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The Mathematics


“SIRIUS… GET THE BLOODY HELL DOWN FROM THERE… NOW!” Remus’s voice echoed through the dark trees ahead of them as James and Peter came up to the rail tracks. They’d just sprinted almost a mile through the woods, nearly entirely uphill, very nearly getting lost as Remus’s wand light had faded in and out of view ahead of them. Sirius and Remus were much more adept at moving through the forest - more agile and knowledgeable of how the trees worked, being dogs and all. Plus, James, who probably could’ve kept up on his own, was trying to make sure Peter made it all the way up the hill as he kept pausing and wheezing and was practically in tears now as they were approaching the top.

Sirius’s manic laughter filled the woods.

“GET DOWN.” Remus was not messing about, his voice was angry.

James left Peter behind now that they could clearly see where they were going, knowing he couldn’t possibly get lost from this point, and much more worried about what what going on ahead of him. He came to a jogging stop at the edge of the cliff where the train rails crossed onto the bridge. Each rail tie had a gap nearly 15 centimeters apart. Through the gaps, James could see clear down to the black lake water, easily 20 meters below. His stomach churned. And then he looked up and it lurched.

Sirius had climbed up onto one of the metal rails of the bridge, balancing on the handle, his arms spread out, one palm splayed on a tall granite column, the only thing helping keep him up besides the hook of the heel of his boots on the metal. Remus was picking his way carefully over the rail ties, hopping the 15 centimeters and looking quite sick about it. “You idiot,” Remus said, reaching up and grabbing onto Sirius’s ankle. “You bloody idiot.

Sirius rolled his eyes and glanced down at Remus’s hand on his ankle. Even the momentary loss in focus caused him to lose his balance a bit, though, and he wobbled dangerously, making James jump a couple of the rail ties forward, though running forward would’ve done no use in catching Sirius anyway at that point - instinct had kicked in. Sirius let out a long hoot as he regained his balance, by flapping his arms and smooshing his palm against the column harder. “WHOOO!” he shouted.

Peter had come up behind at last, and he let out a squeak and stopped dead at the edge of the bridge. “Merlin! Oh Merlin’s beard. I’m afraid of heights.” He clutched the column at the edge of the bridge, staring over at them as James hopped his way to grab onto Sirius’s other ankle, standing opposite Remus, whose eyes were very wide.

“You’re afraid of everything, Pettigrew,” Sirius admonished him. “You ought to come out here, climb up this ruddy railing and FEEL WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE ALIVE! IT’S A RUSH, PETER! LOOK AT THAT WORLD! LOOK AT IT! IT’S ALL OURS! ALL OF IT! I FEEL LIKE I COULD FLY!”

“You could fall is more like!” Remus shouted.

“Yeah,” agreed Peter, “Get down before you feel what it’s like to be dead.”

Sirius laughed again. “That’s the funniest thing you’ve ever said, Peter.” He grinned, his eyes sparkling.

“Have you been drinking again?” James asked.

“No,” Sirius said, “I’m just having fun. You lot are too worried about it! It’s water what’s below me - a whole lake full of water. Even if I fall, I’m only falling onto water!”

Remus’s voice was quite exasperated as he shouted, “Blimey, you really are an idiot! Don’t you know the mathematics of what you’re doing?”

“Mathematics?” Sirius chortled, “I’m jumping off a bloody bridge, Rey, there’s no mathematics involved.”

Remus’s voice trembled with anger, annoyance, and nervousness. “There is, though. Sirius, you’re jumping what looks to be about twenty meters, possibly more. You jump that far up and you’re going to hit that water going about 80 kilometers an hour, give or take… You hit that belly-down, you’re dead as if you hit concrete. You take it vertically, feet first, and you shoot straight to the bottom of the lake and drown before you can reverse the speed to get back to the surface! That’s assuming the lake is deep enough - it’s got to be like 15 meters deep or you’ll shatter every bone in your stupid body hitting the bottom.” He stared up at Sirius with very, very worried eyes, “SO AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE IS QUITE A LOT OF MATHEMATICS INVOLVED ACTUALLY.”

Peter murmured, “Remus is the smartest of all of us, Sirius, you ought to listen to him.”

“Yeah, c’mon, don’t be a doffer,” James urged him.

Sirius looked down over the water and the trees and he sighed, disappointed that his idea wasn’t going to work. He shook his head, “Alright, fine.” And he turned about to jump back down to the rail ties and had nearly done it when his boot heel caught on the rail and he slipped backwards, tumbling backwards, his arms spinning.

“SIRIUS!” James leaped up and grabbed at the ankle that had just slipped out of his grasp, having relaxed the grip to let his mate turn about. Remus had managed to hold on longer, his hand clutching the denim on Sirius’s ankle, but it fell from his grasp and he was clutching empty air as Sirius let out a yelp of surprise… and tumbled toward the water, kicking his legs as he went.

“No, no, no,” Remus cried, and he hurriedly reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. He yanked the wand out of the pocket, James already running back off the bridge, thinking he was going to rush down to the water to go swim to try and save Sirius before he could down once he made it into the water. Remus pulled himself up onto the first rung of the rail and leaned over so his belly was bent in half and he aimed the wand, “ARRESTO MOMENTUM!” he cried out desperately.

The spell shot through the sky, the sparks lighting up the dark as they fell after Sirius.

Remus closed his eyes. He couldn’t look. He didn’t want to see the impact if his spell didn’t work. Didn’t want to see Sirius get blasted to a bag of skin containing the shattered bits of what used to be his mate. He held his breath.

James and Peter were tripping and sliding down the hillside along the line of trees, skidding on the loose rock and dirt to the water’s edge, and they watched, as the spell caught up to Sirius only just in time, stopping him falling only a few centimeters from the water’s surface, upside down so that he would have struck the water on the broad of his back had he actually hit it. He hung there, suspended just above it, a terrified look on his face.

James let out a whooping cry of excitement and punched the air with relief.

It was that sound that made Remus breathe again. He turned and looked down and saw Sirius hovering just above the water.

“YEAAAHH MOONY! THAT WAS FANTASTIC! BLOODY HELL! WE OUGHT TO GIVE THAT ANOTHER GOOOO!!” Sirius shouted, “OI YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE RUSH!!!!”

“You bloody idiot!” Remus gasped, and just for giving him a minor heart attack, he waved his wand, releasing the spell, and Sirius gently dropped the remaining centimeters into the water, disappearing under the black surface, only to pop back up a moment later, his hair spraying water all over as he shook it out.

“Good thing I didn’t jump!” he called, “There’s a load of rocks right here!” He stood up on them and the water only came to his knees. “Would’ve been a pancake, I would’ve. Blimey, I should listen to you more often, Moony!”

Remus closed his eyes and shook his head.

“That’s what I’ve said all along,” he muttered, then he gingerly picked his way back across the rail ties to the edge of the precipice to catch up to James and Peter, who were just now reaching the bottom of the hill, laughing with the release of nervous energy.

“YOU’VE REALLY GOT TO GIVE IT A GO!” Sirius was shouting, “IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!”