See The Rainbows In My Eyes

Padfoot

Monday 23rd February 1976

"Holy shit."

Sirius stirred awake from his sleep, blinking bleary-eyed in the murkiness. He slapped a hand around the air until it grabbed onto the velvet fabric of his curtains and tugged it slightly open to find Remus leaning up in his bed, hair tousled, and half-awake.

He was staring ahead, stunned. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Sirius followed his line of vision to their bathroom where a large blur was standing in the doorway. It grunted and then stomped its feet, probably wearing heavy boots because his bed shook with each strong movement.

Peter too woke up and drew his curtains, dangling his head from over his bed like a lazy drunk. He craned his neck towards the bathroom and gasped, "W-What is that?"

Remus hunched and rubbed his heavy eyes, seemingly fed up. "What do you think?"

Sirius stumbled up and rummaged through the drawer of his nightstand, took out his lighter, then rolled down the metal spark wheel and lifted it towards the bathroom. The small flame enlightened only his duvet so Sirius crawled to the edge of his bed and held out the lighter.

He squinted through the darkness and caught the vague image of a rounded body but nothing more. His heartbeat quickened and slowly reached to grab his wand.

Peter flicked on his bedside lamp, and Sirius shielded his eyes at the stinging light which blazed their dorm. But he peeked through his fingers and there the stag stood, squished between the narrow doorway of their bathroom, branch-like antlers scraping the wood. Its body wiggled and legs danced to break free, but he didn't even budge.

Sirius glanced over to James' bed, finding it empty. He tried to make sense of what he was witnessing but it was two in the morning and he still had a hazy mind from the night smoke he'd taken before bed. This shit was too fucking strange and he was too fucking high.

"Why the fuck- why just why?" Remus groaned into his hands, then started laughing unexpectedly, deep from the back of his throat.

"Should...should we help him?" Peter suggested and the stag stomped its hooves in agreement.

But Remus shook his head, now wheezing. "I can't- I can't fucking... James, what the actual fuck?" He fell back into his pillow, laughing hysterically until his lungs ached.

Sirius watched him nonplussed. Quite rarely did Remus Lupin completely lose his shit, but when he did, it was the most irresistibly contagious thing in the world.

***

A new minister had been hired, Harold Minchum, a man with no capability to lead an entire nation of wizards and witches. He was thrown into the position so the Ministry wouldn't seem corrupted and did nothing proactive but station more Dementors at Azkaban.

The Ministry always acted like they had everything under control when in reality, they were just as much of a mess as the rest of the world because of this bloody war; struggling to manage the pureblood riots, denying the press any leads on their progress.

They were lying to the world and the world foolishly believed them.

Currently, the war was at a stand-still. This was not good. Silence in a war meant an even bigger explosion later. Even though Dumbledore and Hogwarts staff made sure to keep the students out of earshot, everyone knew trouble was coming. It was only a matter of when?

Clubs were never enforced but this term, all students were required to take dueling classes due to recent threats by worried parents. It was compensation, for now, but wouldn't be enough.