Of course, they were two of the first people Dumbledore contacted when he re-activated The Order of the Phoenix, and of course they both wanted in. Sirius even had the ideal headquarters, although he wished it weren't so.
"I suppose you can stay there now," Remus said, his throat constricted.
Sirius put his arms around Remus and kissed his neck. "Or we could both stay there," Sirius said.
"Sirius Orion Black, are you asking me to move in with you?"
Sirius grinned. "I am, indeed."
Remus turned around – quite a feet in his tiny kitchen – and kissed Sirius on the mouth.
They moved into Grimmauld Place the next day. Sirius insisted they sleep in one of the guest rooms, but Remus made sure he saw Sirius' childhood bedroom, covered in Gryffindor memorabilia and motorcycle magazine photos. He laughed at the bikini-clad Muggle girls on the wall and delighted in the photo of him, Sirius, and James (Peter had walked out of the photo when he saw Remus looking).
They got used to each other again, although Remus wouldn't let Sirius join him for the full moon.
"I've seen you transform about a hundred times." They were sitting in their bedroom, Sirius' arm around Remus.
"Less than that," Remus snorted. "And it's different now."
"Why's it different now? What happened to your potion?"
"No money happened."
Sirius paused. "Re, if it's money –"
"I don't want you risking your life for me."
"Just my soul, really," Sirius joked. "Besides, getting money out is no problem. When I went to get Harry a broom they just let me in, no questions. The goblins don't want to get involved in wizard affairs."
"Even so," Remus said. He pulled the sleeves of his jumper down, shivering slightly.
Of course, Sirius came in anyway, and of course the wolf was delighted to see him. Remus not so much, the next morning.
"I told you not to come," Remus said. Sirius had half-carried him up from a spare (and magically reinforced as of last night) room on the first floor to the room they shared, and Remus was already fighting sleep.
"Yeah, and I told you I would," Sirius said, kissing Remus' fevered forehead. Sirius sat on the edge of the bed and held Remus' hand until he drifted into dreams.
XXX
Sirius hated being back in Grimmauld Place. With every uncovered, er, treasure, as Kreacher the house-elf called them, Sirius felt a jolt of shock and slipped backward into whatever memory he associated with his mother's bracelet, his father's tie, his brother's quill. It got better when The Order came, including Molly, Arthur, and four of their children. Sirius felt the place could be almost livable once Remus and some others brought Harry back from Privet Drive after he and his cousin had been attacked by Dementors in the middle of a muggle street.
Of course, Sirius hadn't wanted Harry to be expelled for using magic. Still, he couldn't help but feel just a touch of sadness that his godson would be leaving for another year … He'd probably stay with the Weasleys for Christmas, too …
He did love having Remus, just being near Remus. He went away often on missions, but not underground. Not like before. He didn't say so, but he thought Remus wanted to be around him, too.
Others came by occasionally. Nymphadora Tonks, daughter of his favorite cousin whom Sirius had only met when she was very small. Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had been several years ahead of Sirius at Hogwarts and who had been in the original Order of the Phoenix. Mad-Eye, who had been in the original Order as well. Occasionally Dumbledore, though Sirius was feeling rather unfriendly toward Dumbledore at the moment.
His favorite person to come by, though, was McGonagall, who saw Sirius across the kitchen upon her first visit to Grimmauld Place and ran to him, enveloping him in her arms.
"Sirius," she said. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." They both cried.
Harry left, of course, on the first of September, and though they spoke twice though the fire place, that stopped once Defense Professor and anti-werewolf propagandist Delores Umbridge almost caught Sirius by the hair in the fire.
Nothing in particular really happened until Phineas Nigellus called to Sirius one day from his portrait upstairs. "Arthur Weasley's been badly injured apparently. His wife and kids and Harry Potter are coming to stay."
"Arthur – what happened?" Sirius asked.
Phineas shrugged. "I suppose they'll be able to tell you when they get here, now won't they?"
Sirius rolled his eyes and ran to the basement kitchen, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Ginny had just appeared.
"What's going on?" he asked, helping Ginny off the floor. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured –"
"Ask Harry," Fred said.
George nodded. "Yeah, I want to hear this for myself."
Harry hesitated. "It was – I had a, a kind of … vision." He continued to tell them about Arthur being attacked, how the snake had gotten to him as he stirred, sunk her fangs into his neck. He glanced down at his trainers when he finished, as though ashamed, although why he would be Sirius didn't know.
"Is Mum here?" Fred asked, turning to Sirius.
"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet," Sirius said. "The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore's letting Molly know now."
"We've got to go to St. Mungo's," Ginny said. "Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or anything?" All of the Weasleys and Harry were still in pajamas.
"Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's," Sirius said.
"'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," Fred said. "He's our dad."
"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?" Sirius said.
"What does that matter?" George asked.
"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away! Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"
Fred and George exchanged a glance, their eyes narrowed.
"Somebody else could have told us," Ginny said. "We could have heard it somewhere other than Harry."
"Like who?" Sirius said, praying they would understand. "Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's –"
"We don't care about the dumb Order!" Fred yelled.
George stepped beside him. "It's our dad dying we're talking about!"
"Your father knew what he was getting into, and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order," Sirius said. "This is how it is. This is why you're not in the Order. You don't understand. There are things worth dying for."
"Easy for you to say, stuck here," Fred said. "I don't see you risking your neck."
Sirius felt like he'd been punched in the gut. His immediate instinct was to hit Fred, though he thought better of it.
"I know it's hard, but we've all got to act as though we don't know anything yet," Sirius said, fighting to remain calm. "We've got to stay put, at least until we hear from your mother, all right?"
Finally, they sat, and Sirius summoned Butterbeer for them all. They spoke only when they received a message from Molly via Fawkes, which George read:
"'Dad is still alive. I am setting out for St. Mungo's now. Stay where you are. I will send news as soon as I can. Mum.'" George looked up from the note. "Still alive," he repeated. "But that makes it sound …" He trailed off and put the letter on the table.
At nearly dawn, Molly burst into the kitchen. "He's going to be all right," she said. "He's sleeping. We can all go and see him later. Bill's sitting with him now, he's going to take the morning off work."
Ginny and George got up to hug their mom. Ron laughed and downed the rest of his drink. Sirius set about making breakfast – himself, since Kreacher was nowhere to be found – when Molly came over to thank him.
"I'm so grateful. They think he'll be there a little while and it would be wonderful to be nearer. Of course, that might mean we're here for Christmas –"
"The more the merrier," Sirius said, and Molly threw on an apron and began to help with breakfast.
"Sirius?" Sirius looked up at Harry. "Can I have a quick word? Er, now?"
Sirius followed Harry into the pantry, where Harry told him the whole, unabridged story. Harry hadn't just seen the snake. He had been the snake.
"Did you tell Dumbledore this?"
"Yes, but he didn't tell me what it meant," Harry said. "Well, he doesn't tell me anything anymore."
Sirius studied Harry in the dark. "I'm sure he would have told you if it was anything to worry about."
"But that's not all," Harry whispered. "Sirius, I – I think I'm going mad. Back in Dumbledore's office, just before we took the Portkey, for a couple of seconds
there I thought I was a snake, I felt like one. My scar really hurt when I was looking at Dumbledore, Sirius, I wanted to attack him –"
"It must have been the aftermath of the vision, that's all," Sirius said. "You were still thinking of the dream or whatever it was and –"
"It wasn't that," Harry said, shaking his head. "It was like something rose up inside me, like there's a snake inside me —"
"You need to sleep," Sirius said. "You're going to have breakfast and then go upstairs to bed, and then you can go and see Arthur after lunch with the others." When Harry didn't say anything, Sirius continued, "You're in shock, Harry. You're blaming yourself for something you only witnessed, and it's lucky you did witness it or Arthur might have died. Just stop worrying."
He grasped Harry's shoulder and left the pantry, wondering if it would be too conspicuous to leave now and send Dumbledore an owl.