Chapter 143: Seventh Year: Breakdown
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
If I seem a little jittery I can't restrain myself
I'm falling into fancy fragments
Can't contain myself
I gotta breakdown, breakdown, yeah
I gotta breakdown, breakdown, yeah
Friday 24th March 1978
03:00 AM
Remus rolled over again. He couldn't sleep; he was too hot with the duvet on; too cold if he pushed it off. His legs kept getting all tangled up in the bedsheets, his pillow had lumps in it, and somewhere in Gryffindor tower a tap was dripping, which was driving him insane. On top of this, he just didn't feel tired.
He sighed heavily and rolled over again. Beside him, Sirius groaned.
"Moony, you are my best friend, and I would probably dive in front of a curse for you, but if you wake me up one more time then I cannot be held responsible for my actions." He said this all without opening his eyes.
"Sorry," Remus whispered, "I think it's the moon, I can't sleep."
"Mmmrgh."
"Sorry."
He got out of bed. It was no use keeping both of them up.
Outside of the bed curtains, in the early morning gloom of their bedroom, Remus stood at the window for a while. It was a clear night, and the moon was almost full. Just one slither missing; he wondered if he had ever seen a full moon with his own human eyes. Perhaps he'd been too young to remember.
The forest beneath the moon was black with shadow, and it seemed unbelievable to Remus that in only a few hours he and his friends would be running through those dark mysterious trees as if it was their own personal playground. Just now, it looked terrifying; a great black pit that could swallow you whole.
Only four more moons at Hogwarts. And then what?
He put that thought away for another time.
Remus looked at his own empty bed, unenthusiastically. The curtains hadn't been drawn over for weeks, because he never slept there; only used it for homework. As a consequence it was covered with books, broken quills, chocolate wrappers, scrunched up balls of paper. Even if it had been tidy, the sheets looked somehow cold and uninviting in the moonlight. He'd have sighed again, but he didn't want to make any more noise.
There were some biscuits in the common room. A tin of garibaldi's from Mrs Potter. If he took his book and his fags, he could have quite a pleasant few hours before he finally fell asleep or it was time for breakfast. His stomach growled, and that was the decision made. He pulled on a pair of thick socks (they were Peter's, actually, but he never minded lending stuff like that too much), picked up his wand and his book, and crept down to the common room, careful to step over the squeaky stair as he did.
As Remus pushed open the door to the common room, he realised too late that he was not alone. The fireplace was roaring, and the lamps around the couches glowing warmly. A figure was curled up on the largest red velvet settee, wrapped in a thick maroon blanket, with just a long black plait poking out of the top. In the armchair, clutching a mug of warm ovaltine, staring fixedly a the fire, was Marlene. She looked up as he entered, and Remus had no choice but to smile affably and approach her.
As he neared, he could see that her eyes were dark and heavy, her cheeks red and tearstained.
"Hi," he said, low, so as not to wake Yaz.
