Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter Seventy-Two - Ice Ice Baby

Author's note: CW for homophobic slurs

Also soon I'll be adding my Shifting Lines one shots to wattpad. These are a series of short one shots that are from the viewpoints of characters other than Remus. There are only a few of them so far but I plan on writing plenty more. So keep an eye out on my profile for that!

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Remus woke up Monday to heavy sleet slamming against the castle windows. It was a very cold, dreary sort of day, made even colder in the dungeons since they weren't working on any potions. Remus huddled at his desk, alternating taking notes and sticking his hands under his armpits to keep them warm. Sirius kept hissing in his ear to conjure up some bluebell flames and when Slughorn called him out for talking in class, Sirius asked why they couldn't at least light the fires to keep themselves warm.

"It's as cold as Salazar's balls," Sirius said, which of course got him in deep trouble, and after class Remus asked him why the hell he used a curse word against Slytherin to the Head of Slytherin. Sirius muttered that he hadn't been thinking and rubbed his forehead, complaining about a headache.

"Oh shut it," he snapped before Remus could say anything.

"Look, if there's something you can do for your headaches, why don't you do it?" Pete asked.

"Because I don't want to, and I don't need to," Sirius grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm fine taking headache medicine."

James turned to Remus. "What's the big secret? He hasn't even told me. What does he need to do to stop his headaches?"

"Remy, if you tell I swear I'll—I'll—" Sirius stopped and everyone waited for him to finish. "I'll do something."

"Terrifying," Remus sniffled. "I won't tell. Yet. But really, it's not a big deal—"

"It is for me. Anyway, if it's this cold now I hate to think of what January's going to be."

"It is strangely cold," Peter agreed, shivering. "It's not even snowing out, it's only sleet."

They headed to History class which was usually slightly warmer than Potions, except this time it felt just as cold. Binns, being a ghost, was blissfully unaware and kept lecturing while everyone shivered in their seats and Remus was tempted to conjure up some bluebell flames since he doubted Binns would notice anyway.

"Christ!" Lily exclaimed as they left, blowing into her hands. "Something's going on."

"I guess some days are just like this," Alice said glumly, arms wrapped around herself. "Come on, let's go get more layers on."

It was a free period for the Gryffindors and every single one of them ended up in their dorms, adding more clothes. Remus yanked on Sirius's jumper underneath his uniform's jumper, doing his best to pretend it wasn't weird or strange he was wearing it for a third day in a row.

At least Defense wasn't too bad since Charlemagne put warming spells on all the chairs before they sat down and when James asked, he allowed Remus to conjure up the flames for everyone. Remus blushed as he deposited little blue flames on the corner of each desk, hating all the attention on him. It was worse when he reached Jha's desk and Jha looked up at him with a smile that sent an uncomfortable shiver all down his spine. When did his Jha's eyes become so... intense? UGH was this going to start happening more often?

"Thank you," Jha said, signing quickly before putting his hands over the flames.

"W-w-welcome," Remus managed to squeak out, quickly scurrying to the next desk.