Day 1 - The picture of Dorian Gray
Their Saturday started at noon. Or at least that was when Sirius woke up and the fun begun. Remus had already been awake for hours, just lying there watching Sirius’ peaceful figure sleeping heavily as he reread one of his favorite books. A few chapters in, he heard Sirius turning and stretching, and he smiled when he heard him make one of those utterly comfortable yawns Sirius only made when he woke up in a good mood; today was going to be awesome.
They went down for breakfast, or lunch as the few people in the great hall were eating, but they paid no mind and filled their plates with toast and eggs, getting some weird glances from the surrounding tables, but all of them so far used to the far weirder shenanigans of the seventh year Gryffindors that everyone went back to their own after a few seconds. The breakfast was fairly uneventful. They didn’t talk much, only eating what was on the plates in front of them.
There were surprisingly few students staying back this year. Only two Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw currently seated in the great hall, listening to professor Slughorn spiel about his crazy stories from childhood, which everyone knew to be bullshit by now. The poor students clearly wanted him to leave, but Slughorn had never gotten that memo, his superiority complex being far too big. Remus had noticed something similar forming in one of the younger Ravenclaws he tutored on Tuesdays, Gilderoy Lockhart was his name. How that kid had landed in Ravenclaw was a mystery to Remus; the boy was dumber than the average duck, but he had this talent for memory charms Remus had found one time they were revising it with the third years, and the second-year boy got it before anyone else, even the ones who were much older than him. Remus just hoped the boy would learn that memory magic had many layers, like a basilisk’s skin, and that some of those layers you do not want to get near, for it will come and bite you in the ass one day. But only the future could tell what became of that boy.
When Slughorn finally stood, to the relief of the three students he had been boasting to, he slowly made his way over to the two Gryffindor boys, who ultimately panicked and finished their food faster than they had ever done before in their seven years at Hogwarts. Standing up from the worn bench, they said their hellos and goodbyes to Slughorn who stopped midway of sitting down at their table. He started to protest, but Sirius turned around and flashed him a grin before vanishing out the big door with Remus. They laughed while randomly walking through the many hallways, goofing with portraits and ghosts they met on the way.
They got back to the Gryffindor tower after half an hour of mindless walking and talking, so entranced in each other that Remus had to remind himself that they were just friends when he had had the urge to kiss Sirius after he had looked into Remus’ eyes to see if they were still amber in the lighting they were in.
As they entered the loved common room, Sirius laid down, sprawling all his well-toned limbs over the couch, making him look like spider trying to devour the furniture. Remus laughed at his friend’s quiet hums of comfort as he sat down in his usual soft chair opposite the couch. He summoned the book he had been reading the same morning and picked up where he left off. Remus got to read for about fifteen minutes before Sirius seemingly got bored.
“What’re you reading Moony?” He said from the couch. Remus didn’t need to look up from his book to know Sirius probably laid with his feet slung over the back of the sofa, and his head hanging down towards the floor, judging by the choked tone to his voice. “The picture of Dorian Gray” Remus answered mindlessly as he turned the page. “That’s the muggle book I gave you for your birthday, right?” Sirius asked.
Remus blushed when he remembered his seventeenth birthday. It had started out as yet another normal birthday: the Marauders loudly singing the Happy birthday song in front of the whole school in the great hall for every meal, then the traditional blushy happy birthday from all the people crushing on Remus, who were quite a few, he had realized over the years. His birthday was on a Thursday that year, which meant they should probably have taken it easy, but nothing could stop James and Sirius from pulling out the fire whiskey as the party begun. Which had practically resulted in Sirius getting so drunk that he had started dirty dancing, giving Remus a surprise lap dance in the middle of the Gryffindor common room, in front of all their friends, and family in Sirius’ case. Their friends all laughed as Remus turned red as a tomato, Barty laughing loudest of them all, both at Remus’ face, and at Regulus’ screeching when he saw what his brother was doing. Evan had taken a picture of both the lap dance and everyone’s reactions; both pictures which now hung proudly above Remus’ bed.
Barty and Evan had been one of his favorite parts of the day. They had taken him on a date right after classes were done for the day, doing everything they knew Remus loved. They had had a picknick near the lake, eating just a tad bit too much chocolate for a regular Thursday, but after all it was his seventeenth birthday. They had danced under a blossoming oak, and they had laughed. Oh, they had laughed! The joy that had consumed him would be something he strived for later in life, and something he got again and again with all the loves of his life.
After the date, they had followed him back up to the Gryffindor tower, which he thought was very sweet at the time. Then the portrait opened, and he was met with the monstrosity that was his seventeenth birthday surprise party. There were burgundy and gold balloons hanging from the ceiling, small lights flying everywhere, cake and snacks were spread around the room, and David Bowie was playing over the record-player that was carefully placed in the corner. The night went on and the memorable lap dance happened. After the surprise, Remus had danced with his boyfriends the rest of the night, trying to stay away from Sirius as best as he could, just trying to keep his boner down while they were in a crowded space.
When the party had dissolved and the boys migrated up to their dorm room, Remus had gone off to bed, thinking of all the love and laughs he had had through the day. He was generally not a fan of birthdays, but something about this day had made it special, making him look forward to his next one.
He had almost fallen asleep when he heard the floorboards next to his bed creak, and a cold hand had lightly shaken his shoulder. He had opened his eyes, and there Sirius stood, shirtless with a wrapped gift in his hand. “I almost forgot to give you your present, Moony!” He seemed to have sobered up after the height of the party and handed him the square package with ‘Remus’ neatly written on the paper in Sirius’ fancy handwriting. With Sirius standing there, stick-and-pokes visible on his abdomen and hair hanging loosely around his face, Remus didn’t know if he was the gift, or the present in his hand. Sirius sat down on his bed as Remus carefully opened the present revealing a book: The picture of Dorian Gray.
“Happy birthday Moons.” Sirius had said, grinning as he had stood up and went over to his own bed. A beat of silence, “Thanks, Pads.” He had said back into the dark room, hoping that his thankfulness could be heard through his quiet voice.
Later, that day would be imprinted into his mind as one of his happiest days alive, and he still thought back on it regularly. Small things like a smell or a phrase would send him back that beautiful day, making him relive it all in a few seconds. The happiness, the laughter, the love; it all would come back to him, often making him blush at simple questions like, “That’s the muggle book I gave you for your birthday, right?” as Sirius had just asked, not yet noticing the blush starting to creep up on Remus’ face. He laid comfortably there on the couch, fidgeting with his wand like he usually did, twirling it around his fingers. “Yeah, it is.” Remus answered, turning the page lazily as he stayed relaxed in his chair. “I thought you’d already read it?” Sirius asked, lifting his head to be able to look at Remus.
“I’m rereading it.” Remus stated, finishing the page, and darting his eyes up to the next one. “Won’t you read aloud for me?” Sirius asked innocently. Remus stopped dead in his tracks and looked up from his book with an eyebrow raised. “Read for you?” He asked confused.
“Yeah, like we did when we were younger.” Sirius said, dropping his head from the raised position, now staring up into the ceiling. “I mean, sure?” Remus said confused as he flipped through the pages, reaching the beginning of the book. “No, you don’t have to start from the beginning. Just pick up where you left off.”
“But you haven’t read the book before? You won’t understand anything.” Remus didn’t understand why Sirius would want to be thrown directly into the middle of a book, with no other knowledge of it than the exited rant he got from Remus the first time he had finished it. “That’s okay. I just like the way your voice sounds when you read.” Remus’ thoughts stopped the second those words left Sirius’ mouth, making him have to take a few seconds to recollect himself from the gay panic Sirius Black daily supplied him with. His blush had finally vanished; then he felt the familiar warmth spread through his ears and onto his face. He prayed to everything holy that Sirius would not lift his head and see that Remus was blushing as red as a tomato at this point.
He flipped through the pages until he found where he had last left off, “The youths in the gallery had taken of their coats and waistcoats and hung them over the side. Talked to each other across the theater…” he started, smiling as he continued reading while Sirius made himself extra comfortable on the couch. They read through the whole evening, only stopping when Sirius moved closer and when Remus needed breaks to spare his throat. They went down to dinner when that time came around, eating and talking as normal until Slughorn came up to them, wanting to tell stories, and they fled as fast as they could while still being polite, yet again, only bearing to listen to five minutes of his overdramatized stories.
Time flew by after they came back to the common room. They put away the book for the day, and Sirius went up to their dorm room to write a letter to James. Remus took the time alone to finally breathe. When they had walked around the many hallways, it had been almost painful to not grab Sirius’ hand, he just wanted to hold it, to feel the warmth, and then when Sirius had asked him to read out loud, he was sure his heart stopped beating for a second. These moments should not have been this big, but for Remus’ poor heart they were. He did not know how he would survive the next thirteen days.
When they came back to the common room, Sirius went up to the dorms to write some letters he said. Remus didn’t question it and stayed downstairs, yet again finding himself standing in front of the window and breathing. After a while, Sirius came back down, they cracked another joint, and sometime during the night they passed out on the couch, high as kites and cuddled up in each other’s arms, watching the flames die out in the fireplace.