Disclaimer: I own nothing, you should know that by now.
Warning: Eventual slash. If you don't like it, stop wasting your time reading it. If you don't know what it is, get out, and come back when you do, if you fancy it.
Author's Notes: MWPP era, in their Fourth Year. Sirius's POV.
A Tale of Two Puppies
Chapter 9 – Bella Luna (1) (Part I)
Sirius sat hunched near the window of the train compartment he, James, and Peter had claimed for their group. He was trying to find a position from which he could see out the window without being visible to the crowd still on the platform. James and Peter were outside, saying goodbye to their families. Sirius's parents had never set much store by prolonged goodbyes, they would merely get Sirius and his younger brother Regulus wherever they needed to be, tell them to behave, and leave. In the past, Sirius had wished they would be more like other parents and stay until the train left, but today he was glad he could just hide in the compartment.
"Anyone sitting here?" a strange-familiar voice asked from behind Sirius.
The black-haired boy whipped around so quickly he fell from the seat he'd been crouched on to land in a tangled heap on the floor. He peered up at the brunet who was staring down at him, an amused glint in his amber eyes. "What?" he asked with as much dignity as he could manage from his current position.
"I asked if anyone was sitting here," Remus's strange-familiar voice replied. "Everywhere else is full." (2)
"Well," Sirius considered. "I was sitting here, but I'm not really anymore." He gave his friend a plaintive look. "If you help me sit here again, you can join me."
Remus chuckled – a deeper sound than Sirius remembered. For some reason, it hadn't occurred to Sirius that Remus's voice would be changing, even though his own had, and James's had, and even Peter's was starting to.
The brunet entered the compartment and offered the prone boy his hand.
Sirius grasped it and allowed himself to be heaved to his feet. His stomach did a series of somersaults as warmth from Remus's hand spread up Sirius's arm. Without thinking, he pulled the smaller boy into a tight embrace. "I've missed you," he whispered against his friend's ear.
Remus shivered slightly as he returned the hug.
"Are you cold?" Sirius inquired, pulling back slightly and rubbing Remus's bare arms to warm him up.
"No," Remus shook his head, but shivered again, skin twitching slightly under Sirius's palms.
"Liar," Sirius accused without any venom. He himself felt uncomfortably warm, and wasn't quite sure how his friend could be cold, but maybe it had something to do with the nearness of the full moon. After all, Remus's transformations had been getting steadily worse over the last year and the moon had been affecting him more than it used to on a regular basis. A momentary impulse washed over him to hug the other boy again, but he ignored it in favor of turning away to rummage in his trunk.
"What are you doing, Siri?" Remus inquired curiously in his strange new voice.
"Looking for – this!" Sirius pulled his cloak free and closed the trunk again. "Here." He wrapped it around Remus's tee-shirted shoulders and steered the brunet into a seat.
"It smells like you," Remus commented, then abruptly flushed.
"I'm sorry," Sirius said, a little taken aback and feeling slightly hurt. "I didn't realize –"
"No! No!" Remus said hastily. He reached out and pulled Sirius down to sit next to him so he could look the black-haired boy in the eyes without craning his neck. "I like it," he insisted, even as the flush turned into an outright blush.
"Oh," a little bubble of warmth swelled unaccountably in Sirius's stomach. "Okay."
"Um," Remus said awkwardly after a moment. "Where you, er, hiding when I came in?"
It was Sirius's turn to flush. "No?"
"Liar," Remus countered. "What were you hiding from?"
Sirius shifted. No way out, I suppose. He always knows when I'm lying. "Not what," he muttered. "Who."
"Whom," Remus corrected automatically.
"Yes, that," Sirius grumbled.
"Well?" Remus nudged the grey-eyed boy in the arm when no more information was forthcoming.
"Natasha," Sirius admitted.
Remus shoot him an odd look askance. "You're hiding from Natasha?"
"Yes."
"Mind if I ask why?"
"If you must."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Why are you hiding from Natasha?"
"Because I don't want her to see me."
"Sirius."
She's scary, Sirius thought, but did not say. "She kept owling me all summer."
"You two were pretty close last term," Remus pointed out, voice slightly clipped. "It stands to reason she wanted to talk to you over the summer."
"We were not close," Sirius protested. "And I did not want to talk to her at all over the summer. And I certainly didn't want to see her."
"You call shoving your tongue down her throat every chance you got 'not close'?" Remus inquired. He was holding Sirius's cloak around him rather tightly.
What's he so bothered about? Sirius wondered. "I only 'shoved my tongue down her throat' – as you so eloquently put it – to shut her up," he retorted, not feeling particularly happy with the way this conversation was going. He hadn't seen his friend in two months and did not want to spend this time talking about some girl. "Besides, who are you to talk? You spent last term shoving your tongue down Evans's throat!" Even as the words left his mouth, Sirius knew he'd gone too far.
Remus gasped, looking as though he'd just been punched. "I did not!" he hissed. "I kissed her once over the Christmas holidays, Sirius. My tongue was no where near her throat. And we only kissed because of the mistletoe. I would never do that to James!"
"Yeah, well…" Sirius couldn't think of anything to say. "Good," he muttered at last.
Remus snorted. He was still scowling and clutching Sirius's cloak as though it were a lifeline.
Sirius sighed. Barely back with him for ten minutes and he's already calling me 'Sirius.' "Look, Re, I didn't mean –"
"I know," the brunet cut him off. "I shouldn't have gone off at you like that. I'm sorry. It's just, the moon…"
"I know," Sirius echoed. Impulsively he took one of Remus's hands in his. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did. There's no excuse. I was just… I don't know. I thought I'd made it clear to Natasha months ago that whatever it was between us was over, but she just got more… clingy. And then my parents…" he trailed off, not really wanting to get into it just then. "Was it really bad this summer?" he asked instead, knowing his friend would understand.
Remus hesitated, then nodded. "The wolf's maturing. I think that's what's causing it." He paused and ducked his head. "I missed you, you know," he whispered. "I always sleep better when you're there. You keep the nightmares away and…" he paused again. Sirius could see his face reddening. "You're warm," Remus finished. He didn't look up, but his fingers tightened around Sirius's.
"I sleep better with you, too," Sirius admitted, feeling slightly tingly.
Remus looked up, amber eyes almost glowing, a soft smile on his lips.
"Having a nice heart-to-heart?" a voice sneered from the doorway of the compartment.
Sirius's head snapped up. "What do you want, Snivellus?" he demanded of the greasy-haired fourteen-year-old boy.
Remus's fingers tightened again, this time in warning. He hadn't turned around, but kept his eyes fixed firmly on Sirius, as though he were willing him to stay put and not rise to the bait.
"Is there a problem, here?" James's voice inquired from behind Snape.
Snape spun away from Sirius and Remus to face the threat at his back. "Well," he snarled. "If it isn't Potty and his pet mouse."
Sirius tried to rise, but Remus held on.
"You want to watch it, Snivellus," James's voice growled. "Causing trouble first day back. I'd hate to have to teach you another lesson about bothering us before term's even started."
Snape opened his mouth, but was nearly thrown off balance as the train lurched into motion.
"Don't waste your time, James," Remus said loudly, still watching Sirius. "The prefects will be patrolling soon. You wouldn't want to get on their bad side for something like him."
Sirius snorted, but relaxed. Remus was right. If they were going to irritate the prefects before term had begun, it ought to be for a good prank, not for taking out the garbage.
Snape said nothing, just glared, and swept off down the corridor outside the compartment.
James and Peter entered and sat on the bench across from Sirius and Remus. James eyed their entwined hands, but said nothing.
"So," Peter piped up after a few minutes, as the city outside the window gave way to rolling countryside. "What did you lot do over the summer?"
– – – – –
Peter's eyes darted back and forth between Sirius and James for a moment, then settled on the spectacled boy. "James. Truth or dare."
"Dare," James replied without bothering to consider.
"Dye your hair pink for a week."
James raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Okay."
"Aw, Pete," Sirius groaned. "You never come up with anything new."
James hit his grey-eyed friend with the pillow he'd been leaning on. "Shut up, Sirius. If Peter wants me to dye my hair pink again, that's his choice."
"You're just saying that because it's an easy dare that won't get you in trouble when you get caught," Sirius retorted, yanking the offending pillow away from James and hitting his attacker with it in turn.
"So what if I am?" James demanded, grabbing his pillow back and sitting on it.
"Where's the fun in that?"
"You never come up with anything new, either," Peter pointed out.
"Shut up, Pettigrew," Sirius snapped, swatting the slightly pudgy boy over the back of the head with his now-pillowless hand.
"He's right, Siri," Remus remarked from the relative safety of his bed. "You haven't been particularly creative lately, either."
Sirius turned to look at the fourth Marauder, who was peering over the top of a particularly musty-looking book at the threesome sprawled across the dorm-room floor.
"How would you know?" James inquired, voicing Sirius's thoughts as he so often did these days. "You never play."
"I can listen, even if I'm not playing," Remus rejoined pointedly. "Just because I don't feel it necessary to make a fool of myself or have you pry into my life even more than you already do, doesn't mean I can't hear you perfectly from here and enjoy the spectacle you make. And I have to say, none of you has anything exceptionally entertaining to offer these days."
"Why don't you play with us, then?" Sirius suggested impulsively. Oh, the things we could make him do… "Perhaps a new victim would liven things up." He grinned wickedly.
"Thanks ever so for the offer," Remus said, ever so politely. "But I prefer to keep my person intact." He smiled sweetly.
Sirius's stomach flip-flopped. He forced a laugh.
"You know," Remus drawled casually, "If you think new victims might liven things up, you might try playing with Lily and the girls. Their games have been rather stale of late, as well."
"Play Truth or Dare with girls?" Peter asked in a hushed tone.
"That's traditionally how it's done, Peter," Remus acidly informed the awed boy.
Sirius sent the brunet a startled look. Remus was usually much more patient with their less bright friend.
"It might not be such a bad idea," James admitted, giving Sirius an innocent look.
"I'm not daring you to kiss Evans," Sirius told the hazel-eyed boy, knowing exactly what his friend was thinking.
Remus laughed.
"I'll do it," Peter offered eagerly.
Little snot, Sirius thought, but without any particular malice. Remus's laugh was too nice to be ruined with venomous thoughts.
Remus snorted. "Of course you will, Pete," he remarked dryly and buried his nose in his book once more.
– – – – –
"Stop fussing, Sirius."
"I'm not fussing."
"Yes, you are. Peter agrees. Don't you, Pete?" James turned to the smaller boy.
Peter nodded obediently.
Sirius glared at him over his shoulder.
Peter trembled slightly, but it was probably just the cold gust of wind that swept over the three boys at that moment, for he also shrugged, looking barely apologetic. "Well, you are," he pointed out.
Sirius scowled at the frozen ground. They were right and he knew it. "I just don't like leaving him," he grumbled.
James sighed in exasperation. "He's not even awake."
"I know, but –"
"He said we shouldn't miss out on a Hogsmeade weekend just because he couldn't come with us," Peter reminded them.
"I know. I know. It's just…" Sirius trailed off.
"It's just you wish you could do something to help, and we're no closer to perfecting the Animagus transformation than we were a year ago," James finished for him.
Sirius nodded. "I just hate being helpless," he admitted softly, eyes still fixed downwards, on the dirty snow under his feet.
"We all do, Sirius," James said gently.
"Why don't we get him some chocolate and head back early?" Peter suggested.
"Can we?" Sirius felt a little bubble of hope build in his chest as his lips curled upwards in relief.
"Course we can." James punched him lightly on the shoulder, then poked his cheek, squishing the skin upwards. "That's the first time you've smiled all day."
Sirius huffed indignantly and batted his friend's hand away, but couldn't keep the slightly foolish grin on his face from widening happily.
– – – – –
"Siri? Are you awake?" Remus's voice was low, scarcely more than an exhalation of breath.
"Mm, half," Sirius mumbled into a face-full of brown hair.
"Oh. Sorry."
"No, no, s'okay," Sirius insisted, eyes still closed against the hair in his face but feeling more awake with every passing moment. "I'm awake. You all right?" he tried to ask, worried the moon had affected his friend even more than he was letting on, only it came out closer to 'yalride?' than 'you all right?' due to the hair trying to get into his mouth.
"Yes," Remus assured him hastily, obviously sensing the dark-haired boy's concern despite his inability to speak clearly. "I'm fine. Well, as fine as expected anyway. Better, actually, that's why… I just wanted to… I wanted to thank you."
"The chocolate was Peter's idea," Sirius felt compelled to admit. Feeling somewhat loathe to disentangle himself from his friend for any reason, he used his nose and chin to move Remus's hair to one side.
Remus squirmed. "That tickles," he said, the hint of a laugh in his low voice.
"Sorry," Sirius said, but he was now speaking directly into the back of Remus's neck, and the smaller boy only squirmed again.
"I didn't mean about the chocolate," Remus said after a moment, still shivering slightly in time with Sirius's breathing. "Though it was very good and very welcome. I meant for this." He squeezed the arms wrapped around his waist. "For being there when I wake up after the full moon. For helping me when I can't…" he hesitated, then continued, clearly avoiding whatever he had planned to say. "For staying with me at night. I used to have the most awful nightmares, but when you're here, I can sleep."
Sirius's arms tightened, pulling the smaller boy closer. "I wish I could do more for you," he murmured. "I will, you know," he added. "Someday. I may not be able to cure you, but I will find a way to make it easier for you. I promise."
"Siri, you do so much already, you can't –"
"I promise," Sirius repeated fiercely, more determined than ever to master the Animagus transformation, on his own if the others couldn't manage. He pulled the other boy even more sharply against him to emphasize his oath. A strange jolt ran through him and he shuddered slightly with it.
At the same moment, Remus stiffened slightly against him, a noise somewhere between a moan and a groan issuing from his mouth.
Sirius instantly loosened his strangle-hold. "Did I hurt you?" he asked anxiously.
"No," Remus replied. His voice was thick and a little choked.
Oh, shit, Sirius though, trying to control his instinct to panic. He's lying. It must be bad. He would lie if it weren't bad. "Rem, I'm sorry." He tried to turn the other boy to face him, but Remus wouldn't move. "I didn't mean to hurt you, really I didn't. I thought you were all fixed up before you left the hospital wing. You showered on your own so I figured… And you looked all right when you got into bed. Was it a bruise? Or…?" Why won't he look at me?
"Really," Remus insisted, voice sounding more controlled. "I'm all right. You didn't hurt me."
"But you sounded like…" Sirius trailed off again. "Remus, if I haven't hurt you, why won't you face me?"
There was silence for a moment, disturbed only by the broken snores coming from Peter's bed.
At last, Remus shifted slightly so he could turn just his head towards the grey-eyed boy wrapped around him.
And suddenly they were nose-to-nose, so close that Sirius could have counted the brunet's eyelashes. For a moment he forgot how to breathe. Then the amber eyes blinked and he remembered, inhaling sharply, but he didn't dare exhale.
Did I brush my teeth? he wondered frantically. Oh, damn – What if I didn't? What if my breath smells?
Dimly, through the haze of his sudden, inexplicable panic, he registered the fact that Remus wasn't breathing either – they were too close together for him not to have felt it if he were. That knowledge was enough to shake him free of whatever it was gripping him, and he forced himself to release the air trapped in his lungs, slowly, slowly, through his nose, keeping his mouth tightly shut.
"You're sure you're all right?" Sirius managed to ask after a moment, trying not to sound as though he was holding his breath again as he spoke.
"I'm sure," Remus nodded slowly, holding Sirius's gaze. The movement brought his face even closer to Sirius's.
Close enough to kiss, Sirius thought fuzzily. His eyes slid down to Remus's mouth and fixed on the full coral lips. He had already started leaning in when his brain caught up and he almost jerked backwards, eyes darting back up to Remus's.
Something flickered in the amber depths, but, in the near dark of the sleeping dormitory, Sirius couldn't read it.
Remus gave another nod, a stiff sort of jerk that barely classified, and turned away. "G'night, Siri," he whispered. The very sound of his voice seemed to warn Sirius against asking anything.
"G'night, Re," he whispered back. Impulsively he curled closer, burying his nose once more in the soft brown hair.
And it wasn't until his friend had relaxed against him that Sirius could close his eyes and drift into sleep.
– – – – –
"To summarize, just so we're all clear on the rules," here Sirius flicked his gaze first at Remus, who was sitting outside the circle of fourth years, nose defiantly buried in a textbook, then at Evans, whose eyebrows twitched as though she were trying to suppress her amusement. "We have decided on six ground rules. Firstly," he held up the index finger of his left hand, "all truths must relate to the person being asked."
"Secondly," James picked up, raising two fingers into the air as Sirius put up a second finger, "all dares must be carried out in the presence of at least two witnesses within a week."
"Thirdly," continued Sirius, now holding up three fingers, "none of us may dare anyone to do anything to or for ourselves." He glanced askance at James, who merely shot a quick glance at Peter. Of course, Sirius thought, with an inner grin. Peter promised, after all.
"Fourthly," James lifted his smallest fingers to join its brethren, "all requests for truths must be questions, no commands, etc. will be accepted, nor will truths disguised as dares be accepted. Moreover, anything other than a question will constitute as a forfeit."
"Fifthly," Sirius grinned as he and James both waved their lefts hands in the air, all five fingers extended, "according to the spell we will all cast, none of us can lie when answering a truth. We may choose not to answer, in which case we must instead complete a dare, but if we do answer, we will only be able to speak the truth."
"And finally," James looked at Sirius, left eyebrow twitching slightly.
Sirius looked back, wrinkling his nose.
They both scowled at their hands, then, in unison, shrugged and held up their wands in their right hands instead of another finger.
"Any one of us can leave the game at any time," James went on, "except during your own turn. Once your name has been called, you are bound to remain until you have answered your truth, or agreed to your dare, and asked a truth or dared a dare of someone else."
"Any questions?" asked Sirius.
The three girls exchanged glances.
Sirius watched them for a moment, then turned and lifted an eyebrow at James. The other black-haired boy returned the gesture and added a slight quirk of the lips. Sirius stifled a laugh.
"Just one question," said Wintana Girma (or 'Winnie' as she insisted on being called), refusing to pay attention to Evans, who was shooting the dark-haired girl warning looks. "Why isn't Remus playing?"
Sirius shot a quick look at the brunet, who was still reading, apparently oblivious to the conversation. But Sirius saw the other boy's lips twitch, and couldn't suppress his own grin. "Mr. Lupin is otherwise engaged," he informed the girls.
"He ought to play," the dark-haired girl said loudly, obviously for Remus's benefit. "It would be so much more fun!" She nudged her redheaded friend in the ribs as she spoke, and giggled.
Evans scowled, but flushed.
Sirius felt something akin to a growl rising up inside him. "If Rem doesn't want to play, he doesn't have to," he snapped at the two girls, and shot a quick glare at Alice as well, just for good measure. "So let him be." He ignored the voice in his head that was telling him he was being a hypocrite, as he had spent a good hour earlier that day trying to convince Remus to join the game, not to mention all the time he spent at that same task every time the boys had played on their own. It was the one thing Sirius had never managed to get Remus to do, which, of course, drove Sirius batty. But the covetous glances Winnie and Evans were sending in Remus's direction made him suddenly very glad that his friend had, for once, not been swayed.
The girls pouted momentarily, but let the matter drop.
All six raised their wands, tips touching at the center of the circle. "Veritas dicetur," (3) they recited together. The wands glowed silver where they met. The light pulsed once, twice, three times, then vanished.
"Right, then," James looked around the circled. "Who wants to start? Pete?"
"Er, all right." The boy wrinkled his nose for a moment, looking around the group in turn. His gaze fixed back on James after a moment. "James. Truth or dare?"
"Dare," the hazel-eyed boy replied promptly.
"Er… Dye your hair pink for a week."
"Okay," James agreed, but rolled his eyes as he flicked his wand.
Sirius groaned, but refrained from commenting. He glanced at Remus.
The brunet lifted his book to hid his face – as though he knew Sirius was looking at him even without taking his eyes off the page in front of him – but, whether by accident or design, he was not quite quick enough to keep the sharp grey eyes from spotting the twitch of coral lips before they vanished behind the textbook.
"When is your hair not pink, Jimmy?" Alice inquired with a smirk.
James scowled at her. "If you weren't a girl, Alice, I'd –"
"Knock my teeth in," the girl finished. "Yes, I know. I also know that why you don't it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a girl and everything to do with the fact that the last time you tried to knock my teeth in, my mother said she'd hex you if you tried it again and your mother agreed."
"I was five!" James protested. "I don't go 'round hitting girls anymore. No matter how annoying they are. Back me up, Sirius."
"Whatever you say, Jimmy," Sirius gave his friend a somewhat wicked grin.
James glared. "Truth or dare, Siri?"
Sirius gritted his teeth. Note to self: Kill Jimmy. P.S. Stop calling him Jimmy. "Dare," he growled.
James eyes narrowed. "Stand on your desk in Transfiguration and proclaim your undying love and devotion to McGoogles." (4)
Sirius raised an 'Is that the best you can do?' eyebrow. "Okay," he agreed, and grinned at the pink-haired boy's irked expression. "Alice, darling," he turned to the girl. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare," his distant cousin responded blithely.
Sirius thought for a moment. Then it came to him. Brilliant. He sent James a 'You'll love this' wink before turning his attention back to the girl. "Kiss Peter."
Alice's jaw dropped. "What?" she squeaked.
Winnie made a choking sound that might have been a smothered laugh.
James caught Sirius's eye. Nice.
Sirius smirked in return. I know. "I dared you to kiss Peter," he told her.
"Truth, then," she gritted.
"I should probably feel insulted," Peter commented lightly, clearly not particularly insulted at all – probably chalking it up to Alice's boyfriend rather than anything about himself that might be less-than-kissable.
Sirius pasted an innocent look on his face. "All right then," he nodded agreeably. "How far have you really gotten with Frank?"
All three girls gasped.
Alice made a strange half-growl sound and glared fiercely at Sirius.
If looks could kill, he thought happily, feeling inordinately pleased with himself. He glanced swiftly at Remus, but the boy's face was completely hidden behind his book.
"Fine," Alice said through clenched teeth. "Just. Fine." She rose up on her knees crossed the circle to Peter, who looked startled. "Close your mouth, Pettigrew," she snapped.
His teeth clicked together as he hastily obeyed, beginning to look frightened.
She closed her eyes tightly, leaned in, and kissed him firmly on the mouth. She drew back a moment later and returned to her place between Winnie and James, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. Then she turned to Sirius, eyes murderous in her round face.
"Truth or dare, Black."
"Truth," he said hastily, not liking the glint of malice in her eyes and deciding it wasn't particularly wise to test her just then.
Her jaw clenched briefly, as if she were considering, then, "Where does Remus go every month?"
There was a sharp intake of breath that might have been from either James or Peter – or both together – and Sirius felt his heart skip a beat in horror. "You can't ask me about him!" he blurted, remembering the regulations with a surge of relief. His eyes flicked to the boy in question, who had gone very still behind his text. "That's cheating! Rule one!"
Alice's eyes narrowed. "Fine," she said quickly. "You have to do a dare then, if you won't answer the truth."
Sirius had a sinking feeling that she had planned this. He took a breath. I'm a Gryffindor, he reminded himself sternly. I can take whatever she throws at me. "Fine," he nodded, meeting her sharp gaze head on. "Dare."
"Kiss him."
Huh? "What?"
"Kiss Remus."
Sirius's heart seemed to stop. Then, "I can't kiss Remus!"
"Yes you can, Sirius," her eyes narrowed once more. For a kind-faced girl, it was amazing how dangerous she could look. "And you will. You have to."
TBC
(1) "Bella Luna" – 'Beautiful Moon' (in both Spanish and Italian).
(2) See Prologue, Chapter 5, and Chapter 7. Are we beginning to notice a pattern, folks?
(3) "Veritas dicetur" – 'The truth will be spoken' (in Latin).
(4) Just an ode to SBP :).
A/N: I'm awful. I'm awful. I know. I'm sorry. This is easily a month late and it's not even the whole chapter. Please don't hurt me! And please review anyway, so I know you haven't given up on me!
