fatal love

chapter 122

Sirius woke up the next morning still tangled up with Remus, stiff from the awkward position and feeling grotty and uncomfortable in his jeans. He must have needed the rest though, because a quick glance at his watch told him he'd been passed out for almost twelve hours straight. He looked up slightly so he could see Moony's face. He was always so devastatingly handsome, with his thick eyebrows, his gorgeous jawline, his full lips. Perfection, at least in Sirius' eyes. He liked moments like these, where he could appreciate Remus in private, take his time and just stare and stare and stare even more. And he hadn't been looking at Remus recently, he'd missed simply looking at him.

Carefully, he removed himself from Remus' arms and got out of bed, shutting the curtains behind him so Remus didn't get woken up. He could hear the sounds of peaceful breathing coming from Pete's bed, but James' bed, while it had obviously been slept in, was now empty.

He had to talk to James as well, he knew that. Talking to Remus had only been half the battle. He picked up the map from his bedside table, and found James' name easily. He was darting around the Quidditch pitch apparently, and Sirius sighed, throwing the map back down and jumping in the shower.

He washed quickly, and put on his Quidditch robes, grabbing his broom and going down to join James. When he got to the pitch, he saw James flying by himself, running relentless drills and pelting the Quaffle through the goal posts again and again.

He flew up to meet him, intercepting one throw and catching the Quaffle.

"Alright, Prongs?"

James stared at him. "Hey, Pads," he said eventually.

"You're up early."

"Just, you know..." James shrugged. "A distraction."

"Can I join?"

"Yeah!" James grinned at him excitedly, his face lighting up. "Yeah, yeah, of course you can!"

Sirius smiled. "Right then," he said, "I'll play Keeper. Try and get past me, Potter."

An hour later, and it was clear that although he might be talented as a Beater, Sirius was no good as a Keeper. It was good, though, to play mindlessly with James, to just shout and fly and not think about anything else. When they came back down to the ground, they were both panting, but James slung his arm around Sirius easily.

"So..." Sirius said, "you talked to Evans?"

James nodded. "Yeah. It was tough, you know, because we don't see eye to eye, and I don't think we're ever going to. But we love each other, so we have to deal with these things, and deal with them together. And we've been doing a bit of a crap job at that lately."

"And what about you and me? Are we... okay?"

"Course we are. I mean, I was speaking to Lily, and... look, even if I don't agree with you two, I get your point. I do get it, okay?"

"Yeah," Sirius sighed. "I get your point too."

"Right. So we're going to talk to Dumbledore again, try and work out some sort of compromise, I dunno. I need to talk to Lily again about how, exactly, we mostly focused on us last night... but, yeah. This whole fight's stupid anyway, I always said I wouldn't let the war affect my relationships, and that's what's been happening recently."

Sirius smiled at James gratefully. "You talk a lot of sense, Prongs."

"I know I do," James grinned. "I'm smarter than all you lot."

They went to the Great Hall together, still sweaty and in their Quidditch robes. Evans, Remus, and Pete were already there, and Sirius noticed happily that Evans and Remus were talking to each other.