In the Tower
Chapter Seven: Scream into the Wind
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or anything related. All I own is a shoebox. Yeah, I'm freaking poor. Leave me alone.
Summary: Remus, Sirius & Peter are planning to finally get Lily to love James, because he's just really annoying them. So they do the only thing they know to do, lock them in a tower over Christmas break. Annoyed Lily and confused James galore. How long will they last without outside sources? And when finally let out, without each other?
Author's Note: Ah… enjoy!
Previously: He smiled and gathered up his reins, squeezing Charlie's sides until he picked up a quick canter. He spotted the first jump, an oxer, and grinned, leaning over Charlie's withers as they gathered more speed, and flew. He reminisced the feeling as they landed and headed for the next jump, a minute version of London Bridge. It feels good to be in the air again, he thought not being able to hold back a grin as Katie cheered wildly for him on the sidelines.
Katie was right; he thought again, I am the new Black. I am a new Black.
During some of the most miserable periods of my life, people thought I was very happy. And now that I'm actually happier, I don't have to show it. I'm more comfortable with myself. Gerard Butler, on his new acting career
James rolled over uneasily and looked at Lily. She seemed to be having a peaceful sleep, until she cried out at random moments when he was almost asleep, successfully waking him again. She's doing this on purpose, she is. Oh, why does he even care? As long as he was near her, he was absolutely fine.
He had stopped acting stupid on purpose for her, really he did. He sighed grumpily and looked at his watch in the dark. It clocked three A.M., the middle of the ghost hours. He wasn't that superstitious, but there were ghosts, and then there were bad ghosts. And the bad ghosts come out between one and four A.M. He groaned and shoved his head into his pillow. He sounded like a five year old afraid of the dark.
Why was he frightened? Why did he even care? Why was he there? Did he even belong here, lying next to Lily in a warm bed, close enough to feel each other's warm breath on their bare skin? He sighed again, and Lily's hair flew back from her face. He got out of bed, his feet padding softly on the oddly warm stone floor.
A rather large cloak lay on a chair near the little kitchen table, and he grabbed it and put donned it on over his only boxer clad body. He tied up his shoes and stumbled up the cold passage way to the tower. Its three days until Christmas and the weather is getting colder and colder, and yet he didn't mind it at all. He had grown up in a part of England where its `stick you ass to the ice and sit there until it thaws out in five months' sort of place. And as a prank, he made Sirius do that. James had to bring Sirius his food every morning, steaming hot, and would pour hot water onto his behind. It would thaw out a bit every time.
But that's not his point. He threw open the tower door and was immediately pushed back from the frigid wind that seemed to stand right outside the door, waiting for him. We'll he'll just give it a good time then. He tucked his head down and pushed out against the wind, and it let him go through willingly. He shoved a large patch of snow under a hangout out from under it and sat, watching the snow come in and stick to his glasses.
The sun rose, unsure, but breaks above the clouds and warms everything around him. The snow melted about two inches, but is quickly covered by the flurries. Yeah, well. Nothing lasts forever. Well, if he thought about it, the past six and half years have gone on long enough to be forever.
If James tried, his feelings for Lily would last forever, and he would hate her for just as long. Creepy though, she had hugged him two days ago, and he hugged her back, and they just sat there. Hugging. Enemies don't hug each other.
He looked at his watch again. 3:17, it blinked out sleepily. Yeah well, he had been
watching the snow longer than he had been thinking.
He had never been this insecure about anything, ever. He had always plowed into whatever was in the way head on, making sure to flirt with some hot little chickas along the way. Meaning, that he had tried to flirt with a fireball with emerald stone eyes. Damn it! He slammed his hands down into the cloak.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" He screamed into the wind, which only howled its own reply.
"Why is my life like this? WHY DO I LOVE HER SO DAMN MUCH? WHY DOES SHE HATE ME?" He screamed ferociously. The wind didn't even give its reply. The wind had stopped howling the snow had stopped suddenly, and the cloud hid behind a cloud to escape his fury. He smirked sardonically.
"I never said I hated you," a calm voice behind him said. He opened the cloak without a word and she slid in it beside him, shivering from the cold. And she had what looked like a long sleeved shirt, and wool jumper, and three pairs of pants on. She shivered against his warm frame and she snuggled closer.
"How can you even wear that?" She asked him incredulously, putting her hand on his thigh where the extremely warm boxers got warmer. He shivered involuntarily. "HA!" She whispered in his ear. "You're cold."
"I'm not." He told her honestly, trying to swallow while not looking in her direction. "I'm just not…used to people… touching me there." He told her, and she immediately removed her hand, blushed as dark as her hair, which was clouded around her face, but other than that she didn't move. She watched the snow for a while, but like he thought she would, she did not dare to reach out and touch it and feel the smooth texture of it crumble in her hands and melt.
"Do you not like the snow?" He asked her, looking at his watch. It said 4:30. They hadn't done anything for a long while other than sit in the silence, warming each other.
"Oh no, I love the snow!" She told him, her face lightening up as she looked up at him. "It's just that, I came from an extremely warm part of England, and it's such a difference to be up here, in the frigid cold. What about you? You're sitting here in your boxers and a heavy cloak and nothing else! It must be like negative ten degrees out here."
He snorted and looked down at her. "I live in a place where you can stick your behind on the ice and it'll stay that way for a few months. If you don't happen to have your wand with you," She giggled a bit and got closer. He daringly wrapped an arm around her for more warmth. "It happened to Sirius once. I dared him because I knew what would happen"- "James!"- "And he took it. He was stuck on the same block of ice for practically all of winter break.
"He only got out because on the day before we had to go back I pitied him and warmed the area around his behind. Needless to say he was chasing me all around the house after he took a very hot shower and changed into warm, comfortable clothes." She slapped his arm lightly.
"James you're so mean." He smirked pleasantly at her.
"I know." He cleared his throat and looked around at the snowy castle and its grounds. "Lily, what we're you dreaming about earlier?" She looked up at him abruptly.
"Oh, uh, I don't know really. All I know was that someone was trying to hurt someone I loved very much, and I couldn't do anything to prevent or further it. At sometimes it seemed like whoever it was, was very much putting up a good fight, then a single small blow would bring him down."
"Him,"
"I guess it was a him. I don't know. I could smell the air around me and it smelled like someone, I don't know who." She leaned closer into him and took a deep breath of air. Really deep. Then she coughed on him. He slid away from it, but only his torso. "It was you! You I smelled!"
"Um, okay." That was really all he could say. She started crying into his shoulder suddenly. "Lily!" He said, startled. "What's wrong?"
"Just before I woke up, you died. And then when I woke up, you weren't there! It really scared me. I prepared to find you. You have no idea how relived I was when I heard you shouting at the sky." Her head was still tucked into his shoulder, and he only heard what she said because he had tilted his head toward her and strained his ears.
He kissed the crown of her head soothingly. "Lily, I am here, and very much alive. I won't let anyone hurt you."
REMIE'S POV
Two days ago, Remus jumped off the train in a fowl mood and joined his mum and Tina to go home. Now, they were still walking on egg shells around each other, and it's always this way. Tina and Remus shared a room in the little house that they had, though she has taken over most of it, seeing as he was only home two months, or even less, a year. His side is neat and spotless, with a calendar hanging next to his bed and a book by CS Lewis, the more adult ones, on his nighstand. His closet is full of older boy teenager clothes, as he expected, and when he felt rebellious, he had a whole section of his closet dedicated to shirts that have some depiction of the moon and its many forms.
Her side, on the other hand, had clothes strewn all about it and a huge dresser and vanity. And worse thing was that she had pictures of guys everywhere. Like he said, she took over most of it, so there are guy pictures on his side of the room. It's very creepy.
"Remy?" She called, as he fell heavily onto his bed and lay there with his face down on the ebony comforter. He grunted in reply. "I need to ask you something." He felt her sit down on the edge of his bed and grunted again. "I need your approval of someone." He moved his face so he was looking at her instead of the bed spread.
"Listening intently," Was all he said.
"His name is Brendan, and he's twenty four. He's really good to me, Remus. To mom and me. He hasn't done anything that would even show signs that he would try and hurt me. He hasn't gone with the relationship; it's still only gentle little kisses." He moved his head again and rubbed his nose in the blanket. He didn't need to hear about his sister kissing anybody. She ignored it. "And he's coming over for dinner tonight in two hours." She ran out of the room.
"WHAT?" He blew up and jumped of the bed just as the door slammed shut. He threw it open and ran down the stairs to the parlor and jumped the last five. Good reflexes, he thought to himself as he landed on his feet. He questioned himself how she knew he would do that, for he hadn't seen her in months. He figured to himself she had probably talked to mum.
His mum was calmly chopping tomatoes in the kitchen, and didn't even flinch as the kitchen-swinging door swung open.
"Mum! Why didn't you tell me?" He whined, standing next to her, towering over her. She looked up at him with her steel gray eyes.
"Because I knew you would do that."
"But that's not fair!" He pouted and slouched until he was barley five inches taller than she was.
"She loves you too much, Remus. She wanted you to believe in Brendan the same way we do. Just tolerate him, for the night. Then truthfully tell Tina, without any biased opinion that you are harboring right now, how you feel about him. You might just like him."
"I won't! I don't trust anyone around you all!" His mother glared at him, and he sighed before drawing himself into his full height again. "How long has she been dating him?"
"Since you left for school,"
"Four months? Only four,"
"Yes only four! She needed the blessing early on. Remus, he makes her feel happy. Just meet him and talk to him." She looked at the clock on the oven. It read 7:42. "Remus, you best be getting in the show, he'll be here in twenty minutes, more or less." He stood stubbornly next to her. "Go!"
"Fine!" He shouted at her and stomped up the stairs like a small child. He went into the bedroom again and tugged some clothing out of his closet and little drawers of clothing he had. He walked slowly to the bathroom. When he had the door shut and locked, he stripped his clothing off and stepped lightly into the shower, turning the water on hot.
What he did in the shower is no importance to you, but I'll tell you that he thought the entire time. By the time he was out, and dried and had his clothes on, Mum was telling him through the door that Brendan was there and he should be on his best behavior.
"Yeah, okay mum." He told her as he opened the door, still toweling his shaggy hair dry. She looked up at him for a moment.
"Do something with your hair."
"That's what I'm doing right now." He retorted dryly.
She gave a glare that said `I know' for her. "Make it look like it's tamable."
"It is tamable."
"Well do something with it!"
"Its fine the way it is." He told her lightly, setting the towel back on the rack in the bathroom and shutting the door softly behind him. She shook her head as he looked down at her again and swept down the stairs, him following distantly behind her. He stood on the stairs, staring at their wimpy excuse of Christmas tree. It was only three feet tall. But they had the heart to at least have one.
Brendan came into view, standing next to Tina, holding her hand in his, and talking to Remus' mother. He had dark brown hair and green eyes, very tall. If he were a girl, who in no way he was, he would say he would be kind of cute. Kind of. He must have heard Remus' feet tread on the thick carpet, for he turned his head and smiled at him. Ugh.
"Hi! You must be Remus. I'm Brendan!" He told Remus, happily and reached out his other hand for him to shake. Remus shook it for a moment before letting go and standing close to his mother.
"'Lo," His mother elbowed him in the gut. He didn't flinch. Brendan's smile left his face, and Tina glared at Remus. He smiled a bit, fake like, and Brendan's smile lit up again. They stood, staring at each other and such for a long while.
"So!" His mother said, breaking the tangible silence. "Ready for dinner?" They all looked at her blankly. Well, Remus did anyway.
"…Sure." Were their singsong replies and they all walked cautiously to the dining room.
Tina sat on one side of the table with Brendan on the other, Remus at one head of the table and mother at the other. They sat awkwardly, fidgety and twitchy. Remus smiled, they reminded him of Peter. Anyway, there's no reason to describe the dinner, only that everyone kept glaring at Remus, his mum was being way too helpful to not be annoying, and Tina and Brendan stared at each other the whole time. THE WHOLE TIME! It's scara.
As soon as he left, Tina and mum rounded on Remus and backed him into a corner until he felt that… feeling again. "Well?" They said simultaneously.
"Well what." He said to them, annoyed, and frightened. They growled and he sighed. "He was fine." They backed up, but still had the looming thing on him. "Can I go, to bed?" They nodded and he breezed past them and up the stairs to his and Tina's room. He changed in the bathroom and got in his bed quickly, falling asleep not five minutes later. He dreamt of something he thought couldn't possibly be right. James and Lily were getting along. In his dream, James and Lily were getting along! Something is definitely wrong. Worst part was he saw them kissing, really hot and heavy. He screamed like a five year old girl.
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