he couldn't deal with this. He already had all the cash he owed James out and ready, and usually he gave it to him the morning after when they both got ready to leave. But he didn't want James around because it only reminded him of what he didn't have and that wasn't going to magically get better before he went back home. God even James knew what a disaster he was to date and that's not even what they were doing. A roll of money in hand, he turned back to James, holding it out. "Here. Just- just go, and thanks for your time. I don't need to see you for the rest of the time we agreed."

James blinked in surprise, looking at the money like he didn't know what it was. "What?"

"I don't want to kick you out-" but that's exactly what he was going to do "-but please take the money and go."

"I-"

"Please."

James blinked at him some more, then nodded, taking the money from him. It was awkward as he got dressed, and it probably looked real bad for him to run to the loo, but it would've been worse if James had seen him start to cry. He didn't want for Reg to leave and possibly ruin his life if Remus turned out to be any less perfect than Regulus thought he was, he didn't want to kick out James and never see him again, and he didn't want to be doing any of this.

"Sirius?" James was knocking on the door. "I'll leave if you want, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. Bad phone conversation? Everything alright?" A pause, then, "Is it your brother?"

Sensing that he wasn't going to go away until Sirius answered, he opened the door-- he'd forgotten to check how his face looked before opening it, but it couldn't be good. "I appreciate the thought, I really do, but please just go."

"Are you okay?"

Sirius rubbed a hand over his face. "I'll be fine." No matter what happened, no matter who left him, he'd be fine. He always was.

"Alright," James said softly. "I guess I'll leave now. I know you won't believe it, but I had a good time with you. Look me up if you're ever in town, yeah?" He sounded hopeful, but he didn't wait for an answer before he left, clearly understanding that Sirius wasn't going to.

He left and Sirius closed the washroom door again. It felt safer that way.

When he eventually came out, he saw that James had left his key on the bed's side table. Sirius blew out a breath. That was good; he should have asked for it, but he'd forgotten. James was always so collected, always keeping track of all these details that Sirius forgot about.

Sirius was leaving town, finally. He could get back home, meet Regulus's husband, and get back to reality. Reg might be leaving soon, but his couch would always be there to welcome him home after an exhausting day at work. He folded another tie and piled it on top, taking a quick scan of the room to see if he'd left anything out. He still needed to scan the washroom, but it looked like he had all his clothes gathered up on the bed.

A knock sounded on the door, and he frowned, wondering who it could possibly be. He walked over and opened the door, his mouth open and ready to tell them that they had the wrong room, but it died in his throat. James.

James was standing on the other side of the door, glasses-- Sirius had only seen him wear them once, that day he'd driven Sirius to the hotel-- and a sheepish expression on his face. "Hey."

Sirius blinked, then blinked again. "Did I short change you? Sorry, I didn't mean to," he said, turning around to grab his wallet.

"No, it's nothing like that," James said, stepping inside. The door swung closed behind him, but he didn't move further into the room. "I'm not here in a professional capacity. I'm here for... me. Y'know, us."

"O... kay?" Sirius turned back to face him, confused.

"It's-" James stopped, chewing on his bottom lip. Sirius had never seen him do that before. "It's kinda stupid, because I know you don't believe your brother fell in love with someone in week, so why would you believe I did it?"

"You're not in love with me," Sirius denied automatically. "You said I was a disaster in relationships."

"No, I said that's what you said, and that's not the same," James defended, walking closer. "You don't have to like it, but can't you accept that I feel that way about you?"

If he were a good person, he'd say yes. "No, because you don't."

James's eyes narrowed, and he started to look annoyed. "Anyone ever tell you you're a pain in the arse?"

"Constantly."

"Well maybe you should've listened to them a little more. For fuck's sake Sirius, aren't you going to say anything about it?"

"I did." Did he miss that part? It seemed impossible, because he'd replied, but anything could happen-- except James being in love with him, that didn't make any sense.

"I-" James started to say, but then he stopped, looking heart-broken. It made Sirius's heart crumple in on itself, and he twitched his nose to ward off the tears that wanted to work their way in. "I guess that's my answer." James looked away, making his way slowly to the door. "Is it too stupid to admit I actually thought you'd feel the same? I don't take risks, not about this and-." He stopped again, shaking his head. He pushed his fingers under his glasses and wiped at his eyes. "Sorry," he said, voice thick. "I'll go. Have a safe trip."

James put his hand on the doorknob, and all Sirius had to do was keep it in for a few more seconds, that's all he had to do- "Don't," Sirius blurted, and it wasn't loud, but it was enough for James to hear that he'd spoken and he paused, turning his head back around.

"Did you say something?"

"Don't go," Sirius said.

James didn't leave, but he also didn't take his hand away from the door. "Don't mess with me Sirius," he said desperately. "If you want me to stay, I need you to mean it."

"I mean it." He walked over to him in large stride, then cupped James's face in his hands. "Don't go, stay with me." He leaned in and kissed him. They'd kissed dozens of times. There had been better kisses, better times where they fit together like they'd been made for each other. But James had started crying and Sirius was halfway there as well, and he wasn't used to kissing James with glasses on. It was stuffy, messy, a little pokey, and absolutely perfect. "Kinda wish we'd done this earlier so we could figure it out."

"Figure what out?"

"I don't live here; you do." Sirius kissed him again because he didn't want to move away. "Are we texting? Making trips every month? I don't... I don't know."

"I can move to London."

"I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking, I'm offering," James said. He leaned against the door, and when Sirius's hands dropped from his face he caught them. "I take care of my great uncle and I've been living with him while I do that, so it won't take much for me to hire someone else for him. I've got clothes and shite, but no furniture, no lease to deal with. 'Course I don't have a place in London so that'll-"

"You're living with me."

"I am?"

"If Reg can bring his fucking husband with him, I can bring you. Er, if you want, that is."

"Hell yes I want to, but I can't ask you to make room in your flat for me."

"As someone I know once said, you're not asking, I'm offering."

James laughed, half pulling Sirius into a hug and half bringing himself away from the door to meet him. "Thanks. And I do love you. That wasn't an exaggeration."

"I er," Sirius took a deep breath, released it, but couldn't say it back even though he wanted to. "Me too."

Regulus stared at his brother and a stranger comfortably lounging on each other on the couch. "Sirius who the hell is that?"

"I'm James," the stranger said with a wide smile and a wave.

"And who's James to you? Sirius?"

"My sugar baby, now shut it, we're watching the telly."

James snorted but didn't deny it.

"How well do you know this guy?"

"As well as you know Remus," Sirius said, deigning to glance at him with a superior expression thrown in for free, but he turned it into a smile as he looked at Remus. "Hey, how's it going?"

Remus smiled back and shrugged. "No complaints."

"That's not fair to bring him into this," Regulus said, but he knew that he wasn't going to win this. Any argument he could make would be just as true for himself, and he didn't want to go that route.

"If you say so," Sirius said, turning back to the television.

"Let it go, love," Remus said, putting a hand on Regulus's shoulder.

"Hmph." Reg started walking to his room, Remus following behind him. He only had a few boxes, but he hadn't bothered to unpack since they were planning on leaving fairly soon.

"Hey Reg?" Sirius called, not moving from where he had his head pillowed on James's shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"Unpack your husband's boxes already, you make it seem like he's homeless."

Regulus blinked, then huffed out a laugh. "Yeah Sirius, you got it."

#prongsfoot #marauders #james potter #sirius black #fanfic #regulus black #filled #getting together #no magic au #post hogwarts #siriuslystarbucks #Anonymous

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s-riusblck · 6 years

Text

WILD

NOTES: Honestly idk what this is???? 99% of this doesn’t even relate to the lyrics anymore but my original idea was inspired by this song so I thought I’d keep them in there. Also, I’ve definitely veered from the facts a little bit in regards to things like when Sirius ran away etc. Hope you all enjoy, feedback is always appreciated and thank you for all love!! PS my requests are now open so if you’d like to see something specifically, please let me know!! (x)

SHIP: Sirius Black x Reader

DESCRIPTION: Inspired by the song Wild - Troye Sivan ft. Alessia Cara. Set in the Marauders Era. Sirius Black was the one boy your father had warned you to stay away from, but he was the one boy you were head over heels in love with.

WARNINGS: Family issues, cursing

ASK / PROMPTS

**********

Trying hard not to fall On the way home You were trying to wear me down, down Kissing up on fences And up on walls On the way home I guess it's all working out, now

His lips were on yours, your back pressed firmly against the wall. Your hands were in his, fingers intertwined, pinned against the wall above your head. His lips began to kiss a trail down to your neck, your grip tightening on his hands. A soft moan escaped your lips as he nipped lightly at the skin of your neck, and as his body pressed against yours, you swore in that moment that no one could love you better than Sirius Black did.

Growing up a part of the sacred twenty-eight, Sirius Black had been apart of your life for as long as you could remember. In fact, he was a major part of your life. He was your best friend. He was everything you looked for and more, so it came as no surprise to you when you realised you were head over heels in love with him. But loving Sirius Black was complicated. He was rebellious, and he went against everything your family and his believed in when it came to blood status. It had all seemed so perfect to begin with, both families encouraging your friendship when you were younger in the hopes of the two of you carrying on the blood line someday, until one day he started to show signs of rebellion. Your father immediately told you to stay away from him, but you couldn’t. You could never stay away from him.

The cracks in your relationship with your father first began to show when you attended Hogwarts, and like Sirius, you were sorted into Gryffindor. Even a glance in Sirius’ direction at a formal dinner with the members of the sacred twenty-eight after that led to a fight and it was exhausting, but this didn’t stop your relationship with Sirius blossoming, because you had Hogwarts. When you were at Hogwarts, there was nothing in the way and you both fell madly in love with each other. He was your happiness, your home. He was your everything, and you were his. He made you feel emotions on a level you never thought possible. He made you laugh, cry, scream, shout and smile. But most of all, he made you happy. He made your happiness his first priority always, even in the little things like how he let you put your cold feet against him at night to warm them up. He loved you.

Your graduation from Hogwarts had come around a lot quicker than you would of hoped, and now you were faced with the prospect of your future. You knew what you wanted to do. You wanted to be with Sirius, and your friends, and you wanted to join the Order of the Phoenix. You wanted to fight against the infatuation with blood status, but that meant fighting against your family. You knew what the right thing to do was, but you were scared, because your family wasn’t just your father. It was your mother, who despite her beliefs, always supported you. It was complicated. And the guilt was crushing you. Sirius had wanted to run from his family for weeks, but he put it off because outside of Hogwarts, the only chance you got to see each other was at the scared twenty-eight events. It wasn’t fair to him, you knew that, and you knew it was coming to a time where you’d have to act.

But in that moment, you were in Sirius’ arms and you were enjoying every second of it. You turned your head to the side, capturing his lips with yours as he ran his hands down your arms and to the back of your thighs, lifting you up so your legs wrapped around his waist. You ran your hands through his hair, gripping on tightly as you kissed him.

“I have to go in.” You mumbled against his lips, pressing another kiss to them before you leaned your forehead against his, both of you breathing heavily.

“You don’t.” Sirius replied, and you sighed, opening your eyes and brushing some loose strands of hair back from his face.

“I do.” You repeated, resting your hand on his cheek, running your thumb along his bottom lip. He closed his eyes at the touch, and you smiled, pressing another kiss to his lips.

He sighed as he lowered you to the ground, his arms wrapping around your waist and your wrapping around his neck as you pulled him down into a hug. “Baby, you should go to James’. Leave Grimmauld Place. I don’t want to see you spending even another second there because of me.” You mumbled into the crook of his neck, your fingers beginning to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. “You shouldn’t have to put up with any of the shit there just because I haven’t built up the courage to leave yet.”

“Hey, don’t blame yourself.” He said, pulling back slightly so he could look at you, bringing a hand up to your cheek. “You’ll figure it out soon, I know you will. And it’ll all be worth it. We’ll have very day together then.”

You smiled up at him, the thought of getting to spend every day with him again as if you were back in Hogwarts filling you with hope. “You’ll be able to keep me warm at night again.” You grinned.

He snorted and kissed your forehead. “Maybe I’ll just stay at Grimmauld Place.” He teased, a smirk on his face.

You rolled your eyes and leaned up, pressing another long kiss to his lips. “I love you.” You mumbled.

“I love you.” He replied, kissing you once more. “I’ll see you soon.” He said as he stepped back.

“Can’t wait.” You grinned, and watched as he disappeared into the darkness, before beginning to make your way up to your house.

——

Leave this blue neighbourhood Never knew loving could hurt this good And it drives me wild Cause when you look like that I've never ever wanted to be so bad It drives me wild You're driving me wild, wild, wild

The sight of Sirius Black in a suit was something that simply couldn’t be described in words. There was no denying that he was a handsome man, in fact, you would go as far as to say the most handsome man you had ever seen. It was just yet another reason you thanked Merlin everyday for bringing him into your life. But whenever he walked into a room in a suit, all control was lost. It took every fibre of your being not to jump him right there and then. So, when the annual sacred twenty-eight ball came around, Sirius Black and that suit were the only things that made it bearable.

Although you knew Sirius found you beautiful in absolutely anything, and was blown away by your beauty on many occasions, you really wanted to see his jaw drop that night. You picked out the most beautiful gown you could find, and spent the day perfecting your hair and makeup. You felt confident, and for once, excited to attend the event just to see the look on your boyfriends face.

As you approached the door to the extravagant ballroom behind your parents, you took a deep breathe, mentally preparing yourself to deal with the infuriation you felt every time you walked into one of these events. “Remember who you are, (Y/N).” Your father said, and you forced a nod, before he opened the door and you followed in. The greetings began almost immediately, but you drowned them out, your eyes scanning the room for the light in all the darkness, but he was nowhere to be seen.

You sighed internally and forced a smile as you began to greet people, deciding that the Black family probably just hadn’t arrived yet. As the evening went on, though, you grew more and more anxious. They were never usually late. You sat at a table with your parents as they socialised, absentmindedly picking at the finger food as your eyes stayed trained on the door. The conversation around you nothing but a mere mumble as a million thoughts of why Sirius hadn’t arrived yet rushed through your mind.

“Evening, (Y/N). Care to dance?” Lucius Malfoy’s voice cut through those thoughts, and for a moment you narrowed your eyes at him, until you felt your fathers eyes boring holes into the side of your head. Forcing a sarcastic smile, you nodded, before following him towards the floor.

“Waiting for someone?” He asked as you reluctantly began to dance with him, keeping as much distance as possible.

“Why? Is it that obvious I don’t want to dance with you?” You snapped back.

“You could have better, you know. He’s a blood traitor, fighting for the wrong side.”

“Oh, and I suppose you consider yourself to be better?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you for the input, but Sirius is ten times the man you’ll ever be. He’s even more than that. He’s perfect, and I know for a fact there’s no one even remotely better than him out there.” You replied confidently, before your eyes flicked over to the opening doors, your brows furrowing as you saw Regulus, Orion and Walburga walk through, but no sign of Sirius. You pulled away from Lucius and began to walk towards them, your actions clouded by the dread you were beginning to feel.

As you approached, Regulus stepped in front of you, guiding you away from his parents and out into a more secluded hallway.

“Where’s Sirius?” You asked him immediately, your nerves on edge with anticipation of his answer.

“He wanted me to give you this.” Regulus said as he handed you a note, and you opened it to see Sirius’ handwriting.

Love,

When you’re ready, I’ll be at James’ house. I love you.

Sirius.

You looked up at Regulus in confusion, arching at eyebrow at him as you waited for him to elaborate.

“There was a massive row. They, uh... They said and did some horrible things to him, and he left. He had given this note to me a while back in case something like this happened.” Regulus explained, and you felt anger bubbling in your stomach like you had never felt before. Before your mind had even processed it, you began to storm across the ballroom towards Sirius’ parents, your breathing heavy as you anger boiled over, ignoring the warning calls of Regulus from behind you.

“How could you?” You almost spitted out as you approached Orion and Walburga, your knuckles white as you balled your fists at either side of you. “You’re both disgusting. How could you ever treat any human being, let alone your own son, like you have all these years? It’s disgusting.”

The room began to quieten down as your voice raised, and people became aware of what was happening.

“How dare you,” Walburga began, and as you felt your fathers hard grip on your shoulder you pushed him off, the look of disgust on your face only intensifying.

“Don’t touch me.” You warned him, sending him a glare as hard as stone. You let out a breathy laugh as you looked around the room, shaking your head. “You’re all pathetic if you believe blood status makes you any less of a cruel, soulless person than you really are.” And you turned back to Walburga and Orion, shaking your head once more. “You don’t in any way deserve a son like Sirius Black. You don’t deserve such a kind, strong, brave, beautiful, loving person in your life. Despite your best efforts, you haven’t ruined him. You’ve only made him stronger.”

And before you could react, you felt the harsh sting of Walburga’s hand hitting your cheek and with one last cold glance, you disapparated from the room.

——

We’re alike you and I Two blue hearts locked in our wrong minds So can we make the most out of no time? Can you hold me? Can you make me leave my demons and my broken pieces behind?

With a crack, you arrived at the street of James’ house. It was dark and empty, and you took a moment to try and slow down the thoughts buzzing through your mind. Bringing a hand up to your cheek, you winced as it stung, pulling your fingers away and sighing as you saw blood on your fingertips.

You wiped it away before you picked up your dress and began walking down the street towards James’ house, tears streamed down your cheeks as all the emotions from the night washed over you. It was overwhelming, infuriating, but as you walked down the street, you felt free. You finally felt free from the grips of your father and his pure blood mania. You finally came to the full realisation of the pain and the marks the years of living under his watch had left, because you were finally free of them.

You walked up the driveway to James’ house, knocking on the door gently. Seeing James opening it and standing there in front of you, you immediately felt a sense of comfort.

“(Y/N)? What the hell happened? Are you okay?” He said, ushering you inside and closing the door.

“Is Sirius-“ You began, but your question was cut short as you saw him walk into the hallway. Shock was written across his features as his eyes took in every inch of you, but it soon turned to concern as he spotted the cut on your cheek and the stream of tears. You took in his appearance, concern mirrored on your own face. He looked exhausted, but even with the bags under his eyes, he was still so handsome.

“This is not how I planned to look when I saw you tonight.” You said, and with the sound of your voice, he moved towards you, resting a hand on your good cheek and pressing a long, gentle kiss to your forehead.

“What happened? Who did this to you?” He asked, and you sighed, bringing your hands up to rest on either side of his waist and resting your forehead against his chest.

“I don’t think you want to know.” You mumbled, a small smile gracing your lips as you felt him press another kiss to the top of your head. Lifting your head up, you looked at him. Seeing his expression, you huffed, knowing you weren’t going to get away with not telling him. “Don’t freak out, okay? It was the ever so lovely Walburga, I-“

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He began, a storm of anger building in his eyes.

“Babe, It’s fine. She slapped me across the face, my dead grandmother could of done worse damage than that. It’s fine.”

His features softened as he snorted in amusement at your words, and James barked a laugh from behind you. “Brilliant. I’ll go let my mum know you’re here, she’ll fix that up in no time.” James said and you smiled gratefully at him before he disappeared into another room.

After Euphemia had fixed up the cut on your cheek, you thanked her and Fleamont for letting you stay, said goodnight to James and headed up the stairs to the guest bedroom with Sirius, your fingers laced through his, his other hand holding up your dress for you as you walked. “How did I score such a gentleman?” You grinned, glancing back at him as you walked into the room and he closed the door behind the two of you.

“How did I score the most beautiful girl?” He replied, placing his hands on your waist and pulling you to him. “You look beautiful tonight. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to tell you that.”

“Don’t apologise.” You said, shaking your head as you rested your hands on his chest, absentmindedly playing with the fabric of his shirt. “I’m glad you did what you did. You couldn’t stay in that house any longer, and it was the push I needed to realise I couldn’t either.”

He smiled and leaned down, his lips meeting yours in a gentle kiss. A kiss that reassured you that you made the right decision, and that took away some of the pain of what your life had been so far. “I could kiss you all night, but I need to get out of these heels.” You mumbled, giving him another quick kiss before you turned around, pulling your hair forward as he undid the zip on your dress. Once undone, he grabbed a shirt from the bag he had brought and handed it to you, you slipped into it before sitting down on the edge of the bed and undoing your heels.

Once you were both ready, you climbed into bed next to him, facing each other as your body’s tangled together, your fingers running through his hair, his drawing circles on your back. “Are you okay? After everything?” He asked, and you smiled, nodding at him.

“I will be. Are you?”

“With you, I’ll be more than okay.” He said, and your smile only grew as you kissed him once more, feeling safe in his arms. You both had broken pieces to fix, and demons to deal with, but you know a life with Sirius by your side would be more than enough to heal you, because you knew for certain now, no one could love you better than Sirius Black.

#sirius black x reader #sirius black #sirius black x you #harry potter #sirius black imagine #sirius x reader #sirius x you #Harry Potter fanfic #Harry Potter fanfiction #sirius black reader insert #marauders era

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mychemicalimagines · 5 years

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The Walking Marauders (2) Remus Lupin

No Magic. As soon as the dead starting walking, Melissa Potter just wanted to find her family. After waking up from a coma she finds herself in the world of the undead. She goes into the city and finds Remus Lupin. How will they go on in this world? Will they fight together or fight each other??

Tag List- @maraudersandco @itshelaodinsdottirbitch @iluvharrypotter172 @rosesarestriped @definethatpotato

I just realized I never said this but Michael from the first chapter is Dean Thomas’ father. He didn’t have a name so I named him. Requests are still open, as well as the tag list. I’m sorry If I missed you on this chapter please message me and I will add you. Also I am changing the way some characters would have acted. Its just to go with the way the story is going. Also Harry, Ron and Hermione is younger than Carl and Sophia is in the show. They’re about 4 instead of 10 like them. I made them so they don’t go straight into guns like Carl did.

Warning: Cussing, Zombie death. Kidnapping, angry female. threat to kill/maim young kid.

“Mel?” I hear from behind me. I know that voice. It can’t be.

“Sirius?” I ask turning around. “Oh my god!” We both walk forward meeting in the middle, wrapping each other in a hug.

“How are you here?” He whispers into my hair surprised.

“What do you mean?” I ask pulling away from the hug to look at his confused face.

“The day this all started, the army was killing everyone that coughed, sneezed or even wiped their nose. I went straight to your room to see if you were okay, but your heart machine was off. I checked your pulse but I couldn’t feel anything. I closed your door and hid you so that if I got a chance I could go back and bury you I would,” he says tearing up a bit.

“Its okay Sirius. I’m fine,” I say hugging him again.

“Aunt Mel. Uncle Sirius said you died,” Harry says pulling on my pant leg.

I pull from the hug to look down at him. “Harry,” I say kneeling. “Uncle Sirius had every right to say that. He honestly believed that. I’m fine. That’s all that matters right,” I ask him as I fix his glasses. He nods and runs over to a red-haired boy that’s with Molly.

I stand straight up and smile.

“I can’t believe I found you guys,” I say to my brother and Sirius.

“How did you even get into the city?” James asks.

I tell them the story of me waking up, finding Frank, driving here and running into Remus.

“Bag of guns?” Sirius asks.

“I guess you forgot about the guns hidden in the office next to mine,” I smirk walking over to the van. I look in the back and grab the bag. I turn to Sirius and I open the bag. He smirks looking inside.

“As I recall you were the only one that had a key-”

“Melissa? Melissa Potter?” I freeze in my spot. No please no. Not him.

“Severus?” I step around Sirius to take a look. He steps forward and pulls me into his arms.

“I’m so happy you’re safe,” he says.

“Thanks,” I awkwardly pat his back.

“You two know each other?” James asks stepping forward toward Severus.

“This is Severus, my ex boyfriend I told you guys about,” I say to the guys.

Severus pulls from the hug, “Who are these guys to you Melly?”

“First of all, don’t call me that. Second of all it shouldn’t matter but James is my twin brother and Sirius was my partner,” I answer him rolling my eyes.

“I thought your name was Snape?” Sirius asks glancing at me then back at Severus.

“Severus Snape,” He corrects, “Dr. Severus Snape”

I roll my eyes, “Anyway Sirius you can put this bag with the rest. Where-”

“Wait! Where is my husband?” A woman yells. Sirius and I look straight over to her.

“Mrs. Granger?” Sirius asks walking over to her. I follow him.

“Andrea? Where is my husband?” She asks again pulling her daughter with her.

“He was being an asshole so we left him on the roof of the building we were in,” Andrea says.

“Wait!? There were more people?” I snap fulling standing next to Sirius now.

“You just left him there?” Mrs. Granger turns to me.

“I never met him. I will personally go back and bring him back,” I say honestly.

“Me too,” Remus says walking up beside me. I smile at him as a thank you and he just winks at me.

“You better,” she snaps. She grabs her daughters hand and pulls her to the tent they are staying in.

“Should we bring more people?” Remus asks me.

Michael walks up and says, “I’ll go. Dean is with Molly, so I can come. I tried to talk to Andrea out of it but she just locked the door.”

“I’ll go too,” Arthur says. “I can unlock the door with tools I have in the RV.”

“So were sacrificing four people for Mr. Granger?” Severus says walking up. “That guy wouldn’t give you water if you were dying of thirst”

“Severus. Just shut up. Sirius, get some supplies together for us please. We’ll leave in 30.” I say turning to everyone.

“Sure thing darling,” He pats my back and walks toward the Weasley’s RV.

I look at the other 3. “Are you sure? You guys just came back with me today.”

“I’m good to go” Remus nods. Thank god. I know i’ll need his help. He’s the only one I trust right now. Not including my family and Sirius.

“It’s partially my fault for not telling you he was up there. Molly and my family understand.” Arthur nods at me.

“I’m good. Dean is taken care of.” Michael says.

I turn to everyone in the campsite as they walk away to say goodbye to their families, “The four of us are leaving an a half hour. We will be back tonight or very early tomorrow morning. I’m very sorry about this. I didn’t even know he was up there”

Everyone nods and Sirius walks up to us with a bag.

“This has food, water and some of the guns you brought with you.” He hands it to Arthur who walks back to the van. I turn to Remus.

“Was it the same building we were in?” I ask.

“I think so. I remember how to get there. While were out we can also look in the store down the street,” Remus says.

“Are you guys ready now,” I ask as they walk back.

“Yep” They say and Remus gets the keys. “I’ll drive. I remember a shortcut on the way back.”

We all pile into the van and Remus drives us. I can’t believe I found my family. Its all because of this handsome guy sitting next to me. I should talk to him more and get to know him. I stare out the window for a little bit.

“Mel? Are you okay?” Remus asks pulling me out of daydreaming.

I look over at him and smile, “Actually Remus, I’m fantastic.”

He smiles and nods looking back at the road. He is so sweet. I wonder where he got the scars from. Not that it matters to me. He’s handsome with them.

“Were here,” He says putting the car in park.

“Do we want to get Mr. Granger first or stop at that store?” Michael asks.

“Well we should get Mr. Granger first. We’d be doubling back,” Remus says.

“Also Its a really hot day and he is probably dehydrated. He could still die.” I say running toward the building. The guys follow me and Remus shows me the way up to the roof. Arthur uses some bolt cutters to get the door open and all four of us bust in the door and run around the roof.

“Oh god,” Michael says making us all look at him. I slowly walk over to the pipe that hes standing in front of. All I see is the zip ties that were holding him there and a bloody hand on the ground. I cover my mouth. Oh no. He’s gone. I see a line of blood going toward another door on the other side of the roof.

“Remus” I say without looking at him and I follow the blood. I can hear his footsteps behind me and I pull my gun out of my holster. I slowly open the door holding my gun up. There’s a staircase going back down. I go straight down looking around. I see a couple dead walkers, ignoring them I keep following the trail of blood. It brings me to a broken, bloody window. I sigh and turn to Remus.

“He jumped,” Remus says and I nod.

“We can go outside. 2 of us go to the store and the other 2 will look for him,” I say looking at the guys.

“I’ll go to the store,” Remus says.

“I’ll go with you,” Arthur says. Remus looks at me and smiles touching my arm. I blush a little and they walk back up toward the roof.

“Okay Michael, it looks like he went toward where the van was parked. We can look around there first.” I say pointing toward the other door in the room putting my gun away pulling out my knife.

Michael and I walk out the door looking around for Mr. Granger. I go to the exact stop where the van was and theres a couple of walkers which I take them out quickly and quietly. I walk quickly to the road to see if he could be walking back. Nope. I sigh and i look at Michael.

“I don’t know this city well. Could there be anywhere he could possibly go to fix his hand?” I ask.

“Well there’s-” Michael gets cut off by Arthur running up to us pulling a young kid about the age of 17 with him.

“Remus was kidnapped!” He says quickly.

I turn to him quickly. “What?”

“This morons group went for a bag of food Remus and I put together and a fight broke out and I grabbed this kid and his group took Remus.” I turn to the kid.

“Where are they?” I snap. No one is taking Remus away from me. I barley even got to know him.

“I ain’t telling you shit.” He glares at me.

I grab his shirt and I pull him to me. “You don’t tell me where he is, you won’t return to him unscathed. Maybe you’ll lose a body part. Probably a foot seeing as you’ll need those to run from walkers. Now tell me where my guy is at?” I say venomously.

“The b-big g-green b-building,” the kid stutters out.

“Show me,” I snap.

I push him in front of him still holding his shirt. He walks us to a huge building and points to the back of the building. I push him that way and we stand in the back while Arthur knocks on the door and he stands back behind me. A man walks out with a group of people.

“Well hello, how can we help you? Seeing you have one of my guys, you must be the group taking our food.” He says smirking at me.

“Well seeing as my group got that food, its my food but you also have someone that belongs to me,” I say calmly to him.

“G! She threatened to cut my foot off!” The young man says to him.

“Cops do that?” He asks giving me a look.

“In this world, when someone takes someone that belongs with my group I do.” I step forward. “Seems like an even trade. Your guy for mine.”

“Well I see that you still have the bag my group went to grab so no its not an even trade.” He says smartassly.

“Its an even trade, because this belongs to us. We found it. Its ours now give me back-”

“No I see two opinions. You come back with Miguel and my bag of food and you live. Or you can come back locked and loaded and we’ll see who sheds more blood” He says turning around and going back inside.

I grab Miguel and we go back to the building where we lost Mr. Granger.

“What are we going to do? This bag has the last edible foods,” Arthur says.

“Oh well get Remus back. And were keeping the food” I say looking at the bag Sirius put together for us.

“G will kill you guys. You don’t know how crazy he can be.” Miguel says laughing at us. I turn to him and I get right in his face.

“You haven’t seen crazy” I glare.

“What you mean,” Michael asks looking at me.

I pick up a shotgun from the table and I cock the gun.

“We’re going locked and loaded.” I smile at Arthur and Michael. “We’re getting Remus back.”

Hopefully you guys like this chapter. Please please please comment! Requests are still open so please submit those to my ask box or even message me.

#remus lupin #remus lupin imagine #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin x you #remus lupin x oc #The Walking Dead #the walking dead imagine

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fruitbattery · 6 years

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I saw the MOST amazing production (open dress rehearsal) of falsettos the other night!

It was in a tiny theatre. TINY, black box style, <50 seats. we were RIGHT IN FRONT. it was amazing.

-the set was literally: 6 chairs, 10 boxes, a hospital bed -4 jews started as a sock puppet show from behind the boxes (except for Trina) and then they all popped up as they said their names -(the cast was all so pretty and i am so gay) -their Jason was a college age woman and I believed her wholly, she was so good -at the end of 4 jews, they posed like they were taking a family photo and then marvin got up and started singing tight knit family -for love is blind, marvin and whizzer were in the background reading, marvin was on a chair and whizzer on the floor leaning into him. it was cute. -the transitions between songs required additional music a lot but that was ok -thrill of first love was??? so good? -whizzer pulled a silly pose at “i was trained in karate” it was great -they yelled the 9/10 months bit and the won’t/don’t bit -the fight choreo happened as whizzer stealing marvin’s scarf and them fighting over it -they ended up on the floor after whizzer pulled marvin in with the scarf and sat on his lap??? which i think is actually better than on the couch but ya know. sightlines are important i guess -can i just reiterate how good jason was like she was SO GOOD -throughout marvin at the psychiatrist, whizzer and trina had super visible but subtle reactions like eye rolling -for “my father’s a homo,” and for a lot of the show, jason sang right at the audience -he jumped on the table it was so cute! -trina’s indicating to whizzer behind jason’s back was NOT SUBTLE AT ALL there was no way the kid didn’t notice that -when the “late for dinner late again” section started, a strip of unexpected disco lights came on!!! it was great -trina belted “and still the bastard divorced me!!!!” and it made my night -I’M BREAKING DOWN WAS SO GOOD -she used the space a lot it was great; she covered the whole stage -she came onstage with a bunch of bananas and i heard someone behind me say “oh no” -she did eat a piece of banana but earlier in the song, before “you ask me is it fun to cry over nothing” -she made eye contact with my friend at “help me!!!!” and she DIED -she crushed pieces of banana in her hands so she had to wipe them on her apron before picking up the phone to call mendel -mendel answered with “yes this is mendel weisenbachfeld” like in the revival! -the disco lights came on for the final section of “feel alright for the rest of your life” -marriage proposal was simple and cute -”this is how you do a marriage proposal” and then jason went “GO” and shoved them together omg. then he ran off -tkf reprise was simple -at this point i am in love with the actress playing trina because she KILLS trina’s song. wow. -march of the falsettos was very jewish! they were all sitting on boxes, with scarves like tallitot, and prayer books covering their faces. simple box switching choreography -trina is wonderful -in the chess game it was SUPER clear that whizzer was mocking marvin in the 2nd verse. -he got up at “more’s the pity” -marvin got his suitcase immediately, then whizzer walked off sadly. he turned around when he was almost out to sing his part of the argument. “whizzer’s supposed to make the dinner” etc -in making a home they put a mezuzah on the door!!!!! !!!!!! -when they sang “yes we love the bed” mendel slapped her ass and she giggled -at the end they each sat down to read and froze for the games i play -omg whizzer was so good!!! -he started the song smiling like he was trying to make light of his situation but got serious fast -he made eye contact with me and i DIED -during marvin hits trina, trina just looked so DONE and ANNOYED during the beginning of i never wanted to love you, mendel was holding her and touched her face where she’d been slapped, and she told him stop, and he stopped. that was nice. -jason was practically screaming during that song and it was so heartbreaking -father to son has everyone crying. i could hear it. at the end, it was only jason who got up, and it looked like he was gonna leave marvin there alone, but then he went for the hug and we started crying more

act 2!!! -ppl laughed a lot at the weird woodwind/chime wiggle thing that happens in the intro music -mendel only had once flashlight and made it look like he was telling a ghost story when he said “homosexuals” which was really funny -PRETTY BOYS ARE IN DEMAND -charlotte and cordelia!!!!! holy fuck they were perfect! -for the whee! woo! part they were all sitting on blocks. it was trina on mendel’s lap, whizzer, marvin, jason, cordelia on charlotte’s lap -JASON HAD SUCH FUNKY DANCE MOVES FOR YEAR OF THE CHILD -the whole audience knew what the words were it was glorious. i know because they laughed -mendel gave the spiel about how his own bar mitzvah was bad to marvin and trina rather than to jason, like he was convincing them not to have jason do it -during the beginning of miracle of judaism, jason was pulling on baseball clothes over his clothes and packing a backpack to take to a game -at one point he held the bat between his legs like a giant dick and sang “girls with whom i always wake up” -the baseball game!!!! was so similar to the revival version!! staging wise -marvin was SO touchy with whizzer’s hair and trina was so annoyed lmao -the actor playing whizzer had so much hair but they did the bald spot anyway -jason’s actor played caroline instead of cordelia’s, which i guess makes more sense if it works -she got angrier when she said “you always do this” -trina’s workout gear involved a leotard and leg warmers. when she came on people whistled (I think they were her irl friends) -it looked like they used actual gefilte fish for the nouvelle bar mitzvah cuisine??? -whizzer was in tiny jean shorts to play tennis. so impractical honestly, all that chafing -instead of marvin collapsing and whizzer standing over him, they got really close to each other and almost kissed like 3 times. shit was cute. -i didn’t realize that in the original script jason wanders onstage during the last overlapping bit of a day in falsettoland and says “you guys are so white” but it was funny -when “i want the appelbaums” started, people laughed in recognition (i tell you boston is full of jews lmao. love it.) -mendel got up on a chair for his imitation of god, and stole the tablecloth to cover his head with -near the end of the song, mendel cleared a space for himself very dramatically, psyched himself up, and did the worst cartwheel i have ever seen. jason then did the same. -for what more can i say, they didn’t have a bed or anything resembling one, so marvin sat at the end of a row of 4 or 5 chairs and whizzer laid across them with his head in marvin’s lap -for the final “what more can i say” whizzer sat up and they gazed into each others’ eyes for a second -hoo boy here comes the pain train -charlotte and cordelia’s dynamic was a+ honestly. -tbh I know every word to this show and something bad is happening was still worrying and terrifying -in more raquetball, marvin was getting SUPER cocky. and then it all just went away when wizzer fell. heartbreaking. -in between something bad and holding to the ground, marvin helped whizzer over to dr charlotte and you could see him nonverbally insisting he was fine before collapsing onto her shoulder and allowing himself to be led away -trina’s performance in holding to the ground was phenomenal. so much emotion. marvelous and amazing. -i swear i heard sobs as the hospital bed came on -there was real chicken soup in cordelia’s tupperware!!! -jason set up the chess board fully after climbing onto the bed with whizzer, he then just packed it right back up again -mendel and trina in cancelling the bar mitzvah was just. lovely. and fucking sad too -unlikely lovers was SO TENDER i swear -when the lesbians showed up, marvin and whizzer were sitting there with their foreheads touching and marvin was almost in whizzer’s lap which was kind of an inversion??? idk it was great -just pure love -jason was so cute and innocent during another miracle. it was much needed. -then holy fuck -dr charlotte pulled marvin away for something bad reprise and she was crying. full on. she hit all the words and notes but shit. it got to me. -ok so you gotta die sometime is one of my favorite songs of all time. certainly my fave solo song to sing myself. -he nailed it. he was just so callous at the beginning morphing to fucking terrified at the end. it looked like if jason had come one second later he would’ve given up and died. -but there was a gap between it and the beginning of jason’s bar mitzvah still which was completely silent. pin drop silent. it was interesting -jason came in already in a suit -at “mendel get this thing in gear” the bed was rolled off and didn’t come back which must’ve been convenient -at “oh mummy” they actually kissed for a few seconds and trina looked,,, unamused -they all wore white kippot -at the end. oh god. -jason finished his torah and whizzer almost collapsed. mendel caught him. and jason just started sobbing. silently, but think harry-potter-after-sirius-fell-through-the-veil levels of despair. fuck it was sad. trina took him away. -the cast cleared the stage during the beginning of what would i do, but they left the “table” made of blocks that jason read torah on -marvin forgot the words so he substituted “once i was told that all men get what they deserve” for “god only knows too soon i’ll remember your faults” but it was ok -i swear the whole theatre started crying 2x as much when whizzer came out dressed like he had been -they circled each other unable to touch a few times. it killed me. -at the end, marvin put a rose that trina brought him on the table, now clearly a gravestone. then he cried into his family. -jason was on stage after everyone had left. i knew about the chess piece but he also kissed his hand and touched the grave which is??? so jewish??? and so touching??? idk but it was terrible and horrible and ripped my heart out of its socket -after the final piano faded out you could hear how many people were sniffling.

in conclusion this was a monumental experience. we got to see backstage after because the music director, who invited us, is also the music director for our school’s musicals (fiddler this year!) i met the actress who played cordelia and she said she could tell i knew the show which probably meant i was unconsciously mouthing the words despite my best efforts not to.

ok thanks for reading this word vomit that my adhd detail oriented brain poured out.

#falsettos #upsettoland #long post

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futurewriter2000 · 6 years

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Combatants ~ Part 7

A/N: OKAY! I DRANK WAY TOO MUCH ENERGY SO THIS IS THE RESULT OF IT! Part 7 is out.. I mean not yet because I’m writing this BUT it will be out after I finish writing this, adding tags, a warning and a GIF....oh and taggs BUT I AM FEELING THIS AND IT’S 1 AM! Oh shit I just thought of the cliffhanger. Yay. Okay this is not my finest part...I know but I couldn’t have written it in the better way. Why’d you think it took me five hours.

Warning: Just get ready for the 5 hour-5 am- two large energy- extravaganza and let it take you to Hogwarts.

Tags: @nadinissavage, @lexi-thechaosqueen, @grey-raven, @alohomagines, @bestillmystuckyheart, @maddyfitzhenry, @astrophileslytherin, @literally-anythin, @fashionlive15, @hello-fanfiction-goodbye-grades, @robyn-0790, @beyoursnow, @oreofrappiewithblueberry, @deanilostmyshoe, @hellboundblogger, @thewinterquicksilver

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 8

"Come on Pads! You can't stay here forever!" shouted James from the bathroom.

"Oh yeah. Watch me!" replied Sirius and turned on the other side of the bed.

"Okay. That's it." said James and jumped on his bed. He started pulling the covers. "You..." he started when Sirius started fighting back. "Are going.." before he could finish Sirius kicked him away and started chuckling. "You bastard!" yelled James shockingly as he was layed on the floor.

"I told you Prongs. I don't want to see her." murmured Sirius and hid himself under the covers.

"So what? You'll just stay here pouting and pitying yourself till death comes?" asked James, tapping his robes and fixing his tie.

There was a big silence before Sirius decided to peek from the covers. "Yes?"

"No. You are not because she is down at breakfast and moving on and I think you should do the same. Sirius Black my arse, more like Sirius Can't-seem-to-face-a-girl-coward Black." huffed James.

Sirius shot up from bed. "Excuse me! Nobody calls me a coward!" he yelled proudly.

"Then be a man and go to breakfast!" said James and finally left the dorm. "I'll wait for you downstairs!"

---

There you were. (Y/h/c) hair, (y/e/c) eyes and that smile. He couldn't enter the Great Hall. He was just lurking around the corner and watching you.

It hurt.

It hurt knowing he can't be with you. It hurt him not getting a chance to walk over there and wrap you in his arms as he imagined it two days ago.

"Stop being creepy and go." whispered James and pushed him in. "Honestly Padfoot. Remember how many girls have felt this about you?"

"I'm not being creepy I just can't seem to stop thinking about her or look at her or having this feeling in my stomach that can't seem to go away." replied Sirius as he sat down next to Remus.

"Look who finally decided to show up. Finally left your den?" teased Remus and looked over to Sirius.

"Didn't want to..." huffed Sirius and looked over to your table.

Merlin you were so beautiful. Just sitting there and eating your cereal was perfect. "So bloody perfect." he mumbled quietly and rested his head on his arms.

"I can't believe I'm witnessing Sirius Black in love." said Lilly.

“A miracle.” said Remus, smiling at Sirius.

“5 Galleons.” smilled Marlene and streched her hand towards Peter.

“Traitor.” added Peter and gave Marlene 5 Galleons.

“Creepy.” finished James and rolled his eyes.

---

You were just talking with Bruto and Tina about your Potions assignment when you turned your gaze to the Gryffindor table.

And there he was.

Black long curls and those loving grey eyes staring at you. He was resting his head on his arms with a light smile plastered on his face. He didn’t even care you noticed him, he was just looking you from his table.

But it hurt.

It hurt knowing he thought of you as a broken puppy who needs to be nursed. You don't need to be nursed. You're (y/n) (y/l/n) for God's sake.

A warm breath on your neck suddenly woke you up from your thoughts and you quickly turned around only to see green-grey eyes smiling at you.

Seeing his brother talking to you, he shot his head up and immediately tensed up. "The hell?"

All the Marauders turned their gaze over to you and dropped everything they held. There was Regulus Black standing next to you with a letter in his hands. They had to admit they were curious just as much as Sirius.

"Reg?" you smiled and moved over to give him a seat.

He sat down and grinned. "One letter. Three owls and a piece of paper with your name on it. Expain why it was sent to me and not you?" he smiled and waved the letter in his hands.

"Explain why you still haven't given it to me yet?" you stared at him your, eyes ripping the letter apart from curiousity.

He gave it to you and stood up. "Monty Cavandish." was all he said before he walking away.

"Monty Cavandish? How in hell does he know that name?" asked Bruto, his eyes stuck on the letter as well.

"He's their cousin. " you mumbled and opened the letter as quickly as you could.

'Dear (y/n),

Long time no see nor hear. I know I left you in the dark for almost a year. I'm sorry I haven't written you, I just thought it would be safer not to.

I'm staying with Monty in the Fairchild's place. It‘s far away from the crowd, hidden deep in the woods. He explained everything. I know I have Cavandish blood running through my vains, but they are not my family. You are my family. You will aways be my family. Remember that.

I’m sorry for the short letter. I know you must be curious why am I staying with Monty. But don't let my absence worry you.I’m safe and I’m well. I miss you so damn much and I hope I’ll see you soon.

Love, Zoey.

P.S: Burn the letter after you've read it.'

You couldn' believe it. Zoey was alive and well. He was...he was safe.

"What's wrong?" asked Bruto as tears of joy rolled down your cheeks.

You wrapped your arms around Bruto's neck feeling happier than ever. "He's okay." you squeaked and pulled away from him. "He's okay."

---

"She's laughing?" smiled Sirius as he saw you jumping up and down at the table.

"No way." gasped James as a tiny idea popped in his mind. The only thing that would make you this happy is only one person. Zoey. He was so happy to see you smiling. Sirius was right. Your smile was gorgeous especially if it was a real, happy smile. Hearing what you went through made him believe you are never going to smile again. But there you were. Smiling.

“Should I be worried?” asked Lilly as she saw James staring at you just like Sirius.

“About (y/n)? No. I’m just happy to see her smile after everything she went through.” smiled James.

“And what might that be?”asked Sirius confused. Did James know something he didn’t?

“Her parents.” spilled James. He looked at Sirius and noticed his puzzled expression. Was he not supposed to say that? “You didn’t know?”

“Know what excatly?” asked Sirius.

Yup. He shouldn’t have said that. “I thought you knew.”

“Knew what?” asked Sirius impatiently.

“Her parents are dead.” answered James.

“They’re dead? “ asked Sirius and turned his gaze back to you.

----

“No way am I letting you do this!” argued Bruto standing in front of you with his arms crossed and an ugly glare plastered on his face.

“I’ll be gone for a weekend and be back by Monday. I’ll be fine.” you reasured him even though it was a lie.

“Yeah. Like I believe you.” he scoffed, putting down his guard and sitting next to you. “No offense (y/n) but you have the worst luck in the world.”

“Wow, thanks. Way to boost my confidence. Plus I just found out where he is. I haven’t seen him in almost a year Bruto. A year.”

“Fine. Go. But I’m coming with you.”

“Ha!” you scoffed. “I don’t think so. I love the over-protective older brother stuff but I’m going to be fine.”

“Ouch! Did you just brotherzone me?” he said a bit offended. “Totally not the point right now. Look I promised you I’ll keep you safe (y/n), that I’ll protect you and I’m not going to leave your side.” he smiled and took your hands. “Remember when you took me to the cinema to watch The Outsiders?”

“Yeah. And we both ended up crying on the end.” you chuckled.

“Let me be your Johnny, Ponyboy.” he smiled and looked at you with his brown puppy dog eyes.

You started laughing. “’Let me be your Johnny, Ponyboy.’ You are such a dork.” you continued to laugh.

“So is that a yes?” he grinned.

“Yes. It’s a yes, but please don’t ever use that line ever again. “

He threw himself on your bed and put his feet on the pile of books. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m more of a Dally than Johnny anyway.” he smiled and winked at you.

You chuckled and threw yourself next to him. “I thought of you more like a Two-bit.” you added and laid your head on his stomach.

“Two-bit? Is he the crazy one?”

“He’s the one chasing the hat.”

“Oh so he’s the stupid one!” he scoffed and felt a bit hurt.

“He’s not stupid. He is loyal if I remember correctly.” you chuckled feeling his fingers running through your hair. “ You haven’t done that in such a long time.”

“What? Stroke you?” he chuckled.

“I wouldn’t use the word stroke excatly, but yeah.” you answered and wrapped your arms around his torso. Until you realized something. “Bruto?”

“Yes?” he mumbled.

“Why did you leave?”

As soon as you asked the question he stopped running his fingers through your hair. You felt him tense up and his heartbeat started beating faster. “Umm, well...”

“I never got the explenation Bruto. You simply stopped talking to me right after we .... kissed.” you suddenly realized. “Was it because we kissed?” you asked and lifted your head to face him.

“Of course it was because we kissed. (y/n), you were my first kiss, my first real kiss.”

“But it was a good first kiss, right?” you suddenly felt a bit more insecure.

“It was the perfect first kiss but after it I realized I liked you. I liked you bloody a lot. But when I realized you didn’t like me back I felt angry.”

“Of course I liked you back you fool. That’s why I kissed you back in the first place. “

“And now?” he asked, feeling the heat rush on his cheeks.

“Now.... now I have feelings for someone else. “ you explained and tried to avoid his gaze.

“Oh..” he sighed and feeling a strong kick in the stomach.

“Bruto...” you said glumly, scooting next to him and taking his hands. “You are important to me. You will always be my first kiss and my first love. But I fell in love with someone else. And until I move on from him, he will hold my heart.”

“Then I’ll wait. Because until you get your heart back, you will always have mine.” he smiled and gave you a soft kiss on the cheek. Cherfully he got up from the bed and started hopping to his jacket. “Anyhow love. I am going back to my dorm and ignore Jack slash Gray because I hate him. But untill I find a way to kill him without actually killing him, I’ll have to suffer. Goodnight m’dear.” he finished and left the room.

“Damn you Bruto Ramirez.” you chuckled after he was gone. He was perfect. Why couldn’t you love him? Why couldn’t you fall for him again instead of falling for that dickbag.

“So what? Now you’re falling for Ramirez?” asked the sudden voice.

“Holy Rowena Ravenclaw!” you yelled jumping from your bed. “Who’s there!?” you yelled grabbing your roomates bat.

“Calm down. It’s me, Sirius.” said Sirius removing James’ invisibility cloak.

“Bloody hell Black! You want to give me a heart attack?” you panted and put down the bat.

“Did you really grab a bat instead of a wand?” he grinned.

“Oh piss off. You cought me off guard. And I don’t need a wand to protect me. Potter would know.” you smirked and walked over to your bed. “What are you doing here?”

“I know you don’t want me here, but I needed to see you. “

“Sirius..” you sighed and turned around only to find him standing inches away from you.

“Shut up and listen.” he demanded and took a step closer. “ Two days ago I was running to tell a girl I loved her. I was never the relationship type. I never told any girl I loved her because when I want to say those three words I want them to be true and spoken to the right girl. What I said to Marlene that night was my defense mechanism. I never truly understood love until I met you. The girl who was there when noone else was. The girl who I fell in love with. With you everything felt lighter. The colors were brighter and the world was happier. (y/n), I am not good with words when it comes to admitting how I truly feel inside. But the moment I realized how much I love you, was the moment I decided to spend my whole life with you. But as I was meaning to tell the girl I loved her, she broke my heart. “ he spilled and took your hands. He looked at your eyes, filled with tears of joy and felt relieved. He smiled and brushed the tears away from your wet cheeks. “I heard you talking to Ramirez, (y/n). I know I’m the boy you gave your heart to. I mean I hope it’s me.” he doubted for a second but was relieved when you nooded and put your hands on his. “ I love you (y/n) (y/l/n).”

It stopped.

It didn’t hurt anymore. You felt happy, hell you felt like you were on Cloud 9. You loved this man and he loved you back. Everything was falling back into place or so you thought.

Hearing a slow clap coming from the shadows your heart stopped. “ That was just touching.” cackled the dark figure coming out of the dark. “Wasn’t it brother?” he turned around at the corner, where two different colored eyes lurked.

“ Breathtaking. I think I shed a tear hearing that.” laughed Jack and walked next to his brother.

“Collin?” you quavered, your heartbeat raising and your body freezing where you stood.

“Surprised to see me dear? “ chuckled Collin and walked closer to you.

“Stay away from her.” growled Sirius and stepped in front of you.

Collin chuckled and turned to Jack. “Gray, can you please take care of this macho over here? He’s ruining the moment for me.”

Without any warning Jack pulled out his wand. “Confrigo!” he yelled and Sirius was blasted away from you.

“Sirius!” you yelled and ran over to him, but was immediately stopped by Collin. He grabbed you by the arm and pulled you closer.

“I’m a bit disappointed in you little brother. I thought you would at least finish him off properly. “ he smiled and pulled you even closer. “What is it called again?” he asked quetly, his nose brushing against your cheek. “ Avada Kadavra.” he whispered in your ear and nipping it in the process.

You couldn’t speak. You couldn’t move. It was like your body couldn’t function anymore. Frozen from fear, you stood there, feeling weak and helpless. The fear kept spreading and all you wanted to do was start crying. It was horrible. What Collin could do was immposible to understand.

There was a reason why they called him The Ghost. When he enters the room, it suddenly becomes colder and darker. His skin was like the Moon: pale and glowing in the dark and his eyes were dark as the darkness itself. You couldn’t even figure out the color of his hair. At the times his hair was dirty grey, in the sunlight they were blonde with brown strands. In the most scariest times they were black with white strands, reflecting the night and when he was thirsty of blood his hair was a mixture of brown and red color. His eyes on the other hand always stayed the same. Dark, brown eyes where the pupil couldn’t be seen anymore. He was the definition of the ghost, the definition of fear itself.

“Stay away from her!” shouted the figure from the shadow.

Letting you go and stepping back, Collin looked over to the shadow.“And who might you be?” he chuckled.

“I am the one you want. Aren’t I?” he spoke, coming out from the shadows and revealing himself.

“Zebadaiah?”

#sirius black x reader #sirius black imagine #sirius black #sirius x reader #james potter x reader #james potter imagine #james potter #remus lupin #marauders imagine #marauders #marauders era #the marauders

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deadlydollies13 · 6 years

Text

The Potion Master’s Grace ch. 32

By the next morning, everyone from Year Three and above was too excited about Hogsmeade Weekend to worry about whatever Umbridge was up to. Students showed their permission slips to their Head of Houses and made their way to the village outside of Hogwarts. They knew they were close when the ground abruptly was covered in white, glistening snow. Grace and Draco walked hands intertwined into the village with their friends by their side. Here, at least, Umbridge couldn’t tell them they couldn’t touch.

Their first stop, which was their first stop every Hogsmeade Weekend, was Honeydukes Sweetshop. The sugary aroma hit them as they entered and the door jingled. They knew better by now to bring their own bags because they just couldn’t fit that much in their hands. Grace especially, who wasn’t afraid to admit she had a horrible sweet tooth. Grace’s bag was filled with Acid Pops, Chocoballs, Chocolate Frogs, Crystallized Pineapple, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Honeydukes Best Chocolate, Pepper Imps, Pink Coconut Ice, a box of warm Pumpkin Pasties, and of course, Sugared Quills. Grace stocked up on these because she chewed her pens and pencils during class, but when she was in a class where the teacher made her use a quill (DADA), she used these. She avoided any sweets that contained bugs or bug parts, but it didn’t surprise her that Luna or Rolf ate these strange sweets like Sugared Butterfly Wings and Fudge Flies. They paid for their sweets and went back out into the brisk air.

Grace popped a Pepper Imp into her mouth and tiny little flames burst from within her. Immediately she was warmed up, and a few of her friends did the same. They turned a corner and saw a few of their professors walking down the road, two of which were Severus and Phoebe concealing their intertwined hands with their robes. Their backs were turned towards them, so Grace saw an amazing opportunity in front of her. She quickly scooped up some snow, pressed it into a ball, and ran up so she was within throwing distance. Severus was too distracted talking to Minerva so Grace took her shot and hit her father’s shoulder with the snowball. Severus whipped around to see who did it, hand going to grab his wand. Several other students walking the street gasped and moved off to the side or the road. When he saw it was just Grace, smirking, he put his wand away. Phoebe tried to muffle her giggles. “Brat!” he said before scooping up some snow and throwing it back at her.

Grace ducked, “This is war!” The two Snape’s had a mini snowball fight right there in the middle of Hogsmeade. Grace’s friends, along with the professors, couldn’t help but laugh at the scene before them. The students who had moved out of the way now stood looking flabbergasted.

The battle ended when Severus hit Grace in the face and she made a melodramatic scene by falling back into the snow and groaning, “This is it! This is the end!” she threw her arm over her eyes. “I see the light, it’s calling me!”

“You’re absolutely ridiculous,” Severus walked over and picked up her bag of sweets. “Winner gets these!” he grinned.

Grace shot up, “Not today, Satan!” Before she could get up, Severus was already running off. “Dad!” she yelled, but he had turned down an alley towards The Three Broomsticks. She let out a huff before something caught her eye and she hatched a cunning plan. She grinned before she ran, jumping on a crate that was below a pitched roof and jumped on that roof to climb onto the flatter top roof.

“Grace!” many people below her exclaimed in a panic.

“That girl is going to get herself killed!” Phoebe ran down the alley Severus had taken, the rest following her.

Meanwhile, Grace was hurdling chimneys, sliding down pitches, climbing them up, trying to find her father below. Behind her, she could hear her friends and teachers begging her to get down. Finally, she saw Severus standing in front of The Three Broomsticks. The building she was on luckily had a separated pitched roof that was low enough to the ground she could get off it safely. She jumped down, slid a little bit, but when she landed on the snowy ground, she lost her footing and did a roll forward to get back to her feet.

“Always the one for dramatics.”

“Hand over the candy and no one gets hurt!” Grace pulled out her wand and glared at her father, obviously out of breath.

Severus glared back for a second, “Fine, but I’m taking a Chocoball.”

“Yeah, okay, fine!” her glare broke and she grinned.

Moments later, Phoebe came sprinting over from the alley, “Jesus, Grace!” She pulled Grace into a protective hug, “You’re going to get yourself killed, I swear! Severus, stop smirking, you’ll only encourage her!” Grace couldn’t help but giggle while Phoebe searched her for any cuts or bruises.

“She looked like she knew what she was doing, Phoebs.”

Phoebe glared at him, “She jumped from a building, Severus Tobias!”

Severus held up a hand, “Slid. She slid, Phoebe. Slid and then rolled, and it was very impressive.”

Phoebe rolled her eyes and looked at Grace, “Who do you think you are? Like, in your head, who are you?”

“Uh… a superhero?” the sarcasm obvious in her voice.

“Which one, though?” Severus asked.

Grace thought for a moment, “Scarlet Witch, duh.”

“Nice,” he smirked.

“Holy shit, that was so cool!” Grace heard Charlie yell as her friends ran over from the alley, and Luna tackled her. She was surrounded and laughing with her friends.

“Are you okay?” Phoebe asked Severus. “Like, are you having a mid-life crisis?”

Severus shrugged, “You know, I actually have no idea. Surprisingly, I’m in a good mood.”

Phoebe side-eyed him, “Not that I’m complaining, but it is rather strange,” she smiled.

Inside The Three Broomsticks, Grace and her friends sat nearest to the fire to try and warm up, while Severus and some of the other teachers sat at a table on the opposite wall. Still, they could hear the teens talking loudly and laughing.

Grace and Draco sat close together, enjoying each other’s warmth, drinking mugs of warm Butterbeer.

“I wish there wasn’t so much foam at the top; it takes forever to actually get to the drink!” Draco complained.

“What are you talking about?” Grace took another sip of her’s. “The foam is the best part!”

“We can tell,” Alfie teased, pointing to Grace’s upper lip, where she had a Butterbeer-foam mustache.

“Oops,” she said wiping it away. “I know what we should be for Halloween!”

Draco rolled his eyes, “Grace, I’m not really the ‘dressing up’ type.”

“But it’s perfect…” she pouted.

He sighed, “What is it?”

“Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable!” she grinned. Everyone at the table agreed how that was perfect for them, although Draco had the slightest clue what Grace was talking about.

“What? Who?”

Grace dramatically gasped, “You’ve never seen Kim Possible?”

Draco shrugged and shook his head, “I don’t believe I have.”

“Well, that can’t do! Your homework is to binge the entire series, starting immediately when we get back to Hogwarts!”

“Aren’t you going to watch it with me?”

“I would, but I have prior arrangements for this weekend,” Grace hadn’t mentioned anything to Draco, but judging by the mischievous look Luna and Rose shared, it wasn’t good.

“Like what?”

Grace held up a finger and turned around in her chair, “Dad!” she shouted across the room to where their professors sat.

Severus jumped and looked over at Grace. Seeing she wasn’t in danger or anything, he raised a brow.

“Can Luna and Rose sleep over tonight?” She gave her best puppy eyes, even batting her eyelashes.

“Sure? I don’t see why not,” he answered and went back to whatever conversation he was having with his colleagues, all of which looked very surprised with him. “What?”

“You’re just full of surprises today, Severus,” Minerva smirked.

Phoebe placed the back of her hand on his cheek, “You’re not feverish.”

“Course I’m not! Why would I be?”

“You just agreed for three teenage girls to have a slumber party in your apartment, Sev,” Phoebe still looked shocked.

Severus couldn’t tell why it was such a big deal, then he actually thought about it, “Oh… Shit.”

“So, what are you all being?” Grace asked, back at their table.

“Charlie wouldn’t stop pestering me, so we’re being Belle and Prince Adam,” Rose rolled her eyes.

“When he’s human, of course,” Charlie smirked.

Rose shrugged, “At least I really like Belle. She’s French, like me.”

“What about you and Rolf?” Grace looked at Luna.

“Alice and the Mad Hatter,” her and Rolf smiled at one another.

“You two are cute,” Grace grinned. “It sickens me.”

Grace and her friends had run into Cici later that day in Gladrag’s Wizardwear, where they tried on any wacky clothing item they could get their hands on. With their money bags significantly lighter, they returned to Hogwarts for the evening.

Most of the students and staff had done the same thing, as dinner was nearing in the Great Hall. Severus and Phoebe remained, strolling down the streets of the small village hand-in-hand, not having to worry about what a certain pink-wearing professor might say. Most everyone by then knew about Severus and Phoebe and also knew about Severus and Grace’s relationship. Umbridge knew, but unlike the majority of the school, she intensely disapproved of anything Severus was involved in.

As they neared Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop, they heard a familiar voice.

“You’ve been in there for hours!” Sirius whined when Remus came out of the shop, bag full of what Severus assumed was rolls of parchment, quills, and inkwells.

“I was, at most, twenty minutes!”

“It’s longer in dog years!”

Remus rolled his eyes, “Honestly, Sirius.”

“Hello, boys,” Phoebe said once they were close enough.

“Well, if it isn’t Hogwart’s Sweethearts,” Sirius grinned. Remus looked cautiously at Severus, waiting for Sirius’ false sense of familiarity with Severus to finally become too much and Severus would snap, but surprisingly, Severus just smiled. “Where’s the Kiddo?”

“Back at the school already. Severus made the mistake of agreeing to let Grace’s girlfriends spend the night.”

“No!” both men exclaimed in disbelief. Sirius doubled over laughing, but Remus looked generally concerned for Severus.

“Have you gone mad, man?” Remus asked.

“Apparently,” Severus shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“You’d better have a strong drink on hand!” Sirius said between fits of laughter.

“Speaking of, I’d better go make sure the place in teenager-proof,” Phoebe said. “I’ll meet you at the Great Hall. See you later, boys,” she smiled and waved, walking towards Hogwarts.

“I wanted to talk to the both of you,” Severus turned to the two men in front of him, his tone serious. “It’s about Grace.”

“Is everything okay?” Remus asked.

“Yes, she’s fine. It's nothing bad. I just… I wanted to ask you both if you’d agree to be Grace’s godfathers?” The two men looked utterly shocked and found themselves speechless, although gave Severus questioning looks. “Grace considers you family, and she’s comfortable with you both. For Grace to be comfortable around men is, well, that’s saying a lot. I’m not going to act as if this war isn’t coming, or that I won’t go unscathed if Voldemort finds out that I’m a spy for the Light. I need to know that if something happens to me, Grace will be taken care of. I know that’s a lot to ask of you two, and we’re not exactly friends, but-“

“Of course we will, Severus,” Sirius was smiling broadly, as was Remus when Severus turned his gaze from the ground to them. “We’d love to!”

Severus gave them a small smile, “Thank you. I’ll have the papers sent to you; I really must be getting back before they think I’ve been kidnapped or something,” he joked.

After dinner, Luna and Rose rand up to their dormitories to grab everything they needed to stay over the night. They both met Grace outside a bare stone wall. “Serpentine,” Grace whispered, looking foolish to her two friends until the wall vanished and revealed a winding staircase that led to the Slytherin Common Room in the dungeons.

“Wow,” Rose’s eyes widened when they reached the dimly lit common room. Though they didn’t have windows, they had glass panels that opened up into the lake. There were plenty of Slytherins in the common room, relaxing and enjoying their Saturday evening.

“What are they doing in here?” a Slytherin boy asked not to anyone in particular.

“They’re with Professor Snape, now shut up, dingus!” Rowena snapped, obviously annoyed that the boy interrupted her reading. Grace gave Rowena a grateful smile and she nodded in return. They walked down a corridor that branched off of the main room and entered Severus’ private apartment.

The door that opened into the potions pantry was open, meaning Severus was in his classroom brewing something and Phoebe was standing in the doorway of her’s and Severus’ bedroom waving her wand.

“What are you doing, Aunt Phoebe?” Luna asked.

“Putting a silencing spell on the room so Severus and I may actually have a chance of a night’s sleep with you three here.”

Quietly, Rose mumbled, “Mhm. That’s what it’s for.”

Grace and Luna, standing on either side of her, said in unison, “Gross!”

No sooner had they gotten there, the girls were in their PJs and in the kitchen gathering any type of junk food they could gather on the kitchen island.

Severus had walked in for just a moment to grab something, but he completely forgot what he needed when he saw the pile of food on the counter. “There’s no way you three are going to eat all of that.”

“Is that a challenge, Mr. S?” Luna smirked as she took the bag of popcorn out of the microwave and replaced it with nachos.

“You don’t have to stay locked away in your classroom, Mr. S,” Rose had adopted Luna’s name for Severus as well. “We won’t be too loud.”

“I don’t appreciate blatant lies, Miss Martell. What do you three even have planned?”

“We’re gonna watch a scary movie!” Grace answered. Luna had thrown a piece of popcorn at her and Grace failed to catch it in her mouth. However, Merlin was enjoying all of their droppings.

“Oh, wonderful,” Severus said sarcastically.

Severus stayed occupied with his potions as much as he could during the duration of the evening. However, with the girls supposedly forgetting what an “inside voice” was, he couldn’t help but overhear their conversations. One discussion, in particular, caught his interest.

“So, when are you and Charlie just going to go out already?” Grace asked, most likely to Rose.

Severus’ guess was confirmed when Rose replied, “I do not like Charlie Ackerman!”

“You two seem awfully close lately,” Luna said. “It’s no secret he likes you, either. That’s why he begged you to do a Halloween costume with him, so you two can spend even more time together.”

Rose scoffed, “That boy is such an idiot. He follows me around all over the place and won’t leave me alone!”

“Bullshit,” Grace said. “You like him too, you’re just lying to yourself!”

Before Rose could retort, Severus emerged from the other room, “Miss Martell, don’t lower yourself to date a person like Mr. Ackerman.”

“See?” Rose exclaimed, gesturing to Severus. “Even your dad agrees with me!”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Luna argued.

“Yeah, shut up, Dad!” Grace added, throwing popcorn at him, which Merlin happily ran and ate off of the floor.

“I wasn’t finished! Brat,” he looked at Grace, who returned the comment with a smile. Turning back to Rose, “However, it’s blatantly obvious that you like him as well. The flirting between you two is disgusting. Honestly, I thought one of you— if not both of you— were under a Love Potion.”

Rose now had her face in her hands, trying to hide her tomato-red face. She felt like sinking into the floor and never coming out. For it was true, she did have feelings for Charlie, but she had tried so hard to suppress it and lie to herself about her own feelings. “I hate that you’re right…”

“We told you…” Grace shrugged.

An hour or so later, Severus found the girls sitting in complete darkness on the sofa with Grace’s laptop sitting on the coffee table watching some horror movie filled with jump-scares. He remained in the other room, but could still hear the movie playing, along with every gasp or yelp from the girls. Finally, when it was late and he was exhausted, he started to make his way to his bedroom, but he simply couldn’t pass up this amazing opportunity. He waited quietly in the kitchen for a very suspenseful scene to build up and slowly made his way over to the sitting area behind the couch. All he had to say was, “Girls,” before the apartment was filled with the harmony of three extremely high-pitched there’s-a-bloody-murder-scene-going-on screams.

Snacks flew everywhere, which made for an extremely happy Merlin. Rose had thrown the blanket over her head, Grace had nearly fallen off the sofa, and Luna was now covered in her bowl of popcorn.

“Severus!” an annoyed Luna growled when she realized it was just the Potions Master, who was now doubled-over laughing. She grabbed a handful of popcorn and pelted him with it.

“Dad! That’s not funny!”

“Yeah, Mr. S! Not funny!” Rose yelled, still beneath the blanket.

“I just- I just-“ Severus was now kneeling on the floor, holding his sides from laughing so hard.

“God, you’re such an ass,” Grace rolled her eyes before slamming her laptop shut. “Go to bed!”

However, Severus couldn’t go to bed straight away, and neither could Phoebe. For while Phoebe had cast a pretty strong Silencing Charm to keep the noise out, nothing could help for the vibrations from the music from the room across the hall from shaking the entire apartment.

At first, both adults agreed to let it slide, for this may be one of the only few chances for the girls to have a normal teenage life. But when four o’clock in the morning rolled by, and the vibrations hadn’t subsided, they were beginning to become restless (literally).

“Curse your daughter,” Phoebe mumbled into her pillow.

“Hey, one of those girls is your niece,” Severus had piled all of his pillows on top of his head. Feathers were not good at muffling noise.

“Fair. What about the other one?”

“She’s the scapegoat.”

“Yeah, Severus, let’s just put all of the blame on the poor French girl.”

Finally, about a half-hour later, the noise stopped, meaning the girls finally went to sleep. It was evident in the morning as well, when they didn’t get out of bed until almost noon.

“Good morning,” Phoebe cheerfully said as the three zombie-esque girls shuffled into the kitchen. “How did you sleep?”

“Rose hogs all of the blankets,” Grace mumbled.

“Well, Luna kept kicking me!” Rose tried to defend herself, although it made no excuse for taking all of the blankets.

“That was Merlin!” Luna argued. “He was having a bad dream… Or a good dream about running.”

“What on Earth could you have possibly been doing all night?”

“Putting on three-woman shows of Broadway musicals,” Grace was slouched on the kitchen island, truly a sight to be seen. Curly red hair everywhere in every direction, glasses askew, robe falling off of one shoulder, and he was pretty sure she had her slippers on the wrong feet. Luna and Rose didn’t look any better off.

Severus smirked, “I hope the boys come and see all of you looking quite the mess.”

Rose groaned, “I thought you said your dad was much nicer than he is as a teacher!”

“This is him being nice!” both Grace and Luna answered.

“I need caffeine…” Grace now decided to give up on standing, and instead sink down to the floor and lie on her back.

“Grace, get up off the floor,” Severus sighed.

“Not until I get my coffee!”

“Then go up to the Cafe and get yourself some.”

“No, I’ve already texted Draco to go get it for me.”

“Poor Draco,” Luna teased. “She’s got him whipped.” Next to her, Rose made a whipping sound, “Whippish!”

In perfect timing, there was a knock at the door, and Grace found a burst of energy to spring up and run to the door and fling it open. Sure enough, there was Draco Malfoy standing there with a cup of coffee for his girlfriend.

“Oh, you’re the best boyfriend ever!” Grace grinned.

“I know,” Draco smirked, handing her the cup. “You look ridiculous by the way.” He peered into the apartment, “So do you two.”

“Sod off, Malfoy!” Rose yelled; Luna just flipped him off, being careful Severus or Phoebe didn’t see.

“I enjoyed the dozens of Snaps from you lot last night. Nice to wake up to.”

“It’s because we’re entertaining,” Rose replied.

“And the blowing up of all of the group chats.”

“We felt it was necessary.”

“None of it was necessary.”

“How many group chats do you have?” Phoebe asked.

“Well,” Grace pulled out her phone from her robe pocket, “On GroupMe, we have the OG Chat, which is Me, Luna, Charlie, Alfie, Draco, Rolf, and Rose. The Musical Bitches Chat, which is us plus Sammy and Baylee. The Fuck Umbitch Chat which is us, minus Sammy and Baylee, but with Celia, Rowena, Seth, Remus, and Sirius. The Just Girls Chat, which is me, Luna, Rose, Sammy, Baylee, Celia, and Rowena. The Boys have a chat which is Draco, Rolf, Alfie, and Charlie, but not Seth. Seth actually hates just being in the one Chat. Then we have a group chat on Snapchat too, which is me, Luna, Draco, Rolf, Rose, Charlie, Alfie, Celia, Rowena, and Sammy. Seth doesn’t have Snapchat and neither does Baylee, because well, she can’t see, but she’s always with Sammy anyway so she basically is in it. But she can text and message; her phone actually reads to her, it’s pretty cool!”

The other three teens nodded as Grace rattled off their many group chats within their friend group.

“Then, the Prefects have a Chat,” Luna added.

“There’s one for each Quidditch team,” Draco said.

“There’s a huge one for our year, I think each year has one. We keep it muted because it gets annoying,” said Rose.

“And then there’s one for each class. We use it to help each other out with homework and studying. But mostly for bitching about the classes,” Grace concluded.

“The Chat for Potions Class actually hasn’t been that bad lately,” Luna said. “It’s been DADA that’s been full of commiserating remarks.”

“Oh, good to know,” Severus rolled his eyes. Students hating his class had never bothered him anyway, but he was glad to know that he had been beaten for the most hated professor at Hogwarts.

“I swear if she screws us over come exam time,” Draco started.

“She won’t. If she’s not gone by the end of the year, at least Remus would have taught us enough to pass,” Grace said. She’d never wish something horrible on someone, but she knew without some horrific event, Dolores Umbridge wasn’t going to just leave Hogwarts on her own.

#the potion masters grace #grace mcclivert #severus snape #luna lovegood #draco malfoy #remus lupin #sirius black #wolfstar #draco malfoy x oc #severus snape x oc #Harry Potter #harry potter au #fanfiction

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ourloveisforthelovely · 4 years

Text

Tease

Harry Potter

Pairings: Sirius Black x Reader

Summary: Sirius was too old for you, too dangerous, and had too much baggage. That is until you go on a date with someone else and everything changes.

Rating: M- smut

____

“He’s looking at you again.”

You didn’t even bother looking up at Tonks’ comment. You didn’t have to look up to know that Sirius was looking at you. There was no point in getting excited though.

“Tonks, I already told you that he isn’t interested. He already said that he was, and I quote, I am too old and too dangerous for you. There was some other stuff but I stopped listening at that point. When I heard that I’m too old for you part I stopped being hopeful.”

Tonks rolled her eyes and shot Sirius a scowl.

“I don’t know what the hell he is talking about. The age difference between the two of you is the same as Remus and me. Once we get a hold of Pettigrew, Sirius will be able to be a free man.”

“Yeah, well go tell him that.”

You muttered, trying to focus on the parchment that Madeye had put in front of you. Tonks' eyes rolled up to Remus and gave him a small shrug. What the two hadn’t told neither Sirius nor yourself was the fact that they were trying shamelessly to set the two of you up. So far they weren’t doing so well.

Meanwhile,

Remus watched as Sirius’ eyes stayed locked on you.

“Y/n is very pretty, huh?’

Sirius quickly turned in his friend’s direction.

“What are you two playing at?”

Remus shrugged with a careful grin.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I simply stated that Y/n is a very pretty young woman. A very pretty single young woman who has had her eye on you for some time.”

Sirius glanced up again. Your violet eyes had rolled up to meet his grey ones briefly before looking away quickly.

“She thinks that I’m an asshole and she doesn’t need someone like me.”

“Someone like you?”

Remus questioned. Sirius wanted to smack Remus. If he wasn’t afraid of hurting his remaining best friend the other man would have been popped.

“I have too much baggage.”

Remus rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, mate. You’re missing a great opportunity. Y/n is kind. She honestly reminds me of her cousin, Lily.”

Sirius sighed. He didn’t want to think about how much that you reminded him of Lily. Maybe that was why Sirius’ heart ached every time that he looked at you.

“Can we not bring James and Lily into this? I don’t want to make them roll over in their graves.”

“I’m tired of telling Y/n that you suffer from asshole disease. She’s going to stop holding out hope for you one day and move on. You’ll be stuck in your bedroom with only your left hand for company.”

It took all that Remus had not to die of laughter at the expression on Sirius’ face.

“Well, I have to get going.”

Your voice pulled both Remus and Sirius from their conversations. Sirius was internally pleading with you to stay.

“Where are you headed?”

Madeye snapped. He hated admitting it but he had taken a fierce paternal liking to you. From the moment your little sunshine self came into his office to be trained as an Auror; Madeye took extra care to be almost a second father.

You sighed, miserably.

“I have a date with some guy.”

All eyes rolled nervously in Sirius’ direction. He was scowling angrily and if it wasn’t for Harry being beside him; Sirius would have been a total drama king and walked out.

“Does this guy have a name?”

Tonks asked, grinning. You shrugged.

“I’m sure he does but I don’t know it. Some girl that really needs to get a life set me up with him.”

“That’s the beginnings of a beautiful relationship.”

Sirius said in an icy tone that made you blush. If he would only grow a pair and ask you to be his girlfriend; you wouldn't have to be going out with these clowns that Tonks set you up with. You could be devoted to Sirius and have the lover that you so desperately wanted.

“I don’t know about beautiful, but he knows that I’m alive. That’s promising.”

Remus quickly came in before Sirius could say something sassy.

“We can make an excuse for you to get out of it. I got hurt. That’s believable.”

“It's okay Remus. The poor fool has been drooling over me for ages. It’s kind of obnoxious. Oh well, I’ll see you all later”

You turned and walked to the doorway followed by Tonks like an over-excited puppy. What you didn’t see was Sirius had slowly followed along too. He remained in the shadows as you pulled on your coat.

“Andrew isn’t that bad.”

Tonks said as she reached out fluffing your red curls. Your eyes rolled up to your friends.

“I haven’t been laid in months. Is it too much to ask for some halfway decent looking guy to just throw me over his shoulder or fuck me against a wall? This guy I’m going on a date with isn’t even cute.

Tonks giggled.

“Well, I am sure we can find you someone...somewhere”

You groaned. Why you had such shitty luck dating was still a mystery? Maybe it was because you worked too much or the fact that you didn’t put up with shit? It could also be the fact that you played tough but wanted some guy to have his way with you and pull the alpha card. Again...not asking for much.

“I’m beginning to think that it will take a miracle. There is hope, however, and it has batteries.”

You were relieved when Tonks continued her laughing fit.

“You’re just adorable...now go spread joy.” You gave her one final scowl before walking out the door muttering about people being crazy and lesbians having the right idea.

The next two hours were the longest and most boring of your life. Andrew asked you literally every question known to wizardkind. Your nickname for him was now “the question man.” Maybe it was Andrew being nervous but he was driving you crazy!

I need to stop comparing every man that I go out with to the man that I want.

You thought after drinking your third cup of coffee.

“So is that your real red hair?”

You looked up at Andrew from your drink.

“Uh, yeah. It came with me when I was born.”

Andrew nodded.

“Does the carpet match the drapes?”

Your mouth dropped at that question. That was the last question that you expected to come out of the man’s mouth. That was something that Sirius would ask to make you blush. Funny how it wasn’t near as witty coming from this man (who probably lived in his mother’s basement).

“Excuse me?”

You asked. Andrew motioned down your body suggestively with his eyes.

“You know...does the carpet match the drapes?”

You stood up and poured what was left of your coffee on the man’s head before storming out of the restaurant.

5 minutes later, you stood outside of Sirius’ house. You were ready to strangle Tonks! The woman was about to get tackled.

When you walked in, you didn’t notice Sirius sitting on the couch as if waiting for you to come back. He quickly stood up knowing that pissed off expression well. After all, he had seen Lily wear it many times.

“You don’t look happy.”

You nodded.

“Good job. Where is my dear friend Nymphadora? She and I are about to fight.”

Sirius closed his book.

“She and Remus are asleep. I take it your date didn’t go so well.”

You started laughing hard. Maybe it was your reaction or not being around other people for some time but Sirius was confused.

“What happened?”

“Well, I went on a date who is now known as the question man. We ended the night by him asking if my red hair was natural and if the carpet matches the drapes. I poured a cup of coffee on his head then stormed out. All in all, it was a lovely evening.”

Sirius only blinked as he took in what you said.

“Well, he kind of asked for what he got.”

You nodded.

“Oh yeah. I am never dating anyone again.”

“So if I asked you to consider being mine the answer would be no?”

That simple question made you freeze in your steps. You turned around looking at Sirius stupidly. He was leaned against the back of the couch with his arms crossed over his chest. You swallowed as you looked him over. Had his black jeans always been that tight and left so little to your already vivid imagination?

“We both know that isn’t going to happen. You have already made your feelings clear.”

You finally replied. Sirius smirked before rolling up the sleeves of the green sweater that he was wearing.

“Maybe I was wrong?”

He suggested. Sirius was going against his better judgment now. You were young, and whether you wanted to admit it or not, innocent. So much for trying to protect you from the negatives of his past. Sirius was ready to throw all of that out the window.

“Yeah, sure. I don’t know if anyone has told you this or not, teasing a girl’s feelings isn’t nice. You aren’t 16 anymore.” Sirius closed the gap between the two of you. His eyes were on your legs. The dress that you wore had been teasing him from the moment that you walked into the room.

“I know how old I am, love. I also know that I want nothing more than to get my hands on you.”

Your eyes were wide. Were you actually hearing this correctly? Sirius was hitting on you! He actually wanted you after all.

“You may just have to prove that.”

You said with a teasing smirk as your upper arms squeezed your breasts together discreetly. Sirius raised an eyebrow. He knew exactly what you were doing and, god damn it, you were winning.

“Why don’t you come here?”

When you didn’t move fast enough, Sirius’ hands were wrapped around your waist pulling your body to him. You moaned into the kiss as his tongue teased yours. How far this was going to go? You weren't sure. All that you knew was you were ready to go as far as Sirius wanted. You didn’t care if anyone walked in on the two of you either.

You wrapped your arms around his shoulders as Sirius lifted your leg over his hip.

“I want you.”

You gasped against his lips. Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“Lucky for both of us. I want you too. Now, why don’t you get this dress off and get on my lap.”

When he pulled away from you, you wanted to cry out until it registered what you were instructed to do. You quickly tugged the silver dress that you were wearing off as Sirius yanked his own shirt over his head.

Sirius quickly sat back down on the couch; waiting patiently for that damned dress to come off. He palmed himself through his jeans as he watched the bra and knickers fall to the floor.

“Come here, doll.”

You didn’t wait to be told twice before taking your place on Sirius’ lap. His mouth was on yours in an instant; kissing you hungrily. When he was able to pull away, Sirius smiled at how your lips were already swollen.

“If I didn’t want to be inside of you so badly I could spend hours nestled between your legs. I like the idea of you being a weepy moaning mess.” You rocked your hips against him as Sirius reached between your bodies to undo his belt and jeans.

“I think you are a little bit of a tease.”

You moaned as his mouth wrapped around the nipple of your right breast. Sirius gently nipped the sensitive flesh a few times as he was able to get himself free from his remaining clothing. Your head fell back as Sirius rubbed the head of his cock against your already sensitive clit.

“A tease that knows what he wants.”

Sirius growled. You kissed his nose before getting off of his lap. Sirius looked at you with worried eyes. If you cut off the love supply now; he would be crushed. The moment that you knelt down in front of him to tug his jeans down further; Sirius sighed in relief.

“I have been wanting to feel those pretty lips around me for a long time now.”

He moaned as your mouth closed around him. Sirius closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the couch.

“That’s a good girl. Damn, you’re good at this.”

You took your time sucking each and every inch. Sirius wrapped his hand in your hair, gently tugging.

“Get back up here. I can’t wait.”

You quickly got up and laid back on the couch. Sirius spread your legs before giving you an eyebrow wiggle.

“Time to make you come, pretty girl.”

The moment that he pushed in the both of you moaned. You lifted yourself off the couch to take as much as he had to offer. Sirius kept his eyes clenched while giving you time to adjust.

“I think that I am going to like spending a lot of time inside you.”

You bit your already swollen lip as you felt incredibly and deliciously full. Sirius remained motionless for a moment before that feral need to make you his returned full force. Your head slammed into the couch as Sirius remained balls deep fucking you as hard and deeply as possible.

“Feel good, baby?”

You could only not. You weren’t coherent enough to put actual words together.

“Fucking you so good that you can’t talk, huh? I can do better than that.”

Sirius increased his pace. Your eyes were rolling back in your head as the knot in your stomach began to form. Sirius closed his eyes as your body began to tighten around him.

“No coming yet.”

He said in a commanding tone before pulling out. You were left a gasping spasming mess as he laid down on the floor. Sirius put his arms behind his head and motioned to his cock.

“Come here and ride me like you mean it. Fuck me sore, baby girl.”

You slid off the couch (more like fell off the couch but who cares) and quickly took your place on top of your lover. Deciding to tease him a bit first, you gently rocked your wet core against the head of his cock. You leaned down gently nibbling your way from Sirius’ lips to his neck. He groaned beneath you.

The realization that he could do this with you every day was a pleasant one. You were as desperate for his touch as Sirius was yours. He was ready to throw whatever reservation that he had about the two of you being in a relationship away. As far as Sirius was concerned, you were now his.

“You like love bites, baby? You’re about to get a lot of them.”

Sirius didn’t even give you time to fully take him in again before flipping you onto your back. You cried out when his cock was back inside fucking your mercilessly. His mouth was one your neck leaving you gasping inaudible words as his teeth bit down on your sensitive flesh.

The knot in your stomach quickly began to form again as Sirius’ own movements became a little more erratic.

“Come on, sweetheart. I’m not lasting much longer.”

You felt what sense of control failed you as Sirius used his middle finger to press firmly on your clit. Two seconds later the two of you were coming apart at the same time. You couldn’t move as the ecstasy flowed through your veins making you feel finally pleased. Sirius meanwhile, continued to lazily rock into you until rolling to his side to cuddle you.

“Believe it or not, I really didn't plan that.”

He said, kissing you gently. Your eyes rolled up to meet Sirius’ gaze.

“I’m glad that it happened and I am fine with it happening as much as you would like.”

Sirius wrapped himself around you as much as possible.

“With you being my girl now, I would hope that it would be that way.”

______

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#Harry Potter #harry potter oneshot #Sirius Black #Sirius Black x Reader #Ben Barnes as Sirius Black #smut warning #request fic #Remus Lupin #nymphadora tonks #harry potter fan fiction #Sirius Black AU #Tease

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

All in the Family

Chapter 138: Excess of Phlegm

A gnome tried to bite him on the nose. James snatched the thing by its ankle right before the teeth broke skin and was already hurling it as far away from him as he could before he'd even properly gotten to his feet.

The fact that none of them suffered from their brains melting for the recurring switch between night and day was the real mystery to all this. There was a big green pond full of frogs Longbottom was sloshing his way through, the place was lined with gnarled trees and plenty of plants he'd been able to identify from Herbology class and a few he hadn't. The Burrow was just visible in the distance and his stomach snarled with hunger, they really should have taken advantage of Slughorn's food selection while they had the chance, but then he saw Regulus storming over there and decided he'd starve rather than dealing with that arrogant child right now.

His scowl intensified when he saw Peter going after him, Merlin what he wouldn't give to have just left that kid behind! Between him and Snape, who ever would have guessed these two bothersome ones would cause so much misery along this blasted trip.

Sirius was coming over to him eagerly, and he did a double take as he saw the Polyjuice Potion had completely worn off of him and glanced down at himself in surprise to confirm the same, only just realizing everything was fuzzy back around the edges again not from his head still being sore from his latest impact with the ground. The feeling of moving like they were was worse than changing bodies, who knew?

"Odd," he pulled the ripped up shirt off and passed it back, half a mind to steal more clothes from the Weasley's for both of them while here. "Doesn't feel like it's been an hour."

"That spell I put on Longbottom wore off with the jump," Sirius recalled as he passed his glasses back. "To us, it definitely wasn't long enough to have done so. Guess this mess makes even the magic we use on each other wonky, how annoying." It would have been sort of interesting to somehow find a way to gauge time before now if they'd thought about it, but James found when he slipped his pants back on he still had the Polyjuice Potion in his pocket anyways and sighed as he uneasily patted it.

He looked back to see Sirius giving him a beseeching look. His eyes flickering to where Regulus had vanished and back with a look James couldn't quite believe, was he really fixing to defend that kid?

"Listen Prongs, thanks, really, but I wish you'd let him keep going. I hadn't even realized, but he needs to get all that off his chest if he really has a problem with you and I'd rather him take that out on me even unintentionally anyways." Sirius still finished with a guilty look in place that set him bristling.

"You don't deserve that Sirius!" He snapped back at once.

"He thought I was you," Sirius quickly reminded.

"That's not the point!" James insisted. "I wouldn't have just stood there letting him yell at me! He's not your bloody parents, and I'm not going to let him start doing that shit to you if you're hoping that makes it all better! I'm not even sure why you're trying!" He regretted the words the instant they slipped out, Sirius looked so confused and he'd been trying so hard to bite his tongue against saying anything, letting Sirius make his own decisions about his little brother.

"What do you have against Regulus?" Sirius didn't quite demand it, but he sounded so surprised James chose his next words carefully, he'd already felt vaguely paranoid before this. He'd only just turned fourteen after all.

"You never talk about him Sirius, less than even your parents. I always wondered, well, how much he knows about, well, some of your punishments," he admitted, and didn't like the response when Sirius rubbed absently at his shoulder and didn't look at him. Moony wasn't the only one with scars, but some weren't so visible.

He pressed in now that Sirius didn't flat deny it, "I'll not have you feeling guilty you didn't keep that in your life if he stood by and did nothing instead of helping you in that forsaken house."

Sirius let his hand drop and looked back at him steadily. "I don't know okay, I honestly don't want to know if he knows. He's not been in the room and laughing, if that's what you mean. Mostly he just hides in the attic when I start going at it with them and doesn't come down until he's summoned and I've usually cleaned myself up by then. If he suspects anything he hides it well."

"A trait you two share," James grudgingly let some of the ire trickle out of his voice, at least Regulus had never actually hurt Sirius then to appease his parents, the nightmare he hadn't been able to shake. Hearing Voldemort do so to his Padfoot had not let the idea rest though. "I still can't say I'm all gung ho helping you out with him Padfoot, especially if he's going to turn that temper on either of us."

"Hasn't had the best role model from anyone," Sirius quietly muttered.

"You're working on it," James gave a sort of laugh in admittance. Better than having come down the stairs and the two dueling to the death he supposed. He still didn't quite like Sirius just taking this in stride though if this was the alternative, it wasn't natural to not see Sirius fight back.

He sighed when he heard Smith starting the book and decided to brave the house alone for now as he distracted Sirius, "I'm going to see if there's food, and get us both a change of clothes. Go find Moony would you, haven't seen him exiting the garden with the others. Tell him for me I don't bloody care who he snogs in the meantime, will you?"

Sirius looked so hilariously startled that James wondered if he'd gotten it wrong then, but it was probably even better he leave the two to it then. Whatever the hell they were up to, it was helping Sirius, he could tell that much as Padfoot grinned and took off.

James walked with his head held high into the kitchen and made straight for the stove. The others crowded around the table watched him when he walked in, the book still having a few leaves clinging to pages in Alice's hand as she alternately read and shook her head at whatever conversation abruptly stopped at his entrance.

Snorting in derision as if he was supposed to care about being talked about, weather it was a group this size, the whole of his house annoyed he'd lost such a huge chunk of points for his latest prank, or the whole of Hogwarts laughing both at him and with him whenever a prank or counter prank was in action, he strode over to the stove and followed the basic steps of potions class to get a fire going and setting a pot in place before pausing in confusion.

Alice disengaged herself from the table, both of them ignoring the annoyed look Evans and Longbottom gave each other as she came up to him and asked, "like some help?"

"Sure," he smiled at once. "Know how to make grits? Ever tried syrup in that, it's to die for!"

She grinned at his enthusiasm and promised, "oh I'm sure we can whip up some of everything."

He couldn't help but smile at her, there was just something about her round face that radiated kindness, it wasn't hard to see why Longbottom was so smitten even if she was a little too timid for him to get the full appeal. She was short too, barely a few inches difference to Peter, but she nudged him aside gently and he didn't even think about stepping aside for her as she began going through the motions and talking in a level voice everything she was doing, though he hadn't actually asked for a walkthrough.

He listened though. He was painfully aware because of this future his parents clearly hadn't survived to take care of Harry, and it twisted up something in him to ever wonder for long how much time they had left, had they ever shown up in his wedding photos to Evans? While he could go home now and ask his mum to teach him this, he instead likened more to the idea she might not just laugh along with her boy for once, but give her something to be proud of as he studied her wand movements and copied with wavering success.

The milk, water, and salt were all carefully blended together and at a steady boil, even if he was sure they came out a bit too lumpy when Alice quietly redirected, "I hope everything's okay with those three."

The invitation was clear. He ruffled up his hair, his wand slipping and the stirring stopped for a moment as he considered telling her yes, and he would deal with his problems, again. That hadn't exactly been working out for him so far though, and damn if she hadn't been right back in Sirius' own house. Maybe if he'd just bloody talked to Padfoot before this future slammed him in the face he wouldn't have broken his ear drums and had his feelings so viciously kicked into him.

"Not sure how to get Sirius and Peter to talk to each other," he finally admitted his problem. It may have even worked there for a second in Slughorn's house, before Regulus had so rudely interrupted he was sure. "Padfoot's trying, but ah, he's not the best at using his words." He was always more of a free spirited, gestures, and reactionary kind of bloke, and he rarely tried to hide any of it. Maybe if Padfoot hadn't been suppressing how little he'd forgiven Peter on his behalf it wouldn't have been so bad! James wouldn't change him for the world. "I know he tried back in Malfoy's room, but it doesn't seem to have done much good."

He and Remus had been worried about just that, but hadn't let themselves interfere. "I'm not their mother, I can't just make them apologize to each other, but I don't know how else to help. What the hell do I say?"

He finally tapped the pot to get it stirring again lest something burn. It still felt weird to be saying this to anyone but Remus, but he hadn't anything else to offer but an apologetic shrug and mutual agreement there was just no mending this broken bridge with magic. At least Moony had promised he'd keep the two away from each other if he wanted, but that wasn't helping anymore than the two interacting the past few times. They'd been faking it thus far for his sake, and he knew that.

Now Regulus was trying to throw his opinion in, and he'd probably just pushed Peter farther away towards that kid. It's not like Wormtail had stood up for Sirius against the brat! He still didn't appreciate the last time Peter had shouted at Sirius back in the forest!

When Alice finally spoke, her voice was quiet but gentle, she seemed to respect he still was not trying to air their business and the others talking quietly at the table over their game once more should not be able to hear. "I don't know them as well as you do, but I hope you see laughing this off just isn't helping."

He grit his teeth to stop himself snapping at her that wasn't helping either, he still didn't know what else to do!

"I'd say, first step, just make sure you're all on the same page. Then, maybe, see where they want to go from there. Sometimes, we outgrow people, and that's not always a bad thing." She frowned at Evans, and James refused his own look to confirm it even if he knew in his heart what she meant and it was very, very true. He didn't see it as the same thing at all, Peter had never done anything like old Snivilius had. Sirius had over reacted in his anger, but this future wasn't letting up on them for a second about how awful things to come could be, he was entitled to an emotional outburst! He and Remus had tried to stop him from doing Peter a real harm!

"That's not very helpful," he huffed, removing the pot from the heat and grabbing down bowls.

"Sometimes the advice we need isn't what we want to hear," she shrugged, but she still looked sadly at her friend, and then back at him. "I'm sorry."

He huffed and changed the subject to syrup, bacon, and gravy, at least her company wasn't as bad as her fortune cookie nonsense.

Remus was still leaning against the apple tree he'd landed face first on and hadn't chosen to move, instead knocking his head softly against the bark in hopes it would knock some sense into him. Anger at himself still dominated rather than Padfoot not giving him some bloody warning for their stupid prank as he kept replaying what Sirius had said.

A break? They weren't even together as far as Sirius was concerned and he was already laughing about a break. What if Remus never asked for a break, would Sirius keep hooking up with him along with how many others when they got back? Would he be able to keep himself in check and go along with that, pretending to ignore any such thing was happening? He very much doubted it, and it only confirmed in him what he should have known back in that alley way, he really should put a stop to this now.

Amongst the cawing birds in the bright morning sun and the frogs still splashing about in their water, he heard someone approaching him and looked around in mild concern when he realized no shouting had resumed. If James and Regulus were off killing each other, they were doing it quietly.

It was the real Sirius this time, of this he was very confident of as Prongs would still be looking at him like a concerned parent about to give him the sex talk.

"You told him?" Sirius confirmed in delight as he barely came over in arms reach. He even turned around like the conversation was done there and they could go off to join James like nothing had happened.

He should have expected the gleeful smile. Sirius made himself as clear as possible on Slughorn's bed, Remus quickly reminded himself, and even before that. He only sees you as a playfriend, get over it!

Remus' scowl deepened, some of his self-anger getting an easy redirection. "No you arse, he figured it out when I didn't know it was you!"

Sirius just looked confused for a few more moments before he got it, and then he laughed as he edged closer. "What did you do?"

Remus shoved him back away in disgust. "It wasn't funny! What the hell are you so happy for?"

"I wanted to tell him," Sirius reminded with an eye roll, "what are you so angry for?"

Remus bit his lip rather than answer, this was going as horrible as it was possible to! "Look, it means something, different to me, telling people, alright." He tried to plead with him to understand. He clearly didn't. "Sirius, I know you don't see it as a big deal ever to tell us of your last dalliance, but it does to me, okay!"

Sirius just cocked his head to the side and kept watching him as if waiting for further explanation, like he couldn't fathom what other meaning there was, like he really couldn't picture telling his brother who he was hooking up with for any other reason than the fun of it. Remus tried to take some comfort in that Sirius really just didn't have the capacity to even be looking for anything more with anyone, not just with him.

"Okay, fine," Sirius mercifully gave in, though it was clear he still didn't get what Remus' problem was. Remus breathed in relief. "If you don't want him to know yet, I'll push him off what happened. I'd still like to know what you did," he added with a grin.

"How the hell do you think you're going to get away with that?" Remus demanded.

"If I can get McGonagall to not give me detention for transfiguring Eckers into a rocking horse I can do anything!" Sirius declared with the greatest hurt to his pride Remus was questioning this. He still hadn't stopped grinning. "You still have to tell me so I know what I'm working with."

Remus groaned and put his face in his hands, was this not bad enough without the teasing? "I hate you so much."

"Love you too Moony," Sirius casually agreed. "Now come on, work with me!"

Remus finally dropped his hands so he could glare at the bastard, and then let his hand rest on the inside of his thigh of the real Padfoot this time, leaning forward and whispering with as much annoyed suggestiveness in his voice he could, "is that a challenge?" He quickly dropped his hand and crossed his arms with a huff.

His pissed off attempt didn't really work, Sirius' eyes still glazed over with lust for a moment and he licked his lips before he shook his head and muttered, "yeah, that's not very subtle. Any more context I should know?"

"I still never got my pineapple," he sulked, as if that was really his biggest concern.

Sirius gave him a cheeky grin as he patted his bag. "Moony, I'm insulted, you really think I'd leave you hanging?"

He could not imagine where and how Sirius had found the time to nab that in between everything else that had gone on. The thoughtfulness in the action stunned him. Damn him for still getting aroused by this asshole when he wanted to keep glaring at him.

Padfoot's eyes flickered around the garden for inspiration, they even listened to some of the chapter in mutual silence as Harry finally confessed to his friends of the Prophecy hanging over his head and the Phlegm being Fleur Delacor back in wedding bliss to Bill Weasley, but that wasn't striking much. Remus' concern grew even Sirius' silver tongue wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Look, just hang around out here if you want to, avoid Prongs and the others, I'll cover for you, just like always." Sirius finally sighed. "I promise I'll get some actual food for you for the next spot, okay?" He even sacrificed the crystalized pineapple now, tossing him the box and not even taking a single one for himself.

"Don't bother," he grumbled as he caught it, but pocketed it. Deciding to scale the tree for now in any relief to get away, and half tempted to pitch himself off head first. Sirius pouted at him the whole way up until Remus was crunching on an apple so loud he could pretend he didn't hear him walk off.

Sirius kicked and huffed and paced the whole way back to the door, taking twice as long as the trip should be. Great, yeah, even Moony was mad at him now, this just really could not be going worse. He knew he couldn't force the guy to relax about being gay, or whatever he considered getting off with another guy to be. He'd heard plenty of horror stories from other kids in school for their parents' reactions. He had no wish to envision Remus anywhere near that, but did he really think so little of Prongs? Sirius just had to find a way to get him to relax about this, it was by far the easiest problem to focus on, he knew Moony so well he was sure he could come up with a solution to this. It was too bad he couldn't turn into another animal for him to help, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

He walked in and found himself plenty distracted by Alice teaching James how to cook. She was being really nice about it too, even as Sirius watched he waved his wand a little too enthusiastically and sent a packet of bacon flopping to the ground. She corrected him and he got it right in the next go with a very pleased smile and a half glance at Evans, who was ignoring him and playing cards at the table with the others again. James turned away remarkably fast and wasn't even trying to talk to her but kept his focus on Smith. The book was left open at an empty chair, so at least nobody was reading it to try and get them out of a nightmare.

Regulus at least looked in a semi better mood. He wasn't shooting death threats at Prongs at least, but just flat ignoring him, and he didn't at all look up at Sirius' entrance as he took the deck from Evans and shuffled with quite a bit of skill. Peter at least looked around with a half smile at him before waving him towards the food.

Sirius needed no such invitation and leaned next to the stove, stuffing himself silly and still not quite sick of breakfast meals despite the fact they'd been having that in abundance lately but purposefully leaning on Alice's other side and not engaging as her and Prongs chatted casually about their mums different home spells, something he couldn't join in on anyways.

James had never had a problem making friends, Sirius thought back, it was him who'd made the four of them friends, Sirius was still half convinced sifting through memories it would never have worked without Prongs as their buffer until they were all used to each other. So it was still his fault really James was now keeping himself on the outs and not engaging with the rest, but instead sticking by Sirius and keeping himself apart, something he and Moony much preferred.

Attention was one thing he'd had all his life, whether he wanted it or not. He glorified in it at school as much as Prongs, but still far more enjoyed their private jokes alone in their dorms once the laughter had died down, a choice when to be in the spotlight for his amusement and when to leave it, something he'd never been allowed before James.

It wouldn't kill the rest of these guys to understand a good joke and curiosity could do wonders for their own moods.

Stuffing the last of his food into his mouth, he went back to the scullery for a new change of clothes rather than this ripped up shirt, maybe that would help Remus at least somewhat. It greatly irked him nobody did ask why he was outside still even with a ready excuse.

Maybe it was slightly better this way, Remus would refuse this on principle and spoil what Sirius was going for.

He snatched the bottle of Polyjuice Potion out of the back of James' pocket and snagged five cups down, slamming them on the table and pouring a dollop into each, keeping just enough left in the vile he slipped it back in for Remus later and glared at the lot.

"Don't even dare tell me you're not curious?" He accused each and every one of them.

Alice came over at once plucking a thin black strand of hair away. "When I tried in class it was too lumpy, nearly a solid it was so gross, Slughorn gave me an A and I was worried it would be the wrong color if I tried. Thanks Sirius," and she dropped it in.

It frothed and bubbled for only a moment before settling on a beautiful shade of the lightest yellow, like a soft warm light, it even looked kind of fuzzy, like a baby chick.

She grinned in delight, but none of the others exactly looked encouraged to play along.

"Frank?" She sighed.

"I already know what mine is," he tried to put off, glancing guiltily between her and Lily and needlessly rearranging his hand. Sirius had no idea what was going on there. "It's blue, love, and yours is beautiful of course."

She was still pouting at him with those large amber eyes of hers, and so he finally gave in and winced as he came away with some loose blonde hairs, dropping them into his own.

Blue indeed, a very dark royal shade that had the consistency of a squashed berry. She still smiled in delight and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek, but neither went so far as to offer swapping cups and bodies, apparently even they weren't going to indulge them that far.

Peter glanced around but finally went next to at least show a spot of good faith, his mousy brown hair vanishing into the mud for moments before it changed. It was a speck of the light, just before the dawn sky showed a hint that was not quite black. It even had little sparkles of the stars, he'd swear it, the pinpricks desperate to still be seen as the opaque of the day began forcing its way through the peaceful night. In the crest of the velvet, just before the nocturnal animals would end, he smiled and shook his head fondly for the deep purple color.

"Come on then," Peter even reached over and gave Regulus a light prod. "They really didn't mean anything by it this time."

"I'll just wait for my own potions class when I do it," Regulus said stiffly, still only glaring at his plate as he played a card.

Alice knew better than to try and talk Lily into any such thing, she was too stubborn and probably already knew hers anyways considering her advanced potions work.

She was half right, Lily did know what color it was going to be, but with one last begrudging look at Potter to make sure he knew this wasn't for him, she gave her and Frank a friendly smile and plucked a red hair free for them to see.

It was the soft blush just under the surface, the light airy breath that flashed over and warmed the skin. Her breath caught in her throat again as she could already taste how lightly it would flit down one's throat. She brushed her hand through her hair and smiled softly to herself with pride, she'd never been fond of the color pink, it had always been Petunia's favorite, but she looked almost gleefully now at how it softly glowed in her cup, warmth seeping right through to the tips of her fingers once more.

Sighing in resignation of being left out and only for Peter's sake and not the other two, Regulus finally pulled a hair free as well.

Trapped in the forest, it would be the first hint of light. The faint sun flicking through trees, the slightly thicker grass getting just a little more springy with each step, the same shade of hazel flickering out of the corner of his eye when he was on a broom and the Forbidden Forest was just lively enough to grab his attention. The darkest shade of green, or a freckled shade of brown, he smiled softly as he tipped the cup this way and that to catch every last glimmer it would show.

Lily took all of their distraction to collect all of the cards this time and pocket them with purpose when Alice told she was going to finish the chapter.

Alice beamed at everyone smiling once more and mouthed a thank you to Sirius, who graciously acknowledged this with a competitive smirk. She made sure to catch James' eye before picking up the book to finish, and he nodded his resignation at last, their quiet whispers before Sirius had entered finally sinking in.

HPHPHPHP

And just because I don't have a better time to share this considering the location of the future chapter it shows up in I won't spoil, you got these now and this below:

Luna- light Orange/ Hermione- Dark Orange

Ron- Dark Brown/ Neville- Light Brown

Dumbledore- Gold with silver flecks

Fenrir*-

It looked more like smoke resting in the cup, the thick cloying kind that would choke your lungs and suffocate you faster than the fire could reach you. Even being nowhere near the lips, the urge to gag, plug up the nose and run was the first instinct upon seeing it. Surly such a vile color was not meant to ever be seen, let alone consumed, for it would never let go once it latched on.

Voldemort-

It's the color he feels pulsing all around him when that sense of purpose, power, rightness, and even triumph surrounded him. He could feel it now, almost burning out of the cup as the color reflected back his soul. It would darken with time just like the murky little depth of solid black color in the center was now, turning deeper and deeper shades with every new murder he granted those not worthy of this life, but always in the very edges before the liquid traced the rim of the cup, you could still see burning red.

Umbridge- pink

It sits like a heavy film over the tongue once swallowed down, leaving an almost chalky, lingering weight behind. The fluorescent, almost painfully bright color would be bitter, like the darkest tea, and would curl into a nauseating feeling the lower down your body it traveled.

Bellatrix- light green

The neon glow was enticing to look at, as if the vividest shade of a particularly tart apple were sizzling in the cup. One sip was all it would take, and you could not stop. You would keep drinking, even when you were out of breath, and the tang became painful because your mouth was burning, you would still keep swallowing happily for the phosphorescent liquid of the verdant shade. ( I can not believe the books literally glossed over what this canon color should be!)

Snape- light purple

It seemed painful to even look at, the image of drinking it would be worse. The morbid feeling of prodding this color, the heavy purple would whiten slightly and then turn back an even darker shade, to have that inside of him made him want to be sick. He wished it would mottle to the greens and yellows of a fading bruise, but feared it would never happen.

Don't worry, you'll get Remus' eventually. I think mine would be similar to a lime green, and sweet with a nice kick at the end. Let me know yours?

*You would not want to drink Remus/ Fenrir's, or any other werewolves FYI. I have a headcanon of what would happen if you tried to use polyjuice potion on a werewolf, and it's similar but more gruesome than what happened to Hermione when she tried to use it on a cat. Check out my AU, Proper Life, chapter 5 for details if you're curious, it's in the very first section so you don't have to read much if you're not invested in the whole thing.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HBP #HP #Weasley Garden #Polyjuice Potion #Wolfstar #Jilly #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Peter Pettigrew #Regulus Black #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith #Lily Evans

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