‘Hey, what’s up Padfoot, why so down in the dumps?’
Sirius shrugged. He wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anyone and definitely wasn’t in the mood to talk to Peter of all people.
‘Nothing, just fed up with being the main topic of gossip these days.’
Everybody's talking about it
Everybody knows that it's true
‘Since when do you care what people are thinking about you? Weren’t you the one who proclaimed that you would take out a full page in the Daily Prophet, if that was what it would take for Remus to understand how much he means to you?’
Sirius, you're in love with Remus
Remus is into you too
Sirius grunted at Peter to show his dissatisfaction with having his own words quoted back at him.
He was glad when it was time for lunch, so that he could focus on something else instead.
Of course as soon as he entered the Great Hall, his eyes were drawn not to the food that magically appeared on the tables, but to a very different type of tasty dish. Peter gave him a playful shove in the back to prove his point.
You're making eyes across the Great Hall
You're hoping no one will see
Sirius sighed. ‘Ok, point taken,’ he conceded to a smiling Peter, as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table.
~ ~ ~
Of course Peter’s observations weren’t all that different from the ones made by the Whomping Willow a few weeks back. He just did not like to hear those words out of the mouth of Peter and he certainly had not expected to ever hear any words out of the Whomping Willow. Who even knew that bloody tree was sentient, or even identified as anything other than tree. In hindsight of course he of all people should have known, being one of the few students in the school who liked Muggle culture, especially Disney movies. How had he never thought of the Whomping Willow as Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas?
You could have knocked him over with a Phoenix’s feather when he received an answer to the musings he ostensibly had been making out loud to himself.
You're writing love notes with paw prints,
You're making out behind me
It made him cringe to think that they had been making out in front of a living being. How many other sentient things were there hidden in the Hogwarts grounds that were getting a good, front row, look at what oblivious horny students were getting up to. Were the telescopes in the Astronomy tower sentient? He shuddered at the thought of that. Shouldn’t they at least inform students of such matters? Warn them in some way, that they may not be in private, so to speak.
~ ~ ~
He didn’t mind talking to James and Lily about his feelings for Remus. Lily had guessed already and, well aware that James was far more oblivious to his surroundings than the giant stag he so fabulously embodied, had in her own kind way prepared James for what was happening in their dorm between his two best friends. James, who at first thought that she was having him on, eventually picked up on the subtle signs himself and couldn’t have been more supportive of his best friend if he tried.
You know we really love you,
It ain't our place to judge you
You're feeling scared about it
Naturally
There's no point in hiding
So feel free to start confiding
If you need a good friend
You can count on me
~ ~ ~
When he went back to, what he now thought of as Grandmother Willow, to apologise for not having acknowledged her presence sooner and having exposed her to some acts that may not have been suitable to her delicate disposition, she just laughed and curled her sweeping branches around him in a much kinder fashion than he had heretofore experienced, which made him wonder how much pleasure she was taking out of the normal painful whacks she delivered to anyone who crossed her.
You know you're made for each other
It's been that way all along
When the moon aligns with the dog star,
The chance for true love is strong
You're no longer just a mere pup
You got a heart and it's on the prowl
Sirius, there's no doubt that you've got
The right stuff to make Remus howl
‘Sweet Merlin,’ Sirius thought, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Uncharacteristically, he felt himself starting to blush. That wasn’t exactly the type of grandmotherly advice he was expecting, even if it came from a tree. Not that he was very familiar with grandmotherly advice in the first place, or motherly advice for that matter.
~ ~ ~
Sirius was still not overly happy that his relationship with Remus had made the front page of the latest issue of the Hogwarts Gazette, but as James had commented laconically, when did they not make the front page of the Gazette. Nearly every issue mentioned some prank or other that would have their names quoted in print as the pranksters, if it wasn’t for the fact that the Editor was afraid of retaliation. Not that he needed to print the names of the Marauders, as every student in Hogwarts was aware of the four pranksters who loved nothing better than to turn Snape’s robes, hair or skin a different colour most days.
But it was different to see his private life displayed to the rest of the world as entertainment.
Remus didn’t seem to mind as much as he did.
There's no point in hiding
‘Glad it is out in the open,’ he said, grabbing Sirius’ hand and dragging him behind the nearest suit of armour for a good snog.
Soon all thoughts of the Hogwarts Gazette were but a distant memory and all Sirius could think of was how to make Moony howl.