Halloween Gift from Starfishstar
Author: starfishstar
Title: CHANGING SEASONS
Characters: Remus, Sirius (briefly also James, Lily and Peter)
Rating: G
Summary: The leaves are falling, the seasons are changing, and adult life is rushing towards them. But the Marauders will always find time for one last hurrah.
Notes: Thank you to rachelindeed for betareading!
Sirius kept pulling ahead of the rest of them on the cycle path, some excess of wild energy driving him forward. Much of that first morning, he was a smudge of colour up ahead, disappearing round a bend then reappearing further on. His dark hair and jacket stood out starkly against the muted russets and browns of the landscape and the steely blue of the surf that surged and retreated against the pebble beaches they rode alongside.
But as James and Lily and Peter dawdled and joked, Remus pedalled steadily and found himself gaining on Sirius. Sirius tossed Remus a grin when he saw him coming up behind. Sirius’ hair was a wind-tossed mess and he looked happier than Remus had seen him in ages, except perhaps at duelling practices for the Order.
“This is the best idea we’ve ever had,” Sirius declared, as Remus’ handlebars pulled level with his own, the path wide enough for the two of them to ride abreast.
“You didn’t even want to come on this trip!” Remus protested, laughing. The wide sky and crisp air were lifting his spirits too, reminding him to breathe.
Since they’d left Hogwarts in June, they’d subsumed themselves in learning to survive their new reality, as members of the Order of the Phoenix, in a war whose pace and fever pitch were ever increasing. Remus hadn’t realised how badly they all needed a break until James had suggested this trip. And now here they were on the Scottish coast, for once with no worries beyond where to stop for lunch.
“I haven’t the foggiest notion what you’re talking about, Moony,” Sirius said loftily. But he couldn’t keep a straight face at that for long. Soon both of them dissolved into giggles far more suited to schoolboys than to warriors.