If Remus was ever asked how he met the nefarious Sirius Black he would never give you a straight answer. No matter who asked; his mother, his co-workers, his mates. Every answer differed from the last. They ranged from the dull to the preposterous. But in all of these tales it always ended the same way.
"He found me when no one else wanted to".
He was well known in the library. The librarians, young and old, loved him. He was polite, he was courteous, and he was quite good looking if one enjoyed the willowy form. He would always make his way to the counter and say hello to the two sweet old ladies who volunteered. He would even occasionally bring them a cup of tea or a biscuit. Than he would brush by the daily cork board that was littered with posters and ads for jobs and garage bands. Afterword's he would go to the back of the library where the dusky old books sat and a little two person table. He would gather a few novels and situate himself on the seat.
But what always changed was how long he stayed. Sometimes it would be for a half an hour, other times it would be 4 hours. But when he did leave late he would always walk back the two counter ladies home. Remus was an old lady magnet. This routine had been established around 4 years ago when Remus had moved into the town, new and hopefully lost. He had just graduated from university and taking an internship teaching at the college nearby. One day it was raining heavily and he stepped into the library for shelter. He didn't leave until 5 hours later. Remus loved the library. It had always been his shelter, his place to be away.
When he was a child he had a library down the street so whenever his parents would argue he would run to the library and the librarian Anna. The problem was though as he began spending more time at the library the more people would forget about him. As a child and as a teenager Remus had the problem of being forgettable. At school he didn't really command much of a presence and he was much more happy being left alone with a book rather than be surrounded by people. By his last year in high school he was practically the school librarian. He thought that he was happy being forgettable. You see the reason why Remus loved books and libraries is because it was his solace. It was the one quiet place that he could depend on. No matter what city he lived in, no matter how many neighborhoods he passed through; the libraries stayed the same. They were always quiet and they were always open to everyone. The predictability and the stability of it was what attracted Remus, as a child and as an adult, to libraries.
This particular library had been the longest he's ever been in. He knows all the volunteers and all the employees. He knew every section, every nook and hiding spot. This library has also been the largest. It boasted having the largest inventory of books in the entire county. It also had the acclaim of having the largest facility. Four floors up and about a government building wide; it could have been a school had it not been bought by a wealthy nobleman in town many years ago. The first few weeks he had taken to exploring the large facility. He memorized the floor plans, the exit doors, and the location of very snack machine. He memorized the organization system; he even memorized the location of every section. But he choose his spot to be a tiny corner on the third floor between the classics and the epics section. Truth be told he only choose the corner because it was directly under a window, thus having the best reading light. His corner was actually hidden behind many shelves that went every which way. You could sometimes even get lost weaving between the massive shelves. He himself had only found it after accidently smacking into a shelf and seeing through the cracks to find the dusty table. Since then a table had been cleaned and placed there. Remus even brought a lamp one day so that he could stay even later and still be able to read (the florescent lights were rubbish he said). No one ever really bothered to come find him; I mean how could they he was basically hidden in a maze of shelves and books. And granted he did sometimes get a bit lonely and would lay his book down and stare out of the window for a long while just thinking, but on the large part he was alright with being forgotten.
This was why the day that Sirius Black appeared from behind a particularly looming shelf he was particularly startled. No one else had ever found him before and Remus was quite confident that his spot was almost impossible to see from the front of the library. The Stranger didn't really say anything. He just stood and stared at Remus, than at the table, and then left. After staring at the spot where the young man had stood for a good few seconds he lowered his head and continued reading about the whims of the highland lords found only in his books. He quite happily continued reading and would have forgotten about the mystery man had it not been for the god awful dragging noise coming towards him. And lo and behold it's the stranger again but this time armed with a chair. Which he noisily dragged behind himself. The Inconsiderate ass. He placed it right in front of Remus albeit with at least a few feet in between them. The man didn't speak at first and neither did Remus. Remus simply looked up from his book with an inquisitive look towards him. He didn't verbally reply but the man's posture screamed "Say anything and I'll leave". And that's how they stayed. With Remus in his chair backed up as far as possible to the corner, with his thermos and sandwich on the table, and the man on a chair just looking. Looking at Remus, looking out of the window, just simply looking.
This continued for a few days. Eventually Remus even began bringing more tea with him and an extra cup in case the man wanted something to drink. Occasionally the stranger would bring a blanket and would replace the stiff wooden chair with one of the plush ones from two sections over. He sometimes even brought his own books along to pass the time. Everything from mystery to comic books. They never spoke a word.
When it came time to leave they would return the corner back to its tidy state and return the books to its rightful place. They seemed to communicate solely through body language. This is usually when Remus noticed just how attractive he was. Remus was taller, but not by much. He had the darkest hair Remus had ever seen, it was close to a sort of coal black and at times was ashy in a way. He had strong large hands that looked as if he had never done any manual labor in his life. On the contrast Remus had scars covering almost every inch of his body due to work accidents. He had a long aristocratic nose and facial structure chiseled from stone. He was all sharp edges and pointy ends. Remus longed to run his hand along his jawline, just to feel how smoothly it would run under his finger. The man always came in a suit but as soon as he could he would strip his outer coat off and roll up his sleeves to his elbows. If you paid enough attention (Which of course Remus did) you would notice that while the man read his entire body would relax. He would stop tapping his foot to an unknown beat; his eyes would focus solely on the text in front of him. He even enjoys sinking into the chair; almost to the point that it looks like the chair is eating him. All of this Remus knew about this stranger yet he still didn't know his name.
And one day the mystery was just too much for Remus. He finally spoke after 3 months of sitting next to this man and on occasion sharing evening tea with him.
"Are you ever going to talk" Remus asked.
"Uh what?" The man responded. His voice was different from how Remus imagined it to be. He thought that his voice would be older and more commanding. Just how Remus imagined a nobleman to sound like. But instead it was rustier and had more of a velvety tone to it. Kind of how he would imagine a musician would sound like.
"I mean are you ever going to introduce yourself. Properly I mean"
"I thought that was our thing. The whole shrouded in mystery act" the man said.
"Well yes as ridiculous as you put it. But I'm quite tired of referring to you as The Stranger in my mind" Remus said. The man got a sort of squished up face, as if he had just drank the juice of a lemon. Or drank a really strong whisky.
"My name is Sirius Black. You really couldn't come up with something more original than The Stranger?" Mr. Black said as he stuck his hand out for Remus to shake.
"Remus Lupin. Hey give me a break you could have been a murderer The Stranger is a suitable name for a murderer." Remus grabbed his hand and gripped. It was soft just as he expected and was surprisingly strong. And with that they returned to reading their respected material.
This continued for quite some time. Only a hand full of times did Sirius not show up. And when he didn't Remus always left a little earlier than normal. The routine suited them quite fine but Remus was curious as to what a posh sort of person like Sirius would be doing in this public library when surely he had his own personal one stashed away in some estate that he owned. Sirius on the other hand loved his time at the library with Remus. Normally it was difficult for Sirius to stay still unless it was for some dingy old board meeting he was forced to attend. Sirius never liked the quiet. It reminded him of his childhood home in the north where noise was forbidden and young children were expected to sit quietly and primly. Something that Sirius never got the grasp of as a child or as a teenager. But for some reason when he was with Remus, a man he had never known before, the quiet was very soothing. With Remus nearby it was suddenly easier to sit, to just not think for once. The thing is that with Sirius he never stopped thinking. His brain would churn and turn with information. His brain just didn't know when to shut up. But with Remus it was like his brain finally decided to give Sirius a break. It didn't completely stop of course but it became bearable. Like a dull head ache in comparison to the pulsating jabs Sirius was used to.
That's what actually made Sirius stop that day in the library. He like many others was lost in the giant labyrinth of books and was struggling to find a way out. And as he was getting frustrated he smelled a faint hint of rosemary tea (something Sirius was quite fond of). So he followed his nose (James always said Sirius was like a dog for his senses and his energy) until he found Remus, the man was basically cuddling in a plush chair with a thick book and a thermos of tea in his lap. So he stayed. He found a chair and got a book and sat a few feet away from this man he didn't know. He stayed that way for hours until finally the man placed the cap on his thermos, returned his book to its shelf, and swept the crumbs off the desk. With only a nod towards Sirius the man just swept off and left. That left Sirius a bit shaken quite honestly. And after a bit of fumbling he gathered himself and returned everything to its proper order. He finally got out of the maze and once he got to the entrance of the library he saw the man holding the door for two elderly women who were talking loudly about some boring old subject. Sirius wasn't sure if the man, Remus, would be there tomorrow but he came anyways. And he kept coming.
And as the months went past they began getting more comfortable with one another. They began talking more. They began touching more. Remus began learning that Sirius wasn't as posh as he looked like. And Sirius in turn learned that Remus wasn't as intimidating as Sirius originally thought that first day. They began looking forward to their time together in their corner in the library. Even though Remus loved teaching he still ached for his chair and for Sirius. And it was no secret how much Sirius hated being in the office. They soon traded phone numbers and when they couldn't meet they would spend hours on the phone just talking about their day. They even began meeting out of the library, occasionally going to a café that Remus liked or a Museum Sirius found that he knew Remus would enjoy.
But above all the library was their favorite place to be together. And after about a year since Sirius first sat down with Remus in the library he finally got the nerve to kiss him. He was nervous and was slightly freaked out that he would do something incredibly stupid like smash his forehead into Remus's or something else completely nutters. But once he did gather enough courage and grabbed Remus's head in his hands he forgot all about his stupid little fears.
Sirius Black kissed Remus Lupin almost one year after he first sat down in the library and quite honestly Remus didn't mind one bit.
Whenever Remus Lupin is asked how he met Sirius Black the response was usually the same. Some impossible story or some irrational tale of heroics and people in despair. But no matter what the tale it always ended the same way.
"He found me when no one else wanted to".
I have no idea where this came from. And I've only reread it for obvious spelling mistakes. And it probably has horrible continuity issues. But yes i got the idea from this time i was in the library and this girl and i made awkward eye contact for a few seconds.
But other then that I hope you have a good day!