Sirius glanced down at the crumpled paper in his hand before looking up at the house. He tried to quell the butterflies in his stomach, but in vain.
James was out abseiling or kayaking or swimming or something. Sirius hadn't really been listening when he was told. But he had been paying enough attention to complain endlessly when he realised he was being left alone all day. He had followed James around, whining about how he was being left entirely alone in a strange village, in a strange country, until James finally scribbled Remus' address on a scrap of paper.
"Won't he mind?" Sirius asked uncertainly.
"The fuck do I care? Get out of my hair. Go away."
"But-"
"Get out! Go and make some other friends, for Christ's sake."
After being chivvied out of the house by copious amounts of swearing from his dear friend, and gentle instructions from Eileen, Sirius left to wander through the village. Eventually he found the correct street, filled with pretty little coloured houses, all with a gorgeous view out onto the beach.
Apprehensively, he stood outside number 17 and smoothed the paper with his thumb. "Well," he said under his breath. "What have I got to lose?"
A small, plump woman opened the door. "Hello," she said, beaming as if there was nothing she loved more than to have strange teenage boys appear on her doorstep at ten o'clock in the morning. "Can I help you?"
"Uh, yeah, I was wondering if Remus was in?" He ran his fingers through his hair in an effort to calm him.
"Of course, love. I'll just get him."
She turned her head, and bellowed up the stairs, "Remus! Mae rhywun wrth y drws amdanat ti!"
"Pwy yw e?" Remus shouted back.
"Are you Remus' friend?" she asked, turning back to Sirius.
"Well – yeah, I suppose."
"Ffrind i ti, Remus! 'Nai danfon fe lan nawr! Look, if you just go straight up the stairs, Remus should be in the room at the end of the hall," she instructed, moving aside to allow Sirius to enter her home.
It was cosy, Sirius thought. The door led straight into living room which was filled with overstuffed furniture. There was a distinct smell of warm bread wafting from the kitchen, and Sirius willed his stomach not to growl. He followed the woman's instructions – he assumed she was Remus' mother – and clambered up the narrow staircase.
When he pushed the door open, he found a similarly crowded room, Remus sitting in a desk chair at the centre of it. "Oh," he said, looking surprised. "Hello, Padfoot."
"It's just James has got some sporty thing to do, and I didn't want to be alone all day, so he sent me here, and… Well, here I am." Sirius realised that Remus had never asked what he was doing and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"That's OK. Come in."
Sirius sat gingerly on Remus' bed. "If I'm intruding, please send me away."
"Not at all."
Sirius glanced around, his eyes falling on the Remus' desk. "What are you working on?"
"Oh." Remus looked down at the explosion of paper and pens his desk had become. "I have exams in a couple of weeks."
"Exams? Really?"
"Yeah."
"I don't have any exams until next year."
Remus rolled his eyes and huffed. "Yeah, I know. Lucky bastard."
"Don't let me interrupt your work, OK?"
"No, it's OK, I probably need a break."
Sirius grinned. "So, are we just gonna sit on your bed all day, or what?"
Remus chose to take Sirius for a walk and to teach him that the English were, after all, shit heads. Sirius relentlessly stood up for his ancestors, although his confidence wavered after a while.
The mountain, on the side of which the village had been built, seemed a lot bigger to Sirius as he began to climb it. With a kitkat in each of their pockets, courtesy of Mrs Lupin, they made their way up the village, across farm land, and reached the steep incline which was the mountain itself. Although the view of the shimmering sea and the bits and pieces of green land thrusting out in to the middle of it was stunning, that wasn't what kept Sirius entertained.
It didn't take long for the pair to move on from insulting each other's heritages to their every day lives. Sirius learnt that Remus could play the piano to a very high standard, loved to write and hoped to study English literature (he banned Sirius from mentioning this to Mrs Lupin), that his favourite author was Jane Austen (he banned Sirius from mentioning this to James) and that he loved Disney films – it was a tradition for he and James to watch as many as they could manage in a single day.
Sirius glanced at the boy. He'd had some vague notion in the back of his head that if he got to know him better, the mystery would fall away and he would be less intrigued by him and, therefore, less inclined to think about him, as he had been doing since the day before. Unfortunately, this did not seem to be the case. Sirius found that the more he discovered about him, the more he liked him, and as he watched him pushing his fringe out of his face absentmindedly, Sirius thought he might feel attraction. He filed that worrisome thought away to consider later.
Half an hour later, after clambering up the rocky peak of the mountain, they stood together on a huge boulder, feeling very pleased with themselves. When Sirius had last looked at the cove below him, the beach was littered with families and the sea shone the weak sunshine. Now, ominous looking clouds began to roll in over the village.
"We'd better get back," Remus said, tilting his head to admire the darkening sky. "I've got to work in a bit."
Sirius flopped on to the rock. "Not until we've eaten our kitkats."
Remus rolled his eyes, but sat beside Sirius and unwrapped the chocolate.
"So," Remus said after devouring the first bar. "Now it's your turn to tell me about yourself."
"Oh. Erm…" All of a sudden, Sirius had forgotten everything of note about himself. "I dunno. What do you want to know?"
"Well, where are you from?"
Sirius kicked a pebble as a brief, but powerful, surge of anger settled in his chest. "London," he muttered, hoping Remus would get the message that Sirius really didn't want to discuss his home for the moment.
To his relief, Remus asked him about his favourite books and films, evidently looking for subjects to continue the conversation.
"1994 was the greatest year ever in film," Sirius argued some time later. "You have your Shawshank Redemption, your Forrest Gump, your Lion King, your Pulp Fiction, even Four Weddings and a Funeral. Honestly," he added, seeing Remus' smirk. "I feel very strongly about this."
"So I can see," Remus replied, just as a drop of rain landed on his nose. He crossed his eyes to examine at his now damp nose while Sirius looked up at the dark clouds, just as the sky opened under the weight of torrential rain.
Within minutes Sirius was soaked through, his hair plastered to his head. He sputtered and almost screamed initially, but Remus laughed and threw his arms apart. "Don't you love the rain?" he shouted.
"No!" Sirius replied, already standing up and waiting for Remus to follow suit, desperately trying to keep his circulation going while hopping from foot to foot. "Hurry the fuck up, Lupin!" He held out his hand to pull Remus up, their wet fingers sliding together. Just as Sirius realised that he was holding hands with this boy, Remus pulled away and charged down the path.
"Come on! Let's get dry!"
With a grin, Sirius followed.
They managed to arrive back at Remus' house in one piece, their clothes sticking to their skin and their hair dripping down their face. Mr Lupin met them at the door and fetched towels and clean clothes. The baggy T-Shirt was too big for Sirius and the jeans sat comically low on his hips, but he was less likely to get hypothermia – although Remus had already reminded him that it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.
Sirius was incredibly relieved to find that his jeans had been enough to protect his boxers from the rain, although while they changed in the same room, they turned their backs to give the other some form of privacy. Sirius had to grit his teeth and resist the urge to sneak a peek at Remus, but he managed.
They flopped onto the sofa in their warm clothes when they deemed themselves dry enough and flicked the TV on to show bad reality TV.
"Enjoy your walk?" Remus asked over Jeremy Kyle's lecture.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Sod off. What the fuck is wrong with this country?"
"I dunno. It's not usually that bad. Maybe we shouldn't have climbed that mountain."
"Hey, that's an idea. Let's not climb Welsh mountains when it's about to rain."
"I'll get Cymdeithas yr Iaith on you, honest to God."
"The hell is Cymdeithas yr Iaith?"
Remus gave a soft laugh and a lopsided grin. "Oh, a terrorist group. They don't like English people moving in to Wales and taking the houses, so they set fire to things. Watch out, or you'll be next."
Sirius pulled a horrified face. "I regret coming to live with James so much."
They lapsed into silence and pretended to be engrossed in the TV show. After a moment or two, Remus called, "Dad! Ydy Mam eisiau help yn y caffi?"
As a muffled reply floated into the room Sirius tried to guess what Remus had said.
"I've got to go and work in the café."
"OK," Sirius nodded. "I guess I'll see you soon?"
"Yeah. James and I have our Disney marathon coming up. You're invited, by the way."
"I'll see if I'm free," Sirius smiled.
In the Potter household, Sirius found James just as wet as he had been, his hair flattened against his head as he wondered around shirtless, yelling that he couldn't find a clean jumper.
"Put some clothes on, mate, honestly," Sirius chided gently, smirking.
James flicked his T-Shirt at him, spraying Sirius with sea water. "What have you been doing all day, then?"
"I went for a walk up Carningli. You're not the only one who's a fitness freak, you know."
"With Remus?"
James, giving up on his mother, sat on the sofa and pulled a coarse blanket over himself.
"Yeah."
Sirius sat beside him, and tried to wrestle the blanket off him. While Sirius was perfectly healthy, his strength was nothing on that of the football captain's, and he lost within seconds, having to make do with wrapping his arms around himself.
"Did you have fun?" James asked, smiling smugly.
"Sure. Interesting guy, that Remus is. Anyway, what are our plans for the rest of the week?"
"Before you so rudely interrupted, I had a plan for my Easter."
A panicked and crestfallen look flashed across Sirius' face, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. "Fuck off," he said half-heartedly.
James realised that it might not have been the most tactful thing to say, and placed a reassuring hand on Sirius' knee. "Come on, I was joking, Pads. I'm glad you're here. We want to take care of you."
Sirius looked like he wanted to say something, but he only gestured for James to carry on talking. "What were your plans?"
"I like to swim in the sea every day, then sit in the café with Remus for a couple of hours, then come home and eat loads of food and watch films."
"I don't have to swim, right?"
James pulled a face. "You need to be fit for the new term, Padfoot! Schools' championships, remember?"
"How could I forget? But honestly, I'm fit enough. There's no way I'm swimming in that sea. It looks so cold."
"Well, it is," James conceded. "You just have to keep moving, and then it's OK."
"I'll tell your mum that when she's fishing your frozen body out of the sea."
James rolled his eyes and flicked Sirius the bird.
A/N: Hello again. I have very little to say this time except that I've just completed a Harry Potter movie marathon, and that everyone should be very proud of me. Leave a review.
