Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Remus's head felt like a balloon filled with lead. Bright lead. Lead that was flashing around behind his eyes and screaming between his ears and growing in size against his skull until his bones were sure to break.
And then his curtains were pulled back and there was sunlight to mix with the flashing and Remus thought he was sure to go blind.
"ARE YOU COMING?" James bellowed. Remus shoved his pillow over his head to muffle the noise.
"Why are you shouting?" He cried.
"I'M NOT," said James, his voice rattling through Remus's skull of lead.
"Yes, you are," Remus insisted. "Please, be quiet."
James said nothing for a moment, though Remus could hear footsteps and whispered voices.
"WE'RE OFF TO HOGSMEADE," Sirius yelled. "DO YOU WANT ANYTHING WHILE WE'RE GONE?"
"Just shut the drapes," Remus groaned.
And the curtains closed and the door opened and slammed shut and there was only Remus.
And then he remembered.
He remembered the flashing lights and pounding music. He remembered the Firewhiskey. He remembered Valerie.
Oh, fuck. Valerie.
Remus vividly remembered Valerie pulling him into the hall and sitting him down. He remembered her asking him to fight for them. He remembered her eyes welling up as he told her.
I can't like you. I'm in love with Sydney.
Holy shit. Why did I say that?
Who let me drink and then go off alone with Valerie?
Dorcas.
I'll kill her.
Or myself.
Maybe both.
Certainly the second, though.
Remus pushed the pillow down harder over his face until the pain in his head became little more than blunt tension in the back of his brain. He wanted to pack in the flashing, the screaming, the dizziness, the remembering. He wanted it all to stop.
But he pulled the pillow back and it didn't.
He was still entirely hungover, and the lights flashed.
He had still brutally broken up with Valerie, and the world screamed.
He was still in love with Sydney, and he was dizzy.
And then he remembered the wizard's aspirin in his bedside table drawer. Remus pulled open his curtains just enough to see the small metal handle, which he grabbed and yanked open, rummaging blindly for the packet with the little pills. As soon as he found it, he tore into the plastic and dumped the pills into his hand.
