Chapter 1
Remus walked into the library and heard something coming from his secluded study corner. As he walked behind the bookshelves he saw a very distressing sight. Sitting at their shared study table was Lily and she was crying. Remus marveled at the fact that even when crying she was pretty. Not that he liked her, he was very much into boys and she was very much into girls. It was one of the reasons they got along so well.
“Darling, love, light of my life, what's the matter?” Remus said rushing over to her.
“What's the matter?” Lily asked. “The matter is that the woman I am meant to marry is dating your boyfriend and they’re snogging up and down the school.”
“Oh,” Remus said dropping down next to her. “That is a problem”
“I know, and now the love of my life is dating the love of your life and they are both very straight and my life might as well be over.”
“Yes,” Remus said, staring at the wall in shock. “I mean I knew he was straight, he flirts with enough girls, but he's never dated anyone before. It was easier to ignore.”
“WAIT!!” Lily shouted startling Remus and earning an aggressive shush from the table over. “Sorry,” she said, then quieter, “I have an idea.” she clapped her hands smiling, her distraught apparently gone for the time being.
“Do tell,” Remus said, looking at her expectantly.
“What if WE dated?” Lily said, excited.
“Why the hell would we do that?” Remus asked, very thoroughly confused. “No offense love, you're very beautiful, but you know my preferences lean the other way.”
“No not for real silly,” Lily said laughing. “I mean what if we pretended to date. We spend enough time together and none of us are out, so it wouldn’t be suspicious. What if since we’ve always been available Sirius and Mary have been taking us for granted. If we were suddenly off the market they might realize how in love they are with us.”
“That just might work,” Remus said considering.
“So that's what we’ll do then,” Lily said decisively. “Well go on a few dates to Hogsmede make sure to let people know how much time we spend together, maybe sleepover in the room of requirements a few times. It shouldn't be too hard.”
“Wait! What about kissing?” Remus said worried that the plan, still young as it was, was falling apart, ”I'm ok with holding hands and hugging and the like but I can't kiss you! No offense.”
“Don’t worry I've already thought of that. I'm known as kind of a prude around school due to the whole, never having a boyfriend, thing so I don't think people will be too surprised if I’m not comfortable with PDA’.”
“Lily, have I told you today how brilliant you are.” Remus said beaming at her.
“Oh, it's nothing,” she said blushing, “Just something I saw in a book once.”
“Well, oh genius one,” Remus asked reverently. “How do you plan on telling everyone we're ‘together’?”
“Oh, that's the easy part.” Lily responded with a wicked grin.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Remus was full of nervous anticipation the next day at breakfast. It was one thing to plan something like this but it was something else entirely to actually go through with it. Suddenly, Remus felt a presence behind him and soft, delicate hands were placed over his eyes.
“Guess who!” Lily trilled, pitching her voice higher.
“Good morning love” Remus responded, pulling her arms forward to rest on his chest. He leaned his head back and she pressed a small kiss to his forehead.
Remus looked up and found his friends gaping at him.
“Oh yeah, guys, me and Lily have decided to start going out.” Remus smiled again treading his fingers through Lily’s as she sat down next to him, leaning against his shoulder.
“Lily!” James exclaimed, pressing his hand to his chest. “You wound me! All this time I thought I had a chance when really you’ve only had eyes for our Moony.”
“Oh shut it,” Lily responded playfully. “We all know you only have eyes for the baby black so stop all of this.” she waved her hand vaguely in his general direction.
‘Well good to know James was ok with this’ Remus thought reassured a bit but really he was only looking for one reaction. I turned his attention to Sirius who was just staring, mouth agape, at the two of them. In his lap, Mary looked equally shocked, and Remus nudged Lily leaning down to whisper in her ear.
“We appear to have gotten the desired reaction,” he said, gesturing discreetly at Mary and Sirius.
Lily laughed as if he had said something funny, leaning farther into him.
“Everyone seems to buy it but Peter,” she said, quietly enough that only he could hear it. Just as she said Peter was peering at them suspiciously and as soon as they left the great hall he ran up to Lily and Remus who were walking hand in hand to their next class.
“Alright, what's going on here,” Peter asked as soon as he caught up to them. “Sorry guys, but Remus here has been mooning over Sirius since second year, and then as soon as he and Mary start going out you two are together. Forgive me for not buying that.”
“Fine.” Remus said, pulling Peter aside into an empty hallway. “Look me and Lily aren't actually in love, neither of us is interested in the opposite sex. Were pretending to date in the hope that it will make Mary and Sirius jealous.”
“You really think that will work?” Peter asked, considering.
“I mean, it's worth a shot. If it doesn't work me and Lils can just ‘decide we work better as friends’ and everything will go back to normal.” Remus responded.
“Well, I mean it's worth a shot.” Peter said, starting to walk away.
“Wait wormy.” Remus grabbed his arm making him stop. “You're good at reading people. Can you like…?”
“Watch Sirius and tell you if it's working?” Peter finished for him.
“And Mary if that's ok.” Lily added.
“Yeah sure, I can do some poking. But you owe me,” Peter answered.
“You can have half my chocolate stash for a month,” Remus responded.
“Deal,” Peter said, and with that, he walked out of the hallway and down the corridor to his class.
“Well that went pretty well,” Lily said turning to Remus.
“Yep, know we just need to keep this up long enough for them to realize that they're desperately in love with us. Easy enough.”
“Yep.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
They reentered the hallway and walked to potions holding hands and giggling, trying to be as cute and couply as possible. They walked into the classroom and sat down at a table together, gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes over the cauldron. James smiled, happy for them as he sat down next to Sirius. Sirius was, well Sirius was not taking it well.
“I thought getting with Mary would help me get over him but it's not working!” Sirius cried dramatically as soon as they sat down, careful to not be overheard. “But now he has to go with Lily and just remind me once again what I don't have!”
James sighed, feeling torn. On one hand, he was happy for Remus and Lily but on the other, his best mate was clearly suffering. Just then the slytherins walked into class and all James worried melted away. Sirius snapped his fingers in front of James's face trying to get his attention but all of James's focus was centered on one Slytherin entering the room. Regulus black sat down next to one of his friends. James stared at him unashamedly, trying to burn his appearance into his brain.
“Careful,” Regulus said to James, not turning around. “If you keep undressing me with your eyes like that I'm gonna catch cold.”
James just sighed dreamily. “Don't worry ill keep you warm.”
Regulus flushed red, grumbling as he turned his head down. James just smiled.