The Marauders: Year Four

The Coldest Night

The Coldest Night

"Don't forget your jumper, it'll be cold out tonight," Sirius said, stuffing his arms into his leather jacket.

"I won't forget it," Remus replied. In fact, he was tugging it on over his head even as Sirius reminded him to bring it along. Remus put the Map into his bag, along with the History of Magic textbook, and a thermos Sirius had gone to fetch from the House Elves in the kitchens early that morning.

"Here, put my tapes in there," Sirius said, holding out the stack of 8-track cartridges James had given him, and winding his longer-than-life Gryffindor scarf around his neck three or four times.

The wind was howling around the tower, whistling about the windows and depositing gobs of snow against the panes in the stone frame. The clouds were obscuring the sky nearly completely, and peering out the window, Remus couldn't even see the grounds. "It's terrible out there," he murmured.

Sirius nodded.

"I'll understand if you don't wanna come out tonight," Remus said.

"I want to," Sirius answered. He was digging through the stuff in James's trunk that he hadn't brought home with him until he found James's dragonhide gloves in the bottom. "Here," he said, tossing them to Remus. "James won't mind if you use these tonight. You'll need them." He dug out the pair James had given him from his own trunk, and tugged them onto his fingers as Remus pulled on James's.

Remus peered out the window again, squinting through the snow, unable to see even the darkness of the Forbidden Forest through the storm. He wondered how they were going to get across the grounds to the Whomping Willow in the mess. He put one hand against the glass, wiping away the condensation and frost growing even on the inside.

Suddenly Sirius was there, wrapping Remus's scarf about his neck. "You okay, Moony?" he asked.

Remus nodded vigorously.

"Alright, mate. Just checking." Sirius smiled and he tied Remus's scarf into a little knot at his neck carefully, flinging the two ends over his shoulders. "There you are, properly bundled up. Come along, Moony. Let's get out to the shack so you can go furry safely."

The pair of them ventured on down the stairs to the entrance hall. There were so few students in the castle that they barely had to sneak when going to the door. Sirius grabbed the handle and yanked the door opened. The moment he did, the wind nearly blew them both down it was so vicious. It was icy cold, the sort of cold that froze up the lungs when inhaled. They stepped outside and were instantly up to their knees in snow, blinded by the white swirls of it that spun through the night. Sirius lit his wand and reached out a hand for Remus's, their fingers twined as they made their way down the steps of the castle.

The walk from the castle, across the grounds to the Whomping Willow had never seemed so long. Sirius clutched onto Remus, legitimately afraid of losing him in the midst of the storm, struggling to see, feeling flakes of snow freeze on his eyelashes with every blink. Somehow or another, they made it to the shelter of the Willow, which was feeling so attacked by the snow that it didn't even seem to notice the two boys that ran madly beneath it's branches - which was brilliantly lucky, seeing as Sirius was sure neither he nor Remus could ever have found a way to hit that knot in this blizzard. He slapped it with his palm in the dragon-hide gloves and tugged Remus through the door into the tunnel, pulling the lever to keep the snow from following them underground.

"Bloody hell, that's a storm or is that a storm?!" Sirius exclaimed, shaking himself off so that the snow clinging to him flew off in every direction.