Bitter

There was that all to common awkward silence when he sat down to breakfast the next day. Even though he knew Lupin wasn't going to say anything about the rabbit that day. Harry resolved not to throw it away after all, though the fact that it belonged to Sirius being the primary, and pretty much only reason.

If Sirius still kept his stuffed animal up until his twenties, Harry could too.

That seemed to be the basis for solving most dilemmas. What would Sirius do?

"Would you like to do something today?"

"Hmm?" Harry was so unused to the concept of doing just about anything in Lupin's house.

"I don't know. We could see a movie. All you ever do around here is ride your broom and watch TV. What do you want to do?"

"Could we…" It was such a stupid idea, he didn't even bother asking.

"What?"

"Never mind."

"No, really. What do you want to do?"

"You aren't going to let me, so why bother asking?"

"You're right. I'm probably not."

There was a thick silence in which Harry examined his fork and counted the seconds.

"What is it?"

"Wow! Only five seconds. I was expecting at least ten."

"At least tell me what it is."

"No, I'm not wasting my breath."

"What if I promise to give it proper consideration?"

"It doesn't matter how much consideration you give it. You're going to say no."

Another silence. This one lasting only three seconds on Harry's watch.

"All right. What ever it is, you can do it."

"And you give me your word that you are going to let me do whatever it is that I ask you to?"

A silence that lasted another five seconds. "Yes."

"I want to get a tattoo."

"DAMN!"

If Lupin were driving any slower, one of the many cars behind him would get so pissed off they would drive into the back of his car's fat ass.

"I can not believe that I agreed to this."

"I can not believe that I managed to get you to agree to this." Harry took another puff on his cigarette calmly, though anyone could tell that he was gloating on the inside. "You know, curiosity killed the werewolf."

"I must admit, that was good."

"You're just gullible."

"After all my years with Sirius, I still manage to fall for that."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked genuinely interested.

"Sirius and your father used to do that to me all the time. I was the only one who ever refused to do something for him when he acted charming. Well, me and Lily."

Harry couldn't help but smirk with contentment, but at the sight of Lupin looking at him, he turned towards the side-view mirror and pretended he was amused by the pile-up. Not that Lupin would buy that, but at least he was trying.

"If you drive any slower, I'm going to take the wheel."

"The wheel won't make me drive faster, unfortunately."

He placed his foot on top of Lupin's and pressed down with all of his strength.

"Get off!" He yelled as the car zoomed forward. He could practically hear the cries of joy from the cars in back of him, or at least the lack of horns being honked.

"You going to drive faster?"

"Yes! Just get off!"

There was more silence.

"Your mom would shoot me if she knew what I was letting you do."

"Hopefully with a silver bullet." He saw Lupin cringe.

"Please don't mention silver." He asked through his teeth.

"Oh, come on. You know, every cloud has a silver lining."

Lupin turned with a glare. "Shut it! And do you have the money to pay for this? And what do you want to get?" He said, trying to change the subject.

"Well, yes. I can't rely on you. You were hardly born with a silver spo-"

"One more time, Harry! You need my permission to get this done you know."

"You really aren't going to like what I'm getting done then."

"What?" Lupin said, like he really didn't want to know. He probably didn't.

"I want a silver dagger on my shoulder."

"Do you think you could get anymore stereotypical?"

"No, but I could probably be an even bigger son of a bitch! Care to test me?"

"Take it easy!"

"Well, I haven't been much of an ass hole lately, so I think I'm due. Take a left here."

"How do you know where this place is?"

"I've been hanging out a lot of places this summer, and I've wanted this tattoo for a while."

"Are you sure you want this? A dagger, Harry? That's just creepy."

"Just because you have a problem with silver doesn't mean that it should ruin it for me."

"Yeah but- "

"If I don't like it, I'll just remove it with a spell or something."

"Hurts like hell."

"How would you know?

"I've had one done."

Harry couldn't stop the shock from showing on his face. Lupin smiled a bit.

"We all got one… us Marauders. Peter was a total wimp and took one look at the needle and freaked out, but we all had one done. Sort of ironic, actually."

"Why's that?"

"Well, it was the only true marauders that got them done. It should have been a sign that he wasn't loyal, but we were all pretty drunk, and we didn't pay much attention to him."

"You still have it?"

"Off course I do. I wanted to get it removed after I thought that Sirius had betrayed us all, but I decided to keep it."

"What is it?"

"Just our names."

"All of your names, or just yours in particular?"

"We were going to do all of them, but we didn't realize how much it would hurt. Poor Padfoot. His name was the longest of any of us. It's kind of funny. We realized once that I have five letters, Prongs has six, Padfoot has seven, and Wormtail has eight."

"You had way too much time on your hands." He deadpanned.

"This must be it… You sure you want to do this?"

"Why would we have driven forty-five minutes if I wasn't?"

"If you're sure then."

They entered the run down, dark and gloomy place. He heard Lupin mutter from behind him "They probably don't even sterilize their needles."

"Sure do." Said a low voice in the corner. "Nice seeing you again, Harry."

"Pat." He nodded.

"Who's the guy with the stick up his arse?"

"The guy I conned into letting me get a tattoo."

"How much did you pay this one?"

"He's a friend of my father's."

"Ah..."

"Would you mind not talking to me as if I'm not in the room?" said Lupin, looking more then a bit disturbed at their display.

"You just sign here, and we'll get Harry set."