“Moons,” Sirius said sleepily.
He was lying on Remus’ chest on the grass underneath their tree. It was one of their favourite spots, perfectly isolated with a nice view of the lake. They had spent most of their day there, lazily doing whatever they wanted - as long as it required as little moving as possible. James and Peter each had tests that day, for classes neither of them took, leaving them alone. It was the perfect day for each of them really.
“What's up Pads?”
“Do you think we should tell the others soon?”
“Tell them what? You mean about us?”
“Mhm, I know it might be weird but… Oh I don’t know”
“No it’s okay, go on…”
“Well, I just feel like we’re becoming more serious - don’t - and I just want to be able to… be more open about that I guess.”
“You're right, it would be nice to talk to people about it, it feels wrong to not talk about how amazing you are all the time”
“Aww Moony, you big sap”
“Ugh shut up, tosser”
“How can you be so nice to me one moment and so mean the next?” Sirius questioned, pouting.
Remus looked thoughtfully out onto the lake. He didn’t see why they shouldn’t tell them in all honesty. Towards the beginning of their relationship they had each been so terrified of anyone finding out, but now he really didn’t understand why. He had become far more sure about his sexuality after spending more and more time with Sirius. He had no reason to believe there was anything wrong with being gay - or bi in his case- when it meant he could be with someone as wonderful as Sirius.
He would never say so out loud of course, certainly not whilst he was sober, Sirius did not need a boost that large for his ego, but nonetheless he knew he felt the same way. This conversation would never have occurred if he didn’t
“Well…” Remus started.
“Ooh you’ve got your planning face on, what’re you thinking?”
“Ok, so, I’m happy to tell them, if that’s something that you also wanted but…”
“Yes?” Sirius asked, becoming increasingly more curious.
“Well, wouldn’t it be more fun if we mess with all of them instead?”
“Obviously it would, but how?”
“Ok, so instead of just telling them, we could just stop hiding, and see how long it takes for them to notice.”
“That sounds awesome” Sirius said, already becoming far too excited about this idea for his own good, “but won’t they catch on when we just start snogging in front of them?”
Remus snorted “Alright we’d do everything except for that”
“Everything?” Sirius remarked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Ugh, we’ll avoid that too, obviously” Remus rolled his eyes “get your mind out of the gutter, Black”
“You said it not me!” Sirius said, holding his hands up in defence.
Once they had ironed out a few more details about this new prank, they decided to head back to the castle, James and Peter would be finished with their tests not long after.
It was dinner that day when their scheming began. All four of the Marauders sat at their normal places, as well as Lily, Marlene and Mary, their normal crowd. That day Remus and Sirius sat next to each other, although that was not particularly out of the ordinary.
“So Prongs, how’s things going with you and Ginger” Sirius began
“You mean Lily? She’s right there Padfoot.”
“Yeah so?”
“Uhm well, I really like her, like I have told you many times the whole time we have been dating, which may I remind you is 6 months now, and we’re going to Hogsmead next weekend, like I have also mentioned twice this week” James said, blushing, though Lily was as well, Remus noticed.
“Hmm” Sirius responded, dubiously.
“Why do you ask, Black?”
“No reason” Remus knew why, of course, Sirius, Remus and Peter had a bet going on how long it would take for them to become engaged - Sirius started it. He'd think the whole idea was ludicrous if James hadn't gone on about marrying her since first year.
“You know, Black, we should be setting you up with somebody, it has been a while” Mary said, half serious, half mocking.
“Nah, it’s fine I’ve got Moony”
Everyone gave him a questioning look, except for Lily, who didn’t even look up from her book.
“Ok, but what about when Remus wants a date?” Marlene asked, intruding on their conversation.
“I’m good, I’ve got Sirius” Remus said through a mouthful of food, holding back laughter.
Sirius subtly looked at all of his friends' faces, daring them to figure it out. None of them did, however, they all simply shared fond, yet exasperated eye rolls to each other, except for Lily of course, who was far too enthralled with her book to pay any attention to them.
Later, in the common room, all seven of them gathered around the fire, two people for each couch, and Peter on the armchair, James and Lily, Marlene and Mary and Remus and Sirius.
“Okay, but Remus, you’ve got to let me set you up with this girl in my transfiguration class!” Mary argued, “she loves reading!”
“Reading is not my only interest, Mary!” Remus cried “and besides, I’ve got Sirius!”
“You can’t let that idiot hold you back!”
“Sure I can, I love him!”
“Aww, love you too Moons” Sirius cried, resting his head on Remus’ shoulder.
“Seems dumb” Mary said, bluntly.
“Yeah he is” Remus replied, just as deadpan.
“Oi, that's not what she meant! Is it?” Sirius asked, clearly affronted.
He only received laughs in reply. After that they sat in silence for a while, some of them reading, some writing an essay or just various pieces of homework. At a certain point in the evening, Remus noted that Sirius had in fact fallen asleep, still on his shoulder. Well, Remus thought, They’ve got to figure it out now. But contrary to his beliefs, none of them even looked up. Was him and Sirius falling asleep together a common occurrence?
Once they had all called it a night, and the girls had retreated to their dorm, leaving James, Remus, Peter and a very much still asleep Sirius.
“Pads, come on time to go to bed” Remus began, gently
“Don’t wanna”
Remus rolled his eyes, and then easily draped Sirius over his shoulder and carried him up to their dorm. Once more, neither James or Peter seemed to think this was in any way out of the ordinary.
Feeling bold, especially after an afternoon of dropping hints that had seemingly no effect, Remus dropped Sirius onto his own bed and got in next to him.
“Night guys” Remus called, closing his curtains.
“Night!” James and Peter chorused.
“Nigh…” Sirius mumbled sleepily.
“Go to sleep, you twat” Remus laughed.
They woke up in the morning, still in the same bed, feeling confused.
“Do you think they’ve caught on yet?” Sirius asked Remus, lying next to him.
“Dunno, if they have, they haven’t mentioned it” Remus shrugged.
“Well let's go down to breakfast and find out” Sirius exclaimed, acting far too excitedly for seven in the morning, in Remus’ opinion.
Once they had reached their table, sitting in the same pattern as the dinner before, Remus mentioned as casually as he could about how much Sirius moved in his sleep the night before. It was a lie, but he wanted to test the waters.
“Ha, I know right, he's a right wriggler!” James snorted.
Remus raised his eyebrow at the blasé reaction, but no one else at the table seemed to think the interaction was in any way unusual.
“So Hogsmead today right?” Lily suddenly asked. Everyone is acting so weird.
A series of confirmations sounded from everyone.
“So, Remus, last chance to take me up on my offer to set you up with Valerie” Mary persisted
“Mary, for the last time, no”
“Yeah, lay off my man Macdonald”
“He's not your man Sirius” Mary said exasperated
“Uhh yes he is”
Remus looked up at his friends, once again none of them seemed to think this was unusual, there were a few annoyed, yet loving looks being shot around, and Lily looked incredibly amused. She probably knows Remus thought, if anyone were to, it would be her.
“Moony?” Sirius addressed Remus, grandly.
“Yes, my dear Padfoot?” Remus responded, just as grand.
“Would you do me the honour of accompanying me to Hogsmead on this fine day?”
“Why, I would be just delighted to!”
They two giggled to themselves, having far too much fun messing with their friends. Remus did wonder though, what the hell is taking them so long to catch on?! At this point they were being far from subtle, and yet none of them had even raised an eyebrow. Maybe they could get away with just snogging in front of them.
Later that day, when they were wandering around Hogsmead, Remus grabbed Sirius’ hand, everyone could see them; when Sirius shot him a questioning look he simply shrugged. What's the worst that could happen?
Starting to show a pattern, once again nobody gave notice to this gesture. Remus supposed it could be viewed as a friendly action, but Remus was never very forthcoming with physical displays, and between two guys it was even less common.
He really was beginning to question the observational skills of his friends when a Ravenclaw in their year came striding up to Sirius. Remus dropped Sirius’ hand, they were only telling their friends he reminded himself. The Ravenclaw, Emily smiled sweetly and asked if he would want to join her for lunch, a date, she specified. It took every bit of will power in Remus not to scoff, but he managed.
Sirius declined her offer, very politely, saying that he was already seeing someone, so she ran back to her group, obviously a bit upset. Everyone in their group was giving him a surprised look.
“Padfoot! Why would you say that, she was pretty! And last time I checked you're not seeing anyone?” Peter cried.
“That would be a good question, Wormy, if I was lying. But I'm not, I am seeing someone.”
“HUH?!” Everyone chorused, except for Lily, and Remus of course, both of them chuckling to themselves.
“Well?”
“Well what Prongs?”
“I'm asking who you're dating obviously?!” James practically yelled
“You know who, we haven't been hiding it” Sirius replied cryptically, causing James to scratch his head, clearly distressed.
Remus and Lily were still laughing to themselves.
“You know who!” Marlene suddenly yelled at them.
“Of course I know who! They've hardly been subtle” Lily snorted, winking at Remus. Of course she bloody knew, Remus thought Lily Evans knew everything.
“Well, are you gonna tell us?” Mary asked imploringly.
“Nah this is more fun” Lily giggled.
“Well, how about you Moony?” James cried.
“Well, what?” Remus responded innocently.
“Well, are you gonna tell us who Sirius is dating?! It's obvious that you know!”
“Yeah Moony, you gonna tell them?” Sirius smirked.
“Nah Lily's right, this is more fun” Remus laughed.
The rest of the group collectively groaned. So Lily knows, who's next?
On their way back from Hogsmead, Remus took the opportunity to grab Lily's arm and walk beside her.
“So how long have you known?” Remus asked curiously
“Around 5 months or so, you weren’t very sneaky”
“Everyone else seems to disagree”
“Yeah, I love our friends but they're dreadfully oblivious”
They both snorted.
“I'm happy for you Remus” Lily said suddenly “you and Sirius seems like a good couple”
“Thank you” he replied genuinely. He would be forever grateful for Lily Evans.
“Wanna place bets on who will figure it out first?”
“I don't know honestly”
“Yeah I didn't realise just how hopeless our friends are, I just wanted to mess with them”
“You're doing a great job at it, I'll give you that!”
Several days went by where all of Sirius and Remus’ friends were demanding they give them more information about Sirius’ ‘secret’ lover.
At lunch, on Wednesday, Valerie, the Hufflepuff, who Mary had talked about, approached their table and kindly asked Remus if he would be interested in getting lunch with her. Deja vous, Remus couldn't help thinking. Like Sirius, he politely declined, saying he was already seeing someone.
At this, everyone snapped their heads at him. It really is very similar.
“You too Remus?!” someone, maybe a couple of them, yelled.
This prompted Remus, Sirius and Lily to burst into fits of laughter.
“Oh my god! How many secrets are you three keeping?!” Mary cried.
“Just the one,” Sirius replied coolly.
“You mean two?”
“Huh?”
“Well there's two secret girlfriends, so two secrets” Lily inexplicably began laughing again at this, but no one paid her any attention.
“Uh sure”
“And I suppose we don't get to know who this person is either!” Peter practically whined.
“Nope!” All three of them said in unison.
Later, all of them gathered around the common room fire once again. Sirius and Remus were practically cuddling.
“Hey, I've got an idea…” Mary said, acting like she had only just thought of it.
“And if that idea consists of playing truth or dare, or some other variation of it, then your answer is no” Remus shut that down quickly.
“Ugh fine!” Mary pouted.
Remus looked down at the man in his arms. He only felt pure adoration and love for him.
“Hey Pads,” Remus said softly.
“Yeah Moons?” Sirius asked, looking up at him.
What is the worst that could happen, if I've got Sirius here with me? Remus thought, before encompassing Sirius in a deep kiss. It was returned, obviously, and was perhaps a bit more excessive than necessary. Lily let out a sharp giggle, whilst looking out at all of their faces.
“Uh guys, care to explain what's going on?” Marlene asked.
“Yeah, I'm not sure how your girlfriends would feel about that,” James said, slightly concerned.
“Seriously - don't Moons - Prongs?”
Lily could not stop laughing, when James seemed to reach the same conclusion as the rest of them, wearing a very innocent, but shocked face, she only laughed harder.
“So how long has that been going on then?” Mary asked, clearly amused.
“Around 6 months, we became much more close while we were playing matchmaker for Lily and James”
“Ohh!” Most of them replied. Remus assumed they had started joining the dots about some of their weird interactions over the past months.
“Wait - How did Lily know about this?” James asked, he was still clearly processing the new piece of information.
“Oh I figured it out after like a month!” She boasted.
“Yeah we were gonna tell you, but we thought messing with you would be more fun” Sirius cut in, smugly - still having a lot of fun.
“Yeah we didn't realise quite how oblivious you lot are”
“Hey!” A few offended cries shot up.
“So can we play truth or dare now?” Peter asked, having already moved on. Well that was easy.
A collection of positive confirmations sounded, and so they began playing. Sirius was still laying on Remus’ chest and all was well in the world. It was like nothing had changed.
Nothing has changed really Remus supposed.