A/N: Prompt #12 - Night.

By all rights, they ought to hate the night.

It was night, after all, when the nightmares came.

Peter often had nightmares. Between the Games and daily life in the districts, there was a lot to be afraid of.

But he loved the stars. He loved their remote, burning glory. Nothing could touch them, not even the Capital. They were perfectly safe and perfectly wonderful.

Peter thought it might be nice to perfectly safe. Just for a while.

It was night when Sirius was forced to return home. Home had food, at least, except on the occasions that everyone, absolutely everyone, had to do without, but it also had his mother and, consequently, bruises that were hard to explain.

But at night all the cousins puts aside the day's pretensions and piled into one another's rooms, too weary to fight anymore. At night there was just one big, whispering pile that made up for the day's pinching words.

Sirius thought it was almost worth his mother to feel his cousins' love. To feel like a proper brother again.

It was night when James died, not that he knew that for most of his life.

But it was also night when he got to curl up by the fire and scribble out ideas for pranks, magic, and how to lend a helping hand, all shared equally with his friends. It was night when he sketched on scraps of scavenged paper. Night when his mind soared from idea to idea.

James thought incredible things were just waiting at night, and he was right. Harry was born on a hot night in July.

It was night when Lupin was bitten and night when he changed.

It was also night when he drank his wolfsbane potion, product of his friends toiling for hours to help him find the ingredients. It was night when they turned into animagi to help him. It was night when, before he became a victor, that he used Peter's spell to light Sirius's candle to read the book that James had sent, and, after he became a victor, that they left the lights on in the house to pour over and debate some theory together.

Lupin thought it was night that showed him the greatness of his friends. Tanks approved of the rare positivity.

They probably should have feared the dark, but they had long ago learned better.