The Marauders: Year Four

Not Just One of Many

"What are you on about?" yawned Remus.

"Just finished the page, and I'm ready for another," Sirius explained.

Remus looked up at the clock, "Bloody hell no wonder you don't study... it took you over a quarter an hour to read that all."

"That's exactly why I don't," Sirius declared, though it was really just because he hated studying. "Oi, Moony-kins, I have a question --"

"Moony-kinds?" Remus asked, having only just now properly heard it.

"Yes, that's you," Sirius explained, "Listen, my question is very important. Do you reckon that it ought to be pronounced onety-one instead of eleven?"

"What?"

"Twoty-two... threety-three.. Fourty-four... hey, that one actually works out alright..."

"Sirius, what in bloody hell are you talking about?" Remus laughed, turning his head.

Sirius explained, "Well, see, I was reading here in this book about the eleven laws of human transfiguration here --"

"What?" Remus looked at the text before them. "No you weren't, that's not what this chapter's about..."

"...and I saw the number eleven and I wondered to myself who named the numbers. I mean... obviously that guy was a real tosser... Couldn't think of a thing to name it better than zero? What kind of horrible name is zero?"

"It's not really a name though," said Remus, "It's a number... numbers don't have names really, they just... are that number..."

"Sure they have names. What else do you call it if you don't call it zero, you git? And what good is having a name if you don't let anyone call you by it?"

Remus shook his head.

"Rey?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's go have an adventure. I'm tired of studying."

"We read one page," Remus pointed out.

"Yes but it's boring."

"Oh having me sit in your lap like this is boring, is it?" Remus teased him.

"No, well, that I'm rather enjoying. It's the book that's a snore." He looked at the window, it was dark and there was a frost going up on the pane. "C'mon there's loads to do about the castle, it'll be grand."

Remus, who was a week out from a full moon and already starting to feel it in the creakiness of his bones, hesitated. Leaning against Sirius like this was like laying on a warm hot water bottle and his spine had never felt better in his life, he was sure of it... he really was loathe to move. And it was sooo late, the thought of running about the castle was exhausting. But the look in Sirius's eyes... the plea he wasn't speaking... Remus knew it was dangerous how easy Sirius could get him to agree to something, just a look of his eye, a touch of his hand and Rey's senses were done for.

"Alright, where are we going?"

Sirius's mouth broke into a grin and he pulled himself up and over the arm of the couch, out from behind Remus, and stood up as Remus shifted to sit forward. Sirius thought for a long moment - what to do, what to do... What did he want his first midnight adventure with his Moony to be? What could two dogs like them get up to that would be new and exciting for Remus with a low chance of being caught? (After all, he had to break him in to the idea of being caught before they actually did it - Remus would not fare well in detention, Sirius decided, the same way he wouldn't fare well in jail.) Then it came to him and he grinned. "C'mon."