Disclaimer- I do not own anyone or anything to do with the Marauders or Harry Potter. Although, if I happened upon any HP character, I would cast a large fishing net over them immediately and bundle them back home to keep forever.

Please Read and Review truthfully.

"Remus"

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

I open my eyes as Sirius closes his soft lips over mine. It is the first time he's said it seriously. I savour the moment, folding my arms about his neck and cuddling him with the strength I have not yet learned how to successfully control.

The crack of dawn; my favourite time of day, and not just because it releases me from each full moon's tight hold. No. The dawn is the most important thing I have to share with Sirius. It is our time. Time, long before James and Peter wake and rise for breakfast. Time, before the last stars have had chance to dim and fade. Time, just before the sun lifts her beaming face above the horizon, glorifying the end of night.

Sirius reminds me when it is dawn. Each and every morning he wakes me early with a kiss and, in those few hours we have made for each other, we share whispered secrets and murmured dreams.

I love you is Sirius's biggest secret. So important that he has only just told me. And I am told all of his secrets first.

I smile sleepily; positive I'm still dreaming. Perhaps I dream every dawn.

Nowadays, Remus dreams every dawn. Despite everything, he still shares each and every one with Sirius.

As the days and nights go by, Remus finds it is easier to sleep in those few earliest hours before everyone is up. These days, sleeping as any normal person would is just as impossible as it was back then, only this time it is very different: The nights he lay awake in his dorm at Hogwarts, his head was filled with childish excitement, merry recollections of carefree days. He couldn't sleep for thoughts of Sirius and his love for him. But now, although the love remains, Sirius does not.

So Remus now lies awake till the first light breaks through, then he will retreat into his comfortable dream world, where Sirius's lips are soft and cool upon his cheeks. They watch the sun rise while the rest of the world sleep on.

Sometimes the fantasy ends too soon and the worn down, grey-haired gentleman that is Remus drifts to the nearest window to gaze upon the morning. As he does so, he tells Sirius how much he misses him. That Harry is doing well at school. That, although he is now with Tonks, he still feels the same way for Sirius as he did when he was sixteen.

But Remus is not sixteen anymore. He knows he is not exceptionally old, yet he feels all the aches and pains, the constant tiredness, the grey dreary existence of someone who has lived a day too long. Or perhaps these are just the feelings of a man in mourning; Remus is broken and Sirius is not here to fix him.

For Tonks, Remus remains alive. And, for Tonks, Remus will only allow himself to think of Sirius at dawn. He will only remember the happy times and he will never think of the end, in case he finds himself somehow following his best friend; he will never think of the veil.

As the silence draws out between us, calm and comforting, I look up at the dark-haired boy who is grinning foolishly over me, leaning forward to place a kiss on my nose. Some how I know I will always hold this scene in my heart and I treasure it for knowing it is real. I want to make sure it is the same for Sirius and so I hold his gaze and softly reply.

"I love you, too."