Moonlit Horizons
Chapter Two
By Dizmius.
A Remus Fic for a friend of mine
All thoughts in first person are in italics, this will mostly be Remus' thoughts on stuff.
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Remus and Sirius were sitting on a bench at Foxton station when suddenly a thought occurred to Remus. "Sirius…"
"My name's Severus." Sirius said indignantly.
"Oh yes, silly me." Remus rolled his eyes. "Severus, I've put Muggle barriers on the gates leading up to my house, how did she get through if she's a Muggle?"
Sirius frowned, "Maybe its cuz I guided her through, I have no clue, she's not a witch if that's what you're thinking, or at least, I don't think she's a witch. How does the postman get through then?"
"I don't usually get any Muggle post." Remus shrugged. "Not may Muggles know me, just a few people down in the village."
"Oh, and what do you say you do for a living?"
Remus chuckled lightly, "Resident wizard at your service. No actually, nobody's asked much about what I do." Remus said truthfully, "I guess if someone asked, I'd say I was an astronomer or something like that."
"Yeah, you always liked the astronomy tower, didn't you." Sirius laughed.
"Not as much as you and James did. What happened? Didn't you have to draw up a rota or something?"
"Not exactly…" Sirius fidgeted, "Well yes okay, an informal one."
Remus laughed, watching as an express train to London hurtled past on the other side of the platform. This is how it should be, just me and my friends sticking together. I wonder what he's thinking right now, he hasn't shaken that dead look in his eyes, he never used to look like that. Has it really been over a decade and a half? Why does it feel like yesterday that we were sitting on the Hogwarts train, laughing at our own cleverness? We flew through our days in fanciful ways, secure, and sure there'd always be endless fun. We thought we were immortal and we payed the price in our own personal ways. It still feels wrong, not having James right here with us. The life and soul of the Marauders was extinguished that night. There's something missing but I can't quite put a finger on it.
"Oi, Remie…" Sirius waved a hand in front of Remus' face. "You alright? You looked away with the faeries."
"Was thinking." Remus mumbled.
"Dangerous thing, thinking is." Sirius smiled lightly, "Been there and seen the effects."
"You know what?" Remus suddenly stood up, "I don't care anymore, if I'm going to live with Muggles, then I'm going to have to act like them. I don't see why I don't just renounce magic. It's caused so many problems in my life. Being a Muggle is so simpler, I watch them day to day, and they look so happy, unaware of the danger that they can't see surrounding their lives."
Sirius looked away. "It causes problems, I agree, but it's a gift, Moony. Magic is special, not everyone has it, and those who have the gift are special too. We've been brought up with it, you can't just leave it to rot by the wayside. It's not like that."
He followed Remus out of the station and of down the road. "It would be like throwing a Muggle in the water and telling it to live as a fish. It wouldn't work. You can't be a Cinderella, Remus."
"I was unaware that I was being a fairytale princess, Paddy." Remus cracked a smile. "Not really my style, all those floaty dresses and wigs." Typical Sirius, try to make a joke out of something perfectly serious. That's why it's so hard to talk to him about anything on my mind. I know he can be serious and down to earth when it suits him.
"Tell you what, I know theres a pub in this place, hows about I buy you a drink?" Sirius asked,
"With what money?"
"The few Muggle pounds I've saved up on my journey here. It's enough to buy a few pints." Sirius pulled out a small leather pouch, and clinked the coins. "Muggles don't realise it when they drop their coins on the grass, when you're acting like a dog, those little bits of metal are pretty easy to see."
That's Sirius logic for you, flawless to a key.
"Alright, I know a place at the end of the village." Remus nodded, and started walking out of the station car park. "You know, if anybody, and I mean anybody comes up and asks you who you are, are you honestly going to incriminate Snape?"
"Of course." Sirius replied with a hearty grin. "What he doesn't know can't hurt him, right?"
What a phrase to say. What I didn't know, hurt me more
than anything ever had done in my life, I didn't know you weren't the secret
keeper, that hurt. And I'm sure it hurt you too. How can you say such a thing?
"Who knows, you might even
meet that lady again." Sirius grinned even wider, then tried to mimic Remus'
voice. "Uh… can…. Can I get you uhm… a…. drinky-thing?"
"Sirius, you know as well
as I do that I don't speak like that. At least I don't go round like a legless chicken, hitting on the first
female I see." Remus raised an eyebrow.
"Mr. Padfoot would like to
point out that he has paid for his over-dose of females by spending twelve
years without as much a hint of one."
"Mr. Moony has registered
that fact, and would like to clarify to Mr. Padfoot that this does not mean he
can go and overdose on females again, and should not try to catch up on lost
time."
"Damn." Sirius frowned, then
his face brightened. "Can you see what I can see?"
"Most probably, and I'm
telling you now that the pub is not in the direction of the motorbike repair
shack."
"It is NOT a shack."
Sirius sounded indignant. "How dare you insult the uh…. Building, housing some
of the most beautiful Muggle inventions ever."
"Stroppy, aren't you."
Sirius threw Remus another
undignified look and hands in pockets, walked over to the window, peering
through into the dimly lit garage.
"Hi"
Sirius leapt back in
shock, looking over his shoulder to see Remus laughing at him.
"Uh… hello." Sirius smiled,
"And you might be?"
"The person who runs this
place, do you have a need for something?" A brown haired girl stepped out from
the door, wiping her greasy black hands on a dirty cloth.
Sirius stared at the
motorbikes for a moment, then noticed a small card in the corner in the window.
Help wanted, must be mechanically minded and know about motorbikes in
general. "Uh yeah, I came about the job?"
Her face brightened, "Good,
that's just what I needed right now, your friend wants to help too?"
"Who? Remus?" Sirius
almost choked.
"No, I'm not the most er…
mechanically minded person around." Remus smiled weakly, watching Sirius
digging himself further into a deep deep hole.
"So, how much do you know?"
"I've put together a few
bikes in my time, I haven't really seen any of the new models, I prefer to work
on the vintage bikes, you know, Vincents and things."
"Ah yeah." The girl threw
him a spanner. "Know how to fix tyres and scratched bodywork?"
"Easy." Sirius grinned.
Here we go, the ego is getting to his head again. The moment she recognises him off that
poster, he'll be shot for six. I can't
believe he's doing this. If only he had
a larger piece of his brain devoted to realism. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get him out of there. I doubt it. Looks like I wont be getting a drink tonight after all.
"Remus?"
"Wha?" Remus snapped out
of his thoughts by Sirius.
"Dreaming were you?"
"Something like that."
Remus mumbled, watching as Sirius made arrangements to be at the garage
tomorrow morning at eight. Eight,
was that morning eight? Did she honestly think that Sirius would be awake and
living at that hour in the morning?
"Come on… we have serious
pubbing to do."
"You're thirty six, don't you
think that maybe…"
"You are never too old to
go pub crawling. Especially when there's only one pub in the village." Sirius
grinned, "Come on!"
TBC
