Harry Potter: Home for the Summer
Title: Home for the Summer
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: Remus/Sirius
Genre: Fluff
Rating: PG-13ish? Some light sexual content.
Word Count: 2,466
Author’s Note: Written for tamingthemuse prompt # 157 - Juxtapose. This prompt and I were not agreeing with each other, so I decided to write the only story idea I have that fits the July Summer/Vacation challenge and force it to work with both prompts. Beta’d by wutendeskind.
Summary: Over the summer holidays, Remus and Sirius discover they may feel more for each other than they realized.
Fanfiction Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5248798/1/
It was never supposed to happen like this. Truth be told, it was never supposed to happen at all. But if it had to happen, it was definitely, without a question, not supposed to be like this.
They hadn’t planned it, or at least Sirius hadn’t and he was pretty sure it had come as a surprise to Remus, as well. Even now, when it happened, it was purely by accident. The fact that it was happening more and more often was just proof that they weren’t fighting it as much-not that they were actively seeking it out. You couldn’t exactly coordinate these kinds of things when you weren’t talking about them.
It had started almost a year ago, just after they’d returned to Hogwarts from summer break. Remus had been at the library all night and Sirius was having a disagreement with James which meant he was also having a disagreement with Peter. Despite the unspoken rule that Remus was allowed one night of quiet, Marauderless reading in the library per week, Sirius went to find him. Spending a night alone was just not something he was good at, while spending a night alone with Remus had become increasingly comforting to Sirius. He had found Remus picking books off the shelf despite the fact that he already had a pile of six in his arms and Remus had stubbornly refused to put the things back and entertain his friend. Since accepting Remus’s “no” wasn’t really an option, Sirius had taken it upon himself to grab a book off the stack and push it back into place. Unfortunately, the book’s proper place was on the shelf just behind Remus and in order to push the book in, Sirius had unwittingly gotten terribly, terribly close to Remus. If he had known that Remus would smell like ink and chocolate and just a hint of sweat from running to classes all day, Sirius would have stayed in the common room playing Wizard’s Chess. But once his body was half pressed against Remus’s and Remus smelled so nice and all Sirius could think was that he would taste even better, it was too late. He didn’t kiss him, he just didn’t move. And when Remus tried to push him away, his face moved forward and Sirius could see the accident happening before it played out, but he still couldn’t move. Not even when Remus’s lips had bumped into his. And as it turned out, Remus did taste nice. So Sirius kissed him again. And again. And four times after that. Remus was still clutching the remaining five books when Sirius pulled away, turned, and fled.
It was a month and a half before either acknowledged the incident again. One of the seventh years was having a party in the Hufflepuff common room, so the Marauders had crashed it. Ironically it was Peter who seduced one of the Hufflepuff girls into giving them the information they needed, so while James was with Lily, he was with his new fling. Sirius and Remus were both well on their way to being trashed and had settled into having a very amusing conversation by the fire. It was so amusing, in fact, that Sirius had forgotten himself and let his hand drift. It drifted right onto Remus’s thigh; he didn’t even realize he was groping the other boy until Remus made a weird twitchy movement and announced that he was going to go talk to someone he knew. Sirius was left by the fire remembering their night in the library and getting more sober by the moment. His hand was burning from the small touch and he’d ended up having to leave the party to relieve himself. That’s when he realized he was in trouble. It was one thing to kiss your friend a couple of times because you just like him so much and he likes you and it was a weird moment. It was another thing to have to run out of a social situation to wank your brains out because your friend happens to make really attractive noises when you accidentally sexually molest him.
It was all downhill from there. At first they had tried to avoid the alone situations, but it was impossible to have a babysitter all the time. Every time they were alone…Sirius didn’t know what it was. He couldn’t stay away from Remus, couldn’t keep Remus away from him. The accidents didn’t just become more frequent but more daring too. By the time the school year was drawing to its close, there wasn’t much Remus and Sirius weren’t doing as often as possible. One thing they weren’t doing, however, was talking about it. It was not a relationship; it was not supposed to be. Sirius thought he wanted it that way.
After a month at home where no one said anything pleasant, let alone gave him a reassuring hug or even an affectionate word, Sirius missed curling into Remus’s body and lying there just because it felt nice. In a way, that was more alarming than the first kiss, or the first dirty fantasy, or even the first time Sirius admitted to himself that he liked what he was doing with Remus, maybe more than he’d ever liked anything he’d done with a girl. It was kind of nice, too.
As usual, Sirius’s mother had attempted to destroy Sirius’s summer, and had succeeded far more than in past years. The Potters were on a family vacation for the first two months of break and though they had generously offered to take Sirius with them, Walburga had insisted he spend the first month and a half at home. This of course meant that he would be stuck there the entire two months since he had no way to catch up with the Potters and couldn’t very well stay in their house alone. Now his first month of imprisonment was drawing to a close. The idea of spending another month like that, or even the required half a month, made Sirius’s entire body ache. And while he missed James and longed for the perfect summers of yesteryear, it was not James he needed to see so much he was willing to risk being disinherited. He needed Remus. Remus who understood him because he had a monster to put up with, too. Remus who would know he was only pretending to be happy and would not have to do very much to make him stop needing to pretend. He needed Remus because Remus would let him sleep close to him and would kiss away the few nasty comments that Sirius hadn’t been able to stop from sinking in. Sirius needed Remus because no matter how many times he had told himself it was all physical, he had fallen in Love with the werewolf the first time he felt Remus’s hot breath in the library.
------
“Remind me again just what you think you’re doing here?” Remus demanded hotly once he had gotten far away enough from his house to know his parents wouldn’t over hear him or see his unwelcome guest.
“I’m…on the run? This is my safe house,” Sirius replied playfully.
“No, no it’s not. Sirius, you know perfectly well after six years that I’m not allowed to have company over the summer. My mum and dad are afraid if I do, someone will see all the werewolf literature and put two and two together.”
“But I already put two and two together, Moony.”
“I can’t exactly tell them that, they’ll go mental.”
“I’m sure you’re just exaggerating things in your head, if we told them I don’t mind-“
“Sirius, I tried hinting at it once and I wasn’t allowed to write anyone for a month. They can’t know you know, which means you can’t be here.”
“Remus, you can’t send me back there.”
“I’m sorry, I am. I don’t know what else to do. It’s only a month; I know you can afford to find some place nice to stay for a month.”
“You don’t understand. It’s…you. I want to be near you.”
“An awfully long way to come for that kind of thing, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t come to your parent’s house because I was expecting a month of debauchery, Remus. I just thought maybe I wasn’t the only one who, I don’t know. I just didn’t realize until you weren’t around that maybe we…Merlin, don’t make me say it, Remus. I sound like a thirteen year old girl.”
Remus stepped towards his uncharacteristically vulnerable friend and took the black haired boy’s hand into his own, giving it a slight squeeze.
“I just know I’m going to regret this,” Remus half-sighed. “What’s this brilliant plan of yours, then?”
------
“Absolutely not, Remus. For the last time, the answer is no.”
“But mum, he has nowhere to go. His family is on vacation-just like all of my friends. We’re both stuck here.”
“Remus, baby, please don’t guilt me. You know why we can’t go on vacation, it’s not my fault.”
“I know, but why can’t I have a little company?” In all honestly, Remus felt awful playing the guilt card, but it was the only one he had.
“He seems very sweet, but you know your father hates dogs.”
“I’m not asking you to keep him. I just want to take care of him while Sirius is on vacation. I promise I’ll take good care of him-you won’t even know he’s here.”
“I suppose I can talk your father into it since you did so well on your OWLs, but one stain or broken object and he is gone.”
Remus’s mother did not regret her decision to let the dog stay that summer as much as she had been prepared to. For one thing, her son’s mood had improved considerably since the dog had shown up and given him something to do with his time. Remus was always a little sad when he was away from his friends, though he tried to act content for her sake. But somehow the dog seemed to understand his loneliness and know just how to deal with it. Remus had come back from his transformation in higher spirits than she had ever seen him after a full moon.
Padfoot, which Mrs. Lupin found to be a ridiculous name for a dog, was rowdy and imposing but he was affectionate and miraculously well-behaved. Sometimes she was almost sure he was human from the looks he would give her or the way he would jump to respond when Remus spoke to him.
The best thing about Padfoot, however, was that he had gotten Remus out of the house. Mrs. Lupin was proud of her son for his good behavior, his love of reading, and the academic success that came with those things, but it had always worried her that he was so weary of other children. Despite fitting in at school, Remus had never even attempted to make friends at home. Thanks to Padfoot, he had certainly made at least one.
She hadn’t meant to spy the first time she saw him, but once she had spotted it, it was impossible to turn away. Sometimes she would go out and watch Remus playing fetch with Padfoot, and that’s all she had been intending to do the first time she saw the mysterious boy. It had come as a shock to her of course, seeing a complete stranger pushing her son against a tree-kissing him, and seeing her little boy’s fingers tangled in long black hair. But when he had pulled out of the kiss, Remus smiled. She recognized the smile, though she had not seen it in years. It was perfect happiness-she’d last seen it the Christmas before he was bitten. Mrs. Lupin was not going to take issue with anything if it made Remus smile like that.
After giving them their privacy, Mrs. Lupin waited all day for Remus to return. He came in, Padfoot having reappeared at his side, and gave her a warm greeting that had frozen over when she suggested he invite his new friend over for dinner the next night. She hadn’t known what was so upsetting about the offer as she didn’t let on that she knew just how friendly they were, but Mrs. Lupin never saw the boy again.
------
Three days after the scare with Remus’s mother, the boys lay juxtaposed on Remus’s bed having one of the lazy conversations that had become second-nature to them over that summer.
“Remus, are you alright? You’ve been tense all day. Your mum hasn’t said anything else, has she?”
“No, it’s just…I got an owl from James today. He said they’d gotten back and he was looking for you.”
“Wow, that month really flew, didn’t it?”
“I guess so,” Remus said softly.
“What’s wrong?” Sirius asked lifting his body just enough to put a little kiss on Remus’s forehead.
“Got kind of fond of having you around is all.”
“I…don’t have to go to James’s.”
“You should, Sirius. You always do, he’ll be expecting you, and there’s no reason you should miss all the fun.”
“How about I rephrase that? I don’t want to go.”
“Of course you do. It’s James. Besides, I know there’s not exactly much to do around here.”
“There’s you.”
“That’s filthy,” Remus said smiling wickedly.
“I didn’t mean it like that, you know. I whole-heartedly approve of the sentiment, but I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You should go. We should quit before my mother starts asking questions.”
“I can’t leave, the full moon’s next week.”
“I’ve just had the greatest summer of my life. I’ll survive the moon.”
“You really mean that, Remus?”
“My summers all suck, Sirius,” Remus reminded his friend teasingly.
“Well, mine are brilliant and this was the best.”
Remus threw a sidelong glance in Sirius’s direction. Sirius’s eyes were closed but a tiny smile played on his lips that actually looked…earnest. His stomach did a flip and he had to ask himself how he had survived the first month of the summer without him and how he was going to survive the next. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t realized months ago at Hogwarts what they really had.
“Don’t go.”
“I thought you said-“ Sirius began sitting up. Remus eased him back onto the bed.
“And I meant it. It’s a bad idea to keep you here another day. Stay anyway. Stay until after the moon?”
“That doesn’t sound like my Moony.”
Remus kissed Sirius to prove that he meant what he was saying. He was willing to put up with a little spontaneity and a lot of trouble for the sake of hearing Sirius call him his Moony.
[10]
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: Remus/Sirius
Genre: Fluff
Rating: PG-13ish? Some light sexual content.
Word Count: 2,466
Author’s Note: Written for tamingthemuse prompt # 157 - Juxtapose. This prompt and I were not agreeing with each other, so I decided to write the only story idea I have that fits the July Summer/Vacation challenge and force it to work with both prompts. Beta’d by wutendeskind.
Summary: Over the summer holidays, Remus and Sirius discover they may feel more for each other than they realized.
Fanfiction Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5248798/1/
It was never supposed to happen like this. Truth be told, it was never supposed to happen at all. But if it had to happen, it was definitely, without a question, not supposed to be like this.
They hadn’t planned it, or at least Sirius hadn’t and he was pretty sure it had come as a surprise to Remus, as well. Even now, when it happened, it was purely by accident. The fact that it was happening more and more often was just proof that they weren’t fighting it as much-not that they were actively seeking it out. You couldn’t exactly coordinate these kinds of things when you weren’t talking about them.
It had started almost a year ago, just after they’d returned to Hogwarts from summer break. Remus had been at the library all night and Sirius was having a disagreement with James which meant he was also having a disagreement with Peter. Despite the unspoken rule that Remus was allowed one night of quiet, Marauderless reading in the library per week, Sirius went to find him. Spending a night alone was just not something he was good at, while spending a night alone with Remus had become increasingly comforting to Sirius. He had found Remus picking books off the shelf despite the fact that he already had a pile of six in his arms and Remus had stubbornly refused to put the things back and entertain his friend. Since accepting Remus’s “no” wasn’t really an option, Sirius had taken it upon himself to grab a book off the stack and push it back into place. Unfortunately, the book’s proper place was on the shelf just behind Remus and in order to push the book in, Sirius had unwittingly gotten terribly, terribly close to Remus. If he had known that Remus would smell like ink and chocolate and just a hint of sweat from running to classes all day, Sirius would have stayed in the common room playing Wizard’s Chess. But once his body was half pressed against Remus’s and Remus smelled so nice and all Sirius could think was that he would taste even better, it was too late. He didn’t kiss him, he just didn’t move. And when Remus tried to push him away, his face moved forward and Sirius could see the accident happening before it played out, but he still couldn’t move. Not even when Remus’s lips had bumped into his. And as it turned out, Remus did taste nice. So Sirius kissed him again. And again. And four times after that. Remus was still clutching the remaining five books when Sirius pulled away, turned, and fled.
It was a month and a half before either acknowledged the incident again. One of the seventh years was having a party in the Hufflepuff common room, so the Marauders had crashed it. Ironically it was Peter who seduced one of the Hufflepuff girls into giving them the information they needed, so while James was with Lily, he was with his new fling. Sirius and Remus were both well on their way to being trashed and had settled into having a very amusing conversation by the fire. It was so amusing, in fact, that Sirius had forgotten himself and let his hand drift. It drifted right onto Remus’s thigh; he didn’t even realize he was groping the other boy until Remus made a weird twitchy movement and announced that he was going to go talk to someone he knew. Sirius was left by the fire remembering their night in the library and getting more sober by the moment. His hand was burning from the small touch and he’d ended up having to leave the party to relieve himself. That’s when he realized he was in trouble. It was one thing to kiss your friend a couple of times because you just like him so much and he likes you and it was a weird moment. It was another thing to have to run out of a social situation to wank your brains out because your friend happens to make really attractive noises when you accidentally sexually molest him.
It was all downhill from there. At first they had tried to avoid the alone situations, but it was impossible to have a babysitter all the time. Every time they were alone…Sirius didn’t know what it was. He couldn’t stay away from Remus, couldn’t keep Remus away from him. The accidents didn’t just become more frequent but more daring too. By the time the school year was drawing to its close, there wasn’t much Remus and Sirius weren’t doing as often as possible. One thing they weren’t doing, however, was talking about it. It was not a relationship; it was not supposed to be. Sirius thought he wanted it that way.
After a month at home where no one said anything pleasant, let alone gave him a reassuring hug or even an affectionate word, Sirius missed curling into Remus’s body and lying there just because it felt nice. In a way, that was more alarming than the first kiss, or the first dirty fantasy, or even the first time Sirius admitted to himself that he liked what he was doing with Remus, maybe more than he’d ever liked anything he’d done with a girl. It was kind of nice, too.
As usual, Sirius’s mother had attempted to destroy Sirius’s summer, and had succeeded far more than in past years. The Potters were on a family vacation for the first two months of break and though they had generously offered to take Sirius with them, Walburga had insisted he spend the first month and a half at home. This of course meant that he would be stuck there the entire two months since he had no way to catch up with the Potters and couldn’t very well stay in their house alone. Now his first month of imprisonment was drawing to a close. The idea of spending another month like that, or even the required half a month, made Sirius’s entire body ache. And while he missed James and longed for the perfect summers of yesteryear, it was not James he needed to see so much he was willing to risk being disinherited. He needed Remus. Remus who understood him because he had a monster to put up with, too. Remus who would know he was only pretending to be happy and would not have to do very much to make him stop needing to pretend. He needed Remus because Remus would let him sleep close to him and would kiss away the few nasty comments that Sirius hadn’t been able to stop from sinking in. Sirius needed Remus because no matter how many times he had told himself it was all physical, he had fallen in Love with the werewolf the first time he felt Remus’s hot breath in the library.
------
“Remind me again just what you think you’re doing here?” Remus demanded hotly once he had gotten far away enough from his house to know his parents wouldn’t over hear him or see his unwelcome guest.
“I’m…on the run? This is my safe house,” Sirius replied playfully.
“No, no it’s not. Sirius, you know perfectly well after six years that I’m not allowed to have company over the summer. My mum and dad are afraid if I do, someone will see all the werewolf literature and put two and two together.”
“But I already put two and two together, Moony.”
“I can’t exactly tell them that, they’ll go mental.”
“I’m sure you’re just exaggerating things in your head, if we told them I don’t mind-“
“Sirius, I tried hinting at it once and I wasn’t allowed to write anyone for a month. They can’t know you know, which means you can’t be here.”
“Remus, you can’t send me back there.”
“I’m sorry, I am. I don’t know what else to do. It’s only a month; I know you can afford to find some place nice to stay for a month.”
“You don’t understand. It’s…you. I want to be near you.”
“An awfully long way to come for that kind of thing, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t come to your parent’s house because I was expecting a month of debauchery, Remus. I just thought maybe I wasn’t the only one who, I don’t know. I just didn’t realize until you weren’t around that maybe we…Merlin, don’t make me say it, Remus. I sound like a thirteen year old girl.”
Remus stepped towards his uncharacteristically vulnerable friend and took the black haired boy’s hand into his own, giving it a slight squeeze.
“I just know I’m going to regret this,” Remus half-sighed. “What’s this brilliant plan of yours, then?”
------
“Absolutely not, Remus. For the last time, the answer is no.”
“But mum, he has nowhere to go. His family is on vacation-just like all of my friends. We’re both stuck here.”
“Remus, baby, please don’t guilt me. You know why we can’t go on vacation, it’s not my fault.”
“I know, but why can’t I have a little company?” In all honestly, Remus felt awful playing the guilt card, but it was the only one he had.
“He seems very sweet, but you know your father hates dogs.”
“I’m not asking you to keep him. I just want to take care of him while Sirius is on vacation. I promise I’ll take good care of him-you won’t even know he’s here.”
“I suppose I can talk your father into it since you did so well on your OWLs, but one stain or broken object and he is gone.”
Remus’s mother did not regret her decision to let the dog stay that summer as much as she had been prepared to. For one thing, her son’s mood had improved considerably since the dog had shown up and given him something to do with his time. Remus was always a little sad when he was away from his friends, though he tried to act content for her sake. But somehow the dog seemed to understand his loneliness and know just how to deal with it. Remus had come back from his transformation in higher spirits than she had ever seen him after a full moon.
Padfoot, which Mrs. Lupin found to be a ridiculous name for a dog, was rowdy and imposing but he was affectionate and miraculously well-behaved. Sometimes she was almost sure he was human from the looks he would give her or the way he would jump to respond when Remus spoke to him.
The best thing about Padfoot, however, was that he had gotten Remus out of the house. Mrs. Lupin was proud of her son for his good behavior, his love of reading, and the academic success that came with those things, but it had always worried her that he was so weary of other children. Despite fitting in at school, Remus had never even attempted to make friends at home. Thanks to Padfoot, he had certainly made at least one.
She hadn’t meant to spy the first time she saw him, but once she had spotted it, it was impossible to turn away. Sometimes she would go out and watch Remus playing fetch with Padfoot, and that’s all she had been intending to do the first time she saw the mysterious boy. It had come as a shock to her of course, seeing a complete stranger pushing her son against a tree-kissing him, and seeing her little boy’s fingers tangled in long black hair. But when he had pulled out of the kiss, Remus smiled. She recognized the smile, though she had not seen it in years. It was perfect happiness-she’d last seen it the Christmas before he was bitten. Mrs. Lupin was not going to take issue with anything if it made Remus smile like that.
After giving them their privacy, Mrs. Lupin waited all day for Remus to return. He came in, Padfoot having reappeared at his side, and gave her a warm greeting that had frozen over when she suggested he invite his new friend over for dinner the next night. She hadn’t known what was so upsetting about the offer as she didn’t let on that she knew just how friendly they were, but Mrs. Lupin never saw the boy again.
------
Three days after the scare with Remus’s mother, the boys lay juxtaposed on Remus’s bed having one of the lazy conversations that had become second-nature to them over that summer.
“Remus, are you alright? You’ve been tense all day. Your mum hasn’t said anything else, has she?”
“No, it’s just…I got an owl from James today. He said they’d gotten back and he was looking for you.”
“Wow, that month really flew, didn’t it?”
“I guess so,” Remus said softly.
“What’s wrong?” Sirius asked lifting his body just enough to put a little kiss on Remus’s forehead.
“Got kind of fond of having you around is all.”
“I…don’t have to go to James’s.”
“You should, Sirius. You always do, he’ll be expecting you, and there’s no reason you should miss all the fun.”
“How about I rephrase that? I don’t want to go.”
“Of course you do. It’s James. Besides, I know there’s not exactly much to do around here.”
“There’s you.”
“That’s filthy,” Remus said smiling wickedly.
“I didn’t mean it like that, you know. I whole-heartedly approve of the sentiment, but I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You should go. We should quit before my mother starts asking questions.”
“I can’t leave, the full moon’s next week.”
“I’ve just had the greatest summer of my life. I’ll survive the moon.”
“You really mean that, Remus?”
“My summers all suck, Sirius,” Remus reminded his friend teasingly.
“Well, mine are brilliant and this was the best.”
Remus threw a sidelong glance in Sirius’s direction. Sirius’s eyes were closed but a tiny smile played on his lips that actually looked…earnest. His stomach did a flip and he had to ask himself how he had survived the first month of the summer without him and how he was going to survive the next. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t realized months ago at Hogwarts what they really had.
“Don’t go.”
“I thought you said-“ Sirius began sitting up. Remus eased him back onto the bed.
“And I meant it. It’s a bad idea to keep you here another day. Stay anyway. Stay until after the moon?”
“That doesn’t sound like my Moony.”
Remus kissed Sirius to prove that he meant what he was saying. He was willing to put up with a little spontaneity and a lot of trouble for the sake of hearing Sirius call him his Moony.
[10]