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Remus has always loved mountains. Immovable, stable, vast.
Sometimes he gets a little too caught up in his worries, he has never denied that. The last full moon was two weeks ago, which leaves the same amount of time until the next one. NEWTs are only a few months away, and he's dreading the arrival of the Daily Prophet more and more each morning. A muggle family was murdered yesterday. Worrying is justified, he thinks. The war is coming, or rather, it's already here. Their future after Hogwarts…
Remus closes his eyes, focusing on the tree bark pressing into his back, the distant chatter of students, still reaching him even here, next to the Great Lake. The wind gently ruffles his curly hair.
He opens his eyes. He looks at the dark clouds coming towards the castle over the mountains, promising a rainy night. After seven years at Hogwarts, he is used to the view, mostly. The forest, lake, and mountains have become ordinary, part of everyday life, seen through classroom windows and over Quidditch stands.
Still, Remus likes to admire the scenery once in a while. Lately, it seems like his thoughts are always sprinting through his head, too fast for him to catch, to slow down. Mountains make him feel small, insignificant. Gazing over the peaks in the distance, his head clears a bit, breaths come easier. The fears are still there, Remus suspects they will be there for years to come. The war is here, after all. But at least he doesn't feel like he's suffocating under the pressure of it all.
He hears footsteps on the wet grass. He would be embarrassed about how quickly he recognizes them as Sirius's, but then, love's nothing to be ashamed of, is it? The love that they share stems from familiarity, the intimacy of knowing the other boy better than they know themselves. Of course he knows Sirius by footsteps alone.
"Hey, love," Remus says, keeping his voice mellow, not wanting to disturb the peace that has settled over him.
"Hey, Moony! James was looking for you. Says he needs your expert opinion on a charm he's planning on using for a prank."
"I'm flattered."
He sits down next to Remus, leans his head on the boy's shoulder.
"Feeling better?" Sirius asks, tender concern in his voice.
"Yeah, just needed to get away from the castle for a bit. It's beautiful here, isn't it?"
Sirius nods and looks into the distance, admiring the landscape, letting the grandeur of it all soothe his mind too.
"I understand why you love the mountains. They make you feel small, but in a good way, if you know what I mean. Like there's a world outside of our worries. No matter what happens to us humans, the mountains will always be there."
And of course Remus knows what Sirius means. He wonders if that has ever not been the case. Sometimes he forgets there was ever a time before he could read Sirius by only looking at him. Sirius could probably speak only French to him and Remus would still get him, still see what he was trying to convey in his eyes, in his gestures, his tone of voice-
It's a love born out of familiarity, the love they share. It's hard to tell where one of them ends and the other begins. They have been at Hogwarts for seven years, and most of their time has been spent studying each other. So Remus just looks into Sirius's eyes.
"Let's get inside, yeah? I feel like there will be quite the storm tonight," he says as he gets up and takes Sirius's hand.
"Well, I hope it won't be raining tomorrow morning. If James makes us train in the rain again, I swear I'm leaving the team."
"As if you'd ever do something that improves Slytherins' chances at winning the Quidditch cup," Remus quips, a teasing grin on his lips, affection clear in his eyes.
Sirius tries to suppress a smile, "You can never know! I'm full of surprises, Moony."
"Sure, love," he says as they stroll down the path towards the castle, hands joined, staying as close to each other as possible. For warmth, obviously.
The lights of Hogwarts get brighter, the mountains stay behind them. Immovable, stable, vast.