Apples for Brightly18
Title: Apples
Author: Thesiriusmoon
Recipient: Brightly18
Beta'd by: The wonderful minimoonylupin! Though I did go and tweak a bit after she got done with it, so any flagrant mistakes are mine!
Keyword: Bucket, Mop, Illustrated Book About Birds
Dialogue: "Look at What You've Done!"
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: Still not mine. Sigh.
Word Count: 2210
Summay: Just the sound of an apple drove Remus absolutly bonkers...
A/N: So apparently I'm on a 'how they got together kick' lately. Honestly, I have no idea where this came from :) Ah the twisted workings of our own minds....
The first quote is from the King James Bible. The ones in the middle are paraphrased from various bits of Greek lore, and the final quote is from Hedwig & The Angry Inch. Enjoy!
The fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall surely not die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
***
There was something tantalizing about the scent of apples. Maybe it had something to do with the Original Sin, that first taste of knowledge. Not that Remus would ever articulate it. If Sirius or James ever found out that he had read the bible he’d never live it down. But that didn’t change the way he felt whenever apples were nearby. It was as if their very presence took him back to that garden, leaving him a quivering mess on the floor. In layman’s terms (or as Remus privately called it ‘Peter Speak’) just the sound of an apple drove Remus absolutely bonkers.
***
“I can’t believe we’re Sixth Years!” James collapsed on his four poster with an incredulous sigh.
“I can. “ Sirius’ voice was muffled, emanating from the depths of his trunk. “We’re going to rule this place!”
“What about the Seventh Years?” Peter was sitting cross legged on his bed, idly rolling a gob stone in the palm of his hand.
“The Seventh Years are a bunch of pushovers!” James stated grandly, his head pillowed on his arms.
Peter mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “Kingsley Shaklebolt.” James threw a pillow at him.
“Can’t wait for the moon.” Sirius was still up to his waist in his trunk. “When is it Moony?”
Remus emerged from his book, looking bemused.
“What?”
“The moon! When is it?”
“Two days.” Remus disappeared back into "Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds". The one with the gannet.
The comfortable silence that descended over the dorm was broken only by the sound of Sirius cursing quietly and occasionally flinging something out of his trunk.
“What the bloody hell are you looking for Pads!” James sent an annoyed glance at Sirius’ waving bottom.
“Aha!” Sirius emerged, triumphant, an apple clutched in his hand.
James rolled his eyes. “We just had dinner you nonce!”
Sirius grinned devilishly and took a huge bite, juiced dribbling down his chin.
With an almost convulsive flinch Remus dropped his book and glanced wildly around the room before landing his panicked gaze on Sirius. Sirius grinned and took another bite.
“Want some?” He waggled his eyebrows
Remus made a chocked sort of sound, mumbled something about a shower, and almost ran into the bathroom. James started after him, looking nonplussed.
“What in Merlin’s name was that about?”
Sirius shrugged and took another bite of apple before tossing it in the bin, an almost speculative look on his face. This time the silence was broken only by the soft sound of running water and Peters squeal when his gobstone squirted him in the face.
***
Hera, queen of the gods, owned some precious apple trees that she had received as a wedding present from Gaia, the earth mother. Tended by the Hesperides, the Daughters of Evening, and guarded by a fierce dragon, these trees grew in a garden somewhere far in the west. Their apples were golden, tasted like honey, and had magical powers. They could heal, they renewed themselves as they were eaten, and if thrown, they always hit their target and then returned to the thrower's hand.
***
Remus remembered very little of the nights of the full moon. What he did remember came in bits and pieces, often too jumbled to make a coherent picture. Howling at the moon, gnawing at his own leg, flipping a great black dog, tearing into a rabbit. This moon had been different. It had started the same; fear-anger-pain. Those emotions were quickly smothered by pack-safe-happy. But after, that’s where things got weird. Because on this moon there was one thing that every single memory had in common. The overwhelming smell of apples.
***
“God Padfoot, what are you wearing?”
“ s’my new cologne. Like it?”
“Smells like a bloody apple orchard.”
Remus slowly opened his eyes. James and Sirius were lounging on the floor, papers spread all around them. Peter was nowhere to be seen.
“I think its masculine.” Sirius puffed his chest out and tossed his head.
“I think it’s poncy.”
Sirius threw a pillow at James’ head. Remus tried desperately not to hyperventilate.
“You’re just jealous.”
“Of what!”
“My apple scented bits!”
Remus began to cough uncontrollably. Sirius and James got up and walked over to him.
“You okay Moony?” This close up the smell was overpowering. Remus looked anywhere but at Sirius.
“Yeah.” His voice sounded rusty. “Just tired.”
“No wonder!” James grinned. “The wolf was mental last night!”
Remus looked up sharply.
“What!”
“Yeah!” James shook his head. “I’ve never seen it so playful! Kept jumping up on Padfoot, trying to get him to wrestle or summat! Mental…”
Remus found himself blushing furiously.
“You still got a fever?” Sirius reached out a hand and gently touched Remus’ forehead. Remus shuddered and turned his face away.
“You sure you’re okay?” James sounded worried, but Remus couldn’t look up. Because if he did then Sirius’ apple scented bits were going to be in very immediate danger.
“Crick in my neck.” He whispered instead.
James and Sirius took him at his word, he was often moody and quiet after a moon. They nodded and went back to their homework. Remus closed his eyes and began to drift back to sleep.
“Still think apples are poncy.” James whispered.
“You know you want me.” Sirius whispered back.
Remus had very unsettling dreams.
***
For the eleventh of his 12 great labors, the hero Hercules had to obtain golden apples. After a long, difficult journey across North Africa, he enlisted the help of the giant Atlas, who entered the garden, strangled the dragon, and obtained the fruit.
***
“James you wanker!”
Sirius stood in the center of the room, covered in soapy water. His bucket and mop lay forgotten on the floor next to him as he glared daggers at James. The bespectacled boy in question was leaning on his own mop for support as he laughed hysterically.
Remus surveyed the carnage that had once been the potions dungeon and wondered, not for the first time, why the professors insisted on having the Marauders clean the muggle way for detention. It always, inevitably, ended with the room in question twice as messy as it had been before and the professor in question cleaning it with magic in a desperate attempt to finally be able to go to bed.
Peter was valiantly scrubbing at some long dried on flobberworm guts and Remus looked forlornly at the pile of… something… that he was supposed to be getting out of the corner. It was a lost cause really…
Sirius let out a decidedly unmanly shriek as Remus’ bucket of water joined James’.
“Remus!” Sirius looked flabbergasted, as if he could not believe that quiet, mild mannered Moony could actually have dumped a bucket of water on him. James just laughed harder, if that was even possible. Peter looked awed.
“Why Remus…” Sirius’ voice had gotten silkily sweet, a tone Remus had long ago learned to fear. “Look what you did.” He grinned, an evil, terrifying grin. He raised his wand and pointed it at the bubbles that now covered the greater part of the dungeon. Remus held his breath. And with a little ‘flick’ Sirius turned every single one of those bubbles into apples. They bounced and rolled across the room, their shiny golden skins glowing in the firelight. A few broke open, their glossy white innards exposed, and began leaking juice all over the floor. One hit Remus’ shoe. He shuddered.
“Apples?” Peter sounded confused. “What…” James put a hand over his mouth.
Sirius was still grinning at Remus. Something deep in his stomach was tying itself into knots. He thought he might puke. Or cry. Sirius bent down and picked one up, holding it out to him.
“Here.” He took a step closer. “Take a bite.”
Remus gulped and took the apple from Sirius’ hand. He was sweating now, the room seemed unbearably close. The apple was cool and perfectly hard, not even the hint of a mushy spot. Remus knew exactly how it would taste. Crisp and tart and sweet… He stared down at it, waved his wand, and turned it into devils snare.
“Here you go.” He tossed it at Sirius, attempting nonchalance and failing. Sirius yelped and began wrestling with the vine. Remus used the ensuing confusion to make good on his escape.
***
Atlanta refused to marry unless a suitor could defeat her in a running race. One suitor, Milanion, accomplished this goal by dropping 3 golden apples (gifts of Venus, the Goddess of Love) during the race. Atlanta stopped to pick them up, lost the race, and became his wife
***
Remus Lupin spent most of his time trapped in his own head. His friends never seemed to have this problem. Sirius could wax eloquent on the merits of a well developed tomato for hours and James could make even cauldrons seem interesting. Even Peter could come up with random comments that would send the marauders into stitches. But Remus, Remus was a thinker. And thinkers, as Sirius was so fond of pointing out, spent far too much time thinking and not nearly enough time doing.
Being a thinker didn’t usually bother him. There were things in his head that he didn’t want to ever let out. Because if he did… His friends thought they knew him. Thought they understood what it meant when he said he was a werewolf. But they didn’t. To them it meant nights of exploring and adventure and a friend who could pick them up with one hand. They thought of the wolf as a separate being, as something that only showed up when the moon was full. It wasn’t. He wasn’t. Remus and Moony were the same person. All the time.
He even forgot that himself sometimes. Let himself get so caught up with being ‘normal’ that he forgot he wasn’t. Then he would do or say something, something so small that his friends sometimes didn’t even notice. A whine when he felt poorly. Avarice at the scent of meat. The desire to rip apart anyone who dared come near his pack. And he would remember. He would remember that, in the end, he wasn’t human.
He couldn’t forget it now. Because when Sirius had held out that apple all he could think about was claiming him. Marking Sirius as his own and taking him right there on the dungeon floor. He could almost feel what it would be like to have Sirius’ throat in his jaws…
That was why Remus never said what he was thinking. Because if he slipped, if he slipped even once, the fragile illusion he had spent seven years building would be destroyed, and he would be alone again. And nothing is worse for a wolf than being alone.
***
“There you are.”
Sirius walked slowly into the green house, blocking Remus’ only escape route with a large potted plant. Remus himself was sitting in a corner with his knees up to his ears, wishing he had thought of a more original place to hide. Of course Sirius would find him here, this is where he always went when he was upset.
“You didn’t have to leave you know.” Sirius’ voice was gentle, completely unlike the brash, confident young man the rest of the school knew.
“Yes I did.” Remus’ voice was husky, strained. He had hoped for a chance to collect himself before he had to face Sirius.
“No. You didn’t.”
And then Sirius was kneeling in front of him, neck bared. Remus whined deep in this throat and turned his head away.
“Do you really think.” Sirius was whispering, as he gently turned Remus to face him. “That after seven years, I wouldn’t know you?” He leaned in, mouth brushing Remus’ ear. “Did you think that I could ever not love you?”
And then there was heat, and the explosion of apples on Remus’ tongue as Sirius kissed him. And Remus was biting him, teeth closed ever so gently on Sirius’ throat. And now it was Sirius who was whining, and God why hadn’t they done this before?
“If I had known it was going to be this easy,” Sirius whispered, “I would have done it a long time ago and saved myself a lot of bother.”
Remus shut him up with his mouth.
Later, as they stared up at the greenhouse roof through a canopy of venomous tentaculars, Sirius produced another apple. They ate it slowly, savoring its tangy sweetness, as the moon rose
***
She took a bite of the apple, and she found out what was good and what was evil. Then she gave it to Adam, so he would know, because they were in love. And that was good, they now knew.