Running in the dark

Chapter 26

Remus found himself curled next to Sirius on his bed, a silencing charm was on and Peter's soft snores could be heard once in a while.

"Sirius," Remus began, he was chuckling a little at the thought.

"What?" Sirius asked curiously, his arms around Remus.

"You're an idiot you know, there aren't any bloody whales in Wales," Remus said he began chuckling even louder, the letters stinging his mind, and then he was shaking, warm tears pouring from his eyes as he grasped onto Sirius' sweatshirt.

He was crying, he'd thought that form of emotion would never come to him again. He was crying and laughing and through a sob that could have been mistaken as a laugh he said "It was horrible,". He didn't even know what he was generally talking about, it was a mix between the event with Snape and his father's abuse, but it was all crashing down upon him.

Sirius pulled him in tighter, letting him cry out as he ran his fingers through Remus' curls, softly telling him that it was ok. This seemed to relieve but also scare Sirius. It meant Remus was finally letting his feelings out, but he seemed to be breaking at the same time.

His sobs soon died away to shuddering breaths and then he began to breathe normally. "Sorry," Remus whispered, he was still clinging to Sirius's sweatshirt.

"It's alright Moony," Sirius replied softly and he placed a kiss on Remus's cheek. "You should get some sleep," Sirius said and Remus nodded, he wrapped his arms around Sirius and after a few minutes descended into a slumber.

The full moon came a couple of days later and Remus was more irritable than before, if someone even brushed up beside him he would instantly move away, which Sirius wasn't that much of a fan of, but after the moon had passed and Remus had an almost pain free night, except a bruise forming on his thigh, he was rather the opposite, he was very clingy, he kept putting his arms around his friends or sitting very close to them, Sirius was happy that he found himself the main target for this clinging and could usually be found with Remus on his lap or holding his hand.

Remus was rather happy after he received back a practice owl test in transfiguration with a rather high mark that when he found Sirius in the common rooms he wrapped his arms around the shorter boy and pressed their lips together, giving him the snog he'd been promised, and a very good one Sirius had said after they had broken away. Remus's mood had lightened a lot.

A few weeks passed, and Snape and Mulciber seemed to have been given a fair punishment. Remus' mood seemed to go back to its normal way and no one could be happier about it.

In the holidays before things began to decline, Sirius and James had started a plan. Regulus and Remus had fooled them into thinking they were fake dating, the two were planning payback using their talents of pranks.

When Regulus and Remus awoke on a Sunday morning, they found themselves in an unfamiliar place from where they had fallen asleep, Remus was last awake on his bed and Regulus was last awake on his bed too. But now they were on the quidditch stands, it was deserted, and the mid-February weather was cold, but neither of them felt it, there was some warming spell on them both.

"Sleeping charm," Regulus muttered putting two and two together while sitting up.

"Can you guess who did this?" Remus asked him as he sat up.

"My guess is two egotistical Gryffindors," Regulus said as they both stood up.

"I would guess that there was a bigger reason why they brought us all the way here," Remus said.

He was right, the two had woken up in the very early hours of the morning and cast sleeping spells on their boyfriends before carrying them from the castle to the stands, they wanted to have a lot of time to pull off this prank, and to annoy the two more than they already were.

It seemed to be almost midday and Remus and Regulus finally got to the castle, as soon as they saw familiar eyes looking at them they realised something had happened. The eyes were their own, everyone walked around and they either had Regulus' green eyes with hints of grey or Remus' amber eyes. There were hundreds of them walking around, wearing clothes that did not match them at all, they saw themselves wearing things from Hufflepuff scarfs to skirts and pink sweaters.

"Polyjuice," Regulus muttered.

"This is so embarrassing," Remus said when looking around.

"We need to change, quickly, come to my room," Regulus said and they walked to the dungeons and were soon in Regulus' dorms, they were both still in pyjamas. "Those two can stay smug without knowing it's us, here put on Barty's clothes, they're close enough to your size," Regulus said chucking some of Barty's clothes to him.

They changed and Regulus made sure to wear some of his clothes that didn't make it obvious it was him. "They made their way to the Gryffindor common room, and when they arrived they saw that only two people there had familiar faces, James and Sirius," they were laughing just gazing around the room.

"I guess that this is a payback for fake dating," Regulus said as they took seats in the armchairs in the corners, they guessed that the students had gotten used to their new looks. They eyed Sirius and James, they were roaring with laughter.

The two then disappear upstairs to the dorm and then appeared back, grinning ear to ear and they came straight over to Remus and Regulus.

"Hey there," Sirius said as he plopped himself down onto Remus' lap and kissed his cheek.

"Like the outfits," James said sliding next to Regulus squishing them together on the armchair and wrapping an arm around his waist.

"Don't even try it, the map never lies," Sirius chuckled.