[x] Moonlit Nightmares [x] Hogwarts Past [x] Literate

[minteh]

Sirius' expression shifted again. He frowned angrily, but he leaned back a little and removed his grip.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He hissed. "Look, I'm sorry! I won't ask again!" His eyes grew wide, and both of his eyebrows shot skyward. "I- just-"

Sirius inhaled sharply. He'd never seen James react this way before. "Can't you just tell me what's the matter?"

[Ryu_Yin]

"No." His voice seemed ragged as he slumped into the furniture. "If I did..." He sighed, looking away.

"Let's just say, it wouldn't be pretty."

[minteh]

Sirius frowned.

"James, you're my best friend. You're like my brother. You can tell me anything, I swear. I mean you're like family to me..." Sirius affirmed, quite tempted to grasp James' hands in his own. Upon rememberance of James' recent outburst, however, Sirius decided against this, and settled for looking extremely concerned.

[Ryu_Yin]

"That's nonsense." He hissed, without looking at the dark-haired student. "There are a lot of things I can't tell you, and this is at the top of the list."

[minteh]

"Oh really?" Sirius demanded, his voice rising. "A whole lot of things, eh?"

Suddenly Sirius stood and his expression immediately darkened. "A whole lot of things?" He repeated. He attempted to keep the anger from his voice, but his voice rose anyway, and his eyes flashed with anger.

"For your information, James, I tell you everything. Everything. No secrets, remember? Or is that yet another thing you haven't told me? Did that bond mean nothing to you? The four of us promised, James! So don't give me any crap about not being able to tell me anything. We. Promised."

And with that. Sirius turned and swept wordlessly from the room and up the grand staircase, his mind reeling. When he reached their dormitory he threw open the door and slammed it behing him, causing Peter to all but pee himself with fright. He threw himself onto the bed furiously and glared at the scarlet canopy of his four-poster.

"I- oh. What- what's- what h- happe-" Peter stammered, picking himself off the floor.

"Shove off, Pettigrew." Sirius snapped irritably. It was rare that he called Peter by his last name, and he winced slightly at his sharpness. He turned to apologize, but just then he heard the door shut quietly and Peter was gone.

Great. Now Peter, his best friend besides James, was also angry with him. Just what he needed right now. And now he was alone. Again.

[Hwii]

Remus opened the door to his room. He had brought back Siri's chess set. Billy had been a nice opponent although he had yet to achieve the calculative skills Remus posessed in Chess. He hummed as he opened the door only to see Sirius right on the bed.

"Siri?" he called and mentally slapped himself. He had not meant to call his friend that. Remus pushed it aside quickly with another question.

"Are you all right, Padfoot?"

It hurt him deeply to see any of his friends, or anyone at all for that matter, sad. This was especially true for Sirius. He was the one that had started the 'Let's-become-animagi-to-keep-Remus-company' thing.

[minteh]

Lupin.

Sirius did an internal double-take. Lupin was the only one not angry with him, but he didn't want to talk to Lupin. Not now. He just didn't trust Lupin.

And Siri? What was that for?

"G'way Moony..." Sirius muttered, trying to sound more tired than upset. "It's nothing..."

But inside, Sirius was a swirling, rolling mess. Had James been looking at him they way he thought he'd been looking at him? It was impossible. He'd only seen James look at Lily that way. It was a look of... what?

Admiration? Lust? Love?

Well, Sirius reasoned, James and I are like brothers. Of course he loves me.

He just didn't know. Shaking his head, Sirius sat up and turned toward the doorway, where Remus still stood. "Where'd Peter go?" He sighed, dragging himself to his feet. He should probably go make things right with Peter before he did anything else.

[Ryu_Yin]

James stared at the spot where Sirius had been a second before, fingers digging so hard into the canvas. With a click of his jaw, he stood and stalked out of the common room, moving all along the staircases, past the Great Hall and out the castle door. Once he was outside, he began to run, jaw yet clamped shut, so hard his teeth hurt.

He ran hard towards the dark forest. He didn't care if it was forbidden. He didn't care! At least no one would bother him.

He kept going until he could no longer make out the smoke rising from Hagrid's cabin, until he could no longer make out the castle through the gaps in the trees.

He dropped to the floor, and just screamed.

He screamed until his throat was raw, feeling as though he would explode, feeling as though he was worthless, feeling as though...

He collapsed inot the dirt a sobbing mess, ignoring the angry trampling of the disturbed centaurs, and the soft touch of a worried unicorn.

He didn't care.

[minteh]

ooc: I'm going to rewind a bit, because your post must have covered atleast half an hour worth of time. So uh... just don't post Jamesy for a bit. There's always your other charries though.

Oh yeah- I'm gonna fill in as Peter too.

Regulus raised an eyebrow as Potter rushed out of the Great Hall, having nearly been run over in the process. He frowned slightly and quickly straightened his robes where they'd been ruffled in his attempt to get out of Potter's way. His eyebrows furrowed contemplatively for a moment, but his mind was soon drawn away from Potter, for just then he caught a flash of red, and a body ran smack into him.

Damn, Regulus thought, distangling himself furiously as he attempted to scramble back to his feet (in what he hoped was a dignified manner). What is up with Gryffindor today?

"S- sor- I'm- oooh! I'm so sorry!" The pale, skinny, red-clad fifth year babbled. He quickly scooped up Regulus' wand and handed it back to him, scrambling to his feet as well. "You alright?" The boy asked curiously, catching Regulus' dark eyes with his own pale ones.

"I'm fine, thank you very much." Regulus snapped, snatching his wand and stowing it away. His eyes narrowed and grew cold and hard. Pettigrew, Regulus almost spat. Wasn't this one of Sirius' best friends?

"Really? Yeh... that's good..." The mousy-haired boy trailed, shifting uncomfortably. He made no motion to leave however, and stood in silence for several moments with his hands in his pockets, eyes diverted to the cold stone floor below.

Regulus glared. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Not really. Sirius just kind of kicked me out of our dormitory. He's in one of his moods- again." Peter sighed.

Regulus laughed, and the memories rushed back to him. "Yes, I remember. We shared a room up until he left two months ago. Believe me, I've been there, and-" Regulus stopped. Wait a moment. Why in the world was he talking to Pettigrew? What was he thinking?

It was as if both boys had just remembered what opposite worlds they came from. Regulus was a pureblooded Slytherin, lapdog to Lucius Malfoy, and ally to Severus Snape, when it was convenient for him. And Peter? Peter was a half-blood Gryffindor with a Muggleborn wizard for a father, lapdog to Sirius Black, blood traitor, and James Potter, spawn of a line of Muggle-lovers. Very different worlds indeed.

"Right." Peter answered nervously. Suddenly both boys were uncomfortable, and he quickly muttered, "I have to go.. er.. yeah. I'll uh.. I'll talk to you later then..." And with that, Peter strode past Regulus and out of the Great Hall, heading straight for what he alone knew to be James' favorite spot to sulk, cry, or just plain blast things apart. He'd been with him there before. And to be honest? Right now, he felt rather like sulking himself.

[Hwii]

Somehow Remus was actually thankful that Sirius had been in a bad mood. He put the chess set away right back into that square under the bed where the dust didn't gather. He had a knack for returning things to their proper place...perfectionism. Although Remus was a bit saddened that Sirius only regarded him as the normal friend he could settle for that. Remus hardly could be regarded as even normal on a certain day of each month. He learned to settle for things that way.

Sighing softly he opted to enjoy the unusually empty room and plopped himself onto the bed. He had a book from the library to finish and no Sirius Black was ever going to distract him from that. He just didn't admit that Sirius's fickle nature could really hurt him some days...and it was just one of those days.

Remus fell asleep within a few minutes and the book still in his hands was opened to the first page. How ironic that Sirius had distracted him even when it came to books...it would seem that Remus had been defeated. The book soon fell from his hands and he turned to his side getting much needed sleep. Remus only subconciously hoped that Sirius wouldn't be in his dreams.

[Trudant]

ooc: ::Sorry I haven't been on, my home computer is busted and I had the flu so I couldn't use my work computer, but absolute great work to all of you, I feel honored to have the chance to RP with you all::

Lilly sat pleasantly at the Gryffindor tabel, letting out occasional giggles as she listened to Alice tell a recent story of happening with Frank. She smiled sweetly as she sipped her pumpkin juice and let her gaze wander the Great Hall, and to her surprise Potter and Black were no where in sight, she laughed to herself as she looked to Alice.

"Really, I don't understand those two, you think of what they could manage if they used their brains for something useful, rather then shannigans to cause a weak laugh." She fingered her Willow wand slightly, "Something like charms." Lily went to take another sip when Alice made a swooning face in mockery of James, before she she knew it, Lily was spewing pumpkin juice from her nose and quickly grabbed a napkin trying to control her laughter.

[Hwii]

Sleep was one of the few things that continued to evade Remus. He could never quite completely fall asleep, and thus so, never did. Currently he was lying on his bed wondering why the hell he had fallen asleep...and why the hell he had to wake up. Sighing softly he got up again and tried to finish his book all at the same time knowing that he had lost interest. He knew that he was somehow worried for Sirius...the one person that had been his closest friend still didn't trust him. He had put in the idea to help him...but Remus always knew that no one really trusted him. It was a strange inevitable thing that he always knew would happen from the very moment he came out of the Whooping Willow and had seen James, Sirius, and Peter gathered around him with worried, confused, and scared expressions on their face.

It wasn't like Remus would ever blame them or anything. Compared to a lot of people he had known in the past their reactions were beyond decent -beyond anything that he could have ever hoped for, and Remus was thankful.

He still chose to acknowledge that it hurt him but skirted the detail day by day and night by night. Life was too short for details.

Remus sat up and put the book on his nightstand with a pair of reading glasses that sometimes he wore...and other times he didn't. He wanted so badly to know why both Sirius and James were both gone. His pessimistic side told him that they might be off somewhere having a grand old time without him, but Remus was actually worried if anything was wrong. He constantly cared for the wellbeing of others. Lily had once stopped him in the halls to call him one of 'them' and stared strangely at him when he didn't answer with anything sarcastic or defensive, he hadn't answered at all.

Remus dropped himself onto the bed again and lay there just thinking, back and forth and back and forth. He thought about crying and whether or not he'd by making a mountain of a molehill by doing that. He finally concluded that he would and decided to head down to the Great Hall and drown his misery by talking to some Ravenclaw and pretending he was having fun by being intellectual. It was just another cover of many.

[minteh]

Sirius pushed the Fat Lady's portrait back into it's place on the wall, and brushing a few strands of hair from his eyes, he made his way through corridors and down the stairs. He wasn't quite sure exactly where he was headed, but he figured that Peter might've headed outdoors. To visit Hagrid, perhaps?

Sirius reached the bottom of the stairs to then Entrance Hall and froze for a moment. The Hall was filled with students of all houses and years, but the only one that really caught his attention was the fourth-year Slytherin skulking in front of the great oak doors before him-- the very doors he needed to pass through to find Peter.

Sirius' eyebrows narrowed and he thrust his wand arm deep into his robes, pulling forth from them his wand, clenched tightly between his fingers. Swaggering slightly, he made his way across the crowded hall, stopping a few metres short of where his younger brother stood, arms folded across his chest, a slight smirk playing at his lips.

Regulus leaned casually against the doors and locked his eyes with those of his older brother. "Sirius..." He hissed, running his thumb along the surface of his wand, which was also clenched between tensed fingers.

"Get out of the way." Sirius snarled, giving Regulus' shoulder a rough shove away from the doors.

Regulus jerked away, his eyes cold, hard, and suddenly quite empty. "No." He replied, sounding surpringly stoic. His smirk broadened. "Watch yourself, dear brother. There are professors in this hall, and I shudder to think what the consequences of you and I getting into a fight right now might be." Regulus paused. "Although I daresay Mother would be delighted for an excuse to send you another howler, especially after I tell whichever professor catches us about how you attacked me unprovoked, and how all I was doing was defending myself... Come now, Sirius, who do you suppose they would believe?"

Sirius growled, his eyes flashing malice at his younger sibling. "Shut up you bloody little b*****d- and- I- said- MOVE!"

With each word, Sirius pulled Regulus away from the door and shoved him roughly to the floor as he flung the great oak doors open, allowing them to slam loudly behind him. With that, he strode away toward Hagrid's cabin, utterly lipid and seething with rage.

Regulus merely scowled and picked himself up off of the ground, muttering furiously about how mother was most certainly going to hear about this. Ignoring those around him who were staring, or worse, laughing at him, Regulus turned his nose to the ceiling and strode toward the dungeons in what he thought was the most dignified manner he could muster, under the circumstances. As soon as he had passed through the threshold into the dungeons, he quickly put on a burst of speed, sprinting all the way into his common room and dropping lifelessly into the nearest armchair.

He rubbed his temples with his fingertips and groaned, his eyes shut tightly. Sirius was going to pay for that one...

[minteh]

A gentle hand patted James' shoulder lightly, and their was a small flurry of dirt as the figure settled in the dust beside him.

"James-s?" Peter questioned, his voice trembling slightly. He brushed aside a few pieces of dark, messy hair and placed his hand on James' head. "What happened?"

ooc: short, i know, but I'll continue when I receive a reply.

[Ryu_Yin]

|| Yeah, yeah, I love you too. Ha, I've gone back to normal! ...mostly *gloom gloom* ||

"Nothing," He shrugged as though it were true, though his heavy, gruff tone betrayed him. "Nothing of importance, as usual."

He shuddered slightly at the thought of the angry, hurt flash he'd caught in his best friend (and fantasy)'s dark eyes previous, own orbs veilling as he sighed. "I'm not sure what to do. I keep over-complicating things."

It was true that he and Sirius tended to tease Peter, or even make fun of him, in public; that didn't mean, however, that they did not trust him almost as they trusted each other.

Truth be told, Peter was like a brother to him, except more goodnatured and less likely to scream if insulted.

He sighed and gave the small-build boy a quick smile. "Why're you here?"