Love Among the Marauders

Chapter Eight

On the evening of the full moon, Remus and Sirius walk down to the Whomping Willow together. Remus is always quiet just before the change, but Sirius feels an additional ripple.

"What's up, Moony?" Remus doesn't answer and Sirius continues, "I may be hideously self-involved, but I do worry when your taciturnity reaches epic proportions. Moony? Seriously. What's going on?"

Remus stops walking and looks at him. "You are an idiot, Sirius."

Sirius is confused for a moment and then, reading Remus's look, says, "Oh. Oh my god."

"Yes. Are you happy now?" Remus starts walking again.

Sirius grabs his arm. "Moony. I had no idea. You're always so irritated with me. It's kind of grounding, really. It's why I trust you. It's why you're the only person I trust." He pulls Remus around to face him and grins a little. "I thought you were immune to my charms."

Remus yanks away and continues across the lawn. "Well I'm not. Apparently."

"Though I'm sure you've struggled valiantly against them."

Remus can hear the laughter in Sirius's voice and stops again as Sirius grabs his shoulder.

"Moony. Will you stop walking already? For god's sake. You can't just---" He breaks off at the sight of Malfoy and half a dozen Slytherins standing in a loose formation in front of the Willow.

Malfoy says, "Mr. Black. Mr. Lupin. Very prompt."

"What do you want, Lucius?"

"To interrupt your assignation. Obviously. And possibly pick off some mongrels."

"James isn't coming."

"But then, as it turns out, Potter isn't really my rival. Is he?"

"What? What the hell are you talking about?" Sirius looks behind him.

Remus's face is like stone in the twilight. His wand is already loose in his hand. Sirius draws his own, assesses Malfoy and his armed cohorts, and notes that the Ravenclaw Ambring is among them, still sporting the two black eyes Sirius gave him for praising the depravity of Muggle-born girls to a crowd of sniggering pureblooded boys. And Julian is there, smirking evilly.

Sirius says, "So. This is your little pureblooded army. Very impressive. I'm sure you'll have no trouble taking over the world."

"Scoff if you must. Later, looking down at your broken body, perhaps I'll shed a tear for spilling all that blue blood."

Sirius laughs. "Just try to avoid spilling anything else while you're looking at my body."

Malfoy sounds regretful. "I did warn you."

"Lucius. Seriously. I don't want to have to kill you."

"I doubt you'll have the chance."

Sirius suddenly realizes they're surrounded and is relieved to feel the warmth of Remus's broad back against his own. He mutters, "How long till the change?"

"Hour and a half. Give or take. We'll make it. Just try not to kill anyone."

Sirius laughs again, a little hysterically, and then sparks are flying. Sirius hears Remus successfully extract his opponent's wand, watches his own spell knock someone flat, feels a searing pain in his left arm, and ducks a jet of light that hits the person on Remus's other side. Now it's two to four. Much better odds. With one mind, Remus and Sirius turn their sides together and start backing toward the Willow.

Normally Peter presses the knot for them, or one of them shoots a rock at it. Walking backward into it may well kill them, but Malfoy is approaching with poison in his eyes, flanked by his soldiers, and Sirius and Remus are barely repelling their attacks. Offense is out of the question. They can hear the Willow's branches swishing hungrily behind them.

Malfoy says, "What a delightful ending. Now that you're about to die, you may as well know, Black, you are quite persuasive. Particularly in the sack. I very nearly wavered on my pureblood position for you."

Sirius, startled, says, "What?" and promptly loses a hank of black hair as one of the Slytherins' missiles flies by him.

"For heaven's sake, Sirius," hisses Remus. "Concentrate."

Several minutes pass in intense focus on exchanging bolts. Twice Sirius feels the Willow's leaves whip the backs of his legs. Remus launches a hex that temporarily turns Julian's bones to rubber. Sirius and Malfoy shoot and block and shoot and block.

The sound of the Willow's branches pounding behind them is deafening. Remus mutters, "Don't back up any farther. We're right at the---"

Malfoy smiles evilly. "Goodbye, lover. I like it that my face is the last thing you'll ever---"

The whoosh of two brooms comes from above and James yells, "Sirius!"

Lily, right behind him, shouts, "Remus! Watch out!" and then reverses Ambring's wand so that he drops himself, hard, to the ground. Now it's only two on two.

Sirius advances on Malfoy, who smiles at him, tosses his wand to one side, and jauntily holds up his fists. Sirius drops his own wand and throws himself on Malfoy.

Lily, hanging above them, says, "God, James. They're going to kill each other."

Remus dispatches the last of Malfoy's Slytherins and watches with an odd expression on his face as Sirius and Malfoy roll across the grass trying to strangle one another. James lands next to him and touches his arm.

"Don't worry, Moony. Malfoy may be enjoying himself, but Sirius is just really, really angry. Trust me." Remus looks at him gratefully.

Lily, exasperated, shoots her wand at the struggling boys. They freeze instantly. Remus and James stare at her.

She says, "I cannot believe you were just going to stand there and watch them go at it. They're frozen. They'll be fine. In about twelve hours." Then she turns to Remus and raises her eyebrows. "I guess you'll have to carry him."

Remus looks back and forth between them. They both grin and James throws his arm over Lily.

He says, "Seriously, Moony. We kind of got maneuvered into this, but now we're pretty happy about it. Right, Lil?"

She reaches up and kisses his cheek. "Weird but true, Remus. So take your, ah, winnings and get the hell out of here."

Remus shrugs, extricates Sirius from Malfoy's grip, and slings him over his shoulder. Then he stops, alarmed, and says, "But he won't be able to change."

Lily says, "Oh, hell. I didn't even think of that."

"You can't undo it?"

She shakes her head.

James says, "I'll come with you, Moony. Let's run him up to the dorm and then---"

Lily suddenly yanks her bag off her shoulder and starts rooting through it. "I might have a better idea...if you don't mind a bit of a hangover..." She finds something and tosses it to Remus.

He catches it in his free hand and looks at it. It's a small black glass vial.

"What's this?"

"What I used on Ambring. Just rub it on your skin and you'll be out about as long as Sirius. You may feel a little squiffy tomorrow, but I have it on very good authority that it works on werewolves." James and Remus are both staring at her. "According to Snape."

Remus says, "Ah. Yes. Your new best friend."

"He owed me a favor. Remus! Don't look at me like that. Not that kind of favor! Just go." She laughs. "We'll see you tomorrow."

Remus grins a little goofily at them and tucks the vial in his pocket. James throws a well-aimed rock at the knot and Remus, carrying Sirius, disappears down the passage to the Shrieking Shack.

*

When Sirius wakes up the next morning, he feels like a giant has been holding him by the ankles and whacking his body against a tree. He is astonished to find himself lying in the bed in the Shrieking Shack beside a snoring Remus, both of them wearing pajama bottoms.

His last memory is of trying to strangle Malfoy on the lawn in front of the Willow. He has no recollection of becoming Padfoot and cannot imagine how he survived a full-moon night with Remus in human form. After a few minutes, he shakes Remus awake.

"What?" asks Remus, groggily, rolling over. "Oh. It's you."

"Yes. It's me. You big lout. How the hell did I get here?"

"I didn't ravish you, if that's what you're worried about."

Sirius starts laughing. "Oh no? Why not?"

"Too skinny."

"What? I am not. Moony. That cuts me to my soul."

"I don't usually ravish anyone I can actually carry off a battlefield. It's a little too hetero."

"Really. And what the hell are you?"

"Not that. Anymore. Apparently."

"That's promising." Sirius pushes himself up on his right elbow. His tensed shoulder, despite Remus's complaints, looks huge, hard muscled. Remus wants to bite it. Or maybe rub it with his teeth. Sirius watches him staring and touches his tongue to his lower lip. He growls, "A shame I'm not butch enough for you."

"Perhaps the jury's still out." Remus's voice is a little thick. He rises onto his left arm, looks at Sirius's narrowed eyes and swollen mouth, and registers the rapid pulse beating in his neck. He feels his throat tighten.

Sirius murmurs, "I might surprise you. We can find out."

Remus doesn't answer, just pushes Sirius onto his back, wraps his hands around his head, and starts kissing him.

*

The End