"GO AWAY, Des." He tells me in a mumble, eyes closed and slightly annoyed. "I'm fine."
"The fact that you're trying to convince me while you can barely stay conscious tells me you're full of shit." I state and Remus can't help but smile.
"Fine, starve."
"I plan to." I cross my legs from my spot beside Remus on his hospital bed.
He had a particularly bad and painful transformation a couple days ago due to the moon being at perigee. It took a lot out of him, but he hates me doting on him. He maintains that he'll be fine and I should leave, go sleep, or eat, or study, which I don't do while I'm at his bedside. I just tell him to shut up.
"You need to eat." He says and I brush some hair out of his face. His skin is warm like he has a fever.
"So do you, Rem." I remind and he tilts his head out of my touch with annoyance.
"Told you she'd be here, Prongs." Sirius' voice enters the Wing and Remus opens an eye to look at the three of them. "At her boyfriend's side."
I shake my head at his words, and a plate piled high with food is held out in front of me. My eyes turn towards Sirius, who's brought me the meal and I take it.
"Didn't think you'd come to dinner." He admits and sits on the chair beside Remus' bed.
"You're right." Remus goes. "She's insufferable."
Peter hands me the utensils and I thank him as he and James make themselves comfortable around the werewolf. I put a piece of meat on my fork, but instead of eating it, I hand it to Remus. Rather than protesting (like I can tell he wants to by the look on his face) he takes it and chews with a face akin to a child forced to wear their most uncomfortable clothes for a family reunion. The boys laugh at him.
"Wow, Moony." James says. "Luxury treatment. Is Des gonna spoon feed you now?"
"Piss off." Remus mutters with a mouthful, using the fork to steal more off my plate.
I just place the mountain of food beside him before getting up to Sirius' beckoning and sitting on my boyfriends lap. Remus makes a small noise of complaint from my leaving, and I tell him he should have appreciated me.
While Remus eats, James asks if he thinks he'll be okay in a few days for the first Quidditch game - Gryffindor vs. Slytherin - and he assures that he will be. I want to tell him to take it slow, but he sends me a look as if reading my mind and I shut my mouth before I can utter a word.
Gryffindors and their pride.
Peter then tells us about a girl that's caught his sights, which prompts James to tell us about the progress he's making with Lily. Being Head Boy and Girl together means they spend a lot of time with each other, and I'm guessing that's helped with their relationship. James still tries to credit me with the concert idea, but I tell him not to because I really didn't do anything - he's the one that decided to try a different approach, and ones that's working, too.
When Remus finishes half the impossible amount of food that the boys brought, he passes it to me to finish off. My reluctance to leave Remus' side has left me with quite the appetite, so I'm glad that Sirius and them brought enough food for an apocalypse, even if Remus did eat all the good stuff.
~*~
"You need to wear red face paint." Jane tells me and I pull a face.
"I'm wearing red and yellow, that's all they're getting." I tell her on our way to the pitch. "They're never this excited when Hufflepuff plays."
"It's a rival thing." She shrugs. "I'll never get it."
I agree with her as we make our way up the bleachers, looking for the three boys. Iman is on the other side, supporting Slytherin, so they didn't invite her to sit with them, which I thought was pretty funny. The looks on their faces when I told them she cheers for Slytherin had me giggling all throughout DADA.
"Over there." She points and I follow her finger, grabbing her hand to lead her once I find a path.
It's packed with students because we get here a little late, but the two of us manage to make it to Remus, Sirius, and Peter through the sea of people.
Sirius greets me by asking why I don't have on the face paint. Janie gives me an 'I told you so' and I tell him I will when he does the same for a Hufflepuff game.
Remus looks much better than he did a few days ago. It seems like the hype of the crowd helps with his adrenaline, and when the teams come out, he's cheering along with everyone else. James looks so proud to be a chaser as he flies over head of everyone.
Lily comes over to us, and I introduce her to Jane, thinking they'd have a lot to talk about. They do, but the game starting cuts off their discussion about inter house unity.
The match is good, the rivalry of the two houses has people a lot more passionate about the outcome, except for Jane and me, who cheer for both Gryffindor and Finlay Macmillan, after he gives us a wave with his beater bat when he flies by. The Gryffindors around us aren't too happy.
The scarlet and gold team takes the win, though, and I'm dragged to their celebration party by Sirius, despite not being a part of their house. I try to get out of it because it's wizard chess tournament night in the Hufflepuff common room, but James (being the chaser of the team) forces me to stay. Apparently, what he says goes.
There's chanting and cheering, and hoisting the winners on people's shoulders. There's butterbeer and alcohol, which is hidden along with me when McGonagall comes in to congratulate her house. And there's a long night of partying, which I admit is not as good as Hufflepuff's - the boys don't appreciate that.
I don't know at what point Sirius asks if I wanna split, but I agree immediately. It's nice to party, but I can't share in their pride because I'm not a Gryffindor, I'm here because my boyfriend made me, and my boyfriend's best mate has the authority to make me stay. I wrap up my conversation with Peter as soon as Sirius whispers the offer in my ear, and we're out the portrait hole.
"Sirius, why don't you go back?" I say once we reach a random stairwell, I thought we were just stepping outside the common room. He sits on the steps with a bottle in his hand next to an open window that displays the courtyard. "Go celebrate with your friends."
He shakes his head like he's not in a rush, and I'm left aimlessly standing, because I don't want to keep him from having fun. He offers his drink to me, and I eye it, before just giving in and sitting on one of the steps below him to have a sip.
"Pretty loud in there." He says. "I just wanted to be with my girl for a bit."
"You see me everyday." But I smile because I'm his girl. "It's not often that Gryffindor wins."
"You saying we suck?" He raises an eyebrow and I hand him the bottle back.
"Well they're not as good as Hufflepuff." I test and see the offended look on his face.
"Those are dangerous words, Castellanos." He warns me but I find it funny. "Care to make a bet?"
I'm about to answer when excited shouting and erratic footsteps on the corridor floor catches our ears as James Potter nearly trips into our stairwell.
"Padfoot!" He shouts, his eyes are wild with adrenaline and his smile looks so constricted on his face that it's about to burst it open in order to fully convey the glee he feels. "She's kissed me! LILY EVANS HAS KISSED ME!"
I can't help the smile on my face as I watch James, and I can't see Sirius above me, but I hear the happiness in his voice as he says,
"Congrats, Prongs." Then adds with amusement, "So what're you standing 'round here for?"
James is so lovestruck, that I actually don't think he knows why he came here. He adopts a small look of confusion before nodding, saying that Sirius is right, and he needs to get back to Lily. His Amortentia face is back as he hurries off towards the way of the Gryffindor common room, and Sirius and I laugh. He's a dork like his best friend.
"10 galleons he marries her straight out of school." He says, placing the bottle down beside him.
"We changing the bet now?" I ask and he shrugs. I choose to believe it's cause he knows Hufflepuff is better at Quidditch.
"What are you gonna do after school?" He changes the topic and I frown.
"Do we have to talk about the future?" I ask. "Can't we just make out?"
Sirius laughs at me. But I make a case for the proposition: we're alone, and in an empty stairwell, unfortunately, he just finds it amusing and asks me again. I tell him the truth, that I wanted to be a translator, but now I don't know. What with the war going on, I originally wanted to get away from it, but after what happened to Jane, seeing it affect someone close to me, I can't just leave now.
I feel a duty to stay. But I'm not like Jane, I'm not confident enough to look at the unfairness in the world and demand it change.
He understands, though. He grew up surrounded by these ideas and he wants nothing more than to fight it, he wants to rid the world of it, because he doesn't want to go back to a place surrounded with poisonous thoughts. And he wants to protect the people he loves.
It takes a depressing turn.
"Maybe we should have just snogged." Sirius sighs, taking the last swing of his drink, the slight breeze from the open window moves his hair lightly.
I lift myself up, moving to the same step he's sitting on and plant myself beside him. One hand rests on his knee, while the other presses against his jaw to turn his head as I place my lips onto his. It's a soft kiss, because I don't know what else to say, but Sirius doesn't complain.
"Gryffindor's better than Hufflepuff." He whispers when we break apart.
I gasp in outrage, and am about to defend my house when he grabs me with a grin and settles his lips against mine again. And we're finally snogging, my hands making their way into his hair and him pulling me flush against his body. I hear him giggle a bit against my lips and I smile.
I move myself to sit in his lap if only to get closer to him (which I don't think is possible) and his hands start running over me. I bite his lip and a slight moan escapes him which has me wanting to do it again.
"Jeez, guys, in the stairwell? Really?" Remus walks in and we stop what we're doing immediately.
I push myself back to my previous positions, me getting off of Sirius, and give Remus a soft glare for interrupting. But it doesn't bother him as he moves over and takes a seat purposely between us, knowing that there's not enough room and giving me a shit eating grin because of it.
"Sorry, Rem, I'd like to sit beside my actual boyfriend, please." I say and push him towards the bottom steps. Sirius chuckles.
My pressure does nothing, however, and Remus is amused at my feeble attempts.
"You're gonna have to share, Des, you know that." He tells me, but abides by my wishes and goes down to the step where I was a few moments ago. He then moves to sit between my legs, using the inside of my calf as a backrest so he can look at us.
I pout and turn my head to Sirius.
"You date one of us, you date all of us." He shrugs like it's common knowledge, leaning back on the steps casually. His tongue runs over his lips and I immediately want to kick Remus out, but I look away instead, thankful for the breeze cooling down my face.
"Groovy." I roll my eyes as Remus fixes the position of my leg so he's more comfortable before resting the back of his head against the inside of my knee. I have the sudden urge to ruffle his hair like he does to me, and I find my fingers messing it up instantly, Remus scrunching his nose like I assume I do.
He then tells us what we missed between James and Lily, which we know, and Peter, who got the courage to ask out the girl, which is new to us.
He was rejected, but we're still proud of him for trying - I mean, James was rejected for how many years before now?
And while we're talking, Peter finds his way to us, sitting on the steps above Sirius and I as he tells us about the girl. I start to notice that they're all just migrating to each other, so when James and Lily appear, I'm asking whether there are any more Gryffindors in the common room, cause they all seem to be in this stairwell.
James laughs, and he's still beaming as he pulls Lily towards us. He takes his place beside Sirius, who moves right up against me and places his arm around my waist. Lily takes the step below James and I take my time to do a head count, making sure we're not missing anybody as they joke around. I could slip out now, and let my boyfriend spend some time with his friends, but between Sirius and Remus, I'd have to untangle myself, and then get through the rest of the people if I want to leave.
And I don't really want to leave.
"So much for just the two of us." Sirius says to me in a quiet voice, but he's grinning.
He's grinning, and he's surrounded by his friends, and he's happy. And that's all I could ask for.
I give him a smile.
"We're not going anywhere." I assure, showing him that I'm enjoying myself.
"Smoke?"