45 Ways to Make a Werewolf Fall for You
A HariPo fanfiction
by mew-tsubaki
- ^-^3
26: Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep
Sirius blinked the sleep dust from his eyes and opened them. He saw nothing but darkness. Curious, he blinked a few more times before he sat up. The room looked dark, with no light flooding in from under the door. Sirius patted the area to his left and grasped his wand, summoning a light to use to look at the clock in the room. Ah. It's only seven-thirty. He breathed a sigh of relief. Dumbledore had requested that he and Remus be up at no later than nine-thirty, so they were still good.
The Black son glanced at his friend beside him and smiled. Remus was still sound asleep, one arm tucked under his head like a pillow. It would probably still be a while yet before Remus awoke.
He needs to rest up anyway, Sirius thought as he crossed his legs and leaned back in the bedroom of the vacated townhouse in which Dumbledore had posted them. Remus has been too much of a worrywart lately… Sirius blinked. Oh, crap… Is—Is that because of me? Have I been putting pressure on him?
Has he been worried about how to turn me down?
Sirius drummed his fingers softly on his leg as he frowned and stared at the dark, far wall. He wondered if that had even occurred to him yet, that Remus had been awfully nice not because he was feeling the same way but because he…he was just nice. Sirius had seen Remus turn girls down before—Mary and Dorcas, to name a few—and he always tried to be as good as possible, as chivalric as possible… The gray-eyed wizard gritted his teeth involuntarily. He didn't need chivalry; he just needed Remus.
Remus sighed and rolled onto his back. Soon enough, his eyes were open, too. "Sirius…?"
"I'm right here, Rem."
"Good." Remus paused, moved as though he were going to sit up, and then rolled onto his left side, latching on to Sirius' arm. "What time is it?" he asked, his breath tickling Sirius' wrist.
Sirius smiled. "You can go back to sleep, Moony. We've got some time."
"Nah, I'm awake, I'm awake." He sighed groggily and lazily got up, but all he could do was lean back and lean on Sirius' shoulder. "This mission…"
"Yeah, I've no idea what Dumbly's planning either."
"But…it's nice. The two of us. Quiet. No worries."
"Yeah, none, not really."
Remus laid his cheek on Sirius' shoulder. "…you've got bony shoulders, Pads."
"Maybe you've just got a pudgy face."
"Shut up."
"I'm just kidding, kidding… I like your baby face."
Remus looked up at him, and Sirius found it hard not to laugh. His eyes shone in the wand's light. "I do not have a baby face."
"Remmy, I'm telling you you're cute. Just take the compliment."
The look on the wolf's face was amusing, one half of annoyance and half of modesty. "Just…keep an ear out for Dumbledore's notice."
"I know, I know… Hey, he said maybe there'd be something for us to do." Sirius drew a knee up to his chest and rested the elbow of his wand arm on it. "That doesn't mean we will be doing anything, but that doesn't mean I'm slacking off."
Remus nodded. "I know that." He looked around the room. "So what do we do? We've, what, a couple of hours?"
Sirius coughed. "Well, I can think of a few things…"
"No jumping me, Sirius."
"Damn." Sirius winked. "We might as well think of gifts for Lily and James. Oh, and what lovely speech I'm going to make as James' best man."
Remus laughed. "I can just picture it now—you pass them a broom for their first kid and bring up that one time when James tried on Lily's school skirt and—"
"Okay, let's stop right there. Even I'm not that cruel, Moony."
"No," Remus said with a soft, happy sigh, "you're not." He rested his cheek against Sirius' shoulder once more and hugged his arm to him, and Sirius internally kicked himself for ever thinking that this was just Remus being "nice."
"But it'll be weird," Sirius ventured. "Them, married and off doing their own thing…"
"We've had this conversation before, Padfoot."
"Yes, but you were more against us before."
"And what makes you think I'm complying now?"
"No one is forcing you to be that cuddly with me."
"Yes, well, what if I'm chilly?"
"It's summertime, Rem. I'm the only thing giving you the shivers," Sirius added, and he chuckled and leaned his cheek on the top of Remus' head. "Ahh… I think we should go back to sleep, just for a little while."
Remus nodded. He briefly turned his face upwards, wanting to say something, but he remained quiet, and Sirius wished Remus had at least pecked his cheek. But, hey, snuggling like this was fine, just fine…
It did not seem like that much later when Sirius was blinking sleep dust from his eyes again, though. This time, darkness didn't greet him as a quiet companion. Instead, he blinked the sleep dust from his eyes and then continued to blink painfully in the sudden bright light. He jostled Remus awake. "Remus. Remus!"
"Hmm, what?" Remus was totally alert upon seeing the light. "Oh, it's Professor Dumbledore."
The ball of silver light expanded into the shape of a phoenix, and the friends exchanged a nervous look. Then the bird emitted Dumbledore's voice: "Remus, Sirius, you are to head out at once. At the corner of Horshire and Colmney is a disturbance. The others are handling their own fights, so you will have no backup. You are to stay out of sight unless absolutely necessary, but manage the situation." The phoenix faded, along with it Dumbledore's urgent tone, and Sirius shot up out of bed and threw his cloak on over his slept-in clothes.
"Godric… You don't think…?"
"Oh, yeah, this definitely sounds messy." Sirius grimaced as he and Remus quickly secured the townhouse and slipped out of the neighborhood without much trouble.
"Horshire and Colmney—we passed that junction when scouting out the area three days ago," Remus muttered to Sirius. "It's up five blocks ahead, eleven o'clock."
Sirius' eyes darted to that exact spot, and he hastened, Remus right behind him. As they neared the end of the road that became Horshire, Sirius could hear screams ahead of him. His pulse quickened, and fear didn't restrict but rather pushed him forward. He and Remus turned onto Colmney and squatted behind a postal box. Sirius craned his neck around, but all he saw were three black-clad figures. They were wearing Death Eater masks.
Remus turned the postal box to stone, just in case a spell came their way. "I'll Confound them," he suggested. He squinted. "You'll need to separate the burly one's grip on that apothecary, though."
"Blast or Split?"
"Split. A Blast might harm the apothecary and—no, Merlin—!" Remus shook his head. "They have the apothecary's wife on the sidewalk!" he hissed.
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Right. Crucio, it is."
"No, Sirius! That's what they're doing to her! Don't sink to their level."
The Black son gritted his teeth. As much as he loved his friends and companions, there were sometimes that he really hated being one of the good guys. Sirius begrudgingly nodded, and Remus waved his wand. Sirius didn't wait for any confirmation before he mumbled, "Diffindo!"
And he understood why Remus hadn't confirmed Sirius to make his move, because the tallest Death Eater had noticed and deflected Remus' Confundus Charm. And Sirius' Splitting Spell and only further aggravated him.
Sirius cursed loudly as he and Remus came out from behind their haven and began casting curses and hexes as quickly as possible. They'd been made, so there was no use in continuing to hide. Only now they had to think on their feet and still help the victims. One of Sirius' spells knocked off the tallest Death Eater's mask, and the Black son gave a dark laugh. "Dolohov. Go figure!"
Antonin Dolohov sneered and sent some mysterious jinx Sirius' way. "Ah, yes… The older Black brother," he commented—a little too loudly, Sirius noted. He discarded his observation as paranoia as he rolled on the ground to duck a Severing Charm.
"Aren't you done torturing the small fish?" Sirius taunted.
Dolohov smiled, and Sirius felt slimy just from looking at that smarmy face. "Then I shall torture the big fish."
"Sirius!" Remus called. The other two Death Eaters had been firing incantations at him, too, though the burly one was now facing him, having passed their hostage to the smallest of the three.
Sirius hopped up and ran to Remus' side. "Can you hold your own against him, or do you wanna switch?"
Remus frowned. "I think I'll be fine. You've got my back, right?"
Sirius found it in himself to grin. "I've got your front, too, if you'd like."
"Padfoot…!"
Sirius nodded; he knew Remus knew this was how he could show how serious he was. Besides, his actions definitely showed that when he deflected two jinxes from Remus' opponent. Then he returned to Dolohov. "Aren't you done with this hobby, Dolohov, of murdering innocents? Isn't it about time you move on to organizing tea parties and family reunions? Though I s'pose your only family these days consists of trolls like yourself."
Dolohov snarled and came very close to striking Sirius' neck, but the gray-eyed wizard tripped—a fortunate mistake. "Then have some tea with your brother, Black!"
The color drained from Sirius' face as his eyes found that small figure on their own and saw past the Death Eater mask. Sirius remained frozen for one dire moment, paying no mind to the flash of light that came from that figure's wand and flew at him.
It was him. Sirius was looking into the cold, cold eyes of his brother…
"Regulus…?" he whispered.
- ^-^3
8D Not too bad for a kind of action scene, no? ;3 You WILL love the next chapter, even though ch28 will be pretty sad. So…yeah. Go read now. But review first.
Thanks for reading, and please review!
-mew! 83
2017 note: Ah, yes. Drama. *dun, dun, DUN* XD I think I've gotten better at writing duels since then, tho. :P