Understanding Moony

Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.

"Do you think he's dead?"

"Don't be daft, Peter. Of course he's not…well, he does sort of look it…"

"Of course he looks it! But he's breathing, you idiots…"

"Where? I can't see it."

"Right bloody there. See the blanket moving up and down?"

"No, I- oh. Yeah. I do. I do!"

"Planning on marrying someone, Pete?"

"Shut up, you lunatic."

"Both of you, be quiet for Godric's sakes!"

"Ooooh, pulled out the big guns now, eh, Jimmy?"

"Don't call me that."

"Suits you."

"Doesn't."

"Does."

"Doesn't."

"What the hell are you all on about?"

The three boys crowded around an occupied bed in the hospital wing jumped. The voice had come from the bed, and when they looked down, they saw the patient cracking open one tired, amber eye.

"Are you three under the Invisibility Cloak? Because I really don't like spying…"

James whipped the cloak off, quick as blinking. He grinned at Remus; unsuccessfully masking the horror the former felt emanating from the bloodied bandages wrapped around the latter's arms, head and torso. Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Quit grinning like the village idiot, Jimmy," he emphasised the name, making it clear he had heard their earlier conversation. James and Peter had the decency to blush, then; Sirius, however, did not. He just stared unceremoniously at the seeping wound on Remus' forehead. Remus, in turn, glared up at Sirius. Sirius dropped his gaze.

Remus closed his eyes. Breathed deeply. Drummed his fingers on the bed sheet.

"So…any particular reason why you three just happen to be here, all at the same time, before you've had any breakfast?" Remus frowned at them all.

"We just wanted to see if you were alright, mate…I mean, you know…and to see if you wanted us to get you notes on class and stuff…essays, and…" James trailed off, for once in his life uncertain of where he stood in the conversation unravelling before his ears and eyes.

Remus grinned. "Sure thing. Just remember, I always take three pages of notes in History of Magic…no exceptions…" He sounded so alike McGonagall then that his friends couldn't help but laugh. "Seriously, though…no, Sirius…I'd probably prefer it if you guys all waited until the afternoons to come and see me…and least I won't look like a slow cooked skinned rabbit then. Okay?"

Sirius pursed his lips in a manner so reminiscent to Lily Evans that Remus had to laugh, Peter had to giggle, James had to snort. Sirius stared down his nose at them, with the advantage of being the tallest there, and sniffed disdainfully. "And why…would we take orders…from you...?" He dragged out the sentence until his drawl was perfectly matched to the Slytherin Lucius Malfoy's speech, who had graduated two years previously and who was currently seeing Sirius' cousin, Narcissa.

James smiled at his best friend. Sirius was top notch when it came to impersonations.

Remus just stared at Sirius, unblinkingly, until the latter's façade cracked, and he started to smirk, and then to laugh. Peter and James joined in, but Remus remained stony faced. His earlier laughing fit had ended badly for his insides; it still felt like a hand was slowly twisting them a full revolution, tangling them in knots and mashing them to a pulp. But he didn't speak. He just let out a reluctant smile, though it wasn't reluctant in the way his friends assumed.

And then Remus felt something build up inside of him. "I don't suppose any of you have a bucket handy?" He interrupted their festivities bluntly.

"No. Why?"

"Then I'm really very sorry about this."

And Remus sat up straight, leaned over the side of his bed and vomited his guts - along with something that looked a lot like blood - out onto the floor of the hospital wing.

"Real charmer, aren't you?"

"Get stuffed, Sirius."

Author's Note: Just felt like writing a ridiculous Marauder drabble… Tried to make it funny, but I'm better at sad stories than humorous ones…how did I do? Reviews are to me as chocolate is to Remus.