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Remus's leg bounced under the table, shaking his entire body as he chewed on his chicken. His eyes ran along the Gryffindor table: mindless fifth year boys creating a mash and pumpkin juice cocktail, sixth years with open books, a crying fourth year girl with a massive support group of other, angry girls around her.
"Merlin's sake, Moony," James groaned, slamming his hand onto Remus's knee to hold it still. "Something probably just came up."
He was referring to Sydney, and how she said earlier that she'd be down for dinner. Now, though, she and the girls were nowhere to be found.
"Yeah," Remus said, picking up his fork and stabbing it through his last piece of chicken. "I know."
He wanted to believe that it was nothing, that the girls had just lost track of time while doing homework. But for some reason he couldn't. He couldn't quite place why, but Remus felt off centered, felt like things weren't right.
"Let's just go up," said Sirius, stacking his plate on top of Peter's. "Maybe they've turned in for the night."
Remus did one final sweep of the dining hall and then sighed and stood to his feet. He supposed it was no use sitting at the table where she may never join.
Once in their dorm, Peter pulled out his wizard's chess board. Remus tried to decline, but James forced him to sit and be on his team.
"You're cleverer than I am," he argued. Remus rolled his eyes but sat regardless.
His foot shook under his crossed legs again, he couldn't help it. Remus chewed on the inside of his cheek, tearing off some of the flesh as he moved the first piece mindlessly, barely noting where the small white pawn went.
He didn't know why it felt like there was a gaping hole in his chest. But it did. It felt like there was a wide, black hole that opened to the room and sucked the life right out of him. And his brain felt scrambled to wires and nothing seemed right anymore.
"Your turn, Moons," Sirius said cautiously.
Remus stared blankly at the chess board. Each piece looked so orderly and set and perfect. It was like they were mocking him. And then he waved his wand and moved one and it looked for a moment like the piece was made of crumbling sand.
Peter furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you alright, Moony?"
"Yeah, why?" Remus asked.
"It's just," - Peter paused, blinking at the chess board - "That's a checkmate."
Remus looked down to find his king stuck, no route of escape.
"Oh," he said. "Yeah, good game, Pete."
Knock knock.
A general confusion washed over the boys. None of them, it seemed, were expecting a visitor.
