The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Time for Bed, Wake Up

Time for Bed, Wake Up

Remus stood in the clearing of trees at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, his hands in his robe pockets to stay warm as he looked around in the moonlight, filtered by leaves and evergreens. Lily sat on a log, clutching the deer feed sack and stared into the dark surrounding them, listening to the cricket song that filled the night. A few fireflies flickered between the trees...

"I don't think it's coming, Lily," Remus said. He'd patiently waited what felt like an appropriate amount of time - but he was getting cold and, after all, he knew the stag wasn't out there in the trees. The stag was laying on the couch in the Common Room before the fire, probably asleep, with Remus's boyfriend asleep on his lap. Waiting there in the dark was useless.

"But he has to come," Lily said tearfully.

Remus shuffled his feet over the bracken slowly. He hated how sad she looked, sitting there, staring down at the bag of feed, running her fingers over a little illustrated deer on the package. He cleared his throat, "Maybe... maybe we could try another night. Maybe he'll find the food you spread around and come back looking for more once he knows he can find it here."

Lily nodded, "Yeah. Maybe."

Remus walked over and pulled her to her feet and put his arm 'round her shoulders, "I mean, bloody hell, aren't you cold? I certainly am."

"You're always cold," Lily murmured.

"It's true," Remus said with a sigh. "One of the wonderful little perks of my furry little problem."

Lily laughed.

"C'mon, let's go inside," Remus said.

They walked back out of the woods to the grounds, Lily glancing over her shoulder as they left the trees of the Forest, and snuck past Hagrid's hut, which was aglow with warm light and strange noises coming from the half-open windows... Remus wished he'd taken along the Marauder's Map to get through the castle, but they did okay without it, using the Trophy Room Passageway to cross the majority of the flights they needed to go up to Gryffindor Tower, and finally Remus was muttering the password to the Fat Lady - "Bezoars" - and they snuck inside.

Just as he'd suspected, the Marauders were still asleep by the fire.

They walked over to the couch and Lily and Remus looked them over. "They look so innocent asleep," Lily whispered.

"Not Sirius," Remus answered. "Smirking even in his sleep. Look at that. Probably dreaming up ways to torture me." He shook his head.

Lily laughed quietly, then she looked at Remus with serious eyes. "Thank you for going with me."

"Let me know when you go again," Remus answered.

"I will." Lily smiled, then, "Well. I'll let you get on with waking those three up. Good night."

"Night."

He watched her go then he turned to the others and he walked 'round to the front of the couch and nudged Peter's knee gently with the toe of his trainer. Peter sniffed and blinked awake a bit, looking up. "Rey?" he asked groggily.

"Yeah. Time for bed, mate."

"Oh... okay." Peter nodded and struggled to get to his feet, even with Remus's help.

Remus nudged James next. "Hey mate, bedtime." Without saying a word, James got up sleepily, Peter and Remus tugging his arms. "You two go on, I'll bring Sirius up in a minute." Nodding, Peter pulled James along to the stairs.