miscommunication and models

Remus shut the door and leaned against it as he turned, looking at his friends. Marlene had taken a seat on his sofa, while Peter was hovering anxiously, and fiddling with his coat. It was strange to see him so uncomfortable in his home, it had never been a problem before and it instantly set Remus on edge. He found himself looking for signs of what exactly was wrong, had something happened with James or Sirius- but no.. Marlene was here, it couldn't be that. Was it Dorcas? Or the contract? Was it something to do with the band? There were millions of different things that popped into Remus’ head but he had no way of knowing, well not until he walked into his living room and he wasn't so sure he wanted to do that.

Fuck it, though. Better now than later.

He took a deep breath of air, pushed off the door and walked further into his living room, looking warily at his friends. He ended up sitting near Marlene, near the edge of the couch. 

They were all quiet, no one seemed to know how to start up this conversation. In the end, it was Peter (to even his own surprise) to be out with it. “Jamie has to go.”

“Real gentle, Pettigrew,” Marlene said, giving him a stern look.

“What? You weren't saying anything!” Peter shot back, “I never said I’d be good at this. It's your fault for trusting me!”

Remus was just looking at them both with a confused expression, shaking his head, “What the fuck do you mean?”.

Marlene and Peter shared a look, and Remus started to wonder just how much these two had talked. 

“We were talking about it, and we both agree-”

“You and Marlene?”

“Yes.” Peter shrugged, “Just hear us out.”

Remus waved his hand, gesturing for them to go on, he was already frustrated by the whole situation. Who were they to just throw Jamie out? He’d gotten them this far hadn't he? And when the hell did Marlene get involved in all of this?!

“Jamies shady as fuck- don't look at me like that, I'm right.” Marlene said, giving him a harsh look, “And don't start with ‘he's so nice shit’ because that's not why people don't trust him, we don't trust him because he is such an unauthentic person.”

“I mean not even his hair is real!” Peter chimed in.

Marlene nodded, “I don't know why you have this weird attachment, or–or Peter what's the word?”

“Indebtment?”

“That's not even a real word.”

“Well, I'm not google, Marlene!”

“Can you get to the fucking point?” Remus asked, bringing the attention back to the Jamie situation. Both Marlene and Peter's expressions sobered, it seemed they hadn't quite planned this far ahead.

“Right well, I don't know why you have a weird ‘indebtment’ to Jamie, but all it's doing is making shit worse. Jamie has been fucking you guys over, even if it isn't obvious. Like with Peter!”

“What are you meaning? What happened with Peter?”

“The whole pride flag thing?”

“That wasn't a big deal though, we changed the profile picture-”

“No Remus,” Pete cut in, “it was a kind of big deal, for me at least. I mean at first, it wasn't bad, just him leaving me out of meetings and shit but James noticed that and thought I just forgot so he was always reminding me of the meeting. Meetings I never knew existed in the first place. So I confronted Jamie, and he said…” Peter just shrugged, “Well in not so many words but that if I started shit I was out.”

“Pete.. We wouldn't- we wouldn't of let that happen.” Remus said, guilt rising in him as he put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.

“That's the thing though Remus, you guys trust Jamie. If he said I was out, well.. So I didn't say shit. Then the interviews.. You all got them, but me? They stopped overnight. It all just got to the point where I was just in the background, only used for the album or concerts or shit. AndI-I never did this for the fame, but.. it's not exactly fun to be in the biggest band in the world and only have a handful of people know who I am. I don't want to be ‘that guy on the keyboard’! I want to be a marauder.. Like when we were kids.”.

“Pete.. Your still a Marauder-”

“Not like I used to be.” 

Remus couldn't help but feel a piece of his heartbreak at Peters's word. The life they had created for themselves had all revolved around their brotherhood, being The Marauders, it never occurred to him that anyone could weasel their way in and break it. 

Oh fuck.

☺

“I can't say that I won't regret this in the morning but..”

Peter held his breath, was this really happening? Oh, shit were they really going to do this? Or is Remus about to throw everything in his face and tell him to get out? Oh fuck he messed everything up didn't he?

“But?” Marlene asked, she had the same hopeful look in her eyes as Peter did, but hers lack the apprehension.

“Let's call James and Sirius. We can't stay under Phoenix. Not with Jamie.”

“You mean it?” Peter asked, he could hardly believe that Remus was so easily swayed, he was still holding his breath waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Pete, you're my brother. Your more important than any of this shit, and if it's between you and Jamie? I choose you.”

Peter felt as though he could cry with relief.

★

marauders

(moony) we need to have a serious talk.

(moony) meet tomorrow, 6pm at mine?

(moony) it's about Jamie.

(prongs) see you there.

(sirius) fuckig finaly.

☼

James had spent the night with Lily, all but spilling his entire life's secrets. The band, Sirius, Jamie, the time he broke his mum's favourite lamp and blamed it on Sirius because he knew she would never get mad at him for it.

And that was just this month's problems.

She had been very understanding (though she did chastise him over the lamp) and had never released her hold on James, not even when they fell asleep.

It was a dream waking up to Lily Evans. She looked ethereal, though that word didn't feel like enough to James, no he knew there would never be a word to describe her beauty, but he could try.

Celestial, gorgeous, bewitching, enthralling, stunning, enchanting, glamorous, adorable…

James could imagine spending the rest of his life waking up to Lily Evans.

He was having the best morning of his life until he checked his phone.

☺

“Moony?”

“Hm?”

It was early, far too early but neither of them had slept well so either way their eyes dropped and their minds were sluggish. Neither boy had touched their phone, rather than spent the night talking through everything and figuring out who they could call and discuss changing management with (Marlene was leading that conversation.). They had learned a lot about each other, and it was almost reminiscent of boarding school other than the lack of input from their other friends.

Peter had only been up a few moments, the insistent buzz of his phone was what woke him (he cursed himself for forgetting to mute Twitter). At first, he couldn't figure out what was wrong, and as he tried to open the app he found himself locked out from the band's account. Switching to his personality he found their name trending, which was never a good sign. He held his breath as he pulled up their account and read their latest tweet.

The words registered after a while, sending a pang of ice-cold shock through him. 

Hiatus? 

Who tweeted this?

Why the fuck did they not know their own band was going on hiatus?

What about the tour?

Shit, shit, shit…

It was an insistent chant through his head as he woke up Remus, he was shocked to find his voice eerily calm.

Shit, shit, shit…

“Have you been on Twitter?”

“No?”

“You might want to check that.”

Everything was quiet, spare Marlene's snoring in the background. It took a while but eventually, Remus opened Twitter and saw it.

“What the fuck?”

★

Sirius wasn't exactly sure how he had gotten home, but he was sure that he was never drinking with the Longbottoms again. He had just met them, and though he was quickly growing fond of the couple, they were here recording their debut album and had recognized Sirius. They bought him a drink, and one became four, and four became a number he now couldn't remember. 

What he did know is that Alice Longbottom was a beast who could hold her liquor, because by the end of the night he distinctly remember her considerably sober figure calling a car and sending him on his way.

What he did not remember though was the figure laying next to him.

This was just his fucking luck, wasn't it?

And even worse, his phone was buzzing insistently and making his headache grow considerably.

Could the day get worse?

☼

“Guess we can take back what we said about him not screwing us over,” Peter said, crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair. 

It was a similar scene to the one from two months ago when they had first found out about the ‘Marlene Situation. They had all seen the tweet and had congregated in Remus' living room to... discuss. Sirius was pacing and the rest had sat in their usual seats, all quite tense.

“Funny, Pete. Great timing.” Sirius huffed, throwing a nasty look.

Peter shrugged, he wasn't trying to be funny.

James, frankly, felt as if he was going to throw up. He hated when his friends argued, and he couldn't even tell if they were arguing. They had all agreed that it wasn't any of them who sent out the tweet, and then with the process of elimination it was obvious who sent it out.

How had it all gone downhill so quickly?

Fucking Jamie, how could he do this to them? Had they meant nothing? They had won him awards, they had helped his career and this is how he repays them? Stab them in the back!

But wasn't it exactly what they had done? Had Jamie meant nothing to them? Jamie helped them win awards and advance their career, and they repay him by firing him.

James was trying so hard to keep both sides in his mind, but all they ever did was make him feel worse. Were they wrong? Or was Jamie wrong?

He really needed a break from this stress!

“How did Jamie find out we were gonna.. y’know-”

“Fire him, James?” Pete asked.

“Yeah. I don't get it, how did he know to send out the tweet?”

“I don't know, I really don't.”

“Maybe he's a witch, he acts like a hag anyways,” Sirius mumbled.

“You’re all so eager to jump on the ‘hate Jamie train’ when the fuck did this all happen?” 

James knew Remus was on their side, but fuck he wished he could lose his loyalty to Jamie.

“I never liked him all that much.” Peter shrugged.

“When he started getting in between our relati- friendship. It's fucked.”

They looked to James, “I don't hate anyone… but I’m not going to keep a manager if it hurts anyone, and after realising everything its kinda hard not to see the parts where Jamie did what was best for him and not us.”

“I hate this so much.” Remus let his head fall to the back of his couch.

“I know, it's not exactly how I wanted to spend my day either.”

“Ok enough of this,” Peter said, “we can break down later, right now we need to figure out if we even own our own music. Marlene said she can get us a meeting with her new management?”

Remus nodded, “Ok great, the worst thing that could happen now is this shit getting to the press, people think the bands over for now and that at least gets us a bit of publicity which might help us in the long run. Jamie might have our socials and that shit-”

“He can't use our bankcards right?” James asked suddenly.

“...surely not?” Remus looked just as concerned.

“Fuck are we going to have to get a lawyer?” Sirius ran his hand through his hair.

“He hasn't used our cards! I don't even know if we can sue for our songs in the first place, I'm making this all up as I go!” Peter was starting to look stressed, “But.. Sirius maybe you should call your brother?”

“Fucking hell…”

The room was quiet, the only sound was of Sirius retreating with his phone in his hand, presumingly to call Regulus which almost always ended with a shouting match but they could only hope Regulus would help them.

It was ridiculous, all of this. James couldn't help but giggle.

“Prongs,” Peter asked, concerned.

James was trying really hard not to, but he just couldn't help it! It was so absurd and if he didn't laugh he was sure he'd cry.

“Prongs, are you seriously laughing?”

“...ha. Sirius-ly.”

and that was that, it was as if a band broke and James laughed until his gut hurt.

“God, I'm sorry. This is just… I mean who would've thought Peter would be the voice of reason?"

“Your ridiculous.”

And maybe he was, but he felt a hell of a lot better.

Now they just needed to handle Jamie.