The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

THIS August?!

"I swear if I keep studying, stuff's gonna start falling out of my ears," Sirius announced, chucking his text book down to the foot of the bed. "I feel like my brain is turning to ooze and it's going to just slime it's way out of my ear and dribble all down my front like spilled tea."

Remus lay still beside him, staring at the wall, trying to hold back from being sick. The room seemed to slowly dip and sway, like being on a boat, and he hugged his knees to his chest, hoping that the solidity might help stop the vertigo. But it continued to spin and rock, gently, slowly, like a reed caught in a wind...

The next night was the full moon, and the day after that was the N.E.W.T.s, and more than anything Remus just wanted to study and be sure that he was ready for them. He needed to get good grades in the N.E.W.T.s so that he could attend the University classes that he was so dearly looking forward to. He had made Ned Veigler so proud, being accepted into the teaching program, and he felt a weight of responsibility not to let Ned's memory down by failing at that dream. Ned deserved that much. But the more that the world swayed around him, the more afraid Remus started to feel. What would happen at University when he felt this way? When James, Sirius, and Peter weren't around to help him feel better, to stay himself? Where would he go during the full moon nights, when he was a thousand miles or more from the Shrieking Shack? He'd never even thought about it, really, the idea that he would be without a place to transform, and he started to imagine returning to his father's house, of spending lonely nights in that bomb shelter again...

"Oi, what's the matter, Moony?" Sirius's face swam up before him. Sirius was kneeling on the carpet beside the bed.

"Full moon," Remus murmured.

"You need a massage?" Sirius grinned.

"No," Remus said quietly.

"I give excellent massages," Sirius enticed him.

Remus shook his head.

Sirius crawled back onto the bed behind Remus, where he'd been before, but this time he spooned himself around Remus's frame and tucked his arm 'round his shoulders. "When do you reckon we'll be married, Moony?" he asked.

Remus said, "I dunno."

Sirius nuzzled again Remus's shoulder. "Well, I've been thinking about it quite a lot and I think we ought to pick out a date. They say that June is the month for weddings and June is just around the corner. But then again, a nice autumn wedding might be best, after all the lime green suits are sure to be rather warm if we get good quality ones... But then again, we need to think of the unicorns... They shed their horns - when is it? October? November? We don't want to wait too long. We want our unicorns horny..." Sirius smirked, then continued on, "Perhaps August?"

Remus let all these words sink in, and then he rolled over to look at Sirius. "June?" he asked in a startled tone. "August?"

"Yes, August," Sirius said. "It's nice weather, August, and the unicorn's horns are opalescent but not in danger of --"

"THIS August?" Remus asked.

"No, some other August dozens of years in the future," Sirius replied, rolling his eyes.

"You know I go to Uni in August."

"In August?"

"Yes, August," Remus said.

"THIS August?" Sirius asked.

Remus sighed. "I've told you about thirty-seven million times about --"

"I knew you were going but I didn't know it was so... bloody soon." Sirius scowled and flipped onto his back, staring up at the ceiling in morose sadness. "Alright, then, I s'pose it's got to be June or July then if we want to go to Costa Rica for --"