Heaps of virtual love to the following: fuzzyfishbowl, The Demonic Duo, Liver Beazard, Ambiks-san, The Evil Cup of Tea, Vela-chan, bard, Dark Peppermint, Mariann, Destiny Bunny, Mistree of the Manuscript, I r8ped Riddle (I haven't seen Sean Bean in Scarlett. My favourite role of his is Richard Sharpe…*sigh*) tinuviel42 (Sean Bean is not 80!!! Not by a long, long shot…) Gypsy Lupin-Black, Ice Princesss, Druscilla Black, Audrey, madkornfan, DARKMEW13, Chloe-Wagner, A.L. Lorraine, holly, Audrey Miercoles, WaterSprite (How about using a song title?) AidenFire, Lady DeathAngel, Demus, BaYer04rulz, LegalanGreenleaf, No 1 u wanna no (Not an obsession with gay people.  Just slash!) xMadgirlx, Lauren, kayloo, Sakurelf, Polkat (I seriously don't like Arwen. She's the only one of Tolkien's characters I don't like. Well, actually I'm not a big fan of Rosie Cotton either…) Lady Sirihasisi, Remus-is-my-sweetie, ddz008, googoo, shimmeryrainbowgrrl, *{mariatortia}* (Which Sean Bean-film related character do you fancy? Please tell!) Jaime, HappyDappyDrunk, Wildwolf, Give the World for Mr Black and Yuki Bombay. I honestly can't thank all my reviewers enough. You're comments have kept me writing. And a special thank you to BigBlackDog for a wonderful piece of fanart!

When I set about writing this, I felt that Remus as Remus started the story he should get the last say as well. So there are actually two chapters just been added…

~Sirius' POV, Monday 20th December, The Morning After The Night Before…~

Remus Lupin, normally so shy and modest, is lying spread-eagled across my bed and wearing no clothes. His face is buried in my pillow and his back is criss-crossed with silver scars. I remember running my hands along those scars, caressing that ivory skin and clinging to the slender body. Moments of heaven amid a startling, beautiful intimacy. I snuggle a little closer to Remus and play with a strand of his damp red hair.

          The bedroom door bursts open and James appears in the doorway. "I'm off to Diagon Alley but I thought I'd-" His eyes take in our nudity, and James turns an even darker shade of red than Remus' hair. "This is from me, and Remus gave me this to look after," he stammers and tosses two presents in my direction without looking. "Happy Birthday!" James dashes out of sight and the door slams behind him.

          "What was that?" asks Remus heavily.

          "Just James, darling," I say, kissing the back of his neck and tracing a finger along his spine.

          "James came in?" asks Remus, rolling onto his back. He looks horrified when I nod. "He saw us like this?! No! Oh Mon Dieu!"

          I can't help but smile as Remus' natural modesty reasserts itself, and he pulls a stray bed sheet over his body. "Happy Birthday," he says, in a calmer tone.

          "Seventeen," I say and examine the two presents James has left me. One is a smart silver watch, clearly chosen by James' mother. I put it on.

          "Not very Sirius…" says Remus critically.

          "It's lovely." Indeed, it's just a plain boring watch but it means the world to me because it's from James and his parents, the people I call 'family'.

          I unwrap the other present, which is large and soft and wrapped in emerald-coloured paper. "This is from you?" I clarify.

          "Yes," he says. "I did buy it for you before I knew what you had bought me so-"

          Pulling away the last piece of green paper, I reveal an extremely familiar leather jacket. Identical, in every aspect but size, to the one I bought Remus for his birthday. I burst out laughing. "The same birthday present!"

          "Fate," Remus says, seriously.

          "Not fate: love."

            ~Later~

            Remus is not only supremely intelligent and drop-dead gorgeous, he's also a brilliant cook. I think I might be the happiest man in the world as I eat eggs, sausages, bacon, hash browns, baked beans and black pudding for breakfast, while wearing my new leather jacket and talking to my darling boyfriend. Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, a huge ugly owl bangs on the kitchen window and I leap up to let the poor creature in.

          "Poor little owl," I say, taking the key it is carrying in its beak and putting it in my pocket. I take the owl over to my breakfast and earn a glare from Remus as I start to feed it tiny bits of bacon and let it drink my orange juice. "I have to go now, I'm afraid…"

          Remus stares at me. "Go where?" he asks.

          I'm hoping to avoid this question and so keep my answer mysterious. "Somewhere, anywhere. I just have to go there!"

          "I thought we were going to spend some time together… with James at Diagon Alley and his parents not coming back from their cocktail party till later…" He looks at me, almost pleadingly and I feel like a complete bastard when I reply-

          "I'm sorry. I have to go somewhere. Diagon Alley, if you really want to know."

          "Can't I come?"

          In truth, I'd love him to come with me but I'm determined for this to be a surprise. "No."

          I was very much mistaken when I expected Remus to nod and murmur 'Okay, I understand that it's a secret and I trust you entirely'. Instead, he looks at me angrily, almost wolfishly, and says, " I thought we'd promised never to have secrets, Sirius. How can we possibly leave school and live together if you won't even tell me where you're going?"

          "Relationships are built on trust, darling," I say lightly, feeling worse every second.

          Remus looks at me, hurt and affronted. "Trust! What do you know about trust, Sirius? Is this the sort of trust I had in you when you swore never to tell anybody I'm a werewolf!" I stare at him and a look of horror crosses his face. "I didn't mean that, Sirius. I've forgiven you. I shouldn't have said that." Tears fill his eyes. "I'm sorry."

          I walk towards the fireplace and grasp a handful of floo powder. "You were right," I say coldly. "I shouldn't talk about trust. I betrayed you and I'll regret that until the day I die but-" I take a couple of deep, steadying breaths "- I think I can make it up to you. If you'll just let me go to Diagon Alley and… do what I have to do…" I throw the floo powder into the flames and step into the fire with a cry of 'Diagon Alley!' The world becomes a spinning, chaotic mess and I put a hand into my coat pocket and clutch hold of the tiny rusty key.

          That key is the key to my future. 

           Our future.

            ~ Still Later~

          My platform shoes make a ridiculous amount of noise on the marble floor of Gringott's Wizarding Bank. I approach the nearest goblin who is busy weighing a pile of rubies. "Excuse me," I say nervously. The goblin looks up. "I wish to claim my inheritance."

          The goblin scrutinises me. "Name?"

          "Sirius Black."

          The goblin disappears and comes back a few minutes later, covered in dust and with a cobweb dangling from one ear. In one hand it clutches an old scroll of paper. "You are seventeen?"

          "Yes."


          "You have the key to vault 422?"

          "Yes."

          The goblin hands me the scroll and points to an empty line at the bottom. "Sign here!"

          I sign my name with an elaborate flourish and can't help grinning as the goblin leads me to the cart that will take me to a vault deep underground.

          A vault filled with gold.

          ~Early Evening ~

          "I'm back!!!" I call, letting myself into the Potter's home. "Hello?"

          "Hi, Sirius," says James, seemingly appearing out of thin air and looking intensely awkward.

          "Thanks for the watch."

          He nods. "I know it isn't very… you… but my parents like it and-"

          "It's perfect," I say, trying to step past James and growing suspicious when he doesn't let me. "What's wrong?"

          James coughs and looks rather suspicious. "Nothing's wrong." He coughs again. "Lily got you some chocolates, I put them in you room and-"

          "What's going on, James?"

          "Nothing's going on. Have you had a good-?"

          James is interrupted by a woman's cry of "REMUS! YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!" I instantly recognise the voice as belonging to his mother.

          "Get out of my way!!" I say pushing James out of the way and running through to the kitchen. Remus is sat down at the kitchen table with his mother, while his father is pacing up and down.

          "WHAT IN HELL'S NAME IS GOING ON?" I demand.

          "IF YOU DON'T MIND WE ARE HAVING A PRIVATE CONVERSATION!" cries Remus' mother indignantly.

          "I MIND VERY MUCH!" I shout.

          Remus' father pipes up. "WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU THINK. WE HAVE COME TO TAKE OUR SON-"

          "Back to hell on earth," says Remus mildly.

          Silence.

          Remus rests his calm amber gaze on his parents. "Do you mind if I get a say in my future? Mother? Father?" I smirk. "Sirius?"

          "Sorry, darling," I say, remembering our earlier argument and feeling both guilty and ashamed.

          "Mother, father, I hate Beauxbatons. I don't even like France so I don't know where you got the idea that I would be better off there."

          "We wanted to protect you."

          "From what?" asks Remus, quietly.

          "From Hogwarts. From-"

          "Sirius?"

          "From everyone. Your so-called friends weren't-"

          "Good enough for me?" murmurs Remus.

          "Precisely," says Mrs Lupin.

          "They weren't good enough for a gay werewolf?"

          Complete silence.

          "It's true?" croaks Remus' father. "The diary they found at Beauxbatons… you actually wrote that. Oh Mon Dieu! Hell and damnation!"

          Remus' eyes flash angrily. "Did you think my diary lied?! Maybe I just liked to write about my gay relationship with Sirius because I'm straight and didn't want anyone to know! What planet are you two on???"

          More stunned silence. It appears Remus' parents are not used to their son answering back.

          "Look at him, Remus," mumbles Mrs Lupin gesturing at me as if I can't hear her. "He's wearing makeup for Christ's sake!"

          "I'm wearing makeup, mother."

          "And that coat-"

          "I bought him that coat."

          Remus' father tries. "Don't you know that his mother tried to get a werewolf culling act passed at the ministry?"

          "I'm fully aware of that."

          "He's a Black!"

          I can't bear this. "CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I LOVE HIM? WHY CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT? WE'RE IN LOVE?"

          Utter silence greets my outbursts. Remus beckons me over, stands up and leaning across the kitchen table, he kisses me. Passionately.

          Remus eventually breaks away. He looks at his parents. "When I was very little I asked if anybody would ever love me. And instead of doing what most parents would do and saying 'Don't be silly, Remus; we love you', you said… you said…"

          "What did they say?" I ask gently.

          "You said 'Nobody will love you, Remus, because nobody loves werewolves'."

          We all stare at him, horrified. "You miserable bastards!" I murmur. 

          "Sirius," warns Remus.

          "Who would say that to you? Undoubtedly the most kind, wonderful, caring person I've ever met! I can't-"

          "You don't know what it's like to have a werewolf for a son," says Remus' father, helplessly. Then he puts his hands to his face and starts to weep.

          "Come home with us, Remus," whispers his mother.

          "WHAT?!" I cry.

          "We're sorry!" says Mr. Lupin, still crying.

          "I won't go back to that school."

"We know," he answers, looking as if this is breaking his heart.

"I'm going to live with Sirius."

          "You'll need money."

          "I have money!" I say loudly. "Lots of money." Then, when I receive several 'what's-he-talking-about?' looks I explain. "My Grandfather was a rich bastard. Owned a dragon farm or something like that. Anyway, he didn't like my mother's husband- God knows why. So he missed her out of his will, put all his money into a Gringott's vault, and entrusted the key to the Money and Inheritance department of the ministry to be sent out to me on my seventeenth birthday. It's about fifty thousand galleons."

          "Good God!" says Remus.

          "Why you?" asks his father.

          "Well, actually the money was left to the first right-handed boy to be born in the month of December with all ten fingers and toes, I believe."

          Remus manages a half-hearted chuckle.

Half-hearted. In a split second of starting revelation, I realise that I can't ask Remus to divide his heart any longer. I know he loves me but for the first time I see that, despite their many faults, he loves his parents too, and I can't get in the way of that love. So I clear my throat uneasily, walk up to Mr. Lupin, and offer him my hand. He stares at my outstretched arm for several long seconds. "I'm not trying to take your son away," I say.

          "I know," replies Mr. Lupin in his soft French accent. Instead of shaking my hand, he pulls me towards him and kisses me on both cheeks.

Moving away, I turn to Mrs Lupin and say, "I would be honoured if you would give me your blessing to love your son."

Mrs Lupin stands up and shakes my hand. "I hate your family: in the past I've hated you. But never before have I seen you together with my son. Today, with the two of you in the same room, kissing, I think I have seen love. You have my blessing." She turns to Remus, "I was wrong, and I hope you will forgive me. People do fall in love with werewolves." 

          "And werewolves fall in love with people," says Remus.

          "Will you come back to France with us, Remus. Just for a few days- maybe for Christmas and the New Year. Let's have a short time of happiness together before we lose you."

          "You're not going to lose me!" cries Remus, with a ridiculous, happy look on his face.

          "You won't lose him. I won't let you," I say. "Family matters."

          ~Packing~

          Remus is neatly folding his clothes up and putting them carefully in his suitcase. I'm not allowed to help because I'm useless at packing, so I'm sat on the bed smoking a cigarette and watching Remus bend down in his tight jeans. "I'm sorry for running off this morning. I just thought I could get out some money and use it for the deposit on a flat. It was going to be a surprise."

          "It would have been lovely," murmurs Remus but he sounds a little uncertain. Eventually he pauses in his packing and looks me straight in the eye. "I know we're never going to be short of money now you're rich but, well, is this what you want?"

          "I don't understand."

          "James told me something, earlier."

          "What?"

          "He said you'd always dreamed of becoming an Auror."

          I smile. "You're more important than any childhood dream, Remus. I don't have to be an Auror- I could be a ministry clerk or something. It's not the end of the world."

          Remus shakes his head. "I love you, you know?"

          "Yeah."

          "That's why I'm not letting you give up on your dream."

          "WHAT?"

          He takes a deep breath. "Now my parents are okay, I think we should go back to Hogwarts. Both of us."

          I accept his decision at once. I feel quite relieved in some ways but disappointed in others. Living alone with Remus would be a dream come true but this way I can still train to be an Auror. "James will be happy."

          "Yes," chuckles Remus.

          I extinguish the cigarette and allow Remus to climb on the bed next to me and kiss my neck. Reaching into my coat pocket I withdraw a brand new bronze key. "For you," I say placing it on the palm of his hand.

          Remus stares at the key as if he's never see one before. "Sirius… you shouldn't… I can't accept…" he stammers.

          "You already have the key to my heart, love. You may as well have the key to my money vault."

          Remus doesn't say 'thank you'. Instead, he pushes me forcefully back onto the bed, climbs on top of me and trails a wandering finger all over my torso. "You know I'm pretty-much finished packing and we still have twenty minutes left till I leave with my parents," he murmurs.

          "Really?" I say, trying to sound casual.

          "I wonder what we could do in twenty minutes?"

          Quite a lot, I imagine. But I can't answer Remus' question out loud because his lips are already pressed fiercely against mine.