Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Thirty-Two- Shattered Innocence

TWs: Reckless Character Endangerment

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Dorcas' party was better than his party had been. He had to admit when he was beaten, and hell did that girl know how to throw a party, Sirius thought to himself, equal parts envious and impressed.

They laughed, and danced, and shouted to one another over the instruments gathered and bewitched from several very generous students. Sirius couldn't believe he hadn't thought of something so brilliant. His party had truly seemed childish in comparison.

"That's not true, Sirius," James had assured him after he vocally voiced his fears.

"Yeah, it is."

"Is not! That game of truth and dare will be legendary. Legendary, I tell you!" James sighed dramatically as if imagining the multiple generations hearing of such glory. Sirius laughed and shoved him.

None of them wanted to go to Astronomy. All of them were much more tired than they usually were at midnight. But they all knew they had to as Professor Tablica marked them down heavily for absences. So ten minutes later, they all stood on top of the astronomy tower bundled in their winter robes and huddled together in their perspective groups for warmth. But Sirius' group was one man down, which happened far too often for his liking.

"Blimey, did Remus go off on his own again? I warned him he'd end up missing a class one of these days with his nose in a book."

"Bet we have enough time to run down to the dorm and fetch him. Maybe he's asleep. He's seemed more tired than usual lately."

Sirius knew this was true, but still felt annoyed. However, Remus was one of them, so he went over to their quiet professor whose eyes were always trained on the sky.

"Professor Tablica, our friend seems to have fallen asleep. Can we run and fetch him?"

She pulled her eyes away from the stars and the waxing moon as if it was physically painful.

"If you hurry," she responded in her melodious voice that caused all students to struggle not to fall asleep in her class. It wasn't as bad as History of Magic, but it was awfully close.

"She said we could," he explained. The three of them, or two, because Peter couldn't keep up, rushed to their dorm. It hadn't occurred to Sirius that Remus wouldn't be there. He looked at James confused.

"That's not like him."

"Well, he probably couldn't study because of the noise. We don't have time to check the library and it's technically past hours."

"Then he wouldn't be at the library anyway," he pointed out impatiently, his worry gnawing at him.

"Come on Sirius, let's get back to class. We can give him hell about it tomorrow."

Sirius reluctantly agreed but he had a bad feeling something was wrong. It was nearly impossible to focus on stupid stars.

He had found his feelings were usually right. He had told Narcissa about it once when they were much younger, but she had scoffed at him and accused him of making it up. But even she had to believe him a little bit when he complained to her of such a feeling an hour before their great uncle died of a heart attack.

Still, he could be wrong. There were times when he had been wrong. Oh, how he wished he hoped wrong.

Halfway through class, the door to the tower opened. He hoped it would be Remus, but knew with sickening certainty it wouldn't be.