Hollyhocks
Sirius Black desperately needed something to do. At the moment, he was watching his bottle of whiskey glow dully in the light of the over cast day on the back porch of Grimmauld Place instead of doing a hundred thousand other things that would be useful to the Order, prevented by his status as a fugitive. He hadn't really hit the bottle yet, but he imagined he would soon enough-always seemed to work for his dad; can't deal with it, so get drunk.
The logical part of his brain was debating the intelligence of that course of action when he noticed a hollyhock peeking out of a pyramid of feral ivy. The petals waved like silk in the breeze and Sirius shook his head. They were his mother's favorite flower, and for that alone he should rip the damn plant out of the ground. He glared at the flower, and settled back down, sprawled over the swing bench.
He could remember a time when he had liked them, too. He had been five years old, and he and Regulus had been sitting on either side of his mother (back when she was "Mum" and not "Mother") on this very swing bench while she read to them.
"There once was a wizard named Polnus Bloodsworthe, who found himself lost in an unfamiliar world, filled with weak figures who zoomed along in rattling black death traps, playing at being wizards with their speed..." Walburga recounted, adjusting the book's position in her hands to accommodate her boys. Sirius, at five, was getting a bit big to cuddle up to his mum like this, but three year-old Regulus wasn't, so she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. She looked up and noticed, in the summer sun, that her favorite flower was blooming. With a smile, she put down the book on the other side of Sirius and said, "Let's go in the garden for a minute. I want to show you something!"
"Ok!" They chorused and were off the swing and on the grass before she had even stood up all the way.
"What're you going to show us, Mum?" Sirius asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Yeah! I wanna know!" Regulus added, wide eyed and excited.
Walburga smiled and shook her head. "I'll let your grammar slide this time, boys, but do enunciate your words properly next time, ok?"
"All right," Sirius said with a nod and a huge smile. "I will."
"Me, too!" added Regulus. "Promise!"
"Thank you, boys," she smiled at them. "Come," she said and took each child by the hand. Walburga lead them across the green, green grass, over to the towering wall of hollyhocks. Alectrona Malfoy was insanely jealous of her flowers, especially her black hollyhocks. They were rare and they were Walburga's favorite flower. Needless to say, she didn't share the seeds. In the bright July daylight, they shone, glimmering in the summer sun. "These, my sons, are black hollyhocks. Aren't they pretty?"
"Yes, Mum!" the boys chorused again.
"Mum, why are they called 'black hollyhocks' if they're red?" Sirius asked, examining the petals in the sunlight with childish earnesty.
"Because they're such a dark red that they look nearly black most of the time," Walburga explained. "You're seeing them with light coming through the petals, so they look more red to you. But if you move over here-" she gently maneuvered Sirius around so the sun did not shine through the petals, "-they look black, don't they?"
Sirius nodded skeptically. "I guess."
Sirius snorted inelegantly. The damn flowers were red and no amount of insisting they were black would make them so. They looked like old, wet blood wet in the sunlight. They looked like maroon velvet in the shade. Never did they black.
He shook his head, debating whether he should rip the lone visible stalk out or just leave the thing to suffocate under the ivy.
"Ah! There you are! I've been looking all over the house for you, and here you are out in the porch." Remus Lupin appeared on the edge of his vision and tugged the bottle out of his hands. Sirius grunted and made a possessive grab for it, but Remus still managed to take a swig. When Sirius growled, unwilling to talk, Remus chuckled. "Relax, Pads, relax. I'm not going to steal the whole bottle. Just a sip."
He picked up Sirius's feet and used them to lift his legs up enough to allow himself to slide in under them and, once he had settled, he draped Sirius's legs across his lap and returned the bottle. "Looks like it might storm," he said, examining the livid-bruise sky.
"Might," Sirius grunted disinterestedly.
Remus looked down at him and frowned. The man was an expert at maneuvering, Sirius decided, as he managed to kiss Sirius without discomforting them both with the movements. He was also interestingly flexible. Sirius smiled and sat up to retrieve Remus's lips. "I love you," he murmured against the other man's mouth and felt him smile.
"I love you, too, Sirius," he murmured back, pulling away slightly. With a flick of his wand, locking charms went on all the doors and windows on the back of the first floor and every pane of glass clouded over. He kissed Sirius again. "I love you."