Across the Hall

Secrets of the Universe

"James! Someone's at the door!" Sirius hollered in their little dorm room. The whole hall probably heard, but the current episode of Gilmore Girls was just too good. After a couple moments, he heard the knock again, and James was still typing away at his computer. Grumbling, Sirius paused the show to go open the door to whoever was interrupting Lorelai Gilmore being a bad bitch. How rude.

He yanked the door open right when the other person had raised their fist up to knock once again. Both Sirius and the person on the other side of the door froze as lifted his head up slightly to see who it was. He was met with the, quite handsome face of, Remus Lupin. He was watching Sirius intently, and had a funny look in his eyes. 'Are my eyes deceiving me, or is Remus Lupin at my fucking door right now??, Sirius thought.

He was suddenly flooded with anxiety. What could he have possibly done to make Remus mad again? He had just been in his dorm the entire day! Well, he's kind of friends with Prongs, so maybe it's for him?

"Uh- James is sort of busy right now. I can ask him when he'll be done... and you could come back then?" Sirius said quickly.

Remus stared for a moment or two before shaking his head slightly. "No, no I'm not here for James."

"Oh, I think you've got the wrong dorm then. James is my roommate."

Remus' lips twitched. "I'm actually here for you, Sirius."

And well. The way he said his name was really just quite magical wasn't it?

"Oh." Sirius responded dumbly. "Well, here I am."

Remus smiled at that, causing his eyes to crinkle at the corners. Sirius' insides warmed.

"I was wondering If I could talk to you? I- I'm really sorry." The smile had disappeared off Remus' face, and was now replaced with guilt, and Sirius couldn't believe it. Remus was apologizing to him. Remus had felt bad about the way he treated him.

Still, not wanting to seem pathetic, Sirius stood his ground. "Look, Remus, I- We don't even know each other. I know you're friends with Lily, and she loves you, and James says you're great too. That's why I don't understand it. Why do you hate me?" Remus looked down, squeezing his eyes shut tight. He opened his mouth to speak, but Sirius realized that they had begun the 'talking' right in the doorway, so he interrupted. "Do you want to go talk somewhere? James is doing homework right now, we could go-"

"My dorm? Peter is out right now so it should be free. Is that okay?" Remus looked to be the hopeful one this time, and Sirius wasn't ever going to say no to him.

"Yeah, 'course." He glanced over at James who was hunched over his computer, still typing furiously. He wouldn't even notice. He nodded at Remus, and then they were off.

*

The journey to Remus' dorm was short, and lasted about three seconds, as they just had to walk a couple steps across from Sirius' own dorm.

Sirius had been hesitant at first, not knowing how to be himself around Remus yet, but the other boy seemed to notice it, and he pulled Sirius to sit across from him on the couch.

Then, Remus opened his mouth, and words just came spilling out. "Okay, just- I'm so fucking sorry for treating you the way I did, for barely any reason. You never deserved it either, but I was stuck acting like I hated you, when I really don't hate you at all anymore. I lied when I said I didn't want to be friends, and when I said I didn't like you. Lily loves you so much, and I know you're a good person. I just held a stupid grudge and-"