songs in this chapter:
rebel rebel ~ david bowie
lady stardust ~ david bowie

The air was starting to get cooler as autumn began to take full swing and Remus happily found himself pulling on his large brown cardigan that morning as he headed towards the Room of Requirement. It was a Sunday morning and Sirius and James were in detention and Peter was still asleep. They had all agreed to meet in the Room of Requirement at twelve, but Remus hadn't been able to get back to sleep since he woke up at eight, and so had stayed up reading before finally deciding to get an early private practise before the rest of the Marauders joined him.

He'd already nipped down to the Great Hall in search of some breakfast, and carried his mug of steaming tea and plate of jam on toast back upstairs where he found himself in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching ballet to a group of trolls.

Remus shut his eyes and paced in front of the wall, thinking about the band practise before slowly the door emerged before him.

Once inside, Remus placed his mug and plate on the top of the piano and lifted the lid carefully.

On his way down to breakfast that morning, Remus had been thinking about more songs that they could perform. They so far had a little collection of songs they had been working on, and since Sirius birthday was coming up, there would be a perfect opportunity for the Marauders to perform in front of their first live audience, as James and Sirius were incapable of letting any of the Marauders go without a party for the whole of Gryffindor house when their birthdays came around. Knowing Sirius' popularity, Remus didn't doubt that his birthday party would bring in a crowd.

Remus seated himself down on the piano, took a long sip of his tea before resting his hands on the keys in front of him and began to play some David Bowie.

You've got your mother in a whirl
She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl

Remus sang along quietly, trying to get the melody right, playing only by his memory of the song.

We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they're playing hard
You want more and you want it fast

He couldn't help but think of Sirius when he listened to this song, perhaps that's why he chose it as a perfect song for the band to perform on Sirius' birthday. It had Sirius written all over it.

Remus soon lost track of time as he sat in the front of the piano, barely noticing as the rest of the Marauders trooped in.

"Hey Moons!" James called across the rooms to get his attention.

Remus turned his head, not taking his hands off the piano, but giving the rest of the group a smile.

Sirius leapt up onto the raised stage and immediately picked up the electric guitar, wandering over to Remus as he found his fingering.

"Rebel Rebel?" He asked with a grin meeting Remus' eye who nodded, still playing.

Sirius quickly joined in, his electric guitar  giving the song another layer as the two boys sang along as they played.

Rebel rebel, you've torn your dress
Rebel rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!

Sirius finished off the song with a final strike of a chord, grinning wildly.

"Sounds good!" He said with a laugh.

Remus stood up to stretch his arms. "I was thinking we could play it for your birthday next weekend." He explained.

James nodded as he and Peter came to join them on the stage.

"So how many is that in total?" He asked, counting them off on his fingers. "A Little Help From My Friends, A Kind of Magic, Get it On, this one and that other on Sirius came up with, yeah?"

Remus nodded. "I Found a Reason, yeah."

"Any more we can do?" Peter asked as he seated himself down behind the drum kit.

"Actually," Remus started. "I have been thinking of this other song...and it's just that it makes me think of Sirius, and since it's his birthday I was thinking maybe we could give it a go." 

"Whats the song?" Sirius asked, quizzically.

"I was thinking Lady Stardust."

Sirius' face broke into a smile. "That song makes you think of me?"

Remus ignored him. He had had the idea of the song for a while and the song was simply so all over Sirius that it had just felt perfect that they should perform it on his birthday.

James nodded. "Well why don't we let Sirius sing this one instead, then?"

Remus raised his eyebrows. "That actually would be pretty cool with how fitting the lyrics are." He hummed.

"Great! Let's hear it then." James said eagerly.

Remus gave Sirius a nod. "You wanna just sing first of all? Without the guitar, just along to the piano so James and Pete can learn it since James will need to do backing vocals?"

Sirius nodded, setting down his guitar and perching himself on a stool on the stage. "Sure."

Remus started the opening of the song with its funky off-key piano chords before Sirius began to sing in his deeper, and slightly huskier voice than James'. 

People stared at the makeup on his face
Laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace
The boy in the bright blue jeans
Jumped up on the stage
Lady Stardust sang his songs
Of darkness and disgrace

Remus found it a lot harder to play than he had when he'd been practising earlier with Sirius' voice distracting him. He sounded kind of like a drunk Freddie Mercury, lacking the poise and range that James had, but it worked for the song, and Remus felt himself blushing just listening to him.

"I can see why you think it's about Sirius." James said with a laugh once they'd finished. "Alright boys, lets get to work and put the rest of the song together!"

*** 

The next weekend rolled around far too quickly for Remus' liking. It wasn't that the Marauders weren't prepared for the show they intended to put on in the common room, Remus just found himself feeling increasingly more nervous. Peter seemed to be the only other person who shared these feelings though, as James and Sirius could barely sit still to contain their excitement.

On the Friday evening, the Marauders had lugged up a small piano for Remus into the common room, and he and Lily had worked together to create a raised platform at the back of the room. They had also taken several trips to bring up all of the pieces for Peter's drum kit as well as James' microphone.

It was currently early afternoon on the Saturday. Sirius' birthday. Remus and Peter were putting some finishing touches on the stage whilst Mary and James decorated the rest of the common room with streamers and balloons in bright red and gold. Marlene had also made a large banner saying "Happy Birthday Sirius" which was hung up over the portrait hole.  Remus had helped Peter spray paint the words "THE MARAUDERS" onto the front of his drum kit, much to Sirius' impress. 

"Suppose we should go get ready for the show at some point." Remus told Peter as the two stood back to admire their handiwork.

Peter nodded. Remus couldn't help but notice that Peter looked just as anxious as he felt. He put a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. 

"It's gonna go great." He said determinedly as Peter nodded.

"I'm going to go get ready, see you in a bit?" 

"Yeah, see you." 

When Remus pushed open the door to the boys' shared dorm, he found Sirius sitting on his bed wearing nothing but a pair of flared blue jeans. He was sitting cross legged with his hair tucked behind one ear, leaning over something in his hands.

"Alright?" Remus asked as he came in.

Sirius looked up and Remus realised the thing in Sirius' hands was a pot of black nail varnish.

"Where'd you get that?" He asked as he started to get ready himself.

"Borrowed it from Marlene." Sirius explained. But I can't do it, it just looks all lumpy on my fingers." He said with a small frown.

Remus peered over at Sirius nails. 

"Want me to try?" He asked as Sirius nodded, handing him the bottle.

Remus perched himself beside Sirius on the end of his bed. He had helped his mum paint her nails a few times before so it shouldn't be too difficult. He quickly muttered a spell and cleared Sirius' nails so he could start fresh, shaking the bottle before opening it and taking Sirius' hand in his own.

Remus became suddenly very aware that he was sitting next to a shirtless Sirius Black and he was painting his nails for him. Sirius watched Remus' bony fingers as he gently brushed strokes over his nails, turning them shiny and black and smooth in an instant.

"How'd you do that?" Sirius asked in awe as Remus finished his first hand, holding his hand up and admiring his fingernails. 

Remus shrugged. "Just gotta do it in big full strokes otherwise it goes patchy."

The two sat in silence as Remus did Sirius' second hand, trying desperately not to look at the smooth porcelain skin of Sirius' torso right beside him.

"What you wearing tonight?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"Not sure." Remus responded. "You planning on wearing anything else?" He gestured to Sirius in nothing but his jeans.

Sirius smirked, tossing his hair over his shoulder. "Nah I was planning on going like this." 

Remus rolled his eyes. Please do, his brain provided unhelpfully as he finished up Sirius nails, casting a quick drying spell over them before Sirius messed them up.

"You know they'll just get really chipped once you play the guitar, don't you?" Remus asked him.

Sirius shrugged. "That's even cooler."

Remus ended up just wearing a pair of worn looking brown trousers he found in the bottom of his trunk, and a very 70's patterned orange shirt that Lily let him borrow once she'd seen Remus emerge from his dorm wearing another of his knitted cardigans. ("You can't wear that to your own rock and roll concert!")

Peter just wore a shirt and a pair of jeans, fluffing up his hair a little, and Remus found James in front of the mirror an hour before the show wearing a denim waistcoat over his usual white school shirt with the top few buttons undone displaying a little more of his smooth dark skin than usual, paired with some worn blue jeans.

"You look fine, Prongs." Remus told him for the fourteenth time. 

"You don't think its a bit... I don't know..."

"It looks great, and don't worry I'm sure Sirius will wear something mad so the attention won't be on you anyway if you're that worried about it."

Remus was used to mainly seeing Sirius in his Hogwarts robes, or his leather jacket, ripped jeans and Dr. Martens on the weekends, but nothing would have prepared him for Sirius' concert outfit.

"Does this look rock and roll enough?" Sirius asked as he emerged from the bathroom, giving a little twirl. Remus' mouth dropped open.

Sirius was still wearing the wide, flared jeans from earlier, but he now had on a deep purple satin shirt that had almost all the buttons undone and was tucked into the high waist of his jeans, not leaving much to the imagination, the purple contrasting with his milky white skin and stark ebony hair.

He had what looked like a silver cross earring in his ear, and a plain silver ring in the other, with matching silver necklaces layered around his neck, and what looked like a black velvet choker and huge platform heeled black boots, making him almost as tall as Remus.

Remus made a strangled sort of choking noise.

"Merlin, Padfoot." James raised his eyebrows at his friend. "You look ridiculous. You were right, Moons."

"You look.. cool. Really fucking cool." Remus' voice came out a little scratchy and he cleared his throat nervously. Sirius gave him a huge grin, ignoring James' comment.

James stood up then, an excited smile on his face. "Alright then, lads. Ready to go?"