James' room was messy, unorganised and nothing short of a bombsite, but it was home to the four boys for now. 

They did, of course, have a room each at the Potter's, but much prefer the close living quarters. The boys resigned to an inflatable mattress each on the floor of James' room, which, in all honesty, was around the same size as their dormitory at Hogwarts. 

Despite the separate mattresses, sleeping arrangements were hardly ever ordinary; James and Peter often fell asleep sprawled across James' bed, leaving Remus and Sirius to get comfortable on the mattresses, or, in Sirius' case most of the time, the floor. 

As they stumbled through the door James and Sirius situated themselves either side of his desk, clearly up to no good, they now had both lost their ties and blazers and were much more comfortable with their shirt collars unbuttoned and wands in hands. Peter had grabbed pyjamas and headed straight to shower, still feeling sticky after PE and avidly hoping to avoid having to talk any more about school. Remus had replaced his schoolwear with a cosy jumper and sank into the pillows of James' bed, reading Hamlet slowly, trying to ignore how heavy he felt and how easy it would be to sink into sleep right now. 

Sirius and James decided to take it upon themselves to liven up muggle school a little. They had come to the conclusion that they should most certainly aim to make a scene in every class if they had any hope of restoring their reputation-though they were unsure of how to do this with such limited resources. So far they had: Peter-rat ("terrible idea, but go on."), invisibility cloak?  Pens...pen quidditch, paper planes, a dog? ("An even worse idea, I love it!")

The boys sat for over an hour, planning and laughing, stealing concerned looks at Remus as he turned the pages slower and slower. James suggested that he put the book down and join them, but he was determined to finish the first three acts, really hoping that he wouldn't fall behind. 

Mrs Potter soon called the boys for food and listened as they recounted, more cheerfully now, stories of their day. 

"Sirius, why on earth would you just storm out of a lesson like that, you could be in so much trouble!" Mrs Potter scolded, completely baffled at how he could get into so much trouble before the day had hardly begun. 

"Nah, the teacher and I, we've got a mutual agreement of distaste, I won't be going back, that's for sure." 

James seemed to have an idea as he sat up straight and turned to Sirius with a huge grin. 

"Mate..." he began excitedly.

"Nope, no." Remus interrupted, "Whatever it is, it's a terrible idea."

"Actually, it's a brilliant idea. Why don't I go to drama with Pete and you can go to the other one?" 

"English?" Remus suggested.   

"Yeah, that one."

"As I say, bad idea. Even if the teachers didn't recognise you, Sirius has been told not to go back, so you couldn't even take his place on the register."

"But I really don't want to go back to English."

"And I do." Sirius chimed in. 

"Boys, do you really think that's a good idea?" Mrs Potter asked, becoming slowly more concerned that they would find themselves in the same trouble that they had been in Hogwarts, though she feared they would be less forgiven here. 

"Well, I could make some calls, make it official?" Mr Potter suggested.

Mrs Potter tutted at her husband's persistent encouragement of James and Sirius' behaviour but pressed her point no further.

Even Remus had to admit that Sirius would probably enjoy English, and he would certainly enjoy having Sirius in a class with him.

Mr Potter decided that he would make a call to the school first thing in the morning to tell them that James and Sirius would be swapping classes.

"So, how about your other lessons? What were they like?" Mrs Potter asked hesitantly.

"Me and Remus had Religious Education." Peter said with a grimace.

"You're going to hate it." Remus added with a small laugh.

"What's that?" James asked.

"Like, Jesus and the Bible and stuff." Peter tried to explain, fruitlessly.

"No idea. Great." Sirius replied.

"Oh, Dad! Get this," James began dramatically, "in biology they tried telling us that leaves, like, from trees, have lives!" Nobody seemed to react.

"James, you can be so stupid sometimes." His father replied finally, shaking his head in disbelief.

After the boys had eaten, Mrs Potter trying to give them second, third and fourth helpings, they headed back upstairs. 

Sirius had picked up Remus' book before he could even think about reading any more and James was suddenly engrossed in conversation with Peter about Drama. The scene was almost normal.

Remus made his way slowly to the shower, turning the water on as hot as he could bear. The almost torrid water helped ease his muscles and make him feel next to normal again. The pounding of blood in his ears matched the pounding still present in his head and the redness of his skin made his scars shine white and clear.

He lingered, for a moment, in the steam filled room, allowing the humidity to engulf him, feeling the dense air fill his lungs, reminding him that he is human. 

Remus cleared the condensation from the large mirror and stood topless, surveying and loathing the person staring back at him. The broken and marked skin didn't belong to a 16-year-old boy, the tired limbs and heavy eyes, they shouldn't be his. Remus lived a life much older than his own, he was forever at war with himself.  It was times like these that made Remus reflect, he knew he was lucky to have made friends, he was beyond lucky to be in this situation. He was safe and loved-and he could never seem to understand why. 

As he stared, he suddenly remembered exactly where he was, as the mirror sighed at him.

"Ah, such a shame. What lovely eyes, what tragic times." said the disembodied voice of an old woman. The mirror often took pity in Remus, he hated it.

"Shut up." He hissed as he turned around and quickly pulled a jumper over his head.

As he left the room he could still hear the mirror lamenting far down the hall. 

Re-entering the bedroom, Remus slumped down on the mattress next to Sirius and read over his shoulder, impressed with how fast he had been reading, though he suspected it may have been more of a skim. 

"Enticing read, isn't it?" Remus' voice was hardly above a whisper.

"Actually," Sirius turned to face Remus, but still matched his tone, "it's got potential." Remus laughed, that was possibly the most un-Sirius thing he could have said. "No, I'm serious! Like all ghosts and shit, pretty cool."

"If you say so." Remus replied softly, lying back onto the mattress.

Sirius finished the act he was reading and lay down next to him.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you-" Sirius was still mindful to keep his voice low. "PE is pretty awful in the spare kit, it's shorts and a t-shirt." Sirius grimaced as he said it, unsure of how Remus would react.

Remus unconsciously tugged on the sleeves of his jumper and turned his face away, the thought of being anything even slightly short of fully clothed made him feel sick. 

"Okay." He said, swallowing hard. "Yeah, whatever." He tried to pretend that he didn't care, he didn't want to be so weak as to break down over the thought of wearing shorts. Then he thought of the possibility of James Aaron and his friends seeing him, alone and vulnerable. Remus felt suddenly very hot.

Sirius knew exactly what was going on in Remus' head and slid his hand into Remus'. 

"It'll be fine, just take jogging bottoms and a quidditch top, that's what I'll be doing next time."

Remus couldn't help but smile at Sirius. In the midst of all this madness, he was the only thing tethered to the ground, the only sense of permanence about the world.

Moments later, James bounded over, disturbing the peaceful quiet that had fallen. He sat down with such a force that almost lifted the other two from the mattress. 

"Stop being gay, I've got a plan." He practically shouted, a mischevious grin and a twinkle in his eye. 

Sirius scowled at him but Remus just laughed, moving to sit next to Peter on the floor.

"So, we've all got the same lesson first thing tomorrow, no idea what it is, but I say we give 'em hell." 

"Alight, go on." Sirius agreed, beginning to look excited as he sat up. 

"Right, you're all sat there, minding your own business, when James Potter-the man, the myth, the legend-walks in 10 minutes late. But 'why is he late?' I hear you ask."

"No one asked." Sirius aggravated. 

James shot him a look but continued. 

"He's late because...Sirius Black-the boy, the brawns, the brains-stole his keys in a desperate bid to win their ongoing feud." 

"Ongoing f-sorry, have I missed something?" Remus asked, exasperatedly.

"Ahh, you see, that's the magic, on the outside they're all nice and friendly for the good of their mutual friends, but really they've been at each other's throats for years and it all comes down to this!"

"So, you're proposing that we stage a fight at stupid o'clock in the morning?" Sirius questioned sceptically.

"Yes. Or we sit on separate sides of the class and throw paper aeroplanes at each other and try not to get caught." 

"A much better plan." Sirius agreed. 

James looked triumphant and Peter practically buzzed with excitement.

It wasn't long before Remus had another book open, James was trying to perfect his paper aeroplane, Peter was watching on excitedly and Sirius was trying to tune the radio to a muggle station in the corner. Back to reality. 

Mr Potter came up to the boys as they were beginning to fatigue to inform them that the car, unsurprisingly was pretty much beyond fixing, so they would have to leave earlier to get to school through John and Ianto's place. Though, the boys suspected that he may just be looking for another reason to get a look into their odd lives. 

The thought of having to get up even earlier had all the boys resigning to bed almost immediately.  

James simply collapsed onto the nearest mattress, however, this happened to mean that he was sprawled across two of the three available. Peter was already in the exact same position parallel to James, so he also just stayed where he was. 

Remus pulled the blanket over himself and stayed on the mattress as he had all night, leaving Sirius to sleep in the bed. 

It was only a few short minutes before James and Peter were clearly asleep, though Remus and Sirius had remained awake, too much burning away inside to sleep just yet.

Sirius climbed slowly off the bed and walked to Remus' side, Though Remus' eyes were closed, he knew Sirius was there. Without saying a word, Sirius took Remus' hand and led him to the bed, he wrapped an arm around him and rested his head on his back.

Remus sunk into the warmth and comfort but felt strange, safe, vulnerable, but safe.

"Sirius?" He whispered, the word hardly there.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." Remus finally released the silent  tears that he hadn't anticipated as he allowed himself to feel, really feel something, for the first time today. 

Sirius held him close and wondered how anyone could strive to make Remus hurt. His own tears threatened to spill as he pondered on how Remus was still holding himself together. He knew Remus, the real Remus. And he loved him more than he had the words to explain.