Four Against the North

'After graduation we should all move north,' Sirius said one day over breakfast in the fall of their seventh year.

'What? You mean like Thurso?' James asked.

Sirius waved him off as if his question was absurd, 'No no, I mean like the arctic.'

His statement was met with three blank stares.

It was Peter who finally broke the silence. 'Why north?' he asked, or rather, 'Gwy bworth?' as he was in the process of stuffing his face with toast.

'Because,' Sirius' face broke into a wide grin, 'I've heard that in some parts of the north, daylight can last an entire season!'

'So? Are you looking for a tan?'

'Git!' James, who knew instantly what Sirius was getting at, leaned over the table and poked Peter in the arm with a spoon, 'Think of what that would mean for—'

'Constant daylight means no moon!' Sirius said, cutting in. It was his idea, so he wanted to be the one to explain.

'Ooh,' Peter nodded as the pieces fell in place in his mind, 'So that means that—?'

'Exactly,' Sirius turned to the only one who had remained quiet, and the only one who made such a move seem like a brilliant plan, 'What d'you reckon, Moony?'

'I think it could be fun,' said a smiling Remus, 'I've always wondered what it would be like to live in an igloo.'

'And ride about in a dogsled?' James laughed and elbowed Sirius.

'Oy!' his best friend exclaimed, elbowing him back, 'If we'll ride about in anything, it'll be a deer-drawn sleigh!'

James pinched Sirius around the middle. 'I'm not the one who dearly needs exercise.'

'Because sitting on a broom is such hard work?' Sirius teased, reaching out and messing James' hair, not that it did much. 'Don't worry, we'll get you some cute little sleighbells and—'

'What's that word they use? Mush? You'll have to get used to the sound of that—'

'At Christmas time we could put a little wreath around your neck—'

Remus returned to his toast, not wanting to pick sides. He knew after graduation not a one of them would leave the country, but it was nice to dream; more than that, it was nice to have friends who would dream such things for him. That was better than a hundred moonless nights.