“Sick again, are we?”
James glanced up from his transfiguration textbook as Sirius’s voice echoed into the common room from the entrance. The common room was a scattered mess as fifth and seventh years prepared for their OWLs and NEWTs, papers and books lying over every available surface. Anything that wasn’t covered in a mess of paper, books, bags or ink, was covered by a sleep-deprived student, hurriedly cramming for their final exams. The warmth of the candlelight was not helping to keep them awake, and as the night wore on, more students began to nod off over books and half-raised quills still dripping ink.
As a fourth year, James knew he shouldn't be all too worried about his final exams, at least not as much as the fifth and seventh years were. But their anxiety was all but contagious, spreading throughout the Gryffindors, and likely to the other houses, until almost every student was in shambles. Frantically trying to sort through the year's work and tracking down any old end-of-year exams attempting to up their thought-doomed score. After the exam the panic would fade, knowing that their future didn't so heavily rely on this exam, not like it did for the fifth and seventh years. Their panic would remain until they finally received their results some weeks into the summer.
The fact that this exam wasn't future destroying didn’t stop James from studying more than he usually did, however. His pocket-sized planner was filled to the brim with notes and study timetables that had been handed out by the prefects. Transfiguration was one of his best subjects but the nagging thought of failing it made even him buy into the panic that surrounded the tower.
Curled up on one of the favoured padded armchairs facing the fire, textbook spread on his lap, he was attempting to study while the common room remained quiet. The only noise currently filling the air was the sound of lips moving as students silently mouthed along with their notes and the scratching of quills on paper. The silence shattered with the arrival of Sirius, bringing with him a wave of noise and energy that permanently put any hope of studying out of mind. Something a lot of the surrounding students also recognised, packing away books and papers and leaving to either their dorms, the library or another one of the hidden study holes in the school.
Turning slightly to see Sirius, James knew he wasn’t talking to him. Sirius's eyes were tracing a firm line to the figure curled beside the fire, nearly asleep from the warmth and the once quiet air.
Remus Lupin looked worse for wear in the shadowy corner he had holed himself up in, textbook spread open across his lap. He too had been struck down by the panicked studying haze that flooded the common room, holing himself up in his dorm for most of the last week, save for last night, which he had spent in the hospital wing. He hadn't turned a page in several minutes, however, seeming to nod off over the book, face turned down to the book as though reading but hands unmoving from where they rested over the pages. The sleep was definitely needed from the bags James had spotted under his eyes earlier, but unfortunately for him, he wouldn’t be getting anymore now that Sirius had arrived on the scene.
Dropping down beside Remus, Sirius shot a look towards James asking, ‘How is he?’ with a quick eye movement between the two, before turning his attention back to the mess of brown curls and woollen jumpers. Sirius was still dressed as thought he had just come from class, which was likely because he had detention with McGonagall. Though the uniform was distinctly more ruffled now, with the shirt being more thrown on than anything else and his tie was missing, if he was ever wearing one at all to begin with.
Sirius leant closer to Remus, bending down and craning his neck back up slightly to try and catch a glimpse of Remus’ face beneath his curls. Sirius let out a huffed breath, making Remus twitch as his hair blew away from his face before falling over his eyes again. He was definitely asleep, eyelids heavy with nights of unrest. Letting him sleep would be the kinder thing to do, but really, it was his own fault for falling asleep in the common room in the first place. What did Remus think would happen?
Sirius, never one to miss an opportunity, knocked shoulders with Remus hard enough that he jerked awake and twisted to look at Sirius. His eyes widened for a moment before dropping into a glare that would scare almost anyone off had they been the ones to wake him. Unfortunately for Remus, Sirius was always the most stubborn member of ‘anyone’. Instead, meeting Remus’ glare with a jaw-breaking grin and a cheery “Hey Remus!”
Remus, who was about to retort and put Sirius in his place, was tragically cut off by a yawn throwing itself out of his mouth. The look of surprise that dashed itself over Remus’ face as the uncontrollable yawn continued caused both James and Sirius to snigger at Remus’s obvious exhaustion. They both had the decency to muffle their laughter with their hands and closed mouths in an attempt to not further annoy the few remaining students in the now near-empty common room. They didn’t need to be cursed blue right before exams.
“Didn’t get much sleep last night Remus?”
Remus snapped his mouth shut around the remains of the yawn and scowled at Sirius. He was pissed. James’ upper lip twitched. This will be fun to watch. It had been a while since Remus had managed to shut Sirius up using only a few choice words and it was clear that that time had gone to Sirius’ head, making him too cocky for his own good. Given that Remus was clearly dead on his feet, or more accurately, dead in the corner, it wasn't likely he wasn’t going to be able to deliver the sharp words the way he usually could.
Grinding out through his teeth at Sirius, Remus’ voice held a fury at being woken up that made Sirius's grin slip slightly before he shifted back along the wall, away from their furious friend. James' grin grew at the interaction between his two friends.
“Well, you wouldn’t either if you had the night I had-”
Sirius laughed outright at the outrage that flashed over Remus, cutting him off before he could continue any further. Not bothering to muffle his laughter making the final remaining students glower at them over books and ink-stained fingers. James sent them what he hoped was a rueful smile, but he knew it was probably more gleeful than apologetic.
“What? Spent the night making yourself sick with all the studying you’re doing?” Leaning back against the wall, keeping his head turned to Remus, Sirius grinned. “Half the schools doing that, pick something else.” Reaching over, Sirius grabbed the textbook from Remus’ lap, he was too dazed to stop Sirius in time, and began flipping through the pages, instantly losing the page the book was opened to. James winced, it probably wasn’t the best decision to annoy Remus further after already waking him up from his much-needed sleep, and Merlin only knows how much Remus values his books. Sirius losing Remus' place in one was going to get him hexed blind until after the exams.
“Well,” Remus leaned over and harshly plucked the book from Sirius’ grasp. “It was a bit worse than most, Madame Pomfrey couldn’t cure it with her usual potions, told me to stay the night. You know I can’t sleep in those awful beds.”
Flipping open his bag sitting next to him, Remus shoved in his book, causing a few loose pages to come spilling out the top of the open bag. Letting a muggle curse out from under his breath, Remus began to shove the spilling paper back into the sides of the bag. It was overfull, holding more than any muggle bag should be able to without charms.
James' own bag, a nice leather piece he had gotten as a gift before his third year, lay beside the armchair, out of sight from where he now sat. He knew, almost instinctively, that it had already fallen over. A drawback of having a soft rounded leather bottom that made it impossible to stand up, but it wasn’t bulging like Remus’ was or spilling everywhere due to damage like Sirius' was. Not with the permanent undetectable extension charm placed within the bag, along with the ever-helpful anti-theft and anti-ripping charms. He was pretty sure Sirius had taken it as a personal challenge to ruin whichever bag he'd been given by his parents before the term ended, forcing them to buy yet another bag.
That would be a good idea for a gift this coming year though. A new bag for Remus to hold all the schoolwork he was known for lugging around without spillage or thievery. The hardest part would be convincing him to take the damn thing. It was notoriously hard to get Remus to accept any gift that wasn’t chocolate related.
Bag swelling from how full it now was, Remus buckled it closed with the two small straps, preventing it from bursting open at any moment but only just. Before turning to Sirius and blustering on in search of the real reason why Sirius had decided to come in and immediately annoy him other than the obvious fun factor. “Anyway, what do you want, Sirius?”
Sirius shrugged, fingers now reaching over to make their way along Remus’ left sleeve, playing with the frayed woollen ends sticking out as he did so, eyes not leaving his own hands. The multicolour jumper was one of Remus' cooler styles, allowing for breathing room in the awfully hot summer days while still keeping him warm in the cooler evenings, as well as covering his arms completely.
“Just wondering how you’re feeling.”
Remus visibly relaxed at Sirius shrugged answer. Sighing with a huff, he turned his face to the red-painted ceiling, strewn with various other colours after years of use and more than a few potion mishaps. The remains of delicate gold details no longer stood out with the blend of colours coating the roof.
“I’m feeling fine now, just a slight stomach-ache. Nothing,” He twisted to glare down at Sirius as he spoke, “That a good rest can’t fix.”
Grinning, Sirius bumped his shoulder into Remus’, leaning back so he too could examine the colour-strew roof. “Ah, but then you would miss out on what I heard about Snape!” Sirius flourished his hand up near the end, gesturing to the roof but also to James and Remus in a silent request to spill whatever it was he had heard. After receiving his nod of approval from Remus, and the grin James shot his way, he continued on in the same manner of loud noises and gestures, successfully clearing the three remaining students from the common room with his re-enactment of what exactly he had heard about Snape.
James felt his head nod along as Sirius began his tale. But in all honesty, he wasn’t hearing any of it, floating through one ear and out the other as he thumbed the small study planner that he'd stashed next to him when he sat down. The little brown-red journal had pages folded and bent over, ink and other substances of magical origin splashed throughout its pages.
It was a gift from his mother before the school year had begun. She had hoped he would use it to learn how to manage his time better and study more often. She had gotten her wish in the end, but not before the journal was used for various other things, including but not limited to passing notes, making muggle planes, drawing a whole collection of random items and a myriad of other things before finally being put to use as a study planner it was made to be. Just as the school year ended.
Shifting in his seat to slip the planner onto his lap, he flipped it open to this week. Scanning the page, his eyes fell on a date, yesterday. The sharp black lettering of the twenty-fifth of May filled the upper corner of the small rectangular space provided for each day. Drawn next to it, in what had to be a paler shade of ink, a small symbol that James traced his thumb over gently. Reaching up to the top corner of the page, he folded it over gently, before closing the planner, slipping it beside him again as he shifted his attention back to Sirius.
The image of an empty circle outlined in black flashed in his mind as he grinned along to whatever nonsense Sirius was spewing now about some Ravenclaw girl and a stick of gum. His eyes moving from Sirius and falling over to Remus, his head had fallen back against the wall giving a clear view of the darkened purple skin covering his face and neck. The Scars Remus swore up and down were from an unfortunate fall he had when he was a kid stuck out as a sharp white in the warm light of the fire, peaking out under sleeves and through his hair.
He doesn’t think I’m that fucking dumb, does he?