Title: Mediocrity is Extraordinary

Pairing: Remus/Sirius, sixth year

Rating: T (Only for language in first chapter, sexuality in the future!)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything!

Mediocrity is Extraordinary

When people hear the name 'Sirius Black,' they assume that he is quite an exceptional guy. It's really very flattering, however, according to Sirius it is far from the truth. Anyone who knows him personally can probably write a novel about just how mediocre he really is. From the outside, it seems as though Sirius has everything. He has girls running at him because of his charm, he gets decent enough grades without even studying, and he has three wonderful friends. But when Sirius is left alone with his thoughts, he just can't help but feel mediocre. On an average day he accepts his mediocrity. He has always been okay with the fact that he will not ever study for classes (no really, that requires getting the textbooks out), that he will probably leave Hogwarts with only the NEWTS that he has a natural talent for, that he can't read books that are written in old English by someone who passed away a hundred years ago, and that he's lazy as fuck. Sirius is fine with all of this, until he realizes that the thing about being a mediocre person is that it makes it difficult to hang around an extraordinary person.

Being mediocre is cool, right? Then he can hang out with other mediocre people and live a fulfilling life of not working too hard and definitely pranking far too many Slytherins. Unfortunately, he never knew that this would become a problem when he met the one and only Remus Lupin. Because, you see… Remus really is quite an extraordinary fellow.

None of this even mattered until September 4th of his sixth year at Hogwarts, which was when being mediocre went from being cool to the worst fucking thing in the world.

It started when Sirius went to join his friends at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey Padfoot! Good to see you might actually make it to class on time today" Remus said as he smiled up at Sirius and his eyes shined. Sirius knows that sounds ridiculous, but one of the most extraordinary things about Remus is the way that his eyes shine. It's very hard to describe. First of all, his eyes are amber and this sparkle just adds something really special to it. Sirius knows he probably sounds like a middle school girl, but he feels like Remus' eyes only shine when he's looking at him. Or he's just imagining it, which is more likely…

"Is everything okay? Sirius Black not talking my ear off is a little bit disturbing, even so early in the morning."

"Yes! Hello my darling. Good morning to you! And good morning to James and Peter too! How glorious it is to eat breakfast together on such a fine Tuesday morning. So what have I missed?" Sirius said all very quickly, trying to distract the others from noticing the blush that was very quickly appearing on his face.

"Well," Peter explained, "Remus was telling us about all of the clubs he's joining this year, and James was trying to get him to change his mind by convincing him to hang out with us more and pull more pranks on the unsuspecting Slytherins."

"Honestly, I don't think they're very 'unsuspecting' anymore, Pete. But anyway, what clubs are you joining, Rem?"

"Oh he's only joined about a million, including 'Gobstone Club,' 'Astronomy Club,' 'Muggle Appliances Club,' and the freaking dancing team!" James said, rolling his eyes fondly.

"Well aren't you a busy one," Sirius said, frowning. "When will we have time to cuddle on the couch and whisper romantic things to each other?" Sirius winked at him.

Remus blushed and his eyes started shining at Sirius again. It really is painful for him to have to deal with shining eyes on a daily basis. "Oh haha, Sirius," he said, rolling his eyes. "You know I might actually take you up on that if it weren't for Cassie."

"What?" Peter froze halfway into taking a bite out of his toast.

"What? Who?" James demanded.

"Who's Cassie?" Sirius asked, trying to hide his disappointment.

"She's this really sweet girl that I met over the summer. She only lives about a block away from me."

"But don't you live in a muggle neighborhood?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, Cassie's a muggle. She's really cool though, you guys would like her!" Remus said, smiling.

XXX

Funnily enough, what Sirius had suggested to Remus at breakfast that morning was actually starting to come true later in the evening. But not exactly in the way that he had hoped. Cuddling would be replaced with sitting next to each other with their sides touching, and whispering romantic things would be replaced with Remus telling Sirius romantic things about… somebody else.

James and Peter had gone up to bed a half hour ago, and even though they had classes tomorrow, Remus and Sirius continued to relax in the common room, lounging on the sofa by the fire.

The wonderful thing about being friends with Remus, Sirius thought, is that it's perfectly acceptable to be silent for long periods of time. Coming from Sirius, this might sound strange, but even someone as talkative and wild as he is, needs some time to calm down and think. It just so happens that this usually occurs in the middle of the night when it's just him and Remus. And as much as he would have enjoyed staying silent for another hour before going to bed, he definitely needed to talk to Remus about something. He was happy for him because he seemed to find someone that he liked, but it certainly made him feel uncomfortable. In the chest area. Maybe it was a heartache?

He took a deep breath to prepare himself for the inevitable depressing conversation.

"So tell me about Cassie," he said.

"Oh Sirius, you would really like her! Cassie… is not like other girls. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful she is. For one thing, she's crazy! She has so many thoughts and ideas and – you would like her. We met at the bookstore actually, and we bonded immediately. Almost every time that we've hung out since then we've ended up having these crazy conversations about life and death and books. She's just so intelligent."

"Wow, that's great Moony. I'm happy for you!" Sirius tried to smile at Remus and hoped that he couldn't see right through it. It's rather difficult listening to the object of your affections describe how much they adore somebody else.

"Yeah, thanks!" Remus said, his eyes shining. His eyes are shining for precious Cassie though, not me, Sirius thinks grimly. Shining eyes were supposed to be exclusively for him. "I'm going to hang out with her all the time over Christmas break. I miss her a lot. We're actually taking it really slowly because she never really liked labeling herself, but I guess you could say we're in a relationship. The thing about Cassie though, is that she doesn't trust anyone. She has a pretty messed up past. It's just really cool for us because now I can show her what a real relationship should be like, you know? I can show her what it's like to have someone to really care about her and not push her too fast."

"Aw, that's so wonderful." Sirius had never heard Remus talk so much all at once. "You must be crazy about her."

"I am, she's really great! You know – I actually got her to open up to me a lot. Right before we left she even told me that she loved me."

Sirius felt his heart sink, but he didn't dare ask if Remus said it in return.

"At first I felt bad because I didn't say it back, but she's such a cynic that she didn't expect anything from me anyways. I know this relationship won't work out in the long run, but… she really is wonderful."

"Oh, why won't it work out?"

"Cassie's just so crazy, you know? She's absolutely perfect right now, but after a year or so she would start driving me nuts. I just know it won't be long-term, but I am really happy to at least show her the good side of relationships."

Sirius wanted to ask what kind of person Remus would want to be with forever, but he didn't have the courage. Talking about things that give him heartache really made him a whole lot less talkative. It drained him of energy just to listen to Remus talking about someone he was crazy about. It really was unfair.

"We should probably head up to our dorm," Remus said. "Sorry I kept you up late."

"Oh it's fine! I'm really happy for you. Cassie sounds like a really wonderful and – wild girl. Really, congrats."

Remus smiled at him, and stretched as he got up off the sofa. He offered his hand down to Sirius, who took it and let himself be pulled up by his friend. Sirius gave him a sad smile and Remus answered by pulling him into a one-armed hug as they walked away.

They climbed up the stairs together, Sirius dreading the inevitable sleepless night.

XXX

And so it began, Sirius thought, as he lay in bed staring up at the canopy. He had always thought that he could see through Remus, that perhaps he returned the love that Sirius gave him, but he never did anything about it because the timing was always so awful. Every time that Remus was dating someone, Sirius was single. Whenever Sirius was dating someone, Remus was single. It was really quite unfortunate. After breaking up with his previous girlfriend, Sirius told himself that this would be the year when he told Remus how he felt. But of course, still stuck in their pattern of dating, that didn't seem so likely anymore.

Because in order to win Remus Lupin's heart, one cannot simply be mediocre! Remus can read novels written in ancient languages, he can study for hours on end and will receive top grades for it, he's a part of numerous clubs, he has a family who loves him, and he's such a witty genius. Remus is extraordinary. With that thought, Sirius let one manly tear fall, dampening his hair behind his ear. When he signed up for being an ordinary mediocre guy, he didn't know he would be preventing himself from having the love of his life. Although he really didn't know why he ever even thought that he could have somebody like Remus, when Remus deserved so much better than him. Remus deserved somebody extraordinary.