As Young as We’re Supposed To Be
Remus could blame a lot of things on the moon, such as staying in bed too long, or his heart beating too fast, or maybe even feeling a bit too warm, and no one would spare a second thought. Except he wasn’t lying to anyone, he was lying to himself. The moon had been entirely fine this month. He had no new scars or pains, the other thing off was that his arm was numb and again, that was not due to the moon.
These things were entirely to blame on one Sirius ‘Padfoot’ Black and his insistence — barely a suggestion really, and even if it was Remus had asked first — that post moon cuddles were necessary.
Remus had woken up — possibly a few hours ago now — to long black curls tickling his nose, and a determination to not wake the sleeping boy in his arms.
Sirius always slept the same way, lips slightly parted and pressed to Remus’ chest, unusually cold nose occasionally bumping the skin with his breaths — because of course Sirius couldn’t even keep still in sleep — and legs somehow both thrown over and tangled with Remus’.
When Sirius woke up it would be in the same way he always did, eyebrows drawing together, lips and nose pressing more firmly into Remus’ chest, and the arm not trapped between them would swing up and slide into Remus’ hair. Then he would wiggle his head onto the pillow as if to pretend he had been sleeping that way all along.
When Sirius opened his eyes they were sharing a pillow, “g’mo’nin.”
”Morning,” Remus replied, probably over pronouncing the word by the way Sirius’ face twisted into a grouchy pout.
“Sh’d u’.”
Remus grinned. “World class insult there that.” And Sirius stretched, hummed, and curled back into Remus.
No, they were not getting up just yet. It was the moon.
—
After Dumbledores top notch idea James was not taking any more chances. The war was too close and no one had very many options.
So perhaps it was good in a way, that he had suddenly found himself with so much free time, though it would perhaps help to have the other Marauders assist in solving the war, or whatever his end goal actually was.
Remus and Sirius had again found themselves in their limbo which often resulted in them coming to pout to James eventually, and Peter was just around less and less often lately and it had slipped his mind to actually ask why.
None the less James had a plan, he knew that much because he had named it — all great plans have a name, and no that did not make them schemes — operation just achieve, major and effective surrender (operation J.A.M.E.S for short) obviously named such because it sounded like a plan that would cause the least casualties.
The actual plan for operation J.A.M.E.S was less solid however. He had figured out the Protect (his friends), Negotiate (a deal), and (S)celebrate. But admittedly he was having problems with the O, R in and G in plan P.R.O.N.G.S
Also admittedly James may have been so focused on his task that he hadn’t noticed one Lily Evans walking up to him and perhaps has screamed. “What in Godrics name are you doing Potter?”
”Merlin Evans!” James looked at her, she was looking at his muggle notebook with suspicious eyes. “You’re getting better at wizarding phrasing aren’t you?” He laughed stiffly.
“And you’re using…” Lily trailed off, “muggle pens?”
James’ eyes lit up, “yes! The pen what a lovely invention. Did you know it was invented by someone named… er— Verbax Pennyfeather… yes! I think he was a wizard Evans.”
Lilys glare could have killed him, James thought, if she had put even a bit of magic behind it. “That’s not true Potter. What are you up to?”
And because James couldn’t do much more than open and close his mouth and had already told his most convincing lie, he told Lily everything.
“Well Evans, there’s this war—.”
“Yes James I know.”
“And I have a friend who was asked to fight in the war—“
”Sirius!? As in he-who—“
”No no Evans, umm— my friend has a condition.”
”Oh Remus,” Lily scrunched her nose, “why would Remus join the war? Who asked him to?”
“Well because of his condition, someone asked him too—“
”Dumbledore! Must have been him! He asked Remus to… What exactly did he ask Remus to do James?”
”He asked him to be a spy, and obviously that’s stupid so we convinced him to say no, but now he’s upset, or Sirius is upset, I’m not sure but they’re busy and Pete is off somewhere — I don’t know — so I’m.” James paused, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. “I’m going to fix it. The war.”
Lily looked like a firsty seeing the great hall for the first time. “Okay, so.” Lily shook her hair looking at James notebook, making her face quickly revert to a sarcastic stare. “You’re fixing the war. With, operation J.A.M.E.S?” James nods. “Oh god Potter we’re all doomed.”