No one is more surprised than I that I'm updating this particular story!
This time, as Sirius rolled over and groaned on the cold hard floor of the now-familiar room, he saw a grey shape next to him. Immediately memories flooded back and he remembered that this shape was in fact Remus, not his Remus, but a Remus who was desperate to find a Sirius and another chance of happiness.
He got painfully to his feet and stretched out his back, thrusting his hips forwards, before bending over the prone figure in front of him.
'Remus?' he said softly. 'Are you alright?'
Remus opened his eyes slowly, before bolting to his feet and staring wildly. Then he seemed to remember, and relaxed, laughed a little.
'We made it,' he said.
'Trust me, the novelty of finding yourself in yet another world wears off pretty fast,' Sirius told him, heartfelt.
'I can believe it… so, what now?'
'To the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix…'
'What? The Order's back together?'
Sirius gaped. 'Yes – of course, you don't know, I suppose. Well, you must know Voldemort's on the rise again…'
'Yes, but no-one told me about the Order!'
'I suppose Dumbledore thought you had had enough of all that.'
'Well, he could have asked me! He must know where I live! And I can't get my hands on an owl! I snapped my wand so I can't get into Diagon Alley!'
Sirius thought briefly how unutterably sexy Remus was when he was angry, but quenched that thought and instead placated him.
'Wherever you end up, you can help, if that's what you want. And we should go to Ollivander's right away.'
'Of course it's what I want. Much as I'd like a peaceful life with no murderous maniacs trying to take over the world, that's not the way things are. I couldn't forgive myself for not helping to make the world a safer place when other people are fighting and dying. There are some things worth dying for.'
Sirius smiled at him, with his cheeks red and his eyes sparkling with indignation.
'Come on, Re… mus. Let's go.'
One crack later and they were outside 11 and 13 Grimmaud Place. Dawn was breaking, the sky a beautiful pearly grey splintered with gold.
'Damn, I forgot. You can't get in – Dumbledore's Secret Keeper and if you've not been here… you wander off, and I'll come back and get you when I've got a note from him; is that okay?'
'Yes, that's fine. I'll be down the road.'
As soon as Remus disappeared, Sirius concentrated hard and number 12 appeared, squeezing its way between the surrounding houses. He let himself in quietly and headed into the kitchen. Then he froze.
Remus was in the kitchen, and so was – Severus Snape. And – they were kissing. Snape's arms were wrapped possessively round Remus.
It was Remus who caught sight of them first, and he sprang up with a shout.
'Sirius! What – how…'
'Surprised to see me?' Sirius spat.
'Surprised?!'
'Didn't waste any time getting with Snivellus, did you?' Sirius snapped.
Now this Remus was angry. 'I've told you time and again not to call him that. We've been together for almost a decade and you still persist in this childish vendetta! Now, please, explain how the hell you got here! Sirius, I saw you die with my own eyes! I saw the Avada Kedavra hit you, I saw the light leave your eyes, I felt your pulse and there was nothing. Nothing. It's your funeral tomorrow!'
'A decade?' Sirius said wonderingly, waving a nonchalant arm at the rest of Remus's speech. It seemed unimportant compared to this.
'You know full well!'
'But – no, Re, it can't be true. It can't be!' And he looked at Snape with deep animosity.
'I love him, Sirius. How many times will we have to have this conversation? I thought you'd finished with this – I thought you'd realised that I'm happy!'
Now Snape spoke for the first time.
'Remus, sweet, calm down. I think there's something rather odd going on here. Let Sirius explain what's going on, won't you?'
Sirius almost jumped to hear himself so civilly addressed by his old enemy. He looked more closely at Snape – his hair shorter and clean, his eyes soft black, his skin pale but not sallow. Even his nose seemed smaller. And he was wearing green!
Remus nodded and shot Snape an adoring glance that made Sirius nearly mad with jealousy. Snape returned the glance with equal affection.
'I fell through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries whilst fighting Bellatrix Lestrange,' he said, addressing himself solely to Remus. 'I keep ending up in different realities – oh, it's hard to explain, I don't understand myself, but the upshot is, I keep going through the Veil trying to get home.'
Snape's eyes were wide. 'No one has ever met anyone who has passed through the Veil,' he breathed.
'Well, maybe they didn't try very hard,' Sirius said with distaste. 'But I have a very good reason to try my best.'
Snape looked at him narrowly. 'You're in love with Remus, aren't you? The Remus in your world.'
'Of course I am!' Sirius exclaimed.
This strange Remus stared.
'But,' Sirius continued, 'I forgot. I have someone outside – someone who's never been into the Order headquarters in his own world, for his own reasons. May I bring him in?'
'Who is it?' Remus asked.
'Well – it's you.'
'A different Remus? Not yours, and not mine?'
'Yes, a Remus who's been living as a muggle. He snapped his wand – had no way of learning of the war.'
'Yes, I think it would be fine if he came in,' said Snape slowly. 'I have a chit from Dumbledore, to allow someone in if he is not present.'
'May I take it to him, then?' Sirius said, forcing himself to speak civilly.
Snape handed it over. Sirius inclined his head coldly in thanks, and re-emerged into the now golden morning.
He soon found Remus loitering at the end of the road and took him back to where number 12 belonged. He read the note, concentrated on it and sure enough, the house emerged from its hiding place.
'Before we go in,' Sirius said uncomfortably, 'there's something you should know. There's a Remus here and, er, it seems he's with Snape.' His voice left the meaning of his ambiguous phrasing in no doubt whatsoever.
'With Severus?' Remus echoed incredulously.
'No accounting for tastes,' Sirius said, raising his eyebrows, and he led the way in.
There followed an awkward meeting, though both Remuses were as polite and friendly as they knew how to be. Snape made coffee, to Sirius's secret astonishment, and it didn't taste as though he'd poisoned it.
'So,' Snape's-Remus asked muggle-Remus, 'why are you travelling with Sirius?'
Muggle-Remus flushed to his roots.
'When Sirius arrived at my shop yesterday, he made me realise – everything I'd done, my whole life, wasn't the best I could be doing, the life I'd choose for myself if I could choose. I'd spent all my time going for the easier option, the safe option and all of a sudden it felt like this was my last chance to really do something, to have adventures like I've always read about, to really live.
'And,' he added, catching Sirius's eye, 'I have a goal, as well as Sirius. When I was young, at school, before James and Lily were betrayed, I loved Sirius. Thinking that he had sold his friends to Voldemort – it destroyed something in me. It made me somehow apathetic, listless; I didn't really care deeply about anything or anyone. I knew I ought to forget him. But this Sirius told me that it was Peter, not him, who did – it – and all of a sudden everything changed. I felt I'd betrayed Sirius by believing him guilty, though what else could I have believed? And I've never forgotten him.
'I want – this sounds so silly, but I want to find a place where there is a Sirius who I can tell everything to, and just maybe we can have the life together that my Sirius and I ought to have had.'
'What happened to your Sirius?' the other Remus asked softly.
Remus looked down and his voice shook as he replied, 'Albus owled me. He said that he got the Dementors' Kiss. He'd escaped from Azkaban and gone to Hogwarts – he'd found out Peter was there and was trying to protect Harry so he killed Peter in the Shrieking Shack.'
Snape's-Remus flinched.
'That happened here – the confrontation in the Shrieking Shack, I mean,' he said. 'But I was there. We captured Peter – Harry wouldn't let us kill him.'
'But how did you get him to Hogwarts?' Sirius asked. 'In my world, we'd captured him too, but you – transformed, and he escaped.'
'Transformed?' the new Remus echoed.
'Yes, you know,' Sirius said impatiently. 'Into Moony.'
'Who is Moony?' Severus asked.
'What – what do you mean?' muggle-Remus stammered, staring at his double. Suddenly he noticed the other Remus's eyes. They were blue.
'You're not a werewolf,' he exclaimed, not a question but a statement.
'A werewolf?! Why on earth would you think he's a – dear Merlin, in your world – in both of your worlds – he's a werewolf?' Snape said incredulously.
Sirius and muggle-Remus both nodded.
'I remember my mother telling me that I had a very close call when I was about four,' this alien Remus said, 'but my dad shot the wolf just before it bit me. Just – I can't believe this – in other worlds, my dad didn't get there in time…'
'So what do you do? For a job, I mean,' muggle-Remus asked, thinking perhaps he ought to change the subject.
'I'm a Healer at St. Mungo's,' Snape's-Remus replied, and the other Remus nodded sadly.
'Yes, that's what I would have done, if I could have,' he said.
'And my Remus,' added Sirius softly.
There was a silence.
'So what will you do now?' asked Snape's-Remus eventually.
'Go back to the Ministry again and try and find somewhere else, I suppose,' muggle-Remus said.
'So you'll just keep going from place to place on the off-chance of finding – Sirius?'
'Yes,' Remus replied, squaring his chin determinedly. 'I will. Somewhere there must be a Sirius without a me.'
Gently, this world's Remus broke it to him that this was not that place. He told him how there had been a battle in the Ministry and Bellatrix Lestrange had fired off a killing curse that had hit Sirius square in the chest. Muggle-Remus blanched, but retained his composure as Snape's-Remus patted him on the shoulder.
They continued to make conversation, Snape interjecting from time to time, whilst Sirius sat lost in thought.
If only his Remus didn't have to go through the agony and fear every month…
But would they still feel the same about each other?
He listened to everything this new Remus said. He was like his Remus; the polite consideration towards even the most unexpected of guests; the wish to make everyone feel at ease and happy; even the unobtrusive love that shone from him for Snape Sirius recognised as being the love that Remus bore for he himself.
But then, this Remus loved Snape.
It was almost impossible to admit, even just to himself, but his monthly suffering had made Remus into the person he loved so wholeheartedly. He knew that now, if he could, he would free Remus from the curse of lycanthropy, but if asked to wipe out every single transformation of his lover's life… well, he wasn't sure, and what's more, he wasn't sure that Remus would either. He didn't love Remus's pain, and he didn't love the timidity and desperation to please that it had branded onto Remus, but he loved the result, he must do.
Did that make him far more of a monster than Remus ever could be? He wasn't sure. He looked down at his hands twisted in his lap and sighed. Perhaps he should try not to think about him, as unlikely as that was to happen. So much desperation and yearning… he wasn't sure how long he could stand it.
He wanted to have another go at the Veil, but the day's sun was blazing, and he guessed it must be 9. The Ministry would be filling up with people, and there was no way he could breeze on in there, let alone with this "muggle" Remus in tow.
'I need to…' he began, and then wasn't sure. Sleep? No chance. Food, no, though he hadn't eaten since yesterday evening. Without finishing his question, he stood up.
'Where are you going?' asked his protégé.
'Upstairs. The library,' he said.
'Could I come with you? I've not seen this house. I didn't know the Blacks lived in London.'
'Okay,' he said brusquely, not happy about having his privacy invaded. Looking at Remus, he was sure he knew this, but he didn't back down.
'Thanks,' he said to the other Remus, carefully ignoring Snape. 'I'll be upstairs.'
'Are you sure you don't want anything?'
'Yes, thank you.'
With that, he departed with Remus in tow, leaving Snape and Snape's Remus in the kitchen.
Snape put a gentle hand on Remus's leg.
'Are you alright?' he said in his low voice.
'Yes – yes, I am.'
'This is all very hard to swallow, isn't it? If you hadn't seen them too, I'd think I was running mad.'
'Severus…'
'Yes?'
'Would you still love me if… if…'
'If you were a werewolf?'
'Yes.'
'How can you even ask such a thing?' Severus said seriously. He gently grasped Remus's chin and lifted it so his lover was staring into his eyes. 'Nothing could make me feel any differently about you. I love you, whatever.'
Remus grinned. 'Oh, I know!'
Severus's eyes were soft pools of affection as he surveyed Remus.
'You know, people would think Sirius and the other Remus are mad… but if I lost you, I'd do anything, anything, to get back to you, no matter how small the chance that I would manage it.'
Remus kissed him softly on the lips and then leant his head against Severus's shoulder and closed his eyes.
Meanwhile, Sirius was frantically going through all the books on magical history he could find in the library.
'Nothing!' he yelled after about half an hour. 'Fuck!'
Remus was sitting watching him, chin propped in hand, golden eyes watchful and sympathetic.
'This is pointless,' Sirius spat. 'Let's go to Diagon Alley for your wand.'
'Can you?'
'Oh, fuck.' Remus raised his eyebrows. 'Buggery wankfuck cockarse bollocking -'
'Sirius. Let's go and ask Severus and, er, me. They caught Peter, remember? It should be fine.'
They traipsed downstairs, Sirius still swearing under his breath, and went into the kitchen. No sign.
'Living room,' Sirius suggested, and led Remus through the passages into the airiest room in the house.
They walked in on Remus and Snape kissing again. Sirius swore a bit more, but quietly, and muggle-Remus cleared his throat, blushing.
'Sorry to interrupt,' he said gently, and the other Remus smiled at him and held Snape's hand. 'I was just wondering about your world's Sirius. When you captured Peter, you cleared his name?'
Sirius turned to Snape and Remus and explained. 'We need to go to Ollivander's for a wand for Remus, you know, and in my world I can't go out, spies and Ministry and Death Eaters everywhere, all of whom would kill me soon as look at me.'
'You poor thing,' Snape's-Remus said gently. 'You must have been terribly frustrated.'
'Damn right I was, even when Re was there with me – he was off most of the time, Order stuff. And it all got too much, and fucking Snape and his needling, and I went to help Harry at the Ministry and ended up in another fucking universe with Re probably thinking I'm dead.'
He looked caught painfully between rage and desperation, standing with fists clenching and unclenching, grey eyes glowing fiercely. For that reason, the other three said nothing, though Snape looked sorely tempted to give as good as he – or his alter ego – had got.
'You'll be fine,' said Snape's-Remus eventually. 'Severus's Veritaserum cleared everything up in minutes. You're – you were – a free man.'
'Good.'
'Thank you,' said muggle-Remus apologetically. 'I'm not sure if we'll come back…'
'You should,' Snape said decisively. 'Have some food, some rest, before you move on. I'll have a look in a couple of books, see if I can find out anything about the Veil.'
'You won't be able to,' Sirius said, his voice utterly defeated. 'I spoke to Albus – a different Albus – he had no idea.'
'But maybe in this world things are different,' Snape's-Remus said soothingly. 'Come back before you go, please. Please. You're not the Sirius from my world, but almost certainly you'll be the last time I see him, talk to him.'
'I'll come back,' Sirius said softly. Then he turned and left, muggle-Remus following him.
He Side-Along apparated them to the Leaky Cauldron and tapped the brick impatiently before the two of them entered Diagon Alley.
'You know, this is the first time I have been here for decades as myself,' he said quietly.
'You come as Padfoot?'
'Occasionally I did, although the Death Eaters now know about him so that's it, no more jaunts.'
'I cannot imagine what it must be like, being locked up in the house you hate.'
'Difficult,' Sirius said shortly. 'But I'm not there all time. Sometimes Remus and I Floo back to his house in Yorkshire. It's in the middle of nowhere, so I can go outside, breathe clean air, run as fast as I can, as far as I can. But we only ever go together; I wouldn't go without him. There's stuff I can do for the Order in London, even though I spend most of the time feeling useless, and I have no desire to spend time in paradise if Re is in danger. It makes me feel better to be at headquarters when he's away.'
Remus nodded, his eyes full of compassion.
The two men walked through into the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley and turned left.
'Is it alright if you go to Ollivander's alone?' asked Sirius. 'I want to see if I can find a book about – well, a book.'
'That's fine – I'll see you in Fortescue's in an hour or so?'
Sirius grinned. 'If I get there first, I'll order you a triple chocolate sundae with chocolate chips and hot chocolate sauce,' he said.
'How did you know – oh. Okay!' Remus said, and left him.
Sirius turned right and walked swiftly down the road. He took a dismal little turning and found himself in Knockturn Alley, walking quickly until he found the shop he was looking for.
He entered, and the bell above the door rang. Immediately an elderly woman with wild white hair materialised.
'Can I help you?' she enquired dispassionately.
'I'm looking for any book on the Veil in the Ministry of Magic, or other worlds,' Sirius said boldly.
Her eyes narrowed and she stared at Sirius until he felt uncomfortable.
'I think I have what you want,' she said, 'but it's not for sale. Nevertheless you are welcome to have a look at it.'
She motioned to him to follow before disappearing into the back of the shop. As Sirius followed, a curtain fell behind him, shutting out the daylight. Dimly, he could see hundreds of books on rickety shelves lining the walls.
The woman led him to a tiny dark room. Lighting the candles, she turned and retrieved a dusty old volume from one of the shelves. It didn't escape Sirius's notice that it required a password to remove it, and she cast some powerful protective charms over it before giving it to him.
'Could I possibly have a quill and some parchment, please?'
She handed writing equipment to him, and turned to leave. At the door she paused, and her deep dark eyes were full of sorrow as she said, 'I fear you will not find what it is you seek.' She then left.
His heart hammering against his ribs, Sirius barely heard her. He sat down and gingerly opened the book. On the title page, there was a picture of the veil, the runes on the archway surrounding it drawn clearly in spiky black marks.
Realities Undreamt, the title was.
Flicking eagerly to the back, Sirius found an index and searched frantically – returning – nothing. He started at A and worked through systematically looking for headings that could help him. When he got to J, he found something – Journeying – in between worlds.
His heart leapt and he flicked to the relevant page.
Many have wished to journey to other worlds. Few have managed to do so, and none have returned in living memory, the book said. We can only conclude that leaping between the worlds believed to exist is a mere matter of luck, or fate. Truly, the brave soul who chooses to attempt the leap must harden his heart to the world he leaves for we know not of any who can make a return to his own world a certain, or even likely, event.
So for those who wish to explore realities undreamt, we caution you. Do not leave behind anything you can bear to live without! For ye will sorely miss it and yet will never be able to return to it.
Sirius looked up. His nose prickled and before he knew it he was crying, fat tears of pain and loss. He buried his head in his hands and wept for Remus, who he had left behind so accidentally and who, he finally began to believe, he should never see again.
Time had passed, he wasn't sure how much, when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and a steaming mug of tea was placed in front of him.
'You knew, didn't you?'
'Yes,' the old woman said simply, and sipped her tea.
'How?'
'You're not the first to want answers from that book,' she said softly. 'Didn't you wonder why it wasn't for sale?'
'You lost someone,' Sirius stated.
'Yes,' she said again.
'You know, this isn't the first world I've been in, or the second,' Sirius said with a faint glimmer of hope. 'There can only be so…'
He trailed off. The woman's eyes were round and incredulous.
'You are a Traveller?' she asked breathlessly.
'Yes, I suppose I am.'
'You are the first I've met! How did you get here?'
'Fell through the Veil at the Ministry of Magic,' Sirius said.
'The Veil! This Veil?' And she showed him the picture in the front of Realities Undreamt.
Sirius nodded.
'And you've been to many other worlds?' she asked eagerly.
'A couple – so far.'
'Will you be going on?'
'Oh yes,' Sirius said with determination.
The woman stretched her gnarled fingers around her tea and smiled.
'You want to get back,' she said. 'You left someone.'
'Yes.'
'A lover?'
'Yes.'
'My own lover left me. We were barely twenty three, both of us. I was studying Magical History, she was training to be an auror. But she found this book and her mind was captured. She could think of nothing but seeing these new worlds. There was no peace for her; our life together could not take her mind from travelling to all these places unseen. She toiled – the book tells you how to find other worlds; it's not just the Veil – and she succeeded. I got home – our home – one day and there was a note.
'I think I've cracked it, Berenice! I love you but you know I have to go. I swear to you, though, if there is a way back I shall find it.
'I suppose she never found that way back,' Berenice concluded. 'Her name was Andromeda – the chained maiden. I suppose it was inevitable. She found a way to escape her chains. I just wish she could have taken me with her. And ever since, I have kept the book. Those who look for people who are lost find me eventually, but they find little comfort. And I would not show the book to those who seek other worlds. There is no joy in it.'
Sirius laid his hand on one of her fragile old ones, the thin skin translucent.
'I left Remus,' he said. 'I have to get back. I never wanted to leave, and I will never rest until I return or until I die. And I am sure Andromeda is still trying to return to you.'
Berenice smiled sadly at him. 'You are kind, you are young and strong and determined. You will return if it is possible. But I fear my Anderomeda is gone from me forever. I have given up my hope and made peace. I just hope she has.'
'I have to go,' Sirius said reluctantly. 'I have someone to meet. It's – well, it's very bizarre. He is Remus, but from another world. It's like torment – to travel with him. But he wasn't happy in his world, and he begged me to take him with me.'
'Goodbye – I don't even know your name.'
'I'm Sirius – Sirius Black.'
She took his hand and squeezed it.
'Thank you' she whispered, 'for giving an old woman hope.'
Sirius left the shop and walked down Knockturn Alley and back into the sun and noise of Diagon Alley. He arrived at Fortescue's to find Remus already there, deep in conversation with Florian himself.
'Oh hello,' Remus smiled at him. Then, noticing tear stains, 'is anything wrong?'
'I'm fine,' Sirius said, shaking his head.
'What can I get for sir?'
'I'll have a coffee please. Very strong.'
'No ice cream?' Remus asked, looking scandalised.
'No thank you.'
'Could you please bring us a spare spoon, Florian? Just in case.'
Remus twinkled across the table at Sirius, who felt like his heart would break. The twinkle was such a Remus twinkle, the ice cream comment so like his Remus, and the memory of the despair cast by Realities Undreamt lay across his heart like a pall.
The twinkle slid from Remus's face. 'What's wrong? Didn't you find your book?'
'I found it,' Sirius said. 'But I found no good news in it.'
Remus frowned. 'I'm sorry,' he said quietly. 'But surely, you are no better off than before, but no worse?'
'No, I suppose not,' Sirius said, trying to pull himself together. 'I knew there were infinite worlds, I had no good way of navigating before. It's just – it seems to have made all the doubts and worries I had solidify into insurmountable obstacles.'
Remus said nothing. He wordlessly proffered a cigarette which was accepted.
They sat in silence, until Sirius had drunk his coffee and finished his cigarette. He felt a little more cheerful.
'That,' he said, vanishing the butt, 'was disgusting. Can I try your ice cream, please?'
Remus smiled. 'I knew you'd come round!' he said gleefully.
'So did you get a wand?'
Remus pulled out a shiny pale stick. 'Cedar, werewolf fur core, springy, 10 and a half inches,' he announced.
'Did Ollivander know you were a werewolf?' Sirius asked curiously. 'Only my Remus has a werewolf fur core too.'
'He knows everything,' Remus said simply. 'He told me he was fairly interested to see what magic I could perform, being a werewolf. It was a little creepy, to be honest.'
'He is a bit, isn't he,' Sirius agreed absent-mindedly, fingering his own wand. 'You know, perhaps we should go back to Grimmaud Place for a nap. It'll be another late one.'
'I feel pretty tired,' Remus admitted. 'But I feel a bit uncomfortable about going back… Severus and, well, me.'
'I thought Remuses always tolerated Snapes,' Sirius said with a bitter little grin.
'I did tolerate him, and respect him, when we were in the Order,' Remus admitted, 'but the sight of someone my mirror image snuggling up to him makes me somewhat prickly.'
Sirius nodded. Heaven knows, he could imagine how he'd feel if in some bizarre universe it was him snuggling up to Snivellus. He shuddered.
'We don't have to hang around with them,' Sirius promised. 'We can go upstairs to the library, or find some room where we don't have to watch them canoodling.'
'It's odd to think, isn't it,' Remus said in a dreamy sort of way, 'that if I hadn't have been bitten when I was five, right now I could be back in my own world sitting by the fire with Severus Snape.' If I hadn't have been bitten, I'd have been the sort of person he'd like, and he'd be the sort of person I'd like.'
Sirius frowned. 'It's less of him and more of you,' he said cryptically. 'I mean, it's your preferences that would carry the day.'
'What on earth do you mean?' Remus demanded frankly. 'There is no way Severus would have a relationship with a werewolf.'
'Isn't there?'
'He hates me for what I am – in my world at least.'
'Well, in my world, he hates what you are, but he loves you, and hates himself for it. hates me for it, too.'
Remus's eyes and mouth were perfect Os of surprise.
'How… peculiar,' he said eventually. 'Is that really true?'
'Really and honestly. In fact,' Sirius said angrily, 'he's probably making the most of my absence.'
'Oh I think you underestimate him – and me,' Remus said certainly. 'He'd not try and inveigle himself into anyone's affection, oh no. And if I'm any judge (and I should think I bloody well am!), your Remus won't give up on you as easily as all that. Your body and your soul are gone together – I don't think he'll think you're dead. I think you'll get back someday, and he'll have been waiting for you.'
At these words, Sirius's heart filled with a warm glow.
'You always know how to make me feel better,' he said indistinctly.
Remus smiled sadly at him. 'Come on,' he said. 'We can't go getting all sentimental in a public place. We should get back. But honestly, Sirius, I don't think you need to fear anything. I suspect your Remus is far more constant than I turned out to be.'
His face was drawn and utterly miserable and he looked away to hide it from Sirius, but not quite quickly enough. He stood up, knocking his chair over with a clatter, and after righting it, the two men went back the way they came, back out into unforgiving muggle London.
