Below is finally the real start to that wolfstar I mentioned...though I doubt this came as a surprise considering how much I've been building up to it lately.

HPHPHP

Even being prepared for the soul wrenching yank through time and space could not give one the preparation needed to slam back down in a small, dingy, poorly lit pub. The staircase on the far back wall, they all knew, led to rooms that while cheap, were not accustomed to more than one night stays and so shanty at best with only a dozen total. The tables spaced out, while clean of grime, held age old stains Tom had never quite managed to scrub out, the chairs were mismatched and several of them had been repaired though the magic no longer showed it.

The bar was by far the most noticeable feature, covering the length of the room and most highly polished with squashy cushions on the stools with many butt impressions still warm to the touch, though lacking its usual tenants and keep, leaving the drinks, both in bottles and left along the counter, to almost glow without any proper lighting.

"Well, I'll take this as a sign," James said, wincing slightly as he got himself to his feet and made his way directly there.

"What do you think you're doing Potter?" Lily demanded, askance at once as he brazenly stepped behind the counter.

"What does it look like? Spritzer anyone? Bet I can invent a new flavor before we get out of here." He asked pleasantly as he browsed through the shelves.

"Get your arse out of there," she snapped, taking an automatic step back as she said it. She hadn't lifted a finger to stop them at such a dastardly place as Number Four, but Tom nor anyone had deserved these boys messing with this place. "This is private property, we've no right to be here!"

"Clearly the universe decided differently," Sirius snorted as he stepped up with him. "Pass me a mixer will you Prongs."

James tossed one over his shoulder without looking while Sirius slid the book along the counter to catch it instead.

Regulus let it slide right past him as he sat himself on a stool and asked, "mind mixing me up whatever it is Father has on his holidays?"

"Bleh," Sirius made a face at his brother even as he let his fingers catch on the neck of choice. "Do you not value your taste buds?"

"Can't handle the strong stuff then?" Regulus challenged back with a smirk.

"I drank you under the table Christmas of 69'," Sirius said right back with a huff as he set down a brown tinted, ice clinking beverage.

"Please tell me you two didn't actually get drunk at the age of ten, or younger," Frank said with honest worry.

He was ignored.

When Pettigrew opted to second whatever Potter had thrown together in his glass and even Lupin began nursing something, the other three just turned away dismissively from them, Frank feeling obligated at this point to pick up the book and say, "honestly, I'm just hoping to get zapped out of here now before they get a chance to finish."

Alice tried both the front and back door without much hope, she even tried several of the rooms upstairs in the vain attempt of another window, but no one was much surprised when she came back downstairs shaking her head and sat next to Frank at the door closest to the back, pretending for a moment it was just the two of them studying for their OWL's again as he began.

Lily perched uneasily near the front door, still seeming the only one to struggle taking all of this in but smiling a bit as the chapter title promised some good to come. It was indeed adorable hearing of Harry's naivety shining through more than ever as he started spending time with Hagrid. She remembered once being that innocent and smiling around at everything magical, there were still times where she was, though they grew less and less as the years went on and it was kind of nice to hear it being played out again.

"You do have to love the first time you can enter the magical world is through a pub." Lily grumbled as an awkward silence hung over the whole bar in here as well when Frank finally gave them all such a huge example of Harry's fame in his time, and it was truly boggling to the lot of them what this kid must represent to the magical world. They'd hardly given it much time to consider, the idea was still too fantastical to really settle in their minds of a time without You-Know-Who, let alone a baby being the one to do it. It wasn't hard to imagine all of them acting the exact same way as these guests at something even more otherworldly than a celebrity.

Quirrell was passed by without much enthusiasm, the lot of them had far too much experience with the absurdity of a new teacher every year for that class, but the journey inside Gringotts garnered some all around fascination.

The speculation was wild, and ridiculous, from those apparently trying to get sloshed and guessing what that little package could be.

Lily's disdain for their drinking grew when Hagrid joined in and abandoned his charge, but to her surprise, the group in here seemed done with whatever had prompted this to begin with, at least none made back for behind the counter but instead were listening with honest interest as details kept pouring in of Harry and Hagrid's time, though likely they were just listening for more clues of what Hagrid could have been up to. She wasn't strictly paying attention to their every word, but she did notice tension building in the little group again that the alcohol had blurred for a time, Lupin certainly slammed his drink down hard enough to crack the glass when Sirius muttered something next.

Regulus seemed to try breaking the uneasy tension, but while Pettigrew gave an honest laugh Black shot him an annoyed look and instead got up and left the table, glancing around and catching her eyes for a second. She blushed upon realizing she was still watching them, far more than she'd ever done in her time where she actively avoided looking at them instead, and put all of her attention into grinding her teeth together at such an obnoxious, obviously pureblood kid acting like Potter far more than Harry had been so far.

James wasn't even getting the joy of noticing Evans' attention, sighing deeply when his crack about Hagrid being too good at keeping secrets backfired and only reminded his mates why they'd gone so long without speaking. At least he could admire Regulus trying to keep in their good graces with his little remark of this blond kid having the right idea about smuggling brooms into the school, seemed Sirius' kid brother could actually be smart when he wasn't being such a prick around his precious Slytherin friends back in school.

Things only got worse as Hagrid took Harry through the rest of the day without much more distraction, only the inside of Ollivanders cut off the thickening cord growing in the room.

"Bloody hell, what even is Harry?" Peter yelped in surprise.

"Parselmouth, and now having a brother wand of the Dark Lord," Regulus agreed with a raised brow. "I'm beginning to wonder if Potter adopted their kid."

James threw him such a filthy look, Regulus couldn't help but cringe away from the table, feeling extremely exposed now that Sirius was dithering behind the bar and still only seeming to have anxious eyes for his friend who wouldn't even look at him. Instead, without any kind of backup against someone honestly much older and more experienced, Regulus strode off to another table, forcing himself to shake off the idea he could actually mingle with a bunch of Gryffindor idiots. Clearly whatever they could agree on couldn't last when those Muggles weren't around to be detested.

Alice and Frank exchanged an uneasy look when they neared the end and Hagrid was about to take Harry back to the Muggles. They somehow had even more questions than when this all began, and it was hard to even talk about that when it felt like at any moment the place was going to explode considering every room they'd been in you could cut the tension with a knife.

Remus took a careful breath as he watched Sirius slip into the room behind the bar, as if looking for even a moment away from them, and finally finding a door that would open. He downed the rest of his drink, savoring the burn while it lasted and ignored James and Peter's uneasy looks as he stalked back into the room as well, honestly hoping for just one second of peace before they were forced into yet another new place. If James was going to keep pulling them together then Remus couldn't stand it anymore, it was high time he let Sirius know exactly why this wasn't going to work. If the two couldn't work things out now than they weren't going to, and he ignored the painful clench of his innards at the idea as he went in behind him.

Seems it was Tom's room, a simple bed in the corner with a few dressers along the back wall and a mirror on their right that Sirius was grumbling into. He tensed up upon Remus' entrance, twirled on the spot, and tried to say something, but Remus came here for a reason and wasn't in the mood to hear whatever it was Sirius had come back here for.

Slamming the door hard behind him so to block an audience, one look at those dark gray eyes, finally seeing the color again tore out of him, "I trusted you!" He got right in his face, jabbing him in the chest with every word. "I trusted you with the biggest secret of my life,* and at first I thought, he really doesn't care that I'm a monster. Turns out I was wrong, you just didn't care about me at all!"

"I don't care?" Sirius echoed in a faint whisper, before his eyes blazed with anger. "I don't care! How dare you! I'm the one who takes the most blows from Moony, considering I have to drag you off of Prongs as often as you treat him like your prey! I spent the past three years illegally turning into an animagus so I'd never have to see you so close to death again! Coming back from the full moon looking the way you did, it's a miracle you've lived to your age! How dare you tell me how I care," and he shoved him as far away from him as he could.

Remus stumbled back, all the anger he'd been holding in finally released and now doubled back on him as if the words themselves had been a weapon.

Sirius had done what he always did, he'd taken whatever was given to him and gone beyond the limit with it. He'd kept pushing at Remus so that they were right up against the wall now, still breathing into each others faces. Both had said the words they'd been clinging to for the past three weeks. Every angry word pouring out and now hanging in the air around them all at once, but leaving nothing left between them but electrical energy. Their chests heaving against each other, Sirius seemed to realize just how thoroughly he was pinning Remus to the wall at the same time Remus glanced down and realized he wasn't just feeling the weight of this on the inside.

Then Sirius kissed him.

HPHPHPHP

*The idea for this argument was one I think about a lot. Most everyone seems to just assume the Marauders figured out Moony's secret, and I do agree that's more than likely the truth, but honestly I do wonder if Remus didn't want to tell them at a certain point and that's what went on here. I didn't run with this originally because it doesn't fit his character all that well, he really is too insecure to think anyone would accept him, but as I said in the beginning, I'm playing around a bit more, going fast and loose by taking a few key things and moving them around, hence also how I got them together. I guess this is moderately considered an AU of reading the books by that standard, but honestly just by creating this type of fic I'm literally putting an AU stamp on it, so I'm going to let this go now.