September- Sparky Deathcap
7:40am, October 20th- second full moon of the school year
Remus was snappy. In fact, he was what you might call rather pissy. And it was rubbing off on everyone. James tried his best to keep up a smile but when he had woken in the early hours of the morning to the sound of Sirius quietly sniffling with his face buried in his pillow, he was finding it rather difficult.
Sirius hadn’t come down to breakfast. He and Remus had been in a row the night before and the words exchanged had been far crueler than any blows. James wondered whether if it were possible to see one’s soul, who’s amongst them would bear the worst scars. Not his for sure. Alas, Sirius remained curled in bed mostly unresponsive.
Meanwhile, across from James, Remus’s face was stormy, brow pulled low and the shadows under his eyes darker than the depths of his chocolate irises. His toast sat before him untouched and his hands were wrapped around his mug of black coffee with a white-knuckled grip.
“Come on Moony. You need to eat something.” James tried to coax him. Remus ignored him. James glanced over at Peter pleadingly, but the blonde boy merely shrugged. He knew trying to convince Remus to do something he didn’t feel like doing was a futile effort. “Look Rem, the full moon is tonight and you have to eat something before the shift or it’s gonna hurt like a bitch and you’ll try and take a chunk out of my rear again.” James tried to chuff a laugh but Remus only soured further.
Marlene leaned over,
“What’s got you three in a huff?” She bumped her shoulder against James’s, “Where’s Sirius?”
Remus stood abruptly, the bench he was seated on pushing back from the Gryffindor table with a sharp screech which was echoed by the owls as the morning post arrived. Remus didn’t even bother looking where he was going, he just stalked out of the Great Hall. James felt sorry for anyone who didn’t move out of his way fast enough.
“Jeez. Wha’s up wiv ‘im?” Mary asked concerned.
“Oh you know, just his time of the month.” James tried to laugh it off. Luckily the girls seemed to pick up on the fact James didn’t really want to talk about it and left the fact alone. Instead allowing the conversation to flow into chatter about the upcoming Slytherin vs Gryffindor Quidditch game.
…
5:04pm
It was growing dark now. Sirius hadn’t been in any of his classes and the plate of food James had left on his bedside table at breakfast remained untouched. James was worried now. As much as Sirius and Remus bickered, they never properly fought, the last time James had seen Sirius like this was after he had shown up on the Potter’s doorstep in the middle of the night after running away from Grimmauld Place. He hadn’t left his room for days, the guilt of leaving his brother behind eating away at him until Effie had forced her way into the room two days later and demanded Sirius eat something. Euphemia Potter was a very difficult woman to say no to. So, when she had thrown open the curtains and force-fed Sirius beans on toast and a hydrolyte potion something in him relit. His spark rekindled and he was alive again. James was probably overthinking this though. Sirius had always been hard on himself. It would be okay by tonight. It had to be.
…
5:33pm
McGonagall had arrived to take Remus with her about fifteen minutes ago, spouting some nonsense about extra credit work. James and Peter had simply nodded and waved them on their way, keen to get the Professor out of their room as quickly as possible so they could sneak out to be there for Remus at moonrise. As it was, they still hadn’t seen Sirius but it was too late to go searching.
James and Peter were wrapped in the invisibility cloak, shuffling through the halls and praying to Merlin their ankles weren’t showing. The cloak had become too small to fit all four of them sometime in third year after Remus’s first growth spurt. Suddenly they’d had to learn cloaking and masking charms so they could all wander the halls unchecked. Remus had of course become a prefect with Lily so if a teacher ever asked why he was out, he put on his perfect, well-behaved, top-marks student face and straighten the pin and they would send him on his way. Sirius had already been scarily good at the charms and James hadn’t been able to ignore the stabbing feeling in his chest at the realisation. Peter and James had picked up on the spells rather quickly, but James preferred the cloak as it was more reliable and required less focus – something he was quite lacking in.
Finally, the cool October breeze kissed his face through the fabric of the cloak and the two stepped out onto the grassy hill into the ring of large rune stones, sweeping the cloak off their shoulders and stretching out stiff joints. Peter cracked his neck loudly and James clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle a snicker.
“Might as well crack them now while we can.” Peter snorted, “You know once Sirius is here, we won’t be allowed to anymore.”
Despite his denial of his posh upbringing, Sirius had never been able to hide some of the signs of his status. He was never one for gross things, mud and rain were a no go, as were some of the habits the other boys had. James had spoken with his mouth full up until second year when Sirius had literally hexed him so his mouth would stay closed until he swallowed. James hadn’t even known there was a hex that did that, in fact, even now he suspected Sirius may have actually specifically created the spell himself. So cracking joints around Sirius would usually get you yelled at. James didn’t know how Sirius handled being Padfoot; on full moons, he would get muddy, and dusty and werewolf slobber would get everywhere. And yet, the next morning they would find him freshly showered and tending to Remus’s wounds when Madam Pomfrey was busy. For someone who didn’t like getting stuff on him, he was awfully calm around blood.
James and Peter skipped down the hill in the direction of the Whomping Willow which was still frozen with a binding curse which meant McGonagall would be leaving any moment now. The two boys ducked into the curve of one of the large roots and stayed hidden in the shadows, waiting.
They waited five minutes, ten, fifteen without any sign of McGonagall.
“What if something’s wrong?” James asked Peter in a hushed tone. “Moonrise is in ten minutes Wormtail. She shouldn’t be in there still. Where the fuck is Sirius?!” Peter shrugged,
“Maybe we should just go in Jamie. I’m pretty sure McGonagall already knows about us anyways. Once in her cat form, she went after me as Wormtail but when she got closer, she seemed to recognise me and walked away. You’ve seen her, she’d usually eat a rodent but she just walked off.”
“Yeah, I’m getting worried. Let’s just go in.” The two boys crept around the trunk of the Whomping Willow, sliding through the opening at it’s base and into the tunnel below. James landed in the tunnel face to face with Sirius for all of two seconds before Peter came barrelling into him from behind, sending him crashing into the other boy. Sirius let out an undignified shriek and the three boys were sprawled out on the dusty floor.
“Siri! You’re okay! Thank Godric.” James wrapped his arms around Sirius in a crushing embrace. Sirius melted into him. “Why the fuck did you not release the willow curse?”
Sirius tensed,
“Oh I must’ve forgotten. Dam.”
“Sirius! This is not a ‘dam’ situation. Someone could have just wandered in and found out about Remus.” James snapped and Sirius flinched. “Shit I’m sorry. You’ve had a hard day; I shouldn’t have snapped I’ve just been worried about you both. That was unfair of me.”
Sirius nodded his acceptance and Peter ushered them along.
“Come on guys, moonrise in ten. Moony needs us.”
The boys dashed through the tunnel and climbed the rickety wooden steps past gashes in the walls and bitemarks in the railings from full moons past. When they reached the room Remus usually rested in, he was curled in a small ball on the bed, knees tucked to his chest.
“Remus?” He snapped to attention, eyes flashing over to the other three boys. His eyes had a reflective sheen in the darkness, a golden yellow signaling the start of the change. “Moony.” Peter corrected himself. “Look who we brought.” He stepped aside, giving Moony a clear view of Sirius.
The werewolf perked up, bounding over to them and circling Sirius quickly, sniffing lightly at his hair with a little growl like he smelled something he didn’t like before burying his face in the crook of Sirius’ neck. He huffed, warm breath causing Sirius to shiver. He relaxed for a moment, a soft smile on his lips, long fingers coming up to run through Remus’s hair, but then he tensed.
“Wait, I’ve gotta do something real quick. Wait here Moony, I’ll be back.” Remus growled as Sirius pulled away towards the door he’d just come through but listened to Sirius. Dropping to the floor and sitting cross-legged like a child.
“Whatever it is better be quick Sirius. Moonrise in four.”
“I swear I’ll be right back.”
Before anything further could be said Sirius shot down the stairs, sprinting like his life depended on it.