The Bug Collector | marauders

Moony and The Gargoyle

November 5th 1976

Two days after Sirius' birthday the boys were still partying, there had been a party every night since, all seemingly arranged by James. He'd also gifted Sirius with many things throughout the last few days.

James was a good friend to Sirius, a good brother to him.

The usual tradition when one of the boys' birthday rolled around was having a little get together in their dorm, a cake with the proper number of candles would be lit and happy birthday would be sung.

Lily would even come to these mini birthday celebrations as her friends were often invited.

This year after the song was finished Rose leaned over to plant a kiss on Sirius' cheek with a smile. Much to Lily's visible horror and confusion. Rose simply rolled her eyes and promised her sister it was just a friendly jester. Which- according to the agreement her and Sirius had come to, was completely true.

Nonetheless, days had passed since Sirius' actual birthday and James was once again up on a table singing and dancing his little heart out far too late into the night.

Rose looked over at Remus who was caught between watching James sing, and Sirius dance with whomever was brave enough to walk up to him. Granted there was mostly Gryffindors in attendance so that number of dance partners kept rising.

"Hey Moons, you wanna fuck off from here and do something else with me?" Rose asked loudly over all the music and commotion.

"Absolutely, Thorns." Remus answered before patting Peter on the back and waving a quick goodbye to James who sent two thumbs up in response.

Rose took one final look in Sirius' direction before the two of them exited the party.

"I know you seem fond of the astrology tower, but have you ever thought about maybe climbing on the roof before? Looking at the stars from there?" Rose asked as they walked outside into the night, she'd had this scheme in her mind for a bit

"On account that seems needlessly dangerous, no I haven't." Remus said with a chuckle, he smelled like smoke and looked like
old memories.

"Well, I want to do it. I'll feel safer having someone who sees the needless danger with me. If you'll come." She said with asking eyes

"If you fall off the castle roof and die James and Sirius would go absolutely mental, thus It'd be irresponsible to let you go alone." He explained

"Is that your way of saying yes?" Rose asked excitedly, already planning out how they would get to the roof to climb.

"Yeah, it's my way of saying yes." Remus agreed with a small smile.

"Brilliant!" Rose yelled before leading the way to the place she had in mind to start their climb.

—

Starlight shined down upon the many pointed roofs atop the Hogwarts castle. Remus and Rose sat safely on one of the very few suitable surfaces they could find. Remus was tucked in and Rose sat on the back of a normal stone gargoyle, not the sentient kind that could be seen inside the castle. As they observed the beauty of the skyline before them Rose continued a conversation they'd been having, chatting about their mates.

"You know, there's one thing that James and I have in common you guys will never understand." Rose said in a joking manner

"Oh yeah? What's that? Being scared of Lily?" Remus asked

"Oh I'm not scared of Lily, James is for sure, but not me. It's simple really, you lot will never understand how annoying it is to lose your glasses, and then not be able to find them because you can't bloody see! It's a burden only James and I share." Rose said dramatically

Remus laughed and shook his head before breathing out a sigh, a moment of comfortable silence passed between them before Rose spoke up again in a more serious tone.

"Remus...why, despite everything, do I still feel like I barely know you at all sometimes?" She asked turning her head to look over at him, glasses perched on the bridge of her nose, a little foggy from the cold as her green scarf flailed from the wind.

"Perhaps I don't want to be known." Remus said plainly, leaning against the stone of the rooftop.

"Oh come on, I could be helpful, with the moons, if there's some girl you fancy I could get to know her.." Rose said before taking a bite from the chocolate Remus had given her earlier in their climb.

He scoffed, as if to say yeah— some girl. Rose knew asking him to expand upon that scoff would be no use so she moved on. 

"You and Sirius sure do argue a lot." Rose said leaning her hear atop the cold stone gargoyle.

"You and Sirius sure do argue a lot." He retorted

"Touché." She sighed and gave up the bursts of meaningful conversation for the night.

A bit after that Remus had stopped looking up at the stars to glance over at Rose, as if he'd heard something.

"Rose get off that thing." He said

"What? Why?" Rose asked looking down at the gargoyle beneath her

"It's cracking get off it." He said before grabbing her arm to pull her off the old stone statue.

As he said, it was cracking— not a second later a bit of it had cracked off and fell down to the ground below, making an indentation in the grass where it plunged.

"Thanks, Moons." Rose said with a quick breath.

"Let's get off the roof now." Remus instructed

"Yeah, I wanna go see where that fell anyway." Rose said and they began to make their way safely down to where half of the stone gargoyle had fallen on the ground below.

"It's a good thing no one was out here." Rose said looking at the large and menacing stone head that stared back at her.

Remus nodded before taking out his wand and pointing it at the ground in front of it the gargoyles head, mumbling an incantation.

A single red rose sprouted up in front of the gargoyle, Rose smiled proudly at her friend's work.

"And we're the only ones who'll get it." She said holding out her fist for Remus to bump with his own. He rolled his eyes, but still did it.

"Hell yeah." Rose said before they left the scene to go find their other mates.

No one even bothered to move that thing for years.