Written for Life (Missing)

-oOo-

"James," Sirius whispered into the other boy's ear. He didn't stir, causing the eleven year old to frown heavily, "James."

"Sleep," James muttered, rolling away from Sirius.

Sirius growled, moving over to the other side of the bed. Once he could see James' face, he pushed his finger into the other boy's cheek. "Wake up."

James obeyed eventually, glaring heavily at his friend as he sat up. Shoving his glasses onto his face, James debated this friendship he had with the Black boy. "Merlin, Sirius. It's late. The sun is asleep right now. That usually means sleep for us too."

"Remus is missing," Sirius stated.

"Did you check the bathroom?"

"I did." Sirius replied. "He's not in there. Or in the common room. He's just vanished."

That seemed to wake James up. The boy turned slowly to where their doormats bed would be. It had a figure under the blanket, and James calmed at the sight.

James pointed out the shape in Remus' bed. This only caused Sirius to throw his hand up in frustration. Grabbing James hand, he pulled the boy from bed and dragged him towards the other. The blankets were thrown back, and what James had thought was Remus' sleeping form, was nothing more than a mass of pillows.

"What is this?" James pushed the pillow aside. His eyebrow was raised high as he looked around for some sort of answer.

"He's missing," Sirius said, "and not the first night either."

"How often does this happen?" James resigned himself to the fact that Remus had indeed vanished.

"A handful of times." Sirius sat down on the bed.

James tried to understand how he hadn't noticed their friend's tendency to vanish at night. The first school year was coming to a close – just three more months James thought with mixed emotions – and he wondered how they didn't notice before now.

"I did." Sirius said. From the confused look on James face, he continued. "Noticed him missing."

It took James a second before he realized he had voiced his confusion. Shaking it off, he sat on the bed. "Do you think he's in trouble?"

"This is Remus," an eye roll was given, "he couldn't cause trouble if Peeves put stink bombs in his hands and told him where to throw."

"Well where is he?"

"I don't know. Why wouldn't he tell us though? What's he hiding?"

"I don't know." James rose from the bed, shoving aside a yawn. He glanced out the window of their room. The full moon sat nestled into the stars. "We'll ask him when he comes back."

"Do you think he will?" There was worry in Sirius' voice.

"He'll be fine. You said it yourself, he's gone missing before. Probably just in the library. You know the nerd." James was always halfway back to bed when he tripped over a pair of discarded shoes. Mumbling a few choice words, ones his mother would tan his hide had she heard, he scrambled to his feet, dropped face first into his comforter.

"Right," Sirius stayed seated on Remus' bed. He toyed with the corner of the comforter, not wishing to make his way across the room and back to bed.

"Night Sirius." James' voice was mumbled as the Potter boy wiggled himself back under the blankets.

"Night James," Sirius replied. "Sorry to wake you."

"Don't be. Glad you did." Silence hung for a moment until a soft snore came from Peter's section of the room. "Hey, Sirius."

"Ya." Sirius said. He plopped backwards in the bed, wondering why Remus' pillow was so hard.

"Why didn't you wake Peter?"

"I tried," a smile touched his lips. "But he thought I was a candy bar and started sucking on my fingers. I got out of there before he got any ideas."

A laugh came from James. "Goodnight Sirius. Try and get some sleep. Remus will be back by morning."

Sirius grunted in reply. He lay in Remus' bed, his gaze turned outwards. The moon gave off a faint glow in the glistening night sky. He couldn't sleep though. He was too worried about his friend.