Marauder crack

Thunderstorm

There are a few minutes left to finish Transfigurations exams and it is there, the end of the course, a span away. So close that it tickles your fingertips. The Great Hall is empty but if there were students, they could see how it darkens in a matter of seconds. At ten to six it's cobalt blue, at six minus five it's suddenly midnight-like. The towers of Hogwarts rumble and the first lighting strikes the Scottish sky like a deadly enchantment, forming a shiny scar that disappears instantly. After the noise. A million gnomes playing bowling.

BBBBBBRRRRRRRMMMM!

And the storm breaks.

Sirius's skin cringes. He has spent days - or so he thinks now - waiting for that download. Maybe years. Weeks, that's for sure. He has already finished his exam and he is the first out of class. The walls and doors are calling, and so the outer gardens of Hogwarts. In his ears, like the sirens that used to confuse the navigators. They ask him to join, to let himself finally go, to give in to the spell. "Don't resist, Sirius. Don't leave us. Fall under the spell of the storm".

The prefects watch over the youngest students so they don't go out outside. Some of the older ones return to their rooms, to rest at last, after weeks of stress. Sirius walks that path that he knows by heart and he's out when it starts to rain. It's a brief summer storm and Sirius Black receives it in silence.

Electrified.

With his eyes closed.

It's like everything is alive. As if all of the magic particles of the world woke up from lethargy. Those who doze on the damp earth of Hogwarts. The ones that shine like dew on the branches of the whooping willow. Te ones that rattle and fall with the rain to wet and bless him, from head to toe. To welcome him and wash the sins from him and say that he is okay, nothing is wrong, there is still hope for the Blacks.

- Can you feel that?

He has followed him from the classroom, at a safe distance and a step slower than his. Remus, of course.

- The rain? - question.

- Sure, Padfoot. I'm sinking- He explains by spelling out each silence, as if he is talking to a small child and he will find it amusing.

Sirius opens his eyes. It rains heavily but it's easier than ever to take a deep breath and let himself be intoxicated by all those smells. The land, the trees, summer at last. Remus.

- Not the rain, man.

He opens his eyes. He turns to look at him. Remus lets him rain, as he lets himself do almost everything. Without giving it too much importance. He sizzles her gaze and, sure enough, he is getting soaked. His hair falls over his face and Sirius finds it especially funny that raindrops also fall over his nose. It's a great nose, to be honest.

- What am I supposed to feel?

A curtain of water. Among them. Between them and the castle. Between castle and the rest of the world. Take a step towards him. His brother. His family. His best friend if it weren't because he already has a best friend. James, sure. Remus is something else. A different category, just for him.

They rumble nearby, on the magnificent battlements of the castle. And closer, next to the greenhouse. And even closer, inside his chest. Thunders, awesome. Power unleashed. Nature alive and protesting. "Here I am", he says. "Don't forget about me". Sirius does not forget. He couldn't.

- Can't you feel it? Here Remus- and without thinking it, he touches him, only with one wet and naked hand. On his chest, searching under those wet clothes for the heartbeat of him. - You have to feel it here. Under the skin, Moony.

And he feels it. He thinks he feels it. It rises from the ground, crosses Sirius's body up his legs, and passes Remus through his hand. The storm and everything that wakes up with it and comes to life.

-Magic- Remus murmurs, with Sirius hand on her heart and clothes soaked.

-All that magic- Sirius says. In a trance, almost.

It makes him feel so alive and so strong and so powerful and so capable of eating the world that would want to scream and fall to the ground and run away and stand still, all at the same time, like energy spreading into two - light and noise - to be able to shine in one place and explode in another, for a while. He burns his whole body and especially the palm of his hand and he does not know what he wants but there's something that relieves him, against what to unload.

The storm is so intense, after exams, that it makes him want to undress and rub against it.

- Don't you feel...?

"Alive. Hot. Ablaze. Wild. Euphoric. Barbarian".

-Yes- Remus gasps, sunk up and down.

None of them move. And as soon as it has appeared, the storm stops. It's mid-afternoon, suddenly, at midnight.