"Hide and seek?" Peter grinned from the bed. "If we're gonna do this sleep over thing, we might as well do it right."

"Wormtail, we're stuck in here, there's not exactly—"

"Yeah!" James leaped up and high-fived Peter, ignoring Remus's protests.. "Okay, you wanna go first, Sirius?"

Remus could almost see the gears turning beneath Sirius's hoodie, layer of hair gel, hair and skull.

"Yeah but…" he began, widening his eyes. "Y'know, this place is pretty messy and if I'm on my own, I might break something and… did I mention I'm afraid of the dark?" Oh yeah, like they're gonna fall for that. "So, how about we go in pairs? I'll have Remus."

"Ok, first off, Black. You're so not afraid of the dark."

Yes. Exactly Peter. Well done.

"But yeah, pairs would be more fun. Off you go." He grinned at Remus, who made a mental note to plot Peter Pettigrew's eventual downfall.

"We'll give you five hundred counts, okay guys?" James threw himself face down onto the bed.

"Make it a thousand!" Sirius called back as grabbed Remus's wrist.

"C'mon dude, we can still go up." Sirius prodded Remus forward, onto the staircase.

"How about there?" Remus shrugged, pointing into the doorway immediately opposite.

"Yeah, right, Moony. I'm sure everyone would love us disrupting their NEWT study; anyway, we're like, a room away from where they are. We need to get further. Way further. Come on." Sirius smiled and grabbed Remus's hand and proceeded to bound up the stairs.

-

Six flights of stairs later they arrived on the top floor.

"Why…do you…have to…run…everywhere?" Remus asked between breaths, wondering why there were small floating creatures on the ceiling.

"We're being timed, dumbass…they're probably…already coming now."

Remus nodded, sitting down on a step. "Yeah. You're so fucking competitive, Sirius."

"Yeah I know. Shit, it's hot."

"You're so weird."

"I know, Moony. Let's go, kid!" Sirius pulled Remus to his feet. "Breathing normal yet?"

"Yeah. Just about." Remus closed his eyes for a split second, before he found himself being manhandled into what he would later describe as the smallest broom closet in the history of the universe.

"What… what the fuck? Here? Sirius, seriously – not funny - can't we just fucking hide under a bed or something?"

"Shh." Sirius hissed, casting a quick look down the stairs. "This is perfect." He grinned triumphantly and pulled the door shut.

It was pitch black.

"Not so scared of the dark now, are we?" Remus asked a wall of nothingness. He heard a giggle from somewhere behind him.

"Nah. But y'know, I'm not alone now, am I?"

Remus took a tentative step to his left and stepped onto a something slightly squishy: Sirius's foot.

"Ow! Shit!"

"You chose this hole! Deal! Do you even have your wand?"

"Nope." He could hear Sirius smiling. Fucker. He exhaled deeply and turned to aim a friendly hit at where he assumed Sirius's shoulder was located.

"Ow! This is fucking domestic violence."

"Oops, sorry dude." Remus tried to sound as sincere as possible, but right now slightly sarcastic would do just fine.

"You will be."

Remus heard Sirius lunge in his direction and and side-stepped half a meter. He heard a crunching sound as what he could only assume was Sirius's face connected with the solid wall of the closet. Silence. Then a faint noise that indicated Sirius was sliding down the wall. Thud.

"Hate you, Moony." A small, muffled voice came from somewhere near Remus's feet.

"Of course you do." Remus rolled his eyes and backed up against the wall that had just floored Sirius and allowed himself slide down.

It occurred to him he should probably see how Sirius was doing as he hadn't made a sound for a personal record of twenty seconds.

He nudged Sirius's knee with his own. "Um, sorry. Really. Are you okay?" Remus scratched his ear and waited.

"I'm trying to stop the fucking bleeding!" Sirius replied thickly. "God, Moony, what made you so fucking cranky today?"

"Dunno, something to do with being kidnapped and thrown in a closet?"

"Why do you always make me seem like the bad guy?"

"Since you consistently pull clichéd stunts, like this."

"Personally, I thought this was pretty inventive."

"I'm sure I saw this in a movie once…"

"I'm sure I saw this in a porn movie once."

Remus heard Sirius giggle sinisterly to himself and before he knew it, he had a Sirius in his lap and hot air was being breathed into his face.

Remus tried not to burst into tears.