On the Side of the Angels

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ON THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS
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Part One: The Beginning

Prologue

Like all good stories, the past is rooted in mystery, deceit and a myriad of passed crossed and bridges broken. To understand this story we must begin right at the beginning with a different cast in the halls of Hogwarts School before the first fall of the Dark Lord and the subsequent deaths of our loved ones. To understand this story of tangled hearts and crossed love we must go back to a group of young boys in their sixth year struggling with adolescence and their place in the world. We must visit a Gryffindor dormitory at threethe the afternoon on a beautiful autumn morning, we must visit the rooms of the Marauders …

* * *

“Ew!”

Remus looked up, blinking at the light that dazzled his eyes from the open window. He checked the clock. Three hours and he hadn’t looked up from his Potions assignment once. The sixth year Gryffindor’s boys dormitory was, to put it bluntly, nothing less than a shambles. Dirty washing lay tucked underneath beds and trunks where no house elf could possibly find them, plates smuggled up that morning from the kitchens lay, half empty, on the floor, rolls of parchment with one or two words written on them lay crumpled in the fireplace awaiting the moment when they would be lit. Remus shook his head, he would be the one left to tidy this.

“What?” he asked, moving his thumb to reveal a smudge on last paragraph of his essay. Bollocks. There would be points taken away from that if the word was deemed ‘unreadable’ by Professor Furey. Well, there was nothing else for it, he would just have to write out that page again.

Sirius was waving his hand about in midair, wearing what could only be described as a positively priceless look of horror. “That’s bloody - - Peter was that you?” Remus caught his hand. He was going to take someone’s eye out with it. Inspecting it carefully he found that he had to agree with Sirius, it was disgusting. Stuck to Sirius’ palm was a squashed Every Flavour Bean. It’s colouring was a sickly white colour which made the hairs and pieces of fluff sticking to it all the more vivid. It was also wet. Finding a scrap piece of parchment Remus picked it off and threw it in the fireplace. Sirius was right; ew.

A pair of watery eyes gazed at Sirius from behind a very bashed, ill treated copy of ‘Potions for the Positive’. Peter Pettigrew was, perhaps, the furthest behind in the essay seeing as he couldn’t figuut tut the second question for the life of him. When he saw the expression on Sirius’ face and the bean sticking out of the parchment where Remus had thrown it he hunkered down further, mumbling an apology. “It was a baking soda flavoured one …” Sirius still didn’t look impressed.

“I don’t care if it was a bloody earwax flavoured one - -” Remus shuddered, “If your going to spit them out then at least have better aim and get it in the bin. Great Merlin, Wormtail, you’d think it was so much to ask.” And with that Sirius proceeded to turn his back on Peter and do what his fellow student hated the most; give him the silent treatment.

Remus sighed. This was going to be a long Sunday. They had all realised, way too late, that they only had a month to get their sixth year Potions assignment in on time and had gone in to the appropriate panic mode, rushing down to the library and each getting out as many books as they could on their library passes. All except Remus, that is, who had started his assignment the week that he had been given it (at the start of the year, as he had pointed out to Sirius and co.) was now putting the finishing touches on the last few lines. The sixth year assignments were, perhaps, the hardest that a student in Hogwarts could ever get. They, along with the seventh year one that is, contributed to your NEWTs and were, in Remus view at least, very important. The sixth and seventh year assignments were a series of scenarios. You were to look for the best Potion to fit the particular scenario, research it, give a brief description of its effects and then give instructions for use use. In the case of poisons you were also to give the same information for the antidote. At the end of the year you would make the Potions of your choice and be graded appropriately. There were ten scenarios in all and Remus had easily been able to fill them, some he had even managed to find two or three possibilities for and had listed them as well, in the hope of better marks.

d ond only knows, he needed them. Potions was a complicated subject at times and because he missed so much of it, what with not being able to attend classes for three days out of each month, he missed some vital information every time he missed a class. The theory he could do perfectly, memorising everything the way it was to be added, but he’d missed the practical side of things. He’d missed learning how to shred and chop specific ways and how to pickle certain tricky ingredients. He’d also missed a valuable lecture on what to expect in the exams, one which neither James nor Sirius had paid much attention to and therefore not taken notes on. (He’d tried to read Peter’s notes once and after about an hour of trying to read the page he had realised that he’d had it upside down. After righting it and peering for a further fifteen minutes he’d given up and had simply borrowed a book on the subject from the library.)

Sirius leaned over and grabbed the smudged parchment before Remus could take a hold of it. There were few things that he denied his friends but reading his schoolwork and copying for it to further their marks was one of them. “Sirius, give it back.” He had a headache, he was beginning to realise, and he was in no mood for this. “If you haven’t done nine, then ten won’t make any sense to you anyway.” The playful smile on Sirius’ face took some of the sting away from Remus’ growing bad mood. The coal hairedth tth tossed the parchment back with a casual wink and then hopped of off the bed to steal James’ instead. As James wasn’t there to protest (much too busy sunning himself on tuidduidditch field) Remus, to avoid an argument, pretended that he hadn’t noticed.

They were planning on a timeout at some point, a walk around the grounds when James came back but Remus wasn’t sure that his friends could afford the small break. If they thought for one minute that four weeks frenzied work could make up for almost an entire six months gruelling effort then they were sadly mistaken. Remus worried sometimes that they were neglecting their least favourite subjects in the hope of getting excellent passes on their preferred ones. James was top of Transfiguration and Sirius has been doing exceptionally well in Charms of late but when it came to their Dark Arts work or their Potions finals their heads seemed to be permanently stuck in the clouds.

He shrugged off his gloomy thoughts, he’d been depressed of late and their was no point in dwelling on things that were beyond his control. Sighing he realised that he was out of parchment, he’d have to remember to buy some in their next Hogsmede trip, providing, of course, that it didn’t land on another full moon. “Padfoot, can I borrow some parchment, I don’t want to use the new bundle, I need them for classes.” Sirius’ head popped up from James’ work and he scurried across, three of four sheets of parchment in his hands. “Thanks, mate,” he shook his head. How did he go through so much? He had small writing after all!

Sirius slotted himself behind Remus, pressing up against him. Remus smiled, it had been a while since he’d had a hug from anyone. “Moony, I need a word,” the smile faded. Sirius sounded quite serious. Wonderful, what had he done now? Craning his neck around the amber eyed youth tried to look positive but it took all of his strength. He desperately wanted to crawl away and sleep somewhere.

Sirius’ arms were still firmly around his waist and when he pressed his cheek against Remus’ he smiled, “Don’t worry, Rem’, I’m not pissed at you or anything. I was just wondering something,” he would have turned around but the hug felt too good so he simply leaned back, enjoying the closeness of his best friend. “James was saying that you weren’t happy. That maybe it’s got something to do with me.” James was going to hear about this, Remus decided, temper stirring deep inside him. He’d told James his feelings in confidence. While the friends usually kept nothing from each other Remus had specifically requested that James not tell Sirius.

As if picking up on his unspoken thoughts Sirius gripped him a tiny bit tighter and Remus gratefully returned the squeeze. The four of them were usually quite tactile with each other but for some reason the contact meant more for him right now, “Don’t blame Prongs, he was worried about you and didn’t know what to do. You’ve been awfully quite recently, Rem’. James said you felt left out, all you had to do was say something. Is that how you feel?” Remus glanced across to Peter but he seemed too engrossed and worried about how to finish question two to worry about what Sirius and Remus were chatting about.

“It’s just … it’s nothing really. Just lately you and James seem to be conspiring about something and I wasn’t in on the plan. I’m being ridiculous,” he didn’t also mention that they’d been secretive around him and that he felt that they were laughing at him behind his back. That would be one step too far. His thoughts were broken when Sirius began ticking him earnestly.

“Do - you - want - to - know - what - we - were - planning?” Sirius said, each word punctuated with a fresh assault of torture delivered with deft fingers, “We - were - planning - your - birthday - surprise,” he stopped enough to let the now pinned onto the bed werewolf draw a proper breath then he grinned devilishly, “We wanted to make it memorable. So we’ve made preparations.” Remus immediately felt guilty but yet still strangely relieved that his best friends hadn’t thought to leave him out of something.

“I’m sorry Siri’,” he still couldn’t keep himself from grinning, “I thought you wanted me to bugger off and leave you two alone.”

Sirius made a face at him, “I love James and all that but he’s not my type,” Remus felt a blush rising in his cheeks, “I don’t like guys with dark hair, you should know that Moony,” and with that he sat firmly on Remus’ midsection. In the wizarding world it was just as common to see two men together or two women together as it was to see a ‘normal’ couple of guy and gal. However, while most people preferred to keep their preferences to themselves and hit on who they wanted to with minimal fuss, Sirius Black much preferred to broadcast to anyone who would listen that his tastes allowed him the best of both sexes. He was very openly what Muggles would term ‘bisexual’. Of course there were no ridiculous terms like that in the wdingding world. It was just an accepted fact.

Remus, for example, liked guys just as much as Sirius but he didn’t go about screaming it to people. However, he wasn’t complaining to anyone, if Sirius thought he was attractive them Remus was going to have to be careful he didn’t let his head get too big. Sirius picked only the best of the bunch. And besides, he flirted with Sirius all the time. It was also possible that Sirius wasn’t actually flirting with him, that he was just stating fact. Sirius didn’t like dark haired men, he seldom went for dark haired women either, which in itself was a contradiction seeing as Sirius has the most beautiful coal black hair Remus had ever seen. It shone like a ravens wing.

Remus huffed a breath in under Sirius’ weight, “So sti still love me then?” it was a daft question. They were far too close not to love each other even if it was just as exceptionally good friends.

“’Course. Where would Padfoot and Prongs be without Moony and Wormtail?” Remus just realised then that Peter had decided to ignore his copy of ‘Potions for the Positive’ in favour of avidly following their exchange. At Sirius’ words and his subsequent pardon he grinned widely. Remus laughed. Gods he loved his friends.

Just then the door opened and James walked in, dusty Quidditch robes, mucky face and battered looking broomstick. He didn’t look pleased. Actually he looked furious. Throwing down his broom he began to rip of his Quidditch robes with fierce intensity in his eyes. Everyone immediately scurried to his side, an explosion was coming any second and all three of them would have to calm him down before he blew the roof off. Remus touched a hand to his leg as he dumped himself on Peter’s bed, which was next to the door, “What’s wrong?” there was no point in asking if something was wrong, that was all too obvious.

“Snape,” Remus watched Sirius’ expression darken and Peter get a little more excited, this meant that someone was in for it.

“What about him?” Sirius ground out through clenched teeth. Yes, a confrontation was now inevitable.

“Sade just gave me a tip off about our old pal, Snivellus,” James said, throwing himself down beside Remus. Sade Kelly was James’ cousin once removed on his mothers side. She was a tall, attractive Ravenclaw. She was also Chaser for her house team and the Gryffindor’s had Charms and Care of Magical Creas wis with the Ravenclaw’s twice a week. Remus liked her, she was fun to be around.

“What did she say?” Peter asked, gripped by the immensity of James’ anger.

“She said that Snape has been staying behind after class in Herbology for the last two months preparing himself for the Herbology trip. Apparently he thinks Slytherin are much more likely to win the foraging hunts.” All of their faces darkened and Remus knew what was coming now, they were going to confront their fellow student with this.

“Why does she talk to that greasy git?” Sirius asked, absentmindedly.

“She talks to everyone, Sade,” James mumbled, trying to wrench off his robes without unsettling his glasses, “Even if she hates them. It’s useful though, you have to admit. Without her we wouldn’t have known about Malfoy and that bitch Narcissa upsetting Lily and - -”

“But you know what that means, don’t you?” Sirius snapped suddenly making them jump, “It means he probably knows what we’re going to be looking for and where to find it. The charts and that’ll have been there!”

James nodded slowly, weighing the thoughts out, “He’s there now, according to Sade he’s been going all Sunday, every Sunday. He leaves just before curfew.” The statement carried weight to it. Implications.

“We could get him then!” Peter chipped in, seeming happy to have grasped what James meant by las last words, “After he comes out of the greenhouse!” The other two nodded. Remus sighed, he was already thinking of the trouble they would get in if they were caught pushing Snape around. Especially if he’d just come away from a teacher and they were still near. He decided that he would hand his essay in early then, while they were finishing with Snape he would use the excuse of nipping down to the dungeon to hand in his Potions assignment. That would make sure he didn’t have to take sides again.

“Tonight then,” Sirius said, “We’ll make sure he thinks twice about trying to cheat the Gryffindor’s out of more points again.”

Remus got up and went to rewrite the last page of his essay, biting his tongue to keep from pointing out that if they were caught they’d loose Gryffindor more points than Snape could ever manage single handily.

* * *

The sun had faded from the sky, leaving red trails behind it streaking across the orange horizon. Hogwarts beamed against it’s spectacular backdrop, the turrets seeming to raise even higher, trying to touch the wisps of pink cloud caressing the warm night air. It was the last day before the Herbology trip and, for once, Severus Snape was looking forward to spending time with Gryffindor’s. Well not spending time, exactly, more beating them at every plant and mineral finding expedition. And doing it in record time, if he could help it.

He’d been practising for the better part of two months, going down to the greenhouses and having Professor Goodkind test him on different herbs and their environments, some weeds and their properties, venomous plants, healing shrubs. He’d managed to cover the lot and now there wasn’t one plant or fungi that he didn’t know. Of course, being the top of the class in Potions helped considerably. There wasn’t a crushed up, shredded or mashed plant known to man that couldn’t be used in one potion or another.

Trudging back from the greenhouse he stuck his hand in his satchel bag, his Potions assignment could be handed in while he was at it. There was no point in trying to hide it from the other Slytherin’s anymore, he’d long ago ran out of decent hiding places in his common room and he knew for a fact that if Lucius Malfoy decided a wanted a copy of Snape’s essay, he would get it. One way or another. No, it was much safer just to hand it in on the way back. That way he was certain of getting his in first and keeping his top spot in the class.

“Yo, Snivellus, how’s it hangin’?”, a hand slapped his back hard enough to make him loose the air in his lungs. Sirius Black’s face appeared to his left, grinning maliciously. Severus looked around, James Potter was coming up to his right. He didn’t have to turn around fully to know that Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were following close behind. He stuffed his essay back into his satchel as quickly as he could, if they saw that then no doubt they’d steal it or some such. He’d put the best part of six months hard work into that essay and he wasn’t going to loose it to a few arrogant idiots who thought two weeks rush work would be enough.

“Ah, now see. Here we go again Sniv’, you shouldn’t ignore people, it’s bad manners,” Potter pulled his satchel from his grip. Severus spun around, grabbing for it and only succeeding in catching the strap and partially tearing it off. Dammit. He spun back again, wand out and right in Black’s face.

“We’ve got his attention now, Prongs,” Black sneered, “What’s wrong? Can’t take a little friendly curiosity?”

“Give me the bag back or I swear I’ll hex the life out of you,” ordinarily he would have done it straight away but, in weighing up his options, it was much safer to bargain for the satchel. There were valuable notes in there along with his essay that he didn’t want tose. se. Even he couldn’t remember everything and he’d need some of those for the Herbology trip if he wanted to wipe the sneer of off Black’s face.

There was a sharp pain in the side of his head all of a sudden and white spots danced before his eyes. When his vision cleared he was flat on his back with the excited face of Peter Pettigrew about half a foot from his. “Wormtail!” barked Black, “What have we told you? Leave this to us and for Pete’s sake, don’t leave marks ine hee he decides to grass … Merlin …” Pettigrew’s face was removed from his line of vision and replaced with Black who grabbed his robes before he could move and yanked him up, spinning him around and pinning him firmly against the corner of the nearest greenhouse.

“We’ve been hearing stories about you, Snape,” Black ground out from between clenched teeth, “About you getting extra practice for Herbology. About you reading the lists of what we’ve too look for.”

Snape looked at him and pulled himself up with haughty indignation that belonged to a man well beyond his years, “Unlike some I don’t need to cheat, the talent comes naturally to me Black. It’s not my fault you don’t have any.” That did it. Black brought his knee up, hard, into Snape’s groin and left him a gasping, almost sobbing pile on the ground.

“Look here Snape,” Black said, leaning casually where he had pinned Severus only a second earlier, “We don’t take kindly to your cheek. Anyway, back to what I was saying. You’ve cheated and we think it’s only fair if we get to know exactly what you do so if you’ll just give me a second … right Prongs.” He saw his bag being tipped up through the tears of pain clouding his eyes. Everything went tumbling out, some ink bottles rolling away and quills being trampled on. Then a hand went to his notes and picked them of off the ground.

“Got it.” Another hand picked up his essay while Potter’s feet came closer.

“Okay. Thanks, elluellus. See ya’ later.” Black walked a few paces, “You handing that in, Moony?” there was some muffled conversation and then a distinct movement of feet, the noise heading away from him. Snape squeezed his eyes shut again, waiting till the noise died away. It was several minutes before he came to his knees, looking about at his scattered things. His groin was on fire. He hissed a few curse words and rolled to his feet properly.

Remus Lupin stood in front of him, his stance apologetic and his hand stretched out, bearing Snape’s essay.

“It’s got a few mud spots on it,” Lupin said. His voice was edgy, as if he was expecting to be caught at any time. “But I think it’s basically still in tact.” Snape took a few seconds to glare at him and then use his eyes to search about, checking to make sure that it wasn’t a trap then he snatched the essay from his hand. “I - um, sorry. About them.” Snape spared him a look of pure loathing before snatching up his books. What the hell was he trying to do? Lull him into a false sense of security so Black and Potter could come and beat the crap out of him? Yes, keep going Lupin. Make more of a fool out of yourself. I’m not buying.

“Piss off, Lupin. Go crawl back to Black.” He stuffed his things back in to his satchel as quickly as he possibly could and then took a painstaking step forward, his groin protesting all the way. Lupin was still standing behind him.

“I could, em, take that essay down with me if you like. You know, save you walking after …” so that was it. The idiot was actually embarrassed for his friends. Thinking back on it Lupin had never actually gotten involved in the idiocy of his friends. Nevertheless Snape couldn’t really care less. He had work to do and some new notes to write up. Hopefully Black and Potter wouldn’t be able to read his shorthand.

“Are you soft in the head or simply getting there slowly?” he leaned into his face and resisted admirably the urge to plant his fist in Lupin’s teeth. “I said piss off. I don’t want your sympathy or your guilt. I don’t need them. Stay the hell away from me or I swear I’ll make you rue the first day you drew breath.”

Then he stomped away leaving Lupin gaping like an idiot.

It was the most satisfying thing he’d done all day.

* * *

Remus got back to the common room about half an hour later. He deliberately didn’t go upstairs to their dorm. He needed to plan something to say first.

Theoretically he could punish his three friends for their behaviour, he was a Prefect and it would errierribly easy to just give them detentions or something but then, he thought to himself, he’d probably just loose his friends and they’d continue teasing Snape anyway. There was also the option of simply sitting them down and saying that it wasn’t on.

If he was truthful with himself he didn’t want to do either. He was afraid of loosing his friends. He didn’te the that many. And after all they’d done for him, you think he’d be a little more grateful. But, dammit. It just wasn’t on. They could have seriously hurt Snape - they could have done him a serious, irreparable injury. That wasn’t fair. Especially when Snape didn’t have a chance to defend himself against them. Even more so because Sirius simply assumed that he had read the charts that mapped out the woods where the Herbology trip was always held. He had assumed that Snape had cheated. Remus had a feeling that he had not.

Snape was bright. Impossibly so. Remus was sometimes jealous of him. Yes, Remus was intelligent but he had to work hard to make sure he stayed on top of things. Snape didn’t. It came, as he’d said earlier, naturally to him. He was naturally good at Potions and he naturally excelled in Dark Arts despite having an unhealthy interest in the subject. Snape had come to school, it seemed, with a personal mission; he was going to excel even the teachers in their chosen subjects. It was already obvious that he was going to far surpass their Potions Master. Anyone with half a brain could see that.

Remus felt sorry for Snape, however. He was unpopular but not for the right reasons. He was unpopular because he didn’t fit in with peoples estimations of what a ‘normal’ sixteen year old should he like. Snape was, for one, very tall but he had also drawn the short straw of being skinny with it which made sub subconsciously, hunch when he was walking. His hair, Remus knew, what naturally … greasy. It wasn’t Snape’s fault. If he didn’t wash it then the rest of him would smell and the only thing Remus ever caught from him was a hint of mint. His nose was another subject that people seemed to revel in concocting insults around. It was long and hooked, distinctly out of place of his slim, sallow face.

Remus sighed. It wasn’t Snape’s fault he looked the way he did. Remus himself was of average attractiveness and that was when he was clean and fresh and haent ent half an hour taming the silky, tawny brown shoulder length hair that was the bane of his existence. It wasn’t Snape’s fault, either, that James happened to be Sirius’ best friend. If he and James had have ignored each other at the sorting ceremony almost six years ago then Sirius wouldn’t tease him quite so much. He wouldn’t have quite so much to contend with.

The fact was that Remus felt a strange type of kinship with the dark haired Slytherin. Remus was an oddball too. He was quiet, studious. He was also a werewolf. What was more he felt out of place at times, the same kind of out of place that Snape must feel every day, even in the Slytherin common room. The only difference was that Remus had managed to pick, and keep, powerful friends. Otherwise he would have been very lonely indeed.

He yawned, long and wide. He’d done enough thinking today. He’d done enough worrying. Maybe tomorrow he would pull the guilt trip on Sirius and James. There was no point in appealing to Peter’s more tender sensibilities. The plain fact was that he didn’t have any. Maybe tomorrow, his birthday, would be different. Actually, now that he looked at the clock, he’d been sixteen for twenty minutes. Legal to use magic outside Hogwarts, legal to have sex (not in his lifetime), legal to buy fire whisky in the Three Broomsticks. He yawned again. Maybe legal but still tired. He crawled into the dorm.

It wasn’t until he’d undressed and slipped into a pair of comfortable pyjama bottoms that he realised something was wrong. Sirius was in the wrong bed. He was in Remus’ bed. The werewolf frownThenThen a low, silky voice drifted to him in the still night air.

“Are you ever going to come in here? I’ve been waiting for over two hours, I was almost asleep.” Right well, that was all fine and good. But why was he waiting in Remus’ bed?

“Sirius,” he walked around to the side of the bed, “What are you doing?”

Sirius gave him a look that said it was all too bloody obvious. “Waiting to give you your birthday present.” Okay, but why did he have to do it in Remus’ bed? This was all becoming very vague and his brain was refusing to work itself around the possibilities. “Get in then.” Get in, right. He could just about manage that.

The second he was in Sirius snaked around him like a vine. Bare skin pressed against him. Remus yelped and Sirius poked him in the side. “Shoosh! You’ll wake everyone up.” Remus turned to him, squinting in the darkness.

“Sirius, sorry for sounding thick but what are you doing in my bed?” the lazy smile drew as Sis Sirius’ face and he stroked a hand down Remus’ cheek.

“Giving you your birthday present. I told you. Look Moony,” he leant over Remus’ face, their lips inches apart. It sent shivers through him, “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. If you think about it, it makes sense …” then he closed the gap and the only thing Remus could think about was the touch of Sirius’ lips against his. The feel of Sirius’ bottom lip in his mouth, his tongue on the tip of Remus’ own. When Sirius pulled back he was breathless, and speechless which, he guessed, was what Sirius planned.

“Um. I g-guess it could m-make sense. How long have you b-been thinking about it?” Sirius inched closer, but since they couldn’t conceivablt ant any closer he only succeeded in rubbing himself against Remus’ thigh and sending shivers through his entire body.

“A while. I talked to James about it,” a light frown creased Remus’ face, “And he told me to go for it as long as it was what you wanted.” He lay his head on Remus’ shoulder, lifting only his dark eyes to gaze at the werewolf. His lowered lashes against the moonlight only added to Sirius’ considerable good looks. Seduction guaranteed.

“I-I’d like that.” It was a whisper. A mumble. It still got the message across.

“Look. I fancy you, you fancy me. We’re mates so if it all falls through we’re not going to want to knock the teeth out of each other. I think it’s about time we both stopped putting it about - -” Remus made a face, “I stopped putting it about. So that maybe we could have something … else. Does that make sense or have I just made a complete idiot of myself?” Sirius smirked at him through the darkness. Remus tossed over what he’d said in his mind, it did make sense. He and Sirius would make a cute couple, he’d always thought that. Though he’d never dared hope that Sirius might feel that way for him.

“So what’s my birthday pressie then?” Remus wriggled against Sirius. Give it a go, that’s what his father had always said. Although he doubted his father would ever have guessed that his good advice was being used to this ends.

“This,” Sirius hissed into his ear while his hand plunged under the waistband of Remus’ pyjama bottoms. It slithered down his leg, delicate fingers dancing across sensitive skin. He gasped as Sirius’ hand curled around cock, Gods he knew what he was doing,

“Sirius …” a kiss smothered his question. He was going to ask … something. He couldn’t quite remember now. It was just so sudden. Yesterday he had thought Sirius was annoyed at him for hanging around him and James. Today, tonight, he was in bed with Sirius and his hand was massaging him gently … He moaned. “Don’t stop,” was all he could say when Sirius broke the kiss and he shifted his hips so they could get a better angle.

It only took a few minutes. He came biting into Sirius’ shoulder hard enough to leave teeth marks. It took a few seconds before the white spots dancing in front of his eyes went away enough for him to gaze at Sirius. The older boy kissed him gently on the forehead, “Okay?”

Remus nodded. He was blissfully okay, perfect in fact. Better than he had been in a long time. Sirius … was his boyfriend. Maybe. “What does this mean?” Sirius gave an exasperated sigh and wrapped him up in his arms, ignoring the stickiness between them.

“You twat. It means that you’re my boyfriend and if anyone else asks you to the dance at the Christmas holidays or even thinks about laying a finger on you I’ll cheerfully strange the life out of them,” then he chuckled and buried his face in Remus’ neck.

Werewolves mator lor like? True. Werewolves could only fall in love once? Wrong. The fact was that Werewolves could have as many partners as they wanted, they could fall in love, have children - the lot - without being mated to someone. A Werewolf mated when the wolf chose to and not before. The wolf inside knew when that person was right and, just as it was true for any other living human being, Werewolves could go through hundreds of partners in their lifetime without ever finding the right person for them. If Sirius was the right person then … he would know. Eventually. When the wolf decided.

“I … I love you, Siri’,” he mumbled into the darkness of the other boys hair. A hank soothingly stroked his back.

“I know. I know you do.” Sirius kissed the top of his ear and it sent shivers through him. God that felt good. “I love you, too.” Now came the practical side of it. He felt like crap for breaking the moment but it would be the Herbology trip soon and he wouldn’t have a chance to talk to his … boyfriend alone before then.

“Are you staying in here for the night? And … what’s James and Peter going to say about this? Oh, and d-does this mean that your sharing a tent with me instead of James on the trip?” he put his head on Sirius’ shoulder and buried himself there. He was so comfy.

“Do you want me to stay? Cause I think we should swap beds, this ones gotten kinda’ moist,” he laughed, “And I told you before. James was the one who told me to go for this and who cares what Wormtail thinks, anyway? He’ll be just as happy with me and you together than with us as friends.” Remus noted that he’d left out the last question. He’d done it tactfully but … “And of course I’m sharing with you. You think I’d want to listen to Prongs mooning over Evans all night when I could be having nookie with you?” Okay so maybe it was his imagination running away with him because he was already afraid that he’d lose Sirius. A thought nagged at the back of his head, “Weren’t you going out with Sade’s friend? What was her name …?”

“Maggie,” Sirius supplied helpfully.

“That’s it. Weren’t you taking her to the dance?” Sirius smiled at him.

“I told her that I had a better offer and she said she understood.” Remus arched an eyebrow. He had his suspicions about how Sirius had made her feel okay about that but he let it go. What he didn’t know couldn’t bug him every time he saw “No “Now come on, let’s get to bed.”

And they did. All thoughts of Snape drifted from Remus’ mind as he fell into a deep sleep enfolded in Sirius Black’s arms with his sweet breath ticking the hair on his neck.