Words: 1050

Description: Sirius takes Lily's advice and decides to live his life how he wants to and profess his love to Remus...in front of the whole school. (Inspired by a scene by Pengiwen)

Story:

Sirius was in one of his moods again, one where the other Marauders knew it was best to just leave him to his thoughts. Either genius or terrible ideas came out of his moods.

Obviously, they hoped for genius (though if he were being honest, Sirius's genius still fell in Remus's 'terrible ideas' category).

Remus was however, aware of the fact that this mood Sirius was in occurred directly after his talk with Lily after their fight. They'd since made up, of course, but Remus blamed Lily for inspiring his boyfriend.

"Lily, what exactly did you say to him?" He asked her abruptly on the fifth day of Sirius hardly talking to him or the other two because of how focused he was, carrying parchment around with him so he could jot down notes. James and Peter assumed he was planning the next big prank, but Remus had an uneasy feeling about this one and his premonitions were almost always right.

Lily jumped at his presence. She'd been reading a book on the stands of the quidditch field while James practiced by himself on the pitch. "Merlin, Remus, you scared me. What did I tell who and why is it important?"

Remus rolled his eyes before taking a seat next to her and grabbing half of her blanket to drape over himself. "Sirius," he said, as if it was obvious. It really should've been, he thought. "He's been absolutely mental since you talked to him. Communicates in grunts, he's attached to his 'planning brilliant things quill,' need I go on?"

Lily put her book down and thought about it. "Well now that you mention it, yeah he has been in one of his moods recently, huh?"

Remus nodded, biting his nails.

"Hey, don't," Lily said quietly, grabbing his hand and holding it in her own as the two of them turned their attention to where James was doing some fancy broom-handling.

"We...had a talk about, you know, what happened at the party," Lily started, searching for the right words. "He was jealous, as you probably know. He wanted your relationship to be seen as normal and whatnot. I just told him that people will hate him one way or another regardless, so he should just...I don't know, live the way he wants to I guess. Kind of like a 'fuck you' to the world, you know?"

Remus took in this information, knowing perfectly well that what Lily thought was a pep talk was actually a recipe for disaster. "You do know you were talking to Sirius Black, right?" He asked her.

She raised an eyebrow wearily. "Yes?"

Remus sighed. "Well he's made up his mind on whatever he's planning. Nothing I can say or do will stop him. I guess time will tell whether this plan of his is an act of genius or..."

Lily only nodded.

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Sirius's knee was bouncing like crazy the next day  and Remus kept giving him concerned glances. They were at dinner in the Great Hall and it was time for Sirius's master plan that he called "Operation: It's My Life I'll Love Who I Want To."

He thought that was a pretty solid name.

Sirius hardly touched the food on his plate, he was that nervous. "You good, Black?" James asked, nodding at his plate.

Sirius looked down and it took him a few seconds to understand what James was asking. He looked back up and nodded unconvincingly.

"Okay..." James shrugged, turning back to his conversation with Peter.

Remus's heart was racing as he watched Sirius take a deep breath and sit up straighter. He was about to reach out to see if he could stop him or at least get a word in edgewise, but it was too late as Sirius was already standing.

But he didn't stop there. He stepped up onto the bench, and then to the Gryffindor house table. Conversation died down as Sirius clapped for attention.

"Excuse me, beautiful people of Hogwarts and Slytherins. Attention please!"

"Oh god," Remus murmured, putting his head down in his hands. Lily patted his back nervously, feeling sick herself.

"I have a very important announcement," he shouted. The teachers, far too used to his shenanigans at this point, let him go on. They would step in if he took things too far, which they were quite prepared to do.

"Someone sort of wise recently told me that people will hate me no matter what I do. So I should just do what I want. And I have decided to stop giving a fuck—"

"Language, Mr. Black!"

"—about what you all think. I'm sick of hiding who I am because it's not normal."

Remus's face went beet red in embarrassment, whether it was second-hand or not, he wasn't sure. He knew exactly where this was going.

"I'm gay!" Sirius shouted. "And I'm in love with Remus Lupin."

There it was. Remus thought he was going to die on the spot. The Great Hall was silent.

Sirius stood on the table awkwardly, unsure what to do with the lack of response.

And then Alice Prewitt started clapping. "Go off!"

And shrugging and smiling, Frank joined in too. James stood and cheered, reaching up a hand to help Sirius down from the table. Soon enough, the entire Gryffindor table was clapping for Sirius, and then the celebration expanded to the rest of the student body and even some of the teachers, save the Slytherins. McGonagall was especially proud.

And Sirius plopped himself down next to Remus who still had his face covered and he gently pried his hands away.

Remus looked up at him, face still flushed but he couldn't deny the fact that he was proud of Sirius, too.

"Do you mind if I kiss you right now?" Sirius asked quietly, with an embarrassed smile of his own.

Remus glanced around to see the entire school watching their every move and he sighed, turning back to Sirius.

"I guess we have nothing else to lose," he said with a nervous smile.

And Sirius kissed him.

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