love, lupin

fourty-seven

January 15th, 1977
Saturday

"He shoots and he scores!" Remus cheered as the quaffle he'd knocked with the back of his broom soared through the top hoop at the other end of the pitch. Black had just missed stopping it.

"Time out man, I need a drink." Black called as he flew his broom down to the ground, jumping off rather elegantly and snatching up his broom. Remus just waved him off and stayed up in the air.

When Black came back up Remus aas hanging upside down on his broom, staring out towards the lake.

"Water?" Black offered his water bottle and Remus lifted his head and took a couple gulps before passing it back,
"Thanks." He dropped his head back down.

Being up in the sky always gave Remus a different sort of peace than being with his friends or partaking in a duel gave him. He didn't know if it was the wind, or the fresh air or just having his feet off the ground but he loved it.

"How is that comfortable?" Black asked, Remus turned his head to look at the Gryffindor who had lowered his broom so his head was at the same level as his own.
"Its not." He looked away and out at the upside down world, "But I like the way it all looks."

Black just hummed a response and they both stared out in the same direction in silence for a couple minutes before Remus felt his head behind to pound so he hoisted himself back up onto his broom and shook his head. Black looked up towards him,

"Best of five?" He tried and Remus let out a laugh.
"Nah, I won fair and square." Remus shrugged as he began moving atop his broom again, bringing his feet up onto it to stand.
"Be careful." Black warned and Remus dismissed his worries with a wave of the hand as he shakily tried to stand.

"I haven't played a proper game of Quidditch since I was in my first year. When we used to do them in flying class remember?" Remus said asbhe wobbled and had to sit back down to get his balance back,
"Yeah, I remember."
"Well that will be 6 years ago at the end of this month then last time I touched a snitch. I do play occasionally with a Quaffle like we just have but I more just fly to fly." Remus told him and he slipped and fell onto the broom again, grappling for it in a panic. His leg gave out under him.

The after effects of all the cruciatus curses were still in effect and he felt he'd never be rid of them. He'd be twitching and having his limbs give out from under him until the day he died. He would learn to live with it though.

"How familiar are you with muggle sports?" Remus asked Black and he looked up at him, Black shrugged.
"Pretty familiar."
"Right well, you know how theres Ice Hockey and Figure Skating, both sports on the same grounds. But are different." Remus said as he rolled his shoulders and went to stand again, moving slower this time, "Both are on Ice but ones about the Ice and ones about the Sport on the Ice. Ice Hockey is Quidditch, its more about the game then the actual flying, Figure Skating is the flying," He paused as he finally stood, he focused on keeping his feet still.

"You know the basics on a broom, what you need to be a beater like you are. I know more about a broom. Do you trust your broom Black?" Remus looked at him and he wobbled to looked back at hus feet,
"Trust it? Its an inanimate object Grey." Black told him and Remus smiled,
"It is but it wills to your movements, where you want it to move."

Remus took a deep breath as he bent his legs. He hadn't done this in a while, Since his fourth year probably and with how high up in the sky they were he was risking his life. He just had to stick the landing and he'd be fine.

" Greyback don't do anything stupid."
"Black. Don't intervene."

Remus pushed himself up, the broom flying down as Remus arched backwards into a flip. Black let out a scream of terror as Remus was suspended in the air for a few seconds before he was going down.

It was only a few feet and then he was stood on his broom again, knees bent for a few moments before he dropped so he was sat down and let out a laugh of relief.

"That could have gone so wrong." He huffed and Black was spluttering above him,
"Can you do other tricks?" Black asked and Remus laughed,
"Oh no. Absolutely not, that's the only one. I may have compared myself to.a figure skater but i am anything but." Remus told him as he held his hand out and Black handed him the water bottle.
"You could pull that move in a Quidditch game and you'd be all anyone talks about for weeks." Black said as if he was reliving the couple moments of the fall.

"I want to keep the attention off me so I won't be doing that, or playing Quidditch for that matter." Remus told him. "Besides, with the amount of people on a Quidditch pitch it'd be difficult. Its more about getting the broom in the right position when you jump, someone could knock it in passing and then that wouldn't end well."

Black nodded gently before he yawned.
"Right, well, this has been fun but I need to go meet James and Pete for a prank."
"Who on?" Remus asked though he couldn't care less.
"Snivellus."

Remus made sure he mounted his broom properly before nodding.

"Alright, have fun. Will we see any after effects?"
"Oh definitely."

And he was off, Remus didn't bother to watch his go he just flew up higher and higher and higher. Till it got to cold so he stopped at that height.

Something about seeing Hogwarts, covered in snow, from this high up was admittedly more magical then magic itself and it had Remus wanting to wade off into a peaceful dream. But he couldn't, not up here anyway.

He milled about for about another hour before he felt his hands go numb, but that was his fault for not wrapping up.

"floating in the most peculiar way.." Remus muttered in a small singsong to himself as he walked up and into his dorm room.

"Bowie?" Spencers piped up suddenly but seemed to catch himself and look away. Remus looked over at him and stared.
"Not sure." He replied and Spencers looked up in surprise,
"Uh, sing more of it?"

Remus furrowed his brows as he racked his brain for the lyrics Black had been belting out earlier that day,
"It went like, This is something something to Ground Control uhh something something your circuits dead there's something wrong."

Thr pair stared at eachother in silence.

"Yeah, that's Bowie. It's called Space Oddity, came out in '69." Spencers told him as Remus swapped his cold crewneck for the warm red jumper, "I can put it on the record player? I have a couple more of his tracks too."

"Sure." Remus said and he kicked off his shoes before grabbing a book and sitting on his bed.

So Spencers did just that, after a few minutes of silence a tune filled the room and Remus looked up as Spencers stepped back from the turn table.

"Cool aye? John got it for me for Christmas, these muggle things are brilliant" The brunette conversed as he sat down and looked over at Remus who was watching him over the top of the book, "He was all like, 'Mark, make sure you don't scratch the vinyls or they just won't work anymore'. Like I don't know that already." He sighed a happy sigh before he realised who he was talking to.

"Oh Sorry, you probably don't care." He apologised and Remus shrugged.
"Bowie is a good name for a dog don't you think? Specifically like a Basset Hound or a Beagle." He said and Spencers raised his brows,
"Why?"
"Well they go Bow-wow-wow," Remus felt heat rush to his cheeks, "Kind of."

He watched Spencers stifle a laugh and Remus smiled from behind his book.

"You're allowed to laugh, im not the giggle police."