The Marauders: Year Four

A Sirius Talk

A Sirius Talk

The boys spent a majority of the next day playing with their new-found toy. They took it in turns to leap from the rail, spreading their arms wide out and doing different fancy twists and turns as they fell toward the lake from the train bridge, the wind mussing up their hair. Even Sirius didn't give a ruddy damn what his hair looked like as a result, the fun of it was too much. It took quite a time for the boys to get Peter to cross onto the bridge, his eyes squeezed tightly shut, shaking head to foot. He had to watch Remus go twice at it before he would even think of it, and James and Sirius had to push him up onto the railing because he couldn't climb it too good. He stood there, clutching the column and trembling for a bit before James finally climbed up beside him, "Will it help if we go together?" he asked, and Peter nodded and together they'd taken the jump, Sirius and Remus both using the arresto momentum to stop the fall with plenty of room to spare at the bottom. Peter's had screamed so loud that James thought he might go deaf from it, the cry echoing off the stone bridge and the cliffsides until they'd been arrested nearly at the bottom and Peter had stared at the water's surface there below him, undulating and dark, and he'd laughed. After the first time, it was nearly impossible to get him to stop - he was addicted to the rush, jumping just as wildly as Sirius, whose leaps were always quite exaggerated.

It was foolish, positively the stupidest thing that they ever could've spent a day doing, and if any of their parents (save for maybe Orion and Walburga) had any idea that they were doing it, they would've never been allowed out of their rooms again (on the contrary, Sirius was willing to bet Orion would've been cheering for Sirius to splat on the rocks). However, when they'd finally tired of it and they crawled out of the water the final time to lay on the sandy shore in their boxers and undershirts, there wasn't a thing in the world that any of them would've traded the memories for.

"Great wasn't it?" panted Sirius, grinning as he twisted his neck to look about at the other three.

"It was rather fun," admitted Remus, who had been reluctant to go along with the idea.

James smiled with a sigh and closed his eyes contentedly.

"I'm really glad I did it," Peter said.

"You were bloody brave!" Sirius agreed, "I'm really impressed."

Peter shrugged, "It was just - once you'd done it once... it wasn't as scary. It was sort of like flying. Like a bird, of course, not like with a broom."

"It was incredible," agreed James.

Sirius grinned, feeling even happier now that they'd all agreed the experience was grand. The adrenaline in his veins felt spectacular. It was exactly the sort of rush he'd needed to free up the stress that had been building up inside of himself. He finally felt balanced again.

They lay in the sunlight for some time like that, just letting it bake their clothes dry and turn their skin toasty brown. Peter sat up late in the afternoon and Remus looked over, "Oh blimey, you're burned as a crisp," he said.

"Burned?" Peter looked down and sure enough his pasty white skin was pink and already starting to redden. "Oh no."

Remus said, "I think there's a spell in one of our books to help with it..." He sat up, too, and gathered his clothes from the pile at the edge of the trees where they'd all left their things. "C'mon, I'll find it." Peter followed suit, grabbing up his stuff, too. "Are you lot coming?" Remus asked when he noticed James and Sirius hadn't moved at all.

"We'll catch you up," Sirius replied, too content to be laying on the beach to even dream of moving just yet.

"Alright. We'll get the fire started back at the tent..." Remus said and the two of them tucked off into the trees.