Sanctuary

Chapter 84

Wednesday, 18th April 1973

'Hey, where have you two been?' James asked the moment Remus stepped through the dormitory door with Sirius.

Looking him over made Remus' stomach sink. He was vibrating with excitement, and clearly had some news he was dying to share, though he was doing his best to conceal that fact. The last thing Remus felt like doing was pretending to be happy and excited about whatever it was.

'Nowhere exciting,' Sirius told him. 'What's got you all...' He flapped his hands to indicate James' general person, '... energetic?'

Fighting back a grin, James looked at Remus. 'You feeling any better?'

'A bit,' Remus said, rolling his eyes. 'Just tell us what it is already.'

James grinned. 'Okay, you're not going to believe this. You know I went to wait for Lily to talk to Dumbledore? Well, when Lily left, she asked me to go somewhere private with her to talk, about the werewolf, obviously. Anyway, I tried to get her to stop looking into it, but Lily wasn't having any of it, so I said I'd help her. Which means I can feed Lily false clues and stuff.'

'Why do you keep saying her name like that?' Sirius asked, then his eyes widened and James was grinning and nodding as Sirius said, 'Wait! Did she tell you to call her Lily?'

'Yes!' James practically shouted. 'She said, "If we're going to be working together, you should probably call me Lily." And I almost died right there on the spot. It was all I could do not to start jumping up and down.'

'You jumped up and down, didn't you?' Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow.

James held up his hand with the thumb and forefinger half an inch apart. 'Just a little bit, when she couldn't see me.'

'That's great, James. Really. I'm thrilled for you,' Remus said, heading for his bed. 'What about Sunshine?'

'What about it?'

'What are you going to do about it?'

James shrugged. 'Don't know. Too happy to think about it right now.'

Eyeing him as he made himself comfortable, Remus contemplated saying something, but he didn't have the energy to argue with James right then. It could wait.

Sirius pulled James into a hug, causing a tendril of jealousy to wrap itself around Remus' heart, which he immediately berated himself for. It was his own fault Sirius wasn't cuddled up to him right then, and he had no reason to be jealous of him showing affection to someone else. Especially James, for fuck's sake.

'Congratulations, mate. She'll be your girlfriend before you know it.'

'Do you think?'

'Definitely.'

If Remus wasn't so exhausted, he'd say something. Maybe suggest James come clean now before he took it past the point of no return. But he couldn't muster the energy to even form his thoughts into sentences, never mind get his mouth to emit the words. Instead, he let his eyes drift closed and listened to James and Sirius discussing ways to throw Lily off the scent. It was weird how neither of them seemed able to see further ahead than the next day. Did they really think they could keep it from her forever? And what did they think she was going to do when she found out? Laugh? That seemed unlikely to Remus, but what did he know? He was a murderous monster.

The almost imperceptible squeak of the door handle drew Remus' attention back to the door as it was pushed open, and Peter walked in. His eyes went to Remus first, full of worry until they alighted on him, but when he saw the bed curtains were pulled back, they crinkled at the corners as a smile spread across his face.