Black Stag

Friend of Dorothy

The common room was already prospering, and that much was evident by the clamour of cheers. James had heard the bleary murmur of ABBA, becoming more discernible by the second, attempting to synchronize the polarity of the emotions in the room. Remus lurched over in his bed and scowled at the wall.

"Fuck this."  His voice was almost silent but had been simmering with anger.

There were some days when Remus would be overwhelmed with a viscid molten of agony, a type of pain none of the other boys would be able to fully comprehend. It had seemed as if underneath his skin sizzled away, and a hot-white plague of pain burrowed deep into his muscles, his clay body moulded into feeble bones. In the run-up to these fits of pain, the others would notice him starting to dim. His vulgar language and sarcasm would tumble into a dulled meekness. He'd lost his spark completely.

"Are you sure you're okay with us still going?" James fiddled with Peter's mouse ears that had been off-balanced on his head.

Remus muttered something that sounded like a series of pleadings for them to get out of his hair.James reckoned that it mustn't be very comfortable for him to still be dressed up as a cowboy-- cattleman hat and all. Remus loosened the red bandana around his neck and chucked it on the floor.

Sirius pranced by the door, foot-to-foot, "I think I'll stay here."

"No, piss off." Remus sighed and said, "Seriously, you go have fun, please." There was a shiver in the timbre of his voice.

The other three exchanged a look of unease and introspection, "Look, I didn't want to go anyway. Trust me. I'd rather sit here with you. " Sirius shrugged, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

When Remus felt these waves, which were much better described as tsunamis, Sirius would often stay. No matter how much trouble it got him in with the professors. Sirius had told James that he wouldn't leave any of them when they'd gotten sick because whenever he'd feel sick at home, his mother would leave him in his room alone all day and forbid anybody from going in or out in the unlikely event of him giving them a deadly infection. He'd said that it was much more probable that she was just glad to get rid of him for a day. The Maid would take care of him instead, but she hadn't been too fond of Sirius either, and so he'd usually end up alone until the sickness cleared.

James hadn't ever felt the same level of being a burden. His mother would supply him with wet compresses to apply to his wrists or calves, whilst his father would provide the ginger tea, combined with a dollop of honey to sweeten it up for James when the dullness of it would be too off-putting.

"I think Remus may want some peace and quiet." James glanced at Sirius.

"And I want a nice family and a 12-inch cock, but we can't have everything in life, can we?" Sirius continued, making it very clear he would not leave Remus' side.

Peter sniggered at that comment, but James wasn't so impressed.

Actually, he was somewhat impressed but decided not to laugh to get his way.

"Don't be a knob." James thought maybe this persistence had little to do with giving Remus peace and more to do with the fact he and Sirius were wearing matching costumes, and without Sirius, it just looked as if James was dressed as a cat.

They'd planned this matching costume, as per tradition, since the previous Halloween—when they'd dressed as ketchup and mustard. Peter had a collection of comics that he routinely lent out to his friends. One of these comics was Batman. They'd argued over who'd be Batman for the first three months, trying everything in their power to do different things to prove that they should, in fact, be the ultimate Batman. Once it was decided that Sirius would be Batman, James asked to be The Joker. After all, James was a bit of a Joker. But not the psychopathic supervillain with a very warped sense of sadistic humour. They'd decided Snape would be more suitable for the role and moved on to the other characters. First, there was Robin, the other half of the Dynamic Duo, but James remained insistent that he'd refuse to be placed at the low rank of sidekick.