Nox (The Marauders, Wolfstar, Jily)

4: i love remus lupin guess who else does

In all honesty, Remus couldn't quite explain it, because he had indeed been absolutely exhausted and slept for almost five hours straight, but the very moment he'd woke up to go to the toilet, he found himself unable to get back to sleep at all, despite being perhaps even more tired than he had been when he'd first gone to bed. And therefore, in his sleep deprived predicament, Remus found himself with no better option than to just accept the fact that despite that it was barely more than ten to six in the morning, he was awake, and he was going to have to stay that way for the rest of the course of the day.

And it wasn't even like he had anyone to talk to, because of course, the other three boys found themselves making best use of all the time they got in bed, and Remus couldn't blame them, because he certainly would have slept for as long as he could if he could force himself to do so, but no, he was awake and his whole body ached slightly, and he could smell Peter's dad's aftershave, which James had claimed, left out on the cabinet, and he could assume that it was already terrible when you didn't have heightened werewolf senses, but honestly, just being at the other side of the room from it gave Remus a headache.

And it was like that: in the haze of the early morning, that Remus decided that it was for the best of everyone involved that Peter's dad's aftershave might mysteriously disappear, and therefore, he made his way across the dormitory and took a deep breath of clean, mostly unpolluted air before grabbing the aftershave and holding it out at arm's' length, and well, Remus did indeed have particularly long arms, so this significantly lessened the effect of the can, made his way over to the window, and opened it, revealing a very small balcony, that was indeed much more of a window ledge with a railing than anything else, but it was far too early in the morning for Remus to give much of a fuck, so he pushed the window open as far as it would go and climbed out onto the balcony, before closing the window behind him so there was only a slight gap remaining.

He glanced back through the aforementioned crack and let his eyes rake over James' sleeping form: fucking peaceful, and likely having a dream in which he and Lily were married or something judging by the grin upon his face. Remus said a silent, and perhaps less than enthusiastic apology, before retrieving his wand from his pocket and pointing it at the can, before transfiguring it into a bird, or at least attempting to, and really, the spell had gone forth with unexpected degrees of success, as what lay in Remus' palm was a very pungent, obnoxiously brightly coloured little thing, that looked rather like it was the byproduct of a drunken affair between a parrot and a sparrow.

It did indeed amuse him, however, and he offered it a small smile, holding his hand out over the balcony and encouraging it to fly off, which after one finally glance back into the dormitory, as if it knew what it had once been and just how James might react to the news that Remus had turned his aftershave into a bird, which had then flown off into the grounds - a possibility that only made Remus giggle, it took off: soaring out across the grounds and climbing higher in search of the nearest tree, perhaps. As it did so, Remus found his gaze happening upon a slight marking upon its belly, which somewhat resembled the branding of the aftershave it had once been, which would likely cause some poor muggle to be very excited indeed if they ever happened upon the creature.

Remus let out a sigh and sat down upon the balcony, which really only had enough space for him to sit with his back up against the side of the railings, and to stretch his legs out across to the opposite side, but still, it served its purpose, and there was indeed no doubt about the fact that the oranges and golds dancing across the sky before the sun would inevitably follow, like some sort of parade, were indeed astoundingly beautiful.

Remus had always seen so much beauty in nature: in wildlife, plants, and animals, for they were all innocent of the kind of sins that wizards couldn't help but catch themselves up in, and indeed werewolves too, because Remus would say that he was anything but exempt from sin and human mistakes; that was perhaps why he found himself so intent upon doing some good in the world, as if to pay it back for the chaos and tragedy he caused when he transformed, because although it was out of his control, it was still him, and therefore very much his fault.