Chapter 8 The Horrors of History

The next day he was back in Remus' house. Having recently decided to become an Auror, just like his Godson and best friend, he was, on the surface, there to talk about work. But it didn't fool Remus for a minute.

"Stop it." As two glasses emerged and a Firewhisky bottle quickly followed.

"Stop what?"

"Don't be dense Sirius, I know what you're doing. I've had a shitty day full of paperwork and the last thing I feel like doing is talking about work for an hour before you get down to why you're really here."

"Don't be a supercilious prick, I'm not one of your old students."

"Well stop being stubborn."

"I would, if you stopped being so damn sanctimonious."

For a moment Remus looked put out, then the familiar warmth trickled back into his eyes.

"Well, your vocabulary seems to have improved, Sanctimonious and supercilious in one conversation? Swallow the S section of the dictionary did you while you were away?"

Sirius growled in mock indignation; "Yep, S for Second in my year, as well you know."

Remus raised a mocking eyebrow; "Yes, just behind me as I remember it."

"Smug bastard."

"Man whore."

"Werewolf."

With a flick of his wrist Remus filled up the glasses again and raised his to eye level.

"Seeing as you had to result to the most predictable of insults I say I won that one."

With that they both downed the drinks and slammed the glasses, pausing to stare at each other for a moment.

"I've missed you mate."

"I know. I'm glad I'm back."

"So, why are you really here?" Remus had shed some of the stress of his day and was enjoying this time with Sirius, occasionally their relationship was slightly strained at the moment. It was due to a combination of factors; it almost didn't seem real, to have him back after so long, and Remus was almost reluctant to feel as happy as he did about it, so scared as he was that it would all be taken away again. Secondly there was the fact that it seemed to be his job to fill Sirius in on the past few years and there was still some way to go. Still, after it was all said and out in the open he knew they would be back to normal. It was becoming more so every day.

"I have questions."

"About Hermione?" He knew the subject would come up, Sirius had a look in his eye he recognised from a long time ago, he was intrigued and probably hooked already, and once again Remus would pick up the inevitable pieces. Because there would be pieces this time, he was sure of it.

"Among other things... There are... some gaps I guess. I know the general gist of it, how the war was won, what happened to Dumbledore, Ron etc. But there are other people, other things I need to know about."

"Well, why don't you ask me a question and we'll see where it goes from there."

Sirius had a hundred questions on the tip of his tongue but one burst through before he'd even had chance to think about it.

"Why does Hermione do a runner after sex?"

Remus chocked slightly on his whisky.

"Right, no beating around the bush then? Christ, you move quickly, you've only been back five minutes."

"Come on mate, it was her as much as me, you know her, you know that's true."

Remus reflected with a wry grin.

"I do know her."

Sirius had never really wondered if it would bother Remus and now he kicked himself.

"It doesn't bother you does it mate?" He asked anxiously. "Just say the word and I'll stop it."

Please don't say the word, please don't say the word.

Remus chuckled good naturedly and leaned back in his chair. Sirius thought again that he looked younger than he had done all those years ago, the war may have been hard but the women had obviously been good for him.

"Well, seeing as you've already slept with her don't you think your concern is a little late?"

"Well... I... um..." Sirius really couldn't find anything to say in rebuttal, instead he settled for raising his glass, hoping Remus would toast him and it would be forgotten. The quiet clink of the glasses meeting put his mind at rest.

"Don't worry old friend, she is exceptional but I love my wife and I couldn't be happier we're back together."

Sirius noticeably relaxed as Remus continued.

"She does it for two reasons; one, she has nightmares, and two, she has scars."

Sirius frowned; "Explain."

"She has nightmares about what's happened in the past. She's worried people will hear her screaming. For a while she took dreamless sleep potion and I was allowed to stay over, but then she was worried she was taking too much of it so she stopped, she's never found a way to stop them since. It's one of the reasons I don't worry too much about the drugs, if she feels she's getting dependent on something she stops, no matter what it is, even people." Sirius didn't miss the underlying warning.

"About a year after Ron died, so just over three years ago now, just before the war ended, Ginny Weasley and Hermione were captured when they were patrolling Hogsmeade. I guess Ginny shouldn't really have been out there but she never would listen, and Hermione was always one of the most skilled of all of us..." He trailed off, lost in the past.

"Anyway, they were taken by Death Eaters and Merlin help us we couldn't find them. We searched everywhere, leaned on ever source we had, tried everything we could think of. Harry was beside himself. It was two weeks until we found them, by then Ginny was dead and Hermione was a mess."

Sirius gave a shudder, two weeks in the company of those people; god only knows what had happened to them.

"As with most things Hermione spoke about it once, and once only, she wanted to tell Harry so he could give the Weasleys some closure. Apparently Ginny didn't suffer much, they didn't really rate her as anything other than a useful tool to make Hermione talk and once they'd realised that wasn't going to happen they killed her. She wasn't alive for more than a day, she never saw what happened afterwards, which is a blessing I think... for her family."

Remus pushed his chair back suddenly, his face a cross between fury and anguish. He had always been an imposing presence in Sirius' mind, but maybe that was because he knew what a warrior his friend could be. It seemed that after he had 'died' and Dumbledore had really died Remus had been left very much in charge, and he had grown to shoulder that responsibility. He no longer looked like a strong gust of wind would blow him over; instead the strength that Sirius had always known was there for everyone to see.

"I'm sorry Sirius, this is not easy, I'm going to need more whisky." Sirius just nodded as Remus headed for the kitchen. He was gone for a lengthy amount of time considering he had just gone for whisky but Sirius correctly assumed that his friend needed some time to compose himself and figure out how to complete the story that Sirius was not sure he really wanted to hear anymore.