A shadow crossed Remus' face in the moonlight. His face glowed pale amongst the surrounding foliage. There hadn't been an opportunity for him to appreciate the full moon in some years, so he felt that observing it at all other times in its cycle could help make up for the deficit. He swung his legs over the fallen tree branch he was sat upon closed his eyes and listened to the cacophony of the forest.
The Forbidden Forest was never truly silent. The wind whistled through each leaf and branch, skirting its way along the wild grasses. Creatures, which Remus had discovered weren't as threatening as the caretaker would have them believe, crawled, walked and slithered their way around the mulchy forest floor. Then there was the clumsy sounds that one made when the crunched their way through, which could now be heard by the boy sitting on the branch.
Remus immediately dropped behind the broad branch, gently placing his hands on it for balance as he crouched. The steps progressively got louder; sound travelled well in the middle of the night with no noisy gaggles of students to disguise it. When the sound got close enough, he dared to look through the leaves to see if he could determine who, or what, it might be.
'Oi, Remus,' A hoarse voice whispered into the breeze.
'Sirius?' Remus leapt up in surprise.
'Yeah, mate. I noticed you'd left the common room and you always look like a vampire who's been hit by a bad hex-'
'-why thank you Sirius, I appreciate the compliment.'
'I thought I'd follow because I bet James a galleon that you had a girlfriend and he didn't believe me but luckily you hadn't cleared your footsteps.'
'I'd forgotten,' said Remus blandly.
He was partially pleased but mostly annoyed that Sirius had discovered his repeated absences from the dorm. Sometimes his feelings of isolation threatened to swallow him deep into the ground, so he was glad that his friend was there to distract him but now he wouldn't be able to have his night time jaunts without it being noticed and Peter was terrified of any of them getting in trouble with a prefect. He almost fainted when James and Sirius got their first detention.
Three years on and nothing had changed there.
'So am I right? Will I be one galleon richer upon my return to the tower?' Sirius raised an eyebrow.
'Her name's Gwendolyn. She has blonde hair, blue eyes and likes long romantic strolls on the beach.'
'So what is it exactly that you're doing out here?' Sirius asked, confused.
'I just like spending time outside on a night time. Looking at the sky.' Remus sat back down once more on the branch and patted next to him for Sirius to join him. Sirius acquiesced.
'Yeah I would but I feel like I get enough astronomy in at family reunions.' Sirius laughed, 'Anyway you always seem to be ill around the full moon and that's the best time of…'
Sirius stopped laughing, his eyes opening wider than the length of the Hogwarts express. His head snapped around to Remus. His eyes met the other boys seeking for the confirmation that he both dreaded and expected. Remus kept the eye contact before bowing his head.
'Who did it to you?' Sirius roared, 'I swear I'll kill them.'
Remus sighed, 'It's not important. I'd understand if you didn't want to be friends with me anymore though.'
'What do you think I am? A monster? This isn't your fault and I'm damned if I won't do anything to try and help you.' Sirius' face was torn down the middle and his voice sounded like the warning snarl from an annoyed wolverine.
Remus stopped fidgeting with his thumbs, turning his full attention to the boy next to him. He could hardly believe that anyone would accept him for who he was.
'I'm a werewolf. I'm the monster. That's what I am,' Remus said in a monotone.
'But it's not who you are. It's just… a minor ailment.' Sirius offered.
Remus couldn't help but laugh. A minor ailment wasn't usually something which described the uncontrollable ability to kill other living organisms. Once he'd started to laugh Sirius joined in.
After a brief exchange, where Sirius appeared to be essaying his best sketches on Remus in order to cheer him up, the boys slowly strolled back to the castle. When they reached the foot of the stairs to the dormitory, Remus made Sirius promise that he would never divulge his 'minor ailment' in exchange for Remus confirming to James that he did indeed have a girlfriend. The result was that during the entirety of the next day, Sirius walked about the castle with a galleon's worth of swagger.
Christmas provided Remus with the opportunity not only to make his holidays less depressing, as the full moon was on the 25th December, but to provide Sirius with a swift excuse to spend time away from his family and the prospect of Hogwarts alone over the holidays. Sirius would be coming over on Boxing Day. Remus expected that he'd be feeling like shit but hoped that Sirius would change that.
They had gradually grown closer over the term much to James' dismay. However, the four boys hung out so frequently there was little difference in the overall dynamic of the group. The only subtle difference was that Remus and Sirius seemed to occasionally share an inside joke. This would be mutely communicated with a brief moment of eye contact or a smirk. This is plagued James but there were more important things to worry about, like not completely failing potions, or winning in Quidditch and of course the girl he secretly considered to be his future wife: Lily Evans.
Remus yelled a quick goodbye to his parents after lunch, before departing his house with a nervous anticipation. The frost lying on the driveway crunched satisfyingly below his feet but his eyes burned with the low-set glare of the winter sun. His scarf was wrapped tightly around the lower half of his face, leaving only a small gap below his nose, where his breath flared out in great puffs of smoke. The train station was only a couple of streets away, where Sirius would be arriving in less than twenty minutes. For some reason, Remus found his heart did an extra few beats when he thought of that. He ignored it, shaking himself of the feeling before continuing onwards.
Last night had been a particularly bad night. It seemed to be something which alternated and made Remus empathetic to girls about their respective times of month, so much so that he was infamous in the common room for possessing great quantities of Honeydukes chocolate which he frequently dispensed to pale looking students.
His parents had tried their best to make him feel happy preceding the dreaded evening. They awoke him with presents and smiles disguising their worry for their son before making sure that he had a hearty Christmas dinner at lunchtime. He'd had more roast potatoes pushed towards him than would have been needed to solve the Irish potato famine. However, the afternoon passed depressingly swiftly despite the otherwise pleasant atmosphere. When evening arrived, Remus had gone solemnly to the spare room, which was kept for his transformations.
The moon room, as he liked to call it, was bedecked with great swathes of pillows, mostly torn and scattered by this point, looking a bit like the remnants of a rowdy sleepover. His parents always made sure it was well stocked to try and make it as comfortable as possible for him. The moment before he went in, he always caught a flash of their concerned faces once they thought that he wasn't looking at them. Afterwards they'd lock the door and Remus would wait. The next morning, his mum always arrived with a full English breakfast and orange juice. She'd tend to any injuries he had gained during the night but he always felt sluggish the next day, as if he was just getting over a severe head cold. On occasion his injuries were so bad that he'd have to take a trip to St. Mungos. Thank goodness that hadn't been needed today.
He felt like a group of elves was having a party inside of his head as he caught sight of the station, though some of the pain was eased from his excitement to see Sirius and he vainly attempted to push away any of the remaining pounding in his cranium. He heard a clear voice drift through the cold air announcing the arrival of the next train. Carefully shuffling the last few steps to the station, he was relieved that hadn't slipped on any ice before positioning himself at one end of the Hornby-sized platform.
A short while later, an emerald train arrived cheerily throwing out smoke before coming to an intensely squeaky halt. For a brief moment Remus wondered whether it would miss the platform entirely but it didn't and the guard stepped off the train bidding him a Merry Christmas, which he returned politely with only the slightest hint of sarcasm. Merely one person alighted at his stop, looking like a rather scruffy, bedraggled ball of energy shrouded in a quilted Barbour jacket.
'You alright mate,' Sirius beamed at him, running as if oblivious to the hazardous ground, giving him a half-arm hug to prevent his rucksack swinging wildly into Remus. 'The Potters let me stay at theirs for the last week, so I was spared the astronomy lesson this time. You should have heard the Howler that I received yesterday! It's great to see you, even if you are looking a bit rough around the edges,' He winked. 'Hope last night wasn't too bad.'
'It's excellent to see you too,' Remus said with feeling. 'We'll head back to mine first. There's enough snow if you want to have a snowball fight later today, though you might need to give me a couple of hours recuperation first, so that I'm not walking as stiffly as my ninety three year old next door neighbour. I feel that would give you an unfair advantage.' He grinned, flashing all of his teeth.
The Lupin household was warm and inviting with a faint smell of cinnamon wafting from the seasonal potpourri in the porch, as both boys stamped their feet at the front mat, leaving a small pile of snow. Remus' parents came into the hallway and greeted them smiling before Remus grabbed Sirius' rucksack and the two headed upstairs, elbowing each other all the way. They turned onto the landing entering Remus' room, which now had a camp bed set up next to his own bed.
'You could have the guest room if it wasn't needed for the full moon. Might be a bit too feathery for you,' Remus joked.
'Nah, this'll be just like Hogwarts,' Sirius grinned, immediately making Remus feel more relaxed.
They sat on the bed talking about the Quidditch rankings, what they'd been up to since breaking up for the holidays and which girls in the year they liked. Remus, having named a random girl in their year who he knew to be pretty, said her name with no real conviction. Then he spent the next ten minutes puzzling over who he did actually like. Of course, he'd had a feeling that…but he wasn't sure. He was also puzzled when Sirius named the same girl without making a lewd remark, as was customary of him. Part of him hoped that Sirius was having the same sort of troubles as himself.
After a degree of silence where they both sat pensively looking at a group of gnomes making their way across the tundra-like the lawn, Remus suggested that they go outside, to have a snowball fight. Both leaping up, they rushed downstairs to wrap themselves up; even though they both knew that their woollen gloves would be saturated after five minutes. Once they both felt like burritos-no one liked a snowball to the neck- they walked outside the front door.
A figure, which had been standing across the street staring at their house, began to run down the street when they emerged. They were wearing a black cloak, their face hidden in the shadowed folds of the hood. Sirius looked at Remus enquiringly, who simply shrugged his shoulders in reply. They were a few wizards in the area, one of whom was known to be highly eccentric. Remus guessed it must be him and thought no more of it that afternoon as a snowball squarely hit him on the jaw.
When dinnertime was announced Sirius and Remus went back into the house undeniably soggy but incredibly happy. They would have sat down immediately at the dinner table to devour the fry-up from yesterday's supplies of Christmas food but Mrs Lupin gave them such a stern look that they went upstairs to get changed first. Mr Lupin sat at the table and threw them both a sympathetic nod. He wouldn't have minded if they'd sat down at the table but then, as he was hastily reminded, he was not the one who spent hours cleaning the dining room each week. He withdrew back into his food with the speed of a student being chased by a dragon and said no more until after dinner.
'The food was lovely, thank you Mrs Lupin,' Sirius said, as he and Remus stood doing the dishes.
Remus was trying to avoid Sirius whipping him with the tea towel, as he washed the guest crockery, in the quaint, little kitchen with an unhindered view of fields upon fields through the window out of the back of the house. They was even a small stream flowing, where a group of disgruntled gnomes, with icicles hanging off their noses, were currently camped out. They had been outside the front of the house until Sirius had started directing his snowballs towards them in a bid to play ten pin bowling.
Having completed the dishes and played a particularly vicious game of Wizard's Chess, the boys begrudgingly went upstairs to bed, without any intention of getting to sleep until the early hours of the morning. Remus pulled all of his covers around him and slid onto Sirius' camp bed so that they could chat quietly. Sirius had zipped himself into his sleeping bag, looking rather like a caterpillar that is ready to transform into a butterfly.
The camping bed creaked as it bared the weight of the two boys. There they lay side by side, on their backs and facing the frosted window, which was built into the slanted roof of Remus' room. Privately admiring the constellations for a while, Remus could hear Sirius' teeth chattering. He went to throw a particularly woolly blanket onto him before deciding to just put all of his covers over the two of them.
'Cheers mate. Nice view.' Sirius turned to face Remus, whose heart seemed to have adopted a salsa pace and lodged itself into his throat.
'Do you really like Jane Winters?' Remus asked, referring to the 'pretty girl' in their year, who they'd both named as their crush.
Sirius became quiet for a short time, leading Remus to believe he'd fallen asleep before saying, 'I don't know.'
'Me either,' Remus coughed, braving eye contact for a second time, before standing up and glancing out of the window, mostly to give himself something to do.
The black figure was there again, standing next to the stream outside of the back of the house. A feeling of foreboding settled in his stomach, much like a particularly greasy pizza from a sketchy establishment. It must have been nearing midnight and well, the policy of late night stalkers matched that of late night phone callers. Unless it was an emergency, any time after nine was unnecessary and a little ominous.
'Sirius,' He grabbed his friend pulling him up by the pajama sleeve, 'I don't think that's my eccentric neighbour.'
'Merlin! He's like a bloody horror film character. Why is he watching the house?' Sirius whispered. At that moment the figure looked up, glinting beetle eyes meeting their own terrified ones. They both shrieked before collapsing back down onto the camp bed and swaddling themselves with the blankets.
'Well, probably best to wait to investigate that till morning, ey?' Remus shivered. They both went silent for the rest of the night but it took until sunrise for either of them to fall asleep.
'Ok, well it looks like he was standing here. There are so many footsteps! Then he appears to have gone back around the back of the village,' Remus said, the low morning sun glinting down onto the snow.
'I guess we're taking a walk then,' Sirius yawned, the two of them beginning to follow the tracks. They were both feeling far more confident in the daylight, even if that had only managed a maximum of three hours' sleep the night before.
The going was slow as the snow hindered them in more ways than one. A few times they headed off down the wrong track only to realise it was the footprints of someone walking their dog. The heat from the sun had made the snow go unpleasantly slushy, making the bottom of their trousers increasingly wet.
'So how was James?' Remus asked.
'S'alright. You know. The usual. Wanted me to stay at his for longer. I think he's getting jealous of our intensely romantic relationship,' Sirius joked, 'I might have to stage breaking up with you in the Great Hall or something when we get back.'
Remus chuckled politely, whilst trying not to turn the colour of his Gryffindor scarf, 'Well we'd have to start going out first wouldn't we?'
'Yeah mate. Make it authentic.'
Sirius gathered a huge pile of snow in between the palms of his gloved hands before crunching and twisting it together to form a sizeable snowball. Remus, having got accustomed to being around Sirius for the past three years, had already started to run. However, he didn't run far enough out of range, as the snowball hit him between the fur collar of his hood and the back of his neck. He attempted to brush it all off, so that it wouldn't run agonisingly down his neck but couldn't quite reach. Then he felt warm breath by his ear and a hoarse whisper.
'I'll get it for you. Don't worry.'
A gloved hand brushed gently by his neck, getting nearly all of the snow out of the way. Remus stood stiffly, awkwardly- as if he had a particularly grumpy cat sleeping on his lap, which he didn't want to wake. The past twenty-four hours had provided him with less personal space than he had ever cared to have but he couldn't help look towards Sirius' omniscient eyes, as he finished brushing the snow away. Remus felt like he was drowning in them.
'And,' Sirius continued to whisper into his ear, like he was trying to tell him and only him the secrets of the Universe in the middle of a silent, rush-hour train carriage, 'If we were to start going out, I don't think I'd be able to keep myself from wanting to touch you.' He removed one of his gloves, warming the back of Remus' neck with his hand, 'Then-'
Sirius never got to finish what his subsequent plans were before they spotted the very person, temporarily forgotten, who they were looking for. Immediately in front of them, grinning in the way a psychopath might at a new knife, was the hooded figure. His face was partially obscured bar a glinting white set of teeth, if they could be called that, each one of them appeared to be filed to a sharp point.
'Greyback!' Remus cried, 'Run Sirius!'
'Oh but I don't think either of you will be doing that, ey? I don't think you can outrun me. Then both of you can be wolfie pals together. How sweet. Well not if I kill you first' Greyback snarled.
Remus turned in surprise to see that Sirius had been replaced by an enormous canine. He wasn't the only one taken by surprise, Greyback hadn't been expecting a thirteen year old to turn into a great, black hound. Sirius stood their snarling before launching himself upon Greyback, biting and scratching as many places as he could before Remus yelled at him to stop. Fenrir lay on the ground moaning, bathed in blood.
'Leave him Sirius. Please don't become a killer.' The dog turned round and stared at him, tilting its head to one side. As he did so, Greyback apparated with a swift crack. Sirius morphed back into his usual form.
'Hopefully he won't be coming back anytime soon,' Sirius said with a faint note of anxiety in his voice before regaining his usual swagger. 'Impressed are we then?'
'Sirius, please don't tell me that you're an unregistered animagus.' Remus said.
'Oh don't worry mate, I can't imagine that he's well acquainted with the Magical Law Enforcement department. It took me months to do this. I thought that it would help you on the full moon. I could go out with you and not be in danger. Had a few close shaves where my hand stayed like a paw for a few hours before I could turn it back but well as you saw…'
'Oh my Merlin! I mean I'm flattered Sirius but there's no way in hell-'
'-I also taught James and Peter to do it, though they're not exactly what you'd call 'Masters of the Artform'. Then I thought if you did want to tell them, then they were prepared too.' Sirius babbled, as Remus shook his head in disbelief at him.
'And what are they? A penguin and a panda?' Remus said incredulously.
'No a stag and a rat.' Sirius smiled serenely.
'We'll discuss that when we go back to Hogwarts. It's all a lot to take in. Though I assume it means you'll be getting 100% in your transfiguration end of year exam if that you're at that high a level.'
'Always one to care about the grades.' Sirius said.
'Anyway. D'you reckon it's about time for lunch? We've really worked up an appetite and I'd feel more comfortable knowing that we might not be ambushed out in the open.'
The next few days were whittled away in merriment, now that the prospect of them being murdered had subsided. The boys built gigantic snowmen, had snowball fights, went to Diagon Alley and held many a rematch in wizard's chess. Remus did suggest doing their essays at one point but Sirius felt like they should have a proper holiday until at least New Year's. Secretly agreeing with this, Remus dropped the subject, perfectly happy to enjoy leisure time with one of his best friends, whom he was becoming alarmingly close to with each day.
New Year's Eve came in a rushed flurry of banners, finger food and party poppers. Remus explained with what Sirius considered to be an impressive demonstration what a party popper was. He thought the confetti was brilliant and skipped around the room bedecking all of the furniture and Remus with it.
Remus' parents would be going to a party at the other side of the village on the evening, taking place at another wizarding family's house. They'd invited Remus and Sirius who said they'd much prefer the house to themselves and be spared the spectacle of a dozen adults (including the ever eccentric neighbour Wendell) who've had one too many drams of Firewhisky dancing to the Wizarding Networks cheesy New Year playlist. Furthermore, Wendell was well known to start stripping after a certain amount of alcohol and Remus had already seen his long johns one too many times to wish for a repeat performance.
'See you! We'll be back at about one,' Remus' mum smiled before checking that she had provided the boys with enough food to last them for at least two weeks if they rationed it. The pumpkin pasty allowance was roughly ten per person much to Sirius' delight.
Once they were gone, Remus helped himself to a Butterbeer before passing one along to Sirius. They were sat on the comfy, tartan sofa in the sitting room. The doors to the sitting room were shut, along with the curtains, to keep the heat in, as the fire crackled merrily away. They both stared at it before Sirius drained his bottle and rested it horizontally on the teak coffee table.
'Truth or dare time methinks!' He grinned wickedly, 'We'll each have a side of the room, I'll take left and you right.'
'Fair enough,' Remus replied, spinning the bottle. It bumped and slipped a few times before coming to a rocky rest position, pointing into the right hand side of the room. Remus did a mock gulp before dramatically gasping and pointing at himself, 'Oh goodness not me! I'll take truth.'
'Haha. Ok. I was secretly hoping it would land on me instead, so that you could dare me to eat five pastys in a row. Hmmm… ok if you don't like Jane Winters, who do you like at Hogwarts?' Sirius stared at him intently.
Neither of them had brought up the intense moment prior to Greyback's appearance. Both of them had pretended to fall asleep early on a night time to avoid the topic and a dense cloud of mystery surrounded the subject, neither of which was keen to extract it. Remus had no idea if Sirius did like him or had just been messing on that day. However, he was also aware that Sirius had said that he didn't like Jane Winters either…
'Well you see it's… that is to say… so yeah. Then it's actually… but really… yes. So that's about it.' Remus coughed, turning bright red.
'I couldn't quite distinguish any name there Moony, care to elaborate,' Sirius smirked.
'Ok then, who do you like, Padfoot?' Remus asked.
'Well, now that is a difficult question and it breaks the sacred rules of truth or dare. Really you should have to do a forfeit.' Sirius said opening a chocolate frog, catching it mid-leap and wolfing it down
'But there's only the two of us here-'
'No exceptions,' Sirius shook his finger at Remus before scooting towards him and grinning manically. 'So what are the usual ones again? There's-'
Sirius didn't get the chance to finish his sentence as Remus grabbed his face with both hands, giving him a quick, yet surprisingly tender, peck on the lips.
'It's you.' Remus announced. 'It's you who I like. I just didn't know if you liked me. Then there was the other day and well it's really baffled me. I'm sorry'
'Well I was testing the potion, as it were. Wanted to make sure that you actually liked me first. I had no idea either,' Sirius said, still looking happily shocked before pulling him into another kiss, this one longer than before. They both came out of it magenta lipped; their faces flushed and eyes glinting.
'I don't share my blankets with just anyone you know and I've slept on that death-trap of a campbed before and I tell you I would not get into it willingly on my own. Most people would have to offer me a lifetime supply of chocolate frogs.' Remus laughed, relived that the tension was out of the way. He felt lighter than helium.
'Well here's the beginning of that lifetime supply,' Sirius grinned, chucking Remus a chocolate frog.
As the clock struck midnight that evening, two ecstatic teenagers lay entwined upon what was possibly the world's most uncomfortable camp bed, staring up at the stars through the window in the roof, occasionally stealing glances and, more often than not, kisses, whilst humming the tune to 'Auld Lang Syne'.