stain ☾ remus lupin

NINETEEN

S U N S E T S
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The last few months of school always seemed to create a mass chaos, the events that they had seen happen to older years since they were in their first suddenly weighed down on their own shoulders. Apparition tests were both passed and failed, Mcgonagall began to constantly hold more meeting to discuss the plausibility of a future career in the Wizarding World, and the hallways seemed to always be patrolled by Filch.

Seeing as the Common Room was normally filled to the brim with snappy seventh and fifth years who were studying for their upcoming NEWTS and OWLS nowadays, the Marauders spent most of their own time outside in relaxation.

However, there was one that did not enjoy the stress free time that his fellow sixth years basked in. Remus. The full moon had chosen to appear the night before the Hogsmeade day, so when the time came to visit the village, he was forced to stay in the Hospital Wing.

"For the last time," Remus weakly groaned with partial amusement as he attempted to shove James off of his body. The boy had a firm grip around his torso with one hand, and a fistful of white sheets from the hospital bedding in the other. "Leave before you have hardly any time left for Hogsmeade."

With one last shove, James was sent stumbling away from the bed that the exhausted looking boy was tucked uncomfortably into, and back into the figure of Sirius that had been watching the whole situation with a humorous glint in his eye. At the impact, the black haired boy was also sent a few paces backwards, bumping into an empty bed that was placed to the right of Remus. The piece of furniture covered with linen was maneuvered slightly with a loud scraping noise. This made the group of teenagers receive a rather threatening glare from Madam Pomfrey as she bustled from behind the curtain of another patient and walked towards them with crossed arms.

"Only two visitors at a time, Mr. Lupin," She huffed, using her wand to open the infirmary door and only prove to them that she was, in fact, being serious.

Sirius had already let a charming and rather convincing looking smile cross his face, but let it fade away at the sight of Remus's unimpressed one. With a sigh and a dozen promises to bring back chocolate from Honeydukes for him, Sirius and James walked from the room.

"You too, Freya," Remus said nodding his head to the door, "You don't have to stay here with me."

"Eh," she shrugged, pulling the bed that Sirius had accidentally shifted over back towards its original position. "It's boring after awhile anyways."

That wasn't a complete lie, visiting the same shops year after year did get quite regular after some time, but she was craving a butterbeer.

"That wasn't very convincing," he teased, warm eyes watching as she plopped down on the bed next to him and crossed her legs to prove she was not leaving.

"Honestly though, I need a quiet day, I should write a letter to my parents and finish this Potions essay for Slughorn. It's probably better that I stay in," Freya reasoned.

"I could make Pomfrey kick you out if you're torn," he contemplated with sarcasm.

Freya merrily shrugged her shoulders in response and shoved a few stray locks of hair behind her ear, "But how would I kiss you from Hogsmeade?"

This new information seemed to change his previous requests immediately with a quick flush of the cheeks and a wide grin, "Well go on then."

She rolled her eyes and stood from the empty hospital bed. With a bit of a triumphant feeling, she began to take the two tiny steps it took to reach where Remus was uncomfortably propped up.

"Stop stop stop!" Spoke a loud and invisible protest from their left that could only be none other than James Potter.

Upon turning their gazes towards the outcry, the invisibility cloak was shifted ever so slightly so the messy haired boy could stick his head between the opening of the material and send them a disgusted look without being caught by any other patient. This only caused giggles to be suppressed as she attempted to remain annoyed at the interruption while staring at the odd floating head of her friend. Remus drew away from Freya eventually as well with a look of both aggravation and amusement.

"Absolutely inappropriate," Sirius shook his head with mock disappointment from somewhere unseen, "This is a hospital for Merlin's sake."

Freya crossed her arms with a scowl, "When Marlene was injured at Quidditch practice, you two did stuff that involved a lot more tongue then what we do does! Don't even get me started, Black!"

After a dozen more protests and quite a few outbursts that only heightened Madam Pomfrey's suspicions, James threw his hands up in surrender and tugged Sirius away from the couple underneath the cloak and out the infirmary.

Their absence caused a bored silence to befall over the two. Freya backed up and plopped back down next to him on the infirmary bed. The mood of the moment was practically wiped away by their friends' intrusion. Madam Pomfrey kept shuffling nearby. There was no doubt in Freya's mind that the woman's reason for lingering was a suspicion that Sirius and James had snuck back in yet again.

Freya's eyes followed the few students that quietly walked through the overly clean and bland room with boredom. It took ten minutes or so, but a sudden thought popped into her mind.

With a slight smirk playing on her lips, she turned to Remus, "Up for a change in scenery?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

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Befriending the Marauders had its advantages, such as finding tons of secret hiding places in odd corners of the Hogwarts castle. It was due to a rather ridiculous game of hide and seek in their third year that Freya knew if she was to stand on the eighth step to the top of the Astronomy Tower and glance to her left, their was a small ledge that could easily be climbed. After doing so, she would find herself on the slanted roof of the tower that overlooked the castle grounds.

There was nothing tricky about getting up on the roof, she had done it plenty of times when she was inches shorter and Remus was accustomed to climbing up even after being weak from his transformations. It was more the far distance down that always managed to send a jolt of repulsion to his stomach.

This was why his eyes seemed to be practically glued on the darkening pink sky above rather than the ground below. His warm coffee colored eyes followed the grey smoke that flowed through the air from Freya's cigarette. Grey temporarily mingled together with the color palette of the atmosphere, creating a beautiful and almost picture perfect scene.

The hard shingles that lined the tower roof pressed roughly against their backs as they sprawled out beside each other, whispering conversations as if they were afraid a louder tone would disturb the natural occurring painting of the sky.

A handful of minutes and two cigarettes later, they found themselves lying beneath the dark night that was speckled with little white stars. The moonlight shone ironically onto his face and created an illusion that only made his scars more prominently etched across his features.

His brown eyes were still cast upwards but her's were on him — taking in every bit of beauty he portrayed.

Because how could she look at the stars when the whole damn universe radiated off of him?

➤

a/n: finally finished this chapter oml
thanks for 1K votes !!!

again, I feel like I should say sorry about the grammar and misspellings oops

qotd: sunrise or sunset?

aotd: sunset ftw