Chapter 94

Exhaustion

Sirius dropped the five pound book on the floor relishing in the smacking sound it made and Peter's antics when it scared him. He crossed his arms looking at the two Marauders on the floor in front of him.

James groaned, flopping backwards on the ground with his arm over his eyes, there was a pile of books surrounding him, surrounding all of them.

"This is gonna suck." James sounded like he might cry.

"Do we really have to memorize all these?" Peter asked, he probably was going to cry.

"It's not the books we have to memorize, Pete." James responded not looking at him. The room around them was, for some reason they couldn't understand, a faded pumpkin orange. Not that you could see much of the walls with all the bookshelves along them. The room of requirement had finally decided on a permanent look for their Animagi training deeds. The books along the walls shifted day by day, but the layout and most of the objects inside remained the same.

Today, however, the beanbag chairs that littered the room were going unused. Sirius' idea, and Peter was more than a little upset about it. They were comfortable, but that was the problem, more than once one or all of the Marauders fell asleep on them, and that couldn't happen today. They needed every bit of time they had.

"They are just all the books we could find that had what we need to memorize, we can't afford to be even a little wrong this time."

"Right, anatomy. Because that's what every wizard wants to be learning about when there's a quidditch party to celebrate in the common room, and I'm the one that scored half the goals." James whined.

"More than half."

There was quiet as the three stared at the books surrounding them.

"We should probably actually open the books... huh."

"Is there really no spell that just makes our brains absorb all the information?"

"I think my brain might explode if I try to memorize all this."

Quiet fell again, James sat up, sighed and managed to do what he thought at the time was the bravest thing he'd done yet.

He opened one of the books.

"McGonagall wants me to take Arithmancy." Sirius flopped on Remus' sick bed at the werewolf's feet.

"Yes!" Moony cheered, his friends were doing an amazing job of keeping him from concentrating on his sickness. It was one of the worst ones so far, he'd already been cooped up in the medical wing for three days, and, whether he knew it or not, they'd stayed up right along with him all three days. Between the chocolate and James play-by-play of the most recent quidditch game that Remus had missed (in which Sirius smacked a Hufflepuff in the face with a bludger and James officially broke his own, and the school's, record of most goals in a single game,) though he was quite content despite it all.

"Um, okay."

"Suddenly I see my grades in that class rising dramatically."

"Oh, thanks. It's good to know you value my company so highly, Moony."

Remus just laughed. They were also doing an impressive job of keeping him from concentrating on their exhaustion. He usually noticed immediately if they'd been up all night while he was gone, James was pretty sure he just assumed it was the after game party.

"Isn't it a bit late to just switch classes like that though?" James asked, he sat on the bed to the left of Remus arms crossed, trying to stop the shaking from the copious amounts of caffeine he'd ingested that night. They'd never used coffee during one of their cram sessions, since it tended to make Sirius go crazy, but after midnight the second day and the fifth time they'd woke Peter up the room had decided it for them and they did not argue. Remus probably thought it was after effects from the firewhisky.

There were benefits to studying while there was a party going on at least.

"McGonagall said that it wouldn't be much of a problem since I know some of the material and Remus is the best in his class."

"But I'm only best in the class because of you..." Remus said watching a chocolate frog squirm between his fingertips.

"She doesn't know that."

"If he's good enough to raise even your grade I don't think he'll have much trouble." James chuckled, raising a knee and leaning his head against it. Remus noticed, he knew that, but it was better than having his head start drooping. How could a person be exhausted and have so much energy they're body was shaking? And, more importantly, how could Sirius lay there without falling asleep!

"This is true." Sirius raised an arm up in a half-hearted eureka pose, but moved it behind his head, looking as alert as ever.

James wanted to punch him, and Peter, who wasn't even trying to stay awake. He'd fallen asleep on the bed James was sitting on the moment they'd settled in.

"So what? You're just gonna drop Div? I mean I didn't think you should have taken it to begin with, but no one listens to me, so."

"Oh, sod off. Who says I'm gonna just drop anything, I rather like flirting with Evans in that class."

"Sirius..." James warned glaring fiercely. "Don't make me kick the dog."

Sirius laughed, "I-"

"Alright, Alright. Times up, Lupin needs sleep and he's not going to get it with you lot standing there." Madam Pomfrey practically screeched at them, coming out of her office.

All three Marauders complained but eventually she kicked them out, even Peter, shutting the door very loudly on them. They stood there staring at the door stupidly for a minute, not wanting to go back to the Room of Requirement just yet.

Sirius groaned loudly, turned around, and rode the wall down to the floor.

"So, tired." he moaned, closing his eyes.

"We should go to the dorm and sleep. I feel like I'm running on nothing but caffeine." James agreed, still staring at the door.

"Too many stairs." Peter's head was down and it made him wonder if maybe he was already asleep.

"I fall asleep now and I'll be asleep all day." Sirius reasoned, trying to convince himself more than them. "We've got a potions essay due tomorrow, a transfig test, a charm we're supposed to be studying, I've got a divination chart and James and I both have a muggle studies project, and we've got to get this anatomy junk memorized by Christmas break... am I missing anything?"

"History notes." James added, eyes still not leaving the door.

"I hate everything."

"Yep."

There was silence between them once again, none of them even moved.

"What do we want to do first?" Peter asked quietly, he couldn't open his eyes anymore.

"Sleep." they both answered at the same time.

"What are we going to do first?" He tried again, wording it more realistically.

James sighed. "Potions, I'm gonna bomb the transfig test anyway, and if I'm gonna bomb it I think it's safe to say you lot don't have a chance."

"Nope..."

"Not even a little."

"I'm calling it right now." James said, finally turning from the wall. "If we don't get this secret project done by the time we start with OWLs homework I'm gonna snap and murder someone."

Sirius gave a half-hearted chuckle. "I might not even make it till then."

A/N) Thank goodness I finally finished my Nanowrimo word count. Now I can start working on the story I'm actually good at writing rather than the junk forced out of my brain on my own novel. I won though. ^_^ I won my first nano.