Behind the smiles

Nightmares IV

The room was dark, messy, and....well....normal. For once, the four marauders had actually STUDIED for their exams. Everyone was tired, and many were worn out. Remus had once again fallen asleep with a book in hand, slumped up on his pillow. Sirius was drooling, ink stains on his hands. Peter was fidgeting in his sleep, a worried look on his face for the tests to come. James had fallen asleep with his glasses on. Sleep had not come that easily for him. They were in their final year at Hogwarts, Seventh year. Once these exams were done and summer started, they were done with Hogwarts...for good! He stirred slightly in his sleep, a troubled look on his usually cheerful face.

James found himself at Sirius' house. He looked around and recognized the hateful place immediately. He saw Sirius walk in, a look of pure hatred on his face. Two masked men were holding him.
"Padfoot!" No one could hear him. He tried again. "Sirius! It's me, James!" He tried to move towards his friend but he couldn't. No one could hear him, see him, or feel him.

Orion Black walked in, his back straight, and a sneer on his face. "Well, son" he spoke the last word almost mockingly, "since you won't obey my orders with your own will, i'll MAKE you obey them!"
"Never!" Sirius managed to shout.
Orion pulled out his wand and pointed it at Sirius.

Sirius struggled helplessly as a body binding spell hit him. His body grew rigid, stiff. Curses and hexes were thrown at him, from his own fathers wand. James shouted, pleaded, and cried, but he couldn't do anything to help his friend.

Orion paused for a moment, taking in the ammount of damage he'd done to Sirius.
Sirius was panting, a few gashes here and there, boils were forming along his arm, and there was a bruise on his left cheek. He managed to glare defiantly back at Orion.

Orion lowered his voice, so low that it was almost a whisper. "You are no son of mine."
A green burst of light shot through the darkness, it hit Sirius, and Sirius stopped breathing, a peaceful look seemed to flicker on his face for a moment, his eyes glazed over, free.

James was crying, yelling, cursing. He could do nothing. NOTHING.
Everything faded away, but James barley even noticed it.

He was now in the Pettigrew household. He'd been there a few times before. He was in Peter's room. There, stood Peter Pettigrew, James called out to him, but he was not heard.

Peter kept mumbling to himself. "I'm worthless....a disgrace." His eyes darting here and there.
James tried to tell him that he wasn't....he tried to tell him that he was there for him. He couldn't.

Peter knelt down. "I won't survive. I never will. Dad was right." Tears were forming in his eyes.
He held his wand in his hands, pointing it at himself. "No one would care if....if......"

James eyes widened in shock. No. Peter wouldn't. Peter wasn't like that. He wouldn't.....
James called out to him, he tried to reach him, he shouted at him. Peter was oblivious to his friends efforts.

Peter shook his head. "At least I can get one spell right."
He whispered the words steadily. "Avada Kedavra"

"NO, PETER!" James found tears streaming down his face again.
Peter fell down, motionless, wand in hand. Peter was gone.
Everything faded into nothingness. James was shivering madly now.

He found himself in the ministry of magic. People sat in a circle, all glaring down at one person in the middle. Remus.

Remus was thinner and paler than usual. He looked like every move he made hurt. James realized why. He was held down by silver chains. James shouted in protest. He tried to reach Remus. Desperately, he called out to anyone that was near him. Nothing.

"You're a monster!"One of them shouted.
"You deserve to be put down!" Another yelled.
"You're a heartless half-breed and a murderer!" A third one pointed at him.
Remus looked down at the ground, forlorn, all hope gone from his eyes.

This scared James. Remus always had something in his eyes...a fire...a flame of defiance. Hope.
It was gone now.

All the wands were now pointed at Remus. James cried out. He struggled desperately to aid his friend.

Remus stood up straighter, facing all the people. He stared at them with acceptance, as if he deserved everything they said. James tried to protest, he tried to tell Remus at they were the monsters, not him.

Flashes of green light hit Moony. He fell with a thud. Many people were smiling self-righteously as if they had rid the world of a criminal...a monster. James called out. He screamed. He cried.
No one could hear him.

James shot up from his bed, cold sweat on his forehead. He had sat up with such force that his glasses flew to the floor and broke. Three figures were standing in the dark. Remus, Peter, and Sirius. All alive. All okay.

Sirius bent down and picked up James' glasses. He repaired them with his wand and handed them to James.
Peter held up his wand, light shining from it.
Remus sat beside James and let a small smile slip out.
"Well, I guess I should ask you if you want to talk about it?"

James smirked. "Well, you bloody gits never talk about yours! I mean, you've all had nightmares a billion times and you NEVER want to talk about them."
Three pairs of eyes looked back at him expectantly.
He sighed. "You all died."
The three eyes blinked. Then, he found three people hugging him.

After that sappy moment. Sirius stood up. "Okay, now that the group hug is over, how about a game of exploding snap?"

Peter grabbed a deck, Remus made sure the lights were on, and James began to deal. All four boys were laughing, joking, and having fun. Four fears, four stories, four brothers.

If someone looked into their room through the window, they would see the smiles, the jokes, the bags of Bertie Botts every flavour beans being tossed around. They would see four perfectly normal boys, having a fun time.

Fun. Hope. Friendship. Those were the things that kept those boys going.
Nightmares stayed nightmares, and they always woke up every time.