fic 38 - The First of August [Remus/Sirius]
title: The First of August
fandom: Harry Potter
pairings: Remus Lupin/Sirius Black
rating: PG-13
synopsis: It's just a day trip but Sirius says it's the best day he's had all summer-and Remus secretly agrees with him.
author's note: Written for barefootboys' first challenge of the summer. I probably had an unorthodox stance on the prompt since I didn't realise the castle in question was used in the films until after I'd decided what I was going to write.
word count: 1000w approx.
Remus sends Sirius an owl two weeks into the summer holiday before 5th year asking if he’d like to go on a trip with him and his parents. Sirius’ response is “anything to get away from this place”. He doesn’t even care where they’re going or what they’re doing.
It’s only a day trip but the Lupins are going to Northumberland to visit some big castle which belongs to a family of rich Muggles. Sirius finds it bizarre that anyone would let a load of screaming children and tourists with cameras into their house-or, in fact, that anyone would want to go if permitted. But the Lupins are keen and they smile as they stand on the doorstep of 12 Grimmauld Place-in spite of the look they get from Regulus, coming down the stairs, or from Kreacher, peeking around the door of the dining room with a malicious smile stretched across his face.
They take the Knight Bus, so it doesn’t take long and by lunchtime they’re sat in the castle’s grounds which must once have been battlefields. Remus’ mother has made sandwiches and Sirius swears they taste better than anything he’s eaten since the end of term feast. (A comment which makes Remus’ mother laugh and say things like “how sweet” though she obviously doesn’t believe him. The Blacks are wealthy and have their food cooked by kitchen staff who would be fired for making a bad meal so she can’t conceive how her homemade sandwiches with untidy lettuce poking out beyond the bread crusts could ever compare. But Sirius isn’t lying. He just doesn’t know how to explain that they taste better because they’ve been made with love and care-and he’d probably feel stupid saying it even if he could.)
Remus’ parents are enthralled by the Muggle history with its sieges and captures and royalty. But, when Sirius gets Remus alone, he asks why they bothered to come.
Remus only laughs and asks if there has to be a point to everything. And besides, he says, there’s wizarding history here as well, if you care to look. To prove it, he produces a book on historical wizards and finds a page with a big picture of the castle and a long write up on a wizard born of Muggle nobility who went on to become a great alchemist.
When Sirius only shrugs and says he doesn’t see the interest, Remus scoffs, “You weren’t listening at all in History of Magic last year, were you?”
“Should I have been?” Sirius replies, closing the book and handing it back.
“Yes. This is O.W.L. material. Have you forgotten that next year we have to take the most important exams in our education so far?”
“Oh, those. Just about, yeah.” And he grins. “So, where do we find the educational material?”
It turns out that there isn’t much about the so called ‘Wizard Earl’ on display. But Remus tells Sirius everything he knows as they traipse around the open parts of the castle’s interior (most of which look a little too much like home to Sirius). The Wizard Earl was a magical cartographer and alchemist. Most of the information, such as that of his confinement in a Muggle prison, isn’t especially interesting but the pair of them spend a good amount of time discussing cartography and how one might enchant a map.
They split off from Remus’ parents when Remus’ mother insists on spending their last hour in the café and gift shop parts of the house. The two boys opt to have one last trip around the grounds. This is mostly because Sirius hasn’t said a word about what he’s done so far this summer and Remus knows he won’t in front of other people.
Remus raises the matter in an airy, casual way, saying, “So, how’s your summer been?”
Sirius laughs, “Oh, you know, the usual. Regulus won’t talk to me, my mother won’t stop talking to me and my father’s nowhere to be seen. The extended family like to come around and jeer about what a failure I’ve turned out to be and deride my parents for managing to raise a son who turned out this way and, yeah, you know, the usual.” He says all this with a mocking light-hearted tone and, when Remus looks concerned, all he does to rebut his friend’s worried expression is to say, “No, seriously, I expect no less.” It’s obvious that Remus wants to say that Sirius should expect better than that, that these things shouldn’t be the excepted norm. But he doesn’t. He’s said it so many times that he knows the answer by heart.
They stop their walk by the well built into the castle’s keep. It’s fairly near the visitor’s facilities and they’ll be able to see Remus’ parents coming when they leave. It’s four-forty in the afternoon and the August sun is still high in the sky. Sirius leans back against the brick of the keep theatrically and says, “Well, cheers, Moony. This is the best day I’ve had all summer.”
Remus laughs and argues. It’s a stupid light-hearted argument about how Sirius had seemed bored all day and it only stops when Sirius says, “Well, it was only good because I spent it with you.” And leans forward-away from the stonemasonry, from where he’s ruining the symmetry of the well’s beautiful stained-window arcs-and he kisses Remus, soft, forgiving and fleeting. Then, he tells Remus he can see his parents coming.
When it turns out they aren’t, Remus complains that Sirius ‘spoilt the moment’. Sirius defends his actions, saying it was a tactic to stop things from getting awkward and they stand there, grinning and bickering until Remus’ parents do arrive-which is almost sooner than either of them would like-and they leave. Remus, craning his neck to look back at the well, swearing to memorise every detail so he can play that scene back all summer.
fandom: Harry Potter
pairings: Remus Lupin/Sirius Black
rating: PG-13
synopsis: It's just a day trip but Sirius says it's the best day he's had all summer-and Remus secretly agrees with him.
author's note: Written for barefootboys' first challenge of the summer. I probably had an unorthodox stance on the prompt since I didn't realise the castle in question was used in the films until after I'd decided what I was going to write.
word count: 1000w approx.
Remus sends Sirius an owl two weeks into the summer holiday before 5th year asking if he’d like to go on a trip with him and his parents. Sirius’ response is “anything to get away from this place”. He doesn’t even care where they’re going or what they’re doing.
It’s only a day trip but the Lupins are going to Northumberland to visit some big castle which belongs to a family of rich Muggles. Sirius finds it bizarre that anyone would let a load of screaming children and tourists with cameras into their house-or, in fact, that anyone would want to go if permitted. But the Lupins are keen and they smile as they stand on the doorstep of 12 Grimmauld Place-in spite of the look they get from Regulus, coming down the stairs, or from Kreacher, peeking around the door of the dining room with a malicious smile stretched across his face.
They take the Knight Bus, so it doesn’t take long and by lunchtime they’re sat in the castle’s grounds which must once have been battlefields. Remus’ mother has made sandwiches and Sirius swears they taste better than anything he’s eaten since the end of term feast. (A comment which makes Remus’ mother laugh and say things like “how sweet” though she obviously doesn’t believe him. The Blacks are wealthy and have their food cooked by kitchen staff who would be fired for making a bad meal so she can’t conceive how her homemade sandwiches with untidy lettuce poking out beyond the bread crusts could ever compare. But Sirius isn’t lying. He just doesn’t know how to explain that they taste better because they’ve been made with love and care-and he’d probably feel stupid saying it even if he could.)
Remus’ parents are enthralled by the Muggle history with its sieges and captures and royalty. But, when Sirius gets Remus alone, he asks why they bothered to come.
Remus only laughs and asks if there has to be a point to everything. And besides, he says, there’s wizarding history here as well, if you care to look. To prove it, he produces a book on historical wizards and finds a page with a big picture of the castle and a long write up on a wizard born of Muggle nobility who went on to become a great alchemist.
When Sirius only shrugs and says he doesn’t see the interest, Remus scoffs, “You weren’t listening at all in History of Magic last year, were you?”
“Should I have been?” Sirius replies, closing the book and handing it back.
“Yes. This is O.W.L. material. Have you forgotten that next year we have to take the most important exams in our education so far?”
“Oh, those. Just about, yeah.” And he grins. “So, where do we find the educational material?”
It turns out that there isn’t much about the so called ‘Wizard Earl’ on display. But Remus tells Sirius everything he knows as they traipse around the open parts of the castle’s interior (most of which look a little too much like home to Sirius). The Wizard Earl was a magical cartographer and alchemist. Most of the information, such as that of his confinement in a Muggle prison, isn’t especially interesting but the pair of them spend a good amount of time discussing cartography and how one might enchant a map.
They split off from Remus’ parents when Remus’ mother insists on spending their last hour in the café and gift shop parts of the house. The two boys opt to have one last trip around the grounds. This is mostly because Sirius hasn’t said a word about what he’s done so far this summer and Remus knows he won’t in front of other people.
Remus raises the matter in an airy, casual way, saying, “So, how’s your summer been?”
Sirius laughs, “Oh, you know, the usual. Regulus won’t talk to me, my mother won’t stop talking to me and my father’s nowhere to be seen. The extended family like to come around and jeer about what a failure I’ve turned out to be and deride my parents for managing to raise a son who turned out this way and, yeah, you know, the usual.” He says all this with a mocking light-hearted tone and, when Remus looks concerned, all he does to rebut his friend’s worried expression is to say, “No, seriously, I expect no less.” It’s obvious that Remus wants to say that Sirius should expect better than that, that these things shouldn’t be the excepted norm. But he doesn’t. He’s said it so many times that he knows the answer by heart.
They stop their walk by the well built into the castle’s keep. It’s fairly near the visitor’s facilities and they’ll be able to see Remus’ parents coming when they leave. It’s four-forty in the afternoon and the August sun is still high in the sky. Sirius leans back against the brick of the keep theatrically and says, “Well, cheers, Moony. This is the best day I’ve had all summer.”
Remus laughs and argues. It’s a stupid light-hearted argument about how Sirius had seemed bored all day and it only stops when Sirius says, “Well, it was only good because I spent it with you.” And leans forward-away from the stonemasonry, from where he’s ruining the symmetry of the well’s beautiful stained-window arcs-and he kisses Remus, soft, forgiving and fleeting. Then, he tells Remus he can see his parents coming.
When it turns out they aren’t, Remus complains that Sirius ‘spoilt the moment’. Sirius defends his actions, saying it was a tactic to stop things from getting awkward and they stand there, grinning and bickering until Remus’ parents do arrive-which is almost sooner than either of them would like-and they leave. Remus, craning his neck to look back at the well, swearing to memorise every detail so he can play that scene back all summer.