Chapter Twenty-Eight: Halloween Headache
Sirius stayed awake in bed long after everyone else had fallen asleep, even Remus whose soft breathing comforted him more than it should.
How was he supposed to survive a whole year of not knowing when he feared for his friend's life every time he disappeared?!
He wasn't even being dramatic about it, he literally feared Remus wouldn't come back. Everytime he was afraid that Remus' uncle or dad, or whoever or whatever was hurting him so badly would, either on purpose or on accident, go too far and that would be that. Then there would be no more Remus, which wasn't a thought Sirius wanted to entertain.
Still, there was that nagging feeling that had grown from the tickle in the back of his mind on occasion suggesting he was missing something, to an itch he couldn't scratch. He was still missing pieces to the puzzle that was his friend, important pieces. Perhaps he had gotten another piece earlier today in class. The problem was he couldn't figure out what it meant!
He closed his eyes trying to sleep, trying to see anything besides the purple and blue bruise on Remus' jaw, but instead, he saw, all over again, Professor Corbyn's reaction when he had noticed Remus was missing.
"Missing again," their professor had said under his breath, his eyes widening slightly as if he had just realized something. The whole thing would have been missed if Sirius hadn't been paying close attention to their professor.
Sirius wasn't sure why he had been paying such close attention to their professor in class, especially not when he could have been coming up with ideas on how to become the champion for Hogwarts with Peter and James.
But Sirius had been watching their professor very closely as if waiting for confirmation on something. But confirmation of what he couldn't understand. Only Professor Corbyn had responded in a significant way, a way that somehow Sirius hadn't been surprised about.
He didn't have the pieces to the puzzle?
No, Sirius was sure he had them all, knew it in his gut that the answer was there right in front of him. He just had to actually put the puzzle together, had to get the little pieces to fit without breaking pieces like he almost always ended up actually doing with real puzzles.
But Remus was worth much more than a real puzzle, so he wouldn't break or lose any pieces. He knew the answer: it was there, it was right there! But it wasn't there, so Sirius fell asleep confused and disheartened, waking the next morning with a headache and the faintest recollection of something howling in his dreams.
But frustrating friends and infuriatingly complex yet not complex puzzles were put on the back burner, because today was a day of great importance. Today was Halloween and was also the day when the visitors better be arriving so that people would finally stop whispering about Sirius, otherwise, he'd personally hex each and every one of the visiting students when they got their sorry arses here. But they'd be here, apparently, there had been some sort of trouble according to Dumbledore and all the professors were being very hush-hush about it. Even a 'casual' trip to Hagrid's during the weekend had left them with nothing besides pocket fulls of comically un-edible scones.
"Wake Up!" he shouted, launching himself onto James' bed, tackling his friend who woke with shouts and attempted to punch Sirius twice before he properly pinned him down. Annoyed hazel eyes looked up at him, though his friend's lips twitched slightly.
"Are you gonna let me up or not?"
"Aw, don't be so sore Potter you know you love waking up to see me first thing in the morning," Sirius teased, grinning at James' continued attempts to hold back a smirk.
"Sirius, you're my friend so I'm going to put this gently. I'd rather wake up to see a Hippogriff's arse first thing in the morning than your ugly mug!"
Sirius laughed rolling off his friend.
"Careful what you wish for Potter~" he called in a mock threatening way then leaped onto Peter tickling his feet, they didn't have time to dawdle after all.
"You woke us up at 6 in the morning?" James shouted outraged as he finally checked what time it was.
"Of course I did!" Sirius shouted back, affronted his friend would dream about sleeping in on such a grand day as today. Of course, getting up this early should have meant that Remus was still asleep in his bed... only he wasn't. But Sirius wasn't going to think of that right now, today was a grand day, which meant no worrisome thoughts would be entertained.
"Happy Halloween! Happy Halloween!" he shouted jovially, after fifteen minutes of him urging his friends to get dressed finally yielded results.
"If you don't shut up someone is going to murder you," James pointed out with all the 'cheerfulness' of someone who had been woken up early but wasn't a morning person.
"Don't be grumpy, today is a marvelous day. It's Halloween."
"If you don't shut up I'm going to murder you," Peter yawned, detracting from his threatening statement slightly.
Sirius laughed and rushed ahead into the common room. There was Remus! Sirius' heart lurched in his chest at the sight of him. Nope, none of that, today was a glorious day!
"Happy Halloween Remus!" he shouted, ignoring James and Peters groans, and the increasingly violent threats on how to shut him up muttered between them. Remus turned from his homework, gentle golden eyes brightening with amusement, and such relief, unspoken relief that they didn't address the gruesome bruises spread across his jaw.
Sirius knew it was only a matter of time before someone else would mention it and when they did he was sure Remus would have a plausible lie he'd whip up from his back pocket, a lie that most certainly would not bother Sirius because today was going to be a perfect day.
"Happy Halloween. I should have known you'd be up exceptionally early."
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked genuinely confused.
"You're a mad man," Peter wailed and Remus stifled a laugh.
"You get….hm…..very excited on holidays," Remus explained kindly, and now that Sirius thought about it he had to admit his friend had a point. But it was a good thing and it showed just how fantastic he was to be making sure his excitement rubbed off on his friends.
He pointedly ignored James' comment about Sirius single-handedly ruining holidays for him.
"Working on homework?" he asked carefully, since obviously Remus was, but the real question was 'you weren't able to get stuff done wherever you were', and they both knew it.
"Extra credit assignment for potions. When can we stop taking the course again?" Remus asked with a playful grimace.
Sirius grinned ignoring another stab, so they really were going to ignore everything? That was fine, of course, that was fine, everything was fine because today was so great! Today was so fantastic nothing could happen that would change how utterly 'perfect' everything was.
"You ok there Sirius I was only joking about feeding little bits of you to a centaur, ...well mostly," James piped up helpfully since Sirius was staring, that sort of staring that they knew made Remus uncomfortable, made him aware of the fact they hadn't forgotten his secrets existed. Sure enough, Remus had gone a bit pale, making his bruises even more prominent and was shifting in his seat as if thinking about how best to escape.
"Shows how dumb you are Potter since centaurs don't eat humans!" he retorted with a mock vengeance, which completely took the focus off the fact he may or may not have been staring at Remus as if he kept him awake a good many nights.
"Well, maybe you aren't human. Hah!"
"That doesn't even make sense."
"Yes, it does!" Peter assured Sirius, glancing at James with beady eyes full of admiration.
"Fine then feed me to centaurs. See if I care. Some friends," he muttered, dramatically stalking away. He couldn't quite hear what Remus said in response, but whatever it was caused James and Peter to laugh uproariously and make his face feel quite hot. Then they were all headed to the Great Hall, Sirius wondering how Remus was so unjustly good at making him feel like a fool.
Even with their banter delaying them they were still some of the first people to arrive. James, as soon as he was seated, put his head down on the table with enough force to jostle the silverware and Peter took a muffin from the early snack baskets, seemingly to wake up upon contact with it. Remus poured himself some juice sipping at it, his eyes darting around giving away the intense anxiety he must be feeling about his face looking like,...well, how it currently looked.
"Well, you boys…...are up early," Professor McGonagall commented to them on her way to the staff table. She had inhaled sharply at seeing Remus but to her credit didn't slow down or lessen the amount of suspicion in her tone at her suspecting them of being up to no good.
"Happy Halloween Professor McGonagall!' Sirius shouted with all the joy he could muster. He really didn't think he got that over-excited about holidays, but the look McGonagall gave him, one of weary resignation suggested differently.
"Yes, Happy Halloween boys, do try to behave for our visitors today."
"What school will be the...oops…," Remus trailed off looking embarrassed. Whatever he had been about to say caught McGonagall off guard and Sirius thought quickly, guessing wildly on what Remus had been about to say to take advantage of the moment.
"Yes, oh wonderful professor, tell us what school will be the one riding in on dragons."
Well drats, he had clearly guessed wrong by her unamused look, though he could have sworn the edges of her lips twitched.
"Good day boys."
"goof day Poffshor McDonagal," Peter called around a large bite of muffin and James came alive shaking with laughter.
"What do you know about the visiting schools, Remus? And how dare you not share that information with your best friends!" Sirius pounced on Remus, well not physically, there was a table in his way.
"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," Remus replied with drawn-out innocence, indicating it was fair game to interrogate him on this then.
Finding immense relief in there being something he could pry about, Sirius attempted to do just that as the Great Hall slowly began to fill up. But all he found out was that Remus had learned more from Dumbledore, either from the last time he had randomly run into the headmaster, or a new time, which seemed unlikely since the headmaster was a busy man after all.
"No, Peter, it's not that they will enter by doing a musical number. Good guess though," Remus replied, sounding amused as he buttered his toast.
As their guesses continued he sounded more and more amused which led Sirius to guess they were nowhere near the truth. Only he didn't mind making wacky guesses since it seemed to keep Remus calm as students sat at the Gryffindor table, and hopefully kept him oblivious to the not too subtle whispers as a few people took note of Remus' face.
"What the hell happened to you?" Patricia asked, cutting off James's guess about something to do with kegs of butterbeer.
Remus flinched involuntarily and turned his attention to Patricia looking weary. Maybe it was because of the drama with the Forbidden Forest, or because the friendship between the two had grown through chess, but Sirius always had the impression the two were sizing the other up as of late.
Neither seemed particularly upset with the other, but it was like they were both trying to figure something out about each other, which Sirius could understand from Patricia's point of view but not necessarily Remus'. Sure Patricia wanted to find something in the forest but Sirius doubted it was anything that warranted the level of intrigue Remus had over it, or level of worry. Their friend had gone so far as to have them swear, solemnly swear even, to him that they wouldn't even attempt to enter the forest without him.
"I was trying to get better at Quidditch but brooms really don't like me."
If Patricia hadn't been so zeroed in on Remus she would have seen James frown and Peter flinch. Remus wasn't even trying to come up with a lie that they'd believe, but then again maybe he couldn't think of one.
"Yeah, that's right. He's downright dreadful," Sirius explained, figuring Remus would be grateful he came to his rescue. But instead, his friend shot him a look as weary as the one that had momentarily been directed at Patricia! Did he honestly expect any of them to believe that lie? He must be desperate indeed.
"Suit yourself. Anyways I came over to tell you part two of operation thunderbird is a go," she whispered conspiratorially. James stifled a giggle that didn't go amiss.
"What?" she asked him with more than a tinge of annoyance, she had been awfully moody lately. Maybe Remus was right that there was something more going on, something dangerous. Sirius hoped so since that sounded fun.
"Operation Thunderbird?" James asked, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice. Patricia's cheeks got the tiniest bit pink and she scoffed.
"Coming from the losers who call themselves boys on floor six dorm two or whatever."
"Boys on floor seven dorm one," James said defensively.
"You really should know which room is our room or you may wake up other unsuspecting Gryffindors," Remus pointed out slyly, part annoyance and part amusement in his tone.
Patricia didn't look impressed.
"Come up with a cooler name or part two won't happen," she declared with finality and walked back to the older students waiting for her before they could protest.
"Aww way to go, James," Sirius scowled.
"Don't worry we'll come up with a cool name," Peter assured them with a grin.
"So far we have…" James bent down pulling out the list they had compiled of possible cool names to call themselves. Sirius wasn't sure why James had the list since he was the oldest and therefore obviously the leader. He'd let it slide this time though.
"Ahem," James cleared his throat unrolling the scroll, looking as if he was about to read all fifty-three name suggestions. But instead, he ripped the paper in fourths with a look of deep disappointment.
"Hey, you can't do that!" Sirius shouted in alarm.
"These are all dreadful men. We need to come up with something better."
"You don't rally the men Potter I do. I'm the leader."
"Nuhu," James replied, the 'height of sophistication'.
"Yeah huh!"
"Nuhu!"
"YEAH HUH!"
"James, Sirius look," Remus exclaimed, pointing at something behind them.
Peter who was sitting next to Remus, but just short enough not to be able to see over Sirius and James strained his neck in an attempt to see. Sirius shot around a second quicker than James but couldn't figure out what it was Remus was pointing out to them. Only he wasn't about to admit that because what if James saw it and he didn't, he'd never live it down.
Sirius scanned the Great Hall again and again. Something with the professors perhaps? Or had Remus noticed something amongst the students? The Halloween decoration or tables? He was beginning to grow frustrated and chanced a glance at James who had a look mirroring his frustration. James glanced at him and both of them realized at the same time they had been duped.
They turned back around to Remus nibbling on some fruit as he read his book looking far too smug.
"You little…..," James began in mock outrage.
"Oh, Remus how are you….?"
Sirius wasn't sure what James had been about to say to their clever friend, only that whatever insult it was he agreed with completely, because Lily had arrived and in typical fashion came to check on Remus.
Only Remus didn't greet her with a shy grin or some quick comment on their homework load to take the focus off him. No, this time he jumped badly, the smug look replaced with one of horror, and he sunk down into his seat almost as low as Sirius had been when the howler had been delivered. It took Sirius a second to get it but he suddenly understood.
Lily had frowned slightly at Remus hiding himself behind his book but maybe she thought he hadn't heard her since she started moving to walk to the other side of the table, where Peter sat and Remus, well...slouched.
"Quick, say something dumb to Lily," he whispered to James.
"Lily, your eyes are really pretty," James blurted out immediately as if he had been close to saying so anyways, and Lily stopped walking to gape at him incredulously.
"My eyes?"
Sirius thought he might know Lily well enough by now to figure out that she was merely startled. But the poor sorry bloke that was James didn't realize it.
"Uh…..you….you're pretty all of you. Your hair, your b…."
"My b?!" she asked, her shock quickly turning to incredulous anger. She must think James was teasing her. Sirius sort of felt bad for asking James to distract her, but he was doing such a good job of digging himself a hole and it truly was so amusing.
"Your biceps….," he altered quickly.
"James Potter you are a complete moron!"
"Yes," James agreed readily and Sirius covered his mouth shaking with mirth.
"Yes? Are you mocking me?"
"Yes...I mean no, no I would never mock you."
"You….," Lily began her eyes blazing with anger at what she must view as James being a complete twat. But Dorcas entered calling Lily to come over to discuss something to do about dorm layouts of all weird things.
Lily's expression turned from anger to a sort of justified grimace which left Sirius hopelessly confused. At least he wasn't confused as James though, who watched Lily leave with the expression of a drowning man who just realized what he had grabbed wasn't a lifevest but the tentacle of the giant squid ready to pull him under.
Well, that had been more successful than Sirius thought it would be. Lily had stormed off and seemed to forget entirely about the existence of one Remus Lupin. Only when Sirus turned back to point out Remus owed him, perhaps letting Sirius win at chess because yes it was getting to that point of desperation when they played him, he found that Remus had fled.
It should have been predictable but Sirius felt a stab of hurt. Couldn't Remus have chanced that Lily would forget about him to stay with them? Wasn't it worth that? Except Sirius figured with growing frustration and dread it probably wasn't worth it to Remus.
Because something had clicked into place in his mind and the solution to the problem was not one he at all enjoyed.