Night has long fallen, but none of the inhabitants of the Potter's residence is asleep. Lily is over at the nursery trying to get baby Harry to sleep – the boy, according to the worst predicaments, apparently has his father's disregard for rules and is not interested in the concept of bed-time. Instead, he much rather to be in his mother's lap, playing with her hair. Lily doesn't seem to mind it all that much, though.
Rain is pouring outside, but the whole house is warm with charms and crackling fires, such as the one in the living room where James sits, contemplating future when his boy will be all grown up.
A knock on the door interrupts his thoughts, though, and he frowns, wondering who could it be in such hour. He opens the door nonetheless and the fact that he isn't all that surprised to see the person who stands there should be a bad sign, though he doesn't care about that right then.
'Sirius?' asks James, concerned. His friend is wet down to the last of his ink-black hair, and he looks devastated. Shouldn't this be warning enough, Sirius's bike is parked not far away, as wet as it's owner – and it usually doesn't come out anytime near rain, no matter the circumstances.
'Hey James.' His voice is groggy and he realises Sirius has been drinking. Hurriedly, James pulls Sirius inside when his friend makes no move by himself to get out of the rain.
'Merlin, mate, come in,' James says as he does so, watching Sirius stagger inside with increasingly growing worry. 'What happened?' Sirius lets himself fall on the couch before he answers, water dripping everywhere, but James doesn't care about the furniture or what Lily would think.
'Moony, he… We had a fight and… He moved out.' Sirius grabs his shaggy-hared head between his hands and begins to shiver 'Fuck, James, he bloody left me!' James sits by his side, doubly baffled as he realises Sirius is crying. Not only has he only seen Sirius cry once, the night Remus almost died on their sixth year, but the news also hit him full force.
He knows things between the two have not been well for a while – hence why isn't surprised by Sirius's visit – but even if Remus does not like to speak of his feelings, they're still best friends, and he'd think the werewolf would come to see him were things this bad. He'd thought that it was just a phase, or that maybe Sirius was over-reacting, but this… no, surely there had to be a mistake.
'Slow down, Sirius,' he finally manages to say, rubbing his friend awkwardly in the back. 'Tell me, what happened – surely Remus wouldn't just…'
'But he did.' says Sirius, his voice hoarse. His face is wet both by tears and rain when it emerges from between his hands, and James feels selfishly glad that he can't tell what is what apart. He has never been good with emotional situations.
'We- we had a fight. We had been arguing for weeks, you know that, but this one… this one was different. Worse. Much worse. We said- fuck, we said this things to each other… about my family, his condition, bloody hell, it was horrible. In the end, I…I couldn't take it. I left. To calm myself down, see if I could… dunno, find a way to sort things out without all that shouting…' He swallows hard at that point, and James pats his in the back uneasily. As much as he loves both of them, James's never fully understood their relationship; once he had thought it was just a fleeting thing, the result of adding uncommonly close friends and too much hormones, but now he knows it's much more than that and, as strange as it might seem to him at times, he knows Sirius needs him now.
'Yeah?'
'So I went for a walk for a couple hours – just a couple, and when I was back, his… his things were gone. Everything, James. Not once lousy book, not a bloody sock, not anything! He took everything with him – well, not everything…' he adds, suddenly, sarcastically. 'He left me this.' A crumpled, and yet obviously unopened letter comes out from somewhere inside Sirius's jacket and he hands it to James, who takes it confused. 'I haven't read it yet, though… I… I just can't.'
'It's alright, mate.' He says, grabbing Sirius's shoulder tightly. 'He'll come around, I'm sure he'll…' At that point, Lily enters the room. She has a pillow and bedclothes with her, and smiles sadly at James as she lays them on top on the coffee table.
She then sits by Sirius's side, and encircles her arms around him, as if he was a baby. Despite everything, James can't help being surprised – though they try to never let this show, they're far from fond of each other. Yet, Sirius leans into the embrace, now sobbing more openly. Lily smiles sadly at him once more, running her hand soothingly trough Sirius's hair, and then James realises how lucky he is.
The next morning, Sirius is still asleep in the couch when James awakes. He himself slept in one of the armchairs in the living room, having spent most of the rest of his night watching over his friend.
The letter from Remus still sits on the table, unopened, and James takes it in his hands.
It's thin – there's probably only one piece of paper inside the envelope – just like Remus, to use Muggle things such as those, even after years of living in the magical community. Old habits died hard, after all, and Remus's upbringing, apart from his condition, could not have been more Muggle.
James hesitates once he has the envelope in his hands. Sirius had told him, the night before, to read it before he had to, so he'd know how bad it was. James couldn't think of Remus being deliberately cruel, but still, he is going to honour his word.
Inside, there's only one sheet of paper, as he'd predicted, upon which is written only one sentence.
'Take care of him for me, James.
Remus'