If In The Future

July 9, Continued

"Do you remember the first time we became Animagi?" asked Sirius, running one finger over my lips.

I did.

I'd been in the library one Friday in the winter of my fifth year, studying for exams and avoiding Amoria Wist, my girlfriend at the time. "Really, I've got to study," I'd told her a few minutes before, when she'd found me sitting at one of the back tables and begged me to go into Hogsmeade with her.

"All right, fine, study," she'd said sulkily, and stormed off.

I did have to study, though, because that night was the night of the full moon and by the time the moon had waned again, I had my first exam. Wishing I was anywhere but the library (except out with Amoria), I turned a page and began to read once more about the legal use of Silencing Charms.

"Remus," came a whisper from behind me. I turned around. No one was there.

"Reeeeeeemussssss..."

"All right, who is it? Sirius? James?" I asked, swiveling around in my chair

"I am the ghooooooost of a stuuuuudent who died from too much stuuuuuudying..."

"That's very cute, Sirius or James. If you aren't going to come out and talk to me like a normal person, I'm going back to work."

"Noooooo you areeeeeen't..."

"Yes I am," I said, smiling, and turned back around.

A second later, a pair of cold hands encircled my neck. I screamed. Turning around, I was met with the sight of Sirius, grinning madly.

Madam Pince stuck her head out from behind a shelf. "Black, Lupin, if you aren't going to behave yourselves..."

"It's not his fault, Madam Pince, it's mine," said Sirius quickly. "Trust me, Remus is the model student. He would never dream of - "

"Fine. Just keep it down or I'll be taking points from Gryffindor." Her head vanished.

"You git," I said, smiling, unable to stay mad at him for very long.

"Yes, but I'm a charming git," he said, flashing that infamous smile.

"Come on, Remus," he said, "pack up your things. We've got a surprise for you."

"Can't it wait until after the full moon?" I whispered. "I've got a lot of studying left to do."

"I know you do, but it can't. Come on, we haven't got that much time."

He helped me get all my books together and then we left the library, walking up towards the Gryffindor tower.

"This is a better surprise than the time you enchanted my bookbag to scream every time it was opened, isn't it?"

"Trust me, it is. And that wasn't me, it was James."

"With your help!"

"With my minimal help," he admitted. "But this is a good surprise. A very good one."

The common room was empty except for James and Peter sitting at our regular table. Peter was engraving, "Lucius Malfoy waxes his eyebrows" on the top of the table, and James was checking his watch when we came in. "Good, you're here on time," he said. "Now, Remus, we're going to blindfold you." I took a step back. "Don't worry, Remus! Come on, we're your friends. What do you think we're going to do?"

"All right, but just let me warn you, I've only got about an hour before the full moon."

"We know," said Peter. "Don't worry about it." He took out a tie from his pocket and proceeded to bind it around my eyes.

"We're putting the Invisibility Cloak over all of us now," said James, and I felt a silky material touch my head. "Sirius is going to hold your hand so you won't fall or bump into anything."

Suddenly, warm fingers slid between mine. My heart jumped. It was moments like these that made me wonder just how much longer I could safely hide my feelings for him. Something told me it wasn't going to be too much longer.

"This isn't anyplace dangerous, is it?" I asked as Sirius led me to the portrait hole.

"Yes it is, Moony, we're taking you to the Chamber of Secrets," said James, and I could just imagine him rolling his eyes.

With Sirius's hand firmly entwined with mine, we made our way out of the common room and down the steps. After we reached the bottom and took a few turns, I wasn't sure where we were anymore. "For all the anxiety I'm going through, this had better be a good surprise," I said. Sirius's hand sqeezed mine.

Soon, we were outside. "You're bringing me outside without a coat?"

"Don't we such a worrier, Remus, we haven't got far to go," said James. "Besides, neither of us have any coats either." I heard a distinct chattering of teeth from behind me. "Oh, come on, Peter, it's not that bad."

"Okay, Peter, go and do it," said Sirius. I felt a blast of wind as the back of the cloak was lifted up. "We're going down stairs now," said Sirius a minute later. "Mind your head."

The wind was gone but the temperature was not much warmer. Finally we reached the last step and I was directed to a chair. I heard the flick of a match being lit and the sounds of logs being put down upon a stone floor. Someone took off the cloak.

"Okay, Sirius, I think we can take off the blindfold now," said James. Sirius's fingers fumbled with the knot and the tie was slipped off. Once my eyes adjusted, I realized we were in the Shrieking Shack.

"Hey, how did you three get in here!" I exclaimed. "The willow should have mauled us all."

"You'll find out in a minute," said Peter. He was sitting between James and Sirius on the couch, which had a few bites taken out of it. "So, James, do you want to go first?"

"Sure," said James, getting up off the couch. He walked over to the bare middle of the room and stood there. Sirius cleared his throat.

"Presenting...Prongs!"

In a split second, a stag stood in James's place. I blinked. "Oh my God," I said, "don't tell me that you..."
"Wormtail!" interrupted Sirius. A rat joined the stag. "And Padfoot!" He turned into a large black dog and jumped off the couch, standing next to the others.

That's when I fainted.

~~*~~

"It was just like in the Muggle films," was the next thing I heard, from Peter, as I came to. "Except no one yelled, 'Catch him!' or anything like that."

"Of course they didn't, you prat," said Sirius. "D'you think we knew he was going to faint?"

I sat up. Sirius and Peter were kneeling next to the couch that I was lying on, with James standing behind them. All three were human again.

"You became Animagi," I said weakly.

"Yep," said Sirius, grinning. "Now, was that a bad surprise?"

~~*~~

Just as I reached that point in my recollections, I heard the door of the dormitory creak. Sirius and I sat up and looked at the door.

Standing in the doorframe was Severus Snape, greasy as ever. On his face was a look between horror and revulsion.

"Lupin. Black. I was sent up here by Dumbledore, who wanted to know if you two would like to have lunch with him in his study," he said, his voice about twenty degrees below zero. "However, I was not aware that I would be interrupting a romantic interlude - "

Without a word, Sirius rose from the bed and strode over to where Snape was standing. "And would you have a problem with that?" he asked, his voice as quiet as death.

"Would I have a problem with two men engaging in perversions on school property? Well, let me think..."

Before I knew what was happening, Sirius had pinned Snape against the wall. Snape let out a choked gasp.

"Sirius!" I exclaimed. "He's on our side, you can't hurt him."

"No one who insults what we have together is on our side, Remus," said Sirius, his eyes not leaving Snape. "Especially not disgusting, Death-Eating - "

Snape lunged, knocking Sirius onto Dean Thomas's bed. His hands grasped his throat.

"Severus, get off him!" I screamed, pulling Snape off of Sirius with all my might. I finally managed to pull him away, but it was hard to restrain him. He escaped from my grasp and lunged at Sirius again.

"Why, Professor Snape!"

All three of us looked up. Moaning Myrtle was hovering in the doorway.

"Really, Professor, try to keep your desires in check until you're in a more private place, would you? Other people's dormitories are hardly the place to indulge you lusts."

"I," said Snape, still gasping for breath, "was trying to - "

"Oh, it's all right, I understand, you don't have to explain. It is hard for many people to control themselves around Sirius. Now, I think Professor Dumbledore is expecting you downstairs."

"Yes, Severus, I expect he is," I said. "Perhaps you'd like to wash your hair before lunch...unless, of course, you're saving all that grease for lubricant."

Snape looked at us as if he didn't know which one to kill first. Then, without saying a word, he turned and left.

Myrtle, Sirius, and I looked at each other for a few minutes. Then we began to scream with laughter.

"Myrtle, we owe you one," I said when I was finally able to speak again. "That was bloody brilliant." Myrtle folded her arms across her chest, looking very satisfied with herself.

"You were brilliant too, darling," said Sirius, sliding his arms around my waist. "Saving the grease for lubricant..."

And all three of collapsed on the bed, laughing until our eyes spilled tears.

July 10

"I was proud of you, love," I said as Sirius was making tea this morning.

"And why is that?"

"Because you didn't lie to Snape about us."

"I told you I wasn't going to lie anymore, didn't I?"

"Yes, but saying something and actually doing it are two different things."

"I see what you mean," he said, pouring himself a cup of tea and taking a sip. "You know," he said, a few minutes later, "Myrtle really surprised me."

"I think she might have surprised herself," I said.

We sipped in silence for a while, and I thought. Neither of us had known that Myrtle had any sense of humor, that she'd had potential to be more then a sobbing spectre. Who knows what else she could have been? But Voldemort had killed her, ruined her chances to be all that she could have been.

"Do you think James and Lily would have had any more kids?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"I think so."

"I bet you would have been the godfather for the next one, had there been one."

"Maybe."

"No, you would have been. They loved you, Remus."

But we would never know, just like we would never know what might have happened to Myrtle or Cedric Diggory or all of the others Voldemort had killed.

~~*~~

When I arrived home from work, Sirius was lying on the couch with one hand over his eyes. "Are you awake?" I asked.

"Yes."

I sat down next to him and gently lifted the hand off his eyes. "What's the matter, Sirius?"

"I went back to bed after you left for work," he said, his voice strangely choked-sounding. "And I had a dream...a dream that you were dead and I was alone..." He suddenly flung his arms around me and sobbed into my chest. "Remus, don't ever leave me..."

I stroked his hair. "Hey, hey, it's all right, I'm here," I whispered. "I'm not leaving you."

He looked up at me and I lightly brushed the tears from his face. "Dreams can be pretty realistic sometimes, can't they."

"Yeah." He sat up some more and brushed his hair back. "It just seemed so real that even after I knew it was only a dream it still upset me."

"I've had some dreams like that too," I said, remembering the one I'd had right after I started teaching at Hogwarts. In that dream, I forgot to take the Wolfsbane Potion and slaughtered half the school.

I suddenly realized there was light, airy music coming from the corner. "Oh, I turned on the wireless," said Sirius once he noticed me looking at it. "Thought it might calm me down."

I stood up and held out my hand to him. "Dance with me."

His hand enclosed around mine and he rose from the couch. We walked over to an open area of the floor and he wrapped one arm around my waist and held me close.

"I love you," he whispered in my ear as we swayed to the music.

"You're the best thing that ever happened to me," I answered.