AN: Well, it's a good news bad news situation, folks. The good news, The Giants won! (sorry Pats fans and people who don't care), the bad news is that this chapter actually doesn't involve any sex. I know, WHAT? But, it DOES involve one Sirius Black (squee, I know!), so hopefully that makes up for the no sex thing somewhat (and really, isn't any thing with Sirius Black sort of like sex all on it's own) and I adored writing it. Please read, enjoy, and review.


"Well, you're in a suspiciously good mood," Sirius observed over his firewhiskey. The mischievous animagus and his werewolf friend were out having a drink at the Three Broomsticks.

Remus raised an eyebrow wryly over his own drink. "I'm in a good mood and it's suspicious?" he questioned amusedly.

"This soon after the full moon? Yeah, it is," Sirius said frankly. "What's going on Moony? What's got you all happy?"

Remus' immediate instinct with Sirius was to deny, even though he knew it was futile. "Nothing," he said, darting a glance down to his firewhiskey. But he had never been a good liar. That had always been Peter's forte. Should have been something of a clue, that, now that he thought about it.

"Aha!" said Sirius loudly, jumping up onto the booth seat and pointing an accusing finger at Remus. "You are hiding something! I knew it, I knew it! Now tell ol' Padfoot what it is."

Remus sighed. "Sirius everyone in the pub is staring at us now."

Sirius, used to unwanted bouts of attention due to his own notoriety after his declaration of innocence, simply plastered a cheeky smile on his face before waving gleefully to the other gaping Broomstick's patrons, quite a few of whom were now staring. Remus simply rolled his eyes.

"Besides," he muttered, studying the amber contents of his whiskey glass and swirling it around, watching the ice cubes clink together, "I'm not hiding anything."

"Moony, you're a bad liar," Sirius said flatly, leaning back in the booth seat and spreading his arms along the back of it. "Don't make me turn into Padfoot and unleash my puppy dog eyes on you. You know how deadly they are, mate."

Remus sighed long-sufferingly and pushed his hair back from his forehead in agitation, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. "Fine I'm…seeing someone," he admitted slowly.

Sirius leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table and let out a low wolf whistle. "Hot damn, Moony, now wonder your color's looking so good." Of course, in Sirius' mind 'seeing someone' automatically meant you were sleeping with them, and in this instance he wasn't wrong, so Remus ignored the other man's assumptions for the moment.

"So who is she, mate?" Sirius asked.

Remus avoided his old friends eyes. It wasn't that he was ashamed of Hermione; far from it, actually. He considered himself lucky to have her. He was lucky just to have a friendship with the girl, he should be worshipping the gods over the fact that she was giving him the time of day sexually.

"Just…Sirius, leave it," Remus advised.

This of course, was a notion impossible for Sirius to follow. He adopted a wounded look that held a bit of his real feelings behind it. Remus sighed again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that tonight. And he usually had such a good time with Sirius, his best mate. He knew the other man would take the mickey out on him for it, but if he couldn't tell Sirius about this, his oldest friend, than who the hell could he tell? Taking a generous swig of firewhiskey, Remus bit the proverbial bullet.

"Okay," he said nervously. "Alright," he gulped. "It's Hermione Granger" he wiped his forehead of sweat and then waited for the oncoming explosion. Sirius didn't disappoint, practically doing a spit take and in fact choking on his drink, smoke issuing forth from his mouth and nose.

"Holy shit, Moons," he choked when he had finally recovered somewhat.

"I know. It's…yeah," Remus said quietly, cupping his glass and resuming his study of the dark amber liquid within. Wow, way to be articulate on the matter, Remus, he admonished himself.

"I can't believe you're nailing a student," Sirius said, disbelief evident in his voice.

Remus raised an eyebrow, "You disapprove?" he questioned, surprised.

"Not at all, Sirius said. "She's of age. Besides, I bet she's a saucy little minx behind her pile of books. Not bad looking either, eh?" he said, nudging Remus in the side with his elbow, a smirk on his face.

"Sirius," Remus growled in a low warning.

"Yes?" Sirius replied innocently. "Touchy, touchy," he said when Remus just glared, taking another sip of his firewhiskey. "You always have been possessive of the girls you like," he finished, attempting, rather transparently in Remus' opinion, to be sly.

Remus shrugged, never one to deny his faults.

"Aha!" Sirius cried again, like a crazed detective in some cheesy muggle film. "He doesn't even deny it!"

"Yes, Sirius," Remus explained slowly, as if talking to a child, which in some ways he was. "The wolf in me can make me quite possessive at times." This was true, but he knew it hadn't been what Sirius was referring to.

Sirius folded his arms stubbornly across his muscled chest. "That's not what I meant, Remus, and you know it. You like her."

Remus sighed, yet again, in exasperation. "Of course I like the girl Sirius, I'm sleeping with her."

Sirius scoffed. "You act as if that's some kind of prerequisite."

Remus leveled a stare at him. "Well, for some people, it is," he said pointedly.

Sirius waved this away. "Details. The point is that you like her!"

"You're like a gossiping sixth year girl, Padfoot," Remus said with a teasing grin. Said animagus huffed indignantly. "I don't know why you're so thrilled about this, honestly," Remus finished glumly, shuffling his feet under the table.

"I don't know why you're not," Sirius pointed out.

"Well, it isn't as if it can go anywhere, is it?"

"So you do want it to? Go somewhere that is," Sirius ventured cautiously.

"Godric help me Sirius, yes. I think I've begun to fall for her."

"Oh," said Sirius, falling back in his booth seat, a puff of stale air issuing from it as he landed heavily, not quite so enthusiastic now that Remus had finally conceded his point.

"Yes, oh."

"So what's the problem then?" Sirius asked, knowing what Remus' response would be but asking anyway.

Remus stared at him blankly, wondering how such a supposedly smart man could be so incredibly clueless.

"Sirius you can't honestly believe Hermione would ever want to pursue a relationship based on anything more than sex with me. It's impossible. Why would she want anything to do with me in a romantic way? I'm too old, too-"

Sirius cut him off with an exasperated eye roll. "Too poor, too dangerous, too much of a werewolf. Spare me the self loathing bullshit, Moony, I've heard it all before. That girl would be damn lucky to have you. Actually, you'd be damn lucky to have each other. I happen to think you'd be really good together. I mean, you've always got on so great."

"I know, and we still do, but…I'd drag her down, Pads."

"Why do you always do this?" Sirius demanded angrily.

"Do what?" Remus asked tiredly.

"Tear yourself down like you think you're this abominable piece of shit unworthy of love. No one else thinks that you know. It's shit Remus, that's what it is!"

"Sirius, I'm a werewolf-"

"La-di-fuckin-da. Hermione found that out her third year and she didn't tell anyone. She obviously cared for you even then. And then she practically came face to face with your wolfy self at the end of the year-"

"Wonder she still speaks to me," Remus muttered.

"AND," Sirius continued loudly, "she doesn't hold it against you at all. The girl clearly likes and respects you, Remus. She's probably falling for you too."

"Society would give us hell-"

"FUCK society!" shouted Sirius, slamming his firewhiskey glass down emphatically on the table and receiving a rather affronted look from an older gentlemen in pinstriped robes, not that he cared. Remus shot the wizard a vaguely apologetic look, not really caring much what he thought of them either at the moment.

"You know Hermione wouldn't care about any of that, mate," Sirius said more quietly, leaning in closer to speak to Remus more privately. "Their scorn would just affront her and make her more determined than ever to love you."

Against his will, Remus' heart sputtered in his chest when Sirius brought up the prospect of Hermione fighting for him, defending him, and maybe even coming to love him. But it was useless. All of this hypothetical conversation was uselessness, because he was projecting and she didn't even feel that way about him anyway. The scarf was just a friendly gesture. One Sirius most definitely did not need to know about.

"That's another thing though," Remus said, partly in an attempt to distract himself from his current train of thought and partly because it was something that was nagging at him. "What if I'm just," he hesitated to use the phrase, "a pet project to her, on some level, like the House Elves. What if-"

"You think she's doing you for the cause?" Sirius asked archly. "Give me a break Remus, and give her some more credit while you're at it. She would never do that to you."

"I know that, but maybe subconsciously…"

"You know what I think?" Sirius said, interrupting him.

"No," said Remus, "But I have the feeling you're going to tell me."

"I think you're making bullshit excuses because you're scared she might actually feel something more than lust for you."

Remus didn't concede this point, but he didn't rebut it either.

"Just think about what I've said, mate," Sirius said, reaching out to clap the emotionally downtrodden werewolf on the shoulder. Remus nodded. After a few moments of contemplative silence he snorted into his drink and then began laughing.

"What's funny?" Sirius wondered.

"You," Remus choked out. "Giving me advice," He sobered. "That was usually my role back in the day."

Sirius smiled. "Yes, but this is a matter on the ladies. And you were always petrified of girls in school, so you didn't have any practical experience in that arena."

Remus sputtered indignantly. "I was not petrified of girls! Maybe petrified that girls would be petrified of me if they found out about my furry little problem."

Now it was Sirius' turn to snort into his firewhiskey. "Well, you certainly don't have to worry about that with Hermione, now do you?"

"Cheers to that," Remus said, and the men clinked glasses and drank.

"How did you two get together anyway?" Sirius asked curiously. "I reckon that's an interesting story. Did it happen in the library?"

Remus rolled his eyes and Sirius held up his hands as if to say 'What? Innocent Question'.

"No," the reluctant werewolf admitted. "I noticed she was distracted in my classes and gradually began to perceive that she was attracted to me-"

"Smell it on her, did you?" Sirius snickered.

Remus narrowed his eyes. "Yes, her pheromones started to go haywire around me and a few times I smelt arousal on her in class that I connected to myself."

Sirius' eyes widened almost comically. "Holy shit, Moony!"

Remus, despite himself, couldn't hold back a smirk of his own.

"So how long did it take you to grow some balls and approach her?" Sirius asked.

"Well, at first I thought it was just a childish crush and that it would run it's course, but her feelings turned out to be persistent, and then there was an opportunity to give her detention…"

"Oho!" Sirius crowed gleefully. "Did you make her call you Professor, you kinky bastard?"

Remus was unable to withhold a blush, which, at his age was quite ridiculous, no doubt letting Sirius in on the credibility of his statement, but plowed on nevertheless. "Hermione came to the detention and I made my intentions clear. She was…receptive."

Sirius smirked. "I'll bet she was. Miss Granger's always been a swotty one. I'd love to unwrap that one in the bedroom if she'd let me. You're a lucky man, Moony. I'm sure she was very receptive to playing naughty school girl to your stern Professor," he dissolved into mirthful giggles. Finally noticing Remus' heated glare after several minutes, Sirius sobered.

"Am I wrong, Moony?"

Remus sighed tiredly and massaged his forehead. "You're not wrong, Sirius, you're just an arsehole."


AN: The Dude Abides. So there it is folks! The interlude. I know it's short, but hopefully you enjoyed it and I just had to put it in here, because I think it gives you an important insight into how Remus is feeling, plus, HELLO, Sirius! God, I love that man. I had a crush on him even before I knew what a crush was (third grade). Besides, I enjoy writing Remus and Sirius together way too much. But they are so much fun! I sort of base their interaction a bit on House and Wilson from House MD with Remus of course being the adorable oncologist. Except not divorced three times. ANYWAY, hope you enjoy this little treat, and please review, even if you just did for the last chapter. You guys have no idea how much I appreciate it and how much my heart pings every time I see one in my inbox. As always, please let me know of any mistakes or constructive criticism. Peace and love!