Chapter 2
Sirius made his way up to the Gryffindor tower at lightning speed in his excitement to see Remus. He ignored Professor Mcgonagall yelling at him to not run in the halls in favour of dodging the other students in his way. A fluttery feeling awoke in his stomach as he thought about the tall boy.
‘I bet he looks adorable all curled up in his blankets’ Sirius thought, imagining the werewolf snug in his big fluffy blanket; rosy cheeks and nose poking out of the top of his thick wool jumper.
Sirius rounded the corner leading to the portrait hole and quickly muttered the password to allow him to enter. Rushing past the students sitting in the common room, the black haired teen slowed as he neared the top of the staircase leading to the marauders dorm. He stopped just before the door, listening to see if the werewolf was awake and preparing himself for the wonderfulness that was Remus Lupin.
Taking a deep breath, Sirius finally opened the door to see exactly what he had been imagining just minutes prior. Remus was curled up into a ball in the middle of his bed, fluffy blanket wound tightly around his limbs. His cheeks and nose were flushed a rosy pink and Sirius thought he might explode from his adorableness.
‘God, he’s going to kill me one day’ the teen thought, as he placed his bag at the foot of the bed, huffing out a laugh which stirred Remus from his slumber.
“Siri?” Remus mumbled sleepily, lifting his head up from his cocoon and smiling dopily as he saw who had entered the room. “Hiiii paaaads-” he sniffed, interrupting his drawn out greeting.
“What’re you doin’ ‘ere? Are classes done ‘lready?” The tall boy questioned, attempting to raise himself out of the bed. Sirius quickly pushed him back down into the bed.
“You still shouldn’t be walking around Rem, you’re still sick. And no, classes aren’t over yet, I’m bringing you lunch, or at least I was supposed to, remember?” Remus simply stared at him with his dopey smile still in place, apparently not registering what Sirius had said.
“God, you really are out of it, aren’t you love?” He noted, moving to put the other boy into a more suitable position for sleep. “Like it when you call me that..” Remus mumbled following Sirius’ guidance and lying back into the pillows of his bed.
“What was that chérie?” The shorter teen replied, distracted with ensuring Remus’ pillows were properly fluffed up (only the best for his Moony of course). “I like when you call me love,” came the werewolf’s reply, to Sirius’ shock. “but you only seem to do it when you think I’m asleep.” Remus finished with a small frown.
“Do you- do you want me to call you, um, love when you’re awake too then?” Sirius asked awkwardly, leaning away from Remus in his embarrassment at being caught in his use of romantic terms for the other boy. Remus only hummed in response, his eyes sliding shut as the tiredness caught up to him again.
Sirius began to pull away from his spot on the bed upon seeing that the other boy was growing weary when a warm hand reached out to grasp at his elbow, pulling him back towards the bed. Sirius turned around to see that his eyes were once again open, but much less than before.
“Stay? Please?” The werewolf pleaded softly, tugging weakly at Sirius’ arm in an effort to pull him into the bed. Sirius already knew that he wasn’t going to be able to say no to whatever the boy had wanted to ask him the moment he grabbed his arm. He went to sit next to Remus at the head of the bed when he was suddenly yanked downwards into the cushions and warmth of the bed as well as Remus’ chest which had ended up being his landing spot.
“Moony!” Sirius sputtered, trying (and failing) to wriggle out of the tight hold the other boy had around his waist. “Lemme go! I still have lessons toda-” his protests were quickly cut off as Remus nuzzled his nose into his neck.
Sirius inhaled deeply, trying to calm his racing heart. ‘Calm down Sirius, he’s sick, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, it’s fine, you can just leave right after he falls asleep-’ His thoughts were cut off as the other boy began to softly mouth at his skin.
He sucked in a sharp breath as Remus placed soft kisses on his throat, his heart pounding against his ribcage. “Rem- hey, you gotta go to sleep, you're sick and delirious, you don’t want this Moons, trust me.” Sirius said, pushing the other boy away from him. As much as it pained him to do so, it wasn’t right for him to take advantage of the werewolf in such a vulnerable state, especially when he so clearly believed him to be some girl he fancied.
“But I do!” Remus cried, indignantly “I love you padfoot!” “You don’t mean that Remus, not like that. Besides this is not how I want to have this conversation, you’re still sick, and on the verge of passing out, we can discuss this later.” He made a move to get out of the bed when arms circled around his waist, pulling him back into the bed for the second time in the last 5 minutes.
“Love, I really-” “Just until I fall asleep, promise, then you can go to your stupid classes.” Remus grumbled the last part and Sirius’ eyebrows shot up in surprise at hearing his friend call a class stupid. He sighed, then gave in to the arms still attempting to tug him back into the bed, falling back with a huff.
As he lay there waiting for the werewolf’s breathing to even out into the tell tale sign of slumber, Sirius began to think about what Remus had said. ‘“I love you padfoot!” That's what Moony said, right? But there is no way that he loves me like I love him. Obviously he’s just delirious because of the sickness and saying random, meaningless things, right?’
His thoughts continued on in the same fashion for the next few minutes until, before Sirius realised it, he’d fallen asleep as well.
*****************************
When Sirius woke almost four hours later, he didn’t immediately register where he was or what had happened. After a moment all the memories of four hours previous came back and he made to jump out of the bed before remembering that Remus was still asleep in the same position as before.
His arms hadn’t moved from where they had been wrapped around his waist before Sirius had fallen asleep and he struggled to get free without waking the taller boy up. As soon as he’d wriggled free of his grasp, Sirius grabbed his school bag from the foot of the bed and rushed out the door.
Casting a quick tempus charm which told him it is 5:37 in the afternoon, Sirius headed towards the black lake, where the marauders sometimes hung out after classes were over for the day. As he rushed across the grass towards the shoreline, he spotted the other, non-sick half of the marauders lounging under one of the many trees with some of the girls.
From what Sirius could make out, it seemed that Marlene, Mary, Dorcas and (surprisingly) Lily were sitting with the two boys, chatting and laughing about something one of them had said.
James noticed him first. “Hey mate! What happened?” A mischievous smile in place on his lips.
“Nothing happened, Prongs.” Sirius replied plainly, sitting down next to Peter on the grass.
“What do you mean nothing happened?! How could nothing have happened, you two are infatuated with each other!” Peter exclaimed loudly. The girls’ were watching the interaction confused as to what they were talking about, heads moving to look at whoever was speaking (minus Lily, who already knew exactly what the boys were talking about and continued to work on the flower crown in her hands).
“I mean nothing happened, Wormtail.” Sirius glared at the shorter boy next to him “he was delirious as shit, so I already know that he didn’t really mean what he said, ok?!”
“Remus said something? Come on Padfoot, you can’t just say that and not tell us what he said, mate.”
“Yea Padfoot, tell us! Pleeeeease?” Peter added and Sirius sighed, knowing they weren’t going to drop it until he told them.
“He told me he……”
“What was that, Pads? Couldn’t quiiite hear you there.”
“HE TOLD ME HE LOVED ME, OK?” Sirius burst out, startling the rest of the group. Both James and Peter as well as all of the girls (whom the boys had somewhat forgot were there) sat frozen for a moment, surprised at Sirius’ outburst and revelation. The silence only lasted for around five seconds before they all began talking at once.
“I bloody knew it! Alice owes me five galleons now!” (Marlene; she and Alice had a bet on who would say it first)
“Finally! I thought this day would never come!” (Lily)
“That’s wonderful, Sirius!” (Mary)
“Oh good, maybe you’ll finally stop moping around whenever he hangs out with someone other than you now.” (Dorcas)
“See mate! What’d I say? I told you he liked, well I guess loved you back!” (James)
“Well why the hell are you out here then?” (Peter)
“GUYS” Sirius shouted over their yelling, effectively shutting them up. “He was delirious out of his damn mind. Obviously he didn’t mean it like that.”
“How the hell did you come to that conclusion?” Marlene interrupted him.
“What do you mean how did I come to that conclusion? It’s obvious that Remus doesn’t love me the way I love him, I think would have realised if he did.” Sirius glared at the ground. ‘If their whole plan is to try and convince me that Moony loves me back it’s not going to work.’ He thought angrily.
“Sirius, honestly-”
“No. Stop telling me things just to get my hopes up and make me feel better, cause it doesn’t. In fact, it makes me feel even worse. You know what, I’ll see you lot after dinner. I need some time alone. Don’t follow me.” Sirius said, looking at James and Peter as he got up and marched back up towards the castle.
“For such a smart student, he can be pretty dumb sometimes.” Lily said, shaking her head in exasperation as Sirius walked back up the hill.
“Hopefully he’ll pull his head out of his arse soon, or so help me, I might just strangle him.” James replied, turning back to the group to continue the conversation from before.
***************************
Sirius decided to go for a walk to calm down. He had been wandering around the castle for at least an hour before he finally arrived at the astronomy tower. That was where he went with Remus when neither of them could sleep. It was calm and quiet there and usually, the perfect place to sit if he needed a break.
But it reminded him too much of Remus, and right now, all Sirius wanted to do was get his mind off the other boy. He decided that instead he would head to the kitchens for some food, it was dinner time anyways but he didn’t want to risk getting pestered by his friends just yet.
When he arrived, a house elf he didn’t remember the name of appeared in front of him.
“Can Wardey get something for mr Black?” the elf asked in a squeaky voice.
“Umm, could I please get some of the dinner from the great hall? And maybe a cup of tea please?” He replied, fiddling with his fingers. It felt weird being in the kitchens by himself, normally he was with the other Marauders when he was down there, or at least with one of them (usually Remus).
“Of course! Wardey would be happy to get mr Black some food!” The elf then popped away with a loud crack only to return a minute later with a mug of steaming tea in one hand and a plate full of food in the other.
“Thanks Wardey” Sirius smiled at the elf as he accepted the plate and mug. Walking over to a corner of the room, he slid down the wall, placing his plate on the ground. Touching the side of the mug, he determined that the tea would still be much too hot to drink and began to eat his meal in silence.
Once he had finished his food, Sirius took a sip of the now warm tea, noting that it was the one he drank when he and Remus came down to the kitchens late at night for a snack.
The warmth of the drink going down his throat combined with the warmth and calming clattering of the kitchen, Sirius leaned back into the wall and slowly fell into an uneasy sleep, tea still in hand.