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February 13


Gryffindor common room was a mess of nerves almost as pathetic as it’d been before the Yule Ball, except this time Sirius and James weren’t making fun of it. They were sitting in the same spot on the stairwell leading up to the dorms, sure, but they were looking over the common room for a far different reason.

“I’m thinking of asking Annalee McKinnon like I said I would,” James said. “I know she won’t say no, so it’s a safe play.”

Sirius stared down, “I dunno who to ask.”

“Meg Johnson, maybe?” James suggested. “You like her, don’t you?”

“Yeah she’s alright,” Sirius replied.

“Well, we haven’t got much longer. It’s tomorrow,” James pointed out.

Sirius leaned his forehead against the wrungs of the rail. “Yeah, I know.”

James sighed, his eyes flickering to Lily Evans sitting at the desk across from the newly returned Remus, whose nose was still scared, though far less red than it had been before. The balm that Newt Scamander had given Madam Pomfrey really had done wonders for the cut across his face. He’d told only the other three boys about Newt and Professor Veigler, though he hadn’t shown them the letter, afraid of what they might think about the bits concerning Sirius. He’d tucked it away in the bottom of his trunk, in the old copy of Jekyll and Hyde from last semester., where nobody would find it. Some things were too personal.

James said, “It’s bullocks. All this worrying and nervousness.”

Sirius nodded.

James couldn’t take his eyes off Lily. He felt so bloody frustrated. “Why won’t she just say yes to me, Sirius?” he asked.

Sirius looked down, following James’s gaze. “Dunno, mate.”

“She’s just so pretty!”

“There are loads of pretty girls.”

“Not like Evans. Nobody’s like Evans.”

“I know what you mean,” Sirius said. He sat back, fishing in his pocket for a knut. “Here,” he said, “We’ll flip for who we’re gonna ask to be our Valentines, how’s that?”

James looked at Sirius, “You want to leave such an important choice up to the flip of a coin?”

“Why not?” Sirius asked, “It isn’t as though either one of us is going to end up with the person we do the stupid Valentines thing with, right?”

“Yeah, true, why not.” James turned to watch as Sirius balanced the knut on his thumb.

“Alright. Heads you go ask Annalee, tails and you ask McKenna.” James nodded solemnly, accepting the terms, and Sirius flipped the coin. It spun in the air several turns before coming down and landing between them, rolling a little ways. Sirius slapped it to the floor just before it went in an air vent. He looked at it, “Heads, mate.”

James looked down at the common room where Annalee was laughing and braiding Ali Prewitt’s hair as they talked by the fire. He could do worse, he thought. He picked up the knut. “Alright, now for you,” he said, turning to Sirius. “Heads you ask Meg Johnson, tails it’s Marlene McKinnon. Ready?”

Sirius nodded solemnly and James flipped the coin into the air and it spun… then landed. Perfectly straight on it’s narrow edge. James and Sirius both stared at it in shock. “Well what the bloody hell do you reckon that means?” Sirius laughed.

“Means I should never go into professional coin tossing, clearly,” James replied. “Imagine that happening at the Quidditch World Cup? Probably would, my luck… Blimey.” He snatched the coin up and said, “Same terms. If it lands on the edge again - which it won’t because, bloody hell I couldn’t do it again if I tried, I’ll bet - then you can bloody take me as your Valentine.”

“I don’t want you as my Valentine,” Sirius said, laughing, “You throw that on it’s edge again and I’ll bloody take Remus as my Valentine.”

James snorted. “Great way to restart all them rumors.”

“The Slytherins would love it,” Sirius laughed.

James tossed the coin again and it spun and spun in the air and when it landed, it rolled, fast, and before James could catch it, the knut sailed into the air vent, clicking and clacking as it went down. “Bloody hell,” James muttered.

Sirius laughed. “Blimey you’re bloody awful at coin tossing.”

James shook his head.

“Tell you what,” Sirius said, “We’ll just say tails, since you got heads. Which was which again?”

“Tails was Marlene McKinnon,” James replied.

“So we’ve got the sisters then,” Sirius nodded, “Very nice.”

“We can go as a two-fer to the tea if you like. Maybe it’ll be less awkward if we’re all together. Give each other some distractions,” James suggested.

Sirius nodded, “That sounds brilliant.”

“Yeah,” James nodded. His eyes travelled across the room to Lily Evans once again and he sighed.

“Someday, mate,” Sirius said, patting his shoulder.




Lily was doodling on her parchment of notes from Transfiguration, sitting across from Remus, who was reading the book aloud to her. She scribbled a little owl with a monocle and a dapper little tie and top hat. “It’s nearly Valentine’s Day,” she said suddenly.

Remus didn’t look up. “I’ve heard.”

Lily looked at him for a long moment. “Sev’s taking me to the tea this year. I’m nervous it’ll be as awkward as it was for you and I last year… He’s just so good looking, Rey. I don’t feel like I’m pretty enough for him.”

Remus looked up, “How could you even say that?”

“I just love him so much,” she replied.

“Well, you’re very pretty and Snape’s lucky to have you,” Remus said.

Lily smiled, “I’m the lucky one.”

Remus didn’t reply, he wasn’t entirely sure how to. As he saw it, there wasn’t a bloke on the planet that was as lucky as Severus Snape was that someone like Lily even took notice of him at all. People like Snape just didn’t end up with people like Lily. Sort of like him and Sirius, he thought. People like him, Remus, just didn’t get the people like Sirius Black. He flushed and looked down at the book quickly, about to start reading again, when Lily leaned forward and asked, “Are you going to ask… you know who?”

“Voldemort?” said Remus with a smirk.

“Shush,” Lily said, giggling, “You know who I mean.”

He smiled, then shook his head, “No.”

“Whyever not? You ought to,” Lily said.

“Because… It’s weird.” Remus lowered his voice even further so his words were barely even whispers, “What if he doesn’t feel like I do?”

“Of course he does!” Lily said. “He just hasn’t realized it yet. He wouldn’t have gone to the hospital wing to see you if he didn’t.”

Remus had told Lily about the night before, when Sirius had snuck in and climbed into the bed with him to comfort him and how gently Sirius had swept away the tear from his cheek. He’d thought for sure that had been the right moment to tell Sirius how he felt and he wished that when Sirius had told him to just go to sleep that he’d kissed him and told him how he felt anyway. But he hadn’t. Worse yet, he wasn’t even certain that the whole incident hadn’t been a dream. After all, Pomfrey had given him the Elixir for Good Dreams and his lids had felt so heavy… and Sirius had been gone by morning when Remus woke up… if he’d ever been there at all. Lily was thoroughly caught up in the idea that Sirius had gone to tell Remus how he felt, too, and they’d spent a good ten minutes earlier, sitting in an empty classroom, talking about whether or not Sirius Black could possibly feel the same way.

Remus found it very hard to believe he could.

“You’ll never know if you don’t ask him,” Lily pointed out.

“Sirius is so much braver than I am about this sort of thing,” Remus said, “If he felt the same way, then he would’ve asked me by now.”

Lily shrugged. “You should ask him.”

Remus shook his head, “No.”

Suddenly there was a shrieking squeal from over by the fire - they both turned to look just as Annalee McKinnon leaped up onto James so that her legs wrapped ‘round his waist and she threw her arms about him. “Yes of course I’ll be your Valentine!” she shouted, kissing his forehead excitedly over and over again.

James looked unsure of his choice as she mauled him with affection and he winced a bit at Sirius, who hovered just a couple feet away, watching with wide, slightly horrified eyes. But then James spotted Lily looking on and he instantly turned his face to Annalee and quickly started kissing her back.

Lily rolled her eyes.

Remus, though, was staring at Sirius. Could he be brave enough to mention it to Sirius after all? He wondered. He pictured what it might be like if he did… if Sirius did feel the same way, then he’d smile… oh Remus loved the way Sirius looked when he really smiled. In his mind’s eye, Sirius had that windblown, toothy grin that he’d worn the morning after their night in the woods, when they’d woke up stretching in the bracken as canines… How he’d looked turning back into a boy, the way the sun had shone about him… Sirius’s smile with that classic chisel-jawed, fairy tale prince sort of look about him, mingled with a hip, punk sort of style that was contradictory yet absolutely perfect... That carefree, happy smile of a boy with nothing to lose and adventure in his heart. That was the best looking version of Sirius there was (though there really wasn’t a bad looking version), and that would be the Sirius that would accept Remus’s request that they be each other’s Valentine and he pictured the look of shock on the faces of everyone in the school when the two boys showed up together to the tea in the Great Hall, holding hands and not giving a blazing damn about what anyone would say about it. Remus would be scared about it, of course, but Sirius’s confidence would be enough for them both and they’d sit at a table and --- and --- and then what?

Remus’s imagination stalled.

Then it died altogether as Sirius himself showed up at the table, sitting beside Remus and throwing his arm about his friend’s shoulder. “Well, well, well,” he said, “Potter’s got himself a date to the Valentine shindig. What do you lot think of that?” Sirius looked at Lily.

“I feel bad for Annalee,” Lily said.

“Yeah, poor Annalee, getting to go with the most popular guy in Gryffindor. However will she get over it?” Sirius said cheekily.

Lily rolled her eyes at him, “James Potter is not the most popular guy in Gryffindor. Blimey, don’t let him hear you say that. His head’s big enough already.”

Sirius grinned.

Lily raised her eyebrows at Remus pointedly.

Remus swallowed and turned a bit red, then opened his mouth to speak -- but Sirius talked first, turning toward him, “Now all that’s left to take care of is the matter of you and I,” he said.

Remus’s heart nearly stopped. “Wh- what?”

“Our dates!” Sirius said. “I’m going to ask Marlene McKinnon - James and I flipped a coin, so that’s decided. But we’ve got to sort out who you are asking. Oh and I suppose Peter, too. Where is Peter?”

“He went to the kitchens,” Remus replied.

Sirius laughed, “He should bring a pork pie as his date, closest thing to a love interest that boy’s shown yet…” He looked at Remus, “Hmm. Who should you go with though…?” Sirius looked at Lily. “I s’pose you’re going with Snivellus?”

Lily’s face pinkened. “His name is Severus and yes. I am going with Severus.”

Sirius said, “What do you see in that grease ball?”

“He’s very kind,” she said hotly, “And handsome and I’m very lucky to be with him. He loves me.”

“But do you love him?” Sirius asked.

Lily battled herself a moment, she both wanted to say she did and didn’t want to say she did. She both loved him and did not love him at exactly the same time and it was as though her tongue was waging war against her, compelling her to say it even though she wanted to hold it back. Finally she just stood up. “Ugh.” She looked at Remus, “Good luck with --” she waved her hand at Sirius, “That.”

Sirius laughed as Lily stormed off to the girls dormitories. Then he turned to Remus. “Annalee says Marlene’s in the library. You fancy going with me so I can ask her about tomorrow?”

Remus would have rather done literally anything else.

“Please?” Sirius added. “I could use a wingman, Rey. And you’re the best bloody wingman a guy could have.”

“Alright,” he said.

And so it was that Remus stood a few feet away, watching as Sirius Black snuck up behind Marlene McKinnon with a fistful of flowers that Remus had conjured for him to do the job. He watched as Sirius’s face broke into a smile as Marlene said yes, she’d be his Valentine, and she wrapped her arms about his neck excitedly and, though he looked uncomfortable about her squeezing him like that - he was still unused to the affectionate touch - he looked over her shoulder at Remus and gave him a thumbs up.

Remus gave him a weak smile and a thumbs up back.