Author's Note: Hello, all! Sorry this has taken so long to update, but school's been insanely busy, and I just haven't had time to write. I can't make predictions about when the next chapter will be out, but I'll endeavor to make it faster this time! Welsh Word of the Day- Direidi means Mischief, an eminently useful word! I have tried to make this chapter a bit lighter, as I know I'm a mean, mean author who can't help doing mean things to the main characters, much as I love them. Thank you all so much for your reviews! I'm blessed to have such wonderful readers, and I think you're all fantastic. For you to take the time to review my work always makes my day, and I'm so grateful to you for it! A few answers to questions posed in reviews-
EloraCooper4- Ms. Andrews is purely my own invention, and will probably show up again later, though I have no specific plans for her right now.
Kady Rilla Wholi- As far as Muerno goes, I don't think Dumbledore could do much about him, even if someone were to report his behavior. He is, after all, teaching exactly what the textbook says. *grrrr* Ahem- and as far as the timeline of events goes, I've got it all worked out, but thanks!
NightSpear- yes, more angst to come, though I hope to not make it too angsty. I've already changes some of my original plans because I just couldn't bear to do what I planned to the poor darlings.
Purplebubble- As far as Romulus goes- I'm going to leave that question open for now. You'll all be able to make your own decisions about whether he's good or bad later.
Again, thanks so much to every one of you who reviewed! You guys are the best!
Chapter 9 : Direidi
Sirius was worried. This was not a normal state of mind for him; Sirius generally lived to have fun, and having fun meant not worrying about anything. Right now, though, Sirius was quite worried, and he most definitely was not having fun. If asked what was concerning him, Sirius could have answered in a single word- Remus.
Ever since that stupid Defence Against the Dark Arts class three days before, Remus had been acting weird, beginning with contradicting the teacher- who would ever have thought it of Remus? And ever since that class, he had barely spoken to any of the others. Remus tended to be very quiet, as a general fact, but never before to this extent. He had done his homework the night before in silence, and had disappeared off to bed before anyone realised he had left. In the morning, the other boys had woken to find that Remus was already up and about- in the Common Room, actually. He was sitting in a huge armchair in front of the fire, swallowed up in its depths, looking very small when they found him.
He had kept very much to himself the next few days, speaking very little and smiling even less. All that day, James, Sirius and Peter had been unable to get more than a few words out of Remus, and immediately after classes, he excused himself, telling them he needed to go to the Library. He hadn't been acting unpleasant, just highly reserved. Sirius couldn't say he understood it at all, but it was bothering him. He was well aware that Remus had problems of some sort that he kept to himself, but this was another matter entirely.
"What d'you think is going on with Remus?" Sirius asked James and Peter over dinner that night in the Great Hall. They both looked at him, their faces showing no more understanding than his.
"I haven't a clue." James said, shrugging.
"Maybe he's still upset about Defence the other day?" Peter suggested, filling his plate quite full.
"Yeah, but why would that be upsetting him that badly?" James asked logically. "I mean, it was just a stupid class, and it's not like he even got detention or anything."
"You don't think he's mad at us, do you? For not supporting him in class?" Peter asked.
"Remus? I don't think so- Remus is never mad at anybody!" Sirius said, laughing at the idea.
"Besides," James put in, "Remus certainly wouldn't get mad over something that little. He was just being stubborn about the whole question to make Muerno angry, I'm sure." That didn't sound very Remus-like to Sirius, but he couldn't think of any other reason for his friend to have contradicted Muerno to his face like that. It wasn't uncommon for Remus to point out that Muerno was wrong about something, but he only mentioned it to the other three boys, never in front of the professor! And, of course, Remus was always right when he corrected the teacher.
By the time dinner was over, Remus still hadn't appeared. It was very unlike Remus to miss meals, so Sirius decided the situation was worse than he had thought. Deciding that enough was enough, he headed for the Library- another abnormal occurrence for Sirius Black, who normally held that libraries were far too quiet to be any fun. He had spent so little time in the Library that he was honestly surprised to see how huge it really was; the shelves of books rose above his head in every direction, like trees in a forest. Sirius shook his head and began to wander aimlessly, searching for Remus. It took about half an hour of wandering to locate the little table where Remus was sitting and working.
"Hey." Sirius said, careful to keep his voice low. Rumour had it that the librarian would magically mute noisy children, and if you made too much noise in the Library, you would leave unable to speak for a week. Sirius didn't think he could handle that.
Remus looked up, startled, as Sirius spoke. He seemed to be finishing up a lengthy essay, and looked very tired. "Sirius, what're you doing here?" Remus had no problem speaking quietly, as that seemed to be his normal volume.
"Came to look for you." Sirius said offhandedly. "You missed dinner."
"Oh. I didn't realise it was so late."
Sirius sat down at the little table across from Remus. "What've you been working on?"
"Homework. The essay that Professor Muerno assigned me, specifically." Remus scrunched his nose in distaste, carefully rolling up his completed assignment. Sirius looked at the table, now completely bare.
"You did the assignment without any books?" Sirius was, to be honest, slightly jealous of Remus' talent at Defence Against the Dark Arts. Remus always knew the answers, and frequently managed to do the homework for the class without consulting a textbook, whereas even James and Sirius had to use the book. Remus just shrugged, not looking at Sirius.
"I guess I'll be going then." Remus said, grabbing his bookbag and standing to leave.
"No!' Sirius said, forgetting to keep his voice down. Fortunately, the librarian seemed to be out of earshot. Lowering his voice, Sirius said, "Remus, what is going on with you? You've been all weird the past few days."
Remus looked lost. "I, um, I- I've just wanted to be alone, that's all."
"No it isn't." Sirius contradicted him. "You hate being alone. And besides, you haven't been by yourself most of the time, you've been with us, just not talking. What's up?" Remus sat down, but didn't say anything. He just looked at the tabletop, still holding the straps of his bookbag tightly.
"You're not mad at us, are you?" Sirius asked, wondering if Peter had been right. Remus' head shot up, and he shook his head furiously.
"No! Not at all!"
"Good." Sirius said firmly. "So now, if you aren't going to tell me what's wrong, will you at least come back and hang out with us?" Remus seemed to be struggling; why, Sirius didn't know, but indecision was written all over his friend's face. Finally, his face cleared and he smiled, for the first time in days.
"Yeah." They both stood and walked out of the Library in a companionable silence. When they were safely out, Sirius flung an arm around Remus' shoulders.
"I'm thinking it's about time for some mischief making and roguery, Remus. Wouldn't you agree?"
"Hmmm." Remus said soberly, a glint of rascality in his eyes. "Yes, I do believe you're right, Sirius. Shall we consult with James and Peter on this matter?"
"Why yes! Yes, so we should, my friend! To Gryffindor Tower!" Remus just smiled happily. When the two burst through the portrait hole, they beckoned to James and Peter before dashing upstairs to their dormitory. James and Peter followed quickly; when they entered the room, both looked curiously at Sirius as if to ask what had happened with Remus. Sirius ignored them.
"Gentlemen, Mr. Lupin and I have agreed that it is high time for some chaos and mischief. What say you?" Sirius had jumped onto his bed and now asked this solemnly, standing high above the others.
"Yes!" James shouted, grinning madly.
"Sounds good!" Peter agreed, not quite as enthusiastically. Sirius collapsed into a sitting position on his bed, where he was joined by the three others, all piling on madly.
"So what will it be, Mr. Black?" James asked, still grinning. "A prank to play on the Slytherins? Exploding Dungbombs in the Potions dungeon?"
"All in good time, Mr. Potter." Sirius took on a somber expression. "Tonight, I propose we explore the castle. Really explore, I mean. I hear there are many secret passageways, and I for one would like to know about them!" This plan met with approval all around, and the four waited impatiently for the rest of the school to go to bed so that they would have the castle free to explore.
Finally, they deemed it late enough to risk leaving the tower, and they snuck out silently. Or not so silently, in some cases; Peter was awfully loud. He somehow managed to trip three times within the first two minutes of sneaking; he sneezed repeatedly, and even his breathing sounded loud. James and Sirius were quite practiced in sneaking around; they had spent most of their early childhood engaging in mischief together, which had taught them very early the value of silence. Even they, however, could not match Remus' ability to move noiselessly. He was also able to make himself very hard to see, almost disappearing into the shadows, until even when Sirius knew where Remus must be, he couldn't make him out. A bit creepy, really.
They hadn't been out for more than a few minutes when Remus suddenly grabbed at Sirius' sleeve, then caught hold of Peter and James as well.
"What're you-" James hissed, but Remus shook his head violently, dragging them all back into the shadows. He motioned for them all to remain still, shrinking into the darkness with the others. A moment later, from around the corner, a cat's head appeared, it's eyes gleaming in the darkness. It moved slowly with feline grace, approaching the boys' hiding place. Sirius knew that this must be Filch's cat; all of the first years had heard about Filch and his cat, but Sirius had never encountered either of them. According to the rumours, where the cat was, Filch followed soon after; they were in deep trouble now. Suddenly, Remus moved forward a step, moving into the moonlight that streamed through a high window above them, illuminating most of the hallway. The cat froze as he came into clear sight, the fur on the back of its neck standing up wildly. It hissed at Remus, who did not move. After a second, the cat turned tail and ran swiftly back in the direction it had come from.
"Come on!" Remus urged in a whisper. "We have to go now, before Filch gets here!"
The four took off at top speed, still trying to be quiet. At Remus' direction, they all ducked into an empty classroom and tried to make themselves invisible.
After a few minutes where nothing happened, the boys relaxed, no longer feeling they were likely to be caught at any minute. They crept slowly from the room, anxious to return to their interrupted exploration. Hogwarts seemed so much more mysterious by moonlight, Sirius thought. It also seemed much larger; they explored for three hours and yet seemed to have covered very little ground. When they finally stumbled back to their beds, they were all exhausted, but grinning. It had been great fun, reflected Sirius, just before falling sound asleep.
That night was only the first of many nights of secret wanderings. Sirius had thought life at Hogwarts was fun before they began their hidden adventures, but now, it was better than ever! The friendship of the four, already strong, grew with each narrow escape. It became a common sight in the Gryffindor Common Room to see the four first year boys asleep in the middle of the afternoon; Peter usually fast asleep on top of his homework at the table, James and Sirius sprawled comfortably over various pieces of furniture, and Remus curled in a little ball in a large armchair in front of the fireplace. The older boys grinned knowingly; the older girls reckoned they looked "sweet," and would coo over them when they woke, sleepy and disheveled.
Their adventures did not stop with midnight wanderings, though. It was indeed a rare day when the four could not be seen with their heads together, plotting some new prank. When the school woke to find the Great Hall decked out entirely in Gryffindor colours, with the lion rampant proudly displayed on every banner, everyone knew who must be responsible. There was, in fact, a suspicious lack of evidence pointing to the Gryffindor boys, and their faces were far more innocent than they had any right to be; highly suspicious. Slytherin students were often the targets of some of the more creative pranks, none of which could ever be traced to anyone. That didn't stop the Slytherins from blaming the Gryffindor first years, though, and retaliation was often swift and sharp. It was unlikely that anyone would ever forget the morning that the infamous four walked into the Great Hall completely bald, having had their hair cursed off. They had taken it well though, waving cheerily at the Slytherin table; they seemed to view it as a competition between the houses, and if anyone could not be a gracious loser, they had no business being involved in the first place!
It was incredible how time seemed to multiply, though. There was somehow enough time for all of the mischief making and pranking, but there was also plenty of time for attending classes and doing homework. They were learning new spells at an incredible rates; in fact, the four were learning magic much faster than their classmates, because the amount of research they did on spells to aid their pranks taught them about as much as they learned in classes; even Peter was doing better in his classes as a result of the extra practice, though of course, he didn't think of it as such. Remus was far more concerned about his homework than the others were, and he took to spending free afternoons in the Library, the one place he could work without the risk of James and Sirius blowing things up around him as he tried to work.
They also made sure to spend plenty of afternoons visiting Hagrid. His cooking might be frankly dangerous, but he was good company, and the boys enjoyed spending time with him whenever they could. Hagrid was full of stories about the Forbidden Forest, if you could get him to share them with you. Sirius' eyes sparkled; he determined that they would have to begin exploring the Forest as soon as possible. Peter shivered at the thought when Sirius told the others this; Peter was not fond of the monsters that he was sure lived in the Forest.
"Don't worry, Pete." Remus said, smiling wryly. "If anything tries to eat you, I'll scare it off. I am awfully frightening, you know." There was a roar of laughter at this; Remus was by far the smallest of the four, and didn't look capable of hurting a fly. He grinned back at them. Peter looked a bit abashed at having been frightened, but they all told him not to worry about it.
"We're far scarier than anything in there!" James boasted.
"Right!" Peter said, doing his very best to appear brave, and making admirable progress.
But the greatest night by far was at the very beginning of February. "February the First: A Day That Shall Live In Memory," as Sirius put it. Said Day began inauspiciously; when they awoke that morning, the dormitory was unusually cold, and only a thick fog could be seen out the window. James, Sirius and Peter got themselves ready slowly, with a great deal of complaining. Remus wasn't with them, though; he had gotten very ill (again! Sirius thought) two days ago and had to go to the Hospital Wing. He hadn't come back yet, and though the other three had tried to visit multiple times, Madam Pomfrey wouldn't allow them in.
"Remus is very ill, and needs his rest. He cannot be bothered right now." She told them every time they tried to visit. This morning, they were determined that they were going to see him, if they had to blow up half of Hogwarts to accomplish it. The three made their way to the Hospital Wing again, where the nurse finally allowed them to visit, with stern warnings to behave themselves.
"Hey, Remus!" Sirius grinned as they reached Remus' bed. He was in the stupid Infirmary so much that they knew by now exactly where he would be; always in the last bed down, surrounded by tall white curtains. Sirius' grin faded a bit as he saw how truly rotten Remus looked. He never looked good when he got sick like this, and this time was worse than many. He was very pale, and still lying down, looking very tired.
"Hey guys." Remus said softly, his voice painfully hoarse.
"What have you got this time?" James asked?
Remus attempted to shrug, but it was obviously an effort for him. "I don't remember. Something with a long and complicated name. Madam Pomfrey says I ought to be able to leave the Infirmary now." Sirius thought that sounded like a very bad idea, considering the condition his friend was still in, but he couldn't say so, not when Remus looked so hopeful, his eyes wide. Remus hated the Hospital Wing and was always eager to leave it quickly; he quite liked the matron, and she was quite obviously fond of him, but he spent enough time in the bloody place for Sirius to feel quite sympathetic to his desire to leave.
The nurse bustled over to Remus' bedside, shooing the healthy boys out of her way. She examined Remus briefly, and sighed softly, shaking her head.
"Remus, I'm not sure..." She didn't finish the sentence though, as Remus had looked at her with huge, sad-looking eyes, his face falling until he looked quite miserable and about four years old. Madam Pomfrey looked at him for a minute before giving in. "Oh, very well. You may leave, as long as you promise to take good care of yourself for then next few days." Remus brightened, smiling sweetly at her. "Remus Lupin, what am I going to do with you?" To Sirius' surprise, the normally brisk and businesslike nurse reached out and hugged Remus quickly, then moved away, ruffling his hair lightly.
With his friends' assistance, Remus had all of his belongings gathered and was ready to leave within a few minutes, and the four walked out of the Infirmary together, Remus somewhat unsteadily but very pleased to be leaving. They stopped by Gryffindor Tower to drop off all of Remus' things before heading down for breakfast. They ate quickly, not wanting to be late for class, but they needn't have worried, as they made it in plenty of time. Classes went well that day, if somewhat uneventful- at least by Sirius' standards. He surreptitiously kept an eye on Remus, anxious to see if his friend was still unwell; Remus seemed very tired, his head drooping, his quill moving slowly, but other than that he seemed well enough. By the time classes were over, in fact, he appeared much more healthy than he had that morning.
That night, the four snuck out of the dorms as usual, ready to explore. They were planning to explore the third floor tonight; they had begun their explorations on the seventh floor, where the entrance to the Gryffindor common room was located, and had worked their way down from there. Now they set out, passing the Trophy Room (James and Sirius both eager to avoid that room, as they had received multiple detentions there already) and the Armor gallery, walking directly past the Charms corridor and continuing on beyond it until they found where they had been forced to cease their exploration the last time. They were looking for anything "cool," as James put it, but especially for hidden passageways. Sirius was obsessed with finding them, and had convinced the others that they would like to help him look for them. So as they walked slowly down the corridor, each of them was intent on finding anything that looked like it might be hiding a secret passageway; they found nothing in the first hour of searching, but after that, Remus made a discovery.
"Guys, look." He said very quietly, and they all joined him where he was standing, in front of a statue of a very ugly witch with a hunchback. "Judging by the size and position of this thing, I think it's quite possible that this might be an entrance to a tunnel. I don't know how we'd go about opening it, though."
Sirius agreed that it was quite possible for this statue to be the entrance they had been searching for. Deciding it couldn't possibly do any hard, he pulled out his wand and began trying spells to open a passageway.
"Diffindo!" Nothing happened; Sirius tried again. "Alohomora!" Again, nothing happened. "Wingardium Leviosa!" He was becoming frustrated, but tried again. "Dissendium!" To everyone's shock, it actually worked, revealing a passageway that led down into the dark. Without a moment's hesitation, the four boys climbed into the opening, on their way to explore their new discovery.
They weren't quite so thrilled when, a great deal of time later, they still had found nothing of interest. The tunnel just continued on, apparently leading to nowhere, and Sirius could tell that Remus was beginning to fall behind, his exhaustion catching up to him. Sirius was about to suggest that they turn around and return some other time, when James nudged him in the ribs and pointed ahead to a set of stairs. Ascending them in (near) silence, the boys found a trapdoor above their heads; when this was raised, they could not help but gasp in wonder. They were, it seemed, in the basement of a sweet shop!
"I know where we are!" Sirius said in tones of awe. "This is- we're in Honeydukes! The passageway took us all the way to Hogsmeade!" The four boys broke into wide grins, and Sirius began to move out of the trapdoor, into the basement proper.
"Sirius! What're you doing?" James hissed, grabbing the back of Sirius' robes.
"Getting sweets, of course!" Sirius said.
"No way!" James told him in tones of great reproach. "Don't even think about it! Stealing candy, really Sirius, there's no need to stoop to that. We'll just come back some time when the shop will be open and buy some then!" Sirius, to his credit, looked abashed and nodded, moving back down the stairs below the trapdoor.
It took a very long time to return to Hogwarts; when they finally made it back to their dorm, they all collapsed into their beds without a single word, and were asleep in moments.
"Thank goodness it's Saturday tomorrow!" Sirius thought as he fell asleep. The four slept very late the next morning, and when they awoke, they found it time for lunch, after which they all attempted, at Remus' prodding, to do their homework. It was no use, of course; an hour's work saw them all fast asleep in their usual positions in the Gryffindor Common room, homework still undone in piles beside them.
The next week saw a discovery almost as wonderful as the Honeydukes passageway; they boys discovered the secret entrance to the kitchens, thanks to Peter's incessant appetite and Remus' keep sense of smell. That location, as well as the secret passageway, would be their secrets to keep, just the four of them.
So it was that January and the first half of February flew by, in a rush of mischief and excitement. The morning of February 15th, Sirius woke with a grin on his face, the first one to wake up. Quickly, he climbed out of his bed and jumped onto James', bouncing wildly and shouting.
"Wake up, James!" Unsurprisingly, James woke with a start and sat up.
"Sirius! What is wrong with you? Cut it out!" Sirius stopped bouncing and hopped off the bed, where he stood grinning at James. Somehow, Remus and Peter had managed to sleep through the noise; sleeping soundly was a good survival trait to have when you room with Sirius Black. James glared at Sirius for a minute before giving it up and putting his glasses on and getting up.
"Happy Birthday, Sirius." James said, clapping a hand on Sirius' shoulder as he passed.
"The best day of the year!" Sirius announced, grinning broadly.
"Yes, how does it feel to finally be twelve?" James asked, a wicked grin appearing on his face. "Of course, I ought to remember, as I turned twelve over two months ago!" It was a sore point with Sirius that James was older than he was, and he glared at James for this comment. James went on, oblivious to the murderous looks; "It's so nice that you aren't a little eleven year old any more, isn't it? Yes, my dear boy, you have joined the ranks of the mature!" He was cut off by Sirius pouncing on him, and a few minutes of pointless violence in the form of mock-scuffling occurred, leaving both boys disheveled and laughing at the end.
"Hey, we ought to wake Pete and Remus up!" Sirius said suddenly, realising that it was Friday, and that birthday or no, they still had classes to attend. Which kinda stunk- it was his birthday, after all. They ought to have given him the day off school, really!
"You do it then, as you're so eager to wake people up this morning!" James said. Sirius shrugged, and went over to Peter's bed. Peter was rather hard to wake, as always, and Sirius ended up rolling him out of bed, onto the floor, to get him to awaken. Remus was loads easier; while he was able to sleep through any amounts of noise created by his roommates that did not involve him, he would wake quickly at the sound of his own name. Sirius settled for throwing a pillow at him and yelling.
"Oy, Remus! Wake up!" Remus sat up, looking sleepy and slightly bewildered at how a pillow had ended up on his face. It all became clear, though, as soon as he saw Sirius standing there grinning like a madman. Peter grunted unintelligibly and headed off for the bathroom; Remus sat in bed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Thanks for the wake-up." Remus said sarcastically. "I do so love to be woken by the feeling of pillows hitting my face." Sirius just grinned harder.
"Welcome, Remy!" He said brightly, knowing the use of the nickname would annoy Remus.
"It's not 'Remy,' Sirius, it's 'Remus.' I'm not four years old anymore!" Remus glared at him lightly as he got up and began to follow Peter out of the room. "On that subject though," he said just before exiting, "Happy Birthday, Sirius!"
"Did you tell him it was my birthday?" Sirius demanded, turning to face James. "You knew I wanted to keep it a surprise!"
"I don't know why on Earth you care if your birthday's a surprise or not." James said, looking a bit bored. "But I certainly did not tell him! I wouldn't do that, not when you asked me not to."
"I suppose he must just have heard us talking before." Sirius said doubtfully, knowing full well that Remus was never aware of anything that happened before he awoke, and he was sure that his friend had been soundly asleep. He put the matter aside, though, and forgot about it as the day went on. Sirius and James had been planning today for weeks. Sirius insisted that it was his right, as the Birthday Boy, to pull off the most outlandish pranks, and that the others were going to help him. The day was a long, uninterrupted stream of explosions, strange hair colours, very frightening food and Slytherins screaming with rage. Sirius had never had such a wonderful birthday in his life, now that he didn't have to spend it at home with him awful family. He recieved a short, brisk letter from his parents wishing him a "pleasant day" (he doubted they meant it), and enclosing a set of magical bookmarks- all charmed to show Slytherin's House colours and symbol. Sirius glared at these before setting them aside, vowing to change them to Gryffindor before the day was over. He also received a card and gift from the Potters, which gratified him, if not surprising him- he had spent much of his time on birthdays at their home rather than his own. What surprised him was the card and gift from the Lupins. He had no idea how they had known it was his birthday, and was rather shocked that they had thought to send him something when they only knew him from a few days' visit!
That evening in the Gryffindor Common Room, they had a party for Sirius, complete with tons of Butterbeer and sweets from Hogsmeade, as Remus had made a trip there earlier in the day to stock up for the celebration. It was a loud, noisy event as all of Gryffindor seemed to be participating, even if they barely knew Sirius- after all, they weren't about to pass up free food! All of his friends gave him presents- with the exception of Peter, who apologised profusely, but hadn't had any time to prepare anything because he hadn't known before hand that it was Sirius' birthday.
Several hours into the celebration, which looked as though it might very well run past midnight, Sirius realised he couldn't find Remus anywhere. Knowing that his friend had a dislike of large crowds, Sirius began to look in the quiet places, but couldn't seem to find Remus anywhere. No-one had seen him for a while. Sirius decided to check the dormitory, figuring that would be a logical place to escape the crowd.
When he opened the door to their dorm, Sirius was taken aback by how cold it was. This was due to the fact that the window was hanging completely open, letting in the cold air and drifting snowflakes. There was no sign of Remus, and Sirius moved to shut the window, when he caught sight of what looked like a pair of shoes, attached to feet on the end of a set of legs, visible out the window. There was no way Remus was sitting on the roof, was there? Sirius looked out the window, turning so he was facing up, and sure enough, Remus was perched on the edge of the roof, unmoving. Throwing on his heavy cloak, Sirius climbed into the window, trying to ignore the long drop to the ground beneath him, and tried to make out how Remus had managed to climb onto the roof. It really wasn't difficult, once you saw how it was done, and within a few moments, Sirius was most of the way onto the roof; then he got stuck in an awkward position and let out a small squeak. Remus finally noticed him, and with a yelp of dismay, jumped to his feet and agilely ran to help Sirius before he fell. As soon as Sirius was safely seated on the sloping roof, Remus stood towering above him (the only time he was every anything like taller than his friend), his arms crossed, glaring at him.
"What did you think you were doing?" Remus asked calmly. "Climbing onto the roof? Were you trying to get yourself killed?"
"Of course not!" Sirius retorted, trying not to laugh as he was scolded by his little friend who acted like an adult. "I cam up to see what you were doing! And besides, how can you be yelling at me about it when you yourself were up here first?"
Remus coloured a bit, and sat down next to Sirius, dwarfed by his friend once again. "It's different for me, Sirius, I know what I'm doing. And I'm better at balancing than you are; you really are a bit clumsy, you know."
Sirius shrugged this off- it was true, he knew- and went back to important matter. "Remus, what are you doing on the roof in the middle of February?" For answer, Remus shrugged lightly, and then dangling his legs over the edge of the roof again, lay back against the sloping surface beneath him, looking up at the sky. Sirius wanted to grab him and pull him far away from the edge of the roof, but knew he was likely to end up knocking them both off if he tried. It was disturbing, though, how unafraid of the danger Remus was, unconcernedly swinging his legs as they hung hundreds of feet above the ground.
To distract himself from Remus' danger, Sirius, who was as far from the edge of the roof as he could get, looked up, trying to see what had so fascinated Remus. It was a beautiful, clear night; the stars were highly visible, and there was only a tiny sliver of the moon hanging above them. There were a few wisps of clouds, and from them was lightly falling a small sprinkling of snow. When you looked straight up, the snowflakes catching the light almost looked like stars, falling to earth, twinkling and shimmering their last before disappearing into darkness. Sirius stared up, lost in the beauty of it for a few minutes, before shaking himself back to reality.
"Remus." Sirius said; his friend tore his gaze from the heavens to look at him. "I know it's beautiful out here, but why aren't you inside?"
"I was, for a long time, Sirius. But it's very loud and hot in there, and there are so many people- I just wanted to be alone for a while, somewhere nice and quiet where I could think." It was exactly what Sirius expected to hear, so he nodded his understanding, and silence fell once again. Sirius thought of nothing in particular, allowing his mind to wander, easy to do in the peace. He thought of something he wanted to ask after a few minutes.
"Hey Remus, when's your birthday?" Remus didn't reply. His face, which had been very peaceful, became closed and a bit worried. Sirius repeated the question, not sure if Remus had heard him. After a minute, Remus replied, too softy for Sirius to hear. "How's that again?" Sirius asked.
"Today." Remus said with a small sigh, his face still turned to the sky.
"What? Today? And you didn't say anything? Remus, you should have told us! We could have celebrated your birthday at the same time as mine!" Another thought struck him. "Remus, your parents didn't send you anything this morning. Why wouldn't they have sent you a present on your birthday." Remus' face looked quite tense now, but his voice was as calm as ever.
"For the same reason I didn't tell you it was my birthday. I don't celebrate my birthday, and they know that. That's all there is to it."
"Don't celebrate your birthday?" Sirius looked at Remus as if he were nuts. "Why not?"
Remus, apparently realising that if he didn't answer Sirius' questions he would get no peace, responded quietly. "Something bad happened to me on my birthday once, and now that's what I associate with today. It's not a happy day for me, all right?" Sirius sat in silence for a minute, trying to think of a response.
"Well, I think it's kinda cool that we have the same birthday, though!" He said, trying hard to be cheerful. "Hey, we could almost be twins, huh?" He was surprised when Remus laughed, quietly and lightly; it was a nice sound.
"Not really, Sirius. Twins aren't normally born a year apart." It took Sirius a second to figure out what Remus was saying, and then he gaped at his friend in shock.
"You mean you're a whole year younger than me? That'd make you eleven today!" Remus nodded, smiling wryly. Sirius laughed; it seemed very funny. "Eleven. And James and Pete are already twelve, and I just turned twelve. That's funny!"
"Glad you think so." Remus said, somewhat sarcastically, still smiling.
"Wow" Sirius said, another thought having just struck him. "That means you were ten up 'till today."
"Why, yes, Sirius." Remus said, sounding completely serious. "So I was. That's a brilliant deduction you made- I commend you."
Ignoring Remus' sarcasm, Sirius said, "Dumbledore let you in when you were ten? Why a whole year early?" Remus still lay in the same position, looking quite comfortable, though it was still bothering Sirius.
"Several reasons. For one thing, I was ready; having been schooled at home, I was far ahead of where I would have been otherwise, and certainly ready to come here. For another, Dumbledore needed my parents help on this project they're working on, and they couldn't do it with me around. Also, they thought it would be safer for me to be here, because of that danger that they're in as a result of that work." Remus said this all matter-of-factly, but Sirius was sorry he had brought it up; he wouldn't like to have to think so calmly of his parents mortal danger, horrible as they might be. Remus, who had wonderful parents, had to be affected worse by it, but he was so calm and in control that Sirius couldn't tell.
"All right." Sirius said after a moment. "So we won't celebrate your birthday if that's how you want it, but I'm not going to let you spend it on the roof in the snow. Let's go in." Reluctantly, Remus agreed, and they made their way slowly down, Sirius heavily aided by Remus. When they were back in the dorm room, Remus turned to Sirius.
"Don't tell them it's my birthday." He said, looking a bit nervous. "I don't want to have to answer questions about it, OK?" Sirius agreed, and the two went downstairs to rejoin the party.