Awakenings

Awakenings

Chapter Two

"I think you card says something about your future offspring and lightning." said Peter staring at his textbook uncertainly. "Wow! Your kid sure knows how to make an entry."

James grinned. "Exit, you mean. It makes sense, he's got his dad's reputation to keep, after all."

"Showing off must run in the blood," said Peter, rolling his eyes. "What does mine say?"

"I'd tell you if Padfoot here, quit drooling all over it," said James sleepily, giving Sirius' head a hard poke

Neither James nor Sirius had gotten much sleep last night after the whole Remus incident. They'd rushed Remus to the hospital wing, desperately trying to revive him, but Remus had been out cold and according to Madam Pomfrey, very close to death. This only put fuel to their worries and they stayed up all night fighting to be let in the hospital wing.

Peter had been informed about the incident a lot later and thus, unlike James and Sirius, had enjoyed a full night's sleep. However, Peter was especially fond of Remus (who was always kind to him and helped him with his homework), and showed just as much concern.

"It's a good thing you woke up to that bad dream, Sirius," whispered Peter. "I hate to think what would've happened to Remus if you didn't."

"I told you," said Sirius, clearly irritated, "I didn't have a bad dream. I just needed to go to the loo and thought I'd check up on my best friends, that's all."

"Yeah, sure, whatever, Sirius," muttered James.

"I'm telling you the goddamn truth!!!"

That caught everybody's attention, and Sirius to bite the inside of his cheek and smiled sheepishly as all eyes turned to him.

Professor Senile came menacingly close to Sirius's face, and Sirius's couldn't help but wrinkle his nose at her despicable dress sense, but more so, at her exceptionally smelly breath. "Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class, Mr. Black?"

Sirius gave his most charming and confident smile. "I was just telling my friend, James, here that you were undoubtedly the top of your class at Harvard when it came to Divination, but he refuses to believe me."

Professor Senile blushed and gave a shy smile. "Well, you are correct of course, Mr. Black, but I would advise you to kindly refrain from talking while I'm teaching, (ahem) whatever the topic.

"Of course, Professor!" Sirius grinned one last time and looked at James's exasperated and Peter's envious faces. "Yep," he said smugly, brushing away the hair from his eyes, "I still got it."

James rolled his eyes. "Let's skip History and go visit Remus."

Peter's face lightened up at the thought and he practically jumped on his seat. "Yeah! And we can smuggle him some sweets from the kitchen too!"

"Shh! Try not to wet yourself here, will you?"

***

"Hey Moony! I see you're still sleeping," said Sirius, deliberately jumping on the bed.

"Gnnhh..." mumbled Remus and turned away from Sirius

"Well Prongs, I guess that means we'll have to eat all this chocolate we nicked, eh?"

"I'm afraid so. We wouldn't want it to go to waste now, would we?"

Immediately Remus's eyes shot open. "I'm not that sleepy," he said, snatching the chocolate away from Sirius's hand.

Prongs laughed. "Works every time."

Peter stared at Remus gobbling down the chocolate at warp speed. "He's going to make himself sick if he eats at that rate."

Sirius patted playfully on Remus' back causing him to choke on a mouthful of chocolate. "Ah! Let the boy eat, Wormtail." He rested a head on Remus' shoulder and planted a quick kiss behind his ear when he thought nobody was looking. His and Remus' relationship was just a couple of weeks old and they wanted to keep it as secret as possible, even from James and Peter. "We'll tell them in good time," Remus had said.

Remus gave him a cheeky smile and winked, while Sirius rubbed the back of his neck. "After all, Moony needs all-" Sirius paused as something on Remus' neck caught his attention. "What the hell?" he said running a finger on one of the many purple-black bruises that lined Remus' throat.

"You should be used to my bruises by now, Sirius," said Moony, quickly shoving off Sirius' hand from his neck.

James leaned on the other side of Remus' bed for a closer look. "He should, but this isn't one from your usual transformations, Moony."

Sirius forcefully bent down Remus's head and looked below the collar of his striped pyjamas. "These are finger marks, Remus." He let go off Remus who looked extremely violated. "Did someone attack you, Remus? I swear, if I find out who it is, I'll - "

"No, no, no one attacked me, Sirius. Save your hexes for later."

Peter looked at Remus, horrified. "You didn't try to kill yourself, did you?"

"No, of course not." The three of them looked at Remus uncertainly. Sirius looked genuinely hurt at the very idea. "God, you guys! I'm not suicidal, okay! I-I might have done it, but not intentionally..."

"He has been a little distressed lately," said Peter to both James and Sirius.

James nodded. "Yeah, and he has been avoiding us a bit."

"Who knows? I mean, Remus is a little unpredictable..." agreed Sirius

"You guys, I'm still here, you know," said Remus, highly annoyed. "If you must know, I think I was just acting out my dreams." He ignored the confused looks of his friends's faces. "Last night, I dreamt I was being strangled," He glanced at Sirius's worried expression and decided to cut out the part about Sirius being the one who was choking him to death. "And I guess, I probably attacked myself, kind of like sleep walking but a little more hostile. I hear it happens when you've got a lot on your mind. And me being a werewolf and all..."

James looked slightly unconvinced. "It's kind of far fetched..."

"Look, if I had to suicide, I'd have done it in an easier way than choking myself."

Sirius nodded but said nothing. Somehow, he couldn't shake off the thought that he had a very similar dream that night.

***