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Remus, James, Sirius and Peter were the best of friends. There were no secrets between them, at least not since they found out about Remus's furry little secret. After that, they just told each other everything. They really saw no point in hiding anything else. Nothing beats being a werewolf, and if their friendship could survive that... well, then it could survive anything.
Which is what made it so surprising that Remus Lupin himself had not told them about his biggest discovery of the year.
He had told Marlene Mackinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, and Lily Evans. He had even told Frank Longbottom, for Godric's sake. But he hadn't told them.
(They knew, of course.) But he hadn't told them, and they wanted to be told. It was the principle of the thing.
One night, while sitting in the Common Room, they spied a bisexual flag pin in Remus's backpack and unanimously decided that enough was enough.
"So, Remus..." started James "do you have anything you'd like to talk about?"
Sirius promptly shut him up with a pillow to the face. Poor, tactless James had no clue how to do subtle.
"That's a nice pin" cut in Peter, an expert in playing at clueless. "Where did you get it?"
Remus barely spared a glance at the pin, too engrossed in his book "Gift from Lily."
The boys shot helpless looks at each other, unsure how to proceed while Remus gave them no openings.
"Well, uh..." tried Sirius, always the best one at distracting Remus from his books "um, what is it for?"
Remus gave them a skeptical look and lifted a brow at them over his book "Birthday present."
A triple groan chorused from the other three boys.
"We know that, Rem!" James's lack of tact finally cracked from desperation "What we mean is why she would give that specific pin to you? Like, why that flag"
"Yeah, what country is it from?"
Sirius resisted the urge to facepalm at Peter's poor attempt to regain their subtlety.
The corner of Remus's lips turned up, but he remained otherwise unbothered. "It's the bisexual flag, Pete"
"Right, sure. I knew that" Peter was fully blending into the scarlet couch by now.
Sirius decided to abandon all pretense, and said in a gentle voice "We were just wondering if there was any specific reason, that you would like to share, about why you have a bi flag"
"And you know you can tell us anything, Rem" jumped in James, more comfortable now that they were being straightforward, "we are friends and nothing you say or are can ever change things between us..."
"..and if you're worried about us being weird you have to know that won't ever happen, or anything..." rambled Sirius.
Peter finally regained his composure enough to add "Yeah Remus, if your furry little problem didn't change anything, you have to know nothing else will"
Remus finally looked up from his book, staring with soft eyes at the three boys. They were all wearing earnest expressions on their faces, leaning eagerly toward him, desperately trying to convey their support in every way possible while attempting to not pressure him. Remus felt a surge of warmth and gratefulness bloom in his chest, and he had to work hard to bite back his smile and regain his blasé attitude.
With a sigh, he looked back at his book and let the silence hang on a bit longer.
A tense cough interrupted the silence.
"So, uh... about coming out...?" Ever-impatient Sirius was the first to crack.
"Sure, yeah. Been meaning to tell you for a while, just haven't had the chance" Remus replied casually, his glinting eyes never straying from the book.
James, Peter and Sirius burst out immediately with a mixture of mildly outraged and apologetic "what do you mean?'s" and "you can tell us anytime's" and "we're all here for you's" and "it's not a big deal's", which Remus endured with the air of someone long since used to such loud choruses on a daily basis.
He waited until they quieted on their own and then, with the air of an ever-patient, lecturing professor he said "Guys, you know werewolves can only come out during the full moon. And we're usually busy on those nights."
He turned a page in his book, as if punctuating the end of the conversation.
Stunned, puzzled looks fell on the other boys' faces. A deep silence befell them, as they searched every inch of Remus's demeanor in an attempt to determine if he was joking or not. Finally, Remus could no longer hold back his amusement, and it was the small curl of a smile on his face that clued in Sirius, who let out a howl of laughter so loud that it startled Lily Evans into dropping he quill from all the way across the Common Room.
She lifted a brow and fixed Remus with a questioning glare. He shrugged in mock innocence and vaguely gestured at the floor, where Peter, James and Sirius were all going red and crying with laughter, rolling in the floor, holding their stomachs and muttering something about "the fucking moon", which would promptly send them all into brand new rounds of madly unrestrained laughter.
Lily rolled her eyes at their antics and gave Remus a mock-salute, to which he replied with a genuine smile and a wink.
Hours later, the four boys had all migrated into a tangled mass on Remus's sofa, worn out from strenous laughter. Ocasionally, one of them would mention closets or full moons and a bout of tired giggles would go around once again.
"So, Moony" said Peter, "how long did you wait to make that joke?"
Remus laughed, deep and genuine "Way too long. But it was bloody worth it."