keelywolfe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
keelywolfe) wrote2006-02-03 10:58 am
keelywolfe) wrote2006-02-03 10:58 am
Entry tags:
FIC: Do Wizards Dream of Magical Sheep? 12/12 (COMPLETED, Potterverse, Remus/Sirius)
I'm way behind in comments, I know, but I was thinking people might forgive me for that if I post the last segment. :)
Do Wizards Dream of Magical Sheep?
by Keelywolfe
Fandom: Harry Potter
Remus/Sirius
NC-17
Spoilers for all the books, up to HBP.
Summary: Set during HBP. Dead is dead, unless you're a wizard. Then things can get...complicated.
Notes: Slight modifications in time and space may have been made, altering this from the books. But if you can't tell, it's already an AU, so hey, make of that what you will.
Warnings: Hey, this is sort of dark. If you don't like dark stuff? Please dial a different number. :)
If you've been waiting for this to be finished to read it or if you just want to save it as one file, you can find the complete version here:
Read the complete version 185k
~*~
There was always a sound before a person arrived by floo, a warning of sorts. It was a faintly scratchy and gurgling sound that reminded Sirius a little of the merfolk language. It wasn't something he'd paid much attention to before, just a footnote in the back of his mind that he took out and glanced at from time to time.
These past few months it had come to mean something else entirely, a great deal of importance riding on one little sound. It meant coming home and it meant Remus and that meant…well. That had come to mean something quite different these past few weeks as well, hadn't it. He'd never before associated a floo with such affection as he did this fireplace. This was where Remus came back to him.
Only not today. Today he sat on the lumpy old sofa where he often took naps and didn't let that gurgly little sound interrupt his musings on the scent of the back of Remus's neck. He always smelled wonderful, Sirius decided, concentrating on that rather than the rising green of the fire, he smelled like buttery toast except when he smelled like sex and both were the loveliest things he could remember.
Long nails scrape lightly at the nape of his neck, shivering through his memory of Remus on his back, Remus with his face faintly damp with sweat and his mouth open, deep, hot moans escaping him.
"I am so terribly displeased with you," a cool, feminine voice cut through his remembrance like a blade. "Let me show you how our Lord expresses his displeasure."
A thin, fiery line of pain burned down his cheek, drawing water to his eyes that he blinked away, suddenly focusing on Bellatrix's cold face. There was glee in it, her delight in causing pain in others rushing to the fore as she prodded the cut on his cheek hard enough to make him wince.
"The Cruciatus curse is very effective, but sometimes the old methods are so much more satisfying." She licked a droplet of his blood off her finger. "You didn't do as I asked," she scolded, reminding him unpleasantly of his mother. Rotten, evil bitches the both of them and perhaps she could make him kill Remus, perhaps, but she couldn't make him hurt him.
"Kill him," she whispered in his ear, echoing his thoughts. "Make him pay."
"I'm sure he'd rather not, Bella."
They both startled, turned as one to stare at the fireplace where Remus was standing, his wand levelled at Bellatrix. The fire behind him shivered silently into ash, closing off the floo.
"How did you…" Sirius whispered, forcing words past his constricted throat. Please, be careful, she's mad, Remus, you have no idea how mad…
"I never left," Remus said calmly. His eyes never left Bellatrix. "I suspected she'd be coming so I cast an illusion on the fireplace so that you would see me leaving. It was kind of Snape to tell you how to get here;" he added, to Bella. "Strange that he didn't warn you that the wards would inform me if anyone came in. Perhaps he didn't know. The chance of the Death Eaters finding it was the reason we never cast the Fidelius on it to begin with."
"Indeed?" Bella said idly. "And yet, there's no fleet of Aurors protecting you."
"All in good time," Remus said mildly.
"Well, then, what are you going to do Remus?" she asked coolly. "Are you going to kill me? Oh, but then, what will become of your lover?" She laughed shrilly. "We are connected, he and I. Would you like to watch him die, right here at your feet? Would you keep his ashes on your mantel? Next to you on your bed? Rub them into your skin?"
"No one is dying here." His eyes never left Bella, even as he extended his free hand to Sirius. "You don't need to listen to her. Take my hand."
"Kill him!" Bella hissed.
Immediately his hands rose, curved into claws and yes, kill him, strangle the life from him. Pain wavered through him as he resisted, his blood burning hotly through his veins.
"Sirius, don't listen to her. You don't have to obey her." Remus repeated. His hand was steady, reaching towards Sirius. "Come here?"
"Oh, how terribly sweet," Bellatrix sounded bored, rubbing one long-nailed finger lightly over her lips. Only her eyes betrayed her, glittering black hatred at Remus. "My heart bleeds for you, truly it does. It won't work, fool. He's mine."
"He doesn't belong to anyone." For just a moment, Remus's eyes wavered, flicking towards Sirius. Dimly, he saw Bella snatch up her wand, aiming it towards Remus. Red light exploded from the tip, barely deflected by a gleam of blue from Remus's. "Please, Sirius. Take my hand." Another flick of his eyes, dark and desperate. "I need you."
Some overstressed part of his mind let go with an almost audible snap, wet and agonizing and Sirius choked on a scream even as he reached out blindly and caught that warm hand in his own.
"Bastard!" He heard her scream like something from a dream, watched the spray of spittle from her lips as she began to cast another curse. Sirius lurched forward on rubbery legs, had to get in front of it, not Remus, not now…
The expected wash of green light never emerged. Instead, Bella was jerked upward into the air, dangling like a marionette on invisible wires. She screamed again as she was brutally shaken, her body stiffening as if bound before she dropped heavily to the floor.
Remus let out a shaky breath. "I wasn't sure that spell would work, Moody said it's still being tested."
"What…I…I stopped, Remus, I stopped. She almost had me, but I stopped." He was still clinging to Remus's hand, bones grinding lightly under his frantic grasp.
Remus didn't look at him, only nudged Bellatrix with his wand testingly.
"Remus," Desperately. "I stopped, I couldn't let her make me kill you. I stopped. Remus, please!" He fell silent as Remus held up his free hand and there was a visible tremor now, quivering through long fingers.
"Shhh, I know." Remus said quietly. "It's all right. I need you to go open the door."
Sirius blinked at him, bewildered. "But I can't—"
"Just listen to me!" Sharply. "Go now and unlock the front door. Please," he added, softening the words.
It took him a moment to convince his fingers to let go of Remus's hand. He backed towards to door, needing to keep Remus and Bellatrix both in his line of sight for entirely different reasons. The lock was cool beneath his fumbling hands; it took him two tries to wrench it open. Warily, he cracked it open and peered out…and recoiled as a madly rolling eyeball met his own.
"About time," Moody grunted, pushing the door open and brushing past Sirius. A number of others brushed past him, Auror insignia on their robes. One of them was Tonks and she glanced at him, met his eyes briefly before she walked determinedly forward. He shut the door after the last of them, following them back to the sitting room.
All of them were around Bellatrix, their wands at the ready while Moody inspected her. Remus was leaning against the wall behind them, his wand dangling loosely from his fingers.
"It worked perfectly," Moody said in a satisfied tone. "Knew that any Death Eaters coming here would always try one of the Unforgivables."
"You used me as bait," Sirius said in a low voice and all eyes were abruptly on him. Remus met his eyes evenly, no glimmer of emotion within them.
"Yes, we did," he agreed softly. "I couldn't tell you, there was a chance you would have to tell whoever came. It wasn't as dangerous as you think. You saw what happened when she tried an Unforgivable curse."
"Oh, yes. I do see that," Sirius told him. He heard the anger in his own voice, was practically shaking with it. "And what about me? What if I'd hurt you? You stupid, rotten bastard how dare you put yourself at risk when you knew how I--"
Remus broke in, his quiet voice cutting through Sirius's rising shout. "I've never been afraid of you." So softly, echoing the same words he'd said when they'd first come here.
It drained his anger away and left him feeling weak, his knees gelling. Shock, probably, he decided dimly, all but falling in the closest armchair. He felt fingertips gingerly inspecting the forgotten cut on his cheek and tilted his head up into it for Remus to heal.
"All right then, we need to get her to the Ministry." Moody said. The Aurors all burst into motion, discussing the proper means to get her there without interference and only halted when Remus spoke again.
"No," Remus said, steadily. He murmured a small curing charm and the stinging in Sirius's cheek eased. "We need information from her first."
"Here now, we can't chance it," a man Sirius didn't recognize spoke up. "For all we know there are twenty Death Eaters on their way here right now."
"We need answers," Remus repeated. His voice had cooled considerable. "He deserves them. You were willing to sacrifice him if it was necessary to get at her and I went along with it. But he needs to know the truth. If you get her into the Ministry, he'll never have another chance to hear this and you know it."
Loud squabbling broke out, the Aurors jabbing accusing fingers at Remus and Sirius, as well as Bellatrix who was still lying unconscious on the floor. Remus never said a word, only looked at them with determined eyes the belied every protest levelled at them.
"Five minutes," Moody growled, startling them all. "Not a second more. Veritaserum."
One of the younger Aurors stepped forward and gave him a small glass bottle. Moody knelt down awkwardly and poured a few drops into Bella's slack mouth, waving away Kingsley with an irritated grunt when he stepped forward to help him to his feet.
"May as well get this over with," Moody said darkly. He cleared his throat loudly. "Bellatrix, we have some questions for you!"
Behind her closed lids, Bella's eyes twitched, her lashes slowly rising to reveal clouded eyes.
"Good stuff," Moody grunted in approval. His magical eye was whirling madly, shifting from wall to wall. "Now, you. Is Sirius Black a shade?"
Her mouth opened slackly. "We did shade Sirius Black."
Even though he knew it, Sirius still flinched. He felt suddenly cold, surrounded by Aurors that he didn't know who were all eyeing him warily.
"And how did that come about," demanded Moody. "All the details, if you will."
"We found him as a dog on the streets of London," her voice was a soft drone. "I couldn't remember the exact location of my Aunt's house. We suspected a Fidelius charm. It didn't erase my knowledge of the general location and so, we set Death Eaters to capture every dog in the area. We knew from Snape that he occasionally left the house in his dog form. Eventually, we found the one that was Sirius."
Bella drew in a snorting gasp of air before she continued. "Sirius knew where the house was and once we shaded him, his shade did as well because it had his memories. It wasn't a perfect copy but it didn't need to be, all he had to do was attend meetings. If he drank the rest of the time and spent his days with the hippogriff no one would suspect. The shade was unaware of his own state and only knew for the set time that he reported information on the Order to us, and then he would forget again."
"Why did you do this?" Remus asked quietly. He ignored Moody's glare, focusing on Bella.
"I didn't trust Severus Snape," Even through the drone of her voice, her anger came through. "I convinced my Lord that we could use another spy close to Dumbledore. He trusted the task to me."
"Then tell us what happened at the Department of Mysteries." Remus said. Moody said nothing, only cast a surly glance at Remus but stepped back to allow him to continue the questioning.
"Our Lord showed the boy the truth when he saw that we had captured Sirius. It was a small matter to add details, minute changes to fool his mind. We drew the boy there to get the prophecy. The shade came there with the rest of the Order and joined us."
"But Sirius fought on our side at the Ministry!" Tonks broke in angrily.
A blissful smile spread over her face. "That was his purpose. As he was not a perfect copy, he was not a perfect wizard. It was my hope he would be a hindrance." Her smile faded, her voice lowering as she said, "I didn't intend to kill him. The Dark Lord was angry with me, and I paid for the mistake, though he did allow me to save the memory in a pensieve so that it could be enjoyed by all."
"He was less pleased when we realized we couldn't shade him again," Bellatrix said. "Sirius reacted badly when the shade died. He felt its death and there was already a great deal of damage from the dementors. It might have repaired itself with time, but I had no time to waste. We tried on numerous occasions to shade him again with little effect."
"Couldn't shade him…" Kingsley said, his deep voice thoughtful. "If you couldn't shade him again, then this is—"
"That is Sirius Black," she agreed dully.
The room was silent but for the faint sound of breathing and Sirius's choked little sound nearly echoed through it. Shock was erupting through him, mingled memories that he'd taken for falsehood or insanity, memories of agony and laughter, memories of falling into darkness.
"Then why is he here instead of still imprisoned by you?" Moody asked, suspiciously.
"I wanted to kill him but my Dark Lord had a better idea. An Imperious Curse might have been detected, but his sanity was so damaged that it wasn't necessary. Instead, we implanted a single compulsion. To kill Harry Potter. My lord knew he couldn't possibly succeed."
"But it would definitely hurt Harry in other ways," Moody growled.
"Yes," she agreed flatly. "Lord Voldemort wished for the boy to hurt, so we gave him back to you. We knew what you would think when he supposedly returned from the dead. The potion Snape made would only confirm it."
"If the compulsion worked, then why did you come here at all?"
"I knew the spell would weaken over time," Bellatrix said. "It was our hope that he would be executed as a shade, but we underestimated your weakness when it came to even a shaded memory. I came to recast the spell and I added another compulsion, I wanted Sirius to take the half-breed's life."
"But it didn't work," Kingsley said, gesturing to where Remus was standing, very much alive. "Why didn't it work?"
A silver trail of saliva was leaking from Bella's mouth. "I don't know."
"I was getting better," Sirius said, slowly. The Auror next to him startled, his wand twitching upward, as Sirius got to his feet and stepped determinedly forward, "She'd mentioned before that they had cast a memory charm but I'd had no idea how deeply it ran." Now it was flaking away like paint chips, revealing lost time, barely remembered moments that were fading into view as if through a fog.
"I didn't have her picking at me every day," Sirius continued softly. "Tearing at me. I was here and…and Remus grounded me." He smiled bitterly, nudging at Bella with a toe. "Quite the vicious one, you are, but you still weren't as bad as the dementors. Sorry, Bella."
"You cast the compulsion again and then left. Why return today and risk being captured?"
"He resisted it. He and the half-breed still lived," she spat it, her hatred pushing past the Veritaserum to make itself known. "He was a blood traitor to wizards and to his own family. If he had resisted the compulsion again I would have killed the both of them myself. Blood traitors deserve nothing but death. "
"Enough, you can shut your mouth again," Moody snapped. "All right, we've gotten our answers, now we all need to be getting out of here." No one moved, a dozen pairs of eyes shifting from Bellatrix to Sirius, flickering back and forth.
Suddenly, Tonks flung herself into Sirius's shocked arms, clinging to him. "I'm so sorry," she said tearfully.
He looked up at the faces suddenly surrounding him and tried to step back, trapped by Tonks's arms.
"As delayed as this is, Sirius, I believe we need to welcome you home," Kingsley said in his deep voice, clapping a hand on Sirius's shoulder. The other Aurors crowded around, each patting his shoulder or arm.
"Don't touch me," he whispered, unheeded, his panicked eyes meeting Remus's. "Please…don't."
He understood in an instant, stepping forward and detangling her arms from around Sirius gently. It was easier to breathe when he stepped back from them and around to the back of the sofa, putting it between them.
"Nothing has changed," Sirius told them in a low voice. He kept his eyes on the sofa, tracing the flowered pattern with a fingertip. "I'm no different than I was five minutes ago."
"Sirius, you aren't—" Tonks began.
"I'm no different. Don't expect me to do a dance and play Pinocchio for you just because what you believe has changed." He shook his head. "Get out, all of you. And take that," he gestured at Bellatrix, "With you"
"Sirius," From Tonks, eyes pleading.
"Get out!" he roared. "Get OUT!"
They went, all but Remus who was standing quietly to the side, waiting until the door clicked shut behind them.
"It's not their fault, Sirius," he said, softly.
He didn't look at Remus. "I know."
"You'll forgive them eventually."
"I already do." He smiled sourly. "Doesn't mean I don't want them to suffer a bit for it, though." Soft laughter, edged with bitterness. "My friends have done me as much damage as my enemies ever did, Remus."
"Yes, we have," Remus agreed. He didn’t move to step forward, no agitation showing in him at all even though they surely needed to be leaving, just to be on the safe side. Moody had been muttering as much as he walked out the door with Bellatrix in tow.
The door.
"I opened the door." Sirius murmured. "I unlocked it. It's almost silly, a farce, really," he said conversationally. "I never did try the locks. Dumbledore told me I couldn't, and you…and I believed it. I could have left at any time, couldn't I."
"Yes."
"And they cleared my name. She wasn't lying about that, I'm a free man, aren't I."
"Yes. Sirius—"
Sirius cut him off. "I want to see Harry. Now."
There was a certain paleness to Remus's face, his voice. "All right. Let's go."
He walked out the door and Sirius followed him, waiting in a hallway lined with other brown wooden doors while Remus locked his and led him out into the sunlight.
~*~
It took a matter of moments to get to the Weasley's to see Harry. Sirius was half-afraid he'd splinch himself trying to apparate, it had been so terribly long but it came to him with comforting ease, like slipping a hand into a glove.
He let Remus walk in front of him at his urging and let his mind remain blank, his only thought was to follow Remus's shoes as he led the way up the path to the Burrow.
Molly Weasley answered their knock, her shock and unsurprising wariness at seeing Sirius Black on her front stoop was no revelation to Sirius. Her honest pleasure at seeing him alive was and Remus was forced to defend him once again from eager, womanly arms.
"I'm terribly sorry, Molly, but he's quite eager to see Harry," Remus told her smoothly. Sirius didn't miss the wary glance Remus sent him when he said the name, and didn't blame him one bit for it. But there was no rush of crimson, no thirst for blood. Only the faint, throbbing pain deep in his head that he'd had since he managed to take Remus's hand at the flat.
"Of course, of course," Molly babbled cheerfully. "They're all out in the back, getting ready for dinner, come along, it's this way. We have a houseful here, of course, everyone's here for the wedding. We wanted to get started quickly, what with the funeral…" She trailed off for a moment but then went on determinedly, rambled on lightly about the wedding as she led them through the faintly cluttered kitchen, warmth and hominess obvious in every corner of the house, and through a back door.
Sirius froze on the steps, staring out into their backyard. Dimly, he felt Remus bump into him, startled by his abrupt stop. So many people, chattering happily away. Red hair dotted the landscape, Weasley after Weasley and Molly had stopped to chat with an older man with his own thinning red hair, so many people but only one that he…there.
Across the lawn, sitting in a ramshackle wooden chair that leaned drunkenly to one side, was Harry Potter. His friends were nearby, all in their own chairs and the three of them were chatting animatedly about something. If Harry looked tired and a little worn, Sirius barely noticed. He was standing here in the sunlight and Harry was here and safe enough for the moment, from Voldemort and from him.
It was enough, he decided. It was more than enough.
There was a loud clatter as someone dropped a stack of plates to the ground and Sirius startled, all but jumping backwards into Remus but he saw it when Harry glanced his way and stopped, falling silent as he stared. Wary green eyes on his and Sirius clenched his hands into fists but there was nothing but a rising surge of affection for him.
It took an eternity for Harry to climb to his feet, walking slowly towards him. Others were falling silent, perhaps sensing an incident of some importance and they watched as Harry came up to him and stood in front of him.
"You're so tall," Sirius blurted, words breaking free without his permission.
A wide grin broke across Harry's face and for the third time today Sirius found himself swept up in an embrace. Only this one he had craved for such a long, long time. He held on fiercely, burying his face into Harry's unexpectedly tall shoulder and soaked in every bit of it.
Harry was rambling before he'd even let go, reminiscent of Molly as he went on, "We've been cleaning Grimmauld place, finally got rid of most of those awful portraits, you wouldn't believe what we had to do to get them off the wall! And we've been settling your accounts at Gringott's, you'll have to go to the Ministry, of course, and verify that you aren't dead--"
"I've missed you," Sirius broke in, simply, and Harry's grin lit up his world. He might have listened to Harry the entire day and well into the night if he hadn't glanced on the other side of the garden and saw pink hair.
Tonks must have known they were coming here and she was standing on the edge of the garden, talking with Remus. Whatever her affliction the last few times Sirius had seen her, she seemed to have recovered from it. Her hair was brilliantly pink again and Remus seemed to be soothing her, probably over all that had happened at the flat. It reminded Sirius of magic heat kettles and things that Tonks had known about Remus that he hadn't, the way she acted, the way she smelled…
"Excuse me for a moment, won’t you?" he asked Harry, already walking away.
Neither of them noticed him walking towards them until he wrapped an arm around Remus's waist. "Ta for bringing me, love," Sirius said cheerily and kissed him full on the lips, his other hand firmly on the back of Remus's head to keep him from pulling away. His lips were parted in shock and Sirius took advantage of it, sweeping his tongue over the dark softness of his mouth and stepping quickly back.
How very interesting, Remus at a loss for words. Colour was high in his cheeks by the time Remus manage to sputter out furiously. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Should be obvious. I'm staking my claim. Thought you'd like this better than pissing on your shoes." he whispered back.
"I…you…" His eyes flicked behind them and back at Tonks, who looked more than a little amused before he turned around and stormed away through the garden.
It gave Sirius a chance to glance back at the assorted people who were all finding everything but the two of them greatly interesting. All but Harry, his shocked expression fading into bemusement, and he made a vague shooing gesture in the direction Remus had vanished.
Dumbledore was right, he was clever boy.
Sirius gave him a grin and a salute, and then went after his damned lover.
"Hold up a moment, will you?" he called to Remus's retreating back. He saw his shoulders stiffen, but he did, slowing to a walk to let Sirius jog up beside him.
"I should think you'd still be angry with me," Remus told him, eyes to the front.
Sirius caught his arm and pulled him to a stop. "I was never angry with you, Remus. Oh, perhaps a bit of, but I doubt that you took the news of Dumbledore's death with grace and dignity either."
"You said…at the flat, you said—"
"Said a lot of things, didn't I?" Sirius sighed. "Remus, if I chose to walk away from you now, tell you that it was all just a shag and that I was going mental and it meant nothing, would you blame me? Would you let me walk away?"
"Yes."
Well, of course he would. "Too noble, you are. Always the Gryffindor," he said, exasperated. "School's out, Remus. You always believed in me, at great personal expense to your wardrobe, I might add."
"I believed you were a shade just like all the others." Remus said, his voice low.
"But you loved me anyway. Didn't you?" Silence and Sirius frowned. "What's the matter with you? Going to tell me now that it was all a horrid mistake and that you don't actually love me or want me?" He kept it light even as pain bloomed in his chest, fear that perhaps he was the mistaken one.
"Of course I do!" Remus snapped. He whirled around to face Sirius, glaring furiously at his stunned face. "But you don't understand! You came back and…and it wasn't you, it couldn't be you but it was just this piece of you and it wasn't everything but it was what I could have," he was babbling almost incoherently, gesturing wildly. "I could have just a little bit of you, and that would be fine, I was completely prepared to just have that one little piece!" Remus yelled at him.
Sirius stared at him and then started laughing, threw his head back and howled with it. After a moment, Remus joined him, the both of them cackling madly at the cloudless sky like a pair of hyenas, sinking down to the grass. Tall, purplish flowers surrounded them, long grasses and the sun was warm and wonderful.
"You must be the only person in the world." Sirius choked out, still laughing weakly and wiping tears from his eyes, "Who's disappointed to get what he wants."
Still chuckling, Remus managed, "Not disappointed just…I think I'm in shock. I nearly needed a crutch to keep standing just knowing it."
"Always take the crumbs offered to you, right?" Sirius rolled over on him, settling his weight on his unresisting body. "Aren't you tired of settling for crumbs?"
Remus glanced away. "Sometimes."
"You can have me, you know?" Sirius told him hoarsely, capturing one of his hands and pushing it down to cup it over his crotch. "You can have every piece of me. Every piece that's left, anyway."
Lashes dipped slowly, resting on his cheeks. "Can I?"
"Every bit," Sirius repeated, and he laughed again. "Bloody hell, Remus, who else would want it? I'm probably mad as a hatter and a March hare mixed as a daiquiri! I say the two of us go with Harry, help him finish Voldemort off, and in all the leisure time we're bound to have, we shag like rabbits. Preferably where Harry and company can't see us, but I'm not fussy."
"I am, thank you," Remus said dryly. "So get over your hopes of shagging in Molly Weasley's garden."
A thought occurred to him, sobering him, a memory from the morning that seemed so very distant now. "I was going to kill you, you know."
His lips twitched. "Yes, I know, she was quite vocal about that."
"No, I mean…I was going to kill you. To keep her from hurting you."
Remus blinked twice, considering. "I'd like to say that was sort of romantic, but I'm afraid I'm just not Shakespearean enough for that."
"You should be, you have enough of his fucking books."
"Be that as it may, I think I'll settle for a moment of pure terror."
"Gonna scream like a girl?"
"Think I can't make you do it first?"
"Probably," Sirius said agreeably. "But first, we really need to do some shopping, do you know how long it's been since I was in Diagon Alley? The both of us could use some new robes, probably a whole new wardrobe."
"I don't need you to—"
"Oh, shut it. I've been wearing your shorts for the last few months, you do so need new clothes. If you want to keep buggering me, you'll let me tart you up however I like."
Remus shook his head and laughed again. It sounded lovely. "You really are mad."
"I am," Sirius had never felt so light about it. He was really himself, he really was. "I know exactly what I am, Remus, and so do you."
"Yes, I do." With a surge, Remus pushed them over and rolled so that he was on top. "You're mine."
-finis-
And that's all she wrote. Thank you so much everyone who has been reading and comment, it truly helped push me along to finishing this. I doubt I would have managed without the encouragement. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Do Wizards Dream of Magical Sheep?
by Keelywolfe
Fandom: Harry Potter
Remus/Sirius
NC-17
Spoilers for all the books, up to HBP.
Summary: Set during HBP. Dead is dead, unless you're a wizard. Then things can get...complicated.
Notes: Slight modifications in time and space may have been made, altering this from the books. But if you can't tell, it's already an AU, so hey, make of that what you will.
Warnings: Hey, this is sort of dark. If you don't like dark stuff? Please dial a different number. :)
If you've been waiting for this to be finished to read it or if you just want to save it as one file, you can find the complete version here:
Read the complete version 185k
~*~
There was always a sound before a person arrived by floo, a warning of sorts. It was a faintly scratchy and gurgling sound that reminded Sirius a little of the merfolk language. It wasn't something he'd paid much attention to before, just a footnote in the back of his mind that he took out and glanced at from time to time.
These past few months it had come to mean something else entirely, a great deal of importance riding on one little sound. It meant coming home and it meant Remus and that meant…well. That had come to mean something quite different these past few weeks as well, hadn't it. He'd never before associated a floo with such affection as he did this fireplace. This was where Remus came back to him.
Only not today. Today he sat on the lumpy old sofa where he often took naps and didn't let that gurgly little sound interrupt his musings on the scent of the back of Remus's neck. He always smelled wonderful, Sirius decided, concentrating on that rather than the rising green of the fire, he smelled like buttery toast except when he smelled like sex and both were the loveliest things he could remember.
Long nails scrape lightly at the nape of his neck, shivering through his memory of Remus on his back, Remus with his face faintly damp with sweat and his mouth open, deep, hot moans escaping him.
"I am so terribly displeased with you," a cool, feminine voice cut through his remembrance like a blade. "Let me show you how our Lord expresses his displeasure."
A thin, fiery line of pain burned down his cheek, drawing water to his eyes that he blinked away, suddenly focusing on Bellatrix's cold face. There was glee in it, her delight in causing pain in others rushing to the fore as she prodded the cut on his cheek hard enough to make him wince.
"The Cruciatus curse is very effective, but sometimes the old methods are so much more satisfying." She licked a droplet of his blood off her finger. "You didn't do as I asked," she scolded, reminding him unpleasantly of his mother. Rotten, evil bitches the both of them and perhaps she could make him kill Remus, perhaps, but she couldn't make him hurt him.
"Kill him," she whispered in his ear, echoing his thoughts. "Make him pay."
"I'm sure he'd rather not, Bella."
They both startled, turned as one to stare at the fireplace where Remus was standing, his wand levelled at Bellatrix. The fire behind him shivered silently into ash, closing off the floo.
"How did you…" Sirius whispered, forcing words past his constricted throat. Please, be careful, she's mad, Remus, you have no idea how mad…
"I never left," Remus said calmly. His eyes never left Bellatrix. "I suspected she'd be coming so I cast an illusion on the fireplace so that you would see me leaving. It was kind of Snape to tell you how to get here;" he added, to Bella. "Strange that he didn't warn you that the wards would inform me if anyone came in. Perhaps he didn't know. The chance of the Death Eaters finding it was the reason we never cast the Fidelius on it to begin with."
"Indeed?" Bella said idly. "And yet, there's no fleet of Aurors protecting you."
"All in good time," Remus said mildly.
"Well, then, what are you going to do Remus?" she asked coolly. "Are you going to kill me? Oh, but then, what will become of your lover?" She laughed shrilly. "We are connected, he and I. Would you like to watch him die, right here at your feet? Would you keep his ashes on your mantel? Next to you on your bed? Rub them into your skin?"
"No one is dying here." His eyes never left Bella, even as he extended his free hand to Sirius. "You don't need to listen to her. Take my hand."
"Kill him!" Bella hissed.
Immediately his hands rose, curved into claws and yes, kill him, strangle the life from him. Pain wavered through him as he resisted, his blood burning hotly through his veins.
"Sirius, don't listen to her. You don't have to obey her." Remus repeated. His hand was steady, reaching towards Sirius. "Come here?"
"Oh, how terribly sweet," Bellatrix sounded bored, rubbing one long-nailed finger lightly over her lips. Only her eyes betrayed her, glittering black hatred at Remus. "My heart bleeds for you, truly it does. It won't work, fool. He's mine."
"He doesn't belong to anyone." For just a moment, Remus's eyes wavered, flicking towards Sirius. Dimly, he saw Bella snatch up her wand, aiming it towards Remus. Red light exploded from the tip, barely deflected by a gleam of blue from Remus's. "Please, Sirius. Take my hand." Another flick of his eyes, dark and desperate. "I need you."
Some overstressed part of his mind let go with an almost audible snap, wet and agonizing and Sirius choked on a scream even as he reached out blindly and caught that warm hand in his own.
"Bastard!" He heard her scream like something from a dream, watched the spray of spittle from her lips as she began to cast another curse. Sirius lurched forward on rubbery legs, had to get in front of it, not Remus, not now…
The expected wash of green light never emerged. Instead, Bella was jerked upward into the air, dangling like a marionette on invisible wires. She screamed again as she was brutally shaken, her body stiffening as if bound before she dropped heavily to the floor.
Remus let out a shaky breath. "I wasn't sure that spell would work, Moody said it's still being tested."
"What…I…I stopped, Remus, I stopped. She almost had me, but I stopped." He was still clinging to Remus's hand, bones grinding lightly under his frantic grasp.
Remus didn't look at him, only nudged Bellatrix with his wand testingly.
"Remus," Desperately. "I stopped, I couldn't let her make me kill you. I stopped. Remus, please!" He fell silent as Remus held up his free hand and there was a visible tremor now, quivering through long fingers.
"Shhh, I know." Remus said quietly. "It's all right. I need you to go open the door."
Sirius blinked at him, bewildered. "But I can't—"
"Just listen to me!" Sharply. "Go now and unlock the front door. Please," he added, softening the words.
It took him a moment to convince his fingers to let go of Remus's hand. He backed towards to door, needing to keep Remus and Bellatrix both in his line of sight for entirely different reasons. The lock was cool beneath his fumbling hands; it took him two tries to wrench it open. Warily, he cracked it open and peered out…and recoiled as a madly rolling eyeball met his own.
"About time," Moody grunted, pushing the door open and brushing past Sirius. A number of others brushed past him, Auror insignia on their robes. One of them was Tonks and she glanced at him, met his eyes briefly before she walked determinedly forward. He shut the door after the last of them, following them back to the sitting room.
All of them were around Bellatrix, their wands at the ready while Moody inspected her. Remus was leaning against the wall behind them, his wand dangling loosely from his fingers.
"It worked perfectly," Moody said in a satisfied tone. "Knew that any Death Eaters coming here would always try one of the Unforgivables."
"You used me as bait," Sirius said in a low voice and all eyes were abruptly on him. Remus met his eyes evenly, no glimmer of emotion within them.
"Yes, we did," he agreed softly. "I couldn't tell you, there was a chance you would have to tell whoever came. It wasn't as dangerous as you think. You saw what happened when she tried an Unforgivable curse."
"Oh, yes. I do see that," Sirius told him. He heard the anger in his own voice, was practically shaking with it. "And what about me? What if I'd hurt you? You stupid, rotten bastard how dare you put yourself at risk when you knew how I--"
Remus broke in, his quiet voice cutting through Sirius's rising shout. "I've never been afraid of you." So softly, echoing the same words he'd said when they'd first come here.
It drained his anger away and left him feeling weak, his knees gelling. Shock, probably, he decided dimly, all but falling in the closest armchair. He felt fingertips gingerly inspecting the forgotten cut on his cheek and tilted his head up into it for Remus to heal.
"All right then, we need to get her to the Ministry." Moody said. The Aurors all burst into motion, discussing the proper means to get her there without interference and only halted when Remus spoke again.
"No," Remus said, steadily. He murmured a small curing charm and the stinging in Sirius's cheek eased. "We need information from her first."
"Here now, we can't chance it," a man Sirius didn't recognize spoke up. "For all we know there are twenty Death Eaters on their way here right now."
"We need answers," Remus repeated. His voice had cooled considerable. "He deserves them. You were willing to sacrifice him if it was necessary to get at her and I went along with it. But he needs to know the truth. If you get her into the Ministry, he'll never have another chance to hear this and you know it."
Loud squabbling broke out, the Aurors jabbing accusing fingers at Remus and Sirius, as well as Bellatrix who was still lying unconscious on the floor. Remus never said a word, only looked at them with determined eyes the belied every protest levelled at them.
"Five minutes," Moody growled, startling them all. "Not a second more. Veritaserum."
One of the younger Aurors stepped forward and gave him a small glass bottle. Moody knelt down awkwardly and poured a few drops into Bella's slack mouth, waving away Kingsley with an irritated grunt when he stepped forward to help him to his feet.
"May as well get this over with," Moody said darkly. He cleared his throat loudly. "Bellatrix, we have some questions for you!"
Behind her closed lids, Bella's eyes twitched, her lashes slowly rising to reveal clouded eyes.
"Good stuff," Moody grunted in approval. His magical eye was whirling madly, shifting from wall to wall. "Now, you. Is Sirius Black a shade?"
Her mouth opened slackly. "We did shade Sirius Black."
Even though he knew it, Sirius still flinched. He felt suddenly cold, surrounded by Aurors that he didn't know who were all eyeing him warily.
"And how did that come about," demanded Moody. "All the details, if you will."
"We found him as a dog on the streets of London," her voice was a soft drone. "I couldn't remember the exact location of my Aunt's house. We suspected a Fidelius charm. It didn't erase my knowledge of the general location and so, we set Death Eaters to capture every dog in the area. We knew from Snape that he occasionally left the house in his dog form. Eventually, we found the one that was Sirius."
Bella drew in a snorting gasp of air before she continued. "Sirius knew where the house was and once we shaded him, his shade did as well because it had his memories. It wasn't a perfect copy but it didn't need to be, all he had to do was attend meetings. If he drank the rest of the time and spent his days with the hippogriff no one would suspect. The shade was unaware of his own state and only knew for the set time that he reported information on the Order to us, and then he would forget again."
"Why did you do this?" Remus asked quietly. He ignored Moody's glare, focusing on Bella.
"I didn't trust Severus Snape," Even through the drone of her voice, her anger came through. "I convinced my Lord that we could use another spy close to Dumbledore. He trusted the task to me."
"Then tell us what happened at the Department of Mysteries." Remus said. Moody said nothing, only cast a surly glance at Remus but stepped back to allow him to continue the questioning.
"Our Lord showed the boy the truth when he saw that we had captured Sirius. It was a small matter to add details, minute changes to fool his mind. We drew the boy there to get the prophecy. The shade came there with the rest of the Order and joined us."
"But Sirius fought on our side at the Ministry!" Tonks broke in angrily.
A blissful smile spread over her face. "That was his purpose. As he was not a perfect copy, he was not a perfect wizard. It was my hope he would be a hindrance." Her smile faded, her voice lowering as she said, "I didn't intend to kill him. The Dark Lord was angry with me, and I paid for the mistake, though he did allow me to save the memory in a pensieve so that it could be enjoyed by all."
"He was less pleased when we realized we couldn't shade him again," Bellatrix said. "Sirius reacted badly when the shade died. He felt its death and there was already a great deal of damage from the dementors. It might have repaired itself with time, but I had no time to waste. We tried on numerous occasions to shade him again with little effect."
"Couldn't shade him…" Kingsley said, his deep voice thoughtful. "If you couldn't shade him again, then this is—"
"That is Sirius Black," she agreed dully.
The room was silent but for the faint sound of breathing and Sirius's choked little sound nearly echoed through it. Shock was erupting through him, mingled memories that he'd taken for falsehood or insanity, memories of agony and laughter, memories of falling into darkness.
"Then why is he here instead of still imprisoned by you?" Moody asked, suspiciously.
"I wanted to kill him but my Dark Lord had a better idea. An Imperious Curse might have been detected, but his sanity was so damaged that it wasn't necessary. Instead, we implanted a single compulsion. To kill Harry Potter. My lord knew he couldn't possibly succeed."
"But it would definitely hurt Harry in other ways," Moody growled.
"Yes," she agreed flatly. "Lord Voldemort wished for the boy to hurt, so we gave him back to you. We knew what you would think when he supposedly returned from the dead. The potion Snape made would only confirm it."
"If the compulsion worked, then why did you come here at all?"
"I knew the spell would weaken over time," Bellatrix said. "It was our hope that he would be executed as a shade, but we underestimated your weakness when it came to even a shaded memory. I came to recast the spell and I added another compulsion, I wanted Sirius to take the half-breed's life."
"But it didn't work," Kingsley said, gesturing to where Remus was standing, very much alive. "Why didn't it work?"
A silver trail of saliva was leaking from Bella's mouth. "I don't know."
"I was getting better," Sirius said, slowly. The Auror next to him startled, his wand twitching upward, as Sirius got to his feet and stepped determinedly forward, "She'd mentioned before that they had cast a memory charm but I'd had no idea how deeply it ran." Now it was flaking away like paint chips, revealing lost time, barely remembered moments that were fading into view as if through a fog.
"I didn't have her picking at me every day," Sirius continued softly. "Tearing at me. I was here and…and Remus grounded me." He smiled bitterly, nudging at Bella with a toe. "Quite the vicious one, you are, but you still weren't as bad as the dementors. Sorry, Bella."
"You cast the compulsion again and then left. Why return today and risk being captured?"
"He resisted it. He and the half-breed still lived," she spat it, her hatred pushing past the Veritaserum to make itself known. "He was a blood traitor to wizards and to his own family. If he had resisted the compulsion again I would have killed the both of them myself. Blood traitors deserve nothing but death. "
"Enough, you can shut your mouth again," Moody snapped. "All right, we've gotten our answers, now we all need to be getting out of here." No one moved, a dozen pairs of eyes shifting from Bellatrix to Sirius, flickering back and forth.
Suddenly, Tonks flung herself into Sirius's shocked arms, clinging to him. "I'm so sorry," she said tearfully.
He looked up at the faces suddenly surrounding him and tried to step back, trapped by Tonks's arms.
"As delayed as this is, Sirius, I believe we need to welcome you home," Kingsley said in his deep voice, clapping a hand on Sirius's shoulder. The other Aurors crowded around, each patting his shoulder or arm.
"Don't touch me," he whispered, unheeded, his panicked eyes meeting Remus's. "Please…don't."
He understood in an instant, stepping forward and detangling her arms from around Sirius gently. It was easier to breathe when he stepped back from them and around to the back of the sofa, putting it between them.
"Nothing has changed," Sirius told them in a low voice. He kept his eyes on the sofa, tracing the flowered pattern with a fingertip. "I'm no different than I was five minutes ago."
"Sirius, you aren't—" Tonks began.
"I'm no different. Don't expect me to do a dance and play Pinocchio for you just because what you believe has changed." He shook his head. "Get out, all of you. And take that," he gestured at Bellatrix, "With you"
"Sirius," From Tonks, eyes pleading.
"Get out!" he roared. "Get OUT!"
They went, all but Remus who was standing quietly to the side, waiting until the door clicked shut behind them.
"It's not their fault, Sirius," he said, softly.
He didn't look at Remus. "I know."
"You'll forgive them eventually."
"I already do." He smiled sourly. "Doesn't mean I don't want them to suffer a bit for it, though." Soft laughter, edged with bitterness. "My friends have done me as much damage as my enemies ever did, Remus."
"Yes, we have," Remus agreed. He didn’t move to step forward, no agitation showing in him at all even though they surely needed to be leaving, just to be on the safe side. Moody had been muttering as much as he walked out the door with Bellatrix in tow.
The door.
"I opened the door." Sirius murmured. "I unlocked it. It's almost silly, a farce, really," he said conversationally. "I never did try the locks. Dumbledore told me I couldn't, and you…and I believed it. I could have left at any time, couldn't I."
"Yes."
"And they cleared my name. She wasn't lying about that, I'm a free man, aren't I."
"Yes. Sirius—"
Sirius cut him off. "I want to see Harry. Now."
There was a certain paleness to Remus's face, his voice. "All right. Let's go."
He walked out the door and Sirius followed him, waiting in a hallway lined with other brown wooden doors while Remus locked his and led him out into the sunlight.
~*~
It took a matter of moments to get to the Weasley's to see Harry. Sirius was half-afraid he'd splinch himself trying to apparate, it had been so terribly long but it came to him with comforting ease, like slipping a hand into a glove.
He let Remus walk in front of him at his urging and let his mind remain blank, his only thought was to follow Remus's shoes as he led the way up the path to the Burrow.
Molly Weasley answered their knock, her shock and unsurprising wariness at seeing Sirius Black on her front stoop was no revelation to Sirius. Her honest pleasure at seeing him alive was and Remus was forced to defend him once again from eager, womanly arms.
"I'm terribly sorry, Molly, but he's quite eager to see Harry," Remus told her smoothly. Sirius didn't miss the wary glance Remus sent him when he said the name, and didn't blame him one bit for it. But there was no rush of crimson, no thirst for blood. Only the faint, throbbing pain deep in his head that he'd had since he managed to take Remus's hand at the flat.
"Of course, of course," Molly babbled cheerfully. "They're all out in the back, getting ready for dinner, come along, it's this way. We have a houseful here, of course, everyone's here for the wedding. We wanted to get started quickly, what with the funeral…" She trailed off for a moment but then went on determinedly, rambled on lightly about the wedding as she led them through the faintly cluttered kitchen, warmth and hominess obvious in every corner of the house, and through a back door.
Sirius froze on the steps, staring out into their backyard. Dimly, he felt Remus bump into him, startled by his abrupt stop. So many people, chattering happily away. Red hair dotted the landscape, Weasley after Weasley and Molly had stopped to chat with an older man with his own thinning red hair, so many people but only one that he…there.
Across the lawn, sitting in a ramshackle wooden chair that leaned drunkenly to one side, was Harry Potter. His friends were nearby, all in their own chairs and the three of them were chatting animatedly about something. If Harry looked tired and a little worn, Sirius barely noticed. He was standing here in the sunlight and Harry was here and safe enough for the moment, from Voldemort and from him.
It was enough, he decided. It was more than enough.
There was a loud clatter as someone dropped a stack of plates to the ground and Sirius startled, all but jumping backwards into Remus but he saw it when Harry glanced his way and stopped, falling silent as he stared. Wary green eyes on his and Sirius clenched his hands into fists but there was nothing but a rising surge of affection for him.
It took an eternity for Harry to climb to his feet, walking slowly towards him. Others were falling silent, perhaps sensing an incident of some importance and they watched as Harry came up to him and stood in front of him.
"You're so tall," Sirius blurted, words breaking free without his permission.
A wide grin broke across Harry's face and for the third time today Sirius found himself swept up in an embrace. Only this one he had craved for such a long, long time. He held on fiercely, burying his face into Harry's unexpectedly tall shoulder and soaked in every bit of it.
Harry was rambling before he'd even let go, reminiscent of Molly as he went on, "We've been cleaning Grimmauld place, finally got rid of most of those awful portraits, you wouldn't believe what we had to do to get them off the wall! And we've been settling your accounts at Gringott's, you'll have to go to the Ministry, of course, and verify that you aren't dead--"
"I've missed you," Sirius broke in, simply, and Harry's grin lit up his world. He might have listened to Harry the entire day and well into the night if he hadn't glanced on the other side of the garden and saw pink hair.
Tonks must have known they were coming here and she was standing on the edge of the garden, talking with Remus. Whatever her affliction the last few times Sirius had seen her, she seemed to have recovered from it. Her hair was brilliantly pink again and Remus seemed to be soothing her, probably over all that had happened at the flat. It reminded Sirius of magic heat kettles and things that Tonks had known about Remus that he hadn't, the way she acted, the way she smelled…
"Excuse me for a moment, won’t you?" he asked Harry, already walking away.
Neither of them noticed him walking towards them until he wrapped an arm around Remus's waist. "Ta for bringing me, love," Sirius said cheerily and kissed him full on the lips, his other hand firmly on the back of Remus's head to keep him from pulling away. His lips were parted in shock and Sirius took advantage of it, sweeping his tongue over the dark softness of his mouth and stepping quickly back.
How very interesting, Remus at a loss for words. Colour was high in his cheeks by the time Remus manage to sputter out furiously. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Should be obvious. I'm staking my claim. Thought you'd like this better than pissing on your shoes." he whispered back.
"I…you…" His eyes flicked behind them and back at Tonks, who looked more than a little amused before he turned around and stormed away through the garden.
It gave Sirius a chance to glance back at the assorted people who were all finding everything but the two of them greatly interesting. All but Harry, his shocked expression fading into bemusement, and he made a vague shooing gesture in the direction Remus had vanished.
Dumbledore was right, he was clever boy.
Sirius gave him a grin and a salute, and then went after his damned lover.
"Hold up a moment, will you?" he called to Remus's retreating back. He saw his shoulders stiffen, but he did, slowing to a walk to let Sirius jog up beside him.
"I should think you'd still be angry with me," Remus told him, eyes to the front.
Sirius caught his arm and pulled him to a stop. "I was never angry with you, Remus. Oh, perhaps a bit of, but I doubt that you took the news of Dumbledore's death with grace and dignity either."
"You said…at the flat, you said—"
"Said a lot of things, didn't I?" Sirius sighed. "Remus, if I chose to walk away from you now, tell you that it was all just a shag and that I was going mental and it meant nothing, would you blame me? Would you let me walk away?"
"Yes."
Well, of course he would. "Too noble, you are. Always the Gryffindor," he said, exasperated. "School's out, Remus. You always believed in me, at great personal expense to your wardrobe, I might add."
"I believed you were a shade just like all the others." Remus said, his voice low.
"But you loved me anyway. Didn't you?" Silence and Sirius frowned. "What's the matter with you? Going to tell me now that it was all a horrid mistake and that you don't actually love me or want me?" He kept it light even as pain bloomed in his chest, fear that perhaps he was the mistaken one.
"Of course I do!" Remus snapped. He whirled around to face Sirius, glaring furiously at his stunned face. "But you don't understand! You came back and…and it wasn't you, it couldn't be you but it was just this piece of you and it wasn't everything but it was what I could have," he was babbling almost incoherently, gesturing wildly. "I could have just a little bit of you, and that would be fine, I was completely prepared to just have that one little piece!" Remus yelled at him.
Sirius stared at him and then started laughing, threw his head back and howled with it. After a moment, Remus joined him, the both of them cackling madly at the cloudless sky like a pair of hyenas, sinking down to the grass. Tall, purplish flowers surrounded them, long grasses and the sun was warm and wonderful.
"You must be the only person in the world." Sirius choked out, still laughing weakly and wiping tears from his eyes, "Who's disappointed to get what he wants."
Still chuckling, Remus managed, "Not disappointed just…I think I'm in shock. I nearly needed a crutch to keep standing just knowing it."
"Always take the crumbs offered to you, right?" Sirius rolled over on him, settling his weight on his unresisting body. "Aren't you tired of settling for crumbs?"
Remus glanced away. "Sometimes."
"You can have me, you know?" Sirius told him hoarsely, capturing one of his hands and pushing it down to cup it over his crotch. "You can have every piece of me. Every piece that's left, anyway."
Lashes dipped slowly, resting on his cheeks. "Can I?"
"Every bit," Sirius repeated, and he laughed again. "Bloody hell, Remus, who else would want it? I'm probably mad as a hatter and a March hare mixed as a daiquiri! I say the two of us go with Harry, help him finish Voldemort off, and in all the leisure time we're bound to have, we shag like rabbits. Preferably where Harry and company can't see us, but I'm not fussy."
"I am, thank you," Remus said dryly. "So get over your hopes of shagging in Molly Weasley's garden."
A thought occurred to him, sobering him, a memory from the morning that seemed so very distant now. "I was going to kill you, you know."
His lips twitched. "Yes, I know, she was quite vocal about that."
"No, I mean…I was going to kill you. To keep her from hurting you."
Remus blinked twice, considering. "I'd like to say that was sort of romantic, but I'm afraid I'm just not Shakespearean enough for that."
"You should be, you have enough of his fucking books."
"Be that as it may, I think I'll settle for a moment of pure terror."
"Gonna scream like a girl?"
"Think I can't make you do it first?"
"Probably," Sirius said agreeably. "But first, we really need to do some shopping, do you know how long it's been since I was in Diagon Alley? The both of us could use some new robes, probably a whole new wardrobe."
"I don't need you to—"
"Oh, shut it. I've been wearing your shorts for the last few months, you do so need new clothes. If you want to keep buggering me, you'll let me tart you up however I like."
Remus shook his head and laughed again. It sounded lovely. "You really are mad."
"I am," Sirius had never felt so light about it. He was really himself, he really was. "I know exactly what I am, Remus, and so do you."
"Yes, I do." With a surge, Remus pushed them over and rolled so that he was on top. "You're mine."
-finis-
And that's all she wrote. Thank you so much everyone who has been reading and comment, it truly helped push me along to finishing this. I doubt I would have managed without the encouragement. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.