i write stuff :)

Chapter 2- rivalry in the library

if you want to read the chapter on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24439636/chapters/95738278

Sirius

“Sirius, I am begging you to leave this library. A marauders meeting was scheduled for today, and we are twenty minutes late. What’s Peter going to think, hmm?”

“James, I already said no. Pete has the map for a reason, and Remus hasn’t left the library yet so I can’t either.”

“What if I go and get Peter to come here and make it look like we’re studying?”

“...Fine.”

Sirius watched James’ departing figure with distracted interest, smiling mindlessly at the way James bumped into various bookshelves in his haste, and at one point having to stop to help a first-year pick up the books he had accidentally knocked out of her hands.

James Potter was a hurricane made of sunshine.

A faint tapping noise to his right made Sirius turn, his eyes inevitably landing on the source of his frustration, the reason he was refusing to leave the library: Remus John Lupin, tapping his biro against the wooden table while he leafed through a particularly hefty-looking textbook. After looking back at his own pile of textbooks and deciding they looked inferior compared to Remus’, Sirius quickly stood from his seat and marched over to a bookshelf, pulling out the heftiest tome he could find and making his way back to his seat, taking particular pleasure in the small disturbance of Remus’ notes caused by the swish of his cloak as he breezed nonchalantly passed him.

Remus looked up at him as he passed in absent-minded irritation, sighing deeply and pointedly rearranging his scraps of paper when he laid his eyes on Sirius.

“Should have a better organisation system,” Sirius commented sniffily on his way back to his own chair, letting his eyes linger on his meticulously categorised, bookmarked and colour coordinated (god bless Lily Evans and her sticky notes) own set of notes.

Remus scoffed and rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair and stretching his arms against the desk. He chose this extremely inopportune moment to display his forearms, uncovered by rolled-up shirt sleeves, an occurrence that happened only in the height of summer (which was lucky for Sirius, or else he might actually lose his mind).

“Still beat you in that Divination test though, didn’t I?” he smirked, and Sirius felt his knees go a bit weak. Get a grip.

“That’s only because you’re a good liar- that’s all Divination is. Well-reasoned lying.” Sirius scoffed, dismissing this notion immediately. “I beat you last Potions lesson, and you can’t lie your way through that one.”

“No, but your frequent explosions during the middle of a test can get turned a blind eye to if the teacher happens to be a devout follower and worshipper of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black.” Remus snorted as he rolled his eyes, blind to the way Sirius immediately stiffened, his shoulders hunching as he picked at the cuff of his sweater.

“Fuck you, Lupin,” he said simply, but with more venom than normal, and stormed back to his table. Remus blinked once, twice, then returned to his work.

“Why are you looking at Remus like he flushed your pygmy puff down the toilet?” James asked breezily, slinging his bag over the chair next to Sirius and collapsing into it, quickly followed by a very red-looking Peter.

“My secret pygmy puff won’t be a secret pygmy puff if you announce its existence to the entire library you twat- now what have you done to Pete here?”

Peter exhaled loudly and laid his head on the table, to which James nodded sympathetically along with.

“If you just told your mum you already have a pygmy puff, I’m sure she’d just give in and let you keep it. And he had to witness Frank and Alice having- let’s just say a good time- it was too much for his delicate self.” James snorted, giving Peter an understanding pat on the back.

“Why were you watching Frank and Alice going at it?” Sirius asked with a wrinkled nose, deciding to ignore James’ comments about his pygmy puff. He didn’t know how many times he’d have to tell James that Blacks were not allowed pets, but he didn’t fancy adding another one to the list at that moment in time. “Frank moved into the girl’s dorm last year, how come you saw her?”

Peter let out another groan into the desk, and Sirius took his turn in rubbing his back sympathetically.

“Well, we just happened to by chance-”

“No. That is a blatant lie, James Fleamont Potter,” Peter said sternly, rising from the table and fixing Sirius with an imploring stare. “Don’t listen to anything this twat says- he’d bought Lily a singing frog and was standing at the bottom of the stairs serenading her with it.”

At this Sirius threw his head back and collapsed into laughter, with Peter glaring at him for a second and then joining him.

“Look, mates, it’s not funny- if she doesn’t love me after I buy her a singing frog, when will she?” James said desperately, tugging a hand through his hair and groaning.

Peter started making some soothing comment about how Lily would surely come around eventually and maybe if James pulled his head out of his arse then she would actually like him, but Sirius was distracted by a sudden feeling that someone was watching him.

He looked to his right sharply to meet the slightly surprised eyes of one Remus Lupin, the alleged pygmy puff flusher, and huffed out a sigh.

“Am I distracting you with my joy?” he called, cross that Remus would think he wasn’t taking his work seriously and wasn’t going to absolutely thrash him in the upcoming Transfiguration test.

“You call that grating laugh joy?” Remus snorted, shaking his head and turning back to his work. “Libraries are meant to be quiet, did you know that? Clearly you don’t spend enough time in any to actually know-”

“Just because I enjoy spending time with actual other human beings doesn’t mean-” Sirius snapped back, rising to the challenge, before Remus interrupted him.

“None of those human beings that you so enjoy spending time with seem to be your fiance though, do they? Isn’t that weird? I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to spend your every waking hour with the oh so lovely Miss Greengrass,” Remus smirked, his eyes daring Sirius to take the bait.

Sirius gaped at him for a second before his eyes flashed with fury and he shoved his books aside, heading over to Remus’ table.

“Now you listen here, Lupin-”

“And we will be off!” James sang, swinging by Remus’ table and dragging Sirius along with him under his arm. “A pleasure to see you as always, I cannot wait until we meet again! Pete, grab his books, will you?” And with that, James Potter and Sirius Black had exited the library.

Peter shook his head in amusement, looking at the teetering stack of books that Sirius had managed to accumulate over the past few hours. “D’ya really think he needs all these?” he asked Remus doubtfully, to which Remus blinked in surprise at having been asked for his opinion.

“Well- no. No, he doesn’t. I suspect he just wanted it to seem like he was buried in his work.” Remus huffed, looking at the Twenty Ways to Seduce a Troll cover in annoyance- he actually had believed Sirius was working harder than him, and it had motivated him to work too.

“Why’d you two like riling each other up all the time?” Peter asked, swinging Sirius’ satchel onto his shoulder and facing Remus.

Remus was lost for words for a second, blinking dumbly at Peter.

“Oh- I dunno, I mean- he started it,” he blurted out, and although it sounded childish, it was true. After James and Sirius’ snub at their Sorting Ceremony all those years ago, Remus had done his level best to ignore them, despite their obviously false attempts at forming a friendship. It was clear to Remus what he was to them- a joke. Just someone to prank. So he’d stopped responding and ignored them right back, and it was then that Sirius had gotten it into his head that every little thing had to be a competition between them, and from there a five-year rivalry was born.

Remus blinked back into reality with a small shake of his head, looking down at Sirius’ notes that Peter was shovelling into his satchel. “He’ll get pissed off if you do that- he likes his notes to be organised,” he couldn’t help but say.

“Mmm, he’s the same with our dorm room too, always telling James off when he leaves his ties lying around…” Peter nodded, shuffling the notes around with slightly more care. “How did you know that?” he asked abruptly, fixing Remus with a scrutinising stare.

Remus was caught off guard for a moment- but only a moment- as his mind desperately searched for something to say.

“Well, I- he makes a big fuss of it, doesn’t he? Has about a million highlighters in every class, thanks to Lily introducing them to him that is, and doesn’t fret about the annoying noise they make every time he pops a lid on or off,” he huffed, certain that his show of agitation would fool Peter.

Peter raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him, and patted his hand gently. “If you say so, mate. We’ll see you around, yeah?” he hummed, picking up Sirius’ Transfiguration books and hauling them off the table.

this is for @gaeilgelupin because it’s her BIRTHDAY GO WISH HAN A HAPPY BIRTHDAY RN!! han i love u millions u r the james to my sirius <3

never saw one without the other, did you? you’d have thought they were brothers

it was the fourth week into the summer holidays, and James had yet to hear from Sirius

now, if you asked James, he would say he was a pretty relaxed person. prone to fits of excitement, sure, but all in all? a calm, cool, collected guy. (not everyone agreed with this)

however, his calmness had a breaking point. and that breaking point was neither him, nor remus or pete, having heard even a whisper from sirius all summer- even their two-way mirrors had been silent since sirius had arrived at grimmauld place

neither remus nor peter had heard from him either, which was particularly bugging james as no matter how bad sirius’ summers had been previously, sirius always managed to write to remus at least once

after not being able to stand james’ constant fretting any longer, euphemia had invited remus to stay midway through the summer, hoping the mild-mannered boy would be a calming influence on him

this did not have the desired effect however, as james now had a person to bounce his fretting off, and after a week into remus’ stay euphemia was beginning to feel like pulling her hair out

however, this all rose to a climax one warm august evening, where euphemia and fleamont had stayed up late playing gobstones in the living room with james and remus in an attempt to distract them from their worries

james was in the middle of doing a victory lap around the room, crowing his victory, when two bodies stumbled out of the fireplace in a pile of soot and ash and- what was that smell?

all members of the potter house jumped back in surprise, wands drawn and at the ready, only to find it was regulus clutching what looked like sirius’ body to his chest, his eyes wide and imploring

“i can’t stay, i have to go back. you have to help him- don’t ever let him come back.” he urged, depositing sirius’ body onto the carpet, and with that, he turned back and stepped into the fireplace, shouting “grimmauld place!” before disappearing in roar of flames

the firelight gave effie a chance to momentarily glimpse sirius’ face and she let out a noise james had never heard from her before, falling to her knees beside sirius on the carpet and pulling his head to rest in her lap

“fleamont, please contact dumbledore immediately. james, go get my emergency aid kit.” she commanded, her voice shaking but firm as she waved her wand over sirius’ body, her eyes intent on his twitching body

james and remus stared at sirius, lifeless in effie’s arms, and a sob escaped remus’ throat, a hand clasping over his mouth as he collapsed next to effie, desperate hands frantically trying to find something to do to help

in the meantime, james had run to get the emergency kit and passed it to his mother with shaking hands, watching her heal scar after vicious scar on sirius’ body, tapping her wand against his chest and nearly sobbing in relief when breath rushed back to sirius’ body, causing him to wake up in a rush, immediately sitting up and letting out a cry of pain, his head landing again in effie’s lap

“where’s… regulus?” he croaked out, reaching out a hand as though he thought regulus would take it. instead james stepped over, grasping sirius’ hand in his like it was a lifeline

“he’s gone back, sirius. are you…” words choked james’ throat as he surveyed the broken body of his best friend, his brother, and he turned to remus in the hope that he would be able to say something, but remus was already clutching sirius’ hand, tears pouring down his cheeks and clearly beyond speaking

after a few more minutes of tense silence, the only noise being sirius’ occasional groan or whimper of pain, james finally forced the emotions back out of his throat and managed to articulate again. “is he going to- is he going to be alright?” he stammered to his mother, and she paused momentarily in her healing of sirius to run a soothing hand through his hair

“he’s going to be just fine, he’ll just need a while to recover. is the spare bedroom tidy?” effie reassured, and james closed his eyes and thanked whoever was listening that he’d been blessed with her as a mother. “it’s tidy, but i’d rather stay with him. can’t he stay in my room with me and remus?”

euphemia potter looked up from her healing of sirius into the wide, watery eyes of her son and his best friend, and knew there would be no arguing with them. sirius would be staying in james’ room.

sirius woke up sharply the next morning in james’ bed, gasping for breath and looking around wildly. after clearly not recognising where he was, he started thrashing and crying out again, waking up james who was curled up next to him

“hey… hey, sirius, it’s me, prongs, i’m here mate, you’re at my house” james did his best to soothe the terrified boy, nervous hands flying all over his body before deciding his shoulders were the best place to rest them

“i’m at your house?” sirius whispered, wide eyes looking like they couldn’t quite believe it when james nodded back at him. “at my house. you’re safe, sirius.” “safe.” sirius repeated back to him, his hands trembling and curling over james’ chuddley cannons duvet

“safe, padfoot.” james promised, lying back next to sirius and putting a tentative arm over his bandaged chest so that even in his sleep, sirius would know he was with people who loved him

over the next few days sirius gradually grew back into himself, the worst day being when dumbledore visited and sirius was forced with trembling hands to recount the events of his last night at grimmauld place to a room of euphemia, fleamont, dumbledore, james and remus. after dumbledore had asked a few follow up questions and promised he would sort things out sirius had collapsed into remus’ waiting arms, allowing the boy to lead him back to james’ bedroom where the three boys stayed for hours, just sitting quietly in each other’s company on james’ bed

a week later the worst of sirius’ wounds had healed and he accompanied fleamont on a trip to london, which he returned from laden with bags and grinning ear to ear.

“i can stay! forever!” he crowed as soon as he got back, throwing himself at james and nearly tackling him to the ground. james couldn’t believe his luck- not only was his best friend out of the worst place he’d ever heard of, but he was moving in with him!

the three marauders immediately ran to the potters’ spare room which had been given happily to sirius. however, the thing that shocked sirius the most was that he was allowed to decorate it however he wanted- hence the trip to london with fleamont

“merlin pads, how many bloody bowie posters do you need?” james grumbled from where he was stood on top of a chest of drawers, getting his fingers tangled in spellotape as he attempted to stick up his fifth david bowie poster as of yet, snorting at sirius who was busy not helping and instead had chosen to twirl around the room to the music blasting out of his brand new record player

“oh i don’t know, i think he has more of freddie mercury.” remus grinned, ignoring sirius’ indignant protests and tugging him in by the waist to press a kiss to his hair.

sirius’ offence was of course, a pretence, as when he stood in his room in the arms of his moony watching james wobble off the chest of drawers with a yelp, crashing onto his bed, a warm feeling spread from his chest to the rest of his body, a warm feeling that he felt whenever he looked at james. james, his best friend. james, his partner in crime. james, his fellow marauder.

✨stop making sirius black have internalised homophobia in fics and tiktoks✨

the thing is most of the time it’s added as a poor attempt at character development for sirius or for people to be like ‘oh poor remus’ or to ✨spice up their relationship✨like okay FIRST OF ALL:

a) sirius goes through ENOUGH character development by unlearning all of the blood purity shit his parents raised him on AND becoming a good person despite it, learning to trust people and love people etc etc

b) REMUS ALSO GOES THROUGH ENOUGH if you think him being a werewolf and gay in the 70s isn’t enough ‘aw poor remus’ material ur not writing it correctly

c) having one character w internalised homophobia and secretly in love w the other is such a weak plot point at this point like do something original pls i’m begging u

remus: *walks in* okay guys so i has this idea for our next prank-

note: this was inspired by @pestoprongs ‘s insta story :)

remus: street smart

sirius: book smart

james: emotionally smart

Remus was definitely the first marauder Lily tolerated

James was, well, James, Sirius was almost as bad, and Peter just went along with what either of them said 

despite Lily’s tolerance of Remus, they didn’t become friends until they were both made prefects in fifth year

Lily walked into the prefects carriage and stopped at the door in shock when she saw a scowling Remus Lupin already sat in there, and she immediately looked around for any evidence of his little gang

“Are you planning a prank?”

“No, I think it’s more like someone’s pulling a prank on me- what’re they doing, making me a prefect?”

Although Lily very privately agreed with this, as she was perfectly aware of just how many rules Sirius and James were now able to break that they had a prefect on their side, she sat down next to him anyway, laying a placating hand on his shoulder

“I mean, I’m sure it won’t be that bad, will it? Little kids like you, you’re very calm and collected, and certainly know all the rules as you know which ones Potter and Black have broken.

“Which is all of them,” Remus agreed, laughing before his face fell again. “It’s not just that, I mean- a whole separate carriage? The journey to Hogwarts is like a thing for us, and Prongs will be right pissed when he finds out I’m gunna miss them all unless I can get away. And Sirius hasn’t had a good summer- if someone doesn’t kick him out of it soon, he’ll be in a mood all week.”

Lily watched Remus rant and ramble with raised eyebrows, surprise settling in her as she was reminded yet again just how oddly close those boys were. No matter how much she disapproved of them, she couldn’t help but admire how much they cared about and looked after each other. 

Lily and Remus spent the rest of the train ride up to Scotland forming a friendship that went beyond their usual mutual respect- they were now allies, both rather put out at having been made prefects as they would now be expected to deal with James and Sirius

however, it wasn’t until the Halloween party later that year that Remus and Lily’s friendship properly solidified  

Lily had been keeping an eye on Remus all evening in a rather futile attempt to not stare at James, who was dancing rather too attractively with Marlene- and yes, Lily knew Marls was a lesbian, but didn’t mean she could be jealous disapproving, did it? James was not being a good example to the first years, that was all

Remus was also not being a good example to the first years- he had drunk far too much, and was currently stumbling across the room to where Lily was leaning against the wall 

“Orright?” he asked in a thick voice, his welsh accent particularly strong in his inebriation 

Lily tore her eyes away from where James and Sirius were dancing together suspiciously inappropriately seeing as they were practically brothers, and was surprised to see that Remus’ eyes were also glued to the pair

“You’re off duty, you know? You don’t have to be keeping an eye on them,” Lily grinned, nudging Remus with her elbow teasingly, though she was secretly glad someone was watching the pair as they had now clambered onto a table and were continuing their show so that the whole of Gryffindor Tower could see

“I’m not watching them to monitor their behaviour, I’m watching them because I’m in love with him,” Remus answered bluntly with a laugh, then clapped his hand over his mouth in shock. “What in Merlin’s underpants is in this bloody drink?” he moaned, regarding the bottle in his hand with the height of distrust

“You’re in love with James?” Lily asked in horror, not sure why she was taking this so badly, and felt rather offended when Remus laughed openly at her

“I thought you were meant to be smart? No, of course not, it’s Sirius.” Remus said brazenly, again looking vastly surprised with himself at his honesty. “Has someone spiked the bloody Firewhisky?” 

“You’re in love with Sirius?” Lily spluttered, feeling like she was repeating herself but she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it. “Oh, wait- yep. That makes sense.” she smiled smugly, leaning against the wall and folding her arms in front of her chest.

Remus snorted, rolling his eyes at her. “Bit hypocritical of you to act all high and mighty- anyone with sight can see that you’re arse over tit for James.” he replied confidently, a shit-eating grin curling at his lips

Lily opened her mouth quickly to indignantly protest, but closed it again as soon as she did. Groaning, she hid her face in her hands as she shook her head at herself. “Yeah, I suppose I am.” she grumbled, and Remus wrapped his arms around her shoulders comfortingly as the pair thought longingly about how irritatingly irresistible the objects of their desires were

Little did they know, from across the room James and Sirius were watching them with frowns on their faces. 

“Why is Moony touching her? She’s laughing- Pads, she never laughs at me. I’m going to have Moony make me more funny and-”

“Hang on, I think she’s crying now? And Moony’s- no!- he’s wrapping an arm around her!” 

“What! Around my girlfriend?” James thundered, beginning to march over to them before Sirius hastily pulled him back. 

“She’s not your girlfriend until you ask her out, you idiot- and until she says yes.”

“Well, at least I’ve got further than you. You haven’t even asked Remus yet.” James snorted, a put still on his lips as he watched Remus and Lily stood so close together. 

“I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end, mate.” Sirius said breezily, slinging his arm over James’ shoulders and steering him over to the drinks table. “And until then...” 

Four years later, Remus and Lily leant against each other as they watched from the doorframe as James and Sirius performed a puppet show for Harry tucked up in his cot, making each other laugh more than they made Harry with their squeaky voices as they pranced Remus’ socks around on their hands. 

“Sirius is good with kids.” Remus said fondly, warmth growing in his heart as he watched Sirius’ face glow when he coaxed a little chuckle out of the small child.