DISCLAIMER: Not since last time. There's not time for a court case that big to go through in the time since I wrote my last disclaimer. Therefore, they aren't mine.

WARNING: Yes. Slash. Male on maleness. I like, you don't, don't read, I like.

History of Magic (Yes, awful title, I know)

By

LizzY Tears

0000

It was History of Magic and Sirius Black wasn't paying attention.

This wasn't a big event in Hogwarts history, but what was a big event, was the fact that Remus Lupin wasn't paying attention either.

At least, Sirius thought, Remus doesn't look as though he's paying attention. He is asleep, after all.

It was true.

Remus Lupin, werewolf and copious note-taker extraordinaire, was sitting with his head in his arms, resting on the desk in front of him.

He looked extremely at peace, Sirius noted idly, as he stared at his friend.

Nobody else seemed to have noticed the scholar's lapse in attention, for which Sirius was grateful. This way, with their attention diverted elsewhere, he was free to watch Remus as he liked. Normally, Sirius didn't watch people sleep; it seemed extremely boring and pointless. But watching Remus sleep wasn't boring at all, he discovered.

He found himself staring with fascination at Remus' eyelids, watching them flicker as he experienced REM – Rapid Eye Movement – also known as dreams. He thought vaguely that REM was usually reserved for nightmares and not pleasant dreams and then dismissed the thought, because Remus was more interesting.

Which he would have found highly confusing and disturbing if he didn't already know that he was attracted to his friend. An uncomfortable position to be in, to be sure. Not only because boys weren't supposed to be attracted to other boys and because Remus was his friend, but because Sirius Black was not attracted to people; people were attracted to him.

But Remus, as he did with almost every aspect of his life that Sirius had considered assumed knowledge until he met said sleeping werewolf, challenged all of the ideologies about life that Sirius possessed.

Example, werewolves were generally perceived as being horrid, vicious creatures that would turn on their own mothers if given the chance. Remus disproved this theory by being one of the most gentle and caring creatures Sirius had ever known (not that that was saying much, coming from a family of Blacks, but the concept was there).

Remus was hunched over the desk with his right arm splayed out in front of him, his head resting on his hand, which was curled over his upper arm. His posture was slumped and his spine curved in what looked to be a rather uncomfortable position. Sirius' eyes flickered over him, taking in his rumpled robes with his tie undone and the un-brushed state of his unwashed hair. His gaze caught on the multitude of freckles scattered over his neck and he was possessed of an irrational desire to trace them gently, which he thought might illicit some very strange looks from James, Peter, his other classmates and Remus, who would wake the moment someone touched him.

He thought distantly that if he were in a movie and were watching someone he was attracted to, he would be licking his lips or probably making a seductive face. But he wasn't doing any of those things, he was simply watching Remus sleep, the only expression on his face, if he had one at all, was one of intense concentration or observation.

He wasn't exactly sure why this was so fascinating, but he couldn't deny it was. Remus' fringe had fallen gently over his eyes, and Sirius contemplated his hair. A very deep blond, almost brown really, with natural sun bleached streaks sporadically distributed throughout the mop of waves.

His pale skin contrasted sharply with the pink flush of deep sleep, and Sirius found it quite striking. Of course, he found everything about the young werewolf striking, but that wasn't the point. At this time, anyway.

Sirius wondered why exactly Remus was so obviously exhausted at this time of the month. Probably schoolwork, he decided, and felt uncharacteristically sorry for the boy, who felt that the only way he was going to beat the stigma of being a werewolf was to know as much as he possibly could about everything.

He wondered what dreams Remus was having and if he knew he was being so carefully scrutinised or if he was aware he was in class.

Long before he was finished observing his friend, lunch suddenly appeared and before he knew it, there was a flurry of movement as everyone left the classroom. Left behind a few seconds later was James, Peter and Professor Binns, who glided smoothly over to them and glanced down at the slumbering boy.

"Perhaps you should wake him." He said serenely and drifted away through the back wall.

Sirius, James and Peter looked at each other.

"Real ideas machine isn't he?" James remarked dryly.

"What are we going to do with him?" Peter asked, thinking ahead to the lunch he was missing.

"Wake him, I suppose." James shrugged and started forward with the sharp end of the quill at the ready.

"No!" Sirius interjected and then flushed. "Er … that is … I'll wake him."

He coloured further under the other two Marauder's surprised stares.

"I … er … need to talk to him." He covered. "So you just go to lunch and I'll … er, we'll catch up to you later."

A bemused look passed between James and Peter. Even though Sirius wasn't as obsessed with his food as Peter, he was not usually one to skip meals.

"It's lunch, mate." James said, speaking slowly. "There will be food. We'll just wake Remus, we'll eat and then you can talk to him after."

"Er, no." Sirius said uncomfortably. "I need to talk to him about … er …" He cast around wildly for a topic. "Arithmancy!" He blurted, his eye catching on the textbook in Remus' bag and then cursed himself for his stupidity.

"Arithmancy?" Peter repeated uncertainly. "Isn't that like … Remus' subject, not yours?"

"Yes." Sirius agreed.

"Then why are you talking to him about it?"

"Because … I'm … thinking of … taking the class!" He finished desperately and if he hadn't been in such a disarrayed state of mind, he might have laughed at the looks on his friend's faces.

"You're thinking of taking … Arithmancy?" James clarified, his voice tinged with absolute disbelief at what his ears were telling him.

"Yeah." Sirius said, rubbing the back of his neck. "My … er … Uncle, the one who gave me the vault, yeah, he pulled the guilt trip, saying that he wanted to see me do something with my life, yada yada yada and Remus …" He gestured helplessly to his oblivious, sleeping friend and trailed off, running out of lies.

James glanced from Sirius to Remus and a look of understanding came into his eyes and he nudged Peter's arm, who was still staring at Sirius with his mouth open.

"I see, mate." He said sympathetically to Sirius and took Peter's arm. "Come on, Pete." He said. "Sirius has some important business to attend to and there are turkey sandwiches down there with our names on them."

He started moving towards the door, pulling Peter with him.

"Good luck." He said to Sirius and winked, before pushing Peter in front of him and hustling him down towards the hall.

Sirius heard their voices down the corridor.

"But, James, I don't see why Sirius wants to study Arithmancy …" Peter's confused tones floated back to him and Sirius winced at James' reply.

"Sirius just has some important business to attend to with Remus." He told the other boy and Sirius could almost see the wink.

"What?" Peter asked and then, "Oh. Ohhh."

That so didn't go the way he wanted.

Sighing in defeat, Sirius turned back to Remus, who was still stretched out over the desk. He took a moment to watch Remus breathe, his light, even breaths stirring the parchment he had attempted to be writing on before sleep had claimed him.

Then he took a breath and sat down next to the werewolf, moving in close so as to wake him gently. He considered his plan of attack for a moment before he slowly leant in close to Remus' ear and whispered his name.

"Moony …" He sang quietly.

There was no response.

"Mooony …" He repeated and blew on his face, making him twitch but not wake.

Sirius frowned and sat back in contemplation. This was harder than he thought. Just by the peace and relaxation on his face, Sirius knew he couldn't wake Remus the way he usually would, with shaking, shouting and/or water.

"Oi, Remus." He demanded in a broad Australian accent full of authority.

Not a stir.

Rather put out by now, Sirius did the first thing that came to mind. It was the next logical step, really, with him already being so close to Remus already.

He kissed him.

Just gently, a simple joining of the lips that could quite easily be explained away … except that usually when things had to be explained away, it was because one party was off guard or unwilling.

Remus, it appeared, was neither of these things.

Sirius was rather shocked and taken aback to find that his friend, supposedly fast asleep, was actually responding to him.

Not, of course, that he was complaining, because if Remus was responding, he was either fast sleep and wouldn't remember it, so Sirius could have one kiss from him, and because if Remus wasn't asleep, that could mean that he felt the same sort of attraction for Sirius that Sirius felt for him.

Which could be taken so many places.

So Sirius found himself sitting pressed up against his friend, their heads no longer resting on the table, instead facing each other with their arms wrapped around each other, in a decidedly tight lip lock.

It would be very hard to explain this away.

The kiss slowly ended, however, and Sirius realised that explaining time was coming, if it was going to come at all.

They drew away from each slowly, and then carefully met each other's eyes.

"Um … look who's awake." Sirius said, all too aware that his arms were still wrapped around Remus and pressed tightly against him.

"Hello." Remus said and yawned contentedly. Then he looked around himself. "Did I really sleep all the way through History of Magic?" He said in wonder.

"Yep." Sirius said and grinned.

"Best lesson ever." Remus said and Sirius laughed.

"Yeah." He agreed, in more ways than one.

He didn't realise he'd voiced that thought aloud until Remus glanced at him.

"That means it's a good thing we're sitting here tangled like this, right?" He asked, a little uncertainly and Sirius dropped the grin.

"I guess so." He said. "I mean, I don't mind particularly, but you …" He left the thought unfinished.

"I don't mind either." Remus assured him and then a silence fell between them.

Sirius was about to disentangle himself from Remus when his friend suddenly leant forward and kissed him, stalling his efforts.

He broke off after a moment and faced Sirius with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry." He said. "Wanted to make sure you didn't leave."

"If you don't want me to, I'm not going anywhere." Sirius said.

Remus' smile made him glow inside.

"You're going to be stuck here for a long time, then." He said and Sirius laughed.

"Well, they can hear about us in one hundred years time, then, can't they?" He said. "Binns will still be teaching here, and he will manage to make it sound completely boring that two boys ended up in each other's arms after one of his classes."

Remus laughed, too.

"I liked History today, though." He said solemnly. "Didn't you?"

"Yes." Sirius said bluntly.

"Good." Remus said. "Me too."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

/Note to self/ Stop being so observant! I got this from watching this guy I know in my class sleep. I promised the next one would be Sirius' pov, so it was and it wasn't in either the dorm or the common room! I am so proud! Of course, the fic isn't very good, but you can't have everything!

Anyway, thanks to those select few who reviewed 'The Nuances of Scent'. I think I should stop liking my stories because they never get reviewed if I like them. Lol, shut up Lizzy.

Anyway, has anyone else had problems with fanfiction lately? Apart from that read only day, that was annoying, but I mean apart from that. I think I have another virus in my computer, which my Mum is going to /kill me, pulverise and puree me for/.

So, okay, shutting up now. A word on the random drabble I posted along with this one; came from a line I thought of for this and decided didn't fit but really liked, so wrote a story around it. My first drabble! I've always wanted one and now I'm so proud! Admittedly it's a little long, like 200 words, but it's close, alright?

Anyway, going now.

Love always,

LizzY

P.S To carpe-nox-sulum-nox – Apart from not knowing what on earth your name means (it sounds latin to me), in response to that review of yours. No, I didn't write Harry Potter people reading MASH fanfic, I wrote my original characters in my original story reading fanfic, sorry. But yes, it is MASH as in 4077th, with Hawkeye and Trapper (sob, he left, poor Hawkeye) and Henry (Sob again, that's not fair) and Margaret and Frank. It's on here in about 4 minutes, so I have to type real quick to get this up. It's not gonna happen. Anyway, glad to find another MASH fan!

Here's is the section from my story about the fanfic, if you were even remotely interested:

"Well, Will." He said and paused. "That's a bit of a pun, isn't it? Like from Harry Potter 'said Sirius seriously.'"

A silence fell over the room as we all stared at him, wondering why a professional like him would be reading Harry Potter, of all books. He appeared to notice our sudden silence and looked up innocently.

"What? Don't you read Harry Potter?"

When we all continued to stare, he dropped his folder a little and stared right back at us, an expression of absolute shock written on his face.

"No one here reads Harry Potter?" He looked at each of us in turn, his mouth open. "Where have you been?"

"I've read it." I said tentatively, a little annoyed at his apparent disdain for us.

A look of relief spread across his face.

"Good! I'm glad there's at least one normal person in this room!"

I could sense the annoyance of everyone else around us at these words and I smothered a smirk as Mrs Cunningham puffed herself up.

"Excuse me, doctor." She said righteously, stressing his title to remind him of his duty. "Do you really think this is an appropriate topic?"

Dr Stephens, to my utmost amusement, ignored her and kept his attention fixed on me.

"What did you think of it?" He asked me, his clear gaze directed into my eyes.

I shrugged.

"It wasn't bad. I think the fanfiction is better."

I wanted to kick myself after that comment. Now my secret was out; Will, Ms Cunningham, Mrs Cunningham, Ruby and the doctor all knew I read Harry Potter fanfiction.

I could have died.

Dr Stephens fixed me with a look.

"If you are of that opinion, that's fine." He said, leaving me with the distinct impression he was not impressed.

This got me quite annoyed.

"Have you actually read any fanfiction, sir?" I wanted to know. "You will find it's actually brilliant stuff."

"I have not." The doctor said stiffly. "I don't intend to."

"Look." I said, grabbing his clipboard and scribbling a website onto it. Go there, I dare you. When you come back tomorrow, you will be thanking me, I promise."

Dr Stephens looked uncertain at this, but he did take the website.

"Excuse me!" Mrs Cunningham burst in at this point. "I think we should be getting back to my grandson!"

All eyes were back on Will now, who had obviously been watching our exchange with interest.

"You read fanfiction?" He asked me, ignoring the imminent revealing of his condition.

I shrugged, a little self consciously.

"Claire got me into it. It's all stories about the characters in Harry Potter, or whatever subject, and put into own situations of the author's devising." I told him, blushing.

"I know." Will said, grinning. "I read MASH fanfiction."

I gaped at him, mouth open.

"Well." I said after a moment. "You learn something new every day!"

I'm not sure it makes much sense without the rest of the context, but that's the section it's in. If you want to look at the whole thing (it's really long, though), my site is . Thanks!