A Brotherhood of Fire | Marauders

If they were supposed to meet up, Remus surmised that it had been a prearranged meeting from before any of the complicated disagreements that had been going on. That, or someone was making plans despite their current array of issues. Not that it bothered Remus. He just didn't see the point having private meetings if they weren't all on the most agreeable terms. Then it occurred to him that maybe James and Sirius weren't the only ones to blame. Perhaps Remus held guilt in all of this too. He had been harboring some ill feelings for his mates lately, and part of him wasn't sure they were entirely legitimate. Perhaps Remus had been fictionalizing his anger with them. There was quiet a lot on his plate lately and his brain had come up with a number of irrational thoughts since just this morning. There was no telling what he'd cooked up in the last week.

The only person who seemed to be free of any blame was Peter. At first Remus inaccurately assumed Peter too innocent or unintelligent to be involved in all of this. After a second thought, and none too quickly for he often found himself correcting his thinking, Remus accepted that Peter was very simply, a better person than the rest of them. He had forgiven them of their discrepancies and misjudgments without question. Perhaps, Remus had gotten carried away in all of this. The moon was growing fuller every night, and it didn't exactly help his mood. He hoped after the change he could relax a little, blow off some steam.

"Peter!" The boy in question was unusually early. Though Remus was happy not to be the eager beaver for once, he was curious has to why Peter was the one of all of them that was. "You made it early. Any sign of the others then?" Truthfully, a part of Remus wasn't sure he felt up to chumming about with all of them. Peter was fine enough actually. He'd always rather liked Peter, saw him as the sort of brother you taught to tie his shoes. Peter might have been the same age as the rest of them, but there was a gift in his naivety, and Remus enjoyed looking out for the boy. Undoubtedly, he knew that without question, Peter would always have his back as well.

Sirius had considered not going whatsoever. He had been surprised by the invitation - it had seemed so, well... formal. Then again, it wasn’t like the Marauders spending time together lately came naturally. When he did see his mates, everything seemed forced and uncomfortable. His predicament with James was obvious, but he refused to disclose the information to the others as talking about it would make it seem real. He didn’t want to see James, but hoped that perhaps that if James had thrown Sirius to the side that maybe he had forsaken the other two as well. Before Sirius wouldn’t believe it, but anything seemed possible now. He took a gulp or two of Firewhiskey before heading out, feeling silly that he required any liquid courage at all. Sirius ran a hand through his black hair as he made his way to the Room of Requirement, only to find Remus and Peter standing out front.

“And here I thought we’d be meeting inside,” he said with a chuckle. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how?” he suggested jokingly, not believing for a moment that it could be the case. His gaze lingered on Remus and Peter for only a moment before he diverted his eyes onto the seemingly blank piece of wall. He paced thrice while thinking of needing somewhere to hang out alone. A voice in the back of his mind hoped it would be a place James couldn’t find, but it wasn’t something that he had intentionally thought about. When the door appeared, Sirius strode through without waiting for the others, figuring that they’d be behind him. Behind the door was a room that looked suspiciously like the Gryffindor common room, absent the other Gryffindors. He supposed it was all that they really needed - nothing fancy, truly.

Sirius walked to one of the squishy armchairs and flopped himself down with his legs dangling over one of the armrests. “I didn’t keep you waiting too long, I hope?” he asked. He wanted someone else to take direction of the conversation, but as he looked back and forth between Peter and Remus, he began to doubt whether he would get what he desired. Why had this meeting even be placed anyway? A slight suspicion ran through him that perhaps they were going to try to do some sort of intervention in order to get he and James reunited. No, that couldn’t be - besides, it wasn’t like Sirius had been the one who had done anything wrong. No, it had just been ages since they had hung out as a group. That was all it could be.