Work Text:
Remus furrowed his eyebrows at the inky parchment that was sitting in his lap. He blinked twice before rubbing his tired eyes. Even though the crackle of the common room fire and the gentle warmth that radiated from it comforted him like a well-needed hug, it wasn’t helping his heavy eyes from staying open.
Studying for his N.E.W.T.s had proved to be almost twice as difficult as studying for his O.W.L.s. The sheer amount of work had the young werewolf feeling a bit shell shocked. He flicked endlessly through the extensive textbooks supplied by his teachers with a sympathetic smile, as if they were trying to apologise for the torture they were putting him through.
It didn’t help that his friends (bar Peter) were seeming to coast through their revision like it was nothing. Sirius and his infuriatingly natural giftedness had Remus wanting to smack his stupidly beautiful grin off of his especially smug face. Equally so, James had barely picked up a book and yet—seemed to maintain almost perfect marks.
Remus was relieved that he wasn’t alone in his thinking, as Lily had also griped about the purebloods' terribly inconvenient knack for school. “Typical isn’t it? You’d think with all that mucking around they’d at least fail one subject, but no! Stupid gits,” Lily had commented less than a week before at one of their library study sessions.
Remus decided to drop his quill and officially give up. He leant his head back on the back of the sofa and signed, allowing his eyes to droop shut, deciding that school was a joke and life was meaningless anyway…
“Remus! Moony, Moony-boy, wakey wakey eggs and bakey!” The posh voice of Sirius Black slapped Remus awake, startling him immensely. His eyes shot open and he was met with the infuriating grin of Sirius, who was looming over him, his face much too close for comfort.
“What the actual—”
“He awakes! How was your nap, oh sleepy one?” Sirius asked, sitting himself next to Remus gently, holding two comically big mugs topped with whipped cream and cinnamon dust. Remus looked hungrily at the drinks as his inner sweet tooth got increasingly excited.
“What is that?” He asked cautiously, sitting up, eyes trained on the mugs in Sirius’s hands. Sirius grinned victoriously and passed Remus the mug with the most cream. Remus gratefully took it, letting the warmth heat up his forever freezing hands.
“That, my furry friend, is called a pumpkin spice latte, created by the house elves for yours truly. They said that you would like it,” Sirius smiled and Remus shyly nodded, taking a sip and feeling the cream line his top lip.
Sirius giggled blissfully as Remus’s cheeks heated up, finally reaching the warm liquid. The house elves were indeed right—he loved the concoction, it was tangy and brilliant and it felt like autumn. It tasted like scarves and fallen leaves and darkened nights.
He pulled the mug away from his lips and wiped his mouth, sparing Sirius a rare but genuine smile as he met the expectant grey eyes of his best friend.
“It’s fucking brillant!” he exclaimed and Sirius whooped in reply.
“Right? Now that’ll wake you up so that you don’t blame me for letting you sleep. Now get to Defence,” Sirius said, shoving the textbook in Remus’s lap.
Remus rolled his eyes fondly and took another sip, feeling the weight of Sirius’s head on his shoulder, feeling that familiar pull at the bottom of his stomach. Maybe Sirius Black wasn’t such a prat afterall…
Maybe.