A/N SO sorry it's taken me so long to update and I honestly wish I had excuses to ramble on about but really it's all just run of the mill writers block. I've actually spent time staring at blank pages, but I haven't actually updated anything in… nearing three months. I'll try to be more consistent now so as not to loose my adoring fans' attention ;) Enjoy
Chapter Seven: A Day Off
Not much more than an hour could have passed between the time Remus fell asleep and when he awoke once more. The first thing he noted was the time—6:40 am, not long before he would've woken up anyway—followed instantly by what had woken him up in the first place. Sirius, newly bandaged and still slightly sedated, was limping towards the bathroom, pushing jerkily through the already-ajar door. When Remus heard the gagging noises of his friend being sick, he was reminded instantly of the pain and illness that riddled his early memories; the days of pain just after the bite in the weeks preceding and following his first moon. He wasn't sure weather it would be worse or better for Sirius, his body and immune system putting up brutal resistance to the venom whereas Remus' consumed it helplessly and without a fight, but he did know that it would take a long time to forgive himself for putting Sirius through anything even resembling what he himself had endured.
Deftly, the exhausted boy rose from his bed and followed the dog into the bathroom. He briefly caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he lowered himself to Sirius' level. He looked like hell, but was nothing to how Sirius looked. He shivered and whined softly as he leaned over the toilet, chest heaving. Wordlessly, Remus rubbed circles in the canine's back while he waited calmly and motionlessly for the vomiting to subside. When it did so, he stood, leaving the dog momentarily, and got him a towel to clean his face up, briefly acknowledging James, who was awake and looking through the open door from his bed, with a drowsy nod.
Sirius spent that Friday in bed, upon request from Remus.
He was abysmally bored, but, luckily, ill enough that the idea of trying to entertain himself failed to even cross his mind, and he consequentially spent most of the day napping or in a state of lovely, pain-killer-induced drowsiness. By the time he was woken up completely and permanently by the second appearance of his friends—the first having been lunch—after their classes let out, he was completely restored. The same could hardly be said for Remus, who looked as ill as Sirius had felt. This was mostly due, though Sirius had no way of knowing, to the all-nighter he had pulled keeping watch over his slumbering, sedated pet.
Remus awoke and it was dark out. He kept his eyes closed, feeling so pleasantly rested, reluctant to acknowledge that he was actually awake. The first thing he noticed was Sirius, for he could simply think of nothing else quite so warm and fuzzy that would have any business leaning on him comfortably while he slept. He next felt the other source of warmth, the fireplace, and smelled the smoky scent that so often filled the common room as the days got colder. Remembering both that it was a Friday, and that no foot-long essays would suddenly attack him should he choose to reveal that he was awake, he slowly opened his eyes.
"Evening, moonshine," greeted Peter amiably from where he sat on a cushiony, crimson seat by the tower window, clearly immersed in the beginnings of his History of Magic homework. Seeing through the window on which Peter lent, Remus noted, with little surprise, that the sky had darkened. He had slept for well over an hour.
"Evening to you, as well." Remus absent mindedly stroked the top of Sirius' head which, as he had blindly deducted, was resting rather comfortably upon his upturned stomach. "Feeling all better?" asked Remus, vaguely reminding himself that he had asked Sirius variations of that exact question for the entirety of the time between his arrival in the common room and his drifting off to sleep, and it was unlikely that the answer differed much now. Sirius nodded, rolling his eyes pointedly as he did so.
"I think you're babying him a bit," pointed out Peter in a tone which suggested that he both considered the statement to be true but rather meant the statement as a friendly joke.
"Well I did give him a potentially lethal and/or torturous disease," pointed out Remus. He had intended it to be a dry, sardonic response to Peter's chide, but he couldn't help but feel a chill run through his bones at the sheer truth of his own words.
"Yeah, and I'm not saying you shouldn't worry… and I'm not saying you shouldn't totally freak out when he has seizures—that was definitely reason to freak—but you've just been a little clingy and… obsessive about him lately is all," said Peter with a shrug before turning back to his book and instantly adopting a miserable expression from the exertion of homework.
Remus, somewhat mortified at his behaviors being described as 'obsessive' in the presence of the very crush he obsessed over, dropped the subject and went upstairs to fetch his book. When he returned, he was amused to see that, no doubt for the very sake of Remus' amusement, Sirius had neglected to lay down his head, but instead used what must have been an immense amount of neck strength to keep his head in the air so that Remus could merely slide back in beneath him and they could resume their comfortable position.
"Thank you, Pads," said Remus fondly, patting Sirius as a reward for his friendly and entertaining antics. He began to read quietly to himself, but he wasn't more than a few lines in when Sirius made a faint whimpering noise. The single high-pitched squeal alone caused Remus' heart to melt and butterflies to flutter in his stomach. Nonetheless, he shot a pointed glance in the direction of Peter, hoping that Sirius would understand his discomfort at taking their late night bed time stories into a public place, but Padfoot was not to be deterred. With another shrill plea, all of Remus' resolution gave way and, with a heaving sigh, he begun to read quietly and discreetly to Sirius.
Though Peter heard this dialogue of sorts, he spared Remus the knowledge that he was being listened to. After a moment or two of letting Remus' story telling distract him and watching the pair cuddle with a distinct fondness, Peter reluctantly turned his gaze back to his homework and worked in silence.
"Dickens?" asked a female voice from an armchair about a half hour later.
Remus jumped a bit and looked up to see that Lily Evens had settled in, most likely some time ago, without his noticing. "Uh, yeah. How'd you know that?"
"Bookish, muggle-born, has a general knowledge of your taste in books," counted off Lily on her fingers. "Funny, though. Didn't seem like Black's kinda book," she continued, raising her eyes at the pair. Remus started again, glancing around quickly to see if anyone else was in the room and had heard that. Lily rolled her eyes and almost instantly after, the distinct voice of James became audible as he announced the password in far too loud a voice. Lily instinctively shut her own book and rose from her arm chair. "Anyway, nice book choice. I'll let you two carry on. See you, Rem." No sooner than Lily's skirt had whisked around the curve of the spiral staircase to her dorm and out of sight did the portrait open wide to reveal a snack-laden James with goodies for all.
Remus shut the book instantaneously. After James's all-too-true accusation of the previous night, he was in no mood for that particular marauder to walk in on him reading to Sirius who happened to be cuddling ever closer into his side. Sirius didn't protest this time, but Remus was sure he couldn't get away with actually pushing the dog away, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. This particular dilemma was presently resolved as Sirius' canine nose picked up the scent of pudding instantly and, following it, he was at James' side in no time flat.
"Plenty for all, Pads! Plenty for all!" assured the bespectacled teen, making desperate attempts to keep the elf-cooked food in his grasp with a drooling dog jumping against his chest. "Here you are, then," he said, placing a plate of pudding and some chocolate-chip cookies on the floor at Sirius' level as he said so.
"Oi! No chocolate!" snapped Remus, his gangly arm swiping the offending cookies right from under the dog's nose before he had the chance to indulge himself in one. "Not good for dogs. Now eat your pudding," he commanded, claiming the cookies for himself and taking a bite before remembering that they had resided on the common room's floor no less than a minute previously. He swallowed the bite with a grimace and put the cookies on the table rather than finishing them.
"I'll take those!" announced Peter, joining them. When Remus looked disgusted, Peter merely said through a mouthful of cookie, "Whu? Teh secuh roo!" Some crumbs spewed from his mouth on the consonants.
"He's got a point," agreed James with a shrug, relieving Peter of a cookie and popping it into his own mouth. Remus just shook his head and reached for an untainted snickerdoodle from the pile James had left on the coffee table.
Remus and Sirius finished the book that evening. As a last, yawned promise before drifting off, Remus told Sirius sleepily that he may help pick a new book the next day. With that, the pair quickly fell into a deep slumber, Remus' arms draped lazily around the thin frame of his pet.
"Bloody hell," muttered Remus, nearly doing an exasperated faceplant onto the table before remembering his head's position directly above his corn flakes. "Peter, make them go away," he pleaded quietly. Remus, ever the patient one, had always had the least tolerance for fangirls of Sirius. James's didn't bother him, but he didn't have a crush on James. If constantly being present the one or two times a girl would ask out his friend and crush each week wasn't bad enough, seeing hordes of girls flock to the dog and stroke him every time he showed his loveable, mangy, little face in public was enough to make him want to exercise his rare authority over the boy and confine Sirius to his room altogether. Remus knew, of course, that though he was able for probably the first and last time to overpower Sirius, he would have to overcome the puppy dog eyes and he simply was not up to the task.
"Yeah, old Remmy here never could seem to tame him. Lucky thing he got sent here," boasted James, waving his hand and making Sirius do all sorts of tricks as he spoke. "All he really needed was some expert training from yours truly!"
"I would," whispered Peter in response, "but that would mean making James shut up, and…" he shrugged. That getting James to do just that was impossible went without saying. Remus sighed and decided to take the alternate rout, as he was sure Sirius would be at least somewhat easier to divert than his new 'trainer.'
"Come on, Midnight," he said as he rose. Ignoring the whines from the girls he abandoned, he walked away without a backwards glance, Sirius close behind. For his cooperation, the mutt received a fond pat on the head as they neared the exit. "Good boy. Now let's hit the library," he said when they passed through the doors. Usually Sirius would've protested, but he sensed that this meant picking a new bed time story; a new soundtrack to his cuddling with Remus; a new window into the bookish world of Remus he had for so long ignored. So Sirius complied.
After their half hour or so browsing the muggle classics section of the library—a section Sirius had been completely unaware of until then both due to his lack of fondness for the library and the well-hidden placement of the small assortment of volumes that comprised the section—the pair left for a stroll in the forest without a seconds thought of the other Marauders.
This pair, however, was far from complaining, as, at that moment, they were busy stalking Snape under James' cloak and charming everyday objects in his general vicinity to cause him minor inconveniences until he was just about ready to incinerate the next door that creaked just loudly enough that it almost seemed unnatural or shred the next piece of parchment that gave him stinging, burning gash of a paper cut. Little did the others know that James had invented this brilliant pastime not only for his own entertainment but to give Remus and Sirius sufficient alone-time. The sooner the idiots came to their senses the sooner James' constant annoyance and exasperation could come to an end.
"So how've you been feeling?" asked Remus casually as he strolled casually behind the galloping dog. Sirius mentally commended him for his obviously strained efforts at holding the question in. He had resisted for an entire 11 hours of the day, during two and a half of which he had been conscious. Sirius stopped his spastic zig-zaggjng and came to a trot beside his friend, giving a nod to signify his perfect health. "That's good. You know I worry about you. I mean… I just don't want anything to happen to you and have it be my fault… I don't want anything to happen to you at all…" Sirius licked his hand. "Thanks, but I know I'm just being stupid. This whole thing sucks, but you're handling it so much better than me. I should just… relax. Come on, I'll play fetch with you. You obviously need to get some of that caffeine out of your system," Remus said with a smile as he mentally berated himself for feeding his pet a saucer of coffee that morning.
That day was spent mostly with mindless fun and tomfoolery about the grounds for both pairs of Marauders. While James and Peter finally did get Snivellus to completely obliterate an innocent soup spoon followed almost immediately by the bowl containing the soup previously eaten by the unfortunate spoon and spill rather unnaturally scalding hot soup all across his lap and the lap of the poor girl beside him, Remus and Sirius sat beside the lake throwing biscuits from their early dinner in a Frisbee-like manner and thoroughly enjoyed watching the giant squid brutally seek revenge on each and every morsel that dared invade the glassy surface of his lake.
"So Sir, what's the first thing you plan on doing when you're human again?" asked Remus as a conversation starter that was sure to be interesting considering Sirius' inability to speak at the time.
Sirius rose to the challenge, going through an elaborate pantomime to express his desire for chocolate, his need to climb something stupid and dangerous, his plans to sing loudly and obnoxiously and lastly the intense longing to shout loud, colorful insults at Snape. Laughing at both the dog's theatrics and answers themselves, Remus stood up and pat his little actor on the head as he walked off toward the castle which was illuminated beautifully on the left by the just-setting sun.
Sirius licked at his companion's hand fondly as he trotted along beside him. His head was racing. Sirius hadn't considered Remus' question before then and though his answers had all been true enough, the real answer—the real thing that was first up on his list of things to do as a human—was to tell Remus he loved him. He just hoped he was still as confident two weeks from then.
A/N I SHALL KEEP WRITING! PINKY PROMISE! Pleeeeeeease review! It'd make me super duper happy. Ttyl xoxoxoxox