“Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?” James asks, glowering at the three of them, as if daring them to affirm what had happened. As if he is challenging them to admit that Lily Evans has just defended Snivellus and loudly declared her utter loathing of him. Sirius gives a shallow nod, noting with the BANG that Snape is hanging in the air again.
Poor James; Lily is turning out to be quite bad for his ego.
But there are other girls at Hogwarts and Sirius isn’t particularly worried. James is one of the best looking boys in school at the moment, excepting himself, and since he isn’t paying attention to girls, that’s opened the playing field considerably for James.
What he is paying attention to though, is Remus. He is always paying attention to Remus now, can’t seem to help himself from doing it. Whenever he is bored during class, or, well, anywhere for that matter, he finds his eyes drifting to Gryffindor Tower’s resident werewolf. And when Remus isn’t there for his eyes to drift to, his thoughts float on instead. He can’t get Remus out of his mind, doesn’t want to.
He moves closer to Remus, so conscious of what he is doing, of the body next to him, that it nearly makes his hair stand on edge. “Watcha reading?” he asks.
Remus snaps the book shut. “I’m studying Transfiguration, as well you know,” he says crossly.
Sirius moves away a bit. “What’s wrong?” he asks, the relationship new enough to cause him doubt.
“Nothing,” Remus says shortly, opening the book again and glaring at it.
Sirius looks at him, sees his eyes aren’t moving, that he is trying to hold himself as still as possible, and sticks his own face between Remus’s and the book. “What’s wrong?” he asks again.
Remus shoves him away, an angry hand on his shoulder.
“Moony!” Sirius exclaims, hurt beyond reason by the reaction.
Remus rolls his eyes. “Fine. If you must know“”
“Yes?”
He seems to lose his nerve a bit at Sirius’s eagerness. “If you must know,” he says again, sounding irritated, as he gently closes the book once again, “I wish you would stop torturing Snivelly“I mean, Snape the way you do.”
Sirius can’t help it, he laughs. And Remus’s eyes go dark as he opens the book once more.
“I’m sorry,” Sirius says quickly, though he is unable to completely wipe the grin off his face.
“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t do it.”
“But“”
“He’s a half-blood with a Muggle father; he has no friends and he has his head stuck so far down in the Dark Arts“”
“Ah! Do you think that’s why his nose is so greasy?”
Remus glares at him. “It’s unkind.”
“He can hold his own,” Sirius reassures him. “And he does too have friends.”
“Who?” Remus asks. “That Malfoy? Or your cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa? Your brother? They aren’t friends. Having a common interest in the Dark Arts doesn’t constitute a friendship. You saw that they didn’t help him when you and James went after him.”
What Sirius sees is that this is going to be fighting a losing battle.
“Fine. So he doesn’t have any friends. Do you expect me to feel bad for him?”
“Not bad, really. I just wish you would leave him alone. How would you like it if you didn’t have us and those Slytherins were cursing you your every waking moment?”
Sirius feels something uncomfortable rise in his stomach. “Not have you? And James and Peter?”
Remus nods.
Sirius pushes the feeling away, refusing to admit it for it what it is: a shadow of guilt. “Wouldn’t happen.”
Remus scowls. “Well, you wouldn’t like it. I can tell you that much.”
“I’d fight back,” Sirius argues.
“So does he.”
Sirius snorts. “You call that fighting back?”
“You call it fair?” Remus challenges him. “Two against one? Especially when he’s smaller than the both of you?”
The uncomfortable feeling is back, but Sirius refuses to feel bad and he shoves it away with an angry push.
“We’re helping him build character,” he says, leaning against the tree.
“Yes. I’m sure he really appreciates it,” Remus says, following this with a snort of his own.
Sirius rolls his eyes.
“What is wrong with the two of you?” James exclaims, collapsing beside them, Peter in fast pursuit. “You look like somebody died.”
“Moony here was just taking me over the finer points of his argument,” Sirius says, scowling as he crosses his arms over his chest.
“What argument?” James asks, and Sirius notices that he’s short of breath.
He looks up, and spots Snape some feet away on the ground, scrambling to get his papers and books together, greasy hair falling into his eyes. He feels an immense dislike fill him; someone that socially unaware deserved to be made fun of.
“On whether or not we should leave Snivelly alone,” he says unkindly, spitefully, almost as much to annoy Remus for being so self-righteous as out of habit.
“What?” James yells. “Leave him alone? What else would we do?”
Remus gives him a calculating look. “Don’t you think that makes you a bit...well...shallow?”
“Shallow?” Sirius echoes with a bark of laughter. “It makes us fifteen.”
“No, I don’t think it makes me shallow,” James answers. “I think it makes him an idiot for leaving himself such an easy target.”
“Well, I think you’re going to get yourselves into trouble,” Remus says, looking at his book once again.
“Trouble? The Marauders don’t get into trouble!” James crows.
“Oh. Right. You get into detention,” Remus says. “What is now? Once a month?”
“A week“” Peter puts in.
“Every other day at least!” Sirius declares.
There is a reluctant smile on Remus’s face now. “Of course. How could I have forgotten. You’re sitting one tonight, aren’t you?”
James and Sirius both pull a face. “Yes. Separately.”
“What are they making you do this time?”
“Sluggy is making me clean the dungeon classroom,” James answers.
“And I’ve got to do the hospital wing. Ech.”
Remus smiles now. “Well, it serves you right.”
“Nah. It’ll be worth it,” James says dreamily. “For the look on his face....”
They all laugh; the memory of Professor Slughorn’s expression when the cauldron exploded, spewing its rainbow colored contents all over the walls, priceless. The look on his face when he had find the little rocket that had done it though....
Sirius relaxes as they all fell into meaningless chatter once again. His eyes rove over the grounds, to the paths, the Forbidden Forest and the Lake. The squid is out, its tentacles creeping lazily over the bank of the the lake.
But always, always his eyes come back to Remus.
A/N: I'm so sorry to be doing this to all of you who are enjoying. However, due to the wait-time to get chapters in Q, and through it, posting as many chapters as are already written, and running it concurrent with the LJ posting, has become slightly impossible. The story will no longer be posting here on MNFF. For those who would like to continue following, the main user page of the joint fic on LJ can be found here:
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