𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗔𝗭𝗞𝗔𝗕𝗔𝗡 [𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚍]

Chapter Sixteen: She Got It From Me

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

"So? Where did you sneak off to last night?" Sirius asked James over breakfast, pretending to be buttering his toast while sneaking glances at James' shocked face.

"You saw me?" he asked.

"No. But I heard all the racket you made." Sirius said. "You weren't being exactly sleathy. Maybe you should take a few pointers from Remus on how to leave at night undetected."

Remus dropped his fork.

"Where did you go?" Sirius asked again, handing Remus a new fork. "I want to know everything about the Cloak."

"I'm only going to tell you this. It wasn't the library that I went to." said James, grabbing a cereal bowl. "But the rest is my business so sod off."

"Wait . . . What Cloak?" Peter asked, looking up from his bowl of cereal.

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Christmas break was almost over with only about a week or so left and the depression and panic about going back to classes was setting in.

All the homework they'd been postponing was now staring them in the face and Remus nagging them to get on with it wasn't helping either.

There was little time to enjoy the snow outside as the boys spent most of the day sitting around the common room fireplace, writing essay after essay after essay and only taking three second breaks to rub some life back into their frozen fingers.

Remus was getting on better than the rest of them since he started on his assignments much earlier than they did.

But even with Remus helping them, Sirius, James and Peter still went to bed exhausted and well past their bed time.

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The cold wintery light of dawn broke through the window and Sirius woke up to another day of homework. His back felt like it would split down the middle from all the time he spent bent over his books. Nevertheless, he dragged his uncooperative limbs out of bed to get to work.

"Remus." was the first word James said to Sirius when he saw him first.

For a split second, Sirius thought that the lack of sleep must have made James forget his name or something but then it downed on him. "He's gone, isn't he?" he asked.

"Would it kill him to at least tell us when he leaves?" ranted James as he pulled on a jumper with much more force than was needed. "We might be able to help him with something."

"Look at the bright side. You can grill him about it when he comes back tomorrow. Let's worry about homework now." Sirius said, bitterly gathering his stuff up to go do the his homework.

But Remus didn't come back the next day.

Or the day after.

Or the day after.

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"Where's Remus, anyway? I haven't seen him in days." said Blake. Sirius and her were in the library while she helped him with his homework so Peter and James can copy from him later.

Remus has been gone for five days now, without sending word about anything, and they were getting worried.

"I really don't know." Sirius said, abandoning his Uses of Moonstone essay for Professor Slughorn. "He usually goes to see his mother when she's sick but he's never been gone this long."

"Maybe he just decided to spend the rest of the holidays with her?" mused Blake as she pulled Sirius's essay closer to her and scratched out a few things and added some. "But his mum gets sick pretty often. Almost once a month. What do you think is wrong with her?"

Sirius shrugged. "He never seemed up to talking about it so we never asked."

"Poor Remus. And he always looks so exhausted and pale whenever he comes back." Blake said and laid the parchment flat to let the ink dry. "Having to take care of your sick mother at this age must be tough."

"I think I'll send him a letter." Sirius said after a while. "Hopefully Zephyr would be able to find him. She can find almost anyone."

"I always liked that owl." smiled Blake. "She looks smart."

"She got it from me."

Blake made a Pfft sound.

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Sirius handed over his essay to James and Peter for them to copy from once back in the common room and hurried to the Owlery to send Remus' letter.

He didn't put much in it. Just asked if Remus was fine, how his mum was doing and when he was coming back.

A few owl treats were enough to bribe Zephyr into agreeing to fly in this horrible weather and she took off after waiting very patiently for Sirius to tie the letter to her leg.

She flew out of the window, stopping a moment to flex her wings to adopt to the cold. Sirius expected her to fly over the Forbidden Forest but she flew in the opposite direction, back to the castle.

But Sirius assumed she was probably just looking for a safer route. He's heard Remus say something about birds having compass like things in their beaks. So Sirius didn't give it much thought.

The three boys were at the breakfast table the next morning when Zephyr came back. On the last day of break.

"She's back already?" asked James as he untied the letter from her leg. "I thought Remus lived in Wales."

"Me too." Sirius answered. "But she didn't fly off in that direction yesterday either. Maybe he's staying with another family member. What with his mum being sick and everything. What dose it say?"

"He says everything is fine and not to worry." James said after scanning the letter over. "He'll come back in a few days."

"How many days exactly?" Peter asked.

"He didn't say." answered James and tucked the letter into the pocket of his robes after folding it carefully.

"I'm worried about him." Peter mumbled.

They decided to just kick back and relax that day and spent the whole day sitting in front of the common room fire, toasting anything they can stick on the end of a fork, or outside on the grounds, building snowmen and watching Hagrid chop wood for fire.

After dinner, they went back to their dorm to get their school things and put a few finishing touches on their homework so it wouldn't look like something done by pigs only to be greeted by Remus' sheepish smile.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Hey y'all. I'm still alive. Sorry for the delay. I was just going through some financial crisis. But it's been fixed . . . for now.