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J A M E S
When James finally made it to his lodge, he reached under his shirt for the key hanging around his neck, thrust it into the keyhole and pushed the door open with his free shoulder, nearly causing all three of them to collapse to the floor.
He removed Sirius' limp arm from around his neck that had gone numb and let Cleon carry the drunken boy to his bed. Normally, James would have felt a tad self conscious letting a stranger into his living space-hence why he never brought Lily here-but right now, he was too exhausted to care. Cleon didn't seem to take notice of the environment either. He sat at the edge of James' bed, out of breath, his eyes trained on Sirius, who seemed to have drifted off to sleep.
"Thanks again, mate," James told him once he caught his own breath. "I feel bad for dragging you into this."
"Hey man, no worries," the boy said. "Can I just have some water, if you don't mind?"
"Sorry, my fridge is empty. I meant to go shopping today but so much happened, I totally forgot." He leaned against a wall and wiped beads of sweat off his forehead with the back of his forearm. "Don't worry, our friend Remus should be here any minute now and I told him to bring water."
As if on cue, the doorbell rang. James rushed to answer it. Remus stood behind the door, holding a plastic bag full of water bottles that he must have just bought, messy-haired and face stricken with worry.
"Right on time, Moony!" James cried with relief and snatched the bag from his hands before the other boy could as much as open his mouth.
He took out one of the bottles and gulped the icy cold water down like a man suffering from dehydration in the Sahara desert, paying no mind to the dribbles that ran down the sides of his mouth. When he finished, he wiped his face and tossed another bottle in Cleon's direction, who caught it in an expert movement.
"Uhh, what's going on here?" asked Remus, his eyes darting from one to the other, then to Sirius lying fast asleep in James' bed. "Did you run a marathon or something? Also, who are you?"
"That's Cleon," James said, seeing as the other guy was drinking and couldn't respond. "They were snogging at The Three Broomsticks. Dorcas told me what happened with Irene. I went to confront Sirius, but the idiot was too drunk, so we had to carry him all the way here. Remind me to never do that again."
Remus stared at him in silence for what felt like a minute, as though processing what he'd just heard. Before he could say anything, shuffling movements from the bed made both their heads turn in that direction to see that Sirius was awake. The drunken boy propped himself up on his elbows and looked around in a daze. When his bloodshot grey eyes registered Remus' presence, his lips stretched into a grin.
"Moonyyyyy! You're here!"
But there wasn't a hint of amusement on Remus' face. He crossed his arms over his chest, brows pressing together.
