Warning: This story contains a romantic relationship between two gentlemen. (Not mature enough to read it? Don't.)

The next morning, Sirius awoke to find himself wrapped in his boyfriend's arms. His touch was gentle and reassuring, but he couldn't remember him crawling into bed with him.

"Hey there, Moony" Sirius said snuggling against him. Remus opened his eyes lazily and kissed Sirius gently and replied, "Good morning, Padfoot." James and Peter were still sound asleep and Peter was snoring so loud that Remus considered it a wonder that he didn't rouse all of Hogwarts. Sirius who was usually the dominant one in the relationship sat at the foot of his bed and playfully dragged Remus onto his lap. Remus went willingly and hugged the other boy close to himself.

"I wasn't expecting to find you in bed with me this morning, Remus. Not that I blame you for not being able to resist the most charming fellow at school" Sirius flirted with a wink. Remus thought back to the startling revelation he had been given the previous night and found it much more difficult to joke.

Sirius must have noticed the change in Remus's expression because he tilted his head at him and inquired, "Is there something wrong?" Remus shook his head and stood up. "We should probably wake James and Peter up before they're late for class again" Remus commented changing the conversation. He had not yet decided how he wanted to handle the information he had been given late last night/early that morning. Sirius threw a pillow at James' head playfully and James leapt from his bed with a start; Sirius then threw a pillow at Peter's thick head, but the chubby youth merely continued to snore. James tossed the pillow back to Sirius and rolled Peter out of his bed as a means of waking him up.

Peter hit the floor with a thud and slowly convinced himself to stand up off the floor. "What did you do that for" he questioned James while yawning loudly. "Because it's near impossible to get you out of bed any other way, Wormtail" James continued with a goofy grin, "I still can't believe that you slept through half of the Divination O.W.L."

Peter looked perplexed for a minute, "Wait a second... you always say that you could sleep through the entire class..." James shook his head, "I can't believe that you actually did it, though, Peter." Remus nodded his agreement and commented, "What I can't believe is that none of you did you studied for your History of Magic O.W.L. last night."

Sirius had been walking to his dresser to search for some clean socks, but he stopped in his tracks and quickly spoke, "What? I forgot to study last night? Why didn't somebody tell me about this?"

Remus gave him a side-ways glance, "Since when, does Sirius Black care about his schoolwork?" "Well, I don't exactly want to have to have to repeat Fifth Year, you fairy." Sirius replied while sticking his tongue out in his typical playful manner.

"Who are you calling a fairy? You troublemaker" Remus shot back, he was trying to remain as normal as possible until he decided how and if to approach his boyfriend about the heart wrenching revelation he had been given by James. Remus tried to discreetly look at James and judged by the expression on his face that Prongs was still a bit troubled about their late night conversation. Whatever silent conversation might have occurred between the two was almost immediately interrupted by Peter's interjection, "I can't wait to go home for the holiday. Then we won't have any of this work to worry about."

Remus then realized that it was almost summer and the love of his life was going to be forced to go back to that horrible family and to that vile woman; Remus couldn't allow that to happen after that howler, but he had no idea how to prevent it. He knew that Mr. and Mrs. Black would never allow Sirius to spend the holiday with James because even though he was a pure-blood, his family was considered a bunch of blood traitors, Sirius spending the holiday with Remus was not an option because he was a half-blood and Peter's parents were too strict to tolerate another youngster spending the summer at their home. Remus knew that he had to find some other place for Sirius to spend the summer, but he had no idea where that might be and there was no time to waste considering it. Remus made up his mind that during breakfast he and James would go to Dumbledore's headmaster office and would intervene on Sirius's behalf. James and Peter had put their robes on and were grabbing their wands and books in preparation for the final day of school.

Sirius was standing in his boxers and picked up James' hair brush (Remus had no idea why James had a hair brush. It certainly had absolutely no effect on his hair) which he proceeded to use like a muggle microphone.

"She keeps her moet et chandon in her pretty cabinet. 'Let them eat cake' she say's just like Marie Antoinette..." Peter developed a pain look on his face and James placed his hands over his ears and dropped to his knees, begging "Please, Sirius... you've got to stop this muggle music. What in the world is a "moet et chandon," anyway?"

Sirius put the hair brush down, but put his hands on his hips and complained loudly in a mockingly posh voice, "Oh my gosh... James, I can't believe you. That was Queen and they are absolutely spectacular and it doesn't matter what a "moet et chandon" is because what matters is that their lead singer Freddie Mercury is gorgeous and the only man I would consider leaving my Moony for." Sirius then glanced at Remus and must have assumed that the worried expression on his face was a result of the comment he had made about leaving Remus for some muggle musician and Sirius quickly tried to reassure him, "I was only fooling around, Moony. I wouldn't leave you anyone- he's a bit too hairy for my taste, anyway."

Remus tried to smile and replied, "I'm not worried about it, Sirius. Some muggle wouldn't be able to help you with your studies and you'd have to come running right back to me." Sirius strode over to Remus and wrapped his arms around him hugging his close. James and Peter both covered their faces with hands and James requested in a frightened voice, "Please, Sirius... at least get dressed before you start to get all touchy feely..." Remus managed to wiggle out of Sirius's arms and picked up his wand and books. "Everyone else is ready to go, Sirius. You should probably get dressed."James offered.

"Stop being such an ex... exa...exa-whatever, Padfoot" Peter tried to request. "I think the word you were searching for so desperately there is 'exhibitionist,' Wormtail." Remus suggested. Sirius quickly put his robes on and found some dirty socks on the floor which he sniffed and after deciding that they were good enough for at least one more day of use, he slipped them on.

Remus pulled James over to the side and whispered, "We need to talk to Dumbledore, there is no way that he should go back to that house." James ran his fingers through his hair and suggested, "Well...Tell you what, I'll tell Peter that Sirius has a plan for a new prank to pull on Snape and Peter will keep him occupied for awhile. That way we'll be able to go to Dumbledore in private." Remus nodded and James went over to Peter and whispered something in his ear. "Really? Sirius you have got to tell me all about this prank that you've come up with for Snape. If we get it all planned out now, we might even be able to pull it on the ride to Hogwarts next year."

Sirius's face brightened at Wormtail's obvious admiration and the two walked down to the great hall whispering and laughing back and forth. James and Remus quickly headed down to the headmaster's office. When they reached the door, they found Professor Dumbledore just exiting. "Please, sir we have to talk to you." Remus spoke quickly. "It's very important, sir." James added. "It has to do with Sirius Black. We don't think he should have to go back home for the holiday." Remus said in his most adult voice. "They're really horrible to him, sir. We're afraid for him. They've done terrible things to him before and Regulus told him some stuff...about..." James tried to explain, but was unsure exactly what was too much information for the headmaster to be given.

"Regulus told them that Sirius and I are a couple, sir." Remus said desperately hoping that he was right in believing that Professor Albus Dumbledore as much too kind and intelligent to be among the world's homophobic masses. The headmaster began to stroke his beard in a manner that indicated that he was deep in thought. "Gentlemen," he began, "I am afraid that I do not have the ability to legally keep a student from his or her family. However, I do know the proper channels to go through in order to have someone from a wizarding family placed into... well, something quite similar to the muggles' foster care." James and Remus looked at each other with worried expressions. Noticing this exchange of glances, Professor Dumbledore surmised that neither pupil had any idea what foster care was exactly.

"If it was possible to prove that Sirius was being mistreated, I could go to the ministry and provide them with this evidence. This evidence would allow them to make a case against Orion and Walburga Black. If this case could hold up in court, Sirius would be taken from them and given to a different family. It would not necessarily be pure-blood, but he would be placed with a family that was part of the wizarding world so that we would not have to explain Hogwarts or the ministry to a muggle family."

Remus was partially relieved by this news and said, "Sirius has told both of us about some awful things that they have put him through- some really awful stuff. We'd both be willing to testify to whoever needed to hear." The headmaster looked at the boys kindly and informed them as gently as possible, "I am sure that you boys mean well. However, the most important person I need to speak with is Sirius himself. If he is to be removed from his parent's home, then he will have to at least give a statement and most likely testify against them in court."

James now looked really worried and his voice sounded like gravel when he replied, "But, sir... Sirius doesn't like talking about this stuff... I'm his best friend and Remus is his boyfriend, that's the only reason that he even told us... Besides, sir, his parents have really hurt him. He rebels against them, but deep down I think he is really afraid of them. Please... Can't you just take our word for it?"

Dumbledore began to stroke his beard and commented in a worried voice, "I honestly wish that it wouldn't be necessary to put Sirius through this, but if he is being harmed at home then it is absolutely necessary that I speak with him and that he is examined by Poppy Pomfrey. If she can find evidence of numerous unexplainable injuries, this would provide a solid foundation for having Sirius taken from his home."

Now it was Remus's turn to sound worried, "But, sir... Sirius is afraid of the Hospital Wing... He says something about it gives him chills up and down his spine."

"Gentlemen, if you care about Mr. Black as much as you claim to, then it is your responsibility to help convince him to do whatever needs to be done to protect him from harm. Do you think you can do that for your, friend?"

Both James and Remus nodded and James spoke up, "We will, sir. We'll do anything to help him." Professor Albus Dumbledore nodded and instructed, "In that case, gentlemen you shall escort me down to the hall and we will bring young Mr. Black up here for a very serious conversation."

The three of them walked in silence down to the great hall and when they reached it, James and Remus led Dumbledore to the table where the four friends normally sat together. Remus was stunned to see that neither Sirius nor Peter were at their seats and gazed quickly to the Slytherin table expecting to see the two boys tormenting Snape.

Evidently the headmaster was just as surprised as James and Remus that Sirius was absent, because he marched over to Professor McGonagall and inquired in a half whisper, "Minerva, do you happen to know where Sirius Black has disappeared to? I need to speak with him immediately."

Professor McGonagall looked surprised and replied quietly, "Yes, I do. You see, Mr. and Mrs. Orion Black picked him up early for the summer. I tried to explain to them that Sirius needed to take his History of Magic O.W.L today, but they refused to listen."

Remus felt his heart stop and his throat seemed to close in that instant as panic filled him. Thoughts flooded his mind - He can't have left already. Regulus told them about us... What are they going to do to him?

Author's note: Please review and let me know what you think. A simple "I liked it" or "I didn't like it because…." is sufficient, but please don't leave pointless flames.