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James had been acting weird, Remus was sure of it.

When Remus approached Sirius with his concerns, Sirius said James had been totally normal. It wasn't unlike Remus to be paranoid and making things up, but he was so sure something was up with James. And Sirius had been known to be oblivious, he hadn't known Remus was gay when they'd been hooking up for over a year. Surely someone else thought James was off.

Peter certainly did not. He had laughed in Remus' face at the idea. Claimed James had been more energetic than he had been in months, like he was reborn. He had a second wind for pranks that Peter had greatly appreciated, but wasn't this new energy abnormal? Just because a change was positive didn't mean it wasn't still a change. No, this assured Remus, something was different.

Remus brainstormed at night. As he had every night for weeks. He thought of two possibilities: 1. James had a secret girlfriend. and 2. His mental health had hit an all time low and he was about to kill himself, but wanted to throw the marauders off his scent by being super happy.

Remus had to admit the second option was morbid, but a valid option nonetheless. He hoped it was a secret girlfriend.

----

The best guess Remus had was Lily Evans. He knew James had liked her in fifth year, but he thought James grew out of it? She was never into him, and James had quit talking about her pretty quickly after he started. The crush had seemed short lived. But, who else? Remus could not think of anyone else James had liked.

He began to observe Lily as well as James. See if he couldn't catch them. It didn't seem like James was planning to tell them anything anytime soon.

Unfortunately for Remus, he didn't know Lily well enough to be able to tell when she was lying. He obviously couldn't just confront her, then he might as well confront James. No, he had to get her to tell him something. He decided asking targeted questions was the way to go.

"Hey Lily! I feel like I never see you outside of classes. We should hang out sometime."

"Oh- Hi Remus. I mean, sure that sounds like fun! What's sprung this? We don't talk in class usually."

Well, she had him there.

"I don't know, I mean, I've always thought you were super smart, and you seem funny. I just think we might get along s'all."

"Thank you! I bet we would. Where do you want to hang out?"

"We could go to the library. I know it doesn't sound great, but I swear I have fun in there. Madam Pince loves me, so she doesn't make a fuss when I'm loud."

"Sounds like a plan." She said with a smile as she turned to leave.

He would find out what was going on with James Potter if it was the last thing he did.

----

Lily Evans was a tough egg to crack. He had asked her all sorts of questions. Some of them were glaringly obvious, like "so, are you seeing anyone?" She had gone funny after that and deflected. Actually, Remus was a bit afraid Lily thought he was into her. She had asked him, "aren't you with Sirius?" at least once. That was probably a sign to stop prodding her.

But Remus' efforts did not cease. He would figure this out. He would. So, when Pete suggested they throw a party, Remus thought it was a brilliant idea. Surely James would drunk kiss Lily, or something else equally as embarrassing, and everyone would see that James did have a secret girlfriend.

The issue was, James didn't seem to be drinking. Lily was there, his friends were there, all the rest of Gryffindoor's sixth and seventh years were there, Sirius' brother and his friends plus a random blond Ravenclaw girl were there. Why was James not drinking? He usually drank. Lily was drinking. All of his friends were drinking. Literally the only other person who seemed to not be drinking was Sirius' brother (and Remus, because he had his detective pants on). Strange.

Unfortunately, Remus got distracted and fell victim to peer pressure. He was about two cups of punch in when he noticed James was missing. When he looked around, everyone else was still there. Lily was still downstairs, why had James left? Where had he gone? Just as Remus decided to go investigate, he spotted something in the corner of his eye.

Lily Evans was- oh! She was kissing the Ravenclaw girl. Well. Remus concluded she must not be James' girlfriend then. She doesn't seem the cheater type. And he supposed that made the funny attitude surrounding the dating questions make sense. But where was James?

Remus was walking up the stairs to the door room when he heard voices in the room. They were quiet, but Remus' werewolf hearing was strong. He couldn't tell what they were saying, but it sounded calm. Like these people were having a moment, he waited until the voices stopped to go in. Maybe James was with his girlfriend and Remus would finally catch him.

As he opened the door, he heard someone leap off of a bed and onto the floor. When he fully entered the room, he saw James sitting casually on his bed.

"Hey Rem! What're you doing up here? Aren't you having fun?"

"'Course I am, just came to see what you were doing."

"Oh! Well I've just had a long week, figured I'd take an early night in."

"Then how come I just heard someone leap off your bed?"

"What?"

"I could hear you talking before I walked in, then I heard her jump under the bed when I came in."

"Um..."

What happened next was something Remus wished he could have seen his own face react to. He would have- never in a million years- guessed this. A secret third option.

When Regulus Black crawled out from under James bed- littered in hickeys, Remus was pretty sure he screamed a little bit.

"WHAT THE F-"

"Remus! Please don't freak out!"

"YOU'RE GAY?????"

"Okay, we have a lot to unpack."

"Honestly Remus, you sound homophobic."

"I'm literally going out with your brother?!"

"Remus, please just sit. I swear I can explain."

"Oh Merlin, Sirius is going to FREAK OUT."

"Good thing you're not going to tell him then."

"Merlin's beard! He has some sass."

"I know, it's cute, isn't it?"

"Not particularly."

"Ok, well, most importantly, you cannot tell Sirius."

"He's my bloody boyfriend?!"

"Yes, but I am going to have to ask you to hold this from him for a short time. We just haven't told him yet and think it might be better for him to hear it from us. I think he'd be more upset if he heard it from you."

"How the bloody hell did this happen?"

"It's quite cute really! I was prancing about the halls one evening when I came across one Regulus Black. Being the awesome mate I am, I decided to approach my best mate's younger brother. He chewed me out after I said 'hello' and said he 'didn't need a pity hello from his annoying brother's friends.' And, well, colour me intrigued."

"James, mate, you've got problems."

"Anyway, I started approaching him more often, eventually he would approach me. At some point we were friends, then suddenly we weren't."

"How long has this been happening for?"

"About two months."

"TWO MONTHS! Sirius is going to kill you."

"I know. That's why he has to hear it from me instead of you."

"When will you tell him?"

"Soon. Probably."

"You have to tell him soon. I can't keep this for long."

"Ok, ok."

----

Guilt was eating at Remus all week. Exactly a week after he had stumbled upon James and Regulus, the worst possible happened.

"Hey Remus, come look at this."

Sirius was holding The Marauders Map, staring at it with complete bewilderment. Remus did not see this ending well. He was right to be scared.

"Why do you think James is with Reg? And why are they at the quidditch pitch this late?"

"Oh, I'm not sure Sirius. That's quite strange."

"Well, maybe something's wrong. We need to go see."

"Uhh, Sirius, I really- I'm sure they're fine. We need to stay here."

"What? No, Remus, we need to go. Surely something's the matter."

He was already out the door before Remus could argue.

----

Dread pooled Remus' stomach the whole walk to the pitch. Sirius sped down the halls with legitimate concern, Remus had separate concerns.

Remus would never be able to describe the blood curdling scream Sirius let out when he spotted them on the pitch. Remus would never tell him, but he did think it was quite dramatic. They were only kissing, but he supposed seeing your best mate and little brother kiss was alarming.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THIS?!"

James leapt away from Regulus so fast that he almost fell over. It would have been funny in literally any other context.

"Oh, hello Sirius. What are you doing out here at this hour?"

"I could ask you the same bloody thing?"

"Well you see, I was just- you know. Getting some flying in. There's a match next Saturday, need to be match fit. And Regulus here, he just was doing the same thing! How funny, that."

"I'm not laughing."

"Ok, listen. I have something I've been meaning to tell you. Can you sit?"

"Merlin, have mercy on my soul." Sirius muttered for only Remus to hear as he sat down.

Remus sat too, he figured they'd be there a while.

"Ok, so, Sirius, I- well I've been going out with Regulus. And before you get super super mad, I was planning to tell you very soon, but the more I put it off, the more awkward it felt. But, anyway, we've been going out for about two months and-"

"TWO MONTHS!"

"Would you let me finish?"

"Alright, get on with it."

"And we're in love."

"YOU'RE WHAT?"

"In love?"

"Don't you think it's soon?"

"No, not really. I suppose it feels soon for you because to you it's five seconds old, but no, I don't feel like two and some months is too soon."

"When did this happen?!"

"Well we've been dating for two months, like I said, but we kissed for the first time like four months ago."

"And what happened in the two months in between?"

"Reg was difficult, but it's ok, I fixed him."

"I would hardly say it was 'fixing,' you were really just annoying until I said I would go out with you."

"You literally liked me first?"

"Whatever, Potter."

Sirius didn't say anything for a while.

"Sirius?" Asked James.

"Yeah, right, sorry. I'm a bit shocked s'all."

"That's alright, I would be shocked if you weren't shocked."

"Since when are you even gay?"

"Um, I don't know. Like, a few years ago probably?"

"And you didn't say anything?"

"No, I didn't feel like it was important."

"I would argue that's quite important."

"Oops."

"Yeah, oops. Why didn't you just tell me this sooner?"

"I was afraid you'd freak out, but you've actually taken it really well. I'm quite proud."

"Honestly I think I'll freak out when I'm less shocked. I mean- I've just found out my best friend is gay and in love with my brother, who is his boyfriend of multiple months."

"I suppose that was a lot for one night."

"Yeah."

They all left the quidditch pitch together, until James and Regulus broke off to walk Regulus to his dorms.

----

It was the next morning when Sirius freaked out. He woke James up to a hard slap on the shoulder and lots of yelling.

"MY BROTHER ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

"Ow, Sirius that hurt."

"YOU DESERVE IT, YOU TWAT! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? AND YOU JUST WEREN'T GOING TO TELL ME? WHAT THE HELL?!"

"I was going to tell you, really. It just never felt right. And I know that sounds stupid, but really I just didn't even know how I would bring it up."

"MAYBE, 'hey Sirius, just so you know, I'm gay and I like your brother.'"

"And how exactly would that have gone over?"

"Better than this!"

"Well, you've got me there."

"You know I was worried? I saw you two on the map and I thought 'oh something must be terribly wrong, they've never interacted but they're together. I need to go check on them.'"

"Aww, that's so sweet."

"But guess what I found when I got there, MY BEST MATE MAKING OUT WITH MY BABY BROTHER!"

"Yooo, what the hell?" Pete had woken up from all the ruckus.

"You know, I do see why that was alarming. But it was so sweet of you to be worried for us!"

"Worry misplaced. And Remus tried to get me to stay here, but nooo of course I had to go."

"Thanks, Remus."

"You're welcome, sort of?"

"Oh hey, Remus!"

"What is it, Pete?"

"You were right! Something was up with James!"

----

It took Sirius a rough three weeks to become acclimated to the new development, but eventually he decided he was happy for them.