The Dream

"Shit." A disgruntled whisper came from the first bed in the 6th Year Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory. Remus Lupin groaned quietly to himself as he sat in hot, sticky sheets – and not from sweat. The remnants of the dream were now slowly ebbing away but the young werewolf had an idea in the back of his mind exactly who the person who made his dream this kind of dream was. He refused to let it surface, however, and concentrated on sorting this mess out. He crumpled his sheets together in his hands and attempted to sneak into the bathroom without waking up any of his sleeping companions. He crossed the small but cosy room and thought he was going to make it when – creeeeaaaak – he forgot the creaky floorboard by the door. He stayed still for a moment, hoping he hadn't woken anybody up, but then,

"Remus?" he heard a sleepy voice mutter from Sirius' bed, and when he turned he could see his sleepy face peering out at him through a gap in the curtains. "What are you doing?"

The werewolf reddened and decided not to answer him, ducking into the bathroom and hoping his friend would go back to sleep and think it was a dream. He threw his sheets in the laundry basket and started the shower, ridding himself of his dirty boxers as he did so – they also ended up in the basket with his sheets. He was just about to step in when there was a knock at the door.

"Shit." Remus said for the second time that night; it was unusual for him to swear. He wrapped a towel around himself and made his way to the door, making a small sound of disgust as he glanced his scarred chest in the mirror. He opened the door.

"You all right, Moony?" Sirius looked more awake now, a small smile on his lips.

"Yes," Remus sighed, sure that Sirius was laughing at him.

"You don't look all right," Sirius smirked; he lifted a hand to touch the werewolf's cheek. "You're all red."

Remus shivered at the warm touch on his cold skin.

"I'm fine, just having a shower Padfoot. Go back to sleep."

"Did Moony wet the bed?" Sirius chuckled, and despite his annoyance Remus couldn't help admire the beauty of that sound.

"Seriously?" Remus muttered, raising an eyebrow at his friends' immaturity.

"All right, have a nice shower, Moony." Sirius made to turn around. "Unless, of course you want me to join you?"

Despite being constantly bombarded by Sirius' teasing, the gullible young man still almost took this seriously – not that he would have said yes, or anything – but he hesitated, causing peals of laughter to emanate from his handsome friend.

"See you in the morning," Sirius said with a wink, and traipsed back to his bed as Remus shut the door. He lent his back against it and sunk to the floor as the small, admittedly embarrassing encounter, had left no doubt in his mind as to who starred in the dream that had got him in to this awkward situation in the first place.

Remus woke up for the second time that morning when the alarm went off at 7am. As usual, he was the only one who actually woke up to it. Normally he would turn it off and wake up each of his friends in turn, but he wasn't in the mood today. He quickly dressed and headed down to breakfast, leaving the clock blaring at his oblivious friends.

He took a seat next to Lily Evans at the dinner table and gave her a nod in greeting. He took some toast and nibbled at it absent-mindedly as he tried not to think about last nights' events.

"What's up, Remus?" Lily asked, after watching him chewing the toast for at least five minutes without making much progress into actually finishing it.

"Huh?" Remus started. "Oh, nothing. Nothing."

"Don't give me that," Lily said with a friendly smile. "Where's your gang anyway?"

"They slept in."

"Don't you normally drag their sorry arses out of bed?"

"Yep, that's me, the responsible one." Remus said, slight irritation in his tone. Lily didn't push it any further.

"If you need to talk, you can talk to me anytime Remus."

He smiled at her, "I know that. Thanks."

About half an hour later, with 15 minutes of breakfast to spare, the remaining three marauders rushed into the Great Hall, tripping over themselves. They spotted their fourth counterpart and plonked themselves on the bench next to him.

"Nice of you to join me," he said.

"Nice of you to wake us up," James grumbled as he did up his shoelaces, glasses askew.

"Oops must have slipped my mind." His eyes caught Sirius' then as a wicked grin spread across the other boys' face.

"Yeah," Sirius began and Remus knew what was coming. "Your thoughts must have been too engrossed in those wonderful dreams you were having."

Remus had stood up in the middle of his sentence and by the time he finished it he was storming out of the Great Hall, towards their first class of the day – Charms.

"What was that all about?" Peter chimed in.

"Oh, nothing," Sirius said, his eyes still attached to the doorway that his friend had disappeared from his view moments earlier.