Now is not the time to throw your testosterone at each other, guys!
“Jesus, Sirius!”, James yelped. His friend had collapsed in front of his eyes. Remus -who had been acting all kinds of weird since they had met him- looked a bit uselessly at him but James sank to his knees to check up on his best friend and brother.
“Sirius, what’s going on? What’s happening?”, he panicked but he didn’t get any response. To his horror, James discovered that he wasn’t even breathing anymore. He just laid there with his eyes wide open.
Dorcas was on the phone behind him. She had dialled the police and was explaining the whole situation with the dead woman. “Yes officer, I know we weren’t supposed to be here, but we’re irresponsible teenagers, so what did you really expect?”, she argued. “Just send someone to take care of this.”
“And an ambulance!”, James yelled. “Sirius isn’t breathing.”
“Shit.” Now Lily crouched besides him as well. Marlene helped Dorcas to get all the details on their location and Sirius’ situation right and Remus just stood there, tense.
“Move aside, James”, Lily ordered as put two fingers on Sirius’ neck to take his pulse. Then she moved her hand a bit to try a different place; then she put her ear on his chest to listen. She looked up in horror. “Nothing.”
“Do you know CPR?”, James asked panicked, but Lily was already placing her hands on his chest to begin.
“Of course!”, she said. “You don’t?”
“I thought I’d never need it.”
“…idiot!”
Lily started her desperate attempt to resuscitate Sirius and Remus still… just stood there. James didn’t know what had possessed him to get back on his feet so fast, but he did, and he grabbed Remus by the hem of his collar. “You know something about this, don’t you?!”, he accused. The boy looked startled but it took a good shove before he started to set some steps back.
“I-I don’t. I swear!”, he stammered but James didn’t buy it.
“Did you give him something, you creep?”, James asked with another shove. “Did you spike my best friend?!”
“No! Why would I do that? And let go of me!”, Remus said as he tried to push James’ arms away.
“Oh I don’t know… You sure seemed to enjoy copping a good feel while he could barely stand on his legs anymore, didn’t you?”, James went on with his accusations. He had seen how close Sirius and Remus had suddenly gotten, and even though they just met each other, he had assumed it was consensual. He never would have guessed the bastard had drugged him. “Disgusting pervert!”, James yelled, not with another shove, but with a hit of his fist in Remus’ face, hard enough to knock a man out. Remus only stumbled step back before putting his hand on the sore area and cursing. He glared at James, something threatening loomed in his eyes, only confirming James’ suspicions even further.
“Guys! Now is not the time to throw your testosterone at each other!”, Dorcas interrupted. Lily was still doing heart massages, but she looked paler than ever while she begged Sirius to wake up. Marlene looked at it wide-eyed.
“What the fuck did you do to him?”, James asked Remus one last time, but this time, he felt tears well up in the corner of his eyes.
“Nothing”, Remus persevered while pulling his coat straight and James was about to hit him again when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“The asshole’s right, you know”, Sirius grunted.
“Haaa! What the hell!”, Lily yelled startled, yanking her hands away from him, but then she got over her fright and pulled him in a hug. “I thought you were dead!”, she said, still visibly horrified.
“He was”, Remus said while finally also caring enough to crouch down beside Sirius and helping him up. “How are you feeling?”, he asked with his hands on his shoulders while trying to make eye contact. “Do you smell anything?”
This Remus guy couldn’t convince James he didn’t know exactly what was going on anymore.
“No, I’m fine”, Sirius said, but his voice sounded weak. “I want to go home, I feel sick”, he added.
“They’ve called an ambulance for you”, Remus told him.
Sirius blinked. “And you didn’t stop them?”
“Are you insane?!”, James snapped at him. He probably was, since he was very likely drugged with something beyond weird. “What else were we supposed to do? We thought you were dead, you idiot!”
“I wasn’t…”, Sirius dismissed, “I was just…” He grunted and when James got a look at his face he just looked really hungover.
“You were just what?”, James begged him to continue. Sirius didn’t give any sensible answer. “Your heart stopped, for like, several minutes. You scared the crap out of Lily, who got your ass back to the land of the fucking living! So yes, we called an ambulance, and you’re getting in it”, James argued, leaving no room for discussion.
“No, I’m not”, Sirius said anyways while already turning his back on the group.
Remus shot to his aid when he was about to lose his balance again. “Woah there”, he said while offering him some support.
This was more serious than James first thought. He’d rarely seen Sirius behave so irresponsible like that. “Mom won’t disown you because you took some drugs”, he shouted at his back, “but she won’t like having a liar for a son.”
“Don’t bring Euphemia in this. The woman has nothing to do with any of this.”
“Do you really believe that? What if you had died, Sirius? What was I supposed to tell her? ‘Your adoptive son secretly takes illicit drugs and just fucking dropped dead in front of me’??”
Sirius turned back around, put his hands on his shoulders and awkwardly took them back before it really had any comforting effect. With his fists clenched next to his body instead he said: “James, trust me now or trust me never again. No matter what, I wouldn’t have died today. Now, I can’t get into that ambulance for reasons I can’t explain to you right now, but just trust me they’re valid reasons. I’m going home now. You either come with me, or you deal with the police when they get here. Don’t forget we still have an actual dead body to deal with here.”
“I’m coming with you. You’re not going alone”, James said.