Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 102: Experiments

Remus quickly made up with Lily again. They both apologised for saying things they hadn't meant, whether they were telling the truth to each other or not, and decided to move on from the subject entirely. It ended up being quite beneficial to the both of them, because things were no longer left unspoken between them. Lily explained to him as bluntly as she could that she didn't need Remus getting involved with her love life, that he wasn't allowed to theorise about her and Severus, and that if James wanted to tell her that he liked her, then he could do it himself, and he didn't need Remus to do it for him.

Remus agreed, and they left it at that.

He was, however, still curious over why she was so defensive over how she felt, but he wasn't exactly going to ask anytime soon. He knew it wasn't any of his business, and if Lily wanted to tell him, then that was up to her. As it turned out, though, she didn't have to tell him after all. He found out accidentally one day, when he was heading up to the astronomy tower for the evening to look at the stars, something he did when he felt like being on his own.

Two things were learnt that night by two different people: Remus learnt that Marlene wasn't actually dating Dorcas after all, even though it was clear to basically everyone else that Marlene had a crush on her. Apparently, she still hadn't built up the courage to tell Dorcas yet. It was true the two were very close, and it seemed they had some sort of unspoken relationship going on, but nothing had yet been set in stone.

The other thing that was learnt that night was that the astronomy tower wasn't as private as Lily had thought it was.

"Oh... shit," remarked Remus as he walked in on Lily and Marlene rather intensely making out with each other. They pulled apart as soon as they spotted him, both flushing red in the moonlight at being caught. "Hello."

"Bloody hell, Remus, what are you doing here?" interrogated Marlene. Initially, Remus thought the two were red from embarrassment, but it soon became clear that the two were more than a little bit drunk. That wasn't a surprise; there was a party happening in the Gryffindor common room at that moment, celebrating another Quidditch win, which was the main reason why Remus had wanted to find a quieter place to sit. It also meant that nearly all of them had drunk at least a few beers, which more or less explained Lily and Marlene's make out session. Remus assumed that it wasn't serious, but he was still surprised. He had never really imagined Lily as partaking in that sort of stuff, but she always managed to throw him off guard.

"Sorry," he said. "I'll... I'll leave." He was a little high himself; Sirius had borrowed a joint from Rob and since the full moon was so close, Remus decided to smoke some to take the edge of his subsequent pain. As a result, he wasn't quite with it, so he was nowhere near as shocked at walking into his two friends snogging each other as he probably would have been under more sober circumstances. He turned away without a word and returned to the dorm room. He didn't tell anyone what he saw. His senses may have been temporarily inebriated but he still knew it wasn't his place to say a word about Lily and Marlene.

It was the following day at morning break time when Lily explained what had happened. She admitted that it was mainly down to one too many drinks, but she also assured Remus that Marlene and Dorcas weren't together, so it wasn't cheating on her part.

"They're not?" He was more shocked by that than last night's events.

"Well... they're being bloody annoying about it, because I'm pretty sure Dorcas is waiting for Marlene to make the first move but Marlene is completely convinced that Dorcas doesn't see her that way."

"My God, everyone in this group is useless," Remus muttered to himself. Lily smiled.

"That's what I keep saying, but I guess you can't force it. Besides, at least it means that I got a chance to snog Marlene first."