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Remus was happy. He really was. He managed to get all of his homework done in the few days between Christmas and New Years, so that he can relax and indulge a few books he got for Christmas until school starts again. Looking around the festively decorated head boy and girl quarters, he thought to himself that they really did a great job. The decoration and music got the people in the spirit of the New years party, forgetting that this was probably their last New Years party spent together. It was also the perfect number of people attending, enough people for the party not to get boring, but not too many which could lead to the Marauders losing control. So yes, this really was a great evening and Remus was happy, but there was still this little part of him that wished for something else. And as if on cue, Sirius came up to Remus and pressed a glass of Firewhiskey into his hand, while saying “Moony, you’re way too sober! It’s New Years Eve, come on, loosen up a little!”
Remus took a sip of his new drink and responded “Padfoot, I’ve been drinking at least twice as much as you have, alcohol just doesn’t work that easily on me and you know it.”
Sirius sighed and leaned his head on Remus’ shoulder, which definitely did not cause a horde of butterflies to be set free in his stomach, don’t be ridiculous. “I know, I know. It’s a shame that your furry little problem does that to you, as if the rest wasn’t already bad enough!” He paused and looked up, eyeing Remus up with a curious look in his eyes that had Remus hoping that he wanted to talk about something else, since Remus’ condition did tend to worsen his mood. But luckily when Sirius opened his mouth what came out wasn’t about werewolves. “Do you want to join me for a smoke?”
Usually Remus wouldn’t pass on an opportunity to spend time alone with Sirius, but this whole evening had admittedly been a bit frustrating because Sirius was looking phenomenal, wearing his hair halfway up and the upper half in two french braids which made it possible for Remus to be creepily obsessing over his eyeliner, a little smudgy around the edges but still making his eyes pop unnaturally and on top of that walking around in the ugly Christmas sweater that Remus got him as a joke and that he had expected to land in the trash or be laying forgotten in his trunk, but instead Sirius had charmed the fairy lights on the sweater to actually be shining and he hasn’t taken it off the whole evening, which made Remus happier than he probably should be. With all of that, Remus wasn’t sure he could keep it together if the other people weren’t around and therefore declined the offer by saying he didn’t want to go outside into the cold. Sirius said it was no problem and left to probably find somebody else to drag outside in those ungodly temperatures, but Remus thought he caught a quick look of disappointment on his best friend’s face before he turned around and was gone in a second.
When it was time to start the countdown some time later, Remus found himself leaning against a wall and observing the crowd in the middle of the room. He saw Frank and Alice enthusiastically making out as if no one else was in the room and quickly looked away. His eyes landed on Peter, chatting to a Hufflepuff that he has been talking about for a few weeks and was proud of his friend for finally finding the courage to talk to her. Next, he looked to James and Lily and found the two of them talking with each other. They’ve become friends in the last few months, since James has stopped asking her out every five seconds and they were actually able to hold a decent conversation. Remus suspected Lily to have developed non-platonic feelings but he didn’t dare voice those thoughts to her, he did in fact want too live a bit longer, thank you very much. But thinking about it, the two of them have spent the whole evening together and they did seem to get closer, so maybe this evening would have a very happy ending for both of them, seeing as they are obviously head over heels for each other but both scared of destroying this carefully built friendship. Remus continued observing the guests and found Sirius talking to a Ravenclaw, that had been looking at him for the past few days in a way that made Remus extremely jealous without having a right to be. Before he could further think about how he wanted Sirius to look at him the way this bloke was looking at Padfoot, everybody in the crowd suddenly stopped what they were doing and started to count down from ten. Remus closed his eyes and thought about the great year he had had. His friends being there for him, still sticking to him in spite of his condition and still not getting tired of helping him out, putting themselves in danger every month. In a few months, after they will have graduated from Hogwarts, it will all be different. They won’t want to spend time with him, now that they won’t have to see him on a daily basis, and keep that burden of being friends with a werewolf, but he understood and it was not like he had expected to have friends at all when he started Hogwarts, so he was just grateful for the time he got to spend with them and the experience of having friends in the first place. He was going to enjoy these last few months with the people he loved and he just had to accept the inevitability of what will come afterwards, therefore he was, while standing there surrounded by all of his friends, looking forward to a new year and more time spent with the friends that haven’t realized he wasn’t worth it yet.
“... 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!”
Remus opened his eyes and was about to join the chorus of congratulations, but the words died on his tongue as he found Sirius standing directly in front of him with a small smile on his lips and a nervous look in his eyes. For a few seconds they just stared at each other, warm amber meeting piercing grey and then suddenly Remus had a pair of lips on his. First, he was too shocked to react but when he started feeling Padfoot pulling away, he quickly answered and kissed him back with everything he had. After they broke apart, Remus couldn’t open his eyes yet, too scared it was just a dream. But then he felt Sirius pressing one more little peck to his lips and leaning his forehead against Remus’. They stayed like this, just breathing the same air, until Padfoot opened his mouth and whispered “Happy New Year, Moony”, his voice sounding a bit raspy and pulling Remus back into reality. He opened his eyes and saw Sirius looking at him with a look in his eyes that said so much more than a thousand words could have and he felt his face breaking out into a full-blown smile. “Happy New Year, Padfoot,” he whispered back and kissed him once more.