9. After Sirius' and Remus' memory: From bad to worse
When Harry woke up the next morning, he saw Remus talking to a woman with
shoulder-length bright blue hair. She was facing her back to Harry, so he
couldn't see her face. After silently grabbing and putting on his glasses,
he noticed that he was holding her hand and playing with her fingers.
'Remus?' asked Harry, sitting up.
Tonks turned around, quickly letting go Remus' hand and smiled at him
'Wotcher! Is great to see you awake, Harry'
'What's going on between you two?' smirked Harry
'Between us?... What are you talking about?' asked Remus, actually as if he
didn't know.
'Come on, Moony!' begged Harry 'I'm my dad's son... I won't say a thing'
Tonks laughed just as Remus but a little less blushed. Just a little.
'Well... If you know, why do you ask?' she said
'Is that a confirmation?' asked Harry, grinning their way.
'No, it's not, Harry James Potter' lectured Remus 'You, young man, should
stay away of other people's business'
Harry groaned. Tonks sat next to his bed.
'Remus must go now' she explained 'but I'll stay with you until he returns,
ok?'
Harry nodded. 'Remember to be here to my bed-time story, Moony!'
'How could I forget?' asked Remus, taking his jacket and heading to the
door.
'You won't kiss your girlfriend goodbye?' asked Harry in a sing-song voice,
pointing at Tonks with his head.
'Cut it, will you?' said Remus blushing again 'See you two later' and he
left, leaving Tonks with a quite talkative teenager. He started telling her
about her parent's memories... the ones he had heard.
'... and they actually sang! I can't believe I missed that!' he was telling
her 'What would you say if Remus proposed to you like that?' he popped out,
catching Tonks off guard.
'What?! Where did you get that idea?' she said blushing deeply.
'Hum... dunno actually, I guess that from the fact that you were holding
hands when I woke up?' he asked innocently.
'You don't miss a thing, do you?'
'Nope... I think you look great together' he said honestly. She smiled.
'Thanks... but for your information, nothing has happened yet'
'Remember the key word: YET... Why not yet?'
'I guess our wolfy friend isn't very... how could I say this?' Tonks
wondered.
'Courageous?' supplied Harry helpfully.
Tonks laughed 'Nah... that wasn't the word I was looking for... You haven't
read Cassiopea's memory, have you?'
'Not yet'
'Well... there you'll see how much Remus lost to Voldemort, and believe
me... he is very courageous' she was smiling stupidly and her gaze was lost
in the space.
'Moony and Tonks, sitting in a tree...' started singing Harry.
'Shut your mouth, little pest!' she laughed, hitting him playfully.
'Only if you show me your nose talents!' requested Harry. Tonks smiled and
started changing her nose.
Between changing noses, breakfast, mocking people, lunch, games and
visitors; Harry and Tonks spend Harry's third day awake in St. Mungo fairly
quickly.
'Got any brooms?'
'Nope, go fish... Do you have any wands?'
Tonks was giving Harry her cards, when Remus opened the door.
'Hey!' he said cheerfully 'How are you Harry?... I brought you some ice-
cream'
'Yeah, that's a fine way of buying my silence' said Harry taking the cone
Remus was handing him.
'He's still with the same thing?' Remus asked Tonks, she nodded. 'Well...
you could have told him' said Remus, looking at his feet.
'What? Tell me what?' jumped Harry, from his bed.
'That we're dating'
'Are we?' asked Tonks, looking at the blushing Remus.
'Maybe... wanna go out with me sometime?' he asked, finally looking at her,
smiling hopefully. She smiled too.
'Sure...' she said and Remus looked away again as his eyes met hers (today
sky-blue).
'Could you act like grown ups, pretend that I'm not here and kiss, for
Merlin's sake?' said Harry, looking a bit pissed for their childish
behaviour.
'You stay out of this!' said Tonks blushing, looking at Harry.
'I believe he is right' said Remus softly and as Harry covered himself and
his cone with the blankets, Remus leaned over and kissed Tonks. Half a
second later, her arms flew up and wrapped his neck, as she followed his
kiss.
Several seconds later, Harry cleared his throat from under the blanket,
getting Remus and Tonks to finally break the kiss.
'hum... I must be going now...' said Tonks ' 'night, Harry' she made his
messy black hair messier and walked to the door when Harry's sing-song
voice came as he pointed at Remus with his head.
'You won't kiss you boyfriend goodbye?'
Tonks turned back and placed a kiss on Remus' cheek. 'Happy now, pest?' she
told Harry, the three of them smiling, but Harry was the only one who
wasn't blushing. He nodded, grinning. 'Right, see you Tonks!' he waved as
she left the room. 'She's great' added after she was away enough.
After Harry had embarrassed Remus talking about Tonks for quite a while,
Remus shut him up by saying a sharp comment.
'... and you get little butterflies in your tummy and feel like dancing and
singing and just want to...'
'Yeah, just like YOU feel with Ginny' snapped Remus. Harry casted him a
very Lily-like deathly glare. 'Will you read me or shall I nick the
memories' book when you're drooling over Tonks?'
Remus read both his memory and Sirius' since they have chosen the same and
Cassie had divided it in two chapters. After that, Harry "The question
machine-gun" Potter was back.
'Was Sirius apartment cool?'
'Yeah'
'Did my dad and Sirius often fight?'
'No!, but when they did, they stopped talking to each other until they
cracked at the same time, cried and hugged'
'Have they ever fought for a girl?'
'No, you father always liked your mother and since Sirius knew that, he
never tried anything with Lily'
'and why didn't you tell him you liked Cassie?'
'Dunno, I guess because I knew Cassie liked him... and he usually let go
things accidentally'
'Like what?'
'Like... the exact date of our next prank, our nicknames and other things
with the proper incentive'
'You're not talking about the one my mum and...'
'NO!' said Remus horrified 'Only your father was that perverted ('hey!')
I'm just kidding. Sirius incentive was sugar'
'Sugar?'
'Yes, anything with sugar on it. He was really addicted to it'
'I sense a story coming!'
'Ok, it was in our seventh year too. It was before the Quidditch final and
your father and Nikki had practices almost 24/7. Also Lily, Cassie (who was
now his girlfriend ('And how did you dealt with that?')... quite well
actually, Sirius really liked her back then so it didn't bother me that
much ('it still bothered you')...what was I saying before you started
pestering me?('Mum, Cassie') oh, yes!) Your mum, Cassie and I were trying
to get Sirius away from sugar but wasn't quite working...
It was four in the morning of the Saturday before the Quidditch final when Nikki walked into the boys dorm in her Quidditch robes. She expected to find four sleeping guys but instead only found one. Peter was sleeping like a baby (an abnormally massive baby but a baby anyway), Remus was reading a Transfiguration book (the exams were really close), James could be heard singing in the shower (A/N: I don't know if they had a bathroom in their bedroom but now, thanks to me, they do) and Sirius was laying flat on his bed, blue eyes wide open with bags under them and was shivering slightly. Nikki threw a worried look at Remus who answered right away. 'It's his second day without S-U-G-A-R' 'Why don't you just say...' 'Don't say it!' stopped her Remus and pointed at Sirius with his head 'two days...' 'Day? Is it day already?' asked Sirius in the edge of insanity... well, more in the edge than usual. 'Not quite yet, but any minute now' said Nikki, looking through the window. 'Mr. Chaser Captain, could you hurry up?' she yelled to the half-open bathroom door. James' song stopped and his soaking wet glass-less head poked through the gap in the door. 'Just a sec, dear Miss Keeper.' He said looking anywhere but where Nikki was. 'Over here' she said waving her arms. 'Yeah, I can see you... I think' he said narrowing his eyes to see better 'Remus, could you hand me my Quidditch robes?' 'Can't you get them?' he said not looking up 'I'm not... decent, if you know what I mean' 'It's just Nicole, she'll cover her eyes, won't you?' said Remus still not looking up. 'I'm covering my eyes!' she said as she put her hand over her eyes but still leaving a little gap to peek. She almost chokes with contained laughter when James ran in blue boxers with yellow smiley faces to his night-table, put on his glasses, got his robes and ran back to the bathroom. Nikki uncovered her eyes and saw Sirius staring at her. 'You ok, Black?' she asked 'Ok? Of course I'm not!' he spat sitting up ' I NEED SUGAR!!' 'Calm down, freak' said Remus, his eyes still in the book 'You'll get your sugar later in breakfast' 'Breakfast? I thought dinner was coming...' said Sirius, looking awfully confused. 'That's what you ate last night' said James coming out of the bathroom fully dressed. 'Night? Is it night already?' Nikki, James and Remus sighed. 'Are you sure this is the best for him?' she asked handing James his Cleansweep, pointing back at Sirius with her thumb. Remus shrugged. 'See you in breakfast!' said James leaving with Nikki. 'Breakfast? Did I missed a dinner?' The only answer he got was a loud snore from Peter (A/N: Disgusting Traitor! Argh! I hate him so much I can barely mention him!). A couple of hours later, when the sun was already up, Peter was snoring louder and Sirius was asking every two minutes 'Is it dinner already?'; Remus decided to take his studying and his sugar-less friend to the common room where someone could give him a hand with both of them. Lily and Cassie were sitting in the common room with a coffee mug next to each of them and several books open around them. Remus carried Sirius down the stairs as he was mumbling incoherently. Lily and Cassie stopped her studies to look at them. Remus threw Sirius into a chair next to Cassie. 'Here, he's your boyfriend, YOU deal with him!' he said. 'Hey, Sirius, how was you first night without sugar?' asked Lily, putting down her quill. Remus tried to stop her, but she had already said THAT word. 'Sugar?, Where?! Where's sugar?! I NEED IT!' Sirius got up and started looking around disrupting some third years who watched him in amazement. One had a bag of Bertie Bott's, Sirius grabbed him by the collar 'Give me the sugar!' 'Give him one single bean and you'll get permanent detention til your seventh year is over' said the head girl so quietly it was absolutely scaring. The boy hid the bag behind his back and said in a thread of voice 'I don't have any' as Cassie brought Sirius back to the table where the others were sitting. 'Cas?' he asked as sitting next to her 'Can I have some sugar now?' 'No, Siri, not til breakfast' 'You must think of something else' Lily told Sirius 'I know!' added almost immediately and spoke to Cassie 'Why don't you take a... break, Cassie?' 'Ok' said Cassie smiling and before getting up kissed Sirius' lips. Sirius' closed eyes flung open and grabbed Cassie's arm before she passed in front of him. 'What did you eat before kissing me?' 'Nothing' said Cassie looking extremely confused 'Just had some coffee' Sirius flew to Cassie's mug and took a sip. 'Does it have any... you know?' asked Remus worried. Cassie shook her head. 'Nope, is safe' Sirius finished her mug and moved on to Lily's. The two girls and the werewolf staring at him. After finishing he sighed deeply. 'I'm SO much better now!' he was smiling and got up 'Shall we go Cas?' 'Sure it didn't had any sugar?' asked Remus as Sirius dragged a struck Cassie out of the portrait hole. Now Lily shook her head, confused too 'What could it be?' They both shrugged and Remus started asking Lily his Transfiguration doubts. Three more hours passed before Remus and Lily went down to breakfast where they met Sirius, Cassie, Nikki and James. The last three were staring at the first who was in his fourteenth mug of coffee. 'I never knew you liked coffee' James was saying. 'I don't, but I need to have something instead of sugar... this thing is disgusting but it gives me what I needed' he said finishing the last sip in his mug. 'Which is...?' asked Nikki 'Dunno... like, Energy!' 'Oh, I know what happens here!' said Remus suddenly, hitting his forehead with his hand 'The caffeine! Instead of a sugar rush, he's getting high with caffeine!' 'Oh, no! Caffeine is even worse!' said Lily horrified 'What are we gonna do now?' As she spoke, Sirius had started showing off by challenging some fifth years into races around the great hall... but he was the only one running. After McGonagall took ten points from him he sat back down and remained rocking back and forth in his sit. 'Are we gonna seat here all day? I had loads of things to do!' 'Like?' asked Remus 'Like loads of things! Why don't we prank someone? Hey there's Snivellus, Hi Snivellus!' he waved as Snape entered the Great Hall and when he saw Sirius he showed him his middle finger. 'Nice to see you too, Snivellus!' 'God, this even worse than usual!' said James hiding his face between his arms. '... and I also have to send a birthday card for Cousin Andy!' Sirius kept speaking 'and I should send her little girl a birthday card!' 'They're both born the same day?' asked Nikki 'Nah! Is just that I forgot to send one to Andy in January and the little girl's birthday is in October so I can sent her a gift a bit earlier!' 'But we're in April!' said Cassie 'What ever! Oh! Cassie! I have to buy you an Anniversary gift!' 'But we haven't been together for a year!' 'But we will be, won't we?' he kissed her cheek 'Oh! I can get presents for everybody's birthday too!' 'But there's no Hogsmeade trip today!' said Lily 'Who needs a Hogsmeade trip? I have to go now!' He got up and stormed out, waving cheerfully at his brother who looked at him in disgust. He got back in immediately and grabbed the jar with coffee. 'No!' everyone yelled as they grabbed the jar. 'Ok! Thanks guys for driving me away from sugar!' he said and left again.
...He actually bought us birthday presents for everyone and sent Andromeda and Tonks birthday cards. He also helped Nikki, James and the entire team in the Quidditch practice, helped Mme. Rosmerta with some customers, taught Advanced Potions to a first year, helped Cassie with her Runes homework, bought McGonagall a cat, braided two fourth year's hair into mini-braids (one had waist length hair), helped Mme. Pince in the library, helped Prof. Kettleburn with some hippogriffs and wrote friend's day letters for all of us. Everything before dinner. Not counting the about six times he came and took Cassie away for a "break"' Harry was smiling as Remus was finishing. 'That night he played chess against himself all night til James woke up. They went to breakfast and James made one of his wisest decisions' 'What did he do?' asked Harry eagerly. 'He told Prof. McGonagall' sneered Remus 'And Sirius was taken to the Hospital Wing for the rest of the day. When he got out, Mme. Pomfrey told us not to take him away from sugar anymore. She had a hard time trying to convince him that caffeine was worse than sugar.' 'What happened then?' asked Harry 'He went back to normal... well, what was normal for him' 'Whose memory do we have tomorrow?' asked Harry yawning. 'Let me see... Nikki's' answered Remus looking into the book. 'You'll like that' 'The last one is Cassie's?' 'Yes' 'What is it about?' enquired Harry. 'Erm... something... why?' 'Tonks mentioned it and I wanted to know' 'You'll know, but not now... Believe me this isn't quite easy for me, Harry' said Remus looking down at a picture where the six of them where playing a snowball war near the Hogwarts lake. 'I know, Remus, thanks for doing this for me' 'Not just for you, Mr. Potter... I owed this to Sirius, your parents and...' 'And Cassie?' 'Yes, Cassie too. But I think I also owed me this' 'This conversation is becoming quite deep for these late hours, I'm about to doze off... night, Moony' 'night' said Remus looking at Harry fall asleep instantly.
It was four in the morning of the Saturday before the Quidditch final when Nikki walked into the boys dorm in her Quidditch robes. She expected to find four sleeping guys but instead only found one. Peter was sleeping like a baby (an abnormally massive baby but a baby anyway), Remus was reading a Transfiguration book (the exams were really close), James could be heard singing in the shower (A/N: I don't know if they had a bathroom in their bedroom but now, thanks to me, they do) and Sirius was laying flat on his bed, blue eyes wide open with bags under them and was shivering slightly. Nikki threw a worried look at Remus who answered right away. 'It's his second day without S-U-G-A-R' 'Why don't you just say...' 'Don't say it!' stopped her Remus and pointed at Sirius with his head 'two days...' 'Day? Is it day already?' asked Sirius in the edge of insanity... well, more in the edge than usual. 'Not quite yet, but any minute now' said Nikki, looking through the window. 'Mr. Chaser Captain, could you hurry up?' she yelled to the half-open bathroom door. James' song stopped and his soaking wet glass-less head poked through the gap in the door. 'Just a sec, dear Miss Keeper.' He said looking anywhere but where Nikki was. 'Over here' she said waving her arms. 'Yeah, I can see you... I think' he said narrowing his eyes to see better 'Remus, could you hand me my Quidditch robes?' 'Can't you get them?' he said not looking up 'I'm not... decent, if you know what I mean' 'It's just Nicole, she'll cover her eyes, won't you?' said Remus still not looking up. 'I'm covering my eyes!' she said as she put her hand over her eyes but still leaving a little gap to peek. She almost chokes with contained laughter when James ran in blue boxers with yellow smiley faces to his night-table, put on his glasses, got his robes and ran back to the bathroom. Nikki uncovered her eyes and saw Sirius staring at her. 'You ok, Black?' she asked 'Ok? Of course I'm not!' he spat sitting up ' I NEED SUGAR!!' 'Calm down, freak' said Remus, his eyes still in the book 'You'll get your sugar later in breakfast' 'Breakfast? I thought dinner was coming...' said Sirius, looking awfully confused. 'That's what you ate last night' said James coming out of the bathroom fully dressed. 'Night? Is it night already?' Nikki, James and Remus sighed. 'Are you sure this is the best for him?' she asked handing James his Cleansweep, pointing back at Sirius with her thumb. Remus shrugged. 'See you in breakfast!' said James leaving with Nikki. 'Breakfast? Did I missed a dinner?' The only answer he got was a loud snore from Peter (A/N: Disgusting Traitor! Argh! I hate him so much I can barely mention him!). A couple of hours later, when the sun was already up, Peter was snoring louder and Sirius was asking every two minutes 'Is it dinner already?'; Remus decided to take his studying and his sugar-less friend to the common room where someone could give him a hand with both of them. Lily and Cassie were sitting in the common room with a coffee mug next to each of them and several books open around them. Remus carried Sirius down the stairs as he was mumbling incoherently. Lily and Cassie stopped her studies to look at them. Remus threw Sirius into a chair next to Cassie. 'Here, he's your boyfriend, YOU deal with him!' he said. 'Hey, Sirius, how was you first night without sugar?' asked Lily, putting down her quill. Remus tried to stop her, but she had already said THAT word. 'Sugar?, Where?! Where's sugar?! I NEED IT!' Sirius got up and started looking around disrupting some third years who watched him in amazement. One had a bag of Bertie Bott's, Sirius grabbed him by the collar 'Give me the sugar!' 'Give him one single bean and you'll get permanent detention til your seventh year is over' said the head girl so quietly it was absolutely scaring. The boy hid the bag behind his back and said in a thread of voice 'I don't have any' as Cassie brought Sirius back to the table where the others were sitting. 'Cas?' he asked as sitting next to her 'Can I have some sugar now?' 'No, Siri, not til breakfast' 'You must think of something else' Lily told Sirius 'I know!' added almost immediately and spoke to Cassie 'Why don't you take a... break, Cassie?' 'Ok' said Cassie smiling and before getting up kissed Sirius' lips. Sirius' closed eyes flung open and grabbed Cassie's arm before she passed in front of him. 'What did you eat before kissing me?' 'Nothing' said Cassie looking extremely confused 'Just had some coffee' Sirius flew to Cassie's mug and took a sip. 'Does it have any... you know?' asked Remus worried. Cassie shook her head. 'Nope, is safe' Sirius finished her mug and moved on to Lily's. The two girls and the werewolf staring at him. After finishing he sighed deeply. 'I'm SO much better now!' he was smiling and got up 'Shall we go Cas?' 'Sure it didn't had any sugar?' asked Remus as Sirius dragged a struck Cassie out of the portrait hole. Now Lily shook her head, confused too 'What could it be?' They both shrugged and Remus started asking Lily his Transfiguration doubts. Three more hours passed before Remus and Lily went down to breakfast where they met Sirius, Cassie, Nikki and James. The last three were staring at the first who was in his fourteenth mug of coffee. 'I never knew you liked coffee' James was saying. 'I don't, but I need to have something instead of sugar... this thing is disgusting but it gives me what I needed' he said finishing the last sip in his mug. 'Which is...?' asked Nikki 'Dunno... like, Energy!' 'Oh, I know what happens here!' said Remus suddenly, hitting his forehead with his hand 'The caffeine! Instead of a sugar rush, he's getting high with caffeine!' 'Oh, no! Caffeine is even worse!' said Lily horrified 'What are we gonna do now?' As she spoke, Sirius had started showing off by challenging some fifth years into races around the great hall... but he was the only one running. After McGonagall took ten points from him he sat back down and remained rocking back and forth in his sit. 'Are we gonna seat here all day? I had loads of things to do!' 'Like?' asked Remus 'Like loads of things! Why don't we prank someone? Hey there's Snivellus, Hi Snivellus!' he waved as Snape entered the Great Hall and when he saw Sirius he showed him his middle finger. 'Nice to see you too, Snivellus!' 'God, this even worse than usual!' said James hiding his face between his arms. '... and I also have to send a birthday card for Cousin Andy!' Sirius kept speaking 'and I should send her little girl a birthday card!' 'They're both born the same day?' asked Nikki 'Nah! Is just that I forgot to send one to Andy in January and the little girl's birthday is in October so I can sent her a gift a bit earlier!' 'But we're in April!' said Cassie 'What ever! Oh! Cassie! I have to buy you an Anniversary gift!' 'But we haven't been together for a year!' 'But we will be, won't we?' he kissed her cheek 'Oh! I can get presents for everybody's birthday too!' 'But there's no Hogsmeade trip today!' said Lily 'Who needs a Hogsmeade trip? I have to go now!' He got up and stormed out, waving cheerfully at his brother who looked at him in disgust. He got back in immediately and grabbed the jar with coffee. 'No!' everyone yelled as they grabbed the jar. 'Ok! Thanks guys for driving me away from sugar!' he said and left again.
...He actually bought us birthday presents for everyone and sent Andromeda and Tonks birthday cards. He also helped Nikki, James and the entire team in the Quidditch practice, helped Mme. Rosmerta with some customers, taught Advanced Potions to a first year, helped Cassie with her Runes homework, bought McGonagall a cat, braided two fourth year's hair into mini-braids (one had waist length hair), helped Mme. Pince in the library, helped Prof. Kettleburn with some hippogriffs and wrote friend's day letters for all of us. Everything before dinner. Not counting the about six times he came and took Cassie away for a "break"' Harry was smiling as Remus was finishing. 'That night he played chess against himself all night til James woke up. They went to breakfast and James made one of his wisest decisions' 'What did he do?' asked Harry eagerly. 'He told Prof. McGonagall' sneered Remus 'And Sirius was taken to the Hospital Wing for the rest of the day. When he got out, Mme. Pomfrey told us not to take him away from sugar anymore. She had a hard time trying to convince him that caffeine was worse than sugar.' 'What happened then?' asked Harry 'He went back to normal... well, what was normal for him' 'Whose memory do we have tomorrow?' asked Harry yawning. 'Let me see... Nikki's' answered Remus looking into the book. 'You'll like that' 'The last one is Cassie's?' 'Yes' 'What is it about?' enquired Harry. 'Erm... something... why?' 'Tonks mentioned it and I wanted to know' 'You'll know, but not now... Believe me this isn't quite easy for me, Harry' said Remus looking down at a picture where the six of them where playing a snowball war near the Hogwarts lake. 'I know, Remus, thanks for doing this for me' 'Not just for you, Mr. Potter... I owed this to Sirius, your parents and...' 'And Cassie?' 'Yes, Cassie too. But I think I also owed me this' 'This conversation is becoming quite deep for these late hours, I'm about to doze off... night, Moony' 'night' said Remus looking at Harry fall asleep instantly.
