Disclaimer: I do not own the following, only pull on their strings and make them dance.

Chapter Fourteen

"I believe you two have had some trouble involving a fire."

Remus and Sirius sprung apart guilty, looking around to see Dumbledore stood in the door way, his hands nestled in the opposite sleeves of his green robes, his eyes twinkling at them over his half-moon glasses.

"Uh, yes, professor." Sirius said hesitantly, glancing at Remus as though to ask him if Dumbledore had seen, "Nothing except for our own things was damaged, luckily."

"I would hardly call that lucky, Sirius." Dumbledore said gravely, coming closer as he surveyed the damage of their belongings through the doorway, "Do either of you have any idea of who might have done this?"

Remus glanced across at Sirius, silently asking if it was okay to tell the Headmaster the full story. Sirius nodded, both men thinking along the same lines; that it would have been foolish to hold anything back, in case anyone actually got hurt next time. Remus' fists clenched at the prospect of a next time.

"Remus has been getting threats, sir." Sirius said, pulling the note Remus had given him and passing it to Dumbledore. Remus nodded mutely and produced the others from his pocket, handing them over, too. "We don't know who it is, though."

Dumbledore inspected each of the notes carefully, before looking up at them expectantly. Remus hesitated, realising that the Headmaster wanted an explanation of why he had been receiving such messages in the first place. He glanced at Sirius again, but only received a tight lipped blink in response. The bloody coward wanted him to explain it. Well wasn't that just brilliant? The new guy was left to explain to his boss that he had messed up the equilibrium of the school by going out with one teacher and then cheating on him with another, who was cheating on his own girlfriend in the process.

Oh yeah, and he shouldn't forget his own newly-developed, small, teeny tiny personal vendetta against the 'sweet' Alice because she had slept with his now ex-boyfriend. Well duh, why shouldn't I tell my employer such a highschool-esque story? Remus thought sarcastically with an internal sigh. He sighed outwardly, too, but gentler as he turned to Dumbledore.

"Someone caught me and Sirius…" he trailed off as he looked for the right word, "talking," he supplied, watching Dumbledore nod with an amused smile, "In the classroom at Christmas. Ever since, I've been receiving these notes. I don't think it's a hate thing – no one had a problem with me and Frank. I think it was because we were both with someone else at the time."

"I see." Dumbledore said, looking between the two men. Remus shuffled his feet a little, wondering if he had just ousted himself as a manwhore to the old man. "Was this mystery note sender using this as leverage for something?"

"That's the odd thing, sir." Remus answered, aware of Sirius listening closely now, "I didn't receive any request. It wasn't so much blackmailing as a scare factor."

"Perhaps this person wants you to stay away from Sirius, since it was you who received them, Remus." Dumbledore suggested, "Could you think of anyone who might fit that description?"

Remus glanced at Sirius, who shook his head slightly, before translating the gesture to Dumbledore. The Headmaster nodded and sighed sadly, gazing through the door again to the empty trunks, the only evidence of there ever having been possessions in them the dustings of ash the officials had left behind.

"I promise to solve the issue and find out who was behind this." The wizened man said solemnly, "Such a person is a danger to the school in such a state of mind. Meanwhile, I think it best if you two do not engage in such anger-inducing activities."

Remus felt his face heat up at the offhand comment. He heard Sirius shift uncomfortably beside him as the Headmaster continued, "I'm also here to tell you that your room has been sorted out, Remus. It's next door, so you don't have to trek across the castle to get here."

Remus nodded dumbly, blinking a few times as he processed the information. He wouldn't be bunking with Sirius anymore, acting like a couple of teenagers in boarding school. It had, admittedly, been fun, as stressed as he had been initially at learning the news. By stealing a glance at Sirius, Remus found much the same expression on his face as was on his own.

"Right. Yes. Thank you, sir." Remus nodded stiffly as Dumbledore smiled slightly and started to leave. Before he could, however, Remus called him back as a last minute thought, "Sir, what do we do? All of our clothes and things are gone."

"The school will, of course, give you both all the gold you need to restock your wardrobe and anything else you may have lost, no matter the cost." Dumbledore said graciously, "And no arguments. Remus, I realise you are a proud man and Sirius, I know you have sufficient gold yourself, but this was my fault for having allowed this to happen. You'll both have enough time this week to head to London?"

Remus nodded, vaguely aware that Sirius was doing the same. It was hard to say no to Dumbledore, no matter how object Remus was to the idea of taking money from the man who had already given him so much and saved his life in the process.

"Good, good." Dumbledore smiled, "Oh and one last thing. You both missed the presentation in the hall. The Minister has decided that our students are not gaining a sufficient understanding of the muggle word, so he has asked us to plan a yearly school trip for our upper school students from now on."

"Right." Sirus said in surprise, "Sounds…fun. Which years?"

"Fifth, I think." Dumbledore answered, "As far as I know, they are the most enthusiastic of the upperclassmen."

"What about their O.W.L studies?" Remus asked, fully aware of the ridiculousness of discussing such a mundane thing as exams when he and Sirius had just been attacked with fire. Literally.

"The Ministry is rewriting the exams to allow for the experience. It will be good for them and the teachers who choose to go," Dumbledore added as he left the room with a short wave, "We're having a small fundraiser this weekend for the trip, so make sure you're both free."

"A school trip with a whole year group?" Sirius asked, his voice hitching at the end, "Which Ministry idiot decided that that would be a good idea? You'd have to be suicidal to go along as a volunteer."

"I'll probably go." Remus mused, shoving his hands in his pockets, "Dumbledore will probably want me to keep an eye on the kids and anyway, it sounds like fun."

"Yeah, yeah, fun." Sirius nodded, watching Remus intently, "Me too."

Remus laughed, turning to Sirius with a shake of the head, "You want to go because I'm going?"

"Is that so bad?" Sirius asked defensively. Is that so bad, Remus thought wryly, is that so bloody bad? Of course it wasn't bad. Which was bad. Remus didn't need to think that Sirius wanting to follow him around like a lost puppy was the opposite of a 'bad thing'. Not after Frank and the notes and the fucking fire. Really, what Remus – and Sirius – needed was to stay away from each other. Yes, that was it. Stay in the separate rooms that Dumbledore had finally sorted out and simply chat in the staff room or in classes. Otherwise, he didn't know what-

Remus' increasingly desperate train of thought was cut off suddenly by Sirius grabbing by the shoulders and turning him roughly to face him. He stared into grey eyes, frozen in surprise and wondering what the other man wanted, when lips descended on his and he was kissing Sirius again as though his life depended on it. Remus moaned into Sirius' mouth and skimmed his hands over narrow hips and broad shoulders to tangle in the soft black hair.

"Thought I'd continue what I'd stared before we were interrupted." Sirius breathed against his mouth when they pulled apart for air. Remus nodded with an indiscernible noise and pulled Sirius back into another heated kiss.

"Why do we always end up doing that?" Remus asked in amusement when they parted again. Sirius shrugged with a small smile and slid his hands from Remus' arms to his hips, "We really shouldn't be left alone together. What if someone's seen us again?"

"Well," Sirius murmured, slipping his thumbs under Remus' t-shirt and rubbing soothing circles into the skin above his belt, "What if I said that I'd end it with Ros? We wouldn't have any reason to be guilty, would we?"

Well shit. Would you look at that? Sirius Black was propositioning him. It had been on bloody weird day, to say the least. Remus laughed shortly, shaking his head. He didn't step back though, he noted subconsciously, didn't move away from the other man.

"Where's this come from?" he asked dubiously, letting his hands slide from Sirius' hair to cup his neck, "Last time we did this in this classroom, you ran away stammering like a fourteen year old virgin."

"You pushed me away." Sirius reminded him pointedly, "I was confused about whether or not you were attracted to me, too, as well as my sexuality."

"And?"

"I'm guessing I'm at least bi, if not gay." Sirius shrugged good humouredly.

"You seem pretty okay with that compared to earlier today."

"Today's crazy events have sort of put things into perspective." Sirius admitted, "When I saw those notes and when you went to confront Frank, I had time to think. Ultimately, I wondered what might have happened if the attacker had known you were outside, rather than in the room." He took a deep breath and shook his head quickly, "It scared me how that made me feel."

Remus smiled and kissed Sirius again, before pulling away and making his way back over to the door. "That's nice, Sirius. I'd love for you to come back and tell me that when you don't have a girlfriend and have been into guys for at least a day, if you don't mind. Anyway, all I have right now are the clothes on my back and the book in my pocket," he added with a pat of the large pocket on his cardigan, "And I bet you have even less, so let's take things into perspective, okay?"

Sirius watched him from the middle of the classroom, his mouth slightly open and his hands reaching out towards Remus. "What do you want me to say? I've already told you I want—"

"You want to try it out with a man," Remus nodded, "I understand. Just don't drag me into it."

With that, Remus left, closing the door behind him. He sighed, running his hands through his hair slowly before starting off towards the staircase. Minutes later, he was giving the password to the Fat Lady and stepping into the Gryffindor common room. The place was packed, buzzing with talk and excitement and as far as Remus could tell, it was something to do with the presentation by the Minister. He made his way across the common room and, sure enough, found who he was looking for sat by the fire.

"Lupin." Harry greeted him from one of the arm chairs. Ron lifted a hand with a smile and Hermione whipped around, her cheeks already colouring. "We heard about the fire."

"No one was hurt." Remus said dismissively, "What I want to talk to you three about is what happened in the forest with Umbridge. You can't go charging after your elders in such a manner, especially you, Harry. You might think that righteous anger will win out but you're not the crazy lady with some nutty vendetta."

"But—"

"Until you're older and crazy, Harry, let me help you out." Remus interrupted with a kind smile. Yeah, kid, shut the fuck up and listen to your teacher, he thought smugly when Harry closed his mouth sourly. He would never get tired of being in charge – his old job had never had kicks like it. "I'm not saying that I'll shut you out and deal with it the 'teacher way', he added, making quote marks in the air with his fingers, "Just make sure you come to me first and we'll deal with it together. No one else has to know."

Remus winked surreptitiously and Harry's sour expression brightened, along with his friends'. Remus silently congratulated himself on successful student-teacher bonding and nodded his head towards the noticeboard on the other side of the room, around which most students had gathered.

"What's going on?" he asked curiously.

"It's the announcement of the fundraiser for the trip." Ron told him with a yawn as he stretched his long legs out in front of him, "It's a…something or other. Hermione knows. Tell him, Hermione.

"You should really pay attention for once, Ronald." Hermione snapped, before turning to smile up at Remus as he perched on the arm of Harry's chair, "There's going to be an auction this Saturday followed by a ball. Students, parents and friends from outside Hogwarts are all allowed in as long as they pay an entry fee."

"Oh, that sounds fun." Remus nodded, before frowning, "Wait, what are we auctioning?"

Hermione's smile turned into something Remus didn't want to look into too deeply as she answered, "Teachers."

A/N: Another chapter done and dusted. Let me know what you thought and maybe I'll try to get the next one up sooner. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. R&R!