Dream away (Remus/Sirius; Rated T; 17,5k words)

Chapter 5

Remus woke up in the Hospital Wing.

The room was dim. Only a few weak rays of moonlight kept the room from complete darkness. The erratic cadence of rain hitting the windows was the only sound in the otherwise silent room.

Remus was lying in the same familiar bed that he had used as a student after the full moon.

Unlike back in those days, however, he wasn't feeling any post-moon pains and exhaustion. He threw his blanket aside and got up from the bed. He winced as his bare feet touched the cold floor.

He looked around the room. The other beds were empty.

A bolt of lightning illuminated the room for a second with its harsh brightness, and a few seconds later the thunder roared.

He had always enjoyed watching storms - from a safe distance and preferably with a warm cup of tea, of course. He walked to the windows. Even the thick walls and the glass panels weren't able to stop the smell of rain reaching him.

The full moon looked beautiful in the sky. He couldn't stop staring once he spotted it.

It didn't really look like much, he thought. Nearly the same as it would look tomorrow.

He heard footsteps behind him, followed by Sirius clearing his throat. "Moony. That's maybe not the healthiest thing for you to stare at."

"It feels weird to look at it," said Remus slowly, not able to take his eyes off the moon. He frowned. "Sirius. Am I going crazy? I should be a wolf now, shouldn't I?"

"Well, if you aren't crazy already, you will be if you keep mooning about it," Sirius said impatiently.

A flicker of movement near the edge of Forbidden Forest caught Remus's attention. He squinted. It was hard to see from so far away, but... "Why are there people out there?"

Sirius grabbed his arm and pulled him harshly away from the window. He didn't let go until they were almost at the opposite wall. "Not our concern. I've got news for you."

Remus heard distant howling. He looked over his shoulder towards the window.

Sirius swore, grabbed his shoulder and shook him. "No, Moony. Focus . We did it. We're getting you out of here now."

"How?"

"I need a quill, ink, and a piece of parchment." Sirius looked at him like he was expecting him to summon them out of nowhere.

Remus frowned. "Well, there's usually some in the bedside tables."

"Excellent," Sirius said, and rushed to the nearest one to rummage through its drawers. In the second drawer, he found what he was looking for.

Sirius scrawled few lines of text on the parchment, threw the quill on the bed with ink splattering over the bedsheets, and rushed back to Remus. He thrust the parchment into his hand.

"Listen to me carefully. Very carefully." Sirius took hold of the back of his head, his fingers tight in his hair. Sirius leaned closer until their faces were merely inches away. His eyes were blazing. "I don't care what flimsy excuse you'll craft in your head to explain this away, but this is important . When you hear a bell ring, you focus on those words and read them aloud. You understand? When the bell rings. Not sooner, not later."

Remus nodded, and smiled faintly. "It's quite rude to crash in here in the middle of the night just to force me to participate in a prank. But fine. I'll do it."

A smile flickered on Sirius's lips, but only for a second. He looked at Remus solemnly, his muscles tight and tense. "Repeat to me what you need to do."