Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the show so please don't sue.
A/N: Sorry this took so long, but I was so caught up with essays and exams I just haven't been able to update as quickly, but its here now, so enjoy!
Saturn-Lily: Thanks, glad you are enjoying it. Just to clear that up, yes it is morning now. I was trying to make it James' point of view so he doesn't really know when it is or what's happening. Hope you didn't have to wait too long for this!
Sumerlovin9191: Glad to know you are so into the story, well, here is the next part!
Sleepily stumbling into James' bedroom, Sirius tried to keep his eyes open as he searched for his brother. He knew James wouldn't be happy with him if he didn't tell him how the previous night went before he stumbled to his own bed. Looking around the room, he blinked slowly as he saw the lump on top of the bed, huddled under the duvet, lying as though he had fallen asleep looking out the window before slumping over. Sirius rolled his eyes, he thought he had felt Prongs' gaze upon them last night, but dismissed it as his own paranoia. When it had disappeared a few hours later, and a feeling something wasn't right replaced it, he had simply ignored it, assuming once again it was his imagination, and instead concentrated on the werewolf he was playing with at the time.
'James, James.' Sirius called out to wake the other boy as he went over to the bed. There was no reply for a few seconds before a low noise came from the blanketed lump which sounded only vaguely like words.
'Wa?' This worried the boy, instantly waking him up. Although James hated mornings and would do anything to avoid getting up for a bit, he always spoke normally, and if not, then only slightly blurred by sleep and was almost always properly awake; even if he didn't want to leave the cosy bed. Sirius burrowed into the duvet and found James' forehead, before instantly pulling his hand back.
'He's burning up!' He muttered to himself before calling out, 'Mum! Mum!' Sirius yelled, dashing out from the room and to the kitchen where the three adults were checking Remus over still for any injuries he had accidentally gained during the night.
'Sirius, I thought you were going to bed?' Carla gently scolded him, keeping her voice down so as not to disturb Remus too much, who looked as though he was about to nod off at any second.
'I was, but James is sick!' Carla looked startled and shocked. Quickly finishing off the last of the healing, she left the battered boy with his parents while she ran upstairs, Sirius right behind her. Hurrying over to the side of the bundle, she slipped her hand inside, placing her hand on the shivering boy's forehead; it was far too hot to touch.
'I came in and he was like this.' Sirius explained, taking in Carla's reaction, it seemed she too realised he wasn't well.
'I think he just has a fever, I'll get my potions.' Sirius went over to the bundle and sat beside his friend, pulling the lump towards him so James could have some comfort in that someone was there while Carla went to get her kit. It was finally something she could do to help her boy after having to watch him suffer for the last few weeks.
James groaned and half of his body emerged from the cocoon, his face flushed and eyes unfocused even more so than usual when he was without his glasses.
'Si'us' James' voice croaked out as he tried to see who it was he was leaning against.
'Yeah, I'm here Jimmy,' Sirius answered, pushing back the damp hair that had flopped into his friends face.
'Head hurts,' James managed to get out before dissolving into coughing.
'I know it does, but Mum'll be able to make it go away as soon as she comes back.' Carla chose that moment to re-enter the room. Briskly taking her sons temperature, she helped him sit up with Sirius making sure he didn't fall back over again. Forcing a number of potions down his throat, she sighed as she took in her sons pale complex.
'He should be fine in a few hours, we're lucky wizards have potions to get rid of these kinds of things.' Carla told her other son. 'Now come on, into bed with you, you've been up all night and you'll do James no help by getting ill yourself.' Sirius reluctantly nodded, already feeling his eyelids drooping from exhaustion. He was amazed he had managed to stay awake this long, but he supposed it was simply the adrenalin that pushed it away. Not even realising it, he slowly drifted off while James, who had fallen asleep almost immediately after taking the last potion, was still leaning on him. Carla smiled at the scene before adjusting her sons so they were both lying on the bed, pulling the blanket up over both of them.
The friendship and brotherhood those two shared never ceased to amaze her, it was strong enough to weather anything, goodness knows what would happen to either of them if one of them wasn't there anymore; she doubted they'd ever survive it. Giving one last smile, she quietly closed the door, she'd be back in a bit to see how they were doing, she could never get tired of seeing them, whether sleeping or bounding around the house pulling their pranks; they were her boys, no matter what Sirius' birth certificate claimed.
Slowly waking up, Sirius almost fell off the edge of the bed when he realised he was looking into a pair of amber eyes. 'Remus!' Sirius exclaimed in a whisper, all too aware of his sleeping friend next to him. 'How are you doing?' Remus gave a half shrug.
'Not too bad considering. Having you there really makes it easier; can get over it quicker. How you and sleeping beauty here doing? Carla said he had a fever.' Remus asked, trying his best not to yawn too much. Sirius snorted at the description of their friend before stretching as he sat up, James didn't stir at all.
'I'm okay, be fine by tomorrow. Guess we'll just have to wait til he wakes up.' Padfoot answered quietly. 'Look, that chairs got to be uncomfortable, just get in the bed already Moony.' He scolded his more conservative friend, who simply rolled his eyes, but did as was requested before the two of them slowly drifted back off to sleep.
Opening his eyes, James instantly clenched his eyes closed once more, trying to escape from the blinding light that seared into his sensitive eyes. Groaning, he tried to pull his pillow out from beneath his head to cover his pounding skull, only to receive a yelp and a soft thunk behind him.
'Jimmy, you awake?' Sirius' voice startled him, rolling over, he gaped in shock that two of his best friends were in the same bed as him before closing his eyes once again as the headache got worse.
'Maybe.' His voice came out croaky, surprising him even more. 'I'm thinking this is a dream though, since my two best friends are in bed with me. Just tell me if your clothed or not!' Sirius let out a barking laugh at his brother's confusion, which only caused James to groan once more as the pounding reached new levels in his head and Remus to jerk awake.
The joking retort about how good last night had been died on his lips as he saw how much pain Prongs was in. Remus noticing the same gave a nod and disappeared out of the room to fetch Carla and her potions. 'Yeah, we are Prongs. We were just tired waiting for you to wake up and fell asleep here. How you feeling?'
Squinting, James lifted his head from the pillow and finally looked at his dishevelled friend. Sirius' hair looked more like his own while most of his clothing was rumpled from where he had slept in it. 'Head hurts. What happened?'
'You've had a fever; you were really out of it when we got in this morning.' Sirius looked away at this point, unable to meet James' eyes and show how worried he had been when he saw the scruffy haired boy looking that bad. Seeing the familiar avoidance technique, James reached up and forced their eyes to meet; sighing when he saw the emotions he expected to see. Before he could say anything though, the door flew open, and Carla bustled in.
'James dear, how are you feeling?' Carla asked in a motherly tone while Remus perched on the side of the bed next to Padfoot.
'Hurt, my head really hurts' James answered before being force-fed another batch of potions. It felt as though someone had poured warm water on him as the pain was washed away, leaving him feeling a lot better, only his muscles telling him how tired his body was. 'Thanks Mum.' He told her as he finally squinted in her direction, only this time not from the sunlight but lack of glasses as he tried to remember where he had put them the night before, not that he really remembered when he'd fallen asleep. Smiling as she realised why he wasn't properly focused on her, his eyesight only allowing him to see things close to him, she passed over his glasses, receiving a thankful look from him.
'Are you sure you feel okay now?' She fussed much to the boys' amusement.
'Yes Mum, bodies just a little bit weak and tired, otherwise I feel okay. Why did I get ill now?'' Prongs asked, the thought suddenly coming to him. He'd felt alright the day before, just the starting of a cold, slightly groggy, but nothing that told him he would become that ill. Carla looked thoughtful for a moment as she thought about the answer while the other two Marauders also looked interested.
'I suppose it's all those tablets your on. They make you more susceptible to illnesses so what you probably would have fought off without even knowing about it, turned out to be much more serious.' At this, Sirius seemed to blanch before making an excuse about going to the bathroom and leaving the room.
'I'll go see where he really went.' Remus stated after a few seconds of silence, none of them truly believing Sirius' excuse, they all knew him far too well for it. James shook his head.
'No, I'll go; I think this is more to do with me and the accident.' Remus nodded in understanding, he had thought it was probably that but felt he should at least offer to go, but James would be the best person to deal with whatever was bothering their normally cheerful friend.
'Are you sure you're up to it dear? You aren't going to strain yourself-' James cut her off before she could list everything that could go wrong, which since she was a healer was quite a list.
'I'll be fine Mum; I'm not leaving the house or anything like that.' Rolling her eyes good naturedly, she let the rest of her arguments go. Seeing her sons eyes hadn't left her, she once again rolled her eyes before smirking.
'Honestly James, you think I haven't seen you in your underwear before! Merlin, I gave birth to you AND changed your nappy, I think I've seen all of you by now!' Carla admonished him, but still got up. James blushed deeply while Remus did his best to look as though he wasn't laughing, and failing miserably at it.
The door shut behind Carla, and James pushed the blankets off him, revealing him to be only wearing a pair of snitch boxer shorts, his body glistening slightly with sweat. Taking a deep breath as he realised just doing that had taken up quite a bit of his energy; he pushed himself off the bed, before almost falling straight over again had Remus not caught him.
'You alright Prongs?' Moony asked after a couple of seconds of holding him up, James gave a weak nod and managed to reach his stick. Using it to keep himself up, he hobbled over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of old pyjama bottoms and a scruffy tee shirt that had obviously seen far better days before trying to get them on. Seeing the difficulty James was having, Remus silently helped him, neither wanting to acknowledge the actions, but the grateful smile James gave when he was dressed was enough to tell Remus he had done the right thing. 'Are you sure you'll be okay?' Remus checked, seeing how much energy even the smallest tasks were taking the Animagus.
'I'll be fine Mama Moony, really, I'll be sat wherever he is anyway,' James answered with a grin knowing how much the werewolf loved being called that name, and wasn't disappointed when the familiar look of irritation crossed the sandy blond boys face.
'Just yell if you need anything, I'll go and help get whatever meal we feel like eating ready.' James smiled and followed Remus out of the bedroom before turning in the opposite direction. Opening the bathroom door, he saw the person he had been looking for sat on the floor, leaning against the bath tub. Sirius looked up and wasn't entirely surprised at seeing James in the doorway. Not a word was spoken as James crossed the room and sat on the floor opposite the dog Animagus, leaning against the wall.
'What would you have done if I was really using the toilet?' Sirius asked after James didn't seem to want to start the conversation. James smirked.
'Told you there was nothing I hadn't seen before,' James answered, shooting back the answer Sirius had given him a few weeks before when helping him out of the bath. Sirius gave a small smile at the memory.
'I'm sorry.' Sirius murmured so quietly James struggled to hear the apology.
'What for?' Prongs replied with a shrug, not too sure where the other boy was coming from. Sirius looked at him incredulously.
'Oh come on, I've almost killed you twice now since we left Hogwarts!'
'Sirius, you haven't.' Prongs told him firmly. 'The motorbike thing was my fault, I was riding it-'
'And whose bike is it? If I hadn't bought it, you wouldn't have been riding it and the driver wouldn't have knocked you off, and it wasn't your fault!' Padfoot shot back, cutting off James' argument.
'It was an accident! It was wet, and hard to see, it was an accident, you had nothing to do with it! I could easily have been hurt crossing the road.'
'But you weren't hurt because you crossed the road, you were hurt because I was obsessed with muggle motorbikes and left you feeling less important to me!' The argument began to get more heated as the boys' voices rose.
'I chose to leave the hopstal, you had nothing to do with it; I was fine, just a bit battered.' James instantly retorted; getting the feeling they'd had a similar argument earlier.
'No, you left because you thought I wouldn't want to be friends with you because you damaged the bike, and then got ill because your immune system was low and because I got you to play a prank and take you out-'
'Enough!' James cut in, his eyes blazing with anger at the thoughts his friend was happening. 'Look at me and listen very carefully, the bike was an accident, there probably wasn't any way to prevent it except he driver paying more attention to the road. I understand NOW I am more important to you and I shouldn't have left the hopstal. The illness would have come about whether I had stayed at the hopstal or not, I would still have been on the same drugs and at some point I would still have gone out.' James took a breath, trying to fight off the weariness the potions and fever had left him with. He held up a hand to stop any comments Sirius was about to make, who listened and simply waited. 'You didn't force me to play the prank, in fact I may have been the one to suggest it, and even if we hadn't, I still would have wanted to go outside, and at some point I would still have gotten the illness, understood?' Sirius nodded sheepishly. 'Good, now come over here.' Padfoot did as he was told, the two boys leaning against one another for support.
'Thanks Jimmy, I guess you're right, they were simply accidents.' Sirius agreed.
'Of course I'm right! I'm James Potter!' The scruffy haired boy announced smugly, breaking the ice as the two of them laughed. 'You better now?' James asked after they finished laughing.
'Yeah, how about you?'
'Mentally, fine, physically, I just hope you can help me get up again and to the food!' Sirius smiled at his brother before getting up and helping James off the floor, giving him the extra strength he needed to get to the kitchen.
Going into the warm kitchen, the three adults, Mrs Potter, Mrs Lupin and Mr Lupin as well as Remus looked up.
'Everything okay now boys?' Carla asked as she motioned for them to take their seats as she served up whatever meal they had prepared. Her two sons looked at each other and smiled.
Yeah, I think we covered everything, we're good.' James answered her; Carla beamed at this. They may have seemed to solve their problems a while ago, but now everything truly was sorted between them, and their friendship was stronger for it.
'So Moony; what's our back to school prank going to be? I know you'll be pestering us about it soon-' Sirius was cut off as Remus threw a piece of bread at him while the adults laughed; it was good to get back to normal.
A/N: okay, a slightly smaller chapter, but all that's left now is the epilogue which hopefully should be up soon!