Swimming Lessons

Breaky

JAMES

I sat tapping my quill against the parchment, staring absently out the window at the leaves and trees that danced in the same breeze that made the curtains billow. Morning sunlight streamed through the wide-open frame, slicing over the natural wood floor and warming my feet. I wiggled my toes and watched the shadow they cast, letting my mind wander over stupid things instead of trying to rein my focus in.

I hadn't added any more than a sentence or two to Lily's letter before I'd been distracted.

I could hear the sounds of Sirius banging about in the main part of the cabin, trying to wake the rest of us up without actually waking us up - Sirius's idea of being discreet was slamming frying pans on stove tops and loudly yawning with vocal sounds that he never produced during real yawns, only the dramatized fake ones he used for attention.

Abandoning the letter yet again, telling myself I'd blame the owl delivery service for the delayed answer back, I pushed myself up from the desk chair and went to answer Sirius's call.

"Morning Prongsie! Up so early?" Sirius practically yelled when I emerged from my room and found him stomping around the living room pretending at cleaning up by fluffing cushions on the couch.

"Couldn't sleep through all the racket," I said.

"Was it that fucking rooster?" Sirius asked. Every morning since we'd been there, a rooster had crowed somewhere - only Godric knows where - and Sirius had this strange love-hate relationship with the idea of a "genuine rooster crowing" so that he complained about it every opportunity he got.

"The rooster? No," I answered, sinking into the chair, "But it was a cock."

Sirius paused, half bent over the couch cushions still, and a grin played on his lips as he looked 'round at me, eyes sparkling. I could see his mind spinning, trying to come up with a rooster pun to answer me with.

But instead, Remus came out of the bedroom, limping horribly, his wand extended into a cane, which he leaned on as he shuffled our way. I quickly got up and surrendered the chair to him - it was easier for him to get in and out of chairs on days like this. He looked at me with appreciation as he dropped onto the seat.

"Alright, Rey?" I asked gently.

Remus nodded, but there was a bit of a pinch to his face that told me he was in pretty rough shape. The moons had been getting worse and worse the older Moony got. He had a theory that he was working on studying that the moons got worse the older the wolf that hid within him was. Most wolves only live to be between 10-15 years old, Remus's research had pointed out, and, being that he was only three when he was turned, his wolf form was now older than wolves were meant to age - and he wondered if that was why the aches and pains manifested themselves so acutely so that Remus acted and felt like an elderly man. It was hard to say - most people were bit when they were older so that they attributed the pains to their own age, rather than their wolf's.

Remus had stopped studying when Sirius had asked what happened if the wolf died? "The wolf can't die without me dying," Remus had said at first, and the intention had been to imply the wolf couldn't die... but Sirius's eyes had widened and Remus's face had paled a bit when he'd said it and realized that the implication had actually gone the opposite direction and none of us had known how to react.

But it had honestly crossed my mind every time the full moon came around ever since.

It clearly crossed Sirius's mind, too, as he had taken double care to see to all of Remus's needs through the full moons since that conversation.

"I'll get you breakfast, you sit there," Sirius commanded, handing Remus his book and pulling his feet up onto a cushion so he was reclined. "And I'll massage those knots from your shoulders when I've gotten you fed."