Sirius was doing everything he could to stop himself from bouncing on his heels as they waited on platform 9 3/4. Remus was never this late.
“Should we just go to the carriage? He’ll meet us there.” James asked, delicately, for James. If he’d noticed Sirius and Remus writing frequently over the summer, and the pining looks when Remus came to visit, he hadn’t said anything.
Sirius nodded, “Yeah, don’t want to miss the train.”
“Or have to kick a bunch of tiddly first years out of our compartment.” Pete nodded.
There was still no sign of Remus as the train pulled away, but then Sirius spotted his luggage at the back of the rack.
“He was here!” Sirius spun around as if expecting him to materialise suddenly. “But where did he go?”
“Calm the fuck down, Padfoot. It’s not like there’s wild dementors on the train that will have got him.”
“But why—”
Their question was answered when Remus, already in his school robes, appeared in the doorway. How was he even taller than the last time he’d seen him? Sirius had had a fairly impressive growth spurt over the summer, but of course, Remus had to do better. There wasn’t much between them now, only an inch or two, Sirius reasoned, but still, he’d thought he would be the tallest for once.
His eyes left Remus’ face and started to trail down Remus’ body when he spotted it.
“Moony.” He said, face suddenly stern, “Tell me that’s not what I think it is?”
Remus grinned at him, leaning against the doorframe in a most distracting way, “It most certainly is.”
James gasped, “You’re a prefect?”
“Well it was going to be one of us, and McGonagall doesn’t have a death wish!” Remus said, “Did you think she’d pick you, Prongs? Really?”
“She could have picked Pete,” James said, a bit miffed.
“I’m glad she didn’t. Sounds like a lot of extra bullshit.” Pete said around a chocolate frog. “Goodbye prank planning time. Goodbye snogging Dorcas by the fire time, Remus.”
Remus shook his head, “Dorcas is with… someone else now. But anyway, do you not realise that this badge actually gives us more freedom? When you three are hopelessly sneaking around after hours, guess who won’t take points from you?”
“Oh, you have a point,” James said thoughtfully. “We won’t even need the cloak.”
“You will absolutely need the cloak,” Remus said as he sat down next to Sirius. “Alright, Pads?”
“The betrayal.” Sirius choked out.
Remus rested his head in his hands, “This is why I didn’t tell you over the summer.”
“You knew about this before today?”
“Yeah, McGonagall told me back in June.”
“June?” Sirius yelped. “You’ve been lying to me for months.”
“Didn’t lie to you,” Remus mumbled to his wrists.
“You could have told him in one of your essays, sorry, letters, Moony.” James said with a smirk.
“Fuck off, Prongs.” Remus smiled. “It's fine. If he gets to be unbearable, I can just go back to the prefects’ compartment and leave you two to deal with him.”
“I’m right here, Remus.” Sirius huffed.
“Of course you are.” Remus said condescendingly, “And I’m sure you’re going to lighten the fuck up, right?”
Sirius frowned, “You know, I don’t think I am.”
Remus rolled his eyes and stood up, “Well, I’ll just be—”
Sirius grabbed his hand and pulled him back into his seat, “Don’t be a prick, Moons.”
“You’re one to talk.” He noted that Sirius had not let go of his hand. “You could be happy for me if you tried really hard.”
“Sounds unlikely.”
“Were you expecting the badge?”
“Of course not. But you’re going to be off doing prefectly things all the time now.” Sirius was actually pouting now and Remus was trying hard not to just laugh at him. “Who’s the other one? Dorcas?”
“Lily.” James tuned back into the conversation.
“You keep your furry mitts off her.” He grinned, wagging a finger at Remus, “I know what you prefects get up to on your rounds!”
“Ugh, James. I was just about to ask Padfoot if he wanted to accompany me on rounds close to the moon, but now you’ve made it feel dirty.” Remus knew from the glint in James’ eye that he knew without even looking down at their hands.
“You want me to go with you?” Sirius looked so astonished that the laughter escaped from Remus’ chest.
“Well, if you’re so against it, I could always ask Mary or—”
“No. I’ll do it.” Sirius squeezed his hand and then seemed to remember that they were still holding hands and froze. His eyes went dark as they tracked from their hands, up Remus’ chest to his face. “Prongs, didn’t you have something you wanted to annoy Evans with?”
“I don’t think so.” James said, “Do you know what he’s on about, Pete?”
“I don’t care, I just want to leave because if we don’t they’re just going to make out in front of us, and I fear we’re going to be seeing enough of that at school.” Pete stood up, grabbing the arm of James’ jacket.
“You make a valid point.” James cleared his throat. “You have ten minutes, you better still have trousers on when we come back.”
Remus looked at him, wide-eyed. “So we’re just taking this as a given now?”
“Yep,” The other three said in unison.
“Well, alright then.” He looked back at Sirius, who was still transfixed on his face. “Tell Lily I said sorry for whatever you’re about to do.”
“I’m going to tell her it was your idea,” James muttered as they left, but Remus didn’t care, because Sirius Black was looking at him like that.