Chapter 23 - Consequences

Disclaimer: Still just playing with JK Rowling's wonderful creations.

Author's Notes: Once again, I must thank DracoGurlFurever for her help with this chapter as well as thanking the Admin staff here. Sorry for the delay with this chapter, I had quite a mental block whilst writing it, but I'm happy now with how it turned out. I hope it gives you a giggle as you read. ;-)

Chapter 23 - Consequences

Once Sirius had finished the breakfast Sophia had saved for him, he left her in the common room, telling her he was going to check on Remus. It wasn't a complete lie ... he did need to check on Remus and help James and Peter explain the events of the night before ... but he also needed to speak to James before Sophia laid eyes on him and could quiz James about Sirius' sleep-walking lie. He briefly wondered when his life had become so complicated...

Upon entering his dormitory, he could see that Remus was still the only Marauder asleep. The bathroom door was shut, and he could hear a hideously off-tune melody filtering through the wood so he knew Peter had to be in there, leaving James over by his bed in far left hand corner of the room. He looked up from his trunk as Sirius entered the room and smiled easily.

'Morning, Pads,' James greeted brightly.

'Might want to check your watch, Prongs,' Sirius replied, being sure to keep his voice down so he didn't disturb Remus as he walked briskly across the room. 'Think you'll find it's now officially the afternoon.'

James flicked a quick glance down at his wrist. 'Well, bugger me,' he muttered quietly to himself. 'Oh, well, a lie-in never killed anyone, did it?' he continued, giving Sirius a smirk as he did.

'Indeed not,' Sirius replied, sitting himself on the end of James' bed as his friend continued to re-organise his trunk. 'Prongs, I need you to do me a favour.'

James lifted his head and raised an eyebrow.

'I had some bruising after last night, not to mention a bloody great scratch down the length of my face, and Sophia saw me before I could get to Madam Pomfrey; naturally, she demanded to know what I had done. So, if she mentions anything to you about it, tell her you caught me sleep-walking, alright?'

James chuckled. 'Sleep-walking? That was the best you could come up with? Pads, I'm appalled.'

'Yeah, well, I was still half-asleep and I panicked. What was I supposed to say ... "Oh, don't worry, Soph. These are just some battle scars I got from last night when James, Peter and I snuck out to see Remus as illegal Animagi, and then we had to fight Remus in his werewolf form so he didn't go off and kill some stranger he caught a whiff of. But don't worry, all is fine." Yeah, I'm sure that would have gone down really well,' he ended.

'What was that?'

Sirius and James whipped their heads round to the source of the voice that had joined their conversation.

Remus was struggling to sit up in bed, a worried look on his face.

'Aw, shit,' Sirius mumbled to himself. It really wasn't his morning. Of course Remus would just have to wake up at that precise moment.

'What were you saying about me? What happened last night?' Remus demanded.

Sirius and James looked at one another, silently trying to decide who would answer. James gave him a pointed look and Sirius knew he'd lost. He took a deep breath and look Remus in the eye. 'There was a slight ... er, problem last night.' He was rather proud of his careful phrasing until Remus' eyes narrowed in a shrewd look.

'What do you mean, "problem"?' His voice was heavily suspicious.

'Um, well, we sort of all went out for a walk last night,' Sirius began, noting the widening of Remus' eyes as he did, 'and, well, that is...'

'Spit it out, Padfoot.'

Sirius paused, looking up at his friend sadly, knowing what his next sentence would do to him. 'You smelt someone.'

Remus looked like he had been physically struck by the news. His already deathly-pale complexion whitened even further, and he looked truly aghast by what he'd done. 'You both had to fight me,' he stated in a whisper, his voice hollow.

'Yeah, but, Remus, we don't blame you. It's not like you have a choice...' James began, only to have Remus cut him off with a mirthless laugh.

'No, you're right; I don't have a choice. It's who I am! A cold-blooded, ruthless, murdering monster!' Remus shouted, his anger, frustration and shame all evident.

'No, you're not!' Sirius replied, desperate to make Remus believe him. 'The werewolf instincts aren't your own, Moony.'

Just at that moment, Peter emerged from the bathroom, whistling to himself happily, until he noticed that everyone was looking at him, and then he stopped, his expression startled but keeping quiet. Remus turned resolutely back to Sirius and James.

'The werewolf is who I am,' he replied coldly and simply. With that, he threw back his bed covers fully, and Sirius saw a long, angry red cut that ran along Remus' abdomen ... probably caused by James' horns the previous night ... before Remus went into the bathroom, closing the door forcefully behind him; they heard the lock slam into place.

'Well, that went well,' James stated sullenly.

'I take it you told him what happened last night?' Peter asked.

'Yep,' Sirius confirmed with a sigh. The friends were all silent for a moment as they thought of Remus, but eventually James spoke again.

'Come on, we'll give him some space to calm down. If he hasn't emerged by dinner time, then we'll do something.'

Sirius and Peter nodded in agreement before they all started to move to leave the room. 'Oh, Wormtail, if Sophia asks, I sleep-walked last night, okay?' Peter looked back over his shoulder, confusion clearly evident on his face. 'Just say you slept through it, alright? I can't be arsed to explain again,' Sirius stated wearily.

Peter again frowned slightly but added an 'Okay' as they left the room and headed down to the common room.

*

Just as the three boys walked through into the common room, Lily and Melanie entered in through the Portrait hole. Sophia was still sat on the sofa where Sirius had left her, her attention focused on the book resting in her lap while one hand absentmindedly stoked Hamish where he lay beside her. As a result, it was Lily and Melanie who spotted them first, their greetings catching Sophia's attention as she too looked up to them.

'And so the sleepy heads arise. Good afternoon, James, Peter,' Sophia teased.

Sirius flopped easily into the sofa next to her while James and Peter stayed standing.

'Sleepy heads?' Lily repeated, trying to understand. 'Wait, have you two just got up?' she asked incredulously.

James shrugged. 'Yeah, why? There's not a law against having a lie in.'

Lily stared at him in disbelief. 'But it's...' she checked her watch '...nearly one in the afternoon, James!'

'Yeah, well, I didn't have the best of sleeps last night,' James replied defensively.

'I don't think I need to know those details, thank you very much,' Lily stated.

James rolled his eyes at her. 'If you must know, you can blame Sophia's boyfriend here.'

'Okay, I definitely don't need to know,' Lily muttered, causing Melanie to giggle and elbow her in the ribs.

James gave a sarcastic smile in reply; Lily had an innocent look on her face. 'Sirius was sleep-walking. Highly entertaining, but still, not good for getting a full night's sleep,' James clarified.

'You sleep-walked?' Melanie asked Sirius.

'Apparently,' was Sirius' evasive answer, looking over his shoulder to Melanie, who was stood slightly behind him.

'You should have seen it ... he was hilarious!' James exclaimed. Sirius gave his friend a wide eyed stare, wondering what he was playing at, but James just carried on grinning.

'Why ... what did he do?' Melanie asked, clearly intrigued.

'Well,' James began, 'I'm asleep, and I suddenly wake up to this noise.' The girls all nodded, giving their full attention to James and his story. Sirius continued to glare at James, but he knew his friend was enjoying himself too much at the moment. Clearly, this was to be his punishment for lying. 'So, I wake up, and I hear this noise ... a clucking noise.'

'Clucking?' Lily repeated.

'Clucking ... like a chicken,' James explained, his lips stretched into what Sirius could only describe as an evil grin. Oh, James was going to pay for this humiliation. There was a smattering of laughter from the girls, but James shushed them, waving his hands and saying, 'Wait, it gets better, believe me. So, I sit up in my bed, peering through the dark room and I see Sirius, standing up on his bed, flapping his arms and clucking like a chicken.'

Now the girls really were all laughing, Sophia included, and Sirius felt his scowl deepen.

'Honestly, he's strutting around on the top of his bed, his head bopping backwards and forwards, arms flapping and making this clucking sound. I watched him doing this for I don't know how long, before he then fell off the end of his bed and hit his trunk ... I think that's when he got the black eye, Soph.'

'Good grief, Sirius,' Sophia said, her laughter stopping abruptly. 'You could have given yourself a concussion!'

I'll give someone a concussion all right, he thought to himself, giving James a black look as he did. He quickly gave Sophia a tight smile to reassure her before her attention was pulled back to James as he continued, much to Sirius' annoyance.

'But, after the fall, I could tell he was alright because he got up quickly and then ran round the room, still clucking and flapping.' James was silent for a moment before his features lit up once more and he exclaimed, 'Oh, and then! Then he started mooing.'

James, Sirius decided, was a dead man walking.

'Mooing?' Lily asked again, still laughing.

'Yep ... crawling around the room on all fours, mooing like a cow. I tell you, one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Oh, and then, he stopped the animal noises and tried to climb up the inside of the fireplace.'

'What?' Melanie asked incredulously, still laughing hard.

'Oh, yeah, he fully disappears from view, up the chimney, and I hear this scrapping, scuttling noise for a few moments before he comes tumbling out in a puff of soot. Then he starts rolling around on the floor like a dog, rubbing at his eyes and nose with the back of his hands like they were paws!' James laughed loudly with this last statement, and Peter, Lily, and Melanie joined in, each dissolving into uncontrollable giggles.

'Did you not think to try to stop him? Wake him up?' Sophia asked. She wasn't laughing like the others, clearly upset with the idea of Sirius possibly hurting himself during these escapades, which cheered Sirius ever so slightly, but she was still struggling to maintain a completely straight face.

James snorted. 'No,' he replied simply. 'Firstly, it was very, very funny; and secondly, you aren't supposed to wake someone up who is sleep-walking ... they can turn violent, don't you know? I didn't want a clucking, mooing, barking Sirius attacking me!' James finished, laughing loudly again.

Sirius sat there for a few moments, his friends laughing manically all around him - even Sophia was joining in now - before he'd finally had enough. He stood abruptly, saying, 'If you are quite done telling the story now, James, I'll go up and check on Remus.' He walked to his friend's side and squeezed his shoulder in a vice tight grip. 'Thanks, mate,' Sirius hissed through a clenched jaw. 'You sure know how to help a friend out.' Sirius patted James' shoulder lightly before striding off back up the stairs, leaving James rubbing his shoulder, still laughing.

Just before Sirius entered his dormitory again, he called on Pippy, one of the house-elves from the kitchen who he'd become a particular favourite of over his years at Hogwarts. The small elf popped into view with a crack and bowed low to Sirius.

'Pippy be answering little master's call. Pippy help how?' she asked with a squeaky voice, her large ears flapping as she lifted her face to him.

'Pippy, would you please bring me a cup of tea ... Oh, and some biscuits if possible, please?' he asked.

Pippy beamed at him before disappearing with another crack. Sirius rarely called on the Hogwarts elves like this, but he really need a peace offering to give to Remus. A few moments later, Pippy was back, a cup of tea and a plate of chocolate biscuits in her hand. Sirius relieved her of the refreshments, balancing the plate on top of the mug as he opened the door.

Remus was lying on his bed, peering at the door as it opened before allowing his head to loll back as he saw it was only Sirius. Instead of giving his friend a greeting, Sirius slipped into the room silently, striding over to the bed where Remus was lying still, trying to ignore him.

Casting a levitation charm on the plate and mug, Sirius left them to hover over the middle of the bed before seating himself at the foot of Remus' bed. Sirius continued to sit there, waiting, and Remus continued to ignore him and the offered tea and biscuits.

Eventually, though, Sirius grew bored and started to eye up the biscuits. Remus still hadn't made an effort to move, so, with a shrug, Sirius leant forward and plucked a biscuit from the plate, biting into it as he sat back once more. As he chewed on it, his eyes slid to the mug of tea, the steam rolling upwards from it still. Before taking his second bite, he leant forward and dunked it in the tea. This did manage to cause a upwards raise of Remus' brow, but otherwise his friend remained unmoved.

Sirius decided that while the tea-soaked biscuit was an improvement, he still needed something more to wash the treat down, so he grabbed hold of the mug and took a deep drink of the tea. He finished the first biscuit and went to reach for a second when the plate was suddenly pulled in the opposite direction from him.

'I thought these were for me?' Remus enquired.

'Well, they were, but you seemed disinterested, and I thought it pointless that they should go to waste,' Sirius replied.

Remus merely grunted, plucking his own biscuit from the plate and munching on it, his gaze staring off into the unknown distance.

'I'm going to need your help, when you are up to it,' Sirius stated.

Remus turned his attention to Sirius, his face still strangely blank.

'James,' Sirius qualified.

Remus raised an eyebrow.

'I had some injuries after last night that Sophia saw,' Sirius began. He noticed Remus drop his gaze down to his lap, but Sirius carried on regardless. 'I told her I got them sleep-walking.'

Remus' head snapped up. 'Sleep-walking?' he repeated, his voice flat.

'Yes, yes; I know ... very unoriginal. Anyway, I told her James witnessed it all, so of course, she asked him about it in front of Lily and Melanie. He told them how I pretended to be chicken, a cow and a dog ... Oh, and I apparently tried to climb up the chimney.'

'A chicken?' Remus repeated, a smile desperately tugging at the corner of his lips. 'Did you cock-a-doodle-doo, or lay an egg?' he asked before dissolving into laughter.

Sirius glared at him and used his wand to summon a pillow that Remus deftly caught before it hit him in the face. Slowly, Remus sobered and started to toss the pillow into the air before catching it and tossing it upwards again, though his eyes still glinted with amusement.

'So, you want revenge?' Remus asked, his voice still lifted from his laughter, settling the pillow over his lap and resting his hand upon it.

'Yep ... preferably something completely horrible ... and public. Got any ideas?' Sirius asked.

'Give me some time, and I'm sure I'll come up with something suitable,' Remus responded, giving Sirius a smirk. 'Now, give me back my cup of tea,' he demanded, holding out his hand.

'Oh, sure,' Sirius replied, handing over the mug. As he moved back to his former position, a silence settled over the two friends and Sirius braced himself to broach the issue he'd come up here to talk about in the first place. 'Moony, you do know that we don't blame you at all for last night, don't you?' Sirius asked cautiously.

Remus held the mug between his hands, staring into it, saying nothing.

'I mean it, Moony.'

Remus raised the mug to his lips and drank the tea. As he lowered the mug, he raised his eyes to Sirius. 'We can't go out any more,' he stated. 'I can't think about what could have happened. I can't risk it.'

Sirius didn't know what to say as he saw the sadness and shame reflected in his friends brown eyes, so he just nodded in agreement.

Remus nodded to himself and turned his attention back to his tea.

'So, you're good now?' Sirius asked.

Remus looked at his friend and thought for a moment. 'Yeah, I'm good.'

Sirius knew it was only a temporary 'good', but it was enough for him just now, so he let the matter rest.

End Notes: If the scene with Remus and Sirius and the cup of tea seems familiar, it's because I was (heavily) inspired by a scene in the brilliant Richard Curtis film, 'The Boat That Rocked'.