Chapter Text
“Sirius, get up.”
Sirius just groaned, turning over. Remus let out a huffy breath. “Come on, you stupid oaf. We’re going to be late for Divination. Sirius Black, it’s the first day of school! Get up! Siriuuuuussssss!”
“Moony, shut your mouth,” James grumbled from the other side of the room. Remus rounded on him.
“And you too! You great ignorant ogres, get up! It’s the first goddamn day of school, get your arses out of bed! Sirius…”
Remus groaned, falling on his back on top of Sirius. “Get uuuuuuuup. Look, it’s already seven o’clock. You’ll have to shower,” he started ticking things off on his fingers, “get dressed, ‘do your hair,’ get your school bag, which lucky for you I packed last night, and then go down and eat. We’ll barely have enough time for just that, let alone running up nine flights of stairs and through over half the castle to get to the Divination room! Sirius! Come on!”
He continued to lay there a moment, waiting for some kind of response. When he didn’t get one, he pulled out his trump card.
“Or I could leave without you.”
Of course, he immediately felt Sirius’s hands on him as arms grabbed him and pulled him against a Sirius that shot up in bed.
“Moony dearest,” Sirius sighed sleepily, petting Remus’s head. “You know I love you. I wouldn’t ever abandon you to James. So you wouldn’t abandon me, would you? Would you? Moony?”
Remus didn’t respond, looking across the room aloofly. Sirius glanced down at him worriedly. “You wouldn’t make me listen to him try to flirt with Evans, would you?”
Remus opened his mouth to respond, but apparently the mention of Lily was enough to tug James roughly out of bed and send him tripping over things (‘How in hell is the room already so cluttered?’ Remus wondered) in the direction of the bathroom. Remus smiled. “Well, I just might.”
“Moony, Moony, Moony…” Sirius sang. “Of course you wouldn’t.”
“Actually, I’m very hungry…”
Sirius sighed, but finally fell out of bed, stumbling haphazardly into the bathroom after James. Remus smiled as the water started running. Two down, one to go.
He looked over at the slightly-less-messy bed beside Sirius’s, and the mound in the center that was Peter. “Pete, we will be leaving in twenty minutes.”
That was all it took for Peter to crawl out and walk calmly into the bathroom, shedding his clothes as he went in a trail easily picked up later. Remus nodded to himself, and sat down on his bed to wait.
~
It was more than thirty minutes later that they left the room, and after a short scuffle in the hall; Peter falling down the stairs; Remus mending him; Sirius getting impatient and cursing a Slytherin; a talk with McGonagall about “being adults” and “Prefect’s duty, Mr. Lupin”; Remus having to fix the result of James trying to woo Miss Evans (“A button nose, Potter. I think I like you better this way.”) against his will (“She said she liked it, Moony!”); and an argument over the last cold bits of egg at the breakfast table, they were all racing through the empty halls, reaching the staircase to the Divination Tower just as the bell rang.
They were all heaving for breath as they looked at the task ahead of them. Sirius and James slumped against each other.
“I can’t make it, Moony,” Sirius complained. “Carry me.”
“I bloody well will not.” Remus wiped his face. “C’mon, just a little further.” He started up the stairs on shaking legs, the rest groaning and following after him.
They finally made it all the way up, and climbed up the ladder into the room. Class had started probably ten minutes ago, but the professor was nowhere in sight and the students were still all tittering to each other about this and that. There weren’t many places left to sit. There was a whole table at the front of the room, next to one that just had two girls sitting at it. They both perked up at the entrance of the Marauders. One would have to sit with them.
Remus, of course, went straight to the front and claimed the front table for England, Hogwarts, the Wizarding Community, and the Marauders. The girls masked their disappointment by turning their eyes to James and Sirius.
Both of whom sat next to Remus. James smirked at a crestfallen Peter. “Sorry, mate. But there’s a seat at the table behind us.”
The girls were considerably more disappointed than before, and with the addition of Peter the trio was so glum, Professor Crates nearly screamed when he finally entered the room.
“I feel that some kind of misfortune has befallen you three,” he breathed, as though the world rested on their shoulders.
Sirius scoffed. “This class is always a laugh,” he muttered to Remus, who shushed him violently.
“Today,” Professor Crates was continuing, “we beging the curriculum for this year. Your fifth year at Hogwarts. Very exciting. Isn’t it?”
He swooped right into James’s face on the last sentence, waiting for an answer expectantly. James jumped, turning red. “Er, I-I guess so?”
“Quite!” Crates straightened up again, continuing his vacant pacing as he spoke. “Yes, it should be. In fact, I forsee it to be. For some of you, this year’s curriculum will mean something. Something great.” He eyed Remus for a moment, causing him to shift around, then turned his eyes to Sirius, then James, then half of the other people in the room, dragging on an uncomfortable silence.
“This year,” he finally said, so loudly that the whole room flinched, “we will be learning about past lives.”
Remus frowned. “What?”
Sirius gave him a look, begging him not to draw Crates’s attention, but it was too late. Crates had descended, madman eyes wide, hair fluttering in a nonexistent breeze, fingers wriggling in the air, clutching at nothing.
“Past lives, Mr. Lupin!” Crates exclaimed.
“Like, reincarnation?” James kicked Remus under the table. And he kicked him hard. Remus ignored him. “But that’s impossible. Reincarnation isn’t real, you can’t escape death.”
“You think so?” Crates gave him his crazy eyes for a moment, fingering a chain around his neck. Sirius noted an odd, triangular pendant on the chain. Like an eye. Madman. “Well, I just so happen to know different, Mr. Lupin.”
He swept away to the blackboard, before turning back to the students.
“Divination,” Crates started, “has given us reason to believe in past lives. As Mr. Lupin has stated, past lives is a concept synonymous with reincarnation. The theme that when you die, you will live again a new life as someone or something else. Generally, the belief is that if you are good in one life, you will get good things in the next. Be born a millionaire, perhaps. But if you do wrong things, you will get a bad next life. Be born as a bee, maybe.
“But this is not the definition Divination has given us. Divination’s concept is Divine Cosmic Meaning, that the universe has something it wants done and it will not cease until it is given that. The reincarnation theme with Divination is that of One Thousand Timeless Roses.
“One Thousand Timeless Roses is a theory stating that lovers are incarnate. That lovers hold a bond through time, through the moons and the stars of the universe, that invariably pulls them together time and again, so that their hearts are forever each other’s, never to stray through the galaxies lost and alone, but always with a path to follow that will lead them home.
“This theory states that a path is left through time and space. A path of rose petals, per se. A thousand. Or more. It is the traces of this path that the heart finds when it is separated from the other, and it is this path it follows, and invariably creates, while searching for and eventually finding its partner. It is a path that is never erased, just as time cannot be undone, even if the history is not necessarily written down. As with unwritten history, it just fades, gets covered with paths that criss-cross over it on their own ways. But it is never lost.
“Because this trail is never ending and eternal, it is possible for living human beings to trace it, so long as they have the aid of magic running through their veins. The only thing they need is their celestial partner, per se, or someone close to it, and some good concentration. Or, if the bond is actually strong enough, they may stumble upon the path on their own. Wandering backwards through time, meeting their lover again and again, on a trail of timeless heart.
“And that, my pupils, is what we shall be working on this term.”
The room stared at him silently. It was Peter who finally spoke.
“How are we supposed to do this if we don’t know who our lover is?” he asked, sounding thoroughly confused by the whole subject.
“Glad you asked,” Crates said emphatically, swooping in on him and the two girls. “That’s where all the fun is. You get to find out! Now of course, some of you will not meet that person for a very long time. And some of you might not have anyone at all. Not at this point in the universe. But if you’ve got one, there at least has to be someone close to it at the school. The numbers make it impossible for there not to be!”
“Are you saying our assignment is to date everyone in the school?” Frank Longbottom said slowly.
“Precisely! Until you find one that works!”
They all looked at him dumbfounded for a moment. “A-and, if no one works?”
“Well, I cannot blame the lonely.”
There was more silence, then Crates clapped his hands excitedly. “Right! Get to it, then!”
“Get to what?” Sirius muttered, confused to the point of frustration. Remus was still doubtful about all of this. James got up and immediately flounced over to Lily. The two girls started talking to Peter almost reluctantly.
Remus and Sirius glanced at each other, and started laughing quietly. “This is bullshit,” Sirius said, shaking his head.
“Right. There’s no way this is true.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I believe it,” Sirius said. “It’s bullshit that he’s got us wandering around looking for birds to stare into each other’s eyes with. Universal cosmic pull, or whatever. It’ll come when it comes.”
“You believe in this?” Remus asked dumbfoundedly. “This whole cockneyed idea of past lives?”
Sirius shrugged. “Well, why shouldn’t I? There’s no proof against it. Besides, it’s…kind of a nice thought. That there’s someone for me out there.”
Remus scoffed. “And what if you’re alone? What if the universe hasn’t given you a match yet?”
Sirius thought a moment, then shrugged. “Guess I’ll have to wait.” He leered over at Remus. “Think you’ve got a bird?”
“No,” Remus said, without hesitation and very decisively. “Even if this whole thing was true…who would the universe hate enough to pair them with me?” He chuckled sadly. “That’s just cruel.”
“Now don’t talk that way Moony,” Sirius said, nearly exasperated. “Any girl would be lucky to have you. You could do all her homework.”
Remus punched Sirius. “Oi, you shut it.”
Sirius laughed, but was interrupted by a tinny sort of clearing-of-the-throat. He looked around to see a girl standing by him, twisting her hair around her fingers.
“Hi, Sirius,” she said softly. “Um, I was just…wondering…if maybe you’d want to see if we’re soul mates?”
Sirius’s eyebrows shot up, and he turned to wiggle them at Remus suggestively. “Why, I’d love to, babe.” He turned back to her seductively. “Tell me everything about yourself…”
Remus shook his head. Divination this year would surely be the worst of them all.
~
“Sirius, get off.”
“Mooooooooony…” Sirius leaned more of his weight onto Remus causing the boy to hunch up over his paper even more. “Puh-leeeeeeeeeease? I won’t take all the answers! Just the ones I don’t know!”
“That is all the answers!”
“Reeeeemus!”
“Sirius…Sirius, get - get off of - AH!”
Sirius had obviously over-estimated Remus’s werewolf balance, strength, and coordination, because he had put all of his weight on Remus’s poor, thin shoulders. And of course, Remus didn’t have the time to always be strong. And due to this, his poor, thin shoulders couldn’t support the weight, and he and Sirius were sent tumbling to the floor.
“Ow! Sirius!” Remus shoved at the other boy. “Get off of me! You stupid git!”
The population of the Common Room giggled as Sirius lifted his head, smirking at Remus. “Oh, Moony, baby. You don’t like it?”
“I swear to God…”
“Because I do.” Sirius winked at Remus, grinding against him, and Remus flushed.
“You stupid ponce.” He finally shoved Sirius off of himself, standing and dusting off his clothes. “You really are an annoying moron, you know that?”
“I know it!”
Remus glared at Sirius. He rather did not appreciate any of this. It all seemed too familiar to him. “Shove off.” He settled back in to do his homework. “And no, you may not see my paper.”
Sirius pouted. “I’ve made my chances worse, haven’t I?”
“Yep.”
Sirius continued to sit on the floor and pout for the remainder of the evening, leaning all over Remus’s legs as he did his work. He finally looked down at him after the Common Room had emptied and the fire was burning out. “Are you ready for bed?”
“Yes!” Sirius leapt up, grinning now that it seemed Remus had forgiven him. Remus just rolled his eyes, packing up his parchment and quills and books. “Well, give me a second and I’ll go up with you.”
James and Peter were already either asleep or in their beds by the time they got up there, and it was only a few minutes more before the lights were turned out and everyone was settled in their beds.
Remus spent several minutes attempting to sleep, settling in nicely on his side and allowing himself to sink into the blankets and pillows. He was just falling asleep when he heard someone whisper his name.
He sighed, and rolled over to look through the darkness.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?”
Sirius blinked at him from a gap in the curtains. “Uh, were you asleep?”
“No,” Remus sighed. “What do you want?”
“Well, I just wanted to apologize. You seemed upset. Which only occurred to me now. Um.” He rubbed his neck. “So, sorry.”
“Go to bed, Sirius.”
“Right.” He seemed a bit relieved. “Goodnight, Moony.”