For a long moment the two just sat while the fire, unaware of the solemnity of the circumstances, continued to blaze merrily, hopping hither and thither within the grate and over the slowly surrendering logs. The lamps had burned low growing tired, and were themselves keenly aware of the lateness of the hour, being of the old Wizarding variety and well aware what a proper bed time should be.
Oblivious to everything else Sirius refilled his tumbler, his hands unsteady, and once more drained it. Remus merely looked off into the dark void of the hall as if he could see the ghostly shadows of white robes already moving in its depths. The two continued in this stunned tableau for a long while, until the bottle was empty and nothingness lay so heavily in the air that it was almost impossible to breath lest one choke on it.
"Harry? He will be all right?" Remus asked his voice a little shaky, breaking the hallowed silence.
"He. h-Harry? Oh he will be fine. Perfect! For now… Until they get him, and they will, and he'll fight. He knows how to fight. Have you ever seen? Great at Quidditch, just like Prongs. He'll get those bloody bastards, they killed his parents. Oh, he'll get them. He'll have them by the wand end. I know he will… But if he dies there will be no one to get them. Then those bloody little cockroaches will come and and."
Sirius had gotten up, his face dangerously flushed; emotions seemed to flit over it like memories in an over full pensive. He swayed for a moment. Unsteadily he stepped forward bumping his shin on the coffee table and letting forth a stream of angry expletives.
Remus roused himself from his frozen state with a pronounced sluggishness, his face also flushed, but still in full possession of his characteristic calm. Although he walked somewhat unsteadily, he tugged the dark hared man's robe with a steady hand.
"We're both to drunk and it's too late to worry about these things now, let's just go to bed." For a man that had just consumed a rather generous quantity of Goblin's Old his voice was remarkably purposeful, however the slight sway in his step betrayed him.
"Don't touch me, I can't sleep yet… Harry might be in danger, we can't wait, you're like Fudge aren't you, you're going to be just another filthy stinking traitor just like Fudge. Don't touch me!"
Sirius tried to push the hand off his robes but miscalculated and threw his weight off balance. He fell ungracefully on to the rug bringing Remus down with him.
"I'm sorry" he said almost immediately his face in the dim light looked stricken and close to tears. "I'm sorry, I'm a nice person, really. I didn't mean for anything to happen, you know me better than that don't you?" Sirius' voice begged reassurance as he continued to mutter apologies even after Remus, in his somewhat slowed state, had forgiven him.
It is odd how thoughts of a totally different nature can enter into the mind of person at the oddest of times. Remus with his feet apparently trapped in the table legs seemed on the verge of once more pushing for them both to retire. Sirius however did not share his friend's intentions. He continued to lie were he had fallen clutching Remus by his side.
"Do you still think we are young? I-I mean…"
He trailed off still trying to figure out what he had meant and was not quite sure. Lupin raised himself looking over his friend and fumbling to disentangle himself. He made no response until he was standing.
"Yes. We are still relatively young, you and I. We defiantly aren't old."
"Remus." Sirius stretched out a groggy hand as if not quite sure and staggered as his friend helped him up.
"No not us... Ha! Old! phutt. I'm not old, you. It's you who is old, you even have gray hair."
He clumsily brushed his hand though his companion's hair, smoothing the traces of premature gray at the temples. Remus pushed the hand away and over his shoulder, wrapping his own arm around Sirius's waist and begun to man handle him towards the open door beyond which lay the bedroom.
"I didn't know you felt like that." Sirius added in a drunken chuckle. Than dramatically his face changed, suddenly to be clouded with an irrational anger.
"What about the jar?" He demeaned.
"What jar? Sirius I don't know what you're talking about." At this Sirius pushed away the other man as best her could, an angry snarl on his lips
"You know what I mean, the jar, the blue one, in the bathroom. It's empty." Sirius gripped a nearby chair in an effort to remain upright but sill managed to glare accusingly at Remus. The other man was looking sad and a shifted nervously.
"I don't have the faintest clue what you mean. You're drunk and by the looks of it you are going to have a massive hang over tomorrow so the sooner you get to sleep the better. We can worry about other things later."
Over the course of this rather overly sensible speech Remus seemingly had regained control over whatever guilt had flickered the instant previously, for now he looked sternly into the darkness. Although Sirius couldn't possibly have been able to see his friend's parental expression, he let out a laugh. As quickly as it had come the man's mood had changed.
"Pity you never had kids, you make the perfect father." Sirius said falling heavily on the bed. Remus said nothing, being preoccupied with unbuttoning Sirius' robe.
"Not as who I am."
A rustle of old fabric followed the rather cryptic response. In the dark the domestic sounds of one person doing the implacably human thing of getting ready for bed could be heard. While Remus left the room and the sound of water running could be heard in the next room Sirius lay quietly. He must have been fighting sleep, and the moment Remus reentered arrayed in full nighttime regalia, he spoke.
"That isn't what I meant." his voice still slightly slurred but now more by sleep. Remus shuffled across the floor in bathroom slippers, his loose pajamas rustling, but stopped when he heard Sirius.
"I mean I have Harry, and you do too, if you like. And about being old I meant all Wizards." There was a sort thunk in the darkness as if an arm had fallen back to the covers after being flung out haphazardly.
"Are we old. Is this just the end?"
Remus didn't at first answer he looked lost in thought and when he did his voice sounded tight as if he were talking to a bothersome child or a person who had insulted his mother.
"No Sirius I don't think we as a community are about to go into extinction any time in the near future."
His response it seemed had fallen on deaf ears, for regular snores rose from the slightly raised lump in the center of Remus's small bed. With a long-suffering sigh the standing man pushed gently at the sleeping man. Taking his place on the extreme edge of the bed he disappeared into the blankets.
Remus, however addled his brain must have been, did not seem to fall asleep immediately. His breathing remained soft and wakeful for long moments as the snores of Sirius filled the darkened room. This however can be no great surprise considering the numerous revelations to which he had been exposed in the course of one relatively short evening.
***
So in this state we will leave them for the present, since the author has no great wish to be by when Sirius awakens, seeing as she has a vague impression that she will be the first blamed for any hangovers that are to be experienced presently.
AN: God this isn't half as well written as I remember it. Reading over your work really shows you your flaws, oh well chalk it up to experience. It's sad not to have any reviews…