Vanilla Sand

Vanilla Sand

The hottest day of the year in 1976 found Remus and Sirius fresh out of Hogwarts and at the beach near Cornwall, picking their way through the crowds along the strip of white sand by the sea.

There was absolutely no cloud to speak of; the sky was so brilliantly blue that it hurt to look upwards. Plumes of shimmering air rose from the overheated white sand. Even the sea looked asleep; forbiddingly un-refreshing today, the normally deep blue water muted to a muddy grey. Remus, shyly aware of his scars, wore a long white shirt and rolled-up khakis; barefoot, he walked gingerly, wincing at the sting of hot grit on his toes. Sirius, wearing only knee-length shorts, plowed on ahead, smiling and sunburnt and seemingly oblivious to the prickling heat under his feet. That Sirius could simply push ahead like that was astounding, given they were crowded nearly elbow to elbow amongst everyone else intent on escaping the heat wave that suffocated the whole of England.

"Ice cream stand ahoy!" Sirius shouted suddenly, barreling through the swarming crowd towards the peeling concession shack. He'd already bought and paid for two double cones by the time Remus had painstakingly picked his way to the booth.

"Here you go, old man," Sirius grinned around his mint-chocolate chip cone, his nose dotted with a generous glop of green, and thrust out an already-melting vanilla cone towards him. "Just so you don't get your shirt stained, mind."

"Your concern for my wardrobe is touching," Remus snorted, licking the cream that was already sliding down his fingers.

"Can't have everyone slavering over your manly body when they should be mooning over mine," Sirius sniggered. Remus shook his head, having already noticed the several openly admiring glances towards Sirius by various scantily clad girls (and some surreptitious ones from a few boys too); Sirius simply shrugged, and devoured each scoop on his cone in two bites each, peering around. "Peter and James should be around here somewhere but I can't see anything beyond this ruddy crowd, we're supposed to meet them--"

"We'll find them," Remus muttered, "just be patient. Although you do know that ice cream is meant to be enjoyed?" he finished in wry amusement as Sirius crushed all the cone into his mouth in one go.

"I did enjoy it," Sirius pouted--as best he could with his mouth chock-full of cone, spraying crumbs as he spoke. Remus stepped back instinctively.

"Yes, but now you'll have to wait for me to finish mine," Remus added with a triumphant smirk, slowly rolling his tongue around the top scoop. "So I intend to torture you by eating it. Very. Very. Slowly."

"Mooon-y!" Sirius almost wailed. Remus simply flicked his tongue out again, allowing it only barely to touch the off-white ball before it darted back into his mouth. Sirius stared at Remus as he did so, his sea-grey eyes wide and mouth agape, oddly mesmerized for a moment.

Remus' eyes narrowed in puzzlement. "Close your mouth, Sirius, you're sucking in flies," he said, as a particularly large lazy one landed on Sirius' lip.

Sirius shook his head in a decidedly dog-like fashion to clear it. "You would torture me, you stupid prat, it's what you live for," he mumbled, and Remus smiled sweetly. "Now let's go you git, if you can indeed walk and lick your cone at the same time, and find those two wankers." With that, Sirius blazed a trail through the pressing crowd of beach-goers, Remus trailing a few steps behind.

Remus had managed to finish one scoop when Sirius stopped suddenly in front of him. Still savouring his ice-cream, Remus didn't notice--until he ran right into Sirius' back, sending both boys off-balance. Sirius stumbled; Remus caught his arm--

And watched dumbly as his cone went flying through the air in slow-motion, only to land upside-down a few metres away in a patch of trodden white sand.

"Bollocks," Remus grumbled at last, his eyes following the trajectory of sailing cone towards the sand.

Sirius turned his head to look. "Tough luck, Moony," he said only half-sympathetically, patting his arm. Then he lunged towards the cone and plucked it out of the sand. "It's still good you know, hasn't even been five seconds since it fell--"

"Since when do you know about the five-second rule?"

"The Black family invented it," he stated imperiously. He proffered the sticky, sand-frosted cone towards Remus. "Here you are then, no real harm done."

Remus shook his head and crossed his arms. "No thanks, just toss--"

His voice fell silent as Sirius took a generous bite out of the cone and rolled his eyes in utter pleasure. "Mmm, no matter what, basic vanilla is still the best."

"That is utterly disgusting, Padfoot," Remus commented wryly, arching one eyebrow. "People have walked there. Some dog might have pissed in that exact same spot, you know."

Sirius simply grinned and shoved the entire fallen ball of ice cream into his mouth, followed by the cone, in one go. "Can't taste if one did," he mouthed thickly around the melting goo. Remus turned away, feeling vaguely sick and rolling his eyes at the smear of sand-sticky cream around Sirius' lips, and plodded ahead through the sand a few steps.

"Oww! Merlin, that fucking HURTS!" Remus turned back to see Sirius suddenly slap one hand over his eye and grimace in pain.

"Brain freeze," Remus said with a smug grin. "Serves you right. Though I'm surprised you can feel anything at all given there's very little brain in there anyway."

Sirius swallowed and stumbled blindly towards Remus. "Sodding wanker, when I catch you I'll--"

Remus darted away but not fast enough--one foot stumbled in the slippery sand and he fell on one knee. Sirius covered the distance in three long strides, grabbing his arm; looking up, Remus could see the grains of sand from the cone still sticking on Sirius' curved mouth. It was his turn to stare now at the light sheen of sweat above his upper lip--

"There you are, you bloody berks!" came the sound of James' exasperated voice, and Remus closed his eyes against the handful of sand being dumped on his head. "We're over this way, Pete's holding the fort, we've been waiting for you two for hours--"

"Merlin's balls you have, Potter--" Sirius retorted. He let go of Remus' arm and immediately launched himself, dog-like, at James, much to the shock of surrounding sunbathers; Remus laughed outright.

"Get up, you two, before I put leashes on you," Remus shouted, running off before they could tackle him.

As they headed towards Peter's stake of beach, Remus was forever grateful to one James Potter for saving him from quite possibly a fate much worse than death by the hands of one Sirius Black, on the hottest day of the year.