Rating: M
Genre: Angst, Romance
Relationships: Sirius/Remus, James/Lily
Warnings: Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1/?
Word Count: 3,077
Summary: NEWTs are hard enough already without the drama of being sixteen. But between break-ups and make-ups and an impending war, the future written in the stars looks pretty damn bleak.
Honestly, they’re all just trying to survive.
It starts slowly and ends suddenly.
The day before the incident, Remus laughs. He laughs like the moon-ache isn’t in his bones, like his joints don’t creak, like the hunger isn’t creeping up within him, ready to strike.
He smiles and he jokes and he threatens to turn James’s hair pink if you don’t get that Snitch out of my face, I swear to Merlin, Prongs!
The day before the incident, everything is fine. They are sixteen and on top of the world. Remus has friends, good grades, and a life he can be proud of despite everything.
There is a war, yes, but it is distant, and young boys are invincible.
We’re not young, James insists. After all, they’re practically seventeen.
“We’re old enough to fuck, to fight—“
“To die,” intones Sirius, with the same sulking bitterness he’s had since he ran away from home over the summer. He pretends it doesn’t bother him that his mum blasted him off the family tree, but Remus knows better. He sees the storm brewing behind his grey eyes when he thinks no one’s watching.
“We’re not going to—ARGGH!”
Peter’s well-timed Gobstones attack strikes James right between the eyes. Sirius’s lips twitch, and the cloud passes, leaving only twinkling stars in its wake.