Chapter 18: we cuddled with your crush

January 1977

"I heard what you did, Black."

"And what would that be, Snape."

"You disrespected Lucius Malfoy, and you brought shame to the noble house of Black. I don't think you understand the privilege you have, you're a pureblood. The dark lord wants you in his ranks and you have the nerve to say that this isn't the life you want. You have everything and you choose to give it up. I knew you were dumb, but I didn't think you had a death wish."

"So what if I did have a death wish, that has nothing to do with you. None of it does, not the "noble house of Black", not my privilege. This has absolutely nothing to do with you. And I know you're jealous of my status but you don't have to be such an ass about it. I mean seriously Snape do you want people to hate you? You're mean to everyone and if they're mean back then you claim that you're the victim, and if anyone's nice to you, god forbid, you follow them around like an obsessive stalker. I know you like being in other people's business but get out of mine."

"You're going to regret saying that."

"So what if I do? I regret half of the things I say. Now please, get the hell out of my face."

Severus Snape backed into the shadows of the dimly lit hall, the last of the light fading off of his face.  Bella let out the breath she had been holding in, it was hard to act like she was unfazed by the threats.  She knew that there would be consequences for her words. She knew that through and through, but she was at least kind of confident in her ability to tolerate pain and she knew that anything she said now she would probably say again. That was the entirety of her childhood. Saying something that her parents wouldn't like, being punished for it, and doing it again.

She had a hard time restraining her anger around those that hurt or hated others because of the way they were born. Especially if they were hypocrites about it like Snape. I mean the dude hated muggleborns with a passion yet his best friend was one.

In a sense Bella got it, she had been raised to hate werewolves all of her life so when she and her best friend were attacked she hated them even more. She made an exception for Apollo, telling herself that he was different, that he wasn't vicious like the rest. Until she found out about Animagi and how they would help werewolves keep from hurting themselves and others. With this new information she realized that werewolves could be calm creatures and not the vicious ones she'd encountered so she studied for hours on the history of werewolves. She went out of her way to find werewolves and she listened to every word of the stories that they told her. And it made her see that they were human, which was something that she'd never even considered. With her bedtime stories being twisted tales of bloodshed and murder surrounding werewolves it really threw her out of the loop.

But the difference between her and Snape was that he was never raised to hate muggles like she had been raised to hate werewolves. He lived in a muggle neighborhood, had muggle friends, he even fell in love with muggleborn Lily Evans. Yet he actively bullied other muggleborn students because of their blood status and that wasn't something that Bella fucked with.

***

Remus Lupin has changed in the past few months. He'd started actually planning his outfits, participated in more pranks, he always combed his hands through his hair, blushed more, and started hiding his stupid little grins when he met a certain girls gaze.

He was smitten, and the boy didn't like it. The more he got to know Annabelladonna the more he felt like James, hopeless and pining after someone who'd never love him back. And of course it led him to making stupid decisions like ignoring her or making rude comments to get her to go away so she wouldn't see him so flustered. In short Remus Lupin was a dumbass.

And of course the rest of the boys noticed his longing glances at the girl with the scar on her face. So every time they got the chance to leave the two together they would, making up some bullshit excuse on why they had to leave. Whether it was them saying that they had to get Sirius checked for Rabies, or them saying that Peeves has caught one of them in a "compromising position" and they had to go convince him not to tell, it was always ridiculous. They had even tried to set the two up on a blind date. Neither showed because they had figured it out after Bella briefly mentioning how desperate Sirius seemed to get her to go to the Three Broomsticks that evening. The boys even owled Asher and Apollo and asked how to get her to ask Remus out, but the response they got was something along the lines of

"we don't fucking know, we haven't tried to set her up with anyone. She's a pretty girl, and she finds her own relationships easily enough by herself."

So they were kind of out of ideas and just ended up begging Remus to ask her out (for like 3 hours) which resulted in them being locked out of their dorm.

"How long do you think it'll take for him to unlock the door."

"I don't know Pads, could be weeks before we get to see our beautiful beds again. What do you think Wormtail, how long can Moony hold a grudge."

"We may be here until summer break. Do you think Anna would let us bunk with her? She does have a few extra beds."

"There's no harm in trying... well there may be harm in trying. But she can't hurt us too badly, right?" In the back of his mind Sirius was nervous. If Bella didn't let them stay then they'd have to sleep in the Gryffindor common room, leaving them open to any revenge that the younger students may take on them for their previous pranks. And they had played some nasty pranks on members of the younger years.

"Yeah. Right." James wasn't nervous at all, of course Bella would let them stay. It would be unlike her to say no to a sleepover.

The three made their way to the Hufflepuff common room and they easily entered, they knew all of the other common rooms passwords. Except Ravenclaw's most of the time they couldn't answer the riddles without Remus. They had Peter turn into his Animagus form and climb up the stairs then squeeze himself under the door to her room. He quickly morphed back and knocked on the wall to let her know he was there. She jumped then turned around, sighing in relief when it was only him.

"Hey Petey, what can I do you for."

"H-hey uh I have a question. Let's say hypothetically if Remus locked James, Sirius, and I out of our dorm, would you let us stay with you?"

"Yeah of course, what'd you do to make Rem so mad."

"Oh just uh.. stuff y'know. Can you come stand on the stairs so they can get up?"

"Urgh okay, but next time you need my help don't expect any effort." Bella trudged our of her room and out into the hallway, finding herself stopping at the top of the stairs. Two boys instantly bolted up and ran past her, grabbing her arm and pulling her along. Once they shut her door she leaned on it and looked at the three boys, all in their uniforms.

"Do any of you want something to sleep in, I stole some of my boys pyjamas, they're really comfy."

When the boys nodded she started digging through her drawers in search for her brothers clothing. Pulling out three pairs of joggers, and three sweatshirts. Apollo and Ares were rather fit so their clothes were a bit bigger to accommodate for their muscles but Ashers sweatshirt was a little bit smaller, perfect for Peter who was just getting out of his awkward phase of slight chubbiness. Bella left the room to let the boys change and when she came back they had all settled down into beds. Bella flopped onto the one James was laying on, he had his chin resting in his palms and he looked like he was contemplating something.

"Cuddles?" James just chuckled at Bella's request and let her snuggle into his chest. She liked being held by someone, she didn't really care who it was because it always brought comfort. Peter saw the two and he felt jealous for a second but he told himself that that was useless, being jealous didn't usually get him snuggles.

"Can I join?" His voice was quiet, gentle, and it compelled Bella to say yes. She just scooted over and patted the room next to her. Soon Peter jumped onto the bed and Bella was in the middle of a marauders cuddle sandwich. Without a word Sirius jumped on the bed too, landing diagonally on top of them. They all groaned and Bella tried to push him off but he just put his foot in her face and that paused her movement (she was a little too busy gagging from the rank smell radiating off of his feet). She eventually got him laying normally and when he started spooning James and making inappropriate jokes the boy kicked him out of the bed. Cuddle time was PG.

***

Remus Lupin walked into the Great Hall for breakfast looking smug and after a few minutes of looking he found them at the Hufflepuff table. His brow furrowed in confusion as he made his way to the table with the yellow clad students, they normally sat at their normal table.

"Hey guys, why are we sitting here today?"

"Oh we just wanted to eat breakfast with Donnie today to thank her for letting us stay over tonight."

"Ah yes, isn't my sister wonderful James."

"That she is Sirius, so nice of her to let us stay, don't you think Peter."

"Yeah, she'll make a lovely woman one day. She has this kind of kindness and warmth that just radiates off of her, don't you agree lads."

"Yes, yes. Very warm and welcoming." James and Sirius said at the same time, nodding their heads in perfect synchronization, it was almost as if it was planned.

"Is there a point to this?"

"Yes Remus there is. We're just appreciating how kind Padfoots sister is. She'll definitely make a great wife to some lucky fellow one day don't you think, so caring."

"Well I- um. Uhhhh. Yeah I bet s-she'll be lovely. Can you guys shut up you're being weird and it's making me uncomfortable."

"That'll make two of us." This was the first time Remus noticed the girl at the table, her head was rested on Peter's shoulder and she barely looked awake.

"Are you okay, you look tired Bells."

"Yeah I'm okay Rem, these three just kept me up. Thanks for locking them out by the way, I got my own human teddy bears for the night."

Remus regretted locking them out, they stayed with the girl he likes and they kept her up till the point where she looked like she was so drowsy that she could fall asleep in her plate of eggs and bacon. It didn't help that the entire walk to his and James's muggle studies consisted of James taunting him.

"We cuddled your crush. And its all your fault. Ha ha ha ha ha ha." James said in a sing song voice.

"Fuck off prongs, she's not my crush."

"Oh of course she's your crush, be realistic Mooney. You looove her."

"You're a child James Potter."

"A child who's gotten farther with your crush then you have."

"I'm going to hit you."

After a few more minutes of teasing Remus finally snapped, he hit James softly across the face and walked ahead.

"Oh c'mon. Lily hits harder than you."

James has to raise his voice to be heard but it still managed to reach the boy in front of him. Remus turned around with a murderous glare and all of a sudden James was filled with fear. He let out a few curse words and then turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could.

Remus Lupin was going to kill him.

2130 words

A/N: oof it's 3AM

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