A/N: I needed to get my Wolfstar feels out, and what better way than to write my own story? As usual, I don't own anyone, and I hope to update on a regular basis. Enjoy!


"What exactly are you doing?"

It's a quarter to three in the morning and Sirius Black is half hanging out the dormitory window, through which is drifting the cold breeze that woke Remus up.

"Moony! You're, er, awake. I wasn't – er – I was just –" Sirius scrambles wildly, banging his head on the window ledge as he tries to quickly withdraw the top half of his body. "Ow, fuck!" His voice is muffled as though he's holding something in his mouth, and sure enough, when he's gained what composure he can muster, Sirius turns to face his friend, cigarette dangling from his lips. "I was having a fag, Moony. Sorry if I woke you."

Remus shakes his head ever so slightly, sighing. "It's okay, Sirius. No skin off my nose if you want your mouth to taste perpetually like an ashtray and are willing to succumb to an early death due to emphysema." He's always liked that saying. No skin off my nose. Absently, Remus wonders the etymology of the saying. He tucks the little thought away in a corner of his brain with a reminder to look it up later.

"What's emphywossit? Nah, never mind, isn't important. I'll probably die at the ripe young age of twenty-two, in bed with three beautiful birds, shagged to death after a wicked night of partying. One or two illicit drugs may or may not be involved in my untimely – and highly mourned – death, but that can all be worked out at a later date." Sirius grins, taking a final drag before casually flicking the cigarette out the window. Remus doesn't approve, but keeps quiet.

Sirius stretches, and Remus can hear bones popping and cracking from where he is. He must have been leaning out of the tower for some time. "Go to bed, Sirius. It's nearly three." Remus is exhausted. There's only two days until the next full moon, and tiredness fills him up, enshrouding him in a blanket of fatigue. It's worse at night, when the moon is waxing and singing her siren song. He can just see it through the window, not quite round but nearly there. There's not a cloud in the sky tonight, and the moonlight shines brightly. "Please, Sirius."

The older boy nods. "'Course, Moons. Didn't mean to wake you, mate. Had to satisfy my craving and all that." He moves towards his bed, the one opposite Remus's and pulls off the jumper he'd worn to protect himself from the cold air. Sirius doesn't like pyjamas. He never has. He'd sleep naked if he could but for the sake of his dorm mates he usually sleeps in a pair of pyjama pants. He slides into bed. "You go to sleep, Moony. I'll drop off in a bit."

Remus nods, knowing that the cigarette has woken Sirius up. The cold air couldn't have helped, either. It's often like this. Sirius craves a cigarette before bed, so he has one, which wakes him up so he therefore can't fall asleep, so he craves another cigarette, which wakes him up even more. And so on and so forth. It's an endless cycle, and one that has seriously deprived the Black boy of sleep numerous times. Remus remembers a time when Sirius didn't sleep for nearly three days. He was delirious by the end of it, and convinced he was a chicken. Well, that could have been due to James placing eggs in Sirius' bed and clucking when talking to him, but either way the sleeplessness didn't help.

Remus snuggles down into his bed, pulling the covers right up over his head. It's dark in this little blanket cave, and Remus can sleep easily. No moonlight to distract him or cause him stress. Just darkness and warmth. It doesn't take him long to fall asleep.

Sirius, on the other hand, is awake even as Dawn creeps up over the mountains; her rosy fingers brushing awake the ink of the night sky. Sirius thinks he's heard a phrase similar to that before. Probably from something Moony read to him once. Sirius is always asking Remus to read out loud. There's something in the way he talks, the way he lingers lovingly over certain words and phrases, which Sirius enjoys. It makes reading interesting, more than Sirius had ever thought possible. He only ever gets Remus to read fiction books, though. Not even Remus could make their textbooks remotely interesting.

Dawn arrives and rose-coloured clouds along with it. James stirs restlessly in the bed next to Sirius, his blanket in a pile on the floor, and Peter's in his bed over in the corner, his head where his feet should be and his feet resting comfortably on his pillow. Sirius gets up as his friends start to wake, and pulls back the blankets encasing Moony's slim frame. "Time to wake up, Moons. Classes and all that."

Sirius always feels guilty if he wakes Remus up during the night, especially just before a full moon. Remus's constant exhaustion is tenfold by then, and there are days when he can barely get out of bed. As expected, Remus mumbles something incoherent and tries to feebly pull the blankets out of Sirius's hands. Sirius laughs. "Breakfast, Moony! Tea and crumpets and all things English. C'mon!" He pulls the blankets right off the bed, leaving Remus tousle-haired and subject to the morning light. Remus opens his eyes and glares at Sirius blearily before sighing and sitting up.

Ten minutes later they're all dressed and trooping down to breakfast. It's double Potions this morning and Sirius is not looking forward to it after last night's bout with insomnia. The Great Hall is buzzing with the sound of hungry students talking. Breakfast has always been Sirius favourite thing at Hogwarts. After pranking, of course. He eats nearly the same thing every morning. Bacon, eggs, sausages, hash browns, toast and coffee. Sometimes he'll add tomatoes or beans to his breakfast, but that's usually for the days following a transformation. This morning, it's just his usual haul, though there's more coffee involved than usual.

James raises an eyebrow. "Pretty sure that's your third pot of coffee, Pads."

Sirius shrugs, pouring another mug. "Didn't sleep."

James looks at Remus, who's politely sipping at his fourth cup of tea. He knows he should eat, but he's just not hungry. "Cigarettes," he murmurs in response to James's unasked question.

"Ah, 'course." James should have known. Sirius kept him awake many a night this past holiday, puffing on a cigarette long after they should both have been asleep. "Did he wake you, Moons?"

Moony nods, taking a long draught of his tea and finishing it. He's about to pour his fifth cup when James makes a strangled sound, runs his hands through his hair, and turns slightly pale. A hand places itself on Remus's shoulder.

"Double Potions today, Remus. Looking forward to it?" Ah, of course. Only the presence of one Lily Evans could throw James into such turmoil. He turns and smiles up at the pretty redhead.

"Of course. Nothing better than spending time with you, Lily." Professor Slughorn had taken it upon himself to sort out his students into pairs for their upcoming assignment based on whom he thought would work best together. Needless to say, Sirius and James had been paired up (as they refused to be paired with anyone else) and Remus had been paired with Lily. Slughorn, for whatever reason, had accidentally overlooked Peter, which meant that he'd been paired with Greta Catchlove, a student known for her prowess in Charms and her utter incompetence in Potions.

James still thinks Remus rigged the pairings, despite Remus reminding him that James had refused to be paired with anyone but Sirius. Not that he would have been paired with Lily anyway. It would have been far too distracting for him.

Lily smiles at Remus, ignoring James's attempts at seducing her. He has no one to hold him back – Sirius is too busy trying to stay awake, and Peter's too busy fretting over the upcoming Double Potions where he'll have to be seated with Greta – and so James is uninhibited, his attempts at being suave quickly turning into fervid attempts to just get Lily to look in his general direction. Remus is impressed. James has upset three dishes and knocked a poor second year to the ground, and still Lily's eyes haven't even flickered over his way. They are, however, twitching slightly and her smile is ever so slightly too wide, and Remus knows she's about three seconds from exploding and taking James with her. He needs to diffuse this situation.

"I'll see you in class," he murmurs and the redhead nods, stalking out of the Great Hall followed by her friends. "She's going to kill you soon Prongs," Remus says, picking up his bag from under his feet. "You embarrass the both of you when you go mad like that."

He picks up Sirius's as well, tapping the older boy on the shoulder. James follows gloomily behind and Peter after him.

"I can't help it Moons! She completes me. My heart feels like it's on fire when I see her. It's like … like…" he trails off, unable to think of anything that would properly express his feeling towards Lily Evans. "I love her, Moons."

Remus nods curtly. "Yes, well, love is a fickle mistress and all that. Come on, we've got classes to attend."

A groan goes up from all three boys, just as it has done so for the past four and a half years, and they troop off towards the torture that is Double Potions.