The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

Tell Me Everything

Tell Me Everything

That night, Sirius threw a party in Gryffindor common room to celebrate his acquisition of new bottles of firewhiskey from the trip to Hogsmeade. Sirius, Peter, and James had run the bottles through the tunnel of the Whomping Willow and up to the Gryffindor common room, rather than going back from Hogsmeade on the path. James had pointed out that they'd sort of left Remus behind, but Sirius took a very flippant attitude about it, saying that Remus would get back with his new boyfriend, meaning Ned Veigler, and refused to go back for him.

James wished so bloody much that he had even the slightest idea what was going on, it was driving him crazy, the not-knowing. How did he change things? Why were they mad at Remus, why was Remus mad at them? Why did Lily hate him again? How the hell had he ended up dating Maryrose, and why wasn't she with Regulus Black? Where was Regulus Black? James hadn't seen him at all on the Hogsmeade trip anywhere and they ended up eating in the dormitory while Sirius worked at organizing his 8-track tapes for the optimal party mix.

That night in the common room, as the party raged on, James sat in one of the chairs by the fire, watching as Sirius danced about with anyone who would let him - boy, girl, he didn't seem to care. The first year, Wally, danced with him for some time and James noticed Oliver watching from where he sat in another chair in the far corner of the room, under a blanket, with his potions book open on his lap, staring wistfully.

Suddenly Remus was sitting on the couch at the end nearest to James. James looked over at him and nodded a greeting, not speaking. Remus nodded back, and glanced about the room for a moment before turning back to look at James with one raised eyebrow. James was staring across the room, where Lily Evans was sitting with Ali Prewitt and Meg Johnston, laughing as Carly Shaw pressed against Sirius as he danced with her to Ruby Tuesday. Lily had a bottle of pumpkin juice instead of the firewhiskey being passed about and she looked up and spotted him staring and made a face, turning back to Ali quickly, saying something to her that made Ali look up for a moment to see if James was still looking. He sighed heavily and turned away.

"So what's going on, James?" Remus asked, taking a sip of whatever he had in his cup.

James sloshed the cup of firewhiskey he held around a bit so the ice cubes he'd magicked into it clicked against each other and the sides of the plastic cup. "It's... complicated, Rey," James replied, staring into the cup, because it was easier to look there than it was to look at Remus. He couldn't lie to Remus's eyes.

"Most things are pretty complicated in our lives," Remus laughed, "Bloody hell. Imagine if anything was simple? It would be a miracle."

"A bleedin' miracle," James agreed, nodding.

Sirius abruptly let go of Carly Shaw and leaped onto the table to dance by himself as Steppenwolf came on the stereo, and Carly glared up at him, upset that he'd ditched her so easily. Remus muttered, "She's been trying to get him to go straight for months. Idiot girl knows nothing about him."

James looked up and raised his eyebrow.

"Not that I care if she gets him to anyway. Let her have him." Remus's voice was hard, but James could still tell that he didn't really mean it by the look in his eyes when he said it.

The tape was changed out by somebody, and the straining notes of You're So Vain by Carly Simon started playing and Remus looked physically sick. "Ugh. Fuck," he groaned and he stood up, "No. I can't. I'm going for a walk."

James put down his cup quickly and sprang up, "I think I'll go with you," he announced.

"Alright."

So the pair of them snuck out of the common room - although there was no real sneaking involved. Nobody cared if they were there or not, or at least nobody noticed them go if they did. James followed Remus along into the corridor and they climbed the stairs up - up - up - and James wondered where they were going. He'd never gone up this particular flight of stairs before - it was the flight that Remus and Lily often had sat at the foot of for conversations back in their earlier years - a habit that had slowly faded off. It was a doorless, landingless flight that cork-screwed up and up and up until it came to a door and Remus pushed it out and James realized they were on a small balcony, far up on the castle, and there was a slight wind, but it wasn't unpleasant - it was already getting warm, gearing up for a long, hot summer and James followed Remus out the door, and Remus leaned against the edge, looking off over the forbidden forest. James leaned beside him and looked down over the side into the depths of Hogwarts and he could see far, far below, the Transfiguration courtyard and the viaducts and rooftops of lower portions of the castle.