This One's For You

Chapter Two: Remus and the Padfoot Puppet

Harry lay in bed, hugging "Draco", and stared at the wall. He didn't like this guest bedroom at the Phoenix Nest, Ron and Hermione's home. What if Draco came for him, to take him away, and couldn't find him? He was here for one very specific reason: Hermione had made him come after hearing about Bill. He wondered how Ron was still alive after living with that harpy.

Harry also wondered why all Weasleys insisted upon naming their homes. There was the Burrow, the Nest, and the "Unattached-Men" Hole, which was Fred and George's lame excuse for a bachelor pad. To Harry the name, "Unattached-Men", which implied that they were single, was misleading. He knew quite well that they slept together whenever they were both home.

As Harry lay there, eyes wide and unseeing, a noise reached his ears. He sat up, listening, and realized with a start that the noise was footsteps. He leapt silently to his feet, thinking quite irrationally that it must be Draco, that it has to be Draco, who has finally come to get him!

He crept to the door and peeked out, thinking that if it is Draco, which it must be, he will go back and pretend to be asleep. But the dark figure in the hall was too short to be Draco. Too short to be Ron as well, so Harry surmised that it must be Remus, who lived in the attic.

Harry was about to turn away, uninterested in his ex-professor's affairs, when he heard Remus speak.

"Padfoot! Where are you? Are you here, Sirius?"

Harry froze at the werewolf's sharp whisper. He stared out, wondering if Remus was talking to the ghost of the six-year-dead Sirius Black.

"I'm right here!" Remus whispered in a squeaky voice, as he pulled what looked like a hand puppet out of his pocket.

"Oh, good. I was getting worried that you wouldn't show up, Siri."

"Of course I would, Remi!" With every word, Remus wagged the little puppet's head. "I would never leave you, because I love you, Moony!"

Remus cuddled the little Sirius-puppet against his cheek, then kissed its little mouth.

"I love you, too. Why don't you change into Padfoot, so we can go have a run outside?"

"Okay." At this, Remus flipped the little thing inside out, revealing a black dog puppet. "Bark, bark!"

He slipped his hand inside the dog, and disappeared down the stairs.

Harry shut the door and wandered to his window. He gaped down at the lawn, and watched as Lupin jumped, skipped, and frolicked about in the light from the half-moon, waving his little Sirius.

He returned to his bed, but just sat on the end, staring at the bright red numbers of the alarm clock. He sat that way, unthinking, for at least an hour, then turned and crawled up to the pillows. He buried his head under "Draco's" midsection, and dreamt of a tall, beautiful, blonde man.