Dust and Feathers
It was two o'clock in the darkest night Remus Lupin had ever known, when someone, or rather, something scratched on his door.
He put on a candle and blinked at its blinding light, then swung his legs out of the creaky bed and went to check who was there.
To his utter surprise, it was a big, scruffy black dog. He opened the door to it immediately.
As soon as Remus had closed the door behind the dog and drawn the curtain in front of the door's small window, the dog shape-shifted back to his human form.
"Sirius," whispered Remus, his voice heavy with mixed emotions at seeing his friend again. He frowned when he saw the expression on Sirius's face. "What is it?"
"Voldemort," Sirius said, his eyes flitting through the shabby little apartment. "He's returned."
Remus's eyes widened in shock. "W – what? How did he..."
Sirius, finally looking Remus in the eye, seemed to loose a bit of his edge. On closer inspection, Remus thought he looked rather unnerved. Frowning and worried, he came a bit closer and put an arm around his friend's shoulder.
"It's – well – difficult – and Harry..." Sirius managed to say, before Remus hushed him.
"Is Harry okay?" he asked quietly.
"He is now," said Sirius, and repeated what Harry had told him and Dumbledore earlier that night, how Voldemort had risen. "And now Dumbledore has send me to you, to keep my head down for a bit," he finished.
Remus nodded silently, immerged in thought. "Well, you better get some rest, then," he said after some time. Sirius simply nodded, exhausted, and let Lupin lead him to the creaky old bed.
"Where – where will you be sleeping, then?" Sirius mumbled, nearly asleep already.
"Don't you worry about me," Remus said, tucking Sirius in. "I've already slept some."
Remus sat at Sirius's side, until he, too, fell asleep, and his head slowly sank down on the bed, too.
Around ten, the next morning, Remus woke up again. Sirius was still asleep, the sheets drawn nearly over his head entirely, only exposing tangled, dark hair.
Remus got up from the stool he had been sitting on and stretched. He felt stiff and needed coffee badly. He washed, shaved and got dressed before checking on Sirius once more and going into the kitchen to make breakfast.
By the time he had made some toast and two steaming mugs of coffee, Sirius emerged from the bedroom, rubbing his eyes.
"Good morning, sunshine," Remus said, smiling.
"Muh," said Sirius, never really a person for the mornings, and he sat down on one of the kitchen chairs of dubious earlier owner. Remus handed him the mug and some toast with marmalade.
"Is that all I'll be getting?" Sirius asked.
"I'm sorry, but yes. I don't have much more," Remus said apologetically.
"Oh," said Sirius, inspecting the toast. He shrugged and took a big bite from it.
After breakfast, Remus insisted that Sirius took a shower, as he obviously hadn't had one for months, and, Remus thought, perhaps even years. He didn't know whether Sirius had taken a shower after getting away from Azkaban, but he somehow didn't think it appealing to ask.
"What do we do now?" Remus asked later, when they sat on the settee together. "Wait?"
Sirius shrugged. "We might go and have a look at my parent's old place. It's mine, now," he said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "We might redecorate."
"Good idea," Remus said, and he got up to get some Floo powder.
"Hey, wait!" Sirius said. "D'you have any idea where it is?"
"Erm, no, but I suppose you'll tell me?" said Remus, pausing in his strides.
"Heh, okay, that'll work," Sirius said. Remus frowned. "Well, see, they kind of made the house Unreachable, so you have to know where it is to be able to get to it."
"Okay," said Remus, "so where is it?"
"Oh, yeah, heh," Sirius said, scratching his chin. "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place."
"Very well," Remus said, handing a hand-full of Floo powder to Sirius.
Sirius stepped into the fireplace first and called, "Twelve, Grimmauld Place!" With a loud 'WHOOSH!' he had disappeared. Remus soon followed him.
When Remus had stopped spinning, he stepped out of the strange fireplace a little dizzily. He shook his head to clear it and looked around him. In the little light he had, he could see he had landed in a gloomy kitchen with a low ceiling. In the middle of the kitchen stood a large, heavy oak table. The walls were lined with cupboards and a stove. No signs of modern luxury. In one corner of the room was a small sink. Sirius was nowhere to be seen.
Remus ignited his wand-tip and looked around a bit more carefully. Only when he heard some movement behind him, he shone at the corner there.
A very ugly and old house elf was sitting there, broodingly, staring intently at Remus and rocking backwards and forwards, while mumbling unintelligible things. Remus stared back at him, fascinated by the old house elf, until he was awoken from his wonderings by a loud shriek from somewhere more above him.
He looked around for a door, found it, raced up the small, steep stairs to a floor half above the kitchen, where he found Sirius struggling with something in the dark.
Something shrieked again, and to Remus's horror, it sounded quite human.
"What is that?" Remus said carefully, approaching Sirius on tip-toe.
"A life-size portrait of my dear old mum," Sirius scowled. "She wasn't too happy to see me, once she recognised me."
"I see," Remus said, still staring at the portrait, which was howling insanely at Sirius. "How can we get her to be quiet?"
"Hmm, let's try the budgie-way and cover her up with some cloth," Sirius said, walking over to the front door and tearing the side-window's curtain off. He walked back to the portrait and magically fastened the curtains to the wall. The silence was immediate and deep.
"That will have to do for the time being," Sirius said, dusting off his hands.
"What about that house elf in the kitchen?" Remus asked.
"Kreacher?" Sirius said, obviously not very interested or concerned. "Let him stay there 'til he rots."
'A bit blunt,' Remus though, shrugging, 'but then again, he never liked it here. It's a miracle he proposed to check on the house in the first place.'
Remus followed Sirius up the stairs, where they found pixie-invested curtains, ominously creaking wardrobes and sickeningly discoloured stuffed animals.
The only room which didn't seem filled to the rim with Dark objects, appeared to be Sirius's old bedroom, which he had cleverly sealed with a few good spells.
After lifting all seven of them, Sirius led Remus in. The room had been remarkably well preserved. Everything was covered in a veil of dust, but from Sirius's gasp, Remus could make out it had otherwise not changed at all.
Remus could see why Sirius had spent most of his childhood in this room. It was filled with magical toys, books and, much to Remus's surprise, a Muggle guitar. Sirius walked over to it, picked it up and dusted it off with his sleeve. He hesitantly tried the strings and found he could still produce some sound with the instrument.
He smiled at Remus. "Used to play on this thing all the time," he said, nostalgically patting the guitar. "Drove my mum nuts. Mind you, father's organ was also hell to listen to." He put the guitar back on its stand.
Remus still stood in the doorway, looking at the room with a mixture of shared sadness, awe and curiosity. Sirius sighed and sat down on the old bed, which creaked under his weight. Dust flew up around him. He coughed and waved it away.
"Why don't you come in and sit down?" he invited Remus. Remus shrugged and made his way to the bed, zigzagging between toys and heaps of books that lay strewn across the floor, signs that Sirius had left the room in a hurry, the last time he had left it.
He sat down on the bed beside Sirius, making a little more dust take to the skies. They coughed and laughed. Sirius picked up one of the dusty pillows, shook it, coughed some more, then suddenly hit Remus in the face with it.
Remus made a sound that ranged between coughs and shrieks of surprised laughter. He picked up another pillow, and, without dusting it off, hit Sirius in the back of the head with it. Sirius doubled over, also with laughter and coughs, and Remus laughed loudly about the dust that had been caught in Sirius's hair. Sirius quickly made use of this and hit Remus in the stomach.
Soon, a full-blown pillow fight had broken loose, and dust and feathers went everywhere. Shrieking with laughter, Sirius and Remus kept blowing the ragged pillows into each other, wherever they could.
Remus, trying to skip away from one of Sirius more accurate blows, tripped over a large, leather bound tome and fell over, legs flailing, into the bed. His left foot got caught behind Sirius's right leg, so Sirius, too, went falling, and he landed on top of Remus.
Their laughter faded away as they tried to catch their breath, looking each other in the eye. Slowly, Sirius moved his face closer to Remus's. Remus tensed a little, and lifted his head a little off the bed. Within seconds that seemed to last a lifetime, Sirius's lips touched Remus's.
Remus felt a jolt in his stomach. At first, his blood seemed to freeze in his veins, then, with a start, it came to life and raced, stimulated by his heart that pumped faster and faster and faster... His breath came with more difficulty, as Sirius's tongue slipped into Remus's mouth. He suddenly regained the management over his other limbs, and put his arms around Sirius, softly stroking his back, then his hips and at last his bottom.
Sirius let his hands run through Remus's hair, which was, however many grey hairs Remus may have had at that point, still very full and soft. Remus cheekily pinched Sirius's behind, and Sirius moaned into Remus's mouth. They rolled onto their sides and Sirius began to caress Remus's chest. They finished the kiss and looked deep into each other's eyes.
"Do you remember the days when we were you and carefree," Sirius said, stroking Remus's cheek, "and we could love without a doubt, without fear for betrayal?" Remus nodded, and snuggled his nose into Sirius's hair, which was still dusty.
"It was a wonderful era," Remus sighed into Sirius's ear.
"Let's dust it off, a little, too," whispered Sirius. Remus pulled back his head to look his old friend into the eye. Sirius was being earnest. Remus kissed him again.
Their hands wandered over each other's bodies as the passion intensified. Remus pulled Sirius shirt from his trousers as Sirius's hand slipped under Remus's jumper to caress his bare chest. Remus unbuckled Sirius's belt as Sirius unbuttoned Remus's fly.
They stopped kissing for a moment to dispose of pieces of clothing that were indisposable to the other. Trousers, shirts, jumpers, boxers, socks, shoes; all were thrown into the dust. At last they lie on their sides again, this time stark naked. Remus could feel Sirius's erection against his own. His breath was ragged and heavy as he began to stroke Sirius's hips again.
Sirius's fingers ran down Remus's chest, all the way to his erection, which Sirius took into his hand and softly stroked. Remus moaned and Sirius let go. This time, Remus groaned.
"What did you do that for?" he asked huskily.
Sirius didn't answer, instead, he moved down the mattress a little so his face was inches away from Remus's most private area. Remus gulped just before Sirius took his penis into his mouth and started to suck on it.
It had been a long time since Remus had done any such thing, and his body was greatly anticipating the sensation which was building up inside him. The rush of pleasure was enveloping him quickly, and within no time, he came, shuddering all over his body.
Lust had now overtaken Sirius, and as soon as Remus had caught his breath a little, Sirius turned him on his side, and crept up to him from behind. He started to kiss Remus's shoulders and neck, and his heartbeat sped up.
Remus lay facing the wall, anticipating what was to come. He liked the way Sirius's left hand was stroking his chest and his right went down to Remus's more sensitive area.
Finally, Sirius softly and carefully entered Remus from behind. Remus gasped softly, since it hurt a little, and he tried to concentrate on Sirius's hands on his body as Sirius moved in and out faster and faster.
With a spasm of delight, Sirius came, and slumped, sweaty, sticky and tired, into Remus's back. Remus turned around and they kissed again.
By the time they took the Floo back to Remus's apartment, it was dark outside and the stars sparkled around a quarter of a moon.
They left the mumbling old house elf on his own in the kitchen. If they had stopped and listened to its mumblings, they might have know the source of its new astonishment.
Kreacher kept staring into the dark, his large eyes opened wide, mumbling, "Bare buttocks... bare buttocks..."
It was two o'clock in the darkest night Remus Lupin had ever known, when someone, or rather, something scratched on his door.
He put on a candle and blinked at its blinding light, then swung his legs out of the creaky bed and went to check who was there.
To his utter surprise, it was a big, scruffy black dog. He opened the door to it immediately.
As soon as Remus had closed the door behind the dog and drawn the curtain in front of the door's small window, the dog shape-shifted back to his human form.
"Sirius," whispered Remus, his voice heavy with mixed emotions at seeing his friend again. He frowned when he saw the expression on Sirius's face. "What is it?"
"Voldemort," Sirius said, his eyes flitting through the shabby little apartment. "He's returned."
Remus's eyes widened in shock. "W – what? How did he..."
Sirius, finally looking Remus in the eye, seemed to loose a bit of his edge. On closer inspection, Remus thought he looked rather unnerved. Frowning and worried, he came a bit closer and put an arm around his friend's shoulder.
"It's – well – difficult – and Harry..." Sirius managed to say, before Remus hushed him.
"Is Harry okay?" he asked quietly.
"He is now," said Sirius, and repeated what Harry had told him and Dumbledore earlier that night, how Voldemort had risen. "And now Dumbledore has send me to you, to keep my head down for a bit," he finished.
Remus nodded silently, immerged in thought. "Well, you better get some rest, then," he said after some time. Sirius simply nodded, exhausted, and let Lupin lead him to the creaky old bed.
"Where – where will you be sleeping, then?" Sirius mumbled, nearly asleep already.
"Don't you worry about me," Remus said, tucking Sirius in. "I've already slept some."
Remus sat at Sirius's side, until he, too, fell asleep, and his head slowly sank down on the bed, too.
Around ten, the next morning, Remus woke up again. Sirius was still asleep, the sheets drawn nearly over his head entirely, only exposing tangled, dark hair.
Remus got up from the stool he had been sitting on and stretched. He felt stiff and needed coffee badly. He washed, shaved and got dressed before checking on Sirius once more and going into the kitchen to make breakfast.
By the time he had made some toast and two steaming mugs of coffee, Sirius emerged from the bedroom, rubbing his eyes.
"Good morning, sunshine," Remus said, smiling.
"Muh," said Sirius, never really a person for the mornings, and he sat down on one of the kitchen chairs of dubious earlier owner. Remus handed him the mug and some toast with marmalade.
"Is that all I'll be getting?" Sirius asked.
"I'm sorry, but yes. I don't have much more," Remus said apologetically.
"Oh," said Sirius, inspecting the toast. He shrugged and took a big bite from it.
After breakfast, Remus insisted that Sirius took a shower, as he obviously hadn't had one for months, and, Remus thought, perhaps even years. He didn't know whether Sirius had taken a shower after getting away from Azkaban, but he somehow didn't think it appealing to ask.
"What do we do now?" Remus asked later, when they sat on the settee together. "Wait?"
Sirius shrugged. "We might go and have a look at my parent's old place. It's mine, now," he said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "We might redecorate."
"Good idea," Remus said, and he got up to get some Floo powder.
"Hey, wait!" Sirius said. "D'you have any idea where it is?"
"Erm, no, but I suppose you'll tell me?" said Remus, pausing in his strides.
"Heh, okay, that'll work," Sirius said. Remus frowned. "Well, see, they kind of made the house Unreachable, so you have to know where it is to be able to get to it."
"Okay," said Remus, "so where is it?"
"Oh, yeah, heh," Sirius said, scratching his chin. "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place."
"Very well," Remus said, handing a hand-full of Floo powder to Sirius.
Sirius stepped into the fireplace first and called, "Twelve, Grimmauld Place!" With a loud 'WHOOSH!' he had disappeared. Remus soon followed him.
When Remus had stopped spinning, he stepped out of the strange fireplace a little dizzily. He shook his head to clear it and looked around him. In the little light he had, he could see he had landed in a gloomy kitchen with a low ceiling. In the middle of the kitchen stood a large, heavy oak table. The walls were lined with cupboards and a stove. No signs of modern luxury. In one corner of the room was a small sink. Sirius was nowhere to be seen.
Remus ignited his wand-tip and looked around a bit more carefully. Only when he heard some movement behind him, he shone at the corner there.
A very ugly and old house elf was sitting there, broodingly, staring intently at Remus and rocking backwards and forwards, while mumbling unintelligible things. Remus stared back at him, fascinated by the old house elf, until he was awoken from his wonderings by a loud shriek from somewhere more above him.
He looked around for a door, found it, raced up the small, steep stairs to a floor half above the kitchen, where he found Sirius struggling with something in the dark.
Something shrieked again, and to Remus's horror, it sounded quite human.
"What is that?" Remus said carefully, approaching Sirius on tip-toe.
"A life-size portrait of my dear old mum," Sirius scowled. "She wasn't too happy to see me, once she recognised me."
"I see," Remus said, still staring at the portrait, which was howling insanely at Sirius. "How can we get her to be quiet?"
"Hmm, let's try the budgie-way and cover her up with some cloth," Sirius said, walking over to the front door and tearing the side-window's curtain off. He walked back to the portrait and magically fastened the curtains to the wall. The silence was immediate and deep.
"That will have to do for the time being," Sirius said, dusting off his hands.
"What about that house elf in the kitchen?" Remus asked.
"Kreacher?" Sirius said, obviously not very interested or concerned. "Let him stay there 'til he rots."
'A bit blunt,' Remus though, shrugging, 'but then again, he never liked it here. It's a miracle he proposed to check on the house in the first place.'
Remus followed Sirius up the stairs, where they found pixie-invested curtains, ominously creaking wardrobes and sickeningly discoloured stuffed animals.
The only room which didn't seem filled to the rim with Dark objects, appeared to be Sirius's old bedroom, which he had cleverly sealed with a few good spells.
After lifting all seven of them, Sirius led Remus in. The room had been remarkably well preserved. Everything was covered in a veil of dust, but from Sirius's gasp, Remus could make out it had otherwise not changed at all.
Remus could see why Sirius had spent most of his childhood in this room. It was filled with magical toys, books and, much to Remus's surprise, a Muggle guitar. Sirius walked over to it, picked it up and dusted it off with his sleeve. He hesitantly tried the strings and found he could still produce some sound with the instrument.
He smiled at Remus. "Used to play on this thing all the time," he said, nostalgically patting the guitar. "Drove my mum nuts. Mind you, father's organ was also hell to listen to." He put the guitar back on its stand.
Remus still stood in the doorway, looking at the room with a mixture of shared sadness, awe and curiosity. Sirius sighed and sat down on the old bed, which creaked under his weight. Dust flew up around him. He coughed and waved it away.
"Why don't you come in and sit down?" he invited Remus. Remus shrugged and made his way to the bed, zigzagging between toys and heaps of books that lay strewn across the floor, signs that Sirius had left the room in a hurry, the last time he had left it.
He sat down on the bed beside Sirius, making a little more dust take to the skies. They coughed and laughed. Sirius picked up one of the dusty pillows, shook it, coughed some more, then suddenly hit Remus in the face with it.
Remus made a sound that ranged between coughs and shrieks of surprised laughter. He picked up another pillow, and, without dusting it off, hit Sirius in the back of the head with it. Sirius doubled over, also with laughter and coughs, and Remus laughed loudly about the dust that had been caught in Sirius's hair. Sirius quickly made use of this and hit Remus in the stomach.
Soon, a full-blown pillow fight had broken loose, and dust and feathers went everywhere. Shrieking with laughter, Sirius and Remus kept blowing the ragged pillows into each other, wherever they could.
Remus, trying to skip away from one of Sirius more accurate blows, tripped over a large, leather bound tome and fell over, legs flailing, into the bed. His left foot got caught behind Sirius's right leg, so Sirius, too, went falling, and he landed on top of Remus.
Their laughter faded away as they tried to catch their breath, looking each other in the eye. Slowly, Sirius moved his face closer to Remus's. Remus tensed a little, and lifted his head a little off the bed. Within seconds that seemed to last a lifetime, Sirius's lips touched Remus's.
Remus felt a jolt in his stomach. At first, his blood seemed to freeze in his veins, then, with a start, it came to life and raced, stimulated by his heart that pumped faster and faster and faster... His breath came with more difficulty, as Sirius's tongue slipped into Remus's mouth. He suddenly regained the management over his other limbs, and put his arms around Sirius, softly stroking his back, then his hips and at last his bottom.
Sirius let his hands run through Remus's hair, which was, however many grey hairs Remus may have had at that point, still very full and soft. Remus cheekily pinched Sirius's behind, and Sirius moaned into Remus's mouth. They rolled onto their sides and Sirius began to caress Remus's chest. They finished the kiss and looked deep into each other's eyes.
"Do you remember the days when we were you and carefree," Sirius said, stroking Remus's cheek, "and we could love without a doubt, without fear for betrayal?" Remus nodded, and snuggled his nose into Sirius's hair, which was still dusty.
"It was a wonderful era," Remus sighed into Sirius's ear.
"Let's dust it off, a little, too," whispered Sirius. Remus pulled back his head to look his old friend into the eye. Sirius was being earnest. Remus kissed him again.
Their hands wandered over each other's bodies as the passion intensified. Remus pulled Sirius shirt from his trousers as Sirius's hand slipped under Remus's jumper to caress his bare chest. Remus unbuckled Sirius's belt as Sirius unbuttoned Remus's fly.
They stopped kissing for a moment to dispose of pieces of clothing that were indisposable to the other. Trousers, shirts, jumpers, boxers, socks, shoes; all were thrown into the dust. At last they lie on their sides again, this time stark naked. Remus could feel Sirius's erection against his own. His breath was ragged and heavy as he began to stroke Sirius's hips again.
Sirius's fingers ran down Remus's chest, all the way to his erection, which Sirius took into his hand and softly stroked. Remus moaned and Sirius let go. This time, Remus groaned.
"What did you do that for?" he asked huskily.
Sirius didn't answer, instead, he moved down the mattress a little so his face was inches away from Remus's most private area. Remus gulped just before Sirius took his penis into his mouth and started to suck on it.
It had been a long time since Remus had done any such thing, and his body was greatly anticipating the sensation which was building up inside him. The rush of pleasure was enveloping him quickly, and within no time, he came, shuddering all over his body.
Lust had now overtaken Sirius, and as soon as Remus had caught his breath a little, Sirius turned him on his side, and crept up to him from behind. He started to kiss Remus's shoulders and neck, and his heartbeat sped up.
Remus lay facing the wall, anticipating what was to come. He liked the way Sirius's left hand was stroking his chest and his right went down to Remus's more sensitive area.
Finally, Sirius softly and carefully entered Remus from behind. Remus gasped softly, since it hurt a little, and he tried to concentrate on Sirius's hands on his body as Sirius moved in and out faster and faster.
With a spasm of delight, Sirius came, and slumped, sweaty, sticky and tired, into Remus's back. Remus turned around and they kissed again.
By the time they took the Floo back to Remus's apartment, it was dark outside and the stars sparkled around a quarter of a moon.
They left the mumbling old house elf on his own in the kitchen. If they had stopped and listened to its mumblings, they might have know the source of its new astonishment.
Kreacher kept staring into the dark, his large eyes opened wide, mumbling, "Bare buttocks... bare buttocks..."