Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.

Man To Man

All the people in the house had something to eat, not much, because none of them was feeling really hungry, and then the Grangers, the Dursleys, Harry, Ron and Hermione went to bed, although they couldn't sleep much. After much pleading, Ginny had finally convinced Mrs. Weasley to let her go to St. Mungo's, because she had another training session that night, but her father had insisted on accompanying her and picking her up in the morning. Percy and her mother were guarding the top floor now, Penelope and Tonks the second, and the twins were in charge of the first floor. Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Schacklebolt, Mundungus and the two eldest Weasley boys, Bill and Charlie, were in the kitchen. They knew they wouldn't be able to sleep that night, and so they had stayed there, chatting over some butterbeers, waiting to replace the people on guard in a couple of hours.

"Pity the fuocciris wouldn't help us," Bill was saying dejectedly.

"Yeah..." Mundungus said, "although I think it's probably better this way..." Six pairs of surprised eyes fixed on him. "I don't think we would have been able to concentrate on our spells with such beauties around us." A round of offended growls followed this statement. "Oh, come on! Don't tell me you didn't like them! They were perfect! All curves and shy eyes." He said, battling his eyelashes seductively. All his companions laughed heartily at his bad characterisation. "I certainly wouldn't have been able to hit a Death Eater standing in front of me while I had something as beautiful and distracting to look at. No way. And I don't mind what you say, I don't think you would have been able to concentrate either." Another round of protests followed Mundungus' last sentence.

Then there was an amused silence while they all thought about the beautiful women they had seen that evening. There weren't witches like those fuocciris, they were pretty sure of that.

Lupin, who had been fingering his wand, suddenly lifted his head and looked at Bill Weasley, then he said confidentially to the others: "You know what? The fuocciri who saved Bill's life kissed him. And I don't mean a silly kiss, I mean she really kissed him."

"Yeah, that's right! She was the one serving the tea to the women during the meeting," Charlie confirmed.

All the men turned to look at Bill, who was now very red. "Well, I don't even remember it. I guess it was part of the ritual she had to perform to heal me."

"Yes, it probably was," Lupin agreed nodding, "but it was still very impressive."

"I tried to catch her eye today, you know?" Bill admitted. A few of the men whistled. "No, no, it's not what you are thinking..." Some laughed. "Come on, it's obvious she is older than me, and she is too small to suit my taste, if you want to know. I just wanted to thank her once more for saving my life." He paused for a moment, and then added, with a sly smile on his face: "I wouldn't say no to her younger sister, though, the translator." A round of approving grunts showed the others found Samako very pretty too.

"And she has two sons," Sirius commented.

"What? Samako?" Bill asked, but he wasn't the only one who had turned to Sirius in surprise.

"No, the older one," Sirius said, and seeing he had the full attention of his companions, explained again all the details of the two kid's sudden appearance in Sandrine's house, although some of them had already heard that story more than once.

"The girl who saved you wasn't a fuocciri, right?" Charlie asked.

"No, a dansarine. And there were two jilguereis too, well, a jilguerei and a mermaid, to be exact," Sirius corrected himself.

"What was doing a mermaid with them?" Moody asked.

"Well, it was kind of weird, they didn't seem to like to talk about it very much, but Edvard, the guy I've told you about..."

"Beauxbuttons' DADA Professor?" Schacklebolt asked.

"Yeah, exactly, Sirius confirmed. "Well, he told me that Amanda, Professor McGonagall's niece, had kind of adopted her as her sister. She was very beautiful, mind you, with long green curls..."

"Sha-adi?" Charlie asked astounded.

"Yes, I think that was her name," Sirius answered surprised.

Everybody was looking at Charlie now. "We met her at St. Mungo's. She was the one who gave us the means to contact the fuocciris who saved Bill. I thought there couldn't be many girls with soft long green curls." The boy explained.

"How do you know they were soft," Sirius said, with a wicked smile on his face.

Charlie turned very red and tried to defend himself. "Well, it... it just looked incredibly soft, you know. I didn't touch it." There was a roar of laughter from the men in the kitchen.

"You hadn't told me about her, Charlie!" Bill joked. "It's obvious she caused a big impression in you."

"Well," Charlie admitted, still very red, but looking a little hurt at everybody's fun of him, "she looked very nice, you know? And it's thanks to her that you are still here with us, you know? She had nothing to do with us at all, not everybody would have helped us like she did."

Bill and the others had to give him that, and so they stopped mocking him.

"So Sirius," Mundungus said, "tell us about those girls you met. Were they as beautiful as the fuocciris we've seen today?"

The handsome wizard thought for a moment, and then said: "Well, I don't think you could say they are more beautiful or less. They are just different." The others waited for the details without even blinking. It had been too long since they had found a subject that would let them talk like that, without worrying, without having to think constantly in Voldemort, or dangers, or death.

"Sandrine is blonde with green eyes. Quite exuberant, if you know what I mean," Sirius said, accompanying his description with a most understandable gesture of his hands. "Amanda's beauty is not so striking at first, you know, but on second thought, she has a serene kind of beauty, one that won't die with the years. Amanda will go on being beautiful in a hundred years. She has long dark hair, and her blue eyes are really impressive. They make you feel... I don't know... It's like watching the sea in a calm warm spring morning. You just feel... calm, relaxed somehow."

All the men looked absolutely stunned at Sirius' suddenly poetic discourse, and so they didn't take the chance to mock him when he paused to think and recovered his usual matter-of-fact tone. It was lucky perhaps that Sirius was looking at the table in concentration and didn't look around him, and so he missed seeing Schacklebolt frozen in place with his butterbeer halfway to his open mouth, and Moddy's normal eye almost popping out of his face, and Mundungus' saliva falling from his open mouth, and the Weasleys looking mystified at each other, and specially Lupin deep in thought, with his brow furrowed.

"Sha-adi is very beautiful too," Sirius went on saying, and they all seemed to wake from their stunned state, "she is younger and her body is a bit fuller, but the most striking thing about her is that she always seems to be happy, or at least, in a positive mood, so, you see, I understand young Charlie, here." And Sirius finished his speech with a heartily laugh. He stopped abruptly, though, when he realised no one was laughing with him, and looked around.

All the men looked a bit uncomfortable about something, although some of them had smiled at Sirius' last joke. It was finally Mundungus who found the courage to ask what they all wanted to know:

"And... while you were there... wasn't there... I mean, didn't you have an affair or two with some of the girls?" Mundungus finished awkwardly.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius exclaimed indignantly, "I'm a gentleman!"

At this Lupin choked on his butterbeer and Schacklebolt had to hit him on the back to help him breath again. To everybody's surprise, when Remus finally recovered his breath, he stood swiftly and pointed his wand at Sirius. "I want to see Padfoot, please," he said, "NOW!" Everybody looked very surprised, but none of them as much as Sirius.

"Moony, what...?" Sirius started to ask, but his friend interrupted him.

"NOW!" He said in a dangerously serious voice.

Sirius stood slowly and turned into his animagus form and back. Remus took a deep breath and relaxed immediately. "Sorry, Sirius," he said, giving Black a playful shove before sitting down again.

"What was all that about, if I may ask?" Charlie asked. Sirius looked very interested too in hearing Remus' explanation.

"Sorry, it's just... Well, before... Azkaban..." Remus said awkwardly, avoiding Sirius' gaze, "Sirius didn't care much about being a gentleman, if you follow me. In fact, he was famous for being able to get any girl he wanted in less than a minute. He could, I have seen it many times. And he never cared about being a gentleman, if you want to know the truth. In fact, he broke many hearts. And he even used to laugh at us if we didn't manage to kiss a girl on our first date. I... I don't know, we haven't had much time to talk about women since we've met again, but I had the feeling something was amiss, and then I thought you could be an impostor or something. Sorry, Padfoot," Remus repeated, looking Sirius in the eye and biting his lips a bit remorsefully.

"That's ok, Remus, that's ok." Sirius said. "I guess you are right. I've changed, probably a lot. I'm not the carefree youth I used to be. Spending almost half of my life in Azkaban without a reason, then being three years on the run, always having to hide, and then dying and coming back to life again... My life hasn't followed the typical paths, and I've matured, though in an irregular way. I realise sometimes that I can be still very childish now and then, but then there are some things a man of my age cannot see as a young boy, even if they are the same person. I was probably a little bit reckless in my youth, but if you want to know it, what I'd really like now is to have a loving wife and lots of kids. Lots. I want to feel loved. I want to have the love I never truly had in my life."

They were all now staring at their bottles or at the table. The spell had been broken. They were back at having dark thoughts and depressing feelings. This wasn't right. Mundungus finished his butterbeer in one gulp and stood to get another. "That's all very heartbreaking, Black, but don't think you're gonna avoid my question so easily. So, tell us, what about those girls, Sandrine and the others. Nothing? Not even a chaste kiss?"

They all laughed a bit, and the light mood was back again, which they were thankful for.

Sirius thought for a moment. "Well, I must admit there was absolutely nothing. Sorry to disappoint you. You know? I find it strange now that I think about it. In fact, the night I got there, they had been already sleeping, and so they were wearing very nice night-dresses," he said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

At this his companions expressed their congratulations and asked for more. After a very detailed description of what the girls were wearing, they all had to agree with Bill's initial statement: "Pity the fuocciris wouldn't help them."

They were still talking about light things and trying to enjoy themselves for a while, when a sudden explosion rocked the house. They were all upstairs in a flash, since the noise had come from there, apparently from the room where the others were sleeping. They had been right, when they reached the door, a thick column of blue smoke was coming out of door. They entered, wands at the ready, but started laughing like mad when they realised what had truly happened.

It seemed some of the sleeping bags the twins had conjured up were one of their own inventions. "Blasting Bags," they were saying, "sleeping bags that explode when someone snores, covering them in thick blue paint." Mr. Dursley was now covered in blue paint from head to foot, and looking ready to kill. Mrs. Weasley looked ready to kill too, and Remus had to use all of his polite persuasiveness to calm her and save the twin's skin.

After a while, everybody settled again and went back to sleep. Mundungus and Moody replaced Mrs. Weasley and Percy, Shacklebolt and Charlie covered the second floor, and Lupin and Sirius guarded the first floor. Bill went to sleep, because he was leaving the very same day on a mission for the Order, and there were people enough on guard anyway.

While parading their corridor, Remus thought it was due time that he did some talking with Sirius. Their little chat with the others in the kitchen had made him realise Sirius was right: he had changed, they both had changed, and Remus felt he owed it to their friendship to try and know each other again. It was truth, they had helped each other in the last years, had always been there for one another, but they had mostly talked about the Order, Voldemort, Harry... even Snape sometimes. In brief, they had talked about many things, but not about themselves, not about the men they had become.

"Sirius," he started awkwardly, "I wanted to apologise once more about before..."

Sirius shook his head and put his right hand on Remu's left shoulder while they walked along the corridor. "Moony, it's ok, I understand..."

"No, please, let me finish," Remus interrupted him, stopping mid-step and facing his friend.

Sirius studied for a second Remus' serious face and then nodded.

"Thanks," Remus said. Sirius forced a smile.

Lupin swallowed with difficulty and then resumed his pacing, with Sirius at his side. "You know," Remus said, "I think we need to talk. We should have probably done it long ago, but I guess we never had the chance. Now it's as good a moment as any other, and I doubt we'll have a second of peace in the following days." Sirius had to agree silently. "We have both changed, Sirius. It's not only because you've been in Azkaban, it's because we've grown. Who knows how our lives would be now if Voldemort hadn't killed James and Lily, if Peter hadn't betrayed them, if we were all still alive. You know, I sometimes think that maybe we wouldn't be friends any more."

Sirius tried to protest, but Remus shook his head and looked at him, begging him to let him finish now that he had finally started speaking, so Sirius complied.

"Those things happen, Sirius. When you are in school you think you'd die if someone would separate you from your best friends, but then, people grow up, and change, and move to a different place, maybe a different country, and they loose contact, not on purpose nor willingly, it just happens. Suddenly you realise you haven't spoken to a friend for some months. You always want to write to them, but then some more months pass, and when you realise you feel both guilty and deceived. Guilty because you haven't tried to contact them for so long, and deceived because they haven't tried either to contact you, and that hurts. I wonder sometimes if that could have happened to the Marauders."

"No," Sirius said, shaking his head, "that would have never happened to us, and I'm sorry I made the mistake of pursuing Peter instead of trying to contact you or Dumbledore, because even with James... and Peter... gone, we could have still stayed together, Moony. I know how much you depended on us, and I'm sorry I failed you."

They both remained silent for a moment, until Remus finally spoke again. "Enough of thinking about the past. What happened can't be changed now, and I didn't want to deal on what we've lost, but on what we could have in the future. I think we need to start anew, Sirius. We don't know each other any more, because we've changed so much. We hang on to the memory we have of each other, but we are not those careless youths anymore, as you said in the kitchen. We are men who have grown and matured, and we might not like each other as we used to, Sirius."

"I absolutely refuse to believe we can no longer be friends as we always used to be." Sirius said firmly. "It's true, I was probably closer to James, but you know I always appreciated you, Moony. You were always the voice of reason of our reckless consciences, and we might have never told you, but we knew how important that was to us. I'm sure we can still be the best of friends, Remus, if you want to, but I think you are right, we should probably try to get to know each other from the start."

Remus smiled in an unsure way at his friend, but then had to laugh at Sirius' comical pose when the animagus stood straight facing him, offered him his hand and said pompously: "Sirius Black, you know, of the ancient and most hated House of Black. Pleased to meet you."

Remus fought to control his laughter, and when he finally succeeded, he shook Sirius' hand while saying: "Remus Lupin, you know, werewolf and complete nullity when it comes to sewing charms, at your service."

They both bowed comically and then went on pacing, trying to stifle their laughter, so as not to awake the people in the house. After a moment, they turned serious once more, though.

Remus was the first to start speaking, and he tried to describe to Sirius how he had felt when James and Lilly had been killed, his surprise when he had known Sirius was in Azkaban, his sadness at loosing Peter too, and how he had struggled through life, alone and friendless, afraid of trusting too much in anyone or of loving someone too much...

He explained all about his different jobs and his various and short love affairs. He told him how he had felt in knowing he had escaped Azkaban, how his heart had jumped in his chest when he had met James' son, and how his year of teaching at Hogwarts had been the best and the worst of his life at the same time. The best, because he loved the job. The worst, because he had struggled with his conscience throughout the year, divided between telling Dumbledore Sirius was an animagus or hiding it from the old wizard he admired so much...

He told him about Snape, and how they had seemed to reach a kind of truce until the night in the Shrieking Shack. He told him how his heart had won over his brain for the first time in many years when he saw Sirius again and decided to trust him. And finally he told him how he had cried when he had lost Sirius again at Bellatrix's hands, without having even recovered him completely yet.

Then it was Sirius' turn.

He talked about his pure pain when he saw James and Lily's bodies. His rage when he faced Peter. His desperation while in Azkaban and his suffering under the Dementors. Then he told him about his madness at Peter for being so close to Harry, ready to betray him again. His need to escape. His frantic search for the boy. His pride while watching him play Quidditch. His panic when Snape caught them and Peter escaped, taking his last hope of freedom with him...

He expressed his thankfulness when Harry and Hermione had rescued him. His uneasiness about Harry's wellbeing. His hope in Dumbledore's help. His horror at having to go back to his parents' house, where so many offending memories surrounded him constantly. His desperation to get out of the house, to be able to help the Order, to do something useful. His absurd arrogant boastfulness in front of Bellatrix, that had cost him his life. And his strange coldness when he met Sandrine and her friends.

"You know," Sirius admitted, "I hadn't really thought about it until Mundungus mentioned it this evening, but I can't help but wonder why I didn't feel anything when I met Sandrine. It's difficult to explain, because you haven't met her, but I can assure you she is really beautiful, and Amanda, and Sha-adi... You know, I wonder if maybe..." Sirius' voice faltered for a moment. He wasn't used any more to trusting people with his fears. "If maybe I've become incapable of feeling attracted to a woman. If the Dementors took a part of me and I'm no longer completely human." Sirius swallowed and looked out of the window. They were now sitting on a windowsill, with the first rays of light of the new day changing the colour of the sky.

Remus cleared his throat. He didn't think much of himself as a counsellor, but he knew he had to say something to put his friend's uneasiness at rest. "Sirius, you had just resurrected. Don't you think that's reason enough to be so shocked that anything else wouldn't matter? I mean, if it had been me, I'm sure that I wouldn't have noticed Sandrine's beauty even though she would have danced for me the dance of the seven veils, naked." He smiled reassuringly at his friend.

"I guess you are right," Sirius commented, but he didn't look too convinced.

"And maybe..." Remus started, and Sirius looked at him expectantly, "maybe you didn't notice Sandrine much, because your attention had been caught by another person."

"Another person?" Sirius asked nonplussed. "Who?"

Remus tried to disguise his amusement. "Amanda?" He said, finally laughing at Sirius' stunned face.

"Amanda?" The animagus repeated. "What do you mean? There's nothing between Amanda and me." Sirius defended himself, but couldn't help a small smile too at Remus' obvious mirth.

"No, of course not," Remus conceded. "I'm just wondering if you would like that to change. You like Amanda, don't you?"

"Well..." Sirius replied thoughtfully, "she is certainly beautiful, but I don't really know her, Moony. Oh, come on, stop laughing at me. What is it?"

Remus recited in a theatrical voice between chuckles: "She has a serene kind of beauty, one that won't die with the years. Her blue eyes make you feel as if you were watching the sea in a calm warm spring morning."

"What are you on about, Remus?" Sirius asked, amused but not sure that he understood his friend.

"Me?" Remus asked, still trying to control his laughter. "What are you on about, Sirius? Those were your words when you described Amanda to us. I've met her too, remember? When she brought you here. And I agree with you that she is very beautiful and her eyes are really striking, but I'm sorry to tell you I didn't fell in a silly poetic mood when I saw her."

Sirius' cheeks were turning pretty red. "Did I really say all that nonsense?" Remus nodded, still smiling. "In front of the men?" Remus nodded once more, this time laughing openly. "So? What does Doctor Moony say about it?"

Remus sighed and then looked Sirius in the eye. "I think you are in love, my friend."

"WHAT?" Sirius had shouted so much that Moony paled and for a moment they both stayed silent, worried that they had awoken somebody or attracted the other auror's attention unnecessarily.

"You heard me," Remus said in a no nonsense tone. "I think you are in love with Professor McGonagall's niece."

"Oh, no!" Sirius cried in despair. Put like that, it sounded really bad. He pictured for a moment saying 'Auntie Minnie' to the strict Professor McGonagall and almost fainted. He wasn't yet over her motherly kisses.

They both remained silent for a moment, and then Sirius reopened the subject. "You know, Moony, I'm not sure I'm in love. I like her, I'll give you that. I probably like her more than it's wise, but love... I don't think this could be love."

Moony pondered his friends' words for a moment. "Ok, maybe you're not in love. Yet. But this at least solves one of your worries."

"How so?" Sirius asked.

"Well, now you know you are still capable of feeling attracted to the fair sex."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Do you have to speak like that? The fair sex?"

"Oh, excuse me!" Remus said jokingly. "I was just trying to match your poetic mood."

"My poetic mood is long gone for good, Moony, you can call them women."

"Right. Does that calm your worries? Do you believe now you can have feelings like any other man?"

"Yes, ok. Although if I remember correctly, I never had much feelings for the girls." Sirius snickered.

"That's true," Remus sighed, "they were always crazy in love with you, but you never really cared for anyone. Just my complete opposite. Whenever I noticed a girl, the next moment I was already head over heels for her, only to be ignored most of the times, remember?" Remus sighed again. "Until I learned my lesson."

"Which means?" Sirius asked.

"A werewolf must never fall in love. He's only gonna end up with his heart broken in the end."

Sirius was lost for words, so he just gave Remus a playful shove to lighten the mood.

"Mr. Black, Professor Lupin!" Both men turned to the end of the corridor. "Mum sent me to tell you breakfast is ready," Ginny announced.

"Thanks, Ginny," Remus answered. The girl smiled and turned to go, but Remus called her back. "And Ginny! Thanks for being interested in joining our little group."

Ginny smiled sweetly. "That's ok, thank you for inviting me."

Remus nodded and smiled at her, and when she left, both men stretched a bit their tired limbs and headed for the kitchen, all the awkwardness between them gone, and their friendship as strong as it had ever been.

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks all for reading and reviewing!

I enjoyed very much writing this chapter, I hope you liked it. ;-)

Any Slytherins out there? In Chapter 16 Draco Malfoy joins the story, and there is a small surprise waiting for you...

Momoko: Thanks very much for your review. My answer needs to be a bit long in this case. You are partly right about the names. I didn't really look for Chinese names, because my idea was that the ashanriis are used to travel around a lot -thanks to astral doors- and thus you can't strictly assign them a muggle nationality or country. That the Princess of the fuocciris and her escort speak Chinese doesn't mean that their ancestors were Chinese too, there could be someone of Japanese origin in their family. There are certainly fuocciris in Japan, although very few. The Chinese community is the biggest one, that's why I decided their Princess would have been born there, although not necessarily to Chinese parents. The same happens with the other ashanriis in my story too: Sandrine Aires (dansarine, French name, Spanish surname), Amanda Ming (jilguerei, English name, Chinese surname -I think), Sha-adi Ming (jilguerei, her name comes from a song by a Spanish singer called Ana Torroja, she has a song about a mermaid called Shaadi, I changed the spelling a bit), Grace Guillaume (dansarine, English name, French surname). I was looking for names with a hard sound -like "ko", that's why I chose Yamiko and Samako. I wanted them to be kind of similar too (-iko, -ako), because both sisters have a lot of things in common. Their surname comes from 'San', as you very well guessed, but I changed it on purpose. I was looking for something short and... well, I needed something with a part of Samako's name on it, you'll see why in later chapters. I didn't care much if it could be a real Chinese name. I appreciate your comment and I realise now maybe I should have thought the names better or I shouldn't have insisted so much in the language the characters speak. If I ever write another fic with OC, I'll think about it more carefully. I regret to say I don't think it would be wise to change the ashanriis' names now, because it would only confuse readers. I hope, apart from that, you are enjoying the story. ;-)

Kady Rilla Wholi: Thanks! I hope you liked Sirius and Remus little chat.

hermionegreen: Don't worry, that the Princess didn't want to join sides with anybody doesn't mean the Order won't find people willing to help them -I hope.

Lily Skylo: Yes, I'm afraid the Death Eaters might and will come, but not yet, so don't worry about it too much. ;-)