Freaks (Marauders Era)

Chapter 19

That Friday, tensions were high, and everybody (and by that I mean, Lily, Peter, and Marlene). Because James was infinitely patient with times like these, Dorcas was too busy trying to contain Marlene's fury, Sirius got stuck in detention, and Mary was too stressed with her English paper to be able to help (thankfully everybody understood).

"I am so sick of this bullshit." Lily said loudly, resting her head in her hand.

James replied, "Lily, come on, you have to be patient."

"Oh so now it's easy for you to stay patient!"

"I'm just saying, it's your best friend that messed up. We should give them time to get other this."

Lily was about to start yelling at James, before Peter, ever the peacekeeper, interrupted. "Would you two please refrain from yelling at each other? I already have a raging headache and I would prefer not to make it worse with you two whining like children."

Lily snapped her head towards Pete "Well what excuse do you have? You should care about this just as much as we do."

"I assure you, I care, however, I haven't been able to get a good night's sleep in at least a week, and I've had to listen to James whinging to me about Sirius whinging to him about Remus. It's tiring and I need a break."

The table was silent. Lily avoided eye contact with Peter, frantically rifling through her mind to find something she could say, only to end up with a forlorn look and guilt sinking to the bottom of her stomach.

"Sorry Pete." was all that James could muster.

"Apology accepted, James. Now, if you really do want my input, I say we do something with Sirius' birthday since that's coming up."

James face lit up like a child on their birthday. "Wormtail you're a genius! For once you've actually come up with a good idea!"

Peter raised his eyebrow and smiled, "I know it doesn't happen often, but I do have cognitive thoughts"

"Alright, I'll talk to Sirius later about his birthday. Lily, you'll do the same for Remus?"

Lily shrugged, "Yeah, sure. Can't say he'll actually agree to do anything though. He's been wrapped in self pity."

"Maybe we can talk to Remus and then Peter and I can tackle Sirius?"

"Sounds good to me, Potter."

James stuck his hand out to fist bump Lily. She declined, shaking her head and pushing his hand back onto the table.

★★★

Remus was, once again eating lunch in the abandoned bathroom. It was sad really, once again forcefully separating himself from others, like junior school all over again. He mused to himself.

Pity and sorrow had been a few constants throughout Remus' life. It was a constant weight and reminder of everything that had happened to him. At some points he may have considered it a benefit. An old excuse to fall back on for his mistakes and his faults. But by now he was getting bloody sick of it. It felt less like something to fall back on and more like a ball and chain, keeping him back from his friends, his peers, everything really.

Remus was stuck back in the murky water of his own mind, before a loud voice revealed his actual reality.

"Moony, we've come to fix your relationship with Sirius!" James announced nearly tearing the bathroom door off it's hinges in the process. earnings a face palm from Lily, her face in stark contrast of James perpetual smile.

"James. We agreed on not doing that."

"Does it really matter now Evans?"

"I suppose not."

"Um, Hello?" Remus waved.

"Hey, Remus. I tried to convince Potter to not be so overdramatic with his entrance."

"It's fine, Lily." He turned his attention to James, "What the hell were you saying about Sirius?"

"That we're going to help you fix the mess that's between you two."

You could see Remus shrink back into himself, as much as he could at least. "I– don't think that's a possibility, James."

"We've already talked to Sirius about it! And we have a plan."

★★★

They had, in fact, not talked to Sirius.

Which was a very big problem. Mainly because Sirius agreeing to the first part of the plan that James and Lily had come up with was a vital part of the process.

So, before James and Sirius drove back to their house, Peter met up with them and started the questioning.

"Hey, Sirius, what are you thinking for your birthday?"

"Well, obviously a party." Sirius shrugged, their mind was somewhere else entirely.

James inwardly congratulated himself, now all that Sirius had to do was not find out about Remus coming to the party.

"What do you want to for the party?" James asked, turning to Sirius, only to see him staring out the window in a trance.

"Hey, Sirius" nothing.

"Pads?" Complete and utter silence.

"Oi! They found unreleased David Bowie music."

"WHAT?"

"There you are!"

"You're cruel Potter! Pulling my heart strings, I'm still fragile from 2016, you know this!"

"I'm sorry, Sirius, but you were stuck in your own head."

"Right, yeah, sorry."

"What has been going on recently?" Peter cut in.

Sirius knew exactly what he should have said, oh I'm just kinda tired, haven't slept well ya' know? But, being the overly honest person they are, decided to say something that was actually on his mind.

"I'm pretty sure I'm a demiboy."

James and Peter expected a lot of possibilities for the answer to that question. Sirius coming out, was not one of them.

James was the first to take action, "Oh! What, exactly does that mean?"

"Just that, I'm not entirely a guy. I kinda want to use he they pronouns."

"Okay, cool." Peter shrugged, he didn't really care all that much. As long as Sirius was happy, He was happy.

"Alright then, guess I'm going to have to start calling you the most dramatic person at Hogwarts then?"

Sirius flipped their hair before replying. "I prefer the term grandiose, but, yes."

"Right then! You guys wanna head over to Florian's to celebrate?"

"Let's go!"