[A/N] This probably seems like the most random chapter ever but it ties in with the next chapter so just bear with me.

CHAPTER 20: Snow

'WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT'S SNOWING AGAIN!'

Sirius Black charged around the Gryffindor dormitory, waking up his three best friends.

'Sirius, it's January, it's not uncommon for it to snow,' Remus yawned groggily, not entirely sure what was going on. His thoughts took a while to make sense in the mornings.

'But it's really snowing. It's, blimey, it's like a blizzard!' Sirius grinned.

Sirius loved snow. When he was younger he used to build snowmen with his brother. Regulus would always run inside to get his father to admire their 'snow wizards'. Sirius used to be confused at this and one year said 'But mine's not a snow wizard. It's just an ordinary snow man'. His father struck him and since then he was never allowed to play out in the snow again in case he continued making 'filthy Muggles' out of snow. But he was at Hogwarts now. His father wasn't here to stop him.

'Let's go outside!' he beamed.

'What, now?' Peter asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

'Of course not, it's the middle of the night,' James laughed, but then stopped at the sight of his best friend pulling on shoes. 'Sirius, you can't be serious.'

'Well, why not?' Sirius winked. He was already dressed. Fortunately this was one of the nights that he slept in a T-shirt and loose trousers and didn't have to bother getting changed. 'Right, who's coming?'

The three other boys heaved themselves into sitting positions in their beds and started at their friend incredulously.

'Sirius, it's around two in the morning,' James said.

'It's snowing, so it will be absolutely freezing,' Peter added.

'You'll catch your death of cold,' Remus concluded.

'No I won't, it'll be fine, let's go,' Sirius grinned, bouncing up on to his feet.

'Sirius, my mother is a Healer, if you go outside in the freezing cold it weakens your immune system,' James stated.

'Is your immune system the one that fights off germs and stuff?' Peter whispered to Remus.

'Yes,' the small boy replied. 'And Sirius, James is right. You could get really ill.'

'So I take it you're not coming?' Sirius asked. The three boys shook their heads. 'Fine, I'll go alone.'

And just like that, the tall boy bounded out of the room excitedly.

'If he gets caught he's going to get into so much trouble for being out after hours,' Peter sighed.

'We should probably go after him, but then we might get caught and we'd all get into more trouble. He wouldn't thank us for dragging him away from the precious snow either,' James said, trying to figure out what to do.

'He's going to regret this,' Remus yawned. 'What do you want to do then? Go look for him, stay up and wait for him, or just sleep and hope he'll be back in the morning?'

'Look, I see him!'

Peter had gotten out of bed and walked to the window, out of which he was currently squinting at Sirius attempting to throw snowballs at their window and enchanting them when he realised that he couldn't throw them high enough. James and Remus scrambled out of bed and also stood by the window, gawping at their friend.

'He wasn't joking,' James said incredulously.

'Okay, no,' Remus sighed, picking up a spare bit of parchment and a quill.

Sirius, that's enough. Please come back up to the dormitory. We'll go out in the snow in the morning, ok? It's after hours; you'll get in lots of trouble if you're caught. Gryffindor might lose house points and I know you don't want that so please just come back up here.

Remus.

Remus whispered a spell and the parchment flew down to Sirius, who was now making snow angels. The three friends watched as he read the note and sighed. Slowly, he turned and began to trudge back towards the entrance to the castle.

'There. That's that,' Remus said, slipping back into bed.

James and Peter shrugged and went back to their beds as well, waiting for Sirius to return.

Fifteen minutes had passed before Sirius walked into the dormitory. He was soaked from the melted snow and his lips had begun to turn blue but he was still smiling.

'Sorry,' he said. 'I got a bit overexcited.'

'Clearly,' James laughed, ruffling his friend's hair to help him get rid of the remaining snow.

'What were you thinking?' Peter asked, staring at the water dripping from Sirius's fingertips.

The muscular boy told them the story about his father banning him from the snow because he never gave his snow men wands because he didn't want them to be wizards. By the end of it he was shivering and his lips had gone completely blue.

'Sirius, get into bed and warm up before you get hypothermia,' Remus instructed, pulling out an old thick jumper from his own trunk and throwing it at his friend.

'Remmy, do you really expect this to fit me? You're a dwarf,' Sirius replied, laughing even though his teeth were chattering.

'It's too big for me, it should be fine,' Remus said, glaring at the taller boy until he had gotten into bed and fallen straight to sleep.

James, Peter and Remus looked at each other, shrugged, and went back to sleep themselves.

Remus was the first to wake up the next morning, which was strange. He was always the one to be awoken [rudely] by the others, but he felt wide awake and so wasn't about to go back to sleep. It was still quite early, too early to really bother getting dressed, but he had nothing else to do, so he found his clothes and headed into the bathroom. Remus always changed privately to hide the uncountable scars crisscrossing his body from the years of transformations. It would be his transformation the next night and he was now trying to think of what excuse he could use this time. He sighed. He was sick of the excuses, sick of lying. Of course, no one could ever find out that he was a werewolf, but he just hated having to pretend all of the time. The cycle would start tomorrow and he despised knowing how ill he was going to feel throughout the day without ever letting on that there was anything out of the ordinary. Stupid lycanthropy.

Once he was dressed, he left the bathroom and the dormitory, heading down to Gryffindor Common Room which was completely empty. Remus headed over to read the notices, just to pass the time. Apparently the Wizard's Chess Club was back on next week, Quidditch practices were starting up again in two days time, Madam Pomfrey had brewed more Pepper-Up Potion and everyone with colds were urged to go to her to be cured and prevent it from being passed on and the next Hogsmeade trip date was posted for all those third year and above. Not as interesting as Remus had hoped. He sat down in his favourite seat by the fire and picked up a book that was lying on the table and began to read it, getting so lost in the words that he forgot to keep track of time.

'Blimey Remus, there you are!' James's voice said, pulling the book away from Remus. 'We woke up and couldn't find you!'

'Sorry, I woke up early and didn't want to wake you all,' Remus replied, smiling innocently at his messy haired friend.

'PETE! SIRIUS! FOUND HIM!' James yelled.

Footsteps thundered down the stairs into the Common Room and Remus's bag is thrown onto his lap by Sirius.

'Come on. Breakfast,' he grinned.

Transfiguration wasn't the same as it used to be. Professor McGonagall had gotten sick of the four boys messing around and had separated them, however their protests were even more unbearable than before so she compromised by having James and Peter at one table and Remus and Sirius at another, on opposite ends of the room from each other. It didn't completely silence them, but from the looks of it nothing ever will. She had decided to never ever put Sirius and James next to each other and hoped that Remus and Peter would have a calming effect on each of them. It seemed to be working a little.

Remus was taking notes as always. He took notes in class, and the others copied them up later. That way they would learn and not have to pay attention.

'It's really hot in here, isn't it?' Sirius said, his head in his hands with his elbows on the table.

Remus looked at him sideways, wondering if he was being sarcastic since Remus found it quite cold.

'Erm, is it?' Remus asked, still trying to work out if it was a joke.

'I don't know, it wasn't and then it just suddenly was,' Sirius replied, his head still in his hands. At that moment he shivered.

'It can't be hot if you're shivering,' Remus said, still watching his friend.

'I don't know, it's just really hot,' Sirius whispered.

'Take your head out of your hands and you might cool down a bit, because it's actually quite cold,' Remus suggested. Sirius slowly shook his head so Remus reached forward and gently pushed his friends hands down and held his head up. As soon as he touched his forehead, heat flooded into his hand and Sirius groaned and started coughing.

'Sirius, are you feeling alright?' Remus asked, as another chill ran down his friend's spine.

'No.' Sirius replied.

'What's wrong?'

'My head hurts. And so do my arms. And my neck. And most of me. And I just want to sleep,' Sirius whispered, shivering again.

'You've got a fever as well. Okay, mate, I'll get you to the hospital wing,' Remus said softly, raising his hand.

'What is it, Mr Lupin?' McGonagall sighed, looking up from the pile of paper she was rifling through.

'It's Sirius, Professor, he's ill.'

'Very well then, take him to the Hospital Wing.'

Remus stood up and turned to help Sirius, but his friend rose from his seat and crumpled to the floor, completely passed out.

Sirius woke up after being in the Hospital Wing for about ten minutes. Professor McGonagall had conjured up a stretcher and had allowed Remus, James and Peter to go with it down to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey had instantly diagnosed their friend.

'The flu?' Sirius repeated quietly, coughing again.

'Yes. You'll have to drink this and stay here for an hour or two. Usual administration of this potion would allow you to just leave but the flu is a lot worse than the common cold, so you'll have to just stay put, I'm afraid,' Madam Pomfrey replied, pouring out a goblet of Pepper-Up Potion.

'Doesn't that make steam come out of your ears?' Peter asked, leaning away from the bubbling goblet as if it were dangerous.

'I don't really care Pete. I just want this to stop,' Sirius wheezed, squeezing his eyes shut at the sound of his own voice.

'I would recommend that you three leave. I can't make you, but the flu is contagious so you may want to consider coming back in a few hours instead of staying,' Madam Pomfrey said whilst handing Sirius the potion, which he downed in one gulp.

'No. Thank you, but if it's alright I'd like to stay,' Remus said, James and Peter nodding their agreement.

Madam Pomfrey consented and bustled back to her office, leaving the four friends to it.

'Hey, Sirius, the steam has stopped,' James grinned, slightly disappointed that he couldn't make fun of it anymore.

'Maybe this will teach you to not go out in the snow in the middle of the night without bothering to put proper clothes on,' Remus said, secretly enjoying that he got to say 'I told you so.' 'The cold weakened your immune system and made you ill, just like we said.'

'Shut it, Remus,' Sirius grumbled, annoyed at his friends triumphant smirk.

'Do you feel better?' Peter asked.

'I feel just dandy, Pete!' Sirius replied happily, bouncing out of his bed. 'HEY MADAM POMFREY! CAN I GO NOW?'

'Yes, yes just go!' she replied. They had been making enough noise to last her a lifetime.

Sirius grinned and walked out as cockily as he possibly could. He was glad to be out of there and free to do whatever he wanted. Just as he turned the corner to head towards the Great Hall for dinner he found himself face to face with his cousin Bellatrix who smirked at him evilly and mimed fainting. How the hell had she found out? No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't seem to escape from his family. He hated them even more than he could possibly put into words. But he smiled at his friends like nothing was wrong and they took their usual seats at the Gryffindor table.