CW: Remus gets a bit angry and swears more than usual
James's face was red from blood, some new, some dry, so he must have been attacked for quite a while without us noticing. His hair was somehow even messier than usual, and his glasses were broken.
Screaming, I hexed Snape, who let out a cry and ran away, then Sirius, Marlene, Dorcas, and I rushed towards James, who was slumping down the wall outside the change room, causing his blood to slide down the wall with him and leave a big red mark.
"James… James… JAMES!" Sirius shouted, crouching down to an unresponsive James and shaking him.
"I don't think he can speak!" Dorcas cried.
"No shit, Sherlock," said Marlene.
"James!" I cried. "We… we've got to take him to the hospital wing!"
The other three nodded, and we all lifted James up together and dragged him out onto the grounds and towards the castle.
"I hope one of you three knows the way to the Hospital Wing," Sirius grunted.
"Yeah, yeah, follow me," I said, leading the way through the castle and to the Hospital Wing. Thankfully there was no one else in there, so Madam Pomfrey could put all her attention on James. She took him onto one of the beds and whipped out her wand, immediately beginning to treat him.
She was so focused on James that I could nervously grip onto Sirius's hand without her noticing, and I bit down on the inside of my cheek as well to calm my worries down.
It was a full five minutes that we stood like that before Madam Pomfrey finally turned around and announced James was OK. Sirius and I let go of each other's hands while she was turning.
"He'll be OK," she said. "He seems to have been physically beaten up, no magic involved… so, just let him rest, and you guys should go now."
We all turned to slowly leave, when she said, "Wait. Remus, can you stay for a minute? You three go ahead. Yes, Mr Black, he'll be out in a minute, go on now."
Sirius, Marlene, and Dorcas all left, leaving me alone with Madam Pomfrey and an unconscious James. Madam Pomfrey motioned for me to follow her and briskly led me into her office, shutting the door loudly and turning to face me.
"Mr. Lupin." Her voice was soft but stern, and she looked me dead in the eye. "I need you to tell me with complete honesty, did you attack Mr. Potter?"
My jaw dropped at the accusation. What the hell?
"No," I said shortly.
"Remus," she said, rubbing her face. "I'm not saying you did it on purpose, it's just… well, your kind can have problems with temper, so I just need to know if you let your temper slip, and…"
"First of all," I said, interrupting her, "I'm quite good at controlling my werewolf temper, plus that only peaks around the full moon, and even if I did have a bad temper, why would I beat up anyone, and if I was to beat someone up, why would I beat James up? He's my best friend!"
"Remus, if you can kill people, you can beat people up…" she started.
"I killed people in my werewolf form! I can't control myself in that form! But in my human form, I can!"
"But maybe you didn't realise…"
"I saw Snape! It was Snape!" I cried.
"Remus, you don't need to blame other people, I understand you can't control yourself…"
At that point, I lost it.
"I CAN CONTROL MYSELF WHEN IT'S NOT THE FUCKING FULL MOON, GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL! I DIDN'T BEAT JAMES UP!" I shouted. She opened her mouth to speak, but I wasn't finished. I was over her. "And you, you can fuck off! It's people like you who make me believe I'm an awful person! I know what I am! I know what I've done! But I at least try to be a decent person! So, I don't need you! I don't need you to try to heal me after the full moon then just try and avoid me the whole time. So yeah, FUCK YOU!"
"So much for being good at controlling your temper," said Madam Pomfrey, crossing her arms.
"This? Oh, this has nothing to do with my condition, this is to do with you being an arsehole. So, good day to you!"
At that, I stormed out of her office and out into the Hospital Wing to see James sitting upright in his bed, eyes wide.
"Oh, god… don't tell me you heard that," I said, going pink with embarrassment.
"Good on you, Remus," he said groggily.
I sighed and approached him. "You feeling OK now?"
"Yeah, not physically dying anymore, I suppose," said James.
"So, what even happened? Why was Snape–"
"Get out of my Hospital Wing." I spun around to see Madam Pomfrey, standing in the doorway of her office, staring daggers at me. I felt a pang in my stomach and quickly left.
I rushed through the corridors and back to the common room to meet Sirius and Peter, only to find they weren't there.
No one was.
It took me a second to realise where everyone was, but then I did, when the word popped into my mind. Quidditch.
"Shit, shit, shit…" I muttered, turning back around to go through the portrait of the fat lady, running out into the corridor, and sprinted all the way back to the Quidditch pitch, rushed up the stairs of the stands, and sat down next to Peter, panting.
"God, where have you been?" Peter asked. "I haven't seen you, Sirius, or James all morning! Well, Sirius is playing now, and you're here, but still no sign of James!"
"He's in the hospital wing," I said, breathless, "he… Snape hurt him really badly."
"What!?" Peter cried. "Why!? Is he OK!? Should we go check on him?!"
"He's alright now," I assured Peter. "He was talking to me just before."
"What happened, though?" Peter asked. "Like, what made Snape… y'know… beat him up?"
"I dunno," I said. "Let's just… wait until the end of the game, then we'll go see James, does that sound good?"
"Yeah… alright… alright," said Peter nervously, looking out at the pitch absent-mindedly.
"Peter," I said, causing Peter to look back at me quickly. "He's alright now. I promise you."
"OK," said Peter, nodding, then looking back at the game. I sighed and watched as well. Gryffindor was losing. The Slytherin chasers had scored over a hundred points, and Gryffindor had only scored ten.
"How many points do you get if you catch the snitch?" I asked Peter.
"Er, a hundred and something," said Peter, shrugging.
"So then at this rate, even if Marlene catches the snitch, they'll still lose," I said.
"Oh, yeah…" said Peter. "They need to get some goals, then!"
But they didn't. The snitch was sighted once the score was 170-10 to Slytherin, and Regulus and Marlene went on a wild goose chase to get it, but eventually, Marlene got it, and for a minute she seemed to think she'd won, as she was smiling and waving the snitch above her head, and I almost felt sorry for her.
I felt even more sorry for her when the commentator announced the winner, "The points are 170-160 to Slytherin. Slytherin wins!"
I watched as Marlene's smile slowly faded as she realised what had happened, and then she was flying down to the bottom of the pitch, followed closely by the rest of the team.
"We should go see them," I said. Peter nodded, and we walked down the stands and towards the change rooms. I looked at the wall where James had been beaten up. Someone had cleaned the blood off.
Peter and I walked into the change room and were greeted by six pairs of sad eyes looking at us when we came, then five of those pairs looking away.
The pair that didn't look away was Sirius, and he approached us sadly.
"We didn't get enough goals," he said, "I dunno why."
"You know why," said the other beater, crossing her arms in annoyance. "Because Potter decided to ditch."
"As I told you, he's in the Hospital Wing," said Sirius.
"Yeah, right," said one of the chasers.
"You all know Potter," said Marlene fiercely, "He's obsessed with this game. He'd never leave us unless there's a valid reason."
"Alright then," said Helios Aetos, the keeper. "How about we all go visit Potter in the Hospital Wing and see what's happened."
"Alright, I'm not sure if he'll want everyone knowing what happened, but…" said Sirius, leading everyone out of the change room.
When we got into the Hospital Wing, James was sitting upright and smiled when he saw the team.
"Hey, guys, how did the game go?"
"Shit because of you," said one of the chasers.
James's smile faded. "We lost?"
"Yeah, thanks a lot for ditching, you look fine," said Helios.
"No, I… I got hurt, and Madam Pomfrey treated me, and she wouldn't let me come," said James, "I'm really sorry guys, I really am, and if I ever miss another game you can get someone else to be captain."
Everyone sort of grunted and left the Hospital Wing until only Marlene, Sirius, Peter, and I were around James.
And then Marlene burst into tears.
"Marlene!" James cried out. "It's OK, you'll catch the snitch next time!"
"I did catch it," she said. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I've been trying to hold it in since the moment you were hurt, and then we lost the game…"
"Oh, you were worried about me, were you?" said James, grinning. God, his massive ego didn't go away even when he'd just been beaten up. "And what do you mean… you caught it? Did you win the game?"
"The score was 170-160," Sirius explained, "they didn't have enough goals."
"Oh."
"Of course I was worried, you idiot, you're my friend," said Marlene, laughing through her tears. "And I mean, I guess us losing because we didn't have enough chasers proves how much of a bloody legend you are, hey, Potter?"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that…" said James, but he was grinning. God, if his ego was crushed one day, I would struggle not to laugh.
"Alright, I'm going to go… I hope you feel better soon, James," said Marlene, wiping her eyes, then walking out of the Hospital Wing.
"When can you come out of here?" Sirius asked James.
"Tonight," said James.
"What happened?" Peter asked.
"So… I went down to the pitch this morning to train on my own for a bit, then Snape and Lily came down and sat in the stands, I dunno why they're even hanging out again, but anyway, I flew down to say hi to Lily and noticed she had her hair in some crazy braid thing, so I told her it looked nice, and she said thanks. I went back to my training, and then Lily left for the bathroom, and Snape called me back. I flew down to see what he wanted, and he started yelling at me, accusing me of assaulting Lily because I commented on her appearance, and I'd only said her hair looked nice, and then he took my broom and threw it away, started punching me!"
"What the hell?!" Sirius cried loudly, causing Madam Pomfrey to look over at us. I made eye contact with her for a split second, but she quickly looked away.
"It's alright," said James, "I say we go to Zonko's tomorrow to plot for revenge."
"Yeah, should we meet at ten, then? At Zonko's?"
"Yeah, but why not straight up, though?" James asked.
"Um… busy," said Sirius, exchanging a look with me.
"Oh, OK then," said James, a grin toying at the side of his mouth. "Ten it is."
"I wasn't sure if you guys still wanted to go on that double date… y'know… after what happened with James," said Dorcas.
"No, it's all good," I said. "We've got until ten."
"So, meet at nine at Madam Puddifoot's then?" Dorcas asked.
"Madam Puddifoots?" Sirius repeated.
"Yeah, and if anyone asks, you and Marlene are going out, and I'm with Remus," said Dorcas. "See you tomorrow!"
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen… a double date I see?"
Sirius, Marlene, Dorcas, and I walked into Madam Puddifoot's tea shop and were assigned a table of four and handed menus.
"Thank god they have hot chocolate," I said after looking at the menu for a few seconds. "Tea is… not that great."
"What!?" Sirius cried loudly, causing a few heads to turn. "What's wrong with tea?"
"Not sweet enough," I said. "Not chocolatey enough. It's too bland for my liking."
"You're too bland for my liking!" Sirius cried, shaking his head in disapproval, then said quietly, "Can't believe I like a guy who doesn't like tea…"
"Well, I apologise if my taste in drinks doesn't accommodate to me being your ideal guy," I chortled, just as a waiter arrived. "Uh… hi."
"Hello," he said, eyeing us, but then painting a smile on his face. "What drinks can I get for you lot today? Let's go ladies first!"
He took our order and then left us all to chat. I got to know Marlene and Dorcas quite well during the date. For example, I found out that Marlene was a cat person, but Dorcas was a dog person, and it was the only thing they properly argued over, and that Dorcas made fun of Marlene for having a critical obsession with Quidditch and for being blonde, and Marlene made fun of Dorcas for her terrible punctuality and organisation skills. They also told us they'd known Sirius and I liked each other for a while and had found our mutual pining extremely painful to watch.
By the end of the double date, Sirius and I were practically best friends with Dorcas and Marlene. We split ways, and on the way to Zonko's, I checked my watch. It was five minutes before ten. I looked at Sirius, and fiddled with my hands for a second, before blurting out, "Do you want to go to the bathroom real quick?"
"Yeah, sure," said Sirius, following me towards the bathroom. "I'll just wait here, yeah?"
"Um… actually, do you want to come in?"
"What, and watch you piss?"
I laughed. "Of course not, just… just come in, and then we'll see."
"Alright…" Sirius followed me into one of the cubicles, and as I was locking the door, I let out a long nervous breath.
"Sirius… it's OK if you don't want to, but um, can I please, please kiss you?"
A pride month present for you all from me: Wolfstar and Dorlene