Author: Hkpadfoot
Summary: He opens the door, trying in vain to ignore the blue flaky paint and stares hard at the man standing at his gate.
Rating: G
A/N: Sequel to Pumpkin Juice. Ganked a line from the person who came up with a cottage and helped me with Opposites. I totally owe him lovings. This turned out totally different then what was expected. Not done yet, still have another story to write, maybe, maybe two.
Water
He opens the door, trying in vain to ignore the blue flaky paint and stares hard at the man standing at his gate.
"Are you going to stand there all day? Where's Buckbeak?" he asks, trying to avoid the inevitable conversation of why Sirius Black is at his front door when everybody knows Aurors could descend upon Remus at any moment, because they both know why he's "lying low at Lupin's", and they don't like to think of it.
"Oh, never mind. Come in then," he demands as Sirius struggles for words.
The month's moon has already passed, and the next one isn't until two weeks. But Sirius has coffee, and though Remus doesn't drink it, Sirius makes it, before drinking like a man left in the desert for weeks without sufficient water supply.
The year slips by in a house neither one of them can stand, so much so that Remus finds himself looking forward to full moons and the three days after. Those four days are the only four Sirius could stay sober during. It's bittersweet, being locked away in a house worse then a Ministry's cage with Wolfsbane, playing with Padfoot, during the full moon. And the coffee has a sharp sting to its taste, as if even it can't stand the idea of being served in such a house.
That year, his birthday is five days after the moon. Sirius sits down with a mug of coffee and a cup of tea, handing him the latter.
"We're going to get out of this one alive," he announces into the silence. Remus looks up at him slowly.
"What?"
"You, me, and Harry. All three of us are going to walk away from Snake-Brains alive, and we're going to move to the middle of nowhere where no one can bother us and drink tea for twenty eight days, and coffee for three days, and we'll never hurt again," he says, sounding resolute.
"I'd like that."
"It'll be a big house, with lots of land and no people near by. And we'll have a lab, so we can make our own potions," Sirius continues, not hearing Remus. Remus reaches across the table, grabs Sirius' hand and squeezes gently.
"I'd like that," he repeats, "But I insist on coffee once a week, if not everyday."
Sirius beams at Remus, who feels his heart stop. For once in a very long time he's not staring at Black, Azkaban Escapee, but his best friend.
In June, there are two moons. One on the first, the second on the thirtieth.
Remus wakes up slowly on the first day of July, sprawled on a dirty wooden plank floor, staring up at a ceiling that is mostly comprised of magic to keep the elements out. His entire body hurts. His heart and mind hurt. His soul hurts.
He wonders absently if he could die there. If anybody would care. It would be easier, he thinks, then getting up and going to an empty kitchen to get something to quench the burning thirst in his throat.
He doesn't think he could handle pumpkin juice, or tea, or even coffee.
Something wet touches his lips, and he swipes his tongue across the top one, tasting bit salt from a source of liquid he doesn't want to think to hard about.
Lying there, he decides he'll drink water after the full moon from now on, before closing his eyes and letting his tears fall.