Of Orchids and Icicles

The Gryffindor fifth years shuffled their feet in the snow as Professor McGonagall led them around the perimeter of the castle.

“ Moony's lucky to be missing this lesson,” James said, kicking the toe of his shoe against the ground. “ He's laid up in a nice, warm bed while we're freezing our arses off.”

“ I can't feel my toes,” Peter said. Sirius shrugged.

“ Don't be such a couple of girls. We voluntarily spend hours in the snow on weekends. Walking around the corner in it won't exactly kill us,” Sirius said.

“ Yes, but it's seven-thirty! Seven-thirty, man!” James said dramatically, shaking Sirius by the shoulders.

“ Well, maybe you'll luck out and tear enormous chunks of your own flesh out some night and get to sleep in on a weekday,” Sirius said, batting James away irritably.

“ Oh, for Merlin's sake, Padfoot, you know damn well I didn't mean anything like that. Touchy bastard,” James muttered.

The three friends caught up with the rest of the class, McGonagall eyeing them warily, before waving an arm at the long, spiky icicles that had accumulated on the stones framing one of the castle windows.

“ For today's lesson, we will be learning how to transfigure icicles into orchids,” she said, waving her wand and bringing the frozen formations down slowly from the ledge, where the students could reach them.

The boys shifted from foot to foot during the particularly long winded lecture on the theory behind the spell involved.

“ This thing's freezing my fingers off,” Sirius hissed.

“ Damn things will be melted soon if she doesn't get on with it,” James muttered in reply.

“ Do you think Moony's okay?” Sirius asked. “ I peeked in on him before class this morning. He look liked he'd had a rough time of it.” James frowned.

“ Poor guy. Why'd we have to have a stupid late detention with Slughorn last night of all nights?” James said.

“ Because you hexed Snivellus' eyebrows to grow to his chin?” Peter offered helpfully, and a bit too loudly. McGonagall cleared her throat.

“ I'd like to demonstrate the spell now, unless you have something important you'd like to tell the class, Mr. Pettigrew?” she asked, fixing him with a stern look.

“ N -- no, Professor,” Peter squeaked nervously.

Professor McGonagall proceeded to show them how the spell was cast, turning the icicle into a single, perfect flower. The girls gasped with delight, while the boys rolled their eyes.

“ Oh, yeah, this will be practical,” Sirius muttered. James shrugged.

“ Might be a good one to impress birds with,” James said, casting an unsubtle grin in Lily Evans' direction, which she markedly turned to ignore.

The spell turned out to be either deceptively simple, or else the whole class had a stroke of good fortune, for when the time came for the students to put the spell into practice, every icicle turned into a beautiful orchid. The colors varied greatly, Sirius gazing in mild disgust at his fuschia creation.

McGonagall called forth one student at a time to inspect their creation for their grade, and soon a carpet of flowers covered the ground at the professor's feet, so fragile and colorful to the eye, that even Sirius had to admit to himself it was lovely. Sirius was the last one called forth, and the class was dismissed from there, everyone turning to go back inside. Everyone but Sirius, who stood, admiring the bouquet left on the snowy ground.

“ Coming mate?” James asked, looking back. Sirius shook his head.

“ I've got something to do. I'll catch up with you,” he said.

****

Remus Lupin sighed heavily, sinking onto a musty wing backed chair upholstered in dark green velvet. It had been a long day of work for the Order, and he needed to clear his mind, to escape into another world for the time being. He opened the heavy volume of French poetry that he had come to look upon almost like an old friend, the only book he'd managed to keep from his school days that he still liked to read on occasion.

Sirius sat at his feet in front of the fire, scooting backwards until his back gave a reassuring pressure against the front of Remus' leg. He reached forward tentatively, stroking the long black hair of the man before him, smiling as Sirius leaned his head back in approval. At that moment, something slipped from the gilded leaves of the volume, falling at Sirius' bare feet on the carpet.

“ What's this?” Sirius asked, carefully picking up what appeared to be a dried, pressed flower. Remus took it from him, inspecting it with wonder. He slipped his hand into his robes, bringing out his wand, and made a soft incantation over the paper thin object. Sirius gazed in awe, as Remus handed him a single, fresh orchid of a deep rose hue.

“ I'd forgotten all about it,” he said, with a wistful smile. “ Our fifth year, waking up in the infirmary to a blanket of the most exquisite flowers I'd ever seen.”

“ Yeah, but they melted on you soon after that, didn't they? I almost ended up giving you the flu,” Sirius said, with a guilty smirk. Remus gently plucked the bloom from Sirius' hand.

“ Not all of them melted. I managed to save this one,” Remus said. Sirius gazed up at him, his eyes seeming far away.

“ You looked so nice with all those flowers around you, Moony, asleep and looking so peaceful. I think that was when I first realized I was falling in love with you,” Sirius whispered, as Remus leaned down to kiss him.