Sirius' call from the opposite side of the room breaks past the seal of drowsiness surrounding James' brain. Unfortunately.
"Oi! Anyone still up? I'm turning off the light so I can get some quality beauty sleep." Sirius bounds over to his own four-poster, not waiting for an answer.
"You're fine, Pettigrew's asleep," notes Remus slowly, not tearing his eyes away from the book currently capturing his attention. Something from Sirius' previous sentence sticks in James' unfocused mind. He rolls over, his head pointed towards the center of the dormitory, yawning.
"Beauty sleep?" he inquires. "You plan on being a model or something, mate? Cause you don't have the looks for it, yet me tell you that."
"Ha ha," grumbles Sirius. "I look better than you any day." James raises an eyebrow.
"But for your information, I was asked out by Mary Macdonald yesterday at dinner," Sirius continues. "She was clearly drawn in by my gorgeous features, which will be all wrinkle if I stay up any later! So move it, hear me?"
He starts fluffing pillows, then plops onto a bed, flicking his wand and muttering a darkening charm.
"But Pads─ fine," says Remus, annoyed. He turns onto his side and places a book called 203 Ways to Transfigure Household Objects onto his bedside table. Soon, hearing the snoring comes from Sirius' side of the room, James realizes he is the last to fall asleep.
"Guess─ can't hurt─" he whispers, yawning helplessly and closing his eyes, feeling the strain on his lids as they weigh him down, and slowly, slowly close...
Is he going to fall asleep soon?
Who could, they're so many worries─
fears, stiffness and the ache of muscles
fun had with the best of friends
friends' pranks, trouble from professor
but tomorrow there's a paper due, could Moony help him?
alone in the *common room*
why can't he get her
he's flying, flying in the afternoon
but what's that come out of the dark!
startling, fear, those thoughts all depart
'til soon he tries to focus,
focus...
FOCUS!
and here they are.
He's flying, soaring, through the summer skies, the wind muddling up his raven hair. It's as if there's a Quaffle right in front of him, but he can never reach it. Why don't they just give it to him? Somehow James remembers being given the maroon sphere before, for no reason really, but he can't remember where... he swerves and whips around in a circle, whooping with joy. His eyes are momentarily blinded from the noonday sun.
Only, suddenly he starts to fall, his hands slipping off the broomstick handle as he enters a tailspin─ he'll die, he's going to die─ and then suddenly all is quiet. He's standing on the ground, broomstick in hand, and a girl with wavy red hair is watching him.
She tells him that he's a good flyer, and how did he learn to turn like that? Immodest, he says he was drafted as a chaser in second year, did she like it?
They're talking for awhile, about flying and all sorts of things, until finally he asks her, will she go out with him?
He's unsure, regretting what he said. She wouldn't like him, she's made it quite plain over the last four years that she doesn't. Yet, here if not anywhere else, she does seem to have an interest in him. His mind is flipping back and forth between ideas, tired all of a sudden, and the world seems to bend away as he leans in towards her for a kiss (Lily, beautiful Lily), but everything spirals out of control, and his last coherent thought screams, NO! WAIT!
The Quidditch pitch doesn't feature again in his dreams, but there's a constant feeling of loss, uncertainty.
He knows something he wanted is gone, what was it?
Where is it?
"James?" Remus practically yells in his ear. "Wake up!"
"Wha?" he answers drowsily. Sunlight filters into his eyes from the window opposite him, even through his closed lids; he can distinctly feel its warmth. Slowly he begins to wake up, and his heart pounds upon seeing Remus' face mere inches from his own.
"Moony! Personal space!"
"Prongs, everyone's down at breakfast! Sirius was all for leaving you, but I decided to be generous."
James yawns, rolling his eyes, as he leaps out of bed and searches in his messy trunk for clean robes. Muttering 'Scourify,' he removes a suspicious-looking green stain from one hem and tugs them on.
"Thanks. I didn't miss anything, did I?" he asks, combing his hair blindly as Remus stands there, completely presentable, watching his antics.
"Well," begins his friend mischievously, "I heard Evans asked where you were..."
"Really?" gasps James. "I... I have to go now! Bye! And thanks!" he adds, running out of the room and through the common room, out of Gryffindor Tower, and into the Great Hall.
"Oh, James," says Remus to himself. "Good luck with that."
Chuckling, he picks up James' wand, tucking it into his robes, and leisurely heads for the Great Hall to meet Sirius and Peter.
Written for:
Astronomy, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Task: write a story involving dreams.
Snakes and Ladders Challenge, Character: James Potter
Build-a-Bear Challenge, Prompt: To give your Build-A-Bear an air bath for extra cuddliness, write a fanfic about flying.