wonderland • wolfstar

2| theme of red and gold

Remus awoke that morning with a banging headache and a cramp in his neck, which -according to Frank, Gideon and Fabian- was entirely his fault for not using the neck pillow Augusta Longbottom (Frank's mother) sent them all that week for no apparent reason.
"Oh, piss off, you fucking lettuce-headed twats," Remus spat as he massaged his own neck in attempt to soothe the stinging pain.
"Bless his soul," said both Gideon and Fabian in two separate funky accents and Remus rolled his eyes.
"You're all bloody crackheads and I hate you." Remus pulled off his sheets and slipped on to the floor, ignoring the snickers of his friends.

Things only seemed to get worse from there.

When Remus went down to breakfast after losing his toothbrush and finding the paste uncapped, he found that all the chocolate chip pancakes, only made on a Saturday, were gone, only a small rich brown drip on the plate where they should've been stacked high in all their glory.
"Lily, we have auditions at six today, please don't 'forget'." Remus made air quotations as he sat down on the wooden bench. The plate of toast glared at him, even though Remus, normal Remus, liked toast.
"I did forget!" Lily insisted as hooked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear while she was about to put a piece of sausage in to mouth.
"You were shagging James!"
"Who's shagging me?" interjected James, overhearing.
"Woah, you have sex?" Peter joked, overhearing James overhearing.
"My innocent cinnamon roll having sex?" Sirius said, overhearing Peter overhearing James overhearing.
"Look at what you've started now, love. But yes, I won't forget and I'll be there. Oh, and I saved you a chocolate chip pancake, by the way." Lily took a folded, dotted circle of pure deliciousness off her plate and put it on to Remus'.

Suddenly his neck didn't hurt so sharply anymore. Lily's magic, he was certain.

"Oh, this is about auditions? Funsies, can I get a main role please? I have the talent, Remus, I swear."
"I know you do," Remus confessed, half-smiling at the boy sitting diagonal to him, "but who knows, maybe there's someone who'll... I dunno, take your throne? After all, you are getting a bit grey-haired."
"How dare you imply such a thing? I look not a day past eighteen! And I'm ninety! Not that one would ever notice." Sirius brushed back his dark locks arrogantly.
"I would be able to see your wrinkles from space, Sirius," James said, shovelling piles of scrambled egg in to his mouth.
"Yes, but you would never be able to test that theory because you're never going to go in to space, not with a brain like that," hissed Sirius, feigning wickedness.
James huffed.

Hogwarts was far bigger than one could have ever thought, and far more extravagant. The theme of red and gold ran through the auditorium, the stage standing proud and bold in the centre of the large room, gold accenting the front of it in glamorous and swirling ripples.

Remus sat cross-legged on the stage as he pored over his script, refreshing himself on what his mind had produced during his last summer and how he could reveal the long-awaited play. He checked his watch, looking closely as the thin red second hand edged towards the twelve. It was eleven, meaning that people should start coming. Hopefully.

And they did. First, it was a gangly sixth year with glasses and a slightly red face who sauntered in with the boldest grin, their head held high. Then it was a girl with probably the longest hair in Britain who sidled in to the room, fingers brushing together nervously.

As the room slowly started to fill up, Remus felt increasingly more anxious. There was the snap of someone's bubble gum ringing in his ears and he wanted to kill them, but he hadn't the strength.
"Ok, so it seems everyone's here, except Sirius-"
"I'm here, darling! Just got a little bit caught up, you know. I hope you all didn't miss my presence so." The door slammed behind Sirius as he swaggered in, taking a long walk down the middle of the room with all eyes on him. He was noticeably dishevelled, his hair slightly messed up as he brushed it away from his neck covered in love bites.
"You're late. One minute late. And it's not even noon yet, how have you...?" Remus didn't have the strength to finish his sentence.
"I said to come at five past eleven at latest," he sighed. He didn't really know much about Sirius other than the fact that he had approximately half a dozen boys at his heels (at least that's what he knew for sure), he was the best friend of Lily's boyfriend and he was an extremely talented actor who could bag the main role easily. Remus had never really thought about it, but one of the roles in his play would fit Sirius to perfection.

"Ok, so we all know this is a sixth and seventh year play, yes?" A chorus of elongated yeses echoed in the spacious and luxurious room.
"Alright, this play is a um... well, it's- it's a romance," Remus announced, moving to sit on his knees, as giggles and whoops erupted from the others' mouths, "with leads that are both males."
"My lord, look at you! Inclusivity, bitch!" Sirius exclaimed, doing a flimsy rock hand in the process while everyone around him groaned.
"This is my fifth LGBTQ+ play or mini-play, don't even, Sirius."
"Oh, I remember the one about the transgender boy. Didn't it make Professor Dumbledore sob in to his pink hankie?" Georgia, a seventh year drama regular, asked, fondness painted in her brown eyes.
Remus turned a little pink: it indeed did make Professor Dumbledore sob in to his pink hankie.
"There's still many roles for both genders and for people with no gender. This play is called Nature's Sound and it's about a environmentalist travelling around the world who falls in love with a pianist."
There's many dreamy sighs let out.
"Wait, did you say penis or pianist? Because, without meaning to brag, I can be both," Sirius boasted, falling out of the trance immediately.

The corners of Remus' lips turned up without him noticing.

"What happens at the end? Do the characters have a happy ending, because I have trust issues because of you." It was a sixth year that Remus didn't exactly know the name of, though he had an inkling it was Zahra.

"That would be spoiling it. I have snippets of the script that I want you guys to practise if you're interested in taking part and the cast list is at the start, along with the number of lines each character has. Alrighty, now take one of you want it," he says, gesturing to the stack of paper beside him, "and then get out and practise. Auditions will be held at six this evening. It might be a little early but it worked well for our last one so, um, yeah, go on."

Everyone rose from their seats and took a sheet from Remus' stack, most of them flipping through it quickly, hoping to catch a glimpse of any showing plot. Remus knew it was rather mean to keep the actual story from them and make them audition knowing virtually nothing about the character, but it had worked for previous plays quite well.

At last, Sirius came forward and removed the last paper from the stage, feeling quite happy that there was the perfect amount, and walked away slowly as he had his full concentration on the pages.
"This is going to be really good, I can tell you that," he said, slowly spinning on his heel to turn back to Remus, smiling.
"I hope you're right. Good luck auditioning."
"Good luck enduring the pain and suffering of deciding who gets which part." Sirius saluted him on his way out.

ew, talk about horribleness amirite? anyway, this is the second chapter! i hope it was enjoyable. i've been binging ackley bridge and holy fucking shit, i love it. i've hinestly been using up every possible hour of my day to watch it lol. i am unhealthy as crap. um, yeah, that's it. the next chapter will be up soon.
see you next millennium