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"Padfoooooooot!" James whined and flopped across the other boy's bed, crumpling several rolls of parchment in the process.
"What is it, Prongs?" Sirius asked absentmindedly, writing on the parchment on his lap, paying no mind to the crushed ones
"She's not coming back until next week." James sounding genuinely miserable, but Sirius had to listen to that for the last seven weeks, so his patience was long gone. James' beloved Lily-flower was currently in France, doing a student exchange in Beauxbatons. The exchange the top OWL-students were allowed to do in the first two months of sixth year. Except James and Sirius, the first ever excluded top-students since beginning of the exchange-program ("I do not want the staff from Beauxbatons thinking that you and your imbecile escapades are representative for Hogwarts students! You stay here were I can see you", Minnie announced and that was that.)
"Get a grip, git. It's, like, four days." He huffed and stubbed James with his toe, still a bit cross that he was not allowed to go to France and neither Halloween, nor his impending birthday helped to lighten his mood.
"But Padfoot! How can I move on when Lily is not with me?" James continued, ignorant to his chosen brother's scolding.
Sirius groaned but no matter how annoyed he was with the overall situation and James' antics, he knew that the other boy used the exaggerated drama to overshadow the fact that he had, indeed, severe heartache. Sirius might be prone to mock James but when it came to it, the boy had his undivided loyalty.
"Alright, knob. What do you need?" he asked while pulling James in his bed properly and putting the blanket over both of them.
The whole exchanges-affair came back to top-gossip during the next days and peaked on November first, the day Lily and the others were to arrive with their partner-students of Beauxbatons. While all of Hogwarts, especially James, was brimming with excitement, Sirius still sulked a little.
Later that day, the guests arrived quietly through the floo in the headmaster's office. The common folk were to see them for the first time at dinner in the great hall, their pale blue robes not replaced yet with black for start of classes on Monday. Despite the unusual spots of colour, it was easy to pick out Lily's flaming hair in the crowd.
"There she is!" James exclaimed. The noise was still ringing in Sirius' ear when James already stormed off, tackling Lily into a fierce hug and spinning the laughing girl around. Unfortunately, he knocked an exchange-student over in his enthusiasm and didn't even realise it. So, it was on Sirius to help the poor fellow up again. The boy was pale, about half a head taller than himself and shaped like a twig.
"Merci beaucoup." The boy mumbled absentmindedly, pushing his wavy brown hair out of his eyes and glancing irritably over at James, who was still clutching at Lily like his life depended on it.
"Ça va?" Are you OK? Sirius asked the distracted boy, whose head snapped right back to him.
"Tu parles français." You speak French. It wasn't a question.
"Non." Sirius joked with a smirk and, to his disappointment, was just met with a slow blink and a blank look out of warm brown eyes.
"Remus!" Lily had herself disentangled from James and appeared from behind the tall boy with a broad smile, "I see, you've already met my friend Sirius." Friend. Just a year ago, Lily would've rather caught dead to call him her friend. But things change, especially if one condones a month of detention after punching Snivellus' giant nose for calling her rudest names.
"Oui, I did." Remus, apparently, said to Lily before turning back to Sirius, extending a hand, "It is a pleasure meeting you, Sirius." He said with a think French accent while shaking Sirius hand.
"Oh, this is the Remus you wrote us about!" James butted in in his typical charming way, dragging the unsuspecting French into a fierce hug. Remus looked a little uncomfortable for a second but went back to a polite mask almost immediately as James released him again. "Pleasure to meet you, James. Lily told the loveliest stories about you."
During dinner, Lily eagerly recounted her two months in France and even if she wrote to them every week, she had a lot more to tell. Remus stayed mainly quiet except to ask for the ingredients of several dishes and comment on Lily's stories, if asked directly.
It was well past curfew; they were all lounging in the cosy armchairs when James head perked up from his chess game with Gideon. "Hey, Remus! Where do you sleep?"
The addressed boy barely lifted his gaze from his book, "Ouais, I think I've been placed in your dorm, if that's alright."
And indeed, a fifth bed is jammed in the dorm James and Sirius share with Benjy and Peter. The overall mood in the room went back to normal about a year ago but the rift between James, Sirius and Peter was still visible in several scorch marks strewn across the room. Once, Peter was part of the group, eager to participate in shenanigans Benjy usually politely declined taking any part in, but then he began sharing their pranking-plans and general confidentialities to Snape in late third year. There was no bad blood anymore, but their friendship was broken beyond repair.
During the first week of their stay, Remus and the other French students were mostly surrounded by nearly every other sixth-year, curious to learn about any and every difference between Hogwarts and Beauxbatons. And while the others happily engaged in conversation and began to make more friends, Remus stayed rather quiet and attached to Lily's hip. He was not unfriendly, always answering questions with a smile on his face but he did not engage any further. So, Sirius and James decided Remus needed a few friends. Well James decided that he needed more Lily-time and that Sirius needed to befriend the French. Unfortunately, all of Sirius attempts were politely, yet resolutely shaken off by the quiet boy.
While James was too preoccupied with longing alone time with Lily to plan pranks anymore, Sirius began recruiting people for a glorious prank that would cheer up James and get him back on track. Sadly, neither Marlene, nor Fabian or Gideon were up to it, which left him asking Regulus for help. They started to get along much better since Sirius returned to Grimmauld Place one very last time after leaving the Christmas prior to drag Reg with him to the Potters that one night in the last summer. But Regulus, too denied participating in any of his pranks ("Sirius, no. I will not get into trouble and spent my valuable free time with detentions. I have OWLs coming up and not everyone is so in love with McGonagall as you are."). He shortly considered asking Remus but as all the boy was doing was reading, studying and being polite, he didn't think he had it in him. A real goodie two-shoes.
This year, Sirius birthday was a rather calm affair. They were still getting rid of glitter on their robes, the bedding, the floor and the ceiling from last year and had to swear to Benjy that, never again would one of Sirius' guests throw up in his trunk. Hence, they claimed the spot in front of the fireplace for an elaborate evening-picknick with all of Sirius favourites from the kitchen, controlled amounts of butterbeer and an assortment from Honeydukes'. They were a fairly small group with only James, Lily, Remus, Marlene, Dorcas and, for the very first time entering the Gryffindor common room, Regulus. It was fascinating to watch two very different types of quiet people sitting besides each other. While Remus was relatively at ease, listening to conversations and engaging when asked, Regulus was stiff as a board, eyes darting around as if waiting for the trap to fall shut. It was no wonder, considering their upbringing and Reg's trouble finding people who wanted to be friends with him, not his name but Sirius really hoped that his brother would relax a bit over time.
Another week later Sirius was almost at the end of his patience. He was running out of ideas on how to approach Remus and as much as he tried to study the boy during classes, it yielded nothing, and it did not help that Lily and James kept insisting he should befriend the guy. Sure, Remus was very pleasant to the eye with the wavy strands falling to his captivating brown eyes, brushed away constantly by slender fingers. Even more captivating was him gnawing at his bottom lip when thinking, what happened a lot. But other than that, the few times he talked to Remus, he seemed devastatingly boring. He was always polite and knowledgeable; his uniform was always perfectly in place. And while that was all well and good, a certain edge, a spark was missing to make him really interesting for anything, or was it not? Sometimes, Sirius was very sure to see a mischievous gleam in his brown eyes or a smirk at some situation a real goodie two-shoes would never find amusing. Maybe Sirius was imagining it to keep his motivation alive? However, the boy still denied every advance Sirius made, to the increasing impatience of Lily (whether she was impatient with Sirius or Remus, no one knew) but he stopped being so attached to Lily so at least James was in a better mood. Reg seemed to get along with the French boy since they met at Sirius' birthday, but the ungrateful git just refused to let him in on how he did that.
Finally, the true marauder James resurfaced again to plan for their annual Christmas-prank. Usually it was done the day before everyone left for the holidays but this year, they planned the prank to be on Christmas morning since they all stayed anyway. Lily's parents had no space to accommodate for Remus, so, they remained at Hogwarts, which meant that James stayed, too and with him Sirius and Regulus did not want to be at the Potters' alone and stuck around as well. And as they had a reputation to hold up against Fabian and Gideon, who outdid them last year, stakes were high to pull the best prank ever. So, James and Sirius sat together on James' bed to brainstorm when Peter was at Chess-club and Benjy had gone to hang out with his friends from Hufflepuff. Remus sat on his own bed, reading as usual but glancing over at them occasionally.
"Okay Prongs, that can't be all. We cannot just turn the floors into ice, we did that in fourth year." Sirius stressed impatiently. How could it be that everything they came up with was lame?
They shared another few, rather dull, ideas until James grew aware of Remus glancing over more and more often.
"Hey Remus," he started loudly, but not unfriendly, "you won't spill, right? Especially to Lily."
The addressed boy smiled mildly and them, "Non, I won't tell people what you do. But I fear that it would not make a difference."
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, eyes narrowed and knowing fully well that James had the exact same expression on his face.
"Ouais, if you want to surprise someone, you need to come up with something a bit..." Remus trailed off, furrowing his brows, "a bit... bon Dieu de merde!" Damn! he cursed, impatiently snapping fingers. Finally, he threw his arms up, exclaiming "Quelque peu plus gradiose! I don't know."
"A bit greater?" Sirius tried to help out and was met with a thankful little smile that sparked a smile on his own face although Sirius did not know why.
"Oh?" James interrupted what could have been some sort of a moment with a raised eyebrow. "Do you have a better idea?" usually, James was an absolute sweetheart, but he didn't take well to being outdone. Remus, however just smiled as pleasantly as ever, completely unbothered by James testiness, and began elaborating.
Two minutes in and Sirius was floored! How did they not think about these things?
As it was already end of November, getting a prank this massive done would be almost impossible if not for Remus offering to team-up with them. And oh, did that boy deliver. Apparently, Beauxbatons chose another focus in teaching. While at Hogwarts, a lot of emphasis was put on defence against the dark arts and magical beings, teaching at Beauxbatons focused mainly on charms and transfiguration. With that explanation in mind, it was less disturbing for James and Sirius when Remus pulled one unacquainted charm after the other out of his sleeve.
At the end of the night, they came up with an amazing plan, outmatching everything they've done so far. With Remus in on the prank, they had an unsuspecting ally, who could check out locations in the castle, Sirius and James presences were much too suspicious. Usually, their vast knowledge of the castle and grounds was more than enough to set up their pranks but for this one, they needed to re-survey several places.
Over the next few days, Remus seemed to get more comfortable with them and began to drop his compliant, unassuming demeanour. Turned out goodie two-shoes was not only very kind and well-read, but also had a mean sense of humour, quick wit and an unexpected sense for mischief. A wolf in sheep's clothing. More and more, Sirius was awed by this new Remus as they began to hang out when Lily and James were preoccupied with each other.
It was much earlier than Sirius was able to admit it to himself, when Lily cornered him and accused him to send certain looks to the French boy.
"I don't know what you are talking about, Lils." He waded her off airily.
"Of course, you don't." she scoffed, narrowing her eyes. "Watch out. He's a very good friend of mine and when you mess with him, you better sleep with open eyes and your wand at the ready."
"Whatever you wish lily-flower." Sirius exclaimed overly sweet, freeing himself from her grip, hoping that the girl did not notice how deeply terrified he was. Not only about Lily's, surely not empty, threats but also because the confrontation made him wonder. Now that she mentioned it, he had been staring blankly at his lips, eyes or hands without really listening, making him look incredibly dumb more and more often.
However, it was the next Saturday night that made him really realise his crush and give up denying. Remus did not show up in Gryffindor tower after curfew and as James and Lily were already asleep, Sirius nicked James' cloak to went looking for Remus at his favourite places. After checking the library (Remus knew how to pick locks the muggle way), the kitchen and the great lake, Sirius found him wrapped in a blanket on the astronomy tower.
"Hey," he said softly as not startle the other boy, who was sitting on the wall with his back turned to Sirius.
Remus only gave a non-committal hum, not turning around.
"Remus, what's wrong?"
"Nothing" Yeah, sure.
"Clearly, there is something." Sirius pointed out a little more insistent, settling down beside Remus.
"It's ridiculous." He could practically hear the eyeroll of Remus.
"Out with it." Sirius nudged the taller boy with his shoulder.
"I'm homesick," he sighed and kept on immediately, "I know, I know I'm old enough and all, I've just always been home for Christmas and-"
"Would you stop rambling, please?" Sirius interrupted in French, assuming that a switch of language might help with the problem at hand.
"- it's all- quoi?" What? Remus abruptly stopped talking and stared at him in disbelief.
Realising, that he might have come across as very rude, Sirius quickly explained himself with what he hoped was an encouraging smile "You can stop explaining yourself. There's nothing wrong with missing home. Wanna tell me about it?"
Remus looked over at him, a genuine smile on his lips as he told Sirius about Advent calendars, all the different dishes he and his dad prepared the whole week leading up to Christmas Eve and which were his favourite desserts with growing enthusiasm. After a while, the inevitable happened and Remus asked about Sirius' Christmas traditions.
Oh well, here we go. "While staying at my parents, Christmas was dreadful. It was just a stiff high-society event with behavioural protocols instead of fun. I got sick of it last year and left that place permanently, flooed to James' family. They are the greatest people and took me in as part of the family. This summer, I got my brother to join me at the Potter's. It's home now."
They talked a bit more about differences in French and British Christmas traditions before sitting in comfortable silence, Remus' blanket shared between them.
After a while, Remus broke the silence. "Lily told me that you and James were supposed to visit Beauxbatons, too. Why didn't you go?"
Sirius had to laugh at that, albeit a bit bitterly "Because we are prone to get in trouble and after we charmed the giant squid to glow in all rainbow colours for a week, McGonagall had had enough and kept us here to not 'soil the good name of Hogwarts'"
"You didn't," Remus deadpanned.
"I solemnly swear," The other boy declared, smirking.
They were still laughing when Sirius blinked up at the sky, where snowflakes began falling moments ago and tried to catch a few with his tongue. When he looked down again, Remus was looking at him in a dazed way and reached over to brush some snow off Sirius cheek. Both boys, the time and everything else froze, while they stared at each other.
At one point, Sirius coughed awkwardly "We should go to bed, don't you think?"
"Yeah."
They did not speak about it.
The whole night of Christmas Eve was spent sneaking through the castle, charming away and preparing what could be the best prank of their school-career.
And truly, when Sirius woke up on Christmas morning, it was in a bed of sugar canes with non-stick cotton candy bedding on a sponge-cake mattress. He blinked around the room to take in the sight. All beds seemed to look like his, although the marzipan curtains were still shut. Remus was already awake, curled up in a Christmas pudding, reading. Sirius could not help but burst into happy, raucous laughter at the hilarity of this room alone, making James jerk up from his sleep and join him within seconds. They scrambled out of their beds and quickly made their way downstairs, Remus following them on their heels. Like in their dorm, all walls and floors had turned to gingerbread, furniture, carpets and curtains now consisting of various sweets, baked goods and desserts. Sirius was particularly proud of the jelly armchairs that wobbled along whenever someone touched it. Not many people had stayed over the holidays but those who did were slowly filtering in the common room, probably woken by the commotion and confused by the state of their dorms. It was not long until the first ones began exploring the furniture and even carefully tasting the frosting carpet or some mince pie cushions.
The three boys quickly made their way back into the dorm, hiding under the cloak to sneak around the castle. Sirius did all in his power to not blush furiously every time, he and Remus bumped against each other, the cloak being rather small for three people. So far, everything went as planned: Everything, everywhere had turned into gingerbread and sweets! Snickering, they spent some time to watch teachers vanishing the sugar ice rink, the jelly bouncy castle and the chocolate stalactite cave, formerly known as great hall, with increasing desperation just to have it all reappearing after three minutes exactly. If their calculations were correct, and right now it looked like it, everything would be easily vanishable but return after three minutes until midnight on New Year's Eve.
Back in the common room James pulled all of them into a group hug and a little celebratory dance. Then, he dashed off to finally wish Lily a merry Christmas and left Sirius and Remus celebrating the glorious prank on their own. Not even a minute later, a soft ringing noise above their heads told Sirius that they were trapped under one of Dumbledore's feared mistletoes, although it consisted of liquorice now instead of actual plant. Without giving himself time to second guess his decision, he grabbed Remus face between his hands and smooched him squarely on the lips, punching a surprised sound out of him. Sirius regretted his move less than a second later and moved to pull away as his stomach dropped threateningly. However, Remus draped his arms around his waist, holding him in place and mumbling a quiet 'about time' before diving into the kiss once more.