Big cousin Remus

Remus didn´t need to push people out of the way to get to his friends. Maybe he did that in second year but now he was tall and broad, and people just moved out of his way if that makes sense. Sirius, James and Peter could swear Remus, at one point had been a sweet and shy boy. You could most certainly have used the word cute to describe him back on first, second and maybe even third year. But after third year summer he had return to platform 9¾ looking more rugged than fourteen years old should, in Sirius opinion. Not that Sirius minded. Is just that he found Remus new appearance very distracting.

“Pads, stop staring.” would chastise James in every other lesson.

But Sirius couldn´t help it. At fourteen years old looking at Moony, who was suddenly the tallest marauder, with his buzzcut hair and his torn-up pants, Sirius thought his friend was the coolest person in the world.

Now, on sixth year, Remus became even cooler, in Sirius´s eyes. Sirius and Regulus had just spent the summer at the Potter´s after running away and were nervously waiting for the train on the platform when James saw Moony far away from them.

“Magic shit! Is that Remus?” practically screamed James. Lily flicked him on the back of the head lightly.

“Language James, there are first year´s around.” scolded his friend.

But Sirius was too preoccupied watching Remus from a far. Remus had let his curls grow out a bit, his hair wasn´t as long as Sirius´s by any means, but you could perfectly tug on his honey curls. His scars and his freckles were standing out against his tanned skin. Remus always returned tan from the summer and Sirius thought it suited him. Although he also loved Christmas Remus, with his fair skin and rosy cheeks. Obviously, all of this was from an objective point of view, according to Sirius.

Remus was walking towards them, and he looked absolutely cool. The coolest Sirius had ever seen. And people were getting out of the way because Remus Lupin and his rugged look plus enormous height was intimidating as fuck. Every student and even the teachers of Hogwarts could agree on one thing: since fourth year, you could not call Remus Lupin cute.

He had this sort of rebel look going on for him. And still he was a straight O´s student, a prefect and had his study group. Moony was the epitome of Multifacet and everybody loved it. The marauders and co had noticed a bunch of blokes and birds blushing and giggling everywhere they went. At first Sirius had thought it was because James was now the captain team or maybe it was because, after running away from the hell whole, and after a lot of meals with the Potter´s, Sirius himself looked full of life and more gorgeous than ever. But, one afternoon, after two slythering guys tried to ask Remus out, they had all notice that the attention of every student was on the tallest marauder. And Sirius had told himself he didn´t mind.

“Hiya Moony!” saluted James as soon as Remus was close enough.

“Nice tan!” teased Regulus as his form of saluting.

“I spent the summer with ma and my aunt. Been working on her garden.” said Remus with a lopsided smile and a thick Welsh accent.

Oh Merlin! The accent. Sirius always forgot about Remus´s accent but every year it made him melt a bit.

“Hi.” said Sirius suddenly feeling a bit shy.

Well, that´s odd. Sirius thought.

Sure, Moony looked intimidating but he was his best friend and a marauder Sirius had never been intimidated by Remus. Why was he feeling like this now?

Remus crouched down a bit leaning into Sirius´s space. Sirius stomach did a weird flip. “Hi pads. Nice to see you.”

Sirius tried to hide his grin. “I missed you a lot this summer.”

“How are you feeling?” said Remus gently.

“I... actually -”

“I swear you grow a bit more every year.” screamed Dorcas, who was arriving with her girlfriend. She had an arm around Marlene´s waist.

“You are just jealous Meadows.” scoffed Remus with a good-natured grin.

Sirius couldn´t help but notice that Moony´s lean frame had filled out with an easy confidence. Remus carried himself with an air of self-assuredness that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Sure, Remus had always been handsome but now he exuded an undeniable magnetism.

“Oi! Be nice to my lady.” said Marlene, shoving Remus a bit. Remus didn´t even move.

“Hey guys!” greeted Peter as he arrived to the group carrying a large trunk. “Nice jacket, where did you get it?”

“Oh, I thrifted it... somewhere.”

And yes, Sirius had noticed the brown leather aviator jacket Moony was wearing over his usual jumper, but he hadn't commented on it because what could he have said? Oi, Moons, nice jacket, you look super-hot in it. That was not the friendship he had with Remus.

“You are drooling.” Sirius´s brother whispered.

Sirius threw him a dirty look, but Regulus only arched and eyebrow at him before burring himself even more in James´s arms, with a smug grin. Bloody Reggie hiding between his boyfriend arms. And Reggie´s boyfriend was Sirius´s best friend, nonetheless. It wasn´t fair.

“You thrifted it?” asked Lily with an unimpressed look.

Remus nose scrunched up a bit as if he was thinking through his answer. “Yeah, let´s leave it at that.” he finally said nonchalantly

“Are you hiding something Moony?” asked James with a mischievous smile.

Remus shrugged.

Everybody became distracted when Marlene started to recount how Dorcas, Evan and Pandora had been to a Falmouth Falcons match two weeks ago. They had lost against the Montrose Magpies; Pandora had been supper please with that result and Dorcas had to console a pouty Marlene for the entire evening. Dorcas was in the middle of recounting how the Montrose Magpies´s seeker almost crashed on the ground when Lily interrupted the story.

“Remus John Lupin is that an earring?”

Sirius´s attention was drawn immediately towards Moony. Sure enough, on Moony´s ear there was a little star-shaped earring, glistening underneath the artificial lights. Sirius heart skipped a beat, the coincidence was almost too much to handle.

“Oh yeah.” says Remus with a goofy half laugh. “I got it cause my cousin wanted her ears pierced, but she was scared. So, I went first to show her it´s not so bad.”

“Always knew you were a softy.” snorted Regulus.

Everybody started cooing at Remus. Remus ignored his friends´s tease and he turned towards Sirius.

“You like it Padfoot?” he asked tilting his head.

“I...” what on earth could Sirius say? “Yeah. Yeah, I like it, you look really... I mean you look -”

“Remmy! You forgot your scarf!” screamed someone.

Remus immediately turned around as if his friends weren´t important, as if he was alone in the platform, only him and the girl who was running towards him. She was trying to run through the crowd and Remus, this time, does pushed people out of the way as if they could hurt her. The girl rushed towards Remus.

“Who is that?” asked James confused.

The girl finally made her way to Remus. She had a delighted smile on her face and beautiful green eyes, and she looked at Remus as if he held the world.

“Your scarf.” she said presenting the red Gryffindor scarf proudly.

“Does Remus have a sister?” asked Reggie sounding genuinely confused.

The girl must have been around nine years old. And she looked remarkably like Remus, minus some details. But they could, definitely, be related.

Remus laughed shaking his head. With the gentlest smile Sirius had ever seen on his face, Moony picked her up and planted a kiss on her cheek. The scene left everyone around them in shock cause Remus “rugged” Lupin had never been this cute and gentle since second year.

The girl, still in Remus arms, wrapped the scarf around Moony´s neck, even though it was September and the cold was not so bad yet. Still Remus let her do as she pleases.

“I´m gonna miss you so much, Remmy.” the girl pouted.

“How much’” asked Remus with a sweet goofy voice that he reserved for children only, more specifically, for his little cousin only. A voice which shocked his friends even more.

“This much!” said the girl giggling as she expanded her arms as much as she could.

“Oh my! I´m going to be missed a lot. But you know what?”

“What?” she asked. It was clear she was hanging to every word Remus said.

“I promise to write you every week.” Remus said solemnly.

“You promise?”

“Absolutely.” Remus nodded seriously. “Regulus here is my best mate.” said Remus carrying his little cousin towards their little circle, where all his friends were standing. “He´ll make sure I write to you, right Reggie?”

Regulus decided to indulge Remus and he put out his hand so Remus´s little cousin could take it. “I give you my word Miss...”

James was beaming at his boyfriend.

“Tell him your name.” encouraged Remus with a soft smile.

“Clara Marigold from Cwmberth Lane”. Replied the girl shyly.

“I give you my word Miss Clara from Cwmberth Lane, that Remus will write to you. I´ll make sure of it.”

Clara took Regulus hand, and she watched him with awe. Probably because Regulus was the first boy to call Clara “Miss”.

“You are so sweet.” whispered James as Regulus retreated to his side. James pulled Reggie by the waist and stole a peck from him.

“Is that your boyfriend sir?” asked Clara to Reggie.

“He is.” smiled Regulus, proudly.

James cooed at Clara and how absolutely adorable she was, and also how absolutely adorable were her interactions with his boyfriend.

Clara frowned her face. She looked at Regulus intently.

“So, he is not the guy you like?” she asked after analyzing Reggie's face for a bit.

Remus choked on nothing. His cheeks suddenly turned the deepest shade of red. Sirius head snapped from Regulus to Remus. Remus likes guys? Wait, no. Most importantly, Remus like one specific bloke? Sirius exchanged a surprised look with James but to his surprise James just looked amused by the situation.

“Oh, so your cousin Remmy likes a guy?” teased Marlene immediately.

“Yes!” said Clara, clearly enjoying that the grownups were including her in the conversation. “Remmy always talks about love. He says the most beautiful eyes he has ever seen- “

Clara couldn´t continue cause Remus hand shoot up to cover her mouth.

“But I didn´t say his name!” Clara protested from behind Remus´s hand.

“What color are their eyes, Clara?” chimed in Lily.

Remus threw her a scandalized look.

“Are they green?” asked Dorcas mischievously.

“Perhaps blue.” added Peter.

“No, no, Remmy always says -”

“Okay, little one. Now that I have my scarf I must get going, let´s take you to your mummy.”

Remus quickly turned around and started walking with Clara on his arms towards his mum and aunt. Their friend group burst out laughing. But... Why was no one as confused as Sirius is? Remus had just came out to them, hadn't he? Well, the marauders had seen Remus´s name with Fabian on an abandon classroom last semester but nobody had said anything. Was Remus in love with Fabian?

Sirius waved at Hope from affar but his mind was elsewhere. There were so many things he needed to process.

One. Moony had an earring. Two. Moony liked blokes and he was in love with someone specifically. Someone with pretty eyes. And three. Moony had show a gentle loving side Sirius had never seen before and well... Sirius just didn't know how to feel about it. He definitely needs to talk to James.