'And,' added Dumbledore, a small twinkle in his eyes, 'I hope you all have a wonderful time.' The crowd standing before him gave a small laugh, and clapped him down off the stage, whereupon the music began, the lights dimmed, and the decorations began to show off.
Sirius hadn't spoken to Remus properly for months. Since...well, since that night. That night. At first he had thought it was just because Remus was embarrassed to talk about it, and so he had let it be for a time. Then, once when he had tried to engage Remus in a conversation about it, Remus had abruptly changed the topic. Time after time, Sirius had tried to reintroduce the subject, but each time Remus scuttled off, or started talking loudly about the weather, or pretended not to hear him...or all of the millions of other ways Remus had devised to distract Sirius. But Sirius couldn't be distracted tonight.
And he was angry. Angry because instead of enjoying this night, like many people had begun and were planning to do, he had to watch Remus jealously across the hall, as he fraternized politely with other students. Angry because he could have had a wonderful time with many of the girls who, giggling, came up to him and coyly asked him to dance, but he had to reject them because ever since that night, he had only eyes for Remus.
Angry because, as hard as he tried, he couldn't get Remus out of his mind. His fingerprints had been imprinted on Sirius's skin and in his memory, the insatiable greed for Remus's body against his would never go away, the feel of his lips on his would be forever engraved in his heart...
And angry because he was Sirius Black, and Remus didn't want him.
Angry because on the night of the Ball of seventh year, several months before he was to be leaving Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when he should have been having one of the best times of his life, he was miserable. Because of Remus Lupin.
'Hey, gorgeous.' Sirius heard a voice in his ear, and looked up, his eyes locking with a very pretty pair of dark eyes. They pulled back, and Sirius saw the eyes belonged to a very sexy young lady, wearing a very indecent red dress. 'I hear you've been rejecting every girl to cross your path. Holding out for a real woman, were we?'
Sirius sighed. 'A real man, more like.' he muttered.
'Pardon?' murmured the girl, smiling seducingly.
'Nothing.' mumbled Sirius.
'How's about a dance, then?' she whispered in a honey coated voice. Sirius sighed, and looked across the room at Remus, who looked straight through him, and looked away. Sirius stiffened, and stood up quickly.
'Why the hell not?' he said roughly, pulling the young girl onto the dance floor, where he immediately pulled her close to him, swaying his hips in time to the music, staring at Remus resolutely across the hall. Remus, however, paid no attention to him.
'What's your name, then?' he asked the rather star struck young lady, who was looking like Christmas had come early.
'Manendanchi.' she muttered, smiling.
'Huh?'
'Manendanchi.' she repeated, a little louder.
'Oh,' mumbled Sirius, still having no idea what to call her. 'Look,' he ended up saying, exasperatedly, 'Is it alright if I just call you Man?'
The girl frowned slightly. 'I'd prefer Manen.'
But the frown was soon replaced with a soppy grin. 'Sure. You can call me anything you want to, Siri.' Sirius's hands clenched when he heard Remus's pet name for him emitting from this stranger's mouth. 'Something wrong?' muttered Manen. Sirius shook his head jerkily, and continued dancing, but the whole time he was aware of where Remus was in the hall. He was distracted, and the girl could tell.
'Look, if you've got eyes for someone else, I'm fine with that. Well,' she added, looking slightly put out, 'Actually I'm not, but you could at least have the decency to tell me, and not string me along.'
Sirius sighed, and stepped away.
'Sorry. I guess I am a little distracted.'
'By whom?' Manen asked keenly. Sirius studied her for while. Well, they'd certainly leave me alone, he thought to himself.
'Remus Lupin.' he said, clearly. The girl looked shocked, and slightly disgusted.
'A boy? You're...you're gay?'
'As the day is long. I yearn for nothing more than to pound into another boys flesh, his
moans-'
'Ew, shut up! That's disgusting! Leave me alone!' Manen shouted, and stormed off to her friends, probably to tell them all about it.
Sirius sat down with a sigh, a small smile on his face, and went back to being a mere spectator to love.