Disclaimer: Harry Potter, all places and characters, the names etcetera belongs to Mrs J.K Rowling, her publishers (such as Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and Scholastic), and Warner Brothers™. All rights reserved. This is not meant as theft or insult—I wrote it for the enjoyment myself, and (hopefully) of other people. No copyright infringement is intended. I own the stories themselves.
Additional Warnings: Slash. And Bible quotation—if Christianity offends you.
Author's Note: Happy Birthday, Emma!
Rating: PG-13
Word count: Total: 6,639 words. This piece: 2,158 words.

A Faithful Friend

'A faithful friend is a strong defence: and he that hath found such an one hath found a treasure.' –Ecclesiasticus 6:14

Part I

As suddenly and equally unexpectedly as a wine glass looses balance, falls over the edge of the table and shatter as it hits the floor, spilling out its contents everywhere, Sirius Black awoke with a start. And he would soon realize he was bothered by three things, three things which would, in fact, pester the remainder of the day. It would make the day unendurable for both him and his lover, and complicate the day for many different people in the Order of the Phoenix—though of this, Sirius was unaware.

Firstly, the windows of Sirius' bedroom was open, open although not ajar, but still open, causing chill air to leak into the door. True, Sirius had always enjoyed a bit of fresh air, but not in the midst of winter: if there was something Sirius could not stand, it was coldness.

Sirius had always hated the bitter chill, he loathed freezing: it reminded him of the Christmases of his childhood—the Christmases before he began studying at Hogwarts, that was. These horrible first Christmases of Sirius' life had all been celebrated in the very house in which Sirius was lying that very moment, in fact; being there did not make Sirius less depressed.

Cold and bitterness: that was quite an accurate description of Sirius' emotional state at that moment. He was forced to live at the place he hated most in the whole world, a place which reminded him strongly of his miserable childhood, the worst period in his life; of his insane, cruel family with their with their antiquated racist opinions; of the expectations that he would follow in his ancestors' footsteps and share their opinion. Ever since Sirius met his friend Remus he had resented their views completely: he had realized his family's bigotry came out of stupidity and hatred—and, of course, tradition: the Black family had proudly claimed to be pure-blood for centuries (even though they really were not, no family could actually be pure-blood any more, however inbred they were). The Black ancestors had always adopted these views and been very proud to do so, with very few exceptions. Sirius was, obviously, one of them. In the beginning of Sirius' first year at Hogwarts, for instance, many students—and most teachers—were convinced he would refuse to even speak to half-bloods, and hex 'Mudbloods' in the corridors; when he did not behave as they had expected, they were severely surprised.

During his first two years at Hogwarts, Sirius had slowly realised what his family's ideas and theories really were: crap. The real break-through had been when he and James discovered the truth behind Remus' quarterly diarrhoea and his constant urgent visits home. Remus was a werewolf, which Sirius' family—naturally—hated. At first, Remus had been very ashamed of it. He had refused to tell them and had been very reluctant when Sirius and James had told him of their discovery, but eventually, he gave in. He told them about everything: Greyback, his monthly pain and the Shrieking Shack(the place where he hid during Full Moon) as well as the tunnel leading to it. Ultimately, he had confessed the obvious: that his visits to the hospital wing and his mother were all lies, and that, during the times he had claimed to be at home, he had been transformed in the Shrieking Shack..

There had been a while before James and Peter had accepted the fact Remus was a werewolf: this discovery caught them both by surprise. But for Sirius, it had been different. He had always felt that his friendship with Remus was not the same as the one he had with James, nor was the fact with Peter—and, of course, in their sixth year, Sirius had realized he was in love with his friend, the man behind the werewolf.

Sirius had long since decided to define the werewolf as something similar to a disease, which reminded them of its existence on a monthly basis. At times other than these particular nights, Remus was Sirius' adorable lover, and—apart from Harry—the lone thing that made Sirius' life worth living. He could not help the Order of the Phoenix in any sense: he had to hide within his house. His Animagus disguise, for example—which would be so perfect, so genial, even the Ministry was unaware of it—was completely ruined: traitorous Peter had, most likely, already told his Master Voldemort about it long since.

Voldemort ...

Voldemort—the reason Sirius had to be so horribly scared, the reason he could barely sleep at night.
Voldemort—the reason Harry had to live with his relatives, instead of Sirius and Remus.
Voldemort—the reason Sirius and Remus had been estranged for twelve valuable years.

Voldemort's primary point of action was to dispose of Harry Potter, his main enemy and Sirius' godson, who had conquered the Dark Lord at the mere age of one, and whose blood had helped Voldemort arise again earlier that year. This action had spoiled the protection Lily had given Harry by her death, sacrificing herself for her son's sake, as her and Harry's blood was now flooding in Voldemort's veins. Sirius knew Harry was safe at Hogwarts as long as Dumbledore was there—but nevertheless he was still concerned with Harry's curiosity, which had got Harry into trouble before.

Something else that worried Sirius was Remus, his true love, the other reason he endured his life at the moment. He still loved Remus as passionately as he had done before he was sent to Azkaban; he had loved him passionately during his time in prison, too, even though he had tried not to. At that very moment, he had been heartbroken, as he had thought Remus was the one who had betrayed Lily, James and Harry—though it was Peter, Wormtail, who had been hiding all the time.

Christmastide was approaching surprisingly steadfastly, but Sirius still could not bring himself to be happy: Remus had recently learnt he was going away for a mission and that Sirius, consequently, was going to have to spend the holidays alone, as Harry was going to spend it at the Burrow—which, frankly, was a far less depressing place than Sirius' house and, therefore, much more suitable for celebration of the holiday. Sirius could not blame Harry for choosing to spend the holidays there, he knew that—though fact remained Sirius would have to spend the holidays alone.

#¤#

Today was the second to last day Sirius and Remus had together: late in the next afternoon, Remus would leave the house. Sirius wanted to make those remaining days as special as possible for Remus—he wanted him to find them qualitative.

They had made sure nobody else was coming into the Headquarters that day, so they were going to have the house on their own. No one had argued against their wish: the house was, after all, Sirius' property. This was, perhaps, the main backside of having given the Order permission to use his home as Headquarters: his and Remus' alone time was restricted.

Though today, no one was going to disturb their well-deserved moments in private.

Sirius rolled over to awake his lover with a tender kiss on his lips. Though that was impossible: Remus was lost.

Sirius jumped out of the bed on an instant, his slumber having left him rapidly. He left his room quickly after discovering Remus was not there; he browsed through the top floor of his home without success, entering every room as a part of the process. He searched every room of the third floor; Buckbeak looked questioningly at him as he looked underneath his belly—somehow, he had had the presence of mind to bow before the hippogriff before entering the room—but he did not find Remus in there, either. Sirius leaned against the wall, sliding down slowly to sit on the floor, his knees at level with his ears.

Could Remus have left earlier than he was supposed to, without telling Sirius in advance? No, Remus would never do that. He would know how worried Sirius would be if he did—if Sirius had done the same to Remus, his lover would probably be so horribly worried he would barely forgive Sirius.

This left Sirius with only one conclusion about what could have happened: Remus must have been kidnapped. He was, after all, a werewolf at Dumbledore's side, with much information about Dumbledore, the Order, and Harry—all those three were criteria of being a valuable treat for the Death Eaters. And it was all Sirius' fault: if he had just woken up when Remus had been taken away, he could have prevented it, and none of this would have happened.

Sirius leapt to his feet instantly, hurriedly but quietly went back to his room where his wand was: he had forgotten it in his room in his sleepy hurry; he cursed himself for being so foolish. He descended the stairs as fast though as silently as he could, careful not to get noticed in case the kidnappers were still in his house. It was not his own safety Sirius was worried about: if the kidnappers heard any noise in the house, they might take Remus with them instantly—or, even worse, hurt him.

As he walked the stairs, vivid pictures of what might have happened popped up in his head: he imagined Remus duelling with several wizards down in the kitchen; within his mind, Sirius saw Remus locked up in a cell in Azkaban; lastly, he pictured Remus spread over a table of stone, he was bare-chested, his pants ripped by his knees, his body was covered by slits and around him, several hooded wizards were standing, some with their wands high above their heads, some with blood-stained knives in their hands, the entire scene being supervised by Voldemort himself.

Sirius bit his lip, trying to prevent himself from trembling, and entered the dimly lit hallway. Soon he discovered the source of the faint light: the door to the cellar kitchen was slightly open, not ajar, only by a few inches, but it was nonetheless open. No sound leaked out of it.

Were the Death Eaters in the kitchen of the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, their main opponent, at that very moment? Where they, in fact, hurting his Remus? No, it could not be—not with Dumbledore's protection charms, at the very least …

Sirius went over to the door of the kitchen, his heart beating rapidly. The floor creaked slightly as he moved over it; he had to bit his tongue in order to prevent himself for screaming out loudly with terror. What would they—the Death Eaters, or whoever it was—do to his Remus if they discovered the presence of someone else in the house?

He decided to swallow any trace of emotion, especially fear, and count to five, and then, he would kick in the door of the kitchen, facing whatever dwelling behind. He had to repress his own nervousness in order to rescue his Remus from whatever he would see on the other side of the door.

One … Sirius considered which charms would be most efficient: Stupefy seemed to be most effective on this occasion, and it was also the charm entering his mind first. Although, if they were torturing Remus with knives and daggers, perhaps one of them would fall over him—perhaps they would even pierce his heart …

Two … No, the stunning Curse was a very bad idea. He needed to think of something else, something that would not indirectly hurt Remus in the process, or perhaps kill each other—they deserved Azkaban: a fate worse than death—but should be effective enough to save Remus, and make sure the torturers would be sent off to a well-deserved life-time in Azkaban …

Three … Perhaps the Cruciatus Curse would do the trick. As long as the Death Eaters would not take the case to Wizengamont, that was. Though that would be highly unlikely and contra productive, seeing that they would give themselves on an instant, be sent to Azkaban and thus revealing the lies of Fudge and complicate things for their Master—most intelligent wizards would, in that case, realize Voldemort was back …

Four … Sirius found his mind going blank: he was so scared and worried his thoughts seemed to go numb, his entire body was shaking. He felt himself panic, but instantly pushed the sensation away—he could not have himself panicking when Remus was tortured by the Death Eaters …

FIVE!

Sirius kicked the door open, his mind at the ready, prepared for the worst—but instead, he found his Remus placing two bowls on the kitchen table, where two mugs and a basket of bread were already standing. There was one pot of porridge and one filled with tea on the stove, both boiling merrily.

Caught by surprise, Sirius had to grab the door frame in order not to collapse, thus falling down the stairs.

This was not what he had been expecting.

Author' s Notes: I know it' s been a while since I last posted something on line—but I' ve been occupied. Apologies to Celi and dalarose17, whose reviews I have unwillingly ignored.