Chapter 11: One More Sad Song

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Sirius turned his car into the driveway of Remus' house and parked behind his truck. He climbed out and headed towards the house. He intended to knock on the door, but found no need once he reached the porch. Remus was sitting on the porch, leaning against the wall next to the door with a book open in his lap. He was listening to Snow Patrol so loud that Sirius could clearly hear every word through the boy's ear buds. He looked down at Remus and smiled as he slid his foot forward and nudged Remus'.

Remus flinched, violently. He practically threw his book to the side, dragging his arm across his chest and yanking out the headphones. He jerked his knees up to his chest and covered his face with his arm as he looked up. His eyes grew wide and angry when he saw Sirius standing there.

Remus jumped to his feet, shoving his headphones in his pocket, and pushed Sirius back off of the porch. "What the fuck are you doing here?" he hissed at him.

Sirius reached up and put his hands on Remus' chest, bringing them to a halt between the porch and driveway. "I came to see if you wanted to get lunch with me," he answered, feeling offended by Remus' reaction. "What's wrong with you, Moony?"

Remus stepped around him and pulled on Sirius' arm. "Okay, lunch sounds great, but let's go now," he said, hurriedly.

A loud crash from inside the house caused Sirius to spin around and gape. "What was that?"

"Nothing, let's go!" Remus jerked on his arm, roughly.

"Ow! What is your problem? Don't you wanna see what that was?" Sirius gave Remus a confused face and pulled his arm away.

"Sirius, pl-" Remus was interrupted by the sound of the screen door slamming against the outer wall of the house. "Sirius, get in your fucking car, now," he ordered as Jeffrey stepped onto the porch.

"Okay, come with me," Sirius whispered, not liking the look on Remus' face. He grabbed his hand and started to pull him towards the car, but Remus jerked away as though he had been bitten.

"Who the hell are you?" Jeffrey asked, stepping off of the porch and looking down at Sirius.

Sirius opened his mouth to answer, but Remus cut him off.

"He's no one. He came to get me, that's all and now, he's leaving." Remus pushed Sirius towards the car, thankful he wasn't resisting.

Jeffrey followed behind them and watched as Sirius opened his door and sat down. He grabbed Remus by the arm and spun him around. "I told you not to be bringing any of your sissy boys around this house, didn't I? I was clear that your little fagot friends weren't allowed here." He nodded and stared into Remus' eyes.

"He isn't. He's-he's just a friend, alright? He's leaving right now and he won't be back. I swear." Remus swallowed hard and looked at the ground.

Jeffrey let go of Remus, but the look in his eyes made it clear that he intended to finish the conversation later. He turned and slowly walked back to the house.

"Remus, get in the car," Sirius ordered and gave him a look that left no room for argument.

Remus walked around and climbed into Sirius' car. Once the doors were closed, he turned to Sirius, angry. "I told you not to come to my house. I know I said it...more than once. I said Sirius, I don't want you near my house." He shook his head and looked out of the window. "Don't you ever listen, to anyone?" He closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing.

"I'm sorry," Sirius whispered, his eyes brimming with tears.

"Just turn on the car and get out of my driveway before he comes back." Remus pulled on his seat belt and sat in silence as they made their way down the street. "How did you even find my house?"

"James told me how to get to Lily's and I saw your truck. Moony, I didn't mean to get you in trouble." Sirius pulled into an empty church parking lot and put the car in park. "Please, look at me."

Remus licked his lips and faced Sirius, his eyes still angry.

"I thought that you didn't want me over because of where you lived, I had no idea it was...that." Sirius tried to put his hand on Remus' shoulder, but he pushed it away. "Remus, I'm sorry," he choked out. He could feel himself about to cry, but was fighting it.

Remus let out a heavy breath and grabbed Sirius' hand. He gave it a small squeeze and let go. "I know. I shouldn't be mad at you. It's not your fault." He leaned his head back and looked at Sirius. "I'm sorry for what he sa-"

"Don't you dare apologize for him," Sirius bit. His hand flinched towards Remus', but he pulled it back and laced his own fingers together. "Your dad's a jerk."

Remus sat up and made an angry face. "That man is not my dad," he growled. He took a deep breath and leaned back into the seat. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just... well my dad... he was a jerk. He used to cheat on my mom and gambled a lot. He was a lousy drunk. He yelled all the time but he never...I mean never put his hands on me or my mom."

Sirius nodded and bit his bottom lip. "What, um...what, well...where is he? Are they divorced?"

Remus shook his head and stared out of the window. "He's dead. He was a cop, well State Trooper. Pulled over a guy for a broken tail light, went to the window, guy pulled a gun. They uh, they found out later that the guy was running drugs. He didn't want to get caught, so..." he trailed off.

Sirius put his hand on Remus' shoulder again, glad he didn't push it away. "How long ago?"

"Nine years ago. Nine years, two months and twenty three days. It's easy to remember the date. A lot of people, they tend to forget exact dates like that, but I can't forget it." Remus took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Two months, twenty three days. That's..." Sirius made a pained face and rubbed his thumb over Remus' shoulder. "That's your birthday," he whispered.

Remus nodded and reached up. He laid his hand over Sirius' and they sat in silence for a while.

"That man at your house. That's your mom's..." Sirius trailed off using a questioning tone.

"Her boyfriend. Jeffrey." Remus dropped his hand and turned to face Sirius completely. "Yeah, about a year after my dad died, my mom tells me that she's gonna join AA. She goes for a while but, um...instead of bringing home one of those little chips at the end of the month, she brings home Jeffrey. Two weeks later, he moved in."

Sirius smiled and licked his lips. "Moony, I really wish that you woulda told me all of this before. I get it though. We really haven't been friends that long. I guess it just seems longer because I see you so much."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. So, uh, you said something about lunch." Remus smiled and ran his tongue over his bottom lip.

Sirius turned right in his seat and pulled his seat belt back on. "Pizza? You might as well say okay, because that wasn't really a question. We're getting pizza."

"Okay," Remus laughed.

"Can I ask you one more thing?" Sirius asked. Upon receiving a nod, he let out a sharp breath. "How does he know you're gay? I mean, does he actually know or is he just saying that stuff to be a jerk?"

Remus let out a laugh and rubbed his nose. "He knows that I'm gay. I didn't sit them down and have a coming out speech or anything, it was an accident. I used to work at Ollivander's Lumber Yard before I got the job at Antonio's and one day, Jeffrey decides he wants to fix our back fence. This was last summer, so he comes up to the yard, walks around the plywood and...sees me."

"Sees you what?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

"Don't give me that look. We were just kissing, but it was enough to set him off." Remus began laughing again. "It was a riot, he started screaming, raising all sorts of hell about it. He goes inside and thinks that he's gonna get Cam's dad pissed off, too. Mitch threw him out. It was great. Mitch is a big fucking guy, he had Jeffrey cowering in the parking lot."

"So the guy you were with, your ex, his dad worked there?"

"Yeah, well sorta. Cam's dad owns the lumber yard. Mitch and Cameron Ollivander. That's why I worked there since I was twelve. That's also why I don't work there now. Couldn't see him every day. It woulda drove me crazy." Remus sighed quietly and looked back out of the window.

James was standing outside of the ladies bathroom at the movie theatre in Godric's Hollow. He was leaning against the wall watching people walk by, scanning for familiar faces. He couldn't help but smirk when he spotted the recognizable Regulus. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a Skittle, then launched it three feet and hit the side of the boy's head.

Regulus' hand jumped to the spot where he had been hit and he spun around, his eyes instantly falling on James. In a period of about five seconds, his face went from anger, to dawning realization and settled on fear. He swallowed hard and dropped the hand of the girl next to him.

James' eyes lit up and he took a step towards Regulus. "Oh, my. I do believe I've just seen something that I shouldn't have. Now, I might not pay much attention to Lupo, but last I checked, he wasn't a blonde...or a girl." He licked his lips and beamed with power.

Regulus rubbed roughly at his eyes and shook his head. Brittney, the girl who's hand he was holding, took a step away and gave James a small wave. James waved back and pulled out his phone. He started scrolling through the names with an eager grin.

Regulus snatched the phone from his hand and stared at him with wide eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Well, once I get my phone back, I'm going to call Lupo and tell him that I am staring at his boyfriend, who appears to be on a date." James smirked and reached for his phone.

Regulus pulled the phone out of his reach and shook his head. He held up his hand and was about to resort to begging when another girl entered the picture.

Amelia walked up and took James' hand. She looked up at him and smiled, noticed Regulus and promptly dropped her hand. Regulus smiled and handed James his phone back, slowly.

"Here you go, Potter. You go ahead and call Remus and tell him how you caught me out with someone else while you were out...with someone else." A sneaky smile crossed Regulus' face and he tilted his head with amusement. "Is there really a need to go into the 'you tell, I tell' details of this?"

James frowned and shook his head.

A Note From the Author: Jerks. They're all jerks. Jeffrey is a jerk, James is a jerk, Regulus is a jerk. Cam's a jerk too, but you'll see that for yourself later on. Will either boy rat out the other or will they hold their bond? Find out later. Thanks for reading. :D –Jenna

Now Beta'd by ANP on the HPFF forums.