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The Doe


Sirius clung extra tight to Remus that night. So much so that Remus actually woke up hot at one point and lay in the bed fanning himself with his hand as Sirius lay wrapped around him so tight it was hard to tell where Sirius’s limbs ended and Remus’s began. He was extra clingy in the morning, too, following Remus like a dog (oh the irony), refusing to let Rey out of his sight for even a moment, and grappling onto his hand every chance he got so their fingers stayed twined about as they took the stairs down to breakfast and when Remus tried to sit at the bench opposite him, Sirius wouldn’t let go long enough to let him go so they ended up side-by-side at the Gryffindor table. It was just lucky Remus was left handed or else he might not’ve been able to eat.

They were sitting eating (Remus was particularly glad that he didn’t have to fight with Sirius to get him to eat for the first morning in over a week) when the bench across from them was suddenly occupied by James and a surprised-looking Peter.

James pulled his plate over before himself and grabbed at a couple pieces of french toast and started buttering them as though there was nothing odd about the fact that he’d taken that particular seat at all. He looked at Remus, “Pass the bacon?”

Remus reached for the plate of bacon and handed it to him. “Here you are?” he said, the end of the sentence curling up into a question mark as James dumped a bunch of bacon onto his plate and handed it off to Peter. Sirius was staring at James, but James was very carefully keeping his eyes on his breakfast as he assembled the plate. By this time, Frank Longbottom and Ali Prewitt were both looking Sirius’s direction as well, and Lily Evans, who was on the other side of Ali, was glancing between them as though she were watching a tennis match. James took up the syrup and poured it over his toast, plopping it back down on the table and clearing his throat, “Breakfast looks good today, huh, mates?” he looked from Peter to Remus… and finally to Sirius. “You already have some of the french toast, Padfoot?”

There was a long, tense silence as James’s words - a metaphorical olive branch - hung between them over the table.

Under the table, Remus squeezed Sirius’s fingers.

“Yeah, I had some of the french toast,” Sirius drawled slowly. He paused, then, “It was good.”

“It smells good,” James said and he lifted his fork and started to dig in.

Peter gave Remus a look as James and Sirius both started eating, looking down at their plates. Remus shrugged to tell Peter he didn’t know what was going on, and Peter glanced back and forth between Sirius and James with a confused look to his face.

Remus glanced down the able to Lily, who was flushed with pride, and he raised an eyebrow. She grinned at him. I did that, she mouthed happily.

Remus turned back around.

“Oi, Prongs can you pass the salt?” Sirius asked casually.

“Absolutely Padfoot, here you are,” James reached for the salt and handed it to Sirius, who took it and shook it over his eggs. He offered the shaker to Remus, who shook his head, and Sirius plopped it down on the table.

“So the second Patronus class is today,” James said. “Who do you reckon will be next to cast one?” he asked, looking at Sirius.

“My galleons are on this one,” Sirius thumbed at Remus.

Remus flushed, “I didn’t even go to the first class.”

“My money’s on Evans,” James announced, and his eyes met hers. He reached up and ran his hand through his hair, shagging it up with his fingers as he did, making sure she was noticing how bloody messy it was, his mouth twitching up as he did it.

Lily rolled her eyes and looked away.

“Or myself,” James said, still watching her, “Perhaps I’ll be the next one to cast the Patronus Charm…” He grinned as Lily looked up at this. “Merlin knows I’m bloody good at my wand work.” He winked suggestively.

LIly flushed and turned away.

James looked at Sirius, “Or you.”

Sirius snorted, “No. It won’t be me.”

“I know you can do it, “James’s voice was strong. “I know you can.”

Peter looked hopefully between the three of them, then he said, in a desperate little voice, “Perhaps it’ll be me.”

All three of them looked at him.

“Maybe it will be, Pete,” Remus said generously.

Peter flushed.




They were sitting about the classroom where the Patronus classes were being held - James and Sirius were sitting on top of desks in the corner, half heartedly doing the assignment, talking, though neither of them mentioning the last week of not talking they’d done.

James was staring across the room at Lily and Jasper, who were working together and he had his arms ‘round her, helping her learn the wand motion (though he hadn’t yet cast the patronus himself, so Merlin knows why he thought he had anything he could teach the great Lily Evans). “I hope she bloody produces a rhinoceros and he plows Jasper down.” Then he sighed, “Bleeding hell, I’m terrible. Jasper goes and saves my life and I have dreams of Evans killing him with her patronus… I haven’t even properly thanked him yet.”

“All is fair in love and war,” Sirius said. He looked over as Jasper’s hands rested on Lily’s hips and pulled her into him so he could kiss her cheek as she tried to cast her patronus. “I’ll hex Odair for you, if you like,” Sirius offered, looking over at James.

James sighed, “That’s the thing, he really hasn’t done anything wrong, has he?”

Sirius looked back at the pair of them. “Besides forcing the rest of us to watch on as they practically do it on the floor of the DADA room, you mean?”

James laughed. “You and Moony have done worse.”

“Moony would never let me smother him like that in public.” Sirius watched Jasper and Lily again for a moment, then looked at James with a bright grin and a twinkle in his eyes. “I’d take Moony on the table in the Great Hall if he had the nerve.”

“Alright, that’s more information than I needed,” James slid off the desk to stand up. “Perhaps we’ll have a better chance at producing a patronus if we actually, you know, give it a go?”

“You mean it won’t just happen?” Sirius asked, and he slid off his desk too. He stood there before James a moment, noticing for the first time that James had grown taller than him at some point. He looked up at James and he smiled, “Bloody hell, I’ve missed you, Prongs.”

“I missed you as well, Padfoot,” James said, then he added, “Dunno why, you’re a great twatwaffle.”

A smirk crawled across Sirius’s face. “Really, Potter, you shouldn’t use such profane terms. Don’t make me wash your mouth out. I know the incantation for soap mouth.”

Suddenly there was a shout and James turned about and cantering through the center of the room was a great, white doe, shimmering and bright. The doe ran about the room and circled Lily, the speed of it’s running swishing her hair and knocking Jasper Odair aside. James’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped and he looked at Sirius with excitement.

“My soulmate,” he breathed. “...I - I always knew but… but this… this is…” He couldn’t speak anymore and he just stared.

A doe! A DOE! Lily Evans had produced a DOE!

James could scarcely breathe.

He loved that doe already. So very much.

He felt sure he could produce his own patronus now, sure it would be a stag, sure that the moment she saw it, Lily Evans’s doe would run to his stag and it would be obvious that they belonged together, and he pushed up his robe sleeves, his mind focused on that beautiful doe racing about her, casting her ginger hair to look nearly lavender in its light, and he cleared his throat, about to cast the charm himself to let his inner stag go on and join her doe and ---

Sirius nudged James, his eyes wide, as the stag cantered away from Lily and back to it’s caster… Severus Snape.

James stared as the deer seemed to leap up from the ground and back into Snape’s wand with a sort of delicate ease.

Everyone in the room except for James, Sirius, and Remus (who was now staring back at James and Sirius) clapped.

“I’ll hex him for you if you like,” Sirius said, turning to address James - but the spot James had been was empty and the door beyond was just closing. Sirius turned and ran after him, leaving the classroom in an uproar over Severus Snape’s patronus.

In the hallway, James was pacing, his hands up behind his head, laced together as he flapped his elbows with anxiety. He pranced back and forth, muttering cuss words under his breath as he did. Sirius stepped through the door, glancing over his shoulder to see Lily giving Severus Snape a celebratory hug. Sirius quickly pulled the door shut before James could see that. He looked at James as he went, left and right and left and right, and he waited a moment, letting some of the stress boiling James up burn off before he spoke.

“Didn’t expect Severus Snape to be your soulmate,” Sirius chided.

James looked up at Sirius with an expression of non-amusement.

“I always thought that title belonged to me,” Sirius continued.

James couldn’t help it. Sirius had said it without even a hint of joking, his voice completely level - completely serious... James laughed, “You barmy idiot.”

“And now you’re laughing at me! James Potter, you’ve broken my bleedin’ heart!”

The door opened and Peter stuck his head out. “You lot… Rey’s just gone and produced a patronus!”

Sirius looked at James.

“Go on, go see,” James said. “I’ll wallow in my own misery.”

“I’ll come wallow with you in a second,” Sirius promised, “I need to see what my Moony’s got as a patronus!” And he quickly dove through the door.

“What is it?” James asked Peter. “Is it Snuffles?”

Peter shook his head. “It’s a werewolf.”

James looked up in shock. “It’s what?”

“It’s a werewolf.” Peter repeated.

“Bloody hell.” James hurriedly followed Peter back into the classroom.