All or Nothing

For the first time in their friendship, Remus was the rabbit and Sirius the wolf.

Of course, it wasn’t like Sirius transformed into a violent beast once every month, but he was still absolutely ravenous for the shy, lanky boy he called his friend, and now that he had gotten James’ blessing in a weird sort of way, Sirius decided that it was time to actually address the issue and begin, courting Remus, for lack of a better term.

Obviously, he wasn’t very good at being subtle, but Sirius didn’t think Remus would appreciate his best mate jumping his bones in their dorm without any warning.

So, on the Hogwarts express, Sirius found the compartment that Moony and Prongs were sitting in, both of them putting their trunks up. He rushed to the werewolf’s aid, adding a second set of hands to Remus’ old trunk and shoved it the rest of the way into the cubby, knowing well that the light-haired boy could have easily completed the task by himself.

“Thanks, Sirius. It’s good to see you.” He smiled sweetly, and Sirius tried his hardest not to swoon. Instead he attempted to show an award winning grin, the one that used to get him into Marlene McKinnon’s knickers whenever he pleased. It didn’t seem to have the same effect on his friend, and that was probably because it came off as more of an anxiety-ridden manic grin that made him look like a psychopath.

Remus stared at him for a second before sitting down, and Sirius looked at James who subtly mimed turning a knob. Turn it down a notch.

The boy with shaggy hair took a seat next to the lycan who had already pulled out a book and was flipping to wherever he had previously left off.

“So, Moony, how was your summer?”

The lanky boy shrugged. “It was fine. Dad was gone a lot because of Death Eater attacks, so my mum was worried all the time, but we made do—A lot of telly and chocolate.” He smiled up at his friends.

“And the moons?” James asked, lowering his voice. “How’d those treat you?”

Remus’ smile faltered. “They were okay. Probably got a few new scars, but it’s nothing new.”

Sirius had the urge to pull him into a tight hug, knowing well that his friend’s condition took a huge toll on him. In fact, he looked more tired than ever with dark circles under his eyes and possibly a little thinner than he was before.

Before he could do anything to comfort the honey-haired boy, Remus simply put his legs up on the train bench, resting his feet on the window, and leaned back so that he was against Sirius.

James gave him a thumbs up that he quickly had to disguise as covering his mouth for a fake sneeze.

Peter eventually joined them, and James and Sirius chatted for most of the way, planning out new pranks to pull this school year. Remus had no input and continued to read until it became too dark, and then he settled for closing his eyes and going to sleep. He gradually slumped lower and lower on the bench until his head was resting on Sirius’ right thigh which made the boy stop bouncing his restless legs up and down immediately.

“Boys,” James grinned, stretching in his seat. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a great year.”



Trying to get Remus Lupin’s attention wasn’t so awkward for Sirius since his best friend was also trying and failing to impress one Lily Evans, a pretty redhead in their year who James had wanted to date before the boy had even hit puberty.

The two boys would sometimes walk the corridors, trying to come up with ideas to woo their objects of affection until one of them would cut off the conversation by complaining about how ponce-y they had become.

Sirius sat next to Remus whenever possible—at meals, in the common room, in class (and now it wasn’t just to copy his work). He asked his opinion on almost everything, mostly just to hear his wonderful voice but also because Sirius genuinely cared about what he thought.

“What do you think of this tie?” He asked in the boys’ dormitory as he and Remus finished getting ready for the Christmas dance. All of The Marauders were going stag, something that James would not stop making puns about, except for Peter, oddly enough who was going with some Hufflepuff girl whose name seemed to slip everybody’s mind.

Remus looked up from his own bowtie and made a face. “Is that an argyle tie? Good lord, Sirius.” He quickly walked over and began skillfully digging through Sirius’ pile of clothes until he found a dark blue tie that he held up against his friend’s dress robes. “Yes, wear this instead. It’ll bring out your eyes.”

He handed Sirius the article of clothing with a sweet little grin and a wink that Sirius was sure he had imagined then continued to sort out the rest of his own shabby dress robes. Remus’ family may not have been very wealthy, but the tall boy could pull off wearing anything, or that’s what Sirius thought, anyway. He could walk the halls in a paper bag and clown shoes and Sirius would still find him devastatingly handsome.

“Right then, shall we join the party?”

The long-haired boy snapped out of his little daydream and cleared his throat. “Yeah, let’s do that.”


Studying for tests was always torturous, for James and Sirius, at least. They didn’t exactly excel in anything that required any sort of focus and concentration whatsoever unless that subject happened to be a magical map or learning how to transfigure themselves into Anamagi.

Fortunately for them, Remus was basically a professional at studying. He had three different books open in front of him and organized notes on each subject while still managing to answer any of James’, Sirius’, and Peter’s questions about Potions and Ancient Runes.

It wasn’t all bad, Sirius thought, as it gave him a reason to get close to his friend and look over his shoulder. He especially liked to quietly read Remus’ notes right next to his ear because it never failed to make the other boy shudder. Sirius wasn’t sure if his breath was tickling him or if was actual tension between them. It was, after all, close to another full moon, the only times Remus ever lost control even a little.

The few days before his transformations, the Gryffindor was more easily irritated and slightly more aggressive. He would often engage in the horseplay that James and Sirius instigated, sometimes holding one of them in a choke-hold that was just a little too tight or slugging them in the shoulder hard enough to bruise.

But Sirius was always okay with it. Remus was always so reserved. It was nice to see him loosen his tie a bit even though he knew that soon enough, the werewolf would be in agonizing pain.

With that in mind, Sirius continued to literally breathe down his friend’s neck, basically draping himself over Remus. James’s head was perched on top of his hands on the table and he rolled his eyes at his best mate’s antics.

“D’you think McGoogly is gonna test us over conjuring?” Peter asked. “I’m still dead awful at it.”

“We know, Pete,” James sat up. “But it’s really pretty easy. See?” He picked his wand up from the table and demonstrated with a dramatic flourish, catching a cloth that appeared in mid-air.”

Peter frowned. “You couldn’t come up with anything better than a bit of cloth?”

“It’s for Padfoot to wipe his drool off of Moony,” he laughed, throwing the cloth at his friend who was turning red.

The plump boy snickered and Remus moved to check his shoulder while Sirius threw himself at James.

“I’ll conjure something up your arsehole!”

“Yeah, I bet you would!”

James was knocked out of his seat, still very amused, and the two boys wrestled until a very angry Madam Pince rounded the corner with a stern look on her face. “If you can’t behave yourselves, you’ll have to leave the library. There are students here trying to study,” she scolded them.

The Gryffindor boys righted themselves and nodded, feeling no remorse for their actions whatsoever, and as soon as the librarian turned her back, Sirius sent a stinging hex at James that hit him in his left arse cheek.