"Mister Lupin!"
Remus shot his head from its place on the desk as he heard his name, the sound ringing in his ears and making his already pounding headache send needles down his spine and into his eyes. Professor McGonagall looked at him with worried eyes from the front of the room, aware of the effects the approaching full moon had on the young man. The circles under his eyes seemed a lot darker than usual and the white knuckle grip he had on his crutch as he entered the classroom looked almost painful in itself. The professor gave him a questioning look and turned back to the board. Remus sighed and rubbed his temples to try to push back the migraine building behind his eyes. After a few more moments of explaining the topic Professor McGonagall told the students to get into groups to complete their class assignment, and before he could reach for his crutch Remus saw the chairs in front of him being pulled back as Sirius and Lily took seats in front of him.
They sat there for a few moments talking about the assignment, though Remus was having a hard time staying awake long enough to take his notes let alone focus on whatever Sirius was babbling about at the moment. With the full moon being that night, his mind and body were all too tired to let him live, not to mention the fact that his stomach and joints had been giving him a hard time recently anyway. It always felt like a cosmic joke when his flare ups aligned with the moons, like the two factors trying to ruin his life made a truce just to see him suffer. Remus' silence was noticed by the others and they looked at him, worried.
"Hey Moony," Sirius started, his eyes filled with concern despite him putting a smile on his face, "we all know you're the smart one, love. Do you know this one?"
Remus takes a look over the parchment and opened his mouth to answer when he suddenly went pale and felt bile rising in his throat. The boy rose quickly to his feet and turned towards the door, not even bothering to grab his crutch from it place propped up against the table.
"Remus are you-" Lily started as Remus raced for the door, nearly toppling over in the process. She and Sirius shot up at the same time to go after him, but Professor McGonagall stopped them.
"Miss Evans, Mister Black," the woman started sternly. Lily turned back to her with her mouth open and ready to argue, but before she could the professor continued speaking. "He'll likely be in the prefects bathroom. If anyone stops you, tell them to come to me. Directly."
While Lily stood still for a moment, Sirius wasted no time and grabbed the abandoned crutch.
"C'mon, Lils!" Sirius whispered to her, anxious to follow Remus.
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Remus was, in fact, in the prefects bathroom. As he burst quickly into the room and past the bath, he felt the saliva and bile pooling in his mouth and knew he wouldn't make it to the stalls. Quickly dropping to the floor next to a rubbish bin, the boy retched and shook as his stomach rejected the contents of his already mostly empty stomach. He sat there for a few moments not moving, just retching and struggling to catch his breath. It was in this state that Lily and Sirius found him, throwing open the door to the bathroom and rushing to his side. Remus didn't notice them at first, eyes closed as he tried to catch his breath and battle the pressure building in his head like it was ready to explode. Only when Sirius put his hand gently on his boyfriends back did the other boy realized his company. He opened his eyes and looked back at them, still panting, before clutching his stomach and turning back to the bin and vomiting again. At this, Sirius nearly screamed and jumped back, turning his eyes away as he tried not to throw up himself. Lily saw him struggling to keep calm and stepped forward, putting one hand gently on Remus' back and using the other to wipe the sweat and hair from his face as he continued to empty his stomach. When he stopped and was able to catch his breath again, the boy let out a whine and hung his head down toward the floor. He sat there panting a moment as Lily kept rubbing his back gently and reached into her skirt pocket to grab a tissue for him to wipe his mouth with. He did so, and as his breathing finally slowed, he pushed himself to sit up on his own.
"I think he's done, Siri." Lily turned to Sirius, who was biting his nails anxiously as he hesitantly turned to face them again. "It's okay, you can come over now."
The dark haired boy approached and sat on the ground next to his friends, running slightly shaky fingers through Remus' hair as the latter squeezed his eyes shut and leaned into the touch. Every part of his body was on fire and all he wanted was for the pain to stop. His knees under him were already screaming and his chest burned, his stomach still uneasy as he tried to focus on his breathing or his boyfriends touch or his best friends words of comfort or literally anything besides the pain that wracked every inch of his body, every molecule of his being. It was too much, far too much. He had dealt with pain nearly every day for as long as he could remember but this was something else entirely. This was pure agony. Between his chronic illness and the wolf that ached to be let free, Remus Lupin could process nothing but pain and he wanted it to stop. He needed it to stop.
Remus hadn't noticed that he was crying until he felt Sirius' gentle touch wipe away the tears that had been collecting on his cheeks. Sirius looked up and made eye contact with Lily, who looked down to the boy. Noticing that he was in fact crying, the worry started to set in more. In all of her years of knowing him, she had never seen Remus cry; not from anger or sadness or the pain that he lived through every single day of his life. Looking back to Sirius, she saw him mouth a single word. Pomfrey.Lily nodded and leaned over, planting a soft kiss on the top of her best friend's head before rising to her feet and leaving the bathroom to find the nurse.
"It's alright love," Sirius comforted as Remus choked on his own tears and breath. "It's alright Moons, breath for me."
Remus tried, he really did, but no matter how much attention he brought to his breathing the shaking and hyperventilation didn't cease. After another moment he closed his eyes again, tapping on Sirius' leg next to him.
"Sirius...Sick," The boy tried to choke out, "gonna be sick-"
He was cut off by his own retching, quickly grabbing the bin in front of him and vomiting again. Beside him, Sirius cringed and looked away holding his breath, trying his best to keep his composure for Remus' sake. All of his friends knew about his aversion to sick and tried their best to help him avoid it, but the boy couldn't bring himself to leave Remus as they waited for Lily to return with Madam Pomfrey. After Remus had finished retching and dry heaving, Sirius continued to run fingers through his hair to try to calm him. He was audibly crying and gasping now, one hand out in front of him holding himself up and the other grasping Sirius' wrist tightly.
"It's okay, Moony. I'm right here love."
Remus muttered something between breaths that Sirius didn't catch, and as he asked Remus to repeat himself Madam Pomfrey ran through the door carrying a large bag of medical supplies, Lily a few steps behind her. The older lady reached Remus and put down her bag, searching for something. Remus muttered again, brain fogged by pain and fever.
"What was that, love?" Sirius leaned down to his level and almost broke when Remus made eye contact with him, eyes swollen and face red and tear stained. His lips shook as he spoke softly between cries.
"...Make it s-stop..." Remus' breath sped up again as he closed his eyes and repeated it like a prayer. "Make it stop...Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop please-"
The boy's breath hitched again as he pulled the bin towards him, but could only dry heave as his stomach was completely empty. Madam Pomfrey pressed a cold compress against Remus' forehead and shushed him, gently scolding him (with no venom whatsoever) about not coming to see her sooner. She asked Sirius to help her get him to his feet and the dark hair boy agreed, both of them putting an arm under one of Remus'. They helped him up and headed towards the door and down the hall, making their way to the infirmary. Once in the large room they got him to his usual cot and laid him down, where Sirius wiped the boy's forehead, Lily held his hand gently, and the nurse rummaged to find him a potion to help him with the pain. After taking it the boy nearly vomited again, but was able to keep it down and get his breathing more under control.
After a few moments the worst of the pain started to fade, leaving the boy at least a little closer to just his baseline level of aches and soreness. Sirius sat beside him and brushed his hair from his face gently, until the motion lured the already exhausted boy to sleep on the cot. As the time passed and classes changed Madame Pomfrey spoke up for the first time since arriving in the hospital wing.
"You two should be getting on soon," she started, turning to face the teens. "He'll be well looked over here."
With some protest Lily and Sirius agreed, but as Remus stirred on the cot, Sirius' eyes shot to him, still anxious over the boy's state. Lily put a hand on the dark haired teens shoulder.
"I'll leave and go tell James and Peter, you stay and be here for him when he wakes up."
Sirius looked over to his boyfriend and back to Lily.
"You sure?"
Lily nodded with a smile and gave Sirius a hug before turning to leave before the boy or the nurse could question her. Sirius smiled and made his way back to the bedside, taking a seat next to his boyfriend. Madam Pomfrey sighed, knowing he was there without having to turn around to face him. She grabbed some piles of gauze and turned, handing them to the boy sitting across from her.
"I knew you'd stay," she sighed as she motioned for him to grab the gauze, "roll these up while you're here, we both know well that I'll need extra tonight."
Sirius smiled gently and grabbed the gauze, thanking Poppy silently for letting him stay. The two sat there until dinner, chatting about whatever came to mind, until Remus had eventually woken up. Knowing that he'd be too tired to attend the meal that night, Lily, James, and Peter came by afterwards with all his favorite picks. Though he barely ate any of it, Remus was just happy for those final moments of peace before sunset, when he knew they would all have to make their way to the shrieking shack. Until then, though, they were happy to be together as a family.