Embrace

For some reason, Harry was restless and unable to sleep. He snuck out of the bedroom he shared with Ron. The house was quiet, but that was all right with the young wizard. That meant everyone in his godfather’s home was in bed. He walked through the dark corridors, and his feet took him to the library. The door was slightly open but it did not occur to him that there could be someone else in the room.

Harry shivered - the room was cold. He crossed the carpeted floor and saw a dark shape move. He stopped, his fingers quickly delving for the wand that was not in his pocket.

“Harry?” an uncertain, yet familiar voice called out. Harry smiled.

“Sirius?” He reached out for the shadow and felt Sirius take his hand gently. “What are you doing here?” he directed the question at the older wizard.

“Hmmm. What are you doing in here? You’re supposed to be in bed.”

“Can’t sleep,” Harry replied, shrugging slightly. “What were you doing?” He looked up at Sirius but was unable to make out the wizard’s features.

“Just looking,” Sirius answered. A candle lit up on its own accord and Harry saw the gold-framed mirror.

“You were looking at this in the dark?” Harry could not help the skepticism in his voice.

Sirius chuckled warmly. “My eyesight is much keener than yours, Harry. And I’m quite used to darkness, although I don’t appreciate it much.” Sirius’s voice was quieter than usual, and Harry shivered unexpectedly. “Are you all right, Harry?” the wizard inquired politely.

Harry realized that Sirius was still holding on to his hand and was squeezing on it gently. Harry breathed sharply as he started to become aroused, then cursed himself silently for reacting that way.

Sirius moved and stood before Harry, placing himself between the mirror and the young Gryffindor. Harry trembled slightly, thinking that the wizard was going to admonish him. Then Sirius’s grey eyes blazed and the look he gave Harry didn’t even come close to being paternal.

Tentative fingers - the ones that were not holding Harry’s hand - came to brush a reddening cheek.

“I wish,” Sirius faltered and Harry looked at the wizard imploringly. “I wish I could stay and guard you forever.” The wizard sighed pensively.

Something fluttered at the back of Harry’s mind, but it was quickly forgotten when Sirius embraced him warmly. Sirius pushed him away just as quickly as he had hugged him, and the sudden movement snapped Harry out of his trance-like state. He gazed up at Sirius and was surprised to see remorse and guilt in the pair of steel-grey eyes.

Harry did not like the look of them, and gathered the remains of his courage. He claimed back the hand that released him.

“Harry…” Sirius choked as the emerald-eyed wizard turned his hand and kissed the palm, before licking a wet trail up to Sirius’s middle finger. He heard Sirius taking a sharp breath and purposefully sucked in the digit. Sirius whimpered and he backed off.

“I love you,” Harry said simply just as a ruckus exploded somewhere in Sirius’s home. A strange feeling came over him and he started to feel dizzy. He swayed then fell to his knees.

He shook and lifted his eyes, but instead of Sirius, he was looking at an archway. Memories came flooding back to him and he stared at The Veil in horror. Sirius. Sirius. Sirius….


“Harry…”

Someone was shaking him gently, and he blearily opened his eyes. He blinked, and startled when he realized that he was crying. God - it felt real.

Then a voice spoke in his mind. “Of course it felt real - Remus is all over you!”

“Remus,” he managed to croak. He was answered with a gentle kiss on his throat. “Sorry, love. Did I wake you?”

Remus Lupin lifted his head, and shook it in reassurance.

Harry sighed and stared up at the ceiling of their home. It had been nine years since the death of Sirius Black. He was not surprised that he had dreamt of his godfather - he usually did on the same day each year.

“Remus, stop. Please,” he said rather absently, and the hand that was distracting him as he tried to think pulled away. “Thank you.” It was impossible for him to return to his brooding, however.

One lock of his raven-black hair fell across his eye and he brushed it away dreamily. He stared at Remus, who was giving him an expression that was somewhat petulant.

“Hmmm. It appears that you’re lying, Remus. I did wake you up.”

Remus sighed and brushed his thigh teasingly. “Well, I guess you did,” the werewolf admitted. “Who wouldn’t? You did, after all, suck on my fingers.”

“In my sleep?”

“Harry, it’s not like you don’t know that you do tend to do this -”

Harry gasped and glared at his bronze-eyed wizard.

“- to me when you are sleeping,” Remus continued blithely. “But since you are now awake, I think you should make use of your … instincts.”

Harry shivered in excitement, and bit his lip, enduring his lover’s touch in silence. After a while he gave up. “Well, since you started this…”

Lupin’s triumphant chuckles ended quite abruptly when Harry flipped him over and started kissing him seriously. For a while, the bedroom was filled with moans, soft whispers, and the bed creaking as it was rocked by the couple. When it was over, Harry gathered his husband close, and kissed the graying brown hair.

“Are you feeling better?” Remus asked him suddenly.

“Immensely better,” Harry replied impishly, pinching Remus’s bottom playfully. “What time do you think it is now?”

“Close to dawn.” Remus kissed his neck.

“Let’s go and bring some flowers to Sirius’s grave,” Harry said quietly.

“All right.”

They kissed again, and Harry ran his fingers down Remus’s spine. As one, they turned towards the window, and as though it had been summoned, the sun finally appeared, and the room was suddenly ablaze with golden light. A smile came upon Harry’s face, and he embraced his husband.

“I love you, Remus. Thanks for everything.”

“I love you too.”