The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

I Can Bloody Smell Him All Over You

"And Potter flies 'round the south side of the pitch... as Evans turns to see, he sweeps beneath her and -- Potter's stolen the quaffle!" James made a "raaaah" sound to mimic a cheering crowd.

"You bloody --" Lily dove after him as James rolled his broomstick, hooting with laughter. Lily lay as flat as she could against her own broom, clutching onto the stick, her mouth wide with a smile as she chased him down, flying so close to the ground that the wild flower danced and gave off pollen as they passed.

Remus sat on the edge of the cliffside, watching, laughing as they flew swiftly down the length of the field, shouting at one another. He shook his jumper sleeve back and looked at the watch face for the time, glancing back at the fire dying in the ring of rocks, the pan of sausages Lily had cooked for Sirius slowly growing cold. He'd been gone over a half of an hour now and Remus was starting to get worried.

He both wanted Sirius to hurry up and get back, and wanted him to stay gone for some time. Every time he thought of Sirius, his stomach did strange flip-flops of nervousness. He let out a long, streaming sigh, and turned back to see James, chucking the quaffle as hard as he could in a random direction and Lily racing beneath it, arms outstretched to catch it.

CRACK!

Remus turned back around as Sirius appeared.

"You're back!" Remus jumped up, abandoning the sketchbook he'd been doodling in, and rushing over to greet Sirius.

Sirius nodded, reached into his leather jacket pocket as Remus came over, and handed Remus the mirror he'd gone for, interrupting the hug that Remus had intended to give him. Sirius sat on the log heavily, shrugging his jacket off and running his hands through his hair, letting his head hand down between his knees for a moment. Remus looked at the mirror. It was dark, as though shut in a drawer or something. "Was it hard finding it or something? You were gone a really long time."

"Really?" Sirius looked up, his hair wild from having hung upside-down, and Remus saw that his complexion was ashen. "How long?"

Remus shrugged, sitting next to him, "Nearly forty-five minutes, I reckon," Remus looked at his watch again, and nodded, "Yeah, just about forty-five minutes."

Sirius said, "Really? That's it?"

"That's it?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow, "What'd you do? Ride your motorbike once you got out of the forest?"

"No," Sirius shook his head. He returned to holding his head upside down by his knees and taking deep breaths.

"Is something the matter? You're acting very strangely," Remus commented.

Sirius shook his head.

Remus held the mirror, turning it over a couple times in his hand, then stuck it into his jumper pocket. "You must be starved. Lily told me how she didn't let you eat before you got the mirror. We saved some of the sausages from James for you." He half-smiled, expecting Sirius to smile back, but there was no reaction. Remus lamely added on, "I mean if it was bacon, there would've been nothin' doing, but we managed to strangle some sausages out of his grasp."

"Not hungry," Sirius murmured.

Remus looked concerned now for real, "But you haven't even eaten."

Sirius shook his head.

Suddenly James's voice echoed through the trees. "PRESENTINGGGGG... THE REINING QUIDDITCH CHAMPION.... BEST... BLOODY CHASER... ON THE PLANETTTTTT..."

The second James's voice was coming, Sirius sat up very quickly, dizzyingly quickly, and he plastered a smile on his face so wide that it was almost terrifying. Remus blinked in surprise at the expression.