Continuation of “What the actual fuck, Black?” (Yule Ball)
“Can you please stop looking at me like that?” Remus begged, still sleepy as he placed the back of his hand over his mouth to muffle a yawn.
“I bring big news for you, moons, that’s what eyes are made for.” Sirius replied with his usual ironic tone, snuggling once again against the other boy, pulling him closer under the blankets and nuzzling on the top of his head.
They had slept on the Shrieking Shack that night. It had been a cold night, but the boys were fine so far. In fact, at one point on that night, Sirius has transformed into Padfoot so Remus could get even warmer and comfortable during his sleep, and the other boy apparently had no clue that even happened.
It was already late, they needed to return to the dorms to change clothes before anyone noticed. Anyone besides Peter, James and Lily.
“We need to go, pads. They must be worried about both of us vanishing at the same time with no explanation.” Remus tangled his fingers on the black mane that was Sirius’ bed hair, fondling it.
“They probably think we’re messing around on a hidden corner.” Sirius mumbled, his voice slurred due to his face buried now on Remus nape.
Finally Remus had some success on taking the other teen away from the improvised bed, and both boys walked attentively under the invisibility cloak until they got to their dorm, where both were received with a flying James throwing them on the ground with his body.
“Where have you two been for Merlin’s sake? And why did you steal my cloak? We were fucking worried about you two!”
“We were on the shack until now, sorry to concern you, mother, and our little brother. We’re terrible children and we bring shame upon this family’s name. We’re not doing it again. Can you please remove your leg and let us get up now, dad?” the words were so soaked in sarcasm they could almost be touched just after leaving Sirius’ mouth, but James indeed got up and the boys did the same on the second after.
“So?” James crossed his arms, waiting for something, apparently.
“He said yes, obviously. No one can resist a Black’s charm.” Sirius bragged while Remus disappeared in few seconds from view, willing to take a shower and finally get dressed.
“’Attaboy!” James patted his best friend’s back energetically, hugging him one armed over the shoulder. “Your mother will be very proud of you.”
“Can you please stop this embarrassing nonsense!” Remus finally said something, actually, yelled from the bathroom.
“Hey moons, wanna go with me to Hogsmeade? There’s no much we can do until eight.” Sirius asked as the four boys were returning to the common room. “Prongs, wormtail and Lily can go too. It’ll be fun.”
“Okay, let me just take my gloves and we’re ready to go.” and as Remus trailed back to the dormitory, Lily sat on the arm of Sirius’ armchair and leaned closer to whisper something, getting a funny look from James as she did that.
“Is that so?” Sirius muttered back and she nodded positively. “Well, I don’t think there’s a need to say that me too.” he continued. “Even James must have realized it, and he’s really slow y’know?”
“Realized what?” James leaned in, curious. “What were you two whispering? I wanna know too. Tell me.” but Lily got up and said nothing more, only smiling at the very interested on the subject James, and Sirius changed subjects when Remus were coming down the stairs.
“So let’s go.” Peter called and all of them started walking.
“C’mon! Don’t do it! Tell what were you talking about! Was it about me? Stop laughing pads, you arsehole, tell me!” and it continued all the way until they got to arrive on Hogsmeade, where James finally conceded defeat and sat down to drink his foaming hot butterbeer from his mug while all the others did the same. They used to go to the Three Broomsticks and spend as much time as they could chatting and laughing, basically having a good time on weekends.
The cold and snowy weather almost had Sirius to forget about his fresh idea, but before he could bail off, he grabbed Remus’ hand under the table, which caused the boy to choke on his drink and cough a little. After he stopped and turned to face Sirius with the eyes wide open, the black haired boy whispered.
“Wanna go somewhere else?” The smirk on his lips and that slightly dangerous aura combined with those deep blue eyes shining towards him made it very difficult for Remus to even think about declining, so he ended up accepting and excusing their way out of the table, leaving the three teens behind to wonder what they were up to.
Sirius took Remus to the Hog’s Head, a pub in the Diagonal Alley that was almost always emptier than the other pubs around. It was a dusty place with a old aspect, not to mention the barkeeper scrubbing the glass with a dirty rag, leaving it probably dirtier than it was before.
Remus’ attention was broken once again when Sirius pulled his hand and leaded him to a table on the back of the place, where they could chat and drink. Even though they were sixteen, the waiter brought Sirius a firewhisky and Remus a hot mug of butterbeer, since he was not such a fan of alcohol.
“I think I found out my favorite drink.” Sirius said after one sip from his drink, now analyzing the content of the cup he held on the eye-level.
“You shouldn’t be drinking, you’re only sixteen.” Remus said, smiling slyly before drinking from his own mug. “Do you want to be drunk before the ball starts?”
Sirius raised a brow and licked his lips, chuckling. “I won’t get drunk, moons. I wanna be very sober when we have our first dance together.” and that was enough to make Remus slide on his chair a little bit and drink again from his mug, killing the content in a few seconds. Sirius laughed at that, but couldn’t help but realize how timid the other became when he made that kind of comment. He was usually quiet and introspective when it came to and to other people, even with the marauders he was obviously the timid one, but when it came to Sirius, he seemed shy, and that made the boy think about what Evans had told him earlier on the common room.
They spent a few hours there, the conversation flowing and eventually stopping when Sirius flirted with Remus shamelessly, but resuming once the boy cursed him for laughing at his expressions.
At some point, Sirius was tipsy from the firewhisky, but not drunk, only woozy enough to dig up some courage from the bottom of his soul to do one thing he felt the need to.
They were sitting side by side, one of Sirius arms was resting on the backrest of the kind of sofa they had sat on, his hand brushing on Remus’ shoulder. The boy slid his arm so it effectively landed on the other’s shoulders, and done that, he squeezed him lightly. Remus was talking about a muggle book Lily had landed him to read when he had free time, and all Sirius could think was how cute he was when he was talking about something he liked so much.
The boy was slowly closing the distance between his face and Remus’, his arm now sliding back so his hand ended up on the other boy’s nape, his smirk always present on the lips, and that’s when Remus seemed to notice, his voice was fading as he started to tense up, but he didn’t move away.
“There you are!” James voice sounded like glass breaking, waking both boys up from the moment they almost had. Remus stiffened and stood up with a ‘Hey!’ on the most nervous tone, while Sirius felt like he could murder a man barehanded. “It’s late, we need to go or we’ll lose the fun.”
They agreed, paid for the drinks and made their way back to the school, where James didn’t have a clue of how out of nowhere his glasses decided they were going to run away from his face, making the boy follow them for nothing less than ten minutes.
Sirius was now sober and all of the boys were getting ready to the ball.
James picked a plain long black dress robe with an almost imperceptive pattern on the fabric. Sirius chose to go with his long red dress robe, detailed in black and gold. Remus, on the other hand, preferred to go wearing a fancy black smoking, a black waistcoat with silver buttons, a black tie and a white shirt.
“I must say that Black looks really good on you.” Sirius said as he helped the other button up his smoking, and winked at him, spinning on his heels to help James right after that and leaving a blushed Remus behind.
Peter was the fist one to arrive on the Great Hall in his dark blue dress robe, Dorcas had accepted his invitation to go with her. James an Lily joined them, Lily on that long red dress detailed in gold. And last but not least, Sirius and Remus arrived, arms tangled, going down the stairs to join their friends. Sirius had a huge smile on his face, and Remus was slyly biting his lips in nervousness, but he was indeed happy to be there with his friend.
They found Arthur and Molly, Frank and Alice and Marlene with a guy from Ravenclaw they didn’t know the name. Most of them spent the first two hours just talking about the clothes they’ve chosen and how they looked really beautiful on them. Sirius and James were busy finding snacks and Remus decided that the best idea was to talk with Lily and leave them be.
As Sirius and James returned, they shared their plate of snacks with the others, willing to do it or not, but anyway it was for the best to finish eating them as soon as possible, since the first dance would happen in a few minutes. Considering that, a short, dark haired girl from Gryffindor, dressed on a stunning long black dress adorned with rubies, approached Sirius and asked him for the first dance.
Remus was right beside him, sipping his glass of pumpkin juice. If Sirius asked if it was okay to dance with her, he would probably say that it was fine, and for him not to worry, since he didn’t really like to dance and everything. But then he would regret it bitterly afterwards. He was looking forward to that since Sirius said he was excited to have the first dance with him.
“Although it’s very unlike me to turn down an invitation of such a pretty lady.” Sirius began. “As you can see, I already have dance partner.” and his right arm slid behind Remus’ back and pulled him closer by the waist, leaving not only the girl but Remus himself speechless. “Therefore, I’m sorry, I can’t dance with you.”
Sirius was the only person that could be a blend up of delicate, cruel and unpredictable at the same time, and end up making the girl get embarrassed and apologize for inviting him.
Before Remus could say anything, Sirius took the glass half empty from his hand and placed over one of the tables, leading him next to where James and Lily were. He took one of Remus’ hand and raised it to the air, and the other hand landed on his waist once again, while the other’s free hand fell on his shoulder. There was no time to chicken out now, but Remus was getting really nervous with all the attention they were getting from the other students, and some professors.
“I don’t understand how you can pay attention to them when I’m right here using all my charm to get your full attention.” Sirius said, grinning when Remus finally opened a more relaxed smile and really focused on him. Now everything was easier and lighter.
Sirius leaded him on the dance. His moves were fluid and almost weightless. He was a very good dancer, and Remus was amazed by that, laughing lightly from both surprise and happiness.
When the music ceased and the applause faded, Marlene went straight to them to tell how all of the students were paying more attention to them than to anyone else, and how they seemed so light and natural on the dance floor. Remus thanked and let out a nervous laugh. Once again their friends reunited to talk and drink before the next song, but Sirius and Remus went outside to breathe some cold fresh air on the frozen garden.
They were sitting quietly next to each other on one of the benches. Remus appreciated how they could share a comfortable silent moment with no need to fill it with small talk. They remained like that for a few minutes, when Sirius’ voice finally broke the silence as he looked upwards.
“Hey moons, look, a mistletoe.” He pointed to one of the many arches that existed on that garden, more specifically, the one that was right above them where a small plant with sharp leafs and red little berries attached to it. “You know what this m-” Sirius was grinning as he turned his head towards Remus to tease him, but got interrupted by something pressing his lips. He took a moment to process that the something that was pressing his lips were Remus’ lips. He was being kissed. His first reaction was complete shock, but a second after he raised his hands to Remus face, holding it fondly. There was a pause after that uncertain kiss where the two boys just looked at each other, and then Sirius pulled Remus for another - way deeper - kiss, guiding one hand on the back of his neck and feeling Remus’ hand reach for his own, squeezing it as they lost track of time and place for a few minutes that made the time stop on their heads.
After they broke apart, the foreheads touched and they just stand there, gazing at each other’s faces. Every time they breathed out, vapor emerged from their half parted lips due to the intense cold weather, but regardless of the temperature, both boys were feeling hot. A heat that came from inside and made them feel a warm sensation that spread up their bodies.
Inside the castle, James reached up to Lily, that was placing her wand back inside her dress, observing the scene from behind the big windows. She had to put a hand over James mouth so he wouldn’t break the moment.
“Did you do it?” He seemed really dumbfounded.
“I’ve helped.” she replied casually, shaking her shoulders and smiling as she took one of the glasses from James’ hands.
“That’s why you sent me to take the punch?”
“No, I was really thirsty.” she raised both brows and sipped the reddish drink from her glass, but James couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not.
“For Merlin’s sake, Evans.” he muttered and finally pulled her from the waist for a kiss. She kissed back.
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