Falling // Wolfstar

Twenty One

Sirius narrows his eyes at the small ball of parchment in James' hand. He takes a deep breath to focus and gives a slight nod. James flicks the paper and Sirius smacks it with his quill, watching as it flies through the air onto the floor.

"That's a touchdown if I ever saw one!" Sirius exclaims excitedly.

"You mean a goal," James corrects.

"It's actually called a home run," Peter whispers from behind.

Sirius snorts, tearing another strip of his abandoned homework. "Whatever, I'm still winning. Batter up, Prongs."

The classroom door creaks open causing all heads to turn around. Remus freezes momentarily at the sudden attention, keeping his eyes on the floor as he walks down the rows to Professor McGonagall's desk. He speaks with her for a moment before returning to his seat beside Peter.

"Why didn't you guys wake me up?" Remus asks.

James turns around with a casual shrug. "You looked tired," he answers. "And you know what's coming up so we figured we would let you sleep in."

Remus runs a hand through his unusually unkept hair. The bags under his eyes are more prominent than usual. Sirius catches his eye and they stare at each other for a brief moment until Remus looks away.

"Did you even sleep last night?" Sirius questions, still staring at Remus with a raised eyebrow.

"Erm, rough night." Remus doesn't meet his eye and grabs his textbook hastily, opening it up to the page written on the board. "I should probably catch up on the work." He loosens the knot on his tie, focusing intensely on the book.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius continues to stare a Remus. Something was off. He watches Remus' hand wrap around his tie, jostling it around and the undone buttons at the top of his button up. His neck is bare. Sirius' eyes widen in shock and he instinctively reaches for the R ring on his hand.

"I was thinking we should take a trip to Hogsmeade tonight," James suggests in a hushed tone. "Haven't been all year so far."

Remus glances up with a confused look. "How would we even get there? The next trip isn't until November." A mischievous smirk spreads across James' face both intriguing yet terrifying Remus. That look almost always means that he's up to no good.

"Trust me Moony."

Remus bites his lip warily; he has no reason to distrust James. That was more than he could say for others. Before he can agree, he remembers that Sirius would also be joining. "Wait, tonight I have book club."

"I don't understand the point of a book club," Peter says.

"It's like if they had a club for foodies," Sirius replies.

"Now that makes sense."

*

*

*

The corridor is seemingly empty as the day dwindles down. All except the abundance of noise coming from a lone classroom. Arguments over Lord of The Rings bounce off the walls. Remus doesn't participate in this debate, but watches amusedly. He glances over to his side to see Davvy; his bright blue eyes are sparkling with excitement and his smile is a mile wide. On his other side, Lily is skimming over the back of the book.

"I think we should probably call it a night," Davy announces.

Remus reaches down for his bag, and rummages through it to find room for this weeks book. He pulls out his copy of The Outsiders when the room begins to spin uncontrollably. His head pounds like a thousand tons was just dropped on him and suddenly he's in the common room.