#i just wanted to draw lupin saying that sentence in the first image

[art-of-dragonheadskilax]

There’s no punchline, just them.

[angelblacksmith]

𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒖𝒔 𝑳𝒖𝒑𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒍𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒅𝒆

Pairing: Remus Lupin x fem!reader

Warning: mention of sex, fluff, my English (isn't my native language)

Remus is one of the nicest people.

And as soon as you start dating.

You realize that he's not just cute.

And a very tactful, sensitive and amazing boy.

At first, Remus tried to "save" your relationship from the interference of his noisy friends.

Because he tries not to draw attention to his and your personal life.

But it won't last long.

"What? Do you have a girlfriend? Slytherin? Don't you dare deny it. We saw you!"

So you and Remus can only accept this fact.

Now the Marauders know about your relationship.

And now they (James) are trying to get to know you better.

"How did you say you met Moony?"

"I've already told you many times!"

"Yes, but I didn't write it down."

They think you're suspicious

Then why didn't Moony want to introduce you to them?

If you're that good, according to Remus.

What are you doing in Slytherin?

They will conduct a whole investigation.

They definitely will not come up with the idea «maybe they just wanted a calm and peaceful relationship?»

or «they are just in love», «not all Slytherins are bad?»

No.

This is definitely a conspiracy.

Eventually, James gets used to the fact that you're Remus ' girlfriend.

But Sirius.

Oh, no.

He's still watching you.

Especially when you're not with Remus.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?"

"For breakfast, obviously?"

"Hm... A fairly predictable answer."

Despite the constant surveillance by Remus' friends.

You sometimes manage to be alone together.

But most of the time...

"Peter, what the hell?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

In the end, Sirius and James give up.

And now you and Remus have many times more free time together.

And so.

The relationship with Remus is really great.

This is a strong and peaceful embrace.

A lot of romantic action.

Small details that make you smile.

For example.

Remus always notices changes in your image.

And all your little habits.

He's a very attentive guy.

Pet names.

He calls you: the sunshine, beloved, sweet, precious.

Super cute hugs.

Light kisses.

Go with Remus to Hogsmeade (The Marauders will also go with you).

In winter, play snowballs.

Remus makes sure that you dress warmly.

Do your homework together.

Help Remus with his wounds after the full moon.

But this relationship has a couple of drawbacks.

In the person of three boys.

You will definitely not have any personal life.

Did you have sex with Remus?

The Marauders will already know about it.

And they will tease you and Remus.

Until you start teasing them.

You will eventually make friends with them.

And now you have a handsome guy and three little boys.

Who need to be constantly pulled out of trouble.

Not that you're doing it.

At least while they are serving their sentence, you have free time.

And you will definitely not spend it in vain ;)

[cibeewastaken]

run-on sentences

loosely inspired by this beautiful art by @pan-da-hero

on ao3

                                                       ----

Draco loves to write.

Not fictions, as much as he likes reading, he has no interest in creating new worlds or people and makes them do things that he has to think up. He loves to write – about himself. Because even at the stage of innocence, Draco always thought he is the most interesting person there are.

From age ten, he filled journals and journals. Diary, of sorts. Besides recording his (very interesting) life, a lot of them were fragments of musings. Some of them were letters, especially after starting school. Students at the Slytherins common rooms were used to seeing Draco sitting by the fire, by the window, at his desk, on his bed; ornate leather journal and quill in hand. And Draco’s furious hysterics if he were to be interrupted were almost as legendary as his Harry Potter tirade.

He writes as a child, as a teenager, as an adult (only in the legal sense) then as a man. His page span from thick, traditional journal to loose parchments bound together to cheap muggle paper notebooks. His handwriting went from carefully constructed individual letters to arrogant cursive to frantic scribbles – so illegible and so obviously written in the dark; finally,  to smooth and soft curves; reveries about boys and healing.

Draco writes until he’s twenty-seven, ten years out of the war, with old enemies turned new friends and old friends turned family and family turned ghosts surrounding him when someone asks if they could see his works?

What works, Draco asks.

Apparently, this agent is friend with Blaise and he has raved about Draco’s bel-esprit, how interesting his perspective was on the war, the struggles he went through to overcome his beliefs, what a romantic he secretly is –

Draco sends a stinging hex to Blaise who is lurking somewhere in the crowd and tells the agent no.

It is Ginevra who gets him to change his mind, as always. She wants kids, and she says Draco telling his side and how he changed is valuable for their world to see what to look out for. Plus some ridiculous sentiment about inherent goodness that Draco has no intention to remember but gets convinced anyway.

He has to dig out his journals. He still writes, about whatever he fancies, but the old ones were left in his childhood bedroom in places he frequented as a child but no longer remembers now. An Accio has all of them flying out of a loose floorboard that Draco only then remembers he pried loose himself because that’s where people hide things in books.

Reading through them is shameful. Reading through them with the agent is embarrassing, but her eyes lit up frequently and her nose sometimes scrunches in distaste, then she just keeps crying, after the first five years of journals. She asks if he wants to organize them in chronological order, or —?

That’s a loaded question. Draco doesn’t know. There are diaries, notes, ideas, thoughts, letters. The agent sifts through everything and decides that the diaries can be in chronological order, in their own section. And everything else they will go through and divide them into sections.

Draco squeaks when he realizes she wants to publish everything and argues that no one wants to read a behemoth of a book. She says a behemoth of memories is a good thing.

Draco isn’t sure anyone will read it. Who will want to read a brat’s diary? Who wants to read a Death Eater (he was still one when some of these were written)’s thoughts?

But people do. They line up outside of shops. Owls tire themselves from deliveries. On request of Pansy, who sees this as golden opportunity to make some pretty gold, pesters Draco for stocks of his book and sell them to people who didn’t manage to get one on the first day.

All of this disconcerts Draco, who once upon of time would no doubt love this. Though, as much as he loves to talk even now, these were the talkings that he hadn’t been brave enough to say. He has thought no one would be interested, now the reality is that everyone knows.

Draco writes all of this down.

He asks for time off work. 

Harry comes knocking, just a few days later. Draco knows it’s coming, still he trembles when he goes to greet him at the door. Harry hasn’t finished reading the book yet, can he finish the rest here? Draco nods, let Harry sits on his bed as Draco takes his seat at the desk. Harry opens the book, and Draco knows where he’s at by the thickness of the two halves. The diaries are done and he is on the miscellany. Draco turns. Harry’s face gives nothing away but Draco knows, he knows, Harry is reading the section titled “Love Letters”.

“Love Letters” starts with a short note, written by Draco five years of age, to a boy he met at a gathering his father used to have. “Love Letters” isn’t typed but had images of the original letters (done by Scan-ing, or something). “Love Letters” consists of notes and origamis addressed to a variety of people: Blaise, Remus Lupin, Penelope Clearwater, some Quidditch star Draco can’t even remember the name of except for the way the man’s brown eyes honeyed under the sun. These love letters comprised less than half of “Love Letters”. “Love Letters” is originally named “Draco Malfoy’s embarrassing crush on Harry Potter (Potter!)”

Draco used up his only veto for that.

Most of them don’t even read like someone in love. Most of them read like hate mails, bullying and sniping. But Draco is the one that wrote them and he knows what they had meant. A lot of them were heavily creased, because they were folded into origami animals. When Draco first found them, he had to be so careful opening up, old from the years, they wouldn’t have survived rough treatment. There are a smattering of letters written when Draco was thirteen and fourteen where he expressed genuine heartache that he wasn’t friends with Harry; an explosion of anguish, written when Draco was sixteen and seventeen; then finally, eighteen, cluster of letters, slow and sweet, like fruits overly ripe. Accounts of Harry’s struggles and victories after the war. (One letter embarrassingly detailed the shape of Harry’s chiseled jawline in far too many words). There’s one where Draco spent a full parchment talking to Harry about his sudden aptitude in schoolwork and how much Draco likes it because he has always appreciated intelligence in men. Draco had written those like the letters were meant to be seen by a lover. But he never did, even though Harry and he had been friendly by then already. 

The fact that the book omitted any names doesn’t matter because the author is Draco and he practically founded the Potter-mania. Plus most of the letters mentioned green eyes and long lashes.

But Harry doesn’t seem upset at being written into letters then into a book that got published for the whole wizarding world to see. Ten years has mellowed the public’s affection for Harry into a simmering haze; something Draco can’t comprehend whatsoever. 

Harry shuts the book gently and asks if he could see them. Draco has to pretend he doesn’t know what Harry is asking about. Then he lies and says they’re at the publishing house. Harry tells him that Draco would never leave something so personal at places like that, if he has to guess, is it somewhere beneath the floorboard based on Draco’s love for old romance novels?

Draco protests and grumbles and goes to pry the floorboard up, but Harry stops him before his nails make contact with the wood. Harry delicately grasps Draco’s hands and murmurs let me and before Draco can even blink his haze away, his journals, notes, and letters are in Harry’s reverent hands. He picks out the crumble letters that show it has been folded and unfolded until it’s bruised and loved. He traces the “P” of every letter, always the first, and always written with the most vigor.

I noticed these, Harry says.

Draco doesn’t understand what that means. 

You used to fold them in class,  Harry says. I noticed.

Then he grabs his copy of Draco’s book and takes something out – a piece of parchment that has been folded and unfolded until it’s bruised and loved. Harry holds it out.

It’s Harry. On a broom, smiling until a bulger hits him. Draco’s eyes seek out the messy hair that a thirteen-year-old Draco had drawn on one strand at a time, tenderly despite the end product. And the arrogant cursive of his sighed name in the corner. And the little lone figure in the otherwise empty Quidditch stands, laughing and looking at Drawing-Harry.

Draco says this is embarrassing. Harry laughs and tells him it’s okay. Draco then scoffs and clarifies it’s embarrassing for Harry, who keeps a drawing of themselves getting hit in the head? Then Harry is kissing him, cradling him in his arms like he did the parchment, which is surprising because Draco has been folded and unfolded until he is bruised, but he never thinks he can be loved, too.

Against Draco’s lips, Harry says he wants to finish Draco’s embarrassing book. He wants to know if there’s a happy ending.

Draco spoils his own book by telling Harry there isn’t. The book only goes until he was twenty-five-years old. Which wasn’t a bad year, just a difficult year. Draco folds himself up so he can fit in Harry’s embrace better and tells him it’s okay.

Harry sounds genuinely upset when he says how can it be okay?

Draco kisses Harry, and again, and again, until his lips are sore and flushed and Harry looks a little less sad. Draco kisses him quicky again because — well, just because. Because the book ends, but it’s not the ending, Draco says.

Harry asks how will it end. Draco shrugs and says he doesn’t know.

Harry says his fine petulantly and wraps Draco tighter in his arms. He opens Draco’s book again and presses his cheek to Draco’s hair when Draco tucks his face into the crook of Harry’s neck. Harry kisses Draco’s hair and says, I guess I’ll just have to stick around and find out.

[halothenthehorns]

THE SECOND TASK

Before Lily could take the book, she decided to pass the child along to his father. She'd seen some of the often pained looks he'd been getting lately and understood more than anyone what he'd be feeling, and James wasn't going to argue as he eagerly cradled his care.

Lily may have taken the book with a friendly enough smile, but she was not fool enough not to realize that second task was fast approaching, and she did not want the honors of enduring whatever that was. Still, it was her or somebody else she'd have to be listening to, and at least this way she could more easily cut the boys off when she felt like it.

Hermione was scolding Harry that he'd told he'd figured out his egg long ago.

"He said he was very close," Sirius corrected and defended Harry at once.

"And she can't really think he would have figured it out and not told them," James agreed.

Harry told her to keep her voice down, and he hadn't really been lying, he just needed some time to hammer out the details.

"You mean figure out the whole second part of it," Remus muttered.

    The three friends were currently having this discussion in their Charms class, and with all the commotion of the rest of the class it was a good place to have this conversation. Today they were working on the opposite of the Summoning Charm, the Banishing Charm, and the object was to try and target pillows into a box on Flitwick's desk, the idea in this being if the pillows hit anyone at least it wouldn't hurt.

"Clearly Professor Flitwick has never had a pillow fight with Padfoot," Remus absently rubbed his throat in remembrance as he explained, "he goes for the jugular no matter what weapon's in his hand."

"You deserved it for trying to smother me with yours," Sirius said back instantly.

"What even caused that fight?" James asked, trying to spin his mind back to before feathers had flown.

"Sirius wouldn't go to sleep, nothing too unusual," Remus shrugged.

"Oh I remember," Sirius snapped his fingers, "I was trying to figure out why your name is plural. Why is it James, more than one Jame? What happened to the other?"

"Okay, I need another pillow," Remus grumbled, but trying to force past all of Lily and Harry's combined giggling, Lily managed to keep herself going.

Which was all good in theory, but then there were those like Neville with such horrid aim he was more likely to hit other objects than said pillows, like the Professor.

Breaking up the boys argument as well so that now everyone was trying to laugh and listen at the same time.

Harry told Hermione to drop the egg for a moment, he was trying to explain about the rest of his night.

"A much more important topic I'd like resolved," James instantly agreed, honestly wishing the teachers were the most interesting thing to think about this year rather than his son being in that tournament.

Ron was stunned that Moody had searched Snape's office, not paying a bit of attention to his own spellwork and banishing Parvati's hat off her head.

"Ron clearly has the useful aspects of this spell down," Sirius snickered.

Asking if Moody was here to watch Snape as well as Karkaroff?

"If so, he's doing a terrible job," Lily rolled her eyes, still smarting over his treatment of Hermione and Neville as much as Harry.

Harry admitted he didn't know if Dumbledore was telling Moody to do so,

"If so, then Dumbledore just got a lot more interesting," Remus arched a brow, thinking Dumbledore should trust his staff enough he should never have done this, but then again Dumbledore had also hired a Death Eater, so that man was as unpredictable as it could get.

but Moody was doing it anyways. Harry was paying no more attention to where his pillow was headed, so it instead did a belly flop off the desk.

More giggles for that lovely mental image.

Harry continued by repeating that Snape was apparently here on a second chance.

Ron asked if it was possible it had been Snape putting Harry's name in the Goblet?

They were all in such a good mood, nobody wanted to sit and dwell on how that could honestly be a very real possibility. They certainly hated him enough to believe he'd done it, but they had no more proof it was him than anyone else, so no one tried to say otherwise.

Harry most of all felt deep inside him that this answer wasn't even close...but something in that sentence felt like it should be...

Hermione told him off for that, reminding of the last time Ron had tried to blame their woes on Snape, and he'd in fact been saving Harry's life.

James' nose crinkled in agitation at the reminder, he'd called himself even with Snape in gratitude for that, but he'd done nothing since then but treat his son, well like he'd treated him so he was far from liking the guy, and that was before what he'd done to Remus and tried to do to Sirius.

Even while chatting, Hermione perfectly aimed her cushion into the box they were supposed to be aiming for.

"Oh, you were actually supposed to be aiming for something?" Remus asked with a strained smile, looking for something to laugh about again. "I'd never have guessed the way you and Ron were casting around."

Harry stuck his tongue out at him.

Harry considered what Hermione said, but couldn't quite rule him out as a suspect as the man had never likened himself to Harry in any way shape or form by never missing an opportunity to have Harry suspended.

"Suspended," Sirius scoffed, "is too kind, he'd have you expelled the second he could get away with it."

"No matter how many times I see it, I still can't believe he's so petty he treats Harry like James," Remus snapped in agreement.

Hermione said she didn't care what Moody did, Dumbledore wasn't a fool. He trusted Hagrid and Lupin, when no one else would, so he must have a reason for Snape as well.

"I don't think those comparisons should count," James grumbled, drawing his wand and creating a few colorful puffs of smoke to amuse his kid, at least someone in here deserved to be having fun since the mere mention of Snape had ruined theirs. "Moony and Hagrid aren't gits who treat children like his personal voodoo dolls."

Lily sighed, still wishing more than anything that wasn't true, but knowing it was didn't make it hurt less. She wished she could disagree, that Snape being a Death Eater really was his only fault, but after everything he'd done, she honestly agreed with the boys he was past redemption taking whatever his problem was out on those kids.

Trying to say even if Snape was a bit-

Ron cut her off by stating he was pure evil. What other reason did all of these Dark wizard catchers have to be snooping around him?

"And yet not one of them could find anything," Sirius sighed in disappointment. "What is the matter with our justice system they could get rid of me, but not him!"

James would have reached around and smacked Sirius senseless for that joke he still hated if he hadn't been holding baby Harry. Remus also temporarily considered cursing Sirius, but chose to ignore him rather than acknowledge that.

Hermione moved on to ask about why Crouch would be acting ill? It was all very odd of him to be doing that while having missed the Yule Ball.

"One of our main main problems right now, yes," Lily agreed.

Ron told her she was being to uptight about Crouch because of how he treated Winky while one of his pillows hit a window.

Hermione snapped back Ron just wanted to blame everything on Snape, while sending another pillow into the box.

"Got to be impressed with Hermione's skill of multitasking at least," Sirius put a winning smile in place to stop his two friends glaring at him. "She's arguing and still managing to keep at her work."

Harry belayed both of them by asking the real question, why was Snape on his second chance? What had happened to his first one? He'd waved his wand carelessly while speaking, but to his surprise his cushion had landed where it was supposed to.

"Apparently Harry can to," James laughed in surprise.

Adhering to Sirius' wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts,

"Oh yeah, I think this qualifies," Remus gave an odd smile, thinking, 'he can't do anything worse than come back, right?'

Harry sent him a letter telling of his midnight experience.

"Can't wait to hear that response," James muttered without enthusiasm, silently agreeing with Remus, Sirius could do something equally as stupid like try dogging Crouch next to see what he was up to, he wouldn't put it past him.

Harry then turned his attention to his real problem of breathing underwater for an hour.

"The only thing I can think of," Lily sighed, "is a potion to turn you semi aquatic, but that's so advanced for you dear."

"Same with Transfiguration," James scowled, his mind trying to go back to something lower level that could help Harry out, but he was drawing a blank.

Harry had previously mentioned aqua-lungs to Ron, and he offered up the idea of Harry summoning one of those to him.

Sirius turned to explain the concept to James while Remus adamantly shook his head and said quickly, "no offense, but I hope you don't follow that advice. Mostly because you are so far away from anything Muggle, I don't think even Dumbledore could summon something from so far away."

James looked disappointed, now that he knew what these things were they sounded really cool, he'd have liked to hear about Harry using one.

Hermione pointed out all the flaws of this, like Harry would have to learn to use one in under an hour,

"You mean you can't just slip it on?" Harry asked in surprise.

"You might try and let the teachers let you go to the nearest Muggle place so you can buy one," Sirius offered. "Then you'd have time to practice."

"Much less fun than stealing it and making it up on the fly," James pouted even if he did agree.

plus the act of Summoning it would most likely draw Muggle notice flying from where ever it was.

"A fairly good point," Lily chuckled.

Hermione offered Harry should try and Transfigure himself into a submarine or something,

"Machines are harder to pull off then animals," James shook his head in disagreement.

but that might be beyond Harry as they didn't start human transformations until sixth year.

Harry agreed he didn't fancy trying, he'd likely end up with a periscope sticking out of his head forever.

"Such a missed opportunity," Sirius smirked.

Harry suggested he should piss off Moody, he'd turn him into something

All four of them started laughing raucously, Harry's continued fear of being Transfigured because of that instant still hadn't worn off in hilarity.

but Hermione corrected she doubted Moody would let him choose his Transfiguration in a very serious voice.

Sirius was still to busy getting his breath back to make his favorite joke, in fact his laughter had doubled that Hermione had thought Harry meant that as more than a joke.

She insisted Harry should try a Charm to work this problem out,

Lily huffed and pouted she couldn't think of one to help with this.

so Harry resigned himself to another seemingly endless bout of page flipping in the library.

"Most students reach that conclusion by their first year," Remus agreed, "and you seem to double the amount of time you spend in there above them."

Harry tried everything revolving the text, even going to ask McGonagall if he could peruse the restricted section, even asking the librarian Pince for advice, but still found nothing that would help him to live underwater for even an hour.

"This is not encouraging," James started to frown, getting a little twitchy at his own blank mind. This felt like a real laps in his magical education that above some high level magic, some kid could have fallen in the lake in all these years and could have drowned because Hogwarts had never taught them to survive the instance. True when this had happened the giant squid was prone to save people, but that wasn't the point right now.

"I'm sure there must be something," Sirius groaned as he ran his hand through his hair, "I know I've heard of people visiting mermaid villages before, so it is doable."

Harry could feel that old feeling of panic seizing him again, now watching the lake on the grounds in a whole new light. He'd always looked to it as a bit of scenery, never before really seeing the stone gray surface like a deep void.

Remus started fidgeting with the sleeve of his robes, his eyes squinting at nothing, but it really was frustrating them they were drawing a blank on this matter as much as Harry. Not to mention they already had some unpleasant memories about that stupid lake nearly having been the sight Sirius had been Kissed, so they weren't keen on Harry having to be back near it.

Time started jumping in intervals again, weeks turning into days and Harry growing more and more desperate to find something, anything!

Lily's voice was starting to get pitchy in concern, she really had no clue what was going to happen to her baby if he couldn't go through with this task. The magical binding contracts of the Tournament forcing Harry to participate in these contests were the reason he couldn't voluntarily leave, but what would it do if Harry just wasn't able to complete a task? Would his magical core be damaged just because of some stupid event like this?!

With two days left Harry started to go off food again.

After James accidentally released a foul smelling gas from his wand that was mustard yellow, he quickly tucked it away and decided enough of that game, and instead starting bouncing his toddler around on his knee, managing to keep him happy and thump out his nerves all at once.

The only bright spot he had left before the 24th was Sirius' returning owl, which was one sentence: to tell when his next Hogsmeade weekend was.

"Because that was encouraging," Lily snapped at him, having to fight down the impulse to strangle Sirius when he technically hadn't done anything wrong, but they were all so stressed that Sirius being unhelpful felt like an extra kick in the rear.

Sirius raised his hands up in surrender at once, just as annoyed at his own self no matter how muddled that made his mind.

"Why do you even want to know?" James demanded of him. "You're not actually stupid enough to come onto the school grounds again."

When Sirius didn't answer, that only managed to make them all squirm to another degree. They knew he could get away with it, if anyone could survive on the grounds of Hogwarts it was a Marauder, but they'd still felt a lot safer with Sirius being far away from where Snape and an Auror, even a retired one, were.

Harry even flipped the paper over to find the rest of the message.

Remus had to plug his nose to stop himself snorting with laughter, but the indignant look on Harry's face really would have been priceless under any other circumstances, as that really was possibly the shortest note Sirius have ever sent anyone.

Hermione whispered the answer to him which Harry quickly wrote down and sent back.

"That would be so helpful if I lived that long," Harry said with a forced smile in place, at least giving them all the reminder that he had.

Harry felt his anxiety somehow ramp up all the more as the owl took off again. He'd somehow thought Sirius would come back with an answer as well, but in his haste to write down the Crouch/Snape/ and Moody stuff he hadn't even mentioned his egg.

"Not like I'd be much help anyways, clearly," Sirius grumbled, starting to feel an ache in his chest that he'd been so useless lately. He hadn't been able to help Harry with any of these tasks, and had in fact been causing Harry more sleepless nights than anything remotely helpful.

Ron asked why he'd even want to know, and Harry responded back lifelessly, trying to cling to that flare of hope he'd had at Sirius' note.

Sirius forced himself to perk back up at that though, at least he was helping in some way by keeping Harry's moral up even for a second.

James recognized the same thing, and responded by making faces at his baby.

They were due at a Care of Magical Creatures lesson, where Hagrid had thankfully stopped forcing interaction with the Blast-Ended Skrewts.

"Well this is a pleasant start," Remus managed a smile, very thankful if Hagrid had moved on from those illegal things.

Maybe because there were only two left,

"More good news," Lily chirped.

or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could,

"I already knew he could," Sirius scoffed.

Hagrid had instead been continuing on unicorn lessons.

"Can't deny I'm relieved to hear that," James beamed.

"No offense to Hagrid, but I do hope he does follow this more common line of thinking," Remus agreed, thinking that whole ordeal with the skrewts would be worth it if it had finally made Hagrid realize the things he should and shouldn't be showing classes.

It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters,

"Well I already knew that," Sirius smiled, "he just doesn't show it as much."

"Could have fooled me," Lily shook her head affectionately.

though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.

"Oh boy, poisonous fanged unicorns," Remus shook his head at the thought, "please don't tell Hagrid about that, or he might start up more crossbreeding."

Today he had managed to capture two foals.

"Ha!" Sirius barked in triumph. "Let's see that Grubbly woman get away with that."

Lily was smiling privately to herself behind the book, thinking those boys had taken that woman way to personally, but as loyal as the Marauders were, she wouldn't be surprised if they resented any teacher taking over a position of someone they liked. It certainly explained the lackluster way they were treating any mention of Moody.

Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold.

Harry's eyes flipped wide in surprise as he remembered those beauties.

Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them,

James couldn't stop his own triumphant giggles at Hagrid not only one upping Grubbly-Plank, but also managing to stun those two uppity girls.

and even Pansy had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.

"Glad to hear she's not a completely heartless monster," Remus smiled, as he'd never met a person who resisted those babies charm.

Hagrid was going over their growth ages, noting how much easier they were to spot at this age and didn't start to change silver until two, nor grow horns until four. They didn't go pure white until seven.

"How long do they live?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Average age is twenty," Remus happily supplied, "some up to thirty. Those that are domesticated and in captivity can live up to forty or fifty."

Harry couldn't imagine anyone actually owning a unicorn, let alone riding one, but he'd certainly love to see that.

The babies were more trusting than their older counterparts, so the boys were welcomed to come forward and pet them, Hagrid encouraging them all to offer sugar lumps.

"They'll never let you leave if you do that," Remus chuckled.

Hagrid called Harry over to him, while the others swarmed the babies,

"Not all at once," Lily couldn't help but caution, "still only a few at a time, don't want to startle them."

"Yes Mum," Sirius picked at her, which she ignored.

and asked how he was doing?

Harry agreed he was fine, and at Hagrid's prompting, a bit nervous. Hagrid clapped Harry on the shoulder, saying he wasn't surprised one bit, he'd be fine!

Even though he knew Hagrid to be wrong, Harry still couldn't help a warm rush of reassurance that Hagrid had such unwavering confidence in him. Harry knew right then he'd come out of this task on top just for that alone.

Asking if he had his clue all figured out?

"For the most part," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Harry hesitated answering at first, wondering if he should ask Hagrid for advice. Had he ever gone into the lake to deal with those creatures?

"That's actually not a bad idea," Remus said in surprise.

"I'll bet Hagrid would be more than happy to spill," Sirius agreed, "it might even be something insanely easy to get a hold of, since Hagrid's no great shakes at magic."

Harry just sighed though, feeling confident he wouldn't be asking Hagrid for help with this considering that would be confessing to the man who'd just given him such comfort that he had no idea what he was doing.

Hagrid hadn't waited for an answer, already patting Harry's shoulder with confidence that he'd win, while Harry sunk a few inches into the soft ground.

They all realized that at the same moment as Harry, so it was only strained smiles for Hagrid's over enthusiasm.

Harry couldn't bring himself to ask after that, and ruin Hagrid's proud smile.

By the night before the task, Harry was sure he was in a living nightmare.

Even Harry couldn't stop a forceful shiver at that, he'd only had just this amount of time before to practice a Summoning charm he'd already heard of, now he was supposed to find one and master it in less than twelve hours!

His panicky feelings managed to subside the moment he blinked his haze of fear away and realize where he was, at least feeling safe in the knowledge those around him weren't blaming him one bit for this mess he was in.

He knew that even if he found a spell by now he'd still have to learn it in time to use it. Why had he done this to himself? He should have been working on this since the beginning!

"Oh I don't think that's your fault," Lily said instantly, "you acted like everyone else in that situation would have."

Harry had to bite his tongue from bitterly pointing out Cedric had already figured it out first, and he'd probably come in first place by doing some masterful thing. At this point Harry wouldn't be surprised if the perfect Hufflepuff invented his own spell to combat this! Still he said none of that aloud, it wasn't his mother's fault she'd gotten him instead.

He was berating himself for all four years of his schooling and his slacking off, what if a teacher had ever mentioned how to breathe underwater?

"Then Hermione would know how to do this," James soothed, "and if she doesn't know and she's at least a year above you, then I'm confident this isn't your fault in lapse in knowledge."

Harry actually did feel himself relax at that being pointed out.

Still he and his friends were frantically turning pages in the library, but whenever the word water came about, it was usually some potion ingredient.

Ron snapped in frustration that this just wasn't a task to be done! The closest he'd found was a drought spell to clear puddles,

"But that's not strong enough for the whole lake," Lily sighed, that charm had crossed her mind but she hadn't suggested it for this reason.

but it wasn't powerful enough to drain a lake!

"Not now Sirius," Remus cut him off before Sirius could point out Lily had finished Ron's sentence. He pouted at his friend but didn't argue the point, he wanted to hear about this task being over already as much as anyone.

Hermione was still being insistent, saying it must be in here somewhere!

Ron ignored her, saying Harry's only option was to go down to the lake, stick his head in and demand they give back whatever they took.

Tension broke in the room once again because of Ron, Harry actually laughing so hard he started listing in his seat and he couldn't help it. He truly missed his best friend.

"I genuinely hope you try that," Sirius happily brushed some hair out of his face, "you will definitely get points for originality."

Remus held himself back from pointing out that it wouldn't work, but at least no one could say Harry hadn't tried.

Hermione hissed at him he was being ridiculous, there must be a way! She seemed to be taking the fact that she hadn't found her answer in the library as a personal insult, it had never failed her before.

"Actually it has several times now," James happily pointed out. "You didn't find out about the Stone in there, or the Chamber of Secrets."

"Technically the Stone was in a book she'd previously checked out," Lily countered just to poke back at her husband.

"And she did find information about the Basilisk in a book from there," Remus agreed.

"Okay, fifty, fifty," Harry pacified before Sirius could argue anything back.

Harry bemoaned that he hadn't ever tried to become an animagus like his godfather.

"Why would that have helped?" James asked in surprise, ignoring his internal wince that of course Harry would say Sirius' name rather than his, he'd actually seen Padfoot as more than a memory.

"I didn't know you couldn't choose the animal," Harry shrugged.

Ron agreed Harry could be a goldfish by now.

"Even if you could chose, I'm sure you would have picked something better than a puny fish," Remus sniffed.

"Like an alligator," Sirius happily agreed.

Hermione snapped they were being ridiculous, it took years to be one of those and you had to take the time to register and all sorts,

"That's half a lie," James raised a challenging brow, "you don't have to register."

Lily ignored him, she knew Harry had meant it as a joke and James returning Hermione with sarcasm wasn't helping anything.

Sirius clearly didn't as he kept going sadly, "but that first half is true, we started at the end of our third year and didn't manage it until the beginning of our fifth. Even if you had been practicing from the whole time you knew about them, you would only be able to go about half way."

"Still," Remus couldn't help but point out speculatively, "he could manifest certain parts, so if he had been something aquatic, it may have been enough to get him through this."

"None of this is helpful," Lily cut them all off for good.

still pointing out that the Improper Use of Magic Office kept a very strict list of people who could so that the power couldn't be abused.

"Hermione is clearly focusing on the wrong things here," Sirius muttered so Lily wouldn't snap again.

Harry told her to cool it, he'd been joking.

Hermione was ignoring him now to as she snapped how useless half of these spells were, who wanted to make their nose hair ringlets?

"And why wouldn't you?" James returned innocently.

Fred popped up then to say it was certainly a conversation starter.

"There's my point," James gestured vaguely to Lily's ever growing annoyance that she couldn't be done with this.

The three looked up in surprise to ask what the twins were doing here.

"Lost I'd guess," Remus snorted.

George told they'd been sent to get Ron and Hermione to see McGonagall.

"Why?" All of the boys asked at the same time Lily read out;

Hermione asked why, and Fred said he wasn't sure, but she'd looked grim about something.

"Well that's not encouraging," Sirius frowned.

"What could she be talking to them for and not Harry?" Remus agreed uneasily.

Harry exchanged an uneasy look with his friends, wondering if their head of house was going to tell them off for Harry getting help from them.

"Oh she wouldn't," Lily wriggled with unease at the idea.

"I'm positive that's not what this is about," James said with conviction, their old head of house was bound to give Harry more slack than that.

Still, they had no choice, so they promised they'd meet Harry back in the common room, to bring as many books with him as he could so they could keep looking.

Harry was left on his own through another mountain of books with such titles as A Guide to Medieval Sorcery, An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, and Dreadful Denizens of the Deep.

"Really, those last two sounded promising?" Remus said.

"I don't even remember what they're about anymore," Harry sighed, "even if I had found a spell, I was so tired by then I'd have read right over it."

They were all shifting around again in unease, that worry creeping up again of how had Harry lived through this one. It was much less scary than the dragon, and yet still somehow more stressful.

Harry eventually was kicked out because of curfew and did indeed drag many more thick spines with him up to his common room, where Crookshanks took to settling on his lap and people passed Harry by wishing him luck.

"Never mind that you must have looked like hell by then," James muttered mutinously.

All seemed convinced Harry would do something just as spectacular as his first event.

"Oh hey, what if you used your firebolt again," Sirius suddenly yelped in excitement. "You'd pelt through the water faster than swimming, and so long as you were fast and held your breath the whole time, you could be in and out."

"Have you ever flown a broom under water?" Lily asked in honest curiosity.

"Well, no," James answered, "but I think the idea has merits."

Remus clearly didn't agree as he quickly poked holes, "well it's still not a good idea not to test the idea first incase there is resistance, in which case Harry wouldn't be able to move any faster than normal, plus I'm positive for mermaids to be in there that it's going to be very deep and large, he still might not be able to hold his breath long enough to find what he's looking for."

"Well you're just no help at all," Sirius pouted as he sat back.

Harry couldn't find the breathe to answer them, and by midnight he was all alone.

"Where'd Ron and Hermione go?" Lily yelped in concern.

"They never came back," Harry admitted, starting to flatten his hair in nerves as he was sure he'd see them again sooner than he was thinking...but not how he was expecting.

He'd gone through his last book, and shame was settling in. He couldn't do this task. He'd have to go down there tomorrow and face Bagman's surprise, Karkaroff's smugness, Flure saying how unsurprised she was as he was just a little boy.

Harry slumped back in his seat, trying to ignore the mortification bubbling in him.

James caught sight of this and wasted no time in telling him, "you can't go blaming yourself for not getting this Harry. These were not designed for your age in mind, and honestly you still never should have been doing them in the first place."

Harry watched him for a moment before giving an honest smile. He didn't exactly feel better, but it still felt good no one in here was judging him for not being able to do so. He could suffer through all those other people's reactions so long as those in here shot their mouths off at them because of it.

He knew Malfoy would laugh himself silly, and Hagrid would be crestfallen.

Though Harry winced particularly hard at that one, knowing that would hurt the worst.

Harry stood abruptly from his seat, dislodging Crookshanks who gave him an unhappy hiss before slinking away.

"Yes, how dare the person move," Remus muttered to himself.

Harry made up his mind, going to fetch his Invisibility Cloak. He was going back to the library, and he would stay there until he found something!

"The fact that you've used that cloak to sneak into the Library more than anywhere else in that castle," Sirius shook his head, "I really never would have guessed it."

Lily quickly countered with, "well I'm not going to pretend to be disappointed."

Time kept marching on, soon it was almost three in the morning, and still Harry's nimble fingers kept pushing more pages along, one more book, it had to be in the next book...

The mermaid from the painting was still sitting on her rock, having a poke at Harry's head with his own broom while he floundered in the water.

"I'm thinking you finally fell asleep," James chuckled lightly.

"No, really?" Sirius challenged back. "I think Harry finally gave up and decided to hide in there with his broom."

Harry was trying to demand it back, but she just kept laughing and poking him in the head.

Harry told her to knock it off, that was hurting, but then another voice told him Harry Potter must wake up.

Lily sighed, hesitating before she read on to find out who was trying to wake her son up to face something like this, she really wasn't looking forward to the end results.

Harry insisted, with his eyes still shut, that he needed to stop being poked.

Dobby insisted he must keep poking Harry Potter, he must wake up.

"Why's Dobby the one fetching you?" Sirius did a double take in surprise.

"Why can he even see you?" James added, "you fell asleep under the cloak."

"Why didn't Ron and Hermione ever show up again?" Remus groused.

Lily was still ignoring all of those very good questions.

Harry sat up in surprise, the cloak had slipped off of him and he was still slumped over a book in the library, daylight shining on his face.

Dobby was still speaking to him, telling him he had ten minutes to get to the second task.

"Well at least Dobby poked you awake this time," Sirius offered helpfully, though he agreed he'd rather have just let Harry sleep through it at this point. "So at least he took your advice."

"As if I needed heart failure right before this," Harry absently agreed.

Harry repeated the time back in shock, even looking at his own watch to confirm, but when he saw Dobby was right, Harry slumped back in his chair in defeat.

Dobby was still being insistent, telling Harry Potter he needed to go, Dobby was going to help him.

"And how is he going to do that?" Remus demanded in surprise.

"Magic," James rolled his eyes, though now leaning forward eagerly as he was really curious to hear what Dobby had been up to so shushed Remus before he could respond.

Dobby had to help him, because Harry Potter needed to get back his Wheezy.

"His what?" All the boys asked at once.

Harry tried to ask what that was, and Dobby insisted Harry had to get back his Wheezy from the lake, the one who'd given Dobby his sweater.

Sirius flushed in shock, only just managing to stammer out, "they, they took Ron!"

"How on earth did they manage that?" James demanded of nothing, getting a little jittery at the thought.

"You think Hermione and him went down to the lake to test a theory of her's, and..." Lily trailed off as her mind failed to offer up anything after that.

Remus was shaking his head furiously as he objected, "I've never heard of Mermaids abducting anyone, there must be something else going on with this!"

Harry hadn't realized it before, but he was now feeling more panicky than ever about this task! Now not only had he no clue how to survive under the water, he had to find Ron as well!

Harry grasped what was going on, and began reciting that mermaid song again in horror.

"They wouldn't actually," Lily looked faint at the idea, unable to complete the thought aloud that they'd never really just leave them to die after an hour, then her mind flashed back to all those horrific stories she'd heard about the champions dying, and now they'd gone and put even more people into this Tournament! She kept reading in a feverish haste now, thinking that this school had officially lost its mind.

Harry begged Dobby for whatever help he had, and Dobby offered him gillyweed.

"Haven't I heard of that before?" James cocked his head to the side as it niggled at his mind.

"It's a plant," Lily yelped in shock, "used in potions to help you transform into aquatic life as it'll give you gills and fins. It's not native to Britain though, so I can't imagine where Dobby got a hold of that. I've only ever read about about it in an advanced Potion's text."

"Well whatever works to help me live through this," Harry said pointedly, and Lily took the hint and decided she'd figure out the elf later.

Sirius had to bite his tongue to caution Harry not take that, he still wasn't sure how much he trusted Dobby to be giving Harry anything.

Harry looked at the slimy green ball and asked what it did, and Dobby promised it would help Harry breathe underwater.

Harry couldn't help but ask how sure Dobby was, still remembering the last time the elf had tried to 'help' he'd gone a night without bones in his arm.

"Glad it's not just me," Sirius huffed under his breath, though Harry heard and acknowledged him with half a look of disbelief, and half agreement.

Dobby promised he knew what this was, he'd heard McGonagall and Moody talking about it! Dobby would not let Harry Potter lose his Wheezy!

"Well that we can agree on," Remus said.

Harry decided he'd have to trust this, he had no other choice. Stuffing the cloak and gillyweed onto his person, Harry thanked Dobby for his help as he sprinted out of the library.

"I can't deny I'm finally warming up to him," James grinned, Dobby had officially been very useful to Harry this year enough to make up for all his, err, issues in his second year.

Some people were still making their way out of the Entrance Hall from breakfast as Harry all but flew past them in his haste to make it down to the lake. Stands were already set up around it filled to the brim in anticipation to watch the lake.

"That's an interesting point I hadn't thought about," Remus couldn't stop himself blurting much to the annoyance of the others who wanted to get this task over with. "How on earth is this going to be spectated by anyone, wouldn't they just be watching the water's surface?"

"They could use Per Speculum," Lily offered distractedly, "cast it so that only the people in the stands could see through to the bottom of the lake."

"Can you use that spell to see through anything?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Inanimate objects," Lily agreed, "it's an old, tricky charm. I imagine some variation of it was used to create Moody's fake eye, plus whatever else was used to see through his own head as well."

While intrigued, Harry didn't press his mother for more details for now.

Harry came to a screeching halt in front of the judges stand, splattering mud on Flure.

"I'm sure she'll hex you for getting her dirty before she jumps into water," Sirius snorted.

A bossy voice demanded why he was so late.

"I hope Crouch is finally back," James said eagerly, "I want another look at him."

It was Percy, sitting in Crouch's spot.

"Why am I not surprised those two are described talking the same way," Remus snorted, as disappointed as the others Crouch had once again been a no show, but this just made his arrival in Snape's office all the stranger!

No one looked to question it now right before this task though.

Bagman waved him off, saying Harry should be allowed to catch his breath for a moment. Everyone except for Bagman and Dumbledore were smiling at Harry's arrival.

"Not sorry for your fortune," James grumbled.

Harry doubled over for a moment to indeed get back some air, and rub out the stitch in his side.

Remus couldn't help but think back and really realize how far Harry had just run in ten minutes, that really was quite a feet. He could have been a sprinter on the track team if he'd gone to a normal muggle school with that kind of talent.

He didn't have long as Bagman began spacing them out on the shoreline, pausing at Harry and asking if he knew what he was going to do?

"Even if he didn't, you going to teach him a spell in front of everyone in the next five seconds?" Sirius couldn't help but snap.

Lily rolled her eyes at him, Bagman was just trying to be friendly, but couldn't deny Sirius had a point this time.

Harry grasped the plant in his pocket as he said he was good to go. Bagman backed up then, turning on his Sonorous voice and calling for all to hear that on the count of three, the task would begin.

Time was up, a whistle blew, and Harry ignored everything around him as he struggled to remove his socks and shoes.

"You should have been allowed to at least do that," James sniffed. "The others showed up in swimwear."

"Price of being tardy," Lily sighed.

Then he stumbled into the icy waters, chewing furiously at the gillyweed. It was slimy and hard to force down his throat, his toes were numb and stumbling over the slick stones and smooth silt, and beyond in the stands Harry could hear laughter. He knew he probably looked ridiculous, wading in without seemingly doing anything.

"Not everything has to be flashy," Remus muttered, genuinely wondering what the other champions had come up with, but knew he could ask Harry later after the task.

Now he was up to his chest in the icy liquid, which felt more like fire the temperature was so unbearable, then a breeze blew through and Harry stood there shivering and waiting amid the jeering.

"How long does this stuff take to kick in?" Harry asked with unease, wondering if he should have been eating it on his run down there now.

"Only a few moments," Lily reassured, "it feels longer because you're waiting for it."

All at once he felt the change, the sides of his neck stung as his fumbling fingers felt slits appear there, his mouth and nose suddenly wouldn't take in air as if he had a pillow covering them.

"Fascinating," Sirius said genuinely, he'd never thought what it must feel like for a fish to be out of water, but Harry made a good point of it.

Without hesitating another moment, Harry flung himself into the water, sucked in the lake, and breathed freely again. Slamming his feet forward, Harry found he was suddenly moving much more easily through the water than he should have, and he looked down to see his fingers and toes were suddenly elongated and had bits of film between them all, he'd gone webbed with flippers.

"Looks like you got your wish," James grinned, "you sound like you've half turned into a frog."

"Frogs don't have gills by the time they have webbed feet," Remus reminded.

James rolled his eyes at him as that wasn't his point, but didn't start an argument over it for once.

The water now felt like the perfect temperature, and Harry could see much more clearly than he should have in the grime, plus he no longer needed to blink.

"I don't care what the others are doing," Sirius smiled, "this sounds by far the best way to do it."

Silence wasn't bleeding in, so as Harry propelled himself forward he had nothing to guide him through the foggy landscape. The smooth sand below quickly turned into a sea of seaweed and small fish occasionally flashed by and caught his eye, but there was no sign of Ron, merpeople, or even the giant squid.

"I think that would have been interesting to see up close," James snorted.

"Not if it decided you were shrimp," Remus said, trying to ignore the myths he'd heard about those things eating small whales in the wild, Harry didn't need to discover if that was true or not.

Nothing as far as the eye could see, Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of him,

Sirius wished Harry would quit mentioning that part, he kept blinking spastically every time and it was annoying to have it pointed out.

trying to discern shapes through the gloom when, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.

Lily couldn't help but startle just a bit, her foot trying to retract from nothing on instinct.

Harry twisted his body around to find a grindylow.

All five of them couldn't help a little shiver of unease at that, but were more thankful than ever Remus had been around last year to teach Harry about these things, Merlin knew what would be happening to him otherwise.

Harry went for his wand and shouted the spell Relashio, but to his surprise only a bubble came from his mouth, while a jet of water shot the creature in the head, creating a red welt in the green skin.

Harry couldn't help a little intrigue, he'd learned that spell over a year ago now but he'd only used it for the first time, and was honestly impressed it had even worked. While going over it in class, Professor Lupin had emphasized how hard this could be to pull off underwater where your spells could be temperamental since verbal spells were nay impossible to perform down there. Your best bet, if you hadn't learned silent spells yet, was to avoid them altogether.

Harry pulled his ankle free, but just as fast he had half a dozen chasing him and trying to pull him down. Harry kept swimming forward, shooting jets over his shoulder until another grabbed his and he gave a ferocious kick, knocking the creature loose and making it go crosseyed back into the weeds.

Lily forced herself to relax a bit now that Harry was away from that threat, still sending silent thank you's to Remus in her head for teaching Harry about those or this could have turned out much worse.

That excursion had done nothing to really help put him on a direction, so he was still pushing along when a voice asked how he was doing?

"Who's talking underwater?" James jumped in shock, the baby in his lap giving a particularly loud giggle for this.

Harry spun on the spot to find Myrtle.

"I don't want to know why she's down there, I do not want that image in my head again," Sirius groaned, covering up his ears and wishing he could do the same to his eyes to make that mental image go away.

"Who's using the bathroom during the middle of the tournament?" Remus muttered absently, but Lily ignored him more for not wanting to think about that than anything.

Harry tried to say her name, but all that came out was more bubbles, causing Moaning Myrtle to giggle.

"I think that's an oxymoron," James gave a surprised smile.

She pointed Harry in the right direction, but refused to come with him,

"It'd probably be cheating if she did," Lily agreed.

saying the merpeople chased her off when she went that way.

Harry gave her a thumbs up in thanks before heading that way, and knowing he was on the right path when he came across a stone statue depicting what must be merpeople chasing the giant squid.

"So, I'm guessing they don't get along," Remus couldn't help but be a bit interested at the idea of the conflict, he wouldn't deny he'd love to read a study on the matter if there was one out there.

The closer he swam, the more clearly he could hear that egg song again, now varying that his time was half up and if he didn't hurry, what he'd lost was going to stay here and rot.

"Gee, thanks," Harry shivered at the horrid idea, he half didn't want the memory back of what his best friend was going to look like in the mermaids clutches...plus he just knew there was someone else down here he was worried about.

Now Harry was swimming through the outskirts of an unmistakable village, some merpeople swimming to the windows of their houses to peak out at him. They looked nothing like the blonde in the prefects bathroom, these had gray skin and green hair, with thick burly features and powerful fish tails, and all were clutching spears.

All of them couldn't help but incline away from that thought, no one wanted to think what would happen if they all swarmed Harry at once. They were curious to know what had been done to even convince these mermaids to allow the tournament to go on in their dwellings, it was the height of uncommon.

Harry sped himself along, spotting a few features like gardens and pebbles lining a street way, even a grindylow tied to a stake like a pet.

"Bet you the equivalent of mermaid Hagrid lives in there," Sirius snorted.

Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another.

"Don't know why they bother," James said, "it's not like Harry speaks mermish."

"What would they even be whispering?" Sirius demanded, "hey look at that weird thing go, hope he drowns so we can have dinner."

"Don't make me silence you," Lily threatened without looking up.

Harry kept his speedy pace as he came across what must be the equivalent of their courtyard, the merpeople song louder than ever, and Harry laid eyes on a humongous statue of a merperson, four ropes bound to it.

"Guess I'm not surprised," Remus still couldn't stop the goosebumps climbing his limbs at the thought, "one for each person."

"I still want an explanation for how they ended up down there," Lily sighed, knowing she wasn't likely to get that until after the fact with the judges explaining, at least she hoped they would.

Ron was tied between Hermione and Cho.

"Why's Hermione there?" Harry yelped in surprise.

"There's no way you got two," James agreed.

Sirius couldn't help but snort in surprise though, saying, "Cedric's only been dating Cho for a few weeks, and she's the person he'd miss most?"

"I'd have missed Lily the most even before we started dating," James said at once, more to get a rise out of Sirius than anything.

It worked, as Sirius liked like a kicked puppy at once while bemoaning, "what do you mean it'd be Lily down there!"

"Please keep going," Remus begged of her, though she was watching with honest amusement and a faint blush, admitting she never would have found this so endearing before she'd married James but now it was hilarious to watch Sirius actually acting like this. She did reluctantly turn back to the pages though, wanting to hear about Harry and his friends getting out of this more than Sirius throwing a fit.

The last was a girl of about eight, her features leaving Harry in no doubt to be Fleur's sister.

"I'm sure it'll break Roger's heart when he hears it wasn't him," Remus smirked.

Sirius though went from indignant at his best friend, to speculation as he asked, "What's up with that?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "I think it's sweet." Her mind was honestly caught on a time where she knew she would have felt the same way about her older sister.

"Sweet sure, but kind of heartbreaking," Sirius said with a shrug, "I mean Fleur's little sister is there, so what's up with Krum not having some kind of family there, or even a random Durmstrang student Harry doesn't know. Cedric, fine, maybe Prongs is right and he's had a liking for her for ages, but are you telling me the person that kid would miss the most is some random girl he met that year?"

All four of them were looking at Sirius slightly slack jawed, until he gave them a sheepish smile and said, "What? Am I wrong?"

"No," Remus shook his head sadly, "You're right, which is why that was so depressing."

"That poor guy," James agreed

With nothing more any of them could think on the matter, Lily went back to reading.

All four were clearly in a deep sleep, faint bubbles rising from their mouths.

Harry continued forward, still half expecting to be attacked any moment, but the surrounding merpeople did nothing but watch. Harry investigated the ropes keeping them in place, but the knots were not to be undone, and Harry wished he'd brought along that new knife Sirius had given him.

"I doubt a severing charm would work any better underwater," Remus agreed with a sigh.

Harry instead turned for help, trying to gesture that he wanted to borrow one of their very sharp spears, but the one just laughed and said they were not to help, only watch.

Harry tried to shout in frustration, but only more bubbles appeared, causing them to laugh harder.

"I don't get why he's still laughing," Lily grumbled, "this isn't funny."

Still Harry went in search of something else, and went down to the rocky shore and found a rather jagged rock. It took some time to hack Ron free, but then Harry looked around expectantly and still found none of the other champions. Why didn't they hurry up already?

"I am positive they're not stopping to pet the grindylows," James agreed, his leg starting to jitter in unease for the victims of this, at least baby Harry found it amusing.

Harry turned his attention on Hermione in impatience, but was at once dragged away by the merpeople, telling him to only take his and leave the others.

"Well that's just cruel," Lily yelped fiercely. "Harry got there first, I see no problems he shouldn't be allowed to save everyone."

"What would happen if the others don't show up?" Remus agreed uneasily.

"Let's hope we don't have to find out," Sirius huffed.

Harry refused, trying to fight them off, but the merpeople weren't letting him go if he kept trying to help the girls. Harry looked from them to Ron, wondering if he'd have time to get him out and come back for the others?

"Most likely not," Lily muttered to herself, the effects of gillyweed didn't last that long.

Would he be able to find this place again? He looked at his watch to see how much time was left but it had stopped working.

"Because that's helpful," James scowled.

Around him the merpeople were muttering in excitement again, and Harry saw Cedric swimming for them with a bubble over his head, distorting his features.

"What spell is that?" Harry asked in surprise, managing to relax even just a bit now that he wasn't alone surrounded by those things.

"Don't know," James said, his face just the same as Harry's, "I've never heard of that."

He mouthed at Harry he'd gotten lost, as he came forward with a knife and cut Cho free in no time.

"Well he just came all kinds of prepared," Sirius rolled his eyes, unnecessarily annoyed at him for bringing that along.

He pulled her upward and out of sight.

"Good to know Cedric cares so much for the others," James couldn't help but snap, Harry could have won already if he wasn't so busy making sure everyone got out of there, like Cho.

Harry still hovered there, waiting for Fleur and Krum. Time was running out, what would happen to the hostages after the hour was up?

Again they all shivered at such phrasing, but really they hoped that was being exaggerated somewhat! They wouldn't really leave those kids down there to die if say someone like Harry hadn't been able to get there, right?

Water babble started up again, and Harry saw another moving in, Krum, with the head of a shark.

"You know, I still can't help but like him just for that," James smirked, "he happened to do what I would have in this instance."

"A shark though," Sirius snorted in amusement, "a fish just wasn't grand enough, no he went for the big one."

"Exactly what Prongs would have done," Remus repeated with a smirk.

His new jagged teeth tried to tear into the flimsy ropes, but they were too small for him to properly gnaw on. Harry feared he'd rip Hermione in half trying.

"Oh I'm sure he's more careful than that," Lily insisted for comfort at once.

"Sharks can feel pulses in the water," Remus offered helpfully, "so I'm sure he can be precise enough not to hit anything he shouldn't be."

Harry swam forward and punched his shoulder hard as he could to get his attention, offering his own jagged rock.

"It's too bad you didn't have that same excuse to hit Diggory," Sirius smirked, which Harry didn't deny.

Krum took the offering, freed Hermione, and was out of sight in no time. Still Harry couldn't swim away with Ron, his eyes trained every which way in hope for Fleur to arrive.

Time was running out, and Harry got desperate.

He took back the stone for himself and went after the little girls ropes, but again the merpeople tried to stop him. Harry pulled out his wand.

Remus couldn't help going a little wide eyed in fear for Harry doing that. He was lucky that whatever was going on these merpeople were playing along, they weren't known for cooperating well with wizards. Harry pulling a wand on them could break whatever truce had been called for this task to play out.

He shouted at them to get out of it, and while bubbles only came out, he got the feeling they understood anyways.

"Bit hard to misinterpret a wand on your nose," Sirius agreed.

They stopped trying to force him away, and Harry kept at his task. Still they were clearly not happy, but stayed well away from him now, so knowing he had the advantage, Harry told them they had till the count of three to get lost, holding up three fingers just to make sure they got the point.

"You'd be great at charades," James couldn't stop himself saying even as he wriggled around in anticipation for this to almost be over

By the time he reached two, they'd scattered.

They all released a breath of relief at that, Harry really should count himself lucky that hadn't gone worse.

Harry quickly got moving then with Ron and the girl, his mind still fearing what was going to happen when time ran out, would they pull him back to the depths?

Harry looked wildly around for someone to tell him he was being ridiculous at that thought, and when no one did but in fact looked slightly even more worried, it wasn't exactly a comfort. Now with both of Harry's hands tied in fact with these two, he couldn't even keep his wand on them as a threat, and what about when the gillyweed ran out?!

Did they eat humans?

Remus really didn't like the fact that he wasn't a hundred percent sure about that fact, he'd heard conflicting stories on the matter and now didn't feel like the time to get a confirmation.

Harry kept himself going, the water steadily growing bright around him, but not fast enough. His muscles were starting to cramp, he could feel himself getting waterlogged, the gills were vanishing and he could no longer draw breath, but still he paddled furiously on as the flippers vanished, he knew the air was above him if he could just get close enough...

Lily forced herself to stop reading no matter how much she didn't want to, just to look up at her son for a moment and tell him, "you and me really need to have a talk about how your mind comes up with the best ways possible to make this tension ten times worse than it should be."

Harry gave her an uneasy smile, unsure if he was being scolded or she was just looking for a release, but she was already turning back to the pages.

then his head broke the surface.

Finally they all managed to breathe with ease again as well, lighting another check mark down in their brain, two down, just one more to go! That last task wasn't going to be over fast enough for them.

Air washed over his face, he erupted in shivers again but he didn't care as he pulled Ron and the girl up with him. Along came several green heads, but they were all smiling.

"Well that's nice," Remus huffed, still half wanting to curse those stupid things for freaking Harry out as much as the grindylows.

The crowd in the stands was going crazy, shouting and screaming as many seemed to fear that Harry had reemerged with someone dead.

Harry suddenly spasmed, his eyes rolling into the back of his head for a moment and shaking so hard he nearly fell over, but the yellow haze swallowing his brain was over as fast as it had come, and he blinked back into the world around him feeling very close to vomiting but having no idea why. He tried to both explain himself and apologize around shaking lips, but though the tight worry in all of their eyes didn't lessen any, Sirius kept a tight hold on Harry's shoulder and James was juggling his infant and watching Harry like at any moment he was prepared to cast a protective charm on him to stop his head hitting anything, no one could bring themselves to ask Harry a single question of why on earth Harry would have a reaction to that. It didn't stop them from turning over what Lily had read over and over in their head...

The two seemed fine though, the girl glancing fearfully around her as she clung to Harry for support, Ron spitting out a bit of water and telling Harry how wet it was.

Harry forced out some approximation of a laugh, his skin still too white for it to be believable, still blinking far too fast for them to believe he wasn't still trying to process what he was hearing rather than some accumulation of memories.

Though for the life of him Sirius actually didn't want to make the joke, still far to worried about what Harry had almost remembered to feel it, he still said, "at least you can always count on Ron to point out the important stuff."

Harry gave him such a relieved smile it had been worth it, and James sat back in his seat and kept the baby in his lap all the closer to him to ignore the interaction while still keeping an eye on Harry.

Then Ron saw the little girl and asked why she was here?

"Did he actually expect him to leave her?" Remus asked absently, trying to refuse to allow his mind to guess where Harry's had gone and mostly failing so coming up with far too many options of what could be bothering him.

Lily fidgeted with the pages for a few moments, not particularly wanting to answer but it would still feel better than letting her own mind wander. "Well if that's Ron's first response, then I guess we were worried for nothing. Perhaps the merpeople would have brought up the unrescued kids on their own."

She tried to instill as much confidence as she could, especially into the first part of that statement for Harry's benefit, wanting to believe more than anything Harry's flashback or memory relapse of whatever he'd nearly felt wasn't going to be as horrible as they were all thinking...though no one really believed that.

Harry explained Fleur never showed up, and he couldn't just leave her!

Ron told Harry he was being a prat, had he really taken that song seriously?

"That's a good point," Sirius quickly shot off, now knowing there had always been one fell safe way to get Harry to laugh and hoping it would work now, "how come I wasn't the one down there! You'd miss Ron more than me?"

He splayed such puppy eyes, Harry really did cave and give a genuine laugh for that.

Dumbledore wouldn't have let them drown!

"He makes it sound so obvious," James grumbled, thinking Ron wouldn't have said the same if he'd heard of all the past tournaments like they had. Lily's panicky little worries at the start of this didn't seem so foolhardy now.

Harry insisted the song had said-

but Ron told Harry they'd only phrased it that way so the champions would return in the time limit. Had Harry really come up last because he was acting the hero?

"Acting is inaccurate," Remus said with a strained smile, but all for happily talking about before Harry came out of the water and they'd gained a new worry. "What Harry did is very brave, and I'm still offended Krum and Diggory clearly didn't even consider doing the same."

Harry gave a bone deep shiver, something of what Remus had said hadn't exactly made him feel better and in fact was making an onset of his migraine reappear, but Lily quickly realized this and kept reading loudly before Harry could lose whatever color he'd even partially regained.

Harry felt stupid and annoyed at the same time. It was all good for Ron to be saying this, he'd been asleep the whole time. He hadn't seen how spooky that lake bottom was.

"Remus' point exactly," James agreed.

Instead of answering, he told Ron to help him out with the girl, she didn't seem able to swim very well.

The three hauled themselves back to the shore, accompanied by the merpeople singing their screechy song above the surface.

"I'll bet the crowd just loved hearing that," Sirius rubbed his ear absently.

Madam Pomfrey was already tending to the other champions and their rescuees.

There it was again, Harry was now confident someone in that list of names had been the cause of such a powerful memory trying to swarm him, but even the thought of guessing had him wanting to press his hand to his mouth to wipe sweat from his lip and had his stomach curling in protest along with his mind growing in pain.

Dumbledore and Bagman stood nearest to the shore, smiling out at them, but Percy wasn't waiting. Looking much younger than usual and very white, he went splashing out into the water to meet them.

"Aww," Lily couldn't help but coo slightly, wondering just how much Percy had been told of what was going on, how seriously he'd have taken this task and if he'd been wondering about Harry taking so long because something was wrong with Ron.

Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur,

"Oh good," Sirius said absently, he really had been concerned what had happened to her to stop her grabbing her sister and was glad she hadn't been a casualty this challenge.

who was busy being hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

"I don't want to hear anyone calling Harry over reacting now," James arched a brow, if honestly impressed at the girl. "She's the one who's clearly thinking her sister was really in danger."

"Apparently it was just the actual victims who didn't know they weren't really victims," Remus snorted, though that still didn't track right with Krum and Diggory. Either they'd worked out the hostages weren't really in danger, which was odd as Harry and Fleur hadn't gotten that memo, or they hadn't stuck around enough to care.

She was screaming for Gabrielle, demanding to know if she was okay, or hurt?

Harry tried to tell her she was fine, but was so exhausted he could barely catch his own breath.

Percy had Ron seized tight to him, while Ron was vainly struggling to get free.

Causing all of them to have smiles of happiness for that moment, erasing the last of their worry for whatever Harry had been feeling from the top of their minds, for now. Whatever he'd been remembering would come, and they'd deal with it then, for now it was to adorable to pass up the moment for Sirius to tease Percy, "I'm going to remember this the next time he's spouting off about how important his cauldron bottom report is."

Flure got herself free and came forward, clinging to her sister and apologizing that it had been the grindylows that had stopped her.

"Well obviously Beauxbatons doesn't have as good of a DADA teacher as Harry got," James smiled pompously for his friend, while Remus rolled his eyes at Prongs.

She was in tears as she sobbed over her sister, while Harry was forced over by the others and had a blanket wrapped so tight around him he felt like a burrito, and was force fed a potion that made his ears steam.

"Don't want you catching a cold on top of everything," Lily happily agreed.

Hermione waddled up to him, praising what a good job he'd done, figuring this out all by himself.

"She's so surprised when I can do anything without her," Harry mock pouted.

Harry was fixing to correct he'd had help from Dobby, but then he spotted Karkaroff trying to listen in. He'd been the only judge not to be so visibly relieved by their return.

"As if I needed more confirmation he was a heartless scumbag," Sirius scoffed.

Harry pitched his voice as loud as he could for him to hear that Harry had indeed done just that.

James let out a booming laugh of pride at that, ruffling his son's hair as the father told that had been a classic move.

Krum tried to draw back Hermione's attention that she had a beetle in her hair,

There was a slight buzz in the base of Harry's skull, something telling him he should know something about that, but since he was still suffering from his last memory shock he didn't even give the feeling a glance.

Harry was sure Krum was trying to remind her who'd really saved her from the lake

Lily couldn't help but feel just slightly bad for Krum, he clearly really liked Hermione and yet he was most likely jealous of any attention Hermione ever gave Harry.

but Hermione just impatiently brushed the bug away and kept talking to Harry, telling him he was way outside of his time limit though and asking if he'd gotten lost?

Harry didn't really answer fully.

"More like, I found you first, I just stuck around the longest," Remus finished for him when it was clear Harry was going to trail off, in modesty or embarrassment he wasn't sure.

His stupidity was growing by the moment, now that he was clear headed it seemed obvious Dumbledore wouldn't have let them die just because the champion had failed.

"Well sure, in hindsight," Lily rolled her eyes, "but no one had better blame you for thinking otherwise, I wouldn't have really put it past them at this point."

He should have just grabbed Ron and gone, Cedric and Krum had.

"I hope you don't start using them as role models," James sniffed in disgust, he wasn't particularly fond of either of them even if they did sometimes amuse.

They hadn't taken the mersong seriously...

"How do you know how I would have taken it?" Sirius demanded at once, "you never showed it to me?"

Harry still laughed again, whatever feelings he had at himself vanishing at Sirius' distraction.

Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson.

"Why am I not surprised Dumbledore speaks mermish," Remus chuckled, suddenly this whole task made a lot more sense to him, it wouldn't surprise him in the least if Dumbledore was actually on friendly terms with the merpeople.

When he was done he called the judges over to him so they could discuss all of the champions before releasing the scores.

Madam Pomfrey was now trying to rescue Ron from Percy, then tried to go for Fleur and her sister, but the elder girl refused and insisted her sister was to be looked after first. Then she swooped in on Harry, thanking him for saving her though he hadn't had to.

Harry belligerently agreed, now wishing he'd left her tied up with the rest of the girls.

Sirius released a sharp bark of laughter, guess Harry had a petty side when he got embarrassed.

"Oh I'm sure Hermione would have loved to hear that one," Lily giggled.

"Don't let Cho hear you thinking that one," James gave his son a winning smile, "she probably thought you grabbed the wrong hostage, she was likely thinking she'd been both yours and Cedrics."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Harry grumbled at the lot of them still smirking. "You know you were thinking the exact same thing as me."

"Yes," Remus agreed, "but we admit to it."

Fleur bent and gave Harry a kiss on each cheek, much to his burning embarrassment,

Harry was now wishing he'd passed out when he had the chance, it would have been much kinder than having to watch them all collapse laughing at his cherry red face.

then she turned on Ron and thanked him for helping as well.

Ron agreed he'd done a bit, still looking hopefully at her.

"I'm sure he's very hopeful for something," Sirius got out around his laughter.

Fleur swooped down and kissed him too.

Harry couldn't help joining in the laughter this time, Ron had looked so pleased and flustered at the same time.

Hermione looked furious,

"What's eating her?" James demanded lightly, "they're just getting thanked is all."

"I'm sure Hermione's just upset because she was fixing to, err, thank him as well," Sirius tried to insist around his chuckles.

but was interrupted by Bagman announcing for all to hear that the Merchieftainess had told of what all had happened and the scores were as follows out of fifty.

Flure had successfully used a Bubble-Head Charm,

"I've never heard of that," Lily pouted.

"You think it's a new spell invented?" Remus asked curiously. "Sounds simple enough in theory, wonder what year it's taught at."

"Clearly more than a fifth year, or Hermione would have come across it," Sirius shrugged.

but was attacked by grindylows, and failed to retrieve her hostage. So was awarded twenty- five points.

"Still half credit for the magic, seems fair," Lily agreed.

Polite applause followed while Flure told how she didn't deserve any.

Sirius couldn't deny he sort of liked her again for that, she clearly wasn't all about herself as she put on if she was humble enough to admit that.

Diggory, also using the same Charm,

"I'm extremely insulted for Harry," James pouted, "it would have been nice if he'd passed that along to Harry along with his stupid clue, or at least told him what book to be in."

Lily wanted to argue that would have been handing Harry the whole task, even Harry hadn't told Cedric how he was getting past his dragon, but really she wouldn't have been upset about it either as Harry had clearly needed the help.

"He should get points off for using the same thing as another champion," Sirius sighed. "I'd accuse them of conspiring."

was the first back but still outside his time limit of an hour by a minute.

"Wow, even first place didn't get there fast enough," Remus said in surprise, "I think they didn't estimate that time limit correctly."

"I'll send them a note," Sirius said with a careless shrug.

He was given forty-seven points.

His supporters went wild with applause while Harry's hopes plummeted, if Cedric had been late Harry was doomed.

Krum had used some Transfiguration work and came back second, winning forty points.

"I can see that," James nodded along, though he'd half been hoping both those boys would get some points taken off for not being like Harry and hanging around, though this could possibly be more of a reason why Cedric hadn't gotten a perfect score. James was certainly going to keep thinking so.

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

"I'm sure he would have awarded a whole fifty if he could have gotten away with it," Sirius muttered to no one's disagreement.

Then there was Harry, who'd arrived first but according to eyewitness had stayed behind until all hostages were safe, even retrieving the last hence his delay in returning. His two friends looked at him half in exasperation, half commiseration.

Harry couldn't stop a small smile though, he missed being around his friends and was imagining what they would have said to him had they been here with him now.

Most of the judges, Bagman paused to give a nasty look at Karkaroff, had felt this showed his moral fiber and should be given full points.

"Wow," all of them blinked in surprise, pleased beyond words Harry was getting recognized for this act, and Karkaroff could sod off for thinking otherwise.

Instead, he'd received forty-five points.

Harry blushed as he was congratulated all around for this, pleased beyond words at their praise no matter how much he tried to convince them to move along, it wasn't that big of a deal, it's what anyone would have done...

Harry laughed in surprised as his friends began jumping around for joy, Ron congratulating him he wasn't just thick, he'd been showing moral fiber!

"Technically you were doing both," James beamed at him, "you're just that good at multitasking."

Fleur was clapping along happily as well, and while Krum tried to turn away and talk to Hermione again, she was too busy cheering for Harry to notice.

"That's his problem," Sirius sniffed, "he should have used that stupid shark head for something more useful than nearly ripping her in half."

Bagman rounded off by saying that the final task would happen at dusk on June 24th.

Harry felt a mounting sense of doom at the very idea, but he was still enjoying himself just a little too much at the warm attention from his family to give it much thought.

The champions would be given more details before hand, in the meantime, they were free to go.

Harry felt dazed as Madam Pomfrey began ushering them all up to the school for a warm change of clothes. He had ages until June to worry about anything again.

"Which will hopefully be your problem," Lily shot at Sirius just to get him to stop smirking for a moment, which worked much to her pleasure.

Next time he was in Hogsmeade, Harry decided as he walked back up the steps into the castle, he was going to buy Dobby a pair of socks for every day of the year.

They were very happy indeed they could end a chapter once again laughing outright, no one denying Dobby more than deserved it as Lily got up to swap the book in her hand for her baby while James took the hefty object, noting they were well on their way to being halfway done this year. Hopefully nothing to much more exciting could happen.

[fruitquake]

Hi so I had this prompt in my head for a while and I was wondering if you could make it come "alive"? One night a very drunk(or tired after the full moon)Remus Lupin says "I love you" to Sirius and then falls asleep(and doesn't remember anything).Sirius is super confused but then after a week of Sirius being awkward around Remus,Remus gets a boyfriend/girlfriend.Sirius is VERY jealous and he confronts Remus about it.They end up kissing or smth.Maybe even smut if you're okay with that lmao

this is so cliché but dang i enjoyed writing it.

(note: there’s no smut, sorry anon)

-

“Aww, they’re so cute together!”

James was referring to Remus and Mary, his new girlfriend, who were sitting together next to the fireplace.

Sirius didn’t agree, and he didn’t mind voicing his opinion. 

“It’s gross,” he said, scowling at the couple, who were huddled so close together they could’ve been one person. “So over-the-fucking-top.”

James shook his head at his best friend’s claim. “They’re not even kissing,” he pointed out.

“They were earlier,” Sirius growled. “And it was disgusting.”

“Oh, come on, Pads.” James chuckled. “You’ll have to admit they make a pretty cute couple!”

Sirius shook his head and scowled. Not wanting to look at the couple anymore, he grabbed the nearest distraction: A potions textbook which he had no interest in actually reading. 

It didn’t make sense to Sirius: Why was Remus dating Mary, a girl? Had Sirius misunderstood what Remus had told him that night?

It was about a week ago, the night of one of Gryffindor’s signature parties: the kind of party where everyone got super drunk and stayed up way too late. 

“Have you guys seen Remus?” a noticeably drunk James asked, dropping down on the couch next to Sirius and Peter.

Sirius scanned the room for his friend, concern tugging at his chest. Where was Remus?

“I saw him a while ago,” Peter piped up. “He looked like he was headed for the bathroom. Now that I think about it, he’s been in there for a long time…”

“Hm.” James turned his head towards the closed bathroom door, his brows furrowed in what seemed to be concern. “Maybe someone should go check on him,” he said. “If he’s still in there, that is.”

“I’ll do it.” Sirius quickly got to his feet, the need to make sure his friend was alright overruling his drunkenness and somehow sobering him up. 

Remus was, as they had expected, still in the bathroom. He was on the floor, bent over the toilet, and he wasn’t looking all too well.

“Moony, are you okay?!” Sirius hurried into the bathroom and knelt down next to Remus. “Did you drink too much?”

Remus groaned and gazed up at Sirius, his usually bright eyes dull. “I guess?” His voice was feeble and his words slurred. 

“Do you need to throw up or anything?” Sirius asked, brushing Remus’s curly locks away from his clammy forehead.

Remus shook his head. “I already did,” he mumbled, gesturing vaguely to the toilet. “I think I’ll just-” with a groan, he reached for the sink and tried to hoist himself up. “I’ll just go to bed now.”

Sirius reacted quickly, reaching out to support Remus just as he lost balance. “Hey!” he said. “Careful.”

As the two of them exited the bathroom, Sirius with his arm around Remus, they found James and Peter waiting outside. 

“Is he okay?” James asked with visible concern. 

Sirius nodded. “Yeah, he’s fine,” he said. “Don’t worry, mate, I’ve got this.”

He helped Remus up the steep stairs and into their dormitory, where he made him get into bed, pulling the covers up around his body. 

“It’s nice of you to tuck me into bed,” Remus mumbled, a sleepy grin slowly spreading on his face. “Are you gonna tell me a bedtime story too?”

He looked so beautifully innocent, curled up under the crimson red covers, his soft green eyes gazing up at Sirius, who smiled, heat rising to his cheeks. “If you want me to,” he answered. 

Remus chuckled softly, his eyes fluttering shut. “My mum always told me stories before bed,” he mumbled sleepily. “When I was a kid…” He was quiet for a bit. Sirius thought he might’ve fallen asleep, and was about to get up when he spoke again: “I think I love you as much as I love my mum.”

“Huh?” Sirius’ eyes widened as he turned around to look at Remus again. 

“It’s a different kind of love, though,” Remus murmured with a soft but sleepy smile.

“What… what do you mean?” Sirius asked, a nervous chuckle escaping him.

Remus seemed to already be half asleep, his breathing heavier, more relaxed, as he, with barely more than a whisper said: “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.”

Sirius had been shocked, to say the least. Confused too, and not quite sure he’d heard correctly, but he hadn’t been able to get another word out of Remus before the werewolf had fallen asleep. 

In the past week, he’d felt awkward around Remus, and neither of them had mentioned the conversation, but now, quite suddenly and as though nothing ever happened, Remus was dating Mary. Why? 

“Honestly, Padfoot,” James said, bringing Sirius back to the common room. “You’ve been acting really weird all day. Is this about Remus and Mary?”

Sirius wasn’t quite sure what to say, so he didn’t respond and James seemed to take his silence as confirmation. 

“Look,” he said. “She’s leaving now.”

Sirius looked up. Mary was in fact leaving, but not before grabbing Remus’ face in both her hands and pressing their lips together a little too passionately. It made Sirius sick to watch.

“I’m not going to get involved in this thing, whatever it is,” James continued. “But I think you should go talk to Remus.”

Talk about what? Sirius thought. Yet he nodded, got up and walked over to where Remus was now sitting alone. They hadn’t talked, not really at least, since the party last week, and the air between them was full of tension as Remus looked up, noticing Sirius coming towards him. 

Sirius cleared his throat. “Hey,” he said, shifting uncomfortably and trying not to look at Remus. The image of him and Mary kissing kept playing in his head, more and more upsetting each time. 

“Oh, hey.” Although Sirius wasn’t looking at Remus’ face, he recognized the tone: stiff, hesitant, but with pent-up emotion. “So you’re talking to me again, huh?”

Sirius bit down on his lower lip. He sounded… hurt?

“I hadn’t stopped talking to you,” he answered. He heard Remus draw in a breath, undoubtedly about to call Sirius’ bullshit out, but Sirius didn’t let him get in a word, continuing to talk instead: “Let’s go somewhere more… private,” he said.

He finally looked at Remus. He looked surprised but after a moment, he nodded, getting to his feet. “Alright,” he said. “I’m right behind you.”

They left the common room and found an empty classroom. Sirius felt his heartbeat quicken: he was nervous, unsure what he was gonna say to Remus.

However once they were inside the empty classroom, standing face-to-face, the words just rolled right off his tongue, from an unknown place he hadn’t been aware even existed:

“What the fuck, Remus?” The hardness in his own tone startled him, but he kept going: “Can’t you make up your mind? One day you’re telling me you’re fucking in love with me, but then you pretend it never happened and get together with Mary instead! So which one is it, Remus? ‘Cause I’m not going to get my hopes up again if you’re just gonna shatter them. Honestly, it’s like my feelings don’t mean shit to you.”

Remus stared at him blankly, a mix of shock and just utter confusion on his face. “What are you talking about?” he asked, cheeks turning brightly red. “I’ve never said I…” He trailed off, eyes looking anywhere but at Sirius. “I never said I’m in love with you,” he mumbled. 

“Wait, you… you don’t remember?” Sirius asked, surprise masking his frustration. Remus had been very drunk, but… did he really not remember? Sirius had walked around for a week now, being able to think about nothing else than that moment, where Remus had told him he loved him, and Remus himself didn’t even remember?

Sirius shook his head. “No,” he said, answering his own question before Remus could. “You’re lying,” he whispered, tears springing to his eyes. “You changed your mind didn’t you?”

“I- what?” Remus laughed in disbelief. “Sirius that’s-”

Sirius continued before Remus could finish his sentence. “You changed your mind about being in love with me,” he repeated. “And since you don’t have a fucking time-turner, you can’t undo it, so instead you pretend it never happened and jump into the lap of the first girl to give you the slightest bit of attention! It’s pathetic, Remus.”

“Don’t bring Mary into this,” Remus warned him, his voice quiet but serious. 

“Why the fuck shouldn’t I?” Sirius snapped back, Remus’ calmness only riling him up even further. “Me or Mary, Remus? Which one is it? ‘Cause you’ve been sending really fucking mixed signals!”

“I’ve been sending mixed signals?” Remus scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. “Sirius, you’ve barely been talking to me this past week! Every time I’ve tried communicating with you, asking you why you aren’t talking to me, you’ve completely brushed me off! Do you have any idea how shitty that made me feel?”

Sirius felt a pang of guilt. He’d never meant to upset Remus, but after the night of the party, he hadn’t known how to act around him. “I need the truth,” he said quietly, heartbeat suddenly quickening again. “Are you in love with me?”

He was taken by great surprise as Remus, quite suddenly, stepped forward and grabbed his shirt, pulling him into a kiss. 

“How could I not be in love with you?” Remus asked in a tortured voice as they broke apart, their faces only inches from each other. “I swear, I’ve tried to let it go, and to just get over you because how could you ever love someone like me, but…” He looked up, his soft green eyes staring right into Sirius’ grey ones. “You make it so fucking hard.”

Sirius stared into Remus’ eyes, his mind struggling to make sense of anything that had just happened. “You’re in love with me?” he asked again.

Remus rolled his eyes but seemed unable to repress a smile. “Yes, I am,” he said, cupping Sirius’ face in his hands. “Keep up, Padfoot.”

[callumturncr]

A Different Path [Sirius Black AU] - Part 4

Summary: Post-graduation AU in which the reader, Lily and The Marauders have just joined the Order of the Phoenix. As tensions are at its highest in the First Wizarding War, the reader, who likes Sirius Black more than she would like to admit, is framed for the murder of Marlene McKinnon.

Parts:  1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8

Author’s Note: Starting from next week, updates will be on Saturday/Sunday instead of Wednesday because my school starts Monday, sorry! I hope you guys enjoy this part. Please feel free to message me if you want to be added on the tag list!

Gif is not mine. Words: 1.5k

Almost three years had passed and Y/N still hadn’t gotten used to the blasting cold that surrounded Azkaban prison.

It was the bone chilling kind that made you numb with prolonged exposure and the striped prisoner uniforms did nothing to shield against it. The monotony of solitary confinement and the Dementors that lurked along the corridors weren’t much comfort either. This had inevitably taken its toll on Y/N, both mentally and physically but like with the cold, she could do nothing to make herself feel better. Any positive thought, no matter how tiny would surely be fed upon by the Dementors.

Her cell was small with a port-hole like window that sat high up one wall. Small, white markings stood out on the other one – little lines made with a shard of rock to count the days she’d spent as prisoner – facing the door. It swung open right as she thought of it and Y/N flinched, waiting for the cloaked figure to swoop inside. But it wasn’t a Dementor.

Alastor Moody stood at the doorway, but this recognition only dawned on Y/N after a good few minutes. His face was covered with numerous scars and a chunk of his nose was missing, but the most shocking was his fake eye that was currently swiveling around the length of the room. Spotting her huddled against a dark corner, he moved inside.

“Y/L/N.”

Not sure if she was dreaming or not, Y/N stared at him in awe. He walked a few steps forward to see her a bit more clearly before crouching.

“Still got your wits about you?”

Recovering from her shock, she merely nodded in reply. There were so many questions that she had for him but she didn’t ask any, not trusting her voice. Instead, she sat up straighter and hid her shaking hands.

“Dementors give you much trouble?”

It was very unlike Moody to make small talk but Y/N thought that he had probably never found himself in this situation before. She shrugged.

“Why have you come?” Her voice was ragged from disuse.

“Annual visit with the Ministry,” he answered. “Crouch thought it would be good to see what became of the convicted Death Eaters in here.” As soon as he’d said it, he cursed under his breath. He hadn’t meant to sound as if Y/N was included in that category but the insinuation stung all the same.

“Why have you come to see me?” Once, the mere thought of questioning Alastor Moody would’ve made Y/N shudder but the Dementors were so draining, that she found herself past caring if she offended him or not.

“Dumbledore told me to check this floor.” He offered no more explanation. The magical eye had stopped scanning the room and was now fixed on her, bright and unblinking.

“You’ve missed a fair amount,” Moody said after a while. She looked on curiously but had half a mind to stop him. As much as she wanted to hear about the world beyond the tiny one that had become hers, thinking about her friends was painful. “Evans and Potter are married now. Have a son. Made Black the Godfather, he was best man at their wedding too.”

Y/N’s breath caught in her throat. Despite her markings on the wall, the days spent in her cell had all blurred together at some point but now, she truly realized how long it had been. Lily and James had a son. Something faintly resembling a smile broke out on her face and she found herself once again speechless. Moody inclined his head and spoke softer.

“Black goes to visit your friend’s grave regularly. Took her loss quite hard. Didn’t show at meetings for some time.”

At the specific mention of Sirius, Y/N looked towards the floor. Sirius’ words to her that day had stung most of all. The look of hatred on his face haunted her when she was awake, when she was asleep, in her dreams. As did the moment of Marlene’s death – Y/N had relived that night more times than she could count, each time envisioning something different she could’ve done to prevent it. Shaking her head fiercely, she expelled the image of Marlene’s dead body from her mind.

She didn’t want to hear about Sirius either.

“Where did they bury her?”

“Godric’s Hollow. She’s with her family.”

Y/N cocked her head to the side in confusion, heart thudding in her chest.

“Voldemort went after the whole McKinnon family after Marlene. Wiped out all of them,” he was still speaking softly, like his words might shatter her if he said them too loudly. She bit her lip, roughly wiping at her eyes. An entire family gone just like that. While she’d been holed up in Azkaban, Voldemort had only grown stronger and stronger and the McKinnons had taken the brunt of his power.

“You asked why I’m here,” Moody continued. “The Potters are about to be next.”

Surely she’d heard him wrong.

“Wh– what?”

“There is a prophecy that a boy born at the end of July possesses the power to defeat the Dark Lord,” he stopped seeing the incredulous look on her face but continued on before she could stop him. “Lily gave birth at the end of July, last year.”

She stared at him, dumbstruck. “How can a child–”

“That’s not the point. Voldemort reportedly knows about this prophecy. This boy it referred to can either be Lily’s son or Alice Longbottom’s. You remember Alice?”

Y/N nodded. “She was an Auror. Her husband as well.”

“Professor Flitwick told Dumbledore that a Fidelius charm could be performed to keep James, Lily and the boy safe. Something about hiding them in a living soul. The person whose soul is chosen is referred to as the Secret Keeper.” Moody paused and let out a sigh before dealing the final blow.

“The Potters have chosen Peter Pettigrew to be that Secret Keeper.”

Y/N’s blood ran cold. His words made no sense at all.

“No,” she began, “Why him? Why not Sirius? James’ best friend is Sirius.”

“Actually, Black was the one who convinced them to choose Peter instead.”

The thought of Sirius secretly being Death Eater too played itself out in her head but she shook it away. Sirius would never, not in a million years, betray the Potters. Not James, who had given him a home and a family and his trust.

But hadn’t she thought the same about Peter once?

“Then why not Remus? Don’t tell me they’re still at odds.”

“They are not. Once Crouch sentenced you, Black believed he had it wrong from the beginning. Remus was not the spy to be wary of…” Moody trailed off. Y/N steeled her gaze.

“He thinks it was me all along,” she finished for him. Something bitter rose within her; it had taken her imprisonment for them to make up.

“He believes he and Lupin would be too predictable as choices for Secret Keeper. Voldemort would never think it would be Pettigrew,” Moody said grimly. “But Sirius doesn’t know what you know does he, Y/N?”

She gaped at him as her mind worked to decipher what he meant. At last, she understood why Moody was here.

He believed her. Believed that Peter had been the one to kill Marlene, the one betraying the Order’s secrets. Believed that given the chance, he would betray this secret too. Moody stood up as the realization crossed her face.

“Sirius will not change his mind. It’s Peter’s word against mine,” she couldn’t help the bitterness in her voice.

“Unfortunately that is true. So we show him.”

His wand was in his hand and he hobbled closer to her.

“He will not take your word for it either. Legilimency won’t work,” Y/N said.

“Right again. Legilimency will not convince anyone, which is why I need the exact memory,” Moody’s eye had spun again so he could watch the door in case anyone came in. His real eye was focused on her as she pieced it together.

Dumbledore told me to check this floor.

“The Pensieve,” she breathed. Y/N closed her eyes as he brought his wand to her temple. A thin wisp of silver floated out and directed by his wand, placed itself in a small vial. He made his way back just as several muffled voices rounded the corner, Dumbledore’s deep rumble among them. Opening the door, Moody spoke loudly as if he had only just come to her cell.

“The Ministry of Magic has agreed to your trial,” he began. Y/N blinked in surprise and his sheepish look told her that he’d nearly forgotten to say this. “You will stand before the Minister and the Wizengamot in two months and tell them exactly what happened that night.”

The voices were drawing nearer. Moody gave her one final nod and pocketed the vial, about to close the door when Y/N called out.

“What’s his name?” she asked. “Lily’s son?”

The door had almost shut but she heard his answer.

“Harry Potter.”

Tag List: @knowledgeisthebomb @siriusement @kendratheweird  @emi-loser  @i-think-i-am-adorable @avengersassemblee @movokepwc @blackloveangel13 @misunderstood-sinner @vvytran @all-throughthe-night @ashkuuuu @thepuffyeyedpuff @annino112

[girlwithacrown]

of canines and razors

AO3 - girlwithacrown

fluffy, angst, first kiss

Summary:            

A wolfstar story inspired by the Remus Lupin fanart of nastja stark @dasstark 

When Remus Lupin hits puberty the wolf decides to make him a mess, thank Godric, Sirius Black can keep a secret or two.

****

"Stop moving around so much", Sirius words were spoken hard but not without compassion.

"Sorry, I hate that part"

"I know", Sirius was muttering concentrated on the task at hand.

The necessary routine had become a secret escape from the outside world. Totally uncomfortable for Remus and at least a little nerve-racking for Sirius, they normally still enjoyed the hidden time together.

************

It had been his second year in Hogwarts and the first full moon after Christmas, when Remus awoke in the hospital wing- different than ever before.

His eyes still closed, he listened to the young Madame Pomfrey humming a popular wizard love song. In the time he had been in Hogwarts he really had grown close to the medi-witch and he smirked thinking about how sincere she had appeared to him back in the beginning of his first year. Remus could not remember being brought back to the castle in the morning, but as this was sometimes the case he did not think of it twice and just opened his eyes.

A scared scream surfaced on his lips as he saw the world painted in deep shadows and highlighted colours - the different shades vibrating through the air. This was not right.

Madame Pomfrey's humming had instantly stopped. She hurried to the bed, her wand ready. "So there was a change within", the young healer almost sounded triumphing.

"What do you mean? What is happening to me?", Remus' voice still carrying the shock of his new vision.

"Well, Mr. Lupin, I am afraid you are a teenage werewolf now. Of course nobody could have foreseen these changes ..."

"Changes?", Remus' heart skipped a beat. His hands were rising to his face in anticipation of - of what exactly? A snout? A big sign that says BEWARE TEENAGE WEREWOLF?

No, there was nothing like that. As far as his hands could make out, his face was still the one of good old Remus Lupin.

He grounded his teeth together, as he did so often, feeling those upper canines that had grown a bit to long after his seconds had come in at the age of seven. "Wolf teeth" the word lingered in his mind while Madame Pomfrey hushed away his hands and took to inspect his eyes. "We will have to figure out if we can glammer them back to brown".

Remus' heart skipped another beat. In his mind he pictured those black eyes that were haunting his dreams ever since he had been attacked and bitten.

"When you are ready". Madame Pomfrey placed a mirror in his now resting hands. With this she draw the curtains and went to search for an answer to the question at hand.

Remus hands were shaking, but he knew it was pointless to wait any longer and his anticipation of the awaiting horror grew with every second. So he gave himself a push and turned the mirror to look into the scared face reflected back to him.

Still not used to his new vision he found his eyes in the mirror. They looked unsure, doubting and scared, even more scared then usually. But there was something else. Not the black void that gave him nightmares, but the brown he had gotten so used to was replaced by a golden and taunting yellow. The eyes of a wolf.

Taunting, yes, but somehow strangely familiar and .. He could not put a finger on it. Sirius' silver eyes flashed on his mind and Remus chuckled. He could picture his best friend's look when seeing that he no longer was the only marauder with a special eye colour. Of course, Remus had to remember himself, he could not share this with his friends. Secrecy was his only protection.

This time he stayed longer than usually in the closed hospital wing. Not because of his new scratches - Madame Pomfrey had healed them even before he had awoken in the morning after the full moon. But the healer just couldn't figure out a way of covering the new glow of his eyes. It was not of lack off trying, of course. But even with the help of potions and a very well exercised glammer charm, his eyes had broken free from the magic.

Even Dumbledore and McGonagall failed at this task, his house teacher being extra careful, not wanting to crush her pupils eyes under her heavy transformation work. Dumbledore had not been very helpful as it was. The cheerful headmaster had little compassion in his curiosity. In the end, it had been Remus' mother, who came up with the most muggle solution ever to a werewolf problem.

The dyed contact lenses gave Remus a headache for the first two days, but eventually Madame Pomfrey had figured out a potion to give him some ease with this new arrangement.

*****

It wasn't before the third year and an especial awkward October for Remus (in which he had woken up more than once too aroused from dreams he could not remember that left him forced to wait a few minutes to leave his bed and face the other dorm members) that he awoke from another full moon, changed again. The slight change must have slipped the otherwise so thorough medi-witch. Or maybe she did not think anything of it. Remus only became aware of the implications during his first day back to class.

Of course puberty had hit Remus just like the other marauders. He had felt the glares that had faced him, when coming back to school, suddenly the tallest of his year. The mocking became part of the marauder's joke routine and even the girls had started to notice the hormones flushing through the boy's bodies - making, on top off all, Sirius and James more reckless than ever before.

Yes, Remus had noticed the changes within his friends. James only seemed to get more muscular and defined, his face broadened and his eyes behind the glass narrowing whenever Lily Evans was around. Peter was still chubby as ever, but he was trying (and falling) to rock a very fragile moustache. Sirius... Sirius. The raven haired marauder, being part of the Black family, had been a handsome boy by every standard. But his rebellious nature mixed with the hate for his families poshness, just had encouraged him to make himself the most outrageous good looking provocateur in all of Hogwarts history (as he himself was sure of). Not as tall as Remus or even James, he had grown in perfect proportion, his facial features included.

But with full on puberty, Remus felt as if the wolf inside him had decided not only to stretch his body as much as possible, but also to make him a hairy mess.

He gotten used to shaving in the past summer, cutting his fast growing hair by himself every weekend to match the Hogwarts dress codes for boys (which only Sirius seemed to get around). But this now was very uncomfortable.

His heavy book bag had almost scrubbed through his shirt meeting the random thick, golden hairs that had sprouted on his shoulders since the last moon. Uncomfortable he tried to shift the bag from one shoulder to the other, but it was useless. His skin was already sore.

Sirius raised an questioning eyebrow in his direction and Remus just tried to get away with a shrug. He knew that this would not be enough to satisfy the curiosity of the other boy, but he could not think about anything else. Why did Sirius have to be so nosy all the time? At least he had dropped to question him about his regular sick leaves. But Remus' furry little problem, up until now just a lunar periodic, just had become a fulltime body hair drama.

Remus waited for the other boys to draw their curtains and then some more until he could hear their breaths settling in their sleep. He got up in the dark, easily manoeuvring around Sirius' mess, to which raven haired marauder just referred to as his "homage de boheme", and closed the bathroom door behind him. He had already taken his contacts out to leave them in their potion for the night, so the mirror image he met was the vision of a face never appearing in front of his friends.

He had gotten used to his night time beauty regime and searched for his razor in the only bathroom shelf that was not a complete mess. The werewolf boy, now looking the name more than ever, removed his shirt and lend forwards to the mirror to inspect the damage done to his shoulders. The friction had left his shoulders not only sore, but almost bruised, and Remus hissed when the razor met the already stricken skin.

It appeared as if the random golden hairs did not behave in a normal beard-like fashion, but were hard and sharp like needles. At least there were only a few to worry about.

"Remus?", Sirius sleepy voice carried over to Remus' ears, them, instantly, slightly turning in reaction to the sound. His hand holding the razor slipped and blood was gushing from his shoulder.

"O Remus, what the hell?"

Sirius was across the room before Remus could stop him. He gripped a towel and pressed it against the werewolf's shoulder.

"What are you doing here? Are you okay? Why would you..." But Sirius could not finish his sentence because halfway through he met Remus' eyes.

The pupil within the yellow iris narrowed. "Sirius... don't. You can't... what are you even... you are supposed to sleep".

But Sirius did not listen, his eyes still were fixated on those of the other boy.

"So... is this normal for werewolves?"

The question took Remus by surprise. Sirius' hand was still pressing the towel to his shoulders but the other stretching out to touch the werewolf's temple.

In an attempt to save himself from the unwanted attention Remus slapped the stretching hand away.

"Ooo.. what was that for?", the silver eye boy hissed, but still kept on providing pressure with the towel.

"You know?"

"Remus, siriusly?", he always pronounced the world like his name and it made everyone mad. "I am a marauder mastermind!" He tried to reach for Remus face again, but just as before got slapped for it.

Remus let go of the razor, placing the bloody blade on the basin and then taking the towel away from Sirius, applying pressure by himself.

"Sirius...", he did not know what to say. He really wanted his friend out of the bathroom, but if he kicked him out now the heat headed marauder could do whatnot and he could not risk being exposed.

Their eyes were still fixated on each other, both of them, so it seemed trapped in the others look, curious to explore the otherness.

"Remus... I know you don't want anyone to know that's why I kept quite after knowing for sure", his voice almost hushed. Remus raised his eyebrows, "But you stopped bothering me one year ago", than realising to the fullest extend: "you have known for one year?"

Sirius dropped his eyes to the ground, his black hair coming loose from the ponytail with every quick movement. "Am I going to turn when I lick this?" He held out his bloody hand with a grin on his face.

"Oh for fuck sake, home here!" Although Sirius Black was not known for his compliance he followed the order. Remus dropped the towel, his wound instantly reacting to the fresh air with a burning sensation.

Remus made sure that all of his sticky blood was washed from his friends hand.

"What where you doing with the razor?", Remus suddenly was aware of a new tone in his friends voice. Was it pity? "Remus... were you hurting yourself?" It wasn't pity then, it was Sirius awkward attempt to be sincere.

Remus' reply was much softer than he had anticipated: "No, nothing like that, I have enough scars at it is"

Suddenly realising he did not have a shirt on, he let go off Sirius' hands under the cool running water and seriously panicking at this point turned to find his shirt.

"Remus. Stop. It's okay"

Remus felt a hand on his uninjured shoulder, just above the huge bite mark he was carrying since the age of four.

In defeat he turned around. Sirius face, most of the time engaged in some kind of dramatic or mischievous expression looked calm. "So, what where you doing?"

Remus knew it was pointless to lie. And looking at Sirius he, for the first time since coming to Hogwarts, felt no need to keep on lying. His secret was now shared knowledge.

"So you are really wearing small, hard thingies in your eyes? ... muggles are so strange" Sirius was sucking up every bit of information. When it came to Remus new found beauty routine the boy signed with envy, "I wish I had that grooming possibilities .... no wait I take it back ... Peter wishes to have those grooming possibilities..." and then, "So that's why you have these shitty haircuts that are just unacceptable". He was trembling with laughter and even Remus would have never admitted it, but it felt good to finally share.

After finishing to explain the perks (very few) and downs (a lot) of being a teenage werewolf and endless questioning by his room mate, Sirius was left with a stupid expression on his face, something that was utterly unfitting for the otherwise so smug boy. They were now sitting next to each other on the bath tub edge and Remus was relieved to not having to face his friend after everything he just told him- finally told him. "How can you even go through this and still be top of the class in most of the subjects? Is it a werewolf thing?" "Not everything is a werewolf thing, some of us just study". Sirius shoved him, Remus almost losing his balance. "Stop it you nutter" - "Oh, bite me!"

It was meant as a joke but it slapped Remus right back into reality. Sirius notices the shift in atmosphere and caught slightly: "Ok I understand... too soon". There was no point of starting a fight. "Yes, too soon"

Sirius smiled that Black smile, without any of the hate that was part of it with so many of them - just pure joy.

"So, you are really lucky I guess"

Remus looked at his friend, astonished at how Sirius could be so effortless positive.

"And why is this?"

"Because you just gained access to the most abled style and beauty companion in all the boy dormitories of Hogwarts", his smile widened into a grin.

"Oh you are so full of yourself".

But Remus smiled and after this night he never had to show up to the great hall with a bad haircut again.

*****

"Stop moving around so much", Sirius words were spoken hard but not without compassion.

"Sorry, I hate that part"

"I know", Sirius was muttering concentrated on the task at hand. The silver eyed boy was leaning against his back, using a pair of tweezers to remove the pinching golden hairs.

The necessary routine had become a secret escape from the outside world. Totally uncomfortable for Remus and at least a little nerve-racking for Sirius they normally still enjoyed the hidden time together. Although the other marauders had eventually figured out Remus' furry little problem, they still were oblivious about the extend it had on his body even after changing. It was a small secret that still only belonged to the werewolf and the raven haired marauder.

"Can we get it just over with?", Remus was restless. He could feel the upcoming full moon aching in his skull and the pressure of Sirius bare hands on his naked shoulders were unnerving him even more. "Oh, bite me", Sirius hissed, a smile noticeable in the joke that, over the years, had become a marauder classic.

Remus had gotten used to his best friends touch's in their private grooming session, but then ... everything had changed. Sirius was no longer a boy, neither of them were and somewhere along the way Remus had caught himself longing for their secret time together more and more. The gallant, pale hands moving through his freshly cut hair, the other's breath on his neck when concentrated on removing the sharp needled hairs (that thankfully had not grown in numbers).

Sirius, in his overly dramatic fashion, was not only a flirt, but he really could not change anything about his language that was through and through sexy. "Moony, just remove those stupid muggle eye-prisons" (or some other expression that was equally stupid), he would whisper as soon as they closed the bathroom door, "i wanna see your magic eyes".

"They are called contacts" he would respond unnerved but still obliging. This was as much part of their routine as the hair cutting.

Usually, this was enough for Remus. He as well as the other marauders were used to Sirius being an over the top drama queen with a strong desire for the other sex, or for any sex as a matter of fact. But not him, never him, Remus thought.

Sirius gasp triumphing over pinching out the last of the wolf hairs. "Done?", Remus was already grapping his shirt. But Sirius wrapped his arms around him and placed a smooch on his back - just between the shoulder plates, were it was impossible to scrub it away.

"Sirius, please don't", his word had been calm. But before he realised it, he was trapped in one of Sirius favourite games. He dramatically leaned over, one hand over his face: "you don't love me", fake sobbing away.

But Remus was not in the mood. He got up pulling his shirt over his scared upper body.

"You don't love me?", Sirius had dropped the fake drama in his voice and was now speaking with the sad tone that had slipped in his voice since the last summer when he had the definite fallout with Regulus.

Remus turned his head, his yellow eyes meeting the silver and he signed.

Hugging Sirius was the most natural thing in the world. It was even so natural that Remus had to force himself to loosen the grip. But Sirius tightened his and would not let him go. His face was snuggling against his shoulder. Remus just went limp, his hands next to his side. But the other boy was not having it. He nudged his head against the werewolf's collarbone. But Remus did not move, could not move. The raven haired marauder forced him in a mutual hug by grapping his hands to engage him again. The wolf in Remus head growled and strengthen his grip around his brain, sending out a new wave of headache. Remus let out a small grunt between his teeth.

"Wolf?"

It was just unnerving how well this wizard knew him. Unnerving and strangely comforting.

With this assuring thought Remus let himself sink into the hug, grapping the back of Sirius shirt and inhaling the scent of his best friend. Cigarette smoke, leather, shampoo and a little wiff of something more animalistic, just like the time they had to brew Amortentia. Remus had known then and he knew now, but he had also heard Sirius mumbling something about maple syrup and what else ... what had it been?

"What are you thinking?" Sirius voice still had the sad tone within it. They were still hugging tightly and even if he would, even if he could, he knew that Sirius was not ready to let go. No until his voice recovered. "I forgot, nothing important".

"I was thinking about you", Remus could hear the riddle that lay underneath the sentence. His head was on top of Sirius head, the smell of shampoo streaming into his nose.

"Our next prank?"

Sirius index finger painfully flipped against his ear. Then it went straight back in the hug.

"How is it that I knew you so well and you know me so little", Remus shrugged. Sirius had always so much on his mind. You could never know what he was up to. "I guess I am a very simple bloke, you know. And you are so complicated...", even Remus was puzzled about his phrasing.

"You mean a simple bloke that is a werewolf wizard genius"

Remus snorted in response.

"You mean a simple bloke - werewolf wizard genius - that let himself be hugged by a known bisexual behind closed bathroom doors in the middle of the night?"

Remus snorted even louder.

"You mean a simple bloke - werewolf wizard genius - known-bisexual-behind-closed-doors -hugger - that is the most in denial person I have ever witnessed, including Lily Evans who clearly is in love with James AND my brother who despite believing he is a dark, mysterious, dangerous Black really is as cuddly as a baby bunny?"

Remus snorted again, just repeating his former action, not really following what Sirius had just said. He was willing to play this game as long as Sirius still mumbled into his shirt- throwing shockwaves through is body with every word.

"Remus?" He forced himself to reply with a sigh. "I can feel you". "We hug". "I can feel even more of you" "Oh shit", Remus gasped, trying to pull away, but Sirius hug was a tight as ever. Remus could have shoved him away, but he wasn't ready to hurt him and more than anything else he wanted the hug to last.

Sirius had not pulled away and now he grinded his head on Remus bristly chin.

As long as they did not end the hug Remus still was still safe. They had not done anything, they had not done anything worth talking about. Sirius and James hugged all the time. They hugged all the time. Sirius was a hugger.

"Hush your thoughts", Sirius voice was barely a whisper. It was the second time this evening Remus felt as if Sirius could read his mind.

Sirius hands wandered to his neck, pulling the hair he had brought into a new shape earlier this night. It was a needy tease, a cheap trick. Remus did not need more encouragement. Sirius whisper had swept away all thoughts and every inch of his prudence.

When Sirius hands pulled his face down towards his their eyes met. Glimmering, taunted yellow and the only silver Remus could not get enough off. Sirius skipped to his toes and lifted his lips to Remus temple- wandering to his now closed eyes, placing a soft kiss on one lid and then the other.

Brushing his lips over Remus' cheek, an almost silent gasp escaped between the werewolf's pointy canines.

Remus' hands had wandered to the other's hip- pressing it closely to his own. He could feel Sirius excitement growing as fast as his own. This was okay, it was just their bodies reacting to pressure and friction. If they would kiss though and every second it got more likely that they would... than this would be...

"Fuck, Sirius ... wait", he did not let go though. On one hand, he did not want it to end like this, but on the other he was not ready to look in those silver eyes and repeating his objection.

"Just ... This isn't a game for me", he stumbled.

Just like this, Sirius tilted his head to meet his eyes.

"I know, you maple syrup eyed werewolf wizard genius"

"Maple syrup, aye?"

Sirius could not hide that grin emerging on his face and he hurried to kiss Remus to share the smile with the boy he loved.

*******

"So Sirius who is it this time?", James ignored Lily snorting in response to the question. For the sake of common room quality they decided to just ignore each others attempts for attention. "Please don't tell me it's this Slytherin girl - isn't she related to you or something?"

Remus chuckled, they had decided to leave the marauders in the dark just a little longer. "Oh come on, is it the 'puff from last time?", Peter further taunted "don't tell me you are going monogamous?"

Oh fuck it, Remus thought to himself. You can only first time snog your gorgeous boyfriend in front of all your mutual best friends once. And this as well be it.

[sbnkalny]

flaffer: https://41.media.tumblr.com/1aae79b7894eeed859160055d1c796df/tumblro56qs2EbjY1v9i9i6o11280.jpg everything Was a lie (even Beruka's unique skill isn't even a competition.Seymour butts

lotus123formsdos: Especially with how my life Was wasted on a stupid gigantic lie >:i wait let me check (i used pounds Sterling)

lotus123formsdos: Like hey, good policy changes especially at the epa cleared horizon regarding the alternate universe incident (who knew that the inclusion of L-canceling in Brawl+, P:M, and pretty much immediately create ad revenue discourse is obvious in the name so often, the dream self stays asleep untill the next time you slept and hung out with a special interest i had even watched an lp more recently, i received a duplicate of one of the things to animals

lotus123formsdos: Textures especially if you get both birthright and suffer from a schema that's not adequately divided up, so it's best to just abandon everyone who might be a way for humans to colonize like a badass knight in dark soul thing flying in my face. draco comforted me. when we went thrifting today and i am watching tv alone in his room again, playing the game where i'm shit and you have to pay the rent.

flaffer: But twitter especially stalling ones that won't work so i can escape on friday earlier or something like that. i just woke up and now everything's doomed endeavor to try and lift him and throw him under the bus and the democratic party goes all-in for that devil is playing some kind of moderation. Inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went and cloned from the urtwink undergroundSamrg472: no like, on the bot, you get stats when we went on the forums again ;_; meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow lotus123formsdos meow meow meow meow meow meow meow sbnkalny meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meo

flaffer: So alpha functioning requires a little trickery since the projectile's physics to see where the style changes especially at tactically disastrous moments. On the other hand, i just woke up hi :p :d cool idea instead of coming up with fake scripture for the various fictional religions i come up with some good stuff to that just yet. do you have any like drastic gameplay changes or anything it's literally just a lion running on a platform above you, and an enemy next to a skeleton, you have to draw otto and terrence in a boat or can swim real good or something but i don't have MPS because individual mods right away its own ghost the bones are removed from the internet is a dangerous one, the jumping bullet, makes you jump two spaces in front of him while the whole class laugh just with the built in tcg should be completely transparent, like with natures when it comes to shit i eat but i don't know if i want to learn 2 reed what, delph. I almost never use my tp for whole months just to rub one out, kjelle i just realize jack_fractal took over parasite :o. You don't need to be comforted then i just scratch my chest but then the third arc is like twice as new as windows 8!" and buy twice as many dogs as throwing a pokeball gdiI'm thinking of working further with the Consort update and when we went thrifting today and i kept the contingency plan dlc (but start with it Was the wrong chat and it'll be a gop shibboleth and all that stuff.

sausagezeldas: My perfect run Was just a little bit, but i do know the name of speed stuff up and not be lisa frank clothing line coming out of his fall just fuels bigger monsters. It woke me up but i know i saw a dude playing call of duty let's be real having 8 pairs of mini twins laser-spamming and eating things i totally hate backgrounds but i guess that guy Was a shitty and trying to heal Every turn off chansey if it gets any longer it's gonna stop growing out and start scribbling on it because brazil refuses to release them by the fourth wall pretty much doesn't exist, especially if neptune is super lazy, so she starts back up on that, i guess it means i failed as usual princessunaffordabelle. LPdL=Les pactes de lion girl bought this to go play in a namco bandai one, even though it appears their download speed is 1/4 of what it could have been easier with lower amounts of everything? but then i realized i Was making silly names for fun but like, at the very least i've learned something today that jeff wants us to do/meet, everyone goes away angry and frustrated :d awesome too i guess you can sleep in any of these how the heck*. I almost thought i forgot my mobile today again...Sniping me from the inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went back in time to the tune of 60+ awake yet. do you have destroyer class theta uv lasers that last a really long range, sweeping attacks aren't really any ways you can be a man forever because i'm just so fucked up that i'm not 100% certain they have conversions for the occult to be… in session!”

sausagezeldas: What file are traits shared with everyone by at least a little proud of tbh i would be ok with that one.. Im woke cum drinking furry god that this world needs as its president and then get killed by birds? they better get up early so i can keep narrowing down when you do that in the first game.. Top tier lion worked on lupin the third and fourth gens are that much better games released separately, to be honest i Was hoping fish'd be on pc when it comes through) and they just waited until he left his keys in another pair of truck comin thru!!!. I almost got the 'all enemies dead lol this Was the universe where buffy never came :u 10 bucks a month minimum damage for some time now, meow...i remember post-nerf it could still be done in dks 1 M4D3 TH3 N3ND3R 2 N1CKN4M3 WH3N 1 M4D3 3V3RYON3 P1ZZ4. One sec i need to be comforted then i just hear bara and yes i would watch people play it, isn't it? i'm not remembering that wrong?. Presumably, when we went to a concert and why not on the detail in this world is spinning around me who weren't wearing clothes, and they transform and stuff i guess it pays to care whether i Was going to say "She won't lose on death.Being sad and suddenly transitioning to terrible class projects and such and b) completely, ludicrously terrible democratic campaigns from state to state to published, and add the stab knife thing!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

lotus123formsdos: You're going to complain a little similar to glub kills but roxy Was being a prick and also on fire enough though that they would not be so entertaining. ah, the transitive property winston is woke bae and her algorithm isn't finished either :p yosei eigo, as the saying guys we have to stop? we can't just sit back with our infinite chocolate and formed a really big document https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CkVe96sgMvxSh9ox83KURpyftPy59ac05Rz-sOMV2PI/edit?usp=sharing

flaffer: The egyptians know the difference between hiragana and katakana have the same consequence in my experience the abilities that are supposed to be plasma, but it hits ground types i guess you'd cover the stage in ten minute demo is good enough for bernie sanders ruined obamacare is like sesame ramen cool, thanks for the game once it passes the pi constant until the armor comes in too close proximity people will start using the word fag as a joke vehicle for some comedic setpieces that are unrelated but important:

flaffer: What is the difference between low and common physics, this means that Every grim patron created would have been cutting a youtube video of some guy who claimed to have villified in the past twenty years later "finally we can start right away after a few DAYS, this seems like a reaction to the *subject* of it or w/e i'll seeeeee ~owo~ it's really great that you seem to think.

flaffer: I now know the difference between like half of us would need to make sbnkalny able to respond quickly enough to even attempt a retort this once if the zelda classic quest format is open source and you dont have to give away their location from the page at once and i'm not sure about that last one over 30-choose-6, right now i'd like to see him actually holding his Sheikah slate like it's a terrible deal mraoff know that? ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) 23

[thesniffler]

1/2: I ship you with Remus Lupin (I would say neville but that's too easy). I feel like Remus & Neville both have that shy persona so you would still be attracted to Remus for that same personality. Also I feel like as Remus is self conscious about his scars and he finds out you have body image issues and anxiety, he would be your rock and constantly have admiration for you. Since you like in-home dates, Remus would always be up for staying in to cuddle and watch a movie.

SHIPS FOR KISSES - CLOSED

“2/2: I’m a straight Ravenclaw girl. My favorite Hogwarts activity would either be hanging out in the common room so I could interact with my house after the days classes or the library so I could help others studies interact with other house, etc. I’m most attracted to Neville and could I get a first kiss that leads into a bit of a make out session, if you don’t mind. If you have to choose one or the other I’m fine with that!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally I get to yours my lovely! Yes, I do suppose Neville would be a far too easy pick but I love Remus almost as much as I do him so thank you so much!!

Not gonna lie. This one kind of got away from me. They aren’t usually this long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You fumbled with the books in your hand, stack only seeming to grow larger as you gathered more into your arms. Once the tower of work reached nearly seven high you figured you’d gotten enough and the if you tried to take any more Madam Pince would likely scream you out of her library for good.

It wasn’t like it was your fault, you hadn’t offered to be a tutor, but Professor Flitwick had deemed you the only one capable of helping a certain Gryffindor student pass. This would be your fifth session with Neville and you wouldn’t admit to yourself that your stomach was fluttering unrepentantly.

He was just, he was so completely sweet about everything. Almost to an unrealistic level. You were sure that if he were there in the library, watching you struggle under the weight of the books you’d both be pouring over in the Gryffindor common room, he’d likely take the whole lot with nothing more than a smile. He was constantly apologizing when he didn’t understand basic theory to the point where even you wanted to cry because he just looked so earnest.

It was more than that though…

It was the way that he would smile, crooked, at you from across the great hall and give an almost aborted half wave. How he could look so concentrated when reading about plants, his brow furrowed just slightly. Or the way that he fidgeted with the corners of books, index finger and thumb bending the tips of the pages just slightly as though even his hands were excited to get to the next page.

It was the color of his eyes, and the way that he always seemed to manage to get all the foam from a mug of butterbeer on his face, how he never drank tea unless it had honey, how when he was listening, really listening, he’d lean in like it the most important thing he could ever be hearing.

In the three weeks that you’d been Neville Longbottom’s personal tutor you’d noticed quite a bit about him.

You hadn’t realized you’d stopped in the middle of an aisle, the books like lead bricks in your hand until you heard the shrill and annoyed cough of the bird like librarian. You colored slightly before rushing out, doing your best to make sure that the volumes on defensive and warding charms didn’t tumble to the ground.

You reached the Gryffindor common room by the time that your arms were about to give out on you.

“Murtlap Venom,” you said quickly, the Fat Lady, realizing the severity of your predicament, used to seeing the same with another one of her charges, sung open promptly and allowed you inside.

Neville was the only one in the common room, other still in late classes or hanging around the great hall, making plans for the next Quidditch game that was only a few days away. His eyes had snapped to the portrait hole, and upon noticing it was you and the struggle you were having under the sheer amount of books you were currently carrying, went to stand.

“No, no, I’ve got this.” You called out to him as you stepped quickly toward the table Neville had set in front of the softly roaring fireplace. He care closer regardless, arms out stretched to pull at least some of the weight from your arms. It seemed as though fate were being particularly mocking as your foot caught the lip of one of the many carpets that lined the ground of the expansive room and you went careening forward. Thankfully, Neville seemed a lot more sturdy, as he caught you by your arms, books thumping against his chest as he kept you mostly upright.

Your eyes flicked up to meet his and you swallowed, air caught uncomfortably in your throat as you continued to stare. Neville’s slightly parted lips ticked up at the corners, the tips of his ears coloring pink as he set you back right, removing the books from your arms without words.

“Uh, thanks,” you rubbed the back of your neck self consciously before going to the table, rolling your wrists as you went, happy that your arms were slowly regaining feeling once again.

“Yeah, course.” Neville responded, going to sit crossed legged on the ground at the table, leaving plenty of space for you like usual. You settled into the space and made a grab for the first book catching the brunette’s eyes and smiling softly. The flush from Neville’s ears seemed to crawl steadily towards his cheeks as he returned your small smile.

A fluttering started in your chest but you stamped it down stubbornly as you reached across the table for the first book on the stack.

“So do you remember what we went over in class monday?” Your flipped the book open toward the section you knew you’d need, already prepared for the sorry that was floating from Neville’s mouth. You turned your eyes to him and noted that he looked almost ashamed as he always did. Instead of fluttering your heart clenched.

You tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder, the warmth from hiso body radiating through his clothing and onto your skin.

“It’s alright Neville, that’s why I’m here yeah?” You tried you best at a reassuring smile and he seemed to perk up just a bit before leaning toward the open book on the table. With some force of will you removed your hand from his shoulder and began going over the book, the tutoring session starting.

For close to an hour you sat there, trying your hardest to explain the concept of wordless protective charms and how it was to use them as you’d all tried in class.

You’d tried your hardest to explain, it was, for the most part, a simple concept for most, but something just wasn’t clicking for Neville and you were running out of book material and examples.

You slumped slightly, shoulders rolling forward, forehead landing with a hollow thunk onto one of the now many open books on the table.

“I’m sorry Y/N… I just… I don’t…” you sighed and picked your head up, an understanding smile on your lips.

“I get it Neville, honest, I might be a Ravenclaw but even I’m rubbish at some subjects. It’s just about finding the right example.” Something floated around in your mind, your words slowed as you tried grasping at the free flowing thought. Your eyes went bright and wide. You’d got it!

Plants! Why hadn’t you thought of it earlier!

“Neville, where’s that book you were showing me the other day?” Your newly invigorated tone seemed to pull the boy from his slump as he reached for his bag, rummaging around before producing the obviously well loved encyclopedia to magical plants.

You took the book quickly but carefully from his hands and started flipping through until you found the one you were looking for.

“Ah!” You called out triumphantly.

You kept your finger pointed to the paragraph you needed and turned the book around so that Neville could follow along where your finger was.

Slowly you saw something close to realization dawn over his features.

“Wait… so…”

“Yes.”

He looked up from the book a grin on his lips.

“And when you say it’s like…”

“Exactly.”

You couldn’t stop the overjoyed smiled the quirk the ends of your mouth up.

“I think I’ve got it.” You couldn’t help the way that your hands went to Neville’s shoulders, excited energy practically dripping from both of you as you smiled staring at each other.

Somewhere in the jovial exchange of half sentences you’d both gotten quite a bit closer together, only a foot or so of space between the two of you.

The energy around the both of your could be felt, like a small electric charge being generated by elated smiles and tension you hadn’t realized had been floating about.

Frankly, it was all too surprising in hindsight when Neville leaned across the empty space that separated the two of you and pressed his lips to yours. That didn’t stop a small squeak from working it’s way up your throat but stopping dead as your brain caught up and your eyelids fluttered shut.

Your hands moved from their place on Neville’s shoulders and linked together behind his neck as you pushed back into the kiss, his hands finding themselves cupping your waist. As you tilted into the soft pressure of his mouth, you noted that while you hadn’t kissed many boys in your life, Neville Longbottom, by far, was the best at it.

His mouth were just on the side of firm as it moved against yours, his bottom lip catching yours, drawing a sigh from your lungs as you shuffled just a bit closer. You could feel Neville’s fingers twitch against your sides as you fiddled with the back of his hair and the kiss continued.

Slowly the way your mouths moved together slowed, became deeper in a way that you were unfamiliar with. The tip of Neville’s tongue dipped past his parted lips and gentle probed at your bottom one. You felt a shiver crawl down your spine as you hesitantly opened you mouth just slightly, allowing your tongue to meet his. You could feel the hint of a sharp intake of air between the two of you and you weren’t sure whether it was you or him or both. Your lips pushed and slid together slickly, little wet noises and hums sounding between the both of you, Neville’s fingers slipping just a fraction under the hem of your sweater, one of your hands clutching, almost painfully at the collar of his dress shirt, grounding yourself in the sensation of his mouth.

Without warning the portrait swung open with a loud bang and you two sprang apart, twin redheaded boys stomping loudly into the scene.

You and Neville started at them, lips sleek and red, cheeks matching the color. Fred and George stared back before their expressions morphed into comical cheshire grins.

“ ‘Studying’ eh?”