Red Lips and Peppermint Kisses

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/53176792.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: F/F, M/M, Multi
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Regulus Black/James Potter, Barty Crouch
Jr./Evan Rosier, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes
Characters: Sirius Black, Regulus Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Pandora
Lovegood, Mary Macdonald (Harry Potter), Lily Evans Potter, Marlene
McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes
Additional Tags: No Lily Evans Potter Bashing, just lily evens (no potter), Pansexual
James Potter, James Potter is a Little Shit, Remus Lupin is So Whipped,
Remus Lupin is So Done, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), wolfstar, kinda
almost valentines, Valentines will be in the fic, Valentine's Day, Sirius
Black give whore energy in all the best ways, James and Sirius throw
great parties, Parties, Football | Soccer Player James Potter, Canada
football????, which is which?????, idk the difference, Fluff, Lesbian
Marlene McKinnon, Remus Lupin & Marlene McKinnon Friendship,
Sirius Black & Marlene McKinnon Friendship, marlene mckinnon is
dramatic as hell, but not as dramatic as sirius black, insomniac sirius
black, Bad Parent Walburga Black, Bad Parent Orion Black, Child
Neglect, Child Abuse, Regulus Black Speaks French, Sirius Black
Speaks French, Indian James Potter
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2024-01-20 Updated: 2024-02-11 Words: 2,959 Chapters: 3/?
 Red Lips and Peppermint Kisses
by MythologyLesbian

Summary

Remus Lupin isn't in love with Sirius Black.

Well... there was that one time. But that's all it was... one time. His best friend Regulus Black
has no idea what happened at that party.

Sirius Black isn't in love with Remus Lupin... Sirius Black isn't in love with Remus Lupin...
Sirius Black isn't in love with Remus Lupin... SIRIUS BLACK ISN'T IN LOVE WITH
REMUS LUPIN
Remus Lupin is a gorgeous and smart boy and Sirius isn't in love him. He can't. He couldn't
do that to Regulus. Not after everything.

Notes

This is inspired by my favorite Jegulus fic, The Long Game by lackadaisical_lizard

here's the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43020684/chapters/108098460

ANYWAYS, HELLO! Thank you so much for clicking on my fic! I would like to do a little
self promo here (sorry!) but if you are also a fan of Magnus Chase and like my writing, I
have 2 Fierrochase fics on the go! Have the best time and PLEASE comment, they are my
life blood, I don't care if you know me and I told you to read my fic, comment. I will love
you forever

See the end of the work for more notes

 Chapter 1

Sirius Black. Drama queen extraordinaire. Remus Lupin had spent the past four years
watching him become everything he is today. Sirius was a boy who captured the hearts and
attention of every person in every room he walked into. His mere presence seemed to defy
any gender expectations, his red lipstick, fishnet stockings under baggy ripped black jeans,
and thick eyeliner captured Remus's eyes anytime he entered the room. But Sirius would
never like him.

Remus sighed as he crashed to the grass covered ground next to his friend Regulus. Regulus
looked up from his book and stared hard at Remus. Remus raised his eyebrows and said,
“Why are you looking at me like that...?” Regulus sighed and shut his copy of Six of Crows
“Because you’re being weird, and you look upset.” Remus scoffed.
“I’m not upset. What would I be upset about?”

A flash of memories flurried through Remus’s mind. The loud thunderous vibrations of bass
guitar, red lipstick stains across his neck, the smell of peppermint-

“Remus.” Remus’s head snapped back to Regulus.

“Sorry Reg. I’m not upset. I’m just tired, I pulled an all-nighter studying.” Regulus shifted,
uncrossing his legs to reach for his bag.
“What are you doing?” Remus asked, tilting his head and trying to see what his friend was
doing.

Regulus turned to him with a steel container in his hands. He opened it and offered it to
Remus. Remus looked at him and then, down at the container. It was full of food.
Blackberries, tomatoes, a PB&J sandwich, the works. Remus laughed before snatching a
stash of mini aero bars from the spot next to the blackberries. He also grabbed half the PB&J.
Regulus smirked. “Of course. You go for the sugar.” Remus raised a brow.

Naturally. When have I picked cucumbers over chocolate?” Regulus shrugged and shut the
container after grabbing the other half of the sandwich. Remus tore one of the wrappers off a
chocolate bar and broke it in half. Regulus looked over.
“Can I have some of the chocolate at least? It is my lunch.” Remus looked at the two small
halves of chocolate in his hands and slowly, while making unbroken eye contact, leaned over
and put one of the small halves in Regulus’s mouth. They stared at each other for a second
before Remus burst into laughter. Regulus snorted and chewed for a second before
swallowing. Remus was laying on his back, still howling with laughter.
“Your face- I can’t- breath oh- oh my god.” He huffed out, still laughing. Regulus sighed and
pulled his friend up from the ground.
“Pull yourself together Lupin.” As Remus was pulled up from the ground by his best friend,
he spotted the other boy who could make him laugh like that. A certain Sirius Black was
laughing while pushing his friend James Potter around the yard.

Remus flashed back to that night. They had laughed together, at what? He couldn’t
remember. He was far too enamored with how Sirius’s brown eyes sparkled as if he knew all
the secrets of the world. The way Sirius had hugged him after he had finally calmed down.
His heart pounding far too quickly for it to have been caused by the laughter. Remus could
feel Sirius’s heartbeat in his own chest which was also thumping. Sirius had taken in a big
breath and muttered,
“Fuck Lupin.” against Remus’s throat. That’s when Sirius had leaned in and kissed him for
the very first time. Remus lost all his breath when the other boy’s hand had gone for his hair.

They had been at a party, one of Sirius and James’s infamous house parties. The only reason
the two of them were upstairs in Sirius’s room was because Remus had had one too many
drinks and gotten dizzy. Sirus had helped him upstairs to cool off and get some water. All of
that had been forgotten as soon as Sirius had started laughing like that at something Remus
had said in his tipsy state.

Regulus leaned over and followed Remus’s vision.

“Who are you staring at??” Remus flinched.
“No one. Just looking around.” Regulus shook his head.
“No, it’s more than-” Just then the bell rang. Remus laughed and started humming the Saved
by the Bell theme song as he walked away. “Love you Reg! Bye~” Remus heard Regulus
mutter something in French as he walked off. “Tu seras ma mort Remus Lupin”

Man. He really had to brush up on his French.

 Chapter 2
Chapter Notes

Ok guys, don't worry, Marlene is a lesbian in this and there will be a highly present side
storyline of Dorlene enemies to fucking to lovers.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Remus sat quietly in the back of his Advanced Charms class, scrawling notes on the topic
they were studying. He glanced to his right and saw Sirius and his friend Peter sitting there.
Sirius was poking Peter, trying to get him to talk to him and Peter was laughing quietly and
pushing him away. Just as Remus was about to turn away, Sirius glanced up at him and they
made eye contact. Remus stared at those beautiful brown eyes, which (Remus can now
confirm) still sparkled with the secrets of the world.

Sirius smiled and gave a little wave and Remus’s heart suddenly felt like a jackhammer
pounding in his chest. He lifted his hand to awkwardly wave back, but Sirius had already
gone back to pestering Peter.

Remus exhaled and tried to get back to writing notes, but he couldn’t think about anything
other than those twinkling brown eyes.

That evening, Remus sat quietly in one of the big, plush chairs by the fireplace in the
Gryffindor common room. He perched his book on his lap and leaned over to grab his
notebook from the table next to him. After about 15 minutes' worth of writing, Remus has
two pages filled with his spidery scrawl. As Remus turned to the next chapter, he heard the
rowdy voices of 3 boys nearing the common room door.
“Flibwhiskey!” He heard the password declared in a familiar voice. James Potter, Sirius
Black, and Peter Pettigrew burst into the room, laughing and yelling. Remus watched silently
as the merry band of boys crashed into the seats surrounding the chess board that sat by one
of the many Gryffindor banners around the room. They quieted down and did a quick scan of
the room, spotting Remus. James grinned brightly and walked over to him. “Hey mate!
Sirius, Peter, and I were hoping for a game of chess, but we didn’t want anyone to be left out,
so we wanted to see if you wanted to see if you were down for some 2 on 2!” Remus nodded
and smiled, gathering his things and moving towards the chess board.

“Not very chatty, are you Lupin?” Sirius asked, one eyebrow raised. Seeing Sirius’s smirk,
Remus turned a glare on him. It was, word for word, the first thing Sirius had said to him on
the night that wouldn’t leave Remus’s mind. He had maybe thought that Sirius had been too
drunk to remember it, but he clearly did and now he thought it was funny to tease him about
it.
“No, I’m not. Unlike some I actually have enough self-control to keep my mouth shut
sometimes.” As Sirius started to snipe back, James cleared his throat loudly. “Um, lads? Do
we maybe want to play or are you two going to go back and forth all night?” Sirius nudged
Remus and laughed.
“Yeah Lupin, use that self-control of yours so we can play.” Remus rolled his eyes, but he
couldn’t stop the smile from playing across his lips.

They beat James and Peter by a mile, and when they won, Sirius flung his arms open and
gave Remus a hug. Remus tensed; it had been a long time since he’d hugged anyone. Sure,
Regulus was his best friend, but he wasn’t a touchy type. Physical affection just wasn’t his
brand.
Sirius pulled away quickly.
“Sorry.” He muttered, blushing. “I should have asked.” Remus smiled.
“No, it’s ok. It was nice.” James and Peter were still sulking over the loss and Sirius very
quickly changed his train of thought into teasing them relentlessly. Remus just sat back, so so
close to satisfied. His only wish being that Sirius hadn’t pulled away so quickly, and that
James and Peter had been elsewhere.

It had been almost two hours since Remus had slid into bed, and he still couldn’t sleep. He
lay, staring at the curtains draped over his four-poster bed and sighed. He pulled himself out
of bed, grabbing a book from his side table as he walked. He made his way to the common
room as quietly as possible and when he arrived, he saw a pretty young blond girl sitting
curled up on the couch in a quidditch jersey. She looked up from the journal she was writing
in and quickly shut it as she saw him enter. He took in her tearstained face and sat down on
the armchair positioned across from the couch where she sat.

“Hi.” He said quietly. “I’m Remus Lupin, is everything alright?” The girl wiped her eyes and
managed a smile. Extending her hand, she replied, “Marlene Mckinnon. We had Astrology
together last year.” Oh right. Remus probably should have remembered her name, but it was
alright.
“Yeah, I remember. Sorry, I’m not fantastic with names. Really though, you’re clearly upset,
is there anything I can do?” Marlene laughed and said,
“I mean, if you really want to hear my absurd tale of woe, I can tell you, but I will warn you,
it’s really silly.” She delcared this in a dramatic tone and Remus thought that she would get
along with Sirius quite nicely. Remus smiled at her.

“Go on," He said. "I’m curious now.” She took in a big breath and began.
“Ok. Um, I broke up with this guy, but it’s not as bad as it sounds! I didn’t like him. Plus, he
kinda cheated on me so you know, fuck him. Anyways, it sounds mean and like I was leading
him on but...” She hesitated and asked in a hushed tone, “Remus Lupin. I’m going to trust
you with something. And I’m going off an assumption. If I’m wrong you’re about to hate me
forever, can I trust you?” Remus raised a brow and nodded. He really was curious now.
Marlene sighed and leaned back into the pile of red and gold pillows that she was propped up
against.

“I was trying to figure out if I like guys at all.” Remus’s forehead scrunched. “Wait,” he said,
staring at her. “Why are you telling me???” She stared right back at him, clearly trying to
 puzzle something out.
“Aren’t you in love with Sirius Black?”

“WHAT?!?!”

Chapter End Notes

WE LOVE HER BEING THAT CLOSETED LESBIAN + JUDGEMENTAL BITCH

COMBO, SHE HAS HIS FUCKING NUMBER DUDE!!! ANYWAYSSSSS, PLEASE
COMMENT IT LITERALLY MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME!! <33 HAVE AN
AWESOME DAY!
 Chapter 3
Chapter Notes

OK, SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG, I KEPT TRYING TO WRITE MORE AND
MORE, BUT NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO BE SIRIUS POV CAUSE I NEED A
NEW PERSPECTIVE!!!

“Aren’t you in love with Sirius Black?”

“WHAT?!?!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remus stared at Marlene in shock, trying to process her words. How could she know???
Remus wasn’t even sure that it was love. I mean- he thought, desperately trying to reason
with himself. We did do that whole kissing thing but that was more of a one-time, spur of the
moment type of thing. Sirius had been lonely, and Remus was close. Other than teasing
Remus earlier that night during chess, Sirius hadn’t even referenced the kissing. Something
whispered in his mind. If you don’t love him then why do your eyes, follow him like that?
“Shut up.” he muttered to himself. Marlene was watching him with wide eyes. She looked
like she was about to be sick.
“Oh god Remus. Are you not... I’m so sorry!! Please don’t tell anyone, I just... I saw him pull
you into a room upstairs at that party a couple months ago! You came out totally flushed, and
your hair was messed up, so I just figured. And you stare at him like, a lot.” She was
panicking now, clearly very desperate not to have her secret being spread around school. “Oh
god. Oh god.” she muttered desperately. “I’m so stupid. I’m drunk, I shouldn’t have told you
that.” Remus finally unfroze.
“Marlene.” He said, his tone firm. He placed his hand on her shoulder and met her eyes. “It’s
ok. I would never out you like that. I... I have my own stuff to figure out, but you can talk to
me.” Marlene grinned in relief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sleepless nights like that became easier and easier after Remus had become friends with
Marlene. He studied with her on the nights before tests, talked through the Sirius dilemma,
chatted to her about people she was vexed with on the quidditch team, although, it was
usually all about her rival beater, Dorcas Meadows. Remus felt comfortable with Marlene in
the way he felt comfortable with Regulus. No judgement, no concern for what she thought.
She was always on his side.

One night, Remus had heard Sirius slip out of their dormitory. He tried to fall asleep, really,
he did. But he knew it was a losing battle. He crept out of their room and down the drafty
stairs. He had a book under his arm as always, but Remus knew he wouldn’t be doing any
reading that night. Unless Sirus had left, but it was after curfew. Peter and James hadn’t left
so hopefully Sirius would be smart enough to stay in the common room. As he entered the
common room, he saw Sirius and Marlene talking animatedly. He smiled quietly. He knew
they would make great friends. Marlene perked up as she saw him enter.

“Remus!!” She did that whisper-yell thing that she did when she didn’t want to wake anyone
up. Remus waved at her and flushed as Sirius turned around and their eyes met. Sirius lifted a
hand in greeting.

“Lupin.” he said, smiling. “Couldn’t sleep again?” Remus’s eyes widened in concern. “I’m
sorry, have I been waking you when I come down here?” Sirius’s eyes also widened but with
surprise.
“Bloody hell Lupin! No, no I have insomnia, I can’t sleep on a good night. It’s not your fault
at all.” Insomnia. Remus hadn’t known that before. He mentally filed it away in his folder
labeled Sirius Black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The nights Sirius came to the common room became more frequent over the next month. He
came once a week. And then twice. Eventually, he and Remus would go down almost every
night. It was strange, being friends with Sirius Black. He liked it. Sirius was all quick smiles
and smooth talk. He loved it when he could get Remus to flush pink. Admittedly, it happened
far too often for Remus’s tastes. He was infuriated with Sirius. Where the hell did he get off?
Turning Remus down and then a couple months later after pretty much no contact, flirting
with him like that???

Marlene brought Remus comfort when he was annoyed with Sirius. Conversation with her
was always easy, and always interesting. Marlene seemed to know everything about
everyone, and Remus found himself weirdly engaged in the drama. He had never considered
himself one for gossip, but Marlene had a certain way of making him feel like they were
talking about people who would never know what they were saying. It was a horrible habit,
but Remus found it comforting to know that he was in. He wasn’t the one people were talking
about for once. Well, mostly.

The one thing that hadn’t fallen into place, other than the whole Sirius thing, was Severus
Snape. Severus Snape who seemed absolutely determined to despise James, Sirius, and Peter,
as well as the muggle born and half-blood students in the school. Excepting his best (and
only) friend. Lily Evans.

Now, Remus had known about Snape for ages, he himself had not escaped Snape’s
vengeance against non purebloods. Remus was a half-blood, his mum was a muggle, and his
father was a wizard. Snape had delighted in this fact, as if Remus was rare. He wasn’t. Nearly
60% of the students at Hogwarts were half-bloods. For the most part though, Remus had been
left alone. No more tormented than the other young Gryffindor half-bloods.

That changed though. Changed the very second Severus Snape saw him with ‘The
Marauders’ as James, Peter, and Sirius had been affectionally nicknamed. The only reason
Remus was with them at all was one slip. One thing out of his mouth, one of those long
nights in the common rooms. One thing that Sirius had latched onto with a death grip. Sirius
had been struggling with one of the pranks that he and the Marauders had started getting
quite notorious for. (Or famous, depending which teacher you asked.)

“God, I just can’t get this bit right.” He groaned, his crisp vowels melting into that whiny
tone he tended to take when he was, well, whining.
“Bloody hell Sirius. Let me see it.” Remus groaned right back, mocking his tone. Sirius
rolled his eyes, pulling himself up from the floor, somehow making that as dramatic as his
voice. He leaned over Remus’s shoulder, his long dark hair tickling Remus’s neck. Sirius
pointed down at the book he had plopped in Remus’s lap. He leaned into the boy in the chair.
“See.” He whispered in his ear. “Right there.” Remus had gone 9 shades darker than Sirius
was used to, and he laughed as Remus pushed him away. “Shut up. What part of this passage
confuses you?” “Weren’t you paying attention? I just showed you.” Remus turned his
gorgeous caramel eyes on Sirius, glaring at him. Sirius laughed again and then came close,
pointing back at the passage.
“This bit here. The instructions get all muddled and I don’t know whether to use mustard
seed, or actual eye of newt for this itching potion.” Remus looked over the book and sighed.

“This book isn’t very reputable. Give me three days and I’ll get you your potion”
End Notes

We did it! I have been sparked with inspiration! Once again, this is inspired by The Long
Game by lackadaisical_lizard
here's the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43020684/chapters/108098460

Tu seras ma mort: You'll be the death of me

We love french speaking Black Brothers

Please comment, I LOVE reading them so much!!

Also here's a wolfstar playlist if you want it, have a good day!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3P5vBbdZ8PNtRMCxrECtQW

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