14, 24, And 25 For The Ask Game—happy New Year !!🥳

All I want is to be in a queer coded chaotically unhinged group of friends reading poetry in a cave in the middle of the night. Is that too much to ask?

and ends when it was cold but it wasn't winter yet

the story starts when it was hot and it was summer

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I LOVE JAMES!!!!!!

kisses under the mistletoe and how they came to happen pretty please with a cherry on top? 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 thank you bethan!

"James, what are you doing?"

James practically jumped out of his skin as he turned to look at Remus. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yes, desperately."

"I just thought the place needed a bit of decoration!"

Remus looked around at the common room and frowned. "You're hanging mistletoe outside the stairs to the boys dormitory."

"Your point?"

Remus shook his head in bemusement. "No point, just thought it was a bit weird, is all."

He heard James mutter something under his breath but didn't quite catch it.

"Why are you hanging mistletoe outside the boys dormitories?" Peter asked as he stepped through the portrait hole.

James threw his arms up in a fit of frustration. "Just... the place wasn't looking very Christmas-y and Gryffindor tower is throwing the Christmas party later!"

Remus looked over to the large Christmas tree in he corner of the room but refrained from pointing it out.

A party the night before the Christmas holidays began was a bit of an unspoken rule in Gryfindoor tower. The Prewett twins had started it, but once they had left the marauders had taken it upon themselves to keep it up.

Remus didn’t overly care for them, the common room was simply not big enough to comfortably hold all of Gryfindoor at the same time and it usually got too hot and too noisy for Remus’ liking.

He did, however, enjoy seeing his friends have fun. He was also quite partial to mulled wine he knew Marlene was planning to provide somehow.

“Hoping of catching a boy under the mistletoe or...” Lily asked as she entered the common room. James threw his arms up in frustration. “Screw all of you.”

At seven o’clock, Remus was placed in charge of casting the appropriate silencing charms and by half past seven the party was in full swing.

Marlene had indeed managed to provide mulled wine and Sirius had created a playlist which Remus had counted as having Elton John’s ‘step into Christmas’ on it three times already.

Lily, obviously feeling some qualm due to her head girl position, took on the role of making sure nobody under the age of sixteen was drinking alcohol because whilst most people were underage, a line had to be drawn somewhere.

“May I have this dance?”

Remus turned to see Sirius, clearly a little drunk, extending an arm. “You want to dance with me to Feliz Navidad?”

“Problem?”

Remus sighed and put down his drink. “Fine, whatever.” There were so many people jumping around already that he decided joining them wouldn’t make him too self conscious as presumably nobody would pay him much notice. 

What he had not expected was for Sirius to place his hands on Remus’ waist. “What’re you doing?” Remus shouted over the music.

“Dancing!” Sirius shouted back.

“You can’t slow dance to this song!”

“You can if you’re drunk enough. Lighten up Moony, it’s almost Christmas!”

Remus sighed. “You’re insane.” 

“I’m sure something slower will come on in a minute if you’d prefer that.” He held up a hand and as the song finished, listening to see what would play next. When ‘step into Christmas’ came on again, he whooped and placed his right hand on Remus’ shoulder blade. “Remus! I love this song!”

“I know, it’s come on four times now.”

Sirius, once again, failed to acknowledge that the song was far too quick to try and waltz to and took one of Remus’ hands, attempting to move them gracefully which was made difficult by the sea of people, the fact that he was drunk, and the fact that Remus couldn’t dance.

“Are you waltzing?” Remus turned his head to see Peter, drink in hand, watching them in amusement.

“Don’t ask,” Remus replied, flushing slightly. “His idea, obviously.”

Peter just shrugged and walked away to sit on the sofa. Remus looked around the room to see if anybody else was actually watching. He was sure they weren’t, but in that moment it felt like every eye on the room was on him.

“Moony?”Remus turned his face back to Sirius. “You’re worrying.”

“I’m not—”

“You are,” Sirius sing-songed. 

Remus rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, just... worried people are watching, you know?”

“So what if they are, hm?”

Remus opened and closed his mouth a few times. “I don’t... I don’t know?”

Sirius removed his hand from Remus’ shoulder blade but kept hold of his hand. “Come on, then.” Remus let himself be pulled out of the crowd and towards the dormitory stairs. “Less people here. Shall we?”

“This playlist really is not the appropriate tempo for—” He broke off as he heard the opening bars to Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’.

“Oh yes!” Sirius enthused. “I added this one for you! I know you love her.”

“My mum loves her, not me,” Remus corrected.

Sirius scoffed. “I think we’re good enough friends for me to know that’s bullshit.”

Remus gave him a half smile before letting himself be led in a waltz again. He couldn’t help but think it was an incredibly strange way to be spending a common room party, slow dancing to a Christmas playlist concealed by the wall of the dormitory stairway.

When the song ended and something upbeat and festive Remus didn’t recognise came on, Sirius kept them twirling and Remus finally voiced his thoughts. “Why aren’t you dancing with a girl, hm?”

Sirius stopped and stood upright, suddenly appearing far more sober. “Would you rather I was?”

“I didn’t say that, I just asked why you weren’t.”

“Because it’s a Gryffindor party and out of the four girls in our year, Lily is clearly about four seconds away from agreeing to go out with James, Dorcas and Marlene appear to be dancing together, I’m pretty sure Mary has fallen asleep on the sofa, and despite what people may think maybe I don’t want to dance with a girl.”

He suddenly straightened even further, apparently recognising what he’d said, and let go of Remus entirely. “Hey,” Remus said softly. “It’s s okay.”

Sirius held eye contact with him and Remus could practically see the way his head was working around his thoughts. “I didn’t— What if isn’t?”

Remus had no idea what he meant by that, and so he just shrugged and repeated himself. “It’s okay.”

Sirius opened his mouth to reply but his eyes suddenly darted towards the ceiling. “Since when has that been here?” he asked, and Remus followed his eye-line before remembering.

“James was hanging it up earlier. Im not sure why.”

“Remus, I didn’t know that. I didn’t— that isn’t why I took you over here I could see you were getting anxious and I thought, oh, this will be out of eyeshot and—”

“Sirius,” he laughed. “It’s okay. I didn’t think that.”

“You’d have every right to,” he muttered, “I just told you I’d rather dance with you than a girl and then pointed out mistletoe it’s coming on a bit fucking strong if you ask me.”

“Well…” Remus started, “actually, how drunk are you right now?”

“Honestly, not very…”

“Okay.” Remus ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. “I’d rather dance with you too, then. Than a girl, I mean.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Remus lifted his eyes to the ceiling and then back to Sirius. “Hey, we don’t actually have to… you know.”

“And refuse Christmas tradition on the day before the Christmas holidays?”

Remus felt his heart speed up a little. “Well, you raise a good point.”

Sirius placed a hand on his face, giving him time to change his mind. When he didn’t, he closed the gap between their lips and kissed him, and Remus had never been so thankful for James Potter’s weird decoration ideas.

“Ohhhh,” Lily said under her breath. “Is that why you put mistletoe there? You knew they’d go up to the dormitory together?”

James scoffed, “Obviously.”

how to ask the demon you've been smitten over for 6000 years to dance: an angel's guide

bonus:

Kim Addonizio, from 'The Women', Wild Nights: New and Selected Poems/excerpt from 'The Complete Works: The Diary,' Virginia Woolf

lavh-lay!!!!!!!

*body slams j*r and reclaims these 5 as my own*

....

“dear harry,”

read “dear sirius” first

Hey kiddo, relax. I’d be quite the hypocrite if I got mad at you for losing points. Just be careful next time, please. Maybe stick to smuggling items on Filch’s banned list as opposed to fire-breathing, sharp-toothed illegal magical creatures. Also weren’t you wearing the cloak? How’d you get caught?

Does McGonagall still wear that tartan dress robe? If so, please tell her to upgrade her wardrobe to the 90′s.

I cannot wait to see you at the Quidditch match. Is the new broom holding up well? Either way, I know you’re going to smash it!

Love,

Sirius

Dear Harry,

One “Defending Yourself and Others- the Practically Perfect Way” is enclosed, my studious child. You owe me five Sickles by the way- I told you he’d be nuts. And no, I have no desire to learn what that crackpot’s favorite colour is. I’d much rather have one-on-one tutoring with Snape for the rest of my life, which is something I never thought I’d say.

Love,

Sirius

Dear Harry,

Do I need to get you a Remembrall? Slip is attached, although I’m not sure you even need it. Didn’t you memorize all of the secret passageways by the time you were 9? I would like it on the record to that you did that of your own volition; I had nothing to do with it. 

And I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sugar Quills? I don’t touch the stuff. It’s bad for the brain, you see. And my brain needs to be extra sharp in order to keep up with you and your shenanigans.

(Although if you happen to see them, I’m sure the extra-long lasting ones would be excellent. Just to see what they’re like, of course).

Love,

Sirius

Dear Harry,

Not to worry my young worrywart, we will wait to open presents, drink hot chocolate, and make my famous Christmas pancakes until you get home. Father Christmas normally waits for no one, but this year he’ll wait for you- I’ve put in a good word (although I’m tempted to take it back as payback for calling my decor horrid).

Now for the Ball, it’ll probably help to not refer to any possible date as “stupid”. They’re much more likely to say yes that way, you see. Other than that, I suggest asking someone (boy or girl, doesn’t matter who) that you generally get along with and enjoy speaking to. It’ll make your night at least a little less painful. Perhaps one of your Quidditch teammates? Or someone from your classes?

Don’t ask someone only because you think they’re attractive. It may lead to awkward conversation, awkward dancing, and awkward excessive butterbeer consumption that leads to a night spent on the toilet. Not that I’m speaking from experience, of course. But if I was theoretically recounting my experience I would like it to be known that it was not me who ended up on the toilet. It was my theoretical date. 

As for dancing… I’m quite pants at that even with the forced childhood lessons. Maybe ask your date to give you a tutorial? Or at least a practice dance to make sure you don’t muck up the opening.

Also I checked for your dress robes- they’re not here. Are you sure they’re not buried at the bottom of your trunk?

Best of luck, kiddo. Don’t forget to send pictures at the Ball- I’m running low on blackmail material.

Love,

Sirius

Harry-

I’m coming to see you and bringing DMLE folks. Be in Gryffindor common room in half an hour. 

Don’t worry, I’m on my way.

Sirius

P.S. Thank you for telling me. I’m proud of you

awwwwwwwwh mannnn!!!!!!!

typical morning at the Potter household

:)

The intimacy of thinking about each other at the same time.