FIC: Halloween Mayhem X [Harry Potter, Marauders]

[omnicat]

Summary of the Story so far: Remus has, after a long time of pining, gathered up the courage to ask McGonagall for help in courting the girl he likes.
Lily, who helped him find McGonagall, has in her impatience tried to find out what he was up to, and feels guilty afterwards; she can’t convince herself completely that her Prefect’s responsibilities were the only reason, and that Severus’s accusations that Remus is keeping a dangerous secret had nothing to do with it.
After a row with James, Sirius was out for the same thing, but he used a more direct approach... Poor Remus didn’t know what was coming to him, and was, considering his earlier insecurities, easily coaxed, bribed and harassed into telling Sirius about his plan, and Sirius later relays the story to James. However, the two of them make the big mistake of laughing at Remus for it. So while Peter is in the Hospital Wing recovering from a skewed decoy plot, Sirius and James, too, are now sporting black eyes.
Remus’s foul mood is lifted somewhat when Lily (trying to make up for her earlier lack of faith in him) offers to help him tackle his shyness.
Meanwhile, Sirius has taken it upon himself to find out what the suspicious new rumour that is going around Hogwarts is about. He is shocked when he hears it, and confronts Remus with it - or rather, accuses him of trying to seduce Lily. This finally pushes Remus over the edge. Harsh words are exchanged between them, leaving both unsettled. James, too, hears the rumour, and his reaction outmatches even Remus’s anger.
When Sirius and James, both shaken mentally, meet up again, they decide to find out what’s really going on between Remus and Lily by letting Peter spy on them.
The newly recovered Peter, however, runs into Remus before Sirius and James can get to him, and finds out what happened... and just how miserable it’s making Remus. Remus makes him promise not to tell James or Sirius about it, which forces Peter to take on the job of spying on him to prove that he is really not after Lily.
He succeeds, and James, upon hearing the truth, is relieved enough to apologize to Remus. But Remus refuses his offer to bury the hatchet, and when James suggests to the other Marauders that they make it up to him by "preparing" Shara for Remus’s planned courting, Sirius, too, refuses and turns out to have finally decided on a response to Remus’s harsh words; anger.
However, upon remembering that Shara has two older brothers (bulky seventh year Beaters), James becomes desperate to find a way to help Remus. He comes up with the most unlikely of strategies; enlisting Lily’s help. But when he manages to convince her to cooperate (she still feels guilty and is trying to make up for what she did, though James doesn’t know that), his plan is ruined when Remus finds out about it and forbids him to come near Shara.
The Marauders are stuck in something like a cold war as the days pass and Halloween approaches. The tension is high, and one day, Peter just can’t take it anymore...


Chapter Ten; Surprise, Surprise

Peter had never liked having to get up in the morning, but this past week had intensified that sentiment more than even he had thought possible. Getting up in the morning meant all four Marauders being in the same room together, without any excuses to pretend they didn’t notice each other, such as being asleep. As a matter of fact, it meant they had to find a way to all get their turn to use the bathroom and still make it to breakfast and class in time. Preferably without jinxing each other in the process.

The fact that it was a Monday made it even worse. And of course James brutally pulling the blankets off his bed, thereby robbing Peter of any lingering sleepiness he had left, was never a good thing. James had taken to doing that when he’d noticed that if Remus did not get Peter out of bed in time, it simply would not happen (though not before Peter had received detention from McGonagall for missing half a class).

When those memories resurfaced from the brainlessness of recent awakening, Peter groaned, knowing that the feeling of not wanting to be awake would last until bedtime.

As James went about his own morning routines, Peter reluctantly sat up. He was just in time to see Remus silently pull the door closed behind him; he could only be heading for the bathroom. James was rummaging through his trunk, pointedly ignoring Remus by doing so, and Sirius was nowhere to be seen. His bed was neatly made, Peter noted worriedly, which meant that he had either been awake for a while already (because only a house-elf would make the bed of Sirius Black), or that he had not slept in his bed at all. Peter wasn’t sure which thought bothered him most; Sirius getting up early, or Sirius not going to bed at night at all. The former was creepily unnatural, and the latter meant he’d drink coffee at breakfast.

Putting the troublesome thoughts aside as best he could for lack of anything he could do about it, Peter got up and started looking for the books he would need that day.

The silence in the dorm was eerie, even after a week of it. Peter couldn’t remember the room ever being so silent in the past. The occupants of the dorm seemed to have reverted to walking on tiptoe, as if any loud noise would make the already volatile situation even more painful and explosive. The oppressive silence felt like it tried to physically smother Peter.

When Remus returned, newly dressed and groomed, half of Peter wished for, craved, a friendly greeting or casual joke, while the other half fearfully expected a sneer. But nothing came. Remus just walked over to his bed and started packing his bag. Even James seemed to have given up on trying to get the other Marauders to talk. James and Remus went about their separate business without so much as a word or glance at each other, like they were trapped in invisible cocoons that kept them from seeing each other.

And then Sirius burst into the room, covered in paint, with his arms up in the air, cheering and screaming: "Eureka! I did it, it worked! Worship me, oh minions, bow before my supreme genius, for I am your Dung-Bomb God!"

In the surprised silence that followed the initial yelp Remus, James and Peter let out, a distinct scent of dung spread through the room.

For one heart-stopping moment, it felt to Peter as if everything had returned to normal.

"Well?" Sirius asked as he lowered his hands and looked around the room. "Where’s my adulation? I just detonated the world’s first working paint-dung-bomb, give me some credit here!"

Remus, who had been stuffing books into his bag before his near heart attack, straightened and asked venomously: "Are you going to abuse Peter with it again?"

The abnormal reality of the situation returning full force, Peter wheezed in delayed shock, unable to speak even when Sirius’s gaze raked him. He cowered - actually physically flinched backward, trying to put as much space between him and Sirius and Remus as possible. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to get out of bed. It felt like his parents were fighting again, shouting at each other and using him as a leverage in their attempts to humiliate each other. Peter wanted to cry, but he was afraid to do it in front of his warring friends, so he resorted to wringing his shaking hands instead.

Sirius’s excitement-flushed face darkened as he scowled at Remus. "Tempting, but I think you would make a better target."

"Watch your mouth, Black, or you’ll end up in detention for harassing a prefect." Remus threatened as he forcefully pushed past Sirius in the doorway.

"Oh, you think you’re so though, waving around that shiny badge. Why don’t you just stick that thing up your arse." Sirius muttered darkly, but didn’t pursue the matter further. With a jerk of his head he flicked the hair from his eyes and strutted further into the dormitory, like he really was a Dung-Bomb God; as crankily regal as he managed to look, he was still covered in paint and reeking of dung.

James, who had watched the entrance and exchange silently, with a tired look on his face, shook his head as he zipped up his book bag.

Sirius saw this and huffed. "What?"

"Nothing, Sirius." James said listlessly. His best friend’s mood almost seemed to drag Sirius down with it. Almost.

"Aren’t you even curious about how I did it? It was the paint, mate. You used magical paint, which nullified the magic in the dungbombs that took care of the smell. You should have tried it with Muggle-made paint. Now it’s working like a charm."

"Sirius, bloody Hell!" James exclaimed, exasperated. "How can you - bugger, it’s two days ’till Halloween and you spend half the night working on paint-filled dung-bombs rather than trying to think of a way to make up with Remus!"

Sirius looked at him with steely eyes. "Yeah. So? Who cares about that prick? Let him do whatever the Hell he wants, I don’t give a shit."

With a look of mixed disbelief and despair, James looked at Sirius, searching for any sign of hope on his friend’s face. When he realised there was nothing there to find, he lowered his gaze, defeated.

"That’s going to be the first Halloween the four of us don’t spend together..." he muttered as his dulled hazel eyes roamed about the room. They widened once they landed on Peter, who was shaking from head to toe by now, and scrunched his face up pitifully. "Oh, Peter..." James said helplessly as the smaller boy burst out crying.

"I can’t take this! I don’t want this! Why can’t you guys act normal and be friends again?! Remus isn’t even mad!" Peter wailed. Sirius snorted loudly, and James shot him a venomous look before turning to Peter again.

"I’m sorry buddy, but he is. It’s not just a small incident this time. Things got out of hand while you were in the Hospital Wing, and now Remus is really, really angry." James shot Sirius a look. "And since Sirius is too stubborn to apologize -"

"That’s not true!" cried Peter, looking at James with watery eyes. "It’s not like that, not really. He told me -" And then everything Peter - and, through him, Remus - had been keeping bottled up inside, came out.

He told James and Sirius everything Remus had said to him, of how betrayed Remus had felt, of the sense that Sirius and James considered Remus to be unworthy, of wanting to be equal but fearing rejecting, pity or ridicule. He told them how hard Remus found it to do some of the simplest things, and about Remus’s desperate resistance and his seemingly backward way of reasoning, which said that it would be better for their friendship if Sirius and James thought Remus was just as tough as the two of them, instead of thinking he was a spineless pushover that needed to be sheltered from the world outside the Marauder way of life. As Peter spoke, it was clear that James was shocked by the revelations, and kept getting shocked further, but Sirius’s face had quickly lost all expression, and then all the blood, making it look like he was about to throw up. When Peter’s words died down and he dissolved into little whimpers and sobs, Sirius spoke up, his voice savage but shaking treacherously.

"I don’t believe you. Why would he tell this to you, instead of to us? That doesn’t make any sense, you filthy, lying rat."

"Sirius, have you been listening?" James said softly. "He doesn’t want us to know about his problems. He’s afraid we’d - Merlin, I knew it was something like this, I just knew it, but this bad..." He looked up at Sirius. "We need to talk to him. His fears are ungrounded, we should tell him that -"

"I thought you’d been listening?" Sirius snapped, obviously in distress. "That’s not going to work, you dunce. What other reason would he think we had to do that than pity?"

James swallowed thickly, visibly taken aback. "We could explain it to him. I’m sure we -"

"James, don’t you get it? If we go and patronize him now, he won’t accept it. It’s useless!"

"Damnit, Sirius!" James burst out. He jumped up. "We can’t just leave it like this! After hearing what Peter just said, how can you still act like that? This is all -" He swallowed the ‘your fault’ quickly, but maybe Sirius had already heard it.

He refused to look at James as he mumbled: "I know, James, I know. Just - I - it... I need to think."

And with that, he fled. Without his book bag or cloak, Merlin knew where to. A sense of helplessness washed over James as the door fell shut behind Sirius once more. Peter was still sniffling pitifully, but apart from those sounds, the dorm was silent.

"I’m sorry, Peter." James mumbled as he sank down on Peter’s bed and rested his head in his hands. "I just don’t know what to do with those two."

Sirius stayed missing throughout the day, leaving James and Peter with the awkward questions from teachers and fangirls alike. Remus, oblivious to what had transpired in the dormitory after he had left, noted their growling stomachs and clumsy excuses with suspicion, and was extra alert to hidden pranks and ambushes. The need to keep silent for the sake of their friends kept Peter and James trapped in bubbles of guilt and doubt as to whether what he had done was right, and an agonizing incapability to find a solution to the problem, respectively.

It was only after dinner that Sirius resurfaced. He grabbed James by the scruff when the latter wanted to give the Fat Lady the password, told Peter to go up ahead, and dragged James to a dark, deserted corridor with a cryptic "We have to talk." His face was blotchy and his hair in disarray. He looked like he had had an exceptionally rough day, which gave James a perverse kind of hope that maybe he would be willing to co-operate after all.

"I figured out what we have to do." Sirius said without looking at James, and proceeded to tell him what that was. His voice was strangled and there were many long, painful pauses between words, like he had to fight himself to get them out time and time again. But come they did.

James’s hope became true. But hearing those words, James didn’t know whether the tears stinging behind his eyes were from relief or grief.

Remus was lying awake again that night, thinking too much for such a late hour, as he had been doing for days now, and still not getting any closer to a solution. Also as per usual. It would be Halloween the day after tomorrow, and despite his resolution, Remus was having doubts.

It seemed his mind had become increasingly adept at coming up with disaster scenarios over the past few days. It hadn’t been this active since the time he still had to hide his lycanthropy from his dorm mates. ‘What if’s were on a rampage in his head. What if Shara rejected him? What if he really had caused the demise of the Marauders? What if both those things happened? And what if, should he start hanging out with Lily instead, Lily found out he was a werewolf and rejected him and he’d have lost all his friends and he would have to live like a recluse somewhere in the mountains for the rest of his life until he died and his body was eaten by the wild animals that had been his only companions?

Groaning, Remus flipped onto his stomach and put his pillow over his head. He could already picture the carnivorous squirrels; the wind howling around the tower and rattling the windowpanes sounded like their war cries.

A hand touched Remus’s shoulder, and Remus made an airborne, spasm-like movement that landed him face up with his back pressed against the headboard.

"Moony?"

"Sirius?!" he hissed, his shaking voice not sounding quite as venomous as he would have liked. "What do you want?"

"To talk." came the hoarse and unusually serious reply. Before Remus could land a snide remark, Sirius continued: "Please listen to us, Remus. I know you’re angry, but what James and have to say is important."

Remus hesitated. Sirius’s tone of voice was exceptional enough to pique Remus’s curiosity and instil some hope in him that maybe he had finally gotten through to his thick-headed friend. "Is James there too?"

"Right here, mate." James said from the other side of Remus’s bed.

"Alright then, but make it quick." Remus eventually said.

Now that his curtains were opened, he could make out the outlines of the two Marauders against the faint glow of moonlight. They seemed to exchange glances (or at least try to) before Sirius said: "Wormtail told us everything.", thereby shocking Remus severely.

They couldn’t mean - "What do you mean?" Remus asked a bit too fast; his voice trembled.

"He told us about the real reason you won’t talk to us. And it’s okay if you don’t; we just want you to listen. I - and James to, I think - have something to tell you, and it doesn’t matter what you think of it, as long as I can let you know. Can I sit down?"

Still shaken, Remus nodded, only to realise Sirius couldn’t see him do that, and make a sound of approval. Sirius rested his weight next to Remus’s knees as James crawled over to the foot end of the bed. Remus drew up his legs to make room for them.

"This is not going to be easy for me. So... please don’t interrupt too much." Sirius said slowly. "There’s a reason I’ve never talked about this. Not even to James... he only knows bits and pieces... But I... I’ve had some time to think today, and I decided that it’s time to be perfectly honest with you. We have to make this clear once and for all."

He scraped his throat, and there was a short silence before he spoke again. "You know what my family is like, right? No, don’t answer that, it was a rhetorical question. They’re rotten to the core. All of them have always been Slytherins, save for one or two exceptions every other generation. And I’m sure you can imagine how happy my family was when I turned out to officially be one of those exceptions. The two of you... hmph, I’m sure the whole of Gryffindor has heard me rant and rave about how going home in the summer is torture. But I haven’t been... entirely... honest..."

He trailed off, but after a short pause his voice became steely and he went on. Remus listened, a dreadful cold spreading through his chest. His own parents were saints compared to what he had known of Sirius’s, especially considering his condition. But he was old and jaded enough to know that some parents weren’t so great to have.

Oh Merlin... Oh Merlin, no... Remus kept thinking, trying to cope with what he heard.

He’d always assumed that because Sirius - who was sometimes a bit too outspoken - had never mentioned anything more serious than his parents’ growing support for Voldemort and the Death Eaters’ pureblood ideals, and how much more often he got into trouble for his different opinion nowadays, nothing more serious was going on. The thought that Sirius would hide something such as he was confessing to now, was unthinkable. So Remus had dismissed is secret fear and suspicion concerning the Black family as a result of his ever-present paranoia. Without any evidence, Sirius’s confident, carefree attitude had made Remus’s doubts seem outright ridiculous. But his current story left no more room for doubts...

With many pauses and a strained voice, Sirius told them about his childhood in Grimmauld Place. His family’s pureblood status and sentiments were widely known, as was the fact that they were not happy with a Gryffindor for a son, but Sirius had had it rough even before coming to Hogwarts.

His father, Orion, kept a tight reign on the entire family, and on Sirius, the family heir, in particular. Undoubtedly out of experience, he believed physical force was the best way to keep your children in check. Orion Black was not an absolutely unreasonable or truly unstable person, he did not even enjoy cruelty, Sirius had to admit; he was just cold to the bone, and incapable of dealing with resistance and disobedience. Walburga Black, his mother, was a different story. Sirius suspected she was a borderline sociopath, and knew for a fact that even in pureblood circles, "where they make arrangements for the inbreeding of their own children and think it’s funny to use Muggles as guinea pigs for their dark magic", she was the subject of much gossip and controversy, protected from outright ridicule only by her high status and pure blood.

If one of their sons neglected their parents’ instructions, if they broke the rules, if they fought among each other or with other pureblooded children (not halfbloods or muggles, though; the opposite was true then), sometimes even if they failed to achieve the results Orion and Walburga demanded from them, they were punished. Walburga despised physical contact with her children, and stuck to shouting profanities and dragging their psyches through the mud. Orion, though, had no such qualms. He was a tall man, with broad shoulders and big hands, which he used expertly.

Remus, who was getting increasingly nauseous, could feel Sirius shaking when he spoke about this with a dead voice, and made a distracted mental note to check his friend’s palms for half-moon shaped wounds the next morning. Orion always made sure not to leave scars or hit his sons in places where the bruises could be seen, but that did not hinder him in achieving his goal - causing a frightening amount of pain - in the least. Sirius was just glad he’d only been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse twice in his entire life.

When both Remus and James gasped and made noises as if to speak, he made sure to point out (decidedly more willing than he had been talking before) that he would usually only receive one or two blows; he had never been ‘really beaten up’ unless he had actively gone out of his way to ‘deserve’ it. The crucios had only occurred after he had gotten into Gryffindor; once right after he came back from his first year at Hogwarts and had just finished glueing a Gryffindor banner to his bedroom wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm, and once last summer, when he had added a Muggle poster of a girl in a bikini to the motley collage of Gryffindor and Muggle paraphranelia that covered all his walls by now.

Remus felt sick. Sirius went on, lamely pretending what he’d said previously was nothing to get upset about.

Regulus had never been much of a troublemaker, and even his scant few cross tendencies and opinions had disappeared quickly. Sirius, who had always been bone-headed and an intuitive believer of having a good time, bitterly recalled how much of a suck-up his little brother was whenever their parents were around, and how easily Sirius could get the same result when they were not - without having to resort to his parents’ means. They had been inseperable as children. At least, at first; after a while, it was either their father’s ‘teachings’ or Regulus’s own nature that made him choose the pureblood side. Though Sirius vehemently denied having actively tried to ‘get him back’, what he said next made Remus doubt that.

"I loathed the other pureblood kids by that time, and they were the only people I was allowed to hang out with. Potters, Weasleys, Prewetts - all the good pureblooded people’s kids were off limits for me, and Andromeda, the one I keep telling you about, you know, the one who married a muggle-born and had a metamorphmagus baby? If I so much as mentioned her name..." The matrass shook with Sirius’s shudder. "One time, I tried to become friends with a Muggle boy living across the street. My father cursed him badly when he found out, the Obliviators had a fit over it... And I’m sure you can guess what happened to me.

For the longest time, Regulus was my only friend, and then I - I lost him. I really don’t know if it was him or my father that is to blame, but... I don’t care. No, scratch that... I made myself believe I don’t care. But I do." Sirius said lowly, carefully, as if he had to fight to keep his voice steady. "He’s my little brother. How could I not care? It’s just that... it’s easier to tell myself I don’t care and move on than it is to have to face the facts every day when I wake up. I hate those facts. I hate them, I HATE them, but there’s nothing I can do about it!" he all but shouted. He took a moment to calm himself before he went on, his voice forcibly soft: "Point of the matter is, I realised something when I came to Hogwarts. Probably the most important realisation in my life: you can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends."

Remus could feel Sirius’s gaze on him at that moment. And I chose you guys, were the words that he did not speak, but that they could all hear. In Remus’s own guilt-ridden head, he added: and now look what you did to me.

"You can choose the friends you want," Sirius said. "but if they want you too is a different matter altogether. You may or may not have noticed, but I’m not as brainless as I sometimes seem. I realise why some people like me, and why others hate me. I go to a certain amount of effort to keep it that way. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate my family and their pureblood ideas just so the Gryffindors will accept me. Merlin knows I truly and deeply despise them. And it’s not like I outright lie about what I think and feel. It’s just that I know there are certain things people would rather not know about me - or are a bit too eager to know - so I keep those things to myself. I don’t talk about it. And for the sake of not drowning in self-pity, I try not to think about it either."

Sirius took a deep breath. His next words felt almost like an echo of Remus’s feelings. He phrased them so accurately that it gave Remus goose bumps.

"I always try to ignore the effect my mother and father had - still have - on me. I hate them and anything to do with them, and I hate the fact that I’m their son. But there’s no denying it - honestly, I’ve done tests to see if I wasn’t secretly someone else’s kid. And as much as I try, in the end it’s no use pretending. Whatever I do, I keep getting reminded of the fact that it’s all a result of how my parents treated me."

Sirius took a shaky breath, and for the first time that night, Remus thought he was really crying. "A shrink might say that I never had the stable, caring home that’s needed to raise a normal kid. My parents never loved me, and I think it screwed me up in the head. And I’m probably never going to get rid of the feeling that I’m constantly contradicting myself and that those bastards stole my chance at a normal, truly happy life.

I hate them with a passion, but somehow I still wish they would love me. I try to go against everything they stand for, do anything to show my hatred and contempt for them, and yet..." His voice became so soft it was barely audible. "And yet, some twisted part of me still loves them... Loves the father that would praise me when I did something right, loves the mother that took care of me before I could stand on my own two feet. It’s so screwed up... It’s become an almost compulsive need to rebel, this want to distance myself from my family. Anything even remotely unpleasant has to be gotten rid of, even when I know it’s better to deal with it. Sometimes I feel so unhinged, I just don’t know if what I’m doing is really what I want to be doing, or if it’s even me doing it, instead of some black imprint left by my father’s fists and my mother’s words."

There was a small pause before Sirius asked: "Remus, you’re the observant one, the empathic one. Have you ever wondered about me? Have you ever had the feeling that there was something wrong with me, that my emotions were too one-sided?"

Remus clenched his eyes shut, despite the fact that the night was pitch black by now, the moon hidden by a blanket of clouds. "I’m sorry," he said. "Merlin, I’m so sorry."

"For what?" Sirius asked, an unusual gentleness to his voice. "You didn’t know, couldn’t know. I never told this to anyone before. You’re not the only one who’s hiding their problems, Remus. Peter told us you were afraid we wouldn’t want you anymore if we found out how much your lycanthropy really bothered you. Well, then what about me?"

There was no answer, so he went on, more forcefully now.

"We would never abandon you because of the problems you have, Remus. We all have problems of our own, be they small or werewolf-sized. Friends stick by each other despite the hard times. ...Remus? Moony, are you crying?"

Obviously, he was. "Why are you telling me this?" he sobbed. "James I can understand, but why me? What did I do to deserve to know this?"

"Aw, crap, Remus." Sirius laughed weakly and crawled up to Remus. After a moment of groping in the dark, he found Remus’s shoulder, put his arm around it, and pulled the other boy to his chest in a very manly man-hug, which was certainly in no way girly. Honestly. "You’re a Marauder, Moony. You always deserved to know." he said. "I just didn’t want anyone to know. Just like how James and I deserved to know about all those things you were hiding from us."

Men are stupid that way, Lily’s voice said inside Remus’s head. But every now and then even they can learn something.

"How did you get so wise all of the sudden?" Remus asked, chuckling slightly and feeling light-headed. Sirius and James had found out, but they hadn’t rejected him. They’d taken him back in despite... despite all that. And Sirius, as awful a thought it was, understood. The world was a horrible place, but he had his friends back. He had his friends back!

Sirius snorted as he let go of Remus. "I’m not wise, I’m just rambling. Oh, and I am mortally offended that you’d pick Wormtail over Padfoot, but that should be clear."

Now it was Remus’s turn to snort. "Changing the subject already?" he asked, with a hint of his old, sarcastic Prefect’s authority and a dash of newfound confidence. Merlin, what’s wrong with me? he wondered. Thinking like that after a night like this. And then he asked himself why it should be wrong. He had his friends back, better than ever before.

"Well, we’re done talking about the last subject, as far as I’m concerned, so why not switch to a new one? Oh, no wait - James hasn’t had his turn yet."

Remus nearly had a heart-attack. More?!

"Me?! Why - What did you think I could possibly add to all you’ve said?" James asked, sounding sheepish. "I’d just sound stupid, whining about unimportant things, compared to you two."

"Nonsense. You said there was something bothering you this afternoon, but you wouldn’t tell me. Now ’fess up already! A problem is a problem."

"Well, alright... Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though." James took a deep breath. "You don’t take my feelings for Lily seriously."

Silence.

"See, there you go again!"

Remus and Sirius looked at each other in the dark.

"Um, James..." Remus said tentatively. "You can’t honestly blame us for not taking it seriously, can you? I mean, all you do is irritate her."

"See, this is exactly what I mean." James said plaintively. "I can’t help it! I’m trying to keep things light for her. Predestined love can be an overwhelming thing, you know."

"As can requests for a French kiss coming from a bloke who’s only ever challenged her in the past." Sirius reminded him.

"I already said I can’t help it!" James wailed. "I don’t know how to handle girls. It would be so much easier if she realised our destiny too..."

James sounded so pitiful, Remus couldn’t stand it. "What do you say if I helped you out a bit with that?" he offered. "I spend a lot of time with her, Prefect rounds and all, so maybe I can give you useful tips."

"Aahrgh, thank you Moony!" James threw himself at Remus, almost knocking them both off the bed.

With an excited: "Marauder orgy!", Sirius joined the heap, and this time, they did end up on the floor. While they were laughing, Remus noticed they’d turned out to have changed subjects after all. But he also found he didn’t mind. He had not only gotten his friends back that night, he had also gained something so big he could not wrap his mind around it yet. And it didn’t matter, because he had enough time to do that in the future. As hard as life could be, this would be alright. He had his friends, and in two days maybe even a girlfriend. It would be alright.

On the other side of the room, Peter woke with a start. "Huh, whah? Whazgoinon?" he asked sleepily.

"James, Remus and I are holding an orgy, care to join us?" Sirius called.

"Whah?"

"Hey, guys," Remus asked, with still some traces of laughter in his voice. "this isn’t going to be an SM orgy, is it?"

"Why of course not!" James exclaimed, obviously thinking the joke was going a little too far now. "What makes you think that?"

"Well... aren’t you the least bit mad at me for everything that happened?"

"Oh, yes." James said, as though he only now thought of it.

"We were royally miffed, alright." Sirius added casually.

"So... why am I not being punished? It’s not like you guys to be so... unvindictive."

"Well, we did leave you simmer for the past few days. From what Wormtail told us, we figured that was punishment enough for you. Right Wormtail?" Sirius bellowed.

"Wh - What?"

"Just say yes."

"Yes?"

"Good boy."

"Wh - What’s going on?"

"Prongs and I just made up with Moony. Nothing to stay awake over. Go back to sleep, Wormtail."

"I - is that true, Remus?" Peter asked in a fuzzy voice.

Remus could faintly make out Sirius’s silhouette as he stood up and extended his hand. "Yeah." he said quietly, taking the hand and getting up. "It’s true. Go back to sleep, Peter."

Peter mumbled something and almost immediately resumed snoring. Then Sirius’s stomach growled, and Sirius himself groaned.

"Merlin, I’m hungry." he said faintly, clutching at Remus as if for support. "I haven’t eaten all day."

"You’ve been fasting? Oh, so that’s where that sudden spat of wisdom came from." Remus quipped, still feeling light in the head. For a few agonizing days, he’d thought he’d never be able to do this again...

"Maybe. But I’d rather have a stomach full of food than a head full of wisdom. Who’s in for a kitchen raid?"

"I am!"

"And me!"

"Alright then, wake Peter up again and get the cloak. We have mischief to manage!"

While he grinned the broadest grin in his life, Lily appeared in Remus’s head again. She sighed, her arms crossed over her chest and an expression of much more amusement than exasperation on her face, and said: Oh, men and food...

Breakfast the next day was one of the best in weeks, despite the many yawns. The Marauders entered the Great Hall together, chatting animatedly about the motorbike Sirius was trying to build (the one Remus kept telling him he should just go out and buy, if he wanted to live past his first ride on it), and attracted many stares. Disappointed and angry ones from the Slytherin table, a few annoyed and longsuffering ones from the Ravenclaw table, and surprised ones from the Gryffindor table, to go with the whispers. Lily stood up, a stormy expression already gaining ground on the confusion. Remus motioned for her to calm down, trying to show her everything was alright, when a dungbomb exploded at the Slytherin table, catching everyone’s attention.

Remus and Lily, as Prefects, rushed to the scene. The Slytherins were covered in green paint, but strangely, there was hardly any of the smell that usually accompanied a dung-bomb. Remus shot a glance over his shoulder at Sirius and James, who looked back at him with identical, perfectly innocent expressions, and shrugged, their empty palms held up. Remus smiled.

"Remus, why do I have the feeling I missed something?" Lily said from the corner of her mouth, as they directed distraught Slytherins to the showers in their dorms.

"Because you did." Remus answered with a grin.

They looked at each other.

"It’s alright, Lily." Remus assured her.

"Care to explain to me how?"

"I’d like to, but if I did, I would have to prank you. Severely."

Lily snorted, but her scowl was accompanied by a twitch in the corner of her mouth. "As severely as these Slytherins?"

"Much, much more severely, I’m afraid." Remus said mock-gravely.

Lily shook her head and sighed as she looked out over the chaotic Slytherin table. "Well, you Marauders did make a grand comeback." After a moment’s doubt, she looked at him gently. "I’m glad to see you smile again, Remus."

Halloween found Remus nervously scanning the entrance hall, with James, Sirius and Peter huddled together by the grand staircase underneath the Invisibility Cloak, and Lily covertly hovering by the great double doors.

Heartbeats sped up for all of them when Shara Carter appeared at the top of the stairs. Lily, James, Sirius and Peter watched as Remus approached the fair-haired girl and spoke to her. He gestured outside, which prompted Lily to run for cover and the Marauders to have a fit of panic over having to cross the crowded entrance hall underneath the cloak.

They got as far as the door to the Great Hall before Sirius tensed and pointed to the shadows across the hall, where Severus Snape was lurking. No words were needed to form a plan, so they silently hurried into the Great Hall, where Sirius miraculously appeared from behind one of the open doors. He sped off into the Entrance Hall like a dog on a trail.

James and Peter continued on. While they hurried down the stairs they saw Remus and Shara take off towards the lake, and followed. James spotted Lily, who was slipping from bush to tree to bush, and instantly lost half his interest in Remus’s business. Still, he liked to believe that when he spotted two tall, yellow-and-black clad figures in the distance, coming from the direction of the Quidditch field, it was mostly his concern for Remus’s wellbeing that made him order Peter to keep an eye out and slip out from beneath the cloak to Lily’s direction, hastily forming a plan to keep the Carter twins away from the lake and show his worth to Lily at the same time.

This was not at all a problem to Peter. The gang’s leaders had taken off again, and he was once more being sent to spy on Remus. But this time it was alright; they were working as a team, as it should be. He remembered the night in the kitchen, how James had complimented him, the painful but well-intentioned slaps on the back Sirius had given him, and the way Remus had smiled - he’d beamed, to Remus Lupin standards. Peter’s lack of nervousness that night had had nothing to do with his simultaneous lack of sleep. Peter was happy again. Confused, but happy.

So he paid good attention, and at the Halloween feast that evening, he could tell Sirius, James and Lily of how Remus had raked a hand through his hair, making it stand on end as if he’d just stepped off a broom (which made James proud), and how his face had become beet red (which made Lily, who was sitting beside James as a result of their temporary cease fire, squeal loudly into James’s ear) just before he had conjured a perfect bouquet of amaryllis flowers. Sirius grinned widely, despite his split lip (courtesy of Snivellus), when Peter told them how Shara had glowed with joy and kissed Remus on the cheek.

Lily and the Marauders had more to celebrate that Halloween than just a holiday. But Remus, who had hearts in his eyes for at least a week and a band of friends to last a lifetime, celebrated the most.

Yet he still refused to tell them where he’d left the screwdriver.

The End

PSAN: My first true multichapter fic. And to this day it's still my last. 8D;;

Chapter One: Take Your Positions!
Chapter Two: And Lose Them Again...
Chapter Three: Regroup ASAP
Chapter Four: This Is Called A Collision
Chapter Five: I Did Warn You Guys - That Hurts
Chapter Six: We’ll Be Playing Blind Today
Chapter Seven: Bet You Didn’t See That Coming
Chapter Eight: Somebody Tell Me I’m Dreaming
Chapter Nine: Please Play Nicely 
Chapter Ten; Surprise, Surprise