stain ☾ remus lupin

THIRTYTWO

M O O N Y
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Her eyelids dropped slightly as a cool morning breeze surrounded her and the first birds to wake before the cloudy morning began to chirp. The bottom half of her body was absent, along with the boy next to her. This was due to their friend's invisibility cloak that draped across their shoulders. Only faces remained uncovered in order to grant cigarettes easy access to their lips. Puffs of smoke escaped in sighs and floated up into the air around them.

The anticipated sunrise would happen soon, and leave them to watch the sky turn vibrant against the surrounding mountains and seven story high castle. Though for now, they sat amongst the earliest animals to awake, and the dark blue sky that was only just beginning to fade.

The blonde put her cigarette out on the dewy grass by the lake on Hogwarts grounds and brought her knees up to her chest. She normally would not be up this early, especially since she knew she would not be getting any sleep that night as it was time for the inevitable full moon. However, the same dream of sunsets and falling had seeped into her mind again, and she was beginning to believe the dream was a nightmare. Or worse, a foreshadowing.

Part of her believed that maybe she should tell Dumbledore, or Remus, but she feared doing this all the same. The man would probably assume the whole Order business was too much for her, and remove her immediately. Though she doubted this assumption was nothing more than a worrying hoax played by her mind, it was one risk she would not take.

"Why were you up so early?" Sirius broke the silence as he reached into his pack for another cigarette.

"Couldn't sleep," she responded. Her scrutinizing gaze followed his fingers as the flame from his lighter sparked. "Although you should be the one sleeping. You won't get much tonight."

He shrugged, "Couldn't sleep either."

The Black boy looked as if he desperately wanted to add something to this. Surprisingly, after only a few moments, he opened his mouth again in order to speak rather than place the same cigarette back in between his lips as she had expected.

"James cries in his nightmares sometimes. They're mainly about dad. Hurts, you know? That he's in that much . . . I can't stand it, but he feels weak when I try and comfort him."

Her dark eyebrows rose at his leaked thoughts, but she said nothing. The information told by Sirius had quite honestly put her in a position of shock. He was rarely open with anyone, even with his friends, including Freya.

"Sirius —"

"It's fine. Don't say you're sorry. I don't know why I just said that. I usually tell Remus this shit but he's got enough trouble with tonight. I just . . ." He trailed off with a faux laugh.

The girl shook her head so rapidly that stray blonde hairs fell down from her already messy ponytail. She had put her hair up quickly and without a mirror that morning in the common room when Sirius invited her to accompany him. In fact, she still had on her cotton pajama pants and an old t-shirt.

"No, Sirius," she sighed, "It's not fine. You care so much about him, you know? You're worried about your best friend and I get that. That's why you snapped at Lily."

A moment's pause filled the tensed silence between them before she continued, "You know, she's liked James for awhile. She just never knew how much she liked him until he changed."

The half smile that began to raise the corner of Sirius's lips was this time genuine. The silence around them was immediately turned to a relaxed one, and Freya found herself smiling too.