This is a short fic that I wrote during NaNoWriMo, while not actually participating. All the Nano madness around me was contagious and I decided to ask friends for short prompts, which resulted in this little thing. First prompt was Wolfstar Halloween and came from The_Lady_of_Purpletown who was also generous enough to read and beta this :D
Hope you'll enjoy!
It was the 31st of October and Remus had shut himself in the room he rented, located above one of the shops in one of the many alleys that led away from Diagon Alley. His windows were shut, curtains drawn and he even had a record playing, but all that still didn't shut out the sound of scratching against his window. When the scratching hadn't stopped after five minutes, Remus got up with a huge sigh and he set his book aside. As far as he knew only Sirius had trained his owls to be as obnoxiously persistent as he himself was, but maybe, maybe, there actually was an emergency and he would never forgive himself for ignoring a message if that was the case.
Sure enough, when he opened the window, he saw Sirius' owl with a red letter in its claws.
Remus shook his head and let the owl in. Those bloody Howlers always knew when they were noticed by their recipients and heaven knew how the neighbours would react if it went off right in the middle of the street. He took the letter from the owl (who he could have sworn gave him a slightly mischievous look) and shut the window after it flew outside again.
He shut the curtains too and turned to the Howler, which had started smoking ominously.
'Fine, fine' he muttered, and slid his finger beneath the seal.
Remuuus! Sirius' whining voice boomed through the chamber
Stop ignoring my messages already, I know you received them! I know you don't want to go out tonight, but James is too busy making smooching sounds with Lily, and Peter is off doing who knows whatever he's busy with these days, and you can't seriously make me spend Halloween alone now can you? That would be torture, and there's enough of that going round these days! So; I know you don't want to go out in public right now, though sod the stupid people and what they think, but I have a perfect plan and you will have a great time so make sure you're ready when I come to pick you up at 8, ok?
Sirius' voice had sounded quite out of breath by the end and Remus couldn't help the small smile that worked its way upon his face. Sirius was right; he really didn't want to go out in public right now. During the last full moon he had somehow managed to scratch his own face. The wolf, who had already been agitated because its pack wasn't around (the others had been needed on some business for the Order), had become even more energetic and aggressive because of the super moon that had been gracing the skies that night and that had resulted in more damage than his body could heal in one go. The scratches would probably fade to pale lines after the next full moon (only 5 more days to go and he would know) and then the murmurs and stares would lessen, he hoped. (Having obvious wounds in wartime seemed to make everyone think they could either demand an explanation, or whisper behind his back about 'hanging with bad sorts' and 'probably had a run-in with some dark wizards'. ) However, after more than 3 weeks being mostly cooped up indoors he was feeling a bit restless and if Sirius said he had a plan, he usually did have a plan, one that would even work in most cases. Plus; how could he ever deny Sirius company when he was almost begging for it, he had even taken the effort of creating a Howler after all. If the plan proved to be a bit too… well, Sirius… he could always turn to some other tried and proven methods of keeping Sirius indoors with him, he decided with a grin.
When Remus heard a knock on the door he went to open it with a small bit of dread and a whole lot of anticipation. What he wasn't expecting as soon as the opened the door was a few squirts of liquid straight in his face.
"What the-" He spluttered and smeared some of the liquid out of his right eye. The sight before him was enough to make him stop all motion. Sirius was deathly pale, and seemed to have severe wounds on the whole left side of his body. Even his robe was ripped up. For a second Remus feared the worst, but then Sirius' grin registered.
"Surprise!" he said happily. "Get in your oldest robes immediately, preferably ones that are properly ripped up, you should have no shortage of those!" When Remus just stared at him and didn't move Sirius gave him an impatient shove in the direction of his wardrobe. "Come on! We can't have your face look like something from one of Professor Binns' goblin war stories but your robes like you just ironed them, right?"
Remus turned around again and looked at Sirius with a sceptical look.
"And why, exactly, would we want to look like we've been attacked? I know it's Halloween, but do you really want to give people heart attacks? There's been quite enough real blood spilled lately, don't you think?" Really, sometimes it seemed like Sirius tried to live with his head buried firmly in a big pile of sand. Sirius, however, rolled his eyes dramatically and sighed.
"Remus, I know you are way smarter than I am, but that doesn't make me an idiot, you know? Of course I don't want to cause any major trouble, which is why-" His eyes stared glinting "-we'll be celebrating with the muggles tonight! Won't that be great? No war, no worries, just good old fun with Padfoot and Moony!" His big grin had returned and Remus couldn't help grinning back. That really was a good idea. Though Voldemort was wreaking havoc quite regularly in the muggle world, percentage wise it was still safer and calmer than the wizarding world. Plus, he thought, turning towards the mirror on his wardrobe, with the fake blood that Sirius had squirted on his face first thing, the deep scratches on his face really did look like an intentional Halloween stunt. Who knew, they might even win some free drinks for best costume that evening!