Gryffindor Black brothers - on hold

Chapter 11

Remus was woken on the morning of November 3rd, 1974 by a pillow, which flew neatly through the gap in his hangings and hit him in the stomach. Groaning and rubbing his eyes, Remus pushed himself onto his elbows just in time to squint in the morning light as Sirius yanked his curtains open.

"Up and at 'em, Remus," Sirius said, grinning and pulling Remus' cover back.

Remus shivered slightly in the cold air. It was early November, after all, and he only slept in a t-shirt and pants. He rolled his eyes and swung his legs out of bed, running a hand through his rumpled hair as he did so.

"Happy birthday," he mumbled, leaning over to look at the clock on his bedside table. "It's fucking seven a.m.."

Remus was decidedly not a morning person, and Sirius wasn't usually, either, but his birthdays were a special case. Remus tried not to be resentful about the fact that it was a Sunday, one of the only days of the week when he usually got to sleep in.

"Charming as ever," Sirius said, beaming at Remus. Remus knew that Sirius enjoyed hearing him swear, given the fact that the other boy always made jokes about it. The way Sirius told it, it was proof that he was corrupting Remus, which was probably true. "Needed to get an early start to my fifteenth year, didn't I?"

"If you say so," Remus said, yawning. "Let me wake up a bit, then I swear I'll be more excited about your birthday."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not offended," Sirius replied, grinning. "You're a lot more cheery than you usually are in the mornings. James actually refused to be in the dorm when I woke you up. He said that if you decided to commit murder, he could claim plausible deniability."

"Nice to know that James would defend me if I murdered you," Remus said, standing and stretching. 

His body had become rather lanky over the past two summers, and though he and James still stood at the same height, and were both growing slowly and steadily, they had different builds. Unlike James, Remus felt as if his body was all elbows and knees, awkward and ungraceful. Sometimes he thought he looked like a puppy with paws too big for the rest of its body, an impression which was only reinforced by his tendency to bump into things.

"Well, he also said that you might be less likely to kill me than him," Sirius said, his tone mild. "But perhaps that's just because it's my birthday."

Remus snorted, casting a sarcastic look at Sirius, behind him, as he rummaged around in his wardrobe for clothes to throw on. "Don't go around with the impression that I have a soft spot for you, Sirius," he said. "I would be just as likely to murder you as James any other day of the year if you woke me up this early."

Sirius let out a bark of a laugh. "Don't worry, I wasn't getting presumptuous," he said, a teasing note in his voice. Remus rolled his eyes, grabbed his clothes, and headed to the bathroom, Sirius moving over to prod Peter awake in the same abrupt fashion he'd used to wake Remus.

In the bathroom, Remus pulled on his clothes: an oversized sweater, pants, trousers, and wool socks, then brushed his teeth. He splashed some water on his face for good measure, and when he reappeared, he felt slightly more alert. Peter was now awake, too, dressing blearily as Sirius bounced on the balls of his feet.

"What are we doing today?" Remus asked, smiling slightly at Sirius' obvious excitement.

"I want to go for a fly around the grounds first," Sirius said. "Then, I dunno. Make it up as we go, I suppose?"

"We could go into Hogsmeade," Peter suggested, his head emerging from the neck of his sweatshirt. "Since we found that one-eyed witch passageway last week."