**Notes up top, it’s the marauders guys we know what we signed up for but specific C W for thoughts of death and suicidal ideation (suicide is mentioned in Tolerate It a nd H appiness, be kind to yourself and skip those if you need) If you see the “---” between lyrics it means what comes after it is a little off the deep end and you definitely don’t need to buy into it to get the rest of the song interpretation I like to put on the song and then read along but you do you,, I think that’s it up top, I had a lot of time on my hands lol so here you go** Author Credit @pagexofxcups Title POV Story Standout Lyrics Everything Sirius We all know the “All I knew/This morning when I Has Changed moment in ATYD when woke/Is I know something now/Know (Red) Remus walks onto the something now I didn't before” hogwarts express 4th (Look at that Bi awakening!) year and Sirius has a sexuality crisis, this is “And all I've seen/Since eighteen hours as uper soft take on ago/Is green eyes and freckles and your him still thinking about smile” it the next morning (Remus Lupin ABSOLUTELY has green/hazel eyes and freckles I will fight on this) “I just wanna know you better, know you better, know you better now (x3)” (They’re already best friends but this feels like a whole new world!) “All I know is you held the door” (In the scene Remus did loiter at the compartment entrance for a while,,,) “All I know since yesterday/Is everything has changed” (Best Friends to lovers is the best!!) “And all my walls/Stood tall painted blue/But I'll take 'em down, take 'em down/And open up the door for you” (Realistically, they’re both emotional messes at this point but the amount they trust each other really is incredible) “makin' up for lost time” + “Come back and tell me why/I'm feelin' like I've missed you all this time” (Both of these!! He thinks it’s crazy it took him so long to notice!) ---- “So dust off your highest hopes/All I know is pouring rain/And everything has changed” (what if the “dust off” bit signifies a time jump and now this is them actually getting together either sixth year or summer of ‘77??) “All my days, I'll know your face” (No matter how bad it gets, he can still remember Remus in this moment…) Gold Rush Remus Essentially Remus “Eyes like sinking ships on water/ so (evermore) thinking about Sirius, it inviting/ I almost jump in” seems to apply mostly (Sirius has grey or grey/blue eyes) to their time at Hogwarts/before they “Anyone would die to feel your touch/ were dating but maybe Everybody wants you/ everybody there’s a bit of wonders what it would be like to love reminiscing thrown in you” too (heartthrob problems!) “Walk past, quick brush/I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush” (Hates the fact that he has a crush on sirius of all people, also “red flush” line) “What must it be like to grow up that beautiful/ with your hair falling into place like dominoes” “I see me padding ‘cross your wooden floors/With my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door” (PADing AKA padfoot that one’s a stretch but I love it,, also eagles are the correct time period, american based, but totally possible for remus to have one of their shirts at hogwarts) “At Dinner parties I call you out on your contrarian shit” (There’s no reason for this to be here except it feels so in character I cannot believe it never happened) “The coastal town we wandered round had never seen a love as pure as it and then it fades into the grey of my day old tea” (summer of ‘77 ATYD!! Then reminiscing on it after OotP??) “My mind turns your life into folklore/I can’t dare to dream about you anymore” (Double whammy-- I think the mythologization of the marauders time at hogwarts is v real and this line encapsulates it in-universe really well,, but also the can’t dare to dream bit is one or both being closeted) August Grant After remus goes back “Whispers of ‘Are you sure?’/‘Never (folklore) to hogwarts, the whole have I ever before’” calling from the (gayyyyyyyyyy) payphone and talking to him about sirius “But I can see us lost in the scene!! But also this is memory/.../’Cause you were never literally just Grant’s mine” song I will not budge (thinking about how remus was always ok I didn’t even include going back to Hogwarts and, in the everything on here so end, back to Sirius) much of it is just,, glaringly obvious “Will you call when you're back at school?” (Almost word for word ATYD like what) “To live for the hope of it all/ Cancel plans just in case you'd call” (Self-explanatory,, remus would just send him a time and once he was almost an hour late and grant was still there to pick up) “So much for summer love and saying ‘us’/'Cause you weren't mine to lose” (I really need to point out that remus never dumped grant? Just called him up and started asking for advice on sirius? that had to hurt) “‘Cause you were never mine/’Cause you were never mine, never mine” (All of this also echoes what eventually happens when sirius gets out of azkaban,, to add some perspective and extra pain!) It’s Nice to Remus+Sirius This ones pretty “Sleeping in tents” Have a Friend straight (ha) forward,, (timing’s totally wrong but i have to (Lover) two school friends point out all camping imagery it just whose relationship feels mandatory at this point) changes as time goes on,, but also ATYD “It's nice to have a friend (Ooh)” sixth year where they (It’s so sweet because at first they both keep calling it a really just needed a friend,, coming “friendship” and it’s from the childhoods they’d had and all) obviously more “Light pink sky up on the roof/Sun sinks down, no curfew” (Astronomy tower vibes?? And of course there was a curfew they just had the cloak and ignore it lmao) “Feels like home, stay in bed/The whole weekend” (ATYD sixth year christmas break vibes) Tolerate It REGULUS OK so let’s take out “I notice everything you do or don't (evermore) anything romantic and, do/You're so much older and wiser” instead, think about a (I’m imagining like pre-hogwarts still Reg looking up very young sirius and reg, but classic to/idolizing Sirius like little sib vibes) so many little siblings do,,, Then we can “Lay the table with the fancy shit/ realize how well the And watch you tolerate it” lyrics lend themselves (Sirius getting increasingly upset at the to a fractured family Black family and all the traditions, and situation and what it’s lumping Reg in with it) like, as time goes on, for him to watch Sirius “I greet you with a battle hero's suffer at home, and welcome/I take your indiscretions all in eventually, the mixed good fun/I sit and listen” feelings that come (Sirius coming home after being sorted from Sirius leaving for the first time, Reg can’t be over the top obviously but maybe he gets something subtle in gryffindor colors and tries to listen because he’s excited to be going to Hogwarts, too, and also he loves his older brother but it’s heartbreaking because Sirius is realizing just how effed their family is at the same time) “I polish plates until they gleam and glisten” (so normally this would be a house elf’s job but when we remember the imagery of laying the table earlier it seems like reg is trying to, essentially, show love in the black family/slytherin way and is making all this extra effort that sirius either won’t notice or won’t care about) “I wait by the door like I'm just a kid” (this repetition gets sadder every time because instead of just being a kid (which he really still is!) It also stands in for Sirius kinda ignoring him and him following along with what his parents are doing/saying) “While you were out building other worlds, where was I?/Where's that man who'd throw blankets over my barbed wire?” (Reg’s angry now, sirius was off at hogwarts meeting the marauders (and secretly a lot of what sirius is doing is what reg wants to do) and reg feels abandoned. Sirius used to protect him from the worst of their parents punishment but now he’s gone) “Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life” (He Feels like Sirius forgot about him, now that he’s a slytherin too, but it’s complicated because he misses him still) “You assume I'm fine, but what would you do if I...” (Reg is realizing that he’s not fine and that he doesn’t have a way out, also the rhyme progressions seems to suggest that this could end with “die” which is, of course, HEARTWRENCHING when we think about both the abuse he’s suffering and his eventual fate) “I break free and leave us in ruins?/.../Believe me, I could do it” (I think that this bit is Sirius actually leaving and Reg trying to tell himself that he could, too, if he wanted, but it’s already ringing hollow) “I sit and watch you” (This is the last line, I think it could mean that after all this anger and hurt and confusion he still loves sirius,, Picture this, they’re in their final years at Hogwarts and Reg’s looking across the great hall at the marauders laughing) Willow Remus During 6th or 7th year “I'm like the water when your ship rolled (evermore) at Hogwarts, him and in that night/Rough on the surface but Sirius are together, you cut through like a knife” and he gets pulled into (Remus was in a bad mood but all of one of their crazy these crazy antics pulled him out of it) pranks and he’s just so grateful that this is his “And if it was an open-shut case life and these are his I never would've known from that look friends and that he on your face” ended up with Sirius (I think this was a simple prank that really just reflecting on sirius made overly complicated on how all of this silliness purpose to cheer remus up, which, makes him so, so aww) happy “The more that you say/The less I know” ( this is sirius rambling about whatever the prank is and pulling remus into it) “Wherever you stray/I follow/I'm begging for you to take my hand/Wreck my plans/That's my man” (personally, I think Remus was just as much of a rebel as james and sirius but it also makes sense that sirius would egg him on and kinda be the one to pull him out of line) “Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind (oh)” (So imagine willow=whomping willow= lycanthropy, Sirius reminded him that he was so much more than just that!) “Head on the pillow, I could feel you/sneaking in” (ATYD,,, sneaking into each others beds) “As if you were a mythical thing/Like you were a trophy or a champion ring” (Sirius always seems larger than life) “And there was one prize I'd cheat to win” (like he didn’t cheat in school but for sirius he’d do anything) “You know that my train could take you home” (Hogwarts express imagery??) “They count me out time and time again/Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind “ (So if we interpret the willow as lycanthropy this is him saying he’s so often discounted because he’s a werewolf but Sirius never treats him any differently) “Wait for the signal and I'll meet you after dark/Show me the places where the others gave you scars” (Remus is now fully involved in the prank, HA, but what if they’re pranking the slytherin common room and that’s what the second line refers too?) “Now this is an open-shut case/Guess I should've known from the look on your face/Every bait and switch was a work of art” (And, of course, the prank goes off without a hitch Sirius had it under control the whole time lol) You Are in Sirius When Remus couldn’t “One look, dark room/Meant just for Love say he loved someone you” (1989- DLX) in ATYD (6th! Year! vibes!) “Light hearted joke/No proof not much/But you saw enough” (Sirius knows him well enough to know what his love looks like) “Coffee at midnight” (once again there is no canon reason for this to be here but it feels so incredibly wolfstar, those disasters) “No proof, one touch/You felt enough” (It literally boggles my mind sometimes to think about the fact that they’ve all known each other and have been living together since they were 1 1 like they genuinely know each other so well and trust each other so much it’s crazy) “You can hear it in the silence/.../You are in love, true love” (see above, apply it to them,, my word) “Burnt toast, Sunday” (I guess it is ATYD canon that neither of them can cook, but still, perfect) “You keep his shirt/ He keeps his word/And for once you let go/Of your fears and your ghosts” (first point, the shirt in question is a cardigan, second point they’ve both been so mistreated and abused that the trust they built between them is literally incredible?!? I know I said it once before but they know each other and trust each other so much at this point and eventually that’s half of what makes the ending so incredibly painful) “You fight and you talk” (they absolutely fight, how could they not with the pressure on them, but there’s so much history and love between them I can’t--) “One night he wakes, strange look on his face/Pauses, then says, you're my best friend” (Sirius has James but to Remus, Sirius is kinda everything) ---- “You understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars” (Not only is the just an incredibly romantic line but in ATYD they reference the Epic of Gilgamesh a bit and Sirius and Remus can parallel Enkidu and Gilgamesh in some ways so maybe that’s one of the “books beside the bed” that sirius read and this is him understanding Gilgamesh a bit better) Lover Lily James and Lily as “Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 (Lover) newlyweds, look I’m a years?” sucker for imagining (for timing purposes, they’re 20 just them happy and this had harry and so freakin happy it hurts) has just enough substance to warrant “We could let our friends crash in the it ok?? living room/This is our place, we make the call” (you KNOW before going into hiding the boys were there alllll the time) “I've loved you three summers now, honey, but I want 'em all” (That’s pretty damn close timeline wise, got together seventh year ~17 and they’re ~20 in this) “With every guitar string scar on my hand” (There is once again no canon reason for this to be here except the thought of Lily being the one who plays acoustic guitar in the common room instead of James just added five years to my life) “I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover” (Big james energy! He was their leader!) “My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue/All's well that ends well to end up with you” (imagine that first line as happening at the same time, as in he was probably so upset when she was dating other people at school but in retrospect it’s sweet and kinda funny) “Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover” (they can both be drama queens and it’s adorable) “Can we always be this close forever and ever?/And ah, take me out, and take me home” (Don’t promise forever!! And don’t talk about being taken out??? It just hurts a bit if I think to hard) Paper Rings Sirius, mostly So this is incredibly “The moon is high/Like your friends” (Lover) biased, I needed (this just makes me laugh it feels very something happy in marauders obviously not first meeting here, and the idea but- between moon and rebel teen comes from one tik activities it certainly fits) tok edit I saw where someone did a “Now I've read all of the books beside wolfstar raising harry your bed” AU with this song and (That’s one way to get sirius to read I that’s all I can hear suppose) now (So it’s mostly vibes based FYI) “Like the shoulder that I gave you in the street/Cat and mouse for a month or two or three” (ATYD sixth year vibes, a bit, yeah?) “I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings/Uh huh, that's right/Darling, you're the one I want” (Sirius is, at heart, a rich boy) “I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this” “In the winter, in the icy outdoor pool/.../to the color that we painted your brothers wall” (this verse has big remus energy and let’s imagine in this AU Reg survived too and they were helping him get a fresh start too ok??!? Also is the icy outdoor pool the great lake at hogwarts I need to know) “I want your complications too” (Werewolf alert!) “You're the one I want, and/Paper rings and picture frames and all my dreams/Oh, you're the one I want” (this could’ve been their life y’all!!!!!!!!!) Cardigan Remus I have a complicated Cardigan (this is the title but it warrants (folklore) relationship with mentioning because, of course, in putting this song on fanon remus exclusively wears here because I don’t cardigans lol) think the story of it fits them that well but i “Sensual politics/When you are young, see people use lines they assume you know nothing” from this for remus (I mean og order of the phoenix vibes) maybe more than any other song and I do “But I knew you/Dancin' in your agree that individual Levi's/Drunk under a streetlight” lines are really fitting (yeah sirius def did this) so i’ll put them down, but it’s another vibes “You drew stars around my scars/But based one I suppose now I'm bleedin'” (there ya go the line that earned the song it’s place here) “I knew you/Tried to change the ending” (looking at this with hindsight it does seem to have mad sirius switching secret keeper vibes) “I knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs/The smell of smoke would hang around this long/'Cause I knew everything when I was young” (Remus reflecting on Sirius and how certain they all were as kids joining the war, wondering if he could have realized sooner and changed something) “I knew I'd curse you for the longest time” Never Grow Lily Lily singing to baby “Your little hand's wrapped around my Up Harry and imagining finger/And it's so quiet in the world (Speak Now) the life they could have tonight” (Harry was saved by a mothers love-- also important, I think this bit is the actual scene that’s taking place and the rest of the time jumps are lily imagining the future they could have) “I won’t let nobody hurt you” “No one’s ever burned you/ Nothing’s ever left you scarred” (?!!?!?!?!?!!!) “Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room/Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home/.../I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone” (So this hurts? It’s a delicate balance of imagination and then the realization that none of it is guaranteed) “Don’t you ever grow up” (I also want to take a moment at the end here to remind everyone of the double meaning in this because James and Lily never got to grow up, they died at 21) Champagne Sirius, right Sirius thinking about It’s time for pain guys-- but also this is Problems (1) after going to Remus, how their love literally what made me start this,, I (evermore) Azkaban isn’t what Remus cannot pick and choose lyrics I’m should focus on right annotating it in full at the bottom scroll now it’s a “champagne down to see problem” Champagne Omniscient Telling the story of the “You booked the night train for a reason Problems (2) Narrator/ a bit marauders this is So you could sit there in this hurt” (evermore) of Remus literally their theme (Remus after it happened) song-- how friendship became a luxury “Champagne problems” during a war and how (the wizarding world was saved! Why is they lost everything he so distraught, people think) and the world celebrated “You told your family for a reason/You couldn't keep it in/.../Now no one's celebrating” (had to tell someone, anyone, that it wasn’t all a happy day that his whole world had just crumbled ) “No crowd of friends applauded/Your hometown skeptics called it/ Champagne problems” (all of his friends are dead and people aren’t understanding) “Love slipped beyond your reaches” (All love, it seemed, his closest friends and lover gone in one day) “And I couldn’t give a reason” (OK so if this is an omniscient presence speaking it’s acknowledging how cosmically unfair his situation is OR remus at a complete loss and asking himself the awful “why?”) “Your Midas touch on the Chevy door/November flush and your flannel cure/’This dorm was once a madhouse’/I made a joke, ‘Well, it's made for me’” (it’s literally, actually, them sirius’ birthday is November 3 and he had a motorcycle--madhouse dorm could be any of them or remus making a werewolf joke) “How evergreen, our group of friends/Don't think we'll say that word again” (OW, first and foremost, but look at how mythologized the marauders became too by making these memories larger than life he’s memorializing James but also making the pain worse for himself in the long run ) “And soon they'll have the nerve to deck the halls/That we once walked through” (yup if it happened on halloween this would be November/early december time but now) “‘he would've made such a lovely groom/What a shame h e's fucked in the head,’ they said/But you'll find the real thing instead/She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred” (this is remus missing sirius I will die on this hill- between everyone assuming he was the traitor and is currently going insane, that’s the fucked in the head part and then we’re hit with imagery of a shredded tapestry?!?! ie. losing family, which is what happened to remus) “You won't remember all my/Champagne Problems” (remus realizing that he has no future and no one who cares about him and that this will go down in history as a day of celebration not tragedy and that he will be alone) evermore Remus and Essentially, Remus’ “Grey November” (evermore) Sirius, when POV is Taylor and (Nov. 1981) Sirius is first Sirius’ POV is Bon Iver going to -- but things get “replay my footsteps on each stepping Azkaban muddled towards the stone/Trying to find the one where I end went wrong” (trying to find any clue that Sirius was Yes the song ends on the spy) a hopeful note,post line “you were there” at “And I was catching my the end of Bon Iver breath/.../Evermore” section-- realistically I (the chorus is painfully self explanatory think it would be I do believe) remus reconnecting with grant but,, For all “Can’t remember/What I used to fight of you die hard for” romantics it could be sirius getting out, too, “I rewind the tape but all it does is and the truth being pause revealed On the very moment all was lost Sending signals (Oh my!! Or the “ Floors To be double crossed” of a cabin creaking (word play on double crossed- also under my step” could referencing the spy and betrayal) be remus telling Harry in Deathly Hallows that “Barefoot in the wildest Teddy is on his way winter/.../Evermore” and asking him to be (opening bit about being with the godfather!?!) werewolves? And the rest is still,,, ow) SIRIUS POV Shift “Can't not think of all the cost/And the things that will be lost/Oh, can we just get a pause?” (trying to say he’s innocent or just being still hazy on what actually happened) “Or the violence of the dog days I'm on waves, out being tossed” (Transforming into a dog in Azkaban, being taken there by ship because Azkaban is on an island let’s all remember) “I dreamed of you (to be certain we'll be tall again) (If you think of all the costs) It was real enough (whether weather be the frost) To get me through (or the violence of the dog days) (Out on waves being tossed)” (ALL SIRIUS POV, his time in Azkaban mixing with whatever hope he had left and him clinging to the memory of Remus out in the world somewhere) Last Kiss Just generally Look I don’t think this “That July 9th, the beat of your heart/It (Speak Now) wolfstar song fits them much jumps through your shirt/I can still feel at all and it is here for your arms” one reason only-- J ULY (This! Is! Literally! Their! Anniversary! 9 In! ATYD! July 9, 1977!!) “The life of the party, you're showing off again/And I roll my eyes and then you'd pull me in” (this fits pretty well too) “Never thought we'd have a last kiss/Never imagined we'd end like this” (and out of context I mean,, yeah) Happiness Remus This one is, admittedly, “.../But now I’m right down in it/ all the (evermore) not perfect, but there years I’ve given” are too many (This is important to say that he feels similarities to like he’s lost perspective and he’s just, discount-- let’s kinda, raw) imagine it’s remus at his lowest points (in “I showed you all of my hiding spots” ATYD canon I imagine (ATYD Mapmaking but also when it starts he’s metaphorical obvs) kinda in a drunken haze right after the “I was dancing when the music betrayal, pre-grant) stopped” (He was with the werewolves when it happened) “And in the disbelief/I can’t face reinvention/I haven’t met the new me yet” (falling into alcoholism/not being able to live with himself) “There’ll be happiness after you/But there was happiness because of you/Both of these things can be true” (Mourning all the friends he’s lost) “There is happiness/Past the blood and bruise/Past the curses and cries/Beyond the terror in the nightfall” (all of what happened on Halloween 1981,, but also remembering the happy memories he has with Lily and James) “Haunted by the look in my eyes/That would've loved you for a lifetime/Leave it all behind/And there is happiness” (There’s a musical shift on Would’ve that can signal a subject shift,, now it’s about Sirius and Remus is haunted by the fact that he didn’t suspect sirius of being the spy and he’s saying, here, that it’s only in forgetting/alcohol that he can move on and be happy,, not good yall) “Tell me, when did your winning smile/Begin to look like a smirk?” (“That Sirius Black smile”) “When did all our lessons start to look like weapons/pointed at my deepest hurt” (lessons as in lessons at Hogwarts, and how even his happiest memories are now reminders of the betrayal) “I can't see facts through all my fury” “There’ll be happiness after me/But there was happiness because of me/Both of these things, I believe/There is happiness” (very dark, he’s contemplating there being no more remus) “across our great divide/There is a glorious sunrise” (these lines symbolize reunion, ok, just go with me, so for the first one it would be Grant showing up) “Leave it all behind/ and there is happiness” (Abandoning the wizarding world??) “I can't make it go away by making you a villain/I guess it's the price I paid for seven years in Heaven/And I pulled your body into mine/Every goddamn night” (dealing with the trauma-- 7 years in heaven=7 years at Hogwarts, and he’s trying so hard to hate Sirius but his happy memories are getting it all muddled up) “After giving you the best I had/Tell me what to give after that” (ATYD almost word for word) (So in the song this happens after the “In our history, across our great "green light" line but divide/There is a glorious sunrise” pls for storytelling (Time jump! He finds out Sirius is purposes let's do a lil innocent, second reunion) magic reordering) “All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness/You haven't met the new me yet/And I think (s)he'll give you that” (reconnecting now that Sirius is out, Remus knows he’ll forgive him for thinking he was the traitor and for, well, everything) ------ “Leave it all behind/Oh, leave it all behind/Leave it all behind/And there is happiness” (OK i had to cut some (BIG time jump and what if,,, this is stuff so this comes when remus dies. He’s thinking about out of the blue now but how he can finally be reunited with all I'm still buying it TBH) of his friends and be happy at last which is,,, OW) Lucky One Mary This is Mary “You had it figured out since you were (Red) MacDonald questioning the war, in school/Everybody loves pretty, (ATYD) coping with survivors everybody loves cool” guilt, and eventually (thinking about simpler times? When deciding to live in the she was surrounded by friends and muggle world happy) “Another name goes up in lights/Like diamonds in the sky” (This represents someone dying! This is my thesis! Go with it!!) “And they'll tell you now, you're the lucky one” (questioning the war effort and survivors guilt) “Now it's big black cars, and Riviera views/And your lover in the foyer doesn't even know you” (Funerals and then looking at Darren and all the muggle-ness he represents) “And your secrets end up splashed on the news front page” (Daily Prophet, Lily dying) “'Cause you don't feel pretty, you just feel used.” (Dumbledore used them as child soldiers) “And all the young things line up to take your place” (all the young things d udes?) Another name goes up in lights/You wonder if you'll make it out alive --- “It was a few years later/I showed up here/And they still tell the legend of how you disappeared” (Ok so all of this LA imagery, who in the story moved to California?? Philomena Pettigrew, that’s who, what if this is Mary corresponding with and eventually finding phil and getting advice on how to leave the wizarding world-- apply this to the fake name/arriving to LA imagery in the beginning too!) Let me tell you now, you're the lucky one (philomena avoiding the war) Bonus Songs! These ones are so sad and fit the marauders vibes but the story’s are pretty obviously not about them-- However, if you’re looking for some extra pain, listen to these and think abstractly right where Remus “Friends break up, friends get married/.../But I'm right you left me where you left me” (evermore- (He never really moved on from losing, well, bonus track) everything I mean how could he?) “Wages earned and lessons learned/But I, I'm right where you left me” (Lessons AKA teaching at Hogwarts?) “Right when I felt the moment stop/Glass shattered on the white cloth/Everybody moved on/I, I stayed there” “They expected me to find somewhere/Some perspective, but I sat and stared” “I cause no harm, mind my business” (Retreating into himself emotionally but also dealing with being a werewolf on his own) “If our love died young, I can't bear witness/And it's been so long/But if you ever think you got it wrong” (Missing Sirius and just beginning to think he could be innocent) Innocent Remus @Sirius when he “I guess you really did it this time/Left yourself in your (Speak Now) gets out of Azkaban-- very warpath” soft, kinda his response to (He charged into finding Peter without thinking it Sirius in Everything has through and couldn’t communicate what really changed many years later happened,, it wasn’t his fault in any way the justice if that makes sense system failed him but it was his anger and impulsiveness that started the chain of events) “Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything/And everybody believed in you?” (Back at Hogwarts, before the war) “Your string of lights is still bright to me” (Remus can still see a bit of who he was before in him, no matter how broken he seems) “who you are is not where you've been” (He! Is! More! Than! His! Time! In! Azkaban! With love and time and a life away from war he could have recovered! I really, really believe this!) You're still an innocent” (Literally falsely imprisoned) “But at night you live it all again/You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now/If only you had seen what you know now then” (Peter being the spy) “Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep/Before the monsters caught up to you?” (running around as animagi with Remus during the full moon) “Today is never too late to be brand new” “It's okay, life is a tough crowd/32 and still growin' up now” (damn close, Sirius was 33 when he escaped Azkaban, also the world thinking he’s guilty) “Lost your balance on a tightrope, oh/It's never too late to get it back” (if he just had Time he could’ve started healing damnit ima cry) marjorie This song is really just an “What died didn't stay dead/You're alive, you're alive (evermore) exploration of loss and in my head” grief,, in Marauders speak that means it could apply “And if I didn't know better/I'd think you were listening to so many different to me now/If I didn't know better/I'd think you were characters-- Remus, still around” obviously, but also Sirius thinking about James or, “'Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me” so sadly, Harry thinking about his parents “All your closets of backlogged dreams/And how you left them all to me” (This line in particular screams harry thinking about James to me) “I know better/But I still feel you all around/I know better/But you're still around” **Sirius POV! Full disclosure I came up with a whooole scenario in my head around this song so it doesn't follow ATYD but hear me out** You booked the night train for a reason (First up- remus was raised by single welsh mom Hope Lupin and they were poor and she was often absent and overworked so still, not a super happy childhood, but they're on ok-ish terms now and after halloween '81 he goes back to live with her, mostly because he has no where else to go) So you could sit there in this hurt Bustling crowds or silent sleepers You're not sure which is worse Because I dropped your hand while dancing (Sirius sees himself as a failure and being in Azkaban only makes it worse and here he's mourning not only the obvious, but how he feels like he let down and abandoned remus too (even tho he's literally in prison! That's not abandonment bub!)) Left you out there standing Crestfallen on the landing Champagne problems (Both of them are viewing this heartbreak as a "champagne problem" because James and Lily's deaths are so much bigger to them and they think that this broken trust is like a luxury, or second rate, issue when compared to the actual loss of their friends. But obviously, emotions aren't that straightforward so let's dive in.) Your mom's ring in your pocket My picture in your wallet (Second point I've invented/ borrowed from the song (I got into this ok??) This is engagement ring talk as in they were engaged or remus was gonna ask with his "moms ring" but they were fighting all the time and, as we know, remus was a suspected spy so either sirius got angry and gave the ring back or remus was pissed and carrying it around but never actually popped the question because of the above-- picture in wallet self explanatory and cute but ow) Your heart was glass, I dropped it Champagne problems You told your family for a reason (again! Hope Lupin time she knows and is supportive and maybe this was remus coming out too? Depends how the childhood went, really, but either way he told his mom about Sirius it was cute obviously she approved and gave a ring (plain wedding band, either hers or lyalls or in the family) for remus to use) You couldn't keep it in Your sister splashed out on the bottle Now no one's celebrating (the only lines that don't make sense I have so many ideas (half-sister muggle? much younger still at Hogwarts but how would that work with lyall's death??) but ugh I'm more annoyed that I can't just cut these out they don't seem to justify that much storytime) (or the ATYD sister?!?) Dom Pérignon, you brought it No crowd of friends applauded (all the friends are ~dead~) Your hometown skeptics called it Champagne problems (no one in the muggle town knows what's going on think he just dropped out of uni or smthn and they don’t understand his grief and depression,, they’re gossipy and mean about it) You had a speech, you're speechless (Planning on proposing, never saw the betrayal coming) Love slipped beyond your reaches (The people he felt closest to in the world were all taken from him in one fell swoop of course it feels like he's lost the ability and/or opportunity to love) And I couldn't give a reason ( A- Sirius knows he’s innocent and B-but also how incredibly unfair it is and how he doesn't understand why lily and james are gone either) Champagne problems (and yet, they still view their lost love as a lesser issue,, the titular champagne problem) Your Midas touch on the Chevy door November flush and your flannel cure (Both sirius' birthday month and the month this might be taking place in so, apt) "This dorm was once a madhouse" I made a joke, "Well, it's made for me" (OW self-explanatory, but looking back on the years at Hogwarts) How evergreen, our group of friends Don't think we'll say that word again (SEE ABOVE,,, but with perspective this time-- also the mythologization of the marauders, I mentioned it in the other champagne problems take too) And soon they'll have the nerve to deck the halls That we once walked through (Again this is taking place right after halloween, so, november into dec.) One for the money, two for the show I never was ready, so I watch you go (again, they were fighting all the time and Sirius hates the fact that he let remus walk away so many times they never resolved their issues, etc. (there was a war on it’s not your fault guys!!)) Sometimes you just don't know the answer 'Til someone's on their knees and asks you (What if the question being asked is actually letting Peter be the Secret Keeper? And he hates himself for agreeing?) "She He would've made such a lovely Groom bride What a shame she's fucked in her head, " they said (The thing is,,, this is actually sirius’ view of himself) But you'll find the real thing instead She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred (OK OK OK so here is the mother's love bit, shredding tapestry obviously refers to walburga burning sirius off the black family tree and the "real thing" in question is love so sirius is saying that he ripped family away from remus when he became the supposed "traitor" and he views that as being as painful and final as his mom doing what she did but he's saying that hope can be the opposite of walburga and show him the love that he needs to heal, or at least keep living, and "patch up" the tapestry ie. be the family that remus needs) And hold your hand while dancing Never leave you standing Crestfallen on the landing With champagne problems Your mom's ring in your pocket Her picture in your wallet (See it's about him coming home and reconnecting with Hope! And being, well not good, but ok or functional at least and having hope's picture in his wallet because they repaired their relationship) You won't remember all my Champagne problems You won't remember all my Champagne problems (Sirius is hoping that remus forgets about him so he can deal with the "more important" grieving of lily and james and also she he can, maybe, move on and go back into the world again without Sirius pulling him down) (And the little up and down at the end has sirius vibes idk why but it does)
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