Who: James Potter and Remus Lupin What: Hanging out and talking about stuff Where: James and Sirius' apartment When: Backdated: Early January Rating: Family Friendly Status: Complete
Ever since their conversation on the net, James had been wondering exactly why Remus hadn’t wanted to talk about the sort of girls he liked in public. It was for this reason that he had invited Remus over. Okay, so it wasn’t the exact reason; he enjoyed spending time with his friend and didn’t see him nearly as often as he liked because of his work and Remus’ schooling. So James would take any opportunity he got to hang out with him.
Sirius was out, as usual, so it was going to be just the two dream Gryffindors tonight, which part of James didn’t really mind, because Sirius hadn’t started dreaming yet so talking about wizards and hogwarts and werewolves and animagus around their friend would be a little awkward and chances were Sirius wouldn’t even believe them. So James didn’t mind it being just he and Remus tonight.
It wasn’t that Remus was embarrassed … Well, he was, a bit. Such conversations made him feel red in the face even when it was happening over the internet, in the safety of his bedroom, so he wasn’t exactly up for airing his personal details online. Besides, any excuse to spend time with his friends was a good one, James in particular given. Well. Everything. And loathe as Remus was to admit it, not having Sirius around would be nice. This once.
He arrived at James’ door with an extra large pizza in hand (you really shouldn’t go to someone’s home without bringing something) and knocked. “If you don’t open this door, I’ll huff and puff and blow it down. Or something.”
Hearing the knock at the door, James headed towards it, laughing as Remus’ voice drifted through it along with the scent of pizza, “Do you think that would really work?” He asked as he unlocked the door and pulled it open, “Cause if you do, while I’d love to see it, I don’t wanna lose my security deposit. We’ve already had too many close calls cause of he who shall remain nameless at this time.” James brought his fist up to his mouth and coughed what sounded suspiciously like Sirius’ name then smirked as he moved aside to allow Remus inside.
“What is even the point of being a werewolf if I can’t make idle threats?” But Remus snorted anyway, rolling his eyes in an amused way as he walked in. “I think that only works when he’s around to hear it. Just FYI.”
The pizza box got set on top of the coffee table and Remus sat himself down on the couch. He glanced around a bit, feeling like he hadn’t been there in ages. “How is Sirius, anyway? I feel like I’ve hardly seen him the last few weeks. He’s not in prison or anything, is he? Because if he is, congratulations on covering it up so nicely.”
“If you’re gonna be werewolf, you might need better idle threats.” It was still strange to James, to think that one of his best friends was a werewolf. Not only that, but they were both wizards. It was like something out of a young adult novel or something and James still wasn’t entirely sure he believed it despite it being real. There really was no denying any of it.
James laughed at Remus question and shook his head, “No, actually I killed him.” He smirked as he headed into the kitchen, “I’ve been meaning to tell you. Want a drink?” He grabbed two bottles of beer and brought them back out to the living room.
“I’m building my way up to it. Being menacing isn’t really in my basic nature.” Save for his recent Christmas stint at the hospital, which had maybe been vaguely terrifying for the others involved. “Also, I can’t believe you didn’t ask me to help bury the body. I could’ve at least helped develop an alibi.”
Remus took the beer happily, taking a good swig of it. It dawned on him suddenly that joking about killing their friend was poor taste, all things considered, so his brow furrowed a bit.
“I’ll have to remember that next time,” James smirked as he sat down on the couch and opened the pizza box, “But in all seriousness, I guess he’s been spending a lot of time at the beach. Or with Lily.” It figured that the girl James had been drawn to would be dating Sirius. Sirius always seemed to be the lucky one.
“Some day, I think you’ll find it stupidly hilarious. Sirius and Lily, I mean.” Remus was loathe to give spoilers, but he’d had a good laugh when he dreamt about the unlikely romance between James and Lily. He was looking forward to seeing their reactions to it. “Either way, he’s a jerk for shunning us. I’ve been spending more time with his brother than with him.”
James quirked a brow, wondering what exactly Remus was talking about, but he wasn’t going to ask too many questions about that just yet, “He is a jerk. I mean, I live with him and barely see him. Sure, I’m working a lot, but there was a time when I’d see him more than I do now.” He took a piece of pizza and took a bite, “How is Regulus? I haven’t talked to him in awhile either.”
“He’s all right, I guess.” Remus took some pizza as well, careful not to slop any toppings. He was marginally neater when it came to eating than his friends. “We cooked a gross meat pie and invited Sirius to come eat it with us, and now we just joke about cooking awful, weird food for one another. Because I’m already a bad cook so it can’t get any worse, can it? My social life is so unremarkable it hurts.”
“Meat pies? That just sounds gross. I can’t imagine trying to choke that down.” James took another bite of pizza before picking up his beer bottle to wash it down, “Why did you decide to make meat pies, of all things? There’s tons of other good foods you could have chosen.”
“They were awful. Really, really disgusting.” Remus snorted and took a sip of his beer. “I don’t really remember? -- Oh. We were talking about Thanksgiving, I think, and how we both agreed that sweet potato pie and sweet potatoes with marshmallows was all kinds of wrong. It escalated. As you can imagine.”
“Well yeah, going from sweet potatoes to meat pies is definitely escalating things.” James said as he finished off his piece of pizza, “I’m glad we decided on pizza otherwise you might have decided to bring over a meat pie to torture me.”
“James Potter, I’m hurt you’d suggest that, and if I weren’t such a good friend I’d deduct more points from you.” Remus grinned, though, then shook his head. “Whoever thought making me a prefect in any world was clearly mental. I think Dumbledore did it as a joke.”
“Dumbledore probably thought you were the only one who could keep me and Sirius in line,” James said, taking a swig of his beer, “Thought you’d have a good influence on us or something.” Not that they were awful students or anything, but James and Sirius were definitely the ringleaders of The Marauders.
“Oh, yes, that’s smart of him. Give one of us the power to have a variety of passwords to rooms we’ve never even dreamed of getting into. I swear to God, he was having us on.” Remus pulled his feet up under him, balancing the bottle between his knees. “Ah well.”
“Not that we probably couldn’t have figured out ways to sneak into them even without the password.” James smirked and picked up another piece of pizza, “Enough about the dreams though, I seem to recall the main reason I invited you over being that we need to talk about why you didn’t want to have a certain conversation on the net.” James had been a little surprised when Remus had mentioned not knowing what he looked for in a girl when he’d joked about giving his number out at the bar so of course he’d been thinking about it ever since. “So, spill.”
“Oh. Here I’d been hoping you’d forgotten that.” And Remus had been hoping, really. Or had at least been trying to delay the inevitable. He shrugged and took a long drink from his beer bottle, then got a new piece of pizza for himself. Something to distract himself with.
“I’m not sure what there is to spill? I just don’t like the idea of talking about my entire lack of personal life somewhere that everyone can read it. I’ve just got no idea what I’m looking for. I can’t be the only twenty year old in the world who has no clue, right?”
“You’ve never had crushes on anyone? Like when you were younger or anything?” James had had crushes on girls practically all the time when he was in elementary school, even when he was of the age when boys were supposed to think that girls were icky. Even now, he had a thing for Lily despite the fact that she was dating his best friend. “You can’t tell me that girls don’t flirt with you at school. Even I can admit that you’re a good looking guy.” James was secure enough in his own sexuality to admit that both of his friends were attractive. The three of them made a very good looking group.
“I guess. I never pay it a lot of attention. And - I suppose? I don’t know. I usually just get a bit ridiculous and stammer.” Remus had to laugh. He was a disaster, wasn’t he? “I’m not quite as suave as you and Sirius, thank you kindly. One of us has to be the awkward but endearing one.”
James couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m not nearly as suave as you seem to think I am. That’s all Sirius. If I were so suave I wouldn’t also be single.” James took a swig of his beer then set the bottle down on the table, “And stammering isn’t such a bad thing. Doesn’t that guy always get the hotter girl in the end of all the movies?”
“Cheers to us being ridiculously single in the prime of our lives.” Remus toasted his beer and laughed. “That’s the movies, James. Though I realize I say that and here we are, being legitimate wizards. But the point is.” He raised his eyebrows. “Honestly, if I can just survive this semester of school and make it to summer, that’s all I care about.”
“Alright, but this summer you’re gonna let me find you a girlfriend. And you can help me find one.” James might have had a crush on Lily, but seeing as how she was dating Sirius, he had a pretty good feeling that nothing would come of it. So that meant he needed to find a way to get over it. “I mean, we’re wizards, if we can’t use that to impress girls then what’s the point?”
“It’s a date.” Remus paused. “But not. It’s a figure of speech.” How was he single, really? Look at how charming he was. Then he snorted. “Right. We’re wizards, and I’m also a werewolf. I think I missed the Twilight craze by a few years, but we can probably still work that angle.” He stood up and started walking to the kitchen. “Another beer?”