Maeglin Yedi and the Order of the Serpent

Chapter 9: Animal Talk


I rush inside the mansion, just wanting to go back to my rooms and crawl under the covers, snuggling between the canines, and not come out again for the next six years or so. I feel....I don\'t know what I feel, other than extremely stupid.

I should have known. This is Lord Voldemort after all. An Evil Overlord who surely has much more important things to do than to worry if he crushes the heart of some useless Muggle.

And crushed my heart? No way. He didn\'t crush my heart. Just my pride, maybe. Because crushed my heart implies that I actually care about him and....oh no, so not going there. I was perhaps attracted to him in that \'he\'s so powerful and strangely gallant\' way, but that\'s it.

I\'m too deep in thought to notice my surroundings, and when I round a corner I collidth sth something.

Someone, as it turns out.

Gasping in shock, I stare up into a pair of icy gray eyes, and feel a gloved hand curl around my throat, pushing me back against the wall.

\"Miss Maeglin,\" Lucius drawls, lifting his cane and pressing the silver head under my chin. \"Do tell what you are doing scurrying through the corridors at this time of night. One might think you are running away...or are trying to hide something.\"

I try to give Lucius my best \'fuck you-glare\', but I don\'t think it\'s working because I\'m feeling my eyes water from the lack of circulation. I grab his hand, which is still curled around my throat, only to notice at the last moment that there\'s a smudge of evidence of my tryst with the Dark Lord left on the back of it.

Damn.

Before I can lower my hand again, Lucius notices it as well, and grabs my wrist, taking his time to examine the rather overwhelming evidence of what I\'ve been up to exactly.

\"I see you have not wasted any time making use of your new pets,\" Lucius says with a disdainful sneer. \"Simply disgusting, the thought of a Muggle touching a Wizard in such a way.\"

I blink up at Lucius, realizing that he thinks either Sirius or Remus left that blob on my hand. And I almost want to laugh.

Oh boy. Is Lucius in for a surprise.

\"Perhaps you should have a chat with your boss,\" nagenage to wheeze around his clenched hand, and Lucius curves one eyebrow.

\"What does our Lord have to do with your filthy escapades?\"

\"Quite a bit,\" I gurgle, drawing a raspy breath. \"Seeing that he left that smudge there.\"

A flash of something passes through Lucius\' eyes before he narrows them, his fingers tightening around my throat even further. \"You lie, Muggle.\"

I want to give him a witty comeback, I really do, but since my breath is now completely cut off, I\'m forced into silence while I\'m frantically trying to think of way to get me out of this situation in one piece.

And then I remember, and I tug on the collar of my cloak – Voldemort\'s cloak, which he gave me during our walk – to offer Lucius some sort of proof that I am telling the truth and that he\'d best take his hands off me right now.

Lucius stares down at me blankly for a moment, looking from my cloak to my face and back, and then his face pales and he releases my throat but grabs hold of my cloak, examining it carefully. I try to explain the situation to him, that Voldemort saw it fit to have a wank fest in the cemetery with the resident Muggle, but I think my vocal chords are bruised, and all I manage is a pained moan.

Releasing me, Lucius takes a step back, and curls his free hand around the silver head of his cane. \"Who are you? Who sent you here? And what have you done to our Lord?\"

Oh, not this again. I let out a tired sigh. Would he actually believe it if I said I was a metamorphmagus with special training in espionage and the ability to change into twelve different animagus forms? I mean, come on. I\'m as Muggle as it gets, really.

\"I did nothing to Voldemort,\" I say, and then quickly add: \"Well, nothing he didn\'t want me to do, anyway.\"

\"You have tricked our Lord,\" Lucius snarls. \"Was it a spell? Or a potion? Or an artifact?\"

Oh for... \"I\'m a Muggle!\" I all but yell. \"I have done nothing of that kind to your precious Lord.\"

Lucius sneers and pulls his wand out of his cane and points it directly between my eyes. Despite the fact that Voldemort has assured me on several occasions that he doesn\'t want me dead, I\'m not feeling very comfortable standing here at wand-point.

\"Voldemort will be very angry if I get hurt,\" I say, and I try very hard to believe my own words.

\"No doubt he will. But he will also be quite grateful that I have stopped Dumbledore\'s spy from trapping his rooms with a cursed artifact.\"

\"But I never...\"I trail off, staring cross-eyed at the tip of Lucius\' wand.

Lucius huffs. \"And yet I will be able to hand over a dangerous artifact that you planned on using against him. Those things can easily be arranged after I kill you.\"

That arrogant, deceiving bastard! I keep my mouth shut, though, since I think rattling him any further will definitely not keep me alive.

\"Now say goodbye, Miss Maeglin,\" Lucius says with an unpleasant smile. \"Avad—\"

\"What\'s going on here, Lucius?\"

Oh, man, am I glad to hear that voice. \"Walden!\" I yelp pathetically.

\"None of yousinesiness, I assure you.\" Lucius turns to look at Macnair, but keeps his wand pointed at me.

\"Oh, I believe it is, since our Lordship assigned me to look after the safety of our Muggle guest. And at this moment, she doesn\'t appear to be particularly safe.\" Walden lowers one of his hands to the small axe tucked behind his belt.

\"Walden, stay out of this,\" Lucius snarls, and finally draws the wand away from my face to point it at Walden.

\"Lucius, remember that game we once played at Hogwarts?\" Walden asks casually, tilting his head while he gives Lucius a smile. \"When we wanted to find out who was quicker: you with a hex or me with my axe. I believe it took Pomfrey three days to re-grow your hand, didn\'t it?\"

As his shoulders tense, Lucius seems to be considering Walden\'s comment, and finally he lowers his wand and slips it back inside his cane. \"Just keep her away from our Lord, Walden.\"

\"I\'m just doing his bidding, Lucius. It\'s not for you to decide what happens to our guest.\"

Lucius gives Walden one last sneer, spins around on his feet and stalks down the corridor. As soon as he\'s out of sight I leap towards Macnair and throw my arms around his neck, sobbing against his shoulder.

Walden pats me on my back awkwardly. \"There, there, still alive with all your bits attached.\"

I really don\'t want to cry, but staring death in the eye works on your nerves after the umpteenth time. Not to mention being rejected after quite a nice bit of snogging and fondling. The memory of Voldemort\'s kisses and touches followed by his admission that it had been a mistake, only increases my sobs.

\"Oh god, he hates me,\" I mutter against Walden\'s throat.

Walden snorts. \"Don\'t worry about that. Lucius hates everybody.\"

\"Not Lucius,\" I say, pulling away from Walden and wiping my tears away with the back of my hand. \"Voldemort!\"

Looking puzzled, Walden frowns. \"But Voldemort doesn\'t hate you.\"

\"He so does,\" I sob. \"First we...and then we...on the cemetery...and then he...oh god...he –\"

\"Hush.\" Walden grabs my shoulders tightly. \"Let\'s go to my rooms, and I\'ll give you something stiff to relax so you can tell me what happened.\"

I gape at Walden, and feel my cheeks flush. Something stiff....is Walden coming on to me here?

Walden\'s cheeks flush as well. \"I\'m talking about giving you a stiff drink here,\" he says in one breath. \"Firewhiskey will calm you right down. I\'m not going to touch you, don\'t worry.\" He looks down at his hands on my shoulder, and quickly lets go if me. \"Not like that anyway. It\'s not that I don\'t want to touch you, mind, \'cause you a p a pretty enough lass, but I value my life as well as my testicles, is all.\"

\"A drink sounds good,\" I say and give Walden a grateful smile. He flings his arm around my shoulders and wants to lead me away when a ragged, panting sound interrupts us.

\"Is she...by Salazar, am I pleased to see you alive, Milady.\"

Phineas leans against the frame of a painting to our right, clearly out of breath, with flushed cheeks and sweat shining on his forehead.

\"This chap alerted me something was up,\" Walden explains as I look at Phineas with a frown.

\"Something was up? The lady was in mortal peril!\" Phineas says, trying to collect himself. \"But I am most grateful you rushed to her rescue, Mr Macnair.\"

Awww. My knights in shining armor. A psychopathic executioner and a perverted portrait. I suppose a girl could do a lot worse, though.

\"Thanks, Phineas,\" I say, and Phineas bows gracefully.

\"It was my pleasure to protect your virtue and your life, Milady.\"

Walrollrolls his eyes, and all but drags me with him down the corridor. We walk in comfortable silence, and I really do feel grateful that at least two men in this mansion look out for me. I think that Voldemort himself would also have stopped Lucius, but I\'m not quite sure about it after his obvious rejection.

We stop in front of a door that holds a handwritten sign: \'Unless you have something for me to decapitate, piss off!\'

\"Very hospitable,\" I offer, but Walden ignores me, opens the door, and gives me a gentle push so I stumble across the threshold.

The first thing I notice as I look around the room, are all the animal heads mounted on the wall. At least, I think they are animals, but not any kind I\'ve ever seen before.

The second thing I notice, is that all those animals are staring right back at me, their heads turned towards me.

\"Um...Walden,\" I ask softly, as not to cause a stampede of any kind. \"Are those dead?\"

\"Very,\" Walden says, beaming proudly.

The thing closest to me, and it looks a bit like an odd bear, tilts its head and sniffs the air.

\"But they are moving,\" I whisper, confused.

\"Of course they are. What else would they be doing?\" Walden shrugs, and flops down on the couch.

I find myself fascinated with that odd bear, and take a step closer. The bear tilts its head to the other side and blinks its eyes sweetly. It really looks quite harmless, and very dead even though its moving, so I slowly raise my hand to touch its nose, and just when I\'m almost there...

...a hand on my shoulder jerks me backwards while the bear\'s jaws slam shut only an inch away from my fingers. I inconspicuously feel between my legs to check if I didn\'t just wet myself.

\"What in the bloody hell do you think you are doing with that werewolf?\" Walden asks roughly.

\"Werewolf?\" I feel my mouth drop open as I look from the odd bear, which is aewolewolf, to Walden and back. \"That\'s a werewolf? Holy...really?\"
f cof course it is,\" Walden says, crossing his arms. \"I killed it on the job. And he was a killer, that one. Slaughtered fifteen Wizards and three Muggles before he met the sharp end of my silver axe.\"

I stare at the werewolf – and it keeps staring right back at me – and yeah, there\'s something wolfish in the way it looks. It still looks as if it was crossed with a bloody grizzly bear, though. I try to imagine Remus like this...like a beast that would snap my hand off or kill fifteen Wizards and three Muggles if it ever got the chance, and I feel awfully sad all of a sudden. I really can\'t see Remus like that, even though a rather persistent voice in the back of my head is now telling me to be afraid...very afraid of what Remus is. I try to ignore it as best as I can.

\"What is that?\" I point at a large eagle-like head, determined not to think about werewolves right now.

\"That\'s a hippogryff.\"

\"Ah. And that?\" My finger points at a three-headed snake this time.

\"Runespoor.\"

\"Really. It\'s ugly.\"

\"It sure is.\" Walden slips into his tour-guide mode, and leads me around the room, telling me in wonderfully gory detail what kind of animals they all are, how many Wizards and Muggles they have killed, and how exactly Walden killed them. It\'s...interesting, I suppose, in a kind of Twilight Zone-like way, to see all these animals I didn\'t even know existed.

And then we reach the last wooden board, which is empty, so I look up at Walden. \"Are you saving that spot for someone special?\"

\"You can\'t see it?\" Walden gives me an amused smile.

I rub my eyes, and try again, but there\'s still only an empty wooden board. So I shake my head.

\"It\'s a thestral,\" Walden says, looking awfully smug.

\"Did it kill people too? I thought they were harmless.\"

\"It dug up corpses to eat in Muggle graveyards. They tried relocating it, but the bugger kept coming back, so...\" Walden slices his finger across his throat, and I\'m surprised to notice that I\'m not very upset about it.

Really, it\'s hard to feel sorry for an animal you can\'t see.

\"How about that drink, eh?\" Walden gives me a gentle nudge towards the couch, and turns to a side table to pour the liquor he promised me earlier.

I sit down stiffly, knees pressed together and hands folded in my lap, awa aware that every dead animal in this room is staring at me. And that\'s such a bizarre thing, because normally, dead animals don\'t stare like that.

But I suppose it\'s just like portraits and wizarding pictures, and it\'s magic that makes them move, and talking about wizarding photography...

Hello, you lovely naked men shagging each other.

There\'s a magazine lying opened on Walden\'sfee fee table. With naked men in it. Doing very interesting things to each other. I pick it up, fascinated, and page through it.

It\'s bloody amazing. Like having instant porn on a piece of paper. Because, well, they move. And thus they shag. And suck. And lick. And –

Walden snatches the magazine away from me, and pushes a glass into my hands. Only now do I notice the box of tissues and the vial of shampoo on the table.

\"I was occupied when that bloke came running into the painting in my bedroom, screaming you were about to get killed,\" Walden says, and stuffs the magazine under one of the pillows on the couch.

\"Of course you were,\" I say, and try to silence my gig wit with a swig of my drink.

Very bad idea, because this stuff tastes like bloody battery acid, and burns all the way down my throat while tears fill my eyes and my cheeks feel as if they\'re on fire. After much gagging and coughing, I manage to whisper: \"What is this stuff?\"

\"Firewhiskey.\" Walden sits down beside me, takes a large gulp of his whiskey, and seems unaffected by this foul brew.

Well, I guess now I know why they call it *fire* whiskey. \"Do you have any ice?\" I ask hopefully.

Walden reaches for his wand, points it at my glass, and mutters something.

Suddenly, there\'s two small rocks lying on the bottom of my glass.

\"No, that\'s not it,\" Walden says, and rubs his chin thoughtfully before trying again.

Two marbles this time.

\"Hmmm.\" Walden frowns, and flicks his wand yet again.

I let out a shriek, because there are two eyeballs floating in my drink. I quickly put it down on the table, and give Walden a small smile. \"Maybeshoushould just talk.\"

\"All right. So, what got your knickers in a twist then?\" Walden leans back in the couch, giving me a curious look.

\"Voldemort got in my knickers, is more like it,\" I say, and Walden perks up, eyes wide.

\"You shagged Voldemort?\"

\"No! But we did...um...snog. And fondle.\" I stare down at my boots miserably.

\"That\'s brilliant!\" Walden looks far too pleased. \"But why are you so upset about it?\"

\"Because afterwards he got all weird and said it had been a mistake!\"

Walden deflates, and sags in the couch. \"Ah, bugger.\"

\"Yeah. The whole situation was weird. First he told me we\'re not courting and all. And then all of a sudden we\'re snogging and I jerked him off while he had his hand down my knickers.\"

\"And then he said it had been a mistake?\" Walden offers, and I nod, fumbling with the buttons on my cloak, but when I remember it\'s actually Voldemort\'s cloak, I quickly let go of them.

\"Well, he\'s always been a bit emotionally constipated, our Lordship.\"

\"You don\'t say.\" I can barely resist rolling my eyes and give Walden a tired look.

\"He was doing better for a while, when he\'d hired that therapist.\" At my befuddled look, Walden continues. \"When he came back from...his holiday, he got a therapist to work on some teambuilding among us Death Eaters. And to help him get in touch with his human side again. For a while, that really worked.\"

\"And what happened then?\" I wonder aloud.

\"He killed the therapist.\"

I shift uneasily on the couch, not sure if I wanted to know that last detail. Because, if Voldemort killed his therapist, who is to say he won\'t kill his Muggle?

Walden notices my cramped expression, and quickly adds: \"Of course, that therapist had it coming. He was stupid enough to mention Voldemort\'s f-a-t-h-e-r.\"

\"His...father?\"

\"Sshh!\" Walden clamps his hand over my mouth, gazing at ith ith piercing eyes. \"Whatever you do, do not mention his f-a-t-h-e-r.\"

I nod, dumbly, and Walden releases me, giving me a brief solemn look before his lips turn up in a smile.

\"Don\'t worry, luv. He\'ll come around.\"

\"How can you be so sure?\" I ask, because I can\'t imagine Voldemort coming around at all.

\"Because he hasn\'t killed you. Think about that.\" Walden downs his firewiskey, and gives me smug grin.

I\'m at a complete loss here, because Walden seems to know things I don\'t. \"What\'s that supposed to mean? He hasn\'t killed me because I\'m a seer.\"

\"Oh, bollocks. He\'s a bloke, isn\'t he? All blokes think with their cocks, luv. If he didn\'t want to shag you, he would have killed you by now.\"

Ah. Well. That\'s good to know, I suppose.

I bury my face in my hands and let out a deep sigh. How did I ever land myself in this situation? And what am I supposed to do now? Sit around and wait until Voldemort changes his mind and is ready to shag me? No fucking way. I\'m not that easy, thank you very much.

A warm hand on my shoulder starts me, and I snap my gaze up at Walden.

\"He\'s realized by now that you\'re too interesting to have his executioner chop your pretty little head off.\"

I\'m tempted to ask Walden if he would chop my head off if Voldemort ordered him to, but I don\'t think I\'ll like the answer much. So I make an attempt at humor. \"Would you hang my head on your wall as well?\"

Walden snickers. \"Nah...I like your head better where it is right now,\" he says, and glances at the odd collection on his wall. \"Besides, I think I\'ve run out of room.\"

I manage a weak chuckle, and Walden pats my thigh.

\"Come on,\" he says. \"I\'ll walk you back to your rooms.\"

We chat a bit about things of no real importance as we stroll through the corridors and soon enough we reach the door to my rooms.

\"Thanks,\" I say with a small smile.

\"Don\'t mention it. You just get some rest, and don\'t let those Gryffindors give you any shite.\" With a nod of his head, Walden turns around and walks away.

Those Gryffindors. Oh dear, I almost forgot about the canines.

As I open the door and step inside, I can\'t help but notice two moving figures under the sheets on the bed, a couple of limbs sticking out in odd places. I clear my throat discretely, and a head with tousled black hair pops up from under the sheets.

\"Oh, hey, Maeg. You\'re just in time for pillow talk and cuddles.\" Sirius pushes the covers down further, and surprise, surprise, Remus looks at me with equally tousled hair and kiss-swollen lips.

They both seem very naked, but I can\'t really care about that because I\'m bloody tired and just want some sleep. I pad to the bed, and Sirius pushes himself off Remus to make room for me.

Crawling onto the bed, I ignore the bite and scratch marks on their sweat-slick skin and make myself look at their faces instead of the rest of their bodies. I seat myself against the footboard, and both Remus and Sirius look at me curiously.

\"Are you okay?\" Remus asks, and I give him a quiet nod.

I think I am okay. Or at least, I hope I am okay.

\"Well, you look as if you\'ve been run over by a herd of centaurs,\" Sirius says, and pats the space between Remus and himself. \"Come here.\"

I unlace and kick off my boots and shed my cloak, letting it fall to the bed. I\'m not sure if I want to start sobbing or throw a tantrum or just scream really long and really loud. I hate this place. I hate Voldemort. I hate those ever-shagging canines. I hate Walden and his dead heads. And I hate myself the most of all. But in the end the only rebellious thing I do is not changing into my nightgown but keeping on my robes as I crawl under the covers between the canines.

And for a moment they look at me, and I look back at them, eyebrows raised because I have no idea why they are giving me all those curious looks. However, I get distracted when I feel something slick seep through my robes, and I wriggle my arse uncomfortably until I realize what is going on.

\"You\'re making me sit in the wet spot?\" I gasp, affronted, and Sirius snickers far too contently. Remus takes pity on me though, and gets up from the bed.

\"I\'ll get some towels,\" he says, and uncaring about his nudity, trots into the bathroom.

\"You are such a pig,\" I tell Sirius as I narrow my eyes.

Sirius bumps his shoulder against mine playfully. \"If we\'d had our wands, we would have cleaned the sheets for you.\" But the smile on his face wavers, and he grabs my chin, pushing my head up and exposing my throat. \"What have you been up to?\"

\"What? Nothing.\"

Sirius snorts and releases me, giving me an intent look. \"I know a hickey when I see one. Who\'ve you been snogging?\"

Voldemort gave me a hickey?

\"You\'ve been snogging?\" Remus asks before I can answer Sirius. He throws first a towel at me and then my blue nightgown.

As the canines clean themselves up with a damp flannel, I shove the towel under my arse. \"Don\'t look,\" I say, and both obediently turn their faces away so I can wriggle out of my robes and into my nightgown.

When we\'re all ready for the night, both Remus and Sirius pull up the blankets cozily, and give me an expectant look.

\"Well?\" I feel Sirius tap his foot on the mattress.

\"It was nothing,\" I say softly.

\"Someone has been sucking on your throat and I want to know who it is.\" Sirius crosses his arms, giving me a threatening look.

\"Padfoot, hush,\" Remus says and then puts his hand on my arm. \"Was it...you know who?\"

\"You Know Who?\" Sirius roars, and I instinctively crawl closer to Remus. \"You\'ve been snogging Voldemort again?\"

\"Yes!\" I yell back, starting to get pissed off at Sirius\' holier than thou attitude. \"And I jerked him off, too! In the cemetery! But don\'t worry about it ever happening again, because he dumped me like a ton of bricks right after he was done!\"

Sirius gapes like a goldfish on land, and Remus gives my arm a squeeze. \"What happened?\"

\"He said it was a mistake, and he\'s probably right.\" I shrug, as if it doesn\'t mean anything to me, and lie down, pulling the covers half over my head.

\"You jerked him off? Why...how...I can\' t even begin to think why anyone would want to jerk that snake o" Si" Sirius sounds a tad desperate, his voice a pitch higher than his usual baritone.

\"He was hard. What else was I supposed to do?\" I mutter against my pillow.

\"He was hard? Oh, remind me next time we see him to check for an erection then, if him being hard means you should bloody wank him.\"

\"Padfoot, shut up,\" Remus says tiredly, lies down, and gives me a warm smile. \"Are you all right, Maeglin?\"

\"Yeah. I\'ll be fine,\" I say, and try to believe it.

Sirius lies down as well with a loud huff but calms down when I kick him against his shin. For a moment things are blissfully quiet, and my thoughts drift off as I turn my back to Sirius and stare at Remus.

And then I remember Walden\'s wall of animals, and I try to imagine Remus like the werewolf I saw there. I can\'t, because Remus looks nothing like that monster.

\"Did you know werewolves look like bears?\" I wonder aloud, and Remus\' lips twitch up in a smile.

\"Of course they don\'t look like bears,\" Sirius mutters behind my back. \"They\'re wolves for Merlin\'s sake.\"

\"They are rather massive, aren\'t they,\" Remus offers, and I nod silently.

\"And how do you know anyway?\" Sirius asks as he props himself up on an elbow and leans annoyingly close to me. \"You\'ve been jerking Macnair off as well?\"

Sirius moans quietly as I give him another kick against his shin. \"No, I haven\'t. Walden just has a –\" I snap my mouth shut for a moment, realizing it might not be a good idea to mention decapitated werewolves in front of Remus. \"Walden has a picture of a werewolf in his room.\"

There. That should do it.

\"Werewolves don\'t how up on photographs,\" Remus says quietly.

Or maybe not.

I feel my cheeks flush at having been caught at this lie, but Remus gives me a reassuring smile. Sirius, however, doesn\'t seem to be so forgiving.

\"When you snap a magical picture of a werewolf, it shows the person rather than the wolf,\" Sirius says smugly. \"So, where did you see a wolf?\"

\"Okay,\" I sigh. \"Don\'t get angry or anything,\" I give Sirius a meaningful look over my shoulder, \"but Walden has a collection of beasts on his...um...wall. And one of them is a werewolf. But he was a killer. So Walden killed him. With a silver axe, because that\'s the only way severed body parts of a werewolf won\'t turn back into their human form. And it almost bit my hand offo.\"o.\"

Remus looks oddly pale, and I can hear Sirius grit his teeth behind me. \"I\'m sorry,\" I say, and Remus quickly shakes his head.

\"Don\'t be sorry. None of that is your fault.\" Remus rolls over onto his back and rubs his hands across his face tiredly.

\"When is the full moon?\" I\'ve just realized that we\'re all locked up inside this mansion, in this room even, so when Remus transforms, we might have a problem.

\"In two days,\" Sirius says quietly, all annoyance gone from his voice. \"And that bathroom door isn\'t going to hold back an adult werewolf.\"

Oh fuck.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

Because that means that I\'ll have to confront Voldemort within the next two days to arrange something lest Sirius and I are torn limb from limb by dear sweet Remus. Or rather, lest I\'m torn apart, because Sirius can still transform into Padfoot.

\"I\'ll work something out with...you know who,\" I say, meanwhile wondering what on earth I\'m going to say to the man. Maybe I should just keep it business-like. Not mention wanking. Or cemeteries. Or his father, as I remember Walden\'s advice. I can do this. I have to do this.

Oh man, I\'m not going to sleep at all, worrying how I\'m going to handle this. But then an arm slides across my waist while both Sirius and Remus shift closer and I\'m suddenly surrounded by two warm bodies and my worries melt away.

\"We\'ll find a way to deal with this,\" Remus whispers against my forehead, and then Sirius adds against the back of my head: \"We always do.\"

TBC