It All Fell Down | A Marauder's Story

Thirty-Two

"But right now, I'm content to bask in the sun and glory of the world that is my own." - Seeker

     A crackling sound filled the room of requirement. A fire was burning in the fireplace that had appeared against the wall. It casted a flickering, orange glow over the walls of the room, bathing the insides with a nice warm blanket. The hidden room wasn't as large as it had the capability of being, but it was large enough to house several squashy looking couches and a large tiled section of floor that looked like a dance floor. A record player was stationed in one of the corners, along with a bookshelf that was sporting a rather impressive collection of records. 

     The group of seven had had an idea earlier in the week. N.E.W.T.s were getting scarily close, the homework hadn't let up in the slightest, graduation was being planned, and more and more people were dying by the day. It was too much. All of it. So, they decided they needed a break from it and everybody. Somehow, someway.

     They all agreed to get dressed up and spend their Saturday night in the room of requirement with each other– the getting dressed up was for sure the girls' idea. It had been a long time since any of them had looked nice, and they just all wanted time to be apart from everyone else. Apart from the stress and the worry. Days and weeks were so crazy lately, none of them could even remember the last time when they had hung out just the seven of them. 

     James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter found themselves dressed to the nines in their respective dress robes in the room waiting for their three friends to show up. Sirius and James were standing rim-rod straight against the wall; all of the pure-blood upbringing left them unable to sit and risk the wrinkling of their dress robes. James had been yelled at many of times in his childhood for not keeping his dress robes pristine. Peter and Remus didn't care as much as they had not had the same strict upbringing as their friends, so Remus was sitting in a chair, and Peter was completely lax, sprawling the entirety of his body out on the couch.

     Peter was grumbling. "You just had to go and start dating Charlie," he pouted, glaring at Remus. "I am now the eternal seventh wheel of this friend group." 

     Remus shot him a cheeky grin. "If it makes you feel any better she still won't let me call her my girlfriend." 

     He had agreed to take it slow, and he was willing to take it as slow as she needed to not scare her away. At the moment, they were going very slow. It had been weeks, and she still refused to put labels on what they were. But, Remus was completely content just where they were. He was in no rush.

     "It does not," Peter retorted sharply.

     Sirius snorted. "I give it like another week. That girl is beyond happy with you. You two are already completely insufferable." 

     "I don't know," Remus answered with a smirk and a taunting tone. "This asshole did a number on her." He jutted his chin towards James. 

     "Hey! She broke up with me," James complained, looking a little hurt at Remus' comment. "She did a number on me." 

     "This is a weird argument," Peter noted looking between his two friends, neither of them looking uncomfortable with the topic of the girl they had now both dated.

     Sirius rolled his eyes at James. "Oh, please," he said, ignoring Peter. "You and Charlie are too similar. You guys would have broken up eventually anyway. It's for the best it happened when it did." 

      James' eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean?"

     "You haven't noticed?" Sirius demanded, quirking a black eyebrow. "Why do you think you two argue so much?" He shifted his eyes to Remus. "Congratulations, you're dating the female version of Prongs."