FIC: Once in a Blue Moon - Ch 62 (WIP)
Start of the story, including full ratings, warnings, pairings etc. Here
Summary for the new readers watching my journal: An AU Remus/Sirius story set in a world where an eleven year old werewolf named Remus Lupin never got his Hogwarts invitation, and where Sirius Black was not accepted by the rest of the Gryffindors. The two outcasts form a friendship despite overwhelming odds, but will their friendship survive when Sirius finds himself falling in love with his best friend...his friend who wants nothing more than to be 'normal', despite the passion he feels for the heir to the Noble House of Black.
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise. J K Rowling retains all copyright.
Like a Dream (PG15)
“Sirius, what’s wrong?” Remus asked cautiously as he lay with his head on his lover’s shoulder, dreamily tracing the symbol of infinity on Sirius’s chest. He didn’t really want to ruin the moment, but he suspected that for Sirius the moment had already passed. He knew that there were a lot of things they still had to talk about, but he wanted to hold onto the blissfulness just a little while longer. The only thing stopping him from enjoying the moment, was the certainty that Sirius wasn’t.
“Nothing,” Sirius replied, just a shade too quickly.
“You’re lying,” accused Remus as he sat up and frowned down at the other man. “Did I hurt you? Is that it?”
“A little,” Sirius admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I regret letting you top for a change.”
“I’m sorry,” whispered Remus before planting a soft kiss on Sirius’s lips.
“I hate to start sounding like your brother, but would you please stop apologising all the time?” Sirius asked as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind Remus’s ear. “I forgive you, for everything. How could I not, when I love you so much?”
Remus settled back down resting his head on Sirius’s chest. Unfortunately he could still feel the tension in the other man, and a minute later he sat up again to get a better look at Sirius’s face. “There’s something else, isn’t there?” he asked.
“It’s nothing, really,” Sirius repeated as he sat up and swung around so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to Remus.
“You think I’m going to change my mind, don’t you?” Remus guessed.
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Sirius pointed out with a lingering trace of bitterness amongst the obvious fear.
“I’m here, for good,” Remus told him as he wrapped his arms around his lover’s waist and laid his head against his back.
“It’s just going to take some time for me to believe that,” Sirius replied as he patted Remus’s hands. “I’ve dreamed about you for so long that today seems a bit unreal. I keep thinking that any minute now I’m going to wake up. It’s just going to take a bit of time.”
Remus felt a twinge of guilt over all the times he’d pushed Sirius away over the last couple of years, and suddenly one of their discussions sprang to mind and he knew what he had to do. “Come on Sirius, get up, we’re going out.”
“Where to?” Sirius asked curiously, though he didn’t stand up or reach for his clothes.
“Not far,” Remus replied as he picked up his robes and headed for the bathroom.
Sirius finally seemed to realise that if he didn’t make a move then Remus would, in all likelihood, drag him outside naked, and so he hurried after him.
“Where are we going?” he asked again as he followed Remus into Diagon Alley an hour later. Perhaps showering together hadn’t been the best of ideas. Now Remus was dragging him along at a brisk pace through the crowd of late afternoon shoppers.
“Gringotts,” Remus replied as he pointed up the street to the bank.
“They’ll be closing any minute,” Sirius pointed out impatiently. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
“We’re not going inside,” Remus told him with a grin as they reached the bottom of the steps. “Now, come on.”
Remus came to a halt about half way up the steps, and waited a few seconds for the hesitant Sirius to catch him up. “This should do,” he commented casually as he looked out over the still crowded Diagon Alley.
“For what?”
“For this,” Remus replied as he pulled Sirius into his arms and began to kiss him. Sirius pulled back almost immediately and looked down at Remus in surprise.
“We could have done this at my place,” he pointed out, casting a wary glance at the last minute shoppers.
“Your place isn’t the steps of Gringotts though,” Remus reminded him as he pulled him back into his arms and kissed him again.
The crowd hadn’t noticed the first kiss, but they noticed the second and several whistles echoed throughout the street, drawing the attention of even more passers by to the two young men.
“Bloody hell, Remus!” Sirius gasped when they parted because of the lack of air. “When you make your mind up to do something you go all out, don’t you?”
“That’s part one,” Remus told him with a grin as he dropped to one knee and took one of Sirius’s hands in his own. “Now for part two.”
“Remus, people are staring.”
“Good! I want them to.”
“But Remus…” hissed Sirius, his voice trailing off and Remus realised that he may have made a mistake. He was about to apologise again, and lead Sirius back to the privacy of his flat, when they were interrupted.
“Ahem,” a squeaky voice coughed pointedly near Remus’s ear.
“Yes?” Remus asked politely as he turned to the intruder.
“Do you realise where you are?” the goblin asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Remus replied with a smile.
“The steps of this noble institute are hardly the place for this sort of carrying on.”
Remus frowned and chanced a glance up at Sirius. He looked nervous, hesitant, and as though he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him.
Sirius, who had never been ashamed of who and what he was, was clearly embarrassed by Remus’s very public display of affection. On the one hand, Remus wanted to do everything he could to ease Sirius’s fears, but on the other, he needed to show Sirius that he wasn’t ashamed to be with him, and this was the only way he could.
The goblin coughed again. “If you could move along to a more appropriate place,” he urged.
“Actually, I think the steps of this noble institute are the perfect place for me to propose to the heir of the noble and most ancient house of Black,” Remus replied sweetly.
“Propose?” Sirius choked out, as the goblin looked on in astonishment.
“You once said you wanted to stand on the steps of Gringotts and tell the whole bloody world that you loved me,” Remus reminded him. “What better place do you have in mind?”
“Um.”
Remus released Sirius’s hand just long enough to pull the Lupin family ring from his finger. Then he took Sirius’s shaking hand back into his own steady grip and looked up into the eyes of the man he loved. “I love you, Sirius, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you have me?”
Sirius nodded mutely, and Remus pushed the ring onto his finger. He stood up and kissed him again as the on-looking crowd erupted into cheers, although there were more than a few jeers amidst the noise. He felt Sirius tense at the jeering and hoped that he hadn’t made a huge mistake.
“So, Mr Black, what do you think your family will say when they find out you’ve chosen to disregard your duties to marry and produce an heir, and shack up with a werewolf?” a horribly familiar voice asked from the edge of the crowd.
Remus turned to glare at Rita Skeeter, who was flashing her shiny new press badge in their faces.
“Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet!” she announced with glee. “Mr Lupin, do you think it was the ostracism you suffered because of your Lycanthropy that persuaded you to defy convention and embark on a relationship with another man?”
Remus stepped backward as the crowd edged closer to hear what the reporter had to say. He could see that several people were starting to recognise him, and he began looking for a way to escape the throng.
“Mr Black, will you be staying with Mr Lupin during the full moons, or will you be fleeing to safety in case you turn up dead, like the werewolf’s last lover?”
“Sirius! No!” Remus yelled, but it was already too late.
-o-xXx-o-
“Muggles are entitled to a single telephone call!” Rita screeched at the official on the front desk.
The guard looked at her coldly. “Lady, it may have escaped your notice, but you’re not in a muggle police station. This is the Ministry of Magic and we don’t have no telephones.”
“It’s a figure of speech,” Rita shouted. “I demand that you allow me to contact my editor. I’ll miss my deadline if I don’t speak to him soon.”
“We’ve sent him an owl,” the guard repeated for the fourth time. “If he wants to speak with you he can get in touch via our one way floo system. Now, please step aside so my colleague can take you back to your cell.”
Remus looked through the bars of the cell door. He was careful not to touch them and risk activating the spells that helped to keep the prisoners inside. In the distance he could see the flames of the fireplace turn green and a large, paunchy face appeared. “Skeeter? Where’s my copy?”
“Boss!” Rita cried as she ducked out of the grasp of the guard and skidded across the room to the fireplace. “Have I got a scoop for you!”
“So,” Sirius called from where he was stretched out on the hard bed. “Think we’ll make the front page?”
“A scandalous brawl involving the heir to the noble and most ancient house of Black and a werewolf who was up on a murder charge less than six months ago?” Remus asked sarcastically. “Oh, I doubt we’ll merit more than a paragraph on page ten.”
Sirius chuckled. “Mother’s going to hit the roof. Maybe she’ll actually carry out her threat and disinherit me,” he suggested cheerfully. “No doubt it’ll save a lot of trouble in the long run.”
Remus wandered away from the magical barrier and settled down on the floor beside the bed. “So, Sirius?”
“Hmm?”
“I was just wondering, in all the imaginings you had that involved me finally coming to my senses, did any of them involve this particular scenario? You know, being arrested for brawling in the streets, thrown into the Ministry of Magic holding cells, and waiting for the morning session of the Wizengamot?”
Sirius snorted. “You’re a bad influence on me,” he teased as he turned to lean over the side of the bed. “I had a clean record until today.”
Remus grinned. “But did they?”
Sirius laughed. “Of course not.”
“Then this definitely seems real?”
“Oh yeah, uncomfortably so,” Sirius muttered, as he punched the thin mattress to try to force a loose spring back down.
“Good,” Remus replied. “Now, budge over.”
“What?”
“Budge over,” Remus repeated, giving him a prod in the ribs by way of not so subtle encouragement.
“But we’re in a holding cell,” Sirius spluttered. “Your bed’s over there.” He pointed across the room to where the last free bed in the cell was located. Remus grinned at Sirius’s flush of embarrassment when he realised that the other occupant of the cell was watching the exchange with some amusement.
“I don’t want to sleep over there,” Remus replied as he prodded Sirius again. “I’m sleeping with you from now on, so move over. And you’d better not hog the blanket either.”
“Better do as he says,” their cellmate commented with a laugh. “Demanding little bugger isn’t he?”
“You have no idea,” Sirius replied as he scooted across the bed to make room for Remus beside him.
Remus smiled as Sirius pulled the blanket over them. He draped his arm over Sirius’s waist and snuggled up against his back. “Thank you,” he whispered in Sirius’s ear.
“Are you okay?” Sirius whispered back.
Remus nodded, even though Sirius couldn’t see him. “I did something really stupid,” he replied quietly.
“Don’t you always?” Sirius teased, but Remus couldn’t bring himself to chuckle, not when he could still remember seeing the fear in Cecily’s eyes. “Remus?” Sirius prompted.
“Can we talk about this later?” Remus asked. “When we’re alone?”
“Okay,” Sirius agreed. He reached down to pull Remus’s hand into his own, hissing at the icy feel of it. “Bloody hell, your hands are cold,” he accused.
“Got any suggestions on how to warm them up?” Remus whispered wickedly as he reached down for Sirius’s belt.
“Remus, what are you doing?” Sirius hissed again as Remus’s hand undid the belt and moved onto the button of his trousers.
“Warming my hands up,” Remus whispered back.
“We’re in a holding cell,” Sirius pointed out weakly.
“Yeah, you keep saying that,” Remus teased. “I had noticed.”
“I don’t think this is quite what the Ministry has in mind when it comes to ‘holding’,” Sirius squeaked as Remus grabbed hold of a certain vital part of his anatomy, one that was way too happy at the contact.
“You don’t know that,” Remus replied. “I’ve heard some very odd rumours about certain members of the Ministry.”
Sirius snorted with laughter as he pulled Remus’s wandering hand into his own.
“The ring fits you much better than it did me, doesn’t it?” Remus commented as Sirius entwined their fingers together.
“A perfect fit,” Sirius agreed.
-o-xXx-o-
After a long morning of waiting for their case to be heard, the two of them were finally released with a couple of hefty fines.
Sirius was annoyed when he saw that they were giving Remus the largest fine out of the three of them. Remus pointed out that there was nothing they could do about it, and at least they had the money to pay the fines, unlike Rita, who appeared to be trying to get her new employers to pay for her own.
“At least my father wasn’t hearing the case,” he muttered as they walked back towards his flat.
“Have you seen much of your parents since leaving school?” Remus asked. “I know your parents have big plans for your marriage…”
“They can stuff their plans,” Sirius replied. “I’ve seen them, and they’re still determined to marry me off. I’m hoping that sooner or later they’ll figure out I’m not going to go along with it.”
“They won’t give up that easily,” Remus pointed out. “They might make you.”
“They can’t.”
“You know they could. What if they used the Imperius Curse? That would make you.”
“They wouldn’t dare go that far.”
“Your father would.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sirius assured him as he let them into his flat, finally pulling Remus into his arms as he closed the door behind them.
“I can’t help it. Your father saved my life, but he still scares me more than anyone else I’ve ever met. He wants you to produce an heir, and he’s not going to give up.”
Sirius shook his head and leaned forward to press their lips together for a quick kiss. “There’s no need to be scared any more. We’re together now, and as long as we are, we’ll protect each other. My insane family, your rotten parents; they won’t stand a chance against the combined stubbornness of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.”
Remus chuckled, but any words he was about to say were lost the moment Sirius’s lips captured his own once more. He kissed Sirius back, frantically, urgently and very possessively.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that the problems with Sirius’s parents would not be so easily pushed aside, but when Sirius was holding him and kissing him so thoroughly, they seemed so far away.
-o-xXx-o-
“You don’t mind that we’ll have to come back here every month?” Remus asked as he opened the door to his house.
Sirius shook his head and rolled his eyes at the question that Remus had already asked a dozen times. “You know as well as I do there’s nowhere to keep a werewolf in my flat. There’s barely enough room to swing a cat. Are you sure you’re okay with me being in the basement again?”
“I want you with me, as long as you promise that if I ever get out you don’t hesitate in stopping me.”
“I’ll keep my wand with me and stun you before you reach me,” Sirius promised. “I’ll even work with Romulus to find out what spells he put on the basement and whether they can be added to. Now, stop worrying about something that might never happen.”
Remus nodded as he rifled through three days worth of mail. “Oh look, we did warrant the front page,” he announced as he opened the edition of the Daily Prophet that had come out the morning after their arrest.
“I feel so special,” Sirius muttered as he looked at Rita’s article with disgust.
“It’s about time,” Romulus said as he glared at them from the top of the stairs. “I thought you’d killed each other or something.”
“Well, if we had, surely you’d be amongst the first to know,” Remus teased.
“Oh, very funny,” Romulus muttered. “Where have you been?”
“Er, we got arrested,” Remus admitted.
“Arrested?” Romulus’s jaw dropped as he looked in horror at his younger brother. “Did you get reported about what happened at the full moon? What happened?”
“Sirius punched a reporter.”
“In defence of Remus,” Sirius added.
“It wasn’t that Skeeter girl, was it?” Romulus asked with a frown.
“That’s the one,” Remus confirmed. “She was asking impertinent questions and generally being a pain. Things got a bit out of hand.”
“Why does this not surprise me?” muttered Romulus. “I’ve been hanging around here waiting for you two and you’re getting into brawls and…” His voice drifted off as he looked at the front page of the recently unrolled newspaper.
“The picture was taken right before Rita started asking questions,” Remus explained as his brother looked at the picture of Remus kneeling on the steps of Gringotts, whilst repeatedly slipping a ring onto the finger of a stunned looking Sirius, before standing up to kiss him. Romulus turned to look at Sirius questioningly, and Sirius raised his hand to display the ring in answer to the unspoken question.
“Well, what did you expect?” Romulus pointed out testily as he scowled at Remus. “You proposition your boyfriend in the middle of Diagon Alley, on the steps of Gringotts, for crying out loud. No wonder you’re making headlines. I thought you’d gone to find Sirius in order to keep him safe from his family. You think his family are going to like seeing this?”
“I don’t care what my family thinks,” Sirius said with an annoyed frown at the thought of his parents.
“You’re as daft as my brother,” Romulus told him.
“Good thing we’ve got you to keep us in line then, isn’t it?” Remus teased.
Romulus rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m positively ecstatic at the thought of listening to you two shagging each other senseless on every available surface in the place?”
“Rom!” Remus gasped, as Sirius snorted with laughter.
“We won’t be here all the time,” Sirius assured him.
“Unless you want us here?” Remus asked. It had suddenly occurred to him that whilst he’d been making plans with Sirius, he’d completely forgotten to take his brother into account. He cringed at the thought that he was being selfish again, thinking only of himself, and without considering his brother at all.
“You have your own lives to live,” Romulus replied quietly. “And I can find you if I need to.”
“So, you could have found out where we were any time?” Remus asked.
“Technically, but I didn’t really want to pop in on you at an… er… inconvenient moment.”
“So, if Remus is living in my flat, you’ll be there?” Sirius sounded less than thrilled at the prospect.
“I take it the place is pretty small?” Romulus asked.
Remus and Sirius nodded.
“I’ll disappear myself when you two lovebirds want to be alone,” Romulus promised, giving an exaggerated shudder at the alternative.
“Lovebirds?” echoed Remus, pulling a face at the expression as Sirius snickered.
“If you two could see yourselves, you’d know that is the perfect way of describing the pair of you,” Romulus stated with a roll of his eyes. “I take it you two would like to be alone now?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Remus felt his face flushing again.
“I’ve heard muggles talking about getting rid of pesky ghosts by exercising,” Sirius suggested with a smirk.
“You mean exorcising,” Romulus corrected. “And you’ve got no chance of that working, not on this spook.”
“I think we’re stuck with him.” Remus sighed dramatically and shook his head.
“On the plus side, he’ll be less trouble than a dog,” Sirius replied.
“I’m feeling quite insulted,” Romulus replied, although he couldn’t quite keep the grin from his face.
“Ah, you know we love you,” Sirius assured him.
“So, what are the two of you planning on doing now?” Romulus asked. “And I don’t mean right now, so spare me the details of your sex life. I mean generally, like for jobs?”
“Er…”
“Um…”
Romulus sighed and pointed at the Daily Prophet. “The job section starts on page twenty.”
“Later,” Remus said as he pulled Sirius towards the bedroom.
“You know, Sirius, I was kind of hoping you’d be a good influence on my brother,” Romulus called after them.
Sirius laughed loudly. “I think you got it backwards,” he called back. “He’s a bad influence on me.”
“What’s a ghost to do?” Romulus asked the empty room, before disappearing once again.
-
Chapter 63
Summary for the new readers watching my journal: An AU Remus/Sirius story set in a world where an eleven year old werewolf named Remus Lupin never got his Hogwarts invitation, and where Sirius Black was not accepted by the rest of the Gryffindors. The two outcasts form a friendship despite overwhelming odds, but will their friendship survive when Sirius finds himself falling in love with his best friend...his friend who wants nothing more than to be 'normal', despite the passion he feels for the heir to the Noble House of Black.
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise. J K Rowling retains all copyright.
Like a Dream (PG15)
“Sirius, what’s wrong?” Remus asked cautiously as he lay with his head on his lover’s shoulder, dreamily tracing the symbol of infinity on Sirius’s chest. He didn’t really want to ruin the moment, but he suspected that for Sirius the moment had already passed. He knew that there were a lot of things they still had to talk about, but he wanted to hold onto the blissfulness just a little while longer. The only thing stopping him from enjoying the moment, was the certainty that Sirius wasn’t.
“Nothing,” Sirius replied, just a shade too quickly.
“You’re lying,” accused Remus as he sat up and frowned down at the other man. “Did I hurt you? Is that it?”
“A little,” Sirius admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I regret letting you top for a change.”
“I’m sorry,” whispered Remus before planting a soft kiss on Sirius’s lips.
“I hate to start sounding like your brother, but would you please stop apologising all the time?” Sirius asked as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind Remus’s ear. “I forgive you, for everything. How could I not, when I love you so much?”
Remus settled back down resting his head on Sirius’s chest. Unfortunately he could still feel the tension in the other man, and a minute later he sat up again to get a better look at Sirius’s face. “There’s something else, isn’t there?” he asked.
“It’s nothing, really,” Sirius repeated as he sat up and swung around so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to Remus.
“You think I’m going to change my mind, don’t you?” Remus guessed.
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Sirius pointed out with a lingering trace of bitterness amongst the obvious fear.
“I’m here, for good,” Remus told him as he wrapped his arms around his lover’s waist and laid his head against his back.
“It’s just going to take some time for me to believe that,” Sirius replied as he patted Remus’s hands. “I’ve dreamed about you for so long that today seems a bit unreal. I keep thinking that any minute now I’m going to wake up. It’s just going to take a bit of time.”
Remus felt a twinge of guilt over all the times he’d pushed Sirius away over the last couple of years, and suddenly one of their discussions sprang to mind and he knew what he had to do. “Come on Sirius, get up, we’re going out.”
“Where to?” Sirius asked curiously, though he didn’t stand up or reach for his clothes.
“Not far,” Remus replied as he picked up his robes and headed for the bathroom.
Sirius finally seemed to realise that if he didn’t make a move then Remus would, in all likelihood, drag him outside naked, and so he hurried after him.
“Where are we going?” he asked again as he followed Remus into Diagon Alley an hour later. Perhaps showering together hadn’t been the best of ideas. Now Remus was dragging him along at a brisk pace through the crowd of late afternoon shoppers.
“Gringotts,” Remus replied as he pointed up the street to the bank.
“They’ll be closing any minute,” Sirius pointed out impatiently. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
“We’re not going inside,” Remus told him with a grin as they reached the bottom of the steps. “Now, come on.”
Remus came to a halt about half way up the steps, and waited a few seconds for the hesitant Sirius to catch him up. “This should do,” he commented casually as he looked out over the still crowded Diagon Alley.
“For what?”
“For this,” Remus replied as he pulled Sirius into his arms and began to kiss him. Sirius pulled back almost immediately and looked down at Remus in surprise.
“We could have done this at my place,” he pointed out, casting a wary glance at the last minute shoppers.
“Your place isn’t the steps of Gringotts though,” Remus reminded him as he pulled him back into his arms and kissed him again.
The crowd hadn’t noticed the first kiss, but they noticed the second and several whistles echoed throughout the street, drawing the attention of even more passers by to the two young men.
“Bloody hell, Remus!” Sirius gasped when they parted because of the lack of air. “When you make your mind up to do something you go all out, don’t you?”
“That’s part one,” Remus told him with a grin as he dropped to one knee and took one of Sirius’s hands in his own. “Now for part two.”
“Remus, people are staring.”
“Good! I want them to.”
“But Remus…” hissed Sirius, his voice trailing off and Remus realised that he may have made a mistake. He was about to apologise again, and lead Sirius back to the privacy of his flat, when they were interrupted.
“Ahem,” a squeaky voice coughed pointedly near Remus’s ear.
“Yes?” Remus asked politely as he turned to the intruder.
“Do you realise where you are?” the goblin asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Remus replied with a smile.
“The steps of this noble institute are hardly the place for this sort of carrying on.”
Remus frowned and chanced a glance up at Sirius. He looked nervous, hesitant, and as though he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him.
Sirius, who had never been ashamed of who and what he was, was clearly embarrassed by Remus’s very public display of affection. On the one hand, Remus wanted to do everything he could to ease Sirius’s fears, but on the other, he needed to show Sirius that he wasn’t ashamed to be with him, and this was the only way he could.
The goblin coughed again. “If you could move along to a more appropriate place,” he urged.
“Actually, I think the steps of this noble institute are the perfect place for me to propose to the heir of the noble and most ancient house of Black,” Remus replied sweetly.
“Propose?” Sirius choked out, as the goblin looked on in astonishment.
“You once said you wanted to stand on the steps of Gringotts and tell the whole bloody world that you loved me,” Remus reminded him. “What better place do you have in mind?”
“Um.”
Remus released Sirius’s hand just long enough to pull the Lupin family ring from his finger. Then he took Sirius’s shaking hand back into his own steady grip and looked up into the eyes of the man he loved. “I love you, Sirius, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you have me?”
Sirius nodded mutely, and Remus pushed the ring onto his finger. He stood up and kissed him again as the on-looking crowd erupted into cheers, although there were more than a few jeers amidst the noise. He felt Sirius tense at the jeering and hoped that he hadn’t made a huge mistake.
“So, Mr Black, what do you think your family will say when they find out you’ve chosen to disregard your duties to marry and produce an heir, and shack up with a werewolf?” a horribly familiar voice asked from the edge of the crowd.
Remus turned to glare at Rita Skeeter, who was flashing her shiny new press badge in their faces.
“Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet!” she announced with glee. “Mr Lupin, do you think it was the ostracism you suffered because of your Lycanthropy that persuaded you to defy convention and embark on a relationship with another man?”
Remus stepped backward as the crowd edged closer to hear what the reporter had to say. He could see that several people were starting to recognise him, and he began looking for a way to escape the throng.
“Mr Black, will you be staying with Mr Lupin during the full moons, or will you be fleeing to safety in case you turn up dead, like the werewolf’s last lover?”
“Sirius! No!” Remus yelled, but it was already too late.
-o-xXx-o-
“Muggles are entitled to a single telephone call!” Rita screeched at the official on the front desk.
The guard looked at her coldly. “Lady, it may have escaped your notice, but you’re not in a muggle police station. This is the Ministry of Magic and we don’t have no telephones.”
“It’s a figure of speech,” Rita shouted. “I demand that you allow me to contact my editor. I’ll miss my deadline if I don’t speak to him soon.”
“We’ve sent him an owl,” the guard repeated for the fourth time. “If he wants to speak with you he can get in touch via our one way floo system. Now, please step aside so my colleague can take you back to your cell.”
Remus looked through the bars of the cell door. He was careful not to touch them and risk activating the spells that helped to keep the prisoners inside. In the distance he could see the flames of the fireplace turn green and a large, paunchy face appeared. “Skeeter? Where’s my copy?”
“Boss!” Rita cried as she ducked out of the grasp of the guard and skidded across the room to the fireplace. “Have I got a scoop for you!”
“So,” Sirius called from where he was stretched out on the hard bed. “Think we’ll make the front page?”
“A scandalous brawl involving the heir to the noble and most ancient house of Black and a werewolf who was up on a murder charge less than six months ago?” Remus asked sarcastically. “Oh, I doubt we’ll merit more than a paragraph on page ten.”
Sirius chuckled. “Mother’s going to hit the roof. Maybe she’ll actually carry out her threat and disinherit me,” he suggested cheerfully. “No doubt it’ll save a lot of trouble in the long run.”
Remus wandered away from the magical barrier and settled down on the floor beside the bed. “So, Sirius?”
“Hmm?”
“I was just wondering, in all the imaginings you had that involved me finally coming to my senses, did any of them involve this particular scenario? You know, being arrested for brawling in the streets, thrown into the Ministry of Magic holding cells, and waiting for the morning session of the Wizengamot?”
Sirius snorted. “You’re a bad influence on me,” he teased as he turned to lean over the side of the bed. “I had a clean record until today.”
Remus grinned. “But did they?”
Sirius laughed. “Of course not.”
“Then this definitely seems real?”
“Oh yeah, uncomfortably so,” Sirius muttered, as he punched the thin mattress to try to force a loose spring back down.
“Good,” Remus replied. “Now, budge over.”
“What?”
“Budge over,” Remus repeated, giving him a prod in the ribs by way of not so subtle encouragement.
“But we’re in a holding cell,” Sirius spluttered. “Your bed’s over there.” He pointed across the room to where the last free bed in the cell was located. Remus grinned at Sirius’s flush of embarrassment when he realised that the other occupant of the cell was watching the exchange with some amusement.
“I don’t want to sleep over there,” Remus replied as he prodded Sirius again. “I’m sleeping with you from now on, so move over. And you’d better not hog the blanket either.”
“Better do as he says,” their cellmate commented with a laugh. “Demanding little bugger isn’t he?”
“You have no idea,” Sirius replied as he scooted across the bed to make room for Remus beside him.
Remus smiled as Sirius pulled the blanket over them. He draped his arm over Sirius’s waist and snuggled up against his back. “Thank you,” he whispered in Sirius’s ear.
“Are you okay?” Sirius whispered back.
Remus nodded, even though Sirius couldn’t see him. “I did something really stupid,” he replied quietly.
“Don’t you always?” Sirius teased, but Remus couldn’t bring himself to chuckle, not when he could still remember seeing the fear in Cecily’s eyes. “Remus?” Sirius prompted.
“Can we talk about this later?” Remus asked. “When we’re alone?”
“Okay,” Sirius agreed. He reached down to pull Remus’s hand into his own, hissing at the icy feel of it. “Bloody hell, your hands are cold,” he accused.
“Got any suggestions on how to warm them up?” Remus whispered wickedly as he reached down for Sirius’s belt.
“Remus, what are you doing?” Sirius hissed again as Remus’s hand undid the belt and moved onto the button of his trousers.
“Warming my hands up,” Remus whispered back.
“We’re in a holding cell,” Sirius pointed out weakly.
“Yeah, you keep saying that,” Remus teased. “I had noticed.”
“I don’t think this is quite what the Ministry has in mind when it comes to ‘holding’,” Sirius squeaked as Remus grabbed hold of a certain vital part of his anatomy, one that was way too happy at the contact.
“You don’t know that,” Remus replied. “I’ve heard some very odd rumours about certain members of the Ministry.”
Sirius snorted with laughter as he pulled Remus’s wandering hand into his own.
“The ring fits you much better than it did me, doesn’t it?” Remus commented as Sirius entwined their fingers together.
“A perfect fit,” Sirius agreed.
-o-xXx-o-
After a long morning of waiting for their case to be heard, the two of them were finally released with a couple of hefty fines.
Sirius was annoyed when he saw that they were giving Remus the largest fine out of the three of them. Remus pointed out that there was nothing they could do about it, and at least they had the money to pay the fines, unlike Rita, who appeared to be trying to get her new employers to pay for her own.
“At least my father wasn’t hearing the case,” he muttered as they walked back towards his flat.
“Have you seen much of your parents since leaving school?” Remus asked. “I know your parents have big plans for your marriage…”
“They can stuff their plans,” Sirius replied. “I’ve seen them, and they’re still determined to marry me off. I’m hoping that sooner or later they’ll figure out I’m not going to go along with it.”
“They won’t give up that easily,” Remus pointed out. “They might make you.”
“They can’t.”
“You know they could. What if they used the Imperius Curse? That would make you.”
“They wouldn’t dare go that far.”
“Your father would.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sirius assured him as he let them into his flat, finally pulling Remus into his arms as he closed the door behind them.
“I can’t help it. Your father saved my life, but he still scares me more than anyone else I’ve ever met. He wants you to produce an heir, and he’s not going to give up.”
Sirius shook his head and leaned forward to press their lips together for a quick kiss. “There’s no need to be scared any more. We’re together now, and as long as we are, we’ll protect each other. My insane family, your rotten parents; they won’t stand a chance against the combined stubbornness of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.”
Remus chuckled, but any words he was about to say were lost the moment Sirius’s lips captured his own once more. He kissed Sirius back, frantically, urgently and very possessively.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that the problems with Sirius’s parents would not be so easily pushed aside, but when Sirius was holding him and kissing him so thoroughly, they seemed so far away.
-o-xXx-o-
“You don’t mind that we’ll have to come back here every month?” Remus asked as he opened the door to his house.
Sirius shook his head and rolled his eyes at the question that Remus had already asked a dozen times. “You know as well as I do there’s nowhere to keep a werewolf in my flat. There’s barely enough room to swing a cat. Are you sure you’re okay with me being in the basement again?”
“I want you with me, as long as you promise that if I ever get out you don’t hesitate in stopping me.”
“I’ll keep my wand with me and stun you before you reach me,” Sirius promised. “I’ll even work with Romulus to find out what spells he put on the basement and whether they can be added to. Now, stop worrying about something that might never happen.”
Remus nodded as he rifled through three days worth of mail. “Oh look, we did warrant the front page,” he announced as he opened the edition of the Daily Prophet that had come out the morning after their arrest.
“I feel so special,” Sirius muttered as he looked at Rita’s article with disgust.
“It’s about time,” Romulus said as he glared at them from the top of the stairs. “I thought you’d killed each other or something.”
“Well, if we had, surely you’d be amongst the first to know,” Remus teased.
“Oh, very funny,” Romulus muttered. “Where have you been?”
“Er, we got arrested,” Remus admitted.
“Arrested?” Romulus’s jaw dropped as he looked in horror at his younger brother. “Did you get reported about what happened at the full moon? What happened?”
“Sirius punched a reporter.”
“In defence of Remus,” Sirius added.
“It wasn’t that Skeeter girl, was it?” Romulus asked with a frown.
“That’s the one,” Remus confirmed. “She was asking impertinent questions and generally being a pain. Things got a bit out of hand.”
“Why does this not surprise me?” muttered Romulus. “I’ve been hanging around here waiting for you two and you’re getting into brawls and…” His voice drifted off as he looked at the front page of the recently unrolled newspaper.
“The picture was taken right before Rita started asking questions,” Remus explained as his brother looked at the picture of Remus kneeling on the steps of Gringotts, whilst repeatedly slipping a ring onto the finger of a stunned looking Sirius, before standing up to kiss him. Romulus turned to look at Sirius questioningly, and Sirius raised his hand to display the ring in answer to the unspoken question.
“Well, what did you expect?” Romulus pointed out testily as he scowled at Remus. “You proposition your boyfriend in the middle of Diagon Alley, on the steps of Gringotts, for crying out loud. No wonder you’re making headlines. I thought you’d gone to find Sirius in order to keep him safe from his family. You think his family are going to like seeing this?”
“I don’t care what my family thinks,” Sirius said with an annoyed frown at the thought of his parents.
“You’re as daft as my brother,” Romulus told him.
“Good thing we’ve got you to keep us in line then, isn’t it?” Remus teased.
Romulus rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m positively ecstatic at the thought of listening to you two shagging each other senseless on every available surface in the place?”
“Rom!” Remus gasped, as Sirius snorted with laughter.
“We won’t be here all the time,” Sirius assured him.
“Unless you want us here?” Remus asked. It had suddenly occurred to him that whilst he’d been making plans with Sirius, he’d completely forgotten to take his brother into account. He cringed at the thought that he was being selfish again, thinking only of himself, and without considering his brother at all.
“You have your own lives to live,” Romulus replied quietly. “And I can find you if I need to.”
“So, you could have found out where we were any time?” Remus asked.
“Technically, but I didn’t really want to pop in on you at an… er… inconvenient moment.”
“So, if Remus is living in my flat, you’ll be there?” Sirius sounded less than thrilled at the prospect.
“I take it the place is pretty small?” Romulus asked.
Remus and Sirius nodded.
“I’ll disappear myself when you two lovebirds want to be alone,” Romulus promised, giving an exaggerated shudder at the alternative.
“Lovebirds?” echoed Remus, pulling a face at the expression as Sirius snickered.
“If you two could see yourselves, you’d know that is the perfect way of describing the pair of you,” Romulus stated with a roll of his eyes. “I take it you two would like to be alone now?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Remus felt his face flushing again.
“I’ve heard muggles talking about getting rid of pesky ghosts by exercising,” Sirius suggested with a smirk.
“You mean exorcising,” Romulus corrected. “And you’ve got no chance of that working, not on this spook.”
“I think we’re stuck with him.” Remus sighed dramatically and shook his head.
“On the plus side, he’ll be less trouble than a dog,” Sirius replied.
“I’m feeling quite insulted,” Romulus replied, although he couldn’t quite keep the grin from his face.
“Ah, you know we love you,” Sirius assured him.
“So, what are the two of you planning on doing now?” Romulus asked. “And I don’t mean right now, so spare me the details of your sex life. I mean generally, like for jobs?”
“Er…”
“Um…”
Romulus sighed and pointed at the Daily Prophet. “The job section starts on page twenty.”
“Later,” Remus said as he pulled Sirius towards the bedroom.
“You know, Sirius, I was kind of hoping you’d be a good influence on my brother,” Romulus called after them.
Sirius laughed loudly. “I think you got it backwards,” he called back. “He’s a bad influence on me.”
“What’s a ghost to do?” Romulus asked the empty room, before disappearing once again.
-
Chapter 63