Once in a Blue Moon (COMPLETE)

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The Birth of a New Day
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The Ministry was already crowded, despite the early hour, and it took them nearly half an hour to locate Romulus and Alana.

Rita, who Remus would much rather have avoided, found them within minutes of their arrival. “The application’s going to be heard in public,” she complained. “But make sure neither of you go talking to other reporters, I still have exclusive rights.”

Remus scowled at Rita as she repeated her plea for silence to Romulus. “We don’t want to talk to the press,” he told her yet again. He didn’t add ‘including you’, but the tone of his voice got the point across. Not that it deterred the determined, young woman.

Thankfully, before he could do anything that might result in him being brought before the Wizengamot on more criminal charges, he was distracted by the sound of a very familiar voice.

“Sirius! Remus!” James Potter was belting down the corridor, Lily hot on his heels. “I just got your owl, we were on our honeymoon!”

“You cut short your honeymoon?” Remus asked, completely dismayed at the idea.

“Well, yeah!” James replied. “Peter got his owl and flooed to us with the news. Then we heard from Remus’s brother about how you’d got caught and the application, and Peter went right to the Ministry’s library. He’s right behind us with a ton of books to help.”

“Doubt if we’ll need them,” Peter announced from somewhere at the back of the teetering pile. “Sirius and Remus probably have it all worked out. Bet they’ve been mugging up on the legislation ever since Sirius made the application, right?”

Remus felt himself flushing slightly under the smirking gazes of their friends.

“Just kidding,” Peter grinned. “We knew you’d have spent the entire time shagging, without giving any thought to what you were actually going to say this afternoon.”

“We haven’t spent the entire time shagging,” Sirius muttered, his face reddening again as he pulled a few of the books from the top of the pile. “We didn’t get time to research anything though, so thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Peter replied with a shrug.

“So, what have you got planned?” Remus asked.

“It doesn’t really matter what they have planned,” a cold, hard voice announced from the doorway to the room where the hearing would be held. “This application isn’t going to succeed.”

“Father!” Sirius snapped, turning to glare at the older man. Orion Black gave Sirius a curious stare; he appeared rather surprised to find Sirius staring right back at him. “I thought there were three wizards hearing the applications?”

“I don’t think you’ll find much help from old Barrows,” Orion smirked. “He was in the West Country when the local werewolf pack went on the rampage back in the sixties. He’s been pushing for legislation to legalise hunting the beasts.”

Remus felt Sirius clutching at his hand, and he squeezed back softly. “We only need two of the three votes,” Sirius reminded his father.

“You think you’re getting mine?” Orion laughed humourlessly.

“You don’t want to fight me on this,” Sirius warned in a low voice.

“I’ll never give my consent to this application!”

“Yes, you will,” Sirius replied. “Unless you want me to let slip to Mother about the witches you invite to the house when she’s out visiting.”

Orion glared at him. “You can’t play that particular card again,” he told him coldly. “You’re too late. Your mother found out everything yesterday.”

“You’re lying.”

Orion shook his head. “Your disappearance caused both our schedules to be re-arranged. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention this to Matilda. She arrived right on time, much to your mother’s surprise.”

Sirius snickered, even though it meant that they were one step further away from getting the application granted. They still had one more card to play though. “Well, how about this,” he said. “If you don’t grant the application, I’ll tell them how you lied during Remus’s hearing…”

“I never-”

“Oh, you’ve forgotten,” Sirius asked sarcastically. “Perhaps I heard incorrectly. Remus, do you remember that hearing, by any chance?”

Remus turned his gaze from Sirius and looked into the cold grey eyes of Orion Black. “I remember it, and I believe we can ask for a pensieve to be used if there’s any dispute.”

“You were unfit to take responsibility for the werewolf,” Orion stated. “You were blind and depressed, and certainly not in your right mind. I merely saved you from making a fool of yourself.”

“I was depressed, because I’d been informed that the man I loved was dead!”

Remus felt Sirius’s hand leaving his grasp, and he reached out to put a restraining hand on the other man’s arm.

“I was blind, because I’d been given the wrong potions!”

“A mishap at St Mungo’s is hardly grounds for your accusations.” Orion waved his hand airily and turned to re-enter the room behind him.

“But when you put it all together, those accusations don’t exactly put you in the most positive of lights,” Sirius stated.

“We can ask for another hearing,” Remus interrupted, unable to hold his tongue any longer. “Another week, next month even.”

“No!” Sirius shook his head. “This hearing is going to be heard, and we’re going to win.”

Orion smirked, as though he knew something that they didn’t. Then he turned and swept into the room.

“I guess we go in?” James asked hesitantly.

Remus shrugged and tugged Sirius towards the door. The confrontation with Orion Black was already giving him considerable doubts about how successful their application was going to be. When he looked at the cold, hard faces of the three wizards sitting at the table in the informal room he knew that there was no hope of success.

“The hearing of the application for the release of the werewolf, Remus Lupin under the supervision of Sirius Black will now be heard.” The voice of the wizard chairing the hearing was somehow familiar, and Remus felt his skin break out in goose bumps.

“He’s the one who told me you’d been executed?” Sirius whispered into his ear.

“Are you sure?” Remus murmured back.

“I’d recognise that nasally tone anywhere. I think I’ve seen him somewhere before too; I just can’t place him.”

“I can,” Romulus whispered from behind them. “He was sitting in front of you at my trial.”

“How do you remember that?” Remus asked, turning round to look at Romulus, and prompting a cough of disapproval from the wizard who was now reading the full application to the room.

“He’s our father,” Romulus replied.

Remus’s head whipped round to face the wizard again. “We’ve lost,” he whispered.

Remus listened in silence after that. The wizards hearing the application didn’t look like they were listening to anything they were saying. He still couldn’t believe that the rest of his life was now in the hands of a man who’d wanted him killed at the age of six.

The first thing James did was to request that wizards who were not related to either of the two applicants replace both Orion Black and John Lupin. Unfortunately that application was voted on by the three wizards, and rejected immediately. Sirius growled at the unfairness, but there was nothing he could do.

John Lupin sneered across the room at Remus, announcing that Remus was no son of his, at least not since the successful application of Albus Dumbledore when Remus was fourteen.

On a more positive side, Peter had somehow managed to contact Damocles Belby, who had arrived in a flurry of crimson robes to tell everyone that Remus was likely to be the safest werewolf in the British Isles thanks to the Wolfsbane potion. The older man had given an impassioned speech about the potion, it’s effects, and Sirius’s brilliance saving him years of research.

Unfortunately even that witness, the one James had gleefully referred to as their ‘trump card’, didn’t seem to be enough to change the wizards’ minds.

“Well, if we’ve heard from everyone, we’ll adjourn to make our decision?” Orion glared around the room, almost daring anyone to argue with him.

“I have something to say,” a new voice announced from the public gallery.

Remus turned to see Regulus Black standing behind them. He felt Sirius tensing up beside him, and reached for his hand under the table. He wondered what Sirius’s brother was going to say.

“Regulus!” Orion snapped. “Go home and stay out of this.”

“No!”

Remus watched as Regulus walked towards the front of the room; the younger man was shaking slightly and looked nauseatingly pale.

“I don’t see how anything a squib could say would be relevant to this hearing,” Orion sneered.

“I disagree,” Peter said, even as he leafed through one of the books in front of him, searching for any rule that would allow the wizards to throw Regulus from the room.

“I’m here t-to give evidence against O-Orion Black,” Regulus stammered, his eyes downcast.

“I’ve already spoken with Sirius about the unfortunate misunderstanding relating to his loss of sight and the werewolf’s previous hearing,” Orion hurriedly interrupted.

“I’m n-not t-talking about that,” Regulus replied. “You c-can talk your way out of that. I’m here about the bike.”

Remus frowned and looked at Sirius, who appeared as confused as he was.

“I really don’t see the relevance of this,” Orion stated. “As a squib, you can’t be expected to understand the intricacies of Ministry procedures.”

“I’m not talking about Ministry p-procedures,” Regulus replied. “I’m talking about the fact you t-tampered with the flying spells on Sirius’s bike.”

“Flying spells?” John turned to his papers, before looking up gleefully. “Does Mr Black have a licence for modifying a muggle motorbike?”

“No,” Sirius replied. “But, I don’t have the bike any more either.”

“I have it,” Regulus said. “I got my wife’s brother to pick it up after the accident, I’ve been storing in our garage. No wizard has touched it since the crash.”

Peter shot to his feet. “Which means that if the spells have been messed with, we’ll be able to tell.”

Barrows, who up until this point had remained mostly silent, suddenly turned to glare at Regulus. “This is a very serious accusation you’re making,” he told Regulus. “Do you have any evidence?”

“You’re not actually considering listening to this squib?” Orion spluttered.

Remus couldn’t hide his smile at the condemning glare Barrows shot in Orion’s direction. It appeared that Sirius’s father wasn’t the most popular member of the Wizengamot.

“Can’t you just check the bike?” Regulus asked.

“Of course,” Barrows replied with a nod. “But even if it has been tampered with, what evidence do you have that it was Orion Black who did it?”

“I heard him talk about it after the accident.”

Remus heard Sirius gasp beside him, and the grip on his hand tightened almost painfully.

“Preposterous!” Orion spluttered.

“Is it?” Sirius asked. “Mother was furious the last time I saw her before the accident. She was also harping on about my bike again.”

“Coincidence,” Orion replied with a wave of his hand.

“Some might call it attempted murder,” Peter suggested.

“They’re wizards,” Orion pointed out impatiently. “Wizards sometimes fall from great heights, it’s a downside of travelling by broom or flying carpet… accidents happen.”

“Accidents like a flying charm being tampered with, so that it becomes a temporary charm instead of activated and deactivated by the rider?” Sirius asked.

“Why would I want to kill you?” Orion asked. “There’s no motive, and don’t you think that if I’d wanted you dead, then I’ve had ample opportunity to carry out the deed since you moved back home?”

“You didn’t intend to kill them,” Regulus said quietly. “I heard you and Mother talking. The plan had been for Sirius to have a close shave with death, and then he’d be more likely to want to continue the Black line. He’d want to leave someone behind, live on in a son or daughter. Mother had already talked Remus around to the idea of using Polyjuice, only Sirius was digging his heels in.

“’Only problem was, you forgot to check the lunar cycle, and Remus transformed in the muggle hospital. Then the Lupins and the Whitbys got involved, and you decided it might be better to just go along with the plan to get Remus out of the way. You lied to the Wizengamot about Sirius, and told Sirius that Remus was dead. You hoped that once Sirius was back at home you could persuade him to forget about Remus, marry him off to some suitable young witch, and get a grandson. Continue the pureblood line… at any cost.”

“I’ve never heard anything so far fetched,” Orion sneered.

“That’s what I thought, when I overheard you and Mother,” Regulus replied. “I don’t know whether it’s possible, but would a wizard be able to take that memory and view it in a pensieve?”

“They would,” Barrows confirmed, and he waved Regulus to the centre of the room.

Regulus looked terrified as an unknown witche walked towards him, with a wand pointed directly at him. Even from across the room, Remus could see that he was shaking.

He leaned across to Sirius. “Does he have to do this?” he whispered.

“They won’t believe him otherwise,” Sirius murmured back.

They watched as the witch pointed her wand at Regulus’s head, withdrawing from his mind the memory he had spoken of. She took it over to the pensieve that was situated at the side of the room.

“Who gets to see it?” Remus whispered, earning himself another glare from John Lupin, who warned him if he continued to talk the rest of the case would take place in his absence, and he would be forced to wait in the holding cells.

Remus scowled, but remained quiet once more.

Remus’s question was answered a few minutes later when the three wizards hearing the case went into the pensieve to see Regulus’s memory for themselves.

They were in there for quite a while, and Remus had to stop himself from running across the room, and diving in to see the memory for himself.

Eventually, they returned to the room, and it was clear that Barrows had now taken charge of the situation.

“Absolutely disgraceful!” he shouted at Orion Black, who was looking extremely pale and nervous. Remus chanced a glance at Sirius, and saw that he looked as surprised as he was. It seemed that he had never seen his father like this before either.

Remus watched with astonishment as Barrows turned to the witch who was recording the events. “Get two new wizards in here now,” he ordered. “Ones who aren’t related to Black or Lupin.”

The witched jumped to do his bidding.

“You can’t just take over the case,” Orion thundered. “We’re all hearing this case or no one is.”

“I suggest you worry about your own case,” Barrows warned, turning next to John Lupin. “Both of you.”

Remus felt Sirius fidgeting beside him, and he reached out under the table to grasp his hand. Now all they had to do was hope that the two wizards who replaced their fathers were prepared to listen to their application, and grant it.

Orion Black and John Lupin were replaced with two wizards that Remus didn’t recognise. He turned to Sirius, but it was clear from his expression that they were strangers to him as well.

Remus listened quietly as the application was read out again, this time with Barrows taking the lead position, adding his own comments at various points, and making it clear that there was no love lost between himself and Orion and John.

Finally the three wizards left the room. His life was in their hands. He didn’t feel particularly optimistic about the decision they were making. If Orion Black had been telling the truth about Barrows being a werewolf hater, they could still lose. He was in charge and could easily sway the decision of one or both of the others. Remus hoped from the bottom of his heart that he didn’t.

-o-xXx-o-

“What does it feel like?” Sirius asked, as Remus stretched out his arms and took a deep breath of London air.

“Wonderful!” Remus exclaimed. “Freedom at last!”

“Not entirely,” Sirius pointed out. “They’re going to be checking up on us all the time.”

“Let them,” Remus grinned. “So, what now?”

“I need to go get my things from Grimmauld Place,” Sirius sighed. He wasn’t looking forward to speaking with his mother, and it was too much to hope that she’d be out of the house.

“I’ll come with you,” Regulus offered.

Sirius nodded once. It would take time for things to get back to normal between the two of them, but he knew it had taken a great deal of courage for his brother to stand up to their father. He also knew that without Regulus’s evidence, Remus would never have been released into his care. They had caught a lucky break with Barrows, who it turned out was the brother of the werewolf hater, and had no strong feelings either way towards the creatures. The decision of the three wizards had been unanimous.

“Why did you change your mind?” Sirius asked curiously. “And what about Chloe and her family?”

“They could only use Chloe to control me as long as you didn’t know the truth. Now you do. I’m really sorry.”

Sirius nodded and gave a small smile. “I guess in your position, I might have done the same thing.”

Regulus gave a small sigh of relief, and Sirius turned back to Remus, who was now talking animatedly with Romulus. Sirius watched as he repeatedly touched his brother’s arm or shoulder, almost as if he was checking if he was really there. He suspected it would be many years before Remus was entirely used to having his brother back with him in the flesh.

James, Peter and Lily were next to him, watching quietly. “Sorry I missed your wedding,” Sirius offered.

“Mother burned the invitation,” Regulus explained. “I didn’t even get a chance to read that one properly. I’ve got most of your letters at my place.”

“They’re just full of crap,” James laughed. “That and lots of ‘why can’t we see you?’ and ‘are you sure you’re well?’ stuff.”

“Well, you know the answer to those,” Sirius said.

“You should have come to stay with us,” Lily scolded. “Could have saved everyone a lot of trouble.”

“I know,” Sirius admitted. “But I was miserable, and Grimmauld Place seemed suitably gloomy.”

“I’m really sorry,” Regulus offered again.

“It’s okay,” Sirius assured him. “You’re still my brother, and will be even when we’re both blasted off the damn tapestry.”

“Tapestry?” Lily asked curiously.

“There’s a tapestry at home,” Sirius explained. “It’s got the Black family tree on it, but every now and then someone gets blasted off for not being good enough for the family. It’s always been kind of a big deal.”

“Sounds to me like just another pureblood tradition, in keeping with the obsession to keep the line going,” Lily commented. “I thought you weren’t bothered about all that rubbish?”

“I’m not.”

“But you’re bothered about the tapestry?”

“I guess not…” Sirius grinned and stuck out his wand for the Knight Bus.

“What are you going to do?” Regulus asked, stepping onto the bus behind Sirius.

“You’ll see,” Sirius smirked as the rest of the party climbed aboard, too.

“You couldn’t tell me now, could you?” asked a hopeful sounding Rita. “It’s just that my editor wanted my story on his desk yesterday and…”

Sirius rolled his eyes shook his head. He’d be grateful to Rita for all she’d done, but he wasn’t exactly looking forward to hitting the headlines again.

-o-xXx-o-

“Sirius!” Walburga greeted him with a wide, and entirely fake, smile. “I was so delighted to hear you’ve had your sight restored.”

“Really?” Sirius asked as he strolled past her and up the stairs to his room, without a second glance at the woman. Remus and Regulus followed after him. Since most of the others had gone ahead to put the flat back into order, that left only Rita with Walburga Black. Sirius heard her ask whether she was concerned that her husband might soon be facing attempted murder charges, and he couldn’t repress his smirk.

Ten minutes later and everything he owned was gathered together. There wasn’t much.

“What about those?” Remus asked, pointing to the faded Gryffindor banners on the wall.

“Permanent sticking charm, remember?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot.”

“It’ll give them something to remember me by,” Sirius suggested as he gave one last cursory glance around the room.

“You’re not coming back here at all?” Regulus asked. “They’ll disown you eventually.”

“No, they won’t,” Sirius replied, pulling out his wand and calmly descending the stairs.

Rita was still in the hallway, badgering his mother quite persistently. Walburga looked like she was dying to hex Rita, or at least throw her out of the house. Sirius tried to feel sympathy for his mother, but there was none to be had. He ignored them both and walked into the study. He looked at the tapestry with revulsion.

“What are you going to do?” Remus asked.

“End the Black line,” Sirius stated, just as Walburga and Rita followed him into the room.

“You should both be proud to be a part of this family,” Walburga told him. “A useless squib and a gay Gryffindor. My grandmother would have blasted the pair of you off the tapestry long before now. You should be grateful that you’ve both not been disowned years ago.”

“So, why haven’t you?” Sirius asked curiously.

“The pureblood families are dying out,” Walburga said sadly, her hand tracing one golden thread and then another. “We’re one of the last. If you’d only agree to do your duty and continue the line. Keep your half-breed lover, just marry one of the pureblood girls and produce an heir. Or use the Polyjuice method, either way the line continues.” Her finger traced an invisible line below Sirius’s name; there was plenty of room for the names of any children to be added to the tree. She gave him a hopeful glance, still not getting the point.

“It’s not going to happen, mother,” Sirius said quietly. “I’ve told you so many times, but you just don’t listen.”

“I’m listening.”

“No, you’re not.” Sirius shook his head sadly. “But I hope you’re at least watching.”

“Watching?” Walburga echoed in confusion.

Sirius pulled out his wand and pointed it at the tapestry.

“You wouldn’t,” Walburga warned, even as she moved out of Sirius’s range, just in case.

Sirius didn’t reply, he merely pointed his wand and muttered a spell that sent a blast towards the tapestry, burning his name from the material, until only scorch marks remained.

“NO!” Walburga screamed. She pulled out her own wand and pointed it at the place where Sirius’s name had once been. She tried several spells, but nothing was repairing the damage.

“Don’t you remember, Mother?” Sirius asked quietly. “Once a name’s removed, it can never be restored. You issued that threat often enough, surely you remember? I’m not going to wait for you to disown me; I’m disowning you instead.”

“Sirius?” Regulus asked quietly. “The tapestry has too much magic in it for me to burn my name off by muggle methods. Would you…?”

Sirius gave his brother a small smile and nod. The second blast burned Regulus’s name from the tapestry, though this time Walburga didn’t cry out in horror.

“You would see the noble house of Black disappear forever?” she whispered, sinking to the floor, her hand still tracing the invisible line that only she could see.

“It won’t end,” Regulus said coldly. “My son is a wizard, he did his first magic last week.”

“He is?” Walburga looked torn between delight and dismay. Sirius could easily guess why, her grandson was a half-blood after all. But was that better than no descendants at all?

“He is,” Regulus confirmed, pulling a muggle photograph from the pocket of his muggle-style jacket. Sirius watched as his younger brother approached their mother and crouched down beside her. “This was taken a few days ago.”

Sirius drew closer to see the picture of the nephew he had yet to see. The dark-haired toddler was sitting in the middle of a cluttered living room, playing with a cuddly toy. Even without the benefit of movement, it was clear to see that the plush black dog was floating in the air, without the aid of anything other than the barely controlled magic of the small child.

“A wizard,” Walburga whispered, her eyes darting to the tapestry.

“He wasn’t good enough for the family tree when he was born,” Regulus said quietly. “What do you want more? A pureblood line, or any line at all?”

“I suppose we could adapt,” Walburga murmured begrudgingly.

“And would my wife be welcomed into the family too?”

Walburga hesitated a fraction too long, and Regulus sighed. “Take a good look at your grandson, Mother. It’s the only time you’re going to get to see him.”

Walburga’s head shot up, and she reached out to try to take the photograph. Regulus snatched it out of her reach and returned it to his pocket.

“INGRATE!” Walburga screamed as she stood up. “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! DON’T YOU DARE SHOW YOUR FACE HERE AGAIN! GO BACK TO YOUR FILTHY MUGGLE WIFE AND YOUR HALF-BLOOD BRAT!”

“Mother?” Sirius tentatively asked.

“YOU TOO!” Walburga rounded on her eldest son with lightning speed. “UNNATURAL FREAK OF NATURE! YOU COULDN’T JUST GET INVOLVED WITH A HALF-BLOOD, COULD YOU? NO, THAT WOULDN’T BE CRUEL ENOUGH! YOU HAD TO CHOOSE A HALF-BREED, AND A MALE ONE AT THAT! GET OUT OF HERE! AND TAKE YOUR PET WEREWOLF WITH YOU! FILTHY BLOOD TRAITORS, THE LOT OF YOU!”

“Mother, please, calm down,” Sirius cautioned, but she was long past listening to anything he had to say.

“SELFISH, UNGRATEFUL BRATS! AFTER ALL YOUR FATHER AND I’VE DONE FOR YOU! YOU DISGUST ME! GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!”

“Maybe we should take her advice,” Rita suggested as she backed up towards the door. Her parchment and quill were in her hands, but for the moment she seemed to have forgotten they were there.

“Good idea,” Remus agreed, pulling Sirius along with him.

“I think we’ve really sent her over the edge this time,” Regulus commented as they closed the front door behind them. Thankfully the spells on the house deadened the sound of their mother’s temper tantrum.

“She’ll calm down,” Sirius said with a shrug. “And even if she doesn’t, does it really matter?”

“I guess not.”

Sirius bit on his lip, wondering what to say now. Thankfully Remus was beside him, and stepped into the uncomfortable silence with ease. “What’s your son’s name?” he asked.

“Alphard,” Regulus said with a smile. “After our uncle.”

“Are you going to put his name down for Hogwarts?” Sirius asked.

“Of course,” Regulus nodded. “You’ll still be a part of his life, won’t you? Even after what I’ve done, you wouldn’t punish my son for it, would you?”

“Of course not,” Sirius replied. “I don’t know that I’ve quite forgiven you entirely just yet, but I understand why you did it.”

“I wish I could go back and undo it,” Regulus said with a sigh. “I hated lying to you, but I couldn’t see a way out of the mess. I’m not sure I’d ever forgive you if our roles were reversed.”

“Come round for dinner next week,” Sirius offered. “We’ll talk then.”

Regulus nodded and stuck out his arm for the approaching muggle bus. “I guess I’ll see you then.”

Sirius nodded, telling him he would send him an owl with the date and time, and watched Regulus climb on board. Then he turned to Rita. “So, do you think you’ve got enough for a story?” he asked, rather impatiently.

“More than!” Rita grinned. “Front page of the Prophet tomorrow, you mark my words.”

“I can hardly wait,” Sirius drawled sarcastically.

“You’ll love it!” Rita said as she hurried away. “I’ll see that a complimentary copy gets delivered to your flat.”

“Shall we go home then?” Remus asked.

Sirius nodded and wrapped his arms around the other man. Leaning into him, he breathed in the scent that was uniquely Remus and concentrated on Cauldron Close. They arrived a moment later.

“We could have been seen disappearing,” Remus scolded.

“There wasn’t anyone around,” Sirius argued. “Which is more than can be said for inside here.”

“I don’t know,” Remus replied. “It seems a bit quiet.”

Sirius shrugged and opened his front door. The flat was spotless and certainly far cleaner than it had been at any point when he’d been living there.

“Looks like Lily did a good job,” Remus commented as he followed Sirius inside.

“Wonder where they are…”

“They’ve left a note,” Remus said, picking a piece of parchment up off the table. “Peter’s gone to take the books he’d borrowed back to the library, and then he has to go into work. Lily and James have gone back on their honeymoon; they’ll floo us when they’re back in the country. And Romulus and Alana have gone to get Eve from school. Rom says he’ll be coming round tomorrow. I think this is their subtle way of giving us some privacy,”

“I guess Rom realised that we wouldn’t have done much talking this morning,” Sirius replied. “I suppose he thinks we spent the whole morning shagging, too.”

Remus chuckled. “Sorry, the full moon kind of took its toll on me. Didn’t mean to let your reputation get knocked.”

“Don’t be silly,” Sirius told him and he leaned over to kiss him. “You needed sleep a lot more than you needed sex. There’ll be plenty of time for the rest later, right?”

Remus nodded and sat down on the sofa. “The place hasn’t changed at all,” he commented. “Except being cleaner.”

“That’s because I’ve not been back here until yesterday.”

“Oh.” Remus smirked. “I guess that would explain it.”

“It’ll be messy again in no time,” Sirius assured him as he sat down beside him and pulled him into his arms.

Remus wrapped his arms around Sirius’s back and squeezed him tightly. “It feels good to be home,” he said. “The camp wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, except for the full moons, but I missed you so much.”

“What are we going to do now?” Sirius asked.

“I think we should spend the next week in bed,” Remus suggested. “Then after that, we’ll see.”

“You know your brother will be round here tomorrow, and we won’t get a minute of peace.”

“Then I guess we should enjoy the peace and quiet while we can,” Remus replied with a smirk. Leaning forward he pressed his lips to Sirius’s and closed his eyes. Sirius felt Remus’s tongue teasing his lower lip and he opened his mouth wider, his own tongue seeking the other. He moaned slightly when Remus deepened the kiss, then louder when Remus pulled away.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered, reaching up to push Remus’s hair out of his eyes. “Don’t ever leave me again.”

“I didn’t mean to before,” Remus pointed out. “How do you suggest we avoid this sort of disaster?”

“We could just stay in bed all day… forever,” Sirius suggested, pulling Remus closer again. “Your brother has a girl now, that should keep him out of our way for a while.”

“Staying in bed sounds good to me,” Remus agreed with a grin.

-o-xXx-o-

“I think the paper’s arrived,” Remus muttered, not bothering to open his eyes. The paper was the one Rita had promised to send, so the owl wouldn’t require payment, not that that was stopping it from making an awful racket at the crack of dawn.

“I’m ignoring it,” Sirius replied, giving a loud and fake snore, and snuggling closer to Remus.

“You don’t want to know what she’s written?” Remus asked, opening one eye.

“No, it’ll only annoy me.”

“Well, I’m curious.” Remus opened his second eye and sat up to reach for the paper. His fingers had just got hold of the paper when he felt himself being pulled back down by Sirius.

“I’m more interesting than some silly story,” Sirius scolded.

Remus tried to ignore the soft kisses that Sirius was planting along his jaw line, and he unrolled the paper.

“We’ve made the front page again,” he commented casually.

Sirius’s kisses moved to his neck, and he gave a gasp as his tongue inched its way up his neck caressing the most sensitive spots.

“‘Corruption in the Ministry and St Mungo’s. How pure are the purebloods?’”

Sirius snorted, but soon turned his attention back to kissing Remus, finally leaving his neck and moving onto his bare chest.

“Submissive werewolves? Separating fact from fiction.”

“Huh?” Sirius mumbled. “You mean she’s actually written something about the Wolfsbane potion?”

“This isn’t about the Wolfsbane,” Remus squeaked. “Though she does briefly mention the potion at the bottom of page twelve.”

“Then what’s that bit about?” Sirius asked, curiosity getting the better of him. He sat up so that he could read the paper alongside Remus.

“How?” Remus asked. “How did she…?”

Sirius shook his head mutely. He had no idea at all, at least not about how Rita Skeeter knew what they’d said and done in the bathroom of Remus’s room at the camp. The story of their ‘tender reunion’ was splashed across the pages of the Prophet and read like a trashy romance novel. He wondered how it had ever made it past Rita’s Editor, who really should have had more sense than to print such rubbish.

“She must have been spying on us,” Sirius finally said. “Though I’m damned if I know how.”

“Devious little…” Remus shook his head in exasperation. “She’s elaborated like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Oh, I’d definitely believe it,” Sirius muttered.

“She says that we had sex in the bathtub!”

Sirius chuckled. “Perhaps she thinks she’s protecting our reputations?”

“She says we were at it for hours!”

“Okay, she’s embellishing our reputations.”

“She says you topped and tamed the werewolf!”

Sirius’s chuckles became a full-blown laugh as he pulled Remus back down onto the mattress. “My mother will be pleased,” Sirius said as he grinned down at Remus.

“Why?”

“Because she thinks that you top all the time. This proves that you don’t.”

Remus raised a questioning eyebrow. “Why does she think that?”

“She jumped to conclusions, and I didn’t bother correcting her.” Sirius shrugged. He couldn’t care less what his mother thought about his relationship with Remus. He knew, and so did Remus, that they had an equal partnership. In his mind, that was all that mattered.

“No wonder she hates me,” Remus sighed dramatically. “Not only have I corrupted her son by making him fancy other men, I’ve turned him into a total utter arse, in every sense of the word.”

“Hey!” Sirius explained with mock outrage. “Did I catch an insult in there?”

Remus’s lips twitched and Sirius ripped the paper from his hands, slinging it across the room. Then he pounced on Remus and proceeded to tickle him into submission.

“I give… I give…” Remus gasped as he tried to catch his breath.

“So, do you admit I’m not an arse?” Sirius asked.

“Well, not a complete one,” Remus amended between giggles.

“Good enough,” Sirius said, ending his tickling assault, and starting one of a different kind. “I love you, Remus,” he told him between kisses.

Remus smiled up at him. “I love you, too.”

On the sill of the open window a large black beetle watched as the playful tickles turned to tender caresses, and the laughter was replaced with loving endearments. Then, as the soft kisses became more passionate, Rita Skeeter turned to leave, intent on chasing after her next big story.