Remus Lupin sat hunched over his Potions book in the common room, diligently working on his essay. He yawned and rubbed angrily at his eyes, attempting to force them back into focus despite the late hour. Both James and Sirius had finished ages ago, having yet again managed to bullshit their way through an assignment in less than an hour without even once consulting a book. It never ceased to frustrate him how easily they could succeed in all of their classes while putting in such minimal effort. Not that he'd ever admit it to either of them, of course.
Peter had been working with him for a while longer than the others, but he, too, had eventually given in to exhaustion and retreated up the stairs to their dormitory.
Throwing down his quill, Remus sighed and buried his face in his hands. It felt good to be able to close his eyes, to breathe slowly and to rest, even if only for a few minutes. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to put his head down on the table and sleep.
Of course the paper had to be for potions. Even after nearly six years he still had barely a minimal grasp on the subject. Sometimes he felt even Peter was better at it than he was. No offence to his friend, but that was a truly depressing thought.
He groaned and leaned forward again, gritting his teeth as he forced himself to concentrate once more. After managing to make sense of a few more paragraphs in the text, he continued to write, feeling rather resigned. Just as he took a pause to dip his quill in his inkwell, a voice broke the silence of the empty common room, causing him to start.
"Mooooony," it called hoarsely, sending a chill up his spine.
He whipped around instinctively, piercing grey eyes searching for the source, not even noticing as he knocked his jar of ink over in the process. His gaze came to rest almost immediately on a pyjama-clad boy, with shaggy black hair still slightly mussed from his pillow.
"Padfoot," Remus said, a wry smile tugging at his tired lips.
"Moony." Nodding in the other boy's direction, Sirius shuffled over towards him and took a seat at the table.
"Tergeo," he mumbled sleepily, directing his wand at the pool of ink spreading over Remus's essay.
"Thanks," Remus murmured.
It was absurd to him how perfectly, well, perfect Sirius looked right now. Right now, at nearly two A.M. in the morning. Even in baggy pyjama bottoms and a rumpled white t-shirt, his hair unbrushed and his eyes half-closed and unfocused, even thus he would've instantaneously and effortlessly won over the hearts of women of all ages. If any of them perchanced to be present, that was. As it was only Remus was around to bear witness. He was struck by a sudden twinge of jealousy, painfully aware that if he were to crawl out of bed at this hour, and come downstairs, his hair would be ridiculed as closely resembling a crazed scientist's, while somehow on Sirius this same look translated to "sexily disheveled." Then again everything came naturally to Sirius in a way that it wouldn't, or couldn't, to him.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked, startling Remus out of his reverie.
"Pardon?"
"Down here?" Sirius clarified. "In the common room? At two in the morning?"
"Oh, right. Potions essay."
"Still?" Sirius choked, disbelieving eyes widening in horror. "Christ Moony, you just got to learn to give up at some point mate."
"I'm not giving up," Remus sniffed, pulling his essay back towards him and picking up his quill again in order to convey his point.
Sirius sighed and shook his head in disbelief. "Look, potions is simple."
"Easy for you to say," Remus snapped. "You're ace at potions, you and James both."
"Well, granted," Sirius allowed with a smirk. He leaned closer to Remus across the table. "Come on, I'll help you."
Remus sighed and ran his hand distractedly through his hair. "No, it's fine. I'll get it done, you should go to bed."
He looked up and for the briefest of moments thought he could detect a hurt look in his friend's eyes.
A second later, though, it was gone and Sirius merely shrugged indifferently. "Suit yourself mate," he said, standing up and stretching.
He headed back over to the stairs and Remus began to write once more, somewhat dejectedly.
"Hey, Moony?"
He turned back around to see Sirius standing hesitantly at the bottom of the steps. There was something weighing on his mind, that much was obvious. Now, whether or not he was going to say it was another matter entirely.
"Just, er, don't stay up too late," Sirius finished lamely. Apparently not. "Even a creature of the night needs his beauty sleep," he added with a faint smile before finally heading up the staircase.
Remus turned back to his essay, now completely unable to focus. He doodled absently along the edge of the parchment instead, wondering curiously what it was Sirius had started to say to him. It wasn't until a few minutes later when he looked down at his paper that he noticed what he'd drawn:
S.B.