AN- Inspired by Swing-fan!Lupin in the movie. Assisted by my Swing-fan sister. Props to her for the title. (She's Birdy- writes Newsies stuff- go read it if you like that sort of thing...'Shortstack and Fishface'. She's Fishface.)
Disclaimer- Characters aren't mine and neither is the music!
Remus Lupin had two secret obsessions and they both started with the letters 's'. The first one wasn't so bad; he'd been around it all his life. His dad was muggle born so it was natural that he'd be exposed to muggle music at some point. But not many people in the 70's were obsessed with Swing music. Consequently he hid this fact. He would close the curtains around his bed every night and put up a silencing spell before playing a record on his dad's old record player. It had become a tradition and he found it very difficult to sleep without a good dose of Benny Goodman beforehand.
The other obsession was rather more difficult to deal with seeing as it was a person- and male. Over the past two years Remus had developed a rather unhealthy obsession with one Sirius Black, his best friend. So naturally, this obsession was even more closely guarded than his first one. Despite the fact that they lived in a day and age in which sayings like 'Make love, not war' had become popular in many places, homosexuals still weren't the exactly given equal consideration- even among wizards who typically considered themselves to be above such petty discriminations.
And so Remus still kept two secrets from his best friends. Of course, he knew from experience that they would find out sooner or later- they were frightfully observant little buggers, but until then he could keep his secrets and hold onto his sanity with the help of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.
It just so happened that the aforementioned 'best friends' were already becoming rather curios as to why Remus closed his curtains every night and they never heard anything from him after he did. It was very abnormal. But then again, he'd always done it. At first they assumed it was because of his scars and he didn't want to give away the fact that he was a werewolf by eliciting unnecessary questions, but he'd become more open about his body in the past three years since they'd figured it out- and even more so since they'd begun to accompany him to the Shrieking Shack each month earlier this year. So it hardly made sense for him to still hide behind the curtains at night. Unless of course he was hiding something else; which, naturally, he was.
A few more weeks went by before the lack of knowledge had driven them almost insane- Sirius in particular. Of the boys, he was the closest to Remus. He'd been the one to figure out his secret, the first to accept him, and the one to come up with the plan to become Animangi. He couldn't claim to have accomplished it first- James had beat to that him fair and square. He just wasn't as good at potions as James was. And James being James had not let Sirius live it down yet.
So now Sirius was going nearly mad not knowing what it was that Remus was still hiding from them- from him in particular. So Sirius being the upfront and sometimes tactless person that he was cornered Remus one night after everyone had gone up to bed (with some encouragement by James and Peter) to ask about the mystery.
"Moony." He said as he sat down on the couch beside Remus, who was currently engrossed in book on the 'History of Muggle Entertainment- the 1920's to the 1940's'
"Yes?" Remus asked, looking up from the book, carefully placing the bookmark between the pages and setting the book aside while schooling the expression on his face not to show any of the excitement he gained from his current proximity to Sirius.
"Why do you close your curtains every night?" The question was fast, abrupt, and seemingly out of nowhere. Remus's eyes widened in surprise. He had certainly hadn't been expecting that!
"I... err... just like my privacy?" He floundered, looking for an acceptable answer to the question.
"Liar." Sirius stated. "I know you better than to fall for that. You stopped worrying about your privacy ages ago. You're hiding something and I know it."
Remus blushed. This was rather embarrassing. "You'd laugh if you knew."
"Try me."
"I listen to music." Remus stated, trying to find an easy way to say this.
"And this would make me laugh because...?" Sirius asked, confused.
"Muggle music. Very old muggle music. When it boils down to it, I'm a bit of a cat."
"A what? Moony, we all know you're a werewolf. No way you could be a cat." Sirius was now seriously confused.
Remus laughed. Sirius pouted. "Not that sort of cat. It's an old slang word. Someone who likes Swing music."
"Ohhhhh...So you listen to Swing every night?" Sirius asked, realization dawning on him.
"There's a smart puppy!" Remus laughed.
"Well, that's not so bad. Why would you want to hide that?"
"Because Swing has been out of style for about 30 years. My dad used to listen to it, he infected me with an abnormal obsession for it. Consequently, I have to listen to it every night in order to fall asleep. It's my own little tradition." Remus grinned slightly and looked down at his hands that were currently folded on his lap.
"So, what's it sound like? I've never really heard much muggle music- being from my family and all..."
Remus looked up and Sirius, slightly shocked. "You really want to hear it?"
"Yeah, why not? It sounds interesting. And anything you like has to be good."
Remus grinned. "Well then, come with me. Who knows, you might not be as much of an icky after all!"
"A what?"
"Just never mind Sirius- just a hepcat's insult." With that Remus laughed and led him up the stairs and to his bed. He motioned for him to sit down. James and Peter were suspiciously absent, but neither really pondered that for long.
"Alright. Time for 'Swing 101'. This," Remus said as he put on a record, "Is the all time greatest. Benny Goodman, an old classic." Moments later, 'Flat Foot Floogie' began to blare out of the antique muggle contraption.
Sirius stared at it blankly for a moment. "What's it saying? Flat foot boogie with an aardvark?"
Remus looked at him in horror. "What? NO! That's like...euarg! No! It's 'Flat Foot Floogie with a floy floy!" Remus mumbled some more about how something was seriously wrong with Sirius's ears. "Here, listen again." He played it again while Sirius listened carefully.
"Still sounds like aardvark to me." Sirius shrugged helplessly.
"Hopeless." Remus laughed as he gave up. "How about something without so many words for you to misinterpret?" Remus picked up the needle and moved it closer to the edge of the record. "Sing Sing Sing, it has words, but they aren't on this version."
Sirius grinned as he listened. "I really don't see why this embarrasses you Moony- it's pretty cool."
Remus beamed at the compliment to his music. "I'm glad you like it, but tell that to a muggle born and they will surely laugh." With that, Remus flopped back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. "It's nice not hiding this anymore."
"You never had to." Sirius answered softly from where he was seated at the foot of Remus's bed. "You know that I, we, would accept any part of you. Always will."
Remus rolled onto his side in order to see Sirius. He smiled and looked him straight in the eye, getting lost in their stormy depths before sleep nearly overcame him and his own eyes drifted closed. "Thank you." He muttered softly as he left the land of the living for the day to wander in the land of dreams where he danced all night to the sounds of Benny Goodman with Sirius as his partner.
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Next morning Remus had quite a shock as he woke to the sudden sound of Louis Armstrong's 'Tiger Rag'. He blinked twice in confusion before Sirius came into focus next to his bed where he was staring triumphantly at Remus's record player. He turned and smiled at the now awake Remus.
"I figured out how to work it!"
Remus laughed. "I only wish you'd picked a quieter song to experiment with. But then, Louis Armstrong isn't such a bad way to wake up in the morning."
Sirius just shrugged and grinned from ear to ear. Happy for some reason completely unbeknownst to Remus.
In fact, Sirius himself wasn't all too sure as to why he was so happy. It probably had something to do with the fact that Remus had entrusted a bit more of himself to Sirius, which made him very happy. And for some reason, this was more important than James running in this morning with the news that 'Evans said hello to me Sirius! She knows I exist!'. That had actually been a bit annoying because James had jumped on his bed and pulled him from a very nice dream that had something to do with Swing. The style was swiftly growing on him.
"Sirius?" Remus asked, pulling him out of his daydream. "You were a million miles away just then."
Sirius grinned. "Yeah, just thinking about how you have James to blame for me waking you up."
"Ah, I was wondering about that. You're notorious for oversleeping, even more so on a Saturday."
"Well, James ran in here and jumped on me at bloody eight thirty to tell me that Lily said hello to him. The boy's hopeless."
Remus laughed. "Well, maybe they'll figure out that they're meant for eachother sometime before they turn fifty."
"That's a pretty big maybe. Come on, I'm up this early, might as well make the most of it and get some breakfast while it's still fresh!"
"It's always fresh. The house elfs make sure of that." Remus pointed out.
"Oh shut up you, bursting my bubble this early in the morning is just heartless. Coming with me?"
"Course. Dindy puppy. Give me a moment to get dressed."
Sirius nodded and turned to look at Peter's bed. He laughed and shook his head. "I swear, that boy could sleep through anything. Bet he'd even sleep through your music played at full volume!" He stated with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Don't you dare. I can handle it; I believe poor Wormtail might be scarred for life should you get it loud enough to wake him. Now what about that breakfast?"
"Spoil sport." Sirius muttered as they left the room with one last glance at Peter's bed.
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As the weeks went by, Remus continued to share his knowledge and love of swing with Sirius. He was slowly getting the hang of it, but he still thought 'Flat Foot Floogie' was talking about an aardvark. It had become something of an inside joke where Sirius would randomly state 'aardvark' just to see what Remus would do.
Remus certainly didn't mind the extra time he spent with Sirius as a result. After all, it was a combination of his two favorite things. All it needed to be absolutely perfect would be chocolate. However, now that one secret was out, the last was driving him mad.
Sirius had come to relish the evenings, seeing as he would sit down on Remus's bed and listen to music with him behind the closed curtains as Remus slowly fell asleep. Sirius would then sit and watch him until the end of whatever song was playing, and then he would turn off the music and leave with a smile on his face. These evenings had a very calming effect on him. He found himself sleeping better with the exception of the constant dreams in which Swing and Remus seemed to always play a role. At first, the Swing had been the dominate feature of his dreams, being surrounded by the sounds of the Andrews Sisters and Louis Armstrong along with the all-time greatest Benny Goodman. Yet now, Remus had begun to play an even larger part in the dreams. Sure, the music was still there, but now the dreams were more focused on being close to Remus and sometimes dancing to the music. Despite the fact that Sirius had no clue how to dance to this sort of music.
The school year was swiftly ending now; exams and the Quidditch House cup were just around the corner. The Cup would be played between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff had pulled some spectacular moves and beaten Slytherin in their last game, but since Ravenclaw had beaten them previously, it was down to a match between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. The school was working itself into a frenzy, just as it always did. Before anyone knew it, the game had come and gone, with James having caught the snitch just in time to win due to the fact that the Gryffindor Keeper had been injured and Ravenclaw had them behind by 14 goals. It was a very exciting game to the audience, but very nerve-wracking to the players. There would be a Gryffindor celebration to be remembered for this sort of victory, and even McGonagall couldn't stop them. ---------------------------------------------
James had been carried into the school while Sirius and Remus nipped down to Hogsmede for some butter beer and Peter enlisted the help of the house elfs for the food. All in all, it was quite a celebration. Lily had even forgone studying for OWLs in order to take part, much to the elation of one Mr. James Potter.
"Well," Sirius stated as he and Remus returned from their adventure, "This is haping up to be quite a party. I can only think of one thing it's missing." He remarked, looking meaningfully at Remus.
"Oh no. You are not going to do that, absolutely not." Remus said quickly, trying to convince Sirius that Swing music would not be a good idea.
"Awww...Moooooony! It'll be fun!" Sirius begged.
'Bloody hell, not the puppy eyes!' Remus thought in dismay- Sirius had a way of talking him into almost anything with that look. Remus had no defenses against it. "Damn you Sirius. Fine. But no one, NO ONE, is to know where it came from- understood?"
Sirius's face split into a grin, he hadn't expected Remus to give in so quickly. He nodded and bolted upstairs to the dormitory to gather the necessary supplies to get this party 'swinging,' in his opinion.
Five minutes later, he returned with the record player and a stack of his favorites out of Remus's collection. He figured the party could do with a sudden entrance, so he loaded up Louis Armstrong, the same album he'd used to waken Remus that first day. Moments later, 'Tiger Rag' was blaring out of the little machine, much to the shock of the rest of the Gryffindors and the amusement of Remus.
"Now THIS is a party!" Sirius said, toasting his butter beer to Remus.
The rest of the room was slowly becoming accustomed to the music and people were beginning to talk again despite it. Sirius looked around after about ten minutes with a small frown on his face.
"Moony, why isn't anyone dancing?"
"Probably because A- no one has thought of it, or B- they don't know how." Remus shrugged and returned to his butter beer.
"Do you know how?" Sirius asked. It seemed to Remus he'd wanted to ask this for a while, seeing as he was shifting from foot to foot.
"A bit, I can Jitterbug, but I've never had anyone to do the Lindy Hop with."
"Errr..." Sirius looked confused again.
"Two different types of dances. The Lindy Hop involves a lot of lifting and spinning. Why? Do you want to learn?"
Sirius nodded enthusiastically and drug Remus to an empty bit of floor space, dropping off their butter beers on a nearby table.
Remus gulped. He was about to dance with Sirius. In front of a whole room of people. But then, he was just teaching him to dance. It didn't mean anything, it wasn't a big deal...but how he wished it DID mean something.
"Alright, I'll be the girl so you get the hang of the guy part. Put your right hand here..." Remus moved Sirius around until he was in position. "Good. Now for the feet..."
"Padfoot, Moony- what the bloody hell are you doing?" James asked, walking up to them.
"Moony's teaching me to dance!" Sirius chirped. Remus noted to himself how hyper he was today. Must've been the butter beer...
"Sounds like fun!" James said, "Can I learn too?"
Remus shrugged. "Sure, but you're going to have to pretend you have a partner, I can't be two places at once."
Just then, Lily walked up. James turned red and ruffled his hair. Lily rolled her eyes and turned to Remus.
"Jitterbug, eh?"
"Yeah, teaching Sirius. If you know it, you could help James. He wanted to learn it too." Remus said with a wink that James couldn't see. Lily glared at him.
"Fine, but if you put one finger out of line Potter..." She said, turning to James.
James looked too happy to care.
Remus grinned. "Great! I think there's a new song starting too...so here we go!"
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing...
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The school year was over in a blink. James still wasn't dating Lily, and Remus still kept his secret from his fellow Marauders- though Lily had forced it out of him after the party in retaliation for making her dance with James. In no time at all they were sitting on the train in the last compartment listening to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald singing 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off'. James and Peter had been let in on the secret of the Swing music about a week after the party when they refused to stop pestering Sirius about where it came from. Remus had finally just pulled the record player out from under his bed along with a stack of records. James shad actually been happy to be able to hear the music again as he had developed a liking for it. Peter just shrugged it off. Said his parents listened to it from time to time.
And so time continued until they reached platform 9 ¾. They bid each other farewell and promised to write. James vanished quickly with Peter not far behind. Sirius stayed to give Remus one last hug before dashing off to find his mother before she could flip out at him. And so Remus was left alone again, holding his secret ever closer with the memory of that brief hug and the feeling of being in Sirius arms for that dance.
He smiled and sighed softly to himself.
"It don't mean a thing...... if it ain't got that swing..."
And so another year had ended.
-To Be Continued!-
Reand and Review- I live for feedback!