Morning After

December 15th, 1977.

When Remus opened his eyes, a faint smile stretched his lips. It remained small because of the pain that immediately seared through his right cheek, but it was a smile nonetheless. The air all around him smelled of a sweet mixture of cinnamon, orange and chocolate. The way it should always smell, if you asked him. And when he turned his head to the side, he saw it: the big basket left there by Madam Pomfrey. Just like every morning after the full moon in December. It had been the same for the last six years and he felt a pinch in his heart when he realised it would not be the same the following one. Only Merlin knew what next December would be like...

He heard the door bang open in the distance and the smile grew into a grin despite the pain when his friends ran towards him, their arms laden with bags. He noticed that Sirius looked rather annoyed for a few seconds, before his face lit up when he saw Remus. The latter then understood what it was all about when Lily stepped through the doors right behind James and Peter.

Without a word, Sirius put his bag down at the foot of the bed and produced a small Christmas tree, which he proceeded to set up on the table attached to the bed railing. With a few quick flicks of his wand and a couple of incantations, he charmed decorations all over it, making Remus' grin grow even wider. He forgot all about the stabbing pain on his cheek, especially when he saw Sirius looking so pleased with his tree.

'I know there's a massive one right by the doors over there, but this one's yours,' he said with a wink as he discreetly rushed to give Remus' hand a tender squeeze before Lily could see.

'Thank you all so much... But why--'

'We're all leaving tomorrow morning,' said James. 'And given how none of us have started packing, we weren't sure we'd get the chance to come by in the morning for very long, so here we are!'

'Plus,' Sirius added, sitting down by Remus' foot, 'we thought it would make your morning after a bit more pleasant...'

'How awful that this should happen just before the holidays,' Lily interrupted softly. 'You don't look so bad, I suppose. Hopefully you'll be back on your feet before long.'

'It's alright,' Remus replied, sitting up slowly and stopping Sirius from rushing to help him with a simple glance. 'Last year, it actually fell on Christmas Day...'

'You're joking, right?'

Remus shook his head slowly and the other boys fell silent. 'I wish I was. That must have been one of the most miserable Christmas Days I've ever had. I couldn't stay cheerful, no matter how hard I tried, and I must have ruined it for my parents too...'

There was an awkward pause before Sirius suddenly looked up again. 'Hey, at least this year it'll be better!' he said with a sparkle in his eyes.

He was of course referring to the meeting both boys had arranged in Diagon Alley on Boxing Day, but Lily could not know that. That prospect put an even wider grin on Remus' face but he eventually had to tear his eyes away from Sirius for fear that his wound might open again.

'Anyway,' Sirius said again after a while, 'it's presents time!'

All four visitors ducked into their bags and produced parcels that they placed on Remus' lap.

'Oh guys...you shouldn't have! I don't have anything ready yet. I was planning to owl yours for Christmas Day. You caught me completely unprepared.'

'Well, these things often come with the element of surprise...' Sirius said, shrugging. 'Oh come on, who cares? You don't even have to get us anything. It's not like we're doing this to get something in return.'

'Now, that's out of the question!'

'Remus,' James called. 'Just open your presents, mate.'

Remus smiled sheepishly and let his eyes fall on the wrapped-up presents on his lap. Which one should he pick first? He had no idea. They were all of different sizes, from rather small to rather big. No name tags anywhere. He took the one he thought he might be able to guess, according to its shape. Once he had torn the paper away, he put the book down on his lap and let out a small gasp.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

After a few seconds of silence, Peter moved closer to the bed. 'To replace the one that accidentally caught fire last year. I thought you might like it.'

Remus' fingertips ran along the cover and the spine, every single detail so familiar to them. 'It looks exactly like the other one.'

'We managed to find one from the exact same edition. Wasn't easy, but I managed to track down some antique bookshop owner in London in the end. I know it doesn't have the message your grandmother had left for you, but I thought you'd appreciate it anyway.'

'Oh, Peter...' Remus said softly, unable to take his eyes off the book. 'This is a great gift. Thank you so much.'

The other boy gave him a warm and honest smile before sitting back on the nearest bed. Remus' eyes returned to the presents and he was faced with the same decision again. It would probably look bad if he opened them from smallest to biggest so he went for the biggest one right away.

A new brown leather schoolbag; exactly the kind he had been saying he wanted to buy when his current one would finally fall apart.

His eyes immediately went towards James, who was beaming. 'Like it?' the latter asked.

'James, it's great! But you must have spent a fortune!'

'Even if I did, I reckon money's made to go round. It'd be useless to let it all sit and rot in a vault when I can make my mates happy. And to make you feel better,' he quickly added, 'it didn't cost me a fortune, alright?'

Remus was not convinced that he could indeed trust James on that, but he was not going to argue. He opened it to smell the inside--Remus was one of those people who cherished the distinctive smell of leather bags--and carefully placed Peter's book inside. Then he grabbed the second biggest one. It was soft; some clothes maybe, he thought.

It was not clothes, but an extremely soft and thick black blanket. When he turned it around, his eyes fell on a small inscription sewn with white thread in a corner. "Moony & Padfoot."

Something also dropped on his lap. Without picking it up, he saw that it was two thick black laces with black pendants made of fabric attached to them. And each bore an inscription similar to that of the blanket. "Moony" on one and "Padfoot" on the other. Thin enough to be easily concealable under their shirts.

When he tenderly looked at Sirius, the other sent him his best How-could-I-know-that-she'd-be-coming-along? look. Remus smiled and made sure to keep the necklaces hidden between two folds. No one had apparently seen them and it had all happened so quickly.

'That's for the...erm...cold night in the...in here. Even though I'm sure Poppy gives you more than you need already.'

'How thoughtful of you, Sirius. My very own blanket to cuddle with at night. I shall treasure it.'

Looks could say so much, and a lot was said in the few glances the two of them exchanged while Peter looked down and James did his best to distract Lily's attention for a few seconds.

'Thank you,' Remus finally said, blushing ever so slightly when he started thinking about the real use they would probably make of the blanket during the following term.

I should have known; I'm always saying how cold it is in those empty classrooms...

'Well,' Lily said after a few seconds, 'now you know the last one's from me. It's not much so--'

'That's not what matters.'

When he gently tore the paper, he discovered a knitted pair of gloves and a matching scarf. Brown with gold lines, of various thicknesses. The wool was so extremely soft against the skin of his hands that he could not help but tell her about it.

'That's because it's special wool from Scotland. I don't know what kind of spell they use, but it's the only one in England done that way.'

'Thank you very much.'

'I don't know about you but I'm getting sick of the Gryffindor ones so it's nice to have a change once in a while.'

'I shall wear them every weekend and as soon as I'm out of school.'

'And, not that you'll notice it, but I actually knitted them myself. No magic involved.'

'Stop lying!' Sirius teased her.

'No, I promise! I started a while ago and did some every night before going to bed. Oh, by the way, you and Peter can expect the same present, only with different colours.'

Remus then noticed that she was wearing a pink one and James a matching blue one. Everybody smiled and--as if Time had been kind enough to give them a few minutes in private but now had to resume normal activities--Madam Pomfrey came waltzing out of her office.

'I see that you three--four,' she added, smiling at Lily, 'haven't wasted a single second! Now even though all this is extremely kind of you, my patient is still weak and needs to have his breakfast. And so should you, by the way. Go on, run along! You'll have plenty of time tonight.'

'But you never let us--' Sirius started.

'This is different for once. You're all going home tomorrow and for once he can't travel with you,' she kindly said as Remus looked down, both fists tightening around the blanket. 'I'll give you a couple of extra hours.'

All five students beamed at once before she finally managed to convince the four visitors to leave. Sirius furtively nodded towards the blanket while sending Remus a wink, fulfilling the brown-haired boy's hope that he would not be spending the night entirely alone. Madam Pomfrey left as well to fetch his breakfast from the kitchens but he soon heard Lily's voice telling the boys to go without her because she had forgotten something. Remus looked all around but he could not see anything she might have left.

'Lily?'

She stepped right next to him, blushing slightly. Then she bent closer. 'Madam Pomfrey put some holly in the decorations above your bed and...it's tradition after all!'

She seemed to hesitate for a few seconds--being likely put off by the bandage covering half of his cheek--but leaned over anyway and planted a soft kiss extremely close to his lips. True, the bandage was rather large, but she did not have to be that close... Then she stood up again, smiled and ran out without another word.

Remus sat there for a few seconds, still and barely daring to breath, wondering what on Earth had just happened. Slowly, he lifted his face towards the decorations attached to the top of his bed and frowned.

He could not see any holly in it.

Feeling completely baffled as to why she had done that and lied about the holly, he looked down again. When his eyes fell on the blanket and he retrieved the two necklaces, his feeling of confusion turned into guilt. They had never meant to let Lily know about his condition, but she had finally sort of worked out it herself, and it would have been impossible to keep it a secret for much longer, given the fact that she was always with James.

But she did not know about him and Sirius. Somehow he was even more reluctant to tell people he was in love with a boy than to tell them he was a werewolf. The beast was part of him, nothing could be done about that and no one could take that away from him, unfortunately. Sirius, on the other hand, if he was not careful, could be taken away from him...

Scolding himself for having such gloomy thoughts just before the holidays, he grabbed the necklace bearing the "Padfoot" pendant and placed it around his neck, hiding it under his pyjamas shirt.

Maybe we'll tell her in the New Year, if Sirius agrees...

~ FINITE INCANTATUM ~