Written for Hogwarts' Around the World Event: Czech Republic - Dialogue: "Careful. Don't let them hear you.", the Swimming Lessons Assignment - Backstroke: Write about someone on bedrest, the Writing Club: Restriction of the Month - Write about something that occurs only at night, (color) silver, Showtime - Torture Tango - (word) Suffer.

Word count: 1763

Mischief Managed

Sirius was praying in his head to whichever god might take pity on him and his friends to keep the way to the Infirmary clear and the portraits asleep. So far, nothing had happened, but they weren't quite there yet, and James had almost tripped three times on his own Invisibility Cloak, nearly dragging down Sirius and Peter with him, huddled together as they were.

"Careful. Don't let them hear you," James whispered as they slowly crept toward the Hospital Wing.

Sirius rolled his eyes and whispered back, "You know, we'd be a whole lot quieter if you'd just stop talking all the time, Prongs."

Peter's half-muffled giggle didn't really help either and Sirius resumed his praying. Please, he begged, I will do anything — I'll even stop calling Minnie Minnie, for like, a week. Just don't let anyone catch us.

Sirius' gods seemed to be with them that night because they managed to enter the Hospital Wing unnoticed.

Sirius immediately relaxed once they shut the door behind them. The room was dark, but not so much so that they couldn't see where they were going. Here, they didn't even need a Lumos: the silver moonlight streaming in from the windows was more than enough light to see by.

They shrugged off the Cloak with content sighs and James tucked it away in his pockets.

"So, which bed is he in?" Peter asked, voice coming out as surprisingly high-pitched in the silence.

"No idea," James replied with a shrug. He kept his voice low but didn't bother to whisper like he had before.

"He's here!" Sirius called out, gesturing toward the only full bed in the infirmary. It was the closest to Mrs. Pomfrey's office and the furthest away from the entrance — it really was no surprise Remus would have ended up there.

"Wow, he looks awful," Peter gasped when he and James reached the bed.

Sirius elbowed him in the side while James slapped the back of his head. "You just don't say it," Sirius hissed.

"But it's true," Peter replied mulishly, staring at them like he didn't understand the problem.

James rolled his eyes at Sirius, but answered Peter, "You still don't say it like that — it's not very polite."

"Oh." Peter deflated, looking so pitiful and sad at his involuntary blunder that Sirius suddenly wanted to draw him into a hug and pat his head gently.

"It's fine," James said reassuringly.

Peter had been right, though. Remus did look awful — his arms and face were covered in shiny white bandages that they just knew hid wounds that'd scar over, and Sirius was willing to bet that the rest of Remus' skin was just as bad.

It made his heart constrict painfully in his chest.

The three of them stood there, studying the way the moonlight slowly caressed Remus' skin and hair. There were deep shadows under his eyes and his forehead looked creased with pain — or hopefully, only stress — even in sleep. Sirius knew he wasn't the only one suddenly reluctant to wake up their friend.

"So… Now what, James?" Peter asked quietly.

"I don't know!" James hissed back, gesturing his confusion wildly with his hands. "Why are you asking me? This was Sirius' idea!"

Sirius spluttered in shock. "No, it wasn't?!"

James arched an eyebrow at him, staring judgingly. "You literally told me, 'Hey, Prongs, we should go visit Moony tonight and make sure he's not too lonely since he's stuck on bedrest for longer than usual'," he stated dryly.

Sirius crossed his arms defensively. "Well, that's called being a good friend, isn't it? And anyway, it's not like I planned any further than 'let's go see Remus'-"

"Guys," Peter interrupted in a squeak.

"-because, you know, Remus is our idea guy-" Sirius continued, ignoring the interruption.

"Guys," Peter repeated urgently.

"-and by the way, you totally didn't have to agree to come with me or go along with it."

"Guys."

"Well, of course, we did," James retorted mulishly. "We all know how dogged you become once you get this idea into your head, and if we hadn't come with you, you'd probably have tried to go alone."

Sirius opened his mouth to reply to that, but he stopped. James wasn't entirely wrong, actually. Sirius would have gone to visit on his own if his friends hadn't wanted to come with.

He didn't manage to find something else to say because Peter's urgent and exasperated voice interrupted him yet again.

"Guys!" he said, and Sirius growled.

"What?"

Peter's index stabbed at the bed without another word. Sirius and James turned slowly.

Remus was sitting up, and though his eyes were bleary with sleep, he was also giving them his patented 'I'm not impressed with your behavior' look.

"Hey guys," he said, licking his lips and breaking into a dry cough. James quickly grabbed the glass of water left on Remus' bedside table and shoved it at Remus, only narrowly avoiding sloshing it all over the sheets.

"Thanks," Remus replied with a huff of laughter as he accepted the glass. He drained it quickly and put it back on the table.

For a long moment, the four of them only stared at each other in silence. Remus' lips quirked up and he broke first.

"So… What are you doing here exactly?"

"We came for you, duh," Peter stated with an eye roll. He jabbed his thumb Sirius' way and said, "This one was hopeless cause he kept worrying about you, and that one, " he jabbed his thumb toward James, "thought it was a brilliant idea, and then they roped me into it." His smile negated the exasperated tone he'd used, and Remus laughed.

"You didn't have to, you know. I would have been fine here and, you know, asleep."

Sirius waved off his concern with a huff. "Please, you're on bedrest, you can always sleep in tomorrow — that's like, the best thing about being on bedrest. Sleeping is pretty much the only thing you can do in here, you'd have been bored all day — now that we came here, your night will be fun and you can sleep the day away.

"See? It's a win-win, you'll never be bored now! Isn't it great?" He beamed at his friends. "It's fine, you can thank me later."

"... And how are you planning on staying awake in class today, then?" Remus asked with a half-smile.

"Sleep is for the weak, obviously," Sirius replied.

Remus blinked, gaping in silence. Peter moaned and dropped his head in his hands while James looked at the wall like he was seriously considering bashing his head in it.

"Yeah, good luck with that." Remus laughed and sent a pitying look to James and Peter, who looked so grateful to receive it that he nearly burst into tears.

Remus yawned. "Look, guys, it's not that I don't appreciate this, but… You should really go back to the Tower and sleep. You have Potions tomorrow and the last thing we need is Sirius blowing up the school because he fell asleep on his potion."

Remus regretted saying anything the moment he saw Sirius' eyes light up with an unholy glee.

"No," he hastened to add, "you're not allowed to purposefully blow up anything in Potions so you can end up in here with me."

Peter squeaked loudly. "Yes, please," he said fervently. "No blowing up, I value my life."

"Aww, Petey, not even a tiny little explosion?" Sirius asked with a laugh.

"No explosions!" Remus, James and Peter simultaneously said.

"You guys take the fun out of everything," Sirius pouted. "Fine, no explosions then — but what about-"

"No trying to end up in the Hospital Wing on purpose either," Remus added quickly before Sirius could finish his thought. "I'm really fine on my own for a couple of days — not that you guys let me be that for long — and anyway, you know Mrs. Pomfrey would get suspicious."

Sirius deflated. "You're right."

Remus heaved a sigh of relief, quietly echoed by James and Peter.

"Well, now that this is over, you should go back to the Tower. You can always come back tomorrow — after class," he added quickly, alarmed when Sirius started to perk up at his words.

"We'll bring you our notes," James reassured him.

"You mean you'll beg Evans for her notes," Peter said, rolling his eyes. "We all know how bad your handwriting is, Prongs — Remus is already in the Hospital Wing, he doesn't need to suffer even more."

James pouted. "She'll lend me anything if I say it's for Remus and it's the only time where she doesn't insult me for talking to her. It really isn't fair."

"I know," Sirius whispered behind James' back. "It's almost as though she likes Remus better than she likes you, or doesn't appreciate the constant asking her out. Weird, isn't it?"

Remus and Peter stifled their laughter, nodding discreetly. James glared at them.

"You're all terrible friends and I should let you find your own way back to the Tower," he said with a glower.

"Excuse you, we're all amazing friends and you should not," Sirius said, sputtering.

"Don't worry," Peter said with a pitying nod James' way, "he would get lost without us anyway."

"Terrible friends," James moaned. "What did I do to deserve this?"

Their theatrics made Remus laugh, but soon enough everyone had joined him.

"Alright, alright," he said once their amusement had abated enough that he could speak, "now it really is time for you guys to leave."

Sirius pouted at him but Remus stared back relentlessly until Sirius sighed in agreement, shoulders dropping.

"Fine," Sirius said grumpily. "We'll go. But we'll come back." James and Peter nodded at his side.

Remus's heart tightened in his chest in that way it always did when his friends stuck by his side and he smiled.

"Of course you will." He huffed a laugh as his three friends started to huddle together, James pulling out his Invisibility Cloak.

They vanished from sight the moment James pulled it over them — a sight that Remus would never get tired of — and moments later, the door to the Hospital Wing opened and closed with a hiss.

It was almost easy to ignore the ache from his injuries and fall back to sleep. Still, Remus laid awake for a while, considering how lucky he was to have such friends as the Marauders.

When sleep finally took him, he still had a smile on his face.