The room seemed to shimmer around him, the great hall was barely recognizable underneath the disguise of a ballroom. Tinsel hung around, some people wearing outfits filled with jewelry in attempts to show off status, sparkles on dresses that would likely be falling all along the floor with each movement.
Heals clanging across the floor were drowned out by strings and chatter.
Remus stood around the corner, turning his head from side to side as he searched for his partner. Hoping that Mary’s makeover of them wouldn’t leave Remus stranded without a date throughout the majority of the Yule Ball. “Save me the first dance,” Sirius had asked, and Remus had intended to fulfill that promise.
As he waited he hydrated (hydrate or die straight) as he knew that likely with all the dancing Sirius had been excited for, Remus would end up tired and sweaty, so he might as well drink an ocean’s worth of water now. Maybe then he could escape for a few moments and avoid the mocking stares of Snivellus at Remus, likely thinking about him “not having a real date” and that “of course Sirius wouldn’t want to attend with a monster”.
Instead of feeling the weight of those words that entered his mind, Remus let his eyes keep his focus rather than his thoughts. Looking between the entrance and his other friends dancing; Marlene doing well enough at not stepping on Dorcus’ toes (at least not yet), Regulus being a perfect precise dancer because of course he was—though James made sure that Reg was still having fun and not focusing on stupid perfection. The rest of them (Mary, Lily, and Sirius) were still getting ready.
Remus had been sick to his stomach since entering the Yule Ball, this was part of why he had been hydrating, it was only 20 minutes into this tortuous wait that he realized that this illness may not only be butterflies in his stomach. He looked around once more. Shining. Everywhere shining. Jewelry all around. Some gold. Some gems. Some…silver. For a split second Remus’ eyes widened at the realization.
Would he be able to go onto the dance floor? What if he bumped against someone with silver? What if this would be what made everyone realize him being a beast?
But what about Sirius? They had been looking forward to this for so long, he couldn’t do that to them. Still, the longer he stayed eternally waiting, the worse he felt. So, he hatched an escape plan before the embarrassment set in.
Quickly he strode across the room, trying to get out unseen and unnoticed. But of course things couldn’t be simple for Remus.
“Where are you going, Loony Lupin?” Snape questioned, somehow appearing right by Remus as he still had to walk further across the hall.
Remus ignored him. Looking forward. Remembering his “mission” which was basically just to get the hell out of there.
“Did Black finally gain some sense and decide to bail on the creature?” Snape spoke loudly to his friend.
“I’d be surprised, we all know this generation of Blacks have gone mad,” his friend laughed beside him.
Despite how much he wanted to, Remus wouldn’t take the bait. He couldn’t. Physically, he knew he was in no state to fight. Especially since the Slytherines were probably wearing a plethora of silver.
He was finally out of the great hall. Feeling bits of adrenaline as he moved further and further away from the dreaded silver, Remus got faster in speed. That combined with his long legs made him get around the castle quite quickly. Step by step by step until he stopped dead in his tracks. He had just climbed a flight of stairs and was so close to getting to Gryffindor tower. But now he was immovable. In a trance.
Sirius, Mary, and Lily had been walking out of the portrait hole, arm in arm. Mary and Lily were beautiful of course, they always are, they’re queens among all the marauder peasants. But Sirius. SIRIUS. There were no words. But also many words. Maybe a medium amount of words. Some words.
Sirius was fucking gorgeous. Formal robes with little red embroidered accents of roses around the lapel and ends of the sleeves. A botanical garden full of tiny roses pinned within their curly black hair. Eyeliner that Sirius had been practicing for weeks without showing the other marauders because they wanted it to be a surprise. And dark red lipstick because seemingly Sirius hadn’t been thinking about the likelihood of Remus having a heart attack at the sight of all of this, though they had thought about how later on the pigment would end up stained all around their lover’s face.
“Remu!” Mary smiled as she spoke.
Remus continued to stay unmoving. A statue, honestly he started to wonder if Sirius had somehow gained the powers of Medusa, though there weren’t any snakes around–as far as he knew of.
Lily waved her ring filled fingers in front of his face, trying to snap him out of the trance as she called out his name for a long time, “Reeeeeeeemuuussss.”
“Your boyfriend is a gay disaster,” Mary smirked looking at Sirius. Lily elbowed her.
“What?!? It was a COMPLIMENT, we’re all gay disasters, PLUS that means I did my job well. It would honestly be insulting if the boy WASN’T in a trance.”
“They’re so pretty,” the words flowed out of Remus’ lips, the girls soon burst out laughing.
“You’re work is done, now lets go dance love,” Lily took Mary’s hand and they walked down the steps, leaving the trainwreck disaster queers alone.
“Mooooooony,” Sirius cupped his face and looked into his eyes, because that of course wouldn’t make him even more enamored, but he worked it out and got out of the trance. Still he felt like some sort of amazing spell had been placed on him, but it was fine.
“You look…”Remus started.
“I know,” Sirius grinned, “You look pretty handsome yourself.”
“Yes, this ratty muggle suit, so handsome, peak fashion.”
“The clothes don’t matter, Moony, you look hot because you’re you.”
There was a second of silence as Sirius wrapped their arm around Remus and started to turn to head back down the stairs. Remus didn’t move.
“I’m sorry I took so long, love,” Sirius examined his face, “What did you come up here for?”
“Meet with you,” Remus lied, his eyes darting around.
“Are you feeling sick? Did something happen? Was Snivellous bothering you because I swear I’ll–”
“Nothing happened, nothing happened. I just…” Remus didn’t want to finish the sentence. Sirius had looked so beautiful, had put so much effort into this night, Remus couldn’t bring himself to say that he couldn’t be in that room because of the silver, because of the werewolf, because in some ways Snape was right and Lyall was right–Sirius shouldn’t date a werewolf.
Sirius observed him, fumbling about with his hands in concern. They felt the rings on their own fingers and hugged him.
“Is it–”
“There’s just so much…silver,” Remus spoke low into their back, “I can-I can handle it though, let’s go down there. You need to show off how gorgeous you look tonight.”
Sirius rolled their eyes, “I’ll have plenty of opportunities to do that every other day,” they thought for a second, “Would you want to go dance somewhere else? Without all the silver?”
“Yes Padfoot, of course I would. Wait, first though, where do you have in mind? ‘Cause I don’t want to be dancing in the closet or something.”
“No, no, no, no. Let’s sneak out onto the grounds, dance under the stars,” they left the embrace, their excited eyes looked up at Remus.
Remus couldn’t help smiling in return, “Let’s do it.”
Their feet hit across the steps, slowly and sneakily, as though they were on some secret mission–though actually they were quite fine to be walking around the castle on this night–but behaving normally would take all the fun out of it. Plus walking slowly and sneakily would allow for Remus’ hip to not strain too much from all the walking, Sirius had realized without stating it.
Hand in hand they walked out into the grass, shards crinkling under their feet, the stars just barely illuminating their figures.
Remus held out his hand in a dramatic gentlemanly way, “I saved you the first dance, may I still have this dance even if it’s under the star light instead of under all the lamps of the great hall?”
“The star light is far better,” Sirius spoke as they took his hand, “Cause it’s with you.”
They danced for a long time out in the night sky, eventually some of the other marauders caught them out there and decided to join in the outdoor marauders ball.
For each dance that they attended Remus kept that promise, to save the first dance for Sirius. Though it wasn’t like he attended many balls anyways, over the years he was able to attend a few (even despite the silver), still, he always saved the first dance for them. Even when he didn’t entirely trust Sirius, even when Sirius was in Azkaban, and even after Sirius was gone. Remus always saved that first dance for them, because whenever it was with them it was always the best.