Musically Yours // Wolfstar One-Shots

Take a Chance On Me

A/N brought to you by my obsession with Mamma Mia :)

Sirius walked into the Marauders' dorm, his smile instantly vanishing when he picked up on the tangibly melancholy mood inside. He spied Remus lying on his bed, brooding - which, come to think of it, he had been doing a lot lately.

"Are you okay, Rem?" Sirius asked, setting his books on his trunk and sitting to face Remus.

Remus only responded with a shrug.

"Because you seem a little down."

Remus shrugged again, putting his hands behind his head and stretching out.

Sirius knew better than to keep pushing for a verbal response. "Okay. Well, if you need me, just let me know. I'll be around."

It took exactly six and a half of Sirius's steps toward the door for Remus to break his silence. "Stephen broke up with me a few days ago."

Sirius's heart stopped along with his strides. Remus had been dating this Ravenclaw, Stephen, for about three months. Sirius knew it was only a matter of time before the two broke up. Stephen didn't fit in with the Marauders, already putting him on  Sirius's bad side, but there was more to him that made Sirius's hackles - both his metaphorical and literal ones - stand on end at the mention of Stephen's name.

It was the way he treated Remus like he was nothing but a fun way to pass the time.

Remus almost always had something negative to report about a date with Stephen. He would be distracted, he would take over the conversation - sometimes he wouldn't even bother showing up. Stephen always got out of it, though, by charming a note folded into an origami bird to fly into their dorm and sit on Remus's bed. Remus would forgive him each time a note fluttered in.

Stephen never put Rem first, and it seemed like Remus was the only person who couldn't see it. All Sirius wanted to do was shake Remus out of his love-sick stupor and make him see sense; in this case, "sense" was synonymous with "the fact that Sirius would try harder to give him the happy, loving relationship he deserved than Stephen ever would."

The trouble was figuring out how exactly to say something like that to his best mate. Hey, Rem, nice weather we're having. By the way, your boyfriend's a prick and you'd be way better off with someone else. Like who? Let me think - I know - me!

Sirius was as courageous as they come, but he could never say those words aloud to Remus. Not after the way things ended the first time.

These thoughts zoomed like tiny Quidditch brooms in his head until he realized that Remus was waiting on him to say something. The raven-haired boy took a chance to collect himself before turning around and sighing. "Wow, Rem, I'm really sorry."

Remus snorted. "No, you're not. I could tell you never liked him."

Sirius looked at him in mock indignation. "I never said anything about not liking anyone!"

Remus rolled his eyes, sliding off his bed and looking underneath it for something. "You don't have to," he called as he searched. "I know you well enough by now; you definitely didn't like him."

Sirius considered denying the accusation, but thought better of it. They were broken up now - what did it matter? "Yeah, okay, you got me, but I know you liked him; that's why I'm sorry."

Remus emerged from underneath his bed with a small shoebox in his hands. "I appreciate that, truly," he said with a small smile and that mischievous Marauder glint in his eye, "but I'm feeling a bit more jaded than sorry right now. Care to help me get rid of some memories?"

Sirius grinned at him. "For you, my friend, anything." He grabbed a half-empty bottle of fire whiskey out of his trunk. "I'll even bring the refreshments."

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Remus and Sirius walked down to the common room together and sat by the fireplace. It was the middle of the afternoon on a beautiful spring day, meaning the other Gryffindors had left the common room deserted in favor of spending time outside.

Remus opened the box he had carried down and Sirius peered down at it. Inside were all the little bird notes that Stephen had sent to Remus over the past few months.

Sirius looked at Remus quizzically, unsure of what to do with the notes. Remus answered him by picking one up and releasing it from his hands into the fire. He then grabbed the fire whiskey out of Sirius' hands and took a swig.

"To burning memories!" Remus announced as Sirius took a turn at tossing a note into the flames. Sirius smiles as he took his turn drinking from the bottle.

This was going to be an interesting afternoon.

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Twenty burned bird notes and many sips of fire whiskey later, Remus and Sirius were lying comfortably on the soft carpet of the common room. Remus's head lolled, resting upon Sirius's shoulder. "This is nice," he slurred.

Sirius, who could handle his alcohol much better than Remus could, chuckled and shifted to move away from Remus a bit. He loved the contact of their previous cuddly position, but he knew he would be pushing his luck if they stayed like that much longer.

"Stephen never used to do this."

Sirius looked down cautiously at Remus. "Do what?"

"This." Remus raised a hand and waved all around. "Ya know. Cuddle and stuff," he yawned and stretched, rolling on his side to see Sirius properly. "No one ever does. Why can't boys be more like you?"

Remus looked at Sirius from underneath his eyelashes, and Sirius could have sworn the world stopped. Those glowing hazel eyes turned his reasoning to mush. Words that had been sitting on the top of Sirius's tongue for a year and a half finally spilled out, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"You could always take a chance on me," Sirius said quietly, looking down at the carpet. His heart was beating so loudly in his ears that he couldn't hear whether or not he actually said the phrase out loud.

"What?" Remus said, looking up at him with an unreadable expression on his face, sobering up at the new direction of the conversation.

Sirius cleared his throat and looked back up into the eyes he loved so much. "Take a chance on me," he said more firmly.

Remus was the one who looked away this time, playing with a stray thread on the rug beneath them. "Siri, we tried. It didn't work, and we agreed on that. I don't want you to waste your time."

Sirius took a stabilizing breath and reached out to touch Remus's hand. "I know, but it's been almost two years since then. I didn't know how to be in a real relationship. I didn't know what you wanted, or even what I wanted. Rey," Sirius swallowed thickly, unable to believe that he was confessing all of this, "Rey, I haven't been able to get you off my mind. Not in that way. If you just let me try - let us try - then maybe..."

Remus sat up as he struggled to respond. "Padfoot, I...I don't want to hurt you, and I don't know if we can...I mean, last time...and now - "

Sirius cut him off with a squeeze of his hand. "I understand, Rey." He stood up, attempting to ignore the heartache he felt from Remus's rejection. He didn't expect anything different, but he'd be lying if he said he hadn't hoped for a 'yes.'

He made his way over to the stairs and turned around to face Remus. Rey was watching the fire, his brow furrowed in thought. Sirius looked at him for a moment before turning to climb upstairs.

Suddenly, Sirius whirled around again. "Rey," he called, making Remus's eyes dart from the fireplace to him. "If you ever change your mind, I'm the first in line, okay?"

Remus cracked a smile and rolled his eyes, a gesture that always made Sirius grin like a fool. "I'll let you know, Sirius."

Sirius grinned right back at him. "Just put me to the test."