#sirius unable to control his laughter

[lulublack90]

Prompt 26 - Crow

@jegulus-microfic November 26, Word count 209

Previous part First part

“This is amazing,” James gasped as he and Regulus watched the video for a second time. It started out in a long corridor and quickly approached an open door where Severus Snape stood surrounded by a mountain of ripped-up yellow paper, having a tantrum. There were still so many copies stuck all over the room. The video zoomed in on one of the yellow pieces of paper and began to shake as the cameraman began laughing. 

“Oh my god!” The voice behind the camera laughed loudly. “This literally has James Potter written all over it. Nice one, Marauders.” The video finished with a close-up of Snape’s violently red face as a copy of Burk with a ‘Nana fluttered down from the ceiling and covered his bulging eyes. 

“That was even better than I could ever imagine,” James said with awe. Regulus squeezed a bit closer to him, a happy smile breaking across his face. 

“Thank you. I needed that,” He said quietly. 

“I think we all did!” Sirius interrupted their moment with a great crow of laughter as he took his phone back and watched the video all over again. 

“Come on, love, let’s go home,” James said, kissing Regulus sweetly on the lips and opening the car door. 

Next part

[kquil]

JAMES POTTER | 02:23 ⏤THE PRETTY NURSE

SUM. : you’re the pretty nurse that james wants to woo but he just got out of surgery

G. : modern au ; muggle au ; nurse reader ; puppy love ; lovestruck james ; mutual attraction ; sirius is being a little tease ; heart monitor gives him away

LENGTH : 0.7k

“Prongs, you-” Sirius cuts himself off, unable to control himself and laughing behind his hand as Remus grinned beside him. Their friend had just gotten out of surgery to fix up his leg after an accident and was on his way to recovery in a hospital bed, hooked up to a monitor and with an IV keeping him hydrated in his arm. He looked pitiful already but his lovestruck expression made him look all the more pathetic.  

“Shut up Pads,” James snapped softly, his eyes never leaving your figure as you milled about the room tending to other recovering patients that he tried not to get too jealous over. He knows you’re a nurse and it’s your job to take care of them but James was utterly besotted by you. 

James can tell that your smile is genuine and that you sincerely enjoy taking care of people. It was also really attractive how intelligent you were and how beautiful you were regardless of your labour intensive work. You handled the equipment with expert hands, tended to patient needs with compassion and care, and administered medication with careful accuracy.

“Look at her…” James whispered under his breath, his gaze never leaving you, “she’s so pretty…”

“Yup, you’ve said that already,” Remus hummed in amusement, “seven times now to be exact,” 

“I think he’s losing it, Moony,” Sirius teased and poked James in the shoulder but was completely ignored. 

Like a silent call, James’ longing stare caught your attention and you were quickly making your way over to stand beside his bed. 

“Is everything okay? Can I get you anything?” you ask, trying to suppress a familiar, flustered heat from dusting your cheeks. Your new patient, James Potter, was very handsome and some of the other nurses who saw him being wheeled into your room of the recovery ward did nothing to disguise their jealousy. Being a nurse was hard work so having a handsome hunk of a man like James around did good to relieve some of your frustrations. All it took was a single glance his way and you felt recharged. 

Whilst tending to your other patients, however, instead of stealing glances at him you felt his stare lingering on you persistently. It was bad enough that such an attractive man was staring you down, it didn’t help that he also had such a longing, puppy-like look in his eyes when he did so. 

When James didn’t answer and only continued to stare at you, you turned to his friends with a questioning look, “he’s good, sorry in advance for his odd behaviour,” the tall brunette comments  with a soft smile. 

“Yeah,” Sirius piped up, drawing your attention, “he’s just feeling a little hot under the collar, aren’t ya’ Jamesie?” 

Feeling a spike of worry, you hurriedly made your way around his bed to have a closer look at him, leaning over his bed and stopping close to his face, “oh dear, are you sure you’re alright?” you stress, worried eyes scanning him for any distressing signs.

beep!beep!beep!beep!beep! 

Alarmed, you snap your gaze towards the Holter monitor and gaped at James’s rapidly rising heartbeat before returning your attention back to the man in question. His cheeks were a deep red, his eyes still fixed on you, wide and glittering under the hospital lights as his pink lips were slightly agape from awe at your close proximity.  

“Don’t be alarmed, love,” Sirius reassures, already giggling under his breath, “I think he’s just caught a terrible case of ‘Puppy Love-itis’,” Sirius couldn’t contain the force of his laughter any longer and threw his head back to laugh boisterously. 

Embarrassed but smiling timidly, you step back and nod before turning away to make more rounds, “I’ll be back with a suitable prescription for you soon, James,” 

James couldn’t believe the amount of humiliation he felt in that moment, his whole world was crumbling around him; throughout your entire interaction all he did was make a fool of himself. How could he possibly ask for your number now? 

All of his worries were all for naught, however, as you soon returned with a written prescription, “I’m sure that over time, your dosage will need to be increased but you can be your own judge there,” was your only comment. 

When James unfolded the small piece of paper in his hands, he couldn’t believe his eyes; you had just given him your number…

beep!beep!beep!beep!beep! 

A/N : inspired by a tiktok...there's so much good material on there, don't judge me!

NAVI.

[my-castles-crumbling]

Anonymous Request: James and Regulus meet before Sirius succeeds in setting them upon a blind date.

Chaos ensues.

Jegulus - Rated T - Nonmagic AU

-

“So…erm…come here often?”

The man behind Regulus in line at the coffee shop jolted him out of his thoughts with the rather awkward and overused line, making him raise his eyebrow in amusement. “Really? That’s what you’re going with?” he asked derisively before he could stop himself.

And he really should have. Stopped himself, that is. The man was beautiful. Tall and fit, with dark hair and golden skin, hazel eyes glittering behind wire-rimmed glasses. But the man didn’t seem put out. He shrugged and smirked, murmuring, “Well, you answered, didn’t you?”

Regulus chuckled. “Fair.”

“Should I have gone more forward? My best mate loves the line, ‘Is there a mirror in your pocket? Because I can see myself in your pants,’” the man grinned, cringing just a bit. It was adorable.

Regulus resisted letting out a shout of laughter and wrinkled his nose. “Surely not. Ask me an intelligent question and maybe I’ll pay you some notice,” he advised, trying to keep a straight, unbothered face.

The man nodded, tapping his finger to his chin, pondering that. Then his face lit up. “What's your favorite Taylor Swift song and why?” he asked, as if presenting the most amazingly deep pickup line in the entire planet.

Regulus stared. Who was this man? ”That’s what you’re going with?”

“If you tell me you don’t like her, we really can’t go on a date,” the man shrugged, looking serious for the first time.

Regulus sighed dramatically. If this was how he wanted to play… “Don’t Blame Me.”

“For not liking Taylor? I have to-”

“No,” he interrupted, smirking. “That’s my favorite song.”

The man’s eyes grew as wide as his smile. He looked positively thrilled with Regulus’s answer. “Ah. Beautiful and smart.” Without asking, he plucked Regulus’s phone out of his hand and tapped at it before returning it to him. “Are you free on Saturday?”

Regulus nodded, trying to feel more angry that the man had taken his phone, but unable to feel any sort of negative emotion. Only a bit dazed.

“Brilliant! Pick you up at eight.”

It was only after the man left that Regulus looked down at his phone.

New Message: James: Is that a phone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? 😀

-

He was late. 

He’d spent all day thinking far too much about his coffee shop boy, James, and the way his eyes and smile and voice made Regulus’s stomach do funny things. He’d resisted the urge to text back, trying to regain a shred of dignity, finding that he had far more self-control when James’s laughter wasn’t ringing in his ears. But he was daydreaming, and it made him.

So he was the last to arrive for his dinner with Sirius, and when he walked distractedly up to the table, he had to do a double-take. And then a triple-take. Because there he was:

“Reg! This is James!” Sirius called, smiling in a way that said ‘behave or I’ll skin you alive.��

James, of course, looked just as shocked as he did. Which was good, really. To see him taken off-guard. It leveled the playing field.

“I’ve been telling you about him,” Sirius continued obliviously. And he had been. He’d been begging Regulus to go on a blind date with him, actually: James, Sirius’s best mate since school. Who he was convinced was perfect for Regulus.  How had he missed this?

James let out a chuckle, regaining his composure first, and offering Regulus a hand. “Regulus? Nice to meet you,” he grinned.

“And you,” Regulus replied after a moment, shaking James’s much bigger hand in his own. Gods, it was lovely.

“I’m sorry to spring you two on each other like this,” Sirius said, not looking sorry at all. “But you kept avoiding each other. And I really think you need to go on a proper date.” He paused and looked at James beseechingly. “What about Saturday? Aren’t you free?”

James met Regulus’s eyes, and it looked like he was struggling not to laugh. “Actually…I have a date,” he said, smiling. “And I’m very much looking forward to it. No offense, of course, Regulus.”

Regulus caught on quickly and tried to shrug good-naturedly. “I actually have a date, too. He’s a bit presumptuous, though. Don’t think it’ll work out,” he commented, proud of himself.

James threw him a humorously indignant look. 

Sirius let it go for a bit, obviously put out that they already had plans, but still cheerful as ever. He began prattling on about work and recent parties, at first unaware of the way James was blatantly staring at Regulus, grinning like he was seeing a piece of art in a museum.

But after he grew a bit more comfortable, the two began joking back and forth, talking about pickup lines and Taylor Swift, laughing at the way Sirius was clearly confused about how he was missing something, some inside joke they had, but how was it possible when they’d never met?

It took about twenty minutes for Sirius to comment on it. The way James was looking at Regulus. The way they laughed back and forth. 

He huffed and looked at them both with a frown. “Listen, I’m not an expert at this shit, but I think you two should cancel your dates on Saturday. It’s clear I’m a third wheel, here,” he complained lightheartedly.

“D’you think I should?” James asked Regulus, smirking at him playfully.

Regulus nodded and advised sagely, feeling giddy, “Better let him down easy, though.”

James grinned and took out his phone, sending a quick text.

Half a second later, Regulus’s phone dinged. He took it out an read dramatically: “When do you think Sirius will figure out we’re already going on a date,” he recited, eyeing Sirius, who looked thoroughly confused. “Dunno,” he said, turning to James. “We could snog. Maybe then he'll catch the hint.”

It was difficult to decide who was blushing more: Sirius or James.

[wylanlupin]

Little scene from chapter 6 of my fanfic (spoiler warning)

Everyone starts laughing loudly. Sirius stands in front of him, unable to control himself. Kingsley takes off his mask and puts the knife aside. James and Lily laugh just as loud. Fabian holds a camera in his hand. "Your face!" he laughs loudly and wipes a tear from his face.

Remus still can't believe what just happened. At that moment, a scream comes from the next room and loud laughter erupts. James opens the door and Remus sees that the rest of their friends have done the same to Marlene.

Sirius comes up to Remus laughing and grabs his hand. "Are you okay?" he asks, still chuckling. "Marauders pranks. It's a tradition."

Confused, Remus shakes his head and slowly gets his breathing back under control. Only then does he realize how stupidly he's been screwed. "You!" he shouts, lightly punching Sirius in the arm. "Sorry, baby," he says before pulling Remus into a kiss. Using his vampire teeth, he bites Remus' lower lip gently. "Get a room!" laughs Fabian, walking over to Gideon. The latter also holds a camera in his hand.

"I'll hang the pictures over my bed or something," Sirius chuckles against Remus' neck, kissing him on his jaw and neck. Remus puts his hand on Sirius' hip, pulling him closer. "You were pretty scared," Sirius notes. "Didn't know you could scream so loud.“

Laughing, Remus rolls his eyes and nudges Sirius to the side. "Oi!" Laughing, he pulls his boyfriend into a kiss again.

[thornedlamb]

Oh, how could anyone comprehend his turmoil? He was nothing but a murderer, a monster and traitor, dressing up in an alluring facade. His body so rarely felt like his own. And many of his actions were performative. Doing good, helping, only to fight against those forces trying to control him. Not sure if the fluttering in his chest and stomach was good or bad. Butterflies with razor sharp wings. Fitting for the man with the barbed wire halo.

Blinded by the horrors that haunted him, it was difficult to believe he was not just an impostor. That the laughter he brought was real, the times he truly joked around, when he supported those around him because he knew suffering too well.

With every deep breath, he forces cool air into his lungs. Grounding himself in the now once more, in the presence of the other. The half-orc felt like his near perfect opposite. While the outside of Zoroc was tall and intimidating, his heart was so tender, Sirius got scared of touching, lest it might break under his bloody hands. Sirius was slender, capable of easily concealing his darkness behind a quick smile and playful posture.

Something keeps Sirius from confessing he’d like to stay around him too. Unable to open his lips. Too scared of what might happen if those words rolled over his tongue. Maybe he would explode, maybe misfortune would strike the other.

Sirius pulls away, raises his hands and slaps his cheeks with both hands in one quick motion.

‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎❝ Okay... I am done with my weird pity party! ” the usual grin on his face again. ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎❝ I won’t take back what I said... I can’t believe I make anyone happy... but if you want me to stay around. Keep an eye on me, okay? I can’t trust myself... but maybe I can trust you. ”

He is taken aback by Sirius' reaction. For a moment, he fears he may have crossed a boundary—a recurring problem, though never intentional. He tends to get too comfortable and does not shy away from showing affection, whether romantic or platonic. His emotional openness has often been the butt of jokes among his men.

“Whoa, whoa, Sirius,” he says, placing both hands on Sirius' shoulders, hoping to pull him back to reality. Their adventure has been anything but sunshine and rainbows; almost every day greets them with bloodshed. He understands what Sirius is going through; he faced the same turmoil when he was first sent to war.

Even blinking back then had filled him with dread—flashes of lives he had taken, limbs he had torn in a fit of rage. The memories haunt him to this day, though he has learned to cope.

“Pity project? Sirius, no. Come on now, I would never look at you that way. I don’t know how to explain it, but you make me happy. I like being around you. Your presence brings me joy,” he tries to articulate, though the words tumble out awkwardly; he struggles to express the feelings he has never really examined. He has never had the time—or the desire—to reflect on such things. He is a warrior, always at war; emotions have no place in his life.

“I’m not going anywhere, if that’s what you’re worried about. We made a pact. We’ll stick together until all this nonsense is sorted out. And if we manage to come out of this alive, I want to continue being in your company.” He carefully chooses his words, not wanting to lead Sirius on or scare him with any feelings that may be blossoming.

[espressopatronum454]

Hi Mae i hope you are well 🌹may i request jegulus with James going through regulus's baby photos please ✨💕

baby photos

a/n : totally not my projecting my asthma slightly with the sort of coughing fit

but anyways , not really sure if unlike how this turned out. if you want me to redo it, just send another ask and let me know. i definitely didn’t spend nearly enough time on it.

warnings : not proof read , mentions of orion and walburga , slight mention of previous abuse if you squint , it’s really just poorly written jegulus fluff

the boys had just gotten back from hogwarts for the summer, and remus and sirius had already disappeared into the latter’s room to do only god wants to know what, so james and regulus decided to use the quiet hours to unpack the things reg had brought from his house when he ran away over christmas, and the items that have been accumulated since.

regulus was on a roll, he already had two boxes of clothes unpacked and put away in less than thirty minutes, but james was starting to get bored.

so, rather than actually putting things away, he was looking through the boxes for something to do.

james came across a large, brown, leather book with regulus’ name on it, and pulled it out to look at.

he opened it and on the first page was a photocopy of regulus’ birth certificate. he realized it was probably a baby photo book, and while he didn’t peg orion and walburga as the photo taking type, he sure as hell was gonna look at these photos before regulus noticed and took them away.

he flipped the page and it was a photo from the hospital, right after regulus had been cleaned, barely a hair on the boys head. it made james smile, he was so small and innocent back then.

on the other side was a photo of regulus holding a wand, but he was using the end of the wand as a makeshift teether. it was still absolutely adorable, and to be completely honest, james almost couldn’t believe that his regulus was the same as this regulus.

the next page had a photo of regulus in the bath, dressed in only his birthday suit. regulus was sticking his tongue out at whoever was taking the photo, simultaneously flipping them off. james barked out a laugh at that, effectively drawing regulus’ attention to him and the book.

regulus rushed over and tried to snatch the book out of james hand, but eventually gave up because he cannot say no to james’ puppy eyes. “james. why in the world are you going through my baby photos?”

“mum showed you my baby photos after dinner the first night you were here. i think it’s time to repay the favor.” james paused, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand, pulling him down next to him on the ground. “and, you were fucking adorable as a kid.”

“so i’m not adorable now?” regulus fake pouted, batting his eyelashes in an very exaggerated manner at the older boy.

“you know exactly what i meant reg,” james brushed back the hair on regulus’ forehead and placed a kiss on his forehead, wrapping an arm around the boy’s shoulder as he tugged him closer and flipped to the next page.

the next photo was by far the best one. the backside of a naked baby regulus, with a diaper on his head, was seen chasing a baby sirius, in the middle of throwing a large stag stuffed animal at his big brother.

james burst out laughing, unable to contain himself. “i’m-i’m gonna need an explanation on this one, reg,” he wheezed out.

“oh shut it.” regulus roles his eyes, but explained anyways. “i don’t remember it all too well, but i do know that it was a photo taken by andromeda, as she had come over for dinner the day after her birthday, when she received the camera she used to take the photo from one of her hogwarts friends. she had offered to give me a bath, as i needed one and was picky as to who i let bathe me, and sirius started making fun of me for not being able to bathe myself yet. so i chased him with a stuffed animal.”

james lost it again, almost sending himself into a coughing fit with his laughter. he regained control of his lungs, flipping to the next photo.

this one was signed by andromeda, but it was very clearly her signature before she got married. it was a photo of regulus and sirius as young children, probably four and five years old, sitting at narcissa’s vanity, doing each other’s makeup. which, for being so young, was surprisingly good. it’s no wonder it only got better as they grew.

james let a wide smile grow across his face, glad to know that even though regulus’ childhood wasn’t the best, he still managed to have some normal childhood experiences.

the two remained like that, looking at old photos, remembering each moment and indulging in the joy it brought regulus, until euphemia called them down for dinner, where both boys were unable to wipe the huge grins off of their faces.

[earlgreydream]

mischief.

| marauders x reader | fluff | smut |

anon requested. they’re all flirty and touchy with one another? like its mutual pining, smutty, dom!reader

“Wake up!” Sirius whispered in your ear. 

You startled out of your sleep, and he put his hand over your mouth before you could scream.

“It’s just Pads, bunny. But c’mon, we gotta go,” he slowly took his hand away, trusting you to be quiet enough not to wake your roommate. Sirius put a sweater in your hands and you slipped leggings up your legs, pushing your feet into shoes. 

You silently slipped from the dorm and ran after your friend, your fingers laced in his. You blinked sleep away as Sirius dragged you through the halls to where Remus and James were waiting near the dungeons. 

“What are we doing?” you yawned, rubbing your eyes. 

“We’re finally getting revenge on Severus for fucking up your charms project,” James answered fiercely.

“So you dragged me out of bed at two in the morning?” You asked in disbelief.

“We’re going to make it worth your while,” Remus promised, kissing the back of your neck. You smiled before turning to the door.

“How are we getting into the slytherin dorms?” You questioned, staring at the painting. Sirius winked, and it swung open, revealing a boy with gorgeous stormy eyes and black curls, a smaller copy of your best friend. 

“Thank you, Regulus,” Sirius ruffled his curls before stepping into the chilly common room. 

“You owe me.”

“Thanks, Reg,” you kissed his cheek, earning a smile from the shy, brooding Black brother. Sirius shot him a jealous look, one that mirrored the expression of the other two. You giggled, rushing them along. 

You found Severus’ dorm, slipping inside in the dark. James went to the chest, opening it silently and waving his wand, murmuring a spell. Every article of clothing turned baby pink with ruffles and bows, and you all had to bite back laughter. 

The boys waved you out, lingering by the door. You hesitated, grabbing his potions essay off of the desk. They all looked at you in surprise, you typically weren’t the one to go farther than just a little prank. You flipped off Severus’ sleeping form, still not forgiving him for ruining your charms project the week before. 

“Are you mad?” Remus hissed as you walked to the common room. 

“Quite,” you shot him a look. 

“Thank you. Do as you wish with this,” you said to Regulus, putting the potions essay in his hands. The younger boy grinned, and Sirius’ gaze softened. 

James and Remus took your hands, running through dark corridors with you, Sirius trailing close behind. You expected to be taken back to bed, but the boys decided not to try to break you back in. They brought you to their own dorm, and you grinned mischievously. 

“Thank you.”

“Always, bunny,” James smiled, kneeling down in front of where you sat on the end of his bed. He slipped your shoes off of your feet, lightly squeezing your ankles. 

You were buzzing with adrenaline, and you stared down at James, your mind wandering to how sexy he looked down on his knees in front of you. Sirius and Remus both recognized the look on your face, both of them sensing the energy shift in the room. 

The four of you were exceptionally close, flirty and touchy. The lines of your friendship blurred to be more than platonic. The adrenaline and excitement fueled arousal, and the innocent night of mischief was quickly evolving into something more. 

James’ hazel eyes gazed up at you, and he sat back on his heels as your fingers traced over the curves of your face. Your fingers pulled him up by his tie, and you pushed your lips against his. Your other hand carded into his hair, deepening the kiss as your tongue slipped into his mouth, dominating his. James moaned against your lips, and Sirius muttered a profanity, shrugging his shirt from his body and kicking his jeans aside. 

James panted when you broke the kiss, and Remus pulled your sweater over your head. James hooked two of his fingers into the front of your t-shirt, pulling the neckline down so he could kiss the soft skin of your chest.

You sighed quietly and set his glasses aside, running your fingers through his dark waves as his tongue lapped over your nipple. 

“Isn’t bunny pretty?” Sirius asked James, pulling your hair out of the way and tying it up before kissing along your shoulder and neck. 

“Yes, so pretty,” James mumbled against your skin. Remus smiled proudly at the submissive boy, encouraging him to make you feel good. You leaned against Sirius, your eyes rolling back at the way James touched you. 

“I want to fuck my beautiful boys,” you breathed against Sirius’ lips. Your tongues slid together, his long, beautiful hand wrapping around your throat. Silver rings left faint indentations on your skin, and he filled your senses. 

“Let off of her, Prongs. We want to see bunny without her clothes on, yeah?” Remus gently pried James from your chest. He whimpered and you smiled down at him, praising him for being good. 

You let Sirius slide your t shirt off, exposing your torso to the marauders. You lifted your hips so James could pry your leggings and thong off, and Sirius hauled you onto the mattress. 

You pushed him down onto his back once he was stripped, allowing the other two boys to entertain themselves. Your fingers slid up his chest, muscular from years of quidditch practices, admiring his tanned body. 

“Please, let me get inside of you, bunny. I want to feel your tight walls squeeze around me,” he asked softly, stormy eyes shining up at you, letting you take control. 

You absolutely couldn’t deny your gorgeous, sweet boy, and you slowly sank down on his cock, letting him pierce you. His hands went to your hips to help guide you, though your hand that went around his neck reminded him that you were in charge. 

“Fuck, bunny, you feel amazing,” he swore as you seated yourself with him buried as deep as possible in your pussy. A quiet gasp was the only response you could manage for several moments, overwhelmed by just the feeling of him stretching you out. 

“Help me ride you, Pads,” you hummed, rolling your hips as he took some of the effort. 

James whined in need, and you pulled him over to you, kissing him roughly and wrapping your arms around his neck as you bounced on Sirius’ cock. When he snapped his hips up, you squeezed his throat and yelped into James’ mouth. 

“Gotta share, Jamesie,” Remus scolded James.

Before you could process his words, his mouth was on yours, replacing where James had previously been. James leaned down to reattach himself to your chest, Remus swallowing your loud moans as the boys stimulated you everywhere. 

James shrieked, biting you lightly as Remus sheathed himself inside of the boy, taking him from behind as he continued to passionately kiss you. 

“James!” Sirius slapped his thigh, pushing his face away from you and down to the bed. The brunette’s back arched as Remus roughly drove into him. Sirius sat up, letting you lean against his chest as you grew unable to maintain your balance, overwhelmed by the pleasure and stimulation. 

“You’re doing so well, bunny. Our gorgeous girl, letting us kiss you everywhere and fill you up,” Remus praised as Sirius softly kissed you, licking over the bruised lips that were swollen from Remus and James. 

“Sirius, fuck, I’m so close,” you breathed, and James moved, reaching between the two of you to rub your clit as Sirius bounced you up and down on his lap. You tightened around him so intensely that he struggled to thrust into you, snapping and falling apart as James’ help sent you tumbling into your orgasm. 

You came with a scream, everyone following behind in close succession, pleasure radiating around your small group. 

“I’ve got you,” Sirius breathed, holding you tightly as the mixture of your release leaked out of you, smearing across your thighs. You clung to him, the aftershocks of your powerful orgasm making you twitch in his arms. 

Remus cleaned him and James up beside you, and you barely heard him ask Sirius to let him help the two of you. You squeaked as Sirius moved, and he hushed you with gentle kisses to your cheek.

“We gotta clean up, bunny. Then you can snuggle between us,” Sirius promised. 

Although you’d been dominating during the sex, now you just wanted to cling to Sirius and let him care for you. You weren’t keen on the idea of him removing himself from you, but he gently laid you back and slipped out. 

“Just let Moony clean you up a bit,” James brushed hair from your face, smiling sweetly at you. You nodded blearily, parting your legs to allow Remus to care for you. You winced at the contact, taking a moment to relax. 

Sirius dressed you in a quidditch sweater, snuggling you between him and James in the large bed, Remus lying on James’ other side. Your head rested on Sirius’ chest, and he played with your hair until you fell asleep. 

“Wake up, gorgeous,” Remus tried to rise you, and you covered your face with your arm, enjoying your sleep.

“Come on, I’ve got some tea ready for you,” James tried, failing. 

“If you get up, you get to see Severus in those pink frilly trousers!” Sirius reminded. 

That got you up. 

Sirius swatted you backside before you could pull on a clean uniform that was in his chest. You often spent the night in their dorm, and now, you were prepared. 

“Sirius rough you up?” Remus laughed as he watched you wince at first. 

“Sorry, bunny,” Sirius kissed your cheek, and you blushed, hiding behind the tea James had made for you. 

The four of you hurried to potions, and you giggled with delight as you saw Severus angrily trying to explain that he’d lost the essay to your professor, on top of why his uniforms had been... altered. 

“The bloke deserves it,” Regulus whispered, sitting down with you and Sirius. 

“Oh, absolutely,” you giggled, bending over your cauldron so you didn’t draw attention to yourselves. 

[comfortwriting]

Unexpected - R.L

Masterlist, Requesting Rules, Writing Prompts

Remus Lupin (Marauders Era) x Fem Reader 

Prompts: 

62: He grabbed you by the wrist and pulled you into him, you could tell he was furious, jealous, and mortified. 

65: Your lips crashed against his whilst his hands fumbled with the zip on the back of your dress. 

Requested/About: Lupin and one of his good friends meet up a few times a month to have sex, one night at a party, Lupin sees her getting too close to his best friend and he hopes that their night of passion will change that. Unfortunately, their night of passion leads to something unexpected and only makes things worse. 

Warnings: Smut, unprotected sex, jealous Lupin, pregnancy, and swearing.

“So what’s going on with you and Mooney, then?” Sirius asked, leaning back in his chair, staring at your answers.

You looked over your shoulder, smiling at Remus, he looked up at you and smiled back shyly, his pale face and tired eyes more noticeable than usual.

You covered your answers with your hand, rolling your eyes at him “I don’t really know” you replied “we don’t really feel the need to put a label on things, y’know”

You and Remus considered many labels but none of them was able to justify how the both of you felt about one another without knowing each other's feelings. You’re both really really good friends that fuck, nothing more, nothing less - but outside the bedroom, his friends would always treat you as if what you had with Remus was so much more than the casual hook-ups.

“Have you fallen for our dear Mooney?”

“Now now, don’t get too excited, he doesn’t get any kinkier once he’s back to normal”

You were fine with being friends that fucked for the rest of your life, you never felt like you were in any hurry to make him your boyfriend or to put a spin on things, but not knowing how Remus felt - that sometimes bothered you, perhaps he wanted to be so much more than what you’re happy with.

Sirius stared at you, the corner of his mouth curling into a grin whilst Professor Flitwick collected in your mock papers.

James turned around in his seat, smirking with Sirius “will you be coming to the party tomorrow?” James asked.

You nodded your head and yawned, “yeah” you replied, stretching in your seat “It’ll be the last time I get to see him before the full moon”

Sirius wiggled his eyebrows up and down, causing James to smirk more, both of them breaking out into a laugh when you covered your face, your cheeks turning red.

“Look” you sighed, pointing at James “you try anything, and I mean anything at all, and you can kiss your second chance with Lily goodbye.”

James put his hands up in defence, pretending to be scared and murmuring “oh Y/N! please don’t set S-Snivellus on me, I’ll behave, I-I promise!”

Sirius couldn’t contain his laughter, shooting glares at Severus as he glared at you all from his desk. Peter looked a little afraid and cowered in his seat, you rolled your eyes at James, Remus blinked heavily to stay awake, smiling to himself at the sight of you.

You wound your hair around your wand, holding it for a moment and then letting go, watching your now springy curls twirl down and bounce, Lily walked around the room, applying the tiniest bit of blusher to her cheeks.

“You can get away with wearing such little makeup!” her friend commented as if she read your mind.

You applied your mascara and matte lipstick, looking at yourself once more in the mirror - you’d think you were going out for a meal, or to a dance, but you were only going down to the common room, you felt kind of silly for putting this much effort in, especially since Remus and you were friends; who did you have to impress?

Lily shook her head “I only wear it for special occasions, hopefully, this shade will keep that James Potter as far away from me as possible.”

“Hey” you called out, turning away from the mirror and walking towards Lily and her friend “I know you can’t stand him, and his ego is bigger than his shoe size, but James can be really nice once you get to know him” you defended your house teams seeker, walking towards the door “give him a chance.”

Bursting into the common room the smell of fire whiskey, smoke from the fireplace, and butterbeer overpowered the room, the chatter and laughter drowned out your thoughts whilst you searched for Remus.

You caught many eyes in the common room, none the beautiful shade of green you were so desperately interested in and searched for - you couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Bit lost, Y/N?” Sirius called out, nudging you in the arm playfully, another smirk creeping on his face.

You frowned, continuing to look for Remus on the spot, “I can’t find him anywhere, did he cancel?” you looked through the window at the night sky, searching for the moon.

“No, love” Sirius replied, taking a sip of fire whiskey “he’s a bit weaker tonight but he promised he’d be here.”

Part of you wanted to go into his dorm room and check, but you were friends - you couldn’t invade his privacy even if you were given permission to do so.

You nodded, feeling slightly better but also more worried about Remus, he hated the plague that was forced upon him and took over him once a month - you started to question whether or not he was already in the shrieking shack, all alone and falling apart.

Sirius noticed your sudden dip and put his arm around you, pulling you in closely “he’s going to be okay, Y/N” he said lowly into your ear “we’re all worried about him.”

Remus stood across the room, staring at you seemingly melting into Sirius’s embrace. Despite feeling sick, drained, and weak, he felt like transforming then and there, ripping Padfoots arm off his body.

“thank you” you smiled up at Sirius, part of your worries dissipating “I’m glad he has you lot to look after him”

Remus couldn’t bear it anymore, watching whilst his best friend got closer and closer to taking you away from him - he clenched his sweaty palms into fists, storming over to you with all of his strength, shivering against the cold despite the amount of heat engulfing you all in the room.

You looked over your shoulder, your eyes finally meeting those beautiful green ones you spent ages searching for. Pulling away from Sirius you hurried over to Remus and wrapped your arms around him as gently as you could, you nuzzled your face into his neck, his cool skin relieving you from overheating.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” you breathed, now pulling away and smiling at him, then frowning “I thought you cancelled.”

“is that why you were so close to him?” Remus spat, his temper ticking like a time bomb casually jolting in his stomach.

You flinched away from him, staring into his eyes feeling taken aback.

“He’s my friend” you replied as softly as you could “are you alright?”

He grabbed you by the wrist and pulled you into him, you could tell he was furious, jealous, and mortified. Your lips crashed against his whilst his hands fumbled with the zip on the back of your dress.

You pulled away from the heated kiss “not here” you pulled his fingers away from your zip.

Remus licked his lips slowly, staring at you as if you were something to eat, he grabbed you by the wrist again and lead you to his empty dorm room, fighting against his paranoia.

James and Sirius watched the two of you leave the common room, muttering to one another about the status of your relationship, debating whether or not to make a bet with the little gold that sat in the bottom of their pockets.

“Potter!” Lily called out, walking over to the two troublemakers “your hair looks ridiculous”

The two of you got undressed and couldn’t keep your hands off one another, Remus pushed you down onto his warm bed, his cold hands tracing around your breasts whilst he planted kisses down your neck, your soft moans filling the dorm room and exciting him even more.

Remus sucked on your neck softly, leaving little love bites before pulling away and taking your breast into his mouth, sucking slowly as you took his length into your hand, pumping it. Moaning against your breast, Remus pulled away and reached for the lube in the drawers on his bedside table.

“are you sure you want to?” you asked nervously, staring into his lust-filled eyes.

He nodded and smiled softly, “of course” he replied, “do you?”

You mirrored his smile and nodded your head “of course I do, Remus.”

He applied the silky lube onto his length, and then more onto his fingers which he spread across your entrance, slipping two of his fingers inside of you, pumping in and out to get you warmed up.

His cock hardened and you watched him in awe, biting your lip and moaning at the feel of his touch, he held the base of his cock with his other hand and looked into your eyes for approval, you nodded and he lined himself up against your entrance, pushing himself inside of you slowly, filling you up as your walls tightened around him.

You moaned out softly, watching his perfect scarred body move whilst he thrust inside of you, Remus moved closer and wrapped his arms around you, pushing himself deeper inside of you. Your arms wrapped around him and pulled him closer, your lips hovering against his ear, each and every one of your moans you let out not going unheard.

His lips grazed against your collarbone, the sight of his lower back and bum making you blush with each thrust. Your hands travelled up higher, your fingers now tangled in his light brown hair, Remus pulled away from you and grabbed onto your legs, propping them up upon his shoulders, his cock travelling even deeper inside of you, the head brushing against your G-Spot.

“Remus, I can feel you against my-” you scrunched your eyes shut, unable to control your moans.

Remus felt his heart flutter as you moaned out his name, seeing you look so exquisite and blissful whilst he pleasured you - no one else, just him.

Bucking his hips, Remus groaned out and gripped onto your waist, keeping you in line whilst he fucked you deeper and faster, hitting your G-Spot over and over, sending you over the edge, your hands gripping onto his bedsheets so tight that your knuckles turned white.

“You feel so fucking good!” You moaned out again, your lip now red from all of the biting “I’m-” your legs began to jolt uncontrollably “I’m getting close!”

Each and every time you came undone onto Remus, it flicked switches inside of him, his cock started to throb inside of you, twitching with each and every thrust - he felt himself - like you - getting closer and closer to bursting.

The sight of your legs jolting, your back arching, your mouth wide open, the sound of you moaning his name, telling him how good he felt, your walls tightening around him, the thought of your cum spilling down his cock - he couldn’t take it anymore, and before he could control himself, he released his seed deep inside of you, being too dazed to realise what he had done.

Remus collapsed on top of you, chasing his feeling of bliss before his other feelings of shame and disgust crept upon him.

You laid there, Remus on top of you, your heart pounding in your chest, not knowing what Remus had done, your stroked his hair and felt yourself getting closer to drifting off to sleep.

After five minutes of cooling down, Remus’s body language made it pretty clear that he wanted to be left alone, guilt and hurt surged inside of you, a few meters behind the panic - you quickly scrambled to your feet, getting dressed and hurrying out of his dorm room.

James and Lily were having the smoothest conversation together than anyone had ever seen, not a single argument had broken out and Sirius watched, scanning the room for more fire whiskey with each cup he emptied.

Seeing tears run down your face as you scrambled towards your dorm, he tried to follow you but stopped in his tracks, realising there was no way he could get up there, instead he walked towards his own, bumping into a very poorly, annoyed, and irritable Remus.

Sitting on the tile floor of the shower, you pressed your eyes into your hands, seeing colourful stars appear in the darkness. Remus didn’t say a word to you since that night and he had been at the shrieking shack for over a week, refusing to return despite the begging and convincing of Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail. Your period was also late, your breasts swelling and constant nausea made you worry.

You wanted to sit under the flowing hot water for the rest of the day, but you knew you couldn’t, in a few minutes time your life could be changed forever. Your hand rested on top of your stomach, the thought of another life in there bringing you to tears.

Standing up, you turned off the water and grabbed your towel, drying yourself and wrapping it around you, trying to stay as warm as possible.

Getting changed into some comfortable clothing, you walked into your empty dorm room, opening your drawer and peering over at the pregnancy test two thick red lines peered back at you through their little windows; your now stomach doing flips, your heart sinking down into your flipping tummy, and your life-changing forever.

With your test stuffed into your tracksuit bottom pockets, you hurried across the Quidditch pitch, running over to James who was too busy waving at Lily up in the stands to notice you.

“Where is he!” you demanded.

James looked confused and slightly alarmed “who? Mooney? You know-”

“No!” you hissed under your breath, trying not to cause a scene “Sirius, I need him, where is he?”

“He’s catching up on homework by the lake-”

You took off and sprinted past James, too focused on finding your best friend to thank him or care about disrupting Quidditch practice.

Finally reaching Sirius you collapsed next to him on your knees, against the tree, tears running down your face and your lips going bright red and swelling.

Sirius dumped his books on the grass without a second thought, accidentally spilling his inkpot across the pages he had worked so hard on.

“I don’t know what to do” you cried, your head going back into your hands, rocking yourself forwards and backwards.

Sirius could feel his heart pound like yours, he put his arm around you and pulled you back into his arms.

“What’s the matter, Y/N?” he asked softly, rubbing your arm “please tell me.”

You dived into your pocket and pulled out the pregnancy test, handing it to him.

Sirius stared at the test, his heart dropping when he finally understood the results, knowing how Remus would react if he found out about being the reason an innocent baby would turn into a monster.

“I don’t know what to do” you cried “he’s just my friend, this was never meant to happen.”

Sirius debating many of the plans that swam around his head, but he picked the one he knew was best.

“We can’t hide this from him,” he said softly, lifting up your chin so you would finally look at him “he’s our friend, he deserves to know.”

Remus finally broke out of hiding, appearing and feeling much better than before, but unfortunately, he had walked over to you and his best friend at the wrong time - getting the wrong end of a very confusing stick.

“deserves to know what?” he called out, his voice shaking.

You jumped out of your skin and looked at Remus, more open wounds on his face slowly healing.

“Remus-”

His eyes fell on the pregnancy test in his best friends hands “are you...” he sounded breathless.

You nodded your head slowly “yes” more tears formed in your eyes.

Remus shook his head and swallowed hard, clenching his fists, his eyes shooting daggers into Sirius.

“I trusted you, Padfoot!” you raised his voice.

Sirius got to his feet quickly, shaking his head “Remus, settle down, this isn’t what you think-”

“sure it is!” Remus flashed you a glare “you’ve always been close to her, you’ve always tried to push me out so you could have her!”

“Remus, please!” you begged, standing up and pulling on his arm “let me explain!”

“explain what exactly?” Remus croaked “that you’re carrying my best friend’s baby?”

You shook your head, hyperventilating whilst your hot tears ran down your red cheeks “no, the baby isn’t his you idiot!”

Remus paused, stopping himself from inching closer to Sirius, his eyes desperately searching yours.

“W-What do you mean?” Remus asked.

“The baby I’m carrying” you choked “it’s yours.”

Taglist: @amourtentiaa @reeophidian @inglourious-imagines @alwaysnforeverfangirl @impulse-anchor 

[messrmoonyy]

The fluff 49 with Remadora!!

I literally used to always just write from Doras thoughts yet here I am now obsessed with writing outta Remus’ head. Jealous Remus. We love to see it. Prompt from this list.

Prompt: ‘ is somebody jealous? ‘

Pairing: Remus lupin x Nymphadora Tonks

Warnings: mild language

You can find all my other writing on my masterlist and remember my ask box is always open, so drop me a request! Check my masterlist for who I write for!

Remus didn’t think he was a particularly jealous person. And he had plenty to be jealous of when he thought about it. But it just… never crossed his mind to be jealous. He was too far past having an emotion so useless, jealousy would never get him anyway. Being jealous of a man with more money than he had wouldn’t magically make a hundred galleons appear in his pocket. Being jealous of other people his age who were settled down with families wouldnt make his family return from the dead. Yet…. There he was, sat at his desk in the Grimmauld place library, practically seething.

He knew he was being ridiculous. Completely. But watching Sirius and Nymphadora laughing on the other side of the room was making his blood boil. He felt a little stupid in fact, they were related after all. But. The Blacks did have a bit of reputation for that didn’t they. And there was the matter that he’d heard Harry talking to Hermione about how he thought Nymphadora and Sirius were secretly a couple. And of course to top it all off Sirius had, and probably always would be, an absolute ladies man.

He didn’t really have a right to be jealous. Yes he and Tonks had been getting very… close, if that was even the best choice of words. He didn’t think close did justice right the several bouts of snogging he had found himself in a multitude of places around Grimmauld place. Only the previous night on the exact sofa she was pratting around on with Sirius now. Not to mention the nights Tonks snook into his room, or cornered him in the back of the library. And there was that one time he’d practically jumped her in the drawing room after a meeting. But there hadnt been any real discussion on what they were.

The only vague discussion being after their first kiss, when Remus has avoided her for a good four days after. Wracked with guilt that he’d let his self control slip. But she’d cornered him in the kitchen and forced him to confront the situation head on. He’d tried to tell her it was probably a mistake. That he wasn’t exactly the best of choices for her. But she’d told him he was ridiculous, that she didn’t care about his age. His condition. But there hadn’t been a talk on their situation since. He didn’t like to bring it up. Maybe it was simply casual for her. A late night hook up when she had stress form work to blow off. So he couldn’t be jealous could he.

But he was. Insanely so. His grip tightening on his quill as Sirius flung another awful joke at her and she threw her head back with laughter. Remus didn’t get it but she clearly did. He tried to distract his jealousy away by focusing on just how beautiful she was when she was laughing, how her eyes crinkled at the corners and her cheeks flushed pink. But it didn’t work as well as he hoped. Because if he noticed those things. Sirius must too.

“ if you two are going to continue being so noisy then would you just leave. Some of us are trying to work “ he snapped, slamming his fist to the desk for good measure. Sirius made some grumbled remark about Remus being a bore. But he didn’t care enough to pay attention.

“ ooo Tonksie that’s his professor tone “ Sirius said in a loud whisper before laughing again and nudging Tonks with his elbow “ sorry sir. Detention for talking in class? “ they both burst into laughter, Tonks steadying herself with a hand to Sirius’ shoulder. Remus sighed and tried to ignore them, his knuckles turning white around his quill. “ oh come on Re. Have a drink, lighten up “

“ I’m not in the mood. I’m trying to work “ he grumbled, purposely not looking over at she’d Sirius now had his arm slung around Tonks shoulders. He was being ridiculous. Though Tonks seemed to pick up on it.

There was then some hushed talking between the two of them, that his heightened senses would’ve allowed him to hear if he cared enough. But instead He huffed and looked back down at his mission report. There was the creek of the library door as Sirius left with another remark about how boring Remus was and then quiet. Assuming that Tonks had followed Sirius out of the room he debated on going to find her. But a few moments later her arms looped around his neck from behind him, her nose brushing against his cheek.

“ is somebody jealous? “ she said quietly, mischief evident in her tone. He’d hoped he hadn’t been so obvious. Clearly he had. Of course he had. He wasn’t exactly well practiced in the art of hiding his affections for someone. And besides, Tonks could read him like a book.

“ I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about “ he felt her smile against his cheek and she tightened her hold on him, bringing her chin down to rest on his shoulder.

“ he’s my cousin Remus. I might technically be a Black by name, but not by nature. Not really into the whole ‘ fuck your family members ‘ thing you know? Especially not Sirius. Merlin. It’d be like shacking up with a brother or something. Nasty. Ugh now you’ve put that imagine in my head “ she shivered at the thought and he couldn’t help but smile.

“ you said yourself he’s handsome “ he pointed out, remembering the conversation that had actually lead to their first kiss, in a much similar situation to the one they were currently in. His so thought non existent jealousy coming out to bite.

“ doesn’t mean I wanna shag him Remus “

“ you always have such a way with words “ she laughed lightly and moved around in front of him, hopping up onto the desk and folding her arms.

“ I’m quite offended actually “ Remus sat back in his chair and watched her intently. Her cheeks were flushed slightly from drinking “ I mean come. On. Remus. You’ll be saying I’m shacking up with Arthur next because I laugh at his dad jokes “ when she put it like that he guessed he had been a bit irrational with his thoughts.

“ I heard Harry talking about it with Ron and Hermione. I think most of the kids believe you and Sirius are up to something “ she scoffed at that and quirked an eyebrow.

“ so you’re listening to the theories of the most unobservant boy in the entire country? I mean I love the boy I do, but I think he needs a new pair of glasses. His clearly aren’t working well “ a small smile tugged at his face then, Harry was a bright boy but he did have a tendency to be quite…. Oblivious. To everything. Tonks was quiet for a few more moments before tilting her head to the side inquisitively, chewing lightly on her bottom lip. She looked deep in thought “ so what’s this really about then? “ Remus frowned and raised his hands as if in mock surrender.

“ nothing. I told you I heard Harry and the way you were with Sirius.. it’s nothing “ she rolled her eyes and hopped off the desk, stepping either side of his legs and wiggling to get comfortable in his lap. His hands flew to her waist, unable to stop himself as she placed her hands to his shoulders and titled her head again.

“ Remus “ her voice was slightly sterner but she was smiling at him “ you can talk to me. You know you can “ he debated telling her the truth. That he was just getting jealous because she could do far better than him. She could have whoever she wanted, whenever she wanted. And he was scared to lose her. What they had, whatever it really was, was great. Remus hadn’t been so happy in a long. Long. Time. He didn’t want to push too far and send her packing. But he didn’t want to hang too far back and have her run off to someone else. It was a constant dilemma in his head.

“ you and I “ he started, not really even sure where he was going with his speech “ it’s good. It’s. It’s marvellous “ she laughed a little and nodded with a tight lipped smile.

“ it is. Though I sense a ‘ but ‘ incoming “ he sighed and fiddled nervously with one of the beads on her shirt. They were haphazardly sewn all over it and he wondered if she’d added them herself.

“ I’m just waiting for the inevitable “ he said after another short moment of silence. Deciding now was a better time as any to tell her. She was stubborn and she had him right where she wanted him. So it was going to come out there and then whether he liked it or not really.

“ ‘ the inevitable’ being?…. “

“ finding someone better- no now before you make that face let me finish. Please “ she had sighed as soon as the words left his mouth, sitting back slightly with an eye roll.

“ Remus we’ve talked about this. Can you just get it into your head, that I fancy you. Not Sirius. Not some random ‘ someone better ‘. You “ he couldn’t lie that the words made his heart pound just that bit faster. The confirmation being all he’d really needed. But there was always going to be that worry in the back of his mind. It would never go away.

“ I know. And maybe I’m a fool to keep bringing it up. But you have to admit that I’m not exactly at the top of most peoples most eligible list “ she took his face in her hands then, making him look her in the eyes. He’d noticed she didn’t change their colour very often anymore after he’d made an offhand remark about how beautiful her natural brown eyes were. They were captivating.

“ no one else bloody matters though. You’re at the top of my list. That’s all that matters. Maybe I’m mental. Maybe I’m not. All I know, is you’re one of the only truly decent man I’ve ever met. You don’t make me morph. You’re so respectful it’s practically dripping off of you. And you’re proper fit too which is totally just a bonus “ he hoped she couldn’t feel his cheeks heating up under her hands. But her smile told him she probably could.

It was odd for him to look at her and think that some one could ever even have the nerve to make her morph for them. To fit their idea of what was perfect. He thought she was marvellous in whatever form she thought was best fitting for her each day. He’d never dream of making her change. In his eyes, there had never been a more perfect specimen of a person to walk the earth. She made him laugh. Made him feel normal. Cared for. He couldn’t believe she would ever have eyes for him. But she did. And he guessed that miracles must truly be real.

“ I’m sorry for being so jealous “ her face softened again and the backs of her fingers brushed over his cheek.

“ it’s fine. I mean. At least it shows you care? “ she laughed a little and he felt his tension melting away a little.

“ I do “ her hand crept towards the back of his neck, her fingers slipping into his hair and she shuffled a little closer again.

“ good. Now stop being a mope and realise we’re on own again “ she whispered the last part, her face inching closer so he felt her breath on his lips. And with a smirk she caught his lips in hers.

[lulublack90]

Prompt 1 - Day

@wolfstarmicrofic January 1, word count 809

Opposite - Night

It was the day before the full moon, and Remus was antsy. His skin itched, and his hair stood on end all over his body. He felt feverish, and his joints ached. 

He could deal with being a werewolf if he only felt the effects when the moon was full, but the run-up to it just made it all that much worse. 

He needed to take his mind off it. As though Sirius had read his mind. He came sauntering in with that wild look in his eyes that could only mean one thing. Sirius had a prank ready to be played out. 

Instantly, Remus forgot how bad his body felt. Sirius gracefully flopped onto the sofa next to him. He leant back, folding his hands behind his head. Looking completely at ease. Remus waited for Sirius to ask. He knew he was going to ask. Oh, how he needed Sirius to ask. 

“Moony?” Sirius finally spoke, somehow managing to keep his face serious. 

“Yes, Padfoot,” Remus replied, slightly breathlessly.

“I have a plan, but I need some help to pull it off.” He turned his head towards Remus. “Would you be interested?” 

“Yes!” Remus said, unable to contain his excitement. This close to the moon, the wolf made it hard for him to control his emotions.  

Sirius’s grin illuminated his face. 

“Knew I could count on you, Moony.” He moved closer conspiratorially. “Third years are starting tea leaf reading in Divination this afternoon, and I have a rather large supply of nose-biting teacups…” He trailed off, not needing to say any more for Remus to understand. 

“Yes! Sirius yes! Can we watch? I wanna watch!” He was vibrating with energy. That wicked glint flashed in Sirius’s eyes again, stronger than before. He pulled the corner of James’s invisibility cloak from under his robes. 

“Way ahead of you, Moony, my old friend.”

The plan went off without a hitch. They vanished the ordinary teacups and replaced them all with the nose-biting ones. They picked a good spot at the back of the attic classroom where no one would accidentally walk into them. 

The trapdoor was pushed open as the Divination Professor climbed into the room, followed by the small group of third-years. 

“Settle down, settle down.” The crone-like witch called to the already quietly sitting class. “Everyone go and grab a teacup, and I shall bring around the tea.” The students each took one of the teacups from the shelf. Remus had to stuff his fist into his mouth to stop himself from laughing. He felt Sirius nudge him warningly. He tried to calm himself down before he gave them away. 

“Make sure you drink all the tea before you start trying to read the tea leaves. Do not make the same mistake as my class last year. Poor boy scalded his legs trying to read without drinking any of the tea.” She shook her head solemnly.

“Poor, Pete,” Sirius whispered into Remus’s ear, then had to add his own hand to help cover Remus’s mouth as he shook with laughter. 

The room was mostly quiet as the students all waited for the tea to cool enough to drink. 

“Alright, class.” The Professor announced, “Your tea would be sufficiently cool enough now to drink from.” She picked up her own cup as the 15-third years all lifted theirs. 

There was a moment of slurping and then Bedlam. People screaming, chairs flying and tea cups smashing. The class fled, trying to get away from the snapping china. The Professor was having a terrible time removing her cup from the end of her nose. It seems to be a particularly vicious one. 

The chaos was more than either Remus or Sirius could have hoped for. Within minutes, the classroom was empty. The screams and shouts grew quieter as the third years ran from the tower. 

Sirius pulled the cloak off them. They looked at each other silently and straight-faced for a second before they both fell to the floor, rolling around in peals of laughter.

“Godric, that went better than I could have ever imagined.” Sirius gasped between laughs, brushing the tears leaking from his eyes from his face. 

“Sirius, that was perfect. I love your brain.” Remus choked out, an arm wrapped around himself as if he needed to hold himself together. 

“Right, come on,” Sirius said, trying very hard to pull himself together, “Before someone comes to see what’s going on.”

They managed to climb back down the ladder without hurting themselves. Once at the bottom, Sirius threw the invisibility cloak back over them. 

“Don’t want anyone seeing us coming out of the tower, or they’ll know it was us,” Sirius murmured to Remus as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower, bursting into howling laughter when they pulled the invisibility cloak off, safe in their dorm room.                

[harryissuchalittleshit]

Fever Dream High in the Quiet of the Night

@petalstosarah thank you for another Taylor prompt! I love them so much! Cruel Summer just screams Jily to me (along with most of the Lover album!) and I had a lot of fun writing this!! Can also be read on Ao3!

It was quiet.

The usual buzz of the bugs and heat and the street lights was nonexistent for once. The rolling blackouts were making the house stifling, but James didn’t care. He didn’t care about the heat, about the bugs, about the darkness, as today he was able to see the stars.

He heard the creaking of the garden gate below, and checked his watch, it was one in the morning, she was always on time. That was the thing about Lily Evans, she was always punctual, always calm, always in control of every situation she was in.

James carefully left his bedroom, glancing over at Remus and Sirius curled up together in his bed where they had fallen asleep hours ago in the heat. They would wake up sweaty and gross in the morning, and James hoped that he wasn’t around for when Sirius started complaining about his skin breaking out.

James jumped the last two steps of the stairs, they creaked from years of use and he didn’t need anyone in the house waking up.

“Hey,” whispered James, as he reached out to take Lily’s hand and pulled her in close. He kissed her softly and ran his fingers through her long sweet smelling hair. He had been in love with her for so long, ever since she had beat him in the quiz team trials three years ago to get on the team. “I’ve missed you.”

Lily smiled at him in the moonlight, her bright green eyes shining despite the darkness surrounding them. James kept his hand in her hair, unable to let go of all of her so quickly.

“It’s been,” said Lily, picking up his wrist to check his watch, “less than three hours James, since we were together.”

“Yeah,” agreed James, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer to him, “but we weren’t alone. As much as I love Remus and Sirius and Peter and Mary, it’s not the same.”

Lily rolled her eyes at him and James smiled down at her, kissing her forehead and wishing that he could stay in this moment forever. He wished that he could always stay in this moment with her and never have to leave or move away from her.

He never imagined that he would get a summer of stolen kisses and late night talks. He never imagined that he would have Lily Evans sneaking into his garden every night, she came when it rained, when the heat was unbearable, when she was tired, even when she had fought with her sister. She came over, every night, on clockwork. Always at one, always when he was about to fall asleep himself.

He loved her.

“James,” whispered Lily, her voice so soft that he almost couldn’t hear her. “I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you, but I snuck in through the garden gate every night this summer just to seal our fate. And I just gotta say…for whatever it’s worth James…I love you. And I’ve been in love you for the last two years.”

It was the first time she had ever said those words, and James felt his heart beat loud in his chest. He wasn’t sure if he had actually heard her correctly or not.

“Well, that’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard,” James whispered, before he met her eyes, sure that he was grinning like a devil. “I love you too, Lily.”

What a cruel, cruel summer it had been to them.

James closed his eyes as Lily kissed him, and James picked her up in his arms, faintly aware that he was moving, that he was spinning them around. He burst out laughing as he hit the ground, Lily on top of him, her arms wrapped tight around his neck, her face in his shoulder as she giggled.

“This is ridiculous,” mumbled Lily and James opened his eyes, he didn’t think he would ever stop smiling. Today was perfect, despite the heat and the boredom and the bad movie Sirius had forced them all to watch so he could snog Remus in the AC.

“Is it?” asked James, as he found the North Star high above them. “Because I think today has been perfect.”

“I think I can change my mind,” whispered Lily as she sat up, her face appearing over his, her emerald green eyes dancing with happiness. James reached forward and pushed her hair out of her face, before cupping his hand around her neck and pulling her mouth down to his.

He never wanted this night to end, never wanted the summer to end.

“Oi!” yelled Sirius from James’ open window. “Quit snogging Evans and tell me where you hid my face masks!”

Lily tucked her face back into James’ shoulder and James rolled his eyes as he joined her in her laughter. Maybe the day wasn’t perfect, but he got one perfect moment and that was all he really needed.

[maraudersftw]

“Can I at least tell my side of the story?”

@theroomofreq Thank you for the super fun prompt! ❤❤

Doodle

“What’s your bloody problem, Potter?”

James’s laughter died down at the sound of the voice, a hand jumping up to his hair as he turned around in his armchair to find Lily Evans stalking towards him from the portrait hole, face red enough to match her hair.

“Evans,” James blinked, dropping his hand immediately when her scathing remark from a few days ago near the lake came to mind, “What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter, you say?” Evans scoffed, and James could tell from his peripheral vision that Gryffindors all around the common room had stopped to stare at what they expected to be another one of their infamous rows. His attention was snapped back when she spoke again. “The matter is that you just can’t seem to take ‘no’ for an answer. I’ve tried telling you nicely one too many times, but this is just childish, even by your standards.”

“I know you’re going to think I’m lying, but I honestly don’t have the faintest clue as to what you mean.”

“Oh, really?” Lily threw him a fake smile, suddenly shoving a tiny piece of parchment under his nose, “perhaps this will help you remember.”

James curiously moved his eyes away from her face and looked down at the short note. Within half a heartbeat, the tips of his ears were dangerously warm, and he kept blinking at the note, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Thankfully, Remus had taken it upon himself to shoo away the onlookers with a stern, “don’t you lot have anything better to do with your time?”, so at least James was saved the mortification of having prying eyes witness his pathetic state.

“Well?” Lily said, a hand on her hip as she looked at him. James noticed that she had yet to return back to her normal color, taking some comfort in the fact that he was not alone in his humiliation, though hers was definitely mixed with a good amount of anger.

“How did you find this?” He asked in a pained voice, looking down at the parchment again and openly flinching.

It was one of James’s numerous doodles, the ones he often found himself drawing absent-mindedly during classes.

This one was particularly embarrassing; it was a large heart with an arrow running through it, and it merrily nodded from one side to the other, courtesy of his special quill. The highlight was, of course, the pair of initials inked boldly inside the heart.

James recognized this doodle very well, remembered the exact History of Magic lesson during which he had drawn it several weeks ago. But what he did not recognize was the horrifying message scribbled underneath it in his handwriting.

Evans, the bud of my heart,

I like you a Lily bit more every day

All I can think about is how we should put our tulips together

And how robes on bodies are really just a bother

“Can I at least tell my side of the story?” He asked quickly, gulping when his eyes traveled back up to see Lily turning redder by the second. “I swear it’s not what it looks like. I didn’t write this.”

“You expect me to actually believe that?!” She seethed, “That’s your chicken scrawl, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but—hang on, how did you know—?”

“So, you’re telling me someone else went through all the trouble to write down this utterly terrible, pun-filled, and downright crass poem, draw a stupid heart with our initials on it, and dropped the parchment into my bag for—for what, exactly?”

James blinked, “Uhh…”

“Thought so. You know, Potter, I always knew you were a prat, but I never pegged you for a liar.”

“No, wait!” James jumped out of the chair, feeling slightly desperate when Lily looked like she was about to storm off, “alright, that—that drawing is mine. But I swear I didn’t write the rubbish underneath it and I sure as hell didn’t drop it into your bag! I’d have to be mad to—come on, Evans, look at it! I’m not eleven anymore. I could do much better.”

Lily continued to stare at him suspiciously, and James tried not to squirm under her scrutinizing gaze even though he was rather certain he was flushed all over.

After what seemed like an eternity, she let out a heavy exhale and James almost wiped his brow in relief. “It doesn’t make any sense though,” Lily said, “Who would do something like that?”

James considered her question for a second. No one in the entire school had anything to gain out of trying something like this, not when James made his affections for Lily quite vocal all by himself. None of the Slytherins who hated him possessed a funny bone in their body, so James quickly ruled them out as well.

In fact, the only people who would find his embarrassment absolutely tickling—

His eyes sharply flitted to the three boys still seated around the fireplace, their backs unnaturally rigid and tense.

He looked at Remus first, whose face was a mask of pure innocence, and he smiled at James pleasantly. Narrowing his eyes, James moved onto Sirius, who was nothing if not a bastard. He was barely controlling the chuckles spilling from his lips and the mirth in his grey eyes was unrestrained, but this was hardly evidence enough for James, for he was certain Sirius would find the situation entirely hilarious regardless of whether it was brought on by him or anyone else.

Finally, his eyes settled on Peter, and as soon as the smaller boy looked at him, he let a telling squeak fly, watery eyes flitting nervously and confirming James’s suspicions.

Sirius and Remus let out simultaneous groans of disbelief and facepalmed, shooting up from the couch and immediately bolting away, dragging a jittery Peter behind them. Laughter bounced off the walls as they quickly exited the portrait hole.

A second ticked by, and James turned to look at Lily with a deranged expression on his face.

“Excuse me, Evans,” He said, pushing past her with a smile that probably scared Lily enough that she didn’t think to put up a fight, “I have three murders to commit tonight.”

[pleaseleavemetowrite]

Potions Class | Sirius Black

reader has she/her pronouns but there's nothing that explicitly states the reader's gender apart from that. Also this is my first Marauders era fic so please give me feedback and stuff!

Requested: yes/no

requests are open!

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Summary: In which Sirius unintentionally falls for a half-blood he met during potions class.

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(Y/n) will never forget the day she became friends with Sirius Black. It was their fifth year and (Y/n) knew who Sirius and the rest of the Marauders were, they were practically unavoidable but it's only highlighted when you're in Gryffindor. However, just because everyone knew them, this doesn't mean they really knew anyone besides who they chose to. So, when Slughorn practically insisted on assigning partners for a potions project, (Y/n) and Sirius finally became (formally) introduced.

(Y/n) could practically feel the mild level of annoyance in the air around them and Sirius, she wasn't sure if she should be offended or not. It seemed to feel like she was unable to tell if it was being paired up with her or being assigned a partner in general that bothered Sirius. But, (Y/n) wasn't one to pry and just left him to do his thing while she read over the potion instructions. Once she finished, she finally made an attempt to talk to Sirius.

"Hey, can you go get this list of ingredients while I prep the cauldron, the quicker we get this done, the quicker you can go back to ignoring my existence." Her tone came off as more passive-aggressive then intended when they passed Sirius the small list of ingredients she had written out. But it seemed to work as he wordlessly took the list and left (Y/n) alone to relax her shoulders and gently roll them back before preparing the cauldron. And before she knew it, he was back. He seemed less annoyed then before but not happy either, it was a neutral medium of indifference but (Y/n) couldn't really blame him, she wasn't exactly thrilled to find out she had to work with Sirius.

(Y/n) began the process of chopping, crushing and measuring the ingredients for the potion when Sirius spoke up. "So...you come here often?" (Y/n) had an expression of mild amusement as she gave him a look to say really? Sirius lightly shook his head laughing, "Well what do you want me to say? We don't exactly know each other" (Y/n) breathed out a laugh as she replied, "Maybe not "you come here often" when we are literally in a classroom." Her tone was light-hearted as the potion suddenly became irrelevant. Sirius seemed to share the same idea as he slightly moved closer to (Y/n), leaning on the worktop. "So, tell me about yourself." He sounded genuinely interested, and while (Y/n) knew of his reputation she couldn't help but begin to tell him anything and everything that came to mind.

She told him all about her muggle friends at home, how hard it is to tell them that she isn't ignoring them she just goes to a "strict boarding school." and how her mum used to always take her to park after Primary School if she had been good, since she seemed to always "accidently" cause trouble by making a mess or being somewhere she wasn't allowed to because she couldn't control her magic yet. She told him about the book her aunt would read to her about a puddle duck named Jemima. and although (Y/n) was sure Sirius had stopped listening long ago, he hadn't. He hung onto every word of every story. In return, he would tell her stories about the backstories and reasoning of some of their most infamous pranks around school, and about some of James' more outlandish ways of confessing to Lily.

Before either of them knew it, the lesson was almost over, and Slughorn was assessing their potions. Suddenly, all their laughter ceased as they locked eyes and just began throwing random things into the cauldron and stirring it in hopes of something. However, it seemed like this wasn't the best idea as the concoction before them exploded right as Slughorn walked over. Successfully earning themselves detentions of organising the store rooms and cleaning the classroom for a few days. But neither of them could contain their laughter as their stupid idea literally blew up in their faces. In her laughter, (Y/n) tripped over her own robes and fell onto Sirius, who luckily caught her, but it only made them both laugh harder. Slughorn was fed up and dismissed them early so they could, "compose themselves." (Y/n) caught her breath and adjusted her robes as Sirius asked, "Where have you been all my life?" (Y/n) responded sarcastically, "What literally or...? Because if so up until 1st year I was in the muggle world. and past then, I was literally right in front of you." Sirius lightly rolled his eyes at her response.

"This was our last lesson, so do you want to walk back to the common room?" Sirius asked her, (Y/n) agreed. The pair made light conversation, exchanging stories and joking. Until they reached the common room as they realised they had to part and go to their respective friendship groups, with Sirius obviously with James, Remus and Peter and (Y/n) with Lily, Alice and Dorcas. It would be strange for Sirius to join (Y/n) and (Y/n) wasn't going to just leave her friends the second someone else gives her attention. The pair settled on just saying they would see each other later at dinner. But before they parted Sirius asked, "If your Evans' friend, how come I hardly knew you." "Because you only knew me as "Evans' friend"." (Y/n) then proceeded to give Sirius one last smile before Alice walked in and (Y/n) left with her. Leaving Sirius to think over what she had said.

The worst part was the longer he thought about it, the more he realised she was right, he had never thought to think past her being friends with Lily.

The thought stayed on the back of Sirius' mind as he went about his afternoon and early evening as he would on any ordinary day. After they had both finished, Sirius and (Y/n) walked down to the dungeons to organise the stores rooms as Slughorn had ordered them to. The walk was quiet and (Y/n) was growing uncomfortable with it and spoke up, "Hey, about earlier. What I said was rude and-" "What are you talking about, you were right." Sirius cut off and paused before continuing, "I won't lie what you said did bother me, but not because it was rude. It's because you were right. I never did think to look past the fact you're Evans' friend. I did the others and I just assumed you were like them, and no offence to them but they aren't really my type of people and-" "Sirius it's fine, I get it, really. I would be a hypocrite if I said I had never only saw you as what your reputation made you out to be." The both were now stuck in a limbo where neither of them had an issue with other but neither had anything to say.

So they laughed, they laughed all the way down to the store room. "What are we laughing about?" "The fact that we were both wrong." Their laughter died down as they entered the store room. "What a tip! No wonder it needs cleaning, no one's even thought about organising anything since 1896." (Y/n) sounded annoyed and almost astounded about how disorganised the room was and wondered how Slughorn even found anything they needed for lessons.

Sirius seemed amused by (Y/n) apparent distress at the state of the room and threw his arm around her shoulders and said in a teasing tone, "You were around in 1896 well you don't look a day over 50." (Y/n) rolled her eyes but didn't remove his arm. It was almost comforting to smell his cologne and how it mixed with smell of firewood that followed him and the dust in the air. Sirius also made no attempt to remove his arm as he could smell the lingering tones of her perfume and the muggle bubble-gum she had showed him earlier.

"Well you two better get to work you have a lot to do." The pair were snapped out of their daydreams by Slughorn suddenly entering and upon seeing the position they were in, he gave Sirius the task of bringing the boxes of the highest shelf and (Y/n) to begin to organise the ones on the bottom shelf. This seemed like an attempt to physically separate the two.

The first ten minuets were productive, mainly because they didn't want Slughorn to walk in again and deem that they weren't working hard enough. But all it took was Sirius either accidently or purposely nearly dropping a box of ingredients to make the pair start talking and joking around again. As the monotonous and tiresome work progressed, the two were becoming increasingly aware of how much they really did enjoy each other's company, even if they were in a somewhat cramped and definitely dusty potions store room.

It past curfew when they had finished so they didn't dawdle in the halls, as much as Sirius could probably get away with it, neither of them were willing to risk it after the mind-numbing task they had of alphabetising the store room. Once they reached the common room, they both collapsed onto the sofa as their exhaustion set in. "At least it's only cleaning for our next few, and not that. " (Y/n) tried to joke but her eyes were dropping by the second, Sirius seemed to notice this, "At least go to bed before falling asleep, these sofas aren't comfortable enough to sleep on, trust me." (Y/n) weakly nodded and muttered a small goodnight to Sirius as she borderline dragged herself up the stairs to her dorm.

In the following weeks, (Y/n) and Sirius spent more and more time together, not just in detention or class but outside of class as well. Somewhere along the way, their feelings for each other had manifested into something more. The lingering eye contact felt more intimate and when their hands brushed it felt like butterflies had swarmed into their vicinity and sent nerves down their backs. Although, it was obvious to everyone but them that they liked each other as something more, they were both adamant that their feelings were not reciprocated.

It wasn't until their final detention together that their friends decided enough was enough and took matters into their own hands, as it seems they had also grown closer based on their shared feelings of frustration of their respective friend's obliviousness. Lily and Remus worked together to quickly had Amortentia brewed quickly enough so that it would be in the potions room and James used his cloak to hide in the hallway while Alice and Dorcas distracted Slughorn long enough for him to not notice James tampering with the lock on the door.

(Y/n) and Sirius entered the room and closed the door, and that signified the success of their friend's plans. They both started with the first part of the routine they had curated for themselves from previous detentions. They began with clearing the desks, cleaning off any mess made, putting away the equipment used and then making their way to the unfinished potions at the back. The routine was simple but effective since they couldn't use magic to speed any of the process up. They went about the routine like they had all the previous sessions, making jokes and just talking.

Until they reached the potions and (Y/n) suddenly began to smell Sirius' cologne, it was unmissable for her, it reminded her of the boy she had unintentionally fallen for. But then the smell began to mix with the smell of butterbeer and the common room. "Really Sirius? Did you have to spray your cologne now? It's so bloody strong." Then without missing a beat, Sirius responded, "Says you I can smell your perfume from here, and that gum you keep complaining about because your mum won't send you more."

There was a silence that weighed in the air, as both of them were processing what this meant. Then it simultaneously dawned on them, Amortentia. Without any hesitation, they met in the middle of the room and pressed their lips together. The kiss was gentle but passionate, it release all the longing and yearning they had been holding for so long.

They then broke away from each other and smiled, relieved that they no longer had to hold the dread of fearing rejection.

"Sirius?" "Yeah?" "The quicker we get this done, the quicker you can go back to ignoring my existence." Sirius smiled upon hearing the passive-aggressive statement before replying, "You can't get away from me that easily, love."

[deepperplexity]

Prompt: 22. Trembling

A/N: So I'm not much for writing young Snape romantically - I much prefer the older one - but I got a little idea for a story and I wanted to try it out. I hope I managed to do the idea in my head some sort of justice and that you all enjoy it <3

Setting: Hogwarts, the day before leaving for the holidays

Pairing: Snape x Reader (both in their seventh year at Hogwarts)

ABBR.: │ (y/n) - Your Name │ (y/l/n) - Your Last Name │

Word count: 3248

Warnings: Harsh Language, Angst, Fluff, Bullying

Masterlist page // Masterlist post // SNAPEMAS POST

Prologue: You have been in love with Severus for nearly two years now, but he had seemed oblivious to you and each time you had tried to befriend him, or even talk to him, he had been nearly cruel in his words as he pushed you away in all manners possible. But you were resilient and would not quit bugging him in your efforts to catch his attention. But, even you had a limit to what you could take and you were balancing on it after such a long time of giving it your best effort to get him to allow you into his life; and hopefully heart.

He was soaked. You heard the laughter and the snickering as he stood absolutely still in pure shock while water drenched him, soaked his clothes and flattened his long black hair. Your heart skipped a beat as tears sprung to your eyes as you stood halfway up the stairs watching him below you. Those fucking Marauders! They're so damn cruel! As that thought ran through your head you heard the howling laughter of those exact people.

Your head whipped around, your eyes instantly locked on James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Lily. They stood on the staircase just above Severus; Sirius and James each held a bucket each that had obviously been filled with the water that had been dumped over Severus. You were fuming, your fists clenched at your sides as you watched them laugh. Except for Lily, she just sneered at Severus with a tired look. How can she just fucking stand there? How cold can a person be? At least the other idiots claim their actions and their ugly sides... But she, you were fuming as your eyes shoot figurative bolts of lightning at the girl who was one of the reasons Severus had not accepted your requests at being friends - or even on speaking terms. You knew that. You knew how he looked at her, and damn it hurt.  

"Oy, Snivellus, feeling a bit cleaner?" James laughed out with a high five from Sirius who howled with laughter. Remus chuckled, Peter looked happy and Lily seemed to care more about her nails than the scene that was unfurling in front of her. You clenched your jaw as your eyes switched view and landed on Severus who was still standing absolutely still as water pooled around his feet. Your heart clenched at the sight of him, your stomach twisted and you started to tremble with fuming, glowing, boiling rage. It coursed through your every fibre as your hand unclenched and reached for your wand.

It all happened so fast. Your actions fuelled by the dooming rage that pulsed through you as you directed the tip of your wand towards the idiots one floor up and in the next instant they were soaking wet as a fountain of water spewed from your wand. Fuelled by your raging emotions. Silence fell as the sound of water took over. It only took a single moment to drench them all - and a few bystanders. But they had laughed too so why the heck not?

"(y/l/n)! NO-!" Severus screamed and it pulled you out of the pounding emotions that that locked you in your stance as water finally stopped spewing from your wand. You were panting, your hand and wand trembled as you shook from your own shocking action. You had never done anything like that before. Seven years at Hogwarts and I, I lose control now-?! You thought as your hand lowered while the Marauders were still coughing and trying to get up of the floor as the water had truly flown out of your wand like a wave and crashed into them with force.

You turned your head towards Severus who gawked at you. Except for the sloshing of wet clothes and some coughing, the silence was as thick as morning fog. He looked at you, shocked and perhaps taken aback from your actions. For a moment you were just frozen in place as the realisation hit you. You had stooped to their level. You had retaliated - rather splendidly as well might you add.

But the look Severus gave you wasn't a happy one, it wasn't thankful or grateful. He looked horrified and it broke your heart. Tears sprung to your eyes and in an instant, your legs began moving. You hurled yourself down the stairs as students started to whisper and point. You passed Severus in a rush, unable to look at anyone as you tried to keep the tears from falling freely. As you tried to keep your heart in one piece in your chest.

You barrelled your way through corridor after corridor until you got to the courtyard at the back. You flung yourself through the doors as the faint echo of your name being called reached you. But you ran. Ran and cried. Stumbled and sobbed. Somehow, you ended up at the Whomping Willow at the edge of the Forbidden Forrest. You stopped outside of its reach as you heaved for air. Your lungs burned as your cheeks turned wet from tears.

You tried to force air into your lungs, tried to confine the emotions that raged through you like the crashing of waves on a stormy sea seeking to devour all ships. To sink all things and snatch them from the light, clutch them in the deep dark of eternal night. Just, breath, breath, maybe he-, maybe he doesn't hate- no, that look... A sharp pain shot through you, it echoed through your soul as the look on Severus's face flashed before your inner eye.

You sobbed and snivelled as you tried to wipe away the salty tears. Your legs were shaking and your hands still trembled. Your chest felt too tight, yet it could have caved in on itself at the same time from the hollow feeling. How was that even possible? Could you break so badly you turned hollow?

A twig snapped, your head whipped around as Severus called out your name with a hoars voice. as if he had been screaming for a long time. Your eyes widened as he appeared at the top of the hill a little ways away from you. "Leave me alone!" you screamed at him with a broken voice as you were still crying. He started to run towards you on those long slender legs. "(y/n), you-" "Leave me alone!" you screamed again as you started to step backwards. As you tried to increase the distance he so hastily shortened.

"(Y/N), DON'T-" he screamed and you saw that horrible expression of horror again in his eyes and it hit you with such force you stumbled from the recent memory in the Entrance Hall. You were just about to fall when your breath was knocked out of you as something hard hit your back so harshly you landed face forward in the cold snow with a thud. You lost your bearing as your head had taken quite a hit against the ground. The tiny layer of snow did nothing to dampen the blow.

"(Y/N)! RUN!" Severus screamed as you tried to lift yourself up of the ground. What the- but you had no more time to think as a large tree branch slammed itself down right next to you. Missing you by merely the width of a wand. You tried to force air into your lungs after the previous harsh blow as your head spun and your back protested against any movement you tried to force your body to do. Severus shouted at you to move, run, get away - but you couldn't get up.

"MOVE!" he screamed and you rolled away just in time before another branch slammed down where you had laid a mere second earlier. You managed to get up in a crawling position and threw yourself forward with all your strength. You were nearly, nearly out of reach for the damn tree as it slammed its branches down again. The tip of one struck your foot and the force of the blow made you scream out in pain as Severus grabbed your hands and pulled you away from the tree with such force you landed on top of him.

You both laid panting on the wet, cold ground as the tree straightened and stopped flinging its branches around. You tried to catch your breath as Severus held onto you. You barely realized it at first but once your mind became aware of him beneath you, his arms around your waist, his face so close to your own... Your breath hitched, you tensed and you flung yourself off him so fast you had to scramble to find your own limbs in the flailing mess you were.

You managed to get up, somehow, as he rose elegantly despite his long limbs. Your heart hammered as he looked at you. Your mouth went dry as the memory of his horror-filled eyes from earlier flashed by as he still had a slight look of horror etched in those onyx galaxies that were his eyes. You couldn't bear to look at him when he wore that expression you knew came from anger at you, or perhaps even hatred at what you had done. It made no sense that he would be angry with you for defending him but you still saw it, felt it. It couldn't be anything else when his eyes wore such an expression.

You turned around as you hugged yourself. Your back ached, your body shook and you felt fresh tears as they leaked from your eyes. You sobbed as some form of reality hit you that you had fucked up and now, he would never allow you to be close to him. Perhaps now he wouldn't just dismiss you but effectively shut you out... You shivered as the thoughts of his hatred and rejection ran through you.

"Are you cold?" Severus asked and his voice frightened you so you jumped slightly as it came from such close proximity. You twisted your head at the same time only to find him mere inches from you. You froze. Never had he been so close before as he had been that day. Before it was unintentional but now, he had stood himself right by you.

"(y/n), are you cold?" he asked again as you couldn't make a sound. All you could think of, all you could feel, was your pounding heart and his beautiful eyes paired with the long black hair that screamed for you to reach out and run your fingers through it. But you didn't, of course, you didn't do that. But you wanted to, oh by Merlin how you wanted to touch those silky strands. but you merely looked at him as your body vibrated from the shivers as you were without any proper attire to be outside in such cold temperatures.  

In the next moment, it was like you realised he spoke to you, realised he was so close, realised he had followed you - called for you and basically saved you from the deadly tree. You took a step back from him as uncertainty crawled through you. How angry was he with you? Did he hate you now? Was that what his eyes were screaming at you? You hadn't a clue and it freaked you out immensely. You felt your face turn pale - from the thoughts, the worry, but also the physical pain you were in as the tree had landed two harsh blows on you.

"Why did you do that?" he asked and his words surprised you, he sounded angry, or perhaps exasperated - you couldn't quite tell as his voice was so damn deep it thundered out of his mouth no matter what he said. "I-, I-" But you found no words. You had never confessed your feelings to him, you had only ever dared hope to perhaps befriend him. Why would he, excellent as he was, be interested in you? You weren't anything special or fancy, nor were you excellent as he was. You were, quite frankly, just you.

He raised a brow slightly at you and a blush crept in as you folded your eyes towards the ground. His was just too deep, too wide, to hexing to look into any longer. You feared you would drown if you kept staring into them as they swirled with black stardust. "You shouldn't have done that," he murmured on a small sigh and you lowered your head as your shoulders shot up towards your ears. "I'm sorry, I, I just wanted to- I couldn't just stand by and watch. They're, they're horrendous..." Your voice was low yet you managed to squeeze out the words through the lump that had formed in your throat.

"They are, you shouldn't have butted in (y/n), you should have just let it-"  You whipped up your head with a glare towards him. Suddenly quite angry with him instead. "You shouldn't be treated like that! You shouldn't have to deal with shit like that!" you shouted as he stared at you, "It's not fair! They treat you worse than garbage! I can't- I can't stand it! I can't just look, I can't just stand by and let them torment the one I love-" Your hand covered your mouth instantly without even finishing your sentence.

You stared at him with wide eyes as he did the same at you. Your words felt heavy in the air as your body stiffened, prepared to run for the hills if need be. "You- you what?" Severus stuttered out and your face turned scarlet as he gawked at you. His eyes impossibly large and the usual pale skin a tad flushed. You couldn't help how your heart pounded, how your body trembled and shook - how your entire being screamed at you to run as if your life depended on it. But you were utterly frozen. Your boots stuck to the ground. Your shoulders stiff while your legs felt like jelly.

Well, that's one way to fucking do it, you thought as reality started to entwine with that fantasy world of yours. Just, perhaps not in the way you had wanted it to as Severus yet again looked horrified, or maybe disgusted, you couldn't quite be sure. It was difficult to tell what went on inside of him but it appeared to be negative, whatever it was.

You let your hand fall away from your mouth, it limply landed beside your body as if something just left you, some will or power perhaps. Something, hope or perhaps a dream. "I love you," you whispered as tears once again welled in your eyes, "I love you and I'm sorry to disgust you like that." You exhaled as the tears started to fall. It was over. Your fantasy world where you were by his side, loved by him, came crashing down as if it were an avalanche set on tumbling down a mountainside. You crumbled along with it. As good as buried beneath its weight, as good as dead as your hollow chest felt as if it had truly caved in on itself.

You turned from him, your body felt as if it were not your own. You felt naked in reality; stripped of that one piece of a dream you had held on to for dear life for such a long time. You started to walk away from him only to be held back by slim fingers wrapped around your wrist. You looked over your shoulder, your eyes landed right at his swirling galaxies of onyx and black stardust that looked intently yet harshly on you.

"I told you to stay away," he growled, you nodded, "I told you to ignore me," he continued and you nodded once more. He sighed, deeply. "I told you, over and over, not to butt in." You nodded once more as you wiped away tears from your cheeks with your free hand. The wind swiped over you and tossed about his black hair as you shivered from its frozen fangs that nibbled at you through the thin clothes you wore.

He tugged on your arm, you stumbled a step towards him. When you looked up he glared down at you. "I told you," he hissed, "to stay, away." In the next instant, his lips smashed against yours. Harshly. It took you a moment to realise what happened and then his lips were gone as you gawked at him. "I told you, to stay, away. I told you so many damn times (y/n). So, many, times," he hissed as his arms snaked around you. You looked at him, confused. Yet your body, it seemed to know what to do. As if it were second nature to be close to him. As if the stars had aligned and the world was righted when he was in your embrace and you in his.

His lips pressed against yours again and this time your fingers snared themselves in his hair as you kissed him back. It felt as if life were breathed into you. As if some of the endless universe that swirled inside of him filled the hollow in your chest and leaked out to fill your entire being. "I told you," he grumbled against your lips, "because I knew you couldn't stay out of it if you knew..." He left your lips at the last word as you were both panting. You just stared at him, all your thoughts were trying to make sense of what was happening. Have I been killed by that damn tree and gone to heaven?

His cold fingers stroked away some hairs from your forehead before his lips landed softly where his fingers had just touched you gently. "I knew you couldn't stay out of it, so I needed you to stay away from me. Then, you'd be safe," he whispered as his voice vibrated over you. A darkness curled around the sound, claws stroked your soul as gently as any feather could have.

"What, do you mean?" you breathed out as it was hard to get air down in your lungs when you were so close to him.  He looked down at you. The onyx eyes, the hooked nose, the thin lips and the defined jaw. The black curtains of hair that framed his thin face - it was all pure perfection for you. "I mean, you would be in the line of fire if you were with me. And that," he said with a kiss between your eyebrows, "is unacceptable. As, I love you."  

Your heart nearly stopped. Your knees nearly gave out beneath you. Your lungs barely remembered how to function. But your lips, they functioned properly as they were slammed on top of his as you pressed yourself into the caring young man who enveloped you in the warmest of embraces. Your fingers snaked between the strands of his hair as his hands held your hips gently yet firmly. I must have died and gone to heaven, you thought as the taste and smell of him overtook you. As you both trembled from cold and heat, from fear and passion - from joy.  

Masterlist page // Masterlist post // SNAPEMAS POST

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[Dec:2020]

[livingforcoopsandoknutzy]

56 for the cubs

Hehehe, you probably expected an injury but nah i’m just gonna project on people now

“I can’t feel anything”

Thank our knight in shining armor @lumosinlove for her amazing characters

TW: depression/throwing up

   Logan learned the hard way that hiding who you are from people you love and yourself for years can lead to horrible anxiety and depression. He hates that fact and therefore shares it with no one. The only people who know about it are Dumo and Remus, though Leo and Finn suspected.

   Most of the time Logan could control it, push it to the back of his mind, or distract himself but one of the many things he had learned was that depression demanded to be felt. 

   So there were days when he couldn’t get out of bed, days he couldn’t sleep and instead laid in bed all day crying for no specific reason. He could tell it always worried his boys but they responded to it differently. Leo always made sure Logan knew he could talk to him and Finn was always there when he needed a distraction.

   He appreciated it, he really did, but there were days where he felt so numb and broken that he questioned their motives. Those were the worst days, when the doubt crept in and told him he was bad for Leo and Finn, that they were far better off without him.

   Logan tended to go to Remus or Dumo on those days, unable to face Leo and Finn when he felt like that.

   Which was how he found himself in front of Remus and Sirius’s front door, debating on knocking since he hadn’t told them he was coming. After too many minutes of wringing his hands and pacing, he knocked before he could think about it anymore.

   There was laughter on the other side of the door before he heard Remus’s voice calling that he’d get the door. Logan’s heart raced as he realized they had company and he spun on his heel, about to walk away before the door opened and Remus grabbed his arm.

   “Wait, what’s wrong?” He asked as he gently spun Logan back around so he could look at him. “Nothing’s wrong. Sorry I didn’t realize you had company.” Remus took in his appearance for a second before shaking his head.

   “You only ever show up randomly when you’re not doing well.” He paused momentarily, his eyes scanning Logan’s face thoroughly. “Plus, you’ve been crying.” Logan dropped his eyes to the ground. “Is it that obvious?” He asked, his heart sinking impossibly lower. Remus took a step towards his and dropped a comforting hand to his hair. “Only to me. Come on it.”

   Logan swallowed roughly and shook his head. “Really, I’ll be alright. I can just go to Dumo’s.” Remus shook his head and pulled Logan lightly into the entryway. “You can’t go there because he’s here. It’s just us, Dumo, and the Potter’s don’t worry about it.” 

   Picking on the sleeves of his sweatshirt that belonged to Leo, a fact he was trying to ignore because what right did he have to wear this sweatshirt, he stepped into the foyer with Remus. 

   Remus hugged him tightly, his mouth close to Logan’s ear. “Do you want me or Dumo right now?” He asked quietly. Logan just shut his eyes tightly and shook his head. “I don’t know.” Remus rubbed his back soothingly for a minute. “Okay, do you want to just hang out for a bit?” Logan nodded slowly. “If I’m not intruding.” 

   Remus laughed quietly as he pulled away. “You’re never intruding.” Logan smiled and followed him quietly. Remus led them to the living room where James and Lily were sitting on the floor with Harry crawling between them, Sirius was sitting on the loveseat and Remus walked over and dropped a kiss to his forehead before sitting in his lap casually. The sight hurt Logan’s heart, his mind automatically going to his worried boyfriends at home. 

   Dumo was sitting on the couch, his eyes taking in Logan’s appearance as e gestured to the spot next to him. Logan walked over with a fake smile after waving to the Potter’s and Sirius when they welcomed him. 

   Logan plopped down next to Dumo and laid down so he could put his head in Dumo’s lap. He had good parents, he’d been raised well but they lived in Canada and he rarely saw them so when Dumo had offered him a place to stay it was like he finally had a father again.

   Dumo supported him wholeheartedly and while Logan had never flat out told him about his anxiety and depression he knew Dumo knew about it. 

   Logan let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and focused on the feeling of Dumo’s large hand in his hair. “Are you alright, mon fils?” He asked quietly, his voice comforting in a way no one else’s was. Logan nodded stiffly, his eyes venturing to Harry.

   They sat in silence listening to the conversation going around them before Dumo lifted his head carefully off his lap. “Come on.” He said quietly to Logan as he walked over to Sirius. “Je vole ta chambre pendant un moment mon fils.” Sirius’s eyes drifted to Logan before he nodded, smiling a bit at Logan as they walked by. 

   Once they were seated on the guest bed, Dumo pulled Logan’s head back into his lap. “What’s going on?” He said quietly, his voice so caring that Logan felt tears prick his eyes. How can someone care so much about someone so undeserving?

   “I’m sick of being broken.” Logan whispered, embarrassed that his tears were already falling. He was such an awful person, he didn’t deserve to cry. “Arrêtez. You’re not broken.” Logan let out a shuddering breath and shook his head. 

   “I am. My mind doesn’t work like all of yours. If there are too many people around I can’t breathe, I can be happy one moment and the next be completely numb. I love Leo and Finn so much but right now seeing them makes me so sad because I don’t deserve them, I never have. I just want to stop thinking, my brain goes from zero to one hundred all the time. When I’m not terribly depressed I just feel so numb, like no matter what anyone it wouldn’t matter. It’s like I can’t feel anything.”

   Dumo stayed silent while Logan ranted, his hand soothing Logan’s dark hair back, the other rubbing his arm comfortingly. Logan was shaking and the tears were uncontrollable, he turned so he could tuck his face into Dumo’s stomach. “I’m just so tired all the time. It’s like I’m drowning.” Logan cried, his voice muffled against the fabric of Dumo’s shirt.

   “Je t'ai mon fils, tu vas bien.” Dumo said quietly, his arms tightening around Logan enough to lift him up into a sitting position. “Your mind isn’t broken, it’s just different. I know you get sad and upset a lot and that’s okay, we will always be there for you. Always. Your boys love you so much and I don’t want to hear that you aren’t good enough because you guys wouldn’t work without you, just like how y’all wouldn’t work without Leo or Finn.” 

   Dumo frowned as Logan buried his head into his neck as Logan’s chest heaved. “I know you’re tired, mon fils, but we would never let you drown.” They sat there for a while neither talking. Dumo let Logan cry it out knowing it would be worse if he didn’t.

   After a while of sniffles, Logan pulled away and wiped his eyes which were now so bloodshot that Dumo was slightly concerned. “Sorry,” Logan muttered his eyes on the wet spot on Dumo’s shirt. Dumo just waved it off with a shake of his head. “It’s quite alright. I believe you should go talk to your boys, do you want them to come here or do you want me to drive you back?”

   Logan closed his eyes, suddenly very tired. “Do you mind driving me?” Dumo shook his head and hugged the boy who was his son in every way but blood. “I don’t mind but if I know you I doubt you told them where you were going so why don’t you text them while I grab my keys.

   Logan laughed softly and nodded, grabbing his phone out of his pocket and shooting Finna and Leo a quick text. Logan walked back to the living room and met Remus’s eyes.

   Remus smiled at him kindly and opened his arms for a hug that Logan gave him gratefully. “Go be with your boys, I hope it passes soon.” He said quietly as Logan pulled away. Logan gave him an appreciative smile and walked over to where Dumo was standing by the door, waving bye to everyone.

   Once they were in the car Logan turned on Spotify, his phone was always the first to connect in Dumo’s car because Dumo liked country and Logan was voted best DJ. He shuffled his ‘chill vibes’ playlist and laid his head back against the seat letting his eyes fall closed.

   They rode in silence until Dumo pulled up to Logan’s apartment. Dumo placed a comforting hand on Logan’s shoulder when it was obvious Logan was making no move to get out of the car. “You’ve got this kid. They love you, they’ll understand.” Logan worried at his bottom lip.

   “What if they don’t? What if they think I’m a freak and kick me out? What if they think I’m weak for letting this get to me? What if they think I’m not good enough for them?” Logan turned to look at Dumo, his eyes wide with anxiety. “Mon Dieu, what if they realize I’m not good enough for them?” Dumo narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

   “First of all, take some deep breaths. There you go. Okay, secondly they will understand. Logan has anxiety so he’ll understand that and both of them will try their hardest to understand where you’re coming from depression wise. Third of all, they would never ever kick you out and if they did you know you can come to mine, but they won’t.” Dumo clarified, maintaining eye contact with Logan so he could see the sincerity in his eyes.

   “You’re not weak for this and screw anyone who makes you think you are. I will personally come over here and punch them if they say something like that. Most importantly, mon fils, is that you are good enough for them. You deserve the world and I know you don’t see that but you’ve been through so much and you’ve been dealt bad hands before but this isn’t one of them. You deserve them just as much as they deserve you so stop thinking of yourself as less.” 

   Logan nodded slowly, a small smile spreading across his face. “Thank you, Père.” Dumo laughed softly and pulled him into a tight hug before unlocking the door and letting Logan out. “I’ll be with Remus and Sirius if you need me. Text me when your done and I can get you so you can get your car from Remus’s.” Logan gave him a thumbs up and made his way into the apartment building.

   Logan took the stairs so he had more time to think about what he was going to say to Leo and Finn.

    He knew that they wouldn’t think any less of him but he was so scared they would reject him that he was starting to get physically sick. His stomach was churning and all he wanted to do was lay down and wait it out but he had to talk to Leo and Finn first, they deserved that much.

   Logan stumbled slightly on his way into the apartment, his throat burning in the tell tale sign he was about to be sick. Finn and Leo were on the couch and both of them looked over when they heard the door open.

   “Lo, are you okay?” Logan was about to answer Finn when his stomach flipped again and he all but ran to the bathroom, dropping to his knees in front of the toilet just in time. It only took a minute for Finn and Leo to join him, Finn rubbing his back soothingly as Leo got a cold rag and pressed it to the back of his neck.

   He shuddered as he gagged a few more times before he allowed Finn to pull him into his lap. He was crying again but he felt an overwhelming numb feeling settling over him and he closed his eyes tightly. 

   Leo rested his forehead against Logan’s and brought his hands up to cup Logan’s tearstained face. “Baby, you have to tell us what’s going on. This will only get worse if you don’t let us in.” Logan’s breath stuttered and he felt tears slip down his face. 

   He opened his eyes briefly and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked terrible. His eyes were red and bloodshot, tear tracks clear on his cheeks. He closed his eyes again not wanting to look anymore. He already had a headache from crying but the tears wouldn’t stop.

   “I’m so sorry.” Logan said quietly. Finn tightened his hold around Logan’s waist and rested his chin on Logan’s shoulder, Leo pressed their foreheads together with more force. “Baby, you have nothing to be sorry about.” Finn said, dropping a soft kiss to Logan’s shoulder.

   Logan just shook his head. “I do. I’m sorry I get like this, I know it makes you worry. I’m sorry I can’t be happy when I have more than enough reason to be. I’m just sorry for being like this, you both deserve so much more. You would be better off without me.”

   It fell silent and Leo leaned away from him, an unreadable expression on his face. Logan froze for a moment, terrified that they would agree with him. When it stayed silent he squirmed, trying to get out of Finn’s arms but Finn seemed to snap out of it and tightened his grip while Leo reached forward to push the hair that had fallen in his face.

   Leo’s unreadable expression shifted and tears gathered in his eyes. “Logan, no.” Logan flinched at the use of his read name and Finn pulled him back into his chest so Logan could relax against him.

   “Baby, you can’t help it. We know you can’t help it, we understand. You don’t have to always be happy Lo, no one is. You shouldn’t be sorry for any of it, please don’t apologize for that.” Leo said softly, tears falling slowly down his face. Logan frowned and raised his hand to wipe them away, Leo made a sad noise and nuzzled into the touch.

   Finn kissed his shoulder gently again before resting his forehead there. “I’m glad you think we deserve so much but so do you, Lo. You deserve just as much as we do and you best bet your sorry ass that we are not better off without you no matter what you think. You make us us and we wouldn’t trade you for the world.” Finn said, his voice authoritative and strong. 

   Logan closed his eyes tightly and brought Leo closer pulling him into a hug and relishing in the feeling of having both his boys arms around him. “I love you both so much.” Logan said, his voice cracking through tears.

   Leo pulled back with a wet laugh and stood up holding his hands out to Logan to help him up. Logan took them and let himself be hauled up before turning to help Finn up. He was a little shocked to see silent tears falling down Finn’s face. 

   Logan knelt back down in front of him, his thumbs wiping away the tears while his other fingers cupped Finn’s face. “Why are you crying?” Logan asked softly, retracting his hands when Finn stood up. Logan stood up too and was quickly pulled into the middle of a tight hug from Leo and Finn.

   “Did you really think we would care? Or that you weren’t worth it?” Finn asked quietly, his face buried in Logan’s hair. Logan shuddered and let out a shaky breath. “Yes? Logically I knew you wouldn’t but I can’t help but think it, if that makes sense.” He added, suddenly scared that they would judge him for thinking that way.

   Leo kissed the top of his head and shook his head. “I get that. But mon chéri, we don’t think of you any differently or less if that’s what you’re worried about. If anything we’re grateful you told us, at least we understand a bit more. We can help better now that we know what’s wrong.” Logan couldn’t bite back the sob that tore through him. 

   Leo looked at him anxiously. “Did I say something wrong?” He asked anxiously, pulling away so he could tilt Logan’s head towards his own. Finn laughed softly, his arms still wrapped around Logan’s stomach in a way Logan appreciated more than he could say. 

   “No, you said just the right thing.” Finn said quietly. He had just barely finished his sentence before Logan smashed his mouth against Leo’s. 

   Leo made a shocked noise before kissing back hotly. Finn made an appreciative sound and started kissing Logan’s neck, sucking hard on certain places he knew unwound Logan. 

   Logan pulled back from Leo and brought Finn’s mouth up to meet his own and stuck his tongue forcefully into Finn’s mouth. Leo groaned and attached his lips to Finn’s shoulder, slowly making his way up Finn’s neck.

  Leo pulled back after a moment, panting slightly. “As much as I love this and want to ravish both of you very much right now, I think we should get out of the bathroom and take this to the bedroom.” Logan laughed against Finn’s mouth and pulled away, Finn bit his bottom lip gently as he pulled away before letting go.

   Logan briefly wondered why he had been so upset at the idea of telling them what was upsetting them so much. His boys always knew exactly what to say and exactly what to do when it came to him.

   Now that his ‘secret’ was out Leo and Finn became very good at telling when Logan got in his slumps. Logan had to admit that their distractions were pretty effective and he enjoyed it a lot, but the times he really loved were when they sat down and talked him through it.

   Tonight though, tonight was a good distraction.

[halothenthehorns]

TLTNL- THE HOUSE OF GUANT

Now James knew he was missing a joke, and he never appreciated that, not even from his beloved wife. She continued in uncontrollable giggles for a solid ten minutes before he cracked and asked her, again, "what is so funny?" Like before, she merely pressed her lips together tight, but still didn't have back full control of her voice when she answered, "you wouldn't get it, promise. Old joke, I'm honestly over reacting." Finishing did seem to draw her up short, and she looked away from all of them now, no longer smiling.

She wasn't even sure herself why she wouldn't tell them. It certainly had nothing to do with Severus himself, she couldn't cling anymore to that protective urge to keep the Marauders out of their life, a life they hadn't shared in a very long time now. So what if the boys knew Harry had happened upon Snape's old Potions book, they probably would find it ironically funny after they were done bad-mouthing him yet again. Still the words wouldn't come, in explanation for them or herself, and so was relieved when Remus gave in first as she knew he would. The other three boys had a terrible habit of being nosy in all things, thinking they could find out the answer to anything. At least Remus respected when someone didn't want to answer a question, something she genuinely valued right now.

For or the rest of the week's Potions lessons Harry continued to follow the Half-Blood Prince's instructions wherever they deviated from Libatius Borage's, with the result that by their fourth lesson Slughorn was raving about Harry's abilities, saying that he had rarely taught anyone so talented.

Sirius at least still found that hilarious, releasing Lily from his curious look to snicker at that some more. Harry had found the best way ever to cheat, though he was quite sure if Slughorn did find out he'd take the book back away, it still wasn't technically doing anything wrong.

Neither Ron nor Hermione was delighted by this. Although Harry had offered to share his book with both of them, Ron had more difficulty deciphering the handwriting than Harry did, and could not keep asking Harry to read aloud or it might look suspicious. Hermione, meanwhile, was resolutely plowing on with what she called the "official" instructions, but becoming increasingly bad-tempered as they yielded poorer results than the Prince's.

Remus got a good chuckle out of that as well, of all the ways Harry had chosen to annoy his friends, he'd picked a book.

"I'm really surprised at Hermione," Sirius said. "I'd have thought she'd murder Harry by now to get herself on a better copy of a book."

"I'm sure she would have, if Harry hadn't shown off with it first," Remus smirked. "Now she's going to stand by her principal."

James didn't acknowledge the pair, still keeping steady eyes on his wife, waiting for her to crack any second. He'd had years of practice.

Lily hardly noticed, she was thinking carefully about this, and found it something she'd never thought of before. Had Snape been teaching his way of Potions for the past years? For now, she didn't think so, and perhaps he had just been giving instructions straight from the books, hoarding his knowledge of their way over the kid's heads. It seemed the type of thing this perversion of her friend would do. It explained why Harry nor his friends would recognize the handwriting as well.

  Harry wondered vaguely who the Half-Blood Prince had been. Although the amount of homework they had been given prevented him from reading the whole of his copy of Advanced Potion-Making, he had skimmed through it sufficiently to see that there was barely a page on which the Prince had not made additional notes, not all of them concerned with potion-making. Here and there were directions for what looked like spells that the Prince had made up himself.

Harry whistled in surprise, also still watching his mum, unable to shake the feeling she really did know the answer. Lily misinterpreted his curious look, or ignored it, and explained, "of course spells can be made up, they all have to start from somewhere."

"How though?" He let himself be sidetracked, giving in himself and letting her play this off however she liked. He could understand not wanting to answer for some things.

"Taking the base root of magic and channeling it into spells is complex, to utilize that further is to begin creating it yourself. For example if there weren't a spell to bring something to you, the ideal way to create one would be to learn in what way your using your magic to repel something from you. In our particular case, as we use Latin, finding the correct combination of words, movement, and power to magic what you're wanting to you would create, well, the summoning spell." Her eyes remained distant through all this, like she was spouting a lecture more than looking at her son for once. "Supposedly other countries would vary of course, and it is why there's different spells to do one thing. Others found a multitude of ways to accomplish their goals. It's extremely dangerous," she finished cautioning, her eyes far away still, lost in thought, or memories.

Harry was admittedly less fascinated by this than he would have thought, she came across easily as one of his teachers when using that tone, but admitted to himself he'd never before bothered to question this so thanked her for the answer and asked Remus to go on.

Or herself, Hermione corrected irritably, overhearing Harry pointing some of these out to Ron in the common room on Saturday evening. She thought the handwriting looked like a girls.

Lily snorted violently, but tried to cover it by clasping her hand to her nose and sniffling as if it had been a sneeze. She fooled no one.

Harry reminded her of the name, how many girls went by the title of Prince?

"Thought it was more like a made up name, but the same principle stands, not to many girls would go by that title," Remus agreed absently.

Hermione seemed to have no answer to this. She merely scowled and twitched her essay on The Principles of Rematerialization away from Ron, who was trying to read it upside down.

"She could be a bit more helpful to him, he's been on her side a lot this year," Sirius chuckled.

Harry looked at his watch and hurriedly put the old copy of Advanced Potion-Making back into his bag. It was five to eight, he was going to be late for Dumbledore.

Sirius pressed a hand to his forehead, looking wide-eyed and concerned at his pup. "Did you really almost miss that because you were looking at a book?!"

Harry made a face at him, not sure how to explain his fascination with this. Yet another simple book made him uneasy in a way he couldn't explain, and he was starting to wonder if he'd dismissed Ginny to easily.

Hermione looked back up at once with excitement, promising they'd stay up and hear everything.

Harry proceeded through deserted corridors, though he had to step hastily behind a statue when Professor Trelawney appeared around a corner,

"I thought you had your cloak on you at all times?" Sirius asked.

"You should know better than anyone," Harry rolled his eyes, "that jumping to hide behind something is ten times faster than dragging the cloak out of my pocket."

Sirius nodded in agreement, though in his experience he often wandered the castle in it just for shits and giggles to startle other students.

muttering to herself as she shuffled a pack of dirty-looking playing cards, reading them as she walked.

The two of spades: conflict, she murmured, as she passed the place where Harry crouched, hidden. Then the seven of spades: an ill omen. Ten of spades: violence. Knave of spades: a dark young man, possibly troubled, one who dislikes the questioner-

"That was, oddly specific," Remus muttered, more confused than anything.

"Damn, Harry needs to stay away from those cards," Sirius chuckled, though his laughter was a bit strained this time. He still didn't like how eerily accurate Trelawney's predictions were, even when he was out of the picture now.

She stopped dead, right on the other side of Harry's statue.

She muttered to herself that couldn't be right, now annoyed, and Harry heard her reshuffling vigorously as she set off again,

Both of them burst out laughing that she managed to dismiss herself the one time she'd been so right. The woman's jokes wrote themselves. Lily joined in after a few moments, trying to push the subject away for now, but James hardly noticed, still scrutinizing her.

leaving nothing but a whiff of cooking sherry behind her. Harry waited until he was quite sure she had gone, then hurried off again until he reached the spot in the seventh-floor corridor where a single gargoyle stood against the wall. After giving the password and waiting for the spiral stairs, Harry knocked and waited for Dumbledore to allow him to come in.

They greeted each other politely, Dumbledore hoping Harry had a good first week.

"Better than the last one," Harry muttered, who would have thought he'd still manage to favor Snape over Umbridge.

Harry agreed he had, though Dumbledore chuckled what a busy week it must have been, already having a detention.

James finally looked away from Lily at that, not exactly looking satisfied but engaging his son again, "couldn't be prouder! First starting school points in the negative, now this! You are my legacy."

The boys all chuckled while Lily scoffed, trying to hide her own smile. None of them could really get too worked up over it, anything other than Umbridge's detentions would be laughable.

Harry awkwardly tried to answer, but Dumbledore did not look too stern, simply explaining he'd rearranged with Snape that he would be doing his detention next Saturday instead.

"Damn, was hoping I'd just get out of it," Harry sighed, already knowing from last year this wasn't likely.

Harry agreed without care, he had more pressing matters on his mind than Snapes detention, and now looked around surreptitiously for some indication of what Dumbledore was planning to do with him this evening. The circular office looked just as it always did; the delicate silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, puffing smoke and whirring; portraits of previous headmasters and headmistresses dozed in their frames, and Dumbledore's magnificent phoenix, Fawkes, stood on his perch behind the door, watching Harry with bright interest. It did not even look as though Dumbledore had cleared a space for dueling practice.

"I'm sure if you were dueling you wouldn't be doing it in there," Remus corrected, still not convinced that's what this was.

Dumbledore's tone became all business as he addressed this himself, starting with their last conversation and how he'd promise to explain what began Voldemort's attempts to kill Harry fifteen years ago.

"Like?" Sirius drew the word out impatiently. Remus hadn't meant to hesitate, his mind spinning wildly with curiosity, but quickly kept going before Sirius' impatience really pushed through.

Harry pointed out Dumbledore had said he'd already told him everything.

"I think he meant everything relevant to you," Lily offered, though she too was wondering what prompted Dumbledore to continue many months after saying this.

Dumbledore agreed he'd told Harry every fact he knew. Now they would be delving into the thickets of guesswork, what transpired from here could be as wrong as Humphrey Belchers desire for a cheese cauldron.

James burst out with surprised laughter, but all of them were looking more curious than ever for this. It wasn't at all what they'd been thinking it was, and more than that, what would Dumbledore have to be guessing at? While clearly not infallible, as his time with Harry had proven to them, but in what way could this help?

Harry didn't even have the urge to crack a smile for the same. He had that feeling, like he was being lied to, but for the life of him couldn't put his finger on what it was about.

Harry pointed out Dumbledore would think his ideas were right. Dumbledore agreed, but pointed out that he made mistakes, and being cleverer than most, his mistakes tended to be correspondingly larger.

"Nope, not going to disagree with that." The snarky tone Remus used still weirded Sirius out, he'd never heard of his friend speak that way about him and it wasn't something he would get used to easily.

Harry tentatively asked if this would help him with the prophecy? With surviving?

"Well I'd bloody hope so," James worked hard not to say this with a scowl. "We certainly don't need him guessing how that cheese cauldron invention worked instead."

Dumbledore agreed it had everything to do with the prophecy, and he had high hopes it would help him to survive. He then got to his feet and walked around the desk, past Harry, who turned eagerly in his seat to watch Dumbledore bending over the cabinet beside the door. When Dumbledore straightened up, he was holding a familiar shallow stone basin etched with odd markings around its rim. He placed the Pensive on the desk in front of Harry. He noticed Harry looked worried.

They could all see that clearly, and couldn't blame him. So far, no foray into that thing had done much good for his life except depressing the lot of them, James still felt immensely uneasy about his son's reaction to the last one.

Harry had indeed been eyeing the Pensive with some apprehension. His previous experiences with the odd device that stored and revealed thoughts and memories, though highly instructive, had also been uncomfortable. The last time he had disturbed its contents, he had seen much more than he would have wished. But Dumbledore was smiling, saying he would be entering with Harry, and even more unusually, with permission.

"There is a first time for everything," Lily chuckled.

Harry asked what memory they'd be seeing? Dumbledore pulled a tiny vial from his pocket and explained Bob Ogden, an employee of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He'd died some time ago, but not before Dumbledore had tracked him down and persuaded him to offer these recollections.

"If he died some time ago, why was he just sitting on these memories? Wouldn't he have looked at them long before now?" Harry asked, knowing he'd been to curious about this to ask Dumbledore but the idea still seemed odd.

"I wish we did know more about that man's inner workings," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It's also possible he has already looked at this, and simply extracted it to show you now, giving you a physical representation of the memory," Lily offered a bit more helpfully.

They were going to be accompanying him upon one of his duties. But Dumbledore was having difficulty pulling out the stopper of the crystal bottle: His injured hand seemed stiff and painful.

Harry offered to do it, but instead Dumbledore pointed his wand at the bottle and the cork flew out.

"Why wouldn't he do that first?" James looked baffled, he'd never bothered otherwise.

Harry asked again what had happened to his hand, looking at the blackened fingers with a mixture of revulsion and pity.

"Asking until they finally crack probably won't work on Dumbledore," Sirius sighed.

"It certainly didn't work on Moony," James agreed.

Dumbledore corrected now was not the time for that story, as he tipped the silvery contents of the bottle into the Pensieve. He prompted Harry to go first. He felt his feet leave the office floor; he was falling, falling through whirling darkness and then, quite suddenly, he was blinking in dazzling sunlight. Before his eyes had adjusted, Dumbledore landed beside him.

They were standing in a country lane bordered by high, tangled hedgerows, beneath a summer sky as bright and blue as a forget-me-not. Some ten feet in front of them stood a short, plump man wearing enormously thick glasses that reduced his eyes to molelike specks. He was reading a wooden signpost that was sticking out of the brambles on the left-hand side of the road. Harry knew this must be Ogden; he was the only person in sight, and he was also wearing the strange assortment of clothes so often chosen by inexperienced wizards trying to look like Muggles: in this case, a frock coat and spats over a striped one-piece bathing costume.

James and Sirius were the only ones who didn't break out into snickers at such a display, but they laughed along anyways for their reactions to it.

Before Harry had time to do more than register his bizarre appearance, however, Ogden had set off at a brisk walk down the lane.

Dumbledore and Harry followed. As they passed the wooden sign, Harry looked up at its two arms. The one pointing back the way they had come read: Great Hangleton, 5 miles. The arm pointing after Ogden said Little Hangleton, 1 mile.

None would easily forget the nightmarish start to Harry's fourth year, and didn't at all appreciate him being back in that environment. Harry couldn't help shivering again at once, memories of that graveyard he still had nightmares about likely over the next hill... but that wasn't even his worst memory anymore. He'd face Voldemort all over again to erase what he'd truly lost only a year later, so he controlled himself hopefully before the others lingering looks could fill with too much pity.

They walked a short way with nothing to see but the hedgerows, the wide blue sky overhead and the swishing, frock-coated figure ahead. Then the lane curved to the left and fell away, sloping steeply down a hillside, so that they had a sudden, unexpected view of a whole valley laid out in front of them. Harry could see a village, undoubtedly Little Hangleton, nestled between two steep hills, its church and graveyard clearly visible.

Remus' voice hitched uncomfortably at their horrifying thought being so right, and only the constant reminder Harry wasn't really there stopped them all from panicking in their own flashback of his time there. Even Dumbledore being present was of some comfort, a feeling they were sure they wouldn't get often, but as the only man left in Harry's life, they had nothing else to rely on.

Across the valley, set on the opposite hillside, was a handsome manor house surrounded by a wide expanse of velvety green lawn.

"Was it not rundown yet?" Sirius demanded, his tone too sharp for the casual question, but he'd do anything to keep conversation alive rather than dwell on other things present.

"Doesn't seem that way, or not nearly as much as it will be, as surely Harry would have noticed," Remus agreed.

"This must have been quite some time ago then, at least before Voldemort murdered his Muggle family," Sirius concluded, the knowledge doing little to comfort him Harry was back around there, even in a memory.

Dumbledore and Harry followed him onto a narrow dirt track bordered by higher and wilder hedgerows than those they had left behind. The path was crooked, rocky, and potholed, sloping down-hill like the last one, and it seemed to be heading for a patch of dark trees a little below them. Sure enough, the track soon opened up at the copse, and Dumbledore and Harry came to a halt behind Ogden, who had stopped and drawn his wand.

Despite the cloudless sky, the old trees ahead cast deep, dark, cool shadows, and it was a few seconds before Harry's eyes discerned the building half-hidden amongst the tangle of trunks. It seemed to him a very strange location to choose for a house, or else an odd decision to leave the trees growing nearby, blocking all light and the view of the valley below.

"I'm imagining that was the point," Sirius muttered darkly at once. Anyone who would purposely cast their house in shadows like that instantly reminded him of the Black house.

He wondered whether it was inhabited; its walls were mossy and so many tiles had fallen off the roof that the rafters were visible in places. Nettles grew all around it, their tips reaching the windows, which were tiny and thick with grime.

Lily felt an unease set upon her just as much as Sirius for that description. Surely a man from the Magical Law Enforcement wouldn't be there unless it was inhabited, so whoever did live there was no one she wanted to hear of.

Just as he had concluded that nobody could possibly live there, however, one of the windows was thrown open with a clatter, and a thin trickle of steam or smoke issued from it, as though somebody was cooking.

Ogden moved forward quietly and, it seemed to Harry, rather cautiously.

"Can you blame him?" James muttered.

As the dark shadows of the trees slid over him, he stopped again, staring at the front door, to which somebody had nailed a dead snake.

Harry hadn't yet been able to relax since this began, and that only made him feel worse. While no personal liking for the beasts, he understood no one would do that if it were anything but a warning.

Then there was a rustle and a crack, and a man in rags dropped from the nearest tree, landing on his feet right in front of Ogden, who leapt backward so fast he stood on the tails of his frock coat and stumbled.

The stranger spoke, you're not welcome.

The man standing before them had thick hair so matted with dirt it could have been any color. Several of his teeth were missing. His eyes were small and dark and stared in opposite directions. He might have looked comical, but he did not; the effect was frightening, and Harry could not blame Ogden for backing away several more paces before he spoke of a good evening, he was with the Ministry-

The stranger repeated himself dismissively.

Ogden nervously said he didn't understand.

Harry thought Ogden was being extremely dim; the stranger was making himself very clear in Harry's opinion, particularly as he was brandishing a wand in one hand and a short and rather bloody knife in the other.

"In his defense," Remus tried to say as mildly as he could, ignoring how much he was failing as this continued to get worse for Ogden, "the Ministry aren't really ever told that, no matter how much we may think it."

Dumbledore quietly asked of Harry he understood this.

"Why wouldn't he?" Sirius muttered, finding it more odd by the moment what exactly Dumbledore was showing Harry.

Harry agreed, wondering aloud now why wouldn't Ogden, then his eyes found the dead snake on the door again, he suddenly understood that man was speaking Parseltongue.

"Oh," the others muttered in surprise. It was not really something they thought about often, even with one sitting in the room.

Harry just grimaced, thinking how he couldn't blame the majority of wizards thinking this a Dark language when people like this used it for conversation. Then he really kept thinking about it and asked quietly, "can you learn Parseltongue?"

"Not that I'm aware of," James said slowly, not wishing to be untruthful, but he'd never particularly tried either.

Harry hesitated for a moment, then seemed to say another question than what had originally been on his mind, "Is that why Dumbledore brought me along then? To translate this?"

"Possibly," Lily agreed quietly. Harry's questions had done nothing to deflect what everyone around him was thinking, including himself. Tom Riddle had claimed to be the last heir to Slytherin, and if these people spoke Parseltongue, than they could well be meeting his mother in this place. It made as much sense as anything, how many were there in the world, and someone just happened to be speaking it in the same town as Voldemort's father would one day be. Already, they could tell it wasn't going to go well.

Dumbledore agreed.

The man in rags was now advancing on Ogden, knife in one hand, wand in the other. There was a bang, and Ogden was on the ground, clutching his nose, while a nasty yellowish goo squirted from between his fingers.

A loud voice hollard at Morfin!

An elderly man had come hurrying out of the cottage, banging the door behind him so that the dead snake swung pathetically. This man was shorter than the first, and oddly proportioned; his shoulders were very broad and his arms overlong, which, with his bright brown eyes, short scrubby hair, and wrinkled face, gave him the look of a powerful, aged monkey.

"Isn't that how you described Slytherin in the Chamber?" Sirius sighed, he didn't like thinking about that place any more than Prongs, but their idea just seemed more confirmed by the line.

"Sadly," Harry agreed.

He came to a halt beside the man with the knife, who was now cackling with laughter at the sight of Ogden on the ground.

The older man presumed him as Ministry at once.

Ogden agreed as much while dabbing at his face, presuming him as Mr. Gaunt.

Gaunt agreed, dismissively saying maybe his face wouldn't look like that if he'd made his presence more known.

"If he doesn't have up alert charms, there's not many other ways to warn there's someone on your property," Remus rolled his eyes at this daft statement.

This was private property and his son was defending himself.

Ogden protested defending himself against what?

"I must give this man credit for still sticking around at this point," Lily murmured, hoping he came back out with the same limbs he went in with.

Ogden pointed his wand at his own nose, which was still issuing large amounts of what looked like yellow pus, and the flow stopped at once. Mr. Gaunt spoke out of the corner of his mouth to Morfin to get back in the house.

This time, ready for it, Harry recognized Parseltongue; even while he could understand what was being said, he distinguished the weird hissing noise that was all Ogden could hear.

Harry did blink in some confusion though as he asked, "I thought you could only speak to snakes like that, not other people."

"I'd presume with practice you could say it whenever, like any language," Remus offered. "Yours may be a bit more limited, considering it, well, you-" he stuttered and ended quickly without trying to finish that while Harry looked away, not meeting his or anyone's eyes.

Morfin seemed to be on the point of disagreeing, but when his father cast him a threatening look he changed his mind, lumbering away to the cottage with an odd rolling gait and slamming the front door behind him, so that the snake swung sadly again.

"Please stop mentioning that," James muttered, it got more disturbing every time.

Ogden protested he was here to see Morfin, but the old man interrupted by asking if he was a pure-blood?

Harry wanted to laugh at such a question being thrown out, it reminded him too much of his first meeting with Malfoy, and even he hadn't been as bad.

Ogden coldly returned that was neither here nor there, and Harry felt his respect for Ogden rise.

"Agreed, though I'd have liked a more colorful response," Sirius sneered, this Gaunt man was reminding him too much of his dad on his worst days.

Apparently Gaunt felt rather differently.

He squinted into Ogdens face and muttered, in what was clearly supposed to be an offensive tone that he thought he'd seen other noses of that kind down in the village.

"I'm sure all noses look the same to your disfigured one," James huffed.

Ogden said he wouldn't be surprised if his son was let around them.

All five of them burst out laughing for the man's wit, they really did like him now.

He got back on topic by saying an owl had been sent here-

Gaunt interrupted he had no use for owls, and didn't open letters.

"Probably can't read them," Sirius muttered.

Ogden tartly responded he could hardly complain of no warning of visitors then.

"This man's a delight, please tell me he still works there," Lily snickered while the boys laughed even louder.

He was here following a serious breach of Wizarding law,

"I've done no such thing!" He paused, considered it, and finished anyways, "yet."

Remus cracked the book over his head for the poor joke while Harry gave a half-hearted laugh.

Gaunt bellowed at him he could come inside, not that it would do any good.

"I could have told him that already," James sighed. "I'd have given him a fine already, and when he ignored that, bloody arrested him for his poor hospitality."

"Making it rather a good thing you may not choose to be an Auror anymore," Lily chuckled to herself. Ogden had already shown more patience than even she could have managed with such a person.

The house seemed to contain three tiny rooms. Two doors led off the main room, which served as kitchen and living room combined. Morfin was sitting in a filthy armchair beside the smoking fire, twisting a live adder between his thick fingers and crooning softly at it in Parseltongue:

Hissy, hissy, little snakey,

Slither on the floor

You be good to Morfin

Or he'll nail you to the door.

"I could have done without that translation, thank you," Sirius grumbled.

There was a scuffling noise in the corner beside the open window, and Harry realized that there was somebody else in the room, a girl whose ragged gray dress was the exact color of the dirty stone wall behind her. She was standing beside a steaming pot on a grimy black stove, and was fiddling around with the shelf of squalid-looking pots and pans above it. Her hair was lank and dull and she had a plain, pale, rather heavy face. Her eyes, like her brother's, stared in opposite directions. She looked a little cleaner than the two men, but Harry thought he had never seen a more defeated-looking person.

Lily sighed heavily, already wanting to croon over this poor family. That boy and girl, they only acted the way they did because of that sham of a father Gaunt no doubt, and his parents before. This was clearly a rotten line that would continue to suffer down the ages, creating their circumstances now. Details of Harry's second year kept trickling back to her, how Tom Riddle grew up in an orphanage. He should consider himself lucky, that had to be better than this pit.

Gaunt waved vaguely to his daughter Merope as introduction, and Ogden politely gave her a good morning.

She did not answer, but with a frightened glance at her father turned her back on the room and continued shifting the pots on the shelf behind her.

Ogden got straight to the point of Morfin, who had reportedly used Magic in front of Muggles last night-

There was a clang cutting off his words, Merope had dropped one of the pots.

Gaunt shouted at her, using all manner of insults in between, to pick it up. When she bent down to do so, he called her a filthy Muggle and told her to use her wand!

Ogden tried to step in, but Merope, who had already picked up the pot, flushed blotchily scarlet, lost her grip on the pot again, drew her wand shakily from her pocket, pointed it at the pot, and muttered a hasty, inaudible spell that caused the pot to shoot across the floor away from her, hit the opposite wall, and crack in two.

Sirius let out a low, appreciative whistle, though he wished her spell had misfired on this Gaunt's head instead.

Morfin let out a mad cackle of laughter. Gaunt screamed at her to mend it, with more insults.

James worked furiously with his jaw to stop himself shouting back, getting in the way of this girl and showing this tosser what's what. Shouting at her like that, he was as bad as Vernon!

Merope stumbled across the room, but before she had time to raise her wand, Ogden had lifted his own and already mended it.

Gaunt looked for a moment as though he was going to shout at Ogden, but seemed to think better of it:

"Didn't know he had it in him," Remus snarked quietly.

Instead, he jeered at his daughter how lucky it was of her the man had done that, maybe he'd get lucky and the Ministry would take her off his hands, useless Squib she was.

Harry felt a deep churning of pity for this poor girl mixing with a question he was chewing on, but decided to ask anyways, "thought Squibs couldn't do magic? She just did."

"You're exactly right, she's clearly magical, and this arse shouldn't be near another breathing thing," Lily seethed. She tried to keep the anger out of her voice when speaking to her son, but it was hard. It was maddening to realize this had already happened, there would be no happy ending for this poor girl who would die giving birth to Voldemort of all people.

Without looking at anybody or thanking Ogden, Merope picked up the pot and returned it, hands trembling, to its shelf. She then stood quite still, her back against the wall between the filthy window and the stove, as though she wished for nothing more than to sink into the stone and vanish.

Ogden almost pleaded now to stay on topic, the reason of his visit. Morfin had broken Wizarding law-

Gaunt imitated Ogdens voice, making it pompous and singsong. Morfin cackled again and hissed he'd taught that filthy Muggle a lesson, that was illegal now?

"Yes," all five of them muttered in disgust, wishing they could return the favor in kind.

Yes, Ogden agreed, it was. He pulled from an inside pocket a small scroll of parchment and unrolled it, saying his sentence was a summons to the Ministry for a hearing-

Gaunt was outraged, who did this man think he was to summon them anywhere!

Ogden stated Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad.

"Yeah, that'll do it," Remus chuckled.

Harry sighed in agitation, wishing he'd gotten some friendly man to give him a summons rather than Fudge expelling him for doing the opposite of this Morfin.

Gaunt started advancing on Ogden now, thinking he'd been accused of being called scum! He wouldn't stand it from a filthy Mudblood!

Remus didn't know why he was so surprised given everything around this place, but he still came to a stuttering stop and glared at the filthy word he'd just said.

Lily turned pale as a sheet and twitched for her wand, and the other three boys all looked likely to pitch him off a tower after a good stunner was placed on him for that. Why was Dumbledore showing Harry this? It was nothing but infuriating to the lot of them.

Ogden was now looking wary but stood his ground.

"A brave man, honestly," Sirius murmured, still prepared any moment for curses to start flying.

For a moment, Harry thought Gaunt was making an obscene hand gesture, but then realized that he was showing Ogden the ugly, black-stoned ring he was wearing on his middle finger, waving it before Ogden's eyes.

"A two for one?" James offered, his eyes still narrowed and ruining the joke, not that he cared.

Harry didn't even hear him, his mind scrambling desperately as he tried to make something click together, something very obvious, important, and vital, but that blinding pain was back in full force, threatening his mind for even considering pushing into thinking about this. He wasn't even sure if the others noticed his dilemma, wrapped up as he was.

Honestly they didn't, thinking Harry's pained expression was the same as theirs hearing of this happening.

Gaunt shouted this was a centuries old ring through his pure-blood line, with the Peverell coat of arms engraved on it!

James blinked in surprise at that though, wondering if Moony and Padfoot had even heard it for all the muttered cursings they were still giving at that nasty little speech. Like Sirius, he liked to pretend the majority of his pureblood side of the family didn't exist for reasons exactly like this monster, and for this to just be shoved into conversation like that really made him sympathize with Sirius yet again.

Ogden tried to ignore the ring sailing inches from his nose and keep on track, but with a howl of rage, Gaunt ran toward his daughter. For a split second, Harry thought he was going to throttle her as his hand flew to her throat; next moment, he was dragging her toward Ogden by a gold chain around her neck.

Hauling her with him, he shouted about how that was Salazar Slytherin's! They were his last living descendants, what did he make of that?!

First the ring, now this, Harry was quite sure his head was going to pop off in moments for the sharp pain being caused. He could tell the others still weren't grasping why this was shown except to depress them, but there was a significance here he was sure he was missing, if only this pain would leave and he could just think for a moment...

Ogden shouted in alarm about the girl being strangled during this,

"I'm feeling, he doesn't care, ten times more emotion than he's ever shown for anything but what he just said," Sirius sneered.

but Gaunt had already released Merope; she staggered away from him, back to her corner, massaging her neck and gulping for air.

Gaunt stood triumphantly now, as though he had just proved a complicated point beyond all possible dispute.

Lily sneered in disgust, as if this grimy ape could put two and two together with his brain capacity.

He spat on the floor at Ogdens feet. Morfin cackled again. Merope, huddled beside the window, her head bowed and her face hidden by her lank hair, said nothing.

Ogden insisted this had nothing to do with why he was here, Morfin had accosted a Muggle last night.

"Credit to this man!" Remus blinked in disbelief Ogden was still trying! "I'm with Prongs, can't believe he's bothering to still try!"

"Didn't get to be head for nothing I suppose," Sirius tried for a chuckle.

Their information was that Morfin preformed some jinx or hex on a Muggle, causing him to erupt in hives.

Desperately, so that Harry could think of anything else for a moment, he threw out, "Ministry will come far since I turn fifteen. They knew the exact spell and time it was used. Here, Ogden makes it sound like it was all very general."

Lily wrapped a reassuring arm around him, mistaking that pained expression for his loathing of these circumstances, though that was in there as well. "Magic is always adapting love. What was this, twenty years ago or more from now, I can see how they wouldn't yet be able to more than just determine magic was used in an area. They're finding new ways every day to narrow in on the source, what was once a town became a city block, a house."

Harry nodded to indicate he heard, the pain in his temple not alleviated at all.

Morfin giggled.

Giant hissed at him in Parseltongue to remain quiet before returning to English and demanding of Ogden that the Ministry had already wiped the filthy Muggles mind of it and cleaned him up.

Ogden protested that wasn't the point, it was an unprovoked attack.

Gaunt sneered he'd already had him marked as a Muggle-lover.

Ogden finally said this was getting them nowhere. His sons attitude made it clear he did not regret his actions,

"This can't have been the first offense either," Lily's twitching frown didn't seem likely to vanish anytime soon. "If he's as old as I'm thinking."

"Gaunt probably does keep him on a tight leash though, perhaps the other night he got loose," Sirius snarled with far to much familiarity in his tone, and Lily didn't want to know what that meant.

He glanced down at his scroll of parchment again and read when Morfin would be attending his hearing with the charges of-

Ogden broke off. The jingling, clopping sounds of horses and loud, laughing voices were drifting in through the open window. Apparently the winding lane to the village passed very close to the copse where the house stood. Gaunt froze, listening, his eyes wide. Morfin hissed and turned his face toward the sounds, his expression hungry. Merope raised her head. Her face, Harry saw, was starkly white.

An unfamiliar girls voice was asking of Tom why didn't his father have that hovel cleared away.

"Oh dear," James muttered. Tom was a common enough name though, surely they weren't really fixing to see the other half of the equation that led to their current existence...

A young man's voice replied that wasn't their property, though everything else in this valley did. It was owned by an old tramp named Gaunt, whose children were quite mad.

The girl laughed, and the sounds of horses drawing nearer grew louder.

Morfin made to get out of his chair, but Gaunt hissed at him to keep his seat.

Morfin instead hissed at his sister that Tom had called that woman darling, he clearly already had someone and wouldn't have her anyway.

"This will not go well," Remus said through numb lips. He couldn't imagine Voldemort even being born now. From all they'd seen, the woman they'd pegged as his mother was fixing to drop dead from the hand of her father.

Merope was so white Harry felt sure she was going to faint.

Gaunt turned sharply to her, demanding what that meant.

Merope was shaking her head in protest even as her brother explained her fixation with that Tom, it's why he'd gone out last night-

Gaunt roared at her, hanging after a Muggle!

Lily wanted to cover her ears. She fought back against the impulse only just, but couldn't shake the man so easily strangling his daughter not moments before. Surely the only thing holding her life so far in this waste was waiting for her to be mature enough to give birth to her brothers child, to carry on the precious lineage Gaunt so clearly favored, but even that thought may not hold back what could have happened to her next.

All three of the Gaunts seemed to have forgotten Ogden, who was looking both bewildered and irritated at this renewed outbreak of incomprehensible hissing and rasping.

Gaunt began advancing on her, still hissing a string of insults about his pureblood childs audacity.

Even in his fear for that child James felt his face spasm in disgust, he couldn't stand hearing that kind of talk, and the oddity of it coming from Moony's voice wasn't getting any easier to hear.

Merope shook her head frantically, pressing herself into the wall, apparently unable to speak.

Gaunt lost control and his hands closed around his daughter's throat.

Both Harry and Ogden yelled No! at the same time; Ogden raised his wand and cried, Relashio to free her.

Gaunt was thrown backward, away from his daughter; he tripped over a chair and fell flat on his back. With a roar of rage, Morfin leapt out of his chair and ran at Ogden, brandishing his bloody knife and firing hexes indiscriminately from his wand.

Ogden ran for his life. Dumbledore indicated that they ought to follow and Harry obeyed, Merope's screams echoing in his ears.

Ogden hurtled up the path and erupted onto the main lane, his arms over his head, where he collided with the glossy chestnut horse ridden by a very handsome, dark-haired young man. Both he and the pretty girl riding beside him on a gray horse roared with laughter at the sight of Ogden, who bounced off the horse's flank and set off again, his frock coat flying, covered from head to foot in dust, running pell-mell up the lane.

"I, wouldn't think that very funny," Sirius said slowly, knowing there weren't many things he couldn't make a joke of, but he was sure even he'd find that more alarming than amusing.

Dumbledore deemed that enough for today. He took Harry by the elbow and tugged. Next moment, they were both soaring weightlessly through darkness, until they landed squarely on their feet, back in Dumbledore's now twilit office.

The moment they'd landed Harry asked what had happened to that girl.

Lily gently touched his shoulder in thanks, and then frowned in concern when he didn't relax at her touch. He may still feel deep sympathy for that poor girl, but even that couldn't distract him from fighting the battle his mind was in, still stuck on that memory like a craw in his tooth, but with no way to get it out he could yet know.

Dumbledore passively said she survived. She was in fact left in peace, when Ogden returned fifteen minutes later to arrest Morfin and his father. Morfin received three years in Azkaban, Marvolo six months.

Sirius shivered unhappily at the mention of that place. There was a happier time where he'd sneer, demand that was all they'd gotten for their crimes, but he couldn't imagine ever saying a thing like that again.

Harry was shocked at the name Marvolo, Dumbledore nodding his approval that Harry recognized that as the middle name of Voldemort, his grandfather.

"Bloody hell!" James went bug eyed. It really didn't click until that moment, even though they'd known Voldemort's full name for a few days now, even seeing the horrid excuse for a human the Dark Lord's wizard grandfather was, couldn't have made him really understand what he'd just heard. "Merope named her kid after that, that-" there weren't words for such a creature!

"You got me," Harry sighed in agreement.

He went on to elaborate the Gaunts were the last of their dwindling line. Several generations of only marrying cousins,

"They aren't the only ones," Sirius stated in clipped tones, and Harry was almost sad he didn't need to ask.

and squandering their riches had left Marvolo an arrogant and proud man more consumed with his remaining heirlooms more than his daughter.

"Which doesn't make a lick of sense!" Lily seethed. "Even in his warped reality, his child! She'd carry on his bloodline, clearly what he valued more than anything, how-" she could never grasp the idea of how you could be that way to your child for any reason.

Harry pieced together the rest, that Merope was Voldemort's mother, and the man on the horse had been Tom Riddle. He still couldn't believe they'd married, unable to imagine two people less likely to fall in love.

"Why thank you, I'm glad your own heritage has finally surpassed that level of surprise," James tried for a laugh that still came out wrong. He couldn't wrap his head around it any more than Harry.

Harry shook his head at his dad, even that memory wasn't as disturbing as the one he'd just witnessed.

Dumbledore reminded they'd have to be doing a bit of guesswork here, but Dumbledore speculated that after being free of her eighteen year imprisonment from her family,

"She was eighteen by that point?" Lily murmured in surprise. She'd been picturing someone much smaller, though she supposed many aspects had led to that.

her magic had a chance to flourish, and she'd duped Tom into such a romance.

Harry suggested the Imperius Curse, or a love potion.

Dumbledore erred towards the second, it wouldn't be too hard for the girl to find him alone one hot day and offer him a drink. It was quite the town scandal, the squire's son running off with the tramp's daughter.

Sirius' mouth flopped open. Even in his shock though, he couldn't feel anything but more pity for this girl. As horrid a thing as she'd done, after that kind of life, he could justify almost anything she'd do, including giving birth to Voldemort.

The villagers weren't the only ones stunned, when Marvolo returned home to find his other child had vanished with his precious heirlooms, he may well have died from shock of that. Perhaps he had never learned to feed himself either, but never the less, he did not live to see Morfin released from prison.

Tom had returned of course, only a short time later. This was more guesswork, but Dumbledore believed that when she was carrying his child, she'd either convinced herself his love was real, or he would stay for the child. Both turned out false, and Tom returned with the story it had all started in this way.

"That's still much kinder than she was due, and it actually happened," James muttered with a torn expression in place. He wanted to hate this girl, for letting her fantasy ruin their lives, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, even by the means she'd used.

He never again went to find out what happened to his child.

"Something that would bite him in his own arse a few years later," Remus sighed, putting together the rest of the story in his head.

"I can't see Tom Sr. doing much good even if he did stick around," Lily had a fascinating look on her face even as it was still flushed red from many things to do with all this. "I've never even heard of this, a love potion being taken so far. I can't imagine the man would care for what he'd been forced to love, and even if he had stuck around," she shook her head deeply, hiding her hair in her face so as not to give away where her mind was wandering back to now.

Dumbledore dismissed Harry for the night then, but first Harry asked if it was really important, learning all this about Voldemort's past.

Funny, how Harry hadn't heard the question brought up in here, but he could see it simmering on all of them. He wondered what held them back from demanding it, and even more, why he wanted to laugh at his past self. Already he could feel the beginnings of a puzzle, one very essential to his life.

Dumbledore agreed extremely important, and it had everything to do with the prophecy.

Harry still felt confused, but agreed with some reassurance.

"I can see it," Remus tried to put into words what he thought was Dumbledore's thinking on this. "To understand your enemy is to know as much as you can about them. I'm not yet sure, obviously we haven't exactly found his self-destruct button, as Sirius has been known to so eloquently put it, but maybe if he keeps digging," he trailed off suggestively, and Harry nodded eagerly. Already he could feel the fog lifting, even the hint of an answer of the horizon making the pain once more bearable as he stopped trying to push so hard to understand all this.

He turned to go, then another question occurred to him, and he turned back again to ask if he was allowed to tell Ron and Hermione all this.

James snorted. "Ask for forgiveness, not permission," he scolded.

"And then don't even bother to ask for that," Sirius agreed with an eye roll.

"After what he said over the summer, I certainly can't see him telling you no," Lily agreed after glaring at the two for departing such wisdom.

Dumbledore considered him for a moment before agreeing, but insisted no one else.

"Who else would they tell it to?" Remus scoffed. "I can't see Hermione sharing this with Luna, and her decision to put another article in her magazine. You three have always kept things close to the vest."

"Guess Dumbledore was just being safe," Harry shrugged.

As Harry was leaving he spotted something new on a spindle table, the same ring Dumbledore had been wearing over the summer, the same one from the memory they'd just saw. Harry gasped how he'd come across Marvolo Gaunt's ring?

Harry's breath hitched in his throat, his trembling hands wanting to reach out now and hold his parents to him. What about this ring, more than anything else he'd yet heard of, made him want to cling to them tighter than ever? To again check on Sirius and Remus, make sure they weren't some spectral figures from his nightmares. He hated this thing being mentioned, and yet at the same time, could hardly breathe when it was, wanting so badly to understand!

James patted Harry's shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring way, letting out a low whistle and offering, "bet that's worth a shiny sickle," recalling how ancient it was.

"Can't imagine how he got it, without dragging it from Gaunts hand," Sirius made a little face of disgust why Dumbledore even had.

Dumbledore half answered he'd acquired it only a few days before he'd fetched Harry.

Harry realized that also meant around the time he'd injured his hand, but Dumbledore merely promised that story would come in due time.

"Ooh, finally getting something out of this," Remus muttered with far more interest than he actually felt, Harry still hadn't returned to normal color. This whole chapter was just a mess for him.

Harry hesitated. Dumbledore was smiling. Then he told Harry goodnight.

Sirius growled in agitation, but all things considered, that wasn't the worst way this chapter could have ended. At least they'd gone two whole chapters now without his death being brought up, so they were honestly on a roll.

Harry's mind was still lingering on this with unease, and he tried to erase some of that as he asked, "well Dumbledore didn't ask me a single thing of what they said, so he either must have figured it out for himself or does know Parseltongue."

"That man's a mystery to us all," Remus bitterly grumbled, making Harry wince again and Remus to shift uneasily at bringing this up himself. He knew he couldn't avoid the topic much longer, maybe he should just air it out with Harry...

HPHPHPHP

Did I lie? Yeah, yeah a bit, but I do still promise you'll get all the explanations I've always offered in the past. Why does Lily know that's his when they stopped being friends at the end of their fifth year but he wouldn't get that book until the next? I do promise it'll all come in time.