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Sirius and Peter were both asleep on the Hospital Wing.
James and Remus were sitting on chairs between the two beds.
They had spent the whole day there, leaving just for lunch, and they honestly had planned on staying the night there as well, but Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t let them. So after dinner, which they both skipped, and long after curfew, they were heading to their dorm.
They had already left the Hospital Wing when Remus remembered he had left his book inside and went back for it. James had just nodded in agreement and continued walking.
Remus entered and reached for his book, which was on the table next to Sirius’ bed. He looked at his friends and guilt spread all over him. They were both lying unconscious and it was all his fault. Or so he told himself.
The day before had been Sirius’ sixteenth birthday and he obviously had had a birthday party. Sirius had been really excited for it, even though he had tried not to show it too much. He was about to be able to know who his soulmate was, if it was someone from school, of course (and he had told Remus he’d hoped it would be so).
It had been a great day -well, for the most part, anyways. It had been a Friday, so they obviously had classes. But once they were over, the party finally started. Sirius had invited pretty much everyone to his party, and as they weren’t able to fit all in the Gryffindor common room, they went to celebrate by the Great Lake. Everyone had had so much fun, and a rather large number of people had not-so-subtly tried to touch Sirius to see if they were his soulmate. But none of them were, and much to everyone’s surprise, Sirius had seemed really happy about that.
Remus, on the other hand, had tried to avoid touching the other boy as if his life depended on it. Which of course, Remus had thought, it was nonsense, as he could never be Sirius’ soulmate. Really, how could he? But Remus wasn’t still quite ready to have his heart crushed just yet, so he’d remained separate from him for the majority of the evening.
After dinner, the party had been moved to the common room and the rest of the students had left to their own.
After a while, it was only the marauders and the girls, and Peter had been commissioned to go to the kitchens for some snacks. He had complained, of course, so Remus had offered to go with him, to which Sirius had offered himself as well. So the three of them had gone to the kitchens and brought way too many snacks for eight people. On their way back, Sirius and Peter had been enthusiastically talking about Gryffindor’s next Quidditch match, and Remus had remained silent.
They were on the fifth floor when Remus had been hit with a jelly legs jinx and had fallen rather loudly and smashed all the food he had been holding under his body. The other boys had turned instantly, firing all kinds of jinxes and hexes to whoever had attacked their friend, but the attacker had been quicker, and hidden in the dark, yelled twice “sectumsempra” and then had disappeared.
Remus had turned to his friends, and had almost fainted at the sight. Both boys were lying on the floor, blood emanating from both their bodies from multiple deep gashes. He had quickly used a countercourse on his legs, and levitated his friends as fast as he could towards the Hospital Wing, leaving a relatively large blood trail behind him.
Next thing he remembered though, was him sitting on a bed and Madam Pomfrey trying to get him to drink some calming potion. She was telling him something (probably that everything was going to be okay and that he shouldn't worry), but Remus couldn't take anything in. She ended up giving him a sleeping potion and he’d drifted off to a restless sleep. When he’d woken up, James had already been in the Hospital Wing, and they’d spent the day there.
And fast forward to now, Remus was standing beside Sirius’ bed, book in his hand and tears in his eyes.
Madam Pomfrey had given them some blood replenishing potion and healed all their wounds, assuring James and Remus that they’d be up the next morning, which meant everything was okay. Except it wasn’t.
He felt really guilty for what had happened even though he knew it wasn’t his fault. Like, at all. And he felt even guiltier for worrying over Sirius more than he did over Peter. Of course, they were all best friends and fellow marauders, but it wasn’t Peter that Remus fancied.
Remus reached his hand out gingerly and caressed Sirius’ cheek softly. He was about to mumble some apology, but whatever words he was going to say got stuck in his throat.
Sirius’ cheek, where Remus’ hand was still hovering over, just turned a soft golden colour. Remus froze. He looked at Sirius in horror for a few seconds, and then fled the Hospital Wing.
He practically ran towards the dorm, where James was still in the shower. Remus changed into his pyjamas quickly and got in bed, pretending to be asleep when James came out of the bathroom.
He tried to process what just happened. He had touched Sirius’s cheek, and then it turned golden. That’s usually what happens when someone is touched by their soulmate after they turn sixteen. But surely that was a lie? There’s no way Remus could be Sirius’ soulmate, right? Sirius was… well, he was Sirius, and he was way out of Remus’ league. Of course Remus liked him, how could he not? In fact, one would dare say he was even in love with him.
Remus rolled over in his bed. His eyes were already heavy with sleep.
He couldn't tell Sirius what had happened. He could not. His friend deserved someone much better than him. Someone who at least was entirely human and didn’t turn into a beast once a month. Yeah, Remus thought, he wouldn’t tell Sirius.
***
When he woke up he was almost convinced it had all been a weird dream, and than nothing soulmate-related had happened.
It was around ten and James was already up and waiting for him to go back to the Hospital Wing. They ate breakfast quickly and rushed to see their friends. When they arrived, both of them were awake, and the girls were next to their beds. The two boys hurried towards their friends and greeted them, and Remus began apologising almost immediately, not daring to look neither of them in the eye.
“I’m really sorry, Wormy, Pads, I shouldn’t have let him hurt you, I really, I didn’t-”
“Hey, Moons, calm down, It’s not your fault,” Peter interrupted him.
“Yeah, in fact, we should be thanking you,” Sirius smiled at him, even though Remus wasn’t looking up. “If you hadn’t been there, we might’ve even died there, all cold and alone in a dark corridor… So thank you, Moony. And don’t blame yourself, alright?”
“We are forever indebted to you now!” Peter chuckled. Remus smiled at that and finally looked up at his friends. He shot Peter a relieved smile, and when he turned to smile at Sirius, his eyes widened.
“Oh, yeah, about that,” Sirius let out a nervous laugh. “Looks like my dear soulmate has made themselves present.”
“What?!” James almost shouted. He got closer to examine his friend’s face and grinned at him. “Who was it?” He inquired.
Remus’ heart was pounding really hard and he was pretty sure everyone could hear it.
“Don’t know. No one was here when we woke up, right Wormy?” Peter nodded. “And when the girls came, it was already there.”
“Yeah,” Marlene added. “Well, I arrived first, but I already have my dear Dorcas, so.” She smiled.
“And we didn’t run into anyone on our way here.” Lily said.
“You guys didn’t see anyone yesterday?” Mary asked, and both James and Remus shook their heads.
“We were here all day, no one touched our beloved Padfoot.”
“As if you’d let anyone try,” Remus joked, hoping he sounded nonchalant.
Sirius let out a small laugh, “That’s my Prongsie, always so protective.”
“Anything for you, my dear”
“Are you sure you aren’t his soulmate?” Lily teased, and James looked at her as if he’d just noticed her presence. Lily let out a groan before he could even open his mouth.
“Well, that’d be weird, considering my soulmate is currently rolling her eyes at me.” He smiled. “Anyways,” he turned back to grin at Sirius. “Are you feeling alright? Are you ready to go soulmate hunting?”
“Nah, I don’t think I want to,” He said.
“What? Why?”
“Yeah, Padfoot, you’ve been waiting for this moment for ages! What happened?”
Sirius lowered his gaze and mumbled something.
“What was that again?”
He sighed, “I was hoping someone would be my soulmate.”
“Well, someone is! We just gotta find them.”
“No, I…” He looked up at them. “I mean someone. Someone specific.” He made eye contact with Remus for a second, before looking at Peter, and Remus’ heart skipped a beat.
Great, Remus thought, not only was he Sirius’ soulmate, damning him to a terrible, terrible life, but he had also made his friend sad by not being whoever he wanted his soulmate to be.
“Well then,” James said, cheerful as ever, “Tell us who it is and we’ll bring them to you, see if it’s them.”
“Doesn’t matter, Prongs. I’m almost sure it’s not them. I think they’d have told me by now. Maybe it’s someone else. Doesn’t matter, anyways.” He repeated.
By lunch time, Peter and Sirius were out and about, and the four boys were sitting at the Great Hall.
Sirius’ golden cheek didn’t go unnoticed, and many people were looking at him, some with a smile, some with jealousy.
Remus was sitting next to Peter that day, and he was halfway through his meal when his friend nudged him. He looked at him with a questioning look, and Peter asked him in a low voice.
“Aren’t you gonna tell him?”
Remus’ eyes widened and he looked quickly at the other side of the table. Thankfully, James and Sirius were engrossed in a conversation and weren’t paying attention to them.
He turned to look at Peter, and talked in an equally low voice.
“Tell what to who?” He could feel his heart pounding against his chest.
“Moony, I saw you. Last night I mean. I was awake.”
Remus looked at him with fear in his eyes.
“I won’t say anything, I promise.” Peter said with a reassuring smile. “But you have to.”
“No. No, I can’t. I can’t, he…” He trailed off, suddenly feeling very dizzy. He tried to get up and leave, but he stumbled and fell back into his place. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, the three marauders were looking at him intently.
“Alright, Moony?”
“Yeah,” He said, perhaps too quietly for them to hear. “Need air.” He tried to get up once more and failed. He then felt two firm arms surround him, and Sirius was whispering in his ear.
“It’s alright, Moons, We’ll get you ou of here, just keep breathing.”
They got out of te Great Hall and Remus slumped against a wall.
He had trouble breathing now and felt his whole body shivering. Sirius was beside him, murmuring comforting words and telling him to follow his breathing.
After a while that could’ve been ages, Remus had finally calmed down ad was now breathing properly again. He still felt cold and tried to cast a warming spell on himself, but it didn’t work, so he just hugged himself, still sitting on the floor.
“Moony?” Sirius whispered. “How are you feeling?”
“‘m cold.” he mumbled, still shivering.
Sirius cast a proper warming spell around them and spoke again. “Better?” Remus nodded.
“What… what happened, Moony? You hadn’t gotten like this in a while.”
Remus shook his head. “Don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Was it Peter? Did he say something that upset you? You know you can talk to me, Moons.” Remus shook his head again.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? Moony, what’s wrong, you’re worrying me.”
“Sorry.” he repeated.
“Remus.” Sirius said firmly yet gently somehow.
Remus looked up and found him looking at him with a worried gaze.
“I touched you.” He looked down at his hands.
“... what?”
“Last night. I forgot my book and went back to the infirmary, and then I caressed your cheek and it turned golden. I panicked and left, and I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to upset you. But Wormtail saw me, and he said I should tell you, and I panicked again, and here we are now.” He said in one breath and without looking away from his hands.
He heard Sirius take a deep breath. “Moony, why would that upset me?”
“Why wold that… You wanted someone to be your soulmate, and it turned out to be me, Sirius, you shouldn’t just be upset, you should be angry, or, or…”
Sirius chuckled beside him. “I wanted someone to be my soulmate, yeah. And that someone is my soulmate. Don’t see why I should be angry.” Remus waited for him to say ‘just kidding’ or laugh in his face, or start yelling at him. But when he didn’t, he looked up at him and found him smiling fondly.
“You… “
"Yeah, Moony?”
“No. No, you didn’t understand. I touched you, Padfoot.” He said, emphasising the ‘I’
Sirius chuckled again. “So you’ve told me.”
Remus just blinked at him.
“Remus. Moony. Moons. I hoped you were my soulmate. I’ve hoped that since… well, a few years now, and it’s finally happened.”
“But why…?”
“Because I fancy you. I like you. I have a massive crush on you, Moony. That’s why.”
Remus was trying to process what he just heard. He liked him. He liked him. Sirius Black, the boy he’d been pining after for years, liked him back and he was his soulmate. He pinched himself.
“Why’d you do that?”
Remus finally smiled.
“Not dreaming.”