A Pair of Earmuffs, A Frozen Lake and Renegade Mistletoe by ficexchange

Merry Christmas, Lily (Lady_Apocalymon)!

A Pair of Earmuffs, A Frozen Lake and a Renegate Mistletoe

1. This Story Begins With A Pair Of Earmuffs

The sun was streaming through the windows, causing the reds and golds in the sofas of the Gryffindor common room to shine warmly, making the already cosy room look even cosier. Remus had his feet up on the table in front of him and a book was open in his lap; he was supposed to be reading it but it was increasingly difficult.

Sirius Black was sat on a chair opposite lounging, trying every trick he could to get the boy opposite to watch him. He didn’t have to try hard.

“Stop it.”

Sirius raised a dark eyebrow into a high arch. “What would you have me stop, Moony?” he asked innocently.

Not looking up from his book Remus replied “I would have you stop what you are doing.”

Leaning forward, his hair falling into his eyes in its usual elegance, Sirius smirked that handsome smirk of his. “And what is it that I am doing?”

“Distracting.”

He seemed to agree. “I know, I know, but Moony my good man, it’s tough to stop doing something which comes so naturally.”

Remus didn’t dignify that with a response. He merely kept his eyes on the page in front of him and tried desperately to ignore the young man who was watching his face so intently. After a few minutes he felt something nudging gently at his ankle; when he looked down he saw Sirius’ foot slowly drawing circles on the inside of his leg which made him the tiniest bit uncomfortable.

“Padfoot!” he hissed so no one else could hear. “Not here! Someone will see.”

Sirius rolled his eyes extravagantly. “No one’s watching Moony.”

“Sirius please.”

Tutting Sirius moved his foot away and crossed his arms. “Don’t know what you’re so worried about.”

“Hmmm, let me see…” muttered Remus as he closed his book and looked up in what he presumed was a thoughtful manner. “…being outed to the whole common room, maybe?”

Sirius shrugged. The thought of being outed had never really bothered him as much as it seemed to bother Remus. He had never been the sort of person who lived by other people’s rules; he always made his own and lived by them. He’d never really been bothered by other peoples opinions of him either. Suddenly an idea hit him. “So why don’t we take this upstairs?” he asked suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows.

Just at the moment Remus was thinking of a witty retort Peter landed flat on his face in front of them both. “I’m alright!” he announced as he stood quickly, straightening his robes.

“Are your laces untied again Wormtail?” asked Remus, fully aware that Sirius was now giving Peter the evil eye.

Peter looked down and then shrugged. “Nope... that’s the third time I’ve fallen over this morning but no matter. So…” he looked eagerly between his two friends “…what are you two up to?”

Remus looked uncomfortable but Sirius just leant forward and said: “Well actually Wormtail, me ‘n Moony were just about to go and--”

“I’m reading!” interrupted Remus whose cheeks had turned pink. “And Padfoot is annoying me, as per usual.”

“I hardly see how sitting here constitutes as annoying you,” shot back Sirius, who was now officially in a bad mood.

“I suppose it’s just a gift you have,” replied Remus with a raised eyebrow. Many people would do anything to avoid a confrontation with Sirius Black because his temper was renowned for being on the short side but Remus had never been afraid of him or his temper.

Peter, however, was a little afraid of Sirius and, seeing the beginning of an argument on the horizon, he changed the subject. “Anyone fancy a game of Gobstones? Wizard’s Chess maybe? How about Exploding Snap?”

“No thank you Wormtail, I want to finish this chapter,” answered Remus politely before disappearing behind his book again.

After trying hard to burn a hole through Remus’ precious book with his eyes Sirius huffed loudly and grabbed a pack of Exploding Snap cards from the table. “All right Wormtail, best two out of three.”

Ten minutes had gone by without much incident. Sirius had been momentarily distracted trying to catch Remus’ attention and was lucky to still have his left eyebrow but other than that everything was calm. That was until the common room door opened.

James strolled in swiftly with the biggest grin on his face, quickly followed by Lily who did not look quite as amused.

“James Potter! I swear if you don’t give me back my earmuffs I’ll castrate you!”

Not fazed by the fact that the entire common room of people (granted that wasn’t too many but still a fair few) were staring at him, he laughed loudly. “Lily calm down, will you? There’s no need to talk like that.”

She almost stamped her foot like a child. “Give me them back!”

Looking upwards as though he was thinking James put a hand to his chin and said “I don’t think I appreciate your willingness to castrate me. I think I’ll keep hold of these ‘muffs of great ear-ness’ for a bit longer.”

“James stop being a prat!”

All three of the boys by the fire were watching and none of them noticed when all the Exploding Snap cards combusted in retaliation for being ignored.

“I know!” announced James as though he’d come up with a brilliant idea. “I think I’ll take them upstairs into the lads' dorm! See if I can’t get some of that lovely boy smell into them!”

“You dare!” warned Lily, wagging her finger.

“Oh I dare!” And with that James leapt up the boys' staircase, three steps at a time.

Lily had gone to the archway at the bottom of the stairs but seemed rather reluctant to go up them. Instead she stayed where she was and yelled “James Potter I’m not going up there! Come back here now you swine!”

From somewhere up in the dormitories James’ voice sounded amused. “Hey look! I’m thinking of seeing if these earmuffs will survive a tumble from the dorm window…”

This was apparently the last straw for Lily and she ended up stomping up the stairs shouting “For the love of Pete, Potter just give me them!”

Peter had, at the mention of his name, puffed out his chest.

“She didn’t mean you, you moron.” said Sirius as he rolled his eyes. “It’s a Muggle expression.”

Before Peter could retort Remus held a finger to his lips and said “Sshhh… they’re still arguing, listen,” and pointed to the stairs.

Lily had shouted “Give me them!” and then there was a great crash.

“Merlin Lily, you’re an awfully bad shot you know!” was James’ reply.

It went on like this for a little while longer before they finally came back down the stairs, James in the lead of course and still grinning. “I can’t believe you’re such a bad aim!”

Lily looked highly affronted and slightly rosy cheeked. “Only because you pulled the rug from under my feet!”

“Moony’s gonna kill you when he sees the state you made of his bed curtains.”

Lily winced and turned to Remus with an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry Remus, but this pillock moved.”

Picturing the scene in his mind, Remus nodded amusedly. “That’s alright Lily. My bed curtains have suffered much more in the past, they’re used to it.” At this point he gave Peter a shifty scowl.

Cottoning on Peter replied “I’m sorry but that case of the flaming flu was not my fault.”

Sirius had begun to snigger. “No, but you spurting three foot flames from your nostrils every time you sneezed was hilarious!”

Deciding to take this as a compliment, Peter grinned that grin he did when he thought he’d done something right. Nobody had seen James edging closer to the door.

“Oi, Potter! Get back here with my earmuffs!” yelled Lily suddenly, almost deafening Remus.

“No chance!” muttered James as he exited the room laughing.

“What’s so important about your earmuffs then Lily?” asked Sirius quickly, half because he wanted to know and half because he wanted to give James a head start.

Lily took a second or two to answer. “My ears will get cold.”

“Eh?” asked Sirius but it was too late as she’d already left yelling at James who could be heard laughing from halfway down the corridor. He turned to the other two boys and shrugged. “So what’s so important about her earmuffs? She’s a witch, is she not? Hasn’t she heard of a heating charm?”

Remus rolled his eyes. “It’s not the earmuffs she’s after,” he said wisely.

Peter looked confused. “No? Could have fooled me.”

“No Wormtail, it’s not. It Prongs she’s after.”

“Never!” replied Peter a little excitedly but still with a disbelieving tone.

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Remus as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sirius had been looking at the portrait hole for a few seconds and spoke quietly. “Actually, that makes sense.”

“Of course it does,” said Remus, glad Sirius had forgotten about his bad mood. “And Prongs is loving it.”

With a quizzical expression Sirius started to say “But he says…”

But Remus interrupted with: “…that he’s not interested in her? Does that look like a bloke that’s not interested?!”

“Fair point.”

After a few moments of quiet Peter piped up. “So what does that mean?”

Remus sighed before answering, as if the reply caused him grief. “It means we’re going to have a bit of a battle of wills on our hands.”

Sirius chuckled. “Yeah, imagine Evans actually admitting she fancies Prongs! Hell would have to freeze over and such.”

“It would never happen.” said Peter confidently.

“Precisely,” said Sirius with a nod. “Best leave them to it if you ask me.”

“I suppose so,” added Peter quietly.

Remus just sat quietly, pretending to agree with his boyfriend though his mind was racing with possibilities.