Remus blinked as he slowly regained consciousness, the hair in his eyes only slightly reducing the harshness of the light in the hospital wing. He tried to sit up, but something heavy landed on his chest, stopping him. He blinked again, his eyes starting to focus properly, and he looked down at the heavy thing, barely able to think straight yet. A big, black thing pinned him down against the bed, and as his eyes began to focus properly, he noted that it was furred. Following the leg, he found himself looking straight into the eyes of a rather large black dog that was taking up half of the bed space, and found himself wondering if the dog looked more amused or worried. He turned to look over the side, and was suddenly thankful to see that his two other friends at least had more sense than the dog, and were quite definitely human.
"Sirius, get off me, and stay human. Merlin knows what Professor McGonagall would do to you if you get caught." The dog barked once before leaping off the bed, falling out of Remus' line of sight. A head of dark hair reannounced Sirius' presence as he stood up, casually dusting off his robe.
"You got hurt pretty bad, Moony, we were worried about you. See, we even sacrificed our dinner to bring you some!" Sirius said, gesturing to the bedside table.
"Awww, how sweet. Please remove him, James," Remus replied, rolling his eyes at the boy with the unruly mess of hair standing next to the bed, looking like he was enjoying their bickering.
"Anything for you, my dearest Moony!" James called out loudly, proceeding to try to shove Sirius away from the bed, while Sirius complained indignantly that Moony was his.
"Sometimes I wonder why we even put up with them," Remus muttered to the short, rotund boy standing at his side, watching the events.
"Oh come on, Remus, they aren't that bad."
"Easy for you to say. They don't call you 'Moony' all the time, and fuss about you every single month for three days straight."
"They call me Wormtail," Peter replied, a slight grin on his face.
Remus sighed, sitting up slowly and eventually getting up, ignoring the burning pain in his left shoulder and a pounding headache. He hobbled over to the two fighting boys who were now shouting challenges at each other and grabbed each one by the scruff, splitting them apart and holding them there with a strong grip, enhanced by the boys greatest secret.
"Moony, tell this idiot Prongs that you're my Moony and Prongs should shove off, he already has claim rights on Lily and Peter."
"Moony, please tell the overdramatic Messr Padfoot that if he even looks at Lily he will be murdered in his sleep."
"Remus, tell Padfoot that Prongs does not own me, and tell Prongs that he should have defended me against that accusation."
"Shut up, Peter, I definitely own you," Jame replied.
Remus sighed quietly, letting his shoulder slump before pulling himself to his full height, towering over Sirius and Peter and even James a little.
"If you guys don't stop bickering for just one moment I will personally find your stash of dungbombs and hand them over to McGonagall myself," he said as threateningly as he could manage.
A door creaked open, and James and Sirius instantly dived under Remus' hospital bed, Peter joining them soon after with a squeak.
"Remus! What are you doing out of bed!" the yell would have probably scared off anyone else, but Remus stood his ground, too used to Madam Pomfrey to be intimidated by her. She seemed to have a soft spot for the werewolf.
"I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey. Can I please leave the hospital wing?" he made an effort to send her his best pleading look, and it wasn't long before she relented.
"You can go back to your dorm tonight, but only tonight. I'll get your troublesome friends to come help you up. I need to perform some final tests before you can go, so please get back in bed and stay there until it's time to go."
Remus nodded diligently and climbed back into the bed. The matron went off into a corner, beginning to fuss over a shelf of potions, and Remus hung a leg over the edge she was standing at, notifying the three boys under the bed where to sprint to, and was not surprised when a tiny rat sprinted out the door, followed by a giant black dog who was relatively light-footed despite it's size and a boy with unruly hair, who almost ran into a bed as he made his escape.
In the end, it was Lily who came down to help him. Remus was on alright terms with the victim of James' affections - she was good to discuss books with, even if she enjoyed expressing her dislike of the unruly boy almost as much, and often argued with him. It had earned Remus a few threats from James, but he wasn't worried. Not now that James knew his second biggest secret.
Remus stumbled into the room he shared with his three best friends, and had even more reason to fall over as Sirius knocked him over in his eagerness to greet the injured boy.
"Moony, I missed you!" Sirius exclaimed loudly.
"You haven't seen me for a grand total of three hours," Remus replied, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"But they were long hours, polishing the trophies!" the dark haired boy replied indignantly.
Remus regarded him with a mixture of amusement, affection, and tiredness.
"Sirius, maybe we should let him sleep," Peter called from the other side of the room.
"Oh, my saviour!" Remus exclaimed in the same fashion they were used to hearing from Sirius, sending James into a coughing fit.
Sirius let go, albeit reluctantly, and Remus instantly crawled into bed, only to have Sirius crawl in beside him.
"Get out."
"Your bed is incredibly comfortable. I'm staying."
"Forbidden things are usually a lot sweeter than normal. This bed is definitely forbidden. Get off."
"Make me."
Remus flipped over to face the other boy and bodily shoved him onto the floor, only to roll back over, drawing his blanket close. He heard Sirius stand up and start moving back towards his bed, followed by a large thump as he was probably flattened by James.
"Mate, what's gotten into you? You do remember the full moon was yesterday!" Remus heard the taller-than-Sirius-but-not-taller-than-him boy hiss, and was almost pleased when Sirius replied in a much more subdued tone that he had forgotten, followed by an apology that Remus sleepily accepted, a second before he fell into a deep sleep.
Sirius watched as the tall boy fell asleep, too tired to care that one long, thin leg was dangling out of the covers, only half covered in the pants that he always wore. The boy made his way around the bed, wincing at the scars visible on Remus' leg as he walked past.
"You care about him."
It was a statement, not a question, but Sirius still nodded slightly in reply to his partner in crime, "we all do."
James sighed, shaking his head with a small smile on his face that said he knew something that Sirius didn't as he sat down on his bed, yawning. He threw a sideways glance first at Sirius, and then the sleeping boy, but when he spoke it was only to announce that he was going to bed, the world be damned, and began sleeping the sleep of a man who wouldn't wake up if a fire were raging right outside his door.
Sirius turned to look at Peter, expecting him to be awake, but the rat was also fast asleep, making the dog animagus the last one awake. With a quiet sigh he stood up and snuck over to James' trunk, pinching the invisibility cloak they had forgotten to take to the hospital wing and wrapping it around himself before leaving the room with a quiet swish that continued to follow him as he left the Gryffindor common room.