Harry Potter and the New Bloom (A Marauders AU)

Remus's New Model

The study in the Flat in East London had once been James and Lily's room - before they'd been married and moved to their cottage in Godric's Hollow. Now it was more of a library-slash-hobbies room where Remus and Sirius could spend time together while doing their own personal interests. The room was lined with books upon books upon books on floor to ceiling shelves along one and a half of the full walls, and the books spilled over into stacks on the floor and were double-lined on the shelves, too. There was a heavy desk that was covered with Remus's things - stacks of essays written on lined paper like the muggles used and the headshots for the models Remus was interviewing spread out. There were several canvases with half-painted subjects leaning against the wall - landscapes that were familiar like their campsite in the woods that they still used on most full moon nights, and portraits of people James didn't recognize but whose eyes stared out, unmoving and unfinished. Remus never finished a portrait all of the way these days, but purposefully left part of it unfinished - he didn't want any of them waking up, he always said. An easel stood in one corner and in another was a large shelving unit with hundreds of vinyl LPs, piles of cassette tapes in plastic cases and, in plastic bins on the floor, loads and loads of mix tapes, inked-on titles in Sirius's handwriting. There was a low, comfy looking chair next to a very large stereo with a record player on the top and a pair of headphones that lay on the chair, the wire coiled around on the floor. A black electric guitar hung on the wall above it, next to a poster of Freddie Mercury in a yellow jacket.

It was this room that James pulled Sirius into after he'd yanked him out of the brunch.

"What are you doing?" James demanded.

Sirius feigned confusion. "What do you mean, Prongs?"

"This brunch thing - what're you doing?"

"Can't a gay man have a very gay brunch with his friends these days?" Sirius asked, shaking his head dramatically and sighing, "I mean, honestly..."

"Yes a gay man can have a gay brunch with his friends but you've called it a couple's brunch about eighteen times and your attendees are you and Remus - a couple, Annalee and Sean - a couple, Harry - my ten year old, me and McKenna Alliston.... not a couple."

"Prongslet is eleven."

"Sirius."

"What? You really ought to remember how old your son is."

"Sirius."

Sirius threw his hands up in the air, "Okay yes, fine, the brunch was a little bit tilted for a guest list, I'll admit it, but --" Sirius saw James's eyes lighting up with his next line of argument and he said, "It was Moony's idea, though, he was worried about what you'd be up to after Harry goes off to Hogwarts and --"

"Really? REALLY?"

Sirius looked up - Remus had just come in the door.

"Fuck," Sirius muttered.

James said, "Don't worry, Rey, I know you aren't mad enough to have thought I'd ever, ever think of coupling up with McKenna Alliston."

"Thank you for your confidence," Remus said.

"Well why wouldn't you? McKennas a catch!"

"Bleeding hell, Sirius. We've tried it and it did not work out. At all."

"I mean, did she really get a fair chance back then?" Sirius asked, "With all the drama of the infamous oh gods Evans event?"

"Yes, she got a fair chance, we weren't compatible," James said.

"But you're such good friends now!"

"Just because you're friends with someone doesn't mean you want to date them," James said, rolling his eyes.