Rating: PG-13 ( for language and pervy!thoughts )

Pairing: Remus Lupin / Sirius Black

Summary: While his lover is away from home, Remus watches one particular horror movie, and then encounters something else.

Warning: Not much of a warning unless you count the fact that there are some slight spoilers for The Ring, however vague they may be.

Note: It bit me, I wrote it, here it is. Grah.

Disclaimer: The characters, and the movie referenced, in this fic are not mine. They belong to JKR ( that lucky chick ).


Remus Lupin wasn't a fan of horror movies. Possibly because of the fact that every time he watched one it featured a werewolf, and it was such an awful misinterpretation that he couldn't stand to even think about it. Let alone watch the horrid thing. After all, when one was a werewolf one didn't want to watch something that could actually worsen the already wretched social stigma held for werewolves everywhere around the world.


(In the end, of course, he usually did end up thinking about it, but that was later on when he was putting up with Sirius' reviews of the movie being good, and his own reviews of the movie being substandard.)


He sat back after watching the latest horror movie that Sirius had brought into their house. Leaning back on his elbows, he shook his head in amusement. His heart was still thumping rapidly in his chest, not quite slowing down after the ending. It had been a good movie, with the ending being completely unexpected and unforeseen. He hadn't really thought that the man would actually die like he did, and that girl Samara! She was disturbing, for lack of a better word. And the way she moved ... She was just like that muggle video feed!


The case for the video cassette was sitting on top of the muggle VCR that Sirius insisted they own. Sirius had said there were several muggle inventions that he was fond of, and actually liked, and the television and VCR were two of them. Even if Remus continued to believe that the telly was slowly tapping out any of Sirius remaining thought processes. Not that he told Sirius that, but Sirius knew what he thought, and was more than just amused by it. It probably sent him into fits of laughter. Of the belly-aching kind.


Pushing his finger against the eject button (some Sirius-side of his mind make lewd commentary about the word eject) he picked up the case to put the movie into. He stared distractedly at the VCR as it hummed and popped the video out, rewound and ready to be watched again -- when the time came. All in all, he was trying to clear his thoughts from analyzing the movie. Something he always did, and usually lead to him thinking about a movie days, even weeks, after he had finished watching it.


Sometimes he talked about a movie with Sirius. It was amusing to his lover the way that he would go on about a movie, dissecting every little part of it, and trying to figure out how every single plot element came together and created the ending that was seen by the general public. After all, he did love a good movie. All Sirius' fault. The latest movie had actually caught his interest, mainly because it was actually a fairly good horror movie. Building with suspense and catching you off guard at a few moments. Which was a surprise because he usually could see things coming in a movie from miles away.


Shaking his head once again in attempt to focus on the world around him, he popped open the video case for the movie.


"Eh ..." He blinked and eyed the case warily. The thing was suppose to be empty, and wasn't. Inside was another video cassette that he could've sworn hadn't been there before, unless this was some charmed movie case to hold two videos instead of one (he even opened and closed it again to make sure, but the cassette didn't disappear and stayed where it was).


Wrinkling his nose a bit, he studied the cassette. It was black, unmarked, and clearly too similar to the one from the movie for his own liking (so he was still a little shaken from the movie -- big deal!). He pulled his wand from the waist band of his trousers, waving it over the cassette and checking it for Dark Magic. Satisfied that there wasn't any, and admonishing himself for being so silly and thinking there was, he poked the thing with his wand lightly. Which instantly struck him as an incredibly childish thing to do, but he felt the need to do so, and did so. When it didn't move he finally concluded that it wasn't evil (don't need another evil in the world), it wasn't tainted with Dark Magic (because there's too much around anyway), and there certainly wasn't any girl waiting to jump out of the bloody thing and scare him to death (thank the Creator).


He was frowning as he lifted the unmarked video out of the case, and put the real movie into. As he clicked the case shut and set it down upon the top of the VCR he began to inspect the tape he now held in his hand. It looked harmless and completely innocent, but when it was laying around this household, it probably wasn't. He snorted, and shook his head. It was probably one of those pornography films that Sirius popped up with every now and then to embarrass him with. Sirius seemed to all ways be intensely amused when Remus accidentally put one in to play. It usually ended up with Sirius sitting on Remus' back and making him watch, and then later Remus hexing Sirius in return for doing that.


How Sirius could watch those things, he would never figure out. They were completely unappealing and a rather large turn-off for Remus, but that was another thought he didn't care to get into. It was funny, though, how they ended up having sex after watching one of those damn things. Then again, that was related to the fact that Sirius was naturally horny, and after watching one of those things while sitting on Remus' back was bound to lead to other things. He all ways did put up a valiant fight against anything happening, but all ways lost in the end. Not that he minded later, but at the time he usually did.


He gave a shrug of his shoulders to dismiss the tape, and then popped it into the VCR. It would be better if he could make sure and see if it was one of those films, and then burn the thing. (Because, after all, it couldn't be the tape from the movie -- it wasn't real!)


He pushed in the play button, and sat back on the couch to inspect what would be coming on.


"Shit!" The screen opened up with the white fuzzy ring, and there was the chair, and the ladder, and the mother brushing her hair, and Samara with her hair all in her face, and the horses, and all of that. Remus found himself staring at the television screen, completely entranced with it. Not quite believing what was on it, but not disbelieving either. It wasn't real. Really. This was just some prank that Sirius was pulling on him. A rather disturbing prank, and Sirius would pay dearly for.


The video finally stopped playing, and Remus stared at the television. He took a deep breath.


And the phone rang. If it was possible to choke on his breath, he did so, and did so spectacularly well.


... did they have to have a phone? Remus turned his head slowly, eyes going wide as saucers as he stared at the phone. No, this was not funny. The sensible part of his mind told him that it was probably Sirius, and if it was, he was going to give him a stern talking to. This just wasn't funny. Did Sirius honestly have to play a prank on him while he was on business in the muggle world? It just wasn't right!


Slowly he got up and walked over to the phone (doing his best to ignore the trembling in his hands, and dismissing it as nothing). For a brief few moments he just stared at the phone, letting it continue to ring, telling himself that it was Sirius, before he finally picked the phone up.


He listened.


"Seven days ..." He jerked the phone away from his ear and stared down at it. His mouth was moving, but there were no words coming out, none at all. Somehow, he suspected, that if there were, they wouldn't be too nice.


"Remus? Hello? Are you there?" It took a few more seconds of blinking, gawking, and staring before the voice finally registered to Remus. He put the phone back against his ear, cradling it with his shoulder. Telling himself over and over that it was Sirius. He knew that voice.


"Sirius?" He sounded shaky, he knew it. "That you?"


"Yes, it's me, Moony. I was saying that I'll be home in seven days, possibly less. We're having an easier go with the muggles than we thought we would. I should be home in time for the full moon." There was a bit of static on the other end, and it got caught up with Remus' sigh of relief.


"That's good. I miss you. We could've watched that movie you brought home -- both of them." He chuckled at his own fear. Really. Thinking that tape was the real thing, when it wasn't. He'd be telling Sirius off when he got home, but right now he'd just talk to him. He missed Sirius.


"You watched it? No wonder you sound shaky. Does that mean I missed my chance for you jumping out of your seat and into my lap?" Sirius sounded slightly disappointed, he wasn't surprised.


"Yes, yes you did, Padfoot. Maybe we can watch it again, and hope that I do the same thing twice." A small smile slid onto Remus' face. When he jumped into Sirius' lap, he'd make sure to do a bit of damage. Revenge all ways was sweet.


"I certainly hope so. Shit, Remus, I've got to go. I'll call you again later. All right?" He sounded like he didn't want to hang up, but what choice did he have? He was in a hurry.


"All right. Love you."


"Love you too." There was a click as the phone was hung up on Sirius' end. Chuckling to himself, Remus set the phone back down, and looked over to the VCR and television. Maybe if he stared at it long enough, he could figure out why the hell he had actually believed the tape was the real thing.


When the phone rang again Remus picked it up much easier, no longer feeling that tight clench of fear, and no longer worried that there might be some voice telling him that he had seven days left to live. Actually, he was listening for Sirius' voice, hoping that he had called him back, and could talk to him once more.


"... seven days." A soft voice, barely above a whisper, and decidedly not Sirius'. There was no click on the other end after the voice stopped. There was no sound. There was nothing but the dead air on the other end of the phone.


Dead air.


The telephone receiver slowly slipped from Remus' hand, as his head turned to stare in awe at the television and VCR. Dazed, and more than just a little bit scared, he finally noted that the counter numbers were off. In fact, they didn't even resemble anything like numbers at the moment. More like they were random specs of green glowing light (not of the known Avada Kedarva kind) that were lighting up that portion of the VCR's face.


The television suddenly flared on, flickering in between static and a completely black screen. For one brief clear moment of complete clarity on the black screen a ring appeared. Hazy and white.


Remus gulped and looked back down at the fallen telephone on the ground, face pale and drawn.


"Oh fuck."


And somewhere, off where Sirius was, he briefly wondered. "What did Remus mean by two movies?"