I told you chapter four would be up in less time! I keep my promises, or most of them that is. I'm hoping to get to Christmas in the next few chapters, so i'm probably going to be skipping around quite a lot. I promise it won't be confusing!
~disclaimer~I sadly won't ever own any of the characters in this story, with the exception of Camille. So please don't steal her!
Chapter 4:
Later that night, Cam couldn't sleep. It was three in the morning, she had to get up in three and a half hours, she didn't even see the point anymore. She reluctantly got up, grabbed a book off her bed-side table, and slowly made her way down to the common room.
She didn't notice, until she was almost to the couch, that someone was already occupying her favorite seat. It was a small red-headed girl, curled up on the couch, with her head covered. Lily.
"Lily?" Cam asked, lightly touching her friend's shoulder. "Are you ok?" The red-head looked up, and Cam saw the extent of her friends crying. Her eyes were red, and there were tear streaks down her cheeks.
"No, I'm not," Lily sighed, "I'm worried about them Cam."
"Why do you think I'm down here?" Cam agreed, sitting next to her.
"In the past month, they've become like brothers to me Cam, I don't know what I would do if I couldn't hear the stupid jokes Sirius attempts in the morning, or the way Peter shoves food down his throat," they both laughed a little. "And James.." She trailed off, looking up at Cam.
"Yeah, I know. I'm the same way, and I'm worried about Remus too." She admitted. "I know we've known about him for years, but I can help but think about how much pain he's in every month." She shuttered at the thought. "But we need to remember; they've been doing this for at least a year, and preparing for it for four years."
"That doesn't make me feel better. Those boys, they're like family to me now, I don't even remember what it was like not caring about them." Lily told her. "Even if I did think they were arrogant, bullying toerags a month ago."
"With the exception of Remus," Cam smiled. We sat in silence for a couple minutes, and heard a howl outside. Cam looked a Lily, worried.
"We're being complete babies aren't we?" Lily smiled. "Hestia, Mary and Em are sound asleep upstairs."
"I guess they just don't have a close of a bond with them as we do." Cam sighed, looking down at her unopened book.
"Well Hest and Sirius have that weird flirtationship that's been going on, please tell me you haven't missed that. But I guess you're right, I have James and you have Remus and James." Cam couldn't help but blush at Remus' name. "Cam?" Lily asked, smiling, obviously noticing the blush. "Is there something you need to tell me?"
"No, why would there be anything I need to tell you? I noticed you said you have James? Is there something you need to tell me?"
"Touché," Lily smiled. "Well, I'm going to go try to get some sleep, as little of it that I can. You coming up?"
"In a little bit, I'm still processing everything." Lily shrugged, turned away from Cam and started walking up the stairs. "And Cam," she turned back around, "Remus blushes whenever I mention you too."
An hour later, the boys had not returned and Cam had still gotten no sleep. She closed her book, that she had really just been staring at and turned towards the boys' staircase. She quickly found the Marauders room, and opened the door to reveal a very messy room. She found the neatest bed, and assuming it was Remus', climbed into it.
"I am so pathetic." Cam whispered to nobody. "I'm going to get so much crap for this in the morning." She closed her eyes, and finally fell into a deep sleep.
Cam opened her eyes to three sixteen year old boys looking down on her. Surprised she jumped and sat up.
"Well it's nice of you to join us," Sirius said sarcastically. Cam noticed a cloth wrapped around his forearm.
"Are you ok?" She asked, pointing to it. "Are all of you ok?"
"I'm fine, it's just a scratch," Sirius waved it off. "The real question is, what the hell are you doing in our room?"
"Lily and I couldn't sleep last night, so we were in the common room. But then she went upstairs, and I still couldn't get any sleep, so I came up here to wait for you and fell asleep." Cam explained, though tweaking the details a little. "You boys really freaked us out. I'm going to go get Lily, and four of us are going to talk about this," she said, looking around, realizing that Peter had quietly exited the room.
"We need to go visit Remus in the hospital wing," Sirius told her, obviously wanting to avoid the conversation with the two girls. "Wormy is probably already there."
"Then the two of us will meet you there. You can't ignore us all day Sirius, it is a Saturday." Cam reminded him, flashing him her own personal Marauder grin she had picked up from the boys. Sirius sighed, while James just smiled behind him, shaking his head.
It took Cam a little longer to wake up Lily and get ready to go to the hospital wing. It was a weekend, so students could wear casual clothes. For the two teen girls who hadn't gotten much sleep "casual clothes" included leggings, long sweaters and sandals, some of the most comfortable clothes both girls owned.
"You woke me up, four hours after I finally fell asleep to go talk to the boys that caused my terrible sleep schedule?" Lily asked, as they started walking towards the hospital wing.
"That sounds about right, we both need to talk to them more about this, I think last night proved that." Cam told her friend. "Now before we talk about something totally deep this morning, do you want to take a detour to get some coffee from the kitchens before we meet the boys?"
"Cam, after all these years, I still don't know why you ask me if I want coffee when you know I'm going to get tea." Lily laughed, turning right, instead of left, to get down to the kitchens.
Fifteen minutes later, the girls finally made it to the hospital room, they found Sirius and James sitting around the bed of a very tired looking Remus. Cam smiled at him, as he avoided her looking at her.
"Good morning boys," she said cheerfully, placing one of the three coffee cups she had in her hands next to Remus, and passed the second to Sirius, before sipping her own.
"Hey, where is my warm drink?" James asked, disappointed.
"Lily has the tea, all of us know you would chose tea over coffee," Cam laughed. Lily smiled, shyly at James, handing him his Earl Grey tea. "So, I'm pretty sure the five of us have some interesting things to discuss." She pointedly looked at Remus, hoping he would say something soon.
"Lily, Cam, if you guys don't want to talk to me, or get close to me, I understand." Remus looked down. "James and Sirius told me that they were caught between a rock and a hard place and had to tell you about my 'furry little problem'"
"They told you that they told us?" Lily looked at the boys, confused. "Remus, we've known since second year. We don't care. You're an amazing guy." She looked at Cam, indicating she should chime in.
"Remus, you're one of our best friends, Lily and I would not have been able to survive the last couple years without you. You're still the same guy to us. We still love you Remus." She noticed he blushed, and quickly looked away from him.
"But you two, you two have some explaining to do. I was up till two last night worrying." Lily said, "Tell me something, so I don't need to worry as much."
"What can we tell you that won't make you worry? I mean it's pretty self-explanatory, we run around with a werewolf every month." Siruis put it bluntly.
"The help me a lot," Remus told them. "I've tried to explain the risks to them, but they never listen."
"We just need to be there for him, he needs us." James told the two girls, looking at the ground.
"We understand," Lily smiled at him, and he weakly smiled back.
"We're just worried about you guys, but we're proud of you too. You all are such great friends to each other. Lily and I just have to get used to not getting any sleep on full moons now." Cam smiled at the three boys. "Now, make me laugh, I've been serious for too long."