The Marauders' Expedition

The Marauders had decided that their last summer together would be spent on an expedition around South England, specifically to Tintagel. They had chosen Tintagel because Sirius had happy childhood memories of the place and James had been full of enthusiasm for the Muggle sailing that could be done there. Peter was just happy to get away from home and the maternal influence that was steadily beginning to get on his nerves as he got older.

"It's a huge pity that Moony's only sixteen," James said sighing regretfully as the Marauders stood together at the train station

"We could have gone whizzing around by Apparition," Sirius agreed, nodding.

"No chances as to leaving the bloke behind, eh?" James continued loudly, winking at Sirius while nodding his head teasingly at Remus.

Sirius grinned. "'Suppose we could do that. It's not as if I'd miss him, but maybe you and Worms would. I wouldn't want you to pine for Moony's presence, mates."

Remus cleared his throat. "I think it would be much more fun to have a train journey 'round there than all of this Apparition."

"Oh ho, the man's jealous of our new licenses," Sirius said gleefully, while James and Peter smirked.

Peter grinned as he added his own teasing insult to the pile. "It's a bit weird that the most mature among us is actually the baby."

Remus scowled and said, "That's it, you lot. When we get back to London you'll not be seeing the very cool club that Lily and I found when we went down there, last summer."

He turned away, grabbed his luggage and proceeded to walk further down the platform.

"Sulky," Sirius whispered knowingly to the others, but they all followed Moony down the station.

When the train arrived, the Marauders hauled their bags in before climbing aboard. They found seats, and James wondered at the fact that there were no compartments, "It's all really very open, isn't it?"

Sirius yawned and punched James in the shoulder. "You get excited over the smallest things, mate."

James continued to look around happily but quickly stopped when he caught sight of an elderly lady looking at him fondly. Remus who sat facing James snickered. "Who's the baby now?"

----------

Sirius soon fell fast asleep, lulled by the train's rhythm and the soft warmth of the sun shining through the windows. Peter had pulled out 'Marvin the Mad Muggle'. James was sprawled back on his seat, a shoulder supporting Sirius' leaning body.

"He looks absolutely tired out, Prongs," Remus said quietly.

James shrugged slowly before nodding and replying, "'Don't know what he gets up to in that flat of his. My mum's been worried about him, but he says he's fine there."

Remus frowned with annoyance. "He's a proud git and he wouldn't know when to ask for help."

Peter glanced up from his comic. "He does look a bit thin in the face."

They all peered at Sirius closely. Sirius chose that moment to wake up. "Gah!" he yelped at all the faces surrounding him before the others drew back quickly.

"What the fuck was that for? All peering at me like a bunch of old grandmothers," Sirius grumbled as he sat up straight.

"Nothing, mate. Nothing," James said airily, and Peter nodded quickly in agreement. Remus raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

"I'm hungry. What's for eating?" James said suddenly, looking expectantly at Remus.

"What? You say I'm the youngest here and yet you look to me as the food-provider in this little group?" Remus demanded with outrage.

James sighed patiently. "Moony, we all know you always carry chocolate around with you. Can you not find it within yourself to share some with your best mates?"

Remus shook his head stubbornly. "No."

"I call that rude, lads," Sirius said rubbing the sleep from his face, before looking at Remus pointedly. "However, what we Marauders don't get willingly, we get through more ingenious means," he continued. Suddenly launching himself up, he pinned Remus to his seat and beckoned Peter over to obtain the food from Remus' pocket.

"Call this 'ingenious'," Remus gasped indignantly, flailing at Sirius.

Sirius patted Remus clumsily on the forehead and said, "Not really. But we got the chocolate, didn't we?"

Peter handed the chocolate to James while saying generously, "Dear sirs, you may share in what I have managed to take from Mr. Moony's pockets."

Remus glared at them all before quickly hiding his grin at the sight of the chocolate smeared around James' face as the boy ate it messily. He did not try to warn James that the old lady that had looked so fondly upon James before was now clucking behind Prongs.

"Dear boy, your face is a mess. Where is your mother?" she said before she descended on James with a handkerchief and proceeded to wipe his face clean, clucking all the while.

-----

Remus soon fell asleep to the sounds of James and Sirius arguing over the latest Cannons Quidditch game and Peter crunching up the last pieces of the chocolate. Remus would not tell his mates that secretly he had thought the chocolate had been a bit old to begin with: it was the main reason he hadn't fought back at Sirius pinning him to his seat.

He jolted awake when Peter bumped into him as the train stopped. "Come on, old man, we've arrived," Peter said to Remus as he pulled both their bags from where they had stored them in the shelves overhead.

"Thanks," Remus said, still a little groggy from sleep, as Peter led the way out. James and Sirius were already on the platform, waiting impatiently for them, James bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. Sirius wandered over to a board which had a local map pinned on it.

"Where shall we go? The possibilities are endless." Sirius mused.

James replied very definitely, "Well, I have to go sailing. Evans was going on about pirates in Muggle Studies once and how some famous ones are supposed to be from here."

Sirius did not turn away from the map when replying, "No thoughts about birds here, mate. This is a trip for manly thoughts, manly outings and manly Marauders. Whatever you do, do it in the name of Prongs the mischief-maker, not James the idiot girl-chaser."

James shouted at these words, shoving Sirius out of the way, "I'm for pirates and sailing. Remus, you like sailing, don't you, mate?"

Personally, Remus just wanted to breathe in the fresh air but he tried to be more fair about it, so he simply said, "I don't think that Lily likes pirates, James."

James stopped the pirate impressions he was making and questioned unhappily, "She doesn't?" The rest of the Marauders shook their heads vigorously. "Well, pirates are immature," James said quickly.

Sirius was still staring at the map. "I'd like to go hiking. There're really good places around here." Remus nodded his agreement.

After a while they all walked out of the station, hauling their bags down the dusty road to the local village, where they found a small inn. Remus was left to arrange for the rooms as James, Sirius and Peter wandered out to the village shops, leaving their bags on the floor.

"Do you have two rooms free?" Remus asked of the owner.

"Four of you lads, is it?" the man grunted. Remus nodded and the man wrote their names down and took the money that Remus had collected from the others.

"Only one bed in each room," the innkeeper said shortly, and Remus shrugged and took the keys from him.

---------

As evening approached, Remus felt his stomach grumbling. He had spent a wonderful day in Tintagel's local art museum. Still, he felt that the visit would have been even better, if Padfoot had been there as well. Sirius had a strange interest in art and Remus had caught him sketching while they were at Hogwarts.

Sirius had been embarrassed about his hobby, but whenever Remus talked to him about artists in general he would talk happily back about Monet, Rubens, Wright. Sirius really had good knowledge of Muggle art, and his own sketches weren't bad at all.

As he walked back to the inn in the dying light of the sun, Remus noticed his friends standing outside the building, having a smoke. Remus sighed but watched with relief as Sirius stubbed out his cigarette when Remus got nearer. Sirius shoved at Peter and James before the other two looked up and put their cigarettes out as well.

Remus smiled gratefully at them all, feeling a little embarrassed. It wasn't that Remus disapproved of the habit, because it did look kind of cool; it was just that he couldn't really stand the smoke as it made him cough endlessly.

"Where've you been, Moons?" Sirius asked slinging one arm around Remus' shoulders while batting the remaining smoke out of the way with his other arm

"The local art place," Remus replied.

Sirius shifted against him and pulled away as his stomach growled. "I'm fucking starving... I could eat just about anything. You went to the art hall...Was it any good?"

Remus nodded distractedly as he pulled out the two keys to their rooms and said, "We'll have to split into pairs for the rooms."

Sirius looked at the keys and said quickly, "I'm sharing with Lupin."

James looked as if he wanted to protest this, but he glanced over at Peter, who was watching them all questioningly, and shut his mouth. "Well, rat and stag will always beat you dogs," James said firmly and clapped Peter on the shoulder drawing him back into their circle once again.

Remus thought that was the nicest thing he'd seen in some time.

---------

When they'd eaten fit to bursting and James had finished disgusting them all by showing them just how much black pudding he could stuff himself with, Remus stood up. Sirius finished his beer in two gulps before standing as well. "I'm bloody exhausted," he said, yawning hugely.

Remus patted him on the shoulder while he yawned as well, "Well, let's get to sleep then, if we're going to be hiking tomorrow."

Peter and James leaned back in their chairs resolutely as if to say See, rat and stag beat the dogs all the time. Sirius flicked them the two-fingered salute before making his way to the stairs.

"G'night, Prongs, Wormtail," Remus managed before following Padfoot.

Remus caught up to Sirius just as his friend was unlocking the door to their room. They stepped inside and Remus walked over to his bag quickly so that he could undress and brush his teeth as promptly as possible. Sirius simply climbed into the bed still clothed, only pulling off his shoes and socks before lying down.

"You'll take the bed, Pads?" Remus questioned, not really caring .

Sirius blinked over at him. "We can share it, can't we?"

Remus smiled and said, "We're a bit old for that. One or both of us would probably end up on the floor... There's no space."

Sirius pulled his body even more to one side and patted the space beside him. "There's room. And we're never too old for anything, are we?"

Remus shook his head affectionately as he pulled off his clothes and dragged on his pyjamas. He walked barefoot over to the small sink in the room and proceeded to brush his teeth. When he was done drying his face with a towel he walked over to the bed and climbed in carefully. The bedside light remained on as they lay there for a while. Suddenly, Sirius asked "Does it bother you?"

"What?" Remus asked with surprise.

"Well, sharing a bed."

Remus turned to look at Sirius but Sirius' face was unreadable.

"No," said Remus with some confusion before adding, "But I'm betting it will be uncomfortable." He turned back around to switch off the bedside lamp.

There was another short silence in the dark room, then, "I could Transform into Padfoot..."

Remus then realized what Sirius was trying to say. "Pads, I'm not worried that someone's going to come in and think we're shirtlifters... You know, the door's locked and obviously we're both interested in girls."

Sirius settled down at these words and then whuffed a yawn. "Alright then," he said and he shifted over, so that the space between them was closed, and wrapped an arm around Remus.

Remus jolted back at the touch and hissed, "What was that?"

Sirius mumbled, "Well, you said that we're both alright with this because we both know we're straight, so this shouldn't really bother you. Besides, you're not going to roll off the bed if I've got you."

Sirius' voice was heavy with sleep as he said this, and Remus didn't want to wake him up by shoving the arm away, so he let it rest where it was. Snuffling sounds soon showed that Sirius was fast asleep. Remus, however, continued to stare into the darkness of the room, body rigid.

This was strangely pleasant. The only time he'd ever had someone else sleep in the same bed with him was when he was a very young child. As he'd got older, though, he'd wondered about the idea of having someone else nearby to reach out and hold. Their weight and warmth stretched out across from you on the bed, there with you when you were at your weakest.

That person would have to be someone whom you could trust. Remus shifted slightly, a little unhappy at these thoughts, but still unwilling to wake Sirius.

Remus honestly knew he could not completely trust Sirius after what had happened with The Prank. Sirius was his friend and a very good friend, too. But the point was that although Remus trusted in Sirius' friendship, he could not trust in Sirius completely because of his friend's dangerous temper.

At this moment, though, there was no anger in the air. It was peaceful, a breeze floating through the open window. Remus' stiff body relaxed and he closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh air.

They woke up the next day, arms wrapped up around each other but there was nothing embarrassing in that. They separated as soon as Remus glanced at his watch and saw that it was nine o'clock.

"We'll probably have to wake the dunderheads in Room 109," Sirius said as he pulled on his socks and shoes and tried to straighten his rumpled clothing.

Remus finished buttoning up his shirt before saying, "Sirius, be a dear, and brush your teeth before we go down, yeah? I'm sure we don't want to suffer through you having morning breath."

Sirius grinned at this and crept closer to Remus, mouth scrunched up as if he was about to offer a great, wet snog to Remus.

Remus, however, kept him off with a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste which was pointed to squirt in the direction of one of Sirius' eyeballs.

As soon as they were ready and Remus had made sure that their water bottle was filled from the room's sink, they walked down to Peter and James' room and knocked on the door. James' very rumpled-looking head poked out only after another ten minutes' of loud knocking.

"What's the hurry?" James asked grumpily.

"We are off to hike to Tintagel Castle," Sirius said importantly.

The importance was completely lost on James. "Well, good luck to you. I'm off to catch up on some sleep."

And James moved back to shut the door but Remus forced a foot through and said incredulously, "Prongs, you've had about twelve hours of sleep."

James squinted at them and replied, "Yeah, but it's the summer holidays and I was having this wonderful dream about Ev......" He stopped and flushed a dark shade of red.

Remus laughed while Sirius looked on disapprovingly. "Those girls, mate, will be the death of you. It pains me to see my best mate giving up what little manhood he possesses so that he can catch up on his beauty sleep."

Remus' foot was still caught in the door and so they could see with some surprise that Peter was almost dressed.

"Pete, you coming with us?" Sirius questioned.

Peter smiled. "Are you two off to do some exhausting exercise?"

Remus replied invitingly, "We're just going to hike up to Tintagel's Castle. It's quite a walk but we can take it slow and it's not so steep. There's a footpath to the castle and, of course, Sirius wants to see the ocean."

Peter shook his head. "I'd be happier back here. I saw this interesting workshop where they were making pots."

Sirius glanced at James but even in his sleepiness James pointed a finger in his friend's face to stop the awful potter pun. "Don't you dare say I belong there."

Sirius shrugged and Remus eased his foot out of the doorway. The door remained open, though, as Peter came out.

"I can have breakfast with you," Peter offered to Remus and Sirius, and the three of them made their way down the stairs.

Remus made sure that his bag was stuffed with light food before joining Sirius, who was already standing outside the inn.

"So this castle, it was a fortress for King Arthur?" Remus asked as they started to walk.

Sirius nodded eagerly. "Yeah, it's all in ruins because it was split in two by a seastorm, a long time ago, but it's still got its own quality," he explained.

Remus looked at the happiness on Sirius' face as he spoke and felt his own happiness increase. Only then did Remus notice Sirius was carrying a flat package wrapped in protective paper. Sirius caught him glancing at it and looked away.

"That isn't your drawing pad, is it, Pads?" Remus asked, amused.

"What if it is?" Sirius asked nonchalantly. Remus commented with equal casualness, "Really, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, Padfoot. You like art and I like books. Prongs likes Evans and we've just found out that Peter likes pottery. They may not be 'manly' interests, as you and Prongs like to put it, but they are beautiful things. Besides I like your drawings, Padfoot. 'Specially the one where you have all of us by the Hogwarts Lake. And don't even try to deny that you haven't sketched Lily into that picture as well."

Sirius chuckled good-naturedly at this, "'Caught me out, Moony, as always."

"Well then, are you planning on drawing Tintagel Castle? I wouldn't think there would be much to draw, if it's in ruins?"

"'Don't really know yet. I told you the ruins have a spirit about them, so it wouldn't be too hard to make the piece creative, if I chose to draw them. But I was thinking more of the coastline," Sirius replied musingly.

Remus rolled his eyes playfully. "Sirius, you're a city lad. When exactly did you become so interested in the sea?"

Sirius shrugged carelessly but his eyes were a little wistful before he replied, "Mother and Father used to bring us down here when Regulus and I were little. Some of those are good family memories, the few that I have actually."

Remus was silent for a time as they trekked their way along the footpath. "It's said that Merlin visited here once," Sirius remarked as they drew nearer to Tintagel Castle.

"Not a surprise." Remus faced what little rubble remained of the Castle.

They reached the remains of a high archway of the Castle, and as they both stood under it they were a little awed at the height of the old construction.

"Of course, it's nothing like Hogwarts, which was built ages before this Castle and is definitely in better condition than this, but I like it. It was a grand castle once, but now it's been worn away," Sirius said.

He settled on the step below the archway and pulled his artpad out of its covering.

"You got any of that bread left over from breakfast, Moony?" he asked.

Remus set his bag down and undid the ties, reaching in for the bread. He pulled out the bottle of water and took a long swallow before handing it and a roll to Sirius.

"Thanks, Remus," Sirius said catching the breadroll one-handed, already beginning to sketch with the other hand.

Remus pulled his clunky camera out of his bag as well and turned off the flash. He snatched a quick look at Sirius, making sure that the boy was engrossed in his work, before taking a shot of the boy with dark hair lifting a little in the wind.

"Beautiful," Remus thought unexpectedly as he returned the camera to his bag.

Some hours later Sirius said that his sketch was done. By this time Remus had lazily sprawled himself by his friend using his bag as a very lumpy but soft cushion. He had exhausted himself by walking around the ruins because, although it wasn't much to look at, Sirius' eager interest for the place had passed itself onto Remus as well.

"My mum was mad for 'The Mists of Avalon'," Remus found himself saying as he watched Sirius carefully wrap his book back up.

"Hmmm, what's that?" Sirius asked with a smile.

"A Muggle novel that really went in for the women's view in the King Arthur legends. After reading that my mum was always sorry for Morgen le Fay."

Sirius was quiet for a while before commenting, "They say that she was the one who created Dementors just as she destroyed Camelot."

Remus snorted. "You think one human being alone created those abominations, mate? My dad says that they came into being through all the rot that is in humankind. It only makes sense that they would feed on what created them."

Sirius' face was somber before I could really go up against one of them."

Remus laughed in reply, "You would, Pads. You always seem to have a death wish. Always in for the thrills. I'd have no doubt you'd come out alive, though."

Sirius picked himself up, artpad stowed under his arm, and Remus stretched and got up as well, slinging his bag over his back

They walked slowly back to the inn.

Reviews :)?