Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I make no profit. I'm poor.
Notes: Set in their fifth year. This is just me stretching my writing muscles. Better drabbles to come, I solemnly swear.
In a rare fit of insanity, Sirius had set foot into the library.
The reason for entering the desecrated place was beyond Sirius' grasp now. A lot of things were beyond his grasp now. He was stunned. Did they really have this many books in the school? Bloody hell. If he had known about this, he would have gone to the library eons ago to look up essays to copy off of.
Looking around with a little more glee than students normally showed when they were in the library, Sirius picked a direction and started for the nearest row of books.
…or tried to, anyway.
Sirius frowned, brushing away the hand that had descended onto his shoulder like the apocalypse to stop his fun.
"Moony," he accused quietly, turning to see the pale boy giving him a wary look. "Don't sneak up on a bloke like that. Nearly gave me a heart attack."
"I doubt I could manage that," Remus retorted just as quietly. He shook his head before giving Sirius another uneasy look. "What're you doing in here, anyway?"
Sirius didn't miss the suspicious tone, but he was choosing to ignore it. What could he possibly have done, after all, to make one of his best mate's suspicious of him? It wasn't as if he was somewhere where he shouldn't be, right? Loads of students came here every day, didn't they? Merlin only knew how many times Remus had scarpered off for the library when he was trying to convince the other boy to use those prefect powers of his to help Sirius take over the school.
"I'm looking for a book," Sirius supplied at last. It seemed like a reasonable sort of answer.
"A book," Remus repeated slowly as if he hadn't quite heard Sirius right.
"Yeah, you know…" Sirius gestured vaguely, drawing out a square-ish shape in the air with his hands before miming reading a book. "Pages, binding, a spine…"
Remus sighed and cast a quick glance around. "I know what a book is, Sirius. I just don't know why you've got a sudden interesting looking for it yourself."
Bemused, Sirius looked back and forth as well, curious to know what Remus might be looking for. When he didn't see anything particularly interesting, Sirius shrugged it off.
"Wormtail was busy," Sirius answered shortly. Nothing more of an explanation was needed.
Remus gave Sirius a cross look and Sirius backed up a step, holding up his hands to fend off the impending lecture. He really didn't want to hear again from Remus how he should be nicer to Peter, and how Peter was not his own personal servant to be sent to the library on a whim to retrieve any books he needed, or sent to the kitchen for food, or sent out to the lake with a whole tuna tied round his neck for Sirius' own amusement…
Remus deflated the next second, thankfully deciding against a lecture.
"Fine," the shorter boy conceded, pressing a hand to his forehead. "Carry on. Just… do me a favor?"
Sirius couldn't really focus on listening – he had been given permission to keep on with what he was doing. This was one of those Momentous Events in history. It wasn't every day that Remus decided to stop being a complete stick in the mud. Times like this needed to be celebrated with firewhiskey and throwing fanged frisbeys at Snivellus!
"Sirius, are you listening?"
No, not really.
"Sure I am. What d'you want, Moony?"
Remus sighed. He could tell when his friend was off in another world planning the destruction of this one. "I said, do me a favor and don't burn down the library, alright? Our O.W.L.s are in two weeks, and just because you and James don't think studying is worth the time of day doesn't mean the rest of us don't want to get some use out of the library."
"Right, right," Sirius answered vaguely, attempting to wave Remus off.
Remus sighed again. It wasn't any use. Giving Sirius one last warning glance that the taller boy missed completely, Remus sent a silent prayer to Merlin and left for his Ancient Runes class.
Before he was even halfway down the hall, Remus heard the unmistakable thumps and crashes of bookshelves toppling over in a chain reaction along with a cacophony of yells and cries of, "Look out!" After a moment, there was a small explosion that Remus couldn't even guess at the origins of.
Remus walked away faster.