Chanson d'Hiver

The snow fell around them, thick and fast like cartoon snowflakes. Remus had no idea how this had happened. One minute he was riding along (admittedly anxiously) on a ski lift under a dazzling night sky, surrounded by the scent of pines, Sirius beside him, and the next, they were trapped—completely bloody immobile.

Sirius adjusted slightly on the bench of the lift, pulling out a gold pocket watch to check the time.

“It’s been about a half of an hour,” he said softly, shifting to put the watch back in his trousers.

Remus’s stomach lurched as the lift rocked gently back and forth. He closed his eyes, exhaling through his nose.

“Moony?”

Sirius’s voice was a caress.

“Hm?”

“Are you all right?”

Remus flipped his eyes open, still maintaining a death grip on the bar in front of him. He noticed Sirius’s eyes darting down, his brow furrowing at Remus’s white-knuckle grip.

“Fucking hell, Moony, you don’t have gloves? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

“I didn’t realize we’d be stuck on a ruddy ski lift for thirty minutes!” Remus snapped.

Sirius bit his lip as if attempting to hold back a smile.

“Glad I amuse you,” he muttered.

“Here, you can wear mine for a bit,” Sirius said, pulling off his black cashmere gloves and passing them over to Remus.

“I can’t take your gloves Sirius,” Remus said.

“You can—can’t have you getting frostbite, yeah?” He grinned, pressing them firmly to Remus. “My hands get cold easily so I’ll be taking them back soon enough. I’m not that selfless, don’t worry.”

Remus shook his head, tugging on the soft gloves and shivering slightly at the warmth left from Sirius’s hands. He’d had gloves at the start of this venture; he must have lost them somewhere along the way (probably whilst enjoying his pastry). He slid his hands over the bar again, gripping tightly.

“Maybe I can distract you a bit,” Sirius began, noting Remus’s death grip.

They had talked a good bit when the ski lift had first stuttered to a stop, laughing at it, sharing stories, hopeful that they would start moving soon.  

They hadn’t.

Now the snow was falling thick and heavy, resting on their shoulders, their laps. Remus looked over at Sirius, his aristocratic nose pink with the cold. The snowflakes kissed his flushed cheeks before melting, clumping onto the end of his dark lashes and resting in his hair. He looked, somehow, even more beautiful, and Remus smiled in spite of himself. Sirius smiled back—a gentle, half smirking little thing—before leaning over to kiss Remus. Remus responded enthusiastically, still unable to believe that Sirius was as into him as Remus was into Sirius.

Sirius slid closer, rocking the lift dangerously. His eyes flew open.

“Buggering fuck!” Remus gripped onto the bar in front of him as if his life depending on it (which, really, it sort of did).

“Sorry! Sorry!” Sirius choked out, gripping the bar a bit himself.

“It’s all right love, really—maybe just sit still for now, yeah?”

Sirius nodded.

A wolf howled in the distance, and Remus shuddered.

“I’ll protect you, Moony,” Sirius quipped. “The good thing about being a zillion feet up is that the wolves can’t get us.”

“Har har,” Remus said, smiling in spite of himself.

“Tell me something,” Sirius said.

“Oh geeze… well…” Remus cast around for something to share. The wolf howled again. “I was bitten by a wolf, once, as a kid.”

“Oh bugger off,” Sirius said. “Really?”

“No, I’m serious.”

“I’m Sirius, actually, but come on,” Sirius said over Remus’s chuckle. “Are you taking the piss?”

“No, it was horrible actually. I was about three, I think? I don’t remember a ton about it because I was so young.”

“How the hell did you get out of that?” Sirius asked incredulously.

“It was at the zoo,” Remus said. “We were in the native species section and I guess my mum and dad were distracted—chatting to someone. I stuck my arm through the fence, thinking it was a dog I could pet.”

Sirius looked horrified.

“I got bitten in a couple spots—my arm, of course, and somehow the wolf was able to nip at my hip as well. It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been since the wolf was mostly domesticated from being in a damn enclosure all the time, but still—it took several surgeries to put things right.”

“But you’re all right?!” Sirius gaped at him.

“Of course,” Remus reached out, running a hand over Sirius’s hair.

“What happened to the wolf?” Sirius asked.

“Er—I don’t actually know,” Remus said. “My parents wouldn’t tell me. I like to imagine it lived to a ripe old age and had stories to tell its cubs.”

Sirius laughed, but his eyes were still wide with shock.

“So, bizarre childhood encounter with a wolf, bookworm with a Bowie obsession, a ridiculous amount of allergies and sensitivities… are you sure you aren’t going to go running for the hills when we get down?”

“Are you kidding me? How bloody cool are you—who else gets attacked by a wolf and lives to tell the tale? And you loving Bowie only scores you points with me, Moon,” Sirius said, resting a head on Remus’s shoulders and looking up at him with a smile.

The ski lift jolted, nearly sending Remus into hysterics.

Sirius whooped.

“You’re going to cause an avalanche,” Remus said drily.

“We’re saved Remus, cheer up!” Sirius said, reaching out to grip Remus’s hand as the lift moved them slowly through the blizzard and back down the mountain to safety.

*****

“I can’t believe that idiot attendant didn’t think to pass along that there were people up there before leaving his post for the night!” Sirius said, considerably more incensed now that they were back on the ground than he was whilst they were stranded.

“I wish I could say I was surprised,” Remus said, slowing his pace slightly so that Sirius could keep up as they walked down the hallway of the resort.

“They’d better hope my parents don’t catch wind of this or it will be rather unfortunate for them,” Sirius sighed, biting his lip with worry. In spite of how angry Sirius was, Remus knew that he’d rather not have Walburga Black anywhere near the person responsible for the mishap.

As they approached their rooms, James and Regulus were ahead and coming from the opposite direction, both looking distinctly rumpled.

Regulus narrowed his eyes slightly, taking in their sodden and snow-covered appearance, but James ran a hand over the back of his head, blushing profusely.

“Où étais tu?” Regulus asked Sirius, gesticulating wildly.

“Bloqué dans une tempête de neige,” Sirius said sarcastically—Remus had no clue what they were saying, but Sirius did not seem amused.

Regulus looked between the two of them and blinked twice, slowly, as if processing.

“Quoi?” he asked.

“On s’est retrouvés coincés sur le télésiège!” Sirius exclaimed.

“Merde,” Regulus said.

Remus knew enough French for that one.

Sirius squeezed his hand once before heading off down the hall with his brother, both speaking rapidly in murmured French.

“So… good night?” Remus asked, smirking at James’s still-blushing face.

“Oh piss off,” James snapped, saluting Remus with two fingers held up in a V.

Remus laughed.

“Just—come in here, will you?” James looked around furtively before ducking into his room, dragging Remus in behind him.

*****

“So what happened?” Remus asked, unwinding his scarf as James threw himself onto the couch.

“No way mate, you first—trapped in a sodding blizzard? Really?”

Remus rolled his eyes.

“You speak French too? Bloody posh sods,” he muttered.

“Um, Rem—you’re covered in snow and Sirius’s hair looked like it had icicles in it. Just a guess,” James shrugged.

“Ah. Well, it actually started out pretty fucking perfect,” Remus said, fighting to keep the smile from blooming across his cheeks like he was some primary school kid with a first crush.

“Yeah?” James sat up, leaning forward eagerly. His smile was so warm and authentically delighted that Remus couldn’t help unleashing his own.

“Yeah…” he sighed. He fidgeted with a small hole in his corduroy trousers. He avoided looking at James, unable to keep his face from erupting in flames as he said, “I really think I’ve fallen for him, somehow, already.”

James was quiet.

“He’s beautiful, yeah? But he’s even more incredible underneath it all. I mean… you know. Like he is rich, obviously, but he doesn’t even care about that. Not like people I knew at uni, who acted like that mattered more than who you actually are. He and I just get on so easily. Like it’s never that easy for me to talk to anyone, ever… It feels like we’ve known each other forever.”

Unable to stand the silence he had rambled himself into, he chanced a glance up at James.

“Well?”

James looked like he was about to pop.

“Remus, that’s absolutely amazing—really, mate, I am so happy to hear that!”

“Really?”

“Fuck yeah. I told you, I’ve known Pads a long time and he doesn’t just go all in like this with anyone, really ever. He’s smitten by you,” James finished, squinting his eyes and wrinkling his nose as he jutted out his chin, sing-songing to Remus.  

Remus’s heart thudded with hope. He let out a little exhale of relief, his voice cracking slightly.

“Okay good—now you!”

“Oh nooo,” James groaned, flopping backward against the cushions and putting his hands over his face, knocking his glasses aside.

“HaHA!” Remus stood, shouting and pointing at James. “So something did happen!”

James glanced around nervously, as if he were expecting the Brothers Black to come popping up from behind the lamp in the corner.

“Okay, yes. Look, I don’t really know what’s happening—I can’t seem to stop thinking about him. He’s just so lovely,” James said.

“I mean, he is rather good-looking,” Remus said objectively.

“He’s bloody gorgeous,” James sighed.

“You er—you don’t think he looks like Sirius?”

James screwed his face up, bemused.

“Padfoot? I mean. I guess they have the same coloring, some similar features, but Sirius is just Sirius. Regulus is ethereal.”

Remus tried to act less relieved than he was. He knew that he would never stand a chance against the charms and roguish good looks of James Potter.

“He is so intimidating though,” Remus admitted.

“No, no, that’s what I meant when I said he was lovely. I think he’s just quiet—it can’t be easy being in Sirius’s shadow, yeah? And with parents like that…”

“I suppose…”

“He’s so smart and he’s a wonderful artist and quite honestly, the whole surly thing works for him,” James said, leaning back onto his arms as he tucked them behind his head.

“So you slept with him.” It wasn’t a question.

“Okay, yeeeees,” James squeaked out. “I don’t know what happened! I went to his room because you and Sirius were out and I was, okay, I wanted to spend some more time with him, and he was sitting there drawing and listening to opera music or something and he just smelled so good—”

“Yeah, what is it with that?!” Remus exclaimed. “They smell magnificent. It’s enchanting.”

“Bloody magic, I swear,” James said. “And so he’s being all artsy and smelling amazing and then the sun was coming in and illuminating him like some sort of earth angel and it just sort of happened.”

Remus processed this.

“I guess Lily’s out of the picture then?” Remus smirked.

James threw a pillow at him.

*****

Remus was musing over his breakfast the next morning, sitting in the café area of the lodge, when a group of girls entered through the lobby, chattering loudly and carrying an unreasonable amount of luggage.

There were four of them—a shorter girl with long braids holding hands with a golden haired girl with an athletic build. They were trailed by a stylishly dressed, extremely curvy girl who seemed to radiate warmth the same way that James did— a girl who looked oddly familiar. And behind the sunshine girl was a quieter girl, holding her suitcase in front of her, long red hair bouncing.

Remus almost choked on his cereal.

“Well,” he muttered to himself, “this will certainly complicate things.”

Lily Evans was at Mont Blanc.