Where Would I Be?
Introduction
Well I originally intended for this to be a oneshot, but now I think I may post the ficlet in three chapters. This is slash by the way, in case you hadn't noticed. So if you don't like it, then don't read it.
No Deathly Hallows spoilers here, as it's all set in the Marauders' Era.
You may ask why I'm wasting my time writing this when I should be updating "Familiar Faces", so I'll tell you. I finished typing up chapter 5 yesterday, but wouldn't let me upload any documents, so I haven't been able to post it yet. Which is annoying. I could type up chapter 6 but, well, I don't feel like it, as it brings me closer to chapter 7, and then I'll have to write that. You see, I'm stuck in the middle of chapter 7, on a boring bit I don't want to write because it's…well…boring. And if I don't enjoy writing it, then there's no way anyone will enjoy reading it. So I'm having a break and writing something I do enjoy, in the hope that I'll get some inspiration. If that makes any sense at all.
(One other reason I wrote this is because I can't pair off Sirius and Remus in "Familiar Faces" so this will remove all temptation. I hope.)
Chapter 1 – On Our Way
"Oh no! We forgot the butterbeer!"
Peter was immediately shushed by the two boys in front of him.
"No we didn't, Sirius picked some up while the rest of us were in Honeydukes, remember?" whispered the first of the two, indicating the telltale clinking of bottles that came from the cloak of his companion, who turned and flashed him a grin.
You did get me the sugar quills though? You didn't forget, right?" Sirius whispered back to his friend.
"Sugar quills? What? No, you asked for Ice Mice and Acid Pops…didn't you?"
"No, you idiot! Tell me you're joking, seriously mate."
"Nope. But if you want some Fizzing Whizbees they're in my pocket somewhere." James made a show of turning out each of his pockets in search for the paper bag.
"The one thing I ask you to do! The one thing! I would make you turn around right now and get some if we weren't already halfway through the tunnel!"
"But James, I saw you buy three long-lasting sugar quills, I'm sure!" came the squeaky voice of the shorter, and decidedly more plump boy. Sirius sighed, and quite possibly rolled his eyes, but the tunnel was dark aside from the dim light coming from James' wand tip. Too dim for anyone to see much.
"Well done, Wormtail." James's voice was dripping in sarcasm.
"You did get them! You stinking rotten liar, you had me really worried there!" Sirius' self righteous voice rang out loudly through the otherwise quiet passageway. The sound of a thud and an "oof" followed it.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"What do you think, moron?"
"It was just a joke!"
"And it was just a shove! Now we're even."
The voices were much louder than whispers now. They were, in fact, nowhere near so. The words echoed off the stone walls of the passage, magnifying them tenfold. Remus Lupin walked behind his three friends, watching, or at least listening to, the continued banter between his two friends.
They often did this. Play fighting. Neither of them actually meant it, no, they were the best of friends. But they could get carried away at times. Quite a lot of the time actually, come to think of it, and now seemed to be one of them. It was usually best to just let them get on with it without interfering. Remus, ever the sensible one, usually stayed well back for fear of getting a shoe in his face.
It wasn't that he was a coward or anything. No, Remus had his share of brawls, or whatever you might want to call them. It was just that James and Sirius were particularly violent, probably due to both of their extremely competitive natures.
Like when Remus had the unfortunate job of being the one sent back upstairs to wake Sirius up when everyone was waiting to go down to breakfast. Sometimes, he would be able to escape with merely a pillow aimed and half-heartedly thrown at the back of his head. At other times, however, he was less lucky. Every so often Remus would be pounced on after prodding his sleepy friend in the shoulder. He put it down to Sirius' dog instincts.
Sirius would leap out of bed in an entirely un-morning-like fashion for most (sane) people, and attempt to pin Remus to the ground. A lot of rolling around and hitting into things usually ensued, and more often than not, Remus would end up with Sirius sat on top of his chest with a triumphant look on his face, thwarting every attempt of Remus' to struggle to his feet.
It was odd though, one time, at the bottom of the staircase as usual, they were deciding who would have the short straw this particular morning. They had nearly decided to send Remus up again, when James had said no, Moony took three times as long as everyone else, and he was really hungry and wanted to get down to breakfast, thank you very much. Remus had protested that it wasn't his fault he got wrestled to the floor for his efforts. James had replied that it couldn't be right, because Sirius never had enough energy to tackle anyone in the morning, let alone when he had just woken up. Apparently the most abuse James had ever received was a fist aimed feebly at his face. No, what Remus said couldn't be true, and Peter nodded along with James, making noises of agreement, and was promptly sent upstairs by James so he could hurry up and get some bacon.
So what had he done to deserve this?
He could picture it perfectly now: looking up at Sirius' laughing face, his twinkling eyes looking straight into Remus' grey ones, the morning sun shining through his long black hair, squirming to get free, but Sirius' strong, lean hands pinning his wrists to the floor. Sirius' comfortable weight on-
"OUCH!"
Something relatively large and rock-like had just fallen out of nowhere onto Remus' foot, bringing his mind back to reality with a painful jolt.
"OW! Fuck! My toe!"
Remus looked down, and bent to pick up what was indeed a rock but had bounced off his toe and rolled a little way across the floor.
"Moony, I think that's the first time I've ever heard you swear. You're supposed to be the well behaved one."
"Shut up, Sirius, oh come off it," Remus snorted in derisive laughter. "Well whichever of you threw that-"
"We weren't throwing rocks!" exclaimed James, astounded. "What do you think we are, cavemen?"
"Well wherever it came from, it bloody hurts."
Remus looked around him for a place to sit down, and saw Sirius had already occupied a large boulder that lay on the side of the tunnel, the only one by the looks of it. Trust Sirius to steal the only seat from an invalid; Remus rolled his eyes as he looked expectantly at Sirius, waiting for him to get up. Obviously deciding he didn't want to sacrifice his new seat completely, Sirius budged over and offered the other half of the seat to Remus.
That would have to do.
Wincing, he pulled his right shoe off, and then his sock, to inspect the damages. It really did hurt. A lot. It was annoying though, he couldn't see properly at all. Remus beckoned for James to come closer with the wand light, still waiting for a foot joke that was sure to come from the boy beside him.
However it never came, because they all jumped out of their skins when an even larger rock fell to the ground with a crash, just in front of where the first one had landed.
"I told you it wasn't us," James began, "Quick, let's get out of here."
"James, that's the most sensible thing I've heard you say all night…hey! Wait for us!"
James had begun to sprint down the passageway, as yet another boulder fell as if from nowhere. Well if nowhere was the roof of the tunnel. Peter was scampering after his retreating back, leaving Remus frantically attempting to put his shoe back on in the fast diminishing light.
"Oh just forget it! Leave the damn shoe behind, Moony!"
"Right, good plan. You go ahead, and I'll see you at the entrance." Remus gestured towards Peter's wobbling backside as he retreated down the tunnel.
"No way. You're crippled, remember?"
Remus did remember, very painfully, as he attempted to put his weight on the wrong foot in order to make a speedy escape. He let out a yelp of pain and would have collapsed to the floor but for the strong grip that supported him under one arm.
Well what do you know, Sirius can actually be thoughtful, Remus inwardly smiled.
"See? Where would you be without me?"
"On the floor, quite possibly, as you well know it." Remus shot a grateful smile at his friend, forgetting that the darkness rendered it pointless. Well come to think of it, a little light would be more than useful. James, and more importantly his wand light, had disappeared from sight.
"Lumos!"
"Good thinking."
"Where would you be without me?"
"Bumbling around in the dark quite possibly," Remus could now see Sirius' grin lighting up his face as he chuckled, "but let's hurry the hell up!"
Small rocks were dropping all around them now, and they began to make their way down the passage as quickly as possible. However, that wasn't particularly quickly with Remus hopping on his good leg, still supported by Sirius' muscular arm.
He had his sleeves rolled up, Remus noticed. He wasn't sure why he noticed, but he did.
They managed to work up a steady rhythm, Remus limping in time to Sirius' stride, as rocks began to fall faster and faster.
A small stone bounced off the top of Sirius' head, causing him to stop for a moment and rub his head before they continued. Thank god it was just a small stone, thought Remus, deciding he didn't want to imagine what could have happened if it hadn't been.
They continued their steady half-walk half-run, each of their free hands trying to shield their heads. This was relatively effective, but it was only a matter of time before a larger rock came down and squashed one of them. Every so often they had to climb painstakingly over mounds of rubble that had already settled on the ground.
As sudden rush of inspiration hit Remus, which was luckily much less painful than if a rock had hit him, and he yelled for Sirius to stop, hoping he could be heard over the increasingly loud crashing of stone around them.
"We're wizards, damnit!"
"Yes, thanks for reminding me, but now's not the time for-" Sirius' words were barely audible through all the noise, and the rest of the sentence was lost as a particularly large boulder crashed to the ground inches from Remus.
"Protego!"
"…Now if you don't mind can we hurry up before we get squished?"
The rest of Sirius' words were loud and clear, thanks to the immediate diminishing of the crashing of stone against stone. Sirius, it seemed, only realised this after he had finished speaking, because he had still been shouting.
The only problem was that they were plunged into darkness as Remus concentrated all of his wand's strength into the shield he had conjured.
"Remus…I can't see. It's dark."
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Hmph. Stop being such a smart arse."
"It's not my fault you state the obvious!"
Remus was willing to bet money that Sirius was standing with his arms folded and a sulky look on his face. But since there was no light, as Sirius had been so wise as to point out, there was no way of telling.
"But we should really get going now," Remus suggested, a peace offering of sorts.
Silence.
Fine, he could stay in a strop.
"But it really would help if you could light your wand."
Nothing.
He's as stubborn as he was competitive. Remus sighed and started his attempt to walk on his own, since Sirius had let go of him at some point in the last minute or two. Now he noticed it, the absence of a warm body beside his made him shiver slightly, and it wasn't even particularly cold.
Remus gingerly put some weight onto the heel of his bad foot, careful to avoid his toes, gradually increased the pressure until all his weight was on it, and quickly stepped forward to switch his balance to the other foot. After repeating this a couple of times, he gave up.
I'm not going to get anywhere at this rate, I don't even know if I'm going forwards! Damn you Sirius. Right…what if I try to hop?
Remus lifted his still aching foot out of harm's way, and proceeded to hop along, in a very unstable way (this was why he didn't play Quiddich) in what he hoped was the right direction. His shield travelled with him, as did (he assumed) Sirius. However, his concentration was on keeping his balance, so Remus did not attempt to strain his ears to hear where Sirius' footsteps fell. But he could rest assured with the knowledge that he would have felt the impact on his shield if Sirius had left its confines.
This is working pretty well actually, Remus thought too soon, as his foot caught between two boulders. He fell forwards with his arms flailing, expecting his head to smash into the floor at any second.
Instead, he hit something that was much softer than, and was most definitely not, a rock. The thing that was not a rock, Remus assumed it must be his sullen companion, let out a yelp of surprise as Remus knocked into him.
Sirius' reactions were quick, however, much faster than Remus' in fact. Thankfully he managed to grab Remus' arm and save him from face planting the floor for the second time that night.
"Erm…thanks."
With the support of Sirius once more, Remus was able to wrench his foot out from between the large rocks, and stumble away from them. Once again, he was glad for the darkness.
"We'd better hurry though, we have to be near the end of the tunnel by now, we've been walking for ages. Can you please light this place up now, I don't really feel like falling over again."
"Well don't you think I already would have if I could?" Sirius' voice was incredulous.
"No, because you were sulking!"
"Sulking? I was looking for my wand! And then one second you where there, and the next you had disappeared!"
"Well couldn't you have just asked me where I was?" Honestly, doesn't Sirius even think? He's one of the brightest in the year after all.
"Why? There was no need, you were making enough noise as it was. What were you doing to make such a racket anyway?"
"Hopping," Remus murmured as quietly as possible, since he hadn't been able to think up a less…embarrassing…excuse quickly enough. But Sirius must have heard him, for he let out a roar of laughter.
Keen to change the subject, Remus attempted to bring Sirius' attention back to the previous topic of conversation. "So why didn't you follow the…erm…noise, and find me again?" It seemed the obvious thing to do. "It would have made things a whole lot easier."
"Bit I did! That's why you didn't crack your skull open on the ground." Though it was pitch black, Remus could practically feel Sirius grinning.
"Fine. Fine! But what about your wand? I can't try to summon it because I'm holding this shield up. But we can't go and look for it either, because we'd need light." Oh this is just brilliant. "If we carry on out of the tunnel then it might get buried, but if we drop the shield so we can find it, there's a good chance we will be!"
"Well I know I had it back there with James," Sirius mused, "So I must have dropped it somewhere along the way. Damn I wish I could do wandless magic, then I could find my wand. But if I could do wandless magic, I wouldn't need a wand, so we wouldn't need a light to find my wand, and-"
He was interrupted from this intelligent train of thought with a thwap on the head from Remus' free arm. "Focus, Sirius!"
"Oh yeah, right."
"So what do we do? Forward or back?"
"Well it's not like we have much of a choice really. Let's just carry on and get the hell out of here, then we can worry about my wand. We can manage to walk without a light, right?"
Remus nodded before remembering that Sirius could not see this, but it didn't seem to matter as his friend gripped him firmly under the arm once more. A feeling of warmth rushed through Remus at the touch, which he put down to the fact that in a dark stone tunnel, any reassurance that he wasn't alone was welcome.
They took a few steps, and just as they had reached the familiar rhythm of earlier, they collided with something hard and smooth.
"That's not a rock," came Sirius' voice from right beside Remus, the whisper tickling the hairs on his neck.
"No, it's too smooth." Remus ran his wandless hand over the cool, seamless surface of whatever it was that stood before them. He noticed that it curved slightly as it reached up towards the ceiling, as far as he could reach.
It can't be…can it?
"Turn around, we're going back."
But if it is…Remus didn't want to think about that eventuality.
They had taken no more than a dozen steps when they collided with an identical wall. It was exactly as Remus had feared.
"The shield…it hasn't moved with us. But surely that's impossible? It's against the laws of…well…everything!" Remus was speaking in a vain attempt to reassure himself as much as his friend.
"What if they're just the sides of the tunnel?" Remus could tell by Sirius' tone that he believed this no more than Remus believed what he had just said. No, they had been walking in the same direction this whole time, if this was a wall they would have hit it long before now.
"Then how…?" Sirius continued, leaving his question unfinished. But they both knew how, and neither of them wanted to admit it, to themselves or each other.
"Something has to be blocking it." There, he had said it, and knew it was true. While they had been stationary, the falling rocks had gathered around them, kept out by the shield charm. The curved top of the shield meant that yet more rocks had tumbled down it's side from above to come to rest at either side.
There was no other way to put it. They were trapped.
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There you have it, the beginning of some complete and utter fluff. Did you enjoy it? Shall I write more? Let me know!