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It was really supposed to be a joke. Remus supposed that the situation was quite funny but it wasn’t a joke. The joke began in 3rd year. James had been convinced by three exhausted marauders to forget about Lily for a few months and try to move on from her. In the long term, this proved to be unsuccessful. But it did mean that after many failed attempts at wooing Lily with mistletoe on the lead up to Christmas, James asked some Hufflepuff to be his Valentine in 3rd year. Around the same time, Peter had begun dating a Ravenclaw who he met in his Care of Magical Creatures class.
All of this meant that both Remus and Sirius had been the only marauders without Valentines. Remus remembered Sirius’ non-stop mournful whinging about this fact. Sirius had been appalled that James ‘have you seen Lily today?’ Potter and Peter ‘the lookout’ Pettigrew had gotten dates to Hogsmeade on Valentine's weekend and he had been left in the dorms. Hogsmeade was a nightmare every Valentine's weekend, to everyone except those in relationships. Sirius had been ranting about this since James had left to find his Hufflepuff and Remus had been trying his absolute best to ignore him. This was getting increasingly difficult as time went on. Remus’ last straw had been when Sirius draped himself across Remus’ legs. He had been quite comfortable lounging around that Saturday in his four poster. He had absolutely no intentions of leaving the castle and going out into the brisk, Scottish, February air. But, as usual, Sirius Black upended these plans.
“I’ll be your bloody Valentine, if it’s that important” Remus exclaimed, and with those words he had created a monster.
Sirius sat in stunned silence for a second until a grin spread across his features. He sat up from his position of being sprawled dramatically at the end of Remus’ bed.
“Would you really, Moony?” he asked, sounding slightly unsure but also mischievous. Remus’ cheeks burned red.
“If it’ll get you to shut up, sure”
~~
In Remus’ head, being Sirius’ Valentine was a lot less of a responsibility than it turned out to be. He thought he’d just keep Sirius company on this dreaded day. Unfortunately, Sirius had other plans. And that was how Remus found himself being dragged around Hogsmeade by Sirius who hadn’t let go of his hand since they went down to the Great Hall for a late breakfast. Sirius had announced to the other 7 late risers in the Hall that Remus was his Valentine while Remus willed himself to learn apparation right then and there. This didn’t happen and he was forced to butter his toast one-handed. He was then dragged by that same hand all the way to Honeydukes where Sirius insisted that he buy Remus some chocolate even though Remus assured him that it really wasn’t necessary. Sirius said that because Moony was his Valentine he was getting the ‘full Sirius Black Experience’. This made his inside cringe and do something else that he didn’t really want to acknowledge.
Naturally, they had been stopped by fellow students who asked what was going on out of amusement more than curiosity. And to each one Sirius explained that Remus was his Valentine and they decided to spend the day celebrating in Hogsmeade. Remus wished he had James’ invisibility cloak but Sirius’ smile seemed to grow brighter every time they were stopped. They ended up in The Three Broomsticks, along with most of the visiting students. James thought the whole thing was hilarious. Peter laughed but clearly didn’t really understand the joke. That was probably because it wasn’t actually all that funny. When Lily found out she just looked at Remus weirdly and all-knowing.
When Remus finally collapsed into his bed and let go of Sirius’ hand, he finally thought that he’d be free from this madness. Sirius just leaned close over Remus’ exhausted body and whispered “I’ll start planning for next year. Happy Valentine's Day, Moony”.
Remus just groaned and rolled over and promptly fell asleep.
~~
Remus had honestly almost forgotten about the Valentine's day debacle by the time the next one had come around. Maybe not the whole day but he certainly forgot about Sirius’ promise as he fell asleep that night. Remus woke up on the 14th of February the next year to James, Peter and, of course, Sirius serenading him with some wizard song he had never heard. He sat up straight in obvious shock as Sirius’ words came flooding back. There was rose petals all over his bed and the rest of the dorm as well as decoratively placed, heart shaped balloons. The song came to an end and Sirius got down on one knee and presented the bunch of flowers and box of chocolates that he had hidden, quite badly, behind his back during the performance.
“Remus John Lupin” he said “Moony, will you please do me the honour of being my Valentine?” Besides the joking tone, Remus thought he heard some mix of hopefulness and nervousness.
Remus' heart beat uncomfortably inside his chest. In the year that had passed between the last Valentines Day and this one, Remus had come to recognise that feeling. It happened whenever Sirius sought his attention, or smiled at him, or laughed at Remus’ jokes, or when he walked in the room. Remus had fallen for his friend. Who could blame him really? It was common knowledge throughout Hogwarts that Sirius was easily the most attractive boy in their year. That combined with knowing about Sirius’ secret kindness and thoughtfulness didn’t really leave Remus with much of a say in the matter.
Remus sighed out a “fine” and fell back into his bed. This seemed to be enough for the three boys to begin celebrating over him.
Remus got out of bed five minutes later when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to be getting any more sleep. He made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth and have a quick shower. He dried off and got dressed into his fanciest jumper (the one with the least amount of holes) and his baggy jeans. He stepped out of the bathroom to find Sirius waiting patiently, sitting on Remus’ bed. He was dressed in his flared jeans that were ridiculously tight around his arse, not that Remus had been looking. A ‘Young Americans’ t-shirt was tucked into them. His leather jacket was slung over his arm, obviously Remus thought. For his birthday, Andromeda sent him some Muggle clothes, and he wore them every chance he got. Students were only allowed to wear their own clothes on the weekends and Sirius spent each day leading up to it deciding what he would wear. No matter what he chose, the leather jacket was always a part of the outfit. It was a part of Sirius at that point.
Remus put on his Doc Martens in silence. When he was done Sirius grabbed his hand almost instantly. Remus definitely had not forgotten that about last year's Valentine’s Day. Sirius looked at him as though he was waiting for him to pull away. Remus squeezed his hand and stood up.
As they descended the stairs to the common room, with their fingers once again laced together despite the narrow stairwell, Sirius’ efforts into this year’s Valentine's Day became more obvious. The handrail was wrapped in ribbons and petals led the way down. Remus merely rolled his eyes at this but when he made it to the common he seriously considered going back upstairs and to bed for the day.
A banner hung over the fireplace reading ‘HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, REMUS LUPIN!’ as if there was any doubt about which Remus it was for. Half of Gryffindor house watched as he came down the stairs. As well as the banner and the people, Gryffindor tower looked as though St. Valentine himself had thrown up all over the place. Remus stood in shocked silence as the audience erupted into cheers and laughter. He turned to look at Sirius who looked all-together too happy with himself. Remus slapped the back of the head which only caused him and the rest of the people to burst out into laughter once again. Remus took a breath and marched out of the common room before anyone saw the red of his face too closely.
Neither of them spoke a word on the way to the Great Hall, Remus was too wrapped up in his own thoughts and Sirius was still laughing at his own genius. They made it to the Great Hall without any more world-ending embarrassments. When they reached the Entrance Hall, Remus turned to Sirius.
“Sirius, I am asking you this as your friend, you should know that if you lie, I’ll know and I’ll throw your record player into the lake. Now, is there anything behind that door that I should know about?”
Sirius seemed to think for a second but before he could answer the door swung open and Professor McGonagall stood in all her intimidating glory. Oddly enough, the grip on Remus’s hand tightened and before he had the chance to wonder what it meant, she said “Mr Black, I assume you and Mr Lupin are responsible for the food in the Great Hall?”. She raised her eyebrow in question, although they all knew she wasn’t really asking.
“What did you do to the food?” Remus demanded, sounding genuinely concerned. Not the food...
Their hands were still locked together as Sirius launched into his explanation.
“Well, you see today’s Valentine’s Day and Remus is my Valentine,” this caused McGonagall to look sharply at Remus and then to their joint hands as Remus blushed down to his neck “so I thought I’d do one of them big Valentine’s day things, you know?”
“I see. Well since this seems to be one of your more harmless pranks, two weeks detention each.” Remus’ stomach sank. He really didn’t want to get another detention, especially for something he didn’t do.
“But, Professor,” Remus pulled on Sirius’ hand to try to get him to leave it alone. Sirius, however, stood his ground. “Remus really didn’t have anything to do with this. If anything, he’s more of an innocent bystander or a victim. He doesn’t deserve detention for something that I did.”
Remus stared in wonder. He didn’t think he'd ever be able to stand up for himself the way Sirius could. Especially to McGonagall.
“Very well, Mr Black. You shall serve your two weeks alone. See you both Monday.” She turned and walked towards her office.
“Thanks” Remus said numbly.
“I couldn’t very well give you detention as a Valentine’s Day gift, could I?” Sirius responded.
“No, I suppose not,” said Remus as they entered the hall. At first, everything seemed to be normal. Remus was distracted by the events of the morning until he sat down and went to grab some toast when he realised that it, and the rest of the food for that matter, had been turned pink. He looked at Sirius who had obviously been waiting for his reaction. He just rolled his eyes and began to butter the bread. Neither of them actually spoke about the pink food all through the breakfast.
“So, Moony, '' Remus looked up from his 4th slice of toast “I have plans. Last year, when you asked me to be your Valentine in a very vulnerable display of your affections for me” Remus made a noise of disagreement but Sirius just swatted at him. “ I was unprepared. That is not the case this year. I have made reservations at Madam Puddifoot's and have set aside time for us to go to Honeydukes and that book shop you like. We shall end the evening with a surprise that I guarantee you’ll enjoy” Remus scoffed at that. Sirius ignored him. “Any questions?” before Remus even had a chance to process that he’d been asked a question Sirius said “Great so as soon as you finish your toast we’ll be off.”
Remus just shrugged and accepted his fate.
~~
They once again found themselves in Hogsmeade on Valentine’s day, except this time their day had more structure. Remus allowed himself to be led around by Sirius and smiled back at the students who smiled at him knowingly. It was like an inside joke that everyone was in on except the Slytherins who glared as they passed them.
They reached Madam Puddifoot's at precisely one o’ clock and the waitress led them to their table. Sirius pulled out Remus’ chair out for him which made him for about the millionth time that day.
“You really should stop doing stuff like that or people are gonna think I have a fever.” Sirius just laughed and sat down across from him.“I can’t believe you dyed all the food. I mean what spell did you even use? Actually it would’ve had to have been a potion. I doubt you have access to food colouring in Hog-” Sirius cut him off.
“Moony, I can’t tell you how I got the food to turn pink. You could use the knowledge against me. Besides, we have an entire day of pink and red themed items ahead of us, the breakfast was really only the beginning.”
“That’s kind of the idea.”
“Moony, are you saying that you intend to use your position, as my dearest Valentine, to thwart my plans?!” Sirius did his best to sound incredulous.
“Yep” replied Remus, “and there’s nothing you can do to stop me”.
After an hour of flirting half-jokingly, they left the bright pink café. As soon as Remus put his jacket back on, Sirius reclaimed his left hand and began to lead him to Honeydukes. He bought Remus’ favourite chocolate. Even though Remus’ furry little problem meant that he was fully able to drag Sirius all the way back to Hogwarts, he couldn’t bring himself to leave Sirius’ side. They then made their way to the bookshop at the end of the main street.
“Hey. I have on idea.” Sirius announced. To everyone else it probably seemed like a spur of the moment thing, but Sirius had been planning this and replaying how he would say it in his head. It was a stupid suggestion but he thought that it would be cute.
“ How about I pick out my favourite book and you pick out yours and I’ll buy them so we can swap?” Remus looked at him funny for a second before he said
“You really need to stop spending money on me. At this rate you’ll have none left for the things you need. Or like prank stuff.”
“There’s nothing else I’d rather spend my money on.” it just slipped out of his mouth. Awkward silence stretched between them. Remus was panicking. That definitely didn’t sound like a joke. Sirius tried to look away from Remus’ eyes but he found that his body had stopped listening to him. Remus cleared his throat.
“Right, well mines over this way so, I’ll meet you back here in 5?”
Before Sirius had a chance to respond he turned and basically ran to the muggle section of the shop. Sirius stood entirely still for another minute before making his way to where he knew ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ would be. He read the blurb on the back as though he didn’t already know all the stories by heart. He smiled to himself and went back to the front of the shop to wait for Remus.
Remus stood in front of the only shelf in the shop that was entirely dedicated to Muggle Literature. There were some others scattered throughout the shop, but they were usually reserved for the Muggle Studies class or written by wizards and had just become popular in the Muggle World. Remus wanted to pick something that Sirius had no chance of having read before. He stared at his options and tried to think.
What book says ‘I love you’ but also could be seen as platonic? I can’t pick something as obvious as Pride and Prejudice. Oh but I love Jane Austen Remus thought about each of his options and agonised over the decision for four whole minutes. Eventually he was forced to go with his instincts and those instincts said Jane Austen. He picked up Pride and Prejudice and made his way back to Sirius, hoping that the complicated language distracted him from the subtext.
When Sirius saw him walking over he grinned and reached his hand out and handed Remus the money with his eyes closed. “I want it to be a surprise. For when we get back.” Remus was glad he couldn’t see the look on his face. He took the money and paid for the book. He then grabbed Sirius’ hand, who still had his eyes closed and pulled him out of the shop. The boys suddenly found themselves being pelted by rain drops as the sky appeared to have opened out of nowhere. They looked at each other and began to laugh. Remus swung their joined hands back and forward and led them to The Three Broomsticks for some shelter.
This time, he led Sirius over to a table and pulled out the chair for him. Sirius bowed his head and took his seat graciously. “Why thank you, Mr Lupin,” he said. Remus nodded and went to the bar where he got them Butterbeer. He returned and Sirius looked exactly like he had when he left him. Remus half expected to turn around and see him deep in conversation with James or one of the girls he always winked at. He sat down across from Sirius and handed him the warm drink.
“It’s pretty miserable out there,” Remus commented. “I kind of like the rain, though. It’s a good excuse to stay inside all day and not act like a human.”
“Speak for yourself” Sirius replied, shaking his soaking-wet hair to emphasise his point.
“You don’t have to shake it off like a wet dog,” Remus laughed at him. “Your hair really is getting long though. We should get you a bobbin or something to keep it out of your face.”
“A what?”
“A bobbin? Like to tie up your hair? It’s an elastic type thing.”
“Oh, you mean a hair tie?”
“Yeah, I guess. I’ve always called it a bobbin.”
“I always forget your Welsh and then you come out with something like that and it reminds me. Or when you come back from summer with that super thick accent.” Sirius loved that accent.
“I’m not sure it’s a Welsh thing, mate. Might just be a me-thing.”
“A Remus Thing” Sirius repeated. He knew plenty about Remus Things.
They finished their drinks and made their way back to the castle in the rain, their hands swinging between them once more. It was hard to hear over the wind so they walked in comfortable silence, smiles spread across both of their faces. The rain had picked up and Sirius began to run uphill to the castle. He pulled Remus with him, never letting go of the other boy’s hand. They finally reached Hogwarts, covered in rain and half of the countryside. They let go of each other’s hands and they doubled over, laughing and gasping for breath.
“Remus?” He looked up to see Lily who was with Dorcas and Marlene, as usual. He straightened and pushed his dripping wet fringe out of his face.
“Hiya, Lily.” he said.
“Are you all right?” she said with a glance towards Sirius who was still doubled over but looked to be recovering.
“What?” he began, looking around the hall. “Oh, yeah,we’re fine. Bit wet out there, mind. Hey, do any of you happen to have a bobbin?” They looked at him cluelessly.
“He means a hair tie” Sirius supplied, joining the group and locking their fingers together again. It began to feel more normal to Remus. Less like an electric shock and more like warm soup on a cold day. “We can’t decide if it’s a Welsh thing or a Remus Thing that he calls them that.”
“Ohh” the three girls sighed in unison. They each checked their wrists until Marlene exclaimed “Aha!” and produced one thick red band from her wrist.
She handed it to Remus saying that he was allowed to keep it. He thanked her and placed it on his wrist as they continued to Gryffindor Tower.
“She had to know that the bobbit was for me.” Sirius said. “You couldn’t put a clip in that hair of yours, you keep it so short.”
“It’s a bobbin” “whatever” “and I’ll have you know that my hair is not short, yours is just long. Maybe Marlene thought that I was less likely to flick it back at her as a weapon.”
“When have I ever used a bobbin as a projectile? It’s hard to aim and it doesn’t even hurt enough to be worth it.” This made Remus burst out laughing.
Through his laughter, he said “Last week you flung Emmeline Vance’s bobbin into James’ cauldron after she kindly let you borrow it to keep your hair out of ours.”
Sirius didn’t have an answer to that so instead he turned to the Fat Lady to give her the password Pixie Dust. “We should change that” Sirius said, changing the topic.
“Change what?”
“The password. We could enchant it to be whatever we wanted and make everyone say it.”
“How would we do that?”
“I’m sure that big brain of yours could figure it out,” he shrugged.
“What would you make it say?”
“Remus Lupin was here.”
“Just me?”
“Just you.”
“As if I alone was the sole occupant of the tower and therefore responsible for the prank?”
“Precisely.”
“And why would I let you tarnish my reputation?”
“Cause despite what you’d have us all believe, you’re responsible for at least half the pranks we pull. Without you, Moony, the entire operation falls apart. And no one even suspects it. In a few years, when they make you a prefect, you’re gonna have to stand in McGonagal’s office and pretend like you had nothing to do with it. But I’ll know. I always see right through you.”
They held eye contact for a moment.
“Why do you make it sound so threatening? ‘I always see right through you’. Creepy bugger. Get in the shower before you’re coughing up your organs for the rest of the week.” Remus said, imitating his mother.
“You do care!” Sirius responded dramatically, placing his free hand over his heart. He let go of Remus’ hand to grab a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom. Remus spent the next 10 minutes pacing the dorm, trying not to get water on anything. He went over the events of the day in his head. He still needed to give Sirius his book. And he had a surprise waiting for him.
Sirius came out of the bathroom looking a lot more comfortable in his loose trousers and t-shirt than he was in the tight flares he had on earlier. He smiled at Remus as he passed him on the way to the bathroom for his own shower. Remus stepped into the water. He shrieked at the cold temperature that he forgot Sirius always had his showers at and turned the handle all the way to red.
Remus got dressed into his own pair of loose trousers and his favourite comfy jumper. His mum had made for him from some fancy wool she had found in the charity shop. The bobbin was still secure around his wrist. For the second time that day, when Remus left the bathroom, Sirius was sat on his bed. This time, Sirius had one of his jumpers on.
“You shouldn’t take what isn’t yours, you know,” he said jokingly.
“You always look so comfy. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”
“Well?”
“I think I’ll stick to my jacket.”
“Rude,” Remus said, offended by Sirius’ disrespect towards his jumpers.
“You look adorable in them,” Remus blushed, “I look like I'm drowning in jumper.” To demonstrate this he showed Remus where his hands were covered by several inches of sleeve. He began to flap the excess sleeve. Remus grabbed his wrist to stop the movement and began to roll the sleeves up to fit Sirius’ shorter arms. It wasn’t even that Sirius was short, Remus was just so ridiculously tall and lanky that none of his clothes fit anybody else in his year. He was often mistaken for a 6th or 7th Year while still being in 4th.
“I am not adorable,” Remus protested.
“Oh you so are,” Sirius answered.
“I am a werewolf. I am a Big Scary Monster,” Remus laughed as he said this. Two years ago he couldn’t imagine joking about his condition.
“You are the only boy in the year who knows how to knit” Sirius pointed at the jumper. “And it’s adorable”.
“My mum made this one, actually”
“And who made this one?” Sirius pointed to his own chest. Remus blushed again.
“Me,” he said quietly.
“All the evidence suggests that I am right. Remus Lupin is adorable!”
That moment, James and Peter returned to the dormitory, having obviously been out in the rain themselves. Peter made a beeline for the bathroom, muttering about the ‘bloody rain’ and the ‘bloody prank’ and how it was ‘not even bloody worth it’. He seems too caught up in his own misery to acknowledge his dorm mates.
“Alright, lads?” James asked.
“James,” Sirius jumped up like an excitable puppy. Remus stood up and put his hands in his pockets. Sirius was already stood beside James when he faced them entirely.
“Isn’t Remus adorable?” he gestured to Remus as he said this, as if providing proof. Remus went to object but before he could James said “Oh, yeah definitely. I always hear Lily and them talking about his knitting and the jumpers. And, of course, the hair.” Remus touched his hair self consciously at this. Sirius just nodded enthusiastically to what James was saying.
“They all seem to think he’s this big mystery. The scars and the reading give him this sort of vibe. It’s really quite interesting to listen to. Apparently the female population of Hogwarts spend quite a bit of time discussing our Moony.” he finished. Remus really wasn’t sure he was comfortable with how James knew all of this when he didn’t. Remus really liked to believe he was an observant guy, and he had missed, what appeared to be, many people talking about him.
“I’m sure Lily was only exaggerating to mess with you.” he said shyly, pulling at the sleeves of his jumper and looking down, feeling far too exposed.
Sirius pointed another accusing finger at Remus, moving closer. “Adorable!” he exclaimed, louder than he needed to for their small dormitory. Remus lightly smacked it away. This didn't seem to bother Sirius who just grabbed the hand again. “Well, James, we best be off. Big plans. You know.”
“Yes, of course,” James replied, nodding solemnly.
“He knows?!” Remus asked.
“Of course I know. Who do you think helped him?” James answered. Remus groaned.
“I’ve got your book and my book so I think we’re good to go” Sirius smiled up at him.
“You sure?”
“Yes.” Sirius said confidently.
“We don’t need anything else?”
“No?”
“Shoes, you fool.”
Sirius clapped his hands together once. “Shoes! Of course!” Remus laughed at the ridiculous boy. His Docs were still covered in mud from the rain earlier. He didn't
trust himself to dry them with magic so he slipped his feet into a pair of runners he had owned for years. Sirius jogged back over to Remus’ bed where he had been tying his laces.
“Moony?” he offered his hand. Remus rolled his eyes but accepted. Sirius pulled him off the bed and they made their way out of the common room. Remus wasn’t sure where they were going. He found himself unable to take his eyes off the boy pulling him around. That was until they reached the Astronomy Tower. Remus gasped and almost dropped Sirius’ hand. Almost.
The Astronomy Tower had an open roof to look at the stars and had been set up like a picnic mixed with a pillow fort. The floor was covered in picnic blankets, regular blankets and pillows. Candles covered every stony surface and it was obvious that someone had spent a considerable time casting charms to keep the cold air and rain away. Remus looked at Sirius in wonder, not for the first time that day, and found that the other boy was already looking at him.
“Do you like it, Moony?” the wonder asked him, sounding uncharacteristically shy.
Remus found himself speechless.
“I can put it all back if you don’t” said Sirius, panicking at the silence. “We can go have dinner in the great hall and forget about it. I just thought you might-” Remus cut off his nervous rambling by kissing him. Remus was too afraid to do much else than hold his lips against Sirius’ for a minute until he felt Sirius respond. It didn’t feel like how it felt with the other people Remus had kissed. This felt like his first real kiss. Remus didn’t see how it could even be called the same thing as the kisses he’d had during spin the bottle or truth or dare. ‘This is what it’s supposed to feel like’ they both thought.
They broke apart once their air supply became critically low.
“There’s food,” Sirius murmured against Remus’ lips.
“Okay” he said and kissed him again.
Some time later, neither of them could really be sure, Remus felt his stomach begin to rumble due to the lack of food inside it. He kissed Sirius one last time and pulled away.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be kissing you cause believe me,” he kissed him again, shortly, to prove his point, “I really do, but I need to eat.”
“Fair enough,” Sirius said, staring at Remus’ lips. “We’ve got food from the kitchens, Merlin knows I’m an awful cook.” He led them over to the picnic basket and sat down on one of the pillows. Remus sat next to him and crossed his legs. Sirius handed him some sandwiches and Remus began eating. Neither of them ever talked a lot while they were eating, too consumed by the food.
“Sirius,” Remus began once he’d finished his fifth sandwich. Sirius hummed to tell him to keep going. He looked into Remus’ eyes which made it difficult for him to breathe, let alone speak. “Will you- would you like to- you really don’t have t-”
“Yes” Sirius leaned in to kiss him again, cutting him off. They broke apart after a few seconds.
“Boyfriends?” Remus said through his panting. Sirius was practically sitting in lap at this point but definitely nodded and sighed out a ‘yeah’ before reattaching himself to Remus’ lips. Remus smiled against him.
A while later, they made their way back to the dormitory, grinning like fools, clothes rumpled. Everyone else must’ve gone down for dinner because they reached the dorms without running into another student. Sirius let go of Remus’ hand and collapsed into his bed.
“That’s not your bed, babe” Remus told him, sliding out of his shoes.
“Babe?” Sirius asked, he looked back at Remus but his face was still pressed into the mattress.
“Darling? Love? Baby? Buddy? Pal? Pick one.” Remus got into the bed and pulled off Sirius' shoes before he got under the covers. Sirius immediately snuggled into Remus’ jumper.
“Babe is good,” he whispered into Remus’ chest. “We nap now. How is your bed so much comfier than mine?”
“I bribe the house elves,” Remus told him, feeling his eyelids get heavy.
~~
Remus woke up early the next morning, an hour before sunrise. He felt Sirius’ weight on top of him but made no effort to move. Infact, he put a lot of effort into not moving until he realised that Sirius was drawing circles on the side of his ribs. Remus arched his back to stretch and Sirius lifted his head off of his chest to look at him. Sirius always looked so peaceful when he first woke up, wide eyes still dazed from sleep. They smiled at each other. Remus’ hands were wrapped around Sirius’ torso and he had no idea where his legs stopped and the other boy’s legs began. He had never been more comfortable.
“Morning” Remus said, his voice deep from sleep.
Sirius hummed and shifted to make himself more comfortable. He then replaced his head on Remus’ chest.
“What book did you get me?” Sirius asked him.
“Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.”
“Hmm.. you’ve mentioned that. What’s it about?”
“It’s about this man who falls in love with a girl but he doesn’t like her family so she tells him to fuck off until he catches himself on. It’s a lot more romantic than that, though. I was worried it’d be too obvious to give to you. I guess there wasn’t a reason for that.” Remus explained.
“I guess not,” Sirius agreed. “I got you the Tales of Beadle the Bard. Mother used to read them to me and Reg. It’s like the one nice thing she did. Then when all the nice things stopped he used to read it to me after she would…” he trailed off. Remus just tightened his grip around him. Eventually Sirius’ breathing evened out and he fell back asleep with Remus following soon after.
~~
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Remus!” Lily told him as he passed by her in the hall.
“Yeah, thanks. You too. You haven’t seen Sirius anywhere, have you?” he asked. When he had woken up in his bed, alone for the first time in months, he got worried. Now every minute that past, his heart beat faster in his chest. Logically, he knew Sirius was fine, but he wanted to know where he was. Peter had taken the map for some emergency and James was nowhere to be found either.
“I thought I saw him out on the lawn with James and Peter.”
“Thanks, Lils, you were always my favourite.” Remus said, feeling his heart slow down.
“Oi, Re, when you find them will you send that boyfriend of mine to the Tower? Tell him that he spent five years waiting for me to be his date to Hogsmeade and if he doesn’t come soon, I’m going with Mary.”
“Will do” he said and kissed her on the cheek and left the castle.
Where would I go if I was my friends? Okay, so James and Peter would want to be with their girlfriends, so this is all Sirius. He made his way to the edge of the Black Lake and tried to think. A rat ran across his feet and stopped about a foot away from him. He made eye contact with the rat and felt like it was waiting for him to follow. Plenty of students had rats but he had never seen one act like this before. He snapped his red bobbin against his wrist. Remus, he thought you turn into a murderous werewolf once a month. I think we should stop questioning the weird shit that is going on.
Fair enough he thought and decided to follow the rat. The rat took off in the direction of the Shrieking Shack. It hit the knot in the tree to still the branches. Remus looked around to make sure no one was watching and entered the tunnel. By the time he reached the Shack, Remus was out of breath. He climbed up into the ground floor and gasped at what he saw.
Standing in the Shack were three animals. A stag, a rat and a dog. The rat had climbed onto the stag's antlers. All three were standing far too still to look like animals. It was beginning to give Remus the creeps when the dog padded over to him and nuzzled at his hand. He crouched down to pet the dog properly.
“Aren’t you just gorgeous?” he asked it. The dog really was gorgeous. It had sleek, flawless black hair and Remus felt like it knew him. Remus caught the dog's eyes and tried to look closer but it pulled away. The animals looked like they were laughing. Remus didn’t think animals could do that, but there they were.
Suddenly, the dog began to change. Where the dog had stood moments before, Sirius Black now stood in a t-shirt and jeans. Remus’ brain shut down.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Moony,” he said. The other animals soon followed and became James and Peter.
“Happy…..you were a dog,” Remus said. “And Peter was a rat and James was like a moose or something.”
“I’m a stag, mate. Like a deer.” James told him. Remus’ eyes were still fixed on Sirius but he said “Lily’s looking for you.”
That was all James needed to hear before he hit Sirius on the shoulder and said “I’ll leave this to you. I best be off. You coming, Wormtail?”
James and Peter left and Remus and Sirius stood in silence for another minute.
“I think you’d better sit down, Moony. And you can’t get angry or say that I’m wrong cause I did a lot of research about this. We finally finished it over Christmas and since the moon’s next week and we have this Valentine’s Day thing going, I thought the timing was pretty perfect.” Sirius explained.
“What did you do?” Remus asked, cautiously, sitting down on the bed that had been falling apart since Remus had first entered the Shack as a first year. He had sat in McGonagal’s class for long enough to have a fair idea about what was going on, but he wanted to hear Sirius say it.
“We became Animagi. To help you during the moons,” Remus went to interrupt “No please just listen. It came to me last year in Defence Against the Dark Arts. We were talking about what we’d be studying next year and werewolves came up, remember? And the professor read the extract from Fantastic Beasts. He said “the werewolf actively seeks humans” so then I was thinking about how McGonagall turns into a cat and figured that if we could do that, we’d be able to keep you company during full moons and maybe stop you from ripping yourself to shreds. So…” he shrugged.
“So, you, James and Peter just sped through the NEWT part of transfiguration over the summer and became animagi to help me? Even though I’m a dangerous creature. If you listened to the whole lecture you would’ve heard when he said that I am a XXXXX classification of creature. That is five Xs. The most amount of Xs.” Remus sounded like he was giving out. He really didn't mean to. He just needed Sirius to understand how dangerous this was.
“I still think you’re adorable,” Sirius said lightly, bumping their shoulders together. Remus laughed in disbelief.
“And I still think you’re gorgeous,” he smiled. “I love you, you know,” Remus told him. He had told Sirius that on numerous occasions throughout their year-long relationship, but each time he did he still felt the nervousness from the first time. He felt like he’d never have long enough to tell Sirius just how much he loved him, so he made sure to say it every time he thought it. Even when they were fighting. Sirius would just look at him a certain way and it would come out of his mouth, almost against his will. That was usually how their arguments ended.
“Will you show me the research? Before? So I can be sure? I can’t let you all risk your lives like this,” Remus asked. Sirius grabbed his hand.
“I’ll show you tomorrow,” he said. “Today’s Valentine’s Day and other werewolves aren’t as interesting as you. I love you, too.”
~~
The next full moon went better than Remus had dared to hope, but the real highlight was when he woke up in the hospital the next morning. Madam Pompfrey had brought him there as a precaution and because his condition was so..okay, she had let Sirius in. Remus woke up with Sirius’ hand in his own and his head was resting on top of Remus’ arm. He used his other hand to play with Sirius’ hair until Sirius woke up an hour later, exhausted from being awake all night.
“I love you, Padfoot,” he told Sirius’ sleeping form. For the first time, he said it without feeling the timer winding down in his chest. As he looked at his unscathed body, he thought that Sirius had managed to give them time Remus had believed they would never get.