Words: 1186

Description: Remus has a sensory overload before the full moon.

Story:

It wouldn't be the first time Remus had a sensory overload. He wouldn't say they happened often, but there was always the possibility that his oversensitive werewolf senses would cause a sensory overload before the full moon. 

By this point, The other Marauders had become accustomed to making adjustments to their daily life around the full moon. They would hardly even half to think about it when they automatically quieted down, backed off the cologne, or gave Remus a little more space. 

Remus was fairly well versed in his triggers also. The overloads primarily only happened when the moon's pull was greater on Remus and it caused more pain and other moon symptoms. It was usually the smell that set everything else in motion. Once, in their third year, Sirius had set off a dung bomb in the common room and Remus had retched, running off to the dorm to throw up in their bathroom. 

He'd found himself rocking back and forth on the floor, the cold tiles seeping through his trousers as he buried his face in his arms, willing the overhead lights to turn off.

Sirius had had to get Lily to help Remus out of that one, as he had hurried after Remus to make sure he was okay to discover Remus in the midst of an overload. He'd gone to help but Remus shook his head, gagging again at the lingering stench of the bomb.

Another example was in their fifth year, shortly after Remus and Sirius started dating, James and Sirius threw a party in the common room and Remus sat on the stairs leading up to the boys' dorm for most of the night, rubbing his aching knees, the transformation the next night. 

The noise was one thing, and he found himself wincing and covering his ears. But what really got him was the smell. The common room reeked of many different perfumes and colognes, firewhiskey, butterbeer and sweat. 

Peter helped him up the stairs and sat with him on his bed until Sirius arrived to help Remus focus on his breathing.

The time in question, it was the Marauder's sixth year of Hogwarts and they had just arrived back to school from the Christmas holidays and the full moon was in two days time. It was a bad moon and the lot of them knew it. Remus was in more pain then he usually was and he had a constant, throbbing headache all through lessons. He had great big shadows under his eyes and his skin was pale and cold.

That night at dinner in the Great Hall, he couldn't bring himself to eat anything, as it made him sick to think about. He just sat at the table with his head resting on his arms and tried to breathe through his sweater sleeve. 

Sirius and James eyed him with concern and occasionally Sirius would nudge Remus and try to get him to eat something, but Remus would only shake his head and close his eyes.

As Remus lay with his head down, he was struggling to keep all of his thoughts separate. His heightened werewolf senses could be a blessing in some cases, but most often Remus just considered them a curse. The hall was too loud, he could hear every word of every conversation at the Gryffindor table, and lots of chattering from the Ravenclaw and some from the Hufflepuff table as well.

Being January, the sun had already set for the night and the almost full moon shone brightly from the enchanted ceiling and the many candles, though they were usually soothing, were quite irritating to Remus sensitive eyes.

Remus could feel the overload coming and he tried to calm himself down by rocking in his seat slightly, but all he could think about was that the chicken was seasoned a little heavy with garlic and the rolls were too sweet smelling and the butter was stronger than it should smell and the pumpkin juice was making him want to gag and...

"Moony? Let's take a walk, yeah?" It was Sirius. He was whispering, but he knew Remus could hear him. Remus could also hear his fingers tap tap tapping so softly on the wood table like great thumps that echoed through his head.

Remus lifted his head to see Sirius, James, Peter, and Lily all giving him concerned looks. He carefully disentangled himself from the bench and focused on putting one foot in front of the other as he and Sirius left the Great Hall with it's many aromas.

Remus was struggling to control his breathing on their way up the stairs and he stumbled on a step. He felt Sirius's gentle hand on his arm to steady him like a great shock and he yelped, swatting Sirius's hand away.

Sirius didn't seem put off, he hardly seem bothered, really. He understood that Remus just needed a quiet place to sort everything out and until he could, Sirius's touch would not be a benefit.

After entirely too long, Sirius was whispering the password to the Fat Lady and they were through the portrait whole and up the dormitory stairs. 

Sirius was quite used to what Remus needed during an episode and he made sure that Remus was sat as comfortably as possible on his bed and he shut the door and cast a silencio, turning off the lights as well. He draped Remus's heavy blanket over his shoulders which Remus pulled tight around himself, rocking back and forth with his shoulders bunched up around his ears and his fingers twitching on the edges of the blanket.

Sirius gave him a few more minutes before he took Remus into his arms, wrapping his arms around Remus in a strong, firm grip, rocking with him. Eventually, Remus had tired himself out and ended up falling asleep on Sirius's chest, little puffs of breath escaping his mouth as Sirius held him.

It was late when James and Pete returned to the dorm. They had stayed in the common room with Lily as long as they could stay awake, waiting Remus's sensory overload out from a distance. When they deemed it safe to go to bed, they crept as quietly as they could up to the dorm and got ready for bed in near silence.

Remus was too exhausted and sensitive to everything to go to classes the next day, so Sirius skipped with him and the two spent most of the day napping in the dorm, or else Sirius lay with his head in Remus's lap as a dog as the werewolf read a book in the dim lighting of the room. 

The full moon was a rough one as they had all suspected and Remus had a hard time recovering from the moon as well as the overload as everything seemed to smash together again in a rather violent way. 

But as Remus knew they must, everything balanced again like it always did and Remus was able to enjoy his life to the fullest quality he could, though there would always be the aches and pains that came with his infliction.

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