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such_heights) wrote2006-10-18 12:18 am
such_heights) wrote2006-10-18 12:18 am
Scarves & Hats Day 15
Fire
Remus/Sirius
PG-13, 1200 words
Summary: From first to last, the fire burned.
Notes: Contains pictures, including the prompt itself.
Spark
Sirius puts another log on the fire they’ve made in the middle of their room – Peter is afraid for their curtains, James tells him not to worry – and sends sparks down into the wood. He sits back on his heel, smiling and satisfied as the fire begins to flicker upwards with a crackling noise that always makes him feel warm.
The fire is shooting sparks higher now, and Remus comes to stand behind them, watching the shapes as though they could tell him the secrets of the universe. Sirius watches until Remus looks up, eyes glowing strange in the red-blue-orange light, and so the fire burns.
Flame
Sirius is raging now, making most of Gryffindor House shrink away as he paces the common room, fuming at, well, just about everything really. Peter’s already scarpered, so it’s just James and Remus trying to make him cool down.
‘Doesn’t anyone realise there’s a fucking war about to kick off? People have already been murdered, and does Dumbledore give a shit?’ Sirius kicked a chair to emphasise his point.
‘Padfoot, please,’ James says, voice carefully coated in calm. ‘Of course Dumbledore cares, don’t be so stupid.’
‘And what the hell do you know about it, anyway?’ Sirius snaps in response.
James just widens his eyes at Remus, shakes his head and disappears up the stairs. Remus is sorely tempted to follow, but can’t quite shake off Sirius’ fiery gaze.
‘He just isn’t telling us, that’s all – come on, why would he?’ Remus’ hope that an appeal to reason will work is half-hearted.
‘Because I know, that’s why! Because I used to live with these bastards and I’ve heard things and I know how their minds work!’
‘And so do a lot of other people. We’ve got plenty of time to save the world – let’s just finish school first.’
‘It’s not good enough, Moony! We’re of age, we shouldn’t be pissing around in here any more!’ Sirius was, amazingly, reaching new heights of frustration.
Remus debates whether this is the moment to kiss him (something he’s been planning to do for some time), just to shut him the hell up, but then meets Sirius’ eyes and decides he doesn’t want to get punched.
Scorch
They stand in front of the bonfire, hands outstretched, and one of those Muggle parties the combined force of James & Lily badger them into attending from time to time. Apparently, this one commemorates a Muggle that tried to blow up the government a few hundred years ago. Sirius wholly approves of this.
‘Ow!’ he says, surprised. His cheeks are suddenly burning. He backs off, glaring at the fire. ‘Bloody Muggles,’ he mutters.
Remus laughs at him, so he switches the focus of his glare. ‘Yes, that’s it, mock me in my hour of need!’
Remus continued to smirk. ‘Sorry, sorry. I always said you should have taken Muggle Studies.’
Sirius raised an eyebrow to add to the impact of his undoubtedly ferocious glare. ‘Moony, nothing with ‘Studies’ in it could possibly constitute a proper subject.’
‘You snob,’ Remus answers affectionately.
Sirius ignores him, prodding delicately at his face. ‘I could be maimed for life. Then how would you feel?’
Remus snorts. ‘Probably be an improvement, anyway.’
Sirius tries to look sad and pitiful. Remus rolls his eyes, but steps forward a bit.
‘How about I kiss it better?’ he suggests.
Sirius considers this for a moment. ‘Yes, that would probably do nicely.’
‘You’re an idiot,’ Remus mutters.
‘I prefer the term “absent-minded genius”, actually.’
And then Remus is kissing him, and Sirius shuts up.
Burn
Five days after James & Lily die, and three hours after Black is sent to prison, Remus comes back to his house to find it burning to the ground. It wouldn’t take much to save the house itself, but Remus guesses that most of his possessions are gone, and so he just summons out anything that’s left. The most ridiculous things: a saucepan, a chair, a photo album (which he nearly sends back) and his trunk, which he sends everything into before leaving.
The fire eventually burns away, leaving haphazard mounds of ashes. They’ve been spelled into shapes, and form ‘TRAITOR’ in the dirt.
Remus leaves, and knows he’ll never go back again.
Ember
Sirius watches in delight as exotic people whose lives make sense dance around an open fire. They’ve humoured him, taken them into their lives, and so provided him with the best hiding place he could imagine – for the time being, at least. He’ll be on the move again soon.
The night draws in, and eventually the party dies away. Sirius continues to sit on the beach, staring out to sea, in a direction he thinks is home. A little girl who’s taken a shine to him approaches and sits next to him.
‘My mother says you are a wildman,’ she says with no preamble. ‘You travel through the world, and if we offer you shelter you will bring us good luck. Is that true?’
Sirius laughs. ‘I don’t know about good luck. I’ve been pretty unlucky, really, that’s why I’m so far away from home.’
She considers this carefully. ‘Is it lonely, to be this far away? My mother says it’s always cold where you come from, and you have to have fires just to keep you warm. I like fires, they’re pretty, but I’m warm enough already!’
‘It’s not cold all the time,’ Sirius corrects her, ‘just in winter – it starts getting a bit chilly this time of year, at home. And how could I be lonely, when I have your company?’
She giggles and falls into his lap, staring at the embers of the fire. ‘You’re silly. Why is that fire still burning?’
‘Fires can burn for days and days, if they don’t want to burn out,’ Sirius tells her. ‘If a fire really wants to, its embers can stay alight for a very long time. That fire doesn’t want to go out, you can tell – I bet if you put a log on it now it’d burst right up again. Want to try?’
There’s no reply. The little girl is fast asleep. Sirius sighs and pats her head before taking her back home. Her mother laughs when she sees them, and gently takes her daughter from his arms. She looks at Sirius and frowns.
‘You’re leaving us soon, aren’t you?’
‘I’m afraid so. I can’t stay anywhere very long.’
She nods thoughtfully. ‘Yes, I see. You’ll have no more places to run to, one day.’
‘Oh, madam, I plan on being home long before that,’ Sirius replies with a sudden smile.
Ashes
It’s a new moon. Remus roams the countryside where the four of them used to escape to, when school felt too small for them. The stars shine brightly overhead, and the frost glistens with their light. He finds a tree that they disappeared to once, losing James and Peter for just long enough for Sirius to do unspeakable things to him.
There’s a grey pile of logs under the tree now, remnants from this generation’s intrepid campers. Remus wonders who they are, what their names are. Scooping up some of the ashes from their makeshift fireplace, struck with a strange idea, he circles this old tree and leaves a trail of dust behind him, before throwing up in the remainder in some grand gesture he doesn’t really understand.
Suddenly aware of the cold, Remus makes his way home again, more at ease with the world. He leaves the ashes behind.
Remus/Sirius
PG-13, 1200 words
Summary: From first to last, the fire burned.
Notes: Contains pictures, including the prompt itself.
Spark
Sirius puts another log on the fire they’ve made in the middle of their room – Peter is afraid for their curtains, James tells him not to worry – and sends sparks down into the wood. He sits back on his heel, smiling and satisfied as the fire begins to flicker upwards with a crackling noise that always makes him feel warm.
The fire is shooting sparks higher now, and Remus comes to stand behind them, watching the shapes as though they could tell him the secrets of the universe. Sirius watches until Remus looks up, eyes glowing strange in the red-blue-orange light, and so the fire burns.
Flame
Sirius is raging now, making most of Gryffindor House shrink away as he paces the common room, fuming at, well, just about everything really. Peter’s already scarpered, so it’s just James and Remus trying to make him cool down.
‘Doesn’t anyone realise there’s a fucking war about to kick off? People have already been murdered, and does Dumbledore give a shit?’ Sirius kicked a chair to emphasise his point.
‘Padfoot, please,’ James says, voice carefully coated in calm. ‘Of course Dumbledore cares, don’t be so stupid.’
‘And what the hell do you know about it, anyway?’ Sirius snaps in response.
James just widens his eyes at Remus, shakes his head and disappears up the stairs. Remus is sorely tempted to follow, but can’t quite shake off Sirius’ fiery gaze.
‘He just isn’t telling us, that’s all – come on, why would he?’ Remus’ hope that an appeal to reason will work is half-hearted.
‘Because I know, that’s why! Because I used to live with these bastards and I’ve heard things and I know how their minds work!’
‘And so do a lot of other people. We’ve got plenty of time to save the world – let’s just finish school first.’
‘It’s not good enough, Moony! We’re of age, we shouldn’t be pissing around in here any more!’ Sirius was, amazingly, reaching new heights of frustration.
Remus debates whether this is the moment to kiss him (something he’s been planning to do for some time), just to shut him the hell up, but then meets Sirius’ eyes and decides he doesn’t want to get punched.
Scorch
They stand in front of the bonfire, hands outstretched, and one of those Muggle parties the combined force of James & Lily badger them into attending from time to time. Apparently, this one commemorates a Muggle that tried to blow up the government a few hundred years ago. Sirius wholly approves of this.
‘Ow!’ he says, surprised. His cheeks are suddenly burning. He backs off, glaring at the fire. ‘Bloody Muggles,’ he mutters.
Remus laughs at him, so he switches the focus of his glare. ‘Yes, that’s it, mock me in my hour of need!’
Remus continued to smirk. ‘Sorry, sorry. I always said you should have taken Muggle Studies.’
Sirius raised an eyebrow to add to the impact of his undoubtedly ferocious glare. ‘Moony, nothing with ‘Studies’ in it could possibly constitute a proper subject.’
‘You snob,’ Remus answers affectionately.
Sirius ignores him, prodding delicately at his face. ‘I could be maimed for life. Then how would you feel?’
Remus snorts. ‘Probably be an improvement, anyway.’
Sirius tries to look sad and pitiful. Remus rolls his eyes, but steps forward a bit.
‘How about I kiss it better?’ he suggests.
Sirius considers this for a moment. ‘Yes, that would probably do nicely.’
‘You’re an idiot,’ Remus mutters.
‘I prefer the term “absent-minded genius”, actually.’
And then Remus is kissing him, and Sirius shuts up.
Burn
Five days after James & Lily die, and three hours after Black is sent to prison, Remus comes back to his house to find it burning to the ground. It wouldn’t take much to save the house itself, but Remus guesses that most of his possessions are gone, and so he just summons out anything that’s left. The most ridiculous things: a saucepan, a chair, a photo album (which he nearly sends back) and his trunk, which he sends everything into before leaving.
The fire eventually burns away, leaving haphazard mounds of ashes. They’ve been spelled into shapes, and form ‘TRAITOR’ in the dirt.
Remus leaves, and knows he’ll never go back again.
Ember
Sirius watches in delight as exotic people whose lives make sense dance around an open fire. They’ve humoured him, taken them into their lives, and so provided him with the best hiding place he could imagine – for the time being, at least. He’ll be on the move again soon.
The night draws in, and eventually the party dies away. Sirius continues to sit on the beach, staring out to sea, in a direction he thinks is home. A little girl who’s taken a shine to him approaches and sits next to him.
‘My mother says you are a wildman,’ she says with no preamble. ‘You travel through the world, and if we offer you shelter you will bring us good luck. Is that true?’
Sirius laughs. ‘I don’t know about good luck. I’ve been pretty unlucky, really, that’s why I’m so far away from home.’
She considers this carefully. ‘Is it lonely, to be this far away? My mother says it’s always cold where you come from, and you have to have fires just to keep you warm. I like fires, they’re pretty, but I’m warm enough already!’
‘It’s not cold all the time,’ Sirius corrects her, ‘just in winter – it starts getting a bit chilly this time of year, at home. And how could I be lonely, when I have your company?’
She giggles and falls into his lap, staring at the embers of the fire. ‘You’re silly. Why is that fire still burning?’
‘Fires can burn for days and days, if they don’t want to burn out,’ Sirius tells her. ‘If a fire really wants to, its embers can stay alight for a very long time. That fire doesn’t want to go out, you can tell – I bet if you put a log on it now it’d burst right up again. Want to try?’
There’s no reply. The little girl is fast asleep. Sirius sighs and pats her head before taking her back home. Her mother laughs when she sees them, and gently takes her daughter from his arms. She looks at Sirius and frowns.
‘You’re leaving us soon, aren’t you?’
‘I’m afraid so. I can’t stay anywhere very long.’
She nods thoughtfully. ‘Yes, I see. You’ll have no more places to run to, one day.’
‘Oh, madam, I plan on being home long before that,’ Sirius replies with a sudden smile.
Ashes
It’s a new moon. Remus roams the countryside where the four of them used to escape to, when school felt too small for them. The stars shine brightly overhead, and the frost glistens with their light. He finds a tree that they disappeared to once, losing James and Peter for just long enough for Sirius to do unspeakable things to him.
There’s a grey pile of logs under the tree now, remnants from this generation’s intrepid campers. Remus wonders who they are, what their names are. Scooping up some of the ashes from their makeshift fireplace, struck with a strange idea, he circles this old tree and leaves a trail of dust behind him, before throwing up in the remainder in some grand gesture he doesn’t really understand.
Suddenly aware of the cold, Remus makes his way home again, more at ease with the world. He leaves the ashes behind.
no subject
Aw, such an excellent line!
Very nice! I like how you worked with the prompt.
no subject