Star Shopping

There was a month before the Halloween dance still, which gave Remus a perfect amount of time to plan on how he would infiltrate the Ministry of Magic. When he had first told his friends the plan in charms, they were reluctant. Before Remus was able to persuade them, Lily undid the silencing charm from the outside and took Remus to the hospital wing against his will. Over the next few days, Remus had been hidden behind stacks of books in the library, researching charms and whatnot.

"Merlin, how do you even remember all this?" Sirius remarked one October morning when they were practicing the lock picking charm. Sirius was the first to agree, after all, he had a knack for danger and getting into mayhem. Whilst scribbling notes on a piece of parchment, Remus frustratingly broke the end of the quill. Sirius winced, and Remus looked up at him with surprisingly calm eyes.

"It's kind of easy, if you know what to look for,I don't understand all the words, though," Remus blushed as he nervously admitted that before picked up a navy blue book which was open next to him, messy notes scribbled in the margins. He pointed towards an underlined block of text which was only just visible on the warm out, golden page with clear blotchy ink and coffee stains.

'The lock picking charm, Alohamora, was invented with the intent of breaking and entering - firstly created by Philosophers Sarah Raymond and Perseus Black'

"That was my ancestor, my family and their stupid star names!" Sirius exclaimed, clearly too loudly from the agitated grunt the librarian let out. "My mother says that he was famous, but I'd never expect him to be this well known." Remus shrugged.

"I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if he's a bit of why you're not a poor tosser like me." Remus said, earning a middle finger from Sirius. He cleared his throat and continued reading it.

'There is no known way to amplify the charm to a greater scale, although there are many methods of making it stronger and more affective through the use of other charms. For example, Alohamora Maxima doesn't exist, in contrast, the spell Bombarda originated from Alohamora.'

"How does this help us?" Sirius asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Well," Remus started, leaning closer and lowering his voice into a hushed tone so no eavesdroppers would benefit, "if we want to raid the bloody Ministry, aren't we gonna need a way to unlock the doors? I already know Bombarda, but that took me time which we don't have - so I was thinking maybe a stronger Alohamora would do it." Sirius gaped at him, utterly dumbfounded in an impressed manner.

"Why can't you just keep using Bombarda?" Sirius asked, puzzled.

The real answer would be that being a werewolf, it's much too powerful, and could disrupt things in the Ministry which needn't be disrupted - such as causing the roof to cave in if aimed inaccurately. "Because," he cleared his throat, "It's far too loud, and since it's too um, ad - va - n, it'll drain my core." This excused sufficed, seeing as Sirius just looked back at the book, biting the inside of his cheek as he thought.

Sirius looked up anxiously, "Advanced?" He cocked an eyebrow and Remus embarrassingly nodded. How humiliating, to be corrected. "How do we know what room to look in?" Sirius asked, clearly doubting Remus' planning skills.

"I borrowed James' cloak a few nights back to do some pranks, but whilst I was going through his trunk I noticed that Fleamont Potter works for the Ministry. There was a business card placed on top of some books, probably incase of emergency." Remus felt extremely clever, he had thought this out so well. The only other time he had used his brain this much was when Thomas Cliff in the orphanage - the swot - attempted to get Remus in trouble for making Alison Smith's nose bleed, and Remus had to defend himself.

Thomas had accidentally elbowed her in the nose when trying to heave himself upwards, and she began sobbing whilst clutching onto her bloody and slightly crooked nose. The boy darted around before landing on Remus, who was unluckily sat next to Alison, and decided to pin all the blame on him. In the end, the Director didn't even care, all she could say about the situation was that "Unless you're dying, we couldn't care less." Which shockingly didn't satisfy Remus the slightest bit.

As revenge for this injustice, he placed cockroaches in the Director's desk drawer for a week, and she was fully convinced that there was an infestation. To this day, he hasn't been caught, despite Thomas Cliff accusing him of it as much as humanly possible. At least he doesn't have to share a dorm with him.

"Well, how does a business card help us?" Sirius urged on, awakening Remus from his memory. The werewolf quickly wiped the smug look off of his face and broke it down for his idiotic friend.

"It means that all we have to do is ask James' father, you numpty." Remus scoffed, before sinking back to his chair to continue his research. Sirius didn't bother with anymore questions, only spontaneous jokes, and so they continued their slightly delayed research until curfew (when they were physically removed from the library).

They silently crept along the abandoned hallways, a sinister wisp of wind occasionally making Remus shiver. Sirius was walking in front of him, since Remus had already gotten three detentions that day. A loud thud at the end of the hallway made Remus jump out of his skin, and he instinctively clutched onto the back of Sirius' raven black sweater.

Sirius took Remus by the hand, and dove into a broom cupboard, both of them holding their breath as the caretaker moved around outside. The ruffling of the clothes made Remus wince, and Sirius, upon noticing this, offered a bright smile to the werewolf - which he could only return. "I know you're out there." The shrivelled up caretaker called out, his voice raspy and strained. They both let out a sigh, trying to catch their breaths.

"What do we do?" Remus whispered, it had only just occurred to him that perhaps receiving too many detentions could result in him being expelled.

"Not a clue," Sirius replied, in a hushed yet strangely amused voice. The lighting in there was dim, but not completely pitch black. There was a flickering lamp above their heads, casting an orange tint to the enclosed space. Remus could feel Sirius' warm breath on his face, and he pushed himself against the wall to try and distance themselves a bit.

"Is he gone?" Remus asked, and Sirius offered him a shrug.

"Only one way to find out." With that, Sirius burst out of the broom cupboard, the ancient door hitting the ground with a loud slam. "Shit it came off of it's hinges!" He exclaimed, before grabbing Remus by the hand and dashing off towards the moving staircases. The sound of Filch's footsteps approaching rapidly had Remus' heart pounding - but the fear of being caught wasn't the only thrill he was feeling.

When Sirius took him by the hand, he could feel his heart flutter and his face heat up. Remus had never had a friend before, so he just assumed that this was what a normal friendship felt like. Although, he never felt this way when James jumped on top of him for a surprise hug. Perhaps Sirius was just his best friend, and that's why he felt different around him. He hoped so, at least.

When they arrived at the common room after closely escaping Filch, they were both breathless from both laughing and running. "Did you hear his bloody voice!" Remus wheezed, and Sirius nodded along, bent over and clutching his stomach whilst he giggled loudly. Suddenly, there were multiple pairs of feet running down the staircases from the dorm rooms, and Remus looked up to see James, Peter and Frank Longbottom - one of two prefects - coming from one set of stairs, along with Lily, Marlene, Dorcas and Mary from the other set.

Sirius and Remus straightened themselves up, trying to contain their built up laughter. "Where have you been?" Frank demanded, and Remus gave Sirius a nervous, sideways glance, but the black haired boy just gave the prefect a questionable glare.

"Whatever do you mean? We've been down here the entire time." Sirius lied easily, the words slipping off of his tongue as if they weren't false. Frank cocked an eyebrow.

"Lupin?" Frank averted his gaze to a very confused Remus, who stumbled over his words a bit before just deciding on nodding. "Fine, just get to your rooms." Frank muttered as he made his way upstairs, unhappy with this outcome.

Remus snorted and nudged Sirius, "That was bloody good, I'll have to lie like that in front of Cliff sometime." Remus said with a laugh, and Sirius gave him a confused look.

"Who?" He asked, and Remus waved an arm to gesture shrugging off the question. After James and Peter had congratulated them both on getting back without a detention, the girls cut through their friend group to interrogate Remus.

"Where were you?" Lily demanded, her cheeks puffy and her eyebrows furrowed. Remus studied her, Marlene and Mary's faces before realising that Dorcas had been there the entire time.

"Wait why is Dorcas in here?" He asked, and Marlene gave him a light tap on the head.

"Don't tell!" She grinned, and Remus gave her an unimpressed look. "If you aren't the cutest little guy I've ever seen I don't know who is!" Marlene exclaimed, pulling Remus into a tight, unenjoyable hug. He squirmed and tried to push her off, but it was no use. She ruffled his sandy hair before releasing him, and Remus shot an embarrassed look to Peter, who was on the floor in laughter.

"Mary, which boy are you going with?" Remus piped up, casually. Everybody turned to face him, giving the boy a suspicious look. "To the Halloween thing, I mean. I heard you're going with a Slytherin and I'm just curious." He shrugged, and Mary snorted.

"Well, his name's Marcus Dune, he's a second year and so cute!" She squealed, and Remus was glad to see Lily rolling her eyes at this as well. Sirius patted Remus on the back as if to signify that him, Peter and James were leaving, and Remus just gave him a nod without breaking eye contact with Mary. Marlene had snuck away with Dorcas at some point to take her to her common room (he assumed), and so it was just Lily, Mary and Remus stood in the dimly lit room.

"You're going out with a second year?" He asked, and Mary snickered.

"Merlin no, I'm just going to a dance with him," She answered, but in Remus' eyes, that was practically a first date, "You jealous Rems?" Mary suggestively raised her eyebrows at him, and Remus just scoffed as he walked up the staircase, not saying another word. By the sound of footsteps exiting as well, he could tell that Mary and Lily had decided to go up to bed too, which was good for Remus since this meant that they weren't judging him (down there at least).

By the time he had gotten up there, James and Peter were snoring, whilst Sirius was propped on the end of his bed, wet hair which dripped onto his bare shoulders and a bath towel around his waist. Remus offered him a friendly smile (which Sirius didn't see) as he walked passed, before picking up his pyjamas and heading to the bathroom.

After successfully avoiding the mirrors and getting into an oversized flannel shirt along with some grey joggers, Remus finally noticed that something was wrong with Sirius. He seemed quite out of it, if he were honest. The boy was just staring at the ground, ignoring how his hair was dampening his fresh bed sheets. Not only that, but Sirius never showered at night, he agreed with Remus that it was a waste.

"You alright?" Remus offered, his accent coming out more than intended. Sirius shot his head up and studied Remus for a second, as if Sirius hadn't noticed that he had entered the room.

"Mhm," the boy replied, before continuing to stare solemnly at the ground. Remus sighed and stood up, walking towards Sirius' bed - propping himself next to him.

"Penny for your thoughts?" He asked, and Sirius looked up once again to give him a confused look. "Muggle thing - sorry it was stupid." He gave Sirius an uncomfortable giggle, but Sirius merely replied with a toothy grin.

"It wasn't stupid." He insisted, a smile on his face whilst his eyes told a different story. They radiated emotions which couldn't be described in human words. The closest that could be used to show what Sirius was feeling would be a mixture of resentment, suffering and perhaps admiration. "This is stupid." He kicked his feet cutely whilst tilting his head back slightly.

Remus cocked an eyebrow at him. "What is?" He asked, knowing that prying was annoying. But Remus didn't want Sirius to feel upset about anything, after all, who knew how long they would be friends. It had been a few weeks since Remus had known Sirius - yet it already felt like a lifetime.

Sirius who was still leaning backwards, turned his head left so that he was looking deeply into Remus' eyes. His silver eyes met Remus' amber gaze - and Remus felt that same flutter in his chest from before. That feeling was a nuisance, it gave Remus all these confusing feelings. Somehow, his gaze lingered down to Sirius' soft lips, but he shot his head back up immediately. Something was definitely wrong with him.

"You really wanna know?" Sirius teased, and Remus scoffed.

"You're making me beg now?" Remus replied, amused. Sirius chuckled before letting himself fall onto his back, the springs of the bed helping him to bounce. Remus did the same, but with less enthusiasm. "Come on!" Remus giggled, nudging Sirius' arm. Sirius held his hands up in surrender, whilst still lying down, and they both moved to be on their sides so that they were facing each other - inches apart.

"Do you fancy Mary?" Sirius abruptly asked, which caught Remus off guard. He let out a repressed scoff before replying.

"No, do you?" Remus joked, edging slightly closer until he could feel that same Sirius black breath radiating onto his face. For a brief second, Remus could swear that Sirius took a sneaky glance at his lips as well, before meeting eyes with Remus once again.

"Nah, there's someone else." Sirius replied, not breaking eye contact. Remus felt a slight pang in his chest, it was unknown to him. It couldn't be happiness, no, he'd recognised that. There was no way it was jealousy, after all, eleven is way too young to fancy anybody, right? Now Remus was even doubting himself, his face was growing more pink as him and Sirius continued to look each other in the eyes.

The way that Sirius' eyelashes fluttered when he spoke, the way his stupid, overgrown hair fell down to his shoulders, the way his lips were slightly parted when not being used. Remus was undeniably thinking that Sirius was pretty right now, but that's normal, right? Sirius is a very attractive boy, that much is obvious. It's common information that half the female population of first year thinks that he's fit. But, what about the males?

This was so stupid, boys can't like boys anyway, right? Remus was having a mental battle in his mind, that he didn't even notice the fact that Sirius had fallen asleep right in front of him. His breath was steady and his cheeks rosy. Remus sighed as he pulled himself up, taking the duvet off of his own bed and placing it on top of Sirius, who had stupidly nodded off on top of his own covers. Remus gave Sirius one last glance before climbing out of Sirius' bed and lying on top of his own bare bed on a cold, autumns night. Having friends was the most lucky inconvenience that there was.

It was impossible for Remus to even consider that he thought of Sirius that way for even a second. After all, he had never even experienced friendship, what did he know? This was probably a common thing to think, he looked at Sirius the same way that Lily looked at Mary, and that Dorcas looked at Marlene. There wasn't anything weird about that, right? And so, he drifted off to the thought that this was a simple phase, that his heart fluttering and his face heating up were just symptoms of anxiety for the whole Ministry thing. Besides, he had spent the whole day studying for that, although most of the things he was studying were Sirius' facial features. But there was nothing weird about that. After all, he's only eleven.