intrigue ' sirius [editing]

v. brothers

chapter
↳ five
moodboard
↳ none

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"You guys are going to get lung cancer if you keep that up," Peter muttered, snapping a picture of Sirius and Remus with his camera.

The marauders sat under a willow tree, close to the Black Lake's dock. There, it was rare for prefects to come hound you about your rule-breaking. Since smoking was against the rules at Hogwarts, Sirius and Remus often spent their breaks there. Even if a prefect did come towards them, James could simply transfigure their cigarettes into lollipop sticks, as he had already done a few times before.

Sirius snorted and spoke around his cigarette, "Don't act like smoking isn't your aesthetic, Pete. You're always taking pictures."

Remus sighed. He pulled his cigarette out from between his lips to speak, unlike his reckless friend. "I'll quit after Hogwarts. I swear."

"I won't," Sirius confirmed for himself, settling against the tree trunk and observing the sun as it disappeared behind the lake's surface. "Speaking of after Hogwarts, what do you suppose we'll do?"

James looked up from his sketchbook, where he had been drawing a very realistic portrait of Peter, "We'll have to fight in the war, won't we? Dad says one is brewing, and I don't think we can sit back and do nothing."

"Right," Sirius agreed. "After the war, though. When we each have our own families and stuff. We'll still be friends, won't we?"

"Of course!" James said in an outburst, as if the thought of separating from any of them was absurd. "When Lily and I are married, you all have to be my groomsmen."

"Who's the best man?" Peter asked, his eyes hidden behind his lens as he captured James mid-sentence.

"Can't you all be my best men? I'll have other groomsmen too, of course. The whole quidditch team has got to come."

"Who says you're getting married to Lily?" Remus pointed out sarcastically. He put his cigarette out in the grass as James answered.

"Ultimately her, of course. Just you wait, Moony. Lily Evans will fall for these charms."

"Ah yes," Sirius provoked his best friend with a smirk on his face, "The charms of idiocy and narcissism."

"Hey!" James made to throw his pencil at Sirius before his eye caught onto something — or someone — else in his line of vision. "Benji! Come here!"

Sirius turned around and saw Benji happily approaching them, pulling his begrudged sister along behind him.

Benji brought Millie down with him as he sat, and the Slytherin girl ended up being plopped right beside Sirius, her shoulders touching his.

"Hey, babe."

Millie snarled at him. "Don't call me babe, Black. I don't like you."

Sirius took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew smoke into the air before looking down at Millie, "I'm not too sure I like you either. You're a Slytherin, you know."

"No, I didn't. Thanks for reminding me," Millie retorted, drawing a chuckle from Sirius. "Now stop talking to me."

"Alright," he easily agreed, averting his attention to Benji and James' conversation.

He didn't see his brother striding by until Millie let out a noise of excitement. "Regulus! Wait up!"

He watched her go, wondering how on earth she could smile around someone like his brother. How she could easily hug him and talk to him like Sirius used to just a few years ago.