Who drew wings on my back?
Warning: There is some cursing further down, not much but just thought you ought to know.
Soft snores and occasional mumbles filled the dormitory the next day. Somehow during the night, all beds had surprisingly been filled with their owners, except Dorcas's as she was currently sharing with Marlene. The room looked cleaner than you would have thought, though the floor was filled with yesterday's clothes, and several ballons were currently occupying the ceiling.
A loud, rather persistent tapping sound came from one of the windows, and a groan was heard from Lily as she placed her pillow over her head to block the sound out. Cassie had pulled her comforter above her head while Alice just tried to ignore it, hoping it would disappear. It felt as if the more the girls ignored it, the more the sound grew. However, Lily grew more and more annoyed with every tap until she just couldn't take it anymore. "What the bloody hell is that?"
Alice rubbed her eyes while lifting her head unwillingly from her pillow and looked over to the window between Lily and Cassie's beds. For a moment cursing the person who forgot to draw the curtains last night as a ray of light hit her face. She let out a deep sigh at what she saw and let her head drop back down on her pillow, cursing herself as a punding started. "Its Nova"
The sound continued, and for a moment, being as tired as she was, Lily considered to ignore it, that was until the screeching started. "For goodness sake, Cas, let that bloody owl in."
A loud groan appeared from the bed next to her, and not too long after, the dark-haired girl sat up in her bed, looking exhausted. She pulled on a jumper before making her way over to the window and opened it. Nova glared at the girl, and Cassie wondered for a moment if she might try to bite her as she looked awfully annoyed. Though was bothered Cassie the most was the question of how the owl had even gotten out. As far as she remembered, she hadn't sent any letters lately, and she never sent Nova out at night unless it was necessary. Cassie looked at the letter the owl dropped in front of her and turned it around to see a familiar green seal and felt dread fill her immediately.
"Oh, fuck." Her eyes moved a few inches higher before widening significantly. "Oh fuck fuck fuck..."
Lily lifted her head from her pillow and saw her friend's face go a few shades lighter than normal, gawking at the letter she held in her hands. "What is it?" Drowsiness filled her voice as she let out a yawn.
"It's from Rabastan..." Alice shot up from the bed; however, she immediately placed a hand on her forehead and moaned as the pounding got louder. Gently she rubbed her forehead before looking at her friend, who was currently sitting in her bed and was furiously reading the letter. "Oh dear... this is bad.. this is very bad."
Lily raised herself from her bed and crossed the floor before placing herself on Cassis's bed, leaning over the girl's shoulders to read the letter. "Apparently, I sent him a letter asking him to meet me in Hogsmeade on Saturday... And he agreed." Alice looked confused for a moment and wondered how she would do that, as there were no Hogsmeade trips until Christmas. "That's not all." Lily took the letter out of her friend's fingers. "Apparently, she said something that he liked as he thought she was quite funny. This truly makes no sense at all. It's like looking at a conversation where half of the context is missing... which it is."
The letter was quickly taken out of Lily's hand. Alice, who had made her way over to the two, let her eyes scan the letter before letting out a snort, and a teasing smile appeared on her tired face. "You sent a drunken letter to Rabastan, and you don't remember what you wrote?"
Giggles erupted from behind the trio, making them all turn around facing the two girls in Marlene's bed, who was now half-awake, grinning at their newfound information. Cassies' face grew hotter as moments passed, and she had never felt a more need to throw herself into the black lake as she did then. "Oh.. sorry. You don't remember sending that letter?" The blonde looked at her friend, who only shook her head in response. Cassie looked confused for a moment before her eyes widened, and she seemed almost speechless. "Wait... you do?!"
Marlene smiled sheepishly while letting out a hesitant laugh, looking a bit guilty. "I would have stopped you."
"Oh, would you really?" Lily sent her friend a suspicious look while shaking her head disapprovingly. Alice, however, struggled to keep a straight face as she knew that wasn't true. "Of course. Had it not had been because I was rather drunk, and you were rather persistent. I mean... you wouldn't even tell me what was in the letter. I just heard you laughing to yourself a few times before sending it." Cassie buried her head in her hands before muttering out curses, hoping to Merlin that she didn't write anything too embarrassing. It wasn't like she could ask him to send the letter back.
Dorcas lifted her head with a wicked smile present on her face and looked at Cassie before moving her gaze to the redhead. "If you think that is bad. You should hear what little miss prefect did." All eyes turned to the red-haired, who looked somewhat confused at the statement. "What are you talking about?" The blonde shared a look with her girlfriend before a similar smile grew on her lips as she started to recall what happened."You don't remember?" Marlene smiled teasingly at first but seeing the growing confusion on Lilys face made her smile falter slightly. "You really don't remember?" Lily shook her head before letting out a sigh. "You think I'd ask you if I did?"
Though she didn't look like it, Lily felt slightly afraid, as she had no recollections of the night after daring Sirius to let everyone write something on his back with a marker, though there were something about dancing on a table. "What happened?" Just as Dorcas was about to open her mouth, Alice looked down at her wrist, looking absolutely panicked when she saw the time. "Okay, look, I'd love to hear this, I really do. But breakfast ends in 30 minutes, and we are nowhere near dressed."
Cassie groaned as the mention of food was heard.
"Oh, I could do with something salty right now," Marlene said while tumbling out of bed and looked for a clean shirt. Only to stop when she couldn't find any, she opened several of the drawers, moving clothes around to see if they were hidden in between, but no such luck."Have anyone seen my shirts?" The girls looked at Marlene, who was still staring at the dresser. While Dorcas and Alice looked at each other before their eyes widened, Alice was fighting a grin from appearing and made herself busy with getting ready so the blonde girl wouldn't notice it.
"Why don't you borrow one of mine for the day." Dorcas laughed nervously while avoiding meeting her girlfriend's gaze and silently cursing Alice and herself for their late-night mischievousness. As she moved towards her own bed, she muttered under her breath. "Suppose you have some treasure hunting to do later..."
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Opening his eyes, the first thing Remus saw was James sitting on top of his own bed, his eyes dull and his face looking as if he was in a trance-like state staring into nothing. For a moment, he wondered just what had happened to the boy, before memories of last night came flooding back, though before he could even think about what happened to James. Remus was struck by his memories of his own drunken doing, which he still remembered.
Unfortunately.
He almost wanted to die of embarrassment, just thinking about his choice of dancing on top of a table. Sitting up, he gazed around the room, seeing the two empty beds of Frank and Peter, while meeting the sight of a shirtless Sirius, who was currently standing with his back facing the mirror, looking over his shoulder to examine the several writings on his back.
"Okay, first of all.. who drew wings on my back?" His frustration was evident in his voice, and Remus had to hide the grin that started to appear. Several scribbles and a few small drawings covered the boy's back, but the most noticeable one was two large wings drawn on his shoulder blades. "You did say you wanted to be an angel."
"No," Sirius turned his gaze towards the boy and sent him a look of disbelief while putting his hands on his hips. "I said I was as beautiful as an angel. There's a difference."
"Well, if I recall correctly, you seemed very pleased with them yesterday. Didn't you go around saying something along the line of look at my beautiful wings."
"At least I didn't go dancing on tables." Sirius sent him a look while Remus felt his face flush as he closed his eyes, wishing for nothing more than the bed to swallow him whole. "Oh, don't remind me. Not one of my proudest moments."A grin appeared on the older boy's face as he quickly looked over to their dazed friend. "Speaking of proudest moments, you'd think he be a little bit happier. After six years and he finally kissed the girl.»
"Technically, he never kissed her. She kissed him" Sirius shrugged while Remus rolled his eyes before looking back at James and couldn't help but feel concerned when there was no reaction. "You okay, prongs?" It was as if the boy didn't hear him. Remus lifted his comforter and moved himself over to the younger boy's bed, sitting down in front of him, trying to catch his gaze but no such luck. He noticed the slightly dark rings that had appeared under James's eyes during the night.
"You look exhausted. Did you get any sleep at all?" Turning away from the mirror, Sirius looked at his two friends while raising an eyebrow and bore a slightly amused grin on his face. "Tell me.. did that really happen? Or did I imagine it?"
"It happened," said Remus while not moving his eyes from James.
"Nice one, James." Sirius sent him a proud grin. However, it was that moment that he too noticed the lack of response from the boy. Usually, James would reply with a smile on his face and ready with a high five; however, he didn't. In all his years of knowing James, he had never seen the boy quite like this. "Prongs.." He waved his hand in front of James's face a few times while calling out to him. "Hello?"
"James?"
"Jamie?"
"James?"
"I think he's broken, Moony," Sirius said as he turned to look at the boy next to him. Remus opened his mouth to answer; however, he was interrupted by Peter, who entered their dormitory, and smiled as he saw that his friends were awake. "Hey guys, you're finally up." He walked over to his bed and sat down facing the three other marauders, and Remus was for once surprised that Peter was the only one already dressed in his uniform while the rest wasn't.
"Was he like this when you woke up, Pete?" "When did you wake up?" Remus and Sirius spoke simultaneously, surprised the two looked at each other for a moment before Remus looked away when Sirius sent him a smile. A thoughtful look covered the blonde boy's face as he thought back to just a few hours ago. "He's been like that ever since we came up here. And I woke up two hours ago. I've been playing Wizards chess with Frank in the common room."
"He's been like that since last night?" Peter only nodded at the sandy-haired boy before looking at James and sighed. He was thinking back to earlier that morning when he and Frank tried to get any reaction from the boy but were unsuccessful. "Yeah... I think she finally broke him." Sirius nodded in agreement while Remus glanced at his watch for a moment before standing up and moved over to a dresser. He took out a white shirt and threw it in Sirius's direction, hitting the boy straight in his face. A grin spread across his face as he moved towards his own dresser.
"Breakfast ends in 30 minutes. Wanna go before class?" A groan filled the room while Sirius took the shirt off his face and proceeded to put it on slowly. It was as if every button was a milestone that he didn't want to meet. Although his headache wasn't the worst he'd ever had, there was nothing more tempting than to crawl back into bed and just lay there for the remaining day. "Do we have to go to class today?"
"Yes, Sirius, we have to." Leaning down to tie his shoelaces, Remus couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle at the whining that sounded just like the one a sad dog makes, which came from Sirius. Sometimes he was indeed more dog than a person. After tying his tie, Remus walked over to James's dresser and took out a pair of pants, a clean shirt, and a sweater, bringing them to his friend's bed and returned to his earlier seat in front of the boy.
"Hey, James.. want to get some food down before defense against the dark arts?" At first, no response came, until a rather loud sound was heard from his stomach at the mention of food,and then what sounded like an approving grunt came from James as he finally seemed to become aware of his surroundings.
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Lily was currently smearing some jam on her scones while occasionally shifting her glare between Dorcas and Marlene, who both were grinning awfully a lot while moving their eyes around the great hall as if looking for someone. Looking to her right, Lily saw a mess of dark hair slightly slouching over the table. Cassie, who currently had no appetite for proper food, was sneaking in some salty crackers she had gotten from the kitchen, careful not to let many people notice. Lily leaned slightly closer to her friend and whispered. "What's the last thing you remember?"
The girl looked at her before thinking back to the night before, trying to recall at what moment she lost her memories. "Ehh... I think it was something with wanting balloons, no... wait. I remember... Remus almost pushing me off the table when he wanted to join us .." Cassie looked very concentrated as she furred her eyebrows. There was something, she thought, it was as if it was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't quite reach it.
"And then?"
"And then I turned around and..." she went quiet for a moment before she gave Lily the strangest look and laughed. "No... I must have been completely drunk if I imagined that." she shook her head while continuing to laugh as if the idea of what happened seemed utterly ridiculous to her. "There's no way that would have happened."
"But it did." Faster than lightning, Cassie turned her head towards the girl across her and looked at her as if she had grown three heads. Dorcas, who had overheard their conversation, wore a smug smirk on her face while at the same time, shifting her gaze between the two girls. "No..."
"Oh yeah."
"Really?" Cassie shook her head in disbelief while Dorcas only nodded in return, though when she looked towards Lily, she sort of wished she hadn't. The girl currently wore an expression of pure annoyance, and her green eyes narrowed slightly. In all truth, Lily looked angry. "Now, if you two don't mind, I would appreciate it if you told me what happened." The two girls looked at each other before looking back at Lily. "Okay, sorry. So when Remus came to join us on top of the table, you, sort of, lost your balance and..."
Just as she was about to reveal what happened, Dorcas was again interrupted, this time by a group of familiar Gryffindors, who sat down with them.
"Hey, guys."Remus was so surprised by the glare he received from Lily that for a moment, he wondered if she might go off on him. Though remembering last night, he wasn't entirely surprised.
"Hey, Lily... I'm sorry for, you know," he started while giving her an apologetic smile,"pushing you off the table last night." His face heated slightly up as he thought about last night; however, Lily wasn't having any of that. "Remus John Lupin, are you kidding me? I was just about to find out what happened last night." It wasn't until that moment that James truly said something. However, his voice was quiet and unsure, as if he didn't want to say anything at all. "You..you don't remember what happened?"
Lily felt her anger disappear as she switched her gaze from the guilty-looking Remus to the tired-looking James, who looked at her in disbelief. As far as she could remember from last night, James hadn't been that drunk, but at the moment, he looked more tired than Alice, who was currently dozing on Marlene's shoulder, which made her wonder if he had even slept.
"No, I don't."
James let out a deep sigh before running his fingers through his hair in frustration, he had spent all night worrying about what would happen the next day, and she didn't even remember it. Had this been any other time, James might have understood, however as he hadn't got a wink of sleep in over twenty-four hours and was currently rather hungry as well, he felt slightly annoyed if not disappointed at the girl.
Lily was caught off guard, not just by the look in his eyes, but the way he looked at her at the moment. He stared at her with disappointment for a while before he simply shook his head and stood up from the table. "I'm going to eat in the kitchen. See you guys in class." The boys looked at him in slight surprise but nodded their heads. It was as if Lily's eyes were glued to his back as she watched him walk a few steps before stopping and turning his head slightly towards her. "Next time, for everyone's sake, don't go around kissing people and forget about it."
The minute James walked out of the great hall, Sirius stood up and tousled Remus's hair slightly before smiling. "I'm gonna go with him. See you later." Remus smiled at him before turning his gaze to Lily, who was staring at her plate with an unreadable expression on her face. A few moments passed before she looked up and prepared herself for what came next.
"What did he mean by that?" She turned her eyes towards Remus, who gave her a sympathetic smile. "Remus.." Her face had gone a few shades lighter while her eyes were wide with either slight fright or something that Remus couldn't recognize. He was quite sure that she knew what he was about to say but that she wouldn't believe it unless he told her.
"You kissed him, Lily. You kissed James."