chapter twenty
though the sun was steadily setting, the temperature by the lake didn’t drop massively. the sky was dotted with soft, thin clouds, the silhouettes of a flock of birds outlined against the white. eventually bright spots replaced the dying rays of the sun and sirius leant back in remus’ lap, raising a lazy hand to outline the constellations.
“what time is it?” peter asked through a yawn.
“it’s gone ten” lily replied, looking at her watch.
“i might head back up to the castle” he said, gathering the chess pieces that were strewn across the two picnic blankets.
he arranged them in their allotted places in the small trunk that had his father’s initials on it. the red letters were unravelling slightly, but peter was careful to avoid snagging the loose threads anymore.
“goodnight pete!” sirius shouted after him.
once he saw peter raise a hand in acknowledgment, sirius settled himself back between remus’ legs.
“you okay?” remus asked softly.
feeling sirius nod against his stomach, remus turned the page of his book. next to him, frank and alice were in the middle of an animated game of exploding snap, alice releasing an occasional squeal of surprise when identical cards were played.
for the past twenty minutes, marlene had been working on convincing dorcas to get in the lake with her and after bribes of kisses and snacks, dorcas obliged, standing up to pull off her blouse and skirt. she carefully tucked her socks into her shoes before running down to the edge of the lake with marlene’s hand in her own. she stopped suddenly, her toes just over the grassy edge, staring at the dark, still surface.
she let out a shout as she felt marlene’s hands on her back and as she came back up, the first part of her body to break the surface was her middle finger. she shook her head, water droplets spraying off the tips of her thick hair. marlene looked at her, sitting down on the soft grass by the water’s edge. she dipped her toes in, her smiling growing as dorcas swam closer, resting her folded arms across marlene’s thighs. she blinked up at her girlfriend, her dark eyes glowing in the pale moonlight.
marlene relented, allowing dorcas to wrap a hand around her own and pull her into the water.
“fucking hell! it’s colder than it was earlier” marlene complained as she watched dorcas head to where a large rock stuck out over the lake.
marlene bobbed around uncertainly as she watched dorcas climb up the rock, pausing at the top. when dorcas’ intentions became clear, marlene shouted up to her: “GO ON THEN!”
dorcas adjusted herself before diving neatly into the cold water. she reappeared moments later, grinning widely.
“i would give that dive 6.9 out of 10” marlene told her as she swam closer.
dorcas rolled her eyes: “of course you would.”
“do you want to go back to the others? i’m kind of cold” marlene asked.
“let’s go back to the castle and have a shower.”
“together?” marlene questioned with an undeniable tone of hope.
“i did say shower singular” dorcas said with a wink.
marlene suddenly put on a burst of speed, climbing out of the lake and running back to the picnic blankets to gather their things. dorcas followed not far behind, gratefully accepting the towel marlene chucked in her direction as she approached.
“careful!” lily exclaimed as marlene reached across, dripping on top of the ginger head. “are you guys heading in?”
“yeah, you coming?”
lily nodded, pulling on her cardigan as she stood up. she ruffled remus’ curls as she passed him, smiling as he looked up at her.
“see you later.”
“WAIT!”
emmeline quickly scrambled to her feet, squinting up the path into the darkness. she patted the rug around her, feeling for her wand. she let out a sigh of relief when she found it, and muttered a quick “lumos” as she rummaged in the picnic basket nearest to her. she pulled out a chocolate chip cookie with a satisfied smile and then followed after the other girls.
“hey remus, i think we’re going to head to bed too” alice said. “are you okay to pack all this up? actually don’t worry, we can carry some stuff now.”
“can you just leave the flask of hot chocolate and a couple of cookies?” remus asked her as she began putting the half-eaten tart and empty bottle of raspberry lemonade back in the baskets.
alice nodded, placing them within reaching distance of him. as she leant over she suppressed a giggle.
“sirius is sleeping” she whispered, her eyes lighting up. “does anyone have a pen on them?”
“yeah” remus said, offering it to her without hesitation. “wait what are you doing?”
“draw a dick on his face” frank said with a smirk.
“that’s what i was going to do” alice said, looking over her shoulder to smile at her boyfriend.
she shuffled closer to sirius’ still body, her subconsciously sticking her tongue out as she concentrated. in his sleep, sirius’ eyebrows drew together as the cold tip of the pen moved smoothly over his skin. sitting back on her heels a minute later, alice looked down proudly at her artwork. she returned the pen to remus and grabbed the picnic basket, holding frank’s hand in the other.
“see you in a bit, remus.”
“yeah, we’ll be in soon, i’m sure.”
frank nodded, bending down to press a kiss onto alice’s cheek before they began meandering slowly back up the stone path to the castle. moving as slowly as possible so as not to disturb his boyfriend, remus reached out for the hot chocolate, his stiff fingers curling around the warm metal.
sirius groaned at the movement and opened his eyes groggily. he looked around in the darkness, his eyes eventually meeting remus’ caramel-speckled ones. he tilted his head, smiling gently as dark hairs fell out from behind his ears, softening his usually sharp cheekbones.
“where’d everyone go?” he asked, his voice raspy after not using it for a while.
“back inside; it’s almost midnight.”
“can i have a cookie?” sirius asked, watching remus nibble the edge of one.
“alice left one for both of us” remus told him. “you can have some hot chocolate too if you want - just don’t finish it.”
“okay thank you.”
sirius nestles himself back in between remus’ legs, his head resting comfortably against remus’ chest.
“you’d better not be spilling crumbs in my hair” sirius said.
“i’m not” remus said defiantly.
sirius raised his chin, looking up at remus from below. he stayed quiet, watching as remus slowly made it to the soft centre of the cookie.
“what?” remus asked when he noticed sirius staring.
“nothing” sirius said quickly with a shake of his head. “just, i love you.”
remus blinked in confusion.
“because i’m eating a cookie?”
“the way you’re eating it is adorbale” sirius informed him. “and even if you ate cookies in an ugly way, i would still love you.”
despite the darkness, sirius could tell that the younger boy was blushing. he could feel remus’ heartbeat increasing with each compliment and assurance and he spun around, wrapping his legs around remus’ waist. he threw his arms casually over remus’ shoulders, smiling as he felt remus’ arms snake around his own waist.
he leant down, stopping when he felt the tips of their noses brushed.
“i love you too” remus whispered.
“promise?”
“promise.”